Grisha settled on choosing Ehrmich the southern district of Wall Sina to settle his new family. Armin Arlelt and his grandfather were the newest additions to his house. A small thing to do; A medical visit to the nearest noble was all that he needed to arrange the citizenship even in such troubling times.

He stayed within Wall Sina proper, his house one of the many available double-floored houses, with the necessary basement. His first focus was his only son; Eren who lacked any recollection of the transfer, but was in serious need of anger management therapy. He closed himself off to the death of his wife, again and focused on the study of the stolen Serums. From the memories streaming in, the serum was little more than specially purified Titan Spinal fluid which explained why no Scout had ever suddenly turned into a Titan while chopping off the nape.

Just three days after settling in, he packed his bags and left for the barracks for his first mission with the Survey Corps. The talk was that the Scouts would be heading out to stall the advance of the titans while the Garrison engaged in the rescue and evacuation of the towns. For now, he was heading to the Trost Barracks where he'd be assigned his first mission. As the carriage rattled down the road past scores of blank-eyed Marians he cursed the arrogance of Marley.

Not that I can say much myself

Truth be told he'd tried to ignore the power he held, always considering who to turn it to. Eren, as much as it pained him to admit, was woefully unprepared and unfit for that burden. Moving forward was all he had left, especially with the recent re-discovery of Dina. While he wanted to see her at least one more time, he knew that the only Titan she deserved was the one in him, and he had no desire to try the trick that worked with Eren again. Not to mention there was always the possibility she'd already been killed by a scout fighting for humanity.

What a joke.

Bone-weary hours later he finally disembarked at the barracks, permission slip in hand to await the return of the Scouts. Less than an hour after his arrival the bells rang to announce the return of Humanity's Spear.

Then an hour passed. Garrison soldiers began to crowd the top of the walls and man the cannons, but they did not fire.

Another hour passed but no one opened the gate till finally the peace of the city was shattered by a loud cannon-shot, flares and such loud bells. People began to scream and trample towards the inner gate, refugees and residents alike. The outer gate slowly opened and hundreds of scouts began pouring into the city, coming straight for the barracks.

Commander Erwin arrived haggard and worn, but before his thick boots hit the ground he was firing off orders to all the soldiers around him. He called an indiscernible name out twice before the usually bubbly redhead;

Hange?

Gave him a quick head-shake.

Dead. Another loss.

There was a beat before he called someone else. Most scouts flopped off their horses, mindlessly locked onto the beds that awaited them.

A curse, a shove and then one Scout punched another to the ground, failing to muster the strength to scream and just tiredly protesting against weakness and disobedience. The short teen recruit, Levi, stepped in between them to calm dow-

He flipped the standing aggressor over with strength reminiscent of Mikasa's easy grips and lifts before glaring at both downed scouts as the courtyard stared. The taller Section Commander spotted Grisha and limped over to him.

"Doctor."

"Officer Miche, I take it we won't be able to head out today?"

The taller man nodded and stalked towards the wagon of injured soldiers even as Erwin guided the last of the healthy soldiers away to the barracks without so much as a glance over his shoulder. Grisha realised he was standing numbly in the courtyard before snapping back to the present and moving to the infirmary where a few lives could at least be saved by his expertise.

It was a mess. Being a military doctor might be a low paying profession but that did not require the answer to every infection to be amputation. It was almost as if they were determined to cut the functioning scouts by half with their backward practices. He threw on a clean over-vest and two advanced medical terms later he'd gotten access to the patients and saved his first scout from losing a broken hand.

Here's to luck

The better part of the day went by checking the wounds of the soldiers many of whom he could do little for with the acute lack of supplies in the barracks. The faster he was able to reclaim his stockpile of herbs from Wall Maria, the better. It was already towards the evening when Squad Leader Hange came to finally escort him to the stables for the first round of retaking Wall Maria.

"The Marian evacuation isn't going as fast as we'd have liked, too many towns are discovering the titans before we find them and the Garrison is slow to mobilize and even slower to set foot in Wall Maria. Even on this expedition which was supposed to be purely scouting with no casualties, we ran into a horde of refugees around the same time as the titans. Even with our mission complete, we couldn't simply just leave thousands of people to Titans.

To make it all harder, the Royal Government wants the people to abandon all the 4 districts of Wall Maria, and retreat to Rose simply because they want to be seen doing something. Rather than working out a feasible solution of rescue and retreat. It's such a shame they're the ones in charge. If only Erwin was the Premier…"

Grisha was no magistrate but he was firmly sure that such open remarks edged very close to Treason in this part of the world. Not that Hange was one to care, nor any of Erwin's top officers, between the breach and the news he'd dumped on them.

"Ah! I almost forgot too! Erwin said he wants us to go anyway, so it's me, you and Levi heading out in about… now!"

"Now?"

"What's the matter? Can't transform at night?" The dull voice rang out from just behind them. Hange looked over her shoulder at the boy faster than was supposed to be possible, her face brightening even more. Arms crossed, Levi scowled harder and edged farther back.

"No problems for me over here; but why you two? Aren't you going to stay close to your-"

"Whatever you're about to say, stuff it. We're coming and that's final. It'll only take a night anyway."

Grisha felt his skin prickle at the boy's rudeness but without a word, Hange motioned for him to take an already hitched horse-wagon while she and Levi claimed two well-toned stallions and led him out the Barracks. As the pair of horses pulled his wagon, he noticed Erwin and Miche watching from one of the turrets, neither acknowledging him with anything more than a glance. Grisha and his escorts rode for hours only having to evade a distant titan once or twice. By midnight they passed the first sleeping titan a 12-meter Titan that slept face-down with its nape easily exposed, yet neither scout made a move to handle it. Sensing rather than seeing his confusion, Hange explained that they needed to conserve their gas especially for their return trip.

They led him to a sparsely populated forest of trees where titans dozed off unwitting of the danger that trotted on in their midst.

"Here. Do your soul magic."

Grisha got off his wagon to stand in a very convenient spot between multiple trees. He breathed and waited for the pair of scouts to move far away. Hange's usual easy smile was gone and her hands were tightly flexed round the gear's handles. Levi moved the horses even farther obviously in the direction of the walls before coming back to join Hange a fair distance from him but firmly between him and the horses.

Fair enough.

Grisha flexed his fingers and bit the skin just over the joint of his finger and the moonlit night was shattered by the lightning that landed from the skies in answer as the flesh popped all over his body to craft a 13-meter titan towering over the wary scouts whose blades glinted far below his body. As he looked at his body he could see it was a whole 2 meters shorter than the previous titan form he held but much leaner, gone was the enormous gut but his torso was still wide by any standards.

"I'M STILL IN SHAPE. A ROUND SHAPE."

A/N: The Scouts get their first Titan Shifter!

Reviews, corrections and requests welcome as always!

Looking to that Bright Dawn