AN: I do not own Attack on Titan or any of its characters. All rights belong to their respective owners.

It began back when I was eight years old.

Like many of my classmates and friends, I was really into superheroes. I had Batman action figures, Spiderman posters, Power Ranger bed sheets, the whole shebang. Mom hated it, but whenever I got the chance I would sneak my superhero toys and comic books into my (Superman-themed) backpack and brought them to school. On show and tell days, I loved to bring and then brag about my noise-making-transformable-limited-edition Iron Man action figure. The obsession lasted for years. To me, I thought that fighting crime was just so cool. What kid didn't?

But I never thought it was real. I never thought about the people who really fight crime, the ones without laser vision, the ones who don't have super strength. I never realized what sort of sacrifice it would be – to protect people with all you have to give. I never even began to fathom the horrible burden of taking a life.

It ended when I was twelve.

It was a normal December day. A little cold, a little windy. I was rather upset at school that day, because I usually walked the easy two blocks home with my best friend, Armin, but he hadn't been at school lately. I would later find out that his prolonged absence was because of the death of his parents.

So it was just me walking home that day. Well, not exactly. I wasn't going home. My parents went out that night, so I went to a babysitter's house. The Ackerman family. I didn't really know the Ackermans that well. They'd babysat me once or twice before, but each occasion wasn't for anything longer than a few hours. The Ackermans were a client of my father, and they had a daughter around my age. However, she was homeschooled, so I never saw her at school. She was also really shy, and tended to stay in her room whenever I was there.

I was twelve, almost a teenager, so walking home or to Armin's was never a problem. I knew the way and lived in a moderately populated suburban neighborhood fairly close to the school. Safety was never an issue; it was no big deal.

The Ackerman family lived in a more sparsely populated part of town, but it was still pretty safe. The houses were a little further apart and the yards were bigger. I arrived at the house that was theirs, a clean brown colonial, and walked up to the porch. As I raised my fist to knock, I mentally groaned at the thought of being hovered over by Mr. And Mrs. Ackerman all afternoon while their daughter hid upstairs.

I knocked, just once, and the door creaked open, apparently already ajar. I took a tentative step inside.

"H…hello?" I called out as loud as I dared. "Mr. Ackerman?"

Was no one home? Did they forget that I was coming over today? I walked into the front living room. All the lights were off and it was a terrible mess. A lamp lay shattered on the floor, the coffee table knocked aside. A bookshelf had fallen over, its contents scattered about. What happened here? Perhaps I should have simply left, but my curiosity was peaked. Where were they? Was everything okay? I decided the best course of action would be to call someone, perhaps the police or my parents. They would know what to do. I carefully stepped around the various items littering the floor and walked to the kitchen to locate a phone.

I took one step in and completely froze.

There, on the tiled kitchen floor, were two bodies. A man and a woman. Mr. and Mrs. Ackerman. Mrs. Ackerman was covered in blood, her mouth was open in a silent scream and the better part of her face blown away. Bits of her skull and brain were splattered in the immediate area around her body. Her husband had a knife in his gut. Blood pooled round the hilt of the blade. My eyes went wide and I took a step back, falling down, too shocked to scream.

Wait a minute, if they're still bleeding…

"Well, what do we have here?" I looked up from my spot on the floor to see a man with a sadistic grin on his face standing over me. "A lost puppy?"

Time seemed to slow down around me. I saw this man, his unperturbed, happy expression in front of two dead bodies. I saw the blood on his white shirt and hands. I saw him reach forward, as if to grab me. Adrenaline fired through my body like a shot. I knew that this man had probably killed my babysitters. I knew he would do the same to me if I didn't get away right this second.

I had been in fights before with boys at school, and although this thug was a lot bigger and stronger than any boy, he had the same body parts as one, so I did the first thing that came to mind. I shot straight up, closed my small hand, and punched the man square in his crotch.

With a curse, he fell to his knees. For a moment I felt a small flash of victory, but that quickly eroded away into horror. When a boy got hit down there they went down, but they sure as hell didn't stay down.

"You little shit," the man groaned, and got back up. Before there had been slight amusement in his eyes, now there was only fury.

