Different Mistakes to become Heroes

by Traitor of All Traitors

Warning: Do not read if you're a die-hard canon seeker. This story isn't meant to be taken seriously if you adhere to canon. Set the morning after the remnants of the Survey Corps and Warrior Unit band together to stop the Rumbling and fight the Yeagerists, the group is met by a stranger that bargains with them in order to save the world by rewriting their past into a new future.

9. Forge your own path

Creation began on 04-10-23

Creation ended on 04-14-23

Attack on Titan

Different Mistakes to become Heroes: Forge your own path

Marley was at a loss for what was going on with the actions of the Tybur family after they had returned to Liberio from their sojourn across the ocean…almost four months after departing. While Theo Magath and Pieck Finger and the Galliard brothers were with them, General Calvi noticed that the three Warriors that had been sent to Paradis were also with them, surprising the military leaders with their return.

"How well did the trip to Hizuru and Paradis go?" Calvi asks Magath.

"As well as one could expect when the attempt to communicate with people from both locations was through nonviolence," he answers. "Paradis is far different than one can imagine."

"Is that so?" A captain questions as Reiner and Annie walked over to where they were. "You were able to acquire the Founding Titan from them without a fight?"

"Permission to speak, sir?" Reiner asks Magath.

"Granted," he replies.

"No, we didn't take the Founding Titan from Paradis, captain," Reiner tells the Marleyan, and then points over to the ship the Tyburs used to travel as some more people. "We invited the Founder to speak with you."

Calvi and the four men looked over and backed away, tense over the fact that they had just been informed that the Founding Titan had come to Marley. They could see a young woman with ebony hair accompanied by a younger girl with blond hair with a girl with freckles on her face, along with a handful of adults and children.

"What is this?" Calvi demands to know quietly.

"They are simply here to talk, sir," Willy explains. "If they wanted to hurt anyone, they would've done so without any provocation. If they had seen Titans deliberately attacking them with the aim to cause them pain, they would've done anything they could to fight back, but there were no attacks by any Titans…because nobody appeared to fight with anyone."

"There was no fighting?" Another captain questions. "It was a mistake to send children to Paradis to do a soldier's job."

"No, it was the right call, sir," Magath responds. "I told Braun to do whatever he had to while on Paradis…and he carried out the order quite well."

"If they're alive, it's not quite well," a third captain retorts. "They could implement the Rumbling and kill us. The Titans that lay asleep on Paradis…unleashing death and destruction upon everyone in the world…"

"We saw their Walls, sir," went Bertolt to them, "and not once were any Titans released from them sent to destroy the world beyond the island. Every Titan released from their destruction…was returned to human form. The Rumbling that we feared for years…undone in an instant, just like that."

"That's preposterous! No way would they just get rid of their own deterrent against the rest of the world."

"They would if they wanted to be a part of the world," said Annie. "They're not interested in war or genocide. If they wanted any of that, they would've done so the instant we revealed ourselves. There's no threat because there's no more Titans left in the world…except for the nine that are all present and accounted for…and nobody here has any intent to unleash them upon the world."

This was a revelation none of them expected to hear. The Nine Titans, all nine Titan powers that were created following the death of Ymir Fritz two-thousand years ago that forged Eldia's blood-soaked foundations…were all gathered in Marley. It was a feat that seemed impossible to achieve…and it was achieved.

"Gentlemen?" They heard the voice of the young woman with ebony hair, accompanied by two men. "Is there an issue here?"

Calvi remained silent; he dare not say or do anything to invite his own death or the deaths of other Marleyans. If he knew that he was speaking to Frieda Reiss, the current Founding Titan, and that she had been released from her ancestor's twisted ideology, able to use the power of her family's Titan of her own volition, he'd probably have something to say.

"There's no need to be afraid, gentlemen," Frieda tells them as she bows her head to them. "Speak freely."

-x-

Smash! A mirror, displaying Eren's reflection in front of himself, damaged by Brother Correction, not as an act of intimidation, but as a lesson in how his actions create ripples in the fabric of existence, now showed only a damaged and broken reflection of the bitter young man.

"Now," Brother Correction says to him, "what do you see? Who do you see?"

"I see only myself…in pieces," he replies.

"Wrong. You still see yourself, but your reflection is not whole. Each crack displaying your reflection is you in a different state of existence…and each reflection represents a different path your life could've taken. For each and every choice one makes, with each and every action that occurs, there will always be a reaction that occurs later on…or immediately as a result of the choice or action. That is how one lifetime branches out into many. That is how your existence is splintered across reality like everyone else's. In the world you come from, you're exactly as you've always been. In another, you don't exist at all. In some, you end up with Mikasa. In others, you end up with Historia or even Frieda. There are even some where you end up with Armin or Levi."

