AN:

Sorry for the late upload I've been a bit under the weather but I managed to get the chapter out anyway.

Chapter 10 – Al's Methods

Eren winced as Al applied cold water to his bruises.

"For the thousandth time, groaning and whining about it is not going to help," Al reminded Eren again, "Besides, you don't want your sister to think it's worse than it actually is…"

Eren muttered something beneath his breath as he looked around at the large infirmary. There were stacks of supplies in the cupboards around him and all arranged neatly on the table. After that fight with Jay, Al had instantly got to work tending to Eren's injuries.

"I'm a titan shifter. There's no point in doing this!" Eren complained as stared at the floor.

"It sure doesn't hurt making sure…" Al stated matter of factly, "I mean, you decided to take on Jay in a swordfight! A pretty stupid decision if I say so myself…"

"It's not my fault…" Eren sniffed, his voice muffled by the cotton wool in his nose. His gaze wandered to Mikasa, who was leaning against the doorway and watching Eren. "You can go you know…" Eren muttered, "It'll be fi-"

"I'm staying…" Mikasa stated flatly. Eren was about to protest but Mikasa cut him off instantly, "I. Am. Staying. That's final…"

"You should listen to her. Nothing is worse than refusing a lady's request…" Al muttered as he walked over to the table to look through his equipment. Eren glanced at Al before shaking his head and lowering his gaze. '...Just what the hell happened?...' He thought to himself, 'One minute, I'm on my feet, the next, I'm here half beaten and bleeding… It only took a matter of minutes as well… He was toying with me… He wanted me to lash out. And I couldn't even land a single hit on him!' He clenched his fists with anger and loathing. Mikasa's eyes widened as she noticed this and took a couple steps forward, "Eren, what's wrong…"

Eren looked up, snapping from his trance and shaking his head hastily, "It's nothing… It doesn't matter…"

Al glanced at the two of them before speaking up, "I...need some ice...Mikasa, can you get it for me. I need to stay and tend to his injuries…"

Mikasa looked at Al and then to Eren. Reluctantly, she nodded and walked out without saying a word. After a couple seconds, Al silently crept to the doorway, seeing if Mikasa was gone. Eren's face creased in confusion which quickly turned into suspicion. 'He's not going to try it, is he?' He thought as his hand slowly reached for a scalpel resting on the edge of the table and silently pocketing it. Satisfied, Al went to the window, held out a bowl and scooped some ice from a nearby branch.

"I wouldn't tell her if I were you…" He remarked, bringing a finger to his lips.

Eren blinked puzzled, taken aback slightly, "Er...Why did you ask her to leave then?"

Al shrugged, "You said you wanted her to leave...Now put this at the back of your head…" He stated as he wrapped the ice in a flannel and held it out to Eren. Eren took it hesitantly, "Uh...I guess so…"

"And besides, I got something to ask you," Al added, "How come you two are brother and sister? You two aren't related, that's pretty apparent. But most of all, why do you think she's so protective of you?"

Eren stared at Al who was focusing his attention on something else, "I thought… it would have said what happened… on our reports…"

Al glanced at Eren and shrugged, "Yeah, well… I want to hear it from you…"

Eren sighed out, "Well, I saved her from a bunch of traffickers… Well… we saved each other to be honest… We were 8 at the time."

Al paused momentarily, "So you killed when you were just 8 years old...That's...surprising…" he spoke, trying his best to find the right words.

"Hey! They were scum who needed to be put down! Don't judge me if I'm the only one with the gall to admit it! And I certainly don't regret if that's what you ask next!" Eren snapped defensively.

But much to his surprise, Al sighed out and shrugged, taking Eren by surprise. "What? What's that supposed to mean!?"

Al shook his head, "Nothing important. You just sound a hell of a lot like a particular someone. I'm actually beginning to wonder if there are that many differences between the two of you…"

Eren stared at Al, his jaw clenched, "What? Jayden!? Are you out of your mind!? I'm nothing like that freak! No-one does that to Mikasa or my friends! Certainly not on my watch!"

Al raised an eyebrow in mild surprise, "Hey, you're the one who suggested it. Not me. And you still haven't answered my second question though-"

Eren sighed out and ran a hand through his hair. "Honestly, I don't know! I just don't, OK? She's my sister, not my parent. Why don't you ask her?"

Al exhaled as he rubbed the back of his head. He rubbed his eyes and spoke wearily. "It's pretty obvious from the way I see it. You're the only family she has and she just wants to make sure you're safe in the end. What's wrong with that?"

"Remember when Trost fell?" Eren retorted, "Before that happened, she asked me to come find her and stick by her side until the whole thing blew over. Hell, she even disobeyed a superior officer's orders just so she could keep an eye on me. We were facing against the Titans! And she'd rather be my babysitter than fight them off…"

"That's pretty harsh" Al asked curiously, "I mean, she cares about you, so why keep running off or telling her to leave when it's only going to make things worse?"

