(Year 850)

It was a few weeks until graduation, and after the past three years of training they were being graded by the Instructors to see who would make the top ten and have the privilege of getting to join the Military Police, while the rest of the recruits in the Southern Division would have to choose between the Garrison and the Survey Corps.

It was pouring down with rain while the recruits were running through the mud, carrying their packs with their equipment, Instructor Shadis was riding on his horse, grading them on their physical abilities.

Near the back Armin was struggling to keep up with the rest of the recruits, despite the three years of training, his physical abilities were not as proficient as those near the front like Mikasa, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie and Nick, even though Nick wasn't as good with the gear in Armins eyes, he was probably the most physically capable recruit in the cadets, but his ODM skills seemingly let him down.

"Drop the packs if you want to keep up" Shadis yelled to the back at the stragglers, "Unless you want to be titan chow that is."

Armin mentally sighed, he was struggling a lot with the weight they had to carry, but then the weight was lifted off the shoulders as he saw Reiner take the pack off his back to carry two at the same time.

"We're being graded on this, just so you know" Reiner told him as if Armin wasn't aware he was being graded.

"But you'll be deducted points if you're caught carrying my pack!" Armin exclaimed.

"Just try to keep up alright." Reiner told him, trying to help him out.

Suddenly Armin gained a second wind as he tore his pack off of Reiner's shoulder while crying out, "I'm no ones burden!", after he said this he sped up to catch up with the recruits in the middle of the formation.

His sudden burst of energy and his sheer will to not be a burden to his comrades surprised both Reiner and Shadis who was keeping an eye on them, to see how they would handle the situation.

"Reiner Braun" Shadis thought, "He's as strong as an Ox, and has the will to match. But more than anything, he's earned the trust of his comrades."

"Armin Arlert" He moved his thoughts onto the small blonde now, "When it comes to physical strength, he doesn't measure up to soldier standards. But I hear that in the classrom lectures, he's shown extraordinary imagination."

With that Shadis rode ahead to evaluate some of the other recruits on their physical capabilities.

He reached the front of the group where there were three recruits who were a few yards ahead of the ones behind them.

"Annie Leonhart, While she does not possess much natural strength, the past three years of training have given her the strength required to keep up with the recruits who are naturally strong."

"Mikasa Ackerman, her physical abilities are unparalleled by most in the class, she seems to have the body required for endurance exercises or heavy lifting if required."

"Nicholas Meier, My first thoughts on him were that he would be some puny kid from the interior, however his physical prowess surpasses everyone in the 104th cadet corps. His endurance and strength makes him almost the perfect example of a soldier in training."

The cadets had now moved on to being graded on their capabilities with the Omni-directional Manoeuvre Gear.

One of the Instructors pulled on a rope that brought up a wooden titan from the ground, placing it into the path of the oncoming recruits.

Three of the recruits quickly changed directions and went to slash at the nape of the wooden titan, Annie slashed first, cutting the nape all the way through. Bertholdt was after the blonde, his slash on the nape also reaching the base of the neck, a killing blow for both of them.

The third recruit, Jean, however only cut about halfway through the nape.

Shadis watched the three recruits intently, taking notes on his clipboard. "Annie Leonhart, The angle of approach of her slashing attack is impeccable...she carves deeply into the target. Personality-wise, she tends to be a loner and has trouble cooperating."

"Bertholdt Hoover, He's mastered every single skill that's been taught...and I believe he has a lot of potential...but he lacks drive and tends to leave decisions to others."

"Jean Kirstein, He has a deep understanding of the vertical maneuvering equipment and excels at exploiting that skill...he can also take in a situation at a moment's glance, but his personality is like a drawn sword, which tends to create conflict."

Shadis wrote down his notes on the three before turning his attention to two more recruits who had followed Jean to the bext target, both of them slashing the nape before he could.

"Connie Springer, He has a fine sense of balance and is effective at vertical maneuvering. However, he's got a slow mind and often makes strategic mistakes."

