A.N.

Hey, everyone! It's been a while and I've been able to receive more information I was looking for from these recent Manga updates. This chapter, however, was still a hassle for me, but I finally got it done!

After looking through the comments, I've noticed a lot of them (though vary) are pretty much the same and thus I'll be answering them below.

"Update [soon] pls!" -Your wish is granted!

"What kind of powers will Eren have?" -I'm cannot reveal this as it would ruin the whole story for you. But you may continue to guess. :)

"Is the 13-year lifespan a thing in this?" -Yes, though this is an AU it is Canon-divergence so you'll find stuff like this to be the same.

"Does Marley exist here?" -Same as the one above, yes, the Nation of Marley and the Eldians exist as well as their history that's been revealed to us in the Manga. Certain aspects of their history are different, though, and will be explained further down the road.

Now onto the new chapter!

Summary: Grisha reveals more of what he knows of Eren's power.

A knock on his door alerted Grisha to the waiting person on the other side.

"Come in!" He called out, keeping his eyes glued to the microscope as he adjusted the lens.

"Grisha?" He heard someone say, "It's me, Hange." He lifted his attention from his work, recognizing her voice instantly.

"Oh hey." He greeted, "How's Eren doing? Is everything okay?"

Hange closed the door behind her and took a quick sweep of the room to make sure they were alone. It seemed every one of her conversations as of late was to be kept private. "Yeah, everything's fine. He's holding up better than expected." She reassured him, remaining to stand next to the door as Grisha remained seated. "I actually came here to talk to you about something else, though."

"If it's about that project we've been working on for the past few years, I've finally finished the formula." He replied as he opened his desk drawer and pulled out one of his notebooks. "Here. I've checked it over twice, but we should still test it first before applying it to any real circumstances." He said as he brought it over to her.

"Yes, and hopefully it won't have to come to that," She told him in accepting the notebook. Her face lowered as she looked at him earnestly, "but that's not what I came here to talk to you about."

He furrowed his eyebrows in sensing her seriousness all of the sudden, "What's wrong?"

"It's about Mikasa… and her family." Upon hearing this, Grisha's eyes drifted to the floor and he returned to his chair at his desk. They remained there in silence before Grisha finally spoke up, his eyes staring at the wood.

"Did you…" he hesitated, "force her to tell you?"

"No," Hange answered as honest as ever, "she told us all that she wanted to."

"What do you know, then?"

"About the bandits," Hange sighed as she took a few steps away from the door, "and that you and Eren were there for a check-up when her parents got killed." She explained with a few arm motions, "We also know that Mikasa and Eren took care of said bandits on their own with Eren using his shifting abilities." She watched him carefully, her face softened.

She continued, "Don't get me wrong, I have no qualms with them killing bandits—in fact, no one would care, really—but the fact that Eren killed them as a titan at such a young age…" She explained, noting how Grisha too nodded his head in understanding. He placed his glasses on the table and cupped his head in his hand.

"Grisha, you never reported it in. Nile doesn't know about it and if he somehow does find out, they'll take him. There'd be little we as the Survey Corp could do." A silence fell between them as Grisha thought long and hard about his response.

"I didn't report it in because I couldn't." He said, finally gazing up at her, "How was I to explain the mangled corpse and another missing? Not to mention my own "death" when those bastards shot me." He told her, looking down at his lap now, "Believe me, I wanted to report it in, but I couldn't."

"What did you do?"

He sighed, "I gave the Ackermans a proper funeral and burned the bodies I could find. I set the house on fire hoping it would look like an accident for anyone that found it.

Truth be told, I didn't worry too much about the Military Police finding out. Even if they did know what happened, I didn't think they'd bother. The Ackermans were heavily discriminated against; Mrs. Ackerman especially because of her bloodline."

"Well," she said, "You did what you could."

"What are you guys going to do?"

She only shrugged, "Nothing we really can do besides keep it a secret, even though it doesn't feel right to." Hange said as she walked over and plopped down into his one-seater sofa. "I mean, all of it was in self-defense; any reasonable person can see that. But Nile…"

He smiled at her, "Heh, he's just trying to do his job and protect the people inside these walls." He said while rubbing his temples.

"Yeah well, he needs to relax and be a little more open-minded. I mean before, I could easily ignore him, but now he's just insufferable." She said with her more quirky side beginning to show again.

"I must admit though, I kind of wish I was there to have witnessed it all." This earned a curious glance from him, "I mean, thinking about it now, it really was lucky for Eren to have gotten his abilities from you." Hange said without looking at Grisha, her chin in the crevice of her fingers. Said doctor's kind gaze instantly dropped at hearing those words and looked away.

Hange continued, "Who knows what might have happened if he didn't have that power to protect himself and Mikasa...

