END GAME

Chapter 17: It's (Not) Alright

Warning: This chapter contains themes of violence and/or graphic content. Read with caution.

"Eren, come here." Eren glanced up at Levi, who was standing over the computer at his desk. The screen was on and something had been pulled up. Eren rose and walked over in order to see what Levi was looking at. Levi rose and gestured for Eren to sit down. He began to speak as soon as Eren was seated. "Alright, I've got an idea. If we can figure out locations that the victims have in common we might be able to narrow down the field of search."

He leaned close, his head right by Eren's as he pointed at the email program, towards a list of folders on the side bar of it. Eren subtly leaned away, his face blossoming with bright red. He could only hope that Levi would fail to notice his slowly reddening face, although the gray eyed man had a habit of noticing things when they were inconvenient to be noticed. "You're going to have to copy the information that each of the family members and professional that the victims knew gave us and you're going to have to put it into the database. You know how to use Excel and Access correct?"

Eren rolled his eyes and shook the mouse before opening the email folder that Levi was pointing at. "Of course I know how to use them. It would certainly be strange if I, the hacker, didn't know how to use basic Microsoft." The folder opened up, revealing over four dozen emails waiting to be read.

"Shut up. I really don't need your smartass comments right now. Just go through these and find any identical locations between three or so people. Go crazy." Levi pulled back and spun on his heel, marching away with a determined set to his shoulders. "Petra! Can you get me two more maps of Eden?"

He's got a plan, an idea, although I can't say what it is. Bloody bastard won't tell me yet… Eren sighed and opened the first email, one Alice Benedict's parents. It was slow to load; the machines at the police station were out of date, but due to lack of funding, they couldn't afford any better. When the email finally loaded, he could see everything that the parents had sent. The email contained every location she had been or was related to, from a variety of doctors' offices to schools, daycares, hospitals, even the address of the CVS they had picked her medication up from at one point.

It would take too long to type everything out in a database that he could filter on this ancient piece of parts that was better fit for a scrap heap than anything else. Eren bit his lip and pulled his laptop bag closer so he could extract the laptop and set it up next to the desktop screen. He skimmed the email as he started the laptop up and opened a program. Someone kill me…He entered Alice Benedict's name and began to list out the places that her parents had listed. This is going to take forever, but it'll take less time than that ancient piece of shit.

"Eren…" Eren turned and looked, fingers still typing out the last of the record he had been entering. It would probably look like a bunch of gibberish when he looked back. Jean stood a few feet away, his face contorted into a mask of barely concealed panic. "Eren… have you seen or heard from Marco?"

Jean wrung his hands together, his knuckles white and his nails digging into his skin. Little half crescents marred his palms from where he had been clutching and digging into his hands and arms. His eyes were bloodshot and heavy bags hung beneath them; he must have had a long and sleepless night.

Eren twisted around in his seat and looked at the ashy haired man, a questioning look on his face. "What do you mean? Did Marco not come home last night? If not I can call Hannah. She was supposed to be there with him yesterday for lockup." Jean shook his head and balled his hands into fists. The muscles around Jean's eyes tightened and he looked at the ground, glaring at it furiously.

"He didn't come home last night. We didn't fight or anything either, and even if I forgot something he wouldn't leave like that. He hasn't even called! I haven't heard from him since eight last night!" Jean pulled his hands apart and opted to clutch his elbows instead, hugging his arms close to his body. It almost looked like he was trying to hold himself together. He probably was.

Eren shot up from his chair, eyes flaring wide. "Are you certain you've heard nothing? Nothing on the house phone, the cell, a note, something he said?"

Jean shook his head from side to side and raised a hand to his forehead, pushing his hair back. "I should have just gone to pick him up. I should have, I should have, I should have… I should have gone."

Eren slammed his hands down on Jean's shoulders and shook the man, not bothering to shake him gently. "Jean, snap out of it! I need you to come with me. We can get Mike to fill out a missing persons form. I'm sure that he's fine, he probably just got stopped by a friend and spent the night at their house."

