Rach: Thank you so much for you review. I'd reply personally, but it was a guest review. I am so pleased you're enjoying the fanfiction thus far. Getting lengthy reviews where you truly give your honest opinion on what I am doing that you like (or even don't like) is certainly invaluable! Bláithín's only prior hardship is being suddenly stripped to what used to be normal and getting so held back by the fact her parents died and never spent much time with them in the first place.

And yes, you are right. Levi is certainly OOC. This is set after 57th expedition though, six years

after the OC and Levi got together. It would have made more sense to have his response more similar to his when Petra died, but she was just a squad member. I have written this story out in full already, but the purpose of this revamped version of this fanfic is to provide more depth to Bláithín and her relationship. My last attempt at this fanfiction was only 40 chapters long. I believe I can write more, this fanfiction was an idea I got when I was 14 - four years ago after I finished the first season - and thus, my way of writing has changed. I wrote the prologue when I was 14, but I now have a much better understanding of his character. His OOC-ness in the prologue will make sense once I fill in everything until then.

And about her uncle? He's just a mean guy with a lot of secrets. Her whole family is entangled with secrets - all to be revealed in due time. Thanks for the review! :D

"It is vital that you evenly distribute your weight all around your body. You almost have it, Bláithín," Erwin told her. "It doesn't help that you probably never had to do much physical exercise before given the place you come from."

It was sundown. Shades of yellow and orange bled into the once blue sky, cirrus clouds providing a bit of shelter from the rock-splitting heat. Sweat beaded the twelve year old Bláithín's brows as she struggled to keep her balance with the 3DMG. She wasn't the only one to struggle with it though, Erwin found it hard but eventually got it, and hence why he was out here trying to help her. He at least knew first hand and got over any issues with balance.

Bláithín shifted her weight from side to side as she tried to find the optimum position. She tensed whatever muscles she had in her abdomen to still herself steady and pulled her legs in from when they had been previously separated as though she was doing a star-jump mid-air. And by the grace of the three goddesses themselves, the wiggling stopped and the belt stopped moving around in circles.

"Ugh, finally," she sighed with relief.

Erwin removed her from suspended gears and they walked back to the dorm they had been staying in until now.

"Uh… thanks for the help back there, I must admit I'm a bit embarrassed I couldn't grasp this concept sooner. I'd be useless out in the open." She said, softly. She averted from her gaze from the log-cabins where the dorms were and looked up into the sky.

She saw a bird flying by itself.

"A wren," she noted. "You can tell by its cry."

The clouds had cleared now and she saw the beautiful sunset, blotches of reds and purples, mixed with blues and oranges. Her eyes lit up at the sight of this masterpiece that nature had created before them. The bird chirped happily once it found its nest in a tree nearby, its beak carrying a few worms for its babies.

"That'd be nice, being that free..."

Erwin looked up with her and sighed.

"You get so distracted by everything around you… I believe it is important to separate yourself from what isn't important and what truly is."

Erwin was a smart guy, maybe six years older than her. He motivated everyone around him and many looked up to him regardless of their age. Bláithín really saw the potential in him to be a commander of one of the regiments. He had not only the mentality but also the skill to be within the top ten. Only the top ten could go on and be a part of the Military Police and join the other soldiers living in Mitras, Wall Sine, humanity's last line of defence.

"It is important to push your own wants and needs aside before you try help those around you in a military-based environment. It's the only way you can push forward." He spoke, coldly.

He was right and he wasn't just talking about some random bird that she noticed in the sky. In actuality, he was referring to the fact at how consumed she was by her parents' death. That was only natural of course. To her, grief was a part of life she had not come to experience just yet and signing up to the Corps meant Death himself would be a life-long companion of hers. One that would hold her hands and pulling her into his clutches, or her loved ones.

Normally, soldiers would channel their grief and turn it into something else, something fierce and use it to avenge their fallen family members or comrades. Bláithín was struggling with this, though. Life just so happened to play out this way and it was changing too fast for her to cope. She never anticipated joining the Training Corps, not at all…

It just so happened that she ended up here one morning.

She remembered that her back was very sore from the cart she and a few others were taken in.

It was too much for her… She wasn't coping well at all. Hange was there to comfort her when the thought of dying during training or the overwhelming amounts of sadness she had been feeling during the past week or so. She knew Hange and her were going to be close at the end of these three years.

She refused to go back, not to her uncle's. He got rid of her once - who was to say he wouldn't do it again?

She huffed a heavy sigh of defeat.

"And what made you join the training corps?"

"My father, he was a teacher… one day when I was about your age, he told me his theory behind the Walls and the Titans. His goal was freedom, to know what is truly right and wrong about our world. Then one day… He never returned home…"

Bláithín knew he was only telling half of the story, probably to spare him. She understood, even a young man as resolved as him had demons to haunt him.

What set these two apart was how Erwin was able to push this aside for the sake of his goals: humanity's freedom. And for now, Bláithín was in no way capable of doing that.

Would she ever be? Hard to say…

Truth be told, Bláithín was far too afraid to put her life on the line, for now at least. Though if push came to shove and a loved one was at the brink of death at the hands of those man-eating beasts, then of course. Otherwise, she wouldn't.

She was selfish.

