She remained in her seat, frozen as a deep pit began to form in her stomach. Niles walked past her stiffly, but closed the door when the others left the room. Handing her a handkerchief, he sat on the table in front of her. She took it, wiping the ink from her palm. She flipped her hand over, continuing to wipe at the ink. She made sure to get it out of the ridges of her sole piece of jewelry, her gold ring. She stared down at the band fixedly.

I knew this might have happened sooner or later, no need to throw a fit about it. Calm down. Breathe...

"I'm sorry Robyn, honestly. If I had it my way, I'd send a piece of shit like Lott out to do the job."

Robyn wiped at her shaking hand, giving another curt nod as acceptance to his apology. Niles had only the best intentions. Not only for his men, but for humanity. He was a good soldier, and a wonderful friend.

Still, he was far from rebellious. He took his orders and followed them, blindly on occasion. Friendship aside, they were close enough for her to understand that her companionship was ultimately expendable to him. If he could find a way to get the job done without sacrificing her, he would. If he could not, he would not hesitate of it meant humanity would move even an eighth of a step forward.

And she knew she would do the same if the roles reversed. It was always so much easier to do when it was someone else on the chopping block.

Understanding that is what made their friendship so successful. There were no unreal expectations or confusion about what one expected from the other. There was only the truth. Doing the "greater good" in their line of work meant working almost exclusively in that gray area between right and wrong that civilians lived by. The gray areas only darkened as you advanced in ranks.

She initially tried to avoid falling into the trap of working within the "gray" area. Life experience made her realize that was where she flourished. She learned to embrace it, out of fear of the alternative. Idealism was for foot soldiers and civilians.

Foot soldiers and civilians both were best used as bait.

"Ya know, I always had a feeling I'd end up back out there sooner or later. It was a matter of time."

"Well, this is a hell of a time to get called on to babysit."

She snorted as she tried to gain some control over her trembling body. Niles sat down beside her, giving her a small folder labeled 'Mikasa Ackerman'. She opened it, seeing the documents of an old murder case.

"You know they have more than babysitting in mind, sir."

There was a deep sigh, again. He spread the files over the table before sitting all the way back in the chair.

"So either way it goes they're banking on the kid dying?"

She gave a quick nod, letting the silence hang heavy in the room.

"Officially, I transfer to 'observe' the kid."

"Unofficially?"

"Kill him as soon as I can. It'll take time, but as soon as I have an opening I'm expected to take it. I'm sure they'll be more than patient as long as he's dead though. Not to mention the disapproval ratings of the Survey Corps will skyrocket. It's a win-win as far as Central sees things," she said nonchalantly, shrugging as she fell back into her seat. She looked at Niles, who was massaging his temples fervently.

"Why is it they wanna undermine those people? They're our best men. And I'm definitely not fighting any Titans anytime soon," He growled, still rubbing away at his temples.

"You already know the answer to that, don't let your relationship with the Commander blind you. The Military Police is a lot of things, upstanding is not exactly one of them. We are here to protect the interests of the people who live in Wall Sina. Everyone else is secondary. And giving shine to the Survey Corps only allows people outside of Sina to see this branch for what it really is. It's not necessarily right, but it is for the great good of the human race."

"Tch. How do you figure?"

"All that complaining about taxes feeding soldiers who aren't able to do their jobs? Horseshit, we pay taxes too. The obvious truth is that the poor resent the people of Wall Sina. They resent being stuck in those buffer cities to be used as fodder. They resent the merchant guilds, the Garrison, and the Military Police. With that in mind-"

"Central redirects that resentment in the direction of the Survey Corps by constantly working against them."

"Exactly. It keeps Humanity from collapsing from within from civil wars, and the Survey Corp uses it as fuel to keep going. It placates the masses, and puts pressure on our best to continue getting better."

"Is that why you transferred here?" Robyn turned to look at him, chuckling.

"What? Because of the system? Or -"

"Because you let your relationships blind you? You talk about this stuff like you didn't figure it out until you left. You were there a year after he died before you transferred. Did he blind you?" He said, showing his own ring. Robyn sat, a little shocked he'd asked. They very rarely ever talked about their respective love lives. She'd met his wife, Maria, four times in the seven years she was in the Military Police. She had taken him to her husband's memorial only once. She looked down at her hand, her freshly buffed wedding band dainty and thin on her slender finger.

"Quite the contrary. Everything that happened opened my eyes more than I bargained for. I just realized I was far less selfless than I gave myself credit for. This is a fight that needs warriors. We're too selfish for that - or too smart, depending on how you want to view it. So, we move the chess pieces around, and we'll continue doing so till there aren't any pieces left. Even if there's nothing left, it will be a victory as long as some of our opponents pieces are taken. If we play it just right, we may be able to take all of their pieces with us. I wanna be one of the pieces left on the board when this is over. So when the chance came, they moved me here to work under you," She turned with a tired smile to her quiet friend.

"And I have the feeling that if they sent you there, they'd leave you there to deal with the aftermath of having killed the boy."

"Of course. How would it look to just transfer me back as soon as he died? It would also be way too risky to kill me themselves. So, they'll just leave me to rot there. The others would lose trust in me, but they wouldn't kill me. There would be no one to watch my back, I'd receive the most dangerous work. I'd be forced to pretty much do the deed myself. All loose ends tied neatly, with the trimmings," She snorted, twisting and turning her wedding band.

"Well, we have our directive. Which is, how you're explaining it, to make sure he's executed and make sure it's not done on our dime."

"And undermine the Survey Corps," she added, still staring off into space.

"Well, we can lose the kid. But unless they specifically tell me you have to go as well," Niles hand flew in her face with a new pen,"we should find a way to complete the directive where I still come out with my second-in-command, you never have to set foot outside of Wall Sina, and the Survey Corps feel enough of a blow where Central gets off our backs." Robyn took the pen from Niles, then examined all the scribbled notes and reports in front of her.

When she turned to speak to her commander, he gave her a stiff wave, signaling her to get to work. With a small smile, she began shifting through the papers.