Levi Has A Pet

Summary: Levi has a pet, an unusual one, but it's a pet and he likes it with all of his dark little heart. It's small, undemanding and, most of all, clean. But it's a blast from the past and when word gets out, everyone wants it. Levi has to make sure his unique pet remains his and free. Eren, already done with this BS 2000 years ago, gets dragged into it. He's not complaining, despite his complaining.

Levi didn't even pause in his maneuvers. He was off before Smith could recover from his shock of seeing Levi in his element again. He used his momentum to swing around one of the fake trees that made up the trial course for Hange's OMD and swung back out over the crowd even farther and lower than he ever had before, until he was right above Hange. The scientist didn't even need any instructions to reach her hands up when she saw Levi's intentions to retrieve her, she just trusted him to snatch her up and let her gear take them away just as Erwin started shouting orders at whatever men he'd taken to the convention. The faster gear easily took them out of range of the dart guns and whatever the fucking else the MI6 agents were shooting at them but the crowd screamed and chaos ensued.

As Levi easily flew over the edges of the trial course, he looked back just in time to see Eren and Moblit knock out an MI6 agent each before Armin pulled them out of the way of the stampede of panicking people who knocked over more of the agents than Levi could have ever hoped for. Levi managed to catch Eren's eyes and sent him one of the Scouts' signals for direction as to where they should regroup and Eren nodded just as Levi started falling behind the set. Hange whooped as they let gravity take them before Levi shot out an anchor towards a nearby pillar and then pulled them up to a safe height for further maneuvers. Down below, the security had gotten involved, tackling Erwin and his men to the best of their abilities, even tazing some of them or even using pepper spray to keep them down. Erwin hadn't taken a lot of men, which meant he hadn't expected to run into Levi here; MI6 had sent him here to scout bright minds and instead, he'd discovered Levi.

That moment when their eyes had met ... It reminded Levi an uncomfortable lot of the first time he'd seen Erwin Smith and the first time Erwin had seen him, Levi 'the invincible', the strongest thug in the Underground. Levi was aware that Erwin had agreed to chase the 'three little thugs' in the Underground for the Military Police only because he'd spotted Levi that day. Erwin didn't even need to tell him because Levi would never forget those glaciers that had appraised him that day, not even after years of trusting glances and long stares that communicated entire conversations at him as Erwin's unofficial right hand man.

Levi was almost surprised this wasn't the moment of their first meeting in this new life. It would have been poetic irony at its finest if it had been, but he guessed not even irony was fond of mocking bonds the likes of which Levi had created with his Survey Corps comrades.

Hange gave another exclamation of excitement as they soared higher and higher before Levi executed a few twirls, spins and turns, getting as out of sight from any and all military personnel as he possibly could. He glared down at his reincarnated best friend but she just laughed and threw her arms around his shoulders, rubbing their faces together as though they were cats. "Oh, how much I've missed you, my short friend!"

"Yeah, sure, not really the time right now, Hange," he replied, not denying having missed her, too, even if he also didn't admit it, either. Hange didn't need to hear the words to know, though. She just gave him this soft look behind her glasses before looking down at the chaos below.

"Geeze, you can't catch a break, can you?" She paused, squinting. "Is that Erwin down there?"

"He doesn't remember and he's with the MI6," Levi replied before she could ask him why they weren't having a big, happy reunion with their former Commander. "He's been chasing me for the past couple of months and if I am ever within five feet of him again, I'm definitely kicking his teeth in, so we're really running away for his sake." Levi wasn't even kidding. Especially not after the assassin incident.

"Hey, that car says you're my guest!" Hange exclaimed, catching sight of the visitor's pass hanging around Levi's neck, whipping around wildly as Levi moved. "But I sent them only to Eren! Hey, do you know I invited Eren? I hope he has at least some of the gang with him. Wasn't expecting to find him in Spain, though. Would have contacted him way sooner if I wasn't searching for him first in Germany and Austria. Hey, Levi, did you find anyone else-"

"Hange, now's really not the time!"

