-
"Okay, so, pay attention, this is important! Can you see that curved thing over there, right there-" he pointed. "That's the city we grew up in; actually, your father and I. Now, your mom, let me see..." He was thinking a little harder. "I would say she lived around that area over there, next to that mountain. Oh! And there's the river! You can see some new huts around there. It's great, people are finally coming back and starting new lives here. And, now, when we turn this way, look at that view! It's amazing isn't it? We can't really see it but beyond the horizon is the ocean. I'm sure you will love that." Eren smiled.
- Summer of 852 - On Top of Wall Maria
The boy was following his eyes and smiling. It was a lovely day. Eren kept pointing at locations around the southern region of Wall Maria, and telling Azzy many stories. The small six-month-old boy wasn't very trusting even for his age, but he loved early Sunday strolls with his uncle; he trusted Eren a lot. He felt safe. Eren was so focused on his tales while Azzy played with his uncle’s hair and shirt, that neither of them noticed the elevator slowly starting to move. Someone was coming up.
"Mikasa will kill you." Armin had his arms crossed as he slowly materialised on the side of the Wall.
"What? It's not like I'm going to drop him," Eren argued while faking the gesture.
"I- I wasn't even considering that possibility." Armin laughed, a little worried, as parents can often be.
Azzy laughed too; he thought it was time to play, and he reached out for Armin to hold him.
Eren gave the boy to his father. "You should've said something," Armin complained. "We were worried sick."
"I left a note. You guys are always so busy with Hange now. It's a nice day today, and we don't know how many more of those we will get." Eren had made his point.
"Yeah, I saw that 'note'," Armin replied in a serious tone. "You should be more focused on our Survey Corps meetings. Especially now that we are working on rebuilding Shiganshina. What are you running away from?" He paused. "You know what? I don't wanna know. But please don't use my son as your excuse to skip out on your responsibilities." Armin told him sternly. Azzy got a little scared; he didn't like to hear that tone from his father and he felt that he was the one in trouble. The boy buried his face in his father's coat.
"Armin-" Eren looked down and then looked further away, in the direction of Shiganshina. "I don't have much time left," he said reflectively. Eren continued: "And neither do you, we both know that. You should be focusing on making good memories for Az, not on stupid Survey Corps meetings-"
"Stupid?" Armin cut him off. "First of all, you are not in any position to tell me how I need to raise my son. Second, we finally have the chance to rebuild the place we grew up in, and of course I want to be a part of that. Third, we don't even know if that curse is even remotely real. You get too caught up on your fathe-"
"It's real. And you know it is." Eren was the one cutting him off now. "Otherwise, why is this one even here?" He pointed at Azzy. "I get it: you guys want to make the most of this short life. But he's not a token, you know? Or a doll to play with whenever you have time or feel like it. If you knew from the start you would only have eleven years with him, why are you wasting them now?" Eren questioned him.
There was a moment of silence as Armin was sizing up his next words, thinking of what to say. He hated fighting with Eren, but as they grew older they were drifting more and more apart. They were adults now, so Armin had to give him the proper response.
He looked at his son in a way to assure Az he was okay, not in trouble. The father then fixed up the boy's hair while holding him more properly in his arms.
"When you have your kid, you do what feels best for them." Armin replied.
He positioned the mechanism for the elevator to go down. And left his friend there, perplexed, thinking, remembering.
.-.
- Year 867 - undisclosed location - Somewhere in the Colonies:
"Are you sure we all have to go?" Reiner asked Jean while they were preparing things to set sail.
"You heard Onyan over the radio, it seems Levi is pretty desperate," Jean responded.
"Maybe he's overreacting." Annie suggested, she had her arms crossed. "We all have things to do here, we shouldn't all leave at once like that. Also, this could be a trap. Have you even considered that?" she asked.
"Good point," Pieck complemented. "What if we all get captured by Eldia because of this? What then?"
"We are not going to get captured," Connie assured them. "I trust that old man with my life, so if he says we all should go, then we all should go."
"It will be dangerous, but it's not like we haven't dealt with even more dangerous missions than this before," Jean added. "I understand why Levi wants us all there: we can cover more ground and find him faster," he pointed out.
"I just don't understand why he's so desperate about the kid, so what? Maybe he just ran away. It seems like a waste. I get the plans Kiyomi made, but that's all politics, and we agreed we wouldn't get involved with that stuff. I just don't understand why we have to get involved with this." Annie replied, she was not convinced.
"It's not about politics. We need to make sure the boy is not in danger, for everyone's sake." Connie said it without thinking, and Jean gave him a look.
"Everyone?" Reiner repeated. He sighed, and he dropped his face on the boat's wheel. "Please don't tell me this kid inherited The Founding."
"That wouldn't make any sense," Connie replied.
"Right, and it's not like after all these years you two would keep something like that from us," Pieck said, looking straight at Jean.
"It's a little more complicated..." Jean was looking for the right words. It's not that he wanted to lie, but it was difficult to explain something when you don't understand it yourself.
"Just know that, if he's in danger, we all are," Jean told them.
"You don't know, do you?" Annie asked him. "Neither of you do." She turned to Connie. "Well, I hope it's worth it. Reiner, it's your call." She was waiting for orders. She trusted his judgement.
"Well, I trust the Captain," Reiner responded. "I know we haven't been to the Island in so long, but if this is as important as they are saying, then we should go," he concluded.
"Okay, so we go," Pieck said. She was curious to know why they were being deceptive. Unlike Annie, she could tell that they were not being straightforward. "What are we waiting for?" she asked.
"Coordinates," Reiner told them. "Onyankopon is supposed to send them, but he doesn't know the place Levi is taking him... yet."
[Still] - Year 867 - Arriving at the Lighthouse:
"Okay, do your thing, like you said, and tell the others where we are. Quick! We can't waste time," Levi told Onyankopon, who snapped out of his daze.
"Yes, yes, I'm sorry, I got distracted for a moment, I'll send them now..." he replied, reaching for the equipment.
Onyankopon had been appreciating the architecture of this amazing building; it was a lighthouse, far west from the actual harbour of the Island. It was strategically placed, hidden, but graceful. He looked up at the high tower. "I bet you can see everything from up there." Onyan didn't even notice that he was speaking out loud.
"I believe that is the point of a lighthouse." Levi replied with annoyance. He wasn't in the mood for Onyan's enthusiasm. "Come on, let's dock it here, you can drool all over the construction once we get close to it," he said.
-.-
"Okay, we have a location," Reiner announced. "Are we all ready to go?" he asked. They all nodded. "I can't believe I'm actually leaving Falco in charge here," he joked.
"Better him than Gabi," Connie joined in the joke.
"Gabi will probably take over, and he won't even notice." Pieck told them. She was right and they knew, so they all laughed.
The old friends set sail, back to Paradise.
- Year 867 - "The Void"
"Maybe we shouldn't do this." Mikasa said worriedly.
"What do you mean?" Armin could see Mikasa was unsettled. She feared for something, he wasn't sure why, but he wasn't used to her neglecting his affection. They were always as one, even in their newfound 'life'.
"Not today," she replied. Mikasa looked to the side at the window reflectively. Armin rolled over to his side of the bed. She then stood up and went to look at her reflection in the mirror.
"It's not like we can tell day from night in this place," Armin complained. The dream looked exactly like their bedroom, at their home. It was all an illusion, but it almost felt real, then it was gone. They weren't concentrating enough to maintain the illusion any more. The reflection Mikasa was seeing in the mirror became nothing but stars far away, she sat herself on the sand, next to the small pond.
Armin started counting the stars again. "They shifted again! I don't understand. Where are we? It looks nothing like our night sky." He was puzzled by that.
"You are not going to get anywhere by looking at them." Mikasa was annoyed, but he didn't know why.
"Well, it would be good if I could chart the skies, but it's not like I have a pencil or anything else - beyond sand - to help me here." Armin grabbed the sand and it quickly fell apart in his hand; it was of no use, he had to resort to memorising the sky's variations. But it was confusing, even after all that time they had been there, he couldn't find a pattern. The stars shifted too many times.
Mikasa was right; he should probably drop it.
Armin looked at his love. He was glad they were there together; that was the one redeeming thing in their condition. He finally noticed that Mikasa was holding her lower stomach, as she stared at nothing. She did that sometimes after they were intimate. How hadn't he noticed this before?
"Is... everything okay?" he finally asked her. Mikasa put her hand to the side. Armin tilted his head. "Are you in pain?" He asked more worriedly.
"Pain?" Mikasa made herself look confused. "We can't feel physical pain in here. What are you talking about?"
"I didn't mean physical. I just wished you would tell me what bothers you so much." He sighed.
"Do you feel pain? In there, I mean." Mikasa had never actually asked that before, she hadn't wanted to know the answer to that. But in this moment she really wanted to change the conversation.
