"I get that you felt you needed to do it after you saw the future with the Attack Titan's powers," Armin said. "But did you have to beat me up that badly? Was that knee kick really necessary?"

Eren looked away from Armin, down at the water of Shiganshina's central canal, and took a moment to respond. "I desperately wanted to push you all away," he said. "It was all determined from the start… but everything I did was my choice. I would see it happen in my head, over and over again, and I'd think, 'what the hell am I doing?' But I kept moving forward… in order to reach that scenery."

"Then why did you choose this path!" Armin exclaimed. "Murdering millions, destroying the world, the one we'd always dreamed about! Fire water, land made of ice, fields of sand- all flattened under the feet of your titans. How could you?" He hesitated. "Did our dream mean nothing to you?"

"There was no alternative," Eren said. "I have seen the good in the world. Falco and the others in the Liberio internment zone, countess cultures around the globe… none deserve to die. Seeing the outside world, living in it- that was your dream, Armin. But ever since I was a child, staring up at those walls, I wanted one thing: freedom. When I saw the future, I realized that there was no path of coexistence. I could choose the world… or I could choose myself, and my home, that bore and raised me."

"Eren…" Armin said slowly. "We didn't want this. We didn't ask you to become a mass murderer for our sakes. There had to have been another way… I cannot accept the end you created."

"And that's why this end is inevitable," Eren said. "The future was already determined because we all had already made the choices we wanted to. Look down."

The scenery changed around Eren and Armin. They stood together above the clouds, the sky a brilliant blue. Below, Armin's Colossal Titan took a punch across the face from Eren's Titan. As Reiner wrestled the worm into the dirt, Levi blew open Eren's teeth and Mikasa darted in, beheading Eren's spinal head and kissing his cold lips. Eren watched with a sad smile, and Armin looked at Eren in horror. "This? This is the end you saw that day you kissed Historia's hand?"

Eren nodded. "Yes," he said, and the scenery changed again. Armin recognized where they were immediately: it was the big tree on the hill near Shiganshina, the one he, Eren and Mikasa used to play under.

"But why?" Armin said. "If you wanted freedom, if you saw us kill you, why didn't you stop us?"

"This end is what we chose," Eren said. "More than anything, I value freedom… and while I was willing to deny the world its freedom, I could not deny it to my friends. No matter what I did, even if I took your Titan powers away, you all would have found your way here and thrown yourselves against me all the same. I cannot kill my friends or stand by and let them die, and you all could not accept my end. I didn't choose this… we chose this."

Armin sat down against the tree, head in his hands. Eren remained standing, staring at the empty field where the outer wall of Shiganshina used to stand. "Eren… what comes next? You've destroyed most of the world and alienated the rest. Our choices have doomed our future. How can the world find peace after what we've done?"

"I don't know," Eren said. "I only saw everything up until my own death. The future belongs to you now, Armin. You, Mikasa, and all the others left are free. I paid for that with my death."

"How could you be so selfish!" Armin exclaimed. "We're not free. We'll be haunted by war, death and guilt for the rest of our lives. I'll never get my dream of exploring the beauty of the outside world. And Mikasa will never get her dream of living beside you. You've broken us, Eren."

A distant look washed over Eren's face. "Those are dreams I could never give." The scenery changed again, and Armin's eyes lit up in wonder. A volcano erupted, a river of lava flowing from its base. "Before she killed me, I showed Mikasa a vision of us living together, a future where we ran away from it all together," Eren admitted. "I wanted her to move on. And I want you to move on, too, as selfish as that sounds. I want you to be free."

"You want me… to give up on my dream?" Armin said coldly. His fists clenched as Eren nodded and changed the scenery to that of the beach when they saw the ocean for the first time. As Eren turned, Armin's fist collided with Eren's cheek and sent him crashing into the surf. Armin stood over Eren. "How dare you? I…" All the anger rushed out of Armin when he saw his old friend's tears. "I don't even know you anymore," he finished despondently.

Eren finally broke, tears rolling down his cheeks. "I never got my freedom," he cried. "I saw the future. Even if all of it was what I wanted… it broke me. I've seen enough for a thousand lifetimes, the pain, the suffering I caused… there's not a single moment I don't see it, that I'm free of it. And yet, I don't want to die, because I was born into this world. I always believed, somewhere deep down, that I'd find my freedom, even though I'd seen my death a thousand times over. Now here I am, at the end." Eren looked down in shame, into the waves. "Do I even have a right to feel that way, after what I've done?"

All other thoughts rushed away from Armin as he sat down in the waves next to Eren and put an arm over his shoulder, bringing him close. Eren rested his head on Armin's shoulder and the two remained silent for a long while, trying in vain to figure out a way to understand the other again.

