Creation began on 03-19-23

Creation ended on 04-10-23

Attack on Titan

Different Mistakes to become Heroes: Forsaking Hate

Bertolt didn't really like this shift in what they were doing, but had little choice in the matter. As much as he wanted to serve his motherland, he wanted to go home to his parents more than anything else. Since he, Reiner and Annie were not capturing the Founder, instead helping to change the world's perception of Eldians, he had to cooperate with the enemy if he wanted to return to Marley alive and well. One of the benefits of this strange venture he was involved in was that the people Reiner and Annie were suddenly…chatty with…had no desire to fight against the trio. Even though it seemed like a mutual interest that they work together, Bertolt didn't trust them quite yet.

"Bertolt, nobody's out to get us here," went Annie as they were sitting atop the docks that had been where Marley sent Subjects of Ymir to be condemned as Titans. "Besides, if this all pans out in our favor, we'll be able to go home earlier than we had intended to."

"I still find it hard to trust in people that have lived untouched by the world for more than a century and suddenly want to change things," he explains to her and Reiner.

"It's not really their fault, Bertolt," Reiner tells him. "They had their memories of the past taken from them by the Founder a century ago and just recently, fate changed their status from ignorant to hopeful. If we can get the world to see that they have no aims to destroy anything now that the Rumbling is no longer possible, it could mean more for Eldians within Marley. It could mean that the idea of war with Paradis ends before it could even begin…and nobody ever had to throw a punch or anything."

Bertolt liked that scenario. Mainly because it also meant going home and his family being able to go anywhere without being harassed or assaulted by the people that hated them for existing.

"Up ahead," Annie told them. "There's a boat coming."

-x-

SLAM! Eren, restored of his body for the time being, was slammed against the bottom of his Founding Titan's jaw by Brother Correction, who demonstrated that he could be just as merciless as other people chose to be from time to time.

"Aaaurgh!" He groaned, feeling like his stomach had been squeezed and pulled by him.

"Yeah, that's what you get," Brother Correction told him as he got off him…and kicked him hard in his left side. "Conflict hurts when you mean it."

"You…you put the Walls back," Eren groaned as he looked up at him with spite. "You erased everything I did to free Paradis!"

"I undid everything you did in that lifetime to give the people a second chance to make different choices, including yourself. I can never get down on the will of people that support and condone genocide and worldwide destruction. As far as I'm concerned, your actions became nonexistent once more so that the people that didn't deserve to die, like your mother, could have a clean slate and make different mistakes from what they did the first time around."

Eren got up and charged towards Brother Correction, slamming him against a tooth on his right.

"Oomfph!" Brother Correction grunted; he knew Eren was a little tougher than some people, but only because of his Titan abilities and persistent attitude, so he didn't expect him to be any more dangerous than a thug with a diet consisting of meager meals and military rations. "Okay. I'll let you have that one. But you're not the only one that knows how to take cheap shots at people."

Bash! He head-butted Eren on his nose, breaking it and sending him backwards onto the ground.

"You're no god!" Eren called him out. "You're just a hypocrite!"

"Hypocrite, loser, judgmental, half-assed peacekeeper, messiah wannabe, harbinger of one's demise. Heard every single variation of them all and could care less about the opinions of the disbelievers of hope and redemption. This, of course, means that I don't give a damn about your opinions, because they're no different from you right now: An angry brat whining about how much he hates the people of the world he lives in because he doesn't feel free, no matter what he says, thinks or does."

As they both got up, an idea came to Brother Correction: He would show Eren a taste of what he wanted to destroy that someone like him would rather protect or restore. It put a smile on his face as he looked at Eren.

"What are you smiling for?!" Eren demands.

"I'm gonna show you the world," he reveals.

"What?"

"You heard me."

-x-

"Commander Magath," Reiner greeted his superior.

"Braun," he replied, pleased to see the three Warriors still alive and well, and then noticing that a handful of people were approaching where they were. "Have things changed a little while you were here?"

"Yes. The Walls have been taken down, eliminating the threat of the Rumbling and returning the Titans within them back to human form."

