Attack on Titan: The Infinite Loops

Chapter 17

A/N: It's been a long time coming, but here is chapter 17, of the AoT Loops!

17.1

"Christa? Christa?" Armin rolled his eyes. "Historia?"

"Armin, what have I asked you to do?"

Armin sighed and blushed. "Mom?"

Historia smiled at the boy who was often her son. She'd been feeling rather maternal for the last few loops (something about being both a queen and running her own orphanage), and had asked Armin to call her mom. "Yes Armin?"

Armin, still blushing, held up a pair of micro shorts. "So... You remember how Shadis showed up to the recruits inspection wearing only short shorts, and how Jean joked about them being the men's uniform?"

Historia's jaw dropped. "They are?"

Armin nodded. "Yeah. Can I... Borrow some of your clothes?"

Levi glared furiously at Erwin Smith. The Recon Corps (Scouting Legion, Scouting Regiment, it varied) leader sorted through the last of his papers and smiled at his star soldier. "Levi, what do you need?"

Levi pointed at the only article of clothing he had on. "Why. In the name of God. Is the men's uniform short shorts?"

Erwin (also only wearing short shorts, just to increase the embarrassment on Levi's part) shrugged. "I needed a new way to save money. This is it."

"Where's that money going!?" Levi nearly shouted.

"New equipment, Hange's experiments, the dietary budget-"

"MEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAT!"

Erwin stopped for a moment as Sasha's joyous voice echoed throughout the training camp. "I knew couldn't skimp with the ladies clothes. Everyone would have called me a pervert!"

"...I am so done here," Levi decided.

"If we want to change anything we must be prepared to sacrifice many things Levi," Erwin declared stoically. He shivered a little. "Even if that means seeing Oluo in micro shorts."

"I hate you."

Eren stretched lightly in his ill-fitting but modest attire. "Thank you Mikasa."

"Don't mention it," Mikasa requested.

Hange finished sorting through her spreadsheets and smiled at her aid. "You ever wish you could cross dress easily?"

Hange's aid shivered in the cold. "Every day."

"No."

"At least take them so we don't need to look at your ugly butt every day."

Jean shoved Ymir aside. "I'd rather not be in your debt any more Ymir."

"Come on! I need just a few more dollars to afford a bribe to Hephaestus to Wake me up!"

"You told you you could bribe a god?"

"Marco."

Jean and Ymir looked over at the man who was slowly sneaking away. Marco grinned nervously. "Uh..."

Hence why Marco ran out of the camp not thirty seconds later.

17.2 Shimmer712

"Is that the first time you've used your Geass for that?" Eren asked as he stared at Annie'a corpse, her head removed by her own blade. It was kinda creepy, seeing Armin compel Annie into killing herself so casually. It unnerved the brown haired anchor.

"Nope," Armin shook his head. "I've done it before, although that time I threw up. It was pretty early in the loops."

For some reason, that statement made Armin's ease at what he had done creepier. The notion that he had no problem forcing people to commit suicide was more disturbing since he used to have problems with it.

I can't talk, Eren told himself. I wanted to beat Reiner and Bertholt to death in a fit of temper when I found out the truth about them. I'm not any better. He shook his head and turned to leave. "Didn't Mikasa have something planned for the other two?" he asked as he started to head back to camp.

"Oh, yes," Armin recalled. "She wants to see if she can stop them for kidnapping you after the incident at Castle Utgard by slicing off Reiner's legs since his titan form is faster than Bertholt's"

"Oh." Eren's stomach clenched but he ignored it. "Should I just go along like it's baseline in that case?"

"Yeah, that would probably be best," Armin nodded.

Eren nodded. "Okay." There wasn't anything to worry about. Armin and Mikasa had a better idea of what lines they shouldn't cross than him after all.

17.3

The ground swept fast beneath her, her horse racing to the best of her heart. Here, in the Titan occupied wild lands of Wall Maria's territory, Mikasa rode.

Not too far from her position, the 57th Recon expedition was under way, the men and women of the Scouting Legion riding towards Shiganshina from the eastern wall district of Karanese. The expedition was, ostensibly, to reach Shiganshina and recover whatever was inside of Eren's basement. It's secret secondary objective though was to locate the spy in the army of humanity.

A spy who, Mikasa knew, would be back right flank of the Scouting Legion. A spy, Mikasa knew, who would try to find and kidnap Eren. A spy, Mikasa knew, was masquerading as Annie Leonheart. Being a time traveler let Mikasa know many things.

She also knew she was going to put a blade through Annie's skull to stop her.

