After half a year I present to you a new chapter *^* I apologize again for not updating but I'm really busy with school and all .

This is probably the longest chapter written... but that's a good thing, right?

Special thanks to my lovely beta readers:

Jikola

RubyHalo

Aesanna

Sorry if I left anyone out :c

AND MOST OF ALL THANK YOU READERS FOR STICKING WITH THE STORY! TT^TT -tearsofjoy-

-Edit-

I'm sorry everyone, I realized that I uploaded the wrong version. . This is the corrected one! -fail-

After dinner, the soldiers were asked to retire to their room to ensure they get enough rest for the big day tomorrow. As they were walking back, a certain girl felt a tug on her sleeves. She turned around to find her red headed friend standing behind her.

"Alice." He said.

"Hey, Nicholas." She replied with a smile. "Did you forget something?"

"Not really… Can we talk?"

"Sure."

"Not here, in private. I've got something important to tell you."

"Alright." She said not knowing why he looked so nervous.

She followed him to the back of the dining hall, a place where not many go. No words were exchanged between them, which was awkward. She stared at his back, wondering what was the important thing he wanted to say was. He came into an abrupt halt, startling her. He turned around and looked into her eyes seriously.

"Tomorrow is going to be our first expedition. There's no telling what's going to happen, we've never came face to face with a real titan so I just wanted to tell you…" He looked down.

She bent down to peep at what sort of face he was making, but he spotted her and immediately looked up again.

"If you get scared or in trouble, no matter what I'll protect you."

She blushed. Not knowing how to react she laughed.

"I'm not that weak." She was said but looking at his eyes he could tell that he meant it and felt bad for laughing.

He took a step closer to her.

"I'm serious, no matter what I'll definitely protect you."

"What are you saying?" She stuttered.

"I'm saying that I like you."

"W-what?!" She stumbled back.

"I like you!"

"Stop messing around!"

"I'm not messing around! I'm serious! I like you, Alice! Not as a friend but as a lover!"

Immediately upon hearing those words her face lit up into a crimson color.

"Er…I-I got to go back now… The others will be worried." She turned around and ran, without ever looking back. She felt bad for doing that but right now she just didn't know how to face him.

The next morning arrived.

An awkward atmosphere arose between the two, their friends looked at them suspiciously as they ate their meals but didn't say a word, as they were saving the interrogation for later. They were asked to saddle up their horses.

"It's too bad that our positions aren't the same…" Julie whined.

"That's alright, we'll still see each other later." Alice patted her friends shoulder.

Alice grabbed her saddle and after settling it on her beige mare, she led it by its reign, walking to the front of the quarter. She saw a familiar figure and ran up to him.

"Surprise, Rivaille!" She jumped out from behind. "Good morning, Noire." She patted his horse.

"I told you to stop giving weird names to my horse." Rivaille said in an annoyed tone, completely unstartled by her sudden appearance.

"It's not weird right, Bael?" She said as she gently caressed her own horse as it licked her palm.

"To your positions! Get ready to leave in 5 minutes!" Someone shouted in the distance.

"Let's go." Rivaille said, he sounded weird, almost worried. He hopped on his stead.

"Yes sir!" She said, just as she was about to get onto hers.

"Alice…" Rivaille spoke.

She turned around.

"Don't do anything stupid…" He muttered and galloped off.

She stared at him until he was barely out of sight.

"Hey Alice, I've been meaning to ask you this, but what exactly is going on between you and corporal?" Julie said.

Alice jumped.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"About the time when you two looked flirty with each other." Julie teased.

"What? We're not flirting! We're just close."

"Close, huh? So close that it's actually fishy."

"There's nothing going on between us!"

"Well if you say so~" She laughed as she rode off.

"Seriously it's not what you think!" Alice said as she started chasing after her.

Alice's POV.

"The time is now! For humanity, we will strive to take back what's rightfully ours! The scouting legion's 54th expedition begins!" Commander Erwin's voice echoed throughout the town.

The gates opened up before me, I signaled my horse into a quick gallop. I never realized how enormous the gates were till now. As I passed by, a bright light blinded my vision, instinctively, I lifted my hands to shade my eyes. When I regained my sight I opened my eyes to find a ghost town. A gasp escaped from my mouth. For the first time in four years, I was reminded of the destruction of the titans. I had been living in the countryside, so I never really saw the state of the other towns. Was mine like this too? I closed my eyes, I didn't want to see this.

No… This is reality, don't run away. Then I remembered, wasn't this where Tanya used to live? I looked back at Tanya, who was riding alongside me. I couldn't see what kind of expression she had on her as she had her hood over her eyes. She must be feeling far worse than me.

