"...To Stay by Your Side..." (AOT Alternative Universe)

5. A New Start in Life

AUTHOR'S POV:

Kruger kept looking at Grisha, who was kneeling on one knee, for a moment before starring into the setting sun. "Who knows? I'm not sure. Whose memories are those?"
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Eren and Mikasa kept starring at them from afar.

Mikasa had a confused expression on her face while Eren had a straight face.

Eren lets out a sigh. 'From one hell to another...'

Mikasa notices his expression. Slowly, she reached out and held his hand which was on his side.

Eren looked at her with surprise.

Mikasa just nodded and smiled before giving his hand a squeeze.

Eren smiled and held her hand back.

Then, both of them turned to Grisha and Kruger.
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Kruger turned to Grisha. "It's time, Grisha."

Grisha just nodded, still conflicted a bit.

Kruger bent down behind Grisha and injected the titan fluid on his spine before backing away to give space to Grisha's transformation.

After a few moments, yellow lightning struck Grisha and with a roar, Grisha turned into a pure titan.
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Eren and Mikasa watched with a blank expression as Grisha's pure titan ate Kruger before falling to the ground, unconscious.

Slowly, Eren and Mikasa approaches the fallen titan.
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After a moment, the nape of the pure titan parted and Grisha came out, unconscious.

Eren grabbed Grisha's torso and pulled him out of the decaying titan corpse before placing him on the ground. "You have quite a long journey ahead... Dad..."

Mikasa kept starring at Eren for a moment with a concerned expression.

Eren looked to his right to see the rising moon. He stood up straight and walked towards the edge of the wall before sitting down, deep in thought.
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Mikasa sat down next to him and looked up at the night sky. "Eren..." She looked at Eren.

Eren faced her. "Hm?"

"Can we talk?" Mikasa asked. "We haven't talked properly after that incident at Nicolo's restaurant." She looked down and her expression saddened. "And to think that that conversation had almost become our last conversation..." She looked up at Eren.

Eren looked back at the moon. "Yeah... We never got a chance at all... to talk properly..." He looked at her.

"Yeah..." Mikasa sadly said. "I don't usually say it but, you know, Eren?" She looked down. "It hurted me so much when our first conversation after 9 months of not seeing eachother was of you being so hostile towards us." She looked up at him. "Was it really necessary for you to beat up Armin like that?" She softly asked. "Was it necessary to hurt my feelings, Eren?"

"Yes... it was..." Eren said and looked down with a saddened expression. "I felt desperate to separate myself from all of you while asking myself, 'Wait! What am I doing?' I just went with the flow of events." He looked at Mikasa. "I'm sorry for hurting your feelings, Mikasa."

Mikasa listened to him carefully and put her hand on Eren's shoulder. "I understand now, Eren." She softly said.

Eren nodded.

"Earlier you said you saw all of that happening 4 years ago. What does that mean, Eren?" Mikasa asked, curious. "And how did Kruger know about your mother and Armin's name?" She took her hand back.