True to Armin's word, he tried to reason with Eren again.
"No."
Eren, to his credit, was being very calm if blunt about refusing to budge on the issue.
"Eren, I have agreed with the Partial Rumbling. Destroying the fleet and the harbors, yes. But the amount you're going to destroy in Northern Marley is-" Armin continued.
"I know what it is, Armin," Eren said bluntly. "It's millions upon millions of people. Almost all of them Marleyan, but not too densely populated or that important to their country."
Armin took a breath. "All I'm saying is that this level of retribution is too much. Yes, if there is no convincing you otherwise, rumble northern Marley, but not that much of it!"
"And how many deaths is your conscious willing to allow then, Armin?" Eren countered pointedly. "Ten million? Five? This attack is meant to be a gut shot, Armin. Something that will knock the fight out of them and stop trying to attack us. The other countries might, MIGHT not need the extra demonstration, but do you honestly believe Marley will back down after just losing their shipyards? They'll make martyrs out of them and just use that as an excuse to keep fighting. Then we have to do this again and again."
"You can't know that for sure, Eren," Armin challenged.
"I actually can," Eren answered flatly, tapping his head. "All the experience of the Kings of Eldia. There were many countries that didn't-"
"And you honestly think using Historia's ancestors' memories, who used Titans to conquer the world like Marley, as justification for this?" Armin asked with exasperation.
"Yes, I am," Eren answered with a glare. "Interrupt me again, and we're done with this discussion."
Armin matched his glare expectantly.
"As I was saying, many nations resisted the Titans, and that was back when there was no weapon against them. Now they have cannons and guns that can potentially slay a Titan," Eren pointed out with a sigh. "I don't like it either, but the problem is that the world will believe there is some hope against the Wall Titans. And Marley will channel that hope into rage."
Armin looked down at that. "...So now we're stuck having to inflict this horror-"
"Into the nation that sent us into despair and Hell, yes," Eren summarized with a sigh.
"At least give me the same damn courtesy to not interrupt me," Armin requested in exasperation.
"I would have, honestly, but I actually have to leave," Eren informed, getting a raised eyebrow from Armin. "I'm headed down to the docks with Floch and some others, to talk to the Azumabito about the plans with the flying ship."
Armin had almost forgotten about that after everything. "Are you going to...?"
"I would, but..." Eren had a faraway look in his eyes for a split second. "I already have a closer view."
Armin gave Eren that at least. He wasn't committing some atrocity and pretending like it wasn't happening. He was watching the terrible sight come closer and closer all the time. And as much as Armin didn't like the situation, he still felt sorry for Eren. Even without the plan for Northern Marley, he could only imagine how awful it would be, to be at the helm of the Wall Titans as they rumbled the harbors.
"Are you taking Mikasa?" Armin asked idly, knowing how important their mutual friend was to their Hiruzuan guests.
"Unless she doesn't want to," Eren answered, knowing full well she would come despite her less than fond feeling to her distant kin. "Can I trust you and Hange not to attempt a coup or anything while I'm gone?"
"Was that a joke?" Armin questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"From me? Yes. From any of the Yeagerists? No, no it's not," Eren said pointedly.
"Right, I'll keep that in mind," Armin said with a frown. "There is no convincing you on this, is there?"
"I'm past the point of wanting revenge, Armin," Eren said with a tired look about his eyes. "If you managed to bring everyone to the table right now, the world would still demand our deaths or enslavements."
Armin scowled as Eren walked past him. "Eren? What if this just united the world in hatred of us more?"
"Alliances are fragile, Armin, especially if they're built on hate."
Meanwhile
The dungeon was filled with the sound of scribbling, the sound echoing.
Gabi groaned but refused to address the author.
"When did they give you a pencil and book, Mr. Zeke?" Falco asked with a curious tone.
"Oh, it's not a pencil. It's a dip pen. I fear they won't trust me with anything that could sharpen a pencil," Zeke mused with a tired smile. "Learning to use this properly is proving to make quite a mess."
"What do you even have to write about?" Reiner asked with a sigh. "A paper on the benefits of sterilization?"
"Hmm, you sound rather like Eren right now, Reiner," Zeke mused.