"But he never called!" Jean protested, his eyes flaring wide as he clutched at Eren's elbows, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

This is not going well… Fuck, why couldn't I be like Nanaba or someone, capable of keeping a room calm with only a few words? Speaking of Nanaba… where is he? I haven't seen him all day… Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me! "Okay, Jean, wait right here, I'll get a missing persons form and you can fill it out while I go ask Mike a question."

Jean nodded and sat down, his movements stiff while his eyes were locked on the floor, staring blankly at the faded carpet. Eren darted off, moving as quickly as he could through the police station, dodging the officers that were moving about and the clutter that filled the paths. He managed to intercept Erd on the way over to find Mike and the blonde agreed to take a form over to Jean, leaving Eren free to hunt out Mike.

The large blonde man sat in the opposite corner of the police station from where Eren had started. He was sitting in his chair going through an assortment of paperwork that had accumulated over his latest case, something involving a serial rapist. Mike glanced up before he even reached the desk, his nose twitching as he smelled the air. "Eren, what is it?"

Eren crossed the last few feet and slammed his hands down onto the blonde's desk, disturbing the papers, pens, and the coffee cup scattered across the surface. "Mike, have you seen Nanaba today? Have you even heard from him since last night? I mean heard from him in any way, including sick calls, texts, notes, anything?"

Mike shook his head, eyebrows furrowing over his blue eyes. "No, actually, I haven't. I was just about to go ask Irvin if he had heard anything from Nanaba to be honest. Why, is something wrong?"

"Jean says that Marco Bott went missing as of last night and he has yet to make contact with him. With the Titans going around anything could happen. Anyone could be attacked… Can you go ask Irvin if he's heard from Nanaba? I need to know." The chair squeaked as Mike pushed himself back and nodded at Eren before striding away, back towards Irvin's office.

If I'm right, and I'm afraid I am… then those two… what are the chances of finding them alive? Eren sucked in a breath and glanced around, looking for Levi. He saw the next best thing first – Petra – and he darted over. "Petra, have you seen where Levi is? I need to now right now, it's an emergency. Or at least, if I'm right, it's definitely an emergency."

The redhead glanced up at him, eyes questioning as she set down the papers she had been looking at moments before. She jerked her thumb towards the direction of the front doors. "Sure… he's out front smoking. Is someone dying or something?"

"Thanks Petra!" Eren darted off, leaving the redhead to lean around her desk and peer after him as he dodged through the station and burst out the front doors. Levi stood on the right hand side of the steps, a cigarette at his lips, but he wasn't taking a drag from it. Gray eyes stared at Eren as the owner to the eyes waited for Eren to speak. "I think I know who our next victims are."

Levi straightened, peeling away from the wall and turning to face Eren. "Has there been a call? Any homicides reported lately?"

Eren shook his head. "No, this time they've gone missing and no one has heard from them. Marco Bott is one and Nanaba is the other. Jean hasn't heard from Marco since last night and Mike hasn't heard from Nanaba as far as I can tell. He's asking Irvin now, but this is Nanaba we're talking about. He would have let Mike know if he was sick or couldn't make it." His stomach twisted into knots at the thought. They've got to be alive, they have to be. I'm just jumping to conclusions. That's what it is, just a conclusion I jumped to too soon.

The cigarette fell to the ground and Levi stepped on it, grinding it into the concrete with his heel. "The only problem is that we still don't know the location of where the bodies will be dumped. Besides, if the Titans are following the latest trend, Marco can't be a victim. He's not of the police force."

Eren shook his head. Of course Levi wouldn't know. He wasn't the type to delve into people's personal lives. "I hate to burst your bubble, but while he might not be a part of the police force, Jean is. He and Jean are together. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

The corner of Levi's eye twitched, a subtle movement that gave away the fact that he was sorting out all the facts he could. "If you're correct then anyone is in danger, be it friends, family, or lovers." Eren nodded slowly, watching Levi closely so that he could gauge how angry the man would be. If Levi was furious he gave very little away, instead pressing the tips of his fingers onto his forehead and drawing in a slow, presumably calming, breath.

