Losing Control

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 2:

So Long and Thanks for the Memories

Eren spiralled back into conscious slowly, and painfully. Even before he managed to open his eyes, he slowly became aware of his body. His heartbeat felt like sledgehammer in his chest, his breathing was so shallow, and he was aware of his blood grinding through his veins. His arms and legs were tingling painfully as they regenerated. For a while Eren lay perfectly still, feeling the tingling creep outwards to his extremities; starting at his wrists and ankles, before moving slowly towards his toes and fingers.

He wasn't sure the exact moment that he went from unconscious to conscious, but it seemed that eventually his eyes just opened and he was left staring blankly at a grey stone ceiling. It was a while longer before finally started to shift, twisting his head to look at his surroundings. He was in an old, chilly stone room, lying in a hard mattress wrapped around in a thick, scratchy blanket. And he was naked.

Curiously, Eren lifted his hand upward. The new limb looked identical to the old one, except his fingernails were missing and had yet to regrow. Eren turned his hand in inspection, wincing painfully with the movement. Newly regrown muscles were still so tender.

There was a stir next to him. Eren glimpsed around to see a sleeping figure snoozing in an armchair next to his bed. Mikasa's delicate nose crinkled slightly as she snored softly, curled up tightly in her red scarf. It had always amazed Eren slightly how someone as fine-featured and slender as Mikasa could also be so utterly frightening in battle.

Eren felt so weak and exhausted. He wondered briefly how long he had been asleep, and how long Mikasa had been by his bedside. For a moment, he didn't want to wake Mikasa, but then his mind started to focus and he realised there were things he needed to know.

"Mikasa," Eren hissed softly. "Mikasa!"

Her eyes flickered and she woke quickly. "Eren!" She exclaimed, stifling a yawn. "You're up."

"Yeah." He nodded dumbly. "How long was I out?"

"Two days," Mikasa explained with a grimace. "Things got a little hectic after the fight. The Military Police demanded that we surrender you and Annie into their custody. Erwin refused, and we had to flee the Stohess District."

Eren frowned. "You mean the Survey Corps actually rebelled against the Military?"

"Possibly," Mikasa admitted. "That's still being debated. Erwin argued that Annie had infiltrated the Military Police, there could be other spies, and it wasn't safe to hand her over. It got political. Nobody is quite sure if we've actually been branded traitors, but… well… anyways, we're hiding out in an old castle in Wall Rose, and no one knows where we are."

Eren paused, his head sinking into the pillows. "Right," he muttered finally. He paused, before struggling to sit up. "I've got to get up."

"No!" Mikasa said firmly, pushing him back down. Eren winced. "You just rest. I'll tell Armin you're up and get you some food, but you just need to recover."

Eren struggled. "I need to do someth–"

"No, Eren!" Mikasa snapped, her eyes bright with worry. Her hands clenched. "You need to rest. Please."

He bit his lip for a moment, and then slouched back down. He paused briefly as he stared out of the window, out over a large forest and hills. He didn't recognise the area.

"Mikasa…" Eren asked slowly, mind whirring. "…Where's Annie?"

She hesitated for brief second. "She's here," Mikasa said finally. "In the bottom dungeon, surrounded by steel nets."

Eren wondered briefly how he could possibly verbalise the stream of thoughts flowing through his head. "What's happening to her?" He said simply.

Mikasa's face was emotionless. "She's being interrogated," she replied. "She's Captain Levi's problem now."

Captain Levi polished his scalpel slowly, even though the blade was already sparkling clean. He sat completely still and impassive, and only someone who knew him really well would be able to tell how troubled he was. Perhaps for the first time in history, humanity finally had a captive who could spread some light on the mystery surrounding the Titans. If Annie was willing to go to such lengths for her cause, it was fully expected that she would have to be interrogated to find answers.

In this case, 'interrogation' was a polite word for 'tortured', and that was where Levi had a problem. The more he thought about what was expected of him, the more troubling the situation became.

Not that he had any moral qualms about torturing somebody, of course, but rather Levi had a problem with torturing someboddy badly.

