Chapter 86
"To you, My subjects."
The return back to the Walls felt like it took an age. Silence hung high between both Fury and Levi, as they both had their own inner thoughts to deal with in regards to recent and upcoming events. For the boy they both once tried to keep under control now threatened to bring further death to their island, which was now free of Titans themselves. But speaking with Eren himself still hovered on Fury's mind. The two of them had never seen eye to eye, but if anyone could obtain the bitter truth from Eren, she figured she could be the one to try.
The horse and cart halted. Back within the walls they now were. "Go get your stuff together, if you still plan on coming with me." Levi would say to her, and Fury would give a nod in response, letting him think that's what she would be now focusing on doing. Instead, her legs carried her towards Eren's cell, where she saw Hange just coming out of and looking just as frustrated as everyone did right now.
"Any luck?" Fury would ask the new Commander.
A sigh came from Hange as she looked up to Fury, somewhat surprised she was there in the first place. "He's just going through some major teenage phase…" She would try to joke, though no laughter filled the air. "… Who am I kidding...? I couldn't say what the hell is going on in Eren's head right now." Hange threw her arms into the air with a frustrated squeal to follow. "Where have you and Levi been?"
"Burying Isaah." Was all Fury could give for an answer, earning a saddened demeanour from Hange.
The Commander sighed. "Sorry… I shouldn't be forgetting things like that. I suppose Levi has informed you in how we're to deal with Zeke?"
"Do you really think taking him into the forest is going to keep him away?" Fury would ask, causing Hange to almost stumble due to the logic Fury gave. "He played his part in helping us deal with Willy and Liberio. Why not just deal with him now?"
"Because of Historia." Hange would answer. "If we were to kill Zeke, and with the way Titan powers work, his powers would just be passed on to a random Eldian child. But with Historia now close to the end of her pregnancy, we can make sure it's her child to inherit the Beast Titan and avert his and Eren's threats."
"So we're already asking for an unborn child to take on a burden that will also only allow for them to live for 13 years? Why aren't we better than this yet, Hange? Don't you see why it is Eren preaches about freedom? We're condemning someone before they're even born."
Hange hissed as she shrugged past Fury. "Isn't that how it is with you Bloodborns too? What would you have me do? I didn't want Historia to carry this child, but she agreed to it herself. I can't argue with the damn Queen."
Fury sighed and watched as Hange continued further on before leaving the cell area. It seemed even she was struggling with the understanding of current situations. Though now, Fury's eyes lingered over to the set of stairs that led down to Eren's cell, where her feet now carried her to.
There she stood before the young man, no longer a naïve boy, who stood in front of a mirror that hung behind his bars and his eyes soon caught Fury in the mirror's reflection. Both stood silent. Frown's set towards each other until it took only one to break the tension. "You came." Eren spoke low. His long hair now tied back into a bun, though several strands still hung in front of his face.
"Put a damn shirt on." Fury hissed, noting at his topless figure. Though Eren ignored the request. "Knew I was coming?" Eren didn't answer, though his gaze towards her did not break. "Alright, shithead. Let's not beat around the bush then. Why?"
"Don't call me that!" Eren would bark, causing Fury to appear stunned from her several blinks. She took a peek up the stairway, to make sure no one came running down to inspect Eren's shout.
"… Alright." Fury would mutter, bringing her eyes back to him, though her shoulders were now slightly raised.
Eren inhaled sharply, though an exhale quickly followed. "If I hadn't killed Willy Tybur, his words would have brought war to this island."
"I wasn't asking why to that." Her response surprised Eren, for a moment, as he expected something more from the fact he killed those who were her family. Distant or not; loved or not. "I was asking why to everything else. What have you got going on with Zeke, Eren? It's something serious enough to make Hange keep him away from you."
"Where is he? Do you know?" Eren would ask with quick retort.
Fury huffed. "Like I'd tell you that right now. Let's not allow this brother of yours to interrupt our little conversation here. I've had enough of hearing his damn name…"
"Sorry…" Eren offered his apology. "For what happened with Isaah… and Sasha… Their deaths weren't supposed to happen."
"But they did, Eren. And now two more people have had to be placed 6ft under the damn ground. Did you know Mikasa just stands there over Sasha's burial? In the rain, during the night, during the day. I myself had to bury someone who had barely lived his own life, and I have to hold some of that blame for bringing him to these damn Walls. You've taken more than you think, from the people who have only ever tried to do right by you. It may not have been you who landed the killing blow, but you took from people enough to give them a reason to attack back, just as that Colossal Titan did for you all those years ago. It's a cycle and it needs to be broken."
