Disclaimer: I do not own SNK in any way, shape or form.

Smoking is bad and not endorsed. Eren can regenerate his lungs, you can't.

A/N at the end.


850

He had been sitting in the chair for at least the last hour. Erwin had asked him and Hanji to stay put until he came with Supreme Commander Zackly so he could see first-hand the 'incident.' Two days had passed since the event, still being fresh in Levi's mind.

It was just after the trial of the cadet who could turn into a Titan, Eren he thought, that was his name. It seemed that all had gone as expected. Levi was sent to beat the poor sod to a pulp in the middle of the courthouse, as a show that the Survey Corps was more than capable of keeping him on a leash as they used him for the retaking of Wall Maria. When Zackly gave them his approval for they keeping him, he was dragged off the courtroom, followed closely by Erwin, Hanji, Mike and himself, to the lower levels where they would wait for the boy to wake up so they could proceed accordingly.

"I have to admit that went more smoothly than anticipated" said Erwin. "I honestly believed Nile would protest a little more."

"Well, after Levi's display, there was little room to argue against our case" said Hanji carefully before turning to the still unconscious body. "You were a little too hard on him, don't you think?." Levi then simply crossed his arms.

"Tch, you said it yourself, he can regenerate from any injury. There was no point holding back."

"Has he started regenerating, by the way?" asked Erwin. Hanji started inspecting the unconscious. After some seconds, her face grew grim, then it happened.

"He doesn't have any pulse" she put her fingers just under his nose. "He's not breathing either!"

After that, everything was chaos. The boy was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead in the early hours of the next day. So far no one outside of them, the doctors, and now Zackly knew that the Rogue Titan had perished, but that wouldn't stay so for long.

Levi for his part was not taking the matter well. Damn it, I swore I was done killing humans he thought darkly. Shaking the thought away, he looked to see Erwin and Zackly arriving. They got to a carriage and moved to the hospital, where the boy's body was still waiting to get cremated.

"This is, an unexpected turn" commented Zackly as they rode through town.

"I still don't understand what happened" commented Hanji with distress. "He was supposed to regenerate from all injuries." Hanji was hoping to use the boy as the breakthrough for her experiments to understand the nature of titans. His death pulled that hope dead on her tracks. But aside from that, though she wouldn't admit it, it also put a few things on perspective about her methods. She had done nothing, of course. But then again, that might be the issue, there was this kid, no more than fifteen, being beaten into an inch of his life, eventually dying, and she just watched on, thinking of what experiments she would perform once it was her turn to play with him. She felt dirty.

Erwin on, his part, was taking it much better than his two subordinates. This wouldn't be the first time he had indirectly sentenced someone so young to death and would not be the last, being commander of the Survey Corps signified that was part of the job. For as cynical as it sounded. He was mostly disappointed in the loss of such an opportunity for the retaking of Wall Maria as the Rogue Titan was. At least we got the clue about the basement of his house in Shiganshina he thought to himself, as he bargained about the ordeal.

The group continued silently on its way to the hospital. Watching the city go on with its daily routine, Levi couldn't help but be irritated at how lightly the people of Royal Capital were going on about their days, as if there wasn't a titan invasion not too far from here. These people will be the last of humanity when Wall Rose falls, with that we'll definitely go extinct he thought with contempt. He never like being in Wall Sina, and right now his mood was not one to tolerate the disconnect these people had with the reality of the world they were caught in.

As they reached the hospital, they were greeted almost immediately by a doctor with a bewildered look on their faces. "We're so glad you're here" he said nervously. "You see, about half an hour ago, something, eh, interesting happened to Mr. Yeager."

"What do you mean?" asked Erwin. "What happened?"

"Mr. Yeager, well, he um, woke up."

This instantly threw everything else going on in the minds of the four officers out the window. Immediately they requested to see him, to which the doctor readily complied. They were taken to a room on the second floor of the building, being stop at the gate.

"I insist you to be gentle. He just woke up and, even though he didn't show any sign of internal damage, it's still too early to know for sure" the doctor said before leaving them.

As they entered, they were faced with a small, simple room. It consisted of one individual bed parallel to a small window, a table with a mirror opposite to the bed and one nightstand. But what preoccupied them was the young man in that room.

Indeed, there he was. Eren Yeager, alive, sitting on the bed with his back to the door. He was wearing a simple hospital gown. He turned around to look at them. His eyes were swollen and his lips were pressed together. Erwin and Zackly approached him slowly.

"Hello Eren, it's good to see you awake" said Erwin carefully. Eren nodded to him absently.

