The red smoke spiralled into the air, within moments, the scouts gathered around both Armin and Erwin, awaiting their orders. When they heard of Armin's theory, their blood ran cold.

In the walls? Armin thinks that they're in the walls?

It was an odd theory, but it was perfectly plausible and equally as daunting. The walls were huge, at least 50 metres tall and covered a whole district - the enemy could be anywhere and everywhere all at once. It wasn't completely off the table for them to be hiding in some of the houses, the scouts had so little to go on. So upon hearing their orders, they went with their only option and scoured the walls, checking for cavities that could potentially hide a person.

Carmen waited on the edge, eyes still darting around since her eyesight was more advanced than most. Every so often, she looked at some of her recruits, checking they were up to standard and doing as instructed. As soon as she spotted a mistake, she let herself fall down the side of the wall, catching herself right beside one of the recruits.

"Haroldson." She scolded one of them. "I want you checking all the way to the bottom, those 5 metres you keep leaving unchecked could be harbouring an enemy." The assassin elaborated.

"Uh-, yes Drill Sargent." The man nodded, his voice slightly quivering due to the sheer amount of pressure on him.

Turning away, she was about to move on but felt compelled to at least give him some reassurance - as though it was her duty as his teacher. "There's no need to worry, you trained for this and I'm certain you won't allow all that work to go to waste. If the time ever rises, that training will be like a reflex. Got it?" She encouraged him. Seeing him relax slightly, she left him to his work and began to cover all the area's the recruit had missed.

As she was tapping her swords quickly against the wall, a smoke signal spiralled into the air and a series of events swiftly unfolded in front of her bare eyes. In an instant, Reiner had stabbed the soldier who'd signalled the flare and dived out of the cavity in the wall. Then the next thing she knew, Levi had raced to Reiner, stabbing his swords mercilessly into the shifter's neck. Yet, regardless of Levi's efforts, a yellow flash of lightning struck Reiner, transforming him into the armoured titan.

Carmen clenched her teeth, she thought Levi had gotten to him quick enough, but that wasn't the case. "Shit." She muttered to herself before looking over to the recruits. "Get back onto the wall's surface!" She ordered hastily as she began running up the wall, recruits following in suit. However, they barely made any leeway before dozens of yellow flashes erupted in the city.

Titans were emerging everywhere, and everyone was shocked at how abruptly they'd appeared. Carmen knew everything was running too smoothly for the scouts, something like this was bound to happen - but she couldn't get distracted or allow her recruits to freeze up upon their first titan sightings.

"Keep your focus on getting up the wall, there's no time for distraction!" She yelled at them, breaking them out of their fearful gazes and forcing them to follow her orders.

Everything was happening so fast, one moment she was tapping her swords, and the next she was waiting on the edge of the wall, trying to get the recruits to hurry up. There were two still struggling to climb, despite having done this countless times before with ease, the stress was getting to them. Waiting for their arrival, Carmen saw something out of the corner of her eye, then suddenly heard a bellowing shout.

"Incoming boulder!" Erwin Smith warned from the top of the wall.

Instantly, Carmen's instincts kicked in and her hooks had shot along to wall. She swung down to the recruits' level at rapid pace, colliding and grabbing both the recruits strongly before she securely guided them out of the impact zone. When the boulder hit the bottom of the wall, the whole structure shook, but she still held on to them and gradually allowed them to gather themselves and get out of the way.

"Thank you, thank you so much." One of them said while the other simply nodded in agreement.

"Don't mention it, just get to the surface." She shut them down, knowing that it was no time to chat. As instructed, they all went to the walls surface, eyeing the threat that had now cornered them.

This was bad. Shiganshina and Wall Maria had been sealed off, and the scouts were completely trapped. A line of titans stood in Maria with what looked to be a titan shifter sat smugly in the centre. Meanwhile, it was a similar situation in Shiganshina - the armoured titan looked as though he was planning on scaling the wall, and there were dozens of titans scattered towards the edge of the city, still far away from the wall that the scouts were perched upon.

The enemy's plan was likely to slaughter their horses, leaving the scouts completely trapped and helpless. Without horses they couldn't retreat, and without retreating they couldn't recover the supplies necessary. Their options were limited, fight or starve.

"You finally ready to make a decision, Erwin? Been waiting so long I could've made breakfast." Levi prompted from beside the commander, like many of the scouts, he needed instructions before it was too late.

"Dirk squad, and Marlene squad too - join Klaus squad and protect the horses at the gate. Levi squad and Hange Squad, I need you to take down the armoured titan, use the thunder spears at your own discretion. Do whatever it takes to achieve your objective. This is our moment, our time to strike. The fate of human kind depends on this battle. Lay down your hearts and lives one final time for humanity!" Erwin commanded all the scouts, causing them to instantaneously move out.

