I shoved the door to the main Survey Corps hall open, weariness beginning to settle in me. What I wanted now was to get the stench of death off me and a good long nap. What I got instead was three pairs of eyes looking at me. I moved my gaze over them. Hanji, a squad leader and our scarily bright and bubbly scientist. Levi, captain of the Special Op team and best friend of mine. Finally: Erwin, Commander of the Survey Corps. I automatically approached him and saluted.

"Sir!"

I ignored Hanji's astonished and Levi's neutral stares.

"Officer Rina. I want to comment on your quick thinking on forcing the closure of the gate despite your position. Soldier Tatoma?" Erwin skipped straight to the point.

"Broken foot and a couple of bruises but he'll be fine, sir."

"Excellent. I need to get to the office now. Welcome back, Officer Rina."

"Sir!" I farewelled and watched as my boss left the hall.

"Rina…what are you doing here? I heard…" Hanji mumbled incoherently. I smiled gently over at her.

"If you heard that I forced the gate to be closed while I saved Tatoma, then yes, you heard correctly."

"What I heard was that you acted recklessly." Levi's monotone voice interjected. I glared at him.

"If by recklessly you mean saving a man's life while securing the safety of the rest of you, then yes, I was acting recklessly."

"You're part of the Special Ops. You're under my command. We were to protect Eren from being taken."

"And you're under Erwin's command, are you not? In case you didn't catch it, Erwin was the one who ordered me to leave my post and provide the Corps safe passageway back into the city. Just drop it, Levi. I'm alive and well, okay? I just want to get all this blood off me now."

My friend's eyes hardened. Despite the cold conversation, it was his way of showing that he cared.

"Go."

I rolled my eyes and turned to Hanji briefly before leaving the hall.

"Good night you two."

I strolled into the courtyard early the next morning, wiping the remaining sleep from my eyes. I did not have enough last night. Despite the early time, many of the troops were already eating breakfast, scattered around the courtyard enjoying the sun. However, a sense of sadness remained over the group as everyone kept their prayers on those who had died on the expedition.

"Rina!" I turned to the ecstatic call and saw Eren, Mikasa and Armin racing towards me. Although not of my year, I had grown incredibly close to the three due to constantly meeting them.

"Hey." I waved lightly at the younger troops and invited the three into a group hug.

"You're alive!" Eren stated, squeezing me tightly. I laughed and punched his shoulder.

"Takes a lot more to kill me. I'm just glad Tatoma's all right."

"And how is he?" Armin asked timidly.

"Last I heard, he was snoring loudly in his hospital room. So I'm going to say, he's fine now. So what are you troops doing up so early?"

"We were going to survey the damage to our supplies before heading off to practice. And you?" Mikasa answered.

"Just the opposite. A couple of other units and myself were going back into the old city to retrieve the bodies of those unable to make it and survey who is who." I murmured. We all fell silent.

"Be careful."

I smiled ruefully and ruffled Eren's hair. "I will. Don't you let Mikasa outshine you, hey?"

He scowled and shoved my hand away.

"Hey, Rina!"

I glanced over my shoulder at Levi and the rest of the Special Ops team. We were good to go. With one more farewell, I joined my unit.

"Units 1, 3, 6, 7 and 8 will be on Defence and will encounter any Titan within range. The rest of you will search the city for the fallen. Once you find one, signal a green round and a unit will come to defend you from oncoming Titans. Fire a red round if you've encountered a Titan without a Defence group and without a body. Fire a black round if it's an Aberrant. Stay alert and try to avoid combat if possible! The whole point of this is to retrieve those fallen without adding more to the count. Understood?!" Erwin Smith commanded. We all saluted at once.

"Yes sir!"

"Defence teams, move out! Retrieval teams, follow suit!"

I watched as the gate beyond Wall Rose was opened into the old city of Kanade, one lost to the Titans. Units 6, 7 and 8 moved out through the gate first, closely followed by the Retrieval bulk. Unit 3 and the Special Ops (unit 1) teams began their descent down the West and East walls.

"Don't be reckless." Captain Levi reminded, "Let's get this over and done with."

Brian, Steve, Jack, Linda, Sophie and I nodded in silent acknowledgement and we split off across the city. The buildings and roads were in ruins, scattered debris layered the streets and dried blood of countless victims remained plastered to the stones.

"I'm sorry." I muttered quietly. Despite the air rushing past us, Levi heard me perfectly well. He sighed.

"You don't need to be. You saved Tatoma and came back safely. That's all that matters."

I paused, lost in my thoughts. "Thanks, Levi."

Then a small explosion cut through the air and a red smoke round shot out from the buildings.

"So much for a quiet morning." I commented and the pair of us leapt forward. As we rounded the corner, two 10-metre class Titans slowly strolled their way towards a pair of Retrieval troops, who were dragging a corpse towards their cart.

Levi and I drew our blades out but before we could even begin, a black smoke round took off to our left. I flicked my head towards it.

"Go, I got this."

And with no response, Levi took my word and changed his direction. I focused back on the Titans and soared forward. I landed on an adjacent roof and ran along it, beside the Titans. One ignored me and continued on his path. The other wasn't as wise and his eyes turned to me greedily.

"Not as smart as your buddy there, are you? Very well, you first." I shrugged and leapt into the air. I hooked myself to the opposite building and reeled myself across the street. A giant hand attempted to grab at me and I flipped out of the way. Retracing my steps, I went back the way I came and attached a line to its exposed shoulder. I triggered the gas and the momentum forced me around to the back of the Titan's neck. A neat slice released a bomb of hot air and I moved onto the next one. The last Titan was easy, as I approached from the back. A quick attachment to the back of its neck reeled me straight to the target site. I rode the Titan down and landed metres from the body carriage.

"You guys all right there?" I asked, standing from the top of the Titan's head. The two troops nodded and gestured to their cart.

"Unfortunately, we managed to find several…people and now our cart is full so we need to make it back to the gate. So far, we haven't encountered any major problems but if you could escort us back-"

I waved a hand, cutting him off and jumped off, landing on the roof above them.

"No need to ask, my friend. Lead the way."