Debriefing

Site C headquarters was under an old, Victorian style house well outside the city limits. The house and property were long abandoned and being more than a half mile off the nearest road with a driveway long reclaimed by the woods and meadows; it was also long forgotten by the world. The Scouts had lost everything. Two headquarters, individual apartments and condos and all vehicles. All technology that they couldn't take with them had been set to melt down so that no information remained for Titan to find.

Once everyone was settled, and the equipment they'd brought with them set up, Erwin retreated to a private room without a word. Hange and Levi both knew to leave him alone. "He needs some time think everything out," Levi explained to everyone.

They hadn't had time to prepare, so there wasn't much in the way of snack foods available, but Sasha had skillfully whipped up a meal of rice and beans from canned beans and tomatoes, dried spices and minute rice. They all sat around a large coffee table in the common room eating and discussing the situation. "If we know it's Marley that we need to eliminate, then why don't we just do so? Why are we running and hiding?" Jean questioned in irritation.

"Because we don't know for sure that he's the one we need to take down," Levi replied with unusual patience. "It's still only a hypothesis. While evidence strongly points to him being with Titan, we have nothing to prove it and I'm not really sure he's the linchpin."

"I thought you were," Krista observed.

"At first, yes, but the more I think about it, the more I think maybe it's someone who works closely under him," Levi told her. "He's too wealthy and too well known to fit someone who pulls the strings from the background. Someone who works very closely with him, however, would fit the bill."

"Okay, then, let me ask this," Jean began. "We know someone in Titan was tracking the Commander, so why didn't they attack us the moment we moved to the second headquarters?"

"The walls, floor and ceiling of Site B were all made of an alloy that would have blocked the tracking nano's signals," Hange added. "However, given time, they would still have figured out where we were if Erwin's signal kept disappearing down there."

Armin had leaned forward, elbows on his knees and his brow furrowed in thought. "There are still a large number of variables to consider before we make a move anyway. Attacking Marley would alert Titan that we're closing in on them, and the real linchpin, as Levi calls them, would retreat into hiding. We'd be back at square one. Wellington Tech has its fingers in a lot of other corporations; OPECORP for instance. No doubt Erwin's been using his position in Wellington to obtain insider information on all of the other corporations' connections to Titan. For instance, OPECORP supplies Titan with specialized weapons. Their contact with Titan up until Levi killed him a few years ago was Harbinger."

Levi's expression darkened at the mention of his former nemesis, but Armin's brow furrowed even more. "Harbinger . . ." the blond mused before his eyes suddenly widened almost comically as he stumbled over Eren and Mikasa's legs as he scrambled over to Hange's new workstation (about which Levi was baffled by how it was already a mess in less than three hours) and shuffled through the papers and equipment until he found the copy of the 'Book of Titan' as Hange had dubbed it.

He came back to his seat, nearly face-planting several times, since he was leafing through the pages of the book rather than watching where he was going. "I remember something I read in this book. It didn't mean too much at the time but thinking about Harbinger . . ." Armin trailed off as he continued leafing through pages until he found what he was looking for. "Here! 'The madman will bring about the Impures' destruction. All who would impede you will cower before his strength and intelligence. The madman is unstoppable and will be the harbinger of the Impures' doom'," Armin quoted

"Sounds a little like Harbinger," Levi admitted. "but that fuckstick was stoppable. I proved that myself."

"That's just it," Armin emphasized excitedly as he turned a few pages. "Listen to this. 'The purge of the Impure will begin when the mountain of false tears cries its fiery last and will be complete when the sun eclipses over the Fiery veil'." Armin looked up from the book to find everyone staring at him in open confusion. "Don't you see? The purge was supposed to be over by now, not just beginning!"

"How do you figure?" Hange asked.

Levi looked at them in obvious surprise. "Even you didn't get that?"

When they shook their head, Armin rolled his eyes and explained. "The 'purge' was supposed to be handled by Harbinger, but he's dead, so they're behind schedule. You see, Mount Luhpalsu, or False Tears, erupted after 10,000 years of dormancy right before you killed Harbinger and then collapsed into the ocean. All that's left is a crater under the ocean and countless lives lost or ruined by the resulting tsunamis. The mountain cried its last and is no more."

