Lyla stared dreamily. Yesterday she was happy to be up and healthy, to see everybody. And the kiss with Captain Levi was… blissful. At that moment he looked so vulnerable, so human, so beautiful that Lyla just kissed him without thinking, and oh, how she enjoyed every moment of it. Lyla was grinning like an idiot until Connie waved a hand in front of her.

"Hello, Lyla, are you there?"

Lyla quickly snapped out from her daze and answered, "Yeah, why?"

"Jean and Sasha are back with the supplies."

"Oh."

Lyla was amazed when Jean again forgot to wipe his boots. However, before Lyla or Eren could clean it up, Levi had to come in. Levi's face scrunched in disgust.

"We'll discuss this later," said Levi. "For now, Hange is throwing a tantrum to do experiments."

At his words, everybody fastened their gears and went outside.

...


...

Lyla silently watched by her captain's side.

"Tsk, this is getting nowhere," Levi said as Eren failed to harden his skin again. Lyla nodded in agreement.

"But there's nothing we can really do sir,"

Levi let out a sigh, "That brat isn't doing quite well and now there's your unpredictable power as well,"

"Speaking of it. Did the Commander say anything about it? Or specifically what to do with me?"

"Erwin thinks it's best to keep it as a secret for now. And I—" Levi said.

"—trust his decisions," Lyla finished his sentence. Levi glanced at her. She looked far away and said as if in some kind of trance, "He's your bond. Of course you will."

"What?" Levi raised an eyebrow. Then the trance broke and Lyla's eyes widened. She laughed, "I said that and I practically don't know what that means. Captain, do you think I'm going mad?"

They wordlessly stared at each other. Eren's roar split the air as he transformed again. Levi kept staring at Lyla until Hange's wails were heard.

"Eren! Get up! Show me a sign if you're okay!"

Levi walked up to her and said lowly, "Oi Four-Eyes, something's off. He's not big as usual and he could barely stand up. Most importantly, his butt's sticking out."

"You're right. We should call the experiment off," Hange flew down as she cut out Eren. Lyla watched worriedly as she inspected Eren and that's when a sharp pain stabbed the back of her head. She slightly groaned as she held her head and an image of a small bottle of purple liquid flashed by.

"What's wrong?" Levi placed the back of his hand against her forehead. Lyla shook her head as the pain quickly disappeared as it came.

"Nothing, sir, it's just… I think this experiment might be useless like this,"

Hange and Levi both stared at her. Eren seemed to come around at that point as there was another groan. Levi looked back and no doubt Eren was sitting up.

"Looks like I failed again sir—" Eren stopped midsentence as blood trickled from his nose. Lyla sped to his side and held his nose.

"Goodness Eren!"

Levi 'tsked' as he pulled out a handkerchief. "You're pushing him too hard Four-Eyes, go easy."


After the experiment, Hange left and Lyla was in the kitchen peeling potatoes. Eren's training didn't go well and retaking Wall Maria now seemed like a faraway dream. She let out a long sigh. Eren was struggling and she had weird powers that even she couldn't control. If… If she was just able to control it, it would have changed a lot of things. Hell, she could just use her power to seal that hole up in Wall Maria.

But the fact was that she can't control it and frankly didn't even have the least clue how to. If she could've used this power properly she could've saved, and could save in the future, so many lives. Mr. Hannes might have lived. A sharp pain pierced through her right thumb. Lyla flinched and looked down. Ruby red was trickling down her thumb.

"Oh…" She had accidentally cut herself while peeling the potatoes. Lyla just stared at the cut as the blood kept trickling out. Krista, who was working with her in the kitchen, seemed to notice this.

"Lyla, you're bleeding."

"Yeah…" She gave no further reaction. Krista sighed and started wrapping Lyla's thumb with a bandage.

"You… changed," Lyla stated. This Krista was different from the Krista she knew. Krista looked up.

"Funny. Eren said the same thing when we first got here. I'm sorry, but the nice, cheery Krista who smiles to everyone is no longer here." Krista continued bandaging Lyla's thumb. Lyla smiled,

"I think it's good. Before you looked like a smiley angel. Now you look more human and real."

"Hm… again funny. Eren said something along those lines as well. Is it because you guys are siblings?"

Lyla laughed softly, "I don't know. Maybe,"

At that moment Eren came in. He flashed Lyla a smile and walked on. Lyla could see the faint bite marks he self-inflicted on his hand. Just then an idea sparked in Lyla's head. She grabbed the knife she was using to peel potatoes and sliced through her left palm. Blood spilled out and dripped to the floor. Krista's eyes widened.

"Lyla what are you doing?"

Lyla calmly looked at her hand as she folded and unfolded repeatedly, waiting for something to happen. But nothing happened. Nothing. Lyla clenched her fist, dripping more blood. Krista got up.

