Levi Ackerman is dead.
The Levi—who almost never leaves Petra—had died.
Petra can't laugh. Can't sleep. Won't listen. Won't eat.
Can't cry.
The air was humid, having rained the night before. A light mist covered the gravel littered with weeds and cracks. Purple light shone through the clouds, the orange sun not making its appearance just yet.
A man was awake, sitting comfortably in a metallic chair—in his hands, a Rubix Cube with peculiar writing. He was far from solving it. He hadn't even completed a single color.
A man was connected to machines with a rhythmic beep, almost hypnotizing. Wires cascaded from the nape of his neck to a lighted screen, a smaller coil wrapped around the band of his wrist. Foreign liquids in containers hanging from above drip in time with the machine. Although, the containers are not connected to any tubes.
Like the monotonous atmosphere, the man was dazed and quiet. It was if the rhythmic beeping lured him into a trance. He stares at the beige wall in front of him, a lone thought in his single-tracked mind.
"I have become human."
It was a little bit later into the day. The birds had began to sing upon the light yellow rays of the sun. Children played out in the streets, muffled laughter echoed through the thick walls.
Thus the peaceful—if not, perfect—scene was disturbed by a rushing scientist.
"Sorry I'm late, Q01!" Says a brunette woman in her late twenties. She had long brown hair pulled into a ponytail and small-rimmed glasses. Her voice had a nasal-like quality to it as she heaved another breath of air. She wore khakis, a yellow polo, a white lab coat, and brown shoes.
The woman regained her composure just as the man registered her presence. He had on black sweatpants and a white v-neck longsleeve. He was shoeless for now, his ankles wrapped with black bands with wires to them, running from his foot to one of the machines. His raven hair was parted a little to the right and his grey-blue eyes showed little to no interest at the interruption caused. Instead, he looks up calmly at the panting scientist who had just barged through the wooden door.
"Doctor, I am Levi Ackerman from today on."
The woman, currently checking the monitors full of color the man could not comprehend, merely smiled at him. "That's right," she reinforced the ideal.
Levi looked at the cube in his hands once more. He attempted to solve the orange side before being interrupted yet again.
"So how does it feel being human?"
He furrows his thin brow at her, confusion apparent. "Feel? What's that?"
She gently takes his wrist, removing the tape with a wire running along his skin. Was the wire even in his skin?
"To be able to feel…" she trails off, eyeing the three, large wires suspended at the nape of his neck.
"What I've said is nothing!" The scientist quickly exclaims. Levi backs away from her sudden closeness before she removes herself from his personal space.
She jumps in front of the door, clapping her hands as she jogs in place—a signal to hurry.
"C'mon! C'mon! It's time to go!"
In the same frantic manner, she bolts out the door and—from the fading sound—down some stairs. Levi is left to process what just happened. He blinks once, twice.
Eventually, he takes the Rubix Cube with him and follows after the reckless scientist.
He's on a boat before he can process what is happening. The Rubix Cube was in his hand, although he paid no attention to it. Where were they going, again? The Karanese District? He didn't know.
Instead, he found interest in the things found on the shoreline: scattered houses and windmills, village children running hastily to beat the boat to the dock, everything he could see as he leaned slightly over the railing. In the distance, he could see looming walls. Why were they there?
"That's really nostalgic."
The Rubix Cube was snatched from his hands in an instant. His eyes snapped to the right to find the brunette scientist once more, her back against the railing, a single foot against it.
"When I was a student, there was a rumor that it grants a wish once you've solved it," she informs, twisting and turning, flipping rows and columns of colors over and over again.
"The girls were really into it…" she trails off. She stops trying to figure out the puzzle as she meets his gaze once more. "Was it the same in your time?"
Levi blinks, the confused furrow of his brow making an appearance on his face again. "Uh…"
"Oh, I forgot!" She pushes off the railing with her foot, crossing her arms and the Rubix Cube still in her possession. "You wouldn't know what happened to Levi in the past."
He watches her walk off, barely hearing the silent words of:
"I suppose that's a good thing…"
They're in a small village now, or at least attempting to get there. The boat had departed, leaving them in a small island of concrete in the middle of a shallow stream. Families and children washed their clothing on the other shoreline. In the distance, he could see a stone bridge with a cobblestone road. Horse carriages were making their round trips with passengers inside.
He walks calmly along the evenly spaced stones placed along the river, trailing before the hopping scientist as she jumps stone from stone. She makes it to the other side before he does.
"It's so hot!" She complains, heaving over to catch a breath. Suddenly, she turns to Levi.
"Sorry, I've got to show my face at the Military Officer Station of this district. It's just ahead of here," she points to a looming building and to the upper floor of the establishment.
"Can you go by yourself?" She leaves off on that question, expectation in her eyes.
Levi gives her a solemn nod, expressionless and silent. Without a comment, he continues to march ahead and into the town.
"Almost forgot!" The brunette scientist quickly catches his attention before they part for a bit. From her coat pocket, she retrieves the same Rubix Cube from earlier.
He gently takes the puzzle toy from her, turning it over. His eyes catch a mostly completed color.
"Petra and…last?" He reads the printed words on the green side.
Levi turns a column over to find the missing green row. He flips it over to complete most of the green side except for a single white cube in the middle and an orange and yellow cube in opposite corners. Other than that, the message was completely readable.
Days with Petra.
"Levi wrote that," the brunette trails off, leaving the man with his thoughts on the subject. She continued when she didn't hear him speak, "This is the final wish left by Levi."
She gives him a rough smack on the back as a sign of her departure. Quickly regaining his composure from the abrasion, Levi watched as the brunette dragged her tiresome body away. She lazily waves a farewell to him before disappearing into the crowds of the Karanese District.
Levi, left to his own devices now, starts walking again. He stumbles through another part of the river and has to repeat the crossing again. However, he stops in the very middle and gazes down at the translucent water below.
"I've become human."
Little children sprint in front of him with fishing rods: a boy with brown hair and big green eyes, a little girl with long black hair and a red scarf despite the hot weather, and lastly, a blonde one with a straw hat desperately trying to keep up.
The wind picked up amongst the ruckus, causing the hat to fly from the blonde's head. He had tried to catch it, but it flew too high. Levi tried to reach for it, but his short height didn't do him justice.
The blonde boy watched in terror as the straw hat landed two yards away from him in the river stream. The young boy and girl from earlier crowd around Levi to watch the hat carried away by the current. All four people watched as the straw hat slowly filled with water before drowning in the river.
"I've become human."
"For the sake of getting Petra to feel what it's like to live again…"
"I came to this town…
as Levi Ackerman."