AN: My friend and I actually had an entire conversation at how a dectective/murder AU for this series could go... and needless to say that's what happened.
First chapter to test the waters with this so tell me what you think and if you want me to go ahead and actually write and finish this! We have the entire plot figured out for this with twists and turns throughout the entire thing haha ~ We've also settled on Eren/Rivaille as the pairing for this, however it's not going to be so full out romantic that it takes over the actual plot. Serial killers and FBI agents come first. Then romance.
Warnings before you read any farther: This is a serial killer!AU, so there will be graphic descriptions, blood, death, killings, etc. If you're really sensitive to that stuff, then I suggest not reading this, only because it starts with graphic. Just a friendly warning. Rated M for that and language... and potentially other things.
And with that I hope you enjoy. EDIT: Alright guys thank you so much for the reviews and favorites and follows already! We're surprised and extremely happy - I'm currently writing the next chapter, so it'll be up tomorrow or friday! Thanks again!
Extended summary: Eren is a serial killer who's obsessed with the sight of blood and dragging the two friends in debt to him into his murders. Nothing special, really, just your typical murders with Mikasa and Armin disposing the bodies, hiding evidence and sending the cops off their trails. That is, until Eren gets bored and starts setting the murders up. Making a game out of it. Enter special agents Levi and Irvin, the FBI's best for the job. It's a game of hide and seek against the killer, who's under their nose the entire time. A battle of wits to the end in a game of hide and seek.
.o0o.
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Shinganshina Outskirts
Apartment Complex C
21:00, October 14th, 2013
Eren Jaeger
...
It wasn't too hard anymore to bring something down on another person. Be it hammer, knife, maybe even a rusty pipe; they all cultivated the same outcome. A lifeless body that had previously been screaming in pain and pleading for help and their life, and blood.
Red, magnificent and opaque; it was something he loved. The texture, the look, everything about it. It was like a reward, he believed, once you break away the shell protecting it . You're left with crimson that's never the same color for everyone. That's what he found fascinating; that a person could be horrible, so god damn filthy, and yet their blood would still have its own hue. Always crimson, but with different shades mixed in once the light hit it. Lighter reds for some, darker and heavier reds for others. It was different and unique and he loved it.
Which is why he did this.
Eren dropped the pipe. It rolled to a stop by the chair where the motionless form sat. Head hung and silent, it sat. No one worth mentioning, Eren noted, just a thief who was stupid enough to waltz into his apartment thinking he could steal something. Just a thief who was stupid enough to waltz into his death.
There was a subtle drip that landed in a metal pan next to him where that lovely hue was splashing against silver, signaling the last event of the evening was still going on. Draining blood wasn't exactly the nicest thing to do in the world, but it left room for creativity. Leaving it at the wrong crime scene, using it to tamper with evidence...perhaps he could even paint a picture with it and sell it. That'd be a fun way to mix it up.
"Eren?"
He snapped out of his daze and looked to the doorway. The light that shined in from the kitchen blocked out the face, but he could tell by the shoulders and the posture. Mikasa fiddled with the ends of her scarf, the way she always did when he was like this. Her eyes were probably focused on the wall too, away from the tarps and her bloodied brother crouched in a dark room.
"Did you finish?" he asked. He already knew the answer.
Her figure nodded. "Everything's done. It didn't take too long."
"Armin?"
"Called it in. He'll be there creating alibis and leading them off the path."
Eren hummed in reply. He patted the head of the slouched body and used it to haul himself up. His feet crunched against the tarp that covered the extra room's floor, creating the only sound between the three as he walked towards Mikasa.
He could finally see her eyes. Grey, slightly narrowed, unafraid.
"Who was it this time?" she asked. Timid, stable, just as always.
"Just some idiot who decided to attempt a break in," Eren mused. He gave the body one last look. It looked almost peaceful, aside from the river that ran from its veins and out into the air to show off what happened. It wasn't anything unusual around the apartment, though.
"Did he now?" she returned. Doubt, it was there, Eren could tell. He ruffled her hair with his unstained hand and stepped past her to walk to the kitchen. The faucet seemed too loud in the dark, but that was okay. It was calming coupled with the red that filtered off his hands and mixed with the water to swirl around the drain.
"I promise, he did."
She snorted in disbelief. "Why does that surprise me?"
"Because usually it's not the truth," he laughed. "But mixing it up every now and again isn't a bad idea, right?"
She sighed. "Eren, what if they find out?"
