This soup tastes so much better knowing that Sasha isn't eating it, Hanji thought as she ate her soup. She decided to annoy Levi as a pass time while she was eating her dinner by sitting at the same table as him. Plus, he needed some company. His table has been empty for a while since he used to sit here with his squad. She thought maybe she should strike up a conversation with Levi, but whenever she looked at him he was glaring at her with still untouched soup in front of him, like he was refusing to eat as long as she was in his presence.

"So, Levi," she began. "How are you today?"

"Fine."

"Do anything interesting?"

"Not really. Just paperwork."

"How are you coping?" She said softly, after a pause, as she scraped the bottom of her bowl. When Hanji looked over at Levi, she saw his eyes widen for a second before he looked even more depressed if possible.

He said, "I'm coping just fine."

"I'm assuming you read Petra's letters."

She saw his jaw harden. "Yes." He looked straight up at her with an angry expression. "Listen, why are you asking me this?"

"Because, Levi! I care!"

"Well stop caring."

"No," and she went back to eating the bread that came with the soup. "Anyways, wanna know what I did today?"

"Not really, but I'm assuming that I don't really have a choice on whether or not I'm going to know."

"I found this girl's diary and read it. She was in the squad that gave their lives for you so you could lure the female titan."

"Squad six. What was her name?"

"Her name was Jessica Lamprey. Ringing any bells?" She added on once she saw his face show some recognition.

"She was the asshole-y-not-asshole-y one."

Hanji was confused. "What? Who told you that?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it," and he took a sip of the tea he had before making a disgusted face and setting it back down. Eren was figuring out that no one could compare to the way Petra had made Levi's tea. "Tch, Jaeger needs to work on his tea making skills. In fact, he needs to work on all his skills."

"You know Levi, I'm surprised." He raised one eyebrow as if to say 'oh really'. "I just casually said that I'd invaded someone's personal privacy by reading their diary and you didn't even comment on it."

"Well, can you blame me? It seems like you invade Eren's personal privacy everyday. It really isn't that surprising when you think about it."

"Or maybe," and Hanji walked closer to where Levi was sitting to creepily whisper the rest of her sentence, "you did it yourself." She was only messing around with him, but he seemed to take extreme personal offense.

"Why would I look through someone's diary, shitty glasses?"

"Because you were interested."

"Where do you get these stupid ideas?"

"From my amazing brain obviously."

"That was rhetorical."

"It didn't sound like it."

"Shut up."

"No." She went back to her normal seat away from Levi.

"Hanji, you better not just leave that dirty bowl sitting on the table."

"Right, right. I'll go put it away."

"Good."

"OH MY GOD!"

"What?" Levi asked, kind of bored since he was now used to her craziness.

"You just called me Hanji!"

"So?"

"AND NOT SHITTY GLASSES!"

"I call you Hanji a lot."

"No you don't!"

"I just called you Hanji or are you too stupid to understand?" Levi sounded really annoyed. "Now get away from me and wash that bowl." He stood up and took his own bowl over to the sink.

Hanji huffed as she thought of the work she'd have to do to wash the bowl. She never made it to the sink however, because someone covered her mouth with their hand and pulled her around a corner and out of the mess hall. Hanji struggled for a second before she realized who it was that had taken her.

"Hanji be quiet," Erwin said. "I know you don't want to be known as a burglar so I tried doing this quietly, but if you keep struggling you'll ruin the effect." Hanji nodded her head to show she understood. "Okay, I'm going to take my hand away. No screaming?" Hanji nodded again. Erwin took his hand away from her mouth and unpinned her from the wall. "Now follow me to my office."

"Of course."After a few seconds she asked. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but why do I have to go to your office?"

"Didn't Levi warn you of a burglar on the loose?"

"Yes, but what does that have to do with me?"

"Well, the person that got stolen from believes that you are that burglar."

"What? Why?"

"You'll see when we get there." Even though Erwin didn't see, she nodded as she followed him. When they reached Erwin's office, he opened the door slowly and dragged Hanji inside. "Sorry to keep you waiting Miss Lamprey," he began.

Lamprey? Hanji thought. I know that name!

