At first it was just a glimmer at the corner of Eren's vision, a reflective glint that encouraged him to turn. The turn itself was purely instinctual—the animal drawn in by something shiny—and thus it took Eren's mind a moment to kick into gear and process what he was seeing: an actual animal, flying, playing with—no, chased by something else. A lot of somethings.

Eren's breath halted. "Corporal," he said and sprinted for the railing.

Even leaning over as far as he dared Eren's view was still fuzzy. It was definitely Corporal though, his dragon's body twisting—writhing—in pain. And no wonder, nearly a hundred white creatures were swarming him, turning every time Corporal turned, tearing upwards every time he tried to move down. What could possibly move with that kind of agility? Birds? Eren hardly cared because every few seconds there was a flash along Corporal's body that was different from the flash of his scales under the sun. Blood. Eren's cheek throbbed in sympathy while his mouth dried with fear. He clutched the railing with white knuckles and dagger-like nails.

"Fight them off!" Eren screamed. "C'mon!"

The words were torn from him, they flew through the air… and Corporal heard. He turned with an intent he hadn't previously possessed and shot for Eren.

The swarm followed.

For his part Eren stood frozen, his joints locked as a dragon and a hundred sharp things came barreling his way. An hour from then, if anyone had bothered to ask, Eren would have claimed that yes, his actions on the porch had been intentional. It was a plan and a pretty damn good one at that.

The truth, however, was that Eren ran for the door purely out of fear. Shutting the screen was merely another instinct, the clearest way to get a safety net between him and the mass of danger heading his way. Eren never thought about abandoning Corporal, that was literally the opposite of what he wanted… but it was an abandonment nevertheless, an unintentional abandonment because Eren hadn't thought at all. Such was a downside of being human and Eren had never felt more human than when a bloody fucking dragon was charging his way.

Thus it was really only luck, or maybe evidence of Corporal's skill, that got him through the last foot of door before Eren slammed it shut. A few of the white creatures got through too and Eren shrieked, stumbled away, thinking that he was next; beaks or claws were heading his way. He wasn't fast enough though. A sting did flash across his hand and again Eren cried out… only to realize a second later that it didn't actually hurt.

Eren held up his hand and blinked at it. The thinnest strip of red marred the pad of his thumb.

"A paper-cut?" He said. Eren popped the digit into his mouth. "What the hell?" He growled around it. "You're all just paper!"

Indeed the creatures, now denied the power of wind currents, were fluttering pathetically to the ground. The ones that had plastered themselves to the door were also peeling away. Eren caught one that was wafting innocently past his shoulder. They weren't birds at all but crude human-esque cutouts. Some had limbs twice as thick as they should have been or heads that bent inwards like dented grapes. A few even had jagged edges like the paper had been deliberately torn away and it was all so unnatural looking, spin-tingling familiar, that when Eren realized what they were meant to resemble he dropped the paper like it was something unthinkingly hot. It had, in a manner, burned him.

The cutouts looked like white, faceless titans.

A growl sounded behind Eren, making him jump. Corporal was there. He pressed up against the wall, baring his fangs and scoring the floor with his claws. Suddenly his tail lashed out and Eren screamed.

It arched through the room like a viper and it landed, just a hair's breadth, from Eren's left leg. The resulting crash was forceful enough to rattle the windows behind him; it was loud enough that Eren went momentarily deaf. It was in that bubble of ringing silence that he had the thought, brief and horrifying, that Corporal had gone completely mad. Or he'd turned. Or he'd undergone something so awful during his time spent away that now he inexplicitly wanted nothing more than to kill the human standing before him. Because that's what it felt like—that Corporal's tail had missed him by the barest inch.

It was only when the noise around him returned and Eren heard a swishing (illogically sounding pained) that he reconsidered those assumptions. It was a paper titan making those noises, its crushed body moving weakly in the crater Corporal's tail had created. Eren let out a relieved, almost-sob as the limb was pulled away.

"Yo-o-ou w-weren't aiming for me, y-yeah? Ha. Corporal. D-don't go scaring me like that, you dick."

Eren tried to muster up a grin for his friend but Corporal still wasn't looking very friendly. His entire body was coiled tight like a spring, that tail continually whipping back and forth. He was bleeding too—a lot; far more than what those paper things could have caused. Thick pools of red sunk out from between his teeth while shallow cuts on his sides oozed in a similar manner. Red also covered Corporal's scales in long streaks, no doubt smeared during his battle. It made the entire situation look more dire than it actually was.

At least, that's what Eren told himself.

"You're bleeding," he said, maybe unnecessarily. But Corporal looked as if he could use simple, soothing sentences right now. Tentatively, Eren took a step forward. "Just—let me look, okay?"

