I always worry about OOC the first few times I write for a new fandom. Does any change in Eren's character go against the canon trajectory of his life, what with the time crap? IDK. I like Lara too much to care about the exact abilities of the Attack Titan.
I imagine this Eren more like Paul Atreides: given a vision of the future he does not want but one he might have to begrudgingly take.
Anyway, having posted an overlong one-shot about a rare pair, I shall melt back into the shadows, only reappearing after long eons.
My wip title for this was Crush which is a bit macabre but eh whatever
Eren Yeager saw a future both terrible and beautiful. It would finally give Paradis peace. No more breaches in the walls, no more kids robbed of their parents. The price was just the whole world, every person and creature beyond Paradis. They would be crushed or seared or would trample themselves in their panic. Suckling babes to the old, all dead. There would be no one left to hate Eldians.
Maybe the thought of those Eldians in camps was what stayed his hand. It was easier to sympathize with them, to imagine himself in their place– hemmed in by fences, not walls– than it was to imagine himself as a 'normal' human. They would mourn their parents when they were killed; although they'd have mere moments to do it, if at all. Thousands or millions of little Erens out there, little Mikasas and Armins and…
The thought of coexistence was sweet as honey, but the whole world, even destiny, seemed aligned against the possibility. The Rumbling could probably be held over the world's heads indefinitely, but the Eldian exiles scattered around the world might perish should more conventional Titans become obsolete. Maybe they'd be integrated by the nations, but even considering the Rumbling required a pessimist, and he doubted things would end up that smoothly.
(Occasionally, he considered crazy ideas. What if he used the power of the Founding Titan to give all the Subjects wings and compel them to fly to Paradis? That discounted the logistical nightmare, not to mention the people just getting shot out of the sky. Worms, snakes, perhaps even creatures that burrowed… whatever option he took, it would make refugees out of them all, again.)
It was like lines. Maybe, maybe, if you executed things just perfectly, the Subjects of Ymir and the rest of the world wouldn't collide. Lines in parallel… but the slightest discrepancy, the most infinitesimal fraction of a degree this way or that, and there would be apocalyptic collision.
The Rumbling was the perfect backup, the most extreme solution, perhaps the only one that would truly work, and they only had so much time to do it. If worst came to worse, he could obliterate most of the civilized world in a fortnight; it was brutally simple, the problem was mainly Zeke's lifespan. As long as they worked around it, they had time.
There was a certain, fatal gravity to the Rumbling, but for a few years, he could try to walk that tightrope. The humans outside the walls were so vastly disappointing. Hateful. Spiteful. They'd raise their innocent kids into spiteful adults, adults who would want the children of Paradis dead.
But Eren had always yearned for freedom. Couldn't he try to liberate himself from the destiny that stood before him? The innocents deserved his best try before he crushed them all.
Willy Tybur could feel it, the twilight of an era. The Marley Mid-East War had shown the war that Titans– and therefore Eldians– were operating on limited time. There was a very real risk that advanced technology would make the Eldians of the world unnecessary. They had sway in Marley, but even then he knew that the rigors of time could see the family destroyed.
Perhaps it was human nature to be selfish. He wanted his family to survive, to be more than a name attached to a statue. If that required desperate action, then perhaps that was what he needed. Was peace simple? Yes. All it required was sitting back and waiting…
When Paradis made overtures for peace, the logical thing to do was to invite them, to begin the slow process of integrating them into the community of nations. The risk wasn't zero, but it wasn't as likely to end in disaster as picking a fight. It still relied on good faith negotiation on Paradis' part, but what the rest of the world needed was time. Either to develop a counter or get the Founding Titan.
The latter was an act of war. If improperly executed, the Rumbling would follow almost immediately, and that was the end of everything. His family would die, and if they were remembered at all by the reborn Eldia, it would be as snakes and traitors. Still, the risk would lead to incredible rewards. Reward that he could attempt to snatch right away, but if he burned some political capital and arranged things just so…
Getting as many Marley-aligned titans inside the walls without rousing suspicions would be good. They were worth less and less on the fronts these days, so stationing them in Paradis would give them a chance at sabotaging any Rumbling plans or seizing the Founding Titan. Ideally, one of them would be attached to Eren Yeager by the hip, keeping an eye on him at all times, but that was impractical. Yeager wasn't crazy enough to let someone like Reiner or Pieck lurk around him, not after their fighting….
He turned away from his desk for a moment, looking out through a window to see a little courtyard where his children played. Fine was trying to calm her siblings down a little, while Lara kept a careful eye on them, in case actual discipline needed to be enforced.
"Lara." He muttered.
Doubtless, Eren Yeager would desire the Warhammer Titan. If he decided to go on the attack, Lara would be a prime target for capture and consumption; however, Lara's skill was significant, enough to stand a chance.. With the other shifters, defeating Eren was not a total impossibility, although being deep in enemy territory would complicate it severely. Still, a meager chance of stopping him was better than nothing, if worse came to worse.
Now the question was how.
Eren was a bit too important, strategically, to be negotiating for himself in diplomatic missions to Marley, but Azumabito had made some arrangements to see if some sort of agreement could be hammered out. (Being dead wasn't good business, after all.) At the very least, the one doing the negotiation on Paradis' side was Hange, who was on the xenophile side of things. Mikasa was her guard, and rumors of her skill had spread all the way to the mainland.
(Lara was Willy's guard, although the delegation from Paradis island wouldn't know that. For now, all she seemed like was a secretary or other paper pusher.)
To begin with, there was the simple matter of business. If they were going to attempt a peaceful resolution with Paradis, then the least he could do for his family was get some good deals out of it. The Volunteers were only just beginning to tap into the island's natural resources, and they were limited by the island's weak industrial base; Willy could stake claims to reserves, promising good money– by Paradis' standards, anyway– for mineral rights.
