Disclaimer : Shingeki no Kyojin created by Hajime Isayama.

A/N : Thanks for the reviews guys. :D Much appreciated. To quote a song from the Hives, "I want more!". :D

Credit to : Salaeren and Vespalynd, best betas ever. Remember to check out Vespalynd's fic : "Walls Between Us"! ;)

Chapter 2 - Rage and its Consequences

Eren let out a cry of pain as he pulled his wounded hand away from his mouth. Teeth marks and blood marred the area he had bitten, but no steam came out of it. No Titan flesh materialized around it. It was just a throbbing, wounded human hand that he held gingerly to his chest. He was not a Titan.

The monster that towered above him, however, was a Titan in every sense of the word. With a sadistic grin stretched across its face, it raised its hand to smite Eren, much like how a vengeful god would strike down a traitorous infidel. Eren stood rooted to the spot, his expression locked in a defiant snarl as he was faced with the prospect of dying. He had heard that when people die, their entire life flashes before their eyes. Eren found himself wondering if it was true after all, because all he could see in his mind were memories of Mikasa. From the night that he saved her life to their time together in the training corps, all the way up to the very last time he saw her, back at the encampment. The thought of that last conversation with her before everything went south made Eren's heart sink with the weight of regret. Are those really going to be my last words to Mikasa?

"Eren! Get back!"

Snapped out of his stupor, Eren looked upwards just in time to see Klaus flying through the air with a hardened steel combat knife in his hand. He had climbed a nearby tree and now he was careening towards one of the Titans, an expression of desperation and fear etched on his face. Putting his entire weight into the attack, he plunged the cruel metal deep into the Titan's eye, causing it to stumble backwards from the force. Desperately clinging onto its skin, Klaus switched the blade to his other hand and rammed it repeatedly into the titan's remaining eye, completely robbing it of its vision.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Klaus kept chanting the word as if it were some sort of battle cry or war ritual that would endow him with the strength to fight. But the truth behind the spell was evident in his trembling voice; he was scared beyond his wits. The only thing keeping him going was instinct and fear. He was doing what he had to do. The Titan reached for its face to grab him but Klaus let go just in time, dropping to the ground with a heavy thud. The jarring impact caused him to become disoriented for a moment. However, he retained enough clarity to quickly roll away just as one of the other Titans brought its foot down where he had lain just moments ago. With a roar of defiance, Klaus desperately stuck the knife into the Titan's toe with all his might. The Titan did not seem to feel any pain from the stabbing, so casual was its movement to pick him off the floor. Klaus hastily got to his feet and narrowly dodged the huge fingers as they tried to catch him. The blind Titan continued to flail around randomly in an effort to find him, hitting its allies in the process. As luck would have it, the Titan tripped over a root in its sightless frenzy and fell over, bringing the other two Titans down in a heap together with it.

"Eren! Get the torch!" Klaus screamed as he turned. "Now, damn it!"

Eren promptly retrieved the torch from the ground and re-joined Klaus. "Klaus! I couldn't transform! I-"

"Enough talk, man. Move!" Klaus barked at him, cutting off his speech. He grabbed the torch from Eren's hand and ran ahead. Eren glanced back at the Titans that were tangled in a bunch on the floor. The blind Titan had steam coming out of its eye sockets, but it seemed like it was staring straight at him. The unnerving sight made him shiver. He immediately turned to run after Klaus.

Driven by instinct, the two of them kept running for what seemed like hours, but they couldn't be sure. In the near total darkness of the forest, time no longer seemed apply to their world. What light that did peek through the dense canopy of leaves was sparse and ghostly, like thin beams of ethereal chalk that somehow seemed more eerie than the blackness which surrounded them. The thundering footsteps of their pursuers spurred them on regardless, driving them forward like sheepdogs herding cattle.

Klaus dragged Eren along by his arm, determined not to leave him to die despite the insistence of his younger friend. "Shut it, Eren. Neither of us are going to die here," he said between labored breaths.

