Levihan week Reincarnation AU
Author: LonelyWriter
Summary: Solitude had become his friend; and most nights he sat by the window of his apartment and watched the sunrise.
Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin.
~.~
Solitude had become his friend; and most nights he sat by the window of his apartment and watched the sunrise.
His parents had called him their miracle child. They had been 48 and 52 respectively, well past childbearing age and yet, there he was, empty coffee cup in hand, a testament to the fact deepest wishes and desires could come true. Because he had been born so late in their lives they had managed to save enough that he had gone to college without the need for any aid. His mother had celebrated her retirement the year he graduated high school. The year he graduated college his father had been diagnosed with early onset dementia and there was nothing that could be done. His mother had tried to keep a brave face, but earlier that year she had suffered a sever stroke which robbed her of any independence. He was forced to make the worst decision of his newly minted adult life and place both his parents in a nursing home where his father deteriorated at rate much faster than any of his doctors could have predicted.
And then his mother had another stroke and was gone. The doctors had warned that his father wouldn't hang on much longer either, especially since his wife had died and they were right. He had buried his parents a month apart.
The pigeons were especially greedy today, eating every last morsel of the bun he had requested along with his coffee. The park was empty of even the homeless woman who stole the coins out of the fountain. That didn't bother him though. He was used to being alone. He glanced at his watch as he took a swing of coffee. It was a two coffee sort of day. He still had thirty minutes before he had to be back and his coffee and bun were gone. Still he sat, watching the birds fight over other food that others like him had left.
He checked his watch again. Only five minutes had passed but angry gray clouds had rolled in and he knew he needed to get indoors. He bypassed the main doors of the police station though, choosing the side entrance where he could slip into an empty interrogation room and wait out the rest of his lunch hour in silence.
He had always been more comfortable alone with his thoughts than with people. He assumed that it was from growing up without siblings with parents old enough to be his grandparents that caused him to disconnect from people so easily. It was useful for his job though.
When he had filled out his college applications he always had one goal in mind: he would be a police detective. So he had studied Criminal Justice religiously and had picked up a second major in Political Science. He was determined to know how to hunt down a criminal, and how to make sure he could do everything to keep them in prison. Because of his relentless attitude he had been assigned as the junior detective to Erwin Smith, the most respected of all senior detectives in the district.
Levi was grateful to the Police department for all they had done for him in the past year but still he sat in the empty room, staring at his reflection in the two-way mirror. The bags under his eyes had been growing. They appeared to be dark smudges under his eyes and even his cheekbones were becoming more prominent. It wasn't his fault either, really. He didn't ask for the nightmares or for the sleepless nights.
Ever since his mother's first stroke he had the same two dreams over and over. They had started off only appearing occasionally, but now they were the only two constants in his life now his parents were dead. The first dream wasn't so much a nightmare and was actually a pleasurable experience, but the second dream that always followed it made the first bittersweet and left a sour taste in his mouth.
The woman, for he had no better way to describe her, always started and ended the dreams. At first she was always by a window, the moon bathing her naked body in a milky light. She was always turned toward him with her hand outstretched and he always went to her willingly. The second dream always started up seconds after they lay panting on the moonlight-drenched bed, only now he was in a forest. He was still gripping her hand, but now it was limp in his, the left side of her body gone as if it had been bitten off. He always woke with tears streaming down his cheeks, which is why he always watched the sun rise.
No one could go back to bed after dreaming of such gore.
~. ~
Just because he was the junior detective didn't mean that he got any breaks on anything.
He quirked his lips to the side as he tried to ignore Oluo Bossard, the man who shared a workspace with him. Oluo was the same age as Levi, but he had not scored as high on his exam and had not been selected to be a field detective. In fact it was a very real possibility that Oluo would be sent downstairs to be a regular cop.
He carefully studied his paperwork and arranged it up to be taken to Erwin for final approval. He was still trying to make sure that every number on his paper added up because Erwin did not tolerate any mistakes when Petra, the perky blonde data analyst, appeared at his desk, holding two cups of coffee.
