The minutes passed into hours as they talked and planned.
"You're telling me this massive port is only used for trading, not warships?" Floch asked skeptically.
Armin sighed heavily. "Floch, I wanted to avoid using the Wall Titans in any fashion, but that doesn't mean I didn't do any research for if we were ever forced to."
"Armin is right though," Onyankopon agreed. "Warships might dock there, even get emergency repairs, but it has never had the capacity to construct any."
"How hard would it be to convert it into a shipyard for battleships?" Floch countered, cupping his chin.
"By that logic, we might as well as just destroy every port in the world, no matter the size or technology they possess," Armin retorted with a scowl.
"We're definitely not at that stage yet," Eren agreed. "Besides, Hizuru and that country aren't on good terms."
"Why is that a good thing?" Armin asked with a furrowed brow.
"Hizuru thinks they can control us, even if it's just partially because they're currently the only ones willing to cooperate with us. That might change soon, and if it does, all the better if it's a rival to them," Eren remarked.
Armin nodded thoughtfully at that. "That's something to be careful with though. If we look like we're trying to double cross them rather than leverage a better relation, they might go over to Marley out of spite."
Floch seemed almost surprised again, but not as much this time.
"I doubt they would. Regardless of all else, Hizuru is one of the few sanctuaries for Eldians," Onyankopon reminded. "Marley would try and force them to change their stance on that."
"Why are they like that?" Floch asked in interest. "I understand they were allies to the Old Eldian Empire, but they seemed perfectly willing to extort us."
"Some of it is opportunism, the Eldians of Hizuru are grateful for any life they can get there," Onyankopon started honestly. "But there is an aspect of honor to it."
"The Shoguns of Hizuru considered our two lands to be siblings, cross-sea kindred," Eren informed with a faraway look in his eye. "Even if they feel betrayed in some way by the fall of the Empire, their culture's sense of honor won't allow them to turn their backs on Eldians within their borders. They tend to be very loyal."
The room grew a bit awkward, recalling that there was one of Hizuru's blood in the room, sitting silently as their war plans were made.
"That's enough for now," Eren said, pinching his brow. "After everything, I need a moment to rest. Floch, wake me if there's an emergency. Onyankopon, do you need anything?"
"Not at the moment. I only wish there was a way to give proper warning to those against Marley in my homelands, along with the other conquered territories," Onyankopon said solemnly.
Armin raised his brows ever so slightly as he saw Eren's lips twitch, almost like he was amused by something. But Eren just nodded, prompting the man to leave, with Floch soon behind while giving Armin and Mikasa suspicious looks.
Mikasa silently took a seat in front of the desk with Armin, Eren reclined behind it with a tired look wearing at his expression.
"I know you said you need to rest, but can we...talk about what you said before?" Armin asked with a frown.
"In a moment, yeah," Eren assured, giving Armin a considering look. "I'm not surprised you thought out a partial-Rumbling. But I did expect you to try to convince me to stop at just the Allied Fleet."
"I still plan to," Armin admitted with the ghost of a smile. "But today doesn't feel like the day for that. I have at least two more, maybe three."
Eren nodded in acceptance, looking up at the ceiling. "What did you want to talk about, exactly?"
"The future sight seems pretty important," Armin pointed out, Mikasa nodding in agreement.
Eren sighed. "It's complicated and makes little sense, but what isn't with Titans? Those who become the Nine can see the memories of the past holders. Obviously, some can only see the one before them, others not even that," Eren started, pausing to let them brace themselves. "The Attack Titan's unique ability is to see the memories of the future holders."
Mikasa inhaled sharply as Armin's eyes slowly went wide. "How is that possible?" Mikasa asked, bewildered.
"Don't know. The Attack Titan has always been a rogue that even the Founding Titan couldn't control, so the Eldian Empire never could really study it," Eren answered with a shrug.
"Wait...wait," Armin said, mind racing as his eyes darted back and forth. "If that's true, if that's what caused this...? Did you see the memories of who got the Attack Titan after you?"
Mikasa balled a fist at that implication.
Eren shook his head. "No. I saw my father's memories. And in those memories of the past, I saw the ones I would eventually send back to him from the future."
He looked and saw that Mikasa was a little lost and Armin wasn't that far away from being so either. "I have questions," Mikasa said bluntly. "Please try to keep the answers simple."
Eren nodded, wondering where she was going with this.
"When did you see these memories?" Mikasa started.
"At the award ceremony, when I-"
"Kissed Historia's hand," Armin said in realization, wiping a hand over his face. "That...that alone explains so much. You were...so different after that."
"They've been burning in the back of my head for four years," Eren admitted. "What else did you want to ask?"
