Things picked up after our visit to Trost. For one, it started to snow. Everything was cold and completely white. The escapes to the Forest were no longer fun either.

"I wonder if Sadies ever notices that we leave the camp. If he does, does that mean he doesn't care if we disappear as long as we do the work he gives us? Or is he waiting until he can think up a very bad punishment for us?"

I couldn't properly stifle the laugh that built up in me. Connie rolled his eyes at me.

"What's wrong with being a little worried? It never helps being cautious with what's happening. Who knows when it might save your life. You know?" He said, defending himself.

"But I didn't say anything," I smiled.

"You laughed though."

Normally, I would be out here with Marco, but he was a little busy with Armin. Sadies wanted him to give him some special attention with firearm practice.

"So… you and Sasha?" I started.

Connie's cheeks flushed. He shook his head as soon as he registered what I was insinuating and raised his hands in defence.

"NO! I mean, it's not that Sasha isn't pretty or anything, but it's just that she feels more like a sister."

"Really? I thought you liked her more than that. You're always around her and she's usually on your mind. I just thought that there might've been something there."

"Nuh-uh," He shook his head.

"You know, I've never told anyone else about this."

I watched Connie stare at the sky.

With all the trees barren, there wasn't any shelter from direct sunlight. All the birds and animals were also gone, having taken their journey to warmer climates.

Even if I'd taken the meadow as a place to train my Titan shifting in the beginning, there would be no way I could do it discreetly without shelter from prying eyes and without animal sounds to cover my own.

Only an idiot would think to shift in these conditions.

And I'm looking at that idiot at this very moment. Annie's female Titan form stretched in the distance. It's golden hair reflecting the sun's light giving her the appearance of wearing a halo.

What the fuck is she thinking?! With the trees being bare as a result from the current season, there is no way she wouldn't be spotted if someone decided to come this way.

She's basically a walking target for any sane person.

With a sigh I decided to creep a little closer. I couldn't spot anyone else out here so it should be somewhat safe.

I pushed past the underbrush sticking close to it as I neared Annie. If she turned in my direction I could easily jump into one of the bushes to avoid being out in the open.

Still, I wonder what exactly she was doing out here. Another question popped into my mind. Why was she alone?

I clearly remember Reiner and Bertolt working on cleaning the outhouse before I left. Could they really have separated?

I thought Reiner's conversation in Trost was some kind of ploy to distance themselves from Annie.

And if it's true, what did that mean for the future? If they split up then it had to do with Galliard's departure and unwillingness to keep fighting.

But if it's because of that, Bertolt and Annie both didn't want to continue their siege on the walls, preferring to do God knows what.

What I didn't notice as I was running through those reasons was that Annie ended up staring right at me. So when I looked up I ended up freezing in place just staring back at the Titan's blue eyes.

A small chill ran down my spine and I silently hoped that my face was frozen in an expressionless state. The last thing I wanted to do was get Annie to set her sights on lil' ol' me. Even if she and the other two boys were no longer working together, she might go on to them to get any suspicions she's got about me off her chest.

Our eyes were locked together for a solid minute before she turned to start walking away from the camp. Not once did she turn around to check if I was still following her. She might be trying to act like a regular titan since she has no reason to think that anyone knew what her titan looked like let alone that any person living inside these walls even knew about titan shifters in the first place. Though if my fears are correct, she might be growing seeds of suspicion that I might have been one of the titans that "devoured" her two friends.

I collapsed next to a tree trunk and let out a sigh of relief.

I ran a hand through my bangs and stared up into the sky. I really didn't want to go back to camp. Sadies might be searching for me right now. He was furious when I came back from our trip to Trost and told him that my Regiment Jacket had been stolen by a child.

"You let a kid take that from you?" Connie had also laughed at my blunder. "I guess to them it was like taking candy from a teenager."

"I can't believe you're trying to become a savior to humanity if mere children can do that to you." Jean, like always, was cynically poking at my goals.

But then there was Armin and Marco coming to my defence.

"I don't think you guys would've done any better if you weren't expecting a kid to do that. In fact, it would be worse considering you're so tough, Jean."

"Plus, Eliza ended up in the underground city. I hear it's very dangerous down there." Armin added timidly.

"Well, I heard that some people even eat other humans. Kind of like titans," Sasha chuckled much to Armin's disgust.

"Do you think that's true?" Krista asked Ymir as she leaned in closer to her.

"I don't know and I couldn't care less." Ymir stepped away from her in annoyance. She looked around bored until she saw me frowning at her.

I only let go of my frown when she didn't try to get away from Krista the next time she leaned closer to her again.

