Dinner was soon after and, not wanting to listen to Oluo's ongoing ramblings about how good he was, even after Petra's repeated scolding, my decision rested upon eating next to Zoe and Moblit.

"So, about tonight's-", she didn't even let me finish the sentence before starting a long monologue about all the experiments that had yet to be done to Eren.

Beside her, Moblit had already downed his seventh mug of beer, being it probably the umpfth he'd hear that speech. Eventually, she mentioned the altered state in which Jaeger used to be at times, mostly when titans were mentioned or when alone in his cell. I took the oportunity to try one of the pills she'd given me, in hopes that the recovery process wouldn't be too long.

It seemed like a deep hatred of the creatures was rooted inside Eren and the manifestation was a feverish almost psychotic state. Although it did sound intriguing to study the psychological effects of his transformation before and after the fact, the idea of being around such a person filled me uneasiness.

But of course, humanity was above all personal discomfort, as we were so often reminded by the ever growing wall of names and the large sum of alcohol drank by most of the officials to get some peace of mind.

~
"Hey, Levi, you wanna watch the experiments tonight?", Hange yelled at the small figure leaving the dinning hall.

"Piss off, Shitty Glasses.", he answered, bringing a wide smile to the major's lips that slowly morphed to her horrifying deranged grin.

"This is going to be so exciting!", she exclaimed, crushing Moblit with a single arm hug, reaching over the table to try and do the same to me, but I leaned away just in time.

"Injured official here, remember?", my one was annoyed as a huff escaped my pursed lips.

"Right, sorry. Well, I still have preparations to do, so meet us down in the dungeon in about two hours. We'll take Eren from there"

"Got it.", with a nod, they left.

With two hours to kill, the only real task that could be done was to prepare for the experiments. Sure enough, Hange was more than thorough but it wouldn't harm anyone to take a second look at things. Finding Moblit skittering around the hallway doing errands allowed me to request Zoe's notes and plans for the night, which he provided shortly after.

According to her annotations and mine also, regular titans were much less active if not completely inactive when the level of sunlight diminished. Even so, the moon acted like the sun's substitute during the night, being new mooned nights the least active of all.

This was what had been gathered in relation with light about normal titans. Shifters, containing a human inside them, should not be very affected by those changes. Or they would be affected. That's what was meant to be found out. Also things regarding pain awareness and tolerance and a series of other questions that needed answers.

Scribbling on one of the notebooks scattered around my desk, a list of questions grew increasingly bigger, taking up two more pages. Those were the things I wanted answered such as how did the titans bodies disappeared, why didn't their blood stay on things and evaporated instead, why they smelt like rotten eggs, just to name a few.

As one of my only working pens rolled off the desk and to the floor, no choice was left for me but to search for it. Being in the middle of all those books and and old written papers reminded me that I should make a habit of cleaning more often.

Reaching under the hardwood table, I accidentally knocked over a pile of old reports, stopping my retrieval operation to catch the fallen pile of papers. A new stack formed by its side, growing as I read through the titles and piled them back over each other. It was mostly old reports from my first days at the Corps, some still with annotations from captain Holt. Seemed like it'd been almost yesterday that I'd arrived there, freshly released from a trial.

Then, picking up another sheet of paper riddled with fold marks memories from my escape from Wall Maria resurfaced. A series of old letters sent by my father to his grandmother when he was a kid where the only thing left from my life back there in Shiganshina. There was no point in rereading them; I'd done that so many times in those nights were my Garrison comrades and I were desperate to reach Trost, in hopes of outrunning the pouring titans that entered through the gaping hole in Maria's inner gate.

Hange's deranged laughter echoed through the hallway outside and alerted me to the time. They'd be waiting in the dungeon, where Eren was sleeping. Taking my scribbled notebook and the pen, I left in a rushed pace, heading to the stairwell that lead down there. Voices could be heard from the ground level, coming from the catacombs.

"Finally everyone's here!", cheered Zoe, looking at me as my foot left the last step. "It's time to begin."

