END GAME

Chapter 20: How Could They Know?

His steps were quick and urgent. His thoughts, trapped somewhere between the case and Eren, flickered back and forth, back and forth between the two. A thought struck him when he was halfway to the morgue and his steps faltered. I should have taken a cab. Time is essential. Damn it, focus, Levi, focus. Ten more minutes of walking brought him to the doorstep of the morgue.

Levi pushed the door open and walked in. Warmth greeted him, enveloping him, and leading him to shed his jacket, draping it over his arm before he walked back the autopsy room. He hesitated at the door, staring at the handle, wanting to open the door, but he simply couldn't find the will to do so. I'm not used to coming here alone anymore. I wish Eren were here.

He took a breath and pulled the door open. Hanji was bent over one of the tables. All of them were empty. She must have been between autopsies. It was either that or she had put the body away before Levi arrived. A clipboard sat on the metal autopsy table, along with several other papers set beside it. Her hair was falling out of its bun. She looked confused and she kept shaking her head, muttering quietly to herself.

Levi knocked on the door and Hanji glanced up, her brown eyes wide and her glasses askew, "Hey Levi." The door shut behind him with a click and she peered around him, eyebrows raised. "Where's Eren?"

Levi's jaw clenched and he curled his hands into fists. His throat was tight and didn't seem to want to cooperate. "He couldn't make it today." His voice was frigid and sharp. Silver eyes glared at Hanji, daring her to raise another question. Irritation bubbled in the pit of his stomach. He wasn't sure quite who it was directed at, wasn't sure why he was agitated.

Hanji met his gaze evenly for several moments before she raised the clipboard in her hand. "Don't you want to know what I called you for?"

"No Hanji," he snapped with a voice sharp enough to cut as he walked over to the table. "I don't want to know what you have to show me. I obviously came just because I wanted to. Now, if you're done with stupid questions, what did you want?"

Hanji raised her hands by her shoulders, a defensive and slightly hurt expression crossing her face. "No need to bite my head off Levi, I'm not the one doing all this. Now, do you want to hear what I have to say or are you going to be a total ass?"

He could feel her eyes searching him. They were gauging everything about him; the way he stood, how rigid his body was, the emotions on his face and in his eyes, probably even something as simple as his appearance. Levi took a breath and sighed, "Fine. What is it you wanted to tell me?" He voice managed not to betray the coils of irritation-turned-ager that had started to spread. It remained flat and cold. Like it had once been, months ago.

Hanji glanced up at him but spread out the papers and turned them towards him so that he could see. She pointed to the picture furthest to Levi's left. It was of a red, disk-shaped thing with a slight indention in it. "Since both you and I know that you only know the basics, of this, I'll try to keep this simple. This image right here is that of a normal, perfectly healthy blood cell."

She gestured to the picture beneath it. There were bunches of relatively large pink dots, some with white showing through their centers, along with several similarly sized splotches of purple. Lighter purple surrounded the larger purple blobs. Some of the lighter shades formed large bubbles around the blobs, while others only formed barely-visible outlines along them. Smaller purple bits were scattered around amidst it all. It might as well have been Greek to Levi. Hanji tapped the picture, her finger on top of a cluster of the pink blobs.

"These are red blood cells. The dark purple bits, the larger ones, are lymphocytes. Those are a form of small leukocytes, white blood cells, with a single, round nucleus. They occur most often in the lymphatic system. You don't really need to know about that, so don't worry. The lighter purple surrounding them is called the neutrophils. That just means that it's a neutrophilic white blood cell. That means that the cell or its contents are already stained, but only by natural dyes. Don't worry about that either.

"The smaller purple dots you see are the platelets. Platelets are small, colorless cell fragments without nuclei. They are found in large numbers in blood and are involved in the process of clotting. You don't need to know about that either."

Hanji gestured to the pictures next to the first two. The red disk in the top picture looked strange, with white strands creeping across its surface. "This," Hanji said, chewing the inside of her cheek thoughtfully as she contemplated what she was about to say.

