Creation began on 02-18-21

Creation ended on 05-20-21

Attack on Titan

Enlightenment before Freedom: Relief

Watching from a distance as her friends and family mourned her passing, Brother Correction mourned the passing of Ymir Fritz, as well. It had been fifteen years since she obtained the power that the nation that became known as Eldia had dubbed the power of the Titans, two years longer than most, including Ymir herself, had expected her to live, but it was a life she had lived without regrets. In the years following her rise as a leader, Ymir had been a teacher to everyone after using her power to restore their ability to speak for themselves, teaching them how to build stronger structures, how to better refine their resources while amassing new ones, and upon her death after establishing peace and trade routes with Marley after having to explain that the man that had enslaved them in the past, Fritz, has been dead for a long time, she bestowed her power to her daughters and friends so that they could ensure that everyone had a future where there could be peace and prosperity for everyone.

Her life was reduced, but she doesn't want anyone else to let her examples be limited to just her life and the people she helped to rise from the ashes and end enslavement, he thought as he knew these friends and descendants of Ymir's would be able to ensure a good future for everyone looking to change their lives for the better. After this, I'd best look into the future, just to make sure there isn't anything that doesn't need to happen.

He stayed in the distance for another ten minutes before he left. He would make sure that Ymir would be okay in the next life, avoiding whatever mistakes or transgressions that were made by people by giving them options.

-x-

Ymir was in a vast place of wet sand around her feet and light in the sky. If this was the afterlife, it didn't feel so bad.

"Ymir Fritz," she heard that familiar and turned around to see her savior. "To be honest, you look better as a young woman than you did as a little girl. You turned out better than I had expected you to."

"Thank you, Brother Correction," Ymir greeted and praised. "Before I died, I just…tried to do right by the people, my friends, my daughters, their fathers…"

"That right there, though, you surprised me a little with having a child with three of your friends. What made you do that?"

"You think I was wrong to do that?"

"Heh, no… You love your daughters equally, just as you love your friends and their fathers equally. I'm merely curious as to why. Not many women would settle with three men, let alone commit to them…but you managed to do so, even up to the very end."

"I was trying to be diverse. Maria, Rose and Sina are different from each other, but still have to look out for one another. Their fathers have different traits, different strengths and weaknesses, compensated and overcome by the strengths and weaknesses of each other."

"Endurance, community, symbiosis, acceptance. Not bad, Ymir. Not bad at all. Are you ready to go to your next life?"

"Will it be anything like my previous one?"

"No. Sometimes, it's just better because it's set in a different time, in a different place, with different people. But if there are relationships in your past, friendships that were greater than others, then they can transcend time just as much as you can. Relationships…just like souls…can transcend lifetimes, too."

Brother Correction then extended his right hand to Ymir, and she accepted it, following him into a tree of light that appeared in front of them.

"For a time, I had considered staying around to make sure that they could still rely on me to help them," she told him, "but then decided that they need to be able to make moves of their own, on their own…while I hope for the best."

"In the end, all any of us should do when we leave those we love…is hope that they can move on and make good choices," he told her, leading her down an expansive forest terrain. "Have you seen the future every once in a while?"

"Yes, and I see a little boy that is…so full of anger and persistence. Yet, everyone that tries to help him stop being so angry at whoever or whatever he's so angry at…he pushes them away and is left alone. He wants something he feels he's been denied for so long, that he will do whatever he has to in order to get it, including things he knows he shouldn't do, simply because he doesn't believe there is any other way to obtain it without a fight."

"And does this future change for him?"

"Before I closed my eyes for the final time, I prayed for an absolution, a shift in the future for this boy…and the only one that ever came to pass for him is that someone comes to him before he can push others away and show him the fate that awaits him if he can't or won't stop being angry all the time. I see people like you, people that have morals, helping him to stop."

"You let anger consume you…and you lose sight of everything. You allow anger to take over…and you become a danger to everyone around you, a double-edged sword that brings only misery to yourself and others."

"If you can, Brother Correction, please…please, help him before it's too late for him."

"If he has the will to let go of his rage, it will never be too late to save him."

The light got brighter and brighter, obscuring Ymir's perception. And then she fell. She fell down somewhere deep, somewhere vast…

"…Ymir…Ymir…" She heard a voice call out to her. "Ymir…wake up."

-x-

"Wake up, Ymir," a blond-haired young woman told a brown-haired woman with freckles that was asleep.

"Huh…wha…" She mumbled as she opened her eyes and saw the blond-haired woman. "What is it? What's going on?"

"You overslept again, Ymir," the woman told her. "We promised Mikasa we'd be by for Dina's birthday party."