"Hey!" Eren gasps, but the man that was greater than a man raised his left arm in defense of his explanation; it was nothing more than a lesson he was being forced to learn and accept.

"That's how multiple realities work, whether you accept it or not," he tells him. "In the end, it comes down to choice and the ripples that result because of the choices made. Every choice made always results in something else happening. When you chose to have Reiner, Annie and Bertolt attack Shiganshina because you wanted to be free and would be willing to do whatever it took to achieve it, you sealed your own doom of living a short life with only the desire for freedom and little to nothing else on your mind. When you made it so that Dina killed your own mother right in front of you that day, you broke your mother's heart by taking her life and shaming her memory you continued to tarnish."

"If I hadn't done what I did…"

"But here are factors that you refuse to see that were possible, such as a scenario in which the Warriors of Marley were never able to breach the Walls because of the Titan horde just outside Wall Maria. First Marcel, then Annie, then Bertolt…and finally Reiner. Take a look."

A sphere floated over to Eren and showed him a scene in which the people he hated and manipulated had fallen to the scourge of Titans that had wandered across the open terrain of Paradis since the day Marley started sending Eldians to the island to live as Titans. He saw how Reiner, desperate to carry out the mission, fell against the Titan that was once Dina Fritz-Yeager. Not a single Titan had ever attacked the wall, instead attacking each other, each trying to obtain the power that would restore them to human form again. The aftermath being how Dina, Ymir and two strangers, a man and a woman, with the Colossal and Female Titans, respectively, came to in the realm of the paths.

"Your desires came undone in an instant because of random acts that pop up just to take root in existence," Brother Correction reveals to him as the sphere floats away. "How the rest of that story turns out is always in the hands of fate and the people that fight against it in favor of rewriting their own fates."

"Did you have anything to do with that?" Eren demands to know. "You seem like the type that will defy any sense of rationality in favor of some other form of hope that is false."

Swat! A sphere from behind Eren hit him on his head.

"All I did was observe," he hears him say. "I wouldn't do anything in that existence unless something happened that needed to be undone or fixed…and you got hit by one of the spheres that recorded a fate of yours that seems almost too good to be true because in that lifetime, it was too good…for someone like you, that is."

Eren saw the sphere that hit him and grabbed it, gazing into its confines…and saw himself with Mikasa…and Historia…and Annie…and…several other women.

"What is this?" He questions.

"What, you've never heard of a harem before?"

"A harem?"

"Yes, a harem. A group of women all devoted to one man. Basically, a polygamist relationship. Those lifetimes are among the rare few that I have ever had to be asked to observe in case of something disastrous ever happening…and honestly, it's one of those lifetimes where I, like any other person with an opinion, can't imagine someone like you ever being involved with that many women."

"And why is that?"

"Because in that lifetime, you aren't a dick and the world doesn't hate Eldians and the island of Paradis doesn't exist and you live in the Twenty-Second Century, in a future you yourself could never be a part of, now or ever."

"And you see the future?"

"Past and future, ripples and cracks."

The sphere flew out of Eren's hand and rejoined the collective of sphere that hovered around this vast domain of beauty and awe that was Brother Correction's domain.

"And I can't have what that version of me had?" He asks.

"Has. Present tense; he's not dead…unlike the versions of you that chose to fall on your self-righteous sword you gave Mikasa to kill you with. He stays on the path of benevolence and refuses to give in to hatred and vengeance and continues to reap the rewards of his blessed life."

"You think torturing me with such knowledge is going to make me stop when what has been set in motion cannot be undone?"

"Torture or save? However you choose to perceive such as your current situation…is however you choose to believe, including your most desperate drive to escape from my grasp…which you are still subject to. You…are still my prisoner, Eren, and I won't let you go just yet. I have eternity to brutalize and tantalize you as I do everyone else that does wrong. One day, one hour, one minute…can be made to feel like a decade, a century, a millennia…and we wouldn't halfway into the middle or past it. I have learned methods from deities willing to teach me, from beings who dwell within the seams of nightmares, from master that fall and rise…and fall only to rise again. I know what the darkest of hearts have done and have done worse to them within the boundaries of my own morality. And in the end, I either sentence them to those that will torture them beyond my own depths…or plead for them to receive clemency in exchange for their own salvation. In the end, will you be saved…or condemned to a fate far worse than you can possibly imagine…and may be unable to endure?"

