A/N- I'm skipping the scene with retrieving Annie. If you guys want, I can post it up but since it's just filler I don't think anyone would be interested reading that.

We trotted across the countryside slowly, taking in the scenery while we still can. We were operating under moonlight, so the trees casted hideously intimidating shadows on our road. Occasionally, we've had to take a detour away from titans resting on the road, but for the most part the trip was eventless.

According to the scroll, our mission will last until our objectives were all completed. That meant we were to stay within the walls for an indeterminate amount of time, or in my words, 'A fucking long time'.

Bertolt, once again, tried another conversation starter, "Rowan, how's it like living with the Leader?"

Reiner sucked in air through his teeth while I gave Bertolt an 'I-am-not-impressed' look. Not to sound conceited or anything, but my strained relationship with my stepfather wasn't exactly top-secret no matter how much he tried to cover it up. However, judging from Bertolt's face he genuinely had no idea, so I decided to deign him a reply.

I said tersely, "Entertaining."

Annie shot me a curious glance when she caught the underlying 'I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it' tone.

Bertolt innocently continued, "Entertaining in what way?"

"Bertolt, you aren't supposed to continue asking people questions when they don't want to answer."

Thanks, Reiner.

Bertolt looked confused for a second, but then his eyebrows shot past his brow ridge when he finally caught on. I could only mentally sigh at Bertolt's ignorance.

We continued onwards in silence. Bertolt looked sheepish and sad the entire time, making me feel a bit guilty being so cold to him.

Reiner looked back and eyed the road behind them suspiciously, "Stop, someone's following us."

Everyone slowed down to a halt and turned our horses to look behind us.

A figure on horseback was galloping to them. I squinted my eyes, trying to make out who it was.

"Is...is that Marcel?"

I cringed.

Oh no, anyone but Marcel. This guy better be another Marcel.

I tried to continue my usual disinterested face, but I failed pretty miserably.

Sadly, it was Marcel. He placed a calloused hand on my shoulder and said cheerfully,

"Rowan, long time no see! How's my favorite delinquent assassin?"

I shot him a glare, but his smile was too contagious. I gave up being cold and muttered,

"Fancy seeing you here, Marcel."

Bertolt looked confused and said, "Wait, you two know each other?"

Marcel grinned and squeezed my shoulders lightly, "We're best buds! We did everything together when we were little tykes! Did you know it was us that dyed the officers clo-"

I clamped a hand on his mouth and quickly said, "We have been acquaintances for a long time."

Marcel pushed my hand off his mouth and said, "Yeah, we've known each other since before he moved in with the Leader and before he became an insufferable, antisocial, introverted assassin!"

"I don't think I'm the insufferable one here."

Reiner had a sweatdrop forming on his brow, but he quickly wiped it off and said hastily,

"Marcel, why are you here? Our mission didn't mention anything about you coming with us."

Marcel turned to Reiner, shit eating grin never leaving his face,

"Well, the Council thought that having one more assassin on the team couldn't hurt. Besides, I'm the best shifter in our age group. Anyways, I was sent out in a hurry so I didn't get the full details of this mission from them. I heard something about attacking the Walls and protecting Bertolt while he does his job?"

Reiner nodded and said, "We have to find someone or something called a Coordinate. We also have to find a way to stop the Walls from discovering that a village possessing the secrets to becoming a titan exists."

Marcel's smile slipped slightly, "Stop the Walls from discovering the existence of Vertrauendorf? How do we do that?"

Reiner looked to the side and didn't respond. I grimaced and even Annie looked uncomfortable with the idea, if the foot shifting was anything to go by.

Marcel frowned, but sighed, "How do you plan on doing it?"

"Bertolt's titan form will break a hole into the brick gate of an outcrop of Shiganshina, while Annie and Rowan will draw titans into the walls. The titans will provide for a distraction while I destroy the gate to Wall Maria proper, and hopefully draw out the Coordinate with the huge influx of titans."