Firstly, as standard procedure, Jaeger was shackled before being removed from his cell. This was only done whenever experiments would be conducted and they feared that he'd lose control in his most feverish state. He understood this and complied immediately, offering his wrists through the bars every time.

Escorting him up the stairs and out the building was done in moderate silence, with Hange continuously talking about what would happen. Behind me were Eld, Gunther and Oluo, with Petra walking by my side as her tense expression intensified with each pace closer to the well.

"What if he can't turn into a titan?", she asked me. "Last time, he hurt himself pretty bad because of us and nothing happened.", remorse weighted on her voice, her gaze fixed on the small boy in the front.

"Well, from what I've read on Hange's notes, she'll try whatever it takes to get him to turn but I don't know... I mean, Eren doesn't have much choice, it's either hurting himself here or being kept by the police.", was my reply. Looking back, maybe it sounded rather insensitive to disregard a kid's well being but he was our trump card against the titans and it should be made clear that getting leverage for humanity's sake was the top priority.

"I know, but still, he's a kid, Martha... I can't not feel bad for his suffering.", she sighed.

As we approached the well, Eren's shackles were removed by Moblit with the rest of us watching attentively. A few torches nearby lit the surrounding area, casting flickering shadows that swayed in the night breeze.

From a distance, corporal Levi watched us. So he did ended up joining the party after all. It made sense, given that Jaeger was entrusted to him. He was probably there to do damage control if things got out of hand.

"Okay Eren, now we're gonna lower you down to the bottom. Don't worry, it's mostly dried up by now so the water shouldn't rise above your waist.", Hange told him, securing a rope to his harness.

"Before we start", I began by saying, approaching the brunette boy and pulling out my notebook. "We should try and get as many information as possible. How are you feeling, Eren?"

"Uhm... I'm fine, I guess.", he shrugged. My pen scratched the paper, recording everything he said, progressively establishing a 'before' pattern.

"Nervous?", was the next question, which was done without lifting my eyes from the notebook.

"Well... a little, I suppose.. What if I can't turn into a titan? I don't want to waste anyone's time, mam...", as expected. Of course he'd be nervous about having to do such a thing in front of a series of people. Even though he'd be at the bottom of a well, the hope of humanity rested on his shoulders for matters like these. And it's not as if anyone tried to deny it either, Erwin had been clear that the boy's stay at the Corps would only be justified were he able to control himself and produce tangible results.

Shifting on demand was one of those and maybe the most important one, aside from self control. The kid's hands fidgeted slightly at his sides as he tried to maintain composure and proper posture, seemingly hyper aware that everyone there had their eyes on him.

"Hm, I understand, Eren. Any discomfort? Injury? Anything out of place to report?", my eyes gazed at his, lit by torchlight, inquisitive. He simply shook his head to the sides, a soft 'no' falling from his lips.

"Well, don't worry, Eren! I'll make sure everything will go well tonight. You have nothing to worry about.", said Hange, smiling widely at the boy. Behind her, Moblit sighed, looking rather concerned for her, knowing she'd ignore her own safety to get what she wanted. "Now, let's get you down there so we can start as soon as possible."

As such, Eren was lowered slowly until he reached the bottom of the well. Leaning over the brim we looked at his small figure, barely illuminated by the dim light. There was no real threat that could come from him, being down there. The entrance was too high for him to reach even in titan form yet still being approximately wide enough to allow the transformation to occur.

"Okay, Eren, now try to turn!", Hange yelled. The shadow down bellow moved, presumably to bite its hand and we all pulled back from the well's brim, fearing whatever might happen but there was only silence.

"Major Hange, it didn't work! What should I try next?", the question came, echoing through the old stones. This had been the previous problem – his inability to shift without a purpose.

"Try thinking about your duty to humanity!", she yelled back, peering into the dark hole. Once more it had no effect.

