As figured, Carmens mission was on a standstill. No strides were made. No secrets learned. Everyone was still alive.

A month had passed and she'd chosen to be selfish. The shrinking walls of her prison cell were awaiting her, so she stalled, deciding that when the time was right, she'd kill Levi. However, she didn't want to leave her friends, to abandon the freedom she'd acquired. This was her life, and she enjoyed it.

The training was different to the exercises they were used to. Instead, they'd been focusing on scouting formations with the horses and studying in a classroom. It was easy, but Carmen hated being called on for questions. She was smart, but a drawback was the length of time she took to answer. Others acknowledged this too, her thinking face was known to almost all the instructors.

That led to Carmens current position. Mounting Bowie in the scouting formation they'd practiced for weeks. This was their first expedition outside the walls, her moment to shine. She'd killed titans before, but no one knew that, she intended to keep it that way.

From the centre of the formation, she heard the commander shout, although she was too far away to fully understand him, she did manage to make out the odd word. Such as 'mission' and 'begin'. This was enough confirmation, along with the motion of other horses, to tell her it was time to go.

"Carmen, aren't you nervous?" Petra asked, her knuckles turning white around her horses reigns.

"We've trained for this, we'll be fine." She assured, trusting her own words too much.

"Are you sure? What if-"

"If anything happens, I'll protect you. I promise." Carmen looked at Petra, she was still doubtful. "Plus, Oruo said he'd look out for us. Remember?" The blonde realised her friends worry continue. "A joke." She confirmed, making her face light up.

The two continued their journey on horseback, encountering a few titans along the way, which the scouts handled. Until finally, they'd arrived at the base outside of the walls. Well, more like inside wall Maria, because now, that was titan territory.

"Rookies, I want you on the roof, keep watch for any movement in the trees. Do not engage." It was the same scout who'd been introducing them to the ropes, she knew his name now. Dita Ness. He was nicer as time went by, but favoured Carmen because of their mutual respect for horses. Even if she had denied most his attempts of friendship.

"Yes sir." Carmen answered and swung onto a roof of the old, abandoned village.

"This is insane." Petra worried.

"Don't worry, I'm here." Oruo smirked, causing Petra to roll her eyes. "See, you're not scared anymore."

"Maybe because the titans will go for their competition. Also known as the scout with the biggest mouth." Carmen looked at the two. "A joke."

"Ha, ha, ha." Oruo said sarcastically. "That's sarcasm."

"I'm well aware."

"Less talking, more looking." Dita ordered.

"Wonder why they can't get humanities strongest to do this." Oruo remarked, eyeing the house that all the higher ups resided in.

"Because clearly, you're the strongest here." Oruo gasped, was that a compliment from Carmen? "Sarcasm." No, it wasn't.

Suddenly, Carmen saw birds fly from the trees, squawking to eagerly fly away from whatever disturbed it. To Carmen, it was obvious. Titans.

"Titans, behind the trees." She stated.

"I can't see anything." Petra squinted her eyes.

"They're behind the trees, trust me."

Before a comment could arise, everyone saw them. There were almost a dozen, running towards them with murderous intent. The large group of people and noise must have somehow attracted them, it was inevitable really.

"Titans!" Oruo yelled. "Loads of them!" Luckily, he caught the attention of the other scouts, who all alerted the captain and commander.

"They'll get them, right?" The strawberry blonde worried, this was her first time looking a titan dead in the eye, Oruo too, but he tried to stay composed for Petra's sake.

Carmen couldn't answer her question, because no, the chances of getting them all were low. The base was on a flat terrain, no trees, only the buildings they hid in.

"Rookies, stay put." Dita spoke, though his nerves were present. "We need to get them closer so we can engage." He explained.

"Don't be reckless." She'd only heard that voice once, or maybe it was twice on one occasion, either way, Carmen could never forget it. "They could damage our supplies if they get too close, not to mention our soldiers." Levi was right beside her now, on the rooftop closest to the titans.

"Captain Levi." Erwin shouted from below. "You can't keep doing this." He warned, but Levi took it as permission to save the scouts once again.

"Watch and learn rookies." Levi ordered before flipping his sword in his hand, then jumping into the fight.

Just as ordered, Carmen watched. She mimicked the way he held his sword, feeling more secure as she did so. Without missing a second, her eyes followed him as he spiralled into his enemy, slicing the nape with a swoosh. Carmen had watched, now it was time to learn.

