"What would you do in the future?" That was the question Leo asked everyone in the scout regiment at least once. He wasn't resting on his laurels but rather motivating them to keep struggling until the very end.
"Have I seen the world in your future? Have I seen the desert, the volcanos and the tundra?" Armin asks pondering how to answer.
"I don't remember and even if I would remember what you did it doesn't matter. I wake up every morning and I chose what to eat for breakfast, you wake up every day and chose what person you want to be."
"I guess you're right. I am me and not someone else, aren't I? The Armin in your future is the one who survived after eighty percent of the world got wiped out, maybe I can be a better person, bring people together. I want to travel, meet people from all corners of the world and learn something from them. Half a year ago I wanted to see the desert and now I learnt there are people living there."
"That's a noble goal but know this: Are you thinking about yourself when you say that or are you thinking of others. To save the world you had to kill your closest friends more than once, be selfish every now and then."
"It is better this way, isn't it? People always say you have to be smart and keep your wits around you in the world but I want to be myself. I don't want to take advantage of others and if that means people will take advantage of me then I'm fine with that. If it means I can be true to myself I'm fine with it all." Leo was about to leave but Armin stops him.
"Say Leo, I was the one who killed Eren after he started the rumbling, aren't I?"
"One of the two... no, one of the three. The second one was Mikasa and the third one was Eren. He wanted to commit suicide from the very beginning in order to make you heroes and live long happy lives free of outside world wanting to kill you all."
"So you came all the way from another world so that doesn't happen?"
"I guess it would have been even more personal to someone like you. I felt terrible though, Eren, someone who didn't knew who I saw, who never spoke to me died so that I could live. When the founding titan died I returned back to my human form inside the realm of the Path, I could have lived my life the same way as before but how could I seeing so much selflessness in one person. Armin! Eren loved life, I saw him cry and beg for forgiveness in front of the people he would kill in the future. He was never a murderer, a gun was placed in his hand and he was forced to fire in order to save everyone else. I had to repay such kindness."
"And Mikasa was the second person that killed Eren?"
"She was. I cannot even imagine how hard it must have been for her to do it but she was the only one who could."
"Mikasa always was the strongest of us all."
"It wasn't because of that, it was because she proved she was free. From the very start, it wasn't guilt, imprinting or something else that made her act the way she does. The fact she cares for Eren is out of her free will and that was the key to put the world to rest. In the hour of need she managed to let Eren go and showed the world the past isn't set in stone as we believe it to be. People can give up their grudges, enemies of today can be the allies of tomorrow, people aren't responsible for the wars that happened thousands of years into the past."
"Let's work together then. You because you feel grateful towards them and I because I want to."
"We will see this through." The two promise to help one another achieve the goal of seeing their close ones happy. It was a noble goal and the two should be proud for wanting to achieve it but it wasn't going to be easy.
Months passed since the modernisation of Eldia started and the destruction of the wall titans. Not one piece was moved on the world stage and everyone was waiting to see what would happen. Surprisingly the ones who made the first step were Marley. They offered Eldia as well as the rest of the world a chance to meet and discuss the future of the world rather than deciding it through the barrel of a gun or through the teeth of a titan. The meeting will take place in Liberio which was nominated a free city as well as demilitarised area. The very stage on which all the different dignitaries will speak shall be built in the internment zone so that it may be seen as the first step towards continental Eldians gaining the same rights as Marleyans.
"Are we going to participate in such a meeting?" Levi asks Erwin suspecting of that being a trap to capture Eren and take back control over the founding titan.
"We've played the same game with the rest of the world as well, haven't we? This whole diplomacy between nations is a giant game of risk. Your goal is always putting the opponent in a double choice situation where each outcome is just as bad as the other. It is only our turn to play the game. If Eldia doesn't participate it will be seen as a sign of not being willing to discuss on equal terms with the other nations, if we participate we might fall into a trap and lose Eren."
"So, what are we going to do then?"
"We double down on it and risk it all." Erwin says with a menacing and determined look on his face.
The boats were prepared and the first Eldian expedition outside the island departed. The wings of freedom on the side of the ship drew both awe and anger from those who saw them reaching Liberio. To most it was an unexpected sight, the island devils arrived to negotiate for world peace, for others it was the symbol of utter terror. Many Marleyan soldiers saw the very same symbol fly over the Tybur mansion the night the Warhammer was stolen. After a quick inspection to make sure there were no weapons on the people that got off the ship, the Eldians are finally allowed to enter Liberio.
"Keep your wits around... we're in enemy territory." Levi warns the scouts.
"What's that smell? I've never smelt something like that before! I want one of that, no two of those!" Sasha shouts ordering food at a stand on the side of the street.
"Try not to spend all your money in a single place. The city has thousands of stands that serve different types of food." A middle aged woman from Hizuru warns them. It was Kiyomi Azumabito, the ambassador for her nation.
"I've heard Eldia was in quite a poor state before making contact with the outer world. I hope inflation isn't hitting your country after changing currency.
"Oy, someone help Sasha, she's choking on these sausage bread-rolls!" Connie shouts bringing most of the scouts to him leaving the important people speak without being disturbed.
