Chapter Text
It took ages for the world to stop spinning.
Eren clamped a hand tightly over his mouth as he had the urge to hurl for the tenth time in the past several minutes.
Damn that Rivaille.
He already had an annoyingly versatile power and now on top of that, he also had this shadow travel that scrambled his insides.
Just at the thought of shadow travel, his head throbbed with pain. It took all of his concentration to slip his communicator from the inside pocket of his cardigan. He pressed a combination of buttons on the small touch screen that he knew by heart and with a small buzz a holographic image of a young man with blond hair appeared.
“Titan! Where the hell have you been? Mi- I mean Seibā and I have been worried sick!” the young man instantly exclaimed as soon as the holograph stabilized.
“Armin, don’t worry about hero names, I promise I’m alone,” Eren mumbled as loud as he dared before he had to clasp a hand over his mouth again to hold back the urge to throw up.
“Eren!” Armin’s holographic image blitzed around as he waved his arms frantically. “What’s wrong? Are you injured?”
The hero groaned as his head persistently throbbed with pain, “Just a little disoriented. Can you send Connie to pick me up? It looks like I’m downtown, near the big department store.”
“What? Eren, that answers none of my questions. You didn’t show up for your shift yesterday and you didn’t come home at all the day before! Where have you been?”
The frantic yelling of his friend was well intentioned, but it was just making Eren’s headache and nausea much worse.
“Armin, I promise I’ll explain later. Can you please just send Connie?”
“Of course, of course. I’ll also ping Historia so she can look you over as soon as you get back to base,” Armin talked quickly as his arms moved around, interacting with something Eren couldn’t see. “Alright, Connie is en route to your position, he’ll be there in fifteen.”
Eren flashed a weak thumbs up at the holographic image, “Sounds good, see you soon Armin.” He then hurriedly hung up his communicator before he finally lost the battle against his nausea. He fell to his knees, and whatever little was left in his stomach ended up on the pavement of the alley. Eren groaned in discomfort and he staggered to his feet using the wall to brace himself. The hero dry heaved at the stale, disgusting taste that permeated his entire mouth.
Damn that Rivaille.
The hero focused on taking slow, measured breaths in hopes that it would help slow the throbbing pain in his head. Out of habit he felt the right side of his hip, expecting to be met with the small water flask he carried with him on patrol. Instead he was met with the belt of his normal jeans.
Right. He wasn’t in his hero costume, he was in his everyday wear. A pity because Eren would love to have some water right about now.
He leaned with his back against the wall and focused on his breathing and pointedly tried to ignore the lingering taste. Right as his mind cleared a bit, a loud screeching rang through the air near the end of the alley. That, combined with the grating slide of a car door opening, made Eren wince in pain as his ears were still a bit sensitive.
“Yo Eren! Where have you been man?” The chipper voice of Connie did not help with Eren’s migraine.
The hero held up a finger as he stumbled over to the car and braced himself against the open door. He grabbed at one of the water bottles from the case on the floor of the car and quickly cracked it open. Eren took a generous mouthful of water and quickly swished it before spitting it out on the floor of the alley. He scowled when the stale aftertaste still persisted and repeated the process twice more before his mouth was finally clear.
“You good there Eren?” Came Connie’s concerned reply from the driver’s seat.
“Connie, thanks for coming to get me. But please no questions until we get back to the base,” Eren begged as he collapsed into the back seat.
Eren didn’t even have to look to know that Connie was blinking at him with an owlish expression. He could practically feel the gears cranking in Connie’s head as the driver debated whether to abide by his request or not. Eren simply attached his seat belt and leaned his head back with his eyes closed. Something in that posture must have convinced Connie to leave Eren alone because the car started up and just drove off.
The hero didn’t quite doze off, but he did allow himself to rest his eyes as his previous nausea slowly faded. It went dark around the car as it descended into a tunnel and soon they had arrived back at their base, Paradis HQ.
