"No," Eren says. No, they don’t deserve forgiveness. Eren knows he's worse than Bertholdt can ever be, worse than Reiner. He knows he's probably even worse than Zeke, but at least he didn't want to murder his own people, take their freedom to have families away from them.
"I'm not going to fight you," Eren says. That isn't the same as don’t want to and sure as hell isn't the same as won't. But it's true until it isn't. He won't start a fight today, not with his fists. He isn't trying to start one with words, but wouldn't care much if it happened. Even if Reiner would be pissed, so what? Eren isn't a saint. He's agreed to what he's agreed to, but Eren's word is no longer all that good.
He tries, though. He tries to mean things when he commits to them. Turns out it's hard to stop being a liar once you start.
"Reiner didn't tell me about Marley," Eren says, brow furrowing a little. "You think I only found out recently?"
It's been years, after all.
It was a lifetime ago.
It's right now, staring at a lifelike picture that they couldn't quite understand, a photograph his father saved that would unknowingly trigger the end of the world. Who started this story, again?
"My father was from Marley," he says. "Zeke Jaeger is my brother. Half-brother."
He'd forgotten that Bertholdt didn't know that.
"I found out the day you died."
The day we killed you, he doesn't say. No point in rubbing it in now. Like he said, in the end, it wasn't victory. It was just war — Eren's war, won before they ever met. It is the hollowest sort of win, the kind where everyone loses.
no subject
"I'm not going to fight you," Eren says. That isn't the same as don’t want to and sure as hell isn't the same as won't. But it's true until it isn't. He won't start a fight today, not with his fists. He isn't trying to start one with words, but wouldn't care much if it happened. Even if Reiner would be pissed, so what? Eren isn't a saint. He's agreed to what he's agreed to, but Eren's word is no longer all that good.
He tries, though. He tries to mean things when he commits to them. Turns out it's hard to stop being a liar once you start.
"Reiner didn't tell me about Marley," Eren says, brow furrowing a little. "You think I only found out recently?"
It's been years, after all.
It was a lifetime ago.
It's right now, staring at a lifelike picture that they couldn't quite understand, a photograph his father saved that would unknowingly trigger the end of the world. Who started this story, again?
"My father was from Marley," he says. "Zeke Jaeger is my brother. Half-brother."
He'd forgotten that Bertholdt didn't know that.
"I found out the day you died."
The day we killed you, he doesn't say. No point in rubbing it in now. Like he said, in the end, it wasn't victory. It was just war — Eren's war, won before they ever met. It is the hollowest sort of win, the kind where everyone loses.