The brunette looked at the backpack he was wearing and frowned. "Levi," she said in a very serious voice Levi had rarely ever heard from the eccentric scientist. "Why are you risking your balance with this backpack? It looks huge, shit! I know you're the best of the best but this gear is the same as the one from our last life and you know we only carried anything on us that's not around our waist at all only in the case of most extreme emergencies-"

"Shit, Hange, I know, damn it! I know! But if you'd just pipe down long enough for us to get to safety and get the hell out of here, maybe we could discuss all of this in detail!"

The second to last Commander of the Survey Corps nodded her head, accepting that compromise - more like condition, really - before pointing towards a certain direction. "Moblit will take everyone there to meet up."

Levi looked at Hange with suspicion. "You had an exit plan set up in advance without knowing shit like this would happen? Why?"

Hange rolled her eyes. "Levi, I invited Eren Jaeger, without any idea whether he had any memories of our past life or not. What the hell was I supposed to do? Wait around and find out how he'd react to me? For all I knew, he could still be a Shifter! And I always have an escape plan in the wings these days. All sorts of military folk have expressed an interest in my inventions. ODM, Thunderspears, that shit we used on Annie and many more that aren't at all related to our past life. I needed a subtle way to bail if push comes to shove. You know I don't like push coming to shove situations, Levi."

Levi nodded his head, conceding the point in having an escape route, just in case. He would have done the same, really, if he were in her situation but he wasn't aware Hange had become this paranoid. Then again, this new world was a whole lot different from Paradis, Titans notwithstanding. You can never be sure what to expect in these modern times.

The path Hange instructed him to take had minimal security or civilians in it, which was precisely why Hange had chosen it as her escape route. It would probably be tricky for 80% of Paradis' old military, perhaps difficult for 65% of the Survey Corps, but for Levi it was a piece of cake, even when they got into a hallway with only walls to act as targets for the anchors. Hange did not cheer or whoop anymore, clearly sensing now that Levi was on edge in a way he had only ever been when he had to protect someone or when he was about to face the odds no other human being could survive. Finally, there was a light at the end of the tunnel - literally. Levi burst out of the hallway as if he was leading the Female Titan into Hange's trap again, easily correcting his momentum from the added weight of Hange. She did cheer that time, especially when Levi needed to rid them of added momentum by doing a flip, Hange still clinging to him. Had it been anyone else but the two of them, they would have been a splat on the wall. But Levi was the best user of the gear since it was invented and Hange was not only pretty great herself, but she also trusted Levi to keep her safe even in the midst of an uncontrollable situation like this.

Moblit, Armin and Eren had just gotten to a van that had the faces of Sawney and Bean printed all over it and Moblit gaped at the short man while Eren just grinned and Armin was staring in awe at the reconstructed 3DMG - or ODM now - strapped to Levi's hips.

"Well, there's no doubt she remembers now," Armin commented humorously as Hange waved at the two former Shifters excitedly. Eren seemed quite surprised when Hange tackled him with a hug. Levi knew it was because Eren had been half-expecting Hange to hate him for the things he'd done and for her death. But Hange was Hange and she had far more interesting things to do with her life than hold a grudge against someone, especially as there was the whole mystery of reincarnation and memories thing going on.

"I'm so glad to see you guys!" Hange was yelling into Eren's ear - probably her form of revenge, the safe kind; Hange was possibly the scariest person in the Scouts when she gets pissed, so petty revenge is safe revenge - before flinging herself onto Armin next, far more gently and quietly. Eren didn't seem perturbed. Then again, he was the only other person besides Levi and Moblit who'd gotten used to dealing with an excited Hange in the middle of a Titan-caused gleeful manic frenzy, often being the cause of such a state himself as the first known Titan Shifter. "How did you find the shorty over there? I was honestly expecting it to be you guys and Mikasa, considering how inseparable you used to be. Not that I'm complaining! I love Levi almost as much as I love my Moblit and I definitely love Moblit more than Titans!"

