Three Months Later
Mikasa was working on the fields with Eren and Armin; as she kept working, her eyes briefly glanced at her only family left in the world.
Eren was working nearby to where she was, working without stopping; in a way, he looked at the work they were doing as helping. Mikasa had noticed the change; at first, Eren didn't like to 'waste' time working on fields, but now he did without much complaining, saying something against it only when either Mikasa or Armin were tired, well, mostly Armin.
His breathing was calm, with sweat rolling down his face; despite being in the fields for hours, they still worked to secure food for everyone.
Eren and Mikasa weren't exactly tired yet, the Ackerman girl knew she could keep working for at least one more hour before calling it a day, and the same seemed to be for Eren, who was just a foot away from her; but Armin, on the other hand, was slacking off. His hands were aching; his breathing labored; despite doing this for months now, Armin still wasn't used to this.
While he could understand why that was the case for Mikasa, since she had always been strong since he knew her, but Eren was a mystery to both him and Mikasa.
Since he had started training every day four months ago, Eren had drastically changed; he looked and acted a bit more mature, especially when it came to talking about Titans; sure, they were still numerous cases of him getting angry with Military police mocking them or saying harsh words to them like...
Why couldn't the Titans just eat a bit more of them?
Looks at these pets; just drop them back to their homes; why should we pay because they couldn't protect their homes...
Despite everything, Eren seemed to have a more mature worldview. Something both Armin and Mikasa had been trying to figure out for months now. At first, the blonde bowl-haired head had shrugged it off as Eren finally maturing somehow.
He didn't know if it was because of his father's death or something else they didn't know, and neither did Mikasa. Eren had kept training since he started, every morning and every evening. Running around, doing push-ups and sit-ups, while Armin and Mikasa fully supported his drive to become stronger and quote 'Stand a Chance against The Titans,' they both knew Eren was keeping big secrets from them.
First were the letters he had read multiple times during the first month; one day, he just stopped reading them. At least they didn't see him read them in front of them. Mikasa had asked again about the letters; Armin had thought he would snap at her, telling her that it was his business and she didn't have to care so much.
Instead, Eren would look sad before telling both of them that he would tell them soon; that seemed to do the trick for Mikasa, who reluctantly nodded.
Armin had kept quieter, simply analyzing his friend's behavior, being more subtle about it, but he figured that Eren could see right through him. They were old friends; after all, he knew it was hard to keep something from Eren.
While neither Armin nor Mikasa showed it, they felt a bit left out and maybe let down that Eren wasn't telling them whatever was happening. Despite that, they never tried to find the letters and read them behind his back sneakily; everyone had the right to have secrets of their own.
But that wasn't the only thing that puzzled Armin; it was his words when they buried his father, Grisha.
'Because of how many people had died, they didn't really have anyone to ask for help to make a grave, but surprisingly two men of Survey Corps had helped them to bury him. Carla had been buried in the same place, while not a body to bury; Eren had wanted for both of their names to be on the same tombstone, saying that they loved each other and belonged together.
Grisha and Carla were buried near a river; Eren had said that once his mother had told him that on the first date with his father, he had taken her to a river. Mikasa had loved the place, especially the trees and river flowing nearby.
When the burial was done, Eren placed flowers and said words that puzzled both Armin and Mikasa.
"I will keep my promise, father; our people won't be looked down upon by anyone anymore, we will find peace, and what happened to Shinganshina won't happen ever again."
Armin didn't know what promise and neither did Mikasa, much to his surprise, but Armin figured it was a promise to help humanity, but why keep it secret??
And if that wasn't enough, Armin had noticed Eren missing several times during the night; once Mikasa had woken up from a bad dream when she looked around for Eren, he hadn't been there. The girl had immediately woken up Armin to find Eren, but that wasn't necessary since he returned a minute later.
When asked where he had been, Eren had simply said that he needed to clear his head, something Armin knew right away wasn't exactly true; he could notice his clothes were dirty in several places as if he had dragged them on the ground, not to mention small stains of blood on his clothes.
When Eren had asked why they were awake, Mikasa had only said that she saw a bad dream; while Armin didn't know how bad of a dream it had been, Eren's suddenly pale face showed that it was maybe a nightmare.
