Eren Jaeger

Except Eren doesn't disappear and there's even that euphoric rush through that touch, that happens from every touch between everyone, who's not a local here. And Mikasa looks absolutely shocked and happily surprised (understatement) by it as she glances at their hands and then stares at his face.

". . . Eren. . ." A beat, another. " . . . You're . . . Real?"

You don't know what even happened! Don't come here and tell me maybe I should have tried harder when you don't know! And even with your dumbass titan powers you wouldn't have made it in time! It all happened too fast.

[ Had Eren been there from the start, he might have been able to save Jean. No, he would have. But he wasn't, so it's no use thinking about it. ]

And don't think I don't care, asshole! I do care about what you think because you're my friend, too!

[ The way that she smiles may be indication enough that she's already forgiven them. But, it's what he has to say that causes her expression to soften. Of course that's the case. The both of them are friends. Eren was someone who Historia confided in more than she had others in the Scouts.

Though, for a moment, she could swear that he was going to move in to hug her, she looks to him curiously for a moment before deciding to leave it alone. Even if she doesn't know what happened, she knows that it must have affected him to a dramatic degree... ]

... You don't have to burden anything by yourself, either. I'll always be on your side.

[ Typical for a shitty brat, isn't it? Thinking other people's care for him could just up and disappear completely because of something he did. As if that wasn't exactly why it hurt them as much as it did, exactly why they were willing to take Eren back if he just stopped even though he'd already set the apocalypse itself in motion. Why they tried to hold onto hope until he -- (or maybe it wasn't even him at that point, maybe it was the thing, maybe) -- made sure to erase the last of it.

Well, better later than never, right? Question is, what he's going to do with that realization now. ]

I believe you. [ That he didn't know, that is. ] But Eren. This shit isn't "fine".

[ Eren had begged, screamed for, demanded an alternative. For guidance, for hope, a hidden plan, anything. And what was Hange able to give in response? Nothing. They hadn't known the full extent of what he was planning back then, but it was still a failure, both as a Commander and as a mentor.

Maybe if they'd been better, if they could have offered something that day, at least given hope that with a little more time they could come to another resolution, well. Who knows. Maybe things would have been different. Maybe entire cities wouldn't have been flattened. Apparently a life after death is giving a lot of time to dwell on regret. ]

Sorry, Eren.

What should he do if he can't keep driving toward his purpose? How can he be certain of who he is? How can he know that any of it mattered? All of the death, pain, blood, betrayal, shattered hopes, shattered self—how does this fit into any of it?

But Reiner keeps holding on, just as Eren does. Their fingers entwined, palms kissing, their voices soft in the dark.

This never happened back home. It isn't a part of Eren's past, Reiner's future. It's only here.

"We're stealing time," he finally answers. Stealing time they don't have back home. Stealing time they may not even have here.

[ Armin doesn't move away; Eren only does what the other boy hoped he would. As soon as his best friend's arms are around him, Armin's are around Eren in kind. He buries his face in the other boy's chest, trying to breathe deeply through a sob. "You don't need to worry about me…"

Maybe that's true here...though, even if it were… ]

I always will. It's love, Eren. I can't help that…

You're my family.

He should, by all rights, be worried that Eren was one of them. The same people who had abandoned him to die in the hands of another Titan. But, there's a part of himself that is convinced that's not what Eren could ever be.

Marco smiles when Eren asks if he's really here.

"I - yeah. I'm really here, Eren. And you're here too."

He follows the surge of emotion, reaching out like he's going to grasp at Eren's shoulders, but instead wrapping his arms around him in a hug.

"Mikasa and Armin were so worried - I was worried. I'm glad you're still you."

Erwin regards Eren now with a real but subdued interest; he hasn't told anyone so explicitly yet what he knows and remembers - not even Levi. He knows, overall, the outcome, and some of the painful events leading up to it. But he hasn't yet sorted out what any of it means, to him or for all of them here. Even so, he recognizes the significance of what Eren has just told him. That he chose something else.

"I see."

[ Her eyes hang on the memory of Eren as he confirms everything Willy Tybur just said. He's the bad guy who might just destroy the world...but Reiner was a bad guy to him too. At that, Gabi's eyes fall as the pain of remembering the Rumbling is replaced by something almost as potent, the guilt of what the Warriors did to the people of Paradis. The expression on her face is remarkably similar to Reiner's at that moment, eyes down, brow furrowed, unpleasant grimace, sweat building on her brow.

Then he asks that question. And Gabi just winces. She knows what Reiner is gonna say. They breached the wall, to retake the Founder and save the world.

Save the world, for all of the true Eldians. For all of the Good Eldians, like Aunt Karina and Gabi and her parents. That was what Reiner wanted. She knows, because it was the same thing she spent her entire life wanting. And he wound up weighed down with all of this awful, hellish pain and guilt as a result.

She half-glances back at the real Eren. She can't manage full eye contact. Not yet, anyway. She looks back at the ground. ]

....yeah.

I used to tell myself stuff like that too.

Galliard mutters thanks when the guy holds the door for him, and slips out into the sunshine. He doesn't recognise him. Just some guy.

He never saw Eren up close, only from a distance. The titan form, that he saw up close, and those are experiences he'd care not to repeat or really think about in too much detail. He still has nightmares sometimes about his head being caught between two powerful hands and squeezed, his teeth splintering like glass and pouring down his throat. He wakes up choking, his lungs struggling against the imagined shards of crystal clogging them.

But when the guy speaks up, Galliard stops and half-turns. "Yeah. Just got here."