How to Train Your Titan:

Chapter 4

"Ughh."

Eren slowly groaned as he forced his eyes to slit open. It felt like his eyelashes had sand in them, and glue was holding his eyelids to his face. He didn't want to open his eyes, but he felt as if he had to. He felt as if there was something important that he needed to find out, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. There was something he was supposed to remember.

A flash of memory entered his mind, and he recalled holding out his hand to someone. But he couldn't remember why or for whom. He knew that he had been a Titan during this specific memory, though. That explained why it was so hazy, but then why couldn't he remember it? He focused, trying to recall that memory. And then it came back to him. It was only that single moment, like one picture out of a lifetime of events, but he could see that picture clearly.

He was in a giant field, and the grass was green all around him. He was in Titan form and he held out his hand to someone on the ground. That someone had been Levi, and he remembered carrying the man on his large palm as he ran for home.

Suddenly, realization hit him like a brick wall and his eyes shot open and he bolted upright, his arms flailing wildly. He shouted as he came-to, as if out of a bad dream.

But as soon as he sat up, he was forced back down, and his mind drew a blank as his eyes impulsively clamped shut. His instincts told him to panic, and he struggled violently to get free from whatever had him in its grasp. He shouted at nothing as he used every muscle in his body to try and break free. He didn't want to be held down. It made him feel weak and vulnerable and he knew he had to get away, but a familiar voice cut through his fear and panic and he slowly stopped squirming.

"—have to stop! Eren! Calm down!"

"Levi?" he asked nervously, panting heavily and slowly opening his eyes. He looked up to find that the man from his memory was straddling him, holding his arms above his head in one hand and gripping his neck with the other. He noticed that they were on a small cot, and two blades rested beside Levi.

Eren's breathing wouldn't slow down, and he tried to shake Levi off of him, but to no avail.

"You need to stop, Eren. Now," Levi whispered, his face close to his, and Eren stopped moving when he heard the insistence underlying his usually indifferent tone. He couldn't slow his breathing, but he had enough sense to stop squirming and to get himself under control.

First, Levi let go of his throat. Next, he slowly released his hands from his iron-hold above his head on the cot. He then swung his leg over Eren and picked up his blades. He backed away a few steps until he was a few feet away from the cot. He folded his arms and looked at the floor.

Eren froze when he saw that there was a group of people standing at the end of the bed he was lying in. And what was worse was that he remembered a few of them from the last time he had been in the courtroom. The man in the middle of the group was none other than Supreme Commander Dallis Zacklay. He was in charge of all three of the peoples' forces: the Military Police, the Garrison, and the Reconnaissance Legion. He was also the judge that gave Levi custody of Eren.

"I think we've seen all we need to see, sir," one man said, "with all due respect."

"I agree. He's too violent," another man said, but Zacklay seemed to be ignoring them for the most part. Eren understood now why Levi's tone had sounded insistent. When he bolted upright and shouted, he must have scared these men, and Levi must have gotten on top of him to stop him from signing his own death warrant.

"Commander Levi," Zacklay said, and Levi saluted him with a fist to his chest when he was called on. Eren wondered when Levi had been named Commander, and he wondered how long he'd been out. Clearly, he'd gotten both of them home safely, and that was all that really mattered to him at the moment. He was glad that his Titan form hadn't gone ballistic and attacked Levi instead. But he also wondered what had happened. Did Levi save his life? Was he uncooperative at first? He had so many questions, but he knew that the answers would have to wait until later.

"Yes, sir," Levi said.

"You lost all of your men on the mission that this boy was assigned to. Is that correct?"

"No, sir," Levi said quickly, answering without hesitation.

"No? Explain. I heard your men had all been slaughtered or eaten."

"Captain Hanji was with the squad on the left flank, as were three of our new recruits. Eren is also alive, as you can see. Therefore, I have not lost all of my men, sir."

"But as for the Special Ops unit that you were the captain of, also known as the Levi Unit, they were slaughtered or eaten. Is this correct?"

"Like I said before, Supreme Commander, Captain Hanji managed to escape with the left flank squad, and Eren survived as well."

"But Captain Hanji is, for the most part, head of the imprisonment team. I'm well aware that she can fight, but she was your equal, a captain, and therefore not under your command. Correct?"

"Yes, sir," Levi said. Eren could tell that he didn't like being forced back into a corner like the Supreme Commander was doing to him right now.

"And your custody of Eren Jaeger wasn't permanent, so he cannot be legally called a member of your Special Ops team. Is that correct?"

"Yes, sir," Levi said, holding the position of is salute. He was losing this verbal battle, but his stance didn't waver for a second. Eren couldn't help but admire him for that.

"With all that understood, Commander, I will ask you once again. Is it correct that you lost all of your men on the mission that this boy was assigned to?"

"… Yes, sir," Levi said, unable to say anything else with the way this interrogation was going.

"You told me last time in court that pain was the best tool for discipline, in your personal opinion," Zacklay said monotonously. "Have you used this method to keep the boy under control while he has been in your custody, Commander Levi?"

For the first time, Eren saw Levi flinch. "No, sir," he said softly.

"So your personal opinion has changed, then?"