Carmen was prepared to follow with Levi and Armin, however came to a halt when Erwin called out to each of them. "Hold on you three." The man turned to look at them. "Hange can lead both your squads, meanwhile I need you right here, Levi."

Levi scoffed. "So I'll protect the horses instead of Eren?"

"That's right." Erwin suddenly pointed his sword in the direction of the Beast titan. "When the chance arises, you'll cut him down, you're the only one I can trust to dispatch him."

"Understood, sir." Levi sighed, looking slightly disappointed by the request. Regardless, it was a vital mission, and he trusted Erwin's strategy more than his own. So, after sending Carmen a slight nod of his head - his own way of warning her of their agreement the previous night - he dropped down off the wall.

Next he moved onto Armin, giving out instructions on how to deal with the armoured - and even the colossal if needs be - before the blonde jumped over his own side of the wall and into Shiganshina. The assassin was still confused as to why she'd been help back. She didn't have a squad, and Erwin clearly didn't trust her to take down the beast titan - so she was lost.

Noticing this, Erwin directed his attention towards her. "Those titans in Shiganshina, how many would you say there are?" He questioned her, causing her to turn. She didn't bother counting them individually, instead she chose a rough estimate.

"I'd say between 20 and 30." She decided. It was clear that those titans would foil Erwin's plan to have the armoured titan dealt with separately in Shiganshina, if they got in the way, they could completely ruin their tactics and attacks. "You want me to kill them all, don't you?" She looked up at him expectantly.

Her question was confirmed when he nodded his head. "They're pure titans, as long as you're close to them then they will stay at your position rather than interfering with Hange's goal. Of course, you'll be facing them alone."

Eyes narrowing at the statement, Carmen looked unimpressed. "When Helga told me that you wanted me dead, I almost didn't want to believe her." She said absentmindedly, letting out all of the thoughts plaguing her mind. She didn't care that Reiner was climbing the wall as she spoke, the only thing important to her was answers. "Yet, here we are again, you're practically sending me to my death."

Erwin sighed, he should've known that his white lie would catch up to him eventually - though he didn't expect Carmen's timing to be so bad, it was last though she knew that this would likely be the last chance that she would ever have to speak with him.

"You're right, I did say that in the midst of torture, however, I had my reasons." He said vaguely as the armoured slowly climbed up the wall.

"Those reasons being?"

"The dolls were dangerous, I felt as though only you and Levi stood a chance at facing them head on, with you holding a clear advantage since you knew their fighting style. Since the whole squad were trying to retrieve Eren and Historia, I needed a scapegoat to take on all the dolls to stop them from killing the remaining scouts." He informed her, causing Carmen to see the bigger picture. "That scapegoat was you."

The woman clenched her fists around her swords. "So you gave up our location, purely to distract those dolls?"

"No, I gave up your location because I wanted the dolls to disappear completely. As soon as they shoved you into my holding cell, I knew that their entire organisation was about to crumble. And it did - just as I expected from you."

Visible wrath clouded her features and she took a threatening step towards him. "You used me!" She accused in her rage. "You used me to kill! You're really no better than them!"

Carmen was beyond angry, but when she noticed the fact that Erwin didn't seem bothered, or the least bit fazed by her mood, her anger dissipated into interest. He had something up his sleeve, she could tell. Although she probably wouldn't be a fan of whatever he was ordering her to do, she still wanted to hear it.

"That's true." He admitted, not even attempting to argue or fight the claim. "Ever since I became a scout, I've been playing everyone for fools, even myself. And now, standing on this mountain of brave corpses, I have quite the view. Perhaps you're right, maybe I'm no better than the men who raised you. However, I can't let this mission fail - I can't let humanity lose."

It was an unwelcome feeling that she could relate to Erwin Smith of all people, but that didn't stop it from intruding her mind. Deep down, she knew he was right. Regardless of personal views, she had to see the mission through. If she didn't kill and distract the pure titans in Shiganshina, then they'd get in the way of the battle with the armoured titan. In turn, this would put the lives of her squad and friends at risk - something she simply couldn't allow to happen again.

Reluctantly, Carmen stepped closer to the edge of the wall, looking onto the titans grouped in the far corner and beginning to move in the direction of Eren. "...Fine." She gave in. "I'll do this. But don't tell Levi, I'm certain he wouldn't approve."

Without anything further to say, the woman dropped off the edge of the wall, passing Reiner with no fear as he climbed to Erwin.

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Authors note - in the anime, there aren't any pure titans in Shiganshina, but Carmen needed something to do.