Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The metallic plane soared amongst the plentiful clouds, a bright yellow sun beaming across it. Pieck, Levi, Jean and Conny sat sombrely in their seats as Reiner stared out the plane's window, holding onto it's wall. A mellow silence consumed them as they didn't speak. "The fuel is..." Armin remarked as he stared at the black and silver fuel dial, it's pointer standing in the middle of it's gauge.

"Yeah. They only managed to fill the tank halfway" Onyankopon explained from the cockpit's seat.

"Will it get us to Fort Salta?" Armin asked, he was leaning in next to Onyankopon to see the dial.

"I'll make sure we reach the fortress" Onyankopon stated as he looked out to the sky ahead, Armin turning to look at him. "This flight is our last hope, and Hange died giving it to us. I'll deliver you to that base. I swear it" Armin leaned away "So make sure you stop the rumbling, no matter what it takes". Onyankopon continued as Armin looked to him.

Armin paused for a moment thinking about those final words 'no matter what it takes' "We will" Armin turned backwards and walked back towards the rest of the plane "We're in your hands, Onyankopon" he clenched his right hand into a fist. Calmly pressing it against Onyankopon's shoulder. Armin walked forwards, the alliance staring at him "Now then, let's hammer out our plan". Armin pulled out a piece of chalk and drew a side view of Eren's founding Titan into plane's floor. "Pieck, Captain Levi, is this roughly the shape of the Founding Titan?".

"Yeah, though I didn't get a great look at it" Pieck explained.

"Basically, it's a humongous bundle of bones that moves like an insect" Levi remarked. 

"If it's like a normal Titan, Eren would be in the neck near the head" Pieck added. 

"Given the War Hammer's abilities that's not guaranteed" Levi responded.

"In other words, we don't know which part Eren is in" Armin exclaimed

"Even if we don't know where he is, we can blast the whole thing away" Pieck began "The same way you annihilated Liberio's port. With the Colossal Titan".

Armin grimaced slightly "That certainly would be the most effective method" a sharp and brief exhale crawled out of Mikasa's mouth before she blinked and looked to her sides. "And I can't really think of anyway to start talking Eren out of this..." Armin squinted. "But" Armin began "Eren must be using the Founder through Zeke. We kill him and the rumbling stops" Armin looked around to the alliance "That way not only isn't the Founder randomly sent to an Eldian baby, but we can retrieve Eren alive. Safe guarding Paradis' future".

"There's no definite proof, but Hange thought it would work" Levi confirmed.

"But if we don't know Zeke's location either..." Pieck stated.

"A small elite team could find him in Eren's Titan, Levi, Mikasa and me. We'll search Eren for Zeke and if we can't find him we'll... kill Eren" Armin explained.

"Why just Levi, Mikasa and you?" Pieck asked.

"They're our best soldiers they would easily kill Zeke if he transformed, we don't know if he can but I don't want to take any chances, and I would work as a trump card. Even if Levi and Mikasa are somehow killed not only will you be safe but I can now transform" Armin paused for breath "Afterwards the rumbling will stop, and we'll secure Eren and use ODM gear to escape" Armin looked to the rest of the alliance. "Putting you on Eren would be an unnecessary danger for you guys, keeping it to a three man team, with one who can regenerate and blow up, will minimize any casualties. Besides we will need to explain our plans and start some negotiations with the world, having you guys land of Fort Salta, with two Marleyan warriors especially, will be key in setting future peace talks with the world and Paradis".

The alliance independently debated whether or not this would work but everyone's attention was called when Levi spoke. "I'll take Zeke out" he looked to Mikasa "Help me do it".

Jean looked at him and began to speak "Captain... we killed many friends and comrades to get this thing in the sky" Conny leaned his head up at that statement "We can't allow that slaughter to have been for nothing, everything is to stop the rumbling. If Armin allows it, I'll do whatever it takes" Conny leaned forward resting his arms onto his knees.

"Jean..." Reiner muttered.

