The Life of Grisha Yeager

By Grisha Yeager, 1842

I hope you enjoyed the picture. Its all that remains of the life I once lived, besides the memories. Eren, Mikasa, if you're reading this, then the boy in the picture is your brother Zeke, and the woman is my 1st wife, Dina. I know this must be a bit much, but it's true, I can only offer the photograph as my proof.

I'm from outside the walls, from a city called Liberio. As I said, the world outside the walls is not gone. Over a Billion people are living in comfort outside the walls. They don't fear Titans, but they have their own concerns all the same. Especially people like us.

Everyone you know inside the Walls are Subjects of Ymir, or people who can turn into Titans. We are a part of a race called the Eldians. Once we Eldians lived all around the world, on every continent, and across every sea. I suppose I should explain what a continent and sea are. A continent is a giant piece of land, and the sea is a massive body of saltwater that covers 70% of Earth's surface. The land inside the walls is on an island called Paradis, a tiny sliver of land inside the sea, off the coast of a continent called Marley. I was born 36 years ago in the year 1806, in Liberio, a city inside Marley.

In Marley, Eldians are considered below humans, we are called Devils for crimes our ancestors performed and punished mercilessly. You see, a century ago, Eldia ruled over nearly the whole world using the power of the Titans. Marley says that to conquer the world, But Marley revolted and took over the continent of Marley. Now Eldia and Marley are regularly at War. As Marley and much of the world seeks to end Eldia and get revenge for when Eldia conquered the World.

Marley teaches that Eldia engaged in a milenia of unspeakable horrors, killing millions on millions of people by using the power of the Titans to slaugher, pillage, and rape the world. The Kings of Eldia committed terrible crimes, one of the more famous stories sayings that one King commanded a thousand virgins be killed so he could fill a bath with their blood. These supposed crimes prove that Eldians are a monstrous race of devils and that all Eldians, both those still fighting against Marley, those under the rule of other nations, and those Eldians who escaped to the Island of Paradis must all pay for those crimes. Forever and ever, for the sins of Eldia we had to pay in this life and the next.

Whether or not these events really happened is up for debate. But what I say next is absolutely true, I know because I lived through it.

In Liberio, and most of Marley, Eldians are forced to live inside walled areas of cities called interment zones, to keep us contained like vermin. We have to wear armbands whenever we go outside our houses, so the good people of Marley know when they are talking to a filthy devil. They treat us like garbage, consider us far less than human.

When I was eleven, I finally learned how cruel the world could be. At the time, I had a sister. Her name was Faye. She would always look into the sky at great machines that flew through the air called Airships. Inside the internment zone, she would climb on to the top of our house and gaze at them for hours.

One day, we chased the sight of the blimp to the walls of the internment zone. Eldians need passes to leave the zone, to make sure we don't scurry around the rest of the city like rats, and pollute the city with our presence. Citizens of Marley would make sure we remembered that last part.

On that particular day, we watched the airship pass over the walls, and as Faye dreamed of owning an airship, I decided she would see it. After all I thought, it should be no big deal. We were just going to see an airship, nothing else. Grabbing my sister, I ran, her and I escaped the zone and we ran for what felt like forever. That was my mistake. For the sin of wanting to make my sister smile, the world deemed that I had to be punished.

After we endured the Marleyans' kindness, as they called us names and threw stones at us as we passed, until we reached a small clearing by a river. Across the river was a landing bay for the airship. While it felt like, at the time, we had finally completed our journey, for me, it was just the beginning. In front of us were 2 Marelyan Public Security officers, slacking off from their duties. Much like the Military Police, these men were in charge of catching criminals, maintaining order, but unlike the MPs, the most important job of a Public Security agent was keeping Eldians in their place.

Unfortunately, these 2 had found us as they had been slacking off. I saw one turn towards us, and I remember his eyes. They looked like they were made of stone, unmoving, with no light at all. He and his partner stood up and met us, they saw we were Eldian by our armbands and demanded our papers. We didn't have any and so we had to be punished. For minor crimes, Eldians had the option to be beaten, or to do manual hard labor for a day assigned by the local government office. Serious offenses meant a trip straight to Paradise. Eventually I would be sent too, but not on that day. On that day, I asked to be beaten, and to take my sister's punishment as well. So the man with the eyes of stone beat me then and there. While his partner, an overweight man with a mustache, led my sister home. After the man had beaten me to a pulp, he offered to let me stay and watch the airship. For a few minutes, I watched the crews work on the ship, never wondering if my sister had made it home. I was foolish.