He then turned his attention to the red haired girl alongside Connie, who he suspected to be stealing from the food store, although he couldn't prove it, he suspected it was her, however he didn't know who her partner in crime could be.

"Sasha Blouse, She moves quickly and has remarkable instincts...but she has issues with structure, making her ill-suited for organized activity."

He finished his note taking on his favourite recruits, as their friends liked to refer to them as, mostly because Shadis would have a field day punishing them if he caught them slacking off.

He then turned his attention to the next three recruits going for the next wooden titan that had been raised by one of his assistants.

Mikasa was the first to swoop down and slash at the nape, cutting it perfectly. Eren was next to cut at the nape if the wooden titan, however similar to Jean, he didn't cut deep enough to kill the titan. The last to make a slash at the nape was Nick, he swung at the nape, intentionally not cutting deep enough to kill.

Shadis was still perched above them, thoroughly taking down notes on each of them.

"Mikasa Ackerman, She's mastered every single difficult subject perfectly. Her talent is historically unprecedented, making her the most valuable of them all."

"Eren Yeager, Though proficient at barehanded fighting, he doesn't seem to have any other skills...but he possesses a sense of purpose that's twice as strong as anyone else's. Through constant effort, his grades have improved steadily."

"Nicholas Meier, while physically he is no doubt the best in the class, he is lacking in his ODM skills, his swings are clunky and too wide apart to do any real damage, however he seems to make no effort to improve upon these mistakes of his. Also the lecture Commandant tells me that in the classroom, his pure intelligence and quick thinking also rivals Arlert's own intelligence. These factors lead me to believe that he either doesn't want to improve, or he isn't making use of his skills in training."

(Later that day)

The recruits now had some combat training after being graded earlier on in the day, their combat scores didn't really count towards their final grades, so some didn't take it seriously, mainly Connie and Sasha, who were goofing off. However Krista as she liked to be called in public by Nick, requested that he show her some moves, in the event that she would need to defend herself. He agreed, thinking that it would be a good idea for her to learn some moves of his.

Ymir however, was heavily against the idea, stating that she "could get hurt by lover boy", Krista waved off her concerns, saying that he wouldn't hurt her intentionally. Ymir reluctantly agreed, but not after whispering a few threats in his ear, he wasn't afraid of the brunette, but he didn't want to deal with an angry Ymir, or even Reiner if Krista got hurt.

There was also the fact that her half sister was in his head, so while he was teaching her he was receiving constant reminders to be careful with how hard he hit.

"Remember love, be careful when you're teaching her." Frieda told him, for the sixth time.

"Frieda, usually I wouldn't get tired of hearing your voice, but you're starting to annoy me now." He told her, getting irritated at her constant reminders to be careful with Historia.

"Right sorry love, but be careful with her, please." She pleaded to him, giving him the puppy dog eyes.

"Fine" he sighed inwardly, "But don't distract me or one of us could get hurt."

He walked over to where Krista was waiting so they could get started on their training.

"You ready to learn Krista?" He asked her, giving her the hint that she didn't have to take lessons from him.

"Yes Nick, let's start." She told him.

Nick showed her the basics of his technique for taking down larger opponents, since she was less than five foot tall. He showed her the proper stance to take while he moved her arms and legs if they weren't in the correct position. He showed her the correct way to kick at an opponent, using her foot if she was going to hit a bone, or her shin if she was going for flesh instead of bone.

"Alright Krista, I want you to try and take me down, I won't go on the offensive, I'll stay defensive to let you attack me, okay?."

She didn't reply but lunged forward, aiming a punch at his ribs, he sidestepped and she went flying past him and went off balance due to the evasion.

"Don't throw everything into your attack unless you're sure the blow will land." He told her.

She looked determined to take him down now, she came at him again, faking a left hook so she could take him down with one of the throws he had showed her. She threw the fake punch, he moved his forearm to block it, she wrapped her arms under his right arm and left leg to throw him. But it didn't work, he used her momentum to lean backwards and lift her up over his head, as she landed he spoke.

"That was very good actually, if it was any other opponent it would have worked, but I had to improvise to counter it."