Paradis HQ was a tall, somewhat imposing building situated just outside of the city center. It was in the perfect location to respond to villain incidents, both in the main city central and in the outskirts and suburbs. Armin had been the genius to pick the location, and while Eren had at first opposed having such a tall and flashy building serve as their headquarters, he couldn’t argue with the convenience of the location.
Connie parked the van in the normal spot and slid the door open for Eren. The hero dipped his head in thanks as he exited and headed for the elevators. With Connie at his side, Eren took a deep breath before he pushed the button for the twentieth floor where the debrief room was.
He knew Armin and Mikasa were going to have a dozen questions for him, and he was definitely not looking forward to the barrage. Mostly because he wasn’t even sure how he was going to explain the whole thing. There wasn’t really a concise way to put it, because how does a hero convey that he was trapped in a room with his biggest nemesis, and instead of bringing him into custody, he worked with said nemesis to escape captivity.
The elevator dinged to signal their arrival and Eren was jolted out of his train of thought. Right as the doors slid open, he was met with the blond and dark heads that he expected. Mikasa wasted no time in seizing him by his collar, and Eren held back a groan as he let his sister drag him around like a rag doll. She pulled him into the room and fired off questions at a hundred miles per hour.
“Where the hell have you been, Eren? You were supposed to meet up with me two days ago for dinner and you didn’t show. Then you missed your shift yesterday and we were worried sick, you never miss a shift. Are you injured somewhere? Did something happen? Are you sick?” Mikasa kept rambling away as she raised his arms and turned him this way and that to examine his condition.
All the pulling around was making his headache come back in full force, so Eren interrupted the second he got the chance. “Mikasa, I’m not injured, so please stop shaking me. I’ve got a massive migraine. I promise I’ll explain everything if you’d let me get a word in edgewise.”
Mikasa opened her mouth and looked like she was about to go off with more questions again but Armin stopped her. “We were just really worried about you Eren.We had to ask Jean to fill in for your shift yesterday. Which means he missed date night with Marco, so you’ll definitely be hearing from him about that later.”
Eren grimaced at the thought of dealing with the pouty horse face. “Lovely, he is so going to hold that over my head.” He glanced around and noticed that Connie had wisely slunk off, probably to avoid accidentally getting caught up in the wrath that was Mikasa.
“Ah, he’ll get over it.,” Mikasa said flippantly, waving it off before she demanded, “Now explain, Eren.”
“Hold it! He isn’t doing anything until I look him over!” A very determined voice shouted out as a small figure raced over, “He should have been brought straight to me!”
“Hi Historia,” Eren greeted meekly as he braced himself for a lecture of a different kind.
“Don’t you ‘hi’ me mister,” Historia snapped as she held her hands over him, her power hummed to life, “You should know better than to go to the debriefing room first, you should have come straight to the infirmary. If Ymir didn’t tell me you had arrived I would have had no idea.”
Historia was Paradis’ healer. She had an ability that let her examine her patients and tell what was wrong and she was able to expend her own energy to heal wounds. The effectiveness of the treatment varied depending on the severity of the injury. She was a very feisty young woman and everyone who worked at Paradis, hero or staff, figured out one crucial fact very early on: do not cross Historia.
As such, Eren wisely stayed quiet and just let Historia examine him without any fuss. Though he did shoot a nasty glare in Ymir’s direction for ratting him out. The tall brunette was never far from Historia and this time was no exception. She was leaning against the far wall and simply smirked with satisfaction back at Eren. Ymir served as Historia’s bodyguard with her super speed and deadly skill with daggers; she made sure no harm came to the healer.
“I expected this bullheadedness from our resident suicidal bastard, but Armin, Mikasa, I’m disappointed that neither of you made Connie bring him straight to me,” Historia muttered as she sent a quick glare at the two.
Eren watched Armin wilt under the scrutiny, but Mikasa simply glared back in defiance.
“Sorry Historia,” Armin apologized, “I just really wanted to hear from Eren what had happened to him.”
