Creation began on 03-12-23

Creation ended on 03-19-23

Attack on Titan

Different Mistakes to become Heroes: Heart-Splitting Choices

A/N: When the choices we make in order to change the world we live in result in reactions that can be either positive or negative, but in the end be the result of the choices made.

Eren Yeager, despite no longer having to live in a enclosed environment like so many others now that the Walls were gone, felt lonely because Armin had been doing other things to help his grandfather. Even as he was gathering wood for his home, it seemed like everyone else was doing things that were beyond his comprehension.

"I'm just…planning ahead for my future, Eren," Armin had told him earlier. "With the Walls no longer around, the Garrison is going to need ideas for how to look out for the people in case of an emergency. I have a few that I hope they'll consider in the future."

Why does it seem more like he's avoiding me? Eren thought as he gathered more pieces of wood for home. Why does it seem like everyone is avoiding me?

In the past few weeks, despite having a little more freedom to wander around with the fall of the Walls, Eren felt cut off from people in a way that he was unable to put into words. His father was busier than usual, Armin disappeared for days at a time, and members of the Garrison and the reassigned Survey Corps were rarely seen within the districts. If there was something else going on that he was ignorant of, he wondered what it was all really about.

-x-

"…So, how are you feeling away from Eren?" Levi asks Mikasa as they, Armin and Hange were walking on a path through a forest towards the coastal area.

"It feels different from before," she says as she looks up at a tree. "I know he's not the same person that wanted me to kill him just to stop him and become heroes, but…there are other ways to become heroes than just his way…which was not the best way. I hope that he changes and becomes a better person from before."

"We're all hoping that he becomes a better person from before," adds Hange, looking up ahead and seeing a familiar face.

It was Jean, waiting for them to arrive.

"Are we late?" Armin asks him.

"No, we're still waiting for Dr. Yeager to evaluate the remaining patients that were the Wall Titans," he answers, leading them to a series of large tents housing the patients. "Commander Smith and Frieda are still talking about how to deal with the rest of the world now that the Rumbling is no longer a deterrent we can exploit. It feels like our workload increased a hundredfold. For every new step we take, we get more uncertainty about how to progress."

"But at least we're alive, right?"

"Yeah. We're alive. People we know are alive, too. I'm grateful."

They entered the largest tent, seeing Erwin and Frieda speaking to one another.

"…So, it's a matter of days before we can expect a visit from anyone from across the ocean," Erwin responded to what Frieda had informed him.

"We can expect the remaining members of the Nine Titans to be present when they arrive," she adds in, clearly aware of what was going to happen in the future due to her Founding Titan's ability to know of events before they transpire. "There will be people from the nation of Hizuru along with the allies from Marley."

"That's good. I look forward to meeting with them."

"As do I, Commander Smith. As do I."

They walked over and Mikasa asked Frieda about the people coming from Hizuru.

"Can we expect a shift in agenda because it's not Zeke Yeager introducing us to them?" She wanted to know, and Frieda nodded her head in the positive.

"Everything has changed…but something is still off with what has yet to come," Frieda explains. "I see Eren Yeager…but there are two of him; there's the one that you are each avoiding…and the one that is still engaging the man that enabled you to return to the past and rewrite the present. However, the one trapped by your ally is not looking as though he has learned anything new…except a newfound rage towards any that impede him. He's stuck in a loop with your ally, who's more human than he seems because he has suffered by being killed by Eren each time."

"Brother Correction has been killed by Eren?" Jean questions.

"Repeatedly. As I said, I see him and Eren stuck in a loop; this Brother Correction has trapped them in a temporal cage where he has control over ending it, effectively imprisoning Eren and preventing him from moving forward and enraging him. Eren murders him, over and over again. But this ally, despite being more than human, is still less than a god, and while he has power over Eren, it is torture for him to endure the wrath of a man that refuses to see that there is always another way to resolve differences without the need for genocide…even if nobody else sees it that way."

"So, the Eren we left him to face is still unwilling to stop, even when placed in a situation where he can't get out without making a compromise," Armin realized. "But Brother Correction is still the one in control, no matter how many times Eren kills him."

"Still, it is torment for him to be killed as many times by Eren…but it is a torture he endures to ensure that you all change the world we live in now…because that's what he wants you to do. If I had to call this man selfish for wanting a benevolent change, it would be wrong to say such, because he's not a selfish person. He's selfless; while he does benefit from change, it's more for all of us than it is for himself."

"He only benefits…when we benefit," Hange understood. "But hold on, how are there two versions of Eren?"

"When the past and present were changed, it created a branch in existence, dividing your friend into two; the young man you're avoiding until you can make sure he can be trusted and become a changed man…and the former friend that chose genocide because nobody saw peace and coexistence as being worth working towards."

"But if we changed the past and present, shouldn't he have been…undone?" Levi questions.