"When you wake up, the Titans will be gone," Eren finally said. "Reiner killed the worm that allowed the Titans to be continually passed down, and Mikasa ended the last Founding Titan. This curse of ours is no more."

Armin's mouth dropped. "Is that why you allowed this end to happen?"

"No," Eren said, pulling away. "This end is what we chose, not what I allowed. You don't understand. When I was a child, I wanted to kill all the Titans, because I labored under the belief that that end would bring about freedom. I don't harbor that delusion any more. But their end will allow humanity to turn a new page. War, violence and hate will always continue, perpetuated forward- Titans have never been the source of that. But the end of the curse will allow humanity to start over, and maybe find a better way. A path that leads to freedom." Eren met Armin's eyes. "And you will lead them down that path. The person that will save humanity is you, Armin."

Armin froze. "I-"

Eren pulled him into a hug, silencing him. Eren whispered into Armin's ear as the world began to fade around them. "When you wake up, find Historia," Eren said. "She'll tell you the rest, a story inconsequential to humanity but one that may help you understand me… Goodbye, Armin." And then Eren was gone, and he was back in his body, the smoke of his vanished Titan disappearing up into the air around him. He held a bare hand up to the sun and knew he was free of the curse. Armin smiled.

Out of the mist came Mikasa, cradling Eren's severed head in her arms. Armin rushed to her and the two embraced, Eren's head between them, eyes shut. All around them, Eldians emerged from the smoke, free of their Titan forms. Jean, Connie, Reiner, all of them free of the curse. Armin continued to smile sadly as he thought of Eren, holding Mikasa as she quietly sobbed.

All alone, Levi lay against a rock. "Hey guys…" The ghosts of the scouts appeared before him, Erwin and Hange at the front. "It seems that this is how it ends… a world free of Titans… the goal that all of you… dedicated your hearts to." Levi held his closed fist tightly over his chest as the ghosts faded, closing his eyes and letting a single tear roll down his cheek.

Reiner stood awkwardly as his mother ran up and embraced him. "Mom, I'm not the Armored Titan anymore…"

"I'm so glad," she said.

"Huh?" Reiner's mouth dropped.

"You're my son. I just want you by my side. Not that I deserve it… I pushed you, and you ran off and became the world's hero. You killed that worm, but you shouldn't have had to… it must have been such a burden for you. I'm sorry."

Reiner closed his mouth and his lips formed a smile. He closed his eyes and leaned into his mother's warm embrace.

"We should bury him by that tree we used to play under," Mikasa choked out to Armin. "He often napped there. He never looked more at peace."

Armin wondered for a split second if she'd shared his vision with Eren, before he looked into her eyes and realized that she just knew him that well, even after all this time. Armin swallowed the lump in his throat. "Yes. Let's bury him there. Just the two of us."

Out of the smoke emerged Secretary Muller, leading an armed Marleyan division. They levelled their guns at the powerless Eldians.

Armin stood and put his arms protectively out in front of Mikasa and his helpless friends behind him. "Please listen, Secretary Muller," he said. "Eren Jaeger is dead. The power of the Titans has been eliminated from this world. We're all just regular humans now."

"Can you prove it?" Secretary Muller asked with a quaver in his voice. "Right here and now? Are you humans… or are you Titans?"

"If there was anyone left with the power of the Titans, we'd be using it to protect ourselves right now. Instead, we stand here as you point your guns at us, powerless humans. We are at your mercy," Armin said.

Secretary Muller hesitated. "And you are?"

"I am Armin Arlert of Paradis Island," he said. He looked back at Mikasa, who had gently wrapped Eren's head in a jacket. The person that will save humanity is you, Armin. "I am the one that killed the Attack Titan, Eren Jaeger."

One month later

Armin sat underneath the tree on that hill, sweating profusely, shovel discarded next to him. The small hole in the dirt where Eren's head would be buried had been dug- even if it had taken more out of him than he'd expected, without the unnatural strength of his Titan powers. Armin looked up at the sun. Mikasa was due to meet him soon with Eren's head and his tombstone. But for now, he had the hill to himself, so he enjoyed the quiet swaying of the tree. "To move on from my dream…" Armin mused aloud. "My old dream is gone, but the world continues on… the future is uncertain, but perhaps I can still find something for myself in it. Is that what you meant, Eren, by 'keep moving forward'?"

The sound of footsteps startled Armin from his thoughts, and he looked up, expecting to see Mikasa. But instead it was Historia, a dark-haired infant in her arms. Armin's jaw dropped, looking from the infant to Historia and back again. "Historia?"