That's not going to happen, he thought, they're too slow. They don't know what they're doing. His phone buzzed on the counter.
"Do you really think they will?" He replied. Dodge the question, easy as always.
Mikasa frowned. "It's a possibility. Eren, I just," she paused, probably to choose her words carefully. "worry. I don't want to lose you, especially to something like this."
"The killings? Or the cops?"
"Both." Her answer was firm. "You should find another hobby."
He sighed in return and tapped the screen on his phone. Armin's name stood out on the text notification. Under it was a simple message: Done. On my way back.
And that was that, just as always. That would be the end to another life and to another story. It was normal and oh so boring, Eren believed.
A cop car's lights flashed outside of the kitchen window. The car went speeding past towards Armin's location, and where Mikasa had returned from.
It was boring, and normal.
He wanted change.
"Mikasa?"
"Hmm?" She clicked the kitchen light on. A paper towel was in her hand, and she ran it under the water. As soon as she deemed it damp enough, she took Eren's chin in her hand and started wiping off the blood that had made it onto his cheek.
He needed change.
He grabbed her wrist to stop her. "I think it's time we mix things up again and find a new hobby,"
He needed to see what the world was capable of.
.o0o.
.
Trost Outskirts
Military Training Base
7:00, October 15th, 2013
Special Agent Levi
...
It was too damn early for paperwork. Nothing pissed him off more than having a stack of files slammed down on his desk as soon as he stepped through the office doors, and nothing pissed him off more than having another stack given to him for this job. A little car reading, he'd been told, that's all it would be. Something to pass the time while he and Irvin traveled a few cities over.
Car reading his ass. 15 fucking files and not even a decent cup of coffee on a shitty car ride made it practically unbearable. No, Special Agent Levi couldn't honestly give a fuck at this point.
But his work partner did. And that's why he was here; sitting in the car, drinking some convenience store's watered down pathetic excuse for caffeine, reading murder files. Which honestly would have seemed interesting, and probably even worthwhile, if it wasn't seven in the morning on a fucking saturday.
He marked his spot with his thumb to take another drink, scrunching his nose in disgust. The murder cases weren't anything new. Either stabbed to death (usually in the torso almost ritualistically, nothing entirely unique there as always), beat to death, dismembered, disemboweled; the list went on. Nothing was interesting or even eye-catching anymore after working for the FBI for so long. Which is why Levi didn't understand why Irwin had chosen to pick this case up. It didn't have anything new and it wasn't even in their league. Hell, a fuckin' rookie cop could probably figure out the killer-
There was a sharp tap on his window. Levi looked up to see Irwin's face. His mouth was set in a grim line and he jerked his head in a quick nod back towards the crime scene. Levi raised a brow in retaliation.
You need to see this. Irwin mouthed. Levi sighed and threw the case files in the back seat. He threw the car door open with more force than necessary, grabbing his crap coffee too.
"This better be good."
"Oh? A little fresh air seems like it could do you some good."
"Har har," He bit back and downed the last bit of coffee. The grinds included. He wanted to puke. "So what's so special about this one?"
"I think you should take a look yourself,"
Levi frowned. They reached the police tape that created a barrier around the training base's opening. The body was in plain view from there, shoved up between two telephone poles in the center. Rope was suspending the wrists so that the hands looked like they were holding the body upright in a sitting position. A few feds were crouched around it, looking and pointing. Same with a couple of white coats, except they were sweeping the dirt around it.
Irwin was the first to nod to the two feds when they looked up. "Agent Ral, Bossard,"
Special agents Petra Ral and Auruo Bossard were another pair only called in for top priority murders. Serial murders, if Levi remembered right. His eyes narrowed. This was important if they were here.
"Special agent Smith," Petra offered a smile. She stood and wiped her hand on her pant leg before offering it. He shook it quickly. When she offered it to Levi, however, he just glared at it and stepped in to look at the body.
"I'll apologize on behalf of him. He's not entirely a morning person," Irwin's voice. Levi wanted to turn around and snarl at how condescending that sounded, but he forced himself not to. No, it was time for him to go to work and see exactly why this was so damn important.
He barely heard Irwin usher the other two out of there. His full attention was on the body in front of him. Middle aged, American, Male. Probably around 150 pounds and nearly six feet tall. He didn't seem entirely special; there was a significant amount of bruises centering around the man's collarbone and that drifted down the man's shoulder.