Marcel nodded and said, "I see."

Marcel turned to take a good look at everyone on the team, until his eyes landed on Annie.

"Well, hello there pretty. I haven't seen you around our village before."

Annie looked up and stared at Marcel in the eyes, grey orbs sending a shiver down my spine even though the look wasn't directed at me. Marcel's cocky grin slipped off his face and he squirmed under her gaze slightly. A ghost of a smirk passed through her face when Marcel's eyes flicked away from her's. She lightly said,

"I was brought up in a neighboring village."

Marcel nodded mutely but quickly covered up his discomfort and said, "Can we stop for the day now?

Reiner looked at the sky and nodded lightly, "Yea, the sun is about to come up. Let's dismount and head up for now."

Everyone dismounted and took out a roll of steel-wire cable from pouches strapped to their horses.

"Rowan, you and Marcel are the ones trained with the bow. Go out and quickly grab a deer or something for us. Annie, go look for firewood. Bertolt, strap the horses to a place where they won't be trampled by titans. I'll look for a good tree to stake out on."

Everyone nodded and headed off, Marcel sending me a cheerful grin to which I returned a small scowl.

"Oh dang, look at you and your haul. How many rabbits is that?"

I looked at the bunch of rabbits I was holding by the ear, still warm with the life they lost mere moments before.

"Seven or eight."

Marcel grinned and said, "Wow, you actually caught rabbits with your arrows? Seems like you've been brushing up on your skills."

I looked at what he caught and I swear my eyes bulged out of their sockets,

"You know, there's only five of us. We can't finish two deer, much less four."

He shrugged and finished tying the deer together with rope and said, "Food for the trip, I guess? We won't have such a nice hunting ground when we get closer to the walls."

I snorted in derision, "What, you're going to carry all that? That has to weigh at least 100 pounds total, I doubt our horses can carry both you and the deer at the same time."

Marcel grinned cheekily, "Who said we'll save the deer? We can save the rabbits. Combined, I bet they only weigh around 50 pounds. Any stallion worth their hooves can carry a ten-year old and ten rabbits."

Now, I am pretty sure he's only doing this to annoy me, but I couldn't doubt that I saw the logic in that. I glanced up at the sky to check the time, and my eyes widened,

"We can discuss whose meat is better later, we have to go. The sun's out."

Marcel's perpetual smile turned into a thin line and he nodded. He glanced back at the deer that he tied together and sighed, cutting off three of them from the bunch. Tying a rope around the two remaining deer, he slung it over his right shoulder.

"Alright, let's go."

A mad dash ensued, as titans left and right began waking up from their conscious slumber. Their movements were still sluggish, thankfully, so we went largely without incident.

"Heads up, aberrant 11 o'clock, closing in fast."

Curse my brain.

"Marcel, switch blades. I'll take care of the deviant."

Marcel nodded and quickly took two sheathed sabres out of his belt and threw them at me. I, in turn, threw my hand-and-a-half sword over to him as well as the rabbits. I easily caught the two sabres and ran off to the side while Marcel lugged the food and my blade forward at the same pace as before, albeit now with much more noticeable strain.

I rolled my shoulders as I unsheathed the two sabres, loosening the muscles so they don't get overly tight when I'm swinging for the kill. The aberrant saw me and decided to change course and head towards me instead. I hastily darted past its hands and ran towards the feet.

SHLINKK SHLINKK

The deviant's ligaments in the foot were cut, forcing the titan to fall backwards. I quickly ran to the tree that the titan was falling towards, throwing a rope so it would hook onto the top branch. The titan impacted the tree and slumped forwards, momentarily dazed. I quickly grabbed both ends of the rope and forced the rope to move in a pendulum sort of motion by using a running start. I swung over the titan's neck and drew out both of the sabres in one hand.

