CHAPTER FIVE

"I don't understand why you don't want me to just fly around the wall and see if it's broken," Armin protested.

Levi and Erwin exchanged glances and half-grinned. "Look," Levi said, "I know you're some kind of god-like being, but we need to do some things on our own."

"Human beings need to have some control," Erwin explained.

Armin sighed, but did not protest further. The group gave a final huzzah before the commander gave a signal with his blade and the crowd of Scout Regiment soldiers on horseback thundered out from the gate. The traitors were on horseback, close to the rear, intentionally unarmed, while the man who defeated them ran behind. To all those within sight, Armin on foot, keeping up with sprinting horses looked a mixture of impressive and hilarious. The perfect runner's posture he had, moving at what amounted to a crawl compared to his full capacity, not even breathing heavily, simultaneously set the standard and provided basic entertainment. His eyesight swept over the crowd and back to the front. He could see far ahead objects with perfect clarity, so he knew what lie ahead before Erwin and Levi, despite the two being at the front. Occasionally, he glanced at the traitors. Their body language spoke to him like stories read to a child. What had been said between them in the jail cell had broken through. Perhaps they didn't agree with everything, but they couldn't deny his logic and empathy, and just being able to recognize that Marley was not infallible had cracked the cement holding their beliefs together.

"Do you have a plan for if we run into Zeke?"

Armin glanced at Bertolt, who had posed the question. He gave a serious look. "I'm going to stop him from hurting any more people," he said. "After that, I want to see if we can talk."

Reiner raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You aren't going to kill him?" he asked.

"If he makes it necessary," Armin countered. "I want to reserve killing for the last possible option. Life is precious."

Bertolt's mouth dropped a bit. "But, he's not going to give up that easily!" He considered it. "Hell, we haven't even given up completely on what we believe!"

"I don't want to be the man who rules," Armin said. "Rulers use control over life and death to instill fear. I want to guide. My father told me that, on Krypton, the symbol of my family stands for 'hope.'" He looked straight at Reiner and then Bertolt. "I believe everyone," he paused, "everyone, has the ability to do good in the world."

Annie shot a skeptical look. "It's easy to say," she shouted over the din. "You can't be hurt."

Armin looked past Bertolt at Annie. "I wasn't always," he said. "My powers had to develop. When I thought a titan was going to eat me, you're right. I wanted someone to save me." He blinked a few times. "But what I thought was going to be my last thought before dying, was about how much I could've done to save Eren and his mother."

"Am I supposed to believe that?" she shot back.

"Believe what you will," he said.

"Titan!"

Armin heard the giant footsteps to the far left of the group long before Connie Springer shouted. With a thud, the fair-haired youth took to the sky with a mighty leap. His eyes let loose a mighty blast of heat, piercing the titan's neck in an eyeblink, and the creature collapsed. Taking to the air, he landed back in formation and quickly resumed his pace.

They rode forward for several hours. Halfway through the ride, a splinter group broke off and rode in a different direction. The main group came to an old fort they decided to use as an encampment just a half-hour's ride from the forest of giant trees. The others rode with Erwin in the direction of the eastern section of the wall. Bertolt and Reiner helped everyone disembark, and Armin carried most of the supplies in. Everyone seemed nervous about their treasonous comrades, but the assured stances of both Armin, and their team leader Levi, settled everyone down. Eren and Mikasa sat on the floor next to a pillar, while Armin listened with his enhanced hearing.

"So," Mikasa asked, curious. "What do you hear?"

"Mostly animals rustling around," he said. "The wind. There aren't as many titans about as there used to be, so the distant rumbling of feet isn't as much as it was a year ago."

A thought occurred to Eren, that bugged him how he hadn't asked it before. "How do you sleep if you hear so well?" He asked.

Armin seemed a bit puzzled. "I don't know," he said. "I close my eyes, and my mind drifts away…somewhere."

"To Krypton?"

Armin glanced at Mikasa. "Yeah."

Levi approached as everyone else was settling in for the evening. "Armin, since you don't have to sleep," he said, "I think you should watch."

Armin nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense," he agreed.

"So," Eren said, "after we make it to Shiganshina, then we're going to circle the wall?"

Levi nodded. "If we ascertain that the wall is unbroken, then we're going to regroup at Trost and go over our plans to expand past the walls."

Eren pumped his fist. "I'll finally be able to see what's past the outer wall," he said.

Armin stretched and headed outside. He hovered up to the roof. His vision allowed for perfect sight, even in the darkness, and he decided to make his evening more eventful by clearing the forest. Lots of titans made their home in the giant trees, and using his senses to keep sight on the fortress, spent an hour methodically killing them. After making sure the forest was clear, he returned to the roof of the fort. He could see, off in the distance, the various new villages that had sprung up in the absence of death threats.

