A/N: Inspired by the songs "Human" - Christina Perri and "I know I'm a Wolf" - Young Heretics and the video EREN x LEVI/IT'S COLD OUT THERE by TheAnimepenner.

This is my second fic! Whoop Whoop, apologies for the awkward summary.

Enjoy = w =

Prologue – Raised to Kill.

It all began when Levi's aunt passed away.

His uncle was distraught over her loss, so much so, that he tried and failed more than once to take his own life, because of this, Levi's mother insisted that he live with them, she couldn't bear to see her little brother suffering such a loss all alone.

At that time, Levi was nearing his seventh birthday and happily welcomed his poor and lonely uncle into their home, to live and celebrate with them during the Christmas holiday season. Levi's father had been opposed to the infringement, but after a few weeks of soothing words from his beautiful wife, Uncle Felix was welcomed and allowed to stay.

There was more than enough room in their large, two-story colonial. His uncle slept on the second floor, two rooms down from Levi, next to his mother's craft room. Angelica, his mother, was a kind hearted woman, a sweet and caring soul who often volunteered to help those less fortunate than she. Liam, his father, was a stern and strict, yet terribly gentle man. He held such a soft spot for Angelica and Levi that it was hard to believe that he was an Admiral that held four stars.

Three years had gone by since Lily's passing, and Levi's tenth birthday was fast approaching, Liam and Angelica were returning from a short weekend getaway to celebrate their thirteenth year of marriage. Winter had come early and been particularly harsh that year, rendering many flights delayed and cancelled. Their flight however was one of the lucky few not cancelled, so with great joy they set out to return to their home, to celebrate Christmas and Levi's birthday together as a family.

That flight however, never reached it's destination. At 5:13 AM, exactly one week and six days before his tenth birthday, Levi received the news from his uncle that his parents were gone.

After the funeral, the will was read and everything was left to Levi when he became an adult at the age of eighteen, however, until that time came, as his only surviving relative, Uncle Felix was left in charge of caring for him.

Levi's tenth Christmas and birthday was the most solemn day he'd ever lived. There were no decorations, no tree, no gifts, nor celebration made. Levi locked himself in his room and cried himself to sleep, night after night, and day after day. He would only leave his room to eat and relieve himself. He stopped going to school, and closed himself off from the world and its happenings.

This continued on for the next six months until his uncle couldn't take it anymore.

Uncle Felix had had enough. He'd lost Lily, and Angelica, and now he was losing his only remaining family member and it was all Levi's fault. Levi was the one who made him lonely. Levi was the selfish rich brat who was left with everything. Levi didn't have to lift a finger and everything was just going to handed to him on a silver platter, he'd literally be taken care of for his entire life.

While preparing dinner one summer night, Uncle Felix mixed in a few extra ingredients just for Levi's portion. He called the grief stricken shell of a boy down and let him eat, then waited for the drowsiness to kick in.

When Levi awoke, he was bound to a chair by rough and bristly rope. When he realized his position, he began to thrash and scream, only to realize that his screaming was useless because he was gagged, and that his thrashing only allowed to rope to dig further into his delicate young skin.

Hearing the boy's thrashing, and the chair hitting and sliding against the floor, alerted Felix that his ward was awake, he gathered his materials and greeted the terrified boy in the dimly lit room of the basement.

"Is everything alright Levi?" He questioned while approaching the boy's trembling form, his bright gray eyes, wide with confusion and relief. Levi thought that his uncle was there to save him, and release him from his bindings… until he heard the next phrase that slipped out of Uncle Felix's crazed, grinning mouth, "What seems to be the problem my boy?"

Despite the lack of light, Levi's pupil's constricted, as the fear emerged anew. He began to realize that his Uncle Felix wasn't going to help him, no… Uncle Felix was the one who did this.

What happened, following those few moments of fear induced clarity and realization, wouldn't occur for another six months.

