Chapter 8
The expedition (part 1).

"Everyone! Listen up!" Erwin yelled while he turned his horse to all of us and looked at us seriously. "This is the time that we will go out and take back wall Maria. We will go to Shiganshina District, and we will see the secrets of the Titans that are hidden in de basement of Eren's home".

I looked around me and saw everyone being ready to get out side. I was not. I was far from that. I didn't sleep last night. I had nightmares all the time and eventually, I stopped trying to sleep. Now I am sitting on my horse way to tired. I could just fall asleep if I wanted too. But I can't. I have a mission.

"You all know what your places are" Erwin went further. "I'm all proud of you and I will remember you if this is your last day". He turned around and I couldn't help but to just stare at him. "Open the gates! We are going out!".

Well, wasn't that a beautiful speech.

The gate started to open and everyone around me started to get in position. I fallowed them and my tiredness went away immediately. This was it. This was the day that I will fight the Titans. I didn't have enough training. Even with the help of Eren and the others. But I will fight. I will try to get the Titans away from everyone.

The gates were open fully and Erwin was the first one entering the outside world. We all fallowed after him and we all split in the groups we were placed in.

I let myself hang in the middle until my time was there to get in front. I got one of the fasted horses to make sure that I would get in the frond. I looked around me and saw that I was the only one not being in place. I needed to hurry.

I let my horse speed up and before I knew it I passed Levi's group. They looked at me surprised. They didn't know what Erwin and I had talked about. I smiled at them, just to hide my nerves, and nodded before I went pasted them. I went up to Erwin and ride next to him. He looked at me and I saw the doubt in his eyes.

"Be careful" he said before he looked in front of him.

I just nodded and speed up my horse again. Now I was in front of everybody and somehow, I felt special for ones. Everyone was looking at me and I could feel it. Nobody knew what I was going to do and probably they were all thinking I was insane, because I was just here for three weeks now and nobody saw me working with the maneuvering gear and nobody ever saw me fighting a Titan. So why should they believe that I could distracted them? They just needed to see. Just like I was going to see it.

Behind me I heard one of the smoke signals going off and when I looked to my right, I saw a Titan running up to us. It was a 15 meter one and didn't seem like an abnormal. This was the time to do my job.

I turned the horse to the right and ran to the Titan. I grabbed the handles of my gear and stood ready to fly off.
Behind I heard some people yelling at me, but Erwin's voice was way louder when he yelled to them to just go ahead.

I ignored everyone and jumped of the horse and let my hook grab on the Titan. I flew through the air until I was behind the Titan. I let my other hook grab the neck of the Titan and let myself been pulled to the Titan. I didn't know what I was doing. Or how I was doing it. But I lifted my swords, ready to cut the neck. I let more gas out of my tanks, so I moved faster and let my knifes cut the neck of the Titan while I pulled my hook out of the Titan.

The Titan made a few steps before it fell forward and laid there without moving.

I did it! I killed my first Titan! It wasn't even that hard! How did I do it? I never worked with a maneuvering gear, but still it felt like I have always been doing this. It felt so good. Better than I thought it would be.

I let my hook grab a tree and pulled myself too it. I landed on a branch and looked around me. I did kill one, but that didn't mean that there weren't any other Titans. Smoke signals were all over the place and I knew that this would happen. Even if I did kill the first Titan that was coming to us, the others were still coming. So far the future did not change.

I looked down from my place when I heard a sniff of a horse. My horse was standing under the branch. Seems like he was one who will come back no matter what happened. I climbed down the tree and patted the horse.

"Thanks for coming back" I said and then got up. I turned it in the way of were the others were and let it ran as fast as possible.

It was getting closer. The time that 'she' will come. She must be coming from the back. And the ones that were in the back were Armin, Jean and Reiner. As far as I knew. I needed to go to them. Even that I couldn't do anything I could still help them.

I kicked my heels to horse and he even went harder than he was already doing. Maybe, I was even get to the others earlier then Annie. I needed to be quick.

Loud footsteps were heard from the distance and cold sweat was coming all over my body. She was here. I was too late. I looked to my left and saw Annie running in the distance, kicking and smashing away soldiers. Fuck! This was going way faster than I thought!