"How are you holding up?"

Armin turned to see Levi standing behind him. "Couldn't sleep?" he asked the leader.

"I sleep in bursts," Levi explained. "Keeps me sharp when I need to be."

"I'm fine," Armin said.

"You may not be God," Levi said, "but you're certainly a godsend. I didn't like it when Commander Erwin says I was the strongest fighter in the military, but I'm eager to tell you that we have hope because of you."

Armin accepted the compliment in stride. "Thank you, sir," he said. "I'm just doing what I can. Considering I can't be hurt like everyone else, I should at least be doing what I'm doing."

"That's just what I wanted to talk to you about," he argued. "I think you can be hurt, just not by anything of this world."

The fair-haired youth gave a snort. "I worry about that all the time," he confessed. "I mean, my people had machines that could fly through space, and machines that could have you talk face to face across the distance of the planet. How could they all just die?"

Levi shrugged and leaned against the edge. "I'm thinking long-term," he explained. "That 'ghost' of your father, Zor-El, he's taught you stuff. Do you think you could get him to teach us stuff?"

Armin turned to his commander. "You mean, teach everyone the knowledge of Krypton?" Levi nodded. "I think that wouldn't be too hard. What's brought this on?"

"If we had machines to talk to each other across the globe," Levi explained, "and machines that could allow anyone, anywhere, to know any piece of information at the press of a button, imagine what we could be as a species."

"That's something I want to talk to you about," Armin said. "Early in Krypton's history, they had guns like the ones the military police have. But their guns, even back when they used powder and bullets, were repeaters. Don't you find it odd that no one here has thought of that in a hundred years?"

"Re…peater?" Levi said, mulling the word over in his mind. His eyes lit up. "You mean, a gun that can fire several shots before being reloaded?" Armin nodded. He scratched his chin. "Yeah, if we have cannons, why the hell haven't we thought of that?"

"I didn't think that should be so hard," Armin shot back.

"No," Levi agreed. "That stinks of what those traitors said." He couldn't help but chuckle. "If the king's line wants to remain in power, then suppressing technology that would lead to opposition would only be necessary. Damn. And here I was hoping those traitors were full of shit."

"So we're going to have to eventually take down the king," Armin said.

"Add that to the long list of shit we have to do," Levi quipped.

"What's your story?" Armin asked.

Levi chuckled again. "Oh, no. Don't ask that. I don't want to stay out here all night explaining myself." He looked at his most useful soldier. "I want you to worry about helping humanity, not my story."

"I wonder," Armin said. "What would you do if you could do the things I can?"

Levi sat against the edge. "Well, let me think about it," he said. After a minute or so, he cleared his throat. "I'm not like you. One of the things I admire about you is, you could kill anyone who irritates you. And yet, you don't. Me? I would have killed those two traitors, and flown over to their country and laid their government to waste just so I knew no one would be coming here to kill my people." He looked at the boy with genuine approval. "And here you are, honestly wanting to find a peaceful solution. I honestly don't know if I could do it like that."

"We all do what we can, sir," Armin said.

That evening, Armin patrolled the area and saw nothing out of the ordinary. The sun came up and he felt a familiar feeling of peace wash over him as the bright rays touched his skin. The reason the crew had slept so soundly was due to his powers. His powers came from the sun. So, it made a kind of sense that he would feel better when the lights came on. Still, it reminded him of his work ahead. The group gathered their belongings and rode for a few more hours and eventually arrived at Shiganshina. Armin and Levi checked the wall, and sure enough, the rock barrier remained melted to the edges of the hole, blocking the entrance. After a few minutes checking the place to make sure there were no titans around, they came to the wreckage of the old Yeager household.

Armin grabbed the edge of the roof with his right hand, and a quick jerk later, the ground quaked with the boom of the timber and rock shattering. The group crept down stairs, Levi forcing the cellar door open. Eren, Mikasa, and Armin led the group in. Inside, the room bewildered those who saw it. It wasn't some impressive sight that caught their attention, but rather, the lack of surprises. There were only things that one could find in almost any well-stocked basement.

Armin looked around with his see-through vision, and came across it almost the same time Mikasa did. The desk in the center had a drawer with a false bottom. Eren eagerly shoved his key into the lock and opened the drawer, pulling the fake wood panel off. Inside was a book, three exactly. There seemed to be a mixture of oils to keep deterioration from occurring. Eren took them and pulled from one a picture.

