Chapter Text
In the year 850, humanity finds the lost journals of Grisha Yeager.
The lives of countless soldiers were sacrificed for those three, leather-bound books. But the contents within proved well-worth the sacrifice.
Those within the Walls learn that they are not alone in this world, but rather the descendents of a race of war criminals, dwelling on a pseudo prison island. They learn that technology has advanced far past their nascent, fumbling innovations. They learn the true origins of the titans and how they were created. They learn much also, on Titan Shifters, these superior battle forms that seemingly everyday men are able to wield. They discover that there are nine of them in total, and that Marley holds five.
They learn the name of Eren's titan, The Attack Titan, and the story of Grisha and Eren Kruger. They learn the horrid, uncomfortable truth behind the Beast Titan's parentage. The journal spills secrets of the Internment Zone, it paints a picture of oppression, racism and poverty. It speaks of centuries of contextual history that they have never dreamed of.
For all the journal offers, it leaves newer questions unanswered. The world looms larger than it ever has before.
So, Eren thinks to himself, this is the ocean.
There is something oddly emptying about achieving your dreams. No one had told him that. In the space that used to be inhabited by ambition, desperation, and struggle, now there is simply… the view.
It’s a lovely view, to be fair. Even now, with the sun beating down on them and his hair turning tacky from the saltwater ( salt. water. Eren is going to take it back by the bottle and sell it and be rich. But later), there is something inexplicably lovely about the beach. The complimentary colours and the cool wind. The ever present sound of laughter in the air.
Eren stands just a ways into the ocean, submerged to his knees in the cold water. In front of him, Sasha and Connie have ceased attempting to dunk each other to try and dunk Jean. Jean, meanwhile, is too busy mooning at Mikasa in the sunlight to defend himself. Mikasa stands closest to Eren, face fixed downwards, fascinated by the sight of her toes wiggling in the water. Armin and Hange are further back, excitedly discussing something scientific about seashells that Eren can’t be bothered to pay attention to.
He’s here. It’s real.
Part of his desperation to see the ocean was born of hope. If Armin’s grandfather’s book was right, then there aren’t just oceans of water, but oceans of sand too. And there are great big mountains and apparently some angry mountains that spew fire. The thought is almost too much to handle. For the first time in his life, Eren doesn’t feel caged. He feels limitless.
“So,” says Captain Levi. Eren startles. He hadn’t heard him approaching. Everyone has been splashing around in the water all morning, yet it’s somehow fitting that Levi moves without making a sound. “You’ve achieved your dreams. You’ve seen the ocean. Now what?”
“I don’t know,” Eren says. Out of the corner of his eye, Eren sees Mikasa watching him curiously too. “I’m still deciding. What about you, Captain Levi? Once you’re done killing all the titans left, what will you do?”
“Who says that was my dream?” Levi says. He turns his head sideways and smirks at Eren. He doesn’t deny it though. “Maybe when I’m done with all the other titans and bored out of my mind, I’ll just kill you.” Eren knows he’s joking, so he isn’t afraid. Still, something in that smirk makes him shiver. Behind him, Mikasa splashes pointedly and glares at Levi. He rolls his eyes. “But I suppose your bodyguard over there wouldn’t let me. I’ll settle for your piece of shit half-brother instead.”
Eren’s still trying to accept that he even has a half-brother. “The Beast Titan?”
“Yeah. I’ve got a score to settle with him.” Levi turns back to look at the ocean. His gaze is long. Eren knows he’s picturing Marley across the sea, and all the Titan Warriors. He doesn’t doubt the vision is bloody.
“That makes sense,” Eren agrees, in some way. He hasn’t forgotten the destruction Zeke brought on the Survey Corps, the dead bodies of his friends. He will avenge them or die trying, he knows this with certainty. But it seems wrong for that to be his dream, too. Eren, loathe as he is to admit it, is prone to hopelessness. This world is cruel, and it has been cruel to him especially. In his vision for the future, he wants something hopeful. Something for Armin to rouse him with when he’s out of it. Something worth waking up for. “I think… I want to make it so that everyone within the walls is safe.”
Levi turns to look at him. Mikasa has moved closer, and the others are paying attention now too. Eren bristles a little at the attention, but he’s proud of what he’s going to say next. “I think I want to bring everyone here. Queen Historia, and the Garrison soldiers. I want to make it so that whoever wants to, whenever they want to, they can see the ocean, too.”
There’s something soft in Levi’s eyes. He doesn’t say anything, but Eren can tell he approves. He feels a pair of hands clap onto his shoulders. Hange-san smiles down at him. “Eren,” they say. “I think that’s an excellent plan.”
Six months ago
Eren wakes up screaming.
It takes him a second to reorient himself, to register that he isn’t fifteen metres tall and slumped over Wall Maria. His sense of sound returns first, and he can hear Armin and Mikasa calling his name. He blinks his eyes open and sees a dimly lit room behind a set of bars. Armin’s blonde head is highlighted by the torch in the hallway outside the cell.
“Eren, it’s okay. You’re safe. We’re in Wall Rose,” Armin says.
"Eren? Are you alright?” Mikasa asks. “You were thrashing around.”
“Yeah, sorry. Just a nightmare.” Eren scrubs a hand down his face. He remembers where he is now. Solitary confinement for going against the orders of a superior officer. They’ve been in here for only two days, and Eren loathed it the first day, unused to stillness after the constant adrenaline rush of the mission. But after the nightmare he just had, he finds himself comforted by the dimness and solid walls. Eren takes comfort also, in the sight of Armin’s concerned gaze across the bars of his cell. The solitary confinement is a bit of a stickler, sure, but Armin is alive. What a laughable trade off.
