Sorry for the long wait between chapters. Its been a combination of work, laziness and working on my own orginal story. Im gonna try to get a new chapter out at least every two weeks now. Anyway hope you enjoy.

.

.

.

.

.

A few hours before sunset the group reached their next resting place, the forest of giant trees. A few titans strayed off in the distance, too far out to be an immediate threat.

Eren and Annie were facing each other on the ground while the others sat in the trees watching them.

"Alright," Annie said. "The first thing you need to know about being a titan is that you need to have an open wound to transform." She held her hand up and pointed to the ring on her finger. She flicked the ring, and a small spike came out of it.

"I usually cut myself with this to transform, but I could also bite your thumb, or lip or something." Eren remembered biting his thumb back in Trost when the Garrison fired that cannon at him. Then again when he went to lift the boulder, it felt like instinct, as natural as blinking.

"Also you have to have a certain goal in mind as you're transforming, otherwise you'll just be hurting yourself for no reason."

Eren nodded his head. "Makes sense."

"Alright," Annie looked to the horizon searching for something. Eventually she pointed off into the distance, toward a distant titan, at least 15 meters tall. "Go kill that one." she said.

"Huh?" Eren was taken back. "You think I'm ready?"

Annie frowned. "Didn't you kill a few dozen titans back in Trost? Why should this one be a problem?"

"Well, it's just that, in Trost, the second time I transformed, I lost control and almost killed Mikasa, that's why she has the scar on her cheek now. How do we know I won't freak out now and attack you?"

Annie didn't look surprised. "I didn't have control over my titan at first either. If you lose control I'll be in my titan form ready to toss you to the ground."

Erens nerves felt at ease at Annies words. Even though she probably caused him as much physical pain as the commandant he felt safe around her. Eren looked down at his thumb. He knew if he wanted to retake Wall Maria and free humanity from the Titans, he'd have to learn how to use his power.

He focused on the distant Titan and how he wanted to kill it, to annihilate it and the rest of its kind. He brought his thumb to his mouth and bit down. The taste of blood and a flash of light were the last things he remembered before everything became a daze.

A demonic roar rang across the fields, his fist got wet with blood. Soon he could hear faint voices calling his name.

"Eren!" It was Mikasa's voice, and Armins' too, but Bertholds voice was surprisingly the loudest. They all seemed scared, and tense, but why? Were they in danger?

Eren snapped back to reality and he realized what was going on. He was attacking Annie's titan.

She was pinned under him. Her battered arms guarded her face from his fists.

"No!" he yelled. Although it came out as an unintelligible roar from his titan.

He pulled his titan off of her so quickly he fell on his back. He felt awful, this is exactly what he was afraid of.

Annie picked her eyes out from her arms. Eren tried to ask if she was okay, but his titan just let out another unintelligible roar. He was so full of guilt he almost didn't hear the thunderous footsteps closing in behind him. Eren looked back to see four titans moving toward them, all of them at least 15 meters.

He looked back at Annie. Relief rushed through his body as he saw herself picking herself up, although her arms were still injured.

Eren felt in control now, which means he had to protect her until she could heal. This was also his chance to show her he had control now.

He rose to his feet, and let out a deafening roar. He charged at the four charging titans. He could tell his titan form was far stronger than the average titan, on top of his skill in hand to hand combat, it was easy to destroy the napes of the four monsters.

Once all the titans were dead he emerged from the nape of his Titan. Just like transforming, exiting felt like instinct to him. He used his ODM gear to go to Annie who just exited her Titan as well. He was glad to see her human body looked as perfect as ever.

"Annie, are you okay?" He said. "I'm sorry I lost control."

"I'm fine." She said bluntly. "You only damaged my titan, my actual body is fine. Besides, even if you did, we heal fast."

Eren was surprised at how well she was taking it. He half expected to get punched in the gut.

"How are you so okay with this? I could've killed you."

Annie was quiet a moment before answering. "Eren, it takes time to get control. It took me a while to get control of mine. Im not asking you to be an expert. Hell, I was half expecting you to fail miserably like you did when we started training with ODM gear. You'll get it in time.

Eren felt red hearing her bring up that memory.

"You really had to mention that?"

"Watching you fail repeatedly is my favorite memory of that camp."

"You're heartless." Eren joked

Eren couldn't help but smile at that. Her attitude and voice were so amazing and attractive.

Annie smiled a little back before turning her head away.

"Hey!" Reiner yelled. Eren wanted to throw a rock at him for interrupting. "Trainings done for the day. Would you guys get up here before more titans show up."

Annie rolled her eyes so hard, Eren thought they'd go to the back of her head, then looked at Eren. "I'm gonna break his legs one of these days." she said.

They grappled up to the trees to be with the others.

"Are you okay, Eren?" Mikasa asked. He heard Berthold ask the same to Annie.

"Fine, I still have a ways to go before I get control of my powers." Eren said. "With Annies help soon we'll be able to retake Wall Maria, and then push the titans to extinction entirely." He couldn't help but smile with excitement. This power he and Annie possessed, really the key to humanities freedom. Suddenly a dark thought came into Eren's mind. Others have this power too, who want to destroy humanity, the Armored and Colossal, they must be like him and Annie.

"Eren, mind if I talk to you for a bit?" Reiner said, snapping Eren out of his thoughts.

"Sure, what's up Reiner?"

"Look, there's no easy way to say this, but I think your titan powers are dangerous."

"Wow, how long did it take you to come up with that? Of course they're dangerous, that's why I'm training with Annie."

"Yeah, I know jackass, but I'm trying to say what if you had killed her just then?" He paused. Eren frowned, hew was well aware of this, more than Reiner could ever know.

"Look I'm not saying to give up on your powers forever, but maybe hold off on transforming until we reach your dads basement. If what's down there has to do with titans, maybe he left you something that can help you control your powers."

Eren was about to object, but Armin spoke first. "He may be right, Eren." He said.

"You too, Armin?" Eren was surprised.

"All I'm saying is that if you don't have good control yet. If there's a secret to better controlling it in your dads basement why not wait until then? After all we're only a day from home anyway."

He did have a point, the Shiganshina was only a day away, but still. "What if my dad knew as little as the rest of us?" He said.

"If he didn't then I guess our only option would be to go back to Annie. Besides, like Armin said, we'll be there by tomorrow night, so it's not even that long really." Reiner said.

Eren grunted. "Annie should have a say in this too. He said. "I'll ask her what she thinks."

Reiner sighed. "If you say so."

As Eren walked across the tree branches to Annie, Berthold stopped him.

"Eren you need to be more careful when you're training with her." It was the most passionate he's ever heard Berthold, it suprised him.

"I will, don't worry about it."

"I mean it Eren, she's important… to humanity, as a whole."

"I promise, I'll be more careful, alright?"

Berthold nodded and went on his way to be with Reiner.

Eren sat down next to Annie on a tree branch.

"Hey."

"Hey." Annie turned to greet him. All Eren could see were her nice soft lips. He wanted to kiss her so badly, but he restrained himself.

"Reiner said,'' Annie grunted at the sound of his name. "He said we should delay our training together until we get to Shiganshia. What do you think?" Eren said.

"Tell Reiner he's an idiot." She said quickly. A smile came across Eren's face. He was hoping she would want to keep training him"Speaking of training Tomorrow's my rest day, you're gonna get us to Shiganshia."

Eren was surprised. "You sure?"

"As sure as I can still throw you to the ground."

Eren laughed under his breath. "Alright, but I want a rematch when we get to Shiganshia."

"Anytime." She said,