Eren's anger takes him through a journey, and Bertholdt continues to observe. The fury he'd managed to call up within him, the suspicion, flares to life a little more at that comment about winning before they even met. He takes it, incorrectly, as a taunt.
But Bertholdt does not rise to taunts easily, and especially not after Armin cost him the chance to return home. (Twice, now.)
He expects the return shot about knocking down their walls, throwing the belief in so-called island devils back in their faces. At some point, Bertholdt is sure, he believed they were devils. He can't remember when that stopped, though; only that he came to that decision well before Reiner lost himself.
He didn't want to. It was a choice he never should have had to make. His father was sick, though, and they made him a bomb with an expiration date. He let them so he could be together with everyone. Just buying a bit more time for them all.
It won't mean anything to Eren, who lost his mother and father in that attack. Bertholdt casts his gaze to the side, any defenses he could muster up being buried by shame, and the guilt of killing thousands of people. He chose his father, Reiner, and Annie over the people of Paradis. Why should he be mad that Eren chose Armin over him?
(Is he mad about that?)
Eren's it was just war comment comes with some of his anger visibly deflating, and Bertholdt looks at him again. No, this isn't the same Eren Jaeger he's familiar with. Some of him is the same, of course, but this one - he's seen the price of his glorious fight with the Titans (Bertholdt's own people, people he killed too).
He closes his eyes and lets out a long breath, expelling some of his anxiety and anger.
Do you think that anyone wants to kill people? What kind of person would do this for fun?!
That's what Marley turned them into - instruments of war, a cog in their machine. Bertholdt was ten when he destroyed an entire city to save his father for the first time.
"You were never devils," he finally settles on. He knows what Reiner had called Eren; knows what he needed to believe in order to justify what they were doing. Reiner believed it so hard it broke his heart in two, making him two separate people, it felt like. He's not sure if Eren knowing Bertholdt knew he was wrong makes it better or worse.
"Someone had to get the blood on their hands," he repeats himself from so many months ago, green eyes sad and despondent. He can never apologize for what he's done, and so he doesn't. Eren deserves that much, at least. Bertholdt will hold the guilt within him until it rots away at his insides.
tw continued references to genocide, war, child soldiers, general aot things etc
But Bertholdt does not rise to taunts easily, and especially not after Armin cost him the chance to return home. (Twice, now.)
He expects the return shot about knocking down their walls, throwing the belief in so-called island devils back in their faces. At some point, Bertholdt is sure, he believed they were devils. He can't remember when that stopped, though; only that he came to that decision well before Reiner lost himself.
He didn't want to. It was a choice he never should have had to make. His father was sick, though, and they made him a bomb with an expiration date. He let them so he could be together with everyone. Just buying a bit more time for them all.
It won't mean anything to Eren, who lost his mother and father in that attack. Bertholdt casts his gaze to the side, any defenses he could muster up being buried by shame, and the guilt of killing thousands of people. He chose his father, Reiner, and Annie over the people of Paradis. Why should he be mad that Eren chose Armin over him?
(Is he mad about that?)
Eren's it was just war comment comes with some of his anger visibly deflating, and Bertholdt looks at him again. No, this isn't the same Eren Jaeger he's familiar with. Some of him is the same, of course, but this one - he's seen the price of his glorious fight with the Titans (Bertholdt's own people, people he killed too).
He closes his eyes and lets out a long breath, expelling some of his anxiety and anger.
Do you think that anyone wants to kill people? What kind of person would do this for fun?!
That's what Marley turned them into - instruments of war, a cog in their machine. Bertholdt was ten when he destroyed an entire city to save his father for the first time.
"You were never devils," he finally settles on. He knows what Reiner had called Eren; knows what he needed to believe in order to justify what they were doing. Reiner believed it so hard it broke his heart in two, making him two separate people, it felt like. He's not sure if Eren knowing Bertholdt knew he was wrong makes it better or worse.
"Someone had to get the blood on their hands," he repeats himself from so many months ago, green eyes sad and despondent. He can never apologize for what he's done, and so he doesn't. Eren deserves that much, at least. Bertholdt will hold the guilt within him until it rots away at his insides.