Creation began on 06-08-23

Creation ended on 06-19-23

Attack on Titan

Redemption or Retribution: Atonement

A/N: Eren has to succeed to redeem himself or else he'll have to suffer the consequences for his arrogance towards the world.

Grisha was surprised to see the Ackermans with Eren when he returned home; he hadn't said much about them to him and didn't invite him over to see them when he went over to examine Mrs. Ackerman. Why was he with them? How was he with them?

"Eren, what are you doing?" He asks him.

"Uh… I went to their house and informed them that there was danger if they stayed and invited them here for a while," Eren reveals to him.

"What danger is where they live?" Carla asks him, wanting to know why he brought these three here to their home.

"Bandits. Monsters."

Grisha was going to disbelieve his son when he thought of something he overheard a while back. There had been talk among the members of the nobility about some men looking to traffic in rare items. But the more he thought about it, the more he suspected that these men were trying to collect things that were not considered things in the usual sense. His work as a doctor helped him to understand what afflicted a rare number of people with conditions as rare as albinism…or how a small number of people were isolated and/or alienated from the rest of the general population…which could drive other people to harass them for any reason, including purposes of greed or fear.

"How many?" He asks Eren.

"Three," Eren answers. "Three men."

"Would you be able to recognize them if you saw them?"

-x-

Watching from behind a bush, the wolf Brother Correction was observed as three men approached the Ackerman home and made themselves uninvited guests…for about eight minutes before vacating the residence with angry faces.

"Where is everyone?!" One of them yelled.

Where, oh, where, oh, where have the Ackermans gone? Brother Correction thought, moving away from the bush and into the darkness. They're certainly not here, that's for sure. I know where they are, but that would be telling you a secret that must never be shared. You'll have to find out for yourselves…if you even can.

He left these men to their own decisions; his motivation was to make sure that Eren, with his second chance to right his wrongs, could succeed in saving Mikasa's parents. Just bringing them to his home wouldn't suffice; if he could ensure that they would be protected, he would eventually have access to a power of the Attack Titan that not even his father possessed. And he wanted to see him succeed. He wanted for him to earn his redemption.

Greater promises of wonder lie in store for those that can change their ways, he thought as he vanished into the shadows. Feed your heart with hope and starve your rage of despair.

-x-

"…If these bandits that you say were coming after my family are caught," went Mikasa to Eren as they were in his room, "will we be able to go home?"

"Uh, yeah," he answers her as he gives her a pillow to lay her head on. "Yeah, when they're caught, sent to prison or whatever fate awaits them for doing what they do… I'll make sure that you three can go home."

"Four."

"Hmm?

"My mom's having a baby."

"Oh. Well, congratulations."

That was a surprise for Eren to hear. It was a letdown for Mikasa to lose her parents before this shift in time, but it was a shocker for Eren to realize that, if her mother had lived past that day, Mikasa would have had a brother or sister in her life. But now that he was back in the past, trying to change his fate and the fates of other people on Paradis. Sooner or later, he would have to find a better way out of this situation that he was in rather than fight his way out through violence.

-x-

Two days left to change the future. That was how long Eren had to make a difference, and here he was, out in the woods with his father, hoping to find a campsite or anything that indicated that there were people nearby where the Ackerman family lives before letting them return to their home. Oh, he was worried, and for a lot of reasons; the fear of failure was among them, being unable to change the fate of Mikasa's parents because of something he knew would happen…and did nothing to prevent because it didn't help with a future situation.

"Tell me, Eren," his father speaks up as they were walking down the path, "what made you suspect that the family was in danger out here?"

"I… Have you ever had a dream, a nightmare, that seemed liked it was so real that you couldn't tell if you awake or still dreaming?" He responds, hoping to be unsuspected of anything to throw his father off.

"I do," Grisha answers, "all the time. Nightmares are the worst because I see the people I live with, the people I love, suffering around me…and I did nothing to stop it because I wasn't there to do anything. Every now and then, I fear the worst is yet to come."

