The next month went by in a flash. We'd planned the wedding and Mr Ral had a guest list of his own. We picked a field out between wall rose and maria. We'd set up a venue. Petra picked a dress and a matching tux for me. When I asked her about it, she'd tell me about the 'bad luck' in the groom seeing the bride before the wedding day. I didn't care. Luckily, there wasn't much corps work, although Hange may have played a role in that.
The day of our wedding was a decent day. The wedding did get annoying with all the stupid people. I'd brought the box of the dead, which Hange carried during the ceremony, and I kept during the reception. People asked me about it and I told all of them "These people would've been guests." Sometimes there was an 'instead of you fuckers.' in my mind, but with my squad, I thought, 'along with you guys.' It was sad, but necessary - we both knew that Erd, Gunther and Auro would've loved to be here.
Over the next four years, we had two children. the love factor did outweigh how annoying they were. As the years went by, juggling the kids with the corps got easier - largely due to our transfer. Petra worked as much as she could. I helped when I could. I never knew how much collaboration was involved in this. We went on a few expeditions just like old times. Our missions were to capture titans or get resources. The deaths were fewer, and the survey corps grew. The government did work afterall.
The years flew by even faster. Petra became my age, I became old. I became the oldest member of the survey corps, beating Auro at 50. The face of the corps changed as Eren, his wife - Mikasa (who'd have guessed) , Sasha, Connie, Jean and Armin were captains of their own squads. Our first child, a son, we'd named Erwin - he was 12. His younger sister, Isabella, was 9.
The years continued to streak ahead. I became 65, Petra was 51. The old squad members were in their forties. Erwin and Isabella were squad leaders as well. Under Hange, the survey corps swelled. Historia's reign was noted down as the most prosperous as humanity fought back and expanded. A new wall - wall Christa was almost completed. Inside the wall, there were underground bunkers, in case of emergencies. We lived outside the wall, under the ground. We'd moved steadily southwards. The swirling images of my life stopped and moved forward more steadily, on the day of my last expedition.
We were to go to another forest of tall trees and scout out a river which was said to flow there.
"20-meter class on the right, Heicho!" I looked over. It looked abnormal. "I'll get it." I didn't want them to face an abnormal on their first kill, like I did.
I looped around the trees and came out behind it. It had hair. "Hey, what's with the hair?" I loved talking to the titans at times.
The titan whirled around. I maneuvered onto a tree, higher than the titan could reach. "The hair? I don't know." It spoke?!
"You speak?"
"As do you." No shit, I speak, I'm human. Wait, this could be a shifter.
"Is there a person inside you?"
"No." A naturally speaking titan, or a lying shifter. Whatever it was, I should get Hange.
"How about this, we get our leader here."
"Okay."
"It'll take two days." I hoped this titan was intelligent and reliable enough to meet us.
I was about to set off, when it said "Wait, human, what are those machines?"
"Call me Levi." I paused. "These machines let us fly up to your height and kill your type."
"Kill us? Why?" Why. It asked why!
"Because you guys eat us."
"I see." This was really something Hange should do.
"My leader would explain this better."
"Two days, then… Levi?"
"See you then." What the fuck?
I sent the report to Hange. There was a system which used light to relay messages from wall to wall. Hange's reply was that she'd come.
The two days passed. Petra and all the squad members were excited to meet the talking titan.
We went to the meeting place. The titan, which was already seen, but never heard was labelled the beast titan.
"Hello, Levi."
"Hi. I bring my leader." I pointed to Hange. Everybody was shocked.
"Ah, leader, what may I call you?"
"Hange." Hange was over it and looked excited.
"So why do you kill us?"
"Because you eat us and we fear extinction."
"Is that it?"
"Yeah, why do you eat us?"
"To reproduce." What? Titan sex was eating people?
"How?"
"Your dead can be made into us." I looked at Petra.
"How?"
"I possess the power."
"So that's what happened to me?!" Petra couldn't help but yell out.
