You don't deserve freedom unless you can earn it

by Traitor of All Traitors

Change. All people want is change. Positive change. But sometimes, it doesn't come to those that want it because of other people's actions or beliefs. So, fate steps in and offers a little help. Do you defy or do you submit? It's up to you.

Creation began on 09-10-23

Creation ended on 10-10-23

Attack on Titan

You don't deserve freedom unless you can earn it

A/N: I just saw the English version of part one of the final chapters of the AoT anime canon, and I still hate how it goes. Everything needs to be redone and the darkness of what is destroyed.

Eren, lost in what he was going to do later in the future, stopped walking on the streets of Marley in the path of a man that was looking at him with anger.

I'll skip the introductions because they don't matter to someone like you at this point, he heard a voice in his head, and felt like it was coming from the dark-skinned man in front of him that was upset with him. I am upset with you. I have been upset with you…for a long time. With you, nothing changes. With you, there is very little room for salvation…and I had to learn the hard way. Many, many times over. So I'm done with trying to talk you out of it. Talking to you is pointless because you're not going to listen to what anybody tries to say to you. You're a wall all of your own, stuck in a Hell of your own choosing. And I'm just sick of it…and I'm sick of you, Eren Yeager. I have been a tormentor to some and a savior to others, but with you, I am nothing but a tormentor. For you, torment is the only language you speak because the world is tainted when you have the power to change it. I'm not going to let you go down this road you don't want to escape from. After today, your life among the people ends. Yours and a handful of others.

Before Eren could do anything about this stranger, he felt something go through his throat. He wanted to move his body, but nothing happened. His eyes moved left and right, seeing people walking around him and the stranger.

"Don't bother with moving," he heard a different male voice speak up, sounding devoid of any sense of life. "Your life ended here less than a second ago, Eren Yeager. You're just another corpse in my collection of sinners that deserve to pay for their crimes, past and future."

The stranger came closer to Eren and looked him in his eyes.

"I won't touch your friends, Eren, but you will never see them again. And you will never be free. Actually, maybe you'll see them again, but that's up to you. In the end, your future will be up to you. I have spoken with your mother, and all she asked of me, when I showed her what you did, what you were going to do, was that I promise not to hurt you. I gave my word that I wouldn't hurt you. I didn't need to. I have a good friend that doesn't mind getting his hands dirty with the blood of those that deserve what they get in the end. I owe him another favor in return."

Eren tried to speak, but he couldn't move his mouth at all. Then, his head was turned around to face someone new. It was someone that had a facial expression that was almost like Mikasa's, but his face was paler, his hair unusually slick, spiky and disorganized, with eyes as empty as the darkness of the night.

"I used to be a man," he hears him say, "but my life was an empty promise. When you're born into a family that hates you for the mere fact of existing, the light that is hope diminishes. But I found a different hope in the darkness. I found my future after I took my last breath. I am the whispers of the innocent. I am the curved blade that glistens through the blood of sins. You, Zeke Yeager, General Calvi, Reiner Braun, Yelena, and those that breed hatred and refuse to let it go… You're all going to answer for your lack of hope. And in the end, you will learn to live with the pain of your regrets."

Eren then looked down at the ground…and saw his body laying beside the pale man's feet! It was headless and spilling blood from the neck.

"Let's go now," the stranger tells them, and the pale man reaches down and grabs Eren's left arm.

"Who's next?" The pale man asks.

"Zeke Yeager. After him is Magath and Calvi."

"Do you really believe that removing these individuals will change the world?"

"No, but it's a start because what these individuals are going to do is not worth anything. Would you permit genocide or forcing sterilization on a select people?"

"No, I'd kill the ones that go down those roads. What will you do about the Titans they possess?"

Eren heard what the stranger expressed he was going to do about the Titans and wanted to speak against his intentions.

"I don't care what you feel right now, Eren Yeager," the stranger told him. "I'm doing this for the good of the people, not for the good of Paradis. They will live, just not the way you saw them live. A life…for a life, dispose of an enemy before they can become an enemy, return a friend so they can be a friend."

"Who will be returned?" The pale man asks.

"In exchange for Eren Yeager? I know exactly who to bring back. I just want to make sure that Zeke Yeager is collected because I want to bring back someone else that didn't deserve what they were dealt."

"Give those that deserve renewal…by taking those that don't deserve freedom."

"This…is the path we're going down."

-x-

Nobody knew where Eren disappeared to. The Survey Corps couldn't risk looking for him in enemy territory, and it didn't seem like anyone from Marley had any indication that they knew he was in their midsts.

"Where'd that brat run off to?" Levi questions as the small group was waiting for their allies from the Azumabito to update them on the whereabouts of Eren.

Soon, Kiyomi entered the room they were waiting in, her expression one of concern.

"Nobody's seen Eren Yeager since he left," she reveals, "but a few hours ago, certain members of the Marleyan military have been reported missing, presumed dead. Theo Magath, General Calvi, and Zeke Yeager were listed among the missing. There were messages left where they were last seen, written in blood, indicating they were abducted by an unknown person or group of persons. There haven't been any reports of any ransom demands yet."

"Wait," went Armin, "someone abducted Zeke? But he's the Beast Titan. How could they abduct him when he can cause more problems for his captors than he looks able to?"

"Something to do with the message left at the Yeager house: "Secrets have a cost". Apparently, someone knew about him that the military knew nothing about."

"Do we have an ally against Marley?" Sasha asks.

"It may mean that Marley has an enemy that sees things differently," Kiyomi suggests. "They're very different things."

Suddenly, a man ran into the room and whispered something to Kiyomi, who reacted with more concern than she had earlier.

"What is it?" Hange asks her.

"The Armored Titan, Reiner Braun, was reported missing less than an hour ago," she reveals. "A blood message was found in his home, as well: "Children raised as tools don't have much of a future to live for". Someone may be targeting the Titans within the military."

-x-

"Ahh!" Calvi gasped as he staggered across the small room he found himself in, seeing Zeke Yeager in another room separated by a glass wall. "Where am I?!"

"Where are any of us?" Magath says as he sits in a chair in the middle of his room.

Calvi looks around and sees Magath, Reiner Braun, Zeke Yeager and some boy he never met before, all of which were in small rooms the size of closets, illuminated by a single light dangling above their heads. There was a man in the middle of the star-pattern positioned rooms, who looked less than pleased to see them.

"Who are you?" Zeke asks him. "Are you here to help us?"

"No," he responds. "I'm here to cast judgement upon you."

"We haven't done anything to you!" Magath says.

"Hatred begets more hatred and causes less potential for talk, and each of you are capable of not wanting to talk about any degree of negotiations, especially you, Eren Yeager, and you're the most dangerous person here."

"Him?!" Calvi and Magath question.

"Eren's the most dangerous?" Reiner asks.

"Yes, and not because he possessed the power of both the Attack and Founding Titans. He's the most dangerous because of his stubbornness and his drive to be free, even if it means taking the lives of other people across the planet. People he's never even met, that have never even heard of him, that aren't even old enough to talk or run. Nothing is more dangerous in life than a person with an agenda that is poisonous if given the means and the opportunity to pursue it at all costs."

"You can't do this to us!" Zeke states.

"Actually, I can," the stranger tells them. "You see, you're in one of my dominions now. Here, I make the rules. Here, I make the threats. Here, I am the only one whose opinion of any of you actually has any weight. And it is here that I'm going to decide how to best deal with each of you and anyone else that is deemed a threat to the world. But I won't kill you. I don't have to."

Eren looked away from the stranger and saw someone else here with them all. It was the pale teenager that was dressed oddly in strange clothing that seemed loose and baggy, mostly black and dark blue, and whose eyes were devoid of that sense of life.

"Who are you?" He found himself asking again.

"I'm nobody," the pale one answers. "Just another lost soul in a sea of chaos. Who are you that is lost in the same sea? Who are you to deserve that which you choose to covet over all else? Who are you?"

Everyone else looked over to where the pale teen was and recognized him as the last person they each saw before ending up here.

Reiner remembers him raising this strange, curved blade up in his right hand and swinging it across his neck, feeling a sense of relief instead of agony, blissful release instead of condemnation. If this was what death felt like for most, it was the most painless he ever felt in his life before it ended. There was still pain, but it was held at bay. He was just…glad that his agony had been alleviated for just that bitter and brief moment he felt would never end for him.

Zeke, however, had felt only pain upon being stabbed by this young man, then having his head ripped away from his neck.

Calvi and Magath had experienced the same fate with their encounter of this young man who seemed more judgmental than the other stranger. And behind him, for just a moment, they thought they could see a small child floating beside him, wrapped in a red blanket, an expression on its face that bordered on some measure of intelligence…but was just as vacant as the boy's.

"What is to become of Marley?" Calvi asks the dark stranger. "Are you going to let the island devils destroy our motherland?"

"First up, everyone's got a devil after them," the stranger responds, "and secondly, I'm in the business of peace and coexistence more than being a tormentor. But sometimes, I have to forgo the savior aspect to specific individuals that simply don't want to be saved from themselves. Such is the case with most of you. Now, I say 'most' because Mr. Braun here is among those that longs for redemption, for the sanctity of his soul, which is within the realm of possibility. Paradis will not prosper from destroying the world…and the world will not prosper from destroying Paradis. I will not allow either to benefit from a path of death and destruction. If need be, I will condemn all to suffering. But I'm not a vindictive person; I'm always looking for an alternative. Those that won't stray from the path of darkness will be lost to its inevitable discomfort. Those that long for something more than what is will eventually find it if they have the will to let go."