"It's not the time to be a hero, Klaus,"Eren retorted. "Liz needs you. I'll try to turn into a titan again, if you just-"

"Why can't you just trust me, Eren?" Klaus yelled in frustration.

Is it true Eren? You really don't believe in us?

The memory of Petra's last words to him struck Eren hard. He stopped in his tracks and lowered his head into his uninjured hand. "I don't know!" Eren screamed. "I don't fucking know who to believe!"

Klaus put a hand on his friend's shoulder and let out a weary sigh. He didn't know what to say. His own mind was processing a similarly chaotic torrent of thoughts and emotions at the time. All he knew was that if they stopped running, they would die. He didn't even have his combat knife to fight with anymore. "Eren, this is why Mikasa protects you all the time. You need to stop carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders," he said. "Right now, we gotta keep running."

Klaus' words left Eren speechless. All he could do was nod to convey his acquiescence. Glad that his words had reached his friend, Klaus turned to continue their endless marathon to nowhere. It wasn't long before exhaustion overtook them, and they finally ended their flight at a wide clearing in the middle of the forest. A small oasis of dim light in a desert of blackness, the two of them thought that they had arrived at their final resting place. They took a breather in the nook between the buttress roots of a giant tree as they awaited the arrival of their executioners.

Covered with sweat and blood, Eren simply stared blankly into space. His breaths were short and labored, the wounds he had sustained throughout the day had taken a heavy toll on his body. But Klaus could tell that there was something else on his mind. "I'm sure Mikasa is fine," he said. "That girl could kick Titan ass with nothing but a fork."

Eren looked to Klaus with a weary smile on his face. "I'm sure Liz is fine too. She may not look like it, but she's a tough one."

"Like I wouldn't know that!" Klaus chuckled. "She's always wanted to see the world outside the world, you know? That's why she joined the Legion. She's not gonna die here."

"What about you?" Eren asked.

"Nah. I just wanted to be a carpenter, like my dad. Boy, was he pissed when he heard I joined the military," came the reply. "I'm his only son. Last of the Zimmermann bloodline," he continued with a slight hint of bitterness in his voice.

"You joined because of Liz?"

Klaus didn't reply to that question. He just smiled wearily at Eren and put a hand on his shoulder. The young Titan-shifter didn't need to hear the words to know the answer. He could see a sadness in his friend's eyes that made his own heart weep.

"I don't regret anything though," the young boy from Trost said with a wink. "Sometimes a man's gotta do what he's gotta do."

Eren nodded in agreement at Klaus' words. Then he suddenly looked away when a random thought entered his mind.

Oh my god, I'm Elizabeth and Mikasa is Klaus, he thought, covering his face with his hand as the embarrassing realization hit him.

"Hey, you know, me and Liz, it's like you and Mikasa, except the other way round!" Klaus exclaimed with a hearty laugh.

And so it was with laughter that they met the Titans. Their three pursuers strode into the clearing in unison, hell-bent on finally devouring their quarry. Their huge bodies blocked out what little light that could make it through the canopy, covering the two soldiers in a large blanket of dark shadow.

With nary a word spoken between them, the two soldiers helped each other to their feet. They weren't going to face their deaths lying down. Eren put his hand to his mouth again and glanced at Klaus. If they were going to die anyway, they might as well give it one more shot.

He didn't have to sink his teeth again this time though, as two of the Titans suddenly fell backwards for no immediately apparent reason. The sound of reeling cables and ejecting gas could be heard echoing around the clearing, providing a hint as to the cause for the sudden turn of events. The third Titan managed a final instinctive scream before it too joined its allies in a heap on the ground.

"Klaus!" Elizabeth yelled as she landed on the ground in front of the deceased Titans. She immediately ran up to him and locked him in a tearful embrace. "Klaus, you idiot! You idiot!" she whispered between desperate sobs.

