Author's notes:

Hello again! Hope the wait hasn't been too long! Some interesting development in this chapter! Hope you all enjoy, you've been brilliant with the feedback thus far! xx

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Chapter IV

Eren peered deep down into the darkness, so far down he couldn't even tell if he was looking at the bottom.

He was stood next to Hanji, who stared down with him as if her genius was an amazing wonderment even to her at times. Even Levi, who had to lean forward slightly peered down, eyes curiously taking in the sight, even if he was wearing a frown.

"I'm going down there?" Eren questioned, eyes widening as Hanji noisily threw a rope ladder down, dust billowing upwards with the collision.

"Weeeellll…." Hanji considered in a mocking tone, guffawing at her own joke. She looked to Levi and Eren to see if their humour was on the same wavelength as hers.

It was not.

Eren swallowed thickly as he measured the situation. The three of them were poised over the lip on a wide well. The scouting legion had found it when they had first surveyed the area surrounding the castle. The well was old, dried up and dusty. They had dismissed it after having found no good use for it at the time, but now, as their hands left faint fingerprints in the dust, it was just what they needed.

Earlier that morning, the three of them found themselves in Erwin's quarters, both Eren and Levi quiet and listening, whilst Hanji and Erwin were in heated discussion. Eren had been too amazed at their analytical approach to the situation to really regard what they were saying.

Erwin, whilst having spent very little time in Eren's company, immediately gained his respect. The man had a fast mind, dizzying Eren as he turned and flipped Hanji's pitches until no corner of error was left unjudged.

Hanji had bounced back with every beat, as though thoroughly used to Erwin's relentless stream of enquiries and Eren had felt like he had developed whiplash from watching the both of them.

He was pretty sure by the time Erwin had nodded his agreements and dismissed them from his office, he was leaving the room more confused than when he had entered.

Levi had remained relatively quiet since the morning when he had come to let Eren out of his cell, Eren thought he looked slightly agitated, the furrow of his eyebrows more prominent on his features and occasionally he would adjust his cravat more than usual. Eren had decided to keep quiet as well, unsure as to why the Corporal was in this mood and not looking to make it worse.

He did wonder if it was because Levi had decided to step back from Eren, in case the worse were to happen today. If Levi distanced himself, then it would be easier to action things that would otherwise be questionable. Eren doubted that though, seeing as Levi seemed more a man to do whatever necessary to protect his comrades, regardless of what his opinion was on the matter.

Eren sighed blinking out of his memory, fingers gripping the stone of the well tightly for a second, before he turned to Hanji once more.

"Okay, so I'm going to go down to the bottom, you're going to pull the ladder up, I'm going to try and become a titan…and …" He let his statement trail off, hoping for Hanji to fill in the blanks of what comes next. He had followed that much, but after that he didn't know what was going on.

Hanji clasped her hands together and rocked back on her heels, suddenly looking at Eren as though he was a hunk of meat. Funnily, he didn't think that was far from the truth.

"Right! So, when you transform into your titan," She said the word titan with such adoration Eren couldn't help but feel his insides squirm, "your body will grow and become trapped by the confines of the well!" Hanji grinned, obviously unaware by Eren's discomfort.

Eren opened his mouth to start his tirade of questions, but Hanji continued on.

"Now, the reports I had back from the attack on Trost reports that you had turned into a fifteen metre class for the rampage, killing off approximately twenty three titans, the second sighting was you turning into an incomplete skeletal titan, approximately nine feet, and lastly, you returned to your fifteen metre class to carry the boulder."

Eren just nodded, having a feeling that Hanji wasn't done.

"This well is thirteen and a half metres deep, which is perfect for us as your head and neck will be poking out the top. Here, we can study you, take hair samples, see how you react, see if we can bring you to your senses, study your bloodlust, and identify who this is aimed at, and lastly," Here she waved her hand in Levi's direction, "Lastly, he can cut you out when we're done, if you cannot disengage yourself."

Levi gave Hanji a hard look, unfortunately not effective enough to deter her excitable mood. Eren wet his dry lips and looked past Hanji at the crew behind them. They had set up two large tents, obviously expecting to be out here in this field for the majority of the day.

The special operations had taken over one tent, whilst Hanji had selected a few other individuals to help monitor with her.

Eren knew exactly why both teams were out here, one to study as much as they could, and the other to jump in if shit hit the fan. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, Eren couldn't help but think it was a blatant flaunt at how much they didn't trust him.

But he couldn't argue, could he?

