(The next day)

Thomas woke up the next day after completing the survival exercise just before he and Franz hit the ten hour limit. So he was exhausted and woke up at around 11:30 in the morning since their lovely Commandant had decided to give them the day off today. When he pulled himself off his back and sat up, he looked over to Nick to see him slowly humping against his pillow.

"Are you being serious!" Thomas angrily thought, "Why the hell does this keep happening!?"

He sighed to himself as this was basically a regular occurrence now, wake up, look at Nick kissing or humping his pillow, Jean and Reiner make fun of him, he threatens them with a beatdown, they shut up about it and continued with training for the day.

This time however he noticed something different, there was a rather large stain on the sheets next to where his legs met his torso.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Thomas was furious now, "No, that's it. I'm done. I'd rather sleep on the floor than next to this horny bastard."

After that night Thomas left to go bunk with Samuel and Mylius who sympathised with Thomas after dealing with Nick for the past two months.

Nick however was happy that Thomas left, not that he didn't like him, he was his friend and continued to be despite his "nightly activities", but now he had the bed to himself he could now look into Frieda's eyes while he talked to her before he went to sleep at night, with her deep blue eyes often keeping him in a trance he couldn't break away from.

(Summer 848)

It was now time for the summer survival exercise where they would be split into two groups tasked with taking their horses and ODM gear across the plains in the scorching summer heat. Each team had a leader, Marco for team A, and Thomas for team B.

Team A consisted of Marco, Armin, who was the chronicler, Eren, Krista, Nick, Connie, Jean, Mina and Sasha.

Team B consisted of Thomas, Mikasa, who was the chronicler, Annie, Reiner, Bertholdt, Franz, Hannah, Emily and Ymir.

Although Marco was the one of the nicest people Nick had met, he still doubted his qualities as a leader, much like Bertholdt, Nick had noticed, because they both lacked the initiative to take charge of a situation, he thought Jean would have made a better leader for the task because at least he was a realist and said things how they were.

"So we're not allowed to go any faster?" Marco asked to Armin.

"Yeah we are" the chronicler of the team replied.

"It would be pointless if we did" Jean interrupted, "We can finally take our time for once"

"Of course you would say that" Eren sneered at him, "I'm not gonna fall behind because of you"

"For fucks sake, can't they just get along for once" Nick thought, getting tired of the will they, won't they relationship between them.

"Eren wait" Armin called out as the boy sped ahead on his horse.

"Eren stop, we need to keep the formation", Marco said as Eren reluctantly slowed down to get back into the formation.

"Jean, what should we do?" Marco asked to his friend.

"I don't care" he huffed in response, "Anyway, you're the leader, it's up to you"

Marco wiped the sweat from his forehead before saying, "Let's just continue the exercise"

"Look a lizard" Connie pointed out.

"We should catch it and cook it!" Sasha exclaimed wanting to taste actual food for once.

"Can you even cook?" Jean asked, wanting to know if she had the skills required to cook a lizard.

"Of course I can cook, what kind of question is that?" Sasha responded with, now eager to catch the lizard.

With that Jean sped off hoping to catch the lizard for their evening meal.

"Jean wait" Marco called out.

"I'll go get him" Eren announced, racing after Jean and the lizard.

When Jean had caught up with the lizard, it being no match for the speed of his horse, he was about to impale it with his sword, until Eren blocked it with his sword.

Due to Eren's interference the lizard managed to get away and Jean was not happy, "What the hell Yeager!, We could've had some actual food for once"

"At least take the exercise seriously" Eren responded with.

"Here we go again, it never ends with these two" Nick thought.

Why can't they just get along?" Frieda asked.

"I don't know, it's like they do this on purpose to piss everyone off"

"I think they would work better together if they became friends"

"Probably, but they would still disagree on a lot of stuff, and would still argue constantly"

"But why do they argue so much?"

"Its because they see the world differently. Eren sees it in pure black and white, believing that the titans are the only enemy out there and that once all the titans are dead he will be free, he doesn't realise that after the titans are gone the whole world will probably want everyone on this island dead" He stopped to take a breath, seeing Marco and Armin trying to calm them both down.

