Armin's eyes blinked open. He was sitting on the canal wall outside of his house in Shiganshina, feet dangling over the edge. He blinked again, wondering why his feet seemed so small.
"Armin."
Armin looked to his left and saw Eren, but it was an Eren he hadn't seen in years. Eren was younger, much younger. A child. And the flat, dead expression on Eren's face looked so disconcerting on the young face of his childhood friend.
And so was he, Armin realized, looking down at his hands.
"This isn't real." Said Armin.
"No." said Eren simply. "I've called you here through Paths, to speak to you one last time."
Armin looked around at his home; it looked just as it did years ago. Before everything. Before he'd seen a Titan in anything other than a book. Before he'd killed his first enemy. Before all of it.
And for that reason, it didn't really feel like home. Not anymore. Not for someone like him. Armin turned to face Eren, who had turned away to look across the canal at the town before them.
"You still have a chance, Eren." Said Armin. "You can change this; you can make things right again. You have the power."
Eren was silent for a moment.
"You're right. I do."
He didn't say anything further, but the silence said more than enough. Armin kept staring at the side of Eren's head but the other boy's gaze remained steadfast across the canal.
"Eren, the Rumbling. It will…" Armin swallowed. "So many people are going to die, Eren."
"That's the entire point, Armin."
Armin flinched back at the callous statement but almost immediately, found himself beset by a burning rage instead. He got to his feet and paused; unsure of what he could do. He wanted to lash out, to strike at Eren but what good would that do, especially here? At worst, it would cause Eren to withdraw from here and Armin would lose the last chance he had to speak to his friend.
"The others across the ocean; outside of our walls. They are the enemy, Armin." Said Eren. "Even those that we would call innocent. Do you understand?"
Armin balled his fists and swallowed again.
"No, Eren. I don't. Because that's wrong. They are innocent people, with lives just as valuable as any one of ours."
"Is that what you thought in that harbor?" asked Eren idly.
Armin flinched again, but this was one of shame and regret. He could still see the swathes of the Marley town burning around him as he took painfully slow steps through it. As the Colossus titan, his view point was so high that he couldn't make out any details. It was just fields of broken buildings, ash and fire.
But he could still hear the screaming. So, so much screaming. He couldn't begin to imagine how many human voices crying out together it took to reach his Titan ears sixty meters off of the ground.
Armin closed his eyes, sitting back down.
"That was different, Eren."
But even as he said it, he knew he didn't believe it. And he knew Eren didn't either.
"It's not your fault, Armin. You were a soldier; we're at war. You were just following orders."
Eren looked over at his friend and reached over, placing his hand on his shoulder.
"I put you in that position, Armin. I put all of you there. The fault lies with me."
"No, I had a choice." Said Armin. "I could've said no. I could've chosen to not use my power. Perhaps I would've been detained or court marshalled but at least those people would still be alive."
"But then what would have happened to me, Armin? What would've happened to Paradis?"
Armin's eyes remained shut. He'd asked himself the same questions hundreds of times. Could he say no? Could he choose to simply refuse? To allow the Corps to proceed without the critical asset that was the Colossus Titan?
He could have. But he chose not to. He chose to go on the mission because he knew that, without him, even more of his friends would die. Maybe all of them. And the rest of Paradis Island would follow soon after, with Marley in possession of the only thing stopping them from wiping out the island full of devils once and for all.
"Walk with me, Armin."
Eren got to his feet, dusting his pants off.
"We need to continue our talk. I need to tell you about the Founder, Ymir."
Armin didn't stand immediately but eventually, he did. He followed behind Eren, looking at his friend's back and thinking about what things could've been like if the world had been less cruel. To him, to Eren. To everyone.
In a sudden shift, Armin found himself standing somewhere else. A river of blazing heat and orange liquid stood before him, running down from a distant mountain that was rumbling and exploding in a way that Armin had only ever heard about. The sight stunned him and, for a moment, he was able to forget as he took in its wonder.
"Ymir was just a girl, Armin."
Eren's voice broke him from his reverie and he turned to his friend. They both looked older than their child selves now; they were teenagers. They were about the age they were when they'd both joined the Training Corps.
"She wasn't a god or a queen or some all-powerful witch." Continued Eren, staring out across the river of liquid fire. Even his stoic visage was broken by the sight; his eyes drinking it in. He'd never seen anything like it, despite being the one that had brought them both here. "She was a slave girl, in service to Karl Fritz, the leader of the tribe of Eldia, two thousand years ago."
