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Rattling sounds resound through the air. Chaos is everywhere. The Wall must have been breached. Levi looks out of the window to see that the town looks like ruins. They are here. Not this shit again. He grabs the 3D maneuver gear he just finished polishing and heads out of the door.
He glances around and the second he spots the Titan he aims the hooks to the nearest building. Activating the gas he is yanked up in the air. After few spins he finishes the beast with a quick clean cut.
Someone is yelling his name, but he has no time because there are two other Titans approaching. Levi takes them down. Something grabs him before he can notice.
He finds himself trapped in a giant hand. The monster is watching him, sneer on its ugly phizog. It opens its jaws revealing dull teeth. The smell is the most disgusting thing Levi has ever got into contact with. Long time rotten flesh. The stink of death. He looks down quickly to see if anyone of the soldiers is around. He’s alone. The one calling him before is probably dead by now. This is the end.
The Titan falls to the ground, releasing its grip. Levi takes advantage of it immediately and shoots the wire up. Seconds later he’s standing on a roof to see he has just been saved by a Titan. The horrendous creature is stomping its heel into the nape of the soldier’s previous attacker. He considers the situation. The Titan is most likely a deviant class. He has never seen a Titan to assault another one of their species, but then again, they don’t really know much about them. He swings towards the raging beast to finish it off as well. It must have noticed him. The Titan grabs the wire before Levi can reach the back of its neck and the man is falling to the ground.
As he falls the wires of his gear get tangled around the monster’s legs and somehow he manages to cut through the flesh on one of them. Just above the ankle. The Titan roars in pain. The last thing he remembers before hitting the ground is the sight of the monster pathetically limping towards the woods.
-
“It was reckless of you,” Erwin says when he sees Levi is awake.
He has a headache. “I couldn’t get to the headquarters,” Levi replies. The commander shakes his head. Levi doesn’t have a better answer. He’s not sure how the bloody hell is he still alive. The memory of the deviant class from before floats into his head. He looks around the room, Hanji would sure be interested, but she’s not there.
“The Wall?” he asks then.
“They plugged it about an hour before you woke up,” Erwin answers. Sometimes during the day the Titans would manage to make a hole into the Wall and turn everything into chaos to just leave before the sunset. The soldiers would plug the hole as quick as possible.
“Last time they did a shit of a job apparently,” the captain notes. He wonders if the deviant class is still in the woods or if anyone has taken care of it.
The commander leaves and Levi gets up from the bed. The nurse might have said he needs to get more rest but he has a mighty need to take a walk through the wood. On his way from the infirmary he stops at his room to take his gear with him, just in case he needs it. Before he leaves he takes a shower and clean clothes though.
He’s lucky, because he doesn’t meet any of his superiors who could have problem with him leaving so soon. And the rest can go fuck themselves. Or at least in this matter anyway. Petra only frowns when he passes her, but Levi ignores it.
In the wood it’s not so hard to follow the Titan’s trail. After a while of walking he leaves the main road. It looks as if there was a furious windstorm the previous night. Trees dislodged from the ground, the tree trunks thrown haphazardly all over - some of them broken, some of them still whole.
Just when he starts thinking it’s all useless and the Titan’s gone, Levi reaches a small valley. He approaches carefully. Peeking over a big stone he sees the creature’s naked body lying on the ground. Strands of dark brown hair falling around its face barely touching the shoulders. Teeth bared and menacing look on its face. Its legs are still bound by the wires of Levi’s 3D gear. Its arms are severed from the elbows down, so the beast couldn’t have just free itself and flee. The wounds are still steaming, just as its left ankle.
He straightens and moves from his observing place. When the Titan notices him it roars furiously. Thrashing around and almost making the earth shudder.
Levi stops at its legs. As long as he stays away from its jaw the monster is harmless at the moment. The Titan stops moving, it just glares at the soldier. He should just finish it and get it over with. The earlier he gets back home, the less he risks Erwin’s scolding. Yet, looking at the Titan laying there helpless, he can’t bring himself to do it. They killed hundreds of your comrades, he tells himself. He remembers the yesterday’s moments he thought would be his last and then this creature rushing in and saving him.
