EDIT: The story will be on hiatus for a while. Since the holidays are here, I won't have much time to work on it. I would've had one out today, but I was doing something with friends, so I was too busy. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Chapter Four - Perception

Armin balled his hands up into fists. "Ask Levi, he'll tell you," the blonde said and walked away before Sasha could protest. He began to wake the others hastily.

"I guess that's what I'll do," she mumbled, and went to Levi's office. He wasn't in there, so she then proceeded to the second most obvious place; Eren's room. She knocked against the wood slowly. People moved around inside at the sound.

"Who is it?" The Corporal called out. "Sasha," she replied and jangled the knob until the door could swing to and fro. Surprisingly, it hadn't been locked. Once she was inside, Sasha glanced around. Eren wasn't there.

"Where's Eren?" She asked. Levi sighed. "We'll explain it later. When everyone is in the mess hall, Mikasa and I will inform you, along with Armin. Fill the others in about this so they are all present," he ordered.

Sasha nodded and exited the room towards where her friends could be besides the mess hall. Thoughts clouded her mind as she pried into her knowledge of what was happening.

Then again, what was going on?

All were accounted for in the room where they ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everyone was chatting among themselves. They only knew something had happened and it was important. From the looks of Mikasa and Armin, though, they already had a pretty clear idea.

"Soldiers, listen up," Levi stood up and raised his hand then lowered it as a signal to quiet down. When hearing this, the others reacted quickly. They all leaned in closer to hear what was up.

"Earlier this morning when you were all asleep, Eren had woken up. We decided to go ahead and allow him to eat since there wouldn't be a crowd," he said. "He was too weak to move, so Mikasa had to feed him herself. After he had finished barely half what was on the plate, Mikasa took the food back down to the mess hall. I then noticed that someone was entering the room. At first, I thought it was Mikasa and something was wrong," Levi paused to take a breath. He was explaining a long event.

"It turned out the Military Police had forced entry into the castle. They knocked me back and swept up Eren and then they were gone. I couldn't figure out if they were already out or not, so I went to check," the Corporal continued explaining.

"They were already gone, although it had only been shorter than five minutes. That's all we know," Levi finished and breathed in. The others' faces had drained of color. Eren, kidnapped and taken into the custody of the Military Police?

"Why would they do that?" Connie asked. "We don't know. All they received was a report that Eren was sick. I can guess that was what had scared them," Levi replied. The room fell silent again as Eren's friends tried to comprehend what had occurred.

"Well, what about Mikasa, or even Armin? Did they see anything?" Connie attempted again. The two shook their head. Nothing had happened that was out of the ordinary except for some footsteps, but that was it. They thought it had been some of their friends messing around, so Armin and Mikasa never investigated.

All of them sat, paralyzed, unable to think of an explanation. Another problem was left, unanswered to them all.

Everyone went about their duties after breakfast. At lunch, there was no conversation. Cleaning went on for a few hours until someone busted in from one of the Recon Corps squads.

"Sir, there was a horde of titans sighted!" The man said. Levi glanced over at the nearby soldiers. "Okay, then. Wait up for us." He left and the Corporal raised an eyebrow. What perfect timing when everyone was already tired to start with.

"Throw on your gear! We have some titans to fight!" Levi shouted. The squad equipped their 3D Maneuver Gear and the rest of it along their waist, not to mention the green capes. Once they were ready for departure, they boarded onto the horses and galloped towards where the other men were.

By the time the horses had stopped, the riders forced them forwards again because the titans were standing right behind the opposing squad. There were plenty of trees dotting the landscape. Their gear could actually be useful again.

Levi's squad spread out and cornered the titans around several trees then struck the napes, killing half of them. Three variants were fleeing in the opposite direction. They had been doing the same since.

"There's three more!" One of the men shouted. The formation was dispatched and switched to a different form and then attacked the variants. Two of them were down, and the final was too fast for most of the horses.

Mikasa leaped off her equine and used her 3D Maneuvering Gear on a nearby tree, propelling herself towards the neck of the titan. Her blade bit into the nape and killed it with ease. She caught onto another tree and lowered herself down, whistled, and got back on her horse.

As the squads were running back to the castle, they reviewed the deaths. "Only two, both the bodies were squashed by the variants," a man explained to Levi. The Corporal nodded. Once they had returned, everyone went back to what they were doing.

