"The Wall Titans...shall trample all surface of the land outside of this island."

"Until all lives existing there..."

"...have been exterminated from this world."

As we stand in silence, processing what Eren just said he's going to do, tears from my left gain my attention. "Reiner...Falco...where are you?" That's right, Reiner, Falco, and by extension, Pieck are still over there. My head might scream at my heart, and it may be against my judgment...but...I can't just leave them out there in all this madness.

"Armin...Mikasa... Regroup with everyone else and assess the situation. We need to form a plan of action."

"Where are you going?" Mikasa asks.

"..." I turn to Gabi, taking hold of her shoulder. "It's time I finally see Reiner...face to face."

Returning to ground zero of Eren's transformation, Gabi runs over to her cousin, now free of his Titan. I stand nearby, letting the two reunite before the elder Braun spots me.

"E-Elijah?"

Sighing, I walk over, looking at the smoldering Armor Titan behind its bearer. "...Braun."

"Thank you for grabbing Gabi...though...why did-"

"Don't."

With Reiner safe, Gabi walks away, the anti-Titan rifle recollected. "Falco! Where are you?! Where'd you go?!"

"The first Titan transformation knocks you out and impacts your memories. He was taken."

"By who?! Why?!"

"Probably Jean and Connie. They wouldn't overlook a life as valuable as Falco's. Being one of the Nine Titans, he's too important to-" Reiner drops to his knee, clearly unable to move on his own.

I heave him up and hoist one of his arms around my shoulder. "The hell happened to you?"

"...My armor came undone somehow and a piece of the wall hit me real good. ...I couldn't stop it. Elijah... Eren...will destroy the world."

I sigh again as I walk Reiner inside a building, dropping him to the floor. "Reiner. Do you really think if I knew this was his plan I'd just let it happen?"

"..." He looks down, not answering my question but changing the subject. "Take Gabi... In the south...there are escape airships. Go find Pieck or our soldiers...and escape. You have to hurry, Gabi... Tell Marley, no, the world."

"What will telling them do?" Gabi exclaims. "Where's there to run?" Reiner and I look to each other, saying nothing for similar reasons. There's nowhere in the world, not even here on Paradis, for us to run, and that's if the Titans have the sense not to destroy anything on this island except the walls. "My Mom...Dad...Aunt Karina... Won't everyone die?"

"Yes," Reiner says.

"We've gotta kill Eren and stop him!"

"We can't. The Founding Titan can make all Titans and Subjects of Ymir obey its will. No one can stop him now. We can't do anything but run."

"..." I turn away, making my way out of the building. But a tug on my shirt stops me.

"Wait! Where are you going?!"

I answer the girl without turning around. "There's still Titans in the city, I can't just sit here knowing my friends are out there. I'll find him. You have my word."

Leaving Gabi to care for Reiner, it doesn't take me long to find Mikasa and the rest of the group together. As Reiner thought, Jean and Connie did find Falco. As I land, Jean is tying Falco's mouth to prevent a second transformation. "It's over. I never thought he'd slaughter everyone beyond the walls. Once they die off, so will all the hate. Everyone who threatened our existence will be flattened, leaving nothing but empty plains. What the world feared more than anything has happened. All because they labeled us devils and tried to slaughter us. In other words, this is something they brought upon themselves. There was nothing we could do, right?"

"But..." Armin says. "This is...going too far. It's genocide of unprecedented scale."

"Then...do we stop him? Stop Eren? Eren opposed Zeke, who wanted to castrate us with his euthanization plan. He opposed preserving the Founding Titan by sacrificing Historia. Basically, Eren... He's sacrificing humanity outside the walls to protect us. Because there's only one group that benefits from mass genocide... Us."

"Because you all are important to me. More than anyone else. So, I want you to have long lives."

BOOM!

Destruction, though on a smaller scale than the Rumbling, catches our attention. "What was that?"

"Titans," I say. "and they're fighting our guys... Did they already eat all the Marleyan soldiers?"

"But why?!" Armin shouts. "Eren commands the Founder, can't he control every Titan?!"

"Well, they're eating our guys! Let's help!" As Jean says that, he picks up Falco. Alarmed by what he'll do with the boy, I stand in front of him.

"What are you doing with the boy?"

"...He probably inherited the Jaw Titan. We can't just leave him here. But if we feed him into a Titan, we could save someone. For example, Commander Pyxis-"

"No," Connie denies. "My mom. We feed him to my mom in Ragako... All right?"

"No," I say. "No one is feeding Falco to anyone."

Connie looks to me...his eyes darkening. "...What?"

"The boy's a Warrior candidate. Someone the other Warriors think of as a little brother. If we kill someone close to them, we'll be starting another pointless conflict with Reiner and Pieck. Look around you, Connie. Marley will be flattened soon.

