Disclaimer: I do not own the SNK series in any way, shape or form

A/N at the end of the chapter

The following days went in a blur, as much of it happened one right after the other. The raid to the Reiss estate was a lot easier this time around; thanks in part for them having the element of surprise on their side, and Kenny and a good amount of his squadron already dead. It was not half as bombastic as the first time around, Eren mused to himself, but it got the job done, and that was what mattered. The following day, Erwin along with Historia and the rest of the scouts marched on the capital, all the while the documents of Historia's lineage being made public. Soon enough the crown was abdicated, leaving it for Historia to claim it. After that, it was mostly a matter of negotiating with the other nobles to gain their support, and punishing those who did not fall in line. The Levi Squad stayed out of that affair for the most part, with only Levi himself assisting to those meetings. Once the situation was deemed stable enough, all members of the Levi Squad were granted a two week leave. Eld, Petra and Jean left to their hometowns, Eld and Jean to meet with their respective families while Petra went to bury and mourn her father, the rest decided to stay in the capital for the time being.

It was sometime around noon, Sasha and Connie had left to the market while the rest remained in the keep. A little over a week has passed since Historia was publicly declared queen and, with the backing of most noble houses and the armed forces. All the while Eren took a back sit to it all. There was a heaviness in his steps, a weight on his shoulders he could not shake off. And he was tired, oh so tired; he had spent most of the last few days just collapsed on his bed. He wanted to sleep so badly but he could hardly do so. Annie and Armin would occasionally appear in his room, to either talk or call him for dinner. Mikasa had come also once, it seemed like she wanted to speak but ended up not saying anything, not like he tried to get the words out of her anyway.

By this point in the day, Eren forced himself out of bed and crawl to the dining hall. He entered it and grabbed the meal of the day, lukewarm bread, beans, a piece of meat and some green juice he could not even guess where it came from. He turned to the tables and found Armin and Annie sitting together, he moved to their direction and took a sit next to Armin.

"You look like shit" Annie said in between bites matter-of-factly.

"That's because I barely slept last night" he gave a dry chuckle.

"Something on your mind?" Armin asked with a concerned look.

"A lot actually" he answered without looking at his friend, he was yet to come clean to Armin, he kept beating himself over it. He wanted to do so at this moment, right now, but doing so in the middle of a crowded dining hall would attract too much attention, another excuse. Still he knew he had to sooner or later. "Remind me to talk to you about it later," he said.

The table suddenly shook, spilling Armin's drink all over his shirt. He panicked over it before excusing himself to go clean himself. Eren looked at him leave before turning to Annie who was staring at him with a knowing look.

"You think it's time to come clean to him?" she asked leaning in. Eren picked up what happened and shrugged.

"The longer we postpone it, the more difficult it'll be" he said before taking a bite of his food. Annie clicked his tongue.

"Armin's been asking questions for some time now. Maybe it's time to get him in. But also, we should be aware that, if we keep bringing people in to the whole thing, we'll be, at best, crossed as loons or at worst be seen as traitorous."

"I doubt it'll go that far" Eren argued as he took a sip.

"Probably," Annie said. "But it never goes wrong being careful." He nodded. Eren knew that, from here, things would only deviate more, and that he had to plan things out really carefully this time. What to do if Marley sends more reinforcements to Shiganshina? The war between Marley and the Confederacy was almost a guarantee should Wall Maria be reclaimed by Paradis, but what if it didn't last four years this time? And, more importantly, without the Founding Titan, how the fuck would Eldia be able to stand against a larger, technologically superior, better organized enemy? Decisions will have to be taken, compromises will have to be made. But with who and why would anyone want to help the devils on the island?

"Eren." A voice disrupted his thoughts. He turned to look at Mikasa standing over him. "Meet me in my quarters in fifteen. Come alone" she said, leaving before he could answer.