The concept was simple enough; the interrogator inflicts pain and asks questions, and then the interrogatee tries to stop the pain by answering questions. Inexperienced interrogators often thought that that was simple, and the trick was just to inflict more pain to get them to talk more. That train of thought led to a whole series of poorly executed torture sessions, and also to dozens of commanders with mistaken misconceptions about the effectiveness of torture.

Levi was not inexperienced, though. There was a power dynamic involved with torturing someone, and it wasn't always in the interrogator's favour.

The big problem was that he had absolutely no means of verifying anything that Annie had said. She might spin a story about Titans being created by magical pixie dust, and Levi would have no way of saying definitely whether that was true or not.

Contrary to popular belief, people didn't become more honest when they were being tortured, they became more desperate. Torture victims would find a story that their interrogator wanted to hear and they would stick to it, which throughout history had led to commanders having their own misguided conceptions verified in the worst possible way.

Even worse was that, when interrogation was done badly, the captive could quite easily learn more than the interrogator. For example, if Levi asked 'Where do Titans come from?', then the only one who would actually learn anything for certain would be Annie, who'd learn that Levi didn't know where the Titans came from. Torture was essentially a game played for information, but there was a very real possibility that by asking questions then the interrogatee could learn more about the interrogator than the interrogator learned about them.

Levi knew that it had to be done, but the situation still sucked. There was a lot depending on the information extracted from Annie, and yet she held all the cards. Unreliable information was worse than no information at all, but Levi had to somehow find a way of getting accurate information despite walking into the prison cell at a complete disadvantage.

Well, not a complete disadvantage, Levi conceded. He still had his scalpel, of course; that was kind of the whole point.

With a sigh, Levi finally decided on a game plan, slipped the scalpel into his pocket, and walked slowly towards the prison cell. Annie was being kept in a hastily but strongly steel reinforced dungeon, decided specifically to render the Titan form useless. She was guarded by five men at all times, and she was kept chained securely to the wall, standing upright.

Even if she did try to transform, her Titan form would be shredded and contained by the steel wires surrounding her and she'd never be able to create a working body. At worst, the small prison cell could be filled with incomplete Titan flesh, but she'd still be immobilised and at which point the guards cut through and disable her. At least that was the completely theoretical plan.

Of course, anyone who was actually inside the room with her when she tried to transform would be in huge peril, which was another reason why Levi was so troubled by the whole situation. This really is the worst possible circumstances for torture that I could possibly have imagined, Levi thought grimly. She had too much power and he never had enough.

Still, he had a job to do. He pushed open the heavy metal door slowly, and walked in.

He glanced only briefly at Annie, his face completely impassive. When it came to torture, emotions were for amateurs. Levi took absolutely no pleasure in his work, but there was no hatred or disdain there either. He was just a professional, this was a job, and she was a slab of meat.

Annie was chained tightly to the wall by the wrists and ankles. Her blonde hair was dirty and dishevelled, and her skin was pale. She had been stripped out of her clothes, and was left completely naked and dirty. It was a humiliating and indecent, but that was the whole point. Naked prisoners couldn't hide any weapons, and the torture was mental as a well as physical.

Her body was slender but very well-toned. Pale thighs, narrow waist, flat stomach, small breasts, Levi ran his eyes over her completely dispassionately. Annie glared at him, shoulders slouched, mouth tightened and her eyes were dark, but Levi could see the fear in there too. Neither of them said a word.

Attitude was everything. Levi wasted no time with greetings, or gloating, or even formalities. Anything he had to say was meaningless; he had no real information on her, nothing to use to play her, and no known vulnerabilities for mind games. She was the one who had to talk, not him.

There was a pause. The air was tense, despite Levi's uncaring, almost casual demeanour. Very, very slowly, because anticipation was half the pain, Levi took out his scalpel.

"Tell me what I want to know."

That was all Levi said. That was all he was planning on saying. There were no questions, just that simple statement. Annie met Levi's eyes, and there was absolutely no doubt in there. They stared at each other for a while, and then, slowly, Levi lifted the scalpel upwards.

Annie's eyes widened in shock and fear. "No, no, please don't!" She shouted loudly, her body thrashing as the blade crept closer. "… Please… don't – ARGH! No, stop–!"

