"You did what?" Annie asked in disbelief, as there was no way, no fucking way that Reiner had said what he just did.
Because doing that would have single handedly compromised the whole mission, it would have been absolutely disastrous and if he was telling the truth they should have been arrested, probably executed by now.
"What the fuck do you mean-and you just decided the best course of action was to sit on your ass for a week and say nothing about it!"
At this point Reiner looked like he was about to cry but Annie held zero sympathy.
"I didn't...I took care of it okay?" Reiner reasoned, "Its fine, so just drop it."
"What the fuck do you mean took care of it!?" Annie seethed, still at least somewhat conscious of her surroundings. It wouldn't do for someone to hear their yelling and head over to listen. "You were nothing but absolutely fucking useless during Trost so-"
"Annie stop." Bertholdt told her, placing an arm in front of her as she noticed how much closer she'd moved towards Reiner. "Getting into a fight now will do nothing. We need to figure out what happened and fix the issue swifty and calmly."
"Oh I'm sorry that I'm the only fucking one who is pissed about this-" she stopped as she actually took a good look at Bertholdt.
Even though those words had been said with a perfect layer of calm it did nothing to stop the rage from seeping into his expression. He was just as upset as she was over this.
"I told you, it doesn't matter. I took care of it." Reiner spat, backing away.
"Took care of it how?" Bertholdt questioned, moving forward so that Reiner had no chance of escape. "And don't you dare tell me that you did something as idoitc as striking a deal with this person because we both know that that won't work."
"Why does it even matter to you? I already told you what happened."
Bertholdt took a deep breath, small bits of steam escaping on his exhale as he clenched his hands. "It matters because you freely gave away both of our identities to someone and won't even fucking tell us who."
Annie grabbed his sleeve, pulling him away from Reiner who was now cowering under the combined weight of their wrath but still refusing to give up any details.
"Weren't you the one who said we had to do this calmly?" Annie reminded him, moving forward to take his place. She was still pissed but the momentary distraction had allowed her to clear her head.
They weren't going to get anywhere by intimidating him as all it was doing was making Reiner retreat further into his shell and there was still something odd about this situation.
According to what he said, in his slip of the tongue he hadn't mentioned Annie at all so regardless of what happened she shouldn't have any suspicion placed upon her, but he had given himself and Bertholdt away.
So shouldn't he have been scared?
Scared that at any moment whoever this person was would go to the higher ups and tell them of the scenario? Scared of being suddenly trapped with no way to shift? Scared of sabotaging the whole mission?
But he wasn't, nor had he been throughout the whole week. He hadn't been scared, he'd been depressed, refusing to do his normal activities and talk with the rest of the cadets.
It simply didn't make sense.
"What did you do?" Annie asked, walking closer to him until she had to crane her neck up in order to look him directly in the eye.
To an outsider this may not have looked very intimidating due to the height difference, but Annie knew how Reiner ticked, knew that the way to get him to talk was by blocking off all possible exits and forcing it out of him.
And that was exactly what she planned to do.
Rather than answering her, Reiner simply looked down and away, beginning to shake as he looked for any possible escape.
"Reiner." Annie said, and he flinched, still refusing to meet her eyes. "I'm not going to ask again. What did you do." But he still refused to answer her.
His silence did tell her something though, that whatever he did was what was making him act this way. It was what he was so ashamed of and upset over, rather than who he had said it to being the problem.
It also meant that he probably hadn't made a deal with whoever he'd talked to and was probably telling the truth when he said that he'd...taken care of it.
Which meant at this point finding out who had heard him was a bigger priority than what he had done to that person.
Annie moved to the side, looking up to catch Reiner's eyes once more and asked. "Who did you say it to." and watched as his face crumpled into a pathetic expression.
"I didn't-I didn't mean…" She watched as he fought with himself for a moment, finally deciding to back up and give him some space.
"Reiner." was all she said before he slid down the wall he had held his back to and pulled his knees up to his chest in what was admittedly a pretty sad looking position.
The three were quiet for a moment, simply waiting for one of them to break the silence, to state the obvious and be done with it, but none were willing to do so.
Just as Annie was about to speak up Reiner began to speak.
"Marco." he said, quiet enough that if they hadn't been listening to him they wouldn't have heard. "It was Marco who I was talking to."
Ah.
She thought back to two empty gaps within the 104th top ten cadets.
He really had taken care of it.
Judging by the day and night cycle, Eren had been out here for at least two weeks, a neat fifteen lines in the trunk next to him telling him so.
The issue was that he had no clue if that number was correct as while he had seen fifteen sunsets as the days wore on he noticed himself feeling more and more tired, waking up later and later in the day. Something that he hadn't thought much of at first but was now really beginning to concern him.