"Hi, Levi!" She said in her cheerful tone.
Levi glanced at her before moving a pile of papers so she could set one of the cups down. This had been her morning ritual since she found out his parents had died six months before and he didn't think it was important to tell her that he wasn't fond of coffee. Now she had started doing it in the afternoon, too. But the only time he drank it was after a night of no sleep, like the one before. But he still wasn't going to drink it. He didn't want to send the wrong message to her.
Oluo was glaring at him and Levi realized that Petra was waiting for him to talk. "Thank you, Petra," he said, not even glancing up at her. He was aware that she had a crush on him and he didn't want to encourage her. He had enough problems in his life right now, and haunting dreams of a strange woman he repeatedly made love to, to be able to form an emotional connection with another human being currently.
Petra gave him her thousand-watt smile. "You're welcome. Now to give the Commander his."
Levi glanced at her as she walked into Erwin's office and repeated her coffee giving ceremony only with Erwin she got an enthusiastic response and even a fist bump. That didn't matter to him. He had never pretended to be anything other than what he was and if people wanted him to change then they weren't people he needed in his life.
"You could be nicer to her," Oluo said angrily. "She makes you coffee every morning."
Levi didn't even glance at Oluo. He didn't want to start another argument today and he had learned that ignoring Oluo usually made him stop grating on him to find another victim. Usually it was Gunther, the other data analyst. He triple checked his numbers before giving a court nod and standing.
He gathered the finished report and put it in its manila envelope before starting the thirty feet journey to Erwin's office. The rest of the pencil pushers like Oluo didn't even give him a second glance, or even a first, anymore. They all knew that he was the chosen one and they could only hope to be assigned to group effort cases now. It wasn't his fault that they were all idiots and Erwin had seen his natural talents. It was a relief that Erwin was such a good administrator as well, that he had seen Levi's talents and taken him under his wing right as Levi's life had fallen apart. Not that Levi would ever admit that to anyone, but he was grateful for the opportunities that Erwin had given him.
He rapped his knuckles once against the open door frame to alert Erwin to his presence.
"Done already?" Erwin asked, not even glancing up at Levi.
"All one hundred fifty three pages," Levi nodded, handing the envelope to his superior.
Erwin gave the label a courtesy glance before placing it in a box marked with the name of the victim in the case.
"I trust your work," Erwin said, still staring at his computer screen. "Is there anything else?"
Levi's back straightened and he shook his head. "No."
"Maybe you should take a break. You look like you haven't gotten any sleep. In fact, take the rest of the afternoon off. You only have about three hours of work left, anyway."
Levi nodded and turned on his heal. This wasn't the first time that Erwin had sent him home early and he was starting to worry that maybe Erwin's words rang true.
~.~
The apartment was quiet.
Levi liked it that way. He didn't like clutter or chatter in the way other humans did, and he was even willing to admit to a slight case of OCD that had developed in response to his parent's failing health and deaths.
Levi was sure the psychs would have a field day if they ever managed to make him open up. OCD, dead parents, and sexual dreams about a woman he didn't even know would be a gold mine for him to be poked and prodded for the rest of his life. He wasn't going to let that happen so he always lied and said he was fine at his monthly psych exam dictated by the fact he had lost his whole family in such a short time right after he had joined the police force. They wanted to make sure that their investment in him wouldn't blow up in their faces. He wasn't going to disappoint them in letting that happen though. He had nothing else to live for.
He went around closing the curtains he always opened as force of habit instilled by his mother. It might still be light outside but he had no interest in that world. All he cared about was here, in this tiny apartment that held no memories of his life before. He had sold his parent's house a month after their deaths for less than it was worth because he didn't want to relive the memories. He was sure his psych would have a field day with that, too.
He poured himself a stiff drink and put on his mother's favorite CD recording of some big band she listened to as a child. He sat down in his father's rocking chair, the only piece of furniture he had saved, and listened to the music, remembering how his father liked to take his tiny mother by the hand and dance her around the living room to this song. The one and only time he had opened up slightly to a psych he had written that Levi had problems with letting go and further evaluations were needed. That had been a week after he buried his father and after that Levi always claimed he didn't remember what he had told that psychiatrist and afterward had requested a different one.