"I shot Samuel and Daz and sliced up other people I knew" Reiner looked to Conny who stared into the floor "I got called a traitor as I did so, all while telling myself it was to save the world". Conny looked up at Reiner "Tell me, Reiner it was agonizing for you, Bertholdt and Annie too, wasn't it?".

Reiner stared at Conny before looking at his right palm "I can't even make up for the sins I committed anymore, even if we save what remains of humanity, I doubt I'll ever forgive myself" Mikasa looked down as Jean waved hair away from his eyes and glanced at Reiner. Conny sniffled as his eyes watered, closing them as he faced down "So" Reiner grabbed onto his shoulder "Well, let's at least save what remains of humanity".

"You're right, Reiner" Conny opened his eyes at him and held onto his hand.

Jean leaned into his chair, opening his mouth with no words coming out before finally speaking, "Reiner" he began "I can't forgive you" Reiner looked at him "..." Jean paused "But thank you" Jean looked away.

Reiner paused before softly smiling "Thank you, Jean". Reiner walked towards the middle of the plane "On the night of the raid on Liberio, Eren told me he was the same as I am... I... I think I understand what's going on in Eren's head. I think he wants us to stop him".

"What do you mean?" Mikasa asked.

"I mean, it's just a thought that occurred to me. But considering the Founder can alter Eldian biology, can't he remove our powers?" Reiner explained causing stunned faces to fill the alliance except Armin who grimaced in response.

"That's been bothering me this whole time" Armin began "I didn't want to say it, in case Eldian thoughts don't register and I didn't want to give Eren any ideas, but you're right. Our Titan powers are the same, not even a single inconvenience".

Pieck's face grew in astonishment "He's giving us free reign to kill him?".

"Yes, he letting us attempt this" Armin answered "Perhaps he's testing us?"

"Why? We might succeed in stopping the rumbling?" Mikasa asked.

"It must be agonizing for him" Reiner began "Committing genocide is a burden no one wants, especially the Eren I know, I wouldn't be surprised if he's letting us be a possible danger so he could end this without feeling like he's abandoned Paradis. He'd want someone to end it".

The alliance stared in silence until a bright blue light engulfed them, forcing their sitting positions to stand as they fell into an endless void of blue shinning sand. Everyone except for Levi, Mikasa and Onyankopon stood in Paths gazing around them at the other worldly dimension. Armin gasped as the alliance looked around "This again?" Conny began.

"Where's Levi? Where's Mikasa?" Jean added.

"Eren!" Armin yelled, placing his hands by his mouth to further his voice, "Please hear me out! This is more then enough! Not a soul could attack the island for a hundred years! Paradis could simply send the rest of the worst back to the stone age whenever the outside world poses a threat! Make it a continuous cycle that keeps both sides at least alive! What if you just destroyed their military bases! Couldn't you just level Marley! The terror and destruction has been so extreme! You don't have to kill anymore! Paradis will be okay!" Armin yelled even louder, hearing nothing but the sombre silence of Paths. "I'm sorry, Eren! I drove you this far! I naively thought we could just negotiate the island's safety! Pretending that the hatred on Marley didn't already mean war was inevitable!".

Jean grimaced before speaking as well "Eren..." he muttered "Eren!" he yelled "We'll figure out the rest! You don't have to keep committing genocide for our sake!"

"That's right" Conny sniffed "Eren! I hated you after what happened to Sasha! But in truth, you were hurting too, weren't you! And yet, I didn't even try to see things from your perspective at all!" the silence of Paths continued.

"I'm not sure if you want to hear me Eren" Reiner began "But... I know what this is like, I know it sounds too good to believe but please, it's not too late. Your friends taught me that... and I'm sorry".

Pieck looked around, keeping her head stationary but her eyes moving, wondering if Eren wanted her to speak as well but then a voice called from all directions "I'm sorry" Eren began. "I'm sorry for ruining Mikasa's and our relationship Armin, I'm sorry for killing Hange, I'm sorry for destroying Liberio, I'm sorry for murdering so many innocent people and even children" Eren explained "...But after everything I fought for... everyone we lost... I can't leave our future to chance" Armin grimaced. "That's why I called you and Mikasa a slave, Armin, I... wanted you and Mikasa to live long and happy lives without the implication that you are friends with a mass murder".

