*Reader's POV*

Beneath you, Zephyr shifted from foot to foot, the crowding of Scouts in the street just before the gate looking disorganized, but each squad in specific places meant to make the transition once outside the walls much easier. You knew where you were in the formation, right with the vanguard–not quite at the front though, since you were still a rookie. Instead, you were in a message position.

Just a few horses in front of you, you could see Captain Levi and his squad, their gazes fixed forward like most of the Scouts. Your hand fluttered briefly to your neck as you gazed up at the giant wall that was casting its shade upon most of the gathered Scouts, your heartbeat quickening as the reality of what was happening settled over you.

Decades without open air and sunlight before you managed to find the key that would allow you to walk on the surface in the sun once more. Never before venturing outside the walls. Now here you were, about to ride out beyond its boundaries into open, fresh air and sunlight where there was no edge where a wall or some other boundary of mankind kept you in.

As if sensing your restlessness, Zephyr pawed at the ground, antsy and ready to move forward. The horse standing behind you at the end of a lead had been jumpy since being handed off to you, but its nerves were only getting worse between the aura you and Zephyr were radiating. Your grip tightened on the reins, gaze fixated on that gate that you were begging to just raise already and let you shoot out into the world.

This was what you were here for. You'd finally made it. Now was the time to throw yourself all in for the cause. Messenger or not, you were going to do everything you could to help.

The brick gate up ahead finally finished rumbling, and a pure white horse holding Commander Erwin Smith reared up.

"Forward!"

Your heart leapt into your throat, and it took everything inside you to wait until the people in front of you started to move forward before your heels pressed lightly into Zephyr's hindquarters, urging the speckled grey mare forward. Your breaths came rapidly as the brick gate approached, head tilting up on instinct as you went through the tunnel, momentarily plunged into darkness with light piercing through the end before Zephyr burst through, one set of many thundering hooves as you broke past the wall.

Green grass rolled out before you with towering trees dotting along the horizon, stretching as far as you could see, further. The wind whipped at your hair, sun beating down on you harmlessly as you soaked in the unbridled rays, lips parted as you took a deep breath of truly free air.

This was a feeling you would never forget. It was as if the wings upon your cape would emerge and spread wide, carrying you up into the blue sky far above and off to a land where there were no stifling walls real, social, or in your mind, no secrets and constant hiding of who you were.

Feeling eyes on you at your reaction to crossing beyond the walls for the first time, you closed your eyes briefly, the self-imposed darkness grounding you back to reality as you reminded yourself what the goal was here, what you were supposed to be doing. You had a purpose out here, and the others couldn't afford your distraction.

Your head lowered from its tilted back position, and your eyes opened with focus burning in your gaze, fixed forward as you leaned slightly over Zephyr's neck. Within a few minutes of running straight forward, the formation began to take shape, Scouts spreading out to the left and right while most of the cargo stayed in the middle. You were one of the ones who went out to the right, falling into place at a relay point with your skittish extra horse trailing just behind Zephyr. Off to your left, you could see Levi Squad, within eyesight but still quite a distance away and placed closer to command than you.

While everyone here had to depend upon smoke signals and their own limited sight to tell them if a Titan was approaching, you were at a unique advantage when it came to the task of spotting Titans. You could hear them long before you could see them, but your sight was much better than the other's here, as well. You would be able to tell if there was a Titan approaching long before anyone else, which could drastically help the mortality rates of the Scouts if you could use your abilities.

Of course, the matter was complicated by the fact that you would have to wait until there was visual confirmation of a Titan if you didn't want to look like you were firing flares into the sky for the hell of it, which you were certain would piss many people off very quickly. So, you were restrained to detecting where the Titans were, and keeping track of them until they got close enough.

If it was a big enough threat, though, you would take the risk. You would still have to wait if you wanted people to believe you, but you weren't going to wait as long if it was something like a horde of Titans or a clustering of abnormals.

That part you had decided ahead of time. The rest you would play by ear and see what happened, or simply play the role you had been assigned for this expedition.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Levi's POV*

While Levi and his squad had their duties that went with their position in the long range formation, Levi had his secondary objective to observe L/N from a distance, keeping an eye on her at least partially at all times while his squad handled much of the spotting and message relaying, Levi only giving curt orders when necessary. They certainly wondered what was causing his distraction, but no one questioned it, especially from the serious look on his face.

He'd been watching L/N from the moment they rushed out of the gate beyond the walls, her reaction reminding him strongly of himself, Isabel, and Furlan when they'd first gone beyond the walls.