The door burst open behind them and both twisted around to stare at Petra, who held one of the phones, her face grim. "There's been a call about two bodies that have been found in Karanese. The police in Karanese found a note near one of the bodies and called over as soon as they read it. Gunther says that two children have also been kidnapped, both from Karanese, both with red slashes of paint on the walls. Do you want Oluo, Gunther, Erd, and I to go check those two out while you examine the scene of the homicides?"

Levi nodded and Petra disappeared back inside, the door slamming shut behind her. "Well…" Levi said, "Start flagging a cab."

They arrived at the intersection of Knight Avenue and Boulder Drive. Knight Avenue had been blocked off, the black and yellow barricades preventing any cars from getting in, several officers holding off the swarm of press and bystanders that had congregated around the roadblock. Eren trailed behind Levi, who shouldered his way through the crowd. The raven haired man was more than willing to trod upon a few toes and knock several people out of the way.

One of the officers stopped them before they could cross beneath the tape and barricades but Levi shoved a badge into his face, jerked a thumb at Eren, and said "He's with me." One of the officers, a middle aged man with graying brown hair and brown eyes, led them to the closer of the two scenes, as the bodies were separate but still on the same street. The first was located between Polly's Pet Emporium and Karanese Family Medical Center.

"The scenes aren't pretty," the officer said as they approached the alleyway between the two buildings. "It's gruesome to say the least, although the second man is far worse than this one." Am I right about the victims? Who will we see first? "Neither of them had drivers' licenses or any other form of identification on them so we're running them through the databases right now. Perhaps you can recognize one of the. The first one is part of your police force while the other is in civilian dress." The man stopped at the mouth of the alley and gestured for them to enter.

Levi passed Eren a pair of gloves and they entered the alley, where two officers were standing a few feet in, the barrels of their guns pointed at the ground. They stood on either side of the body. It, no, he was wearing the dark blue uniform of their department; not a good sign. Eren took in the familiar mop of blonde hair with its slight undercut, now stained with blood at the tips; an even worse sign. Two pairs of wary eyes watched them as they approached the bodies.

Eren crouched down on one side, Levi on the other. Nanaba's chin was tucked into his chest. From this angle he could have almost been asleep or unconscious if it hadn't been for the blood that covered his body and the lack of movement in his chest. The tips of his hair that were in contact with his shirt had turned dark with blood. The left side of his head, the side Eren was on, was matted into large, thick, and crimson colored clumps. Something had struck him on the head. Eren nudged Nanaba's hair about, inspecting the wound. It was roughly circular, although it was hard to tell with the thick coating of blood. Eren pulled back away from Nanaba's head and began to inspect his corpse, looking for any wounds.

The front of his shirt was coated in blood with there were no visible tears in the long sleeved uniform shirt. Eren watched as Levi glanced up at the officers beside of them before he edged a little closer and began to tug on the buttons of Nanaba's uniform, pulling them apart. The blonde had not been wearing an undershirt at the time of death so the ruin of his chest was exposed for the world to see, visible to all four of them. It had long since ceased to be smooth or even resembling a chest.

His torso instead resembled something that someone had let a blind man skin before tearing at the muscle and sinew beneath the flesh. It was a mixture of stab wounds and cuts going from his shoulders all the way down to his waist. Through the flesh that glistening with black and red blood he could see the bones that had shattered beneath the blows, the various organs within the cavity of Nanaba's chest exposed beneath the layer of shredded muscle. Eren pressed his hand over his mouth, more in muted shock and horror at the sheer brutality than anything else. He couldn't even tear his eyes away from the ruin of Nanaba's chest, his horrified brown eyes fixed on the lumpy, pulverized mess.

"Do you see anything on that side?" The question cut into Eren's trace-like staring, bringing him back to focus. "Give me a moment." He turned and looked, eyes scanning the ground, thankful of something distracting. I can't get used to this… I can't get used to people being murdered. Especially not people I know... His eyes slid around the area, seeking something, anything.

There! A mallet hammer was lying a few feet away, the end of it slick with blood, even with a few blonde hairs clinging to it. Eren slid over to the hammer and picked it up at the end of the wooden handle. On the underside, carved into the wooden handle, was another letter; a 'G'. "Levi, I found one of the weapons. It's a mallet hammer. There's a 'G' carved into the hilt. Have you found anything over there?"