When I arrived home last night, my parents berated me, and kept asking where Faye had gone. I was confused, the officer had brought her home, so where was she? We searched all night, before security put us back in our homes before curfew. My father pleaded with them to find his daughter, and the fat man was there. He said he had sent her home at the gate, but he would look into it.

The next morning we were awoken by the officers, who led us to the river. Faye's body was there. She was dead. Her body ripped apart. The dogs had ripped her apart, security had brought her here, and killed her. There could be no denying it, no one else had seen her. But afterwards when they asked the officers, they said Faye must have 'run off' and tried to get back to the airship, where dogs attacked and killed her. The fat one said it was her fault. He was a busy man, he said. Eldians should know their place, she died because she went outside the wall, and filthy devil blooded Eldians belong inside the walls. For our own protection he said.

The man lied through his teeth. As he talked to my father and mother, he kept speaking like he was annoyed, like the death of this child was nothing to him. Like it was a weed he ripped from the ground. He was inhuman. He was a monster. He was named Gross. I would remember that.

Aside from the Stone eyed man and Gross, there was one more thing from that day. When they spoke to my father, when they lied about killing my sister, my father knew. He had too know. These men had murdered my sister in cold blood. He had to know…and yet, every excuse they gave...my father groveled for them. When they talked about Eldia's sins he groveled, when they said Eldians needed to be punished, he groveled, when Gross said that maybe my sister's death should be taken as a example, that it was justice for all the people our ancestors had murdered, my father agreed and thanked them. At that moment, he was nothing more than a beaten dog. He bent and whimpered and said he would educate his son on Eldia's sins so his son wouldn't meet the same fate. He looked like a beaten dog.

Days and days afterwards he would feed me lies about Eldian's sins, regurgitating Marleyan propaganda like gospel. When I told them the truth, that the officers had killed Faye, to punish her, my father screamed at me. After that moment I hated my father. The world was cruel and he just sat there and took it. Like he was beaten, like a slave.

So it was at that moment that my future was forged. Years later, I would eventually start the real fight against Marley, to aid Eldia in its century long battle to retake its place in the world, but not for a few years. I was only 11 after all. But it was that day, that I, a young youth, was reminded of the true nature of this world. The world is a cruel place, and humans are the monsters that make it so.

As I got older, my hatred faded for a world went on as it always had. But things had already begun to drastically change in the years before Faye was killed. When I was a child, we would regularly be accused of being Eldian spies, that we were feeding information back to the Eldian Empire, no matter that we were half a continent away from the frontlines. Ever since the Great Titan War, the continents of Eldia and Marley had been battlefields. Marley constantly tried to topple Eldia once and for all as they had failed to do ever since the famous, or infamous if you were Marleyan, General Arkwright had stolen back the Beast Titan from Marley and used it to retake the Eldian Homeland.

Although Eldia had retaken its homeland, Marley had succeeded in freeing all of the Northern continent of Marley, from the Cape of Good Fortune to the Trojan Sea, Eldia had its holdings revolt and join the Marleyans. Even Eldia's lands across the sea in Vespucha and Colombia revolted, nearly the whole Empire had come crashing down, while Eldia clung on to its homeland. Despite having won independence, Marley still had a score to settle, the original city of Marley still laid in Eldia's hands, and they desperately wanted it back. For another 70 years Eldia fought to reclaim what was once had, while Marley fought to destroy Eldia once and for all. When I was young, it seemed like Eldia had been winning for a time, much of the Southern Marleyan continent was in Eldia's hands. The fighting at that time was mostly in Nubia and around Rigen. The papers always talked about how Eldians spies kept feeding battle plans to the enemy, because there was no way the brave soldiers of Marley could have lost. My parents talked about it being worse before my sister and I were born, but it was always hard to imagine.

Control of the Titans was always a worry for the Marleyans, and headlines always talked about which Titans had fought who. Both sides held 4 titans. The Eldian Empire had kept the Beast and Warhammer they had stolen back as well as the Female and the Rogue Titan. Marley still had the Colossal, Armour, Cart, and the Jaw.