"Excuse me," went Willy as he got their attention by coming over. "Did you just say that…the Walls of Paradis have been removed?"

"Yes, that's right."

"And…the Titans that were rumored to sleep within them?"

"No more than a forgotten memory, sir."

"And the people of this island?"

"They're just regular people, sir. Good. Bad. Indifferent. Biased. Passionate. Fearful. They're not going to cause any harm to the world."

"But tell me, then, what of this one person that I was told…has an attitude that makes him problematic and prone to violence?"

"He's nothing but a kid our own age who currently knows nothing about what is going on…and we're trying to keep it that way. He can't become a problem for most if he doesn't have a clue or the means to be anything other than a kid living in a different world without danger."

Willy Tybur couldn't help but smile at this revelation. It made his sense of dread, his dream, his vision…seem like a memory he could put behind him now.

"What would you say are the chances of there being peace between Paradis and Marley?" He asks Reiner.

"I would say, honestly…we're getting closer than I thought possible," Reiner replied, and gestured his left hand toward the people that Willy had to meet. "I'm hopeful for the first time in a long time."

-x-

A chill made Eren shiver as he looked around and saw nothing but snow and mountainous terrain leading down towards the unseen world below.

"Where are we?!" He demanded to know from Brother Correction, who stood several feet away from him.

"Welcome to Mt. Everest, Eren Yeager," he revealed. "It's one of the most beautiful sights in the history of the Earth."

"You call this beautiful?!"

"At this temperature, one exposed to the elements can last for thirty minutes before suffering permanent loss of function."

"Is that so?!"

"Yes…but we'll both likely go into shock within the first two minutes."

"What?!" Eren questioned, seeing him walk down the mountain.

"Enjoy the view while you can," he told the teen.

But Eren…wasn't interested in the view.

"Don't you dare turn your back on me!" He yelled at Brother Correction and leapt towards him, tackling him over.

Splash! They were both surrounded by water, and Brother Correction wrestled free from his grasp and kicked him in his face!

Gasp! Eren surfaced for air and found they were on a beach with a smoking mountain further away from them.

"The island of Hawaii, a tropical setting among an archipelago well-known for its flora and fauna and culture," Brother Correction revealed. "I especially love the surfing here. Here comes a wave."

"Huh?!" Eren gasped as a large wave hit them.

Punch! He was sent falling backwards down a street that was curving like a snake, adorned with plants and streetlights, surrounded by small buildings.

"Lombard Street of San Francisco!"

Eren got back to his feet and looked around, unable to believe that such a place like this existed. But then, he ran towards Brother Correction, who head-butted him again in his nose and mouth, sending him falling.

"Everyone that has ever saw the worst in me consider me a deity when I used to be a simple man, not unlike the men and women of this city by the bay, and if I'm being honest, no matter how many times I explain myself to those that can't accept the truth, they can't tell the difference between a person blessed by the unseen divine and a person condemned to be capable of feats that they can only dream of being able to do themselves. I am not a god. I am not God. I am not Lucifer, Vishnu, Zeus, Orochi, not even whatever god Fritz believed in before he died on his deathbed in several lifetimes because Ymir chose to protect his worthless ass. And you're no hero, Eren Yeager. Not in your lifetime and certainly not in more than seventy other lifetimes."

"There are more than seventy lifetimes where I choose the Rumbling?"

"Last time I checked, seventy-seven. Seventy-eight when you take into account that your father was unaware of the factors that led to you being in a situation where Founder and Attacker couldn't be fused together; order and chaos, however much considered opposites, cannot be joined as one. Yes, there are that many lifetimes…and that number gets bigger every time a choice is made…and a new factor is created at random. Although, I gotta say, I did explore five separate lifetimes where your father chose someone else to inherit the Attack Titan instead of you, and they led Paradis down a different future. A better future."

"My father would never pick someone over me."

"Not in your lifetime, but in others, he could…did…and will."

"Who did he pick over me?"

"You'd be surprised."

"Who did he pick?"

"That…would be telling you something that isn't going to change your own fate."