"W-what?" Eren spluttered, "Sometimes, it's not like I have a damn choice. Besides, I'm just as old as her and I'm a titan shifter. I'm pretty sure I can handle myself." Deep down, Eren knew it was a lie. His fight with Jay proved otherwise but he sure wasn't give Al a reason to think otherwise.

"So that's what you think, huh?...Interesting…" Al noted thoughtfully. Eren blinked, a mixture of surprise and suspicion rising through him. Before he could answer, footsteps could be heard echoing from the corridor, getting louder as they headed towards the infirmary. Al raised his hand out to Eren instantly. It only took Eren a second to understand as he quickly gave Al the flannel full of ice. Al quickly chucked the ice out of the window and quickly went to his supplies just before Mikasa returned with the ice.

"I brought the ice," Mikasa stated, bringing out a small bowl full of ice.

"Thank you…" Al glanced at her and nodded as he took it and filled the same flannel with ice and held it out to Eren. "Honestly, you should be alright for now. Just keep this to the back of your head. And avoid any fights from now on. Whether it's with us or your friends."

Eren only muttered something beneath his breath as he took the flannel and walked out without looking back as he passed Mikasa. Al shook his head and muttered, "Well, isn't he grateful?"

"I'd better go check on him…" Mikasa noted aloud before walking off, but was stopped by Al. "The same goes for you as well by the way."

Mikasa turned to Al. Her brow was furrowed and a frown appeared on her face as she tried to make sense of what Al said. "I beg your pardon?"

"Try not to get into any fights with anyone else. Like going after Jay because of what happened to Eren.

Mikasa's stared at Al, her expression unreadable. "I never said I was…"

"I'm only suggesting it… But if it's any consolation to you, don't worry about Jay. Just make sure Eren avoids him and if something does happens, let me know…" Al stated in a serious tone. Mikasa breathed out, relaxing slightly. "Fine…"

Al nodded, clearly relieved, "Good...That's good…"

"And Alphonse...Thank you… For taking care of Eren…" Mikasa admitted with a nod.

Al waved a hand dismissively as shook his head, a small smile forming on his face. "Please...its Al...And it's not a problem…" As soon as Mikasa left, Al's smile dropped and was quickly replaced with a scowl. 'But I know someone who is…' he thought bitterly and he threw the supplies back into the shelves, closed them and walked briskly out.

Al stormed to the library, his fists and jaw clenched as he entered. He went past multiple bookshelves to see Jay, sitting next to the glass-stained window, staring down at a chessboard with numerous pieces arranged on it.

"So here you are? Playing chess…" Al stated, annoyance beginning to overwhelm him.

"Here I am, analysing and testing my tactical abilities. You're almost as bad as Dante…" Jay remarked in a similar fashion. "Now if you excuse me, I'm trying to focus here."

'Oh no. Like hell I'm going to let you get away with that!' Al thought as he finally decided that he had enough. "How about you excuse me for wondering what the hell were you thinking!? Al growled out.

Jay looked up at him and sighed wearily, "I'm trying to focus Al. If I wanted to be shouted at for stupid reasons I'd ask-"

"I don't care about what you want right now! What you did was unbelievable! You didn't have to take on Eren and you certainly didn't need to force that question onto Mikasa! That's low even by your standards!" Al snapped.

Jay shrugged, "All I did was ask her a question… What's wrong with that?"

"You just asked her who'd she leave to die if she had to choose between her friends or her brother!" Al exclaimed in disbelief, "You don't see me asking you about the mission or Penny!"

"And I don't ask you about the mission or Elias…" Jay replied sternly, a subtle icy edge to his voice. Al stared at Jay and was about to shout before Jay raised a hand and cut in quickly, "Only because I trust you enough to know that isn't fair and I know what you'd pick…"

Al felt the sudden anger dissipate slightly as he shook his head, "Seriously? You lecturing me on what's fair. That's certainly what I need…" he muttered, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"What we need…" Jay stated as he got up, "Is to make sure they don't have some secret agenda they'd put above the mission and are on their toes. It's almost as if you want them to be like animals for slaughter…"

Al grunted in annoyance as he turned away, not even bothering to give Jay an answer.

"...Or maybe you wanted to get a little too friendly with some of them like before…" Jay muttered under his breath but Al heard it. He turned to Jay and gave him a glare full of warning.

"Don't you dare start! Don't even say her name!" Al snapped, whirling around to face him, a clear icy tone to his voice as he jabbed a finger in Jay's direction. "I don't want to hear a single word about her. Is that clear!?"