Swiftly, she followed his actions and jumped into battle, hearing a few protests from her friends and instructors. But she ignored them, she was too busy picking her first victim, once she had one, she copied Levi's actions and spun into its nape, cutting it down in the process. Although it was confusing at first, it was easier than she'd thought, this was a keeper.
The assassin took down more and more titans after that, racking up a total of six titan kills on her first ever expedition outside of the walls.

When she'd established that no enemies survived the attack, she followed the titan on its descent, standing on its head as it hit the floor. Overall, Carmen was proud of herself, if that wasn't enough to get Levi's attention, she didn't know what was, unfortunately, she was wrong.

"What the hell did you do!?" Levi marched towards her. "You could have died. I told you to hold your position."

This confused her, he hadn't said that at all, he told her to watch and learn, which she had done. Why was he reprimanding her for following orders? This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. But this was the closest she'd been to him, even a twitch in her muscles could lead her control to vanish. The urge to slice his throat was creeping up, her fingers tingled, she had to stop thinking about him.

"Watch and learn." She repeated, a desperate attempt to change to topic. "I watched you kill those titans, and I learned how to do it myself."

"Cut the bullshit, where did you learn that technique?" He demanded, not seeing that she'd already informed him.

"You. Just now." She answered him. "Am I required to apologise? Did I misunderstand the order?"

Captain Levi was perplexed. She'd switched to his technique in mere seconds, but in doing so, she deliberately disobeyed orders. Should he be impressed or annoyed? He didn't know, but he was going to find out.

"Yes, you misunderstood the order. It was an expression, it wasn't literal." He scolded.

"Oh." Carmen responded, getting lost in her thoughts yet again. Should she apologise? Should she not?

Levi coughed, was the blonde aware that she was staring. No, it was more like gazing straight through him as though he wasn't there. "Recruit."

"Sorry, I'll pay more attention next time." Carmen decided.

Reluctantly, Levi clicked his tongue. Carmen was trouble, he could sense it. She didn't think twice about putting her life on the line, and when she did so, she thrived, was this expected of a recruit? Or maybe she didn't care about her own life.

"Do you want to die?" He asked her, a genuine question.

"Is that a threat?"

"No, it's a warning." Levi countered. "Pull that shit again and we'll be scraping your remains off the floor, that's if the titans leave any remains. Do you really think your friends want to do that?"

Carmen shook her head, but she know she wouldn't die. After all, she was the governments greatest weapon, she could cheat death as many times as she wished, it wasn't as though she feared it, because she'd been responsible for a lot of it.

"Get back to your position." The captain ordered, Carmen followed and landed back beside Petra and Oruo on the building. Both looked gobsmacked.

"Carmen, what the hell!" Oruo then shouted, she was slightly shocked because of the delay. "You could have died! And what was with the spinning!?"

"I watched and I learned."

"How did he do that?" The man then changed the topic, referring to captain Levi. "It was spectacular." Looks like someone had changed their mind over the past five minutes.

Unlike the talkative rookie, Petra remained still, silent and frustrated. Over the past month, she'd apologised to countless people on Carmens behalf and her friend easily abandoned her on that rooftop like it was nothing, Carmen could have died. So instead of talking, Petra's fingernails dug into the palm of her hand, she was going to stand up to Carmen, she wasn't a pushover, this was too far.

Carmen could feel the anger flowing from her friend, and saw her clenched fist. A punch to the face was inevitable, she probably deserved it. Therefore when the fist arrived, she allowed it.

"Why would you do that! I thought you were going to die!" Petra shouted after the hit she laid.

"I'm sorry, I realise that now." The second apology ever made by the assassin. Her friends knew that, so their glares softened and they finally understood that Carmen was being sincere. "Also, where did the puddle come from? It's been clear all day."

Everyone looked below Petra, who was too embarrassed to reply. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Wow, well. At least it didn't happen when you were using your ODM gear." He tried to joke, probably not the right moment.

"Oruo! Don't try to blame this all on me! It was you too!" She protested, but couldn't hold back a smile, he could be funny. "Just to be clear, we never mention this again."

"Debatable." Carmen replied. "A joke. Probably."

"I won't tell a soul." Oruo crossed his heart. "Until... you become a high ranking scout. That'll be embarrassing for you."

"Carmen, back me up here. This wasn't me alone." Petra begged.

"Yeah, yeah. I believe you." The girl replied, slight sarcasm in her tone.