“The first thing I did was check him over for injuries,” Mikasa defended stubbornly, though Eren saw slight concern bleed into her eyes. As strong willed as Mikasa was, she too knew upsetting Historia was not something one wanted to do.
“And the second you get your healer’s license Mikasa, then I’ll take your word for it,” Historia retorted instantly, “Until then, next time you will bring him straight to me.” She paused as she refocused back on her examination of Eren.
The whole room seemed to be waiting with baited breath as Historia muttered things quietly. Eren was at least decently sure he was okay, the nausea had mostly faded now and there were no other lingering after-effects from Rivaille’s shadow travel. He supposed he’d be a little malnourished given he tossed his cookies in the alley and he probably hadn’t eaten for quite awhile before that, but other than that he should be fine.
Finally Historia backed away, “You need to eat Eren, but otherwise, thankfully you’re alright.”
Eren deflated in relief, happy to have his suspicions confirmed regardless of how confident he was in his own health. He saluted Historia, “Will do ma’am. I’ll make sure I eat a lot as soon as possible.”
She frowned slightly at that response and held a palm up. Immediately, Ymir placed a wrapped sandwich and a protein drink in her hand. Historia handed them straight to Eren. “Not as soon as possible. You’ll eat right now.”
The hero wilted under the scrutinizing gaze of the feisty healer and he nodded meekly. The healer didn’t move though and continued to stare pointedly at him. Eren’s shoulders deflated and he quickly unwrapped the sandwich, took a bite out of it, and chewed slowly.
The healer beamed a bright smile, all signs of intimidating disapproval gone. “Alright, we’ll leave you to your debriefings now. Eren, please try not to get into any other situations for the rest of this week?”
The hero swallowed the bite of his sandwich and then nodded in response with an easy smile. “That’s the goal Historia. I’ll do my best, I promise.”
With one last smile and wave, the small healer left with Ymir sticking close by. When the healer left, Armin gestured over to a seat at the large round table in the debriefing room. Several chairs circled the table, but most were empty as the other heroes and staff were currently out on other missions. An assortment of snacks was in the middle of the table, perfect for anyone passing by that was craving a snack.
“Now Eren, I believe you owe us some information,” Armin said as he handed Eren a bag of chips to go with his sandwich.
Eren accepted the snack before he sat in his usual chair and watched as Armin called up his holographic screens to take notes. Mikasa also joined them at the table, her gaze was expectant as she waited for Eren to begin his explanation.
The hero hesitated and his fingers played around with the bag of chips as he debated where to start explaining what happened to him. “Well, the last thing I remember before the situation was going to grab a coffee and simply enjoying my day off. But the next thing I knew, I was waking up in this dark room with power sealing cuffs binding both my arms and my legs.”
Mikasa instantly sat forward and paid close attention to this information, “So someone knows your identity?”
His sister was always quick on the uptake. Eren didn’t even have to explicitly say it for her to figure out the implications of someone nabbing him on his day off.
“But who? How? The civilian identities of our heroes are strictly guarded. Only the staff and other heroes here know each other and there are measures in place to make sure no leaks occur,” Armin frantically rambled as he swiped through a few different displays, more screens appeared in front of the blond as he gestured with his fingers.
No matter how many times Eren saw it, watching Armin use his ability was always mesmerizing. Armin specialized as an intelligence hero and he used his ability, which the blond had named “Archive”, to process and analyze all sorts of information.
Archive was connected to Armin’s brain, and the basis of it was that it allowed Armin to pull up anything he could think of onto screens that he created. It allowed for the visualization, organization, and analysis of data that in turn helped him crack even the toughest cold cases.
Eren watched as a program ran on one of Armin’s screens at lightning speed. When it finished it did a happy little chirp.
“Yeah, this confirms there were no possible leaks on our side of things,” Armin said confidently, then he started rambling about different possibilities under his breath.
“So, someone figured out your identity and brought you to this dark room. Where was this room? How long were you out? How did you escape if you were bound with power blocking cuffs? Did you figure out who kidnapped you?” Mikasa questioned as she let Armin do his thing.
