Annie stood in front of her guardian, her face emotionless.

He stared down at her. "You've done well Annie. The big mission is tomorrow."

She nodded. She tried to drum up some sort of emotion for what was about to happen, but found herself unable to.

She didn't care about the upcoming mission. She didn't care that she was going to have to confront the supposed island devils. She didn't care that they had to retrieve the Founding Titan.

She had no reason to care. All her life she'd gone through the motions, done what was expected of her, and simply went with the flow. But she'd been unable to find any real meaning or purpose behind any of it.

Perhaps it was because she'd been raised to think that she and those like her were devils. Or perhaps it was because the man who had brought her up clearly only saw her as a means to an end, a way for him to improve his standard of living through Marley's warrior program, and harbored no real affection for her.

In any case, no one else seemed to value or care about her life, and considering how dull and dreary her life had been so far, she found herself unable to value or care about anything else in return.

He folded his arms. "Make the motherland proud. Do not disappoint me."

She nodded again, and a short time later she was dismissed and headed upstairs for bed.

She contemplated the mission once more, and how dangerous it could be. She wondered if she would ever see him again.

She wondered if it really mattered either way.

"WAAH!" Reiner screamed, before his face fell in shock as he realized it was just Annie.

She stared down at him, her breathing labored. "Not bad...that's the...first time...I've ever...lost to you...in a foot race…"

She saw Bertolt slump down out of the corner of her eye.

Her breathing slowly calmed down. "If we...had immediately gotten a hold of the Titan...that ate Marcel...we wouldn't have lost the Jaw Titan. But you two ran...and I ended up following along."

She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. "Damn it...Marcel...won't ever get to go home…"

Reiner looked up at her anxiously. "But...there weren't supposed to be any Titans yet! Aren't they supposed to be closer to the wall?"

"Not all of them." Bertolt replied quietly. "We were taught that some Titans are abnormal, and won't behave predictably."

Annie turned around. "Enough. Let's go back."

"Huh?" Reiner said.

She glanced at him. "We'll find the Jaws, and then we'll go back. The Titan will probably have turned back into a human by now, and it's not like we can continue the mission without Marcel's leadership. The plan...has already failed."

Annie and Bertolt started to walk back the way they had come, but Reiner remained where he was.

He held out a hand. "Wait. No...we can't go back. We'll continue the plan."

She looked at him with contempt. "True. You can't go back like this. If you go back to Marley now, they'll strip you of the Armor for this disgrace. The next warrior will eat you. Not that it makes any difference to me."

"Why are you so sure that'd only happen to me?" Reiner spread out his hands. "How do you know they'll hold just me accountable for all three of us running away? Are you two really confident that you'll escape the same fate?"

Annie and Bertolt stared at him, looking slightly startled and unsettled.

Seeing that he had their attention, Reiner continued. "And also, getting the Jaws back isn't a good idea. What if the user uses its power? With its speed, there's no way our Titans could ever catch it without the Cart Titan's help!"

Bertolt tilted his head in confusion. "How could anyone learn to use the power of a Titan that fast?"

"You were able to use the Colossal Titan right away!" Reiner yelled. "Anyway, if we try to capture the Jaw Titan and fail, we'll just end up using our Titan powers for nothing, and when our strength runs out we might get eaten by other Titans lurking around! And if we go back to the docks with nothing to show for it but this fiasco, we'll be done for anyway!"

Bertolt remained silent.

Reiner's voice became more quiet. "If we ever want to go back home, we need results. We need the Founder. We can't go back without it now."

Annie stared at him for a long time before letting out a long sigh and throwing her hands up into the air.

"You know what, fine. This is unbelievably stupid though."

Bertolt seemed surprised, while Reiner appeared relieved.

As for Annie, though, she felt nothing but indifference. As stupid as Reiner's idea was, in the end it didn't really matter.

It wasn't like she had anything to look forward to back home.

Annie looked around the training grounds, feeling bored. She'd stalked away from the others after the opening ceremony, wanting to be alone for the moment.

