Authors note:
Sorry this chapter took longer to update. This chapter doesn't have much Eremika in it, and it is mainly about Armin. Next chapter will have way more Eremika and I will try to update sooner.
Disclaimer: Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan does not belong to me but Hajime Isayma. If I did own it Eremika would be canon!
Anyways enjoy!
The last thing the blonde boy had remembered was telling Eren to make his dreams come true for him, of seeing the ocean. Though, it wasn't even like he could hear him. Armin had never thought he would die like this. He had always imagined die at an old age, happy just like his grandpa. He had wanted to grow old and die married. Yet, in this world the blonde boy wasn't even sure he could've gotten married. Society had never accepted people like him. The burning of his flesh made everything real though. He had wanted to live, he wanted to live with them, those two.
The genius closed his eyes and tried to let the darkness take him through this painful experience. No, it wasn't going to work like that though, just like Mikasa has always said, the world was cruel. The boy wanted to cry but he had to be strong, at least this one time. He had to be, he just had to be… Before joining the Survey Corps, Eren had told him to leave that he didn't want to see him die, but he had to do it. He had to see the ocean.
A smile grew on his face as he saw a cloak with the wings of freedom on the back of it. Yes, joining the Survey Corps every soldier had walked in knowing there was a good ninety percent chance they would die. He knew this, so he had to accept this fate. He had to except.
So he had let the darkness willingly take him.
The blonde boy had no idea on where the hell he was only that it was in the middle of no where. There was grass and trees, and he was pretty this wasn't anywhere inside the walls. His surroundings resembled something that a gave a rustic village feel. His feet tried to move, but his body wouldn't respond to his brain, just what exactly was going on? Then he heard a shout.
His blonde hair whipped in the whip as he turned to look at the person should. The smaller boy took in the appearance of this teenage male. Tall, bulky and blonde. He looked like he could take down a wall. Then when he opened his mouth to say something, Armin stood still eyes wide.
"Bertholdt! What are you standing still for? We've gotta go meet Annie and talk to to the chief regarding our next mission." The boy called.
Then Armin finally felt movement as he was running towards the titan shifter, but his brain didn't tell him to move, so what was controlling him?
"Sorry, Reiner! Is Annie already there?" Bertholdt asked.
"Yeah, funny how she's always the first thing you ask about. Now come on the chief wants us, he says it's time for the one."
Armin stared at the scene. Why the hell was he seeing this? This wasn't his life, no this was Bertholdt's, so why was he here? Armin clenched his head, in attempt to regain any sense of realism. Wasn't he supposed to be dead? He shook his head, no if he was dead why did he feel like he's was living in the past.
The confused boy had to no choice but to follow those two traitors. The village they were walking through, was strangely desolate, well at least Armin thought so. The people who lived there seemed so normal, yet the three traitors weren't. Yet, he wouldn't be surprised if the somewhat normal people were shifters as well.
They kept on walking until Reiner had finally stopped, in looked like the best looking building in this place. The blonde buff man knocked three times then said something Armin couldn't understand. The door opened and Armin's eyes widened.
Her pointed larger nose and her cold blue eyes. No. Why was she here? She was supposed to be stuck in that stupid crystal. The blonde boy was so confused, where was he, why was he seeing these things?
"Your late." Her voice was cold as ever, and Armin cringed.
"Sorry Annie. I woke up late-" Bertholdt began but shut up as soon as he saw the female's glare.
Bertholdt felt a large smack on his back. "Haha, I can't believe you made her mad. I thought you liked-" Bertholdt immediately placed his hands on Reiner's mouth to shut him up.
"Can you two idiots stop fooling around? The chief is waiting." Yup Annie was definitely mad.
Walking deeper into the building, they arrived at an isolated room, the only thing laminating the room was one single candle. The two male shifters sat on floor legs crossed as Annie walked up to a purple curtain.
"They are here." She said.
The curtain opened to see a middle aged woman with long blonde hair, blue eyes, a innocent smile, and a long pale pink dress, she quite reminded Armin of an older Historia. The three shifters bowed their heads to show their respect. Was this their chief? Armin thought.