"For some reason, this Eren Yeager is unwilling to let go of his existence, even though it has become insignificant. His past has come undone, but he keeps moving forward, as if fighting for something more than an outdated belief for freedom that has no definite meaning if he can't be specific about it. It's like he's fighting just to live now."

"Even when it all seems hopeless for him," went Jean, "he still acts defiant."

"Defiant to a fault," Armin states.

"But that's just the Eren we left to stop," said Mikasa. "The Eren we've been avoiding as much as possible ever since we got here, he's the one we can save from becoming anything like him."

"How else can we save him?" Hange questions. "He hasn't lost his mother, his father knows what he would've done and Frieda has made it so that he won't become the Attack Titan. The Survey Corps has been retasked and isn't taking in new recruits, so he can't enlist. The royal family is alive, we have Frieda on our side. The Walls are gone. Reiner and Annie are keeping Bertolt in check, and didn't Historia do something else to change the present?"

"Yes, she did," Frieda replied, "but it was more for herself than for the people. Initially, I was against it, but Historia was persuasive."

All Historia had asked Frieda to do for herself was just remove the one part of her that she didn't need right now and may not need unless she deemed it necessary until she was ready to go down that route. So long as she had Ymir in her life, she was content with the rest of her role in this endeavor they were in. Plus, Frieda was currently the ruler; her involvement in the Reiss family was no different from an heir presumptive, like her other half-siblings. There was simply no need to have her fight for her claim to the throne right now. And…it resolved something that had been a conversation between herself and Mikasa, something that hadn't been questioned in the beginning, but something that needed to be cleared in the air of words.

"Historia," Mikasa had stated when they had privacy to converse. "Before we left the present, the previous future and back to the past, our new present, we had noticed that you were…in a very delicate state. I didn't think to ask you, but now I need to ask because I want to know the truth. Did you and Eren…"

"No," Historia had been quick to answer her. "Never. He wasn't the one. Before he ever left with you to Marley, I merely asked him something…and he answered. He didn't want me to inherit the Beast Titan…and I didn't really want to inherit any of the Nine Titans. It was a man I had met while on the farm. As much as I knew Eren wasn't going to stop until he had ensured Paradis was safe from the rest of the world, I was against what he was planning to do because it was wrong to kill all of those people that hadn't done anything to us. Also…he didn't show any interest, not when he was going to die, anyway. If I had survived it, how could I tell my child what their father had done if he had been the father? It's…it's not something I could be proud of. Not at such a high cost. It was better for the father to be a simple man I met on the farm than for him to be a soldier whose heart held no room for any more hope or positive change."

Not once did Historia look away from Mikasa; there was no deception, no hint of lying…and Mikasa accepted her answer as the absolute truth. Even if both women had cared about Eren, he had gone beyond their reach and wouldn't turn back.

"What are your feelings for Eren?" Historia had asked her.

"He was family to me," she replied. "I cared about him…but I didn't want to kill him, even to save the world. I just wanted him to come home and be with me, to stop fighting, hurting others. I didn't care if he had lost his arms, legs or even had his head maimed. So long as he was alive and could no longer see a reason to fight anyone, I was content with that."

"Yeah. I would've been fine with him, as well…if he had just stopped and found the time to simply…live in the here and now. I don't know if it was because he possessed the Attack Titan or because of both the Attack and Founding Titans, but he just never seemed to be…present. Like…at all. I mean, he was there, but…he wasn't really there."

Mikasa understood what Historia meant; after retaking Shiganshina and the rest of Wall Maria, Eren just wasn't the same person they had known. Whether it was in a conversation or in a conflict, the young man that only wanted to fight and move forward was becoming a man they couldn't connect with because of his hardened exterior…and colder interior. Maybe it was because of his possession of the Attack and Founding Titans…or it was just who he was due to his personality. Whichever reason it was, that Eren Yeager was…not someone they could save any more than they could try and save others that mattered to them.

"All he told me when I asked him was that he wanted to be free to go wherever he wanted," Mikasa tells them. "That's not entirely specific, though. Going wherever one wants to go is impossible because there are some places one simply can't go to."

"It sounds like Eren can't be specific about what he wants," Erwin says to them, "but what was it that you said this Brother Correction told you if he couldn't or wouldn't stop with his attempted genocide? That…he would leave his fate for you to decide?"

"Yeah, that's right?" Armin replies, remembering the final decision Brother Correction would give them. "We're the ones that get to decide what will happen to Eren in the end. He wouldn't ask us to choose how he dies, only that there are fates worse than death. If Eren refuses to stop, then we should deal him such a fate that makes one desire only death…only to be denied it."

"But…what is worse than dying?" Hange asks. "What could possibly be worse than getting killed? It seems like it's the absolute worst thing imaginable."

"What if…the worst fate…was the one you couldn't escape from?" Levi suggested. "Like…being chased by someone that wanted to kill you…only you're forced to keep running? Or being trapped in a fire with no way out?"