It had been two years since they broke down Wall Maria, and during that time they'd learned a great deal.

The first major revelation was that apparently the 145th king had erased the memories of the people of the walls, making them forget their Eldian heritage and leaving them to believe they were the last of humanity in a world overrun by Titans.

Ever since learning this Annie had been wracked with guilt. Not only had they attacked and killed people who had done nothing to them, but the people didn't even remember what their ancestors had (supposedly) done. They were entirely blameless, nothing more than victims of circumstance.

Reiner, of course, held onto the doctrines they'd been taught about the island devils, insisting that these people were all evil and they deserved it. His ideological rants had been annoying back when they were Warrior cadets, and after they had infiltrated the wall his ramblings had gone from irritating to infuriating. Some days it was all she could do to stop herself from hitting him.

Bertolt, at least, seemed to have a better grasp of the situation. These people weren't devils, and they hadn't done anything wrong. Still, they had a mission that they had to carry out, and they needed to see it through.

In light of that goal, they had joined the military cadets, with the hope that they would be able to gain a spot with the MPs and thus be in a better position to investigate Wall Sina and sniff out the true royal family.

Annie found herself pulled from her thoughts by the sound of nearby footsteps.

She turned her head and saw a blond haired young man she'd seen at the opening ceremony.

He smiled shyly at her. "Hi! Nice to meet you, I'm Armin. It was Annie, right?"

"Yeah." She said dully.

A slight tinge appeared on his cheeks. "That's a nice name."

She shrugged. "I guess."

"So, what made you want to be a soldier?"

She paused, unsure of how to answer that question.

In truth, she didn't. She'd never considered what she really wanted. She'd never been allowed to. Everything that she'd done in her life had been planned out for her by someone else. By her guardian, by Marley, by Reiner.

It was a little unnerving to suddenly realize that she had no idea what she truly wanted.

She shook her head. "Dunno."

He laughed nervously. "That's a strange answer."

Eager to get rid of her troubled thoughts, she turned the question back on him. "What about you? Why'd you become a soldier?"

"Well...the main reason is because my friends did, and I didn't want to be left behind."

She blinked. "I see…"

She vaguely remembered seeing him arrive with two other cadets, a guy and a girl.

"You guys must be pretty close."

He nodded, his face turning serious. "Yeah. I know I wouldn't have survived in the refugee camps without their help."

Her expression didn't change, but inside familiar feelings of guilt and shame came back, coiling inside her.

"So, you guys are from Wall Maria?" She murmured, unable to maintain eye contact. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it's not your fault."

He gave her another shy smile. "Well, I'll see you around."

As he turned around and left, she felt a conflicted mix of emotions. Guilt was part of it.

But something about his smile had sent a swooping sensation through her stomach, like she'd missed a step on a flight of stairs.

She rubbed her forehead.

These next three years may be...interesting.

As training went on, Annie ended up getting to know the other cadets better. As well as Armin, she also ended up interacting a fair bit with his two friends, Eren and Mikasa, both of whom had also lost their homes and families when Wall Maria fell.

In some ways the training felt very familiar, as she'd already gone through similar courses and exercises in Marley. But in other ways it was quite different.

The most marked change was the ODM gear, which was a central part of their training. As they believed that they were the last of humanity, the people of the walls had developed weapons and fighting techniques specifically designed to kill Titans. As primitive and behind the times as they were in other areas, Annie had to admit that the ODM gear was quite the clever concept, and mastering it was tricky even for her.

But another more subtle yet somehow even more important change was the attitude behind the training. In Marley, she and the other Warriors had constantly been reminded of their status as descendants of devils, always taught to think less of themselves, always told that they needed to help Eldia atone for its countless sins.

But here, everyone was treated as an equal. All that mattered was your actions, not how you were born or what race you belonged to. In fact, the people of the walls didn't even seem to really have a concept with race, the only exception being Mikasa's half Asian heritage, and even that was paid little attention.