Eren blinked as he processed his sister’s questions before he attempted to answer them in order. “I don’t know where the room is, I assume somewhere close to where Connie ended up picking me up. I don’t know how long I was out but it must have been for several hours considering I missed my shift yesterday. I escaped with help. No, I didn't figure out who kidnapped me, I was hoping to get Armin’s help with narrowing down possible suspects.”
He purposefully kept the answer to the third question vague and he hoped against hope that maybe Mikasa would just leave it alone.
“Someone helped you, who?” His sister instantly questioned and shattered Eren’s hopes. “Another hero?”
Armin paused in his typing at Mikasa’s question, obviously also curious to hear Eren’s reply.
Eren sighed, he knew he was just going to have to tell them. He hadn’t had too much hope of hiding it, plus he did want to share what he learned about his nemesis with his friends.
He just had to do it as if he was ripping a band-aid off. Quickly, and with no room for negotiation.
“Rivaille,” he said simply.
Then he waited.
And waited.
The silence in the room was deafening as Eren’s words shocked his friends speechless. Both were staring at him with wide eyed expressions of pure disbelief.
All at once both of his friend’s exploded with questions as they finally processed what he said.
“What do you mean Rivaille helped you escape?” Mikasa asked incredulously, “Are you sure he wasn’t the one who kidnapped you in the first place?”
“How did you get him to help you?” Armin questioned as he gestured wildly in the air. “There’s no way he did that for nothing, it’s just not like him.”
The questions continued, most of them about how Rivaille helping him was so unbelievable and out of character. The questions then devolved into theories that perhaps Eren had hit his head and wasn’t as fine as Historia had said he was. That maybe he hallucinated Rivaille helping him, and it was actually someone else.
Eren knew that there was no way he was going to be able to interrupt, so he simply let his friends ask all the questions they could think of. He waited until they finally fell silent, having exhausted all possibilities under the sun.
“I know it sounds really hard to believe, but Rivaille did help me escape. I would have been stuck in that room for a lot longer without him,” Eren said confidently. It was true after all, if Rivaille hadn’t also been there, there would have been nothing Eren could have done about the power sealing cuffs.
It looked like Mikasa was about to ask more questions, so Eren beat her to it and added, “He had also gotten kidnapped and was tied up in the room with me.”
Silence reigned in the room again as his friends both gaped at him.
Eren took this opportunity to continue. “When I came to, he spoke to me, said that I was finally awake. I had first panicked thinking he was indeed my kidnapper, until I saw him also tied up on the other side of the room,” He gestured with his hands to convey approximately the distance, “He was about this far away from me and out of costume just like I was. I saw his face without his mask for the first time.”
His damn gorgeous face without his mask.
Eren inwardly shook his head and refocused on the task at hand. “Anyways, he came up with a plan and we escaped together. I figured out how he escapes me so quickly when I’m chasing him."
He paused after that and let his friends take in the information he gave them. Armin was the first to recover, “We’ll come back to how Rivaille escapes quickly, because that’s important. But please rewind to the fact that Rivaille also got kidnapped with you? How on earth did that happen?”
Eren shrugged, “I’m just as lost on the subject as you are. It’s well known that the two of us are nemeses so it’s odd that anyone would want to kidnap both of us.”
“And he just helped you?” Armin asked, it seemed like there was more that his friend wanted to say but he couldn’t find the words.
Eren could understand the feeling, it was just such a bizarre situation to think about, something that none of them ever could have imagined being a reality. “I don’t think he wanted to, but he had no choice. He needed my help in order to escape.”
“How exactly did you escape? You said you both had power blocking cuffs on,” Mikasa wondered, confusion clear in her tone.
“That’s the thing, whoever kidnapped us only put me in power blocking cuffs. Rivaille didn’t have any on,” Eren said as he gestured wildly in the air, “His hands were just tied with a simple rope, so once he had a shadow he could use, he cut us both loose from our binds.”
