"No…" Eren said. Levi took off his mask and held it between two fingers; his confusion was clear on his face as he frowned.
"No?" Thoughts flitted in and out of Levi's head but he disregarded them all since the kid in question was available for questioning. He was no Farlan.
"No." the brunette verified. "When I asked you to help me, I didn't mean to get out of here."
"Captain, some of them's already waking up. The ones we knocked out." Eld reported, "Also, I think it's about time we finish. I could hear police sirens just from the distance; we did let those servants go just like that. They could have reported us."
Levi muttered colorful words under his breath. "You heard Eld. Go get your asses back to the car."
"Alright." With the last of his team gone, Levi turned to the complex brunette seating on the ground and sighed.
"Our conversation's not over. Can you walk?" Levi watched him as he struggled to get up. Eren's limbs were still shaking and he would have managed to, but Levi had already reached the end of his stick so he hauled up the brunette to his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, earning an indignant shout from him. Levi didn't even let Erenstruggle as he gripped the brunette's injured ankles in warning, effectively making him go limp.
"Hold this." Levi ordered, handing the brunette his mask. He shifted, trying to gauge how hard it would be to make his jump with a tall brunette on his shoulder. It didn't seem like much of a challenge.
"Do you even eat?" Levi muttered to himself. He gripped both of the other's thighs with one arm before giving out his warning, "Hold on, we're jumping over the wall."
"Su—wait, what?!" Eren exclaimed as his free hand fisted along the back of the raven's dark coat. "But you're still carrying me how could you—oh shit!"
The raven ignored him as he jump over a sturdy looking branch before swinging himself higher and higher as he finally reached the top of a wall, he hanged on for a second in one arm, and with a deep inhale of breath, he swung up and landed over it with a grunt.
"Oh dear Lord! What just happened." The brunette whispered, it sent shivers up to the raven's nape since his face was pressed on the small of his back. Eren's hands were still fisted on Levi's shirt but then his feet suddenly kicked almost toppling them over down the ground below.
"You shit! Stop moving!"
"Do that again!" Eren exclaimed as he beamed at him beatifically from over his other shoulder, there were leaves and twigs stuck on his head like a bird's nest. The way the brunette looked made the terrifying expression from earlier seem like an illusion and Levi felt a sort of disappointment.
"What the hell, are you a cat or something?!" Levi shouted back incredulously, he felt as if he was carrying an overgrown cat around his shoulder. The brat was made of skin and bones but he was flexible as shit. "Weird fuck."
"Whoa, you're carrying him?" asked an unmasked redhead in an incredulous tone as she peaked at them from the vehicle's open backdoor. "The clean freak carrying a dirty ass brat?! You wouldn't even touch me when I accidentally slip in muddy water and yet you're carrying him when he looked like he rolled around it!"
Eren shouted again when Levi suddenly jumped down beside the vehicle. "Can't you give a man, a warning? Bastard!"
"I thought you wanted to do it again? I just gave you your wish." Levi drawled before dumping him at the back of their dark van before entering it himself.
"Oh? So you're fucking genie now?!" The brunette retorted, rubbing his sore arms.
"Oi, Farlan do you have the same drug as those fuckers back there? Give it to this kid. I liked him more when he was drugged."
"I might have." The blonde humored him from his perch on the front as his hands fiddled with his mask. Eld immediately drove off once Isabel had closed the door.
"Do any of you know where the address of the woman is?" Levi asked. Eld waved a piece of paper in between his fingers in answer.
"Good. Let's finish this then." Gunmetal eyes slid back to the brunette nursing an injured wrist but Levi's eyes zeroed in on the dirty clothes hanging off the kid's slim frame. Clicking his tongue, Levi motioned for the bag on Oluo's immediate right which the ash-blonde handed him.
"Um… I-Isabel." Eren's hesitant voice started, effectively gaining the attention of everyone in the vehicle.
The redhead turned to look at him curiously from where she was seated right beside him while Levi was in front of them seated by himself on the other side, digging on a bright red bag.