Already she could see what Annie was doing. In the distance, she could hear the cry of a Titan Shifter, the sound hypnotic to the normal Titans. In minutes, Annie would arrive with an army of Titans and slam into the flank of the formation. It would be a slaughter.

Mikasa pulled Van Black from her Subspace Pocket. Damn, it felt good to save lives.

The Titans were in a brisk run as they appeared from behind the hills, chasing after Annie. On the opposite side of Mikasa's vision, the soldiers were already sending up signal flares, ordering a hard left in the formation. It would be the only alert the formation got before Annie and her army slammed into them. That in mind, Mikasa flipped Van Black into the handle of her Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear, pulled another blade into the opposite handle, a third into her mouth, and leapt.

The air shot through her hair, whipping her scarf around, stinging her eyes. For the briefest moment, Mikasa felt more alive than ever.

Triggers clicked, the hooks to the 3DMG lashing out and attaching to a Titan immediately behind Annie. The second triggers launched Mikasa forward, closing the gap like lightning. Whipping her sword back, Mikasa just missed the Titan, her clearing with inches to spare. Either blade dug deep into the monster's nape, severing the central nervous system inside of it. The Titan fell.

Mikasa twisted her hips and legs, aiming another hook into the neck of another Titan. The change in velocity meant that instead of racing forward, she was now moving in a falling arc, one she would need to compensate for in a moment. The compressed gas from her canisters flooded the motor of her gear, dragging Mikasa towards the second Titan.

At the last minute, Mikasa jolted off course with a blast of compressed air for maneuvering, bouncing off another Titan's knee to reach the nape of her next target. Van Black and the bamboo iron sword dug deep into the skin of the Titan, and with a swing, the Titan's nape was removed from it's body.

Now, Annie noticed the soldier in her midst, slowing down to try and trap the adversary between the Titans and herself. Mikasa elected not to deal with that shit. She leapt off the falling Titan and fired both hooks straight at Annie's face.

Annie's hand shot up, blocking the wires. With a swing, she turned Mikasa from swinging soldier into a flail, angular and lateral momentum locking Mikasa into a collision course with the ground. Mikasa coughed and squeezed the triggers of her 3DMG again, the radius of her arc shrinking.

Despite Annie's trick, Mikasa cleared the ground with inches to spare. And now, she was going fast.

Mikasa let her wire unravel, yard upon yard of cord gaining from her apparatus. Annie hooked the metal line around her forearm and tried to reel Mikasa in. Then, without warning, Mikasa cut the wires.

For a moment, Annie stared at the still rising girl that had trained with her, now surely doomed to fall to her death. Then, suddenly, the Titans behind Annie caught her, slamming into her back. Annie realized it almost too late as the Titans began to devour her body. She'd been had.

Arcing gracefully, Mikasa gulped down hard breaths in her free moments. Cutting her wires had been a stupid idea: she had been practicing her baseline maneuvering. Now she'd need to use psychic powers to land.

Beneath her, Annie managed to use her 3DMG to leap away from her body and through the throng of Titans. The teenaged spy nearly laughed as she cleared the mutinous army, before clamping down on her jubilation born of escape. She was deep in dangerous territory, outside of her Titan, and on flat terrain. She would need to re-Titanize as soon as poss-

The Mikasa slammed into her from above, sending both crashing into the earth. Annie pulled her cloak's hood as far forward as she could and raised her balaclava. It was the most secrecy she could manage. She stood up, and felt a blade lance straight through her neck.

"Hello Annie," Mikasa growled.

For several seconds, the pair of fifteen year olds stared at each other. Annie choked as her healing factor tried to seal her neck, thanking whatever god was listening that Mikasa hadn't severed her spinal cord. Mikasa herself tightened and loosened her grip on the blade. With just a slight nudge, she could pierce Annie's spinal cord. Any damage to her central nervous system would kill her permanently.

It was easy. It would also, probably, crash the world.

Mikasa yanked Van Black from Annie's neck and swung the blood off of it. Eren's teacher choked and coughed as her body finally sealed the hole in her neck. Panting, Annie turned a hard look at Mikasa. "That was a mistake Ackerman."

"It was my choice Leonheart." Mikasa pointed to the northwest: the direction of the Walls. "Now get running, before I do something we'll both regret."

"Regret? YOU'LL REGRET LETTING ME LIVE!" Annie lunged!

Mikasa didn't even flinch, swiping Van Black through Annie's skull and killing the spy instantly. Mikasa swung the blood and bits of gore off of her sword again, and waited.