Irwin tapped him on the shoulder. There was a pair of rubber gloves. "I expect you to report your analysis to me quickly,"
"What about you?"
"I took a look while you were reading through the case files,"
The shorter of the two scoffed. Of course he did.
He went back to work, pulling on the gloves. With them on he could pull down the shirt and see the fractured shoulder that wasn't bleeding, even though it should have been. He could also see the damaged ribs when he pulled up the shirt. There weren't any marks that actually broke through the skin though, that was the weird part. Tack the possibility that this guy could be a professional killer to the list.
He looked at one hand and then the other. Nothing wrong there. A leather bracelet was on the victim's left wrist just above the rope, but there were no signs of a struggle. In fact, he realized, there was no signs of a struggle anywhere. It was like the ground had never been touched. There weren't any footprints of the killer or the victim. Which means that the killer probably murdered this man away from the scene and brought him here, Levi frowned. But that wouldn't make any sense either. With a dirt road all the way in and out, there'd have to have been some sort of tracks heading in. But there weren't.
He pushed that thought aside; that'd be something to talk to Irwin about. Instead, he examined the rope. Normal grade, standard, just something you could buy at a home improvement store. It looked like the rope was embedded into the wrist by at least a quarter of an inch, most likely because of a clamp. There was slight bruising around the skin there which was expected. But that was all.
He tilted the head up next. The man's face was untouched. There weren't any bruises on the neck or purplish-red dots under the eyes that would have signaled Petechial hemorrhaging. Asphyxiation in Layman's terms. There wasn't anything. The eyes weren't bloodshot, the skin wasn't damaged in any way. Even the hair seemed like it had been brushed, as short as it was.
This was bizarre.
But the face seemed familiar...
"Agent Smith," he shouted.
Footsteps running back to his side. They crouched down by Levi's side and aimed at the rope that wrapped around one of the telephone poles. "I take it you found something?"
"No signs of a struggle aside of the bruises on his torso, no source of any fluid leakage. Nothing in the mouth that looks like it could have been poison. There's no hemorrhaging at all. It's too clean,"
"The ground hasn't been swept. We managed to find the trainee in charge of that job; he said he didn't notice anyone come and go, but the security tape is gone." Irwin replied. He was untying the rope, making the victim fall back as soon as it came free. "Prints on the machine and door were wiped clean. There's nothing."
Typical, he frowned. He tilted the head up again, trying to place where he'd seen this face before-
And then it hit him.
"Michael Grimes. Age 34, right? Originally from Hermiha, he moved out and to Trost. Don't blame him. Hermiha is a fuckin' dump."
"So you noticed it too, huh."
"He's a famous thief, isn't he? From trafficking to normal house raids. His name's been everywhere lately, it's no surprise the asshole landed himself dead. Good riddance."
Irwin ran a hand across his chin. He turned the man's wrist over and over in his hand, double checking Levi's work. The bracelet moved under his finger. Irwin removed it quickly and turned it over in his hand.
"Tell Petra to check and see if Michael had a wife named 'Mira'."
"He didn't. I read his file on the way over."
"Are you sure?" Irvin deadpanned. He handed Levi the leather bracelet. Sure enough a message was scrawled on the bottom in silver: 'With love and hope, Mira'. Irwin slipped it into a clear bag. "Have her look for anyone named Mira with ties to our victim in general. If not, then anyone named Mira."
Levi nodded. He ran a finger through the dirt below them, let his eyes wander over the entire crime scene. Why here?
"Bossard, you're standing there doing nothing," he spat. "Soil samples. I want them taken. Six different ones from all around the scene."
The agent gave a gruff nod in response. "I'll get someone to deal with the crowd before that. Seems like someone called the news crew."
Fucking perfect.
"We have a group of civilians too. People who live around here, came to see the commotion and why a bunch of FBI agents were walking their street looking at cars." Auruo continued. He took the plastic bag from Irwin and stuck it in his vest pocket.
You have to be fucking kidding me.
"Well get someone to pull their head out of their ass and get on that. Don't let them get near here, last thing we need is this fucking horror story to be tampered with. Irwin-" Levi snapped his head back to look at his partner. "is there a time of death on this freak?"
"Hanji was only able to take a rough estimate before the lab called-"
"How long ago?"
He was pushing Irwin's patience. He could tell by the sigh. "Around sixty minutes. The victim is clothed, it's still cool and windy here, and he's not in direct sunlight... sometime early. Maybe around five? Six even?"
