Stohess District

"So that's what happened to me," Sasha says as she tries holding herself up on a piece of wood while Historia walks with her to the nearest stable. Despite calling escaping Stohess a "suicide", Historia determined time is of the essence. Sasha managed to argue her way into joining Historia, saying that she would eventually find a way to leave, with or without Historia.

"Yeah. You somehow recovered, be it the grace of the heavens or your stubbornness to continue eating. But I'm glad you are back… Hold." Historia leans her back against the stable door, looking underneath her green hood inside. Beside her, Sasha's excellent sense of hearing picks up voices from inside.

"You're smarter than I thought, Hitch."

"Shut up. If you're saying you want to leave town, why should I say no to that? Most of all, it means no more shifts having to stare at your face down in the basement."

"Glad to hear. Finally, I get t stop having to listen to all your stupid complaints about men."

"Huh? Why do you know about… No, were you...conscious the whole time for over four years?"

"Four years… It was like a dim dream… Just hearing your voice and Armin's from afar...other than that, though, it was all the same. In darkness. So… I had a decent idea of what was going on outside, thanks to you two. And then, I suddenly found myself thrown back out as I heard Eren's voice… Was he serious when he said...he's going to destroy the world?"

"Annie," Historia says as she walks into the stable. Dropping her hood, she reveals herself to the somehow uncrystallized Annie Leonhart and her companion, Hitch Dreyse. Surprised, Annie holds her hand out, a ring with a very sharp point shining in the sunset. Historia, however, holds a hand up calmly. "No need to feel alarmed. We cannot fight you if we tried."

"We?"

"Hey, Annie." Sasha brings herself inside, waving to their classmate and former ally. "Had a feeling that was your voice. You look the same."

Annie bites her lip and lowers her guard. "You two haven't changed much. A queen with a new name and a dead girl walking."

Historia turns away and goes to prepare a horse for her and Sasha. "Hitch, is everything as bad as it looks?"

The Military Police officer scoffs. "Worse than how you meant it. But Your Majesty, what are you doing here? With the traitors about, you are supposed to be-"

"I was visiting Sasha. As for this Jaegerist faction, if they wanted to harm me, they would've. Eren knew where I was." Bringing the horse out, Historia helps Sasha up. "But that's no longer our concern. There was a battle in Shiganshina, which is where I last heard the Jaegerists and the military were held up. You're more than welcome to join us, Annie."

Annie looks up to the walking Wall Titans that still surround the town in amazement. "It's true. The Wall Titans…"

"You should look down at their wake, too." At Hitch's behest, the other three girls glance down at the city of Stohess along the path. Sasha and Historia weren't here four years ago, when Annie, Eren, and the Scouts had their showdown, but to Hitch and Annie, it is a vaguely familiar scene, but with more destruction. "The only meaningful job I've had as a soldier has been cleaning up corpses and rubble. In your aftermath, and now Eren's. So, will you tell me now? Now that you can see all the bodies trampled for the sake of your big, important plan? How do you feel?"

Annie sighs and looks to the ground. "Well… You asked me all those times, so… I thought about it, about how little we thought. We were praised for killing people. We were taught that once we were beyond our borders, we could kill combatants and civilians alike. We were atoning for our deeds as Eldians and on a mission to save the world, so anything was justified."

"Armin told me about your situation. Basically, you wanted to stop that, right? In other words, your pile of corpses were a necessary sacrifice?"

"No… I didn't care one bit about that 'saving the world' stuff."

"Annie," Historia says softly as Annie's face becomes one of inner turmoil..

"I didn't care...about any of it. I...was abandoned by my parents not long after I was born. They say my blood test showed my mother had been having an affair with an Eldian or something. So I was taken into the internment zone by a man of Eldian blood who'd come from another country. Apparently, they put him there for a similar reason. His goal was to train me into a Marleyan warrior so that he could make his own life better. For as long as I can remember, he was always beating the martial arts techniques of his motherland into me. The only value I had to him was in whether or not I could become a warrior. Time passed...and I grew strong, just like he wanted. So I paid him back for all the pain he'd shown me until that point. I made it so he'd never be able to walk straight again...but he was happy. 'Now you can kill your enemies, even unarmed,' he said."

