"What's that?" Eren stared at the mysterious golden artifact lying on the table in front of him, his blue-green eyes widened in awe. "Hange...?"
"We actually don't know," the brunette replied as she took her glasses off of her face and began polishing them with a corner of her forest-green caret. "We found it on a previous scouting mission, and I was wondering if you've ever seen it before. It might be a key to the titans and your powers, but I'm not sure. As far as I know, it's some kind of ancient scroll, but there's something off about it. I've tried running tests...researching it in books... Nothing."
"You forgot to mention the part when you tried opening the damn thing, and it left a scorch mark on my office wall." A short, raven-haired man entered the small dining room and sat in a chair as far away from her as he possibly could, his silver eyes narrowed in their familiar expression of disdain.
"Lighten up, Levi. It wasn't that bad. Just a little scientific mishap." Hange slid her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose. "Accidents happen!"
"Like you?" Levi cooly retorted.
"Anyway, I've come up with a few theories on where this...scroll came from, but I haven't gotten anywhere close to what it does," Hange continued, ignoring Levi's comment. "It's strange; at one point, I accidentally knocked a mixture of strong acid onto it, enough that it should've damaged it, but nothing happened. It's like something's protecting it...and I can't figure out what it is."
Eren silently nodded, only half-registering what Hange said as he stared intensely at the scroll. He found himself tracing the intricate lines engraved into its golden shell, entranced by their odd pattern. Arm outstretched toward the ancient relic, he lightly touched one of the three amethysts embedded at the center of the scroll like eyes on a face.
It feels like it's...calling me?
"The hell are you doing, brat?"
Eren felt an icy hand tightly clenching his wrist. Levi had stretched across the table, his eyes burning with annoyance as he shoved the scroll out of Eren's reach. "Hanje's bad enough about this, as it is. My team's asses aren't about to be put on the line for your stupidity. Am I understood?"
"Yes, sir," the chestnut-haired boy replied, struggling to ignore the numbness of his hand.
"Good." The captain let go of Eren's wrist before calmly walking toward the wooden door leading out of the room. "I have important work to do in my office. Let me know if you learn anything...and try to keep from burning the whole damn castle down…."
"Of course, sir," Hange answered timidly, although her rich brown eyes glimmered with amusement.
Levi only gave a long, deep sigh and rolled his eyes as he exited the room, muttering strings of curses. As his utterances of profanity reached Eren's ears, the young cadet cocked his head in curiosity.
I've never even heard of some of those before, and I've been in training to join the military for three years!
"So, here are my theories on what's protecting it." Hange lightly tapped the scroll with her finger before rolling it back in front of Eren. "...Eren?"
But he heard nothing except for the eerie whispering racing through his mind...saw nothing except for the faint glimmer of the precious materials adorning the ancient artifact. Feeling an unfathomable burning in his hand, he desperately reached to cool it against the soothing gold...the gleaming amethysts... Reaching for the relic-
No. It has a name...
"Kel," he murmured, placing his hand on the frigid metal. He sighed in admiration as he felt the flawlessness of the craftsmanship under his palm. "Mu grind mindin lingrah vod..."
"Eren!"
Eren?
The sharp slap on his hand released him from the spell of the alluring scroll.
"H-Hange? Why did you do that?" Eren asked, staring at her with bleary eyes, as if he had just awakened from a long nap. "You told me you were gonna explain your theories to me."
"...I was explaining them. You became...distracted, and then, you started speaking in this strange language. I think the Kel had something to do with it." She quickly grabbed the scroll and stuffed it into a large pack seated on the floor beside her.
"Kel? What's that?" Giving the officer a look of confusion, he shook his head. "Why is everything so blurry?!"
"You...you really don't remember, do you? You...Eren?"
The young cadet squinted as he struggled to distinguish Hange's figure from the wall through the haze that had descended over his eyes. He could not understand a single word that she spoke, if she were even speaking at all. Every sound that penetrated his ears blended into an excruciating roar. His heart pounded wildly in his chest, matching its rhythm to the pulsations of the tormenting noise plaguing him. Although he wished to scream for help, he could do nothing but sit slumped in his chair before Hange, paralyzed. He felt himself slipping into a dizzying darkness, and he could do nothing to stop his descent….
Eren awoke to find himself lying in an infirmary bed, his head pounding with each breath he took. Despite his pain, he almost immediately recognized the familiar ice-blue eyes that gazed at him from a nearby chair.
"…Mikasa…?" he whispered, his voice cracked and dry.
"Eren, you're alive! Don't try to talk…." Mikasa began to lean toward Eren but quickly stopped herself. "I'll go get the doctor and tell him you're up."
She stood from her seat and exited between a set of white linen curtains that had been hung to partition the bed from the rest of the infirmary. Even though the curtains obscured the rest of the patients from Eren's view, he could still hear the agonized moans of the wounded…the raspy coughing of the sick…. Every sound assaulted his ears, worsening the intense throbbing in his skull. Growling in annoyance, he covered his ears with his hands as Mikasa reappeared with a tall, mud-haired man behind her.
"I found a doctor. …Eren, did…did you just…growl…like an animal?" Mikasa gave him a look of concern.