A minute passed. Then two. Mikasa released a breath she hadn't known she had been holding. "Well Mikasa, looks like you haven't doo-"

"-med another loop. Seems like a... job... well..."

Mikasa looked around the school house she was in. She looked down at her ginormous breasts. She looked at the sheet of paper that decreed she had been drafted into the Eiken club. "Fucked."

17.4

"Come again?"

"It's the night before All Saints Day Connie. Haven't you ever been to America?"

"Well yeah, but what the hell is All Saints Day? I've never heard of it."

Marco set his crate full of candied dates on the ground and sat on it, Connie mimicking him. "All Saints Day is another name for All Hallows' Day. The day before-"

"Halloween!" Connie interrupted. "Why didn't you just say that first Marco?"

Marco face faulted off his crate. "Whatever Connie." Grabbing his crate and lugging it over his shoulder, Marco started off again towards the Yeager Residence. "At least we can have candy tonight."

Shiganshina was bustling with people moving treats like sweet rolls, candied fruits, toys and the like. Lanterns, paper and pumpkin, were strew across the streets and hung from clothes lines string above the roads. It was like walking into a city transformed. It helped that Ganesha had given the loopers the go ahead to mess up the timeline as much as they could (he was testing a new sort of buffer system to see how the loop could handle stress). Hence why Shiganshina was saved.

The Yeager household was the gathering place for the loopers of the Walled World, with everyone from Hannes to Carla Awake in this iteration. Grisha had even given his blessing to the festivities as he had, again, been called into the interior at the most inopportune time.

Connie and Marco dropped the boxes as they cleared the door, making sure to avoid anyone's feet. The house was not meant to hold thirteen people and it showed. It was so bad that Levi had elected to climb into the rafters, and was boredly watching Sasha and Mikasa have an eating contest. Eren raised his glass to the new arrivals. "Marco and Connie are here!"

"Onnie!" Sasha spoke around the chicken leg in her mouth. Mikasa didn't stop eating though and started to make up her lost ground. "Elom ah!"

Connie grabbed a chicken leg and dug in himself as Sasha resumed her race with Mikasa. "Good to be back."

Marco stepped passed the chilling Ymir and Historia, and the wildly gesturing Hannes, to Jean, lounging in a corner. "Hey Jean."

"Hey Marco," Jean said around his drink. "Connie give you any trouble?"

"Nah, he was cool. I heard we got another expansion."

"Yup, those things are happening pretty fast now." Jean wiped his lips off on his forearm. "Now we're fighting an army of Titans. Don't you just love that?"

"No."

"Good."

Further conversation was interrupted when a loud bang shook the house. A moment later, Armin opened the down. He was covered in soot and wielding a blowtorch and a live cat on a stick. "Hey guys, come here. You gotta check this out."

Around the back of the building, the twelve loopers and dreamer stared at the otherwise unassuming door led into Grisha's basement. Armin rapped on the door. "Tada! I have successfully modified the door to
Grisha's basement, to act as a portal through which to view a man's most comical fears."

"..." The twelve others stared at the mad scientist. Eren scoffed after a moment. "My most comical fears? Really Armin?" Eren stepped forward as his brother stepped aside, grasping the door handle and turning it. Eren looked inside.

Marco cleaned his throat as "Here Comes the Bride" played behind him. "Do you, Eren Jaeger, take Armored Titan as your five hundredth and ninty seventh husband?"

"I do," the wedding gown wearing Eren declared.

"And do you, Armored Titan, take Eren to be your lawful wife? To have, to hold, and to share with his other five hundred and ninety six Titan husbands?"

"Hmm hmm!"

"Then I now pronounce you man and Titan! You may now kiss the bride!"

The Armored Titan kissed Eren.

The real Eren was outside, facing away from the door, in the fetal position. "There is a hell..."

Armin cocked an eyebrow. "Maybe a bit... on the nose... Alright, who's next?"

"Me!" Sasha cried.

The huntress bolted to the door and nearly ripped it off it's hinges, glancing inside. She squealed in joy though, as she saw a massive banquet. "How is this my greatest fear? It's a giant banquet with plenty of meat!"

Sasha tried to step inside. She tried a little harder. That's when she realized it. She was looking at the most delicious banquet she had ever seen... and she couldn't eat it.

Armin and Jean stared at the sobbing wreck that was Sasha. "Poor girl," Jean muttered, opening the door.

"Alright men, ready?" Erwin housed to the Recon Corp.

