It had become a silent agreement that Eugene would also stay in the room, along with the three of them. Hale had taken to guarding the entrance at night, having felt it being part of his failure that one of Eugene's lovers had been poisoned. Eugene was sleeping in Hale's bed, because the bodyguard had insisted that he would sleep upon the floor with a few sheets instead of letting their guest suffer. He was most comfortable sleeping that way himself, as it kept him alert and unable to drift off should anything happen. In all honesty, he'd had a bit of trouble sleeping as well, thinking back on the scene of his friend's distressed look, and replaying the view he had of the dead body being carried off. He had just barely met that person in the morning, and then by the end of the night, they'd been just another body in the field. There had already been talks of a funeral for him, a private one that only his family seemed interested in attending. Hale was sure that he'd be there, in any case, if only to provide support for Eugene.

Nevertheless, the night was silent and the tension would fade for the moment, as he gazed out the window at the brightly shining stars in the sky. He stood awake during the ungodly hours, lost in thinking of nothing at all, or thoughts that slipped past from memory. Then he spotted something outside, a flicker of movement of a figure walking past the gates and shutting it. He tensed up, and the figure seemed to be staring vaguely in his direction, before they calmly made their way inwards. His eyes narrowed immediately, and he reacted on instinct. He was not the type to wake the sleeping royals in the bed, and figured that if he was overreacting, then it'd be for nothing. Making his way to the door, he opened it and stood guard, as he clearly saw the figure entering from the front entrance.

When he finally met them face to face, it was unusually direct and quick. Barely a few minutes had passed when they finally reached their room, everything in their demeanor having indicated that they seemed to be intent on approaching that specific area in which he was protecting. Then he saw them for who they were. He had only to pause and realize that they were wearing a uniform that clearly indicated that they were of the Survey Corps. They were a man with black hair, and a somewhat short figure, with a hooded gaze in the dark. Hale shined a compact flashlight upon them, one of the accessories he had managed to acquire from his ridiculously pink suitcase. Hale began to feel that he would recognize their features from the somewhat cold and calculating look on their expression, and the few instances of when he'd caught them marching along the streets, usually with a crowd of onlookers watching them.

Hale didn't need to be told twice, before he raised his hand in a gesture of a salute to none other than Levi himself, the humanity's strongest soldier, only next to the one known as the Titan Shifter. "Sir," he stated, with a bit more confusion than he would have liked to hear in his voice.

Levi nodded, and Hale moved to open the door for him after sensing the direction of his gaze. "At ease." Even if he was of the military police, he'd always had a reserved sense of respect for the fighters that braved the giants beyond the walls. Even so, when he closed the door behind him and faced the other, the apologies for the state of the room died straight away in his throat in the next series of moments.

The trigger was pulled, and one bullet embedding itself neatly into the wall, done in a manner in the fact that if it hadn't been so loud, that Hale would have sworn that the soldier had simply been throwing a dart. The occupants in the room sprang awake immediately, Eugene being the last to stand, and Jake having been the first. Levi promptly ignored them, the surprised expressions on their faces and the silent inquiries as they took in the familiar visage of the soldier.

"This school has now been put on lockdown," he said. "I already communicated with the military police beforehand so don't worry about disturbing anyone's beauty sleep."

Eishi stared back at Levi with a bit of shock, while Jake was the first one to speak out. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded. The bullet that had been fired had been shot in the direction of Eishi, grazing a few inches from the tip of his head, right before he had been jolted upwards in obvious alarm, in the middle of having moved forward to approach the other.

Levi simply stared coldly at the purple haired almost-victim, and walked forward before using his free hand to curl into a fist as he delivered a punch straight into the other's jawline, sending the boy reeling backwards and almost falling back into the bed. "Get out," he said in a steely note. "You are now under arrest for murder."

Jake paused, and his eyes narrowed, before he was the first one to attempt to intervene. "What the hell are you going on about?" He asked. It was the first time Hale had ever seen him angry enough to curse.