"I should start heading back to camp now," I whispered to myself. "I just don't know if I should report Annie's titan or not. Would it be suspicious if I didn't say anything? But would she target me for revealing a Titan inside unbreached walls?" I shook my head. This decision was so hard to make.

Of course, every decision I've made up until now had been hard to make considering the massive ripples of change I risked every day. I'd have to come up with something but not right now.

At this moment, as I walked through the forest back to base, I could just enjoy things for what they were. Simple trees shaking with the simple wind. I guess Annie was the thing that Armin imagined he saw the other day. A huge eye in the dark woods.

I chuckled. Annie has gotten reckless in this timeline. Risking exposing herself? What was she thinking?

I knew something was wrong the moment I saw it. A stack of smoke climbing up into the night sky blocking out some of the moon's light. I broke into a sprint.

The orange glow of flames met my eyes. The base was on fire.

"Eliza!"

"Connie, what's going on?" I yelled as we ran toward each other.

"Someone's attacking our camp! We don't know who they are but they have ODM gear. They haven't done anything to the recruits yet, but they are setting fire to everything." Connie explained.

"Why aren't we fighting back? Why isn't Sadies doing anything about it?"

"They have him captured. And the weapons barracks are being blocked by 2 of the attackers. Everyone else is separated though. Those people are keeping us isolated."

We ran back into camp. It was just like Connie described it. There were a bunch of people on top of the burning buildings and they swooped down toward the ground every time a recruit tried to make a break for the other side of the camp.

"We need to find Jean and Mikasa. Do you know where they are?"

Connie shook his head. "But I do know where Armin and Eren are. They're in the sleeping barracks. And last time I saw Marco, a little bit before the attack, he was in the mess hall along with Sasha."

"I'll go to the sleeping barracks. If I know Mikasa she'll surely be trying to get to Eren. You go get Jean. We'll meet at the shooting range's storage barracks. It's closer to the weapon's barracks and it'll be easier to hide around there. I haven't seen any of the fire's glow coming from over there."

"Got it. Good luck, Eliza," Connie smiled valiantly before he ran off pressing to the buildings for whatever shelter he could get from our enemies.

I didn't bother with hiding. The fire was burning intensely so pressing against buildings was uncomfortably hot. There was also a lack of darkness in the direction I was going in. Yet for some reason, I wasn't being attacked by the figures atop the buildings.

I glanced up to see them and caught them just staring at me.

"If I had to guess, I think they'll be in the back area of the barrack," I whispered to myself.

The sleeping barracks had a metallic back room where any injured or ill recruit could hang for a couple of days. Though Sadies never put it to use, preferring to keep us working through as hard as we could.

The Problem was on how I would be able to get past the flames. I'm virtually indestructible as long as I'm alive enough to regenerate and fire wasn't a problem. The real problem was with the people watching me. Curiosity is my enemy and it could present itself in my friends and my enemies.

My stalkers still didn't try to do anything as I came up to the barrack entrance. I could feel their eyes on me as I looked for something to help me out.

I grabbed a pole that was on the ground ignoring the familiar searing pain of heat against my hands and started whacking the side of the building.

The wall fell apart spreading its embers onto my face making me hiss out in annoyance.

"Are you guys okay?" I called out as I finally made it in and ran toward the back room.

I hid the steam coming out of my hands behind my back so they could quickly regenerate.

"Yes. They caught the camp by surprise. We didn't expect anything and by the time we knew what was happening, we ended up trapped and unable to do anything," Armin explained quickly.

"What's going on out there?" Eren demanded. He probably hated the fact that he was unable to do anything right now.

Just wait until you discover what you can actually do, I thought.

"Our attackers are all on the roofs. They're just watching us and keeping us away from each other. We have no clue what they're here for." I turned to Armin, "So what's the plan?"

"What? Me?" He pointed at himself.

"Yeah. You're the smart one, the rest of us are better at other things. She's a fighter." I pointed at Annie. "Reiner and his friend are both great with weapons. Krista is awesome at moral support and Ymir has a sharp eye."

"And what about Eren?" Armin asked.

"Well, he's actually great at taking a punch. He may not be a good fighter," Eren groaned and rolled his eyes. "But it doesn't matter if you can fight if you fall on the first punch."

"Come on man, you got this," Eren placed a hand on his best friend completely ignoring my compliment.

Everyone else gathered around Armin and nodded showing their support.

"Some guidance is better than no guidance. If we go out there without a plan, we will fail," Reiner pointed out.

Armin's face flushed a bit and I could see his eyes light up knowing that everyone was putting their trust in him to get out of this situation.

"Okay, let me think."

Our attackers were still silently watching us from the rooftops. Some paced back and forth while a very few stood still and disciplined. Nevertheless, their eyes never left us.

"You guys are right. They're not doing anything," Armin observed.

