Chapter Text
24th December, 23:43
As the clocks neared midnight on Christmas Eve, Hange ambled down one of the corridors of Shiganshina House before hearing something coming from the dining hall. They approached as quietly as they could on their crutches, and poked their head in to find the silhouette of someone humming to themselves whilst reading a book.
"Levi," they guessed.
Closing the door, they made their way towards him. The moonlight gave them enough vision to reach him without tripping over any of the tables or chairs, and when he lifted his head up, they could see him much more clearly. Like themself, his hair was nearly at his shoulders. Despite looking tired as ever, his eyes were rather clear in the light.
"What are you doing up so late?" They asked him.
He averted his gaze. "Making the most of my last night."
"...It's your birthday tomorrow."
"Yeah. Then I'll be gone."
It was silent for a moment. Hange glanced at a large crate on the table, covered by a cloth, just behind where Levi was sitting. When they looked at him again, he was already studying their face.
"Oi, Hange." He snapped the book shut and met their eyes with a piercing gaze. "Have you given up yet?"
Hange smiled. "I'm not very good at doing what I'm told."
"Funny," Levi smirked, and tossed the book onto the table. "Neither am I."
Hange had believed so, after thinking on it for a while, but it was still relieving to hear. In fact, Levi had probably been waiting for Hange tonight. Conveniently, they'd been looking for him, too.
"Let's run away, Levi. That's what I want to discuss."
"Figures. I've heard you yap about just about everything in the world over the years. Not many topics left. Has Papa been watching you like a dog too?"
"Yeah. I didn't want him to find out my true intentions, so I couldn't come and find you in broad daylight. He's really cautious. I think he only ever stopped watching me to check on you. But that means he wasn't paying attention to anyone else."
Levi raised an eyebrow. "Moblit and Miche?"
"Yeah. I suppose he thought once he got rid of Erwin, he'd only need to watch one of us at a time to know if we were still discussing escaping, and no one else was enough of a threat. So I left all the practical work to them."
"How far along are your preparations?"
"We're completely ready. Medical supplies, food and winter clothing are all prepared. We organised most of it whilst Papa was out the other day getting our presents. We can leave whenever we choose to."
"Not bad," Levi hummed. "What are you gonna do, then?"
"The plan's for us to leave tomorrow afternoon, before you get shipped out."
"It's reckless to do it during the day. Papa will already know what the strategy is, based on the tag games and the day you and Erwin tried to survey beyond the wall. It would be better if you did it in the night and used the dark as cover." He pulled out a chair beside him. "Sit."
Hange did, and registered that they hadn't been so near to him in over a month. Even at meals, they tended to avoid looking at one another. Papa didn't put them on the same duties anymore, not wanting them to conspire together. Hange thought he needn't have bothered - Levi didn't have any intentions of communicating with them before tonight regardless.
"There's two problems," Levi sat backwards on his chair, arms crossed over the top of the backrest, facing them. "Papa's always watching us and keeps a baby brat in his arms at all times. At night, the infants are all in the room attached to his. To escape with everyone, Papa would have to be so distracted and thrown off that he won't have his hands on any of them."
Hange nodded. Levi pulled a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket, revealing his own sketch of the orphanage's grounds.
"Then, past the walls is a cliff," he held the drawing out to them. "You can't climb down from anywhere, so the only way out would be the bridge. They'll already have security, and when it's communicated that there's a breakout, a bunch more are gonna gather there. You won't get through them safely, and anyone under the age of five doesn't stand a chance. So, how are you gonna deal with that?"
They stared at one another for a moment, the only sound being the ticking of a grandfather clock.
"How do you think I should deal with it?" They asked when he started to fidget impatiently.
"I reckon this is our best shot." He pulled out a metal can from under the covered crate and held it up in the moonlight. "At night, we'll set the house on fire."
"What?" They got the feeling that there was nothing else in that crate except for more cans of oil to match the one Levi brandished in his hand. An image of a house fire spreading too quickly to manage flashed through their mind. "Levi, where did you get those?"
"Six years of preparations," he answered matter-of-factly. "Papa will be distracted putting it out, and everyone will be evacuated outside. If we stuff up the lock to his secret room, he won't be able to contact anyone, so they won't know what's happening unless his heart stops, which I don't imagine is in his backup plans."
"We can't kill him," Hange stated, just so they were clear.
"We could."
"Levi!"
"But it would just notify his higher-ups, and they'd come down on us. If you hate the idea of a house fire, we can knock him unconscious and tie him up under the floorboards or something."
"Absolutely not! Do you want to traumatise the toddlers?" They hissed.
Levi rolled his eyes. "Then the fire is your best option. If Papa is busy and can't access his contact point, then there won't be any extra security at the bridge. If there is, it'd probably be few enough that you could take care of them without much trouble. And if what I have in the crates isn't enough to keep the fire going through the night, there's ten burn bottles I hid in the forest just after the fence."
"Sorry, you made explosives?" They exclaimed. They were shocked that he'd actually sourced the materials needed and gone through with making them without testing their effectiveness. "What on earth have you been doing for the last month?"
"Nothing. This is six years of preparations," he repeated. "If the fire's big enough, you should throw them over the inside wall if you have time. We're closer to that side than the gate, if you plan to climb up where the rope's been stashed since last month. They probably have an underground tunnel close by or hidden in the trees, so any security trying to get to the outer gate would be distracted. Erwin said the civilisation is far away from the wall, so it's not like anyone would die from it."
"There could be security guarding the entrance of the tunnel on the inner wall."
"They're tiny burn bottles, four-eyes. The only way you could fatally injure someone with them is if you were specifically aiming at them. You'd be aiming at the tops of the trees."
"Still..."
Hange knew it was a matter of life and death. They couldn't afford to be nice to those who wouldn't grant them the same courtesy. But Levi was making a lot of assumptions about the fires being prioritised over stopping the children from escaping.
"So," he stood up and leaned over them. "The escape should be tonight, not tomorrow. Is that alright with you?"
They frowned, trying to think over their next line of questioning.
"This place is furthest away from the dorms, too, so it won't spread too soon for the kids to get out. Plus, they've been trained how to run through the It formations, so everyone can evacuate quickly. Unless... your leg isn-"
"It's fine!" They stood up abruptly, slamming both feet into the floor.
