"The hunt is complete," Levi continued, his eyes rested on the body where he had left it about half a dozen paces from his car. "I'll be bringing the corpse in."
On the other side of the call, sat a familiar blond man in a fairly comfortable desk chair behind a small but well kept desk. The phone he was speaking into still rested in its' cradle, the speakers crackling faintly with Levi's every word. His glass office door was closed, and locked from the look of it. "Good," Erwin Smith said, turning in his chair to look out the window. "But, if you can, dispose of the body yourself. Nanaba has arrived back here with Eren Jaeger."
"He will bring hell down on us if he finds out we have the boy," Levi said instead of asking how the teenager was, which Erwin obviously took as his way of agreeing.
Erwin's mouth cocked upward in a small smile. "That is what you wanted, correct? You were the one who said it was time to go on the offensive."
"Oh?" Levi said, his gray eyes narrowing and flashing slightly. "Is that what we're doing? Because we'll need a shitton more bodies if we are."
"And we'll get them," Erwin said. "In time, we will get them."
A few minutes ticked by before Levi spoke again. "Fine," he said, finally taking his eyes off the body. He looked up at the sky, towards the sun, like he had done one time a long time ago. "I'll trust you Erwin. But all of your bodies better not be hot-headed, squealing kids."
Levi hung up this phone without giving Erwin a chance to respond, tossing it back into the car and shutting the door again. He shrugged out of his clothes in a well practiced and smooth maneuver, and changed back into his other form. He flicked his tail and strolled back to the carcass. Again, he lifted it by the throat so only its tail still touched the ground, and he carried it back into the forest in which it had died.
..
Her keys clattered softly as she dropped them on the granite counter of the unlit kitchen in the empty house.
Mikasa sighed then, rubbing her right temple with three fingers. She wondered, not for the first time, if it was common for kids her age to be so bone tired all the time. If it was normal for her to stay up all night, working on as much school work as she possibly could, before lying down on her bed, trying to sleep until her blinding headaches began, and then she would toss and turn all through the night, until the sun came up.
But like she did every day, Mikasa shook her head, trying to lose the memories of all the sleepless nights. It never worked. But she kept going. She had a little brother to take care of, after all. Two now, actually.
One, her newest little brother, was easy to look after. He was a nerd, as her other brother would say, and he liked his books and his studying very much. Mikasa had actually just dropped him off at his after school job as a tutor, which he enjoyed, to the surprise of Eren (and to herself, a little bit).
Eren, though, he was the exact opposite from her good little brother, Armin. He got angry, got into fights, argued and skipped school. He had skipped school today, as a matter of fact, to absolutely no one's surprise. The teachers had all just turned a blind eye and Mikasa didn't know what else she could do other than ask her brother to text her a couple times a day.
Usually he did, but not today. Today, he had ignored each and every text she had sent when she could. She had half expected him to be passed out in the living room in front of the TV when she got back, most likely with some drool and/or food on his face.
But he wasn't, and he hadn't answered her when she had called his name from the doorway either. Eren pouted, scowled, got red faced from anger, shouted, and occasionally cried but he never ignored her. He had probably gotten pissed at something (it could be the air with that one, Mikasa thought) and stormed out of the house.
She knew her brother had come to resent her for trying to get back to normal after their mother had died. But she didn't know what else to do. After her biological parents had died, she hadn't spoke for over a year. She had her brother to look after this time around, and she didn't want to be like that again. Mikasa was better now, and stronger. She would never be that fearful, silent little girl again. So she tried to get back to normal as best she could.
It wasn't working as well as she thought it would.
Mikasa checked her phone again, looking for any texts her hotheaded brother had sent. There were none, still. She had been concerned when he hadn't responded before, but now she was getting really worried now. As petulant as Eren could be, he had always responded to her before this.
She headed upstairs to his room then, to try to find some clue of where he had gone. The door was wide open, the light turned off, and the bed mussed up. Mikasa stepped inside slowly, almost as if she was waiting for something to jump out at her like in one of those cliche horror films.
Just as she got through the doorway, her foot hit something on the floor. Mikasa flipped the light switch to on and picked up the little mystery item.
It was a phone, Eren's phone. And the screen had a small cracked running through it, like he had dropped it… or thrown it. Luckily though, the phone still worked, and when Mikasa turned it on, it lit up with her many messages still displayed on the lock screen.
Thrown it. Knowing him, Eren had probably thrown it across the room in one of his surges of anger. It had cracked when it landed and he hadn't bothered to pick it up before storming out of the house in rage.
At what, she could not guess. What had ignited his ire could be anything and everything. Her little brother had never been Mr. Anger Management but it had become near explosive since their mother had died. In fact, Mikasa knew that after Eren had gotten into his most recent fight at school, Abel had started to consider getting him tested for intermittent explosive disorder.