"Commander Erwin" he acknowledged. He turned to Zackly. "Supreme Commander, why are you here?" he asked, turning to eye all of them. Well fuck me thought Levi wide-eyed, he actually came back. There was no way this was an impostor.

"Well, you gave us quite a scare back there, you see" Zackly said taking the initiative. "After your trial, you were taken to the side, where we discovered you didn't heal from your wounds. You were actually declared dead yesterday."

"My trial?" Eren asked with a confused look on his face. When realization hit him, he gasped, muttering a few to himself the others couldn't hear. He looked up to them with an expression which was hard to pin for Levi. "Oh, I remember now." He was massaging his forehead.

"It seems that this whole debacle was just a misunderstanding" Zackly said to Erwin. "I assume you will proceed as if this didn't happen in the first place then. Or shall we have a new hearing?"

"There won't be no need for that" Erwin dismissed the offer. "He's already within our jurisdiction, we can take care of him."

"Very well then. Then I shall take my leave. I have many other affairs to look to." Zackly gave his goodbyes and good will wishes to Eren before departing. The four people remaining stood still, in silence, for some time. It was once again Erwin who broke the silence.

"Eren, how are you feeling?"

"Muscles are numb… And my eyesight is a bit funny."

"Really let me see" offered Hanji. Eren nodded and she got close. As she got close she became very suspicious as to what was going on. His left eye had the iris change colour from an emerald green to icy, almost pale blue. She knew that eyes tended to lose colour when blinded, but she suspected this might be something else. "Can you see with your left eye?" she asked to confirm her suspicions.

"I can, though it is a bit blurry, and a lot of colours are muted" he answered.

"Alright, then."

"What is it?" asked Erwin.

"He lost his vision partially on that eye." The other two looked on, digesting the news.

"How bad is it?" asked Levi, speaking for the first time. Having good vision was almost a requirement for a member of the Survey Corps. As the use of ODM gear required a sharp vision to avoid smashing oneself into a tree.

"It's too early to call" Hanji answered. "We would need a few tests to confirm the extent of the damage. And whether or not is it permanent."

"You think that injury might not heal" asked Erwin.

"He seems in almost perfect shape outside of this. There's no trace of any other injury. So this one might heal in time, though again, it's too early to call." The commander and captain listened, nodding the new information.

"I guess that'll have to do for the moment" Erwin said. "Now, as to other matters. Eren, do you remember that we would put you under captain Levi's supervision. But, considering what happened, we can also put you under the command of either Hanji or Mike" he explained. The young soldier listened before quickly shaking his head.

"There's no need for that. I'll go under captain Levi's squad" he said turning his now mismatched gaze to the commander's, there was a new, eerie feeling into his gaze, Erwin felt a chill run through his spine. Eren gave a small smile. "I'm sure the captain meant no harm."

After that, the conversation was spend mostly working on the details for Eren's move into Squad Levi. It was decided that he would spend a couple more days in the hospital so he could receive a few tests to ensure his recovery was good enough to enter service. And his subsequent furtive movement towards the old headquarters where Levi and his squad would be waiting for him.

When the three senior members left, Eren let out a long sigh. He got up from the bed and directed himself to the small mirror hanging opposite to the bed. He stood there, watching his reflection for a long time.

He could hardly believe what he was witnessing. His reflection was not that of a broken, patchy-bearded, exhausted man; but rather the clean, short-haired, youthful look he had back in his younger days. With the exception of his eye, he was effectively the same as then. He felt like weeping. It worked, he was indeed sent back to a better time.

So my trial has just happened he thought to himself, it means all of it is yet to happen. No one knew of Eldians, of Marleyans, of the origin of titans. No one, of course, except for himself and the other shifters. He muttered a curse, the time was one before of the 57th Expedition. Back before of the whole ordeal of the revelation of the basement, of Reiner and Berthold's betrayal, of Annie's self-imprisonment.

Shit, what I'm going to do with Annie? His hands clasped together while his head was overwhelmed with all the sudden new possibilities. Right now, Annie was yet to act as the Female Titan. Should he just kill her and prevent any of that? Wouldn't be the first time I kill her he thought darkly.

"These powers are horrific" Annie's voice echoed through his mind, the picture of her body kneeling on the ground where the burnt base of a cabin lied. "They should be destroyed, never to be seen again." Then it hit him, he was here because he had destroyed the nine shifters last time around, and the only reason he had done so was because Annie wished for their destruction. Therefore, Annie was in part responsible for being here, for his second opportunity. If things went well this time, it would mean she, in a matter of speaking, saved his life. Wasn't he then supposed to return the favor? To save her? Was that even possible? And how could he? It was all very frustrating!