It was, or at least should still be, Spring moving into Summer, which meant the days should have been getting longer and longer but recently he'd been waking up directly before sunset and falling asleep the moment the sun went down, wasting the day away.
He really shouldn't call it sleeping though, as this was far different than any unconsciousness he had experienced in his normal human body.
For one Eren never had to attempt to fall asleep at all, really it was quite the opposite. At one moment he'd be staring out at the sun, watching it dip below the horizon as the assorted titans below him settled in for the night, and the next he'd be opening his eyes, having been asleep for almost the entire day.
The other odd thing was both a blessing and a curse as he rarely ever dreamed while in that state, each night passing in the blink of an eye. It wasn't necessarily bad, nor something he hadn't experienced before, as he'd had similar experiences after a particularly rough day of training, but it was certainly unsettling.
He didn't mind it though, which had less to do with the lack of dreams itself and more what they replaced.
He hadn't had to deal with a single nightmare the entire time he'd been outside of the Walls which was a welcome change, if not an odd one. Although not exactly fun, he'd gotten used to waking up at least twice a week drenched in sweat and a scream on the tip of his tongue, dragging himself over to Mikasa or Armin's bunk for some much needed TLC.
Of course they'd gotten better over time and were now a far cry from the ones he had had at the start of training-even though people looked at him with sympathy during that time he knew that they resented him for interrupting their much needed sleep-but that had been slow. Gradual.
For them to now just...stop was a bit unnerving, though he supposed he shouldn't complain.
After all, it wasn't like they were totally gone.
Although dreams and nightmares were no longer common these weird fucking visions were, or at least that was what he was calling them.
They certainly weren't dreams, they were far too vivid and realistic, a far cry to the normal nonsensical storylines he was used to, and if he was being honest they held far more resemblance to memories than anything else, but that was just impossible.
Yet he'd awoken thrice now, the unknown names of people he's never met on the tip of his tongue and distinct recollection of places he's never been.
It had started with his dream, vision, whatever, he'd had on the first night and while nothing had been as complex as that he'd continued to see the same faces, each in a different context every time.
He'd begun to recognize some patterns too.
Although he'd only experienced a total of four visions at this point every single one of them featured the same woman, blonde and with hair about the same length of Armin's and even though he couldn't remember or make out a single word he could tell that she meant well.
There was another blond person too, a kid whose face he could never quite make out, but he was far less prevalent in these sights, only appearing in about half of them and being far less important than whoever that woman was.
But the most baffling part of what he was seeing wasn't the people at all, no, that was almost normal. It was the places he was in, places far too different than anything he had ever seen.
Most of what he had seen seemed to be within the same or a similar city district with sprawling buildings and shops lining each corner and street, it almost looked like one of the merchant districts he had seen within Wall Maria.
Except everything was all wrong. Rather than the humble carts lining buildings with the occasional bakery on the side, everything seemed to be within these tall buildings, panels of glass larger than he'd ever seen allowing him to look inside.
There were these flashy signs, none of which he could read, and tall thin strips of metal holding up what looked to be an orb within a glass case for some reason. Hunks of metal reminiscent of carriages slowly rolled along the stone pavement as people in unfamiliar clothing made their way through the streets.
And yet despite everything being different, everything being odd and out of place, there was a distinct sense of familiarity, of belonging that never struck him as odd while within the vision but was jarring when it ended.
For whatever reason that place felt like home, felt the same way Shiganshina had way back when and it left Eren both comforted and confused. It was almost as if he'd been there before, no, he must have been there but he couldn't for the life of him think of where it would have been or who those people were.
The more he thought about it though the more his head hurt too, simply starting out as a dull ache and then exploding into a sharp pain if he wasn't careful, so overall he'd mostly let the whole situation be, figuring that it was likely some district within Wall Sina that he'd been taken too when he was younger.
(Except he subconsciously knew that that couldn't be it either. Eren had seen his own hands in these visions and they certainly weren't a child's. The point of view was all wrong as well.)
He knew that at some point he had been to almost all the districts within Sina, as having a father who was a certified medical genius had its own perks, but he really couldn't remember most of them, so it was certainly possible.
Eren signed, making another notch in his tree using a sharpened claw. Although time was a bit hard to tell out here, today he was probably only awake for around an hour before the horizon turned it's lovely shade of pink and the sun began to race towards it.
Even more odd was the waning group of titans beneath him, not even having reached an amount worth culling despite his last attack having been yesterday.
Scanning the area led him to find almost nothing as well, only one or two mindless titans stumbling aimlessly as their movements became more and more sluggish with the lack of sunlight.
