Never in his life had Lukas been forced to reside in such as disgusting place as this prison cell that he was forced into. It was so filthy even Captain Levi had given up on trying to clean it.

The cell had rusty and disgusting bars that would give you tetanus if you touched them the wrong way, there were holes and cracks in the walls that mice and rats used to try and steal what little food he was given. The floor was damp and freezing cold at the best of times, so he had to minimise the time he spent on his feet to keep himself sane.

He was given a bucket to shit and piss in that was lobbed into the corner, he wasn't allowed to eat his food without a guard watching over him in case he tried to cut himself with anything he was given. He was being treated like human trash, because they didn't trust him, and he didn't blame them for that, it was only natural for them to handcuff and lock him up for the time being.

It was funny, he was in pretty much the exact same position Eren was in about a month ago, except for the fact that he had a lot more control over his powers and he was far more dangerous than Eren was.

As soon as they arrived back he was put into chains and led off like a criminal, thrown into the deepest dungeon the Scouts had in their possession. Upon arriving back, he was asked several questions about his upbringing and whether the records they had were true, but not before he had been searched by several Scouts including Hange, who couldn't contain her excitement at examining a live specimen without any repercussions.

He had been stripped to the bone while they searched him, every nook and cranny of his body had been searched for anything suspicious or a weapon he was hiding, he had never felt so violated in his life when they were searching... it didn't matter, they found nothing of note anyway.

The only thing he was given to wear was a ripped and dirty shirt and some ragged pants to go with it, he was freezing in his cell at every moment. His bed was a plank of wood with a cloth over the top of it, not even a mattress.

The only contact he had with anyone the last couple of days was the guards they sent to give him food, he hadn't seen Hange or Levi since he first got back, and he presumed he wasn't allowed any sort of visitation, supervised or not.

He knew it had been a couple of days since Eren had been recovered, how long exactly, he had no idea, three, maybe four days at the most, he knew they'd be here eventually, he could only assume they were dealing with other things first.

"Yoo hoo!" Hange poked her head around the corner of his cell, surprisingly silent for someone so excitable. "Sorry for the long wait, we've all been very busy these last few days, I'm sure you can understand?"

Lukas didn't respond, instead he looked at her out the corner of his eye, he was not happy about the way he had been treated at all.

"Well then, me and Levi here have just got back from seeing Erwin in the hospital." She continued on with. "He just woke up after losing his arm, so we wanted to talk to him about your situation, and see if we could come to an agreement on what to do with you."

"Hange, stop blabbing and ask him the questions." Levi tried to speed this up. He was running out of patience as well, it would only be a matter of time before the Military Police tried to get their hands on Eren, they needed this done asap.

"Quiet now Levi, this is important." The Section Commander shushed the Captain. "Obviously this arrangement we have right now is not working, and I apologise for the less than acceptable standards of living you've had to endure these past few days, but we needed to run a background check on you before we could even think about putting trust in you."

Hange then pulled out some papers from behind her back. "I know you answered these questions earlier, but I just wanted to check and make sure we had all the details right." She cleared her throat before she began speaking. "Your mother and father, their names were Lara and Willy, right?"

"Lara is my mother, Willy is my uncle." Lukas clarified for her. "He helped raise me after my dad died."

"Okay." Hange nodded, he passed that trick question, that matched what was on the papers. "What about your home village? Says here that Shwerin was near a river."

"Yes, the locals used the river for fresh water and fishing." He replied with. "There was a lake a little to the south, my uncle would take me there sometimes, he taught me to swim there, I nearly drowned a couple of times too."

"And what about your mother and uncle?" Hange pressed him for more answers, reading what was in the records and report. "How did they die?"

"Disease." He replied with. "My mother caught something, like a really bad cough, she gave it to my uncle, but they'd already kept themselves distanced from me and in the village hospital."

"How old were you at the time?" She didn't look sorry for him, she still wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or not.

"I was thirteen."

"I see... let me have a word with Levi, then we'll see what we can do for you." Hange said as she and Levi walked away to talk about it for a moment.

"I don't like it." Levi spoke up. "He answered every question perfectly. He was far too prepared for this." He voiced his concerns. "We should dig deeper, ask around his fellow cadets who are still alive."

"I don't disagree with you there, but I had Moblit do a little but of research while he was locked up in there." She informed him. "Turns out there was an outbreak of disease around the time his mother and uncle passed. It was in the newspaper, symptoms included fever, light headedness and get this, an uncontrollable cough."

"Doesn't prove anything." Levi was unmoved at that revelation. "You said it yourself, it was in the paper. He could've read that and faked the death certificates." He offered up.

