Carry on My Wayward Son
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: Any recognizable elements belong either to Supernatural, Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, or Attack on Titan.
NOTES: If you seen the show, you may think you know where this is going but I promise you don’t. I’ve sped up timelines because I have some interesting things going to happen. Don’t hate my for the cliffhanger at the end. I’m already working on the next chapter.
CHAPTER EIGHT: Tall Tales
“The thing is fucking cursed. That’s the only answer,” Zeke said as he sat across from Mikasa.
The dive bar they found themselves in was fairly full tonight. Zeke wouldn’t swear that Mikasa used magic to get them a booth but that was the only explanation. If she had, it clearly hadn’t been enough to send out any sort of beacon considering they were still here.
Eren was currently hustling pool to get them a little extra money.
“You’re probably right. Fuck,” Mikasa muttered before she took a swig of her beer.
“WHOA! She swears! She drinks! What is she doing dating my uncool brother?” Zeke teased.
“You’ve heard me swear before.”
“Yes, when you get injured or you’re fighting. Not just in normal conversation.”
Mikasa rolled her eyes, “and your brother dumped me. You were there.”
“Ah. Yes, my idiot brother dumped the only woman who could handle the truth about us. But what is your story, Ackerman?”
Mikasa looked at him confused. She still wasn’t used to him calling her by her real last name. “I already told you. My parents got killed by the same type of thing your stepmom did. Not much else to say.”
“Do you know why they killed your parents?”
Mikasa shook her head.
“Interesting.”
“I told you, I don’t know much about my mom’s other life.”
“Huh. Still too cool to be dating my brother.”
Mikasa rolled her eyes again before she took another drink of her beer. She looked over at the pool table where Eren was playing.
“Any chance you can improve his odds?” Zeke smirked.
Mikasa sighed, “I can do elemental things.”
“That’s not a no. Oh come on, do a little bit that won’t send up a beacon. You know you want to…”
Mikasa rolled her eyes again. “You’re a bad influence.”
“No, I’m just bored. Besides, I’m kind of curious about what you can do that doesn’t tell everyone your location.”
Mikasa sighed before closing her eyes to focus.
Elemental control was something Mikasa could do but it wasn’t as easy as it used to be.
She took a deep breath in. She could feel all the air around her. The warm air coming out of the vents, the draft coming in from a small crack in the window, the breathing of the people in the bar.
Mikasa opened her eyes as she focused on the balls on the pool table. Lucky for Eren, it was right under a heating vent.
As she exhaled, the man Eren was playing against lined up his shot. He hit the ball. Mikasa reached her hand out. The ball skipped off the table and hit the floor.
Mikasa lowered her hand with a smile.
Zeke choked on his beer as he laughed.
Mikasa joined his laughter.
Eren looked over at their table with a raised eyebrow.
“See? That was fun, right?” Zeke asked as he laughed.
“It was okay. I haven’t done anything like that in years.”
“Alright, you said there is a case here, right?”
Mikasa nodded as she pulled out her phone. “Man’s heart was ripped out which you would think equals werewolf but no. There’s this sighting of bigfoot. Normal, right? Until you look at the picture and see bigfoot is in a hula skirt.”
“Wait, what?” Zeke said as he took her phone from her.
“I showed it to Eren earlier. That’s not all. There’s a frat boy who swears he was abducted by aliens and they made him slow dance with them.”
Zeke scrolled through the screenshots in Mikasa’s phone. “Oh, yeah that’s weird. They’ve never had anything like this before?”
“Bigfoot, yes. There’s a whole festival here in Springfield but not in a hula skirt and not in the middle of the Springfield University campus.”
“Huh. Alright. So after tonight, we start. But first…” Zeke looked over his shoulder at the pretty blonde girl who was staring at him.
“Go on,” Mikasa said.
“You’re the best," Zeke slid out of the booth.
"Wait, leave me the Impala keys!"