"Elizabeth, I-" Klaus began to say, but Elizabeth didn't let him finish. Holding his head in her hands, she reached up and planted her lips firmly over his, not allowing him to say another word.

Mikasa didn't say anything as she walked up to Eren and stood before him. He was speechless as well. He had just given up all hope of seeing her again only a short while ago, to have her standing before him right now was nothing short of emotionally overwhelming. Without warning, Mikasa wrapped her arms around him, embracing him tightly for all she was worth. He could feel her body tremble against his own, but she did not say a word to him. Eren could feel his face turn red with heat. He had forgotten what it was like to hold someone in his arms. The smell of Mikasa's hair filled him with a sense of familiar joy that he could not explain.

When they eventually parted, Mikasa finally noticed the grotesque condition of Eren's arm. "What happened?" she asked, a look of genuine concern on her face.

"I got sent flying by a Titan," he said. "And let's just say the landing was less than comfortable." Gingerly lifting his injured arm up for her inspection, Eren grimaced as the stinging pain pierced him again. "I don't think it will heal unless it's set back in place," he continued with a tone that suggested that he did not particularly enjoy the thought.

Mikasa sighed and took Eren's uninjured hand in hers. "Sit down," she ordered. "Elizabeth, keep a lookout." Picking up a fallen branch from the ground, she snapped off a thin stick, handed it to Eren and told him to bite on it. Seated together on the ground, Eren's face was a picture of reluctance as he let Mikasa take his broken arm in her hand. Bracing himself, he looked into Mikasa's eyes and nodded to signal that he was ready. She nodded in kind and with one swift motion the bone was set back in place with a resounding crack.

The pain that enveloped Eren was immense, blocking out all his thoughts and senses. The stick in between his teeth threatened to snap under the immense pressure of his jaws as a muffled scream escaped from his lungs. Tears flowed freely from his eyes, the pain driving out all composure from his body. Seeing the agony he was in caused Mikasa's eyes to become watery with tears too. She gently took Eren's head in her hands and pressed it against her chest, desperate to help ease his pain somehow. Nestling her face into his hair, she held him against her body until the pain finally subsided, leaving him numb and weak. He had almost passed out in her arms, but somehow the feeling of her heartbeat against his face helped him hold on to his consciousness.

Eren stayed in her arms for a few moments longer as he tried to recover his strength. The warmth of Mikasa's body and the gentleness of her touch gave him a sense of security that washed away all his fears and worries. For those few moments, nothing else existed except for Mikasa.

"Are you alright?" she whispered tenderly in his ear.

Reluctantly, he finally removed himself from her embrace. Seeing the tear stains he had left on her shirt, Eren swiftly apologized, but Mikasa would have none of it. She helped him to his feet and let him use her as support. "Are you alright, Klaus? Can you move?" she asked.

"Not very well. We're both pretty banged up," came the reply.

Cursing their luck, Mikasa had no choice but to order them to lay low while Eren and Klaus recovered their strength. "We can't move anywhere with the two of them in this condition," she said. "Up there. We'll rest on that branch."

It was only a few hours before dawn when Eren finally awoke from his slumber. The torch had long since died out, but the darkness was no longer as unrelenting as it was before. Opening his eyes, he checked to see that his arm was fully healed. It was a surreal feeling to see a perfectly fine arm where only hours before there was only a bloody, mangled limb. He wondered if he could ever get used to the unnatural regenerative powers he was endowed with. He almost wished that his arm didn't heal after all. At least he'd know that he was human. As he was now, Eren wasn't sure what he was. Sometimes he felt like his powers were as much a curse as a gift. Such sweet irony it was for him to be the very thing that he was trying to destroy. The very thing that he despised with all his soul.

"Finally awake?" Elizabeth asked as she squatted down beside him.

"Liz. Where's Mikasa?"

"She's over there with Klaus," she answered, pointing over her shoulder to show him where they were. There was a short moment of silence before she continued to speak. "Hey, Eren. Thanks," she said.

