As soon as the scouts arrived back at headquarters, they gathered all necessary equipment and alerted everyone of the breach. Kaya ran straight to her room and put on her scouting uniform before placing on her gear, she wasn't going to cower away this time, the scouts will have a victory. The ghoul then ran to the back corner of her room and grabbed a bag ready to place all her belongings.

Without hesitation, the thief opened up the flooring and packed everything she needed into her bag and covered the ghoul book up in an extra shirt, despite already knowing the basics of her power, she needed to know more. Kaya let out a sigh when she had everything she needed packed and then ran out of her room to gather Eren and his friends.

On her way there, she ran into Armin and alerted him of the situation, causing him to bolt towards Eren's room. "EREN, MIKASA, they've broken through wall rose, the titans, they're coming!" He yelled.

"Cmon, get ready, we don't have anymore time to waste." Kaya said from behind the panicked blonde boy, the cadets in front of her quickly gathered their belongings and gear before following her to their assigned cart.

"Great, will someone explain to me what this means?" Eren stated with his eyes glued to the ground.

"I don't know, they're titans right? Would they break a wall with titans in it?" Armin questioned.

"Wouldn't be the first time, that's how they got into Shiganshina." Eren answered.

"That was the colossal and armoured, it's obvious that they have intelligence and I personally believe that they're exactly like you, Eren. Most titans are mindless but titan shifters have their own free will, yet all their actions have purpose." Kaya thought aloud, causing Eren to slightly gasp at her conclusion.

"She's right, besides it was a gate that they broke last time." Armin added.

"Just what are you getting at." Mikasa pondered from besides Eren.

"The walls are different, there are no signs of stress, no cracks, no crevices in the rocks, we can't even really tell how they were constructed. Suppose they're built with the same stuff Annie's trapped herself in, must be versatile material, and we know it's virtually indestructible." The blonde continued.

"So from the start, the titan shifters knew about the wall, they knew about the titans in it. Shit, that only makes it even more obvious how in the dark we all are." Kaya said while resting her head in her hands.

Armin sat down next to the ghoul and they all sat in silence until the rest of the occupants arrived. "Sorry to keep you waiting, took longer than I thought." Hange smiled and waved at the four. Kaya glared at the pastor next to them and muttered to herself about how much she hated that guy.

"H-he's a, he's a priest from the church of the walls." Armin stuttered.

"Call him what you will, I just think he's an ass." Kaya muttered, receiving a kick from Levi.

"Old Nick and me are as thick as thieves, it's fine, makes about as much sense for him to be here as the rest of us, don't ya think? We're random." Hange beamed and started to hug the priest.

"No, contrary, Erwins thrown us together for a reason." Levi countered as the gates began to open and the wagons started to move.

Kaya zoned out and stared at the stars while Hange told the rest of the group about Pastor Nicks involvement with the walls. The ghoul was peacefully stargazing until Eren shouted right into her ear. "You're joking right, the whole time, this guy knew?!" Eren yelled.

"Uh Huh, afraid so, just about sums up where we are with him. Cats out of the bag now of course, he's not willing to talk yet but we'll see how he feels after a harsh dose of reality. Faith keeps him quiet but first hand experience though." Hange explained.

"To hell with that, no we're doing this backwards, if this son of a bitch knows something he needs to come clean. Humanities on the brink of extinction and all you care about is keeping your oath." The shifter screamed before falling back to the ground and beginning to cry, to his dismay, Mikasa began helping and comforting him.

"Calm down kid, we'll get something out of him. One way or another he'll have to fess up eventually." Kaya assured.

The ghoul heard the click of a gun and looked over towards the captain. "There's more than one way to get information, granted I may not be in top form at the moment, but it doesn't take much strength to squeeze a trigger. That said, I'm really hoping I won't have to blow a hole in you to settle this. How about you?" Levi stated.

"Threatening him doesn't work Levi, trust me on that." Hange said while the ghoul just sat still and scoffed. "Agree with him or not there's no denying our priest here is a man of principle, which of course leads me to wonder. If he's so unwilling to talk, what in heavens name do you imagine he's putting above the fate of humanity?" The scientist pondered. The ghoul could hear the priests heart rate quicken, but there was still no way to tell what the real secret was.

"Since when are you a geologist, or are rocks just that fascinating. Looks like you're about to drool." Levi questioned the scientist who was intently looking at the rock in their hands.