I backpedaled blindly and tripped over something soft and squishy. It was Mr. Ackerman's body.

The man jumped forward and grabbed me while I was still toppled over and staring, horrified, at my babysitter's dead and glassy eyes. "No!" I yelled, jolted back into the fight. I jerked and twisted, punching at the hands that held my hips, but he didn't let go. My eyes darted left and right in panic, searching for something, anything to help me. He was bigger and stronger than me and though I did my damnest to make it difficult for him, it would only be a matter of time before he had me pinned. My flailing leg hit something hard, and a clear image of the knife buried in Mr. Ackerman's stomach flashed through my head. I lunged downward and grasped the hilt, wrenching it out of my babysitter's body in a spray of blood. Meanwhile my assailant had managed to close his hands around my throat and was beginning to squeeze.

I slashed the blade outward blindly, and the man yelled in pain, wrenching away from me. "Fucking shit! What the hell?!" I jumped upright, and squared my stance, the knife grasped firmly between my small hands.

He saw the knife in my hands and held up his hands, smiling placatingly. "Now, now, there's no reason for that. I promise I won't hurt you, so why don't you – "

I didn't think. I just acted.

He reached around to grasp something at his back in the same moment I charged. We weren't very far. It took one, two, three, four, heartbeats and suddenly my knife was in his stomach. But I was small and not very strong, so he didn't die right away. I pulled the knife from his stomach as his knees gave out and he collapsed, probably just as much from shock as pain. I stabbed him again and again. I kept driving the knife into his body until finally, finally, he stopped moving.

I crouched frozen over his body, my thought process returning now that the threat was gone. I just killed someone! I'm a murderer! I very nearly dropped the knife in my horror, but it was a good thing I didn't for in the next moment the kitchen door opened.

"Dave, whatever the hell you're doing with those bodies, quiet the fuck down, do you want those – OH MY GOD! NICK!"

There was blood on his knuckles and clothes and a gun in his hand. The threat was not over. I dashed forward before he had time to react, adrenaline still pumping, and plunged the knife into his stomach, this time with enough strength to bury it to the hilt.

He went down with a yell, and his life ended much the same as Dave's did.

This time, after I was done, I didn't panic. Now what? Wait, when had I started breathing so heavy? My mind was numb, my grip on the knife in my hand unrelenting. It wasn't until I heard the cock of a gun at the back of my head that I noticed the third man. He must have been Nick. Thinking back on it now, I'm not sure how he avoided my notice. I think I was going into shock; I had just killed two full-grown men. But I didn't have time to dwell on it, because he jammed the back of my head with his pistol, and spoke.

"What the fuck did you do to my friends, you little shit?!" My only reply was silence. I could feel the gun trembling at the back of my head. I didn't dare move a muscle.

"Answer me, damn you!" He turned me around and smacked the pistol across my face. I went tumbling to the floor with stars in my vision. When I opened my eyes, he was standing over me. For a few seconds, I saw two of everything. I could see his crazed eyes, but what really stood out was the gun he was pointing directly at me. I propped myself up on my elbows.

"Don't move!" He readjusted his grip on the gun, as if to make it more obvious he was holding one. I stared directly at him. What do I do? He has a gun!

"I'd put the gun down, if I were you." I heard a voice call out. The thug stared past me at the one who spoke, who I couldn't see.

"W-who the hell are you?" The man was unnerved, almost hysterical. He probably hadn't expected someone else to make an appearance, just as he certainly hadn't expected his buddies to lose their lives at the hands of a twelve year old boy.

"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is that you put the gun down and put your hands up." The voice was feminine, I realized, and sounded playful of all things. I detected a slight accent of some kind that I couldn't quite identify. But, 'put your hands up?' Was she a police officer? That was good, she could save me! But wait, would she arrest me because I was a murderer?

"You can't tell me what to do! If you try anything, the boy dies!" He pushed the gun closer to my face to make his point. His hands were shaking badly.

The police officer clicked her tongue. "This could have been so much easier."

Whatever it was, it was so quick that all I saw was a blur. Then, the man was on the ground, unresponsive, and a new man was standing over him, looking at him in disgust. Had this man saved me? He turned to me, and I looked up into tired eyes the color of dull steel.

