"I get it alright. You did all of this for the sake of the future you saw in your memories with the Attack Titan's power. But did you really have to beat me up that badly? Why? Was kneeing me that important?" Armin asked, more than a little upset.
Eren had come to see him in the Paths and now both of them were in a dream version of Shinganshina before the fall, with the two of them even reverting back to their ten-year old selves.
"…Sorry. I was just so, so desperate to push you away. Even I wondered what the hell I was doing, I guess I just let the moment carry me away. Sorry," Eren replied.
"You should be saying that to Mikasa, not me. All that nonsense you spewed really hurt her."
"Yeah… you're right," Eren replied in shame, regretting how he had hurt the girl who had loved him since they were nine years old.
"You pushed all of us away, because you didn't want us to get involved and end up dying?"
"That's right," Eren replied.
Eren turned to him and smiled sadly then, "But guess what? It didn't work. All of you are better people than I am and you came to stop me."
His smile disappeared, "But your mission is in vain Armin, the Rumbling will kill almost the entirety of humanity outside of Paradis. The only ones left will be a few survivors here and there."
Armin was shocked, horrified by the catastrophic death toll.
"Did you really need to go this far? Was this… all for our sake? If we can't stop you in the end, why let us come and put ourselves in danger in the first place?"
Eren didn't answer, instead he got up from where they were sitting and started walking into the alley behind them.
"Where are you going?" Armin queried, turning to look at him.
"Where we always wanted to go. Let's talk as we walk," Eren answered, "… about our Founder, Ymir."
A while later, Eren and Armin had made their way to a volcano, with the paths shortening their trip.
Both of them stared at the visual representation of their boyhood dreams in awe.
"So this is flaming water," Eren said.
"It really does flow like a river," Armin said in turn.
"How far did I get?" Eren inquired, wanting to get back to his explanation.
Armin looked up thoughtfully, "Hm? You said something about the Power of the Titans continuing to exist because Ymir has been obeying King Fritz and his descendants for the past 2000 years."
"Right. He'd burned her hometown, killed her parents… and pulled out her tongue. And yet, even when she attained god-like powers, she continued to obey him."
"What… could have caused her to do that?" Armin wondered.
Eren was quick with the answer, "When we touched in the paths, I felt something. It seemd obvious in hindsight but Ymir was a broken person.
She had been so young when she had been thrown out and sentenced to die. So young when she came into contact with the thing that gave her the Power of the Titans.
For so long, she hadn't known what love was. And here, the man who took everything from her, was lavishing her with attention. She was being used like a tool, but it made her feel important. It made her feel like she was wanted, like she was needed.
Ymir wanted to know what love was, she craved love. Yet above all, she felt like she was a slave whose only worth was to serve her bastard husband and their descendants, all the while hoping that they could give her the love she craved, and in the depth of her heart, wishing someone would one day free her and understand her pain. And so she ended up forming a connection with all of us, her subjects, and continued making Titans and obeying the commands of the Royal Family."
"What… a connection?" Armin was confused. By now, both of them had returned to their adult selves.
"That's the reason why she stayed in the paths for 2000 years. She was waiting all that time, for someone who would free her, and tell her what she needed to hear. Her self-worth as a slave was so low, she didn't even have the will to do it herself.
The connection we have with her is the reason we have the power to turn into titans. Ymir kept those connections intact all this time, with herself as the coordinate, the centre of all those connections, in the form of the Founding Titan. But somewhere deep down, she wanted to be free of it all.
Ymir's power was split up amongst her three daughters who were forced to eat her. They in turn each had three children, leading us to the Nine Titans we have today. The Founding Titan was where Ymir's power and the Coordinate was located, yet whatever free will she still had, that arduous desire to one day be free, it was given…"
Eren and Armin stopped in front of the very centre of the Coordinate in Paths, the lights in the starry sky.