"What's that?" Hange Zoë asked, approaching. "A portrait?"

Levi shook his head, examining the edges. "It's far too perfect for any person to have drawn," he said.

"It's a photograph," Armin said. Everyone gave him a quizzical look. "There's a special device called a 'camera' that imprints light onto paper."

Eren turned the photograph over. His jaw almost dropped. "You're…right," he said, glancing at Armin. His gaze passed over the group. "It says here that my father comes from beyond the walls."

Armin used his vision to see through to the surface, where Reiner and Bertolt were sitting calmly, waiting. Perhaps they were different, he wondered. Or perhaps they simply knew if they did anything, his punishment of them would be as swift as it was certain. "I guess this confirms the Eldia and Marley issue," he said.

"As much as I'd love to sit here and read about the truth," Levi interrupted, "I'm sure we have a mission to return to." Erwin nodded in approval.

"Let's get a move-on," Erwin said, leading everyone out.

As the group re-horsed, Bertolt looked over at Eren. "What're those?" he asked.

Eren held the trio of books up for effect. "The truth," he replied. "It seems you guys weren't lying."

The group had left Shiganshina and travelled for about an hour. They stopped to let a few of their ranks relieve themselves, when the sound of horses in the distance roused Armin's ears. "A group on horseback is coming," he said.

Everyone drew their attention to the south. A group of soldiers, ragged and not all with their clothing intact, rode towards the group. Erwin and Levi met them halfway. "What the hell's going on?"

The officer caught his breath long enough to answer the commander's question. "There are titans headed for Trost district!" he shouted.

Armin whipped his head around in various directions. He used a combination of vision powers to see for miles around. Flying upward, he examined the wall from afar. After a minute, he descended. "I don't understand," he said. "There's no breaks in the wall."

"Where are they?" Levi shouted.

"There's two groups," the officer replied. "One of them is headed towards Ragako Village, and the other is headed to Trost, led by a huge, ape-like titan."

Connie Springer almost screamed. "That's my hometown!"

Bertolt and Reiner shot a glance at each other. Levi cut them off. "Is that the Beast Titan you were talking about?" Erwin asked the two. They nodded.

Erwin and Levi shot glances at each other. "Ragako is a ten-hour ride from here," Levi estimated. "How close is the second group?"

The officer contemplated. "We turned tail and ran as soon as our party was obliterated," he explained. "We rode for the better part of an hour to get here. We believe they were chasing us."

Armin looked up. There were at least fifteen titans, about an hour and a half's ride from where they were. They'd closed some distance, but were still slower than the horses. He turned to his superior officers. "What do you want me to do?"

Erwin looked at Levi, then at Armin. "Armin, go to Ragako and stop them," he ordered. "Take the traitors with you, because we sure as hell don't want them with us if we're fighting titans."

Armin looked at Mikasa and Eren. "Looks like you'll be able to fight back after all," he said.

"I may be human," Eren said, "but I'm not going to die that easily."

Bertolt and Reiner wrapped their arms tightly around Armin. The smaller boy didn't need to threaten them—his look said everything. He draped an arm around their waists, and levitated upwards. "I'm going to try to fly slow enough that you don't die," he told them. He flew at a few hundred miles per hour, just fast enough that, if they kept their heads facing down, they would be fine. It still took an unbearably long time to reach it. Almost thirty-five minutes of flight before he saw the village unbearably close to a large group of titans.

The Beast Titan stopped its march as it saw a human figure, carrying two others, literally fly in like a shooting star and land not a hundred yards from where he stood. Zeke Yeager had but a few minutes of curious contemplation before he noticed two very important people, Bertolt Hoover and Reiner Braun, were the two being carried. "How did you fly?" the booming voice inquired. "What's going on?"

Before speaking, Armin picked up a rock bigger than his hand. Tightening his grip caused the rock to fissure and then break, as more pressure crushed the stone into powder as the larger chunks fell loose. He opened his palm to reveal an unblemished hand. "I'm only going to say this once," he commanded. "I'm not human. I've discovered Marley's secret, and these two traitors have been defeated, and their plan revealed." He took a breath. "We haven't killed them, and I'm going to give you a single opportunity to surrender."

The titan almost laughed. "Is this some kind of elaborate joke?" he asked.

"This may sound odd," Armin countered, "but I actually don't want to kill you. I will, however, if you don't surrender right now. If you want, I'll even be so kind as to escort you and these two back to whatever vessel brought you here. You all can leave and tell your people what happens if they attempt to kill us."

A guffaw escaped the Beast Titan's maw. "You honestly expect me to buy that?"

Armin released a disappointed sigh. "It's the best offer you're going to get."