"I did, at the beginning; but I think, whatever it was, I've healed since then," Armin started to explain. "I don't know, I don't think much about my body in there. I don't want to accidentally open my eyes, because I could lose you. I could be just trap-"
"I know you can get out." Mikasa interrupted him. She didn't want to hear more lies. "I know you can leave the wall, you can break that crystal. It was made by you." she argued.
"How can you possibly know something like that? I've cogitated that, yes, but it came from memories I don't trust very much." He didn't want to leave the void, even though he probably could. Armin was fine where he was. He was happy.
"You shouldn't talk out loud next to me, about things you don't want me to know," Mikasa told him. "Even if you think I'm sleeping."
"When did that happen?" Armin couldn't remember the last time he thought of all that, it had been years! He didn't understand why Mikasa was bringing it up now.
"Years ago, probably." Time was a strange thing in that place. Looking into the pool, seeing Azzy growing up, was the only thing that helped them track the passage of time in some way, but they knew it wasn't the same in the void. "I was waiting for you to tell me, but you never did." She confronted him.
Armin couldn't understand why she wanted to bring all that to the surface all of a sudden. "Do you want me to leave?" he asked, saddened and confused.
"Of course not. I don't want you to ever leave me!" she exclaimed. "I just want you to tell me everything. Not for you to hide things from me." she stated.
Mikasa was hiding something vastly important. But she couldn't talk to him about it. It would make it real. She didn't want that.
"You know, even if I did get out, it's not like it would change anything," Armin pointed out. "I would just die again. In that wall, surrounded by other walls, it's a labyrinth! And it is in the middle of the desert. I would die before I could reach any civilisation to aid me."
Mikasa was thinking, she cogitated: "What if you survived? Don't you care about our son at all?" She held her stomach again, in the same way as before; she was a mother. "You could see him again."
"Of course I want to see him again. How can you even suggest that?" Armin did care about Azzy a great deal, but their bond wasn't as strong as the one the boy had with his mother. Armin had always felt that Azzy was able to make his own way in life. He would never admit it, but he did value Mikasa over their child. He couldn't help it, that's just how he felt.
"So a walk in the desert is the only thing in between you two, and you never even considered going back? All these years?" Mikasa could not understand; she would do anything to have their son back, to be able to hold him again.
"Mikasa, I am sixty meters up in the air, I would die for sure." Armin argued. That was a gamble he didn't want to take. "We don't know how this place works either," he continued. "It seems like it's infinite." He looked at the sand dunes, it looked like they would go on forever. "If I die, actually die, I'll probably end up in a completely different version of this." Armin was afraid his nightmares would finally catch up with him. He was at peace here, with Mikasa.
What Armin didn't know was that he was also keeping her nightmares at bay.
"I would never see you again." He exclaimed.
Neither of them could bear to think that.
They stopped arguing about it.
"He is fine, we know he's finally going to Hizuru. No more running. He will be better protected there." Armin wanted Mikasa to feel at ease.
Mikasa and Armin sat next to the pool to watch over their son; he was there, at the harbour. They could tell he was safe. He was sitting on the sidelines, waiting for his uncle. People were boarding the ship.
Azzy was reading a note he'd found inside that bag of oranges. And they could see the note too.
"Oh no." Armin feared for the worst now. 'Damn it, Eren, you could've at least tried a little harder to disguise your handwriting,' he thought.
They couldn't believe that Azzy took the bait. But it's not like they were there to advise him. Armin knew Levi wouldn't be able to find him in time, he wouldn't be able to stop it. They both knew.
"It's amazing how you can sense these things." Armin finally concluded why Mikasa had been so fearful lately. Or at least that's what he thought. It was a good reason. "You are right, and I can't depend on other people to take care of him. I need to go, I need to look for him. I need to find him." Armin knew the level of danger they were all under.
Mikasa was extremely upset now. Hypotheticals were one thing, but she wasn't ready for Armin to actually leave.
"I'm sure I'll find a way. Somehow I'll leave this maze and go meet him." The situation was unusual and they both knew it was important, but Mikasa didn't say a word. She just stared at the pond.
"Please say something," Armin begged her.
"I don't want you to go," she told him in a quiet voice. As she watched their boy in the reflection, running. Mikasa sighed, she knew her son was more important than her selfish needs. Azzy was in danger.
"Please take care of him. Please, keep him safe." the mother pleaded.
They kissed, one last time. Then held each other for a moment. They both hoped it would be forever.
Armin looked at her eyes, and just like that, he was gone. He faded away, like sand in the wind.
Mikasa was all alone now. 'Don't leave me,' she thought, but it was too late.
Armin opened his eyes, in the real world, for the first time in almost thirteen years.
-.-
And with difficulty, he slowly started to melt himself out of his own Titan Crystal. The unearthly material melted and moved around like blackened lava. Soon, all those gigantic mountains nearing the epicentre of the labyrinth started to move.
-.-
- Year 867 - The Lighthouse
Levi was annoyed; he had tried this and that, from shifting the knob, to try breaking the lock. Nothing was working. Onyan was looking around for a mat or a fake rock, because that's what people usually do, regular people. "You won't find anything, these are not the kinds of people who hide keys under mats," Levi informed Onyan while pushing into the door with his shoulder as hard as he could.
'There's a LOT of anger in that,' Onyan thought to himself as he observed the fascinating phenomenon of Levi Ackermann's 'I am done with all of this' mode. "I don't think this is going to work-" Onyankopon said as Levi was frantically kicking the door, to no effect.
"DAMN IT! What is this door made of?" Levi asked furiously. That door seemed to be made of a Levi-proof material.
"Calm down!" Onyan, worried that he might be kicked too, raised his hands in a defensive manner.
Levi crouched down and started observing the lock. "Do you have a gun?" he asked as he turned to Onyankopon.
"Yes." He wearily placed his right hand on his head. It was barely sunrise and this had already been a stressful day. And he knew it was only starting. "It's in the boat." They went down to grab it.
As they were walking down the marina, Onyan looked back to the amazing construction once again. He noticed the ring of water surrounding the lighthouse: it wasn't like a regular river, it completely separated the lighthouse from the rest of the Island. "Was this man-made? Why is there a circle of water surrounding the house?" he wondered out loud. "If it's just for aesthetic purposes, it seems like a lot of trouble to go through, just to have that." The waters reflected the building, the sky, and the surrounding vegetation; it was a beautiful multitude of colours in the sunrise.
"That was a trench," Levi said, "when the owners of the house came to live here, we still had a titan problem outside of the Walls."
'The Walls' - Levi hadn't used that kind of phrasing in a long time. It took him back for a second.
Levi continued, "But it was dealt with, completely. After that, the trench wasn't needed any more, so they decided to let the ocean fill it in with water. Be careful though, it's very deep. If you are thinking of going for a swim," he joked.
"I wasn't..." Onyan was a little embarrassed. But he was too fascinated by all that construction. "There's no way someone could dig a trench as wide as this and also deep..." He looked up at the lighthouse tower. "Oh." He finally realised it: he could tell that tower, in addition to being made by a white crystal he had never seen before, was also around fifty to sixty meters tall. "This is Armin's house," he concluded.
"Yes." Levi cocked the handgun he'd finally found amidst the supplies in the boat. They went back up to the house. "I'm sorry, Arlert. But it's not like you are here to complain about the damage." He shrugged his shoulders and shot the lock.
[Still] - Year 867 - The Maze of the Dead - near Fort Salta:
"X1 to tower, X1 to tower, over."
"Tower here, X1, I hear you, over."
"We have a Code Thirteen sir, what are the orders? Over."
The operator took some time to respond. They'd never had a Code Thirteen before. The New Mid-Eastern Forces were one of the strongest parts of the New World Alliance. Their operations were in plain sight; they didn't need to hide like Marleans in the colonies. Eldia had no interest at that point, of invading that region. For some reason, they'd left the Maze of the Dead alone. The NME had one of the best squadrons in the world. Second only to Hizuru. One of their missions was to guard the maze, and observe if it ever showed any changes. There were people living nearby, so it was just a precaution. They had daily checks, but in all those years nothing had ever happened. The labyrinth remained.
A Code Thirteen meant 'disturbance on the Maze'. The operator never had to deal with something like this before, so he had to ask his superiors.
"X1, stand by." He was waiting for a decision and so was the pilot.
"X1, do you copy? Over."
"I copy. Over."
"Proceed and investigate."
"I'm sorry, can you repeat that? Over."
"Investigate the disturbance, and bring back to the base a full report. Those are your orders. Over."
The pilot took a moment. There were so many legends about that place. Horrible ones. But this was his job, it was his duty.
"Understood. Over."
-.-
"You weren't at the meeting."
- Year 86? - Hizuru?
The boy was sitting over the balcony sill, in between the huge marble columns. He was playing with a small ball, hitting it against the marble wall.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you," Armin told his son. He hated it when Azzy acted obliviously like that.