"You pathetic…"

Brother Correction grabbed his arms before he could attack him, and they were both in a bamboo forest that didn't feel welcoming.

"Oops," he went. "Wrong forest; I wanted China, not Skull Island. Take my hand quickly, please. We're in their domain."

"Whose domain?" Eren questioned, and then looked up at the dark shapes that appeared to be moving above them. "What the…"

Suddenly, a stalk of bamboo nearly impaled Eren, were it not for Brother Correction pushing him out of the way.

"Hand!" He yelled at Eren, holding out his left hand to him.

Eren grabbed it…and they were now in a cave filled with glowing crystals of rainbow colors.

"Trust me, you don't want to get stabbed or devoured by a Mother Longlegs," Brother Correction told him. "They're some of the most vicious spiders you will ever meet, and they're not even the biggest."

But Eren didn't care about that. Not that he wanted to after he punched Brother Correction in his face, causing his nose to bleed.

KICK! He let Eren have it in his groin area, dropping him to the ground.

"Now I gotta demand this from the both of us, you dumbass," he told Eren as he backed away and sat against a red crystal. "Time out."

Eren groaned as he turned to face him and spat on the ground his way.

"You're insane," he called him.

"I'm not the one who just got his balls bruised because he dealt a cheap shot to someone's nose."

Eren tried to get up, but painful sensations from his family jewels told him to lay back down until the pain subsided.

"I'm gonna kill you," he threatened him.

"Try after the Grand Canyon…little punk," he suggested back…and gave a small smile.

-x-

"You're younger than I had realized, Ms. Reiss," Willy admitted as he greeted the sisters Frieda and Historia. "It's still an honor to meet you."

"Likewise," Frieda replied as she bowed her head. "Things have changed in the past few months. Have you felt a little better in the time that has passed?"

"I wouldn't say 'better', per se. 'Different' is a word I'd use to describe things currently happening, but, yes, there has been some changes that have felt…better. It feels like…the world isn't going to end at all, which is a good thing."

"Yes, it is," said Historia to him, and then looked away to see Sasha talking to a young man that seemed to fancy her. No, it couldn't be. Sasha had mentioned him a few times, but he'd be younger than when they had met for the first time.

And then, she noticed the man pointing to the ocean and using his hands to make pincer gestures, which made Sasha react with a sense of giddiness. This made her suspect that this man was the one that Sasha had mentioned being a chef.

"I look forward to seeing where this new venture takes us," Willy says to Frieda.

"As do I, Mr. Tybur, though I hope it becomes more than a venture," she replies.

"Likewise."

Historia walks over to Sasha and the mystery man.

"You two seem to be getting along," she tells them. "Who are you, sir?"

"Niccolo, ma'am," he replies, and Historia blinked twice; Sasha had told her his name once, and she was glad she remembered it. "I'm not a soldier or anything. Well, not fully. I just want…"

"You…want to be a chef, right?" She asks him.

"That's right."

"There's nothing wrong with being a chef. Follow your ambition."

"Thank you."

"You…like Ms. Blouse…don't you?"

Niccolo turned to face Sasha…and then nods his head in the positive.

"It feels like I've met her once before, but this is the first time I've met her," he explains. "It's strange. I mean, I felt like I was older when I first met her. Is that odd?"

"No. It's not odd. It's not odd at all."

Further away, Grisha could see Mikasa being reintroduced to Kiyomi of the Azumabito. It was different this time, because the girl's parents were present this time around, enabling the mother to get an opportunity to understand where her lineage resides and everything.

And none of this would've been possible without the aid of this Brother Correction, he thought, and was then approached by Annie Leonhart. "Yes, miss?"

-x-

"Aaaah!" Eren screamed as he was kicked off the cliff by Brother Correction and into the river of the Grand Canyon.

Sporting a gash on the left side of his head where Eren bashed him with a rock, Brother Correction frowned as the young man hit the water and was dragged away.

"Take in the scenery, Yeager," he says. "There's more to come."

Trying to keep his head above water, Eren saw a rock in his path.

Bash! He collided with it and went under.