Levi's lips curled into a light smirk, as if he actually found the situation funny for a moment. "You really like to toy with your victims, don't you, Charlen?" He asked. "First, you have the nerve to fuck with me, and now you take it out on him."

Hale paused, and no one said anything for a moment. The silence and chill that ran over the room seemed deadly, as if all warmth had drained from it. The gun in Levi's hand didn't seem to waver either aimed with certainty, and caused Hale's instincts of dread to rise tenfold. The bitter taste of the truth lingered in the air as Eishi finally raised himself up into a straightened position. His bangs covered his face, but something had changed about him... Slowly, a grin that showed an unusually sharp amount of teeth, it seemed, formed across his expression, and that's when everyone knew.

"It can't be..." uttered Eugene faintly.

Levi didn't wait for Eishi to react any longer and moved forward in a determined posture. "Get out," he repeated in a tone with venom. "Or I'll make you wish you were never born."

Of course, the reaction he got was a bit of deranged laughter. Eishi's voice had changed in that instant. It became deeper and sounded as if he was a completely different being. "You have a lot of nerve to come here to me like this," he stated. "I wonder if you really care about such a fragile being so much to try and sacrifice yourself."

A flash of lightning seemed to strike directly outside their windows. The breeze whipped in from the hallways, as the voice became so deep that it was suddenly metallic with a gravelly edge of steel. "Did you forget about the things you wanted to do, Levi? Or is it that you want me inside you again that badly? We had a lot of fun. I remember. I stopped time, ripped out your limbs over and over again. I could do it again right now. Is that what you really want?"

In response, Levi fired another bullet towards the other, but Hale could sense that they were angry, fearful, and about ready to aim again. "The next one won't miss," he simply stated.

"Oh, I know," said Eishi just then, his voice having been mangled beyond all recognition. Then, with what seemed like a rather nimble move, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun before pointing it at Jake. "Come over here, boy," he said darkly. "Levi won't shoot me as long as I have you as a hostage, and no one here will lift a finger against your dear brother as long as we're together."

Jake took one look at Levi, and then ducked his head. When he spoke next, he simply nodded. "I understand," he said, his tone sounding rather dead, and walked over to stand right in front of his brother.

The window shattered next as Eishi shot it, and before anyone could make a move, lightning struck all of them, the light flaring directly past the window.

The last thing Hale saw before he passed out was the smiling face of Eishi's, with a gun pointed at Jake's neck.

The two of them walked down the hallways, side by side, like the old days. This time, there was no fountain, and a thick fog had settled over from the skies, lingering down like a cloak that sucked away all warmth between the two of them. Jake felt rather numb, and thought that if he pinched his arm, that he would wake up from a rather bad dream. Instead, he didn't lift a finger, as if afraid to find out that what he had done and was going to do was a reality. Surely, he thought, it could not end in anything but pain, and his death. They were still indoors, making their way towards an office down in the lower floors, one that was abandoned due to rumors that a ghost liked to haunt it. If anything, Charlen seemed to have a dreary sense of humor.

"Don't you have anything to say to me?" asked the villain, as the door sprang open in front of them. They spoke in a normal voice by now, with none of the sinister sorts of fireworks that had happened when Levi had tried to confront them. Jake wasn't fooled one bit, if he had been beforehand. "Surely you knew that I'd have tried something like this already. Your brother was left unguarded and was quite the easy pickings. That soldier friend of his had put up more of a fight."

Jake stepped into the room first, feeling oddly like he was being escorted into a jail cell. "How did you do it?" He asked quietly.

Charlen looked at him with the face of his brother and chuckled softly. It was as if he was trying to humor the other in a pseudo-friendly manner, and that served to send Jake more on edge, along with the bitter pain that didn't stop clenching around his heart. "The data that Edward had given me was quite invaluable," he started. "It taught me how to do things that no normal human being could, but he, like I was, wanted everything. We wanted the ability to think and be ourselves while transferring our body into titans. But he was a rather smart one, for before he gave me the data, he modified it a bit. It turns out that I cannot become a titan after all, and I was stuck without my own body as I could not return to it. Furthermore, it seems like I can only take over someone at night, with a bit of effort and manipulation upon their wills."

