*

NEXT DAY 

"Alright, Eren time to start the experiments, " I call, placing my hands on my hips. Hanji has been nagging me all morning to begin experimenting, wanting to at least have a head start. 

"Huh?"

Nudging towards the door, "Hanji has been nagging me all morning, for some time to begin," 

"R-Right, sorry,"

Shaking my head with a chuckle, I pat his shoulder, before rounding everyone to begin preparing to aid him. We needed a few hands , as we're not even sure what he's capable when transforming. Sometimes he's fully aware he's a titan, and moments when he hardly recognises us. However with Levi and I, we easily can take him down without a hitch. 

"You all need to remember to be cautious, when we go out there," I inform everyone, as they all reply knowing we've ran over the procedure. We've discussed this before, knowing there's people that could be watching from afar.

Watching everyone exit the house, Eren and Historia climb onto the wagon while the rest went onto their horses to lessen the odds of Eren and Historia being spotted beneath the wagon's cover. Rubbing my eyes, a small discreet yawn leaves my lips while visibly blinking a few tired tears from my eyes. Though I managed to have four hours of sleep, my mind was still overworking with our current situation.

"You need to get some rest early tonight," Levi insists, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Tch, you seriously worry me sometimes, dumbass."

Laughing softly I turn and place a chaste kiss to his cheek, before my eyes rest on his.

"No need to worry, couldn't sleep anyway," I assure him, before heading to my horse. "Besides.......we have more things to worry, than sleep. Once a few of these experiments become either successful or not, then.....I don't know what else to do to be honest. Not with Erwin's status, right now at least."

He sighs heavily with deep thought, but faces me.

"We'll try and do what we can, though it all depends on that titan brat," He gestures to Eren, as they all began dispersing to the experimenting sight. "Seriously, I'm confused as you are. You didn't miss much since your disappearance, and I've filled you in with everything I've picked up so far."

He had a point, because all we are doing is fighting something we can't see yet. 

"Right....." closing my eyes for a moment, I take a deep breath in and out before hoisting my body upon the saddle. Lifting posture a little, I grip the reigns that rested over the pommel. ".....best be going now, before sundown."

He nods in agreement, before mounting his horse setting off to meet with Hanji's group that was already settled at the experimenting sight.

*

Steering my horse at the clearing where Eren's titan form stood, we all kept our distance to not allow any one of us to be caught in his range. Clouds of steam burns in the air, feeling the warmth reaching us from a fair amount of the interval. However it seems the experiments weren't going well, which causes some doubt behind Levi by just his eyes.

We've been doing at least an hour or more, having a break every ten minutes or so.

Making my way up to the hills edge from where Levi stood, I jump down from my horse and pulled out a clipboard and pencil. Seeing Eren back to his human form, I see Mikasa passing him some water to have his break. Steam emits from the boy, as he collapses in exhaustion.

"That kid........must take a lot of strength out of him," Levi comments, while I hum softly in agreement.

"Yeah, but no sign of hardening being present," I reply, busily sketching down the carcass of his titan form. The thick steam swallows the cool air, before dissipating into the sky. "Though, taking a break every ten minutes will lower risk of any harm to the boy, so he will be alright."

He dryly scoffs, with a soft grunt in response.

"You seem rather calm," Levi nudges my arm, sitting down at the edge of the hill that looked down upon Eren. He looks over my shoulder, while I briefly did my best to sketch out every result from every break we made. "Everything okay?"

Nodding I continued to sketch it out, not breaking eye contact.

"Yeah, it's just best take time for someone to heal, than to rush it and not succeed," shifting my eyes to meet his, my pencil pauses against the sketch paper. "Hanji is persistent, and I am too.......but I want my home to be restored properly."

He leans against my shoulder more comfortably, as I resume sketching out the rest getting the brief idea on the titan form seeing it disappear.

"We'll find a way, we'll test out if he can communicate and do simple lifting tasks too," Levi spoke up, turning to look down to see Mikasa aiding him anxiously. "Some titans seems to have the mindset to speak, which I assume Eren might be able. If so, we might be able to easily talk verbally."

"Hmm.......I doubt that," I deject his assumption. "I've been analysing his speech patterns, but it seems his mouth isn't structured to speak.......we can still give it a go to make sure though."