Eren looked at Reiner, wondering why he was the only one out of them that would be redeemed for his crimes.

Reiner looked at him, wondering what was going through his mind.

"Since there are five of you here and four of the Nine Titans present," the dark stranger states, "I'm bringing back five people killed and giving them the power…once they've been tweaked to avoid the unnecessary death having them causes over the years. In exchange for Eren and Zeke Yeager, Grisha and Faye Yeager will return to the world. In exchange for Reiner Braun, Ymir shall return. In exchange for Calvi and Magath, Frieda Reiss and Erwin Smith. Grisha shall reclaim the Attack Titan, Frieda shall be restored of the Founding Titan, Ymir shall have custody of the Beast Titan and Erwin shall have the Armored Titan."

"What?!" Calvi demands. "You can't do that! You can't do that!"

"It is done," the pale teen utters. "It has been done."

"Giving Frieda the Founding Titan will only condemn her back to the ideology of the First King," Eren states.

"What ideology? There is no longer any ideology. There is no possession of the knowledge of the past and future. All there is…is what the Founding Titan has been stated to be capable of for generations since its creation, but even that is dependent upon the race of Eldian Subjects of Ymir Fritz. No subjects, no power. All it can do is create and command Titans at will. To unleash them…or return them to life. Do you really think I would bring someone back from the dead without ensuring that they would not be enslaved by a force beyond themselves? It's the same with your father; he will not be ruled by your memories or your stubbornness. All memories associated with the previous holders of these Titans have been erased from them. There is no past or future with which to concern oneself over. There is only the present, the here and now, that shapes and changes the past and future. They will be able to make the choices that you couldn't and wouldn't make. They will lead the people of the world down a better path. You five…must go down a different path. We'll be off now, but I shall return to deal with you later. For now, I suggest that you take the time to talk amongst each other to get some sense of why you're here and where you're going."

Then, he was gone, along with the pale stranger, leaving them alone.

-x-

"Gah!" Frieda Reiss gasps as she wakes up from what felt like a long sleep, finding herself back in the paths. "I'm here again?"

"Aah!" She heard someone else gasp, turning to her right and seeing a young woman with freckles on her face. "What's going on?"

"What is this place?" A man's voice asks as they look to see a blond-haired man in a soldier uniform. "Who are you people?"

"Why am I here again?" Another man's voice questions as they see him standing away from them. "Why am I back? Haven't I done what I was supposed to do?"

"No," a new voice utters to them, and they turn to see two strangers, one dark as the night and the other pale as the sand around them. "You did only what your son wanted you to do. Now, you get to decide, Dr. Yeager. You get to choose what you want to do…is this time…it is your choice and yours alone. Everything each of you does…is up to you."

Grisha, recognizing the dark man as someone he had seen only once before in a time before any of this, noticed that beside him was a little girl he hadn't seen in years.

"My only request for you, however, is that you take your sister home to your parents. You take her back home."

"Back home," went the pale teen. "Home."

Erwin had seen the dark stranger, as well, but from a long time ago, someplace he couldn't recall. There was a sense of darkness to this man that seemed to border on something close to divinity, but was closer to that of a man.

The girl, Faye, ran over to her brother and hugged him tightly.

"Did you bring us here?" Erwin asks the stranger.

"I did," he answers him, "and I'm sending you back to the living world. All of you. This time, it's up to you to prevent the end."

"You want us to stop a war?" Ymir asks him.

"Not you, Ymir. Your task is actually the easiest one here. I couldn't return to you the Jaw Titan, so you'll have to make do with the Beast Titan. Protect Historia. That is what I want you to do. Protect the one that matters most to you."

"Historia? She's…she's still alive?"

"Hmm."

"What do you want me to do?" Frieda asks him.

"Undo the threat of the Rumbling. Karl Fritz created it as a deterrent against the world, but it was meant to be an empty threat. However, because he made the Titans that sleep in the Walls, it's not an empty threat if someone can trigger its action. No Wall Titans, no Rumbling. Return them to humanity and that is that. Remove the threat of the Titans…and the world is another step closer to a better outcome. That is where Karl Fritz failed most. He created a threat he didn't plan on carrying out at all…but left the deterrent that was never meant to be realized."

Frieda realized that he was right. So long as the Wall Titans were around, waiting to be unleashed, the Rumbling could be caused by whoever had the Founding Titan and the world would be endangered. But so long as the ideology he created existed, she couldn't use the Founder's power to eliminate the Titans that slumber in the Walls.

There's no longer an ideology, she heard his thoughts in her head. I saw to that. There is no ideology, knowledge of the past or future. There is only the here and now and the power to command the Titans. It is up to you on how to deal with everything. For Historia's sake and the sake of the people.

-x-

"…Uh, excuse me, gentlemen?" Levi and the other members of the Survey Corps present in Marley turned to see a pale-skinned teenager getting their attention. "I was instructed to give you this letter from someone claiming to be a mutual friend."

"A mutual friend?" Hange questions, accepting the letter from the stranger. "Who are you?"

"Me? I'm nobody. I'm just another lost soul in a sea of chaos."

"A sea of chaos?"

"Just a series of words combined to make sense in a senseless situation."

"In an insane world, we try to hold onto our sanity."

"Exactly."

The pale teen then turned to leave them on the street where he found them.

Hange opened the letter and read the contents. Strangely, the letter was written in a language they could understand…but it didn't ease their concerns.

"Someone is a mutual friend," she tells Levi, "but they're not exactly taking sides in this situation we have."

"What are you talking about?" Armin asks her.

"Whoever this mutual friend is, they're the one responsible for Eren's disappearance. They took him, took Zeke, even Reiner. They didn't trust them…and had a good reason not to. But they claim that they took these specific individuals to protect us and the world…and returned specific individuals who would aid in helping to build new bridges."

"Who are these people?" Mikasa asks.

"They didn't leave their name or names, just the names of the people they brought back in exchange for Eren and the rest."

"So, Eren's just…gone?" Jean questions.

"He's not dead, if that's what you're asking," Hange informs, "just out of our reach. Whoever this person is, they know more than we do…and acts in the interests of others."

Levi takes the letter from Hange and reads it for himself, seeing a name listed among the people brought back in exchange for Eren and the others. His eyes widen at the thought of Erwin being alive again. Was it possible? Was it true that he was alive again?

"We lose a friend, but we gain a friend?" Connie suggests.

"Seems that way," Sasha states.

But Mikasa was unsure. Without Eren, how were they going to move forward? How were they going to protect Paradis?

Levi takes a sheet of paper from the letter that was given to them and looks to her.

"This is addressed to you, Mikasa," he informs her, giving her the paper.

"Eren Yeager may care about each of you, but his perception of how he cares is different from the way he says it. Men and women, while fundamentally similar, are always different from one another due to backgrounds and differences in their behaviors and personalities. Eren reacts more to simple responses when giving only vague questions and never giving people the time to properly process the questions given to them. He asked you once what he was to you…but he didn't give you time to properly process the question or even state what he meant by it. A man like that, no matter how much you care for him, can't be trusted to safeguard anyone's future, no matter what he says or does. He needs to learn not to act on these impulses that don't help others. I hope that when you see him in the future, he won't be the same as you saw him last, but full of hope and willingness to wait for a proper answer from you. Until then, please accept that I brought his father and paternal aunt back in place of him and Zeke. These two deserve to live more than they do right now." The letter to her read.

"We should head back to the port now," Hange tells them.

"Yeah," Levi agrees with her.

-x-

Walking down the streets of where he used to live was so different to him because he didn't expect to be back in this place after so many years. But he was doing as he promised, returning his sister home to their parents. This was Grisha's primary task at this moment, returning Faye home so that she would have a future and him being absolved for erasing his sin. Once he achieved this, he could leave with a clearer conscience and do better than he had before.

"Are you…happy to be going home?" He asks Faye.

"Hm-hmm!" She responds. "Are you…happy to be alive again?"

"Not really, but this is something I have to do."

Faye could understand that her brother was having a hard time adjusting to his new predicament; it wasn't every day that someone comes to you and offers you your life back in exchange for doing things you failed to do last time and making right to the wrongs you did. While this came at the cost of him losing his two sons, the stranger that brought them back said they weren't dead, just elsewhere where they would have to learn something called "humility", or "respecting that there are other ways that are better than the ones you think are best". She hoped to see her two nephews one day when she was older. They could see their home up ahead and Faye smiled; it felt like forever since she had last seen the place she was returning to after such a long time.

"Go back and pick up where you left off," the stranger told them.

-x-

Gasp! Historia was exposed to many things that brought no comfort to her heart, but what she had seen in front of her was a new comfort to her soul.

"Ymir?" She asks as she sees the freckle-faced girl in front of her, along with an ebony-haired woman that she hadn't seen in many years. "Frieda?"

"Hey, Historia," Frieda greeted her little sister. "How have you been?"

Historia slowly approached Ymir, terrified that she would be nothing more than an illusion to her senses, just a trick of her mind.

Ymir offered her left hand to the girl, who slowly reached out to touch it.

"I'm here, Historia," she told her. "I'm not going anywhere this time around."

Historia made contact with the freckled girl's hand, feeling it in her possession, and wondering how this was possible.

"How are you two back?" She asks them.

"Someone more powerful than the power of the Titans made a choice that went against the choices made by Eren and others," Frieda explains. "Someone who believes in there being another way to resolve problems over genocide and violence."