But right about a year before Faye died, something terrible happened. In a single day, Eldia lost 3 Titans. Later on they would name it the Battle at Hell's Gates, because the Marleyans had finally kicked the Devils back down the path into hell, But at the time they simply called it the Battle of Muotrahk. Knowing what really happened was always difficult for Eldians, but we heard over and over again how the Marleyans had laid a trap and captured the Female and the Beast, avenging their defeat 70 years ago. The days afterward were a constant celebration for the Marleyans, even the guards were involved, for about a week they were drunk, some Eldians even managed to walk right past them, thinking they could maybe see the city without a pass. We never saw them again. I thought they escaped when I was young, only later did I realize that they had been lynched.

Curiously, none of the papers could agree on what happened to the Rogue Titan. In our textbooks, it said the Rogue Titan was one of the worst and that the holders of the Rogue Titan had been some of Eldia's cruelest Generals. In our class in school on the cruelty of Eldia, they made us memorize how one of the holder's of the Titan made its slaves carry the Titan itself on a throne made of children's skulls. This made it all the more odd that the papers and people disagreed on its fate. Some said the Rogue Titan had been forced to retreat, others said Marley had captured them and we would have another warrior soon, but the one that seemed to stick was the Titan had been killed, and might not be found again for a century.

For a time afterwards, things were mildly better, Marleyans looked at us and cheered on the soon coming downfall of Eldia, and how we would all pay for our crimes that day. They were drunk more often than not. It was a nice change of pace from having stones thrown at us every day, but that sooned returned. For me, things began to take a change as I started to be more involved at my Father's clinic.

My father was a doctor in the internment zone, and as long as I could remember I had helped him in his clinic, which I would inherit from him. But when I was 18, I had a strange patient. The man's name was Grice.

Grice was a few years older than me, and had been drafted into the Army before being discharged recently, and served in the occupation force that tamed the lands Marley annexed after the war with Eldia. When I began examining him, I noticed an odd scar on his shoulder. When I asked about it, he told me it was the mark of a true patriot. It was then he told me the truth, and in a rush all the anger of my youth returned.

Grice told me what I already knew. Marelyan Public Security had killed my sister, not some random dogs. He had learned from a mole inside Public Security, called the Owl, an Eldian spy who fed information to a number of resistance groups, including the group that Grice was a part of. They called themselves the Eldian Restorationists. They were a group of Eldians in Liberio that were connected to informants in the Marleyan government. They were helping the Eldian Empire in its struggle to free us from Marley. In my fury, I decided I would join them, and dedicate myself to their mission of aiding Eldia and helping it return to its rightful place in the world. I told myself Marley would pay.

During my first few years, I helped out in smaller ways, notably helping some of our men pass blood tests for their identification. But I never felt like I was doing enough.

During this time, Marley had taken over the rest of the Marleyan continent from Eldia. After losing the Titans, Eldia had tried to buy time and prevent the next Marleyan attack by withdrawing from the continent wholesale. From Nubia to the Trojan Sea, Eldia left and new governments picked up rule in the power vacuum. Many of the men in those territories had fought for Eldia in colonial units, but when Eldia left, they took up the rifle for their homes and families to fight against their new conquerors, Marley. Eldia left behind weaponry for the newly independent nations. When Marley came, they were in for a surprise.

Marley subjugated and annexed the new nations immediately. The wars of conquest were brutal, and after the conquests were over the resistance began immediately. It was no secret that Marley was eating through troops. They had taken too much land too quickly. More and more Eldians were drafted to fight on behalf of the Marleyan army, to die for their ancestor's sins. While the restorationists were outraged at the casualty rate, we knew the rebels in each of the new territories would keep Marley tied down for some time. In this respect, being a doctor was particularly useful, I was exempt from service, but was obligated to serve plenty of Eldians in the military when they were sent back because of injuries. It was a major boon to intelligence gathering.

We coordinated with the Owl and moved agents and information through Liberio. In the beginning, I thought it was good enough, fooling the Marleyans with altered blood tests and recording information on troop movements. After a few years without a real change, I wanted to do mor, I needed to strike at Marley directly. Our group had swelled in numbers, and it seemed like the Owl had noticed.

The Owl sent us a woman, another agent he said, with classified information. We met her only a week later when she revealed herself as Dina Fritz, a member of the Royal Family trapped inside Marley. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

Years before the last Eldian-Marley War, a second son of the Royal Family, Prince Otto had snuck into Marley to try and liberate the Eldians still trapped in this rotten nation. For a decade he had prepared an uprising with fellow patriots left in Marley and hoped that his rebels would receive support from the Empire, enough to topple Marley and end the 80 years of conflict once and for all. Days before the rebellion was to start, public security busted the patriots. Almost all of them were burnt alive. Such was Marley's cruelty. Afterwards the prince's family was hunted, and Dina was its last surviving member.