"Levi, he could've taken Eren and run, instead he risked his life to make sure he made it back to the walls." Hange reminded him. "We both read the report about what happened, how many people he saved."

"What about in the forest during the expedition?" Levi brought that up again. "He may have saved Eren from getting his ass beat, but he then saved the Female Titan from getting caught by us." He reminded her. "He has another motive entirely, it's gnawing at me, I can feel it, but I don't know what it is."

"Well you can ask him when you get the chance." Hange told him, giving him her answer. "Erwin said we were in no position to turn down the help from another Titan Shifter who wants to help us, and frankly, I agree with him. We need his help Levi, whether we like it or not."

"Fine." Levi conceded. "But I will be watching his every move like a hawk."

"I wouldn't expect anything else from you Levi."

Once they had returned to Lukas, Hange produced a key to the cell and opened the door.

"Looks like it's your lucky day Lukas." Hange spoke to him. "We've decided to let you out of your cell for now, you'll get your clothes back, though we did confiscate your fancy looking knife and that very cool gun you had, any chance you could tell us where you got it from?"

"The Interior Police keep a lot of things to themselves." He answered her as he stood up and walked to the door, though when he reached it she put her hand on his chest, and out from her pocket, she produced his pistol.

"Though we can't seem to figure out how to fire it." She then flipped the gun around, handing it to him, which Levi had been strongly against when she suggested it before hand, but this was the ultimate test he could have so far. "Mind showing us how to fire it?"

His eyes glanced over to Captain Levi, who was giving him a killer glare, hand on his gear, ready to draw a sword if he needed, and Lukas didn't want to get to know how fast he was first hand.

Instead, Lukas opened his mouth wide and tilted it back for Hange to look inside, and in the one place they hadn't checked while searching him, there was a small lump on the top of his mouth.

"I had the feeling we forgot to check something." Hange grumbled. "You can take it out." She nodded to Levi, who relaxed just a tad.

Using his thumb, he pushed the object forward so it pierced through his skin and into his grasp, and he pulled it out his mouth. It was a metal pin about an inch in length.

"It's the firing pin." He explained, pushing the slide forward and putting it back into place, fixing the pistol as his mouth healed and he tasted a little blood. "Gun wouldn't fire without it." He handed it back to Hange in one piece. "And you left the safety on."

"Ah, so that's what you call it." Hange waved the gun around, aiming at the wall and looking down the sights. "I thought an off switch would be more fitting, but to each their own."

He so nearly corrected her, it was called a safety, but he refrained from doing so, that would ruin everything he was doing, lying through his teeth to these people to get what he wanted in the end. These people wanted a loyal and obedient Titan to trust, so he'd give them that, right until they led him where he needed to go.

After he was let out his cell, Hange and Levi led him through the building to the showers that had been cleared so there was nobody around at the time. The two of them remained there while he cleaned and dressed himself, they weren't ready to trust him yet, and why should they, he could kill them with a single scratch on his body.

Luckily for him, they let him eat next, but Levi was very clear that if he so much as picked up a fork without permission, he would treat him as the enemy.

Having barely eaten in days, with the only thing he'd had being what was left of the soup after the guards had dropped the food tray on the floor, he was given soup, bread and a fee potatoes. He wolfed it down with a ferocity that Sasha would be proud of.

"Stop being so disgusting with your food." Levi demanded. "You're making a mess that I'll make you clean up."

Lukas didn't listen to him, instead he grabbed the bowl and began drinking from it, swallowing as much as he could as fast as he could. It took all of Levi's restraint to not grab him by the collar and throw him to the ground for being such a disgusting slob.

"So what now?" He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand once he was finished eating.

"Well normally you'd be put on trial, but after that whole debacle in Wall Rose, that's not really possible at the moment." Hange informed him. "Instead you'll be moved to where we'll be hiding Eren and Historia once we and Erwin are satisfied with the answers to the questions we have."

"Why are you so willing to trust me?"

"Levi isn't I assure you, but Erwin seems more convinced by you." Hange replied. "You've somewhat earned his trust because of what you did on the mission to recover Eren. Despite how excitable I am towards Titans, I'm not convinced yet, but, trust can be earned after all."

"Okay then... I understand." Lukas nodded. "Where is Erwin now?"

"He's still in the hospital." Hange informed him. "It's still early, so he should be up by the time we get there."

The hospital in Trost was rather nice for a city that had been devastated by a Titan attack not that long ago. Though hospitals did tend to be one of the most funded services within the Walls, so it was no surprise that it was one of the first buildings to be repaired and up and running.