Thud! He fell across the ground as water spread around him, letting him breathe again as he looked up and saw that he was on the streets of a large city, with buildings taller than he could imagine them being.

"Give it up for New York!" Brother Correction yelled as he appeared behind the young man…and decked him in his face. "Welcome to the Big Apple! The City That Never Sleeps! Also, one of my favorite places where random creatures can be found!"

Eren punched him back in his face and then kicked him in the left side of his waist.

"How do you do all of this?! How can you live with knowing what will happen if you let my people die from their enemies?!" He demanded to know.

"What enemies?" He was questioned. "I didn't see any enemies…except the one that chose to be one because he didn't want to see any other way…and he's the one that thinks he can kick my ass when it's the other way around."

"You must think you're funny right now."

"Do you see me laughing? Do you see me smiling cynically? No, you don't. If I wanted to be funny, I'd have a sense of humor that is comparable to those that chose to be clowns or comedians. Other times, my humor is mildly comparable to that of twisted and sadistic serial killers, but only to people that are beyond redemption and don't deserve forgiveness for their crimes. The worst of unspeakable horror committed those whose hearts beat with sadism are the ones thought of by rotten minds."

"Is that so?" Eren responded as he threw another punch at him, letting his own sense of sadism be experienced. "Then, in that case, I'm gonna kill you."

Suddenly, the ground started to shake, and Eren noticed it was raining around them. He then noticed that Brother Correction was walking backwards to the other side of the street.

"Either come to this side or the other side of the street," he heard him tell him. "Trust me, you don't want to be in the middle of the street."

"You know what's going to happen, don't you?"

"Rrrrrrrrraaaurgh!" A roaring could be heard, and Eren looked up and saw a giant lizard running towards him. "Rrrrraaurgh!"

"Aaaugh!" He gasped as he ran towards Brother Correction, just narrowly avoiding the foot of the large beast. "What the Hell was that?!"

"One of the reasons I enjoy my life the way it is and why I do what I do," Brother Correction told him cryptically. "A pretender to the throne of predators, but a fighter that makes up for their lack of strength and endurance with speed and tenacity."

Then…Eren got kicked in the groin by him…and found themselves on the streets of another place, dry and adorned with few trees. There were signs, but they were written in a language that Eren didn't recognize in the slightest.

"Welcome to Osaka, Japan," Brother Correction expressed as people were present, walking around them. "Another nation with a culture that deserves to be protected from any that threaten to erase it from existence."

Eren looked at the people, wondering why they didn't react in the slightest to the both of them.

"They're just minding their own business," he was informed. "They don't know who we are…and they don't give a damn about who we are, either. You can be the pope and they wouldn't care. I can be the President of the United States and they wouldn't bat their eyelashes because we're not special to them or any other person in the world. They never even heard of us. They've never seen Titans or had any interactions with Eldians."

"All the more reason to…" He tried to say, but he was punched in his face, pushed up against a car. "What's the big idea?!"

"Your attitude. I just stated an obvious fact, and you only hear what you want to hear because your mind is still made up on what you want to do to people that have done you no wrong…and school just got let out five minutes ago."

At that moment, they saw children running down the street passed them, all smiles and laughter.

"And you still want to commit genocide after seeing those lovely faces?" Brother Correction asks Eren.

"I have no choice," he answers back, and was then smacked in his face hard enough to be heard by the people that were still walking around them, minding their own business. "They're going to die, regardless of what anyone else does to save them."

"Oh, that's where you're wrong, Eren. Because nobody has to die anywhere if they just stop to reevaluate all that they know and weigh their options regarding what others consider doing. But not you; there's not a day that goes by in your pitiful excuse of a life where you rethink everything you've done or thought of doing. All you have done, all you know how to do…is be stubborn and unyielding. You can't stand the simplicity of other people's beliefs or how they take comfort in certainty. You need to have your eyes pulled open."

With a mere hand gesture, the two were pulled off the ground and were hovering in the air over the people and moved across the city.