Then, he rose up from his wooden throne and approached Eren. He didn't need to harm the teen; they were in his domain…and he was subject to all that he was capable of, able to receive either a blessing or a curse from him. But Eren…still only saw one path in front of him…and was blind to everything else, including things that weren't hidden so carefully by Brother Correction.

-x-

It was a dreadful silence in the room they were using. Marleyans in control of the military factions that comprised all of its might, the head of the Tybur family, the current Founding Titan and her allies, the ambassador of the Azumabito…and a few representatives from other countries that had been forced to live under Marley's rule or were sought out during the ceasefire that currently existed between the could be taken advantage of in the hopes of obtaining a new advantage over a common foe. Yes, it was quite a dreadful silence that filled the room. Not really because most were enemies on the battlefield…but because of the Eldians that were present…and the Titans they had at their command if things went sideways for any of them.

Well, this is quite awkward, thought Grisha as he sat on Frieda's right side next to Captain Levi. Why doesn't anyone say anything?

The only noise being made by anything was the grandfather clock on the far end of the room. If any eyes were paying attention to its hands, they would've seen that only three minutes passed since they were all present in the room.

"So," Willy finally broke the silence, "does anyone wish to say anything about why we're here?"

Calvi was hesitant to speak, let alone brandish his pistol at any of these men and women that were present across the table.

Frieda looked at the man and uttered, "General Calvi, sir, you seem like you have something that you want to say. Please, speak freely. We want to hear it, whatever it is."

"It has been…over a century since your ancestors walked away from the theater of war," he finally states, "and you arrive here in Marley, albeit unexpectedly, and before your arrival, things began to change across the world, affecting people and changing the way they've done things for years. As of late, we've conducted blood tests on Eldians and confirmed that they can no longer be turned into Titans. Did you have anything to do with this?"

"Yes," she answers him. "For a time, I wasn't entirely myself, and then I was recently released from a passed-down belief that conflicted with my own…and began to help stop the way things were by changing them into what they are. The practice of turning Subjects of Ymir, those who can be turned into Titans against their will…and be deprived of any sense of conscience…came to an end because I was disgusted with such a belief. How can anyone, regardless of their beliefs, consider it an acceptable punishment to condemn someone else to life with no free will or alternatives? Locking them away for years makes sense, but if it's only a specific type of people, such as those that can be exploited because of something they never asked for to begin with, it's a cruel and unusual punishment that needs to end. So…yes, I made it so that there are no more Subjects of Ymir, just regular people. Those of us who still possess the power of the Titans…are the last ones who will ever possess such power until I decide otherwise. It is better this way, believe me. My predecessors might've thought of doing this once before, but never did so. There were even scenarios where someone would misuse the Founder's power with no understanding of its potential and condemn all but those with the power of the Titans and were descended from the Ackerman family to an instantaneous death…and that would've been far worse than any ideas of global genocide caused by a march of Titans or widespread euthanasia or sterilization. Wouldn't you agree, General Calvi?"

All eyes were on the man being asked, and he sighs as he nods his head.

"And…your ancestor's threat to destroy the world if Paradis' affairs were even interfered with by outsiders?" A captain questions. "The so-called Rumbling?"

"Nothing more than words from a self-loathing man that despised what his people had become," Willy responds. "Karl Fritz sought peace away from violence for his people on Paradis for as long as possible, but he never suspected that there would come a day where people from that same island would desire to leave it and explore a world they were led to believe was dominated by Titans for over a century. While he did use the power of the Founder to create three concentric barriers across the inner terrain of Paradis and fill them with Titans to serve as his shield, he had no intention to unleash them as a spear against the world. His threat was nothing more than a ruse that would last as long as it took the rest of the world to develop the means to attack Paradis and kill everyone on it without any resistance. Except now, everything has changed because something different has occurred to change the fate of those on Paradis and everywhere else."

The Marleyan men present were surprised to hear of this. All of this time, the threat they grew up hearing for years about how a march of Titans would trample the world if a small island of Eldian devils was ever attacked…was nothing more than a ruse by a man that hated his own people and sought a peaceful reprieve from the violence and destruction his people wrought over the ages.

"The Walls which held the Titans have been removed…and all the Titans in existence have been returned to human form," said one of the Eldian children present, Armin Arlert, to them.

"Okay, even so," a second captain expresses, "what's to stop someone from crossing the line and causing you to turn your people back into Titans and flattening the world? You can still do that, right? What's preventing anyone in this room from doing anything because they feel threatened by you, despite this revelation?"