The music swelled and Levi cleared his mind to watch his mother's skirt flutter against her legs and hear his father's laughter one last time. Finally the music ended and he downed his alcohol, his eyes dry despite the memories assaulting him.
He had gotten so good at hiding his feelings that he had stopped feeling at all.
~.~
"You need to be more personable," Oluo started as soon as Levi sat down at his desk. Levi turned a glare on Oluo but the other man didn't seem to notice. "Especially to Petra."
Levi pressed his lips together and ignored Oluo. It was their daily debate; Oluo would tell him to be more human-like and Levi would ignore him. One day Oluo was going to report him to the on staff psychiatrist, Levi was sure, but until that day he would keep ignoring the other man.
As if Oluo's words had summoned her Petra appeared with her two mugs of steaming coffee. She smiled at Levi. "Good morning, Levi. I hope you had a pleasant night."
Levi pressed his lips together. He had gone through both his dreams again last night, waking up covered in sweat. He had gotten up and taken a shower right away and then sat in his father's chair staring out into the still and silent night, waiting for the sunrise.
This time the dreams had been different though. He remembered more of the first one, her hands against his body as she undressed him and the frantic pace he had undressed her before she stood in front of the moonlit window, and the second one, well, he remembered his own death this time. That had not been pleasant. When he had jolted awake his clock had read two am, only three hours after he had gone to bed in the first place. He drank a pot of tea before coming to work in an effort to wake himself up.
Oluo was glaring at him again and Levi remembered that he was supposed to be talking to Petra. Levi turned to her and actually accepted the mug, looking her straight in the eye.
"Thank you, Petra."
Her cheeks turned rosy and Levi contemplated what that meant. He knew she had a crush on him, but he never did anything to foster it within her. Was he going to have to ignore her completely to send her his not interested message?
"You're very welcome," she smiled that sickeningly sweet smile of hers before retreating into Erwin's office.
"You are an ass," Oluo said in annoyance.
"If you like her so much you ask her out," Levi said, pulling up his computer after he set the mug down at the end of his desk, abandoned.
"I don't like her!" Oluo said overly loudly, proving Levi's point.
Levi didn't respond. It was easier that way. If everyone operated under the assumption that Levi was cold and heartless that meant he never had to deal with anyone in a personal way ever again. He was content to be a loner, and a loner he was determined to stay. People didn't have to like him for him to be good at his job.
He was still going through his emails when Erwin walked out of his office and rapped his fingers against Levi's desk. "C'mon. We're going to go see a body."
Levi stood and quickly gathered his coat, badge, and gun before following Erwin out of the station to Erwin's unmarked car.
"Where is this body?" Levi asked as Erwin merged with traffic.
"Coroner's. It happened over the weekend but there was something in Pixis' report that made me think it could be related to our case," Erwin said as they sped toward their destination. Everyone believed that Erwin Smith was perfect in every way but Levi knew that the man liked to speed and if given a choice between commitment or a one night stand he would choose the latter. He had tried to form the perfect image for everyone but Levi knew the man was anything but.
"It will be a joy to see Pixis again," Levi said dryly. The coroner was known for his eccentric nature and more than once Levi had wondered how he managed to keep his job. There must be something about him that made the local government overlook his personality quirks.
"I think Pixis likes you," Erwin teased as they pulled into the county morgue.
"I think you can suck my dick," Levi grumbled.
"Is that an invitation?" Erwin chuckled.
"Try me." Levi glared at his superior.
Erwin laughed at that. "You're lucky you amuse me, otherwise I'd have to discipline you."
"How? By going down on me?"
"You make me sound so gay," Erwin said disappointingly.
"I forgot, you're only slightly gay," Levi shot back.
Erwin chuckled again. "Only if it's you."
"Your perfect image is slipping," Levi said with a glare.