“What was it about?”
“Nothing, really. It wasn’t linear, just flashes. I haven’t been able to wrap my head around everything in the journal.” Eren hugs his arms around himself. “It was bad enough knowing I ate my own father, but now I find out my half-brother’s the Beast Titan? It’s too much.”
Armin rests his forehead against the bars in sympathy. "For what it's worth, you're nothing like him. He’s a coward. And you’re not, Eren.” He looks earnest, and Eren trusts him not to lie.
He also trusts himself to know that while he’s always struggled with believing in himself, he would never run from a fight unless he was ordered to do so. He would never have abandoned a comrade to certain death, no matter how impossible the odds. If this is the thing that separates him from his brother, then he is content with that.
It’s just… “He told me he wanted to ‘save’ me. What does that even mean?”
“It means he’s willing to play mind games on an exhausted child to try and garner the upper hand. Who knows what he would have done to you if Captain Levi hadn’t shown up and scared him off? ” Armin’s gripping the bars with both hands now.
“There’s still so much we don’t know. My father wrote about getting the Attack Titan from Eren Kruger, but we still don’t know why he gave it to him.”
"It could be that Kruger knew his time was up inside Marley, and he needed to make a break for it. I mean, he did attack an entire port full of soldiers," says Armin.
“But why do that? Why risk it all for my father if he killed hundreds of patriots before?”
“Maybe he felt disillusioned that his plan didn’t work out. Zeke could have used the Beast Titan for the benefit of the Eldians in the Internment Zone, but he sided with Marley instead and hundreds of patriots were executed. Perhaps Kruger knew it was only a matter of time before someone tracked him down, too."
“Why didn’t he come to the Walls himself then?”
“Kruger was a soldier,” Mikasa says. “It’s harder for a soldier to blend in than a doctor.”
“And Dr. Yeager was committed to the cause. It’s not a bad choice. I mean, in the end, by giving us the Attack Titan, they dealt a serious blow against Marley. If Kruger had tried to trigger a revolt from inside Marley by himself, it probably would have been crushed with overwhelming force. But we have an army, resources, and distance. There’s a lot more we can achieve with it,” Armin posits.
“Then why did my father give me the Attack Titan? Why didn’t he just use it himself?”
“He likely recognised the Colossal and Armoured Titans. It’s possible he believed Marley was going to invade, and he knew there was a chance they might identify him and realise he had a Titan Power. Giving it to you was barbaric, but the safer option.”
“I guess that’s true. I just wonder if there’s something about the Attack Titan that allowed me to activate the power of the Coordinate, before. Some hidden ability I don't know about.” Eren sighs. “I feel like I’m missing something.”
“Honestly? Me too,” says Armin. He’s slunk down to sit on the far wall, facing the divider between their two cells. “I’m grateful for all the information Dr. Yeager left us, but it feels almost like it’s given us more questions than answers.”
“There’s no point wasting sleep over it now. I’m sure Hange-san and the others who are going through the journals again will pick up some clues,” Mikasa says, voice firm. “Everyone, let’s get some rest. You should be getting some rest too, Armin. You’ve overstayed your guard shift.”
Mikasa has been hovering more, since they tried to take back Wall Maria. Eren gets it in a way. Armin almost died. When you’ve lost as many people as Eren and Mikasa have, every subsequent blow hits harder than the last. Eren doesn’t begrudge her her concern, but he wishes she would look after herself, too. The fact that she knows Armin overstayed his shift means she’s likely not been sleeping either.
“Mikasa,” Eren asks. “You okay?”
“Yes, Eren. I’m fine. Goodnight.”
He rolls his eyes at her predictable response. He supposes she’s right anyway. While they’re stuck in here, there’s nothing to be done but rest. Eren looks down at his hands. There’s some phantom pain in the right one, from when he fell from the Wall and had to brace himself. The actual injury has long healed, of course, before he even hardened his skin to pull that final trick on Bertolt. But the echo of pain remains.
It’s still hard to believe he was flung by a 60-metre-tall Titan into Wall Maria, and then fell all 50 metres down. It’s always been a struggle somewhat, acknowledging the pain from his wounds in battle but knowing there’s no point in reacting to it because his body will heal it anyway. It feels almost surreal, that he could have endured so much of that pain; pain unlike any he has ever felt in his life, and have absolutely nothing on his body to prove it was real. Nothing to show for it.
Eren supposes in another world, where the walls and the titans never existed, it would be twisted to wish for scars. But he remembers nights in cadet training, when the instructors would show off the myriad patterns that were raised across their skin. In the Survey Corps, scars are proof that you fought well, and though the enemy was strong, you were stronger. Eren, deprived of scars as he is, has always felt that others have paid the price for his victories over and over again. He wants to show them that he has bled too, that they’re not alone in this. Now, with their numbers down to the single digits, he wants that to be true more than ever.
“Eren,” Mikasa scolds again. “Go to sleep.”
He sighs, but acquiesces. It doesn’t take long for him to fall back asleep. His dreams remain the same, disjointed flashes from the last few weeks. Slicing through the nape of the Colossal Titan, begging for Armin’s life, flying through the air.
And a dusty old picture of a family, with a young, eerily familiar son.
Morning dawns much the same as the sun sets in an underground dungeon, but Eren’s soldier's body is conditioned to rise early anyway. He rolls out of bed and stretches, thoughts still consumed with their conversation from the night before. He leans against the wall and massages his right hand in slow circles to stave off the awkward phantom pain.