"Sir," went Connie Springer, "most of us in this room have experienced, in one form or another, a measure of disgust towards violence due to how it affects everyone around them…and we don't want to fight or die because of someone else's hatred or fear. Some of us are just simple people with simple goals. Others were nearly pulled into violence because of the Titans that used to exist on Paradis, and we just want to be able to live in the same world that you live in, but without the violence."

"If any of us wanted to hurt any of you, we would've done so earlier on," added Reiner Braun, "but we don't want to start another conflict with anyone. That's not why any of us are even in here right now. There are other things we can talk about resolving or putting an end to. There doesn't need to be any talks of war. Look at what war has already done over the years to people. What the segregation has done. It's…more than words can actually describe."

-x-

For the first time in a long time…Eren Yeager saw the ocean…and was unhappy about it. He was unhappy about it because Armin knew about it, along with his father and a bunch of other people he was positive had never been around Shiganshina or anywhere else on Paradis…and didn't tell him about it. Despite it seeming peaceful and all, he was not happy to realize that nobody told him about it being here, even though he felt they could've told him. Picking up a stone, he threw it at the water, venting his anger.

"Idiots!" He yelled as he picked up another rock and threw it out at the ocean. "They knew it was here…and they didn't tell me! They don't tell me anything!"

Little did he know, he was being watched from a distance by a camouflaged woman that had been tasked with monitoring around the coast in case anyone tried anything. But she had specific instructions to keep an eye out for this young man they were trying to save from not just the world…but from himself. Watching through a pair of binoculars, Hange Zoe didn't expect Eren to come to the coast without first asking for permission from someone else with authority. But then, again, she didn't expect him to ask for permission at any age, being a rebellious youth.

"What do I do if I see him?" She had asked Levi.

"Apprehend him," he told her, "and escort him back to Shiganshina. Make up a story about a situation that needs to be resolved over the next few weeks with the coastline or that a new training ground is being built for later use. Just don't let him wise up yet."

One of the benefits of this new present was having access to the light crystals comprised of hardened Titan flesh from the caverns beneath the Reiss chapel after Frieda took down the Walls. Using the same lantern design they had prior to returning to Shiganshina to reclaim Wall Maria the first time around, Hange shined light on Eren and got his attention.

"Stay right there!" Hange raised her voice. "Identify yourself!"

Eren looked at her and then tried to run away. Unfortunately, he didn't take into account that Hange would be faster than he was and knew how to restrain him. A pair of lines flew at his legs and bound him, causing him to fall to the ground. He tried to get up, but Hange was already in front of him, shining the light on his face.

"State your name," she instructed him.

"Eren Yeager," he responded.

"What are you doing here?"

"Just wanted to see the ocean?"

"Do have permission from your parents to be out here this late at night?"

"That's none of your business."

"Then I guess we'll have to converse with your parents until we know for sure. Yeager…Yeager… There's a Dr. Yeager that was requested to help the people over the last few weeks. Judging from what he said about his kid, your name and attitude, you're from Shiganshina District. Let's make sure you get back to your home."

Eren was in trouble now; if this person knew where he was from, it was possible that she knew that he wasn't here with permission, something everyone around him stressed on needing before children his age went anywhere beyond where the Walls once stood.

"This is ridiculous!" He expressed, letting himself be heard. "Why do I need to get permission to go anywhere?! If the Titans are gone, there shouldn't be any reason to feel like we're still locked up in a cage!"

"The rules and regulations exist to ensure that people are protected from potential dangers yet to be discovered, young man," Hange told him. "To simply violate those rules puts you and others at risk. You should've asked for permission to venture off first."

"You adults are starting to sound worse than the Titans!"

"Believe me, between adults and Titans, adults are the lesser of two evils; where Titans would just eat you or worse, adults will do whatever they can to either hurt you or protect you. The rules are in place to ensure that you may live a long life."

"Being locked up isn't what I call living."

"Nobody's locked up except for criminals…and you're starting to sound like one."

Hange picked him up and carried him over to a nearby horse-driven cart.

"If Dr. Yeager's your father, he's a good man," she told Eren. "You should try to be more like him when you're older."

"Like what, a doctor?" Eren asks her.

"No, like someone others can trust and depend on. If you give people a reason not to trust you, then there's only the assumption of you being trouble."

"Unfortunately, Eren doesn't make friends easy," Grisha had told her and the other members of the Survey Corps about his son. "He has always been…like this from the time he could talk. All I ask is if he ever shows up in places he has no permission from his mother or someone else of authority, you just return him home to Shiganshina."