“Wait wait, once he had a shadow? I thought you said you were trapped in a dark room?” Armin instantly questioned as he paused in his typing that was recording Eren’s retelling of the event.
Eren leaned forward in his seat with a serious expression, “Rivaille is not infuriatingly invincible, his shadow manipulation has a range. Generally speaking, we were in a dark room but Rivaille’s chair had lights positioned all around him in a way so that he was bathed in a halo of light. He couldn’t reach the shadows that were outside this circle.”
Armin instantly started typing furiously into a different window that he had pulled up. It was the regrettably very short list of information that they had on the elusive villain. This piece of information was crucial and would help immensely with their future attempts at catching him. “How wide was the circle, so we can record approximately what his range is. I’m assuming you moved closer to him to cast your shadow towards him and he was able to use that. Did he use your shadow the instant it was cast into the circle? Or did he have to wait for your shadow to get closer?”
A smile fought its way onto Eren’s face at Armin’s words. It was just like Armin to immediately figure out what had happened even with minimal information available. “You’re exactly on point Ar, Rivaille was able to use my shadow as soon as it entered the circle. He cut me loose first before he cut his own bonds. He was about nine or ten meters away from me and the circle extended about half the distance from his chair to me. I’d say his range is around five meters away from him.”
A look of enlightenment dawned on Armin’s face at that and then the blond furiously typed a few things and several more screens appeared in front of the trio. “That makes so much sense because look at this instance, and this one and then this one.”
Eren narrowed his eyes as he studied the three reports that Armin pulled up. Each instance was clear in his mind, especially the one pulled up on the screen closest to Eren. It was as vivid as if it happened yesterday.
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“HQ to Titan, this is Archival, Rivaille spotted two blocks south from your position. Begin pursuit, will send backup asap.”
Eren pushed a button on the side of his communicator, a thrill of excitement shooting through him. “Titan to HQ, roger Archival, Rivaille’s mine this time. I won’t let him get away from me again.”
The hero then raised his head and studied the direction he’d have to go to begin his pursuit. He quickly focused his powers in his legs and jumped off the ground with an explosive burst. He soared through the air and landed on top of the apartment building that had been in front of him. His legs took off in a run as he headed in the direction that Archival had indicated.
It wasn’t long before he saw a wall of shadow and a grin took over his face, he knew that shadow anywhere.
“Finally decided to show your pale ass face, did ya, Rivaille?” he called out loudly as he jumped down from the roof to the street below, near where the wall of darkness loomed.
“Ah, now there’s the hero I was waiting for,” the familiar deep voice of his nemesis drawled out, “Nice of you to finally join the party. But I’m afraid you’re a step too late, just like always.”
Eren grit his teeth, “We’ll see about that! Today is the day I throw your ass in prison! I’ve got a nice pair of power-blocking cuffs with your name on them, Rivaille!”
The villain had the fucking audacity to wink at him, “You’ll have to catch me first… hero.”
The wall of shadows swelled up and then rushed towards Eren at fast speeds. The hero stared it down with no fear in his eyes. His arms began to glow as he summoned his strength to them and took a massive swing at the wall of darkness. He batted the solidified shadows to the side, a feeling that he would never get used to no matter how many times he faced off against Rivaille. The shadows fell apart once they hit the ground and reassimilated with the surrounding shadows on the ground.
Eren’s eyes then whipped back towards where the villain had been standing only to see Rivaille had already started to move away from him. The villain was riding a dark circle of shadows and speeding away from him. Eren’s eyes narrowed at the burlap sack that the villain was carrying.
“Titan to HQ, Rivaille seems to have stolen something and is making for his escape, I’m going after him.” He quickly reported before he concentrated his strength in his legs and he shot after the villain. He didn’t even wait for Archival to respond in affirmative or check if his backup was on the way. He had a villain to catch.
“Get back here, Rivaille, you bastard!” Eren yelled after the fluttering cape in the distance.