Before he could have someone snap her out of it so she was paying attention, she'd brought herself back around, snapping back to full focus on the task at hand impressively fast despite how swept away she'd been moments before.

With the more central position Levi's squad held, they were better positioned to be sent whichever direction they might be needed if shit hit the fan, and the more protected position than the vanguard and the relay lines allowed Levi to put more of his focus on L/N without causing unnecessary risk. No doubt that was part of the reason Erwin had arranged them the way they were for this expedition.

At first, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. She kept her head on a swivel, fired the signal flares at the appropriate time to pass along the message to shift the direction of the formation. However, Levi eventually began to catch the anomaly he might have overlooked if she'd been a little further away, or he'd been a little more distracted by what was going on in his position.

Her head stopped swiveling, her gaze fixing in certain directions for long stretches of time before she would fire off her flares. At the most, her head might twitch in one direction or another, but nothing more. The big give away, however, was the fact that he occasionally caught sight of her loading a flare into her flare gun long before the signals went off. As if she knew it was coming.

Either she had insane intuition, or she was able to see something they couldn't.

It was a good thing he'd noticed her focus and how she seemed to be picking up on approaching Titans before the vanguard, because it greatly effected how he reacted when she fired a shot before even the vanguard. She went perfectly still, head turned forward right towards an outcropping of trees in the distance. She stayed gazing in that direction for several long moments before she suddenly reached into her pack, loaded her flare gun, and fired a black smoke signal into the air.

Everyone reacted with surprise from the display, Levi included, considering no Titan could be seen, and she was not relaying a signal from the vanguard. Immediately, the others began to grumble and complain at rookie audacity, what she thought she was doing, the usual complaints. Levi, however, was staring hard at her back, noting how she was still staring in the same direction, thinking of how she'd been aware of every flare coming so far...

"Gunther, relay that signal."

The complaints about L/N stopped, the others looking at Levi in surprise. "Sir..." Petra ventured to say in a cautious tone, clearly not wanting to question him but doubtful of the black flare's accuracy. Still, Levi could hear Gunther preparing to fire the shot behind him, even as Petra continued. "That signal is coming from nowhere, the rest of the vanguard haven't even fired anything."

"Because she's spotted something they haven't," Levi said bluntly, as behind him Gunther relayed the signal, which went down the rest of the line to Command. Erwin's green shot fired into the air shortly after what must have been a confusingly sudden short burst of signals.

Levi kept his gaze on L/N the entire time, except the direction change, looking for the payoff or justification for her sudden signal. At first, he didn't think he would see it.

In the distance, within that outcropping of trees that had held her attention before and was now further away from them thanks to the direction shift she'd prompted, Levi saw something clear the treetops. It was hard to catch at this distance, but the scattering of birds from those trees helped confirm what he was seeing. Within a few moments, two fleshy figures of Titans burst through the treeline, one running sporadically forward and the other leaping around, both headed in the direction of the formation.

There was more distance between the formation and the abnormals, thanks to their shift, which gave them more time to respond, but they were still going to collide with the ranks. He could see L/N coiling atop her horse, ready to leap into action if they broke past the vanguard and reached her position, eyes no doubt fixed on the incoming threats.

"Captain, should we go assist?" Petra asked from behind him.

"If they break through the vanguard ranks, yes," Levi said, gaze sweeping over the other positions in the formation that held less skilled rookies. He didn't want to risk abnormal Titans colliding with the newbies, so he'd make sure they were stopped there if the vanguard couldn't handle them. Instinctively, Levi tensed as the abnormals reached the front lines...and then burst right past towards L/N's position.

Abnormal, indeed.

Oluo swore as they saw both abnormals barreling towards L/N, who was already kneeling on the saddle of her horse and waited a few seconds for the abnormals to draw a little closer. Levi and his squad were already heading towards them before L/N leapt off her horse, one of her cables firing into the rushing Titan since it was at least keeping stably on the ground, swinging around and away from the front of the attacking Titans, firing the other higher up to try and get a quick shot in at the Titan's nape.

The second Titan shot over the first in a leap towards L/N, forcing L/N to change direction and release her cable from the first Titan. With a nimbleness that surprised Levi, she pushed off of the arm of the second Titan as it went by to add momentum in the direction she wanted to go, cables releasing again so she could swing between the legs of the first Titan and still avoid it's reaching arms.

With her cables detached again, she rolled to a stop and got back onto her feet, taking a second to register her position before one of her cables sank into that first Titan's shoulder and she shot towards it again.

