WARNING! Spoilers are up to chapter 121, which is the most recent chapter!
He Knew
"I guess I'll see you soon again?" Nikolo asks hopefully as he walks Sasha out of the restaurant late that night, looking at the woman fondly.
"Of course," Sasha says with a smile. They stare at each other silently, but soon Sasha starts leaning in closer, and Nikolo follows her example. Their faces are only a few centimeters apart-
"Sasha"
And then they both jump as they hear the voice, rapidly getting some distance from each other, the woman going as far as taking a few steps back. Spinning around she spots Eren behind her "Ready to go?"
"Yeah yeah, of course!" Sasha answers, casting a nervous look at Nikolo, who is simply giving a hostile look, almost a glare, to Eren. The titan however is not faced "Let's go!"
The Eldians walk away, but not before Sasha shoots the Marleyan at the door an apologetic look.
"See you Nikolo"
"Yeah" the prisoner of war answers "See you."
Sasha and Eren walk in silence for a few minutes, but then Eren says: "You're falling for that Marleyan, aren't you?"
"What!?" Sasha's reaction is instant "No, I'm not! Wha- what makes you say that?"
Eren just turns his head to look at her and raises an unimpressed eyebrow, noting how red the woman's face is. They stare at each other, Sasha's face getting redder and redder under Eren's unfaltering gaze. Finally, she looks away and mumbles: "Well, maybe a little…"
When Eren doesn't say anything anymore, Sasha looks at him again, asking: "Is that a problem?"
Eren shrugs.
"Even if I said it was, you wouldn't stop, would you?" he asks. Sasha nods without hesitation. She knows Eren is overly cautious about all the Marleyans and she understood his point, but she wouldn't let that get between her and Nikolo. Eren sighs "Well, that might actually even be for the best…"
"Huh?" now Sasha was confused.
"If you fall in love and get married, you might be tempted to stop being a soldier" Eren clarified, eyes directed ahead again "With these dangerous times we're living, that'd definitely be for the best for you."
Sasha blushed furiously. Just what the heck was Eren saying, bringing something like that up all of a sudden!?
"You're getting way ahead of things!" she says "Besides, even if I got married to someone, I wouldn't stop being a soldier. Not as long as there's a war going on and I'm needed!"
Eren stops out of the blue, grasping Sasha's arm. His grip is unexpectedly tight, and Sasha winces.
"Eren?" she asks. There's something in his eyes that she can't quite place, but whatever it is, it feels like a bad thing "What is it?"
"You shouldn't say that" Eren says. His tone is quiet, yet easy to hear, and there's something off about it "You should quit."
"What?"
"Quit being a soldier" Eren clarifies, his grip tightening "We can handle things without you; you don't need to put yourself in danger anymore."
"Eren- "
"Quit being a soldier. Go home, stay with your family, start your own some day if you want to. Just stay away from the battlefield!" Eren says, and now Sasha can see the lines on his face clearly, the ones he usually has after a titan transformation. Something was wrong "Eren, I think you need to get some rest- "
"You'll die!" Eren shouted, making Sasha yelp as his grip tightened again "If you go to the frontlines, you'll die!"
"Stop it!" she yelled out, slapping Eren's face with whatever strength she could muster in this surprising situation "Eren, you're scaring me!"
Eren blinked, and Sasha was pretty sure it was the first time he did that after starting to act strangely. Looking down at his hand, he quickly let go of Sasha's arm, moving his hand to his head "Shit…"
Sasha rubbed the sore spot, watching Eren uncertainly.
"Eren?"
"I'm fine" Eren said with a heavy sigh. At that moment he looked so tired, so old "Just a little out of it."
"Yeah, I noticed" Sasha said, trying to sound like it was a joke, but the problem was that it wasn't. It really wasn't "I think you need some sleep."
"Yeah…" Eren agreed "Let's go back to the barracks."
They did, and they never talked about the incident again.
Their attack on Marley would begin in a few hours, and Sasha was nervous, Eren's words from back then ringing in her ears. She went back to war, back to frontlines. Would Eren be pissed when he saw?
"You'll die!"
Sasha shook her head, forcing the memory down. She wasn't going to die; she'd make it like she always did. She survived the deadly surprise attack from the Warrior unit in Shiganshina four years ago; how could she die in a surprise attack that was going to be their own doing? That would be stupid.
She was going to make it.
"This girl shot Sasha… I don't think there's any hope for her…"
Jean's words stung Eren despite the fact that he'd known they were coming. He'd tried to change it, tried to get her to stay back, but she didn't. She didn't and this was the result.
"Sasha's dead"
Dead. Gone forever.
He asks about her last words, dreading the answer. If his memories are correct-
"She said "meat.""
And his memories are correct. It was so laughably ironic; he knew everything, yet he could stop nothing. The Founder, The Attacker and now even The Warhammer, yet he was unable to save a single friend. Truly laughable.
But faith could not be changed, so the only option was to go forward.
Because if you don't fight, you can't win.