Annie kept a blank face, chewing on what remained of her food through that small exchange. "It seems today will be busy on your front" she said after swallowing. She stood up. "I'll be on the training grounds if you need me." Annie turned to him and let a small smile escape through her façade. "Good luck."

As Annie walked out of the dinning hall, she wondered about how much things have shifted in such a short span. Shit, a little over a month ago I was a marleyan agent. Now she was a deserter, actually standing with the soldiers she was conspiring against. It was still odd to her, something that remained with her ever since and probably will remain there. But, it was too late to turn back, and, truth be told, she did not really want to turn back. At least not as much as she thought she would. Being able to be honest with people you once could only speak with in different manners of lies was really comforting with her. She allowed herself to grow close to his now comrades. The master at arms of the keep they were staying, a woman called Caroline Boyd, spoke the same language as her and Annie found herself spending a lot of time with her, training with her, sharing with her.

She would often think of her father. She worried for him. With her deserting Marley, repercussions against him were almost certain. She found herself praying almost every night for his safety, to which deity she could not tell, as she grew up without one.

"Annie!" she heard her name behind her. She turned to see Armin approach her. "Where are you going?" Over the last few days, Annie had spent some time with Armin. She always felt some sympathy to him, his smarts and his empathy, a combination rarely seen, sadly. She was not confident in calling him a friend so to say, but she did appreciate his company nevertheless. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm going to train with Lieutenant Boyd," she answered.

"What are you training?"

Annie shrugged. "Down on the ground mostly. Hand to hand, cold weapons and rifles." She and Eren had a small meeting with the commander of the scouts some time ago, when it was established that whenever fighting against titans in the future, the two would shift and act as the main force, with the rest of the squadron as support. Made sense, and it took them both out of the training drills while new tactics were being formulated. This gave Annie the time and space to focus on the training she was more comfortable doing. She did not enjoy the ODM all that much, if she was being honest; all that flailing around several meters above the ground often left her nauseous. "That sort of thing."

"I see" he said. "You mind if I join you?" He laughed a bit nervously when Annie arched her eyebrow. "W-well it's just that those areas never came very well to me. And, you know, it's always good to try and be better, right?"

Annie considered what she was going to say next. She did not have a reason to say no, nor did she dislike the idea of spending time with the blond boy. She realized her arms were crossed, she let them fall to her sides. "Sure thing, but can you keep up though?" she asked with a wry smile. She did not wait for his answer before as she continued her walk to the training grounds, his footsteps echoing her own. This would be an interesting day.


The city of Trost was still a mess. Buildings with half of their façades crumbled on the street, two of the three bridges in the city were still broken and it was still strange seeing a gigantic rock where the city gate once was. But at least now there was no corpses littering the street, that much was a relief, Jean thought grimly. The news of the change in monarch was barely present in the city. People were not happy to see the corrupt old government deposed, nor were they mad that the only order of things they had ever known was gone. People were too busy scavenging their once-homes, and mourning their dead relatives, too busy trying to be first in line at the breadline to care about the comings and goings inside of the royal court.

The first couple of days of his so called leave were full of work. Jean could not linger around in his home, he would not allow himself to, not anymore. To work while on leave? He must have lost his mind at some point, or maybe the world did— he could not tell, nor did it matter to him.

Jean had spent his leave volunteering in the cleaning of rubble. Each night he went to bed with new blisters and each morning he woke with a more intense back pain, but he could not stop. He would have breakfast with his mother, give her a kiss in each cheek and leave for the entire day. He stayed out until well after sundown, he got home, have a small supper and go to bed, all to start again.

In the cleaning efforts he would sometimes find bodies in different stages of decomposition, a femur with some rotting flesh still attached to it here, half a skeleton there. People in the cleaning efforts would react in different ways: rage, disgust to the point of vomiting, breaking down in sobs, you name it, any and all of them could be seen a handful of times a day. If war was hell, the aftermath was something else, something worse.