Oh well, thank God for heredity, right? What a wonderful thing it is." She finished with a look that told him to 'speak now or forever hold your peace'. When he didn't return her gaze, she frowned at him before covering it up with another smile and getting up off the couch.

"But anyway, thanks again for the notes." She gestured to the notebook in her hands. "I'll get my science team on this right away and hopefully we can test it sometime soon." She informed him as she made her way to the door.

"Hange-san…" Grisha called out just as she grabbed the doorknob.

"Hmmm?" Anticipation was written all over her face.

Grisha's lips parted to speak, but no words made their way out. He fought with himself internally but only ended up bowing his head, sending her a message of shame as he closed his eyes. As the silence grew between them, Hange grew impatient and decided to make the move for him.

"Grisha," She let his name hold its value, "Eren didn't get his abilities because of heredity, did he?"

Seconds ticked by before he shook his head with a soft, "No."

"Why lie to us then?"

"I wasn't lying!" His tone turned desperate, uncharacteristically so. "It's true that he got his abilities from me, but heredity wasn't the proper term to use for it…?" he struggled with his words, "I don't know! He did get his powers from me—no, no, he took them from me and I don't understand how!"

"What?" She asked with underlining concern. Her hand fell away from the doorknob and she positioned herself to face her colleague.

Grisha growled and stood from his chair to pace the room, "This is why I didn't bother because it's ridiculous and unbelievable and impossible. I can't even explain it to myself, how do you expect me to explain it to you?!"

"Just calm down, we only want the truth. The more we can understand Eren's power, the better we can help him control it."

His glasses reflected the lights in the room, hiding his eyes, "That's just it, it's not something you can just put behind scientific reasoning." She watched him closely, "I've tried that, you know: the heredity, but that failed too. If you want the truth, you won't find it by any scientific means.

It all sounds absurd, I know, but believe me when I say that his power isn't something we can fully understand. On the surface, perhaps, but underneath…

Don't venture there, Hange. He's not like the rest of us, he's not a normal titan shifter."

"Wha—do—do you mean to tell me that you've seen something we haven't?!" she exclaimed in suspense.

Grisha only stood there frozen in place, his eyes caught in a thousand-yard stare as he relived the memories of that night…

"Eren… son… please, trust me." He said with a shaky voice.

"What are you doing?" Eren asked, his voice almost inaudible. He watched his father fill the syringe with a strange liquid from another vial.

"I'm going to give you something," Grisha replied, but Eren backed away holding his arms for protection. "I'm sorry it has to be you, but I trust no one else with this, not even myself." He began to explain, "I can't do this Eren; you may be the only one able to use it. Please, hold still." He pleaded as the tears also began to fall down his own cheeks.

"No…" Eren kept backing away as Grisha came near him, "What are you doing? Daddy… I don't like you like this…"

"I'm sorry, Eren. Please, don't be scared. I'm sure you won't remember any of this, and it'll happen very quickly."

"You're scaring me!" Eren yelled as his father was finally able to grab hold of his arm.

"You have to promise me you won't give up, that you won't stop trying!"

"No! Stop it! Don't do that! Why are you like this?!"

"Eren, LISTEN to me! You have to learn how to control this power! Everyone depends on you now! Mikasa, Armin, the Scouts, everyone is depending on you!"

"Dad, stop!" Eren yelled as the syringe was held in place against his skin, but before his father was able to inject the liquid into him, something inside of him came to life.

A spark was lit and Eren's body burst forth steam. The force of the steam threw Grisha back, knocking the syringe from his hands.

"EREN!" He yelled as he fell, collapsing on the ground with a pained grunt. The syringe crashed against a tree and broke in two, the liquid inside dissipating into thin air.

The white fog surrounded him now and the trees around him disappeared as it got thicker. As Grisha stood up, he noticed how the fog did not cover him but flowed around him. It did not touch him.

"Eren…?" He called out shakenly as he tried to peer into the dense fog ahead. But he couldn't see anything, that is until two large, green, glowing eyes opened up within the mist. He gasped and staggered backward, falling down onto his butt as the impossibly large eyes stared right back at him. They closed once more and turned blue when they opened to see him again.

"We do not do it this way anymore… father." Grisha was too stunned for words.

"Hold still." The disembodied voice said as the mist began to move in. Grisha ended up being enveloped in the fog and breathed it in. His throat began to burn and soon his whole body followed before the pain moved to his back.

He screamed as steam began to rise from his skin as if an injury was healing. And as the steam left him, he felt his own breath being pulled out as well. Just when he thought he might collapse from lack of oxygen, the last of the mist left him. His lungs were able to function once more and his body was free from the tension and pain. Nonetheless, he fell down onto his hands and knees, panting.

A bright light emitted in front of him, but his eyes were glued to the ground.

"Thank you."

The mist around him began to fade and the forest became clear once again. He only looked up when all he could hear was his own breaths.