There was a bit of back and forth, sure, but Willy gave them the impression he was giving them a good deal. Starting out on the right foot, while also wearing Hange down with the sheer length of negotiations. It was subtle things, like not offering refreshments and making sure the room was just a bit stuffy. Don't be actively offensive, but wear them down. Perhaps that tactic wasn't as effective on a woman like Hange, but Mikasa was getting twitchy.
The island would need to be surveyed thoroughly, and logistical pathways properly laid out. Thankfully, Hange wasn't one to cause too much of a fuss about foreign influence encroaching on Paradis, but she did make a few hesitant suggestions about opening the island to Eldians around the world.
(Unlikely. As much as Marley and the other states disliked their Eldian population in their ghettos, letting them go was unlikely. It wasn't even to deny the Founding Titan people for shaping with its power– its reach could not be impeded by distance– but just to keep Paradis from growing strong economically. Keeping the Eldians was especially important for Marley, whose Warriors would be very inclined to fight against the Rumbling to save their family back home.)
Azumabito did some token arguing to give Hange the impression she was winning them a better deal, while subtly pushing for her own gain. Business as usual, even as they worked their way towards the article that would tie the two states together, the one the entire meeting was just a lead-up to.
"And one last thing. In order to foster a good relationship between our nations, I would like your Eren Yeager to marry my sister, Lara." He gestured to Lara, who had already been warned of the great burden she would have to bear for the family.
The guard, Mikasa, looked like she had just bit into a lemon, and Hange was frowning. She was a xenophile, but she was keen; doubtlessly, she was looking for his angle. Her gaze flicked over to Lara.
"Eren?" Hange asked.
"Yes. Your queen is already married, is she not? A tie with your government will help facilitate cooperation." If Hange disliked him implying Eren was a key player in their government, she didn't say it.
"And you'd make your sister a widow in a few years?" Hange asked.
"I expect Lara won't outlive Eren by much, if she even manages that," Willy admitted. The thought of his sister's eventual fate was painful, the idea of giving her away during the last few years of her life, leaving her in a position where the inhabitants of Paradis could seize upon her… it was horrible. But they needed loyal titans on Paradis.
He loved his sister, but love for the Tybur family and the state exceeded that smaller, personal love.
"Warhammer," Mikasa said, looking at Lara with analytical eyes, sizing her up as an enemy.
Lara nodded, and Willy elaborated. "Of course, I must ensure my sister's safety in Paradis. I propose that the Warrior Unit come with her."
"You just want us to invite your Titans into our home?"
"Think of it as… insurance. A promise that Marley will do all it can to reach peace. For our Titans, for my sister, both held in enemy territory."
The trick was making the offer so attractive that the government of Paradis could suffer Marleyan Titans inside their walls. It would take even more negotiating, negotiating against a people who held all the cards, but he would keep at it.
Sometimes, you had a freedom you didn't fully realize until it was checked, until a restraint was placed on it. For Eren, being able to walk around under his own power was practically a given, but it was a freedom that could be countered. By walls, by injury… by others imposing their wills upon him. The entire Paradis fiasco was thanks to some idiot in the past, damning generations to terror in the walls.
"We managed to hammer out a deal with Marley…" Hange looked miserable. Her freedom was checked by the heavy chains of command. That and a long journey to Marley and back, where she barely got a wink of sleep.
"What's the catch?" What price would they have to pay for the rest of the world? If they made to lash Paradis into slavery, even with fancy words and diplomatic language, then Eren would destroy them all.
Hange pulled a photograph out of her pocket and held it up in front of Eren. It depicted a stern-looking woman, black-haired and pale-skinned. "What do you think, Eren?" Pretty enough, he supposed.
"Get to the point, Hange."
"How do you feel about getting married?" She asked. "To her, that is. Lara Tybur."
Tybur. The Eldians who cooperated with Marley, the ones who 'freely' chose to sit by and do nothing as Eldians were mistreated, the pens who let the attacks on Paradis happen. They were even more complicit in the mistreatment of Eldians than the average person was, more deserving of death than the masses.
"You sold me away for a peace deal?" He asked, his voice icy. A way out. A possible way out… just for giving up a bit of his own freedom. His entire plan was to sacrifice the freedom of the world for his people. What a hypocrite he'd be, if he decided his freedom was sacrosanct, worth more than the freedom of every last person on the planet.
But this particular imposition was personal. Not only was it checking the freedom of this Lara woman, but it was also checking his own freedom; he had never realized the simple right of being able to pursue who he pleased. Was it a freedom he would have really exercised? Probably not, back the lack of it was an insult by itself.
The Rumbling was a simple solution. A remarkable solution. But wasn't this what he wished for? A few years to try for a reasonable, diplomatic answer? Well, he wouldn't say that the people of Marley were in any way reasonable, but they were reaching out. How could they refuse an outstretched hand, after years spent complaining that the world wouldn't listen?
"Thank you, Hange," he sounded more grateful than he expected. Anything was better than the Rumbling, even if it was getting married to some frigid Marleyan bitch.
"You know, this'll probably end up even bigger than Queen Historia's wedding," Hange said, "since everyone on the mainland will want to hear about a Tybur marriage…" Historia also made hers a very private affair on purpose.
"Not in Marley?" Eren hissed. Hange would never concede to a point that insane, would she?:
"No! Willy does want us to take some photos, though!" The prospect of getting to utilize that new technology brightened her mood a little.
"When did he become Willy?"
"When he became your brother-in-law!" Hange chirped.
"Not yet." He hissed.
Hange laughed, and Eren would admit it was good to hear.
As Lara squinted to observe the docks, little more than a smudge on the horizon, she thought of the dissidents who were unloaded there, but she also thought of the fear. The fear the rest of the world was trapped in, the fear she had only been liberated from when she was old enough to keep such an important secret. The fear that had been reborn when the loophole appeared, when they realized the threat of the Rumbling was still there. She was simply the latest inheritor of the long Marleyan tradition of attempting to battle that apocalypse.