"What about a maze?" Armin suggested, simply trying to be a little merciful towards the fate of their former friend and ally. "A maze so massive that you can't find the exit, no matter which direction you take. Instead of getting closer to the way out, you simply lock yourself deeper within its confines."

"How long do we have to decide what his fate will be?" Jean asks.

"We probably have until we return to the day we left," stated Mikasa. "I hope that Brother Correction will be able to endure keeping Eren occupied until we go back."

"I think if anyone can endure this suicidal bastard by keeping him from moving forward with his desperate attempt at salvation for the people of Paradis and what's left of the world," Hange claims, "it's definitely him."

"This Brother Correction," went Frieda. "I'd really like to meet him one day."

"I think we'd all like to meet him," added Erwin. "He may not be a god, but I'd just like to ask him if he could answer me one question."

Suddenly, Grisha came inside the tent with his final report on the patients.

"They're all in good health after eating and drinking water," he informed them. "Some of them are asking why they're alive after being Titans for so many years. I didn't know what to tell them. What do I tell them?"

"I'll tell them," Frieda tells them. "The wise build bridges…while the foolish build barriers. Now's not the time to be foolish when it's better to be wise."

-x-

"I must say," uttered Kiyomi of the Azumabito family to Willy Tybur and Theo Magath, "it's quite a surprise to be visited by people from Marley. The last we heard from you, you were planning to wage another war against another nation for resources. Why are you here?"

"We're not here to start a war against you," said Magath to her. "We're here to start a change."

"What change?"

"Change that has been long overdue," Willy explains. "We're heading to the island of Paradis, but we'd like you to come with us."

"And why should I oblige you? Marley has been making plans to attack Paradis for years, but you need the support of other countries to have as much of a chance of success as possible. What could you expect from a nation of people that the rest of the world sees as nothing more than penny-pinching vixens?"

"Because we're not interested in war, ma'am…and we're not interested in genocide, either. Nobody has visited Paradis for more than a century, and there are people there you should meet. People that are descended from Hizuru." Magath tells her.

"How can you be certain that Paradis has people descended from people from here? Where is your proof?"

That was quite the question being asked; it wasn't like Magath could produce tangible evidence that there was at least one person he had met from Paradis that was a descendant of the Azumabito clan, and Willy Tybur had never been to Paradis, which meant he couldn't vouch for Magath's claim.

"All I have is my word is that there is a person on Paradis associated with your clan," Magath expressed. "I can't prove that I've seen anyone from there…and I will not lie for the sake of something that isn't what I'm after."

"And what are you after?"

"Peace and coexistence. For the first time in a long time…that's all I'm interested in."

Kiyomi had to express that she found his interest to be appealing, even for a Marleyan that had been a party to bloodshed and spewing hatred for several years since joining the military force of his nation. If he was only seeking peace and coexistence between Paradis and the rest of the world, he must've had what few could only understand as a revelation or epiphany…and asked if he did experience such a happening.

"I have," he reveals. "It was more than a revelation. Does it count to say that one has experienced something once and has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change things for the better…before they get worse like before?"

"Yes, it does," she answers. "There have been very few, a very small number of people, across history, who have experienced revelations of this sort and come to the realization that they could relive events in order to change them. What was your revelation?"

"The end of the world. The Rumbling. The repercussions of hatred…and how far one was willing to go to destroy it. But you can't destroy hatred with death and destruction."

"Only a wicked heart would come to believe in such…because it's what they choose to believe in when they don't want to believe in anything else, even when it means paying a price higher than what they already expect to pay."

"Like…an eternal curse or a form of penance that lasts beyond death?" Willy asks her.

"Yes. When you go down that path, the price will be higher than you realize…and can never be paid in full. The cost of vengeance, of hatred…and even freedom…is always high and can never be paid, no matter what you do. The only way to avoid paying such a cost…is not to seek what you know can end badly for you."

"And if you're only seeking for the sake of others, not to cause harm but to create change? Benevolent change?"

"Then…that's a different cost one can hope to pay because it's the opposite of what can end bad for them."

-x-

This time, it was a slow death for him. Instead of being skewered or dismembered or even decapitated, Brother Correction was being strung up and bled out by Eren, who looked worse than ever because the skin on his head had withered further to reveal the teeth on his sides. But Brother Correction didn't fight him at all when he felt the bony tendrils pierce his arms and hang him off his feet; this was just another attempt by Eren to try and end his own torment by being unable to escape from this cruel situation he ended up in. This was his desperate attempt to exhibit some kind of control over his would-be fate. Except that this wasn't his fate. At least not the fate Brother Correction would've dealt him with; this loop was just to keep Eren occupied while what happened beyond their respective perceptions affected the rest of the world. Even when outside of time, it felt like time was all they had…and all they lacked.