It was...nice. Refreshing, to be seen and judged for her own merits, not what others had already decided about her.

And the training was also almost cathartic. It provided her with an escape from the guilt that plagued her whenever she contemplated what she and the others had done to Wall Maria. It was easy to just pretend that she was the same as everyone else, and was just another soldier doing her best to protect humanity.

She could tell that Bertolt and Reiner were also using the training as a means of escape, as a way of coping with their guilt. Of course, whenever the three of them were alone, Reiner would instantly go back to his monologues about the island devils, about how evil they were, and how they weren't really friends, he was just gaining their trust for purely strategic reasons.

She honestly wasn't sure if he was trying to fool them or himself. But either way it was aggravating to hear him prattle on as if they still held onto a moral high ground that they had in actuality abandoned long ago. And during these conversations, she once again often felt a very strong urge to hit Reiner.

But of course she didn't. After all, they had a mission, and it wasn't like they could just abandon it.

Such an idea was unthinkable.

Right?

Annie leapt onto the roof, and was startled by what she saw.

Reiner had pinned Marco down, while Bertolt was standing nearby looking anxious.

Marco looked up at her desperately. "Annie! Save me!"

"What is going on here?!" She cried.

"Reiner's acting crazy!" Marco yelped.

"He heard us talking." Reiner said grimly. "We can't let him live."

Annie's eyes widened in horror. "Are you kidding me?! You dumbasses!"

She'd had mixed feelings about the attack on Trost from the beginning, only grudgingly conceding to Reiner's plan. And then he had to go and do something stupid like this.

Marco looked confused by her response.

"Ah!" Bertolt yelled as he looked down the street. "There's a Titan coming!"

Reiner glanced at the distant Titan before pressing Marco up against the wall of the nearby roof.

"Annie! Take Marco's ODM gear off of him!" Reiner ordered.

Marco's eyes widened in panic. "What?!"

Annie froze.

"Do it!" Reiner shouted. "Hurry!"

"Why me?" She said angrily. "You two caused this mess! Get Bertolt to do it for you!"

"No, you do it!"

"Why should I?"

Reiner's eyes narrowed. "You just risked your own life to save Connie's, didn't you? Why would you put yourself in that kind of danger?! Have you started to feel compassion for this evil race?!"

Reiner glared at her furiously. "If not, prove me wrong right now! If you and your father, who's waiting for you to come home, are any different from this defiled race, prove it to me right now!"

As Reiner's words rang in her ears, and she was reminded of her indifferent guardian for the first time in years, something inside of her snapped.

Her leg flew up and kicked Reiner in the face, sending him sprawling onto the roof, several of his teeth clattering against the wooden surface.

Marco and Bertolt looked utterly shocked.

Before Reiner could recover, Annie rushed over to him and proceeded to kick the living shit out of him, knocking out more of his teeth, breaking ribs, and rupturing internal organs.

"FUCK OFF!" She shrieked, her face livid. "I'M SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR BULLSHIT! HONORARY MARLEYAN?! CHOSEN WARRIOR?! FUCK THEM ALL! THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THEMSELVES! AND I'M NO DIFFERENT! I CAN'T STAND THIS ANYMORE! THE GUILT, THE LIES, THE KILLING! I'M SICK OF IT ALL! I DON'T CARE IF THE WALLS ARE DOOMED! I DON'T CARE IF THE WORLD HAS DEEMED THESE PEOPLE DEVILS! I'D RATHER DIE WITH THEM THAN LIVE WITH PIECES OF SHIT LIKE YOU!"

Bertolt looked at her in horror. "Annie! What about your father?!"

"FUCK HIM!" She bellowed. "I HAVE NO FATHER!"

Reiner managed to push her away, and a spark appeared on the swollen ruin of his face.

Realizing what was about to happen, Annie yelled over her shoulder.

"MARCO, GET OUT OF HERE!"

"YOU TRAITOR!" Reiner roared.

Marco swooped away with his gear, and as he looked back he saw Annie and Reiner's bodies being engulfed in a bright light.