That night Eren had slept with Mikasa, much to the girl's delight, who had blushed red like her scarf; at first, she tried to say that he didn't need to, but Eren had called out on her nonsense, saying that she always slept better when they were younger, and Eren was close to her.
After that, Eren had slept in the same bed several more times, but it returned back to normal when the full moon passed, and the following night there was no moon in the night sky.
Armin had wondered if there was any connection to it. In his eyes, Eren seemed to have a purpose now, beyond killing all the Titans; him not mentioning the Titans as often as he used to do was proof enough.
Now, the signal came that they finished for today; Armin almost stumbled on his feet; his feet were aching like crazy, feeling heavy all of a sudden, his throat dry.
"Armin, do you need help?" Eren asked, concerned seeing his friend tired, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.
Armin just shrugged it off; no need to get worried over nothing. "All well, Eren, don't worry, just tired," he replied breathless, sweat rolling down his forehead into his chin before falling into the mud all around them.
Eren didn't seem convinced but didn't voice it out. Soon they returned back to the place where they got the food; it was a sunny day, just past mid-day.
Armin was in a big line of people, waiting for his turn, the people around him talking about various things but mainly about the food, getting Shinganshina back, and some about getting revenge on the Titans.
Sighing, he scratched his chin as his thoughts returned to his friend; after a week or so, the full moon would disappear, being replaced by a moonless night; Armin had decided to wait and see if his friend would leave that night since he seemed to disappear during the days after the Full moon.
"I'm telling you, it is like a thunder. My son told me he woke up from a thunder."
"Stop talking nonsense; your son was probably dreaming; after all, I remember that night it was as clear as day, no clouds anywhere. The thunder couldn't come out of nothing."
Two people were discussing just behind Armin; the blonde found himself listening closely to their conversation; while he had seen or heard nothing, he wondered why they were even talking about lightning in the first place.
Unfortunately, they stopped their discussions, Instead talking about something else. Armin didn't hear anything else, soon deciding to just put that piece of information at the back of his head. Thunder was a natural phenomenon that happened; he shouldn't dwell too much on it.
Soon Armin was given enough food for himself and his friends, walking through the crowds of people. Armin couldn't dodge the crowd of people around him, many times bumping into people; thankfully, Armin would quickly walk away, not wanting to start any fight over food.
Due to the shortage of food, many people would usually fight for a piece of bread for themselves or their children; that's why multiple Military Policemen always guarded the crowds; some had batons holding in their hands as a clear sign to the crowd to keep order. While the frightening figure of men with batons did the trick for the majority, there were still too many cases every day of people fighting over food.
"Help, He stole my Child's Food," a woman screamed a few meters away; Armin sped up his walking pace, not wanting to stay longer, knowing this could really fast blow out into a full fist fight. Soon he walked out of the crowd, and his food was still intact in his arms.
And Armin was right; only a minute later, over twenty people were fighting with fists and kicks. The military police allowed them to beat each other, enjoying the show of people fighting over food, sometimes cheering for someone to kick or punch someone else, even making bets on who would lose or whose nose today would break. After fighting and fighting for food, They finally decided to stop the beating only when things were starting to go too far since death was something unaccepted by their commander.
Armin reached Eren and Mikasa, who were quietly talking with each other, mostly Mikasa, since Eren seemed to be busy thinking with his hand on his chin, in a thinking matter.
"Here, guys," Armin said with a smile, offering them the food that seemed to pull Eren out of his thoughts, handing him a loaf of bread. His friend accepted it before biting on it. The blonde was glad his friend wasn't trying to starve himself. Again.
In silence eating, Mikasa was busy eating, and so was Armin; a comfortable silence had fallen over them. Eren glared at the guards for deciding to step in only after they watched a show of people fighting over food.
Eren's eyes soon noticed a blonde girl waiting in the line for her food; she had long blonde hair that reached her shoulders, her blue eyes stoic and cold like ice in winter. Her face was emotionless as a stone, something Eren had seen only in a few people; despite coming from Shinganshina, Armin didn't have the same look Mikasa sometimes had. The face of someone who had seen Titans and knew the terror they bring.
Looking over to his friends, he decided to discuss something he had heard a few soldiers discussing amongst each other in "secret."