"How does this feel?" Eren asked him. "You're bleeding from your hands and legs. Are you in pain? Do you feel like you're going to throw up?"

"Now, those are…some odd questions to ask me," he responded. "How I feel right now is irrelevant to what is happening. You're not the first person that thought they could break me, and you won't be the last…but I must say…you are perhaps the most persistent one I've ever encountered. I've fought with serial killers that dabbled in forbidden knowledge, fanatics whose cruel acts only escalated when they felt they were being ignored, children who were devoid of their morality and condemned others to suffer. I live only to change the fate of others so that they may go on to live better lives. Those that need to be saved will be saved, and those that can't be saved will suffer worse than they can imagine. But I am far from absolute in an existence of absolutes and uncertainties. Who are you in such an existence? Who…and why?"

Eren seriously didn't like it when he was asked such questions that he couldn't understand.

"I think the real question is…what good is a person like you that seems to cherry-pick who gets your attention and who gets overlooked?" He responded with instead.

"Oh, now, that's an evasive response, Eren Yeager, especially after I've lost enough of my blood to fill ten packs of blood to save ten people in need of life-saving transfusions. You reminded me of the situation I had to deal with almost… No, it was the equivalent of eighty years ago. I had to help a couple suffering from a blood shortage during the midst of an outbreak. Eldians were the heroes of the people due to their greater immunity and adaptability to certain diseases. Twenty out of every twenty-thousand carried a greater ability to ensure that others from other walks of life could survive with the only drawback of having one of their eyes not matching on either side of their heads. The only downside to the Eldians with this ability was their immunity to disease made them incapable of having children of their own. Historia, Armin, Ymir, Connie, Erwin Smith, your paternal aunt, even Mikasa were among those with this greater immunity defect that ended up saving countless lives. They became among the heroes that walk around everyday, the ones that don't have to engage anyone over anything, just doing something as reassuring…as giving what they replenish within themselves every time they shed it…and letting the afflicted know that their lives mean something more than what others truly think they mean. Thank you for reminding me of why I do what I do. That was one of my favorite memories under a century old that holds a special place in my heart."

"What about me?" Eren asks him.

"What about you?" He replied.

"You said Eldians were the people that saved the rest of the world. Don't I exist in this lifetime you visited to help?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"No, actually."

"That's fine with me; the people that say they don't want to know what became of them in other lifetimes, in alternate possibilities…are usually the ones who fear the answers. Because they may not like what they hear, which only relates to that particular lifetime; the chances of that outcome echoing in another lifetime are slim. Not impossible, just unlikely due to many factors."

Eren's face degraded slightly further, and the bone tendrils pulled back slightly, causing Brother Correction's hands to extend more as they were pulled, causing more blood to spill out from the gaping holes in their palms.

"Aaaurgh!" He groaned. "There's no retreat…once a threshold has been crossed! You can't turn back the way you came through! All you can do…is change the outcome! All you can do…is deviate from what was believed to be set in stone! Shatter the stone! Seize your own goals in life! Aaaurgh! You can bleed me dry, Eren, but this is a threshold you can't retreat from!"

Eren said nothing, but the bone tendrils pulled on Brother Correction's hands tighter, making him scream in agony some more. He didn't enjoy this at all, but he got some pleasure in making this man suffer.

-x-

A week went by before they had to meet again, but this allowed for seven days of keeping tabs of Eren; everyone else they had ever met in the previous past, the same people that had nothing to do with what they were doing now because the Survey Corps weren't excepting new recruits and the Walls were gone, they were overlooked due to their being no foundation for the Yeagerists to be established. But even from a distance, it seemed like Eren, despite no longer having the Walls to enclose the people and the Garrison expanding watch grounds and building sentry towers to replace them, was miserable for some reason.

"…It's been a while, Eren," said Armin to him as they met by the tree on the hill.

"Yeah," Eren agreed with him, seeing that Mikasa was with him. "What have you been up to?"

"Asking around about the Garrison branch. Mikasa might join the Military Police in order to pursue her goal of establishing a garden someday."

"It sounds like you two already know what you want to do."

"We just look for options on what to do with our lives if we can't pursue what we really want to do," Mikasa tells him. "If we only decided that we wanted to do one thing, we end up following a rigid and stale belief over a series of ideas. What do you want to do with your life."

"I just want to be free."

Armin and Mikasa looked at each other with solemn expressions; Eren made his desires difficult to comprehend if he wasn't specific enough to interpret.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Armin asks him. "You say you want to be free, but I don't understand what you mean by it."

"I've said it before. I want to be able to go wherever I want, to not feel restricted. Even with the Walls gone, it still feels like I'm in a cage…and I hate that feeling, and it feels like everyone is just avoiding this change now that the Walls are no more. I hate feeling like I'm locked up."