"And how do you know if he doesn't have permission to be anywhere he shouldn't be?" Erwin had asked him.

"Because he never likes to ask for permission to go anywhere he knows he shouldn't without receiving permission to first. Scolding him seems to do nothing but make him more rebellious."

"Rebellious, willful and defiant towards authority," Levi had spoken, "and the worst part was that we enabled him the first time around because we didn't know then what we know now. We know that his defiance has risks we cannot take."

"And his rebellious behavior carries consequences for others that are better left alone," went Historia added during the meeting that took place before they had left to go to Marley. "Doctor Yeager, do you still…see him sometimes?"

"Yes, unfortunately," Grisha had answered her, revealing that he could still see his son's future self whenever he appeared. "He doesn't say anything, but he always has a look of anger, like he's upset with the whole world and nobody's listening to him."

I'd rather avoid seeing that Eren for as long as possible…and then watch him get his comeuppance in the end…if what he gets in the end can even be called such. Hange thought as she loaded him onto the cart and got on the horse.

"What are you doing out here, anyway?" Eren asks her.

"Surveying the coast for a new training ground," she lies.

"There's nothing out here big enough to train people against."

"It's not that type of training."

-x-

"…Mister Tybur, I still don't like this," one of the Marleyan military captains expresses to Willy shortly after Frieda and the others left out of the room. "This changes everything we once knew about Subjects of Ymir, and the sudden loss of their ability to be turned into Titans makes their usage as fodder against other military forces next to worthless."

"That may be, but they're not interested in war," Willy tells them. "And if we consider the other ramifications of this revelation, there truly are other ways to resolve our differences than through warfare. These wars started over resource shortages and political conflicts, right? The people of Paradis could help with their exploitation of the Titans in ways that have never been used over the decades. To still view them as an enemy when they have done nothing to anyone due to being locked up behind their king's Walls and have only recently begun to explore the world they thought was ruled by Titans…makes no sense, whatsoever."

"They're the enemy because of their ancestors' atrocities against the world," the second captain reminded. "Just because they know nothing of these atrocities doesn't excuse them from facing the repercussions of their existence."

"The sins of those committed in the past visited upon those who exist in the present? That's the equivalent of holding a small child responsible for crimes committed by their parents before they were even born…and them not knowing what they did to deserve other people's contempt. Karl Fritz took their memories of the past when he took their ancestors to Paradis and made them live behind the Walls, so they knew next to nothing about anything, past or present, beyond their history within the Walls. He wanted them to die ignorant of the reasons, but he never considered that people would eventually desire to leave that life behind. If we continue to blame them for the mistakes made in the past and not accept them as they are in the present, are we any different from how they're trying to demonstrate their own difference from the people that were responsible? Are we any better than our ancestors for spinning our own lies and passing them off as the truth?"

None of them, not even Calvi, said anything in response to this.

"By holding onto a belief that we grew up hearing about for years," said Magath to them, "refusing to let go of our hatred of who and what we don't understand, that we refuse to understand or even tolerate…we're no better than the people of the past were. If we can't forsake our hatred, if we refuse to forsake it, then we're no different from the monsters born from the hatred we give others. I can't speak for anyone in this room, but I can speak for myself and say that I am choosing to forsake hatred…and accept the people that come from Paradis."

Calvi couldn't believe that he heard this. At first, he wanted to believe that he had been brainwashed by the Eldians from that island…or that the Tyburs were in cahoots with the Eldians, but he couldn't ignore something that was older than any of them. He couldn't ignore common sense.

"What if they're lying?" He asked them.

"I looked those people right in their eyes…and I spend my days visiting other parts of the world, for months at a time, trying to change people's views on Eldians, to make them see them as people instead of demons…and I never once saw any hint of deception in any of their eyes. No sign or whisper of deceit. Everything they said and did was sincere." Willy expressed. "Were they afraid of the Rumbling if it had been carried out? Yes, they were afraid. Are they relieved that they don't have the means to destroy the world, anymore? Yes, they are. Do they want they want peace and coexistence with everyone else in the world? They do. They don't have a hidden agenda. There's no malice or desires for revenge. To hold onto hate…simply because it's easier than to accept that someone might do something wrong…isn't the right move to make."

-x-

"Do you think they're going to consider our proposal?" Historia asks Frieda and the others in the room they were in, waiting for a sign that they were going to be alright.

"One way or another," went Mikasa as she sat at a table with Levi, playing chess, "there's no going back to what was. We have to change what is into what can be for the better."