"For what?" Eren questioned as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. The jacket that was draped over him slid off his body and onto the tree branch, prompting him to pick it up. Upon further inspection he realized that it was Mikasa's jacket.

"For helping Klaus to stay alive," she said with a weary smile. The thought of Klaus dying sent a shiver through her body. "Ever since we were kids, he's always been the type to protect people. You know? Even if he's scared out of his mind, the responsibility always keeps him going. Always. He's alive now because of you."

Eren realized that she was starting to tear up as she said those words. He grabbed Elizabeth's hand and gently squeezed it in an effort to comfort her. "It's going to take a lot more than three Titans to kill that guy. He's strong."

Elizabeth wiped a tear from her eye and squeezed Eren's hand as well. "Don't let him hear you say that, he's full of himself, remember?" she joked half-halfheartedly, inciting a weak chuckle from the boy. "I'd never be able to live with myself if Klaus died. He...he only joined the Legion because of me."

"But there's always the risk of dying if you're a Scout."

"Yeah. I know it's selfish, but I had to join," she said, "I just can't sit still behind those walls. I just can't. I told Klaus not to follow me. I told him. But he never listens." Eren could tell there was a lot on her mind. For the first time since he met her, it occurred to him that her outward persona of cheerfulness and optimism might just be a mask to hide the deeper conflicts within herself. The thought seemed a sad one to him, but he couldn't deny the allure of the world outside the walls. He suffered from the same disease as her, a disease of the mind that bred curiosity and ambition. Settling down with Klaus would never have satisfied her.

"Sometimes, I hate myself for being like this. I've never wanted to put him in danger," Elizabeth sighed. "I'll call them over. Mikasa will be glad to see that your arm is healed."

Eren got to his feet with help from Elizabeth just as Mikasa and Klaus walked over to them. His legs were still wobbly, but he felt a lot better now after finally getting some rest. "Thanks for the jacket." he said to Mikasa as he handed the garment back to her.

"Feeling better now?" she asked him.

"Better. I don't know if I can turn into a Titan yet though."

"If we're going to survive, we'll need you to." Mikasa said. She glanced at Klaus for a second before explaining their plan to get back to the wall. "I've discussed the matter with Klaus and we both agree that our best shot at getting back to the Wall is if you turn into a Titan and carry us back there. We'll never be able to get back safely if we travel by foot."

"But I'm not sure if...if I can control it yet," Eren stammered.

"It's a desperate plan," said Klaus, " but it's all we've got right now. Just to be on the safe side, I think that we should head back towards the encampment and gather what supplies we can. We can get maneuver gear for the both of us as well."

"He's right," Mikasa agreed, "We'll stand a better chance of surviving if we do that. At the very least, it'll let us stay alive for as long as possible. If Commander Irvin managed to organize any sort of evacuation and got back to the wall in one piece, he'll definitely send a search party for us. He won't want to lose his most precious assets if he thinks that there's any chance that we're still alive."

"Understood. When do we leave?" Eren asked.

"Just before dawn, when it's bright enough for us to move quickly." she answered, "Be ready."

The cold of the morning greeted the group of survivors when they neared the outer edge of the forest of giant trees. The sun had yet to rise, but hints of radiance spilling over the horizon granted a small degree of visibility to the world and all its creatures. Just before they reached the border separating the forest from the plains, they came across a couple of dismembered bodies lying on the ground. They were equipped with 3D maneuver gears but the equipment was crushed and in pieces.

"I wonder if anyone besides us managed to get into the forest." Klaus mused as he skirted around one of the corpses.

"We're here." Elizabeth said as they broke from the cover of the tree line. The encampment looked more like a painting of Hell than anything else. Half-eaten corpses and severed limbs lay strewn across the grassy landscape, a sea of green dotted with grotesque flourishes of blood and meat. Most of the tents were crushed and in tatters. Some looked like they had burned down in the chaos of the massacre. As they walked deeper into the carnage, Eren and Mikasa constantly scanned the area for any sign of Armin.