It was both concerning and reliving, as something like that could only mean that his efforts were at least somewhat making a dent in the surrounding area titans, but Eren wasn't stupid enough to think that a simple lack of titans meant that he had truly begun to decrease their numbers.
If he wanted to continue to attack, if he wanted to continue to kill titans he'd have to move soon, leaving his small cover of the forest behind in search of fresh meat.
And unfortunately he knew exactly where to go in order to get it.
But that could wait until at least tomorrow, Eren thought as the sun dipped below the horizon, only leaving a small glow behind.
For now it was time to sleep.
It had only been about two weeks since the graduation ceremony but for Armin it felt as if it had been far longer.
Mikasa and others had been able to move in about a week ago but they had been almost immediately placed under the supervision of the Levi squad and as a result Armin rarely got to see them, only getting a chance during lunch and dinner hours.
Even then he'd only really gotten to briefly talk with them during half of the available lunch hours and even fewer dinners as Hanji and Moblit often ended up keeping him past those hours, forcing him to eat alone.
He didn't blame them though, as a majority of the time it was a genuine mistake brought on by too much involvement in experiments and a lack of time telling tools within the lab, so while it was frustrating it was also his own fault.
Even so, with only a few conversations he could see that Mikasa was getting much better, eating more and training hard in team drills with the other cadets, which he did somewhat miss, but seeing as how even Mikasa struggled with most drills and passed out directly after dinner he decided that he didn't miss them that much.
He was really starting to see why he'd been put on Hanji's squad rather than Captain Levi's though, even though he had originally assumed that's where he'd be placed, as while he for sure would have struggled with the training, for him it would certainly be doable.
After all rather than the individual strength that was focused on during cadet training the Levi squad seemed to focus almost exclusively on team strategies and formations, the only part of 3DMG training Armin had excelled in.
Although not what he would have originally assumed when first looking at the squad, in hindsight it made sense.
Unless you were Captain Levi himself (or maybe Mikasa) your chance of being able to take out a titan on your own was fairly low, and considering that most of the time titans don't line up to be attacked individually it made far more sense to use team maneuvers to not only keep the titans distracted but also increase the chance of a lucky hit or to keep everyone from being taken out individually.
It kind of reminded him of a strategy of fish he'd read about before within one of his books, a creation of something called a bait ball. It was a survival strategy used on predations much larger than them, with each fish banking on whatever was eating them getting full or distracted with the others before getting to them.
He'd thought it stupid at the time, after all it was just creating a feast for whatever was chasing them but now he realized that the strategy the fish used wasn't stupid at all.
It was simply incomplete.
The Survey Corps created what was basically a human bait ball but with one big difference. They could fight back.
And like a group of bees swarming a person, the more that there were the better chance that more would get out alive, as long as the group was adept at communication.
Which led to the extreme focus on teamwork as without it the Scouts wouldn't be any better than the fish strategy they seeked to improve upon.
But a big caveat was also that each individual did have to have strength on their own, even if it was nowhere near as much as in a group, and as much as Armin hated to admit it he probably wouldn't have jived well with the team.
He could figure out what maneuvers and how the team should be split far before anyone else could, however that was just about useless if he couldn't actually complete those maneuvers correctly.
Besides, he was proving to be a much better fit on Hanji's team than he ever could have hoped for.
Despite his original misgivings he found that the research was actually quite interesting, and dare he say, captivating. Despite the limited funding they had been able to either build or obtain basically any material that they needed to perform their experiments, and although Armin questioned the necessity of some, many of them gave him solid knowledge of what makes titans tick.
Using nothing but a couple of tents and a rudimentary stopwatch Hanji's squad had been able to create what was basically a sleeping chart for titans, organized by size and typing, which allowed for them to move more efficiently during the early hours of the day and to help them know when to set up camp.
And while the general topic of study and materials were basic, Armin couldn't help but marvel at not only the accuracy of the chart but at the standard it was held, as he'd caught Moblit reworking it multiple times after a titan woke up a few minutes earlier or later than planned.
He'd asked about it a couple times, feeling that while such accuracy was nice the chart really only had to be relatively accurate to allow for safe expedition planning, but when he brought it up Moblit had only shaken his head.
"Sometimes we don't have the luxury of sleeping in safe areas." He'd explained, an inkwell pen between his teeth as he opened a well worn bottle of ink. "In those cases if we're off by even a minute there could be heavy casualties." He dipped the pen into the ink, allowing it to get a good fill. "Think of it this way, for every minute that we are off the number of casualties doubles. It's why we always keep one or more backup watches on us."
Armin was left with both a great sense of respect for the Survey Corps as well as a great deal of fear, as while he'd previously known that most expeditions were around a week or so that information had never really sunk in.