"Hi Armin," she said with a small smile. "Mind if I sit next to you? It's quite the hike up here."

Armin nodded, and she sat down beside him. The words tumbled out of him, gesturing at the infant in wide eyes. "Is it Eren's?" Armin suddenly clamped his mouth shut, feeling out of place.

"Yes." She laughed softly, looking out over the field below unmarred by the wall. "Eren told me you'd know the second you laid eyes upon her. He was so certain of it, even without seeing it in the future."

"What's her name?" Armin asked gently.

"Ymir."

The founder, or the friend? Armin opened and shut his mouth. "There's a lot I didn't understand about Eren, as much as I wanted to." Armin met Historia's eyes. "He visited me and told me that you could help me understand."

Historia nodded and brushed her hair out of her face, looking away. "For most of my life, I've been someone else's pawn, whether I wanted to be or not. I was a liar, because while I was known amongst the Scouts as the selfless one, I was secretly the most selfish of them all. But it wasn't until Ymir came along that I learned how to fight for myself, how to be free."

"And you loved her." It wasn't a question.

"And I loved her." Historia was quiet for a long while, and Armin waited patiently for her to continue. "That's why it hurt so much when she left me," she said bitterly. "I didn't understand why she sacrificed herself for the traitors. After spending her whole life pretending to be selfish, her first selfless act was her last. I wanted her to stay with me."

Armin thought of Mikasa's dependency on Eren as he watched Historia's face contort with grief.

"I unchained Eren and betrayed my father that day not because of humanity, or any grand cause, but because I wanted to," she continued. "He was my friend, and I wanted him to understand that his life had meaning, and that he shouldn't let the world determine his fate. We became the enemies of humanity." She choked out a laugh. "And then they made me Queen. Another role for me to play, another mask. But I was lost without Ymir, so I fell back into my old habits." Historia stooped and rocked baby Ymir gently, holding her close as she began to fuss.

"But that's not the end of the story," Armin said.

"No, it's not." A soft smile came across her lips. "I saved Eren, and then he saved me. We were friends, but more importantly, we understood each other's selfishness. He told me his plan to destroy the world. At first, I was horrified, but then he told me the story of the founder of all Titans, Ymir."

"He knew the true story of the founder?" Armin said in amazement. "I thought it had been lost to history."

"He saw it when he touched her in Paths." And then Historia told Armin the story of Ymir.

"Do you understand now?" Historia asked as tears rolled down Armin's face. "2000 years of suffering due to the curse, and he saw it all: it was either the world's freedom, or that of his home. That's why he kept moving forward. You all were determined to stop him, and he refused to stop you, and now here we are, in this uncertain future of ours."

Armin looked deep into her blue eyes, seeing the honesty within them. "So why did you two decide to have a child?"

"It was for Ymir," Historia said instantly. "I wanted to help Eren, and more than anyone, I understood his selfishness. I asked him if it would be possible for Ymir to be reborn when the age of Titans ends, free of her curse and free to live a new life. When I heard the story of Ymir, I thought of my Ymir, how she sacrificed herself for people that didn't deserve it. Neither of them lived for themselves." A tear rolled down Historia's cheek. "It was my selfish wish for Ymir to be free, and I asked Eren if it could come true."

To Armin's surprise, she paused and held out Ymir to him. "Do you want to hold her?"

She was so small- a wave of anxiety rolled through his stomach. "I- er- sure." He awkwardly took the baby from Historia's arms.

"Like this," she said, correcting his arms. Armin's heart melted as he looked down and Ymir opened her big, beautiful gray eyes. They were all Eren.

"Eren said that he knew the wish was possible, and that Ymir desired it, but that she only wanted it if it was my choice: she passed down the power of the Titans for 2000 years, after all, to protect her children and children's children." She blushed. "And Eren already knew what my choice was... and knew what I would ask of him."

Armin studied her closely. "Did you love him?"

Historia shook her head quickly. "No. I felt something for him, but it wasn't love- at least, not yet. Maybe I could have in another life, but I trusted and understood him… and that was what I needed in a world without my Ymir. Besides, in order for me to love him, I'd need him to love me back… and I think Eren was too broken to love anyone healthily. I didn't want to ask that of him."

Armin smiled, and gently transferred Ymir back into Historia's arms. He understood now, as much as he ever would. "You really are an honest person," Armin said. "I'm glad."

Historia's eyes watered. "Thank you." She stood, scanning the horizon. "It really is beautiful out here, isn't it?"

"It is."

Historia turned to face him. "We'll keep moving forward into that uncertain future, in this world without Titans. I am happy Eren chose you to save humanity, Armin." A small smirk tugged a corner of her lip upward. "I intend to be fully cooperative as the active Queen of Paradis Island."