"…to the Attack Titan. The one Titan that always fought for freedom, that kept moving forward no matter which era it found itself in.
And finally 2000 years later, the bearer of that Titan came to free her.
I can't claim to know the depths of Ymir's heart… but I knew she was in agony the whole time as she yearned to be free, waiting for someone, anybody to free her.
When I finally told her that she didn't have to be a god, she didn't have to be a slave, she broke down and gave me her aid."
"You mean that it was purely Ymir's free will?"
"That's right Armin. I, the bearer of Ymir's free will, reminded her how to strive for freedom. I gave her the choice, to stay in the Paths as a slave forever, or break free of it and destroy the world with me."
"And the reason why the past holders of the Nine Titans will help me defeat you…"
"Was because I instructed them too. Zeke as well, he came to know the plan, and he guided you to it."
"What about that weird worm thing which tried to come back to you?" Armin asked, still curious.
"That is the 'source' so to speak. It is the organic material that Ymir came into contact with that gave her the Power of the Titans all those years ago. It took Ymir as its host and so begun the Age of the Titans. You could consider it a tree of sorts, the trunk is Ymir, the branches are the Nine Titans, and each of the leaves, one of the Subjects of Ymir. It is the very origin of the realm we call Paths.
The source is the reason why I let you try and stop me. I didn't want to take your freedom to choose like I said, but also because I knew for the future I saw to come true, things needed to happen in a certain way for the source to die and end the Titan powers.
Armin, I'm sorry. All I knew for certain was that I was the last Attack Titan. The past, the future, they were set in stone. I tried, so hard to change it, to see if there was another way. But every single step, every single event proved to me there was no choice. Sasha died, and her last words were the same. Mikasa told me the same thing I saw when I asked what I meant to her. Even the world and its hatred was the same, no matter how I wished it wasn't.
In a way it is brutally ironic. For me, who always sought freedom, I was given no choice but to follow the path outlined already. It was the only way I could reach the ending I desired."
"And that's why you got so upset when I asked if you were a slave as well," Armin said in realisation.
"That's right. It's because the truth, was that I was exactly what I called Mikasa. I was a slave to the future I saw. But for the sake of the freedom I desired, I pushed forward.
I slaughtered almost all of humanity. I got all of you, my precious friends, caught up in all of this, unsure if you'd even survive everything, all for the sake of the future I wanted."
Armin's gaze was sympathetic and filled with grief for his friend's pain now, "So that was the future you saw at the medal ceremony. You've been all alone since then. It must have been so painful."
Eren started tearing up now, his voice breaking, "You have no idea. Armin… my head's gotten all messed up. Time isn't linear to the Founder. There's no past or future, it's like it all exists at once. That day, Bertolt wasn't supposed to die. The Founder, knowing she needed to maintain the timeline of events that lead to her being freed to prevent a paradox, she led Dina away from him, and that led to… because I have her memories… that basically means that I… that I…"
Armin's gaze grew even more horrified if that was possible, but he quickly grabbed Eren's hand to comfort him, "It wasn't your fault."
Eren looked at him in grief and pain, disbelieving.
"Come on, let's go Eren."
The Paths changed then, putting them at the beach where they had first reached the sea.
"So what about Mikasa and the rest of us? Do you think it will be that easy for us to move on once we remember all this?"
"I don't know."
That ticked off Armin because he punched Eren in the face then and left him wet and soaking on the beach.
"Don't give me that bullshit! Mikasa especially, she adores you! What are you thinking just disregarding her love for you! Someone who has put you first for her whole life? Do you really think that you can expect her to just forget about it and move on?
I guess that's right. She should be able to move on, forget all about you, and find someone new and good."
"Armin, I… I couldn't give Mikasa the love she deserved. Even if I wanted to, there was never an ending between the two of us."
"So what, what do you really feel for her?"
The memory of a blonde-haired girl came to mind.
What if I was to have a child?