"Do you want to test out the other thing I told you about?"

"No. I trust that what you said is true."

Our little group was trying to get through the middle of the camp over to where Connie was trying to gather up the other recruits, hopefully.

"They're definitely not creepy," Ymir scoffed.

"What do you think they're waiting for?" Krista wondered.

Our gazes locked onto them as they suddenly scrambled into action. We pressed our backs to each other ready to defend from their attack but they sailed over our heads.

"3D Gear?!" Reiner roared. "These guys have our gear!" Reiner had his hand raised near his mouth and the muscles in his jaw were flexed. Bertolt and Ymir were posed in the same way, they knew how much trouble we were in. But right now wasn't the time to expose ourselves.

"Where are they going?" Armin wondered.

Screams answered that question for us.

"Connie and the others," Armin broke into a sprint but soon fell behind Eren as his friend rushed ahead of us.

"Eliza! We're all here!" Connie yelled.

The small boy was valiantly fighting off the attackers throwing wild but strong punches. Sasha was at his side using a rock as a weapon. Though I'm not sure it was doing any better than Connie's fists.

"Get the hell away from them!" Reiner barrelled through them. Some of the people were able to ODM their way back onto roofs. Others were briefly knocked down by Reiner.

But when I began trying to fight back our remaining opponents jumped away to regroup. All the fight left them.

This was seriously weird.

They were right back to doing their old job. Sizing us up and watching every move we made.

"Oh my god!" I stood frozen like a statue as I was wrapped into a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're alright. I told Connie he should've kept you safe out in the woods instead of barging into this inferno of an attack."

"Now that's the most sensible thing I've heard," Ymir snorted.

"Are you kidding?!" Eren protested slamming a fist into his palm. "They gave us a chance to regroup so that we can kick these guys' asses for what they think they can do to us."

I shook my head, stepping away from that big bear hug I'd been dished. To my relief Marco reappeared and I shook off the surprise my brain had given me.

"Marco, I'm tough enough to handle a little attack. So instead of lecturing me like I'm your little sister, how about we come up with a plan to get Commander Sadies back in action?"

"I already have a plan, I think," Armin said.

We walked toward Sadies' barrack as a group. Our enemies shadowing us silently like usual.

Armin's plan was to get there together. It seems that these guys don't want to engage us when we're all together. And when we finally split up, they won't have any time to fight us off before it's too late for them.

The plan was when we got to the entrance for the barracks, Connie and I would stay behind at the front doors as a distraction. While our mystery guests would descend to fight us, the rest of them would wrap around to the back of the office where they could break in without being attacked.

And if they were to be attacked, they would have the numbers to defend each other. Not to mention the manpower with Annie's skills and Mikasa's supernatural Ackerman abilities.

Connie on the other hand would have me and my regenerative power on his side. All I had to do was hope that the flames could cover my healing steam and the shifting lights would disorient him enough to distract from the injuries I might collect.

Ymir of course objected. When is she not annoying? But I need her to be my eyes and ears with the warriors. I haven't told her yet about the Marleyan trio but if they do anything suspicious she will definitely come to me about it. I can take care of myself in this situation anyway.

We all split up silently like planned.

We gave Armin a nod in confirmation just as they disappeared around the corner.

"So, do we pretend to break in? Or do we wait until they come after us," I asked.

Connie handed me a broken piece of pipe. "We break in. If there's a chance we can get in from both sides then we should take it."

Gripping the pipe tightly, I raised it over my head and began smashing it against the chains that were holding the door in place. I kept at it until my arms tingled from the impacts of metal upon metal making me switch tactics. I shoved the pipe as best I could between the chains hoping to use leverage to my advantage.

Connie saw what I was doing and joined me by grabbing the pipe as well. We pulled downward as hard as we could until the chains snapped and fell off the door.

"It's a good thing the fire made these chains soft enough for us to do that," I sighed.

"Yeah, I don't see how we would've been able to do this without that." Connie agreed.

We made our way into the building carefully. I think we were both smart enough to think that whoever launched the invasion upon us would hide himself away with the commander.

Even with the glowing embers of the raging fire outside that made it in here, the building was still pitch black. I didn't even notice a chair in front of me until I was tripping over it.

"Hello? Commander Sadies!" Connie called out.

"Who's the genius that planned to invade a government training camp?"

Muffled cries echoed in the dark replying to us.

"That must be Sadies!" I shot forward barrelling through overturned furniture until I harshly smacked into a wall.

"Wait, let me come back with some fire." I watched Connie's silhouette walk toward the entrance we came through.

"No. It's too dangerous. Those people could be outside waiting for us to come out at any moment."

