AN: Don't really know where this came from. I kinda just woke up with the words floating around my head and I knew I had to write them down. This three-chapter short story is what came out. I hope y'all enjoy this as much as I did writing it! :)

Chapter 1 – Dying

Betrayal. Cold, sharp-edged, stabbing betrayal. It shot through him like an electric current, coming in waves of increasing intensity, burning him physically, destroying mentally. His wounds were healing slowly…too slow to scare off the darkness creeping into his heart, threatening his very sanity. They did this to him. It was their fault. The blisters on his skin, the jagged, still bleeding, cuts on his back and the dark hand-shaped bruises wounding around his throat were all reminders of his falsely placed trust. They pretended to be on his side, they lied that they would support him, protect him from those who would do him harm and then they hurt him. They inflicted pain upon him until his titan powers couldn't keep up with the injuries, couldn't heal in time for a new wave of raw pain equally as scorching, equally as agonizing as every previous one. They broke the trust he had placed in them and now he was dying.

Because that was it. He could feel his powers failing, could feel the agony growing. He knew it was the end. They betrayed him, they tortured him, they broke him…and they killed him. He thought he'd give his life to save humanity, but really all he did was suffer for the sick pleasure of few individuals.

He realized he couldn't escape them no matter how far or how quickly he ran, so he stopped trying. He collapsed somewhere in the forest outside the walls – the farthest he could get from his prison, his tormentors, before his legs gave in and he crashed to the cold ground. The dampness of the dirt beneath him did nothing to cool his aching muscles. The heavy air around him only made breathing harder, made his lungs tighten uncomfortably. A grim smile stretched across his chapped lips. Even if they couldn't capture him physically, their chains would always be wrapped around his limbs, the blood around his wrists and ankles would never truly wash away, just like his heart would never truly be whole again.

The hardest bit wasn't that his so called friends turned on him, did everything to him they had promised they never would…the part that stung the most was that he was in on it.

"Levi…"

His name left a bitterness in his throat; it was now like acid in his mouth. He had trusted him with his life, had trusted him with his heart. He had loved him… Heh, I still do. Even after everything, I still love him.

"Eren!"

White hot panic shot through him so suddenly it stole his breath, leaving him gasping dryly like a fish out of water. That voice…

"Where are you? EREN!?"

No. No, no, NO! Couldn't they at least let him die peacefully? Did they have to take everything away from him, even this last bit of calm as Death took him? Did he not suffer enough already? He wished he could run, escape their clutches for just a while longer, but he knew it was impossible. His body was paralyzed. He couldn't move an inch. He could only lie there silently, grass scratching his scarred cheek, his ragged clothes providing minimal protection against the cold of the night.

A short figure stepped into his line of sight, a gasp leaving them when he was spotted. His chest tightened in anticipation. A lone tear escaped his good eye, sliding over his nose and hitting the grass beneath him.

"Eren!" Levi shouted, his voice strangely broken up. The raven-haired man dropped by his side, his grey eyes wide as he took in the sight before him. His hands hovered over Eren's bleeding form as if he was afraid the lightest touch would break him. It was ironic because Eren was already shattered to pieces and Levi was the one who had done the breaking.

"What…" A loud swallow, then, "What happened to you?"

A puff of air escaped Eren's slightly parted lips. This must be another game, another ploy his tormentors thought up to prolong his miserable existence. They must have realized his feelings for the Captain and were now attempting to use them against him. He reckoned they were counting on getting their toy back like this. Levi would come and help him, restore his trust in him, heal him, be the savior Eren so desperately needs, only to back-stab him again, annihilating the last bits of his sanity and killing him in the process. The corner of his dry lips pulled up slightly as he smirked. But didn't they know he was already destroyed beyond repair? There could be no healing when he was already dead.

"Eren?" His name was a whisper. Levi had never looked so sad before. Eren hadn't realized what a good actor the man was. "How…" He didn't finish, merely sat at the boy's side, his arms still frozen in the air, an inch above his battered form. Then, after a long moment of silence, Levi moved. He carefully placed his hands on the brunette's shoulder and hip, slowly turning him over so that his back was pressed to the ground. Sheer horror assaulted him when he took a good look at the titan-shifter.

His clothes, or what was left of them, barely covered all the red patches of bloody skin. Deep cuts and blisters littered his body; they covered his skin almost completely. There were red irritated rings on his wrists and ankles, along with tell-tale signs of older scars, indicating he'd been chained for a long time. Levi's gaze travelled over the boy's body slowly until it reached his face and all the air left his lungs. Eren's face was cut up so much he was barely recognizable and his right eye was all but gone; an almost empty socket staring at him. He recovered from the shock only because he saw the pain etched into the boy's face, radiating strongly from his remaining eye.

