To You, 107 Years Later

"Deutschland?"

Liesel blinked, realizing her mistake at Armin's bewildered stare.

"I mean…Germany." Saying the English name of her country shook Liesel more than it should have. Memories of waving the German flag with its dark black and vivid red and yellow numbed her mind as she remembered her father and brother running to play tag, a game that almost brought tears to her eyes as she remembered the happy shrieks she and her family ran and tackled each other. "That was the nation I am from."

"Nation?" Armin's blue eyes widened in curiosity. "What do you mean by nation?"

Liesel spoke haltingly, only grasping faint knowledge that she had obtained when she was in elementary school. Back then, everyone had thought of the existence of nations for granted. People believed that beautiful and proud nations like her own, America, Scotland, India, Brazil, and China would sand for another one thousand years. How would they react if they knew? Liesel thought as she remembered gazing at the living and breathing humans, the leaders of each countries. Who knew that this would be their fate? "A nation…is a group of people who live in a certain area and…identify themselves as belonging…to that land." No one appeared to understand, and Liesel allowed herself a wry smile. "Think of it as another Wall…but that the Walls are joined as one. And…the people are connected to one another, not just by occupation or blood."

"How does this connect to what you are trying to tell us?" Eren asked. His green eyes appeared curious with the words Liesel had stated, but a hint of impatience coated his voice. "How does this…Germany connect to the state that humanity is right now?"

Liesel sighed. "The previous world had many nations, more than Germany. There was England, Japan, Austria, France, Cambodia…and Russia." An involuntary shiver escaped from her at the sound of the cold nation's name, and the dark haired girl noted of how Levi's eyes followed her movements for a moment before staring blankly at her again. "Back then, there were no other enemies other than humans. Titans didn't exist. As such…humans fought each other."

"Why?" Eren's voice vibrated through the room as disbelief and anger surged through him. "Why would human do such a thing? Are they stupid?"

Liesel didn't respond for a moment. Her eyes darkened at the mention of Eren's words, and her head seemed to fall heavy with sadness. Stupid…perhaps. Or maybe…

"We fought for many things, Eren Yeager." The voice that came from her rasped and was subdued. "Power. Wealth. Land. Religion. Ideals…" She swallowed, remembering the devastating wars that she had learned throughout history. The dark-haired German thought of her nation's dark past. "Some things were worth fighting for."

"Some things?" Eren whispered incredulously. Then suddenly he stood. "How…can some things be worth fighting for?" His face began to darken in rage. "How can all of you humans…throw away your lives for something so stupid? Fighting each other?" He began to shake, and the burning green eyes bored into Liesel's own. "How can you be a soldier and proud?" Liesel felt the coldness from his eyes seep into her body. Her eyes began to widen, and Eren's words continued to make her bleed as she listened to his judgmental words. "How can you be proud for killing your own race?" Coarse and biting words filtered through her mind. "Do you even know what war is like for us? You're not even –"

Liesel felt the softness of his cheek as she punched him the side of his cheek. The young man stumbled from the impact, but still stood. A growing red mark spread across his cheek, and a hint of blood trickled down his cheek.

"Liesel…" Armin stated breathlessly at the young woman's show of anger. The others were silent. For once Mikasa Ackerman did not attempt to help Eren, and the sharp eyes of the seniors of the Survey Corps were no the two figures standing in the center of the room.

"If one does not understand the past, then one will be condemned to repeat the cycle, Eren Yeager." Liesel's voice was strangely wispy, as if she had not taken enough breath. Her eyes were bright with pain. "I do not blame you for acting like this, for I have no idea how I would react if you were in my position right now. But your words hurt me." Liesel gritted her teeth, and her nails buried into her palms. "How can I be proud, you ask? ….I don't know. I have done terrible things."

Friedrich flashed into her mind. The bodies of the dead. "There are some things that are worth fighting for. Why do you fight now?" The question was met with silence, although Liesel could see understanding in Armin's and Jean's eyes. "Freedom. We fought for freedom as well." The young woman stared at the ceiling with agony coming from decades at war seeping from her very presence. "Death…was more of a mercy to my people when it came to being invaded. By the time I was ten years old, my country was at war with Russia." Liesel took a deep breath. "Russia…took over several other countries…forced them into slavery and agony and hardship." Liesel turned, and faced the other gaping Survey Corps members. "We fought because of freedom…but then it didn't matter anymore."

"Why is that?" Liesel followed Armin's growing fear in his eyes. "Why…did the freedom not matter anymore?"

"Everyone was dead." A heavy silence filled the room. "The lands known to grow flowers and bread and dyes and where humans and other creatures coexisted ceased to exist. There was nothing but a barren wasteland. No color. Only ash and death and red. So much red." The rain pelted down her face as she stared dully at her brother's face. His body was covered in mud, his eyes open, as if he hadn't expected the person closest to him, his half, to be the one to end his life. "The war that began in the rhetoric of freedom became too devastating. Countries were so devastated by the bombs and the destruction had nothing left. Their people were dead."

"How did your world became this devastated, Liesel?" The young woman turned and stared at the pensive face of Erwin-danchō.