It was late in the morning when Hange and Levi arrived with Lukas in tow, they made him wear the raincoat with his hood up just in case there were any of the Garrison or MP's still around that survived the mission.

He felt pretty stupid to be honest, wearing a hood in broad daylight while Hange was wearing her uniform, but Levi was wearing normal clothes wasn't making him blend in. In fact, it was like they wanted him to stick out like a sore thumb.

When they got to Erwin's room, Hange had the courtesy to knock and wait before they were given permission to enter the room.

"Hey, you're supposed to be in bed Erwin." Levi told the Commander, who was in the middle of getting dressed.

"I need to learn how to do basic tasks again Levi." Erwin said, a grim tone to his voice. "No better time to start than the present." His eyes then lit up when Lukas entered the room behind Hange and Levi, the endless possibilities of what he could tell him.

"I see you're still in one piece Lukas." Erwin gestured for him to sit in the chair next to his bed. "I trust that you weren't treated too harshly... or maybe I should apologise." Erwin changed his tune when Lukas' face reacted to his first comment.

"I was in a coma up until yesterday, so I haven't been able to give orders." He explained himself. "You did us a great service in recovering Eren, we all owe you for that service, but now is the time for you to give us answers, I trust Levi and Hange made your situation clear to you?"

"They did." Lukas nodded. "I can't say I was too happy with the way I was treated, but I understand why it happened. You're all scared of me, and you should be. I could set fire to every district in the Walls within a week."

"To you, I am nothing but a tool that you need to save your way of life, like Eren is, except I am a lot more experienced and powerful than he could ever be." He continued on with. "You want Wall Maria back, I'll give it to you, I could do it myself if I really wanted, but I want something in return for helping you."

"You are in no position to make demands here." Hange interrupted him. "You have clearly misunderstood what this is all about, you are not a free man, you are in the custody of the Scouting Regiment. The only reason you aren't in chains with a gag around your mouth is because of your actions."

"No Section Commander, I think you've misunderstood the position that you are in." Lukas opened his mouth and out dropped a piece of his tongue that he had bitten off when they weren't looking, along with droplets of blood.

For the first time, Hange was worried, they had given him too much freedom already, this was a huge mistake. Erwin remained stone faced in the face of possible death, while Levi had already realised that if he wanted to kill them, he would've done it already.

"I am not going to become a slave to the Scouts like Eren is, you want my help, we make a deal." Lukas told them. "Alternatively, I could think of a goal to accomplish right now, but I don't think either of us want that now, do we?"

"What is it that you want?" Erwin posed the question to him. "You might as well tell us now and get it over with."

"I would, but you wouldn't understand why I want it just now, so I'll tell you a story." He offered. "I'll tell you what I know about the Titans, where I came from and how to gain the power of the Titans, sound fair?"

"Hold on a minute, you told us earlier that you lived inside the Walls." Hange pointed out.

"That was all bullshit, I just wanted out of that cell." He admitted. "The only thing remotely true in that story was the names of my mother and uncle."

"So... you came from outside the walls as well? Like the Colossal, Armoured and Female Titans?" Erwin had seemingly worked it out.

"Yes."

"So you lied when we first asked you if you were with them?" Levi growled out. "You lied straight through your teeth about everything. The gun, that's not from the Interior Police, you came here with it, right?"

"Saying I am with them would be very assuming, I came here separately from them, but we shared a common goal." He revealed. "Though as time passed, our goals shifted away from one another, they picked one, I picked another."

"Armin said Annie talked about her mission, what was the mission?" Erwin asked, he could barely contain his thrill at learning all of this, and it was just the tip of the iceberg. "To destroy humanity? To kidnap Eren? To break all the walls?"

"My mission was to make theirs a lot easier. Where we came from, a nation called Marley, their military power comes from turning people into Titans, pointing them in the direction of their enemies and hoping for the best." The three others in the room looked aghast when he said that. "Of course they can't control the Titans without a specific Titan power, one that the Royal Family is in possession of, one that only they can use to it's full potential."

"Marley's military is weak when you compare it to other nations, the only reason they stay on top is because of the Titan powers they hold. The mission was to come here and obtain the power the Royal Family holds, be it by kidnapping them or eating them and taking the power for themselves."

"So that's how you got your power..." Hange trailed off. "Does that mean Eren also..."

"Ate someone? Most definitely." Lukas confirmed for her. "Couldn't tell you who it was, but my experience was horrific, the others had to eat someone they barely knew if even that, I had to eat my grandfather, It wasn't a very pleasant experience."

"So there are people living beyond the walls? A whole world that can be turned into Titans?" Erwin half asked half stated.

