Chapter 3 - New Blood

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"Let's go!" Mikasa said, already pulling Levi by the handcuffs.


"Annie, we should go with them." Bertholdt said, though to Levi it sounded more like pleading.


"Fine."

Annie doesn't seem to be putting up much resistance to the idea...

The thought fluttered into Levi's mind, but he dismissed the idea soon enough, and told himself that he was overthinking things.

"Then we need to leave now!" Mikasa insisted, already making her way to the door.

Levi made a mental note to himself that they would have to come back to this room, once they had gone to investigate the noise.

We haven't had a proper chance to look around... we could have missed something important.

Mikasa opened up the only other door in the room and they headed down the dimly lit corridor. Faint spotlights were beamed up from lights in the ground, which cast strange shadows on the wall and on their faces. The group of four jogged down the corridor and the shouting they had heard was getting louder the further they went.

"We must be going in the right direction." Mikasa said, just as the corridor split in front of them, one path went to left, and one to the right.

"Which way do we go now?" Bertholdt asked

Levi was sure that he could see a hint of an eerie blue glow coming from the end of the corridor to the right.

Mikasa's brows furrowed, "This way", as she pointed to the left, "The noise sounds louder."

"We should come back at some point and check out this area too." Annie commented.

"You're right – after we find out what is going on here." Mikasa said, once again pulling Levi with the handcuffs as they began jogging down the corridor once again.

It wasn't long before the four of them were confronted by a door. It was obvious that the shouting originated from whatever was behind it.

"Be on your guard, we don't know who or what might be in here." Levi cautioned, though he himself did not know if he was speaking solely to Mikasa, or Bertholdt and Annie too.

Mikasa opened the door to a room that much resembled a library. The room did not have walls as such, but massive mahogany bookcases that reached from the floor to the ceiling. Inside the impressive bookcases were stacked books of every shape and size. In the middle of the wall opposite them was a grand fireplace, but it was unlit and empty at this time. Above it hung a colossal mirror, with an ornate golden filigree border.

Levi's attention now turned to the direction of the noise, and found four people whose backs were turned away from him. They were handcuffed in pairs just like Mikasa and Levi, and Annie and Bert. But the couple did not appear to be shouting at each other, and now Levi could hear what exactly they were shouting about.

"How can we trust him? This isn't right! He isn't one of us!" A young man said with blondish hair and a longish face said.

"I haven't done anything!"

Levi could not see the owner of this voice. A group of four people appeared to tower whoever was pleading.

"I agree, something doesn't seem right here..." A taller and stocker man said as he took a step closer to whoever was in front of him.

"We shouldn't make any rash decisions guys." The shortest of the group said.

"We need answers, so you better start talking fast!" A young lady with brown hair insisted.

The new group had yet to realise that they were being watched by the two new couples who still stood at the door, not yet sure of what to make of the situation.

The young blond man appeared to grab the unidentified person by the collar and push him against one of the impressive bookcases. Levi observed that they were all wearing the same sort of dark green jumpsuits as they were. Some were more tattered and worn looking than others.

"You better start talking runt, or we are going to have problems!" The blond man shouted as he slammed the person against the bookcase, causing several books to fall onto the floor.

"Please wait, if you could just give me a chance to explain!"

Levi could now see the person who seemed to be causing all the panic, as he was slammed again and again into the bookcase. It was a young man, with dark brown hair and big green eyes.

Just then two things happened at once. Levi heard a quiet but sharp intake of air and felt a tight grip on his handcuffed hand. Levi's head whipped around to find the vice like grip come from Mikasa's own hand in his. Annoyed and confused, Levi yanked his hand away from her grip.

"What's wrong with you!" Levi hissed, the agitation obvious in his voice.


I hate it when people touch me.
Levi thought as he scratched at his forearm.


Mikasa's eyes resembled that of a dear in headlights, as she seemingly stared at the commotion.


"Look over there! More people!"


Levi whipped his head back around to the new people, and found them staring in disbelief in his direction, along with Mikasa, Bertholdt and Annie. The brown haired man was pointing towards them, with a desperate look in his eye.


Hoping to take the spotlight of himself no doubt.


"Umm...Hello." Bertholdt said.


Levi did not need to turn around to know that Bert was sweating. The two groups stood silent for a moment, deciding what to do with each other. The other group seemed to scan Levi's group from top to toe - almost as if they were looking for something, before the silence was broken.


"This just confirms it!" the young blond man with the longish face said, and pointed in Levi's groups direction,"See, they are all handcuffed too! This guy isn't one of us – and that makes him an enemy!"

Levi looked at the new groups wrists to find them all wearing handcuffs... except for one of them.


"Why aren't you wearing handcuffs, kid?" Levi said, talking directly to the brown haired boy from across the room.