"Well… to be honest, I'm not sure what this is. It looks like any other RBC. It looks healthy. It looks oxygenated. It looks perfectly fine. But those white lines on it beg to differ. I don't know what they do. I've never seen anything like this in my life. For a single blood cell to be like this is strange, but all of the blood cells, every single RBC, looked like this.

"Something in this person's blood has changed it, but despite that, it still functions. It's still healthy. It obviously kept the culprit alive. I ran some tests to try to match the blood up, to see if it still registered as human for that matter. Not only did I not come up with an ID, it failed to come up positive as human. The sequencing was human, but there was extra DNA, enough to not register as human. It wasn't human, not completely. Whatever is on that blood cell is foreign. Maybe even alien. There's something else too."

Hanji looked up at Levi, her brown eyes wide and confused. "I took some of my blood, just for an experiment, and put it in a dish with some of the culprit's blood, not even that much. My blood looked perfectly normal, without the white lines. I come back five minutes later and my blood cells are dying, turning white with whatever was on those other blood cells. But it wasn't just cracks. No, my blood cells turned completely white, like it was incompatible with whatever was piggybacking on those RBCs."

Levi felt a chill rise up and he stared at Hanji, biting his lip as he thought. "Hanji… was that blood AB negative?"

Hanji looked at him, a vaguely surprised expression on her face. "Yes… it was."

"And your blood type would be what?"

Hanji scratched her chin thoughtfully as she thought about the answer. "Eh… A positive I do believe." She looked back down at the pictures and then her head snapped up, eyes wider than before. "The culprit has the same blood type as the dead kids."

Levi nodded, "The same type as the dead children the ones that we never found. Not only that, but also the same blood as the people who went missing over twenty years ago, along with the series of children early in the twentieth century."

Hanji slammed her hands on the metal table. "Damn! That's why they're burning the bodies! The changes in the DNA would be obvious otherwise and they can't risk us being able to identify what sort of pathogen or whatever is in their blood." Hanji jabbed at the picture beneath the white-webbed blood cell.

"See, there are other anomalies here too. I found nearly six times the amount of platelets in the culprit's blood. That means that wounds clot faster. But if that was the case, surely the culprit should have had at least a dozen clots in his or her body… It's strange. Once I found that, I looked at the enzymes related to healing, growth, and whatnot.

"It was astounding really. I won't go into detail, but what I found would have allowed for wounds to be repaired five, maybe even six times faster than what is normal. A broken bone that takes six weeks to heal for a normal person would take one week, maybe even less, for someone like this."

Levi stared at Hanji, eyes wide. The chill inside had turned into a solid block of ice. A solid block of ice sitting in his chest with icy tendrils spread out throughout his body. Eren… he's like that.

"I'll need more time to examine the blood. I might even have to take it to Ilse. You trust her with this information, correct?" Levi nodded, absently, hearing only half of what Hanji said. She continued to talk, but her words, her voice, became a drone to Levi's ears, fading together as he fell into his thoughts.

Eren heals like that. When he was shot… Within a few hours, he was fine. So if I looked at his medical records… Does that mean he's one of them? That I've been working with one of them the whole time? No! Eren wouldn't be with those people… right? But there's something I'm forgetting… Oh god… I pray that I'm wrong about this.

"Levi. I require your attention."

Silver eyes refocused on the autopsy technician in front of him, but his thoughts still lingered on Eren. "What?"

She leaned towards him, her brown eyes questioning. They demanded the truth. "Levi. What's wrong with you? Your mind is all over the place today. You're more irritable than usual. Actually, you're downright murderous. Not only that, but you look like you're sick with yourself. On top of that, Eren isn't here. So tell me now: what happened?"

