A/N: Huzzah! It's a crappy update with no proof-reading whatsoever! I'm so sorry for making you guys wait so long for this, I've been busy on top of being a lazy ass, and I've also had like 5 animes to keep up to. (Zankyou no terror is like my new obsession ahhh)

Anyway, it's like 2am here, so... enjoy! (and the fact that probably nothing makes sense plz) I'm off to bed ^.^


Levi

I heard the thundering of hooves on dirt, and I glanced up before turning my head towards to the side. I watched as Petra and Auruo rode up to where I was, skidding to a stop right in front of me.

A few days had passed peacefully – I should have known it wouldn't end well.

Come on. How could something already go wrong?

"Heichou!" Petra said breathlessly, her face distorted in concern and fear. I sighed and unfolded my arms.

"What-"

"Eren's gone!" She shouted, jumping off her horse. Auruo did the same. "We looked everywhere in the castle and around it but he's not there! What do we do?"

What?

But Hanji should have-

I stared at her for a bit, and sighed again.

"How long has he been gone?"

Petra looked uneasily over at Auruo, and back at me again.

"Um… about three days…"

Fuck.

"Have you asked Hanji about this?"

"Yes!" She said frantically. "She just said that he's probably around the place somewhere. She kept saying she was busy."

That shitty-glasses… I knew I shouldn't have trusted her.

But why would Eren escape? He never tried to as far as I knew, at least.

Even though Eren couldn't have gotten very far with those tiny kid legs of his, I knew that if I left it to them and Hanji the Military Police are bound to find out that he's escaped and freak out and probably start shooting every lost child they find.

"Petra, Auruo." I said, and they straightened up in attention. "You two can take over my position for now. Nothing's happened here, so it'll be fine."

The two gave a fine salute and walked off to tie their horses to the trees.

I watched them go for a moment longer before turning on my heel and walking to where my horse waited. It would probably take a couple of hours at least to get back to the castle, and then probably a bit more time to actually find the brat.

I hoped he hadn't gotten himself into trouble yet.

Eren

I woke up, and found them sneering down at me from above, again. I've slipped from consciousness to darkness countless times, but they were there every time I opened my eyes.

"How was your little nap, monster?" They asked me, but even if I wanted to answer them my throat was too dry for me to speak properly. They did give me some water though – they poured some onto the ground and laughed while I tried to lap it up. They said that it wasn't fun unless they could hear me suffering.

"You gonna answer?" They growled as they kicked me in the side from where they sat, leaning against the wall. The kick was heavy, and I clutched at the spot, feeling new bruises join older ones. "Oh wait, monsters can't talk!" One snorted, stuffing his mouth with bread.

I closed my eyes again, hoping they might be fooled into thinking I was unconscious again and wait till I wake up. They wanted to make me feel the most pain anyway – they wouldn't kill me if I couldn't feel it.

But apparently, they weren't that dumb. "The fuck are you doing, ignoring us? You think you're so much more superior?" A snarl came and I felt fingers gripping onto my hair, lifting me upright, and I cry out hoarsely. My head pounded with every beat of my heart, and every tiny touch to it felt like a dull knife trying to drill itself into my brain.

Somehow sitting upright now, I clutched my pounding head, wishing for the pain to go away. I could hear the laughter of the Military Police, strangely close but strangely far away.

"Hey, hey." One said, and I lifted my eyes off the ground and to their faces. "You're looking a bit worn-out there, want some food?" He dangled a piece of bread right in front of my face.

I caught a wiff of its scent, and my dry mouth immediately watered.

Food.

My eyes widened and I immediately reached for it without thinking. I was rewarded with a heavy blow to my painfully empty stomach, and I felt warmth bubbling up to my throat before coughing out blood again. "He fell for it!" The man howled with laughter, and I vaguely wondered through the pain what was so funny. "You thought I was actually going to give you some of our precious food? To a monster? Huh?" He nudged my face with his foot, and I'm not even allowed time to flinch before he kicked me. "What an idiot."

Apparently there was blood running down the side of my face because his boots came away from my face with red liquid dripping off it. His face twisted into disgust, and he flung his foot towards me. "Get that revolting thing off me, you fucked up beast." He growled, and he glared me down until I managed to struggle onto my elbows and wipe my own blood off his boots with my sleeve. Another man's foot stabbed me in the side with his heel.