"AY!" the corps cried, their horses bouncing beneath them. Except they weren't horses.

They were Jean.

Armin watched as Jean proceeded to cower alongside Eren. "Okay... Levi?"

Levi opened the door a crack. A smell so foul emanated from inside. He slammed the door shut again. "Nope."

Hange opened the door, and walked inside. He was standing inside of a large laboratory, where another copy of himself (female) was staring into a microscope. "This doesn't seem so bad Armin."

"Yup, I've discovered everything about all of reality! Looks like I'm done, no more to do!" the other Hanji said.

Hange ran screaming from the room.

Hannes glanced over the door. "Alright... So, comedic fears. Let me see..."

The world Hannes opened to was... normal looking. Another Hannes was across the street, sipping from a bottle. Hannes Prime coughed into his hand. "So... is that a good year?"

The alternate Hannes stared at the prime Hannes. "Is it a good wine year?" Hannes clarified.

"...What's wine?"

"There is a hell," Hannes mumbled from his spot next to Eren and Jean five minutes later.

Historia slowly and hesitantly took the door knob. "I know... this isn't going to be good. Is it?"

Ymir gently ribbed Historia, taking the knob around her girlfriends hand. "Come on Hiss. It can't be that bad."

The door opened to... Ymir and Historia. Making out. With Reiner and Bertolt respectively.

They were straight in the door.

Ymir grabbed Historia and dragged her off. "Alright, anyone needs us we're gonna be watching lesbian porn."

Mikasa rolled her eyes and cracked the door open. The sounds of "Here Come the Bride" poured out again.

"Do you, Mikasa Ackerman, take Eren Jaeger to be your lawfully wedded-"

The door slammed shut.

Connie got shoved forward next. "Come on... why me?"

"Because if it's me, it'll just be Historia and Ymir going at it," Armin retorted. "Chop chop, open the door Connie."

Connie grumbled and opened the door to Grisha's basement. Inside, Connie was running around, dodging titanic legs. Specifically, Sasha's legs. Sasha was trying to stomp Connie. "Die roach! Die!"

Connie grumbled. "I don't need to be shorter."

Finally, Carla stepped forward, albeit reluctantly. The others surrounded her. "Why do I have to be last?"

"Because you're the youngest person here," Eren pointed out.

Carla rolled her eyes, opened the door, and promptly stared. So did everyone else. Sasha got a nose bleed.

Inside the door, Eren, Armin and Mikasa stared back. They were sporting open shirts (or no shirt in Armin's case), no pants, and rather disheveled looks. Carla stared for a few more seconds, and then she and everyone present slammed the door shut so hard it broke off of its hinges. "That didn't happen."

"No it didn't!" the others declared.

17.5 Crossoverpairinglover

"Tell me, why did you kill Connie Springer"

The Wall Cultist held his gaze at Armin, unflinching in his response "he desecrated the walls, therefore he was punished".

"I've got this, just give me a moment and I'll see what he really remembers" Sasha pulled out a conch shell from her subspace pocket. After all, Shen Gon Wu made any and all interrogations mostly pain-free and humane.

At least as long as you did not need to turn someone into sapphire. Then it got ugly.

"No, I have a better idea." Armin told Sasha darkly as he rolled the sleeves of his left hand up. As he did, the arm began to shimmer a bit. "A mind reading conch shell won't work on this fool. His mind is a toxic atmosphere of dogma and desperaton: you really need to remove some of the clutter first if you want to get a good answer out of him".

"Remove some of the clutter..." Sasha looked a little nervous as Armin placed his uncovered hand on the Cultist's head.

"What do you think you are doing you hea...AGGHHHH!"

The moment Armin's hand made contact with the cultist's head, he began to violently thrash and spasm. It looked like he was being torn apart from the inside, at least mentally.

"What are you doing to me...WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME!?"

"Like I said" Armin stated darkly "I'm decluttering"

Sasha was taken so aback she dropped her conch shell, particularly when she noticed the cultists clothes.

The robes of the orders higher ups, the distinct mark of one who saw Maria, Rose, and Sina as sacred protectors, were flashing. Some parts of the clothes glowed solidly for a few moments, before the light crumbled off like rapidly rusting metal.

And where this happened, the cloth no longer resembled that of a cultists. The cloth was now mundane.

The poor Cultist continued to be exorcised of...

"No, no, stop! Stop! Save me Maria! Save me,,,,,Rose! Save me Si...Si..."

His faith itself.