Their cast had been taken off and replaced with wrapped supports just a few days ago, but they had been careful in their recovery and played up the severity of the pain so Papa didn't think they'd be able to move around. They wouldn't push it too hard, and still walked with the crutches, but they were fairly sure it was fully healed at this point.
"Then we're agreed." Levi took the cloth off the crate and began pouring the oil up and down the tables of the dining hall.
Hange squinted at the clock. Five minutes to midnight. Their heart rate began to pick up. "Are we?"
"What?" He stopped briefly, but then carried on with his task. "Well, I'm still against the idea of taking everyone, to be honest. The cliff is dangerous for anyone without complete control of their balance, and there's the task of getting up on the wall, too. If you insist on escaping with others, it should only be Moblit and Miche, since they helped. At least leave the babies. They'll live longer in here than out there." Hange sighed. "But you won't listen, and I can't stop you without snitching. It's better than you rotting in here until you get eaten, so I'm not gonna interfere anymore."
They watched him empty his second can onto the ground, unable to look away. It was only when it clattered against the floorboards that they realised he had just been standing there in silence along with them.
"Oi. If you have nothing else to say, then why are you still here? Go tell the other two."
"You... you want me to throw the burn bottles over the wall, right?"
"Yeah. Could be Miche, if you're busy leading the operations, bu-" he cut himself off, and his posture slackened.
They couldn't ask the question that they knew they needed to. They opted to beat around the bush instead. "What if Papa doesn't care about the building, and prioritises watching us instead?"
"Yeah. That's a possibility. Good you figured it out quick." They glared at him. "Starting a fire might not be enough. If we don't stop Papa, then no one can escape." He grabbed another can from the crate and turned to face them. "Simple fix. I can just do this."
Then Levi held the can just above his head and proceeded to pour its contents over himself.
"Levi?" Hange whispered after a moment, when their heart had started beating once again, faster than ever.
The air around them somehow felt thicker. Worst of all, they couldn't see most of Levi's expression, since his hair had grown long enough to cover most of his face as he tipped his head forward to let the rivulets of oil drip onto the floor.
Just his smile.
"What a wildcard," he wheezed, or laughed, or sobbed. "A perfect scorer going up in flames the night of their shipment. He'll lose his mind trying to save me."
The can dropped to the floor with a clatter as he clenched his fists, shaking.
"I've been waiting to do this for so many years. To him, and all the bastards out there who are waiting to see what I'm made of on the inside. They've wanted to know for so long if the runt with the abnormal memory wields a titan power. Twelve years of my life, and I can take all their efforts away from them in seconds."
"Levi, you can't be serious," they pleaded.
"Deadly," he grinned with teeth, and they couldn't help but whimper then. "You know, I've always found studying so boring. But I had to get my scores up, so I worked my backside off. Paid off, didn't it?"
Erwin hadn't been the same after the day he found Levi to be the traitor. At least, Hange thought so. He'd been a bit more unsure in the way he went about directing the escape.
They'd asked him why during a private conversation. To them, although they knew Levi was a spy, it hadn't made much of a difference regarding how they interacted with him, and rather gave them a better understanding of some of his mannerisms that they'd never quite gotten to grips with.
"He just wasn't himself," Erwin had admitted. "Or maybe he was, and I just didn't know him to begin with."
Now, Hange understood. The difference in what they once knew and what was before them was staggering.
They couldn't believe Levi was still smiling like that - or even at all. A significant chunk of their memory of their brother was him sitting under his tree with a book, or in the library, studying. That he didn't even like doing it... it was the second time, throughout all of this, that Hange truly felt they had been lied to their entire life. He didn't even look like himself right now either, with his long, knotted hair and manic expression.
"Honestly, Papa should've just sent me off while he had the chance," he continued, huffing a laugh out. "Why'd he think I'd ever cooperate to improve his reputation when he's selling us out like livestock? Who gives a toss about the titans or their stupid powers? I won't be eaten, and I won't serve my part in this massacre they call a war. None of it matters a damn bit. I'm a human being, and I'll choose how I die! Serves them right!" He shouted.
"Levi..."
They hoped if they kept saying his name, he'd come back. He was so orderly, so persistent in his everyday mannerisms, that anything out of the ordinary for him was shocking to a fearful extent. And this? This was as if he'd been possessed by a demon, distorting his character as far from his true self as possible.
"It's better this way, anyway," his shoulders slumped, and his face grew slack and downcast once more. "I've watched my family die all these years, and couldn't do a thing to stop it. They were all good brats, and I used their lives to buy time for my own selfish reasons."
"Levi, wai-" they reached out to grasp his shoulders, but he grabbed one of their crutches resting against the chair and pushed them backwards with the flat of it, forcing distance between them. They almost stumbled over in surprise.
"Don't move. You've only got this chance, four-eyes. Make sure it succeeds, so that me and Erwin don't die in vain. Oh," he turned back to the table and grabbed the book he'd been reading. "Here. It developed."
They took the book from him numbly, turning to where a makeshift bookmark stuck out of the top of it. Their breath hitched as they realised it was the photograph he'd taken of Erwin and themself the day before Erwin left. It was the first time they'd seen such a detailed visual of his face in so long, and their eyes glossed over. They missed him so very much.
They could have looked at that photo forever, but instead the midnight bell tolled, and their head snapped back up to look at Levi as they heard a match being struck. They dropped the book.
"I'm now twelve years old. As cursed an existence it was, I'm glad to have met everyone. I even got to be born and raised at the same time as a lunatic like you. Aren't I lucky?" He smiled.
The flicker of the flame illuminated his face better than the moonlight, and Hange almost wished that it didn't. Because he didn't look crazy anymore. He looked truly happy. At peace, drenched head to toe in flammable oil, and standing in a massive puddle of it, with a tiny stick of fire pinched between his fingers.
"No, just - just slow down!" They begged him frantically.
"Thanks for everything. Bye, Hange."
"Wait!"
But Levi, Hange remembered, couldn't be made to wait for anyone. He dropped the match to the floor.
25th December, 00:09
In the earliest hour of Christmas Day, Hange screamed and howled Levi's name, knees on the dining hall floor as the fire roared around them. The tears streaming down their face dried within seconds from the intense heat.
"Hange?" The door slammed open and Papa's footsteps were loud behind them.
