.˜"*°• L I T T L E M O N S T E R •°*"˜.

          Training the next day was one of the toughest things Artemis had been forced to endure. The white bandages around both her hands were making it difficult to grip her swords, and the throbbing in her muscles left her feeling like she'd fallen from a cliff. Levi was in a foul mood just as he had been the day prior, meaning everyone else was suffering for it. Missy would've asked what his problem was, but Gunther had suggested that she should probably just let him be.

She had spent the full day in Delegade, continuing the search for fallen comrades. She had been a bit nervous about returning back there after what had happened the last time, but she didn't exactly have much of a choice in the matter. It was her job, after all. After a successful day of clean up, they were now free to move onto structural and street repairs. It would be a long process, given some areas of the town had been completely crushed to the ground, but it would all be worth it in the end. 

She discovered from her friends that the other squad captains had followed in Levi and Zero's footsteps and began their own training routines in order to prepare the entire regiment for the mission that awaited them in a few weeks time. Missy found herself feeling torn about the whole idea. On one hand, leaving the walls and seeing what awaited them beyond had been one of the main reasons that she had decided to join the Scouts in the first place. The idea of escaping a place that had caused her such pain, and putting distance between herself and her father was something that she had been itching for, even if it was only for a limited time. It sounds silly, giving that the threat outside the walls should be far worse than Alec Rhydduch. Missy would disagree. To her, nothing was worse than her father. On the opposite side of things, Missy was hesitant about leaving the walls when such a massive threat was still running loose within the Kingdom. Who knew if and when this organisation would strike again? What would happen if they did so when all the Scouts were miles and miles away, with no way of telling what was happening? Even though Missy had built iron barricades around her tormented heart to keep it from further pain, she still cared for the well being of the innocent people within the walls, and for her mother and baby brother. 

She also couldn't shake the fact that after her encounter with the King, she couldn't help but like him. He had given off such a warm, comforting energy. He had spoke so highly of his father and his passion to follow in his footsteps to protect the people of the walls, and that had made him all the more like-able. He was young, just like Missy, and she would be lying if she said she didn't feel sorry for him for having such a huge pressure landed on his shoulders so suddenly. However, she was still wondering why her father had been sat with him at the coronation. Knowing Alec and his obsession with guarding the throne, he was likely just trying to make a good impression on the fresh, new royal. If the organisation were to strike again, would they go for Thomas next? 

The issue was that they new nothing. They didn't know how many people had congregated to serve this organisation, or who was running the entire ordeal. They didn't know their goal, or whether it had been accomplished the moment the King had been assassinated. Who could they trust? For all they knew, there could be spies anywhere. Even in the Scouts. 

"Too slow," Levi sighed, watching as Missy slashed the nape of one of the wooden, make-shift Titans. "If that was a real Titan, you'd be its dinner".

"How was that slow?" Missy breathed, landing on the floor beside the wooden beast.

"Are you arguing with me?" He asked, his eyes narrowed towards her.

"No, I just- ".

"Too slow," He repeated, boredom and irritation coating his short statement. "Go again".

She had repeated the same manoeuvre five times before Levi declared it 'acceptable'. It wasn't just Missy who was receiving the brunt of Levi's sour mood, and although she felt bad every time Levi snapped at the others, she was glad it wasn't only her he seemed to be directing his irritation towards. 

"He is being a little more arsy than usual," Gunther sighed as he crouched down on the thick tree branch with Missy beside him. "It's likely he's just stressed with everything that's going on. He is a Captain after all, he has a lot on his plate". 

Missy frowned, flexing her bandaged hands. "He doesn't need to be so mean about it though". 

"You sound surprised," Gunther chuckled. "I thought it was widely known that Levi wasn't exactly a gentle soul".

He was right, and she knew it. She just couldn't help but feel like his moods were so fluctuating as of recent. 

"Here they come, ready for a race?" Gunther smirked, pointing between the trees at Oluo and Eld racing towards them on their gear.

"First one to Levi wins, right?" She asked, as Gunther chuckled.

"I've been doing these relay games a lot longer than you, Artemis, so I hope there will be no hard feelings when you lose".