"Then…go somewhere," Mikasa suggested. "Venture out into the woods, take a dip in a lake, see if anyone is making plans to venture out once the Survey Corps has mapped out the entire terrain. It's gotta be better than fighting with the adults I'm told you criticize for never wanting to do what you want."

Eren looked at Armin, a look of betrayal on his face.

"There's no hiding things from her," Armin claimed. "Girls have a power of persuasion that I can't understand. My grandfather says that it's no use fighting them, because they always win."

"No cool," he told them. "Yes, I criticize the adults, but they're the ones that never want to venture out to begin with. They condemned the Survey Corps for going out all the time and getting the same results over and over again, priding themselves with never needing to go out into the world. Even without the Walls, I still feel like they should be the ones criticized for their cowardice. I just want to hit them so hard they'll…"

"That's just wrong, Eren," Mikasa told him. "That's no excuse to view adults that have their own free will and can choose what they want to do or believe in. If you think they're cowards for choosing to believe what they want to believe in, then who are you to judge them for their choice? Who are any of us to judge them for their beliefs? If I were to call you out for being a jerk simply because you became upset with me because I made a conscious choice not to have anything to do with the Survey Corps because I see no reason in enlisting and going down a path I don't believe I need to go down, where is the line that is drawn? Or…or if you picked a fight with Armin because you made a claim to hate someone simply for who they were or who their parents were, and he made a choice to stand up for them, where is the line that is drawn? Everyone is always going to have their opinions, their beliefs or ideals that are theirs to choose, and, yes, there will always be those that don't agree with them, but if they don't agree with them, they can always do the one thing that makes more sense than to engage in a conflict you're unlikely to win."

"Which is?"

"Walk away. Some people think there's shame in walking away, but it's a lie. There's no shame in walking away; you walk away, you retain your dignity and your beliefs that aren't tarnished any further by someone else's criticism. The real shame goes to those that persist in what they believe in and try to project them onto others, especially when they know it's wrong to do so. They disgrace themselves and the people they look to for support in their beliefs. And having a belief that you put above all else isn't the right thing to have when it makes you feel like you have to pick a fight with others that choose to ignore it in favor of something else they feel like believing in."

"You think beliefs are bad?"

"I…just think it's better to have ideas," Mikasa clarified. "Anyone can have an idea and change it to accommodate the ideas of others. But a belief is harder to change because it becomes rooted in the minds of the like-minded…until it becomes the only truth they come to understand…and are willing to do anything to protect and project, including hurting others that won't follow it. And right now, you make it seem like a belief that people that don't want to go out into the world or condemn the Survey Corps for their actions are cowards trying to keep the rest of us from going anywhere. Nobody's trying to keep you locked up or anything, but you're not old enough to go anywhere beyond wherever your parents permit you to go. If you want to get somewhere, just make sure you have their permission first. It's better to ask for permission first than to expect forgiveness later. If you do the reverse at a time like this, you're only asking for trouble."

"Unless, of course," added Armin, "trouble is what you're asking for. Not everyone wants trouble, Eren. Not everyone needs it."

-x-

If there had been such a thing as other people getting the feeling that they just experienced a lifetime of revelation in an instant because of being around people they only knew for a few days, weeks or months, then Sasha and Ymir were living proof of this. Part of the reason being that a few days after being returned to human form, Ymir found herself recalling things that didn't seem to make sense to her at first. Things that were like a day's worth of individual events, all at once, and always returning to this one moment in her life that did make sense to her: This little girl that had been by her side when she woke up from the endless nightmare she had been condemned to by people from Marley. And with Sasha, it was one innocent shove by Connie that sparked her revelation; she felt like she couldn't breathe for a moment and then held her chest, wondering why she had imagined a little girl with a rifle while in a strange room that was…in the air.

"I… Tell me something, Jean and Connie," she had spoken to the two. "Did I… Was I ever… It feels like a dream, but I've never had a dream that felt so real… Were we all doing something and one of us got hurt? Like, seriously hurt?"

It was a question that was beating around the bush, but it seemed like the two knew more than they let on with their minute silence.

"We got hurt much of the time," went Connie to her. "It isn't something we have any control over. It comes with the duty."

"And…it includes feeling like…getting shot at by a little girl?"

"Getting… You do know that that's ridiculous, right?" Jean asks her. "I mean, something like that ever happening is…one of an awful series of experiences one doesn't need to have befall them. Why would something like that ever happen to you?"

"Because it felt like it did happen to me, except that it hasn't. Or…it hasn't happened yet, at least. I see the girl…and she's angry. Angry over something we did…or didn't do. I feel this stinging feeling in my chest…and weakness overcomes me. I feel like I'm falling asleep, but…there's only darkness after I close my eyes. Or…do I close my eyes?"

It wasn't something either boy was prepared to hear from the girl, but it was not something they could easily forget when it caused them pain and made their ability to trust in someone they thought they could have faith in come into question. To hear Sasha describe a memory of what had been one of the most unpleasant losses of their lives, caused by an Eldian from Marley, enraged over the attack in Liberio that Eren carried out, it was an experience that they didn't want to relive again. Not in any way. Ever.

