Remembering You

Listening to the older man's explanations, the only word that Eren could come up with was ludicrous. There was no record of him being a titan shifter and he was pretty damn sure he would have known if he was one. And someone would have known something about a thing as powerful as the Coordinate. Part of why he had not immediately dismissed the idea as outrageous was because Levi had invoked Mikasa's name. Nor did Levi seem like the type of person to lie or to make outlandish claims, although that was no guarantee that he wouldn't. At the very least, Eren would check the veracity of Levi's statements with his sister the moment he returned to headquarters.

However, as much as the brunet wanted to deny it, hearing Levi's description of events from the past reminded him of all those dreams he had had. There was something about them that resonated deep within his core. Some part of him wanted to nod and say 'oh, so that's why that is the case.' The dark-haired man's words seemed to dredge up blurred scenes just below the surface of Eren's thoughts, similar to the faceless people who haunted his nights, before fading away once more.

Still, as right as those words sounded, a part of the brunet couldn't let go of the telltale nagging in his gut, telling him that there were things the older man was still holding back.

He didn't know what to think if this whole crazy scenario was true. Eren was pissed at Levi, and Mikasa if she agreed with the man, for trying to feed him some half-baked lies as an explanation for what had happened. Another part of him was angry that they both thought he couldn't be trusted with the 'truth,' if it really was the truth. However, the desperation he had seen thrice now on Levi's face – first when Eirian was kidnapped, then when he was injured and the man was asking him to heal, and now when he had been handed the key – seemed much too real to fake.

Glancing briefly at the dark-haired man who seemed tired beyond his years, Eren turned back to the object in his hands. The brass was warm in his palm. Pictures flashed in his mind as he envisioned his mother and father admonishing him not to play in the basement. Blinking the memory away, he traced the design with his fingers. There wasn't anything particularly special about the key except his hand seemed to remember the shape as his fingers folded over it.

Staring as his closed fist, Eren could almost hear the click of a lock turning as images once forgotten began rushing through his mind. The disorientation was even worse than the first time he had used 3D maneuver gear. Nothing could compare to the plethora of sounds and faces that assaulted him and the brunet doubled over to clutch his head.

Years' worth of memories, from everything about Levi to all the time he had spent in the Scouting Legion, were dredged up and compressed into one moment. Hundreds upon thousands of pictures flooded through his mind. Both the good and the bad battered his brain with brutal force. It was as if Eren was instantaneously reliving the entirety of his first few years at the Scouting Legion all over again.

Waking up to find himself imprisoned and questioned about being a titan shifter. The beating at the military tribunal.

Finding out he could heal and regrow limbs. Learning how to shift and control his titan transformation.

Levi's Special Operations Squad. Petra. Oluo. Eld. Gunther. Training and the demise of the entire team at the Female Titan's – no Annie's – hand.

Hange and their experiments. Learning and attempting to master his shifting abilities.

Cleaning the Scouting Legion headquarters from top to bottom.

Being captured by the Reiss family and Kenny Ackerman. The memories of his father, of the First King, and of things in the past humanity had forgotten. Obtaining the Coordinate.