"Don't say a word, right?"

Armin's voice came out deeper than I had ever heard it as he spoke to our new hotages. We had been travelling through the mountains to avoid the main roads, but of course, even that was risky. The interior police force had been sent out to hunt us down, so it only made sense that we'd run into trouble.

The girl I had seized trembled in my grip, but I didn't relax my hold, even for a second. I was just thankful she wasn't fighting back, otherwise my injury would have been knocked around.
"Alright, strip them down. Their uniforms may come in handy, and the fuel in their gear." Levi ordered, and I internally groaned.

This feels so wrong...

I did as instructed, only because I knew that it wasn't wrong. We didn't have to kill this pair. At least not yet.
"Sorry..." I murmured as I began to undress the girl, gritting my teeth as she squeaked out. Making quick work of her buttons and straps, I had her in her thankfully modest underwear in no time, directing her to kneel by the bank of the river beside her companion.

"So, privates Marlo Freudenberg and Hitch Dreyse, of the Stohess district interior police..." Levi began to pace around them, holding onto their paperwork, rifle tilted against his shoulder. "We'll need to dispose of you..."

There it was. I had been dreading it ever since we had left our makeshift base. The two of them flinched and shook at the thought, panic evident.
"B..because of what you did, Stohess became a graveyard..! Over a hundred people were killed!" Hitch piped up, which, considering her situation, was probably a poor choice.

"Hey...quit it..!" Marlo snapped at her in a whisper, but it was too late. She was on a roll, and Levi's attention was caught.
"You bastards! I bet you all think you're some heroes of justice, but you're not! You dropped dozens of innocent families into hell on that mission of yours!"

She isn't wrong...I saw the aftermath...

"Yeah, we did..." Levi agreed with her calmly, staring down from behind. A calm and collected Levi was normal, but this time I was worried. Was he really going to kill them?

Hitch grit her teeth, but quickly turned her attention to Jean, who was standing a few yards behind me, keeping watch.
"Hey, you! You're from the southern cadet corps, right? So you trained with Annie Leonhart? Were you a friend of hers?"

That name caused my jaw to clench tight. Annie Leonhart, the woman who had murdered the man I had loved, and the family I had found. So, this girl was connected to her? Blinking, I felt somebody touch my right hand, and I suddenly realised I had gone to draw my blade.

"Calm down..." Connie murmured from my side, waiting until I had settled before taking his attention from me.
"No...she wouldn't have made friends there either...Way too gloomy and unapproachable for that...She was just afraid of people, like a scared little kid. Now I'll never get the chance to learn anything about her...She's listed as missing...Y'know why? It's because one of your titans turned her into an ugly red stain on the street..!"

She hadn't known. Not the slightest clue about anything. They really did keep their grunts out of the loop in the capital.
"Actually, no." Levi started once he was sure she had finished. "That's because the titan we captured was Annie Leonhart herself."

Should have ended her life...

As blunt as ever, he laid down the facts, and her face blanched, as did Marlo's.
"God dammit...It makes me sick. Nobody knows a thing about this damn world..." The ravonet clicked his tongue and looked to the side, directly at me. His eyes flickered to the young MPs, and I realised he was asking me a question. Kill or release?

It should have been an easy choice, but I had to really think about it. Could we trust them to stay put for long enough? Would they be the ones who ended up killing us when all was said and done? Eventually, I shook my head, confusing everyone else who had taken notice of our silent exchange.

"We're letting you go, but we're gonna have to give ourselves a head start." The pair seemed to deflate with relief, but the man quickly puffed back up again, his atrocious bowl cut wobbling as he turned.
"Hey, Captain Levi! Please, let me join in your cause! I believe that the military police are in the wrong here...If there's any way I can help to fight this world's injustice-"

Oh god, just shut up, bowl cut...

Levi watched him closely, again making sure that everything had been said before replying.
"Easy. Calm down." He sighed, but Marlo was far from calm.
"I swear, I won't let you down, Sir!" I didn't quite like that guy. It wasn't that he annoyed me, which he did, but the fact that he was so quick to jump ships.

"No, I have no way of telling if you have enough resolve to make an enemy of the state." Levi walked between the pair of tied soldiers, sheathing the blade he had chosen not to use. "Let's go. Sasha, take them deeper into the woods and tie them up."

I began to follow, wanting to get away quickly before any more of them showed up, but paused when Jean stopped the captain with a question.
"Would you let me do it instead?" Today was the day for uneasy feelings, it seemed. Why did he want to do it?

After Levi gave him the go ahead, I hung back, turning to follow once I was sure everyone else was far enough away. Jean was a good guy, and I knew I could trust him with anything, but he became idiotic whenever he thought he had something to prove.

He thinks he has to make up for the other day...

I kept a distance behind, making sure to have them in my sights the whole time. He was leading them like dogs on leashes, a knife drawn in case they fought back, which was smart. Though, when he stopped, I kept going, creeping through the trees until I could spy them from the side.

"Alright..." He waited for the duo to turn around, and they each had their eyes cast to the ground.
"We'll forget everything we saw here..." Marlo swore, sounding pretty genuine.
"Oh, I know you will." Jean's lips stretched into a wild smirk as he flipped the knife into an offensive position. "Because both of you are about to die..!"

Was he serious? Before, he had seemed so hell bent on doing things without killing, but there he was, trying to do it without being ordered to. Hitch and Marlo screeched in terror, pressing into each other desperately.
"N..no! He said to let us go..! R..remember..?!"

"The captian might be a big softy, but I'm not. I'm ready to do what needs to be done." Jean announced, his voice far too dramatic for the moment. Deciding to stand back and let things pan out, I leaned against the tree by my side, watching without expression.