His eyes widened. So I was right.

As the thunderous booms grew louder and louder, Mikasa's eyes widened as she spotted the source of the sounds.

The Rogue Titan was carrying the boulder, steam pouring out from its body as it slowly moved the heavy object down the street, each step an effort.

The other Garrison soldiers were staring in awe.

"Eren…" Mikasa whispered.

"Mikasa!"

Mikasa and the Garrison leader Ian turned around.

"Armin!" She gasped.

He nodded at them. "He came out of it somehow! We're set! He's determined to see the mission through to the end! As long as we've got his back while he heads for the wall, victory will be ours!"

Ian's gaze grew determined, and he raised his voice. "Defend him! To the last man if that's what it comes to! Eren must reach the gate! I don't want a single Titan anywhere near him!"

The soldiers got ready to head back into the fray. Directly in Eren's path was a group of Titans that would need to be dealt with if he was going to reach the gate.

Ian turned to the two childhood friends. "Both of you go, I want you in there immediately! Hop to soldiers! That's an order!"

Armin and Mikasa nodded. "Sir yes sir!"

Ian headed for the edge of the roof, but paused when he noticed something strange.

"What the hell is team Mitabi doing?!"

In the distance they could see Mitabi's team running on the ground right behind the Titans. Soon it became clear that their goal was to lure the Titans away from Eren, using themselves as bait.

"They're insane!" Armin cried. "Setting foot down there is suicide! If they get cornered somewhere, there wouldn't be anything they could do!"

As the Garrison watched Team Mitabi, and took in the number of Titans still in their way, they slowly realized that they would need to do the same in order to guarantee victory.

"I know." Ian said gravely.

But before he could issue any further orders, a massive flash of light came from further back in the city.

As one, the soldiers turned toward the light, but were unable to see what had caused it.

"What was that?" Ian exclaimed.

Armin frowned. "It's the same kind of flash that occurred when the Colossal Titan first appeared. I don't see anything though. Could it be the Armored?"

Closer to the source of the flash of light, Bertolt was close to hysterics.

"GUYS! PLEASE STOP!" He screamed.

But no one else besides him heard his words, so loud was the brawl between the Female and Armored Titans.

While Reiner's Titan was technically more powerful, he was nowhere near as proficient at hand to hand combat as Annie was. On top of that, he was still disoriented from the beating she'd given to his human body, and so it didn't take long before his defenses cracked and she proceeded to do to his Titan the same thing she'd done to him. His armor protected him from the worst of it, but he still wasn't looking too good by the end.

As Annie considered the full ramifications of what she was doing, she realized there was no going back now.

Her eyes hardened. Well, if I'm already in this deep, might as well go all the way.

She raised her head and screamed.

The animalistic howl could be heard all throughout Trost, catching the attention of every soldier on the wall and within the district.

As one, all of the Titans immediately began to run, converging on the source of the scream.

Pixis and his subordinates watched in stunned disbelief as all the Titans they had carefully gathered in the corner of the district abruptly began to run away, suddenly ignoring the soldiers they'd been so eagerly reaching for mere seconds ago.

"What on earth?!" Anka cried.

Pixis frowned as he watched the Titans flee, taking into account the flash he'd seen, the scream that had shortly followed, and the Titans unexpected behavior.

They must be linked somehow.

Ian and the other Garrison soldiers were shocked as the Titans in front of them suddenly ignored both Eren and their comrades and began to run back into the city.

"The Titans…" Mikasa stammered. "What are they doing?"

Armin's eyes lit up. "I don't know, but the way is clear for Eren now!"

Reiner's Titan was leaning against a building, steam pouring from its numerous injuries, while Annie exited her Titan and used her ODM gear to zip off to higher rooftops.

She glanced back with only a slight twinge of regret.

Sorry Bertolt.

Bertolt landed on the Armored Titan's shoulder, his expression panicked. "Reiner! Get up! We need to get out of here! Before…"

He wasn't able to finish the sentence before the horde of Titans was upon them.