"Hard to believe," went Hange; they had informed her and Levi about this revelation with Sasha. "It should've been impossible, even, but…"

"She recalled things that hadn't happened yet," Levi cut her off. "Things we made sure can't happen again."

"Honestly, I had almost forgotten about that night," said Jean to them. "After we came back to the past, I just wanted to forget about the suffering and stop the hatred. To have Sasha know of these events feels like they happened all over again, even though they haven't and won't."

"If she's able to recall these events before they ever occurred, maybe because we were present when they occurred," Hange suggests, "is it possible that there are others that might suddenly be aware of events that have occurred once before? Could Bertolt suddenly become aware of things he shouldn't know?"

"Reiner and Annie have kept a constant vigilance over him, and there doesn't seem to be any hint of him being aware of things," Connie told them. "Although, it seems like Ymir probably has awareness of past events. Most likely from being around Historia. Maybe it's because of the Founding Titan, even. It possesses the power to know everything involving the past and future, right? Maybe this includes specific individuals and their past and future."

"Regardless of how we deviate from the previous history?" Levi questions. "We may need to ask Brother Correction about this if he has information relating to this."

"We're still a long time away from that happening," Hange reminded him.

-x-

Grisha saw no reason to keep these three books hidden any further now that he was aware that a handful of people of Paradis knew of the world beyond and had more knowledge than he had possessed during his time in Liberio. But he couldn't discard them because they were still useful as records of his past that could still help people here. And with his life no longer shortened by the thirteen-year drawback that had been removed, he didn't have to live like he had a lot to do and so little time to do it all. But still, his greatest concern right now was trying to keep Eren in check; the mere fact that he could still go down that dark path for the sake of freedom when it was wrong was just…another reminder of how he failed Zeke when he was younger. Even if there was a chance that Zeke was still alive, he didn't want to see Eren face a similar fate that had only the greatest of repercussions.

As he sat in his study, he looked up from his desk and saw the older version of Eren again, his face all contorted with hate.

"What you want…and what the world needs…are two different things, Eren," he told him.

"I refuse to be bound," he heard his son say to him.

"Nobody is bound to anything now. If you want to go wherever you want to go, you just make sure you have permission to do so until you're older and have comprehension of the consequences. The Walls are gone."

"And you think that just because the Walls are gone that people are going to leave Paradis alone? That's not going to happen."

"The Rumbling will not transpire, Eren, so there's no need for anyone to do what you intended to do to the world. You've been stopped."

"I will not stop. Not until all of my enemies are dead."

"What enemies? Paradis hasn't been attacked. The people of Shiganshina are alive, your mother is alive, Mikasa's parents are alive, and the royal family's current Founding Titan has become an ally in changing things. There's nobody to fight."

"There's always someone to fight. There will always be someone to fight. No matter what happens to you or anyone else, someone must be around to fight for freedom. To move forward, even to the death and after death."

"And what is it about freedom that you want to fight so much for? What is it that you want?"

"To be free."

"What does that even mean, anymore?"

The apparition of his older, younger son glared at his father and responded, "Freedom from the hatred of the world, freedom from the shackles of the past, freedom from yours or anyone else's self-righteousness and restraint. In order to be free, I will destroy all that dare to oppress my will. In order to be free, I will destroy as much of the world as possible."

"Eren…what you aim to do is no longer possible; the power of the Titans has been exploited by others enough, and it's time they were used for benevolent causes instead of malevolence. It was Fritz and his descendant that built the Walls that caused the hate, but we can change all of that now. We are changing all of that, little by little."

"What you aim to achieve will not last. It can't last. In the end, you will either fight for freedom…or you will die a slave. Take the Founding Titan, Father. Destroy the royal family. Free Paradis from the shackles of its past so that it may be allowed to pursue a future worth fighting for against the world."

But Grisha shook his head in the negative; he no longer needed to do any of that, and he wasn't going to let his son order him around.

"You may be a memory of a different future, but you're not in charge," he told the young man. "Life on Paradis is changing without your influence. You're not getting what you want. Not in this new future…or any future you cling to, Eren. There are other freedoms one can pursue than the one you want. Just let go and move on. Let go…and move on."

This time, it was Eren that shook his head in the negative.

"I refuse to be bound," he told his father as he disappeared. "I refuse to be subservient. I will be free from these unnecessary shackles…and I will destroy any that stand in my way."

