"Just stay close to me and keep out of sight, okay?" Colette hissed, running as quietly as possible down an alley with John and Dave on her heels and Jenny still clinging to her hand. She was listening intently to the sounds around them, mentally filtering through the ones she thought were and weren't important. The crackling of a fire nearby she drowned out, and focused instead on the heavy footsteps heading toward them on the next street ahead. "That one sounds about two houses down. I can probably take it, but you three would have to hide and there's no good places here where you won't be seen. We'll have to find another way around."

"Can't you just kill it fast enough that another won't find us?" John asked, with a condescending tone that made her lip twitch in annoyance.

"I can't guarantee that I would. Killing it would attract the others, anyway. There are a lot in this area." She explained evenly. "And I can't kill them all alone."

"We could help!" Jenny piped up, eyes shining.

"No, I'm afraid you can't. Thanks for the offer though." The apprentice replied, patting her head with her free hand. "But we need to move, like right now."

The Titan had been wandering closer during their exchange, and the proximity of it was making her feathers stand on end. Quickly, she ducked into a smaller offshoot of the alley that lead behind the houses the Titan was currently on the other side of, making sure the rest of her party followed her. She was hoping the Titans wouldn't bother to look back here, and luckily turned out to be right as the one on the other side of the house continued on its way the other direction.

At the end of the alley, she could see it opened up onto the main street again. Once they reached it, she pressed herself against the wall and peered out, mindful of her gear to keep it from grating against the stone.

There was one Titan walking toward them again, but the rest of the street looked clear for the most part. Ducking back into the alley, Colette looked around. There weren't any obvious hiding places here, or more alleyways to take, and the Titan was about to walk by with them in plain sight.

Resisting the urge to hiss from stress, she took note of the gloom in the alley. It was still early morning, so the buildings were still casting heavy shadows, and if they could blend in with those they might be able to pass by unnoticed in more places than normal.

Colette glanced down at her white uniform in annoyance, and then at her companions' clothes as well, noting that not one of them would blend in with shadows very well. I'm going to assume Titans can't see very well in the dark, but even so, we're pretty obvious. Maybe if I... Her thoughts trailed off as the Titan stepped into sight, and she immediately turned and crouched lower to the ground, pulling Jenny with her. The other two got the hint and did the same, while the apprentice unfolded her black wing and held it over them all. I really hope this will do the trick.

She was vaguely aware of the soft smell of old bricks and cool earth, until the wind changed direction slightly and all she could smell was smoke. Hoping that would be enough to cover their own scent, she could practically feel the Titan lean down to stare into the alley, and refused to let herself move in order to look at it.

After a tense minute or so, she heard the Titan move away and keep walking down the street, and she breathed a faint sigh of relief. "Okay, we'll need to move fast so we don't get seen, come on." She whispered, folding her wing again and cautiously stepping out of the alley.

All of the Titans in sight were facing away at the moment, so Colette took the chance and bolted for the next alley she could see, making sure her companions were following. She kept glancing back and forth as they went, keeping a watchful eye on the giant man-eating monsters just a few meters away in case they turned. Luckily, they all seemed perfectly distracted, allowing the four humans to make it to the next alley without incident.

"Miss angel lady?" Jenny spoke up in a whisper. "What are those monsters?"

"Your mom didn't explain them to you?" Colette asked, surprised. Even when she was little, she still knew about the Titans. It wasn't really kept away from the children back then, and she couldn't see why it would be now, since now they actually attacked often. Jenny shook her head.

What do I tell her? She's much too young to know the extent of what they do, and I don't even know exactly what they are. "You said I'm an angel, right?"

She nodded.

"Well, you know who the enemies of angels are, right?"

"Demons!" Came the hushed exclamation.

"Exactly. Those monsters are demons, so we have to get away from them."

There was a pause, then, "What happens if they catch us?"

The apprentice gave her a long, sad stare. "I hope you never have to learn that firsthand."

Jenny looked slightly confused, but Colette didn't plan on explaining, instead focusing on the path ahead of them.

"There are a lot of Titans ahead. We'll have to be really careful to keep from being seen." Colette breathed, already able to hear the Titans wandering around.

"We've been doing that this entire time." John hissed, earning him a glare from the apprentice.

