FIRST DRAFT

Continues On From Chapter 138 Of Attack On Titan

“Why?”

Armin’s voice rang out from behind Eren. Eren slowly turned around. The water beneath him splashed around as he stared at his best friend. The one person that he thought understood him. More than anyone else.

“Eren, why? Why didn’t you confide in us?” Armin asks. “We could’ve come up with a solution together!” He yells. Eren stared at Armin, before sighing.

“Armin, how about we go on a walk?”

…….

Bubbles rose to the surface of a small stream of red, smoking hot lava. A volcano. Armin stood in front of it, his eyes widening with pure wonder and innocence.

“...Burning water?” Eren stood next to Armin, staring at him. As soon as Armin noticed, however, Eren shifted his gaze down to the lava. He raised his hand and snapped his finger.

The scenery shifted to a young girl running.

“Is that-”

“Yes, Armin. It’s the founder. Ymir.” Ymir’s feet pound the ground as Eren and Armin follow her. “This was the fateful day, the day where us subjects of Ymir were created. Ymir would keep on running, until she eventually fell into a tree and met…a creature.”

“A creature?” Armin asks. He remembers what Zeke told him. About life. And one of the things he saw because of Zeke was a thing, a thing that resembles a spine. A group of beings that were responsible for creating life as we know it.

“It’s called Halucogenia.”

……

“Halucogenia bonded with the founder Ymir, 2,000 years ago, and formed the first titan.” Eren and Armin stared at the gigantic monstrosity that had emerged from the inside of the tree trunk. Ymir’s titan. The founder.

“I don’t know how many of them exist out there. But they’re there. And they’re waiting. Waiting for someone else to stumble upon them.” Eren explains. “They live a simple existence, and as parasites, they bond to their hosts and grant them their power based on the emotions they’re feeling.”

“Ymir now had the power of a god.”

“But Ymir never resisted King Fritz, right? She didn’t fight back against him. Was there something holding her back, maybe?” Armin asks. Eren nods.

“Yeah, something was holding her back. And it was simple.”

Eren and Armin were now in Fritz’s throne room. Numerous children were clinging to Ymir as Fritz flirted with numerous beautiful women, letting them seduce him right in front of the person that had birthed his children.

“Even though Ymir hated King Fritz more than she could ever understand, she loved her children.” Eren says. Armin watches as the paths unfold before him and he sees Ymir building the titans, slowly pouring sand onto the hardened giants in front of him.

“...Loved her children?”

“Yeah. Ymir loves all of us. From her children, to her descendents, the ones with her blood. She’s still here, in the paths, for our sake. You see, Armin?” Eren turns around and looks at Armin. “Ymir has always cared for us.”

Both Armin and Eren stand in the middle of a desert, staring at the beautiful night sky. Stars light up the sky and the moon’s light continues to shine upon them.

“And she cared for us because we were born into this world.”

……

“But even then, why did you start the rumbling, Eren?! You murdered so many innocent people! The full scale of it can’t even be comprehended!” Eren continues to stare at the sky.

“The full scale of it can’t even be comprehended? Armin, by the time you catch up to me, the rumbling will have killed 80% of humanity.” He tells him. At first, Armin is terrified, but he quickly grits his teeth and raises his arm, slamming his fist straight into Eren’s face. Eren falls down into the sand, and slowly sits back up.

“You bastard! If you had just told us about this-”

“What the hell did you want me to do, Armin!? I waited four years, but Paradis couldn’t come up with anything! This is the only way to save Paradis! To save us Eldians!” He screams. He gets back up and continues yelling, curling his fingers into a fist. “I did this for you! For Mikasa! For Jean, Connie, Historia- All of you! I’m saving all of you! You just don’t understand, Armin!”

“Eren…even if you did this for us, you’re still committing genocide! You have no excuse!” Armin yells back. He pants heavily as he walks right in front of Eren and continues to scream. “If you did this for us, why did you let Hange die!? Why did you let Jean and Connie get turned into Titans?! Why, Eren!? Tell me the truth!” Eren looks straight into Armin’s eyes. And Armin notices that his eyes are starting to water.

Eren begins to chuckle as he slowly backs away from Armin, falling back down into the sand. He begins to laugh as tears start to stream out of his eyes. Armin stares at Eren with bewilderment as Eren continues laughing. And a few minutes later, when Eren has stopped laughing, he opens his mouth to speak once more.