"Armin, have you heard about it?" Eren suddenly asked, drawing the attention of his friends, who stopped eating; Mikasa swallowed a bit before her beautiful eyes looked at him... Wait beautiful!! Stupid Eren, Stop, he mentally scolded himself.
Armin and Mikasa kept silent, waiting for his friend to elaborate further.
"I heard from some MP that they will soon solve the problem of food shortage" Eren leaned closer, his voice slow and quiet, almost whispering.
Armin arched an eyebrow; he hadn't heard of this but wondered what that plan could be, his mind not coming up with something passable. For a brief moment, he thought they might be thinking of sending untrained people to take back Wall Maria, but Armin quickly dropped that; there was no way they would do that! Would they??
"What do you think that means?" Mikasa asked, her voice thoughtful.
Eren's face turned slightly darker when asked that as if he knew it wasn't something acceptable.
"I'm not sure, but the way they said it sounded sinister to me. Especially their smirks when they discussed it," Eren replied grimly, biting on his loaf of bread hard, his hands turning fists, his knuckles turning white. Armin could think of only one way to fix the food shortage that would cause that kind of reaction from the Military Police.
Soon they were done eating, and Eren started training, with Mikasa watching over him with curiosity written all over her face.
"Hey Mikasa, Armin. Why don't you two train as well? You said yourself that you would join the Survey Corps with me; it is better to have a head start," Eren suggested, as sweat dripped from his forehead to the ground.
Mikasa was quick to nod her head, and Armin reluctantly nodded his head. While he wanted to wait until joining Training Corps, his friend was actually right.
It didn't take half an hour for Armin to be tired, breathing hard, lying on the ground; right now, he was wondering what possessed him to listen to his friend.
Mikasa unsurprisingly had no problem following Eren's pace; soon, Armin was sitting on the ground, his back leaning against the stone wall, gazing at his friends, noticing the small glances they were given each other; Eren was more subtle than Mikasa, who did a poor job hiding the fact that she quite liked to have Eren so close to her as they did push-ups.
Armin wondered if there would be something more there; after all, he knew Eren saved Mikasa from the bandits, and it was understandable for her to have a crush on him.
After three hours of nonstop training, Eren stopped, and so did Mikasa, their faces red with sweat; Eren stretched out his limbs, his joints feeling stiff. Even after months of training, he still wasn't at the level he hoped to be, but that wasn't important; he still had over a year until the training Corps started. Mikasa felt similar to Eren, except the pain felt lighter.
That was absolutely not the case for Armin, who felt that his body was on fire, especially his muscles screaming at him, calling him stupid for listening to Eren of all people.
A few minutes later, they were resting, sitting down on chairs; Eren looked normal, and so did Mikasa, who didn't look fazed from the three hours of training.
Armin, on the other hand, was resting his head on the cold wooden table in front of them, feeling tired.
"I hate you, Eren," he somehow murmured, earning a worried look from Mikasa and a burst of laughter from Eren, who didn't seem sorry in the slightest.
"Don't worry; give it at least a month, and you will get used to it, and it won't be as painful," Eren said, trying to reassure him, but what he said seemed to have done the opposite.
"One month," Armin repeated the word on his head with a look of horror. He didn't know how he would work on the fields tomorrow. He just hoped he would feel better soon.
One Week Later
As Armin had expected, tonight was a night without a moon; the moment Eren had thought that Armin and Mikasa had fallen asleep, he had quietly stood up before slowly walking away into the forest deep. Armin had heard his light footsteps going away, soon not hearing them anymore; he waited a minute or two, acting like he was sleeping, before standing up. Moving the fabric covering him away.
Looking around, no one else was awake; even Mikasa was sleeping, her red scarf near her bed within her arms reach, sleeping quietly.
Standing up, Armin walked towards the direction Eren had gone; the blonde didn't know why his friend would walk away when there was no full moon, and it was extremely dark outside; he could hardly see beyond a meter away.
Soon he walked outside; a gust of wind passed by, and he could hear the sound of small animals around him, a cricket making sounds. The Forest just in front of them, a clearing before the forest; he had fully expected Eren to be around here; perhaps his friend wanted to be alone; he knew people grieve in their own way, but he could hardly see anything at all and no sign of Eren around.