"AAH!" Bertolt screamed.

With all the Titans gone, Eren was able to plug the hole without difficulty, and without any further sacrifices required from the soldiers.

The Garrison soldiers cheered. "WE DID IT!"

Crying in relief, Rico fired a smoke signal in the air to indicate that the mission had succeeded.

Ian grinned. "Alright, secure Eren and let's get the hell out of here!"

Mikasa and Armin nodded, and began to head for the gate, where Eren's Titan had collapsed due to exhaustion.

The horde had come close to overwhelming Reiner, his armor being the only thing preventing them from killing him outright. It was all he could do to keep himself and Bertolt from being killed as they pressed their creepy faces and grasping hands into him.

Reiner looked around desperately. Damn it, there's too many! I can't get out of this! And if I exit the nape we're both done for!

Bertolt leaned into the Armored Titan's ear. "Reiner, brace yourself! I'm going to kill these Titans, and head for the wall! While I'm doing that, you try to capture Eren, and then we'll escape over the wall! It's the only way!"

Reiner's eyes widened, but a moment later he nodded. It wasn't a great plan, but they had no other choice.

Pixis smiled in relief as he spotted the smoke signal. "Well, it looks like our little gamble paid off."

Anka nodded. "Looks like it sir. For once, things have gone humanity's way."

Then, all at once a massive explosion erupted in the district, producing a light so bright it forced everyone who saw it to squint, and sending out winds strong enough that they could be felt even by people on top of the wall a long distance away.

Armin and Mikasa paused in their approach to Eren and looked back toward the explosion.

A moment later, a truly gargantuan form stood up in the middle of Trost district, the ruins of countless buildings and the corpses of numerous Titans scattered all around the area where it had appeared.

Mikasa gasped in shock, her eyes widening in fear.

Armin felt his knees shaking, his mind going right back to that fateful day when the wall had been kicked in.

Anka's mouth had fallen open.

"It's the Colossal Titan!"

While the soldiers around him began to talk, their voices full of fear and panic, Pixis found his mind racing.

From Eren's ability we now know that there are humans that can transform into Titans. There was that strange flash of light and unearthly howl that didn't seem to have anything to do with Eren, seeing as he was busy plugging up the wall. And now the Colossal Titan has suddenly appeared in the middle of the district, seemingly out of nowhere. Something strange is going on.

He raised his voice. "All soldiers, mobilize to the outer gate! We must not let the Colossal Titan create another breach, nor can we allow it to escape!"

Even as the soldiers began to move, Pixis knew it was too late. They wouldn't get there in time, and so it would be up to the soldiers already near the outer gate to stop the Colossal Titan.

The Colossal Titan slowly began to move toward the outer gate. From the outside, it was a menacing, frightening spectacle to behold.

Inside, though, it was all Bertolt could do to avoid panicking.

Okay, stay calm. Things do look bad, really really bad. Marcel is dead, and Annie has gone native. Losing the Jaw and Female Titans will not go down well with Marley at all. But if we can capture Eren, we might still be able to salvage the situation. If he has the Founding Titan, then we're set, they won't even care about the losses. And if he isn't...well, it'll still be better than nothing.

He swallowed nervously. Annie...why?

As the Garrison soldiers near the outer gate were trying to figure out what to do about the approaching Colossal Titan, they were distracted by another problem.

"Shit, it's the Armored Titan!" Ian yelled.

The Armored Titan barreled down the street, and if it had wanted to kill the Garrison soldiers it could easily have done so, as none of them were prepared for its sudden appearance.

Fortunately for them, it ignored them completely and kept moving on past.

Reiner paid no heed to the soldiers on the ground and on the rooftops. His eyes were focused solely on his target, Eren.

I was forced to transform a second time, since Annie's attack and Bertolt's transformation did quite a number on my original Titan body. But now I've got a fresh Titan body ready to go. Eren's a complete novice. He only just discovered his power, and carrying that boulder has clearly taken its toll. He won't be able to transform again, and will be easy to take.

