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.
After the near disaster that was breakfast, they all set aside any silliness and humor and instead brought out the seriousness and real discussions and theories about their current predicament. Hange, was, of course, the best prepared and equipped for a discussion like this, even having an actual PowerPoint presentation ready and quite a few things that surprised her three newest house guests, like ancient books and maps that 'no one' can read because it's in some 'unknown dead ancient language', which turned out to be Eldian and ancient Eldian.
"How did you even get these things?" Eren was the first to ask, Armin's nose already buried into one of the books about the myths and legends about their home, that little island that was no more.
Hange grimaced. "It wasn't easy, mind you. Various cultures from around the world had some story about Eldia and Paradis so travelers tended to record them since, well, which culture in Europe or the like had stories about naked man-eating giants, fifty meter walls and humans with special powers on top of a two thousand year conflict and a practically magical soul connection that spreads over an entire people? It was fascinating, it was unique and so people who had the ability tended to record it. As for the original books and maps, well ... " She shrugged. "They were books in private collections. I found them online and bought them. I'm honestly disappointed by how low their prices were. You'd think such rare texts in an untranslatable language would have museums and linguistic experts bidding in the hundreds of thousands for them, especially the maps that showed an entire new continent that the world has never known about before, but nope! I bought all of this," she said with a gesture at her hoard of knowledge. "For one thousand dollars. There's fifteen items here, Eren. Fifteen! The idiot selling them was literally just charging for the ancient materials they were written on, not the worth of the books and maps themselves!"
"This is a written real-time chronicle of the fall of Paradis," Armin said as he switched books, reading over the last few pages with a deathly pale expression. "They bombed us ... They destroyed Mitras, razed Shiganshina to the ground, decimated Trost. People were already abandoning Paradis to escape a raging war when the island started sinking."
Levi was surprised when Eren suddenly gripped his hand under the table, away from prying eyes. When he turned a questioning glance at the brunet, he wasn't all that surprised to see the expression on his face, one of rage and despair and even defeat as he realized his efforts were, ultimately, useless. Eldians had still died to war and Paradis had still been destroyed. It seems to have been at least a hundred years after the death of Eren's friends, but it had happened to their children and grandchildren, regardless.
"Paradis seems to have fallen due to a series of intense earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on the ocean floor around the island," Hange said somberly, putting up a slide on her presentation that showed her theory of what might have happened to Paradis and its adjoining continent. "Tectonic movements seem to have destabilized the continent Marley was on. In fact, if my calculations are right, and they usually are, it seems that our continent had been formed right overhead overlapping tectonic plates, particularly the Philippine Sea Plate and the Pacific Plate. This area is known even today for its dynamic movements and the earthquakes, eruptions and tsunamis that it can cause. And Paradis and this eighth continent were right on top of it. With the intensity of the movements and its consequences, the eighth continent seems to have split and most of its parts sank to the sea, since all the islands even near this part of the ocean have ancient societies that have no resemblance to anything we saw or have never been inhabited by humans. Paradis had sunk like this, too. My guess is that the Rumbling had already weakened the sedimentary bonds so the continuous earthquakes just finished the job and that's not even mentioning that Paradis itself is a volcanic island and that most of the underground of the island was filled up with iceburst stone crystal-covered caverns; we all know how explosive iceburst stone can be if not handled correctly when exposed to heat or too dynamic movements. The reason we have any surviving literature of that time - which is a miracle at all - is because people have started running away from the war Armin mentioned, therefore they survived the natural disasters which could have wiped out Eldians out of existence."
"I have one question, though," Levi interrupted before they could get into any more science and geography. He ignored how his hand was being squeezed to death as Eren clearly started to blame himself for how the Rumbling might have helped lead to the destruction of Paradis. "You said some of our people managed to escape, considering you've found books and maps in our language. But Eldians and Marleyians and whatever other people lived on this eighth continent with us, we were all considerably more technologically advanced than other nations and peoples two thousand years ago, Hange. Why and how the hell did our knowledge and technology not get spread around? I imagine offering your new benefactors and rulers such knowledge would only ensure luxuries and a good living in the new world you find yourself in. And who even started the war that had people leaving Paradis?"
"To answer your first question, there are a few references to 'people from the sea coming with great and dangerous magic' and, well, you know how 'witches' were mostly treated," Hange replied with a gross grimace. "I presume that the Eldians who escaped to other continents simply stopped trying to share their knowledge to keep their lives. Or, in the cases where new technologies were a bit better accepted, they might be what some pseudo-scientists consider 'ancient aliens', since they brought with them the kind of knowledge and science some ancient peoples simply did not have before they suddenly appeared. I might be wrong, but it's a possibility. As for who had started the war, it seems to be someone from the other side of the continent."
