The next morning you ride out with the scouts. The morning is dark and heavy, and so are the expressions on everyone's faces.
Armin is assigned to keep an eye on you, but you can tell that he has far more important things to be doing as well.
I'll see you soon birdie...
Riding past Eren's old camp makes your hand clench the reigns tighter. You feel a cold sweat lather your spine.
A scout emerges from the bushes and nods. "The information checks out; the camp has been abandoned. Hoof tracks travel east, they must have gone to the port."
Hange glances once at you and then grunts and spurs the party onward... toward the dock... toward Eren.
As the ocean comes into view you feel your breathing hasten. You barely even notice when you glance between branches, squinting to see if you can see your ex-husband. You can't, you aren't that close yet. But maybe they're not as far along as you'd thought? Maybe they knew you were coming? Maybe he's right behind you-
"Y/n."
You nearly fall from your horse when Mikasa appears behind you.
"Wh-what's up?" You chuckle nervously.
Her cutting, obsidian stare slices right through your attempt at acting normal.
"Are you okay?" Mikasa deadpans.
You sigh and look down, she'd caught you. You couldn't help but be paranoid about seeing Eren again. You'd just ran away! Was he mad? Would he be spiteful?
"Y/n..." Mikasa sighs, riding beside you. Her eyes soften. "I know you don't want to see him again. I don't either... But he possesses too much power, it goes unchecked... This is no longer a personal matter..." Her eyes harden. Her voice drops to a whisper and the next words ghost past her lips. "This is war."
She kicks her horse faster, catching up to Hange at the front of the group and you sigh.
Easy for her to say. You huff. She was trained for war.
Your ears go deaf as the party reaches the beach. Your eyes unseeing. Skin unfeeling. For a brief second you wonder if this is justice. Looking up at the drop off into the dunes that so many eldians had been sentenced to their deaths, or to worse. You would never know. Your blood could not be used against you in the way that theirs could. The way that they could be transformed.
Perhaps it would be justice if Eren killed you here with the rest of the do-gooders who still believed in peace. In freedom. In all that he had been before you'd met.
Perhaps you had just been part of an elaborate scheme to hold him down.
Perhaps you would pay for that.
The plan was for Armin to take them by surprise. It was doubtful that they'd known you'd have gone to the scouts after you ran away. They'd probably guess that you tried to escape the island all together. Or were cowering somewhere, half dead in the woods.
Armin would transform and hopefully destroy their forces, and Eren in the process. If that fails, the scouts will fall in and take out the last of them.
A desperate plan. But Paradise is out of options. The world is out of options.
The entire plan is beheaded on the spot when a tall, blonde-haired woman appears at the top of the wall. Her eyes are dull and black, but there is a twitching smile at the edge of her lip as she greets the approaching forces as guests.
"Welcome!" Yelena cackles. Her blonde, bucket mane wiping wildly in the sea born wind. Hange skids to a halt. Yelena grins. "We've been expecting you."
The battlefield freezes like a picture in frame. Even with Armin's titan, without the element of surprise, the scouts are no more than toy soldiers for the Jaeger brothers to toy with and step on at will.
Zeke appears atop the wall, he is shirtless, and looking uncharacteristically grim. Perhaps that is because he knows he's won. Everything he'd ever wanted would soon be his.
"Hold steady...." Hange hisses lowly to the trembling scouts behind them. A scout nearby you fidgets with their gun nervously.
A dark shadow appears beside Zeke seconds later. You feel Mikasa's presence beside you darken.
"Hold." Hange grits.
Eren look warry, but his eyes are unreadable as ever.
Zeke regards the soldiers below as an audience. His voice booms out over the sand as he begins his righteous lecture. "I'm so glad we were able to meet again-"
Eren's dazey eyes stare out unseeingly at his old friends and comrades, but there is little recognition in his face. Until he finds you. Cowering at the back of the party. Beside his former sister. His eyes light up slightly and a knowing smile twitches onto his lips.
"Hold-"
BOOM!
Eren's body slackens, as if suspended by strings. Then he is falling. Your heart jumps in your chest. The trembling scout holds a smoking gun, paralyzed with fear. Hange curses something. Mikasa clasps a hand over her mouth. Armin screams. There is a bright yellow flash...
And then the world goes dark.
Drip, drip, drip, drip...
Your head aches when you wake. Your mouth is weirdly dry, and you spit up sand.
"Has Hange been nice to you?"
Your head whips around. There is a lean, dark figure in the corner of the cave you find yourself in. Eren leans coolly against the dark stone caging you in. His green eyes glowing in the dark. You stagger back but the floor that is supposed to be cold and hard, is instead soft and fuzzy.