"But…if you knew what was going on…or you met someone that offered you a chance to do something you couldn't have done before…would you take it?"

"Do something? Like what?"

"Like saving someone you couldn't have saved before. Making a different choice over the one you made before."

"If someone gave me a chance to do something like that, I'd take it in a heartbeat. There are many things I'd like to do differently from before. You?"

"After taking time to think about it… Time that felt like an eternity… Yeah, I'd do the same. I'd feel like someone that wants to believe in redemption over retribution."

Grisha stopped walking and pointed over towards a clearing in the distance just outside the woods. Going towards it, they found a small campfire, burnt out, but signs of having been recently used with signs of leftover meals derived from some wild game.

Eren saw three spots where the leftovers laid, indicating that there were three people here.

"It seems like you were right," Grisha tells Eren. "There were three people here."

"But where are they now?" Eren wanted to know.

-x-

The more the possibilities expanded beyond the present, the closer they came to becoming realities. With each step taken, with every breath breathed, and every thought sent and received by the nerves from the brain to the bodies of those alive and aware of themselves, this left Brother Correction impressed by the current state of reality. Every which way that was being taken, observed or even reflected upon by a multitude of souls, he found himself in awe by their shifting thoughts and actions.

Oh, dear, he thought as he hid up in the trees, obscured by the branches and shadows, this is becoming quite the conundrum of penance and atonement. Even though he only has two days left to change the family's fortunes, Eren Yeager is yielding to his regrets at not doing anything to change the past the first time around. By owning up to these regrets, admitting to his mistakes made in the past, he will atone for his misdeeds and shatter their legacy of pain and suffering. But with two days left… One can truly do much in just one day…if they put in the effort. Rome might've not been built within the course of a day, but many fates can be averted within an hour of one's actions, either spoken or committed. Whose lives are you changing right this moment, Eren Yeager? Whose day are you affecting for the better?

-x-

"…Aaah!" Grisha and Eren heard screaming, and ran towards the source, finding three men being attacked by a pack of wolves. "Aaaurgh!"

"Father," Eren gasps, pointing at the trio, "that's them!"

"Are you sure?" He asks.

"Yes, it's them."

With the identity of the bandits confirmed, the father knew these people were a potential threat to the Ackerman family and had to be dealt with properly. While it might've been better to let them be ravaged by the wolves, it was better to let them rot in prison for as long as the law permitted instead. Because there was a fine line between ethical justice and unethical punishment.

"Eren, run home," Grisha tells his son. "Don't look back."

Eren obeyed and ran off; he suspected that his father was going to do something that would have been next to impossible to explain, but decided not to question it. He had already done many things that were questionable and beyond unforgivable…and he was just trying to prevent himself from repeating them with this second chance he was given. There was a boom a moment later, when he reentered the woods, and he knew what his father had done.

-x-

The wolves were frightened aware…and the bandits were slammed together by the large hands of the large monster of a man that appeared out of nowhere. The resulting slamming in between the hands left the men feeling like their legs had been broken. When the giant moved its arms away, the three fell to the ground, battered and groaning. Then the giant fell to the ground itself and evaporated, releasing steam that caused the bandits to yell due to the heat being intense and causing their skin to burn.

Grisha looked down at them and could only feel disappointment in their choice of a profession.

"Did you three pay a visit to a small house in the woods?" He asks them. "Yes or no?"

"What…what does it matter to you?" One of them responds, his face half-burned on his left side.

"You answer correctly…and I will make sure you get aid in a prison cell somewhere. Answer wrong…and you three can crawl into the river and cool yourselves off as you suffer each breath you take. Did you go to a house in the woods?"

"Yes, we did," the second of the bandits answers, trying to sit up on his own, but his chest was burned and his shirt looked partially fused to his skin. "We were…just looking for the people that lived there. We heard a rumor that there were two women of oriental appearance. Very rare."

"And?"

"We were going to sell them to some interested parties that would pay big for rare people, especially young people."