"I don't see what this has to do with what we've already discussed, Supreme Commander," Levi said quickly, trying to change to a different subject matter.

"I was just thinking that you and the previous commander, Erwin Smith, devised a lie so that you could gain custody of this monstrosity. I feel that you only subdued him in court in order to save the boy's life, and I believe that you did so under Commander Smith's orders. Unfortunately, the late Commander is no longer among the living, so I cannot ask him myself. That makes that point mute. I was planning on asking you for the truth, but then I thought that you probably wouldn't tell me the truth either, Levi. You've just lost all of your men, and you consider this boy the only underling that you have left. So, it's only logical that you would make your point as to protect the Titan boy. But you've already written your report, Commander, and correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it another human in a Titan's body that killed most of your men?"

The four men around Zacklay gasped and their wide eyes darted to Eren in shock and fear.

"I say we torture this little brat until he tells us who his friends are!" one of them shouted, and Eren's eyes widened as he pulled his legs closer to his upper body in an unconscious response to get away from the men in front of him.

"That means that the Titans are among us!" another cried out. "But maybe if we hold this boy ransom, they'll show themselves to save their comrade!"

"We have to take him to the Military Police right away for questioning!"

Two of the men took violent steps around the cot, closing in on Eren. He gulped, but Levi was between him and the men in an instant.

"Can't you keep your men under control, Supreme Commander?" he asked Zacklay, whose face turned red at the rhetorical question.

"Back off!" Zacklay shouted to the two men, and they did as they were told. They he whipped on Levi. "And what do you think you're doing, Commander? Was it your intention to protect this Titan just now?"

"It was my intention to prevent a fight, sir," Levi replied. "A fight that your men would have lost, if I may add."

"What are you insinuating, Levi? Are you saying that this boy could turn into a Titan if he was provoked? Does he have that little control over himself? Is he truly that much of a danger to humanity? Is this your expert opinion after dealing with him for the past few weeks?"

"With all due respect, I didn't mean that Eren was going to fight your men, sir. I was referring to myself."

"Maybe he's one of the Titans!" another man shouted, pointing a long boney finger at Levi. "We should take him into custody as well! Lock them both up! Why else would he protect that Titan bastard?!"

"No!" Eren shouted, "He has nothing to do with that! Leave him out of it!" Levi was taken by surprise as he turned to look at Eren with wide eyes.

"Why else would you defend him?" another man speculated coldly.

"Wait, I don't believe that," one man said, and both Eren and Levi looked over at him. It was the first comment out of anyone's mouth that didn't seem to be against them. "Levi has been a member of the Recon Corps for years, slaying those monsters day and night. There's no way he could be a Titan."

"You see?" Eren said loudly to the others, but Levi shot a warning glance at him, shaking his head for him to just be quiet for now. Eren scowled, but closed his mouth.

He looked around for the first time. He finally noticed that he was in a sort of dungeon cell, locked in by bars, but so was everyone else it seemed. He wasn't chained to the bed, like the last time, but it was dank and damp and lit only by a few torches on the brick walls.

"No final decision will be made outside of the courtroom," Zacklay said with finality, and then he turned and opened the barred door behind him. He and the other men walked out of the cell, taking their final glances and glares at Eren before heading off. The last man to exit shut the door with a lock and then hurried off to catch up with the others.

"Wait, why are you in here?" Eren asked Levi. "You aren't supposed to be down here, are you?"

"It was partially my choice. After we made it through the flatlands, you looked as if you were a threat to the wall. The guards were watching you, and I was forced to cut you out of the Titan's body." Eren looked down at himself. "Don't worry. I didn't cut off any of your limbs. I had time, so I just skinned the nape of your neck and pulled you out, severing your connection to the Titan form."

"I still don't get why you're in here with me," Eren said, rubbing his head. He realized that he had a horrible headache, and it felt like his skull was throbbing.

"When the guards saw me cut you out, they assumed that I was there to help them, and nearly all of the reports said that you were about to attack them because of what they saw. I wrote what really happened in my report, but against hundreds of other men who think they know what they saw… you can imagine how many people believed my report instead. Aside from the fact that they know I want to protect you from being killed by the Military Police, they decided to take bits and pieces of my entire report as the truth. Unfortunately, they only took the parts that suited their side of the story, such as how my men were killed and the failure of our mission overall."

"It was only supposed to be an assignment to set up a small camp for when we retook Wall Maria, right?" Eren asked.

"That's right. And since the mission was basically just a practice run for you and the new recruits…" He paused. "You failed."

Eren lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "What do you mean, I failed?"

"Don't you remember? The final decision of the court was going to be based on the results of the practice run. No one ever thought that it would have gotten as bad as it did. No one could have predicted that another human in a Titan's body would appear. I'm hoping that the court will realize that the female-form Titan was going after you because you represented a way for humanity to fight back, but that doesn't seem likely. The Military Police have way too much information for me to fight against, even if they're lying. And now that the Commander is gone… Well, he was the one making the preparations for that court hearing, and he made the choice not to involve me in those preparations..." Levi trailed off and then slowly looked up to meet Eren's shaking gaze. He frowned sorrowfully at him.

"I'm sorry, Eren, but I don't think I can save you this time."