“Fuck this shit,” he grumbles as he takes the blade and instead of moving to the beast’s neck he cuts the wires binding its legs. The moment its legs are free the Titan pushes itself upwards to Levi. Yup, now it’s the end. The Titan pins him down and roars. That’s all it does though. It stands up then and limps away before crashing back to the ground and giving out another helpless roar.
Levi sits up confused. He looks at the creature now whining more than roaring. The wound on its ankle is steaming more than a minute ago. The soldier wonders how long does it actually take for a Titan to heal its wounds and grow missing limbs.
-
In the evening Hanji is sitting by his bed in the infirmary and tells him her very interesting stories and things she has found out during her researches. He pretends to fall asleep so she shakes him.
“Jeez, you have no respect,” he grumbles.
“Nope,” she answers and he gives her an eye roll which makes her laugh for some reason. They sit there silent for a few minutes. It’s quite uncommon.
“Hey, Hanji,” he breaks the silence for once.
“Hm?”
“Have you ever encountered a Titan who wouldn’t feel like having you for a snack?”
She frowns at him, her expression a little confused. “No, they always go for the kill. Even when they are bound and cornered. Sawney and Bean tried to bite my head off,” she laughs, and how the bleeding hell is that even funny? “They feel pain though,” she says in a more serious voice again.
-
The next day he comes back to his Titan, and when the hell did he start calling that thing “his”. Shit, it sounds like he’s got a pet. Brilliant, now he has a pet Titan, the shitty four-eyes would be delighted.
He brings some bandages and disinfectant to treat its wounds. The more he thinks about it the more ridiculous it sounds. Is he really considering treating that monster’s wounds?
The beast sits near the lake. It looks bored and Levi smirks at the sight. Yeah, ridiculous is the right expression.
As the Titan notices him approaching its calmness is gone and it takes defensive stance, trying to get up again.
“Easy there,” Levi tries to calm the creature, holding his hands up to show it he means no harm.
The Titan growls.
Levi rolls his eyes. “Fine.” He must have hit his head really bad, because he unbuckles the belt holding the boxes for the blades and gas tanks, putting it on the ground slowly and moving away. “Satisfied?”
The Titan looks calmer now, though it still looks at him with distrust. As he gets closer, Levi notices the colour of the giant’s eyes. They are emerald green, though at some points it looks blue-ish. It makes him wonder whether all the Titans have such bright eyes, not something he ever really noticed. Shit, what is he thinking about? He doesn’t care about anything regarding Titans as long as he manages to get rid of those fuckers.
It’s just this one big guy. At first he had no doubts it was just a deviant class. But now, he wasn’t so sure. It had so many options to kill him, eat him. However, it didn’t. And Levi doesn’t know why. Looking at him like this the Titan actually seems intelligent, as if he understands what the soldier is saying.
“’Brought some bandages for that crap,” he points to the wounds as he gets closer to the creature. He gets another growl in response and the Titan moves away. “You don’t want to. Fine. Maybe later, then.” Levi shrugs and puts the bag on the ground. He takes out a blanket, which he brought for himself to sit on, because no, he’s not going to sit on that filthy ground, fuck you very much. He spreads it in front of the Titan and looks up at the giant figure.
“So, do you have a name?”
The Titan growls again.
“Rarrgh? That’s a stupid name.”
The Titan fucking frowns. And that’s kinda amazing. It roars now. Levi could say it sounds quite irritated.
Levi frowns. “Grendel?” he remembers Hanji telling him some old story involving a giant with name sounding something like that.
The Titan bends down to him. At the sight of the jaws getting so close again Levi jumps up towards his gear, but the creature just roars again.
As the man manages to calm down he asks “Greren?” at that the Titan gives him a hopeless look, and what the actual fuck? Levi tries to think about it, about any similar name he’s heard.
“Eren?” he asks then, he’s not sure where he got that from, probably some book he has red fuck knows when. He gets a growl in response and he assumes it’s a correct answer, because it sounds pleased somehow.
“Nice to meet you, Eren. I’m Levi,” he introduces himself, because he still has some manners. “I’d shake your hand, but...”
The Titan looks amused. Levi would say how ridiculous it is but, he’d be just repeating himself.
“By the way, you really could use a toothbrush from time to time,” he notes as Eren huffs, though this time Levi doesn’t smell rotting flesh.
He takes a step closer. Eren’s eyes widen slightly and his brows furrow. He grumbles.
