**5 MONTHS AND NOBODY HAS COMPLAINED ABOUT MY COMPLETE NEGLECT OF MY VERY FIRST FIC BABY? WOW YOU GUYS ALL GET RAINBOWS AND ICE CREAMS (/^u^)/ SO WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY (CAUSE THIS HAS BEEN DELAYED ENOUGH) THE NEXT CHAPTER! YAAAAAAY!**

It had been three long years since Eren had started running and living every day to fight to survive. He had gone through so much and had lost his life nearly countless times and was always prepared for almost anything, until the day Levi saved him, built a life with him, gave him love, and more recently gave his life for him. Erens' mind flooded with the recent images of Levi being brutally attacked and eaten by a titan. Even though he had lost an arm, was drained of every last bit of energy he had left, in extreme pain all over his body, with his existence just barely hanging on by a thread, he couldn't help but think that all he went through was for nothing. That he wished he hadn't been so stupid and ran away. That he would rather have had just given himself in to the authorities and be dealt with, even if it meant death, than to lose Levi.

Suddenly Eren felt arms tighten around his body and tears falling on to his skin. He opened up his eyes to see Mikasa and Armin crying their eyes out looking completely shattered. Eren pushed them off of himself and stared at them.

"Where have you been?! Do you know how hard it was on my own?! And you call yourselves my best friends!"

Mikasa and Armin couldn't say anything. They felt so guilty that they were not there for him when he needed them most. They wanted to explain themselves but before they could, Hanji came in and cut them off.

"EREN! Welcome to my humble research facility! I trust you had an interesting journey…though you were not scheduled to be here for another week or two. Oh yes you didn't answer my earlier question. Where is Levi?"

Erens' heart felt like it was being pierced with a thousand blades as he tried to muster up the courage to speak.

"He's…He's…dead."

The room went dead silent. Mikasa and Armins' blood ran cold. They could hardly fathom the news as soon as it came out of Erens' mouth.

"How could the best soldier humanity has to offer be dead?! It's impossible!" Armin was getting hysterical meanwhile Mikasa just stood there speechless. It was a hard pill to swallow but Hanji knew that stressing and not assessing the situation at hand would be a waste of time. She put on a serious face and told Mikasa and Armin to get back to the work she had assigned them. She ushered Eren toward an operating table and began to tend to his wounds.

"Listen…Eren, I know this must be difficult for you, but as of right now our main concern is keeping you safe. We can't do that if you're go off and decide to get revenge and somehow get killed off in the process OK?"

Erens' face made a hard expression due to the fact that, what Hanji said was exactly what he planned to do. He couldn't just sit there and let an amazing man like Levi die for a stupid reason as to save a fugitive who had no right in being protected in the first place.
"Please just understand that everything we are doing is for the greater good of mankind."

After Hanji had tended to his wounds, he wandered off to look around at this so called 'research facility'. He found many traces of titan body parts preserved in jars and various other containers in one room as well as jars randomly being about all over. Everywhere pictures and piles and piles of notes were covering almost every inch of desk and floor. How they managed to work in an environment like this is beyond him. He wandered further into the facility until he came across a room that had a plaque on it that read "LAB". He entered the very dimly lit room and saw weird vials of chemicals, books sprawled about, cups of strong tea as well as tea bags strewn around all over the place. He turned around to see a very distraught and frizzy haired Armin wearing goggles sipping a cup of tea and trying to reach a substance in a jar above his head.

"What is all this?"

Armin was startled and dropped his cup of tea.

'Eren why are you in here?"

"I don't know…I felt like looking around since it clearly seems I won't be going anywhere anytime soon."

Armin searched Erens' face for answers and couldn't keep his curiosity back any longer.

"Eren what happened to Levi?"

Armin watched Erens face carefully and saw terror, anger and heartbreak cross his face.

"He…He was bringing me here right after we were running away from the Military Police. The manoeuvre gear wasn't sufficient enough to get us both here, so he sacrificed himself in order to get me to safety. Before you guys pulled me in, I saw a titan sink its teeth into his body and then I hit my head."

Armin couldn't believe what he was hearing but didn't really have the time to grieve and console Eren as he had to get back to work.

"Look, Eren, I can't tell you that everything is going to be ok, we were born into a very fucked up world. And as much as I want to, I can't console you right now, but know that now I will always be here for you. Like I was all these years."

Eren was taken by surprised at how much Armin had grown and how mature and strong willed he was acting. For the first that day Eren smiled. Though it was small, he smiled.

"You've grown up well Armin."

"Well I had to. Couldn't let you shoulder the burden of humanity on you own now could I? Now if you please I should get back to mixing these preservation solutions. When Mikasa gets back be sure to talk to her."

"Where did she go?"

"She goes where she goes every day."

"And that would be?"

"Killing titans and bringing back as much resource material as she can."

"In the meantime, why don't you come with me? I've got a few things to explain to you."

Hanjis' voice came from the door and made Eren look around while Armin kept working.

"Wait…wait...wait…what do you mean by that?"

Erin tried to comprehend what Hanji was telling but just couldn't bring himself to understand.

"Look, long story short, everyone is after you so they could examine you, and duplicate your ability so they could use it against the titans. Problem is I'm one of the select few who could do it sanely, and without killing you I might add, so they would basically use any means necessary to capture you."

"HANJI-SAMA! COME HERE IMMEDIATELY!"

There was a very loud shrilling scream coming from the next room where Armin was, which made both Eren and Hanji jump up from the seats and run toward the commotion immediately. When they got there, both of them froze dead in their tracks, filling the room with even more awkward silence. Before them was a bloody Mikasa. When Eren looked down his, skin went pale, his blood ran cold and his heart felt like it was being dissected violently.

On a table sprawled out before him was a completely mutilated Levi.

**COMEBACK CHAPTER DONE. TO ALL THE FOLLOWERS AND FAVOURITEES AND REVIEWS…THANK YA'LL SO MUCH \(^w^)/ I KNOW I DON'T DESERVE IT BUT THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME. WITH THAT SAID…THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO READ THIS CHAPTER. NEXT ONE WILL BE DONE AS SOON AS I FIX UP SOME HOLES. OH AND MERRY KURISMASU MINNA (/^v^)/"