"You need to understand," Commander Erwin said slowly, "that what you are making are serious accusations, Miss [Surname]."

"I am aware."

"How am I supposed to trust you?"

You paused and thought it through. You glanced around at Erwin's office — neat and polished as a commander should be. He was looking at you from behind his desk. He did not look angry or disbelieving, but instead he looked intrigued.

"Sir, I heard Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover talk about what they should do with their Titans if Eren was eaten. I also heard Annie Leonhart ask Reiner what they should do when they saw Eren's Titan pass through. He told her to wait."

"Do you have any proof?"

"You can interview Marco Bott of the Military Police about Reiner and Bertholdt talking about it. I think if you ask any of the other cadets, they can affirm they heard Annie too."

Erwin looked at you for the first time with something resembling excitement. Not openly so, but you could hear fascination in the tone of his voice. You knew that it was because during the Scout recruitment, he had been intimidating on purpose to weed any infiltrators out. And now here was a cadet close to Eren affirming his suspicions.

You badly wanted to tell him the truth. What you really know. But you could not.

"I will choose to trust you," said Erwin. "If you are found guilty of lying, you will be severely punished for defamation. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

You didn't say that Annie was the Female Titan. In this timeline, the Survey Corps hadn't gone on the expedition to Wall Maria yet. You weren't supposed to know that the Female Titan even existed.

"Very well. If your claims are correct, then I'll be damned."

"And sir—" You hesitated. Erwin nodded at you to keep talking. "—after their arrest, we need to get to Eren Jaeger's basement as soon as possible."

"You are not in positions to make orders," Erwin said. You chewed your lip, embarrassed, but then he said, "But I will consider it."

You thanked Erwin and left his office. You were numb as you walked back to the barracks, where Christa and Sasha were packing their bags for the trip to the castle where Eren was hidden. When they saw you, they waved you over.

You didn't sleep well that night. Christa woke you up early. You noticed that Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie were gone at breakfast.

Sasha nudged a dry loaf of bread onto your lips and forced you to take a bite.

"Hey, [Name], eat up—the journey might be long. We should say good-bye to Jean and Marco before they leave for Stohess District."

"Have you seen Annie?" you asked.

"No, she was already gone by the time I woke up. Huh, isn't that strange? Usually she gets up last."

Your heart sank. Did they escape?

As you placed your bags on the horse's saddle, you left to find Jean and Marco. They were watching those who were leaving for the Scouts. It felt bittersweet that you were hugging them good-bye, when in another life, Jean was supposed to be riding beside you.

Marco pulled you aside. "Annie's nowhere to be found," he said. "Did you...?"

"Marco, please," you pleaded. "Not a word. I swear, I'll make things right."

Marco sighed. "Okay. Fine. Just be safe."

You bade good-bye and rode off with the Survey Corps to the castle where Eren awaited. He hugged you tightly when you reunited, and you couldn't help but squeeze back. His embrace was a relief.

Commander Erwin pulled you aside as the Scouts settled in for the night. He held up a vial of liquid and a dart, much like the ones that had been used to take out Eren and Historia when they were kidnapped.

"This liquid is from the Military Police," he said. "Thankfully, they let us use it."

"For what, sir?"

Erwin pocketed the vials. "I am sure you understand what I mean, Miss [Surname]."

You imagined Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie locked away in a cell far underground, where they couldn't transform. Where they couldn't harm anybody.

Commander Erwin had captured them in their slumber.

You nodded. "I understand, sir."

Certainly now that the Warriors were out of the way, you had saved him from so much heartache. Things would be easier with them out of the way. There would be no deaths, no fight, and now all the Scouts had to do was go to Shiganshina and find the basement.

But on the nights when you all prepared for the expedition to Shiganshina, there was an empty space in your heart. Jean was not there. You had to remind yourself that this was for the best.

From a window of the castle, you watched as Eren commenced with Hange's experiments in the distance. So far, they all seemed to be failing drastically. He clambered out of his Titan's nape with the help of Squad Levi. Hange said something to them, and they began to return to the castle with hard expressions on their faces.

You walked down to meet Eren at the entrance.

His Titan-marked face looked dejected, but when he saw you wiggling your fingers at him in greeting, some of the tiredness seemed to leave his eyes. You stepped forward to take his temples in your hands and trace down the Titan lines under his eyes with your thumb.