"When did Grisha see your memories from the future?" Mikasa asked.
"The day the Walls fell, and the day he killed the Reiss family," Eren said grimly.
Armin had a glint in his eyes like he just found a puzzle piece of something, but he didn't say anything yet.
"When did you send the memories back to Grisha?" Mikasa pressed on.
"Today," Eren answered. "When Zeke and I made contact."
"You sent memories back nine years ago, and witnessed them four years ago," Mikasa said, nodding to herself. "That is easier to understand in some ways."
"Wait, but is that...a normal interaction?" Armin asked in doubt. "Seeing the future memories in the past?"
Eren snorted. "No, not at all. It's normally just like with the rest of the Nine, minus that it sees forward instead of backward; Some holders only see glimpses, and others will see all that they need and more. But the Founder allows one to peer into the memories of the past perfectly. The Attack Titan's powers complicate that and created a strange...feedback loop, I think. My Father was seeing the future through my eyes as I was watching a memory of him in the past."
They both stared at him for a moment. "I like my summary better," Mikasa said flatly. "What did you see?"
Now it was Eren's turn to grow silent.
"You thought it was the only way forward, for us to survive and end the Titans. You thought it had to happen, and that you had to be cruel to both of us," Mikasa continued.
Eren looked down, and they could see some horrible child of despair and regret being born on his face.
Armin felt himself pale as some dark thought came to the forefront of his mind. It was in the back of his head since Mikasa told him what Eren told her, but looking at him now, it was starting to seem too likely. "It was us, wasn't it?"
Eren looked at him, his expression never changing.
"Me, Jean, and the others? We killed you in the vision, didn't we?" Armin asked with dread.
Eren's expression somehow deepened as his heavy gaze shifted to Mikasa.
"...No," Mikasa whispered. "You saw...you wanted me..."
"I wanted you to forget me. To...be free of me, when it was over," Eren explained brokenly.
Armin suddenly stood up and moved to a corner of the room. Eren and Mikasa watched morbidly as he suddenly vomited.
It was short, the body forcing grief to vent through actions, but it left Armin panting and just short of tears. "You said you wanted us to live long and happy lives...," Armin recalled with gritted teeth, leaning on the wall. "Did you think...for a single moment...that Mikasa...that any of us could truly be happy with that?!"
"Armin," Eren said suddenly. "Zeke only had a few months left."
Both of them fell silent at that, Armin looked up from the corner.
"I waited until the last minute. I waited, I looked, and I hoped for any other future. Anything. I couldn't find anything," Eren said with a frown.
Armin gritted his teeth. "Eren, there is...only one thing I can think of that would force me- no, Force MIKASA to even consider going down that route. The Full Rumbling. That's what I thought you were doing earlier."
"..." Eren looked at him. "Some part of me wants to do it, you know?"
"...Why?" Mikasa asked with a stricken look. "Why would you..."
"We reached the outside world, and all we found were more enemies, more death, and more hate," Eren answered with a deep, soulful sigh. "The end was in sight. We knew we still had to fight Reiner and the other Titans. But until we got to the basement, it felt like the outside world was just one step away from being ours again. Until we learned how much the world hated us, it felt like we were so close to being done with all the fighting and death. Then it was yanked away, and we realized it was a lie. An illusion. Reclaiming the outside world...was never really possible, not how we envisioned."
Both of them looked down. It was a depressing thought, and they had both thought similarly in the past. So had everyone, how could they not?
"I can still see it, you know?" Eren asked with a sad smile. "I can see the sights of the Rumbling. The burning cities, the bodies being trampled. That future is gone now, but some part of it is still in my head. A future I never wanted and I thought I was powerless to change. Can you imagine, how much like hell that felt for me?" Eren asked before sighing. "Sorry. I...didn't mean to say it like that. I just..."
"You've been living with this for four years. And thought you couldn't tell anyone," Mikasa summarized, eyes swelling with tears. "What did you think would happen, if you told us?"
Eren didn't answer for a moment. "I was afraid you all couldn't do it. Or, worse...you wouldn't have the heart to go through with it. And you'd die out there in the Rumbling. That, or..."
"...Or?" Armin pressed.
"I'm a selfish piece of shit," Eren reminded harshly. "I'm selfish enough to choose Paradis over the whole world if it came to that. But I was afraid that if I told you...if I let you all back in...I'd be too selfish, and just spend my last years with you all instead of trying to put an end to all this."
The three friends sat in silence, setting the truth soak in all of them now that it was finally out in the open.
"What happened?" Armin asked suddenly. "What changed?"
Eren didn't answer at first. "I got pissed off."