Anything and everything was also what Eren could do after he got angry. Mikasa had no clue where he had gone or what he could be doing; after all, the last time he had flew into a rage, he had brutally insulted one of his closest friends and then had gotten in a fist fight with another one because of it. Eren could be in danger or hurt or lost or-
And before she knew it, her own phone was in her other hand, and she tried to decide who to call. Abel would be the logical choice. Or she could try to get in touch with Grisha again, but that wouldn't help Eren right now. And Abel was at work which wasn't too close.
The police would be the rational alternate but before she knew it, she was dialing and it wasn't 911.
How the card had gotten in her hand then, or how it had even been in her pockets without her noticing the entire time, was something Mikasa would never figure out. But it was the card that Erwin Smith had given to her, and she had dialed the number it displayed. The number to the Survey Corps Private Investigator Offices.
The phone rang three times before someone picked it up on the other line. "Survey Corps PI Offices," a baritone voice answered. "How may I help you?"
"I need help finding my brother," Mikasa said. "My name is Mikasa Jae- Ackerman."
There was a brief beat of silence on the other line before the man spoke again. "Hello Miss Ackerman," he said politely. "My name is Mike Zacharius. You said you needed help with your brother?"
"Yes," Mikasa said, a little shakily.
"Alright," Mike Zacharius said. "Please come by the Offices at about 7:30. We will talk to you about your brother then."
"But that's not soon enough!" Mikasa said loudly. "I was promised any help I needed if I called this number!"
"We will help," Mike Zacharius said, "at 7:30. Have a nice day."
There was a soft click that made Mikasa flinch slightly as the man hung up the phone. She pulled the phone away from her ear and clenched it hard in her hand, hard enough that she was sure it would later leave a mark. Her other had still had a loose grip on her brothers phone, and the business card Erwin Smith had given her. She calmly set both her phone and her brother's down on her brother's desk beside his door.
Mikasa kept the card in her hands, though, reading it over again. She closed her eyes for a moment before slowly ripping it in half. She took the two ripped pieces and tore them again and again and again until the tiny shreds of paper still left slipped through her fingers onto her brother's floor.
With a deep breath to control the anger she could feel rising in her stomach, she picked up the two phones again, tucking hers into her pocket and keeping Eren's in her left hand. She took another soothing breath before leaving her brother's room and descending down the stairs, and out of the house.
Nobody was there for her brother but she would be. She would find him and protect him always.
And so she found her keys and drove. She drove and drove in her simple, old car, trying to find that wayward brother of hers. She went to every spot she could think to look of, even checking the library as a last resort. But she came up empty handed at 6:00. Abel would not be back until at least 8 and Armin was still busy. If she had not yet found her little brother… she would go to the Survey Corps offices. She was not too prideful to ask for help, even if the help came from lying scumbags.
Pain pounded in her skull again, and sometimes her vision blurred just slightly but she ignored it. She ignored everything, and she would continue to until she was sure her brother, her last family member, was safe.
And that was when it hit her. She knew where her brother was. It was a place she had returned to many a time, but a place that he had refused to even go near to. But now he had.
The old house.
She broke several speed limits on her way there, she was sure. But she didn't care. It was almost 6:30 now and her brother had been out there for who knew how long. She had to get to him, and had to get him back safely.
When she pulled up in front of their old house though, she was surprised to see that Eren wasn't there, not on the porch. How he had gotten in the boarded up house, she didn't know. But it was Eren and he was capable of anything if he wanted it badly enough.
She flew out of the car, her keys clanging together harshly in her hand and she ran up to the house.
As always, when she went to that house, her heart began to thud in her chest and the pain in her head increased. The first time she had visited after her second mother had died, tears had pricked at the corners of her eyes.
But this time Mikasa held herself together. She would not let any pain hinder at all her until she found Eren and made sure he was okay.
When she reached the porch steps, though, was when she began to get confused. She slowed to a stop at the foot of them, and looked up at her former front doorway. It was still boarded shut, without an opening in sight, as were the windows.
Was her brother not here? But… but no, that was impossible. He had to be here, he had to be, because there was no where left that he could have gone.
Her skin tingled then, and hair rose all over her body. A sense of dread swept over her like a wave, and once again tears burned in her eyes.
Mikasa looked down at her feet, her eyes wide and watery. The grass around her feet was soaked in blood.
Again, she moved too fast for her to even remember moving at all. She held her already dialed and ringing phone up to her ear with a shaking hand, the other clenched tight into a fist.
"Survey Corps Private Investigator-"
"Blood," Mikasa said shakily before Mike Zacharius could finish answering the phone. "There's blood here, at our old house. It's my brother's, I know it."