"I love Mikasa. Maybe in some other world, if there was more time, maybe I could have eventually loved her the way she needed. There was a chance, but there was someone else first."
"Who?" Armin demanded.
"Well, I'll just leave you to figure that one out. Please don't tell Mikasa, it'll just make her feel worse. If I'm being honest, the idea of Mikasa's eternal love and devotion to me… it was something I always hated, and yet also secretly enjoyed. It was comforting to me, that after everything I had done, despite all of my flaws, there was someone who loved me like that. But it wasn't fair to her. I didn't want her to be a slave to my desires rather than her own. In the end, I guess the person I really hated wasn't Mikasa, but myself, for leading her on and letting her continue to harbour those feelings when I wasn't able to return them."
Eren started breaking down now, "I don't want to die. I want to be able to live a long life with you and Mikasa, and everyone else."
"Eren! Don't give up! We can find another way!" Armin said, desperate to not lose his first friend.
"I don't want to die, but I can't be forgiven for what I've done, what I will still do. I'm sure none of them wanted to die either."
The Paths had changed again, warping to show the devastation of the Rumbling.
"I think, that even If I didn't know the way things had to go, I think I would still have flattened the world. I would still have chosen to do it, regardless of the future I was shown. I'd have flattened almost every forest and I would have left the land covered in carrion-fattened insects days later. I wanted to leave every surface blank."
"Why?" Armin asked.
"I… I don't know. Heh… Now I'm lying, I know why. I just couldn't bring myself to admit the truth."
Armin felt tears in his eyes as Eren turned to him and explained, "The world outside… it wasn't the world I imagined, the world I saw in your book. When I found out that humanity still existed outside the walls, I… was so, so disappointed. I wanted to wipe it all away and make the world the way it was in your book, a world where I was free to explore, free to see it all. I thought the person that saw that scenery would be the freest person in the world… and for a while, I felt so… so free before the weight of what I had done fell upon me. I took away the world's freedom, so I could have my own for those few precious seconds. It's so selfish and pathetic of me right?"
"I never… I never knew you felt that way," Armin was shocked. He felt like a failure, never realising the pain his friend was in, the pain the dream he gave him had caused him.
"I'd appreciate it if you kept it to yourself, or don't, it's not like I'm gonna be around to argue.
It's time Armin. I'm erasing all your memories of this place. The next time we meet, we'll be trying to kill each other, but you'll probably remember everything when this is all over."
"Eren… Thank You."
The man in question looked to his friend in shock. He couldn't possibly be thanking him for killing almost the entire world, could he?
"You… you did all this… for us. I don't think I could ever accept it, but I can understand your pain. Thank you, for being my friend to the end, and sharing my dream. I swear, I won't let your sacrifice be in vain. I'll take care of everyone for you when you're gone."
The two old friends embraced one last time.
"I don't know what happens after I die… but I know you can make it to the other side of the walls. I knew it even way back then. The one that will save humanity, is you, Armin."
When Armin returned to his body in the real world on the ship, he was disorientated for a while, not remembering anything that had just happened.
Much, much later, Armin awoke on the battlefield in the dissipating corpse of his last ever Colossal Titan body.
"Now I remember… this is…"
He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Mikasa carrying the head of their old friend.
As they both wept and mourned, he heard Mikasa speak.
"Armin you remember as well right? When Eren came to see us?"
"Yeah… he told me everything."
"Let's bury him together. At that tree that he always liked."
"Yeah."
Ackermans and Titan shifters were normally immune to memory alteration but they were still Subjects of Ymir. With the full power of the Founder at his disposal due to freeing Ymir, Eren had been able to still erase Mikasa's memories, as well as Reiner, Falco, Pieck, and Levi's.
"Eren said, that the results of the future he saw, would make the Power of the Titans vanish from the world."
The rest of the Alliance was in tears as they remembered Eren's conversation with them and tearfully reunited with each other and their families as the titanization came undone.