Eren Yeager, the man whom she was to marry, waited there, and he held the rest of the world in his hands. Her sacred duty was to watch him, the same way Marley had kept a watchful eye on Paradis island for the long generations. If worse came to worse, then she was to destroy him, as surely as Marley had attempted to destroy Paradis. A long-term mission, just like the one the Warriors participated in.
She had wanted to be like them as a child, even if the Warhammer had never been used for warfare, never saw any use outside of hidden training grounds. Her childhood dreams of glory and valor had long since faded, but now she was finally on a mission to save her country. A strange, strange mission.
It was also a bit of a show of force and technological prowess, considering they came in one of the most modern battleships that Marley could bring to bear. Guns as thick as trees, shells as heavy as cattle, even an experimental seaplane launcher… along with the Warriors, of course.
"Worried?" Pieck stood beside her, squinting to get a look at Paradis.
"I will do my duty," Lara answered.
"Is that your way of saying you don't like him?"
"I have never met him. However, you have." Lara gave Pieck an expectant look.
"You'd like to know?" Pieck smiled. "There's a girl in there somewhere, huh?"
"He is our target."
"Right. From what I saw in the fight… he was tough. He wouldn't stay down. They got the Colossal after I left, and I'm positive Jeager was involved. My thought was that he wasn't the planner, though."
She knew it was folly to go into this relationship expecting a partner, or even someone she could come to like. Half of their planning hinged on her killing Eren… but the other half demanded a relationship with him. A dreadful contradiction.
"Did he seem intelligent?" She wasn't sure what was scarier: the thought of the Rumbling being controlled by some naive fool who was himself controlled by others, or the thought that Yeager was fiercely intelligent and had a plan regarding the Rumbling.
"Intelligent? I'm not sure. He picked up hardening very quickly– not as good as yours, of course– but his titan form wasn't exactly cerebral. More than anything, he seemed angry." Pieck chuckled. "That boy can yowl."
"Incapable of speech?"
"From what I could tell, all he does is roar." Pieck shrugged.
There were perfectly sensible biological reasons behind whether or not a shifter could talk. Some simply didn't have vocal cords or had mouths too malformed to talk, but Lara had a private belief that personality was part of it. A certain brutality, perhaps an animalistic nature… not desirable traits in a man who could destroy the world.
"Do you know anything more?"
"If you really want to know how to get your man, ask Reiner about Eren's taste in women."
Reiner and Zeke both seemed to have complex feelings about Yeager, and the former would have the most experience with his personality; however, before Lara could begin to talk to them, they made to dock. It was time for business. Time to meet her soon-to-be husband.
For Eren, the docks the Marleyans used on Paradis island stunk of betrayal. Of the outsiders who gladly damned his family and friends, of executions for no real crime. If things had gone slightly differently here, perhaps he would have never been born at all. (If all-consuming destiny allowed that. If the Attack Titan allowed it.)
All that was coming was another boatload of problems from the sea. Marleyans had been throwing Titans at them from these docks for decades, these ones were just a bit smarter. He was sure there was more to the marriage scheme than simple diplomacy.
The pretense and any chance of peace nearly shattered when they saw the brilliant flash of a Titan transformation on top of the deck, and Eren was already sprinting away from the welcoming party to activate his Titan form when he realized that the Cart Titan wasn't jumping onto land, it was being loaded up with the Marleyan's things.
It was pretty fortunate he hadn't shifted, looking at those guns, although he did have to awkwardly return back to the main welcoming party. He wasn't the only one who spooked– Mikasa held her blades white-knuckle, Conny was shivering– and really, the only one of them who seemed even remotely happy with the situation was Hange: "Look at that! It's one of those planes I've heard so much about!"
No one could begrudge the poor woman some happiness now.
Tension nearly exploded into violence again when they saw Reiner and Zeke, although the threat of the two other shifters following behind stopped them. One of them was a concerning unknown– perhaps the young man with brown hair at the rear of the group?– but it was impossible to miss Lara, what with the photograph showing her appearance.
(It was widely agreed that Eren had scored a looker, although no one was bold enough to say it in front of Mikasa.)
Connie chuckled as she approached. "They've got matching buns!" Eren's was more of a messy man-bun when compared to Lara's tidy little arrangement, but the joke itself was a welcome bit of levity.
Their chuckles petered out when Lara approached, her seriousness almost seeming to radiate out from her. She passed by Hange without so much as pausing, coming to stand before Eren. Even without heels or thick soles, she stood nearly eye-to-eye with Eren.
A moment or two passed where they simply stared, sizing up the person they were to marry.
Lara stepped back and held her arm out to Eren in a strange sort of way. He realized she was waiting to take his arm.
"You're your own woman. You can walk by yourself."
"Neither of us are our own person anymore. We never were, not really."
Eren blinked, and then he laughed.
The Marleyans unpacked their things and moved them to a waiting train. Despite their presence, things seemed routine; porters loaded up cargo cars with salted fish and even seaweed. It was remarkable, how a land-locked people adapted so quickly. To the sea, and to inventions from the mainland.
A rail line stretched northwards from the port, obviously headed towards the walls. Worrying. The people of Paradis adopted technology quickly, although hopefully their progress was slowed by the anti-Marley volunteers disagreeing with their current stance.
(That was their educated guess regarding the island's sudden rise in technology. Suspected dissidents disappearing, Paradis growing strong… Zeke had warned Willy that their power would only wax with time.)
Even if this line was the only train on the entire island, the fact that they had it at all was a remarkable display of their growth. It was a bit distressing, even though technological superiority over Paradis meant nothing as long as they still had the walls.
