END GAME

Chapter 6: Strange Ties

Levi pushed past Eren into his apartment, moving with his usual speed and grace. Eren shut the door and leaned his head against the wood. Why did he have to come today? Can't I just nurse a hangover in peace? Levi slapped the file down onto the coffee table, "Well, come on." Eren groaned and dragged himself over to the couch. He dropped down and picked up the file, scanning it.

The first time through, none of the information made sense. It made more sense the second time he ran through it. By the third time, he was pretty sure he understood the situation. "We're doing kidnappings now?" He looked back at the file. The image of a nine year-old girl with blonde hair and bright blue eyes was in the upper right-hand corner, with the rest of her information on the left.

Name: Alice Benedict
Age: 9
Date of birth: 10/09/03
Gender: F
Last seen: in 2nd story bedroom at 8:45 on 9/26/13 by her mother

There was more information in the file, but that was what the need-to-know facts consisted of. "Yes, Eren, it's a kidnapping case. Shall I get you a gold star? I can't always work murders you know." Levi was particularly agitated this morning, every word coming out of his mouth filled with irritation. "Honestly, it's a miracle you've survived this long kid. Now, go get some clothes on. We're going to check the scene out."

Eren stood, wincing as a fresh thread of pain worked its way through his pounding head. "I could kill you…"

"What was that you idiot?" Eren glanced back at Levi, who cocked an eyebrow at him expectantly as he awaited an answer. Eren turned with a grimace on his face as he slowly made his way to his room.

Each step rocked his head, making him feel like he had just been hit with a baseball bat repeatedly in the temple. Not a very pleasant feeling at six o'clock in the morning on God knows how many hours of sleep. He pulled a fresh shirt on and tugged his shoes back on, thankful that he still had his shoes on. He paid a small visit to the bathroom, raiding the medicine cabinet for as many Aspirin as he could without reaching what could be considered an unsafe amount. He shook four out and swallowed them dry before he emerged from the bathroom, raking his fingers through his hair and smothering a yawn.

"Let's go," he said. Levi needed no further encouragement to march out of the apartment, leaving Eren to shut and lock the door and make his way down the steps after Levi, pulling on his jacket on the way. The black-haired man had a cigarette between his lips by the time Eren finally emerged from the blissful gloom of the apartments and into the pre-dawn haze of the city.

"Those are gonna kill you, you know that right?" Levi gave him a sardonic look. "Kid, I've managed to live this long without getting my head blown off or some other shit like that. If these manage to kill me, I'll give a medal to the makers. Besides, they're herbal – better for you than normal ones. They're made with lemongrass and whatnot."

"Getting your head blown off? Really Levi, what the hell were you doing, fighting in a war?"

Levi looked at him before offering a wry quirk to the corner of his mouth, which could have technically been classified as a smile for the temperamental man. "…Something along the lines of that."

What a strange thing to say... Eren rolled his eyes and trudged after Levi, thrusting his hands into his pockets. He walked a few steps behind Levi, the faint almost lemony smell of the cigarette tickling his nose as the smoke wafted past. It was not altogether unpleasant, unlike normal cigarettes, but it was still a strange scent, one that Eren wasn't used to smelling. They walked for a minute or so more before they stopped at a taxi that sat idle next to the curb. Levi stubbed what little of his cigarette he had left out and opened the back door.

"Get in Jäeger, we don't have all day." Eren slid in and Levi swung in beside him, slamming the door shut behind him. The cab itself reeked of cigars and a damp week-old newspaper. The cabbie glanced back at them, starting the car up, "Where to?"

"3299, Weathervane Avenue," Levi said, a testy edge to his voice as he glared into the back of the seat in front of him. Eren watched as Levi looked around the cab, a disgusted look on his face and his lips pulled back in a grimace of revulsion. "And get us there fast." There was no need to tell the cabbie that twice as he peeled out of the parking spot, flooring it to their destination.

The crime had occurred in one of the better districts of Eden, within the Stohess District, which was part of the Sina Division, one of the three divisions of Eden. Sina was the high end of the city, located smack in the middle of the circular city. The houses became just a little more spread out here, where a person could actually own patches of grass instead of resorting to parks or barrels of flower to fulfill their need for green. Everything was cleaner, fancier, and reeked of wealth, putting the Sina and Maria divisions at almost polar ends of each other. Maria wasn't a horrible part of the city, but it was certainly not as well off as Sina. In comparison to the Rose Division, it was fine, but Sina outshone both of the divisions with its excessive grandeur. The home they arrived at was located more towards the edges of the Sina Division.