It wasn't long before we reached open grounds, I took my place within the formation, left flank. As a rookie, I got the relay duty. We were ordered to limit our encounters with them.

"Rookies! Flare!" team captain, Lex shouted.

Startled, I looked to where he was. For the first time since that wretched day, I saw a titan. I panicked, with my trembling fingers I rummaged through my bag for a cartridge, when I finally got my hands on one, my fingers fumbled and it slipped out. My mind was filled with images of my past, I couldn't get it out of my head. Then I started thinking about my friends…

Bam!

A gun shot was head, it knocked me back to my senses, I looked over to the source.

"What are you doing? Get your act together! Do you want to die here?" Tanya shouted, her face determined as ever, unfazed by the situation.

She's right… I mustn't get distracted!

"Berux! Aberrant!" another upper ranked officer called out to me.

Without hesitation I grabbed a black cartridge and loaded it into my gun and shot it. A black smoke was sent flying into the air, almost instantly a few more were seen in the distance.

"Lex! We're taking it down! We can't expect the kids to handle it!"

With amazing cooperation the two soldiers took down the 5 meter class.

"A titan breached the formation!" someone shouted. I saw a 3 meter class not far from where I was.

I decided to make a rash decision.

"Tanya! Flare! I'll handle it!"

"You idiot!" She shouted but before she could say anymore, I throttled in full speed to its direction. As I got closer to it, using my 3DMG I attached a hook on its neck, thankfully it wasn't an aberrant and had a slow reaction. Using my blades I made a deep cut in its nape and immediately jumped off , just in case it wasn't deep enough, I landed on the ground and heard a loud crash behind me. I turned around and saw the large humanoid beginning to evaporate.

I did it… I did it! I killed my first titan!

I whistled for my stead and he came to my call. Quickly, I hoped on before any unexpected titan decided to appear and regrouped.

"Are you insane Berux?" Captain Lex shouted. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? It's not like training, titans are unpredictable!" He was right. It took A LOT more effort to take down compared to a cut out.

"I'm sorry, it's just that I thought it was the best call to make at that time." I apologized.

He let out a sigh and a small smile formed on his face.

"Next time have Rosavelle with you. A rookie like you shouldn't face a titan alone, ya hear me?"

"Yes sir!"

"Anyways, good job on your first kill!" He gave me a thumbs up.

"Thank you very much sir!"

He went on slightly ahead. I couldn't help but smile at my accomplishment.

"Hey you…" Tanya said.

I was wondering why she had been so quiet all this while, was she worried about me?

"The next one is MINE you hear me?" She glared.

Guess not…

"It's only fair since I saw it first."" I teased.

She clicked her tongue.

"I'm not going to lose to someone like you." She pouted.

I burst into laughter, even in this sort of situation Tanya was still the same.

Another shot was heard not far away.

There sure is a lot of titans today… so far we've already changed course 9 times. I wonder how Rivaille is doing? I asked him where his position was but he didn't want to tell me. He's changed a lot since back then, I thought back on those times. No… maybe not that much after all (including his height). He's still the same Rivaille I know, bossier but still the same. If I had to say, I think I changed the most… I'm not the same Alice as I was before…

My reminiscing was disrupted by a drop of water that fell on my nose. I rubbed it off, water? No, it's rain, slowly the rain got heavier. I pulled my hood over my head.

"Stay close!" Captain Lex ordered. We continued the expedition but the rain didn't show any signs of stopping, quite the opposite it was getting heavier. Soon a small forest came into sight.

"Captain, what do we do?" I asked.

"Just keep moving!" He replied. "The commander hasn't given the retreat signal yet!"

An unsettling feeling settled in me and to make matters worse we haven't spotted a titan in a while. Suddenly, I heard a scream, I could barely see a thing, the rain impaired my vision. All I could make out was a 10? 14? Meter shadow in the distance.

"Keep going! Don't look back! Head to the forest! I'll deal with it!" Captain Lex said.

I was hesitant but followed his order nonetheless.

"You heard his orders!" Tanya shouted. Her voice sounded almost… panicked.

We headed to the forest but more surprises were install for us. Two 5 meter titans were heading for us.

"There's no way else around it! We have to take them on!" Tanya shouted. "I'll take the one on the left, you take right! Don't mess up!" She ordered, I nodded. I grabbed a black flare and sent it out.

Nervously, I headed to its direction.

Okay… Just do it like you did with the first one.

I gripped my blades as hard as I could.

"Now!" Tanya shouted.

I jumped off the back of my horse, and shot a hook on it's left shoulder, I used some gas to accelerate, swinging my body to the right and spun. It's hands were fast to grab me but I was faster.

