I'm tired, both mentally and physically, but you don't know how happy I am when I finished this, an old old WIP I almost forgot I had.
The tree is always there. No matter he knows it exists or not, the fact that it is existential to the world is true. He may have come across it from a long time ago but he never knows. He only feels a connection to it, an important one he may or may not understand. Somehow, he always finds himself coming back to it.
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9
He stumbles upon the tree when playing hide and seek with his two best friends. They were in the forest when it happened. How Levi agreed to the game, he doesn't remember. It just so happened that they had lost sight of their red haired friend who had lost her way inside the forest. Because of that, he and Farlan had no choice but to search for her together as it would might separate them three altogether and they don't want that now, do they.
So, there they looked for her, some yelling from Farlan but none from him. The raven haired boy had never been outgoing, unlike Isabel, but even if with his quiet and cold demeanor, those two are always there for him.
So, going on, both he and Farlan searched everywhere in the forest consisting of trees which are surprisingly huge-no surprise there, they're in a forest after all. They inspected if there are any holes in any trees in case she hides there. They also attempted climbing the huge trunks of the trees with no luck-they're still kids anyway. Somewhere along the way, his brunette friend suggested that they split up explaining that nothing would be accomplished if they go find her together. Levi looks up to the sky and notes that it's getting darker.
"Be careful."
With a nod, his accomplice turns around and leaves to the opposite direction. He stands alone. Footsteps getting fainter as Farlan leaves him be, Levi focuses on the surroundings. Green leaves descend their way to the ground and it crushes when he steps on it, moving forward, goal still in mind. Although he thinks about getting her hands on Isabel and reprimanding her for getting so lost, a faint voice in the back of his head tells him something completely different.
He makes his way to a clearing and finds himself quiet. Not the usual type of silence he usually shows. No, this is completely different. The voice told him to come here, reasons unknown, but upon closer inspection he thinks now why.
Patches of grasses can be seen on the ground but it seems that there is no equal height in the tallness of the grass. It looked like something grazed it, hence the height difference. He thought that was the case but when he closes on the ground he sees a red-brownish color staining the ground and he backs up.
Now there is really something about this place.
Levi knows that it is really getting late but the voice inside him persists to look around more. Following the voice, his gaze focuses on a tree. Yes a tree, but not like any other. This tree's bark is peeled off in the middle but not on the outer areas. Like the grass, it's stained with a reddish-brown color. He approaches the tree and traces the border between the peeled and unpeeled area, captivated.
"Boo!"
Startled, Levi spins around trying to locate the source, making sure to give them a glare that can send their souls to hell. He soon stopped when he sees an all too familiar twin-tail donning and grinning girl. He calms himself down and spots Farlan trailing behind her, panting.
The brunette looks mad and by mad, it means that their female friend probably had done something wrong or annoying to his taller friend. He pants for a while before speaking," I told you to wait for me!"
The girl huffs in return, "You were just too slow."
"That's because I looked for you everywhere!"
"You could have called out to me."
"I did!"
Levi only watches them argue. It is honestly amusing for him, watching them like this. Now if only someone could tell them to get married. His lips turns upwards a bit and he's lucky that they didn't see him do this.
Realizing that it is almost supper and that their parents are waiting for them, he leaves them but after speaking up a, "Let's go."
His childhood friends blinks at his retreating back and follows after him.
{Later that night, Levi wonders back on that strange part of the forest.}
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14
"Nee, Levi. You have been inside of the forest, haven't you?" Hanji asks.
He's older now, his raven black hair now kept in a neat undercut compared to his old hanging hair to which he later complained would always block his sight. He remembers his cousin, Mikasa, commenting on how it made him look more 'emo' but Levi ignores her, knowing for best that it's better to just avoid squabbling with his younger cousin.
Apparently, he feels a quick pain on his shoulder and he winces, put out of his short reverie before rubbing the red spot. Giving his companion a glare, he blurts out. "What the hell, four eyes?"
Hanji only stares back at him, shrugging, before asking, "You okay?"
This catches him by surprise, his eccentric friend rarely ever asks for something such as that but he guesses by the concerned look on her face, suggests that he's out of it.
"Yes, I'm fine." He waves her off, not wanting to sound vulnerable.
"You sure? You kinda looked pale to me." She says, her thick rimmed glasses not hiding the worried look in her eyes.
"What makes you say that?"
"Well," Hanji starts before she bounces on the heels of her feet, a habit she can't get herself to stop, "It looks like to me, you turned stiff when I mentioned the forest."
And there it goes again, Levi felt himself stand still, his breath hitching and eyes pointing hard with a slight cold edge. His head starting to ache with vivid images appearing yet again,
He's flying. A familiar weight on his legs propelling him forward, steam following in his wake. His grip on his blades, tight, a familiar feeling as it keeps him steady, keeps him grounded, keeps him balanced from whereas he is afloat in the air.
It does not break, his even and duty-oriented mind does not stop. Not even when he spots the hanging and obviously mangled corpse of what used to be Gunther. His neck cut off like the titans they are so determined to rid of.
Next, is the bloody corpse of his right-hand man, Erd Gin, or specifically what remained of him. His upper torso, disgustingly unstained with the crimson liquid despite the huge lack of his lower body.
Soon after, he sees Auruo Bossard. Ever the charmer, always trying to earn the respect he wanted, and respect Levi indeed gave, now face down and dead.
Finally, he steels himself for the last remaining of his squad. The person he wanted least to see, to know that his assumptions that maybe they survived was true, to comfort himself that they're still alive and fighting.