"Just look at them, Eren," Brother Correction told him. "Look at them, living from one day to the next. All of them…just living out their lives. Most go their whole lives without the threat of war and death ravaging their homes, and they still manage to get in minor trouble with someone else. Some get into trouble all the time, and they still manage to get through the day with only a few scrapes and bruises. But in the end, I can tolerate the mildly unpleasant. I can put up with the simple troublemakers. But those that cross lines they can't uncross, they are the damned. They are the eternally condemned, never to know peace, even with death. Their pain and suffering leads them to the eternal depths of Hell or worse…and I have make sure they can either be redeemed from their sins…and I have to help ensure that their pain and suffering receives legendary status. If someone like you continues to persist in what they do, knowing that it will not end the way they want it to, or metaphorically spit in the face of those that offer a second chance to change their fate for the better…then you're as hopeless as you believe yourself to be because you chose to cease living in the here and now, putting yourself in the future all the time, focusing on what will occur after all is said and done…instead of just living."

"Just because we were behind the Walls, it didn't mean we were living."

"Except that you were. You still had families, lives, and your actions in Liberio, your decision to implement the Rumbling, you took lives, many of which were the very lives you keep saying you want to save, both directly and indirectly. What do you call someone that kills the very people he wanted to protect against his so-called foes?"

"A necessary sacrifice for the greater good of Paradis!"

"Yeah, yeah, kill a few, save a lot, except for you, it was the reverse. You killed a lot to save just a handful, and that is unforgivable. If there's no saving you from the monster you've allowed yourself to become, Eren Yeager, then I have to make sure that your suffering receives legendary status, even in Hell."

"You continue to chastise me when you should be chastising Marley and the rest of the world!"

"And I told you, I will deal with them…and I am dealing with them. It's your actions that receive my attention right now because of what you've done, what you chose to do. In any other case that deals with Marley or some other big bad that is faceless, there are beneficial methods as subtle as making Paradis a no-go zone due to its coastal waters being infested by schools of sharks the size of houses or city blocks…or as disastrous as a pack of savages that rule the terrain beyond your precious Wall Maria without any concern for the well-being of your people. One of the factors that changed the fate of Paradis that I actually enjoy because it took very little of my own involvement to begin with…was the introduction of the Dark Titan and the people behind its existence that ended up being both bane and boon to the world. It was because of its existence, combined with the fact that Marley was a global power, having taken over the world and usurping the majority of all other parts of the world, that led to a reversal and the prevention of the use of the Rumbling, not just the aid of an outsider from another world who found another place to call his home…and someone to love that loved him. All I had to do in that lifetime…was save one person and warn your pathetic half-brother that he was going to fail. Of course, he chose not to heed the warning, and he died at the hands of someone Marley didn't consider an enemy but an ally because of how much he hated his own people to a degree less than that of Zeke's and was willing to kill them if it meant being free, just like you, only to a degree less than your own drive because he understood the importance of letting people live that enabled him to pursue his goals."

Suddenly, the world below their feet was replaced with an expanse of wilderness miles away from the remains of Wall Maria, which looked hollowed out of its Titans and left to rot. From a distance, Eren could see a Titan the likes of which he had never seen before, and in its hands was none other than Zeke, who was immediately crushed to death by it. And then, it shifted back to the foreign city they were observing.

"And you know the worst part of that death?" Brother Correction asks him. "The guy that killed your brother didn't even hate him enough to want to kill him; he was just in his way. It was similar to how he maimed you when you were in the way; he didn't despise you, but you were a bit of an hindrance, despite you being reduced to nothing more than a young man with an attitude problem that knew not when to back off and leave things to transpire as they did. You lived to see old age…and your angry will subsided as time went by. Yes, you were stripped of your power and the means to achieve what you wanted, but in the end, it was for the greater good. Not for the sake of only Paradis, but for the rest of the world, as well."

"Yet, none of that seems to make any difference when you have to deal with people that are a threat to your home," Eren says. "None of what you say matters when the enemy is one that sees you every day as a threat…just for existing."

