Meeting on the battlefield
Chapter 1: The monster gets better
Levi knows that he is in hell. All around him are dying soldiers and civilians. Titans walking pass him, destroying the city and killing every human in their way. But the world around him is silence except for his own heartbeat and the slowly dying pulse under his finders. He feels Eren leaving him and Levi should be angry at him. He asked him not to leave him alone, Eren promised but that idiot had to push him away. He had to save him.
Tears that mix with the blood and dirt on his skin find their way to the ground creating wet spot in the soil. Soil that is already wet with red blood flooding out from underneath Eren´s body and than he hears it. A noise that should not exist in the hell Levi is in right now. Footsteps. Slow walking footsteps that pass through the streets and coming closer towards him. Levi looks up and finds himself watching a man coming closer. Surprised it takes him a minute to understand what he is looking at. There is a human, not bothered by titans, death and hell who has only eyes for the person lying next to him on the ground, slowly bleeding out and dying.
His instincs scream at him and one of his hands finds his knife, pulling it out and pointing it at the man, the other is still holding on to Eren.
"Dr. Jäger." Armin shouts behind him.
"Grisha." Mikasa follows soon.
Levi tries to fit the name in and his brain is helping him out. Grisha Jäger, Eren´s father that disappeared after the wall had fallen. What is he doing here? Levi knows that Erwin and Hanji are close too, as are Furlan and Isabel. All the people that are important to him and Eren at one place. Surrounded by the enemy and death. So, how did this man walk pass the titans?
The man slowly knees down next to his son. Levi wants to slice open the man´s hand as he takes Eren´s other hand but he doesn't. there is enough blood on the ground already. The brown earth had turned copper-coloured.
"I can save him." The man´s voice is strong but also filled with emotions. "I can save him but it will come with a price." Eren´s father opens a bag, Levi hadn't notice until now and gets out a syringe and a bottle with a strangely coloured liquid.
"What are you doing?" Hanji calls out from behind him. Still standing there after trying to pull him away.
"I will save my son´s life." Grisha Jäger looks up at Erwin. "You are the commandant of this unit, right?" Erwin nods, silently watching the doctor filling the syringe with the liquid. "This, will turn my son into a titan-shifter. Something like the two titans that destroy the walls. All my research about them is buried under the runes of my home in Shiganshina." He pulls out a key with his empty hand, the other is still holding on to the syringe. He throws the key at Erwin, who catches it. "You will need that, give it to my son. I won´t be able to explain any of it to him."
"What do you mean?" Erwin speaks for the first time.
"I am a titan-shifter. We get 13 years to live. My time is up. To become a shifter you need to turn someone into a titan and let him eat a shifter. I will let Eren eat me after I turned him into a titan." Levi feels disbelieve, confusion, anger and at least ten more emotions he can´t name right now inside his mind race for the first position to break free. What is going on here? Titans are made. The armoured and the colossal titan are shifter. Does that mean they are humans too. Does this man really want to turn Eren into a titan and let himself be eaten. And by far the most important thought, could it work? Could this man save his beloved?
"What does that mean, exactly?" Erwin repeats but Grisha doesn't answer him, he looks for the first time at Levi.
"You have to decide. I can see you love my son. This is no easy thing to do. It will change him. Maybe even despite you for making this decision but he will life. He will be in control over the titan body. He will be able to fight for his dreams. He will live." Grisha waits, they all know there is not much time before Eren will be dead and he doubts that his serum whatever it is will work on a dead person. And suddenly the decision is easy.
"Do it." Eren will live. He might hate him, he might despise his pure existence. He might turn his back on Levi but he will live and they can work from that point on.
"Let go of him and everyone clear out." Grisha doesn't hesitates for another second he puts the syringe into his son´s arms and fills the broken body with the serum. For a second Levi thinks nothing happens, fears that it didn't work but then Eren´s body moves, flinching and growing.
Where Eren´s human body had laid on the ground moments ago was an ugly, mismatching looking beast that is sniffing into the air, finding it´s target and without a moment of thinking eating the only human being close by.
It´s a cruel picture and Levi knows he will have them follow him into his nightmares. A flash hits the titan and he changes forms again. This time he grows taller, to a 15-meter, muscle packed monster. The titan has pointy ears and brilliant bright shining emerald-green eyes. Eyes that had Levi fall for him years ago and were now looking at him, like a stranger.