"Are you hurt?" The voice was low, but direct. This man, like the woman, had mild accent, but his I recognized to be French. His eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth was down-turned into a scowl.

Still rather dazed, my only reply was "What…"

"Tch, I don't have time for this. Hanji, check the brat for injuries while I take care of this piece of trash over here." He stood up and walked to the man who, moments ago, had a gun in my face. He was still lying on the floor; he must have been knocked unconscious by whatever the scowling guy did.

"Oh, surely you could be more polite to the boy, Levi. He's just been through hell." The woman wore glasses and had her hair back into a ponytail. Her face looked friendly and concerned as she walked over to me and gingerly helped me into a sitting position.

"You got hurt, didn't you?" The woman, Hanji, said softly as she eyed the bloodstains on my clothes. I vaguely registered the blood streaming down the side of my face from where I was pistol-whipped. "Everything's alright now. We're good guys, I promise. Well, maybe not Levi, he can be pretty scary sometimes…uh...most of the time."

"Hanji, stop filling his head with shit." The man, Levi, growled. He had the unconscious thug pinned to floor with his knee as he cuffed him.

Hanji giggled. "See? Well, anyway, can you stand?"

I nodded, and shakily rose to my feet. My vision swam for a few seconds and a thousand questions were bouncing around my head. I started with the obvious. "Who…are you?"

"Hey, would you look at that, the brat can form a coherent sentence." Levi had finished with the thug and was now standing by Hanji, his arms crossed over his chest. He was… surprisingly short. The height difference would have struck me as amusing if I hadn't just seen two people I knew dead on the floor, killed two adult males, and almost got killed myself. He wore a black suit that looked custom tailored it fit him so well. She wore a tight – but not too tight - black jacket, which looked durable, and pants in a similar style. I guessed that they liked the color black.

"Stop being so mean!" Hanji hit him lightly on the arm. She then returned her attention to me. "Uh, I can't exactly…answer that question?" She looked thoughtful. "Just…we're police officers. I promise, we're going to help you. We can take you home, okay?"

"Tch, you shitty-glasses, we can't do that. He has to be taken in for screening. He's seen – hell - he's done too much." Levi argued.

She turned to him. "We can't do that! He's just a boy!"

"Well, what do you propose we do, then?"

While they argued about matters I was too emotionally drained to understand, I got this feeling in the back of my mind, like I was forgetting something.

"Maybe, uh…take him to the lab to make sure he isn't too emotionally scarred? I would actually like to run some tests, see how killing someone has affected his psyche. It's not every day you meet a child who has committed homicide."

Something really important.

"Fuck your experiments. It would just be a lot easier to wipe his memory of this event entirely."

I racked my exhausted mind, trying to think of what it could be...

"But he's so young, and his brain is still developing. It could have bad side effects-"

That's it! It came to me suddenly, my thoughts coming back up to speed. The duo continued arguing, not noticing me as I ran from the room and up the stairs. I have to find Mikasa. Where was she? Had she been killed, too?

I went into every room in the upstairs hallway, searching every corner, trying to find her. I searched the bathroom, the study, Mikasa's bedroom, but she wasn't anywhere, and all the rooms were equally as messy as the living room. Maybe the master bedroom?

"Mikasa!" I barged into the room, and there she was. She was tied up and had a bloody lip, but she was there, alive, and on the bed, in a white nightgown. I ran up to her and tugged on the ropes binding her wrists. They were too tight. Thankfully, I still had the dagger in my hands from earlier. I cut the rope on her wrists and ankles, placed the knife down, and gently helped her sit up.

I then climbed on the bed and grabbed her shoulders, looking into her exhausted face. Everything else faded around me. It was just me and her.

"Mikasa..." All words of comfort failed me. I didn't even know what to say. Her parents are dead. What the hell do you say to make her feel better about that? What even happened to her? What did those sickos do to her? The blood on her lip was hard to ignore.

She shivered. "Eren." Her voice was weak, her eyes lidded. Despite all she'd been through, she did something I didn't expect.

She smiled. An honest, overjoyed smile. I will never forget it, how she looked in that moment.

I was taken aback. "You came," was all she said.