“As fun as it would be to hang with you more my dear hero, I don’t quite want to spend the rest of my days in prison, sadly, so I’ll be escaping now,” Rivaille snarked back as he hopped off of his circle of shadows. The circle distorted and became three fists instead which all came hurtling at Eren, one after the other.
The hero ducked under the first and met the second shadow punch with a fist of his own, the shadows burst at the contact and knocked Eren back slightly. The knockback delayed his counterpunch which forced Eren to throw his upper body backwards and watch with wide eyes as the third shadow punch went soaring inches from his face. He tightened his core and managed to right himself and pivot on his left foot just in time for the first punch to come careening back towards him.
He gathered his strength in his arm and burst the shadow punch much like the other one. When this one exploded however, it flared out in a bunch of tendrils of shadow and blocked his view temporarily. This allowed the final shadow fist to come shooting to his right side. Eren quickly turned and put his guard up right as the punch made contact with his arm. He grit his teeth and dug his heels in, the road beneath his feet breaking from the force that pushed him a few feet backwards.
Threat finally dealt with, he shook off the slight pain from the final punch and he resumed running after Rivaille, who for some reason hadn’t made himself a new shadow disc to ride. Instead, the villain was running on foot down the wide sunny street.
This was it, Eren could catch up to him now. The hero grinned as he poured more of his power into his legs and sprinted towards the villain. He unclipped power blocking cuffs from his belt as he ran, hoping to catch up to Rivaille and slap these cuffs onto the villains’ wrists.
Before he could get close enough though, a dark mass collected underneath Rivaille’s feet and raised the villain off the ground. The dark mass had been bunched close to the ground and suddenly rose into the air. The action flung the villain skyward and Rivaille gracefully landed on the roof of the building.
“See ya next time hero.” Rivaille said with a mock salute and a smug grin. “So sorry I couldn’t go with you to prison today!”
Eren yelled in frustration as he sprinted even faster and when he got close enough to the building he jumped up to the roof. Right as his feet touched the top, his eyes instantly trained to the black cloaked figure of Rivaille standing there. The bastard again had the audacity to wink at Eren, even blowing him a kiss, before he threw himself backwards off the other side of the building.
Eren dashed across the roof and looked over the edge. All he could see was a dark alley, no villain with his infuriating black cloak in sight. Eren cursed loudly and pounded a fist on the wall that surrounded the roof deck. The stones cracked under the force of his blow.
“Damn that Rivaille! He slipped away from me again!” Eren exclaimed in anger as he harshly ran a hand through his hair.
“HQ to Titan, report please. Lost sight of Rivaille on the cameras, do you have visual confirmation of his position?”
The hero angrily held the button down on his communicator, “No! The bastard escaped again! And I was so close to getting him this time.”
An accepting sigh sounded over the communicator, “Alright Titan, shake it off. We’ll get him soon. Continue patrol and I’ll see you back at HQ at the end of your shift.”
Eren groaned with a frustrated huff, “Yeah yeah, see you later Archival.”
He cut the communications as soon as he agreed, his whole body tense as his eyes glared down into the dark alley, as if hoping that Rivaille’s infuriating black cloak would come back into view. The hero just didn’t get it. How on earth had the villain disappeared so quickly? Eren was sure that he hadn’t been that far behind him. He had just seen the bastard tip himself over the edge of the roof, so how did he get out of sight so quickly?
Eren threw his head back and shouted in frustration, “One day, Rivaille! One day, I’ll catch you!”
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A thoughtful hum pulled Eren out of his trip down memory lane and he looked over at Armin, who was drawing lines on the screens with the incidents. “In all of these incidents, you got close to capturing Rivaille but he managed to slip away right when you thought he was caught.”
Eren’s head fell as he sighed in annoyance. “I know he managed to escape all of those times Armin, I was there. I’m the one he managed to run away from.”
“Yes, but the thing I want to point out, is the how, not the outcome,” Armin elaborated as he zoomed in on one of the images he was marking. This particular one was from the rooftop incident and showed the moment before Levi had made it onto the roof. “Observe how he didn’t recreate a disc of shadows on which to travel on after he hurled his previous one in your direction. Instead he’s running by himself on the ground.”