Two patrol cars sat outside of the house. Eren recognized the numbers as Marlo and Hitch's car for the one in the driveway and Nanaba's as the one parked by the curb. Levi pushed the door open before the cabbie came to a complete stop, waiting for Eren to crawl from the backseat before he tossed a twenty at the cabbie and slammed the door shut. "Alright moron, let's get this over with." Levi rammed his hands into the pockets of his black coat. Eren sighed and began to follow the man towards the house.

The house itself looked relatively clean; the white sides looked fresh and clean, the dark red brick chimney was vacant of vines and weeks that might crawl up, the roof was clear of leaves for the time being and the array of rose bushes in the front were neat and carefully trimmed. It held the influences of both the Rose and Sina districts; not too gaudy but not too simplistic either, given away by the two elegantly carved marble lions sitting on the porch, made for show rather than practicality.

Levi smashed his finger into the doorbell and pulled back to wait. The wife was the one to answer the door, her face tear-stained and puffy and her blonde hair escaping from a messy bun. She let them in without a word, only a muffled sob into a tissue as they passed. Eren wasn't sure whether to offer a form of condolence or comfort, so he opted to follow Levi's example and just keep walking into the house. Nanaba was waiting for them inside, tapping his foot as he glanced over his notes again.

"It's the upstairs bedroom, second door on your right." Levi nodded and moved up the carpeted steps, the boards creaking quietly beneath his feet. Eren followed, glancing around at the house, examining it. It was a nice home, painted with warm, earthy colors and filled with the scent of fresh flowers. An upright piano had been sitting in the foyer downstairs, a Bible perched on it. There had also been a cross hanging from the wall.

Eren reached the top of the steps and followed Levi into the girl's bedroom. It was surprisingly neat and orderly for a child, but considering how obsessive Levi was about cleanliness, it probably wasn't anywhere near his standards. Levi managed to surprise Eren when he failed to comment about the state of the room, instead going straight to examining.

The covers had been pulled back from the bed, some of them even lying in a heap on the left side of the bed, away from the window, which was shut tight. On the white wall, just above the headboard of the bed, the kidnapper had put a straight slash of bright red paint, which had run a little, resembling blood dripping down. Levi pulled on a pair of gloves and began to shift things, looking for something. Eren stood awkwardly in the center of the room until Levi sighed and reached into the pockets of his jacket and tossed him a pair of gloves. "How useless can you be? Honestly, can't even bother to bring your own gloves."

"Shut up. You did spring this on me after a week of silence. Plus I'm not a cop. All I do is work at a bookstore and occasionally hack into files for Irvin, so why the hell would I need gloves?" Levi gave an irritated grunt in response. Eren sighed and moved over to the window. He hooked his fingers under the lip and pulled upwards. The window slid open, smooth and silent. There wasn't even a screen on the outside of it.

Eren poked his head out; there was a tree a few yards away, a nice sturdy oak with thick limbs that stretched relatively high. All someone would need would be a plank to stretch between the small forks in the branches a few feet away and the windowsill itself, creating a somewhat steady bridge for crossing. Eren leaned out as far as he dared, his eyes slowly roaming over the tree limbs. His eyes skipped over the chips in the bark and the broken twigs the first time, but he spotted it the second time he looked over. It was on a relatively thick branch about six feet away.

Eren looked at the windowsill; scratches on the white paint and a small red droplet. He swiped his gloved finger across it and pulled it away dry; paint. He glanced down at the ground, two stories below. Only a few broken twigs littered the ground, what could be one of the few pieces of evidence from the night before. He leaned out a little further. He knew if he kept leaning out he'd eventually fall, land, maybe even die. He could- a hand smashed into his back.

Eren jolted and his back smashed into the bottom of the window. "Get back in before you fall, honnêtement imbécile." Eren slowly pulled himself back into the room, glaring at Levi and rubbing his back. "Honne-what?"

Levi sighed as he pulled his gloves off, "Honestly, you idiot. Is that good enough for you? People these days are so annoying, especially obnoxious little brats. How does your mother put up with you?"

Eren stiffened and clenched his jaw. He looked away from Levi and flexed his hands, fighting the urge to wrap them around his throat and squeeze. "… My mom's dead you ass. She's been dead for fourteen years."

Uncomfortable silence enveloped them, with irritation flowing off of Eren and guilty surprise off of Levi. "Oh… I'm sorry... I didn't know."

Eren rolled his eyes and tossed the gloves at Levi, still thoroughly and irrationally angered, even though he knew there was no way Levi could have known unless he had been researching him. "Let's just go."