She came and told us what the Owl had found,

apparently Marley had made several key discoveries. Despite acquiring new Titans, it seemed that the Cart and Beast were insufficient to help Marley quell its new conquests and to fight the new enemies they had made, by taking those Titans and becoming stronger. Secondly, other nations were catching up. Technology had begun to reach the power of the Titans, mankind had recently found the power of flight, and new cannons had been developed that could fire far farther and hit harder than in the past. They were strong enough and accurate enough to kill Titans reliably. In several decades the power of the Titans would be eclipsed. Third, Eldia needed time. After their defeat, Eldia had been attacked by its other enemies, from the Rooskish Armies of Siberia to the Mideast Federation, everyone saw Eldia as a corpse waiting to be picked clean. In the face of losing their Titans, Eldia hads begun a massive reform of the military, and could eventually shed their reliance on Titans and return as threat. But most importantly, Dina told us that Marley was planning to invade Paradis and seize the Founding Titan. They had found that under the island of Paradis, laid a massive supply of fossil fuels and other resources. Which could grant Marley an advantage and help it maintain its strength even after the Titans were surpassed.

With Eldia distracted and the power of the Titans waning, Marley needed to find a way to cement its new position atop the world. To do so, they would go to Paradis, capture the Founding Titan, and use the resources of Paradis to stay atop the world's pecking order. Marley growing any stronger was a horrid enough prospect that we had to act, nevermind what they might do to Eldians if they no longer needed some of us to turn into Titans.

I raged at the information. If Marley acquired the Founding Titan, it was all over, they could crush Eldia and our race would be finished. With Eldia occupied and a continent away it fell to us to act. We would make it to Paradis and steal back to Power of the Founding Titan. Liberio was the closest port to Paradis, so we could make it there and steal the Founder from the Coward King's descendants and bring glory back to Eldia.

Now, at the time, I gave our comrades a rousing speech. In hindsight it seems rather silly. thinking it would be so easy. But what happened next, truly changed my life. After I swore to avenge Eldia, Dina ran over and hugged me. She began crying as I returned the gesture. In the moment, I felt a spark turn into a burning flame inside me. And I felt I was exactly where I needed to be.

The next year, Dina and I married. And we had a son named Zeke. At the time, holding him for the first time in my arms, I wasn't thinking about how happy I was, or how I wanted to protect him and care for him. The first thing to spring to my mind, was that our son, my son, my child, would be the one to lead Eldia to glory once more, and free us from Marley's accursed rule. What a fool I was.

Over the years, we planned and gathered information, trying to get the right people in place in the navy and security, for us to steal a boat and make it to the island. We began to take more risks, and some felt we were asking to get caught. We heard less and less from the Owl. Some took it as a sign that we needed to quiet down. The rebellions of the newly conquered nations were beginning to calm down from their fever pitches. We would become their targets soon. They tried to talk sense to me, but I wouldn't listen, I was dead set on our plan, on saving Eldia. I thought I was special, I thought I could do it. But I was wrong.

Eventually we had agents in position, and a boat to get us to Paradis, but we had no way to take the Founding Titan. We had run into an insurmountable obstacle. Getting access to Marley's Titan facilities was simply beyond our reach.

However, just when my hope started to slip, we got lucky. My son was of age for a program called the Warriors. The Warrior program was a process to determine who inherited the Titans after the current holder's of each Titan's tenure as Titans ended. They announced recruitment would be beginning in the middle of town, addressing all Eldians. Countless people would enroll their children. If their child made it, they and their families would become Honorary Marleyans, and be granted privileges almost equal to that of a real Marleyan. The easy life, the all said, even if it was still anything but.

They said that the next class of selectees would be part of a key operation to end the greatest threat to the world. These new warriors would conquer the Island of Paradis and end the fear of the King's final threat to the world after he retreated to the island. When Karl Fritz retreated to Paradis, he erected the 3 walls, Maria, Rose, and Sina using millions of new mindless Colossal Titans using the Founder's powers and threatened that if anyone came to Paradis he would set the Colossals free, and they would flatten the world.

