"We should use Queen Historia as a titan to make sure there will be no interference from Zeke when the founding titan is activated and the one who should be eaten is Leo!" A man with a bald head shouts at the meeting. The heads of state, the heads of the military and the scouts have gathered together to decide the next course of action.
"I must protest. If there is one man who must survive all this then that man is Leo. Without him and his actions Eldia would be in a far more terrible place then what it is now."
"So what are we going to do? Wait and hope he doesn't die from forty gunshots?"
"Yes. The other nations were warned of what happened in Liberio, Marley jumped head first into the water not checking for rock and now they are bleeding. We have allies who have been attacked that day by Marley. Eldia will become the centre of a possible war but we have enough allies to win it. Plus, further thanks to Leo we have the Cart titan on our side and for now we can consider Zeke at least a minus on Marley's side. Even without Zeke and Leo, we still have more titan shifters than them which gives us the tactical advantage."
"What if we use that girl inside the crystal under the capital? What was her name, Annie? She could be used so that queen Historia is able to transform into a titan without killing off Leo."
"Unfortunately we do not know how to open up her crystal without completely destroying her body along with it. The Warhammer titan can manipulate hardened titan flesh but not that of others. The attack titan is not strong enough to break through it and neither is the beast or the cart."
"Haven't we received news on how the Cart is the biggest danger to the Warhammer though?"
"It is but for different reasons. When that report was written Leo could transform only 3 times for a total of thirty minutes, Pieck can transform one hundred times per day and keep her titan form for months. Her jaw is also capable of biting through the Warhammer's reinforced skin. While she cannot eat the crystal nor break it, she can keep the Warhammer trapped inside it for long enough for the Jaws to arrive. The Jaws titan and possibly the armoured titan are the only ones capable of breaking it."
"And the Colossal titan?"
"Frankly I have no idea. I've never transformed yet and from field experience fighting the previous colossal titan twice, its destructive powers are so immense it would obliterate Annie in seconds if I transform. The hands of the Colossal titan however are too weak to break the crystal and its feet are so heavy it would crush it."
"So we are tied with our hands behind our back until something happens or until the enemy invades us?"
The answer nobody wanted to hear but also the only true answer was yes. Eldia couldn't do anything until Leo would wake up, Marley invaded or a third party interacts with them. If Leo would wake up the forces of the Attack, Colossal, Cart and Warhammer titan would be able to invade Marley and defeat the other two titan shifters leaving the continental sized nation defenceless against Eldia and its allies. If Marley attacks then a proper war would start and all the world's forces would concentrate in one spot, Paradise island.
The meeting was about to end but suddenly two men burst into the room.
"I want to negotiate on behalf of Marley!" It was Niccolo and a guard who was trying to stop him.
"Are you an ambassador or Marley? A diplomat or a general?"
"I am a chef sir."
"A chef? Then why are you interrupting us?"
"Because I don't want to see my nation fall twice! A few days ago I was taken hostage on a Marleyan ship and brought here, yesterday I fought alongside Eldians against my brethren! Marley has fallen once when we accepted the Tybur's propaganda and started imprisoning and killing Eldians, I will not have Marley fall again at the hands of warmongers."
"That's very noble of you but you hold no power to negotiate."
"No I don't, but you have! There is still one last chance to salvage all this. Ask Marley to send to Paradise all willing Eldians that are kept in the internment zones. Marley is a huge nation, its population dwarfs that of Eldia several times over. Even if Eldians are a minority in Marley, if the majority of them return to Paradise island then Eldia's population will start matching that of small nations. Ask Marley's allies and Eldia's allies to help the island reconstruction project instead of going to war. Make use of their men, materials and power to build up the island without going to war. Isn't this what everyone should want? Isn't this Leo's dream?"
"Using the continental Eldians to stop the war by diverting time and resources elsewhere."
"This would help us jump steps in Leo's plan as well as keeping the peace. I vote in favour of it."
"Eldia would be destroyed even if we win the war against Marley if we're invaded. It is better to fight the enemy another day. I vote for diplomacy as well." Voices start rising and soon the room is filled with chatter. In the end it was decided, Eldia will attempt diplomacy once again with Marley. Where that will happen however and how is a lot different from Marley's death trap. Instead of meeting on land both nations will meet on a rocky beach in the south east of Eldia.
The location was chosen because of its jagged coast line which makes landing impossible. Marley will have its diplomats speak from the top of a ship while Eldia will have its diplomats speak from behind a reinforced bunker on top of a hill, both using voice amplifiers like those used by the mid-easter alliance.
While the world outside was moving at neck breaking speeds the world inside Leo's head was stagnant. Three days after his injuries he woke up in this desert like world which seemed so familiar to him. The realm of the paths which Eren used to give Leo his task opened up once more around him.
"I'm back here." Leo is shocked. "I thought that but I could hear it out loud." He looks around, somehow his thoughts were being repeated out loud. In the distance he sees a lone figure sitting with its back towards Leo, dangling off a small platform made of sand.
"Do you think I ever forgot you?" Leo says getting closer. "You came to me in the desert when I was dying of thirst and hunger and saved me. Don't think for a second I have forgot about you Ymir. I promised, didn't I? I will find a way, I swear, I'll make you happy too." Ymir doesn't move instead she draws a face in the sand.