Speaking of, she had understood, on an intellectual level, that the walls were tall. They hid titans capable of destroying the world, after all. Yet seeing them rise in the distance like mountains was an entirely different thing. It was like seeing an army on the horizon or watching a wildfire. It was doom, and some part of her chilled at the thought of going inside.
Thankfully, the train came to a halt just before the gate, giving her a bit of time to prepare herself as soldiers with rifles and maneuver gear checked the train. The one who looked through their car looked about ready to punch someone, but he refrained, if barely.
"May we take a step outside?" Lara asked. "I think we all would like to stretch our legs after such a long ride."
"Someone has to escort you." Hange said, "Eren?"
Hesitantly, her fiance rose up and followed her off the train. When Pieck stood to follow, the Ackerman woman stood as well. Lara would have been distrustful in their situation, admittedly.
Outside the train, the walls were even grander, so tall she could understand how people thought them divine. Work had been done to repair the breach in the wall: a proper gate had been put in place, and a message had been carved over it.
It's us who give meaning to our comrade's lives! The brave fallen! The anguished fallen!
There was a cenotaph filled with names, surrounded by flowers and mementos, and she was reminded that most of these people had very good reason to hate her. Lara returned to the train.
When it finally began moving and they passed through the gate, every resident of Paradis on the train paused for a moment; they stopped talking and held their hands over their hearts.
Reiner looked profoundly uncomfortable. No one bothered to talk with him or Zeke for the entire train ride.
Still, there was something interesting about their passage through the gate. After a few minutes of travel through Shiganshina, Lara saw Eren Yeager genuinely smile. It was a welcome change from his usual dour expression.
An estate in Mitras was about as nice as life inside the walls could get, but the thought didn't excite her. Eren Yeager's laughter didn't make him any less powerful, and it certainly didn't empty those fatal walls.
(That close to royalty… it was dangerous, having Eren there. One injection and the world was doomed. It also made running away rather difficult.)
Before the wedding, the Marleyans had a little time to settle in. Lara saw little of her soon-to-be husband, though; it seemed Eren was off drumming up support for the Marley-Paradis Treaty.
Despite rumors about the savagery of the Eldian devils on Paradis, they did have such things as weddings and marriage– no sharing the womenfolk communally or anything like that– although they lacked a lot of the grandeur of mainland weddings. Not many believed in the Church of the Walls anymore, and even then their ceremonies tended to focus on the permanent walls and not the changing relationships of impermanent man. That meant marriage was mostly local folk tradition, with more pomp and circumstance the closer to the center of the walls you went.
Tybur family tradition dictated that the bride and groom share a sort of long necklace or lasso for the length of the ceremony. The idea was Eldian, representing the great loop formed by the union: husband and wife, each linked back to Ymir, their wedding interweaving two separate branches of a vast tree.
… The metaphor didn't work quite as well when marrying outside of the Children of Ymir, but most Eldians struggled with exogamy for reasons that should be obvious.
The Tybur marriage cord was two meters long and glistened with hundreds of sapphire beads; the proceeds from a hypothetical sale could feed a family for the rest of their natural lives. And it wasn't even the standout piece. She brought a dowry and trousseau to shame an empire.
(Was some of the gold 'borrowed' from the national reserve just to look impressive? Yes. But if the plan succeeded, they would make it back and then some. If it didn't… well, no one would be there to hunt the Tybur family down for any crimes.)
Somehow, the bridal whites prepared for her translated over very well. Culture clashes started cropping up when they had to pick their location: Shiganshina tradition was near the house, or perhaps in a large building nearby if it was someone popular getting married. However, no Tybur was to be married among the ruins.
Did Lara care overmuch, as long as her duty was being fulfilled? Not really, but her brother had a way with the public, and he said they needed splendor and glamor. It wasn't like Queen Historia made much use of the palace in Mitras anyway.
A meeting was taking place in Mitras, discussing security for the event of the season.
"A bombing would risk killing Yeager, wouldn't it?"
"Some might think him more valuable as a martyr than a titan."
"A martyr? If they're the ones doing it-"
"If they spin it that way, it might work. Hell, killing Lara alone might be enough to cause war."
"And we almost certainly have radicals in the military…"
"Eren's fellow scouts are a good start. Captain Levi will be assigned to their shifters."
"That just leaves the rest of the guards. Dozens of them."
"We work it out, or this wedding becomes a funeral."
Along with the Warriors, Lara brought a few simple maidservants, for her maintenance. They had helped her don an old family wedding dress that shimmered with pearls but afterward, they left at her request. Pieck did the final touches. Perhaps not as well, but she wasn't here just to comb Lara's hair.
"How is the security?"
"Better than I expected," Pieck mused, using her fingers to untangle a knot. "Lists of people allowed in, several checkpoints, sniper's perches… they seem to mean it."
"Seem to?"
"The nationalists hate your guts, and the military is crawling with them."
"As long as I can draw blood…" Lara said.
Pieck groaned. "You know that will cause a panic."
"The mission requires the marriage."
"Heh. I'd love to hear that from the person I marry."
"This was never supposed to be romantic. I am to share a household with Yeager, to strengthen bonds or stop him if necessary." She wouldn't fail Willy, and wouldn't fail Marley.
"Do you think you'll get rusty with the Warhammer?"
"I'll have to arrange for excursions… practice with Yeager might work as an excuse."
"Don't show him all your tricks, though."
"I can manage a teenage boy who barely understands his own powers." (Reiner speculated Yeager spent yearsnot knowing he was a shifter– although that hinged on Yeager not being able to hide it. On the other hand, Lara had trained from day one, practically.)
Pieck chuckled. "If I hadn't just turned twenty, I'd be offended."
"There is no magic threshold you cross and suddenly gain wisdom and skill. Years of training mean much."