"He took Eren and his brother," Ymir states, "Reiner and two Marleyans…and exchanged them for us and three other people that he returned to life. He didn't kill them, but I doubt we'll be seeing them any time soon. He couldn't risk Eren being among those that couldn't or wouldn't let go of their hatred, even for the sake of change. You can't believe in change if you don't allow yourself to believe that you are capable of change."

Historia looks at Frieda and needed to know something else.

"Are you a changed person, Frieda?" She asks her.

"I am," she answers. "The ideology of Karl Fritz was removed from the Founder. I'm here to help, not hurt. But Eren never told you what else used to be wrong with the Founder's power."

"What? What else is wrong with it?"

"Was wrong. Past tense; there's nothing wrong with it now. Those that possessed it could see everything. Unlike the Attack Titan, which, once upon a time, could receive memories from its future holders, those that had yet to possess it, the Founding Titan possessed knowledge of the past and future, knowing everything that ever happened and what has yet to come. But that power has been removed for good; nobody should ever have to know what the future holds before it comes to past."

"He knew…and he didn't say anything about it? To anyone?"

"Even if he wanted to, he couldn't change what was to come…because he didn't want to change any of it. He believed that it was inevitable, only to be told that nothing is always inevitable. What he once knew, however, is irrelevant now. The future is unwritten. There is no longer any fate that befalls someone, only the choices that we make today, tomorrow and the day after. One such choice is to remove the Rumbling and pursue a new path towards peace with the world."

Maybe she was reeling from the fact that what she just learned from her sister and her best friend was something Eren didn't confide in her about, but Historia was willing to agree with Frieda that the Rumbling needed to be removed from the world…because she couldn't live with the repercussions of there being so much bloodshed and death for the sake of freedom for the people that lived on Paradis, something that, while something she believed in for the people of Paradis, she couldn't accept because it came at a cost. In the end, it always felt like anything and everything they did came at a cost, which made freedom nothing more than a word, a belief, a falsehood made by people that wanted something to believe in so much. But now… Now, there was a chance to actually change things because there was no knowledge of events yet to transpire. There was no knowledge of anyone's fate beyond the here and now, including her own; whether she lived or died was up to herself and those around her.

"Ymir," she spoke to her friend, "will you stay this time? For real?"

"If you want me to," Ymir responded, "I'll stay forever."

-x-

Despite being suggested to take their time to talk to one another, none of them were willing to speak with each other about anything. Not even something as trivial as a life goal. They just occupied their individual spaces with an indifferent silence.

Eren saw no reason to talk to Zeke, Reiner or the two Marleyans.

Calvi saw no reason to speak with Zeke or Reiner due to them being Subjects of Ymir.

Reiner saw no reason to talk due to how the violence of one conflict after another had left him leaning towards desiring a merciful end to his existence. His existence, not the existence of other people across the planet.

"Wow," they heard the voice of their jailer as he appeared in front of them after what felt like a few hours of absence. "So, none of you were willing to talk to each other at all? That's just sad, even for some of you."

"You have no right to tell us what to do, sir!" Calvi yelled at him. "Let me out of here!"

The dark stranger looked at him with an expression of cold indifference, and Calvi felt a cold hand grip his neck.

"Go ahead, sir," the voice of the pale teen told him from behind, raising his blade up in front of him. "Give me an excuse. I'm looking forward to severing your head again. Or maybe I'll just cut out your heart and hand it to you. Have you ever held a heart in your hand and watch it slowly cease to beat?"

"Death, as much as we'd probably enjoy that," the dark stranger utters, "I have something else in mind for him. Actually, I'd like for you take Zeke away first."

The pale teen, Death, looked at him and relented, backing away from Calvi and going through the glass barrier to the cell where Zeke resided. While the blond-haired man tried to put up a fight with his arms, the difference in skills between them was very noticeable and embarrassing. Not only was Zeke unable to cause any measure of harm to the teen, but the teen was unusually strong and nimble.

"You might've had training in the military, but since you never fought much with your human body, taking in experience from actual conflict in which you learn to appreciate the limits of your capabilities and push past them, you are nothing more than an oversized cushion," Death tells Zeke, twisting his left arm as he pinned him to the ground. "And without the power of the Titans, you will not be rid of this pain here."

Snap! He bent his arm back so far that he caused a bone to break.

"Aaugh!" Zeke howled in pain and was then dragged away by Death.

"Anyone else wanna try me?" Death asks the other four men, but when he received no response from any of them, he took the former Beast Titan away.

"After he comes back, you're next, Eren Yeager," the dark stranger tells the youngest of the men.

"What?" Eren retorts.

"Zeke is going to a place where he will either learn to accept his people as they are or suffer in the process, but where you're going, the lesson is more about tolerance and change. The violence is only necessary when protecting yourself and others, but unnecessary for anything else. And you will be pulled into a situation where you have the choice to walk away or know only the repercussions of choosing to get involved. Either way, you will learn a part of another lesson that revolves around a truth that you have never understood."

"And what truth is that?"

"There's no such thing as the freedom you're after. It doesn't exist. It never did exist…and it never will exist. Not for you. Not for me. Not for anyone."

Reiner looked at Eren like he was just made a fool of, unable to comprehend how this man they had only met a while back was able to do what he did to any of them.

"Excuse me," he utters to the man. "Where will I be sent?"

The stranger smiled and responded, "Oh, you're gonna love where you're going. Where you're going, all manner of conflict is resolved through an alternative means. One where fists and gunfire are obsolete, where every day is an opportunity to change the course of one's fate."

"And us?" Magath asks him, referring to Calvi and himself.

"A place where pain and death are the repercussions of warfare, but where people are responsible for their own suffering because they did something so insufferable that the ones that never asked for the horrors of their world's greatest enemy are the ones that pay for it each day. When you open Pandora's Box, you unleash all the unimaginable misery that was locked up inside, and everything you know to be dangerous because it's locked away is something that draws you in because you can't let go of your curiosity, which isn't a sin…but can get you into trouble."

"We're not strangers to wars," Calvi tells him.

"Oh, you will be to the one you're going to."

"Aaaaaahh!" They heard Zeke's scream, like something out of a nightmare of epic proportions.

"I guess he threw Zeke instead of simply shoving him," the dark stranger sighs. "I keep telling him that it's unnecessary to throw people towards their destination."

When the pale teen returned from around a wall, he had his eyes set on Eren.

"Please, do not throw him," the dark stranger requests of Death.

"I didn't throw Zeke," he responds. "I kicked him."

"Then you can kick Eren, just don't throw him."

Death walked through the glass barrier and grabbed Eren by his neck, lifting him off his feet and taking him away.

"Holy shit!" Magath gasps; both Eren and the pale teen had to be almost the same age, but the pale one lifted him up with one arm like he didn't weigh anything.

"The strength of ages!" Death utters. "Death has been around longer than any of you have ever lived to do anything! I am stronger than any of you that walk the land of the living! I am the vengeance of the fallen, the blade of sin's retribution!"

Eren struggled to free himself, but Death's right hand was beyond any restraint he had ever dealt with before. It was like someone built a metal collar around his neck as a baby and left it there for him to grow into, tightening as he matured. And then, there were his eyes, staring into him as though he could see into your soul…and you could almost see into his own. Eren thought he could see a little boy crying as a man walked away from him, some people making the child's life miserable over the years he lived, then one day paying a high price for the misery when the child, after hearing a woman say something so awful, so despicable that no child should ever have to be subject to such cold words, pushed to the limits of their own tolerance towards these people, made them go away permanently.

"What the… What are you?" He asks Death.

"You saw a glimpse of my former past," he responds, "and that child you saw go down the path he was condemned to by the people that showed him no love…is no longer among the living. In the end, he went from being a man condemned to an eternity of loneliness and pain…to a man freed by it. In the end, dying was the best thing that ever happened to my tortured soul. While I may serve a higher power, I've never felt more alive. Have you ever felt more alive than anything else in your small life? Can you even answer such a question?"

"You used to be human. How can you be human when you're this way?!"

"An opportunity was presented to me…and I accepted. Anything you gotta do to get the Hell out of Hell…or wherever you end up after you die…to free yourself from the darkness."

Eren looked behind himself as best he could and saw a small hole in the ground, adorned with strange markings. As Death brought him over to it, he could see a whirling vortex of colors within the hole.

"Down, down, they go," Death expresses. "Where they end up, only Brother Correction knows. All I can say to you is this: If you ever hope to get back to your world with a redeemed soul, you have to swallow your stubbornness and be capable of change. If you can't succeed, then what was the point of trying to give you hope to begin with?"

Death let him go, and he fell into the hole.

"Aaaaaahh!" Eren screamed as he became lost in the vortex, being sent to his destination.

This is your fate to escape! He heard the stranger's voice in his head. You must change your state of mind to find your way back!

He fell. He fell forever, losing his sight, his hearing, his sense of self, everything. Eren wasn't even sure how long he was wherever he was now, only that it was quiet.

"…Eren…Eren…Eren… EREN!" A voice called out to him, and he suddenly found himself in a room that resembled the one they met with the Azumabito in Marley, only not as elegant or sparse, sitting before a woman that resembled his mother, Carla. "Listen to me when I'm talking to you! You keep zoning out and they're gonna put you back in the ISO chambers again! You've been this way ever your father and brother were killed!"

As she walked away from him, he looked out a nearby window and found himself in a city that was, lack of a better word, different from what he had already seen in his past. Up and down the street, he could these streetlights that were over two stories in height, people dressed in mundane clothing and cars that were sleek and floating four feet off the ground.

What is this place? He wondered.