Another step. Corporal growled.

"Don't be stupid!" Eren raised his voice so he could hide the waver in it. "You… you hate being dirty, right? Well you're filthy now so, so… So just let me fix you and then we'll clean you up and it'll all be fine, okay? It's going to be fine… just fine…" Eren continued to creep forward. He continued his mantra too because for each inch he gained Corporal's eyes went a little wider, until there was too much white, and then the white disappeared completely as his pupils blew. Eren still went closer, despite every one of those instincts telling him to run.

"Just—"

That's as far as he got that time. Corporal lunged.

Eren ducked but by that time Corporal was already well above his head. He crashed through the window, easy as tissue paper, looking as if he was tripping over himself through the air. Eren ignored the glass raining down on his head as well as the blood that followed it, clearly Corporal's but dotting his clothes in a manner too reminiscent of his dream. He swallowed bile and scrambled to his knees.

Corporal was already out in the sky when Eren made it to the railing. He shot upwards… then backwards, smacking into the bathhouse with a force that made Eren cringe. He strained his neck to keep Corporal in his sights even as he continued to seize high above him.

"Would you stop being such a bastard about this?" Eren screamed. "I'm trying to help you, you fuck. Come back!"

But Corporal either didn't hear or didn't care. He disappeared into a top tier window and the last thing Eren saw was a flick of that tail, raining another handful of bloody droplets.

"If you die I'm gonna kill you!" Eren shrieked before he took off running.

First to the right, then to the left, back to the right. There were no ladders on this side of the bathhouse, nothing that would give Eren a direct route to that window. So he went straight back the way he'd come, cursing all the while.

The elevator was too slow. The mobs of spirits were too fucking slow. When a group of gaggling cats insisted on taking up the whole damn hallway Eren unapologetically seized one by her tail. She yowled—as did the rest of them, finally clearing out of the way when they caught sight of his bloodied shirt.

Eren made it to the main floor in record time. He was lucky he hadn't broken his neck but there was the reward: the tiny elevator down the hall that lead directly to Irwin's office. Because that's where Corporal had gone; only one person here lived at the top but right then Eren hardly cared. His palms were slick and his heart was thrumming, the cut on his cheek flared with heat. This was a need. Find Corporal, help him, even if the idiot didn't want it. Well too damn bad. Eren had a straight shot to his friend and he had every intention of taking it.

That alone should have tipped him off, really. Since when did Eren ever have a straight shot at anything?

"You there, move!"

Eren blinked, clearing his vision of the elevator, still so far off—taunting him. Like smog clearing the rest of the hallway slowly came into view and Eren found nearly a hundred spirits staring him down.

"Uh…"

Well then.

They were lined up on either side of him, two rows each; the first kneeling with platters of food extended reverently, the second standing with bouquets of potent-smelling flowers. It looked some sort of parade of worship and to Eren it felt like a firing squad. The previous, celebratory chanting finally caught up with his ears as the hallway went dead silent. That is, except for one voice:

"I said move, human! You're in the way of our guest."

Eren stumbled as a toad shoved him backwards. He pivoted to regain his balance, fully intending to sock the toad because really, couldn't he see that he was in Eren's way? Then he caught sight of this "guest" and wow, how had Eren missed that?

Then the guest got closer and Eren's jaw dropped.

It was Armin… a much larger version of Armin. He wasn't anywhere near Dot's size but he'd definitely been eating well since Eren had last seen him. His body had actual substance to it now… and a lot of it. As Armin moved his steps reverberated up the walls and then he came up from behind the toad who was still—okay then—spitting obscenities in Eren's face. Armin neatly swatted him aside, which resulted in quite the tumble. He squatted down to Eren's level. The hush that descended on the spirits was near tangible.

"You got fat," Eren blurted and then immediately slapped a hand over his mouth.

Armin just grinned. His blond tufts of hair seemed to rise with pleasure and Eren tentatively smiled back.

"Sorry." He gasped a little, still getting used to his friend's new size. "I didn't mean that. I mean I did mean it, but it's okay. You look… good."

And he did. In that Armin looked happy, far happier than when he and Eren had last met up. The memory sent a pang through him and a flush flooded Eren's cheeks. Screaming at Armin, sending him away…

"Sorry," Eren said again, this time for an entirely different reason. He watched as the smiled dropped from Armin's face. His markings began to droop and Eren's blood ran cold, thinking that Armin was remembering things too and hell, he probably didn't like what was in his mind's eye. Eren was quite prepared to back off before he got a punch himself.