Hange turned to see a look of utter shock on his face. "Papa! Levi... Levi's - he's in there!" They cried, and pointed to the heart of the flames in front of them.
Their head dropped to their knees again, but they could hear him opening up the compass and stepping further into the room.
"He... he can't have..."
If the situation were less dire, they might have told him that they thought the same thing, initially. But it wasn't, and instead they sobbed into the fabric of their trousers. They heard his footsteps retreating again.
"Papa? What's happening?" Moblit's voice called from the other end of the hallway.
"Fire! Evacuate everyone to the grounds immediately, and get the infants out of my room!" Papa barked, then ran off in a different direction.
Soon, Hange couldn't hear anything but the sizzling and crackling of the ever-growing fire. The air was getting thicker and drier, and they were taking in shuddering breaths. Still, they could not get up.
"Please," they whispered to themself.
"Hange, you need to leave," Papa stood them up from behind and slid a crutch under each of their arms, then wheeled the fire extinguisher further into the room.
"But-"
"No buts! The sooner I know you'll get to safety, the sooner I can get him out."
"O-okay," they sobbed, and turned to leave.
When they stepped out of the dining hall, they glanced back one last time. The fire had engulfed the majority of the dining hall, and Papa stood with his back to the doors, trying to expel the flames to the best of his ability.
Breathing out heavily, they closed the doors, slid their crutches horizontally through the handles, and ran.
Pelting down the corridor, as soon as Hange turned the corner, they took the blade out of their trouser pocket and sliced their left ear clean off. They screamed into their hand and nearly fell over with the blinding pain of it, but found it within them to keep going, running on pure adrenaline. In their other pocket, they took out the previously prepared gauze pack and stuck it over the bleeding hole as best as they could while moving, trying to balance their glasses at the same time.
Papa would be fine. The crutches were flimsy, so they were confident he could break the door down after a minute or so. Even with the danger of barring him in a room filled with fire, it wouldn't kill him. Probably. They needed to buy all the time they could get, because they could only run so fast whilst simultaneously trying to support the side of their head.
Hange ran, and ran, and ran, until they were approaching the forest's fence that marked the permitted area of the orphanage.
"They're here!" Someone yelled, and Miche met them at the bars to help them climb over.
Moblit quickly wrapped a bandage several times around their head and tied it in a knot, securing their glasses as well.
"Should be good," he said.
"Then let's get out of here!" Hange yelled, and continued running to the wall.
One by one, the group followed them, the last of all being a wide-eyed twelve-year-old boy with a hand covering his wrapped ear.
25th December, 00:00
Levi had been playing an interesting game with Papa the past few months. Of course, he'd had clear memories of his life since birth, so it was natural Papa might suspect him of being born with a titan power. Levi had extremely limited information on what someone with a titan power was like, but at least knew about the abnormal memory and strength. He'd read up on how to build up lean muscles and look unsuspecting at the same time. He was naturally agile, but had trained himself to go beyond what he thought was even possible for his stature. Titans could also regenerate, after all, so it was important that his health was optimal if he was going to sell the idea of being one of their missing brats.
He'd once heard a passing comment about the thirteen-year lifespan, too. He didn't know if it counted months spent in the fetus, but figured that once a warrior titan's time was up, they didn't just drop dead on the spot. Their health probably deteriorated for the last bit of their life, perhaps rapidly at the end. For a little while, he'd been coughing and tripping, and appearing more weak and tired. After Erwin's shipment, he didn't even have to try, eating next to nothing and unable to focus on anything but his own impending demise.
All the while, he felt Papa's eyes on him like a hawk, watching him get closer to death each day with bated breath.
Papa was confident Levi was a titan, and it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. He used it to his advantage, nonetheless. He'd been a selfish waste of space, not lifting a finger to stop his siblings being eaten if it meant he'd live longer. In his initial negotiation with Papa, he'd requested Hange and Erwin live until twelve so that he had some people his age to bond with, but he'd never indicated that he would put the two of them before himself. After all, as someone with a titan power, it would make more sense to sacrifice himself and get consumed as soon as possible, so that Marley were more likely to have all the titans at the same time, and then no one else would need to be eaten at all.
The thing was, Levi would do it in a heartbeat. It was just that he couldn't, because he wasn't a titan. He had very clear memories of everything from his own infancy and possibly even in the womb, but nothing more.
It was a shame. If he was a titan, maybe he really could have protected everyone.
Even his bare minimum plan to keep just two of the brats alive had failed, though. It was something that needed to be done perfectly, and he hadn't been perfect. He couldn't afford not to put his utmost effort in his final act, and so he committed fully to the bit. Even if staring through his best friend's horrified expression killed him more than the flames would. Fire had been the chosen method for multiple reasons, not least of all because he'd suffer a good while before finally succumbing to his death.
Still, at midnight, he said his last goodbyes and dropped the match, fully anticipating a horrific pain to engulf him for the next - and final - minute of his life.
Hange dived at his feet with an outstretched hand, and in hindsight, it would have been really bad if they had missed.
They barrelled into Levi's legs and he fell into the table, collapsing to the floor. When he looked up, they were laying in the puddle of oil with their palms clasped together.
"Gotcha!" They grinned, and stood back up, separating their hands to reveal the crushed match.
"The hell-" he started.
"Sorry, but you're not dying tonight. Not under my watch. No one is."
Someone knocked at the entrance to the dining hall, and Hange went to answer it. When the doors opened, Furlan and Nifa stood with various bundles in their arms.
"Special delivery," Furlan drawled, dangling a pair of boots in the air with two fingers.
"Thanks! Get changed then, clean freak. You're covered in muck."
Levi stared at Hange, bewildered, until Nifa came over and dumped a spare uniform in his hands. He blinked at her, but she just shrugged and turned back to Furlan, and they both went to the other end of the dining hall. Shaking his head, he decided to just do as he was told.
"I'm done," Levi said after a couple of minutes. He turned around to find Hange mostly dressed, yet missing shoes, like himself. "What abo-"
His neck snapped back as pain struck his cheek. He must have been tired, because he didn't notice that Hange had moved right in front of him, their palm outstretched. They then grabbed each side of his skull with their palms and knocked their heads together so hard he felt faint.
"Do you still want to die, moron? Stop whining and let's escape already!" They yelled, close enough to his face that their glasses fogged up from their combined body heat.