At that point Levi and the others were close enough to do something and had a good grasp on the situation. At Levi's orders, Eld, Oluo, and Gunther broke off to deal with the jumping one while Levi and Petra rushed to intercept the one L/N was handling. Levi had a pretty good idea of what she was trying to do, but expecting it to go terribly wrong, he was trying to reach her before she lost a limb. Or her head.

The Titan snapped at her as she came within biting distance, but she let loose a burst of gas at the last second to sail over its shoulder, twisting in midair as the men handling the other Titan let out an alarmed shout.

Both cables sank into the shoulder blades of the first Titan and brought her in close with her feet landed just below its nape, and she sliced neatly through, killing it in one stroke. As she turned with the strike, the second Titan came into her view, ignoring Eld, Gunther, and Oluo entirely as it launched for her, still anchored onto the falling Titan.

The cables disengaged so she could fall back and drop out of range of its maw, feet barely missing the teeth as she dropped vertically and headfirst towards the ground.

Eld went in for a quick kill while it was fixated on L/N.

"No!"

"Wait!"

"Eld!"

At angles they could see where the Titan's attention was trained, L/N, Levi, and Perra, respectively, all shouted out for him not to go for the obvious kill. Its eyes had shifted in the direction the cable came from, towards Eld, and it swung out an arm that caught the wire. Eld was sent careening to the ground, the jumping Titan punching toward him with jaw agape again as the now-injured man got up to right himself, cables still sliding back into place and unable to deploy yet.

Two blurs in opposite directions cut through the air at the front and back of the Titan. Levi was at the back, slicing cleanly through the nape to kill it before it could kill Eld. At the front and coming from the opposite direction, was L/N, slicing through arms and bottom jaw in a wide arc to render it unable to eat Eld.

As they passed each other in the air, they momentarily locked eyes, and instead of fear or anger which commonly filled the eyes of the recruits, Levi saw...exhilaration.

Considering one of his men almost got killed, she better be taking this fucking seriously.

As they both landed on the ground at opposite ends of the Titan body, Levi turned to see her already sheathing her blades and approaching Eld to make sure he was okay and help him to his feet. Gunther and Oluo were close behind, pulling beside them as Eld was brought to his feet and Levi stalked towards them from behind.

"Are you both alright?" Gunther asked.

"That was a hell of a risky move you pulled there, rookie–your leg got cut open when you decided to jump right through its mouth!" Oluo chastised.

Levi's gaze dropped to her leg, the large tear diagonally across her leg now clear, with bloodstains along the frayed edges of the fabric. But the skin of her calf was unblemished save for a slightly angry red mark running parallel to the rip.

"Hm?" She asked in confusion, turning back to glance down at the offended leg before she twisted so the others could see. "It was risky, and close, but it didn't draw blood. Just a graze," she remarked, eyes lifting to see Levi approaching.

He was caught between angry and indifferent, with a bit of reluctantly impressed. He couldn't exactly chastise her for endangering the others with that out in the open now, could he? She'd been handling them alone off circumstance before they intervened, and when one of his men was in danger of dying, she'd apparently risked a leg to intervene.

It was still reckless, even if in the moment she'd deemed it necessary. She was a rookie out here, she didn't know the full extent of her capabilities against the Titans yet.

Levi's gaze slid momentarily to the two rapidly dissipating Titan bodies.

Or perhaps she did...

"Petra, help Eld. Everyone, get a move on, before we're left behind," he said instead, turning back to his horse as L/N let out a sharp whistle to call her horse. The dappled grey appeared with the spare horse in tow and still tied to the saddlehorn via the lead so it wouldn't run off.

Once he was certain everyone was mobile and Eld was being taken care of, Levi led the way for his group to rejoin the formation, L/N racing off to retake her position.

Levi's gaze wandered back towards the pillars of steam that billowed into the air from the dead Titans.

Why had they both been so set on her that they blew past everyone else?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Reader's POV*

"All right, we need people for the night watch, so if–"

"I'll do it," you said before he could even finish, standing up from your spot around the fire as you spoke.

All he had to say was night watch. It was another one of the things you felt that you were the most suited for, considering you were a creature of the night. You would do far better in darkness than anyone else around you.