Erwin snorted "What is this, some sort of slapstick comedy?"
Levi chose to ignore that comment and they made the rest of the journey to the morgue in silence. Levi had always been slightly creeped out by the way footsteps echoed off the concrete of the floor and walls and especially by Coroner Dr. Dot Pixis and his shaved head and the fact he still wore his WWII dress uniform under his lab coat. He liked to remind everyone that he was still a medical school student when he was drafted and he always said he had learned more on the field of battle than he ever would have sitting in his pristine college classrooms.
Knowing what Levi did about the draft laws Levi seriously doubted that Pixis had been drafted, especially if he was in medical school at the time. But it was a good story so he never commented on the inconsistencies of it. And Pixis scared the crap out of him.
"Dr. Pixis," Erwin called as they came to the window.
"Minute!" A voice called back. Levi's ears perked up. That was not Pixis' voice and it actually sounded somewhat familiar. Erwin frowned but he waited patiently for the voice to appear. Finally almost two minutes later a woman, or Levi assumed it was a woman, appeared at the window.
"How can I help you?" She asked, pushing the hair that had fallen in front of her eyes out of them. Levi's breath caught and he stared at her hard, his fists opening and closing.
"I'm Detective Erwin Smith," Erwin said smoothly, flashing his badge. "That's Levi, my partner. We're here to see a Father Nicholas. I suspect that his murder may be connected to one that I am currently investigating."
"Got paperwork?" She frowned at him.
Erwin gave her a forced smile before he pulled the papers out of his jacket pocket. She took them and glanced at them before shrugging and opening the door for them to go through into the morgue.
"Where is Dr. Pixis?" Erwin asked as they made their way through the hallway to where the corpses were stored.
"Meeting. I'm his new assistant. Zoe Hange. Assistant is too soft a word actually. I'd probably use slave right about now," she sighed as she opened the door to the morgue and went over to one of the small doors on the wall and opened it. "Poor Nick. He was tortured, shot in the chest four times, and then shot in the head, execution style. Hopefully whoever did this to him got whatever they were looking for because they messed him up good."
Erwin frowned at the woman before pulling the sheet covering Nicholas back to study his wounds. "Four times in the chest?"
"Yeah and none of them hit anything vital. Well, that one right there did nick his lung but they probably didn't know his organs were kinda skewed weird in his body." She pointed at one of the bullet holes and grinned. "It was actually very artistically done."
"You think this was art?" Levi said, finally finding his voice. She turned to him and shrugged.
"Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing. Look at his fingers. They pulled his fingernails off without destroying the nail bed. Whoever did this was very experienced in making a person suffer. The four gunshots to the chest would have killed him, yes, but slowly. It was actually merciful that they shot him in the head and put him out of his misery."
"But you called it art." Levi pressed, moving closer to the woman so he could see her better. She frowned at him and he was close enough to see the golden flecks in her brown eyes. He swallowed hard. It was her. The woman from his dream. "Why?"
"Because of the way they did the torturing. These people are experts," she said, staring him straight in the eyes. "Could you shoot a man in the chest four times and miss vital organs and veins?"
"What if I could?"
"Then I would be very interested in where you were on Saturday night as Father Nicholas was being tortured to death," she said, leaning closer. "The funny thing about this was they didn't take anything. There were solid silver candlesticks right behind him and the key to the safe right behind his office door was still hanging on its chain around his waist. What exactly did Father Nick do that made someone want to kill him and not steal his church's wealth?"
"Clearly it was personal between Nick and his killer."
"That's conjuncture," Erwin said, reminding them that he was still there. Hange pulled back and studied Nick.
"Whatever he did to deserve this wasn't good though," she said as she pulled the sheet back over the body and closed the door. "Did you get what you needed?"
"I think so," Erwin nodded. "I do believe that this is related to our other case. Thank you."
Hange frowned at the two of them. "Come back soon."
"Oh, we will," Erwin said, glancing at Levi.
~.~
Since sleep had been eluding him anyway, Levi decided not to go to bed that night.