Levi grimaced at the recollection of his blunder from the morning. I thought I was more tactful than that. I should have asked Irvin or someone to prevent something like this. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair as he flipped the page of notes back to the front to take him mind away from his foolish blunder.

There wasn't much to go on. The parents had put the child to bed the night before and come in at six that morning to wake her up for school, only to find an empty bed and a red slash on the wall. There was next to no evidence or clues to help point to a suspect. All they had was the paint, the marks outside the window and the scratches on the tree. There was nothing else. No contact had been attempted between the parents and the kidnapper or kidnappers. They could very well be looking at a murder case or perhaps even one of those incidences when children were taken and sold on the black market as sex slaves.

Levi sighed and tapped the notepad, fixing his eyes on the white wall of his apartment. I seem to have no luck when I pair up for cases with that idiot. That happened to also be the same idiot whose whereabouts were currently unknown. Eren had left the scene by himself once Levi called it. Not a surprising reaction to be honest, considering the tactless comment. Oh whatever, Levi thought irately, it doesn't matter. Not to mention the fact of that I probably pissed him off earlier. Levi slammed the notepad on the end table and sighed, his hands coming up to rub his face in irritation. This is why I don't have partners.

He uncrossed his legs and stood, cracking his fingers. Cleaning would improve his mood, but research was the top priority right now. He entered his room, dark except for the afternoon light seeping through the cracks in the blinds, and started up his computer, the blue glow washing over his face. He logged on and pulled up a new tab and began to search. First it was the red slash mark. As he had no idea what that could be affiliated with, that drew a blank on the search engine. He tried searching for kidnapping cases with any similarities.

There were nearly two dozen cases across the world that were similar in the fact of that little children had been kidnapped, with only a red mark on their walls left behind. Clara Bell, a girl from New York, had been taken from her nursery when she was six months old. Fares Ekman had been taken from his own nursery in Sweden when he was seven months. Johann Bloch had been taken from his nursery in Germany at six-and-a-half months. Lin Yao had been taken from her home in Taiwan when she was five months.

Those were the only four children who had not been found, only identifiable by dental records. Those four children had simply disappeared off the face of the earth, and the only thing connecting them was the red mark on the wall of their bedrooms and that they would all be around the age of twenty-four or twenty-five at this time, if they were still alive.

Eren ran his finger along the lip of the bottle, his head on one arm of the couch, his feet dangling from the other. He had turned his phone off and hit the lights; hopefully no one would come knocking thinking that he was home. He didn't think he could stand to be around people right now. His head hurt and his hand ached, sore from punching a wall, a brick one to boot. He wasn't sure why Levi's comment had thrown him off so much.

Maybe because he had gotten used to the way that the man carried himself like he was above everyone, like he knew everything. Maybe that was why he had assumed Levi would know about him, or at least, know about the things on the surface. Maybe that was why his comment had hurt more than it should have. I'm always jumping to conclusions…

The thought bounced around his head along with a million others. And I'm always going back on my promises. The promise he wouldn't drink, the promise he would get help, the promise that he wouldn't cut. Whether they were to another or to himself, he always seemed to be breaking promises as of late.

Eren tapped the rim of the beer bottle again. He could drink himself into oblivion tonight. That would mean no dreams, no nightmares, and no coherent thoughts until morning. He could do it. He had done it before. He had done it to escape the one thing he couldn't seem to escape. Eren sighed and set the bottle on the coffee table and stood. His head had a slight alcohol-induced buzz going round, but he hadn't drunk much. He was still on the first bottle.

He ambled into the bathroom and splashed cold water on his eyes. His hands made their way to the edges of the sink, gripping tight as if that could help him hold himself together. Eren sighed and opened the drawer beneath the sink and pulled out another small razor blade. He held it in his fingers for a moment, watching the light glint off of the edges, before he slowly lowered it to his arm and dragged it across the skin.

Levi watched as Eren sat down in front of him, his cold gray eyes following the other man's movements. The other man was quieter than usual, his mouth set in a grim line and his eyes fixed anywhere but at Levi. "Did you manage to find anything new?"

Levi dropped the file onto the table between them, narrowly missing Eren's coffee cup. "Somewhat. I found some incidents that occurred about twenty-four years ago where nearly two dozen children were kidnapped world-wide. The linking factor to all of them was a straight slash on their bedroom wall with bright red paint. Eighteen of the children's bodies were recovered, burned nearly beyond recognition. Four of the missing children were never even found. They simply vanished off the face of the earth, never to be heard from again."

Eren picked the file up, the frown on his face growing as he read through the pages that Levi had printed off. "There's nothing connecting these kids, other than the fact of that they were all under the age of five. Did you manage to acquire hospital records?" Levi nodded and pulled another folder from his dark gray satchel.