Eventually, the cultist stopped struggling, and slumped in place. Armin removed his hand from him. It was eerily quiet in the room for a few moments. No one spoke: one couldn't, one didn't, and the last was horrified to muteness.

The one who didn't speak was the one to break the silence "So tell me again, why did you murder Connie Springer?"

"The boy witnessed one of the higher ups kicking a stray dog. The boy pummeled him because he saw this happen. I did as I was told" the cultist replied in a tone devoid of emotions. A tone so empty it made Rei seem like Haruhi in comparison.

"Now, was that so hard?" Armin asked in a very dark, sarcasticall tone, as he reached out to the unresponsive cultist with a hand as he made a waterbending gesture, straight out of the 'it's not bloodbending time but you want to do something unspeakably horrible with waterbending' encyclopedia.

Sasha's eyes went very wide when she recognized what he was about to do.

17.6

"Mikasa, this is an intervention."

Eren, Levi and everyone except Armin were standing in front of the biggest badass in their world, stern and disapproving. Mikasa, enshrouded with white and pastel stared at them heartbroken. "Wha... what? Why?"

Eren shook his head. "We know you love Top Gear. We all know your crush on Richard Hammond is the largest in the multiverse. In fact, I can understand this. It's a good show. That being said."

Levi pointed at Mikasa's husband to be. "You're a fucking dumbass for marrying a car."

"What?" Mikasa nearly wailed. She instantly hopped into the hood of her beloved. "No, it's not true. We have a real thing. I love Oliver!"

"I did not give my permission for you to be married, and neither did Grisha," Carla pointed out.

"And he smells!" Connie added to zero effect.

Jean stepped up and patted Mikasa's shoulders, even as they quaked with her sobs. "I'm sorry Mikasa. But it's just a phase. You're having a bad loop."

"You're making it a bad loop," Mikasa snarled through the tears.

"Mikasa, you summoned Ganesha from on high and invited the Multiverse!" Marco shouted, pointing at the massive crowd of loopers from across the whole of reality. Armin had been detached to shoo them away.

Mikasa stroked the rolled steel hood of Oliver. "I'm fine, I'm fine... he's mine... MINE YOU HEAR!" Mikasa grabbed her car and legged it. Eren groaned, grabbed Historia and Jean, and ran after his sister.

Meanwhile, Armin waved at the mass of immortal time travelers. "I'm sorry everyone. There's been a bit of a misunderstanding. Please return to your home world and... Never mention this again. Please."

"Worst. Marriage. Ever," Leman Russ grumbled.

"Of all time," Agent Washington added.

"Come on girls, let's go," Twilight Sparkle said, leading the pony contingent towards home.

"Eh... Later," Harry Potter muttered, vanishing in a flash of magic.

"Wait, does this mean I'm not going to be paid?" Phoenix Wright asked Armin.

Armin watched everyone lumber off, his hand massaging his forehead. "What an embarrassment... We'll be the laughing stock of Yggdrasil."

"Eh, it could be worse," Hannes pointed out.

"Oh yeah?"

"You could be Mikasa."

(One Loop Later)

"Kill me, please..." Mikasa muttered when she Woke up. A car cruised by. "Mercy... someone..."

17.7 Crossoverpairinglover

"Now Jean, what have we learned today" Zoe admonished the now armless scout.

"Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time!"

"You tried to defeat the Titans, with a Shovel".

"Hey, all the cool people kill Titans with shovels"

"Oh really?" Zoe roes an eyebrow at this "Name me one person who fights Titans, with a shovel"

As the gender fluid looper asked this question, a blue armored warrior walked past the two of them, a shovel in one hand and a golden tooth that resembled one from Titan Annie in the other.

"Name me one other person who fights Titans with a shovel"

Sasha walked on by them as this question was asked, holding a bow and shovel.

"Did I miss a fad or something?"

At this point Connie flew on past them, flying on a shovel like a witch would a broomstick.

17.8

"Armin, pack your things, we're heading to the ocean."

It was a quiet, lonely loop for the Anchors of the Walled World. The three of them, palling around, scraping by on the food they had in their subspace pockets. Barely two years in: in a few months, they would join up in the cadet corps.

Hence why Eren's sudden return to their apartment and proclamation brought Armin and Mikasa up short. "The ocean?" Armin turned from the game of Risk he and Mikasa were engrossed in. "You want to go to the ocean."

Eren nodded, shifting his weight on his feet. "Yeah, I do. And I think you should come with me." Stepping into the room proper, Eren kneeled next to Armin. "I've got enough money for some fast horses. We have our pockets for supplies. We'll head out and follow the river, you know the one that runs through Trost and Shiganshina? We'll follow that to the ocean."

