Chapter 1: Ackerman

Author's Note:

In the world of AoT or SnK, dozens of the main characters are driven to vanquish titans off the face of the Earth to protect others, or to avenge their lost loved ones, such as Eren and Mikasa.

But what about Levi?

I mean, come on, no one is that passionate about their task and duty without having someone close to their heart as their motivation. I mean, maybe he felt it was his duty to protect others, but, in this story, I'm telling who and why led Levi Ackerman to where he stood in the tale of Attack on Titan.

See ya soon!

He was 12 years old when he rushed off with the stolen loaf of bread in his jacket pocket.

"Hey, you, piece of crap, bring that back!"

The burly shop owner stormed after him, pushed the crowd out of his way.

Levi slipped under and between the legs of the people; he was short enough to go unnoticed,

most of the time.

When Levi had chosen to live in the city, the city above ground, he had been warned.

"They probably won't take stealing all that lightly, up there, you're gonna have to try and find a way to earn some cash, as legally as possible."

Levi had disregarded Kenny's words.

I can use a knife, so long as I can protect myself, I'll be ok.

It had been three days, three days so far. The first two nights, he had slept in an unused boat underneath the bar seats, until the owner arrived, noticed his presence and kicked him out. After that, he decided he was going to have to stick around in alleys and sleep with the rats.

Of course, he could go join the military program, and become a trainee solider, but with no legal or even unofficial guardians, and a record of theft and already 2 kills, there was no way he would be accepted, no matter how good a fighter he was.

There it was, a small crack underneath a house, large enough for him to slip into.

Gritting his teeth, Levi slid in.

It has to be quick. I the guy notices me; I have no escape route.

He waited for someone to some searching for him in the crack.

After he deemed the situation all clear, he pulled out his precious, stolen cargo.

A small roll of bread. I was stale, had dirt on it, possibly even small amounts of mould on it, but after not eating for the past day, even a clean-freak like Levi would eat something like it.

This might be a good place to sleep, he thought to himself. It didn't look like anyone had been below the house for a long time, and it was cut off from the outside.

The next day, or, rather, early morning, when no-one was around to see him, a small, dirty child emerge out from under a house, he set off on foot.

The ocean was rolling out in front of him, and the closer he got, the further it seemed to be.

If we are just stuck inside this wall our whole lives, how are we ever going to find out what the rest of the world is like? And what about the titans? What are they like?

At age 12, Levi has still not seen a titan, like most other children his age, luckily for them.

If you listen carefully, you can hear something coming through the wind.

Maybe it was a titan, on the other side of wall Maria, or maybe it was just a horse.

A large hand firmly gripped the nape of Levi's neck from out of nowhere. He turned around instantaneously.

It wasn't a horse, or a titan, it was that fat shopkeeper from yesterday creeping up on me!

The shopkeeper gripped his wrist.

"Little man, if you don't come up with triple the amount you owe me for that little stunt you pulled yesterday with my bread, you see that ocean over there? You better know how to swim," he finished, smirking as he slowly pulled the young boy closer.

"You should let go if you want to leave with what's still remaining of your eyesight." Levi replied.

"Huh, what's that? You making fun of my ARGH!"

Before he finished his sentence, Levi had whipped out his knife and made a cut across his face. Blood started to seep from the fowl man's wound.

All I need is to be able to protect myself. That's all I need here, on the surface city.

Each time things got hard, Levi told himself that lie.

It wasn't that he just wasn't ready to accept the hard truth, that he was going to have to come up with a good plan soon, otherwise…

Levi started walking away from the old shopkeeper, still hunched over, covering his wound with his hand.

I should have gone harder on him, the bastard pig deserved more than he got.

As he approached the top of the hill, he went to while his blood tipped knife on his pant leg.

"Hey kid."

Levi looked up in shock.

I was a solider, one from the military, or from the survey corps, he couldn't tell. He had spent his whole life avoiding them, not inspecting their uniforms.

But he could tell he was going to be in a spot of trouble.

"I saw what you did down there.