"Well, we can't exactly rescue Sadies if we keep running face first into walls." There was an edge to the boy's voice. He nearly reminded me of Eren whenever he went on his tirades about Titans.

"We'll save him, Connie." More muffled cries, even more desperate, interrupted me. "We're right next to him. But you're right. Try and find some torches if you can. Sadies' office should have some in case of emergencies. I doubt he's that much of an asshole to not have any on hand if any of us went missing at night," I gave a nervous laugh.

"Fine."

While Connie blindly searched for some torches, I decided to close the doors to give us at least a false comfort of separation from whoever was attacking us outside.

"Found it!" Connie called triumphantly over the clattering of objects he knocked to the floor.

"Any luck getting it to turn on?"

"Uh… I'll get back to you on that."

"Don't worry Commander. We'll save you as soon as we get this thing to turn on," I tried reassuring him.

"Sounds like you kids need a hand," cold freezing fear flooded my blood as my brain registered that familiar voice.

The sound of a lighter clinking to life preceded the birth of a small orange flame that softly revealed a leather jacket. But some of that glow ventured a bit further and illuminated someone else's face.

My eyes focused on that man, Commander Sadies and his bloody face and broken nose. Someone had gagged him with a white cloth keeping him from saying anything. And should that gag fall out, there was a hand holding a knife to his throat ready to silence any words that might escape from his mouth.

Heavy sweat dripped from his forehead exaggerating the defeat in his eyes.

The man bravely ignored the knife being held at his throat and began frantically screaming at us. Even if we could understand the unintelligible garble his gag created, I doubt I could've done anything since I was paralysed in terror.

"You know before I give you guys some light, let me get a smoke first." The lighter was pulled away and lit up a cigar being held in a mouth with uneven stubble on his chin. Then it walked over to Connie and ignited the torch in his hand.

"Oh and don't worry about your friends. My men are entertaining them while you and I have a chat."

The stronger light of the torch chased away the dark void revealing the gaunt face of a man, which made him look older than he should but cradled a dangerous smile, and the familiar brim of a cowboy hat.

"The girl with purple hair and golden eyes. You are my prize."

So, this is how I die.

A/N: OMG. This chapter dragged on for me. Hopefully it's a good read for you guys but I found it nearly impossible to write this. The hardest thing of all was figuring out how to address the "bad guys" of the chapter since they don't even have a name yet.

I finally finished it though. And all it took was nearly half a year, stress of finals, figuring out how to work out a new schedule to fit my new classes and my job, and being in a wedding renewal of vows. Literally. Most of the inspiration for the last part struck me when I was at the party. Wrote like 700 words to conclude the chapter. I was also planning to make this chapter even longer but ended up cutting it in half. The conclusion to this invasion arc will be in the next chapter which I still haven't even reached the halfway point for. Just a bunch of ideas that I wrote down that I haven't organised yet.

ILikeFoxes828: Yeah. I got sick too many times. I haven't gotten sick since then though! Except last week. But I think I just ate a bad Taco and it gave me the shits for 2 days. Hope I didn't make you suffer waiting for this chapter. Actually, I hope you didn't give up hope on me ever updating.

Heitor: Yeah. I've been treating Ymir toughly. I know from experience that it hurts when your crush pushes you away and sets up a wall. But in my case, a year later, that crush ends up acting as if they weren't pushing you away and expects to have a friendship with you again. Not a fan of that.

It's interesting how my writing has inadvertently created a personality for my character. I hope I continue subconsciously doing that. It's been so long, I forgot that I gave Eliza a last name and rereading your comment confused me a bit. I don't think people will be suspicious about Ymir's lack of name though since she might just not be interested in completely adopting Eliza's "family" for obvious reasons. I don't think it's passed characters' attention on how Ymir is always looking at Eliza and being defensive of her.

Also, she's kind of growing on me. I like Ymir a lot more than I used to. I don't remember incentives since it's been a while since I've written the chapters but it might be the incentive to reach the top 10 in the cadet Corps. If it is the show said that it gave the cadets incentives to be the best because only members of the top 10 can join the military police from the king's wall.

And yes the Warrior trio is still thinking about their friends. Don't forget about Galliard though. He's still on the loose and unaccounted for. The Warhammer is also definitely capable of many comedic visuals. Too bad that I'm not that amazing of an artist and don't have any connections to deviant artists that can draw up scenes for me.

As for Titan powers in human form, we'll get to that at some point. Maybe when we reach the next season. There are a ton of ideas I have for the power of the Titans. I always thought there was a missed opportunity that they only have regeneration when human. There can always be a work around to not have them OP if the creator wanted.

Unwanted personal life update: I finished watching arcane and man it was so amazing I wanna cry. Season 2 can't get here fast enough and it's making me want to write a FanFiction.