"Jean on the other hand, believes that we can't win against the titans, that there is no hope for us, that the scouts are just wasting their time, and to be honest, currently they are, the only way of successfuly taking back Wall Maria would be with a shifter who had the skill and power to seal the hole"

"But Marley held at least seven of the nine titans when King Fritz fled to Paradis"

"Exactly, so as much as I hate to admit it, we need the person that ate you on our side, because from what you told me on how he acted before you fought, he wasn't with them, so he was most likely the Attack Titan, the only other titan not in Marley's possession after the great titan war."

"But we don't know where he is, or how to find him, or if he even wants to help us" Frieda countered his thoughts with.

"I know but, if he was from outside the walls like he said, he most likely spent a number of years inside the walls to become so attached to the people here, in the past 3 years after he stole your power, it's entirely possible that he had to pass on the power to someone else."

"But who could he have given it to if that is indeed the case?"

"At least I have a mom" Jean shouted towards Eren.

"Oh shit, hold that thought Frieda"

You bastard" Eren shouted as he swung a fist at Jean, connecting with his cheek, flooring him as he mounted him to keep up the assault.

Instantly Marco and Connie hauled Eren off of Jean while he was thrashing around in their grip, "Let go of me, I'll kill him" Eren shouted, still enraged by what Jean had said.

"Eren calm down" Armin pleaded with him.

"Not after what he said"

"ENOUGH" Marco yelled, "I've had enough of you two, you're sleeping as far away from each other as possible, in fact no, just don't talk to each other for the rest of the exercise or I'll make sure Shadis knows about this."

"Wow Marco, nice job" Nick inwardly complemented.

"Works for me" Jean spoke out while clutching his face.

Once Eren stopped thrashing about in their grip he conceded defeat with a "Fine" before walking off to the other side of the camp they had set up.

"Wait when did we set up camp?" Nick thought to himself.

"Probably when we were talking, you were quite concentrated on me" Frieda replied with.

"Who wouldn't be fully concentrated on you, have you seen yourself?"

She blushed a bit before replying, "It's nice of you to say that, but flattery won't get you anywhere"

"Maybe not" he jested, "But who said I was trying anything?" He questioned her.

"Shut up, go talk to Historia, she looks troubled"

As he walked over to Historia he could see her staring into the nearby trees, "Hey Krista, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just thought I saw something in the trees"

"Don't point at it" he told her, "Tell me where, if you think you saw something, it's most likely something, the mind doesn't usually play tricks when you're relaxed."

"It was over there, by the opening" she told him.

"Alright, I'll go check it out, you go tell the rest of us, make sure they're aware.

"Okay, just be careful though" she said.

"I'm always careful" he said before making his way into the treeline to see if there were any signs of another presence, he scanned the area for a bit before noticing a broken branch about waist height, "Hmm, this could be from an animal like a deer, or a very clumsy human" he pondered out loud, "I can't see any footprints here so it was most likely an animal who did this."

"Did you find anything" Marco asked when he returned.

"Only a broken branch, but there were no footprints, so it was most likely an animal who caused it"

"Most liklely" Mina repeated, sounding scared.

"Yes, but we should still take shifts keeping watch in case it was something else, even if it was a wolf or a bear, they could still attack us while we sleep."

"Alright, that's a good idea" said Marco, "Who wants first watch?" He asked, hoping for a volunteer.

"I will" volunteered Krista.

"I'll take second" offered Nick

"I'll take the third watch" offered Mina.

"Fourth" said Jean.

"Alright then, be sure to not fall asleep on watch guys" Marco said.

(Later)

He was woken up by Krista about half an hour ago for his shift but he still had another ninety minutes still on watch, he couldn't shake the feeling he was being watched though, so he decided to patrol the area, he went and put on his gear just in case he needed the swords, and set off in a circular pattern outside their camp.

He had almost been halfway around the area needed for the patrol he had set out for himself when he came across numerous sets of footprints, all headed for the camp.

Instantly he thought of the wellbeing of his friends and began sprinting for the camp, when he arrived he heard a gunshot and he saw Eren being hit on the head with a gun being told to stay down.