"What this?" Hange asked.

"Are you examining any other rocks?" The ghoul sarcastically said towards Hange.

"It's not a rock, not an ordinary one anyways. It's a hardened piece of skin left behind by the female titan." The section commander elaborated.

"It didn't vanish?!" Armin leant forwards to get a closer look at the rock.

"No, this random fragment broke off when Annie reverted back into human form. It didn't evaporate, it didn't simply go poof. So that got me thinking, and when I compared it with a slither of the wall, it's texture and composition were for all intents and purposes virtually identical. In laments terms we're hemmed in by a barricade of enormous titans. If my hypothesis is correct, the surface was constructed by using consolidated titans." The goggled scientist explained.

"You're kidding me, that's just what Armin was saying." Mikasa chimed in.

"So then-" Armin attempted to say until Hange jumped forwards and pushed her hand in his face to shut him up.

"Easy, it's rude to steal someone else's thunder. As it stands we'd be hard pressed to find a rock big enough to plug wall Rose, it'd have to be just the right shape and size, and we don't have specifics yet. But on the other hand, where there's a will, there's a way, picture Eren utilising his hardening ability while in titan form." Hange interrupted.

"I could patch the hole." Eren said in disbelief.

"The ceiling should be composed of the same material and the hardened bit won't dissolve once you've transformed back, it might be less of a long shot than it sounds. Thoughts?" The section commander beckoned.

"Eren can barely transform on command, it'll take hard work and perseverance in order for him to get to the same level as Annie." Kaya added.

"There might just be the tiniest bit of slack." Hange states as her eyes shifted towards the rock again.

"Yeah, just bear in mind that the whole plan hinges on whether Eren can seal the hole again." Armin added to the ghouls initial point.

"It's a lot and probably unfair of me to even ask, but do you think you can?" Suddenly, all eyes were on Eren, who was left practically speechless at the gazes he was receiving.

"What he thinks isn't really the issue, you either will, or you won't. That's the reality. Our comrades are breaking their backs, without you, it's nothing, failure isn't an option." Levi said with a stoic expression.

Kaya flinched when the boy next to her began yelling a response. "SIR, I know, and I'm prepared to do whatever it takes. Promise. My fathers cellar, that's where the answers are, if there's a slither of truth on what he told me, everything depends on us making it to that cellar." Eren began to mutter.

Kaya's heart began to start racing at the mention of dr Yeagers cellar, the ghoul had already been there once and couldn't find anything about the titans, but then again, she wasn't really looking for that. Or maybe it was hidden in a place only Eren could find it. Who knows?

"Dr Yeager, huh? I don't trust that guy as far as he could throw me." Kaya said, recalling her childhood memories of the doctor.

"It's best not to let personal feelings get in the way of this mission. What the doctor did to you doesn't have anything to do with his contribution to humanity." Levi scolded the ghoul.

"It's not all just personal. This guy had to have known these secrets before Eren, so why didn't he tell us, why didn't he at least try to help save us? If you ask me, it's quite the contrary to anything personal." The thief retorted back, earning a gasp from the cadets around her.

"Hey you take that back! I'm sure he did what he thought was right in his situation." Eren yelled at the amber eyed girl.

"With his help, we could have prevented the fall of wall Maria. Tell me, do you really think he was right not to tell anyone!? He killed innocent people, they didn't do anything wrong." Kaya shot back, she was starting to let her emotions get the better of her and scurried through her bag to find one of her many illegal books. In her free time, the ghoul often read, her parents always told her it would be the most useful skill she could learn so from then on she took up the hobby.

Kaya began to get annoyed when the blonde was practically resting his head on her shoulder to look at the book, by the looks of it, so was the captain. Eventually, the ghoul pulled out another book from her bag and handed it to the boy so she could regain her personal space.

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Soon enough, the group arrived in the safety of wall Sina and Kaya kept a close eye on their guest from the church. As soon as the priest took a look at the evacuating crowd, his expression changed and he stopped in his tracks completely.

"No one said stop." The captain said while kicking Nick's back and pushing him forwards. "A rolling stone gathers no moss."

"This is..." The priest muttered.

"Maybe you expected to see something quaint. This is what happens when the walls give." Levi stated.