But who could blame her? She grew up in an environment where everyone around her pushed their own selfish agendas above her own. She thought of the lessons her mother taught her and Elise though. To be mindful of everyone around them and to consider the needs of others before your own. That's what it meant to be a good person.

A good person, she repeated to herself.

She always tried to be a good person. She helped out around the house, right? That was good, wasn't it? She would always do her homework. She was always happy to meet guests who visited her house. Everything she did… it was always 'good.'

If she was such a good person, then why was she sent off to Shiganshina in the first place? Did her uncle not think she was 'good' enough. She always tried her best to be ever-so perfect. Was she ever bold and that's why she was sent away? She couldn't recall a moment where she ever misbehaved; she couldn't recall a moment when she wasn't a 'good person'. Everything to her was always polarized; everything was either good or bad, perfect or a failure. Middle ground or any grey area was no option. She always tried to be perfect, she tried to be good. At one point in her life, maybe she was just a hair out of place, at this point she was only 'almost' perfect.

Almost isn't good enough, she told herself. I don't want to be 'a hair out of place', I won't accept that.

Just what would have happened had she stayed in Shiganshina?

People in Wall Rose and Wall Sine often described the Shiganshina District as humanity's first line of defence. It was the most southerly wall, so Titans were more than likely going to attack first and attempt to break through. That, of course, was unlikely, as the wall was fifty metres high. Though suppose something happened, and Titans went on a stampede and laid waste to the innocent citizens within that district… she would have been one of them. She'd be crushed underneath one of their feet or shoved down their putrescent gullets along with countless others. Why would her uncle send her there?

No, it can't be, she said to herself, eyes widening.

Did her purposely want to send her there to be killed? Why on earth would he wanted that?

In this world, and Bláithín failed to realize this coming from a totally sheltered lifestyle… good and bad people were going to die. Some quicker than others. Were the good people going to live longer? Not necessarily. Were the bad people going to die quicker? Equally as unlikely. People were going to die, good or bad.

Why would he want her killed? It didn't make sense, but she did start to put two and two together.

He must have wanted her dead for a while, perhaps from the very start…? It made sense since he never showed any affection around her (or Elise), had bad temper, physical abuse was often punishment for something very, very insignificant. And to top it all off, attempting to send her to an early death. The question that remain was why… why, why, why.

The answer, whether Bláithín was going to realize this or not at a later date, was that maybe… she was an unfortunate mistake. A mistake to her uncle, at least. To her mother who showed her an abundance of love? Probably not.

"Hey, Bláithín," Erwin said, interrupting her amidst her introspection. He could tell she was thinking too deeply again, judging on how wide her eyes had gotten, "just… don't think too much, yeah? That will kill you in some way or another."

(time skip from 838-844)

And so, over the years, she continued to be a 'good' person. She continued to be 'perfect', because in everyone else's eyes, or she thought - if she wasn't perfect, she wasn't necessary. That nobody would need her, nobody would want her; nobody would want to be associated with her.

She cared deeply for everyone as she always did, but deep inside her festered a burning desire for utter perfection and it was always met without fail. She would work for it, strive for it. She didn't want to be seen as a mistake, even though over the years, her conscious desperately tried to convince her she was one. From time to time though, she also thought that provided that she strived for perfection but lost her life to this mental battle… it didn't matter, not at all, as long as nobody disliked her.

Because she was so damned annoyed by the thought of being disliked all throughout her life by her wretched uncle… she was aching for affection.

Her patience with a mental battle such as this was wearing thin, and she was exhausted… if she closed her eyes one day outside the walls having done something valiant, something people would thank her for such as protecting her own squad… then it'd be okay.

Oh, but the thoughts within her mind contradicted her. She did not want to die, not at all. She feared death like the plague. She would put her life on the line, recklessly at that, if it meant people saw the good in her. If she died in the process, then it's fine.

She was still 'selfish.' She still had a sense of self-worth, she feared death in a profession where death and life walk hand-in-hand.

She would talk to herself in the mirror as she brushed her dark blonde hair that fell below her shoulder blades, her blue, oceanic eyes shining radiantly once she convinced herself to go out once again and strive for perfection. Only then, was she ever ready to go.

Normally her day consisted of training her two soldiers, doing reports in her bedroom

One day, the squad leader was called in to Commander Shadis' office.

"Sit, Bláithín." He gestured towards the chair and she did as she was told. "I have received some reports from the commander of the Military Police, Nile Dok and also from Darius Zackley… It appears there is a lot of trouble down in the Underground District. They are low on numbers at the moment and they need help dealing with the mercenaries down below."

Bláithín nodded, not saying a word. "And who would be responsible for them?"

Shadis was desperate for new numbers for the scouts all the time, so Bláithín knew instantly he planned on turning them into soldiers. "Yourself. Your squad is the smallest of all squad leaders, with only two soldiers and one has resigned due to a debilitating injury. So it would make total sense to give you these soldiers. Can I entrust you with this responsibility to take on three new soldiers?" He asked, handing over documents of sketches that must have resembled them. Two males and a female.

She stood up and saluted. "Yes, sir. I'll do it."

A/N: I won't always post responses to reviews at the top, only the guests!

But PLEASE follow/favourite and REVIEW! I really like to hear your opinions. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!