Sketching down the last few details, I place the pencil behind my ear with a deep exhale.

"Titans seems to carry new information, no matter how long we've been fighting them," thinking back on my first years as a Scout. "To be completely honest, this years has been the most we've discovered so far. If we keep this up, maybe our wish can finally come true."

"What wish would that be?" He questions, out of curiosity. I nudge his arm playfully, rolling my eyes.

"To finally gain back freedom, to be free from the titans wrath......" 

That wish was beyond our reach right now, but someday I want live my life til I know I did my part for this world. It was the whole entire purpose I found in this life, but then Levi came along and changed my perspective on everything. Sometimes I wondered if he chose me because I was easy to get, or because he had no other options. Then again, I maybe overthinking a little too much.

Ten minutes soon finally finishes, before Hanji began instructing Eren to transform and tell him a few things to do while in titan form. 

*

Turning to Eren at the top of the cliff, his titan form looks down upon me. Gesturing to my mouth, I began doing a few hand signs to communicate. We were trying to see if he's able to speak, like some titans we've passed by. Pointing to both the corners of my lips, I mouth a few words loudly.

"Can...you....speak....?" I simply space the words, just in case he could understand my mouth running with words messily. 

He lifts his finger to his mouth, while opening maws widening.

However only a few grunts or shifting sounds were made, but no clear words drifted from him. Predicted and assumed earlier, I decided to keep trying a little longer to check if he needs to warm up his vocal chords. I knew he could scream, but I guess his titan form wasn't meant to speak.

"Nothing?" Hanji asks, while I shook my head.

My azure eyes drift to meet her frustrated ones, "As I clearly assumed, his mouth isn't structured for speech," I repeat myself, folding my arms while Eren stood there calmly behind me. "Although he can still communicate, as you saw before.......by writing into the earth.....remember?"

It was only an hour ago he began doing that, as his hardening wouldn't come to pass with Hanji's experimenting.

"Yes, yes.......but I'm still not done," Hanji passes me the clipboard, and turns to Eren. "Guess we will need to try something, hmm........?"

Pinching her chin thoughtfully, my eyes turn to the pages in hand filled with sketches of mine. Hanji briefly sketched Eren and I trying to communicate, but a small cross marks at the top to indicate that it was a failure. Hanji wasn't much of an artist as she admitted before, but it could easily be seen due to her always hypothesising scenarios.

"Oi, Hanji......is my nose that pointy?" I tease lightly, while Hanji pouts.

"Look I try, okay!" She exclaims, while I laugh continuously. My stomach felt warm, and cheeks dusting red from the sun's warmth. 

"I'm.....hahaha.....I'm just kidding!" I wipe a stray tear, while seeing Hanji resuming her thoughtful thinking again. Soon she begins to come up with another order, as Armin steps in to test Eren's balance in titan form. Armin raises his leg up, Eren follows after. The two synchronise together, waving an arm then the other. It was all quite simple tasks, and soon Hanji decided to test Eren further.

She teaches him to see if he can create a small infrastructure of a house, with the long timber beams with rope. It seems rather easy, seeing him sit down and intertwined the timber together into a form of a house.

Impressed we all were, it still didn't prove through his hardening ability.

*

The earth trembles beneath us, as the children steadily maintained their balance upon their horses. Eren's titan form collapses in a bloody mess, with steam thickly rising around him rapidly. Everything falls silent for only a moment, til Hanji gasps loudly with frustration.

"What's wrong, Eren?!" Hanji questions, worriedly. "Finished already?!"

I grimace in the condition Eren was in, as his form wasn't exactly fifty-fifty. It wasn't fully nourished with muscle from the hip down, and you definitely can see the bone morphed into a lank structure. The intensity of the heat rises more, as I wave my hand to gain some cool air at least.

Smearing some sweat from my forehead, I knew our experimenting has come down to an end for the day.

"Get up! Humanity's future is depending on you, dammit!!!!" Hanji shouts loudly. "Just Stand!!!!!!!!"

My hand rests upon her shoulder, firmly gripping it.

"Hanji don't forget he's been at it all day and this is his third transformation," I warn her, gesturing to his crawny corpse. "Besides......look at him.....he looks different this time."