"Don't you have any manners?" He sneered, "Didn't your mummy teach you what to say when you're rude to someone?"

I stare blankly at the ground, watching the blood from my head drip steadily onto the ground.

"…sorry…" I whispered as I continue scrubbing at the blood. It was my blood after all. The blood of a monster.

I could already feel my arms trembling from holding my body upright.

"What was that?"

"I-I'm sorry." I said as loud as I could, which only came out as a hoarse, pained whimper.

Just please, please don't kill me.

Levi

Three hours.

Three hours at full speed, three hours of urging my horse to go faster, and I'm finally at the entrance to the castle – my horse looked exhausted, and plodded off to the stables as I jumped off. I wondered if I should talk to shitty-glasses first, and ask her why the fuck she didn't do as she was told and look after that brat.

I pushed the door open and marched upstairs to where her office was. I couldn't help noticing how unkempt the place was - cupboards and doors were left wide open and dust and dirt had settled onto every available surface.

I guess everyone was trying to find that brat for the last few days. When I find him, I really needed to teach him a lesson too.

I reached her office and push the door open, not caring to knock. I found her, carefully pouring some clear liquid into more clear liquid, her brows furrowed in concentration.

"Oi. You fucking shitty-glasses."

She didn't even glance at me before she had carefully emptied the tube into the glass container and had placed both back into their respective holders.

"Oh, Levi! You're back early?" She said, taking her gloves off casually.

I breathe out slowly to keep myself controlled. Didn't she fucking realise why I was here?

"Where is he?"

She looked at me innocently. "Who? You mean Eren?"

"Who fucking else?" I gritted my teeth, trying to keep my annoyance at bay.

"Yeah, well. I really don't know why, but he ran away-"

"Why weren't you fucking watching over him?"

"I was busy with my experiments! He's old enough to know not to run off into nowhere – he's probably just around the castle somewhere."

I glared at her for a minute, and make myself breathe out. I knew there was no use in fighting with her now. "If something's happened to him, shitty-glasses, I swear to god-"

"Yes, yes." She brushed it off, putting her gloves back on.

Pissed to the bone, I turned around and slammed the door shut behind me.

I go back downstairs and walk out of the door, not bothering to look around in the castle. If he were in here, he would have come out when Petra and the rest of them were calling for him.

As soon as I came out, my horse came trotting back to me, looking at me expectantly. She really was a trustworthy horse.

I hopped into the saddle and got her going to the forest. There wasn't really anywhere else he could have gone.

But the forest was a fucking massive one, and I was lost about which route he could have taken. I surveyed the row of gigantic trees and was about to randomly go in when I saw it.

A bloody mark.

I stared at it for a second before going up to it and bending down on my saddle to look at it closer. It had almost dried up to the colour of the tree, but it was obviously the fingers of a kid.

Hmmm Hanji, better ask you where this blood's coming from, hey? I thought the order was that if she hurts him, I kill her.

Setting the thought aside (for now), I press forwards into the forest, the light immediately darkening around me. There was a rustling in the leaves high above me as a breeze blew through the trees, and I order her to go faster.

A few minutes of steady trotting later, we come up to a fallen tree blocking the path. She easily jumped over it, but I glimpsed blood marks staining the bark in several spots.

I make her go faster, fear slowly and steadily rising up inside me. Every few minutes or so, there would be a smudges of dried blood or a couple of little footprints tracked in the now dry dirt. I make her go faster and faster until the marks suddenly stop, and I pulled on the reins.

I looked around for a bit, and when that failed I hopped off her and tied the rope to a nearby tree before walking around, looking for any signs that a kid could have travelled in that direction.

The first thing I found was a cluster of faded but bloody handprints on the ground. He obviously sat down for a bit, but he wasn't there now.

I did another 360 before I saw it – the building, way off in the distance. It was probably another storage building for the Military Police – I never knew they had one so far out.

Suddenly noticing that there were faded footprints bee- lining for the building, I quickly followed it, my boots making soft thuds as it came to contact with the hard-packed dirt. I was probably about half way there when I first heard it.

Laughter.

So there were people in there? Maybe Eren wasn't in here after all-

I stopped dead in my tracks. My blood turned cold.

It was distant and vague, but I heard it.

A gunshot, and a strangled cry.