Angel With A Shotgun [Levi Ackerman x OC] / Attack on Titan / Shingeki no Kyojin

Code IX: The Original

The next few days consisted of lessons about French for Xora and intense planning of another assignment—which included cooperation between Hange and Levi, meaning Eren had to be the one to help teach Xora. Except, he wasn't fluent in French—in fact, it was more Xora teaching him, rather than vice versa.

On the fifth day of Xora's time in Paris, as she and Eren were slowly reading passages of French from a textbook, Hange burst in with a wide grin, the captain following closely behind.

"Hello, you two!" she greeted warmly, stretching her arms. The two glanced up from their spots at a table in the center of the large library. Their only light source was from a tall window that stood with thick curtains, a shadow cast across their work from the panes. "What're you kiddos up to?"

"I'm teaching Archangel some French," Eren answered, before catching himself. "Er, more like she's teaching me. We're both learning quite a bit, though! I mean, I think I'm getting the hang of this French accent."

"At least you weren't being entirely useless," Levi acknowledged quietly, passing over the two. His eyes flickered lazily over the stacks of books piled on the round wooden table, many of them bookmarked, some left open. "I've come to let you know that tonight, we are going to embark on another mission."

"Are you excited?" Hange giggled, motioning for the Eren and Xora to move aside so she could sit in between them. "Because I know I am!" Once she was seated comfortably, they moved all of the books so they fanned outwards, and she placed a roll of paper on the table. "Would either of you care to do the honors of opening our plan?"

"Just roll it open already," Levi sighed, leaning over Xora's shoulder to smooth out the parchment and flatten it against the wood. His face was dangerously close to hers, and she inched away slowly.

"Gotcha!" Hanji clapped her hands and pointed to a picture of the Mona Lisa in the top left-hand corner. "As we all know, the Mona Lisa is one of our goals—to seek it and protect it. Because we are suspicious of its sudden liquidity, there's one thing that needs to be taken into consideration: that it could be a fake."

"That would give the museum a reason for giving it away so easily," Xora murmured.

"Exactly. Now, there are very many con artists out there who specialize in creating fakes; someone would have to have a very, very sharp eye to catch details that would ensure the piece is a counterfeit. Archangel, I know you've done plenty of training in stuff like this, so we can trust you with it, right?" All eyes went to Xora and she nodded solemnly. "Okay, then. You're definitely locked in for the mission. Now, when we get to the Mona Lisa—" Her finger dragged over to a list of bullet points, "—we have quite a few questions to answer."

"If it's a counterfeit," Levi cut in, "a certain set of questions will rise. Where is the original, and is it safe? Who created the counterfeit? How did the original get replaced by the counterfeit, and who was responsible for that?"

"If it's not," Hange continued, "then we can return home without any stress whatsoever. There's a low chance it could be counterfeit because of the level of security in the museum, but we can't rule anything out." She pointed to a blueprint of the Louvre's layout. "Starting with the roof, we're going to have to infiltrate through the entrance you two escaped through on the first night. You're going to travel to the Mona Lisa from there—I'll be giving you directions real-time through the earpiece—but there are some obstacles, of course. Guards go on patrol at night."

"It'll be a simple task to take them out," Xora said. "So long as there aren't too many of them, with the help of the night, it won't be a difficult thing to do."

"Don't forget that there will be cameras!" Hange sang, grinning.

Xora's eyebrow twitched and she stared at her. "I'm sure you will have taken control of the Louvre's security system before I even arrive at the museum."