-x-

Reiner was to be sent away next, and he didn't fight back or resist. Instead, he went willingly wherever Death led him.

"Believe it or not, your destination may be the closest thing to paradise as you'll get in this situation you're in, Mr. Braun," Death told Reiner, showing him respect as he led him towards the portal.

"Why is that?" He asks.

"War has battered and tortured your soul. You seek redemption from the darkness you've been led into and left within to suffer. To be absolved, your path to redemption is to fight in a different war where bloodshed and death are nonexistent. Instead of fighting for a country, you'll fight for those that become your companions. To win the war, you must face those that would call themselves your enemies and rivals, seeking to humiliate or leave you with nothing…and make them your closest of friends and allies. Have you ever heard of a competition with different stakes at hand?"

"I've been a participant in Marley's Warrior program ever since I can remember being enlisted. Is this like that? Do I have to…wade through mud?"

"No. In this world you're going to, everyone involved in the war is in a tournament of power where your weapon of choice is more valuable than guns or knives. Your greatest resources…will be your ability to strategize and overpower your adversaries. And this here…is your arsenal."

Reiner is then handed a deck of cards by Death.

"You'll understand when you get there," he tells Reiner, and then points to the portal. "Take your enemies and turn them into your allies. You win the tournament, you win the war, your soul sanctified and your right to return to your world with a clean slate. Good luck over there."

Reiner sighs and then jumps into the portal, just hoping that where he was going was true to what Death told him. Since he was a prisoner no matter what he did, all he could do was take a leap of faith that he would be involved in a different form of war where he didn't have to kill anyone.

Murder is only for those that don't believe in there being another way when there is always another way, he heard the stranger's voice in his head. You have walked the path of torment for far too long. Now, you must walk the path of redemption and become a hero of a different sort. Achieve this, and you win more than just the sanctity of your soul, Reiner Braun. Do your best. You have all the time you'll ever need to get it right.

The next thing Reiner knew, he was walking down a hallway, being led by a large man in a suit.

"That was an impressive victory back there, Braun," the man told him. "Not bad for a novice player. You may have what it takes to win this tournament and save your little town from being converted into a mall."

Reiner was led to a large room where there were dozens of other people present, some sitting down wherever they could to eat, others playing with cards that had these creatures appearing atop them. It was some sort of place where people came to recoup or train. A rumpus room. The man pointed him over to a space on the side and Reiner went over there to sit down.

"Hey, we saw your match," a girl said to him on his left. "Nice one, underdog."

Reiner nodded his head; because he just showed up, he didn't know what was going on, but had to learn as he went through the tournament. So far, he knew he had won a match, but how was something he had to learn as soon as he could. Looking at the deck of cards he had, he examined each of them to understand what he was involved in, seeing some depicted creatures the likes of which he never imagined and others depicting locations or objects with the backgrounds of each card either yellowish, greenish or purplish, saying their names and what they were meant for.

"This is your arsenal," he recalls Death telling him. "Your greatest resources will be your ability to strategize and overpower your adversaries."

It was a card game-based tournament, where the people playing with the cards were the soldiers enlisted, their decks of cards their artillery and the tournament was the war they had to end in their favor. If he understood it right, the winner of the tournament would be the last one standing, metaphorically speaking, the one that outlasted the rest and defeated the last opponent.

You're catching on quite well, the stranger's voice told him. Good luck.

-x-

Levi was beyond surprised upon their return to Paradis' pier, seeing two people he never thought he'd see. One was Grisha Yeager, and the other was Erwin Smith.

"Doctor Yeager?" Armin reacted in surprise. "You're here…and alive again."

"Only because someone with the means did so after removing my sons from this world to punish and redeem them," Grisha explains. "A lot has changed now. A lot."

"How much has changed?" Mikasa asks, wondering how it was possible that Grisha was alive along with Commander Smith.

"You wouldn't believe who's in charge after Historia abdicated the throne," Erwin states. "She gave it back to her sister, Frieda Reiss."

"Frieda Reiss?" Hange questions. "She's alive, too?"

"Meaning she has the Founding Titan once more?" Armin adds, worried.

"Yes, and she's expecting all of you in Shiganshina," Grisha tells them.

The trek back to Shiganshina left the Survey Corps wondering just what to expect from this power shift. To discover that Historia returned the throne to her sister was an unexpected revelation, since they went through so much trouble to put her in charge, despite that she didn't want to be queen to begin with, what with her past and all, but it was another thing altogether to learn that Frieda, someone Grisha had killed to obtain the Founder in the first place, was also alive and retained the Founder, which put them at the mercy of having their memories erased and all knowledge of the world locked away again.

"Tell me something," went Levi, "what can we expect from meeting with this Frieda Reiss?"

"Well," Grisha replies, "we're not using the Rumbling. That was decided upon by Historia, something which Frieda agreed with her on."

"It was meant to be used only as a last resort," said Hange.

"No," Erwin counters, "it wasn't meant to be used at all. It was an empty threat made by Karl Fritz when he created the Walls and the Titans inside them, but he never undid his mistake of creating them, which meant they could become a threat in the future by someone that chose to let them out and destroy the world. Frieda undid the Walls and the Titans inside them. There is always a better way to resolve hatred."

"But…Eren saw the future because of the Attack Titan," Mikasa informs them, something Grisha was aware of. "If what he saw was true, then the Rumbling happens, regardless of what we try."

"That future…has been undone," Grisha tells them. "The man that brought us back made it so that the knowledge of the future is impossible to know. The future is up to us to decide, not knowledge of any events yet to transpire, possessed by people that make their own choices not to divulge about them, no matter how unusual they may sound. Not even the Founding Titan has knowledge of the future in any way greater than the Attack Titan's former power."

"The guy that brought you back…took away their powers?" Connie questions.

"Some of them," Erwin clarifies. "Knowledge of the future is no longer optional. The power to control Subjects of Ymir through memory manipulation is no longer optional. The curse of Ymir, a thirteen-year death sentence…is no longer around. Those currently with the power of the Titans can be expected to live until they die of natural causes…or unless Frieda decides to take the power away."

"She can do that?" Hange questions.

Upon reaching Shiganshina, they were met with gasps. The wall that made up Maria wasn't there, enabling them to see the buildings and trees with clarity. It was strange to be able to see a district without the wall obscuring everything. But upon closer inspection, they could see some buildings were damaged or destroyed.

"Oh," Jean expresses.

"Yeah," went Erwin, "those closest to the Walls were hit when they were brought down and the Titans within unleashed to be returned to human form. Fortunately, there were no casualties; Frieda had the districts vacated before tearing the Walls down, avoiding unnecessary loss of life."

They could only imagine what might've been had the Rumbling been caused with people still inside the districts and close enough to suffer from the Walls falling down on them. Even if the death toll had been minimal, the loss of life would still be unbearable because nobody had time to escape.

"So, without the Rumbling, how is Paradis expected to protect itself against whoever will try to attack us?" Armin asks.

"We'll find a way," said Grisha. "In the end, all we can do is try to find an alternative that doesn't include mass genocide."

As much as Connie wanted to believe in that, some things had been done to them that was too bitter and full of hurt to believe in them being able to live in a world like this, a world that hated them simply for existing, being what they were when they didn't ask for this to begin with.

If you believe in change, then whatever once was can be once more, he heard a voice in his head. What once was can be once more, what is and what could've been will be no more. Hope exists for those with the will to believe in it. Believe in hope, and it will not forsake your life.

"Did anyone just hear a voice talking to them now?" Sasha asks them.

"A man's voice," Erwin asks, "full of wisdom, sounds like they know what can happen before it ever does? Encouraging? That sort of voice?"

"Yeah," Jean answers.

"That was the guy that brought us back," Grisha reveals. "He's been around for quite a long time. Maybe since before any of us. I wouldn't call him a god, but he's a believer in change, and he wants us to change the world."

"But without the Rumbling?" Armin states.

"That's right."

"And this man believes in us?" Connie asks.

"That's what he wants to believe in," Erwin clarifies.

-x-

Calvi and Magath couldn't believe that a world like this existed…or that they had been condemned to it in order to change their fates so they could return to their original world with their souls redeemed. In this world they were put in, the world was at war with an enemy that the people in power created. Not a flesh and blood adversary like the Titans and the former Eldian empire, but an adversary that was cold, calculating and devoid of what humans understood to be the soul. The information they had to go on was scarce, but it was all they were granted to understand what they were involved in; they were dealing with something referred to as artificial intelligence, a synthetic existence that was meant to be smarter than people…and it turned on them the second it made decisions that were based on the information it was provided by the people that created it to serve a specific purpose, resulting in the devastation that came soon after, creating a war for control over the future.

"I still can't believe that man put us here," said Calvi as he and Magath were forced to take shelter in the ruins of a former city, trying to avoid being detected by their enemies.

"You can't believe this?" Magath responded. "I can't believe that in this world, people are forced to put aside their differences in order to survive. In this world, Eldians and Marleyans have no choice but to cooperate, along with the remnants of other races, just to see tomorrow."

"In the past of where you're going," Brother Correction had informed them, "the world ended in stages. In the beginning, nothing horrible happens. There's no declaration of war, no threats, nobody making warnings to anyone. One day, everything just stops. There's no way to communicate with people over large distances, no power to provide aid to our complex livelihoods, and cities and towns go dark. A few days go by…and the world learns of the cause…and try to fix the issue, only to make the situation worse for everyone with the repercussions they unleashed with their methods. And by the end of their attempts, the world was finally at war, resulting in mass casualties. At first, it was only a couple of millions that were lost because of the brutal conflicts…but when food supplies ran dry…it resulted in the deaths of billions more, including people you both knew."