Gabi didn't need to see Reiner flinch at the comparison to grow irritated on his behalf. "Don't compare Reiner to him, you traitor!" Gabi growled out, blindingly looking in the general direction of Zeke's voice. In truth, she was closer to looking at Reiner than anyone.
Zeke chose not to respond to her. "In any case, I thought I might document the effects I notice from losing the power of the Nine."
"Oh? Anything in particular?" Yelena asked with vague interest.
"It's a lot like people describe getting old. The Power of the Titan keeps those of the Nine in as prime a state as it can. Without it, I'm noticing all the minor aches and such moving back into my body. I haven't felt a natural cramp in over a decade, until this morning. It is almost a welcome pain. I'm hungrier than normal, even taking the limited meals into account," Zeke mused out loud.
"Who cares about cramps and the food!" Gabi yelled out. "Am I the only one that still cares that we're captured? That Eren Yeager is free to wreak havoc on the world?!"
"There's nothing we can do right now, Gabi," Zeke said neutrally. "It is best to busy your mind with something else."
"Easy to say, when you didn't lose your fucking sight!" Gabi screamed with eyes tearing up as she threw out her arm, knocking something off to the side as hard as she could.
She just wished it had been something heavier than the pillow.
Gabi let out a scream of frustration until Falco came over and grabbed her urgently. "Gabi! Calm down, you're going to hurt yourself," he said in concern.
Gabi glared at nothing, eyes hot with unshed tears. "You're saying that, after you broke your arm to get a talk with him?"
Falco wasn't sure how to respond to that without making her more upset.
"Gabi, none of us have forgotten," Reiner spoke up grimly, his eyes heavy with many emotions. "But as angry as I am with him, I wouldn't mind hearing what Zeke says."
"What? Why?" Gabi asked with a frown, deciding not to even look in that direction.
"...In case Eren is wrong, and he didn't undo the curse," Reiner answered solemnly, getting silence for his cousin. "Or, worse, will make it happen even sooner."
"Hmm, that is a possibility," Zeke agreed. "Don't worry, Falco. Eren seems fond of you. He probably won't even consider removing the Jaw from you until he knows the side effects."
"Fond of him...?" Gabi repeated with a frown. "Falco, what the hell did you both even talk about?"
"I just asked...if he would consider giving your sight back," Falco admitted bashfully.
"You..." Gabi trailed off, gritting her teeth. "You idiot. I don't want you begging him for my sake."
"I wouldn't call it begging," Falco defended halfheartedly. "He said he'd think about it, and I think he meant it."
"Like you thought he was just an old friend of Reiner's?" Gabi shot back, wincing as she realized that might have been too harsh.
"You're...not wrong. But while he used me, I don't think Mr. Yeager has actually ever lied to me," Falco noted thoughtfully. "He didn't tell me...very important details, but everything he told me was true."
Gabi gritted her teeth to herself as she grabbed Falco's shirt, her hands into fists. "Why do you talk like he's not an enemy?"
Falco paused, his mind filled with half-forgotten memories of a desert realm and a ragged blond girl who gave him such a sense of foreboding as she endlessly approached him. "He's not going to destroy the world, or even our home. Right now, the only thing I can try to protect is you, Gabi."
Some time ago, Gabi would have tried to challenge that, that she didn't need protection. Not from him, not from anyone.
But all she could do was lean her head against Falco's chest. She was utterly defenseless right now. The loss of her sight was not something she could just overcome through sheer will in a few days. It would take her years to learn to live with this, if she had to. If she made it that long.
"You could always offer him a trade."
The air of the dungeon grew confused as Yelena's words hung in the air. "Hmm? What do you mean, Yelena?" Zeke asked curiously.
"Your brother is essentially God in this situation," Yelena mused calmly. "He can take and return her sight on a whim. He took it to cripple her. Tell me, Gabi? What would be worth being able to see again? Would you let him cripple your hands? Your feet? Perhaps instill a phobia of firearms?"
"Yelena! Stop! That's enough!" Reiner barked out.
"She's actually correct, Reiner," Zeke retorted with a scowl. "Gabi has proven to be dangerous, child or not. He spared her life as a mercy while neutralizing her. If he were to undo her blindness, he'd need a reason to believe she would not or could not strike against his people again."