“It’s okay,” Levi says and reaches a hand to the giant’s face. Eren looks at him slightly doubtfully and Levi almost laughs. He’s reaching a hand towards the creature which should be eager to bite it off, he should be the one with trust issues.
He closes his eyes and turns his head to the other side. Grits his teeth. This is not a good idea. This is a stupid idea. A very stupid idea.
Levi feels a hot touch on his palm. He twitches. His heart skips a beat. Realising Eren is leaning into his touch he opens his eyes, breathing deeply. Slowly he turns his head towards Eren, whose eyes are still closed. His breath gets stuck. After few seconds the heat gets almost unbearable, Levi keeps his hand in place though, not moving. Eren’s eyes snap open, he huffs and pulls away from the touch, jumping up and chasing to the other side of the lake.
Levi breathes out, gasping for air. He looks at his hand, still in the place where he was touching the Titans nose just a moment ago. Then he looks to where Eren just disappeared. He smirks.
-
“Where are you going?” Hanji leans against the doorframe of his room.
“None of your business,” he replies as he fastens the belt over his chest. He checks the other belts if they are all in place. They are. He grabs his backpack.
“You’ve been disappearing into the woods a lot lately,” she remarks.
“So?”
“What are you up to?”
“My crapper’s broken. ‘Need to take a shit somewhere,” he responds.
“You should’ve said!” she responds apparently in suggestion he could’ve used her bathroom. But he knows she doesn’t trust his answer. She’s too clever to bite that crap. And he’s been going to the woods daily, sometimes even leaving the training grounds earlier.
She raises her eyebrows at him. “Do you really need to take all the paperwork then?”
He looks at the stocks of papers he just put into his backpack on the blanket already neatly folded inside. “I need some bog paper,” he replies. “And I’m not touching anything in your room,” he adds with disgust. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he walks out of the room and pushes her out of the door along the way.
He locks the door of his room and leaves her with her puzzled expression. This time he takes a walk around the town just in case Hanji would decide to follow him. For some reason Levi doesn’t feel like turning Eren into a lab rat. But apparently she knows sneaking after the captain wouldn’t be much of a use, so he heads to the wood, though he still doesn’t let his guard down.
Eren is sitting by the lake as usual. Well, once or twice he found him resting under one of the trees in the valley. As he spots the movement he shifts and grumbles but seeing it’s just Levi, he seems to calm down.
Levi salutes and spreads the blanket he brought himself on the ground again. Eren doesn’t let his sight off him.
“I think the shitty four-eyes is on to me,” he notes. “You know. That batshit crazy scientist. I told you about her.” Eren tilts his head lightly and Levi smiles. His wounds aren’t steaming anymore, but it still took too long for him to recover. He has seen Titans growing limbs in minutes and Eren has been here for almost three weeks now.
He is able to stand and walk properly now and his hands are only missing fingers. And Levi supposes he’s gonna be just fine.
-
It’s about a week later. Levi is down on the blanket observing Eren playing in the lake. Catching fish and letting their slippery bodies slip away from his palms. He’s like an overgrown puppy. Very overgrown.
Levi has become rather fond of these moments. They are peaceful. Eren isn’t judging of his cleaning habits, nor his height like some people in the town are. He doesn’t really care, but it’s annoying, but then again, that’s a synonym for ‘people’ in his vocabulary.
There’s a distant sound of screaming that gets Levi back on his feet. Even Eren’s attention leaves the fish completely as he listens to the far away echoes. He rushes towards Levi all of a sudden and grabs him in one of his palms.
“Oi, what the fuck are you doing?” the captain asks, surprisingly, the Titan doesn’t answer. Thank you for nothing, you useless Titan. He runs towards the way Levi usually uses when he goes to the valley. The soldier frowns, because Eren doesn’t run to Trost, he runs straight towards the Wall, passing the town.
“Bloody hell,” Levi grumbles and he’s pretty much sure that’s what Trost is about to turn into once again. Eren doesn’t slow down though and soon they are at the Wall. There’s a rather large hole in it and apparently, that’s where they are headed. “Well shit.”
They enter the land of Wall Maria and Levi looks around, he really hasn’t been here in a while. Few years ago the Wall was breached and despite all expectations the Titans haven’t left back then. Lots of people were evacuated to Wall Rose. It caused a great havoc in that time. The refugees weren’t accepted well as they needed food and land where to live.