Eren explained Ymir's past; her brutal treatment at the hands of the Eldians, her small act of defiance, her death sentence and then the birth of Titan power in the world. He told Armin of how she came back to Fritz, meek and humble. Serving him just as she once had, despite the fact that she held power that nothing in that world could've even hoped to match.
For thirteen years, she continued to serve him in all ways. Destroying his enemies, creating new lands, bearing his children. She did it all in the name of Eldia. She lived in the name of Eldia. And then, on that fateful day, she died in the name of Eldia.
But even then, her service continued. King Fritz forced his daughters to consume their mother, praying that it would allow her power to live on and it did. The creature that had given Ymir such power, it was a creature of Life. It continued on, reaching through the Paths and linking Ymir to her children. Ymir was both dead and not; forever between the real world and the afterlife. Alone. Continuing to serve Eldia through servicing her children.
It was she that crafted the bodies of the Titans; she that sculpted anew their bodies to heal them when the bearers of the Nine took injury. She toiled endlessly, alone, for two thousand years. Forever held from passing on by the Life giving creature that had saved her all of those years ago and now damned her to this never ending existence.
"But why?" asked Armin.
Eren paused in his tale, looking over at Armin who continued to stare at the river of liquid fire, though his mind was far away.
"She had so much power. She was unstoppable. And yet she continued to serve. Even after death. I just don't understand." Said Armin.
Eren didn't speak for a moment. The glow from the liquid fire was reflected in his eyes, as he watched it bubble and flow before them. So like, but also unlike, water.
"I encountered Ymir in the Paths, Armin. I touched her. Just as with Historia, I was able to make a connection. I saw her memory; I understood her somewhat in that brief moment. I saw into her mind; into her emotions."
Eren picked up a rock, weighing it in his hand. He tossed it into the river, hearing it land with a soft splash that sent up little drops of thick, orange goo.
"It started as fear. The Eldians had slaughtered her village; taking anyone that surrendered captive and killing anyone that deigned to resist them. Watching her father be murdered…this set a fear into Ymir. A deep rooted fear. And this was only increased by the cruelties she faced as a slave. But eventually, she reached her breaking point and she released those pigs, knowing that her masters would kill her for it."
"Ymir wanted to die?" asked Armin, looking over at Eren.
"At first, yes." Said Eren. "But when she was released, when she was being hunted for sport by her cruel masters, that changed. Humans…we live to survive, Armin. It's our most basic instinct. So for all that she made a decision that was going to end in her death, when it actually came upon her, she was filled with fear and regret. She didn't want to die. And this fear of death gripped her as she fell into contact with the Source of All Living Matter."
The scenery around them changed and Armin saw a girl falling into a deep pool. A white centipede like creature swam towards her and it extended its feelers towards the nape of her neck, merging with her spine in a bright flash of white.
"The Source isn't a thinking creature, Armin. It's just a mindless form of incredible power. A form of Life. Its only purpose had been to live. But in merging with Ymir, it was given new direction. It fed off of her fear, her desire to survive and it gave birth to Titan power as we know it."
The pool exploded as the girl's form expanded, growing several meters in height and bursting through the ground and out of the tree that contained the pool. The form reared up with a roar that shook the forest around it; its long blonde hair streaming behind a skeletal face. The mounted soldiers paused, staring up in wonder at the Titan.
"It gave Ymir the ultimate power. She could heal from any injury and fight off anything that attempted to harm her. And yet still, she came to serve Karl Fritz again. Out of fear. She thought she would be punished if she didn't."
"That doesn't' make any sense, Eren." Said Armin. "What could he possibly do to her?"
"Nothing. But she didn't know that, for sure. She wondered, what if he also had some hidden power? One stronger than hers? This seems ridiculous to us, based on what we know now but her fear ruled her. And Karl Fritz played on this; he didn't fully understand it but he saw that she was afraid and used that to control her."
Ymir's Titan knelt down, bowing its massive head until it came to rest on the ground before Karl Fritz' standing form. He was trembling and shaking but his fear faded as he saw the girl emerge from the nape of the monster's neck.
Come to me, Ymir.
And she did. And Karl Fritz smiled, for he saw the future of the Eldian nation.
