LEVI POV

Levi sighed. He did respect Erwin's opinions, as he often happened to be right. But sometimes, he couldn't help but feel he was slightly mislead. Today's was such an occasion.

"Erwin. We don't need to crowd the Survey Corps with random cadets all of a sudden. I get that you are alarmed by the high rate in mortality recently, and that we must fill in our ranks soon or else we might all get extinct. But we need talent. Not a bunch of useless brats..."

"I am not assigning them to your squad, Levi. Only the best of them will join your missions, the rest won't annoy you. But we must make more people consider to join - or force them to - the Survey Corps. The talent pool will be larger, and the best will emerge. " A brief moment passed. "Just like we did with you... And you are now known as the best solider humanity has, and probably ever had."

At these words, Levi felt a mix of pride and power, but also sadness. He wished their side -the humans- had more of soldiers like himself. Not only he held immense responsibility on his shoulders - he came up to terms with this fact -, he was also very aware that Titans had all flavour of species with special powers and a higher kill count that he himself had. Which is why, he was more than aware that the Survey Corps needed quality... over quantity.

"Anyway", exclaimed Zoe in an excited voice, "Who are we seeing next? Erwin -tell me it's a personality more interesting than the bloody usual thieves we've gauged this morning, please... I want to be shocked, intrigued, to be..."

"Next on is Alia Miller" Erwin said in a contrasting calm voice, walking along the walls with hands behind his back."More known as..."

The door flew open. Levi had risen instinctively, blades already out and inches from the intruder. He then realised it was just a Military Police officer, and lowered them.

"Miller escaped! She's gone through the window, o-on the corridor! One solder is badly hurt!"

Levi, Zoe and Erwin exchanged a quick look. Zoe's wish seemed to have been granted - not a boring one -, Erwin thought it was not a bad start to prove their skills, and Levi frowned -

"the rooftop, you brainless brat!" he sighed and hurried outside. "What are you fucking waiting for! What are you even doing in the fucking military?"

Zoe pushed the guard on her way out. "We must not let her go, she looks promising!"

Erwin nodded and followed up. Both of them broke out of a window and used their gear to climb up there. But Levi figured that a smart person would stay away from rooftop edges, and run towards the middle, where it's flat. They must be running in that direction - he ran up as fast as he could through different corridors to gain ground ahead, jumped out of a balcony in a way that catapulted him towards exactly where the person should be located.

From high up above, he realised without surprise that he was successful - he could see the young woman running where he had correctly guessed, and the dozen stupid guards far behind, which make him grow even angrier.

These brats are an utter fucking disgrace...

BOOM -"aarghh" - without even paying much attention, he got her - Miller, her name was? - and god, she was fierce, but he was just stronger. Hands chained behind her back, she attempted to kick him as he landed on her - but he easily counter attack this by an effortless wave of the hand. The young woman fell off balance, her long blonde hair floating all around her. Remarkably, she found her balance back, and tried to run -he grabbed her by the hair and forced her to kneel.

He didn't like to manhandle women, and hated the idea of touching any living thing that hadn't showered in more than a day. But she was such a fighter, he had no other choice - except from letting her go.

Looking up, she stared at him -Levi coudn't help but notice how attractive she looked - and once her knees hit the floor, something changed in her eyes.

Levi quickly ran through some thoughts. Given her presence today, and the requirements Erwin had established on the choice of people to select for the interrogation with them three - they were probably the most respected people across and beyond the walls... That girl then must not be used to be seen so vulnerable. Kneeling below him was a downright submissive position to be in.

"You only caught me thanks to your gear, bastard. Dont press your luck. Get OFF me!"

"Tch. Trust me, I want to, you're disgusting. But then you'll be left with this incompetent bunch."

He observed the woman while the rest of the guards were catching up. Reassured that the girl was taken care of already, Erwin and Zoe waved at him and went back to carry on their administrative meeting below. The useless Military Police officers were still running around, trying to catch up.

Levi turned his attention back to the captive. She was eyeing his boot knife. But he didn't care. She would not be able to reach it in time, he was faster.

He then sighed. He was. The guards were perhaps not.

Levi took out a think chain out of his pocket, it would be just enough to disable any arm movements from her back. It was probably how she had been able to hit the guard on her way out. As he was knotting the chain around her chest, the girl tried to get up on her feet, and, tired that she didn't get the message - he was in charge now, she should give up - Levi kicked her off the ground at each move.

He then proceeded to finish knotting the chains when something wet stained his shoulders. Tears and blood.

He was in a very, very bad mood. Not only the Military Police infuriated him, but he also got stains in the process of doing their own fucking job, when he had better to do -and on top of that, it was the shitty, dirty job which required to hit on an unarmed woman.

Her faint voice interrupted his thoughts.

"No, no..., Please... Please, don't let them take me back there", Alia sobbed. "I need to get back to the Underground... I-I need to, ... People need me there..."

The Underground.

Was that were they got her? Well. He guessed one of her close circles sold her location to the police, funded by Erwin's new recruitment fund. His eyes went back on her. What was she doing there? And why would she ever want to go back to it? In the Underground world, being that pretty is a curse, not a blessing.

But it wasn't his problem. Her hell was entirely hers to chose - no, Erwin will actually decide.

"Shut up, brat."

Finally, the pitiful guards arrived. They looked exhausted. Levi contained his temper, but he was bursting with anger.

Humanity needed more than ever to have men save... themselves, and such people were running around wasting time, lives, and dignity.

"Corporal! We promise on our honour that this shall never, ever happen again."

The guards looked scared and were shaking nervously, as they should be. But Levi didn't have any willing energy in reserve to punish them. They were simply not worth one more second of his precious fucking time.

"I do not place much value on the honour of the military police. Just do your damn fucking job."

He did not further expand on how he wished he could find the energy to break their legs and have them whipped for incompetence and negligence. He imagined that while looking at each of them in turn. The fucking cowards couldn't even keep their heads straight and tried to hide their faces by pointing them at the floor.

Was it that easy to make them stop looking at the target? That easy?

No wonder this girl escaped. He thought it might, might be because she was actually talented. But she just happened to be surveilled under the fucking Military.

Fucking idiots.

"Watch your prisoner, you stupid brats. She should've been fucking dragged to the interrogation room already."

Furious, Levi grabbed the girl and violently threw her at them - he then realised their were such braindead, lame chickens, that they were not even able to tell he was wanting one of them to take a hit with her, and she was now dangerously going head-first onto the ground.

Well, if she dies, Erwin and the rest of the heads of squads will be properly pissed off, and the Military will have to pay that off pretty brutally.

Contrasting with the dead corpse he had just visualised now, the sudden image of the kneeling the girl looking up to him came racing through his mind.

The girl...

He may be the "best warrior in humanity", but in many ways he was also a just man.

In a flash of a second, he felt remorse that he took his budding anger onto her - he didn't intend to cause having this beautiful girl die on rooftops today. Part of his worst anger was replaced with worry - and he threw himself to the ground, catching the girl last moment before the critical hit. She was too shaky and disoriented to stand, so he lifted her up in his arms.

"I said... Watch over your prisoner."