"Oh! Is that the kid? Let me see!" Petra said. Gently, she stood up on one knee to look behind her with the baby dozing in her arms. Gunther and Oluo supported her shoulders to stop her from swaying with the car.
Immediately their eyes locked, "Wow, it's true. I didn't think it was that kind of dual colored eyes. They're actually two different colors." Petra commented, staring at him almost rudely. Eren showed his discomfort at being stared again by tugging his clothes down, he was starting to think what a bunch of weirdos this group was.
"Uh, thank you?" Eren answered, wringing his hands.
"Oi, change into this." Levi addressed Eren, passing him a white clean shirt and pants.
"Thank you… Wait, here?" He whispered wide-eyed, taking the offered clothing. The raven looked at him curiously; the kid was being all meek again.
"Unless you want to go to the roof…?" Levi offered, resting an arm on the backrest of the middle seat. Petra laughed softly as she sat back down properly, playing with the babe on her arms.
"No, thank you." Still, Eren just squirmed on his seat for a while but with a quick kick on his shin courtesy of an irate Levi, he kneeled on the floor of the vehicle, probably cursing Levi to heaven and hell in his mind, and turned his back to them—a vain attempt to cover himself up as much as he could—and dressed in the provided clothes. Both Isabel and Levi though saw the cuts and nasty bruises on his back, they even trailed down his thighs and legs.
'He fought 'til the very end, huh?' Levi thought, eyes going lower. 'Whoops, perky ass.'
A kick on his foot got Levi looking at the woman in front of him. The Shifter was wriggling her eyebrows at him and smirking teasingly, Levi glowered at her.
Fucking hell, just a peek and he was now in love? Isabel was such a hopeless woman.
"Hey! You wanted to tell me something, yeah?" The redhead chirped kicking her foot on the seat in front of her as soon as Eren finished and was seated again beside her.
Levi clicked his tongue as he pushed her foot away. Eren turned to her from where he was squirming under Levi's scrutiny as if he had forgotten she was there; Levi always did have that intimidating effect to anyone.
"Ah… yes." Eren bowed as much as he could and said in a soft voice, "I'm sorry for calling you immature." Eren sat up again and glared at the blonde who was looking at him in the rearview mirror, "I only said that to get back to your rude… boyfriend." He turned to the grinning redhead, "You're a really cool Shifter. I have a friend who would be happy to meet you. He loves blowing things up, you see." He informed sheepishly.
Isabel laughed, reaching a hand up to ruffle his brown locks, leaves fell as she did. "I like you! No offense taken, though. Even I know I could be immature sometimes." There was whisper somewhere but Isabel continued, "Anyway, we're an Aberrant pair. Farlan and I."
"Oh." Eren replied just as Levi said in a warning tone, "Isabel."
"What? It looks like he'd be staying." The Weapon pouted as she crossed her arms and looked his brother in everything but blood in the eye. "This is the first time you picked up a stray other than me and you even let him see your face while on a mission!"
Levi stared at a glaring Isabel with his naturally heavy-lidded eyes, he looked bored as ever. Finally, Levi shifted his eyes to look at the nervous brunette.
"Let's continue with our conversation then." Their captain started, completely ignoring Isabel, "What did you mean by asking us to help you?"
"…I… wanted to be on your team…" Eren answered hesitantly, not looking at anywhere but at his feet. There was a palpable silence inside the vehicle as they all waited for their captain's reaction. "I thought it might get me closer to those fuckers." His eyes flashed angrily before he calmed again.
Levi exhaled slowly, leaning back on his chair and crossing his arms. His eyes never wavered on Eren's form, "On our team you say. We're a criminal team."
"Yes, sir." Eren nodded, finally finding the courage to look at him. Levi didn't let him drop their gaze as he leaned forward.
"We hurt. We kill. We do practically anything as long as we're paid." A lie of course but the others stayed silent and let their captain handle the situation at hand. "It's all about money, brat."