He had only just asked Levi two nights ago to do whatever was needed to ensure he didn't harm anyone. Eren could feel a multitude of emotions trying to bubble up under the surface of his skin. He fought hard to keep calm, he couldn't keep running from this, the sooner he could control his titan, the sooner he could sleep easier at night.

He wrapped his fingers around the rope and placed his foot on the lip of the well. Levi touched his elbow and murmured quietly next to him. "Remember what I promised you."

His hand was back to his own side before Eren could grasp if it had happened at all. Eren closed his eyes for a second, yes, he remembered, and he felt relieved that Levi had remembered and would honour it if needed.

Eren travelled down the ladder, watching where he put his feet before jumping the last two steps. His boots hit the ground with a soft thud, and he blinked rapidly trying to get used to the darkness. He watched as the ladder was pulled up and let his head fall back to squint up at Hanji, who was waving to catch his attention.

"You alright, boy-o?" She shouted down at him.

"As I'll ever be, I guess" He shouted back.

"Okay, you can start when you see the flare!"

Eren didn't bother answering, already knowing Hanji had left the top of the well. He studied his hand for a few quiet minutes before the sound of a flare made him jump. He looked up, seeing a line of green smoke cross his circle of light, then brought his hand up to his mouth.

This was it, time to start getting his life back on track.

Eren bit down on his hand, feeling his incisors pierce the soft flesh, and waited for the heat to come. He waited ten long, drawn out seconds, then blinked his eyes open.

What the fuck?

He spat the bloody taste out of his mouth, feeling the throb of pain in his hand. Why wasn't this working? He furrowed his eyebrows together in concentration, then repeated the process, biting down harder, feeling his hand spasm in pain. Blood dribbled down his chin.

Still, nothing happened.

He growled in frustration, and slumped down on his knees, staring at his bloodied hand. He brought it up to his mouth and grinded his teeth into it, ignoring now entirely the warmth of his blood trailing down his wrist.

"Eren, did you see the flare?" Hanji called out, she hadn't approached the well, but she sounded not too far from it.

Eren frowned, releasing his flesh from his teeth.

"Of course I did!"

"Then why aren't you transforming?!" Came her bellows from above.

"I'm fucking trying!"

Hanji fell silent, and Eren could no longer feel his hand, it was numb and slightly tingling. He looked down at his knees, blood had splattered onto the tan material, he kept staring at it, fascinated as he watched the material absorb it, dark red spreading to make large lopsided circles.

He didn't know how long he had sat there, didn't know how much time had passed before the ladder was noisily making its way down and someone was approaching.

Soft boots landed next to him and he blinked out of it.

Levi was looking at him, expression neutral until he noticed Eren's hand.

"Why aren't you healing?" Levi asked, leaning down to grip Eren's elbow, tugging the boy up until he was standing.

"I-I can't transform…" Eren replied, ignoring Levi's question. Levi watched as a drop of blood dripped from Eren's pinky finger, falling and staining the ground. He had heard Eren's replies to Hanji's questioning, only being a few feet from Hanji at the time, and he had heard the frustration in Eren's voice.

He had told the crew to stay back after that, and fought Hanji to stay back just long enough for him to inspect the situation. This was turning into a troublesome day.

"Let's get you out of here, then. You stable enough to climb?" Levi asked, wondering just how much his day would improve if he had to carry Eren out of here.

"Yes." Eren had stated, already reaching for the ladder.

"Wait," Levi interrupted, gripping the rope, "If you go up there first, they'll shoot you." He stated, seeing no way to sugar coat the words. He started to climb, dismissing the sound of Eren's sigh.

They made their way up the ladder and towards the sunlight.

Eren rather wished he could stay in the well.

~0~

He watched the bandage as it was rolled around his hand multiple times. The blood had slowed and the bandages only had a few spots of red stubbornly coming through.

He'd been questioned, for an entire hour by Hanji, who seemed more apocalyptically happier than usual. Every so often she would mutter excited nonsense. The most Eren had made of it was that she 'loved puzzles' and had started calling herself 'The Detective Inspector'.

She had gone into painstaking detail about his experiences in Trost. He had to relive every single moment, and when they had exhausted that alley, they moved onto his recent dreams of the experience, seeing if they were more 'recollections' rather than 'dreams'.

Hanji had left him on a bench to share lunch with the special operations squad, needing time to go over her findings. She had taken her team into one of the large tents to discuss ideas. Eren glanced around and couldn't see Levi, so he resigned himself to stare at the table, the hot tea placed in front of him slowly letting off steam, as though to mock him.