“I…was disappointed.”

“Disappointed?” Armin asks. Eren looks up at him.

“I was disappointed with what was beyond the walls…” Eren stared at Armin, remembering Ramzi. “I thought…that there was freedom past the walls. A whole new world!” He slowly gets up as the desert changes back into the sea, “A world where I could finally unchain myself from those filthy walls and experience the freedom I’ve always wanted. But there was none of that.”

Armin could see it now too. Quick memories flashed by of children dying and suffering. People burning alive. A young girl getting ripped apart by dogs. A firing squad shooting people in the back. A man getting hit in the head with an alcohol bottle and bleeding to death. A child getting tortured. He saw it all. Horror, Cruelty. Things he couldn’t even begin to describe.

“You see it now too, right Armin? There was no new world for us. No freedom. All that was left were chains.” Eren explains. Armin stares at him.

“This is what you’ve been seeing, Eren? These…things?” Eren begins to laugh once again.

“Armin, I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen everything, from the rumbling taking away people’s lives, to Paradis getting destroyed. That’s why I wanted to wipe it away. Not just for Paradis. Not just for my friends.”

Armin looks down at his hands. They’ve shrunk down to when he was a child, sitting inside the walls with Eren. Staring at the river of Wall Maria. Before it all came down. He looks over at Eren, who’s also now a child as well.

“Armin, I did it for myself.”

Armin is shocked. Despair sets into his face for a moment, before he quickly begins to get overwhelmed with anger.

“You did it…for yourself? You killed thousands, no, millions of people so you could “be free”?! You’re selfish, Eren!” Eren looks away from Armin, placing his hand over his face. He can feel tears coming near his eyes. He can feel himself breaking completely. But he won’t.

“Yeah, it was selfish…but I finally achieved what I’ve always wanted…! Don’t you see, Armin!?” Eren stands up as Shiganshina district transforms into a gigantic cesspool of memories. Clouds float around the two as memories of everything Eren has seen float around them. “You should understand! The world we saw in that book…!”

​ “The world I saw in your eyes…it was like you saw something I could never understand! You should understand more than anyone! I wanted to see it all-! And I have! It’s all spread out in front of me!” His hand reaches out into the memories as it all opens up to show him standing above it all, as a child.

“I’ve finally-!” Armon raises his hand and slaps Eren straight in the face. His face curls in disgust and anger as he stares at his old friend. Eren looks straight at Armin and grits his teeth. “Why…are you looking at me like that…?”

“You’re disgusting Eren… you know, was beating the shit out of me and telling Mikasa that she’s a slave done for yourself too? Was betraying us, working with Zeke and turning the military into titans for yourself?” Armin asks, his voice seething with anger. Eren looks down at the ground. He gulps and looks up at Armin.

“I did it to…distance myself from all of you…” Armin laughs.

“To distance yourself from us!? Oh, so was getting Jean and Connie turned into titans done to distance yourself from us too?” He grabs Eren by the collar of his shirt and pulls him towards him. Eren’s eyes widen, but he makes no attempt to break away. Instead, he turns his gaze away from Armin. “Answer me, Eren!” He screams.

Eren closes his eyes and lets out a weak whisper.

“No, I…I didn’t want it to happen-” Armin throws his fist into Eren’s face, sending him flying into the ground. The memories around them begin to disassemble and the ground disappears, turning into sand.

“You didn’t want it…to happen…” Armin mumbles. He begins to walk back as he looks at the ground below him. “Sand…” He crumbles onto the ground as he slowly begins to laugh. “You didn’t want it to-” He continues to mumble this as he starts laughing more and more. Eren stares at Armin, his eyes begin to shake and widen as he watches Armin mumble the same thing over and over again. He reaches his arm out.

“Armin…” Armin starts to scream and laugh.

“SO THAT WAS IT!” He yells out. “I GET IT! YOU KILLED MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, JUST SO YOU COULD BE FREE! YOU TREATED MIKASA LIKE SHIT, SO YOU COULD BE FREE AND DISTANCE YOURSELF FROM US! HANGE, JEAN, CONNIE…THEY ALL DIED! BUT YOU DIDN’T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN! RIGHT!? AM I WRONG, YOU BASTARD!?”

Eren shivers. He looks towards the ground and closes his eyes.