"I forgot all about it." Azzy replied, shrugging. He found those meetings extremely uninteresting.
"What we are doing is important," Armin affirmed.
"Building weapons?" His son retaliated. Az never understood how that could be considered 'peace'.
"We are protecting ourselves, Az. You need to know how this place runs. You'll have to take over someday." The boy was getting older; Armin hoped his growing wasn't just in stature.
"Why?" the boy asked.
Armin sat down next to him, and placed his hand over his son's shoulder:
"Son, I won't be here forever. I need to know that when I'm gone, you will be able to find your way..."
Azzy started hearing noises, like in a very busy street. It was faint at first but it kept getting louder and louder. He couldn't hear his father any more. He started to lose the image too. Fading. Even with his eyelids closed the teenager could feel the sun starting to shine over his face.
"Hey!" A voice shouted at him. "What do you think you're doing, boy?"
The boy woke up.
- Year 867 - Southern Rose Region - Trost
The man couldn't believe it. This stupid teenager was restfully taking a nap over his stand.
Azzy stood upright, then dropped out of the tent's roof. He was a little dizzy, but he managed it with style.
"Aren't you going to buy anything?" The man wanted him to inadvertently pay for that nap.
"Sure." Azzy wasn't a big fan of pomegranates, but he picked one up. "Here you go." He gave the man some of the change he had.
The man could see the shining object coming out of his pocket.
"I believe you'll find you are a couple of cents short, boy." he said, extending his hand, asking for more. 'Those rich kids,' the merchant thought. He'd concluded from the boy's appearance and possessions that he was from one of the old noble families.
Azzy gave him more money. 'I need to hide this watch better,' he thought while burying the golden piece further down in his pocket.
"Okay, now let's see." Azzy looked around the town looking for plaque signs. He sighed. He was still in the middle of the Journey; this was taking forever.
- Year 867 - The Lighthouse Shores:
"Woah." Reiner was amazed as they reached the lighthouse. Jean thought that it made sense Levi had chosen to meet them there. The place was full of weapons and maps, and it was a perfect base to start organising their search. They got closer to the marina; it was a beautiful and peaceful morning, but they had more urgent and concerning matters to deal with, than watching the lovely sunrise.
"So, I gather this is the weapons vault," Onyankopon said with his arms crossed as he watched. Levi had turned a hundred different combinations but he couldn't figure out the code.
"I hate you, Armin," Levi muttered.
Onyan couldn't help being a little entertained, but at the same time, one shouldn't talk ill of the dead.
They were underground, in the basement, but that place was so serene and so empty, that they could hear the others arriving.
"Urg!" Levi was beyond frustrated with this whole situation they were in. "I hope they brought weapons. Coming to this place was a waste." He raised himself up and went with Onyankopon outside to greet the others.
It wasn't a complete waste - they needed a place in the Island to meet, and that spot was incredibly abandoned.
"This could make for an amazing military base." Reiner was appreciating the tactical potential of the construction.
"Still, why would we have a base on this Island? We should build our operations as far away from here as possible," Annie told him. She had a point.
"Unless we have another war, then this would be a perfect spot. It seems it's neglected by their Forces-" Pieck stopped as she realised they were all staring at her, as if she said something wrong. "If you think this is an unlikely possibility you are all very naive," she told their group. "We could be starting one right now; we've already discussed the risks of simply being here." Pieck was the only person in their troop that wasn't attached in any way to that Island. Even after everything the 104th had been through, they still had a blind spot when it came to that place.
"Guys-" Connie interrupted the war talk. He raised his hand up to the sky, pointing at something materialising in the distance. "I believe we have company."
By the time Levi and Onyankopon reached the door, they could see the airplane perfectly. They didn't have much time to decide what to do.
"Do we hide?" Connie asked.
"Our boats are docked, there's no way the pilot will miss that. And it's not like we have time to cover them or even sink them." Jean was thinking fast.
"We fight." Reiner told them. "Whatever it is. Be ready."
- Year 867 - "The Void"
The pain was unbearable.
Mikasa was alone now, and somehow, that place seemed darker.
No one out there could hear her scream.
She was kneeled with both her hands pressing against her stomach. The pain and agony made her slowly drop forward, until she rested her forehead on the sand.
'Please leave me alone,' Mikasa thought as she cried.
She could hear a young voice around her, in the wind; but she always pretended she didn't. This was her nightmare. If only she knew that the voice was calling for her, not out of harm, but for help. The voice wanted to be heard and loved.
She wanted to meet Mikasa.
It was all an illusion, but Mikasa could feel the blood running down her legs. It started to rain as she cried; the pain was so strong now that she almost passed out. The water overflowed the pond, the blood quickly mixing with the water. The small being was rocking against the waves; it had been no bigger than a marble when they'd both died, but that didn't mean it didn't have a soul. Mikasa was horrified, she couldn't help herself. The rain water slowly turned into blood too. She sat against a tree now, with her head on her knees, horrified as the blood rained. Mikasa embraced herself and rocked back and forth, pleading for the nightmare to stop.
It finally did.
Mikasa looked up to see only the sand dunes and the stars in the horizon. All the blood, the rain and rocking waves, all of it was gone. It was all pure calmness and silence, until she heard a voice: the goddess was speaking to her.
"I'm sorry if you feel this way." Mikasa recognised the voice immediately, a voice she hadn't heard in over twelve years, she turned her head in pure anger. "I'm a mother too, I understand your pain. But you need to stop blaming yourself for your deaths. If you don't, this place can really destroy your mind," Ymir told her. She'd been there a very long time, she was wise about those things.
"You!" Mikasa quickly raised herself up to attack. "You are doing this to me." Her lunge was unsuccessful. Ymir was like a ghost: Mikasa couldn't reach her, and she fell hard on the sand.
"I am not doing anything. This is all you. Well, both of you. If you want to live in harmony with your daughter for eternity here, You two need to find balance," Ymir advised Mikasa.
'Daughter.' It echoed in Mikasa's mind. She'd never given herself room to think about that pregnancy, she'd never even considered it could be a girl.
"Young souls have a hard time in this place, because they are not well developed yet. That can be very damaging in this realm. But she doesn't want to hurt you, and you don't want to hurt her. Just calm down, invite her in. She just wants to meet you." Ymir said this and then quickly faded away. She left, for she knew she needed to give the mother and daughter some space to heal.
Ymir rarely went down to visit the lost souls in her kingdom, but she had a soft spot for Mikasa. She truly cared for her.
Mikasa crawled back in the direction of the pond. She then picked up the small shiny marble from the waters and held what could've been her child in her hands.
The mother wanted to say "Hello," and she did in the softest way possible, like she'd said to her son when he was born. The shiny marble crumbled into dust and started to float away in the wind. Mikasa looked down; maybe she should have said "Goodbye" instead. 'Just one more soul going away and leaving her all alone in that place,' she thought. She didn't see what the stardust was forming into.
"Hello?" The small girl said while tilting her head. She was right in front of Mikasa.
She raised her head up and looked at the girl, and didn't hesitate for a second to hold the small child close. Mikasa hugged her very tight and then gazed at her innocent face; she was like a small doll. The mother raised her daughter's chin and played with her wavy caramel hair. She looked straight into the girl's eyes, they were a yellow as bright as the sun.
"I wonder if this is just how I imagined you," Mikasa said.
"Imagine?" The girl repeated.
She looked around three years old, which was a quick development for just two gestational months, Mikasa thought. She was wearing a summer dress and a pretty hat, as if Mikasa had dressed her for a stroll on the beach. Mikasa held her daughter and sat with her under the tree. The girl leaned against her chest, finally feeling safe in her mother's arms. Her mother then presented her with a book: a children's book.
"This was my favourite book when I was a child. My mother read it to me. I asked her to read it to me so many times, it even made her mad." Mikasa laughed, and the girl laughed with her. "Your father loved it too. That was the first thing we talked about when we met; he had that book in his hands as he walked over to talk to me." Mikasa missed Armin a lot, but tried to mask it; she didn't want her baby girl to be upset. "That's why we named your brother after him." She pointed at the character in the book. The girl followed her mother's hand with her bright yellow eyes. It was incredible. Mikasa knew those pages so well, and could picture it perfectly.
"I would dream about him, you know? Your brother. When I was waiting for him to arrive. It started when I was three months in." She sighed. "It terrified me at first, they were like premonitions-" The girl had no idea what most of the words being said meant. She would definitely not know what premonition meant. "I knew what he would look like before he was even born," Mikasa explained, and pinched her daughter's nose gently. "I knew how handsome he would be," she told the girl with a playful tone, in a lower voice, next to the girl's small ear.
"I wish I had had more time with you. I wished I could have dreamt about you, baby girl. I'm glad that you are here now." Mikasa held her child close. The girl felt safe.
