I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, but hey, at least I'm getting out of school very soon! Worry not! Updates will come more often now that finals are over!

Nothing stirred in the clinic. She felt like she was the only life within when she stepped out of her room.

Her throat had a pleasurable burn, one that set her nerves aflame and awake. She couldn't believe that she was being set to work for a much more difficult task- it was like the more Ymir demanded from her, the more she would need Krista for satisfaction. In her restless dreams, her role of being a servant continued. The only reward was the promise of leaving this place free of torment.

She saw what happened with Ilse. Heaven be damned if she were to undergo such torture.

The hallways were brightly lit, thereby enabling her to navigate through them with ease.

She glided by the lounge area where she and Hanji shared coffee that very morning.

It was empty.

She went on for the entrance where Moblit's car was parked in front of the door. They had returned but she hadn't heard them come in, she had been sleeping too deeply to notice. The darkness kept her inside the building, she didn't dare venture out but a glimpse of red on the floor caught her eye. She looked down fully to process that there was a trail of blood leading to the halls, to the lab.

She hesitated to follow it.

Her curiosity of things often brought her into worse situations, the unsettling silence irked her. Soon, her feet began to take her along the trail, she could imagine the commotion going on when the group returned. She remembered the distressed call.

Hanji must have been yelling at Moblit to prepare for whatever emergency there was; Mikasa must have been carrying Eren; Sasha must have been sobbing.

She was at the doorway, it was propped open.

Inside, she found Hanji and Moblit standing at a dissecting table.

They were muttering to one another over a body, she could see Eren's boot and his bare foot as though he had lost his shoe; waists blocked the view to the rest of their bodies. To the left, sitting on the ground and resting against the wall, was Mikasa, she was watching them intently but overall, she was exhausted.

There was a profuse amount of blood staining her sleeves and front; she had tried to stop the bleeding from whatever injury Eren sustained.

Sasha was sitting at the opposite wall to her, when she noticed Krista, she got up.

She too had a patch of the red color on her stomach. She wasn't as dirtied as Mikasa but the horrid liquid was noticeable on her black flannel.

"Oh, thank Jesus," Sasha breathlessly said, she stood up and rushed to her. She threw her arms around her and clung to her for comfort. Krista held her in return, it would have been inconsiderate to push her away.

She could feel the cold blood seeping against her front.

"I thought I was going to die," she uttered into her hair.

"Krista, go take these two to the lounge," Hanji's dry voice came about.

Sasha pried herself away from Krista.

When neither of the girls moved, Hanji urged them,"Please."

"...c'mon," Krista said, though it was more to Mikasa as she had refused to move.

"I want to stay with him," Mikasa protested.

Hanji turned around to face her, she was covered in just as much blood as the younger woman; however, she looked rather furious. So much effort was being placed into not snapping at her that she didn't bring herself to speak. Just a boiling hard glare was enough to get Mikasa to her feet. To encourage her to move out faster, she told her,"I expect some explanation once you have relaxed."

"...yes, Doc," she returned lowly.

"Doctor, your blood pressure," Moblit warned.

"For God's sake, I'm crippled, not old!"

The three immediately left for the lounge. Once there, Sasha and Mikasa seated themselves far from one another. They were close before but now it was like something happened to cause a fissure in their friendship, or perhaps Sasha was still in shock. Sasha blankly stared at the wall as Mikasa fumbled with her scarf; the color was so rich that Krista couldn't tell if it had been stained as well.

Quietly, she started boiling water in the small boiler. As it began to settle, she took a chair by the door to have her eyes on both the women.

"...about Eren," Krista started,"...is he alive?"

"He is," Sasha numbly told her.

"Then why this?"

Sasha lost a bit of her posture and fell into silence.

"We weren't expecting a werewolf to be in the basement," Mikasa finally started. "Eren opened the door and just waiting inside...it was one of them, he came out and lashed out at Eren first, tore his arm and leg clean off...then Sasha shot at him, I had enough time to get Eren out. We headed for the car but the damn thing...it kept chasing after us. I tried to stop the bleeding and all...

"Sasha, she lost focus on the road, I dunno why-"

"I'm sorry," Sasha broke in. "I was nervous-"

"-and we ended up spinning out. Luckily I called you up before that. Elsewhere, Eren was thrown out the window; that monster started approaching us, Sasha didn't use the right bullets and I was fresh out of silver myself- we were done for...and then, Eren started changing into one of them- he let his anger get the best of him and he changed, even without the full moon. It's close enough to be one, so I shouldn't be shocked that he was able to...

