When I grow up I want to be authoritative.

Nobody really knew after how long Elizabeth calmed down. It could have been a few seconds or a few minutes, time seemed to have stopped running. The only thing that could be heard in the seaplane was the noise of the engines and piloting, flanked by the faintest of their breaths.

They were all exhausted.

Levi shook her hand, sitting next to each other in religious silence, commemorating for a few moments all the deaths that have occurred up to that moment.

Elizabeth rested her head, very calmly, on the wall behind her head, looking up at the ceiling without really seeing it. Her eyes flushed from tears and her wet face began to dry as her breathing returned steady despite the pain in her chest and guts, silently begging Hange to watch over them.

It was selfish of her, she thought, but she needed her. Now more than ever, she was the only person she could ask for such a thing.

"When we were in the underground did you ever think we would get that high?" she asked her husband casually, also attracting the attention of their companions.

Levi looked at her. For a moment he thought he saw that little girl who was hiding on the roof to look at the stars, bewitched, fascinated, eager to touch the sky with her own hands.

And he immediately understood that she was not referring to their grades in the slightest, but to a physical, palpable height. That distance they had traveled vertically from the shallows to, literally, the sky; that sky they couldn't even see before. They were flying and they owed this only to their fallen comrades, starting with Erwin. Levi just smiled at her and squeezed her hand more knowing that she didn't really need an answer.

And it was true, she didn't expect it at all. The moment Erwin had taken him away from the underground he would never have believed he could climb so high, it seemed pure and mere utopia, something that was only found in those particularly fanciful tales, but it was true. How many kilometers they had traveled and how far they had come up to that moment.

They were flying and they were doing it towards freedom.

"Let's discuss our plan." Armin murmured, looking at the couple with an air of apology. Levi ignored that look, refraining from snorting as Elizabeth smiled at him, shaking her head to let him know she didn't need an apology. They would have time later to mourn the fallen but now they had other things to do. "Captain, Pieck, is this what the Founding Titan that you two had saw looked like?"

"Yes. Though it's not as if I got a good look at it. Basically it's a stupidly big pile of moving bones like a bug." the second answered, looking at Armin's drawing.

"But we can't be sure, considering what the war Hammer Titan did." Levi then added, now not even more sure of what they knew about titans.

"Even if we don't, we could always bloom the whole thing away just like the way you flattened Liberio's navy port and left nothing behind. Your Colossal Titan could do it."

"True." Armin answered her. "That would be the most effective way to do it but only if we've tried and failed to have a dialogue with Eren. Only if that's the only way to left to stop him. "

"I'm fine with us having a last resort but Eren's controlling the Foudning Titan though Zeke, right? Can't we stop the Rumbling if we just went and killed Zeke?"

Elizabeth smiled faintly, amused by Levi's tenacity and desire to kill Zeke greater than that of stopping Eren. It was really funny.

"you know, you might be right." Armin answered thinking about it for a while.

"I'm not certain but that's what Hange predicted. We don't know Zeke's location either... " Elizabeth commented bringing one leg to her chest, then placing her free arm, and bandaged by her, on her knee. Every now and then she still felt it hurt but only now that she had stopped she was really paying attention. The impact had been strong and her skin was also a little burned but she was so focused on what was happening, and on her own head injury as well as Levi's, that she hadn't even paid attention to her arm.

"Then we just have to find that furry bastard inside those bones. I'll stop Zeke. Just… lend me your strength."

Levi turned to look at Elizabeth, pretending that it was the role she was secretly playing. Captain and General. But in reality it was just a husband who was asking his wife to endure at least that last madness. Elizabeth hesitated, studying firmly those deep gray irises that were silently praying her. Officially she was the one who had to have the last word, even if against her own will.

"Yes. I won't stop you."

Jean was the only one who understood the Captain's gesture in his entirety and was deeply impressed by it. Of the group, he was the only one who tried to understand what Eren's real intentions were and he was also beginning to understand how Reiner felt. He had killed his comrades for what they believed to be good. No one could assure them they were doing the right thing, they could only move on. Three factions, all three convinced that they are right.

Elizabeth was very impressed to hear him try to really justify Reiner's actions for the first time. And so was the owner of the Armored Titan. The amazement on his face, mixed with gratitude, was not hard to spot, despite his feelings of guilt tormenting him.