- Year 867 - The Maze of the Dead
The pilot was flying over the Maze, trying to get a closer look in the damaged area. From the direction of the village, he could see form variations that weren't there before. He had to look at a map properly, or maybe he was just tired. The mountainous shapes kept getting lower and lower until they were very near the ground.
"Maybe one of those titans was crystallised while lying down." He thought it was a good theory. But he was scared nonetheless.
He could see very far away a small figure in the sand. It seemed odd, but not very threatening. Also, if it was a person, he should aid them. He decided to touch down, but he didn't radio first. For some reason, he felt best to keep this to himself.
Armin was running in the middle of nowhere. He was concentrating on the direction in which he thought he'd seen a village, from up there. But it could all be a dream. His mind was still getting accustomed to the land of the living again. He heard a noise he wasn't used to, high up in the sky. Armin looked up: there was a plane coming in his direction. That was definitely an illusion, he thought as he collapsed onto the ground.
"Hey! Put your hands up!" The soldier was coming in his direction, pointing his gun at a potential assailant. Armin did his best, but he couldn't stand up properly. He couldn't regenerate properly either: his whole face was bleeding.
The soldier looked at the Maze. 'If he is one of those things, it means we are all in trouble,' he thought, but he didn't want to think about it too much. The man was clearly dying in front of his eyes. The young pilot put his gun back into his side holster and rushed to help.
He held the barely conscious man in his arms. "Tell me your name." The army man shouted with determination and aggression, as he was trained to do.
No response. "Where did you come from?" He asked once more, in great demand.
No response. "Tell me! Why are you here? What are your intentions?" The soldier asked more brokenly as he tried to raise the stranger up. He felt as if he was holding a corpse.
And suddenly, from underneath all the blood coming down the stranger's face. From beyond all the wounds and the dead eyes, the soldier could hear a faint voice: "Eldia-" Armin finally responded with a weak, whispering breath. "I need to get to Paradise, I need to find my son."
He then collapsed in the soldier's arms.
..
Armin opened his eyes again, it took some time for him to place himself. Until he realised, he was waking up inside a plane.
The soldier had taken the stranger closer to the village, so he could gather some supplies to help him. That was not the right thing to do; he should have taken the alien back with him to the base. Still, he gave the man water, and watched as he drank the whole gallon.
Armin was slowly coming back to his senses and understanding the situation he was in. "So, what is your son's name?" he asked the pilot as he was offered some food.
"How do you know I have a son?" the pilot asked, stunned.
"I remember the last thing I said to you before I passed out. And for some reason you brought me to the village instead of an Army base. The only reason you would help me is if this is personal for you," Armin deducted.
"Rafik," the man said. There was sadness in his eyes. "He passed away a few years ago," he explained. "Typhoid fever, there was nothing we could do. He was only two."
"I'm sorry to hear about your loss," Armin said sincerely. The man was handing him bandages, as he was still slowly bleeding. "My son was two as well, the last time I saw him. That was almost thirteen years ago," he added. "I'm looking for him; he was captured... by Eldia."
The soldier felt for him. He knew in situations like that the New Alliance had no interest in helping. Those diplomatic negotiations weren't worth it for them, as they had more pressing matters to deal with.
The young pilot offered his own sympathies and became more reflective.
"Is it okay if you tell me your name? I'm not writing this in any report or anything..." the soldier said.
"I'm a- Erwin," Armin responded. "Erwin Smith."
"Nice to meet you Mr. Smith. My name is Ramzi." the soldier reached for a handshake.
The stranger reached to meet Ramzi's hand.
"Nice to meet you, Ramzi. You saved my life today. Thank you." Armin said with a smile of pure gratitude.
The eldian then stood up and checked around the brand-new plane, trying to recognise all the controls. Technology had evolved so much in the last few years. Onyankopon had given him a quick course back in the rush of those troubled 'last days', but he'd also been studying those machines for years prior to that 'rumbling' madness. And he now needed a fast way to get back to the Island.
Ramzi noted how the stranger was passing his hands over the console very reflectively.
"Are you a pilot too?" the young soldier asked.
"Copilot," Armin responded. He wasn't going to add he only had piloted a plane once. He was hoping he could do it, if he had to try. But if he failed, it was not like he could regenerate, so it was a gamble. 'Well, the first one paid off, maybe this will too,' he thought.
"I need to borrow your plane, Ramzi," Armin told the young soldier, "but don't worry, I'll bring it back!"
Ramzi didn't know how to answer. But for some reason, he felt he could trust this Erwin. He could see how bent he was, and how desperate to see his son. He thought for a moment. It's not like he could report any of this, and he had no idea what to do. But he wanted to help.
Armin noticed he was undecided. "So, is it your job? To patrol the walls?" he asked the pilot.
"Yes," Ramzi responded. "No one really wants to do it. It's my main job."
Armin reached out and held Ramzi's palms inside of his own. Ramzi could feel this otherworldly cold mist steaming out of his hands. The stranger then let go and Ramzi opened up his hands to see a thing of pure beauty: Armin had presented Ramzi with a rose. It looked like a rose, and it was the size of a rose, but it was made entirely by Titan Crystal.
The man had no words.
Armin said, "Where I come from, a rose is the symbol of those who guard the wall, and maintain it. And keep everybody safe." He then looked melancholically at the village through the plane's window.
"I-I can't accept this," Ramzi exclaimed, flabbergasted. Titan crystal was a hot commodity and more expensive than diamonds. A rock that size, as beautiful as it was, it would be worth a fortune. Probably three times his entire life earnings.
"Please keep it, you saved me. This is the least I could do to pay you."
Ramzi gave the man a quick course on how to operate that new machinery. New clothes, food and water. He knew Erwin was in a hurry. He left this fascinating stranger to follow his Journey, and wasn't even worried about not getting that plane back. With that crystal rose he could start a whole new life with his wife, out of the military. Just peace with his family.
He thought about all the possibilities of his future now, as he watched the stranger take off, and disappear in the sky with his plane.
..
The pilot walked into the village, passing the statues that he had passed many times before in his life. The memorial for the heroes stood at the entrance of the village, like protectors. This time, something caught his eye. Ramzi went back to check. And there it was: right in the center, the man he had just met and helped, the man who had just given him a gift of a lifetime. The pilot stared at the statue, paralysed as he processed the fact that he had just interacted with a ghost. 'How could it be?' Ramzi thought, feeling very confused.
His eyes descended as he reflected about it all; and they then focused on the inscription, at the bottom of the ghost's statue.
The inscription said: "To our true hero, Commander Arlert".
- Year 867 - The Lighthouse
"Are you really going to shoot a plane?" Onyankopon asked in disbelief. He really regretted giving Levi his favourite gun.
"Watch me." Levi was aiming at the moving target. They were all apprehensive and somehow frozen, as it took them by surprise.
Reiner thought the best idea would be to barricade themselves inside the house and fight from there, but he didn't have time to speak.
"Wait!" Onyan exclaimed. He could see the craft more clearly now. "It's an NME Forces craft! They are on our side! Don't shoot!"
"How can we tell it hasn't been hijacked?" Annie positioned herself, ready for a fight. "It could be a trap."
"What is it with you and traps lately?" Reiner gave her a look. "May I?" he gestured, asking Levi for the gun. Levi handed it over reluctantly. "I'll go first and check it out, you guys can get the rest of our ammunition from the boat," Reiner told the others.
"I'll go with you," Levi responded. Reiner nodded at him.
The plane had crash-landed on the far east side of the property, a few meters away from the water ring limit. It wasn't like Armin had experience; he was just glad both he and the plane seemed to still be in good condition. He checked his limbs and the plane's motor, just to make sure, because he could neither fix the flying ship nor fix himself. Armin was still slowly regenerating after leaving his titan form for the first time in over twelve years, and also for the very last. He knew that as soon as he was finished regenerating he would lose his powers for good. Just like it had happened to all the others.
He leaned back in the seat, closed his eyes, and thought of his son. He could see Azzy walking around the familiar streets of Trost, burning a bright blue colour in Armin's mind. Armin could see that he was a little confused, not sure of what he was doing. 'Stay there Azzy, don't move. I'm coming,' he thought. But it wasn't like Azzy could hear him...
He was preparing himself, for this wouldn't be easy. Being at his house after all this time, all this tragedy. Seeing all his friends again now was a little too much, but he needed to keep going; their lives were depending on it. So, he left the plane to meet the others.
Reiner froze at the sight, it was as if he was actually seeing a ghost. Levi kept walking as he was processing all of this; he needed to get close to make sure that ghost was real. Armin looked the same as all those years ago, when he was twenty years old.
It was as if that crystal maze had been his time-capsule.
The Ackermann approached, enraged: "You..." Armin looked up at him but said nothing. "You are ALIVE?" Levi was very close now.
Arlert didn't see it coming, it was that fast.
Levi punched Armin straight in the face, the strength was enough to dislocate Armin's jaw.
Armin immediately fell to the ground.