He knows that the Power of the Founding Titan can only be unlocked by someone with royal blood. But from his father’s account of his meeting with Eren Kruger, the First King’s Vow prevents any royal descendants from using it. So Eren knows he can’t simply suggest Historia eat him, even if she would agree to it this time. But Eren did manage to utilise the ability for a brief period of time, meaning there is some way to overcome the blood condition. Maybe he has to picture a royal when he screams? He can’t say for sure that’s what he was doing, but he isn’t going to rule it out.
And if royal blood is somehow linked to the Power of the Titans, what does that mean for someone who is a royal, and is a titan, but not the Founding Titan? How many of Zeke’s abilities can be attributed to the Beast Titan, and how many are a gift of his blood?
And really, maybe Eren is just a little upset. The Beast Titan has an astounding number of abilities, the Female Titan can mimic other abilities, even the Colossal Titan has a special steam attack. Eren can’t even talk in Titan form! Hell, Eren couldn’t even harden his skin until he drank that vile of titan spinal fluid Historia’s father had. There must be some ability the Attack Titan has. It frankly isn’t even the best offensive titan, if he’s being honest. Why is it even called that?
“The Attack Titan…”
“What are you doing?”
Eren jumps. Hange, Levi and Armin are standing outside his cell door, dressed in full gear. They’re staring at him with varying degrees of curiosity and concern. Hange-san is, naturally, the most inquisitive.
“Commander Hange! I didn’t see you.”
“What were you doing?”
“What? I wasn’t doing anything.”
“You definitely were. I saw you. You were doing this.” They lean back against the wall, wiping their expression off their face and staring intently into the distance. They hold their right hand gingerly in their left. Their voice drops theatrically. “The Attack Titan…”
Eren splutters. “I- I wasn’t doing that!”
“Yes, you were! I saw you! Levi, Armin, you guys saw him, right?” they demand. Eren feels red creep up his cheeks. “What were you thinking about?”
“Nothing, it’s not important!”
“Leave him alone, Hange. He’s a 15 year old boy, he’s probably going through a phase,” Captain Levi says. Eren wants to die. He can hear Mikasa’s muffled laughter from the next cell over.
“What phase?”
“I’ll explain later, Hange-san. It’s not right to explain it in front of him,” Armin adds solemnly.
“What! Armin! Just- just shut up! What are you guys even doing here anyway?”
Captain Levi pulls up the edge of his cloak and reveals a ring of keys. “We’re busting you out.”
“I thought I was supposed to be disciplined for another ten days?"
“We had a talk with Premier Zackly, so don’t worry about it. We can’t really keep the heroes who vanquished the Colossal Titan inside a cell forever. The people would revolt against us,” Hange jokes.
“Besides, I think what Hange just did counts as punishment enough,” Levi adds. Behind him, Armin coughs out what sounds suspiciously like a laugh. “I’m sure you’ve been adequately disciplined and know to never disobey your superior officer again.”
Levi unlocks the door to their cells and Eren pretends he isn’t immensely grateful. He’s ready to be out and helping and doing something. He sees Mikasa emerge from her cell. He notes the pallor of her skin and the way her dress hangs awkwardly off her frame. He knows now that his earlier concern was valid.
“Mikasa, did you lose weight?” He frowns. “We had plenty to eat, though.”
Armin turns an assessing gaze on her as well. “He’s right, Mikasa. You’re paler than before, too.”
“I’m fine,” Mikasa dismisses. “You look well, Eren.”
He supposes he does, given his body is incapable of functioning at less than optimal conditions before it attempts to heal itself. Mikasa has no such luxury, yet she fusses over him anyway. Eren wishes he found it less frustrating.
He opens his mouth to say more, but Hange cuts him off. “Well, you’ll have to catch up on sleep later, Mikasa. Hurry and get dressed. We’ve been summoned for a special council.”
“By whom?”
The edges of Captain Levi’s lips curl. “The Queen. It seems Her Majesty has come to Trost.”
In no time at all, they’re dressed, stuffed with military rations and sitting in a courtroom that seems obscenely bright compared to the cell he just came from. The galley is filled to the brim with government and military officials. Eren and the others sit in pews in the middle of the room, where previously only the highest ranking members of the Survey Corps would sit. He supposes there are so few of them now that they all technically hold some rank or another. On a dais in the front of the room are several senior military officials, alongside Premier Zackly and Queen Historia.
“Shall we get this going?” Hange-san asks, shuffling papers on the desk in front of them.
Zackly clears his throat, smacks the gavel down, and the council begins.
“This council has been called into session to discuss the contents of the following three journals: The Early Life of Grisha Yeager, Our Knowledge of The Titans and Their History, and The World Outside The Walls. The only people aware of the existence of these journals are currently those sitting in this room. These journals were recovered through the efforts of nine living Scouts and 199 others who gave their lives. Today, and in the Queen’s presence, I would like to assess our situation and establish an agreement in terms of our course of action. Scout Commander Hange Zoe, you may speak.”
“Thank you, sir.” Hange-san stands up. “I’d like to begin by following your example and acknowledging that the Survey Corps has lost many lives in pursuit of these journals, including our former Commander Erwin Smith. But in exchange for their sacrifice, we have retaken Wall Maria and stolen the power of the Colossal Titan." A rumble of approval from the galley.
"But that does not mean we are safe. Those of us who live within these walls remain in a precarious position. It would be a relief if the titans were the only enemies we faced. However, the truth is that our enemies are fellow humans. You could even say, our enemy is the rest of the world.
