Eren sits and listens to the spiel, though he already knows how this goes, how this ends. He hears the words a million times before the man at the podium says them.
Eren Jaeger, the enemy of humanity.
No. That's Willy Tybur's voice.
He forces himself to focus on this man, condemning the island and its people to hatred and death. It disgusts him. He wants to care about the Eldian refugees. He does care about them on some faraway level; he recognises that they're also victims. But no one and nothing matters as much to him as the handful of people from Paradis scattered around this room (and Historia, who of course can't be here).
The applause soars around them and he finds it deafening.
These people are condemning themselves by condemning the island, and they have no idea. It's easy to hate the people in this room, cheering for the death of everyone he loves, simply for the crime of being born where and how they were. He can't take it. He wanted this to be different. It was the last chance in his head.
He sets his hat back and and slides out of the row. He sat on the end for a reason, after all, and here it is.
From here he can just leave. He doesn't dare to look back, not at Mikasa's worried face or Armin's slightly horrified one.
Not at Levi, sitting stoic as always a few rows away from them. Eren isn't as strong as he pretends; his resolve could crack open. Mikasa had almost managed it, but in the end her silence was as loud as these cheers.
No one is looking (as far as he knows) as he walks into the hallway, the first intractable steps that will end only when the world does.
levi - the au where eren doesn't defect
Eren Jaeger, the enemy of humanity.
No. That's Willy Tybur's voice.
He forces himself to focus on this man, condemning the island and its people to hatred and death. It disgusts him. He wants to care about the Eldian refugees. He does care about them on some faraway level; he recognises that they're also victims. But no one and nothing matters as much to him as the handful of people from Paradis scattered around this room (and Historia, who of course can't be here).
The applause soars around them and he finds it deafening.
These people are condemning themselves by condemning the island, and they have no idea. It's easy to hate the people in this room, cheering for the death of everyone he loves, simply for the crime of being born where and how they were. He can't take it. He wanted this to be different. It was the last chance in his head.
He sets his hat back and and slides out of the row. He sat on the end for a reason, after all, and here it is.
From here he can just leave. He doesn't dare to look back, not at Mikasa's worried face or Armin's slightly horrified one.
Not at Levi, sitting stoic as always a few rows away from them. Eren isn't as strong as he pretends; his resolve could crack open. Mikasa had almost managed it, but in the end her silence was as loud as these cheers.
No one is looking (as far as he knows) as he walks into the hallway, the first intractable steps that will end only when the world does.