It was Friday night and the bar had a reasonable amount of people in it but no one Levi would socialize with. He sat at the bar nursing a cognac and bowl of peanuts, trying to appear vaguely interested in the sporting event on the TV across the way. The bar tender hadn't thrown him out yet since every hour he downed his glass and ordered a new one but Levi could tell the man was itching to throw Levi out as soon as he stopped buying drinks. But Levi never did and by one am most of the bar patrons had cleared out, the college students and those who had come to find a one night stand long gone back to their beds and their fun.
He was still nursing his seventh glass when somebody sat down on the stool next to him, their leg pressed against his. He turned and was about to tell them there were plenty of other stools when he saw it was her. Zoe Hange. The woman he made love to in his dreams.
"Crummy night, isn't it?" She said with a loopy grin. "I want a whiskey. Don't care how you present it to me."
"You're in my personal space," Levi said dryly for lack of a better conversation subject.
She frowned at him and managed to scoot closer. "Does it make you uncomfortable?"
He bit his lower lip and didn't respond. He wasn't sure what her game was but he didn't want to be part of it. The dreams were vivid enough.
"Are you going to ignore me?" She asked as her drink arrived and she threw the whole thing back. She jerked her chin at the bartender and he refilled her glass.
"If I ignore you will you go away?"
"If I don't go away what are you going to do?"
"Dump you off that bar stool," he said stubbornly.
She threw her head back and laughed. "I know there was something about you, Mr. Goody-Goody Cop Sir." She leaned closer. "Something explosive. Something I like."
"Are you stalking me?"
"Stalking a cop doesn't sound smart," she laughed, taking a swing from her glass.
"Why are you here then?"
"I wanted a drink," she said dryly. "And I don't keep anything at home because I'd be tempted to drink the whole thing in one setting. Nightmares and insomnia are a horrible combination."
He didn't respond to that. His glass was almost empty and he swallowed the rest of the liquid, motioning to the bartender. He brought over the bottle but Levi shook his head. "I want my bill, please."
"Leaving so soon? You haven't even propositioned me awkwardly yet."
"I'm not going to proposition you at all."
"What type of male are you?" She moaned, motioning for another drink. "I would take you back to my apartment and do unspeakable things to you."
"We just met," Levi grumbled, pulling money out of his pocket to cover his bill.
"Did we really? I wonder," she said softly, swallowing her third glass.
"What do you mean by that?" He questioned, slapping bills on the counter, too impatient with this turn of events to wait for the bartender to be done.
She turned and looked at him, her expression the same one he saw every night in his dreams. "I don't know why I said that. We only met today. But I still wanted to say that."
He stood and put on his coat quickly, wanting to avoid her until he figured out who she was and why he remembered making love to her, and her gruesome death.
"Pastor Nick wasn't he first and he won't be the last," she said softly.
"What do you mean by that?" He asked, moving back to her side. "Are you confessing to the crimes?"
"No, I just know. They're all connected, like Erwin suspected, but he doesn't know about all of them because not all of them happened in this county."
"I'm of a mind to take you down to the station and interrogate you," he growled.
She shrugged. "I'm legally drunk now. I don't know how much accurate information you're going to get out of me right now."
"Then what do you mean?"
"Be careful. And search country-wise. You'll find more crimes like this."
"If I even have an inkling you are somehow involved," he growled.
"I'll turn myself in if I find out I'm a serial killer," she said dryly. "Be careful. The next one is coming soon."
He frowned at her and turned on his heal, leaving her hunched over her empty glass.
~.~
The body was mangled from its trip down the elevator shaft.
Levi glared at the body, noting that it had missing fingernails and four gunshot wounds to the chest. But the MO had changed this time with the body being dumped down an elevator rather than arranged as if sleeping like the others.
"Maybe if you keep glaring at him he will come back to life and tell us his secrets," Hange's voice came from beside him.