"And yet, you fail to realize the reality of a harsh truth that is ever present in front of you: An enemy doesn't often exist anywhere in the world…until you choose to go looking for one. It's hard enough to find a foe, someone to hate for any reason, you become worse than the people you despise when you become a foe. The second you give some incarnation of evil, man-made or otherwise, a face, an identity, an average person with an extraordinary gift, an ancient prisoner that was cursed with a power that was fueled by his rage, an Eldian with the power of the Titans…or just a stranger from a strange land, you hand the people, the public itself, a target to want to see awful things happen to. You gave the world a target by becoming the Titan that unleashed the Rumbling upon the world, but in the end, all you did was hasten people's hatred towards Paradis. Survivors that lost everything wanting nothing to do with that tiny, miserable island…and your friends, the few that were left, scarred and maimed, forced to try and convince people that you were all good when there was too much devastation and loss of life to convince anyone that you were worth any measure of compassion. And your Yeagerists? Don't get me started on them. You took the symbol of the Survey Corps…and you defiled it with your desire to fight for a freedom that never was! I hate you and your fanatic followers for that!"

"Dedicate your heart to the cause."

"Boo-freaking-hoo!"

Eren was starting to get the impression that this man didn't see anything the way he saw it…and would never be convinced to see things the way anyone saw it when his perception was likely greater than what his own was. Suddenly, the world shifted again…and Eren saw him sitting on a wooden throne in a vast meadow, surrounded by these glowing, floating orbs with a beautiful sunset in the background.

"What is this place?" He questions.

"This…is my home," Brother Correction reveals. "My domain. My parents gifted me with this when my first task was simple…and reminded me of my failure to adhere to it in other ways. When I finally obtained my redemption, I became more comfortable with my task being expanded to incorporate a wider range of difficulties across the vastness of existence. Right now, we exist outside of all other aspects of existence, where time and space do not apply, where tomorrow and yesterday have no meaning, and where the moment is without end."

An orb floated in front of Eren, and he could see a world beyond any he could imagine. He saw a man being painted on a canvas, which slowly wasted away as time passed…while the man stayed the same…until he didn't. And then he was in a dark place, visited by Brother Correction, who offered him redemption…and he accepted, being returned to that same day his portrait was completed…and he made a different choice, changing his fate for the better. Then, another orb floated in front of him, showing him a man that had been a cop, having resigned from his job due to a shooting that didn't need to happen…and he put handcuffs on Brother Correction, who offered him redemption in exchange for helping him receive his own.

"This…this is the day you were redeemed?" He asks him.

"It is," he answers, "and a day that will be forever among those that give me renewed purpose."

-x-

Eren sat by the tree again, unable to enjoy the day. It seemed like everyone was doing something great with their lives, but he was unable to do anything, even though he could do anything so long as he asked for permission first. But he didn't want to ask for permission; he just wanted to do something that could be viewed as being greater than what others had done. He felt like he couldn't do anything with his life to give it any meaning…and make anyone follow him towards a different future. This…this strange form of peace that the people were embracing without so much as a fuss, the Survey Corps no longer accepting new members, his father being busier than usual, and Armin being distant towards him with several people…was something Eren just couldn't understand because it didn't make any sense with little information being given by any that knew more than others did.

"Does it really matter, Eren?" His mother asked him once as he had been helping her with the laundry. "People are happy. The Walls are gone, the Titans have disappeared, hopefully forever, and nobody's fighting. You should take the time to reflect on what is and decide what you want to do with your life and why. Those that can't accept what is and pine for what isn't or what won't be are those that may be the type of people that others will never understand."

"And that would be?" He had asked her.

"The kind of people that either don't know how to be happy…or that don't want to be happy. Which one are you?"

"I want to be free."

"Free isn't the same as happy, Eren, and there are other ways to achieve such a desire. What does 'free' mean to you?"

"It means…the same thing I keep saying every time."

"And yet, you don't try to elaborate any further than that. You can do anything, Eren, just as long as you ask for permission first. If you want to go to the forest, you can go to the forest. Just make sure you have someone know that you are before you do so that there's no need to worry. There may be no Titans around, but there are still wolves and bandits to be weary of."