She was happy that she had earned his praise for something he was an expert at.

"I want to try again Nick." She told him, spurred on by his praise, she was going to beat him, she told herself.

Right before she came at him, his attention was drawn to something happening over her shoulder, Frieda was blowing kisses at him.

"What are you doing Frieda?, You said you wouldn't interrupt our training." He asked her, wandering what she was up to.

"What?, can't a girl blow kisses to her boyfriend." She teased.

"No you can" he quickly replied, "It's just that-"

He noticed that he was being thrown over someones shoulder, and he couldn't stop it, he could only brace for the impact.

Once he hit the floor he noticed that Krista was standing over him, a wide smile plastered on her face, he could tell this was a genuine one, unlike the forced onces she usually put on to appease the others at the cadets.

"How was that?" She asked, proud of what she had done.

"That was very good Krista, I'm actually surprised you have the strength to throw me like that." He commented, impressed by her strength.

"Here" she said as she offered him a hand to pull him back up, he grabbed her hand but pulled too hard when trying to get up, so instead of getting up, he accidentally pulled her down on top of him.

"Sorry!" She quickly exclaimed, her cheeks had turned a bright red after she had fallen on top of him. She scrambled to her feet just as Ymir managed to stomp her way over.

"What did you do to Krista lover boy?" She asked him, the jealousy in her voice was quite evident.

"He didn't do anything Ymir, I just tripped and fell on him." Krista told her angry and clearly jealous friend, giving her a smile to tell her everything was ok.

"Whatever" Ymir grumbled.

Suddenly the three of them noticed Reiner being thrown through the air like a sack of potatoes, he flew across the training grounds towards where Annie had Eren locked on the ground in a chokehold. Annie noticed Reiner at the last second and quickly moved out of the way so Reiner landed directly on top of Eren.

"Must have been Mikasa" Nick thought to himself.

And he was right, because Mikasa was walking towards Annie, looking like she wanted to kill her on the spot for hurting Eren. Nick had half a mind to step in and stop Mikasa before she did something stupid, but he quickly decided against it when Annie raised her fists to accept Mikasa's challenge.

"Who do you think will win?" One of the cadets called out.

"Annie" Marco said, only to be interrupted by Jean.

"What?, are you crazy?, I'll bet my whole dinner on Mikasa!" He shouted out, clearly having faith that his crush would beat Annie.

"What about you lover boy, who do you think will win?" Ymir asked him, clearly acting bored about the situation.

"Its hard to say, Mikasa has the raw power to defeat any opponent, but then again, Annie has the skills required to be a match for anybody. I think it's too close to call."

"Dude, you think too much." Connie told him. Eager to watch the fight about to happen between the two toughest females in camp.

"At least I do think" he muttered to himself.

"Nick!" Krista exclaimed, "Don't be mean to him, just because he's not as smart as you or Armin, doesn't mean you can make fun of him."

"Yes Krista" he grumbled out, unhappy that she scolded him like that.

"Oh and before I forget, I know what you did Frieda."

"And what did I do love?" She asked, trying to play innocent with him.

"You distracted me so Historia could beat me earlier on." He further explained to her, knowing she was playing innocent.

"Maybe I just wanted to give you some affection, did you think about that?"

"Yes I did, and you usually show most of your affection at night." He flirted.

"Oh, is that so?" She questioned, "Maybe I'll have to show you some affection tonight" she told him.

"-ck. Nick" he felt someone tug his jacket, he looked and saw Krista tugging on his jacket and talking to him.

"C'mon Nick, the bell went, it's time for dinner." She told him as she and Ymir walked off to the mess hall for their evening meal.

(During Dinner)

He was sitting at a table with Jean, Marco and a few others, since he didn't want to go near Mikasa after how she reacted after watching Annie spar with Eren earlier in the day. Jean was telling Marco about some way to conserve gas when using the ODM gear. He already knew about Jean's "secret technique" since he had told Krista about it a few weeks back, in an attempt to have her rise up the ranks even more.

"That's still pretty advanced." Marco told Jean, wondering how Jean learned about this.