The reality that these people had traveled outside the walls, trapping themselves in lost territory infested with titans just to make a bit of a difference in their numbers was as awe inspiring as it was insane.
But recently they'd been focused on something different, something that was going to be far more important for their upcoming mission. Figuring out the possible sleeping times for Rogue titan.
There were multiple factors at play that were making the whole experience difficult, including but not limited to the fact that this was a brand spanking new titan that had never been seen or tested on before, but they had been able to make quite a few generalizations.
Or rather, they had to as otherwise they wouldn't have been able to proceed with any of the information they had.
It was really making Armin start to feel bad for not holding any information that was truly useful, as while he'd really said all he could, he couldn't help but remember Hanji's disappointed face once they realized that no, he really didn't have any extra special titan info despite what the courts said.
"I know that you kept your mouth shut during the trial, probably out of necessity, but you know you can tell us everything now right?" Hanji had asked him out the blue one day, cornering him along with a couple titan flesh samples that had just been taken.
"I-what?"
"I mean, I really don't blame you for not saying anything then as it kind of was your freedom on the line," They drawled, producing a notebook and pencil out of seemingly nowhere, "but we're not going to judge you here! Whatever you say will only be used to further the mission. Nothing else, I promise."
Armin glanced back at the titan samples, which were quickly evaporating. "I-I don't really…."
He looked back up at their face but Hanji showed no signs of letting up.
"Oh come on, I could tell that you hadn't said everything at the trial!"
Yes, that may have been true but he really didn't know what to tell them. Pretty much everything he had lied about he had only done for the sake of making it look like he hadn't spent as much time around the titan as he actually had.
He wasn't really keeping any big bits of information to himself.
But Hanji simply continued to stare him down, teasing him with a, "C'mon, I promise I won't tell anyone else! Not even Erwin!"
"Ah, but I don't-"
"Cross my heart and hope to die!"
He placed his hands in front of him in a placating gesture. "I really do understand and don't think you will but um, I really don't know any more than I've already told you."
Hanji hummed at that, leaning in a bit closer and staring into his eyes before abruptly backing off.
"So you really weren't keeping anything from us, huh." They sighed as they placed their newly acquired notebook onto the table adjacent to them.
Armin squirmed in place. Ah, he really didn't want to disappoint them.
"I'm sorry, I just...any of the lying I did during the trial was just to make sure it couldn't get used against me later."
"LIke what?"
"Well I um, had actually heard about the Rogue titan far earlier than I said I did but I thought it was just a rumor at the time so I didn't bring it up."
Hanji huffed. "So it looks like Erwin was right then."
He gave them a questioning look, but Hanji simply waved their hand in a dismissive gesture.
"Even before the trial Erwin had said that most of the information you had was probably circumstantial at best and that despite what people said you likely had zero connection to Rogue."
Even before the...so the Commander would have known that there was no reason in fighting over him during the trial. Armin could see why he would have still wanted to win, as losing the Rogue titan would have been a major loss but why not scrub him from the trial at the start?
If Commander Erwin had known that he likely held no information why not simply drop him at the start of the trial? After all fighting for only the right to capture the Rogue titan would have made everything far more certain and less difficult.
He watched as Hanji rubbed the back of their neck in frustration and suddenly felt guilty.
"Sorry if I made it into your squad on false premises…" He apologized, clasping his hands together in a bowing gesture. "I'll do my best to make up for it."
Hanji simply laughed at him, pulling him upwards by the collar of his jacket. "False premises? Kid, I asked for you to be on my squad because according to everyone who knows you you're a certified genius. A real madman in the making."
They smiled at him, pointing over to his own discarded notebook which had previously been placed on the table. "And so far all you've done is prove those people right. Even without some crazy titan knowledge you've been a real help in all of our other experiments, so thanks for that."
Thanks…?
Armin felt himself flush as everything that Hanji had said sunk in. Certified genius? Walls, who the hell did they ask?
"No problem...I guess." he said but he honestly didn't know how to respond.
He really hadn't even done that much over the past few days either.
"Ahhhh, but I was really hoping that you did have some sort of secret titan controlling or communicating power y'know." Hanji complained, throwing their hands up into a wild gesture to let Armin know that they were joking. "It would've been kinda cool if you actually had commanded Rogue to lift that boulder."
"I mean, I guess." Armin chuckled, but that brought back a bit of a memory.
He actually had kind of tried to get it to do that, didn't he?
Although he was sure that he had been too far up for the titan to hear it was still something that had been bugging him for a while.
After all, it really was quite a coincidence that right after he proposed the plan the Rogue titan decided to get up to do so.