"What?" He breathed faintly. He had no idea what was happening. This wasn't supposed to happen. Was he actually dead?
Hange sighed. "You can die whenever you want, but not here," they said in a much calmer tone. "If you make the choice to work together, I'll show you the world outside the walls. You don't have to give up, Levi."
"Huh?" Levi mustered.
"Erwin's last words to you, that he wrote to me."
"From - from Erwin?" The emotional whiplash was giving him a headache.
"I really hoped he was wrong," Hange croaked, and he now noticed the tears in their eyes as they glared at him. "But he wasn't. He never was. He knew you would do this. We even talked about it a day or two before he was shipped out."
"Oh."
"We didn't have time to plan around it, though, so he left a last-minute list of instructions to execute the escape tonight. One where I stop you from doing something stupid like you just tried, and then we escape. No one else is dying here."
"We're done!" Nifa called, and she and Furlan stood up from where they knelt on the floor.
Levi looked over to see his clothes, some meat from the pantry, and what looked like clumps of brown fur all lumped together in a pile.
"What is that?" He asked, too exhausted to try and figure it out for himself.
"Your replacement," she answered. "So Papa thinks you're in the fire."
"It'll actually smell like you're burning up," Furlan cringed.
"Four-eyes, please don't tell me this is the hair you got cut ages ago," Levi inspected the pile as close as he dared to.
He heard Hange snicker, and then hands crept up the back of his neck and tugged on his hair. He jumped, but not quickly enough to stop his hair being sliced clean from his head.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"You know what I'm doing," they tossed it into the pile, brandishing a scalpel in their hand. "I dunno if your hair will smell different or something."
"You're crazy." He grabbed at his scalp. "And disgusting. I can't believe you kept that hair for over a month."
Hange's hair had grown back enough to be pulled into their usual ponytail, but Levi knew they'd had it cut shortly after Erwin had been eaten. To think that they'd been hoarding it all this time... it nearly made him gag.
"Nice to meet you too," they retorted. "Now come here so I can cut that tracker out."
"Absolutely not!" Levi hissed. "You've just put that through my hair."
"Oh, come on," Hange rolled their eyes. "It's yours. It's definitely clean."
"That's not how it works. Plus, it's covered in oil." He slipped a thumb into his waistband and retrieved the makeshift switchblade he always kept on him. "Use this. It's sterile."
"Where on earth did you get that?" Furlan peered over in intrigue. Levi held it out of his reach and placed it in Hange's hands.
"I'd like to know that too," they turned it over in their hands.
"Don't touch the blade," Levi warned them, and tucked what remained of his hair away from his ear. "Put it together over a couple of years."
"Yeah, yeah, your six years of preparations or whatever. Try not to scream."
Levi covered his mouth and distracted himself from the pain of Hange hacking into his ear by trying to collect his thoughts about the situation he now found himself in. There was no way Erwin could have planned around the fire unless he'd found Levi's stash. And even then, he would have had to deduce that Levi would set himself on fire, not just the building.
He sighed. Hange mumbled out an apology.
There was no point trying to decode Erwin's brain. This had been Levi's plan for a while, so it was a few years behind his current mental capacity. If he'd made a brand new plan, maybe Erwin wouldn't have figured it out. But this one must have been as obvious to Erwin as it would've to Levi if the younger boy tried to pull off something he believed to be brilliant several years ago today. An oversight on Levi's part, really. Everyone had gotten too smart, and he'd been too far in his own head to understand the extent of their capabilities.
"All done," Hange pulled a gauze pack out of their pocket and placed it over his ear. "Hold that there."
He did so, and watched them wipe the blade on the inside of their shirt.
"That needs to be washed," he said automatically.
"We don't have time for that. This'll have to do."
"Hange, you'll get an infection."
"It's that or the scalpel," they argued, and he sighed.
"Give me the scalpel, then." They handed it over to him without complaint. "What now?"
"Now, you do as you're told and follow Nifa and Furlan. Put those boots on at the door!" They called, and padded around in their socks to the box of oil containers, pouring a can up and down the dining room tables.
"You're staying here?"
"Don't fret, shorty. This is part of the plan."
"Okay," he said, pulling on the boots. "Be careful with that."
"Yep."
"And put the blade over the fire for as long as you can. It'll kill the bacteria."
"Message received," Hange rolled their eyes. "Off you go, now."
Furlan popped his head around one of the dining hall's doors and gestured that it was safe to leave. Levi followed him to the orphanage's side door as Nifa trailed behind them, watching their backs. They stepped outside in the freezing winter night air.
"Hange said you know where to go," Furlan whispered. "It's where the ropes are."
"The tree?"
"Dunno," he shrugged. "That's all I was told. Also, that's yours." He nodded towards a backpack set against the wall next to the door. "See ya later."
With that, the door was closed on him, and he stood outside alone.
"This is insane," Levi whispered to himself, staring at the bag.
Whatever. He struggled to put the backpack on whilst trying to keep his bleeding ear covered with the gauze, but managed it eventually, and set off to the perimeter of the forest at a jog.
He hadn't made it far into the trees when he heard the door slam open once again. He ducked behind one for cover and peered past it to see Nanaba holding the door open as the children slowly filed out one by one and then ran in his direction, Gelgar leading the charge. Watching them with wide eyes, Levi realised that they were all wearing the same makeshift backpacks, and Nanaba stopped everyone at the door to jam their ear trackers with the device Hange and himself had worked on over a month ago.
"Oi," he whispered as Gelgar stopped at the tree next to him, and the nine-year-old tripped over. "Oh. Sorry."
"Levi," he breathed heavily, holding a hand to his heart. "Don't do that ever again. I swear I nearly just wet myself." Levi pulled him up by his hand. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be past the fence by now."
"I heard everyone coming out so I stopped."
"Well, run! It's just straight. Follow Eld if you don't know where you're going."
As if on cue, a blonde blur zipped past them, and Gelgar shoved Levi in the back to give him the momentum to start moving.
Shaking his head in disbelief, he jogged behind the six-year-old all the way to the fence. Eld put his palms on the top bar and pushed himself up with his upper body weight. Instantly, his waist tipped forward over the fence, and Levi caught up to him in time to put an arm in front of him, stopping him from keeling over completely.
"Careful," he said as Eld yelped in surprise, dangling over the edge. "You'll get your clothes dirty falling onto the ground like that."