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

Ymir got up and went into the bathroom. Last night, she had the wildest dream by far. She had been this girl that was being chased around by men with arrows, saved by a dark stranger that had told her that she could become a source of hope for enslaved people, and became a giant of a woman like that old film she and Historia had seen the other night. Looking at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, Ymir sighed at how crazy her imagination could get every once in a while. It was only by mere luck that Historia was able to put up with her when they first met in college.

-x-

Despite it being a legion of seasons that came and went since the passing of Ymir Fritz, the people she left the future of the world to were able to get by with little to no conflict with other countries. Even the power of the Titans had seen little use over the ages, eventually becoming relics of the past, housed within the nine families that lived by a covenant that prohibited them from using the Titans for personal gain, instead only to protect the people, Eldian or otherwise, in the event of inevitable war, something which had yet to transpire. They were House Fritz, House Reiss, House Braun, House Leonhart, House Arlert, House Yeager, House Tybur, House Hoover and House Galliard, among the oldest families in the Eldian nation.

House Fritz held dominion over the Founding Titan, the guiding force behind the actions of all other Titans.

House Reiss kept hold of the Female Titan, the only member of the Nine Titans that carried the line of feminine power that balanced the world.

House Braun maintained the Armored Titan, the walking shield of the nation.

House Leonhart possessed the might of the Beast Titan, the primordial behemoth that linked human beings to the past before the rise of civilization.

House Arlert, due to a power struggle with House Hoover, took custody of the Colossal Titan, the tallest of the Nine Titans.

House Yeager, because of their longstanding oath to restraint, was tasked with holding the Attack Titan, the only Titan that was considered the most temperamental of the Nine Titans.

House Tybur, because of a similar oath of pacifism, was charged with the power of the War Hammer Titan, the so-called weapons master of the Eldian nation.

House Hoover, after losing the power struggle with House Arlert, had to hold custody of the Cart Titan, the workhorse of the Nine Titans because of its lack of strength that was compensated by its overwhelming endurance that was unmatched by the other Titans.

House Galliard, the least problematic of the nine houses, took ownership of the Jaw Titan, the nimblest member of the bunch that possessed more bite than any bark it could unleash.

And for the last eighty years, thought Brother Correction as he sat in a park overlooking a large, botanical garden comprised of trees that reached into the sky and all manner of wildflowers, reading a newspaper to learn about the current events, these nine families had worked to ensure peace and freedom from warfare and little loss of life. You'd be proud of them, Ymir Fritz. Of course, it's been longer than eighty years since your passing, but such is the nature of life, death and rebirth. May you find joy in your next life as you live again.

Under the guise of a man on vacation from one of the friendlier nations from far away, Brother Correction felt the familiar presence of Ymir Fritz's soul as it transcended time and space, being reincarnated within a new body, creating a new person nearby. He could've looked into the future to find her, but chose not to; as there was no trouble yet between Eldia and another nation that needed to be resolved, he didn't need to get involved in the troubles of others, instead needing to just take in the sights of this great country and immerse himself in the culture.

"…I heard he popped the question to this girl over dinner last night," he heard some strangers talking. "It's hard to believe they get along so well."

"He's a chef from a small diner and she's an apprentice hunter that enjoys new cuisine," said a woman to the man. "It'd be odd if they didn't have something in common. Did she say 'yes' or 'no' to him?"

"She actually said 'yes'."

He knew who they were talking about and smiled; even in this existence, there were two people from different backgrounds that met over food just like the couple-to-be.

"There are no strings made with rage and hatred to hold the people down," he expressed, looking up at the beautiful sky, "to make them fret over something serious…or to make them frown over a loss. Even though you had strings in the past, you tore free from them and grasped freedom, which you gave to the people that looked up to you. You had strings, Ymir, but now, just as you were before, you are free to live again. Free to live, free to be someone new."

Far from where he sat in the park, in a small hospital in a coastal town, a little girl was born no less than eight minutes ago.

"…Her name?" A male nurse asked the child's mother.

"Her name is…" She uttered, holding the newborn in her arms.

You get to decide for yourself

A/N: I don't really remember how far I had intended to take this story, but it's done right here. I hope y'all enjoy this in the future. Also, since it is a shift in how things in the past went down, I had freedom to decide the names of the other houses that held other members of the Nine Titans, and just made them based on families that already existed or could've possessed them; it was probably obvious to most of you that the Yeager family would get the Attack Titan, but didn't expect the Leonhart family to get the Beast Titan instead of the Female Titan. Well, stay active, stay healthy and stay creative, people. Peace out.