"So we finally had something to win against these titans, and it turned out to be a dud." Oluo piped up suddenly, breaking the odd silence that had settled around the table.

Petra's head shot up, glaring at Oluo. "Oh for crying out loud Oluo, would you shut up? Have a little sensitivity, would you?"

Gunter cleared his throat, sitting up a little straighter, "Well, Petra, he isn't completely wrong here, it seems Eren is unpredictable and this does prove that we can't rely on him yet, but—."

Petra opened her mouth to defend Eren it seemed, but Gunter raised his hand to silence her, "—But, I can't say I entirely mind. It isn't completely a bad idea if Eren can't turn into a titan, if anything it ensures his safety."

Petra closed her mouth, considering his words for a moment before nodding. "I think I agree, this would keep Eren alive, certainly." She said softly, peering at Eren with fond eyes.

Eren was surprised, he looked around the table as everyone nodded, even Oluo gave a little smirk in his direction, he felt slightly hopeful as he looked at everyone. They genuinely didn't seem to want him to get hurt or killed.

"But aren't I useless to you now?" He asked, feeling as though his one true purpose for being in the Survey Corps was suddenly snatched out from under him like a rug under his feet.

"You are part of our team Eren, you'll never be useless."

He was thankful to them, and suddenly felt protective of this band of unusual eccentrics. He wanted to swear to protect them, titan form or not.

In his new found convictions, he reached for his tea, bandaged hand clumsily hitting the spoon resting on the saucer and watched as it clattered off the table and landed on the grass.

He bent to pick it up, fingers curling around the handle.

And that was when things went to shit.

Billows and billows of smoke erupted around him, immediately obscuring his view. It felt hot to his skin before he felt himself being launched up off the ground, muscles and bone constricting around his arm. His knees pressed into thick ropey flesh, and his hand was caught, entirely buried.

He felt disorientated, he could hear shouts and the sounds of metal sliding from hilts. He glanced around frantically, hearing heavy footsteps surround him. The steam was taking it's time to clear, and he couldn't understand what had just happened.

He could see outlines of people now, grey silhouettes of his comrades with their weapons drawn. He didn't understand, he gripped at his wrist and tried tugging it.

"Stand down!" Eren's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open as he glanced behind him, seeing the back of Levi. His instruction had been so clear and Eren had never heard his voice so loud before.

The steam had cleared enough for him to see who was who, and it shocked him to realise that his comrades had been facing him with their weapons drawn. Petra, who had been looking at him with fondness in her eyes three minutes prior, now looked at him with intent to kill. She took a step towards Levi.

"Corporal, please, move away from him!"

Eren looked down, realising now he was perched on top of a mess of skeleton and muscle. He was atop of a ribcage, half coated in back muscles and one fully complete skinless arm was bent with elbow in the grass.

Oh.

"I said stand down."

Levi wasn't looking at him, he was addressing his squad, each member gripping their weapons, face full of fear or anger. Eren had thought that first order was for him, he was about to explain that he didn't know how, didn't know why he had transformed, but he couldn't get a word in.

"What are you playing at, huh? No one permitted you to transform!" He heard one of them shout.

"What is your intent, Eren? Why did you transform?"

Their voices were angry, Eren looked at each of them, mouth working like a fish, unable to say anything.

Oluo took a step forward, blades rising. "Are you trying to kill us? Whose side are you on?"

Levi interrupted. "Stand down, that is an order."

For some reason, Eren noticed that Levi hadn't even drawn his blades. He had his back to him, entirely defenceless again Eren or his squad. Eren couldn't even fathom it, he just stared at the wings of freedom on the Corporal's back, trying to clear his thoughts long enough to answer any one of the many questions being thrown at him.

"Are you with the titans? Are you trying to wipe humanity out?"

He couldn't think over all the shouting, he felt overwhelmed, heart hammering so hard in his ribcage that he was sure it would punch its way out of his chest.

Every single member was shouting at him.

"Would you all just shut up for a sec?!" Eren shouted, surprised at himself momentarily. They did quieten down, but their blades remained raised.

Before Eren could start collecting his thoughts to explain, he heard a loud high pitched whine, followed by a redhead approaching him fast.

"Ereeeeeeeen! Look at you! Can I touch it? Please? Please?" Hanji had arrived, so full of energy and wonderment that Eren was back to stuttering. She reached out to touch the gigantic arm, fingers twitching from excitement.

Eren barely had time to say 'don't' before she was withdrawing her hand, little puffs of steam following her burnt fingers.