"Did you say Levi?" A familiar voice asked and suddenly, the van slammed open, out sprinting a blur of brunette hair that nearly tackled Levi to the grounds. What's with brunets and tackling, anyways!? "MISTER LEVI! Falco, come quick! It's Mister Levi!" Another familiar blur, blond this time, emerged from the van to look at Levi for barely a second before he helped the brunette to finally down Levi onto the cold, hard concrete, which he did not appreciate, thank you very much. But he recognized these blurs quite well. Gabi (nee Braun) and Falco Grice, his once charges who had accepted him into their lives and family and had held onto him with a vicious grip that spoke of fear of abandonment and losing one's loved ones to death or just to the ways of life in general.

Gabi was holding him now with a grip tight enough that it would probably leave bruises and Falco was crying into his shirt and Levi found he did not mind in the slightest, because these were also his brats and he had honestly grown quite concerned when Reiner had never mentioned them to him, despite knowing Levi had become their second father after they had lost their families in Marley. He had figured Reiner just hadn't found them, which turns out to be the exact case, as here they are now, holding onto him as though their lives depended on it. And they clearly remembered, which was one step closer to proving Levi's theory correct. Now they just needed to find Pieck and Floch-

"Did you say Levi?" Another, black haired head popped out of the driver's seat of the van and none other than Pieck Finger locked eyes with the Ackerman in their midst and waved with a small smile. "Hello, Levi-heichou. It's a pleasure to meet you again, in this slightly better life. I hope you've been doing well."

"Pieck!?" Armin exclaimed, surprised, delighted and a bit confused and she turned her head in the blond's direction, finding a slightly uneasy Eren beside him. "It's so great to see you again! Wow, I didn't think we'd discover so many of our friends in Japan! How lucky!"

The former Cart Titan just smiled and nodded. "I'm a transfer student here this year and ended up being project partners with Hange, so she dragged me along to the presentations as well. I was at the food court, getting us some snacks, when the alarms went off and Hange had already insisted that, at the first sign of danger, I need to grab the kiddos and get to the car, start it and be ready to take off at any second."

"We're not really kids anymore, Pieck-san," Falco complained halfheartedly as he and Gabi finally got off of Levi. And, really, they clearly weren't. Levi remembered them when they looked like this. Falco and Gabi were twenty years old, fuck. Levi was, once again, the shortest and youngest in the group. He scowled.

"You are to me," scoffed playfully the ravenette before nodding towards Eren. "Hello, Eren Jaeger. I hope we are not meeting like enemies again."

"Not this time and Eren is just fine," replied the brunet and that's when Falco and Gabi noticed him. Falco gave a small smile and waved half shyly, half awkwardly, while Gabi couldn't quite meet Eren's eyes when she greeted him with a wave of her own. "Have you guys met anyone else? Do they remember?"

"I thought this isn't the time to discuss this?" Hange half asked, half stated, arching an eyebrow at Levi, who gave her a deadpan look.

"It isn't. Get in the car before Erwin figures out where we disappeared off to."

"Erwin, as in Erwin Smith?" Pieck asked and Levi scowled at her. "Right, you're the Heichou. What you say goes."

For once, Levi didn't bother to correct someone, because getting out of here was more important than semantics. If he had to play his old role just so they can get going, so be it.

"Exactly right. Now get in the damn car. And seriously, Hange? Seriously!? Sawney and Bean? Don't even start, I don't want to hear it." Hange pouted as Levi led the way to get into the car, Gabi and Falco falling to flank him, which seemed to cause an irritated eye twitch for Eren and an indulgent smile from Armin, who was used to the little found family going around in such a fashion. Pieck actually grinned at them and moved to pat Levi on the back, probably to tease him about Eren - something people seemed to be implying in almost every interaction since he reunited with his wayward subordinate - but that, predictably, proved to be a mistake.