Today so far had not been different. Jean had learned when he arrived at the site that this one collapsed building was once an orphanage and was warned, along with everyone else, to expect for the worst. So far he had been lucky in that respect, as he had only found bricks and the occasional toy or bed, but he did hear another team further away had come across the crushed body of a babe of no more than three. He refused to even approach there.

As the city bell announced noon, he made his way to take his break as another team went in to continue their work. He had two hours until he had to get back to it. He wandered around the city square, looking for a quick place to get some food. Some stores were starting to open back up, people were starting to go on about their day. Despite the devastation, life carried on. There was a message there, Jean mused, one he would have to think more on at some point.

A sight stopped his thoughts. He rubbed his eyes to make sure it was not his mind playing some sort of trick. But no, there she stood. The girl from the sewers, Sam, he reminded himself, that was how she called herself. He was estranged by seeing her in Trost.

"Didn't expect you to be here," he said as he approached, she yelped, startled.

"Um sorry, I don't remember you," she said.

"Well, it was dark in that sewer." Jean tried not to get his slight disappointment show. A flash of realization crossed the girl's eyes.

"Oh! I think I remember you now! You were in that group of soldiers. But you're out of your uniform this time around."

"I'm on leave. What are you doing here in Trost? I thought you were going to Ehrmich."

"Oh, yeah," she said with a laugh. "Well, that place kinda sucked, so I split." Jean laughed and agreed. He asked her if she had had any food yet. When she answered no, he invited her to have lunch, she hesitated a bit but said yes. They soon found a small place and sat on a small table on the outside. She asked him about his career, and so Jean decided to talk to her about his squadron.

"I'll never know where she gets all that meat," Jean told with a smile as Sam chuckled. He led most of the conversation. It was almost a relief for him to wind down and speak of lighter things. So much had happened so close together, and Jean was now grateful that he could just sit down and have a lighthearted chat again, let him get his focus away from the rubble just some meters away or the whole intrigue going on in the capital.

"She sounds like a good companion to have on missions," Sam said.

"She really is," Jean said, nodding. "Sasha's a good friend to have. She might be aloof, too much for her own good sometimes, but she also knows how to get to people and always has something to say. You ever had a friend like that, Sam?"

Sam stumbled a bit before answering. "Huh? Oh, um, I don't think so. Not in that specific way, no."

Jean noticed that she was always a little slow when he called her by the name she had given. "So, you're ever gonna tell your real name?" he asked as he looked at the clock on a nearby building. He had fifteen minutes left before his new shift began.

She paused for a bit before answering, shock quickly turning to a blank face, "Wouldn't bet on it," she answered. "Nothing personal. Just am not comfortable doing so."

"I see," Jean nodded. With his suspicion confirmed, Jean could start making a few assumptions about the girl in front of him. If she was going by a fake name, that almost certainly meant that she was hiding something, or from someone. He quickly ran the numbers. Trying to press her into speaking would probably alienate her, so it did not seem wise. Besides, people have the right to keep secrets.

The next couple of minutes went without words, only the sounds of the surrounding city to accompany Jean. She seemed to be getting a bit jarred by it, as she soon spoke.

"So you're on leave, huh? What do you do on leave, soldier boy?"

"Mostly helping around in town" he answered. "You might've missed it but there's a lot to be done. And I'm not gonna be here long, so I do what I can while I'm here."

"You're so preoccupied with your hometown. Is that why you became a soldier?"

Jean could not help but let out a single chuckle as his whole journey so far had gone. "Not really at first. Basically I wanted to get the best life possible, for me and my ma. Dad left us very early on, don't even remember how he looked like, so ma had to step up to the plate to take care of me. And damnit she broke her back doing it, but she managed. When I was on age to enlist, I enrolled in the army to become an MP, get the best salary possible, move and settle us as far away from the front. Y'know, a show of gratitude."

"But weren't you a scout?"