"I'm going to call Captain," she then scurried away.

A moment later Levi came into the kitchen and saw Lyla's bloodied hand.

"Lyla!" He immediately unclenched her fist as he knelt down beside her. "What were you thinking? I thought I told you to not do anything stupid." Lyla gave no answer as she just continued to stare at her hand, holding on to her knife tightly.

"You know what? That's not important. We need to get this cleaned up." Levi pried the knife from Lyla's hand and dragged her to his room. He sat her in a chair and started to stanch the blood. After that, he sanitized the cut. At this point, Lyla seemed to really realize what was happening.

"Owe…!" Lyla flinched slightly. Levi stopped straight away.

"Sorry, did it hurt?"

Lyla shook her head. Levi continued to dab at her cut gently. It stung a bit but nothing she couldn't handle. After wrapping her hand Levi gave a sigh. He crouched down in front of Lyla and looked up into her eyes.

"Now, could you tell me what were you thinking?"

Lyla raised her head and met the firm gaze of silver orbs. It was full of concern. She sighed,

"Eren controls his shifting by self-harm. So I thought it might work on me as well sir. But it turns out it's not the case…"

Levi nodded slowly. Lyla continued, "If I was able to control this ability, I could've saved so many lives. Commander Erwin might have not lost his arm. Mr. Hannes wouldn't have died…" Lyla's eyes started pooling with tears and soon they were sliding down her cheeks. Levi wrapped his arms around Lyla's head and pulled her into the crook of his neck as he shushed her.

"Sh… It's not your fault." Levi started drawing soothing circles on her back. Lyla sniffled as she nuzzled into his neck. After the kiss from yesterday, something about her Captain has changed. He never said anything about it, but something subtle has changed between them.

"Remember that time when the Female Titan ambushed us?" Levi asked in a tentative tone. Lyla nodded her head. How could she ever forget? That was the day she lost a person that was like her sister.

"Remember what you said to me that night?"

Lyla thought for a moment and nodded, "I told you that it wasn't your fault sir," her voice was muffled against Levi's neck. Levi kept drawing circles.

"That's right. The same thing goes for you too. Whatever happened out there, it's not your fault."

They stayed like that for a moment. Lyla breathed in Levi's scent of dried tea leaves as he kept stroking her back soothingly. Just then, with a knock, Hange came in.

"Levi can I- oh." Hange stopped in her tracks and a grin spread across her face. "Sorry to interrupt a sweet moment here,"

"What do you want you shitty four-eyes?" Levi said in an irritated tone. Lyla just blushed as she buried deeper into Levi's neck. Hange suddenly turned serious.

"I need both of you downstairs. Actually, everyone is waiting for you two."

She then left the room. Levi tilted his head. If Hange was that serious, it meant something shit happened. Lyla pulled away from Levi with a sigh.

"Feeling a bit better?" Levi asked. Lyla nodded her head.

"Good, now don't do anything foolish brat. Let's go down now. I don't like how Four-Eyes turned so serious," Levi stood up and extended a hand toward Lyla. She took hold of the hand and stood up as well.

When they got downstairs everybody was there and Hange was sitting on the left side of the head of the table. Levi sat at the head of the table and Lyla sat in the right of his seat. Levi looked at the now filled seat and couldn't stop a small smile which he effectively covered with his teacup.

"It sure did take long for just dressing a hand-cut," Krista silently mumbled.

Krista! Lyla silently wailed inside her. Ymir must have rubbed off on her. Mikasa glared at her Captain. Connie was about to ask something but Hange cleared her throat.

"Pastor Nick has been killed," she stated in a solemn manner. Everybody's eyes widened with shock.

"I was afraid that this might happen, so I even disguised him as an ordinary civilian but…" Hange let out a heavy sigh, "It's all my fault."

"When you say 'killed', I'm assuming he's killed by the Interior MP?" asked Levi. Hange nodded.

"I checked the MP's hand. It was grazed."

"So the Government is not just moving in the backgrounds now, huh. Do you think they found out that we're researching about them, Captain?" Lyla asked. Levi took a sip of his tea.

"Hange, how many of Pastor Nick's fingernails were peeled?"

"I'm not sure but all the ones I could see were peeled."

"A person who would tell anything would tell it when the first fingernail peels off. I always thought that he was a fool, but I guess he was a guy who follows his belief."

"In other words, the Government doesn't know how much we know about them," said Lyla.

"That'll be quite accurate," said Levi. The door suddenly opened and Nifa came in. She handed a letter to Levi.

"I went to Commander Erwin to tell him about Pastor Nick when he ordered me to deliver this to you, sir."

Levi silently read the letter and said,

"Pack your things. We're abandoning this place."

He passed the letter to Hange. Her face turned serious as she passed it on to Lyla. She read it and said icily, "Looks like we'll have some unpleasant visitors."