No sooner than her hand landed on Levi's shoulder, the Hallucigenia screeched at the Cart Titan Shifter's proximity and since they were in a garage of sorts, the sound echoed like in a fucking horror movie, causing even Armin, who was already used to this bullshit by now, to flinch. Levi and Eren were the only ones who hadn't and that's only because they had seen it coming before it could happen. And instead of settling down when everyone flinched away from Levi and the backpack he was carrying it in, it screeched again, probably to make up for the lost opportunity to burst someone's eardrums out when Falco had ambushed him. Levi could only guess that the sudden movement caused by the tumble had disoriented it enough to delay the immediate tantrum, but now it was determined to make up for it.

By now more than practiced in dealing with the annoyance, Levi shrugged off the backpack just as Eren reached out to take it and as soon as the bag was in Eren's possession, the Hallucigenia stopped screeching.

And Levi, while elated that the fucking noise had stopped, was still somewhat perturbed as to how he was supposed to feel about Eren apparently becoming the Hallucigenia's other pet-parent. Levi had thought it absurd when divorcing couples went to court just to settle who gets their pet dog afterwards, but now he's pretty sure he'd do it, too. Though he finds it a bit strange how he compared his and Eren's situation to a couple's, given neither he nor Eren had feelings for each other ... Right?

'Shit, if there was ever a time not to think about that, it was now.'

"What the hell was that!?" Demanded Gabi as she and Falco held each other protectively while never taking their eyes off of the bag Eren was now casually holding. The girl looked ready to grab a riffle and start fucking shooting. And, well, Levi was not letting her around Sasha or Eren with a gun.

"It's best if we get in the car and then we'll explain as we go," Armin said with a sigh. "It's a long and complicated story but it's not going to hurt us-"

"Most probably," Eren interjected like the shitty brat he is, causing Pieck and Moblit to even more dubiously stare at the bag. Levi and Armin glared at the former Attack Titan and he just shrugged, the piece of shit.

"-but it would be best if Eren sat next to Levi, lest it throw a temper tantrum again."

"... It?" Hange asked and Levi sighed.

"I'm not explaining anything until we're relatively safe. So get in the fucking car. I'm taking a window seat."

And so get in the car they did. The van was weird. It had a rather cramped back seat since most of the space was taken up for storage but Levi was thrilled to see the standard issue segmented swords from two thousand years ago, or rather their modern day copies, and there were several gas canisters at the ready. There was also a set of six Thunderspears but Levi sincerely hoped he would never have to use those things in this life or any other ever again. They made too much of a mess and weren't subtle at all, even if they have a lot of firepower in them. The seating arrangement wasn't really comfortable, either, as it was agreed upon that the former Shifters would sit up front, so Hange, Moblit and Gabi sat in the back with Levi and Eren, who had Levi's backpack between them to keep the Hallucigenia placated for the time being. Armin joined Pieck and Falco in the front just to lessen the sheer number of people in the back, preventing any unnecessary pushing and elbowing and the such. Gabi and Eren were already plastered against each other enough as it is.

As soon as Pieck pulled out of the garage and Hange told her to go to her house, the crazy scientist turned to Levi and Eren with a hard look. "Alright, spill."

"Where do we even start?" Eren said with a groan and Gabi snorted unattractively beside him.

"At the beginning, duh." Levi reached over and gave her a hard flick on the forehead. Eren preened. "Ow! Mister Levi, why did you do that!?"

"I thought I cleaned that big mouth of yours to perfection the last time around, brat."

Gabi flushed in embarrassment but growled at the cocky Eren, whom Levi also flicked on the forehead to keep his ego in check. Why he was even competing with Gabi in the first place, and over what, Levi didn't know but it was childish and distracting and he wanted none of it. The two had frankly scarily similar anger issues that he'd rather not watch collide, especially not in an enclosed moving space called a car. He had a life to live, thank you very much.