His train of thought was stopped when he felt a sharp pain through his left hand. Looking down, he saw what appeared to be four claws coming out of his right one. All of a sudden, nothing was half as important as these sharp blades coming out of his fingers. He stared at them in fascination, pulling them from his other hand. When they emerged, he saw how the injuries starting to emit steam, as the healing started to take place. It took them about a couple of minutes for them to regenerate completely, much longer than he was used to.

That's right he remembered, the Tezcatlipoca, I think that's what it called itself, explained that I'd be getting a new power, of course it's going to have some quirks. A slower regeneration time was not what he would call a good quirk, but these claws coming out in his human body could certainly prove helpful. Eren wondered the extent of this new ability, and what other ones he had. Deciding that he would have to figure it out for himself. It does cut through flesh and bone easily in any case he assured himself.

He looked at the claws, focusing on them to retract. To his slight surprise, they did retract back, hiding in his flesh, he clenched his hand into a fist with the ease it was supposed to. To determine if his suspicion was true, he thought about them coming out, indeed they did. The small traces of a smirk appeared on his face. Having this power activating on command made it even more promising than it already was.

Satisfied for now, Eren went back to the bed, pinching his arm along the way, to finish convincing himself that this was not a lucid dream while he was bleeding out. As he laid, trying to rest some more, his thoughts reverted back to the general strangeness of this situation he managed to get himself caught into. Whilst he was now mostly sure this was indeed real, what bothered him mostly was his worthiness to this seeming gift. Thoughts and doubts that lingered well after he fell into the world of the unconscious.


He was woken up by the sound of a gunshot. Looking up he saw the soldier guarding his cell lying on the floor, with blood pouring out of his forehead. A tall man with a long face came into view, taking the keys of the cell and opening it.

"What is happening?" he asked to the man.

"We convinced the Alpenians to join us in our breakout" the man answered.

"So that's all the noise's about" he mumbled. The man then took a seat next to him on his bed.

"There are some old tunnels in the abandoned wing of the prison, that's how we're getting out. But there's a hundred meters of open ground between our wing and that. We'll be open to them, especially with the Armored Titan nearby" the man said. "We need you."

He looked down. "What's the point?" He looked up to see that the man was staring at him.

"I never thought I'd see you lying down with your thumb in your ass" the man said. "Look, everyone knows that this whole thing's been difficult for you, but right now you have to choose. Are you going to help me and Connie and get a chance at escaping, or stay here playing with that scarf until the Marleayns find someone to eat you."

He looked up to see the man. It was strange just how they had gone from bickering children, to true comrades, to know the man being his leader.


A couple of weeks have passed since he had woken up, now Eren was almost certain that this indeed was not a lucid dream.

Just about everything had gone just as it had the first time around. He was taken to the old headquarters of the Scouts, where he was inducted into Squad Levi. He met and acquainted himself with all four of its members, once again.

He felt really strange meeting them once again. Getting to see them introduce themselves all over again. Eld, Gunther, Oluo and Petra didn't live long enough last time; but Eren did get enough time with them to get acquainted with each one and their own quirks. Eld's sarcastic edge and his quasi-parental role in the squad made him quickly endearing. Gunther was still a professional through and through, always level-headed and goal-oriented, he was indeed an ideal soldier. Oluo remained as the self-confident and boasting comic relief of the group. And of course there was Petra and her never-ending faith in Levi. It all seemed to Eren both nostalgic and disturbing seeing them once again after their demise, a sensation he knew he would have to get used to.

The experiments the Survey Corps ran on him were essentially the same. Through those experiments he had found out that his new titan had also a quite useful perk, that of being able to turn at will. It was slightly relieving that no longer he would have to hurt himself whilst having a clear goal to be able to shift, but simply activating it. That small difference could make the difference in a battle.

Speaking of his new power. Its form was rather interesting. For starters, it was 16 meters tall. In appearance it held a slightly similar form to the Attack Titan. It had several armor-like hardened parts located in its elbows, shoulders, knees, shins and knuckles, with the ones of the knees and elbows ending in spikes. The blades he witnessed earlier coming out of his fingers were sticking out of his forearm when retracted, the skin of that hand was absent, making it look bright red in comparison with the rest of the body. However, the head was almost the biggest departure, with a mask made out of the hardened material covering the whole of the face and the top of the head, and a fabric beneath it covering the whole of the face and neck. The look of the mask was that of a face without mouth, save for the eyes, horns coming out of the forehead, right before the hairline, a thin hooked nose, and a sharp triangular chin. He also noted that its form always seemed to be panting, always inhaling and exhaling loudly.