"Ayah! So hot!" She shouted, ignoring the team who was shouting at her to stop and back away from him.

Eren finally had enough time to remember that he had been told by Mikasa and Armin that they had watched him pull himself out of his first titan.

"That's it!" He said suddenly, ignoring the yelling going on around him as he pulled with all his might.

He ripped his arm from the back of the mass with so much force, he had flung himself backwards and landed in a heap next to Levi's boots.

He heard Hanji shouting her complaints as the hissing of steam filled his ears, but then she suddenly stopped her complaints and fell silent.

"Lower your weapons, I will not tell you again." Levi instructed, giving them one last long look, before turning his attention to Eren. He knelt on one knee and placed a hand on his shoulder.

He was about to inspect Eren for any injuries before Hanji butted in again.

"Eren!" she proclaimed. Everyone turned their attention to her and found her pointing up at the giant hand, which was slowly disintegrating. She noticed their puzzled looks so pointed closer until they all noticed the spoon gripped quite daintily between finger and thumb.

They all looked back at her, confused and she just grinned, hands on her hips.

"Eren, what was you thinking about when you transformed?"

~0~

Eren was dozing, his head lulled back against the couch as he dared to stretch his feet out a little further. His eyes felt entirely too heavy and immediately tried to close every time he attempted to open them. Eventually he gave up and let them slide shut, feeling his body sag deep into the cushions.

Hanji had whisked him off to her quarters, which to Eren was becoming a regular occurrence. She had grabbed a couple of books and jotters and set to work, asking Eren entirely random questions which he just answered on instinct.

His energy had been completely drained, emotionally and physically, and he just wanted to sleep and forget the day. Levi had remained out in the fields to talk with his squad. After that Eren didn't know where Levi went, but it had been at least three hours he had been stuck in this room with Hanji.

She had found a breakthrough, by the sounds of it, but Eren was too exhausted to care. This happened every time he had transformed, energy sapped from him until he could barely stand. True this seemed to have been only a partial transformation, but Eren pegged the rest of the exhaustion on the series of events that day.

The sun was setting low in the sky and the room had grown dark in its corners, he didn't know when the crazy scientist had lit candles, but the soft glows were dancing around the furniture.

He tuned out Hanji's muttering and scribbling and just listened to the clock on the wall. He didn't know how long he listened, but by the time there was a knock on the door, he wasn't awake to hear it.

Hanji pushed her glasses up her nose and watched the door open. Levi entered the room and let it click shut softly behind him. He looked a little drained, but nothing struck out of place that she could sense.

She watched him as he took index of the room, eyes ghosting over Eren more than once. She turned her head to hide her smile as she grabbed a note pad.

"Tell the squad off, didya?" She asked idly as a way of greeting. Levi came to stand next to her desk, arms folded and hip jutted ever so slightly to support his weight.

"Of course I didn't, they reacted as I expected them to, that's why I picked them, after all."

"Hmm," she nodded in agreement, expecting that outcome. It was more than likely Levi had told them to calm themselves and wait rationally for an answer. He wouldn't have left that squad scalded for what they had done, but he would have made sure that they at least realised that it was accidental on Eren's half.

Out of the peripheral of her vision, she saw Levi look over his shoulder at the sleeping boy on her couch again. She tried not to laugh, so instead flipped a few pages of her book. The silence filled the room and she was counting down the seconds until Levi asked about Ere…

"How's the kid?"

Oh god, she had to bite her lip hard on that one. Why on Earth people always say Levi was hard to read was beyond her, heck, she was having much easier time reading him than the thick volume laying open on her desk.

She decided it was time to pull out the ol' poker face and raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him, "Kid? Really now? Is that how you see him?"

Levi frowned a little and shifted his weight to his other hip, he stared Hanji straight in the eye for a good long second.

"He's a kid in my eyes."

Hanji couldn't take it, she was blowing this shit wide open, "Well now, that's a lie and you know it. Scotch?"

She rose from her chair and bee lined straight for her cabinet. She plucked out two glasses and a canter full of dark golden scotch, turning to face him, she wiggled the bottle and glasses in her hand, completely letting Levi know that yes, she did call him out on this new development in his life, and yes, she would supply scotch for it.

Levi just stood there, both brows furrowed, staring at Hanji so hard she thought that if she were any mere person, she would have exploded. However, Levi just raised a hand to his head, fingers and thumb massaging his temple.

"Tch. Please."