"I still don't understand." said Armin. He looked on at the scene before them, of Ymir's soul standing in the land of Paths, building a colossal foot out of the boundless sand that made up the ground. "Why would she continue to serve after her death? Continue to aid the people that had done nothing but hurt her?"
"It was for her children." Said Eren. "Her daughters and then their daughters and then the descendants that came after them."
The scene shifted once again and Armin saw a titan that could have only been the Colossus Titan, or at least its precursor, marching towards a field of troops that were scrambling to retreat.
"The world hated Eldia, Armin. In her thirteen years of servitude, the Eldian nation had become the most powerful nation in the entire world. But with Ymir gone, the rest of the world was desperate to have its vengeance. And Ymir knew this would lead to the death of her daughters. And so she continued to help and serve them from the land of Paths, fueling them with energy and sculpting Titan bodies for them to defend themselves. Eventually, her daughters had children of their own, who would go on to have children of their own."
Armin and Eren were back in the land of Paths, staring up at the large tree of light that dominated the horizon. Ymir stood between them and they watched as the three branches of the tree split into nine smaller branches and then twenty seven, even smaller ones. The branches continued to multiply until a veritable web of light stood atop the tree's massive, pillar like trunk.
"I told you that she continued to serve out of fear. And in life, that's what it was. But afterwards…it was out of love, Armin. This is why Ymir's restriction persisted, even up to now. Ymir loved her children and she continued to love them as they died and more children came into the world. So thus, she continued to provide them with power for Eldia had made too many enemies to survive without the power of the Titans."
The scenes of the past vanished and Armin found himself standing on a vista of pure ice, with a coiling expanse of lights above him like he'd never seen before. He and Eren had both aged again, becoming the older teenagers that they were when they'd joined the Survey Corps.
"Ymir wanted to pass on; she had been shackled here for so many years, but her desire to protect her descendants forced her to remain here, bound, lest Eldia's enemies took their vengeance. And no matter how long she waited, there were always enemies."
"It's human nature." Said Armin, looking down, almost guilty. "There will always be conflict. Especially if one side has more power than the other."
Eren hummed, considering. Armin could tell he was as unmoved by the ice as he'd been by everything else they'd seen.
"King Fritz' vow was meant to be the end of Eldia." Said Eren. "He intended for his restriction to ensure that the nation of Eldia fell once and for all. But he was too much of a coward to see things through."
Armin looked over and saw that Eren's expression had changed into one of anger. He glared across the open plains of ice, though Armin knew his gaze was far beyond that.
"He was too soft hearted to slaughter all of us. And so he chose a half measure. He bound the Founding Titan to renouncing war; to never using its control to further Eldian's martial interests again. To remain locked up on Paradis, in the city of walls he created. To eventually be hunt down and murdered by the rest of the world for their transgressions."
Eren's fist clenched and Armin felt more than saw the world tremble around them.
"I reject King Fritz' proclamation. I refuse to allow my friends to die. And so, when I met Ymir in the land of Paths, when I touched her shoulders and we connected, I told her exactly what I was going to do."
I'm going to put an end to this world. You're not a slave. You're not a God. You're a human being with the right to choose. You are free.
"And so, Ymir chose. For the first time in over two thousand years, she made a choice. She chose to entrust me with the power of the Titans. I freed her from her chains of servitude, in granting her that choice and in so doing, I saw everything, Armin. I saw the past, the present, the future. It all became one continuous line in my head and I saw what I needed to do to change it."
Again, the world around them moved and Armin stood over the shoulder of a figure wearing a crown, dressed in royal garb. Eren stood at his side but he also saw another Eren that stood in front of the figure. This Eren was younger, his expression was full of life and rage, and he talked with the man, arguing back and forth. Armin could not understand the language that they both spoke.
"I influenced King Fritz; he would've locked Eldia up in mundane walls of stone and mortar but I convinced him otherwise. I convinced him to use Colossus Titans as the pillars, to hold them in stasis as a threat to the world. One that could never be realized, due to his vow renouncing war, but would ensure hundreds of years of peace for Eldia as the threat loomed over their enemies' heads. I leaned on his compassion and his weakness; King Fritz felt that Eldia should suffer but he didn't have the stomach to watch his people get massacred as the nations of the world invaded them. So I gave him the only solution that would stop such a thing."