After volunteering to be one of the people on night watch, you were sent up into the nearby trees to give you a better vantage point, able to gracefully find your way up onto a tree branch without issue. Once where you were supposed to be, you took a seat, resting your head against the trunk as your gaze wandered across your surroundings, allowing your hearing to focus so it was listening for things in the distance or abnormal sounds within the vicinity of the camp. As such, the cacophony of people speaking to one another before heading to bed faded away into a faint buzz in the back of your mind, allowing you to focus on your watch.

This also gave you a moment to reflect on your first day out in the field, and the unexpected consequence of your presence that you had discovered. So intent on contributing to the Scouts and using your abilities to assist them, you'd forgotten some basic predatory instincts.

Out here, the Titans were at the top of the food chain. Within the walls, it was vampires. The Titans were mainly active in the day but quiet at night, and vampires normally thrived in the dark and could not go out in the sun–you were an exception, thanks to something you had taken from a vampire far older and more experienced than you. There was a clear division between the two preventing them from coming into contact with each other, mostly the night and day difference and the literal wall dividing their environments. But you had just entered their habitat, and you were well aware that a vampire could still be killed by a Titan if they got careless, or if the Titan got one lucky bite in. As such, you didn't consider vampires at the top of the food chain when placed in the same space as Titans, but adjacent to them.

The Titans had focused on you, likely because you were an invasive, competitive predator in their lands. You were a threat to them and their food supply, and they could not safely feed if there was a vampire in the area.

As such, if the opportunity presented itself, they were going to target you first.

Lovely.

This was new, dangerous information, and you were still deciding how to react to it. Maybe not every Titan would completely ignore a meal in front of them if there was a vampire nearby, but today two abnormals had barged right through the vanguard to get to you. It wasn't something you could ignore.

For a while, your watch went undisturbed, allowing you to quietly stew in your thoughts high up in the trees, before a sound broke through your filtered hearing, and your attention snapped into full focus.

Down below, hidden by the tall grass, darkness, and trees, you could make out the spread out shapes of a wolf pack stalking closer to camp, towards where some of the horses were hitched for the night.

Bold wolves. Or perhaps they were desperate, or had yet to learn to be afraid of mankind. Either way, you couldn't let the wolves get to the horses, the lifeline out here for the Scouts.

Quietly, since the way you wanted to handle this couldn't be seen by the other Scouts, you dropped down from the trees, crouching low to the ground and blending into darkness as you moved to intercept the wolves while they were still shrouded in darkness and the environment. When you put yourself firmly in their path, the tension in the air shifted.

For the wolves, while they were in a pack, you were a more dangerous predator, one that they would normally avoid. As such, the pack's attention shifted, and you let out a low snarl, red eyes flashing in the night and fangs barred as the wolves cautiously stalked closer to you. They loosely encircled you, and you quickly tried to assess each one, looking for the alpha, the one who acted first that the rest followed. The wolves got dangerously close before you managed to pick it out, and you spun around to face the alpha head on, making yourself look big and keeping that snarl.

It hesitated, stared at you for a few moments, and then the grey wolf leapt forward to attack. Anticipating the motion, you plucked it out of the air, arms wrapping around its furry upper body and slamming it into the ground, causing it to yelp and yip as you held it down, pinned, its throat exposed.

You held it there for several moments, making sure the rest of the pack could see the alpha had been bested before you let the wolf up, the large creature immediately taking the opportunity to run and letting out a high-pitched howl for the rest of the pack to follow as it raced away.

Composing yourself once again, you turned back to the camp, heading in the direction of the horses to make sure they were alright, several Scouts intercepting you just before you reached camp.

"We heard wolves."

"What were you doing out there?"

"I chased them off. They were thinking about going after the horses," you assured them calmly. "All it took was a well aimed rock and the sounds of quite a few humans from behind to chase them off," you said, explaining the yips and their sudden absence with ease.

"Right. Back to your posts, or back to bed, whichever it is for you. Go on," one of the senior officers commanded to get everyone to disperse again. You didn't say anything more, feeling no need to as you instead used the ODM gear to return to your perch in the trees.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Levi's POV*

While Levi was checking his gear to make sure it was still in peak shape for the rest of the expedition, his squad had their fireside discussion about the day's events, the topics free ranging since Levi seemed to not be paying any attention to them and was a fair distance away.

Mainly, they were talking about the display with the two abnormals.

"Did you see how they charged right through the line towards that rookie?"

"They were abnormals. You have to stop questioning abnormals so much or you'll drive yourself mad."

"I'm more interested in that rookie. Did you see how she handled those Titans?"

"No shitting herself or anything–perfectly calm, like she wasn't even bothered."