Ohhh, interesting. Hanji had of course speculated these last few weeks, however no outward denial from Levi left her downright giddy. She poured two fingers worth of scotch into each glass and wandered back over to him. He hadn't stopped massaging his temples but did hold out his other hand to receive the glass.

Hanji smirked wickedly, not quite ready to give him his glass, "Why don't you take a seat."

The hand lowered from Levi's face to reveal an almost undignified glare from the man. He didn't look amused, knowing what Hanji was playing at. There was only one chair behind Hanji's desk, and one sofa, which was currently half occupied by Eren. She could almost hear Levi's deadpan expression saying 'ha, ha.'

Levi took the glass from her hand and downed the drink in one go. He passed it back to her and raised an eyebrow. She just took it in good grace and went to top the glass up again.

Thinking that she had better lay off him for a while, heavens knew not to push the man on any subject he wasn't comfortable with, especially not this very rare and unheard of one, she turned back to him, glass refilled and ready. He had moved and was now perched on the sofa, next to Eren. He sat a comfortable distance away, but she almost cracked that he had done it. Oh bravo, sir.

He took the glass again, completely ignoring the situation and decided to push on. He sat back and crossed his ankle over his knee. "So, did you discover anything useful, shitty glasses?"

Hanji had to grin, that nickname was saved only for when her antics reached a whole new level of nosiness or downright annoying. She guessed it was used just now due to both qualities. Probably a new personal record, she decided.

"Actually, yes. I am now ninety-eight percent certain that Eren must not only cause himself pain, but he must have a clear goal in mind before he can shift. This means that he cannot have uncertainties and he must be very clear in his objectives. I would like to have tested more but he's tuckered out." She said, flipping her hand in his direction as though Levi had forgotten he was there.

"Why does he get so exhausted?" He asked, weighing up how dangerous it would be for Eren to be so vulnerable after a fight.

Hanji sunk down into her chair, blowing her fringe out of her eyes, "Well, wouldn't you be if you created the intricacies of a human body three or four times bigger than your natural state? Just powering that thing must be strenuous…aaahhh, so many mysteries…." She trailed off, looking up at the ceiling and trying to imagine it.

"Then there's a possibility that he may be able to train at maintaining his energy so that he's stable when he disengages, much like training to use 3DMG" Levi stated, figuring out that much at least.

"Yes! Good! That is the conclusion I had come to as well." Hanji nodded, pleased that they had reached the same analysis.

"But it is still early days, we have yet to find out if Eren can truly control his titan and listen to commands, also to try and not kill us." She trailed off, as though slaughter was the least of her worries.

They sipped at their scotch, Levi sinking further down into the couch. He didn't often relax fully around company, usually too occupied with maintaining status, however, around Hanji and one or two nightcaps, he didn't give a crap about rank. He was only human after all, and as he sagged down into the cushions, he could feel the weight of the day on his shoulders.

Eren shifted and had brought his legs up to curl beside him, he head had slowly fallen until his head was resting on the arm of the couch, arm flopping down over the edge and fingers trailing on the floor.

Levi let his eyes trail to the boy, taking in his ruffled hair and slightly parted lips. He rolled his eyes back towards Hanji who was just grinning at him. He fought the urge to groan and roll his eyes at the ceiling, fucking nosy woman.

She had the dignity not to comment on it though, and Levi was grateful for that. He didn't know what was developing but he certainly wasn't going to have a heart to heart with her. He finished his drink and waited for another refill. Hanji certainly wasn't stingy in that department.

She filled his glass and they continued discussing what the training schedule should be. He let her go over her theories and inputted some of his own from time to time. She emphasized the fact that the next experiment due tomorrow would certainly see Eren in his titan form, now that they knew what he had to do. Levi also discussed if having the squad there was necessary, and they both agreed it was, as they had to get used to seeing him like that.

It wasn't until the candle wicks had burned quite low and Levi had lost count on how many refills he was on that he noticed Eren's legs strewn across his lap. He blinked heavily, trying to pinpoint the exact moment it had happened, but he couldn't recollect when.

He looked at Hanji, who just tilted her glass towards him, soft smile on her lips, "Just a kid, huh?"

~0~

A/N: Denial isn't just a prick in the military police, y'know? xD

I want to point out that this is the last chapter that sticks closely to canon, the next chapter and others to follow will start showing where I wanted to take this story from the get go! So look out for the new developments !

Please review and fav if you like it so far! Also, also, do reviewers like if I respond to your reviews? If so I will totally start doing that! I wasn't sure if you would like me to or not so thats why I haven't! Just let me know!

See you shortly with a new chapter!

Cohali