"No, no. Don't be sorry it wasn't that long. Did you find her?"

"Yes, and here she is." Erwin brought Hanji out in front of him. "Hanji, this is Jessica Lamprey. Jessica, this is Hanji Zoe."

"JESSICA LAMPREY?!" Hanji screamed. "YOU'RE NOT DEAD!"

"Well of course I'm not dead!" Jessica snapped back. "Where did you get that crazy idea?!"

"I thought Squad Six was entirely wiped out!"

"I was the only survivor," Jessica whispered softly while looking down in sadness.

"Oh," Hanji said quieter. "I'm sorry to hear that. But it's great to see that you're not dead!"

Jessica half smiled and looked up. "Thanks." Jessica had brown hair that hung loosely by her shoulders. She had warm, brown eyes that seemed to sparkle. She really was very pretty.

"Well you're acting very kindly to Miss Zoe even though you accused her of stealing," Erwin said as he sat down behind his desk.

"Yes, well we don't know for sure yet and there's no need to burn a bridge when I barely know her," Jessica answered kindly.

Erwin continued, "Hanji, take a seat. Earlier today, you were cleaning out cadets' rooms, weren't you?" Hanji nodded. "You were the last person in Jessica's room and when you left, she discovered her diary had been taken. She believes it was you. What are your thoughts?"

Hanji gulped. She hadn't known that Jessica was actually alive and now she actually had invaded a person's privacy. "Um, well you see...," Erwin raised one eyebrow. He had probably already figured out that she was the one who had taken it. Hanji gave up; she couldn't think up any good explanation to get her out of this one. "Nope, never mind I give up. I'll just go get it."

"Wait!" Jessica called after her just as she was about to leave. "Did you read it?"

"Um, not all of it, just the first few," Hanji answered rather quickly. "Sorry," she added on. Before she could see Jessica's reaction she quickly left and ran back down to the basement.

When she finally reached the basement door, she'd already knocked several people down in the process of arriving there. She swung the door open like the maniac she was, and raced down to grab the journal. She picked up Jessica's journal and started reading the entry on the day of the expedition. She had to see what happened on that expedition and why she was the only one that survived.

It read:

I can't believe it. They're all dead. It was bad enough that Blake died on our first mission making everyone nervous to begin with, but-

Wait! Hanji thought. Blake died?! I wish I could enjoy you like a proper book ;_;

now that everyone's dead I don't know if I can take it. I've never been the best at fighting titans. I feel like I've always just been there for their moral support. I've always felt completely useless when we're fighting. My squad would always support me though, and make sure I didn't feel too bad. Now my entire squad is gone, and I've failed them completely. We had one mission. Why couldn't I die with them? Die an honorable death with Cameron and Kyle and Kido? Why? The world just hates me, and there's no point to life anymore. It's shown me that there really isn't any point in living. If you start to love people, they'll just die in the end, so there's no point. I need to explain exactly what happened, so I will.

The expedition started. I was feeling extremely nervous, even though this wasn't the first time that I was outside the walls. I always looked forward to one thing when we went outside the walls: the view. Everything feels so good and I feel so free. It's a lovely feeling. We were right behind Captain Levi's Special Operations Squad, we were the closest we were gonna get to the safest spot in this operation. It set my mind at ease for the most part. We didn't have to fight any titans, until we were sent into the Forest of Giant Trees.

I remember being confused and losing some faith in our Commander, but Kyle soon assured me to be more faithful. I remember smiling at him and seeing him smile slightly at me. I was surprised. Kyle Gordon had just smiled. At me of all the people he could smile at. I didn't know how I felt about Kyle. I felt like I liked him a little bit more than a friend and maybe he felt the same way, but his actions are always so ambiguous so no one can ever tell.

Then we saw her; the female titan. She had no skin and short blonde hair. She started chasing us and were told to switch to 3DM Gear and distract the female titan long enough for the SOS to lure her. We had all been in the military for several years and trusted our commander with our lives, even if we did sometimes have our doubts. I saw what the female could do to people and I was scared. I was so scared. I was scared for myself and especially my friends. I didn't want to die. We swung from our gear around her. Cameron and Kido came up first. Kido was suddenly smashed against a tree, his guts and blood making a splatter pattern.

