"HA!" The nape of the Abnormal Titan is cleanly by my blades. As it falls defeated, I maneuver over to my squad leader, Section Commander Miche. "Anymore, sir?"

He sniffs the air again. "No, but we're not going to wait around and find out either. Good work out there. Time to join the main force on the plains." My mission with the Miche Squad was simple. As the vanguard, we are to protect the squadrons coming through the old city outside Calaneth which is ridden with Titans. I help see the other squadrons, some containing my friends, through the old town and out to the plains. Now that everyone got through, and rid of all the Titans, we can head out.

Once we're safe, I find myself with the Levi Squad, minus the team leader and its new recruit.

"The surrounding Titans have been eliminated," Gunther states. "We should be able to advance without obstruction."

Eld nods. "Let's get everybody ready here before we join up with the rest of the regiment. We should have enough time before they're in formation."

Gunther turns to me. "You know, you've been doing a good job so far."

"Yeah," Petra agrees. "You've come such a long way this last month. You'll get through this expedition with no trouble."

As expected, the tongue-biting asshole speaks. "Yeah, compared to our first mission this is-"

Eld chuckles. "Oh, you really want to discuss your first mission, huh, Ouro?"

Interested, I turn to him. Maybe the pig has something enlightening to say for once. "What happened on your first mission?"

Petra waves her hands and raises her voice as if it is something to not be spoken of. "Argh! Nothing! Nothing at all! Just forget it! No need to say more, Eld!"

"Let's just say that everyone has a first time. And compared to these guys, you seem pretty used to real-world combat."

I scratch the back of my head, enjoying the compliments even though I don't think I deserve them. "Well.. when your first mission is a surprise Titan attack, you tend to get used to things pretty fast. At least for some."

"What are you people blabbering about again? Get moving!" We turn to see that Levi and Eren finally arrived.

Petra, still flustered, speaks. "Yes, sir! At once, sir!" As Levi's soldiers move away, it leaves me with him and Eren.

He turns to me now. "We go our separate ways now. Get back to your position before we're all in formation. You got guts, I won't deny that. Just make sure they don't get you killed."

"Yes, sir."

Levi steps, to which I face Eren. He sighs, probably nervous about the expedition. "So... A mission outside the Walls..."

I grab Eren's shoulder. "Don't go dying on us again, Eren. I can only see Mikasa and Armin sad for so little before I get sad myself."

Eren nods. "Don't worry, I'll come back alive! You better too!"

"I will."

"Our first expedition."

I turn to Christa, the girl's face is more solemn than usual. "Hey, Christa, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just more nervous than I thought I'd be. I just hope everyone manages to make it back in one piece."

"They will," I say confidently, though we both know it's not true. I wonder if she means everyone in the Scouts or all our friends because the latter could be more possible. Whatever she really means, I continue to comfort the blonde. "Don't worry. Though, we can leave Ymir, right?"

Christa, though she tries not to, smiles. Don't joke about that, you know you like her more than you suggest."

"Well, she has my respect in some ways. I would miss that piece of ass-stounding work that is Ymir." I looked to Christa, who either caught what I said and ignored it or didn't at all.

"Anyway, you're right. We've been training for this day for ages. I don't know what came over me. I refuse to become a liability to anyone! I can take care of myself!"

I nod. "I'll hold you to that, but don't worry. We got your back." We continue in our positions before the formation break. As we continue riding, I catch a glance of Mikasa behind me looking down as well. I slow down from Christa's side a bit, back to see what's up. "Mikasa, you okay?"

"I can't help but worry about Eren when he's not here... Do you think he's safe?"

I give her a reassuring smile. "He's fine, Mikasa. You worry too much."

"But if anything were to happen to him, I... It's almost time to get into formation... Promise me you'll take care of yourself out there?"

I nod. "You too, Mikasa." I ride back up to Christa, waiting for the signal to get in formation. As I do, I grab my necklace. Mother, Father, Mina, Thomas, watch over us. Tell God to bring my friends back safe and sound, okay? Eventually, the signal is given. The scouts began to spread out in the long-range scouting formation. We all began to split one after the other until it was me, Armin, Reiner, and Jean left.