Grisha felt like he should've just let these three suffer with their injuries until they died. But then, he'd be unable to feel like he was doing good in this uneasy world. He was a doctor, and his oath was to do no harm, and even though he had injured these three, it was a necessary evil to make sure that they could do nothing further to harm others for a time. He reached into his coat and pulled out a large jar…and tossed it over to them.

"Apply that cream to your burns," he instructed them.

From a distance, across the river, behind a large rock, someone watched with peaked interest, and was impressed by Grisha's actions.

A doctor is not someone that can save everyone, thought Brother Correction, but someone who tries to save every life they can. These three may not live to see old age, but they will be lucky to live through the end of this year. You did good today, Dr. Yeager. You and Eren did good today.

-x-

For a brief moment, Grisha saw something before his eyes that was beyond nightmarish. He saw Eren, eyes cold and unemotional, within the body of a Titan that was monstrous and inhumane, leading a horde of other Titans across the planet, committed to devastation…and then…they were immediately replaced by a young man within a different Titan that appeared more human than the previous one, surrounded by people that were unafraid of it and prepared to face a threat in front of them. On their side was the Titan and several other Titans that appeared to be willing to fight alongside them and on the other side was a Titan that looked like a monkey with a beard. Alongside it was a small band of Titans that seemed enslaved to it, beside a large Titan without skin, a Titan covered in these plates of armor and another with a feminine shape.

And then…it was gone…but its impact lasted for longer. For just a few seconds, a future he witnessed…so full of sorrow…suddenly came undone and was replaced by a future that promised something…greater than sorrow. Greater than hatred, loss or even the longing for genocide. It promised…hope.

Eren, he pondered, what did you do before…and what will you do later?

-x-

All Eren could do was hope that his father didn't kill the bandits. While he might've only provided information on what they looked like and where they might've had a campsite nearby, he still felt that if something went wrong and they died, it would be on him, squandering his second chance to do better than he could've done. Even if Mikasa hadn't killed any of them, either, he worried that the past would find a way to repeat itself.

"…Except that past has been erased for good, Eren Yeager," he heard Brother Correction's voice say to him as he stopped running down the path and looked around the trees. "Only my voice is present, Eren, and your previous past is undone, leaving your future to be reshaped by your efforts to do better."

"What happened to the bandits? Did my father…kill them?"

"No. He injured them, but then he saved them after obtaining the information they had for why they were after the Ackerman family. He saw the previous future you were heading towards be replaced by a new one in which you unlock the hidden power of the Attack Titan. You were able to save the Ackerman family within the time I gave you to change their fates. You've earned your second chance. Now do your best to make the most of it."

Eren couldn't believe it. At first, he expected failure and disappointment in atoning for his actions that he was trying to undo, but now he was hearing the opposite. Now, he was hearing that his future was his to remake once he obtained the Attack Titan from his father. It made him feel relieved…but at the same time, it made him feel concerned; how was he going to ensure that this new future was different from the previous one when he wasn't sure what would happen yet?

It's up to you to find out for yourself, he heard his voice in his mind. Learn from the mistakes you made last time and build upon them. Those that know where they went wrong will make different mistakes from the ones that they made last time when given the chance to start over, knowing everything from before.

Different mistakes, which could've meant anything from doing something else or doing the right thing that you didn't do when you had the chance to. The past had been renewed by change, leaving Eren in a new present where he could walk a better path that led into a future with more possibilities than what he originally saw…and infinite opportunities with infinite outcomes. If time had been like a river and deviation were a series of stones thrown in to create ripple effects…then if enough stones were thrown into the river, no matter their size, the ripples could lead anywhere, regardless of the river's current. For now, Eren knew that the unknown had been left to be discovered by those of today walking towards tomorrow…and that the stones the future had been carved in were undeniably broken beyond recognition.

"Great," he utters with some concern.

To be continued…

A/N: Now in the world where Eren chose retribution over redemption, he will be able to obtain the latter after taking time to process his actions in the former and decide to do better. How many of you out there think you know what the Attack Titan will now be capable of in the future of this scenario now that the past had been changed? I want to hear from you.