Its regeneration, as noted earlier, was indeed slower. And he could only shift into it once per day. But, as a positive, it was significantly faster and more resilient than his previous Attack Titan.

Throughout his stay in the old HQ, Eren noted a slightly softer approach by both Levi and Hanji. It wasn't anything overtly obvious, but rather a more careful choice of words whenever they talked to him. He supposed that was to be expected after they killed him.

Speaking of that, Eren still hadn't decided on whether or not to tell them about his condition. Honestly, he hoped he never would. Of course, if he wanted to change things for the better, a crucial step would be to share his knowledge with the others, particularly with Erwin (having his planning and leading abilities would be a significant asset to everything regarding Marley); but he was still hesitant to share so, at least for the time being.

And the complete truth would be reserved for Mikasa and Armin, and them exclusively, that he decided, it was not up for debate.

A sense of excitement and foreboding came to him the day he was informed the position Levi Squad would have during the expedition. He remembered this day, today he would meet with his friends again. It didn't feel real. It shouldn't feel real.

He was done cleaning the stables, a task that he had forgotten just how much he hated, and walked outside whilst looking for a small pack inside of his jacket. As he approached the door where Oluo was keeping watch over him, he found what he was looking for. Putting the small, narrow roll of paper in his lips he turned to face him.

"Got some fire?" asked Eren. Oluo looked in his jacket, from which he pulled a small box of matches. Giving it to the younger man.

It had been a little difficult convincing Levi to allow him to get a bag of tobacco and a roll of paper, mostly because cigarettes were yet to be introduced in Paradis, and so, it was difficult to explain why he would want those two seeming random items. Nevertheless, he relented. As soon as he got them, Eren spent a good deal of that night with a small lamp in the basement, making the individual cigarettes.

Eren had picked up smoking in Marley shortly after escaping from the prison where and the rest survivors of the scouts were taken. Wandering alone through the endless farmland of central Marley, jumping from small town to small town. He would ask for rides occasionally, and in one of those instances, the driver, a young man who couldn't be over his late teens, gave him what was left of his pack of cigarettes and a lighter to "keep him warm at night." He had started smoking regularly soon thereafter.

And him running with the outlaws of the Meliora, all of them chain smokers themselves, and his time as a hitman in Phrygia didn't help in his eventual dependency on the substance.

As he took the first drag, Eren started thinking of what to say to them, as he knew they should be walking through shortly.

"Aren't you a little young to be smoking?" asked Oluo disinterested in between sips of his mug.

"Aren't you a little old to be emulating your hero?" retorted Eren in the same tone. Oluo almost instantly spat his drink and turned to him, already his cheeks turning red in frustration.

"Why you little— "

"The new recruits have already arrived, right?" Eren shifted topic, to defuse the situation.

"Um, yeah. They arrived while we're on patrol earlier" he answered. Nodding in acknowledgement, Eren continued taking drags out of his cigarette.

"Have you taken a look at them?"

"No, they've spend the whole time inside the building learning about the formation and the plan for the expedition."

The two stood there for a few minutes, nothing much happening. As Eren turned his sight to the main building of the fort, he noticed what appeared to be three small lights emanating from the stone. It was a soft light, blue in colour. Rubbing his eyes, he looked again. Indeed, there were three faint lights, slowly descending from the tower. He looked on for a few seconds, wondering what was happening, following the lights as they came down to the base of the building and moved to the door. Once they exited the door, everything came into place for Eren as he realized what was the source of those lights.

Reiner, Berthold and Ymir.

Eren covered his left eye to confirm his suspicion. Indeed, he couldn't see the auras around them anymore. So, I can know who are shifters by just looking at them he thought while digesting the new information. Not really very useful, but could help keep tabs on them if they're near.

Putting out his cigarette, Eren turned to Oluo to ask for permission to go talk to his friends, as last time around the older scout allowed him.

As he approached the group, Eren braced himself for the worst. For years, the very faces he saw approaching would haunt him every time his closed. Getting to a point that Eren would spend several days going with only a couple of hours of restless sleep. Their betrayals, their suffering, and of course their deaths were a weight he had carried, and continues to carry.

Seeing them like this, before Reiner and Berthold's betrayal, before the discovery of Marley, before everything; to see them in such a relative innocence was something unnatural for Eren, and to himself unworthy of presence it. He pushed his doubts on the back for now.

"Guys!" he called. Almost immediately, a voice he knew only too well answered.

"Eren" came Mikasa, cutting through the group as she approached him, followed closely by Armin.

