Everybody left to get a good sleepless slumber in preparation for the operation the next day. Eren's friends gave him a meaningful look and a good night as they passed. Erwin, Hanji (who had come in when Charles told her that she was part of the mission now), and Levi stayed behind, all deep in thought, looking at their feet or else at the map laid out in front of them. Eren was stiff as a board, waiting for them to break out of their reverie.

"Ano..."

All eyes landed on him and he let the words tumble out of his mouth before he thought too much about it.

"Who is Captain Charles exactly?"

"A brat."

"A soldier."

"An interesting specimen."

Eren sweatdropped. "That's not what I meant."

Erwin stood up and rolled up the map. "Not much we can do even if we know something is going to go wrong."

"You know something is going to go wrong?" Eren inquired.

"Ah," Hanji answered. "Charles has a great sense of premonition. If she isn't satisfied with the plan, it usually means something is going to go wrong."

"In this case," Levi uncrossed his legs. "We'll end up having to resort to plan B and a crapload of civilians will die because of it."

"Or," Hanji held her chin in her hand. "It could mean the whole plan fails with thousands of casualties."

Eren's eyebrows furrowed.

"Ma," Hanji clapped her hands together and grinned. "The good thing is Charles didn't break into tears so we have some chance of it succeeding."

"There was an expedition that resulted in the deaths of almost half of the survey corps," Levi explained when he saw Eren's confusion. "Charles begged everyone not to go and sobbed her eyes out, but they still went."

"That sounds useful," Eren said, intrigued.

Erwin nodded. "It's part of the reason why the Survey Corps didn't have such a high percentage of deaths in the years she was present."

"So, why did she leave?" Eren asked, a spark of rage igniting. "If she had been here-"

"I was the one that ordered her to leave the safety of the walls," Erwin interrupted, making Eren recoil. "She was just following my orders."

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry for being intrusive..."

Levi sighed suddenly.

"What?" Hanji demanded.

He shook his head. "Nothing at all."

"Any other questions?" Erwin queried Eren.

"What are her stats?"

The Captains and Commander all paused.

"We don't know..." Hanji said absently, almost as if just realizing that fact.

"You don't know?" Eren leaned forward. "How do you not know?"

"Well, we can't really track her easily."

There was the sound of a lighter sparking and all their eyes landed on the figure in the corner. The person sucked in the smoke and Levi sipped on his tea uncaringly.

"Charles..." Hanji said, a bit unhinged. "Wait! How many of those life leaching cylinders have you had in the last hour?!"

Charles gave her a stoic expression. "This is my fifth."

"More importantly," Hanji turned on Levi. "You knew she came in here!"

Levi gave her a level stare. "I don't know what you're talking about, glasses."

Erwin watched the proceedings uninterestedly, watching as Charles took a smoke. Eren fidgeted in his spot, not sure what he should do with himself as his Captains argued with each other. He suddenly felt a presence behind him and whipped around. Charles was looming over him.

"0 assists," she said quietly. "78 kills."

Eren's mouth dropped open and his eyes enlarged two sizes.

_

Jean was wearing an itchy wig, nerves building up inside of him like a tumor waiting to burst. What he would give to get out of this carriage and fly over to the main operation. He clenched his fists in his lap and gritted his teeth. How incompetent are the military police anyway? How, in anyplace in hell, would he resemble that Jaeger?

Exhale.

Jean coughed as smoke entered his lungs. He lifted his gaze and he suddenly saw a fully armed Captain, taking a smoke in a compact vehicle.

"Charles heichou!" Jean exclaimed.

The woman was leaning her elbow on the window and then propping her cheek with her hand. She had her legs crossed and a cigarette in her mouth. When Jean yelled, her eyes roamed over to look at him.

"Nice of you to notice me," Charles smirked.

"What-"Jean lowered his voice. "What are you doing here?"

"What's the matter in there?" a soldier outside knocked roughly on the door. "You better not be trying anything Jaeger."

"Nothing at all, sir!" Jean said hurriedly. "I was just-"

"Taking a crap," Charles offered.

"Taking a crap!" Jean facepalmed.

Charles giggled.

"What?" the soldier outside sounded perplexed. "You're doing what?"

"I'm sorry. It's nothing," Jean said, almost giving up trying to cover up for what he said.

"Ah, you new recruits are great," Charles said, luxuriously blowing out some smoke.

"With all due respect, sir," Jean said, pouting a bit. "But that was cruel."

"It's not like they know it was you who was saying it. For all they know, it was Eren who was taking a crap in here."

Jean blinked. "True."

A giant explosion caused the carriage to shake and almost throw Jean off his seat. Charles grabbed hold of the seat to keep herself from falling and her cigar fell out of her mouth. She tsked and looked out the window to see that the other carriages and the soldiers outside had halted. Some of the men were pointing at a direction that wasn't in her line of vision.

"It failed..." she muttered under her breath.

Jean sat up again and flew to the door. But just as his hand was about to reach the handle, Charles' leg was abruptly between him and the way to freedom. Jean looked over at his superior in astonishment. She looked deadly calm and she had her arms crossed over her chest. She wasn't looking at him but out the window. Jean followed her gaze and saw the Commander and the Captain disembark from their own vehicle.

Charles removed her leg and stood.

"Count to five then go and support the others," she instructed, opening the door and closing it again on Jean's surprised expression.

Nobody noticed her when she got out of the carriage, as per usual, but she saw Levi glance at her before placing his attention on the situation in front of him. Charles saw the plume of smoke in the distance and her eyes narrowed. She itched for another smoke but swallowing the instinct, she set to work on keeping the others from being shot in the head and dying a lame death.