Reiner tried to hold Levi back, but quickly realised that was not the best idea. The others were coming in fast; they had no idea what was going on, and seeing that ghost for the first time in so long made them agitated and worried.
Armin was on his knees, noticeably weak, trying to put his jaw back into place as he heard Levi's angry words. Reiner had no idea what to do. None of them did - they were just hoping Levi wouldn't kill him.
"All this time!" He had a lot to say. "ALL THIS TIME?!" He kneeled close to Armin to make his point clearer. "Do you have ANY idea how much of a little shit your kid is? How much trouble he gets himself into? How crazy he makes me feel?"
"I have an idea..." Armin replied with difficulty. He was trying to speak, but his jaw was broken and it wasn't very easy.
"I feel like an idiot now." Levi stood up and looked to the side, with his hand on his head. "I feel like a complete idiot!" He began to pace.
Reiner hid the gun, knowing the others should have probably done the same. He rushed to help Armin, as he could see the markings on his face. "Did you just get out of your Titan? Only now?" he asked Armin in a low voice. Armin nodded at him and stood up clumsily, with Reiner's help.
"I know I can't even say sorry to you, Levi. I can't possibly describe my gratitude to you. You took care of my son for all these years. I can never repay you for that." Armin was a little grateful for the punching too, it gave him more time. Now it would take longer for him to regenerate.
"Spare me the bullshit." Levi turned back to face him. "Why did you come back now? Why only now?" he asked.
"I can explain to you in depth once we find Azzy. For now, that's the priority." Armin walked right past all his old acquaintances. He didn't properly greet everyone; he had no time or emotional stability to do so. Instead he moved into the house. Walking in was very difficult, as he knew it would be. Everything would still look the same as the last time they were there, all together, his family.
"Nice shot." He looked at the now destroyed, but once beautifully embellished silver knob that Mikasa had hand-picked. Armin opened the door, trying not to think about her. But knowing that would be impossible.
No one said a word. They just followed him. Armin went straight to the underground weapons vault. Levi and Onyan followed him, the others were too busy admiring the house.
Armin swiftly removed a few books from a shelf and opened a fake back wall. The real vault lock was there.
"I absolutely hate you, with all my heart." Levi was angry about so many things. They'd been trying to open the other lock for a good couple of hours, but he still couldn't help but admire the cleverness.
"What, did you think this was the real one?" Armin pointed at the fake lock as the whole wall began to move. "I'm sorry about that, I should have told you a long time ago." He gave an embarrassed smile while scratching his head.
There were different rooms inside; it occupied most of the house's underground area. It was a true bunker. Armin was prepared for war.
"You had all this here?" Onyan asked.
"We lived under constant threat of being attacked by Marley. I was just making sure I was ready." Armin replied.
Armin went past all his sunken prizes and walked into his small office.
-.-
Arlert was shuffling through some of his old documents and maps at his small office, when he noticed his old friend standing next to the door.
"Did you grab everything you'll need?" Armin asked Jean.
"I can't believe you had all this under your house. I should have known, really..." Jean told him.
"We sank a lot of ships. I was just gathering some goods, just in case. And to study as well. There's a lot of potential in those machines outside." Armin explained. Jean looked out of the door as the others were gathering what they believed to be of interest in there.
"I was wrong. This already IS a military base," Reiner told them. He was smiling as he picked up some great weapons.
"Nothing too big," Pieck told him. "We need to blend in."
Annie said nothing; she was annoyed for being dragged to that Island again. But she did want to help Armin so she didn't complain.
-.-
Connie was still upstairs, walking around the house. He looked through the window and watched the ocean waves far down, for a while. Then he moved to the kitchen. They'd had so many late nights there, just talking like it would never end. He could see in his memories: himself, Jean, Armin - playing games and annoying each other with silly jokes they had since training days. Sasha was always hovering around the food and chatting with Mikasa in the corner of the room, they murmured and laughed together. He could see Eren, always holding Azzy and playing with him, giving the boy so much affection. Eren clearly loved the boy, like he was his own child.
"Hey! What are you doing here? Come on, we have no time to waste!" Levi showed up under the outside kitchen arch.
"Is Eren going to kill him?" Connie turned back in Levi's direction. "I mean, no one is saying anything, but it's pretty obvious who we are dealing with here. Even for me. I can't think of anything else that could wake up Armin from his slumber, unless his son was in danger and Eren was the cause."
Levi took some time to respond. He sighed. "I don't know. I know it comes from the Palace-"
"Palace?" Onyan showed up with a bunch of maps. "Armin said something about going to Trost." He was supposed to trace and calculate the Journey.
-.-
"A lot of potential." Jean sarcastically repeated Armin's words, and continued: "Most of these 'machines' here are weapons." he pointed to the other room, where the Warriors were selecting the best guns for this stealth operation.
"Don't you think this is all too dangerous?" he looked around the bunker. Jean was a father too now. "What if Azzy found this place?" he questioned his friend.
"He wouldn't, that's the reason it's well hidden." Armin was confident about it.
"What if he just jumped here? Just like that? What then?" Jean couldn't believe the recklessness.
Armin looked at him and sighed. This had already been a long day, and it was only starting. They still had a long day ahead.
"Azzy can only go to places he has been before. Don't worry, I'm counting on that." Armin might have been a little too confident about that; he'd forgotten his son wasn't two any more and he also didn't know Azzy had been to Mitras before.
Jean put his hand over his head, timidly. Armin was there now - as a father, and in this particular situation, he was the right person to talk to. He was looking for ways to phrase his words.
"About that. When did you know? You know... That Azzy was like that?" He raised up his shoulders a little.
"What do you mean?" Armin inquired.
"It's just, I remember you said something about dreams, and... and I have these dreams."
Armin was intrigued. "Are you talking about your children?" he asked bluntly. Straight to the point.
"I didn't even tell you I have children, but yes," Jean responded.
"You just complained about these weapons under my house and the danger to my son. Old bachelor Jean would never put two and two together." Armin smirked at his friend.
"True, true." Jean got a little embarrassed. "We should talk more about this once we are back though. Don't worry about it now," he told his friend.
"Okay," Armin said. "I look forward to meeting them." They both smiled at each other, and the moment passed.
"So," Jean looked his friend up and down, judgingly. "Are you going to change or what?" he asked his friend. Armin was wearing an orange overall spare uniform he had borrowed from Ramzi.
"Right." Armin looked down at his clothes. "Not really blending in," he said, realising it. They both laughed.
...
Armin was dreading going upstairs, to their bedroom. But he knew he would have to at some point. The place they'd shared in their minds, when he had a different body, in a different dimension, it was very special for the couple. They could both picture it perfectly, exactly as it was.
The couple'd had so many beautiful memories in that lighthouse, memories of their young life as a family. A life that was unfortunately cut short. As he reached the top of the stairs, he could see the door to Azzy's room, still half open, after all those years. Armin walked in to see all those toys still scattered through the floor, the crib, all the sweet baby things gathering dust. That sight broke his heart.
The father left the boy's room to go open yet another dreaded door: their own bedroom door. That was their intimate place, where he and his wife had shared many sweet and loving moments, both together - on their own - and together - nursing their newborn child.
Armin took a deep breath and turned the knob. He walked in.
He went looking through all of their things. Armin stopped in front of Mikasa's vanity, and stared at the mirror where she would look at herself. He passed his hand across the desk and the thin white layer of dust made him sad; that entire room was making him feel miserable.
But he still laughed when he saw the forest outside. His wife would often take 'advantage' of his 'greater' abilities as they were building their house. Mikasa had wanted that orchard so badly; she made her Colossal husband walk and search to bring her all those trees from all kinds of places over the Island. All to make the perfect orchard she'd dreamt of; the end result was majestic. But now, after years of neglect, the 'perfect' orchard had become a wild jungle.
'I guess I have to trim this, right, sweetheart?' Armin thought to himself. And smiled.
-.-
"Is this an elevator?! I wasn't expecting this!" Reiner said excitedly, he was already preparing himself to climb those stairs all the way up to the tower.
"We already had that kind of technology, you know?" Jean complained, crossing his arms. "I think you've just forgotten."
..
"You guys really enjoyed taking pictures." Pieck pointed out, she was looking through the massive wall in the landing area.
"Yeah, those were like, all taken in just a couple of days, when we got one of those 'cameras'. We had a pretty fun time with that," Connie told her as they both looked at the table in front of them. He was reminiscing about back then: pictures of all of them together and some others that looked like proper portraits, similar to the drawings already done in the Island. He gently took Sasha's portrait. Connie was happy to see that smile again. He decided to keep the picture; he wanted a snippet of those good memories. Those days were very precious for him. So he quietly took it out of the frame and put Sasha's picture under his coat.
Pieck noticed the baby's photo, it was at the very center of the table. Azzy was no older than ten months in it. She held it up, evaluating. "He's cute. Seems like a good child. I can't see the whole nightmare of a boy that Levi described."