I offered a small smile in return. "Yeah, of course. I couldn't leave you all alone."

Those were the wrong words to say. The smile faded from her face like the flip of a switch as she remembered her parents' murder. "Alone…" She returned to the broken, pitiful girl I found when I walked in the room.

I shook my head with vigor. "No, not anymore. I'll be here for you." I slowly removed my scarlet scarf and wrapped it around her neck and shoulders. She looked like she needed it.

Mikasa lifted a small hand and pulled the scarf closer to her face, covering her mouth.

"Always?"

"Always. I promise."

The smile returned to her face.

The heard a door creak open from behind me. I turned, expecting it to be Levi or Hanji.

"I didn't find anything in the attic. What abo-"

A toned man with a rough face stood with his hand on the doorknob, surprise written all over his face. All three of us were frozen for a full three seconds before he exclaimed "What the fuck!?" and charged for us. I didn't have time to think. I jumped from the bed and shoved Mikasa off the other side of it. "Mikasa! Go get Lev-" my sentence was cut short as the man picked up my small body by the front of my coat as if I weighed nothing and slammed it against the wall. Pain shot through my chest.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, you little shit?" he growled inches from my face. His breath smelled of cigarettes. This man, I could tell, was much more physically able than his cohorts. Was he their leader? "This bitch is my prize and my prize won't be taken from me by some punk-ass little kid."

This is bad. He won't have any qualms about killing a twelve year old boy, would he? Where were Levi and Hanji? They hadn't left, had they? No. They weren't there. I didn't need their help. I'd already killed two by myself downstairs, right?

My eyes spotted Mikasa, cowering besides the bed, her panic obvious. "Fight," I choked out, looking at her. "D…don't give in." My voice was hoarse.

The man shook my body. "Shut the fuck up!" He moved his hands to my throat, and I was unable to breathe.

His grip was like iron, but so was my will. "F…igh…t." I forced the words from my throat, my blurry vision still fixed on Mikasa. Her eyes widened, and her eyes darted to my knife that laid forgotten on the bed.

My strength was fading fast. My arms fell to my sides as I could no longer support them. "Just die already, stupid litt-"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Mikasa let out a loud cry and I felt a shudder go through the man holding me as the grip around my throat relented, and he fell sideways to the ground. I followed, landing painfully with a thud.

As I lay in a stupor on the floor, I heard the door to the room burst open. I felt small hands shaking me.

"…ren. Eren!" Someone was calling me? The voice sounded miles away. Whoever was shaking me stopped, and instead I felt bigger hands moving me. Suddenly, I felt a force smack my upper back.

I took a deep, shuddering, painful breath. My vision returned slowly to see that I was leaning against the wall and Hanji, Levi, and Mikasa were all kneeling in front of me, concern all over their faces. As my eyes slowly moved to each one of them, they relaxed a little.

"Oh thank goodness," Hanji exhaled.

"You had us scared for a second there, brat." Levi stated simply, all evidence of his previous concern gone.

Mikasa didn't say anything. Her face was completely a mix of emotions. It was grave, relieved, concerned, and sad all at the same time.

"I'm okay," I said, my voice shaky. I was looking directly at Mikasa as I said this. I saw her features soften some.

Levi and Hanji shared a look that I didn't understand. They seemed to be wordlessly talking to each other. After a few seconds of this puzzling exchange, Hanji looked at me and said "Can you stand?"

I nodded. I pushed against the wall behind me and slowly rose to my feet, my body trembling in the effort. My head pounded in my skull for a few painful seconds, my lungs felt raw, and my chest like there were shards of glass in it, but I didn't want everyone to be worried, so I stood tall despite the difficulty. "See? I'm fine." My voice sounded brittle and wheezy even to my own ears.

No one in the room seemed convinced, Mikasa least of all, but after I gave a determined stare, Levi sighed in defeat.

"Alright, brat, if you want to be stubborn like that, trying to play the hero or some shit, I'll be elsewhere." He walked to the door and exited the room.

"Levi!" Hanji stood up and followed him, but before she said to us over her shoulder, "Uh, we'll be in the other room. Come find us when you're ready, yeah? I'm sure you need time to talk." And she too was gone, leaving Mikasa and I alone again.