The lady stood, while the others sat down. She looked down and gave them a stern but happy look.
"Now I've gathered the three of you today here for one reason. We are going to start our next mission." She looked at the three shifters with a stern expression on her face.
"This may be our most important mission yet, I want the three of you to infiltrate the walls. Bertholdt with you height and strength you'll break the first wall and allow us to get in. Reiner with your defence and muscles you'll break through the next. Yet, the most critical person to this mission is you Annie. Out of you three, Annie your mission is critical."
What was this mission this lady was talking about? Armin was so confused, he just wanted to go back, just anywhere but here. Why was he here? What was the reason for this? He had thought that before your die you see your life flash before your eyes, so why was he seeing something that was his life? He did die didn't he? His thoughts were soon ended as something the chief was saying caught his attention.
"Your going to invade the Military Police, gain their trust and we will break them down from the inside. This regiment has the most information about activities going on inside of the walls, not only that you can get close to their king." The chief explains.
Armin's eyes widened, so it was a plan from the start for Annie to go into that regiment, but the plan had failed?
"If she gets found out, we have a plan b. That is for Bertholdt and Reiner to act as decoys. Attack Shinganshina, I've heard Dr Jaeger has something in that basement of his to take us down. That god damn traitor." She snarled.
Traitor? What was she talking about, Armin was even more confused now. Realization came to Armin, had Eren's dad been working the enemy the whole time?
"Now don't worry even if the three of you are dead I have a plan C. He will come out. Now I know you must be thinking that this person is the beast. Well your wrong, the beast is already in his mission. He whom I am talking about is the source that guarantees us our victory. Unless that Jaeger boy interferes. Watch out for him, I've heard rumours that he is joining the Scouting Legion. I don't know what Grisha did to him but he could potentially be the key to be with us, most likely it won't awaken till Eren has reached the basement. We can never be to sure, but prepare yourself." The female chief explained.
The three of them simply nodded and got ready for their mission. Armin was shocked, was this Bertholdt's past? He still couldn't understand what was going on, but Armin decided it was a good thing to listen.
Suddenly the surroundings around the blonde boy began to move super fast as if in a blur. Was he finally going to die now? Was he now going to see his own life flash before his eyes? Armin closed his eyes and tried to make this feeling last for a bit, yet it wasn't painful? When he opened his eyes he gasped loud and fell to his knees.
Armin looked upon his surroundings and tried not to puke, the flames, the screams, the yells, the cries, and the worst; the big hole in the wall. Armin could feel the vile coming up and why was he starting here? Wall Maria, the day it was destroyed by that traitor. He understood sort of why he was here, but why were his flashbacks starting from this point in time? More importantly, why was he standing on this side of the wall, and why did everything seem so far down?
Then the giant muscular hand made out of flesh but no skin slammed into the hard stone wall that once protected Humanity. He laughed at his statement, even those walls couldn't protect everything, just look at Mikasa's situation.
It seemed as if he were seeing one of Bertholdt's memories again, but why? He didn't want to see this memory, he didn't want this. The small teenager screamed when he saw the large piece fall on Eren's house. He closed his eyes and felt hot steam cover him, and his surroundings move again. He was hoping for that to be last memory, but boy was he wrong.
He was in Trost now, from what he saw, it wasn't a part of Trost he had fought in, no it was a part he had never seen before. He was moving moderately fast this time he saw a blurb of silver and a brown trainee jacket. Armin had thought it was just any soldier but boy was he wrong. Now he actually did puke when he saw that face.
The freckles, the innocent smile, no why was he here. Out of all the things Armin had seen today he didn't want to see this. He hadn't seen his dead corpse, only Jean had, but he didn't want to see this. He watched as Marco begged for his life as he was slowly taken into the titans mouth, half his body's flesh being ripped and chewed at in such a disgusting way.