"There were, apparently, spies in Marley who stole our plans and schematics for our weapons meant to fight against Titans," Pieck said, looking grim. "They built them and then used them on humans. As you can guess, considering our technology had been on almost the same level as WW1 and 2 weaponry, it was rather devastating. No wonder people started running away. And as sick as it may be, I'm almost glad that war happened. Otherwise, the entirety of the Eldian race and all the other people who had lived with them at that time might have been wiped out when the natural disasters hit."
"So these maps show where this eighth continent might be?" Armin asked, pointing to one of the ancient maps on Hange's tea room table where they were all gathered. The map itself was clearly made in ancient China or some such country, with flowing, complicated characters written in beautiful calligraphy and plenty of dragons and other such mythical beings drawn at certain parts of the map to signalize danger or something. Levi had never taken an interest in why some maps got so fancy when, really, all you need from a map is directions and names of places, not mythical creatures that didn't exist.
Then again, when Levi looked at the representations of Paradis and the continent where the ancient Eldian Empire had existed on and saw naked giants with only few sparse cloths shielding their genital area, he guessed he shouldn't judge ancient maps so quickly. After all, if Titans existed and the Hallucigenia can wreak all sorts of havoc if it has a suitable host, then who knows how many of the mythological beings were actually real? Levi just hopes that the number of live specimens in this day and age is zero.
One hostless Hallucigenia was trouble enough.
"Well, might have been," Hange corrected. "But yeah, that's about it. X points the spot and all. Of course, I did comparative research on the ocean floor and read through any and all material I could get my hands on about seismic activity in that area over the centuries-"
"Hange, Armin, you can geek out some other time. Can we get to the point?" Levi interrupted again, not really wanting to listen to all of this when it had very little to do with their current topic of discussion: their reincarnated selves and their memories. "So the Hallucigenia returned to the sea when Paradis and this continent sank and possibly revived itself like a sponge or starfish might. It traveled because why not, I found it, end of story on that front. I want to know about us. You said you might have something to show us on that topic, too."
"Right!" Hange exclaimed enthusiastically and changed the slides on her presentation until she showed them all some ancient text. "This is ancient Eldian. Like way ancient, ancient Eldian," the scientist said as she pointed to the written text on the picture of an old scroll or something. "Supposedly from the time of Ymir the Founder herself and supposedly written - or dictated by - Princess Rose Fritz, who was, as it seems, the first holder of what later became the Attack Titan. Now, Gabi, Falco and Pieck told me the best they could about how the Attack Titan's powers work, apparently. You know, the whole practically being able to predict the future thing? Yeah, that. Well, it seems that Princess Rose Fritz was the first person to have this ability, which makes sense since the Coordinate and the Paths only came into being with Ymir's death. And it seems she, possibly, had that ability in its strongest, most accurate, most powerful form, because she predicted Eldia's future to a T, four thousand years ago."
"How come you've never told me about this?" Pieck asked and Gabi also looked offended that her - this-life - cousin was keeping her in the dark.
Hange met Pieck's eyes with a frighteningly serious expression. "Because I wasn't able to translate anything until I accidentally found Eren and contacted him. I still can't translate much; ancient Eldian seems to have completely different syntaxes compared to the language we all spoke two thousand years ago and the writing system, as you can see, is more unnecessarily complicated than you'd ever think a language should ever be."
"But if you couldn't translate anything before," Moblit started cautiously, clearly getting a bit overwhelmed with everything that was being dumped on him at this moment. "How did you translate these phrases?"
The phrases in question were from seemingly random points of the scroll, the first being And so the Eldian Empire rose to greatness unlike any the world has seen before with the help of the lauded she-devil, one of the phrases in the middle said The Titan roared like a manifestation of humanity's rage at the humiliation and helplessness at being trapped like cattle and one of the phrases near the end is what actually had Levi staring at the picture and the translation Hange had provided with tense shoulders and disbelieving eyes.
"When all is lost, all will be found in the Coordinate when the source of all living matter finds its host and its protector once again, when all things Eldian are but stories and myths and when the world forgets," Hange translated out loud, staring at Eren and Levi. "Only then and only then, will the source of all living matter find peace and only then will it sink to the depths to leave humanity its peace."
"Eren is obviously the host," Falco said after a very long bout of silence.