"Bertolt! Reiner!" Zeke shouted. "Have you turned traitor to the cause?"

"Armin beat us," Bertolt explained. "Even together, we were like insects to him."

Armin stepped to the left of Zeke, and opened his eyes wide. An arc of heat burst forth, and a section of fur too close to it burst into flame. Zeke patted the fire out, and looked behind him to see three-fourths of the titans behind him gone, having been reduced to vapor. Armin then stepped to his right and finished the job. "I have abilities far beyond those of normal men," he said. "You have zero chance of winning."

"Oh, do I?" Zeke asked. "I have to…!"

His shout was cut off mid-sentence when Armin incinerated him. He wasn't about to take chances. After destroying Zeke, he took a ragged breath and let it out. Reiner glanced at him, confused. "What's wrong?" he said, trying to calm himself over the loss of his war master.

Armin wiped his eyes. "I don't," he stammered, "enjoy killing people."

"No!" a faint voice cried out in the distance. Only Armin could hear it. He whipped his head to the left. He shot upwards into the air to get a better look.

Erwin and Levi's group had made it to the battle. Most of the titans were dead. His eyes swept over Mikasa, looking shocked. Armin looked farther. His heart could have stopped.

Eren had gotten eaten by a titan.

Clenching his teeth, Armin shot forth like a cannon blast. The wake of his acceleration threw Reiner and Bertolt in different directions. He covered the distance in seconds at hypersonic velocity and extended his fist. The titan's neck and head splashed against Armin, raining down on the soldiers. He spun around and headed back to rip the decomposing body in half and free his friend. Or, he wanted to.

Before he could, a giant fist erupted from the smoking corpse of the titan. A second arm pried the flesh apart. Standing fifteen meters tall, a titan of rippling muscle and long black hair with a wide mouth of teeth strode forth. Smoke poured off its body and pointy ears as it kicked the remains of the corpse loose. Armin stared at it in disbelief. His vision revealed the truth: Eren had turned into a titan. Eren was a titan shifter.

Armin scarcely had time to process the information as Eren assaulted the two remaining normal titans, killing them with relative ease. "Eren!" Armin shouted.

Eren turned his attention to his friend. A growl erupted.

"Eren!" Armin continued. "I'm here to help!"

He was so focused on helping figure out Eren's situation, that he hadn't paid attention to the fist headed his way.

Eren socked Armin with a vicious right hook. The boy shot backward, blasting through rocks and splintering trees like a gunshot through a house.

Armin came to rest in a ditch dug by his inadvertent flight path. "Well, that sucked," he said.

He took to the sky and was back in front of Eren in an instant. Eren swung again and again, but with Armin paying close attention, the fists may as well have been under water. Armin had an idea. He hovered in front of Eren's face. Sure enough, he heard the air shift.

Eren swung, and hit himself in the head. His titan form collapsed to the ground against a tree. Steam began to pour from the stump where his right fist used to be. Armin landed on the shoulder, and drove his hand through layers of flesh. He wrapped his arm around Eren's midsection, and yanked him free like a splinter from a hand. He carried his friend to the ground as the titan body disintegrated.

"Mind telling me what the hell just happened?" Levi asked.

Armin shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"Is he a traitor like the others?" Erwin chimed in.

"Hannes was there when Eren was born," Armin said. "He couldn't be from Marley." His head shot up. "Oh shit!"

"Find those two! Now!" Erwin shouted.

Armin flew up and returned to Ragako village. It took him less than a minute. He expected some form of chaos to await him, or even worse, for the two to have fled. Searching the countryside for hours seemed a possibility. What he didn't expect, was the two to be quietly awaiting his return.

"So," Bertolt chimed in. "What happened?"

"Give me a moment," Armin replied. He gathered his thoughts. "A titan ate Eren and he turned into a titan."

Reiner shot Bertolt a look. "So, he's a titan shifter?"

Armin nodded.

"This is serious," Bertolt said. "That means someone gave him the titan formula at some point in the past, and he ate one of the nine titans!"

"I believe you told me about that," Armin said. "So, this complicates things."

"Let's get back to Trost," Reiner said. "I don't want to get you in trouble."

Armin flew them back to the group. It took far too long. When he set found the riders, they'd started without him and had made a decent distance. The plan to inspect the entire wall had apparently been scrapped. He set down and they provided horses.

"What's the situation?" he asked.

Levi shook his head. "We're through inspecting the walls," he said. "We've got to report back to Trost that Wall Maria is retaken and that Eren can shift into a Titan form."