"I know..." There was acceptance in the kid's eyes but it wasn't what Levi wanted. Disappointed, he leaned away and was about to tell Eld to stop the car but the brunette continued in a hard voice, "You don't kill. And even if you did, I may or may not do as you ordered."
Shocked and a little bit excited—why, Levi did not know—he looked at the other again. Isabel was practically gaping while all heads turned to look at them; even Eld glanced at them by the rear view mirror.
"Oh? Why? Did you, by chance, hear of us?"
"No. I haven't heard of your team or any other criminal team but I know that the city is abundant with them."
"Then?" Levi urged, he felt as if there was something wrong in there but still couldn't point out.
Eren sighed before answering, "I was in the basement as you all know. Actually you even came down there because you were curious, right?" He chuckled before continuing in a solemn tone, shoulders caving in on himself, "I heard the explosion upstairs; I thought it was my Meister coming to take me back so I struggled more and well this happened." He lifted his mangled wrists. Isabel exclaimed—clearly just noticing it then—before shouting for the medical kit which Gunther passed her. Immediately she grabbed a hold of his injured wrists but they evaded her.
"Ah no, it's fine. Thank you."
"No, it's not. Give it here." Isabel said in sharp tone that got Eren obeying.
"Continue." The raven injected.
"Ah right… Um, the pair standing guard gave me a sedative to shut me up and because of that I heard what's happening upstairs since the noise gets pretty loud in the basement when you're hearing nothing but your own breathing. I know my Meister. They'd be shouting for my name when it's them but I didn't hear anything. Instead I heard footsteps running outside and I knew that those were the servants since I heard them talking when those bastards took me in."
From what he said, Levi thought that perhaps this wasn't the first time he was kidnapped and the kid was still being secretive about his Meister, even the gender was undisclosed.
'The kid's taking great lengths to protect his Meister, huh. Loyal dog.'
"You could have bombed the place down even with the people inside since who cares if there are people inside? That's what ruthless criminals would have done instead you gave them a warning. I'm taking my chances but then you people came and…"
Eren suddenly got nervous as he broke their eye contact and stared at his now bandaged wrists. Blood was slowly seeping in. Isabel was cleaning his hair free of leaves and twigs, "… You may be intimidating as fuck but I still got the feeling that I could trust you." There was a chorused agreement in the vehicle.
Levi was silent for a moment as he tried to make sense of Eren. He looked weak, even his demeanor screamed that but then again wasn't he kidnapped? High class Shifters are prone to kidnapping especially when the kidnappers were criminal syndicates.
It just proved that he may be useful in the long-run but then Farlan had a point when he said that he may be an Aberrant. They had no use for an Aberrant Shifter when the Meister was not with him.
Isabel and Farlan became a B class Aberrant when Isabel finally trusted Farlan enough to fuse with her, a year after they met. It was a time when they were still living in the underground city; Farlan and Isabel were fifteen and thirteen years old, respectively; with Levi being sixteen. It came not only as a surprise to the two at issue but also to those who had witnessed them, which was to say, Levi.
Levi had once paired with Isabel to know what kind of Weapon she was—just once, because Levi found that he was not so keen on blowing things up. One, it was too flashy; two, it was noisy as fuck; and three, he'd rather be fighting them physically than throwing things at them like an idiot.
Not that he'd say that to the duo face to face for reasons—but he was sure as hell that Isabel didn't provide him with clothes that cool and an abundant and wide range of assorted bombs—there was even one that was soundless and had special features like that sleep bomb—even those glasses was missing when he fused with Isabel.
Levi sure as hell did not gawk at them then.
Farlan had stated that the gear provided by Isabel were shock-proof—as they had known back when he was getting acquainted with his Shifter—since he was armed with bombs that were color coded although the blonde had to use them first to know what those colors stood for—it was quite the hassle at first since some had attributes while the other bombs were loud as hell that they almost got arrested and they had trouble just finding the good training place while they were on the underground so they changed places every single time they had to train.
There was one though that looked mighty dangerous, it even had a red skull plastered on its smooth, circular surface. The two of them had stared at it nervously before coming to a silent agreement to never try it while on the underground.