His uncle grabbed his face, and squeezed his cheeks between his thumb and fingers to force the gag out of Levi's mouth momentarily only to force it back in with enough force to make Levi's eye's water from the sensation of being choked. He spit on him, screaming profanities at the top of his lungs, scratching and kicking at the child restrained in the chair until he was a barely conscious, bloody, and bruised lump of shallowly breathing flesh.

The only reason it took six months for the next incident to occur, was because it took six months for Levi to completely heal, and trick himself into thinking it was just a painfully visceral nightmare. He somehow managed to bring himself to that point, and he remained unscathed until the anniversary of his parent's death.

Then the beatings started again, but the intervals in between became less and less frequent.

Uncle Felix began to drink more, now that he was forced to work to support both Levi and himself. It started out as just a weekly thing, coming home once or twice every week a little too tipsy to stand or just enough to pass out. Then it went from every week, to everyday, and from everyday, to multiple times a day, until the man would drink himself stupid and unconscious. That's when the beatings picked up, and got even worse, reaching the point to where Levi could barely move after each one.

There were no longer months, not even weeks, in between. After a particularly harsh beating, Levi would be left alone to lick his wounds in his room for a few days, but never long enough to completely heal before he was subjected to the sharp kicks to the stomach and fists to the face, the always colorful choice of derogatory curses, and various cheap alcohols Uncle Felix chose to launch at the boy or drench his wounded body in.

This lasted through Levi's twelfth birthday, when he'd found some solace in caring for an injured rabbit he'd stumbled upon weeks before. It was a beautiful cottontail rabbit, lush brown fur and large round eyes. He'd never gotten around to naming it, but he found the days they spent together a little easier to get through.

Unfortunately, Uncle Felix discovered the rabbit and decided to slit its throat and gut it right in front of Levi, after roughing the boy up enough to keep him from fighting back. The boy groaned and shouted his protests from his place on the floor, crying and begging his uncle to spare the creature, but the grin on Felix's face only grew wider as the innocent creature was butchered.

Weeks following the loss of his rabbit, Levi waited for Uncle Felix to come home from one of his usual drunken escapades. Levi had hidden in the linen closet, kitchen knife held tightly in hand, and pressed firmly against his frail, bruised frame. When Uncle Felix finally came inside, and had passed out before making it to the sofa as usual, Levi crept out of the closet.

He quietly and slowly approached his uncle's limp form, wrinkling his nose in disgust at the stench of the man's rancid vomit, and alcohol scented breath. He carefully stepped over his uncle's body, he took a deep breath as he slowly lowered his shaking frame onto his uncle's stomach, straddling the man's perpetually growing waistline.

Then he plunged the knife into his throat.

The violent jolt from the grown man below him, writhing under the unexpected weight of the small boy and choking on his own foul blood, made Uncle Felix's glazed and hollowed eyes widen in surprise, pain, and fear.

Levi paused a moment, terrified at the sight before him, before he shut his eyes tightly and thrust the knife in repeatedly, faster and deeper each time until the violently shaking and crimson soaked form below him stopped moving.

Levi opened his eyes and looked down at the grotesque image below him; he immediately regretted his decision as he took in the widely agape, bloodied orifice that once was his uncle's mouth. Bits and pieces of mangled muscle, that was once a tongue, and the tissue that had made up his cheeks were splayed across the red and pink mess before him. The jaw was barely intact, the lower jaw and his teeth jutting out unnaturally as it fell against the slab of muscular tubing and cartilage that was once a throat. The same throat that used to scream profanities at the young child. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head, red and yellow decorating what was once white on the now, useless organs.

He puked, adding a watery layer of acidic, pale yellow liquid into the mix of broken bone, cartilage, sliced flesh, and tissue. Levi sat, hands still wrapped tightly around the kitchen knife, slippery and sticky with the cooling blood of man who he once loved and still feared, his Uncle Felix.

Slowly and shakily, he raised his body off the mangled corpse beneath him; the knife was still gripped tightly in his hand as he walked to the kitchen sink. He filled it with bleach and hot water, and set the knife, along with his sticky red stained hands, inside the heated basic solution, watching with a somewhat fascinated glint in his eyes as the red spread and dispersed out in thin, transparent tendrils in the liquid.

