On the eves of the massive forest, mist weaved through the wall of trees, lit up by soft beams of cold morning light. The swirling fog wavered and spread out its reach, cool and wet.

A small robin dropped through the beams of illuminated mist, spreading it out further as it swooped through the thick press of trees, to alight on an object on the forest floor. The bird tilted its head, briefly considering the object beneath it; its black, beady eyes shining briefly with red, before it dismissed it as irrelevant and focused instead on the cloud of flies buzzing around it.

The little creature soon made to move again, looking towards another of those objects surrounded by insects, but quickly drew back as a flash of black rushed overhead.

The shadow was quick- unbelievably quick- intent and terrifying. The bird was frozen in place, but it slowly began to move again as it recognised it was no prey of that creature. The shadow was after something else. Not that the bird was interested in this, all its focus was now on its own prey. It ignored the red stained objects littering the forest floor and began its hunt once more.

"They weren't eaten. The female Titan didn't eat any of them. Why?" Armin asked, eyes distant and teeth clenched.

Mikasa turned to look briefly at her friend before turning back to stare into space, instead of at that monstrosity tangled in a thick tangle of wires not a hundred metres before them. Mikasa didn't care. Well, no, she did, but there were things she cared for more than the oddities of this Titan who would be killed shortly. Namely Eren, and how they had found him and were now standing on a stupid tree watching the capture of an irrelevant Titan rather than doing what they needed to do.

Armin was well aware of this, carefully containing a similar bitter feeling within, but despite this, he found himself observing the Titan before him with a deep sense of curiosity.

Why hadn't it killed him? As they had shot through the forest to approach it, the giant had spotted them and started chasing after. The thing obviously had no inhibitions with killing, snatching countless soldiers out of the air and grinding their bodies into the forest floor as it ran. But, as the bloodied hand had reached for Armin, he looked back and it hesitated. It actually hesitated. Huge, shining eyes had fixed on Armin's face and the hand had drawn back.

The Titan slowed in its pursuit after that but its course still led it into range of the wire cannons. The cannons that Mikasa and Armin now knew to be for Eren.

Armin came back to the present with a hitching intake of breath, exchanging a look with Mikasa. They needed to find Eren, before anyone else did...but... Armin turned to look at the Female Titan again. It was looking at them, at him, with a sharp focus, blank but for the odd intensity there. It was intelligent. Armin felt the sharp burn of realisation choking at his throat, firing out a pained exhale of breath from his constricting chest.

It was like Eren.

The Hunter felt the bark of the tree trunk he was attached to splinter and crack underneath his hand, but gave it no mind. Instead he stared down from his vantage point, immobile but for the fast-paced rise and fall of his chest.

The female Titan stood a good distance away, hunched, straining and full of metal cable ,which were deep into her flesh, holding her tight. Her eyes were frozen wide, no longer strangely intent on the humans before her, a desperate sheen to them as blood beaded down the wires embedded in her body. As he stared at her, the Hunter's rage fizzled out into a cold horrified certainty:

That is what they planned to do to me.

That thought was repeating in his mind, whispering and shouting in equal measure as he stared at the humans scuttling beneath him, so far away. And he thought for the first time about why. Why they would do this, why-

Why do I put myself forward for those who would hurt me without thought or pause?

The unfamiliar thought cut a hole in his stomach, eating away at his energy as he slumped down against the trunk he hid behind.

They do it because they're scared. Because they cannot run,because they want to defend what is their's and they think that if they let something like me escape it will destroy and they will lose everything[....] 

The Hunter frowned, bringing his hands up to cradle his head, teeth clenched at the pain rippling under his fingertips.

Then the female Titan screamed, pulling the Hunter from his painful memories. He felt the world shudder and he heard the surging call to devour, to feed, to rip the everything apart and crush  it under his teeth. He shook his head as if to rid himself of this horrifying compulsion only to realise the shuddering was still there and GROWING!!!!

Twisting away from his hiding spot, he climbed up, eyes scanning the sheer fear on everyone's faces before focusing on the horde of Titans rushing forwards, busting through the wall of trees like water from a dam. They fumbled over each other like bloated toddlers, driven by their instincts to devour... To devour her...?

What?