"Where are we?" You gasp dryly, looking around. The rest of the cave is poorly lit, but you can tell that something is definitely off. Everything is grainy, and the lights are blue. You smell nothing, just... emptiness.
"We are at the crossroads." Eren explains calmly, reminding you that he is still there. "A place that exists connecting all eldians, although I suppose you must be the first non-eldian to ever set foot here." He muses and half of a grin quirks onto his face.
His words circle around through your brain, and you remember the late nights you'd spent with him when he'd spoken of such a place. At the time it had seemed impossible, but now being here...
You jolt when Eren slowly approaches you. Stalking out of the darkness but he moves as if magnetized. You feel it too. His touch is warm and gentle as he brushes a stray section of hair from you face. You do not dare to move. Eren's eyes meet yours and your heart aches in some weird, knowing way.
"Don't you dare touch me." You say numbly.
Eren stops and stares at you, but there is no surprise on his face as he pulls away, only bitter guilt, which catches you by surprise. He takes a couple steps back, and glances away. "I suppose you should hate me." He says it as a statement. And you know it is true.
But somehow you don't hate him. And what you want to know is why.
His big, emerald eyes glance down at the ground guiltily. Round and rejected. Puppy dog eyes if ever there were some.
"Don't pretend that I am somehow special to you." You snap bitterly after a second, fed up with the way this man plays with your heart strings day and night like it didn't matter. "You have all the power in the world, the only reason you ever entertained me was a ploy so don't pretend like any of this is part of your grand scheme." You hiss and Eren looks up, shocked.
Then his face melts into realization. "Y/n..." He sighs, taking a step toward you and then thinking better of it. He awkwardly stuffs his hands in his pocket, then runs them through his hair. "You don't understand... I started the rumbling." His tone darkens. "That is why we are here."
You feel your blood turn to ice.
But Eren smiles at you with innocent affection in his eyes. Hesitantly lacing your fingers with his own, he guides you to the exit of the cave. Warm moonlight washes over the two of you as you hesitantly follow him into the outside. Sand stretches as far as the eye can see. Above you rainbow trails of lights wind through the sky, converging on one central point. Beneath that one point, you see a small figure... a child perhaps, playing in the sand.
"So long I have dreamed of taking you here." Eren whispers, glancing back at you sweetly. "I wish I could have told you from the start but..."
Eren stops, standing under the center point of the converging lights. He turns to you, taking both your hands in his own. "I hope you'll understand now." He smiles.
The stream of light blasts down on him and suddenly you see it all...
Eren. His father. Eren Kruger. The titans. The founding titan. The little girl in the sand. Ymir. The rumbling. The first time he'd met you. The nervous look on your face. The wonder in your eyes when you admired the decorations of the hall. And you felt his love. His longing. His sadness. And his guilt.
And then you saw something new. Past the present. Past the rumbling. There was a woman. She was cloaked in blinding light. She was beautiful, but you couldn't see her face. Then suddenly the rumbling went away. The patches in the earth were healed. The titans disappeared. The little girl burst free of her chains. The founding titan disappeared. Eren's sadness was gone. But the woman was still there. She was shining so bright. The light encapsulated her. And then you saw her face...
She was you.
The vision fades and you feelyour world spin back to reality. You stare at Eren with wide eyes, and he smiles softly, giving your hands a gentle squeeze. "Do you see it?" He asks, his voice the shell of a whisper and yet you hear him loud and clear.
"Yes but... how?"
Eren smiles. "Where there is darkness, there is light. Where there is day there is night. The world fears that I have too much power, but you are my counterbalance. You saved me, y/n."
You take a few shallow breaths. "You... knew this all along?"
"It killed me. Everyday my love, I swear." Eren whispers, holding your hands tighter. "Seeing you fear, seeing your hatred, but I didn't not know how to tell you. I did not know what to say and I am so so sorry for causing you that pain." His tears threaten to spill at the edges as his eyes as he speaks and in your heart, you know he speaks truth. "And... if you still hate me." Eren whispers shakily, looking away. "I respect that."
You pull him into a hug. Holding his lanky frame tight and you breathe deeply, his sweet smell of winter feeling like the only home you'd ever known. "I don't hate you." You murmur. Eren hesitates for a second before embracing your small frame into his own.
The world lights up in golden rays as you hold each other close. The air changes and wind caress the two of you, spiraling around you and you swear you hear angelic music ring out. The rumbling frees Ymir, and your light frees the titans.
As the wind dies down, and the harps play their final chords, you stare at Eren and he stares back at you.
"A part of me knew all along, that I was destine to be yours." You whisper.
Destine to be his.
Eren smiles and shakes his head. "No, my love." He takes your chin gently in his hand and rests his forehead against your own. "You've got it all wrong...
I was always destine to be yours."
...epilogue anyone?