"An abnormal? No she's more like the colossal titan." Eren looked back at the enemy. "Wait, so does that mean Commander Erwin was-"

"Hey! Snap out of it runt." Oruo interrupted the shifters aloud thoughts.

"You can puzzle it all together later, right now, we need you focused on pushing ahead." Petra ordered.

"Right." Eren agreed as they rode forwards until they gained enough distance to tie their horses.

Carmen knew everything now, she initially found out a few moments before they'd captured the female titan, but now, everything was there, meaning the others could piece together the information too. "I think it's obvious we came out here to capture that thing." Eld decided to speak.

"So that was the plan from the start? We weren't flying by the seat of our pants?" Eren remarked, he was taking this to heart. "I'm not complaining, I get keeping this from me, but come on, keeping you guys in the dark? You'd think you earned a little more trust than that. Right?"

"Damn you're annoying." Oruo scoffed.

"I hope you're not suggesting the captain kept the plan from us because he thinks we're a liability!" Petra dragged her swords through the air, making her frustrations known.

"I'm sorry but I am, there's just no other way it makes sense."

"Enough of this!" Oruo practically growled, he had an undying respect for Levi, and he couldn't handle to fact that Eren was suggesting it wasn't mutual. "Carmen, knock the teeth out of his skull."

"Calm down." Carmen stated plainly, she needed to stop whatever argument was occurring.

"I hate to admit it, but he has a point." The second in command sighed. "Think about it, what if Eren isn't the only titan, what if Erwin thinks one of us is a titan spy?"

Although that was true for most, it couldn't have been the case with Levi squad, because Carmen was given information prior to the expedition. Levi had trusted her to carry out his actions on his absence and thus proving none of the squad were liabilities. Unfortunately, she was the only one who knew that.

"He thinks that one of us are titans?"

"Actually, he doesn't. Because I knew about their plan." Carmen revealed, a few gasps were heard from those around her.

"You knew! And you didn't tell us?" Gunther shot at her.

"I thought you trusted us." Petra looked hurt.

"I do, but I was told to keep it under wraps for your safety." The assassin replied before continuing with her reasoning. "He doesn't think any of us are liabilities, in fact, we were left here with Eren because if their plan fails, we're the last stand against the enemy. If that doesn't show respect and trust, I don't know what does." She said, before referring to the other half of the plan. "However, you're right when it comes to the titan spy, at least that's what I believe. Though what's important is that they know it's not us."

"I reckon the only ones in the know were the survivors of 5 years ago." Eld added.

"Of course, that's got to be it."

"I agree wholeheartedly." Oruo stated. "Hear that sniffledrop, there was a good reason." He aimed at Eren.

"Right, yes, a perfectly good reason. After all, it adds up. It's the best way to narrow down the list of suspects to a manageable number. Shiganshina's probably when the spy got in." Petra nodded her head.

"Who do you think the real enemy is?" Carmen repeated a question. "That's what Erwin asked us all, the correct answer was that's it's someone within our ranks, in fact, Levi told me not to answer the question correctly, but this is the outcome he was hoping for."

"He told you not to answer correctly? Why?" Petra asked.

"Either he didn't want me to know, or he wanted me here to protect Eren. Considering he dislikes me, it might be both. But it didn't really matter, I found out when that bitch showed up."

"Well, I knew, I just decided to keep to my own council. Doubtless I bet you appreciate my silence." Oruo bragged, but everyone knew he was lying.

"I'm sure everyone appreciates your silence, maybe you should practice again for next time?" Carmen joked.

"Well, next time I may just answer the question. Maybe one day you'll reach my level of expertise and we can all know about Erwin's plans." He scoffed, ignoring her remark.

"Look, we all get that you like to pretend you're Captain Levi, but that's not how he sounds." Petra insulted, she didn't appreciate Oruo's mockery.

"You would know." Carmen muttered.

"Yeah yeah, you're just mad because he doesn't like you." Petra retorted, but Carmen truly didn't give a damn if Levi liked her or not, she was sent to kill his not befriend him, somehow she'd failed on both fronts.

"Eren, I can understand why you have your doubts, but in time you'll come to realise, just like we all did, why Erwin Smith was entrusted to lead the scouts and carry humanities hope." Eld made the conversation more realistic, but the assassin wasn't too interested, after all, Erwin wasn't someone she wanted to get close to. He was too smart, he'd figure her out instantly and even then, he was just as heartless as her. He'd killed hundreds on this expedition, and will likely preach that it was all for the cause.

"Or why someone as cagey as captain Levi can trust him."

"Indeed, live long enough and you'll understand the way-"

Suddenly, Oruo was cut short by an ear bleeding screech, no, it was more like a roar. It must have been the Female titan, but it only made more questions arise from the assassin. To all the others, it was a roar signalling the scouts victory, but to someone as trained and experienced in death, Carmen saw more. She was desperate, it was a dying act, their enemy had been backed into a corner and that was her way of getting out. Danger was closing in, and she needed to protect her squad.

Moments after the scream, a blue smoke signal was blast into the air, their mission was over. But Carmen was still on edge, regardless of her friends upbeat attitude.

"That's our cue, alright let's saddle up, we're going home." Gunther instructed.

"Chop chop runt." Oruo scoffed and got to his feet, as the others all checked their gas.

Then as they were taking off back to their ODM gear, the entire atmosphere had changed from scared to happy, in their eyes, the mission was a success. "Oruo, Petra. I've got to hand it to you both, for someone who wet themselves first time out, you've come a long way!" Eld teased.

"No! Who told you that!?" Petra screamed and looked at Carmen. "I thought you agreed never to speak of it again!"

"I lied." Carmen said, a hint of happiness hidden in her tone. "Also, I decided that it was funny." Her lips almost curved upwards, but she hadn't reached the stage of smiling just yet.

"Wait seriously?" Eren wondered and looked at Oruo too.

"Relax, incidentally, I've never once pissed myself." Eld laughed.

"How dare you! I have the second highest kill count of anyone in the damn squad!" Oruo insulted. "Imbecile!"

"You can hide that stain behind your kill count as much as you want. But Carmen's got a high kill count and a dry uniform." Eld continued to annoy, complimenting the assassin in the progress.

"Wait so did it rain down on everyone midair?" Eren wondered.

"No, it just puddled by their feet." Carmen answered, since she was the only other one who was there.

"Did you see it?" Eren asked the woman.

"She was the one who caused it!" Petra accused. "Why would you jump into a fight on your first expedition?!"

"I won, didn't I?!

"Shut up! No one cares who pissed who's pants, focus on the job ahead." Gunther kept everyone in line. "For the record, my shorts have always been dry." Just then, a green smoke signal went off besides them. "Must be a signal from the Captain himself. Stall the chatter until we're home, we'll rendezvous with Levi shortly." The man shot one of his own flares into the air, leading 'Levi' straight towards them.

"Why did you do that?" Carmen asked him, she had a bad feeling and was still paranoid from the scream.

"He said he'd be back so we're guiding him back to Eren." Gunther answered, not seeing the problem.

"I suppose." She answered, seeing his point. But she thought Levi trusted them to get back to him with his horse, so it didn't make much sense for him to look for them.

It didn't take long for a short figure to begin chasing them on ODM gear, which was strange because normally, Levi would have just used his fast pace techniques to easily catch up to them. "Captain Levi?" Gunther tilted his head and approached the figure.

But just as Gunther closed in on the scout, Carmen realised something.

That scout was three inches too short.