Creation began on 01-15-23
Creation ended on 01-17-23
Attack on Titan
Different Mistakes to become Heroes: The Bargain
A/N: If you're nothing more than die-hard canon seekers, this story isn't for you.
Snap! They heard a twig snap under a foot, and as the fire died out long ago, they didn't know who was there that they weren't sure they could trust.
A shadow emerged from behind a tree, and these men and women from various places and walks of life saw a dark-skinned man in strange clothes they hadn't seen before. Or had they and forgot about it because they believed it didn't matter?
"I was beginning to worry I wouldn't reach any of you in time," he expressed. "It's nice to meet you on this day I hope will be one we can put behind us all."
"Who are you?" Hange Zoe questioned.
"Oh! Where are my manners? My apologies. My name is Brother Correction, and we've met only once before. It was during that attempt you made to broker peace between Paradis and the rest of the world in Marley."
"Aah!" Armin Arlert gasped. "You were the guy that spoke up in defense of the people of Paradis that day everyone else believed were evil and not worth saving!"
"Yes," Brother Correction stated as he nodded his head. "I am sorry that those that thought they knew better chose not to take my suggestions to heart. I believe that if they had, then what your friend, or your former friend by the current state of things resulting from his choices and lack of trust in you if he chose not to confide in you wholeheartedly, wouldn't have done what he did and is now making his move on the world beyond this island."
"You believed in the people of Paradis being no different from anyone else around the world," said Levi Ackerman, struggling to stand. "Why did you speak up in defense of Paradis?"
"Because it was the truth. If Paradis doesn't seek war with the world, it's only right that the rest of the world should've made attempts to speak with the people from Paradis. Unfortunately, you were bound to have problems from people, both those that came from Paradis and those that were against Paradis, and nothing would transpire the way you had hoped. The biggest of those problem causers being Eren Yeager thinking he knows what's best for Paradis…when he makes decisions behind your backs that put all of you in jeopardy."
"How could you possibly know any of this?" Mikasa Ackerman questioned, and someone else emerged from behind a tree, surprising them all.
"Because he told me of this," answers the voice of Historia Reiss to them, "and he wants to tell all of you, as well."
"Historia?" Connie Springer uttered. "What are you doing here?"
"Brother Correction came to see me first, said it was necessary if I wanted to change things as they are. He has a proposition…for all of us. But first, he wants us to know what is going on in Eren's head, and why he chose the Rumbling."
"I doubt you know what goes on in that monster's head," said Theo Magath.
"I don't blame you for thinking that," Brother Correction responded as he sat down, "just as I don't Gabi Braun here for killing Sasha Blouse; if Eren Yeager had simply confided in his friends what he knew at the time, I'm sure the attack on Liberio could've been avoided. It was all unnecessary bloodshed…caused by a selfish, self-centered boy that chose to keep secrets instead of confiding in the people he says he wants to protect and live long lives."
"Is there a point to any of this, sir?" Jean Kirstein asked him.
"Yes. Because Eren Yeager possesses both the Founding Titan and Attack Titan, two of the Nine Titans that are always in direct conflict with one another, anything Eren knew beforehand, he couldn't have told anyone, no matter how much he wanted to. The Founding Titan, which enforces order and stability, serving as a keeper of events past and yet to come…and the Attack Titan, which refuses to follow even the simplest of commands from those of authority and presses onward into a future it can never understand beyond its reckless need to fight for it and the unobtainable freedom it desires for all of Eldia, regardless of the cost, in both lives and beliefs. The Founder, which, even when possessed by a member of the Fritz royal family, long before the vow renouncing war was made, enabled one to see everything that would happen. Everything in the entire world…all at once."
"What do you mean, everything?" Connie questioned.
"I mean, everything. The past, the present and the future, all at the same time. If you possessed the Founder and had access to royal blood, you could see events that have already transpired, events that are transpiring right this minute…and events that have yet to happen…all at once. You would go insane from just a small taste of such knowledge, knowing that there are events yet to happen that you can't change, knowing that no matter what you say or do, nothing will change. You'll want to scream, you'll want to do something to stop it all, even tell those closest to you…but you can't. You can't tell anyone what you know, even when you want to. Even when you want to save them and the rest of the world."