She saw Jean get out like she instructed and she kept taping the rifle she had snatched from off a military soldier while keeping her eyes on Jean's movements. The gun powder and bullet finally escaped the weapon and she placed it back on its owner without the man noting her presence. Jean ran passed her and she saw the steely resolve in his eyes.

Charles finished off the last one just when they began to point the now useless arms at Levi and Erwin. She went over to stand beside them, Erwin knowing she was around but not seeing her and Levi seeing her but ignoring her all the same.

"I can execute you right now and the brass wouldn't care!" the military commander shouted, pointing the empty rifle at Erwin.

Erwin didn't look the least bit threatened, although there was nothing to be frightened of an empty canister.

"I still don't understand why I'm stationed here," Charles whispered to no one in particular as Erwin used his logical whatnot to sway the military soldier's decision.

"There wouldn't be any point in capturing the Female Titan if we get killed," Levi whispered back. "Hanji doesn't have enough authority to get away with this stunt."

Charles sniffed. "Not that I don't think that the Military Police doesn't have enough bloodlust to kill, but they surely can't even fantasize about attacking your faces."

She pointed at him and then at Erwin. "They're downright nightmare inducing."

Levi began to ignore her again. Charles watched as Erwin won himself a pair of handcuffs and they were led to the chaos that Eren and the Female Titan have managed to create in the past few minutes. Charles whistled as Eren went mad and thought she might have to step in when the Female Titan tried to climb up the wall to escape.

Levi put a hand over the one Charles was grasping her sword with and she gave him a look. She glanced at his broken ankle and then at his blazing eyes. A few more seconds went by and Charles finally gave in, sighing. She stripped off her 3D maneuver gear and handed it to him. Levi strapped on the equipment in a matter of seconds and just as Eren was infusing to the Female, Levi zoomed forward to extract him from the nape of the neck.

Charles crossed her arms as the rest of the soldiers rushed forward to help.

Show off.

_

"Huh?" one of the Military soldiers pulled on the trigger of their rifle. "It's not working."

"What do you mean?" one of his companions came up to him. "Did you put in the powder correctly?"

"I'm pretty sure I did..." the man kept pulling the trigger and aiming the gun into the sky. "Is it broken?"

"Here," his friend offered him his own gun. "You'll need it more than I do. You're arresting the titan shifter."

"Thanks," he accepted it and tried it out as well, only to see that it too wasn't firing any bullets. "Yours doesn't work either."

"Huh?"

This caught the attention of the other Military Police and they all tested their rifles. They were all apparently defective.

"What the hell...?"

"Don't tell me we were all armed with useless weapons in the middle of this crisis..."

"Oh."

They turned around to finally see Charles standing behind them, they all stumbled backward, stuttering incoherent words. She raised a hand.

"That was my doing."

"You tampered with the Military Police's artilleries?" said one man, still shaken at her sudden appearance.

"Yeah, a few minutes ago actually."

"A few minutes ago? That's not possible, we were wearing them over our shoulders. We would've noticed."

"But you didn't."

The police glanced at each other.

"Who are you?" one of them demanded.

Charles wasn't there anymore.

"Where'd she go?!"

"Was she a ghost or something?!"

"She wasn't a ghost."

They turned to see Hanji with her goggles a gleam. They shivered at the crazy look in her eyes. She tilted her head and grinned maniacally.

"Ever heard of the phantom sixth man?" she asked.

"Yeah... but that's just an urban legend-"

"Oooooh! I'm considered a legend!" Charles said, puffing out her cheeks.

The police all yelled at her appearance and aimed the rifles at her before remembering that they were empty of ammunition.

"Oi, shitheads."

Hanji and Charles looked over their shoulder to see Levi standing next to Erwin.

"Stop making nice with those cowards and let's talk about some things. Erwin needs to go to a special cell with his name on it soon."

"Okay, shorty, be right there," Hanji wrapped an arm roughly around Charles' neck and half carried and half pulled her along.

"S-s-s-s-so..." a man stuttered, pointing at the backs of the survey corps. "It's true? The legend about the sixth man is true?"

"Commander Erwin, Corporal Levi, Squad Leader Hanji, Squad Leader Mike Zacharius, Nanaba, and the phantom sixth man..." a man listed off as the people whose names he said walked away. "The elites of the Survey Corp..."

Charles had a cigarette hanging from her lips and as she was shuffling around to find the lighter, somebody plucked the cigar out of her mouth.

"Hey!" she grappled with Levi who smashed the cigar in his fist. "That was my last one!"

"Good."

Charles winced as Levi's hand grasped the top of her head, his grip iron. "Ite!"

"You're rotting off brain cells. If you lose anymore you'll be too pathetic."

Charles swiped his hand off her head and pouted. "You're the reason why I started in the first place..."

Levi blinked.

"So this is what you were sensing would happen, Charles?" Hanji asked, clearly uncaring about the situation.

"I would never have guessed she would encase herself in impenetrable crystal if that's what you mean. I just knew the operation wouldn't be much of a success."

"And why did you want Hanji to participate. She barely did a thing," Erwin asked.

"If you only gave me more traps we wouldn't even be in this situation!" Hanji retorted, gesturing to the crystal that held Annie.

"I never thought that Plan C would work," Charles began as Hanji growled at Erwin. "It was only a stall for time."

Hanji's eyes widened slightly. "You knew Eren would be hesitant to transform?"

Charles sighed. "Again, I don't know exactly what's going to happen. I only had a gut feeling."

"Besides," her gaze wandered over to the net wrapped crystal that was being carried underground. "It's hard to predict what humans are capable of when the grim reaper is breathing down their necks. They get desperate."