Zeke nodded as he dropped the keys on the table before heading off in the direction of the blonde.
Mikasa shook her head as she slid the keys across the table to then put them in her pocket.
Being around Zeke was pretty nice. He was a halfway decent guy. He was sort of like the big brother Mikasa had always wanted but never had.
Mikasa sipped her beer as she smiled to herself.
It wasn't all bad hunting again.
She was making a difference. Well, trying to at least but it was the trying that counted.
She only wished she could find the Colt. There was something in her head that told her if she could find the Colt, maybe Eren would….
Mikasa pushed the thought away.
She couldn't dare to focus on her relationship with Eren. They were friends now at least. It still hurts. The things he'd said were like a splinter that the body had just accepted for skin to grow over.
"What the fuck was that analogy?" She muttered to herself.
She was not herself tonight. She didn't know why. She would have never used magic so carelessly.
She looked over at Eren to see him gripping the side of his head as he walked away from the pool table.
Mikasa wasn't the only one to notice. Zeke made his way over to his little brother, abandoning the blonde girl.
"It's nothing. Just another…."Eren trailed off as blood dripped from his nose.
Mikasa stood up from the table and made her way over to Eren and Zeke.
"We should go back to the motel," Mikasa said.
Zeke nodded.
"I swear I'm fine," Eren said as he still held onto his head.
"Liar. Come on," Zeke reached over and grabbed a napkin which he handed to Eren.
Eren wiped the blood from his nose.
Mikasa felt the need to touch him. She didn't know why. Maybe it was the bond between them from the deal.
Or maybe she was just as desperately in love with him as she always had been.
Mikasa grabbed onto his jacket sleeve.
Eren didn't pull away. In fact, he seemed to lean into her more as they walked. When they reached the Impala, Mikasa let go of Eren's sleeve once he was by the passenger door. She handed the keys to Zeke before slipping into the backseat.
"What was the vision this time?" Zeke asked as he started to drive.
"Fire and.....that can’t be right. Don't know where or how. Just fire....and a memory," Eren said as he leaned up against the window of the passenger seat.
"You know I wish these visions were a little more helpful. Winning lottery numbers. Horse race outcomes. But no. Instead, you get visions that don't even give us a location."
“Trust me, it’s not something I’m thrilled about,” Eren muttered under his breath.
They pulled into the shady motel that they had checked into earlier. The room was the same as every motel they stayed at. Outdated 70s wallpaper, crappy coffee maker, but it felt more like home than anything else they had.
Eren like the world was spinning out of control as he got out of the Impala.
Both Zeke and Mikasa were at his side, holding him up. Had he slumped over? He hadn’t even noticed.
They helped him into the motel room.
“Get him on the bed,” Mikasa said as she held onto Eren.
Zeke nodded as they both maneuvered Eren onto the bed.
“Guys, I’m fine,” Eren protested.
“Liar,” Zeke said as he stepped away.
“Should I heal him?”
“I don’t need healing. Save your life force,” Eren protested. “Just need to rest for a moment.”
Mikasa nodded before looking over at Zeke.
Zeke shrugged before collapsing on the open bed.
"I'll take the couch tonight," Mikasa said.
Some places didn't have three beds so they had a rotation going on. Mikasa truly didn't mind it. She also was the shorter of the three of them. Though Mikasa was above average height for a woman, Zeke and Eren were freakishly tall. It did make her laugh when they had to sleep on the couch.
Mikasa began writing down all the information they had in her journal. She had taken to writing one now.
Zeke sat on the bed, flipping through his dad's old journal.
"Well, if dad encountered a Bigfoot, he didn’t write it in here," Zeke scoffed.
"It can't actually be a Bigfoot, right?" Eren asked while staring at the ceiling.
"I just found out fairies were real a few months ago. Nothing would surprise me."
Mikasa began searching things on her phone to see if she could get any more information on the victims and to see if there were any more deaths.