Connie steps up to my face. "So you, of all people, are saying my mom doesn't matter? To make peace with Reiner?" He grips my shirt collar, but I do nothing knowing his grief. "Do you have any idea what it's been like to see my mom like that every time?! How about Armin?! He's only here because he ate Bertholdt! So don't you dare stop me from bringing my mom-"

"Watch out!" We leap away from each other as a Titan smashes its head on the roof we stand upon. In that time, Connoe manages to snatch Falco and depart from us.

"Connie!"

"Dammit! Jean, Mikasa, Armin, forget him for now!" Drawing our swords, we face the multitude of Titans before us. "We have to deal with these Titans! There aren't any walls anymore...to HQ!" A plan forms in my head as we fly off, heading into the horde of Titans between us and the headquarters. Following my lead, we actively ignore any Titans we can while eliminating those we cannot. As we come in the vicinity of the headquarters, I see some Titans trying to scale the building.

"Mikasa!" I point a Titan out and she flies off, cutting the nape of the window-viewing giant. I spot another that's grabbing what looks like...a cadet? Swiftly, I take down the Titan and he drops the cadet as I land on the dead Titan's head. When I look at the room, I find a lot more soldiers cowering in the corner. "I don't remember being taught to cower in fear when the Titans show up..."

"Section Commander Everett?"

"Listen up! To all surviving soldiers, put on ODM gear! There's some of the old design left! We're going to the top of the fort, gather the Titans, and blow them to the heavens! I want every Thunder Spear we have left to use! Not a single Titan will be left alive! If you value the lives of those who've been turned, then you'll lay them to rest here and now! And if you have people you care about anywhere else on the island, you'll get off your asses and move now!"

And so we did. using a simular tactic that saved Trost four years ago, we drew the Titans to the Shiganshina fort, using Thunder Spears to eliminate the Titans as best we could before using our swords. Round after round, we dropped down and unleashed hell on the multitude we once called our allies... Even to the man who devised this strategy all that time ago, Commander Pyxis...

"That's true. I'm sorry. I asked the wrong question. Will you do it? Or won't you?"

The four of us share the same look of confusion and shock when the Commander asks Eren that second question. From my perspective, it sounded more like a threat, that if Eren won't do it, something far worse would happen to him. Pyxis then looks off into the distance, and Eren, myself, and the other two look along with him. Then I finally understood. If Eren can't seal the hole, then Trost won't be the only place that falls, soon it will be other villages, more cities, and more innocent people will die if we fail here today. I for one will not stand idly by and let these monsters take anything else away from us, away from me.

Commander... A major reason we made it this far...was you. Thank you...and goodbye, Commander Pyxis.

Meanwhile...With Kaya...

"Run! Use the narrow alleys!" Nicolo shouts as he and the Braus family are being chased by a medium-class Titan. The chef stays in the back, making sure that the family is safe before he is...until... "Kaya! Look out!"

While looking back to the Titan in fear, the young blonde didn't see the low-hanging wooden beam. In doing so, she hit her head, causing her to tumble down some concrete steps.

"Kaya!"

"No, Mr. Braus!"

Nicolo pushes the eldest Braus out of harm's way as the Titan tumbles through the wooden beams and falls down the steps...only a few feet away from the young Kaya. Just like four years ago...the poor girl is frozen with fear, but instead of a Titan eating her mother...it would eat...

"Why...? Again...? Big Sister...Big Brother... Please save me!"

"Kaya!"

BANG!

Just before the Titan could reach its hand toward Kaya, it was shot in the side of its face by...Gabi. The Warrior candidate quickly reloads the Anti-Titan rifle and runs toward the beast.

"Kaya! Get up!" Using a few wooden boxes to the side, Gabi uses them as a means to get higher and leap toward the mouth-gaping Titan. Rifle in hand and finger on the trigger, with the end of the barrel in its mouth, Gabi pulls the trigger, blowing the monster's nape to bits. When Kaya looks back to the dead Titan and young girl, she doesn't see Gabi...but the same girl who saved her life all these years ago.

"Big...Sister?"

Gabi

"Didn't you flee with the Warrior Unit?" Nicolo asked Gabi as she was being checked on by Mr. Braus, and Kaya was in the arms of her adoptive mother. "Why are you here?"

"I came to rescue Falco."

"You mean Ben?" Mr. Braus asks.

"Hey!" A soldier from above shouts. "Are you guys okay?!" The soldier notices the disintegrating Titan...and the weapon Gabi is holding. "Did you kill that Titan?!"

"Where did you get that weapon?!"

"Did the girl shoot it?!"

"Wait... Are you that brat invader from Marley?!"

Kaya looks over to Gabi, seeing the girl grit her teeth in worry... Knowing what they'll do to her if they find out...

"Answer him!" The soldier reloads his rifle. "Otherwise-"

"She's not!" Kaya shouts. "We're just a family that runs the stables!"

"...Kaya..." The girl mutters to herself.

Nicolo quickly takes the rifle away from Gabi. "I killed the Titan! Being a former Marleyan prisoner, I know how to shoot!"

"More importantly," Mrs. Braus shouts. "how about y'all get us to a safe place?!"