Eren's frown deepened. "The cycle can't be broken." His words earned some silence from Fury. "Because of her. Because of Ymir. As long as she continues granting us the access to become Titans, then Titans will always exist."
"… What are you talking about? We're already aware that Ymir was the Founder, but are you saying that she literally builds Titans, or something?"
"Don't play dumb, Fury. You've always wondered more about Ymir yourself. Ever since you found out she's the reason for you Bloodborns too. Her little pets."
Fury frowned. "You're calling me a pet?"
"I'm calling you a slave." Eren countered.
"We're all a slave to something, or someone." Kenny's words rattled through her mind. "Don't talk shit, Eren. There's no way someone still has so much power still from beyond death."
"What if death isn't final?" He asked. "What if, because we're all connected to Ymir, we go to the place she's in after we die? What if, from there, influence can still be made in the world of the living?"
"You're a damn lunatic, Eren." Fury hissed. "I wanted to come down here. To tell you that maybe what you did in Liberio was for the best. Willy was a tyrant in disguise and he needed dealing with. But if I knew there was more to this than just more deaths, I'd have stayed away."
"You're just as blind as the rest of us!" Eren snapped. His hues becoming enraged. "I willingly become a monster to save us all and cell bars is what I get!"
"Cut the crap, Eren! We both know you could just break your way out of here if you so wanted to!"
Fury's shirt was then suddenly enveloped into a fist that belonged to Eren as he pulled her towards his cell bars. His forehead slammed against her own and a blinding light filled her own hues as they shifted to being bloodshot. Though the use of her Bloodborn ability was useless in this moment. It was no longer Eren she saw through her eyes, but down in front of her, she, or someone else, was carrying a bucket of water. Wearing a tattered dress with shoes that had its laces wrap around the calf of their legs. This wasn't her body, but that of a little girl. Someone from the past. Someone from 2000 years ago and it didn't take Fury long to understand she was seeing a memory from Ymir's point of view. Vision became grained, as suddenly, people from the town, now dragged behind horses in chains as their homes they left behind burned down into nothing more than ash.
One by one, as ordered by the man who ordered the barbaric take over, the people now succumbed to slavery each had their tongues gouged from within their very mouths; for in his words, slaves had no use for them. Life was a struggle. Freedom seemed far out of anyone's reach. And Ymir, thinking of such freedom, saw a pen of pigs clinging to life from the small and suffocating amount of space that they were allowed to have. If she could not have freedom, then perhaps the pigs could. She opened their pen gate. And almost like they knew it was their only chance to run, they swiftly bolted from within and made way into the nearby forest that kept the people within hidden from others outside.
"There is someone among you who set the pigs free." A man, sat upon a singular chair with the people he controlled like cattle all kneeling down in front of him, spoke with disdain. "Name yourself. Or I'll have each of your eyes gouged out. Slaves have no need for eyes anyway."
Swiftly, a handful of fingers all aimed themselves to a singular point, with Ymir stood within the crowd of people who now showed their master that it was her who let the animals free. The young girl looked up to these people, once part of her own, and noticed how each of them looked like strangers to her now from how much had been taken from them. Her bottom lip trembled as she knelt down, on her own, in front of those who now stood behind her.
"So, it was you who let my meal go?" The man smirked. "Very well. You are free."
A guard of his grabbed a hold of Ymir and locked her in place. Frightened gasps emitted from the people behind as another towered over the young girl; knife in hand. A high-pitched scream of pain then followed, as that very knife began to remove one of Ymir's eyes; a trail of continuous blood then fell down her cheek as she was then thrown aside by the guard holding her still. The two of them laughed as she struggled to her feet and began making her way towards the forest, though not before an arrow teared through her shoulder and dogs began to bark as they caught on to Ymir's scent to follow. But she pushed on, panicked and out of breath, Ymir continued to try and run from her slavery, all whilst covering her missing eye with her hand.
The young girl then tripped over her own misplaced footing, then tumbled down a hill deep within the forest. She took the small respite to try and collect herself, despite the pain rippling through her body. The sound of nearby barking from the dogs and men that hunted her caught her attention, though not before her remaining eye landed itself upon a singular tree that towered before her.