"It is human instinct to destroy and live no matter what the odds," Liesel stated in a half-whisper. "I…was forced into the military at age fifteen. Many of the countries overtaken by Russia were forced to send the young men and women to the front to fight a country they didn't believe in. The alliance made by the other countries with Germany caused other countries to fight in the war as well." Her dull eyes met his. "Imagine a world of nothing but darkness and emptiness…a world where you live everyday regretting you had lived and with nothing to hope for but death. Nothing but blood and death and suffering."

She screamed, feeling agony rushing through her as she bashed his skull in as she banged his head against the cold hard ground. She didn't notice the wet stickiness running down her hands and of bits of brain stuck in her hair and on her face. Eventually, her hand cracked, but she didn't feel the pain as she felt another hand around her neck. "I know what war is." She felt Eren's horror-ridden expression even though she could only feel his eyes. "War is hell. War is nothing but emptiness and the freedom of the world that we believed in became nothing in the end."

"How did the Titans became created?" When Liesel didn't respond, Erwin- danchō simply uttered her name. "Liesel."

"…It was my fault." Tears trailed down her cheeks, and the emptiness that had overtaken her so long ago enveloped her again. Her voice faltered. It became hard to breathe at the thought of the memory of that day. "Do you want your brother back?" Her tears continued to fall as she felt herself become more emotionally destroyed. "I…killed…my brother." There were audible gasps from the room. Only Levi and Erwin- danchō remained silent. "There a law that passed…that stated that all who defected from their service would be put to death…but not only them, but their families as well. My brother…was traumatized from the war, and he didn't care anymore. He…wanted to go home." Liesel tightly closed her eyes to block the memories that came from that night and of the pain of her swollen eyes, but it didn't matter. "Liesel! Liesel! Let's play with Mutti and Vati again, Liesel!" The young girl was still as the tears began to make a small puddle around her. Her very fingers trembled. I feel as if I am physically dying… "I killed him…because if I didn't….my mother and my little sister would be dead too." Suddenly a rasping laugh escaped from Liesel. It was a laugh they hadn't heard before, despite of the hell they had all been through. A hollow laugh, one of irony and despair and pain. "None it mattered in the end though."

"A man named Mikhail Molotov came to me one night, and said that he could….bring my brother back. I was such a fool," Liesel hissed darkly at herself. "I was such a naïve fool!" She turned to Erwin-danchō, the hollowness in her eyes appearing in her very self. I allowed him to take my brother's blood and my blood as well to bring my brother back from the dead. I…didn't hear from him again. And by that time, I was…home." The word that had once meant so much to the child she had been ceased to have any meaning to her then. Her mother's cries of relief and her little sister's joy echoed in her mind as she recalled the broken memories. "The war had mysteriously ended a couple of weeks ago. None of us knew how, or why. We were determined to fight until the enemy was dead…or until we were dead. Whatever came first. We didn't care anymore."

Liesel was aware of Armin's horrified expression and of the numbed gazes of the others. "Even if we survived, all of us felt that we had no home to return to. We were dead. I had my mother and sister, but I was not happy. I did…not want to live. My heart ached for the comrades I had lost and my brother." Then she laughed again, more bitter than before. "I received my wish." Without waiting for anyone to respond, Liesel continued.

"I never thought I would see him again. I had given up hope that I would see my brother again, and yet there he was…before me. It was the same eyes. The same hair…and the face was the same." Liesel's lips trembled. Her voice rasped. "I watched him eat our mother and our little sister. I was so stunned…so happy and then horrified…that I could not move. It didn't matter then that I had killed him a year before. The ultimate sacrifice I had made had…become nothing. I still remember how his teeth felt around my neck, and of my sister's legs falling onto me, the blood raining down onto my face and clothes as our mother was eaten. And then…"

"You were eaten then?" There was no emotion from Erwin-danchō's voice.

"I….was swallowed." Liesel remembered of falling and feeling of the unbearable liquid as it seeped the heat into her flesh. The dead bodies floating around her, seeing her mother's dead eyes and Isabel's hair soaked from the fluid, the color making it look red. The bodies surrounding her echoed against her eyes. It was then that she realized where she was. It then…that she realized. "I wanted to live. I realized, at the moment before my death, that I wanted to live. I…don't know what happened after that, but…all I remember is a surge of energy and looking at the world around me through new eyes."

"The original Titans then…"

"…Were created from the blood and the bodies from the dead soldiers of one hundred seven years ago, yes." Liesel swallowed. "The massacre lasted for a couple of weeks until the Walls were created. I remember the Titan that created the Walls." Erwin-danchō's expression became even more serious. "Somehow…Mikhail Molotov transformed himself into a Titan. And when he roared…the selective survivors of the war and the massacre had their memories altered. Except for those who already had become Titans."

"How is that?" Jean asked. He looked at Liesel with a mixture of horror, pity, and caution. "How can she remember all of this when she was a Titan?"

"It seems that the Titan who were created originally had some form of intelligence." Erwin-danchō stated carefully as he observed Liesel with interest. "Perhaps Mikhail Molotov wanted some control over the Titans he created once the enough humans had been destroyed." But…why do I have a connection to Historia's father? Why could I hear his thoughts? The others were turned to Erwin, so they did not see Liesel's pensive expression become stunned. Impossible…!

"Now." The tall commander turned to his second-in-command, observing his hidden expression. "Levi, what is your relationship to Kenny Ackerman?"