"You look awesome," you said, because you knew from your past life that it made teenage Eren happy to hear that someone didn't think he looked like a monster.

The tips of his ears burned red. "I look like a freak."

"You are not a freak," you said gently, knowing that it was a sensitive topic for him. "Cheer up. These lines are proof that you're working hard."

You wanted to tell Eren, this teenage Eren that you've missed so much, everything that he wanted to hear but never heard in your past life. That you missed him, that you wished he could see himself the way you admired him so. Everything you regretted not telling him sooner.

Eren's brows furrowed together as he fought back a noticeable blush. "Sh-shut up," he said. "I appreciate it, [Name], I really do, but today's experiment was a failure. Like all of them were. I can't pretend like it's a good thing."

He turned his head away, but he didn't shake off your fingers as they rested on the lines of his face.

You knew he was pretending not to like it. Like he wasn't starved for someone to tell him that he was doing the right thing. That was just such an Eren thing to do.

"It's okay to fail," you said. "Otherwise you can't learn."

"I know," mumbled Eren. "It's just that—can't I learn faster?"

You thought of the Female Titan fight in Stohess, where Eren won against Annie. You were about to say, "You will," when you realized that since Annie was out of the picture, that was not going to happen.

An uncomfortable emotion gnawed at your insides. If Eren didn't learn how to control his Titan in this timeline, that would put the Survey Corps in a vulnerable spot because they needed him to be an able fighter.

Instead, you said, "All will be alright in time."

You hoped you could believe it too.

The day of the expedition came. It started at sundown, just as it had before because that was when the Titans would be immobile. You sat at the rear guard while Eren was at the center surrounded by the original Squad Levi, who had not died since the Female Titan trap never happened.

It was strange to be gearing up for the return to Shiganshina so early. You could somewhat remember that on the night before the expedition in Loop One, the Scouts spent a rowdy evening eating meat.

A huge chain of events in your life had been taken out, just like that.

It reminded you just how powerful and how dangerous it was for you to be messing with the timeline.

The gates of the wall rose as the Scouts charged into the outside world. Eren and the rest of the 104th were starry-eyed as they took in their first glimpse of Wall Maria in five years. It was odd to think that you used to live a life where Walls and Titans no longer existed.

The journey was more difficult than the first return to Shiganshina. Every now and then you kept hearing word that entire squads had been overpowered by the sheer number of Titans and they had been eaten.

Another ripple of guilt ran through your skin. If you had let Eren discover what Reiner and Bertholdt's true motives were, he would have been able to control Titans in that moment where his fist met Dina Jaeger's Titan. Instead, he and everyone else were mostly in the dark regarding his abilities.

Those Scouts were going to die either way.

You mentally battled with yourself.

The reason they died in the first loop was so that Eren could learn to control his Titan. You prevented him from doing that.

Eventually, the sun set and the Titans went immobile. The Scouts were walking the path through the forest to Shiganshina. Cloaked in darkness, you forced your way through the formation to keep an eye on Eren.

Unfortunately, he was quick to spot you and beckoned you over. Your hoods were over your faces as you spoke in hushed tones, as to not alert the rest of Squad Levi that you had gone against orders and left your assigned position.

"I can't believe we're back in Wall Maria," he began. "This place is full of Titans. I—those guys that died, we can't let their sacrifice be for nothing."

Eren looked extremely distressed about the deaths. Without the life experience that horrible situations caused him, he was still an emotional, hotheaded boy. Although you didn't really mind what kind of attitude he had (you had the patience as long as he was alive), it had no place in the battlefield.

You tried to convince yourself that this was fine. You were simply sparing Eren extra trauma. You couldn't bear to watch him suffer at a young age again, not after everything you've seen him do as an adult.

You noticed that Eren's hand, which was holding a lantern, was shaking. Your fingers brushed his, just slightly, enough until your pinky fingers were intertwined.

"Scared?" you asked.

Eren nodded tersely. "There was so much death today. Why, aren't you?"

"I am," you said honestly. "But I have a feeling that we're going to be fine."

He didn't look convinced. "It's weird that we're heading to Shiganshina so early."

"What do you mean?"

"It's just... I feel like something is missing. I feel like... something should have happened in-between. Before we go to my basement. It's like we missed out on some kind of experience. Like I need to train more."

A guilty feeling took over you. In this universe, you had prevented Eren from growing and understanding more about the world. Historia never revealed herself to Ymir. Levi didn't even know that his last name was Ackerman.