"Just be quiet."

Dave snorted at the dismissive way she spoke, all of them being tired of the older man's constant commentary on all of Colette's decisions. No more words were said, though, and she continued to lead them down another alleyway that would hopefully avoid most of the Titans.

Until Jenny spotted a dog, that was. "Look, a puppy!" She exclaimed, forgetting to keep quiet. The sound made Colette flinch and listen for the Titans, hoping that they hadn't heard her. It also scared the animal out of the alley, though, and Jenny took off after it.

"Jenny, no! Get back here!" She could already hear that the closest Titan had apparently heard the girl's shout, and was making its way toward them. Turning back to the two guys, she quickly said, "Stay here and hide, fast. Call for me if they come here."

And then she was sprinting after Jenny, who had vanished already. Once at the end of the alley, she saw the girl catch up to the dog a ways down the road, and crouch down to pet it. That would have been fine, if she hadn't stopped right by a Titan. Colette saw it reach for her, whereas Jenny was completely oblivious to the impending danger above her, and the apprentice dashed toward them. She was moving faster than usual due to desperation to not let the girl die, and managed to barrel into them at the very last second, feeling the Titan's hand brush against her feathers as she passed it.

They rolled between its feet in a tangle of wings and maneuver gear, which the apprentice was surprised didn't fall off, seeing as this was the second time she'd rolled on it today. Once they came to a stop, Colette immediately jumped into the air and used her gear to fly up to the Titan before it could turn around. With one quick, haphazard slash that dulled her blades, it went limp and fell to the ground, and she landed just between it and Jenny.

She was panting as she replaced the dull blades, trying to regain her breath and feeling like her legs wanted to give out from under her. Damn, I'm already this tired? This is bad. She pushed the feeling away and forced herself to walk over to Jenny, who was staring at the Titan's steaming corpse with wide eyes while the dog just looked like it was going to pee itself. "What... What would have happened if it grabbed me?" She asked without looking up.

"The Titans kill people, Jenny. In very gruesome ways that no one should ever have to see or experience." She held out a gloved hand, which Jenny took, and she pulled her to her feet. "And that's why we need to get out of here, before more show up."

"Okay." The apprentice made sure there weren't any more Titans nearby, and then led the way back to the alley, Jenny clinging to her leg this time while still managing to hold the dog in her other arm. "I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"You said to stay close and be quiet."

She looked down. The girl looked somewhere between crestfallen and regretful, and Colette gave her a soft look as she ruffled her hair. "I did, but I'm not mad at you. Look, you even managed to save that puppy, doesn't that make you happy?"

"Yeah, that's true." Jenny brightened slightly. "Does that make me like you? Since you save people all the time?"

"Sure." Colette agreed, chuckling slightly. "Just like me and everyone else in the Survey Corps."

"Yay! Watch out Titans, I'm a soldier too!"

LET'S TRY THIS AGAIN, SHALL WE? (screw you FFN and your new uploader and glitching up my damn chapter, screw you)

So basically I tried to upload this just now and it came out as a garbled bit of code with like one paragraph from the chapter and I was just like GOD DAMN IT WKJFNABG.

But anyway, this is super late because first I started focusing mainly on my Levi cosplay since it's con season now, then I discovered and started obsessing over RWBY, then I got writer's block, then I added three more cosplays to my to-do list, then I started obsessing over Rooster Teeth, then anytime I did have the inspiration to write, my brain was like LOL LET'S WRITE HORROR SADFICS FOR SUPER RANDOM STUFF AND ADD PORTAL REFERENCES and I was just like *facedesk*

Part of this was written a month ago, the rest was written over the course of the past week, so if there's a discernible difference in writing style like halfway through, that's why. I've also been told by both paintingbrokenwords and Werewolf714 that this is really slow, so I apologize if it's kinda boring or something. It'll pick up soon I promise.

As always, reviews actually do make me write faster (I got like two over the course of a month) and also make high pitched screeing noises in the middle of class when I get the email. Revieeew. You know you want to help me convince my classmates I'm really a pterodactyl. Now I'm gonna hope this chapter actually posts correctly (I'm sorry for spamming your inboxes I really am) also I'll try to update faster than I did this time, but it won't be as frequent as before for awhile. I'll shut up now. bye.