Eren was lying unconscious on the ground ahead of him. His instinct kicked in and fear clouded his mind as he rushed over to him.

"Eren…? Eren!" He called for him to wake, lifting him up into his arms. Eren breathed but was limp and unresponsive. His temples were burned with the titan's mark and his skin was as hot as an oven.

Grisha sat there staring down at him in bewilderment. A million questions rushed through his mind, but the one thing that stood out the most to him was the fact that they were gone.

The memories from the Founding Titan power… were gone.

"He's not one of the nine…" Grisha whispered just as a droplet of blood began to drip from his nose. Hange was about to say something just as he wiped it away before proceeding to clutch his head. "I don't feel well…"

"Hey, hey, hey?!" Hange called out as she sprung forward to catch him as his balance wavered. She helped him sit back down in his chair. "Your forehead's hot; you may have a fever." She examined. "Hang on, let me go get some help."

"Hange… wait…" he whispered weakly as she returned to the door.

"Just hold that thought, I'll be right back. And don't you dare move!" she warned him before rushing out.

"But… he still has a name… his titan; like the rest…" he mumbled even though Hange was long gone now. "I remember now… he told me. His titan…'s the Atl… The At…" his voice failed and he closed his eyes to better focus on his breathing.

The night was still and quiet save for the crackling fire and the hollow breaths of Eren's titan. Levi enjoyed the peace as he poked the cinders below the burning wood, his eyes flickering up at his sleeping comrades and their shifter.

Remarkably so, Eren had managed to fall asleep quite quickly. If Hange were here watching him now, he'd guess she'd be up on his chest analyzing his heartbeat or something weird like that. She'd probably be saying how cool it was that he was laying on his back as if it was some instinct to protect his nape or how interesting it was that he never moved possibly due to sleep paralysis in order to protect the humans around him. He could practically hear her making all those points now.

Oddly enough, Hange had been gone nearly the entire night and Levi was beginning to wonder if she had stopped to go to the bathroom on the way back and fell in the toilet.

It wasn't until he heard the sound of footprints behind him that he turned his attention away from said shifter. A soldier approached him, at first in a hurry, but eased his pace when he came closer to them. He knelt down beside Levi and whispered something in his ear.

Levi's eyes grew as the information was passed and he moved to stand on his feet in an instant. His gaze lifted up to the wall walk where Mike too was watching the forms below. When their eyes met, Levi motioned him down.

Though her back was to them and her eyes were set on Eren, Mikasa heard the soft chatter going on behind her. She couldn't make anything out, but it sounded urgent. She stopped playing and turned over to sit up just in time to see the soldier and Mike run off.

Levi glanced over at her as he returned to his seat by the fire, "You can return to staring at him." He told her nonchalantly.

"What's going on?" she questioned, ignoring his previous comment.

"It's nothing to worry about."

Mikasa narrowed her eyes at his secrecy and continued to watch him, waiting for the answer she asked for. Levi sighed without looking up, "The only thing you need to worry about is that brat over there."

Mikasa turned to Eren in question. She couldn't agree more with that statement, but still, if something was up she wanted to know about it. Regardless, she listened and laid back down.

The night moved on as such with the morning coming quickly. Hange's absence was noticed by Eren and his friends the following afternoon when Levi started their daily running exercise without her. Any questions that popped up though were dismissed by him and his subordinates in saying she was dealing with other matters for now. For the rest of that day, Eren's experiment was overseen by Levi and Moblit.

On the third day of Eren's experiment, Hange returned with a bit more perk in her attitude than usual, but the nature of her absence was still kept under the table and would remain so. With her return, however, they were able to proceed with the experiment as originally planned.

With all the running exercises, Eren's speed had increased exponentially with him now able to outrun the horses. And with the third day coming to a close, they chose to use this time of rest for another test Hange had prepared. With all the logs he had uprooted days earlier, Eren was now given the opportunity to build what he could out of them, in which case, he built a log cabin. Remarkably so, Eren's titan had shown great motor skills as the cabin he built was structurally sound and was used as their camp for that night.

The following day, Eren's stamina took a turn downhill as he didn't wake up until later on into the afternoon and had little interest in moving around. Most of his time was spent absorbing the sunlight even though he wasn't exhausting his body. When the Scouts got him moving again, though, his speed had decreased quite rapidly as he was unable to keep up with the horse, eventually falling too far behind and stopping altogether.

His eyes were nearly always kept half-lidded and his posture was sluggish with his steps becoming unstable at certain times. Later on into the evening, Eren's titan began to breathe deeply and at a faster pace than what was considered healthy. Upon examining him, Hange found his titan body to be considerably hot and she concluded that he was overheating. Mikasa argued with her that the experiment be done with, but Eren seemed to have calmed down as his breathing helped cool him off.