Hitch groans. "What is this, your life story?"

"I had to hear you talk for four years straight, the least you could do is hear me out for a little while… And so, it all stopped mattering to me. Who people were, where they came from, whether they lived or died. I couldn't find any value in life, including my own. Yes, until then, that is. It was...the morning we were to head off to the island for the plan to retake the Founder. The man...dropped to his knees and apologized to me. He told me...that everything he had taught me had been wrong. He cried and pleaded. He wanted me to come back… My status as a warrior, our title as honorary Marleyans, he said that none of it mattered, so long as I returned. That man...was my father. He saw me...as his own daughter. I...have a father waiting for me. And others...have people just as important to them, too. I used to not care about anything, but it's different now. I think I've committed irredeemable sins, but...if it meant returning to my father, I'd do it all over again."

Hitch bows her head. "I see. Thank you for telling me that. But… Even if you do return to him… I think you'll find nothing but rubble and corpses."

"Yeah… So, do I call you Christa or Historia?"

Historia lets a smile flash at the mention of her old name. "Preferably Historia."

Annie nods. "Armin says you killed your father after he became a Titan. Can't say I saw you ever becoming someone not attached to Ymir's side like the annoying do-gooder you were."

"And I never thought you were intelligent enough to speak more than three words in a day, but here we are."

Sasha, leaning on Historia's back, doesn't get that her former classmates are teasing each other. "Hey, guys, don't fight."

"What's that, Potato Girl? Not used to hearing you say anything without something stuffed in your mouth." Annie smirks slightly as Sasha sighs at the long-lasting nickname for her.

"...I liked you better when you were crystallized...and speaking of such, when do we eat?"

Shiganshina District

"Joshua, wait," Mikasa says as I prepare myself for travel. "You can't catch up to Connie if you set off for Ragako now. And, even if you did, then what? Would you tell him to give up on turning his mom back into a human?"

I nod. "I will. Maybe I should let Armin do this, he's better at the talking, but it has to be me. I...need Gabi to trust me. With Pieck still in hiding and Reiner recovering where he is, she is the difference between us and them getting along and not fighting. And... it is time I put aside my bad blood with Reiner anyway. For nine years, I've been angry. For four years, I thought about repaying him if I ever saw him again. I saw his mother at the festival, sat behind her and Annie's father. I told them everything, what happened here, how Reiner's actions killed my parents, and… I pulled my gun on his mother… I cannot continue this with him. Two thousand years of violence between us and the world must end. So I will tell Connie that it is better his mother is a Titan who cannot move...or I'll kill her myself." I stand up and turn my back to Mikasa. "I'm going."

"Joshua," she softly calls, "what should I do?"

"Help Jean out. Think for yourself for once."

"What about Eren?"

Growling, I pivot on my heel and turn to her. "I don't know, Mikasa! What the hell can we do? Hange and Levi might be dead, Floch and his men could turn their guns at us, Sasha and Historia, heck even Annie might be in danger right now, the volunteers, the Azumabito, they are in peril, the military chain of command is in chaos, and I am a nineteen year old who has to lead one part of that military for now! Eren is the least of my fucking concerns, do you understand that?"

Taking aback by my outburst, Mikasa drops her head. "I'm sorry." Seeing that I unintentionally hurt her feelings, I reach out and take her in my arms. I run my hand through her short hair (totally missing the longer length, she was much prettier with it), not regretting what I said but regretting how I said it. But it is true, there's so much to think about that somehow the end of the outside world is the least of it.

"If it were Erwin here, I'm sure he wouldn't have snapped at you like that. We probably wouldn't be in this situation." Letting Mikasa go, I turn around to see Armin enter with his head low. "Well, there's your answer. I wasn't the one they should've brought back to life."