Of course, he wasn't getting into trouble with anyone because nobody was talking about the Survey Corps. But even once he was old enough to enlist, he couldn't join them because they weren't accepting new members.

"You can explore if you want," he recalls Armin telling him.

"You keep saying that you want to be free, but you refuse to say what it means, so anyone can misinterpret your desire as something else entirely," he remembers Mikasa telling him. "Just say what you want and mean what you say. Don't let your desires be misunderstood by someone that doesn't know what you're even talking about. Either that or just be a pitiful youth pining for what could've been over what is. I know what I want to do with my life, and I'm not letting it be dictated by someone else's ambitions. What do you want?"

"What do you want?" He felt like everyone was asking him, over and over again.

I just want to be free, he thought as he looked up at the blue sky. How hard is that to understand? I want to go wherever I want and not have to be bound by any rules or the need to ask for permission. Why does the need for permission need to be given?

"When one does something without permission," his father informed him once, "they leave themselves and others vulnerable to the repercussions of their decisions. Part of the reason the Survey Corps and the Garrison are able to do as they do is because their leaders make sure they have permission to do so, making sure that they cover their bases in case something happens. That way, everyone is protected and aware of whatever can and might go wrong."

"This is stupid," he sighs as he gets up to his feet. "Why doesn't anyone see that this is just ridiculous and senseless?"

He then runs down the hill towards a different destination.

-x-

To forsake hatred. To let go of it and what it does to one over a period of time. That was the goal of coexistence. If everyone could learn to let go of hate, to live without prejudice, discrimination or even a desire to inflict harm on others, there would be no need to incite massive loss of lives anywhere else in the world. But to let go, they needed to believe in something else that could be worth their time and effort.

"…I'm surprised that you wanted to see me after all this time…Levi," said Kenny Ackerman to his nephew, meeting him by some trees.

"Kenny," Levi responded. "I see that life has been treating you well since the Walls came down."

"Life was hard as it was before the Walls came down. Now, life is just unusual. There was the belief that there were Titans inside the Walls, but I never saw one when Wall Sina came down. I thought for a moment that I saw one, but all I saw was smoke and rubble. I heard you joined the Survey Corps before they stopped taking in new recruits. Can't believe that you're still a runt; you don't look like you've grown an inch."

"And you still wear that same hat you've been wearing since I was a kid. Some things never seem to change."

"And yet, some things have changed. I also hear that you're pretty close with the family that actually rules this place."

"Let's skip the pleasantries and get to the reason I asked you out here."

"Fine with me."

"With things progressing as they are, I can risk my own future while I still have an unresolved matter in the past. The matter is you. So I'll just say what needs to be said and move on. I forgive you for your transgressions and hope you enjoy what's left of your life."

"What does that mean?"

"To move on with one's life means forsaking what has transpired in the past. To forsake, or let go of, something you've held onto for a long time…is to be free from it. So…I'm forsaking my hatred of you, Kenny Ackerman, setting myself free. See you around."

And with that, Levi turned around and walked away from his uncle, leaving him confused by what he heard from his nephew.

"To move on with one's life means forsaking what has transpired in the past," he echoes what Levi told him.

If Levi was being honest with himself, it felt difficult to renounce this feeling of hatred that he held against Kenny after all of this time. But after saying it and walking away, he did feel better about doing so. He felt free; these feelings of resentment and such were just fading away from his mind…and he was fine with that. So, too, were the feelings of hatred he had towards Zeke for killing his comrades, for forcing himself to kill his comrades, and his feelings of hatred towards Eren for choosing the choices he chose that were just as depraved as his brother's; since that Yeager could no longer be capable of such atrocities, there was no need to despise him for what could no longer be possible.

"So, how was it all?" He heard Mikasa ask him down the forest path, seeing her looking at him.

"Not as hard as I thought it'd be," he answers her. "How were things with your parents and the Azumabito clan?"

"One step at a time. I think my mother may want to see how life is in Hizuru someday."

"That'd be nice."

"Yeah. Yes, it would be nice."

"How much longer until we can no longer avoid Eren?"

