Chapter Text
He felt… The cold of the blade, the touch of gentle hands, and a kiss.
«See you later, Eren »
Finally, it was all over. He felt nothing… Nothing but all-consuming, absolute emptiness.
Or was it?
Consciousness returned to him with a jolt. Sharp, painful, tearing him out of non-existence. He felt wrong, alien. As if he shouldn't be here. The smell of metal, ozone, and something sweetly putrid hit his nostrils, making him shudder. He felt like hundreds of needles were piercing his temples.
The surface beneath him was breathing. It was cold, hard, and vibrated slightly, pulsating in time with this hellish din. The sounds around him were indistinct. Everything mixed into a single mush, making it even worse. Everything wove together into a mad performance from which there was no exit.
Then Eren decided to open his eyes. And his reality cracked at the seams.
The world twisted. Long, broken silhouettes of people flowed like liquid shadows. Their limbs stretched and twisted into spirals. The sun beat into his eyes with a neon-orange color. He heard screams. Not of millions. Of billions. He heard them. They were everywhere. No. Enough.
Abruptly, a figure loomed before him. Was this man shouting something at him? He couldn't hear, only saw his mouth opening and closing. Every attempt to understand made his head feel like it was splitting apart.
Trying to focus his gaze, Eren managed to catch a few familiar features. A man. Strange clothes. Dark skin… "Onyankopon?" the boy tried to hiss, but his voice broke into a soundless rasp. His tongue was heavy, as if his mouth was stuffed with cotton.
This flickering man grabbed him by the shoulders. His touch burned Eren with an icy cold. Suddenly, a deafening roar sounded, and Eren felt himself being carried. He felt the ground disappear from under his feet, and nausea rose to his very throat.
Pulling himself together, literally, digging his fingers into his own forearms to check if he was still real — the boy pushed himself up on his elbows and saw the Cause.
It blocked out half the sky. Huge. Thick. And… stone? Eren couldn't understand… what was it? It moved and thundered, but moved like a person. Suddenly, something hit him, his legs buckled, and he fell to the ground, causing another crash.
Breathing heavily, he sat up and turned to the dark-skinned man. His long hair stuck to his face like tentacles, obstructing his view. Now he could make out fragments of words breaking through the monster's howl: “...hold on… hear me? … your name… guy?”— the man's voice cracked and hissed like an old record.
Suddenly, he clutched his stomach and let out a long, animalistic groan. Nausea tightened inside him into a tight, living knot, trying to break free. The boy felt a new touch and instinctively recoiled, hitting his back against a wall.
All of this was wrong. Too loud. Too bright. Too real.
Covering his eyes and ears with his hands, he tried to find silence. But it didn't come. Inside his skull, someone was laughing — high, hysterical, on the verge of madness. He realized it was he himself who was laughing.
The din and screams subsided a little, retreating before the growing ringing in his own ears. He opened his eyes.
The man before him was still saying something, his face distorted with worry. But Eren saw him differently now. His skin was translucent, and through it, a pure white skull was visible, and inside his heart, a strange, angular sphere shimmering black and blue was seen.
“I… am I in hell?” Eren finally exhaled, and this time the words obeyed him, sounding like a hoarse, alien whisper.
Then the memories crashed down on him with a force he had never known.
Freedom.
A lightning bolt of pure agony pierced him. Pictures, words, sensations—all mixed into one big mess. He felt the weight of millions of lives on his shoulders again. The taste of ash on his tongue. The smell of burning flesh that was forever etched into him. The crunch of bones under the feet of his titans.
He heard them. Prayers. Curses. Last gasps. A child's cry. They sounded louder than all the noises of this new world, deafening him, tearing his mind apart.
Freedom.
«No… stop… please…» — he didn't understand if he said it out loud or only thought it. His body shuddered in a dry spasm, and his mouth opened in a soundless scream of horror.
He saw Mikasa's face. Not the gentle one from the last moment. But one distorted with pain and horror, looking at him.
«I… I had to… I…» — he tried to find an excuse, to find the reason, that core that had held him all this time. But found nothing.
His hands reached for his face, for his eyes, as if trying to tear them out so he wouldn't have to see. His fingers found moisture. He was crying. For the first time, truly crying. Not from rage, not from despair in battle. But from the realization of everything he had done.
And through this waterfall of pain, horror, and plumes of steam, the man's voice finally broke through, becoming clear and distinct for a moment: «Hey! Hey! Guy! Breathe! Damn it, what's happening to you?!»
Eren snapped. He ran into an alley, with all the strength he had. His lungs screamed, his legs ached, and in his thoughts, only one word.
RUN
And he ran.
His legs, buckling, carried him forward through a narrow alley that compressed and expanded like the lungs of some giant being. The walls on either side, made of rough brick, pulsated in time with his frantically beating heart. He didn't hear any footsteps of pursuit from behind, only the incessant screams, whispers, and that goddamned word.
FREEDOM.
His breath whistled, breaking into a rasp. Tears, mixing with sweat, streamed down his face, and it seemed to him that they left not wet tracks on his skin, but thin, bloody grooves. He looked back.
The alley behind him was being swallowed by a thick, black haze, from which millions of empty eyes stared at him—the eyes of those he had destroyed. Crushed like bugs… The haze crept after him, relentlessly, like his own shadow, devouring space.
He lunged forward, turned a corner, and crashed into a solid wall. A dead end.
Despair, sharp and cold, tightened his throat. He pressed his back against the cold surface, expecting the darkness to overtake him. He squeezed his eyes shut, ready to be finally consumed.
But nothing happened.
Silence.
He opened his eyes. The haze was gone. The alley was ordinary—dirty, narrow, flooded with the strange orange light of street lamps. That same deafening city hum returned, but now it sounded… muffled. Distant. Like the sound of the sea from a shell.
His body suddenly folded in half from a fit of coughing—dry, wrenching, turning him inside out. He braced his hands on his knees, feeling the tremors slowly release his limbs. The air he breathed still smelled of smoke and something alien, but no longer caused such suffocation.
He slowly straightened up, leaning against the wall. His gaze fell on his own hand. It was suspiciously small. Seeing a large shard of glass, Eren approached and picked it up.
Somewhere in the alley, the sound of shattering glass echoed.
No… How is this possible… he can't be 14…can he?!
His hands grabbed his hair so tightly it seemed he would tear it out.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?!
Somewhere in the distance, beyond the wall of dull horror he had become, a ray of cold, pure awareness broke through.
He was alive. He wasn't supposed to be alive… How could he be alive, and even younger than before?!
And in response, he felt a movement in his back. His legs gave way, and his arms wrapped around his body. Could it still be inside him?!
Eren collapsed to his knees, gritting his teeth. His back burned as if something there was awakening, breathing with him. He felt it. The power. The one he wanted to be rid of forever.
"NO…" he rasped, pressing his hands to the back of his head as if he could tear out what was under the skin.
But he couldn't. The power under his skin had already fused to his spine. It had taken him to this new world and was reveling in the suffering he experienced. It breathed under his skin in time with his ragged breath.
The boy slowly lowered his hands. His shoulders slumped, and tears mixed with sweat and grime. He was left alone, utterly broken, in this alien world.
Eren slowly, very slowly, rose to his feet. His whole body trembled, and in his chest was only emptiness. He didn't know what to do and didn't know what would happen next.
But he took the first step. Then the second, third, and fourth. Away from this dead end. Somewhere in the distance, millions of cries echoed in his ears, but he was no longer listening.
He just walked along the long alley, and his path was illuminated by a scarlet sunset.