Chapter Seven
Hannes and…Dina
"Thank you," she had said. And then smiled.
With tears and every ounce of courage she had left.
More courage than he.
Hans glanced at the children surrounding him, children sharpened into soldiers, the children whose salvation had saved him.
He'd once told Eren it was better to have a complacent life. Even now, he wasn't sure he was wrong. But at least he could look in the mirror without shaking his head now.
"You," he growled to the monster towering above him, as more monsters pressed closer, but this one, this one was all he could see.
He leapt forward, summoning all the strength of Carla Jaeger.
And when he felt its hands clamp upon him, he realized that all her strength, all his strength, was not enough.
Maybe not, he thought desperately as his limbs were torn from him. How could this be happening? Revenge, he needed vengeance. For justice. For Carla. But her strength – as his faded, as even his vision began to blur and all her saw was red and a wish for the children to survive again – this strength was enough to carry him forth, as darkness shone and death came.
He was dying, but his eyes were wide open. And he would die with pride.
"Mr. Hannes!" Carla wrapped her arms around him. "You saved my children!"
"Carla." Hannes' eyes filled with tears. "I had not expected to see you so soon."
Below them – oh, he still saw Eren and Mikasa, saw the smile on the grim girl's face. "Why aren't you watching them?"
"Because she knows humanity has already won," a tall woman said. Beside her was Mike Zacharius. Oh, what was her name – Nanaba.
His eyes widened. "Is that Grisha?"
Grisha was shaking. "That's the titan that ate you?"
No matter what, Grisha, I will find you.
"No. She killed me before she ate me," Carla said quietly.
"She?" His pitch rose to a squeak.
"Something about her seems feminine." Carla shrugged. "I pity her, really. Say, Grisha, what is wrong?"
Something cracked below, and Carla gasped as Eren, her Eren, punched a titan, that smiling titan. Just to save Mikasa, just to remember her and Hannes.
"Eren," she wailed, expecting the smiling, trapped human to squeeze her precious son.
And then – and then all the titans were swarming the smiling one, screaming and tearing at its flesh.
"What?" Carla breathed, tears filing her eyes. My boy remembers me. My boy is changing the world for his family.
The titan howled as another gangly titan launched itself at its neck, only to be chomped by a larger titan desperate for flesh, any flesh.
"What's happening?" Petra exclaimed.
Frieda and Faye exchanged glances. "The coordinate."
"Coordinate?" Carla eyed a shaking Grisha.
"She ate you!" he screeched suddenly.
"You knew her?" Carla demanded.
"More than that," Faye said softly.
Grisha moaned as a bedraggled young woman collapsed outside heaven. Even from the gate, Carla knew who she was.
"You…you're the smiling one." Carla shook, but she stepped forward all the same. She had to. Someone had to.
The woman lifted a tear-stained face. "Is it over?"
"Yes," Carla said, kneeling before her. "You're free."
"Did I…Grise…how many did I kill? And my son." The woman wrung her hands.
"Grise is here," Carla assured her, helping the woman to her feet. "So are many of your comrades. Eldian restorationalists, right? I'm Carla Jaeger – I'm from inside the walls, and you may have killed me but I hold no grudge. I promise. You're free."
"Are you a relative of Grisha's? Is he here?" The woman pushed back a strand of golden hair. "I'm Dina, Dina Jaeger. I was his wife."
Carla's smile vanished.
"Dina." Grisha appeared behind Carla, with longer hair and glasses and more years on his face, but here nonetheless.
"Grisha!" She rushed to him, thrust her arms around him as she had when they'd first met, when her impulsivity had shocked his hardened heart.
He returned the hug as awkwardly as he had the first time.
"Pardon the interruption, but after so many years, you should embrace her more," Carla said coldly.
She'd known, of course, he'd been married before. She'd known his wife was a titan and their son was Zeke the brainwashed traitor. But the woman who'd killed her was Grisha's wife?