As the Braus family pleads with the soldiers to help them, Gabi looks around. Why are they helping her? After all she's done? "You guys..." Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she hears Mr. Braus whisper to her.

"Listen, Mia. You find Ben and run. But till then, behave and come with us."

"...Okay."

"Did you guys see that daydream, too?"

"Yeah," Mr. Braus answers the soldier. "Are them Wall Titans really trampling the world?"

"Yeah, seems that way."

In the back of the walking group, Gabi looks to the ground as she walks beside Kaya. "...Why did you protect me?"

"You, too," Kaya answers without even looking at the girl. "Why did you save me? You even risked your life."

"...Who knows?"

"I tried to kill you. I'm...a devil...right?"

"...No...I'm the devil. I've killed lots of people...just to earn praise. That's...the devil in me."

"There's one in me, too," Nicolo says from behind. "And in Kaya, Elijah, Mikasa...and everyone else. The world is like this because there's a devil in all of us."

Both girls look back to the chef in worry. "Then what should we do?"

"...Escape the forest. Even if we can't, we've gotta keep trying."

Elijah

"The fires have settled down. Marley's forces were wiped out, there are no more pure Titans. For now, my hometown is safe."

Onyankopon sighs as he joins me watching the sun set under a veil of smoke and towers of Colossal Titans making their march. "I see. Isn't it about time you told us about the daydream? What is Eren trying to do?"

I look down in shame. "There's really no need... I think you see it as well as I can."

"I see. ...Is...my homeland doomed as well?"

I close my eyes. "...I wish I could've seen it for myself. I'm sure it was beautiful."

"Floch!"

"Are you okay?!"

I hear his smug laugh from behind me. "While I was nearly dying thanks to the wall, it looks like you took care of the Titans... Elijah."

Pray to God that I don't shoot him right now. Of all people to survive the odds, why is he always one of them? Leave it to a real coward to find a way to survive. I turn my head slightly to him, eyeing him angrily. "So you live..."

"Yeah. Thanks for your concern. I can't kick the bucket just yet. Eldia's restoration is finally at hand." He walks, well, more like helped over to the lone person sitting far behind me, pointing a handgun to their head. "Yelena, assemble the volunteers. You're being detained."

"Please! Can't Eren Jaeger turn Connie's mother back to normal?! Can't the Founder do anything?!" After dealing with Floch's newest development into madness, which meant there wasn't much I could do, I go check on the Braus family. However, as I arrive, I see Gabi in their presence along with Mikasa and Armin, who I sent ahead of me. Gabi is currently gripping Armin, pleading with tears in her eyes. "If you don't know, why don't you ask him?! Does everyone off the island really have to die?! They shouldn't have to! Ask him why he can't just destroy all the military bases! Seeing how he stripped Reiner of his armor, I don't see why not!"

I assume she learned about Connie taking Falco away. As I step into the room, Armin's face goes into shock as Mikasa eyes me. "Where is Reiner?"

"Doesn't matter, he ain't goin' anywhere for a while."

Armin looks between me and Gabi with wide eyes. "When did Reiner's hardening come undone? When? At what point?"

"As soon as the walls collapsed," Gabi answers.

I look to my friend in concern...knowing exactly what...or in this case, who he's thinking of. "Armin..."

Armin turns to me. "If Eren meant he would undo...all the hardening..."

Stohess District...?

So...loud...what did...Eren just say? Eyelids heavy, they manage to open to a blurry, dark sight. As the world refocuses, the sounds of thunder and the slight shaking of the ground rouse me from my drowsiness. I feel weak, tired, but most of all, I feel hungry, like I've barely eaten in a month. Using whatever strength I have to raise myself up, I glance over to the window, where a girl with long, blonde hair stares out the window in fright. Wait...is that... "Historia?"

Indeed, it is the young queen. She turns around, gasping as she spots me. "You chose a bad time to wake up... Sasha."

"How did...wait, did you hear what Eren said? About...destroying the world?" I can't believe those words came out of my mouth. "Is that really true, or was it just a dream?" I look around frantically. "Where am I? Where's Elijah?!"

"I can answer all of your questions, but as for the first... See for yourself." Historia helps me to my feet and walks me over to the window where...all I see are gigantic Titans walking around the city. The thunder I hear and the shaking of the ground i feel are the footsteps of every Colossal Titan out there.

"...What...is...?"

"Eren used the Power of the Founder...and he's...going to destroy everything."

I look at the outside world in horror, and only one person came to mind. "Elijah...we have to get to him. He...and the others...maybe they know what to do."

Historia turns to me with the regality of a Queen, not the stumbling of a scared girl that she used to be. "You're too weak to go now, and to do so would be suicide. But you're right...for the future of the world, we need to find them. Eren..." she pats her belly as she looks outside again, "...must be stopped."

"Mom...Dad..." Our attention is brought to the sound of a pleading voice on the other side of the room. It's...a girl? What is...wait, her legs...they're... "He's going to kill them...isn't he? And all my...friends..."

"Who is that?"

Historia rests a hand on my shoulder. "That's...a long story."