"No, there's nothing over here. I'm assuming that the note is with the other body." Levi rose and walked over to Eren. Once he was finished inspecting the hammer Levi let the officer, the one that had initially led them over to Nanaba, lead them to the other body. The next scene was on the other side of the street, an alley to the right of the one where Nanaba's body was. Two more police officers were waiting by a limp form near the halfway point of the alley.

The victim's head drooped into his chest, his black hair hiding part of his pale face. His left arm was draped across his waist. Eren stepped forwards, legs numb while his breath caught in his throat. Don't be Marco, please don't be Marco. His steps slowed enough so that Levi reached the body first. Levi stopped to the right of the body and he stood there for several moments before he crouched down beside of it and stuck his fingers beneath the chin of the corpse. He pulled the head upwards so they could see the face – the pale, freckled face with one brown eye that stared blankly at the cold, hard asphalt beneath their feet.

The left side of his face was intact, with only a bit of soot and blood smeared on that side of his face. There was a large smear across his cheekbone and going down his mouth. When Levi pulled Marco's lips back they could see that the blood even stained his teeth, although the interior of his mouth seemed to be relatively clear of blood otherwise.

The other side was completely different. It looked like someone had taken a lit torch and held it against the right side of his face, letting it burn and char. The skin, formerly a pale tan on that side, had changed, turning into a mixture of deep blacks and furious reds. Most of the skin had burned away, revealing patches of blistered muscles, tinged red and black. Skin curled upwards around the edges of the right side of his face, dried like that from the close proximity of the flames. Bone poked through in other places, black with soot and from the lick of flames.

Further down, the right side of his neck had been ripped away and cauterized, presumably by the same flame. Long claw marks stretched along the length of Marco's throat, going deeper as they neared the missing side of his throat. It could have been an animal or it could have been an instrument designed for that purpose. Eren's eyes travelled further down, taking in the remaining destruction of Marco's body.

His right arm was missing completely, crudely torn away from the socket instead of cleanly severed like Mina's appendages had been. A bit of bone protruded from the roughly carved stump, with stringy bits of blackened flesh swaying in the cool breeze. His clothes, a gray jacket and green sweater, were stained with blood, a mixture of crimson and black as it slowly dried. Levi reached forwards and pulled something from the ground beside Marco; a plastic bag with a yellow slip of paper inside.

Levi turned back to Eren, his mouth moving but no sound coming out. It was like the world had been muted, leaving Eren alone with his thoughts and the sight before him. "Eren… Eren! I need you to answer the question. Is this Marco Bott?" Eren nodded, staring down at the burned and bloody corpse. He didn't trust his voice, he couldn't. His jaws were locked together and his feet were frozen to the ground. How am I going to tell Jean?

The bodies were taken to Zoe's morgue to be examined. It was still early, only nine in the morning. Levi had already contacted her and she had agreed to stay longer in order perform a full autopsy on both men. Petra, Oluo, Erd, and Gunther had yet to return from the scenes of the recent kidnappings.

Jean, on the other hand, was waiting anxiously for their return, his face pale and panicked. It was a startling change from his usual brash, obnoxious personality. Jean grabbed Eren's shoulders as soon as he entered the station, his fingers digging deep into Eren's shoulders. "Did you find him? Please tell me… Was one of them him? Was he one of them?"

Eren bit his tongue, not really prepared for what he had to do. "Jean… we found him in an alley on Knight Avenue in Karanese. I'm sorry Jean… I'm sorry. There was nothing we could do." Two pairs of brown eyes stared at each other, one pair swimming with tears, the other pair too dry to cry. Jean's hands fell away from Eren's shoulders and he took one step backwards, then another.

A tear slipped down Jean's face and splashed onto the faded carpet below as he continued to stare at Eren, his gaze horrified and agonized. "No… He can't be…. Not Marco…" Jean just kept taking steps back until he ran into the desk behind him. He sat down on the edge, staring numbly at his hands. "No…" Tears streamed down his cheeks Jean finally broke down, burying his face into his hands, his entire body shaking.