Eren raised an eyebrow as he studied the footage before him. He remembered noticing it and finding it odd, but he didn’t quite understand what Armin was trying to get at. “Wasn’t he just being infuriating and making me think I had a chance to catch him just like he always does?”
Armin shook his head, “While he can be infuriating, look at his position here where he starts running on foot. And then look at who comes around the corner, just before he blasts himself to the roof.” As Armin spoke he slowly rolled the footage forward and circles of light appeared on the screen to emphasize his points.
The hero’s eyes widened when he saw it, “The group of high schoolers that turned the corner…” he trailed off as the shock truly set in.
“Exactly Eren, just as you noticed, he was running on his own because he had no shadows at his disposal,” Armin reiterated as he circled the wide open street with nothing nearby within the predicted five meter range that would cast a shadow. “It looks like he can’t use his own shadow indefinitely. As you can see here in this frame, he has a shadow, but in this later frame he doesn’t, despite the bright sun outside.”
“So he flung his own shadow at Eren and then didn’t have anything else he could use?” Mikasa finally spoke up to clarify.
“Precisely, so then when the group of high schoolers turned the corner about three meters away from Rivaille, he finally had shadows he could use,” Armin continued as he scrolled through the footage to show the frame of the calm, smiling high schoolers with shadows, to the shocked high schoolers with no shadows.
“So the high schoolers entered his range and that’s how he got to the top of the building,” Mikasa concluded.
“Exactly,” Armin agreed with a nod. “And similar situations happened in these other two situations. In this one when Rivaille robbed Wall Rose’s tech warehouse, Eren had been on the scene earlier than usual, and if you see here, Rivaille runs out of shadows while fighting him.” Armin gestured to the middle screen.
“Then a bird flies overhead and that shadow is used to blind Eren. That gave Rivaille enough time to dart towards a nearby alley where his attack is renewed with a new batch of shadows,” Armin continued before he gestured to the final screen, “Here, a dog ran by chasing a cat and those shadows helped Rivaille fly off and around the corner."
“That doesn’t solve how he disappeared on Eren any of those times though. He is always right there and then he just vanishes,” Mikasa groaned in frustration.
Armin’s face turned thoughtful again, “Yes, I suppose that will remain a mystery.”
Eren instantly shook his head, “Actually… It’s like I was saying earlier. I know now what happened those days, how he escaped me so quickly."
Both of his friends instantly turned to look at him with wide, owl eyes.
“He must have teleported himself. That’s a thing he can do, he can go into shadows and travel through them,” Eren quickly elaborated before either Armin or Mikasa could barrage him with questions.
“Shadow….. teleportation…” Armin slowly repeated, the screens in front of him glitched wildly a few times in response to his pure shock.
“Are you sure Eren? I want to believe you but teleporting into the shadows is… well… it’s kind of hard to believe,” Mikasa said.
Eren sighed. He couldn’t even be mad at them because he was shocked when Rivaille had revealed the power to him as well. “I know it’s shocking, but he really can teleport himself. He can take people with him too. That’s how we escaped the room we were trapped in.”
All of Armin’s screens winked out of existence as both of his friends stared at him in shock.
“Oh… uh… maybe I should have started with that?” Eren questioned sheepishly.
“Yes!” Both of his friends cried out. “Yes, you should have!”
Eren held up both of his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. A lot of things have been happening in the past forty eight hours, alright?"
Armin smiled apologetically at him, “Right, sorry Eren. It has been a pretty stressful day for you. That’s just a lot to take in.”
“Tell me about it,” Eren sighed as he sank back into his chair, “I’ve learned more about Rivaille from this incident than from the six years I’ve been chasing him.”
The screens reappeared in front of Armin and his friend’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. “So how does shadow teleportation work? Did you guys travel all at once out of the room? Or take it in smaller jumps? Could you see from inside the shadow? What did it feel like?”