They stared for a moment and, suddenly, Mikasa snorted and tried not to laugh. Both boys looked at her in surprise. "That seems rather...normal for you."
It took a moment before Armin started to chuckle as well, as did Eren. It was rather absurd in retrospect. He had always been quick to rage and anger. And all he needed to change things was to recapture that old rage he had to fight for his freedom.
The humor died down and Eren waited for the air to settle before continuing. "Ymir Fritz still exists, in the Paths."
"The one they say first had Titan powers?" Mikasa questioned.
Eren nodded. "She was a slave to the original King Fritz. For some reason, even after gaining the power of the Titans, she still obeyed him. Even mothered his children. Then she sacrificed herself for him and lost the will to live when he didn't care. She's still connected to the Power of the Titans. She was the one who actually built the Titan bodies. Even after all these centuries, she still feels bound to King Fritz."
"That's...horribly sad and fascinating, but what does that have to do with everything?" Armin questioned.
"When I made contact with her in the Paths, when I was about to unleash the Rumbling? I finally raged against the future I felt forced into. And somehow, in that moment, I made the Power of the Titans choose me over her. It left her and bonded to me," Eren finished heavily. "I can't see any new future, and I don't know what that means. Before, it meant that there were no Titans after I died. Now? I don't know. I kind of prefer that. Looking back, I'm starting to think Ymir might have misled me, that she wanted me to think that future was the only one where you all had a chance."
"I...have no idea what to say or think of any of that," Armin admitted, shaking his head while running a hand through his hair. "So, what now?"
"I'm not asking you both to forgive me. I just want to be honest with you from now on," Eren said in acceptance.
"...What are you going to do with Reiner and the Jaw Titan?" Armin asked with a thoughtful look.
Eren stopped at that. "Right, I haven't told you yet," he realized. "I removed the Beast Titan from Zeke."
"Without killing him?" Mikasa asked in surprise. "Does that mean...?"
"I believe so, yes. The Thirteen-Year Curse has nothing to do with the Power itself, it's just a side effect of being bonded with Ymir. With it now applied to me, well, we're waiting to see if Zeke survives when his time runs out. Regardless, I can take away the Nine without killing the hosts now," Eren said, looking meaningfully at Armin. "Tell me when you want me to take away the Colossal."
Armin frowned at the implications.
Eren read his friend well. "You're free to try and stop me if you want, Armin."
"That isn't how I'd want to stop you!" Armin retorted strongly. "We're friends, dammit! Friends shouldn't have to rely on weapons of mass destruction to settle disagreements!"
"You're right," Eren agreed without infliction. "I just...didn't want you to feel like I was leaving you powerless."
"Oh," Armin said in understanding. Eren didn't want to fight them, he never did. He just didn't want Armin to feel like he could do nothing. It was Eren's own weird idea of an olive branch.
Eren grimaced and fought off a yawn. "Seriously, guys? I'm exhausted and I doubt I'll be getting another chance for decent sleep."
Armin nodded in acceptance, looking at Mikasa.
"Eren."
He looked at her, probably expecting something horrible to come from her lips.
"I'm glad you're back," Mikasa said with a smile, and that was almost more devastating. "I'm glad that...you weren't turning into someone else this whole time."
"...I'm sorry I hurt you," Eren said softly.
"Just..." Mikasa paused, taking a breath. "You said you'd be honest with us now. I'll hold you to that."
Eren nodded. "I meant what I said. I'm sorry Sasha is dead, but I don't regret Liberio."
Mikasa nodded as she rose from her seat to leave with Armin.
Eren watched his oldest friends leave with a strange feeling in his chest. Things weren't perfectly fine between them, but it was better; especially after he told them everything, more or less. Perhaps this was what it felt like, being hopeful? When was the last time he felt that?
Pushing that away for now, Eren leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes, allowing himself to drift off to sleep.
He opened his eyes suddenly and was less than surprised to see the green glow of the Paths above him.
"What now?" he muttered. Had he been brought here, or had he just come here on accident? Ymir hadn't come here when she was alive, so it was hard to tell.
He looked up over his shoulder, the emerald tree representing all Subjects of Ymir waving in the non-existent wide. Through it, he could see all of them…all the living and the dead. He could even see the Wall Titans on their trek to the shores of Paradis.
But that had not called him here.
He looked out over the barren sands and soon caught sight of a familiar figure. Ymir Fritz knelt on one of the sand dunes, staring up at the skies endlessly, as if praying for salvation that would never come.
Eren narrowed his eyes and approached her. "You're still here," he mused softly as he stood over her. "I'm not surprised, but I hoped you would have been allowed...or forced to move on now."
Ymir did not answer, fingers in the sand, eyes to the sky.
