AN: That's it! I'm done! I can't pretend neutrality any more! Maybe not the next chapter, maybe not even the one after that. But Armin and Mikasa are going to die... horribly... I'm talking ways to one-up Jesus of Nazareth horrendous! Okay, maybe not that torturous but I will never forgive the Mong for stealing the Zeke and Grisha Paths reunion because his leaf-no-justsu was more powerful than a father's love. And I will not forgive Mikasa for single-handedly invalidating Eren the father, Historia the mother, and Ymir their child as characters so she could wrap the lice-ridden scarf and become a crazy bird lady. They're getting written out of the story and I can't even wait to do their Requiem deaths for real because I'm so sick of the unrealistic, anachronistic moralising from hardened teenage soldiers. They're going and they are going to be gone. Kaput. Vanquished. Finito. EMA fans, you have been warned.

Humongous Floch is coming. Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same...

CHAPTER VII

THE TOWER

"Your Titan, Eren... It's the greatest of all of them... existing outside of their cycle and the implications of what it means... Who else knows - ? Well, Historia must, that's a given."

"Yes. She knew three weeks after the memorial ceremony when I came to her. I told Mikasa a few days ago. Hange a couple of nights prior. You, just now."

"I see... I suppose... I haven't exactly been inspiring confidence, have I?"

"No."

"You could be gentler about it, you daffy!"

"Grow a pair."

"Oh, real mature, Eren. They'll be making you commander in no time with that blunt manner!"

"Now that you mention it..."

"You can't mean...? Oh, no..."

"Oh, yes."

"Hange's really lost it now. The lack of Titans has finally caught up to her."

"Are you going to tell that to her face?"

"Er... no. I don't want to become her next test subject."

"Too late for that. We'll start training your Colossus in earnest next week."

"Joy."

"Don't worry, Armin, you'll soon be the fourth most powerful man on the island."

"You, Floch, three's Levi, right? Political power does beat personal power..."

"No, it's Connie!"

"Right!" Armin announced, splashing as much water as he could with merely his hands into Eren's smiling face.

"You're dead!" Eren laughed as Armin tried to flee ineffectually through the breaking waves, Eren underarm sweeping arcs of sea water after him.

The Special Operations Squad all sat around a campfire under the stars, enjoying the grilled fish their Ackermanns had caught for their evening repast when Levi broke the comfortable silence.

"So, brat... I hear you might be more than my temporary superior soon..."

Jean, Sasha and Connie gaped at the proclamation, heads spinning back and forth from where their captain was clearly directing his eye-line. At Eren Jaeger.

"I would never dare abuse my authority over you, Captain. To get back at you for the courtroom initiation beat-down. If that's what you're afraid of..."

The trio tried not to cry out in fear at Eren's boldness but Sasha couldn't help but blurt: "Eren! You're going to be commander?!"

"He is." Hange said firmly. "While I've been prevaricating, Eren has been acting. That would be reason enough for me to hand over the reigns. But there are others."

"Like what?" Jean asked sourly; it looked like he'd lost his appetite.

"Well, for starters, Jean, my boy, Eren possesses knowledge of the world that we lack. His Titan memories are a veritable cornucopia of knowledge that will serve us well in the future. And thanks to Floch..." she noted looking over at the larger bonfire where the redhead in question was feting the new recruits with grand stories and dreams of a better tomorrow.

"...He's leveraged his popularity to new heights. Effectively making him the face of the military to the people. To stagnate now, in this brave new world, means death. Keith told us that his greatest act as commander was to hand his position to Erwin. Only regretting that it took him so long to realise it. I won't be guilty of the same narrow-minded pride. Eren is the only one who can bear this burden and the fact that he accepted so readily makes this old ticker of mine swell with pride." She declared with finality.

"Thank you, Hange." Eren nodded to her.

"Still... You only have eight years -" Jean continued but Mikasa cut across him.

"Only Commandant Shadis had a tenure longer than a decade since the Corps' foundation, Jean. Eren has the strength to lead us forward. Then Armin, then you, then Floch, then whoever comes next."