Armin swallowed, his throat dry as he realized just what Eren had done. How deep this truly ran. He looked over into the eyes of the real Eren and saw emptiness staring back at him. A void where his friend's soul used to be.
"Eren…you. It was all you." Said Armin, stunned. "How…how much have you-?"
Eren raised his arm and touched Armin's face and Armin saw flashes of history before him.
He saw Eren standing behind an Eldian general, whispering into his ear.
He saw Eren directing Pure Titans across a battlefield, controlling them with the Founder's power.
He saw Eren standing behind his namesake, ordering the man to save Grisha's life and to give him his Attack Titan.
He saw Eren yelling at Grisha to murder the Reiss family until none remained alive.
He saw Eren order the Smiling Titan to move past a stunned Bertolt and into Shiganshina towards a house that lay crushed under a large chunk of stone.
The last scene caused Armin to break away, flinching backwards from his friend's hand. He stared in horror, realizing what it meant.
"Eren, no. You couldn't have."
"I did." Said Eren. "I could not allow myself to be the person that I was going to become. That version of me…he would not have been able to do what we needed. What Paradis needed. What you and MIkasa needed. And so I sent the Smiling Titan forward towards my home."
"You killed your mother." Armin said in pure disbelief. He stumbled backwards, falling to his haunches and only barely catching himself with his hands. He continued staring up at Eren. "You…Eren how could you?"
Eren's eyes were like two chips of green ice, as they stared into Armin's own.
"My mother was already dead, Armin. The other Eren, the Eren that I would've become under her influence. He would not have been able to make the decisions I have made. She had to die."
Eren's voice broke at that and Armin thought he saw a hint of life return to his eyes, but it was quickly whisked away.
"The Rumbling will continue, Armin. I will extinguish all life that resides outside of Paradis. The world was advancing; Titan power was becoming less and less relevant. Soon, even the threat of the Rumbling would have been immaterial to the world that was going to arise. And once that happened, everyone on the island would die. I could not let that happen."
Armin found himself swinging before he'd even registered that he'd chosen to punch Eren. His fist collided with his friend's cheek, sending Eren sprawling on all fours into the shallow water that they stood in. He and Eren were both adults and they stood ankle deep in a rolling sea that extended as far as the eye could see.
"How could you do this?!" yelled Armin, tears streaming down his face. "How could you be so heinously selfish? Do you know how many people you're killing? Do you know how many are going to die? How many HAVE died? Because of you?!"
Eren didn't move from where he now sat in the water. He lifted his hand to his face, touching the bruise on his cheek.
"Ouch." He said mildly.
The response only made Armin angrier and he pounced, landing on top of Eren and laying punch after punch into his face. Unlike their previous fight, Eren made no attempt to stop him and it was only when his knuckles were bloody and he was out of breath that Armin stopped. He stared down at Eren's face, which was covered in a litany of welts and bruises but his eyes hadn't changed at all and they stared back at Armin in the same, dead way that they had been.
He rolled off of his friend, laying down in the water beside him and panting, looking up at the sky above them. It was a perfect, picturesque blue.
"To answer your question." Responded Eren, from where he lay on his back in the water. "Right now, over half of the world has fallen to the Rumbling. By the time you reach me, eighty percent of humanity outside the walls will be dead. Beyond that, even I don't know what will happen. That's where the Founder's memory ends."
Armin stared up at the blue sky through eyes filled with tears. He put his hands to his face and he sobbed, taking in heaving gulps of air as he continued to cry.
He told himself that he was crying for the innocent people that were going to die but he knew that he was also crying for Eren. He was crying for the thing that Eren had now become; the thing that had consumed his friend.
It felt like he'd been crying for hours before he finally stopped, his sobs trailing off and his eyes running out of tears. He sat up, wiping at them with the heels of his hands. When he opened his eyes, it was to a field of flattened earth, covered in massive footprints. Armin was looking across land that had been tramped flat by the Rumbling.
"There's still time, Eren." Said Armin, looking out across the flattened earth and feeling his heart ache as he recognized destroyed buildings and infrastructure nestled in the craters. "You can stop this."
"You're right, I can." Said Eren. "But I won't. I will not stop until the rest of humanity is gone, Armin. It's the only way to get rid of Eldia's enemies once and for all. I will not leave a single nation untouched, allowed to grow and prosper until they grow large enough to threaten us, as all nations eventually do."