Eren hesitated and took a step forwards, ready to attempt to comfort Jean, but a short, copper haired woman intercepted him. Petra glanced back at him and shooed him away as she wrapped an arm around Jean, patting his shoulder gently as she murmured quietly in his ear. Eren nodded and moved away. He would have joined Jean in crying but he felt numb, oddly so. Why do they keep dying? Why can't we save them?

Levi was waiting for him at his desk, the note in hand as he tapped at the surface of the desk, staring intently at the paper. Eren pulled up a chair and settled himself across from Levi. Neither made an effort to speak, nor did they make a sound. They simply sat there for several long, silent minutes, left to mull over their thoughts. "Are you alright?" Levi's voice was the one to break the silence, soft quiet, and sympathetic. Eren opened his mouth to reply but words failed to come to him. He wasn't even sure if he could shake or nod his head and be entirely truthful. "I'm sorry about Marco. Irvin told me he was your boss at the bookstore."

Eren nodded and pressed his head into his hands, eyes stinging. "Can you read the note for me?" It was startling to hear his voice like that, so dead and detached. In a way, he felt like someone had just chopped his arm off. If that's how I feel with Marco dead then how would I feel if Mikasa or Armin died? I don't think I could take that. "Please?"

"Fine… it reads 'Four you lost and four you found, nowhere now to turn around. The game has begun and you fall behind, what is there left for you to find? Listen now as the angles begin to sing. Listen now as Maria's church bells ring.' This one is slightly clearer than the last."

Eren nodded absently, staring at the note clutching in Levi's hand, studying the other man's slim, white fingers till the world narrowed down to that one hand that held tight to the yellow note. Something white flashed in front of his face and Eren blinked, pulling away from the hand Levi was waving in front of his face. "Stop zoning out. You need to focus right now. Do you have any ideas?" Eren shrugged and pulled the note from Levi's grasp, looking over it again.

'Four you lost and four you found,
nowhere now to turn around.
The game has begun and you fall behind,
what is there left for you to find?
Listen now as the weeping angels begin to sing.
Listen now as Maria's church bells ring.'

Eren bit his thumbnail as he looked over the note, the thoughts slowly processing in his head. "Well…" he began slowly, his eyes falling back to the last line. "In the last line it says 'Maria's church bells.' We could assume that means the Maria Division. When you look at the usage of 'angels' and 'church bells,' it's almost definite that they mean that the next attack will occur in a place of worship."

Levi nodded in agreement. "Angels appear most often in Jewish and Christian culture as far as I know. However, the word church is usually applied to places where Christians worship. That narrows it down to about a million possible locations"

Eren glanced at the poem again, his brow furrowing as he forced his mind to focus and delve into the meanings of the words. "They didn't just put 'angels' down… They put down 'weeping angels.' What if we narrowed it down to churches around the Maria Division that had statues or depictions of angels who look like they're weeping?" The chair screeched at Levi leaned back in it, staring thoughtfully at the ceiling.

"That would narrow it down quite a bit. Not many places have depictions of weeping angels. We had three days between the double homicide of Mina Carolina and Nac Tius and today's latest double homicide. On top of that, two children, Vivian Rogers and Stephan Johnson were both reported missing as of this morning. At most we have four days to narrow down the search enough so that we have three, maybe four locations to patrol."

Eren nodded and passed the note back to Levi. "Shall we start searching?"

Levi glanced back at Eren, who trailed behind him as they entered the morgue. The other man hadn't been himself since that morning, when they had discovered Nanaba and Marco's bodies in the alleys. Perhaps it had been like that for a while, as he further entered the world of police work, but it had become more pronounced this morning.

It could have been seeing the countless victims that they had come across over the course of the case. It could have been seeing one of his friends of relative closeness dead on the ground, dragged into a fight he shouldn't have ended up in. Either way, Eren was no longer the seemingly innocent and naïve man that he had initially met. He was starting to harden, but he was also starting to crack. How long will it be before he breaks completely?