It took about two years until the Wall was breached again. In the meantime a false idea of peace was adopted and the Scouting Legion, Levi’s military fraction, was considered outcast and leeches.
Levi feels as if they’ve been running for hours and he figures Eren is probably heading even out of the Wall Maria. He’s wondering how many more people he knew are dead by now and whether the Titans already left the town. Another thing he thinks about is whether he is ever getting back. After the Titans vanish from the town, the breached Wall will be repaired and it’s gonna take a while until there’s a new one. His gear was left back in the valley so that isn’t an option.
His body hurts as he has spent several hours in the same position, not exactly comfortable. Eren’s grip isn’t too strong, though it’s strong enough for him not to be able to get out. Not speaking of the fact that even if he managed to get out, falling from the height of what, fifteen or so meters? Yeah, something like that. Well, it probably wouldn’t be very helpful.
Maybe it wasn’t him who got himself a pet Titan, maybe the Titan got himself a pet human.
They pass through the old breach in Wall Maria and Eren still doesn’t stop. Levi ponders whether the Titan has any destination in his mind or if he’s simply running as far as he can until the sunset. He has never witnessed if Eren can function normally in the night. He is different from the other Titans in several ways, but Levi isn’t sure about this one.
After hours of watching unfamiliar sceneries he spots something that reminds him of a village. Maybe he’s hallucinating or something. As far as he knows the only civilization is concentrated among the Walls. Could it be some ruins of an old culture? Probably not. But apparently, this is the destination they are headed to.
He looks up at Eren’s face, if he can judge, he looks sort of relieved. Levi turns his sight back to the village. Apart from the large building in the centre, the houses seem to be too small for Titans, so he can assume that it’s not some kind of centre of Titan intelligence, and dang it, that sounds so lame. Nope, definitely not.
As they get closer Eren seems to slow down. There are no bounds around the village as he is used to and Eren manoeuvres carefully between the houses, peeking here and there. It seems abandoned. Or maybe all the people hid themselves when they saw the monster approach.
It’s quite silent and the air is still. The sun is about to set, turning the sky dark yellow and orange.
Eren stops in front of one of the houses. Levi looks up to his face again. He grumbles something and bends down to put Levi on the ground, for which is the soldier the most grateful.
“Great, idiot. And what now?” Levi asks his voice irritated as he stretches his sore limbs. Eren pokes the house’s door lightly, but it doesn’t really make any sound. Levi pushes the giant paw away at which Eren gives him an offended look. He just rolls his eyes and knocks on the door. Nothing happens at first and few seconds later he hears movement inside the house. Someone is probably going down the stairs.
A young woman opens the door. Black hair, dark eyes and confused expression on her face when she looks at Levi.
“Who-“ she starts but doesn’t finish. “Eren!” she shrieks and then she clasps a hand over her mouth. She runs towards the giant though and hugs him, if it can be called a hug.
“Yeah, fine, I’ve got time,” Levi notes and the woman turns to look at him.
“Who are you? What happened?” she asks.
Oh, great, now he’s the one who’s being questioned. “That’s a very interesting question. What the bloody hell happened?” he looks from the woman to Eren, who sighs and nudges his friend. Or at least Levi presumes her to be his friend since she seemed so happy to see him. The woman frowns.
“I’m Mikasa, Eren’s my brother,” she explains.
“Captain Levi,” he introduces himself. “Your brother? Are you shitting me?”
She sighs. “All the Titans are like this,” she says then. “Well, more or less.”
“Like this?” Levi doesn’t want to understand what she is trying to say. It’s a rather ugly idea.
“Human,” she says. He feels like throwing up. He tries not to think about it, about what it means. Shit, he only just met her, how can he be sure she’s telling the truth? But when he looks up at Eren, he knows.
His bottom hits the ground and he runs a hand through his hair. He killed so many of them. So many monsters. So many people. Taking a deep breath he looks up again. “How?”
Mikasa looks from him at Eren, she looks insecure, probably whether she should continue talking.
“How long has this place been here?” he asks then.
“I’m not sure, we were brought here after the fall of Wall Maria.”
“Brought?”