According to these journals, we’re a special race of people, known as the Subjects of Ymir, who can turn into Titans. We once controlled the largest empire on Earth; the Eldian Empire. There’s a belief in the wider world that we may one day rule again. That’s why the rest of the world wishes to eradicate us for good. Grisha Yeager was entrusted with the power of the Attack Titan and sent to reclaim the power of the Founding Titan from the Reiss family. The royal family of the Walls, though they possessed Titan Powers, were unable to make use of it due to the First King’s vow, renouncing war. Dr Yeager achieved his goal and passed the power of the Founding Titan on to his son, Eren. However, in order to wield the power of the Founding Titan, it must be in the possession of someone with royal blood…”
Eren tunes out the rest of Hange’s speech as he contemplates their words. The power of the Founding Titan. The Coordinate. The ability to create and command Pure Titans. Zeke’s ability to do this must stem from his royal blood. Eren wonders though, if the royal must become a titan in order for the ability to manifest itself. If Zeke isn’t the Founding Titan, but he can exercise it’s ability anyway, clearly royal blood is more powerful than it seems.
Is it just that Eren must come into contact with royal blood in order to trigger it? He thinks back to when he was able to manifest the ability, after Reiner and Bertolt had betrayed them in Wall Rose, and can’t find a single time he made contact with Historia. Once Ymir had caught her, the others had kept Eren captive against the chest of the Armoured Titan. There was no way they touched.
In fact, the only people Eren had touched between being captured and triggering the ability were Ymir, Reiner, Bertolt and Mikasa. And, he supposes, that smiling titan he had punched.
That smiling titan…
For so long, Eren has been consumed by hate for the titans. That titan in particular, with its broad grin etched with rage in his memory. His first glimpse of horror was when that titan ate his mother. He wonders idly if the titan he punched had been the same one.
All titans were once humans. And when Eren really thinks about it, no two titans ever looked quite the same. Similar in height sure, but their features always differed in some way. With a shudder, Eren remembers Ragako. They had concluded that titans came from humans long before they discovered his father’s journals based on resemblance alone.
Several images flicker quickly through Eren’s mind. His brain links them together before his consciousness catches up. A small sketch of Connie’s parents. An old photograph of his father’s first family.
A blonde, blue-eyed woman. A smiling titan with the same hair and eyes. Dina Fritz. The smiling titan. Dina Fritz, the smiling titan.
“That’s it!” Eren yells, standing up from his seat.
Eerie silence meets his call. He snaps abruptly back to reality. From the first pew, Captain Levi heaves a sigh. Hange-san turns slowly to face him. “Eren?” they ask. “What is it?”
“Umm,” says Eren, mortified. He isn’t sure if he should share this information in front of everyone in the council. He has no way of determining its validity. They didn’t exactly manage a sketch of the smiling titan before the other ones ate it. “N-nothing.” He says and promptly sits.
Hange blinks. “Ah... Right. Interesting.” They turn to face the dais. “My apologies. He’s in some sort of phase now where he randomly stands up and yells things.”
Historia coughs politely into a closed fist. Premier Zackly blinks. “I see. How unfortunate. He is around that age, I suppose.” Eren splutters.
Armin leans towards him from his right. “Eren, what is it?” He whispers.
Eren shakes his head and mouths back “later”. He’d be grateful for Armin’s help. While Eren and Mikasa have been stuck in a cell to ‘think through their disciplinary issues’, Armin has had time between his shifts to read through the journals. If there’s some way to prove what Eren suspects, Armin will think of it.
“Anyway, as I was saying,” Hange clears their throat, “the threat of the wider world, and particularly the nation of Marley, cannot be ignored. We have already fallen victim to their attacks before, and paid the price dearly when we lost Wall Maria. For now, the enemy’s recent defeat and their assumption that Eren can manifest the ability of the Founding Titan will hold them back. But it is a temporary measure. We must be prepared for an eventual confrontation with hostile nations.”
There is a beat of silence as everyone processes Hange’s words. Hostile nations. It seems almost laughable to think titans were the preferred option, but knowing titans are merely weapons of a more menacing, more human enemy? Eren can’t really believe it, but he would probably pick plain old titans.
Premier Zackly clears his throat. “You say the enemy suffered a defeat, Scout Commander Hange, but it was no easy victory for us either. The Survey Corps was almost entirely decimated in this operation. If war comes sooner rather than later, how will we face this enemy?”
Hange clasps their hands behind their back. “We propose a multi-pronged approach. First, securing Wall Maria must be our top priority. If we are to prepare for a war, we cannot ignore the resources within it. To eliminate any titans trapped within, we suggest a temporary reallocation of Garrison and Military Police soldiers to bolster our regiment until such time as the recruitment process is complete.”
Immediately, the gallery breaks into fervent whispers. “Excuse me, Commander Hange.” Eren recognises the man speaking as Commander Nile, head of the Military Police. “But should we not be consolidating our numbers and doubling down on the interior in preparation for this threat?”
“You would say so, Nile. But the enemy will not care how many walls you retreat behind,” says Commander Pyxis. “The Garrison will gladly lend its soldiers.”
“This is not as easy a task as you-"
Historia says, “I don’t see why not.” The gallery falls silent. Eren marvels at how confident she sounds now, at how much she's changed from the girl he remembers. “Commander Hange is right. And besides, these Walls will become too crowded whether there’s a war or not. Our first priority must be to secure and fortify Wall Maria. Commander Nile, your queen requests that you send soldiers to assist in the Survey Corps’ efforts.”
