The Experiment (Attack on Titan // LeviHan) (Part 1)

A Tribute of Blood, Sweat and Tears

"What kind of document?" Erwin asked.

"The one signed by the Panther."

"I see," Erwin nodded slowly, an excited gleam entering his eyes that made Zoë even more uneasy. "Well. Aren't we glad we joined the party after all, hm, Zacharias?"

Mike murmured something about preferring Titans to this, but Zoë wasn't paying much attention to anything else than what was unfolding below her. She watched how her father took a front row seat while a servile Oliver weaseled around him. Her eyes searched the crowd in his vicinity. Nobody seemed to object to his presence as he took the seat of honor.

And then, she suddenly spotted someone else she knew, sitting a distance apart from where her father was settling down, on the right side of the ring. Her heart sped up instantly.

It was Xandra, looking fabulous in a dark, blue dress with ornaments that twinkled like stars - sitting next to Benjamin. And right at her brother's elbow... halfway hidden behind him...

"Levi," she whispered.

Erwin's head snapped around.

Levi looked calm and collected and he was wearing a black kind of outfit that reminded Zoë of... her eyes travelled back to the left. And back to the right. What the...? He wasn't wearing a Hange livery, was he?!

Oh no.

The one thing he'd do anything for? The Survey Corps. Had he...? He made a deal with my father, Zoë knew with cold certainty. And that was bad. Very bad.

"I need to talk to him," Erwin said and was already beginning to move. "Zacharias, make the Military Police understand that they need to stand by at any cost. This is urgent."

"Yes, sir," Mike saluted.

"I need to talk to Levi too," Zoë exclaimed and moved after Erwin who behaved like he hadn't heard her. He veered to the left, which confused her. Had he not meant Levi?

Getting anywhere was easier said than done. The crowd was getting bigger by the second and the area was even more packed further down. She focused on Erwin's blond head in front of her but lost sight of him when a group of very tall people moved in and blocked her descent.

"Can you let me pass through, please," she said to men and women, "I need to..."

"Don't push!" someone admonished her sharply. "We want to see too!"

"But I'm his wife," she claimed, a sudden desperation seizing her, pointing in the general direction of where she had last seen Levi. "Levi's wife."

"So am I," a pretty and busty blond woman laughed.

"All of us are!" her friend giggled. "He's so fine!"

The flash of jealousy she felt was ridiculous, but Zoë shoved passed them with a bit more force than necessary and continued with mounting desperation. The stone slope was uneven underneath her feet, forcing her to pay attention to where she stepped. Where the fuck was Erwin?

When she next got a good look at the area around the ring, Levi was no longer there. But she got a better look at her brother instead.

He looked bad. Pale, tense, with his hands knotted between his knees, his eyes fixed on a spot on the floor. Xandra, you shit, Zoë thought viciously. It looked like Xandra had Benjamin by the balls, deliberately flaunting him in his distress. Would their father not intervene? Zoë craned her neck, but she could not see her father's position from where she currently stood. Instead, she noticed that Renzo had arrived, taking the seat opposite of Xandra. Standing behind him: his champion, Annika.