“By the Titans.” Well it’s probably nice to know not everyone was eaten. “Sir?” Mikasa asks. Levi looks at her to let her know he’s listening. “Do you know someone called Armin Arlert?” her voice sounds worried.
“Yeah, he has joined the Scouting Legion last year, what about him?” It’s not that he remembers all the recruits by their names, but Arlert proved himself to be a brilliant tactician.
Mikasa seems relieved and when Levi looks up at Eren, so does he. Friend of theirs then, he understands. Levi stands up again, dusting his trousers.
“Okay, kids that’s all nice. But what do you want me to do?” He still hasn’t the slightest idea of why did Eren brought him here, well, apparently it would be more than just introducing him to his sister, they don’t even have any proof about the origins of the Titans. When did all this shit get so complicated?
“Help?” Mikasa answers and he rolls his eyes, he wouldn’t expect that.
“No shit. Do you know how did Eren become like this?”
“We think it was his father,” Mikasa answers and shoots another glance towards her brother, who is frowning once again.
“That’s so fucked up,” Levi comments.
“It’s some substance that gets injected. Ymir stole one of those.” Eren growls at that, widening his eyes a little. “She went berserk. She’s gone now. Christa hasn’t spoken since then.”
“Great, and what about your father then?” Levi asks.
“He disappeared after the Wall Maria had fallen,” Mikasa answers.
Brilliant, so basically, they don’t know anything either. He sighs. “Where is everyone anyway?”
Mikasa looks up at the sky. It has got purple colour by now. The stars are shining lightly and there is a pleasant breeze in the air.
“They should be on the way back here by now,” she answers. No matter how he thinks about it, that’s just creepy. Also, the Wall will probably be plugged already, so yeah, everything’s looking better and better.
Levi sighs. He looks at Eren. “What now, smart ass?” The Titan only growls in response. “Yeah.” He probably didn’t plan too much into that.
“There’s one more thing,” Mikasa speaks again getting his attention back. “They have a leader. It controls them. I don’t know who that is or what.”
Levi frowns. “We need to get back,” he looks at Eren. He has to tell Erwin. How didn’t Hanji know with all the experiments? He looks back at Mikasa. “Do they have some schedule or some crap? When to wreck our shit?”
She shakes her head. Just brilliant. “You could probably hide here until the next time,” she says then. “But we can’t keep Eren here,” she says, the tone of her voice broken.
-
Levi has never expected he’d actually wanted for the Wall to get breached. And there he is. On the other hand in comparison with Eren, whom, according to Mikasa, has sworn to exterminate all the Titans, it’s not so bad.
The Legion probably considers him dead by this point. Dead and barfed in a lump of unrecognizable bodies and saliva. If anything, he’s be glad it’s not the case.
During his stay he meets a petite blonde named Historia, though they were used to call her Christa. She wouldn’t speak much, Mikasa told him she had a special relationship with the woman who managed to escape recently.
Another person he meets is a young man, Jean, whose friend Marco died when they tried to turn him into Titan. So apparently not all the transformations go that well.
Next two people living in the house are brunette Sasha, who though she appears as a glutton at first, she wouldn’t hesitate in sharing her meals and hates wasting any food; and her friend Connie, who doesn’t seem to be the most intelligent person Levi’s ever met, however he is always trying to see the brighter side of things to cheer his friends when they need it.
Few times a week the kids are all taken to a lab to get some tests done to them. Sasha says it’s only blood tests and measuring of blood pressure, she also complains they told her she should cut down on eating. She manages to sneak some more in anyway.
Since he is hiding he wouldn’t see Eren much these days and though, he wouldn’t probably admit it, he misses the Titan’s dorky tricks, which would sometimes even drag a laugh out of him. But it would have been silly to think their lazily spent days would last forever. It would also be selfish.
Levi learns the inhabitants of this village are mostly able to shift into Titans.
“Why doesn’t Eren shift back then?” he asks Mikasa.
“He doesn’t know how,” is the answer. Apparently he shifted completely on random to protect his friends, unaware of the fact he could actually do it.
-
He’s there for the amount of almost two months when Mikasa finally informs him of the next attack on the Wall. She’s rather eager to go and tell Eren, when they figure out a plan.
She gets caught on her way back and is, along with the rest of the kids, locked up.
“It’s up to you,” Jean says before he leaves. Yeah, as usual. It’s all up to him, unbelievable.