None of them were worthy of redemption for their sins, for all the lives they had taken from the world.

And they finally managed to understand why it was all happening. Because Eren, although he could control their actions, hadn't prevented him from acting as they pleased.

Eren wanted to be stopped, he wanted to give them the freedom to make their own choices without imposing anything.

A utopian ideal of freedom that had given Eren a desire for a society full of this essence. There was a lot of hatred in the world and the wars continued unabated one after the other, when for one reason and when for another.

This idea was confirmed by Eren himself.

A loud explosion behind them found them in what looked like a deserted land, devoid of anything but them.

"He hear us or something…?" Levi asked, noticing the, by no means accidental, coincidence that they were now there just as they were talking about Eren. With the power that his mind wielded, the young man had decided to communicate with them, perhaps also driven by the same affection he continued to feel for them.

"Eren! Please listen to us!" Armin suddenly shouted. "You have done enough! I'm sure that no one is going to put a hand on Paradis for centuries to come now! That's just how much fear and destruction you've bought! You can still agree to a non-aggression pact and end this, you don't have to kill anyone else! The island is fine now! We were ring, we're the ones who forced you to this point…!"

"Eren we'll figure out the rest from here so.. you don't have to keep slaughtering people for our sake!"

"Eren I hated you over what happened to Sasha but I know that you must have been as sad as the rest of us, right?! And yet… I never even considered what it must've been like to be in your position!"

Armin's cries were joined by those of Jean and Connie while Mikasa, however, did not, opting for a more calm tone. She was desperate and you could see it in her face, she didn't want to waste the opportunity to be able to talk to him.

"I want to share the burden on your sins with you. We're all guilty of the same sins. So please… stop avoiding us like this. Come back to us."

"Hear that Eren?" added Levi, who more than anyone knew what it meant to lose a loved one. He had been lucky, because for particular circumstances he still had her next to him but the mere memory created a grip in his chest that didn't make him breathe, "Stop now and I'll let you off with an ass kicking... Hey why don't you speak up for a challenge?!"

"The Rumbling will not stop. I won't let fate decide Paradis' future. I will keep moving forward."

Eren's voice echoed in their minds, as calm as it had become in recent years. He almost missed hearing him scream and rant about his thirst for revenge for his mother's death, but that little Eren was gone.

It was the Captain himself who noticed a figure in the distance that turned out to be Eren, but not the grown one, that child with a sad look and less hurt by the world. A look that had only suffered the death of his mother and still did not know the suffering that he would have endured from that moment on.

But even the pleas of his companions to trust and not to push them away had no effect.

"In order to gain my own freedom I will take freedom away from the world. But I won't take anything from any of you. You are all free. You have the freedom to defend the world's freedom and I have the freedom to continue moving forward. So, as long as we both have our unbreakable conviction, we will collide. There's only one thing for us to do. Fight."

"Then why did you call us here?" Armin asked, now speechless.

"So I could speak to you and tell you there's no need for us to speak. If you want to stop me then try to stop me from taking another breath."

And their consciousness returned exactly to where they were before, each in their own place on the seaplane.

"Well it looks like my prediction was right..." Reiner commented calmly, indulging everyone's desperation. His gaze fell a few moments on the one person with whom he had never really talked or fought. He didn't know her at all except for what was said about her around.

He knew that she was strong and reckless, he knew that she cared for her companions more than she did for her own life, but he knew nothing else. He did not know her true strength and her true ability and the only things he had got to see with his own eyes were her intelligence, her anger and her determination. And just before, her pain.

"There go any hopes for negotiations, I guess. Now what, Commander? " Levi asked Armin, trusting that decision made in Shiganshina five years earlier.

"Eren has taken on all the hatred that was poured out on the island even by the Eldians themselves. And now he wants to return it." Elizabeth commented, turning her gaze to the outside of the seaplane.

They were almost there and, in the distance, the mainland could already be seen.

"It's really ugly." Elizabeth commented seeing the titan with Eren's face reduced to a pile of bones by the door.

"Glad to see you came back to yourself." Connie commented smiling at her. Seeing her ironic was a charge of adrenaline and courage for everyone.

"Just a little." she replied lightly. "You need me."