"Miss Ackerman," Mike Zacharius said calmly. "Please calm down and come to our offices immediately."
Mikasa stopped… well everything for a moment. Stopped talking, stopped blinking, even stopped breathing, just for a moment. Her heartbeat vibrated through her body as she stood completely still and it calmed her.
"You… you said that I had to wait until 7:30," she said, keeping her voice as steady as she possibly could, so there was only a tremble.
"Circumstances have changed," said Mike Zacharius.
..
With a gasp, his eyes flew wide open and what felt like a waterfall of memories poured through his head, complete with the pressure to leave him with a near blinding headache. But as painful as the headache was, it was also brief and it disappeared in mere minutes.
That was when he saw her. Nanaba, she had called herself. The white dog. She was sitting at a small desk not far off, typing away at a computer. She had not turned around when he had let out the gasp, but surely she must have heard it.
"Hey!" Eren called out, his throat aching slightly from his shout. Nanaba's typing stopped and this time she turned around in her swivel chair to look at him. She smiled at him, just like she had before, and began to speak.
But Eren cut her off before she could say anything. "Who the hell are you really?" Eren demanded, sitting up as best he could, Nanaba's eyes immediately darting to his arm to check his IV. "And where the fuck am I?"
"Stay calm, Eren," Nanaba said instead of answering any of his questions. "You may feel better right now, but you are still in a precarious situation. You almost-"
"I don't care!" Eren yelled. "Just tell me where I am and why I'm here! And what you are!"
Nanaba's eyebrows pressed together, and her lips turned downwards just slightly. "Eren-"
The door slammed open with a bang just then, stopping whatever Nanaba was going to say in its tracks. Eren felt his face flushing red with anger, and he balled his hands into tight fists, ignoring the pain that arced up his left arm.
He glared turned to glare at the person who had slammed open the door, who had interrupted Nanaba just as she was about to give him answers.
It was a short, dark haired man, and, for some reason, Eren's mouth closed with a snap when he saw him and he froze for a minute. His hot glare faded in angered heat to just a wide eyed stare. Behind the short man walked in another, much taller one, but Eren didn't even pay him an ounce of attention.
"Levi," Nanaba said to the dark haired man. "Don't slam the doors, I've told you that."
Levi was the short man's name. Levi who said something in response to Nanaba's scolding that was lost to Eren's ears as he continued to look unblinkingly at this man with the oddest sense of knowing.
It was only when his eyes began to burn did Eren blink again, and sound was restored to his ears.
"-rarely come to visit me over here, after all," Nanaba was saying, with her own eyes firmly fixed on Levi's. Finally, though, Eren was able to look away from the short man, and truly see the tall man he had come in with. And he wasn't just tall, he was huge. He towered over a foot taller than Levi, and their height difference was almost comical.
Levi had leaned back against the closest wall to him, his arms crossed over his chest as he spoke to Nanaba. "Hanji's running around shrieking like a manic again," he explained in a bored tone. "Moblit's trying to get her under control, but the girl is coming soon so everyone knows that's a lost cause."
"Ah, so you both decided to huddle and hide in here," Nanaba said with small, but obvious amusement in her voice.
"It was a strategic move," the tall man said and Nanaba lowered her head with a soft chuckle.
"Of course it was Mike, of course it was," she said. "But she is coming here, really?"
"Yes," Mike, the tall man, said in his deep voice. "She called not too long ago asking if she could. She even introduced herself as an Ackerman."
And that was when Eren sat up straight in the bed he was in, any pain from his arm dulled by sudden panic.
"Ackerman?" he asked sharply. "Are you talking about Mikasa Ackerman? My sister?"
Mike and Nanaba glanced over at him almost as if they had forgotten he was there, but Levi just looked at him with sharp silver-grey eyes. "That's right," he said as apathetically as before.
"What do you want with her?" Eren said, his voice lowering to almost a growl in his hostility. It was bad enough these people had him, but his sister too? No.
Levi looked over him with the same blank look on his face that was beginning to make Eren's blood boil. He then turned that gaze back to Nanaba. "He's not a very grateful brat, is he now?"
Eren almost hurt his neck with how fast he turned it to catch Nanaba's reaction, which was a twitch of the lips and a silent shrugged. His anger spiked again and he opened his mouth to bark out another question but Levi spoke before he could.
"You're at the Survey Corps building," the dark haired man said. "Nanaba here just saved your life. If we hadn't taken you back here, you would have bled to death on your front lawn. And your sister called us. She wanted our help finding you, so we invited her down here. Feel free to thank the woman who saved you any moment now."
Eren opened his mouth and snapped it closed once again. He continued fish-like action more than he cared to admit before he ducked his head down just slightly. "Thank you," he muttered reluctantly but sincerely enough with a surreptitious glare at Levi.