"That's insane, Eren!" cried out Armin. He swept his hand out at the field of debris that extended far into the distance. "This is insanity. This is cruelty of a kind unheard of by anything any of our ancestors ever did."
"And that's part of the problem." Responded Eren lowly. He folded his arms, staring dispassionately across the field of devastation. "Our ancestors always left outsiders alive to eventually threaten us, once they'd had time to lick their wounds. I will make no such mistake."
"We'll stop you." Said Armin. He gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to hit Eren again. It would serve no purpose. "We're going to stop you, no matter what it takes."
"Then do it." Said Eren simply. He spread his arms wide. "You have that freedom, Armin. I have granted it to you, to all Subjects of Ymir. I could have manipulated your bodies; put you all into slumber until the new world was ready for you. But I chose not to do so."
Eren clenched his fists and, for a brief second, Armin saw the spectre of the founding titan wrapped around the man.
"Human beings are beings of choice, Armin. I will not deny the people of Paradis your right to decide. If you choose to reject this world that I have prepared for you, then fight and do so with your own two hands."
Eren turned to face Armin and the long veins of Titan bonding ran down and under his eyes and chin.
"If you and the other Eldians want to reject my gift, then come to me. And kill me. It's the only way to end things. But know that, once I'm dead, so to is the power of the titans. Ymir's soul is gone; it vanished from the land of Paths once she surrendered her power to me. And I cannot remain as she did."
The Titan veins ran deeper down Eren's face and his eyes grew sunken.
"I have toiled for countless years in the land of Paths, Armin. Going backwards and forwards in time, influencing events, manipulating people and changing things. By activating the Rumbling, I will have achieved my purpose. I will not have the fear and regret that led Ymir's soul to remain here. And without a bonded soul, there is no direction for the Titan power. It will simply vanish from this world."
"Good." Said Armin bitterly. "It should never have existed in the first place."
"That may be so. But this was the world we were born into Armin, we did not get to make that choice." Said Eren. "All we can do is make choices with what the world has put in front of us. Which is what I did. And it is what you all will have to do."
Armin saw Eren's form begin to dissolve, the edges of it fading away into white particles.
"The next time we meet, you will be trying to kill me to stop me. And I will be trying to kill you, for standing in the way of the new world. It will be you or me, Armin."
Armin nodded, watching the form of his friend fade. Eren nodded back.
"This is goodbye."
"Goodbye, Eren Yeagar." Said Armin, watching as Eren's legs began to fade away, blowing into the wind.
"Armin, tell MIkasa that…"
Armin blinked, startled. Eren's voice had changed; for a brief moment, it had sounded like his old friend. Before he had become whatever he was now.
"Tell her to be happy; to live a long life. If she makes it through. And tell her that I'm sorry."
"You don't get to apologize." Said Armin angrily, looking away from Eren's fading form. "This is unforgiveable."
"I know." Said Eren simply. "But tell her for me anyway, please. Old friend."
Armin shut his eyes. Everything in him wanted to say no.
"I'll tell her." He said, instead.
Silence was his only response.
Armin opened his eyes and found himself laying in the dirt, amidst clouds of billowing steam and heat. A large collection of bones surrounded him and he knew that he was in the evaporating body of his Colossal Titan. His memories had returned; he'd spoken to Eren one last time on their journey to stop him.
Armin sat up, looking at his hand
"I remember now." Said Armin. "Eren…you…"
"Armin."
A voice broke him from his reverie and he turned to see a figure approaching through the steam. As more and more of it cleared, he saw that it was MIkasa and in her arms, she held the severed head of Eren Yeagar.
XXXXXXX
The finale chapter (139) of Attack on Titan was, in my humble opinion, terrible. I didn't like pretty much everything it revealed about Eren and his motivations; it robbed him of agency and overall cheapened his character. I didn't like the angle of Ymir falling in love with her abuser, the Mikasa freeing Ymir angle was poorly explained at best and utterly moronic at worst. Overall I just didn't like how it concluded things.
So I thought fuck it; let me try and do it better. This is intended to be a wholesale replacement of the conversation between Eren and Armin; one where it's clear Eren was the driving force behind the actions he chose to undertake. I thought about trying to write out the aftermath part of the finale as well, and perhaps I'll do that as a chapter 2, but my main issue was always with how the finale handled Eren for the most part. And this fulfilled that. Hope you enjoyed!