He watched with wide, almost terrified eyes as the female Titan was pulled apart in front of him. The wet, squelching sound of living meat being cleaved away and ripped out by both wire and Titan teeth alike was deafening. Lumps of flesh dotted the wires as they swung loose, battered to and fro by the frenzied movements of the Titans.

Why? Why would she want that? She was intelligent like me so why-

The Hunter felt his breath still, his hairs stand on end and his heart slow almost to a stop.

Like me... She's like me. She used this as a cover. She's. Just. Like. Me.

White-rimmed ocean eyes twisted down, away from the horror show before him, down to where his humans stood.

Mikasa, was looking around with cool contemplation, eyeing up the big stray Titans that were now turning towards them. Armin was gazing forwards, consumed with a look of horrified realisation. The Hunter's eyes flickered to the familiar group of soldiers dropping down behind the two, with sickened, worried looks in their eyes. Jean grabbed Armin's shoulder to shake him from his daze, Connie and Sasha drew their blades to stand side by side with Mikasa. His humans were not safe.

The humans around the clearing scattered in every direction, fleeing the sudden onslaught of titans, but in that moment, the Hunter didn't notice his usual prey fanning out into the woods, chasing after these humans. His focus was entirely on his squad.

They were moving, fleeing from the two rather large titans that had turned their sights on them, and the Hunter followed, high above, dropping down only when they no longer looked back but looked forwards, searching for a way out. He dispatched the titans without making a sound other than their crashes upon the earth. His squad didn't even notice over the wind rushing past their ears and their sheer desperation to get away. The Hunter fled back up to the canopy, eyes scanning the forest for the enemy once more because she was here. He felt it.

It was a few moments until he spotted the green, hooded figure, swinging round with blades tilted to one side, aiming towards his humans, preparing to strike.

The female Titan was dead.

At least, that's what Jean believed as they flew through the dense maze of trees, desperately shooting forward to evade those bloated fingers he was sure were right behind them. His breath was coming out short and fast. He didn't want to die out here. He couldn't-

"Jean! Watch out!" Armin shouted suddenly, and Jean choked on air, spinning around mid-flight with blades ready to- to fall slack in his hand as his eyes took in, not a Titan but two green cloaked figures, their blades meeting mere inches from his face.

"What the hell?!"

He shot back a good distance to alight on the side of a tree, staring wide eyed as the two drew back their swords and lunged at each other. They were both similar in stature, one perhaps slightly larger and a lot more dirt encrusted than the other.

"We've got to stop them! Why are they fighting now?!" exclaimed Mina, similarly attached to the tree, just below Jean, before she launched forward towards the two, only to be yanked back by Jean as he grabbed her cables. Just in time as well, as a blade swooped through the air she was in moments prior.

The dirtier one hissed at this, low and echoing, bringing their blade around as fast as a whirlwind. It was then that Jean realized that this person was defending them, their movement almost inhuman, and somehow familiar.

"Eren?" Breathed Mikasa from above him, eyes shining and painfully hopeful.

And suddenly Jean knew it was Eren. Eren defending them. Eren, who should have been dead, but now fighting off a mysterious, murderous figure for them. Said figure abruptly retreated with a flash of green after Eren clipped it on its head, ripping the material and letting out a shimmer of what might have been golden hair. Eren spun mid-air and shot towards their tree, alighting on one of the smaller branches, his lips all they could see under his muddied hood, but clearly his.

"Run! She will be back."

They didn't run. Instead, they stared at the ghost in disbelief.

"We thought you were dead, Eren! What happened?"

"You're alive?!"

"What the hell!?"

"We mourned you, you bastard!"

"Eren, w-why did you-?"

There was an explosion of steam and smoke not too far off and Eren looked away with a  unsurprised expression.

"Run," he simply told them.

"To hell with that!" Jean snarled.

Eren smiled faintly then turned to look where the blond giant had suddenly appeared, gazing down at him, eyes squinting into the darkness of his hood.

"It's back!" screamed Connie

"Everyone move!" Bellowed Jean, jumping forward to pull at Eren's arm, only to find him slipping away from his grip.

"I'm sorry."

Eren turned from them all. Without looking back, he bit down on his hand, blood spurting out and trailing behind him as he jumped down.