"I guess it wasn't meant to be though, huh." Hanji said to no one in particular, likely still mourning the concept of someone who could control titans.
"Hey...I realized that earlier I may not have been fully honest with you when I said I knew nothing."
"Huh?" Hanji had truly been caught off guard. Still chewing on a pen cap they asked, "What do you mean?"
"Well I, uh-" Fuck, Armin didn't know how to say it. After all he still wasn't even sure that any of this was his doing, "I was above the titan before it got up and made its move toward the boulder."
"Hm, yeah, you were still with that tall kid right?"
"Yes, Bertholdt."
"So what, you saw something strange happen? Ooooo did this Bertholdt kid control the titan?"
Armin cringed. "Well, no, I don't really think anyone controlled the titan? I just…"
"You what? Saw it do something odd?"
He took a deep breath. "I thought I was too far away for it to hear, no I'm almost certain it was, but I decided to propose attempting to get it to carry the boulder since it had shown that it wanted to help us earlier to Bertholdt but I knew it was a stupid plan and probably wouldn't work and it was just because I was desprate-"
"Woah, slow down." Hanji warned him, letting Armin realize that he had been holding his breath. "How far away were you when you said this?"
"Um, maybe about fifteen meters above the titan? Maybe fourty or so away?"
"And I'm assuming that the conversation you had with Bertholdt was fairly loud, right?"
Armin thought back to the chaos of Trost. Although he hadn't thought himself too loud at the time, he had basically been shouting hadn't he? "I think so."
"And just to be clear, the reports of the Rogue titan having those long pointed ears are correct, right?"
"Ah, yes." It had been one of the few things about the artist depictions that had been correct since the beginning.
"There's a good chance he could have heard you then."
What? Wait, no, there was no way.
"Larger and pointed ears tend to be seen on animals which rely on their sense of hearing. The shape allows for noise to be easily funneled to the eardrum, which allows them to hear from much farther away." Hanji explained, now very engrossed in the conversation. "It's likely that Rogue has them in order to be able to hunt down titans at a distance, however I really don't think it would be too much of a stretch to say it could have heard you at that distance."
"So you're saying that I may have actually ended up telling it what to do? That it could...understand me?"
Hanji shook their head, "Not necessarily. Of course this could all be a coincidence or Rogue could have simply picked up on your intent through your voice and gestures but-"
They whipped around, sifting through old documents and metal parts until they found what they were looking for. "It also means that we can't rule out the possibility of him understanding human speech."
They handed him the paper, surprisingly undamaged for all of the things that were on top of it and allowed him to get a good look, and now a whole lot of the comments Hanji had made previously were making sense.
When he'd first arrived back to the Survey Corps base he'd been ruthlessly quizzed on the titan's behavior, on everything he'd seen, directly heard about, or simply had the faintest rumor of, and while Armin had thought it a bit unnecessary at the time, he could now see exactly what that information had been going towards.
They had been building a case file of the titan's intelligence, documenting each and every possible intelligent behavior and grouping them into categories such as low, medium, and high intelligence.
In the low category rested actions that Armin could see an everyday dog knowing how to do, such as being able to find prey and distinguish a weak point on a target, and although basic, they were certainly not things a normal titan would be able to do.
Medium held far more actions, but also far more actions scratched out or with question marks next to it, such as tool use. Armin actually recognized some of the questioned actions as they had been rumors he'd heard while holed up within the Supply depot, but many were unfamiliar to him.
Then, in the high intelligence category sat a lone statement with a question next to it, stating 'Understands human speech'.
"But-how did you find out about what I said?" Armin asked. The only thing he could think of was that Bertholdt had told them first, but there was no way he would have, would he? "I didn't, I didn't tell anyone."
"Oh, I didn't know about your circumstances up until today." Hanji replied, "But you weren't the only one to say something to the Rogue titan and have it react oddly. According to some of the soldiers who were protecting him while he carried the boulder any time your name was mentioned its eyes would flit over to them."
"Then there's also the fact that it reacted negatively to you being threatened. I'm not sure if you saw, but when you were told that you'd be fired upon if you didn't move the Rogue titan apparently made a pretty nasty expression."
Armin...actually hadn't heard anything about that, although thinking back on it those small actions lent a lot more credence to the idea of him previously having had contact with the titan. That was probably why Commander Nile had been so focused on him possibly having any previous contact with titans in general.
"So, what? Do you think the Rogue titan truly can understand human speech?" He asked, racking his mind for any other clues towards the answer.
Hanji simply sighed, "I'm still not sure. In your scenario the idea of him being able to understand us is far more likely than the other two, however it still doesn't rule out the possibility of him simply being able to understand tone and general gestures."