"Then there was last year's total eclipse occurring over Potae Marena aka Bridal Veil Falls. Now a lot of people call it the Veil of Flames because when photographed from the cave behind the falls at sunset, the falls seem to be on fire. The purge was supposed to be completed by now. If I'm right, then the death of Harbinger threw Titan's plans way off track. There's nothing in the book about copies or clones or anything like what is going on right now. Levi, you're the one who killed Harbinger. That means that this book of prophecy is now in cast in a shadow of doubt. Titan's victory is no longer guaranteed. That means, Levi, that you're a wild card in all of this. They're refraining from attacking because they don't know what will happen anymore. They're no longer confident they can succeed."

"So, the clones must be a backup that they came up with to try to compensate for the loss of Harbinger," Hange added excitedly, catching on to what Armin was saying. "Those Turncoat clones were never a part of the plan. Which means they may be waiting for one of them to take out Levi, not realizing that he's not a true Super."

Armin was again excitedly flipping through pages. "It gets better. If I'm right . . . Yes! Here! 'The key will be found by a man who repairs the Spiral Staircase. He will give this key to his offspring, The Coordinate, after he has repaired the Spiral Staircase. When the purge is complete, use The Coordinate to return humanity to its original glory.' They're talking abut Dr. Jaeger and Eren. The Spiral Staircase is a metaphor for DNA, and Dr. Jaeger specialized in gene therapy. He also modified Eren's genes, thus making him the key to Titan's success, aka, The Coordinate. Thing is, they haven't been able to get ahold of Eren because of you, Levi. Everything was going Titan's way until you killed Harbinger and then took Eren from their reach. Now they're improvising to try making the prophesy come true. Eren may be their key to success, but you are the key to their defeat."

Everyone looked to Levi. The man was sitting on the edge of one of the sofas, forearms resting on his thighs, but his hands balled into tight fists. His brow was furrowed in a scowl, but his eyes had a haunted look. "Levi?" Hange questioned worriedly.

"I never realized at the time that killing Harbinger would have such a huge impact on Titan," Levi began. "At the time, I only knew that Erwin was looking to question him about it. I didn't care. The fucker had killed too many innocent people and the law had failed to stop him. So, I did."

Armin was nothing if not perceptive. "There's more to this thing with Harbinger than you're telling us."

Levi looked up at the blond, his eyes still haunted. "You're right. I think it goes back further than I initially realized. You see, I was raised by Kenny Ackerman." The room was instantly full of shocked expressions except for Hange. "My mother handed me over to him when Titan broke into our home. I remember it had something to do with Titan wanting us. With what you just told us, Armin, I suspect they wanted to kill us rather than use our DNA for their experiments. They may have known that we could alter their plans. Maybe they have a prophet of their own. Anyway, it was my father that betrayed us. I guess he was working with Titan. He also worked for Harbinger." Levi proceeded to tell everyone what had happened to his friends and to his father and ended with his killing of Harbinger years later. Hange and Eren sat on either side of him rubbing his back soothingly the entire time.

"So that's why you wanted Harbinger to see your face when you killed him," Erwin said as he came into the room and sat down.

"So, you heard all that," Levi commented blandly.

"I did," Erwin confirmed. "Forgive me for not making my presence known sooner, but I didn't want to interrupt. I knew you'd had a past with him but didn't realize your father worked with him or that he'd killed your friends. You were once the Super hero called Blackwing." He placed the photo and the three black gems he'd recovered from Harbinger's body on the coffee table. Levi refused to look at them. "Can you tell us about these gems?"

"They're tears," Levi replied flatly.

"They're yours, aren't they?" Erwin pressed.

Levi let out an audible sigh and nodded. "Yeah. The color is dictated by emotion. Black is complete and utter despair. Blackwing died that day."

He was shocked when Mikasa got up from her seat on the other side of Eren and hugged him, tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Levi."

Levi hesitantly hugged her back. "Thank you," he said softly.

"No wonder you're such an asshole," Ymir jabbed as she tried to hide tears of her own.

He let out a huffed laugh. "That's closer to the truth than I'd care to admit." Levi took in a deep, cleansing breath as Mikasa returned to her seat. "Armin, tell Eyebrows what you just told all of us."

Erwin thought for a moment once Armin finished going over his theory in detail for the second time. "I think you may be on to something," Erwin agreed. "Brilliant reasoning, Armin."

The smaller blond sat blushing as he mumbled a soft, "Thanks."

"Tell me, have any of you read The Demon Chronicles?" Erwin asked. Everyone looked at him in confusion, but most shook their heads, having never heard of it. Only Levi, Hange and Armin nodded.

"I read them a few years ago. I think I was a senior in high school," Armin said. "But what do those books have to do with . . ." The blond trailed off as he looked over at Levi. "Wait! I get it!"

"Get what?" Levi asked in confusion.