"And Levi is the protector," Armin muses. "And not only because he'd been put in charge of Eren as Humanity's Strongest Soldier, the only one likely enough to have killed Eren should he have ever lost control back in the beginning when people still didn't trust him."
Hange nodded, pointing to another translated word in the text. "It's also because he's an Ackerman. We have no idea when, exactly, the Royal Family decided to create the Ackermans, but they have their own Path and were tasked with being Eldia's sword and shield. In all actuality, I don't think Ackermans were created just to protect the Kings and Queens of the Fritz from the world, but also the world from them. I mean, think about it."
"Only Mikasa and Levi could have stopped Eren when he activated the full powers of the Founding Titan," somberly stated the former Cart Titan. "The rest of us were literally just clearing the way for them."
"Protector and executioner," Levi mused a bit bitterly, remembering his first month with Eren on his squad and how uncertain everything was. Not that it ever became certain, or easy or less complicated; in fact, it only got worse from then on, but that was the starting point. The time they were at their most clueless. The time where everyone was ready to hate or kill Eren, but Levi who protected him against his own squad, whom he'd handpicked and had learned to trust and rely on almost as much as he did Hange, Erwin, Mike and Nanaba. Oh, how the roles reversed five years later. "Shield and sword. Sounds about right. But by that logic, shouldn't Mikasa be this 'protector'? She's the one who's been protecting Eren since they were even more bratty and troublesome than when we met and she's the one who dealt the final blow. I just blew out Eren's teeth. Which also seems to be a theme, for us."
Eren snorted at that, clearly getting what Levi was talking about. It was a memorable Survey Corps initiation, alright.
Then again, Levi's had been just as disgusting. He swears he can still taste the sewer water and he vows that if he meets Mike in this life, he'll return the favor in as harmless a manner as he can manage.
"Yeah, but that's exactly why it can't be Mikasa," said Hange with a wicked gleam in her eyes. "Sure, Mikasa at first protected Eren even after all the unforgivable atrocities he'd done and sure, it was Levi who made the final decision that there's no way to stop Eren and keep him alive, but it was still Mikasa who killed him, which is precisely when she distinctly became the sword and Levi remained the shield." She sighed and ran a hand through her wild hair. "Of course, all of this is just speculation. We have no means to prove any of it, or at least not in a safe and sane manner, or any manner at all, I should think. But that's not even the important bit," she said as she pointed at that particular troublesome sentence. "This is. Sink to the depths. It's a rough translation, of course, but given some of the things you guys said about how to deal with the Hallucigenia, I think this all but gives us the Go ahead! to indeed just throw the thing into the Mariana Trench. Of course, after I found out Levi was bitten by the Hallucigenia and regained his Ackerman abilities - which, by the way, sounds an awful lot like Spiderman's origin story-"
"That's not my fault, Shitty Glasses."
"Anyways! As I was saying, after I found that out, I was hoping you'd be able to translate the rest of this," the scientist finished with a flourish, making exaggerated jazz hands at the picture of the text and grinning hopefully at Levi.
Who gave her a deadpan stare for her efforts. "Ackerman abilities include combat and survival skills, not the knowledge and ability to speak and read a long dead language."
Hange visibly deflated at that and Levi made no effort to comfort her, having seen her like this countless of times after she hit a dead-end in some research or was denied something by Erwin or the other higher ups. It had taken her years to convince the other military commanders to let her capture Titans to do experiments on them and she ultimately owed it to Levi for getting such crazy ideas approved since people got a bit more comfortable with the idea of dealing with Titans in any manner as long as they had Humanity's Strongest Soldier on hand to kill it should they lose control of it. "Damn, and I really got my hopes up!"
Eren cleared his throat, finally deciding to join in on the discussion since the moment they all realized the Rumbling might have helped in destabilizing Paradis and its continent. He arched an eyebrow at them all. "I can read and understand it."
"Wait, seriously!?" Gabi exclaimed at the same time Hange did, only the older of the cousins got right up into Eren's face, which surprised no one from Paradis but was definitely still a bit weird to the guys from Marley despite having known Hange for quite some time by now. "You understand that gibberish?"
"It's not gibberish, it's ancient Eldian, and yes, I can understand it. After all, the Attack Titan functions that way, passing along all memories and experiences from one Shifter to another," Eren replied, delicately shoving Hange's face away from his own. "And since Ymir was the first Titan ever and all Titan powers come from her, so to say," he said with a nod towards the Hallucigenia. "She technically fits under that same category of accessible memories. In fact, when I'd touched her in the Coordinate, I could see her memories as clear as day. I'm guessing that's when I gained the knowledge of ancient Eldian."