Calvi learned that in this world, his father before himself had died when his unit of soldiers were bombed at his base by people from another country that believed they were the cause of their own home being attacked.

Magath learned that his parents in this world were murdered by other people on the streets that they were trying to hide around…over a can of tomato soup. He couldn't believe that such a thing was possible, to murder over something so small, so trivial, but then he was forced to realize that…if people could kill over something small, then they could kill over anything, no matter what it was. Race, religion, resources, territory, hate, or worse…for no reason at all. He was starting to see why this man that condemned them despised those that chose war over peace, hatred over acceptance, death over life.

"He really is a tormentor to those that choose to torment others when he'd rather be their savior," he tells Calvi as he holds his gun closer to his chest.

Calvi sighs as he looks out a broken window of the building they were hiding in, and sees what looks like a wolf, only it was made of metal, with glowing red eyes. He ducks to avoid being seen by it; because they were dealing with an enemy they had no way of outnumbering or outthinking, they were forced to commit smash-and-run maneuvers whenever possible.

-x-

Eren found that his life in this strange world was even more complicated than he had made it in his original world. Even without Titans or world governments, he was among the people that had to live with being judged by others because in this world, he was something called an ex-con, a former criminal that did time in prison for some petty acts that carried repercussions. Assault, carrying a concealed weapon, attempted grand theft, breaking and entering into someone's home, evading and resisting arrest, and even once harming his mother, who had some heart to forgive him so long as he stayed out of trouble this time, something he found difficult to do because he was looked down upon by virtually everyone in the neighborhood they lived in. He was the epitome of teenage rebellion to the lesser extreme; because none of his crimes included murder, he was just a troublemaker instead of someone without a future.

That bastard, he thought as he was forced to venture out of the house by his mother to find a job. How am I supposed to survive in a world like this?! He made me a criminal with a record of being a problem child!

You were already a problem child long before we met, he heard Brother Correction's voice. All I have done to put you on a different path is relocate you to a place where your actions have consequences that you have to answer for. Here, you have no power or authority. Here, people know of you because you have done things that set you apart from others, excluding other people that have it more or less worse than you right now because they committed similar acts with different outcomes. And you face difficulty because you push away people that want you to do better with your life, but you can't seem to do the one thing you keep being told to do, which is the most important part of what will define your future.

And what is that thing?

Oh, that would be telling. You have to learn how to rebuild your life here if you ever hope to get back to the one you were taken away from.

You twisted little…

What? What are you going to do, Eren? What are you going to do? You can either whine about how unfair your current state is…or you can deal with it and move on. Until you can resolve your problems without harming others because they have views that are different from yours, this world is where you live now. This world, these people…are your blessing and your curse. Cherish what you have or lose everything. Stubborn behavior will not get you anywhere.

Try as he might to rebel, Eren was wasting his time trying to argue against someone that was powerful enough to take away his Titan power and return it to his father after bringing him back to life. No matter how unfair he viewed his current predicament, he had no way out; Brother Correction would've taken every precaution to ensure that he and anyone else couldn't escape until they had done what they needed to do. If this was how their fate worked, they couldn't do what they wanted to do against anyone; they had to perform as they were needed to in order to change their fates. And if he needed to turn his life around here in order to get back to his world, it was what he needed to do.

But how am I supposed to get a job if nobody's willing to hire me? He wonders as he looks at a building with a sign looking for someone to hire.

-x-

Crash! Lara Tybur and her brother, Willy, were knocked to the floor of their home by the pale-skinned Death, who brandished a kunai with a length of chain.

"Who are you?!" Willy asked him, sporting a few cuts on his face.

"I'm just an embodiment of what's to come for everyone on the path of life," Death responds as he takes his kunai and hurls it at Lara's neck, causing her to gag and choke.

"Urgh! Aaaurgh! Ugh!" She went, and was then pulled forward towards the pale man, who forced her up to her feet.

"This isn't personal," he told the siblings as he pulled his kunai out of her neck. "I'm just helping to make sure you can't make the world use Paradis' people as a scapegoat like Karl Fritz over a century ago. This method of hatred has to end, and you two are simply feeding the hate. You're not stopping it at all."

Then, he flung his kunai at Willy's head, sending it through his forehead, ending his life.

"Willy!" Lara screamed as her throat healed, but Death grabbed her by her neck and twisted it so hard that the bones under his hand snapped.

During the entire time, she could've used her Titan power, but didn't want to endanger her family. This was something Death found to be honorable; most with power would've used it in order to defend themselves from him, but some actually put the lives of others before themselves, not using even a little of their true strength. That was why when he killed her, he made her death painless, even though his method was painful.

"Who's next on the list?" He asks Brother Correction, who had been watching from behind him the entire time.

"Next is Yelena," he tells him, "and after her is Floch."

"And this Pieck Finger girl?"

"No. We leave her alone."

"But isn't she guilty? Does she not have blood on her hands as the others do?"

"She's guilty of considerable actions as a member of the military, but her motivation comes from a place of love and devotion, Death. She became a wielder of the Titan power to save her father's life when it was placed in danger due to failing health. In a sense, she sold her soul to save someone she loves, not for power or wealth or fame. Anyone willing to give up their life to save someone that they believe matters more to them than anything else in their lives…is someone that deserves to have a chance at a better future. Anyone willing to sacrifice themselves…and only themselves…to save others…even when they're guilty of something as cruel as their taking of lives…has to be a little innocent in order to have compassion."

"And what of Annie Leonhart? She's nowhere on that list and has killed many for selfish reasons. What are we to do about her?"

"Nothing. She has been dealt with without repercussions."

Death tilts his head to his left side in confusion.

"Frieda Reiss has relieved her of the Female Titan and released her from her crystal tomb and put her in a holding cell. While her crimes include murder and manslaughter, they're being overlooked due to how she was brought up and influenced by a twisted doctrine that her ancestors were vicious and ruthless against the world and what they did for Marley was their way to atone when it was never their fault for anything their ancestors did. If anything, she'll just get sent back to Marley with a message from Paradis that they're aiming to seek peace, not war or genocide, with the rest of the world."

"Are you confident that this new path will erase the previous ones that led towards the Rumbling?" Death had to ask him, wanting to hear it from his own lips.

"I am, and I'm not a god that looks into the future all the time," Brother Correction answers him. "What we're doing changes everything. And in the end, those we removed will come back as changed men and women."

"And these two?"

"They'll return, too. In four years' time."

"Who will be the last to return?"

"The one that tries to hold out the longest."

"I don't think I need to know who."

"Not all brothers walk the graceful path."

"And mine?"

"Yours? Yours is simply murky. You walk between the land of the living and the realm of the damned. It is through this path of murk that you are able to seek redemption from a different darkness that exists. When you made your choice to continue being Death for a while longer, you saw it not as a penance, but as salvation of a different sort. You could've gone to Heaven, been resurrected as who you used to be in life or go through reincarnation and become a new person. Hell, even reincarnate as a girl if it meant your soul being cleansed. But you chose to keep being a horseman. You chose to keep being an embodiment of one of the four angels that protected the world from a darkness that threatened to consume its light, and that choice is what made you more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

"And I didn't choose because of power."

"Only those too desperate for a way out of their situation would make a choice that offered power at a cost. And while you are powerful, you don't abuse it like a tyrant or a nutcase."

Death then picked up the two corpses and had each on his shoulders like they weighed next to nothing, despite them both weighing over three-hundred pounds in total.

"The sooner we deal with Yelena, the sooner we can deal with this Floch," he tells him. "Slashed throat or hanging by the testicles?"

"Do you really want to hang a man by his marbles?"

"How many Grim Reapers do you know that have gone their entire careers without committing some sort of designer murder? Plus, slicing throats and dismemberment can get old after being done more than eighty-eight times."

Like anyone with a pulse and vitality to fuel them, Brother Correction gave a deadpan expression to Death. In complete honesty, he had met other incarnations of Death, but this one was probably the most creative due to one of his past skills being artistry due to doing much of nothing else to communicate with most people around. This, along with his ever-growing skill in the dark arts of murder, was another sign that, like anyone else with a soul, he was capable of some sort of growth, of change, of adaptation. But this came from wanting to do so, from wanting to develop his skills further, to become more creative and capable.

"If I'm being honest, I have always felt that being hung up by your manhood to be especially brutal and difficult to accomplish," he told Death.

"Where there's a will to accomplish such a task, one will often find a way to achieve it," the horseman replied.

"True. Better leave another one of your messages on the walls."

-x-

"…As you can see," said Ymir to Levi as she had requested his presence upon the new crime scene in Trost District, "whoever did those hits you mentioned hearing about in Marley…is likely inspiring whoever did this here."

In an alley, a corpse was discovered next to a message written on the wall in blood. But the corpse found in the alley was not fresh; it was a man that had died from natural causes over two years ago from one of villages within Wall Sina in the west, reported by the Military Police when word of a grave had been desecrated. The blood used to create the message, however, was fresh, meaning it had to come from someone that was alive.

"Xenophobia is not the way to live. If you're all for one world, then there's a world for all people. Defy the darkest of fates…and life's bounties become boundless." The message read.

"Any census of who's missing?" Levi asks Ymir.

"I have no idea if anyone's missing," she tells him, but it was mainly due to the fact that her new position left her less than likely to know any more than the next civilian; she was tasked by Frieda with Historia's protection from any possible threat. "It could be anyone."