"How can Titans turn cultivate wastelands?" Erwin asks Grisha.

"I have yet to learn how such a power could be used to achieve such a feat," Grisha responds. "I've only ever known the Titans being used to cause suffering. I will not do anything of the sort when I would rather do good."

"That's because it's been so long since the Titan powers were last used for something other than malevolence, people have forgotten their beneficial effects," Frieda explains. "Anything we do now is to show that we're walking away from the past and towards a better future."

"Can you…see anything happening, Lady Frieda?" Armin asks her.

"No…and I'd rather not know what's going to happen before it happens; such a power is a bane, to know everything that has happened and is yet to happen, knowing the majority of the future and not just the past. It's better to focus on what is now and think less about what might be or will be. Although…there is someone on Paradis that is an unexpected boon for those of you that made a pact to change the world."

"Huh?" Connie went. "Someone on Paradis is also in on what we're trying to do? But…everyone we know that knows everything about what we were doing back then…"

"The majority of everyone involved is here on Marley," said Jean. "We left Hange on Paradis to keep a watch for Eren in case he tried something. Are you sure there's someone else that knows what was and could've been?"

"You'll be surprised when we return to Paradis," Frieda states.

-x-

"Oh!" Hange gasps when she noticed Keith Shadis on the streets of Shiganshina at this time of night. "Keith Shadis. What are you doing out this late at night?"

"Looking for him," he answers, pointing at Eren beside her. "His mother was worried when he didn't come home; I suspected that he tried to sneak off someplace without first getting permission to venture. Even without the Walls, there is still danger until the Survey Corps say otherwise. There is still some danger out there, isn't there?"

"More or less; there may be no sightings of Titans, but we don't know what else is out there. Titans have never been shown to attack animals besides humans, so there's probably large beasts that have been ignored by them for years, plants that are poisonous if ingested and God-knows-what else. It's a…extreme duty right now."

"Well, I'll gladly take Eren Yeager off your hands and let you get back to what you were doing."

"Much appreciated."

Hange gave Eren to Keith.

"There is one other thing I've been meaning to ask, but I wasn't sure if I was going to until I knew better," Keith told her. "I'm still not sure, but I should ask you, anyway."

"Oh?"

"Yes. My question is… What are you doing here…in the here and now?"

That question, that secret question to tell who was from the future sent back to the past and new present… It surprised Hange to hear Keith ask her this.

"Why…I'm here to change the world," she answers him.

Cling! That sound that they both heard, that Eren was deaf to, was proof that Hange was speaking to someone that wasn't all that they seemed to be.

"Words of a true believer in change," Keith expresses. "Thank you."

Hange looked at his left hand…and saw the bracelet that identified Keith as someone from the future she and the others were from, the very same future they were trying to prevent…and to some degree, even though it was a small degree, already had prevented by removing the Walls and the Titans within them. But it bothered her because, as she remembered, Keith Shadis wasn't with them when they met Brother Correction, and was offered the chance to return to the past and change it. Unless, of course, the mysterious stranger that wanted them to change the past visited Keith prior to meeting them…or even after meeting them.

"Uh, we should talk more, Shadis," she suggested.

"Yes, we should," he replies and then walks Eren down the street he was coming from, taking him home to his mother. "You really need to ask for permission, lad. Your mother was worried sick about you."

-x-

He forced Eren to witness the ravages of war for the equivalent of four days, each variation of a calamity so wretched that it would drive a man mad with hatred, but only to teach him of the brutality that he had intended to unleash through the Rumbling. The suffering that nobody wanted to experience, the losses that didn't need to be felt, the blood that shouldn't have been spilt across the terrain, even if it was for a noble cause, all it primarily resulted in was a decrease in population density and an increase in hatred. But even if Eren didn't develop a disgust towards the dark side of nature and want to turn away, Brother Correction made sure he knew why he couldn't let him go and carry out his plan, no matter how it affected Paradis in the aftermath. There would be no forgiveness for the bloodshed and pain.

"War," he told Eren as they stood in the air as a city was bombed by an invading force from another country that was a neighbor with a depraved behavior, "promises nothing beyond death and destruction, Eren. It doesn't matter if it's a war for land or resources or is just a war over choices. You choose the path of violence, you choose to take life rather than preserve it, you become a bringer of bad omens. Even if war becomes part of history, and history is full of war, the entire story of war isn't told…because the way the story gets told…is by whoever wins the war, and the winners…don't always say everything. Anyone can make up what they like, claim what started the conflict. Like this conversation between father and son here."