"Say it straight to my face, why don't you?" In the mirror before her, Lara could see that Pieck was smiling. She turned to grab a crown of flowers, which would finish the bridal outfit.
Meanwhile, Eren was being tended to by his own fellow Titan Shifter. "And then you vow to be with her until the blood of Ymir flows no more."
"Until the blood of Ymir flows no more," Eren repeated, thinking about just how possible such a scenario was. There was no need to sacrifice Historia now, what with Zeke.
(Zeke confronted Eren privately and explained his plans. It was like deja vu. Eren already knew. His brother would see the blood of Ymir fade away as well, even if the death was slow.)
It would be so simple. A short walk, a brief touch. No more phantom pain in his neck, no more Marleyans. Peace.
855 was the date. A decision had to be made by then, assuming Zeke's condition didn't degrade rapidly. He was grooming a replacement, but his real plan was as to let it all pass away. The Beast Titan, their lives…
"Eren?" Armin asked.
"And then?" He asked, not really giving a shit about marriage customs but knowing it would keep Armin talking.
"You kiss once, have the party, get home, and kiss her on the threshold. Easy."
"But you're not attending?"
"We're all security."
"Even Mikasa?" Eren asked.
Armin gulped. "Yeah."
"How is she…?"
"Miserable," Armin said, giving Eren an intense look. It was rare to see him angry. "Did you know?"
"I know I should have stopped her pining. Told her she should find a man who has more than a decade left, someone who is free of the curse… but I can't."
"Offer up your heart, huh?" Armin smiled sadly.
After some final adjustments to his hair, it was time. Eren left his 'household'– a manor the Tybur family bought with gold before fortifying it– and processed through a very carefully guarded quarter of a mile. He could see his friends hopping from roof to roof ahead of him, occasionally vanishing behind dangling pennants.
The exact purpose of the great hall he entered escaped him. Assemblies, royal speeches? He couldn't be sure, especially not with the space rearranged in order to host a wedding. The first thing he noticed was the guards lined up in ranks, standing near the walls. There were nobles and the like, alongside the Marleyans, both the shifters and a team of technicians messing with some complex mechanism. There was some empty space for him to walk between the crowds, toward Lara.
She was dressed in white and pearl, a long dress with excruciating amounts of fluff and lace. It almost offended him, seeing the Warhammer Titan in that getup. Another thing… with her heels and her ramrod-straight posture, she stood just a bit taller than him. Eren might have heard some grumbling about that as he approached.
He stood next to her and tried to keep his eyes open for anything going wrong. Zeke said there were no plans to ruin the wedding on Marley's side, at least. (Zeke thought the effort at peace was good, and mourned Eren's loss of freedom with him. It was bizarre, Zeke seeming to care for him.)
Historia and Pieck stepped forward, each of them holding one end of the long Tybur wedding cord, its length shining with sapphires. Historia gave him a grateful look as she laid the weight on his shoulders. It was what he had to bear.
The vows were simple enough. Fidelity until the blood of Ymir flowed no more, etc. Despite that, he felt himself growing antsier and antsier, even as Lara remained completely calm and stoic. He was about to be bound permanently to this woman, but she was the price she would have to pay to prevent-
(The ranks of nobility stood in lines and stared, stared like those ceaseless watchers locked inside the walls.)
He turns to Lara Tybur and leans in for a kiss. It is cold and without passion, and he stares into eyes as grey and unwelcoming as a thundercloud. Cameras snap.
(He thinks of the Eldians this woman's family damned, the government they were complicit in.)
They separate, but the cord keeps them from drifting too far apart. The first dance, greeting well-wishers, and eating are all done with Lara about a meter away.
A few times, he would look out of the window and spot one of his friends. The party never stopped, but it seemed like they all ran to do something before coming back with shorter blades.
Lara sipped moderately at a glass of wine, and Eren was very close to drinking himself under the table. It clouded his memories of that terrible future, it was what he did the first time he realized what his power compelled him to do.
But winning over Marley required nothing less than perfect clarity. The responsibility of avoiding that future hung heavy on his shoulders.
The walk to 'their' house went uninterrupted, thankfully, and after another emotionless kiss just before the door, they stepped inside. Just the entrance hall was probably large enough to hold his old house in Shiganshina. He wasn't one to get shocked by architecture– it was hard to beat the Reiss' crystal cavern– but it was a reminder that the Tyburs were incredibly wealthy.
Lara gave him a curt nod. "Good night, husband." Pieck followed her, heading towards the western 'wing' of the house. A house big enough to have wings… Eren shook his head and went to the east wing. He would scope out the whole place, but he figured he would end up there, away from the Marleyans. Amicable relations with them, personally, were very different from amicable relations with Marley.
Thankfully, he didn't have to spend too much time alone with his own thoughts. As soon as the wedding was done with, his friends were free. He heard the rasp of ODM gear and went out to meet them. For obvious reasons, Mikasa wasn't anywhere in sight. Connie was already laughing like a maniac, probably because Sasha had somehow managed to make it out with an armful of charcuterie. (Marleyan culture seeped onto Paradis in the strangest ways.)
After a raid on the pantry– well-stocked thanks to his wife's money– and Armin's arrival, they were having a decent time. No one mentioned whatever had unfolded around the wedding, not when there were details to hear about the wedding.
"I'm really sorry we missed it, Eren."
"There was nothing you could do," Eren rattled off the platitude. There were things Armin could have done, like ditching his duties. The short-term increase in freedom would be counteracted by losing privileges or even a court martial.
(All those choices felt so inconsequential, compared to the one that dominated his future.)
"I'll try to get copies of the photos," Armin reassured him, as if that sort of thing mattered.
Connie threw his arm over Eren's shoulder. "She's pretty cute, isn't she? Are you gonna–"
"No." Eren said.
"Really? You're married, what else are you gonna do?"
"I don't think he's interested, you know?" Armin said. "She's practically a stranger. Would you kiss a random person off the streets?"