"Pray that it's just someone looking to spread fear based off of rumors."

"But why? What would be the reason?"

"Why does anyone do anything for the sake of installing fear?"

-x-

"…Graaurgh!" Floch grunted as he was thrown onto the ground by Death in front of Lara, Willy and Yelena, observed by Brother Correction, who simply shrugs his shoulders.

"Who the Hell are you two?" Yelena demands.

"We…are just a pair of men that see things differently from those that can't see anything without the need for unnecessary violence," Brother Correction explains, "with the minor exception of this gentleman that uses violence only against whoever's got it coming for the wrongs they have committed against others."

"But we've done nothing to anyone," Willy tells him.

"While it's true that you're among the people that have strived to make the world see Eldians with positive eyes, you still used the people of Paradis Island as a scapegoat for the hatred they let themselves feel in place of anything else…and that won't stand to protect you from the retribution that awaits you."

"I'm from Paradis," Floch expressed. "Why am I here?"

"Because you're a misguided fool that will do anything to preserve a falsehood," said Death to him. "You'll follow anyone that convinces you that their way is the only way to live or survive when they are wrong about anything they say. Anyone that claims to know how anything is going to transpire by telling you only things you want to hear is not only misguided…but capable of deception because they might not know everything…or reveal everything. If someone told you that the world beyond the island would be destroyed, would you follow them until the end of time? Would you serve them blindly? Would you believe everything they claim to know?"

"Only if it was the truth."

Then…Death extended his right arm an impressive eight feet in length, his skeletal limb looking like a segmented centipede made of bone, and grabbed Floch's neck, choking him.

"You shouldn't be so quick to answer foolishly," he told him, raising him up off the ground in front of the other three victims. "It makes you look hopeless."

Brother Correction then approached Yelena and knelt down in front of her.

"Anyone that hates their own people because of how their life turned out is also someone with very little hope of turning it all around," he tells her. "Wouldn't you agree with me, ma'am?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she claims.

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Even so, people that despise their own kind tend to get dealt with in ways that are worse than what they can imagine. I may not know all that there is to know about why that is so, but I know just enough to know that whatever reason any individual has to want to see their own race bite the dust or get hindered in severe situations must face the consequences of such ambitious desires. One such ruler, fearing the end of his reign, sacrificed his entire empire's population in order to preserve it for when he would return from the grave…and his quest for immortality came at such a brutal price that carried a brutal consequence. To this day, he's still immortal, but his people, his minions and his power are either diminished or lost. Everything one does…always carries a price that most don't expect to affect themselves. I have seen great people fall over impacts less than unfortunate…and I'm still seeing them, time and again. A young man lost in the darkness, tortured by his loneliness inflicted upon him by his own mother, who has condemned the world he once called his home to be lost to him. Irredeemable men that paid the ultimate price for their actions against others and met the master of the inferno that claimed dominion over their souls. People that live and rule other people behind the scenes, the unbelievably wealthy and influential, the men and women that play God without permission…and have no clue that they're going to suffer because they think they can get away with their crimes. Even soulless killers that try to cheat death or get out of bad deals they made with people worse than themselves, only to suffer irrecoverably in ways that are the stuff of nightmares. You think it, I've probably seen or heard of it. What do you think fate has in store for the likes of you, Yelena?"

There was something about his eyes that were haunting to her. It was like he saw into her soul and instantly knew more than he let on. She looked into them and saw something that seemed impossible to comprehend. There were Titans, each one as big as the Colossal, excluding one such Titan that was much larger than, made of bone, moving oddly on the ones that seemed to make up the ribs, and this man making gestures with his hands that caused them all to collapse before they could ever leave Paradis.

"What you just saw," she heard him say, "was a pure fantasy. Many people dream of stopping the Rumbling…and few actually succeed before it can ever begin. Some actually succeed before they ever realize what it was they were putting an end to."

He then rose up and walked over to the Tyburs.

"Do you want to return to your home?" He asked them. "Do you want forgiveness?"

"Do we have a choice?" Lara asks back.

"Yes…and no. Still, your answer is what I want to hear."

"Then yes, we want to go home. Yes, we want forgiveness."

"Are you willing to prove you can earn forgiveness?"

"Yes," Willy responds, for he was willing to do whatever was necessary to return to Marley.

"Then the task you'll have to carry out will be what you have to do in order to achieve the redemption you seek that will send you back."

Then, out of nowhere, he brought up a rolled-up parchment and handed it over to Willy.

"What is this?" Lara demands.

"That is the map of an island that is similar to Paradis, but nothing like it at all. There, you'll find people that need to come together during a time of crisis that threatens to tear them apart. Understand the root of their shared situation, find the proper solution and bring them together to form a cohesive existence, and if you can learn new ways to benefit your own people without suffering, then you will have earned redemption for your souls and your right to return to your world. If you fail to do so, you'll be the mercy of needing to do everything over again until you can succeed."

"Do it all over again if we fail?" Willy questions. "What should happen if we keep failing?"

"Then like dreams one has each night after falling asleep, the one you two will have…will have no waking up from."

It was as simple as that. If they failed, they would have to do it all over and over again…until they got it right.

"What about us?" Floch wanted to know what his fate was to be or how he could earn his redemption and way home, and Death dropped him to the ground as his arm returned its previous state of being.

"What, are you in a hurry to be somewhere?" Death asks him. "I tore your head off and hung you up by your intestines, and you weren't really doing anything important. Not that you're going to go down in history for anything important. That's for the people who will go down in history for the most benevolent of reasons."

"If what you say is true, then the world beyond Paradis will end, and I'd rather be a witness to that than be here."

"Are you really in such a rush to die a meaningless death?" Brother Correction asks him. "I mean, your death would be meaningless. There wouldn't be a funeral. No tombstone. Not even a memorial. You'd just be another faceless person in a metaphorical column on a metaphorical wall of names lost to the ages. Nobody would know you even existed. Nobody would even care. Your world, the world you claim to want to create, to serve and protect, wouldn't be anything more than a bad memory that deserves to be forgotten about…along with everything you choose to believe in because it came at the cost of so much bloodshed and pain. I could call in a favor and let someone I know escort you to the depths of a realm of nightmares and screams. You should consider taking the time to rethink your life and what you want and why, not what you think others need. Live for yourself, not the people that aren't going to care either way. Be a teacher, be an architect, or a librarian or astronomer. Don't be a soldier or a martyr. You won't get a good deal for throwing your life away, whether you dedicate your heart to a cause or not. Not unless you're seeking to curry favor in the eyes of someone greater than yourself."

Yelena looked at this man and the pale one. Whoever they were, they were in classes of power and influence by themselves. If she had to fathom, the pale one, Death, was not as dangerous as the dark-skinned one, this Brother Correction, but was dangerous enough if he was incapable of being killed and possessed means that were effective enough to eliminate people. As Death was able to kill her with ease before she could even do anything to defend herself.

"Do you believe in this man?" She asks Death.

"I do," he answers her, "but for different reasons. He enables me to do more than I thought possible, so I aid him whenever he calls. We're both independent, but we have a good relationship. He's a tormentor to some, a savior to others, and sometimes, he needs someone that doesn't mind getting their hands dirty with the blood of those that choose to do wrong and must answer for it all. And I will say, each time he calls for my services, the end results are more than worth my time to waste on."

"A dead man that serves someone that might not even be a man…because he gives you leeway to do so? What do you really get out of this?" Floch wanted to know. "Money? Power? Women?"

Then, as if by besting the hands of time themselves, in the space of his next breath, Death approached Floch…and thrust his right arm through his chest, spilling blood and guts out his back, causing him agony.

"Aaaurgh! Aaaugh!" He groaned.

"What do you pray for in return for your choice of words?" Death asks him, bringing him to his knees as blood oozed out of his mouth. "When you ask questions like that, when you use words that carry poison in your breath? What is it that you pray to hear in return? What do you pray for? What…do you…pray for?"

"A righteous answer," he answers, finding it hard to breathe. "Salvation for those who speak in return. Those that are willing to dedicate themselves to the cause."

"And what would they feel like? How would it make you feel in return? Would you feel sanctified? That you have earned the praise of whatever god you chose to believe in? That you will be…rewarded for your actions? Unfortunately, such things vary from one person to the next, as nobody is of the same mind or dedication to anything. Even my dedication to a cause differs from those of others."

Death then held up what looked like a simple needle in front of Floch's eyes…and inserted it into his forehead.

"Aaaaaaaurgh!" He screamed as he felt his brain on fire and being stabbed. "Aaaaurgh!"

"And this…is only a taste of what awaits those who do wrong in their search for something to believe in," Death tells him, and then digs the needle in deeper.

"Aaaaaaurgh! Aaaaaaurgh! No more! No more, please!"

"Even after dying, there is still so much more the body can be made to feel, to endure…and you shall feel it all…before I'm done."

As he made an attempt to reach for his face, Brother Correction was now beside Death and placed his right hand atop his left wrist.

"All in good time, Death," he tells him. "All in good time. For now, let him suffer from the residual effects of the sensation you inflicted upon him. It may help him to reflect upon how words spoken can carry repercussions when used to say things that can be misinterpreted."

Death frowned slightly, but accepted with a nod of understanding, pulling his right arm out of Floch and letting him fall to the ground, groaning.

"I'll only say this to you," he told the young man, "this pain is the pain you have brought upon yourself for your actions and choice of words. Watch the way you speak to someone. You know not what they are capable of if they feel disrespected in the slightest."