Armin stuttered. "That's what you choose?"

The smirk stayed put as she mirrored his words. "It is."

Armin stood and offered his hand, but Historia rolled her eyes and brought him into a hug. He laughed shortly as he held her.

Footsteps startled him out of the embrace. There was only one person that could be. "Historia-"

She turned abruptly and the two could only stare at Mikasa, who'd frozen just feet from them, her eyes going between Historia, the infant, and then to Historia again.

Historia spoke first, eyes wide. "Mikasa, I-"

"Quiet."

Armin and Historia watched silently as Mikasa knelt by the hole Armin had dug and lowered Eren's head into it. She ignored the two of them as she slowly filled in the hole and propped up the gravestone she had brought against the tree. Brushing her hands off on her pants, she walked back to Armin and Historia, her face inscrutable. "What's her name?" Mikasa asked.

"Ymir," Historia said quietly.

Wordlessly, Mikasa unwrapped the scarf around her neck and wrapped it gently around Ymir. "It's hers now," she said. "Eren wanted me to be free. I don't know how to be, but that's what he would've wanted."

"Mikasa…" Armin said slowly, seeing the hurt in his old friend's eyes behind her mask.

She shook her head, silencing him. "I'll live for myself, starting today. Kiyomi said she's going back to Hizuru to help rebuild after the Rumbling. I'll go with her."

"You don't have to go," Armin said desperately. "You still have friends here. A home."

"I think I'll come back one day," Mikasa said, brushing her hair out of her face. It'd gotten several inches longer since she'd returned to Paradis. "But for now, I choose to go."

Understanding washed over Historia's face and the two made eye contact for a long moment. Then, Historia spoke: "Do you want to hold her?"

Mikasa jolted, eyes wide. "I- yes." Armin watched with a careful smile as the baby moved between the arms of the two women.

Mikasa rocked Ymir slowly, who was sleeping peacefully, and then propped her up on her shoulder. Holding Ymir close, a tear rolling down her cheek, she said softly:

"Ymir… You are free."

A/N: This story's been sitting on my chest ever since the final chapter came out back in April. It finally came gushing out today in the span of an afternoon. I was disappointed by the final chapter, and even more so by the extra eight pages. In the original ending, I liked that the future was left uncertain- it felt oddly hopeful, even if it was implied the cycle of hate continued. The extra eight pages removed all doubt and suddenly, all of the sacrifices, all of the death over the course of the story felt meaningless to me. I personally felt that that decision by Isayama was the wrong one, even though I understand and respect the theme behind it: that the cycle of hatred was not broken by Eren's destruction, or by the end of the Titans. In my version, I tried to toe the line between hope and an open future and the continuation of the cycle of hatred.

I also tried to fix what I perceived to be a betrayal of Eren's character in 139. He doesn't want to lose, he doesn't want to die, he's doing what he thinks he needs to do to find freedom for himself and his home. He knows why he did the Rumbling, and everything he did was his choice, even if it broke him inside. But he's also not going to kill his friends or strip them of their freedom. Thus, the impasse I tried to portray. I don't necessarily think he's the one we should be rooting for, but his character deserved justice in my opinion. Other things I deliberately changed: no mutual Eremika. Eren cares for Mikasa and definitely doesn't hate her, but there was nothing after chapter 50 that showed he liked her romantically. Besides, Mikasa's obsession for Eren is unhealthy, setting aside the incest argument and the fact Eren is too broken to be a healthy lover anymore. Eren said it himself: he wants her to be free. I also tried to improve Armin's dialogue. Why should he forgive Eren, when he murdered his dream? Armin doesn't understand Eren, can't forgive what he's done, but still wants to close that gap between them- that's what I was going for. The "thank you for becoming a mass murderer for our sakes" line was so bad in the original 139 I ended up flipping the line's meaning entirely in my version. And lastly, E+H=Y. I really think Historia's character was completely wasted post time-skip: not only was she turned into an offscreen plot device, she was turned into one with no payoff at that. Why? She had such a good arc in Uprising, and the amount of parallels she has with Ymir is insane. I really think E+H=Y is the logical payoff of her pregnancy, and that anything less falls flat, even though her complete absence after the time skip is already borderline unforgivable.

Lastly, I want to say that I respect Isayama and appreciate his hard work over the last 10+ years. I in no way take credit for his work or his masterclass story. No other piece of fiction has gripped me as tightly as Attack on Titan did, and my FanFiction is merely how I'd have liked to have seen his story end. Let me know what you thought of my version, how well I pulled off what I was going for, and thanks for reading.