At least Erwin got to keep his arm.

You tried to convince yourself that this was for the better. They'd already been through so much pain once, it would be cruel to make them go through it again. But then you remembered how Marco's death had led Jean to become who he was and the pit of dread in your stomach deepened.

Something was wrong. You could feel it.

But it was too late to turn back now.

Keep moving forward.

Shiganshina District was eerily quiet. There was no Armored Titan, no Colossal Titan, nothing. You were consoled by the fact that the Beast Titan, if Zeke Jaeger was anywhere near, knew nothing of the Scouts' current whereabouts. There was no Battle of Shiganshina. No serum, because you'd never stormed the Reiss chapel. No fight over whether Armin or Erwin should live.

Unfortunately, the hole in Wall Maria was never plugged. Since Annie had never fought, she had never crystallized herself. That meant that Eren never figured out how to harden his Titan either. A few Scouts stayed behind the wall to kill any Titan that came near as the main group entered the basement.

"There it is," Eren called to the superiors. "That's my house."

You, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin were called away. You glanced over your shoulder as the rest of your friends were sent to defend the breach in the Wall from incoming Titans. You had to hurry before they would be overwhelmed.

No matter how much you tried, you hated seeing Shiganshina District in ruins. It reminded you of your past life, when you and Armin died in each other's embrace. It also reminded you that even though you had done your part to save the world and fix your home, there was no stopping future cataclysmic events.

With Levi, Hange, and Erwin, you entered the basement.

You watched the commander through the corner of your vision as you wandered around the basement. He looked fascinated by everything. Of course he was. The fruit of his life's labor was right at the tips of his fingers.

When Levi found the journals left by Grisha Jaeger, you sank into the background as they discussed the discoveries. You pretended to be shocked.

You were all a race called Eldians, and the people who sent Titans to their land were from a land called Marley. A cooling relief settled on your shoulders as their eyes widened at the words they read.

That was one less secret you had to keep.

The Survey Corps, especially Erwin, was thrilled. At long last, they had found real, useful information about what lay beyond the walls. That humanity lives. While they spread the news among the ranks, you glanced at Eren's ruined house. It looked just as bad as the day the Rumbling survivors bombed it down, like it had never been fixed.

Your eyes slid to the house beside it, where a rickety old fence still stood. Your house. Where your parents had been crushed to death under the same boulder that led to Carla Jaeger's death.

You couldn't help it. Tears welled in your eyes. It was hard enough to go through the death of your loving parents the first time. But the second time you had the chance to let them live and you didn't for the sake of those you loved. When you ran back with Eren and Mikasa to your homes, while they were trying to save Carla, you were frozen in time as you stared at the bloody splatters of a hand sticking out from under a boulder that crushed your mother.

A hand placed itself on your shoulder. You turned to see Eren with a solemn look on his face. He must remember too.

You didn't say anything as he pulled you in for a hug.

Familiar.

"I miss them," you admitted quietly.

"Me too," he said. "But at least we now know how to avenge them. I just wish I knew if my dad is dead or not."

You stiffened. Eren didn't know what you did.

"[Name]?"

"It's nothing," you said quickly. "I just wish we had a dad."

Now it was Eren's turn to stiffen.

"We?"

You opened your mouth and closed it. You hated stuttering, but Eren had you cornered.

"I mean, we did grow up together," you said. "We've always been very close."

"Close," he repeated.

"Are we not?"

"We are," Eren said quickly. "It's just... I thought we were closer than that."

"It's hard not to when you basically grew up beside me like a brother."

"Oh," was all Eren said.

You didn't know what he meant. Wasn't that how you both always saw each other? Like how Armin was basically your brother and Mikasa was basically your sister. But Eren... Eren had always had some sort of deeper connection with you.

Either way, it probably didn't matter. A nagging feeling in the back of your mind tried to push you into acting otherwise, but you ignored it.

As you gazed at the district that was once — and would again be — your home, Eren's hands brushed against the skin of your shoulders.

"[Name], can you promise me something?"

"Not if I can make you promise first," you said. "I want you to try and live for me, okay?"

Eren snorted. "Try?"

You suppressed a smile. You had this conversation before.

"That you will," you said. "After everything, you will live. We will live."

You asked him what his promise request was, but you had a feeling that you already knew what it was.