"After all, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, and a titan that can understand human speech is nothing short of that." Their shoulder slumped as they snatched the document from out of his hands and placed it back on the table, probably to be buried again. "And to be honest, him being able to understand speech opens up more questions than it answers, making this whole situation more complicated."
Ah, Armin actually hadn't thought about the implications of that, as a titan being able to understand them implied that it had learned that from somewhere, which was a terrifying thought.
It also begged the question of who had taught him. Who had enough knowledge of both human language and that titan to even attempt to teach him? Were there more like him, maybe along with humans outside the walls?
He could almost feel the steam coming out of his ears as he went through all the possibilities, but there were really far too many with each thought being more absurd than the last. Yet up until two or so weeks ago he'd thought that a titan which attacks other titans was absurd.
That there could be nothing that so easily preys upon the beasts that terrorize their society.
"-but at this point there's really no use in speculating as we'll hopefully know after this expedition." Came Hanji's voice snapping him out of his thoughts, and Armin supposed that was true.
But it also led to far more questions about how the expedition itself would go. If the Rogue titan could understand human speech would he come with them willingly, or would he resist on principle.
Or would they simply be attempting to capture a wild animal, attempting to communicate to no avail.
So many questions with absolutely no answers.
Hanji must have noticed him continuing to think though as they simply slapped him on the back and asked, "What did I just say?"
Armin really didn't have an answer to that. "Um, well I just thought-"
"Stop worrying about it, it's going to be okay regardless of what we find. Although it may not look like it I'm sure Erwin has already accounted for every situation that's running through that little head of yours."
To be honest, Armin wasn't sure whether he was supposed to be reassured or insulted by the remark, but he supposed there really was no use in worrying about it now.
"For now all we have to do is sit and wait."
It had been eighteen days since the Fall of Trost, if Eren's tree marking system was to be believed, and while he certainly had planned to leave this forest area soon, it was looking more and more like he'd have to be leaving much earlier than he thought.
After the fifteenth day he had seen a grand total of four titans, none of which had come anywhere near his little shelter, and it was honestly starting to become a bit of a problem.
No titans meant he really had nothing to do, and furthermore meant he couldn't be sure that they weren't crowding somewhere else, say around a new breach in the Walls.
(Though he eventually ruled that possibility out as there had been a five year gap in between the first attack and the second, so for another one to happen so soon would have been insane)
So it was truly worrying that he was attracting exactly zero titans, as normal titans should have been flocking to him regardless of the circumstance.
He hadn't heard much from Annie about what an extended stay within his titan form would entail, nor how she'd even been able to get him out in the first place, but both things were starting to worry him.
Because he could only really think of one reason that the titans would begin to ignore him, and that would be if they saw him as another of their kind, just another mindless beast roaming the confines of Wall Maria.
In some ways that would be good, as it would be much simpler to take them out if they weren't attempting to attack back but it would also mean that he was likely on limited time.
If he had already begun to become just another mindless titan in their eyes there was no telling how long it could be before he actually became one of them, body warping until it was nothing but an amalgamation of almost human parts.
Of course, unlike the titans around him, he still had his free will and consciousness the last time he checked, so it certainly wasn't as if that had already happened or would happen instantaneously, but it didn't rule out the possibility either.
He'd never ended up asking Annie where the mindless titans came from, nor where she or he could have possibly obtained their powers now that he thought about it, so the idea that all of these mindless titans, these lumbering beasts, were once shifters like him kept hovering in the back of his mind.
But of course that would really only become an issue if he never was able to make it out of his titan, something he was already planning on solving soon by heading back to the Walls.
Although Annie had already made it clear that she had no plans on joining the Survey Corps, meaning that she would probably never exit the Walls and find him on her own, right now the best he could do would be to basically make a scene at the Walls, let it be known the he was there and was certainly still in titan form.
It was somewhat of a stretch to think that she would risk herself heading over the Walls just to help his dumb ass get out, but it was really the only option he had left.
He'd tried doing what Annie had told him over and over again but the only thing that had resulted in was a few nasty impacts involving the back of his head and a tree.
Which left him stuck.
Eren sighed, releasing steam out of his mouth in a quick jet as he jumped down from his spot in the tree. Normally he would have been a bit more careful about it, but even if he had gotten injured it would have healed up within a few minutes or so, and it wasn't like there were even any titans around, so why bother.
He still paused for a moment to listen though, feeling his ears flick back and forth as he focused on the sounds around him, searching for the telltale thudding of a titan wandering nearby.
Despite his efforts he heard nothing but the scuttling of rodents below him and the high pitched calls of birds above him, both pleasant sounds in their own right, but now was not the time to be enjoying them.