Using the momentum of the swing, I stiffened my arm muscles and drew a deep cut into the nape of the titan's neck, widening then narrowing the cut so it would be a biconvex cut. Similar to the utilization of chopsticks, just with deadly 2-feet long blades rather than a 7-inch piece of wood.

It was a quick death for the deviant.

I landed on a nearby tree branch, pulling on one side of the rope when I landed safely on the branch. As I rolled the rope back up, I squinted and scanned the landscape for any sign of Marcel. Luckily, I found him almost immediately and I dashed forwards, leaping from branch to branch, in order to reach him.

"Chopstick motion again?"

I nodded in reply. We quickly returned our items back to each other, Marcel grimacing slightly at his steaming sabres.

"Do you see Reiner anywhere?"

As if on cue, Reiner's voice echoed through the forest, "Over here!"

I looked up, tired blue-grey eyes staring at Reiner's form. He was standing on a large branch, which was interconnected with another branch from a neighbouring tree.

Marcel grinned and said, "Yo, a little help here? Our haul is really heavy!"

Reiner took the harness-turned-elevator and pulled on the rope, bringing the harness down slowly. Marcel quickly untied the deer and handed them over to Reiner. He shouldered the deer and rode the pulley back up.

"I wonder who's bright idea it was to make an elevator."

"Mine."

Marcel jumped and turned around. The small form of Annie appeared behind them, walking forwards casually. She was holding a large bundle of sticks, slightly damp from the morning dew but can still be used.

Marcel looked like he was about to say something but decided against it. We ended up waiting wordlessly for the harness to come back down for us. One by one we went up into the large branches, each carrying some items up.

I sat down and rested a skewered rabbit on the makeshift fireplace in the tree. Normally, we wouldn't even think about putting a fire in the middle of a tree branch, but Bertolt thoughtfully covered everything around the fire with damp soil.

"You know, people within the walls usually do camping at night."

I looked up from my cooking at Marcel, whose blue eyes were hidden from view with his bangs. His grip on his stick was unnaturally strong, turning his hand white.

"They can go cook under the Big Dipper and the watchful eye of Orion, all the while illuminated by the Moon."

Reiner replied to Marcel while still staring at his rabbit, "So?"

Marcel shook his head and looked up with a small smile, "Nothing. Just something I thought about."

Marcel…are you second guessing?

To be honest, I wasn't necessarily 100% with this plan either. The fact that I hate my stepfather aside, I trained as an assassin so I could protect our people. That's how me and Marcel got our blades, while the other three don't. We weren't originally trained for titan against titan combat, but our titan forms were deemed to be more than essential for this landmark search-and-seizure mission.

Assassins' jobs were to use blades to defeat deviants in their home territory, whereas Shifters' jobs were to go in hard and take out the masses of regular titans. They were expected to defeat any regular titan 1v1, leaving the tougher titans to us assassins that can cut out their neck in one strike. There was also a small print when applying for the job of shifters; you may be called to do infiltration missions against non-shifter colonies. Anyone with half a brain will know that they meant the Walls.

The Assassin corps had no such small print. Our jobs were laid out plain before us to see, without any small print or gotchas. Which was why I was so surprised when they initially told I would take part in this mission.

"Marcel, do you want to go camping when we make it inside?"

Marcel looked at me, unsure blue eyes meeting my neutral silver. I offered him a small smile and Marcel's attitude immediately lightened up a ton,

"Yeah, sure! I'm sure Wall Rose has plenty of grassland that we can take up for a camping trip."

Reiner spoke out, "We'll do that the second we finish the Wall Maria part. I have to admit, camping under the nightly lights sounds amazing."

Bertolt smiled and nodded in reply.

I turned to Annie, who was yet to give an answer in any form. She caught my stare and then turned back to the rabbit hurriedly, replying,

"…sure."

Marcel grinned like a little kid with a huge box of chocolates.

After the (very filling) lunch, everyone had trudged to take an afternoon nap in the shade. I decided to forgo this opportunity to catch up on some sleep, though, in favour of talking to the one person that I actually knew in our little city-destroying troupe.