"And this is what Eren saw?" Mikasa asked him. "This is why he started the Rumbling?"
Brother Correction nodded in the positive.
"So…even if Marley had taken the Founding Titan," Theo uttered, "with all of its power and everything…the person that possessed it would go crazy because of this power?"
"That's right," Brother Correction answered. "Even without the Attack Titan, it's a power beyond any that can't fight what's coming, and Eren has seen what has yet to come…and continues to move forward…simply because he chooses to. Because that's all he wants to do right now. He won't even try to stop any of you because he wants you to fight him, but in the end, it won't change that a lot of people are going to die because of his choices."
"Then…it's hopeless?" Annie Leonhart questioned him. "It's hopeless to protect the people we want to save from the Rumbling?"
"In the end, Mikasa kills Eren, but only because that's what Eren wants her to do," he states, surprising them. "Killing him stops the Rumbling, but over half the global population is killed in the end. Billions of lives. Men, women, children, all dead because of him."
Historia cries, regretting not stopping Eren.
"But none of this has happened yet," he tells them. "He has yet to reach the mainland…and it doesn't have to. None of that has to happen. Not if all of you can do what I'm about to suggest."
"What do you mean?" Falco Grice asked him. "If Eren already knows what's going to happen, then it's impossible to stop him from killing the majority of the world."
"He never told any of you about the power of the Attack Titan and why it's the only other member of the Nine Titans that Marley was never able to possess."
"What do you know about the Attack Titan?" Armin questioned.
"Besides never listening to authority and always fighting to move forward, the only power unique to the Attack Titan is its ability to receive memories from those yet to possess it. It acts on memories received from people that won't possess it until later on. Put quite simply, memories of the future, events from the beyond tomorrow. But as events have transpired now and from what I've told you, Eren isn't just the most recent holder of the Attack Titan. He's the last holder of the Attack Titan; therefore, the memories that he acts on from time to time…are just his own memories that he sent back through time to previous holders, including his own father, Grisha Yeager, reshaping events according to his will, rewriting the past to suit what he believed needed to happen. The night the Reiss family was murdered with the exception of Rod Reiss, the same night that Grisha killed Frieda Reiss for the Founding Titan? That was Eren's doing. If he had only the Attack Titan, he wouldn't have been able to cause that slaughter or any other deaths. He would've only been able to transfer his memories to the past. But he's not the only one that can affect the past and future, and that's where I need each of you."
"What are you talking about?" Gabi asked him.
"This has always been a hypothetical question. Basically, a what-if possibility: If you could start over, go back to the beginning, the day everything you knew became Hell, where you lost everyone you knew, everyone you ever loved…but knowing everything you know right now, everything that hasn't happened yet, what would you change? If you could all go back, knowing everything that has happened and everything that hasn't happened, how would you change things to your liking? Would you tell people you know? Would you make different choices? If you were told to do something, knowing what would happen, would you refuse? If you were told to kill someone, would you turn away? If you were told to fight, would you question why? If you knew someone you love, that loved you, was going to their death and you wouldn't see them again…would you go with them? Would you stop them? If you wanted to go back in time, back to the days you made choices that you regretted making…and could change the outcome…would you want to?"
"If I could," went Historia, "if I could go back…could I save my mother? Could I save Frieda? Could I save Ymir?!"
"If that is what you want. If that is what you're willing to try."
"Instead of stopping Eren in the here and now," said Jean, "you want us to stop him in the past?"
"To try and stop him, but that's not the only thing I want from each of you," Brother Correction explained. "I want you to save your friends. I want you to save your families. Your parents, your homes, yourselves. I want you to change the fates of those around you. If you go back into the past, that point in time becomes your new present, and anything you do, anything you say becomes part of it. And everything you know now, that you've known ever since you found out about any of it, becomes your knowledge with which to act on, changing events and making up events as you go through the days."
"And what if we fail to change things?" Connie questioned. "What if we can't stop Eren? Or the Rumbling still happens? Or the Colossal Titan attacks Wall Maria like before?"