Levi went for the right shoulder first, slowly digging the blade right beneath the shoulder blade, through soft skin and straight for the nerve. Annie screaming furiously, but Levi was already blocking out any noise that wasn't important. Torturers learnt quickly how to deaden themselves.

There was a trick to inflicting pain. Everybody had their own limit. The problem was, if you were too overzealous, then the victim would just shut down. It was quite possible for someone to suffer so much pain that they stop feeling anymore. In other case, pain could kill them, or drop them into a coma, or even render them a useless wreck. It was another difficulty of torturing; you had to learn to recognise their limits, and work around each individual interrogatee, and every point you had to ensure that they were always capable of communicating.

Firstly, Levi started off with scratches, precise scalpel wounds to the soft skin and sensitive nerves. It would hurt a lot, but that pain would mostly just be a primer. After that, he'd probably pull off her fingernails – that was an old favourite but still effective.

Next, if there was still no cooperation, he would go for the mutilation, and that was typically the point where most people broke. A lot of people could take pain, and they could even accept scars, but the concept of being horribly and permanently disfigured would crack them. Pulling out teeth, gruesome scars across their faces, severed fingers; things that would mark them for life. The trick was to start off small and work upwards, methodical, slow and consistent. At every point the victim had to completely and utterly believe that you would fulfil your promises.

If none of that worked then, well, at that point Levi would have to get creative.

That was all he thought about as he slowly sunk the scalpel into Annie's shoulder. Patience and apathy were both key in a good torture session. She was screaming wordlessly now, struggling to breathe through the pain.

Of course, Levi thought with a grimace; Annie is a Titan shifter, so she can actually regenerate any injury. If it wasn't permanent, then mutilation just doesn't have the same impact. Perhaps I will need to get creative in this case.

However, if he ever reached the point where she would rather die than endure anymore, then he had obviously gone too far. A person with nothing to live for had no reason to talk. It was a fine line that he had to walk.

He slowly pulled the blade out. The blood was already streaming from the wound, flowing down her breasts and her stomach and dripping onto the ground. Levi paused to bandage up the injury quickly – if she fell unconscious from blood loss, then that didn't help anybody.

"Why are you doing this?" Annie demanded, her voice croaking with pain and worry. Her eyes were wide and fearful. Levi paused to analyse her expression for a moment, and then continued. "Why are you doing this? What are you doing to me?!"

Levi targeted the groove of the elbow this time, digging in the scalpel until she couldn't scream any longer. "Tell me what I want to know," Levi repeated slowly, taking out another bandage.

"What?" Annie croaked. Levi didn't visibly react. "What do you want?"

She thrashed the chains furiously. "What do you want from me?!"

There was just the faintest flicker of a frown on Levi's face. This time, he went for the soft skin right above the eyeball, digging the sharp edge straight into the nerve. The pain was so intense that she couldn't even scream; she just gasped for breath as her body twitched.

She was crying furiously, the tears mixing with the blood. "Who are you?" Annie choked hoarsely, voice cracking with fear. "What is this place?! Why are you doing this to me?!"

She is a spy, Levi told himself; she had lied for a living. He would treat her like a professional too. Levi knew the type of things people could come up with during torture and he wouldn't let himself be swayed by anything. He kept his face completely and utterly expressionless.

"Tell me…" Levi said carefully, raising his scalpel towards her face. "… What I want to know."

Annie writhed and screamed. "I don't know!" She begging through weeping breaths. "I don't know…!" She gasped as the blade was inches away from her eye. "… I don't know…!"

It was a long, long interrogation session.

By the time Levi emerged from the prison cell, he was greeted by five horrified stares from the guards. Levi was too distracted to notice. He walked out of the prison and went straight for the sink, slowly cleaning his bloody hands and scalpel as he thought furiously over what just happened.

Erwin arrived back at the castle late that night, and the commander was eager to be told about everything that happened during Annie's interrogation. It was midnight by the time he was set up in his office, but that didn't matter. An urgent meeting was called, with the Survey Corps' top members. Levi was called to present, along with Mike Zacharius and Hange Zoe.

At Erwin's insistence, and because they also had the most experience with Annie Leonhard, some members of the 104th Trainee Squad were also called: Eren, obviously, along with Mikasa, Armin and Jean; the ones that had been a part of plan the capture of Annie in the first place.

Eren was left the only one in casual clothes, straight out of his recovery bed, while the others were wearing their uniforms. The office was completely bare with nothing but an empty desk and chairs. They were all impatiently waiting and tense, but Eren was so bad that he was twitching in anticipation and vague dread. Levi, of course, was late, having stopped to change his clothes before coming up.

"What sort of interrogation methods did the captain use?" Eren demanded finally, to the quiet room. Nobody answered straight away. Armin avoided his gaze firmly.

"Whatever methods he deemed appropriate," Erwin replied simply.

Eren's fists clenched but he didn't reply. About five minutes later, Levi walked through the door, nodded respectfully to Erwin, and took a seat.

"Well, we can begin," Erwin said quietly. At night, the room, lit only by flickering candles, felt so quiet that he didn't need to raise his voice. "I have been busy appealing to our supporters in government. Many can accept the necessity of our actions, but after the destruction of Stohess District, the Military Police are leading the charge and demanding that Annie Leonhart – and you, Eren – be forcefully taken into their custody. There is also the call that I step down as commander of the Survey Corps after my part in organising the destruction." He paused, and glanced towards Levi as he held his hands together. "Before we can decide the next move, we need to discuss the interrogation of the prisoner. Her intelligence about our enemy could well change the tide of this battle."

There was the faintest hint of a question in that last statement. All eyes turned to Levi, who paused. "I did not manage to extract any useful intelligence, commander," Levi said finally. "The interrogation was unsuccessful."

Erwin's eyes were firm. Eren glared at him. "And why not?"

"Annie claimed to be completely unaware of anything, despite my best efforts," Levi said simply, with a flicker in his eyes. "When pushed, she said that she was not aware of any conspiracy, or enemy within the walls."

No one reacted. Levi paused for half a second, and then continued. "When pushed further, she claimed that she did not know what the Titans were, that she was unaware that she was Titan Shifter, and the she never attempted to kidnap Eren. Indeed, she was unaware who Eren was." Levi glanced towards Eren briefly. "As a matter of fact, she claimed that couldn't even remember her own name."

The statement was met by stunned silence as his words were slowly processed. Armin looked speechless. "What?" The short blonde said in a surprised voice. "You mean that Annie is claiming memory loss?"

"Amnesia?" Jean exclaimed loudly, looking at Levi incredulously. "Are you fucking kidding me? She's saying that she's got amnesia?!"

Slowly, Levi looked at Jean and raised an eyebrow quietly. The tall rookie gulped, and then silently sat back down respectfully. Levi turned to Erwin, quietly thinking to himself.

"So Annie is clearly faking memory loss to avoid giving us information," Erwin said finally. "It is a fairly common and usually ineffective torture avoidance technique. Why exactly did this prove an obstacle during your interrogation?"

Eren's hands clenched so tightly they hurt while he stared firmly at the floor. Levi met Erwin's gaze impassively. "Because I believe her," Levi admitted. "I believe that she seriously does not remember even remember her own identity."

Jean nearly gagged. Armin looked amazed. Erwin just kept his elbows on the desk, hands held together. "Explain," Erwin ordered.

"I was with her for twelve hours today," Levi explained. "I've seen people use the amnesia excuse before, but this wasn't like those times. I didn't hold back on my methods at all throughout the interrogation, but by the end I was convinced that she was telling the truth. It was the little things, you see. She didn't admit to not knowing, she couldn't. When she reached the point she was willing to lie desperately to satisfy me, the lies that she told were clearly ridiculous, because she didn't know, well, anything, but she still stuck to them to the point of pain. Even if she was that good of an actor; it was things like how she mispronounced the names of places, because she couldn't remember hearing them before. At one point, she was actually surprised when her body started to regenerate."

Regenerate. Eren had to grit his teeth as he heard that word, just imagining the things that Levi had done to Annie. He knew that Annie was enemy and he knew that torture was probable, but the thought still made him sick. And then there was Levi's tone as he explained; it was the same lazy drawl as if he was explaining what happened in a mildly interesting book he read. It took everything Eren had not to explode in outrage.

"But the main reason I believe her is because Annie is not stupid," Levi continued. "She never acted stupid during her interrogation; she acted like she just didn't know anything. There is a difference. Moreover, I cannot think of any reason why she would put on this act if it wasn't genuine. She must know that there is a huge amount of evidence against her and that her guilt is undeniable, and she must also know that we would never let her go even if she did have amnesia. From her point of view, faking amnesia is a stupid decision which would never benefit her, and I don't believe that she is stupid." Levi stared at Erwin firmly. "So yes, in conclusion, I do believe that something happened to her during her capture that made her lose her memories."

Erwin's hands tightened slightly. The room was tense. Everyone looked confused. Eren gulped slightly, still staring at the floor as he felt his mind go wild. That moment during his fight with Annie was still crystal clear. He hadn't told anyone about it, because how could he explain it? Still…

"How much does Annie claim not to remember?" Erwin demanded finally, looking towards Hange and Mike for their opinions. Mike sniffed the air curiously.

"As far as I can tell, everything," Levi explained. "She has no recollection of her childhood or off her training, or the people she knew. The curious thing is that she retains many of her skills. She could recognise and use 3DMG, even though she had no idea about what Titans were. Again, she seemed very confused as she herself recognised the holes in her memory. It was the little bits of imperfections that made her story realistic."

"That could be faked, if she's that clever," Erwin argued.

"True," Levi admitted. "But I can't see the point in it for her."

"Perhaps in order to make us have this conversation now," Armin noted.

"Also true," Levi said simply. "I'm well aware of that too."

Erwin glanced towards Hange, who shook her head. "I don't think it's likely," she admitted, adjusting her glasses. "I've seen head injuries and I've seen amnesia before. Amnesia just doesn't work like that. Is she capable of taking on new information?"

"Yes." Levi nodded. "She learnt quite fast, actually."

"In real amnesia, I would expect head injury, or a lack of self-awareness, or a defective short-term memory," Hange explained. "Ignoring the fact that Annie never actually had a head injury when we brought her in, I don't recall seeing any signs during my inspection. It can't be amnesia."

The room nodded. All eyes except Eren's were staring at Levi doubtfully. "So she's faking?" Jean said finally. "Annie's just managed to dupe you too? She's a liar and she's faking it to try and weasel her way–"

Eren grimaced. He had to say something. There was just the moment during the battle… "She's not faking it," Eren said suddenly, catching them all off guard. "Annie really can't remember anything."

At ones, everyone stared at him. Eren twitched hesitantly. His pulse was racing. "How do you know?" Erwin demanded coolly.

"Because… Because…" Eren gulped, trying to find the right way to say it. Every way he imagined just seemed so wrong. Eren met Levi's eyes, and there was a vague knowing in there. Levi was the only one who didn't look even remotely surprised by Eren's statement. "…Because… when I was fighting Annie, well, I think I might have…"

He was twitching slightly. Eren still remembered that moment sharply. He had touched Annie, the air had seemed to spark, and then suddenly there had been so many… memories overwhelming him. Eren never knew what had happened; it had just been a feeling, and was had to verbalise a feeling. "… I think might have erased Annie's memories…" Eren admitted finally, wincing slightly.

The statement was met by shock silence. Eren kept on staring guilty at the fall. Jean was the first to react. "You what?!" Jean exclaimed loudly, staring at Eren with his mouth open.

"I didn't know what I was doing!" Eren protested. "It was an accident!"

Jean's eyes bulged. "Oh, it was accident. It's alright everyone, it was an accident," he said sarcastically, motioning his arms around madly. "It was a bloody accident? How did you – What did, you just trip or something and – whoops – sorry Annie, were those your memories? You weren't using those, were you? My bad."

"Jean," Mikasa said warningly, but she was staring at Eren in shock herself.

"No!" Jean shouted, glancing at the room. They were all frozen silent. "How come nobody else is freaking out about this? I'm freaking out about this! I mean, this guy destroyed her memories. Destroyed. Her. Memories. What the flaming hell?!"

"Eren," Erwin said firmly. There was flicker in his eyes; it wasn't just shock, there was something else as well. "Eren, how did you do that?"

"I don't know," Eren confessed. "I mean, I was losing control the Titan, I was angry, I was thinking about Annie, and it all just… happened…"

"Can you describe it?" Erwin insisted.

"It was like… it was like a feeling more than anything…" Eren stammered. "Have you ever just did something instinctively that you can't explain? I can't even think of the words, there was just this sensation, and it happened, and I was just so confused, but all hit me and so these images and… and memories and it… it…"

"It's alright," Mikasa soothed suddenly, taking Eren's hand. "Slow down."

Eren took a deep breath. "… and I felt everything disappear. I was like I was in Annie's head and I felt it go black. I don't know what happened, it was just too overwhelming I couldn't focus or make sense of it," he said softly. "I wasn't even sure if it had actually happened at all until Levi said…"

His voice trailed off. Nobody knew what to say. Eyes flicked between Erwin and Eren. "Can you undo it?" Erwin asked finally, scratching his chin.

"I don't know."

"Can you do it again?" There was just a hint of something in his voice.

Eren shook his head. "I don't know."

"Indeed," Erwin muttered, placing his hands on the table.

Hange stared at Eren in a mixture of shock and wonder. "Does this mean that Titans have some sort of memory manipulation ability?" She muttered, deep in thought. "But how come we've never… unless…"

"Annie was supposed to be the first good lead we've ever had," Armin muttered slowly. He looked visibly uncomfortable, glancing towards Eren through the corner of his eye. "She's the only one who can point us at the real enemy here…"

Erwin nodded slowly. "You're right. Lack of information is our greatest disadvantage," he muttered. His eyes were blank as he thought thoroughly. "It is time we remedy that situation."

The commander paused. "Eren, I would like you to work with Hange for now," Erwin said finally. "And I would like you both to investigate this memory ability of yours."

Hange grinned excitedly with the thought, nodding her head eagerly. Mike frowned. "So you believe that Eren erased Annie's memories now?"

"I'm accepting it as a working theory," Erwin replied coolly. "But neither have I dismissed the possibility that Annie Leonhard is simply faking, nor do expect anybody else to dismiss that possibility as well."

Levi nodded. "Very well."

"But nevertheless, she is valuable information source that we cannot afford to neglect," Erwin continued, his voice firm. "So from now on, I also want Eren to assist Captain Levi during the interrogation of Annie."

Eren's eyes widened in surprised. "What?"

"There are two possibilities; either Annie is trying to manipulating us, or she is not," Erwin explained. "If she is faking her memory loss, then we will use Eren to get close to her, and she will then try to manipulate Eren in order to escape. She risked much to capture him for her cause the first time, and I don't believe that has changed. She will be forced to attempt to convert Eren to her side, which would require sharing information. We can use that to our advantage.

"Alternatively, if Annie really has had her memories erased, then Eren should still approach her in order to both investigate what he did to her, and to see whether it can be undone." Erwin looked firmly at Eren. "Either way, it seems beneficial for Eren to assist in the interrogation, using… friendlier methods. Levi will oversee the interrogation, and for now work on the presumption that Annie really has lost her memory."

Eren tried to say something, but his throat choked. The thought of seeing Annie again was vaguely terrifying. Instead, he just forced a nod. Levi's eyes flickered, but he didn't say anything.

"I believe that that is enough for tonight," Erwin said finally. "It is late yet it will doubtlessly be a busy day tomorrow. However, please keep everything mentioned tonight quiet; until we have verified the situation, consider everything said in this room to be top secret."

Mikasa and Armin nodded. Jean still looked upset, but he muttered an agreement. The room felt heavy and quiet as, one by one, they stood up and left. Hange looked ready to assault Eren straight away for her research, but then Mike placed his hand on her shoulder and she relented. Eren felt absolutely shattered as he walked away. The thought of interrogating Annie tomorrow caused his heart to race in a way that promised he wouldn't be able sleep.