"How true. We would be lost without you." Jean added, joining his friend to smile, too, at Elizabeth. It had been devastating to see her in those conditions, they had never seen her collapse like that but it had reminded him that she too was human and that so many things were happening to her that not even she could handle them all. Each of them suffered in their own way but they had to put their feelings aside in that moment irony was, for Elizabeth, the way to do it.

"Don't lose your patience." Levi exclaimed as he approached his wife as he adjusted the strap to the chest of his maneuvering device better. If his fingers hadn't been broken it would have been a lot easier but he could have lost them and, at least for that, he was grateful.

"I can't lose what I don't have." Elizabeth answered causing a small grin in her husband.

Onyankopon, from his pilot station, informed them of the lack of fuel as well as of the engine failure, forcing them to jump to try, himself, an emergency landing. He couldn't risk losing altitude with them inside and killing them. He glided towards the Titan so that they could jump on it.

An abrupt movement of the piloting of Onyankopon made them notice, beforehand that they were about to be hit by a terribly familiar bombing.

"There you are bastard beast!" Levi exclaimed, narrowing his eyes angrily at the sight of the Beast Titan and his hands itching to kill him.

"Don't lose your patience." Elizabeth commented with an amused grin on her face, flanked by the same mischievous tone that she had never dared to use in public. She was provoking him.

Levi replied with the same grin, challenging her. "I can't lose what I don't have."

"We saved ourselves the trouble of looking for him." Elizabeth added nonchalantly crossing her arms over her chest and then raising an eyebrow in the direction of the Titan in question. "Asshole…"

"You are of an unprecedented sweetness." Reiner smiled, addressing Elizabeth, for the first time, with words. He had never had a real conversation with her but it seemed stimulating to do so, one of those people you could talk to about anything. They were all comfortable with her and, despite her rank, she treated them not as brats but as companions. And all that respect was returned by him too, now.

"True?" Elizabeth answered turning to him and smiling at him.

"We will do everything to stop the Rumbling!" Armin concluded before everyone jumped in ready to fight.

The group plunged into free fall, aided by the hooks of their maneuvering devices, with the light of Reiner's transformation into a Titan illuminating their faces.

Levi was furious. He couldn't wait to get his hands on Zeke, and he didn't care much about having numerous injuries and being exhausted. He wanted to kill him.

Never in his life had he really wanted to take someone's life, it was something he had to do for one reason or another but this time it was different. This time he longed for his death. It was no longer just for that promise made to Erwin five years ago but on principle, he always kept his promises.

He had promised to protect Elizabeth and he had always done so, he had promised to take her to see the sea and they had seen it. He had promised to kill Zeke and he would even if he had to lose those fingers completely. Or the legs.

Elizabeth felt the knot in her stomach subside as her adrenaline took hold of her energies, giving her light shocks throughout her body.

She was ready to fight and determined to help her husband.

That horrible titan made of bones, however, turned out to be empty. Eren wasn't there.

None of them wanted to kill him, they no longer believed they could do it and were discouraged. Each step forward only led to three more steps back and they just wanted that story to end. It was more likely that they would be the ones to make up for the Rumbling. And if there was one thing Elizabeth hated was seeing them feel bad.

She didn't even want to be so hard but she couldn't do otherwise.

"I don't care if you don't want to do it or if you think you can't!" Elizabeth yelled with a serious look and an angry tone, that look they had rarely really seen on her face. But her two-tone her eyes were directed primarily at one person, the one that she, most of all, could understand. Armin stared at her for a moment that seemed endless until he understood what her real intentions were. "You have been given orders and you have to carry them out. And if you dare to come back with even a scratch, I swear I'll take your arms off!"

"Yes!"

Immediately she began to breathe a lighter air, at least emotionally. They all had a role to play and the same desire to see the light at the end of the tunnel. They would not die there, it was not their time and she managed to instill in him that determination that she missed for a moment. What worried her most was Mikasa.

It was cruel to force her to see the death of the person she loved, especially if she was the one who had to hold the blade that would kill him.

"We're blowing this place apart in one minute from now! Work with the Cart Titan to get away! Eren expects this attack from me! I can't imagine this killing him but blowing all these bones to piece might help us figure out where Eren and Zeke are!" Armin exclaimed, proudly supporting the determined gaze of what he still believed to be the Vice Captain.