"The horses. They're gone!" Klaus stated, pointing at the tree where the Legion had secured its horses before the attack. "Do you see anyone here that looks like the Commander? Or the Lance Corporal?"

"I can't find any sign of them. Or Armin." Eren said with a sigh of relief, "Commander Irvin must have managed to organize an evacuation."

"Let's hope so. Find some maneuver gear and ration bars. We've gotta get out of here before the sun is up." said Mikasa.

The four soldiers searched the ruins of the camp as thoroughly as they could with the limited time that they had, but to their dismay they couldn't find any usable equipment or even any gas. It was almost as if the Titans had made sure to destroy every piece of equipment they could find. Another act of intelligence that did not align with their understanding of Titan-kind. It was a very sobering feeling, the thought that there was still so much they didn't know. One of the first lessons they were taught in the Training Corps was that to defeat your enemy, you must know your enemy. It was little wonder that humanity was so hard pressed to survive against the Titan onslaught if their knowledge of them was truly so limited.

"I found some ration bars, but they're kind of squashed." Elizabeth said as they regrouped in the middle of the encampment. She handed each of them a grey blob of sustenance that was squashed beyond its original brick-like form. "At least it can't taste any worse than it already is, eh?"

"Damn it, just our luck, isn't it?" Klaus cursed, kicking a crushed piece of maneuver gear on the floor in frustration.

"We don't have a choice then. We have to get back to the trees." Mikasa said. "Did you find any water, Elizabeth?"

"Yeah, I did!" she said, taking a canteen from the inside pocket of her jacket. "We'll have to share it though. Might last us for a day or two."

Satisfied that there was nothing more to salvage, the quartet quickly made their way back to the tree line. Their second excursion into the kingdom of giant trees was not uneventful, however. Instead of the smell of leaves and soil, what greeted them as they entered the forest was the stench of rotting flesh and putrid Titan breath. By the time they realized that they had walked into a trap, the Titans had surrounded them.

"Up! Now!" Mikasa snapped. She grabbed Eren and launched towards one of the lower-hanging branches. Elizabeth quickly did the same with Klaus, managing to get off the forest floor just in time to avoid a swipe from one of the Titans. But just as she landed on the branch and released her grasp on Klaus, one of the Titans rammed the tree with all its might, causing her to lose her balance and fall over the side of the branch. "Elizabeth!" Klaus screamed in horror as he desperately reached his hand out to grab her, but all he managed to catch was air.

Desperately, the falling girl righted her balance mid-air and launched her hooks at a nearby tree, allowing her to evade the clamping jaws of a leaping Titan just in time. Hastily swinging and swerving to avoid the Titans, she was forced away from the group, bringing many of the monsters with her.

"Fuck! I've got to help her!" Klaus bellowed from atop his perch. His posture was aggressive and his voice full of rage.

"No, Klaus! You don't have any gear!" Eren yelled in response.

Klaus punched the tree trunk in frustration, unable to contain the fear that was bubbling from within. His demeanor changed abruptly as he sank to his knees. "Mikasa! Please! You're the only one who can help her now!" He pleaded tearfully.

Hesitation grew in Mikasa's mind. An unfamiliar feeling of indecisiveness came over her as she looked down to see many Titans still trying to climb the trees to get at them. She did not want to leave Eren defenseless, even if it meant going against her own moral code. Is that really all I am? Cold steel? Am I even human?, she thought angrily, lamenting the hard decision that she was forced to make.

It took Eren's touch to enlighten her as to what she had to do. He grabbed her by the shoulders and knocked his head into hers, just like he did before the battle of Trost when she had told him to abandon the front lines and go to her if the battle went badly.

"Mikasa. You have to help her." he said. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. The Mikasa I know would never leave someone to die, right?" Eren stared straight into her eyes with a look that would brook no argument. There was something about his gaze that always managed to shake Mikasa up. It was like he was the only one who could see her true self. "Don't die." She pulled him close and whispered into his ear before leaping from the branch to pursue Elizabeth. She did not show it, but she was thankful to have Eren be her voice of reason yet again.