But then a hand snuck out and gently touched the drying blood on Eren's shirt. It was pretty obviously not his and it was nearly invisible now, the rusty color blending into the pink cloth, but Armin's fingers still shook. He wasn't mad… he was angry. And god, that made Eren feel like a heel.

"I'm fine," he said as comfortingly as he could. "I'm—"

But before he could apologize again Armin's hand moved to hover in front of his heart. His other hand moved to copy the placement and between the two palms a book sprang into life. The pages ruffled for only a moment before they began to dissolve into a staggering amount of gold. Armin's hopeful "ahhhh" was overlapped with the spirits' awed "ohhhh."

Eren stared at the mound. It kept growing, spilling over Armin's fingers and making tiny clinks on the floor as they fell. They sounded like blame—money being the reason Eren was here; greed and want—or maybe it sounded like Irwin's voice—gleeful in its desire. Eren backed up a step. Another. Three.

It was stupid, he knew. Money itself wasn't evil or anything. It wasn't truly the reason for any of this happening and nothing, not even avarice, dictated Irwin's actions—except Irwin. Hell, Eren could put that money to good use. Give it to Hanji and she could give it to everyone else. They'd buy food and houses, security… someplace away from here. Maybe it would make his friends just a little bit happier. At the very least Armin would be pleased, if the way he was shoving the mound forward was any indication…

But Eren couldn't do it and the fact that he couldn't made him feel even worse than the actual gold did.

That gold wouldn't help Corporal.

Corporal. Eren felt a renewed flash of fear surging through his body like an electric shock. He needed to hurry. Fuck. What if he was already too late? Eren shuddered in a breath and looked up at Armin.

"I don't want that," he whispered.

Eren immediately wished he hadn't said it. Armin looked slightly ill, an astounding accomplishment given that he was normally pale as milk. Eren grabbed his friend's hands and scattered bits of gold between them. He could feel the tension mounting in the room, all those spirits literally begging to fall at their feet to catch a scrap. It made Eren cringe and it solidified his feeling that, yes, there were far more important things than this.

Fuck he needed to go…

"I'm sorry, Armin. Really. But dammit, I don't want tokens or gold or… or any of that. I don't need it. I need—fuck. Don't you get what's going on around here?"

Armin only tilted his head. Of course he didn't get it. Eren had been the one who'd let him into the bathhouse, hadn't he? What did Armin know that Eren hadn't told him? It was beyond illogical to expect Armin to know, let alone care about Eren's own issues. Still, none of that stopped the brief flash of irritation Eren felt. He tried to breathe deeply.

"Look," he said. "I need to go. I'll explain everything to you later, I promise. But right now another friend of mine is in serious trouble and I need to get to him like, right now, okay? So just, move already. We'll talk after."

Eren took a step forward, fully expecting Armin to move aside. He didn't.

"Armin… move."

Armin shook his head. Eren could just barely make out the elevator over his massive shoulder and if hadn't been focusing on that he might have seen how frantic the movement was, pathetically desperate.

"Armin."

The gold was literally shoved in Eren's face making him splutter at the coppery scent.

It also made him angry.

Logic. Reasoning. Empathy. These were just pinpricks in the back of Eren's mind now. They were tiny, useless logs incapable of stopping the flood of anger that came streaming forth, wetting Eren's energy and helping to douse some of that fear. How dare Armin stand in his way? How dare he think that his—his what? His jealousy? His happiness? How dare he think any of it was more important than Corporal's life? Eren just didn't have time for this shit.

An inner voice tried screaming how wrong, how terribly wrong all of this was going, but it was quickly drowned out by love for another. Fear made Eren cruel.

"I said move!" He yelled and gave Armin's hand a vicious squeeze. The gold between them scattered and Armin moved, startled really, just enough for Eren to bolt. He roughly pushed past, jumped the toad still gaping on the floor, and worked his way back into a sprint. That same inner voice was noting sounds of chaos behind him but by that point Eren was deaf to all but a single mantra: Fine Corporal. Corporal, Corporal, Corporal.

He'd worry about Armin later.

Eren threw himself into the elevator, using the entirety of his weight to crank the ancient lever. It flew downward and in response he shot up. It was still too slow though. Eren watched as the numbers lit up, impatient, practically running in place. He remembered Corporal standing beside him in this very spot… and punching him in the stomach. Eren would happily take another blow just for the reassurance that Corporal was strong enough to throw it. He felt an answering pain in his side that could have been from memory or present fear but ultimately Eren didn't care. He ignored his own aches and pains; he watched the numbers rise.

When the doors began to open he was already squeezing through, bare toes catching on the space between wood and carpet. There were the ornate doors and the enormous urns. The knockers grinned as Eren approached.