So he sneaks out of the village, thanks to years of practise in the underground of Sina he doesn’t really have a problem with that.
Eren seems surprised that he sees him so soon. The former plan was to meet the day later after the village is empty and Mikasa was supposed to go with him. When Levi tells him what happened, he seems rather angry.
“Calm the fuck down,” the soldier says irritated, he isn’t happy about it either. This way they lost a witness. So he’d just have to do.
The night is cold and he doesn’t hesitate pressing himself close to Eren using him as a source of heat, because who is he kidding, the Titan is even more suitable for it then the fire in his room back in the barracks.
-
The journey back to Trost is a little shorter than when they ran to the village, Eren is more straightforward and seems to be more confident of their target. It’s also very much more comfortable, since Levi isn’t travelling in the Titan’s grip. This time he’s sitting on Eren’s shoulder.
He’s wondering how hard is it going to be for Erwin to trust all the things he has to say. It’s probably going to be worse when they present this information to the corrupted government.
It takes half the day to get back and another three hours are taken by looking for that bloody breach.
Levi navigates Eren to the barracks so that he can finally get his 3DM gear.
“Levi?” Hanji shrieks when he meets her in the hall.
“Later,” he brushes her off and she gapes at him, then nods and runs out.
He gets his gear and climbs on Eren’s shoulder through the window. “Try killing them only when necessary,” Levi instructs the Titan. He wants to avoid the slaughter as much as they can manage. There’s no need for more casualties than necessary. He gets a grumble in response and can only hope Eren shares his stance.
Levi makes Eren the point he can return to. When the soldier spots two Titans getting closer, one from each side, he shares a short glance with his companion before swinging down and going after legs of the monster on the right. The beast falls to the ground in a cloud of steam, but the few seconds before his surroundings get foggy Levi hooks the wire in to the wall on the nearest building and then he neatly spins as he shoots the hooks towards Eren who just finished stomping on the Titan he kicked to the ground. He lands back on his shoulder smoothly.
“Not bad at all,” he notes.
One of the Titans tries to basically bite Eren’s head off, that’s when Levi cuts through the nape of its neck. Later there’s a soldier aiming to kill him and the captain cuts her wires, earning a surprised expression from her after she lands on a roof.
The Titans start desert the town hours later and in the end, it’s only Eren, not exactly inconspicuous. Levi is still sitting on his left shoulder trying to come up with a plan quickly.
“Levi, what are you doing?” Erwin is standing on the roof behind Eren. The soldier turns.
“He’s harmless,” he says.
“’He’?” the commander frowns. “Have you gone completely mad?”
“Listen-“ he’s interrupted when Erwin jumps and grabs him by the collar. Levi’s eyes widen and he curses at his superior. “Don’t ever do that again,” he says as they land on the ground, trying to get his collar properly. The commander ignores him.
“Now!” he shouts and Levi looks up to see Eren’s being shoot at. Hooks on ropes stabbing into his body. The Titan roars in pain. He throws his arms and kicks around himself, trying to get rid of the ropes, tear them. It’s no use.
He’s forced to the ground and trapped by nets.
“Don’t hurt him!” Levi shouts, but no one pays attention. The hurt expression on Eren’s face breaks his heart. The Titan tries to fight them, but they are already pinning his body to the ground with large metal nails.
Levi tries to make a way through the crowd that formed around the Titan, but he’s pulled back by Erwin. “Stop it,” he glares at the taller man.
-
Levi is thrown into jail. Like some bloody criminal, well, technically he is, but that’s not the actual reason he’s there, so it pisses him off.
“Yeah, just go you swines,” he calls after the Military Police officers that led him here as the door creak behind him and the key rattles in the lock. He takes a deep breath. No need to panic. They aren’t going to kill Eren, he’s a valuable testing subject after all.
He sits on the bed and rests his back against the wall, closing his eyes.
When Erwin finally pays him a visit he asks for an explanation. Levi looks at him.
“The Titans are human. You have to let Eren go,” he says.
“Eren?”
“The one you captured,” Levi explains, he’s getting even more irritated. It’s all so stupid.
“You even gave him a name,” Erwin notes.
“No, it’s his actual name. Name his bloody parents gave him. There’s a village. They can shift. I met some brats from Shiganshina there.”