"I didn't get to that part yet." He cut him off before Erwin could assume anything else. "We are all part of a race of people, known as Eldians. Only our race has the ability to turn into Titans, we are looked down upon by the other "pure" races in the world. They hate us, most want us dead so there won't be any Titans left."

"I want you to imagine the top nobles here in the walls, and the way they look at the people in the underground." He tried to paint the picture for them. "Now make the divide about a million times worse, and add the fact that an Eldian could be shot for talking back to a Marleyan Officer."

"Is that why these Walls were built?" Hange wondered aloud. "To protect us from persecution and execution?"

"These Walls were built so the King at the time could fulfil his deluded fantasy of peace after all his predecessors had treated every other race like shit for two thousand years." Lukas shot back. "He had no grasp on reality, so while my family fought against him, he ran away here with as many people as he could, he wiped their memories and poof, the rest of humanity was dead, Titans roamed the earth and this was life."

"Until you four came along and killed a fifth of the humans living in the Walls." Levi stared flaming daggers at him. "You may not have contributed, but you are from the same place as them. You knew them, and you did nothing as a quarter of a million people died."

"Yeah, I did nothing, it wasn't right, but I didn't care, I did what I did to survive. I'm sure you've all had to make hard decisions for the greater good." He agreed with Levi surprisingly enough. "Doesn't make a difference though, who's to say my greater good isn't as valid as yours is."

"My perception on reality was different at the time, but I've been here for six years now." Lukas continued on with, his tongue had healed long ago, but they didn't need to know that. "I killed many people just to have a shot at the Founding Titan, pretty sure I encountered Eren's predecessor as well."

"And what happened?" Erwin pressed. "Did you..."

"No." He chuckled. "They both got away separately. Funny isn't it? She was barely conscious, I could've just killed everyone and eaten her, but I didn't."

"Why didn't you?" Levi asked. "You lack the conviction to do what was necessary at the time?"

He couldn't tell if Levi was mocking him or not. "At the time, I didn't know why I didn't, but now I know why... I felt sorry for the rest of them. So helpless without the Titan to protect them." He told them the truth. "It was the same for the Scouts, to me it was pathetic what you did, so helpless in your plight to save humanity, but then you got Eren and I thought it would change, but he's useless at this moment in time."

"So what? You want to train him? Get all buddy in your Titan forms?" Levi practically snarled at him, he was lucky Levi didn't have his weapons on him at the moment. "Calling us pathetic when you need the power of a monster to make yourself strong. Talk about hypocrisy."

"Eren would be a lot more useful if you let him train in his Titan form. He'd be less of a liability and a much better asset." He told them the harsh truth. "But no, you couldn't get permission from Premier Zackly to train inside the Walls. You could barely convince him to give you Eren in the first place, so why the fuck do you think he'd give Eren back to you when he gets summoned back to Mitras?"

"You're right." Erwin didn't concede that lightly. "We were lucky to get Eren, and chances are that he will be handed over to the MP's unless we prove his worth."

"Hey, Erwin. What's to stop him from eating Eren and making a run for it?" Levi aired his doubts. "I'm not exactly in top form right now, and everyone else is still recovering."

"Eren's power is just brute strength from what I can tell from my time seeing him in Trost. He's not what I want or need in the slightest." He responded with. "He is driven by an unbridled rage when in Titan form, someone needs to help him control himself. I can help him understand his powers better, can't do anything about the anger issues though."

"Doesn't change the fact that you could still decide to eat him and run." Hange pointed out. "We aren't going to just let you and Eren out to play, as exciting as that may be."

"Okay then, when my Titan generates, I don't reside in the nape." He told them. "My body is protected by a crystal cocoon, and there is a cable connecting both bodies together." He revealed to them in an attempt to bargain further. "Usually I would attach it to myself so that I can move more than twenty yards, but I could leave it so you can cut the cable if you aren't happy with me."

Hange was doing her utmost best to be serious and contain her excitement at learning that Titan Shifters were different in many differ ways, even the way they controlled their body.

"You never said which family was the Royal Family." Levi pointed out. "I assume it isn't the one currently sat on the throne?"

"No, Reiss is the name of the Royal Family." He told them. "Frieda Reiss is the one who holds the power."

"Alright then." Erwin nodded. "Now I'll ask again, what is it that you want."

"I want her power combined with mine inside of me." He shocked them all with his blunt answer. "My family holds an incredible amount of sway within Marley, I can keep them from getting their hands on it, and I know what you're thinking, but she'll never use it against them, the 145th King made a vow of pacifism. No King or Queen has used the power to control Titans since, you'll all die if she gets to keep her power, and that is the truth."