"Lyla! The Survey Corps are leaving for their expedition right now. Let's go see!" Lyla let out a sigh and smiled at Eren's words. With other cadets, Lyla went to see the line.

'A new Commander, what was his name… Erwin Smith?' Lyla watched the line with disinterest. A wave of murmurs went through the crowd.

"It's Captain Levi!"

"It says he's worth a whole brigade!"

Lyla's eyes strayed toward the said man and settled there.

'Captain Levi….' He wasn't outstandingly handsome but good looking. And he was certainly Lyla's type. And he somehow looked familiar.

'Pshaw, of course he looks familiar. He's famous. I've must have seen his poster somewhere.' Lyla thought as she continued to stare at him.

"So noisy," Levi complained when his eyes met Lyla's. His eyes widened a bit. They stared at each other for a while like that.

"Levi," Hange called him and Levi turned to face her. "What are you staring at~? Or rather who are you staring at? Hm?" Hange asked over enthusiastically. Levi answered with a sick face,

"Nothing," I just saw someone familiar. Levi swallowed his last words. When he looked back Lyla was gone.

At that time Lyla was continuously being teased by Connie.

"Lyla~ who were you ogling? Perhaps Captain Levi?" Lyla was 22 years old, being older than her fellow cadets. But she was so short, only 155 cm, that nobody really treated her as their senior. Only Armin, Mikasa, Eren, and Krista treated her as such and Connie and Jean even went as far as to view her as a younger sister. Connie started again,

"But Lyla, it won't be easy. Captain Levi's pretty famous you know? Besides, Captain Levi's ideal women are tall women so he wouldn't be interested in a midget like you." At his remark Lyla said in a low voice, "Connie, would you please shut up? Or else I'll make you." At this Connie shut up. Heights were a thing that Lyla was sensitive about and she certainly did not appreciate Connie's remark.

'Of course Captain Levi has to like tall woman. He certainly couldn't just like woman shorter than him. Too bad I'm such a runt.' Lyla thought. Why was she even so upset with this? Maybe she was subconsciously aware about this 'Captain Levi'.

'No, no no no. That is not it. You're just sensitive about your height. That's all.'

Lyla stopped and turned around at the sound of someone calling her.

"Mr. Hannes!"

"You guys were alive as I thought. You guys changed."

"And so did you. You used to be a drunken soldier." Eren said laughing. At this Hannes scolded him good naturedly then suddenly turned sad. "I'm sorry I couldn't save your mother…."

Eren turned serious as well. "It wasn't your fault, or yours either Lyla" Eren gave her a glance. Hannes looked at Eren with surprised eyes. Eren continued, "Things are now different. Humanity has gotten stronger."

Later at dinner the cadets chattered on with which Corps they will join.

"You're really going to join the Survey Corps? You were in the top 10…." Connie said in disbelief.

"If we stay inside the walls, humanity has no future! Sooner or later humanity will have to go outside for freedom! I don't want to live like stalk for the rest of my life. I'm going to join the Survey Corps and kill all the titans. I'm going to regain the freedom humanity is worthy for!"

"I don't know…. You see, not everyone is crazy to die like you." Jean started and after that it turned into a fight which everyone was used to by now. Lyla just sighed and exited to go to her barracks.

...


...

The next day Lyla and Eren, along with other cadets were fixing the cannons. Thomas said,

"I'm going to join the Survey Corps too."

"M-me too!" A few others joined in. Eren stared at them in surprise and a girl with pigtails said, Lyla remembered her as Mina Carolina, "Well, I guess some were effected by Eren's speech last night, right Connie?"

"Eh!? But Connie, you were so excited to join the MPs."

"Shut up! I chose the Survey Corps under my own account."

During this Sasha appeared with blushed cheeks. Everybody looked at her with wondering looks until Sasha swallowed and opened her mouth, "I sneaked a hunk of meat out of the superior's kitchen. We can all share it. We'll smoke it, make barbecue, and slice it to eat with bread…" Sasha was lost in her own trance. At this moment a single thought crossed everyone's mind.

'This is why people say a fool is scary.'

'Does this girl ever think with her head?' Lyla silently exclaimed to herself.

Sure, Lyla would nick a few cookies now and then but she made sure that she only took some from the almost full jars and only a little at a time so none would be missed. But meat was more precious, which meant somebody would definitely notice if a whole hunk of it was gone.

"Put that back!" Connie burst out. "If we get caught, we'll be in big trouble!" Thomas chimed in. Sasha waved it off like nothing, "It's okay. If we retake Wall Maria, we'll be able to raise cattle and sheep once again."

At this everybody started agreeing on eating the meat. Eren gazed out into the open.

'That's right! We're now a step close on recapturing Wall Maria, and beyond!'