“Why doesn’t your... Eren? Why doesn’t Eren shift back to human then?”
“Because he’s an idiot and doesn’t know how.” Levi sighs. “Anyway, there’s some motherfucker controlling them. We just need one more expedition.”
Erwin’s face doesn’t shift. He keeps his look on the captain. “I’ll see what I can do.”
-
Commander Smith is back two days later. “We’re leaving in a week,” he announces as he unlocks the barns.
“And Eren?” Levi asks leaving the cell, glad he can finally get out of the filthy place and take a proper shower.
“You can see him,” Erwin answers and Levi feels the weight in his chest loosen.
The Titan is kept in a shed, too big to be moved to the dungeon. He is bound, though. Shackles around his neck, wrists and ankles. Wounds caused by the huge nails are still steaming. He’s chained to a wall. Otherwise he doesn’t look hurt though - he actually looks quite bored with Hanji sitting in front of him, talking. When he spots the captain his expression seems to light up.
The brunette fills him on the details of what had happened in the past few days. According to her words Erwin had to vouch for them at a tribunal that was summoned in a rush.
“They called you untrustworthy,” Hanji says. “But apparently it’s not a good idea to call Humanity’s strongest into question.”
He tells her, that someone called Armin Arlert might be interested in meeting the Titan. She raises her eyebrows at him, but the only response she gets is a shrug.
When a young soldier comes to visit, his big blue eyes widen at the sight of the monstrous creature. “Eren?”
Eren only grumbles.
“He won’t talk to you,” Levi informs him. They talk about the events of the past few weeks. Armin seems quite relieved when he hears about Mikasa.
When he’s leaving several hours later, Eren pokes him lightly on the back and probably tries to smile, not very successfully though. Armin smiles in return and promises to come back.
In the evening Levi brings himself a blanket from his room and spends the night pressed against Eren’s side.
-
On the way to the Titan village, Eren leads the expedition with Levi sitting on his shoulder, which Hanji noted to be really sweet and cute and told him, she needs to draw a sketch when they come back. Levi only rolled his eyes and ignored her.
The village isn’t so calm as it was when Eren brought him there for the first time. Though, when the people spot the approaching Titan they cause quite a commotion.
“Take me to your leader,” Erwin requests few of the bystanders who don’t seem too shocked. No one answers but a short blonde with bored expression points to the large building in the middle of the village.
The commander gives orders to the soldiers to split and secure the town. None can leave. Mike and Nanaba each take part of the expedition and head in different directions. The commander, captain Levi still on Eren’s shoulder along with Levi’s squad and squad leader Hanji followed by Moblit head towards the building in the centre.
They ride through the streets. The town seems to stop. Everyone just stands and stares at the group of strangers. The fact they could shift any second and gobble them all up sends chills down Levi’s spine.
The doorknob on the colossal door is too high to reach without 3D manoeuvre gear. Or without being tall enough.
Eren doesn’t bother with knocking. He grabs the knob and opens the door. It leads them into a large room. Levi looks down at the rest of the Legion as Eren enters, they follow. Only Erd and Gunther stay outside to check on the people gathering around the building.
“I wondered what the commotion was all about,” a deep voice echoes through the room. Levi turns his head to the direction. A tall figure mostly covered in dark fur is sitting next to the window. Unnaturally long arms folded in its lap. It vaguely resembles the pictures of primates Levi has seen in Hanji’s illegal books.
It can talk.
Eren is starting to tremble. Not a good sign. The captain tells him to calm down. He doesn’t.
Levi swings down on his manoeuvre gear, landing next to Erwin. The tall blond is frowning.
“What are you?” he asks.
The beast chuckles. “I think you already know.”
Erwin’s features don’t shift.
“What do you want? Why are you doing all this?” Petra yells from behind, earning few scolding looks.
The Titan smirks. “Because I can.”
An angry roar leaves Eren’s throat as he runs towards the creature. It moves just in time to avoid him. Eren crashes to the wall.
Levi hooks his wires to the Titan’s fur, spinning towards it. The Ape Titan grabs the wires, tearing it from its flesh. It throws the soldier aside. Before he can hit the ground he shoots the wires upwards.
Erwin and Petra follow his attack. At the same time Eren gathers himself up and in an attempt to jump at the furry Titan they collide.