After half an hour of nothing, Armin thought of perhaps going back to bed and just waiting for Eren to come back; for a brief moment, he thought of waking up Mikasa to find where Eren had gone too. When a sudden Yellow Lightning struck down far away from him, Armin squinted, hoping to see clearer; but he couldn't see anything; the moment the lightning disappeared, he could hardly make out the shapes of trees, and he soon barely noticed the frames of a very tall tree, but he wasn't sure.
He felt his eyes closing by themselves due to him training with Eren the day prior. Soon he gave up before going back to bed, deciding to wait for him there, but he fell asleep almost immediately when his head hit the soft mattress.
******
I wonder how I can use the founding Titan; my father mentioned nothing on how to use it. Eren thought as he walked through the forest; he had walked at least a mile away from where he slept, hoping that great distance would be enough not to be noticed by anyone. While the moon not illuminating the night did indeed help to hide his enormous Titan, and thankfully His Titan didn't have any color that stood out like the Colossal Titan, who had no skin and was red, a color that could be noticed even in a moonless night.
When he had first turned into a Titan and noticed he was much larger than his father had said that the Attack Titan should be, Eren had panicked, tearing multiple trees from their roots as he stumbled around like a headless chicken. Thankfully he calmed himself before getting out of his Titan, which was incredibly hard to do the first time.
He had returned back to the following night and the same for the first five nights after the full moon.
Eren had noticed that Mikasa and Armin were curious about what he was doing; the boy had already decided to reveal the truth to them; they were the people he trusted the most in this cruel world; if he didn't trust them, then who he was supposed to trust.
For the past three months, Eren had made sure first to understand his limitations, turning into a Titan as many times as he could.
It took only three nights to understand he couldn't turn into a Titan more than once. For now, after he pulled himself out of his Titan, he would feel exhausted; barely returning back to his bed, falling asleep the moment his body made contact with the bed; well, it could barely be called a soft bed, not like the bed he had back at his house.
Eren felt his eyes welling at the thought of his house, his parents, all that was gone. Despite being four months, sometimes he still couldn't believe the reality of their situation; he would often wake up confused about where he was, only to immediately remember that his Home was No More.
Clenching his teeth, he thought of the people who destroyed his life and the lives of countless people. Did they feel remorse? Did they regret it? Eren didn't know and didn't care. Sometimes he would dream of them, silhouettes covered in darkness. Eren would personally make sure they would die the same way they killed his mother.
Taking a deep breath, Eren was walking around in his Titan form, making sure to make his footsteps as light as possible; well, that didn't really work when he was a 27-meter Titan with a face of nightmares.
Eren had seen his Titan face on a lake; he thought his face was ugly as hell, with no resemblance to his face except his hair and green eyes.
Focusing, he had read his father's notes explaining the ability to harden his skin, which was shared amongst every Titan; usually, the hardening of each Titan was almost the same except for The War-Hammer Titan, whose Hardening Ability far exceeds that of any other Titan.
His father didn't know much about War-Hammer; he knew, of course, of The Attack Titan's ability; sometimes, Eren wondered what he should do with the other three syringes. Sadly he had only those three. Snd the process to get more was something he couldn't do right now.
He had immediately thought to give one to Mikasa and Armin. It wouldn't be the same as the original, but still better than nothing. It would increase their chances of survival when the time comes to face the Pure Titans and Titan Shifters. For the third one, he had thought of perhaps Erwin Smith since he was the commander of the Survey Corps, and according to his father's letters, he could trust the man. A month after Shinganshina's fall, the word spread of Erwin Smith being the new Commander of The Survey Corps.
Deciding to think about the other syringes later; Eren raised his hands; he had noticed his Nape was crystalized, which reassured him that it wouldn't be easy to kill him, but that didn't mean he couldn't die; he knew another Titan with Hardening Ability could destroy his nape. Therefore he knew he would need to be able to do the same when the time came; when he would need to fight them, he needed to be ready for whatever they would throw at him.
That's what he was trying to do now, he was trying to harden the skin around his knuckles and fingers, but despite how hard he tried, he just couldn't figure out how to do that.
Damn it; he cursed his luck; his father apparently didn't know how to do that either; therefore, Eren needed to figure it out himself. Unlike the Armour Titan and many others, he had no attacks other than his fists. He wished he had someone to advise him on how to do it, but he had nobody, and the only other Titan Shifter, as far as Eren knew, inside the walls were the people responsible for this whole thing.