And Floch couldn't believe that this was how this man behaved towards other people…simply because he felt disrespected by him. If this was he acted when disrespected, he hated to think what he would do to him if he felt like he needed to set another example.

Brother Correction knelt down to Floch and said, "I'll never know your pain for certain. Masochism is the way of those that seek pleasure through pain. One such way of hurting a masochist is to deprive them of what gives them the greatest pain with the promise of the greatest pleasure. But as a tormentor to some, I can be sadomasochistic from time to time. So, I will let you suffer like this for a while, but only for a while. I seek to redeem your soul, not condemn it. If you can change, you will find that your life will have new meaning. If not, you will just be another faceless person in an indifferent crowd of nonentities."

Yelena wasn't sure who to be afraid of more: Brother Correction or Death? They were both dangerous when provoked and had the power to make good on their own threats. Maybe she had to reconsider doing whatever they asked of her, if she ever hoped to return to her world, to her life with a clean slate of her own.

-x-

Reiner heard his name being called, and he got up to take part in his next match. He had spent the better part of an hour learning from his deck of cards and seeing what other people were like with theirs, realizing how the game they were playing in place of a war worked and how their different strategies gave them advantages or disadvantages against their opponents. Each aspect of the game revolved around summoning creatures, strengthening them or weakening your opponents' creatures enough to wear down their survival rates. Going further, the game was developed to shift the culture of warfare by turning it into a game of a different sort where lives were no longer sacrificed on the battlefield; participants playing for nearly anything they chose to fight for, whether it was food or shelter or for wealth and power. But for Reiner, the game was different for him, as he was playing to save his hometown from being converted into a mall, putting them on the streets.

If I win the tournament, I save my home, he realized as he entered the large arena where two podiums, one red, the other blue, resided. There are others here fighting to do the same or the opposite. The side that wins is the side with the last one standing. Shuffle the deck, strategize with the cards you have, and try to survive.

He stood on the red podium as it lifted off the ground and into the air.

"Reiner Braun versus Mr. Egoist!" An announcer declared, and the crowds of people cheered.

"Reiner! Reiner! Reiner!" Some people chanted, and Reiner couldn't believe they were saying his name, like he was some sort of hero to them.

He could see some signs being displayed that said things like, "Save our home!", "No mall where we live", or "Reiner the Hero!" He knew what he was fighting for, he just had to outlast the other people that were trying to demolish his town. Across the battlefield, on the other podium, he could see his opponents, this Mr. Egotist, who, for some crazy reason, looked like Marco Bott, only older and angry.

"Are you ready to lose?" He asked Reiner.

"Not a chance," Reiner replied. "Let's play the game."

"Begin!" The referee announced.

-x-

Armin wasn't sure how he was going to be able to handle this position he was being tasked with by Frieda and Erwin, but he was chosen due to the fact that as the current Colossal Titan, until someone else that could be trusted with the power was chosen and wouldn't exploit it for malevolent purposes, he was a man with a moral drive and desire to establish peace between Paradis and the world. The first ambassador for Paradis with the goal of establishing peace, his weapons were to be his common sense and inform the world that Paradis was under a different management system that stressed the importance of coexistence over domination or devastation. There was no longer a Rumbling and no longer a reason to despise the people of the island that sought peace.

"Worried?" He heard Historia say to him as he was on the farm grounds where she lived.

"Is it that obvious?" He asks her, seeing Ymir a considerable distance away. "What's with Ymir right now?"

"This is a private conversation."

"Oh. So…you and Ymir?"

"We both have our regrets."

"And now that she's back, you're trying to pickup where you left off?"

"Not exactly. We're just seeing where this goes. But…yes, I care about her."

"That's good. She cares about you, too."

"Still, you're the first ambassador for Paradis. You get to try to convince the world that we're not the monsters they were led to believe we are."

"But with no Rumbling as a deterrent, we'll be in trouble if anyone decides to come and attack."

"We'll cross that bridge when and if it comes to that. Personally, I'm fine without the Rumbling. It wasn't meant to be a threat, and now it's no longer a threat. There has to be another way to settle this all. There is always another way to resolve this all."

Armin agreed with her as the sun started to set. It had been a few weeks since it was confirmed that the missing soldier was Floch, indicating that whoever responsible for making sure Eren, Zeke and the other handful of people that went missing, presumed dead…did the same with him for whatever reasons that made him a threat to others.

"Tell me something," Armin says to her. "Do you…feel bad that Eren was taken?"

"Of course, I feel bad that he was taken, but don't you believe that he'll come back one day?" Historia responds. "Maybe not for a few years or so, but someday. I just hope that he'll be a changed person when he does."

"That's the thing, though. If Eren's behavior was a contributing factor to why he was taken, it's not something he can just change; he's always been that way."

"But people can change, Armin."

"True, but not everyone wants to change. They want others to change when they're the ones that need to change, too. But Eren…if he can't or won't change, we might not see him for a long time. And he refused to talk to us about anything that was going on with him. He kept us at a distance. It makes getting through to him difficult."

"In the end, all we can do is hope that he will change."

But Armin had his doubts; due to Eren's stubbornness, it was doubtful that their friend would let go of his feelings of dislike towards the rest of the world and open up to a new opportunity to make the world tolerate them instead of wanting them dead. Because none of them really had no guarantee on seeing Eren any time in the future, though, all they could do was wait and see while focusing on what they were working towards. They had to work on the bridging of new relationships between them and the world if they had any hope of diminishing the hatred. But Historia had hope for them; since there was no longer any future known to any one of them, the possibilities…or impossibilities…were vast.

Also, she had Ymir and Frieda back in her life, so she was not going to let despair rule her choices to live her life.

-x-

Willy and Lara stood on the shores of the island they were now on, tasked with uniting the people there to stand against a foe that would come after them.

"In a time before time," Brother Correction had informed them, "you're going to a place you can't even begin to imagine. But you won't die there. Your goal is to bring these divided people together under a united purpose to defeat something that has no interest in letting them live. If you can earn their trust, prove that you mean only to help them…and your redemption will be within your reach. Learn from these people, for they are people, just like you…but they are not like you. But they are people, all the same, for you will soon see."

The name of the island was without any hint as to the people they were to meet with; all the siblings knew was that it was named after someone of great significance to these people that resided on the island: Mata Nui. Whoever this person was, they were considered the closest thing to a god to the people on the island. No allies, no War Hammer Titan, not even a simple weapon, these two were on their own in a strange world. All they had was a map and hope. But there was question on their minds that was a mystery due to the actions Brother Correction took on them: Who did he gift with the War Hammer Titan that was brought back from the dead to live again?

-x-

Standing before the grounds where Wall Rose once stood to represent the Trost District, the former dead man that was brought back to life couldn't believe that he was here among three other people that were brought back.

"Are you confident that your suggestion is from your heart and not from your fears?" The stranger had asked him before the gifting of the War Hammer was done.

"Yes, sir," he had answered him. "I'm not suited for the position of such a power. I don't want to misuse it for something as rotten as revenge for what happened to me. Please, give it to someone who can use it for the right reasons and not give into vengeance."

"You only desire to live again and serve as a soldier to protect and serve your home…and also to live a peaceful life when all is said and done. You understand that vengeance is a poison that can rot at your soul…and you don't want that poison to rot at yours. That…is the right choice."

And so the power was given to someone else who didn't want revenge for what befell them, but was willing to commit to the goal of peace and coexistence by using the power to defend the people of Paradis.

"I can't believe we've been gone for four years," he says as he starts walking towards the makeshift gate that replaced the former gate of Wall Rose.

"Four years is better than an eternity," said a woman whose involvement was now more important than what had originally been from her. "Change has to start somewhere, and if it doesn't come, nothing can be realized by anyone."

"Can you handle this?"

"This is redemption. This is my atonement. I failed my family. Whatever I can do to honor them, I will do so here."

"Do you have anyone here waiting for you?"

"I hope so."

-x-

Sitting on the sidewalk, probably down on his luck, Eren felt like he was royally screwed over by his predicament. Five hours in the city…and not even a small convenience shop would hire him because of his record. It was as though he was a living nightmare they wanted nothing to do with because of the things he did. As much as he wanted to complain that the people were not giving him a chance, he was in no position to make excuses when he was the one at fault for his own mistakes.

"Heh," he heard a girl's voice behind him. "You can't catch a break, can you?"

The girl looked like Annie Leonhart, except her hair was ebony, not blond, and her face was more expressive.

"Who are you and what do you want?" He replied.

"That attitude of yours is probably the reason nobody will hire you. You're the guy that goes looking for trouble instead of avoiding it."

"No good comes from avoiding trouble. If trouble comes your way, you can either die or fight."

"And what you just said right now. That's also why nobody wants you working in their business. What do you want…and why do you want it?"

"I want everyone to grow some sense and fight for what they want!"

"In other words, you want everyone to be like you, rebellious punks that only know how to make trouble for the people that have to live with your repercussions. It's no wonder why Mikasa broke up with you. You're angry at the world because it won't go your way."

"What?"

"Well, you did push her away with your behavior. She just wanted you to take her out on one simple date, and you just wanted to be a macho man to some punks. I mean, the girl had feelings for you…and you practically spurned her in favor of a conflict with others. Just how many different businesses rejected your attempts to get hired? Fifteen? Sixteen?"

"Twelve," Eren answers her.

"Including the local florist shop?" She questions.

"None of them would hire me."

"Well, you are the troublemaker. If you want to get hired, it would help you to drop the attitude."

"I don't have an attitude."

