On that Day, 2000 Years Later

Levi Ackerman is an archeologist at the top of his field, who has made it his life mission to uncover the truth behind the ancient myth of the titans and the city, Shiganshina. He soon comes face to face with the greatest discovery of his career: a boy frozen in crystal. Things soon complicate though when the boy unexpectedly emerges. Mysterious cultists and competing governments become the least of his problems as secrets are unearthed and memories dredged up. Reincarnation!fic. Ereri/Riren.

Disclaimer: I don't own

Prologue-A Door Unopened

The Phone call arrived in the dead of the night.

"Hange, I swear to God," Levi croaked, one thin leg dangling over the edge of his cot. "If this is you drunk dialing me again…"

"I'm very sober," she assured quickly. Her voice was louder than usual. It gave him a mind grain. "It's the dig site. I found something."

Levi sat up straight. "What is it?"

"There's an old door, right in this little ditch area that seems to have been preserved. I carbon dated some of the petrified wood and it's old. Like 2,000 years old."

"This is it. This really might be It," He muttered, throwing a shirt over his head. "Who else have you told."

"No one. I thought you might want to be on the scene first since, you know, this project is your baby."

Levi snorted at that, but he was genuinely grateful. Not that he'd ever say that out loud to the batty laboratory analyst.

This could really be the discovery of his career. Not only that, if he could prove that these ruins were the remains of the Mythical city, Shiganshina, he would be renowned in the field of Archeology.

"Levi? You still there?" came Hange's voice, yanking him out of his thoughts. Right, first things first. I have to get there and take a look myself.

"Yeah. Hange, I'll be there in five." And then he hung up.

-0-

"See here, how this area is boxed in with stones?" Hange said the moment he arrived on the site. "This is the building I carbon dated. I didn't even notice it with all the trees growing out of it, but you'll see if you look closer."

"You said something about a door?"

"Right! Come around this way!" Levi followed her as she led him around the grove of trees. He was careful to step over the white strings that mapped out all the plots, not wanting to disturb anyone's work.

"It's really fucking dark back here," he muttered. Hange tapped her temple and a light instantly burst into existence, directed right at him.

"Don't shine that in my eyes," he growled, clamping a hand over the headlight on her forehead. "How did you even think to look back here anyways? It's completely hidden."

"It was mostly an accident," she replied, turning away to duck under some very low branches. "Watch your head. Actually, one of those plot strings tripped me and I fell at just the right angle. I slid right down this little ditch here-watch your step, there's a pothole right there-and ended up right…here."

"I don't…" but he stopped as soon as the analyst pulled a dark branch out of the way. At first he thought hange was kidding him, but then he took a closer look. A grey stone met the yellow light, shadows playing across a multitude of wood grains. It looked to have been organic once, but the years had turned it to stone.

"It looks like a door, right," Hange prodded. "Look at that hole there where a door handle used to be. And that little one under it must have been a keyhole."

Levi fingered the indents of the petrified wood.

"Now look behind you," she said quietly. The light vanished as the analyst turned around. Levi followed suit. And was taken aback.

"Stairs," he murmured. Or at least, what was once a set of stone steps. The edges were softened and worn down to a nearly unrecognizable state, but they were defiantly there, running all the way up to the edge of the grove.

"It's amazing, right," Hange inserted. "The trees and top soil kept this all sheltered from the elements and the roots kept it all in place."

"It's a basement," Levi said.

"Huh?" Hange twisted her head around. "Oh, yeah! I think you might be right! Do you think…?" she started.

"No. I highly doubt there's anything on the other side of that door. Probably caved in a millennia ago," he muttered. "This door, though. It's a good find. It's nothing fancy, but the fact that it has a keyhole and is that old. This isn't just some primitive construction. Whatever settlement this used to be, it was very advanced."

"You think it's really Shigan-?"

"I don't want to get my hopes up," the archeologist cut in. "We'll remove the door tomorrow for closer inspection.

-0-

"Careful! I swear, Olou, If you crack that door I'll-!"

"I see you're still making friends, Levi," came a deep voice.

Levi spun around to find Erwin leaning over him. The tall bastard blocked out the sunlight like some sort of freakish giant.

"Yeah, well, I believe a happy work environment is first priority," he deadpanned. And then: "I'm surprised you weren't here earlier."

"No one woke me up for it," Erwin answered. His tone was nothing but pleasant, but Levi had known him long enough to hear his sore pride groaning underneath his façade.

"Look Erwin. I didn't want to make a big deal out if it in case it turned out to be nothing. I would have called you to come with us if Hange hadn't been so vague with the details." Okay, maybe that was stretching the truth a bit. When had Hange ever been vague? But, damn it, Shiganshina was his dream and purpose. He couldn't stand the thought of his superior showing up and taking the credit for all his hard work in excavating the old ruins. Then again, Hange had been the one to find the door, but in his defense it had been his string that she had tripped over.

"At least you're here in time for the door's removal," Levi said. "You can help me make sure none of these idiots drop it."

"Yes," Erwin agreed, his swollen pride assuaged for the time being. "Let's not have that."

It took hours for the edges of the door to be examined with the upmost care and hours more for it to be carefully cut away from its ancient frame. Both Levi and Erwin stayed there the whole time, sometimes helping their subordinates (Olou, Petra, Gunther, and Eld, if anyone cared to know) and sometimes hanging back to direct the others. It was early evening when they were finally ready to remove the door.

They had tarp ready to wrap it up and a truck parked at the edge of the forested depression.

"Careful now," Levi said as his team peeled the door off its frame and lowered it onto the tarp sheet. "Now this-." And then he froze.

A great crystalline structure sat just behind the door, and in it: the body of a human, a young man to be more specific, frozen in time like an insect in amber and with a look of horror on his face.