The second the door closed behind her I collapsed to the ground, no longer able to fake my strength. Everything hurt. I just need a few moments of rest…just to catch my breath…

Mikasa was immediately there. "Eren!" She put her hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes, her face filled with worry.

I paid it no mind, and instead I grinned at her. "You did it."

She removed her hands from my shoulders, looking confused. "What?"

"You fought back." I eyed the corpse of the thug who had me at the brink of death only minutes before, the same dagger that was used to kill Mikasa's father embedded in his back.

She suddenly couldn't meet my eyes. There was a slight color to her cheeks. "I did it because…because you told me too, Eren. Your words…they made me act."

I grinned at her again. "You saved me, Mikasa. You didn't need Levi or Hanji's help; you did it all by yourself."

"No, Eren…" She looked straight into my eyes. "You saved me."

When Mikasa and I returned to the hallway, her hand in mine, we heard muffled voices coming from the study.

" –dren."

" –just don't know why –"

"-t's bullshit, you know exactly why."

Their voices got louder as we approached the door.

" - can't know that for sure, yet, Levi, we need to investigate m-"

"Screw you and your investigating, you and I both know –"

"-ping to conclusions won't help anything!"

"- when you fucking know, that's exactly what you have to do!"

"I'm sorry, but-"

The rest of the reply was stopped short the second we entered the room. Levi and Hanji were both staring at the intruders to their conversation. I felt like I was walking in on my parents arguing, but this atmosphere was much more serious. Neither Mikasa nor I said a word. I tried my best to make it look like I wasn't as fatigued as I felt.

Even in comparison to the rest of the house, the study was a complete wreck. Papers and books were strewn about the room. The desk drawers had been thrown to the ground, their contents appeared to be rifled through. The bookshelves looked as if they had been jostled, and they weren't completely against the wall. One of them was leaning against the wall at an angle, the books that were in it in a heap on the floor.

Hanji tried to pacify the situation. She smiled and crouched down to eye level. Levi remained where he was, wearing the same scowl I was starting to assume was normal.

"I'm glad that you're alright, Mikasa, Eren." Hanji said softly. "But before we can take you somewhere safe, we need you to answer some questions, Mikasa. Is that okay?"

Mikasa nodded.

"Do you want to sit down?"

Another nod. She moved to one of the armchairs in the corner of the room, and I to the chair by her side.

Before saying anything, Hanji and Levi looked at me. I think they wanted me to leave the room, as if this didn't concern me, as if I wasn't involved, when I had been the one who killed two men. Ha.

Mikasa caught their meaning and said rather defensively, while clutching the scarf I gave her, "He can stay."

"Alright." Hanji began, expression neutral, and faced Mikasa again.

"I'll start with the basics. What happened?"

And that's how Mikasa recounted her tale of that afternoon. She had been sitting in the kitchen with her parents, her mother was about to start cooking dinner, and they were expecting me soon. When there was a knock at the door, they assumed it was me. They were not expecting four weapon-wielding men to enter the house.

Mikasa didn't know what to do when her father fought them and was stabbed. She was scared when her mom told her to run. She was absolutely terrified when seconds after her mother said this, she was shot three times; twice in the chest and once in the head. She couldn't have moved even if she wanted to when one of the thugs approached her and punched her in the face, knocking her unconscious, or when she woke up with her hands and feet bound on her now-dead parents' bed.

While she was talking, in her soft frightened voice, I clutched the armrests of the chair harder and harder, turning my knuckles white. How could something like this happen? Why? Why were Mikasa's parents killed? They were good people! These kinds of things don't happen in superhero stories…

Life isn't like a comic book, idiot. Superheroes aren't real. Stupid.

When Mikasa was done telling her tale, there was a long silence.

"Why?" I spoke up, my voice quiet, yet full of rage.

Levi replied before Hanji could.

"Because life is a pile of shit, kid. Bad things happen to good people sometimes. That's just the way life is; she fucks everybody over sooner or later. Just so happens that your time is sooner." Thinking back on it now, that was probably the most honest lesson I was ever taught.

"Honestly, Levi, you should at least try to watch your language." Hanji shook her head.

"Do you think these kids give two fucks about bad language after what they've been through today?"

