The view from the other side
I recently got a request for a short piece about Bertholdt in the Paths dimension and what he would be thinking about... current events and what he and Eren might discuss in Paths. It was a really, really interesting concept that only got more interesting to me as I wrote it! I hope you enjoy!
The screams, prayers and cries of the world had penetrated the veil and into the Paths. Bertholdt had covered his ears, wiped away his tears and even considered trying to bury himself among the endless dunes of the strange realm. No matter how far he walked or ran Bertholdt couldn’t escape the horrors that bled into the lands he now resided in.
When it began Bertholdt was lost, an aimless spirit that barely existed, but when the walls crumbled and the crystals broke, he found himself. Blinking away the dust Bertholdlt looked up from the sand as Eren’s voice seemingly bellowed around him.
“N-no. This isn’t how it should be.” He said weakly as he found his voice.
Eren replied. “This is how it will be. This is how it must be.”
Bertholdt hadn’t spoken his name in, to him, what felt like a century. “Eren?”
“I guess now is the time.” Eren sighed as he came and brought his hand down on Bertholdt’s shoulder.
Jumping at the contact Bertholdt stumbled back and fell in a cloud of dust and sparkling sand. “H-how are you here? You’re not… dead.” He barely recognised his former friend, now a man, taller than he. With hair that reached down to his shoulders and a weight carried both in his weary yet determined eyes and his broad, strong shoulders.
“No. I am here and in the world,” He said gesturing the shimmering branches that stretched across the sky. “I have finally broken this curse.”
“You woke the colossal titans.”
Bertholdt unsteadily got to his feet. “And the rest of the world?”
“Are the sacrifice to secure the existence of the Eldian people.”
Eren sighed. “People won’t forgive me or even understand. They will even attempt to stop me but they will at least have the freedom to try.”
Bertholdt screwed his eyes shut as once again the real sorrows of the real world bled into the Paths. “W-what gives you the right to choose for everyone else? For my family?”
“I unlocked the power of the Founding Titan. I set Ymir free and together we will shape the world for her children.”
“At the cost of billions?”
Eren nodded. “I know no one will understand, they don’t have to. I don’t need them to.”
Eren balled his fists. “What is wrong is the cycle of suffering that was inflicted upon our home. Eldians being turned into titans to trap the people behind the walls. Children being sent as soldiers, as tools of war to kill, slaughter… to betray.”
“I am giving the world another chance. A chance to be free from history.”
“What about the children who haven’t even had a first chance?”
With a deep breath Eren scoffed. “You sound like Historia,” Bertholdt shook his head. “Krista. It’s difficult to remember what memories came first. Krista was a fake name. She was the heir to the throne. Historia Reiss.”
For a moment Eren was stunned silent. “She knew?”
Bertholdt brushed the dust from his hair. “Sort of. She knew someone… important was hiding in the 104th. It was part of her mission to find out.”
“You three helped start all of this.”
Bertholdt felt heat burn in his chest. “We didn’t want this. No one other than you wants this. You’re going to kill my family, Reiner’s family and Annie’s family.”
Eren sat beside Bertholdt and nodded. “She is alive. Both of them are.”
“W-was Armin lying? About the… torture.”
Eren nodded. “He said it because he had to. We cornered her in Stohess and she tried to escape. But rather than be captured she encased herself in crystal for several years.”
“It wasn’t a mistake or oversight. I meant what I said. I am doing this for them, and in a way, her. So that no more children are born to consume their parents or become tools of war.”
Bertholdt brought his knees up to his chest. “She would hate you for this.”
There was a break in Eren’s voice as he spoke. “They all will. Mikasa, Armin, Jean… Annie. Everyone. But they will be free.”
In a world of ash!” Bertholdt snapped. “What will be left for them?”
“Bertholdt,” Eren said deeply. “You are… were in a similar position to me. From up there you looked down at us. Down at me with all that power and made a choice for all of us in those walls.”
“That’s not fair,” Bertholdt said, shaking his head. “We were children. I was a child.”
“I know. I’m not saying that we are the same. I’m saying we held the same power. In that moment and in this one. For different reasons but we know what its like.”
Bertholdt felt his anger die in his throat. “It was scary.”
“We would have been killed if we didn’t. Our families would have been killed or worse.”
Eren smirked. “I know. Do you understand now?”
“They know that if they try I won’t hold back.”
Bertholdt felt his chest tighten. “What made you like this? What happened to seeing the ocean?”
“It was never about the ocean,” Eren admitted. “It was about having the freedom to see it. Once I saw it I knew that there were so many things I couldn’t do. That the people of Paradis couldn’t do. I already knew that negotiations with Hizuru and the other nations would fail and the alternative… having Historia become another link in the disgusting chain of the Reiss family is unacceptable.”
“What were they going to do to her?”
Eren did his best to quell the rage in his chest. “She was ordered to have children. As many as she can,” He spat. “So that she could take the Beast titan from Zeke and then have it passed to her children until they are ready to take the Founding Titan from me. She would be consumed by her own children who would then be consumed by their children until Paradis was ready to stand on the world stage.”
“So… you took it upon yourself.”
“To save her. To save my home.”
“Can you even be stopped?” Bertholdt asked.
Eren was silent as he got to his feet.
“Is Reiner trying to stop you?”
“Is Annie trying to stop you?”
“Then you will lose,” Bertholdt said with all the confidence he could muster. “Annie was always a better fighter than you.”
“They couldn’t save you.”
Bertholdt swallowed the lump in his throat. “You’ve never seen them fight alongside each other. Together they can’t be beat. If I was there… I’d leave nothing left of you.”
“Maybe. I know my path. It’s up to them what happens now.”
Bertholdt would continue to watch with teary eyes and a steeled heart as Eren continued on his trail of slaughter, knowing that with each passing moment Annie and Reiner, although on different paths, were drawn together in a shared effort to end what had to be ended.
pixelskylines
2087
izzy806
theartofmadeline
kaledo-art
discoholicmusic
origamiaround