The heat was unbearable, the exhaustion too much and the tension skyrocketing but Elizabeth didn't want to think about any of this. Her priority was her boys, the battle was only in the background.

"Erwin would be proud of you." she murmured close enough for him to hear, receiving a smile in return. One of those who lightened the soul. Armin, despite everything, had always remained the same with that curious and inquiring look that had caught their attention. He had managed to save himself from all that suffering.

"You too."

Suddenly Armin was carried away by another titan, under the astonished gaze of all. No one had seen the creature approach them and now they had another problem on their hands.

Elizabeth snorted, clicking her tongue on her palate and holding back the urge to scream.

"What the fuck..."

But the titan was not alone. Other titans began to attack them, with the appearance of pure ones but decidedly more skilled and agile. Something even more than an anomalous titan; they were not only fast but they knew how to evaluate the situation and understand how to move.

Pieck explained to them that these are those who were the Nine Titans in the past and she, before being stopped, threw herself towards the neck of the Titan to be able to connect the explosive and detonate that part to decapitate him.

The fight began to get much more challenging, those titans were strong and intelligent, skilled, and they knew how to protect themselves. Their blades were of little use except to hurt them.

The most impressive to see was the Colossal Titan, of the now dead Berthold, crushing the Colossal.

"If I ever had to tell this thing, I wouldn't even know how to do it..." Elizabeth commented as she stepped to the side of a titan and sliced through its side. Connie immediately entered her field of vision, caught in the Titan's bones, dangling upside down. But, at the moment, she had a bigger problem.

Levi launched an assault, despite his numerous wounds and weakness that made his whole body ache, so much so that he was hit hard making him spit blood. But also causing a blind anger from his wife.

"You are the first one who, if not come back, I will kill without mercy."

Elizabeth's not-so-veiled threat came loud and clear to the Captain, who grinned at her in response.

"It won't be enough for you to get rid of me."

Elizabeth resumed taking care of the titan, managing to kill one after several blows and two blades completely gone, while Levi threw himself to the rescue of Connie, but decided, unconsciously, to pass through the mouth of the titan who was trying to eat the younger.

In a rush, the blonde managed to push him out, unharmed, from the titan's mouth, and onto Connie in order to help him, before the creature closed it with her inside.

"Elizabeth!" both Levi and Connie screamed in unison, with mixed feelings inside. The first was furious and scared at the idea of losing his wife again, while the second felt guilty for both spouses. If it hadn't been for Elizabeth, certainly the titan would have hurt the Captain, even making him lose the use of his legs, but she had ended up eaten.

Blood began to flow from the creature's muzzle, while a gash opened violently and Elizabeth managed to get out, wet and dirty.

"Disgusting. Your breath stinks!"

And their luck was the arrival of Annie, together with Gabi, on the back of Falco transformed into a Titan.

Pieck's explosive was still around the Titan's scruff but she had failed to detonate it, impaled by the Hammer Titan and blocked.

Titans against Titans. And against humans.

It was no longer good versus evil, it was no longer possible to understand what was the right and wrong thing to do. It had become a trivial struggle for supremacy combined with the desire for revenge for past lives.

And they had to decide between saving Armin or helping Pieck.

"We're doing both." Elizabeth affirmed with confidence and determination, turning her gaze first to where Armin was, fortunately unharmed or he would have turned into a Titan, and then to Pieck who fought with all her strength.

"One group will rescue Armin. We can use the Colossal Titan's explosion." Levi added, completing the sentence and sensing his wife's plan on the fly. "The other will go after Eren an attack the nape at the same time… we'll split into two teams and do it simultaneously."

Mikasa was angry and they could see it perfectly, but she was also unconscious when it came to Eren. She was willing to do anything to bring him back and she still clung to the little hope of being able to do it, but now, as much as she hurt, she could no longer delude herself.

"We're not in a place where we can be concerned about Eren any longer. No… we never were to begin with." Levi then concluded, directing more to her.

"Maybe we could have done more to prevent this from happening." Elizabeth commented, more to herself than to the others, so much so that she didn't even realize she had said it aloud. Her gaze turned to that Titan with Eren's blank expression. It was true that she had been tracing his anger problems for so long, but she preferred to hear him scream than that empty, apparently, emotionless gaze.

"There was a whole lot I wanted to tell that idiot, but... dammit."