Levi stood there, with his hands sunk into the solution up to his wrists for several minutes, until he started to register the blistering burn that assaulted his delicate skin from having prolonged contact with the bleach solution.

He screamed and withdrew his pink skinned hands as he dropped to the ground, raking his hands through his hair and pulling at the roots, screaming and sobbing, letting out all the terrified screams and tears his little body had built up and bottled inside for the past two years of abuse he'd suffered at the hands of the cooling corpse that now littered his living room floor.

After screaming his lungs out, he forced his tired and shocked body up to his bathroom, where he took a hot shower, scrubbing his delicate skin raw and red, trying to get rid of the strong chemical smell of the bleach, the stench of the vomit, and the feeling of the tacky, dried blood that he'd drenched himself in.

It took two weeks for Levi to finally abandon the house, leaving the body of his uncle to decay and feed the hordes of insects that had infested his childhood home after his parent's death. He found himself wandering the streets, hoping to find a decent place to rest and escape from the smell of decayed and rancid flesh.

He'd managed to find a decent overpass to hide under for a few days, before he was reported by an older woman walking her pretentious and yappy snot of a lap dog. He ran, walking around a park near the elementary school he'd attended as a younger child. He'd sleep on the bench for a few hours at night before getting up and rinsing himself off in the small man-made lake before people would begin to show up.

It was the second week since he'd left his home to decay that he finally ran out of food.

Levi wandered around the city, using his looks and young stature to earn enough pity from passing women, and a few men, to spare him enough change to keep himself eating at least once a day. It was then that he stumbled upon, what appeared to be an old run-down apartment building. He passed it several times, contemplating whether or not to risk breaking and entering the place, but after his fourth week on the streets he'd given up on caring.

Late one chilly night, he snuck into the building using a stairwell attached to the side of it; he climbed to the top and managed to pull himself up the ladder and onto the roof. He rested on the rooftop for about an hour before attempting to open the door that lead into the building. Anxiety built up in his small, starved system, as he pulled open the door, both surprised and happy to see that it was unlocked. He crept inside the dark and not much warmer building before shutting the door behind him. That night, he slept in the corner of that small space, between the roof access door and the stairwell that lead further into the building.

He awoke to the sound of roughly blowing wind, hitting the metal of the door and sharply passing by the protrusion of the roof entrance. He stretched and allowed the blood to flow into his numb feet before cautiously creeping down the stairwell and into the maze of halls that he found himself in.

There were many doors, almost like a hotel, but Levi was too nervous to try and open any of them. Too nervous, too tired, and too hungry to do more than he deemed necessary, that is until he heard distinct sound of a gun firing, and smelled the gun powder as it wafted through the air.

He felt his heart beat increase as he nervously gulped and scrambled into the first room he could. He crawled atop a metal shelf and forced the rusty vent screen over the crawl space, off. He regretted his action soon after as the screen fell to the ground, making a loud clattering noise. Despite this, he quickly pulled his small body into the space and distanced himself from the smell of gun powder and the shuffling of feet that followed his noise making.

Levi steadied his shaking body in the crawlspace and managed to find himself above an empty room. He decided to rest there, slowing his breath as much as he could as he listened to his surroundings. His heart rate gradually slowed and he let a small sigh of relief escape his cracked and chapped lips. This peace lasted long enough for his eyes to slowly drift close, as he fell into a fatigue induced sleep.

His slumber was interrupted when the door to the room he was above burst open, soon several angry male voices reached Levi's ears, awakening his senses and shocking him out of his sleep. The shock made him jerk his body, causing his already flimsy space to shake, Levi cursed as he heard the men below him stop talking.

"What the fuck was that?" One of the voices asked, the nervous tone in his voice made him sound younger, and more inexperienced.

"Who's there? Show yourself unless you want a bullet in your face." Came another steady, and aged voice.