"Well, Levi can sometimes be a little... well: Levi." Connie couldn't think of a better word to describe his old Captain.
"He's just a baby in that. We have no idea what we are getting into." Annie joined the conversation. "Babies are always cute, or whatever people say," she added.
They were waiting for the elevator to reach the base. It was a swift system, but it hadn't been used in almost thirteen years.
..
"I know, I know, I remember the elevators to go up the Wall." Reiner corrected himself with an awkward laugh.
"Yeah, it's not like this place is completely stuck in the dark ages," Jean told the others.
"Nah, this place is a shithole," Annie interjected. She couldn't see amusement in their conversation, or any reason to praise the island that was the origin of so much suffering. She crossed her arms, and they all went silent.
The Lighthouse - On the top of the Tower
Reiner was admiring the view; he'd forgotten how beautiful that Island was. 'How can such a beautiful world have so many terrible people in it?' he thought.
"Are you sure taking the plane is the best option?" Levi presented his concerns to Armin as he finally joined the group up the tower.
Arlert walked in, wearing his old clothes, and stopped right next to his friends. His eyes fitted on the map over the table. "You smell of mothballs," Connie noted after a slight sniff. "Better that than that horrid orange jumpsuit," Jean interjected, "with that thing, he might as well hand himself over to the eldian guards!" he added.
Armin couldn't be bothered with the light humour. He and Onyankopon were concentrated, checking maps and drawing the course.
"I don't think it's a good plan-" Levi insisted.
"It's the fastest way," Armin interjected, then went back to check Onyan's calculations.
"We can be spotted," Reiner argued. "What then?"
"It doesn't matter. As soon as we have him, we will fly off this place as fast as possible," Armin replied. "When we get to Trost-" He was interrupted.
"How do you know he is in Trost?" Pieck interjected in pure curiosity.
It took a couple of seconds for Armin to properly find a response. "I could see it, in Paths. I could see where he was, right before I left," he told the group.
They didn't ask more questions, as they moved into learning everything about the plan. And enjoyed the breeze and the ocean sounds, they took in the greatness of being high up in that tower. There, sixty meters up in the air.
Trost - in the Train Station:
Annie could recognise the walk, as she noticed the boy a few meters in front of her. Not the hair, or clothing, or even physical appearance - at least not from behind - but she had seen that way of walking before, many years before. It was as if she was watching a young Armin walking in front of her, all those years ago, in those training days.
"I have him." She sent her message though her handheld transceiver and kept tailing the young figure. "Finally," she heard the faint voice in the radio respond to her.
Azzy was a little confused, he was wondering about taking that train or not. He'd run away anyway, he was curious about things. There was so much he didn't know. Pieces that didn't fit together. That place, or whoever person he'd find at that address, should have the answers he sought. Azzy reflected on it while staring at that piece of paper; something was slowing him down. He didn't know what the problem was or why he was so undecided; he could have gotten there ages ago, but he was stalling.
The young boy was scared. He was afraid of what he would find and he didn't want to admit it.
Annie was quietly telling his position through their radio system so the others could join in and corner the boy, when he started to walk a little faster. 'Damn it,' she thought. Annie feared she was going to lose him in the middle of the crowd: boarding had started.
"Don't let him board the train." Reiner said as he was joining her. They walked fast alongside each other, looking all over, up and down the station and the crowd.
They were losing sight of the boy but they kept going. The young Ackermann had instantly noticed that he was being followed. The problem was that he didn't know it was his rescue party - Azzy thought the Guards had recognised him. He now had a very short time-window to act. No more indecision, no more wandering about. He needed to decide if he wanted to know the truth or not, and he had a split second to figure it out.
He kept walking fast until he saw a familiar figure: Jean was standing right in front of him, only a few meters away. He was coming in Azzy's direction. Az knew that face, but he had no idea where from; he thought it might be one of the Guards he had met before. He turned left - he was starting to get anxious, and that's when his instincts came out.
"He saw me, and he turned the wrong way," Jean said over the radio, and signalled the others to follow. Azzy had moved in the opposite direction from the train. Perfect. They could catch him before he left the station.
"Where is he?" Pieck asked as she was joining in; and so were Connie, Levi, and Armin.
Armin had his heart beating almost out of his chest from the moment he'd heard over the radio that they had found the boy.
They spread out in different directions. The train was leaving now, with not many people around, and the place was slowly becoming empty. A couple of them were guarding the doors so there was no way he could have left.
"How did we lose him? He was so close!" Jean was frustrated; they all were.
Armin turned around and closed his eyes, concentrating on his son's presence.
"We need to look around, find every hidden spot in this place. If we definitely cannot find him inside the station, then we should start a search in the surrounding area..." Reiner was organising the team when Armin decided to take action.
"Onyankopon, are you there? Over," Arlert said through his radio. "I need you to turn around, we are going to Mitras."
-.-
They were already nearing the edge of town. Onyan hoped he was far enough away so people in Trost couldn't see the small plane landing. The team were all a little annoyed and frantically demanding some explanation.
"So are you basically telling us you can track your kid?" Pieck wanted to know.
"Yes," Armin responded simply.
"In that case, what is the point of all of us being here then?" she asked. "Can't you find the kid on your own?"
"You are here because I don't know how long this will last!" Armin pointed at his slowly healing scarred face.
"So it has to do with your shifter abilities then? It's not some weird Paths thing you got when you were in there..?" Annie asked.
"No," Armin sighed. He had more pressing matters, but he decided to explain it all as the plane was landing in that big abandoned field. "I've had this since I got my powers." He closed his eyes. "I can see all of you, the light inside of all of you is still there." He was talking to his fellow Shifters. "But it's faded. I could track you before, throughout paths and its correlation with our world. But now, it's like your powers are dormant," he told his friends.
"Dormant?" the Warriors thought. They'd always believed their powers were gone for good. This was an interesting new development.
"But that's not a part of the Colossal Titan's abilities." Reiner noted, crossing his arms.
"Of course, because Marley knows everything about Titans." Armin threw back at him.
"Still. It doesn't explain how you can track the boy. He is not a Shifter." Pieck added to the argument, she was not sold.
Armin turned his head in Levi's direction. In Arlert's mind, this older Ackermann burned a low scarlet red, very different from the bright blue that filled up Azzy's spirit. "I can see their kind too." Armin pointed at the old Ackermann as they were boarding the plane.
City of Mitras - [Still 867]
Azzy was staring at that piece of paper. He knew he was in the right street, but no one was there, he had no clue what he was supposed to do next. When he finally saw it: someone carrying a bag with the same symbols as the orange stand from the harbour. He had found the messenger. He didn't even think twice before he started following the figure.
Mitras was the most developed city, the heart of the Island. Big buildings, lots of people, commerce was booming; after all, Eldia had profited a lot with the destruction of the rest of the World. Mitras didn't have many dark corners, but the boy was finding himself in one. The sun was going down, night was falling upon the city and Azzy was still following the hooded figure.
He lost the man for a moment. But he noticed the bag was lying next to a door of an old, abandoned building. He rushed to grab it. Inside there was only one small key. The key didn't fit the lock, and the whole place was sealed with old wooden boards. It was a haunting image, but Azzy jumped in anyway, he didn't even think twice.
In that abandoned shop there was a clear fake floorboard, under a rug, and in there was the door. Here was the lock where the key was supposed to go. Azzy smiled, he thought it was clever. It really wasn't, but he was young and very naive.
The floor hatch led to an underground tunnel; even in the sunset and in the darkness of the room, a slim beam of light from outside was enough to make the walls of the tunnel glow, like it was made of diamonds. He was fascinated. The boy then decided to go through the hatch.
He walked down; he needed to know where all that beauty would lead him in the end. So, he started walking through that diamond-like tunnel.
Azzy left the hatch unlocked. Even with the key, he was afraid of being trapped, and it wasn't like any dumb Royal Guard would find him in that old building. He just wanted the safety of going back that way, because he had no idea what he was getting himself into. That effort was worthless, if he only knew: if he could see the future, he would know that he was never going back through that hatch again. He was already a lost cause.
-.-
"You should have told me he had come to Mitras before. That was a major oversight." Armin complained to Levi. They were walking fast alongside one another. Armin was extremely upset, he had finished regenerating on the way there, in the plane. There was nothing supernatural he could rely on to find his son now: he had to depend only on his own wits.
"It's not like he knows the place outside of the palace, and that was a long time ago. The problem is getting inside those gates." the uncle pointed out. Levi was nervous, he should be more angry with Armin but he was more worried about the young, naive boy. All alone inside that hell-hole. He wondered what would happen if those horrible people laid their hands on that child.
Azzy was more his son than Armin's at that point, the old Ackermann truly cared for the boy.
"What are you doing here?" Jean asked his wife.
Pieck was following the other two closely; she was tired of being lied to, she didn't want half-truths, and she knew Levi or Armin would give out something at some point. So, she was quietly tailing them through the market.