The fifth and final day of Eren's experiment turned out to be worse than the last. Eren, for lack of a better word, became extremely ornery. He did not move from his spot, he did not listen to their commands, he even yelled back at Levi when Levi yelled at him. He didn't like anyone touching him, He didn't like anyone coming near him, he was constantly moaning and groaning and screaming, and when they tried reasoning with him or to help him he only growled and gave them a death glare.

Levi and Mikasa actually became fearful that he would attack them, but he never did and that night they ended the experiment.

Eren slept for three days afterward with only waking up when hungry, thirsty, or when duty called. During these periods of consciousness, Eren was overall unresponsive or uninterested in any of their questions. Often times he wouldn't answer Hange at all, but when he did, his responses were quick with one-word answers being yes, no, or eh. More times than not, Eren flat out ignored their presence altogether. It made Hange second guess herself that he was really conscious, and she hypothesized that he was more than likely sleep-walking or as Levi coined it, on 'auto-pilot'.

During this time, since Hange returned to Eren's experiment days earlier, Grisha had developed a slight fever and was bed-ridden for one day. He was looked after by the other doctors and was questioned by Erwin and Mike during his periods of consciousness. But Grisha couldn't remember much of his talk with Hange and Erwin was left with the information only the eccentric scientist was able to provide.

When Grisha recovered from his lapse in health he spent most of his time tending to Eren in his cell. And it was during this time that Hange finally informed the group of what went down several days earlier.

"…Not one of the nine?" Armin repeated what Hange had told them. He and Mikasa were dumbfounded, they all were as they sat around the table down in the cellar.

"You're telling me that there are nine shifters altogether?" Levi questioned, a bit irritated at this information they were receiving. Hange confirmed this with a head nod. "Did he say anything else on this matter?"

"No," she replied, "He said Eren's not like the rest of them, that he's not a normal titan shifter."

"That he's not one of the nine," Petra repeated once more for emphasis.

"Precisely."

"He could be indicating that there can only ever be nine," Erd added, "which explains why he was so confused as to why Eren has the ability in the first place. Made him try to reason it with logic to keep his sanity in check."

"The heredity theory, yes." Hange agreed with him.

"Still doesn't help us understand him. If anything, he's more of a threat now." Levi commented dryly.

"Disregarding the last day of the experiment, Eren has shown remarkable consideration of us as a titan." Hange chimed in again. "He's always aware of himself and those around him, thinks highly of you two," she gestured to Mikasa and Armin, "he listens to us, accepts our help and is even curious about his own being as I am."

"So, if anything…" Erd began but drifted off in thought. However, Levi picked up where he left off.

"If anything, it means Eren's hidden power is just what we were hoping for."

"So," Petra began a bit hesitantly, "Is this a good or a bad thing?"

Levi closed his eyes, "Not sure," he then looked over at Mikasa and Armin, "What do you two make out of all of this?"

Armin kept his head down, his hands on his lap and his arms tight against his body, "What worries me the most about what Grisha said was how we shouldn't delve deeper into his power than what was on the surface. That we wouldn't be able to understand it, even if we tried.

People already fear him, see him as a monster. I'm just not so sure what they'd think of him if they found this out." They all watched him with worry in their eyes, "Would we even have a chance to protect him anymore? It's already hard enough."

"Grisha's afraid, but are you?" Levi asked again.

Before Armin could reply, Mikasa answered, "I'm not." She said with the fiercest of confidence.

Armin looked at her in admiration before answering himself, "No, I'm not afraid. But Grisha may be able to understand this more than we can. He is a shifter after all."

"But he can't remember much of anything. Broken memories and all." Petra reminded them.

Armin looked down at his lap again, his shoulders coming up to cover more of his neck. Levi took notice of his uncomfortable posture.

"Is there something you're not telling us, Arlert?" All eyes turned to him once again. And even though he felt the pressure, he took a deep breath and met their gazes.

"When we were growing up, I always… sensed that there was something different about Eren. Even when I first met him…

You know when you meet someone and instantly you just know they're a good, responsible person; someone you can trust? Well, it was kind of like that with Eren. When I first learned of his shifting abilities, I don't know why, but I felt hopeful. And when Grisha told us it was because of heredity, deep down, I doubted him. But I listened and believed him because he was older than me, he was Eren's father, and he knew Eren more than I did.

And hearing it again during our induction ceremony, it reminded me of that doubt."

"And now that sense of doubt has been proven correct." Levi finished for him. "Essentially, what all of this comes down to is if we can continue to trust Eren or not." Levi examined the room and all of their faces. "Since I am the one responsible for the decision to keep him alive, I'd like to know what you guys think. Those of you who trust Eren and his capabilities, raise your hand."

Mikasa immediately raised her hand with Armin following soon after. Hange was a close third, followed by Petra and Erd.

"Hmmm," He bowed his head in thought, eyes closed, "Alright, it's settled then."