Levi winced. He had forgotten how perceptive Hanji could be, how easily she could notice emotions, no matter how little they were shown. It didn't help that she had known him so long that it was almost impossible to lie to her face. She could read him well, better than he could read himself sometimes. "It's fine. Nothing happened." Stop denying it. Just tell her. She could help.

"It's not 'fine.'" Hanji murmured, staring deep into his eyes. Concern was written all over her face. "Come on Levi. You can tell me. You told me before, so why not now?"

Levi slammed his hand on the metal table between them, his silver eyes burning. "It's because the present has nothing, nothing, to do with the past." The words came out as an enraged snarl that rose with every emphasized word. She's got nerve, bringing that back up here and now.

"Obviously it does!" Hanji argued, her voice rising. She smacked the metal table with her palm, the sound echoing in the silent room. "Stop lying Levi, and don't even say you aren't! I'm not a total idiot!" Her fingers curled inwards on her palms on the table as she half-glared at him. "Levi… just tell me." Her voice dropped to a whisper, faint and pleading. "I want to help. I want to, but I can't unless you let me."

They glared at each other for several moments, silver meeting amber. Levi could feel his walls crumbling; he could feel the urge to talk, to let it all go. For a while, not even an hour, he just wanted to let it all go, to let himself be weak for once. He just wanted to let it all go, just for a little while. He wanted to get the burden weighing down his chest off, even if it was only a little bit.

"Hanji… Eren came to my apartment last night. I thought he was a robber at first. I almost shot him before he called out. He was drunk. He hugged me and then he started crying, saying something about how I was dead, and talking about there being a lot of blood. Then he… he kissed me."

Levi trailed off at that, having no desire to say what had occurred next. Hanji leaned forwards and put a hand on Levi's shoulder, encouraging him to continue speaking. "What did you do after that?"

"I pushed him away," Levi spat the words out as if they were toxic as he shook his head, a bitter smile on his face. "I didn't know what to do. I just… I don't know. I wanted to… I couldn't. I didn't want him to be like the… you know." I didn't want him to be like those faceless, nameless people, too numerous to count.

Hanji squeezed his shoulder. "Calm down. It's all right Levi, it's alright. What happened then?"

"I fucking left him out in the living room," Levi whispered, staring down at the edge of the metal table. "I walked into my room and I shut the door. I didn't know what else to do. He left a few minutes after that." His hands gripped the edge of the table, the lip on the underside biting into his fingers, but not hard enough to actually hurt.

"Levi… you're an idiot. Even if you don't want him to be like those people, you can't just leave him on his own. That's almost cruel, especially in this case. After seeing Marco dead, I doubt he's in the most stable of states at the moment. That's probably why he was drunk!"

Levi looked up at her, silver eyes slowly sliding up to meet hers. "I know," he whispered, agony in both his eyes and his voice. "I just couldn't think. I still don't know what to think. Hanji, I've never had to bother with thinking about this kind of stuff before. I don't even know how I feel about him! I just… I just know it's different." Isn't that a lie? I do know… kind of.

Hanji buried her head into her hands, shaking it slightly from side to side. "Oh my God… Levi. I mean, that's understandable, but surely you should have realized by now? You don't even have to have realized it all the way, just a hint. What are you going to do now?"\

Levi raked his fingers through his hair, disturbing the ebony locks and pulling his head back. "Maybe… I don't know, I just haven't really thought about it. As for what I'm going to do… any advice?"

"No," Hanji said, her hands finding her hips. "I'd love to help, but this is something you've got to do yourself. You have to decide how much you like Eren. You have to figure out what to do now. I advise you stop wasting time and figure it out."

Levi looked at Hanji, his face blank and his eyes unreadable. His thoughts whirled about, already contemplating. "Thanks Hanji… I've got to go now. Call me if you find out anything else."

Hanji smiled and shooed him out without another word. Levi left the building and stared up at the darkening sky. It was nearly five thirty. The walk and talk had taken up more time than he had realized. His feet turned and he began to walk, treading a path he knew by heart. Unfortunately, he needed the keys first before he could let his feet carry him to the home of a certain chestnut haired man.

