Hey guys. In case you didn't read the original upload of this chapter, this is a reupload. When I published the first ch3, I had just gotten my computer working again and I was anxious to get another chapter out to you and I ignored my usual policy of "quantity over quality" and put out chapter 3 as soon as possible. But user chase8999 is right, it was a pretty shit chapter. So I'm republishing, and I've edited the interactions. I hope you enjoy this chapter a little more! :P

"Hey," a voice said behind Annie.

Annie turned around, startled. A tall figure was walking towards her.

Oh, she thought, Bertholdt.

"What're you doing here?" Bertholdt asked quietly. "It's cold, you know."

"I have my hoodie." Annie said, tugging on the collar subconsciously. She wanted the warmth of her deerskin blanket, though, her gift from Eren. For that matter, she wanted the warmth of Eren himself. She hadn't seen him in a while, though. A week? A month? Time had blurred by, completely indiscernible to her.

Bertholdt sat down. Annie wondered what his deal was. He had been trying to become closer to her since the whole "incident", when Zeke tried to find out if Eren possessed the coordinate. It annoyed the hell out of Annie.

"How are you feeling?" Bertholdt asked.

"I don't really see how that's any of your business." Annie replied coldly. "We aren't friends."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can't be concerned."

"What do you want?"

Bertholdt shrugged. "You never answered my question."

"I haven't seem my father since Zeke's goons kidnapped me, and Eren still hates me, I killed nineteen people, and all of their deaths, and Marco's, haunt my dreams."

"Oh." Bertholdt was quiet for awhile. "So... Why do you care if Eren hates you?"

The question made Annie angry. Why did she care if the man she loved hated her to the core? That was the most stupid question she had ever been asked. It even beat out Connie's "Which is better: apples or cheese?"

"What's so great about Eren anyway?" Bertholdt asked absentmindedly.

Annie turned to him, scowling, and evaluated him. Was that contempt?

Bertholdt seemed to realize what he said and tried hastily to correct himself. "I mean, he's got anger issues, and he's reckless and unstable, and..."

Annie caught on. "Stop." Bertholdt fell silent. "Bertholdt, it's never going to happen between us, so get that through your head. I'm never going to love you like I love him, so don't waste either of our time trying to make it happen."

She realized that what she was saying was rather harsh, but she didn't care. It took a blunt object to drive a point into a thick skull. She didn't care about sparing Bertholdt's feelings, nor did she care about him as a person.

Bertholdt looked at the ground, downcast. "I'm sorry." He muttered, getting up to leave.

Annie wondered what Eren was dreaming about. He had meant it, hadn't he? When he said he never wanted to see her again?

She wished he hadn't. She wanted nothing more than to wrap herself in his arms and be with him again, whatever the cost of that may be. Was that really so much to ask?

Maybe it was. Maybe she just didn't deserve it. Did she ever deserve Eren in the first place?

She wanted to talk to him. No, she needed to talk to him. Even if it was just to say she was sorry. And he was going to listen, even if it was the last time he ever would.

She stood up and turned in the direction of Eren's holding cell.

Sweat dropped from Eren's nose as he continued his pushups. A while ago, he had decided to start working out again. It wasn't like he needed to maintain his fitness, it was more so to keep himself busy. He had long since become bored of the monotony of day-to-day life in his cell.

He also did it to keep his mind off of Annie. He had been having dreams about her, about their life back together. Not that he particularly wanted to. He was still incredibly conflicted about everything she had done, all the grief she had caused him. Petra, Oluo, Eld, and Guther's faces still haunted his dreams, and the images of their mutilated bodies, etched into his mind, flashed every time he closed his eyes.

Why?

Was it really necessary for her to kill them? Why did she even have to try? Was a life of safety on the interior of the walls not enough for her? Not only did she kidnap him and drag him out to God-Knows-Where, but she had killed so many people on the way.

He wanted to ask her. And a growing part of him desperately wanted to see him again. But she seemed to be listening to him, his demand that she never come near him again. He had meant it at the time, but now... Now, full of questions and a conflicting desire to be near her again, he wasn't so sure.

Eren finished his set of thirty pushups and sat down. Sweat ran down his chest and he lied down on his back, with his legs bent at a ninety-degree angle, hands folded behind his back. He brought his body up and touched his elbows to his knees. One. He lied back down and brought his body up again. Two.

He missed Annie.

He knew that somewhere, a part of him still loved her.

"Hey," a voice said behind him.

Eren stood up turned around. Annie was standing on the other side of the barred cell door.

Was this real? Or was it a dream again, and he was just fantasizing about all of this?

"Do you have a second?" She asked. Her eyes were looking towards the ground.

"Sure," Eren said, getting to his feet, "what is it?"

Annie smiled faintly, but it was enough for Eren to notice, and he felt relief. He was glad to see she was doing well, regardless of the negativity he felt about her. A brief thought crossed his mind, and Eren wondered how often she smiled since returning home, or if she had smiled at all.

"I wanted to talk to you." She said, looking up at him. When their eyes met, she seemed relieved. Had she been expecting to see a much frailer, weaker Eren?

"Well, as it turns out, I wanted to talk to you too." He said.