Right now the coast was clear and he certainly planned to make the best of it.
Eren hadn't been running for too long now, maybe forty minutes if he was judging his time correctly, but he was already starting to realize that staying in that forest had hurt him almost as much as it had helped.
For one, almost the second he left the cover of trees it felt as if someone had cleared a thick layer of fog from his head. He no longer felt any of the exhaustion that he had been feeling previously, and fuck did that feel good.
He'd known that his movements had started becoming sluggish for a while now but had simply paid it no mind, assuming that it was a result of staying within his titan form for so long.
Now he was really starting to rethink everything he had done up until now because as the wind whipped past his face and his feet sunk into the earth he felt fantastic.
It was probably mostly the adrenaline that was making him feel this way but Eren really didn't care, didn't care about where he was going or the possible consequences of going there. Didn't care about the stray titans that came to attack him as he ran.
To be honest, those were just a bonus, as the feeling of his teeth tearing through flesh was honestly quite a bit more pleasurable than it should have been, but revenge was sweet and Eren wasn't about to stop.
Even so, he hadn't been going out of his way to attack any of them, simply efficiently taking down the ones in his path before continuing to run forward, but he'd also noticed something fairly relieving.
While nowhere near as fast as him, there were plenty of titans who seemed to be drawn to him and gave chase for a small bit of time although none of them ever got close. Each fell further and further into the background until they totally disappeared altogether.
Running like this also allowed him to clear his head, as it was something he regularly decided to do when he was particularly frustrated with a training drill or exercise back at camp-and even though Jean had regularly made fun of him for it, Eren still found running to be the best way to get things off of his mind-and has was starting to realize that deciding to run to the Walls at this time was maybe not the best decision.
For one, when he had left the sun had already been setting but now it was starting to dip dangerously close to the horizon as its last lights shone out a warning call.
Although none of the titans around his size seemed to be affected by the lack of light yet he'd seen the smaller ones become slower and slower over time and at this point they weren't even attempting to attack him anymore, simply stumbling around blindly until they collapsed.
Which begged the question of exactly how much time he had before he was going to collapse as well, smack dab in the middle of titan territory without any shelter.
At this point, going back to the forest wasn't really an option as well, as there was a good chance that he'd be forced to sleep before he got back and to be honest the idea of losing this much progress was just really unappealing to him.
His mother may have raised a fool but she sure as hell didn't raise a quitter and there was no way he was going to give up now that he had set his mind to it.
Still, the idea of being alone in titan territory without any shelter was a bit frightening to be honest but Eren pushed that aside, convincing himself that if he really was in danger while he slept he'd wake up from the pain anyway.
Or at least that's what he hoped.
But as the run continued he became less and less sure of his goal, or rather if he'd even make it. The sun was continuing to lower and while he didn't feel the telltale tiredness that let him know he was running on fumes yet, he knew it was only a matter of time.
And although leaving during sunset may have not been the best idea energywise, the more he thought about it the more he realized that it would be better for when he actually made it to the Wall itself.
Due to the lack of titan activity during the night the Garrison often took apart many of the titan cannons for cleaning leaving only one or two up just in case of an emergency. Even so, he'd still likely be catching many of them off guard, meaning that not only would it be far less likely that he would be fired upon but it would be more likely that the story would spread, as a titan randomly showing up around this time was almost unheard of.
He was still cutting it close though, which was why he could have cried once he began to hear a faint hum of noise, human voices that he couldn't make out along with the sound of shifting metal as their heavy weaponry was adjusted.
While not in sight yet, that meant he was close, maybe a kilometer or so away at the maximum which was good as the sun had almost completely disappeared beneath the horizon.
He just hoped that this would be enough to get the word of his situation across.
The looming stone of Wall Rose was the first thing to come into view, it's height appearing far smaller than Eren remembered but he supposed that wasn't the Wall's fault. After all he didn't really know anyone else except maybe Annie who could undergo a fifteen meter growth spurt.
And although he couldn't see them yet he knew that the Garrison was still atop the Wall and not exactly expecting him, if their surprised shouts were anything to go by which was...good, it was good that he was a surprise.
What was not good was the immediate order to load the cannons, as while he still couldn't quite make out any of the weapons or soldiers manning them lining the Walls they could sure as hell see him.
His eyesight really was fucking awful in this form.
He still continued to run though, closing the distance between him and the Wall as fast as he dared so that he could at least see the cannons and know which ones they'd be firing from.
It seems that his timing had been a bit off or the Garrison had changed procedure though as rather than the two or three he expected to hear swiveling toward him he heard at least fifteen individual cannons be locked into position.
