Chapter Text
The box won’t break.
He slams on the four walls trapping him inside, but the material is unyielding. His knuckles dent more than the box.
“Mr. Ackerman, please calm down.”
The lid opens. He gasps for air.
White light blinds his eyes. For a moment he sees the battlefield, blood flying under the grey sky, crawling over limb after shredded limb. Levi jerks upright and dry heaves over the side.
“You’ve just exited the simulation, Mr. Ackerman. It’ll take a few seconds to adjust.”
Levi snaps his neck from side to side: strange contraptions crafted from metal, pipes and wires crawling over the walls. A man with thinning hair and a white coat peering down his nose.
“Eren. Where -“ Levi chokes. “Where is Eren?”
“You were the last participant to die. Eren and the others woke up not long ago.”
What happened? He was climbing up a pile of bodies to search for Eren’s titan form. He’d lost the rest of his squad hours ago. Where was -
“No longer dizzy? Excellent. The others are gathered for debrief. It’s time for you to join them.”
Levi scrapes his hands around the box ; no swords. His boots are gone too, and his gear. Grey slacks stretch to his bare feet and a white shirt brushes his chin.
He upturns his palms. Old callouses are replaced with smooth skin, free from caked blood and purple bruises. He shoots a hand to his eye - no scar.
“Hey, where the fuck am I?”
“We’ll explain in the debrief.”
“I asked you a question.” Levi pushes out the box and reaches for the man’s neck. His stomach churns the instant he moves. Keeling foward, he clenches the sides of the box until the floor stops shaking.
“Don’t strain yourself. Now get out slowly, and follow me.”
Levi cranes his chin up and scowls. Still, he needs answers
He climbs out and lands on the floor. The box looks like a cylinder. That, or a tomb. He pads ahead of the man and flicks his gaze over the worktops attached to the walls.
Something on the closest bench glints. Levi swipes up the scalpel as he spins around. “Hurry up, then. I don’t know the fucking way.”
“I’d watch your tongue, Ackerman. Your performance was far from satisfactory.”
Levi turns the blade in his palm as the man brushes past. He leads them through a crude white corridor, empty save for the lights lining the walls.
He stops outside a set of double doors. Chatter filters into the corridor.
“After you,” Levi says. The doors swing open.
People are packed into the room, each perched on rows of orderly cots. They huddle together in groups, shoulder to shoulder, eyes jerking left and right. He blinks. Every face is familiar.
Eren sits between Armin and Mikasa, heads tucked together in hushed whisper. Hange’s hands are flying as they chat with a sighing - Moblit? And Nanaba?
And Mike too, slumped against a cot with his knee pulled up. Mike, who’s been dead for years. Levi watched pires burn for most of the soldiers here.
A gold head peaks above them all, hidden at the back of the room. His blood freezes.
The scalpel’s tiny in his hand. It doesn’t stop him from raising it like a sword and charging the old man still standing by the door.
Levi slashes up as the man jerks back, coat staining crimson across his chest. Too shallow - aim for the throat. He shifts his grip and drives down.
Hands tear him away, hurling him onto the ground. Skin burning over the smooth floor, he jerks out his hands and rolls over. Two black clad men stare down at him.
A foot flies into his vision, smashing into his side. The second man joins in to pummel his thighs. Levi spits blood over the perfect floor as his vision spins black.
“Guards, stand down.” The men slink away and take post at the old man’s side.
Levi scrambles to his knees. His tunnel vision carves a path straight though the cots. Erwin stares back at him with eyes wide as dinner plates.
He climbs to his feet and jabs a finger at the old man. “Tell me, right now. What the fuck is going on?”
The man turns around and pulls a clipboard off the wall. The doors burst open.
“Ah, Doctor. Is it debriefing time?” A woman tugs at her ponytail, looking from the old man to the blood spattered floor. “Candidate 17 still volatile, I see?”
“Correct,” says the doctor. “Still no improvements there.”
The woman nods. “Perhaps a contribution to his failure.”
Levi charges her next.
It takes both guards to pin him down. They seize his arms and force him to face the room. Everyone is silent, perched on the edge of their seats and knees bouncing. The doctor straightens his coat.
“Now, if the disturbances are over. Depending on when you exited the simulation, you’ll have been briefed at different levels on why you’re here. For the sake of the newcomers, I may repeat a few details.