"So, what does it say?" Levi asked, nodding towards the text.
"Well, Hange wasn't wrong that it's the history of the Eldians and it does, indeed, predict everything that has happened to us and that, apparently, will happen to us. It uses a lot of metaphors and strange phrases to address technology and science that someone from four thousand years ago couldn't possibly understand without an actual scientist being part of the Attack Titan's Path, which is a stretch after the Great Titan War. My father was the closest to it that we ever got, I guess, and he had very little knowledge or interest in technology so there's weird phrases like horseless chariots of ores and oils for, you know, cars and such or giant armored birds that don't flap their wings, which would be planes. It's heavy on epithets and symbolism, as well, but it sufficiently summarizes the history of Eldians from the time of Ymir Fritz to, what I'm guessing, is the modern day world. It mentions a sinking land and drowning trees, so I guess that confirms Hange's theory about Paradis-"
"Yes!" Hiss-yelled Hange in victory.
"And it talks about the wars preceding that. It also speaks of unrest in the plane of the meeting of souls, which I am guessing is the Coordinate. I don't quite get it, but it seems that Ymir, by accepting death, disturbed the balance or something of the afterlife that was created in the Paths for Eldians."
"This unrest might have resulted in souls leaking out of the afterlife, which led to reincarnation," Armin mused, rubbing a hand over his chin in thought. "And, ultimately, all Titan powers come from the Hallucigenia, right?" Eren nodded. "So it not having a host for the first time in two thousand years might have caused this?" He guessed, to which Eren shook his head.
"There's a reason why they called the Hallucigenia the source of all living matter," began the last Founding Titan. "And it's because, ultimately, it gave or preserved life, in its own ways. I mean, you guys probably don't know this, but Ymir the Founder was practically on death's door when the Hallucigenia merged with her spine. Whether it saved her because it genuinely wanted to, pitied her or it just wanted a vessel so it can survive itself, it still saved her. The powers were just a side-effect. Ultimately, the Hallucigenia always worked to preserve life. Titans had healing powers and only one weak spot. An Eldian's life doesn't really end when their physical body dies, because the soul or mind or whatever lives on in the Paths. The Hallucigenia seems to have been trying to preserve life since the moment it was given the chance and power to do so. It's humans who used it as a weapon through its hosts."
"So you're saying that when Ymir Fritz let the Hallucigenia die with you," Pieck started, hesitantly, uncertainly. "That disturbed the realm of the Paths, where all Eldian souls exist all at once in a timeless space meant only for us, the realm that was ultimately the Hallucigenia's domain. If Ymir hadn't given up, this whole reincarnation thing might not have even happened."
Eren nodded his head. "That seems to be pretty much it. I mean, I can't really say. Like with Hange's theories, we can't prove anything."
"Why are we so certain that this Ymir was the one who gave up and let the Hallucigenia die?" Moblit asked, not nearly as caught up on all of this as the rest of them were because he had never had to deal with this bullshit in either life. Levi sometimes wondered if those who had died in Shiganshina had been mercifully spared the shitshow that followed. Because there were days when it sure seemed like it! The fallen Scouts in Shiganshina had died fighting Titans, believing in humanity and having hope for a better world that their sacrifices were worth for. Two thousand years later, humanity was still shit, the world was shit and their sacrifices seem to have been for nothing, because not only was Paradis lost under the waves, but here they were again, dealing with the very source of Titans and the risk of another Titan age if humans got their grubby, greedy hands on it. "I mean, going on what you guys have said so far, this thing is the alpha and omega of all things Eldian, all the powers and the potential an entire race had. Even if it decided to give some slave girl powers, wouldn't it still be in charge? Wouldn't it want to stay alive if its aspect or element truly is life and survival?"
"The 'shining centipede', as we called it back then, during the Battle of Heaven and Earth, did try to fight us," Pieck answered. "It, in fact, saved and prolonged Eren's life on at least three completely different occasions. When Gabi shot his head off and when Jean and I blew it off, for example. It fought to keep him alive."
"If you lose, you die. If you win, you live. If you don't fight, you can't win," Eren said with a faraway look in his eyes, his hand squeezing Levi's again in an almost bruising grip under the table, out of everyone else's sight. "It fought because it wanted to live."