Reiner waves to Armin who's in the lead. "See you, Armin!"

Jean looks to me. "Don't chicken out if you see a Titan!"

"You don't chicken out, Jean, or I'll kick your dead ass!"

"Yeah," Armin says, "That goes for everyone."

"Advance towards our goal while keeping formation! We don't know where the Titans are, so be careful!"

One of the squad members turns to me. "Cadet! Hang in there! Don't get scared or start hesitating!"

I nod, though his advice is useless to me. "Yes, sir." We ride out of the small village we grouped in and out to the open fields. As part of the upper right side of the signaling group, we're to signal if we see the red signal of a spotter group that saw a Titan. If they miss it, we will initiate the signal, but if necessary we'll take the Titan out.

It seems we're forced to do the latter option of removing the Titans by force. We do encounter a few Titans along the road we follow, all of them missed by the spotter group ahead of us. I don't know what's going on, but as my squadron leader states, there shouldn't be this many encounters with Titans. Maybe we got an unlucky spot.

Once we reach our destination and eliminate the Titans here, our squad leader is sweating bullets. "There are so many Titans. Something must be going on."

"What could it be?"

"I think something's wrong with our enemy scouting capabilities... Look, a smoke signal! Shit, the formation's already been broken... Cadet, can you go inform the other squads!"

I nod. "On it!"

"Join up with any other squad you can find! And whatever you do, don't die!" I split from my squadron, riding as fast as I can towards the smoke signal. "Come on boy, get me there. HYA!" The signal is coming from the mid-right end of the formation, still in the signaling group...so it could be anyone I know. Armin? Reiner? Jean? As i get closer, I catch sight of the latter two. Reiner and Jean are already engaging Titans. The formation really is broken.

"Wait here boy, I'll be right back." I leap off of Spirit and attach my hooks to the Titan closest to Reiner, zipping forward like a bolt of lightning as I eliminate the Titan. "Hey, guys," I say as I bounce off the Titan's back.

"Elijah? What the hell are you doing here? Whatever, just lend us a hand!"

Thought you'd never ask. I flip in the air, aiming for some elderly Titan. As I head towards him, I leap onto his very muscular partner, cutting him down before he catches up with Jean. I leap off him, then slash my blade horizontally across the Titan's neck. With them down, my friends are now safe.

"Nice work, Elijah."

I nod as I saddle back onto Spirit. "Thanks, Reiner. Any idea what's going on? We noticed that the formation broke back with my squad."

Jean shakes his head. "It's not normal for things like this to be in formation. I wish I had a better idea of what's going on here."

"Look, a smoke signal!" Reiner points to where the upper right side of the formation should be. That's...Armin's location. I frown.

"That's Armin. We have to get to him as fate as we can! Let's move!"

"Armin!" I spot my friend sitting on the dirt road, looking in the forward direction. He looks too shocked to see us.

Reiner gets to him first, having caught Armin's horse. "Hey, can you stand? You won't last outside the walls unless you're on horseback... Hurry!"

"Right!" Armin quickly jumps on his horse and we ride off again, chasing after a near-skinless Titan with short blonde hair. By the definition, it seems to be an Abnormal. "I saw the smoke signal signaling an Abnormal. Was it that one there with the nice ass?"

I internally facepalm. I knew you had some affinity with asses, Reiner, but to compliment a Titan's well... I guess he's not wrong.

Armin shakes his head. "That's no Abnormal... It's a human in a Titan body!"

"What?"

I sigh. "Great. Just like Eren, the Armored and the Colossal."

"Wait a second," Armin says as he reaches for the pouches around his horse's neck. "We need to fire a smoke signal first." He fumbles with the gun and pellet in his nervousness. "H-Hurry... There's an emergency over there. With a smoke round, I'll..." We hear the sound of a gun firing. Seems Jean already knew what to do.

"Alright," I say, "Jean got it." However, it wasn't the only one. More golden streaks fly across the sky to our right. This is not good, not good at all.

"It came from the right flank," Reiner says. "Does that mean we're so compromised, we can't continue the mission?"