"Thank you, Mikasa. Thank you!" Klaus stammered pitifully as the girl disappeared from sight. Fighting to regain his composure, he wiped the tears from his face and grabbed Eren by his arm. We've got to climb higher." he said. As if to reinforce Klaus' statement, a Titan leaped upwards and tried to grab the branch, narrowly missing it by just a few inches. Needing no further incentive, they ascended the tree trunk as quickly as they could, all those mountain-climbing exercises finally coming to good use.

The two exhausted boys sat together on the highest tree branch they could climb onto as they waited for Mikasa to return with Elizabeth. Eren had never seen Klaus so worried. He didn't even bother to talk. All he did was constantly scan the area for any sign of the girls' return. Eren was quite worried himself. A biting fear clawed at his insides, making him feel sick. He couldn't help but wonder if he'd sent Mikasa to her doom. The mere thought of it scared the life out of him.

"God, Eren. When did you become so damned sappy?" he unintentionally said aloud.

"What?" Klaus threw him a strange look. The sound of whirring cables and expelling gas saved Eren from the need to explain himself. The pair quickly looked towards the direction the sound was coming from just in time to see Mikasa's gear run out of gas. She was carrying Elizabeth in her arms. It seemed that she had run out of gas as well. Eren felt his pulse die for a moment when he saw the two girls crash into the side of a tree with a loud smack. They fell heavily to the ground to become easy prey for the pursuing Titans.

Before he knew it, Eren was sailing through the air towards the Titans that were closing in on the girls. All conscious thought deserted him as instinct and rage took over. He wanted revenge. He wanted blood. He could taste his own blood as he bit down on his own hand. Crush. Maim. Kill. Kill them all!

Like a falling hammer, Eren's gigantic Titan form crushed a wild Titan beneath its heel as it landed, sending blood and gore splattering everywhere. He opened his jaws as wide as they would go and let out a bellow full of primal fury. Wild Titans of all shapes and sizes converged on Eren, each of them driven by instinct to feast upon his flesh. They stood no chance as Eren went on an uncontrolled rampage, destroying every opponent that stepped up to face him.

Klaus stood in awe and terror of the surreal sight before him. He had never seen his friend turn into a Titan before. The unbridled fury that he saw now chilled him to the bone. Despite his complete trust in Eren as a person, he found himself genuinely wondering if Eren was really human or just a monster. A sensation of dread slid under his skin when he realized that Eren seemed to be getting more and more out of control as the battle raged on. His movements were getting wilder and his eyes were white with hate.

Mikasa regained her consciousness just as a 20-meter class stepped forward to face Eren. In his almost feral state, Eren did not have the wit to dodge the Titan's sledgehammer punch, instead choosing to block it with his arms as he screamed in defiance. The larger Titan punished his foolishness with an unstoppable haymaker, crushing his arms and causing him to fall backwards. An expression of horror graced both Mikasa's and Klaus' faces when they realized that Eren was going to fall over. Mikasa desperately tried to drag the still unconscious Elizabeth out of harm's way, but she was too heavy to be moved in time. Every fibre of her being wanted to save Elizabeth, but she ultimately had no choice but to roll away at the last second before she was crushed beneath the massive body as well.

And so like a felled tree, Eren dropped to the earth, crushing everything beneath him with a thunderous slam. Somehow, his subconscious seemed knew what was happening, despite his obvious inability to exhibit direct control over his Titan-body's actions. Lying on the ground silently, tears started to flow from his eyes, though his face did not seem to express any sadness.

The expression on Klaus' face however, was the very epitome of despair. On his knees and in tears, he could not find any words to say. He vomited over the edge of the tree branch as his mind struggled to register what had just happened. He refused to accept it. He couldn't accept it.

Elizabeth was dead.

Thanks for reading! :) Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter! As always, please review. :D