Farewell

Annie's POV

Everyone was silent throughout the ride until Javelin spoke up.

"We're arriving in 20 minutes." said Javelin

She got out of the cockpit and sat with us.

"I don't have ODM gear so I'll slow down everyone." said Javelin

"You can move like a cat, you can outrun a titan."

said Reiner, "You'll be fine but if you don't want to participate it's your choice, Falco you stay out of this."

Falco nodded in response.

"I'm going to join but I'll be with Pieck, I'll plant the charges as well." said Javelin, "But I do want to discuss something."

"What's that?" asked Sasha

"Are we really going to kill Eren?" asked Javelin, "Half of us want to, the other half don't want to."

"I go against killing him." said Hannes

"Hannes." whispered Rico

"I'm sure he can change." said Hannes

"And what if he doesn't?" asked Ymir, "Even Annie is losing faith."

"I'm not losing faith, I'm just lost." I whispered

"If we kill Eren how are we going to explain this to Ashley and Brooks?" asked Javelin

"Tell them the truth what else?" asked Ymir

"And make them live with that burden for the rest of their life?" asked Javelin, "Look at Thomas and Milo, they're already changing."

"Of course they are." snapped Ymir

I sighed and everyone around me looked at each other.

"Captain are you sure about this?" asked Armin

I looked over to Levi who was putting on his ODM gear.

"Three fingers are enough." said Levi

We all watched him for a second before talking again.

"I say we just kill him, keeping him alive is already a risk." said Jean

"I agree." said Connie

"But that only comes after if killing Zeke doesn't do anything." said Armin, "But I'm sure if we talk to Eren we can change him."

"I feel like I know what Eren wants." said Reiner

We all looked at him.

"What if Eren wants us to stop him?" asked Reiner

"What are talking about?" asked Rico

"Wait, Eren can affect other titan shifters by using his founding titan powers. But we're still able to use it the way we could." said Armin

"Are you saying that Eren is choosing not to interfere with us?" asked Pieck

"Why? Isn't the rumbling what he wants?" asked Mikasa, "Why would he want us to stop it?"

"It must be painful for him too, slaughtering all of humanity isn't something you can just say you want to do." said Reiner, "If it was me, I'd probably want someone else to handle the founding titan powers. If not I want someone to stop me."

He then looked at us all.

"By someone." he whispered

But then suddenly I was no longer on the plane, I was sitting on some sand in a dark night that had aurora lights above me.

"What the fuck?!" gasped Connie, "Where are we?"

"I know this place, I was here for a while after I turned back human." said Ymir

"This is the place called Paths." said Pieck, "Only Eldians can be here"

"What? Is he listening to us?" asked Levi

"Eren! Please listen to us!" yelled Armin, "You've done enough damage! No one is going to touch Eldia anymore!"

We all waited for an answer.

"We can still agree on a non aggression pact and end this all! You don't have to kill anyone else!" yelled Armin, "We were wrong! We were the ones who forced you to this point!"

'What is he talking about?'

"Eren! We'll figure out the rest from here! So you don't have to keep slaughtering people for Eldia's sake!" yelled Jean

"I want to share the burden of your sins with you." said Mikasa, "We're all guilty of the same sins. So please, come back to us."

"Eren this isn't what your mother would have wanted!" yelled Hannes

"Eren please we all made a mistake! But it's all in the past, we can let it go, no one is going to threaten us anymore!" I yelled

There was no response at all.

"Eren?!" yelled Armin

"The rumbling will not stop." said a booming loud voice that sounded like Eren, "I won't let fate decide Eldia's fate. I will keep moving forward."

"What?" gasped Armin

"Oi." whispered Levi

He pointed at something and when I looked my eyes widened when I saw some kind of bright aurora in the distance with someone standing in front of it.

"Eren!" I yelled

I began to run towards him with the others.

"In order to gain freedom I will take away freedom from the world." said Eren, "But I won't take anything from any of you, you're all free."

I kept running towards Eren.

"You have the freedom to defend the world's freedom. And I have the freedom to keep moving forward." said Eren, "So long as we both have our unbreakable conviction we will collide."

That's when I noticed that it was the kid version of Eren, but next to him was a blonde girl.

"There's only one thing for us to do." said Eren, "Fight."

That's when the bright aurora behind Eren turned into a giant white bright tree.

"If you want to stop me, then try to stop me from taking another breath." said Eren, "You are all free."

And with that we snapped back onto the plane.

"What the fuck happened to all of you?!" gasped Javelin

"I was right, Eren wants us to stop him." said Reiner

"Annie I'm sorry but, killing Eren is the only option." said Armin

"What happened?" asked Javelin

"We, talked to Eren." said Rico

"Well that's something, you've been gone for 15 minutes and we're here." said Javelin, "Get ready I see Eren."

I looked out the window and saw the rumbling.

"Incoming!" yelled Alpha 1-2

The plane swerved to the right dodging a volley of rocks.

"I have sights on the beast titan!" yelled Alpha 1-3

"Get off now!" yelled Alpha 1-1, "We'll get the plane to safety!"

We opened the hatch door and we began jumping out but before I jumped out I looked to Ashley and Brooks.

'I'm sorry.'

I smiled and jumped off and shifted.

Jean's POV

We began falling down towards Eren's titan form and I saw Zeke hanging onto something while throwing things at us but then one rock hit the plane.

"No!" I gasped

"We're hit!" yelled Alpha 1-2, "We're going down! I can't hold her!"

"Fuck!!!" I yelled

'No not my kids.'

Reiner shifted and punched Zeke and we began supporting him and Levi came in and sliced Zeke's nape. But his body began to steam and dissolve but his body wasn't inside his nape.