The spy thought fast. She quickly picked up one of the dresses in the stand nearest to her.
"This isn't your route-" Jean was bewildered. "Are you shopping?"
"Do you think this looks nice?" Pieck asked, giving him a smirk.
Jean took the dress from her hands and put it back in the stand, looking at her sternly, but also very nervously.
"This is serious, you know? We can't waste time-" he was saying the same thing again, so she interrupted.
"Oh, really? Is it serious? Then tell me why. We are following this kid like a bunch of dizzy idiots, with a guy that was supposed to be dead, and a half-blind old man that I'm pretty sure doesn't fully think rationally any more." Pieck argued with passion. "We ended up in the WORST place we could ever be in this war, and you are still lying to me." She pointed firmly at his chest. "Tell me why this is 'so important', or I will just quit and go home."
Her husband became quite reflective.
"Do you think we could ever do it?" Jean looked at Armin and Levi walking in the distance. "Do you think we could leave our children with strangers, knowing we might never go back? And set off to fight a doomed war? And-" His voice was a little broken now- "and never see them again?" he asked Pieck.
Pieck looked more calm, but also quite stoic.
"We might have done just that," she told him, rightly.
Jean looked down at her worriedly. "Okay." He sighed, and decided to tell her everything.
-.-
Back inside the Private Garden:
Azzy kept walking down that tunnel; he could see a bright light at the very end of it, and he could hear birds, the wind. He had no idea where he would emerge, but it felt very peaceful.
"Where am I? How is there a forest in the middle of the city?" Azzy was astonished.
"Beautiful isn't it?" A voice came from beyond the trees. It was the hooded figure he was following.
It took Az a second to realise where the voice was coming from.
"You! You are the gardener." Azzy finally recognised the man. "You were there that day." He looked at the paper. "Were you the one who sent me this note?"
"Yes," Eren responded. "You look worried," he added.
"I don't want to be here. There's something wrong with this place." Azzy looked around, checking the area.
"Why? Do you have bad memories of this place? No need to worry, it's just you and me," Eren assured him. "The last thing I need now is for you to run away. We can never know where you would end up. Probably not even you, but I can't be sure of that." He wanted to be sure of a few things before handing him over.
"I don't understand." Azzy was nervous.
"Yes you do." Eren wasn't interested in games. "I know you do. I know you, Azzy, and I know how it all works."
"I'm confused, I thought you had information about my parents, that's why I'm here. Any other mind games you might want to try on me, better give up now, they won't work." the boy said sternly. "I can just leave." Azzy warned. He wasn't interested in playing either.
"I know that, I know that very well. I can give you any information you want. Like I told you that day, I knew your parents very well. But before that, I need you to answer one question." Eren was firm with the boy.
"Where did you go?" Yeager asked. "Where did you take her?"
"Her? I don't know what you are talking about, sir." Az tried to move on, but Eren interrupted him.
"Did you kill her?" Eren finally asked what he really wanted to know.
"NO!" Azzy's eyes were a little brighter for a second, right in the center of the iris. A very bright blue. That happened sometimes when he was angry.
"Now we are getting somewhere." Eren stepped back and continued, "You are a very good liar, you know? Either that, or you lie to yourself, which must make things easier. It makes you sound pure. It's a very good talent," he told the boy.
"I never killed anyone." That was probably not true, but it was one of the things that Az chose to believe.
"Then, was it an accident?" Eren was still questioning.
"No. I mean, I don't know, I have no idea who or what you are talking about." Azzy was confused. Or at least, he seemed that way.
Eren sighed. "Just tell me where you took her, that's all I need to know." There was a great deal of sorrow in Eren's voice.
Azzy looked away. He saw the two small graves, where he remembered seeing only one before. 'Maybe they found her body,' he thought. 'I'm glad you can rest now.' Az finally felt some relief.
Then he finally responded to Eren in a more truthful way. "I can't remember. That's the only truth. I tried, many times! But it's like it never happened. I swear!"
"Let me guess: you woke up on a field in the southern Maria Region. Somewhere near Shiganshina," Eren extrapolated while looking at a golden watch he had retrieved from his own pocket.
Azzy opened his eyes wide, he then looked around his own person, checking all his own pockets. "How... did you..?" he asked frantically.
"You should be more careful with your things." Eren said as he held the watch by its golden chain.
"Give me that back." There it was: that light shining inside his eyes again. "NOW." He demanded furiously.
"And there it is again," Eren pointed at him with the watch still hanging from his hand. "I like when you show your true colours. It suits you better."
"Don't make me take it from you." Az threatened.
Eren smirked. "I will, I'm just checking something." Eren glanced at the watch. "You've been busy, shame. ... Just one slip-up-" Eren moved his head in a negative motion, a little disappointed. "-That's how they get you." He smiled. An evil smile.
"Please! That's the only thing I have left." Azzy pleaded. The boy'd changed his tactics. He was going for emotions now.
"You forgot to set the time again." Eren tossed the watch back at him. "The date is wrong. You should be more careful about that, whenever you jump."
Azzy held the watch and looked straight at Eren; he hadn't been expecting that. He said nothing.
"I told you, I know you. I know you very well, Az," the uncle said in pure confidence. Eren continued: "As I told you that day, back in '59, when you came here for a visit: I was there when you were born. I held you in my hands, you were so small! But soon you started to grow up and show your true colours." Eren was still smiling, but there was sadness in his eyes. "You had this... 'different potential', something that was beyond your parents' understanding and control. And they feared you for that." The uncle gave out a small laugh. "I loved those two, truly. But they had no idea what to do with you."
Eren stopped and sized him up. "And your uncle Levi has no idea of what to do with you either." he argued.
The boy just stared at him, with no response; he was thinking.
"You were never missing for two months, not from your point of view anyways. You can lie to everyone, even to yourself. But the watch tells the truth. Time didn't pass." Eren was very upset; he had been all those years, but still: all that power, he was fascinated by it.
"Why bring me here? What do you want?" the boy asked. He placed the timepiece in a safer spot now.
"I want my daughter back. I need you to fix this," Eren told the boy.
"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do about that... How did you know about the field?" he wondered.
"I have some witnesses. I know that whenever you have trouble with your powers, you end up there. You can make quite an entrance. Or so I heard," Eren responded.
The boy held himself; he felt small.
'Power,' He thought. He never had anyone openly talk about anything like this to him before, specially related to the way he was. He'd always known there was something wrong about him. But at the same time, he didn't have much of a concept of what 'normal' was. He just knew he wasn't that.
"Do..." He was always afraid to talk about that. "Do you know why? Why I'm always in that field?" he asked.
Eren scratched his head for a moment. "Well, I know what that place was, years ago." It was uncomfortable to talk about those things with his young nephew. "It is a completely abandoned field now, but fifteen years ago there was a small hut there. It was your parents' first home. It seems to be the place where your life started."
Azzy squinted at him, confused.
"No, it wasn't. We lived in a big house, near the ocean. I don't remember much about those years, but I remember that place. I was born there." Azzy affirmed. He was sure of that.
"That is not what I meant." Eren realised that the boy was even more naive than he expected.
"Then what did you mean?" the boy inquired.
Eren shrugged. "You should get your other uncle to explain it to you," he said laughing.
Azzy was still confused.
He thought about the Lighthouse, and about the vast ocean. Oh how he loved that place! He remembered the girl; he'd promised he would take her there. Azzy wanted Ymir to see all those wonders. But she never did.
The boy felt extremely upset in that moment. There was a chill running up and down his spine. He could remember some of the nightmares he constantly had. Az knew he had to make sense of all those broken memories, he owed Eren that.
"I tried. I tried so many times! I really did. But I could never go back there." He looked up to the trees. "I'm sorry, I know I let her down." He looked towards the small grave with a tear down his eye. "I'm sorry I let you all down." He rested his back against one of the trees, he kept looking up at the sun's rays in between the leaves. He couldn't bear to look Eren in the face. Ymir was dead and it was all his fault...
"You can't change anything, son; you might think it works that way but it doesn't. Time rules over all of us. You are not above that." Armin had told his son.
There he was again, in the same dream, looking over Hizuru, hitting that small ball over the marble wall. How was he there? It felt so real.
Armin held the ball midair, stopping the game. His son looked straight at him: he was finally listening.
"Time will find a way to put everything back into place. Don't underestimate its power, it can ruin you. Stay where you are. The now, that's what is important." Armin hoped that advice was getting through. He hoped that his son would finally listen to him.
The boy didn't like his father's advices, especially when it meant that his own convictions were wrong. He felt powerless. But he knew his father was right. And that would echo in his mind throughout his life...
"Hey-" Eren was worried. "Are you okay? I thought I lost you for a second."
"I'm sorry, I genuinely am. But there's nothing I can do." Azzy was apologising even though he knew it wouldn't mean much.
"You can always go back," Eren suggested.
