Eren took his leave of Historia and that mad old goat, (as he called Kenny, the sneak) before it was even dusk. After all, he had a house to go back to. And as much as she didn't want to hate him for a it, a slight stirring of resentment and something else was there. She was hardly bothered enough to hate him so perhaps she was merely... Well not envious. Curious.

Of course. I'm just curious

She latched her mind unto that explanation without a struggle and tossed herself upon the bed. She could only stay in bed for so long. As she rose from the cot in the cramped, stuffy room that Kenny had secured in the Blue Cod, she just knew that she was a few more days from dying of utter boredom. Truthfully, she could have asked Kenny for a book or something to keep occupied while they prepared to shake up an entire kingdom, but the less she saw of that man... No matter what he professed, she couldn't forget his easy stride and the sickeningly casual way he'd slit her mother's throat. And she certainly wasn't naive enough to hope that after his thugs had herded everyone in the farm including her grandparents into a small room they'd locked after them and trotted off.

Some things were easier not to bear thinking about. When Eren had come into that room, for one small moment she'd been intrigued, a small light in her life, one that Kenny had been quick to trim sown to size. Somehow the blood hadn't frightened her as much as before and then he'd risen up. For the first time, Kenny had shown fear, and then something even sweeter than that: Respect. Eren was the perfect antithesis of her life's story. You're not a useless bastard/ You're the destined Queen. You can't decide your own path/ Come with me and control the world. People die when their throats are slit/ Except not always. Kenny would be staying. And she did recall him saying something along the lines of making decisions and overcoming her fears. She didn't know how but... Not cowering away was as good a start as any she supposed. She may have to stay locked away at the top of the Blue Cod for a while, but it was all the difference in the world between her Grandfather who had run the entire farm from his little bed when he was sick and herself who received food grudgingly shoved into her room before being bolted up again. She had power. She had power.

I have power.

"And hell if I won't use it!"

Farlan Church

"You know ya can't hold down tha wine, big brother! Cert. {hiccup} Ya don't stand a rat's fart!"

"Speak for yourself." He calmly replied. Farlan snorted amd grinned over at the pair. Even on the surface, they still kept to some of their old rules. Like never have all three people be drunk at the same time. Now Farlan was the teetotaler for this night's game. Levi was hardly ever so much as unfocused by the wine so if he was one of the drinkers they still had two decent fighters. Isabel on the other side... Well Isabel had quite some way to go.

Up on the surface, with fields, farms (it melted his heart to remember Isabel's first walk through a cornfield) and orchards, they'd found all flavours and types of alcohol. More than just yeasty brown grain ale or barley beer. Surprisingly, it was Levi who first brought them all the wine bounties of the surface for Isabel and he to try. Both of them were shocked, more at the sheer number of drinks than the gesture coming from Levi. He assumed it had been a good night, since he didn't remember anything that happened after. But in the morning, Levi had nodded to them and for half a second, Farlan had seen pure happiness on that sour face. That had made it worth it.

CLIP-CLOP CLIP CLOP

Horses. Levi shot up from the table and Isabel, wasted as she was, still had the presence of mind to shoot downwards for the floor. It was heartwarming those exercises had paid off now who-

"Scout Levi! Scout Farlan!" The Survey Corps. Had their mystery child done something now?

"What?" Levi bit out irritably.

"Multiple MPs were murdered near Mitras please hurry to Headquarters and please be careful! And-"

"Yes?" Isabel grumbled from the cover of the thick chair she'd leapt behind. If it really was a shooter, her protection was as useless as wings in a barrel. So maybe she wasn't as sober as-

"Titans spotted in Rose!"

"Oh."

He turned to Levi. Levi turned to look around the house.

"It was a great while it lasted."

-O-

In quarter of an hour, Levi and Farlan geared up and kicked off alongside their fellow Isabel, trussed onto the nearest wagon along with the minimum essentials. The fact that Levi left his precious tea set behind meant he was either taking this very seriously or too buzzed to remember. And considering his calmness, probably the first option.(All the better, Farlan was not interested in getting kicked for a 'missing cup' prank again).

The scouts that rode with them were jittery to rejoin the main column, as they had every right to be. Yet not one raised the delay with Levi or complained about time on the way. Probably afraid of their Short Fuse. As they had every right to be.

The thought almost made him smile openly as they left rode into the nearest city to get to the barracks. Weaving in and out of traffic wasn't an option with a horse-drawn wagon directed by a drunk teenager unable to think clearly, as one of their escorts must have guessed and he split off the moment they entered the Walled City.

Isabel grated about potatoes, gravy and wicked titans, a sight so amusing, he almost never noticed the easy faces of the civilians. The last time a Wall was breached people were crushing each other, leaping off heights to escape the rightly imagined horror of dying at a Titan's hands and... certainly not bargaining if this and that fish was "good for constipation."

What the? Weird. And Disgusting.

The barracks were hardly better (or worse?) as the soldiers strolled with purpose. Levi's pinched brows meant he noticed the same thing. And the quick flash of a pistol muzzle was assurance that he was suspecting much more.

When they got inside the barracks, the orders for all military officials were the same everywhere. Just stand by and look pretty. It wasn't hard to guess which surface dweller was responsible for that kind of stupid order. The real question was what were the other kind of Surface Dwellers were doing.

Moblit Berner

Commander Erwin was never chatty. At least not with the junior soldiers. Charismatic? Solid? Sure all that and more. But actual conversation? Only two, perhaps three, people were in that confidence. So it was with some, perhaps misplaced and ill-timed, pride that Moblit took in the honor of being the newest conversation partner of his commander. The actual conversation on the other hand;

"I can only hope that Jaeger is not keeping to our agreement..."

" Sir..."

"Think beyond the surface Berner."

Oh. If it wasn't Eren there...then there were two active enemy titans in combat. A third party... And one lost...

"Send a scout to ask if Levi had lessons with them during the past week."

"Shou-"

"I will accept no other proof. And order Section 4 to standby for titans. About three."

Ilse Langnar{Quinta}

"Pack up. We have to move while the Titans are far away!"

Langnar imagined despite it being evening time it was still terribly hot where the loyalists (royalists) of Quinta were crammed into the bottle-necked gate glad to escape into the Titan free area.

"Nasty!"

"Nasty?" She repeats dubiously. A level-headed look is added to that to make her reconsider her next words.

"The smell! Must be horrible!"

This is how people know you're a rookie

"We can speak normally when we're not in flight."

"I- I don't want to bite my tongue."

"Let's start working on that now. Fly."

Ilse fired her flare to open the gates. They groaned, but only half as loudly as the cheers the poor Quinta-folk (and there's a good name) turned their backs to the setting sun. Oh she was glad she wasn't on escort duty for them. They had a long road ahead...

Reiner Braun

Reiner slammed face-down into the blanket.

"I haf his flace."

Bertholdt turned,

"Sorry..."

" I said I hate this place."

" Well.. . the others will soon be back. The capital isn't far from here."

"Then we can go home! Yay... I'm thrilled..." Reiner couldn't bring himself to even say that much seriously.

A/N: I know, taken a while... I've been looking sideways at my work but the veterans over at all the fanfiction sites say a re-write is an invitation to hiatus. So I'll power on. Been experimenting with a lot of writing styles so apologies if the tone feels odd.

Looking forward to That Bright Dawn!