The boy scrambled his legs over as Levi held him in place and made it over the fence on his feet rather than his face.
"Thanks!" He grinned, and then knelt down on the ground and slotted his hands together through the bars so that they could be used to give Levi a leg up.
Levi stared at the white kneecaps of Eld's trousers, already smudged with dirt.
"Dunno why I bother," he muttered to himself, and went to climb the fence by himself before realising that he'd have to let go of his ear to do so.
Reluctantly, he stood on Eld's interlocked fingers and placed a hand and a foot directly onto the top of the fence, pushing himself over and jumping down, all while keeping one side of his head fully supported.
After that, his siblings hurtled towards the fence in groups of three. Gelgar, Oluo and Petra came next, followed by Nanaba, Lynne and Gunther. When Moblit, Henning and Isabel arrived, Moblit took out a bundle of bandages from his pocket and he and Nanaba wrapped Levi's head properly.
"The rest of it's for Hange," Nanaba explained as she tried to saw it in two with a kitchen knife.
Levi got the scalpel out and held it out to her.
She took it, frowning. "Weren't they meant to have this?"
"Gave 'em something better."
"You were supposed to be getting the ropes out for us," Miche huffed in his direction as he pulled Furlan and Nifa over the fence.
"Furlan didn't tell me that."
"Not my fault!" Furlan wheezed, rubbing his arms.
"You were told to go to the wall. It was obvious," Miche told Levi.
"Whatever," he mumbled, still looking at everyone around him as they all caught their breath for a moment.
He was about to ask how the hell any of this was even happening when someone called out for Hange, and they were taken care of promptly before dashing off in the direction of the wall without a second glance at him. Levi stood at a standstill for a moment before Miche pulled him by the arm and they started running at the back of the group, herding the smaller and slower children forward.
"Oi, nosy," he said once his brain caught up with him. "How... how did they all agree to escape? They don't know about... do they know?"
"Yup."
Levi's eyes widened. "How?"
"Hange told them," Miche smirked at him.
...What? He blinked, just staring at Miche in silence, because he didn't understand what he'd just said, not really.
"We started with the next four oldest," he continued. "Nanaba, Gelgar, Nifa and Furlan all listened in with Moblit and I to the conversation Erwin and Hange had with Brother Reiner."
Levi huffed in disbelief. "Seriously?"
That far back, before Erwin had even left? He was stunned. That means they had known what was happening when Erwin was being sent to his death.
"They got exposed to the trackers and the fact that we weren't really being adopted, just to gauge their reactions. The rest were clued in gradually over the next month. Papa thought Hange gave up, but they were giving us instructions to carry out for them."
From time to time, Levi had glanced out of the windows of wherever he had chosen to sulk that day to see Hange sitting at the tree, often surrounded by people trying to cheer them up (his job, but he was too pathetic to be able to do it then).
To think that such a display of misery was really a front for disguising meetups for the escape was so brilliant that he had to force down a grin. Another fault of his, to underestimate Hange as well as Erwin, when the two of them possessed insanely brilliant minds.
When they got to the wall, he saw Hange throwing down a bunch of ropes - a mixture of both literal and makeshift ones - with fist-sized stones attached to them down to Nanaba.
"We took longer than expected getting everyone out. You'll have to help with this," Nanaba said to Levi, passing some of them to Miche.
"What do I need to do?" Levi asked.
"Watch and learn."
With that, Miche walked a fair distance away from the group. To Levi's utter disbelief, Miche span one of the ropes around several times before launching it as high as he could over the wall. He then lightly pulled the rope, grimaced, and tugged it until it fell back down. He attempted once more, and when he tugged the rope this time, he gave a thumbs up.
Hange whooped and ran up to take the end of the rope from him, moving out of his way as he prepared to hurl another.
"Think you can do that?" They called out to Levi.
He shook his head, but took several of the ropes from Nanaba anyway and moved into position. "Absolutely crazy," he muttered under his breath.
"Make sure it's hooked over the other side, not just the top," Miche told him.
"Whatever. It's just shot put, isn't it?"
The taller boy snorted and handed his second rope to Hange.
It took Levi four tries before he hooked his first rock over the wall. It was a huge distance to throw such heavy objects, especially without practice, and it was even more difficult to do whilst holding the other end of the rope and spinning without getting caught in it to ensure that the rocks didn't fall over the other side completely. All the while, the other children cheered them on and passed ropes up the line.
He must have thrown a dozen rocks over the wall before they ran out. Splitting the weight between them, Hange and Nanaba met each other in the middle, holding the ends of the ropes, and Levi trailed Miche as he walked towards them.
"Please don't tell me everyone's going to climb up with this," Levi frowned. "'Cause there's no wa-"
"Not everyone," Hange grinned. "Just one."
"Who?" He asked, and then broke into a cold sweat, looking down at his boots.
Everyone else was wearing their regular shoes.
"You're kidding."
"Levi, you've got the best chance," they pleaded, handing him a hardy pair of gardening gloves. "You're the lightest whilst also being strong enough to pull another person up when you get to the top. There's a proper rope in your bag to pull the next person up with, so you can let go of all the other ropes as soon as you're on solid ground."
"Hange-"
"We don't have time for this," Miche grumbled, and squatted down, facing away from him. "Get on my back."
"This is insane," he whispered for what felt like the millionth time, but put the gloves on and clambered up anyway.
Hange and Nanaba passed the ropes into his hands, loosening their grips a little. He felt the weight immediately.
"We can't tie you to them, because you might topple over the other side," Hange explained.
"That doesn't help," Levi said with gritted teeth, gripping with all his might.
"Jump to the top in small bits. Doesn't matter how long it takes."
Levi thought that it mattered a lot, actually, given that they were running away from someone who would do absolutely anything to catch up to them and stop them right now.
"Whatever you do, just don't let go until you're at the top. Miche'll catch you if you fall back down this side."
"Fine. What have we got to lose?" he tittered without amusement.
"Ready?" They asked.
"Not really, but it's happening anyway, so just do it."
"Alright."
Hange and Nanaba let go of the ropes, and Levi immediately wrapped his hands around them twice to secure them a bit better. Miche lifted him until he was stood on his shoulders, and Levi took a deep breath before jumping. He fell back down immediately when he put his boots to the flat of the wall, and Miche grasped him awkwardly.