“Armin…I’m sorry. But,” He grits his teeth and looks towards Armin. “I had to do this. It was all set in stone, from the very beginning. I couldn’t change it. So, I had no choice. I had to go along with it-”

“Another justification, Eren?! You know, you first said you did this for yourself. Then you said that you didn’t want to do this, and now you’re saying it was all set in stone. You’re a hypocrite.” Eren stares at Armin and shakes his head.

“No- That’s not true.”

“It is. I don’t know which one of your reasons is the real one, but I do know one thing, Eren Yeager. You’re a liar. A monster. Hopefully Mikasa will be able to move on from you and hopefully the world forgives us for your actions.” He says calmly as he stands up. Eren stares at him.

“Mikasa…”

“Oh, so now you care for her? What happened to that care before you started this rumbling? Were you going to wipe out all of humanity just so you could reunite with the girl you’ve been rejecting for years?” Armin mocks. Eren places his hands on his forehead and looks towards the water.

“No, it’s just…I never loved her like that, Armin. She’s my family. I want her to move on, but…”

“But what?” Eren looks up at Armin.

“It’s…nothing. You’ll see it eventually…” He explains. Armon stares at him.

“Eren, I can see how this battle will turn out. You’ve shown me. We will win. Mikasa will cut your head off, Zeke will die and-”

“You can’t see it all like I can. That isn’t the truth. It’s the past. I’m telling you now, Armin. You have a choice. No, the rest of you also have a choice. You will see the future I can see if you make the wrong decision.” He slowly stands up.

“The future you can see…?” Armin asks. Eren stares at him and shakes his head.

“Armin, while here I’m showing you how this battle will happen. I will give you the chance to win so you can make the decision that will change the course of fate. I can see it now. All of you have that choice. I’ve given all of you memories of the future. And I will erase them once you leave the paths.” Eren tells him. Armin’s eyes widen.

“...Huh? Choice? Memories of the future…?”

“As for Mikasa, I’ll suppress her memories until she can make that choice. I’ll get rid of the titan curse, but-” Eren stops talking mid way, and looks towards the ground for a moment, before he places his hand on Armin’s shoulder.

“Listen, Armin. You’re my best friend. Please…please make the right choice…for Historia, Mikasa and the rest of Paradis…”

“Wait, Eren. Why are you-”

It goes black for a moment, before he awakens right on top of the founding titan.

“WE’RE LEFT WITH NO OTHER ALTERNATIVES!” Jean yells.

“Huh-?” Armin grunts. Jean grits his teeth.

Wasn’t I just…

“ARMIN!” Jean yells. Armin jolts and thinks for a second.

“Yeah, I know.”

Where was I just now-?

“We have to kill Eren!” He says, gritting his teeth together.

What did you tell me, Eren?

……

The colossal titan was gone. So were all of the other titans. Piles of rotting bones and steam were all over the land. Steam covered the air as all of the colossal titans disintegrated into nothingness. All over the world, the titans that had been causing the rumbling were gone. And Eren’s founding titan was gone as well.

Armind slowly got off the ground. Everything hurts. He feels as if he had just fallen asleep. He looks around.

Smoke…?

“Armin.” He hears Mikasa’s voice pounce out from the smoke as her figure slowly emerges from the smoke, cradling Eren’s head. Armin stares at the head, before looking away.

“I…remember.” He mumbles.

“I do too.” Mikasa says, as she slowly kneels down over to Armin. “Are you okay?” Armin nods.

“It’s funny…I can’t forgive that bastard, but I can’t help but feel sad when I see him like this.” Mikasa tilts her head down.

“I’ll…give him the burial he needs.”

“Burial he needs? What’re you saying, Mikasa? That bastard? He doesn’t deserve anything!” He yells. Mikasa stares at him.

“Armin, he did all of this to save Paradis. He had no other choice. He told me…it was all set in stone…”

“He told you-?” And then Armin’s eyes widened as he recalled what Eren had told him.

“All of you have that choice. I’ve given all of you memories of the future.”

Armin gulps. Did we make the right choice-? He thinks. He looks at Eren’s head and sighs, burrowing his head into his hands.

“Fine. Go, Mikasa. Nothing I say will change your feelings for that maniac.” Mikasa gasps for a second, before shaking her head and getting up.

“I’ll find a boat or some type of vehicle in order to get back to Paradis. I’ll see you later, Armin.” She says as she walks off into the smoke.

“Damn it, Eren! What choice did we have to make…?”