He felt like tearing up. After so long. After so many nights with their corpses chasing him. Mikasa and Armin were there, alive, coming to receive him. They're okay he thought longingly, they're alive.

Before he knew, Mikasa and Armin were caught in his arms. Both had a look of surprise in their faces at being embraced, as was expected, Eren at this point in their live was not one to throw hugs around.

"Sorry" he said apologetically while still keeping both of them in his embrace. "It just, it feels like it's been forever since I last saw you." His two friends looked at him still in shock for a few seconds before returning the hug.

The others looking from the back contemplated the scene with certain sense of strangeness. They had known since the beginning that those three were inseparable, but sometimes from how they behaved, especially Eren, it was easy to forget. So seeing them like this felt intimate, and they were out of place.

After breaking the hug, Mikasa took Eren's hands into hers, with a distressed look on her face. "Eren, have they done something terrible to you? Like dissecting every bit of your body or causing mental torment? And what happened to your eye?"

Oh, Mikasa, you always worrying about me Eren thought as a small smile came on his lips. "It's okay, seriously" he said. "And the eye, well, I woke up like that, no one knows why." He had to supress a chuckle when Mikasa still went on a tangent about 'the midget' crossing the line. Placing his hands on her shoulders, locking each gazes on the other. "You keep worrying and you'll be filled with wrinkles before you know."

He couldn't keep his chuckle supressed anymore when he saw Mikasa's eyes widened, her cheeks quickly turning red. I knew I'd get something from listening to Cliff and Carmen's banter. Turning to the other behind them watching on. Chatting a bit with them was alleviating in all kinds. He just wished he could be honest, but now was not the time.

He stopped when he saw Jean approaching. Eren had spent more time than he cared to count reflecting on just how much his relationship with Jean changed with the years. Going from a childish rivalry with constant bickering, to a trusting comradeship, to the distrust that naturally followed Eren's betrayal, the sympathy Jean expressed to him while in jail, ending with the man from Trost staying behind during the breakout.

They were the only two survivors of the attempt, Connie falling as they entered the tunnels, they were being chased down the subterranean path that laid beneath the jail. Eren and Jean took off running until they found the small boat that was left behind by the last fugitives whom they took the plan from. As they realised that it was made too hastily, it would sink of both men got on it. Before Eren realized, Jean had pushed him on the boat, kicking it off the coast. "Keep on living, you bastard! For her sake if not anything else!" he had said before taking position and started firing on their pursuers. Caught in the current, Eren could only watch helplessly as eventually Jean was shot and his position overran.

How could relationships change so drastically, from bickering and being at each other's neck to being willing to sacrifice oneself for the other. Eren had a strong respect for Jean for some time by that point, but after that, that respect had turned into an admiration and a gratefulness that he was glad he could now repay.

"Hey Jean" he said. "I see you joined the scouts."

"Marco is dead" was his only response. Shit, I completely forgot about Marco. It was cruel to admit, but with all that had happened, Eren had forgotten about him, even to the point that he couldn't remember Marco's face. So much time had passed, so much things had happened. Eren remembered that Marco and Jean were close during training, and that it was his death that lead Jean into the scouts in the first place. He also remembered why Marco died. Giving a short glance to Reiner and Berthold, Eren saw the former remain stoic, but the latter was looking away, feeling uncomfortable. He turned back to Jean.

"He was the better one of us, wasn't he?" he said. Jean was a bit taken aback, probably by the softness of his words, or what he said. Still he quickly recovered.

"Yeah, yeah he truly was."

The rest of the day continued on generally as he remembered. The recruits were given their new uniforms, making them official members of the Survey Corps, once again. Jean confront him for the incident of the Attack Titan going berserk in Trost, an old memory to Eren, but a fresh one to everyone else, also a fresh scar for Mikasa. Aside from that, it was generally pleasant affair, like the calm before the storm. And yet, the reminder of Marco and Trost activated old memories for Eren, memories he had been hiding from for a long time. It also awakened a sense of self-doubt, one that didn't really exist in him before, at least not to this extent. This was his second time going through this, and yet he felt like he was already failing.


And that would be it for the first proper chapter of this story. Thank you to all the favs and follows it's been getting so far, I really appreciate it.

This chapter is mostly setting up what would be the direction of the story for the nearby future, so it's mostly mellow.

Also, I put Eren as a smoker for no real reason, the outside world in SNK seems to be in a time period similar to the early-mid 20th century, in which smoking was basically universal, and it considering that in canon he is a drinker, it would be natural for him to pick up smoking.

And that would be it, next chapter will be releasing next Friday. Until then!