"…They don't see our war as sharing peace and prosperity with the rest of the world!" A teenage boy with a burn mark on the left side of his face said to his father. "They hate us! And we deserve it!"

"Of this conversation between sisters that only started because the little sister decided that the world she lived in for less than two years didn't meet her expectations and needed to be changed to her own liking."

"…You only hate magic and anyone that uses it because you can't accept your own heritage," a young girl said to an older woman, bound to a raised, metal table, looking at her with scorn. "But the coldest thing about any of this is that you didn't have to go down this path! You could've said something! You should've said something! We would've understood you! But you chose not to say anything! You chose this! You!"

"I don't see you trying to change any of these wars or conflicts," Eren reminded him.

"As I said, I don't have permission to change these events…and some of these events are grounded in the reality of their branched existences. They were the eternal reminders of why those that despise war and death are those that try to prevent them from being committed further in the world. Those that choose to commit these heinous atrocities are the ones self-condemned to the worst that is yet to come for them."

Eren could see the father of the scarred boy about to be killed by a young boy that was flying in some sort of sphere made of rings of rocks, fire and water, the woman of the young girl striking down another woman on the ground, a young man whose face was so cold and devoid of any emotion raising a gun to an injured man that appeared to be his father, who was pleading for him to see reason, only to be silenced, and other people fighting each other due to beliefs. All he saw was fighting, fighting and more fighting. He saw a father try to approach his daughter, but she gave him the cold shoulder, indicating that something he did had done something to sour their relationship, followed by a winged creature that looked like a girl having a verbal dispute with another winged creature that resembled it, detailing some sort of problem that was going on for a long time, and even a conversation between a man locked in a glass cage with a woman in black…and the man making a threat towards the woman. All Eren saw…was violence and hatred, nothing more than that.

"And you think knowing any of this will change anything?" He asks Brother Correction. "All I see is that nothing…ever…changes."

"Nothing changes except what needs to," Brother Correction tells him, "and the things that can be changed are the things people are given the chance to change…or receive a better way to change those things."

"Like you?"

"My expectations are my own; I don't expect anything to be perfect. Nothing except a shift in what was and is to what can be. And if I see something that doesn't work out for anyone, and believe me, I have seen many things that don't work out for a lot of them, I will offer a change in their path to alter the course of their progress. It's up to them whether or not to accept or reject. Those that choose to accept, I have nothing but hope for. Those that reject, I pity because they're either stubborn or afraid."

"Well, I think you're pitiless."

"Oh, that's the pot calling the kettle black, Eren Yeager, nothing truly original."

Eren felt offended by what he just said.

"I'm gonna kill you," he threatened, and was then turned upside-down. "Whoa!"

"Yeah, you're gonna try and keep trying to do that, along with trying to escape and pickup where you left off with the Rumbling, but you see, Eren…your fate has already been decided. Your goals are nullified and your forces removed. I'm not your judge so much as I am the guy that deals out the final execution. The ones that judge you…are the ones that will decide your greatest fate. The only thing you'll receive from me in the end, besides the proverbial final words to be heard before the sentence is carried out…is my pity towards your fate. But it will be just another reminder of something most don't realize until it's too late for them to change their fate."

"And what is that?"

"That nobody is ever truly free, even when we think we are. Freedom…is an illusion. The only way to break the illusion…is to accept that it doesn't exist."

"Freedom doesn't exist?! You're wrong!"

"You wish he was wrong," they both turned to face a little girl that just appeared behind Eren, looking simple…but didn't have that inviting presence to them like other girls possessed. "Brother Correction is many things to many people, including the hypocritical deviant that some want to call him out on, like it even matters when we have gone beyond the acceptance or praise of those beneath ourselves…but he doesn't lie about harsh truths. He knows better than most that appearances are always deceiving and hide more than they show…and he knows that freedom…is nothing more than a myth created before anything else that teases at the heart's desires. I should know. He's not free, either. He's never free, despite his abilities and leisure to do as he pleases."

"Who are you?" Eren asks her.

"Sister Deception," he hears Brother Correction say, "one of the many reasons for why freedom is a myth."

"And like me, he's without freedom. Like you, he will never know freedom. But unlike you, he doesn't need to be free…because he has accepted his fate. Because of his acceptance of his fate, he has escaped from it." Sister Deception reveals.

"Why are you here?" Brother Correction asks her. "You know we can't both be present for too long. It goes against the rules we must follow."

"Oh, I'm just passing by. Will you save this fool or is he condemned to be tormented?"