"Damn it."
"If you can't do it-" the blonde whispered to him.
"I can. Just... just throw me up a bit. Momentum or something."
He had to do it, because if they didn't get over this wall, they'd have to storm the gate directly, and someone would definitely get hurt then.
Miche pushed him further up, and Levi managed to balance the weight of the rocks on the other side by jumping up the wall a few times before gravity took over and he slipped down into Miche's arms again.
He swore properly this time, heat beginning to creep up his neck as his heart beat faster.
"The backup option is you swinging from a really tall tree up onto the surface."
"Leave off," Levi hissed. "Once more."
This time, he went for speed. As soon as he was launched, he jumped once, twice, three times up before feeling the pull of the rocks hitting the edge of the top of the wall's other side. He leant backwards and jumped with as much force and in as quick succession as he could, ignoring how the ropes cut into the skin of his hands.
Facing the sky like this, he remembered the very first time he'd attempted to climb the wall. He was too young to really recall his age, and had no equipment with him, so he just scrabbled at the wall with his hands for a few moments before giving up. But what Levi remembered clearly was the way he'd looked up at the clear blue sky, longing for the peace it seemed to radiate, and how he'd reached out for it to no avail.
The sky tonight was pitch black, and it was mostly cloudy, but the few stars that peeked out made it just as enticing to him as it had been all those years ago.
Levi reached as high as he could, and then, when it seemed like he'd go down again, he pushed up in his best attempt to delay it, and then he felt the ropes strain upwards a little. His next jump was lighter, and he knew that he'd surpassed the point where gravity would be to his detriment.
He was calm as he leisurely hopped the final stretch of the wall, being pulled up with more and more force until he was dragged over the top. He let go just in time to tumble towards the edge of the other side of the wall, precariously close, but still on top. The rumbling crash of the rocks against the base of the wall went completely ignored by him as he raised his head.
The world outside the walls was endless. Endless forest, endless sky, endless clouds and endless stars. It just kept going and going, with nothing but infinity peppered along the horizon. It was beautiful and free, and Levi couldn't believe that he was witnessing it with his own two eyes. He never thought he'd live to see what was beyond the wall, assuming his death was set in stone many years ago, whether by a titan's jaw or his own guilt. He would have happily died viewing a scene like this.
"Levi?" He heard various voices calling up to him, and scooted away from the edge of the wall to stand up, but ended up collapsing again.
Now that the adrenaline had worn off, his arms and legs were shattered. Even with the gloves, Levi could feel the friction burns simmering up his hands, and his weakened muscles throbbing with ache.
"Come on," he whispered to himself, and ended up crawling to the other edge of the wall.
He stuck his head over and waved, and the panicked shouts turned quickly to cheers. He couldn't help but grin to himself - he bloody deserved that praise after the improvised madness he'd just been forced to perform.
"Hey!" Hange called out. "Who do you think the heaviest person you can lift up from down here is?"
"You're taking the mick," Levi breathed out.
"What?" They shouted.
He closed his eyes and enjoyed a few more seconds of peace. He was exhausted, and yet he still had to pull all the brats up to the wall by hand now.
"Maybe Eld," he yelled down at them.
"Gotcha! Throw one end of the rope down and we'll tie him to it."
Levi pulled his aching arms out of his backpack and took the rope out. As quickly as he could, he made a basic harness around himself before throwing the other end down, knowing that blood and sweat were beginning to seep through his gloves and potentially make him lose his grip.
Getting Eld up the wall was the most pain he'd been in for a long time. With every tug, it felt like the tissue in Levi's hands split open a little bit more. It also took far too long, and at least a dozen times he thought he caught the visage of Papa in the distant smoke, coming to get everyone before he could bring them up. But after every double-take, Levi saw nothing, and eventually, Eld's head finally popped over the edge of the wall. As soon as the younger boy was solid on his feet, Levi collapsed to his knees, breathing so hard through his mouth that his throat was beginning to hurt.
"This is so much higher than it is down there," Eld panted, and crawled over to Levi to have his harness removed before stilling. "Why are you crying?"
Levi hadn't noticed. "Because you're heavy," he wheezed, wiping his face with one arm and batting Eld away with the other. "Keep your muddy hands away from me."
Shakily, he undid Eld's harness, wincing every time his palms stretched and irritated his wounds, and then threw the rope down the wall again.
"Should I pull you from behind?" Eld asked.
"You're not touching me, you're filthy."
Eld rolled his eyes and wiped his palms on his trousers, which were just as dirty.
"Hold the rope in front of me. Pull as hard as you can, and let go if you feel yourself being pulled forward so much you can't keep your footing."
"Okay. We're ready!" Eld called down to those below. "It's Nifa next, by the way."
"Great," Levi muttered, shaking his hands, though it was futile.
It would be a lie to say it was easier pulling another child up with Eld's help. While the six-year-old was strong for his size, and did pull a fair bit, he did not understand that he needed to put every ounce of effort he had like his life depended on it - because it did.
Nifa was taller and heavier, and Levi grew more exhausted by the second, but thankfully, she did her own manoeuvring by bouncing her feet against the wall like Levi did to lighten her weight with each tug. When she made it up, she was much more useful, and by the time the three of them hauled Nanaba up, his hands had not fallen off, and he was free to let the others pull one another over the wall.
"Miche's the last one," he heard Hange call, pulling his attention away from Furlan and Gelgar, who were redistributing some of the supplies everyone else was carrying to Levi's backpack.
Looking around, he took count of everyone that had made it up the wall, and then looked back at Hange, Nanaba and Nifa. They looked too strained to be pulling up another five-year-old.
"You're bringing him up now? Aren't there more down there?"
"I said he's the last one," they panted, and before long, Miche was up and over the edge.
Levi kept looking, but no matter how many times he counted, he knew that this was not nearly the number of children there should have been. The orphanage housed up to forty, and though they were rarely at full capacity, they were always close to it. Miche brought the total of those present to a meagre fifteen.
"Why aren't the under-fives here?" He approached Hange as the other elder children dispersed to gather everyone up.
"I'm not bringing them." Levi's mouth parted, but Hange continued before he could say anything. "I kept thinking about what you said, and you're right. It's even more difficult in the winter and without Erwin, and the infants and toddlers make up more than half of the orphanage. And... Moblit brought up a good point. There's the kids in the other sections. We can't save everyone right now no matter how much we plan."