Levi took a breath and shoved the key into the lock, trying to calm the drum of his heart. This could make or break everything. The tumblers in the door rolled and clicked as Levi turned the key in the lock. He pulled the key back out and stuffed it in his pocket, his other hand twisting the knob before it was completely in his pocket. Levi stepped into the apartment.

It was dark. With the sun having already set and the distinct lack of illuminated lights, the only things brightening the dim apartment were the lamps on the street below and the stream of light flowing in from behind Levi. On top of the darkness, there was silence in the apartment. Street noises permeated the walls: the distant honking of horns, screeching of tires, and clattering from various metal bins. That was all the noise that filled the apartment, all that was audible anyways.

Levi left the door open as he felt along the wall, searching blindly for a light switch. His fingers brushed over one and he flicked it up. Light exploded into the room, the source coming from the ceiling light in the living room. With the apartment brightened a bit, Levi shut the door quietly, only a dull click following it. "Eren…?" His voice came out quieter than he would have liked.

No response followed his voice. Levi ventured further into the apartment, his steps slow and cautious. There were no signs of violence, but that didn't mean anything. If they've taken him, killed him, I swear to God, I will tear this city apart. I'll burn it to the fucking ground.

Eren wasn't in the living room. He wasn't even hiding in a closet, one of which could have fit him at the bottom if he had curled up. Could he be at Armin or Mikasa's place? Levi strode over to hallway and ducked into the rooms, one by one. Eren wasn't in his room. The bed looked awful, with the covers peeled away and thrown across the floor.

Levi froze when he saw that, but the wall lacked a red slash and the window was closed tight. Eren wasn't in the bathroom. He wasn't in the guest bedroom either. Levi wandered back out to the mouth of the hallway, casting his eyes around Eren's apartment. He turned into the kitchen and stopped dead before he even managed to get three feet in.

Eren sat on the floor, his legs splayed out on the floor in front of him. He was slumped forwards, his head dangling over his chest. His hands and forearms were covered in blood, but there were no apparent wounds on him, but there was a sizeable glass shard clenched in his hand. Bottles littered the ground around him, all of them empty.

There might have been twelve in all, but at least three were broken. Shock and sadness ripped through Levi's chest, tearing his breath away and adding to the weight of regret that was already nearly crushing him. Levi stepped over to Eren, kicking bottles out of the way and not caring if he stepped on glass. Bottles clinked and fell, clattering as they rolled around and knocked against each other, while glass crunched underfoot.

He crouched down by Eren's knee and put a hand on his shoulder, shaking him gently. "Eren… Eren, wake up." Eren's head slowly rose and turned towards Levi. His eyes were gold, molten and burning, but completely unreadable. Levi recoiled slightly as Eren blinked. His eyes were green when they opened them. Levi shook his head. It must have been a trick of the light.

His emerald eyes were listless and forlorn. He looked up at Levi for a few moments. Neither said a word. Eren lifted his hand and brought it up. Levi could see it better now. The fingertips were smeared with blood. Blood was the thickest around the center of his palm. He had probably cut himself there. Levi felt sick. That's why he had bandages on his arms. Not because he fell. They were because he cut himself.

The blood on his arms had flowed to one side, trickling straight towards his body on both arms. The flow ran along a wavering line that stretched from his wrists to his elbows Realization slammed into him and left him breathless. Oh, God… he tried to kill himself…

Blood-covered fingers touched the side of his face, their touch feather-light. A soft smile broke out on Eren's face. "It's a nice dream…" His voice was clear. He wasn't drunk, not this time. A quiet laugh bubbled from Eren's lips. "Ah… I was an idiot there. I'm not surprised you if hate me now, the real you of course."