According to the Owl, Marley assumed this to be a lie, and according to his contacts in Eldia, the King would not send the walls walking, which meant Marley's plan might work. The Owl said they wanted younger children, who could be molded early on to be perfect for the operation, rather than the normal soldiers they had been using. Young children like my son Zeke.

This would be the key, if Zeke could pass the Warrior program and gain the power of the Titans, then he could be sent to the island by Marley and steal the power of the Founder from right under their noses. It was too perfect.

So Dina and I enrolled Zeke in the program. He trained by day and learned the true history of Eldia by night. I tried to teach him how Marley had lied, and why his mission was so important. But I was only punishing him for what had happened to Faye, I see that now. He never seemed… happy after that.

But later we received terrible news. Zeke was losing, at the rate he was going he would never be a Warrior. The Owl couldn't pull enough strings to get him selected. I raged at the thought, I yelled and screamed in frustration and Zeke heard it all. I kept pushing and pushing, yelling at him about how important his mission was for Eldia.

We pushed him harder day and night. We went to watch his training and I saw him fall behind every time. He wouldn't come home for hours afterwards, I assumed he wanted to avoid more lessons. I kept trying to teach him, kept trying to tell him how important this was, for all of Eldia. But out of all people, I should have known what a sin it is, to push your ideals onto your children.

On a random night, Public Security raided the Internment Zone, hundreds of houses were roused and hundreds taken prisoner for being a part of the Restorationists. Dina and I were pulled out and put in handcuffs, we didn't know how we had been caught. That was, until we saw Zeke standing outside with a Public Security officer pointing at us, telling them everything they needed to know. That sight, of Zeke accusing us, his own mother and father of treason, was the last time I ever saw my son.

I would wonder forever how I could have done better. When I went wrong. When Zeke gave up. When he decided he would turn us in. Were the classes in their Warrior training so effective? Did Malrey really turn him against Eldia?

After we were arrested, Public Security took its time interrogating us. I could hear the screams of everyone around me. As the officers broke their fingers. I thought I could be stronger. I thought I could hold it. I thought that for the cause, I could withhold anything, that I could keep my mouth shut and die with dignity.

But when they broke my 3rd finger and cut each segment off slowly, I realized I couldn't, I was no one special. I had spent so much time devoted to the cause of freeing Eldia and restoring the Empire back to its full glory, to returning us to our rightful place. And I broke.

I had nothing left. I couldn't raise my own son and now I had given everything away. During my blabbering, my final cries as Marley sought to squeeze the last drops of information out of me, I saw one of the men from the day my sister died. The man who had beat me. He looked older. More worn. The years had stripped much away from him but the cold glare in his eyes was still there. But as soon as I saw him he left, and Marley broke the last bones in my body, and tossed them atop my ruined spirit.

Everyone had confessed. Everyone had committed treason. And now, because of me, everyone was being sent to Paradise.

We were drugged before we were sent to Paradis island, the island of the Walls. The penal colony for the followers of the late King Fritz. Every Eldia who Marley needed to go away, they all came here.

They didn't need to drug us, most of us were in a haze anyway. I myself could barely tell minutes from days. We all had bags over our heads so we couldn't see. Our hands were tied behind us, even if they could barely be called such, without fingers they weren't particularly useful, we couldn't use them to escape. Even if we had them, our spirits were too low to try.

We were brought up several steps before the Marleyans put us on our knees. Then finally we were allowed to see again. The platform we were on was raised maybe 30 meters up, and looked over a desert extending inland. It looked empty. But somewhere out there, we knew there were 3 massive walls.

The man from before, from the day Faye died, the stone cold glare. He stood behind me and welcomed me to Paradise in a monotone voice. At the time I thought he was mocking me. He held me and made me watch what happened next, welcoming me to Paradise. One of our comrades, a young man named Abe, was kicked off first. They cheered him on and yelled at him to make for the wall. One by one, the next men were injected with Titan serum, and in a blinding flash of light, they turned into Titans. They chased after Abe. Some lunged, others skipped, and a few ran off towards him. Hoping to bite him in half. They left the leaders of the Restorationists, like me, for last. So they could make us watch.

Grice, the leader of the Restorationists before me, screamed and raged as he was turned. Crying all the way. All I could feel was fear. He said he regretted ever asking me to join. I couldn't help but agree. Then they brought Dina.