Levi groaned inwardly. He had tried ignoring her but she and Pixis were a pair now and wherever Pixis went Hange went too. This was the third body after Father Nicholas they had found murdered in the same way within the past week, and after digging for hours Levi had uncovered two more murders a state over that were identical to the one he was currently staring at.
"Elevator shaft is new. Usually they lay them out almost reverently." Hange commented as she leaned forward and glanced up the shaft. "Must've been in a hurry."
"Or this isn't the same killer," Levi muttered.
"What number is this now?"
Levi groaned. She knew very well how many bodies she had examined in her morgue. "Four here. Two a state away. We're trying to get the records from those autopsies."
"Six," she said, tapping her finger against her lower lip. "There will be a seventh."
"And how exactly did you know that?" Levi had stopped trying to figure her out and had accepted that she seemed to have some sort of psych ability.
She shrugged. "It's just I don't think the killer is going to stop, you know? He's already killed six people. What's one more? Or ten more for that matter?"
"We still can't prove that this is one person doing this, especially with this body matching the pattern but also not being displayed in the same way. The other bodies were arranged precisely. This one was dumped down an elevator shaft."
"Or maybe this one was displayed in the same way and someone else came across it and panicked. We'll never know until we catch the killer."
"We? I do not think you will be involved in capturing the killer," Levi said dryly as Erwin and Pixis finished consulting with the forensics team. Pixis called Hange over and she went to him. They stepped down the elevator shaft and with the help of two other forensics guys managed to heave the body up out of the shaft. They clambered out of the shaft and quickly got the body on a gurney for transport.
Levi watched them roll the body away with a frown. What Hange said was true. Why would the killer stop with six?
~.~
The question haunted him the rest of the day.
He was combing through the investigation reports he had requested from the other two cases like the ones he was investigating. Whoever had written the reports was not as thorough as Erwin required and Levi grew more and more frustrated with the investigator.
Finally he snapped the file shut and glanced around and realized that everyone else had gone home. He peeked into his trash can and noticed that even the janitor had been past without him realizing it. He rubbing his face down and glanced at his watch. It read eleven thirty. He groaned again and stood, shrugging his coat on and turning off the lights as he walked through the building to the exit. He made it onto the street and trudged home, ignoring the homeless people who seemed to be watching him closely.
When he finally got back to his apartment building he saw a pile of rags on the bottom step and groaned. "You are going to have to find a different place to sleep, tonight," he said. "There is a shelter about three blocks away from here that will be able to accommodate you."
"I have my own apartment," the rags moaned, moving into a sitting position. "But I wanted to talk to you and somehow Pixis of all people gave me your address. I might be worried that Pixis knows where you live."
Levi pressed the heals of his hands into his eyes. Why was Hange here? Why?
"Go away," he growled.
"I want to talk to you," she shot back.
"Well go talk to someone else," he growled, trying to figure out how he was going to climb the steps with her filling the first one up.
"Nobody else will understand what I need to say," she said softly. "Only you will."
He groaned before finally nodding and motioning to the door. "You need to move if I'm going to open the door."
She stood and he went up the steps, her right on his heals. They climbed the three stories in silence and she didn't speak again until she was inside his apartment, sitting on his couch.
"I dream about you," she said simply.
"Oh?" He was pouring out two glasses of cognac but paused. "What do you mean?"
"I dream about things. I've known your face since I was a little girl. It always confused me, why I could remember a man I know I have never met before. And then as I got older I started remembering more and more." She closed her eyes and said in a small voice, "I think we were lovers in a former life."
Levi carefully put the cognac bottle down and went over to the couch to sit next to her. "Why do you think that?"
She turned to look at him with sad eyes. "I can remember being intertwined with you in bed. I know exactly how your body feels pressed to mine. The butterflies in my stomach when you look at me with devouring eyes. The feeling of your lips pressed to mine," she whispered as she leaned closer and kissed him.
This part he remembered well, the taste of her lips against his. When her fingers slipped under the hem of his shirt he finally let go and pulled her against him as tightly as possible. Somewhere in their battle she ended up pressed against the couch cushions with her shirt off and pants unbuttoned.