Armin hung out near the back of the formation, keeping a close eye out for everyone. The two traitors had looks on their faces that spoke of conflict. "I'm sorry I had to kill him," he told them. "I gave him a chance. He didn't seem to want peace."

Reiner blinked deliberately. "You were just doing your job, protecting people," he said. "Just like Zeke was."

Armin clenched his teeth a moment in frustration. "I'm not ok with that!" he exclaimed.

Bertolt turned his head. "Look, Zeke wanted what we wanted," he explained. "For the death of the people of this island so that the world could see the Eldian people were free of the stigma!"

Armin glared at him. "But even still," he argued, "you have to admit that doesn't make sense."

"The reason everyone hates the Eldian race," Reiner explained, "is because, like I said before, everyone is worried the king will unleash the wall titans and trample the world!"

Armin asked a question, that, unbeknownst to him, would resonate with the two for years to come. "If Marley's government wants to get control of the wall titans," he asked, "what do you think they're going to do with them?"

"They're going to keep them from being used!" Bertolt said. Armin shot him a disappointed stare. Horror began to appear on the traitor's face. "No…"

"You think they'll be able to resist using such a powerful weapon?" Armin answered. "When have men been able to resist using a new, powerful, terrible weapon?"

"You don't know that," Reiner argued.

"I know what makes sense," Armin countered.

They rode for several hours before stopping to camp in a clearing. Armin kept watch again. Eren woke up halfway through the night because he found his mind riddled with questions. Mikasa slept a bit farther away, so he didn't wake her up.

"What do you think's going on?" Eren asked.

"Now we know that in order to become a titan shifter," Armin said, "you have to be turned into a mindless titan and eat one of the nine titans."

Eren slouched against a tree. "Yeah," he agreed. "The problem is, who do you think I ate?"

"I've been thinking about that for hours," Armin admitted. Honestly, I think…" He took a deep breath and closed his eyes a moment.

The dark-haired youth felt his heart rate shoot up. What was his friend about to say? "Armin, what's wrong?"

Armin's heavy sigh frightened Eren. "Eren, I…" He swallowed. "I think you ate your father."

Eren shot to a standing position. His breath seemed frozen in his lungs. A shot of pain ran echoed through the halls of his being. Then, his vision went blank.

The cold evening air of winter echoed around a young Eren Yeager. A familiar face stared down at him. "Son," Grisha Yeager said, tears leaving his eyes, "this is the only way."

Eren shook his smaller head. "Father, what…?"

"The one to take it will be you!" Grisha shouted. He drew the vial and needle from his pocket.

"No!" Eren protested. "No! Father!"

The needle pierced the skin. The fire entered the boy's veins. He felt his consciousness fade away. A thunderous boom and a plume of smoke erupted all around. The young boy ceased to be; in his place, a titan-shaped child appeared. The huge hand reached down, ravenous jaws opened wide.

Grisha Yeager smiled as he accepted his fate.

The next thing Eren remembered was coming to. He pushed to a sitting position and shuffled around with his hands. He came across a familiar pair of glasses, broken in half. A skeleton, exuding smoke and billowing heat, disintegrated piece by piece. He stared at the glasses with trembling hands. "Father!" His scream pierced the darkness.

"Eren!"

The vision vanished as Armin grabbed his friend by the shoulders. Eren snapped to attention immediately, gathering his bearings as tears streamed down his face. "Armin, I…" He collapsed into his friend's arms. He couldn't even bring his arms up into a hug, he'd been struck so numb by the revelation. Armin grappled his friend tight. Eren gradually found the strength to return the grip.

"Eren!" Mikasa shouted, awoken by the shout. "What's going on?"

He turned to her, his face semi-blank. "I…" The words choked him; he forced his voice to speak. "I'm a titan…" His eyes wouldn't let him see until he fought back with blinking and opening them wider. "I'm a titan…because I ate my father!"

"Oh, god," Mikasa said, drawing him in.

Armin gave a look at Erwin and Levi, startled by the sudden outburst, that indicated everything was alright.

Somewhere in those books, Armin realized, was the truth that Bertolt and Reiner had alluded to. Grisha Yeager had sacrificed himself to grant incredible power, and a major bargaining chip to his youngest son. The war between Marley and the Eldian people ran a lot deeper than he ever expected. As he comforted his friends, he pondered the depths of hatred between the two groups. What had the Eldian empire done to warrant a nation such as Marley sending children such as Bertolt and Reiner to fight and die against their enemies? The degree of brainwashing that had happened to create such blind demonization of ordinary people, staggered him.

How do I end this war? Armin thought.

He held post until morning, where the scout regiment saddled up and returned to Trost to report the events that had transpired.