COMRADES • Eren Jaeger

CHAPTER 44: Mourners

LEVI SAT on the steaming corpses of the Titans, watching them fall and disintegrate into nothing. A crude sight for a veteran captain. This would be the last time he'd ever see the body of a Titan.

The ghosts of his past soldiers appeared before him. Not in a haunting way, but rather in a manner that suggested a farewell that was long overdue. Their faces were too many to count. This was it. They were witnessing the fruit of their hardships at last. Obscuring his vision was the steam, like a rainy day in a mountain's summit. Dead or not dead?

No matter what the correct answer was, the reality was that he could see them standing before him, gazing at the last man standing. Levi placed a fist over his heart in salutation and watched as they faded away into the mist. It would also be the last time he'd see their faces.

You could see their faces like you were staring through water, as a fish saw the sun at the bottom of the sea. This was your being now, the preternatural ghost of Ymir's will.

Celebrations were cheap but commenced nevertheless. Being alive at this point of time was no small feat. The children ran to their parents, embraced their relatives. Reunions among the survivors were made and tears were shed for those who did not make it.

It was the end. Humanity was saved.

Then he glanced down.

Your eyes were shut as you were laid on his lap. Your skin was still warm with life but you knew your blood would chill cold soon. The only thing that suggested something was direly wrong about you was the crimson stain on your slashed shirt, slowly reddening into a gushing pool.

Levi pressed over the wound above your heart to staunch the blood.

Mikasa emerged from the steam, holding Eren. There were fresh tears in her eyes. You had expected a gruesome sight for Eren, but nothing could prepare you to see nothing left of him save for his head wrapped around the red scarf which he had been the original owner of. His face was young again and creased with the lines of powers that no longer existed in this world.

You wondered, was he looking at himself as you were right now?

Scuffling through the smoke made your hearing ring. Your friends in the Alliance ran toward you, stumbling through the debris and calling your name. The memories filled their minds and they could remember your last meeting as though they'd woken from an unbearably long coma.

When they saw you dead in Levi's arms, they stopped moving. They wept for you and Eren, for this world that had so badly mistreated your people. Without a single care that there was no life in you, they held you so tightly you could almost feel the faint beats of their hearts against your bloodied chest.

Where is Eren?

You asked the ripples of space and time but there was no answer. You didn't know what death was supposed to feel like, but you hadn't expected this.

-

A WHITE TARP was placed above your body, where Levi knelt. Dead was dead, it didn't matter who, he always said, but for once he had the time to sit down and clean. His favorite thing to do. Now he was washing the blood and dirt from your skin.

His hands were uncharacteristically gentle, like he was washing the skin of a baby, not a corpse. Intrusive but realistic thoughts about your death had occupied his mind plenty, so much that your death felt more like an old memory than a fresh wound, but it never changed a thing about the way it would feel when it actually happened.

He'd killed many. That didn't matter. But he hadn't expected one of them to be you.

Mikasa approached, her hair windswept and Eren cradled in her arms. She took one glance at you and swallowed before turning to her captain.