"Does this mean you remember me, too?" She whispered as he kissed his way down her chest, his hand buried between her thighs. "That you dream about this as well?"
He stopped his assault on her breasts and drew back to study her. "Yes," he said simply. "I dream about making love to you every night. I had never seen you before you appeared in the morgue but I instantly knew it was you, the woman who haunts my dreams."
"Do you believe in reincarnation?" She asked as he unhooked her bra and slid it off her body.
"I don't know what I believe about the afterlife, but we are connected. How else would I know exactly how you like me to touch you?" He whispered as he pressed a kiss to her pulse point, making her jump.
She wrapped her arms around his neck. "I don't know, but I very much want you to remind me how you made love to me. Don't hold anything back from me."
With that he stopped restraining himself and quickly rid the two of them the rest of their clothing. She giggled and called him eager but he ignored her comments to study the body he knew so well it could have been his own. The scars from his dreams were missing, as were the lines across her chest and down her body and legs. He wasn't sure what those lines meant but he did know that their existence on her body were the things keeping her alive.
"Bed," he growled simply against her lips, pulling back from the kiss she had initiated seconds before.
"So demanding," she giggled, standing to be framed by the window perfectly, the moonlight reflecting against her skin exactly the way he remembered. His breath caught and he wondered how he could remember this so perfectly if it was the first time he had experienced it.
He took a deep breath and grabbed her hand to lead her into the bedroom, finally able to live out his dreams.
~.~
"You seem to be in a good mood," Oluo said dryly as Levi sat down at his desk.
Levi glanced at the other man but didn't respond. He was in a much better mood; good sex with a woman who knew everything about his body would do that. He had fallen asleep with her in his arms and for the first time in almost a year the nightmares had stayed away. She had left before the sun even rose though, waking him to tell him she was on early morning duty and needed to be at work in a half hour and she still needed to got home, shower, and change. He had reluctantly called a cab for her and saw her off. She had given several promises that she would call him later after she had cajoled his phone number out of him.
He was flipping through his email, not paying attention to anything when his phone beeped in his pocket. He frowned and pulled it out. So few people had the phone number that he could count them on one hand. When he saw it was a number he didn't recognize he quickly redialed, standing and walking over to the corner for some privacy.
"Couldn't wait for round two?" He asked when the call connected.
"Levi," Hange whispered, her voice full of panic. "Someone's here. They killed Pixis and it's only a matter of time before they get me, too."
"Where are you?" Levi growled, quickly making his way to Erwin's office.
"Locked in with the dead bodies. I don't want to die surrounded with death," she whined softly and Levi could hear a loud bang in the background.
"We'll be there as soon as we can," Levi growled, motioning to Erwin that they needed to go, now. Erwin frowned and Levi shot him a glare before storming over to his desk to retrieve his gun and badge. Erwin was finally exiting his office as Levi all but ran to the door.
"How soon?" Hange's voice was so soft Levi could barely hear it.
"Soon," he said desperately.
"Levi!" Erwin called. "What is going on?"
"Someone's at the morgue and shot Pixis and Hange's hiding in the back," Levi growled at Erwin as they made it to the street and Erwin unlocked his car.
"Why are they going after Pixis?" Erwin's frown almost split his face in two. "That's a weird person to go after."
"Shut up and drive," Levi growled. "Hange, are you still there?" He asked desperately into his phone.
"Yes," she whispered. "Hurry."
"We are coming as fast as we can," Levi said. Traffic, however, didn't want to comply with the urgency of the situation. More than once Levi found himself yelling at the cars in front of them to move faster or just get out of the way. Even though Erwin had his lights flashing cars couldn't get out of the way for them since there was nowhere for them to go.
"Levi!" Hange shrieked suddenly, a horrible crunching sound punctuating her voice. "LEVI!"
"Hange, what's happening?" Levi yelled, glancing around wildly. He saw that they were only two blocks from the morgue. He undid his seat belt and wrenched the door open over Erwin's protests and was sprinting as fast as he possibly could. He wrenched the door of the morgue open and flew down the hallway only to be stopped by the door that required someone on the other side to buzz him in.