"Hange, this isn't working. We can't keep telling the kid to hurt himself. Come on, there has to be another way.", although it was for the sake of humanity and that was my true purpose in the corps, Petra's words form earlier had struck a chord. He was just a kid caught up in the middle of this and he had already been through a lot. We should at least not make him suffer unnecessarily.

"Hm maybe if its something more personal...? Like what, his family?", while she and I discussed these matters, the others kept quiet, eyes fixed on the shadow at the bottom. It must've felt lonely down there, staring at the outlines of superior officials as if some sort of animal but it wasn't like he had much of a choice either way.

"What, get him in that insane state again?", my eyebrows had raised as my disapproving look formed itself.

"He's very unpredictable like that.", Petra added.

"Yes, and if the goal here is to get him to control himself, being like that isn't going to help at all.", I continued.

"I know. But we need this. He'll get the hang of it in due time, don't worry. Hey Eren, think about what the titans did to your family back at Shiganshina!".

The words traveled down, reaching the boy. Knowing what was coming, my instinct was to take a few steps back, pulling Petra along with me, just in case. Hearing a metallic like sliding sound told me that the captain was preparing in case the creature got free for some unknown reason. Or, on a more remote possibility, that the intruders appeared from the dimly lit darkness surrounding us.

A growl came from the well and a column of smoke erupted from it, the others barely escaping the immense heat that radiated from it. The stench of rotten eyes filled the air and we knew he'd done it. Walking back over slowly, it could be noted that Eren's titan form was still far from reaching the top, unable to even move its arms. Immediately as we appeared over the edge and added our shadows to the one casted by the torches and the moon, the beast's head lifted up looking straight at us.

"Eren, nod if you can hear us!", was my first request, seeing as he appeared to be slightly confused. Instead, he tried to wriggle his arms out, growling just like any other titan while still looking up.

"So he doesn't understand us...", mumbled Hange, leaning over the rim of the well. "Or maybe he can't hear us properly...". As she leaned in further, Moblit caught the back of her harness, preventing her from doing so.

"Major Hange, that's dangerous!", he said, pulling her back.

"You worry too much, Moblit.", she chuckled, looking at him. "Well, for one he isn't innactive as the other titans."

As she kept on talking about what further intel could be gathered at the time, my pen scribbled quickly on the small notebook. A couple of lower ranked officials arrived carrying a series of boxes. Inside, there were a series of arrows and other things, probably to test out his tolerance to pain. Looking back at the titan in the well, the clamping of his exposed teeth echoed up and made me wonder what was even going through the kid's mind at the time; if he was even conscious of what was happening.

He grew increasingly agitated, hitting his head against the stone walls. Once more, I recorded everything seen on the small notebook, for further studies. The ground surrounding the water hole shook with each slam and, in the distance, a few windows from the main building lit up. For the tremor to have reached such a far away place was evidence enough of the force that each impact held.

"Hange, look at that. His jaw seems to have become dislodged yet he's still hitting that spot.", were my words as I moved her head to follow the titan's movements.

"Amazing... it doesn't look like it's in pain at all...", she noted, eyes still fixed on the creature. As its hits became faster and with increasing force, seeming desperate to get free, the sulphur filled smoke also increased in volume, forcing us to take a step back so as to not get severe burns. A growl like sound came from bellow and the hitting stopped, the ground having ceased its tremor.

"He stopped... Why did he stop?", Petra mumbled walking closer again and peering over. "It's not moving!"

"What do you mean...?", Hange trailed off as she also reached the well's rim, looking at the now still titan. Its head was slumping down to one side, with the lower jaw still broken and hanging sideways.

"Is it like... sleeping?", Oluo asked, although a bit naively.

"Titans don't sleep.", I answered, with growing concern. Was it dead? Did it die from all the smoke? But that didn't make any sense, they didn't need to breathe like people did...

"Eren's still down there, we need to get him out!", Petra's voice had a tinge of plead in it, looking at both me and Hange.

"I suppose the experiment is over..", the major raised her eyebrows, hand scratching her neck. "Could it be that it's pretending to be asleep...?"