Twisted and old, and Ymir noticed the entry-way to go inside the tree itself. Feeling it was her only chance, her tired legs dragged her forward and into the unknown. Being completely blind within from the darkness, the girl then slipped and the fall seemed endless, until her body crashed into a pool of water that rested at the bottom. She stayed motionless, contemplating on perhaps just letting herself drown as her body sank further.
The men outside circled around the tree, following their dogs, though taking note they seemed to be struggling in finding Ymir's scent. A flash of light soon pillared before them; the crackling of yellow lightning beaming down from the very sky itself as they witnessed a monstrosity rise up from underneath the ground. Its skeletal face that had no eyes in the sockets, to the rib cage that wrapped around its waist from outside its body. It emitted a bellowed screech before it then fell back down, shattering the earth beneath it as it did so, and from its nape, Ymir emerged with both of her eyes intact. The men, though feared, and their dogs running off from being spooked, took no time in removing Ymir from the muscular attachments of the monster and took more note to how the body of it was already disintegrating over time from the steam that lingered.
Once more, Ymir then found herself kneeling to the very man who had her hunted like the pigs she set free. Confused, and not understanding her newfound power, the barbaric king who still sat atop his throne saw this as an opportunity for more power. "As a reward for being my key for victory, you shall bear my children. And in return, in the name of Fritz, you will annihilate Marely for me."
The time moved forward. Ymir, no longer a child, but that of a young woman, had kept a hold of her powers now for 13 years. And in the process of that time, she gave birth to 3 daughters, all while the newly named King Fritz used her to destroy any army that tried to overthrow him. Her daughters, Rose, Sina and Maria, did not seem to show any sign that they may have inherited Ymir's powers, in which their enemies had referred to it as "a Titan". Within the long 13 years, the small kingdom of Eldia had begun its construction. And on another normal day for King Fritz, who spoke out to his kneeling subjects, was the day an assassination was attempted on his life. Though not before Ymir herself lunged herself in front of the man who treat her more as his concubine, and allowed the thrown spear to pierce through her own body.
She now laid in front of Fritz, who himself still made no attempt to rise from the throne he clung to. "My slave…" He would speak. "I know that spear hasn't killed you. Get up. Get up and deal with my enemies." But for the first time, Ymir did not obey his command. Her body remained still. And slowly, her eyes began to fall as she embraced death like it was her only friend.
Fritz moved his gaze over to his 3 daughters, who now sobbed for their mother. He beckoned them closer as he ordered his guards to carry Ymir's body to a nearby table that appeared more like a sacrificial alter. Holding his children close, Fritz walked with them over to Ymir, who now had her body being mangled and dismembered by the axes and knives of the men who carried her. "Eat, my daughters!" Fritz commanded, as he even placed Ymir's own heart into Sina's hands. "The blood of Ymir cannot diminish! If my grandchildren die, feed their spines from one child to another. And my Titans shall reign for an eternity."
Eyes then opened. And Ymir inhaled a desperate breath. Surrounded by an endless ocean of sand. Though always in its centre towered a glowing tree. Where was she? She noted her tongue still missing, even in this ethereal place.
Looking up, Ymir noted how everything linked up to the tree. The doorway. The thing that held all the power. Suddenly, a bucket full of water now weighed her down, and by some uncontrolled will, Ymir simply began to build. Each sculpture taking years for her to finish, and yet her sculptures manifested into reality. She built Titan after Titan. Each one she built, she gave them more features. And this was represented through the visual appearance of the 9 Titans that had control over their shifting in the world of the living, though not in the understanding that they could only shift because Ymir continued to build their Titan out of the endless sand she had access to.
But Ymir not only built towering sand Titans, but that of people too. Each person she built all had their eyes removed, and so began the newfound appearance of these people in reality.
Atheria. A small island that rested across the ocean from Eldia, yet in the middle of both Eldia itself and Marely. Ymir recalled the time her King took her and his army to Atheria to subjugate the people that lived there in peace. By his command, she became a Titan. Her summoning leaving its scar on the island in the form of a crater that had been caused from the shift into a monster itself. A single swipe of her arm was all it took for Ymir to decimate what Atheria had for fighters. They were peaceful people, who endured the endless fall of snow and chose to stay out of the conflict between Marely and Eldia. But Fritz always wanted more.