Jean seemed to have only heard the faint praise Mikasa had lavished on him as he looked into his tin cup bashfully.

"You're all correct on some level," Levi noted thoughtfully. "We have to capitalise on Eren's heroic status. I can fight, sure, but I'm no leader. In the interim: Armin, Jean and Floch can watch and learn how you operate, Eren. Yet that leads us to the most important caveat of all..."

"How and who will inherit the Titan powers we possess..." Eren agreed solemnly.

"Exactly." Levi said without remorse.

"Don't get too mushy on me, Captain." Eren snorted.

"No danger of that," Levi gibed back.

"It should be me." Armin declared. "I'll still have five years left. I'll save others more time and-"

"No-one will be inheriting anything from me to cut your own life-spans down. That'll be my first order as commander." Eren interrupted. "It's a moot point anyway without Titan serum."

"Ohhh...?"Levi inquired. "And how can you be so sure that such an eventuality won't need to come to pass?"

Hange fixed her remaining eye on Eren's gaze, remembering quite clearly what the Attack Titan's power represented. An end to such barbarity.

"Because in four to eight years this conflict will already be over. Everyone on this island will have perished or we will have done the same to our enemies."

There was only the crackling of wood on the blaze and the jump of embers among the circle of silent comrades.

Levi leant forward, steely gaze drilling into Eren's own hard eyes.

"There's always another way."

"Such as?"

"We use the Rumbling as a deterrent. Reiner might still believe you can use it and report as such to his masters."

"Nonsense. I would have used it at Shiganshina to avoid our near-defeat if that were the case. You're thinking of this situation as if you can control it, captain. Like this is a turf war in the Underground."

"When confronted with a knot, you untie it, you don't sever it all at once. Such an act gains us nothing."

"The entire weight of a false history is bearing down on us. They control a landmass a hundred-fold our own, with a population size that outstrips ours by the hundreds of millions."

"Why by the Walls are we advancing our own unique Titan resource based technology when they could overwhelm us with sheer manpower then?"

"To ensure our people have an idea of the future to look forward to. And so that we have an elite force for precision strikes."

"That's far more my cup of tea. Why could we not gain allies through the use of such an expeditionary force in our name?"

"What infrastructure do we have to conduct such gunboat diplomacy? We have no embassy, no voice, not even protections or rights as human beings. Karl Fritz left us isolated for a century so that we would be the scapegoat for all the world's ills regardless of whether his rule was overthrown or not. Your arguments play right back into the hands of the one who made us into caged birds in the first place."

"Could the Founder...?" Connie made his voice clear across the pair's discourse. He trailed off when met with the two impassive stares but braved forward regardless.

"Your father, Eren... The part of his journal copies that captivated me... That I've read the most... He said that the Founding Titan could not only rule over all other Titans... The Shifters included maybe... But that it could tunnel through and bridge the mountains. Cultivate wastelands... It sounded as if it could do anything. Anything it could imagine."

"Ymir Fritz wasn't defied without reason. Why do you ask, Connie?"

"There are millions of Colossal Titans within our Walls, yet there's probably an equal, perhaps even larger amount of Eldians living on the mainland. What if you used the Founder to turn them into Colossals-"

"Colossi." Hange corrected him.

"Colossi and had them destroy Marley's industrial sectors and weapon factories? Then have them come to the island and turn back? It could do that right? Maybe even turn my..."

Sasha half-hugged him. "Connie..." she whispered, dismayed.

"That's a plan so crazy it could almost work." Levi grunted.

"It's a valid alternative." Hange concurred.

"It's not." Jean piped up. Everyone looked to the tall, fair-haired lad.

"The world already despises us to the extent of trying to kill us indiscriminately and we've done nothing to them. The hatred would only grow more out of control once we become conquerors and destroyers on that scale again."

"Jean's right." said Eren. "As Historia told us as well. There can be no disunity between this battalion if we're going to survive the next decade. We are all of the Titans. We all share the same fate. I'm going to prepare us for total war. And we will win."