Levi's tone, for the first time in his life, came out with a tone of resentment. It was true, he too felt that they could have done more. So much had happened since the discovery of the sea beyond the Walls that they had even lost consciousness of what was happening in general. But now it was time to kill him.

"When Eren's head went flying..." Gabi began. "I shot Eren's head off with an anti-titan rifle right before he managed touch Mr. Zeke. When I did… something jumped out of Eren's spine… it looked like a shining centipede or something and it one tied to Eren's head. That's the Founding Titan. No… if that's the true nature of the power of the Titans… we might see it again if we decapitate him."

Gabi's words were somewhat encouraging. In the midst of despair a little spark of hope had returned but they still preferred not to delude themselves. The chances of getting Eren back alive were minimal. And even if they did, he would still be executed for what he did.

Either the Eldians or the Marleyans. Both factions that, in the meantime, continued to fight with each other.

"Are they fighting each other even in such a moment ?!"

Elizabeth turned with Jean, stunned to see such a scene as they were trying to save them all. It almost seemed like a mockery from her point of view.

"Why are people stupid?" then she asked, ironically and snorting exhausted. She missed her bed; she wanted to close her eyes and sleep for at least a full day.

While Jean and Reiner went to detonate the explosives, to help Pieck, Mikasa, Annie and Connie rushed to help Armin and free him, leaving only the couple and Gabi on Falco's back.

"We have to provide cover with this anti-titan rifle." Gabi exclaimed eager to help, grabbing the rifle in question and aiming it at the battle. But Levi stopped her, looking at her for a few moments as if he was seeing Eren in that little girl.

"You won't kill any of these titans with that."

Where is Zeke ?! Where is he?! Even if I did find him though… I'd just be a burden in this state… I've never bungled one of his orders, not even once.. and yet, for some reason his final order is the one that i just can't… our role may have ended there… we got those brats to the sea, if that was the extent of our role… tell me… when you guys devoted your selves was that in order to trample the hearts and lives of others? No… when we dreamed of a world without titans I'm pretty sure that was an absurdly innocent and idealised world. Because if it wasn't it won't have been worth what the devoted.

Levi lost a moment in his own thoughts. It had all started with him, with Erwin and his order. And he had found himself half dead, on the back of a Titan fighting for something apparently hopeless. What an irony...

He who had become Captain by one of his orders, he owed almost everything he had in his life and never would have been grateful enough. The only thing he felt he could do to thank him was at least kill the person who had caused his death. He had to thank that man who had allowed him to live.

His Commander.

His best friend.

"Erwin I ... I didn't pick you and I have no regrets about that." Levi murmured, causing Elizabeth to hear him too. "I don't regret entrusting the future to that little boy with the same light in his eyes as you."

"I have a regret." she admitted, leaning close to him as the injury to her head made her feel dizzy. She probably had hurt herself further without even realizing it, her blood had begun to trickle into her green eye. "To didn't kick him when I could."

And it wasn't Eren, he was talking about but Erwin.

Levi just chuckled, agreeing with her.

As soon as all this is over we will have to talk...

She wanted to do it. She wanted to tell him what was happening to her and what she had in her body, thanks to Hange's findings and exams, but she couldn't worry him now. And that thing was corroding her from inside her.

"You help Gabi. I'll take care of the rest. "

"But you're hurt too."

Gabi stood up trying to stop the blonde who at the same time had grabbed a sniper rifle and was loading it.

"If this is my last fight then let it be memorable." she commented in response, smiling proud of herself. She had come a long way, true, but she wanted it to end as it had begun. In honor of Hange.

Unconscious and amazed by the world, enthusiastic and determined to the end.

"Liz..."

But she didn't want to hear reasons. Levi had surely intended a potential death of her and she did not feel like ruling it out. And in that case, her regrets would have been two. But she couldn't think about it.

"You have to kill Zeke."

"Liz ..." he hesitated again, almost begging her to be careful. To not leave him.

"It's also my order now, Captain."

A sweet smile lit Elizabeth's face as she stopped to watch Levi help Gabi with the gun, as if they were father and daughter. Instinctively and almost without realizing it she went to touch her belly, wondering if she would be like that with one othat would theirs too. A father aware of the mistakes and suffering of the world and determined not to let their children live it.

Armin was finally recovered and, with him, Zeke also came out, screaming.