But as much as he tries to believe in those, the more logical part of his head knows there's no use. There is no way that he would avoid discovering this person's corpse.
Petra Ral.
"…vi?"
"…evi?"
"Levi!"
Broken out of his thoughts, Levi places himself in the present. He finds Hanji's hands on his shoulders as if she shook him up from whatever those passing images in his head are called. He moves away from his friend's hold and affirms that he is indeed fine.
Levi has been experiencing these momentarily relapse ever since the time he got out of that weird part of the forest. Always replaying the same scene over and over again but for some unknown and frustrating reason, the fourth person would always be left out. He has already met the first three aforementioned boys, and thankfully nothing bad has happened to them yet.
Gunther is the town's bakery shop's son, so he's always sending out deliveries early in the morning. Erd, a good friend of his, met him in school two years his senior and even though he doesn't surpass Levi's level of intelligence, the tall man has always been the conversationalist between the two of them. He has also met Auruo, who always tries to imitate him, saying he's the twelve year old's idol to which he scoffs at, pointing out that he's too young to even be idolized.
All these three, he has met but never has he seen, both in personal nor in the flashback the fourth one. Though, no matter what he does, no matter how much he thinks about it, no matter how much he asks them or anyone in that matter if they know anyone by the name Petra Ral to which they say they don't know; Levi can't help shake the feeling that there is something important about the last part.
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19
He has dragged Mikasa along with her friend, Eren, with him to the forest. Or specifically the part where his vague flashbacks and images started. He hasn't been there in a long time, not since he and Isabel and Farlan got out.
Levi wonders how the two are faring. Ever since their move, they haven't been sending letters to him that much because Far-far has been stingy with the budget and we've been traveling so much lately as his twin tailed friend put it.
But for now, he focuses on the two younger teens. They're now fifteen, puberty now acting up on them judging by how refined his cousin's features have grown, her beauty now attracting many unwanted trouble. As for the brat she's with, he can't help but inwardly cuss on how unfair it was for the boy to be a few inches taller than him.
"Oi, Eren!" he yells, grabbing the attention of the boy and Mikasa, who has been staring right at the trunk of the tree with uneven colored layering.
He sees the brown haired boy flinch at his name, he hasn't turned his gaze away from the trunk of the tree. His green eyes unfocused but at the same time looking horrified, his whole body slightly shaking. Suppose Mikasa notices this because she grabs Levi on his side. Anger riling up.
"What did you do?" she glares at him. Of course, she would be blaming him. He has always been in the receiving end of Mikasa's wrath whenever he teases her secret crush since childhood.
"Nothing." He replies, not breaking his stare from the boy.
Softly muttering to himself, not bothering if she hears him or not, "Just needed to show him something."
Levi watches Eren. Poor poor Eren, falling down on his knees a look of guilt and sadness plastered on his face. His fierce green emerald eyes quaking with tears as it falls down. Sobs racking out of his lungs, he brings up his hands and bows his head in sorrow.
Two words escaping his lips repeatedly, as if in prayer.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry…"
Levi and Mikasa watches him do all this, a few meters behind him. A few meters from the tree.
Mikasa's grip on his shoulder loosens, and Levi lets her, silently watching Eren break down on the forest floor. He knows that she doesn't know what's happening to the brat, doesn't know that it also had something to do with her. Truthfully, Levi doesn't want to do this. Doesn't want to show the boy this, but he has to.
He has to know, he has to remember.
Levi waits for a few minutes, a few minutes before he slowly walks towards the boy and gives him a hand. Eren only sees him do this, tears still quietly cascading down his face and looks at his hand before taking it in his and standing up.
When he is now on his feet, tears now dry, Levi places his arm on Eren's shoulder and nods at him, whispering. "It's not your fault, Jeager."
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21
He's sitting against the tree, content in the peacefulness of the forest. It's quiet and not at all devoid of life. The chirps of bird here and there, mingled with the soothing sound of the air as it breezes through the trees.
He likes it here. Likes that it's not noisy.
For some reason, the images his mind conjured up years ago seemed to stop just right after he showed Eren his. Levi wonders if it has anything with the reign of Titans that happened a thousand of years ago. In fact, he finds it coincidental that he knows are named after the very same people who freed humanity. Somehow, he thinks that its fate.
If they find each other, then how good it is to relive life now that there is no apparent danger in their present world.
So, he just lazes against the trunk of the very tree that started it all, in sighing content before he hears a foreign voice.
"Levi?"
Levi opens his eyes and the first thing he sees is not the face of the girl whose back was irrevocably broken backwards in an irregular angle, not the face of the girl whose dead empty eyes are staring right back at him, not the sight of which broke his heart as he reluctantly ordered his men to leave their dead bodies.
Instead, he finds himself staring at the bright smile of the woman standing right in front of him. Her flaming copper hair swaying as a great gust of wind blew right into her, her auburn eyes sparkling with such warmth he greatly misses, even if he knows that he hasn't met her. Though, that doesn't mean that he doesn't know her.
Levi returns the smile, pushing himself on his feet and before he knows it, he is pushed back from the sudden impact of the woman's body enveloping him in an embrace. Her arms circling around his waist as she pushes her head to his chest, heaving out sobs of relief.
"You're here." Petra says as she pushes her face off his shoulder. Levi ruffles her golden tresses affectionately, placing a quick kiss on her forehead, he nods.
"Yeah, I'm here."
He feels her content sigh against his throat, feels her heart beating against his and for the first time in a long, long time Levi knows he's home.