"I'll always support you, Eren." Armin proclaimed. "As you've done for me."

Eren smiled tightly at his first friend, gripping him on the shoulder in a brotherly fashion. He would remember those words.

"Well I might be starting to have second thoughts about making you commander, Eren..." Hange warned.

Eren nipped that concern in the bud.

"Too late for that, Hange. Darius has already made it official on paper. He wants to hold both the leash of the inexperienced Survey Corps and the untested monarchy. But he'll soon be laughing the other side of his face..."

"Zackly is not a man to trifle with, Eren." Levi reprimanded. "Erwin told me some pretty sick things about him. How he only cares for his own self-gratification. How he tortures some of the captive nobility to this day. Erwin would-"

Eren had had enough.

"Erwin could piss in a cup and you'd drink it gladly and heartily as if it were the finest white wine. While I could offer you a cup of the most sparkling and refreshing glacier water and you'd sneer and complain how queer it tastes."

Levi was furious for all of a moment before he laughed harshly and terribly. Sasha and Connie quailing at the unnatural sound.

"Touché." He grinned, trying to unnerve his junior. But Eren was not impressed. He'd been beaten seven ways to Sunday by the closest thing to a god in this world. He decided to take command right now.

"Floch, Historia and I are quite aware of Zackly's proclivities, Levi."

Now even Jean, Armin and Mikasa were afraid for Eren's life and its imminent end.

"Hange, Armin and Jean will be coming with me, Floch and the queen for talks with Pyxis and his high officers to get both parties of the military realigned before we move onto the dissolution of the Military Police's executive power. Levi, Mikasa, Sasha, Connie. You'll be transferred to the Cadet Corps as my representatives. Your mission will be to revolutionise their training for urban warfare and you'll be on standby until an expedition is drawn up. Understood?"

Levi sipped loudly and obnoxiously from his cup in his own unique manner. Impudence nothing new, as he'd made use of it against Commander Smith countless times. But he had also left all the decision-making up to Erwin as well. To break the chain-of-command now would be the rankest hypocrisy.

"Yes, Sir. I'll trust your judgement."

Mikasa approached him the following morning, after Floch had gladly taken the picture of the whole Corps assembled with the sea behind them. Armin had then offered an olive branch and taken the second, allowing Floch to take his position next to Eren.

"I think I should keep up the act of a territorial woman to take the heat off you and her majesty... Your relationship with her is a detriment to your safety. And hers. This is entirely my own suggestion of course, commander." Her own suggestion of course! Though to Eren this reeked of Armin's joking, bitter-sweet influence.

"Is this Armin's way of telling me obliquely how disappointed he is in me that I can't return your affections?"

"It's my way of saying that nothing is certain yet."

"This is set in sone, Mikasa. This is what I want. Nothing you say or do will change that."

You could have both, you know... Take her now or have her on the side. She'd have you, on the nearest rock.

Shut up, shut up, shut up!

What a weak, mewling thing you are... Fritz took five different harlots every day.

I'm not him. I'm free to choose and stay faithful to the only woman that none in this world will ever have.

Ah, so sweet... the little queen is your salvation and your damnation, Hunter...

"Eren? Please don't tune me out, I asked you what do you think?"

"I think it's unhealthy and unworthy of you. Before this day is out I could order you to be stationed with Jean or Floch."

"You wouldn't."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because you're kind. And you know there'll be no-one in this life I'll be closer to than you."

"Stop. We haven't even lived under the same roof for over a year. I'm tired of this same song and dance. I never asked you to follow me into the military. I never asked for your protection of my person to your own detriment. But I also recognise I've never been strong enough to put my foot down. In case you've forgotten, my orders will separate us on professional lines as well as personal. If you want to disobey then you can hand in your resignation and go live out your years however you see fit. As long as it does not involve sniffing after me like a ravening wolf. You're free to do so. Now return to your post or tear off that winged emblem, soldier."

"...I don't follow you because I'm compelled to. I do it because I choose to."