Jake frowned at that. "And this is why you're so hell-bent on retrieving the last of this data," he stated.

"And who would be able to stop me but that very father of hers?" asked the man with a light scoff. "I am very close to being able to complete total transfer, and once this is done, I will likely be able to rule the world. No one will be able to stop me, titan or human. I am already beyond the strongest of my abilities, after all. Think of what I could do with all that power. The limits are practically nonexistent." He paused, and then looked over to the other. "And that.. is why you must hand me over the last of the data. The soft-hearted fool left me one option of hope in that he shared his work with his daughter, and like some mysterious prodigy, she picked up all the calculations on the spot. In return, of course, I could easily adjust the mind of this person I'm inside, and give you everything you wanted, but were too afraid to ask for."

Charlen looked over at him and in an instant, he had snatched Jake by the tie of his uniform and drew him close. Jake immediately felt sick to his stomach, and flinched away. "You're insane," he hissed out vehemently.

"Am I?" asked Charlen. "I've seen into his memories, and I know that he knew deep down. It was fun to see his emotions when he realized how you felt. So very fun, when I mocked him and then drove him into the miserable state he is in now."

Charlen kept a firm hold on his tie. "How does it really feel?" He asked, keeping a lock upon the other's gaze."Doesn't it get boring to have one person in the world who you can't really kill?"

He reacted without thinking, and for the moment, his instincts kicked in and he delivered a blinding slap into the side of the other's face. But Charlen was apparently done with talking. "Ah well, I gave you a chance," he said, and brought both of his hands to suddenly pin the other into the desk as his hands gripped around his throat in an attempt to strangle him to death. "Don't think that I can't figure out myself how to do it. It will take a while, but I will enjoy every minute of it."

His vision started fading, and as his breath was constricted, he felt even sicker when the other subtly leaned in against him in a faux-loving manner. His instincts started to kick in and he tried to claw at the other's hands, but raise his fists to fight and he found that his body would not obey him. The self-defense and the resolve had slipped out of him right then and there, as soon as his breath would begin to fade away entirely.

Suddenly, in the corner of his mind, a warm presence began to take over him, and he felt calm. In the grip of death, the truth of his emotions seemed to unlock a blissful numbness. He no longer felt the constriction around his throat. Light had faded into his view, and all he could see and hear then was the sound of Audrey's voice. She reached out to place a hand on his shoulder and spoke, in the same thoughtful and inquisitive manner that he remembered her to sound like.

"I understand now, Jake," she said. "I understand what I must do, but I wanted to tell you before you forget.. Thank you for all you've done, and please, look after him well."

In that instance, he wanted to call out to her as her presence started to fade from view, and he felt that he would be alone again in the darkness. But that wasn't the case and he knew it. Charlen had drawn back, as if stunned as a bright light had emanated from his victim's form. His eyes were glowing, and he seemed unlike himself, as a ghastly smile appeared over his features, that which seemed out of place but with a heavenly chill that could freeze all the fires in the room. If there was a candle lit on that very desk, Jake could have sworn that it would have lit itself out in the radiance of the glow.

"I've been waiting for you, Charlen," she said, and before the other could move away, Jake darted forward and flung his arms around him in what seemed like a loving embrace.

"Let us go to hell together."

His vision faded out and he fainted like this, with his arms wrapped around his brother. He vaguely thought in the back of his mind that he saw the door burst open. He thought he heard the stunned voice of Hale calling out his name and shaking him, and that was when he smiled and gave in to the light, which overshadowed everything.