"I'm glad you're looking well." She continued.

"Yeah," Eren said absentmindedly, "I decided to start working out again."

"I can see that," Annie said. Eren noticed that her eyes were lingering on his body and felt partly humored, partly annoyed.

Same old Annie, Eren thought. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Do you still hate me?" Annie asked.

Eren had been wondering the question for awhile now, but he had only now realized the answer to the question. "I'm upset, and I know that." He began. "But hate? I'm not so sure. I don't think so. I think I was just hurt and needed to lash out at somebody, and I chose you. To be fair though... You kind of deserved it."

Annie was silent for a long time. Finally, she said, "I miss you a lot, Eren."

"I miss you too." Eren replied. He didn't elaborate any more than that, but it was true. At least some part of him, the part that still loved her, had missed her.

Her eyes wandered over to where Eren's bed was. He had been sleeping with the deerskin blanket since he saved her from that titan in the cage, and it lay strewn over the rough mattress.

"Oh, yeah," Eren said, "it's been colder at night, so I've been sleeping with it."

"Is that so," Annie asked, downcast.

"I mean, the fact that it reminds me of you helps, too." Eren added. It was the truth. The nightmares had been fewer and farther between since he slept with it. Not by a lot, but it was enough to be noticeable. His dreams of his dead squads didn't occur quite as often when he slept with it.

Annie seemed unconvinced. Eren walked over to the barred door and grabbed onto it loosely. He pressed his head on the door, so that his face was in between two bars, but his head couldn't fit through. The only things separating them were a few metal bars and a couple inches of empty space.

Annie placed her hands over Eren's. "I love you a lot."

Eren answered her with silence. Truth is, he wasn't ready to say it back again. But he allowed her to lean in close, and press her lips against his. When she kissed him, something stirred within him. A mixture of instinct and longing persuaded him to match the movement of the lips, and he kissed her back.

Annie felt like she would melt from the kiss. She had been longing for this feeling again for so long, and had expected to never experience it again. She was glad she was wrong.

She broke away from the kiss with an enormous smile across her face. She looked at Eren, his expression still clouded and hard to read, but something in his eyes suggested a possibility for a full reconciliation.

Her smile faded as she remembered what drove him to break up with her in the first place. Her thoughts reverted to his squad, and the other people she had killed.

"Eren?" She asked.

Eren noticed her serious demeanor and cocked his head. "Yeah?"

"Do you think you'll ever forgive me? For everything I've done, I mean."

Eren's expression grew somber and downcast. "A lot of good people are dead because o you. I can't just forgive you overnight for that. It'll take time, if it ever does happen. But... I need to know everything you've done first. Everything having to do with your... Mission. You're going to come clean about it if you want us to have a chance."

Annie told him everything. He sat in silence, watching her with those judgmental eyes, boring into her and trying to make sense of the information. She told him about her father's ideologies, and what Homeland thought of the humans. His eyes darkened when she told him about Marco—Reiner had forced her, she had assured him—and she stopped after she left the safety of the walls to chase after him. When she finished, Eren was silent for a long time.

"How's your father?" Eren asked. Annie felt a numbing cold at the question. "I don't know," she said, "I haven't seen him since before you saved me from being eaten."

Eren seemed to sense her distress. "Have you asked Zeke about it?"

"He won't talk to me about it." She said. "But I know he has something to do with it."

"Oh," replied Eren. He had never been any good at giving advice to people, and apparently recognized it because he kept silent.

"Can we not talk about it?" Annie asked.

"Sure, if that's what you want." Eren said. "So... What do you want to talk about then?"

A subject of conversation popped into Annie's head. "Bertholdt tried to hit on me earlier," she said, his efforts more futile and pathetic in hindsight than they were in the present.

Eren let out a laugh. Annie was surprised, glad for it; she hadn't heard him laugh in a long time, wasn't sure if she would ever hear it again. "Bertholdt?" he asked. "That's hilarious! Bertholdt... Meek, passive Bertholdt..."

His laughter died down and the smile began to melt off his face. "Yeah, to be honest with you, I thought he might. He told me to stay away from you when he led me to the cage. Told me I wasn't 'good enough' for you. I just didn't think he'd muster up the guts to do anything about it."

"I was surprised too," Annie said, "but don't worry, he's too weak for me to ever even consider. And I let him know."

"I'm not worried," Eren replied, "he does well in the field, but he's not exactly good boyfriend material, it seems."

"Speaking of boyfriend," Annie asked, "does this mean we've made up? Are we... You know... Back together?"

Eren cocked his head, thinking about it. "I'm still upset at you, you know."

Annie's heart sunk into her gut. Why couldn't he see that the only reason she did any of this was for him? She had given up her morality, tainted her hands with the blood of innocents, to bring him to safety. Why couldn't he see that?

Annie found herself, while walking back to her house, smiling in spite of Eren's response. She and Eren weren't back together, but one thing had been made clear by their conversation: there was a chance that they might be, if she played her cards right. The relief and happiness distracted her, and she didn't notice the light coming from the war hall until she was close enough to hear the voices coming from within.