"Good. I care not for anyone's indulgence except my own, Mikasa. There are no strings or illusions binding either of us. Bilet with Sasha and make the next generation of soldiers believe they can affect great change. This is what only you can achieve." He neglected to mention the scorn he felt for both Ackermanns. Their skills and battle experience were unearned, merely the product of some twisted biological experiment during the heyday of the Eldian Empire. They were tools he would influence then discard. Nothing more.

He heard the soft thump of her salute, fist curled to rest on her breast, then her retreating footsteps as she left him to his thoughts.

The first of Eldia's perpetual-motion engine dirigibles hovered on a tether from Shiganshina, using powerful onboard binoculars to relay the green smoke flares that announced the Survey Corps' imminent return hours in advance.

Historia sat on an ornate throne, atop a gilded podium, atop an ostentatious stage as the crowds awaited their heroes' homecoming from the sea.

Among the top officials of the junta that flanked her, she found that her trust in them could only extend so far. Pyxis, Anka, Gustav and Rico made up the chief officers of the garrison. While Premier Darius, Nile and Roeg made up high command's jurisdiction over the MPs and, ostensibly, every branch of the military.

But she and her allies would not be their puppets for much longer. The people's voice was already seeing to that and while the old guard secreted themselves inside their residences and strongholds. She, Floch and Eren had won hearts and minds. They had slain the largest Titans yet on record, survived the impossible and saved their little world. An influx of troops from all three divisions swore their allegiances not to the premier but to a new trinity. But whether they were inspired by Forester, Jaeger or Reiss they called themselves Jaegerist. A people's militia that attracted old and young, civilian and soldier alike.

And today was the first day of the death throes of the old guard.

The crowds started to swell and murmur as the crystal effigy of the Attack Titan began to flow and warp like molten glass. It was becoming a smoother, wider, neater portal that admitted Hange, Levi and all their troops, plus steeds, unharmed and whole for the first homecoming expedition in the history of the Walls.

Eight of the heroes had dismounted to climb onto the lower stage while the gatehouse continued to be remoulded into an exact replica of the original portcullis and Maria's engraved likeness, even the colouring was changing to its original warm brick instead of the pearlescent grey. Even as the transfiguration was about to finish, Eren's Attack Titan flowed with it. Crouch-walking through the tunnel with the elements clinging to his hair and back before disconnecting and carrying a prize.

The Paradisians gasped at the site of their saviour in his Titan form, though more were off-set by the ugly lump that was the quadrupedal Titan he carried like a suitcase. Bound and muzzled in crystal restraints so thoroughly that its veined flesh squeezed against the bonds like sausage meat.

Historia stirred in her seat somewhat at witnessing the sixteen metre, emerald-eyed behemoth up close for the first time. As the people feted him with petal confetti and streamers she recalled seeing his Titan from atop Wall Rose when he'd been small enough to appear to fit into her hand. Or from the forest ridge-line Levi had placed her on, when Eren had experimented to activate the power he'd clearly now mastered. Or the third time when he'd faced her father atop Orvud and been mostly hidden among the steam.

The Titan's gaze found her, huffing steam from between that serrated jaw, then he crossed the square carefully, without eliciting a single vibration, set down his luggage and knelt in front of the stage. Hand on his heart. To more adulation from the common-folk, though Historia clearly heard Roeg scoff at the gesture and Zackly chuckle through his beard.

As Eren exited the nape without a single jet of steam and walked along his Titan's bowed head in his spotless Corpsman uniform and cloak, the Titan began to dissolve in bright orange and blue flame. Once more, the people were captivated at the static fireworks display and no gases obscured anyone's vision. Historia wondered at the chemistry that must be involved with such a process and how her Eren had elicited it compared to the ordinary decomposition phenomena.

He's grown so strong now...

Eren hopped down from the head, waving to the masses, then he called out.

"People of the Walls!" and a great hush descended over what must have been a tenth of their whole population crammed into Shiganshina. "Our enemies have fled the island! And this poor relative of ours is the last Pure Titan existing in our lands! Once the Marleyans are destroyed and the lands beyond wiped clean, this country will be the richest nation in the world. And we will all become human again."