Levi steps in, "He's not even ten metres tall, and he's missing mostly the flesh," He points out. "Also, Eren's ass is hanging out."

"I can see that!" Hanji retorts, hastily before turning back to the wasted titan. "Eren! Think you can still move?! Give us a signal or something, will ya?!"

No sign of movement from Eren was made, especially after assuming he must be exhausted.

Suddenly Mikasa bursts forward towards Eren, remembering we set orders not to approach Eren til we're in the clear. She hastily rushes to him, while Levi sighs deeply in disappointment.

"Great, that brat's at it again," Levi sarcastically remarks, clicking his tongue with annoyance. "Ignoring our orders, should we punish her this time?"

"No, don't......it's not worth it," I note, more calmly. "Besides, she cares about him too much to worry. Just leave it, I can deal with it if it ever get's out of hand."

"Tch, like you wouldn't do anything," He retorts, nonchalantly.

Arching an eyebrow, "How would you know? Besides, it's no really the issue now," side glancing his way.

Hanji's clenches her teeth, "There's no responding, we're done!" before jumping down, activating her odm before reaching towards Eren with Moblit following after them. Lena soon approaches from behind us, standing beside Historia who stood within the trees.

"How is everything looking?" Lena asks out of curiosity. "Any luck?"

She's been on the lookout, scouting the area for any sign of the assumed followers.

"Nothing, guess we'll have to try tomorrow," I sigh heavily, pinching the bridge of my nose. Soon screams follow from down below, as my eyes widen seeing Hanji trying to pull Eren from the thick muscle. Arms and face were completely attached to the muscle, that it was making my eyes slowly widening in horror.

"Hot!!!!!" Hanji shrieks out loud.

"Hey, be careful with him! Can't you see he's bleeding?!" Mikasa warns her, while Hanji hastily tries pulling Eren out of it. Moblit stood there sketching erens state as a reminder, but Hanji's patience was ticking.

Soon some muscle was pulled, only to see hollow eyes as his eyes melted off.

"You see his face moblit!!!!!" Hanji yells, in a panic. "Sketch! Quick! We gotta get this Is he going to get his old face back? We'll need it for comparison later! Hurry!!!!!"

"Section Commander! Have you no compassion at all?!" Moblit exclaims, horrified at no consideration of Eren's condition. Soon Mikasa slices the flesh that binded Eren down, causing Hanji to fall back from how hard she was pulling. Eren's face was full in view, lacking lips only for his tongue to fall out. 

Finally Hanji calmed down, while Moblit continues sketching Eren's result for this third transformation quickly.

"Experiment complete!!" Hanji announces, confirming the day done. "All troops, withdraw immediately!"

Reluctantly the rest on horseback quickly scout around for witnesses, while I send Historia to go into the wagon with Eren. He wasn't looking too good, which means we overdid it a little. Expecting more for today, this was as much as we have to take. Even so, I still couldn't shake that feeling since yesterday. Right now, we should at least assume the followers are watching from afar, or we won't be prepared for any kind of attack.

"Let's head back, best we quickly make haste," I urge everyone, heading to my horse nearby. Though the more I near the wagon, the more I see Eren's horrifying and ghastly state. He was unresponsive, and looking rather exhausted. Seriously I sympathise with the poor boy, being pushed way beyond his limits. It was just too much.

His eyebrows furrowed together, "He looks like shit," Levi comments, with disgust.

"I will agree with that," I hum softly, before mounting my horse immediately. Adjusting my posture, I glance back to see Hanji trying to communicate to Eren's unconscious body for a sign. "Alright, let's head back and allow him to recuperate and rest up for the rest of ya!"

"Right!"

Although it seems it was all a failure, it gave us more knowledge to work on what he isn't capable of. It gave us the limits, to know not to cross it again for more further experimenting for the days to come.

*

BACK AT THE HOUSE

Seen it's gonna take some time for Eren to wake up, I decided to put some training into my schedule. After the amount of shit we've been through, I needed to blow off some steam. I didn't feel right to sit and wait, seen I wanted to be prepared for anything to come to pass. Especially with my previous wounds, my body needed to be pushed to it's limits.