I had tried to spare her, minimize her presence and involvement when they interrogated me. But others talked, and then they cut off 2 toes for lying when I admitted she was just as much a member as I. I had told the cold eyed man Dina's secret. But still they were going to turn her into a monster. So I screamed out, I tried to spare her one last horror. But thats when the Cold eyed man slammed my head into the platform and held my mouth shut. As they injected Dina with the serum, she told me she loved me, and told me she would find me again. Then she was pushed off the platform and turned into a Titan.

That's when I saw him. The man who had killed my sister. He had gotten fat, but it was still him. His big bushy mustache and portly frame taking a drag of a cigarette. He was laughing. Gross, that was him. Officer Gross. Was laughing. I cried and asked him how he could be so cruel. He was fascinated by Death, and by suffering. By our suffering. He told me that humans were too removed from cruelty. That we had pushed it out of mind. And that by being close to it, he felt like he would be able to die easier. His voice was just as ambivalent and cruel as I remember it. He seemed to relish in it. As he spoke, he turned another into a Titan. The sight of a man turning into a massive Titan didn't phase him at all. But I guess he didn't consider him a man in the first place.

Then he walked over, and he kept laughing. I had thought the tear ducts in my eyes were dry, but as he kept pushing me towards the ledge, I found the well had been restored. I felt so much at once. I was a failure in all aspects. I failed my country, my race, my friends, my comrades, my wife, and my son. And this was where it was all going to end. I was going to die, having done nothing. I accepted it, and was ready to die.

But then the weight pressing me down was pushed over top of me and into the sands. And I saw the fat man fall and fear enter his eyes. When he landed, everything stopped. I saw him look up at me, and the cold eyed man who had pushed him down. Krueger was his name. Then Gross looked at the last man he had turned into a Titan. Who he had laughed at. And he screamed.

As Gross was grabbed by the Titan and raised to its Maw, I turned to the man with the Cold eyes, Krueger. I couldn't say anything, but one word.

"Why?" The man took a drag off of Gross's lost cigarette, then tossed his hat away and told me this.

"Because Grisha, I'm the Owl." I couldn't think, I didn't. My mind was blank. He turned and walked towards the other end of the platform, the one facing the Sea, and the small dock that held the boat that brought us all to Paradise. All the men from Public Security had gone back and were smoking themselves. The Cold eyed man looked at me again, and said one more thing.

"My name is Eren Krueger." He had taken out a large knife he cut open his left hand and held it up and as the blood seeped into the platform he continued "Now pay close attention, this is how we the Nine use our power. This is how we use the Power of Eldia, this is how we are Gods amongst men."

Then a bolt of yellow lightning struck down from the Sky, and the world exploded.

1832 AY

The world was a blank slate. Was this how his ancestors had felt, when they had watched these Gods walk amongst them? He squeezed the soldiers' lives out of them as if he were juicing fruit. And with no effort at all he threw their bodies into the sea. Every soul but this man and himself was dead. The only sound left was the sound of the sea. What even happened. That light, and then.

"..and that's why your here."

I was startled. Had this man-Krueger is what Gross said, is that his real name?- Was he still talking the entire time? When were my hands untied?

"I'm sorry but…" my voice sounded so meek. What was this?

"Huh…" the man-Krueger- said. With a sigh he reached into a pocket inside his jacket, and pulled out a flask. Taking a swig out of the container, I could see the scars on his face from his transformation, when his eyes focused on me again. "I guess you're still in shock. How much did you even hear?" That was a good question, what had he been-

"Wait, you said you were the Owl?"

"Alright so not much. Yes, I am. My name is Eren Krueger. I'm a subject of Ymir, just like you."

"Wait, but how…if you're in public security…how did you pass the blood tests?" The man wiped a trail of blood trailing from his nose.

"With a good doctor they are easy to pass. You're a good example of that with all you did early on. But considering what Grice said and where we are now…I understand why he laments as he did." He put down the flask, and it clanked on the ground, empty.

"I have no excuses, I was a poor father, a terrible leader, and an imbecilic man." If I still had my fingers, they would be drawing blood from my hand as I tried to clench my fist. But now, all I had to grip was the stubs. "So tell me, why am I the one still left? My wife had royal blood, she could have used the full power of the Titans. If you hadn't shut me up, she would still be alive!" I marched over to him and gripped him with what hands I had left. "So why! Tell me!"

"Let go, you're just making your hands bleed." His face didn't shift at all at my accusations.

"Oh thank you for your concern. But I wonder why, if you cared, you let everyone be turned into a Titan! If you struck earlier, they would be alive! What was the point of letting them be turned into monsters you bastard!"