"That only happened because I forced Bertolt to do it," Reiner stated. "If I can go back…can I stop him? Can I stop any of it? All of it? The attack on Wall Maria? The attack on Wall Rose? All of it?"
"If you try."
"Wait a minute," went Theo. "Say that we all agreed to this, that we all go back to a day in the past and changed things, how would any of us know if we knew things we weren't supposed to but do? We'd all probably end up in different points in the past. We wouldn't all be aware of each other's knowledge of current events."
Everyone looked at Theo and knew he was right; if they all went back in time to different points of their lives, they all would be scattered and unaware of who they were at the time.
"Ask each other a particular question," Brother Correction suggested. "Any question right now that you wouldn't have known how to answer back then. That way, should you ever meet in the future, you'll know who's from the here and now and who isn't yet."
"What sort of question?" Historia asked.
"Anything. Anything you could answer right now that you wouldn't have known how to answer in the past."
"Like, 'Why are you here in the here and now'?" Annie suggested as a possible question.
"Yes."
"That could work," Armin accepted. "Why are you here in the here and now?"
"To change the world," Mikasa used as a possible answer.
"That works, too," said Reiner.
"You'll need these, too."
Suddenly, each of them had a strange bracelet on their left wrist. They were made of a strange metal, fit snugly around the limb, and decorated with the current date.
"When you meet in the past, the new present, and ask each other the question and receive the right answer, those bracelets will appear on your wrists and identify each of you as someone that is aware of the here and now. When everything you've done to change events has happened, speak the current date engraved on the bracelet twice and you'll be brought back to the here and now, and everything you've ever done will take place and become part of history."
"But…what will you do, Brother Correction?" Hange asked him.
"I'll be your added insurance here," he answers. "While you're back in the past, I'll be here in the present. I'll pay Eren a visit and impede him. I've been meaning to talk to him and try and persuade him to stop the Rumbling of his own volition. If he chooses not to, I'll just keep him occupied by suggesting the same thing, over and over again."
"What if he still says 'no'? Levi suggests.
"Then I'll leave his fate up to each of you to decide. I wouldn't ask you to choose death for him. There are worse fates than dying. There is always a fate worse than that of death. Just as there is the belief of a god answering the prayers of those that look for answers to their questions, sometimes the answer you receive isn't always the answer you desire…if you're never specific about what it is that you want."
"Eren wants freedom," Armin informs them.
"That's not being specific," Brother Correction tells him. "Eren wants freedom, but what is specific about the freedom he seeks? What kind of freedom? If he's not specific, it can be anything…or nothing. Make sure you find out what kind of freedom he's after…and maybe that can be his fate if he refuses to change his tune. I'll be waiting for you in front of Eren. I will pray for each of you to return with elevations of redemption in your hearts."
"Thank you," Mikasa and Historia praised him.
"You can thank me by trying your best to save those that matter most to your hearts. Whatever chance you take is the chance I leave up to you. Good luck."
-x-
He knew the Wall Titans had already left the shorelines of Paradis, so he couldn't prevent them from leaving the islands, and despite his ability to turn things around, he couldn't simply gather up all of the Wall Titans and keep them confined. No, while he needed to buy the allied forces time to change the past and reshape the future, Brother Correction would need to stall Eren Yeager directly; as he was the one moving forward, the Titans were slaved to his will, more or less. So long as he kept him occupied, the others wouldn't be able to do much while still in the ocean. In addition, he was hoping to push Eren's buttons by seeing how long he could endure a conversation with him, whether he wanted to or not.
Looking through the steam generated by the immense heat given off by the Titans as they moved through the water, Brother Correction saw the grotesque Titan Eren created to serve as his form, an insult to the fact that he, as the holder of the Founding Titan, was still nothing more than a slave that moved on a predetermined course.
"Many times, we have done this dance, Eren Yeager," he sighs as he floats in the air, "and many times, the outcome is different. How will it end this time?"