Gabi was strangely silent through all this, Falco using one hand to gently stroke her head. "Do you think so too, Falco? Do you think I should make a sacrifice, treat this Devil King like some kind of God?"
"It doesn't matter," Falco answered. "Whatever you lose, I'll always try to help you regain."
Gabi flushed at the rather touching sentiment. "Don't try to sound so cool, just because you're a Shifter."
"I'm not trying anything," Falco assured awkwardly, holding her closer.
Reiner sighed to himself. He wished they weren't in this situation, and he could just marvel over the pair that was his cousin and Falco, their budding relationship both endearing for obvious reasons, but also distressing in a subtle way. Falco and Gabi were both acting much older than they were right now. If they were older, Reiner would be concerned about them both being locked in a cell together. But they were children still, and it stung to see the signs of their innocence that remained and the signs that much of it had long been devoured by this dark world of theirs.
He didn't know how much hope was left in the world now. Just that he was spending the last he had left himself on trying to keep these two alive.
Meanwhile
"Do you think we're doing the right thing?"
Levi cocked his head. "I think the notion of the "right thing" got fucked in the ass and died a long time ago," he answered honestly, taking a sip of his tea.
Hange slouched over at the table, chin on the surface, idly watching the steam rise from her coffee. It reminded her of Titans. "I mean letting Eren take over like this."
"To my understanding, he didn't take over. The Yeagerists did. The Brat just happens to be the only one they'll listen to," Levi remarked.
"Fine, letting the Yeagerists take over like this then," Hange rephrased with a sigh.
"Don't know. We can't really take a moral high ground, we did the same thing. And from what I've heard of their muttering, they viewed the situation a lot like how we did," Levi murmured.
Hange raised an eyebrow. "You becoming a Yeagerist, Levi?"
"Fuck no," Levi answered dispassionately. "I don't like the shit that went down. I lost my entire squad because of it. But I've been doing this long enough to know there was a lot of shit moving against each other. Marley against Paradis, Eren against Zeke, the Yeagerists against us and Zeke's people. Everyone trying to outsmart the other, and everyone paid for it in some way or another. Eren just came out on top of the corpse pile."
"He's going to make it a much larger pile," Hange mused. "You know, some of the Yeagerists want him to just do the full Rumbling?"
Levi frowned, looking into his cooling cup of tea, half empty.
Hange continued on. "I know Erwin and the others would never condone doing that. I can understand why people might be scared enough to wish that. The outside world is still so foreign and dangerous. It's not much different in their mind than how people used to want to seal the gates off forever and forget about the outside world."
"They're scared shitless, yeah," Levi agreed. "Doesn't make them right, but it does make them people."
Hange nodded. "I've met with some of the old government officials that Eren detitanized. To help check on the side effects. All of them had this look in their eyes. It was like how some used to look at Erwin."
"Like they are hoping you have a plan on what to do next because they sure as hell don't," Levi said, unsurprised.
Hange almost smiled at that, but it faded fast. "If Eren was doing the full Rumbling, I would be. It'd probably fail, but I'd try to stop him. But as it stands? There were always going to be deaths. Even if Erwin was still here, I imagine we'd have to use the Wall Titans for something like this."
"Probably. Marley is run by people that hate us, other Eldians included," Levi agreed.
Hange sighed heavily, placing her head on the table. "I'm just not sure what to do anymore. I don't think Eren would have executed me, but he's only letting me stay around because I'm useful for Titan Research."
"Pretty damn good reason," Levi remarked. "And I don't think the brat hates you. He just isn't willing to swallow your lead. Not saying the little shit is right or wrong, just that's his stance. Point is? Kid still thinks of us and the others as the shitty little weird family we made."
"Ahh, how sweet of you to say," Hange said with a chuckle. "...Levi, did I fuck up?"
Levi sighed. "Four-eyes? Ask this? If you could do anything differently since becoming commander, what would you have done?"
"I don't know," Hange answered raising her head and bringing a hand up to her regrown eye. "I could have stopped Eren from going missing in Marley, but where would that leave us? The Yeagerists grew even while he was gone. How the hell would I have defused that? Should I even have tried? Eren forced our hand in Liberio, but..."
