Erwin and Ducky spent the rest of the day just hanging out rather than teaching her anything. He told her about his life, how his uncle told him some conspiracy theories and he was now looking for the answers behind titans.

It was strange how no one really thought about the titans until someone asked them some deep question about them. But, then again, they had practically faded from everyone's thoughts. The walls had just been up that long, and there was no one alive that remembered them, except the Garrison and Scouts.

The titans plagued Ducky's mind as she mulled them over. Obviously, there was a way to kill them, but what was so important about them that there was a village being injected with their DNA?

"Your arm has healed up," Erwin said.

She looked at him then the bandage on her arm where a small part of the cut was still showing. The stitches had popped out and were dangling some, but there was a scar left behind.

She looked at him as she took of the bandage, "Is that not normal?"

"Titans can almost heal faster than they can be cut open," he answered.

"Another Titan trait," she mumbled as she dusted off the rest of the stitches that had come from her skin. "It's making me wonder if I'm actually human."

Erwin smiled at her small joke, "You're not tall enough to be a titan."

She smiled a bit as well, holding her bandage in her hand. "I wonder how many students he's done that to," she wondered aloud. "He knew I was a girl. Do the others know and they're just playing it off?"

"Maybe," Erwin shrugged. "I would imagine most women just showed up, not trying to hide it like you're doing. They might address it when you're older."

She looked at the ground. Erwin was different than every man she had ever met. Even while being a gentleman, he managed to make them equal, never placing her on a pedestal. She appreciated it. That was the kind of friend she needed.

"Hey, Erwin. If I don't get executed, do you think I would make a good soldier?" Ducky asked.

"I would want you on my squad" he replied. "Are you second guessing being her?"

"Not exactly," she answered as she picked at her nails. "If I wasn't a good soldier, I would go to the Military Police. I might end up there anyway. My, uh, people are automatically placed in the Military Police due to their strength and what not. We should be out fighting titans, but they keep us at the king's side. It doesn't make sense to me."

Erwin placed his hand on her head, "I completely agree with you, Duck. Is that your real name?"

She blushed as she looked at the ground, "Ermengarde."

"How did you get Ducky from that?"

"I just made it up on the spot," she replied.

"Ducky is definitely better than whatever your name is," Erwin laughed.

She nodded, "And I've got to keep it. They'll find me if I don't."

He sighed, "You really want to get away. It makes me wonder what sort of place it was."

"Do you really want to know?" She asked him dismally. "I can show you."

Erwin didn't answer as he watched her start to undress until her shirt was off, showing just the vest made from bandages. She reached to her back, pulling a piece of the bandage off and started to unroll it.

She was covered in what looked like tattoos, but were made from scars that had been carved deep in her skin. "So, there's a way to permanently stop the titans' healing powers?"

"It's a very careful burn," she replied. "My wounds only heal when I bleed. They had to burn me."

She tensed up when he touched it. "The mark of the Military Police."

He helped her tie the bandaged back and she put her shirt back on as well as adjusting the straps once more.

She sighed as she fell onto her bed, barely missing the top bunk. "How many did we lose today?"

"I would say about eighty," Erwin stated as he grabbed the book from under her pillow. "You've never heard this story before?"

"Nope," she replied as she took it from him. "Are you going to read it to me?"

"No, you're going to read it to me," he said, helping her sit up. "Start reading."

She frowned as she sat up, opening the book. Where to start?

He pointed at the first line, "We are the children. Not titan, not human, but some terrible creature created from the two. We want to die. Can you help us?"

Ducky only thought she knew what depression was until she read the entire story with Erwin's help. It didn't make her cry, it made her heart heavy. It wasn't entirely a lie. She had heard of the first Titanics, as they were called. The book described their pain from the injections, the pain from the sudden growth, the pain of the cuts and heat they had to deal with when they were injured. Of course, it was all written with silver lining, the whole thing being prefaced with fiction.

"Is that really what it's like?" Erwin asked as he handed her some paper. Now she had to write the whole thing.

"I've seen people like that, begging for death because of the insanity the injections can cause. Cannibalism is rare, but not surprising when it shows up. All the women are tiny, though. Only the men reach over 182 cm. They have violent tendencies and...desperate desires."

They hadn't noticed how much time had passed until they heard the bell ring. It was already supper time? They left the barracks, heading to the mess hall where Commander Johnson announced there would be a new teacher for titan classes and strategy. He was younger than most and missing an arm. Kyle Ziegler was his name and he was a representative of the Scouts for the time being until another person could take his place. Due to his injury, he had been allowed to take this position, claiming he had killed five Titans before he came.

At least he had seen a titan. There was no mention of why Captain Newson was gone, and since classes hadn't started, no one really cared. Erwin and Ducky took an empty spot close to Farley, who looked pretty grumpy, glaring at Ducky when she sat down.

"Liam got sent home because of you," he snapped. "If you hadn't broke his hand, he wouldn't have failed the balancing test!"

"He punched me in the face," Ducky argued, "It's not my fault!"

Farley suddenly jumped to his feet, ready to fight her. "Why don't we take this outside?"

"Fighting me isn't going to bring Liam back!" She exclaimed as she got to her feet. "I'm not going to fight you! I'm only twelve!"

Farley reached across the table, picking her up by her shirt, pulling her half way across the table. "Don't use your age as an excuse," he spat. "You're in the military now. You better man up and take responsibility!"