There was eight men, all with rifles, when they noticed him they froze not knowing what to do before one if them spoke, "If you make a move towards us, we'll kill your friends."

He had the triggers in his hands, but the swords were in the blade box, if he tried to pull them out his friends would surely be shot, alternatively he could fire his grappling hooks into one of the assailants to get closer but one of them would surely shoot at him.

"Shit, what do I do" he thought, inwardly panicking at the situation, "There's only one thing I can do", and with that he stepped back before he turned and ran back into the forest, using the hooks on his gear to rapidly escape the criminals.

The recruits were shocked, the most skilled recruit in hand to hand combat they had ever seen, had just run away without trying to help them.

"YOU COWARD" Eren shouted at the retreating noble.

The gang of crooks started to laugh at the situation, making fun of the boy for tirning tail, "Wow, some soldier he was" one of the crooks said to another.

"Yeah, I'm sure he would be great at being eaten" said another.

"Cut the chatter and load up their gear onto the carts" the leader said.

"And take that one as well" he ordered, pointing at Krista, "We need her as insurance that you won't try to attack us, we'll let her go, but if you come at us, we will kill you all."

With that the carts sped off in the opposite direction of where Nick had run off to.

"I can't believe he did that, just running away like that", Eren said, furious at the brown haired boy who ran off.

"He was probably just scared" Mina interjected, "There was no way he could have helped us anyway"

"Yes there was" Eren countered, "He had his gear, he could have fought back instead of running."

"Anyway thats not important now" he continued, "We have to get Krista back."

"But Eren, they said they would kill us" Armin said, still shook up a bit.

"I don't care, I'll go alone if I have to"

"No you're not, I'm going as well" Jean added in, "Need to give them a little payback for this" he said, pointing at the wound the shot had created.

After a few moments they had all agreed to go after Krista and get her back from them.

But they didn't know that once the trap had been set for the kidnappers, they weren't going to be there to be ambushed by the recruits, because Nick had seen the take Historia with them and swore to Frieda that he would get her back.

"You have to get her back!" Frieda pleaded with Nick, with tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

"How?, I know I'm strong and skilled, but they will get back up if I get surrounded and can't knock them out" He was getting frustrated now, believing that he wouldn't be able to save Historia.

"They won't get back up if you kill them" Frieda spoke with no emotion in her voice.

"Are you sure Frieda?, I don't particularly want to kill them"

"So you would rather them take Historia and leave" she said rather accusingly at him.

"No, why would you even suggest that?, I just don't like the idea of killing other humans"

"What other choice do we have?" She asked, believing that this was their only option.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked, "Once I start killing them I won't be able to stop"

"Why wont you be able to stop?" She asked.

"Because if I kill one of them, they will try their hardest to kill me, so I'm going to ask again, are you sure about this?"

"If it gets Historia back safely, then yes, I'm sure" she replied with.

As soon as she said this, he shot his hooks into a nearby tree, using his skills learned from the past year of training to quickly catch up to the two carts carrying Historia and the ODM gear.

"We're not really going to give her back are we boss?" Asked one of the crooks while rubbing her chin with his index finger.

"Hell no!, I know some guys in the Capital who would love a pretty little thing like her, but who's to say we can't have a little fun with her beforehand"

When he said this Krista started squirming in her chains, disgusted at the thought of one of these men using her for their own pleasure and then selling her off to the highest bidder in Mitras.

"Quit squirming girl, or we'll start having our fun right here" the leader demanded.

She stopped the squirming but couldn't help but shake at the thoughts coming into her head, "Are my friends coming for me, surely they would, but why would they, even Nick ran away at the sight of these guys and he can be the scariest person in camp at times, he had his gear in and decided to run, whst chance fo the others have at saving me without their gear?. Come to think of it, why doesn't he put his advice for the ODM gear into practice?. Is he holding back... for me?."

She shook her head at the thought, "Why would he hold back for me?, I don't think he's interested in me like that?, so why would he?"

Her thoughts were cut short as she heard an ODM gear line being fired behind her, she heard the sound of the hook being reeled in before craning her neck to look behind her seeing the headless corpse of the carriage driver.

"What the hell was that!" The leader exclaimed before the blur went past again slashing at the wooden supports connecting the horses to the cart, leaving the horses to run off while the cart came to a stop.