"I'll be staying with the Brauses for the time being."

I nod as I turn to Nicolo. "Thanks. You should hurry and leave this place yourselves."

"Okay...and what of Sasha? Do you think…"

I turn my head to the Braus family, seeing Gabi and Kaya hug each other as they drop the animosity between them. Sighing, I climb aboard my horse. "I hope she's well. If we know her, she's probably dreaming of a feast while the world ends." I turn my attention to the fort, not comfortable having motherfucking Floch run the place, but I trust Jean and Mikasa to keep that son of a bitch under some sort of control. "Gabi, let's go." She releases Kaya and hops up on her horse. With a nod to the Braus family, Gabi and I rush off.

"Stop it, Floch! Don't shoot!"

Floch turns away from the volunteer with a newly missing finger to Jean, shrugging his shoulders. "Calm down, Jean. I just made him understand. He didn't know the situation he was in. But I think this got the message across. Now all these volunteers know what happens when you speak to us the wrong way."
Jean grits his teeth. This bastard… "Hey, who the hell asked you to start acting like you're king of the hill out here?"

"I'm glad you asked, Jean! Listen up, everyone! Ten months ago, Eren told me his plan! He said he'd use Zeke to grasp the Founder's power! I gathered comrades to help Eren, and today, his plan succeeded! You volunteers have lost your leader. The military isn't by your side, either. And now, you'll lose your motherland! Thanks to the rumbling, gigantic footsteps will be all that's left of it! You've lost your reason for coming here in the first place, the revival of your homeland! But if any of you still wish to lend your strength for the sake of the Eldian Empire here on this island, speak up! We will welcome you as Eldians!"

"Who do you think we are, you bastard?"

Jean watches helplessly as the injured man tries to attack Floch only to be shot dead in the head. Pretending he didn't just kill in cold blood, Floch continues speaking. "Show this man some respect. He lived as a proud volunteer to the end, refusing to submit even in the face of a bullet. But pride is nothing worth dying for. What's so bad about submission? Wouldn't you rather live than die like this?" He stares at the silent volunteers and shrugs. "I'll give you time to think. Take the volunteers to their cells."

"What…"

"Jean… What happened here?"

On his knees, Jean looks up to the newly arrived and horrified Armin and Mikasa, but he doesn't have an answer for them, for anything Floch is doing.

"To answer your question," Floch says as he turns his attention to them, "I speak on Eren's behalf. If Eren is solving all the problems outside the island, then I'll wipe away any resentment left inside it. Anyway, we survived that hell four years ago, and now we finally have this. Do you understand? This is freedom! You don't need to fight any longer. You can live as you want. Jean, you wanted to become an MP and live the good life in the interior, right? Then do that. You're one of our heroes."
Jean stares at the hand on his shoulder. "It's...over?"

"It's over. So go back to being the old Jean. That annoying, irresponsible, conceited bastard."

"What...did you just call me…"

Mikasa clears her throat. "Lieutenant Levi and Commander Hange. What happened to them?"

"Ah." Floch stands up and sighs. "I'm sorry, but Zeke killed them."

"Judging by their direction and speed, the ships are withdrawing straight back to Marley." Magath sighs as he stares at the airships high in the sky, high enough to escape from the march of the Wall Titans. "Could they have given up hope on our Marleyan forces making it back alive after seeing the rumbling take place? Well… It's the smart move. Now they can let the rest of the nation know about the situation. It's better than just waiting for those things to crush us all."

"Still," Pieck, partially attached to her Cart Titan, speaks hopelessly, "in that case, there's nothing we can do any longer. How could we possibly stop them now?"

"...We can't. But… We'll keep our pathetic struggle up to the end."

"Umm…" Pieck and Magath turn around and immediately use the Cart Titan and a pistol to threaten an approaching woman with red hair, an eyepatch, and wearing a green cloak who throws her hands out. "Hold on a second! Don't eat me, okay? I'm completely unarmed! The guy over there? No need to worry. He's nothing more than a harmless man who refuses to die..."