Pieck looked to the distant glowing and towering tree "Over there" she pointed to a silhouette in the light. Armin, Jean and Conny instantly sprinted towards him while Reiner and Pieck stood still, staring ahead.

"Eren! You heard Reiner! It's never too late! We could use your Coordinate power and force Marley to the negotiations!" Armin yelled as the three of them sprinted across the sand towards the child-like figure ahead. 

"Huh? Ain't that... a kid!" Jean exclaimed.

"Yeah, but that's Eren!" Armin answered.

"Why refuse, Eren?" Jean asked, "You think you can't rely on us?" 

"Why did you leave us able to use our Titan powers?" Armin asked "We can talk and plan out negotiations for a million years while we're here, right? Talk to us! We've always been together!" Armin began to gasp as he ran "Please don't go any farther away! Eren!" the hills of sand had pushed upwards and blocked their view of Eren.

"I... I can't take anything away from you..." Eren answered as the three of them observed that they somehow ended up right next to Reiner and Pieck "If you want to take that... risk... you are free to protect the world, but please don't worry about me... you don't need to anymore". 

The trio stood still in confusion as they stared at the distant Eren, now accompanied by an unknown girl, "But... then why... why did you call us here?" Armin asked.

"To say I'm sorry and that you are now free, use it however you want".

Onyankopon recoiled at the sudden banging of something falling to the floor, looking over his chair to see what happened "What was that? Is everyone okay!".

Mikasa and Levi stared at the rest of the alliance as well "Oi, oi what the hell happened?"

Armin paused before explaining "Eren took us to Paths" he slowly stood up "Apologised for what he did and..." Armin grimaced "Said he wasn't going to stop the rumbling".

Reiner leaned against the plane's wall "It looks like I was right".

Jean covered his face "So there's really no way to work this out?" Connie clenched his fist against the wall, tearing up as he did, while Mikasa stared at Armin with a mixture of confusion and despair. 

"Looks like we aren't gonna solve this by talking" Levi calmly stated as Pieck sat down next to him and wiped her brow "What now?". Levi stared at Armin who looked mortified as the blonde was planning something "Commander?" Levi asked once more. 

"We... all..." Armin grasped his face onto his right palm, stopping his sentence.

Chapter Text

The train roared as it game to an end, smoke poring out of it's chimney and wheels. Countless groups of men, women and children quickly poured out of the train as they scrambled to find any airships. "We're screwed! There isn't a single one left!" a man yelled as he sprinted across the airstrip. Countless empty hangars stretched across the plateau as a large line of civilians stretched across the air base. "No... not after we made it this far...", "Why?", "It's all over..." the civilians muttered as they stared at the distant column of smoke and the silhouette of the Founding Titan in it. 

The Marleyan soldier standing next to Mr Leonheart drew his eyes to the hovering airships "Hold on" he recoiled gently. "Those airships are heading towards the Titans!" he noticed.

"What does that mean?" Leonheart asked, walking next to the solider.

"It's a bombing run! They're gonna blow the Titans away from the safety of the sky!" he looked at Leonheart "They intend to stake the fate of all humanity on this!".

"A bombing run?" a civilian exclaimed, him and the rest of the passengers had now gathered at the plateau's edge to see the Founder and the flying airships. "Are we going to be saved?" another asked before the airfields speakers beamed to life.

"Attention, all airship units and every soldier in this fortress" a white haired man announced from the airfield's tower. "This fortress will be the last bastion left to humanity, the pressure weighing down on your shoulders is immeasurable" he continued "But no matter the result, the responsibility does not lie solely with you" the airships quickly approached Eren. "The responsibility for this lies with all of us adults, we took advantage of hate, instilled and fostered it, believing it would bring us salvation" Karina Braun and Leonheart glanced their eyes together. "All the problems rising from our faults we dumped onto the 'island of devils' as a result. That devil was born and now he's marching his hatred right back towards us" most of the air commander's soldiers looked at him in response to his words and grimaced as if he stated an irredeemable lie, if he noticed he didn’t respond. "If, by some miracle, we manage to have a future again, I vow to never repeat the same mistake".