"What the hell?, why did they stop?" Asked the driver if the second cart, he looked to the right to see a grappling hook coming straight at him, he had no time to dodge as it got lodged in his throat and was reeled in, tearing a chunk out of his neck, killing him instantly.

A hook was shot across the second cart, into a tree at the other side before two blades cut the wooden supports holding the horses in place, also allowing them to run free.

"Who is that?" Krista thought, "It must be Mikasa, only she's that fast with the gear"

With both carts now at a stand still, one of the men made a move to grab Krista and use her as a hostage before the side of the cart burst open as the figure impaled their sword through his chest, the sword was pulled out, grinding against the spine as it was pulled out.

"You bastard, I'll kill you" the leader shouted, swinging the pocket knife he pulled out, the figure raised his left blade to block it and swung his right blade backwards, breaking Krista's chains.

Her chains bow broken she fell over and looked up expecting to see Mikasa, but she saw Nick with his left sword blocking swings from the leader and his right blade stuck in the neck of one of the other criminals. She watched as he tore the blade out of the neck of the one on the right and swung it downwards, cutting off the leaders left arm, then driving his left blade to the hilt through the mans chest, he plunged the right blade through his stomach and then released the dulled blades with the leader falling backwards, slightly propped up by the blades in his body.

"Krista, are you alright?" He asked, seeing how shaken up she was.

"Krista you need to run, I'll hold them off, you have to find the rest of our team"

"What! No, I'm not leaving you here, you could die!"

"Krista I'm wearing gear, you aren't, you need to run" he said as he attached a new pair of blades to his triggers.

"Okay, but promise me you won't die"

"I promise, now go"

Krista took off running in the other direction, away from the carts before she was ambushed and grabbed from behind by one of the men that was in the other cart.

"Quit squirming you little bitch, your little friend just killed all my friends, now I'm going to kill you as well"

"Let her go" a voice demanded.

He spun round, holding a knife to Krista's jugular, seeing Nick with his jacket, shirt, pants and face covered in blood.

"If you come any closer I'll kill her" the man shouted out, tightening his grip on his hostage.

"I have an idea Frieda, but it's extremely risky"

"Just do what you have to do to ensure that my sister is safe"

"Take the blades out of the triggers" the man demanded.

"Okay, okay, just don't hurt her" he said as he released the blades, letting them fall to the ground, but he kept his fingers on the triggers, waiting for the right moment.

"Now put the handles down as well" he demanded, while shaking a bit.

"Why?, what could I do with empty handles?" He replied trying to bait the man.

"You could fire the hooks at me" he said while taking the knife away from her neck and pointing at the hooks.

"Bingo"

When the man pointed the knife Nick pulled the trigger, launching the hook straight at him and Krista, the hook missed her head by an inch and embedded itself into the mans skull, through his left eye socket, the blood poured onto Krista's head as she screamed out in shock at what just happened.

(500 metres down the path)

"Are you sure they're coming this way Armin?" Marco asked him, "It's been twenty minutes since we got here" Marco was getting a bit impatient now.

"Maybe they stopped again" suggested Mina, "Or maybe Nick tried to fight them off and save Krista himself" she offered up.

"We should check it out and see what happened" Marco finally said after a bit of deliberation.

"Hey guys" he yelled out, "We're going to see what's happening up the path"

Jean looked at Eren before asking, "Do you think Nick tried to take them on?"

"I don't know" Eren replied, "But im sure if he did he gave them a good thrashing"

"Alright, let's go see what happened"

When they arrived at the two carts the first thing they saw was the headless corpse lying on the ground next to the first cart.

"Looks like he did take them on" Jean said, almost throwing up at the sight of the corpse.

"Wait guys do you hear that?" Asked Sasha, "It sounds like someone crying"

After she said this they rushed towards the sound to see Krista with her usually blonde hair caked in someone's blood crying into Nick's shoulder while he hugged her while whispering in her ear.

"Its okay, they can't hurt you anymore, shhh" Were the words he was whispering into her ear as she held onto him for dear life.