"I wasn't going to…" Jay admitted, his voice level and deadly calm "I'm just saying this from a different perspective-"

"Well look at it from my view, Talbot! Just be aware of the fact that after goddamn mess you made on the wall, at least I was trying to handle this!-" Al exclaimed.

"Oh, you were handling it, of course!" Jay interrupted, "Just like you handled the Mangler incident a year ag-"

"Don't bring that up!" Al retorted angrily, "That is on your head and your head alone!"

Jay gave a humourless laugh, "Seriously, do I have to list the things that went horribly wrong under your command-"

"Enough! This is different!" Al yelled out, furious

"Well, you're right!" Jay snapped, "This is different! This isn't a way to boost your resume, to get back at me or whatever damn agenda any of us have. We are part of a war that humanity doesn't even know is happening! Erwin has put us together with the squad that led an entire revolution! That should have hit home by now that this is something far bigger than any of us. You're not helping them by pretending to be friends with them! You're just making them more vulnerable!"

"Well, what the hell do you suggest!?" Al spat out, his patience wearing thin, "Kidnap them all in their sleep and put guns to their head!? Act out the wall incident again!? Is that what you want!?"

"What I want is irrelevant. Like you said…" Jay growled, "What needs to be done is that we all understand boundaries that shouldn't be crossed. Like Jean, Sasha and Connie breaking into my room and Eren throwing the first punch! I only reacted but you chose not to see the bigger picture! So would you kindly justify that to me because I can't!"

Al stayed silent and only stared at Jay.

"But if you want to start doing something useful." Jay continued, "Stop trying to help Mikasa and her dimwit brother's with their hurt feelings and start focusing on the three idiots upstairs!" Jay scowled as he stormed off, slamming the door behind him.

Al stayed still for a few seconds. 'Start doing something useful, huh?' He thought before swiping at the table, sending a chessboard and the chess pieces flying across the room. 'What the hell do you think I've been doing all this time!?'

Al finally calmed his breathing as he took a couple steps back and shut his eyes, 'Well...I guess I have one idea now for them...And who knows how that'll go down…' He thought in sick anticipation as he walked out.

Sasha woke up when she heard the sound of the door knocking. She let out an annoyed groan and turned in her bed, pulling the cover up to her chin until the door was knocked again

Sasha groaned, "Why can't I just sleep for once…" Sasha reluctantly opened the door and was greeted by Connie and Jean, both wearing thick black fur coats, "aren't you guys the wee bit tired?"

"Well of course we are but it's…" Connie lowered his voice slightly, "Al wanted Jean and I for something and the two of us have some sketchy ideas so we said we'll bring you along".

"It's a contingency if this is his plan to kill us a small group at a time. The more people there are the better" Jean added, keeping his voice hushed.

"What about the others?" Sasha asked, stepping outside and shutting the door behind her.

"We said we would bring you along so Al it could only be you," Connie said, "Here quickly just throw this on, "Come on if we take too long he'll get suspicious".

"So you don't even know why?" Sasha walked with them towards the stables.

"He just said to grab you and head back to the stables, he's probably going to do whatever it is he's gonna do outside" Jean and the others walked down the main foyer stairs, "we got some jackets already, it's cold out there".

The three of them entered the stables and saw Al waiting for them by his horse, wearing a matching fur coat to Connie and Jean along with a pair of gloves, "You took your time. I'm sorry for keeping you up at this hour but I'll explain later. For now saddle up and follow my lead. Alright?".

"Yeah sure thing" they murmured back, doing as Al said and riding behind him out of the stables. They rode until they were a quite a bit away from the mansion and on the perimeter of the forest.

"Tie your horses to the trees over here" Al gestured to a cluster of trees nearby, his orders being obeyed once more.

"What do you even want to do?" Sasha asked impatiently.

"Just walk behind me" Al walked on into the forest with a lantern in his hand, the others on his tail till they reached a small clearing. "This spot's perfect" Al set down the lantern and turned back around to face the others,"Alright I want you three in a line, now". Sasha, Jean and Connie obeyed and stood in a line a bit away from Al. Al reached into his jacket and threw knives on the ground, puzzling the others. He threw knives of various size, length and design, a few pistols and some knuckle dusters.

"So you were gonna kill us weren't you!" Jean exclaimed, grabbing a few knives a pistol from the ground and passing them to Sasha and Connie.

"Now now Jean, just hear me out" Al raised his hands in surrender, "it'll all make sense in a short while so long as you listen to me very carefully".

Jean thought about it and let a groan, "fine then, but I won't think twice about putting a bullet in your head with this" Jean aimed the pistol at Al's head, Connie and Sasha getting ready to throw their knives.

"Seems like you jumped the gun," Al smirked, "no pun intended."