"Eren...he's a werewolf, and I've been trying to keep that quiet," Mikasa confessed. "We don't know when exactly he was bitten but he started showing signs after Doctor Yaeger left us. The real reason why we can't leave is because...is because of Eren. Because of his condition, because he loses control easy under a full moon, we can't go off to search for his father to help us- we both know he has some answers."

"Both of you...you guys told me that you're hunting other werewolves, how c-can you if Eren's one of them?" Sasha questioned with fear.

Mikasa returned dully. "That's our main problem. Those deaths that happened aren't his doing, and he wants to find those responsible for doing them- I know he couldn't have killed anyone because I've been with him the entire time, watching over him. I've made sure that he wouldn't harm anyone, but I'm not saying it's easy on my part."

"That's why Hanji says you guys disappear every month," Krista concluded.

"Yes, that's right. We've been so busy with everything now...it slipped our minds that I needed to contain him." She glanced at the covered windows. "In two days, Eren will make a full transformation and keep it permanent until the end of the full moon's cycle. Before that, I need to get him to the safe house. My hands will be full again, I won't be able to stop another death if it happens..."

"He's aware of this...right?"

"If he isn't, he wouldn't be so concerned in finding the real killers of our friends...even Armin's Grandfather. At first we thought it was Ymir since the killings started with her coming back, but we were wrong about her, she isn't a werewolf."

Krista mockingly laughed in her head.

"The issue of trying to hunt a werewolf and then having to care for your own brother who is one of them is that you can't exactly do the former," Mikasa sighed as she rubbed her eyes. "Eren and I have been feverishly looking for people to help us but over the years, everyone's called us crazy. Even Sasha...things changed, it's for the better that they had."

"Mikasa," Sasha started,"if you're worried that I'm going to drop out...I promise you that I won't. I just...can't get over what I saw."

Some light returned to Mikasa's eyes. For the first time, she gave a smile. "...I appreciate that, but I'm not sure of Hanji."

"She's got a broken knee, how's she going to help?" Krista asked.

"I've seen her use a gun...she's better than what I though," Mikasa answered,"she's no use in running but she can hold herself if she needed to. When they arrived, Eren was fighting that other werewolf. Both of them were fighting and...I couldn't land a shot so she took my gun and fired, she got Eren square in the gut- it forced Eren to revert back to being human. The other one though, it ran out."

"About his limb though, he has both legs..."

"Werewolves can heal themselves after they transform. It's just how it is."

As of Krista had forgotten about the boiling water, Sasha stood up and began to prepare the tea.

"Why is Hanji mad?" Krista asked.

"I've been keeping this a hush to her, Eren's condition. Apparently the woman doesn't handle lying well..."

Sasha came back with their tea.

"How come Ymir had the basement key?" Mikasa suddenly asked the blond.

Krista sniffed her tea for a moment. She debated on telling her the truth, of telling her that Ymir received the key from Eren's own father. It would mean that she would then ask how she knew of that event, then it would lead it telling her of Ymir. Soon, she would have to reveal the location of the missing man. However, she knew Mikasa couldn't leave, neither could Eren, both were tied with their struggle.

The pair will find out one way or another; either through Hanji or Krista. To dangle such information before them, she didn't know the risk that she would run.

Maybe she could explain it without mentioning Ymir's presence within her mind.

"I need to tell you something...but you can't tell Eren, not until this is over."

Mikasa's eyes flickered to her. "...you know something."

"I do. Trust me on this, I'll...trust you," Krista added.

"...go on."

"I know where Eren's father is, and I know how to fix Eren's problem."

"He's going to need to know how to fix this at the very least," Mikasa entreated her.

"Then it's fine to tell him that. Ymir is dead but there's no use in trying to go after her. He's at the university that she attended, and she worked under him for the past few years. Don't ask me why she hadn't brought him back, I don't know that part. All I know was that Ilse was her...test subject, she was trying to...find a cure for with Eren's dad- she was a werewolf too."

Mikasa stood up so suddenly that the table screeched away from her knees. Her tea spilled over. "So she is one of them-"

"Was!" Krista emphasized.

Mikasa bit at her lip.

"There's a book in Hanji's room, she...um, translated it a few years back, I found notes back at Ymir's house when I was cleaning," Krista began to fabricate. "I thought it was all nonsense but now that I put two and two together, I know there's a definitive cure."

"For the love of God, tell me!" She begged.

"He needs the-"

A knock came from the threshold.

"D-Doc!" Sasha exclaimed.

Hanji stood there, her face smeared with an unpleasant expression. Calmly, she instructed,"I need to speak to Mikasa alone, would you two mind leaving?"

Almost immediately Krista left the room with Sasha trailing after her. They walked down the hallway in silence, then sound of shouts rose from the lounge.

Krista hung her head low. She didn't know if she made the right choice.