The beast grabs Eren by the legs. He tries to take a swing at the Titan. It grasps his arm mid-movement and tears it off. The room is filled with Eren’s painful cry. It catches him by the hair and yanks him upwards. His head is bent to reveal the nape of his neck. Eren struggles and yelps.
Before it can bite into his flesh, it’s met with Levi’s blades. It shifts just in time to avoid them though. The Titan’s grip on Eren loosens and he ends up falling down.
The beast attempts to stomp on his neck but he rolls away before the hit lands. Second later Hanji’s blades cut off one of its long arms. It groans in pain.
The room is getting covered in steam from the Titans’ wounds. Auruo and Moblit go after its legs, making the creature crumble to the ground.
Levi lands on its back. “How can a Titan be returned back to human form?”
The beast laughs.
“Speak, you piece of trash,” Levi grumbles.
“Your friend needs to eat someone,” it answers amused.
“You’re lying,” the captain says and as the beast starts to laugh again he raises his blades to strike.
“Levi, no!” Hanji shouts and he stops, looking up at her. “We need answers.” The soldier grits his teeth. The beast Titan isn’t going to tell them shit. Crap, it seems like it’s actually having fun right now.
He wants to jump off the Titan’s body, but before he can do it, he’s grabbed by its remaining palm, which he could swear was pinned to the ground. Not anymore.
It squeezes him hard. Knocking all the air out of his lungs. He gasps for breath. His vision goes blurry.
In a distance there’s a mighty roar before everything goes dark.
-
First thing he spots after opening his eyes is a wooden ceiling. He doesn’t have a wooden ceiling in his room, as far as he can remember.
He sits up and leaning his head on the top of the footboard of the bed there is-
“Eren?” he says and the Titan opens his eyes. He looks happy to see the soldier is awake. “What happened?” Levi rubs his eyes. Looking around it’s just the two of them in the room.
He gets up from the bed. As he stands up, his head is spinning. “Shit.” He stumbles a little, but Eren is there to support him. Levi manages to get his balance and Eren pokes him with his nose.
He chuckles. “Oi, what are you doing?” His Titan seems to be overjoyed at the sight of him being alright. He actually reminds Levi of a dog. Eren would be probably wagging his tail right now if he had one.
“No! Stop!” the captain lets out, but it doesn’t matter. Eren covers him in short licks, covering him in saliva. Levi manages to push him away. “Ew. That’s disgusting, you know? Bad Titan!”
Eren does something that could almost be called laugh. Levi reaches his hand to the giant face to fondle him gently. Eren closes his eyes and grumbles with satisfaction. Or maybe he’s trying to purr.
“Come on, idiot. I need to change,” Levi flicks the Titan’s nose and moves to the door. Before he can reach it someone else opens it.
“Am I interrupting something?” Hanji asks stepping inside and looking over Levi, then shifting his gaze to his Titan and back to the captain.
“What do you think?”
“I’ll come later then,” she says.
-
Levi is sitting on Eren’s shoulder, reading a book out loud. Eren is sitting and leaning his back against the wall, listening.
There’s a knock on the door and without waiting for the answer Hanji enters the shed with Mikasa and Armin in her tow. Both the kids climb into Eren’s lap – his other shoulder is still missing an arm, so it would probably be painful for him.
“Fine, shitty four-eyes, will you finally tell me what the bloody hell happened?” Levi grumbles at the brunette, closing the book. She chuckles and brings a chair from the corner, before she starts talking.
After he passed out, some of the villagers apparently shifted when Erwin announced their leader was dead.
The village was prepared for the Titans though. Since some of the experiments hadn’t gone well, they had the equipment to dispose of defective subjects if needed.
Mikasa joins with her share of the story. “After you arrived, they were quite distracted. It wasn’t even hard to get away,” she says. “One of our friends told us what’s going on, so we ran to the storage and got any weapons we could get.”
She showed them the laboratories, where they found a lot of documents and some unfinished experiments. There were also plans of the inner Walls and a big number of maps.
Currently, they are going through them to see what they can do with Eren and Historia’s girlfriend after they find her.
Hanji assures them, they will for sure find a way to reverse the Titan form.
“We’re gonna get you out of this,” Levi whispers as he leans his head against his Titan’s cheek.