As I finished my tirade, Krueger fell to his knees. The man's scars across his face had been steaming lightly, but now the scars seemed to have deepened.

"It wasn't just your comrades. I've seen hundreds of our countrymen suffer. I've made countless of them suffer." His breathing was deep, his chest seemed pained, like he was gasping for air. "In serving Eldia, I've turned so many of our fellow Eldians into Titans, I lost count. In this mission of mine, I've damned myself to hell." Then he fell forward. His hands smacked the concrete platform and with a cough, he covered it in blood. After several deep breaths he struggled to stand again.

"I'm sorry Grisha, but time is short. I'm entrusting you with this final task. There is no one else that can see it through. It's why I was led here."

"Lead here? By Eldia?" Krueger just paused and gazed out. Then he wiped his mouth on his shirt, a red streak appeared, but it seemed his breathing had returned to normal. Krueger then sat back down, his breathing still erratic, and I felt compelled to do the same.

"Grisha, that day with your sister, you may wish you could take it back. But if not for what happened, you wouldn't hate Marley nearly enough to make it this far."

"Is that why you chose me?"

"It's part of it, that day, the war, my Titan. But mostly it was what I saw."

"What do you mean? What you saw when you were the Owl? What you saw of the Restorationists?" Krueger shook his head.

"No. Marley, your father, yourself. The look in your eyes when Gross and I were at your house. Talking about your sister. That look in your eyes…I thought you could have burnt the world to ash. I felt the same way before."

"I doubt that. If you're one of the Nine then you're from Eldia, you had life before you were in Marley."

"I'm not from the Empire."

"But then how do you have-"

"My parents were part of the Rebellion led by Otto. My name, Krueger, it's the noble one. I'm not one of the bastards left by the Krueger's of Eldia when the Empire spread. My family were part of the Kruegers that held one of the Nine before the division of the Empire. When the Great Titan War ended. My part of the family was on the wrong side of the Trojan Sea. When my dad found the prince, he thought we could reconnect to the rest of the family after we won. Instead he was burned alive in front of me." Oh…so then he. Was that…how did he… "Not only did they accomplish nothing, all of them were burnt alive. I just watched through a closet door and watched. I swore I would take revenge, and help Eldia's victory. When I got older, One of my father's old contacts found me, and helped me infiltrate public security. That was going to be how I got my revenge."

Krueger looked down, at his hands. His one hand still held the healing scar he had cut open earlier in his transformation. But if he is a Titan, shouldn't he be healing?

"But instead all I've done is kick people off this wall and watch their humanity leave them. I had to do all these heinous deeds, or else my cover would be blown. I'm not sure I've changed. Perhaps I'm still a child looking at the world through a closet door."

He looked up into the sky and leaned back. He had seen the same things as me. He had this Titan, but how? How did?

"That still doesn't explain how, or why you have this Titan. If Eldia still has the Rogue Titan, don't they need it? Now more than ever!"

"After the defeat at Muotrahk, Marley gained a near uncounterable advantage. 6 against 2 was never going to end well, no matter the power of royal blood. Eldia needed to find a new way to fight. Without Titans, and without the technology to counter them, Eldia needed time. So they released the conquered nations. To keep Marley tied down fighting somebody else. But then they needed information. They needed spies. That's where my Titan came in. The shifter at the Battle, Albert Krueger, he hid after the battle, and acted like he was dead. If Marley thought the Titan was dead, they wouldn't try to hunt it down. So he started to help out the spy network of Eldians in Marley, to fight Marley with information. All the information we had you collect, all of it helped the Resistance in the conquered nations fight Marley to give us time, and helped Eldia. When we learned that Marley was planning to take the Founder. We knew we had to act. Thats why we are here. To use the Titan to reach the founder."

"But if that was the case, why did everyone else have to die? If we are going to take the Founding Titan, why did my comrades have to die?"

"No us, you."

"What? Why me?"

"Only one can make the journey. There are too many Titans in the way, only a shifter can make it, anyone else coming along would be dead weight."

"Then why not you?"

"Because I'm-" another coughing fit took the man, and yet more blood was wiped away. "I'm short on time. You'll be inheriting my Titan."

"But why?"

"Each shifter only has 13 years to live after inheriting one of the Nine. That's how long it's been for me. No one can live longer than the Founder Ymir."

"So if I don't eat you and take the Titan then…"

"Then the power would kill me and appear in another child through the Paths."