Then, he propelled himself like a bullet, through the steam, through the Titan's skull…and stood up in front of the disgusting sight that was Eren's head suspended by strands of Titan flesh above his exposed spine. The head's eyes were closed, indicating he was asleep, and this infuriated Brother Correction; those that thought they were doing good while technically doing wrong didn't deserve to sleep like there was nothing wrong with the current state of the world.
"Even in the darkest of suffering, a man can sleep, but for a man who inflicts the suffering, his mind cannot rest. Ever." He uttered as he stepped towards the disgusting sight of Eren's disfigured state. "You wretched child of inexcusable rage! WAKE UP!"
The eyes of Eren's head opened and looked at him.
"Who are you?" He asked, his voice sounding uninterested in even asking such a question.
"I'm Brother Correction," he introduced, "and I've come to bargain."
"There's nothing to bargain over. Everything will be resolved in due time."
"Not like this, boy. Not like this."
"What you think…doesn't matter."
Pierce! Brother Correction was suddenly impaled by a spear of bone, right through his heart!
"Aaurgh!" He groaned, looking as the head returned to its slumber. "You wretched child of inexcusable rage! WAKE UP!"
Eren's head opened its eyes and looked at Brother Correction, standing before him.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"I'm Brother Correction, and I've come to bargain," he answered.
"There's nothing to bargain over. Everything will be resolved in… What is this? An illusion?"
"No. I'm very real…and very enraged with your actions. Your actions. I could care less about Ymir Fritz's; I'll deal with her after I deal with you."
"But you won't deal with her. You won't deal with anyone."
Pierce! He was stabbed in the back again by a spear of bone…and Eren closed his eyes again.
"You wretched child of inexcusable rage," Eren heard his voice again. "WAKE UP!"
Opening his eyes, he saw Brother Correction standing before him.
"Who are you?" He asks him.
"I'm Brother Correction, and I've come to bargain."
"There's nothing to bargain over… What? What is this?"
"Took you long enough to notice. You think your Attack Titan is the only one that can manipulate temporal phenomena? Just as you used the power of the Titans to orchestrate your grand design, I'm orchestrating my own design to counter yours. I'm a traveler of the world beyond your perceptions, beyond your beliefs, beyond…your understanding. And this…is a penance, Eren Yeager. An endless, looped…penance."
"Is that so?" Eren questioned, and Brother Correction was pierced in his heart again by a spear of bone in front of the mutilated head. "I am tired."
Returning to his slumber, he wanted to put this encounter behind him and continue moving forward with the Rumbling until his friends came to stop him. Until Mikasa came to stop him.
"You wretched child of inexcusable rage," he heard his voice again. "WAKE UP!"
He saw Brother Correction again, and he was disturbed by this. The spear of bone piercing his body wasn't there!
"What?" He went, seeing Brother Correction's face contorted with disgust. "You…you can't keep doing this. I must move forward."
"Yeah, you keep moving forward," Brother Correction responded, "because I can keep doing this. This is how things are right now for both of us. You and I…in this moment…without end."
"You dare to fight against the inevitability of what has to happen?"
"Yes, I dare…because this isn't the way to settle things."
"But no other way works."
"Only because you didn't put in the effort to try."
"Even if I did try, I would be dead in less than five years."
"You don't know that to be true, and even if it were, I'd rather see you spend your remaining years rotting away in a prison cell with the remainder of your Yeagerists!"
"You would condemn my people to death?"
"What people? Based on what you've done in Liberio and on Paradis, you don't really seem to care much about the people you say you want to protect. You want everyone to fight for something that is impossible to have…simply because you want what you don't have, what you won't have, no matter how much you desire it. It's outrageous and inhumane. You want to fight? Then you go ahead and fight, but don't drag other people into your ugliness."
"If you don't fight…"
"Bullshit, boy! Not everyone wants to raise their hands in violence! You preach about what you want, but you teach only violence! Violence is just a poison that's as rotten as hatred! And even if you prevail, you will not erase the hatred that others will feel towards Eldians because of you!"
"I will erase the hatred of this world, and there's nothing you can say or do to stop me."