Grisha really pitied this version of his son; he might've been a future memory, but he was so stubborn that he couldn't accept that change was happening in ways that he couldn't accept because he didn't like them. As the Attack Titan, it might've been a part of their nature to reject authority, but there had to be limits to disobedience, and part of those limits had to include some measure of tolerance towards authority. If none of the previous holders of the Attack Titan could demonstrate this, then they were no better than the people they refused to listen to. He was the Attack Titan, but he chose to tolerate the order given by Frieda Reiss, who had broken free of Karl Fritz's ideology through a combination of her sister's influence and sheer willpower, and there was no conflict of interest between them, which he was grateful for.

"Eren," he spoke again, "while you're of a future where you had to become a cold and unrelenting soldier, I thought I'd end up hating what you became, but I don't really hate this version of you. No, it's worse than hate…and it's my fault. I just feel sorry for you. I feel pity anyone that turns out to be anything like you, this…cold, angry and empty person in front of me, fighting for something that is…next to impossible to have. And you pushed everyone away in order to become this…monster the world would want destroyed. But there's a price to be paid…and you shouldn't have paid for it. I hope that one day, a different price can be paid for your salvation…and a different outcome will come from it."

Eren looks at him with a tinge of emotion that is the opposite of the angry feelings he kept bottled up. He suddenly recalled things he had forgotten about, and felt more anger towards because he willingly cast them aside for the sake of what he wanted for all of Paradis.

"You're the pitiable ones if you think what you seek will last you forever," he told Grisha, "and when you realize that you need to fight for your freedom, that's when you'll realize that I was right in the end."

Then, he was gone.

"I pray that day never comes," Grisha utters, really pitying his son's future self. "I pray it never comes for a long time."

-x-

His only solace in this insufferable situation he was in were his memories of the times he helped more people than punished for their mistakes. Even as he was bleeding his last few liters of blood in his body, Brother Correction recalled the day he had to help a former detective change his past, which, in turn, helped Brother Correction realize how much he loved helping the people that could be helped, reinvigorating his fading passion and admiration towards other people. It was of his best memories to reflect upon.

"Strength is found in many forms," he recalled a woman saying to someone else.

He raised his head up to look at Eren's head…and gave him a defiant smirk.

"I don't see what's good for you right now," Eren told him.

"That's because you don't have an open mind. Mine, however, has been opened…time and again, and each time it opens up, it surprises me with how much I've forgotten and how much more I can do. I can still lose to you, over and over again for all time…but I've been letting you off easy each time. Long have you been displeased with being my prisoner with the freedom to kill me over and over again. Long have I let you without any resistance. But no more. Now…I'm going to make you work for the kill."

Shatter! The tendrils of bone broke away from his limbs, freeing himself from Eren's hold, standing in front of him with some renewed strength.

"Heh! I gotta be honest with you here," he told Eren. "The next lifetime I get permission to change for the better, I hope it involves saving your mother and your paternal aunt; you clearly don't have any interest in saving either, despite the fact that you could've used the power of the Attack Titan to send your memories to your father's predecessor and prevented Faye's murder and show your father the murder of your mother in greater detail so he could've done something to prevent it. And just so that you know I mean every word of my intentions, I'll show you this memory of one of your father's better achievements.

Flash! Eren was shown a memory of his mother being saved by his father's Attack Titan, which was then bitten into by the Titan belonging to Dina Fritz.

"No!" He yelled at Brother Correction. "Damn you!"

A spear of bone shot from the upper portion of the mouth at Brother Correction…and he sidestepped to the right, avoiding it.

"Not this time, you failure," he told the severed head. "You want to kill me, put some more effort into it."

Another spear shot up from the lower portion, but it missed the dark-skinned man by two feet because he jumped onto the first spear.

"Try harder, Eren!" He encouraged him. "Try again!"

"Aaaaurgh!" Eren yelled as dozens of bone spikes shot up and down the mouth in front of him; he was going to make sure this man had nowhere to dodge.

Crack! The spikes fractured and crumbled, revealing Brother Correction, sitting cross-legged three feet in the air, left hand under his chin, whistling in a bored tune.

"Aah!" Eren gasped.

"Just for the record," he spoke, returning to a standing posture on the bottom of the mouth, revealing four fragments of bone spikes sticking in his thighs and waist, "there were times where I actually supported Historia Reiss turning Titan and eating your rabid ass. At least then, I would've done something different to help her help the people of Paradis and break free of her ancestor's pathetic ideology. Bah!"

He spat out a wad of blood and fell to the ground. With his final breath, the loop began anew, and he was whole, ready to go against Eren again.

"Eren Yeager," he uttered, standing in front of the severed head, "you're not going to win."

-x-

"…I must say, this is quite an unexpected visit from you," Erwin says to the man in front of him and Levi. "How can we help you, Commander Pyxis?"

Dot Pyxis of the Garrison, making an unscheduled appearance in the Survey Corps' headquarters, had a lot to say to the leader of the Survey Corps. But some of what he had to say was different from what he had expected to say to him.

"Question, Commander Smith," Pyxis replied, "have you ever had any dreams or funny feelings where you feel like something big just happened? Only you don't know what it was or why you were involved in it?"