"If she was that hot, maybe I would."
"Eren?" Sasha asked, "Can you invite us to your house again? This food is really good."
Eren would occasionally find himself planning for the Rumbling without fully realizing what he was doing. That wouldn't mean much if he was just some schmuck in the army, but he wasn't.
He already had some sway in politics before his wife became a wellspring of foreign investment. It still surprised him, that a kid from Shiganshina could make requests to Queen Historia or the Prime Minister and get listened to. Hell, he could argue with them!
(That kid from Shiganshina held apocalyptic power in his hands… if that boy even existed anymore.)
Mostly, his planning for the Rumbling could be excused. Pushing for autarky and self-sufficiency was a popular position, considering that most of the world feared them. That did pair a little strangely with setting up the logistics for colonization, though; a civilian navy didn't make much sense if you weren't trading with the outside. Laying out rails to the harbor while also leaving a clear route for the Titans to go out without killing the people of Paradis…
His mind got ahead of him at times. He'd take strong stances on positions and then realize later they would marginally benefit the Rumbling reconstruction. It was almost enough to make him stop attending those meetings, but he could never trust a politician.
He got dressed in his uniform and was about to head out when he heard someone calling for him. "Husband?"
Lara Tybur was dressed for business, in an outfit similar to the one she wore when she first arrived. The dress was dark green, not black, and some details seemed different… but Eren wasn't a tailor.
"Did you need something?"
"I'm accompanying you."
Eren raised his eyebrow. Did she really think that she could just insert herself into a meeting with literal royalty?
Well, if what Eren had heard was true, she was about as close to royalty as you could get in Marley. Maybe she'd get in, maybe they'd kick her out. Not really Eren's problem.
(Eren's problem was having to take a carriage instead of being able to walk or even use maneuver gear. It was silly, considering he could hop out, but the lack of control… he was aware that his mind wasn't completely his own, that the urges weren't his own, but what could he do? Tear out his own spine?)
They eventually arrived in front of the building which served as the heart of Paradis' government. It was really like a heart in the sense that there were periods of frenetic activity punctuated by brief breaks. Every time Historia arrived, the petty little bureaucrats were sent scrambling.
His first real shock came when he and Lara made their way up to the room's entrance. Before they could see her majesty– and the flunkies– they had to pass by some guards.
Both gave crisp salutes. "Lance Corporal Yeager, Mrs. Yeager!"
There was something disarming about hearing the words 'Mrs. Yeager' referring to his wife and not his mother. Being referred to Lance Corporal wasn't a surprise, at least. One of the soldiers opened the door and let them inside; Lara marched in like she owned the place.
Heads turned as she walked in, and Eren saw a complex expression on Historia's face for a moment before she schooled her expression. (Lara saw the look the two shared and felt fear. She could handle petty politics, at least.)
Then it was straight into business, discussing how to strengthen Paradis and reactions to the wedding. Photographs and prints were popular– although part of it was probably simple novelty– although there was a significant revolutionary element the military was tamping down on. Or attempting to, considering that the tool used to purge the military was the military.
It was a delicate issue, not the sort that could be solved by getting all of them in one building and letting Eren handle them (as fun as that might be). Showing the people how cooperation with Marley and the outside world benefited them seemed like the best option, but there were so many projects to handle…
"I can assist you with constructing a bridge there," Lara suggested, pointing out a particularly isolated– although resource-rich– region north of the walls, cut off by towering mountains and swift-flowing rivers.
"There's no need for you to help us, Mrs. Yeager. We can help ourselves." Someone snapped.
"Nonsense. Paradis' fortune is Marley's fortune." Now that the deal had been made, at least.
The people of Paradis sprung out of the walls with incredible zeal. They plowed and mined and set up pasture and fished day in and day out. Queen Historia's government had won themselves eternal allies by offering free land grants for ambitious people to seize upon, and all the land claimed so far was really just a drop in the bucket.
Unfortunately, you needed to get to the land in order to exploit it, and Paradis had some truly difficult hinterlands. Rails were possible, but the government was using up steel as fast as it could be made. Experiments with ships- HMS Erwin Smith, torpedo boat- and metal framed buildings and steam engines and tools. Hooking up little frontier settlements to the Walls was not a priority, economically.
However, it was a very good public relations move, and if there was one thing Marley needed in Paradis, it was goodwill. Pieck easily filled a role of emergency relief, Porco could gnaw his way through a mountain, and Reiner… provoked too many bad memories to even try.
Lara's hardening was the most useful out of all of them. She could hammer at mountainsides, build bridges, lay rail, and fortify buildings. Her 'main challenge' was going out and helping those little provincial towns without causing panic. There had to be forewarning, or her Titan's looks tended to terrify.
It was certainly a change in pace, loudly proclaiming her Shifter abilities instead of keeping them hidden, but warming relations with Paradis were more than worth it.
Despite their capabilities, they were people. Plain and simple people who wanted roofs over their heads and food in their bellies. It was hard to think these people devils, not when the adults applauded her and when the children scrambled over her great fingers.
(A group of girls made a flower crown fitting for a Titan, and that was a marvel by itself.)
When Eren was a kid, his nightmares centered on Titans. Before the fall of Shiganshina, they were vague and formless, occasionally taking features from particularly mean bullies or adults. Big mean humans, but without any really bite.
After the fall, his nightmares almost always centered on a Titan with blond hair and a horrifying smile. Sometimes, when his subconscious was feeling creative, he'd be the Titan eating someone. Usually mom, sometimes random neighbors, Armin or Mikasa, and once, Dad. That was a particularly realistic one, and it sent him to Armin and Mikasa, desperate for someone beside him.