Eren awkwardly pursed his lips. "So what do you say. Wanna come?"

"...Sure," Armin said after a moment. "It sounds great. We'll pack our things and head out with you Eren. Just give me a few minutes."

"It'll be you and Eren alone," Mikasa iterated then. Armin's raised eyebrow was his only response. "Eren wants me to stay here."

Eren shrugged even more awkwardly. "You know Armin... guys trip. Just the two of us to the sea. What do you say?"

Armin glanced between Eren and Mikasa, before nodding once. "Alright Eren. I guess... it'll be us."

There are a million ways to open the gates to the Walls. Telekinesis, bribery, Earthbending, a really big foot. You can also ask the Garrison politely.

Seeing two young men dressed in the customary cloak of the Recon Corp did raise a few warning flags with the soldiers, but a few pints of high quality wine and a bit of Jedi mind trickery went a long way. Before too long, the stone gate to the outside was lifting. As it creaked upward, Eren flashed a winning smile at Armin. "So, I was thinking we'd stop at my house on the way out, see what was in the basement this time. Good idea?"

"Whatever you say," Armin said with a non-committal shrug.

"Alright, so no stop and straight to the sea then," Eren decided.

"I didn't say I wanted that," Armin pointed out.

"But you do."

"...We'll stop by your place then."

"Hey, if you don't want to see what's in the basement-"

"Shut up and kiss already!" a belligerent Garrison member shouted at them. The two om horseback immediately flipped him off, and once the gate was up, rode out.

The change was stark. Beyond Wall Rose, the land had already begun it's siege of man's works. Houses overgrown with moss, the road's paving stones eroded and weathered, rotten wood everywhere. The giant naked people were little more than a neat and oddly Freudian touch.

Approaching one such Titan, Armin waved it off with The Force. The Titan turned around as blundered into a building, thinking a whole platoon was inside. Eren chuckled at the sight, an act that brought a smile to Armin.

In moments, the two had cleared the outlying neighborhoods of Trost and entered the open country. Here, unlike their first ill fated expedition beyond the walls, the road was a clear track leading south. It would be over one hundred miles to cover, and no horse could ride that distance full out, even two so unencumbered as these were. It was unlikely they would reach Shiganshina at any time earlier than evening.

That said, the horses were bred for speed and endurance. They could make the one hundred mile trek in a day. No, the only real problem was the silence.

Armin, naturally, broke it. "So Eren, why isn't Mikasa coming?"

Eren shrugged. "You know... It's just been a while since we've done any sort of stuff just between us. Just the two of us."

"But Mikasa-"

"I love Mikasa as much as you do Armin," Eren stated. "I just figured we could give it a go by ourselves."

Armin was silent for the next few minutes, his horse galloping along. Another Titan came after him and Eren, but a minor psychic application sent it wandering off again. When Armin did speak... "Does it have anything to do with the new expansions?"

"Hmm?" Eren asked.

"Don't be coy with me Eren," Armin warned. "Everything that's happened... Well, I would want to make this time count to."

"What? No, I don't think you're going to die Armin. Hell, I'm the guy who's probably in the most danger, and they need me for the Coordinate," Eren countered. "Trust me I don't think you'll die."

"Eren, be realistic," Armin grumbled. "The loop has reached the point where we've sealed Shiganshina. We've won. No more Titans will ever enter the Walls, so long as we stand ready to fight. But now we have to deal with the Beast Titan, and his army of Titan Shifters."

"They aren't Titan Shifters Armin," Eren tried to say.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they were," Armin muttered, too low for his brother to hear.

Eren didn't look Armin in the eye for several minutes, staring at the passing barns and windmills. "Armin... These last few expansions have been unlike anything we've had for so long. It's been peaceful: Historia's been crowned queen. Levi's made peace with his demons, and with Kenny. We've finally learned more about my father. We've retaken Shiganshina. You even got a field promotion, and you were right that Reiner was hiding inside the wall."

"It got a man killed."

"And you can fix that Armin." Eren rode his horse close to Armin's. "We all make mistakes. We have the loops to help us undo them."

Armin did not say much for the remainder of the ride to Shiganshina.

The door's frame had long since warped enough to pinch the basement door. Even using the key only succeeded in undoing one lock. The other was undone by a heavy kick courtesy Eren. "And this loop, the secret prize is..."

A coffin. With a ceiling practically made of bats. Eren rolled his eyes, even while Armin sighed behind him. "Vampires... why the hell am I not surprised?"