Ah, this had been a kind of bad idea, hadn't it?
He began to slow down, moving from a breakneck sprint into a light canter before stopping altogether, eyes not leaving the cannons in front of him. He still couldn't see the people or which ones were being lit, but by now he was close enough to vaguely make out orders and hear the popping of the fuses as they were lit.
In some ways it was helpful, as if he knew what cannons in which position were being lit he could avoid them much more easily, as he'd know before they were even being fired, but unfortunately Cannon position was not something he'd really ever paid attention to in class.
Armin and Mikasa always chided him on it, telling him that one day that information could be really important and that even if he didn't plan on joining the Garrison he should still learn it.
To which he always replied, "I mean, it's not like the Survey Corps ever uses those commands so what's the point of leaning them?"
It looks like this was the point.
Regardless, he could still somewhat hear which were beginning to be lit and loaded, and while it was far less of a warning in advance compared to knowing exactly which cannons will be fired and when, but he'd have to make do.
Now he just had to catch their attention.
...which he hadn't thought about how to do either.
Fuck, he really was an idoit wasn't he.
Eren heard a "Fire!" coming from his left, one of the few commands he knew with absolute certainty, and looked just in time in order to avoid a volley of cannon balls aimed directly for his head.
He leaned back on instinct, allowing the material to fly over him before hopping back and taking a look at the damage they had had caused upon landing and hoo boy, he really didn't want to get hit with that if the small craters were anything to judge by.
Another command came from his front this time, but now he was much more prepared.
He moved to his left, knowing that they would have to wait a bit in order to reload and began to jog forward again, just enough to distract them.
As he ran he racked his brain for what he could do to cause an uproar, to catch their attention enough that the news would make its way inside the Walls to the Military Police but he really couldn't think of any.
Eren knew there were hand signals used by the Garrison, as they had had to learn that as well during training, and even though he was sure that doing even one of them was sure to cause some talk, he couldn't for the life of him remember what they were.
There was the obvious one to fire, but to be honest he didn't think that a simple gesture like that would really do anything. He'd have to do something more bold, something that would really get them-
He yelped as a cannon ball made contact with his calf, embedding itself deeply into his muscle before finally stopping within his leg, and holy shit did that hurt.
It was also enough to distract him from running enough to the point where he tripped, completely wiping out onto the hard ground in front of him. Steam filled the area around him as his calf desperately attempted to heal the puncture but fuck, the piece of iron was still in there.
Forcing his ears to face forward he focused on any of the sounds that were coming from the Wall, but all he got were orders to reload and the faint sizzle of water upon the bell of the cannon.
Okay, he still had time. He could do this
Although he couldn't see the wound itself due to the steam he could certainly feel it, so using the pointed tips of his nails he delicately sliced through the freshly healed skin trying to keep everything as clean as possible.
He had to wiggle his fingers around a bit before he was able to get the ball in between his claws, a sensation that he really could have lived without having felt, but once he was able to he quickly ripped it out of his leg, throwing it back lightly in the direction of the Wall.
Which also probably hadn't been a great idea now that Eren thought about it since at the end of the day he still wanted these people to know he was on their side, even if it didn't necessarily look like it.
Luckily for him the ball made it nowhere near the Wall itself, only falling flat some meters before it hit.
Just in time too, as he heard the command to fire from all directions and cursed as he began to step back. It looked like they weren't trying to attack him like a normal titan anymore, they were simply trying to drive him away from the Wall.
Fuck, fuck, he still hadn't even done anything really of note except for dance around the cannonfire a bit and basically attack back-even if he didn't intend for it to be that way-and he was getting driven back.
He could also feel the effects that the lack of sunlight was having on his body now, as while it was nowhere near as intense as it had been within that forest, he was becoming sluggish. His body began to protest against his movements but he couldn't stop now.
Not yet.
They fired twice more, each time forcing him back a bit more as he couldn't run forward through the smoke and be sure that they didn't have more cannons waiting for him when it hit him.
Walls, it was so simple, something that he'd done almost all of his life. Something that would for sure show that he was on their side.
Listening closely, he waited for the smoke from the cannonfire to clear and looked directly up at the center of the cannon formation where he imagined that that Commander could be and in one smooth movement shoved his feet together, stood up as straight as possible, and threw a fist over his heart.
Eren stood like that for a moment, allowing for the full implications of what he was doing to sink in before pivoting on his foot and making his retreat.
After all, he may be on their side but he had no guarantee that they were on his.
As he began to leave he heard screams of disbelief erupt from the soldiers behind him and while he couldn't exactly make out what each one was saying he knew that his actions there today wouldn't be so quickly swept under the rug.
He just hoped it was enough.