This is My Last War (Attack on Titan // LeviHan) - Part 3

Their Best Life - An Epilogue

"So, what is it you remember?"

Effectively capturing the flood of words pouring forth from people's mouths in response to that question proved to be daunting. Those who accepted the invitation to share their version of "the truth" felt profoundly appreciative when they recognized that they were being taken seriously by the officials. Crafting coherence from their narratives required a meticulous approach involving structured inquiries and careful probing to unveil the essential details. Recognizing her own limitations, Zoë enlisted two assistants to aid in the undertaking. In just a week, they had amassed hundreds of pages chronicling "nut-case" stories.

"Is that all for today, Commander?" Florian, an earnest, blond young man with glasses, asked politely after the last interview for the day. He had tidied up his desk already while she had sat staring into the void. The other assistant, an energetic young mother, had already left. Zoë hadn't even noticed.

"Yes," she smiled at him apologetically and waved goodbye. "You did well."

After he had left, Zoë's gaze fixated on the stacks of documents sprawled before her. The system she and Armin had devised was straightforward; they organized the narratives based on the most frequently recurring themes. Subsequently, they adjusted the interview questions to delve deeper into areas where more information was needed.

What genuinely unsettled her was the striking similarity between the stories.

Essentially, she faced two options: Either she could hold onto the notion that what they were confronting was a manifestation of mass hysteria, or she could entertain the unsettling possibility that Levi Ackerman had spoken the truth. Somebody had wiped the collective memories of a world haunted by monstrous creatures, leaving only a select few with memories intact, either due to a mistake or by design.

The second option made no sense.

Wiping the memories of an entire population was scientifically implausible, downright impossible. Levi's account of such a plan - in which she herself had been involved! - seemed preposterous. Executing something of this magnitude was beyond feasibility. No, it defied all reason — and yet, paradoxically, it made a chilling kind of sense.

It was many things, really: Annie, for example, suddenly walking out of prison one day, with no clear recollection why she had been in it and no records to tell them the reason either, certain that she had come to Paradis from Marley years ago on a secret mission she couldn't recall. Or the walls and their inexplicable, simultaneous collapse. Sabotage? Not likely. Also, the concentration camps in Liberio, for a population who were, they claimed themselves, much hated refugees from Paradis. Only that nobody had any notion of when they had left the island to live on the mainland nor what the reason for it had been.

All of this? easily explained by the outrageous claim from...

"Hey," a gravelly voice said from the door.

Zoë's head snapped up. Her treacherous heart started a telltale gallop at the sight of the man leaning leisurely against the door frame. He looked very handsome in a dark brown suit and snow-white shirt. He was never far from her thoughts but she preferred having him near in person.

"Hi," her lips curled into a smile. "Should I scold the guards for letting you stroll in, or did you manage to sneak past them?"

He shrugged and entered the room. "They're getting used to me."

His black hair gleamed like the wings of a raven in the lamplight, eliciting a tense anticipation in her stomach. He was an enigma. His presence carried a predatory aura, and the proximity to him sparked a peculiar excitement within her.