Unfortunately for Eren, it seemed as if his nightmares were coming back in a big way. He couldn't close his eyes without dreaming of the Rumbling. Being crushed underfoot or crushing underfoot, a body of massive ribs and tower-like bones. Cleansing steam and screaming children, bodies cooked red and smeared.
It was all he could do to not wake up screaming.
Sometimes they would start happy. He remembered a dream where he was a kid again, running around with Armin and Mikasa. There were no walls to pen them in… the dream ended with them all drowning in bloody mud, sludge clogging their lungs and stopping their movements, leaving them impotent and choking, choking-
Walking around was better than sitting in his sweaty sheets, attempting to figure out what was memory and what was a cruel creation of his own mind. (How free could he be, really, if he couldn't even say he had full control of his own mind?)
So he walked.
"Pieck, what the hell are you doing on the floor?"
"Taking a break. Not used to walking on two legs."
It was such an absurd sight he almost laughed. "Why are you up?"
"I still work." Her previous 'work' was supporting Zeke as he slaughtered the scouts, Eren thought. "Have to keep you two from getting murdered, you know?"
"I'm touched."
"I know you won't believe it, but Willy really wants this to succeed."
"And I bet he really wanted you to steal the Founding Titan."
"Yeah." Pieck shrugged.
Eren sighed. "Which room is Lara's?"
"And here I thought you'd just brood forever. Follow me." She proceeded to show him to Lara's room, taking a seat by the door.
Eren reached out for the knob– gilded and covered in obscenely delicate patterns– but stopped just before he touched it. What was his plan, exactly? Trying to find sympathy in a woman whose family he stood ready to murder? One who stood by and let Eldians get crushed under the Marleyan boot?
"Go on." Pieck said.
He opened the door and stepped inside Lara's room. The room was finally lit by the glow of a lantern, and Eren walked towards it, trying to avoid any furniture in the near darkness.
Rounding a corner, he got a look at his wife, sitting up in bed to read a book. Half of her face was caught up in the warm orange glow of the lantern, while the other half was immersed in dark shadow. Her hair was freed from its usual bun, hanging down messily, contrasting against pale skin and a pastel blue nightgown.
The scene was quite domestic, but her eyes were steely. "Husband. Did you need something?"
(He wondered if she had a knife hidden away in her bedside table, considering the way her hand crept toward it.)
"I'd like to sleep here tonight."
"Of course." She demurred, moving aside so that he could take a spot in the bed.
He didn't manage to get a wink of sleep, not when he was literally sharing a bed with the enemy. All she needed to do was grab a knife, or even just transform; he chewed a wound into his cheek, just in case.
After some more reading– one of those horribly doctored Paradis histories– she extinguished the lantern and fell asleep, as far as Eren could tell.
It became a pattern of behavior. The results were just too good to ignore. A warm body nearby did a lot. Reminded him that there was something concrete outside of the visions in his head.
They usually didn't touch, but Eren moved in his sleep, so accidents were bound to happen. One day he awoke from a night see to see her about two inches from his face, probably because he was gripping her wrist like a vice. "Is something the matter?" His nails sunk into her arm, but she still managed composure.
He loosened his grip. "Nightmare."
"Of what?" She was shockingly soothing, but she was probably catering to him because she had no other option. If threw a hissy fit…
"I…" dreamt of breaking your brother's legs like twigs before throwing him down my gullet. "Dreamt of Titans." True, in a sense.
"I cannot think of any man with less reason to fear Titans." She responded.
He almost responded with something like 'and you never had to fear Titans!' but the words stopped up in his throat. Of course, she feared them. She was a sane adult not living on Paradis.
(Zeke's plan called for the sterilization of all Eldians. Were there couples who never dared to bring a child into the world for fear of the Rumbling?)
Eren breathed in and out. "When you got your Titan, did you ever feel that your mind wasn't your own?"
"I felt I was suddenly caught up in something greater than myself." She answered quietly. "I could no longer live for myself."
"I don't want to do it. I don't. But something inside me…" He trailed off. His power seemed to have a will of its own at times. It raged inside him, some ancient urge for rapine and slaughter, a fire that he could barely control.
Lara gulped, and for the first time, Eren thought he saw a bit of nervousness on her face. Maybe he was just seeing things in the dark, but he certainly wasn't mistaken about the arms that reached out and held him.
From then on, they always shared a bed. It almost seemed to make the fire in his veins pulse less fiercely, and it seemed to reassure Lara. Anytime he was in her arms was a time he wasn't running to meet with a royal to get the Rumbling started.
There was something reassuring about not being completely alone in mistrusting his own mind. Lara's was, from what she said, more insidious: a creeping problem of the mind, one that oriented her towards family, something that ate up the self. However, her answer to the problem was giving in to the desire… which wasn't workable for Eren. Well, it was. He could do it, he might be able to execute before anyone realized what was going on.
Some part of Eren almost pitied her. Wondered what she could have been if part of her mind wasn't swallowed up by generation after generation of those who gave up everything for their family. It built on itself, self-selecting. Anyone willing to cut their lifespan down to thirteen years cared quite a lot.
She was remarkably self-assured. Maybe that was what several extra years of training with a Titan form would do for you. There was something terrifying about a Titan wielding a weapon, the incredible intelligence and skill it implied. Reiner or Pieck acted deliberately in their Titan forms, but something about the Cart Titan… it had tools made for it, it didn't make its own.
A few times, she agreed to spar. Eren was certain she didn't give up all her tricks, just like he didn't give up his, but she was a remarkable fighter. That hammer was especially fierce, but she was no slouch up close, grappling and wrestling- at least, before Eren started getting nippy. The strands of armor in front of her face were helpful, but it made biting ineffectual. Eren couldn't breach the armor, but he could absolutely break bones and cripple limbs.
