The Once and Future Monster

Chapter 3

"This isn't healthy, Levi. I thought you were going to use your business degree to join some big corporation and earn enough to support your mom in her old age? You don't even know if he's still alive—"

"Eren's not dead, Hange," Levi snapped at his concerned friend, who shrank back slightly at the harsh tone before jumping back into the fight.

"I just meant that you need to consider all the possibilities. Eren isn't the boy you remember. He's a completely different person, and you shouldn't change your entire life to chase after a memory."

Was it the memory of Eren as the happy child he babysat or the determined soldier he watched over that Hange was referring to? The answer was clear to Levi. He decided when he turned eighteen, as did Hange, to let the past die and to enjoy the lives they had led up to that point. They earned it after all. But it wasn't as if they could forget the past. Knowing it only made Levi more aware of how deserving of peace Eren was. Levi knew with certainty that he could not enjoy this liberating life he was given if Eren's was mired in tragedy. He would do whatever it took to save Eren and give them both the life they deserved.

The issue was that he first needed to save Eren from himself, and Levi was at a loss on how to do that. He didn't know the details that warped Eren into the ruthless person he witnessed a year ago in that alley. Since that time, Levi enrolled in the police academy and became an officer at the Fairview Police Station, hoping it would give him access to clues to finding Eren. He worked his way up the ranks with countless late hours and his sharp thinking. Now he was working under a cop named Pete, the head of the squad covering the drug trade in Fairview and surrounding areas. 

Hange was worried about Levi, and so was his mom though she didn't know what Hange did. There were deep purple bags under his eyes from the overtime he was working. Levi knew he had to sleep at some point or he wouldn't be at his best, but every time he thought of going home for a full nights rest, he wondered if a patrol car circling the city in the early morning hours would finally catch a glimpse of Eren. That thought erased any intention of going home to sleep Levi briefly entertained.

"Don't test me, Levi. I will go to the Chief of Police and tell him you're incapable of doing your work well if you haven't slept more than four hours a night in the past few months."

"Hange," Levi growled.

"No, hate me if you want but this is for your own good. Now, this is what's going to happen. You are going to go home and sleep, take the day off tomorrow, and in the evening I am taking you out to dinner. And you better sleep instead of working on your computer. On second thought, I'm staying at your apartment to make sure."

Levi gripped his thinning hair tightly between his fingers, but then released the fragile strands. The hair falling out of his overly stressed body an indicator itself that he wasn't taking good care of himself. He was reluctant to admit it, but Hange was right. Just for one day, he would rest. Then he would be back at work, using his renewed energy to search harder. His goal was to find Eren before the boy turned eighteen. Levi knew that Eren had some of his memories from his past life, though he didn't know that was what they were. As a child Eren woke up screaming from what he thought were nightmares. Now Levi knew better. Those nightmares of Eren's were not the result of an overactive imagination or watching scary movies, it was a life better left forgotten. Who knew how much further Eren would spiral out of control when he learned that everything he dreamed was once real. Levi couldn't make Eren forget the past, but he could at least be by Eren's side when the boy turned eighteen and remembered everything.

Hange was working on a theory. It was strange how their parents remembered nothing of the past. Perhaps they remembered at eighteen only to forget at a later age, like thirty. That was merely a guess; they couldn't test it until they themselves turned a certain age. Another theory was that only some people remembered the past, those who fought. Kuchel Ackerman was not a soldier, she was an average woman who lived a hard life then died an unmemorable death. Levi on the other hand spent years fighting monsters and witnessing the gruesome deaths of his comrades. Did he remember the past so he could better appreciate this future?