Levi either didn't see or simply ignored Eren's glare, but Nanaba replied to his thanks with another gracious smile and a simple "you're welcome."
"Besides," she went on to say, "it's really Levi you should be thanking."
He blinked before turning to look at the stoic man who was now staring him down again. Breaking away from that captivating gaze was hard, but Eren managed to look back at Nanaba. "Why?" he asked.
Nanaba glanced between the two of them, "He was the one who really saved your life. I would have never gotten to you if he hadn't been there."
This time in his infinite wisdom, Eren resisted the urge to look over at Levi, his apparent savior, for he knew he would get caught up in that mesmerising stare yet again. Instead, he kept his gaze firmly fixed on Nanaba. "What do you mean?" he said, hoping to get the answers she would have provided before Levi and Mike had turned up.
Nanaba frowned just ever so slightly at him. "You really don't know," she said slowly, almost worriedly.
Buzz buzz buzz went Mike's pocket before Eren could ask anymore of the short haired blonde woman and if that didn't frustrate him more than any of the extremely frustrating things that had already happened today. Nanaba and Levi both seem to snap to attention, meaning Nanaba looked over at Mike as he answered the phone with what seemed to be his usual calm intensity while Levi just glanced over at him with the same uninterested look that appeared to be permanently engraved on his face.
Mike didn't say a word into the phone, and he pulled it away from his ear mere moments after he had first answered it. Whoever was on the other side of the call obviously had only one thing clear in their mind and they had gotten their point across in the quickest manner possible.
"Erwin wants us with him," Mike said to both Levi and Nanaba, sliding his phone back into his pocket. Levi gave a short, sharp nodded and turned without another word, walking briskly out the door, exiting the room as bluntly as he had entered it. As the door swung shut behind him, Mike turned to Nanaba, and Eren dealt with his odd sense of… loss, perhaps? How utterly bizarre and extremely unsettling.
"Are you coming?" the still hovering Mike was asking Nanaba as Eren shoved down the unexpected feeling.
Nanaba smiled kindly at the waiting tall man. "Go on ahead," she said. "I'll be right behind you."
Mike left with a nod of his own, and the strange feeling left as suddenly as it came to be replaced by the fiery emotion of pure teenage annoyance. "Hey!" Eren said as Nanaba turned back to her desk when the door closed with Mike on the other side of it. "Where are you all going? Are you going to see my sister? Is she here? I want to see her!"
"Eren," Nanaba said slowly, turning to face him with the same express lots of his teachers wore, the one that made him feel like he was dumb. Eren curled his hands into fists again at her patronizing. "You need rest. Like I told you, you're stable now but that can easily change. You've already moved around too much."
"No," Eren said even as he began to feel the dull but harsh pain creepy back into… well, into his entire body now that whatever sort of anger fueled adrenaline rush had gone with Mike and Levi.
"Rest, Eren," Nanaba said soothingly, stepping towards his bed and reaching for his arm. Into it, she inserted the needle of a syringe (which, thankfully enough, barely stung. He didn't need anymore pain racing through his body) and pushed down the plunger.
"What's that?" Eren asked, and he would have tried to jerk his arm away if all of his energy hadn't just been sapped because of the wave of painful discomfort.
Nanaba removed the needle from his arm, and pressed a tiny bandaid over the spot where she had pushed it in. "Something to help you relax," she replied.
And it did indeed do just that. Eren felt any and all tenseness in his muscles fade to nothing, and his eyelids began to feel heavy. His anger and frustration started to fall away and a sleepiness swept over him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that he still should be wary, that he still didn't know these people, and that this stranger had just drugged him with something that made him completely and utterly pliant.
But instead he just thought of those captivating silver-grey eyes and rather than feeling his irritation grow like it had before, he felt an even more intense wave of calmness sweep over him, curling around him like a warm blanket.
From the corner of drooping eyes, he saw Nanaba pick something up from her desk and then head to the door. "Wait," he called out drowsily. She stopped and turned sideways to look at his prone body. "What," he said, feeling like his mouth had been stuffed with cotton, "what did you mean? By," his jaws cracked open in a wide yawn, "thanking Levi?"
His broken sentence probably didn't make much sense, but Nanaba managed to understand. "You should remember," she said. "He saved you back at your old house."
"No-o-o," Eren murmured. He struggled to keep his eyes open and his eyelids fluttered almost uncontrollably as he did. "I," he said, in barely a whisper, "I was saved by… by a black panther."
And Eren's fight against his body was lost then as his eyelids dropped completely. But just before he faded into the dark rest that await him, he heard Nanaba's quiet, drowned out by his own tiredness, response.
"Exactly."
..
Sorry it took so long everyone! But here's chapter four.
Thanks again to Wolfgrowl for beta reading.
Please remember to review!