"But who should be the one to receive it?" A gruff older voice asked.

"I think it should be put to a vote." Another voice a female voice, replied.

"Zeke is our leader, so he should be the one to receive it." Another male voice prompted.

"I think," this voice was Zeke's, "that we should find a way to return the Coordinate to the human king."

"Why?" Several voices asked in disunion.

"I have my reasons." Zeke answered.

"Zeke, you can't just keep your reasons to yourself. We all have a right to understand what it is that you're planning."

"In due time." Zeke replied.

Annie began to feel anxious. All this talk of transferring the Coordinate made her uneasy. If transferring the Coordiante was anything like transferring Titan shifter abilities, then...

She wasn't ready to let Eren die. She just found out that she could get him back.

"I'm your commander. As such, my say is the final word. The only reason I'm having this meeting anyways is to hear any ideas that I hadn't thought about."

A chorus of disapproval sounded from inside the war hall.

"Quiet!" Zeke yelled. "Do you stand against your commander?!"

The room fell silent. Zeke continued. "We will extract the spinal fluid from the child. We can then bottle it and send somebody to ensure that the bottle reaches the king, and that he drinks it. Or they can inject it. Frankly, I don't care how it happens, so long as the royal bloodline inherits the Coordinate ability once more."

"But sir... What will happen to the child?"

"When we have no more use for him, we'll kill him. It's simple."

Horror flooded Annie's system. She backed away and ran in the direction of her house. They were going to kill Eren.

She crashed the door open and a familiar figure stood on the other end of the doorway. From the placement of his hand, he was going to open the door and walk out.

"Annie?" Her father asked, "What are you doing?"

She was stunned to say the least. Her father had returned home?

"Where have you...?" Annie began.

"Annie?" Her father asked quizzically, "What's going on?"

Did he not remember?

"You've been gone for days! Weeks, maybe!" Annie said harshly, "Where have you been?"

"Annie, you're not making sense. I've been here this whole time!"

What had Zeke done to him?

"Father, they're... They're going to kill Eren." Annie whispered, "What should I do?"

Her father was silent for awhile. "I don't know."

Annie was reminded of where her social ineptitude came from. Her father had probably been sheltered too, so he hadn't much exposure to situations even remotely close to this. He probably wasn't the best person to ask.

Annie looked at the ground. "It's okay." She said, walking past her father.

"But," her father began, "If it were you that they were going to kill, I'd do everything in my power to prevent that. You're my little girl, Annie. I care about you, and you have to protect the things you care about."

Annie regarded her father quizzically. Whatever it was that Zeke did to him, he had recovered incredibly quickly. If Annie hadn't known better, she would have honestly believed that he had been with him the entire time. And yet, he was providing honest and truthful advice from the bottom of his heart.

It was strange, but Annie was grateful for the advice. She continued to her room and closed the door behind her. She opened the sliding door to her closet and looked at the metal contraption before her.

It had been a long tine since she used her 3DM gear.

Annie had pushed herself too hard again. Strain on her body had caused a bunch of exhaustion all throughout her body, especially in her arms and legs, due to the immense amount of exercise she had been forcing herself to do. And even so, Eren had to literally drag her to sickbay for recuperation.

He worried for her. He knew what he was fighting for, and was perfectly willing to share his reason for subjecting himself to similar levels of stress, but what was it that drove her? She still wouldn't tell him. Despite having spent so much time with each other, Eren barely knew anything about her apart from her personality and her likes and dislikes. He was clueless on most of her past, and for the most part, what she was thinking about was a mystery.

But it was one of the things about her that intrigued him. Her mysterious nature kept their relationship exciting. Not to say that it would be boring without it, but it was a nice touch.

"Eren?" Annie asked, sitting up in the bed.

"Yeah?" Eren answered, looking at his girlfriend from the chair by her bedside.

"Do you honestly think that we can defeat the titans?"

Eren thought about it. "I don't know. But if we never try, then the answer is always going to be 'no', isn't it?"

"I guess." Annie replied.

"You want to be rid of them, don't you?" Eren asked.

Annie dodged the question. "I want to not have to wonder if today is the day I'm going to die, yes. And I want for both of us to be safe. Interpret that how you will."

"Annie, what's wrong?" Eren asked. "You're not acting like yourself."

Annie let out a wry laugh. "Am I that transparent?" She asked. "It's nothing, don't worry. I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

"Well," she began, "when this is all over, if it ever is... What's going to happen to us? Or, what if you meet some pretty girl in the Survey Corps and forget about me completely?"

Was she afraid of this? Eren wondered. It wasn't like her to be afraid of... Well, anything. Where did this even come from? Why was she bringing this up?

"Don't worry about it." He reassured her, smiling. "I'm not gonna go falling in love with someone else. Besides, you'll beat the crap out of me if I do."

Annie smiled. "Damn right I will." She grabbed the collar of Eren's shirt and pulled him in close. Eren cocked his head and smiled relaxedly, then closed the gap between them and pressed his lips against her.

Forever, he thought.

In case you havent noticed, BertAnnie is my absolute NOTP. I hate it. Just seeing their names in such close proximiy together makes me sick. EreAnnie for life.