"Sasha, spit it out or you'll choke!"
"No!" She tries shouting choking on food.
"Hm... this desert tastes pretty good." Leo says baiting Sasha with more food. Looking at Leo eat something covered in a thick black sauce with colourful pieces of candy on top she forces the food down her throat by using only her neck muscles and lunges at Leo to try some of what he was eating.
"Are they like snakes? The island devils are monstrous."
"Alright, the fun is over, get in line and stick together. Erwin allowed us to visit the town until the meeting starts but only if you stick together and behave."
"We're gonna see the blimps right?" Hange says rushing ahead separating from the group.
"That imbecile!" Levi says angry with Hange. Before chasing the mentally lost captain, Levi warns both Leo and Eren. "Don't forget, Johnny and Billy, keep an eye out."
"Right captain!" The two answer before going after Hange. The two were to keep their identities a secret no matter what. Marley could be very well plotting on how to take Eren and Leo out.
"There are so many people living in only one city. Liberio must be twice, no three times the size of the capital!" Armin says amazed.
"We couldn't allow our population to grow before but soon, with all the help from our allies we'll have cities just as large as these." Eren says confidently. Unfortunately there were places like the internment zone, walled off and surrounded by guard towers.
"Who gave them the right to hold our people like this? Wasn't it enough that they tormented us with titans, they had to breed Eldians just to send them to Paradise?"
"If everything goes right we'll get them all safely to Eldia." Armin says reassuring the group.
"Will we? They don't think we're here to help them, they think we abandoned them while we went off to live on our Island away from the chaos of the outside world. Not only is it because of us, the Eldians that they suffer since they share our blood, but we also abandoned them on the continent as well. There are no worse people to them in this world than us."
"Is this the place where you lived Billy?"
"For a few days before escaping and faking myself as a Marleyan citizen. Well, I guess I was a Marleyan citizen since now I'm both a traitor and dead from their point of view, well, I'm only dead from their point of view but they'd also call me a traitor too."
Towards the end of the day the scouts take their seats at wait in front of a giant stage where armchairs were placed, one for each representative of each country that participates at the congress. Eldia and Marley's seats are right next to one another.
Willy Tybur is the first to address the spectators.
"Today we are here for peace! The nations of Marley and Eldia have fought for more than four hundred years. It all started with the titan civil war and it ended when the Tybur family allied with Marley to end the continental conflict between titan shifters. King Fritz fled the conflict to the island of Paradise where he created the walls which he filled with colossal titans and aimed them at the world if war was to ever reach his people again. As long as the threat of the walls titans remain the world is danger that the tyranny of Eldia will return."
"It is not. As we speak the military forces of Eldia are decommissioning the very walls which kept us secluded from the world for so long. Eldia had the courage to took its first step outside and it had the courage to remove the outer shell which acted as a cage more than a bulwark against titans."
"Yet you seek to bring all the continental Eldians back to your island therefore securing the titan shifters under your control. If not for the rumbling you are going to use the power of the shifters to reconquer your empire."
"We are not! We're Eldians and our queen is Historia Reiss not Fritz. The owner of the founding titan is not bound by the will of either the previous kings or those who created the Eldian empire. We will use the power of the founding titan to remove the transforming powers from all Eldians so that the threat of titans will be forever removed from the world!"
"Then do it right now!" A voice shouts from the public. Zeke stands out and walks towards the stage. "In my veins flows royal blood, I can activate the powers of the founding titan if I get in contact with Eren and together we can use that power to free the Eldians from their dark past."
"An Eldian and a Marleyan working together to remove the threat of titans forever! What do you say to this proposal? Let us make this the most memorable of days, let us rid the world of titans for once and for all!"
"We accept only under one condition. Eldia will keep the power of titans until our population will be adequate for it to defend itself without the shifters. Right now Eldia is an insect inside the mouth of a monster and the only reason the monster doesn't bite down is because we are poisonous. If Eldia gives up its titans now we lose our poison forever, if Marley promises us not to invade, it will only lose its credibility until people will forget that we are not devils."
"Are you accusing Marley of having evil intent?"
"You've plagued our people for one hundred years with titans. This very hand that I'm missing was torn off by the teeth of an abnormal. I've had my men trampled, eaten, broken in half and ripped to pieces not only by pure titans but by Marleyan Warriors as well. From the very beginning your intentions were to recapture the founding titan, stop the rumbling and keep the power of the titans for yourself until your military is strong enough to protect Marley's borders without needing titans. The difference between our nations is that one is a twig in the wind afraid to be blown away and the other is a giant tree that doesn't want to fall down because its branches are too heavy."
"And how would you know that?"
"Because the owner of the Warhammer titan has access to both the previous user's memories as well as having been part of Marley's military!"
"You say you aren't going to use the power of the titans aggressively, then why have my children been killed when he stole the Warhammer from my family?" Willy shouts pulling out a gun from his costume and shooting Erwin in the torso.
"There will be no peace, Marley will never sit at the same table as devils to discuss!"