Dina pulled back to look at Carla in confusion. Carla, the woman who'd just shown her so much kindness, was now tapping her foot and glaring at her beloved husband.
"I was never made a titan, Dina," Grisha began at last.
"What? Were you just killed?"
"No, he wasn't. Though I'm sorry I couldn't save you, too," said Kruger, approaching them. "Once they found out your blood, they would have assaulted you until you bred them children until you died. I – I thought a titan might be better than that…"
Dina cast her eyes down. "You're the owl."
"I was, yes."
"And Carla was Grisha's wife," Hannes broke in.
Dina's eyes jerked up. Stricken, she saw Carla as if for the first time.
"I guess you were able to find me again," Grisha said bitterly. Dina was special, even as a titan. She should have been saved, not him.
"No!" Dina clapped her hands over her mouth.
"And that – that is our son," Carla said, pointing at Eren as he rode back with the Survey Corps. Pride and a bit of vengeance tickled her heart. "And that is yours. He's still alive."
Dina saw Zeke at the edge of the island, sipping coffee with a scowl as he waited – waited for child comrades to join him. Child comrades he helped control.
"No!"
Carla's anger dissipated as quickly as it had arisen. This woman had lived a nightmare far worse than she. This woman was not at fault.
"Dina, he's alive. He can change. I promise." She stepped closer, nothing but gentleness on her face.
"Everyone can change, even after death," Faye said.
Dina's eyes lit up. "Grisha, this is your sister."
"Yes, and I pray constantly for my nephew," Faye said seriously.
"And I pray for my stepson," Carla forced herself to say. "Perhaps these Jaeger boys can get along and save the world."
"Wait, how?" Hannes asked.
"It's a long story," whispered Frieda.
Dina looked at Eren, riding with pride and anger and love, and then back to Zeke. "I failed my son."
"How very human," said Kruger.
"Is it? I was supposed to be royalty. To change things," Dina said. And she'd never felt special. To discover than she had been – and that her specialty led to more destruction for the man she loved – if only she had never been born.
"You did," Frieda said. "Not in the way you hoped. I'm Frieda Reiss, one of your royal cousins, and I never changed things the way I hoped, either. Neithr did your Night Owl, or anyone ever in the history of the world. But still," she pointed at Grisha, "he's enabled change, too. Everyone has, and even if it's not as it should be, it will get there. Zeke and Eren are still alive, and they're the most powerful titans around. Eren is truly free in soul, and Zeke is smart enough to get there, I believe it. There is always hope."
"You killed your wife's distant relatives?" Carla interrupted.
"As children," Grisha said in a small voice.
"Oh, Grisha." Dina let tears slip down her face like waterfalls. "Why?"
"Titans only live thirteen years, and his time was up. He needed to take the coordinate, and I – I was possessed by the First King and I wouldn't let it go. He freed me, really, though the worst possible methods, but he did free me," said Frieda.
"I'm sorry," Grisha whispered. Sorry was the only thing he ever said, it seemed, and the only word he should ever say again.
Dina held his hand. She hadn't given up on him even in titan form; why would she give up on him now? "I heard you, you know. You tried to stop them when I was imprisoned."
Grisha looked at her. "Of course I did."
"And even at the beach, you tried."
"She's asking if you loved her," Carla said loudly.
Grisha twitched. "I – Dina, I still do. I only wish I had been able to show you through being a better husband."
"Then you wouldn't have met her," murmured Dina. "She seems like someone you needed to meet."
"I wish we all could have met her before," Grisha said. "Um – you know what I mean."
"Tell her you loved her, too."
"I did. I do." Grisha's tears released again. "Carla, I love you."
"I know," Carla replied. She walked forward and extended a hand to Dina once again. "It's good to have you in our family."
Dina threw her arms around Carla. When she pulled back, her face shown with a smile. "Tell me, did he ever outgrow kicking you in his sleep?"