"GODDAMMIT!" He yelled, pulling out his gun to shoot the door. He fired three shots and the door slowly moved toward him, alerting him that his gambit had worked. He pushed the door aside and cupped his gun in both his hands, moving as quickly as caution would let him. There was no noise in the hallway, the giant fans overhead still.
Levi swallowed hard and pushed his way past the final door, into the chamber where the bodies were held. The first thing he saw was the large T on the back of the assailant's coat and suddenly everything clicked into place. The serial killer was part of the Waiting Titan cult, convinced that soon the world would be revisited by the giants from Greek mythology that would bring about the end of the world.
The person must have sensed Levi's presence and was turning toward him even as Levi was still moving through the door. The face staring back at Levi shocked him. It was Ernst Sannes; a formerly well-respected member of the Police force who had been forced to resign after a routine traffic stop had been filmed and showed him beating an innocent man the year before.
"Sannes, what are you doing?" Levi growled, his voice shaking with emotion when he saw Hange was tied to the examination table.
"Why are you here, Levi?" Sannes frowned, his eyes darting around the room wildly. "You aren't supposed to be here. You aren't marked," he muttered, and then peered closer. "Or at least you weren't marked when I knew you."
"What the hell are you talking about and what are you doing to her?" Levi's voice raised in pitch and Sannes shook his head as if it hurt him.
"She is marked. Just like that dribbling old man was. Just like you are. You remember things you aren't supposed to. Those memories must be erased from this world and the only way to do that is for you to die."
"You are making no sense," Levi said, trying to see if Hange was all right or not.
"No, I suppose not," Sannes said sadly. "You aren't one of the chosen ones, after all. You have a black mark. If only it had been white," he mumbled, leveling his gun on Levi.
"Put the gun down!" Levi commanded, raising his own so his shot was leveled between Sannes' eyes. "I don't want to shoot you! We can get you help, Sannes. Just step away from her."
"Oh? And what sort of help will it be? It was stupid kids like you that got me fired in the first place. Always so sure of your own superiority that you cannot even see when your rights are being violated by the very people you preach in favor of," Sannes said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "If you kill me here you will be called a hero, but there will always be another to carry on this mission that I was entrusted. Do not think that you are safe now that we know you are marked," Sannes leered.
"Just put the gun down!" Levi yelled, his breathing becoming erratic as he saw that Hange was bleeding. "What did you do to her?"
"I tried to cleanse her of her sins but she refused to repent. So she will die, just as you will die. Just as we all die in the end," Sannes said calmly, his tone the sanest Levi had heard it since their standoff began.
"Just put the gun down, Sannes. Erwin will be here any second and you will have no chance."
Sannes seemed to consider Levi's words and his gun seemed to falter. "You did not bring back up? How silly. You cannot save her; she will bleed out any second now. You stopped me from ending her life mercifully and now she is dying in agony. May that always be on your conscious, Levi Heichou."
Levi breath froze at that word, all the memories associated with it flooding his body. "Hange," he whispered, for the first time saying her name knowing exactly who she was. His best friend. His partner. His wife. His soul mate. He released his breath and met Sannes' crazed gaze before letting off one shot.
Sannes gun came up with lightning speed, the years of being a cop honing his reflexes with deadly accuracy. His shot hit Levi between the eyes just as Hange's body absorbed Levi's own, mercifully ending her life.
All Levi's thoughts ceased almost instantly, his body crumbling in on itself. His last thought before everything went dark was of Hange, naked and standing next to the window of their bedroom, telling him softly about their baby growing inside her and how their mission the next day, a short scouting trip around Wall Rose that would only take a couple of hours, was her last until their child was born. That mission had been her last, but not the way she had wanted. The Titan had bitten her left half clean away before he could get to her and he had chosen, instead of living in a world where she no longer existed, to let the Titan eat him as well.
Just as Levi's mind went blank another gunshot rang out and Sannes started to fall.
~.~