"Children, mothers, fathers. The titans don't care who their next victims are, I guess that's what you and those monsters have in common." Kaya added, making the priest jerk forwards in attempt to avoid confrontation with his mistakes.

The captain grabbed Nick's shoulder and refused to let him run away. "Take it in holy man. These are the faces of human beings who've lost everything they ever had. Human beings you and your church abandon incidentally, hard to look at it I'd imagine. But if the church had its way this'd be all of us, titans would pour in and make sure there's nothing left, shovel up every man woman and child down a putrescent gullet. All humanity devoured as one." The captain said. Levi wanted the man of the church to suffer, and so did the ghoul, pastor Nick needed to tell them what he knew.

The three then made their way over to Hange who was eager to find out what pastor Nick knew. "So, see anything you like yet by any chance?" The scientist spat, the priest just looked down to the floor, not having the confidence to look them in the eyes. "Oh god damn it, make up your mind, this isn't some spiritual test, lives are on the line!"

"Alas I have no choice, neither myself nor the others who believe are at liberty to divulge the truth." The priest said calmly.

"Fat lot of help you are, nice meeting you, it's been fun!" Hange yelled, preparing to storm away on their horse.

"I'd offer my help if I could, but a duty as great as this one is beyond me. The order of the walls abides by the sacred will our faith commands us to pay."

"Who's will, like god or something?" Hange retorted.

"Or the one who created the walls?" The ghoul pressed, she knew she was getting somewhere when the priests heart rate quickened.

"I can't answer that, but what I can do is provide you with a name. An individual the sacred will of our divine wisdom instructed us to monitor. It's a person you know, someone who enlisted in the scouts regiment as of this year. A child by the name of Krista Lenz."

Kaya suddenly flinched when she heard a loud bang and saw Sasha walk through the door, however she needed to ignore that for now and focus on what pastor Nick had to say. "You must find her, she is the key, she may know things we understand but poorly, and with that we come to the end of what I'm free to share. The rest I leave in your capable hands." He finished.

"But if she's at the 104 cadet core then she's at the front lines by now." Hange said with wide eyes.

"Then let's go, cmon. There's no time to lose." Eren announced before running head first into the brunette behind him. "Sasha?"

"Where did you come from all of a sudden?" Mikasa wondered.

The potato girl rummaged around and picked up a scroll before making her way to Hange. "I was sent to give a message to commander Erwin, who then entrusted me to deliver this to you, section commander." The girl said while bowing.

"Oh-uh ok then. Excellent work." Hange congratulated while handing Sasha a steamed potato, making her eyes light up. "So who was Nick talking about?"

"She was the smallest in our class." Eren explained.

"Golden hair, blue eyes, in fact she's uh kinda cute." Armin added.

"Ok lover boy." Kaya joke but soon realised that the atmosphere did not approve.

"The girl who's always hanging around Ymir." Mikasa said.

Hange, Levi and Kaya all looked at each other and gasped. "Subjects of Ymir?" Kaya whispered to the higher ups, who just nodded their heads.

Hange took charge of the situation and explained the plan to the squads in front of them. "That's the plan, are we clear?" They finished.

"Yes, we have to go now!" Eren said as he walked towards the door.

"Calm down Eren, I need you all to listen. We're going our separate ways, that's how it has to be. Erwin had his reasons for throwing this ragtag squad together, but right now this is all riding on you. Armin, you and Hange are the brain trust, use your combined knowledge to cook up some kind of solution. Mikasa, I don't think I'll ever understand why your so attached to the guy, but put your skills to good use, protect Eren at all costs." Levi commanded.

"And Kaya." He looked towards the girl in question. "I think it's obvious that you need to explain yourself when we get back, but for now, Eren is in your squad, make sure he doesn't end up dead." Levi instructed the ghoul.

"Yeah sure, but I can't guarantee that he won't do anything reckless." Kaya glared towards the shifter.

"Check your emotions Eren, learn the meaning of the word restraint. If you let yourself succumb to blind rage, all hope is lost. We can't afford another mistake." The captain scolded.

"Sir." Was all Eren said before the scouts began to make their way towards Utgard castle.

The scouts had been riding their horses for a short while before Hange explained while they were heading towards the castle. "There's a tower nearby that will give us access to the wall, part of an abandoned fortification to the south west. We ride with all haste for Utgard castle." Hange demanded as the scouts rode towards to moonlight.