Why isn't he healing? The thought wouldn't leave his troubled mind. "Eren," Levi began but stopped himself. It wasn't the right time for all his questions. First, the boy needed immediate medical attention. "I'm going to lift you up. We need to get you proper help." The boy's reaction was instantaneous and it caused Levi's worry to spike far more than his wounds had.

"No," Eren croaked, his left eye wide in sheer panic, uncontrollable tears rolling out of it. Levi didn't think the boy even noticed. "Please," he whispered brokenly, "No. Just-" A light cough, dry and scratchy, "Let me die here. I…don't want any more pain." Levi's heart clenched, his stomach turning from the implications. "Please, p-please…No…"

"I…" Levi didn't know what to say. He didn't know what the boy was talking about, though he could wager a guess. Ever since it got out that he could transform into a titan, people have been…curious about him. Some more than others. He wasn't a fool. He knew what the world they lived in was like, he'd dealt with evil before. It wasn't hard to realize some such evil had managed to get a hold of the boy – his mutilated body was a clear giveaway. He pushed those thoughts aside for the time being, focusing instead on the brunette before him.

"Eren," he spoke softly, hoping to calm him down as much as possible, "No one is going to hurt you. I just need to take you to a doctor. We're not far from the gates and there are no titans in sight, so it should all go smoothly. But we need to move now or-"

Eren let out a heart-wrenching sob that shook his whole body. "N-no," he said so quietly Levi almost missed it. He could feel the boy trembling beneath his hands.

"You're going to be fine, Eren," Levi assured him, not sure what to do. If the boy started panicking, more than he already was, Levi really didn't know how he'd deal with it. He'd never been very good at comforting people, but when it came to dealing with a person so obviously traumatized he was at a complete loss. A familiar sound reached his ears and Levi perked up. Hooves. Back-up was coming. Good.

Eren must have heard it too, because his left eye suddenly grew so wide it looked painful and unnatural. Levi recognized terror in those green eyes. "No…no, no, no," Eren started muttering, his trembling intensifying. "P-Please, don't…I can't…Can't you just…let me die?"

There he was talking about death again. It made Levi angry. "You're not dying," he told him sternly, wanting the boy to know how serious he was about saving him. It was the wrong thing to say apparently.

Adrenaline surged through him at those words. He knew it. He knew they wouldn't let him get away so easily. They had more in store for him, after all. More fire, more ice, more chains, more knives, more more more. He wouldn't let them.

With renewed vigor, Eren sprang to his feet not so much quickly as unexpectedly, catching Levi off guard. It was enough momentum for him to start staggering away, clutching his abdomen against the searing pain.

"Oi!" He heard the Captain's shout behind him and he knew this was his last chance. His legs, his feet, his arms, his body hurt, but he had to get away. He had to escape at least for long enough for his heart to finally give in and for eternal darkness to take him.

"Eren, where are you going?" Levi was on his heels, he could hear it, could feel the imminent danger approaching. He could barely see where he was going, whether because of the dark, or the tears that blurred his sight, or the blindness of his right eye, he didn't know…he just knew he couldn't stop. The sounds of horses galloping towards him grew louder, pushing his legs to work faster. His lungs were screaming at him, his heart was beating frantically, but not quickly enough. It was reaching its limit.

I don't want the pain.

I don't want them to hurt me anymore.

I don't want to suffer.

Please, please just let me go.

"I want to die!"

His foot caught on a root, his ankle twisted and he lurched forward. He didn't even feel the sting of this new pain, or the force of the impact when he hit the ground. He winced when all the air was forced out of his lungs, closing his eye. He lay there breathlessly, heartbeat echoing in his ears loudly, drowning in his agony slowly. He felt hands on him and his panic skyrocketed. Voices assaulted him from all sides, merging with the stuttering pounding of his heart.

His chest clenched, but it was different than ever before. There was a sharp stab directly in his heart that wouldn't go away. The pain grew and grew until it was all he knew. Sharp, burning, searing… Images flashed in his mind, those of mocking smiles, menacing laughter, evil eyes which promised more agony. Knives and ropes and chains and fire. Pain. There was a face, one he knew very well, loved with all his heart until it was ripped out of him. Steel grey eyes were narrowed in hate, disgust marring his beautiful features, transforming them into something ugly, everything his nightmares had ever created. Pain pain pain. For a brief moment there was an image of his mother and father, Mikasa and Armin, a memory of happier times, long since forgotten, stolen, wrenched from him. Pain.

And then there was nothing. Blissful numbness. There were no images, no sounds, no pain, nothing. …And he smiled, feeling lighter than ever before. This was his end.