Isabel didn't know but it was understandable since every Shifter didn't know their own full capabilities if they didn't have a Meister to use them, not especially when they had a Meister that had the exact same wavelength as them, turning them into an Aberrant.
Levi had gathered that being with your fated—as Farlan loved to call it—Meister could change everything about the Shifter's form—weapon and gear-wise—and practically gets the norm to shit.
An Aberrant is a different type where a certain class finds someone who had the exact same wavelength as them. Being an Aberrant allows the Shifter to show its full capabilities, in a sense it is an upgrade to the Shifter.
It was like seeing your fated person. Some even said that there were even cases where a Meister and a Shifter that was in love with each other became an Aberrant after some time as their wavelengths matched each other but Levi wasn't so sure since it wasn't stated in the registry when the Pair undergoes the fusing ceremony performed by a Binder, for all he knew it could be the other way around, like with Farlan and Isabel.
Being an Aberrant doesn't have any effect on the Meister—except that they would be wielding a Shifter as if they were made just for them and the honor that goes with it—and they will need to train with their weapon to achieve the level of efficacy in wielding them.
Farlan and Isabel had undergone their own training regimen for years with Levi assisting them when they needed someone to fight on far and close quarters, which was rare since they were equipped with bombs which was a long distance weapon but Levi insisted just to make sure that they would be ready for all sorts of battle but he bemoaned it afterwards, those upgraded bombs hurt as hell but it was training for him too, so it was a win-win situation to both parties.
Needless to say, they immediately searched for a Binder to make sure that they are linked since Shifters were more prone to being kidnapped than Meisters were.
"What class are you?" Levi asked. The others straightened up in their seat; no doubt it was the question they were all waiting for.
"… S class."
There was a sharp intake of breath then a muttered, "Bullshit."
"S class? Is that the truth?" Farlan and Isabel asked in unison. The latter was getting close and personal with him just like his boyfriend did back in the basement.
"Y-yes." Eren answered as he edged away from her. They were suddenly all asking him questions but Levi kept quiet and just observed the brunette.
That certainly changed things. Even when not an Aberrant, he was still a powerful weapon. Powerful was even downplaying it, the brat was at the top of the fucking chain. Still, the question was if Levi could fuse with him. They, after all, didn't know what class Levi was. That and the fact that Eren must be tied with his past Meister.
They looked like they had quite the strong relationship especially when he was fiercely protective of them, or maybe that was just his nature.
Even Levi would want their wavelengths bound when they had such a relationship just to ensure safety against other Meisters but that could still be fucked up when the syndicate took the chance to cut their tied wavelengths. Forcing a bound wavelength to be cut could end up in making the Pair brain dead or worse, dead.
But then again, it could also be the fact that S class Shifters could only fuse with another S class while S class Meisters could practically fuse with anyone compatible. Eren looked like someone who'd want to be out in the field rather than doing mundane tasks and being such a high class weapon, isn't it just natural that he'd be attached to the one person who could make use of his rare capabilities?
That was the only reason Levi could think and he strongly believed it.
A Binder is someone who is versed in the art of tying two wavelengths. It was to make sure that the Weapon could not be wielded by anyone else while the Meister could not fuse with any other Weapon.
Although legally, it was also to make sure that all Aberrants and bound Pairs are registered for recording purposes which, of course, they couldn't do less they want to be taken into custody since they were still brats back then.
It was a matter of life or death and binding shows the complete trust between Meister and Weapon.
Then again, when the kid's Meister was dead then that makes the binding ineffective and the Shifter is free to fuse with other people.
"Bro! You should let him in the team! We could even see if you're an S class like we always thought!" Isabel's excited squeal pulled Levi from his thoughts.
The redhead was hugging a flustered brunette to her chest. Levi clicked his tongue and forced a leg in between them, effectively shoving them apart. Isabel whined then pouted at him.
Eh, I'm still wondering how writers could do this. I'm struggling here. lol