He shoved her backwards, making her fall over the chair and landing hard on the wooden floor. Erwin was by her side, helping her get untangled from the bench. She had jumped the gun joining the military at such a young age. But, if she hadn't, she would be joining the many young mothers of her village.

"You okay?" Erwin asked as she got settled in her seat and grabbed her stew from him. "That looked painful."

"It was," she grumbled as she rubbed the top of her head. "I'll put him in his place. I can guarantee that."

"You'll have to show me some of your mind tricks," Erwin smiled. "I still think you're lying about the writing and reading thing."

"But I'm not," she whined. "I will show you some of my power, though. It's not very strong, so I can barely do anything. That's why the note is so weird."

He chuckled, "I wrote it. I followed you, and when I saw what he was going to do, I convinced Commander Johnson that you were in trouble and that you had passed me the note before he took you."

He laughed when she smacked his arm, glaring at him, but smiling nonetheless. He ruffled her hair, "We'll need to cut your hair soon. You didn't do such a great job."

She huffed as she took a bite of her roll. "You really are going to act like my big brother."

"You're young and away from home," he replied gently. "I would want someone helping me if I was in your position."

That much was true. She adored Erwin, forever grateful that someone was helping her get her life right in this structured world. She didn't need Erwin's strength, but she was appreciative of his friendship and overall helpfulness. She knew he was probably watching over her just so he could learn more about how to deal with young soldiers, but he did care.

Again, the cadets were told to clean the mess hall. This time, everyone looked at Erwin for direction. He looked down at Ducky, "What do you think, Ducky?"

"You'll want to put the shorter guys and larger guys in here to sweep and move the tables. Taller guys need to do the dishes because they can reach the shelves."

Erwin immediately started assigning places while Ducky passed out the cleaning supplies. She was given a mop to clean up the kitchen when the dishes were done while Erwin helped move tables when necessary. Everything went smoothly unlike the previous night.

Erwin was given high praise as they left, while Ducky kept to the back of the group to avoid attention. She had had a bad day, and the reality of it was starting to sink in as she headed for the showers. She was grateful for the scalding water as she washed everything that had been violated that day. She stayed in the shower longer than she anticipated because Erwin turned off the water and put a towel around her. If her pink skin could get redder, it would have shown due to the sudden amount of nakedness that surrounded her.

Keeping to the broken shower at the end of the bathroom, she quickly got dressed and headed out, not looking anywhere but forward. When she finally got to her bed, her skin was a lighter shade of pink than it had been, steam still rising from her heated skin.

"You okay?" Erwin asked as he approached her.

She stared at the floor, trying to process if she was or not. Erwin sighed as he sat next to her, "If you want to sleep with me, you can." He smiled some as he placed his hand on her head, "You remind me of my cousin. When he had a bad day or got in a fight or had nightmares, he would sleep with me."

She considered his words before nodding. Though she knew Captain Newson couldn't get to her, she felt she needed the protection Erwin could offer. Her brothers had done the same with her when she was growing up. They couldn't stop what was happening to her, but they could help her feel a little better after.

"That's a little weird, Erwin," Stanley said as he sat on his bunk. "You've only known him a few days. And why are you having nightmares? We haven't even started training."

She looked at the ground "Life in Reverse got under my skin," she lied smoothly.

"Ah, yeah, it will do that," he nodded. "Just remember. It's just a story, there's no truth behind it."

She faked a smile, "I hope so."

Erwin gently forced Ducky to lay down, "You need rest. Tomorrow will be better."

The next day was a lot better. She got to run around, working out and doing other exercises to get the strength for start working with the vertical maneuvering gear. Erwin had to force her to eat lunch since she was so exhausted from working out.

This became a daily routine for nearly five months. When they were finally given the gear, everything changed. All the cadets had gained a lot of muscle mass that was not needed with the gear. As they gained flexibility, they were introduced to titan killing training and over all survival skills.

As the months passed, the teens in the group began to grow like grass while Ducky was only gaining a few inches. It was becoming more difficult to hide her gender as she got older.

They learned how to ride on horses and how to use the gear to get from the horses to the trees and vise versa. Their classes on titans was going about as smoothly as it could. She could read and write, but her pronunciation on some words were cringe worthy and her spelling had little to be desired. That didn't stop her. It seemed like nothing could.

Farley approached her during the hand-to-hand combat class, his anger finally getting the best of him after she had outscored him on titan take outs. When he lifted her up by her shirt, he stumbled a bit, caught off guard by how light she was, but he quickly threw her to the ground.

"What was that for?" She asked as she got to her feet, glaring up at him. He had grown a lot since the beginning, towering well over a foot over her. That didn't make a difference to her as she got ready to fight him anyway.

"We're getting tired of your crap!" He yelled which silenced everyone around. "You're always hitching off Erwin! You make the rest of us look bad when all you are is a lie!"

She popped her fingers, a nervous habit she had picked up from Stanley, who tutored her with strategy. "Tell you what. If you can beat me in a fight, right here, right now, I will move away from Erwin and-"

"No, if I beat you in a fight, you leave," Farley said.

She could tell he was winging his bluff would work, but she wasn't going to back down. "Fine. No one interferes."

He laughed, "So, you don't want Erwin to save you? Fine by me!"