"It didn't even understand when we tried talking with it... Highly doubt that it's capable of pulling something like that off.", my hands gripped the stone edge firmly, wanting to understand what was happening. Could it really be that smart? Probably not but.. what if it was? No way we could send someone down there to check on it before the shifting had finished."

"What are we waiting for?", Petra's voice was more insistent now, her hand reaching to grab my shoulder. "Eren could be in trouble."

"It's too dangerous, what it it's a trap?", Eld asked her from the other side of the well.

"Come on, Eld, it's Eren. Last time we didn't trust him either...", she answered, looking expectantly at captain Levi, waiting for his permission.

"Stay put. Until I say so, no one goes down there.", the corporal ordered from where he was, walking slowly towards the opening and also looking down. "Looks like its dead.", he spat. The creatures body began to evaporate we could see Eren's faint figure amongst the smoking flesh.

"Captain, please.", Petra urged, distressed to see the boy in such a state, knowing that something wasn't right.

"Go.", she quickly jumped down there, securing her gear on either side of the well's inner stone wall. By the time she got to the bottom, we couldn't see her or Eren, being it too dark. Faint echoes came through, and we assumed it was her calling him, trying to wake him up.

~
Not too long after we heard a scream coming from the deep and Levi didn't hesitate to jump down there. Sounds of struggle and growls also came from down there, leaving us all worried as to what was happening. Then, all was silent again. The sound of the cables grew louder and Petra and the captain climbed over the rim with Eren over the captain's shoulder.

"What happened?", I asked Petra, helping her on to the ground. She looked distraught, with red finger marks on her neck and her chest was still heaving from whatever had happened.

"He just... he was insane.", she looked up at me with a dreadful expression and I wanted to comfort her but we had no time. Eren had burns all over his skin and, upon touching his exposed hand, I knew he also had a high fever.

"Captain, we need to take him to Hange's office, he needs to get this fever down.", my eyes locked with his and he gave me a slight negative nod. The smell coming from the boy's skin was nauseating and, for a few moments, I had to turn to breathe in the fresh air.

"This shitty brat is going to return to his cell. Let him rot for all I care. He's out cold so he should sleep for a few hours."

"Oy, Levi, we need him.", Hange noted as she offered to help carry him. "Letting him die would be a waste."

"I won't loose any soldier for this piece of shit, Shitty Glasses. Will you?.", he spat, transferring all of Eren's weight onto Zoe and beginning to head back to the main building ahead of us. What had happened...? Looking at Petra's half concerned, half cautions gaze, eyes continuously fixed on the unconscious boy, led me to think that he'd gone mental and probably tried to kill her or something.

Couldn't say that it was a surprise that Eren sometimes had those outbursts but I never thought he'd turn against someone he knew and got along rather well with, like he did with Petra. Science called for me and Hange to play the part of investigators and study as much of this condition of his and reach conclusions that would further aid in the fight against the titans. And, while it felt like a weight too heavy on our shoulders, it was interesting; knowing how the body functioned, predicting its beaviour, all those things. Zoe was so enthusiastic about titans that there wasn't really any chance that I wouldn't get sucked into that spiral of hunger for more information, more knowledge, more everything.

In the beginning it was all for Nate... and mom. But as time went on by, learning each day, seeing all that had been accomplished by former discoveries, fueled my interest and yearning for more. Zoe used to joke that it was better to work with me now-a-days rather than before since she considered that being too serious was poison for new discoveries.

~
Finally we arrived at the cell, laying a feverish Eren down as gently as possible and restraining him to the bed, in order to prevent him from going berserk again. The burns were healing slowly, with the soft tissue rearranging itself and smoothing out gradually. Quickly noticing that we'd never had the opportunity to witness this, Hange and I jotted down what we saw in detail separately, to compare notes after.

Unlike the burnt skin, his temperature didn't seem to be cooling down, the fever still raging on, despite the cold water soaked towels we'd put over his forehead, arms and legs. His formerly dislocated jaw had been in place ever since he'd been taken out of the well and Zoe regretted not having seen it occur, out of curiosity.

