~ In Hiding ~

Opening her eyes when he came in, she stared at him as he explained about her comrades revealing and the fact they had abandoned the walls. She got him to give her more information and learnt they had taken Eren.

"Good. If they took Eren that means our mission is a success. Our commanders will soon assault this land once they have the power Eren holds," Annie smiled, at least her mission had been completed.

"I just need to get home now." Annie explained With a groan she sat up, looking at the food he brought for her, she stared at the food for a moment before using one hand to eat it; she stuffed her face, not even using the fork; she was really that hungry.

"What you going to do with me?" She looked down at her leg, it was partly healed, another three or four days in the house and it would be fully healed, then she'd work on her eye and arm.

While it may be true that Annie wasn't going to be causing anymore damage, the reliance on her mission was problematic. From what he can tell it had completely failed considering the Survey Corps are doing better than ever.

On top of that she's still obsessed with seeing everyone in the walls getting annihilated by the Titans; he needed to address this. As she began to eat with one hand, the officer crossed his arms over his chest.

"Nothing. I told you that I'm going to make sure that you recover." A slight pause follows and he releases a sigh through his nose, his decision to start this conversation made. "But you should know that your comrades mission didn't succeed. In fact the Survey Corps have gained so much power that the King is trying to get them disbanded. In other words this mission that you've been going on about is a failure. So take my advice and give it up."

His words were admittedly harsh and blunt, but the last time he hadn't been direct she had ended up the complete mess that was in his bed now. In his mind, the only thing that he could do to actually help her is be as blunt as she is. That way she might actually listen to him.

"Your people are fractured, your people have begun to in-fight, you don't even know there is a foe outside the walls wanting to destroy our race. I say our race because I am the same as you in blood, but we are two different types of people. They wont get rid of my people because we're tame but your people, here inside the wall; you're all dangerous to them."

"I wont give up on my mission because I am going to go home. See my father, get my reward of being able to live in the city proper, my family will be treated like proper people." Annie explained to him, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand as she moved her knee at its new joint; the bone cracking as she did so.

"Stop acting like you know everything, Annie. You've been asleep for almost a week and out of the spectrum of information even longer. You don't know what the Survey Corps know and constantly trying to convince yourself that "Your people" are on a higher pedestal then "these people" is ridiculous. You've been raised as a child solider and treated lower than dirt, your people will get eliminated if their deemed useless. Which brings me to this thing about your father and family…" He leans a little forward in his seat to keep his eyes level with her single one.

"Child soldiers especially those treated as horribly as you don't get rewarded for returning home. If anything you'll probably get executed or what was it? Eaten? To pass on your ability to a solider that's more useful. Face it, Annie. You can't hold onto your mission anymore."

Annie stared at him, her mouth moving slowly as she tried to argue back. She could say many things, she could say a lot of things to counter all his things, but she knew them to be false; she couldn't lie right now.

"I… You're… You're wrong!" She shook her head. "Once I'm healed. I'll show you!" She hissed and looked away like an impertinent child. It had always been the one thing keeping her going; returning home to see her father, their last hug before she left for the boat her last memory of him.

She had begun to doubt her own return to normal but when he had said it, it had came back from her worries.

She would be eaten.. just like the girl she'd eaten... she'd pass on the power.

"I'll go home." She mumbled to herself, almost as if convincing herself of it. She wanted to get him back for making her feel like this, for doubting herself. So she looked at the empty tray and simply flipped it with the edge of her finger, sending everything clattering to the floor.

Matias watched as Annie tried and failed to argue back, the childish turn of her head making his stern expression break into a sigh. So this was how it was going to go. At the very least he could say that she was acting a little closer to her age. When she flipped the tray and knocked the contents to the floor he raised an eyebrow and then shook his head. He didn't say anything in reaction and picked up the contents, the plate that luckily hadn't shattered placed on the tray alongside the glass that now had a noticeable crack. Once everything was gathered he took a look at Annie with a sigh and a pitiable stare.

"I'm going out to work. Don't do anything unnecessary." He walked out with that and an uncomfortable weight in his chest that he knew was going to be his cross to bear.

"I'm not exactly going to be able to get up and walk around am I?" she asked sarcastically, pointing at her foot where from just above the ankle down her foot and leg was missing, resulting in a steaming set of gas.