There was a susurration of whispers at that last remark.

"Yes, human... Because we are still the last of humanity, beset by enemies on all sides. Yet they think us all monsters and devils, fit only to serve or die. I want all of you, each and every one of you, to live in freedom. Freedom from fear, from want. But I cannot defend your freedom and mine unless I am willing to take the freedom of others. So I ask all of you here: to all those who wish to live, lend me your strength. And I will be yours. The spear that drives into the heart of the enemy. If we lose, we die. But if we win, we live. The only way to win... IS TO FIGHT!"

It was like a volcanic eruption, such was the crowd's cheers. Eren bowed slightly to his audience and then knelt in turn before his queen.

Now how do I outdo that speech, buster? Historia huffed, glowering fondly down at Eren who gave her a saucy wink in return. She noted that the Titan markings that grooved under his eyes were already beginning to close, like little streams freezing over in winter.

The queen stood and once more quiet fell.

"Sons and daughters of Ymir. My brothers and sisters. What awaits us beyond the Walls and the ocean is the truest and most arduous test of our lives. We must show no mercy as we can expect none in return. We will carve a living story into memory forever. That is immortality. That we will be remembered and never forgotten as our ancestor's sins are to our enemies. But for a truer course, survival against annihilation. They wish the root of all evil to be real. Well I say we give them their worst nightmare made manifest; worse than they could ever imagine. They will not take our lives. They will not take our freedom. Because we are the Children of God! And all they will receive from us: is their own deaths!"

It was no secret that Historia was more loved than Eren on a personable level. As the noise of the crowd for his queen, greatly eclipsed his own.

Anka approached the queen with an opulent scabbard which she proffered and the queen drew her ceremonial estoc, a sword tempered from the finest, unbreakable ultra hard steel. As unalike from the ODM-Gear replaceable blades as a disposable shaving edge was against a chased silver cut-throat razor.

"Eren Jaeger. Our Sainted Hunter. You've travelled a long path fraught with danger. You've displayed courage and goodness, willing to lay down your life for your kin and country." She tapped both his shoulders with the flat of the blade. "By divine right, I herby knight you and raise you to the peerage. Face your enemies without fear, safeguard the helpless, never lie, even if it means your death. That is your oath."

She handed the sword back to Anka and proffered her hand. Eren gazed up at her: and this is so I'll remember it.

And he gave her the kiss of peace.

"You will be my Fryearl of Wall Maria. Lord Protector of Paradis and Commander of the Ritter der Rosen Brigade uniting the Garrison and the Survey Corps under one banner. Answerable only to one will: mine."

Zackly and Pyxis started at that. But they knew not to make a scene publicly unless they wanted to commit political suicide. They would confront the queen and her champion as soon as the festivities ended.

"Majesty... May I commit ninety-five percent of my new holdings and property to the poor and the needy?"

"It is yours to do with as you please, Lord Jaeger."

She felt a little unclean at the pantomime. Eren's lands would be tilled by the commons regardless of who owned it but more public schools, charity relief, technological sponsorship patronage and apprenticeship programmes being started instead of wasted on luxuries was always a major boon.

Historia raised the rest of the heroes to the landed gentry and while Hange, Levi, Mikasa and Armin gave all their rewards back to the public, Connie and Sasha only gave half, Jean a third and Floch, to much amusement, only gave away a fifth, bathing in the jeers and lapping up the disdain some of the crowd hurled at him like it was the coolest beverage.

"Your Grace, what was the meaning of that little farce?" Zackly demanded behind closed doors.

"Watch it, old man." Eren growled, an imposing dusky statue, looming behind the fairy queen all in white.

"A bodyguard has no right to speak to his superiors like that," Darius seethed. "You're a green boy who doesn't know the first thing about ruling a people or managing an economy. All you are is a ceremonial place-holder for the next Titan who comes along."

Historia pulled one of her long pale leather gloves off, marched up to Zackly and slapped him around the whiskers twice in quick succession. Much to Eren's delight and Zackly's astonishment.