As the Paths broke down, all the old Scouts and Sasha came to say their goodbyes as well to Levi and Jean and Connie respectively.
Eren had been telling the truth. The titanization of all the Eldians at the fort had led to the Pure Titans eating almost all the non-Eldians. But even the Eldians had just been about to be killed by the Rumbling.
Some had formed up and started angrily and fearfully marching against them.
Armin pre-empted all of their concerns.
"Eren Yeager is dead! The Power of the Titans is gone from the world for good. All of you, all of us, we are free. From this day forth, all of us can proudly answer that we are and will only ever be humans!
They had won. They had stopped Eren. Yet their victory was empty. They had barely saved anyone and Eren… Eren was dead.
Armin looked up to the sky where the sun shone brightly.
Is this the price of freedom?
It had been three years since the great battle, called the Battle of Heaven and Earth.
Those who have survived after such unfathomable losses were still scarred and their worst fears came true.
Under the leadership of Queen Historia and the Yeagerists, Eldia had risen again and was building up its military to defend itself from retaliation.
They had yet to realise however that Eren had succeeded in his goal. Before the Rumbling had begun, there had been over 1.6 billion people in the world outside Paradis, and now there were barely a million left, scattered in little isolated areas all over, unable to unite and threaten Paradis.
Some had even joined them, with the Eldians who had met the Alliance at Eren's downfall being offered asylum on the island by the Queen who also pardoned those who had fought Eren, saying that it had been Eren's plan all along and that they should not be judged for doing what they thought was right.
Though all of them had lived and had been able to return in peace to Paradis, none were allowed to return to the military, nor did they have any interest in doing so.
All the surviving members of the Alliance had gathered in Shinganshina for the occasion, the third anniversary of Eren's death. They would be giving a presentation on their experience and telling why they believed Paradis should seek peace before visiting Eren's grave at the tree on the hill outside the city's inner gate.
For the past few years, they had been traveling all over, not just on Paradis but to the rest of the world, to the isolated pockets where humans had survived. Telling their tale and trying to break the cycle of hatred.
It wasn't easy, and it might not even work, but Eren had entrusted the world's future to them and they had to do their part to keep the peace in the world he left them, a world without Titans.
Gathered in their room, Armin read the letter Historia had sent them for the occasion out loud to everyone else.
Reiner took it from him when he was done and admired her handwriting, commenting that Ymir would be proud of how far Historia had come.
Meanwhile Jean was busy combing his hair at the mirror and the friends all bantered with each other.
"You seem awfully concerned about how your hair looks Jean," Pieck said, "Trying to look good for someone?"
"Yeah… for all girls who ever open a history book."
"Don't you mean a field guide to horses?" Reiner butted in, asking teasingly.
"It's a damn shame you got a new lease on life Reiner," Jean replied snarkily.
"Now guys, give Jean a break. I hear Mikasa finally agreed to go on a date with him so of course he wants to look good for her," Connie said.
"Seriously!?" they all asked in shock.
"I never thought I'd see the day she got over Eren," said Annie.
"It's what Eren wanted. Mikasa deserves to be happy," Armin answered.
After a short pause, he continued, "Sometimes I really wonder if what we're doing is going to work. Yet I think when people see all of us together, they'll want to hear our story. It helps keep me going whenever I get a little down."
Armin had clearly given the matter some thought.
"Yeah, when they see such a ragtag group of former enemies being best friends, maybe it will inspire them to change," Pieck said approvingly.
"Why those who tried to kill each other for so long now advocate for peace… let's tell them everything "Armin said as he looked at a bird feather falling from the sky on the balcony of the house they were staying in.
A while later, they all walked onto a stage in a courtyard in Shinganshina. A large crowd had gathered to hear their story and they readied themselves to tell their tale to an audience. Armin walked out to greet all of them and introduced himself and his companions, though he was sure that all of them were already well-known.