I just felt like my mind would clear, if I blow some steam off. 

Training between the stables and house, I began to work on my sharp movements in hand to hand combat. Though training the kids how to defend themselves, I still would remember their complaints or petty excuses to skip their training sessions on a hot summer's day. So to compromise with their efforts, they would get to have a swim at a watering hole not far from the training grounds. The commandant wasn't impressed at first, thinking I was too soft. 

However I explained the situation, and explained what was happening. He slowly gave in to the idea, so they all trained hard expanding more knowledge in their skills to this day.

Sweat glides down my temple, while punching the air in repetitive motions while keeping my balance steadily. Breathing through my burning nose, my lungs were dry from the lack of water I've downed. Pushing through, I changed my actions to a sharp kick vertically into the air with my body facing away. Repeating the same motions from kicking the air, I felt someone approaching me before me.

Lowering my leg, my eyes rest on my boyfriend who stood there resting up against the beam of the house nearby.

"How's Eren doing? Has he woken up yet?" I ask, while grabbing my bottle of water and sculled it quickly. 

He shook his head, "No, but his eyes and flesh has gone back to normal," 

"That's good, some rest will help," I pant through my lips, as my shirt was damp against my lower back and beneath my knees. 

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, "So........how is your wounds? Do they hurt?"

Now he's mentioned it, I didn't really take much notice to any discomfort to my previous wounds. Rolling my shoulders back to ease the tension, I shrug them with a soft hum.

"Nope, seems like they've healed enough," I assume. "Besides......it's been roughly a week or since the female titan attacked, and I feel much better after some rest."

He breathes out with relief washing over his handsome face, running his fingers through his raven locks.

"Good, that's the main thing," He admits softly, before taking off his vest. "Alright, how about we spar then? See if you're back to yourself, and see who's stronger now?"

Arching an eyebrow realising he was challenging me, as if I've gotten softer.

"Oh okay, let's do that then?" agreeing to his challenge, he walks up to me. Knowing we didn't have to warn each other, I prepared myself for him to jump in first. Our eyes steadily meet, eyeing each other down. 

Within a second we were hand in hand with our combat, as his punches meet my forearms firmly. Guarding my face, I soon duck down swiftly about to take him out from his feet. He jumps up out of instinct, before swinging his foot to my head. I raise my arm and clenched firmly, taking the full brunt of his attack. He nearly hit my head, but I use all my strength and pushed his foot away. 

His eyes were darting around, trying to predict my next move.

Using my other arm I sent a sharp jab to his ribs, before taking his arm and twisted it around to his back. He somehow managed to get out of the lock, before gripping beneath my armpit from behind him he throws me over the shoulder in front. I brace for the impact, planting both feet down breaking the earth beneath me. He grunts in response, while our eyes meet for a flash second upside down.

Giving him a quick wink, I took my chance and yanked him forward releasing me.

Bouncing back to my feet I whip my head around, as my hair messily covers my eyes facing him again. Charging towards him, I gather the momentum and jumped upon his shoulders. Locking my legs around his chest, my body swings around locking into a scissor leg takedown. Building the strength with my thighs, I twist his body with mine sending him to the ground. He quickly collects himself, taken back from that move while skidding across the earth.

He arches an eyebrow, while I smirk ushering him to proceed.

Taking his first move he rushes towards me, while I do the same. However I drop down skidding across the ground, before swiping his foot beneath him. His body towers over mine, when his arms swiftly pin my arms to the ground. Catching me off guard, his knees dig into my thighs painfully. His strength weighs me down, while his eyes pierce into my own with intensity.

"Looks like you're out of moves," He clicks his tongue, but allowing to think he was strong, I took the opportunity to channel my strength turning him over. We roll over in a gust of dirt, while my eyes playfully glance down to his. 

"Ready to give up?" I tease softly, when I felt the wind being knocked from my lungs with his boot. He pushes me to the ground, but I recover standing up to see him to an upper kick to his feet. He charges again throwing punches one by one, my arms shielding my face in response. 

Swiftly I bend down and knocked his feet off the ground, my eyes flickering to meet his for a second.

He hits the ground with a heavy gasp of air, as I rush and pinned him down. Applying pressure against