When I came closer, I could finally see Armin, Jean and Reiner, trying to get away from the Female Titan. I wanted to yell to them to come to me. But Annie was faster. She put her foot down, closely to Armin and he was send flying of his horse.

"Armin!" I heard Reiner scream and saw him going back for him.

Annie stood still and bowed over Armin. She was not going to kill him. She is just going to check if it was Eren or not. And just as I thought, she put of Armin hoodie and then started to run again.

I ran to them and stopped in front of them. "Are you okay, Armin?" I asked while I got of the horse to help him up.

He nodded. "Yes I'm fine".

"Come on we need to go" Reiner said while he give Armin the other horse he was holding. "We need to try and stop her".

Armin and I got on the horses and with the three of us, we started to run after the Female Titan.

"Wait!" Armin yelled out and grabbed one of the smoke signals from his cloak. "We need to fire the signal" he tried to put it together. But he couldn't. He was shaking to hard. But he didn't need to try any longer.

Behind us sounded the sound of a smoke signal going off. We looked behind us and I couldn't help to let out a sigh.

"Seems like Jean already did it" Reiner said while he smiled a little.

Jean run up to us and around us were more signals going off.

"It seems that the flank on the right are in chaos" Jean started and looked at u with something that I would say fear. "A large group of Titans were coming out of nowhere. We couldn't do anything".

"It must be because of her" Armin said and looked at the Female Titan in front of us. Ah, seems like Armin was already getting it. He looked to me and I just nodded. Little hints were not that bad.

"Her?" Jean asked and looked surprised at us. "What is she doing here? Is it just an abnormal one?".

"No" Armin answered immediately. "It's a human in a Titan body".

"What?" Jean brought out surprised. "You're joking right?".

"Yea, what you mean by that Armin?" Reiner asked, but not looking any of us.

I tight my grip around the reins of my horse. Reiner knew exactly what Armin mend. He knew what was going on. He was a Titan himself. God, how bad I wanted to tell Jean and Armin who Reiner really was. But I couldn't of course. So I just bid my tongue and let it happen.

"All Titans kill to eat" Armin started and glanced to me. I turned away, I was not going to say more.

"But she just kills to kill. When I was laying on the ground, she could easily killed me. But, she only pulled back my hoodie. It was like she was searching for someone and probably then person is Eren".

"Eren?" Reiner echoed him. "But he is with Levi's group and they were on the right flank, right? That was the way she was came from".

"The right flank?" Jean asked. "I thought they said he would be near the back of the left flank".
A silence went over them and I couldn't help to feel guilty. I knew where Eren was. If I was fast, I could just run up to them and tell them were Annie was coming from. But I didn't do anything. I just ran with them and keep silence.

"Well, my copy said that he was in the front of the right flank" Armin said and I could see him thinking. "But, I couldn't believe that they put someone imported right there".
"So, then were is Eren?" Reiner asked.

I glanced at him. If I could just got him wounded or something, he couldn't signal Annie were Eren is. Armin and I knew that he was in the safest spot of the formation…

"The back of the center, I think" Armin answered and I could hit him in the head for telling Reiner. But it needed to be done.

"If it is true" Jean began. "Then we don't have time to lose more time. We need to get this information to them or we need to stop the Female Titan".

"She is a human, Jean" I said and looked at him. "She has intelligent, you know right".

"I know" he answered me. "But, I know what I must do! This is what we choose when we signed up to be part of the Survey Corps".

I chuckled. Yea, this was the job everyone signed up for. But… I looked to Reiner and I saw him looking back at me. For a reason, I didn't like him watching me like that. It looked like, he was planning something and he thought that I knew what he was planning, well I did know. Or he didn't trust me. Whatever it was, it needed to wait.

"Put on your hoodie" Armin broke my thoughts and put on his own hoodie. We looked at him surprised. "She is searching for Eren. If she does not see our face, she will not kill is. She will be to scared that one of us is Eren".

"Good thinking, Armin" Reiner said while he put on his own hoodie.

Jean and I fallowed there moves and the four of us started to ride faster.