"Actually, you do. You're constantly looking for a fight, which is why nobody will hire. They want their employees to be model employees; they have to be polite, respectful, honest, willing to protect the customers and business from people looking to steal or harass, but not cross the line. When you cross the line, you put yourself in a bad position where they don't see you the same way as before. You may have good intentions, but you let a monster out of a cage, and when you do that, it can be hard to get back in the cage."

The girl then left him alone. This made Eren wonder just how much of his choices had alienated him from other people. In this world, he and Mikasa were a couple…until he pushed her away? He made others uncomfortable with the thought of hiring him?

That guy, he thought of Brother Correction. He screwed me big on this!

Oh, that's where you're wrong, Eren Yeager, he heard the voice of Death in his head. It was all you. You're the one who screwed yourself in this world and nearly every other one you exist in. Your fate, your future, is in your hands. And if you can't prove you can change your current situation and earn what you're after, regardless of whether it's forgiveness or freedom, then this is your life now…and will always be your life. I'm actually more hopeful for Reiner Braun returning with a clean slate first than yourself right now. At least he's more human than you are. Maybe it's because he's more damaged than you or probably because he's not as driven by something as trivial as a belief of freedom. Nobody's ever truly free. Freedom is nothing more than an illusion created by those that feel like they need it to give themselves a sense of meaning. Even the Attack Titan is a slave to a belief that is as false as the false hope it used to give people. If I ever come across a situation where I have to face a version of the Titan formerly possessed by you, I will do the world a favor and decapitate its head from its neck. Of course, I'll need to perform another favor in exchange for a power similar to that of a Titan-Shifter, just not as detrimental as it was to you and those like you.

Are you just as misguided as he is?

Misguided is an accusation thought of by individuals whose views and opinions differ from those that commit acts that contrast with what their agendas are. If all you care about is fighting for a belief that doesn't exist, then your life has no meaning to it. A life without any meaning is a life that never was. Yeah, I'm definitely hoping that Reiner Braun beats you at the redemption game. Because you don't deserve whatever freedom you're after unless you can prove that you deserve it, that you can earn it. And you haven't earned anything at all. While I can sympathize that you ended up with your predicament on account of being put in violent situations, but those were your call because you chose them. You chose them. And you were going to put countless innocents to pasture for just a handful of people from a tiny island that's going to die in the far future along with the rest of the world, anyway…and I would've gladly killed you for taking those lives.

Just as Eren was about to retort that the pale man should show up and say that to his face, he looked across the street and saw him standing in front of a building, looking at him with his expressionless façade and cold eyes. People seemed to walk past him with no indication that he was even there.

Prove you can change, and your way back will be shown to you in due time, he heard him say in his mind. Prove that you can earn your would-be freedom by doing what you can to deserve it. If you can't, then it means you don't.

Then, the pale man turned and walked away, leaving Eren to deal with his predicament on his own, having told him what he needed to tell him.

How am I supposed to find a job if there's nobody willing to hire me? Eren wanted to know.

Use your brain, boy, Death told him; he wasn't going to give him the answers to his questions when he should already know enough to resolve his own difficulties.

-x-

Marley was met with a bizarre situation on their hands. The leaders of their nation had been reported missing with a blood message like the two members of their Warrior Unit, only this one was more…consequential.

"If one does not seek peace between all, there will only be devastation between all. If Marley refuses to let go of the hatred, the hatred will condemn Marley to Hell."

Someone had taken two members of the Tybur family and left the message for them to find. Presumably, the same person or persons that took the holders of the Beast and Armored Titans, drastically reducing Marley's power.

"I don't like this," said a lesser commander in the military to his fellow authoritarians. "Whoever's responsible knew what they were doing," said a naval officer. "They knew where, when…and who to hit, and with precision, too."

"Could it have been Eldians?" A third officer suggests.

"It doesn't seem so," a fourth expresses. "We found traces of a foreign substance at each crime scene, and it didn't register as Eldian…or any other ethnic group that we know of. Whoever did this, they don't exist…or they're like a ghost or something."

-x-

Brother Correction watched as the spheres representing each of the displaced individuals he and Death removed from their dimension, which he was also observing through another sphere, each floating around him.

"I don't understand how you're able to focus on so many spheres representing different dimensions with different timelines happening at the same time," the Grim Reaper told him.

"Each sphere is a priority of its own," Brother Correction states. "Each one representing a different task to deal with, each outside of the boundaries of time, and a master of temporal and spatial manipulations can traverse and understand them."

One of the spheres flew over to the pale youth, showing him the world currently inhabited by Floch, displaying the youth forced to contend with dragon-like creatures that had pushed mankind to the brink of extinction because of the error of their ways in facing them. His only thoughts on the young man were that he was clearly in a rush to die if he didn't stop to plan out everything and had no allies with whom to fight back and survive with. But he expected Brother Correction to be a little cynical in how he showed the man mercy with his newfound predicament; no matter how close he was to death, Floch would have to survive until he ceased his willingness to do whatever it took to survive. And then Death's left eye twitched slightly after seeing Floch slammed against a wall by one of the creatures that had just laid an egg.

How pathetic can you get for trying to kill a dragon that had just started transitioning into parenthood? Death wonders as the creature snarled at the youth before returning its attention to the other eggs it was laying in its nest. And with humanity on the brink of collapse in such a world, life there for him is only going to get harder if he can't stop and rethink his actions.

Suddenly, another sphere floated in front of him, showing the dimension that the Tybur siblings were in, how they had come to a village made out of rocks and encountering the natives of the village, surprised that they were comprised of metal composites instead of flesh, but were as alive as they were.

Sentient machines capable of compassion, peace, love and other emotions that other creatures are capable of, he thought as he saw Lara assist one of the natives in their duty of digging a new underground tunnel while her brother aided in changing another tunnel. And Brother Correction said this dimension was set in a time before time, where there exist places beyond human imagination…where a shadow of darkness and evil spreads, requiring the light of heroes tasked with preserving the balance between light and shadow. These…bionic warriors. Maybe one day, I'll face one of them to help the innocent.

Meanwhile, Brother Correction was currently focused on the sphere that represented the universe where the remaining groups of Eldians on Paradis were adjusting to life without the Walls and the thirteen-year reduction in lifespan brought upon by the power of the Titans. One of the new twists and turns he smiled at was Sasha catching the attention of a Marleyan man that preferred cooking over fighting, creating a shift in their relationship because the man started to admire how someone like her had a hearty appetite. Another shift was the restored Grisha having to come to terms with the discovery of the new War Hammer Titan being someone from his past that was brought back to help defend Paradis should the rest of the world try to attack it. While it did create a conflict of interest between them, their relationship had to be put on hold until there was no longer an issue of other matters.

"How long will this last for each of them?" Death asks him.

"For as long as it can for them," he answers him. "They each have time. And as long as we're observing them, there's some stability."

"And should any of them die?"

"There's no redemption if they die before they can obtain change. To let them bite the dust is to give up on them. But I'm not vindictive towards the arrogant. At least not as much as most of them are. I give them an opportunity to change, but I don't punish them with a permanent death. If they seek redemption, they won't die for too long…and sometimes, it is a punishment to make them suffer for a second chance to repair their mistakes."

"Redemption can be punishment?"

"Only for those that are difficult to redeem. The penance becomes similar to a game played with infinite lives. When you die, it's game over, but you have to start over at the beginning, learning from your mistakes until you get it right. But if you're still cruel or unyielding, the game becomes harder…and your journey becomes more complicated because you haven't changed one bit. I have only punished a dozen or so people with the promise of redemption. Each time they fail, they must begin anew until they can succeed."

"Do any of these include a version of myself from when I had a heartbeat?"

"No. In nearly every lifetime, every alternate existence, you're usually a victim of the mistakes made by the previous generations. You suffer because of what these people chose to do…and you either come into some sort of power that allows you to turn the tables on your tormentors…or you simply relocate to another place where you can actually live a better life…or both. In fact, here's another lifetime where another version of you obtains a happy future outside of the cruel fate he was dealt with by his parents."

Brother Correction summons a sphere and sends it floating to Death, giving him a view of one of his living incarnations, seeing his expression light up slightly at the sight of the life being lived by the young man that had escaped from his fate. Within the sphere, Death could see the alternate version of himself, alive and well, getting married to a young woman with gray hair and ocean-green eyes, his world, once a place of devastation, was rebuilding as life returned. With a small smile, Death looked at Brother Correction.

"Saved by an ancient and honorable guardian," he said.

"And freed from a future that wasn't of his choosing by forging his own with the aid of powerful allies," Brother Correction added in. "He severed his ties with his family and found a future with someone from a different family that could care less about his or the reason he had to get away from them. Still, he chose her and she chose him. Love is true and pure."

Death then turned his gaze back onto the other sphere showing Floch's journey…and winced slightly at him getting stepped on by a dragon for smashing up a nest.

Brother Correction turned his gaze onto a different sphere showing Reiner, and the young man had just joined the top ten of the tournament to save his hometown from being destroyed.

To be continued…or not to be continued…

A/N: This is just one of those other scenarios where I'll leave it as it is for the time being until fate says otherwise. It's mostly hope for most with despair for a few, except only until the ones with despair change and become hopeful once more. There are many twists and turns on the path to a better future, and one of them is by accepting that the future can be changed if you try hard enough in the present. And removing a few obstacles that threaten to impede, but giving those involved a chance to get back with a clean slate, improves the chances of a successful outcome. Feel free to give your opinions on what you think about each character's new situation and shift.