Steam bellowed out, high pressured and almost painful in its brief searing heat. Eren disappeared into it, his small form engulfed by the mist and suddenly replaced by a colossal dark mass. Jean looked up, his mouth falling slack and his heartbeat thrumming through his body from his fingertips to his toes.

The Titan, the berserker, was standing before them where Eren had fallen.

No one said a word. They couldn't. It was as if their voices had been stolen from them. Jean could hardly breathe as his brain desperately tried to defy what his eyes had just seen.

"Eren," someone breathed. "Eren is the berserker?"

Everyone turned to look at him for a moment and Jean realised it had been him to say it, him to acknowledge the impossibility standing before them. They all looked at each other then back up at the Titan steaming away in front of them, arms outstretched as if to shield them.

"WHAT THE FUCK JAEGER?!" Jean bellowed.

The Hunter ignored the voices. He couldn't listen to them. He couldn't afford to get distracted now. His opponent was moving.

She darted to his right, slamming her right hand up to where his chin would have been if he hadn't already sidestepped this and stomped down on her ankle, sending her stumbling back. He didn't wait for her to recover, pressing his brief advantage and punching her square in the throat, hard enough that his fist should have splintered through her flesh. But it didn't, his hand simply shattered into a deformed lump of broken bone and skin. That is what made the Hunter hesitate, not the pain exactly, but the fact that he hadn't managed to penetrate the skin.

The female Titan took what appeared to be her window of opportunity, shooting forward only to strike at empty space as the Hunter dodged to the side. She didn't stop though. She didn't hesitate, spinning low to the ground with her leg arching through where the Hunter stood- where the Hunter had stood. He slammed his foot down on her right knee from behind her, popping the joint from the socket and sending her sprawling to the ground. He followed her, pinning her arms above her head and snarling deeply as he met her once dead gaze. There was a flicker of fear there now, a slight widening of her eyes, a familiar scent. Wait...

"Yeah! Finish her off!"

"You can do it Eren!"

"Don't lose concentration!"

"Get her!"

Voices filtered back into the world. Far too loud and far too close. Er- the Hunter's eyes flickered and the female Titan took that split-second of distraction to make her move. She violently arched up before quick dropping down, using the slight opening between her and the Hunter to get her legs loose and push up into his chest, sending him hurtling backwards into the foliage.

He scrambled up, running full speed only to skid to a halt, mud and grass fountaining up before him, as the female titan held something up in her hand for him to see, head tilted to the side as she tracked the way his eyes fastened onto it.

Connie.

In that frozen second the Hunter could feel the Titan's eyes on her, he could feel cruel smirk forming on her face. Connie' screams echoed as her fingers pressed in and the Hunter was charging with anger.

He slammed his good fist forward towards her face, only swerve at the last minute as she brought his friend up before her like a shield. She used his misdirection to her advantage, slamming her elbow into his face and jumping high to kick his chin, sending him spiralling to the ground, uprooting several trees in his wake.

The Hunter pushed himself up, mud and shattered tree roots shifting off his back as he scrambled up into position. His opponent pounded towards him and he brought his arms up just in time to block another hit to his face. His eyes drifted down to that fist being used to strike him. It didn't have Connie in it. She was holding him securely in her grip by her side... no longer squeezing him, not killing him. The Hunter looked closely at the Titan facing him, as if seeing her for the first time.

She wanted him. He was the target, not his humans. She was only using them as a means to an end. Why?

All thoughts of this odd motive were swept away as the Titan shifted to strike him again, only to stop and spin around, looking away from the Hunter. She had seen Mikasa baring down behind her and her hands were coming up and the Hunter panicked.

He slammed forwards onto her, nails scrabbling at her nape, but the skin had become rock hard and her hands were still raising and Mikasa was retracting her cables to pull back and- and- and the Female Titan's arms fell slack. The Hunter blinked, then dived down to grab at Connie as he fell from the female Titan's loose grip, cradling him to his chest and jumping back in case the female would renew her attacks.

She didn't. She was too busy staring at the green and black blur that spiralled up to alight on a nearby tree. Both titans turned to look at it. For a moment the form paused on a branch and the Hunter felt his face light up, his toothy, cheshire grin twitching up into a facsimile of a smile.