Karina looked to her left and noticed a mother tearfully grasping her baby, a flood of memories of Reiner's youth flooded her mind all stuck with the image of her demented smile in them. She fell to her knees "Braun?" Leonheart asked.

"Karina?" another man looked at her as she grasped her son's warrior armband.

"This whole time... I treated my boy... as a tool of revenge... I've still never done... a single motherly thing for him..." she wept as Leonheart and the man kneeled down and grabbed her by her shoulder.

"I did the same thing" he stated.

"I hope you will all make the same vow" the commander continued "To break away from our era of mutual hate"

"The airship units are in formation!" an officer next to the commander explained, aiming a pair of binoculars ahead.

"They'll begin the bombardment upon reaching the target altitude" another solider explained. The airships opened up their gates as the soldier's within quickly prepared anti-titan bombs.

"To create a new world where people take care of each other, here and now, we say farewell to our monster!" the airships hung over Eren who didn't seem to know they flew above him. His eyes glancing upwards briefly before pulling back down. "Begin the bombardment" the commander calmly explained.

Green lights buzzed in the airships "Bombs away!" their officers yelled as they quickly dropped their payload onto the rumbling below. Setting an ocean of fire upon the titans, melting the faces off Colossal Titans killing many out right. But for Eren the ammunition simply bounced off his body uncaring of the ordinance.

"They're so high up that the bombs keep missing!" an officer yelled.

"Have them go lower, if they need to, tell them to resupply at base but make them step on it!" the commander yelled. The bombardment kept reigning hell upon Eren who didn't even respond even as the airships kept the bombing up for minutes on end. He looked up at them debating if he should shoot them down, ultimately deciding to ignore them. 

"The bombing..." an officer began "Has no effect on target..." everyone in the tower looked on in horror.

"Have them come back to base immediately!" the commander yelled "Resupply at once and continue the bombardment again!".

The passengers looked on in horror as the bombs stopped falling "Did... it not work?" one civilian stated. 

Leonheart approached Karina grasping onto her shoulder "I'm certain Annie and Reiner are alive on Paradis Island"

"Yes" she agreed before closing her eyes.

"Look" a young girl pointed to the sky "What is that?".

The plane's propeller slowly began to die down "Dammit! We're running on fumes!" Onyankopon complained as the plane confidently soared forwards in the clouds, bursting out of them to see the millipede like skeleton ahead "I see him!" he yelled.

"You ready Armin!" Mikasa quickly asked as the blonde haired man stared at the plane's door sombrely squinting his eyes as his hands twitched. 

Armin breathed deeply in and out before looking at Mikasa "No, I don't think I am..." he looked back to the door "But I don't have time to complain".

"I'm almost directly above him!" Onyankopon barked the plane's shadow barley casting on Eren as it kept gaining more and more altitude.

"Remember, focus on fuel we need everyone to land safely" Armin ordered as everyone else began walking over to the cockpit. The plane was far above the Founder at this point, not even casting a shadow on it as it flew towards the distant fortress.

"Now!" Onyankopon yelled making Armin force the door open, his ears instantly ringing in response. Armin said nothing as he jumped out the plane soaring down towards the Founder, quickly lowering his altitude by allowing gravity to guide him. The plane flew far ahead and gained a considerably altitude. 

As Armin descended his mind was weirdly calm, not even thinking of Eren or the fate of the world anymore just falling. 'This is a very strange feeling' he thought as he fell closer towards Eren's spines 'I don't feel that scared at all, I can see everything clearly' he fired an anchor at Eren's bones and began to fly among his spine towards his nape. 'I feel like no matter how this plays out, I can't accept whatever happens' he increased his speed and saw Eren's head 'That's right, everyone's in the wrong, there's nothing we could do' he grappled onto Eren's nape. 'Because this world' Armin bit down on his left hand, blood crawling out of his wound, 'Is just... that cruel'. Armin transformed creating a massive explosion that engulfed Eren's entire Titan body. The boy in the nape simply closing his eyes a spark emanating from him before Armin’s vision went dark.

