A/N: Helloooo! Okay, by now you guys probably hate me for not updating for... months. Many months. I feel really guilty for leaving you hanging, but I've been really busy with school and music and sport and ugh. But it's the end of term now so I'll have more time to write, which is nice! Anyway, this is a really rushed chapter despite how long I took to update (i'm sorryyyyyyy ;A;)

First it was just little murmurs, soft and distant. But the voices grew louder and closer, and then so did the pain – it was strong, ripping through my body every time my heart pulsed; every time I took a breath.

I opened my eyes, and found it hard to focus on anything. My vision swam around for a minute before blurring, and I had to physically concentrate before I could see anything clearly.

And what I saw was Hanji's face, only inches from mine.

"Oh, you're awake!" She exclaimed as I stared up at her, "Bad timing, I'm about to put you to sleep."

Put me to sleep?

I had a very bad feeling that that was her way of telling me that she was going to kill me.

She lifted her hand up, and I saw it clearly – a piercingly-sharp object, clear liquid lapping inside its clear container.

A needle.

No, no, no, no, please don't. Please, please don't.

She grabbed my arm, and held up the needle. Fear jolted through me and suddenly I found myself kicking at her, each movement sending pain ripping through my body.

Did it even matter though? I didn't want to repeat all this again.

"Eren, stay still! Your injuries will-"

A shudder ran though me when her hand came close to me again, and I managed, somehow, to scramble up and stagger a few meters on my hands and knees. But my body didn't want to respond at all, and after a few seconds it collapsed under my weight and refused to get back up.

"Eren, you have to be a good boy-"

"I only like good little boys that corporate with my important experiments. And right now, you're not being one, are you?"

I heard a sob escaping from my throat before I pushed with my arms and went tumbling onto the floor. It was concrete, and it was hard – the shock from the impact had me frozen for a few seconds. I whimpered as my chest and lungs decided that it would self- destruct, and I coughed up some red onto the ground, struggling to breathe.

"I got the water-" I heard a man's voice and the closing of a door, "What the fuck's going on?"

"Can you hold him still?" Hanji's voice came, and I heard footsteps approaching me. I couldn't tell whose they were. Maybe it was the both of them.

I could feel tears streaming down my cheeks, stinging the cuts on my face. They were tears of helplessness and desperation as I staggered back onto trembling limbs and went as further away from the footsteps as possible. I was forced to stop when my back hit the wall behind me. It was always like this, wasn't it – me pressed up against a hard wall, trying so hard to escape from something that couldn't be avoided in the first place.

Why do I even try?

My vision was blurred so much that I couldn't make out who was in front of me, but I could make out that they had squatted in front of me. I stared at them, even though I couldn't see them properly. I couldn't see anything properly, really, and panic spiked inside of me as I saw a blur of a hand moving towards me. I couldn't keep the sobs in any longer – I let them all out as I tried to avoid the hand. Whatever their intent was, it was going to hurt, and I didn't want any more pain – there was enough as it was.

My head was spinning as I tried to shove myself away from the figure in front of me. I ended up tipping back onto the ground with my face buried in my arms, breathing in the metallic scent of my skin. I thought I heard the figure say something but I couldn't hear it over the sound of my sobbing, loud in my ears. I dragged myself away until I couldn't physically go any further, which wasn't far at all. Breathing hurt, my legs dragging behind me hurt, my arms hurt, my head pounded. I gave up and curled into myself, covering my head and begging for all this torture to be over.

The figure said something again, and this time it's hand reached over and held me by the shoulders. I froze under its touch, expecting the pain to come at any minute.

But it never came.

Instead the hands pulled me gently upright, and then reached up to wipe away the tears from my eyes. The hands were gentle, and I relaxed under its touch; leaned into it.

"Can you recognize me?" The man asked, and I looked at him. He looked like a blur at first, but gradually I saw a familiar, stoic face, except now he had on a much softer expression, an almost worried look in his grey-blue eyes.

"…Corporal…?" I whimpered, my voice sounding foreign. I reached up almost subconsciously and grasped onto his hand with both of mine, feeling the warmth of him seep into my skin. He was rubbing my back slowly, and I discovered my ability to breathe slower and did so, ignoring the stab of pain in my chest.

"Have you calmed down?" He asked softly, and I nodded, burying my face into his shoulder. "Can Hanji put the needle in now? It's not going to hurt-"

All of it came flooding back into my mind – the prick of the needle, the fire burning inside of me, the pain as I was forced to bite down onto my own hand, the taste of my blood inside…

I shook my head violently, causing my head to pound even more. "No, no, please." I gasped, tears pooling in my eyes again. If it's corporal, he could stop Hanji from doing that to me, right? "Please don't, corporal, make her stop-"

"Levi? He really needs to be fixed up soon."

Hanji's impatient voice reached me and I recoil, my heart thudding loudly in my ears.

"It won't hurt, alright?" Levi told me, his eyes looking steadily into mine. "I won't let her hurt you."

He brushed the tears from my eyes away before scooping his arms underneath me and lifting me up off the hard ground. He set himself down onto the bed, still holding me close.

"Do it now." I heard him say, and from the corner of my eyes I could see Hanji bending down beside the bed. I felt her take my arm in her hand, and I press my face into Levi's chest – I could feel his hand come up to stroke my back as the needle pierced through my skin. Biting my lip, I tried to settle the panic rising in me, grabbing onto Levi's shirt with my other hand. I gripped onto the thin material as I felt something cool enter me through the needle. I whimper as I anticipated the burning pain that came afterwards, but none came.

Instead, I found that my hand couldn't grip onto Levi's shirt anymore.

My body numbed – I could hardly feel the needle leaving my arm. My eyelids suddenly felt heavy, as heavy as when my mum read stories to me before bed, and I wanted to hear the ending of the story before I fell asleep.

I vaguely noticed that Levi was lifting me up off his lap and settled me gently down onto the bed. All I could see was the ceiling now – growing darker and darker with each blink of my eyes.

Was this what dying felt like?

"You did well." I heard Levi's voice, and then a cool hand was on my forehead, brushing the hair out of my eyes.

I managed to look at him with tired, drooping eyes.

"I don't want to die." I told him, my voice hardly a whisper.

I saw his brows furrow and his lips move, but then my eyes closed and I fell deep, deep down into darkness.