Levi pushed the door to the office open and stepped inside, warm air wrapping around him as he shed his scarf and jacket and folded them over his arm. He led Eren back towards the morgue, the other man's steps growing slower with every second that passed. When Levi reached the doors to the morgue he turned around instead of opening them and he looked Eren straight in the eye. "Eren… you know you don't have to come in if you don't want too."

Eren shook his head, "I'll be fine." Levi looked at Eren, studying his face for a moment before he nodded and pushed the morgue door open. Hanji stood beside an occupied table, the sheet pulled up over the face and body of the corpse. She was scribbling furiously on the papers held on a lime green clipboard, her pen flying across the pages. At the sound of the doors slipping shut with several loud clicks she looked up, the flow of her pen ceasing. "Hey guys."

Even Hanji was subdued, her voice lacking its chipper tones while her usually excited demeanor had slipped away. It couldn't have been easy performing an autopsy on Nanaba. The two had become close, mainly because Nanaba was one of the few who would tolerate Hanji's six hour rants about the human body. She pulled the sheet away from the body on the table, revealing a pale and unmoving Nanaba.

His chest was still a mess, looking like someone had taken the top layer of muscle and skin, stuck it in a blender on high, and let it do the work. Hanji had managed to stitch all that she could back into place, which admittedly wasn't much. She raised the clipboard, sticking the pen behind her ear, and began to recite the words written on the paper.

"Nanaba was hit on the side of the head, just behind his right temple, with the mallet hammer. The size and shape of the area is consistent with the head of the hammer. That led to part of his skull being fractured, but it was not the cause of death. As for the abdominal region, we are unsure of exactly how many times Nanaba was stabbed. The estimate is at over sixty entry wounds for the blade.

"It is reasonable to presume that he died from this part of the assault, probably from a combination of shock, blood loss, and hit vital areas. Signs of bruising along the arms lead me to conclude that there was a struggle. The size of the bruising is consistent with that of a hand, a relatively large one. I've already checked both bodies for any marks, but there were none to be found. His time of death was around one o'clock AM, October twenty-third."

Levi nodded and shifted, getting a better angle from which to look at the stab wounds. Two-hand grip probably. They hit him on the head to knock him senseless before pinning him down and stabbing him. "Hanji, do they have any of reddish-brown smears like the other body?"

Hanji nodded as she set the clipboard back into the bin. "I found some around Nanaba's wrist. Whoever grabbed him must have had a bit of the silt on their glove, although I couldn't say if it's intentional or not. I've sent it to be analyzed, just to be safe. The results will come in sometime tomorrow morning. Would you like to see Marco now?"

At Levi's nod she pulled the sheet back into place and wheeled the table over to the wall of cold chambers. Metal slammed on metal as she pulled the door open, perhaps a little harder than necessary, as she slid Nanaba back into the cold chamber. Once the door was shut she moved a few chambers down and stopped, fiddling with the door.

Levi looked back at Eren, who was pointedly looking anywhere aside from Hanji. His eyes were blood-shot and his face strained. "Are you going to be alright? You can wait outside if you want." When Eren failed to respond within a minute Levi turned back around. "Hanji, give me a minute. I need to talk with Eren." The brown haired woman looked up and nodded. Levi grabbed Eren by the wrist and tugged him along, pulling him from the room and out into the deserted hallway. He dropped Eren's wrist and looked at the taller man, gray eyes locking with red-rimmed green. "Eren, are you going to be alright?"

"Yes." Levi snorted and shook his head. The other man looked like he was liable to burst into tears at a moment's notice. Alright was the furthest thing from what Eren was at the current moment. I can't stand seeing him like this. This isn't how he should be. He should never be this close to tears. Levi let out a breath and put his hand on Eren's shoulder.

"Holding back those tears isn't going to help any. I won't judge you for crying." His voice was deep and sincere; calming. The hand on Eren's shoulder moved to the back of Eren's head, pulling it down till it rested on Levi's shoulder, his hand still on the back of Eren's head. "Stop holding it back Eren. I know it doesn't help." He felt Eren shudder against him and then Eren wrapped his arms around Levi like a vise, hands clutching at the back of the smaller man's shirt as he finally began to sob.