"Looks like the right flank recon squad was partially wiped out... Titans, tons of them. I don't know why, but there are lots of fast ones. For now, we're holding them back, but recon is no longer possible... "

"That explains why my squad encountered so many Titans before I came to you guys."

"We've taken heavy losses, and if we aren't careful, we'll be destroyed!"

"That Titan came from the same direction." Speaking of, holy shit, I owe Commander Pyxis a report. "No way... Was it leading the Titans?"

"It?" Jean finally looks forward, seeing the "it" we're pursuing. "Why is a Titan over there? An abnormal?"

I shrug. "The only thing abnormal about it is its figure. Titans are masculine in physique, though some faces are definitely feminine. That, Jean, is female head to toe."

"No," Armin states. "It's a human in a Titan body... Someone with the same ability as Eren."

"What?"

"Why do you think that, Armin?"

"The Titans only eat us. We're just killed in the process. Killing us isn't ever specifically their goal. But when more experienced soldiers aimed for its weak spot, it crushed them and smashed them into the ground. It killed them to kill, rather than to eat them. Its nature is different from the others. When the Colossal and Armored Titans destroyed the walls, it must've been the one that brought that army of Titans. Their goal has been to attack all humanity! No, maybe not. It felt like it was looking for someone... If that is the case, who could it be looking for?..."

"Damn." I look to Armin. "Could it be looking for Eren?"

"Eren? Eren's with the Levi Squad, which is in charge of the right flank."

We all look at Reiner, confused. "No way he's there. I was told they're in the middle left."

"The right flank?" Jean frowns. "The plans I got had them to the rear of the left flank."

"Mine said they were near the front to the right... Wait, there's no way they'd be on the front lines."

"So, where are they?"

"Probably the safest place in the formation. Which means in the center, and toward the rear..."

I nod. "Yeah, that makes sense. That's where I'd keep our most valuable weapon."

"Armin! There's no time to think. Smoke rounds can't possibly indicate how much of a threat it poses! At this rate, it'll wipe out command. Then the formation will fall apart, and that'll be the end."

"What are you trying to say, Jean?"

"In other words, at this range, we may still be able to draw its attention. We may be able to buy time to withdraw. Maybe... Maybe..."

I nod. "He's got a point, this could work."

"But it really is intelligent," Armin reminds us. "To it, we are nothing but insignificant insects. It'll just crush us..."

"Seriously?" Jean says with some dread and humor mixed together. "That's scary..."

Reiner raises an eyebrow. "Hey, are you really Jean? The Jean I know never thinks of anyone but himself."

"Don't be an ass... I just don't want those charred bones I saw to be disappointed in me! I... I know what I have to do now! And this is the job we chose. So help me!"

I smile. "You really have come a long way."

Armin covers his face with his hood. "Put on your hood. As forward as you can... So that your face is hidden from it. I don't think it will kill us until it knows who we are!"

"Oh... You believe if it thinks we might be Eren, it won't kill us? If nothing else, it'll make me feel better. Let's just hope it has poor eyesight!"

I put my hood on. "If it doesn't, I'll give it to them!" I smile at the upcoming challenge.

"Armin, Elijah..." We turn to Jean, who looks at us with...respect? "I thought it was creepy how you guys always clung to Eren. But I've always known you had it in you!"

"Uh, thanks. But "creepy"? That's really mean..."

I turn to Armin with a frown. "When do I ever 'cling to Eren?'"

Jean corrects himself. "Yeah, that's right. You had all the girls wrapped around your finger. Maybe you'll get Ymir to put out. Maybe Christa will join too. Or is it Sasha? I can't really tell these days."

I resist the urge to punch his smug horse-looking face and just roll my eyes. "If it's women you want, Jean, today's your lucky day. You can have that Titan, even if you're too small where it counts."

As we got close, Armin signals us to space out. Jean and Reiner will flank her sides while Armin and I stay behind. However, as I look at my favorite brainiac, I can tell he senses something about this Titan. Whatever it is, he doesn't call the plan off. That's enough for me.