"I still can't tell for sure. Are you trapped here, or do you refuse to leave?" Eren wondered to himself. "I hate what you drove me to, Ymir, but I don't hate you."
Ymir finally reacted, turning to look up at him with her blue eyes. Her face was no longer the same shrouded void it had been for centuries. Instead, her face was this look of eternal sorrow, her gaze pleading for something Eren could not and would not give her. Regardless of how much he despised her in some form, he still held sympathy for the sheer...inhumanity she had endured.
"I already told my friends about the future you wanted to see. It'll never happen now," Eren said bluntly.
Ymir sat there in silence for a long time. Perhaps it was minutes, perhaps it was weeks. Time worked strangely here, Eren knew. It was just another aspect of this power to get used to. Compared to having his head swimming with the past and the future, this was almost pleasant in a way.
Then, finally, Ymir began to tremble. Rage? Sorrow? Eren believed it was both, as she gritted her teeth.
Like a rabid animal, she leaped towards Eren, and in her hand was an earthen knife, ready to stab him, to maim him, maybe to kill him.
*THUNK!*
Ymir froze in shock, a horrid feeling of deja vu overcoming her face as she looked down and saw what had stopped her.
A spear.
Like from all those centuries ago, it struck through her chest, right above the heart. It had erupted from the sand beneath her. Her knees gave out in pain, held up only by the spear as she dropped the knife and it crumbled away.
The Fallen Goddess looked upon her Usurper as he stared down at her with...
Confusion?
Something finally clicked for Eren as he looked up. He had been wrong.
This time, it was not Ymir who had called him to the Paths.
Eren felt the sands shift under him and turned to face the source. Out of the sands emerged the Source of the Power of the Titans…or the likeness thereof. It was large, the upper part emerging just enough to be just larger than a human.
This had called him here.
Its eyeless head rose to loom over Eren, and the rib-like tendril surrounded him protectively. Except one. One tendril pulled up to reveal that it was the "spear" that had impaled Ymir.
Ymir was pulled off the ground with a silent scream of pain as she stared at the Source of the Power of the Titans. Hers for nearly two thousand years, and it now personally struck her down to defend a new host.
Her broken visage stared upon that creature, still unable to understand anything.
With a flick of its limb, it tossed Ymir off and sent her rolling down the slope of the sand dune.
When she stood up, Ymir saw that she was a great and terrible distance away from the emerald tree now, now tiny in the distance. Without a noise of rage or sorrow, she began to walk…slowly, steadily, endlessly.
Eren watched the exchange with caution and, if he was honest, incomprehension. With Ymir absent from sight, the creature moved back from Eren, lowering itself to "stare" at him with a featureless head.
"I suppose we need to have a talk too," Eren remarked, trying to sound firm despite his surprise.
The creature nodded slowly in agreement. Eren was intimately aware this was not the true Source. That was already fused into his spine. This was merely a construct it was using as an avatar. But Eren had no memory of it ever doing so before. For the entire time of the Eldian Empire, most of the kings had no idea where the power came from, few getting a glimpse of it if Ymir's memories leaked through.
"You know, I planned for you to die with me until today," Eren pointed out with narrowed eyes. "I'm not sure that has changed yet."
If the creature felt concerned about that, it did not convey any.
"I don't suppose you have a name?" Eren asked rhetorically.
The creature rose up, almost double its height, and turned its spindly body towards the tree. Through that emerald light, Eren heard and saw many things, from the present and the past. A thousand voices spoke, but some words blared over the others.
"The Power of the Titans."
"Hallucigenia."
"The Devil of All Earths."
"Symbiote."
"The Source of Living Matter."
The cacophony died down as the creature suddenly lowered itself and stared at Eren; Then with a million voices, one answer rung through the Paths.
"Eldia."
Eren furrowed his brow at that answer, words stringed together from across space and time.
"I...am...Eldia."
End of Chapter
So. One of my petpeeves with te fandom is many people oversimplifing what Eren meant by being disapopointed with e outside world. Finding out the truth of the world was perhaps the largest, most fucked "moving the goal posts" sitaution in history. It's gone from needing to beat titans with barely a chance to being hated bythe whole world. He has every right to be disappointed, no wonder an empty world ounds more appealing.
Anyway, beyond that, Eren had a very thorough and honest talk with Mikasa and Armin, and we see more of Ymir. And now I introduce yo uall to the Worm himself, aka , I'm actually making this thing something of a character. Ymir wants to attack Eren adn Eldia is not having it. Which is just a reminder that Ymir lost what freedom she had in the PAths.
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this!
Early viewing of chapters 7-8 avaliable on my pat-reon:
p a treon . com (slash) akumakami64