Eren took it from him and scanned the contents for several minutes. Levi watched as Eren laid the sheets out side-by-side and examined them. Eren bent over them, hands clenching the sides of his head, forehead furrowed in concentration. "Race can't link them; neither can ethnicities or their parents' religions…" Eren cocked his head to the side, a look of realization crossing his face as he looked Levi in the face for the first time that day. "Levi, I think I found something. Every one of these kids had the same blood type – AB negative. Do we have access to Alice's medical records?"

Levi raised an eyebrow. These were the times when he wished he had paid attention to Mrs. King when she gave them a basic rundown of genetics, along with various other things that he had deemed useless at the time. "Yes we do. But why would that be important? Why is any of that important?"

Eren sighed and rubbed his temples with one hand, the fingers of the other tapping the plastic tabletop. "Did you not pay attention in biology? AB- is supposed to be the rarest blood type, according to the Red Cross at least. Maybe the kidnappers are draining the kids of blood and selling it, but that's a little irrational considering adults have more body mass, and more blood. At least, I think that's how it works. I'm a bit rusty on the details."

Levi leaned back in the metal chair and tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Why would they bother to kidnap kids with certain blood types? On top of that, couldn't they have just gotten them all from the same damn country?"

Eren shrugged as he gathered the papers back together. "You've got me there. I have absolutely no idea." He ran the fingers of his left hand through his hair, an exasperated sigh passing his lips. His sleeve slipped down and revealed the crisp white bandages wrapped neatly around his forearm, just beneath his wrist. Eren caught Levi's glance and immediately jerked his hand and sleeve back down. "What?" he hissed, his face turning red, "I tripped last night and scraped my arms up."

Levi raised an eyebrow at Eren but said nothing, instead opting to lean back and slowly sip his coffee, ignoring the chatter of the customers inside the shop as he stared Eren down. Eren held his eyes for a few seconds before looking away. "If that's all, I've got to go to work now. Call me or something if you find anything else." Eren stood and clenched the coffee cup between his fingers as he walked away.

Levi watched him go and remained sitting for a few more minutes before he picked up his own cup and left, his destination clear. Irvin had known the kid longer than Levi. Maybe he could shed some light on Eren. He walked through the streets, his hands jammed in his pockets, his shoulders squared. The walk to the station was quick, as the coffee shop had only been five or so minutes away.

Most of the officers were out, many of them handling the traffic flow for Eden University's football game. Thankfully, Irvin was still sitting in his office, pouring over mounds of paperwork. Levi rapped the door and waited for Irvin to finish his sentence before the blonde man looked up. "Levi, come on in. What do you need?"

Levi rolled his eyes as he shut the door with a soft click, "Funny isn't it, how you automatically assume that I need something?"

Irvin offered a wry and tired smile, capping and dropping his pen so he could lean back and crack his fingers and roll his neck. "Well, most of the time you call. You only ever come in to talk to me if I've asked you to or if you have something you'd prefer to talk about face-to-face." Levi sighed; had he really become that transparent to Irvin in the last eight years?

"Well… I was going to ask about Eren to be honest. I've gleamed nothing from the kid other than that he has temper issues and that his mother is dead. Found that out yesterday, no helps to you."

Irvin shrugged his shoulders, the 'what-can-I-say' look crossing his face. "It's not my place to tell you about Eren, you should know that. And before you ask, I've got his file under lock and key so don't even bother breaking into my office tonight like you've done before. You're just going to have to try and figure out Eren on your own, just like it's his place to figure out you."

Levi felt his lips pull back in an automatic defensive snarl. "There is nothing about me that he needs to know about, nothing. That goes for everyone else too." Levi stood and wrapped his hand around the metal doorknob. "I don't even know why I bother talking to an ass like you sometimes." Irvin's chuckles followed him until he slammed the door shut, cutting off the sound and causing the smattering of people still in the building to look up at the noise, startled and confused. "Go back to work you idiots," he said with an irritated wave of his hands.

Figure him out? How the hell am I supposed to do that? Why the hell would I want to do that?

Chapter 6: End

Hello once again, for another chapter of END GAME! Thankfully, I had written most of this last night, so that way I could upload before tomorrow morning. I plan to take part of the RivaMika week, because while I tend to write certain pairings, I keep an open mind to all pairings from all fandoms. (I'm only having a problem in figuring out what the hell to write for the first prompt(s) of course -_-). Anyways, I plan to have the first installment of that out by tomorrow night (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada). Until then, thank you for reading and I hope you continue to enjoy!