CHAPTER 21 - People Change for Good or for Worse

"The walls had been so quiet for years that we became to complacent with the information that we should have been looking into before." Armin sighed as he was saying his thoughts inside the meeting room.

"We became too lax." Hanji said, Erwin could not help but sigh and think over the things that was happening.

"But I didn't feel like Annie was lying before. I mean... she looked so sincere when she came here with Eren." Sasha defended. "I want to give her my trust."

Mikasa looked at her, all that they could do was sigh and hope for the best. She could understand Sasha's concern, but really... If they would be given the right to decide on what to do, it was a decision that the whole humanity inside the walls were at stake.

They could not just decide based with what they felt for something. They needed an objective judgement for it.

"I don't think that it matters for now. Trust is definitely important on our jobs and duties as soldiers, but we needed to gather information about these stuff as soon as possible." Historia spoke that caught the attention of everyone else. She then, looked at Armin before speaking again. "Armin, Eren mentioned that you wrote everything that he saw before."

"Yes, I'll look into it as soon as possible." Armin answered. "If the meeting is done now then I should-" Armin was about to stand up when Erwin cut him off.

"I'm sorry if I appear to be disrespectful Historia..." He started, "but if you wouldn't mind, could you read the letter that Ymir has sent to you?"

Everyone was alarmed, they did not know that there was another set of letters in the envelope.

"I didn't open it a while a while since it is specifically addressed to you." He continued with conviction. "I just wanted to know... Maybe we might get some clues with whatever Ymir has told you in the letter."

Historia was looking at Erwin with shocked eyes. It had been years. Years ever since she had heard about Ymir. And now that she finally got news about her, she found her lifeless.

Connie coughed that snapped Historia into reality. She did not know what to feel, knowing that Ymir had a letter for her. She slowly reached for the envelope that was in front of her and grabbed several papers that was left inside before she started reading it quietly on her own.

Everyone was quiet after the letter was read. Dumbfounded with the new details, the room was filled with sighs and disappointments.

"I think I need to get the written lists of Eren's memories." Armin said, breaking the silence in the room as he stood up.

"Please do." Historia answered back, "Hanji-san, please be with Armin." She looked at Hanji before looking at the others. "As for the others, the meeting is temporarily dismissed. Let's meet up again tomorrow morning."

Everyone stood from their seats and saluted to their Queen before leaving the room. Each of them existed with a much more confused look painted on their faces.

"Too much information just for a day." Jean sighed. "I do hope they won't attack soon."

"When you mean soon, like tomorrow immediately. Right?" Connie asked, opening the door for everyone.

"We don't know when the war will be. We need information about their hideouts." Jean answered, Mikasa and Levi were listening behind them, as Armin immediately left the room as soon as he got to the door.

"It's either that we need to attack first, or we will be good as extinct." Sasha concluded, on the side. They were preparing for the worst. How would they win over creatures who knew more about the world compared to them? It was a battle that not only relied on mere strength, but with knowledge and wisdom as well.

Sasha, Connie and Jean soon left the room, Levi, Mikasa, Erwin and Historia was left.

"Oi, don't get too worried. Doesn't fit you." Levi suddenly said, looking at Erwin. But Erwin and the other hand, smiled faintly at Levi.

"I don't know..." He said, looking down to his feet. He continued speaking as he looked at Levi eye to eye. "Maybe if these things were revealed years before, I'd be happy and ignited to search for answers."

"But now? I can't risk Hanji and John." He sighed. "I just wanted to live quietly inside these walls. Right now, everything seems so troublesome to me."

Historia, Levi and Mikasa was left there looking at their once strong willed commander. Time flies indeed, and people do change.

"How can we win over them?"

--

Sitting at the chair by her bedside table, Historia was busy thinking of everything.

The Beast Titan is Eren's brother. They were considered as dirty, demon blood. The walls were made by the first king. They wanted Eren and Annie back. And the coordinates, it was said in the letter, that it was inside Eren. Just like how Ymir was eaten for them to get the Jaw Titan, Eren needed to end up the same way for them to get the coordinates from him. They still did not know anything about it but a lot of things were troubling her mind. Ymir's letter did help a little, but the more that they knew about things, the more they got confused.