I look at it...her? Maybe it's better if I use that. We won't try to kill her, there's no point in fighting an intelligent Titan unprepared. But in the meantime, we might be able to surprise her. I don't doubt that she knows we're chasing after her or that we know she'll protect her nape, but there are other ways to hurt her, We just need to slow her down, the quickest way is by cutting her legs. If we can cut the Achilles tendon, that'd be more than enough. We can't do anything stupid.

"Elijah."

"Yeah?"

"Your skills are on par with Mikasa's, do you think you can kill her?"

I shake my head. "No. Something tells me she'll protect herself before she protects her body. The Colossal Titan has its steam, the Armored Titan has armor. This one is more like Eren. Killing her without restraining her movement to protect her nape is impossible. If there's anyone that could, I'd wager Levi could." I look back at the Titan, unless my eyes deceive me, she's looking back at Armin. Oh shit.

Jean tries to engage the Titan by attaching his hooks, but they bounce off of what seems to be some hardened exoskeleton. The lady turns, swinging her fist at Jean, using the wind to knock off his hood. I attempt next, flying up towards the nape, but the Titan swats me like a fly. She then steps forward, swatting the ground by Armin. No, it looks like she actually hit Armin's horse. "Armin!" The Titan looks at my fallen figure first, now that my face is exposed. She looks away from me after a momentary staredown between us before leaving. If what Armin thinks is true, she let me live due to my inability to attack her, and she ignores me afterward due to the fact that I share little of Eren's characteristics.

Those eyes...I may be crazy, but do I...recognize them? No... No way...but... That shade of blue...they're so familiar.

Next, she steps over to Armin, but as she checks him, Jean begins to counterattack. This time, he attaches, but as he gets close, the Female Titan tries to attack him. He manages to get her backside, but as I expected, she protects her nape with her left hand. Jean is trapped, and the Titan begins her final strike, possibly by grabbing Jean's wire.

"Jean! Avenge the suicidal maniac!" The Titan suddenly stops mid-attack. Armin, his head split open, manages to get on his knees as he looks up to Jean. "That's the one... That's the one that killed him! He rushed to his death on the right flank! Avenge him!" Whatever Armin was saying, it worked, Jean managed to get to the ground alive. However, why did Armin say that to Jean? Who's this "suicidal maniac?"

Yes. Claims he's not like Eren though, calling him a 'suicidal maniac.'

Sasha said that Jean called Eren a "suicidal maniac" back before we chose our regiment. Armin must have heard it. But why would the Titan cease its attack? Something...Armin found out. He continues talking as Reiner engages the Titan, his hook going straight to her shoulder. Reiner's going for her nape! NO! Can he do it while Armin distracts her? Maybe he can...no. At the last second, she spots Reiner flying by her face. And just as quickly, Reiner is grabbed. "Reiner!" He's not completely crushed, but he's struggling nonetheless. That's when she places her thumb over his head...then there's blood everywhere.

For the first time since I was a kid, for the first time as a soldier, I'm unmoved, I'm shaken, I'm...afraid. Not for my life, no... But...the horror...the cold running down your spine, freezing your nerves...is this fear? Is this what everyone felt back at Trost while I bravely fought back? Yes, this is it. Eren fell to it, Armin fell to it, Mikasa fell to it, everyone has...so why shouldn't I?

But before I'm completely frozen, Reiner returns, bursting out of the Titan's hand. I gasp in relief as he goes to Armin and picks him up, then I look to the Titan. It looks at its smoldering hand before lowering it, possibly wondering how in the hell Reiner escaped. No matter, I get to Jean and start our retreat with Reiner. "We've bought enough time, right? Let's get the hell away from it! If it isn't a man-eater, it won't follow us!" We run as we watch as the Titan stands up, then begins to run in the opposite direction of us. "Look... That big bitch got scared and decided to go home!"

No...why? Something's telling me that Reiner is wrong. I may have lost my sense of direction du to the fight, but... I don't think she's retreating, but advancing...to Eren.

With only one horse between the four of us, in which I mean mine, Spirit, we deemed it too dangerous to leave a pair behind. In the meantime, Reiner bandages Armin's head, Jean tries to get his horse to come to us, and I...tend to Spirit. We're down to two situations. One, we wait for Jean's horse to come like mine did, or two...two people must be left behind. I told Christa that everyone in our friend group will come home, but even if I didn't, I had no plans of leaving anyone behind.