He lowered his voice at that. "Yeah... yes I am. Life has a funny way of taking us away from the path we intend to... I was out just for me and my own until some bones in a pyre pushed me into actually trying to look out for everyone." The image of Marco's body laying lifeless on the streets of this very city flashed through his eyes, as it so often does when his morale falters... "It's hard, doing the right thing, it's nasty and a lot more dangerous, but once the call gets to you, you have to be one cold bastard to deny it. I thought I was that kind. But fate called my bluff and, well, here I am."

Pieck was shocked at that. By this point she was convinced that there was no difference between the people in the island and everyone else back home. But seeing it right before her, a story in many ways so similar to hers was the last slap to fully comprehend it. His tale reminded her of her own, of her sickly father back in Liberio, and the lengths she had gone, and is continuing to go through, to get him the best treatment there is. She also felt called out at his idea of the call of fate, because it reminded her of the people she had taken back to Shiganshina, at the request of warchief Zeke, and what fate awaited them. They did not deserve it, sure some of them were assholes from taverns, but being turned into a mindless titan is not a fate she would wish upon anyone.

Jean looked at the clock, realizing that his shift was starting in less than ten minutes. He got up from the table and took out his bag of coins. "Here, this should cover my end of the meal, gotta run. I don't think I'm going to see you soon, right?"

She shook her head. "As I said, wouldn't bet on it."

He nodded. "Well, in any case, thanks for the talk." He stopped himself for a second and turned back to face her. "Also, I really like your hair, how black it is. Accentuates your skin."

He was gone before Pieck could answer, she looked down to hide her embarrassment at the compliment. She looked at the coins tossed on the table before muttering: "Thanks for the meal."


As he walked down the halls to the quarters, Eren wondered about his previous actions and why he had done them. In his past life, he had always been pushed by a mindless drive, that of freedom. He was so drunk on that drive that it pushed him into lying to those closest to him, ceding all authority to Floch and his band of fanatics, and try to destroy everything and everyone outside the walls. He still wondered what could have happened had he managed to activate the Rumbling, would his friends remain passive or try to stop him? He doubted it, they were never that way, and in his wandering after the failure he mused with the Founder about them killing him, achieving peace by slaying the destroyer of worlds.

It was strange now, Eren was effectively a slave to the idea of fighting for freedom, but once the rug got pulled from under him, there was nothing left inside him, just the wait for his thirteen years to culminate. But all of that was then, now here he was, on a life so similar to his, but one he was never meant to be in. He did not feel the drive, the same one that for so long he believed to be intrinsic in him, anymore. In some ways he was free, while also not, as he was now acting under the Tezcatlipoca. It was very confusing, and he never had a mind for philosophy to begin with.

Now his approach was still simple, guarantee a future for his loved ones, fundamentally it was exactly the same. It had always been his only real goal outside his freedom. Get them the best of all possible lives this world can get them. How? He was still working it out, but surely with his comrades he could make up something.

He stopped his train of thought as he found the door he was looking for, the door to Mikasa's personal quarters. Each member of the Levi squad had been granted an exclusive bedroom— even Annie, though hers was watched over by guards still. Eren appreciated the solitude it granted, especially that he would have a talk with Mikasa. He knocked twice and waited, a couple of seconds later she opened the door, letting him in without a word and closing the door behind him.

Her room was just like all the others, a single bed, a nightstand and a drawer, though Mikasa had moved all of them to the corners of the room to get as much space as possible to exercise, he mused. Eren remembered that, despite not being enthusiastic at all about joining the military, once in, Mikasa took her new position very seriously and could always be seen training. Her diligence had always been second to none.

He pulled himself from his musings to confront her. He sat by the edges of the bed before speaking, "you wanted to see me" he said to the girl standing before him.

"I think we have dodged this conversation long enough" she said.

"We have."

"So, first off, back during the operation, when I reached for you, all these images entered my mind. What are those images and how did they transfer to me?"

A sensible first question, Eren considered. "As for how, I'm not sure" he said. "My mind was somewhere else at that point, so maybe messing with that could have side effects like that."

"Where?"