"The Paths? Aren't they just a fable? Just a concept made by the Church?" Learning about Eldia, the Marleyans had said the Eldians foolishly sided with the Devil instead of the Son of God, the savior of humanities souls. They spoke about how all Eldians were connected through Hell, through the paths Ymir made on her trips to the Devil. While Marleyans would ascend to Heaven, Eldians would be dragged down the paths to hell, weighed down by our ancestor's sins. Thats why Marleyans had always told him and his countrymen to go 'back down the path' to hell. But according to you, they're real?

"No, all subjects of Ymir are connected through the paths. The paths connect all of us, it's how the Founder controls all Eldians. The paths are endless and stretch in countless directions, but all come back to the Coordinate. To the Founding Titan. However Ymir gained the power of the Titans, it connected us all back to her."

"Speaking of Ymir-" while it may have been a good idea to process that hell was real, or at least some other plane of existence, I couldn't help but to ask. "-who do you think she really was?"

"Who really knows, to Marley she is the devil, to Eldia she is a Miracle of god. Some scientists say she must have connected to the source of all life. Who am I to say they are wrong." Krueger then looked out into the vast desert, and I felt compelled to do so as well. "The sole truth of this world is, that there is no truth, all that the something needs to be the truth, is for someone to believe it. Anyone can be a god, or a devil. So long as men live and think, there can be no truth."

Well….thats certainly..a truth. But if the truth is relative…

"You sent us Dina. Was she really…?"

"Dina's royal blood is objectively real."

"Then why did you!"

"Thats because of her blood. If Marley knew, she would be forced to breed Marley's shifters until she died in childbirth. If Zeke had told them more about his mother before she was gotten rid of, her fate would be truly cruel. For your son it might be better, that's if he tells them. Marley already knows what Titans with royal blood other than the Founder can do. The Royal Warhammer's have taught them that." A cruel fate. But still, Dina….my wife… the tears leaked out of my hands as I tried to cover my face. I couldn't do this.

"I can't."

"Hmmm?" I could feel Krueger's eyes on me.

"I can't do this. Not now."

"You're going to do this." I could hear him putting steel in his voice. But..

"I didn't know what I was doing. If I had realized this was the price of Freedom…I wouldn't have paid." My entire body seemed to unwind at the statement. I had given up. I could feel my face freeze as Krueger stood.

"Stand. FIGHT!" He stated. "If you want to restore freedom and dignity to the rest of Eldia, then fight!."

"I just…" I whimpered. How pathetic am I? "-can't."

I closed my eyes and looked down. I could hear Krueger grabbing at something and placing it in front of me.

"Here, I brought this from your home." I shut my eyes tighter.

"I can't."

"So you can't stand, or fight, or even look. Did Marley cut your balls off? What's wrong with you? How can you call yourself a man if all you can do is whimper."

"There is no point in trying to get me to remember my old hatred. All that is left for me now is my sins."

"That's all you need." I finally looked up at him. What?

"The main reason I chose you was because of that day. Because you went beyond the wall. If you hadn't your sister might be married and happy by now. Maybe she would have already had children. But you changed that by going outside the walls. You doomed her to a horrid fate." You bastard. "But you'll never know what could have been. Ever since you tread forbidden ground, ever since I kicked a patriot off this wall. We knew we would have to keep fighting." I closed my eyes again and looked off. Shut up.

"To pay for our sins."

Shut up.

"Even in Death."

Shut up.

"Even after"

"Shut up! You bastard-" when I looked at him I saw what he was holding. It was a picture. Of my family. But I can't….but I can't….but they….those bastards!

"Thats right, you choose to start this story." I'll end this.

Finally I stood. I wiped my tears away and tried to mold my face into something respectable. I would do it. I would. For everyone….

Krueger just looked at me. We stood there for just a moment, but it felt like hours. I could see a small sliver of blood trickle out of his facial scars. It bled over the smile on his face.

"Each of the Nine Titans has a name to describe it. And that includes the one you're about to inherit from me. While many of our own countrymen call it a Rogue. That's not its real name. This Titan is gifted with visions. Visions of the future sent by our comrades after us. It's what led Albert to escape, it what led him to give his Titan to me, and what led me to you now. Because of these vision's we have always fought in the vanguard, fighting for the future we see. We can all see the end of this road. We all see a vision of Freedom. And so for Freedom's sake, we fight. Therefore…"