After everything was placed on the table he made his way outside with a look around. The Survey Corps and Military Police that'd hounded his home were completely gone. It spoke volumes of the change that was happening in these walls. He shook his head of the thoughts and proceeded on to the fruit-stand, the day from there going on without much of an issue. Although with how everything was beginning to change he noticed that the rich weren't nearly as prevalent in the shopping market. But the poor or at least those that'd been poor were still going strong as they started to gain more wealth.

"Looks like the balance of power has shifted everywhere." He muttered at one point as a whole bag was sold to the same small family that Annie had chastised him about.

When night finally came around and he returned back to his home he was happy to see that things were still the same.

"Good. Annie has kept a low profile." When he stepped into his home, the officer was quick to announce his presence with a holler of Annie's name. He didn't expect anything in return, but it was still important for her to know that he was the one entering the home. From there he steadily began to prepare dinner, a piece of steak with some potatoes and green beans. It took him about an hour and a half to finish the food, but once he was done the food was quickly placed on a tray.

This time rather then bring a simple glass of water he put some juice in a mug that'd be a little harder to break. He went upstairs with all this food in hand and then slowly pushed open the door to his bedroom with a slow push inside.

"Annie. I've brought some dinner. How are you recovering?"

Annie had spent the time he was gone sulking for a while, then when she was sure that he was gone, she attempted to get out of the bed. It ended in failure as she face planted into the floor. Groaning and swearing the life of every one inside the wall, Annie crawled around the room before giving up and going back to bed; realising she couldn't get back into the bed.

He would find her sat up against the wooden leg and watching the clouds outside the window. She had been still dressed in her torn uniform from the day she had been found by him on his door step.

However she had thrown this uniform off herself and sat in her underwear, not even bothering to hide herself as he came in. "Just put it by the door." She sighed and rubbed at the stump of her arm with her remaining hand.

"You know this hurts a lot? Right? It looks so easy, to just regenerate a limb, but its constantly hurting, like a fire burning against my skin. They taught me how to regenerate single things first. It was how I killed the famous Levi's Squad" Annie turned to face him.

"They took out my eyes to blind me, then tried to cut my arms down when I blocked myself against a tree. I regenerated one eye and bit one in half when he came at my neck," She grinned at him; it was obvious what she was doing, she was trying to make him get angry again. It was all she could do when helpless like this.

"I then stomped out the ginger one, oh how she screamed, it was almost pleasurable. 'How did she heal her eye... ' " Annie mimicked the cry and laughed softly to herself. "Then the other one, he actually had some balls, he tried to get my nape but I hardened my skin. He didn't even realise as I smashed him with a kick." Annie grinned triumphantly.

"I would have been wet as a girl on her wedding night if I was in my human form" She laughed, trying to just say anything to get at him.

The very first thing that Matias noticed upon noticing Annie leaning against the wooden leg of his bed was the simple fact she was in her underwear. His entire expression stiffened and then morphed into a grimace as he put the tray by the door. Even though her clothing had been in a horrible state, her underwear wasn't much better and made the state of her body even harder to look at. Luckily he had been prepared to deal with this and turned around, only to stop as Annie began going on about the pain in her stump.

He completely stopped in place as she described everything that'd happened in her battle with the deceased Levi squad, the mention of the "ginger one" spiking a little bit of aggression in his stomach. Even though he had lost contact with her, Petra had been an old friend of his sister and to learn that she died as brutally as she did only managed to strike a sore chord with him. By the time she was done it might seem like that he was actually about to give into her taunts, but instead all he did was leave.

When he came back to the room, the man would be holding fresh clothes complete with a new pair of underwear. He'd place it beside the food in a neat pile and then look at Annie with a calm level stare.

"Before I joined the military police, I was part of the survey corps with my sister despite our father's persistence that we join the military police. Honestly I was against it as well, but my sister was headstrong and stubborn and pushed me into doing my best alongside her. For awhile the work we put in paid off well, we killed titans and came back to the walls as heroes. But like all good things it came to an end with my sister getting devoured to save my life and my father disowning me despite accepting my resignation into the military police. Something that was only possible though the corruption that garrison had." Looking back down at the tray and clothes, the officer releases a sigh and picks them both up. He brings them to Annie and sets them down in front of her.

"Through my cowardice and isolation in this unit, I realised that my sister had died a miserable agonising death for a cause that she believed in. The people that she believed in. So telling me, Annie that you all these people died terrible deaths won't anger me. Because I know that their deaths are what helped get humanity to where they are now. So drop the whole act, Annie. It's pathetic." He got up with that and left the room, moving downstairs to get his own dinner started.