Just then green lightning crashed behind Eren and the Colossal Titan appeared. Everybody shot there anchors into the wall to stop from flying away.

'The Colossal Titan appeared again…?' Lyla thought, 'The reason everything turned into hell. Why did it do it? What do they want? If I'm right, that titan would have intelligence.' Lyla noticed this when the titan effectively aimed for the door instead of some random part of the wall that day in Shiganshina.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Eren's voice, "Squad 34, ready to engage! Enemy in front!" He launched himself right at the titan.

"EREN!" Lyla shouted out, "Shit! Lyla Peltner covering for Eren Jaeger!" What was he thinking? Just flying out like that. And there were some answers Lyla wanted to hear from the titan. She followed Eren up into the air. She spotted Eren avoiding the titan's hand. Lyla followed suite and saw the titan's hand swiping away the cannons.

'He purposely aimed for the cannons? He's a titan with intelligence.' Lyla was sure of it. She could see Eren aiming for the titan's nape from far away. But what Eren cut through was a bunch of mist and smoke.

'It disappeared?' Lyla's eyes widened, "Eren!" At her call Eren snapped out and shot his grapple hook into the wall.

"Did you kill it Eren?" Thomas shouted. Lyla pulled Eren up. "No, I missed him. Sorry." Lyla patted Eren on the back and Mina said, "It's fine. We weren't even able to move."

Just then Connie spoke with utter despair and fear, "Guys, the wall…."

They followed where Connie was pointing and saw titans flooding in through the broken wall. 2 Garrison soldiers showed up.

"What are you doing here? The moment the Colossal appeared the operation had already started. You're no longer trainees. Go to HQ and don't forget to report if you had contact with the Colossal Titan."

"Yes sir!" Everybody answered in unison as they headed to HQ.

When they got there Lyla reported with Eren and calmed Armin down. After that Lyla followed her team.

"Armin, Eren. Look out for each other. Let's meet alive." With this Lyla left. Mikasa was in the back, protecting the citizens. To be separated with Eren and Armin was bad for she couldn't protect them. She glanced back for the last time and cleared out, heading towards the titan's den.


"Watch out!" the team leader shouted out. Lyla quickly stepped aside but two of her comrades weren't fast enough and ended up titan food. "Betty! Max!" she shouted out but it was too late. They were lost.

'What's that flying Abnormal?' Lyla tried to remain calm. It hasn't been 30 minutes into the fight and already 2 out of 5 members were killed. Lyla hooked herself to the front building as she swung herself towards the two titans that were coming at her. She flew into the sky as she gripped her right sword in the opposite way. She spun quickly taking down the two. She joined the squad leader.

"Leader, two of us has been taken by that flying titan."

"Ah, Jake is dead as well," The leader said in a heavy tone.

"What? Then…we're the only ones left?" It can't be.

"That's right."

Lyla looked around her in despair. There's at least 10 titans slouching around and more were coming in. How could the two of them take them all down? Will she die here now?"

'No way,' Lyla took a firm grip of her swords. "Leader, let's go. We have some pay back to do."

"Yeah," The both of them charged to the titans, each of them successfully taking out one. Lyla flew to her next target but suddenly the leader next to her jolted as if some kind of break hit him. He flew backwards. One of the titans has caught his wire.

"Leader!" Lyla hurriedly went after him but was too late. When Lyla slashed through its nape the leader's body was already snapped in half. Lyla scanned the area and again realized that there were too many titans.

'I should join with Eren's team.' Lyla heard a loud cry of a titan. She turned her head and saw a titan killing its own kind.

'What the…?' That was an abnormal she's never heard of but it was being help. She saw Jean and the other cadets tailing it.

'Are they trying to kill him? They shouldn't…! Huh?' It didn't seem like they were trying to kill him. Lyla saw that they were heading for the HQ and understood the situation. They were trying to reach the HQ and replenish their supplies while that Abnormal was fighting off the titans. Lyla tapped her gas tank. It was nearly empty.

"Clever. Guess I'll have to join."

Lyla killed 8 more titans on the way before rolling through the window after Jean.

"Lyla!" Jean shouted in surprise. She looked around, "Where's Mikasa and Armin and Eren?" Just then two of the said kids flew in with Connie.

"Lyla!" Armin ran to her with Mikasa. Lyla hugged them tightly.

"I'm glad that you guys are safe. Most of the squads wiped out within an hour. I was so worried. Where's Eren?" Armin slumped at her words.

"I'm sorry Lyla… Eren is…" She hushed him and pulled him up.

"Eren's alive," Lyla stated. He wouldn't have died so easily.

Mikasa's eyes widened.


So Lyla finally met Levi! (Well, sort of)