The beast looked at her. It snorted. "I remember you! 29 years ago, you were dead! The perfect specimen as well!" It thought for a while. Petra looked shocked. "But how are you human?"
"Eating a shifter makes the titan get that ability." Hange spoke.
"Shifter?"
"A human that can morph into a titan."
"That exists?"
"Petra, show him." Petra sighed, jumped off the tree and transformed mid-air. She waved as a titan before transforming back and climbing up. The beast looked disgruntled. Hange thought and then asked: "If your type never dies, then why do you need to reproduce?"
"We had a disease affect us which is why we first came."
"Surely by now you've recovered the losses?"
"But if we do all the reproduction we can, we'd have the greatest population."
"But if you kill all humans, you'd never be able to reproduce. Then, if the disease strikes again you'd never fight back."
The beast thought. "Then we should protect you." Wait, what?! Had this not been the real world, but a play, I'd have been laughing.
"Yeah, and let our population grow."
"I should get the guild."
"Guild?"
"The others like me, we make all the decisions."
"I should get our ruler as well."
"You all are ruled by only one person?"
"Queen Riess."
The beast nodded. "I presume she'd take two days to arrive?"
"How long would the guild take?"
"Four days - I must get them."
"Until then, … what may I call you?"
"Guild master of town, or just town."
Hange stayed with us. The kids missed this - they were stationed far away and quite busy. We discussed the whole thing at length, until dawn. Hange saw a way for humans to regain earth. Petra saw her saviour. I saw the complete weirdness around.
The Queen arrived three days later. She wanted to speak to Hange, thus dined under our roof. Now, there's a pun in saying that Petra served the Queen. She did thank me for my sternness when she decided to be Queen.
The next day the government (Queen and advisors) met the guild. Hange led the discussion as she knew the most about the beast.
We learned that the titans were just sacks for the dead over the long discussion. The guild and government agreed on a peace. The peace was, as Hange simplified for me, that the titans would move to an island and that every year, to keep up their population, we'd give our criminals over to replace their dead. The guild saw that there was no reason to increase their population, and the agreement was made. By nightfall, the Queen signed an official treaty.
The next day, as the guild was to leave, Petra and I got permission to speak to 'town.' Petra caught up and called "Guild master town!"
"Ah, you… What is it?" Town knew Petra.
"Call me Petra. I was just wondering, what did you mean by the perfect specimen?" Petra thought that this would help with her survivor's guilt.
"Ah. That is that the body is not in pieces and not cut much. You were perfect in that your spine was all that was really broken. The rest of you was intact. Also, you weren't dead for too long."
"Thank you." Petra and I left. I hoped it helped her to know.
A survey was posted, asking people about what they knew of the land, to find an island. Armin came forward with his book. As friends, Petra and I were placed in the northern search party, which headed west for the most part. Armin navigated.
We reached a desolated city. It was ruins which were barely recognisable. There were trees, ivy and wildlife everywhere. There was a random metal tower-like thing, three times taller than wall maria. Armin called the place 'Paris.' The book said that this was some old city in the old country called 'France.' We spent a night there and headed north. So far a year went by.
One day, after months of travelling north, we caught up with the north-west party. Eren was there, and he called out. "Armin! You should see the sea!" An hour later, we reached the sea. As Armin described it, it was this wide blue expanse of salty water. Using a telescope, we found a large island on the other side. The book called this 'Britain.' Hange was notified. We spent two years waiting. Hange came. By this point, Armin though up a way to get the titans across. We learned that titans float, and that the guild masters could push hundreds at a time. The titans were counted as they were shipped. We accompanied the titans in rowboats as they crossed.
By the time Hange arrived, most of the titans were gone - the guild masters remained to say good bye. The deal was sealed. Hange told us that the southern party hit upon mountains, where they found a scientist's bunker. It had books on all the technologies which used to exist. There was this thing - 'electricity' which powered objects. Hange spoke of the railroad, and told us that one was being built to connect us to the walls. Petra and I stayed as the leaders of the town, as did many others, who invited their families. The journey was cut down by four months by the time Hange returned to Trost.