Summery: At the end of the world, or the last thing I see, you are never coming home
OR
Why Armin is the narrator
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Salty. The air itself was salty. It was oddly warm too, making Armin's hair frizzy. The boy almost laughed, thinking of days long past where he and his best friend would have argued about how the air around them felt.
"It isn't salty, Armin." Eren would have insisted. "If salt was in the air, someone would have figured out how to collect it by now!"
Then again, no one had ever been here. Just Armin. He blinked back tears as his horse came to the top of a hill, and a sob escaped as he looked at what lie beyond. He could hear it, he could see it, but he couldn't believe it.
The ocean.
The water was cold and, just like he had read, filled with salt. The chilly waves jumped up his legs, drenching his pants and making his leather straps even heavier. But he didn't care. Armin was practically hysterical as he dropped to his knees, all but rolling in the water he had dreamed his entire life of seeing.
He looked up as there was a loud 'WHOA!' And an ecstatic woman ran into the ocean next to him, not stopping until she was up to her wist in salt water. Her glasses were covered in sea mist but she didn't care.
"What kind of fish do you think live here?" She asked Armin, not giving him a chance to answer before diving underwater to take a look. Seconds later she reemerged screeching about how the water burned her eyes, yet still laughing,
As Armin watched Hanji he grew quiet, whatever trace of a smile on his face disappearing. The red scarf we had around his neck was now scratchy and wet, but he only held it tighter. This wasn't how he wanted this day to be.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this..." he whispered into the scarf.
The war with the Titan shifters had been brutal, to say the least. But at long last, they had been successful, but at a cost greater than anyone imagined. This trip- a journey to the ocean, had been the last mission. Was the last mission.
Hanji, too, had stopped her exploration of the ocean, and now joined Armin on the sand.
"This is it, huh?" she nudged him. "We're finally here."
"Yeah."
"The journey was a real beach, dontcha think?" Hanji laughed at her own joke, while Armin just sat there. Finally, he stood up saying, "Let's do what we came here to do."
Hanji looked at him with a mix of concern and sorrow. Then she, too, stood, following the young blonde to the cart their horses had pulled all this way.
With heavy hearts, the two began unloading armful after armful of flat wooden planks, stacking them carefully by the sand.
"Where do you think we should put them?" Hanji asked, surveying the land.
"Right here." Armin pointed to where the sand met grass.
Wordlessly, the two began staking the planks into the ground, some with more reservations than others, but each with meaning.
Connie and Sasha were next to each other- by some sort of tropical fruit plant. Marco and Jean were together too, because Armin knew they gave each other strength. Plank after plank went up, all in a line, like how they'd been lined up the day they met.
Hanji took special care to make sure Erwin and Levi were n front of the rest of the scouts- even in death she insisted their ranks be made clear. She also pushed Levi's plank down lower than the rest- a final joke about his height.
Armin had made Annie a plank, her name carved into the wood almost tauntingly. But he knew that even despite the evil she had done, she deserved this.
He put Mikasa's plank up last- it was possibly the hardest one for him to accept. She had always been in his life, watching over him and Eren, and now she was gone. She had died too long ago to have a body to bury- all of his former squad mates had. But he could remember the titan that had gotten her; not even a shifter, or an abnormal, but rather a 9 meter titan. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see her getting snatched out of the air, getting eaten alive. He hugged her scarf closer to his chest.
"Protect Eren!" Her final words rang in his ears. He'd tried. Oh how he'd tried.
Armin looked up as he heard a soft cry from Hanji; she was fastening a Scouts cape to Erwin's plank, tears running down her cheeks.
"We made it." She whispered. "We made it Erwin. We're at the ocean, see! You see the waves, a-and the sand-" she fell to her knees between Levi and the commander, sobs wracking her body. She hadn't cried like that since Sonny and Bean were killed.
Armin took a step back and looked the graves. It was both peaceful and grotesque; why should he get to see the ocean when none of his friend did? Why was he still alive?
"What do you think, Eren?" He asked the cart. There lie Eren, or what was left of him. His torso, left arm, and head didn't move- not that Armin had truly expected it too. But he still had hope.
"No one will ever know." Hanji squeaked.
"What?"
"Their names, their stories, their sacrifice." Hanji dragged her hand across her face, wiping away tears. "No one will ever know that the reason humanity is safe is because of these people right here. They'll just be known as part of the scout regimen, under Erwin's lead. No one will know how Eren couldn't use 3DMG worth a damn at first, no one will celebrate Mikasa as the warrior she was." Her voice broke as she offered the boy a sad smile. "No one will know what they went through so that humanity could live. Their names will fade away in the history books and eventually be forgotten completely."
Armin stood there in shock, taking in Hanji's words. It was true. Humanity truly would forget. Titans were on the brink of extinction, but it was only because of the people he had known; of the names on the planks now in front of him.
"We won't let them forget." He said. "Here," he pulled out a note book and together he and Hanji narrated the Titan war, day by day, giving detail about their friends. The bounced memories off each other, corrected on when the other was wrong, and hours upon hours later, when they were writing by way of candle and the sun was just starting to rise for a new dawn, they decided that there was nothing more to tell.
"What's there left to say?" Hanji asked. Amrin thought for a second, before picking his pencil up again.
Our mission to the ocean was successful. Neither Hanji nor I died, and there wasn't one titan encounter. I strongly believe that the human race will be able to move out of the walls, and once again inhabit the world to the fullest. However, the cost as been grater than anyone ever imagined. The squad that gave our race this freedom won't be able to see it. But that's ok. They sawwhat they needed too, and did what needed to be done, so that no one might have to cower in fear and wonder what freedom is. Do not take this gift lightly.
Eren will be traveling back to the walls with Hanji; she and other scientists believe that he might make a recovery and walk again. He does breath on occasion, so there's hope. It might take months, or even years, but I know Hanji will take care of him.
This war has taken much from us. Friends, family; lives that can never be replaced. But the aren't forgotten nor were they taken in vain. On this day we receive the greatest gift any race could ask for- we are being given a chance. A chance for what is up to you. The world is in your hands now, and it is up to you. Go forward remembering that the world is cruel, but it is also beautiful. Never give up hope, and never stop fighting.
Hanji read with a smile, tears in her eyes.
"I made something." She said, walking again over to the cart. Gingerly, she lifted Eren a little ways before sitting him back down. In her hands was another wooden plank. "Here," she offered it to Armin.
He took it, reading the carvings with watery eyes. "Eren Jeager. A monster of a man, and a man of a monster. A suicidal maniac with anger in his head and passion in his heart." Armin let out a meek laugh. "That does pretty much sum him up, doesn't it?"
"He deserves a place here with them," Hanji gestured to the other graves. Together, she and Armin stuck the plank in the ground next to Mikasa, facing the ocean.
Amrin rubbed his tired, sleep deprived eyes and sat on the ground, leaning back on both Mikasa's and Eren's planks.
Hanji mounted her house, and shot a confused look back at Armin.
"Are you coming?" She yelled.
Armin just shook his head. "No. I'm tired Hanji. And I'm where I've always wanted to be."
Hanji opened her mouth to protest, but then stopped. The kid looked so... at peace. So without another word, she left, taking Eren and the horses with her. "You did well." She whispered under her breath. "You saved a lot of people, Armin."
Back on the beach, Armin was staring at the sunrise with awe. The water on the horizon was changing color with the sky, pinks and oranges rippling across the waves.
"It's over." He said to the planks behind him. "We did it. We made it here. And we saved everyone. We did this for them." slowly, he let his eyes close, arms falling to his sides. "Our story is over. But humanities is just beginning."