Eren blinked several times at the rapid fire questions. Luckily, Mikasa came to his rescue, “Slow down, Armin. Ask him your questions one at a time.”
Armin smiled sheepishly, “Sorry again Eren, it’s just this is such a new side to Rivaille’s power and such a versatile one at that.”
“I’m afraid I’m not entirely sure how it works,” Eren admitted, “It’s not like he was entirely forthcoming about the details.”
“That’s fair,” Armin acquiesced as he rubbed his chin in thought, “It’s an ability he hasn’t used in the public eye, so he must have a reason for keeping it under wraps. Just describe what happened best you can then, Eren.”
“He basically gathered a bunch of shadows around him, they almost curled around him in a partial cocoon of sorts,” Eren started to explain as he tried to recall the details accurately. He remembered the side hug and he felt his face heat up in embarrassment. He quickly forced the blush back, there was no way he was telling his friends about that particular detail.
“I had to be next to him for this to work, and then there was this tug on my body when he started the process. It felt like my insides were being flipped inside out, it was all in all a very unpleasant and uncomfortable experience,” Eren finished with a slight shudder as he remembered the nausea that the teleportation had caused.
“So you couldn’t see the outside world from within the shadow?” Armin asked, his tone made it obvious he was disappointed to hear this.
Eren shook his head, “I was too busy feeling like I was being dissolved, blended, and spun in fast circles all at once. I’m not sure how long we were in the shadow but suddenly we were in the alley where Connie picked me up. I had a massive migraine and I was queasy as all hell.”
“Ahh, so that’s why you looked so off when you called ok your communicator. What about Rivaille, was he also queasy?” Armin asked immediately as his fingers flew across his keyboard and recorded the details.
“Infuriatingly enough, he was just fine,” Eren grouched, “Though I guess it would make sense for him to be able to control his own power.”
“So to get all the facts straight,” Mikasa interjected when Eren paused. “Eren, you supplied Levi with a shadow that he used to cut off first your cuffs, then his ropes. Then he teleported you both out of the room and into the alley. Then he escaped before you could regain your bearings enough to go after him.”
Eren nodded, “Yeah that pretty much sums it up.” It leaves out the horrible nickname Rivaille gave him, the sarcastic teasing, Rivaille’s unfortunately gorgeous bare face, and that damned side hug that Eren could not stop thinking about.
There was silence for a few seconds as both of his friends processed everything, now that the full story had been told.
“So, he could have just left you in that room?” Mikasa asked bluntly.
That question sucker punched Eren in the gut. He made a strangled noise in his throat as he couldn’t find the words to answer because Mikasa wasn’t wrong.
Rivaille definitely could have left him in that room, with power blocking cuffs on. All the villain had really needed Eren for was the initial shadow to cut his ropes. Then he had the whole room full of shadows at his disposal. Literally nothing had been stopping him from simply teleporting himself out and leaving Eren there helpless.
So the biggest question weighing on Eren’s mind now was, why hadn’t he?
At the time, he had been wary about interacting with Rivaille as they planned their escape, but that was just it, the escape had been at the forefront of his mind. He hadn’t stopped to question why Rivallie essentially saved him when the villain had absolutely no reason to.
“Well… it would be rather rude to leave Eren there after he helped him escape his ropes,” Armin suggested, but his voice cracked and he didn’t sound confident at all.
“Yes, because I’m sure a big-time villain that we have been hunting down for six years totally cares about being rude to a hero,” Mikasa deadpanned. “And none of that explains why he cut Eren loose first before himself.”
Eren sat there in silence as his two friends continued arguing around him. Armin kept offering up half-baked explanations for Rivaille’s actions that Mikasa shot down mercilessly.
There was just no explaining it in Eren’s eyes. Rivaille had done something completely out of character that he didn’t have to do. It made the man a bigger mystery than he already was.
Just why did he help him? And did Rivaille mean what he said about updating him if he found any info on their kidnapper?
There was no way he was serious about that.
Was he?