"In this loop, nothing else can transpire until I decide to end it. No Rumbling, no genocide, no salvation from your friends. Nothing. It's just you and I in this moment."
"Then you will spend this moment getting stabbed in the back and through the heart."
"But everyone out there in the world will live. Everyone."
"But you will die!"
"Death is just one of my friends that I often turn to for aid. He's become a good friend I trust to do what is necessary."
Pierce! And he was stabbed by the spear of bone again.
"You wretched child of inexcusable rage," Brother Correction uttered again. "WAKE UP!"
Eren had two spears of bone stab him this time, one through his back like before, and the other through his head.
"I'm Brother Correction."
Pierce!
"I've come to bargain."
Pierce!
"You wretched child of inexcusable rage!"
Pierce!
"WAKE UP!"
Pierce!
"End this!" Eren yelled at him, finding himself growing infuriated with this man he skewered with bony spears.
"I'm Brother Correction."
Pierce!
"I've come to bargain."
Pierce!
"Brother Correction…Brother Correction…Brother Correction…"
Pierce! But no matter how many times Eren had him skewered, he wasn't really putting a dent in this man's action.
The next time a bone spear went through Brother Correction, it went through his waist, wounding him as he fell to his knees and palms when the bone spear was retracted.
"Just end this!" Eren's head demanded of him. "What I'm doing is for the sake of Paradis! For the sake of my friends! You can't stop me from doing what I know will save them from the world's hatred! You can't win!"
"The world's hatred?" Brother Correction questions. "The world doesn't have hatred. The world can't understand hatred. Only people can understand hatred…and what you're doing is only making the hate others have for Eldians worse by doing it. Even if you succeed, you will have murdered innocent lives that have nothing to do with your plight…or your sleights, both real and imagined. Men who have done nothing to support the carnage you experienced in Shiganshina. Women still waiting to hug their babies with all their love. Children that deserve to smile and laugh without a sense of fear from someone who's demonstrated that they're willing, not just able, to commit murder on a grand scale and be condemned for it. And I owe them all a grand debt I can never repay for this audience with the likes of you, Eren Yeager. A grand debt. Gaurgh! Urgh!"
He spat out some blood in front of Eren.
"Nobody's coming," he continued. "Not Armin…not Hange…or Historia…or Levi…or even Mikasa. Nobody. Not to stop you. Not to help me. Not to do anything you want them to do, even to stop you at the cost of all this unnecessary suffering that you enabled. You, your half-brother…and Ymir Fritz, whose only real contribution to this madness is enabling you. She could've turned against the brutal king in her time. She didn't have to do as he desired when she got a taste of the power she was given. She could've run away, created her own domain, killed that bastard and free her people. But she didn't…because she wanted his love. But people like that…are either incapable of love…or see it as a distraction. Even if you do this out of love, it's the wrong kind of love. A willingness to stain your hands with bloodshed and hatred, to condemn your soul to the fires of Hell for eternity…out of love…will not spare you the ugliness of your despair or your friends the burden of your passing, leaving them in a world where you force people to either fight an enemy that simply doesn't exist until you decide to go looking for one…or die…just to live for a desire that is impossible to achieve."
"If you don't fight, you don't deserve to live. If you fight, you live."
"Fighting only makes you someone you want everyone else to see for a different reason, not someone you want to be seen by everyone else as. And what are you fighting for? What do you want? What do you really want? I got nothing else to do but make this bargain."
"You won't stop me."
"Maybe you're right. No. No, you're right. You're as right as the rain that falls from the clouds and dampens the ground. I can't stop you from doing what you want to do to the world, such is the repercussions of free will. I can't win. But I don't have to. Why would I want to win now? Why win…when I can lose to you? And I can lose…again…and again…and again…and again for all time. For all time, losing to you, Eren Yeager…and that alone is enough of a victory for someone like me. Dying because of you, in this loop, getting in your way…forever…robs you from achieving your objectives. You know what that means?"
Eren's eyes widened as realization began to weigh on his current situation with this man.
"No," he utters.