"In what way?"

"Before the Walls were taken down and sometime after, I found myself having strange dreams about a life where the Walls were still around…and a young man who was full of rage and conviction caused a war that led to many deaths. And there were Titans, as big as the Walls, walking towards the world. The only thing I don't get is why such dreams don't feel like dreams at all. They feel more like memories, only they're like a lifetime that hasn't happened yet. Or one that can't happen."

"A lifetime of that sort can feel like a nightmare to some," Levi expressed, looking down at his hand, grateful that he still had his fingers attached.

"How goes the surveying program?" Pyxis asks them.

"As well as can be," Smith replies. "We're close to mapping the entire landscape. There's more forest out there than there is before the Walls came down."

"Magnificent. But how are you going to progress further in surveying the terrain in the future if your branch is no longer accepting new recruits?"

"The previous requirement of the Survey Corps was to be capable of combating Titans. Now that they are no longer an apparent obstacle, the need for soldiers is unnecessary. And the remaining personnel will suffice in any future expeditions."

"It feels almost as though it's the end of the Survey Corps."

"It's only the end when the last member falls," says Levi, still grateful to have his whole body instead of being maimed because of Zeke Yeager's attempt to kill the both of them.

Although, part of the Survey Corps' reason for no longer accepting new recruits was to minimize the risk of potential coups in the future by individuals with different intentions. Also, it had been decided upon by Levi, Armin, Hange, Historia and Mikasa that the Survey Corps only had its destabilizing repercussions because Eren was a member; so long as he couldn't enlist, his Yeagerists couldn't be established and take over the military.

"Things really are changing, aren't they?" Pyxis asks them.

"Yeah," Smith replies, "they are changing."

-x-

"…So, he just wants to be free?" Frieda questions Dr. Yeager as he, Armin, Mikasa and the others are all gathered within the tent after a week had passed; they were contemplating how to deal with Eren now that they had a better grasp on what he desired above all else.

"Even with the Walls gone, he still feels like he's in a cage or can't go anywhere, even though he can so long as he has permission from someone older than he," Grisha explains to her; he had also revealed that he had seen his son's future incarnation, and found that he was still the same, despite the changes they had made across the island and to their own people across the world. "Also, it felt like he was clinging onto the future he resided in, like he couldn't let it go, no matter what happened."

"But isn't the future different now because of the changes we made?" Connie asks. "People can't be turned into Titans, anymore and the Nine Titans can no longer be transferred. How can Eren still possess the Attack and Founding Titans if his past self is no longer in a position to obtain them for his own exploitation?"

"Yeah," added Jean. "If we changed things in the past, shouldn't the future have changed, too?"

"Maybe this Eren is separate from the one we've been trying to keep from crossing lines he can't uncross," Mikasa suggested. "If we changed the fate of the boy he used to be, the man he grows up into is no different from a weed in a garden; he is just clinging to a future that is no longer possible because all of the factors necessary for his past self to become him no longer exist."

"So, this future Eren is just…what, a possibility that isn't possible, anymore?" Hange asks.

"An impossibility," Historia expresses. "Tear down a house, even if you rebuild it, it's not the same as it once was. Maybe…just because we change the past, it doesn't mean that the future we left has been undone because the Eren we left Brother Correction to distract hasn't been dealt with yet, only occupied by an ally who became his enemy."

"So, then, until this Eren has been dealt with," went Armin, "we're just…delaying the fact that we have to deal with him?"

"In a way…yeah."

"If he's like his current self," says Jean, "and he only wants to be free…then that should be his fate. I mean, it is a fate that is worse than death, isn't it?"

"I don't see how freedom can be a fate worse than death," utters Grisha to them.

"It is if it's given to someone that doesn't deserve it and comes to despise it, only to find that they can't get rid of it because it was what they wanted in the end," Levi suggests. "Or worse, what you desire most being misinterpreted by someone else because you weren't specific enough about it."

"Like," spoke Frieda, "asking for banquet-type meal everyday…and then receiving your desire…only to regret it later, but you can't take it back. All you can do…is accept what you asked for."

"That…sounds like a terrible thing to ask for if you weren't being specific about it," Hange tells her. "That might seem like something Sasha would desire, but even she'd probably want a banquet in moderation."

"We should put this on hold until after we meet with this Theo Magath and these others that he brings with him," Frieda utters; it was getting close to the time when Magath and his guests were to arrive. "I'm looking forward to meeting them."

"Yeah," added Historia. "Let's continue to change the way the world sees us for the better."

To be continued…

A/N: In case nobody gets it, this story will not conform to the canon it deviates from. The very idea stems from impossibilities becoming available for the characters and changing their fates in order to change the world. I will never conform to a canon I can't accept for its outcome when deviance is preferable and offers an infinite number of choices. Until the next chapter, may you enjoy your days of creativity.