"Because it's the loops?" Armin postulated. "So what, it's funny."

Eren slammed the door shut. "You know, with the Recon Corp in Shiganshina, I'm betting we sent Hange to here, to see what's going on."

"You think that baseline Hange knows what's in the basement? I can believe that."

Climbing up the stairs leading into the basement, Eren was left with an unclear thought. "Armin... What do you think is in the basement?"

Armin shrugged. "Probably a sort of... Library. Everything that Grisha's learned after his research into Shifters and his own condition. Something along those lines."

"I would have imagined that Grisha succeeded in producing the Titanization serum. He managed to get on working on me after all," Eren suggested.

Armin saddled up into his horse, Eren doing the same. "I guess we'll find out soon. Speaking of finding things out, have you and Hange made any headway with the Titan Formula?"

"Yeah, no." Eren grumbled. "We get close, it changed every loop, we start over again: it's like how the Pairing Blades used to be?"

"Used to be? They stabilized?"

Eren pulled a blade from his multi-shealth. "See these fault lines? They used to be a stylistic choice, or a way to let the blade break before it dulled to much. Now it's those notches you see in bamboo stalks. These swords are bamboo."

"..." Armin stared. "And I thought our loop couldn't get any weirder."

"Yeah, me too," Eren muttered. He glanced to the sky, the sun having long since fallen behind Wall Maria. "We can set camp on the Wall and turn in for the night."

"Agreed."

The sea was something Armin loved, for one single reason. For as long as he could remember, the sea was the most amazing, fantastical thing he could conceive of. To see something so massive, so all encompassing, so alien, was his dream. The sea was a stepping stone to all that Armin did not understand. Despite Yggdrasil, and despite the Loops, the sea still held that magical hold over him.

Even now.

Armin watched the crabs rolling with the waves around the reefs, the fish curiously approaching his fingers. A guppy nibbled a stub playfully. A school of fish slipped between his arms. For another impossible moment, Armin was free.

His lungs burned and the young man surfaced again, grabbing a breath and diving. The warm waters of the Mediterranean accepted him again, the fish returning to the strange and enticing intruder. Armin swam and was happy.

Back on the beach, reclining and watching his friend swim about, Eren contemplated his book. The Fall of Reach wasn't quite as expansive into John's life as it could be, but for the one-time Sanghelli, it was a captivating read. It didn't quite capture the size of the Covenant, but that could simply be chalked up to a lack of knowledge from the Writer. He really need to track down a copy written by Cortana.

"Eren, what are you doing?"

Eren lowered his book and raised an eyebrow at Armin. He also raised the book up a little. "What's wrong?"

"Well you're not swimming," Armin pointed out bluntly. Armin hopped down next to his brother-in-arms. "Eren, is it really that boring."

Eren set his book aside. "Well, I didn't exactly bring swim clothing."

"So what if your pants get wet? Besides, it's the Med. It's warm enough." Armin smiled at Eren. "Come on. It's not that bad. You can swim by the way."

Eren pulled off his shirt. "Alright, you win. I'll go swimming." Setting his book down, Eren stretched... and took off running. "Can't catch me!"

"You're on!"

"Eren?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you come here?"

"...Because I needed to."

High above Eren and Armin, laid out as they were on the beach, the stars and the Milky Way turned about the Earth's great axis. Staring up into the only realm that approached the same sort of infinity Eren and Armin were trapped in, a sense of melancholy had overcome the blonde. "What does that mean."

Eren sighed. The jig was up. "Alright. You caught me. This isn't just your average, everyday ride to the sea."

Armin rolled over and looked at Eren, disconcerted. "Yeah?"

"I did it because I, I needed to remind myself that we're friends."

"...What?"

"Armin..." Eren looked at his oldest friend. "After everything. After all the loops, every monstrous act we've committed, every life we've saved and healed, all of our friends, all of our lives, I thought, for a moment, that we would never be anything but brothers. The expansions say different though."

Armin shrugged. "I know. We've been... through so much, on our own, together. Could we have believed, in any way, that we would be unchanged by everything we had lived through? No. You were idealistic once. Now? You're different. I'm different. We're changed and we can't change back."

"Yeah."

The stars whirled around Eren and Armin. They didn't watch the stars though. Eren smiled. "That's why I went in this trip. To remind myself that we are brothers. To show you that despite our changes we are still Eren Jaeger and Armin Arlert. We'll going to change. In ways that will surprise us. The greatest surprise though, it already happened. And I could never see myself as anything different because of it."