"That's right, Eren," Brother Correction tells him. "In order for you to be free, you won't hesitate to take someone else's life…but when you're taking the life of the same person, me, over and over again…that makes you my prisoner. That means I've taken from you what you choose to kill others for."
"No!" Eren yells, and skewers him again. "Stop it! Make this stop! Let me go!"
Brother Correction stood before him again, unscathed, looking down at his head.
"Let me go! Set me free!"
"No, Eren Yeager," he told him. "I've come to bargain."
Eren was in a position to kill him again, but it wouldn't change his situation; so long as he was stuck in this loop, he was trapped. He couldn't move forward because of this man, and he needed to move forward. To free his people, his home, he needed to go through with the Rumbling. But this man was impeding his advances.
"Urgh, what do you want?!" He gave in and demanded from him.
"End the Rumbling, Eren Yeager," he stated his terms, "return the Titans, all of the Titans, back to human form, end your assault on the world, return to Paradis Island and accept your fate by the people you manipulated. Never come back. Do all of this…and I'll end the loop. Persist…and you'll just have to keep killing me…again…and again…and again."
But Eren didn't want to accept these terms; accepting them would mean he accepted having his freedom removed, and condemning all of Paradis to death. He refused to leave them vulnerable to the wrath of the world.
"I can't accept your terms," he told him. "I have to save my people. You're putting them in danger by trying to make me stop. I won't let you. I won't."
Brother Correction didn't respond to his decision, either verbally or physically. He gave his word to the allied group to halt and hold Eren for as long as they needed until they changed what they could in the past. So long as he kept Eren's focus on himself, he would not be able to move a step further towards his goal of doing worse than what he had already done. For as long as it takes for these divided and maimed souls to alter their own fates and escape from the cruelty of their orchestrated destinies, he owed it to them to endure this degrading and brutal wrath of human evil that had transcended the boundaries of comprehensible evil. He then felt the bone spears pierce his back again.
-x-
She was on the farmlands again. She looked down at her small hands, then looked up towards the departing woman she had met sparingly over the time spent on the farm.
I'm back in the past, Historia realized; the moment she made a change in her past, it would serve as a stepping stone to her new present, and she knew what she wanted to do first.
"But Brother Correction," she remembers Armin questioning before they left the future, "the Founding Titan possesses the power to manipulate the memories of Subjects of Ymir. Say Historia goes back and tries to see her sister, Frieda Reiss, who would have the Founding Titan during that time, what's to stop Frieda, who would be under the influence of the king's ideology and the vow renouncing war, from taking away her memories and stopping her?"
That was the question that affected every Subject of Ymir that was going back in time by means of his aid.
"Because of my intervention, your memories, everything you know now, including how things will end, are off limits to the Founding Titan's power to affect memories," he had told them. "Frieda and Eren, no matter what they try, can't impede your recollection and halt your efforts to affect the past. Everything you know now, you can use to your advantage and impact the people in the dominions of yesterday. So when Historia, should she choose to see her sister, brings up whatever she chooses to bring up in front of Frieda, not even the ideology of Karl Fritz II can alter the new present. And…I will wager all that I am that Ms. Reiss' love for her will grant Frieda a reprieve from his will."
"Frieda!" Historia called out to her. "Wait! Stop!"
The woman stopped and turned around…and Historia's previous past…came undone, setting the groundwork for her new present.
This time…I'll take back my life and decide how I live, the young queen, or rather, the young girl that could've been queen in the future, thought as she ran over to her big sister. This time, I'll raise my voice.
To be continued…
A/N: This idea has been in my head for a while, so I figured I get it out in the open. It feels different from the usual things I have my OC do in different universes; instead of being a primary focus, Brother Correction is meant to be the deus ex machina for the allied group to stand against Eren and Ymir Fritz in the Rumbling, giving them the opportunity to go back in time and change the outcome with the knowledge they obtained over the years or were given by him directly. And the end of the chapter gives you a clue as to what is to be expected, and I can only caution those of you to understand that if you don't like deviations from what is canon, you don't need to bother with reading this. It's not meant for die-hard canon seekers, just for people that want to be creative and alter the very fabric of the world the story is set in, and this is just the first chapter.