"With the way things are progressing, I doubt we can keep him out of the matters we've been able to resolve without the need for conflict, and we need to deal with his future self that won't be stopped unless we stop him. But at least he'll be on his own."

"If all he desires is freedom, then freedom is all that he will get in the end."

"I just hope it ends up being everything he wants and more."

"Since we're talking about misinterpretation, the 'more' aspect could be worse for him than the 'everything' aspect."

They would have to let Brother Correction know all that they could interpret from the past and present Eren before they dealt with his dark and distant future self…and they would.

-x-

It didn't matter if he was shown the records of his exploits in changing people's fates or not, Brother Correction had to keep Eren from knowing that his world was being affected in ways that defied all sense of what he knew. Letting him see lifetime after lifetime, one great change after another, would distract his mind from being the wiser of his goal to give people the second chance they needed to turn their lives around. As one of the spheres floated close enough to be grabbed by him, he gazed at it and saw a younger Historia with a restored Ymir, sharing with her the reasons why she wanted her around over her being gone. He smiled and stretched his arms out as a means to distract Eren's perception while grabbing the sphere and putting it behind himself.

"You punished a woman who turned people into puppets after killing her?" Eren asked him.

"I caught her," he corrected him, "and then handed her over to the people that would condemn her further for her sins. After that, I restored to life the people she killed. What's more, she was already dead and became a ghost driven by revenge against those that killed her, but didn't stop there. She went after the people that had nothing to do with her death, so I had to punish her for crossing the line. If one seeks revenge, it should only be against the people that wronged you directly, not the people that had nothing to do with your vendetta. You kill a guy's wife simply because she was pregnant, not only because she was married to a descendant of the people that robbed you of your life, that's crossing the line. It makes you nothing more than another murderer…and another stain on the butt of existence that deserves whatever you get in the end."

Smack! A sphere hit Eren on the right side of his face and floated in front of him, showing him another lifetime.

"What is this creature trying to attack this man in a room?" He asked, slightly annoyed.

"Evolver, an artificially-created construct that was intended to be for recreational purposes, only problem was that he was originally intended for military purposes and some ties to that past don't die when a program is ended. Also, when you teach something to learn, you simply can't put limits on it. You make something meant for violence, it's going to be as violent as possible because of its original purpose. Unfortunately, anything or anyone meant for something bad, even if it changes to something good…is still bad if lives are taken. You may call it a necessary evil or for the greater good, but it's not forgivable."

Swat! Another sphere hit Eren on the back of his head and made its presence known in front of him, showing another lifetime that was cherished by Brother Correction.

"Faye?" He utters, seeing his father's sister, alive and well. "You saved her life from that Marleyan the last time my father saw her alive?"

"And some people give me lip for saving her when they know that there are other ways to save lives," he answers him. "I've always had a disposition for wolves and tigers, but when you sic dogs on children, even for a sick thrill, you deserve to be broken…and reminded of how close you came to dying. You know, you could've saved her, too. You could've saved all of them if you truly cared about them. Except you didn't…because you don't."

A third sphere floated in front of Eren and showed him the life of a man cursed for choosing vengeance and unleashing a monster to carry out vengeance for the death of his son…and then being given a second chance to go back and keep his son from dying, saving himself from making his life-altering choice.

"You can't possibly be content with doing all of this," he tells him.

"Oh, I'm content, because it's my blessing and my curse. I am…then, now and always…a crusader in the further regions of justice, salvation and redemption. A tormentor to some…and a savior to others. So, the question is: Will I be saving your life…or will you be another member of the eternally tormented? We'll soon find out, won't we?"

To be continued…

A/N: The scenes that really had my interests a little were the chats between Levi and Kenny, the arrival of Willy to Paradis and the unexpected visit Eren receives to Brother Correction's domain. Past and new present Eren continues to be unyielding to change outside of his control because nobody is willing to pay him any mind over the way things are, and he feels more shackled by his own unwillingness to simply live in the moment, but that could change soon. His future self being shown each place he could've ventured to in the world will continue until his fate is sealed, and I do hope to receive some questions from y'all about the way the characters have progressed with the new present. Peace!