"Eren must be hiding him somewhere." said Armin

"Then we take plan B." I said

"Everyone get away, I'm going to shift." said Armin

We all nodded so we made our way to somewhere safe but I heard Armin scream and when I turned around I gasped as I saw Armin being eaten by a titan with a cow's head.

"Armin!" yelled Mikasa

But out of nowhere titans started appearing but they all looked like one of the nine titans.

"What the fuck is this?" asked Connie

"I recognize these titans." said Pieck as she came out of her titan form, "These are the titan forms of the past shifters."

"What the fuck, why are there so many?" I asked

"Doesn't matter we have to save Armin and blow up the nape!" yelled Javelin

I nodded so we split up Annie, Ymir and Reiner took care of the titans while the rest made our way towards Eren's nape.

"Incoming titans!" I yelled

I swung in between a titan's leg and went up and sliced off its nape. Pieck quickly wrapped the explosives around Eren's nape but before Javelin could press the detonator something stabbed Pieck.

"Shit!" yelled Javelin, "I dropped the detonator!"

I looked at the titan who stabbed Pieck and my eyes widened when I saw that it was the warhammer titan, Viri Tybur.

"Porco?!" gasped Connie

I looked over to Connie who was struggling to fight Porco.

"It's like fucking zombies!" yelled Sasha

Levi and Mikasa were busy killing the titans but I was worried about Javelin and Pieck but I saw Javelin run down the spear and shoot the warhammer's titans eyes out. She did a flip and threw a grenade towards the nape and shot it, killing the warhammer titan.

"Keep fighting I need to get the detonator!" yelled Javelin

But there were too many damn titans and Javelin was struggling to reach the detonator. But then a giant shadow hovered over me so I looked up and my eyes widened when I saw Bertholdt swing his arm grabbing Reiner.

"Reiner!" I yelled

Bertholdt bit down on Reiner's nape but I swung in and cut him out just in time. But in the process my ODM gear hit something and my right side wasn't working. We both fell down but I shot my left hook and caught Reiner just in time.

"Sorry I lost my ODM gear." said Reiner, "Jean let me go! I can still shift one more time!"

"And then what? Watch you get squashed?" I asked

"You think we can still... win this?" asked Reiner

"No. But at least we have to struggle until they manage to kill us right? The Survey Corps just doesn't know when to give up. And that's who we are." I said

I smiled for some reason, thinking about the memories we made.

"Isn't that why we joined the Survey Corps?"

"Jean..." whispered Reiner

"Connie!"

I looked over and saw Sasha trying to wake up Connie who was unconscious. Levi came and sliced a titan's nape but his leg got caught and he groaned. Connie woke up and just in time he saved Levi from falling.

"Captain!" yelled Connie

Everyone began falling back towards us, Annie was carrying Ymir and we were surrounded with titans.

"Now what?" I asked

There were too many titans around us, there's no way we can win.

"Bring it on! I don't care how many of you there are! I'm strong so I'll kill all of you!" yelled Mikasa

But then out of nowhere missiles began to hit the titans near us.

"Huh?!" I gasped

"Everyone get on!"

I looked over and saw two vultures.

"Sentinel..." whispered Reiner

They began to open fire killing all the titans.

"Jean!" yelled Ghost

I quickly swung over and grabbed Colonel's hand and he pulled me in.

"Covering fire!" yelled Juggernaut

I got on and noticed that the other half of Ghost team was on the other vulture.

"Colonel!" gasped Annie

"We got everyone we're leaving!" yelled Colonel

We began to fly away as the titans tried to grab us but we were able to get through.

"Sorry we're late." said Ghost

I collapsed onto the chair and sighed in relief barely cheating death.

"What are those titans?" asked Marksman, "And why's Bertholdt among one of them?"

"Those are all the titans who had our powers before us." said Annie

"Huh? I thought Eldian history was only 30 years old? Why are there so many?" asked Hacker

"That's the least of our worries." said Ghost, "Where's Commander Hange?"

"She didn't make it." said Reiner

"The kids." gasped Mikasa

"Don't worry, there was a flying titan who we were able to save. Luckily the kids were all on it." said Phantom

"Armin's still down there!" I yelled

"Where is he?" asked Marksman

"He's inside a titan's mouth, a titan that had a cow's head." I replied

"What should we do now Colonel?" asked Marksman

"We turn around, we need to stop this." said Ghost, "The casualty rate is already in the billions."

"Eren already reached that far?" gasped Connie

Hacker nodded in response.

"We need to stop this. We don't have ODM gear so you need to split into two groups, one group saves Armin while the other takes out Eren." said Ghost

"We need to kill Eren." I said

"We can't be thinking about saving Eren, we shouldn't have in the beginning." said Levi

Ghost thought about it and sighed.

"Annie it's your call." said Ghost, "I can't decide this by myself."

Annie looked at Ghost and back at the others.

"I desperately want to save Eren, but I think that if we do then this might happen again." said Annie

Ghost nodded but he too looked uneasy.

"We'll give you covering fire." said Ghost, "Oh and use Falco."

I looked over outside and Falco was flying beside us.

"Go, we end this shit now." said Marksman

I jumped onto Falco with the rest of my team.

"All units, towards Eren." said Ghost through my earpiece

We all began to fly towards Eren but then every war hammer titan on top of Eren began to fire arrows at us. Falco began dodging them and I held onto the rope that was strapped around Falco as he spun around avoiding the arrows.

"Jean, Pieck and Sasha take care of the explosives." said Levi through my earpiece, "Mikasa, Annie, Connie, Reiner and Ymir take care of the titans and Armin."

The vultures fired their missiles at the titans giving us a clearing to land so I jumped off. The titan shifters shifted and I quickly made my way towards Eren's nape as fast as I could.