Slash!

It's body went limp and fell to the ground. I was panting, out of both fear and adrenaline. I looked over to Tanya. Did she get hers? Swiftly and beautifully, as if she was dancing in mid-air, she slashed it's nape with accuracy.

"Show off." I scoffed.

"Let's go!"

We got back our horses and headed deeper into the woods, that was one of the worst decisions I've made in my life…

The rain seemed to be pouring even harder than before. I got distracted by a flash of lightning for a moment, and the next thing I knew Julie was screaming her head out. I turned my head back to the front only to find a colossal hand reaching for me, before I could do anything It grabbed me. I couldn't break free from it's grip, it knocked the air out of me completely. It brought me up to it's mouth, a set of square blunt teeth were visible, a warm gust of air breathed into my face. Suddenly, it's grip loosened, I wriggled free and fell on the ground. Then, I felt another pair of arms grabbing me away.

"No!" I screamed.

"Relax, it's just me!" A voice replied.

I looked up to find…

"Nicholas?" For a moment there, I thought I may have been hallucinating but I wasn't. Nicholas was real and standing before me.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah I'm fine." He helped me up to my feet. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you have been at the back of the formation?"

"The formation is broken. I had a bad feeling and rushed over, it looks like my hunch was right."

"Why hasn't the commander given out the retreat signal yet?"

"In this weather? The guns don't work anymore."

"Alice, are you alright?!" Tanya came rushing over. This was probably the first time I saw her making such a scared expression.

"I'm fine. Thanks for saving me."

"Thank me later, we better leave now."

"I agree with the lady, we should go." Nicholas said.

I took a step but my trembling legs made it hard to walk. I nearly fell back but a warm pair of arms embraced me.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you." Nicholas whispered.

"Stop flirting and move your butts!" Tanya shouted.

"F-flirting?" Nicholas stuttered.

A rumbling was felt beneath our feet.

"Run!" I screamed but it was a little late, an aberrant came running to our direction, we scaled a tree.

"Everyone alright?" Nicholas shouted.

"Wait, where's Tanya?"

My eyes searched for her, the aberrant was following her. She seemed to be having a hard time slaying it.

"We've got to help her!" I said.

"Wait!" Nicholas warned.

Too late, I didn't see another titan in front of me. A blurry figure pushed me aside, I couldn't tell what was going on at that time, everything happened so fast that my mind couldn't process it in time. The next thing I knew, I heard a loud scream of pain… oh wait, that was me. The fall broke a few of my bones, excruciating pain was overwhelming, the tears fell out of my eyes. I pushed myself against a tree, barely getting into a proper sitting position. I breathed deeply and pulled out a bandage from my pocket and wrapped it around my waist. I heard a loud thud and something fell down, not far from where I was.

"Nicholas?" I gasped. I crawled over to him, the pain streamed through with every move I made, I groaned.

A flash of lightning gave me a better view, I froze. Nicholas laid there surrounded by a pool of blood and worst of all, his right leg was gone. I covered my mouth with one hand.

Hold it in!

I swallowed and reached out to his right arm. I could feel his pulse, he was alive.

"Nicholas! Wake up! Stay with me!" I shouted.

"Alice!" I heard a high pitched shriek.

I looked up, finding Tanya in the hands of the titan. I'd move to help but it wouldn't due to both pain and fear.

"Move! Move! JUST MOVE!" I screamed to myself. "Tanya!"

I reached my hand out then fell limp, blood spattered on to my body and face. A loud snap was heard when the titan broke her body into half. It took mere seconds for it to swallow her. I touched my face with my trembling hand and slowly brought it before my eyes, to find it covered in blood, human blood.

"No!" I screamed.

My frightful scream attracted the attention of the titan, my entire body sat there petrified.

This is the end of me… I'm going to die… I'm going to die here… no… NO!

A feeling began stirring up inside of me, a feeling stronger than fear. It was rage, at that moment my entire being was engulfed with rage. I stood up wobbly.

"It's all your fault…" I mumbled. "It's all your fault! It's all your fault! You killed them! All of them! I'll never forgive you! I'll kill you! I'll kill every single one of you!" I screamed.

I pulled out my other blade and adrenaline took over my body, making it seemed as if it was moving on it's own. I zipped through the air with a great amount of speed, before it could do anything, I slashed into it's nape. It fell on the ground and like every other titan, began evaporating. But I wasn't done, oh no, I wasn't satisfied. I was still pissed, I slashed it again and again, venting out my anger. Until finally my blades shattered. I panted as I fell on the ground, my palms were bleeding from gripping the blades too hard.

"I'm sorry Tanya… I'm sorry… I couldn't save you…" I wailed.