"I don't even know how," Azzy replied.
"I'm sure you can find a way-" Eren had his plans, but the boy interrupted him.
"What happened to them?"
Az finally asked a question he had wondered about all his life. Even since before he could understand the concept of death.
Eren stopped. This wouldn't be easy. "They died protecting something they both believed in. In the end it was worthless. It was just their undoing. Well, your mother is dead, I know that for sure, but I believe your father is still alive and well," Eren explained. Azzy was perplexed.
Outside of the Palace Gates [Mitras]
"Annie," Armin was walking through the streets near the Palace. "This city is pretty big, right? Well developed, tons of buildings, commerce flowing. So why would there be a building here empty?" he asked.
Annie joined him in front of the old abandoned site. "I don't know, maybe the owner didn't want to sell it," she wondered.
"Exactly." Armin started to pull off the old wooden boards from the door.
"What are you doing?" She couldn't understand.
"Why wouldn't someone sell or rent a precious spot like this?" Armin questioned while forcing in the door. "Unless what you have inside is more important." He concluded and walked into the old building. He looked around the old store, stopping as his eyes caught the carpet in the middle of the room. Armin sighed. "You were never very smart, Eren." He moved away the carpet; there it was: the hatch.
"Call out the others." Armin told Annie as he was going down the hatch.
"Are you going in alone?" Annie asked him.
"He is my son." Armin responded. "Get backup, and guard the spot. I think I know where this leads." He went down the tunnel.
Annie radioed the team.
..
Levi radioed Onyankopon. "Hey, we might finally have something. Signal me when you are close, make sure you are not spotted."
"Roger that," Onyan radioed back.
..
"Come on, you heard Annie over the radio." Jean had to pull Pieck by the arm, she was distracted and nervous. She'd felt sick to her stomach ever since Jean had told her everything. What their true mission was and what was actually at stake at the very moment.
They were all supposed to rendezvous in the old building.
..
"Yes, I know you! I almost remember... It will come to me..."
Reiner heard this old, raspy voice say very loudly as he held down his radio - as Annie's signal had cut off.
He turned to look.
"What the hell is he doing?" Reiner mumbled to himself as he watched Connie from a distance.
An old lady had suddenly stopped Springer in his tracks, she was showering him with questions and he couldn't get rid of her.
"But I remember you! I know where from..." she was looking inside her old mind. "Yes! You are one of the young boys! The soldiers!" she said excitedly.
"I'm sorry, but you've mistaken me for someone else." Connie replied and tried to walk away.
"Excuse me-" Reiner interrupted the old woman and took Connie into a different direction. "Are you out of your mind?!" he scolded his friend.
"I was trying to shake her off, but she kept budging me," Connie explained to his friend.
"Too late," said Reiner. They could both see the old lady talking to some of the guards.
"Yes, I remember him, he is one of the traitors-" the old lady mumbled to the guards.
"What now?" Connie asked Reiner.
"Just walk away," Reiner said. They started to walk the opposite direction.
"Hey! Stop!" they both heard one of the guards shout. "Come back here-"
The man didn't finish that sentence properly and Reiner and Connie immediately stopped when they started to hear fighting noises. So they turned to look.
It was pretty quick, actually. A couple of swings and punches, some leg sweeping, and voilà. Annie was standing there with two unconscious Royal Guards. She quickly composed herself and fixed her hair behind her year.
"What are you looking at?" Connie told the crowd who had gathered to watch the tiny blonde woman who had just taken down two men double her size. "Just move on with your day!" Connie exclaimed, he and Reiner gave the old woman a look, and she left the area as well, mumbling curses under her breath.
"What are you standing there for?! We are wasting time!" Annie told the two. "Come on, let's go!"
- Inside the Palace Gates - In the Private Garden
"See? I always knew they didn't care about you. They didn't fight for you; they fought to protect useless beings that have been a plague to this world for far too long. At the end, your father didn't even have the decency to raise you. That's to show he doesn't love you." Eren was passionate about his beliefs; as a childless parent, he couldn't understand how Azzy had been neglected like that.
Azzy insisted, "You are wrong! They fought to save humanity from monsters, and they succeeded, they both died as heroes. That whole Maze of the Dead story is not real, my father is not a monster, why would he be cursed into that? You are lying to me." Azzy continued, "My father would never abandon me if he was alive."
"But he did, I'm not lying about anything. And if you believe all that, then what are you searching for?" Eren asked him.
"I want to know who made the monsters," Az asked.
"Why?" Eren asked back.
"I need to know who was responsible for their deaths," Az explained.
"I could tell you that I'm guilty of that; as I said, I have no intention of lying here. The cleansing of the Earth was my lifelong dream. And it was going to be perfect. They shouldn't have meddled with that."
Azzy could not compute what he was hearing.
Eren continued, "But that wouldn't be completely true, because as I also said, your father is alive and well. I can sense that-"
"You killed them!" the boy yelled passionately.
Azzy was crying now.
Eren had gone too far. "I don't think you are fully listening to me. Your father-"
"What about my mother?" Azzy interrupted. "How did she die?" he asked in anger and confusion.
Eren looked at the boy calmly. "Just like I said: she was in the wrong place, at the wrong time. She should have been home with you-"
"Were you there?" The boy wanted to know how it had happened.
"Yes. Unfortunately, she'd deluded herself into thinking she could kill me. She was almost successful, I'll give her that. But at the end, I had to transform quickly to guarantee my own survival, and she was caught in that explosion. I'm sorry, there was nothing I could've done. I wasn't going to let myself be killed. It's a shame she was caught in that. But as I said, she shouldn't have been there in the first place."
"An explosion?" Azzy asked with sorrow in his eyes.
"Yes, burnt away, into a million little pieces, just like that. I bet it was painless." Eren didn't know if he wanted to hurt the boy or not, but he couldn't help himself. That was his biggest mistake. We don't play with the devil.
Azzy held his fists tightly as he looked straight to the ground.
'A million little pieces,' he thought.
A million thoughts were going through his mind at that point.
"Power"
'What was the point of having that and never using it?' he also thought.
He was tired of running, of hiding, of lying; he was tired of his own life. He was going to fix everything. He knew how now. The last piece that was missing, he had just found. He looked up straight at Eren, straight into his eyes.
Eren could see that light again, shining even brighter, and brighter. He could see Az's spine, his entire nervous system lighting up. The boy's eyes were completely filled with that bright blue light now.
"I AM GOING TO END YOU," Azzy promised.
And disappeared into the light.
Just like that, he was gone.
-.-
"Levi, can you hear me? Levi?" Onyan sounded distressed over the radio.
"Yes, I'm here," he responded.
"I am moving in your direction, but the sky... There's this bright light, and-" The light engulfed the plane like it was nothing. It truly was, now. It had never existed.
They all heard the radio signal cut off.
Levi already knew what was going on, but there was nothing to be done now. They looked around, the night sky was turning as bright as day, and they could see their world fading away all around them.
Pieck started to cry, and she held Jean very close. "No! No! I don't want this to happen! I didn't get to say goodbye!" she whispered in his ear.
"It's okay." He wanted to comfort her. "We will meet again, wherever this leads us. I will dream about you."
The streets were empty now; every atom in every cell was being erased.
Connie took Sasha's photo from his coat, and he looked at her smile. "Maybe it will be different now," he thought. He looked up to his friends, seeing all of the desperation that the human mind goes through when their own existence is being threatened. It was all over their faces.
Reiner and Annie didn't know exactly what was causing all that, but they knew what was happening and what it meant. They had left their families without even saying goodbye.
"I'm sorry everyone, we tried our best, but we failed. I failed. We were too late. I'm sorry," Levi told his squad.
They all disappeared in the bright white light.
-.-
"I knew you would show up." Eren said.
Armin had finally made his way through the tunnel.
Eren was surprised to see his good old friend, but he didn't want to let it show. "You look so young. How is any of this possible?"
Armin was looking around the forest; he was also surprised to see all that green. 'How is there a forest in the middle of the city?' He thought, astonished. But that wasn't important right now. The sky was as bright as day. He was too late, it was all over.
"Eren, do you have any idea of what you have done?" Armin asked his old friend.
Eren looked to the side, so he wouldn't meet Armin's eyes. This had gotten out of control. It shouldn't have ended this way. "I have a guess," he answered.
Those were his last words before he disappeared into nothingness. He was gone and so was Armin, engulfed into the brightness. So was the forest, the palace, all the people, the entire city, island, WORLD. All became non-existent.
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866
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861
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859
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857
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855
854
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- Year 854 - Mid Rumbling - Near Fort Salta
He arrived. The boy immediately saw those bones, all that flesh: thousands of monsters, way bigger than he had ever seen. All those people, fighting for their lives. A small plane arriving on the horizon. The boy looked over and sized up his situation.
"What a mess," Azzy said.
End of Chapter Four: "Promise [867]"