"Why do you care? You just want to feed off of torment."

"Oh, I don't care what you do to him. I'm just curious like all others when something is going to happen to someone else. But it is true, my brother is not free…and neither are you. Nobody is ever truly free. Once we accept this harsh truth, we know the peace that comes with it. We're all enslaved to something, no matter what others think. But when I look at you like I have many times before, I can't help but tell you how much I have enjoyed your suffering. I enjoy your suffering because you chose to suffer. You chose to force others to suffer. You're among my favorite toys, Eren Yeager."

Then, the little girl flew away and disappeared.

"She has a tendency to show up when she's not wanted," Brother Correction told Eren.

"I don't believe a word she said," he told him. "You're clearly free to do as you please."

"How am I free? How do you define being free? In one way or another, nobody is free. We're all bound by something or someone. There is no escaping the reasons we do what we do. There is no denying the duties we are dealt. Even after we're done with something, there's always something else to do that requires our attention. Even those that claim to be free are never free; they always feel the need to do something when they should do nothing. Do absolutely nothing."

"I don't believe you."

Below them, the worlds of war faded, replaced by a vast sea of stars and comets.

"Even the Attack Titan is a servant to an illusion," Brother Correction told Eren. "It fights for freedom, but the freedom it fights for is never elaborated on. What freedom does it fight for? Why does it fight for only that freedom? If there's no elaboration, then there is no comprehension. If the freedom it exists to fight for can't be explained, then it can't be true. Freedom is just a belief, not a fact, not a prize, just something to give you a sense of purpose, something to believe is worth all that you do. But just because you believe in it, it doesn't make it the truth."

"What is you pray for?" They heard a voice say.

"Salvation," they heard another voice say, sounding in pain.

"And what would it feel like? A joyful note? Without change, without end? Heaven?"

"What is that?" Eren asks.

"Something happening far away," Brother Correction tells him. "Across the vastness of existence, throughout the abyss of time and the curtains of space. Someone is suffering and longing for release from their pain. No doubt Sister Deception will enjoy their pain until it is over. Someday, you'll seek release from your pain. All I can do is hope that whoever is listening, whoever is watching…will show you mercy and welcome you into their domain where there will be peace after the end. But until then…until then…"

Pierce! Eren felt a spear pierce him through his chest…and saw Brother Correction holding a long shaft made of dark matter…running through his body.

"Aaurgh!" He groans, feeling like the bones in his torso had been cracked.

"What is it you pray for right now, Eren Yeager?" Brother Correction asks of him, slowly jamming the shaft deeper through him.

"Aaaaaaurgh!"

"What is it that you pray for right now?"

"For you to die!"

"And what would my death mean to someone like you? Would it be a joyous moment? To know that everything I do, that everyone I reach my hands out to in order to help them change their fates, all of it suddenly having no meaning? No redemption? Agony? There is no absolution in if this happens. But this… Oh, this…"

He pushes the shaft of the spear deeper into Eren, causing him pain.

"Aaaaaaurgh! Aaaaaurgh!"

"There is an absolution further ahead of us…and we're nearly there."

-x-

"Reiner," went Reiner's mother as she saw him return to the house for the time being. "You're back."

"For the time being," he explained; he didn't want to tell her everything that happened while on Paradis, not until they were all certain that what was going to happen later either did or didn't. "How is everyone?"

Meanwhile, across the internment zone, Bertolt returned to his parents and Annie returned to her father. For the time being until they were informed otherwise, the Warriors of Marley were to wait until the military decided upon the acceptance proposal of Paradis' aid and ending the segregation laws to aid further in changing people's views and opinions of Eldians. Once they knew of this, it was hoped that it would lead to a better future where they could rebuild instead of causing further destruction. But as these three young souls were enjoying the time they had off to be with their families, in his cell, uncertain of how he was found out, Zeke Yeager continued to ponder what was going on and how, if anything, he was going to continue with his plan.

Suddenly, the door to his cell opened and a guard came inside.

"Yeager, you have a visitor," he told the former Beast Titan.

"Who?" He asked the guard, and his visitor appeared. "You?"

"Hello, Zeke," greeted Grisha to his son. "I was surprised when they told me you were alive."

To be continued…

A/N: How is Keith Shadis involved when he shows up late in the story? You have to wait and see. Grisha paying Zeke a Surprise visit? That was bound to happen. Will Zeke see Dina again? Also in the works. And Brother Correction's revealing that he isn't free and that freedom is a falsehood? I'm going to let y'all wonder about that until the next chapter.