Chapter 28

Levi scowls hatefully at the man holding Hanje hostage, deepening into a scowl as he sees Kenny smirk when he adjusts, bringing out a small yelp from the eccentric scientist.

"Been a long time Levi! Still a runt or have ya grown some?" Kenny grins as he mockingly checks Levi from behind Hanje.

"Nope! Don't look like ya changed much at all boy!"

"Let her go!" Levi demanded, lurching forward but stopping as he feels the familiar pain from his right leg shoot up.

His had imperceptibly latches onto his leg, an action that Kenny quickly catches.

"Givin demands with a busted leg like that? I thought I taught ya better than that!"

"If you hurt her—"

"Now what's all this about? Don't tell me ya actually care now! You've gone soft."

Hanje tries to pull at Kenny's arm but he doesn't budge, it's like trying to pull steel apart.

"Who'da thunk the runt would grow a heart as soon as he saw some sun."

"Not a heartless bastard like you that's for sure." Levi retorts, his mind racing on what to do next.

He knows Kenny, he knows how strong and skilled he is. Even at his best, Levi would be hardpressed on who would come out on top if they ever came to blows, now with him sporting an injury in his knee no less, his chances are that much slimmer.

"Flattery will get ya no where son!"

Deciding he needs to stall, Levi asks the burning question, "why're you here, after all these years?"

Kenny's grin shrinks to a normal smile and something shifts in his eyes, like the coldness that sharpens gaze had shrunk. "Kid's resilient ain't he?"

The captain's heart stops for a moment. He couldn't mean?—

"Are you talking about Howlett?" Hanje asks aloud, as if it's a normal conversation and she doesn't have a knife presses to her jugular.

"Dammit Hanje!"

"Eep!"

But none of that registers to Kenny, "Yea. That's who."

"What's it to you? You never gave a shit about anyone but yourself before."

Kenny shrugs, "Can't an old man check up on his kin every now and then?"

The scouts falter, the confession was thrown out so casually and without hesitation that they almost didn't believe it was actually said. To Hanje this just raises so many questions. And to Levi? IT was doing the same, but with a healthy amount of dread mixed in.

"So I was right. You are connected to him, You are his father."

"Oh we're all connected Levi, a lot more than ya think!"

Growling in frustration Levi spat, "Stop dancing around my questions and give it to me straight, you owe me that much! What do you want with him?!"

With this, Kenny stops, a look of confusion taking over his expression as if he was looking for the answers inside himself. "I ain't so sure myself. Hell wasn't even aware of him till recently." His eyes slither to meet Levi's, his crooked grin returning as each passing statement is confirmed by the captain. "But you picked it up too… Didn't ya? How he walks, how he talks. All just like his old man!"

Levi wonders aloud, "Is that why he's the way he is? Is that why we're so strong?"

Kenny barks out in laughter, "What's this 'we'? Oh, ya mean us," He uses the knife to gesture between him and Levi, "Heh, don't blame ya for bein curious, there's a lot more to us Ackerman's than anyone thought!"

Levi grits his teeth in frustration, his years long question remaining unanswered.

"'Ackerman', you're Ackerman's?!", Hanje decides to cut in to the conversation, "What does that mean?"

Kenny moves his lips to Hanje's ear, making her squirm in discomfort and for Levi to snarl. "It just means there's a whole lot more goin on than ya lot know darlin, stuff ya stumbled across that just might've rattled one too many cages."

Levi's eyes narrow in suspicion, "Why're you telling us this? You've never been so forthcoming before."

Kenny shrugs, "I'm in a generous mood. Guess I wanted to size ya'll up, before we clash."

"That a threat?"

"A warnin. Like I said, ya rattled a lot of cages. House of cards is about to start comin down on the Scouts… or the rest of the walls. I ain't sure which, all I know is I'm gettin excited!"

He cackles again before inching them closer and closer to the door. "Now I think I've overstayed my welcome, so I'll say till next time Runt. Oh would ya be a doll and give me back my hat? Gotta stay in style."

Hanje, who still had the bowler hat in her hands huffs and rolls her eyes but it was Levi who who catches her by surprise.

"Do it Hanje."

"But Levi—"

"Do it. He'll kill you if you don't."

She wants to argue she really does, but the look in his eyes were pleading, begging for her to listen. Not liking it one bit, she does as told, still uncomfortably close to the serial killer who gives Levi a shit eating smirk as she all but presses herself to him to be able to place his hat on his ratty hair.

"Now then, I'm gonna walk away and ya not gonna follow me cause if ya even move an inch, then Section Commander will be getting the shortest haircut of her life."

Pulling Hanje with him as he slowly backs up to the door until he's close enough and he roughly pushes Hanje into Levi, knocking them both to the ground. Levi unceremoniously pushes Hanje off of him and quickly limps to the door only to find the hallways empty. Hanje huffs as she lays on her back, "geez I think I took more damage being thrown around by you than I was behaving a knife to my neck."

Levi grabs her chin and moves it up and to the side as she checks for any wounds, "Are you alright?"

She gently pushes his hand off her face, "I'm fine. If I can handle being within a titans mouth I can handle having a small knife to my throat."

"Not by that man." He whispers hatefully.

"Was that…him?"