I squirmed to Nicholas's side to check on how he was doing, he was still breathing but not for long if I don't do something.

"Nicholas, you can't fall asleep here!" I tapped his face, trying to regain his consciousness.

As I shook him, is amber eyes struggled open.

"Thank goodness…" I held onto his hand. "You're alive. You're alive…."

"Ali…ce…" He muttered.

"Don't speak!"

"Run…"

"What are you saying?! I won't leave you!"

"If you stay… we'll both die…"

"I'm not leaving you here! I'll get us both out of here!" I pulled off my cloak and tied it around his missing foot. I was going to throw up at sight but for Nicholas's sake I held it in. He winced in pain.

"I'm sorry but bare with it, alright?"

After bandaging his wound, I looked around to find us a mean to escape. Our horses must've ran away in the chaos, I whistled out for my horse but the sound of the rain overwhelmed it.

What am I going to do now? I can't carry him…

I sat there in silence.

No! I'm not giving up! I swear I'll get us out of here or die trying!

I looked on the ground to see it there was anything I could use. I found a bag filled with flares inside, I pulled one out and loaded it into my flare gun. I shot it into the air but it was washed away by the rain before it could reach high enough.

"Stop it Alice… save yourself…"

"How many times do I have to tell you before you get it? I'm not going anywhere without you!"

"I'll only hold you back."

"We're going to get out of this alive together!"

"If you go by yourself…"

"Then what?" I interrupted him. "Then what? Save myself and let my friend die? There's no way I can live with that! I don't want to lose anyone anymore than I have! So please… let me save you…"

He said no more. However, despite my heroic words, I had no idea how we were suppose to get out of this mess. There was only two options I could think of and one was to wait for the rain to subside and use the flares or look for help. It looked like it'd take hours before the rain would settle down, who knows how far the troop would have been by then. The latter option was no brighter, I could barely walk let alone in this rain, if I encountered a titan on the way, I can't assure I'd survive but there's no other way.

"Hey, Nicholas?" I called out.

However, I didn't receive any response.

"Nicholas?"

I looked to my side, he had already lost conscious.

"Nicholas? No, you can't die! Don't leave me!" I grabbed his still hands, they were still warm but for how much longer would it remain?

I have to do something!

But my battered body was already reaching it's limits, I could barely move. I leaned against a tree.

Will it all end here? There must be something! Anything!

Then, in the distance I heard a clicking noise coming closer.

This is the end, huh?

I closed my eyes and waited for my end, waiting for the moment of the jaws to devour me but it was taking it's time, maybe to floss or something? As it got closer I realized it wasn't a titan, it sounded like a, like a horse!

I opened my eyes to be greeted by a beige mare in front of me.

"Bael!" I cried out.

My horse came back! I hugged his snout, never had I been happier to see a horse.

"Good boy, you came back." I staggered to get to my feet. "Help me out here boy."

As though he understood what I was saying he bent down to where Nicholas laid, using what little strength I had left, I pulled the boy onto the saddle and trust me it wasn't easy lifting a well-built man like he was even without one of his limbs. After a lot of pushing and pulling one way or another I got him on, I rode my horse out of the misty forest.

"It's going to be alright. Hang in there a little more."

At that time, I didn't know what was the point of me saying those empty words to an unconscious person but I felt that if I didn't I would've gave up.

The horse throttled in full speed, I didn't have a destination in mind but anywhere was better than here, I needed to find someone, anyone. After what seemed like hours to me, I was at the brim of losing conscious. I lost a lot of blood and I'm sure I broke a few bones as well. Things weren't looking very bright for us. Slowly, I lost the strength to even sit up straight and fell over. I crashed onto the wet grassy land, my stead stood by me, helplessly trying to nudge me to stand as how a deer would nudge her foe to stand. However it's efforts were useless, no longer did I have the strength to move. Then, I noticed my loaded flare gun next to me, it must've fell out of it's pouch when I fell over. I reached for it with my shaking hand and somehow, I managed to pull it's trigger. It rang with a load bang that echoed in my ear. My lifeless hands dropped down with a thud, my vision began to blur, I could see nothing but the sun and a cloud of black smoke above me. Slowly, my eyes could not even stay open, my body began feeling cold. Just before I completely lost conscious, it might have been my imagination but I felt warm embrace enveloping me and with a gentle voice whispered.

"You've done well."

I keep having this feeling that I wanted to tell you guys something but I don't remember... I'm getting old... -sobs-

Till next time!~

P.S. Don't worry guys I plan on finishing this story no matter what! :3 And you'll be getting a surprise in the following chapter! Hohoho~ I wonder what it is? C: