Chapter Four: The Truth

Seeing Eren, Mikasa immediately rushed over and almost knocked him over.

"Eren! Where were you? Are you alright?" she asked worriedly when she saw the bruise around Eren's eye socket. Immediately her hands flew all over his body to inspected him.

Feeling awkward, Eren tried to push Mikasa off of him but failed.

"What's all this?" Mikasa's voice rose up a pitch when she noticed Eren's heavily bruised state. She fixed him a stern stare. "You better tell me what's going on."

Normally the concern would be well received, but this time Eren felt irritated at Mikasa's overly concerned attitude. "Seriously, Mikasa. Give me a break."

Mikasa looked at Eren with shock in his eyes. This was the first time he had talked back to her since that time when they were kids. "Give you a break?" she was vexed. "Do you know how worried I was when you didn't turn up for duty? When you didn't come back to your barracks at night? And then I see you in the morning and you're covered with bruises. How can I give you a break?"

Eren couldn't give a reply so he quickly changed the topic, "I have to go report to the Duke," he said and he made to bypass Mikasa.

Mikasa however reacted to his movement and blocked his way. "Not until you tell me what's going on," she said resolutely.

"I don't have time for this, Mikasa."

"Well, I do."

Eren bit his lip. It was clear to him that Mikasa wouldn't be giving up any time soon. He was in a tight spot! He couldn't just divulge everything to Mikasa but he also knew that Mikasa would find out sooner or later. In his mind he was weighing down which was more beneficial.

Would it be better to tell her now and get it over with or would it be better to continue to hide it from her?

Finally, after a moment of deliberation, he decided that no matter what, Mikasa couldn't find out. It wasn't just about the mission. He knew that he held a bit of affection for Annie. And even if he didn't he was just enough to not leave someone whom he had shared a bed with. Especially when he was the one who made the move first intoxicated or not.

He also wasn't completely oblivious. For a while now, he had known that Mikasa held romantic feelings for him. However, although he loved her dearly to the point that he would fight anyone who would hurt her, this love was only that of a sibling. How could he return her feelings for him?

He patted her shoulder with two hands and looked at her in the eyes. "Mikasa, I know I'm being secretive, but I promise I will let you know later," he said seriously. Then he added, "Please."

Looking into his eyes, Mikasa was mesmerised for a second and before she knew it she had consented with a nod of her head. Satisfied, Eren left. It was only after he left that Mikasa realised what she had done and she stared at Eren's departing figure about to open her mouth and call out to him but she decided not to. She shook her head and continued looking until he disappeared into the mansion, mumbling to herself, "Since when did his back become so wide?"

Crash.

The piles of paper and ornaments on the expensive desk were swept away onto the floor when a body came crashing into it.

Eren down upon Laird Sears whom he had just sent flying. "What are you scheming?" he asked with subdued anger.

Laird Sears gave Eren a smile even though he had just been grabbed by the shirt and thrown on the his desk. "What do you mean, Eren? I'm not scheming anything."

Laird stood up and started straightening his crumbled clothes.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Eren roared. He raised his hand and made to hit Laird but he held himself. He was angry but he didn't dare risk angering Laird any more than what he had done. That one throw was enough, he thought to himself, to shock Laird into seeing how serious he was.

Laird flinched when Eren raised his hand but the expected blow did not come. He laughed nervously. "Please, Eren. I know you're capable of a civilised conversation. Sit," he gestured to his sofa. "Tell me what upset you."

Eren remained standing and looked at Laird forlornly. He knew that Laird was pretending to be uninformed so he decided to beat Laird in his own game and went along with the flow relating to him the details of the events that transpired the previous night.

When he was finished, Laird looked at him with horror in eyes. He gasped and said, "He did not!"

Eren smiled bitterly and nodded his head. "He did."

Laird furrowed his eyebrows and scratched his balding head. "Well, I suppose him being my subordinate, I owe you an apology."

"You really think an apology is enough?" Eren growled.

"Well what else would you like me to do, Eren?"

The corners of Eren's lips curled slightly upwards. "I don't know. Hm, how about you grant me permission to take Annie out of prison?"

There was a stunned look on Laird Sears face and then he laughed out hysterically. "Son, I've been around for fifty years and that's the funniest joke I've heard!" He wiped the corners of his eyes which had teared up from his laughter and noticed that Eren's face was straight and serious. "You weren't joking were you?"

Eren didn't say anything and just looked on.

"By the Gods! You are serious! You're crazy, you know that?"

"Sir, whether I'm crazy or not is not the issue. So what do you say?"

Laird paced around the room. He was muttering words under his breath that was too soft for Eren to hear. Then he stopped, put one hand out and held up a finger as if he was about to say something and then closed his mouth, shook his head and paced around some more.

"One day every week."

"Sir?"

"One day every week. That's the best concession I can grant you. I don't have enough power to set Annie Leonhart free."

Eren grinned. Once a week was better than letting Annie be cooped up in that cell for an indefinite period of time. At least, that's what he thought.

"I'm not done yet. When you go out, you must make an effort to changed her appearance slightly so that no one will be able to recognise her. Also she is to be restrained."

Eren understood. Doing this was a very dangerous proposition. If Annie managed to break free then she could cause a lot of damage and kill many humans. He hadn't thought about this for all that was in his mind just then was his affection for Annie and how nice it would be to take her out on dates. Now that the consequences were made clear to him he hesitated.

"Do you have any of those tranquilisers for me to use?"

"I'll arrange for a dozen of them to be delivered to you every week."

And with that, their meeting was adjourned.

Eren left Laird Sears mansion. He half jogged, half ran towards the town centre where the better shops were located compared to the market square. He looked around and saw one of the cafes that was more packed with people and decided that it was popular so he chose that one and walked inside.

He was greeted by a pretty, young waitress and was assigned a seat close to the windows. She left and promptly returned with a menu for him. The waitress didn't hover around and made to leave and come back at his call when he stopped her and said, "Ah, sorry. I'm not really here to dine in. I'd like to have some take away if that's possible."

A look of confusion entered the waitress's face. "Let me ask my boss," she said.

Eren nodded and waited for her return. He thought it odd for a popular cafe to not do takeaways but didn't say anything.

It didn't take long for the waitress to return. Smiling she said, "My boss says you're the first to request that but she will comply."

"Can I ask you why I'm the first?" Eren said, confused.

"We've just opened today and normally people tend to eat in to experience the cafe's ambiance," she laughed.

"Oh. Then I'd like to have the breakfast set please."

Eren waited for a while, received his order, hailed one of the coaches and arrived back at the prison just before breakfast.

The head jailer recognised him immediately and let him in. He didn't escort Eren into Annie's cell to give him space.

As he entered the door, Annie looked up, surprised that he came back.

"What, you didn't expect me to be true to my word?"

Annie didn't reply.

"I brought you breakfast. I hope you like bacon and eggs."

Annie was still confused about the whole ordeal and when Eren got within ten steps distance away from her she shouted. "Don't!"

Eren didn't stop and continued walking towards her. Nine steps away, eight steps away. He continued until he was less than five steps away when Annie said more urgently, "Don't come near me!"

But by that time it was already too late. Eren was already in front of her.

Eren observed Annie's face noting the confusion and turmoil in her eyes. A pained expression crossed his face and he felt helpless. He didn't know when, but he found himself embracing Annie who just sat on the bed in shock not doing anything.

Finally, Annie struggled and pulled free from his embrace. "Leave me alone," she said softly. "Please."

Eren could only comply and left her to herself.

When Eren left, Annie's mind was muddled. The sharp, throbbing pain from becoming a woman still lingered about around her nether region and a deep sense of hatred for Eren welled up from within her. She felt taken advantage of. Disrespected.

Somewhere from deep within her though, she started asking herself, did she really hate Eren Jaeger? Memories of their time together from during their training days flashed back in her mind and she could still remember it clearly as if it was only yesterday the vigilant look on Eren's face when they first met and the look of determination that never wavered be it when they started their 3D manoeuvre gear training, and that time when they training in hand to hand combat.

It was the first time that she felt this way and she could do nothing against it. Perhaps, she thought, she had feelings for him after all. If not then why would her heartbeat feel erratic whenever she thought of the incident last night and thought of his face? Maybe she even liked him for longer than that. Why is it that she didn't kill Armin when she was in titan form? Could it be that she subconsciously knew that he would be sad if she did that and so refrained from doing so?

All these thoughts ran in her head until she fell asleep.

The next morning Annie woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs and coffee.

When she sat up, she noticed the silhouette of a person sitting down at a corner of the cell room silently observing her.

"Good morning beautiful."

Annie froze. Her eyes narrowed and her expression instantly became guarded. "What are you doing here? Didn't I tell you to leave me alone yesterday?"

"I just wanted to see you first thing in the morning," Eren sighed then he stood up from his seat and left but not before saying, "I've brought you breakfast. I hope you eat it this time otherwise I'll be cross."

Annie did not touch the food and just curled up on the bed trying to ignore her hunger until she fell asleep.

The next days the same scene repeated every morning until eventually Annie snapped and shouted, "Okay! I'll eat your damn bacon and eggs. Now leave me alone!"

Eren grinned. He had tried to get her to respond to him for a long time but to no avail. He would visit the every morning only to find the breakfast that he brought from the previous day untouched. He counted the number of days Annie hadn't eaten and was shocked when he realised that she hadn't eaten for three days!

"What are you grinning for? Leave!" Annie hissed angrily.

"No. I want to see you eat it all first otherwise…"

Annie glared at him and then shoved the food down her mouth. It didn't take long for her to finish it all and she gave one last gulp before she said, "There! Happy?"

Seeing how childish she was acting, Eren could only laugh and reply, "Yeah. Happy." Before he left.

Annie sighed and muttered to herself, "What a kid."

"Oh yeah, by the way, we're going out on a date tomorrow."

"!"

Startled, Annie looked over to the door and only managed to catch a glimpse of the fleeing Eren. Her heart beat faster and her ears flushed red. "Did I just hear right? Me and Eren going on a date tomorrow?" she wondered to herself. "The progression is too fast!"

She shook her head to clear her muddled thoughts.

"Not good. I can't let him play around with me like this." She straightened her face and strengthened her resolve. Tomorrow, she would stop this madness.

The next morning Annie woke up by the sound of keys unlocking her prison cell.

Eren walked inside carrying a gift wrapped box complete with a ribbon on it. Annie had gotten used to Eren bringing her breakfast every morning that she was slightly surprised that today he didn't bring food but instead a gift wrapped box.

In fact, she had gotten so used to his presence that she barely reacted to his usual "Good morning, beautiful!" greeting as she felt that it was now part of the norm.

Noticing her curious gaze, Eren laughed and smiled. "You've already noticed, huh? I brought you a gift."

Saying this, he walked casually to her side as if it was the most normal thing to do and offered the gift wrapped box to her. "Open it."

Annie didn't immediately take the box from Eren. Instead, she looked at him with suspicion in her eyes and said, "What's the meaning of this?"

Eren shrugged casually. "I just wanted to give you a gift. You know, since I'm taking you out and this is going to be our first date and all."

Annie looked at the box held in Eren's hands and took it into her own rather unwillingly. She gently tugged on the ribbon that held the box shut and then pulled off the cover to reveal a simple, yet beautiful dress. She turned to look at Eren with a frown.

"You don't like it?" Eren asked nervously. "I thought it would look good on you."

"Take it back."

"Oh, come on. You should at least wear it once. Please? Just for today," Eren pleaded.

"No," Annie refused flatly.

"It's a nice dress!"

"No means no." Then, as if she changed her mind, Annie chewed on her lower lip lightly and said, "Fine. Just for today."

"Really?" Eren's eyes brightened up.

"Don't get the wrong idea. I just thought that the dress would change my appearance enough for other people not to recognise me."

Eren snickered. "Sure, sure. Oh, how about let your hair down for today? Just to add to the image change."

Annie never had the luxury of putting her hair up like she normally did ever since she got captured and put to jail. Truth be told, her hair was now in a constant, ruffled mess and its usual shine was replaced by a greasy finish. Her eyes narrowed. "Don't mock me. I've never had the luxury of taking a bath, much less tie my hair up."

"Hm, you're right. Then let's get you cleaned up!" Eren said enthusiastically and unbound her from the chains that restrained her. Then he pulled on her hand and half pulled, half dragged her towards the head jailer's office which oddly enough had a large, luxurious bath area.

"Do you need me to help you wash up, or…?"

"I can wash myself fine, thank you!"

Another hour later, Annie emerged from the bath looking clean as a whistle. Eren couldn't help but snicker again earning him another look of contempt from Annie.

"What is it this time?"

"Nothing, just a little inside joke. Here," Eren handed Annie another small, gift-wrapped box. "I thought you might not have clean underwear."

Annie couldn't help but curse out and lash at Eren with her hands but he was ready for reaction and easily avoided her open palm.

"Tsk, tsk." Eren looked at her with mock disapproval but didn't proceed to follow up on his crude jokes which served only to annoy her. "Better hurry up and get dressed. We've only got till sundown and time's ticking."

The carriage dropped them off along the corner of the street in the city's upper class area.

The place could be said to be busy. There was a constant bustle of activity where ladies in colourful, fine clothing walked around with their heads held up high as they dragged along poor porters carrying their excessive shopping while men in fine, elegant suits stood amongst themselves talking and discussing about their latest ventures in business.

Eren thought that although the place was busy, it couldn't compare to the market square that he was familiar with where the lower class people mixed in, begged, and sometimes even stole from the the middle class people who did their shopping.

Eren took Annie's hand into his own, eliciting a surprised reaction from her. First, her body froze and then she tried to pull away from his grip, but he fought her struggling as best as he could. Finally, realising that struggling was futile, Annie gave up and slackened her stiff, nervous body and fell awkwardly into a holding-hands position with Eren.

The area wasn't familiar to Eren so he decided to just take a stroll around hand-in-hand with Annie to see if there were any places of interest. First they walked around to get a sufficient grasp of the area. Then when the sun rose high above the sky and an audible, embarrassing low grumble came from his stomach, Eren decided it was time for lunch.

They walked into one of the less crowded places. As Annie pointed out, she didn't like crowds and the less people the better for she feared that someone might recognise her despite her significant change of image.

The both of them sat down and the waiter, a man with a well groomed beard, walked over to them, smiled and offered them each a menu.

Annie took hold of the menu that was given to her and her eyes became round with shock. "What the hell, it's so expensive!" she said in a low voice to Eren.

Indeed, being located within the upper class area, the restaurant's prices were drastically higher than those at market square. Furthermore, the reason why fewer people dined in this restaurant wasn't because the food wasn't nice but because the prices, even for the rich, was still high. It could be said that only the richest of the rich dined in this restaurant.

Seeing her reaction, Eren grinned. "You said you wanted a quiet place with fewer people."

"I thought- I didn't think that this place was so expensive!"

Eren didn't tease her any further. He wanted today to be memorable for her so he just replied casually saying, "Relax. All our expenses for this trip is paid for."

This comment of course roused Annie's suspicion. "By whom?" she knew that there was someone behind this all and Eren just let one clue slip.

Realising that he made a blunder, Eren played it cool. "Nobody important." He could still remember how he diplomatically convinced Laird Sears the night prior.

Their food arrived about a quarter of an hour later. The both of them ate and Eren tried to make small talk but didn't get much success in getting a proper conversation from Annie.

Their lunch ended and they left but just as they went through the restaurant's doorway, Annie stopped and tugged at Eren's sleeves and mouthed, "Toilet," before hurrying back into the restaurant.

Eren walked back inside and observed Annie have an animated conversation with one of the waitresses and he guessed that she was asking where the toilet was.

He stood around and waited. Five minutes. He thought that perhaps she was doing her business and thought that she was about to finish soon so he waited for a while longer.

Ten minutes and Annie still hadn't come back so the suspicious feeling in Eren's heart grew. He cursed and he ran towards the female toilets only to be stopped by the staff. A few minutes of arguments later, Eren was finally allowed to search inside and he wasn't surprised to find that Annie wasn't there.

He thanked the restaurant staff and quickly exited the restaurant. There were more people now walking about the streets and everywhere Eren's eyes looked, he saw a crowd. He felt like kicking himself for making such an amateur mistake.

With nothing for it, he decided to charge in a random direction hoping that he would be lucky and find Annie.

Annie fled but she didn't run. She just walked casually and tried to blend in with the crowd. Running would only draw attention to her and that's something she didn't want. She noticed the running Eren from the corner of her eyes. She was surprised that he picked the correct direction that she went to but she wasn't surprised that he had caught up to her location in a short amount of time because she walked whilst he ran.

It was fortunate that she was right beside a flower shop so she turned her back to him and picked up a bouquet of flowers and pretended to admire the arrangement of it.

She would have gotten away too if not for an unexpected person being there.

"Annie?"

Annie's heart froze and she turned to the sound of the voice. It was Historia Reiss.

"You're out of prison already?" Historia asked. There was a nervous edge to her voice and her eyes darted around trying not to meet Annie's. Then her eyes lit up and she called out with relief, "Ah, Eren!"

"Historia, hey. How are you? Listen, I'd love to chat but I'm in a rush right now."

"Oh," Historia's face fell. Somewhere deep in her subconscious she feared Annie Leonhart. She feared that she would turn into a titan and crush her into meat pulp. She was afraid that if Eren left she would be left alone with a monster so she hurriedly said, "Stay awhile, Eren. There's someone you should meet!" she motioned at Annie who was already a couple of metres away from them.

"Who? Ah!" Eren saw Annie and rushed to her side and caught her arm.

Annie wanted to flee but she couldn't. Of course, she could always shape shift into a titan but she didn't dare risk fighting a whole army in a confined space.

"What's going on between you two?"

Eren smiled at Historia. "Nothing, just a little lover's quarrel. Hey, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell Mikasa about today."

"Lover's quarrel?" Historia repeated with her mouth forming a comical 'o'. "Come on, Eren. Try harder."

"Believe it or not, it's up to you. Just don't tell Mikasa about today."

"And if I do?" Historia said testily.

"You wouldn't. I know you. You're a good woman who'll look out for her friends."

"You're right, Eren. I am a good woman. And Mikasa IS my friend. And Annie is supposed to be in prison. I don't know what's the deal with her running out and about but it sure as hell is my business whether I tell Mikasa or not."

Eren had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach but he knew he could do nothing about the situation. "Fine," he said. "Do what you want. I'm off."

He strengthened his grip on Annie's arm and dragged her off to a quiet back alley somewhere.

"What's with you?!" he roared.

Annie had given up trying to pull free from Eren some time ago. It wasn't because she had lost hope but because she knew she didn't have enough strength to pull free from him. She attributed it to the fact that she hadn't eaten many proper meals since her imprisonment so her strength wasn't at its peak. "No matter," she thought to herself. "I will live to fight another day."

Her silence brought Eren back to his senses and he heaved a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down.

When he was sure that he was calm, he spoke to Annie in an even, measured tone. "Well, whatever. Just don't do it again."

He took her hand again and wrapped his fingers around hers. Then he whisked her away from the alley and continued sight-seeing and window shopping with her.

Annie was quite surprised but she didn't show it. She had expected Eren to hit her in his rage or severely berate her but he did none of that and instead continued their date as if everything was normal and nothing happened. She felt her heart tingle a little and a tiny bit of warmth spread throughout her body. Suddenly she found that she had started enjoying the warmth of their hands holding together and their fingers interlocked with each other.

The sun had started to set, its orange glow basking Eren and Annie. The invisible wall that Annie had set up had been gradually broken down by Eren and she found herself laughing at his jokes and speaking more than usual.

The took a break from walking and sat down next to the water fountain. The cool mist it sprayed was refreshing to the awkward beginning couple. The both of them observed the fountain in silence for a while and Eren found himself thinking aloud. "I wonder how these water fountains work?"

Despite their medieval lifestyle, he had always wondered how they could manage to run things like the 3D manoeuvring gear which ran on gas. In fact, where did the gas come from? How did they manage to contain them in metallic canisters?

There were many questions in his mind that were raised when his curiosity was piqued through Armin reading books to him when they were children.

"It was long ago," her soft voice spoke. Eren turned around and was surprised at Annie's knowledge. "When all men had the knowledge of kings and gods. We had everything. We could travel freely. I have heard that man had travelled to the moon and back. That time there were other vast continents and more races than now."

"What happened?"

Annie gave a small laugh. Not the kind when a joke was made but the kind when she'd done something foolish. "Nothing. That's the thing."

"What do you mean?" Eren asked curiously.

"Humanity's technology had advanced so far that with but a press of a button total annihilation would occur, so right then all wars came to a halt and no country's government dared to offend each other."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"A good thing? No, Eren," Annie shook her head. "It would be idealistic to say that a world without wars is perfect." She held out her hands, a gesture that Eren understood to refer to everything around them. "Look around! Within the walls there is much corruption going on.

"Humanity is wicked. You can view the rich as oppressive, but even the poor oppress each other instead of uniting to take down the corrupt officials in power. And even then, if they achieve that, another one will take that person's place. It's a never ending cycle.

"I have learnt from my father who had learnt it from his father before that. Whose father's father had learnt before that… well, you get the idea. Anyway, words were passed down in my family and I know that during that era, the population only grew larger and larger. There was less and less land and resources to support the growing population. People were suffering. But what could they do? If anyone dared to invade another country, they would be wiped off the map. That was the situation.

"If there was only creation and no destruction, the world would just be as doomed. That was what one person had come to a realisation to."

"Only one person?"

"Yes. Dr. Macelroy Lenz. Winner of many scientific awards for pioneering human body modification. It was he who had come to this realisation and so he led a team of his closest subordinates to create a greater enemy for humanity."

"And that was the titans?"

"You're half correct. His theory was if a new enemy arose, humanity would concentrate their efforts to unite without using their weapons of mass destruction against each other. And it would also serve as a good population control.

