In the Attack on Titan world?

Chapter 9-the scouts, trial and graduation

The green figures were the Scout regiment, and now they were here we were able to start gathering those that had died or finding bodies.
Eren had been taken into custody by the MPs and we weren't allowed to see him. He was due to have a fair trial soon, but we hadn't been informed when yet. So to keep the remaining cadets busy we were logging deaths and bodies, so loved ones left behind could mourn.
The stench of death filled the air, so we had to wear bandanas over our noses and mouths as we went too and fro.
Mikasa, Armin and I were pacing, attending to this job liked caged beasts. Our worry for Eren clouded our judgement.
But we did the tasks we were ordered to do.
I was in a team with Jean, who was stunned into silence. Many of the bodies were those we had trained with. We had heard nothing regarding Marco, Jeans friend and one of the few I deemed as a decent human being. Jean hadn't seen him since before we all split to go to the base. I feared the worse.
But we carried on hoping that he was merely one of the wounded and would be able to patch him up.
What we saw as we rounded a corner was the death of our hopes.
At first it didn't look like him. Then we got nearer. And Jean almost threw up.
I knelt beside him, the right side of his body was completely gone, blood splattered painting as if the other half of his body was still there in shadow. A look of defeat and pain laid in his left eye. What had he seen? What had made that look appear in his eyes as he died?

"Marco." Jean whispered, falling to his knees beside me. "No,no." He kept repeating this over. I just put a hand on his shoulder. Letting him mourn his friend.

"This one have a name?" Came a MPs voice behind us, a medic by her uniform. She had a clipboard in her hand.
"Marco. Marco Bodt." I answered for Jean. He still couldn't speak. "104th Cadet Corps." I added. "Our fellow comrade in training."
"I am sorry for your loss." She said almost tonelessly. "With a name a family can be contacted and he can be given a send off."
I nodded, my hand gripping Jean's shoulder.
"Keep at it." The medic said. "There are many more and we need to make sure that disease does not follow the Titans with the bodies." The sun was beginning to go down as well.
I stood and offered a hand to Jean. "Come on. He's in a better place now Jean. He'd want you to carry on, live for him."
Jean nodded, though his hands shook violently in mine. I knew the anger was not directed at me. But at the Titans.
"Why?" Was All Jean whispered as we carried on, moving bodies, being unable to be the ones to carry Marcos body. "Why?"
His voice sounded empty.
I held onto him as we grabbed the last body for the night.
I wiped the sweat from my brow as the cart of the dead was pulled away, a funeral march like in my old world.
"Layla?" Jeans voice was odd. I turned. "Thank you for being there for me today. I would have-" His voice shook. I merely hugged him. After a while his arms went around me. I had shocked him clearly.
"I know." Was all I said pulling out of the hug. "You don't ever need to mention it again. Unless when you really need to talk because you are missing him. I'll always be there for you Jean." I smiled at him, though I was close to tears myself. There were so many. How could humanity overcome this? Would it even survive?
He gripped my shoulder and gave a small but weak smile and said nothing more.
Together we walked back to where we were being held. Suspicions that there were more Titan shifters- that's what Eren was, amongst the 104th Cadet Corps. Our backgrounds were being investigated and I was fidgety. My background didn't really exist, and I worried that if I told them the truth, then I would be locked away with Eren, or killed there and then.

A figure in green- a scout came towards us. "Layla Drake?" He asked. He was tall and blond.
I saluted, it was Commander Erwin Smith. "That's me sir." I said.
"At ease, would you mind coming with me?" He asked, a small smile decorating his lips. My stomach turned over on itself. Jean I could see was ready to fight, but I said I would and said to Jean. "Save me a seat at dinner?" And he relaxed just not as fully as he should have.

I followed the commander in silence. He took me to a study, and closed the door.
"Please sit down." He gestured to a chair in front of a desk, behind which he went and sat. I gingerly sat in the offered seat, my back ramrod straight, hands folded in my lap. I had to refrain from tapping my foot on the floor.
"Miss Drake, reports say that you defended the Titan Shifter Eren Yeager against your training commander. Is this correct?"
"Yes sir."
"Good, your honest."
He paused,
"You also fought alongside Yeager killing Titans when out of gas and used your ODM gear anyway?"
"Yes Sir." I didn't like where this was going.
"And before the Scouts arrived, you were fighting and protecting Yeager to plug the hole for wall rose?"
"Yes sir."
"Where you there for his transformation?"
"No sir."
"That's unfortunate." He paused. "What made you think of using the ODM gear without gas?" He added.
"I honestly couldn't tell you sir, I needed a way to get to the base for my gas. I used what I had, to do so."
He sat back in his chair and just stared at me, his stare was piercing. Penetrating. Unnerving.
I stayed firm.
"But where did that idea come from?" He eventually asked when his stare didn't yield results.
I really wanted to be sarky and say my head. But I didn't. "I thought since we use our grappling hooks and the gas the surely without the gas it would still work as well. I was willing to test that theory at the cost of my life." I said instead.
"That's interesting." Was all he said.
"If I may sir? I used the idea because otherwise I would have had no way of surviving and continuing to fight for humanity. I was abandoned as a child, never knew my family or parents and wasn't really be registered until I was eighteen, when I turned of age. And I knew I needed to, in order to join the fight. I was there when Shiganshina fell. I wanted to prevent that happening again."
When I stopped he was silent for some time.
When he spoke next a small smile appeared tracing his lips.
"Thank you for telling me Cadet. We had already checked your background because of the Titan shifter questions. Since you don't know your family could there be a possibility?"
"I honestly couldn't tell you sir." My hands shook a little. "But if you want me to do anything in anyway to prove I am or not I have nothing to hide."
"Thank you Cadet. It is appreciated. We won't worry about that for now."
This guy liked pauses.
"Yeager's trial is tomorrow. I don't want you to speak unless spoken to." I had to pause myself.
"I'm sorry sir, but we were informed that we weren't to attend that."
"Misinformed, we need those who witnessed it. Yourself and Cadets Ackerman and Arlert will also be there."
"Sir is there a reason as to why you want us there?" I had to ask.
"No, just as witnesses." He liked vague answers too. A poker face as it were.
He was quiet for some time and then he asked. "So you are graduating soon?"
"Yes sir?"
"And what regiment are you hoping to join once you graduate?"
"The scouts sir." It was a no brained answer.
He seemed shocked. But then he shocked me just as equally.
"Well, how about you join early and become a scout now?"