Before we knew it, we were riding right behind her. Her jog was getting slower. She was getting tired and Armin and the other two saw it as well.

So, what was the plan? The three of them needed to have a plan. I could come up with a plan, but I didn't knew anything. I just thought about attacking her. But, it wouldn't work. She was not that stupid. She would feel it and more people would die.

I looked at the three before me. What was going to happen? I couldn't remember. Why couldn't I? I read the dairy so many times, why did I forgot it!

"Armin!" Jean yelled out and broke my thoughts.

I looked up and saw Armin flying through the air. My eyes widened in shock when he smashed on the ground. This was horrible. How could he ever survive this? Armin didn't moved and the Female Titan kneeled over him. Fuck. This was getting out of hand!

Next to me, Jean rode pasted me to the Female Titan. I fallowed him. I would help him. Armin was now an friend of me.

"Armin!" he yelled again and this time the Female Titan turned to us.

A shot of panic and fear went through me and my hands started shake. In the dairy, it sounded scary. But to see it now in real life, was worse!

Next to me, Jean let his hook grab the Female Titan and flew through the air. I looked how he came closer to the Female Titan and how he dodged the fists of the Titan. He swung behind the Female Titan and for a second I thought he could do it! But then she covered her neck with her hand. No! Shit I could warn him!

"Jean!" Reiner yelled next to me and also passed me to run to the Titan.

Jean, was in the air and the Female Titan turned to him, ready to punch him. He would never get away now!

I needed to do something! Anything! I did not care if it would change the future! I didn't want them to die. I grabbed my swords, ready to get in the air. But then someone yelled.

"JEAN!" Armin yelled from where he was. "You got to avenge him!" I looked to him and saw that his face was covered in blood. How could he still stand? "There was a guy who was in a hurry in the right flank, he died fast! She killed him! Avenge him, Jean!".

What was he talking about? Was he getting crazy? This was not the best time! The Female Titan… She didn't moved. She just stood there.

Jean could get away safely and was now hiding behind a tree. He was safe for now, but what about her?

"She stepped on my best friend!" Armin went further and I jumped of my horse and kneeled next to him. "She crushed him! I saw him stuck on the sole of her foot!".

"Armin, are you okay?" I asked but hold my swords ready to get us away from danger.

He ignored me and stared at something that was happening in front of us. I looked the same way and saw Reiner getting his hook attached to the neck of the Female Titan. He was going to try it? It could have worked! She was distracted to what Armin just yelled. But…

Her fist got up and she grabbed Reiner in the air. I heard Armin gasping next to me and saw Jean looking in pure horror. I think that I even didn't look that good. This was just crazy.
Reiner looked at us in shock and he tried to get out of the fist. But he couldn't. Of course he couldn't. It was a Titan we are talking about.

I stood up to help him, but then she closed her hand and blood was going everywhere. I stared at the blood that was falling in the grass and I felt the excitement that I had washed away. This was not the way it needed to go. I could easily stop this all. I could tell anyone that she was Annie and that Reiner and Berthold are working with her. But I couldn't! This was so fucked up!

Sound of gas made me look up and I saw Reiner cutting himself out of the Titans hand. He attached his hook on her back and let himself fall to the ground. He ran to us and picked Armin from the ground.

"We bought enough of time" he yelled and I started to run after him. "We really need to go! If she is not going to eat us, then she won't bother to fallow us".

Why was he now saying that we needed to get away now so fast? I thought about everything in the dairy and then it hit me. O my god. He just did it. He… He… I looked back at the Female Titan. She was staring at her hand. Yes, I was right. He did right that message in his hand. I made fists of my hands and bit my tongue. I needed to shut up! I looked in front of me and saw Jean running to us. I looked back for a second and saw her running in the other direction. The direction were Eren and the others were. Not good I needed to go there!

I whistled on my fingers and my horse ran to me. I hopped on it while it was still running and chased after the Female Titan.

"Leem!" I heard Jean yelling.

"Go somewhere safe!" I yelled back and looked at them for a second. "Treat Armin's wounds and stay where you are. Someone will find you!" and with those words, and made my way to the hell that I knew was going to happen.

To be continued...