18 Years Old:

"Let's go! Make a break for HQ while they're distracted!" Jean shouted, running on the rooftops to conserve gas. He makes a pretty good leader. The others seem motivated by him. This isn't the best plan, but under the circumstances, it's better than sitting here and waiting to be eaten.

My body moved slower than normal. Wiping the sweat off my face with the back of my hand, I pushed myself to keep going. It isn't like me to be so far behind the front. Using my gear strained my muscles even more. It felt as though it might rip apart at any moment. I blinked my eyes in an attempt to clear my blurry vision.

Jean and Marco were having a discussion ahead of me. My heart pounded so loudly in my ears that I couldn't make out any of their words. I wanted to tell them to keep focused on the mission. Idle chatter can be a death warrant. Neither of them saw the titan that reached it's hand out from the alleyway to pluck one of them out of the air. Cursing, I moved off course, going for the kill.

That was the easy part. My vision doubled, and I overshot to swing back up. The ground came rushing towards me. I gasped when two strong arms wrapped around my waist. "Jean?" He saved me?

We crashed through a window of HQ, rolling on the floor to a stop, with him on top of me. With a heavy breath of relief, he asked. "Are you okay?"

My green eyes met his brown ones. He saved my life. "Yeah, thanks to you." Is he… blushing? As he climbed off me, I sat up, not quite ready to be on my feet again. "The others?"

The seconds ticked by until they also broke through the windows. More of them survived than I anticipated. We weren't out of the woods yet, but this is good. Small victories, as Farlan used to tell me. Turning my head, my eyes landed on some cadets cowering under the desk.

"Hang on a sec. You guys with the supply team?" Jean asked.

One of the boys shook with fear. "Yeah."

Jean hauled him out by his shirt collar and punched him hard in the face.

Marco moved faster than I did, restraining Jean under the arms. "Jean! Stop!"

"You cowards! You left us out there on our own! People are dead because you didn't have the guts to do your job!" Jean shouted. His words were true. They should have rose to the occasion, instead, they hid and left good people out in the field to be killed and eaten.

A girl narrowed her eyes that were still wet with tears. "The titans were coming at us from every angle! They overran the supply room, okay!"

Jean tried to pull away, furious. "It's your job to deal with it and back us up anyway!"

I held up my hand to stop the arguing. "Where is your ranking officer?" Come on, tell me what I already know. "It's Woermann, isn't it?"

The girl sniffed. "He left us hours ago. He said he had orders, and would execute us if we stopped him.

Just like I thought.

"Hit the deck!" Reiner shouted.

The building shook from the force of a titan smashing it's face into the side of the building, leaving a gaping hole. Its sick smile plastered on it's face. "Son of a—There's too many people. They can smell us!" Someone shouted.

Panic set in. The cadets scrambled for the inner part of the building, screaming in fear. I drug myself up to my feet. Seems I'm the only one ready to fight. Staggering on my feet, I said, "I'll deal with it." The only goal for me, is getting as many of these cadets out of here alive as I can… because I'm a Scout.

Jean caught me as I tripped over my own foot. "You're sick, Cori! You'll die."

"Better to die fighting than die hiding. At least I can buy you some more time." Regaining some control over my heavy body, I swung the blade around in my hand. As far as my gas tank is concerned, there should be enough for at least a few titans kills before it completely runs out. I'll just have to restrict my movements.

"What?" Jean and I both watched as a titan fist collided with the faces of the other titans, sending them flying. They knocked down other titans until they finally rolled to a stop. The new titan screeched loudly, like a battle cry. By the time I tore my attention away, Mikasa, Armin, and Connie had made it back.

Connie explained in great detail about the titan who was fighting the other titans. Apparently, he wanted nothing to do with humans, and he completely ignored them. As he spoke, I tried to retain as much information as I could. Hange would be in love with this. When they return, I'll have to tell her all about it.

"Listen to yourself! A titan's not gonna help us!" Jean said. "You're out of your mind if you think this will work."

Mikasa cut him off. "It is working. For whatever reason, he's rampaging against them. Stand back and let him do it. Trust me, you'll see."

If that issue has been resolved for however long, the next agenda should be refilling our gas tanks. That girl said titans had gotten inside… I should go check it out. As I headed down that way, someone followed. Armin, I think his name is.

"You're going to check on the supply room, right? See what we're up against?"

Nodding, I sighed. "Yes. One more obstacle before we get back over the wall."

There weren't too many titans inside. Should enough people volunteer, we could most likely take them out. Armin talked about his plan to me for a while before returning to his friends. Meanwhile, I found a wall to lean against and rest my eyes. If only for a few minutes, my body could use the rest. It recharged me enough to finish this mission.

"Then, eight of us swoop down from the ceiling and strike their vital regions," Armin concluded his strategy. His head turned toward me, looking grateful that I was now awake. "Since you have the most field experience, I'm hoping you can take out two of them."

Jean spoke up. "She's not—"

But I cut him off. "Leave it to me. It's what I do best."

"Look, I'm willing to be talked out of this. One half-baked strategy can't be our only option, right? Cori, I mean, you're the most qualified to come up with a plan!"

I shook my head. "That's Erwin's thing." Strategy isn't my strong suit. The last time I tried to be a so-called strategist, things went horribly wrong, and someone died. But, there's no way I'm going to tell these cadets that.

Marco patted Armin on the shoulder. "Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. Come on, with what we're looking at, for our only option, it's pretty well thought out. If we give it our all, we might just pull this off."

"He's right. Second guessing in the field doesn't do you any favors. It's a solid plan. Let's get it in motion." I'll have to tell Erwin about his skills, should this kid decide to join the scouts. He'd be very useful.

Everyone moved into their positions. ODM gear is useless in this tiny space so we climbed onto the steel ledges that held up the second floor. The titans below wandered around aimless, having nothing to eat. It seemed everyone was ready. The others dropped down in the box, with their weapons ready in their shaky hands. In this cramped space, I waited for the mark. Don't mess this up, cadets. From the beam beside me, Jean caught my eyes and I gave him a smirk and a nod.

Here we go…