“Huh, looks like a professor committed suicide on campus,” Mikasa said as she swiped through the article.
“When?” Zeke asked as he sat up.
“Literally an hour ago, the article says that he was found in his office in room 669. That building will be shut down for the next week.”
“Eren gets vision, a dude ends up dead.”
“Hey, I didn’t see him dying. I saw….I saw mom,” Eren confessed.
Mikasa looked up from her phone and over at Zeke.
“Carla?” Zeke asked as he stood up.
Eren nodded, “I…I saw her. She was talking to someone and crying. I couldn’t see the person’s face. She was about our age. I….I don’t know what else. I couldn’t hear what they were saying.”
“So you’ve gone from seeing the future to seeing the past.”
“I guess? I don’t know. It’s stupid forget I mentioned it.”
Zeke walked over and sat down on the edge of Eren’s bed. “Hey. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m just trying to understand what the hell is going on with you. I’m not Dad.”
“I know…it’s just…..he’s still in my head, you know? A monster is a monster and maybe I’m one too.”
“You’re not a monster, Eren,” Mikasa said as she closed the journal. “If it helps, you don’t seem anything but human to me.”
“Is there a difference?” Eren asked as he sat up.
“Sometimes. If you were fae, I’d know. Demon possession is a little harder for me to figure out sometimes. Normal fae can tell from an aura. I just haven’t really been trained in it. There’s something that radiates in me when I see another fae. It’s like…a tug.”
“So what about humans?”
“Nothing, really,” Mikasa said with a shrug.
“So basically, unless it’s fae, you’re useless,” Zeke teased her.
“I can still kick your ass,” Mikasa rolled her eyes.
“I do not doubt that for a minute. So what do you think is going on here?”
“Not a clue. I’ve got bigfoot and aliens and now a professor…. This is too weird. Even for us.”
“Investigate first thing in the morning?”
Mikasa nodded.
—-------------
Mikasa strolled in front of Eren and Zeke as they made their way across campus.
“I’ll take the sorority. You two go play FBI and see what happened to the professor,” Mikasa said as she turned away from the brothers.
"Get me some phone numbers! Show them a picture of me! You want me to send you one?" Zeke called to her.
Mikasa ignored him as she continued to walk away.
“Why does she get to interview the hot chicks?” Zeke groaned.
“Because you will get distracted. Then someone else will die. Come on,” Eren said as he steered Zeke to the building where the professor died.
They flashed their badges as they walked into the crime scene. Most, it was just getting cleaned. It had been a cut and dry case.
Eren pulled out his EMF detector.
“Anything?” Zeke asked.
Eren shook his head.
“So not a ghost. Maybe they all just took some really good acid.”
Eren rolled his eyes. He looked down at the desk. There were articles that looked like the professor had written about the haunting of this very college. Eren picked one of them up and looked over at Zeke.
The articles talked about how ghosts were fake and the university had come up with the story to bring more students in.
There were also a lot of candy wrappers on the desk.
"Zeke, take a look at this."
Zeke walked over and took the paper from his brother.
"Professor writes this and then commits suicide? What are you thinking? University took him out?"
"I don't know. Just seems weird that he dies in the room of the ghost he disproved existed. We should head back to the Impala and see if Mikasa found anything out."
"You mean to see how many phone numbers she got me," Zeke smirked.
—---
Mikasa was sitting on the hood of the Impala with her phone out. Eren couldn’t help but notice how she had pushed the sleeve of her suit jacket up leaving her tattoo out on display.
“So? How many hot sorority girl numbers did you get me?” Zeke smirked.
Mikasa rolled her eyes. “None but the guy with the heart missing was dating the president of alpha…whatever. I don’t remember the exact name. Also, the alien guy had been trying to disprove the existence of aliens.”
“That’s interesting. The professor was trying to disprove hauntings and he was killed in his office that was supposedly haunted,” Eren said as he sat down next to her.