It was now on that island that a child was born on a bitter cold evening. But the child was not born alive with air in its lungs. The mother screamed to hold her child, despite the lack of life. But this was the process Ymir now had access to from her world. The people she created out of sand were the very people who were born dead. Their souls tried to pass on, but because Atheria had Eldian genetics, their soul had to pass through the realm in which Ymir was forever stuck in. It was here Ymir returned that very soul back to its new born self, and the child would awaken and bellow out with cries of hunger. Though not before the noticeable change in the eyes.
Bloodshot, though not entirely blind either. The people of Atheria came to call these individuals Bloodborns.
Ymir knew she was a slave to her King. Despite wanting to be free, she could not break the shackles that kept her bound to a duty of doing nothing but build Titans. Bloodborns were her freedom. They could control instead of being controlled. And King Fritz came to learn this, despite being upon his deathbed. He had power but he also feared Ymir, even from death. And so, with the Tybur descendant's helping to convince Fritz, the dying King ordered his Eldian army and his 9 Titan shifters to march upon Atheria and kill every one, especially the children. But the order didn't stop there. He also commanded that the very people who now lived in his Eldian city were to also have their eyes gouged out, despite the fact that some of these newfound Bloodborns worked with their King to keep Titan's away at the same time, due to the experimenting of spinal fluids injected into other Eldian's. They became Titans, created by Ymir, but had no self-control unlike the Shifters who ate previous Shifters who had unique powers. It was during this experimentation that the Ackerman clan came to be. People with Titan like strength, but unable to become an actual monster. But Fritz knew if they had no eyes, the Bloodborns, they also had no control. It further brought fear to him. His Marleyan enemies still persisted and now he had the fear looming in of more of Ymir's creations. This led down the path of the entirety of Eldia moving to their own island; now named Paradis, and the construction of the Walls began to keep the enemies out. Though not before making sure that his Walls had Colossal Titans slumbered within, as a threat to anyone who ever dare attack his view of freedom. That he held the power to flatten the world, if he so commanded.
But his command of what came to be known as the Blood Purge was also refused by the newfound Ackerman's who became Fritz's personal guards. And so began their own hunt by others for refusing orders to begin with.
Fury, pulling herself away from Eren and her back slamming against the wall behind her, which ultimately prevented her from falling backwards, inhaled and exhaled sharply, with a single hand covering one eye, just as Ymir once did herself. "What was all that..? What was all that, Eren?!"
Eren, still stood in place and looking down on Fury, answered simply. "The truth."
"We're all… Connected. Eldian's, people from Atheria, Ackerman's, Bloodborns… We're all Subjects to Ymir…" Fury paused. With controlled breathing, her hues stopped their shaking and her gaze became steady again. "So, you're trying to free her, aren't you? If Ymir is the one who literally make Titan's for you all to shift into, then the only way that will stop is if she is set free…"
"I need Zeke to help me to achieve this." Eren frowned. "He is of the Royal Blood, and can have direct control over Ymir, despite her having more power than any of us put together."
Fury huffed. "I can't trust you, even after that, Eren. You have something else planned with Zeke. I just know it… Guess you'll just have to, I don't know, break out and become the enemy if you really want to find him and set people free." He did not respond, though understood the implication of Fury's words. Was she indirectly telling him to keep moving? "What am I supposed to do in all of this..? It looked like she wanted Bloodborns to embody the fact that they are in control of what they want from life, because she didn't have that… Or is there something more?"
"You'll know the answer to that, in the end." Eren spoke subtly, despite him never making much sense. "Dammit Fury, don't you see? Ymir's memories are her message to us from 2000 years ago!"
"Eren…" Fury made her way over to the stairs that led her away from Eren's cell. "You're the one with all those Titan's and their memories within you… You're the only one now who knows what the right decision to make is… So just know… that whatever path you choose to follow, know that I still find you to be a lunatic… but I'll respect what you think is best, just as I knew dealing with Willy had to be done sooner, or later…"
"Fury!" Eren called out as she walked up the stairs. "You're connected to Ymir as much as I am! You can find her too!"
"What's going on down there, Squad Leader?" Fury looked up. Floch stood before her, rifle at the ready.
"Eren just being Eren." She then placed her hand atop of Floch's shoulder, stood side by side. "I know you agree with what happened in Liberio. So, I'm asking you now to keep an eye on Eren, for the sake of everyone."
Floch stuttered. "W-Why? What was said between you both down there?"
"Dunno what you mean…" Fury scoffed as she walked on to get herself ready for her trip with Zeke. "Last person to talk with Eren was Hange."