Levi stared back at him, expression unreadable, then turned to look at the female. He was suddenly a blur as he started moving again but so was the female Titan.

The Hunter had been distracted. He had forgotten for a moment that he was the apparent target of this Titan. He was too busy, torn between staring at his human, at Mikasa's saviour, seeing where Mikasa had landed, and checking that Connie was okay.

He didn't see the female Titan's next move coming.

Her leg struck up, the edge of her skin, lined with some strange, shining material that cut into the Hunter's flesh like metal, hollowing out the centre of his chest and sending him back into the ground.

Through pain blurred eyes, the Hunter could see Levi hesitate, looking back at him mid-flight and changing direction away from the female Titan. She made use of this distraction and backed away, turning and charging through the trees like a shell from a cannon. The Hunter knelt on the ground, mind in a haze not just from the searing pain but from that last whiff of scent, like metal and chemicals. It smelt familiar. He must be wrong, there's no way he could be familiar with that Titan...right?

There was chatter circling around him. The humans were  panicking and shouting. The Hunter couldn't even hear them.

What if he was right? What if the Titan was just like him? Was there a Titan hidden among the humans? One that did not have good intentions like him?Are there more like him?

The sound of talking grew as the pain in his chest receded. The humans were saying something about going after the female Titan? Yes, the Hunter should do that. He should-

"No. We won't go after it. We have our objective."

And Eren felt the light press of cold metal against his neck. A warning to remain still. He held himself still, eyes dilated, and teeth clenched as he forced himself not to move, to not turn around and risk the blade cutting deep.

That same voice said something again, something about him being the aberrant and he looked forwards, his gaze meeting with the cold blue eyes of a stranger, standing not a metre away from him. The man had golden hair, a stern stance, a harsh countenance and eyes that should have been friendly if not for the cold shiver of foreboding creeping down Eren's spine.

"My name is Erwin Smith. I am commander and leader of the military scouts. Can you understand me?"

The Hunter stared at him unblinkingly, hardly even breathing as blood welled and steamed off his chest. Erwin continued as if the Hunter had somehow confirmed his suspicions of the titan's cognitive understanding.

"We are very grateful of the assistance you offered during the siege of Wall Maria. But we have come here to ask more of you. We want you to come back with us, away from this forest and to the walls where you can help us defend from attack. We will be looking after you in a specially designed facility so that you can be a great help to many."

The Hunter's breath started to quicken, his arms shook and his head thrummed as he tried to hold himself still against the wave of voices screaming in his head.

"This will help so many!"

"it's just a mons-"

"Was hast du zu ihm!?"

"It is a marvel! My greatest ach-"

"SEE!"

"Calm down you big shit," hissed a familiar voice at his neck. Unconsciously, the Hunter's body relaxed and he started to notice his surroundings once more. The commander had backed up several meters and was talking with someone... someone the Hunter recognised. It was that red-haired scientist. They were squealing excitedly about something or other. They seemed to notice the Hunter's gaze.

"LOOK! HE REMEMBERS ME! LEVI, ITS NOT JUST YOU HE LIKES!"

There was a sigh from the back of the Hunter's neck.

The Hunter blinked, his eyes flickering across the group of humans just before him, then up to the trees where soldiers were talking and looking hopefully down at him. His breathing had slowed, any previous remnants of panic is being replaced by confusion. They weren't attacking him. They weren't killing him. He thought on the commander's words, carefully ignoring his talk on facilities and focusing on his request for...help? They wanted him to help them. They didn't want to hurt him.

His eyes continued to search the humans' faces for any sign of hatred but he found none. Instead his eyes found the familiar faces of his squad, staring openly at him in confusion and worry. He gazed up at them and they stared back, that worry deepening on their faces.

The Hunter made his decision. His friends were in danger. The female Titan was like him. Exactly like him. He needed to tell them, he needed to tell all of the humans what was hiding in their midst.

The Hunter opened his mouth.

"LLLggg pfuu houohou

Levi jolted as the rumbling voice reverberated beneath his feet. He looked through the Titan's tangled mess of hair to Erwin, as if to confirm that he hadn't just gone bat shit insane and the berserker had in fact just spoken.

Erwin was staring, mouth ever so slightly parted. Silence filled the forest.