Hanji narrowed her eyes at him, not even bothering to reply, since she knew he was right.

"But, honestly? If you want an actual reason?" Levi looked away, suddenly furious. "Those fucks wanted to kidnap Mikasa, and probably her mom too, but she was too troublesome so they killed her instead. So they just took the girl, and were busy looting the place when you interrupted. Good thing you did, too, because I heard that child-sex trafficking isn't very fun for the children involved."

Fury raged through me. I wasn't angry at Levi, just at the men I killed. After what I was just told, any qualms I had about taking their lives dissipated. They deserved to die, if that's the kind of people they were.

Hanji gave Levi a pointed look. She seemed determined to treat us as children, and though we were, I appreciated Levi's frankness a lot more than Hanji's coddling.

Levi replied with an 'are you kidding me' look. "What? I told them the truth, and hell knows that there's not enough of that going around."

"Levi! Hanji! Are you in here?" A feminine voice called from downstairs, interrupting discussion.

"Yeah, be down in a second," Levi yelled in reply, and exited the room.

"Come on. That's our friend waiting downstairs. We told her our location while you were talking to Mikasa." Hanji beckoned us out of the room. "She can help you, too. And she's a lot nicer than Mr. Grumpy Midget."

"I heard that, shitty glasses!" Levi called up the stairs.

"You were supposed to!" She giggled and lowered her voice a little. "We poke fun at each other, and we might argue sometimes, but Levi and I get along really well. If we didn't, we wouldn't be partners. And honestly, I wouldn't want anyone else to watch my back."

When we made it back downstairs, Levi was talking to a lady even shorter than he was with a kind face and strawberry blond hair. She wore clothing in a similar style to Hanji's, and she looked like the kind of person who would do whatever she could to help you with your problems. I immediately liked her. When she saw us, she let out a gasp.

"Oh you poor dears! Levi told me what happened, but he didn't say you were so young! You look exhausted!" She walked over and got down on her knees in front of Mikasa and I. Today must be the day of surprises, because yet another thing happened that I didn't expect.

She wrapped her arms around us. "Don't worry; it's all over now." This woman who we don't even know hugged us, gently and caring, and in that moment, all of my tension and emotions I'd been holding in escaped. I'm not ashamed to admit that I burst into tears. Mikasa did, too.

She didn't push us away in revulsion. She didn't tell us to suck it up. She just kept on hugging us. "It's okay now. You can cry." Her voice was so soothing, so reassuring. "You were very brave, both of you."

"I knew it was a smart idea to call in Petra," I heard Hanji comment softly.

"Yeah," Levi agreed, "they're going to be okay."

Once her shirt was thoroughly soaked in tears, Petra broke the hug. "I have a car waiting out front. I can take you somewhere safe and get this all sorted out, alright?"

I nodded, too tired to reply with words. I was just desperate to leave this house. I wiped my face with my sleeve, dampening it in the process. Petra walked over to the door and held it open. It was considerably darker outside. How much time had gone by? "Shall we go?" Mikasa nodded, but I said "Wait."

I walked over to where Levi was standing. I looked straight up at him. "Thank you for saving us," I said sincerely.

I could do the unexpected, too. Before he could reply, I wrapped my arms around his waist in a hug. He stiffened for a second, and I thought he'd push me away and make a smartass comment, but he didn't. He relaxed, and said softly, "You're welcome, kid." I broke the hug and did the same to Hanji.

She rubbed my head, messing up my hair. "You're welcome, kiddo. Stay safe, alright? We'll finish up here."

Then, I exited the Ackerman house with Mikasa at my side and slid into the backseat of a black SUV waiting out front. Mikasa scooted next to me. Petra got in the driver's seat.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

Petra turned around to answer me with a smile. "We're going to our police headquarters." Mikasa leaned on my arm, eyes closing. "You'll be safe there. We will inform your parents of what happened and everything will be fine."

As Petra started the car, I suddenly remembered how exhausted I was, both physically and mentally. I felt my eyes start to droop shut.

"By the way, what's your name?" Petra asked, "I know hers, but not yours."

"Eren….Jӓger…" I mumbled, and the world faded away.