"It is indeed troublesome." Historia told to herself, placing the palms of her hand on her forehead before she decided to grab Ymir's letter again and reread it. Too much information was written, and they did not know what exactly they needed to do, all of them were overwhelmed with the news. If the titans were to attack that specific moment, they would lose the battle for sure.

Historia stood up from her seat when suddenly a knock from the door of her room was heard.

"This is Hanji, we have already gathered the information that might connect with the information that was given to us by Ymir and the beast titan." She said, still not opening the door as a sign of respect to the Queen.

The queen looked at the letters at her table before she put them back at the envelope.

"Call for an urgent meeting with the usual people, exclude Eren and Annie for now."

Hanji and Armin saluted in front of the door before they left and spread the news to those specific people needed.

Moments later, inside Historia's meeting room, one by one the soldiers started to enter.

Sasha's eyes were still blinking continuously, Connie yawned, Jean sighed as he looked at Connie, Levi and Mikasa just sat on their usual posts alongside with Erwin and Historia sitting on the her usual post as well, as the queen.

"Where are they already?" Connie asked, looking at Sasha as he randomly asked a question. It was early in the morning when the queen called for a meeting. Trying to keep it a secret from Annie and Eren, she called for the meeting before the sun even rose up.

"Wake yourselves up, we need to think in this meeting." Jean said on the side. Mikasa smiled, at the sight of them.

"I can hear footsteps!" Sasha alarmed as she soon tried to wake herself up, slamming the both of her cheeks with both of her hands that made Historia giggle.

"You never change, do you?" Historia said endearingly that made everyone look at them.

The door swung open and showed Armin and Hanji with the papers. Mikasa and Jean stood up, helping the other two.

There was a sudden silence in the room. Hanji wasn't smiling, neither was Armin. Once Armin and Hanji had settled at their posts, Historia started to speak.

"To start this meeting, I want to tell everyone that anything discussed here should not be leaked to anyone else," she started before she looked at Armin, "not to Annie," she then, proceed to look at Mikasa, "not to Eren."

"Am I understood?" She asked sternly.

"Yes, Queen Historia." Mikasa and Armin answered in unison. It was rare for Historia to impose them her current status, rather, it was the first time that she did.

"Let's begin." She said and soon Hanji grabbed a piece of paper before she started to speak.

"I would like to begin the discussion," she started as she looked at Historia's direction. The Queen nodded lightly, signalling her confirmation with Hanji's words. Hanji then, cleared her throat.

"The letter of the beast titan mentioned that Eren is his brother, correct?" Hanji said and waited for the response of others. Few seconds after, after she saw Sasha and Connie nodded, she proceeded with her discussion. "It seemed that they had the same father but different mothers."

"It is written here, 'I saw father, having a child with a woman with blonde hair. They looked happy together, with a son. But the vision flashed and changed to a memory of that woman being killed... No, she wasn't killed. They were kneeling on a high wall, father was a few meters away from that woman, people injected something on her and she became a titan. Armin, she was the titan that ate mom. The same titan that we fought on wall Maria years ago.'"

Mikasa and Jean's eyes widened as Levi looked at Mikasa. "You know her?"

Mikasa nodded right before Armin spoke, getting the attention of the rest of the soldiers. "It was the same time that something weird had happen to the titans."

"When the mindless titans followed Eren's command!" With his eyes wide, Jean exclaimed when it finally clicked to him. Connie and Sasha furrowed their brows, trying to remember what happened during that time.

"We think that the previous wife of Eren's father was a royal blood like you." Hanji continued with their theory.

"Did Eren mentioned anything about that with his memories before?" Mikasa asked before she decided to look into the papers on the table. Trying to look and read some of the details of Eren's memories.

"What I do remember with these, was that Eren said they were memories of different people," Mikasa added, "didn't he say that there was a person that named Owl that also mentioned my name and Armin's?"

"What about him?" Levi asked as he listened to her. The others were also looking, as Erwin on the side also started reading some of the papers.

"He said that person was somewhat the key to something." Mikasa said, looking for a single word in every paper she was holding.

"He was the person that was holding the Attack Titan," Armin blurted, "the paper is here with me." Handing the paper to Mikasa, Armin stood up from his seat.