My eyes widened in terror as I looked at Kido crushed body and I heard a gasp come from Cameron. She got the most furious expression on and rushed in after him with her pigtails flying. She swung high above her, but the female grabbed on to her wires and brought her down with a smash. Cameron was dead too! I freaked out. I couldn't handle it! I moved farther away from the female and moved swiftly into the trees so that the female couldn't see me clearly.

I looked down at the squad we were protecting. The boy Eren Jaeger was turned around and looking at Kyle. Some of his words floated up to my ears, though it should've been impossible.

"There's still one more fighting! We can save him!" I heard him yell. I wanted to save Kyle so bad. If Kyle died, I don't know what I would do. I couldn't make my legs move. I was just following them, waiting to see what would happen to Kyle. Kyle got too close and the female grabbed him and he screamed as I watched in terror as she dragged his body along the trunks of the trees, causing there to be a smear of blood and his head to come off.

I stopped following the titan and landed on a tree branch. I was just staring at Kyle's body on the forest floor. When I looked back by the path you could see Kido and Cameron's bodies as well. I felt queasy and sad and horrified at the same time. All of those emotions don't do good things when mixed, because I threw up then and there. I leaned against the tree as my puke fell over 15 meters to the floor and splattering. I sat down on the tree branch and cried. I cried so hard, the hardest I ever have in my life. I just sat there for the longest time, and I don't know what happened, but everything went black. I passed out on that tree branch high up in the air.

The next thing I remember, I was being shaken awake by some random soldier that I didn't know. "Miss? Miss, please answer me and show me you're alive!" He said slightly panicked. I pushed his hand away from my shoulder and he let out a sigh of relief. "Can you stand Miss?" I shook my head no. I felt him pick me up and carry me. The memory of a flying feeling remained with me, as we swung from tree to tree. The soldier laid me down in one of the supply carts.

I grabbed onto his jacket just before he left me and asked, "Did the mission succeed?"

He looked down at me sadly and said back, "No." Tears fell from my eyes and as I realized that my squad had died for nothing. The mission failed. I remember the Wings of Freedom we bare on our backs, and I thought, these wings really do give us freedom. They bring us to our freedom, and I know my squad is now flying freely above my head in a place beyond me. They are free.

It's late and I don't want to relive this memory any longer.

Hanji was close to tears now. This poor girl.

"Please don't cry, Hanji-san," Jessica said. Hanji quickly looked up a the bottom of the stairs and saw Jessica staring at the floor with tears in her eyes. "Why are you reading that?" She asked quietly. "It's no good if you're always focusing on the past. We'll never learn to move on."

Hanji couldn't take just staring at Jessica on the verge of tears like that. Jessie needed some comfort that Hanji could offer. She got up and practically ran over to Jessica, and crushing her in a hug.

"Oh, Jessica darling. You can't just pent up all your emotions you'll turn into another Levi and we don't need another Levi, because then there'd just be way to much of Levi-ness that could very probably break the building."

"I heard my name?" Levi was suddenly a few steps up.

"Nothing, Levi you can go away."

"Okay," and he left.

"Everybody gets scared sometimes, Jessica. Don't you worry about it. Your friends died protecting some very amazing people. You were scared, and that's why you acted the way you did. Not everybody can be strong all the time. Their deaths were not your fault. I need you to know, that their deaths were not your fault. Repeat after me, my friends' deaths were not my fault. Okay? Repeat."

"My friends...," she trailed off, because she had started to cry.

"It's okay," Hanji said as she stroked Jessica's hair. "Let it all out."

Jessica cried louder in response and said through her sobs, "I wish they were here, Hanji-san! Why... why was I coward? Why couldn't I die with them?"

"Now don't you say those things! You will not die, you hear me? None of your squad wants you to die. They can manage wherever they are without you for a long while, there's no need to follow them. Jessica Lamprey, you will not die while I am still alive."

Jessica hugged Hanji tighter as she stifled her sobs and whispered, "Thank you, Hanji-san."