……

Reiner stared at the corpse of Hallucigenia. The worm slowly begins to shrivel up as the titan;s disintegrate around it.

“Huh…? What happened…? What did you do, Eren? What choice did we have to make?” He mumbles, before quickly looking towards his surroundings. “Wait, the titans…Mom? Mom!” He yells out.

Each of the Eldians wake up quickly after remembering their talks with Eren.

“That bastard…” Pieck says.

“No, you couldn’t have just done it for that…!” Annie yells out.

“You…” Levi says as he stares at the sky. “Erwin…he did it, for himself?” He smiles as he begins to close his eyes. “I finished your last order, Erwin… I’m sorry, that it…took so long,” Levi apologizes while his soul slowly disappears from this world. He lifts his arms up and hits them against his chest one last time. “I….dedicate…my heart…” A single teardrop comes out of his eye. “To…humanity.”

Falco stares at the titans disintegrating, before hitting his fists against the ground.

“Gabi! No…no…please!” He screams.

As Annie walks among the smoke with Pieck on her back, she looks around for their fathers. They hold onto some type of hope that the people they care about are still alive. But they can feel despair slowly clinging onto them.

Reiner, in the meantime, sits on the ground looking at the disintegrating bones around him.

“Mom…Jean…Connie-!” He mutters to himself. Armin walks over to him and sits down besides Reiner.

“So he did reverse the titan curse…” Armin says as he stares at the smoke in the air.

“Armin…what choice was Eren talking about? Did we make the right decision, or not?” He asks. Armin continues to look at the smoke for a quick moment, before quickly falling to the ground.

“I don’t know…! I don’t know what Eren meant! He got Jean and Connie killed! He set Hange on fire! He murdered 80% of the population! And…I’m still doubting myself!” he cries out through his tears.

That’s when they hear the sound of a gun behind them. Armin quickly turns around to see armed soldiers pointing their guns at Armin and the other Eldians that are still left.

“Wha-” Secretary Miller walks towards Armin and stares at him.

“What is your name?” Muller asks. Armin stares at him, before he clenches his fists.

“Armin Arlet.” He tells him. Muller sighs.

“Armin Arlet, thank you for saving all of us Marleyans. We won’t hurt you. However…” He looks away. Armin sees the same terror in Muller that he saw back when a man had shot a cannon at him, Eren and Mikasa.

“No…we won’t hurt you!” Armin yells. Muller shakes his head.

“Paradis…is a threat…”

……

It wasn’t until a week later that the world had sent its forces to Paradis island in order to destroy it once and for all. Even though the alliance was viewed as being heroes that had saved everyone, the world had their fears about Paradis confirmed. Even with the curse of the titans gone, the island was still reduced to rubble.

Only a few of the “Island Devils” had survived the attack, and they were now running from their demise.

And all the heroes could do was watch. And all Armin could do was watch from the small cellar he was in as he awaited his fate.

“Eren…” Armin whispered to himself. “Is this what you meant by making a choice?” He sunk to the ground and began to cry. “Damn it… damn it…”

Mikasa was still on the island when the attack came. She had buried Eren’s head next to a tree overlooking Shiganshina district. In the end, she had never let go of the scarf that Eren had given her. And that tree where she spent her childhood was where she died.

Reiner sat alone in his room, holding a rifle in his hands. He stared at it for a moment, before sighing and falling down onto his bed.

“I…can’t do that to him…I can’t do that to Falco…”

Annie and Pieck sat next to each other on a bench, looking at the sunset.

“So, in the end, Paradis is being destroyed. Commander Magath, Gabi, our fathers…we’ve lost them all.” Pieck says. Annie nods.

“Yeah, I don’t…I don’t know what to do anymore. My father was the one thing I was living for. And…and now he’s gone. I was so close too…” She raises her hand and looks at it. “I was just about to talk to him, for the first time in 9 years…and then that bastard…”

“Annie, you still have Armin.” Pieck points out. Annie looks at her, before blushing.

“Huh!? What-”

“I don’t know how it got to that point, but both of you clearly like each other. You still have him. Go and talk to him.” She tells her. She looks up at the sky and smiles.

“What will you do…?” Annie asks. Pieck looks at her, with tears streaming down from her eyes.

“I don’t know…”

Falco lay in his bed, staring at the dirty gray wall. He closed his eyes and thought about Gabi.

