Creation began on 01-06-24

Creation ended on 01-07-24

Attack on Titan

Kill the Darkest Future, Live a Better One

A/N: If someone tries to take away your sense of hope, pray that someone else will arise to give you back your sense of hope. After watching the English version of the last episode, I'm still disgusted with the conclusion.

Oh, how he really hated this young man that couldn't and wouldn't look for a better future where hope was available. He was like the biggest problem child in every abyss of existence that he observed. Every time, every scenario, even if he intervened, time and time again, whether it was saving two or more lives or giving an unexpected individual the means to take control of the outcome, that little brat still chose genocide. And now, here he was, at it again, and now, here he had to come up with a move that would rewrite the outcome.

Eren Yeager, Brother Correction thought as he saw Armin Arlert in the Eldian Paths, trying to get his body to move as his friends and allies suffer in the Rumbling through the sphere that floated in front of him. You and Ymir Fritz… It's always the same with you, no matter how many times I try to offer an alternative solution. You always want eighty percent of the world to die, just to bring the remaining twenty percent to the level of Paradis Island. I saved Faye Yeager from being murdered, time after time… I prevented Sasha Blouse from being shot to death by Gabi Braun… Hell, I even made it so that Historia's Ymir would stay with her! But you, Eren, you are…a stain, a blister on the ass of existence like so many others I've dealt with over the ages. No matter how often I'm patient with you, even after punishing you in ways that leave you either powerless or grateful just to be alive, you don't change for the most part.

"…I never liked him," he heard a girl's voice say to someone, and he saw a younger Armin Arlert being spoken to…by a young girl with gray hair. "But I would never wish such a horrendous fate upon him."

"You never cease to amaze me," he utters as he smiles. "Your existence echoes throughout the endless branches of Yggdrasil and the oceans of time and space. I had nothing to do with your beginnings, but I cherish your life as I do every other life that brings renewal and redemption. If you exist in this universe as you do in the others I've visited, then you can be the one to do better than others…but before you can…I'll have to cross the line and become a tormentor once more."

While he could've called for aid in these situations, he now had the idea of how to handle this one on his own. Yes, he knew how to deal with this matter. He just didn't like how he was going to deal with it.

-x-

Going through the woods, picking up firewood, a younger Eren Yeager was unaware that he was being watched by angry eyes belonging to a predator.

"Yeager," he hears a voice in the trees. "Eren Yeager!"

He stopped and looked up at a man standing atop a branch, holding some sort of spear.

"Starting today," the man utters, raising his spear at the boy, "you're a dead man!"

And then, he threw the spear at Eren before he could run. The spear hit the ground…and Eren Yeager had disappeared from sight, leaving only his pack of firewood.

"If only everything I did to people were easy," Brother Correction expresses as he floats down to the ground and picks the spear up. "But he's as good as dead…where I sent him to live."

His original intention had been to have Armin kill him and then show up as a regular man to make the authorities accept that he had manipulated the pretty boy into killing his best friend, but then changed his mind and simply removed Eren from this dimension and replaced him with a dead version of himself that that he acquired from a different dimension where the boy had been trouble from the very beginning and was executed by being forced to fight against ravenous wolves for sport. He was going to deliver the corpse in place of Eren and setup a decent funeral. The actual Eren Yeager had been relocated to a realm that was akin to a video game where he had to play to survive and the only way to win was to reach the final level and defeat the boss of that level. But even if he made certain not to condemn Eren to death, he wouldn't let him return to this dimension; he couldn't let him after the stunt he pulled, so that Eren would have to live in the dimension of the video game he was currently stuck in.

"Dead in this life, but alive in another one. As sorry as I am, Eren Yeager, I'm sorrier for the people you could've harmed if I had left you alone. I will not shed tears for your actions. If there's redemption for your soul, I pray that you let go of your ambitions…or at least die with some restraint and humility." He picked up the alternate corpse and carried it away from the woods. "Help! Someone, please, help! Help!"

-x-

The funeral had been quiet, with very few people there to mourn the loss of the young man that had been found dead by a hunter, ravaged by wolves. In front of the small grave, Armin couldn't believe that Eren was dead because of a pack of wolves. He hadn't known any wolves to live anywhere near the woods near Shiganshina District. And worse, he didn't expect his friend to be attacked and mauled to death by any…unless he made a choice to fight them over running away, which would've made sense to any rational mind.

"You were his friend?" He heard a girl's voice and turned to see the gray-haired girl that Eren had crossed in a bad way once that earned him a warning not to go bothering her again.

"Kaede Sogen," he addressed. "What are you doing here?"

"My parents are paying their respects and condolences to the Yeagers," she explained, although her tone made it clear that while she was sympathetic to the loss the grieving parents had experienced, she was not very sympathetic to the fallen life of the young man that had harassed her not too long ago and wanted nothing to do with, for better or for worse. "While I don't really care much for the boy, I don't wish his death on anyone, whether I hate him or not. This…didn't need to happen."

"And yet, it did happen. I wish I knew why, though."

"Why would you want to know why it happened?" Kaede asks him. "Knowing why doesn't make it hurt any less. Wolves are predators for a reason. Anyone they stumble upon is the same to them; just another meal to sink their teeth into. "It's…better to let go and move on. He's back in Heaven, free from all suffering."

Armin sighs and has no other choice but to accept her reasoning.

Even from a distance, Brother Correction took comfort in the girl's words. While she was honest in her feelings of not liking Eren, she was honest in her not wishing this sort of death upon others. Even when her feelings for him were of heavy dislike, Kaede Sogen not a hateful person towards other people simply because they bothered her to the point of harassment, whether it was because of the way her hair looked, her personality quirks, or even because of her belief structure that had conflicted with Eren's, which led to his warning of not to bother her.