Levi wasn't surprised, but he thought it a shame. Though he often claimed safely escaping with everyone wasn't possible, he'd been proven wrong before. Secretly, he'd been hoping that everything he believed to be impossible would be miraculously accounted for by Hange's brain. Of course, that was too unrealistic. And he hadn't ever considered the brats in the other houses, though it made him feel guilty to admit it.
Hange continued. "So I told Armin about it-"
"What?" He couldn't stop himself from exclaiming.
They smiled at him sadly. "I told Armin. And the worst part is, he already figured out a lot of it himself, the little smartie. I told him my doubts around bringing everyone, and he made the decision himself. He's the only one staying behind that knows the secret. That situation's been left to him for now."
Levi was speechless.
Armin was four years old. To leave any sort of situation to a four-year-old was absurd, let alone a burden like this. The fact that he'd already figured out what was going on and kept it to himself was just as shocking, given he wasn't the one Levi had suspected was becoming more aware of their situation. But Armin was unusually bright, and looked up to Erwin and Hange a lot.
And he wasn't the only one to be hiding his knowledge come Erwin's send off. By that point Nanaba, Gelgar, Nifa and Furlan had all known, and Levi had been none the wiser. Nanaba had just cleaned up the plates Mikasa had dropped without a word, Gelgar and Furlan expressed that they'd miss Erwin with the nonchalance of people who said goodbye every other month, and Nifa had smiled and wished him well. He'd certainly underestimated them for sure.
"One day I'll come back to get them all," Hange continued. "Shiganshina and all the other houses, with a detailed plan that can't go wrong. But we can't do that today, so for now, we just gotta escape while we still can."
Ridiculous, Levi thought, but his heart swelled with admiration all the same. Hange's empathy for others, no matter how far removed they might be from Hange themself, was what he often appreciated the most about them. If they didn't have it, they'd probably just view Levi as a miserable loner. But they'd seen through him right from the start, and he was eternally grateful for it.
All of a sudden, the ringing of many bells surrounded them from all directions.
"That was quick," Hange muttered under their breath. They grabbed Levi's hand, and together, they began running across the wall, the other children following close behind.
"Now what?" Levi asked, glancing down the wall. "We're hundreds of metres away from the bridge."
"Oh, that doesn't matter. We were never going to the bridge anyways. We'll be crossing up there." They pointed a little to the right as they continued to run, eventually stopping to face the cliff on the other side from the wall.
"What do you mean? Erwin said-"
"Erwin said in the letter he left me that we can cross at this spot. It wasn't possible at the time, but we can do it now. This'll spin them out. They'll never think we're going somewhere other than the bridge."
"This is ridiculous," he said again, more to himself than anyone else.
"It's fine," Moblit assured him. "We know what we're doing."
"You're kidding."
If Moblit of all people was trying to ease Levi's anxiety, the younger boy had either ensured that the plan was foolproof or deluded himself in an attempt to remain sane.
Yet Levi was made the fool, as he watched Nifa get lowered down back into the orphanage's boundaries before she climbed up a very tall tree some ways away and pulled out a long string of woven medical gauze with a rock tied to one end of it from her backpack. She tossed it to Miche as she tied the other end to one of the tree's branches. Levi could only spectate as Miche lassoed the rope in the air a few times before launching it straight over to the cliff on the other side, looping it around the branch of a tree to stabilise it.
And then Levi could see it. A single, long line between two trees, one end in their prison, the other out of it. Tethering them to the outside world.
"Is this actually happening?" He whispered under his breath.
"'Course it is!" Hange grinned. "As long as the first person makes it over, anyway."
He didn't even have time to process their words before Miche grabbed a hanger from a bag settled on the floor, held it over the top of the rope with one hand either side of it, and then stepped off the edge of the cliff.
"Oi, wait!" Levi panicked and darted forward, but was stopped by Hange's firm grasp.
He twisted away from them, but Miche had long since slid down the makeshift zipline, and there was no sight of him.
It was quiet for a few seconds. Then Miche's head popped out of a bush directly across from them, looking relatively unharmed in the light from the lantern held up in his hand, and the children burst out in another round of cheers.
"Our turn!" Furlan announced with a flourish, and he and Gelgar stepped forward, holding soda bottle rockets with the same makeshift ropes attached to their ends.
Gelgar carefully tossed the rocks attached to the other ends to Nifa, who caught them deftly and once again tied them to the tree, and then the two boys knelt on the ground, preparing their toys.
Levi remembered, suddenly, seeing something like this from the library window one day. Furlan and Gelgar were launching the bottles so far across the land that they nearly hit a tree thirty metres or so away. Tonight, as the boys set their rockets off, they truly did land in the trees, and the two high-fived as Miche fished them out and attached them properly to the branches, making three clean escape routes.
"It's ready!" Miche called, and Nanaba was next to step away from the rucksack filled with hangers.
"Smell ya later, Levi!" She called as she ziplined down the leftmost ropeway.
This too, he recalled belatedly, was a new activity the children had taken up to during free time recently: ziplining between the trees with hangers. It would have built up their upper body strength and prepared them for this perfectly.
It's impressive.
He had thought it impossible. Though of course, he couldn't deny the genius of a masterplan that was being conducted as Petra, Gelgar and Oluo all successfully landed on the other side, and Eld, Gunther, and Nifa - who had just been pulled back up the wall by Hange, Eld and Moblit - lined up in their place.
Young, young children that were barely blinking an eye in the life-threatening situation they were in, crossing such an expansive cliff it made even him feel a little apprehensive. But clearly, they were all fully prepared, both physically and mentally. They could do it. They were doing it.
You don't have to give up, Levi.
That realisation had him choking up. Because he had. He'd given up many, many years ago on the thought of saving all these children. All his brothers and sisters and siblings were written off without a second thought, condemned to death. He thought he knew all there was to know about this orphanage and their situation, but he'd still come to a dead end the moment Erwin had walked back up that hill.
He supposed that's what he deserved for challenging Hange. Sometimes it felt like they loved nothing more than proving him wrong. And, as he watched Moblit, Lynne and Henning all cross the cliff without issue, it was apparent that Hange had come up with the most left-field, eccentric, genius plan of all time. Their belief in the impossible had truly paid off.