“She’s dead now… she’s gone…” He sniffled and turned around, burying his face into his hands. Falco begins crying when he hears a knock on the door. He sniffles once more, wipes away his tears, and then heads towards the door. He opens it to see Reiner standing in front of him. Reiner smiles. And that’s when Eren’s voice rang out.

So, you guys made the wrong decision…

Reality shifted as Armin, Pieck, Annie, Reiner and Falco all found themselves in paths. The path tree continued to spread out in front of them. And in front of that tree was Eren Yeager.

“Ere- Eren?! How are you still here?! Why are the paths still here?! Didn’t you end the titan curse?!” Armin yells. Eren stares at Armin, before sighing.

“Armin, I trusted you once again, only for you to make the decision that resulted in the end of Paradis. Historia, Mikasa, Jean, Connie, Captain Levi… They’re all gone because you five made the decision to kill me. You made the wrong choice.” He says coldly.

“Eren…you bastard! Why are you still alive!?” Reiner screams as Armin falls to the floor.

“Mikasa and Historia…they’re dead too?” He mutters. Annie stares at Armin, before walking over to him and hugging him.

“Armin, it’s okay…”

“It’s not okay.” Eren says. “None of you understand.”

“”EREN! WHY ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!” Reiner screams once more. Falxo shakes with anger.

“Eren, why…we killed you! How are you still alive?!” Eren looks straight at Reiner.

“I…am an afterthought. I have replaced Ymir within the paths now, giving me complete omnicity. I exist over all of time now. So when I removed the curse of the titans, I never replaced myself.” He turned around as Pieck grit her teeth and rushed at Eren. She raised her fist, ready to punch him.

As she was about to hit him, however, her legs gave out and she fell to the ground.

“Didn’t you hear me? I exist everywhere now. And, I can control all of you.” Pieck groans as she attempts to get up, but instead keeps falling to the ground. Armin looks at Eren, before standing up.

“Eren…what are you planning to do now?” He asks. Eren turns around and looks at him, before a slight smile appears on his face.

“I will keep moving forward, Armin…” The path tree glows behind Eren as he raises his hand and electricity begins to flow between him and the tree.

“What’re you doing, Eren!?” Falco yells. “Please, stop this!” Reiner grips his fist.

“Eren…please. Whatever you’re planning to do…” He says as he walks towards Eren. “Stop it!”

“Eren, there’s nothing you can do now! The colossal titans are gone! Paradis is destroyed! You can’t go back in time!” He yells out. Everyone nods. But Eren doesn’t stop.

“Armin, who says I’m going back in time…? The only thing going back will be my memories…” Armin’s eyes widened.

“No…No! Eren! Eren stop!”

“Memories?” Falco mutters. Reiner runs towards Eren, raising his hand while getting ready to pull Eren back.

“My enemies will be destroyed…” Eren says as the tree begins to shimmer.

“Eren, please! Don’t-!” Armin stops as he’s about to finish his sentence when Eren turns around. Tears emerge from his eyes.

“Goodbye, Armin…”

A bolt of electricity hits Eren and everyone gets thrown out of paths.

I’ve done this….over and over again…and I never learned…to finish the job…

But this time, I’ll do it differently…

I promise you…Historia…

A flash of Historia and her baby being shot appeared in front of Eren. He grit his teeth and shook his head.

I’ll save you…and our child…because this…

“I did this for you!”

is the story…

“Armin, I did it for myself.”

I…

“I did it to…distance myself from all of you…”

started…

“No, I…I didn’t want it to happen-”

For you…

“Eren, what would you think…about me having a child?”

2,000 years ago…

“Let’s…do it together…Historia…”

“EREN!!” Mikasa yelled out.

“Mm?”

‘Wake up. It’ll get dark if we don’t go home now.” She said.

“...Huh? Mikasa… Aww, when did your hair get so long…?” Mikasa stared at him.

“Were you really so sound asleep that you were still dreaming when you woke up?” She asked, while walking away.

“No…but I feel like I just had the longest dream…” She looked back, before seeing something on his face. “What was it? Now I can’t remember…”

“Eren?”

“Huh?”

He looked up, but for a split second Mikasa wasn’t in front of him. Instead, there was a tall man with long black hair staring at him.

“Wha-?”

But he still heard Mikasa’s voice. And at that moment, the man had a look of longing on his expressionless face.

“Why…are you crying?”

END OF ATTACK ON TITAN