"Eren has saved more lives than you've spent seconds degrading the fallen nobles, premier." she spat his title as if it were a curse.

"Wha- how...?" he paled the colour of bone.

"My agents informed me you have your pick of them at whichever prison you deign to visit - bi-weekly." Historia goaded, turning her back on him as a power-play and sauntering back to a smirking Eren. "You disposed of the evidence most assiduously but our men at the Industrial Works, free of all that pesky suppression quickly developed button-hole cameras to capture the aftermath and even some of your deplorable acts in progress. Your sadism has ruined you."

"Even if you showed them such embellishments! No-one will believe these new-fangled contraptions to be anything more than fabrica-"

Eren dashed his hopes like he would a Pure Titan's skull.

"All the newspapers within the Walls will soon be publishing the developed photos we took of the ocean and the coastline. Alongside caravans of pioneers who wish to cartographer the lands will be confirming photographical veracity with their own eyes within the next week. Though many in the Interior knew my father's face and already believed the authenticity of his family portrait. Check and mate, you bearded bastard."

Zackly tried one more time not to be taken under. "This will undermine your own credibility! Release those photos to the press and you'll have to watch as all you've built over the past fourteen months goes up in smoke! You wouldn't dare!"

"That's not what they're after, Darius." Dot Pyxis' creaky, alcoholic's voice announced as he: his high officers along with Hange, Armin, Jean and Floch entered the star chamber.

"It's over, old friend," the bald commander continued. "We made fine enough administrators and we weren't corrupt to the active detriment of the people. But the young rise to take the place of the old and we've both overstayed our welcome."

"Dot?! What do they have over you?!"

"Nothing, Darius. Half the Garrison put even my penchant for liquor and boozing on duty to shame. So I can hardly be held accountable for that. Captains Zoë, Kirschtein, Arlelt and Forester here have merely relayed some much needed common sense to me. We've been indolent this past year, you and I, that we cannot refute. Perhaps as token advisors we could be kept on but we're both well past retirement age and without realising it we've been grasping onto power long after it became unseemly and sordid."

Zackly's face twisted monstrously, gums showing, eyes popping. "They have nothing but a double-edged sword on me! I won't be revolved out as I did to those shit-bag nobles! Especially by two puppets who wouldn't even be alive if we had not been in their corners since the beginning!"

It was Hange who stepped forward. "You shot yourself in the foot the day of your victory over the old royal government, premiere. Erwin recounted in his memoir how both he and you put humanity second over your own desires. That wonderful, foolish man... He always did self-deprecate too much... Because I know there's not a shred of Erwin Smith's heroism and character that can be compared to your degeneracy!"

Zackly looked around wildly for a friendly face but all he received was scorn.

"Are you all insane?! I built this military's current administration from the ground up for over fifty years! I was trained by Carlo Pikale and the Titan's Son. If I go, then all those loyal to me will follow and your departments will be gutted of all the necessary bureaucracy that keeps the gears turning!"

"That's your problem, codger." Floch said dryly. "We need your paper-pushers as much as you needed the Royal Assembly and their Interior First Squad. The more that goes the better. The monarchs of Eldia and their high councillors have been stripped of their rightful power for far too long. Too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the soup as they say."

"You'll be furnished with all you need, Zackly." Hange tried to ameliorate. "A fine manor with a vineyard, servants to tend to you."

"A hall to die in! And men to bury me! I spit on your pity! I'm a soldier! And I'll die as one!" he slobbered, ripping at his overcoat's pockets.

"He's got a gun!" Jean warned.

Eren pulled Historia behind him, confident of his regenerative powers and terrified for her lack of them.

Zackly's double-barrelled pistol went off twice just as Floch sprint speared the old fart clean through a diamond-paned window.

The first round punched a hole in Pyxis's shoulder and spun him to the floor.

The second clipped Eren's left temple, then tumbled through his pre-frontal lobe in a geyser of blood and bone.

AN: Dun-dun-duuuuuuh! Darn... A perfectly good brain, wasted. My first obligatory cliff-hanger.