However, this only caused Jean's massive ego to grow even larger. "It's called having a sixth sense for the innards of the gear. The MP only recruit the best trainees after all."

Marco sighed happily, "Man, that would be great. Working so close to the King. No greater honour than that."

"Hey Marco, you can drop the misty-eyed BS" Jean told him.

His eyes widened in shock, "Huh?"

"Honour doesn't play any part does it?, you just want a nice cushy job in the interior playing glorified sentry."

Marco however, was shocked at Jean's allegations. "That's not true at all!" He exclaimed.

Of course whenever the word MP was mentioned, Eren had to but into the conversation. "Listen to yourselves. Interior. Five years ago this was part of it."

"You got a point to make friend?" Jean questioned him. "I'm right here"

Eren chuckled as he set his drink down. "Poor Jean, so misguided. And besides... I don't think your head would fit in the interior."

A few laughs could be heard around the room at that comment.

"Very funny" Jean said, clearly not amused.

"Seems a little backwards to me. Fine-tuning your Titan-killing skills so the brass will station you somewhere you'll never see one."

"You'd rather I was good at getting killed?" Jean retorted. "Thank you, but I'll pass. Better to play the system than get gnawed on."

"You son of a bitch!" Eren shouted, getting up.

"Bring it on, you little bastard!" Jean taunted, meeting him halfway.

"Eren, please stop it," Armin pleaded as Eren grabbed a hold of Jean's shirt.

"Would you two quit it before Shadis hears you" Nick said as he got up to break the two of them up.

"I don't need your help!" Eren exclaimed, getting angry that someone else had to step in to take care of his problems.

He pushed Jean away from Eren as he grabbed his shirt with both hands, "Yes you do, you get angry at the mention of the word MP, what do you think is gonna happen if you see someone get eaten."

"I'll avenge them" Eren told him, seemingly proud of his answer.

Instead he was slammed against the table, Mikasa stood up only to have Armin hold her back before she did something stupid.

"At what cost though?, your other comrades could die because of your stupid quest for vengence."

Eren remained quiet, knowing that Nick was right about his attitude, his sheer stubbornness would surely get people killed in the future if he wasn't careful.

After that Nick left the mess hall so he could go to bed and get some of the "affection" that Frieda had told him about.

(2 weeks later, Royal Palace, Mitras)

"Sir!"A man exclaimed as he burst into one of the conference rooms in the Palace.

"Yes what is it?" The man in the room spoke, his voice hoarse, probably because of how he spent his nights.

"The results for the top ten southern division recruits have arrived" he said while handing over the document.

The man took a few seconds to read over the document he had been given. "His name isn't here." He said.

"Who's name Sir?" The messenger asked.

"That can't be right" the man was talking to himself now, "His bloodline makes sure that he was the best there was there, but how could this happen."

"What does his bloodline have to do with anything Sir?" The messenger asked, once again the man ignored him.

"What the hell is that boy up to?" He asked to himself.

"Sir, what does his blood have to do with this?" The messenger asked for a second time.

"He has the blood of an Ackerman inside of him, but that's not all."

The messengers eyes widened in horror. "But weren't the Ackerman's persecuted Sir?"

"They were until Uri Reiss put a stop to it" he told him.

"Wait, you said that wasn't all, what else is there?" The messenger asked, getting a bit frightened now.

The man sighed before speaking, "When the blood of an Ackerman is mixed with the blood of certain non Eldian races, they become either more powerful, more intelligent or more bold than usual."

"What blood is his mixed with?" The messenger asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"It's the worst possible mixture for us, the blood of his father means that he has all three of these traits locked away until he unlocks them."

"How would he gain these traits?" He asked.

"By going through different traumatic experiences" the man explained. "He's already been through the one that awakened his powers in the first place, but I fear that when he slaughtered the kidnappers during that training exercise, he gained his first of these three traits."

"Wait a minute, what kind of blood does his father have?"

The man sighed again. "It's a complete nightmare for us if he decides to turn his back on us, but his father has Marleyan blood in his veins."