Levi froze automatically at the increased contact, but took a breath and pushed past the reaction, forcing it to submit to his will. His hand ran through the soft, chestnut hair by his face in what he hoped was a soothing manner. Maybe it would help calm Eren and ease the shaking that wracked his body. His other arm was effectively pinned to his side, so he couldn't do much with that at the moment. It was strange how little he cared about having someone within his personal space. It was even stranger how he didn't care that someone was crying on his shoulder, despite the fact he could feel the tears seeping through his shirt.

He kept stroking Eren's hair, unconsciously murmuring into his ear, his own voice soft and low. It mixed with the incoherent murmuring coming from Eren's own mouth. Levi glanced up and saw Hanji peering through the window of the metal doors. As soon as she noticed him staring at her she ducked out of sight. Levi rolled his eyes, but otherwise remained still, only his hand moving in slow, soothing circles on the back of Eren's head. "It's alright…" he murmured in Eren's ear. "It's alright…"

The sobs subsided carried on for several long, otherwise silent minutes before Eren began to peel himself away from Levi. His face was puffy and red, his eyes bloodshot from so many tears, but he looked a little better than before. Holding those tears back had practically been killing him. Levi put a hand on Eren's shoulder and steered him down the hall to a chair and urged him to sit down in it.

"I'll be right out. I just need to finish up with this. Ten minutes at most, I promise." Eren nodded and wiped his eyes, still letting out the occasional sniffle. Levi gave his shoulder one last gentle squeeze before he turned and walked back into the morgue.

Hanji was waiting for him beside the body of Marco Bott, the sheet already pulled down to his waist. She had cleaned the blood from his body. Neither of these two would be having an open casket ceremony, that was certain. "Hanji, there was blood on his chin and left cheek. Did you swab that?"

Hanji nodded and jerked her thumb back to the office where a shadow moved behind the frosted glass. "Moblit is arranging for the blood and dirt samples to be taken for tests. I thought it was a bit suspicious that there was blood on his teeth but not in his throat. If he had been coughing up any blood some would have lodged there. There was also a little bit of skin on his teeth. I'm thinking he bit his attacker, and if that's the case, we've got a chance at matching up the DNA with someone out there." She flipped the page on her clipboard and began to read.

"Marco Bott, age twenty-five. His right arm was roughly cut away from his body, presumably with a blade of average size, which is about five to six inches. Part of his throat was torn away. The marks do not match up with that of an animal so they must have used a metal instrument, custom-made most likely. Both of those wounds were cauterized with a flame. A flame was put against the right side of his face, which led to third degree burns across most of that side of his face with the occasional spots where the muscle and skin was completely burned away. I'm inclined to believe that his throat was torn out post-mortem, probably once most of the blood had finished flowing out through the wound of his arm, before tore his throat out and cauterized both wounds."

She set the clipboard down and looked at Levi overtop the body, her deep, brown eyes more serious than usual. "Levi… how many people are they planning on killing? How many more until they're done with this?"

Levi shook his head and clenched his hands, anger bubbling up in the pit of his stomach. "I don't know Hanji. I just don't know."

Chapter 17: End

Alright. That's finally done. Sorry if you liked Marco or Nanaba but I really did have to kill them off. The things I do for the story... Ah, with Thanksgiving break starting today I should have more time for writing both END GAME and Speak! until next Monday so hooray for that! Thanks to calleyrose for looking over some of the scenes in this chapter~ Anyways, I'm going to keep this short so I can sleep for an hour or two before waking up and writing some more. I hope you continue to enjoy END GAME!

calleyrose: Very, very easily. Heh heh, at least he was alive for a while! At least I didn't kill anyone extremely important!
ObsessedWithPercyJackson: Ah, no, not Levi. Sorry if you got confused about who was taken.
TheOtaku2: Unfortunately, I cannot comment on your guess of the plot as it's against my code, but that's a nice theory you have there~
ichiruzuka: Haha yeah. I try to be as evil as possible writing-wise
Lil'MissEya: Basically what I said to TheOtaku2
BloodiedReaper: Ah, thank you~ I like taking things slow in stories like this. Or in general. After all, that's how it is in real life~