"Strange…." Hange murmured as she entered Eren's partitioned bedroom, scribbling into a small notebook she held in her hand. "Animal-like behavior to accompany the…language, shall we call it?"
"What are you doing here?! What did you do to him?!" Mikasa snarled. Eyes burning with fury, she turned to face Hange.
"We were looking into my research, when he touched something I was showing him," the titan expert replied, ignoring Mikasa's first question. "I think he'll be fine, now that he's up. I just want to check him to make sure he's okay and maybe further my research. Eren, could you please take your hands off of your ears?"
He unwillingly obeyed, clenching his teeth in pain as the sounds of the infirmary invaded his senses completely unmuffled. Struggling to keep from burying himself in the bedsheets, he gave Hange a scowl.
"It's so loud!" he griped.
This is killing me! I need to get out of here! To—
"This is…interesting…." The sound of Hange's voice interrupted his desperate thoughts as the officer rearranged her glasses before jotting a few sentences into her book. "You seem to be more sensitive to sounds than you were before. I wonder if…." She procured a small, capped vial filled with crimson liquid from her pocket. Uncapping it, she shoved it under his nose. "What do you smell?"
"Uh…." Eren gave the contents of the glass container a quick sniff. The familiar sharp, metallic scent hit his nostrils. "…Blood?"
"Officer Hange, may I ask you to leave? Eren doesn't need you to be experimenting on him right now." The doctor gave a sigh of annoyance and ran his fingers through his mud-brown hair. "Please, this is for his health."
"All right…." Hange replied, capping her vial and tucking it into her pocket. "I'll be working on the information I have while you recuperate, Eren. Rest up!"
Without another word, she hastily exited Eren's confined quarters, humming an odd tune as she left.
"Why don't you try standing up and walking around a little bit?" the doctor continued as if nothing had happened. "You think you can?"
"Yeah, I think so…." Eren answered, slowly sliding out of the infirmary bed. After a few tentative steps, he approached the doctor.
"Any dizziness?"
"No, I think I'm fine," the young cadet replied.
"I think you can leave the infirmary now, but I want you to get some rest. You don't need to pass out like that again. If you feel dizzy at all, make sure you come back right away. I'll leave you two to clear out. There are other patients I need to work with." The doctor exited through the curtains and disappeared into the mayhem of the infirmary.
After a few heartbeats of silence, Eren cocked his head quizzically at Mikasa.
"What are you doing here? Did something happen?! And what…what was Hange going on about?" He angrily clenched his fists, although he could feel his stomach twinge in uneasiness. "Was it the titans?! Did they break through Wall Rose again?!"
"No, Eren. Everything's okay," Mikasa answered. "I heard about what happened to you, and I wanted to make sure you were alive. When I saw you in that bed, Eren…I thought you were dead…. The doctor said he'd never seen anything like it! He said you were mumbling in this different language almost the whole time you were out. Are you sure you're okay?" She reached to place her hand on his shoulder.
"I said I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me so much!" Eren growled, shoving her away from him. "I can take care of myself!"
"You've been eaten by a titan before," Mikasa replied. "I just want you to be safe.…"
Her voice trailed away into silence as she shot him a pleading look.
Eren never returned her gaze. Narrowing his eyes into slits, he pulled the curtains surrounding his quarters aside and stared into the large room before him.
Several beds lay neatly in two rows along the walls, most of them occupied by wounded or ill soldiers. Their moans of pain had reached an even greater volume, clawing at Eren's ears…shredding what was left of his sanity. Each agonized cry seemed to reverberate in the young cadet's skull….
Giving a groan of annoyance, Eren covered his ears and raced out of the infirmary. He was faintly aware of Mikasa's cries of concern, but he would not—could not—lower his hands from his ears. Even after he escaped into one of the dimly lit halls of the Survey Corps's base, he could not stop his rapid heartbeat, soothe his aching head. Only one thing ran through his mind.
The Scroll…. I have to find the Scroll!
"Eren! Eren!"
He felt Mikasa's chilly hand on his arm. Held from his goal by his adoptive sister's strength, he uncovered his ears and struggled violently to pry himself lose of her firm grip.
"Let me go!" he shrieked. "I have to see it! I have to—!"
"See what?!" she asked, never loosening her hold on his arm. "Where are you going?! Eren—!"
"Let me go, damn it!" Eren could feel his breathing becoming more labored…his muscles beginning to ache. Despite his body's protests of pain, he continued what he knew to be a fruitless fight. He could not ignore the voice in his mind: a powerful roar that would only be satisfied if he obeyed it. "LET ME GO!"
"Eren, something's wrong! You need help!" Mikasa tugged even more fiercely at his arm.
"SHUT UP! You dare interfere with me, joor?!" he snarled through gritted teeth, his voice echoing throughout the hallway. "Such arrogance!"
With a final pull, Eren broke free of Mikasa and fled down the hall.
"Foolish mortal…."
He gasped as soon as he heard the sound of his voice.
Or, I think it's my voice. When did it get so deep? So…authoritative? But it actually sounds…right to me…. What's happening to me?! Why am I doing this?! NO! None of that matters right now. I need to find the Scroll! That's all that matters! All that matters….