"What?" he asked perplexed.

"Where was your mind at that point?" she asked with a slight annoyance in her voice.

"I-I'm not really sure how to explain it. I was with the father of all titans you could say" he said. When he saw Mikasa gesturing for him to elaborate, he tried to sum it up. "He, or it I guess, gave me the mission to collect all the titan shifters, like the Armored and Colossal, and return them... for that gave me my new abilities and this" he said gesturing to his white eye.

She kept quiet for a couple of seconds, trying to process it. "That's why you just killed Ymir like that" she said. When he nodded, she asked "then why haven't you killed Annie also?"

He waited a moment to answer. "I feel I owe her to try giving her a way out... For a while, she was the only link to my past remaining, and even that I lost in the end. This time around I'm trying to right as many wrongs as I did then, and she's up there."

Before Mikasa could answer, Eren took the initiative. "Which leads me to your first question, those images... are my memories. I'm from a world like this, but eight years advanced."

Mikasa kept quiet. "What happened to my Eren then?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"From what the father of the titans told me, he died after his trial... I was placed in his place then for my mission."

Mikasa stepped back towards the drawer, leaning against it for support. There was an added heaviness to those words. She had known for some time now that it was true, she thought she had braced herself enough for it, but the confirmation brought with it a permanence to the concept. She leaned back as close to the wall as possible, bringing all her weight to the drawer. She would not allow herself to fall on her knees.

"So" she muttered, "my Eren... he's dead..."

"I-I doubt anything I can say would make it better" he said. "It didn't when it happened to me." She looked up at him. This... man, Eren, but not Eren, was looking at the ground. "I lost my Mikasa as well... She died believing I lied, that I hated her... I-I told her that 'cause I was planning on doing something terrible, and could not have her with me for it."

"You lied to m-her" she said.

He nodded as he looked up. "I wasn't counting on everything falling apart" his eyes were turning red. "All I did, I did it for her, for Armin, for Jean, for all of you. Not for Eldia, not in the name of revenge, for the people I love... I don't regret what I did, I just regret not succeeding, and not explaining myself."

"Why?"

"I- because I've always looked for—"

"No, why did you wait until now to tell me?!" she exclaimed, her voice just below a shout. "Did you at any point even consider telling me?! Or telling Armin?! We have a right to know that our Eren has died and been replaced!"

Eren looked down. "I wanted to..." he said, meekly.

"Clearly not enough" she said. She was getting angrier the more she talked. "For fuck's sake, you told that traitorous bitch Annie before either of us! How do you think that'd look for us, huh?!"

"I was afraid" he mumbled.

"What was that?!"

"I said I was afraid!" he got up from the bed. "I was afraid! Why wouldn't I be? For the last four years, you two were dead, I saw your corpses, I put tombstones to you both! I couldn't bury you because they took me away and put you in a mass grave! That was it for four years, and suddenly I'm here!" Tears were running down his cheeks. "All of a sudden I'm here, you are alive, Armin is alive, everybody is! What I was supposed to do?! To arrive and have everything processed and a plan laid out?! To just walk up to you two, the most important people in my life, and announce that as if I was just talking about the prices at the market?! Maybe I should have, but I couldn't" he raised and dropped his arms in defeat, his voice barely above a whisper. "Forgive me for being human."

He could feel his legs buckling, he knelt down on the light coming in from the window. He could see through the edges of his sight that Mikasa was still standing against the counter, he could not look up to meet her eyes. A pounding pain was growing just above his eyes, the intensity growing at the slightest movement of his head. He wanted to say more, to make his words amend the rift between them, but they would not come. So he knelt there, for what felt like hours.

He was only interrupted by a hand that landed on his shoulder. He managed to look up and see Mikasa squatting, her face so close to his, her eyes so full of emotion.