Missy snorted, readying herself as Eld approached her, flying through the trees with a wooden knife in his hand. She waited in anticipation, her entire focus solely on the knife in his grasp. As soon as she felt him place the wooden object in her open palm, she shot her wires into a far tree, releasing her triggers and darting off through the trees. She could feel Gunther's presence close behind her, but focused on what was in front of her, landing on another tree trunk before shooting the wires from her hips once more and leaping into the air. She knew she was at a disadvantage, as this was a training exercise that Levi's squad had done in the past, but she had been raised to be a competitive person which meant she was not going down without a fight. The point of this training exercise was to test speed, agility, and teamwork. Two people started at the edge of the forest, each holding an wooden knife, and they would race each other to their partner who would be waiting in the middle of the forest, and once the teammates had ownership of the wooden knife, they would race each other to Levi, who would be waiting at the far end of the forest. It was practically a relay race, just done using ODM gear and in the forest where the trees stood as obstacles.

She grunted as she watched Gunther's figure pass her between the trees. They were both going fast, a lot faster than Eld and Oluo had been going, but Levi knew that would be the case when choosing Missy and Gunther for the middle team. They were the fasted of the four. She clenched her jaw, a look of determination on her face as she accelerated forward. She dodged between tree branches, ducking and flipping through the air to avoid any obstacles as she successfully caught up to Gunther. They were neck on neck, and he flashed her a cheeky grin. He turned his head back to face in front of him, but his confident expression faltered. Missy followed his line of sight and could just about make out Levi stood on a branch ahead of them, with his arms crossed over his chest.

They were going so fast that it was going to be difficult to stop, but as Missy saw Gunther pull forward slightly, she knew she had to keep going.

"You're going down, old man," She called out before pushing forward even more. 

Gunther's eyes flickered between Missy and where Levi was stood on the branch. If they kept on going at this speed then they would struggle to slow down, and they'd either crash into something or knock Levi off that branch. He bit his lip, deciding that it wasn't worth the broken bones. He wasn't built like Levi and Missy, a fall from this height would shatter him.

He pulled back, slowing down as Missy sped forward towards Levi. As she got closer, she could see Levi's expression switch from bored, to slightly concerned. She glanced sideways and realized Gunther had slowed down, and she cursed silently to herself. She was too close, and she was going too fast.

As she reached only a few meters away from him, Levi threw his arm out to wrap around Missy's front as she collided with it at lightning speed, successfully slowing her movements but knocking them both from the branch and sending them tumbling down through the trees towards the floor.

Missy gasped loudly, bracing herself for impact as she watched the forest floor getting closer and closer. Levi's arm was still wrapped around her body as they fell. All of a sudden she heard the whirring of ODM gear wires being shot, and her body jolted, stopping in mid-air. She looked up, seeing Levi's ODM wires lodged into a tree branch above them, preventing a very painful fall as they both dangled in mid-air upside down. Levi turned his head, and Missy's eyes widened at how close their faces were to one another's.

"You little brat," He stated coldly, glaring at her as she tried to catch her breath. "It's taking every bit of human compassion I have left not to just drop you right now".

"Please don't do that," She whispered, glancing again towards the forest floor. "I quite like my spine intact".

"As do I," He seethed through gritted teeth. "So why didn't you slow down?"

"I thought the whole point was to go fast," She mumbled, furrowing her eyebrows as she stared into his grey eyes that were just inches away from hers.

"The whole point is to be able to control your speed!" He responded. "That includes being able to stop appropriately".

"You could've said that before we started," She retorted, rolling her eyes. 

She let out a yelp as he loosened his grip on her, resulting in her wrapping her arms around his neck tightly. "Levi, what are you doing?".

"Dropping you," He replied bluntly, the words muffled from his face being pressed against her neck.

"I'm glad you're the one in this little situation and not me," Gunther laughed, as the rest of the squad approached on their gear. "I doubt the Captain would appreciate being that close to my handsome face".

"Stop talking and grab her so I can get down," Levi spat, shooting a warning look in his direction.

Once they were all safely on the floor again, Missy braced herself for a scolding from her Squad Leader, but to her surprise he just turned his back from her and began walking off with a small 'tch'.

"That's enough for today," He announced. "Get your asses back to HQ".

The rest of the group shrugged and trailed behind him, the sun slowly lowering in the sky and casting an orange glow across their faces. The air was cool, but still held that sweet smell of summer as they reached headquarters. Missy realized just how much her body ached from her long day, and suddenly couldn't wait to be free of her ODM gear and get some comfortable clothes on.

"Artemis?".

Missy turned at the sound of her name being called to see Hange approaching her, stopping a meter away before adjusting their glasses.

"Erwin sent me," The Section Commander explained, as Levi paused to stand beside them. "You and Captain Levi have been requested to join a meeting".

"A meeting?" Artemis questioned, Levi's eyes widening just a fraction from beside her. "A meeting with who? Commander Erwin?".

"No," Hange replied, noticing Levi's sudden change in behavior. "A meeting with the King".