"So, what now?" Armin asks her.

"What everyone does after someone dies," she responds. "Try to move on. He's no longer around, so we need to move past his absence. Take your time to grieve and then go on. Just because he's no longer around, the world doesn't stop moving. Not for him, not for anyone."

The girl turned and walked away after placing a small flower on the new grave.

"Miss Sogen," Armin stops her from walking away, "thank you for your presence here."

Kaede sighs and nods her head in acceptance; she would never view Eren Yeager with positive remembrance, but she didn't wish his death on anyone, even if they probably did something to deserve it.

-x-

Brother Correction stood in front of the grave of the deceased child that everyone believed to be the Eren Yeager they knew, loved or loathed. The mere fact that there were few people to grieve or offer condolences was a sign that Eren, in his youth, hadn't been an influential individual yet…and where he was now, he wouldn't be, just another person in a situation that he had to either rethink his actions or accept his current predicament and hope for a future miracle. Even though he had to accept his choice as a tormentor, he knew that by doing this, something better could be achieved in due time. And he had to hope that Eren would see the light in his new world…because there was no way he was ever going to come back to this one.

"Did he bother you, as well?" He hears Grisha Yeager ask him, and he turns to face him.

"In a way, he did," he answers the holder of the Attack Titan. "But as much of a troublemaker he was to anyone that wouldn't tolerate his behavior, he didn't deserve to be mauled by some wolves. Stung by bees, maybe, but not mauled by wolves. Personally, I would have just voted to have him locked away for disturbing the peace; there are better fates than death or execution."

Grisha didn't deny this truth; there were other ways to deal with people that either did wrong or were just in one's way.

"War and peace don't go hand in hand if the people that desire one are willing to engage in the other," Brother Correction tells him. "Which one is preferred by you, doctor? Do you seek war…or do you prefer peace?"

"Peace, obviously," Grisha responds. "I…view peace, however, as something that must be obtained by any and all means."

"Including violence?"

"I don't want to believe in that being the only path to peace."

"Can you not see a better way to such a path?"

"I don't believe anyone can."

"But…let's say, hypothetically, if you could see a better path to peace, what would you say to the outcome of such a journey?"

And then, in just two seconds, Grisha did see something that defied his sense of rationality…and couldn't, for the heart of himself, condemn it because…it seemed so much better than what he once saw. Two seconds…and he saw a being of darkness standing in the light, surrounded by people, facing a force in front of them that looked as though it represented the end of all things.

"For the people," the dark being yelled out. "For peace!"

He then turns away to see the little girl that her son had once riled up to the point where she could have beaten him to death due to being provoked, with her mother and stepfather.

"Can I ask you something hypothetical?" He asks the man.

"Go ahead," Brother Correction replies.

"What is the person you saw that was capable of doing good for others…was the same person that disliked your kid because of something he did to cause trouble for them?"

"I would say, hypothetically, if that person were capable of greatness, then I would let them do as they feel fit to achieve said greatness…but only if said greatness was something they could believe would benefit others and not just some."

Grisha sighs and then gives his thanks to the man before walking away to rejoin his wife.

Brother Correction knew that the parents would be grieving for a while, but they would eventually move on. And what Grisha saw yet to come, he saw, as well, but with greater clarity. He saw a future born of a different kind of compassion, and in that future's hands were someone who could keep their impulses in check and demonstrate tolerance towards people that others often demonstrated very little to no tolerance for. And, because of a powerful force known only as hope, he saw Grisha among the people that would help this person ensure that everyone would come to tolerate one another.

I am sorry that you won't see this future, Eren Yeager, he thought as he left the funeral service. Good luck, Kaede Sogen. This world's greatest hope for a brighter future…I shall entrust to you.

As he left, the little gray-haired girl looked up at the sky and saw a strange bird.

"Look, Mommy," she says, pointing up.

Her mother looks up and sees the bird.

"Yes," she responds to her daughter. "Very beautiful."

One day, she hoped that she would find out what kind of bird that was as it flew over the barrier of Wall Maria. Maybe not for a few years, but one day; she was in no hurry to go beyond the Walls and see what was there in the world of the Titans that she never saw. But she was hoping that for Eren Yeager, even though he was no longer around, that he got what he was looking for out of his small life.

-x-

Epilogue

Brother Correction returned to his little, wooden throne and observed the world he had left behind through the floating sphere in front of him. Only a small number of years had gone by, and on the eve of a day that would not be forgotten of by those who were witnesses, the community of Shiganshina District saw two different kinds of power unleashed upon them. They saw the power of the hatred that dwelled within the hearts of people influenced to hate…and the power of hope that resided within the hearts of those that prayed, day and night, for some kind of absolution, for some kind of reprieve. He saw the Colossal Titan breach the wall, allowing for the lesser Titans to invade the town…and when Grisha, who was there and trying desperately to pull his wife from the wreckage of their home, saw the Titan guise of his first wife approaching, the savior the island didn't realize that it needed had appeared, wearing the darkness like a birthday suit…and acting on a drive that bordered on the gift that was humanity.

Good luck out there, he thought with a smile as he saw the Dark Titan grab the Smiling Titan and kick it away. I will have faith.

Will you have faith?

A/N: Nothing but the freedom of creativity and self-expression grants any mind the power to turn darkness into light. Can those that see darkness turn it into light for others and know what it is that they desire?