Levi was the only one who didn't leave the room. By unspoken agreement, Levi stayed sitting patiently in the commander's office while everyone else left. Mike shut the door behind them, leaving Levi and Erwin alone in the room.

"So…" Levi said finally. "… You never seem surprised when Eren mentioned that he erased her memories."

Erwin smiled softly. "Was that a question?"

Levi stared at him impassively. "You knew about that power of Eren's, didn't you?"

"Heh," Erwin said with a sigh, relaxing very slightly in his chair. He had sat so upright during the meeting. "Did you know that my father was a history teacher? He was a quite brilliant one too, though that was wasted in a classroom teaching a censored syllabus. One day, I asked a question he could not answer, and he took to one side and he explained that the official textbooks from the government contained many contradictions. As far as anyone can tell, life as we know it changed drastically 107 years ago, and all knowledge of the outside world has been systematically erased from existence."

Levi sat quietly, listening intently. "Of course, any books and records could be destroyed. There has undoubtedly been a huge effort from the government to track down any references and those with knowledge of them," Erwin explained, his eyes glistening over. "But that is easiest thing to explain. As far as history is concerned, 107 years is not very long at all. My grandfather could have quite easily been alive back then, but nevertheless there is absolutely no knowledge anywhere of what that era was like. Now, destroying books is one thing, but how could you completely stop an entire population from passing stories down to their children? The only way to do that would be to destroy what is in people's heads."

Levi paused. "You believe that the government has a method of wiping people's memories?" He said finally.

"Had a method, at the very least," Erwin said with a nod. "It was a theory that my father developed. He later died for that theory. Just a theory, and before tonight I have never had any real proof of it."

"But Eren seems to have the same power," Levi noted. "At the very least it proves a connection between the Titan Shifters and the monarchy."

"Exactly. I don't know what, but we will need to tread carefully now. In any case, I feel it is urgent that Eren learns whether or not he can reverse or control this ability as soon as possible."

"Why?"

Erwin's gaze darkened. "Because how certain are you that you've never had your memories wiped?" Erwin asked carefully, motioning to the notepad he kept in his pocket. "I record my every action and every decision, but still I am never really certain."

Levi scoffed. "Hmph," he murmured, staring in to the wall. "That's an annoying idea…"

"Yes, very," Erwin agreed. "Which is we need some defence against it."

Levi inspected the commander curiously. "So, really this is a better opportunity than you could have hoped for?" Levi asked critically, his brow furrowing. "Are you even disappointed that we've lost the intelligence from Annie."

Erwin almost smirked. "Oh yes, I'm very disappointed," he said softly. "Without her information it is a huge hindrance. However I'm also an opportunist."

"Hmm…" Levi murmured. He paused for a second. "So do you want to tell me the rest of the plan now?"

There was definitely an amused smile playing at his lips. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that you're a cunning bastard, commander," Levi said bluntly. "And you've always got another plan in motion. What are you really thinking by putting Eren next to Annie?"

Erwin leaned forward in his chair. "I'm thinking that a person is made up from their experiences and their memories," he said carefully. "After all, if it wasn't for my father, or, rather, for my memories of him, then I probably would never have joined the Survey Corps and I would never have become the man I am today. If someone were to take those memories away from me, I wouldn't be the same person either."

Levi's eyes narrowed. "The same applies to Ms Leonhard. If she has really lost her memories, then she has also lost all of her motivation for fighting, so is she really an enemy anymore?" Erwin continued. "What if Eren could befriend her? What if we could give her a new cause to fight for?"

Levi's hands clenched. Despite his stoicism, the memory of the bloody, mutilated corpses of Squad Levi flickered through his mind. "Are you seriously suggesting…?"

"Yes," Erwin said with a small nod. "Imagine it… what if we could convert Annie Leonhard to our side?"

Author Notes

Sorry it's a day late, it was a busy night for me yesterday. Last chapter was really just an introduction, but this one really gets the plot going.

Also, just a quick note, I haven't forgotten about that, in canon, the Beast Titan should be trotting about turning villagers into Titans round about now. Maybe he's been delayed?

Next chapter: "Tabula Rasa"...