Darkness...Darkness is all Armin felt for a while. He didn't know where he was or how he got here, but all he felt was darkness. Armin remembers fighting the Titan before accidentally transforming, but that's about it. Now the blonde shifter is sitting inside his half-transformed titan, alone with no one around him.

'Armin!'

"Who's voice is that?" Armin said to himself.

'Armin. Wake Up!'

"That voice...It can't be.."

'Armin! Get Up. I know your stronger than this. You're the one who defeated me now get the hell up!"

GASP

Armin awoke, busting out of the nape of his Colossal Titan, summoning steam & smoke along the process. The blonde shifter fell backwards onto the ground below after abruptly busting out of his titan.

"That's gonna hurt" Armin moans, getting up from the ground. He assess the damaged his transformation had caused to see that the damage was significantly less than what he had originally thought it was. Most of the trees that were near his transformation had been melted down to stubs, the ground below him was glowing red with fire, & some of the animals that had been nearby were also dead as well.

"What happened to the Titan?" Armin turns around to see the Titan's skeleton, completely melted off from his transformation other than a few patches of skin on the man-eating beast's back and legs. Armin was very surprised to see the Titan in this condition considering he only did a partial transformation & didn't even utilize the power of the nuke, even though he doesn't know how to as of yet.

"Well at least the so called "monster" is dead. I should go tell Grisha about this" Armin begins to walk back towards the town, but he stops solid in his track when a familiar voice reaches his ears.

"GUYS COME OVER HERE QUICKLY!" the voice of Natsu shouts. Armin knows that he can't reveal his true powers just yet, so he runs around through a different part of the forest to avoid being seen by Natsu & the others.

Team Natsu POV

"Woah" Natsu exclaims. When he shouted for the others to arrive at the scene, he wasn't expecting to find two giant skeletons out in the forest.

"What happened here? Lucy asks in awe & mild fear

"It's safe to say that our so called monster was defeated" Gray states, walking up towards the skeleton who's skull is melted inside of what remained of a tree. Erza also walks forward examining the skeleton, before turning her attention to the other skeleton. She could already tell that the skeleton was recent due to the fact that there was still some flesh on it & because it is still smoking for whatever reason.

"It's safe to assume that the other skeleton is responsible for the monster's death" Erza states. "However, we don't know what caused the explosion along with the melted trees."

"Maybe it was the big guy?" Natsu says

"Don't be ridiculous flame-brain" Gray scoffs

"No, I think Natsu right for once, Gray"

"I am?" "He is?" The two mages say respectively. Erza turns around and nods towards the fire dragon slayer.

"Natsu is right. This beast was the one who caused the explosion" Erza then points to the nape of the beast. "There's still steam coming from the nape of this beast & the skeleton is also burning hot as well".

The fire dragon slayer then begins to sniff around the skeleton to see if he can get a scent of something, but what he wasn't expecting was a familiar scent to fill his nose.

"Guys..." Natsu says getting the attention of the rest of his team. "I picked up a scent from the skeleton"

"Good, then we can find out who-"

"No. No." Natsu says interrupting Lucy, who glares at the dragon slayer. "The scent that I picked up is a familiar one".

Natsu revelation piqued the interest of the other mages.

"Who's scent is it" Erza asks.

"...It's Armin's".

Armin's POV

After taking an alternate route as to not get spotted by the others, Armin ran back into the town. He noticed that some of the townsfolk were looking at him strangely, but he eventually realized it was because of the fact that his face still had his titan marks on it. He picked up his pace & made it towards Grisha's office where he explained everything that occurred. Grisha was more than relieved to hear that the Titan had been dealt with, but he wasn't happy about Armin accidentally transforming. After ending their conversation, Grisha told the shifter that his team had bought a hotel room for them after his secretary overheard them talking about it. He told Armin it was right down the street before going back to his work.

Once Armin left the office, he made a beeline directly for the hotel. He asked the front desk manager where their room was & was giving directions along with a key for the room. He quickly thanked the manager & made his way towards the room.

'Good, they haven't come back yet' Armin thought as he made his way into the room. The room was a complete mess with food all over the floor, bedsheets & pillows thrown around, & some of the chairs are knocked over.

"Did my transformation do all this?" Armin couldn't believe that his partial transformation did this much damage, then again when Bertolt did his partial transformation, he did almost knock all the scouts off the wall. Speaking of his transformation, Armin began to remember the voice that told him to wake up.

'That voice that I heard...Whose was it?. It sounded familiar but I don't know who it was...I am going to talk to Krueger about this whenever we return' Armin was taken out of his thoughts quickly when the hotel door opened, revealing Natsu, Erza & the others coming in.

"Hey guys" Armin says. The team doesn't respond to Armin in the slightest, which piques the shifter's curiosity. Everyone began to stare directly Armin with a blank stare unnerving the shifter until Erza decided to speak up.

"Armin, can we ask you something?" Erza asks, staring directly into Armin's blue eyes

"Of course" Armin nods. All of the other team members glance at each other before returning their eyes back to Armin.

"What were you doing in the forest outside the town?" Erza asks, crossing her arms & narrowing her eyes at Armin. The blonde's face slightly paled at their question before putting on a quick facade.

"What...what are you talking about?. I've been with Eren's dad the whole time" Armin lied, chuckling lightly to ease the tension in the room.

"We know that's not true" Gray replies, gaining the attention of the shifter Gray points his thumb in the direction of the fire dragon slayer. "Flame-breath over here smelled your scent all around the scene where the explosion happened. He also smelled your scent on one of the giant skeletons their as well".

Gray walks over to Armin & grabs him by his Survey Corps jacket.

"So do you wanna tell us why you were out there?" Gray asks again. Armin simply sat their feigning ignorance, before Erza smacked Gray in the head.

"Put him down Gray" Gray quickly puts down the shifter so that he wouldn't incur the wrath of the Requip mage any further. Lucy came forward to Armin as well.

"Please Armin just tell us why you were there" Lucy pleaded with the other blonde.

Armin shakes his head. "Guys, seriously, I was with Grisha the whole time. We can go ask him if you like".

"...Fine, but you're staying here until we can confirm your story." Erza said leaving no room for discussion. She & the others quickly leave the hotel room, leaving Armin to his thoughts.

'I'm sorry guys, I wish I could tell you the truth, but you're better off not knowing about my world or the horrors of it' Armin thought to himself. The shifter sat down on the leg of the bed & fell backwards with a big ploof. Taking on that Titan & transforming left Armin drained. He stared up at the ceiling for what seemed like seconds before drifting peacefully off to sleep, but if the shifter would've stayed up just a little while longer, he would have saw two cloaked individuals looking at him from outside his window. One of which looked awfully familiar before vanishing.

(A/N) To some of the reviews I've seen. Yes I know I messed up on the Colossal Titan's height lol. I just never went back & fixed it in my earlier chapters, but whenever I mention the Titan's height it will be 60 meters & not 60 feet. I hope you guys are enjoying S4 of AOT, I know I am especially since I've been both reading the manga & watching the show as well. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter & see you all later.