“Six months ago, the thirty of you were chosen as the final candidates for our military selection program. Upon application, you each agreed to enter the simulation after having your memories wiped and new ones implanted. Through running the simulation, we would test your compatability for certain roles within our forces. Take Candidate one, Eren Jaeger,”
Eren’s eyes widen. “We inserted your past - including your friendship with Alert and Miss Ackerman, and the death of your mother - into your mind. Your simulation only began with the second infiltration of the walls.”
Eren’s mouth falls open. Mikasa winds her arm around his shoulders.
Hange’s voice pipes over the sudden whispers. “If I may, Doctor, I’d like to know if we succeeded? Did we complete the simulation?”
Levi shakes his head. The guard digs a knee into his back. Does Hange really believe a word from this lunatic’s mouth?
“No group has ever beaten the simulation, and you were not the first. However, this does not mean none of you succeeded in compatibility. There are many promising candidates among you.”
“Quit the crazy bullshit, you bastard,” Levi spits. “Why don’t you explain where the fuck we are?”
“Mr. Ackerman,” the woman taps closer. “Your persistent hostility whilst the others have calmed down proves why you failed. You are unable to separate the simulation from reality, where you are kneeling right now.”
“Hostility?” Levi sways. “I was dying just five minutes ago.” His guts still burn where they’d spilled from his body.
“Not only that,” she stops before the blood splatters, glaring down at the mess. “But dying in the final battle was not your only failure. Upon having to choose between reviving Alert or Smith, you let personal feelings influence your decision. Your inability to ignore romantic and sexual attractions towards Mr. Smith-“
“That’s not-“
“Destroys your potential as a candidate. If you don’t settle down, you’ll be taken to solitary confinement.”
Levi shuts his eyes and counts to ten. The scalpel’s two metres out of reach. The guards’ hands blister his wrists. Erwin’s trying to catch his eye.
“Fuck you.”
“Calmed down now?” The doctor checks his watch. “We’ll allow you time to catch up before we assess your vitals.” The party files out, and the doors slam shut. They click with a lock.
Levi grabs at the floor and drags himself backwards. His shoulders hit the wall. He takes a deep breath.
The room disperses into rising chatter. Only Eren and his friends, and the veterans gathered around Hange’s cot, stare silently at Levi.
Erwin’s feet hit the floor as he stands up. Gazes whirl as he strides through the aisle of cots, emerging at the front of the room. Levi raises his head.
Erwin falls to one knee, three metres away. Levi pushes at the floor, but he can’t retreat any further.
Erwin presses his palms to the floor. “Levi.”
He shakes his head, drawing up his knees.
“Levi. Hello.”
Erwin dying on the rooftop. Erwin saying goodbye. Erwin chasing him through the underground.
“Was any of it real?” His breath breaks in three. “All those fucking years. Did they implant that into my fucking mind?”
Shoulders slumping, Erwin hangs his head. “The expedition before Trost. They told me that’s when our simulation began.”
His feet sink through the floor. The oxygen’s getting thin.
“I’m sorry, Levi. I know. It felt so real.” Erwin reaches out a hand. It’s so close. It’s too far. The ground swallows him whole.
Erwin crawls forward. Levi meets him halfway. He flails out his hand and Erwin catches it, dragging him closer until Levi’s off the the floor, cradled in his lap.
He stretches his legs around Erwin’s hips until they’re even closer, chest to chest, hearts pounding in time ; there’s no inch left untouched. Erwin wraps him in his arms and buries his nose into Levi’s neck.
“It doesn’t matter,” Erwin says. “I remember everything. That’s enough.”
Levi buries his hands in his shirt, his hair, the skin on his back. He inhales his scent: clean, fresh, medicinal. It’s not the same.
But his eyes are still cobalt, and his hair still shines the same gold. Erwin is solid beneath his fingers. Erwin is alive.
“How long ... have you been awake?”
“One month,” Erwin says. “I did everything I could, but they wouldn’t let you out. How long was it for you?”
Levi bites his lip. “Five years, Erwin. I was waiting five fucking years.”
Erwin pulls back. His long fingers frame Levi’s chin, brows climbing up his forehead. “All that time ...”
“Maybe I’m finally dead.”
“No,” Erwin presses their foreheads together. He’s burning hot. “I’m real, Levi. Believe me. I’m real.”
Ducking his head, he hides in Erwin’s chest. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again, real or not real. Bastard.”
Erwin tucks his chin atop Levi’s hair, chuckles rumbling to the core. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”