"He ordered Eren's dad to obtain the founding titan from the Fritz family," Armin then looked at Historia, "Which your sister was taking care of, I think."

Historia's face hardened. Furrowed brows. pursed lips, she didn't even notice that she had stopped breathing as well. Whe she noticed that she was holding her breath, she decided to let go of it and relaxed herself. "Ymir's letter also said relevant information with regards to her situation there, and some details about the enemy."

"Did she mentioned anything about Eren and Annie?" Armin anticipated with what Historia had said as Hanji looked at her meaningfully. She also wanted to ask the contents of the letter.

Historia nodded at Armin and decided to read the second part of the letter to them. After reading everything, the others were shocked, Erwin looked at his wife as Hanji was clenching her fists. "That was all Ymir had written in this letter, I assume that Eren's memories had more information than what Ymir had said."

"What else did you gather with regards to Eren's memories?" Erwin said, looking at his wife with his concerned look. He held her hand that was trembling. "Are you troubled or excited?"

Hanji smiled, a familiar expression plastered on her face. "Both," Hanji exclaimed, "the information that was gathered with Eren's memories were puzzling, but most of them were past memories of different people, what Ymir had confirmed for us is something that we also needed now."

"Why did Reiner wanted to help us?" Connie asked with his widened eyes. Very curious as to why Reiner would do such a thing.

"Why did Annie dragged Eren out?" Sasha asked on the other hand, not waiting fkr others to put a thought of what Connie had asked.

"So, titan shifters have special abilities, and we need to take note of them and be wary everytime." Jean concluded, staring blankly while thinking on the side.

"They said to be prepared for a war, how come you are excited with this information?" Levi asked, arms crossed on his chest as he glared at Hanji. He wasn't at all pleased when thinking about a war, even though he was the best soldier to fight among them.

"You know I am not thrilled with that, it is more on the information about the titans." Hanji defended herself as she tried to fix several papers in front of her.

"I know, but having another war, although we alraedy see this coming..." Levi looked at Mikasa with furrowed brows, he sighed, "this is such a headache."

"The abilities aren't that much bad, but we are outnumbered." Mikasa joined the conversation.

"They are also armed with guns normally, so they are much used to killing people." Armin said, looking for a blank paper on the table, trying to write down things that were being discussed.

"Where did you get that information?" Connie asked, eyes blinking as he was trying to analyze things that were discussed.

"Owl's memories, their technology is advanced compared to us." Hanji answered before she looked at her husband. "Your father was right, and we are now to discover what's outside."

Erwin looked back at her and smiled faintly. "But why did King Fritz decided to lock us out?"

Hanji looked at his eyes and sighed, "We are not sure yet. The memories regarding that are the most confusing. All that we know from the snippets of memories that we encountered, the holder of the Attack Titan holds the power to see the past memories and the memories of the future holder."

"Which is why Eren had visions..." Sasha spoke, "but why did it only happen when he held Historia's hand?"

"That goes back to the royal bloodline, just like the coordinates that that Zeke had spoken of in the letter, and the order that Owl had ordered Eren's father, it is only something that a person with the royal blood can activate."

"Don't you find it weird? Was owl a royal blood as well? How was he able to mention Armin and Mikasa?" Jean asked on the side, looking at Hanji. "From what's written here, their names were just mentioned suddenly by Owl that time."

"If only Eren could see the memories clearly." Erwin said, looking at a paper he grabbed not too long ago. 

"But what about Annie and that Zeke? What are we going to do about them?" Jean suddenly spoke, breaking the few seconds of silence. "Who are we to trust?"

"We need to protect Eren, that we are sure." Mikasa added a statement, not really answering Jean's questions.

"We still need to be wary of Annie and Zeke, who knows who to trust." Sasha answered, also thinking of every information she had learned.

Questions were asked one after another as Armin tried to take note of any information, question, and answer that was talked about.

All of them definietly grew after all those times. Some grew stronger, smarter, but most of them grew apart from their duty as a Scouting Legion.

It was funny how when the time passed, it felt like nothing had changed in them, but looking back from where they were before, and their current situation...

Nothing is the same anymore.