I awoke to the soft din of voices in the distance. As my vision came to focus, I sat up and looked around. I was on a sleek black leather couch, a wool blanket that had been draped around me was pushed to the side. Mikasa was on an identical couch across from the one I was on, still asleep. She still wore the scarf I gave her, her fingers threaded through it. We were in a waiting room of sorts, decorated with similarly styled modern furniture. I heard voices from a door on the other side of the room, but I couldn't make out what they were saying.

My eyes shot open as I remembered the events that occurred before I fell asleep. My whole body contained a dull ache. I put one of my hands up to my throbbing head to discover a bandage was wrapped around it. Mikasa's parents…they're really dead. I looked at her, peacefully asleep on the couch. I hoped she would sleep as long as possible to postpone waking to a world where her parents are gone.

I heard a click as the door I was looking at before opened. Petra entered the room and let out a tired sigh. Upon noticing that I was no longer sleeping, she brightened her demeanor. "Oh, Eren! Glad to see you're awake." She paused and spoke a little more softly so she wouldn't wake Mikasa. "You were asleep for a few hours; it's late at night now. Do you need anything? A glass of water, perhaps?"

I nodded, realizing how dry my throat was.

She walked across the room to a water cooler with plastic cups. "I talked to your parents. They wanted to see you, but you were still sleeping. They're waiting outside for you." She handed me a cup of water, which I sipped from eagerly. I emptied it in seconds, the cool water soothing my throat, and set it delicately on a coffee table to my left.

"Where are Levi and Hanji?" I asked.

"Oh, they're taking care of other things. My job right now is to make sure you two are okay. They are busy with bad-guy stuff." She said the last part as if it was supposed to impress me. Maybe it would have twelve hours ago. That kind of thing didn't sound as appealing to me now that I realized exactly how intense their jobs were.

After a short period of silence, she asked if I wanted to see my parents, to which I said yes.

"They're waiting right outside."

"No. I'm not leaving Mikasa alone."

Petra looked at me with a wistful smile. "Protective, are we? Alright, I'll go get them."

She led my parents into the room and then excused herself. Mom had been crying, not that I expected any different. Dad, on the other hand, while he also looked worried, appeared almost angry. I guess Petra must have told them what I did.

"Eren!" My mom ran up to the couch and embraced me.

I shushed her quietly, "Mikasa's still sleeping."

"I'm so glad you're okay!" She spoke a little quieter, but not much. After a moment she broke the hug and looked at me seriously. "I... we know what happened. All of it. It's…scary, what happened, what you did, but I want you to know that I'm not angry."

"You should have been more careful!" My father interjected, obviously not feeling the same way as my mother. "You should have left the house as soon as you noticed something was wrong, and went to the neighbor's house to use their phone to call the police! You were careless, Eren."

How dare he say that? I stood up, raging. "Careless? If I did what you said, they would have been gone, and taken Mikasa with them!" Didn't he realize this? I didn't regret killing those men. I still don't.

He sighed. "We will discuss this later. We have something else we need to talk about." He turned and looked at Mikasa. "She…has nowhere to go, correct?" His voice became softer. "Well, your mother and I were talking, and we think she can move in with us."

My eyes widened, my anger gone in a heartbeat. "Really?" That was the best news I'd heard all day! "You mean it?" This way, I could keep the promise I made to her.

"Yes…she has no direct family besides her parents, so we decided this would be the most favorable course of action."

I was relieved. I could keep her safe now. But dad wasn't finished speaking. "There is also one more thing. Your mother and I, and Ms. Ral as well, think that it would be in our best interest to have you and Mikasa attend counseling for the time being."

I didn't object, as I expected this. Mother spoke up. "It's only temporary, dear, you don't have to worry. We just want to make sure that the two of you are okay."

"I want to go home." A new voice spoke. Mikasa had woken up. She was sitting on the couch, rubbing her eyes. "Can I go home now? Can you tell me how to get there?"

"Your home is with us now, Mikasa." Father said gently, as if talking to a wounded animal. For a moment she looked confused, and then her face lit up. "Really? I don't have to be alone?"

"Of course not," I scoffed, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I moved to stand in front of her. "I made a promise, didn't I?"