Hange's eyes widened. "Oh! I see!"

"You see what?" Levi's patience was fast wearing thin. He'd been the center of attention and uncomfortable talking about himself for too long and was looking forward to the change in subject. His hopes were quickly dashed.

"When you spoke with the Fates, did they mention anything about the dark ages 500 years ago?" Erwin asked.

"Yeah. The evil that nearly destroyed the world . . ." Realization of what Erwin was getting at finally dawned on him. "You think The Demon Chronicles are real and that I was the demon who wrote them." Levi frowned as he thought about it for a moment. "I'll admit, the writer does sound a lot like me, and the original copies of those books are at least 500 years old or more. That would mean that Eren . . ." Levi chuckled. "I thought it was funny that you had the same name as the Arc in those books," he told Eren. "It makes sense now. Erwin is right. We fought the darkness back then. The Fates predicted that another evil would arise in 500 years and then again 2,000 years after that."

"That's right," Erwin agreed. "Not only that, but when the war ended, the chronicles state that the Arcs' world and human world merged. The chronicles don't mention any Super powers in humans prior to the war. It stands to reason that Arcs and human interbred, which would explain how Supers may have come about."

"But all of the Arcs lost their powers when the evil was destroyed. All they had left were their wings," Hange countered.

"True, the magic was lost, but while the chronicles state that the humans, Arcs and demons were of the same souls, they were still genetically different, and the Arc genes would have still been passed down. There's no way for anyone to have predicted how Arc DNA would affect the human genome," Erwin clarified. "It could explain why people have these powers. The Arc genes may affect something in the makeup of the brain that allows Super powers to manifest in some people."

Everything was silent in the room for several minutes while everyone mulled over the new theory.

"Ghallioht."

Everyone turned to look at Levi in confusion. "Pardon?" Erwin questioned.

Levi looked up from where he'd been staring at the floor, lost in thought. "Zeke Ghallioht; Marley's personal assistant. More like his right hand, but the man goes everywhere Marley goes and does everything for the him; organizes everything Marley does, every word he says, who he sees, what hand he wipes his ass with. Ghallioht is always just over Marely's right shoulder, but because he never interacts directly with anyone, he just seems to fade into the background and go unnoticed. What do we really know about him?"

Hange was already typing madly away on their laptop. "Hm. Let's see. Not much, apparently. No real background on the man. Nice looking fellow, though." They turned the laptop slowly around to show everyone in the room a picture. The man in question was standing just behind and to the right of Marley. He was tall, with dark blond hair, blue eyes behind a set of round wire-frame glasses and a neatly trimmed mustache and beard.

"Funny. I've seen him dozens of times on TV in the news and in newspapers, but I've never really noticed him before," Krista commented.

"I know, right," Jean agreed.

"He kinda reminds me of your father," Mikasa said to Eren.

Eren cocked his head to one side. "He kinda does, doesn't he? The eyes especially."

Hange froze in their typing. "Uh . . . looks like there's a good reason for that. Eren, did you know that Grisha was married and widowed before he met your mother?"

Eren and Mikasa both looked at them in shock. "What?!"

"It's true. Eleanor Ghallioht. She died shortly after giving birth and her parents claimed custody of the baby. Grisha started a huge legal battle, but when he thought it would hurt little Zeke, he gave up custody," Hange explained. "Based on what you told us about your father's letter, it would seem Grisha named the baby after his own brother he'd thought was dead."

Eren shook his head sadly. "Poor Dad. He went through so much shit. I'm kinda mad he never told me he had a prior marriage or that I had an older half-brother, but at the same time, I can't blame him. I can't say as I'd have done any differently. It's bad enough that his brother was or still is with Titan, but to have his son with Titan too . . . You don't suppose Eleanor's parents were with Titan, or that Uncle Zeke somehow got them to take my brother away from Dad?"

"It's possible," Levi said, his brow furrowed with concern. "But ultimately, that's not what's important. What's important right now is how you feel about going against your brother. Chances are very high that he'll have to die."

"Honestly," Eren replied. "I want to believe that you're mistaken and it's not my brother that's Titan's weakness, but at the same time, if he is, then I can't forgive him for all the pain and suffering he's caused and that which he wants to continue to cause, so if he really is Titan's linchpin, then I will kill him myself if necessary! I will kill all the Titans if I have to!" His words were spoken with furious vehemence and his eyes developed a wild, almost animalistic appearance.

Levi raised an eyebrow. "Not bad."

"This will require further investigation, of course, but we need to start making plans of how we are going to go about taking Titan down," Erwin stated.