"As for where we should start, I guess it should be my family vacation twelve years ago." And so Levi repeated his life story for the nth time in just one month while the others listened carefully. There was only one minor incident that consisted of two parts, when Hange found out about the Hallucigenia and its sequel upon learning it was the source of all Titan powers four thousand years ago. Pieck very nearly swerved them off the road due to Hange's screeching and Levi couldn't help but wonder if Hange was perhaps the worst noise pollution between her and his Cambrian, unconventional, unorthodox, overpowered pet. After Hange calmed down enough for Levi to finish the story, now with Armin and Eren frequently pipping up with their own details, there was a long stretch of silence in which everyone digested the fact that Levi was still a teenager, still an Ackerman and still a badass all in one.

And that he was still dealing with Titan bullshit, just in another form they had never anticipated.

"Wait, let me just-" Moblit broke the silence first, which wasn't too unusual, if you know the guy. One can't survive working with Hange if one doesn't have the same drive to find answers that might require extreme methods to get. "Didn't you guys say this whole 'Battle of Heaven and Earth' or whatever ended over Marley? Deep inland? And that Eren's head was buried in Shiganshina?"

"Well, yeah. Uhm, Mikasa took it back to Paradis and I, uhm, took the, uhm, credit for killing Eren in the eyes of the world so Mikasa would have free access back to Paradis, but the head was definitely buried in Shiganshina and we never really found the rest of the body," Armin stammered through the explanation, still a bit uneasy to talk about Eren's death, as he could sometimes get even when Eren was absolutely zen about it.

"Then how did the Hallucigenia get back into the sea, is what he's trying to get at," Hange supplied, fixing her glasses. "I may have an answer to that, though this is just a theory I've been secretly trying to prove under a different thesis for one of my degrees so I have access to resources, information and funding. You guys know what Pangaea is, right?"

"Of course," Eren replied.

"The supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, which started breaking apart at the end of the Triassic and the beginning of the Jurassic, about 200 million years ago-"

"That's the one," Levi cut in before Armin could nerd out anymore. The blond in question blushed a little in embarrassment and kept quiet. "What about it?"

"Ever wonder about the balance of the planet with one gigantic continent existing practically all by itself on only one half of the planet while the other side is just the ocean?" Hange asked and Levi arched an eyebrow at her. "I mean, it was all one huge piece of land with maybe smaller islands around it, but it was just one land. The surface it took up would fit on one half of the globe, which meant the other one was supposedly empty!"

Armin blinked, looking a bit stunned. "That ... That never occurred to me before. I just took the Pangaea theory for granted and went with it. I mean, there's a lot of evidence to suggest it as the most likely theory to explain the similarity between certain ancient species-"

"What does this have to do with us?" Levi cut in again, not willing to listen to a nerd contest when he hadn't even had the chance to graduate from high school. Not that he'd been a bad student or anything, but he wasn't ready to get dragged into a conversation that will mostly make no sense to him, especially not when they have more important matters to deal with. "With the Hallucigenia, Paradis, Titans, Eldians, anything, really."

"Well, my theory is that Paradis and the continent it was closest to originate from a land that had once existed on the other side of the ancient globe and when the other continents were formed, it was like an eight continent. Probably about the size of Australia and it existed somewhere in the Pacific ocean. And it probably sank sometime in the past two thousand years."

"Like Atlantis?" Eren asked and Hange nodded.

"Yup, only, like, a whole ass continent. Plenty of islands, cities and forests and the such got flooded and lost under the sea at some point in the past in Asia and the Americas, the sea level having exponentially risen for no apparent reason. And being so isolated before cross-ocean voyages started, it would explain why Marley and Paradis and other such nations like Hizuru and the others were only myths everywhere else. It would also partially explain why there are literally minimal indications of the Rumbling anywhere else in the world."

"So Paradis and its neighbors are the real Atlantis, is that what you're saying?" Levi asked and Hange made a so-so motion with her hand.

"Sort of. I mean, obviously not in a literal sense, but the concept would apply all the same. There are plenty of sunken cities all around the world, legendary for their riches, ores and technology. Tell me Paradis and Marley wouldn't fit right in in such tales?" No one could deny it. "And it sinking would explain why the world had to rediscover all the shit Eldians and others used to have on their own instead of just learning from us? Our ancestors? I'm not sure how to address the Eldians who have lived after me in the past two thousand years but that doesn't matter. Point is, Paradis exists somewhere under the sea and that's how the Hallucigenia got back into it."