The funeral being held for Rickert was indeed attended by the four. To much of the noble students' surprise, Hale appeared in his normal Military Police outfit. The body had been lain in the coffin, covered in a lot of makeup by the mortician so that it didn't look like it was dead. In this occasion, there were fancy decorations and ribbons of the darkest and most dreary colors. The only flowers in the funeral, even in the vases, were lilies. Levi had not shown up for the funeral, having been called away back to the front lines to fight titans once more. Hale did not blame him and was busy pointedly ignoring the glances of a few giggling girls nearby to worry too much about someone who could likely kill them in the blink of an eye. When he shot a flat look over at them, they immediately turned red and looked away, pretending to mope once more. Clearly, there were just some onlookers from the school who just showed up in ceremony.

Eishi and Jake were standing next to each other, both their heads ducked in prayer, and Hale couldn't help but think that he had never seen them both so solemn before. Eugene himself had been requested to stand at the eulogy and make a speech, and he did in soft tones. Hale had felt that he didn't really want to listen in on such an intimate conversation, as he noted the crying tears of the mother, and the saddened look of the father.

"I first met Rickert when I transferred to this school," he said. "I was shy back then, but he drew out a part of me that I never thought that I would get to know. Soon, because of Rickert, I was more able to open up to others, and share my ideas in a bold way that I would not have been able to if he hadn't been there. I already had skills in composing music, and Rickert was like my left arm, playing along when I lost inspiration, and making me laugh when I felt bad."

When he saw that Eugene had finished the speech, he was relieved enough to make his way over to the other, intercepting them as they looked on the verge of tears, and were about to break down. They paused, seeming to gather themselves together when they saw Hale, and put on what seemed like a forced smile.

"I thought I'd accompany you back to school for a while, just like the old times," said Hale quietly.

Eugene nodded and then looked around for the other two. "Are they coming as well?" He asked, in a hushed tone.

Hale shook his head. "They've got another burial to attend," he said, and that was the end of that conversation.

It was time to face the music. Eishi had never really been direct and blunt to the subject of romance, and so he had been trying to avoid talking to Jake about such. Jake himself, had not really pushed on the subject either, but Eishi was now a bit more aware of the intentions behind their actions. He still felt the sting of being held back by a mental wall as he could feel every action that he had done under Charlen's control, to the point that it felt as if his very own nails had been the one gritting into the other's neck, which had never looked so fragile until then.

He had continually checked on his brother's condition afterward, refusing to leave him alone until the nurse kicked him out of the room. Considering that he was a doctor usually, it was quite embarrassing, but having been through the last weeks and playing as a college student had brought back some memories, the good parts of which he had missed. Jake had been eventually released with a clean bill of health, but the guilt seemed to linger in the back of his mind, along with the sudden realization that he might have crossed a bridge that he could no longer return to.

As they stood in front of a makeshift grave that they had made for Audrey, the two of them bowed their heads in prayer.

He prayed with all his heart on a wish that he knew was foolish, but he did so anyway like the kind of person he was. If there was one last thing that Audrey could grant him in the afterlife, it was probably something that he hadn't lost, but enough of a bitter fear to the point that he was even sniffling a bit when he thought about it. Jake seemed to be oblivious when they looked up at him, a bit of confusion shining in his gaze.

Instead of feeling better about that, he decided he would just raise a fist and punch lightly on the other's shoulder, before he finally burst into a rather squeaky set of tears. "Jake, you idiot. Why do you have to be so confusing?!"

"If it's about the incident with Charlen, you can forget about it," was his response from the other, glancing to the side as well as if he was somewhat embarrassed.

He flailed both his arms, waving them in a cartoon-like manner of exasperation. He suddenly felt smaller than he did before, as if he was a little kid and the other was a mountain. "Forget?" He asked incredulously. "How would I forget something like that?"

There was no answer from the other and he rounded on them to grab them by the shoulders and shake them a bit. "Never. Ever do something like that again..!" He seemed to demand, but his trembling probably spoke volumes, and Jake had to reach over to push him away.