"It was almost like she was dancing around it for a few moments there–you could even call it graceful."

"And did you see how in sync she was with Captain Levi when they took it down? Even if it was brief?"

"It was still a risky move–she went right through its mouth!"

"That either takes a hefty set of balls, annoying levels of confidence, or sheer insanity."

"I still swear I saw her leg get cut open on those teeth."

"Clearly not. She showed us her leg, it came close and she was damn lucky or pulled it off that well. It was just the rip, the red mark, and some Titan blood."

"Still...she has to be that rookie all those rumors are about, right?"

"The ones about Captain Levi possibly letting a rookie join the squad? Those are bullshit and you know it."

"I'm not so sure anymore, after seeing her in action. It's not impossible. They might wait until she's a little less green, but..."

"Captain Levi did seem a little distracted today. And our position was right where he could see her at all times."

"So it is possible...it would be weird...and I still think they should wait until she's not so green...but I wouldn't complain."

"It'd be nice to have another girl on the squad..."

Levi stood up at that point, the group's conversation halting as Levi moved, then resuming when they realized he was walking away from the fire, not towards it.

Don't get attached, you idiots. If she's as dangerous as I think she is, she won't be around for long.

Moving further away from where his squad was chatting amongst themselves, Levi headed towards the trees where Erwin was taking at least one night shift, using his ODM gear to bring himself up to the tree branch beside the towering blond.

"I heard those abnormals caused a bit of a stir," Erwin said as Levi settled onto the branch beside him, hardly able to see one another with only faint firelight a ways behind them and moonlight mostly blocked from the trees around them.

"They barreled straight out of a treeline and through the vanguard. Didn't give them a second thought and went right for L/N."

Erwin looked at Levi with the way he phrased that last line, like there was more to it. "They were abnormals."

"Yeah...but even abnormals don't usually fixate on just one person. Not to mention two abnormals at once."

Erwin turned slightly towards Levi. "They didn't pay attention to anyone other than L/N?"

Levi shook his head. "Not until Eld went in for a killshot on the last one. They seemed...drawn to her."

"Interesting..." Erwin murmured, both of their attention drawn by the sound of wolves yipping and then howling, the sound getting further away. There was a slight commotion at the edge of the camp, with L/N appearing from the darkness in the direction the howling had been and saying a few words before everyone settled back down. She must have chased them off, then.

"There's more," Levi added, eyes following her figure as she disappeared up into the trees with ODM, apparently one of the few taking a night shift. "This entire time, she's been picking up on Titans before anyone else sees them, even the vanguard. She knew those abnormals were coming long before we had visual confirmation."

"That would explain the odd, lone black flare before the others started being fired," Erwin murmured, his gaze fixated in the same direction as Levi. "Keep watching her. We won't be out here too much longer, since we'll reach our destination tomorrow. You can give me the rest of your observations in an official report when we get back."

"Right..." Levi muttered, turning away and heading back to the ground to admonish his squad about still being up and get them to get some rest before they talked the whole night away with their conspiracy theories.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Reader's POV*

When you returned from the expedition, you were surprisingly exhausted. The Scouts had returned a few hours ago, and as soon as you were free of your duties, you headed up to the barracks so you could crawl into your bed and pass out.

While the first day had gone relatively well besides the obvious for all the horror stories about the Scouts and their expeditions, the second day had not gone so smoothly. Even worse, when the Titans collided with the left vanguard, you couldn't do anything about it but watch Levi Squad break away as they were dispatched to go help. You were, after all, just a messenger for the right side of the formation for this expedition.

Because of the attack on the left, the Scouts had accumulated a body count and ended up with quite a few injured. It wasn't bad enough to cause the mission to fail, thankfully, as the Scouts still managed to reach the destination and set up supplies for future expeditions, but after a couple more incidents on the way back, a few more injured and dead were accumulated, and the Scouts were looking rough upon the return to the walls.

On the bright side, if it could be considered a bright side, you were already sitting on two solo Titan kills at the end of the expedition despite being a messenger, you made it through your first expedition, and you knew more about how you would fare against Titans and your usefulness to the cause.

Right now, that was all food for thought at a later point, as you quickly fell asleep once your head hit the pillow and you were finally given the chance to relax.

Unfortunately, it didn't feel like it lasted for very long. You were woken up by one of your fellow new recruits attempting to get you out of bed, though a quick glance towards the windows told you it was now night–you'd been able to sleep the whole day away. Yet you still felt groggy and tired.