"Just shut up and start talking!" Connie held another knife in his hand.

"It's simple," Al stepped back away from the pile of weapons, "I'm going to give you a choice, you can either kill me right now or not".

"I'm sorry what?" Jean asked, taken aback.

"Er...I said I'm giving you the choice to kill me or not, didn't you hear me?" Al tilted his head.

"That's it?" Sasha was confused.

"This was your plan, to have us kill you?" Connie asked, looking at Sasha and Jean with a completely puzzled look.

"Well I never said that you will kill me. I'm just giving you a choice. It's important you stick to the little details. But to elaborate, I'm just going to stand here while you three decide whether you want to kill me or not," Al took out another pistol from his jacket and threw at Connie's feet, "Just so, you know, I trust you three enough to make the right decision."

Everyone remained silent, Jean, Sasha and Connie lost in making a choice.

"If we kill him now we can cripple Jay and Dante" Sasha thought, lifting her knife.

"But then again would his death really affect them?" Connie wondered, aiming his pistol at Al.

"Killing him would just be like digging our own graves, once he's dead, Jay and Dante would have a viable excuse to kill us all," Jean went over the possible scenarios in his head, still aiming his gun at Al's head, "but was he really telling the truth about that last part, does he really have that much trust in us already…" Jean looked at Al carefully, "the guy's like a fucking fortress, he's not showing anything". Jean made his decision and threw the pistol into Al's hands, "What's the point you would never give us loaded guns in the first pla-".

Al took the pistol and fired it a tree, the bark erupting into splinters, "I trusted you three enough with a loaded gun".

Sasha let her hand loose and the knife fell harmlessly onto the ground, "Jean's right, what's the whole point of this anyway.."

"Well, I'm glad you asked…" Al admitted, walking up to the weapons and began to pick them up, "I wanted to see what you would do if you had the opportunity to kill me and you didn't take it. Good to know."

Jean shook his head in disbelief, his jaw hanging open, "W-Wait! You mean… You were going to put your own life on the line...Just to see what we'd do!? Are you crazy?"

Al breathed out and shrugged, "Does it honestly matter? I mean, you guys can clearly see how trying to kill one another is pointless. As long as we are clear on that, in theory, we shouldn't have a problem. Am I wrong?..."

Connie slowly shrugged, "Uh...I...I guess not…"

"Exactly my point!" Al added as he began to walk off, "By the way, you'd better get some sleep...And I wouldn't tell anyone about this as well… Who knows what would happen if the others find out you were pointing guns at me...Hell, they'd probably want a turn as well…"

Earlier

Dante kicked open the door to Connie's room and staggered in with the buckets dragging across the floor behind him. He let go off the handles and collapsed onto his knees. He tilted his head back and his arms shot up into the air.

"YES! YES! OH GOD YES!" He cried out happily as he flopped onto the floor and began to laugh. He pulled out the picture of the girl from his pocket and kissed it.

"Thanks for believing in me, gorgeous…" He smirked as he put the picture back and closed his eyes, smiling.

He laid there for a minute before pushing himself up onto his feet and brushing down his shirt. He turned to his buckets and grinned wickedly as he rolled his sleeves and clicked his knuckles.

"Now...Let the games begin…"

Suddenly, two series of screams could be heard, causing everyone in the manor to wake up.

"What's going on?" Eren asked groggily as he rubbed his eyes and opened the door and looked around who were doing the same thing.

"You tell me…" Armin answered, "But I think that sounded like-"

But before he could say anymore, two doors swung out and out stepped Connie and Sasha, soaked to the bone in their uniforms and shivering like mad.

"Tch, what did you brats do? Fall out into the snow?" Levi asked, clearly annoyed by the sight.

"I-I don't k-know, s-s-sir," Sasha muttered out, his teeth chattering like mad, "We j-just went to o-open the door and…"

"Forget about that, you guys need to get yourselves warm first or you'll get hypothermia" Armin advised, rushing back from his room with a couple towels under his arm which he handed over to the two of them. Connie pulled the towel tighter around him, his clenched hands shaking with a mix of frustration and from the icy cold. "W-When I f-find out w-who did this…" he growled out through chattering teeth.

"If you find out," Jean muttered, "I mean, let's face it, who on earth would have-"

Suddenly, as if by chance, loud peals of laughter could be heard from the other side of the mansion. Connie and Sasha looked at each other but their eyes widened with realisation, knowing who was behind it almost instantly…

AN:

Don't forget to leave a review and follow to stay updated with the story.

This chapter did have a lot of focus on the sort of things Al does with being friendly with other people and one of his extreme ways of gaining trust.

The next chapter will have some interesting scenes with Al and another character but also some more character relationships developing.

Till next time.