Commander Nile frowns, but bows his head. “It is as you wish, Your Highness.”
“Please continue, Scout Commander Hange.”
“Yes, thank you, Your Majesty. Our second investment must be in the research and development of more technologically advanced weaponry, specifically anti-human weaponry…”
And so they set to action. It takes them a month to organise themselves into mixed-regiment military units, before embarking for the titan-infested enclosure of Wall Maria. The Garrison holds fairly experienced soldiers, especially after the battles at Trost and Wall Rose before. But for most of the Military Police, this would be their first mission outside the Interior and their first encounter with the titans.
Though their fear is palpable, their losses end up being much less than expected. It is sometimes easy to forget that they needed to rank in the Top 10 of their recruitment year to even qualify for the Military Police. They assist in weakening and distracting the titans as more experienced soldiers rush in for the kill. Eren finally gets the chance to rack up his ODM kill count.
They also experiment briefly with Armin’s Colossal Titan and learn valuable tactical information. He ends up being less than effective in a hand to hand fight with the titans, and the most he can do is walk in a straight line as soldiers herd the titans into his path. They find instead that his most effective tactic is rushing into a horde and transforming there, instantly obliterating everything in the vicinity. Still, when he controls the amount of steam he emits, he serves as an effective mobile base to launch off of with ODM gear, which proves especially helpful in more open spaces with little structures to manoeuvre around with.
Comparatively, their experiments with Eren’s Founding Titan abilities are much less successful. He explains his earlier inference about Dina Fritz, and Armin is quick to agree that it’s the most logically sound theory they have thus far to explain Eren’s only successful attempt at manifesting the Coordinate power. Armin was also able to find an entry in Dr Yeager’s journals that contained a brief description of Dina’s transformation and the resulting titan. It matched their memories of the smiling titan, and it was agreed that Eren’s hypothesis was valid.
They end up drawing vials of Historia’s blood, which Connie jokingly says is more valuable than gold, and smear it around Eren’s body at different points in his transformation. They start with painting his human form, which does nothing. They smear it on him after he’s transformed into his titan form, which is equally worthless. They even paint his human face with it and watch him transform, hoping the fact that his titan body connects to his face will somehow trick his titan into believing he’s ingested the blood. It’s futile.
“I should just drink it,” says Eren, even as he makes a face.
They’re currently huddled on top of Wall Maria, having a mid-operation strategy meeting. It has taken them four months to clear out most of the territory, until all that remains to be reclaimed are the old three outposts that were abandoned, evacuated or decimated after the Wall fell.
Eren has sealed the hole leading into the rest of Wall Maria with his hardened titan skin. They’re poised to begin clearing out the Quinta district, which managed to defend itself for a while as a sovereign stratocracy after Wall Maria fell. Cut off from the necessary resources provided by the interior, they were eventually overrun by titans. Signs of the bloody battle litter the city. Still, Hange and Armin are eager to recover whatever evidence they can as to how the city managed to survive as long as it did. For that, they need to limit the collateral damage as much as possible. A goal easily achieved if Eren could just command the titans to die. But he can’t.
“We can’t risk Historia’s blood triggering the First King’s Vow on you if you ingest it.” Armin shakes his head. “It’s too risky.”
“Can’t we just, I don’t know, bleed him out after?” Jean shrugs. “Rinse out all of Historia’s blood until it’s just his again.”
“How will we know when to stop, though? What if we keep thinking there’s still some of her blood and he just continuously… bleeds?” Connie asks, perturbed.
“That’s a good question, Connie,” Mikasa says, glaring at Jean. Her face is doing that thing where it clenches so hard it forms additional shadows across her eyes.
Jean catches sight of her expression, and desperately waves his hands in front of his face. “It was just a suggestion!”
“A bad one.”
Eren sighs. “Honestly, I’m willing to try it. We’ve exhausted literally every other option.” Mikasa turns her glare on him, but it has a significantly weaker impact on Eren than it does on Jean. He sighs again.
“Maybe the journal was right, Eren. Maybe the only way to trigger the ability is for you to come into contact with a titan of royal blood,” Hange notes.
“We can’t turn Her Majesty into a titan, though,” Armin says. “Which leaves us with the Beast Titan, but I doubt he’s willing to help us.”
“Even if he was, I’d rather just kill him and be done with it,” Captain Levi snarls.
“Levi’s right, in a way. The main reason why we desperately need Eren’s ability is to combat Zeke’s. If Zeke wasn’t able to mimic the abilities of the Founding Titan so effectively, the titans wouldn’t be much of a threat. It’s not like we plan to create any titans of our own.” Hange mutters despondently.
Connie glares. “No, we don’t.” Hange’s expression turns sheepish.
It’s been a point of contention within the Survey Corps. Hange argues that they could turn prisoners on death row into titans, using Eren or Armin’s spinal fluid. A rival titan army to release on Marley’s soldiers if they ever come knocking. Provided, of course, that Eren is able to master the power of the Coordinate.
The others are not so convinced. Armin wouldn’t rule out the option, but he thinks there are too many unknowns. There’s no guarantee Zeke can’t overpower whatever control Eren might have. The last thing they want is a screaming match between the brothers over who gets to control whose titans. Connie thinks the entire idea is barbaric. Eren supposes he has the most grounds to feel that way. His entire family and village were turned into titans, hostile and doomed to die. Even if they were the worst of humanity within the walls, dooming them to pseudo cannibalism for the rest of their life? Connie thinks it would make them no better than Marley, if they turned their own people, no matter how evil, into monsters.