"His first experiments were failures. Those are the common titans you see today. As his research progressed he made aberrant titans until finally he managed to perfect his life's work and made the titan shifters.

"The other titans are not intelligent but when he perfected his research, Dr. Macelroy made it so that the titan shifters had the ability to control the other titans."

"If that's the case then why are you still attacking now? Hasn't humanity's population been wiped enough close to extinction?"

Annie looked at Eren with affection in her eyes. "That was then. Now things have changed. Dr. Macelroy had died. The current generation of titan shifters only view humans as sport. To stave off the boredom. After all, with a human base, we also share the same flaws as humans. We can get greedy. Corrupt."

This information flooded Eren brains and made his head throb. He asked, "Why are you telling me all this now?"

Annie shrugged. "I don't know myself. Maybe I've just grown fond of you." She rested her head against Eren's shoulder.

The weight of Annie's head on his shoulder eased Eren's troubled mind a little. He stroked her hair gently while he was lost in his thoughts wondering if he should make a report or not.

His heart throbbed a bit when he thought about how he was treated from before and how he is still being treated now as a weapon. He was kicked. Ridiculed. Spat on and beaten up. And now he was being treated 'ok' just because they had some use for him. These thoughts raced in Eren's mind and he was torn between wanting to protect humanity or just leaving things be.

A few weeks has passed since Eren and Annie's first date. During that time they had gone on a few more dates and they became more and more comfortable being with each other.

It was at this time that a brown cloaked figure sneakily made his way into the prison. He easily sneaked past the guards and he manoeuvred his way through the prison corridors as though it was his own backyard.

Finally, he reached the cell where Annie was being captive and he pulled out some metal wires from within his pockets. He poked them through the hole where the key to the cell door would have been and fiddled around until the lock clicked open.

He was greeted by the sight of an alert Annie waiting in a fighting stance ready to attack if the situation arose.

He held up his hands in alarm and he spoke in a hushed tone. "Annie, it's me!"

Annie looked through the brown hood that covered the unknown man's face and she immediately recognised him. "Reiner! What are you doing here? I heard someone picking the locks. So it's you!"

Reiner smiled. "Guilty as charged. Anyway that's not important, for now let's get out of here!" he said urgently.

Annie's heart leapt for a moment and then settled down as soon as it did. She eased up her fighting stance and walked back to her bed.

"Annie?" Reiner was confused.

"Reiner, go on without me."

"After I've come all this far? Annie, you know that this is not your place."

Annie touched her lower abdomen and her gaze grew unfocused for a moment.

"It can't be…" Reiner muttered with shock. "Y-you're with child?"

Her silence was all he needed to confirm his suspicions. Reiner no longer tried to suppress his voice into a hush and he shouted, "THAT BASTARD EREN!"

Reiner knew of Annie's location ever since he saw her with Eren at that time during their first date. At first he couldn't believe his eyes for he knew that Annie was in a cryogenic state but he could never be too sure so he made sure to follow them all the way.

After he made sure that the person that he saw was indeed Annie, he staked out the place and made careful plans to infiltrate the prison and bust Annie out. His anger wasn't because he had feelings for Annie, neither were they close friends. But as a titan shifter he felt that he was superior to the human race. He had forgotten during this moment that Eren too was like them.

"I will kill the bastard and feed his balls to the pigs!" he roared.

"Calm down, fool!" Annie hissed in panic. She was afraid that the guards would hear the commotion and come. "Don't forget that Eren is the same as us."

Reiner heaved heavy breaths as he tried to calm himself down. He saw the logic in Annie's reasoning. "He may be the same as us but he is not one of us," he said defiantly.

"Reiner, please. I know we're not close friends but please don't do anything rash. I might be able to convince Eren still."

Reiner shook his head like a stupid bull. "Annie, you know he will not join our cause. Don't let your feelings for him blind you."

"I'm not blind. He may still join us."

"What makes you think that?"

"This is his child." Again, Annie touched her lower abdomen affectionately. "Is that not reason enough?"

Reiner thought for a moment and then finally consented. "Very well. If he doesn't join us, I will end him. And you too." With that, Reiner swiftly exited Annie's cell and fled into the night.

While Annie sighed in relief as she managed to stave off the Armoured Titan, outside on a rooftop carefully observing the only entrance and exit of the prison, Mikasa stood, the night wind blowing her hair onto her face. Her pupils contracted as she observed the brown cloaked figure go in and out of the entrance.

End of Chapter Four.

To be continued...