"But didn't it die with Eren?" Falco asked from the front seat, turning around to stare at the ancient, shining creature contently floating in its container between Eren and Levi.

"It could be that it functions like some other sea creatures, like starfish or sponges, where they get all but revived when you put them back into the water even if they dry up and look dead," Armin suggested. "It certainly gave Titans healing abilities of such a caliber, anyway."

"And it's like a thousand times smarter than we give it credit for," Eren supplied. "It survived in secret for so long; clearly it knew a trick or two other species didn't."

"Or that one has some sort of mutation that others didn't!" Hange explained as she rummaged through her bag before pulling out the most disturbing fossil Levi will ever see: a Hallucigenia. "See? Others of its kind have been found in Canada and China-"

"Hange, put that away before you get it upset!" Eren all but ordered, batting the woman's hands away from his face, clearly also not wanting the fossilized remains of the Hallucigenia being waved around in his face.

"And why the fuck do you even have a specimen on you in the first place?" Levi asked, intrigued despite himself.

"Oh! My second thesis is about the Hallucigenia, since the first time I saw a digital reconstruction about the Hallucigenia and how it moved, it reminded me of Eren's Founding Titan form, so I got curious and maybe a bit nostalgic."

Eren and Levi simultaneously looked down at the container containing an 'innocent' endangered animal and both reached for the container and window respectively, ready to throw the thing under a literal buss for fucking with their lives in such a way but Armin lunged over Pieck, nearly causing her to lose control of the vehicle once again, to activate the child locks before whirling around and snatching the fossil up out of Hange's hands so he can gawk at it from up close, as though he hasn't been helping take care of a living Hallucigenia for the past month or so.

"So Paradis sunk, the Hallucigenia migrated to fucking Florida where Mister Levi found it and ... How does that, exactly, explain the whole reincarnation and memories shtick?" Gabi asked, trying to follow the conversation. "I mean, Porco doesn't remember, so it can't be a Shifter thing, because unlike him, I do."

As it turns out, according to a summary of everyone's lives, Hange and Gabi are cousins twice removed but always got along the best out of all their other family members because of their shared memories, so eventually they decided to live together to lessen their rent expenses. Hange pays for most of the things, despite being younger by a year - Levi's age - because of her many scholarships - she was truly a genius with an IQ over 220, she skipped half of middle school and attended only one year of high school before she was shipped off to college at 16, where she continued her streak of making the regular schooling system redundant by completing all of her courses in two years and then throwing out thesis after thesis - while Gabi works in a nice cafe, where she actually met Falco this year. Falco was in Tokyo for an internship and so he stayed with the cousins as a guest so he doesn't have to rent an apartment for no reason, as Hange and Gabi had plenty of space. Falco now only went back home - France - to visit his family for the holidays. Colt, his older brother, doesn't remember, and neither do any of his other friends back from Marley. Pieck, on the other hand, is engaged with Porco Galliard, despite him having no memories. Porco's family own a construction firm in Austria but have decided, like the Kirstein & Bott, to expand and have chosen Japan with Porco as the new CEO of the eastern branch since his girlfriend of six years was dead set on staying in Japan after she found Hange at the beginning of the year. Porco was already too busy with overseeing the construction of their office building so he couldn't come with her to the fair. And Moblit, well, he and Hange actually met only a couple of weeks ago, as he was a volunteer for the fair to help set things up and he was assigned to Hange and the rest was history. He was currently the oldest one present at 27 years old.

"Levi came up with the theory that those who participated in the Battle of Heaven and Earth are the only ones who remember," Armin replied and Hange nodded.

"A pretty sound theory; well done, short stack! You did learn a thing or two from me over all those years!" She said with a grin, making Levi roll his eyes.