Levi froze, trying his best not to move or even breath, taking breaths as shallow and slow as his body would allow. Unfortunately, due to the decay of the building and the jolt of his body when he was awoken, the vent began to creak and give way under his weight, now that it was loosened more than it had been before.

Within seconds of his eyes widening in realization, the vent collapsed, sending Levi crashing down towards the two occupants in the room.

He landed with a heavy thud on the carpeted floor, his face scraping against the carpet and his skin burning as he fell and slid across it. The younger male quickly grabbed Levi by the back of his neck and hoisted his flailing, and protesting frame up, keeping his feet from touching the ground. Levi stopped his thrashing when he felt cold hard metal pressing onto the side of his face.

"Who the fuck are you and who sent you kid?"

Levi, frozen with fear and anger, could only glare at the older gentleman standing before him. The one holding him shook him, grip tightening on the back of his neck as he slapped Levi on the cheek with the back of his gun.

"I said who sent you, you piece of shit." The man holding the gun raised his voice at the boy again.

The hit brought him back to his senses as he shakily replied, "N-no one. No one sent me. I wandered in on my own." He felt tears prickling his eyes, blurring his vision as pain blossomed on the side of face and blood pooled in his mouth.

The man holding him shook him again, this time lowering Levi to the ground and pushing him to his knees. He landed a swift and heavy footed kick to his back, causing Levi to slump forward and cry out in pain.

"I WAS COLD. I-I was cold. N-no one sent me. I-" His desperate sobbing was cut off by another kick in the side, making him curl into a tight ball to protect his frail body as the man continued to assault him with kicks.

"That's enough." Came the command of the older man. The kicks stopped immediately and the younger man stepped back. The older man who issued the order bent down and forced Levi's bloodied and swelling face up, "you got anywhere to go kid?"

Levi searched the man's face, offering the best questioning look he could managed with his features distorted from the swelling, redness, and blood. He couldn't shake his head, so he spoke as loudly as he could, "N-no sir."

The man slackened his grip on Levi hair, and let his head fall back to the carpeted floor. The rest that followed was a blur, his consciousness faded in and out as he was lifted and his wounds were dressed. He was cleaned and force fed before he was locked in a damp room with a bed and urination bucket. After a few days of being locked away, while his wounds healed, Levi was woken up by the same elderly man who'd allowed him to stay in his current pit.

"Welcome to the legion kid, starting today you're one of us, and you'll be expected to earn your keep."

Those words would guide Levi through his troubled teen years, and into his early adulthood as quickly rose in rank, attaining the coveted title of "Corporal" as he abandoned both the beauty and the horror of his past.

He would have stayed with the syndicate if it wasn't for the change in leadership that took place five years after his induction into the legion. The old boss was deemed too old and too soft to handle the young, hot blooded members who made up the majority of the legion, so the boss's son took over and changed everything.

They were a band of well organized, respected, and infamous thieves before, but with the change of leadership, they became a messy, feared, and wicked gang of murderers who looted what they wanted, whether or not they had to kill for it. Under the old boss, there were no deliberate deaths made in cold blood. Under the new boss, entire families, and unlucky strangers that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, were brutally mutilated and murdered for sport.

This is not what Levi joined.

His group would rough people up, not kill them, not mutilate them. They didn't rape women and children. They didn't skin people alive. They didn't kill entire families starting from the infants and ending with the grandparents for entertainment.

This is not what Levi joined.

This was not the group who raised him to be street smart, and to only take what he needed to survive.

No.

These were cold blooded and heartless maniacs. Murderers. Psychopaths. And they were starting to trigger the memory of Uncle Felix.

This is not what Levi joined.

This is not what he wanted. He did not want to stay, he refused to stay. 'I have to leave… I need to get away from this place. This is not who I am… I don't want to be like him.'

"I'm done. I'm leaving. I didn't agree to join a group of cold blooded murderers." The stern and steady voice of the short, dark haired male echoed off the cold metal walls of the abandoned building, he, and numerous other suspicious characters occupied.

"That wasn't the deal you piece of shit."…