He paused when he suddenly saw the alarm and fear in the other's face, and in that simple instance, he saw Jake flinch, but the reason that he did so didn't seem to matter. "Augh. I'm a monster!" he cried out, and turned away to cover his face. After all, he thought, in the process of feeling the most remorse that he could have in his entire life. Here he had been hoping to protect the other, and because of stupid Charlen, he had nearly strangled them to death.

"Eishi.." started Jake, sighing and reaching over to place a hand on his shoulder. In this moment, there was really no one who could comfort him other than the other, so he let him. He let the feeling of his thumb rub into his shoulders, until it soothed away his rather pained expression, and with it came steely resolve.

"Promise me you won't," he said finally. "Because if you do, I'll kill myself first the next time. Swear it!"

Jake would pause, and then he suddenly smirked at him. "Fine," he said, turning around and starting to walk off. "I promise that you won't die first the next time something like this happens."

Eishi gaped at him as he suddenly appeared a good deal further ahead down the path, and ran after him. "That's not what I meeant..."

Of course, the rest of the trip back home was considerably more lighthearted. He found that Jake had a way of avoiding subjects that were sensitive, and deep down in his heart, he probably appreciated it. After all, the truth was that even if the world turned upside down, he did not really want to change the way he felt about his brother, and he knew them well enough to be certain that if they really wanted to breach such a topic, they'd already have done so at that moment.

Dear Levi,

I heard that one of your squad members just became Queen. Congrats to Christa, and I hope to see her at one of the parties. I heard she makes the cutest queen in the world and that the people down in the slums love her. Anyway, I know you're a busy person and I hope this letter makes it to you all right. It takes a lot of work to train a bird and send it over properly y'know. But I guess I'll just make a print copy next time. Cross your fingers and hope the other letters I tried to send you came through all right!

Anyway, I just wanted to update you about what's going on in my life, because you haven't been around the hospital lately.

Jake is still at school, and studying. Hale visits me sometimes at the hospital, and that kid that you never remembered the name of "Eugene", is on his way of graduating and becoming a professional musician.

In other words, I'm stuck at the hospital all day, doing double shifts with no one to hang around with! I've been watching the news, however, and trying to keep up with current events. I was worried about you guys for a while, when the old ruler thought that it was a good idea to break up the Survey Corps. You should have heard the people down in the streets about it. It's like they thought that all you guys did all day was sit around and drink tea. It's a whole different world out there beyond the walls, anyway.

But about what happened the last time you came to visit...

I'm pretty sorry that it all happened the way it did. I know I'm apologizing too much, but I didn't really expect Charlen to have the sort of powers he did. I mean, if someone had told me earlier that demonic possession was real, I would have pretty much laughed at them. Still, nobody really would have believed that titans were real either until they nearly wiped us out, so long ago. It's almost like some kind of religion, the way it's spoken of in some of Jake's classes. I ended up sticking around for a bit more, and spending time with him.

Thanks to you, I can spend time with him without worrying that I'm going to gut him up and spill his entrails upon the floor in my sleep. I know it sounds creepy, but I'm really sure that's right down Charlen's alley.

Also, I realize that you thought that Hale was a girl when you first saw him. I can explain, we were putting him undercover so that he would be more effective in guarding us. Really! I'm sure that you probably had to do that with some of the guys in your team, huh?

I almost thought Eren was a girl when I first saw him. Kids these days get prettier and prettier sometimes. Speaking of which, I never really got to know him either. Do you think he likes cookies?

And I guess it's not fair to write to you about all this stuff and just leave out some explanation, but I guess I'll start with what happened directly afterward to us first. As soon as you guys found us passed out in a brotherly hug, I ended up waking up first. I realized what happened and I gotta be honest. It felt so bad, that I went to the corner of the room and nearly puked. I would have too if I had actually eaten something that night. Yeah, I know, big surprise there.