His fingers ran along Levi's cheek, tracing the bones beneath the porcelain skin. The touch, the skin of the fingertips, left warm trails on Levi's cheek. He didn't even mind the blood that was doubtlessly smearing on his face. It didn't matter. He cupped Eren's hand with him own, keeping the warmth radiating off his hand in place.

"No Eren," he whispered, "not a dream. Not this time. I don't hate you, so don't think that." Eren's hand twitched beneath his own and the dull, lifeless look began to melt from his eyes, hope sparking in the jade depths. Levi leaned forwards, his hand slipping from Eren to pull the taller man away from the counter. He pulled him close until their faces were mere inches apart. Levi cupped Eren's cheeks between his hands, pale fingers curling around the contours of his face. He leaned in closer and pressed his mouth against Eren's, soft and caste, lasting only for a moment before he pulled away. His hands slid down to circle around Eren and press the man against his chest. "I'm sorry," he whispered into chestnut hair. "I'm sorry Eren."

Eren's arms came up to grip the back of Levi's shirt, clenching the thin material between his fingers. His shoulders were shaking slightly. "It's alright." Eren's voice was a hoarse whisper, filled with relief and thick with tears. Levi opened his mouth to speak, to say that no, it wasn't alright, but his cellphone exploded with noise. Both men jumped at the sudden noise and Levi cursed.

He pulled away from Eren, his hand still lingering on the other's shoulder, as he answered the call without bothering to look at the Caller ID. A familiar voice greeted his ears, excited and quick.

"Hey Levi, I think I found something. You know those letters you sent me. They're spelling out something."

"Go on," Levi said, trying to mask the exasperation in his voice. He pulled the phone away and set it on the counter. The speaker function took over, allowing Ilse's voice to crackle through and fill the apartment.

"Well, the T, C, and R were the first three letters. The C was underlined. When words are scrambled, the first letter in each word is underlined. That means that C is the first letter, which leaves us with T and R. After that, they changed the patterns of which people they were killing, going from civilians to people involved with police. I'm thinking that means that C, T, and R consist of one word. When you put the letters together, you get Ctr., which is the shortened form of court. Typically, only streets are shortened like that."

"So we're looking for a street. Oh yes, there's only a million of those." Ilse laughed in response. Levi could hear her moving around on the other side of the phone. He could hear the sound of a muted voice in the background. She must have had a guest when she called.

"I'd tell you about the second word, but there really isn't much to go off of yet. I'll see what I- oh my God. Levi. There's someone crawling out of the sewer in the street. They're looking up. Oh God, I think they're looking at me."

Levi and Eren straightened up. Jade eyes locked with silver, shock passing between them. "Ilse, get away from the window. Do it right now. Is someone there with you?" They could hear her breath, shaky and quick. She was nervous.

"Y-yes, Mike is here with me."

"Is he armed?" Please be armed please be armed. Both of them could hear Ilse calling to Mike. She must have had her hand over the receiver because her voice was muted, her words undistinguishable. Levi stood and pulled Eren up, both of them knocking more bottles around as they did so. "Go wash your arms and change," Levi whispered to him. Eren nodded and stumbled away, his legs stiff and uncooperative after having not been used for who knows how long.

"Yes, he's armed. He's got a pistol and six bullets. Levi, I'm going to check the window again."

"Don't do it Ilse that just exposes you to gunfire."

"I need to see if they're coming closer. I need to know if they're actually coming here or leaving."

That was something they both knew was unlikely. How many people emerged from sewers in the middle of the night? He could hear the sound of running water and things being knocked around from the direction of the bathroom. At least one of them was doing as Levi had instructed. He started to speak again, the calm tone to his voice being the complete opposite of the fear that was starting to creep in. "Ilse, listen to me. Get into the safest location of your apartment. Actually, I advise leaving your apartment. Go-"

"I can't do that Levi. There's three one of them. One's starting to climb the fire escape stairs."

"For God's sake, Ilse, get away from the window!"

