Eren felt like he'd happened to be caught between a rock and a hard place. Literally. He tried to remember what happened before he lost consciousness. He was fighting Reiner and then…

He suddenly jolted upright, opening his eyes.

"Oh, Eren" he heard Reiner's voice "you're up."

The two traitors were sitting atop a tree. Eren took a second to take a look at his surroundings. The three of them seemed to be in a titan forest. High, on the upper branches of trees, where no titans could get them. He looked towards the duo. Both of them had maneuvering equipment.

'I don't have one, which means they must've taken it from me.'

That was the moment he realized, he had no arms. The steaming stumps were healing, yet it didn't seem that he would be ready for action any time soon. Normally, such sight would make him freak out in some way, but right now he had more important things to worry about.

"Why do I have no arms…?" He asked the two.

"Sorry" Reiner replied "I did that. I was in a hurry… I bit your neck while I was panicking, and I missed both of your arms in the process."

Eren glared at the strong boy.

"I see" he finally said "so I lost…"

Eren was watching their every move. What he needed, was a single moment of inattention.

'Would that even work?' He asked himself.

Indeed, the situation was a tough one. Eren wasn't sure if he could even transform right now. He'd just lost an exhausting fight, and most of his energy was currently being spent on healing.

'Wouldn't hurt to try' he thought as he neared one of his stumps towards his open mouth.

"Wait" Bertholdt suddenly exclaimed "Eren, stop!"

For some reason, as if he knew that it wouldn't work, Eren stopped in his tracks. He looked up towards his kidnappers.

"It's not quite as convenient as you think" Reiner said "your strength is limited. At the moment, you can only wait until your body heals itself."

Eren thought about what Reiner was saying. He had no reason to believe him, but they seemed to still be within the territory of wall Maria, and the fact they needed a rest in the titan forest meant that even the two traitors were tired. He decided to trust what Reiner was saying for now.

"What are you planning to do with me?" Eren asked the two.

"You're coming with us to our hometown" Reiner explained "don't give us any trouble, is what I would say, but I know very well you wouldn't listen."

"You know me so well…" Eren said staring at the duo with dead eyes.

The light-haired boy sighed at that.

"Just look down" he said.

Eren looked down and saw that many titans had gathered around them. A few abnormals which appeared relaxed, were in fact watching their every move. Some smaller titans were trying to reach them from below. There was also a fifteen-metre one, looking at them from behind a tree.

"This is a hive of titans" Reiner said "if we tried to kill each other here, we'd just be eaten once we grew weak. In other words, we have to stay here until night-time, when the titans can't move."

Situation was indeed complicated.

'Even Reiner was forced to rest here. It wouldn't be that hard to find an opening, but could I really transform properly? Even if I produced a weakened titan and managed to get away, the other titans would get me before I reached wall Rose.'

'There's no way they'd just wait until the night-time and let me fully heal. They will make their move while I'm still powerless. Nevertheless, the best option for now would be to stall for time. Maybe if we wait long enough, the survey corps would be able to get there before the sun sets?'

"Hey Bertholdt…" Eren started with an accusatory tone "…how did you feel when I told you, my story?"

"You must've realized that you were the one who kicked the stone which fell on my house…"

Bertholdt suddenly looked at him.

"I'm sorry Eren" he interjected "but you never actually told me this story."

Now it was Eren who was looking surprised.

"What…?"

"Bertholdt's right" Reiner cut in "you told us you were from Shiganshina, but you never told the actual story."

"What the hell are you two talking about?!" Eren shouted at them "had I never told you the story about my mother?!"

"Your mother?" Bertholdt asked him surprised "I thought Dina was your mother…"

"What?!" Eren cried out "I'm sure I…"

Then it suddenly came to him. He never actually told this story to anyone.

Why? Did he forget about his own mother? His mother that raised him, cared for him, and loved him? Did he lose all his inner rage from that loss, somewhere along the way?

"My mother…" Eren began with a shaky voice "…was eaten by titans, because one day a shard from the gate you kicked down, landed right on my house…"

"I'm sorry for you…" Bertholdt responded "but you did seem to be happy with Dina, so it wasn't all that bad for you, was it?"

There was silence in the air.

"…Wasn't all that bad…" Eren said gritting his teeth.

"YOU DON'T GET TO BE SORRY!" He shouted at the duo "NOT WHEN IT IS THE TWO OF YOU WHO TURNED THIS WORLD INTO A LIVING HELL!"

"DO YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?!" Reiner shouted back at him.

Eren closed his mouth at that. Seeing his words had the desired effect, Reiner continued.

"…You of all people should understand…" The light-haired boy slowly said "…you act like you're some kind of righteous judge, who does no wrong… but I heard that during your trial, an old case was brought up…"

Eren widened his eyes when he heard that.

"They said, that when you were young, you killed three robbers along with Mikasa…"

"How… does that even compare?" Eren asked "…it was self-defence…"

"Eren" Bertholdt started again "I'm deeply sorry for your loss… But let me ask you a question. Do you feel sorry for killing these robbers?"

"Why should I?!" Eren angrily asked "they were a menace to society… the people you two killed, were innocent… our situations are simply not the same..."

Bertholdt looked at him with pity in his eyes.

"Damn it!" Reiner suddenly cursed "Bertholdt! Look!"

The boy in question looked at the direction Reiner was pointing and opened his mouth. Eren turned around to see what exactly alarmed the duo so much.

He saw a familiar sight of flare traces in the distance.

The survey corps was here.