"We don't choose the hand we're dealt with, are we?" her tone was much softer, yet it remained steely. "The past is behind us, we only got forward. I... I'm not gonna hold this against you. But you and I are together in this from here on" her hands lifted themselves up onto his cheeks, her thumbs wiping the trail the tears left behind, "you are not hiding anything from me anymore, nor I to you, got it?" He nodded as her hands pulled him into the crook of her neck, her voice now as soft as the breeze in spring.

"You must be so exhausted."


It was well in the evening when the four met in a storage room of the fortress. Along with Armin, Annie stood with Eren and Mikasa in the middle of a lot of barrels, with a lantern as their only light. First things first, the two new members of this clique up to speed on what they knew, Eren had confessed and told everything to Mikasa earlier that day so that was a relief. Telling Armin of all of it went, rather smooth Annie could say. They answered his questions to the best of their knowledge.

"So there's many nations outside this island" he said, "and Marley is the most important one, right?"

"Unfortunately for us, yes" Eren said. "They have an interest in killing everyone on Paradis."

"Yeah, but I don't finish understanding why."

"Basically in the past the eldians, the people here, ruled over them" Annie said, "and we were not nice to them. Now that they're in power, they wish to return the favor... and then some for good measure."

"They also want the Founding Titan so they can employ fully the titans."

"Even though it no longer exists you say" Armin interjected.

"But they don't know that, and I doubt they'd believe us if we tried to explain it."

"Yeah, we cannot prove that something no longer exists."

"So, what is the plan then?"

Annie turned towards Eren, he stood by Mikasa, looking at the ground for a small bit. "Well, there are a few ideas I've been getting recently" he said as he turned to look at the dark-haired woman, "but those we still got time to fully build up. So far what matters most is to retake Wall Maria."

"Right" said Armin. "And do you have an idea on that?"

"Actually I do" he said. "We know that the Beast Titan is in the island, which almost guarantees that the Cart Titan is here as well. Annie, what was the Cart Titan used for?"

"It's used for scouting and operations in enemy territory" she answered. "All titan operations must have the Cart scouting the area first." As she spoke, the point Eren was getting at dawned on Annie. "Wait you mean that-"

"Best way to take Wall Maria is to take them by surprise, and the best way to do that is taking out their scouting."

"To blind someone you need to find their eyes first, though" Mikasa said.

"That's where we come in" Armin said, looking at Eren. "You want us to hunt this Cart Titan, right?"

"It won't be easy" Annie intervened. "The Cart is extremely resilient and the most stealthy of all the shifters. And its user, Pieck, she's was given that shifter for a reason. Besides, if we capture her, we just kill her or something?"

"I'd rather not" Eren shook his head. "I know from past experience that Pieck genuinely wants freedom for the eldians and we can use that to turn her. We could use someone on the inside, know what Marley is up to and alike. That was something we didn't have last around, and could use of."

"That's very risky" Mikasa said. "Are you really willing to take it?"

"The benefits justify it" he said. "If anyone can capture and successfully turn her into a double agent, it's us. I'll talk to Erwin in the morning, inform him of the plan and get his approval. In the meanwhile we need to maintain this to ourselves, outside of us Erwin and Levi, no one knows of the outside world yet, and we're counting on recapturing Shiganshina for that. Also, get ready. Because we're going hunting."


Well friends, here it is, a lot later than I intended. I got stuck in the last two scenes for months, but alas I pulled through.

As we're getting closer to the recapture of Shiganshina, this story will deviade A LOT from canon, so be mindful of that. Also, I'm streamlining a lot of my original layout of the story so I can write it quicker, so if the pace feels rushed in this and coming chapters, it's because of that.

I've said it before, but worth reminding that I no longer have a schedule on which I release this chapters, but I am making the effort to publish at least three each year. Let's hope I can manage more.

For those wondering on my characterization of Jean this chapter, well, basically I've played a lot of Fallout New Vegas, and I pulled a lot from the Lonesome Drifter onto him. I think it works, but I am interested in what you guys think.

Anyway, as always, I hope you enjoyed it, any and all feedback is appreciated.