When he had finished with the greetings and introudction, Armin began his tale.
"You all know this story. It began with a world ruled by Titans who hunted and devoured humans. On that day, twelve years ago in this very city, Humanity received a grim reminder…"
Mikasa was sitting at the tree she had woken up Eren all those years ago, the day Shinganshina fell.
She was sitting next to his grave, leaned back against the tree, as she told him everything that had been happening.
"Today is the third anniversary of your death you know? Everyone is going to be coming to see you later. Aren't you happy?"
Her thoughts were lured to how she used to wake him up from his naps here.
"I want to see you again… I want to wake you up from your afternoon naps beneath this tree like I used to… but you're right, I shouldn't cling to you forever. The last thing you asked of me was to forget you and live happily. I won't ever do the first but I think I can manage the second.
I hope you're not upset but I've agreed to finally go on a date with Jean. Yes, that Jean, the supposed horse. You guys used to hate each other so I know you'll disapprove… or will you? By the end he was a good friend of yours as well wasn't he?"
Mikasa was a bit upset when a mischievous bird came and tried to steal her scarf. The bird was of a species she had many memories of seeing in her childhood, flying over the walls freely. Eren had always looked at them in envy, like he had wanted to be as free as they were.
To her surprise the bird had ended up wrapping the scarf around her, making her feel strangely happy.
She knew it was a stupid thing. The bird was certainly not Eren and had likely taken a liking to her scarf and in its attempt to steal it, had indavertently ended up wrapping it more tightly around her neck.
Yet a girl could dream no? For a precious second, Mikasa let herself believe it was Eren wrapping the scarf around her one last time, as he had once promised to do, as many times as she wanted.
As she watched the bird fly away freely, Mikasa stared at it, her face filled with joy and sad tears.
"Thank you for wrapping this scarf around me, Eren."
Seconds before he was to die, Eren came to the Paths one last time.
He had succeeded. The source was dying and with it the Power of the Titans.
Eren said out loud to no one in particular, "It's really dying, this must be it then. The Paths will close for good soon."
He felt strangely satisfied. Even if he couldn't live to see it, his friends, his people, they were all free, free from the cycle of hatred, from the Titans and Walls that had once caged them. Just as he was about to walk off and give up his existence however, Eren noticed Ymir standing behind him, right in front of the dying source.
"Ymir?"
Miles away on Paradis Island, a baby took its first breath as it came out of its mother's womb. Yet to the surprise of all present, the babe did not cry.
"It's a girl Your Majesty! What will you name her?"
"Ymir. Her name is Ymir," Historia answered.
Eren smiled when he saw the vision and he picked up the now baby Ymir.
"I guess you got a second chance at life then Ymir. After 2000 years you finally have everything you deserved to have at the start. A loving family, a peaceful childhood, and most importantly of all, your freedom."
Eren held the baby Ymir in his hands on his shoulder, "Ymir… you and all of humanity… You are free."
Author's Note: Credit due to u/vithinred000 on r/titanfolk. With his permission, I borrowed a few ideas he came up with in his edited chapter 139 to write this one shot. BTW, Eren is the father in this one shot, but it's not blatantly stated because I don't think that would fit the tone well. It's left to a subtle implication.
And now after following this series for eight years, it has come to an end. I love Attack on Titan and I love Isayama's work in crafting it. The OG ending however was something I simply didn't geel satisfied with. If it truly was Isayama's vision, then I will accept it. However, this is how I thought it really should have gone.
I started following this series a few months after the first season came out back in 2013-2014, when I was only nine. As you might imagine, it's occupied an incredible amount of my time and love since and I will always remember it favourably for being my first anime. It was my favourite for a long time… and in some ways it still is.
Regardless of its so-so ending, Attack on Titan still is and forever will be a masterpiece. So to the series I've followed since I was a nine-year old boy… goodbye. And now I'm sad. YouTube, play Name of Love.