"Hey, L/N. L/N! Get up, already. Captain Levi wants to see you. So get to it–last I saw him he was in the library."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Levi's POV*

"Extraordinary reflexes, stronger than she looks, quick on her feet, calm under pressure, skilled and resourceful with the ODM gear, capable, patient, able to pick up on approaching Titans long before anyone else..." Erwin's fingers tapped lightly on top of Levi's official report of his observations about L/N, the papers sitting in front of him on his desk. "All this time and all I can see so far are more reasons to make sure she's advantageously placed in the Scouts and used to her full potential."

Levi turned to give Erwin a disbelieving look before it fell into a scowl that was becoming quite common at these meetings between the two to discuss Y/N L/N.

"You can't tell me you're not curious about the how, that nothing about her raises questions?" Levi scoffed. Erwin leaned forwards, fingers laced together in front of his face.

"Oh, it does. It seems trying to find out more about L/N only raises more questions instead of providing answers, and I'm determined to start finding answers. But I'm not talking about wanting to know how. This started because you said you had a bad feeling about her, that her motives might be malicious. So far, all you've given me is more material to believe her intentions are at least aligned with our own if not good, and more reasons to make sure she stays part of the Scouts, not anything to prove she's of ill intent."

Levi looked away, teeth grit. He'd almost fallen into the same trap. Until...

"The night before the expedition, we ran into each other in the mess hall. She'd just come back from the Underground, which I know because she still had that smell on her...as well as the smell of blood." Levi turned to look at Erwin, gaze sharp. "I doubt she was down there healing sick kids considering, as far as we know, the extent of her medical knowledge is the first aid she learned as part of her training."

Erwin frowned, his eyes probing as he studied Levi's expression. "That would have been nice to know, sooner."

"It hadn't come up, yet. And it's not exactly something I can put in an official report."

"It's still not enough to go on, Levi."

"You don't think I know that? It's driving me mad catching these little pieces that suggest something's off about her, and then failing to get anything else. It doesn't help that she knows I'm watching her."

Erwin sighed, leaning back in his seat with a thoughtful look, gazing down at the report on the desk.

"Go ahead and recruit her for your squad."

Surely he heard him wrong.

"I'm sorry?" Levi asked in surprise.

"Not as a fill member, not yet, anyway. She's still too green to justify moving her to the special ops team even with how well she did on her first expedition. Have her start as an aid for you and your squad, that way she's still in a learning and assisting position until she's more seasoned."

"And your reasoning for this is...? What if she wants this? Not knowing her motivations–"

"Gives us all the more reason to make this move. As part of your squad, even as an aid, she'll be directly under your command. You'll be able to keep a much closer eye on her, find out more about her–I'm sure your squad members will be able to find out things about her naturally on their own time. Keeping her close is the best play right now."

Levi sighed in frustration. Sure, he'd considered picking her for his squad already, but his suspicions had killed that desire, at least for now. Plus, usually he got to choose if and when he added someone to his squad. He wasn't too keen on being ordered to add her, even if Erwin had a good reason for doing it.

However, it wasn't like he was going to tell Erwin no. He'd just have to deal with it.

Shaking his head and biting back the complaints he knew didn't mean a damn, Levi changed the subject. Even though he didn't confirm that he would do as Erwin asked, they both knew he would.

"What about you? Did your contacts manage to find anything?"

A frown returned to Erwin's face. "Like I said, more questions with very few answers." He took a moment to open one of his desk drawers, pulling out a report and laying it next to Levi's expedition report. "I couldn't find a trace of her anywhere inside Wall Rose besides the last few years after she suddenly surfaced. Even in the town she has listed as where she was born, the closest I came was a girl who shared a first name with her that died tragically over forty years ago. Maybe it's where she got the name, considering it was a big deal in the town's history, but beyond that, nothing. Before she appeared on the surface a few years back, she didn't exist."

Erwkn held out the report for Levi to take. "Her absence does, however, lend itself to your Underground theory. Especially if you say she was in the Underground the night before the expedition. I suggest you pursue that lead–you know the Underground better than anyone else here."

Levi hated the thought of going back down there, even if it was to find some answers. However, he finally felt like he had something solid to pursue, and he wasn't going to let it slip through his fingers. He was cornering her, and he was going to pull back the façade and find out what was really happening with her no matter how hard she tried to keep it concealed.

She couldn't hide whatever it was forever. Especially with Erwin and Levi bearing down on her as hard as they were.

Enough questions. It was time they started getting answers.