Levi sighs as he takes a seat and rubs his forehead, "Yes, Kenny the Ripper."

Hanje stares at the door he just walked out from, rubbing her neck unconsciously. "Huh… I didn't imagine him to be so much taller than you."

Levi drops his hand from his face and gives her a ' seriously?' look. "That's your takeaway from everything that just happened?"

She raises her hands appeasingly, "Of course not! I just expected more that's all!"

She sits across from Levi on his bed. "You think he was telling the truth?"

Levi doesn't hesitate to answer, "Yes. Kenny may be many things, but he's never been a good liar."

"So he really is Cal's father." She gives him a questioning look, "And you knew?"

"I suspected it, but could never confirm it."

"Or you didn't want it to be true."

"Does that matter?" He retorts a little more roughly than he wanted.

She didn't care though, "To you, probably but I won't say anything about it… for now."

He rolls his eyes.

"So you're an 'Ackerman'. You, Kenny, Mikasa and, we have to now assume, Calian are all Ackerman's. All with incredible strength an unmatched battle prowess… I was right, it's all connected. The wall titans, the titan shifters, even you and Cal and Mikasa!"

"How could titans be connected to us—"

"Anything's possible now remember? It has to be. Seriously, Why else do you think he said that thing are gonna change for the scouts because of all the 'cages we rattled'? I don't know, but I'm guessing finding out the walls have colossal titans under the surface caused a domino effect."

"This just means we're in a lot more danger than we realized and the victory Erwin just earned us may be short lived." Levi surmises.

A pregnant silence passes until Hanje asks, "So… Are you gonna tell him or should i?"

Levi gives her a confused look and she clarifies, "Cal… about Kenny, you know being his real father?"

"No."

"so you want me to—"

"We're not telling him." Levi states with a finality that shocks the Section Commander.

"Wha-Why not?!"

"From experience, it's better that he keeps his interactions with Kenny to a minimum."

Her eyebrows nearly disappear into her hairline in shock, "Are you kidding me?! Levi he has a right to know!"

"Ignorance is bliss!"

"Oh that's horse shit especially coming from a Scout! We risk our lives every waking moment so that we can find out the truth that's clearly being kept form us and now you want to do the same to this poor kid!?"

Levi gets into her face, "I grew up with Kenny! And look at me! Look how I turned out!"

"I think you're ok." Hanje says, her heartbreaking as she sees the self loathing the confident man carries.

"I'm fucked up four eyes. I'm just trying… I want to spare Howlett of that."

Hanje gives him a pitying look, "You can't protect him from the truth. He'll find out one way or another."

"I'll cross that bridge when I get there, just… please let me do it."

Hanje's mouth dropped and not a single noise escaped. In all the years she's known Levi, he's never pleaded. Despite her conscious wanting to protest she doesn't. "Fine… but if it blows up in your face I'm not helping."

"Fair."

"So what now?"

"We should bring what we learned to Erwin's attention, he'll know what to do."

The next morning

Sasha and Calian are both being cheered on by their friends. Jean and Connie on Sasha's side, Eren, and Armin on Calians and Mikasa simply watches with a smile. Both teams cheering as Sasha and Calian cleared off another plate in their eating contest. It's very evenly close match with the same amount of plates filling up the cart next to them. Medics and other scouts in the room were dumbfounded as they watched the event unfold.

"How're they eating so much?"

"Apparently the girl is a hunter a caught a whole family of boars last night and… they're eating what's left."

Back with the rookies, Sasha slams down her plate and lifts her hand to connie, "NEXT!"

"Um th-there's no more."

"huh?"

Jean pinches the bridge of his nose, "You two ate all the food."

Eren stares dumbfounded, "All of it?!"

Armin rubs his chin, "well they separately ate 10 full plates."

"So it's a tie!" Sasha whined.

"ha!" Cal sticks his tongue out at his girlfriend who crosses her arms and grumbles.

"Well you didn't win."

"And neither did you!"

Cal laughs as he pulls Sasha into a hug on his bed, an action that surprises the group.

"Didn't that hurt?" Eren asks.

Cal stops and looks at his arm in surprise. "huh it didn't, matter a fact, my arm doesn't hurt anymore."

"You must heal really quick." Armin notes.

Cal stares at his hand then back to Mikasa, specifically her scar. He remembers the day she got it and suddenly remembers how the very next day, it didn't even look fresh anymore. In fact it looked fully healed. He can sense that Mikasa has come to the same conclusion as him as her eyes narrow on his wounds.

But neither one could think further as in that very moment Hanje and Moblit burst in along with Nanaba and the rest of the titan research squad. "Boss?'

"we're leaving."

"what?"

Levi enters, limping less then before Calian notes as he informs the rest of the rookies, "Commander Erwin has ordered for us to take Eren, historia, Mike and Calian to secure location."

"what for?" Cal asks.

Levi scowls, "Because he said so."

Cal looks at Sasha deadpan, "Walked right into that one didn't I?"

Hanje starts grinning as she grabs ahold of Eren, "Rest up Eren! We'll be dedicating the forseeable future to finding the exact limits of your titan potential!"

Cal snorts, "He's in for a fun time."

Then he notices the gleam in Hanje's eyes and his blood runs cold.

"Don't worry Cal, I have something in mind for you too!"

"… Shit."