After an hour of trying, he decided to focus on something else; Eren pulled himself out of his Titan firm; as his Titan was decaying, slowly he pulled himself out, the skin glued to his face like a second skin, and his hand came free first allowing him to grab a knife from his pocket cutting the tissue that was still connected to his face. With a single cut, he was thrown back, falling on his back.
Eren rubbed his head in pain, the steam of his Titan decaying all around him. Walking several meters away, it was time to see if he could do a second transformation.
Breathing heavily, he didn't feel as exhausted as the first time, his hand near his mouth. His objective was clear as day in his mind.
I want them to protect them; they will live long and happy lives.
Biting down hard, the blood poured out, and a bolt of lightning struck. His Titan form formed, but this time a bit slower; the muscular mass was missing from his body, his skin looked to be hanging from his bones, his feet were smaller, barely holding his own massive body; standing only 19 meters tall, as soon as his Titan was formed, Eren suddenly fell to his knee on his Titan form, incredibly exhausted.
I need to get out, Eren thought; he wasn't ready yet for a second transformation; feeling his Titan decaying, he tried to pull out, but the tissue was utterly glued to his face; he felt as if his own face was pulling out along with it, as he kept trying to pull out.
Knowing he couldn't do this the normal way, Eren used all his strength to free his hand; soon, his arm was free; grabbing the knife in his pocket, he started cutting the tissue that fused him with his Titan.
Freeing himself, Eren immediately noticed that he couldn't see a damn thing. Did I damage my eyes? he asked himself, waiting for his body to heal. Resting on the ground, he felt tired, exhausted.
Just rest a bit; once I heal, I will return to Mikasa and Armin...
Opening his eyes, he immediately squinted from the light of the sun suddenly on his eyes, almost blinding him. Slowly opening his eyes, he couldn't see his Titan form around; the only thing left was the grass had turned black due to the skin's temperature.
Wait?! Is Morning?! Eren suddenly remembered knowing it was the middle of the night when he had started experimenting with his Titan Form. Standing up, he ignored the pain around his legs and ran as fast as possible.
Mikasa
She had woken up a bit early than usual; it was Early Morning, and only a handful of people had woken up. She briefly thought of perhaps asking Eren if he wanted to run together before they started working on the fields.
She had looked to Armin, seeing him sleep, but when her eyes turned to see where Eren should have been, it was empty. She immediately forced herself up in a sitting position, looking around, but no sign of Eren.
"Eren," she called out, fear seeping into her voice, hoping he was around and would hear her, but her call was met with silence. Her heart beating faster, she stood up before waking Armin up.
"W-what?" Armin asked with a tired voice, his eyes only half-open, trying to focus his mind. As he was about to close his eyes to sleep, Mikasa nudged him harsher, forcing him to open his eyes fully.
"Eren's Not Here," She said with panic in her voice; what she said was enough to wake him up.
"What?" Armin half-shouted, hoping his ears had heard her wrong, or maybe his stupid brain was playing tricks with him.
"Eren's not Here. I can't see him," She said again with more panic, helping him stand up. As Armin was about to ask if she had looked where Eren usually trains, they heard footsteps behind them.
Turning around, they saw Eren walking inside, his breath labored, his clothes torn in several places, almost looking like rags. Both Armin and Mikasa breathed in relief.
Eren saw their worried face; he felt terrible for scaring them, especially Mikasa, who had unshed tears in her eyes.
"I..." Eren tried to speak, his mouth opening and closing, not knowing what to say. Mikasa suddenly approached him; in a way, it reminded him of his mother, how she would look at him when he had gotten into trouble.
"Eren, where were you?" She asked strictly before hugging him close before he could utter a single word. Hugging her back, he breathed on her scent like fresh air; his hand went through her hair, something he found quite relaxing, and so did Mikasa, who blushed slightly.
Armin walked over to them as Eren pulled away with guilt on his face, his eyes looking everywhere but his friends. Armin hoped whatever was bothering his friend, he would reveal it soon.
Mikasa was about to open her mouth to ask him where he had been; she thought he might have been running alone, but Eren beat her to it.
"Armin, Mikasa. Come with me tonight. I want to show you something..."