Chapter Text
When Falco awoke, he was staring into the light blue of the sky. He was unsure where he was. The gravel road he was laying on wasn’t exactly comfortable, so he sat up. He was certain he had fallen asleep on the boat, so he didn’t understand how or why he got here. In his confusion he began looking around for any clues as to where in the world he was.
As he looked up, he saw beige-colored walls no more than three meters high, and a plenitude of similarly colored buildings beyond them. In the small distance between the gravel road and the walls was yellow grass that had a few dead trees sprouting up from it. He as well couldn’t help but notice there was nobody in the area. As Falco’s eyes continued to explore his environment, he turned his attention to a park bench on the grass. He knew immediately he was just outside the Liberio internment district hospital.
His mind raced and his heart rate increased. Why was he here? How was he here? Hadn’t Liberio been destroyed by the rumbli- Falco quickly stopped his train of thought. Now wasn’t the time to panic, he had to figure out what was going on, and he had to get back to the boat.
Falco stood up and continued to look around his environment. Just a few hours ago he thought that he would never see his home again. So, seeing it once again brought Falco a slight sense of relief. He didn’t understand how or why Liberio was still standing, how much longer it would be until it was crushed by the rumbling, or if what he was seeing was even real. But seeing his hometown again brought him an odd sense of comfort. He wanted to believe this was real, and for a moment, he did.
Only a mere month ago had Falco left his hometown, and since then so much had changed. Back then Falco had thought of Liberio as a cage. Memories of the guards’ beatings and the Marleyans’ hostility towards him still fresh in his mind. But this cage now seemed like a paradise in comparison to what Falco had lived through over the past weeks. Falco had many bad memories of this place. But after seeing his home once again, after so much strife, the only memories he could recall were the good ones. This is where he and Colt played catch, this is where he and Udo had first met, this is where his parents always cooked those modest but delicious dinners to celebrate the winter solstice.
For the first time in a while, Falco felt something resembling calm. Even if deep down Falco knew what he was seeing was impossible, he was just glad to be home. The last time Falco had seen Liberio it had been a battlefield. The last time he was here the city was rife the deafening noise of gunshots and explosions. The last time he was here he could barely recognize the ruined city in the darkness of the night. Now however, it was peaceful. It was quiet. The sun was shining and this Liberio looked like the Liberio of his childhood.
As Falco continued to look around his now familiar environment, his mind continued to drift through his memories. Unfortunately for him however, his happy ones of this place started to fade quickly. His sight landed on a reddish-brown stain on one of the walls surrounding the area. A memory of a Marleyan guard hitting an Eldian resident with the stock of his rifle at that very spot came to mind.
The slight smile of nostalgia on his face began to fade. He continued to look around, searching for more fond memories. But all he could find were reminders of Marley’s cruelty. The sights, sounds, and feelings of their insults, stones, and fists being hurled at him and his fellow Eldians filled his mind. The peace that had moments ago been in his heart was evicted, leaving room for a sense of deep discomfort to move in.
Heart racing and eyes darting, he began to remember just where he was. His eyes land on the internment zone walls, and he remembers this was a prison. Continuing to look around his gaze turns to the gravel road beneath him. He remembers running around the internment district on this road as a warrior candidate. He remembers doing lap after lap, the dust being kicked up into the air as he and his fellow cadets ran. As he walks, he can almost feel how tired and sore his legs were back then, and he remembers the way the Marleyan soldiers barked orders and insults at him as if he were no more than a dog.
What he sees next however stops him dead in his tracks. Before him sits a park bench on the grass. As his body grows more rigid, his heart rate increases. Memories of his great betrayal came to the forefront of his psyche. The thought and it’s accompanying emotions threatened to engrave itself in his mind. But before it could he instinctively turned his attention elsewhere, focus shifting to his environment and his situation.
This couldn’t be real. Last time he was here this place was in ruins. Everything looked far too pristine to be real. Besides, the last thing he remembered before coming here was falling asleep on the boat. It was practically impossible for him to physically be here. And despite that, he was still somehow here. He had to figure out what was going on. He had to get out of here and back to the boat. His eyes took another brief scan of the area but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, so he began walking towards the hospital itself. But before he could enter, he heard a voice behind him.
“Hey Falco”
Falco turned around to see who was talking to him. Upon seeing who it was Falco froze. After what happened in Liberio Falco never wanted to come anywhere near Eren again. Yet here he was, face to face with him. His teeth grit, his eyebrows arched, and he felt a profound sense of rage welling up within him. The only thing in his mind stronger than his rage was his confusion. Mind continuing to race, he questioned how this was even possible. How did Eren even bring him here?