"But it was his play that ultimately won the day. Getting shit done doesn't always justify the means, but it damn helps. And the brat got the impossible done," Levi muttered, more annoyed than anything. "That brat is always doing that. Doing shit no one else should be able to do, and making it everyone else's problem."
"It's one of my favorite things about him," Hange admitted with a chuckle.
Levi nodded in agreement. "Hange? You don't have shit to be ashamed of. You made the most you could of what you had."
Hange scowled at that. "Then why don't I feel like I deserve to have this eye back?"
Levi shrugged. "Earn it back if you feel you have to."
Hange smiled softly. "Thank you, Levi," she said gratefully. "...What about you? He basically fixed your everything."
"Brat owed me that healing after his hairy brother blew me up."
Meanwhile
Mikasa didn't have an opinion about many things.
Her mother's people, the representatives of the "clan" they hailed from? She didn't care much for them. Maybe one day she would, when the world wasn't out to kill everything she loved, and when these same relatives weren't possibly aiming to exploit Mikasa's true homeland, Paradis.
Floch was someone else she didn't have an opinion on. Or rather, her opinion was unsettled.
The second-in-command of the Yeagerists was giving out orders to the others. He and Eren had talked about something before Eren boarded the train. They were about to leave, and she should probably already be on board.
Floch was acutely aware of Mikasa's stare. Eventually, when he finished giving out commands, he turned his attention to her. "So, do you hate me or something? It's hard to tell with you, sometimes," Floch asked with casual honesty.
"I'm still debating between dislike and hate," Mikasa admitted with narrowed eyes.
"Let me take a wild stab," Floch said, crossing his arms. "You think I'm using Eren and hate that I'm "encouraging" him to take what you and Armin see as the worst actions."
Mikasa didn't react, but she also didn't refute that.
"Ackerman, I'll be blunt with you, because I know anything else won't work on you. I'm not using Eren, he's using me," Floch said bluntly.
Mikasa raised an eyebrow at that.
"There have always been those willing to follow him. He's been the best hope for us since Trost. I was just able to reach out and unite the people that wanted to place our bets on Eren instead of just using him as an attack dog like the old regime did," Floch informed factually.
Mikasa frowned. She couldn't exactly refute that comparison. "I still find it suspicious for you to go from Eren's greatest critic to his greatest supporter."
Floch sighed. "Trust me, I didn't see that coming either. But I'm not blind. I've seen how the past few years changed everyone. You all became drunk on the idea we can make peace with our enemies, just like that, while Eren always spoke of being ready to fight against them again. It wasn't the angry passion he used to have. It was this cold fury, like he had already accepted it as inevitable."
Mikasa mulled on that. "You say you're being used, but you don't seem unhappy about it, being a leader of the Yeagerists."
"Better being used for Eldia's sake than floundering about uselessly like we were before," Floch explained. "Armin wants Eren to consider the more peaceful option, always. I want him to consider the more proactive options."
Mikasa's eyes grew distant for a moment. "You know they're just people, right? The world you think we'd be better off destroying, it's just filled with people living their lives."
"Yeah, and that's what makes them more dangerous than any Titan," Floch agreed bluntly. "You should get going. The train will be leaving soon."
Mikasa didn't respond, but she did follow his instructions as she headed onto the train to join Eren.
She tried to remember when she started to worry and care so much about people she had never met. When she was younger, after the Fall of Maria, she only cared about protecting Eren and Armin. Few more before that time. Joining the military had been purely about that, fighting for humanity was never a factor.
Somewhere before or after Trost, that feeling spread and crept over others. Sasha, Connie, Jean, Hange, Levi, Historia.
So when had she started to worry about utter strangers, let alone those from beyond Paradis?
She didn't know anymore.
But as she sat next to Eren, both of them relaxed and comfortable in each other's company, she found she didn't care. Whatever would come, they'd endure and deal with until they either died or they won the right to live in peace.
End of Chapter
Lot of talking, lot of heart to heart. Not a lot anyone else can do, but it's also for the best to be honest. A literal coup just happened, everyone needs to figure out where they each stand with things now, while the Shifters have their own drama in the dungeons.
Early viewing of chapters 10-11 avaliable on my pat-reon:
p a treon . com (slash) akumakami64