Eren silently agrees with him. Logically, releasing a horde of titans to fight Marley’s seems fair. But his earlier hate for the titans feels oddly misplaced now, knowing what he does. These titans were once people who were rebels, heroes in their own right, or victims of unjust punishments. Their compulsion to eat is in the hopes that one day they’ll eat someone like Eren, and be able to recover their humanity, as Ymir did. It’s still monstrous, but now it also seems so sad. Eren finds more often than not that he’s cutting napes as a warped act of mercy. All those people, trapped and waiting to die. He doesn’t want to be a part of any organisation that robs people of their freedom so completely.
“I wonder…” says Sasha. “What if we trapped a regular titan and injected them with Historia’s blood? And Eren touched that titan?”
Eren scratches his head. “I don’t know… That doesn’t really seem feasible. We’d have to drag that titan around with us wherever we go into battle.”
“And make sure it isn’t killed or set loose during the battle,” adds Captain Levi.
“I think Sasha is on to something, though,” Hange says. They’ve crossed their arms and are cradling their chin in their right hand. “What if we can trick Eren’s titan into believing the blood he’s touching is titan blood?”
“You mean like mixing Historia’s blood with titan spinal fluid?” Armin asks. He’s got that look on his face, like he’s on the verge of discovery. “It would have to be mine, Eren's titan would probably recognise its own.”
Eren scrunches up his nose. “And then, what? Paint it on me, again?”
“We’d probably have to repeat the same experiments again, yes.”
Eren heaves a sigh. He uncurls from where he was sitting cross-legged and stretches. “Alright, it’s worth a shot. I’m ready to finally figure this out.” He settles his hands on his hips.
“Sasha, go inform the squads that we’re putting clean up duty on hold while we run through the experiments. They can get started on dinner or something while they’re free.” Hange says, waving their hand in the air as if shooing away a fly. “Tell them to cut back on the liver if they’re making stew. Last night’s meal tasted like the inside of a titan’s stomach.”
“You know, I’m starting to see why they didn’t want to help us with this,” Levi remarks dryly.
“What do you mean, Levi? This cooking duty is sanctioned by Her Majesty the Queen!”
“You’re taking it too far, crazy.”
The others leave them to their bickering. Sasha waves them goodbye as she goes to deliver the news, comments politely rescinded. Armin briefs Jean and Mikasa on where to extract the spinal fluid from as Eren goes and fetches their case full of Historia’s blood vials and syringes. He’s already wrinkling his nose at the idea of it painted on him again. Connie and Sasha had tried to make him feel better about it, making jokes about war paint and how it brought out the colour of his eyes. They’re insane and he hates it. It makes his skin itchy.
Thoroughly briefed, Armin nods at the others once and then takes a running jump off the near side of the Wall. There’s that now familiar crack of lightning and burst of too bright light and then the Colossal Titan is swirling into existence. Eren settles the instinctual reaction of fear and anger that swells up in him as he hands a couple of syringes to Mikasa and Jean. They wait for Armin to fully manifest and then jump onto him. Hange-san ceases their argument with Levi to clamber onto the titan in front of them and direct the operation. In a matter of moments, they’ve successfully withdrawn several syringes of translucent purplish fluid and Armin is exiting his form.
Connie helps Eren empty some blood into a larger vial as Hange makes their way back to them with the syringes. Eren watches as the spinal fluid is mixed in with the blood and swirled around. Someone hands Hange a paintbrush.
“Alright, Eren. Buckle up. We might as well paint it on your face straight away this time.”
Eren braces himself for the odd feeling of having blood painted on his face. The substance is tackier this time, and it takes Hange some time to coat enough of his face in it. If he hadn’t been through so much bloodshed, he’d probably gag at the smell.
“Okay! Whenever you’re ready, feel free to scream,” says Hange. They’ve started to shake with excitement. Eren is reminded of when he first sat down with Hange-san and asked about their experiments, way back when he first joined Squad Levi. Fondness curls in his chest. Some things never change.
Eren obediently marches himself over to the section of Wall that overlooks the overrun Quinta District. Further down the Wall are the borrowed Garrison and MIlitary Police soldiers, staring curiously at these odd Survey Corps. Some of them make horrified faces at the sight of him. Eren brushes their looks aside.
He takes a moment, looking out into the district. The titans have gathered at the base of the wall, reaching upwards with their huge limbs to try and grab them. He concentrates his mind on a single thought: Kill each other, kill each other, kill each other.
He closes his eyes. He inhales, raises his fist, and brings it down with a scream.
Instantly, he feels the painted skin on his face contract slightly. His brain supplies an image of glowing, golden synapses.
He opens his eyes. The titans aren’t moving to kill each other. In fact, they aren’t moving at all. They’re frozen, transfixed, staring at him from the bottom of the Wall. From behind him, Eren hears Armin panting. When he catches his breath, he comes to stand beside him. Armin’s eyes are sparkling. “Eren, I- I felt something.”
Eren presses his hand against his own forehead. “I felt it, too.”
Captain Levi kicks a rock down from the Wall onto the titans below. They don’t budge. “These guys seem to be reacting to it.”
Hange-san is jumping in place. “Amazing, Eren! You’re amazing. Did you tell them to stop moving?”
“No,” Eren says, frowning. “I told them to kill each other.”
Hange-san stops jumping and frowns. “Huh. Maybe the command was too complex?”
“I commanded them to kill something before, though. When I punched Dina Fritz’s titan.”
“Try yelling again?”
Eren does. There’s that strange image of firing synapses in his mind again. The titans shuffle, and then still. No dice.