Hitch clung onto Marlo's arm with bound hands as the man desperately tried to talk Jean down.
"Please..! You have to believe us..! We won't betray you! We know that you're fighting to protect humanity..! R..right..?!"

I kind of pitied them. They sure did seem scared, but either way, who wouldn't have been when a knife-weilding psychopath was mere feet away?
"As if I'd take your word for it. I can't trust you. Not with that hair.Who in their right mind would get a bowl cut on purpose? So how can I trust a single word you say..?!"

I pursed my lips as Jean rushed towards them. His form was good, I'd give him that, but I could tell his heart wasn't in it. That became especially obvious when he tripped over what looked to be air, gracefully faceplanting and releasing his knife, which flew forward and ricochet off the rocky rise behind his targets.

I...

I began to move closer, seeing as everyone was distracted. Marlo snatched up the knife with his bound hands, trying to stop Jean and he leapt up and rushed forward.
"Run, Hitch! I'll cover you!" It was complete chaos. Jean pulled a gun up beneath the man's chin, and Hitch was about to hightail it. Almost laughable.

"Why the hell would anybody believe you'd wanna join the Scouts? My comrades are being rounded up like cattle as we speak. What makes you think we can win?" The question Jean threw at the junior MP was a fair one. It didn't make much sense, realistically speaking.

"Because...you haven't quit. Despite the odds, the Scouts are still fighting..." I relaxed at the same time as Jean when the bowl cut began to answer, keeping an eye on the runaway girl with my peripherals. "I made a mistake when choosing my regiment. But you're a Scout. You chose to risk your lives for others...so I'll trust you..."

There we go...

When the knife dropped from Marlo's hands, I knew at least I trusted him. There was no doubt that it would have struck Jean's soft spot, too. That was just the kind of person he was. Still, it was both incredibly hilarious and shocking when Hitch smashed him in the side of the head with a tree branch.

Snorting to myself as I watched him almost fly across the clearing, I decided it was about time to make my presence known. Stepping out from my cover, I approached, scaring the absolute shit out of the two of them.
"I'm impressed. Both by your resolve, and that swing." I announced, giving them a wide birth as I moved towards the now unconscious copperet.

"Th..this was a test...wasn't it..?" Marlo asked me, guard still up as he held the shaken Hitch back. Shrugging, I gave them a smile, hopefully showing that I meant no harm.
"Could've been. I just followed Jean to make sure he didn't get into any trouble. I mean it, though. Mean swing you've got there."

Crouching down, I made sure the poor guy was still breathing, knocking the piece of wood he had faked as a gun away from his open palm.
"Great job you did there, then! He could've killed us!" Hitch shrieked, finally discarding her makeshift bat.

Glancing up, I met her eyes, cocking a brow at her comment.
"Sure, he could have. If that was what he had chosen to do, then I'd have let him. I trust Jean here completely. We all trust each other." Looking back down, my smile softened as I brushed the dirt and flaked bark from his face, fingers lingering.

"You're all terrifying..." Hitch did a one-eighty, shuffling to cower behind a much less traumatised Marlo.
"S..so what now..? Why did he have to do it like that? It was foolish, I could have easily..."
"We're all fools..." Jean stirred beneath my touch, eyes fluttering to squint as he came to.

"Welcome back, Mr. Brass Balls." I chuckled, helping him to stand up. He looked a little surprised to see me, but he said nothing of it, instead turning to the duo we could now definitely trust.
"Lucky for me, you're just as dumb. Marlo, I think you've proved your dedication. This should be enough to convince Captain Levi. We'll be counting on you from here on out."

Marlo looked like he was about to throw up sunshine and rainbows at the praise, which was a little sickening, but I ignored it, instead giving Jean a light jab with my elbow.
"You even had me going, for a minute there. Well, up until you went all theatre villain with your monologue." I snickered, only laughing harder when he pressed his palm into the side of my face.

"I scared them, didn't I?!" He whined, ears tipped red as I pulled his hand away and gave it a squeeze.
"Yeah, you did. Good job, Jean-Boy." I wanted to kid around with him for longer, but I knew we didn't have the time for it. We were on the clock, and time waited for no one.

"So...what do we do now..?" Hitch piped up, shuffling her feet as she finally emerged from behind her companion. Approaching them, slowly at first, I freed them of their binds in a final act of mutual trust.
"We'll lead you back to the squad. Levi can fill you in once we get there, and you can give us a hand with getting past the checkpoint. Sound good?"

They both nodded, and we started off back the way we had came, two by two.
"Uh, a question, Ma'am, if I may? Why do you not refer to your captain as Captain Levi, or Sir? I noticed earlier, but now that I have the chance to ask..." Marlo asked from behind me, and I peered over my shoulder, ready to reply.

"She likes to be edgy. Haven't heard her say it, doubt anyone ever will. She'll probably kick your asses if you call her Ma'am again, too." Jean beat me to the punch, and I bumped into him with my good shoulder, but only playfully.

"I'm not being edgy! I have my reasons, which are known and understood by that pint-sized pocket prick. You're just jealous." Turning up my nose, I quickened my pace, but the man easily matched it.
"Why would I be jealous?!" He snapped, though there was no real agression in his tone.
"Because...just because! Nyeh!"

"Are they...really Scouts..?"

"Beats me. They act like an old married couple..."

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***Marlo's hair makes me uncomfortable, but god damn, I loved watching Jean get homerunned.

Next Time: I actually don't know yet because the timeline is lost to me. More sneaky shit probably.***