"EREN!" Armin's cries were worried and frantic as he called for his friend. He and Mikasa had be searching for what seemed like hours.

They're friend had gone missing during an expedition. Not a trace of where he could of gone was left and a search party was sent out. But no luck of finding him so far. By this time the two had been separated from the group, lost their horses, and begun to run low on gas.

They were somewhere in the Forest of Giant Trees. The duo came across a clearing of damage that was most likely done by titans. Large footprints and broken tree limbs were scattered across the forest floor.

The two began to examine the site for any sign of Eren. 'I have high doubts that a normal titan did this much damage,' Mikasa thought as she looked at the broken branches of the trees, 'it could have been...'

"Mikasa! I found something!" Armin yelled. Mikasa ran over to her friend. He was looking behind a bush. He had an extra 3DM-Gear in his hands. "This gear is out of gas, and the blades are broken, Someone was using it!... Also I found this wrapped around one of the blades" Armin held up a gold key. Mikasa would recognize this key anywhere.

"That's the key to Eren's basement..." Mikasa stated, "But, why should he just leave it-"

"AAAAAAHAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGG!"

An agonizing scream interrupted the conversation between the two friends. The exchanged looks. Then the two friends ran as fast as they could in the direction of the sound. When they finally arrived at the source of the scream, they couldn't believe what they saw.

Eren, their best friend, was being chewed to death by a titan...

Almost immediately, Mikasa prepared to launched her gear to slice the nape of the titan.

"Mikasa, Wait!" Armin warned, "We have to get Eren out of it's mouth first... Otherwise we might be 'killing two birds with one arrow'..." Mikasa nodded in agreement. Armin launched his gear and grabbed Eren's body and Mikasa went in to slice the titans face. The Humanoid Howled in pain and Armin was able to pull Eren out of the mouth. Mikasa then sliced into the nape of the titan, Killing it. She ran towards her friends. Armin was trying his best to tend to Eren's wounds.

Blood was pouring out his head, and even more from the huge bite-mark in his stomach. His arm also looked twisted and was probably broken. Eren was in the worst condition possible at the worst time possible. They had no smoke flares, no medical supplies, and no way of getting back to the camp...

Blackness.

Just pure blackness was all the titan-shifter could see. Then...

"Eren? Can you hear me?"

"Eren, Please wake up..."

Two voices called out to him, both sounding as if they were on the verge of tears. Eren's emerald eyes slowly opened to see the two blurred but familiar figures crying and trembling above him.

"Ar...min...Mi...ka...sa?" his voice was weak and raspy.

The two stopped crying and looked towards Eren, their eye's widened when they saw he was awake.

"Eren...h-how do you feel?" Armin asked

"Hor...I...ble" Eren coughed a few times after saying this. Armin continued applying pressure on the wound with his jacket. The bleeding lessened but something wasn't right...

"Eren, Why aren't you wounds healing?" Armin asked, "S-shouldn't your titan powers be healing you wounds?" Eren pondered for a bit...

"My powers... they aren't working... I don't know why... but when I tried to transform-" Eren suddenly went into a coughing fit. He covered his mouth as a red liquid was being hacked up from his throat. The wound in his stomach began to bleed-out. The last thing he saw was the concerned look on his friends faces.

(Time skip)

Eren's head was now resting on Mikasa's lap. She gently stroked his dark hair. Armin was beside her, clasping Eren's unbroken hand for comfort. Tear marks were visible on each of their faces, but Eren's steady breathing ensured that he was okay... for now anyways.

After a while a horse appeared. Because the horse had lost it smoke signals, they decided that Armin would go to find help and Mikasa would stay and watch after Eren. They were hiding in an abandoned animal burrow that had been dug underneath a tree.

After some time Eren began to stir in his sleep. His eyes opened slightly and noticed someone was missing.

"W-Where's Armin?" he managed to say.

"We managed to get a horse and he left to find help." Mikasa answered. Eren nodded as if to say 'okay'. His body trembled and he curled closer to Mikasa.

"Eren, what's wrong?" Mikasa asked. The boy continued to tremble

"I-I'm just a l-little cold" he replied. Mikasa lifted his head up slightly.

"Mikasa, W-what a-" Eren began to say, bit his sentence was cut short when he felt a warm, red fabric being wrapped around his head.

"Here..." Mikasa said soothingly, "It's warm, right?"

"Yeah" Eren replied as he snuggled into the scarf, "T-thanks."

Meanwhile

"JEAN? CONNIE? SASHA?" Armin Called out "ANYONE? HELLO?" He was having no luck whatsoever finding the others. It would be dark soon, and he didn't have any sort of lantern on him. he'd need to find them soon, or he'd be heading back without help...

Suddenly something sent Armin flying. He didn't have time to react and landed in a tree, getting knocked unconscious in the process. A titan grabbed his limp body. It brought him closer to it's mouth.

Someone sliced into the nape of the titan. Another grabbed Armin's body. A third flew by behind them.

Sasha, Connie, and Jean had saved him.

"You were supposed to wait for my signal!" Jean scolded

"Jean, that titan was about to bite his head off, what else were we supposed to do?" Connie argued

"You think He has any food with him?" Sasha asked setting Armin down

"I doubt it," Jean stated, "His horse is definitely dead though."

"Mourning for you cousin, Jean?" Connie asked jokingly. Jean let out an annoyed groan before bringing his attention back to Armin. He didn't seem to injured, maybe a minor concussion, but nothing too serious. He began to shake Armin's shoulder.

"Hey, Armin... wake up!" Armin slowly opened his blue eyes.

"Jean? Connie? Sasha? *groan* what happened?"

"You nearly got eaten by a titan," Sasha told him

"A few more seconds it'd have chewed your head off..." Connie added

"hey, you seen Mikasa anywhere?" Jean asked.

"Yeah," Armin answered, "She's with Eren."

"You found him? Where are they?" Armin pointed towards the way he came.

"do you guys have medical supplies? Eren's really hurt and his powers aren't working." Jean whistled for they're horses and they set out.

A/N my first AoT FanFiction, i'll post part two sometime in September if I can find time to write after school starts.

Eren somehow lost his powers, I'll explain this a in the next part as it's linked to this theory I have...

-8Bits