“Sounds like they got their just deserts to me,” Zeke said as he leaned against the side of the Impala. “Any ideas on what did this?”
Mikasa shook her head. “Trying to see what I could find on my phone. Nothing yet. I called Levi and Hange. They said they’d look into the lore and call one of us back.”
“Well, you know what that means….” Zeke trailed off.
“Do you literally only have one thought in that head of yours?” Eren asked.
“Three: booze, sex, and my car. Now get off my car because you two are going back to the motel while I go visit that bar again.”
Mikasa rolled her eyes.
“This is why I never invited him to Stanford,” Eren remarked to Mikasa.
“Because I would have stolen your girl,” Zeke smirked at Mikasa.
“Not in this life or the next,” Mikasa replied as she got into the back of the Impala.
—-------
Zeke sent his location as he planned to make a stop before meeting some girl for the night.
“Surprisingly, he’s in a house and not the sorority,” Eren laughed before he took another bite of the Chinese take out Mikasa had ordered for them.
“He’s ridiculous. Has he always been like this?” Mikasa said as she looked up from her computer.
“Always. He always had a partner in high school.”
“And you didn’t?”
Eren shook his head, “I told you…”
“I know.”
Mikasa went back to eating. It was still awkward. Eren wanted it to be back to normal but it didn’t seem like that was going to happen.
“Do you….you….?”
Mikasa looked up again.
He gulped. He quickly decided to change what he was going to say.
"I mean.....have you ever used your powers to help me win anything else?" Eren asked as he looked down at his food.
Mikasa laughed as she put the spoon up to her mouth. She shook her head.
"So why did you?"
Mikasa sighed before shrugging.
"Oh come on. You can tell me. It's because my brother asked, right? And I get it. He's been okay with you from the start. If you're interested in Zeke, you don't have to worry about me getting in the way."
Mikasa nearly choked on her food. "Zeke? No. He's the annoying older brother I always wanted but never got."
They both pretended to feel the relief that washed over them.
It wasn’t a moment later that Zeke busted into the hotel room. He was covered head to toe in glitter.
“Which one of you did it?” Zeke asked as he pointed at Eren and Mikasa.
“What happened to you?” Eren asked as he laughed.
“Oh don’t play dumb. One of you filled Baby’s vents with glitter so when I turned on the heat, I ended up like this.”
“You were with us the whole time,” Eren defended.
“Not her,” Zeke said as he pointed to Mikasa.
“Because I just carry around a bunch of glitter,” Mikasa replied before rolling her eyes.
“I don’t know! You could have summoned it!”
“Oh yes. I forgot. The five elements: earth, water, air, fire, and glitter. How could I forget?” Mikasa replied as she stood up from the couch. “If I wanted to prank you, it wouldn’t be with glitter and you would never know it was me.”
“Are you sure you didn’t piss someone off?” Eren asked.
“I don’t think so. I’m going to go take a shower,” Zeke muttered as he made his way to the bathroom.
Mikasa looked over at Eren.
“I think I’ll look into the case more,” Eren said.
Mikasa nodded.
Eren opened his laptop. As soon as he entered his password, the sound of moaning filled the room.
“They’re hot. They’re single. They’re waiting for you. Stay on the video call for hot singles in your area,” a voice said over the continued sound of moaning.
Eren slammed his laptop shut. “Are you using my computer for porn again?!” he yelled as he made his way over to the bathroom door.
“Why would I need porn when people are throwing themselves at me?!” Zeke yelled back.
“Well, someone did!”
Mikasa shook her head. Clearly, Zeke and Eren had pissed someone off.
“Whatever. I’ll just use my phone,” Eren said as he walked back over to the table and sat down.
Mikasa continued to eat and write the case down in her notebook.
There was something they were missing.
Mikasa could feel it.
But what was it?
She kept looking over the clues again and again.
Ten minutes later, a scream came from the bathroom.
“EREN!” Zeke roared as he came out of the bathroom in only his bo3xers.
