The last thing Eren remembered was getting decapitated, but remembering it at all meant… something.
He opened his eyes to a room that definitely wasn't the mouth of his Titanic form. Old stone walls, wooden rafters, the orange light of a lantern.
Unfortunately, despite his new circumstances, there was a pain in his neck… he hissed as he straightened himself up. He had fallen asleep in a chair?
"Oh, you're up." Someone said.
Looking up, Eren saw a face he usually found in his nightmares. Well, Mina Carolina wasn't usually the scary part of those nightmares, but still.
"Mina?" He asked, wondering if he had ended up in some sort of Paths… thing.
"Yeah?" She was polishing a pair of boots, like they were back in training all over again.
"Are those my boots you're polishing?" Not the most relevant question, but considering that she was wearing a pair and he was lacking…
"Yeah. You fell asleep about an hour ago, and if these boots aren't spotless Levi will kill you–"
"Levi?" He squeaked. That didn't make sense. She hadn't been anywhere near the man!
Mina stood up and checked his forehead with a– thankfully polishless– hand. "Are you down with something? You don't remember Captain Levi?"
"But, you're…"
"Maybe you should lie down? You definitely need rest before the expedition."
"The 57th Expedition?"
"You can remember that, at least." Mina smiled.
Eren spent a moment or two just processing… whatever the hell this was. If it wasn't some fever dream… this was the sort of thing he had dreamt of a hundred times?
"I could kiss you right now, Mina."
"Eren!?"
After turning a fascinating shade of scarlet, Mina had fled, leaving Eren to his thoughts. Despite her warning, he didn't get a wink of sleep, not when he knew what was coming… well, not when he had an approximate idea of what was coming.
Mina being alive implied a whole lot of changes, but they were still doing the 57th Expedition. That probably meant a traitor, and Eren figured it was probably Annie who was going to cause trouble. Assuming the changes didn't go back further than the battle for Trost…
This was a headache, but he had borne worse for the sake of his friends. By the time the sun rose, he had a game plan. Well, perhaps that implied complex strategy. He could feel his power, stronger than ever before, pulsing through his veins.
(He'd still need to find royal blood, though. Either Zeke or Dina. The latter was a bit of a crapshoot, but he had a location for the former, hopefully.)
They rode out, and the early portion of the expedition went about as usual. He constantly looked for any sign of flares. Every time a red or green flare went up, he quivered in his saddle.
"Eren, calm down." Petra said. "The formation has been tested. It works."
In normal circumstances, sure. Not under attack from Annie! It was torture, sitting there and waiting. Maybe the first black flare would actually be some other abnormal; Eren didn't really care.
The moment he saw that trail of black in the air, he was raising his hand.
"Eren, don-"
"SWEET WALLS ABOVE WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?"
Mina had looked down to check her flares for one second. One second! She snapped back up as soon as she heard thunder– Eren's thunder– but that thing did not look like Eren.
Well, the long hair, the green eyes, and the offset jaw were all familiar, but the rest… it had to stretch for half a kilometer, if not more. Huge bones cut into the air like strange masts, a massive ribcage cut troughs in the earth.
Her squad leader had panicked. Who wouldn't? Eren, if it was him, made the Colossal look shrimpy. Still, they recovered their senses quickly enough to avoid the ponderous movement of the bones. The great legs pushed, the rib bones dug into the ground…
Faster than she expected, she saw a team racing up the length of the massive spine. Levi Squad, there to… project Eren, she hoped. Was the sluggishness an intentional mercy or a consequence of the size?
Eventually, the arms and head started moving quickly, like they were lashing out at something. Maybe it was the wire like things that let them move so fast?
Mina didn't think there was a flare to describe this.
She hoped Eren was okay.
Annie was tough. Tough as hell. She couldn't pull a win out of this situation, but she might be able to manage a stalemate if she was in a better headspace. Calmer. Eren didn't give her the chance, throwing spikes and lashing out at her. Hardening meant nothing.
Walls, it felt good to win. There were a shitload of problems waiting for him– Levi Squad had some choice words for him before they moved to help handle Annie– but for now they had her cooked. No getaway once spikes speared her legs, and he could swat the Titans away easily. That left the rock. Which he would melt later. Heh.
(Add kicking Zeke's ass to the list of priorities. Historia wasn't dying, no way in hell.)
When Annie was finished becoming the world's largest piece of jewelry, he opened up the mouth of his Titan, wide enough that Levi Squad could see him. None of them went inside, but they hung just outside the bite zone. Still, one of them could dart in and kill him in a second.
So smart. So cautious. It was a crime they died like that. Well, they hadn't died yet but they were rapidly approaching the time they should have died…
Time travel. It would be as confusing yesterday as it had been tomorrow.
There were whole crowds gathering around him now, some of the braver scouts using their ODM gear to climb up. It didn't hurt.
Reiner and Bertholdt looked horrified, but Eren was soon faced with a horror of his own: Hange leaping into his Titan's mouth like a suicidal salmon that spotted a bear.
"Eren, why didn't you tell me you could change your Titan? This is nothing like your previous shape! How did you do it?"
"Didn't know till I did it, Hange, but I think it's because of something last night-"
"What? Was it different food? Sleep? Dreams?"
"A dream, sort of…"
"A dream made you twenty times taller?" Levi asked.
"Yes, sir. I can explain more fully when Erwin…"
"Get rid of this damn thing first, though."
"Yes, sir!" It felt strange to follow orders.
"I had a dream, sir. A vision of the future." Eren started. Levi looked unimpressed, Hange was excited, and Erwin was a sort of middle ground.
"A result of your Titan abilities?"
"Yes, sir. From what I remember, the Titan I carry shows the memories of future users. I remembered that Annie would attack from the right."
"Why didn't you say so immediately?" Levi asked, frowning.
It was a fair point, and one that Eren tried to answer honestly. He knew they only wanted the best for Paradis.
"I don't have a good excuse, sir. My head was scrambled, but I should have known better. A lot of the memories had us disagreeing, sir."
"You didn't tell me… because of arguments we haven't had."
"Yes, sir."
Levi sighed, and Erwin followed up. "Your memories proved correct, though. Does Leonhart have co-conspirators?"
"Braun and Hoover, sir! All three are agents of Marley."
"Marley?" Erwin asked. "Are they terrorists?"
"A nation beyond the walls." Eren answered simply. "And they're going to turn everyone in Ragako into Titans."
Hange gasped. "Are you saying-"
"Titans are human."
Eren sounded like a crazy person. He knew he did, throwing around allegations and talking about Beast Titans. Hange was sold first, when he provided an explanation for Titans that matched the data. Erwin was inclined to believe, considering he caught Annie,and it seemed like he appreciated Eren's recounting of the Marley infiltrators.
Levi… well, Eren tried to cite Kenny, but apparently Levi didn't know the man was his uncle yet. Woops.
"Hey Connie!"
"Eren? What the hell was that Titan, man?"
"I just… realized what I was capable of." Eren said. He really knew what he was capable of now, and it was horrifying. He shook his head. "Can you show me to Ragako?"
"For a mission?"
"Yeah. They want to practice evacuation drills."
"Really? I mean, we just handled–"
"Are you complaining about seeing your family, Connie?" If only he knew. Erwin had warned him that talking too much was a recipe for disaster…
But he could still act using what he knew. After grabbing Connie, he rode over to Mina.