“Maybe the complexity of the commands is limited by the amount of blood?” Hange posits.
Eren frowns, but stays obediently still as Jean empties the rest of the blood-spinal-fluid mixture over his head. It’s dripping from his hair and he fights the urge to shake his head like a dog. Instead, he opens his mouth, careful to avoid accidentally consuming any of the mixture, and tries again. Klll each other, kill each other, kill each other.
The titans move jerkily, like they’re reaching for each other. Then they pause with their arms raised, in strange aborted movements. Eren frowns. Armin groans from behind him. “Armin,” Eren asks. “What do you see when I scream?”
“I don’t see anything. It’s more like I feel your will in my head, but it’s far away and faint. Just this detached feeling of anger.” Armin wrinkles his nose. “Honestly, it’s kind of unpleasant.”
Hange shrugs. “It’s better than we had before. I guess the spinal fluid made a difference? Eren, want to try transforming?”
Eren nods. “I’ll have to do it up here, though. There are too many of them down there.”
“Understood. Try a simpler command this time.”
Eren nods his assent and the others move back so they aren’t caught in the blast. Raising his hand to his mouth, he bites down in a now familiar gesture. In seconds, he’s 15 metres tall. From within the neck of the titan, Eren can detachedly feel the titan flesh connecting to his human body over the mixture. He pictures a new command, sit down, sit down, sit down.
He looks down at the prone titans and roars.
Something is different. The image of synapses in his mind is clearer this time. He almost thinks he sees himself reflected from different angles in brief snapshots. A lower angle of him standing on top of the Wall. A view of him from on top of it, surrounded by the Survey Corps. A feeling that can only be described as dominating.
A ringing sound in absolute silence, like someone fired an acoustic shot. And then his own voice, sit down, sit down, sit down.
Eren comes back to himself and watches in stunned silence as the titans move to sit down all at once. The smaller ones are crushed beneath the weight of the larger ones as they sit, but they don’t move to struggle free.
A small ocean of titans, sitting down and staring up at him in wait.
He hears cheers from the top of the Wall. The soldiers are laughing, clutching at each other. Hange-san is screaming, arms wrapped tight around a laughing Armin. Behind them, Eren can see the Garrison and Military Police soldiers staring at the titans in awe.
Captain Levi launches himself onto his shoulder. He stares down at the docile monsters below. “Good job, brat,” he says. Something in Eren unclenches. He’s done good. He’s finally, finally, done it. It’s been worth it.
Hange-san makes him try to command them to kill each other again. Eren leans forward and screams the new command, careful not to jostle Levi on his shoulder. The titans waver down below. Some stand, others reach for another while still sitting. Humongous hands close around equally large throats, but none crush down. They stop moving as one.
The soldiers watch from the safety of the wall. The disappointment is palpable.
“It’s like they’re scared stiff,” Jean mutters.
Sasha fires an arrow down into the horde below. It embeds itself into a 5 metre tall titan on the side of its face, from where it has turned to clamber onto its neighbour. None of the titans move. The impaled titan doesn’t so much as blink, even as blood begins to trickle out of the wound.
“Well,” says Captain Levi. “It’s more fun this way, anyway.”
In a burst of movement, he launches himself off Eren’s shoulder and down into the mass of titans below. They remain prone as he whistles between them, slicing off the napes of a line of sitting titans in under a minute. Even as the dead ones begin to fall, the others remain unmoving. He sees their heads cave under the weight. Mikasa turns to look at Hange, who has yet to recover from their disappointment. She waits a beat for instructions, but when none come, she shrugs and dives down into the fold with Levi.
The others don’t take long to join her, and from further along the Wall, some of the other soldiers join in the clean up. It’s their cleanest battle by far. Eren doesn’t think they’ll lose a single person.
He makes to leave his form and help, but someone lands on his shoulder. “Wait, Eren,” says Hange-san. They rest their elbow against the side of his face. “If you leave your titan and break the connection, they may move again.” Eren exhales and obediently doesn’t move.
“It’s strange,” Hange continues. “I really thought we’d get it this time. Maybe you just need more practice. But either way, you’ve done well, Eren. Now we know there’s some way for you to access the power of the Founding Titan. We just need to vary the level of connection between you and the blood.” Hange pats his titan’s ginormous ear. “We’ll figure it out.”
There’s a cloud of steam already filling the air from the decaying titan bodies that obstructs his view of the horde. There’s cheers and the odd laugh from down below, so Eren supposes things must be going well. More soldiers jump down from the camp on the Wall to take the chance at prone target practice.
It’s less than half an hour before Captain Levi lands on the wall in front of him and Hange again. “Coast is clear. We’ve eliminated all of them.” He’s immaculate, clearly unwounded from the fight. All the titan blood must have evaporated off his uniform already. He sheaths his blades. Eren takes that as his cue to emerge from his titan body. He kneels down so Hange can jump off and then dismounts.
Levi waits until he’s beside him before remarking, “If you keep this up, Eren, I’ll be out of a job.”
It startles a laugh out of him. “If that happens, sir, Hange-san owes you one hell of a retirement package.”
Hange hums. “That’s true, Levi. What will you accept payment in? Cleaning supplies? Fresh sheets?”
“The blood of my enemies.”
“No can do. It evaporates.”
“Fine. I’ll also accept incense and virgin sacrifices.”
“Done.” Hange claps Eren on the shoulder. “I volunteer Eren as tribute.”