"You'd think something significant would have happened," Connie said as he finished the dishes. Sasha looked at him. "I guess it was a lucky break. It could have been worse," she set down her set of clean dishes and grabbed a rag to wipe her hands. "Let's just hope we can figure the rest of this out."

The sky's obsidian glare settled over the vicinity of the castle. A pink glow tainted the grass then stretched over to what was hidden in the distance. Stables lined the edges with horses that were now quieting. The remainder of humans outside depleted until there was nothing but animals lurking during the night. After the recent discovery that titans required sunlight to remain active, everyone had become more confident in staying in the wilderness at night for a small amount of time.

Tonight was not one of those times, however. The leader of the soldiers, Levi, leaned off the edge of his bed. His curtains were closed as was his door, and a eerie silence was casted over the atmosphere. The Corporal was in deep thought; he had to develop both a plan and understanding of the Military Police.

He traced what he knew back to the start of when Eren was first announced ill. Everyone was in the mess hall eating except for Mikasa. Armin volunteered to go and fetch Eren. The blonde returned without the brunette and said Eren refused to let Armin in his room. Mikasa and Levi then went to investigate, opened the door using a key, and discovered Eren was sick. The Corporal then called a doctor and that was about it.

That summed up the whole, crazy day that seemed like a year ago, yet it was so close on a timeline. There were still no answers to this whole predicament. Levi, as tired as he was, wanted to sleep. He couldn't, no matter how hard he tried.

So for the entire night, he thought about the situation. Not an idea popped up in his head.

The brunette flinched as pain continued to course through his body. Once he was chained up in one of the dungeon like rooms, Eren was not capable of any movement. The shackles weighed down his wrists and forced him to be on the bed for the whole day. He had time to wonder during this before being interrupted by the guards or a headache.

This time, though, Eren could feel some of his strength returning. It hadn't accumulated enough to help him out of the chamber, but it was enough to speak, eat, and move ever so slightly. He could remember the first time he had come here. It was when the brunette realized he had titan powers and what he perceived to be opponents were guaranteeing he didn't shift by locking the boy up.

Now that he was on that topic, he pondered even further. Wouldn't Levi or someone else have come to visit? Or maybe the Military Police wouldn't let them through? Whatever it was, Eren wasn't too sure. He could hear the guards snoring. They must have fallen asleep on duty.

Carefully, Eren propped himself up against the single pillow he was allowed to have. The bars glistened in the torch light. As he peeked through them from a distance, he noticed shadows dancing across the stone brick wall. Eren blinked and attempted to look past a bit further, but it was impossible with the chains weighing him down.

The voices that the brunette could manage to hear, though, sounded familiar. He thought for a moment that it was his friends who had come to visit. When Eren listened harder, though, he noticed it was much different from what he was used to hearing. He must have misinterpreted the sounds because the silhouettes speaking were simply other people he honestly didn't know.

The voices turned out to belong to two men. The volume grew steadily louder the closer it was until it was practically up against the bars. They peered in with disgusted expressions as if Eren were some animal in a cage. He could make out faint whispers as they conversed.

"Look at what the cat dragged in," one of them chuckled. Eren willed for the two to go; he didn't feel like putting up with this shit. The brunette would raise hell if he had the energy to. Once these guys had entered, a headache had started knocking his senses out of wack, which made his thoughts wobbly.

Eren clutched his head, his eyes wide. "Aw, would you have a look at that. He's still sick!" The men laughed for a long time. It was surprising that the guards still weren't awoken by this. Maybe they were allowing it?

"Hey, look at us!" When Eren continued to stare downwards, the men laughed even harder. "I bet he's deaf now!" One of them bellowed, and the noise grew louder. Eren shook his head. The headache was hurting more than ever before.

It was as if it would never stop. Finally, Eren gazed over in their direction and screamed. "Stop talking!"

Author's Note:

I was going to write two chapters, but then I decided to glue them both together into one, like this. This one was hard to write because I realized that some of the times were a bit messed up, so some of this acted as fillers, though it still has an effect on the story sooner or later.

It makes me even happier to see more follows! Thanks, everyone! With the new chapter, I hope you enjoy.