"If the Hallucigenia is the source of all Titan powers," Falco said, looking questioningly at Eren. "And the Attack Titan gives the Shifter memories of all previous Shifters, including Ymir the Founder as the origin of the Attack Titan, does that mean you've had access to the memories of the Hallucigenia, too?"
Jager nodded, though he made a sour face. "I wouldn't exactly call it memories. The Hallucigenia seems to be experiencing and perceiving the world in a completely different manner to humans and my brain couldn't comprehend the things my powers showed me. If I had to compare it to anything, I would say it's like trying to stuff the whole of the internet onto one of those first computers that basically had only a handful of commands and functions. Those things wouldn't even be able to use the internet or their processors might just explode from the overload. That's how it felt to my mind when I accidentally caught even glimpses of what might have been the Hallucigenia's experiences. It's ... more sensation than anything. I can't explain it."
"But the bottom line," Armin mused. "Is that the Hallucigenia did not like the fact that Ymir wanted out of the, uh, deal they had through death and even a temporary death of the Hallucigenia damaged the Paths, the Coordinate. So reincarnation, for Eldians at least. But is there really a method to this madness or is it actually random?"
"We'd still need to find Floch and interrogate Zeke to confirm Heichou's theory about how those with memories are 'picked'," Eren murmured and Levi twisted his hand around to pinch the skin between Eren's fingers in reprimand for the rank he was having such a hard time dropping. Everyone else had moved on from it, but not Eren, the little shit.
"But why just us?" Gabi asked. "Why no one else? There were plenty of other Eldians at the port on Paradis when we started chasing after Jaeger. Why not them, too, if Floch and Hange remember?"
"Well, Floch practically almost got on the plane with us and was killed by Mikasa mere moments before the Battle of Heaven and Earth started and Hange died only some moments before that, trying to buy us time for the plane to take off before the Colossal Titans stomped on it," Pieck pointed out.
"Maybe Shadis remembers," Levi suggested with a shrug. He noted that Hange, for a moment, looked both flustered and angry. Ah, old crushes die hard, especially first crushes. First love, in this case, too. Those were the most stubborn and almost impossible to get rid of. "But, then again, he died even before Floch and Hange, so maybe not."
"Well, if this isn't a depressing topic," Moblit said with a sigh and no one with memories could possibly blame him for being so bummed out and a bit disturbed by just how easily they discussed so much death with barely any reaction. They were lucky he hadn't run off screaming after learning about the Rumbling. "Maybe we should take a break for lunch and continue afterwards?"
They all blinked and looked around to the clock on the wall, seeing it was already way past noon and none of them had noticed before that very moment. Well, damn. Then again, it's understandable. This was heavy, difficult stuff they were discussing.
"I'll order us a pizza," Hange said with a sigh, jumping to her feet and running towards the kitchen to find her list of takeout places that she likes. "Hope none of you like pineapple on yours because that monstrosity is not coming into my house!"
"Here, here!" Levi cheered, never having understood how someone could possibly combine the salty, potentially spicy taste of pizza with the taste of the sweet tropical fruit. They soon all broke up into groups or wandered off on their own, heads full of all the revelations and information they've been discussing, practically leaving Levi and Eren with the Hallucigenia in the living room on the first floor, sharing a couch and each deep in thought. They had finally let go of their hands but they were sitting practically glued to each other's side while they waited for Armin to update Annie and the others about their well-being and location, as well as the comrades they'd found. The heavy discussions about Hange's and Eren's theories would have to wait until they all meet up in person. You can never be too careful with who might be listening in on your calls.
Levi wasn't sure how long they sat like that in silence, but he snapped out of his own thoughts when he heard the doorbell ring. Eren didn't seem to be motivated to move so Levi got up when he realized Hange wasn't going to answer the door anytime soon. It was probably just the pizza guy. "I'll get it!" He called out to the house at large as he went to the door. Hange, damn her carelessness, didn't have a peep hole, so Levi had no choice but to open the door and face whatever was on the other side with no prior preparation. But it's not like he can't handle whoever and whatever might be on the other side of the slab of wood. Levi always had a knife on him, an old habit from his time in the Underground, and he trusted his Ackerman abilities to save him from any unpleasant surprises should something catch him off guard.
So he didn't think much about opening the door until he saw something that had him freezing for all of three seconds.
It wasn't even the vaguely recognizable police uniforms that got a reaction out of Levi.
Nope, it was red hair in a weird style and amber eyes that widened the second they landed on Levi that had him throwing a punch before he could even register that it was FLoch Forster before him and that he clearly remembered.
Well, there goes another plus for Levi's theory.