At that moment Armin fired a red flare into the sky, indicating to the other team and to the Instructors back at camp that the exercise had to stop.

About 15 minutes later, the team led by Thomas arrived at the location, during the waiting time, Jean, Armin, Connie and Marco had gathered up the bodies, putting them on the ground with their cut off body parts also laid next to them.

"What happened, Is Eren okay" Mikasa was the first to speak.

"I'm fine Mikasa" Eren replied with.

"It's Krista that you should worry about" Armin pointed out, "She's been cryimg nonstop for about 20 minutes"

"What!, Where is she" demanded Ymir.

"She's over there with Nick" Jean said as he pointed to the pair.

Ymir practically sprinted over hoping that the "goddess" wasn't hurt at all, "Krista, are you okay" Ymir demanded while pulling her away from Nick to check her for injuries.

"Yes, but it's thanks to Nick that I'm fine, he saved me"

"It's no big deal, I'm sure anyone else would've done it" he calmly replied.

Krista wiped the rest of her tears away before smiling at him, "Don't be so modest, you did save me, so thank you" she said as she walked up and kissed him on the cheek that didn't have blood on it.

"You look like shit" Ymir spoke up.

He could see the slight jealousy in her eyes before replying, "I know, but it was worth it to save her"

"All right lover boy, just don't get any ideas"

"Don't be mean Ymir, he did save me" Krista chided in with as she lightly elbowed the taller girl.

"Whatever" she replied with.

Eren walked up to him to apologise for calling him a coward when he ran away, "Hey Nick"

"What is it?" He asked.

"When you ran away, I thought it was because you were a coward and only wanted to save yourself, but now I know I was wrong"

"I ran so I could keep my gear and use it against them"

"Yeah, Armin figured it out after we found you, but you did a good job dealing with these animals"

At that statement Nick was furious, they weren't animals, they were humans, okay so they were criminals, but all they wanted was to survive to see another day and he had prevented them from doing that.

He grabbed Eren by the collar and lifted him off the ground and pushed his back into the nearest tree.

Mikasa made a move to get Eren down before Armin held her back, "Wait, he has to deal with this without your interference"

"What the fuck is wroung with you" he practically shouted at Eren, gaining everybody's attention.

"What do you mean" Eren choked out, "They were animals"

"THEY WERE HUMANS" he roared into his face, "One of the men I killed begged to see his daughter after I stabbed him, how do you think that made me feel?"

"But you saved Krista, wasn't it worth it?"

Eren very dumbly asked.

"Eren how stupid can you be?, you deserve what's coming to you" Armin thought.

"No it wasn't worth it you fucking idiot!, I just killed eight people to save one, I didn't want to kill them at all"

"Then why did you?" Eren asked, the lack of oxygen getting to him now.

"Because it was either them or Krista that died, I couldn't do that to her"

"Is he talking about me, or someone else" Krista thought to herself.

"Okay, okay, just put me down" Eren now on the verge on unconsciousness spluttered out.

He only responded by tightening his grip on Eren's collar before letting go, with him falling over coughing violently.

Nick was shaking now, on the verge of tears, he tried to hold them in and remain strong in front of his comrades before Krista came up to him.

"Are you okay Nick?" She said in her usual caring voice.

He tried so hard to keep the tears in, but one lone tear escaped down his face before he fell to his knees and started weeping hysterically. Krista being the kind person she was helped him by doing what he had to her and let him cry into her shoulder.

He had been crying for about ten minutes before he finally stopped and thanked Krista for her kindness.

(The next day)

The military police had been called in to investigate what had happened to the recruits before the attack and about the aftermath, one of the MP's had tried to accuse Nick of murdering the kidnappers who were actually well known professionals in the Underground District, his theory however was thrown out after the Interior Military Police had arrived because it concerned a citizen of the Interior.

After the Interior MP's took over the case, they closed it after about three hours, taking Nick at his word because they just wanted to go back to the Interior and arresting a Noble would most likely get them fired, or worse.

(A few days later)

They had just finished training for the day, with their ODM session being hard work, "It would be easier if I didn't have to hold back, but it's for Historia's future"

He was about to leave the supply shed after putting his gear away before he was cornered by Historia as she simply said "We need to talk."