Reiner's eyes narrowed. Bertolt...we are going home.

As the Armored Titan ran toward Eren's collapsed form, Armin and Mikasa stood on the boulder next to Eren.

Armin looked absolutely terrified, his eyes switching back and forth between the walking Colossal Titan and the charging Armored Titan.

Mikasa, meanwhile, had a look of cold fury on her face, her blades ready to go.

"You're not getting past me!" She shouted.

Armin gasped in surprise as he noticed something unusual.

Reiner eyed Mikasa dismissively as he closed the distance between himself and Eren. You've got guts and skills, Mikasa, but those won't help you. Your blades won't be able to pierce my skin, so there's nothing you can-

His thoughts were cut off as a fist crashed into the side of his face, causing him to swerve sideways and crash to the ground.

He quickly rolled back into a crouching position and looked up to see the Female Titan glaring at him.

You fucking bitch! You're deliberately getting in our way?! Have you truly decided to defect to their side?! Or are you just doing this as a fuck you to me?!

Armin and Mikasa's jaws fell open as the Female and Armored Titans began their second brawl that day.

"What?" Mikasa uttered in bewilderment. "That Titan...it…"

"Has breasts?" Armin added. "Er, I mean, feminine features?"

"Yes. But...more importantly...it's attacking the Armored Titan?"

Armin snapped out of his daze. "Well, it seems fortune is on our side at the moment. This gives us the chance we need to get Eren out of here."

Mikasa turned sharply toward Eren's Titan. "You're right, let's go."

With the Female Titan keeping the Armored Titan occupied, and the Colossal Titan's slow movement speed, Mikasa and Armin were able to get Eren onto the wall and well away from the outer gate.

Bertolt watched them go sadly. And there goes our only hope. Damn it Annie, I get it, this whole situation is fucked, but…

This time the fight between Annie and Reiner was more evenly matched, and it ended when Bertolt reached the wall. A few of the Garrison soldiers had tried to go for his nape during his trek across the district, but Bertolt had easily blown them away with his steam, and their attempts quickly ceased.

With their opportunity to capture Eren gone, all the two remaining warriors could do now was flee before they were captured by the Garrison or the Scouts that had just returned.

And so after climbing up the Colossal Titan's enormous body, Reiner retrieved Bertolt, leaped over the side of Wall Rose, and began the long journey back to Wall Maria.

Reiner closed his eyes. Hopefully we can deflect a lot of the blame for all this onto Annie. But...I'll take full responsibility for what's happened. They might kill me for this failure, but I won't let them kill Bertolt too.

Bertolt slumped against the Armored Titan's shoulder, mentally and physically exhausted from the day's ordeals.

With the battle truly over now, Annie emerged from her Titan and stepped onto a nearby roof. She turned and noticed she was being closely watched by several Scouts standing a short distance away.

Levi stepped forward. "Alright, now's the part where you explain what the hell is going on."

Author's Note: So from what's been established in canon, Annie's connection with her father was very important to her. It was what motivated her to keep going when she was on Paradis, and finding out he was dead caused her to give up, at least temporarily.

However, it was also established that for most of her childhood her father was a strict dickhead. From what we were shown I'd say he wasn't quite as bad as Grisha was raising Zeke, but he wasn't a whole lot better. And the only reason why Annie came to genuinely care for him and love him was because he'd had that breakdown right before she left for the Paradis mission, where he apologized, said he had been wrong, and that she meant the world to him, and he desperately wanted her to come back alive. And it was this moment that gave Annie something to truly care about, and made her start to really appreciate life for the first time.

But if he hadn't had that last minute epiphany, and instead kept on treating Annie like shit until the end, she wouldn't have had any strong connections or promises tying her to Marley, and making her want to go home. Therefore I think she would have been more receptive to the positive experiences and relationships she'd had during her time in training, which would in turn have made it more likely for her to go native. And that in turn opens up a lot of fascinating possibilities.

Anyways, be sure to let me know what you thought, it really is appreciated.