It was a strange bonding activity, yeah, but it was very distracting, and there were times when Eren needed that. There were also times when it just felt good to knock her down a peg. She had an ego on her, thought you wouldn't think it. What had she said before their first fight? "This will be finished quickly." She underestimated him, and he proceeded to shatter a cliff with her Titan's face.
She made up for it when she finally caught him with that hammer of hers. Decapitation with a blunt instrument… His Titan head went flying, and he crawled out of the nape shortly after. Lara's Titan bowed low, practically kowtowing, and she rose from the nape before sliding down the great neck.
"Do you have some issue with Pieck?" Lara asked.
"All she does is watch us," Eren grumbled. He knew why, of course.
"She is our guard." As if that was the reason, and not getting as familiar with Eren's moves as possible.
Noticing their gazes, Pieck waved. It was probably easy to act that way when she thought she had the advantage; Eren suspected she would be in an entirely different mood if she knew that Zeke wasn't on her side…
The time crept closer. Zeke was getting antsy. Soon enough, he'd have to decide if he really, truly trusted these people. Porco was carrying a bucket of water over, probably for them to drink from.
He sated his thirst and tried to avoid the part of him that bayed for blood.
The day had been spent preparing naval works in the north. It was a remote, miserable station, but that was only more reason to make sure ships on that side of the island had a safe harbor. Eren and Pieck moved boulders to form a breakwater, Lara formed frames for buildings and reinforced the docks.
Their reward for their labors was middling seafood and some dicey canned stuff. Not glamorous, but Eren would admit that Lara handled it well for a high-society woman. No complaining, even as they settled into their tent.
Lara lit their little lantern, but didn't reach for a book like she usually did. She observed him for a few moments, her hair forming a dark curtain behind her.
"I have been considering our marriage." Eren supposed that would have been a menacing start in any situation where their marriage wasn't practically enforced by international agreement.
Eren nodded, and she continued. "There is a certain… obligation of our marriage that has gone unfulfilled."
Before Eren could ask what she meant by that, one of her hands hesitantly crept lower, and he got a pretty good idea.
"How do you make having sex sound like a chore?" Eren sighed.
"It's a talent." Lara deadpanned.
Eren laughed. Really, genuinely laughed. Lara never considered herself a particularly funny person, but it was… nice, to inspire such emotions.
It wasn't just to fulfill the mission anymore, she knew. She couldn't help but care for family, and he was family.
There was also the matter of legacy. Neither of them were long for this world, especially with the threat of the Rumbling hanging over them. The thought of leaving someone behind, to carry on… it was heartening.
And some part of her just wanted to experience the act before she died, and she wanted the consequences too. Pregnancy hadn't always flattered her sister-in-law, but it had made her very happy by the end. Or the beginning, she supposed.
Lara couldn't guarantee much, but a child of Eren Yeager should be able to survive if the Rumbling were to occur. The Tyburs would live on, even if they went by a different name. They would live on, always onward.
However, she couldn't really bring herself to think about those fancy justifications when they got to the conjugal act itself. It was… pleasantly distracting.
If this was the process involved, Lara understood why Willy had four kids.
(Pieck knew that Reiner's first visit to Paradis had left him in a poor mental state. She wasn't blind. In fact, she was quite observant. And that inability to miss small details was going to drive her as nutty as Reiner. Writing status reports to Willy Tybur and telling him that his sister was a total nymphomaniac… ugh.)
Zeke and Eren were disagreeing on something, and neither Lara or the warriors knew what exactly it was. The two had gotten along well enough at first, but now there was a pressure, something they wouldn't ever talk about in front of anyone else.
Now they were in the courtyard, and both were losing their temper. Honestly, Lara hoped for some sort of hint regarding what the issue was.
"I suppose it's not all that surprising," Zeke shook his head. "But you can't let it distract you. There's–"
"Only so much time, I know." Eren said. "We'll do it."
"Will we?" Zeke shot back. "It seems like you've let yourself get distracted." Distracted by what?
"You don't control me, 'brother', and you never did!" Eren landed a punch on Zeke's jaw and the Beast Titan collapsed like a sack of potatoes as soon as Eren made contact.
Lara was connecting dots. The shared last name could have been a coincidence, but Zeke's career was stained by exiled parents– even if he had reported them– so Eren could possibly be…
Porco had rushed out and was checking on a catatonic Zeke, while Eren just seemed to stand there for a moment, a wide-eyed look on his face… before marching in Lara's direction.
"Husband." She greeted. "I saw you and Zeke…"
He sat down next to her, and spent a moment thinking. "You keep track of your cycle?"
"I do." She responded, not sure what he was getting at…
Oh.
Omake:
Suddenly, she was in a plain of sand under a starry sky, and she heard her husband's voice, powerful enough to rattle her bones, but somehow not loud.
"To all subjects of Ymir: my name is Eren Yeager. I am using the power of the Founding Titan to address you."
Primal terror shot through her. Her family. Marley. No. She raised her thumb to bite and drew blood, but there was no transformation. Nothing at all, other than her blood dripping into the sand.
"This is an invitation. Those Eldians who live outside of Paradis suffer. You face cruel governments and crueler people, trapped in miserable lives. I offer you freedom. Come to Paradis. I cannot tell you that it will be easy or without hardship, but I swear to you that shall be seen as men and women. People. If you cannot come by yourself, you will be rescued."
"If you cannot bring yourselves leave your homes behind… I understand. I love Paradis as I loved my mother. It is where I was born and raised. But even if you love another land, Paradis' arms will always be open to our blood."
She was back in the house. She wondered if Yeager had bothered to inform the queen about this, or if this was one of his flights of fancy.
Lara is real cute in the anime, ain't she? (I have a horrible weakness for characters with two seconds of screen time.)
Anyway, I caught up with the show, and I can say I'm only like three weeks late to the party despite starting season two like six years late.
If the implication wasn't clear, Eren hitting Zeke sent him to the paths, where they had a confrontation similar to canon.