At this point in time, he would rather be just about anywhere else. Seeing the park bench by itself was almost enough to bring his buried guilt and the anger to the surface. Almost. But the image of Eren sitting there on that bench seemed to be what allowed those feelings to fully emerge from the depths. Once again, an attempt was made to draw his attention away from these emotions. But right now he couldn’t. Right now in his mind’s eye, there was no objective to complete, no tasks that needed doing, no people he had to protect. Only him, and the worst mistake he had ever made staring him in the face.
“Take a seat” Eren said as he gestured towards the empty spot on the bench beside him.
For another moment Falco stood frozen. But after a few seconds Falco began to approach Eren, hands clenched into fists. The fire in his eyes grew as he approached Eren. And the next thing Eren felt was Falco’s fist hit his face.
Eren fell off the bench and on to the ground. He raised his head off the gravel road, but Falco’s foot met his face halfway, and sent his head back to the ground. Rage that had remained buried within Falco for so long began to emerge. Before Eren could muster any response, he felt Falco’s foot hit his gut, knocking the wind out of him. Then he felt his gut kicked again. And again. And again. And again, until Falco stopped a little short of breath.
Falco wasn’t entirely sure what to say, or where to begin. This man had stomped all over his home, murdered his friends and on top of all that was currently carrying out genocide. Part of him still couldn’t fully wrap his head around just what Eren had done and was doing. He couldn’t discern on his own how a man could do such things. There were plenty of things Falco wanted to ask Eren. There were too many questions and too little time. So, Falco asked the one question he needed the answer to the most.
“Why the hell did you bring me here?”
Eren, somewhat winded, slowly got up brushing off some gravel from his clothing. He sat back down on the bench with a slight groan.
“I brought you here so that I could apologize.”
“And you think that I’ll forgive you?” Spat Falco.
“No, I don’t” Eren replies “I betrayed your trust, you didn’t deserve that. Figured I owe you an apology.”
This answer caused Falco to wince in disgust. Why now did Eren get this sudden sense of conscience? Where was this conscience when he tricked a kid into organizing an attack on his hometown? Where was this conscience when he killed Udo and Zofia? Where was this conscience when he decided to kill every last person outside of Paradis? Only now did Eren seem to have developed a sense of right and wrong, and it seemed the only thing he planned on doing with it was giving an empty apology to a child whose life he had ruined. That thought in particular made Falco livid.
“So, you’re giving a half-assed apology to me because you felt a little bad about destroying my home and murdering my friends, is that right?” Aggravation clear in his voice.
Eren paused for a moment, pondering his words.
“That’s not exactly how I would put it but yes. I betrayed you, and I truly am sorry for that. You’re a good person and you didn’t deser-”
“I’m not”
“You’re not what?” Asked Eren, a little confused by Falco’s sudden interruption.
“A good person” Falco replied in a solemn tone.
Eren looked at Falco, Sorrow written all over the young boy’s face. He then responded.
“I disagree. You were willing to help a crippled veteran contact his family, even if it meant risking getting into trouble with Marley.”
“And that crippled veteran turned out to be a genocidal maniac.” Falco retorted, a mostly flat but slightly bitter tone in his voice.
“That’s true.” Eren replied calmly “But you were still willing to help someone who was tossed aside by just about everyone else, most would simply look the other way.”
“If I had just looked the other way thousands wouldn’t have lost their lives in the Liberio attack, so I guess that just makes most better than me.”
Falco eyebrows were furrowed, and his eyes were downcast. He appeared to be growing even more aggravated with this conversation. Eren paused for a moment pondering Falco’s words.
“Falco, I’ve met plenty of killers in my lifetime, and I can assure you that you aren’t one of them.”
Falco scoffs, his patience running short. “And how do you figure that?”
“You never intended to kill.” Eren replies nonchalantly.
“And that changes the fact that what I did caused the deaths of all those people?” Falco spat, his voice raising a bit in volume.
“Well no, but there’s a difference between taking life with intent and taking life without it.” Eren states, his tone as calm as ever.
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Whether I intended to kill all those people or not, they are still gone because of me” Falco shouted as he stood up from the bench.
His eyes were beginning to tear up. His face contorted with anger and sorrow. He glared at Eren for a moment but once again opened his mouth to speak. His voice broke a little as he spoke.
“I-Innocent people died because of what I did.”
He paused for a deep breath.
“People I cared about died because of what I did, intentional or not all those people are gone because of what I did.”
They both fell silent as Falco continued to glare at Eren, the tears Falco had tried so hard to hold back finally started to stream down his face. They remained like that for what was probably a minute, until Eren finally broke the silence.