That's less than an hour before we showed up. Even less time for them to place everything and get out before the morning patrol started making their rounds. Why? Why did the murderer wait until then? Why didn't anyone here notice the fact that they were broken into? Unless...
Unless someone from here, perhaps?
There were people shouting back behind the police tape. News crew and people who lived up on the hill right before this place. Demanding, some even yelling in horror at how the police could let something like this happen, and if there was a killer on the loose. What did that mean for their children, what they should do-
"Irwin?"
"Agent?"
"Have the boys package the body up and send it back to the lab. We're looking over something, everything was too clean to be just another simple death. Someone planned this and someone wanted it found. It seems like this is going to turn into a wild goose chase from the way it's looking so far."
"I'm glad we're on the same thought train," came the chuckle as a response.
"It's why we're partners, isn't it? We're the only ones who can actually use our brains to think logically it seems," He sneered. He peeled the gloves off of his hands and stared back at the crowd that had formed. Mostly parents, he noted. There were a couple of teenagers in the back, too nervous to get close. One of them met Levi's eyes, though. Bright green, intense green; framed by brunette bangs.
That kid...
"Smith, have Bossard take pictures of everyone who's come through that gate,"
"Agent?"
"Get their names and addresses if you have to. I want specs on every person who was here from last night to this morning, military trainee or civilian I don't give a shit," he paused. Looked back at the body then at Irvin. "I have a bad feeling about this."
.o0o.
.
Trost Outskirts
Military Training Base
7:30, October 2013
Eren Jaeger
...
Mikasa and Armin stood by his side. Watching, waiting, while the feds found the body and looked it over. They wouldn't find anything helpful, he mused, they'd be wasting their time. They'd be puzzled and stumped at why a famous thief would end up at a military base. Why the body was pristine aside from the shoulder and ribs and strung up.
Why, he smirked and leaned on Mikasa's shoulder, the body doesn't have blood when everything else isn't tampered with.
"They're going to take your picture," she spoke quietly. Eren nodded dully and sighed.
"I know."
"You shouldn't be here," Armin was next. Eren nodded again. Armin was the one to place the anonymous phone call. He was the one to make sure everything went according to plan. Mikasa was the dear to set up the extra 'gift'.
"I'll be fine. We haven't even gotten to the best part yet," Eren mused. No, there was an event he was waiting for. When all the cops found it and rushed to it, he'd make his leave then. He wanted them to see the gift, the opening to this game. He wanted to watch their faces, and see if this was worth dangling himself on a string in front of them.
It was then he met the eyes of the officer that had been inspecting the body. Even in this distance he could see the cold grey, calculating and probably even analyzing Eren while he stood there. The way the guy held himself even now, was just condescending on the crowd and everyone there.
He said something to the officer standing next to him. Whatever his response was caused the shorter one to glare out at them, at Eren.
"They've called in new agents," Armin mumbled. His voice quivered, he was nervous. Scared. Eren frowned.
"They must know something's wrong, huh."
"Eren, this isn't going to end well-"
"Armin, it'll be fine." He continued to stare at the officer. Waiting... waiting.
And there it was. A woman ran from back behind the supply shed there, breathing heavy and practically screaming. Eren didn't bother to pay attention to what she was yelling about; he already knew. He also knew that it would have the crowd in front of him start to panic and start to head back towards the entry gate and towards the safety of their homes yet again.
The officer went wide eyed. Cold grey eyes even at this distance swept over the crowd. He was back to yelling at the other officers, most likely to detain the crowd and keep them there. Pictures. They would take pictures now.
"Eren-"
"Let's go before it gets too hectic," he sighed. Armin breathed in relief. Mikasa grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the entry gate, back out, and towards the car.
"What do you think will happen?" She questioned. Her voice remained calm and flat, even as she started the car. Eren took shotgun, and Armin moved into the backseat.
"I think a wild goose chase is about to start between us and the new agents. I think a game sounds fun."
And it'll be fun, he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat as Mikasa edged the car out and onto the road. It'll be a nice change of pace. Who knows, the new guys could be smart. They might even be able to get close to me.
Yes, a wild goose chase sounded like fun. Maybe even something akin to hide-and-seek.
Either way, it was time to start preparing. He'd have to be careful, but that wasn't an issue. He'd been doing this for too long; killing, leaving the bodies places. But never like this.
No, this would be fun.
A game of hide-and-seek was just what the nation needed.