"Ngh...", a low grunt came from the boys lips as his head turned to the other side. His eyes screwed shut and another sound was heard. Eren was most likely having a nightmare. We didn't know whether to wake him up or let him sleep through it, since he might still be hallucinating and confused and no one wanted him to hurt himself by straining against his restraints.

Despite the captain abhorring the sight of Eren's face at the time, he was still bound by his oath to Erwin and officer Darius that he'd handle the boy and kill him if needed. Because of this, he kept himself in the dungeon with us, sitting in a corner reading in the dim light, refusing to take part in the scene. Upstairs, the door creaked and swift footsteps brought down to our level a casually dressed Mikasa, face pale from the darkness of the night.

"What are you doing here?", asked Petra, standing up from where she was.

"What's wrong with Eren?"

"Ackerman, you can't be here. Return to your quarters this instant.", I ordered her, dipping one of the towels in the cold water again and placing it over the boy's leg once more. She was standing there, looking at him with a concerned expression. "Get out, Mikasa."

"Is there a problem here... brat?", Levi casually looked up from his book, questioning the girl. She apparently hadn't noticed the captain up until then, having snapped her neck to glare at him once he spoke.

"Did you beat him up again?!...", she snarled, closing her fists until the knuckles had turned white. Fucking hell, yet another problem arose. Why couldn't there be a day where things went according to the freaking plan? Noticing the captain become more attentive to her movements tipped me that he might do something and instinctively, I lunged towards her and pulled her up the stairs by an arm.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, talking like that to the captain, Mikasa?!", my voice was a whisper but the tone was furious. "Don't even bother answering, just what did you plan on doing, huhh? Trying to beat up the corporal? Ackerman, you need to get your head out of your ass and start knowing your place."

She didn't talk back or try to free herself from my grasp. As we reached the top step, she was ordered to return to her room and sleep, to which she obliged with a blank expression that concealed her anger and concern. For a few seconds, I sat on that last step and sighed, closing my eyes for a brief moment to rest.

Screams woke me up from my half sleeping state and my legs almost trampled each other running back down. Reaching the ground floor gave me a vision that troubled me. Eren had his back arched, screaming as his head thrashed around, trying to bite the air. Hange and Petra had backed up, surprised by the sudden outburst.

"Kill the titans! I'm gonna kill all of them!... Kill.. Titans!", his incoherent babble made it clear that he was most likely hallucinating. There was no way of calming him like this, we could barely hold him down. The captain had gotten up, readying his swords just in case.

"Moblit, bring the syringe and the vials next to it, quickly! A sedative will help.", Hange rushed the man, who ran up the stairs.

"I can knock him out.", Levi commented.

"With all due respect, sir", said Petra, "Putting Eren to sleep with a drug might calm him down more than knocking him unconscious. At least he'll sleep for more hours and recover."

"Whatever."

Eren opened his eyes and his head trashed to the sides, eyes capturing mine as they moved. The same insane expression as Kayla's made a chill run down my spine and my body froze for a second, like it was reliving the episode again. How pathetic was it that a boy had made me lose control over my own body like that. Just one stare and I was back at the canyon with Kayla's body in my arms, blood gushing out and staining my clothes.

Staggering, I took a step back, leaning against the wall for support and taking a deep breath, trying to calm my pulse. Levi's eyes burned my side, looking at me in an inquisitive manner and maybe he knew what had just happened. But, if he knew, he chose to not say a word and instead he decided to sit back down reading.

Moblit arrived a few minutes later and, with the three of us forcing Eren down, Hange gave him the shot and he fell asleep soon after that.

"There, he'll sleep for the rest of the night, hopefully.", sighed Zoe, cleaning the sweat from her forehead.

"Well then, I need to write a report for the commander, if you'll excuse me. Petra, could you please come with me? I have some questions to ask.", I requested.

"Sure, if the captain is okay with it."

"Go ahead, I'll call the other three to keep an eye on that pile of shit."