I found him sitting in the top-most branch of the tree. I grabbed a rope and pulled myself up to the branch, coming to the top with a slight huff.

If Marcel noticed me, he didn't look like it. I walked over to him and sat down, facing the same direction.

"So, you really want to go camping under the moonlight?"

What's really on your mind?

Marcel replied, "Yeah."

I'd rather not say.

I pressed on, though.

"What's so special about the moonlight?"

I know what you're thinking, mind sharing?

Marcel turned to me, startled, but then relaxed and replied, "You always knew me. How can you do it, but I never know what goes through your mind?"

I looked down and said, "You know perfectly well what goes through my mind most of the time."

Marcel laughed hollowly, "Oh really, I'm pretty sure you aren't thinking about patricide most of the time."

I shrugged, "No, but it does show up pretty often."

"Really, now? What goes through your mind most of the time?"

I narrowed my eyes, "Don't try and change the subject, Marcel."

Marcel's face contorted into confusion, "What are you talking about? I'm not changing the subject."

"You know you are."

"Well, that's all nice and all, but I know I'm not trying to. Oh, and for your information, I find the moonlight more soothing than the sun."

He stood up from the branch and walked over to the trunk, whipping out two picks to climb back down the tree. He turned and said to me,

"You should be sleeping right now."

You shouldn't have tried.

"You should as well."

I'll damn well keep trying until you spill your beans.

Marcel shook his head and jumped off. I stared at the spot that he leapt off from, listening to the steady decrescendo of picks smacking into the tree trunk.

"Sunset is here, let's move."

I cracked my eyes open, face to face with the reddening sky. Reiner had already packed our stuff and was standing at the base of the tree, waiting patiently for us to wake up. I looked around to see who else is still sleeping, and a small smirk crawled onto my face when I saw Annie still sleeping noiselessly.

I made my way over to Annie's makeshift bed silently, making sure to avoid any twigs and trees. I slinked to her and held out my hands besides her right ear.

CLAP. CLAP. CLAP.

Annie's right eyelid fluttered open and she looked up to my smirking face. Reiner called up to us,

"Come on guys, you two are the last ones awake."

Annie stared at my face for a split second more then averted her eyes and she muttered,

"I don't like waking up to obnoxious loud auditory cues."

I had my back turned but I bet she could feel the dark humor rolling off of me in spades. She didn't give any indication, though, and set about doing the morning routine without any sign of being annoyed at the rude awakening.

I grabbed my harness and jumped off the tree, landing on the soft dirt flawlessly. I walked over to my steed, quickly fixing up the horse equipment for the long ride ahead. As I climbed on, Reiner rode up besides me and murmured lowly,

"What happened to Marcel?"

I looked over at Marcel, internally wincing when his expression was still the same as earlier. He caught my gaze and turned his entire horse away from them, facing the road to the walls.

I shrugged to Reiner. He sucked on his teeth, face contorted in a sour expression.

"Marcel seems so out of it today. We're only a day and a half away, but then he pulls this shit. His attitude can jeopardise the entire mission."

I stared at Reiner for a second, unsure about how I should go about answering that. Reiner's expectant expression was clearly focused on me, but I have no solution.

"What makes you think I can do anything about it?", I said a bit too coldly.

Reiner narrowed his eyes at me which I returned all too happily. After the shortest staring contest ever, Reiner averted his gaze and sighed, "You seem to the one who knows Marcel the most, I assumed that you would know what's bugging him."

I don't know what came over me right there, but I suddenly felt extremely annoyed. My normally neutral and cold demeanour was washed away by a torrent of anger. Reiner must have seen the angered glint I gave him because he stepped back.

"Don't assume.", I said and stormed off. I could feel Reiner's gaze burning gigantic holes into my back. I turned my head slightly to see Bertolt walk over to Reiner with worried eyes. He sent me a glance and immediately turned back when he caught me staring. I mentally huffed and continued over to where the horses were.