Mike. A slight feeling of relief crept into Levi. Mike knew what he was doing. Hopefully, he could get Ilse to cooperate. Eren burst back into the kitchen and more bottles clattered about. "Fuck, sorry, sorry!"

"Ilse, go to the bedroom. You have a gun in there right, don't you? Get that and hide. I'll handle them. You call the police."

"Mike! I-"

"Go Ilse!"

Mutters of dissent reached their ears but Ilse must have left whatever room she was in, because Mike's voice faded. They heard a door shut over the phone and could hear her rummaging about.

"Alright Levi," Ilse's voice was breathless, but the panic that had filled her voice moments before was gone, replaced with cold determination. "Just in case we don't make it out of this, I'm hiding the information."

"Ilse, you're going to make it out. Mike will handle them." He could only hope that was true. Based on what he had seen, the Titans behind the attacks had already managed to murder three armed police officers. That didn't exactly put the odds in their favor. They could hear the sound of something shifting and rattling.

"Levi, I'm not going to give myself false hope. I'm not an idiot. Listen carefully. Everything I managed to find is going to be under the carpet in my room. Look under the nightstand. There's a loose piece of carpet. Pull that away. One of the floorboards will be missing. They'll be in there, inside a box."

"Well, now I know where to look. Thanks."

"Shit…"

The new voice was deep and masculine, the malice in it evident, even over the phone. Gunshots rang out, audible but slightly muted. There was a thump – the phone hitting the floor. A scream pierced the speakers. Ilse was screaming. The screams cut off abruptly, as did the gunshots. Silence reigned for a few moments. Footsteps reached them from over the phone. Then a voice.

"Hello. I'm so glad she was already talking to you Levi… or do you still go by le rouge l'homme? It's so hard to tell nowadays."

Levi's eyes widened at the mention of the name. Ice filled his veins, but there was no slow creeping to it this time. It slammed into him, leaving him breathless with shock. How? How do they know that? I haven't used it – haven't heard it – in years! Eren tugged on Levi's sleeve, his emerald eyes questioning. Levi shook his head, too shocked to speak.

"Surprised I take? Well, you did make quite a name for yourself when you ran with the Sombre Cœur, particularly when you joined up with those two. What were their names…? Isabel and Farlan? It was too bad they had to die. Weren't their deaths because of you?"

His blood froze. His thoughts froze. He thought his heart might have stopped. He was so rigid that if something touched him, he could have shattered on contact. No, no, no, no! Shut up! Just shut up! Something grabbed his arm and Levi glared at the offending hand, his head slowly inching up to the face of the person who owned the arm. Eren stared at him, jade eyes wide, confused, and worried. "Levi…" he whispered.

"Would Eren happen to be with you? I'd like to give him a message."

A strangled sound came from Eren's throat, his hand tightening on Levi's arm. His fingers dug in, almost bruising with the strength of his grip.

"I'll take that as a yes. Well Eren, here's a message from our Lord: 'We are coming for you, so try to make this game interesting while it lasts.' Well boys, it's been a nice chat, but I'm afraid I have to go. My friend and I have some… business to attend to."

Laughter came from the other end of the call before it cut off abruptly, the call ending and leaving Eren and Levi in silence. Eren was shaking, fear painted, quite visibly, across his face. Levi stood next to him, his entire body made of stone. How? How could they possibly know?

Chapter 20: End

Alright, I'll keep this quick, got things to do.

Translation notes (hopefully they're somewhat accurate because I don't speak French)
Sombre Cœur - Dark Court
le rouge l'homme - The Red Man

calleyrose: Yeah, I know . Crap... that's what happens when I type fast or half asleep. You're dead-set on spoilers, aren't you .
Kunougi Haruka: Many things~ Hahaha, yeah, strangling kind of deters such things. I shall!
TheOtaku2: Yeah... I'm gonna go back and fix that up a bit tonight. Oh, those crazy-ass results. They made me actually have to research something for once.
blackirishawk: Haha, he could have, but that would be too easy!