"Still up for the sea?" he asked. "I want you to promise me that we'll see it together. And you have to be excited. We know it exists now!"

You remembered what Eren was like when you saw the sea for the first time. The early warnings of his descent to madness. Your smile faded.

"With our friends. Like Armin and Mikasa."

"Yeah, but I'm asking you," he said pointedly. "You're my—my best friend, so you have to keep this promise even if it sounds childish. You're not getting rid of me anytime soon."

"Yeah, yeah," you said dismissively. "You're part of me."

When you returned to Trost, you found that the joy was short-lived.

"They've escaped," Erwin explained once you were back in his office. "I'm afraid that a man named Zeke infiltrated the Military Police ranks and broke them out. Your suspicions are confirmed. We will be hiding Eren in a safe place."

Here was the thing about Eren: as a teen, when it came to betrayal, he had to see it to believe it. He could not believe that Annie, who taught him how to fight, or Reiner and Bertholdt, who treated him like a brother, were the type to go against him.

You had to tug his arm a little harder when he paused in front of the Survey Corps Headquarters in Trost, longingly wondering when he would return with the rest of his friends.

"This is ridiculous," he muttered as he clambered into a wagon with a hood over his head. "There isn't even any solid evidence, Commander Erwin had never said anything!"

"You have to trust the Commander," Mikasa told him pointedly. "We can't risk you getting kidnapped."

"By Reiner and Bertholdt?"

"By anyone."

At the side, Petra, Oluo, Gunther, and Eld mounted their horses and waited for Levi's call. When it was given, the carriage sprang to life and you were being whisked away from Trost to the far mountains in the Wall.

Eren still looked annoyed. "I can't believe anyone close to me would want to do that. And how would the Marleyans get into the Walls? The land beyond it is crawling with Titans!"

"Maybe it's their technology," Armin suggested. "They had a flying carriage like my parents."

"I can believe Annie," you said stubbornly. "She was always trying to get close to you even though she never liked being around the rest of us."

Eren glared at you, but said nothing else of it. You noticed that he swallowed nonchalantly and looked away, trying to hide his red face from you.

You turned to your two other friends, dropping your voice so Eren couldn't hear what you were saying.

"What's up with him?" you demanded Armin.

He shrugged, but sported a small smile. "He thinks you're jealous of Annie."

Your mouth dropped. "Me? Jealous of Annie?"

"The way you said it, it sounded like you were upset that she was hovering over him all the time during training."

"It's obvious, [Name], you don't need to hide it," Mikasa added. "Whenever Annie came near Eren during cadet training, you would always glance at them suspiciously."

"Because she's a threat," you fumed.

In spite of the cold wind as the carriage sped past paths on the mountainside, Armin grinned with amusement.

Mikasa nodded. "You see her as a threat."

"Well, she is," you said petulantly. "And now we're hiding Eren away."

Armin chuckled, and Eren turned back.

"What are you guys talking about?"

You crossed your arms and looked away, just as he had earlier. "Just speculating."

Eren and Armin looked at each other. You knew Eren was going to force Armin to tell him what you said later. Reaffirming that you were jealous of Annie.

How ridiculous.

You were protective of Eren, but not in that way.

You found yourself back in the mountain cottage where you had hidden in before Historia became queen. You were with Mikasa, Armin, Eren, and the original Squad Levi, who mostly bossed you around to do the chores while they sauntered to and fro. It had you grumbling in annoyance but at least you had something to distract you from the gloom.

It wasn't so bad, though, living in the mountainside with your closest friends.

Cooking with Mikasa, organizing shelves with Armin, cleaning and complaining about cleaning with Eren. It was boring, but boring meant safe, and safe meant good.

But you knew it couldn't last long. You had to find a way to keep Eren and his Titan away from Marley's grasp. It proved to be an impossible task. You had no prospects, no means to go across the sea, no idea where the Warriors were.

Suddenly you wished you had gone the other route.

You wondered what the Warriors were going to do. Would they send all their troops to hunt Eren down? Send Pieck and Porco to infiltrate the Paradis military instead, since Reiner, Annie, and Bertholdt were now known criminals? Eren was vulnerable as well. He was not well-versed in fighting Titan shifters, since he never experienced it. He could not harden his skin either.

In other words, he was doomed.

Unfortunately, the day came that your questions were answered.