"Armin... Hey, Armin!" Reiner snaps Armin out of whatever trance he's in. "Are you still out of it?"

"Yeah, my head's still a bit fuzzy..."

"I see... But we must decide. It's a hard choice, but someone will have to stay behind." Jean turns to Reiner, I look over to him as well. He can't be serious.

"Wait! First, let's fire a smoke round... If the formation continued straight ahead, the row 4-3 team should be nearby."

Jean sighs, pulling out his flare gun and firing a purple one. "That's the signal for an emergency... But I can't imagine they'll understand our intentions just from that."

"Armin," Reiner calls sternly, "We can only wait another three minutes. By then, we must decide-"

"I'll stay," Armin replies immediately. "But there's something I want you to tell them for me... Preferably to Commander Erwin alone-"

"No, Armin. You should tell him yourself. Looks like someone's here... And with two horses!"

I stand and walk to Jean. I look at our approaching savior, then give a small laugh. "Well, I'll be damned... It's Christa!"

"Is everyone okay?" Christa gets to us, releasing one of the horses to Jean, the other Armin takes."

"That's my horse... Woah, Woah. Calm down, Buchwald."

"He ran toward me, terrified... Something must've really spooked him. Oh, Reiner, you don't have a horse."

"Yeah?"

The blonde then hops off her horse. "Here, you can ride mine." She then walks up to me who's already saddled up. Christa looks away for a moment, then looks back at me. "I can ride with you, Elijah."

I want to argue that I can just ride with Armin, but...I see Jean's face and I can't help myself. "Hop on." I hear Jean mumble something about "of course she'd want to ride with him" which tickles me as she gets on my horse. "Don't worry, Spirit here rides like a dream."

She smiles, then turns to the others. "Did you engage the Titans?"

"Engage would be an understatement"

"Armin, what happened to you? Are you okay?"

He nods. "Yeah, I think so."

Reiner turns to her, prepared to leave. "I can't believe that smoke round brought you here."

"I was nearby, and I already had Jean's horse."

"Even horses like you. It seems you have a strange charisma. You saved our lives."

Christa smiles before dropping her head before tears form in her eyes. "But I'm so glad that the worst didn't happen to you. I really am glad." She wipes her eyes and smiles.

I don't know why the other guys are looking like they saw a goddess, but I don't appreciate them looking at Christa like she's some wife to be fought for. Especially, Reiner, I swear the guy looks like he's gonna start drooling. "Hey," I say as Christa holds onto me from behind since she'll now be riding with me on my beautiful steed. We're not leaving that soldier behind. "We have to go."

Trance broken, and the other guys pick themselves up and hop on their horses. I turn mine as well. "Well, we should rejoin the formation as soon as possible."

"Yeah, there should be orders to retreat."

I turn to Jean. "You think the commander is gonna go for that?"

He shrugs. "To think we've been pushed back, less than an hour out of the walls. Things are even bleaker than I'd imagined... And for some reason, it went in the opposite direction from the vanguard command team."

Christa perks up at that. "It?"

Before I can answer, green smoke signals tower the treeline. "Wait, Look!"

"Green smoke rounds?"

"Looks like they're continuing the operation, only changing course..."

"What? That wasn't a retreat command?"

"What is Commander Erwin thinking?"

"In theory, any soldier has the authority to determine when mission completion is no longer possible. Did command not see our smoke round somehow?"

"Maybe... If the commander knows of this new Titan, he would definitely want to capture her."

"Even if we don't know what's going on, there's still only one thing for us to do... Follow the order!"

I agree with Armin. Since I'm the lead rider, I temporarily assume the leadership role. "Armin, fire the flare. We'll see what happens then. Best case scenario, our new lady friend hasn't reached Eren." Armin raises his gun and fires the green flare.

Black rounds are fired to the distant back, possibly somewhere between us and where Eren's squad is. No one else knows what that Titan is capable of...and when they find out... It'll be too late. Whatever Commander Erwin is planning, I hope he knows what he's doing...and what he's sacrificing.