Then things were kind of fuzzy after that, but I remembered Hale doing something like CPR on Jake, pressing on his chest, you know, that kind of routine. It took a few minutes longer before we realized that Jake was already breathing and just pretending to be asleep. You should have seen the look on Hale's face when he opened his eyes and wiggled his eyebrows. I've never been so happy to hear someone flirt with someone else, but it sure broke the tension between the two. Hale really did look like an angel in that skirt too. It must be that albino complexion.

Then Eugene walked up to me and insisted to you to make sure that I was still, well, me... and that was when you took your leave. I don't think he realized who he was talking to, or he was just a bit worried about us, so I'll tell you what happened exactly in my very own words. That way you don't have to deal with any of it. See? I can be thoughtful.

So, after we told Eugene what happened, he insisted that we bring Jake to the nurse, just for a checkup to make sure that everything was all right, because after Jake told us that he had been hiding Audrey inside himself the whole time, he actually did collapse. I don't usually believe in magic, but since I've seen it firsthand, it's likely that her energy drained him a little bit. It's not too farfetched, is it? But I guess he was kind of smart. He probably hid Audrey's real location from us too, so that he was the only one who knew. When it came down to it, we would have been screwed over if he had told us the truth right away.

It also turns out that there was some truth in what he said too. So it was actually a half lie and half truth. Edward's father had delivered the device to Jake, with all those instructions in the back of the page of the letter on how to accept Audrey into himself. The problem with that, being that accepting a ghosty inside you kind of isn't the same as the entity transferring themselves over to someone else. Pretty interesting way to do magic and science, huh? It's like that thing called alchemy that we read about in books so long ago.

The real problem was that he also gave most of the data to Charlen in an attempt to pacify his murderous streak. Obviously that didn't work out, and so he had to commit suicide when he realized that he had been betrayed. It's kind of sad how people with high intellect get picked on so easily, even by people as smart as they are sometimes. They obviously had so much to leave us. I certainly would have enjoyed a class like that, but maybe I'm a bit weird. Jake says I try to understand things that I just don't a lot of times.

And we put together what happened to you pretty easily too. Remember that time when I was cleaning your window and we got shot at? I remember it all now. There was a guy who suddenly came into the room, directly after we read the letter, and he sprayed something at us that made us pass out. After that, it was pretty easy for him to take over your mind. When I woke up and found out what happened, I remember agreeing to let the guy take over mine. Apparently, a willing victim increases the control that Charlen can have over someone, and once I signed my name in blood, so to speak, I also lost my memories of the incident, until he died, actually.

It's a bit creepy now that I think about it, not that none of this was disturbing in the first place, but how easy it is just to erase people's memories like that. It's kind of like how the titans were created to resemble people sometimes that do nothing but munch on humans. I mean, what if the titans were made out of humans? Wouldn't that be something.

Also, I really don't like the fact that he did all that mental torture to you. I know this is out of the blue, and you're a tough one, but he really didn't have to go that far. I... hope I never see something like that again.

So, Jake was brought to the nurse, and we showed up during after hours, so the nurse was kind of stressed. Her shift was supposed to have ended hours ago and the one that was supposed to replace her was apparently out drinking. She still helped us though, but I think it was because it seemed like Jake had a small fever. Due to the cold temperature and the weather and all the stress, he probably could have caught pneumonia. Obviously, I stayed by his side the whole time. It was kind of sad. He wouldn't let me near him sometimes whenever I tried to place a towel on his head. Then when he remembered who I was, he would try to apologize to me. I'm serious, man. When have you ever heard him say sorry to someone?

After he got better, he bought me an eagle, and I've been busy training it since, just so that maybe it can deliver a letter to you. But don't worry, even if the first copy doesn't get to you, I'll send a copy by human messenger.

Don't get me wrong. I'm still doing my job as a doctor. It's just been a bit more difficult to sleep lately, so I take on night shifts more often. Sai says that maybe writing you a letter about it will help too. So here it is.

Sincerely,

Eishi Lane

P.S. With Tea