"But that doesn't explain how Zeke doesn't remember," reminded Pieck, listening carefully despite focusing on the road. "He was there, too. And the Coordinate is timeless, right? Shouldn't former Founding Titan bearers also have been, technically, present for the Rumbling? And thus remember? Yet Uri, that Frieda girl and Grisha Jaeger don't remember anything."

"I've never thought about it from that angle," mused Eren. "And, honestly, I'm not one hundred percent sure about my father's memories. I mean, my mom thought she recognized Levi from somewhere but didn't know from where. And my father seemed to have actually been looking for my mom, though I still surprised him."

"And I have to say I'm also not entirely sure about the state of my family's memories," Levi had to admit, making everyone turn to look at him a bit strangely. "There were moments when I was sure uncle Uri remembered. When I think back on it, there were these times when he'd get an awfully melancholic and guilty look on his face when he'd watch my mom and me gang up on Kenny in silly games. And there were times when Frieda gave me these searching looks I couldn't quite place."

"My parents are awfully obsessed with air balloons," Armin mused.

"And Colt gave me oddly specific orders to never join the army or drink wine ever again," the youngest of the blonds commented.

"Moblit detastes the idea of Big Foot," Hange said, much to said man's sputtering protests. "He hates seeing those big supposed footprints."

"Okay, so, everyone seems to have a shadow of their past life memories? Is that the conclusion we're getting at?" Moblit asked, sounding exasperated. "Because, based on the things Hange-san told me, I'd honestly rather not remember."

"Yeah," Eren said almost sympathetically. "Waking up one day as a seven year old who remembers nineteen years of life the likes of mine wasn't a good afternoon nap."

"I'm lucky I remembered at ten," Armin commented and Levi stared at them a bit incredulously.

"I remembered at ten, too!" Exclaimed Hange, grinning at the former Colossal Titan."

"I remembered at thirteen," said Pieck and the other two Marley-raised (former?) Eldians agreed.

"Annie and Mikasa said they remembered at twelve and Reiner said he remembered when he was fifteen. Jean remembered since he was nine and Connie also remembered since he was ten," Armin supplied and Levi wondered when the hell his brats had gotten the chance to talk about this shit.

"When did you remember, Heichou?" Eren asked, turning to face Levi. "You must have been really young to recognize the Hallucigenia at seven."

"I always remembered," Levi said after a moment of confused hesitation. "Ever since I could talk and think, I believe. The first time I consciously remembered something ... I think my mom has it somewhere on tape or something. We were in the zoo and I saw a monkey and said he reminded me of a more handsome version of Zeke." No one could quite keep a straight face at that. They even gaffed. "When my mom asked me who Zeke was, I realized I remembered a whole other life. I was fucking three."

All amusement evaporated out of the car faster than spilled Titan blood. "Heichou," Eren croaked out, sounding near brokenhearted at how young Levi had been when he'd remembered the horrors of their life two thousand years ago.

Levi, though, waved him off. "I'm not traumatized or anything. I still slept and ate as I always have before. Life was as good as can be. Made me appreciate my family all the more. Kenny often teased me that I was a mama's boy but he definitely loved when I'd let him cuddle me, too."

"I demand baby pictures!" Yelled Hange, probably in an effort to dispel the somber mood.

Levi snorted. "You'd have to ask my mom for them. They are her precious treasure." His own mood instantly darkened as he was reminded of one of his main worries since leaving home. "If I even still have a mom."

"I can hack into the government's health system and check, if you want," offered his best friend and Levi smiled at her, not even questioning the hacking thing. It's Hange; he expects everything and anything from her.

Then he looked outside, saw the name of the street they were driving on, and something clicked. He stayed silent until the van pulled to a stop in front of a nice two story house and Levi saw the address. He turned incredulous, disbelieving eyes at Hange, who was trying to poke at the Hallucigenia's container despite Eren batting her hands away. "ZoeH?"

Eren and Armin snapped their heads in his direction immediately before turning their eyes to Hange when she gasped.

"LEE!"