NOTES
I was inspired to do this fanfiction by a lot of other writers, but the two which helped me get the idea for this are second chance by Isil'zha BLZ and Reconciliation of Past Grievances by BlackpilledAnglo go check them out They are on Archive of Our Own.
'
"You have three choices now that you've completed your training," Shadis called out to the cadets.
"The garrison which reinforces the wall' thereby protecting all of the towns" Which most of you will join, he added in his head.
"The Survey Corps prepared to sacrifice their lives outside the walls by defying the titans in their domain"
"AND the Military Police Brigade, which exercises control over the king's subjects and maintains order".
"Of course, out of the raw recruits, the only ones who can join the Military Police Brigade are the ten finest of you with the best score. Soon I will be asking you which branch you want to be assigned to. But as of now, the 104th training corps is disbanded! Dismissed!
"Yes, Sir!" came the reply from the crowd in front of him.
The crowd quickly disbanded and walked towards the food hall.
'
CHANGE POV
Armin looked around seeing the ex-cadets walking around chatting to friends or congratulating others, some people were drunk already. The day of their graduation had finally come and would soon fade away, yet for this evening, everyone seemed content on letting the moment last.
He continued to eat in silence, not bothering to listen to the many conversations going on around him. Ever since he, Eren, and Mikasa joined the Cadet Corps, Armin struggled to make lasting connections with his fellow recruits, they were aware of him, sure, but a rare few knew him past his first and last name.
Jean's conversation with Marco sparked his attention however, unlike many other people he was not shocked by it. 'Eren and Jean used to always have arguments like this', he mused to himself.
"C'mon, admit it you can't wait to get out of this stinking hell hole and get to live in the interior," Jean asked Marco just a bit too loudly, once the words came out his mouth people all around were turning and looking at them.
"No…" came the reply from Marco who stuttered slightly "Shame on you."
Jean looked around then lifted his mug pointing it all around "I mean what would you all do. Go guard the wall? Or maybe you want to go outside and try to take back Maria just to become Titan snacks?! Well, I know where I'm going… To the interior!" slamming his mug down onto the table.
The room was silent. Are people only just noticing Jean's behavior? Perhaps they were just surprised Eren wasn't able to change him by this point despite the many arguments, fights, and speeches they had during training.
"You can go to the interior Jean, no one's going to stop you," Eren said standing up and turning to look at him before continuing. "But soon enough you'll have to fight the Titans. I told you this all those years ago, just a few years ago this was the interior."
"Eventually you'll all fight the titans whether it's next year or ten from now You'll fight them. All of us." Eren looked around at the many faces in the room. "Maria came first. Soon it will be Rose. And then after that, Sina. And humanity will fall with it unless we can stop them." He finished.
Jean replied slowly. "And what do you propose we do then Jaeger? You were there when the reclamation campaign for Wall Maria happened. For every Titan they managed to take out, 10 of ours got eaten. Do you think you're any different? What makes you so special?"
Just as Jean was about to continue Eren spoke again "I propose that we fight against the forces that want to kill us all. I want us to stop sitting inside our cages waiting to die and actually." He said coldly
"I have a dream, to leave the walls and explore the outside world, if we stop the Titans then we can do that but if we don't push forward then, we die."
"Look at them no one agrees with you." Jean stood up and walked towards Eren "You must be the idiot here." Jean said, smirking.
Eren looked straight into Jean's eyes unflinching
"Maybe I am." His eyes darting around the room. "But if we are going to win, we have to keep fighting… And the only people who keep moving forward can know for sure if we will win or die trying"
Eren turned around and walked out the hall which used to surprise him, but it was the usual ending to their arguments for Eren to walk away.
'
CHANGE POV/EREN
Eren looked over his shoulder unsurprised to see Armin and Mikasa approaching him.
"Eren you ok," Armin said before sitting down on the steps next to him
They sat together for several moments silently staring into the night sky, like three normal friends. They were anything but that, a Titan Shifter from the future, an Ackerman, and a tactical genius.
It's different from the last time, he thought to himself. Armin came several minutes after Mikasa had dragged him out. And Hannes was here.
Hannes another person who had saved him not once but twice, the second time dying in the process. He would save him.
"So, you two changed your minds about what branch you're joining, there's still time to change," Mikasa asked breaking the silence.
"Scouts," Eren said standing up. "Like I said only those who move forward can know for sure what's out there".
But I do know what's out there, he thought. And soon you will all know too.
They then sat in silence, but it was a comfortable silence. And together they watched the night sky as he had done last time.
It was so simple back then, but people can't go back they can only move forward.
,
TIME SKIP
Cleaning out the cannons was a tedious job. A job he has done twice as many times as he should of.
"So, you're going to join the Survey Corps," Thomas asked him.
"Yeh" Eren replied, not caring about the conversation.
"I heard your speech last night pretty inspiring. I mean You got Connie to want to go to the scouts instead of the MP brigade. In my opinion, it wasn't a smart move, he was number 8 so the Military police seemed like the smarter option for him."
"Wrong," Connie said. "I chose the scout's, I also didn't want to be in the same branch as that bastard"
"That still doesn't explain why you'd join the Survey Corps"
"Shut the hell up ok!" Connie replied embarrassed. "I make up my mind ok!"
Eren continued cleaning out the cannon he had heard it all before and could not be bothered listing to it again.
"Don't be embarrassed, besides you're not the only one…
"Pardon me" Sasha butted in, causing Eren to turn his head to see Sasha as expected pulling out meat from her jacket.
"I borrowed some meat from the senior officer's private stock" A look of hunger on her face but within several seconds the replies were coming from all around the group
"Sasha… you want to get thrown into solitary"
"You are dumb… like scarily dumb"
"Let's split it slice and put it on some bread. He-he-he-he"
"Put it back," came the reply from Connie
"That's right ever since we lost Maria, we lost tons of livestock, so the meat is quite precious now" Mina who had just come over.
Eren himself did not care for the meat as it would be lost any moment now, he just started standing up and began mentally preparing himself for what was to come.
"Don't worry" Sasha replied opening the chest and then carefully putting the meat inside
"Once we retake our territory, we can raise new cattle and we can have all the meat we'll ever need," she said a dreamy expression on her face
Sasha's death, another person's blood on his hands but at this point the amount of blood he had shed he would need a river to fill it.
Her last words were meat, maybe she was thinking about this moment before her death. A fond memory from when everything was good vs evil human's vs Titans. How foolish he was.
A sudden bolt of golden lightning and a face coming forth from steam caused everybody to stop moving and look at the colossus titan. He didn't even need to turn to know that the great Titan now stood at the gates behind him
'Hello, Bertholdt…'
With the sudden blast of steam knocking them all off the wall, Eren allowed himself to fall.
Everything went just as he predicted, and now his counterattack would begin.
,
NOTES
The chapter is basically as it was before The next chapter should be out next Sunday. Tell me what you think, I'll take the critsism.