The smell of salt water crept into Armin’s nose as he opened his eyes, he was lying back down on the shoreline of an endless sea. Waves crashing into him as he slowly stood, caws of seagulls circled over head as he quickly noticed Eren in a black shirt staring out to sea, everything below his knees submerged in the salty water. Armin walked towards him by his side, the sun’s beams dancing across the shimmering water. “Eren?” Armin asked anxiously as he stood next to Eren.

”Hey Armin” Eren wiped his eyes with his arm.

”Why are we here Eren?” Armin composed himself more and asked curiously.

”I wanted to spend some time with you, for as long as I could” Eren looked to Armin “It’s too late now but do you really think the world will accept Paradis?” Eren asked in a calm and non-judging but somber manner.

”No” Armin answered calmly as he looked at Eren “The violence has reached a boiling point, it’s impossible to put it out now” Armin looked out to blue horizon ahead. “Maybe if we engaged Marley without angering the rest of the world and traded with them, perhaps we could have slowly reduced the global tensions. Paint Paradis not as hero’s but as something not worth people’s time” Armin concluded. 

“But how would we pull that off?” Eren asked Armin.

”Force the Azumbito’s hand, say that we’ll never trade unless you give us contact with foreign nations. Then work from there, Hizuru needs Iceburst stone to prosper, we could have forced their hand”.

”I don’t mean to sound rude, but why didn’t you try that?”.

Armin paused and looked down before speaking “I hated myself since Erwin died and so I trusted more in Hange’s leadership than my own”.

”You trusted your comrades and as a result you failed?” Eren’s eyes perked at what Armin said.

Armin scoffed before chucking slightly “Yeah basically” Armin sat down.

Eren followed suite and sat down as well “I’ll be honest, saving you wasn’t the only reason I did the rumbling”.

Armin looked to Eren intrigued “Huh?”.

”When I kissed Historia’s hand, I… saw the future” Eren stared blankly ahead.

”What!”.

“I saw this conversation, the rumbling, Sasha’s death, the deceleration of war and well everything. I saw all my future memories, I even… I even went into the past and manipulated my father into…” Eren paused before continuing as Armin stared in absolute confusion “Killing the Reiss family”.

”Oh my god Eren… why?”.

“I did it so Grisha would take the Founder from them, guaranteeing I would have the abilities to defend us”.

Armin looked on in confusion and horror, grabbing the back of his head before continuing “How did you do that?”.

”I just distanced myself from them, I already saw myself telling my father to kill them so I felt it was easy to just ignore their suffering”.

”No, how, can you manipulate your father in the past? Are you capable of time travel?”.

”Not exactly, the Attack Titan can see future memories, so when Zeke used the Founder’s powers and entered Grisha’s memories”.

”You simply talked normally and those memories got sent to Grisha? Allowing for communication between time?”.

”Yeah basically”.

”You also mentioned Zeke using the Founder?”.

”Right I’ll explain everything ever since I touched Historia’s hand”.

Minutes passed into hours as Eren delved into what happened, stretching as far back to when Ymir Fritz became the Founder to when Eren started the rumbling. “Eren I’m…” Armin looked on at Eren trying to speak.

”Yeah, I can’t think of anything else to say either”.

Armin ducked his head onto his knees before looking back at Eren “I don’t think I can forgive you for the rumbling” he tugged onto his collar “But I don’t think the citizens of Liberio could forgive me for what I’ve done”. Armin stood up “Thank for telling me this, Eren” Eren stood up as well.

”You’re welcome Armin”.

”What happens now?”. 

“I’ll think I’ll speak to everyone else, tell them everything as well. Just didn’t know how to break this them before” Eren scratched the back of his head before looking at Armin “Do you want to do anything else here?”.

”Eren…” Armin stared at the Yeager “Can we just… watch the sea together?”.

”Yeah… yeah we can”.

The two of them sat back down, their lower bodies resting in the crashing waves as they stared out to never ending sea.