"I think we made a good decision," mom said, watching the scene.

"Yes," dad agreed, "Now, let's go home."

I offered her my hand.

She took it.

We exited the room, Mikasa right at my side, and walked down a hallway to the front desk. Petra was talking to the person working behind it. When she saw us approach, she said "Are you going to go home now?"

"Yes, I believe we are. Thank you for all of your help, Ms. Ral, and if you need anything else from us, please don't hesitate to call." Dad said.

"The same goes for you. I'm glad I was of help. Drive safe!"

They turned to go, but I didn't. "Wait," I wasn't done talking to Petra. "When will Levi and Hanji be back? I want to say goodbye to them."

Petra looked confused. "Who? Do you mean officers Walker and Baxter? They've gone home now that everything has been taken care of."

"What? No, I mean – " I stopped my sentence short as Petra winked at me. Oh, I got it. "Uh, yeah, can you tell them I said thank you one more time?"

"Of course! I'll let them know you were asking for them. They're very busy people, though, so I wouldn't count on you being able to see them again, unfortunately."

My heart deflated a little. "Oh, okay…" I wanted to see my heroes again. But knowing that they were out there saving more lives like they did mine and Mikasa's made me giddy inside. They're as close as I'd ever get to meeting real-life superheroes, I realized. "Goodnight, Ms. Petra! Thank you for everything." Mikasa mumbled a thank you, too, following my example.

"You're welcome, Eren, Mikasa. Stay safe, okay? And if you ever need anything, you can always come to the police. We'll always be here to help."

As we left the station that night, a family of three became a family of four.

Over the next few months, Mikasa and I attended therapy as my parents wanted us to. We both had mild PTSD. It was a hard time. Neither of us went to school for a while. Mikasa had a lot of nightmares, and she had to share a room with me because she was too scared to sleep alone. I didn't mind. Armin said there were weird rumors about my absence. I knew I could never tell anyone what I did, and I knew Mikasa would feel very uncomfortable when she started school if everyone knew that she's an orphan, so I told Armin to spread a lie that I was very sick. When Mikasa started school, I told everyone she was my parents' friends' daughter, and she was staying with us while they traveled around the world. It worked well enough. With Mikasa's permission, the only person we told the complete truth was Armin. He's my best friend and he deserved to know. He took the news pretty well. I mean, he stayed my best friend even though I was technically a murderer.

I learned through follow-up meetings at the station and therapy sessions that no one knew exactly what happened. They thought they did, but it wasn't the truth. My parents thought that I killed one of the thugs and hid in the house and called the police. They didn't know that I in fact killed two of them and almost died myself (twice!), or that Mikasa killed the leader, and that Hanji and Levi saved me. In fact, Levi and Hanji's names were never mentioned at all. I didn't know why, but I guessed they had to be a secret.

My obsession with superheroes came to an end. Something about staring death in the face when you're twelve years old makes that kind of fantasy no longer appealing. But on the other hand, I started idolizing police officers, and a certain one specifically. They were the real heroes. One day, I hoped to be as cool as that Levi guy.

From then on, whenever we had those meetings at school with the guidance counselor and she asked me what I wanted to do with my future, I said that I wanted to be a police officer. Every single time, even when I got to high school, that dream never changed.

I didn't see Levi, Hanji, or Petra again. I wished that I could have talked to Mikasa about them, but she hated talking about that day, understandably. As the years went by, I thought about them less and less, but I never completely forgot them.

I still had unanswered questions about the whole affair, though. Why did no one talk about Levi and Hanji? Why were they even at the Ackerman's house that day? How come I couldn't see them again? As days turned to weeks, and weeks to months, months to years, I thought I'd never get my answers.

I was wrong.

AN: So what did you think, guys? I haven't published any fanfiction in a long time, and this one has been sitting on my computer for a while, fully edited and all, so I finally decided to publish it. I'm going to try my best to have a regular update schedule, so expect a new chapter every 2-4 weeks! I have a whole plot planned out for this fic and I'm really excited! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Find me on Tumblr at shingeki-no-attack-on-whatisthis (it's a mouthful I know).

Shoutout to my editor and beta: HowlingEmber.

Thank you so much for reading!