"Oh great, it talks," muttered Levi, breaking the silence.

"He. Can. Talk." The red scientist was vibrating disconcertingly fast.

"What the fuck does that mean?" Levi hissed out.

"EErrrrrggg JJJegggggg?" The Titan tried again, looking down at the group then slowly turning his eyes up to those standing in the trees above. Levi followed his gaze, staring at a small group of teenagers who were desperately hissing at each other and staring down at the Titan. Levi tore his gaze away and looked back around at Hanji as they started talking again.

"Talk? He's saying he'll talk? I?" Asked the scientist, still buzzing with enthusiasm.

There was a sound of cut off protests above and two pairs of manoeuvre gear being used, and suddenly two cadets landed in front of the Titan and faced Erwin.

"Hi- his name isn't  sir, he's saying- uh, he's saying something else," said the blond one in a trembling voice.

"Oh, and what is his name then?" Came Levi's voice heavy with palatable anger at these two's impudence before Erwin.

"...His name is Eren, Eren Jaeger Sir," said the black haired one.

Levi felt his arm freeze in place as he stared at the beast below him.

The other two continued to explain, babbling out nonsense about human Titans? No, humans who can become Titans?

"That's impossible," says Levi.

"It recognises them," Hanji interrupted in a carrying whisper, staring intently at the Titan with wide eyes.

Sure enough, the Titan was looking down at the two teenagers with strangely soft eyes. Not that Levi could see this. All Levi could see was the tension draining out of the thing's shoulder blades.

"Remove your blades from his neck and you will see. He wants to talk and I don't think he can in that form," the blond boy all but begged.

"Form?" Levi incredulously hissed out.

"Do it Levi," ordered Erwin, staring consideringly up at the titan. Levi sighed, retracting his blades but still keeping them firm in hand just in case.

This was insane. There was no way that dirty, bright eyed cadet Levi had spent the night with was his Titan! That would be... impossible...

He thought on Hanji's old words from all those years ago.

"You mean he saved your life and patched you up? How could that be!? Even if he did have enough intelligence for that, his hands were too large, he would have squashed you."

He thought on Jaeger's skittish behaviour, his misunderstanding of their mission, and his questions.

"What do you plan to do with it?"

He thought on Jaeger and his eyes. He shook his head.

That's impossible... isn't it?

For a moment the Titan was still, neck bare against the air, then it started to lean down, bracing itself against the earth. To stand in such a position and not raise his blades was against every screaming instinct in Levi's head. But Erwin had given his order. Levi trusted him to make such decisions like he would trust no other. So, Levi watched, body tensing as a violent shiver took over the thing's body.

A soft 'sshhhh' noise creeped up on the edge of his hearing then suddenly grew in volume as the nape started to split open, steam billowing out of it faster than smoke from a chimney. Levi took a step forward then stopped as he saw the small bare hand grasping at the edge of the split flesh. He watched, eyes widening, as he heard the pained harsh breaths of another. Wind caught at the steam, blowing it back just as a head of soft brown hair pulled itself from the hot red flesh. Levi moved forward again then froze, motionless, as the figure turned to look at him with large familiar eyes.

He could barely breathe. He could hardly move. All he could do was stare.

The boy, Jaeger looked down, face stained red with blood, before taking a gulping breath and trying to pull himself from the mess below him, movements suddenly fumbling as he avoided looking at Levi. Levi simply continued to stare, eyes unrelentingly boring into the young man. Then he was moving before he knew he could move, taking Jaeger's shaking limbs in his rough hands and pulling him backwards out of the now dead meat below them.

Jaeger seemed to freeze under his touch, eyes wide as he gazed straight ahead, unmoving as they both stood on the shoulder of his former body.

"....Levi, bring him down," came Erwin's faint order, cutting through the fog over Levi's mind.

Levi nodded, pulling his- the... him into his body, and wrapped an arm around his waist, before shooting off his gear.

"I can move myself, sir," Jaeger murmured quietly.

Levi ignored that, instead bringing the ma- bo- ti whatever he is called tight into his arms, ignoring the almost burning heat of his skin on his, swinging down with him towards his superior officer. Erwin would know what to make of this. He would know what to do.

Sorry guys for the late update!!!!