"Are you jealous? You're so childish you know... but that's fine. I'm not talking to old Ymir am I? I'm talking with Ymir one day before she became a slave, not to kind Fritz but to life." Leo gets close to the sand platform and sits with his back towards Ymir knowing she doesn't want him to look at her face.
"You're like a mother to me you know. It's weird to say that to a child isn't it? It's because of you that I'm Eldian, it is because of you that I am the Warhammer titan." Leo sits in silence for a second no longer happy with the deal he made in the desert when Ymir first saved his life.
"I've changed too. First I thought I would be happy seeing other people happy but I've grown, I've changed. I have friends I want to sit down and laugh with, I have dreams, I have responsibilities, I even have people that care about me and who I care about too. Still... I told you that I'll be by your side to keep you company so I'll come when the time arrives..." Leo was ready to be sent back into the world of the living again reborn through Ymir's powers. Just as his body was turning to sand however he realised something and while crumbling away he rushed in front of Ymir and grabbed her.
"No! I will not come here by my own accord. When you are sad and lonely, call out to me!" With those words Leo leaves the real of the paths and his consciousness is sent back to his body.
"Will you understand what I asked of you Ymir? I gave you what no one ever wanted to give you before. You can chose when you want me by your side, just call out to me."
Back in the waking world Leo's blood finally starts flowing again through his body, spewing out of his wound, mouth, eyes, ears and nose. He starts coughing and chocking on the blood as his body starts finally healing. He wakes up out of his coma and slowly starts moving his limbs before a foul odour reaches him. Pieck didn't left his room in four days if not only to go to the bathroom.
"You finally woke up!" Pieck says amazed at Leo's recovery.
"Get out. You stink! Wash your hair, I can see the grease from here!" An unexpected reaction to what Pieck hoped would have been considered an act of affection.
"Somebody come carry me out of this bed. I need a bath too." He says realising how his body was all slimy too. Knowing all to well how painful it would be, Leo just forced his body to move and all his joins and muscles tore out instantly feeling as if someone cut off all his tendons at once. He rolls out of bed and pulls himself together before announcing his recovery and heading for a bath and clean clothes.
"I don't ever want to die again." Leo says thinking about his Warhammer powers. Did they returned to him? His first idea was to create some crystal around his arm but he felt nothing. His powers wouldn't activate and when he finally got a chance to get out and try them out they were gone. He felt the exact same thing as before acquiring the Warhammer titan. Leo downgraded to a pure titan shifter who however had his healing factor in use. As soon as he got outside however he is assailed first by medics then by the scouts. He was just as emaciated as before only now his muscles were tearing and ripping apart with every step. The doctors insisted for him to return to bed and the scouts insisted on making him a visit. They have a discussion over two bowls of soup and bread, the doctors knew Sasha would be there so they prepared in advance some additional food as well as they changed the bed sheets and everything.
What first surprised Leo, something which he didn't noticed in the beginning, was that his room was large enough to accommodate all the scouts inside and then some. He was also alone and the bed was large enough for two person. It was one of the highest end rooms available, meant only for army generals actually. The nobility which transitioned into being 'investors into Eldia's future' by donating seventy percent of all they had, are still rich enough to have doctors come to their house and not vice-versa. Garrison generals would still have their homes and they would be important enough for doctors to visit them so the only people who could stay in those rooms are either diplomats from far away lands, Erwin as the scout commander and travelling merchants at most. The 'important person' treatment was quite nice though.
"How did it felt dying?" Connie asks first.
"Painful, you don't go out immediately, if you're lucky your brain is hit first. If you're unlucky you get shot in the lungs and choke to death, if you're really unlucky you get shot in an artery and bleed to death and if you're me you experience all of the above. I felt motionless and my body simply wouldn't obey me. I felt hopeless."
"Why did you jumped in front of the machine-guns then?"
"Didn't commander Erwin used to say, 'people that will live after us will give reason to our deaths'? Maybe half of me wanted to believe I was immortal, maybe the other half wanted to be a hero. Both half didn't wanted to die."
"I used two type of shampoo, are you happy now?" Pieck walks in not knowing everyone was inside. It wasn't that she was dressed any differently than before, besides a change of clothing but the unusually natural way she asked which really made everyone inside question the nature of their relationship more.
"So we were right." "She is kind of cute with her hair like that." "Jeanne, you're breaking our inner monologue conversation, focus on being shocked."
"Well, now that you're awake things will most likely change faster. Right now Eldia is discussing with Marley the terms on which all the continental Eldians will be returned to Paradise. If this move succeeds our allies promised to offer us aid in building new towns, infrastructure and farms for the growing population as a way to utilise all the founds and materials spent on what we believed was an incoming war.
"We believed? Wasn't Marley on our doorsteps pointing their guns at us?"
"That's the weird thing, they are planning on actually doing it. Spies are talking about large numbers of Eldians gathering in Liberio and other coastal cities to embark and join Eldia. If this goes through we can get rid of the titan powers using the founding titan, even you guys might be able to live long lives after this!" Armin says filled with enthusiasm.
"Living long lives eh?" Leo says falling back in his bead. Sasha taking the opportunity to jump and grab his food. "That will be a lot to think about if things actually go our way."