“Apologizing isn’t the only thing I came here to do, Falco.”
Falco looked at him, a curious but somewhat skeptical look on his face.
“Then what else did you want to do” Falco spat.
Before Eren said anything, a strong wind swept over both him and Falco. The environment around them began to change. It seemed as if the yellow grass, beige bricks, and coarse gravel of the Internment district were swept away by the wind. Falco closed his eyes and braced himself against the wind.
When Falco opened his eyes once again, both he and Eren were soaring high above the ground. As he looked down, he saw and Eren were both standing on the back of a massive, feathered creature. A beast titan, Falco presumes.
“I also brought you here to offer you a fighting chance.”
“What do you mean by that?” Falco asks, confused.
“You see this titan were standing on” Eren says as he gestures below him.
“Yeah”
“This is a beast titan that existed over a thousand years ago, and it appears that your jaw titan has similar capabilities.”
“How is that possible?” Falco questions.
“While the titan a shifter inherits determines their most basic traits and capabilities, the consumption of the spinal fluids of other shifters could unlock new abilities for a shifter’s titan” Eren states in a somewhat flat tone “additionally these new traits are prominent if the spinal fluid consumed comes from a royal-blooded individual”
“So, what you’re saying is because I consumed Zeke’s spinal fluid my titan can… fly?”
“Yes” Eren replied dryly.
Falco pondered this information in silence for a moment. Before he could respond Eren continued.
“If you wish to try and stop me, you are free to do so. Just know that if you fight, I will fight back.”
Falco remains silent for a moment more, a contemplative expression on his face as his mind once again races.
“Why are you even letting me know this” Falco questions with a slightly astonished tone.
Eren thinks about the question for a few seconds and then responds.
“Giving you a chance to stop me is the very least I can do for you, after all the suffering I have brought upon you.”
The scene around them begins to fade once more. The light blue sky above them darkens and is filled with branches of light. Below them, the beast they were riding on fades into sand. In front of Falco stands Eren, and in the distance what appears to be the trunk of a tree made of blue light. Eren begins to walk towards the base of this tree. Before he reaches it however, he turns back to say one last thing.
“And Falco”
“Yes” Falco says, annoyance in his voice.
“You’re a good person” Eren states “Don’t ever forget that.”
In less than half a second the scene around Falco fades to black and he forgets the majority of what has just happened. When Falco awakes, he’s staring at a wooden ceiling. The bed he’s lying in is comfortable, so he doesn’t bother sitting up. He knows he was just dreaming, and He remembers the vivid feeling of flying above the clouds, but he was almost certain there was more to his dream than just that. Falco however in his currently tired state, doesn’t think too hard about this feeling of something being missing.
Falco looks to the left, to the clock on the wall beside him, which is hung right above the door to the room. He had only slept three hours. Upon learning this information Falco closes his eyes and once again tries to sleep. Falco wasn’t entirely sure what the near future would bring, but what he did know is that it would be easier to handle it if he wasn’t completely exhausted. Sleeping however hasn’t been the easiest task for Falco as of late.
As Falco once again tried to fall asleep, his efforts were hindered by the usual plethora of intrusive thoughts. All of them filling him with the sting of guilt and sadness. In response to these thoughts, he tried to calm his mind as he reminded himself of what he had to do. He had to survive, he had to think of some way he might help stop the rumbling. As his mind shifted to the situation at hand, the thoughts of all the horrible things that had happened started to fade. Or at least they lessened in intensity. The feelings lingered on in his subconscious, festering as he did his best to hold them back. Part of him knew he couldn’t keep up this habit forever, but he knew now more than ever he had to keep it together.
Only about half a day ago had Falco learned about the death of his parents. He had been paralyzed by grief. If he allowed sorrow to overtake him once more, he would be rendered completely useless by it. That much he knew for sure. He had to survive, and he had to protect Gabi. Neither of those things could be accomplished if he collapsed into a weeping mess or if he was completely exhausted. He wiped away a few tears that had been forming in his eyes before trying to reposition himself more comfortably.
“Are you alright?” says a voice to Falco’s left.
Falco turned his head, opened his eyes and saw Gabi standing next to his bed. Falco figures he must have been too busy in his own head to notice her enter the room. He attempts to mimic a calm expression before speaking.
“I’m fine had a weird dream, that’s all” Falco said with a somewhat quiet voice.
Gabi raised her eyebrow; skepticism filled her expression. She somewhat doubted this was the cause of Falco’s disguised distress, but she didn’t try to push the matter.
“A weird dream about what?” Gabi Asked, her voice laced with curiosity.