"Look who's back!" said the one of the right. "Rude boy, rude boy. Come for another round of manners have you? Oooo, I'd love to teach you a 'please' and 'thank you.'"

The left knocker gave a high-pitched laugh.

"Let me through," Eren huffed.

"Example A, brother, look here! See how rude he is? Still rude! He's demanding entrance now, can you believe it?"

"I can, I can," said the left. "Can you?"

"Why I must, for I see it before my very eyes." And they both cackled.

"Let me in, fucking please!"

Eren's fingers flexed. He itched to pry open their mouths and tug the doors open himself. There were sharp teeth in those jaws though and even if he ignored that possibility—which he would, he could, it was absolutely worth it—there was no saying if he could actually move the doors on his own; either due to their sheer weight or any magic Irwin might have left behind. Losing his fingers for nothing wasn't smart. Even he knew that. Eren settled for grinding his teeth.

"Please," he spit. "Pretty please with chocolate sauce and pistachios and a stupid, pink cherry. Don't like that? Please with a pie. Please with an extra scoop of ice cream. Please everything, just let me in!"

Both suddenly stopped laughing. The knocker on the right peered suspiciously at Eren with bugged ceramic eyes. "Better, better," he said. "Question though is—why do you want in? Hmmm? Human boy in Master's quarters? Oh, I think not, no, no, no. Not even a polite human boy. What do you think, brother?"

"No," he chirped and grinned a glinting, toothy grin. "Definite no. Remedial studies instead for this one, yes?"

"Yes! More manners!" And they began laughing, exactly as if they had never stopped.

"This is useless," Eren growled and whirled back the other way. There were no other entrances though. The hallway ended in a blank wall with only the elevator as a means of escape. He couldn't go back down but he obviously couldn't get through here either. Eren was just resigning himself to returning to the roof and climbing the walls barehanded when he saw… something.

White. There was a tiny flash of white beside him. Eren turned quick as a whip and thought that something might have just slipped through the door. He wasn't the only one.

"What was that?" cried the right knocker. His eyes rolled spastically, trying to see something that was no longer there.

The left copied his movement. "What? What?"

"Something!"

"What something?"

"Mischief something," the right knocker howled. His eyes settled on Eren. "The human boy is being rude again."

"I am not!" Eren huffed.

"You are! You let something in, you rude, stupid, spiteful little—"

"I didn't—"

The doors were opening. Eren gapped at them for a second. Then, when it was clear he was only getting a foot or two of space he threw himself forward. The entire time the knockers screamed at one another—close the doors, close the doors—but by then it was too late. Eren was through.

Their voices were silenced as the doors closed once more behind him. Eren remained tense in the quite.

"Hello?" he called. No answer.

Who had opened the door? Someone… or something. All three of them had seen it certainly—whatever it was—and helpful or no, Eren didn't relish meeting it in a darkened corridor such as this. The lamps that had been lit during his previous visit looked long extinguished and the maze of doors were only partly visible, crisscrossed as they were by shadows. Eren dug his feet into the plush carpet, seeking something solid. If he'd had any doubts that Irwin was out they were gone now because it was clear to anyone that this place was deserted.

Except, of course, for his Corporal bleeding somewhere in the labyrinth.

Where was Irwin's office? Eren had literally flown there the last time… had he gone through the door on the right or the one on his left? Or the one straight ahead? Or was it one of the many that disappeared when he dared to look straight at them or the ones that reappeared at the corner of his eye?

Eren swallowed. "Hello?" he said again and nearly screamed when this time he got an answer.

"Left," came a voice.

One hand clamped over his mouth and the other held out defensively, Eren turned frantically in a circle. He couldn't see anyone but he could still hear them—almost. It was more like the feeling of one presence taking up residence with his own. Eren thought he felt, rather than heard, breathing near the base of his neck.

"Left," the voice repeated and this time it sounded sorta familiar.

"Why the hell should I trust you?" Eren whispered.

"Well why shouldn't you?" and then it was gone, as quickly as it had come. Eren couldn't feel the presence anymore and whatever life had entered the dim corridor flickered away again. Just to make sure Eren lunged a few times in each direction, half hoping he'd hit some solid, invisible person… the other half hoping he really, really didn't. When all he got was air and more exhaustion Eren dropped his arms.

There were no clocks in this hallway, nothing that proved the passage of time. Still, Eren was keenly aware of it slipping away.

"You've almost got a point," he whispered to the (maybe) empty corridor. "Besides, what choice have I got? Ah hell…"

It took more strength this time for Eren to work himself into a run. After all, who wanted to plunge headfirst into the unknown? He did though. Heels kicking up behind him, Eren turned left.