Titans came to the aid of the Eldians, while the owner of the Beast had only one thing to do, facing it with the knowledge that he was done.

Levi didn't even listen to his words. He didn't want to see him, he wanted to kill him.

A quick glance at Elizabeth, who was staring at Zeke with almost frightening seriousness, and he lunged at him, beheading him with a single blow of the blade.

It's over.

The Rumbling stopped and Jean detonated the Titan's head which immediately tried to reattach itself. Falco promptly went to retrieve everyone so that Armin could detonate all the bones once and for all. But even that wasn't enough to kill him.

Eren transformed once again, this time with his own appearance, the one they all knew.

And, as in the village of Ragako, they were now in danger of becoming titans, as Eldians. Many began to transform; pure and naked titans without real conscience.

"Ackermans, who knows how Elizabeth, and shifter are an exception. You should know what to do." Levi ordered, aware that they had to use that strength to their advantage. It was their only chance as Armin and Eren fought each other.

Titan against Titan.

Mikasa managed to recover from her headache and suffering, finding the courage to make that gesture. She flung herself into the Titan's mouth, truly putting an end to everything.

The titans began to dissipate as Armin took a few moments, now human again, on the ground, completely devoid of strength.

"Goodbye little titan."

Elizabeth collapsed in exhaustion next to Levi, seated against a boulder. Around them people began to reunite with their families, happy and relieved, but they seemed estranged from everything. Elizabeth's head went to rest absently on Levi's shoulder, staining his white shirt with blood and he welcomed her in a small hug. His grip was weak and she didn't even try to increase it with her fingers but, instead, she smiled at him anyway.

"Come here."

"Do you see them too or am I going crazy?" she asked with her eyes fixed in front of them, on all their dead comrades.

They were all there looking at them smiling, proud, even grateful. Their deaths had not been in vain.

Erwin, Hange, their old team, their comrades and subordinates. Isabel and Farlan. Max. In the distance, next to Jean and Connor, she even saw Sasha who turned around for a moment to smile at them.

"You are already crazy." he replied wearily but seeing the same thing.

It was really over.

"Were you all watching?" Levi asked quietly, exhausted and with little air in his lungs, but enough to give them another last farewell. The final one. "This is how it ends. The goal that all of you dedicated your hearts to."

Levi brought his fist to his chest in sign of their salute, dropping a lonely tear from his good eye and saluting. Elizabeth smiled at him, then looked back at her companions and emulated that gesture.

"I bet Hange already told everyone." Elizabeth added, determined to reveal her little secret. She didn't care that it wasn't the best time, she had to get that weight off her stomach.

She originally planned to talk to him calmly once they got home but she was beginning to doubt she would find calm about Paradis, so she might as well throw it all out of her.

"Said what?" Levi asked curiously, feeling Hange's smile thinking about him as they dissipated.

"I'm pregnant."

Levi didn't know what to think, he couldn't even breathe. He turned to her, shocked, as his throat tightened. He couldn't believe it. He felt a thousand emotions in his body, but what prevailed over everything else was happiness.

Sure, afterwards he should have given her a scold for fighting in those conditions until then, but now he could gloss over that.

He was happy. He felt complete.

At that moment he understood what Hange really meant with that last sentence and smiled, approaching his face and kissed her with all the love he had in his body. He was out of breath but he didn't care, she was oxygen.

She smelled of dirt, of weariness, but also of happiness and joy. Home.

"You are my reason for living." he whispered again on her lips, so that only she could hear him.

Elizabeth smiled at him, reaching out for a second, small kiss.

"I love you."

I promise you Hange, I will take care of them all my life.

"You are now all under Armin." Connor commented, after everyone approached the two, reunited again.

"Not Elizabeth." Jean added, giggling.

"Eh?!" Connor asked widening his eyes a bit as he alternated his gaze from his friend, who was grinning happy to be the only one, -except for Levi, of course-, to have known that secret, to Elizabeth who changed her expression completely, as if a bucket of cold water had just been thrown on her.

"She's Zackly's successor." Jean explained crossing his arms over his chest, observing the astonished expressions of his friends, in particular that of Armin who now felt at fault for having given orders to a superior.

"Really?!"

Elizabeth rested her head on the boulder behind her, now aware that she could no longer escape from that position.

"Fuck it's true. I forgot."