On a day where everything seemed wrong, you begged Squad Levi to move hiding spots. You could feel Marley watching you like an omnipresent being, waiting for the right time to smite. Oluo laughed in your face and Levi waved you away, telling you that your oddities were just the result of cabin fever.

You burst into Eren's room as he was resting from one of Hange's experiments. He brightened when he saw you but it quickly morphed into confusion as you knelt beside his bed and took his hand, as though he were a dying hospital patient and you were the last of his kin.

"Please, Eren, get out of here," you whispered quietly, not even trying to hide the panic in your voice. "Eren, they'll find you."

"Who?"

"The Warriors," you said. "Marley."

"Warriors?" Eren's face turned stony. "[Name]... what do you know that the rest of us don't?"

A loud crack sounded from the forest, like a tree falling. You jumped.

You heard a whistle, like a kettle boiling.

Then the house exploded into debris.

As you and Eren reached out for each other, coughing among the smoke, you saw that you were right.

You were ambushed by the Warriors. Once again, they had infiltrated the Walls. Since you were far away from civilization, there was no back-up.

While Squad Levi dealt with the Female Titan, they were crushed and killed just as they were in the past life. Captain Levi fought, barking at you to get Eren out of the way, but Eren would not leave.

"Eren, no!"

The angry, emotional boy that he still was, he transformed and fought on impulse.

You were forced to gear up and fight too. But you were so outnumbered and outranked that it was hopeless. Everybody else had been forcibly thrown to the ground, and you couldn't tell if they were passed out or dead.

It was over in a pathetically short amount of time. The Female Titan forcibly ripped Eren from his Titan. You were forced to retreat within the leaves of a thick tree while you watched Eren get kidnapped.

"At last, we've taken a step further to the end of the island devils," the Beast Titan said. "We will take you to our homeland, Eren. You will understand the truth of this world."

Your eyes met with Eren. He was trying to mouth something to you, lines of Titan marks creased down his exhausted face. You tried to make out what he was saying.

"I..."

You didn't have a choice. You had to move. You emerged from the tree and prepared to slice down the Female Titan's arm, but a fist enclosed around you. You gasped for breath as the Beast Titan held you up.

"No," Eren was saying breathlessly, "don't kill her!"

"That girl knows too much," Reiner, who was in his human form, said down below. "She figured out that we were Titans and got us from the get-go. We don't know how she got this information, but we figure that she's dangerous."

"Aw, but it seems as though Eren truly cares on whether she lives or dies," said the Beast Titan. "It would be a shame to kill her so early."

You were desperate.

"Zeke Jaeger is a traitor!" you yelled at Reiner. "He's going to turn on you. You need to kill him!"

The grip around you tightened until you were suffocating. Eren was yelling at him to let go, but Zeke did not listen. His Titan looked menacing as he regarded you.

"I see," he said. "You're a lot more dangerous than I thought."

He drew his fist back like he was throwing a baseball, and slammed you onto the ground, where your head collided with the hard earth. You could hear Eren screaming his chest out now, but it was too late.

"What was that about?" you heard Reiner demand.

"She's no use as a captive..." Zeke's lying voice was fading in and out. "...she'll feed us wrong information..."

You spent the last of your consciousness feeling for your temple. It wasn't bleeding, but you could feel the dent in your skull and you knew you were a goner. The rapid rise and fall of your chest was the last fight of your body.

You were dying.

Stupid. You had made the wrong decisions and it led to this. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Your blurry vision cleared to catch one last glimpse of your second Eren. He was looking at you from the Female Titan's grip, unable to help you from dying, tears freely running down his face as he screamed in anguish.

His cry was the last thing you heard as you faded out of life.

In between life and death, there was nothing except a hopeless, dark purgatory. Your consciousness floated for what seemed like eternity, until light flooded your eyes once again.

Deja vu. Deja vu. Deja vu.

When you awoke, you were a child, in your bed. And your mother was calling your name.

"Mama!" you said, your voice much higher-pitched now that you were in a kid's body again. You threw your arms around her, glad to be reunited with someone familiar.

You got a glance at yourself in the mirror and you suddenly felt as though you'd been slapped.

Back to square one.

When it took you a long time before letting go, your mother pried you off her, wondering what had gotten into you, before handing you the watering tin. You were forced to step outside again in a world that was yet to know destruction.

Nothing seemed real.

Then you heard scuffling. A boy with green eyes leaned over the fence and he pointed at your cheek.

"You have dirt on your face."