"My hands are too sweaty!" Isabel's voice wailed out, purging Levi from his thoughts. She shook violently with the hanger in her hands. "And I have to hold on for so long! If I slip and fall Oluo's gonna make fun of me forever!"
Her outburst caused Furlan's arms to lower slightly as he peered over the edge of the cliff, his face pale. Levi wasn't surprised in the slightest that he'd dawdled around long enough to be one of the last children to cross.
Hange looked stressed for the first time all night. It seemed they hadn't accounted for the possibility that someone would end up too scared to do it after all, and then put another child off.
He huffed. With an insane plan came insane risks. In part, he was a bit relieved that it wasn't going perfectly, lest Hange develop an ego even worse than Erwin's.
"Hey, brat," he said, picking Isabel up. "You're fine. We can do it together."
"Huh?" Her emerald eyes glistened with tears, darting about wildly.
"Hange, can you tie Isabel to me with that rope you just pulled Nifa up with?"
"Oh. Sure! Do you know how to cross?"
"Obviously. It looks like child's play." They smirked at one another before Hange retrieved the rope and began forming a harness for Isabel. "Furlan?"
"What?" The seven-year-old's teeth chattered as he hugged himself.
"Stop being a coward. Are you going to let those little five-year-olds make you look like a baby with how easily they rode that zipline?"
"Obviously not!" He huffed, straightening himself up.
"Good. Hold tight, Isabel."
Once Hange stepped away, Levi waited only a second for Isabel's little hands to wrap around his neck firmly before launching himself off the wall and across the zipline. The cold winter air rushed past them as they hurtled towards the bushes. Isabel squealed in his ear, and the noise and pace made the adrenaline finally hit him; they were escaping the orphanage.
Nanaba and Gelgar both braced to slow them down as they reached the end of the zipline, and with their help, Levi landed firmly on his feet.
"See?" He murmured to Isabel, who was blinking up owlishly at him. "Piece of cake."
She giggled, grinning brightly. "Easy! That was so fast!"
He hid his watery smile in her hair as he began untying her harness.
Truthfully, it hadn't been easy at all. All these years, it had felt so difficult. And while Isabel may have thought it wasn't too bad, she could just as easily have been shipped off in Eren's place last month. Levi had resigned himself to mourning both of them anyway, believing none of them would make it out alive in time.
No more, he swore to himself. From now on, not a single one of you will die under my watch. I won't give up on you ever again.
Furlan screamed his way down the zipline, and Isabel laughed at him so infectiously that by the time his feet touched the floor, everyone else had joined in. The boy paid them no mind, sinking to his knees while he tried to collect himself.
Meanwhile, Levi looked around at all those who had joined them outside the walls. While he'd privately dreamed Hange would find a way to get everyone out, he certainly never thought he'd remain alive to see the fruits of such a plan. Of course, Erwin had been sacrificed in his place. Levi would have set himself on fire and achieved nothing as brilliant as what was happening here. And he was free. As soon as Hange crossed, they'd be free.
He glanced up, and he knew immediately that something was wrong. Hange's hands were in position on the hanger, ready to cross, but they were frozen in place, looking to their side. Levi stepped past the children to the edge of the cliff, and saw him.
Papa was running as fast as he could towards Hange, and it was suddenly very clear just how far apart Levi and Hange were from one another. Hange kept staring at Papa, and Papa kept coming closer towards them, an arm out ready to grasp them whenever he got within reach.
Levi yanked on the centre ropeway as hard as he could. The hanger jostled, and Hange's attention snapped back towards him. He motioned behind him with a sharp jerk of his hand, and the moment Hange's feet left the cliff, he pulled out his scalpel and sliced the other two ropes.
When he faced the cliff again, Hange was halfway across, and Papa's hand was on the rope.
He's going to cut it, Levi thought. But Papa, of course, was in his nightwear, half burnt off, and had nothing else but his own hands. He linked them above the rope, one foot on the edge as his predatory gaze passed from Hange to Levi.
Levi held his scalpel high in the air; the blade glinted in the moonlight. I'll cut it before you can make it.
You wouldn't. Papa stared at him with wide eyes and raised eyebrows.
I would.
Maybe not six weeks ago, before their deal was shattered, and Papa smashed Levi's face into the ground, and locked him inside while Hange and Erwin did their inspection, and then dragged Erwin to his death the very next day. Levi was ready to forgive eleven years of watching this man cast out a hundred of his siblings, and however many had come before him, because with that had come just as many years of being cared for and having someone to talk to about the truth of their existence. He understood, at a basic level, the overwhelming loneliness that came with knowing everything and having no one to help him find another way out of the hellish hand he'd been dealt.
But now? Levi would happily kill him without hesitation, and consider it his favourite Christmas-slash-birthday present yet.
Hange barrelled right into Levi, yet he stood his ground, his arms naturally finding their way around them. He didn't break Papa's gaze as he sliced the rope above them, pulled down to his height by the weight from the hanger. With one clean cut, the tie between his siblings and himself from the man whose job was to prepare them for death was severed.
Papa let go of the rope and took a step back, his eyes roaming across the children, of whom were now silent. Levi had tuned it out, but realised they were making rather a lot of noise before, when it was very possible that Papa could catch up to Hange. Levi thought it more likely that Papa was more interested in leaving the walls himself and escaping than dragging them all back with him. But he'd never tell the rest of them that, because then they might feel sorry for him, and they'd never know the extent of Papa's evil like Levi did.
Besides, Papa couldn't leave anyway. Not if he had the same procedures performed on him as Brother Reiner. He was trapped, forever.
Papa seemed to realise this too, resignation written all over his face. He would be punished greatly for this. They had successfully escaped. Papa didn't seem to have his communication device on him, having not called for backup nor alerted anyone to their location. He'd found them all on his own, and could do nothing more but watch them leave.
Eventually, his eyes were locked with Levi's once more.
Hange had slipped out of Levi's arms and was pulling at his hand, forcing him away from the cliff's edge. The other children, satisfied with this silent closure, began backing away into the forest, away from Papa.
"Bye-bye," Hange murmured softly, tugging them to their freedom.
Levi finally ripped his gaze from the man who had fathered him almost all of his life. Despite everything, he'd ensured his safety and comfort before the certain death that he thought awaited him today.
"Goodnight, Zeke," he said, and turned to face the world outside the walls head-on.