It was Bertholdt who did it then. It was all Bertholdt's fault, everything was fucking Bertholdt's fault. Mrs Jaeger, Marco.. Armin stared at the half corpse of his head friend, there was blood and guts everywhere. Never had he seen a body looked so messed up and mangled. What was left of his skin was sickly pale, and everything else was just that intense red liquid that only meant death. Why did Jean see this, he didn't want Jean to see this. Why?
Everything went black for Armin, and he knew it was over and he was going to leave the world now. Yet, he was wrong once again.
They touched him gingerly as his body was taken gently out of that steaming flesh. Nobody could hold their tears back as the blond boy rested peacefully on the roof. Levi and Hangë were off to Erwin's side giving him the final goodbye. Eren looked at his best friend and couldn't help a little sob of happiness come out of his mouth.
He saw one slightly injured hand come up and stroke the blonde's hair, the green eyed boy looked up only to see Mikasa standing in front of him. He watched in amazement as she stroked his hair, as if she was a caring mother. Mikasa as a mother only brought a smile to his face, yet there was a pang in his heart when he thought of that. The thing was he couldn't put his finger on what about that thought bade his heart hurt.
He sidetracked once again when he heard her quite loud sob as she suddenly grasped Armin's hand.
"You came back to us." She repeatedly sobbed.
His heart fluttered when he saw her smile at their best friend. For gods sake she was being more emotional them him, and he had known Armin longer. Why was she acting so emotional compared to him?
"Mikasa." Eren called out, and the asian girl turned her head to him.
"He came back, Mikasa. Armin didn't leave us." He could feel the sob in his throat as well now.
Mikasa smiled at him then turned back at Armin. "I'm glad, I'm so glad, I don't know what I would have done…" She stopped for a second and her joyful face turned into something Eren hadn't expected. She looked in pain.
"Mikasa?" He stuttered.
The asian grabbed her head and groaned, she mentally cursed at herself, it was this awful headache again. Why was it coming now, and more painful than ever.
"Mikasa, what's wrong? She could hear Eren's voice call out to her but it all seemed so far away.
No, she couldn't make them worry, Armin was too important now. "Mikasa, did you hit your head or something you don't look so good." Jean's voice snapped her out of it.
"No, I'm fine, it was just a headache." She lied.
Mikasa could feel Eren's bright eyes piercing into her, but she ignored it, she was not important right now. Hell, she couldn't care less, she just want ed to make sure Armin was alive and safe.
"I'm fine, stop worrying." She lied.
Eren sighed and looked back at Armin, she was putting others first right now. He wasn't with her when she fought, she could be just as injured as Sasha was right now, but she couldn't care less. He had to talk to her about this when they finish this mission.
"Eren!" Mikasa's voice called to him, he instinctively looked up at her in worry.
"He's waking up!" She said.
His eyes immediately snapped to his best friend laying on the ground. Eren saw Armin's eyes twitch, and his eyebrows scrunch up.
The blonde boy inhaled deeply and his eyes snapped open. Before he could get use to his surroundings Eren and Mikasa had tackled him to the ground barrelling him in a huge hug. He could feel both their tears fall onto his bare shoulder. When was he shirtless?
His eyes finally focused and he saw his two best friends, wait wasn't he supposed to be dead? He felt fear rush to him as the thought of the both of them dead came to his mind.
"Eren? Mikasa?" He asked them.
Before Eren could even speak Mikasa beat him to it, cradling Armin in her shoulder. "Your alright Armin, we saved you. Your alright, your alright, your not dead."
Armin's eyes widened as he stared at the two. "What do you mean? Didn't I fall from a crazy high height, I was burning to death."
"Armin, we saved you, we used the serum on you." Eren said gently.
"What serum?" Armin asked in curiosity.
"Your a shifter now, Armin. The serum can change one person into a shifter. It was between you or Erwin. Levi saved you." Eren explained.
"Oh." Armin said in sadness, had he really taken his higher up's life? Why was he saved?
His friends helped him get up and couldn't help but smile at everyone, those memories still with him. Jean looked at him in confusion as he never made eye contact with him.