There, I saw Annie grabbing the reins to her white steed, back turned to me. When she heard my footsteps smacking against the dirt, she angled her head slightly over her head to see who it was.

"Rowan."

A simple statement, really. I nodded at Annie and continued on uninterrupted to my horse. I awkwardly petted the beast, to which he snorted audibly and pedalled the floor impatiently.

Taking down the Walls will kill thousands of innocents…

I gripped my reins from the trunk it was tied to, slowly untying the knot.

The survivors, heartbroken at the loss of parents, husbands, wives, sons, daughters…

I finally untied the knot, tugging the rope off the trunk in a single strong pull.

Mingle with the ones we took everything away from…

Grabbing the reins, I hoisted myself up onto the horse.

All in the name of my stepfather's wishes.

I shook my head to get rid of these pitiful thoughts and gripped my reins a little too tightly. I raised my arms and cracked them, signalling for the horse to move.

"Got something on your mind?"

Annie rode up to me, her familiar bored disposition never wavering. I inadvertently thought back to when I lost my cool with Reiner.

Why did I get so annoyed at him, anyways?

"Nothing. Just vague thoughts about vague topics."

Annie nodded and replied, "Ah."

A moment of silence passed between us as we rode to where everyone else was. However, the feeling of guilt that Marcel had planted in me grew exponentially during the short ride. I needed an outlet.

"If you were given the choice, would you have taken this mission? Knowing that it will result in the deaths of thousands?"

Annie didn't visibly move and for a second there I thought she didn't hear me. Soon, though, she replied softly,

"I see you've given this topic some thought as well."

I started at the addition of the words "as well" behind that statement. Annie took some time to collect her thoughts,

"Yes, yes I would."

I sighed inaudibly, but Annie cut me off before I can even reply.

"However, it isn't the reason you are thinking."

The way Annie said that made me stiffen; she said it in one of those soft tones that people generally use when they're referring to something personal.

"I was born to a forbidden marriage; my father was a rascal while my mother was part of the high class, the ones that could shift, the class that all of us are a part of. Even though it's not illegal, my mother's family was highly unsupportive of them. They would find the smallest wrongdoing and turn it into a major scandal. Eventually, my mother was sent to prison because of indecent exposure, even though in reality all she did was accidentally rip her blouse."

I stayed silent when she paused briefly to gauge my reaction.

"My father decided it wasn't safe anymore for either of us, so we left the village in self-imposed exile. The village we first met in took us in without another word, but even they relegated us to live on the outskirts, where encounters with cannibals are not uncommon.

We eventually got word that my mom was having health issues via one of the few friends we still had. My father tried to negotiate her release with your stepfather, but he refused him and formally banished my father from the village. We later got news that my mother took her own life while still in prison, suffering from consumption.

He soon sent in assassins to try and kidnap me. That's when my father decided that I needed to be able to protect myself, so we trained. Eventually, your stepfather gave up his attempts to take me forcefully and offered us amnesty, under one condition. That condition is the reason why I am here right now."

I couldn't tell whether I should be surprised hearing so much from Annie, or surprised that she had just launched into a whole speech about her entire life up until that point, albeit in an extremely condensed form.

"I..."

Annie shook her head and interrupted, "I don't have a particular reason why I said all that, I guess I just need a confidant."

She shot me a look that looks like she was halfway between a smirk and a grin.

It was only when we arrived at our destination where I realised she never answered the second part of my question.

I originally was going to end at when they're inside the gates, but then I wanted to insert stuff about Marcel first, and develop the characters a bit. I already have the entire invasion typed (it was actually pretty short, only 3k-ish words), but I need a basis for the reason why characters act the way they will in the next few chapters.

The next chapter will be another character development chapter, leading up to the beginning of the invasion. Also, if there are consistency issues (such as with who shifts and who doesn't (I will fix that when I upload the next chapter), please tell me!