Zeke’s blonde hair had been turned bright blue.
“What? I didn’t do it!” Eren said as he threw his hands up. “I haven’t pranked you since high school.”
Mikasa took this time to slip into the bathroom with her backpack to change.
“Or it's you and Mikasa,” Zeke said as he crossed his arms across his chest.
“I’m telling you. It’s not us.”
A very pissed off Mikasa stormed out of the bathroom. “Where are my clothes? These are not my clothes,” Mikasa said as threw lacey lingerie at Zeke and Eren. Next she was chunking leather pants at them followed by high heels that they quickly dodge. “I don’t want to be apart of your stupid prank war!”
“Too late! Because you had to be the one to put the glitter in Baby!” Zeke yelled.
“Oh right! Because that’s my master plan!”
“You’re helping Eren!”
“Just like you’re watching porn on my computer!” Eren yelled next.
“Why would I watch it on your computer when I have a smartphone?”
“I don’t know!”
“And how are my clothes my size? You two clearly did this!” Mikasa argued.
The three kept arguing about who was pranking who which led to Eren and Zeke wrestling on the floor again while Mikasa kept throwing the clothes at them. The clothes seemed never ending as every time Mikasa reached into the bag, more appeared much to her dismay. Mikasa pulled another pair of leather pants out and hit Zeke with it.
That was when Levi and Hange walked in.
“I….”Hange trailed off as they cocked their head to the side. “Should we come back?”
“HEY! BRATS!” Levi yelled.
The other three froze.
“It’s a trickster,” he informed them.
“What’s a trickster?” Zeke asked, still covered in the lingerie and his hands on Eren’s shoulders.
Eren was laying on the floor pushing his brother back while Mikasa was just standing there holding the leather pants.
“They live for chaos. They come in different forms. Ever hear of Loki?” Levi asked.
“From the Marvel movies?” Zeke asked as he stood up.
“Sure. They’re strong. Kind of like demigods. They like taking down people. Knocking them down a peg. That’s what they live for. You must be close to whoever it is.”
Zeke offered a hand to Eren and pulled him to his feet.
“They can make anything seem as real as you and me. Then they vanish,” Hange explained.
“As soon as we saw how powerful the people were who were being killed and how, we knew what it was. We came to tell you and help. Looks like they know you’re here already,” Levi said gesturing to the three of them.
Mikasa dropped the leather pants that she had been hitting Zeke with to the floor. “It took my clothes,” she muttered.
“And dyed my hair blue and filled Baby with glitter,” Zeke muttered.
“Porn on my computer,” Eren explained.
Eren’s phone went off. The ringtone had been changed to someone moaning.
Hange started laughing. “The trickster knows what you are and who you are. Who’s on the phone?”
“I don’t know,” Eren said as he held the phone up. “Unknown number.”
“Answer it,” Levi said.
Eren pressed answer on his phone.
“Well, well. Eren Jaeger,” a familiar voice filled the motel room.
The hair on the back of Mikasa’s neck stood up.
Yellow Eyes.
“I heard you were in town and decided you needed a reminder. Tricksters don’t like to share but with a few….convincing moments, they’ll tell you the truth,” the voice continued.
“Yellow eyes,” Zeke said.
“Goodnight,” the voice said as smoke began to fill the room.
Mikasa screamed as Hange hit the floor.
Levi fell next followed by Zeke and Eren.
Mikasa was the only one left. She tried to pull Eren to his feet again but she was too weak.
Her fae side was fighting whatever gas was leaked into the room.
She saw someone come in as she fell to the ground. She wasn’t completely out yet.
Yellow Eyes were all that glowed through the smoke.
He walked straight for Eren, not bothering to pay any attention to anyone else in the room. He scooped Eren up and began to carry him out of the room.
“Eren,” Mikasa muttered as her eyesight began to fade.
Everything went black.