Eren splutters. Underneath the blood paint, his face is red. He’s about to protest when something shocks him. He’s only seen it once, and the sight still stirs something like awe in him. Levi is laughing. The sun plays with the colours of his hair, turning parts of it brown. His face seems so much gentler when he laughs. Eren forgets what he meant to say. Levi says, “I think you’ll be ousted for harassment before you can get around to paying me, four-eyes.”
“Somewhere, Erwin is shaking his head at me.” Hange chuckles in agreement. They let go of Eren to sling an arm around his shoulders. “Anyway, Eren. What we mean to say is that this is a big help. I’m certain taking back the rest of the Wall will be a breeze. Then it’s back to the interior to report to Her Majesty on our success, then a special trip.”
“A special trip?”
“Yeah,” says Hange, smiling. “You wanted to see the ocean, right?”
Which leaves them here, by the ocean. After clearing out the titans within Wall Maria, they encountered surprisingly few titans left outside the Wall. Hange posits that most of them would have flocked to Wall Rose to get closer to humans, meaning they dispensed with the bulk of the titans in cleaning out Wall Maria. Between the nine of them, they managed to cut down whatever threats there were on the way to the ocean fairly quickly.
Eren gets in some more practice with the Founding Titan’s abilities. They learn that there are limits to his power. The titans must be within 30 metres of his location for it to take effect, and he can only give single step commands. If he wants the titans to kill themselves, he has to give sequential commands. For instance: Stop moving, clutch your throat, press down.
It’s not ideal, for sure. Nothing compared to the carnage he was able to unleash instantaneously when he made contact with Dina Fritz’s titan. But much better than not having the ability at all. After their discovery at Quinta district, they suffered no casualties in clearing out the other districts. Even as they made their journey to the ocean, Eren was able to halt whatever titans they were facing in their tracks and take them down himself. The others rarely left their horses. Humanity is in a stronger position now than it's ever been in before.
They make camp on the beach, on a little cliff overlooking the ocean. They’re so far away from the Walls now, Eren can’t even see them. They sit in a loose circle around a bright campfire, full from dinner.
“So,” says Hange-san. “We can’t ascertain this for sure, because the area outside the Walls is vast, but it seems to be fairly safe out here. I feel confident in saying that we’ve eliminated most of the titans on the island.”
“It’s weird,” remarks Jean, “I thought there would be more of them. In Trost, and the other battles we fought so far, there always seemed to be so many.”
“From what Eren remembers Ymir saying, she wandered the island for 60 years in her titan form, meaning titans don’t age. It’s likely we’ve been facing titans that were created gradually over the last hundred years. I doubt Marley creates thousands all at once,” Armin says.
“Which means, what?” Connie asks, hesitant. “We don’t need the Walls anymore?”
“I wouldn’t say that,” says Armin. “We can’t say for sure that Marley won’t create any more . Especially now that they know we know that they exist, they’ll want to keep us busy while they figure their next steps out.”
“Like some twisted form of a vanguard unit.” Jean shudders.
“We can’t afford to just stay within the Walls, though. If they do send a force, we might not be able to tell until it’s too late," Sasha argues.
“But… we can’t just ask people to leave the Walls,” says Mikasa. “I can’t see anyone wanting to leave and live out in the open right away, even if we tell them it’s safe.”
Hange hums. “You’re both right. We need an advance position, somewhere nearer to the ocean. Like this cliff. If Marley does come for us, they’ll have to come across the ocean. We need a fortified stronghold to give us advanced warning and mount an initial offensive.”
“You don’t mean another set of Walls?” Armin gapes.
“That’s exactly what I mean! But on a smaller scale. A walled, satellite district.”
Eren is stunned. Building outside the Walls? Building walls outside the Walls? He can’t imagine it. Sure, they’re camping out in the open now, with just tents. But it’s nighttime, they’re soldiers and they have two titan shifters in their number. The threat level for them is low. But to undertake a project on the scale Commander Hange is suggesting would require dozens of civilians. Construction workers, project overseers, supply lines. It would be a massive undertaking. “Would anyone even commit to this?” Eren asks.
“The government has to. Sasha was right- if we wait for them to come to the Walls, it’ll be too late. We still don’t have an accurate understanding of Marley’s technological capabilities. They could have weapons we can’t even imagine, even beyond titan powers. We have no room to evacuate civilians if they surround the Walls,” Hange explains. They sigh tiredly. “As for civilian contractors, well… I have a favour to call in with the Reeves company.”
“I can see the appeal,” Levi comments. “If the force within the fort engages with the enemy on first, we’ll be able to distract them while we dispense another force from within the Walls to flank them. It puts us in a fighting position.”
“It’ll be incredibly difficult to construct, though,” Armin says, looking a little sick at the thought of all the planning already. “We’ll need to secure a transport line that will double as an evacuation route. We’ll have to dispatch troops to guard every shipment, and the main construction site. Plus, we’ll need to form some kind of temporary structure at the site itself to house the workers. It’ll take too much time for them to move back and forth.”
“We haven’t even started recruiting,” Jean groans. He looks like a man who knows he’ll get no form of rest for the foreseeable future. Eren can relate.
“After our recent success, I doubt we’ll have much trouble getting people to sign up,” Hange says.
“That’s true,” Sasha notes. “Some of the soldiers who fought with us to secure Wall Maria told me they’re thinking of joining up for real.”
“There you go! One problem solved.”
Levi snorts. He looks up at Hange. The firelight dances across his face. His expression is sardonic. “So, that’s our next step then, Scout Commander Hange? A base outside the Walls? Sounds easy enough.”
Hange places their hands behind them on the sand and leans back. “Yes, a lovely little city.” They smile. “We’ll call it… Fort Erwin.”