"I... I... don't know. I woke up like this, I wasn't with anyone." The boy pleaded, his voice was urgent as he tried to explain.

The young woman began to speak.

"But we are all paired off, and handcuffed. Even you guys." She said motioning to Levi's group. "Why is he different?" She pointed back to man without a partner.

"First things first - what are your names?" Annie said.

When the other group sported confused looks, Bertholdt suggested checking their pockets, as Levi had to them in the previous room.

The young blond man with the long face and bad temper started first.

"My name is Jean, my caption says, "Ignite those that dwell in the shadows"... what is this supposed to mean?"

"We don't know yet... we had a theory that it might have something to do with who we were outside of this place. Maybe like what our occupations were. But we are not sure yet." Annie offered.

The brown haired girl that was handcuffed to Jean began to speak and Levi noticed that her face carried a plethora of freckles.

"Ymir is my name. But I don't have a phrase on my card. I have a number. Did anyone of you guys have a number?"

"No, none of us had a number." Bertholdt said, shaking his head.

Nobody spoke. Not sure what to make of this change, they decided to continue with finding out their names.

The tall blonde stocky man held out his card as he spoke.

"I'm Reiner, and the phrase on my card is," The pen is mightier than the sword." He said with a confused look as he crossed his arms, unaware at how it showed off how stocky and built his shoulders were.

"Something tells me that you weren't a writer on the outside." Annie sniggered.

"This card says that my name is Armin, bellow is written, "Dark horse"."

"He's short enough to be a jockey, no?" Jean said with a smirk.


"Look who's talking, horse face." The brown haired man said, seemingly forgetting that he was at their mercy only moments ago.

Jean turned back to him, "Oh yeah? Well then, read us out your car so we can figure out who you are, and what we will do with you!" Jean finished with a prod to the strangers chest.


The brown haired man cleared his throat and took out his card.

"My name is Eren." He squinted at his card before saying, "I don't have a phrase either, I have something else... It is like the shape of an upside U but with sharp angles instead of curves."

Jean had snapped the card out of Eren's hands before he had even finished his sentence.


"I guess this knocks your theory on its head." Jean said to Annie.


Before Annie could reply, Armin took a step forward.


"We can't say that for sure. Not until we know what it actually means." He said, looking around at the group before him.


"Anyone have any ideas as to what this is?" Reiner said as he passed the card to Ymir for inspection.

Levi turned to Mikasa, who he realised had not spoken since they entered this room. She was still staring directly at Eren, who seemed oblivious to the fact that he was being watched.


"Mikasa," Levi said prodding her shoulder, removing her gaze from Eren, "Any idea what this could be?" As he received Eren's card from Ymir, and handed it to her.


"Oh," she murmured as she took the card, "No... I don't know what this is."


Mikasa passed the small card to Bertholdt, not looking at Eren now but at Levi.


"I need to speak with you." She whispered to Levi, no one else seemed to notice as they discussed what they thought the symbol on Eren's card could be.


"Why? What's the matter?"


Mikasa shook her head discreetly, "I can't say it hear."


Levi pondered for a second before nodding, "Okay, but later. We need to find out a bit more about these guys."

"But Levi, listen for a sec-"

"I said later!" Levi cut her off.

"Such an arsehole..." Mikasa said under her breath, but made sure it was loud enough for Levi to hear.

Levi turned his attention back to the new group. "So I'm assuming that because you guys had to use the cards to remember your names... that you all woke up here without your memories too?"

"That right," Reiner said, "But me and Armin here, didn't wake up in this room."

"We woke up in another room, through that door and down a small corridor." Armin corroborated his partner's story, as he pointed to a door.

Taking a look around this library room, Levi noticed four doors, one door for every wall. Above each door was a single letter. The room that Armin had pointed out had the letter "S" above it. Directly opposite was a door with the letter "N". The other doors had a letter "E" to the right, and a letter "W" to the left.

Like a compass. Good – we need all the help we can get.

"We came from a different room too." Ymir said, interrupting Levi's train of thought.

"Our room is through that door," Jean said, pointing to the "E" door. "Down a corridor which splits in two directions, but we haven't checked out any other rooms yet."

"This is the room I started in." Eren said, "I don't have any memory of who I am. I was the only one here when I woke up; I don't have a partner like you guys."

"Or so he says... how can we trust anything that comes out of his mouth? He doesn't have a partner, but we all do? Why?" Jean asked.

"Just because he is different does not mean that he is a threat." Armin interjected.

But it is obvious that everything here was carefully planned and laid out for us...

"I hate to say this kid, but I have my suspicions too." Reiner said, now turning to the others, "What if he killed his partner?

"What makes you think that?" Levi asked, not able to hide his curious tone.

Reiner turned to Levi, a grave expression set on his face.

"Haven't you noticed the blood on his jumpsuit?"

***

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