Armin's confidence had wavered. "What... what changed?"

Eren beamed. "We became brothers. We're family Armin. That's the greatest change I have ever experienced, and it's the one I love the most."

Armin, after a moment, smiled. It grew from a simple grin to a smile that rivaled Eren's. "You know what Eren? I can live with that change."

The stars spun on, and the brothers rested, and in the morning they returned to the world that never changed and always did, and lived and laughed and were happy.

17.9

"How often do we fight?"

Historia Reiss (alias Christa Lenz per the earliness of the loop) started violently when Ymir's voice hit her. She flipped around from the dishes, blushing when she recognized her girlfriend. Ymir's rather... Dour gaze didn't help. "Heheh, what do you mean?"

Ymir straightened up. "Historia, I may not remember every loop perfectly like you do, but I do remember you screaming at me. Specifically..." Ymir's gaze drifted off. "I don't care that you don't like me being a princess. I'm doing what's right."

Ymir's gaze hardened. "Or maybe it was something along the lines of 'If you can't accept that I'm trying to help these people, then how can I accept you?'" Ymir glared at Historia.

Historia sagged. The jig was up. "Ymir, I-"

"Didn't think I would remember?" Ymir looked down at Historia. "I am a dreamer. I may not remember all of the loops, but I have a better memory then you would expect." Ymir didn't stop though. "Why?"

Historia gulped. Ymir wasn't really tall for most girls her age, but she stood a solid head above her. The Princess tried to rally. "I couldn't abandon these people. The people inside of the Walls-"

"Can. Be. Fucked. For all I care," Ymir growled. "I'm not asking why you sided with those assholes. I can't even begin to guess why! What I'm asking is why you even... Why you treated me like I didn't know anything!"

Historia flinched back. "Ymir, I-"

"What!?" Ymir screamed.

The seconds dragged on for far too long. Ymir was gasping in anger, breath heaving from her chest. Historia stood there, still and silent. Ymir finally stepped back and just tried, tried her hardest, to give Historia a moment.

"Ymir... I can't hand... You're the most lovely, understanding, thoughtful girl I know." Historia said gently. "You're dangerous. You're crazy. And you love me because I'm an idiot who's trying to do what she thinks will make people love her and because you see yourself in me." Historia sagged. "And despite... Everything I am, I am not able to... to treat you like you are... you."

Silence reigned, in the stead of Historia. "When you're not here, you're not the woman I love. It's hard to see you as the Ymir who risked her life to save me hundreds of times."

Ymir stared at Historia. "Then... then why-"

"Because we're horrible," was Historia's answer. "We don't fight because we're afraid. We don't fight because we're afraid of what would happen if we did."

"We are not normal. You're a Titan-shifter who hid her identity and joined the army to try and run away from the people who would hurt her for being a Titan Shifter. You wanted to use me to secure your safety. I was a bastard princess who thought that no one could ever love her again, so she pretended to be the older sister everyone adored. Historia Reiss hid from the world because if she did, Christa Lenz had a chance for love."

"..." Ymir looked at the ground. "Historia... You told me that the people of this world meant more to you then me. Was that true?"

"No. Yes. I don't know." Historia felt like collapsing; she had never lived through something so emotionally exhausting. "I thought that you weren't you. I thought I couldn't hurt you."

"You thought wrong," Ymir said. "I have feelings as much as any other person."

"But are you Ymir?" Historia asked. "Are you the girl who pulled me from a vat of molten steel? The girl who destroyed an army because they captured me? The girl who scaled a mountain with no gear and a semi-crazy reindeer and a really crazy ice farmer to stop me from freezing a city?"

"Yes," Ymir affirmed, some of her angry beginning to resurface.

"Am I the girl who loved you every day of her life when I'm not Awake?"

The hour ticked by slowly after that. Ymir left the room and Historia resigned herself to finish the dishes. It was evening by the time Historia was able to fly back up to the Carla, electing to avoid the woman's barracks for her own room. She didn't want to see Ymir just yet.

Her fears came right to the forefront though when she walked into her room. Sitting, neatly on her bed, was Ymir. "Hey."

Historia stared for who knew how long before shaking herself out of her shock. "Ymir... what are you doing?"

Ymir shrugged. "Hey, we need to talk. I know that you would come here instead of your room."

"Get off my bed. And... and then we'll..." Historia stopped herself and looked down at her feet. 'I guess this is on me.' She sighed. "I'm sorry Ymir."

Ymir got off Historia bed. "I need to say I'm sorry Historia. I've been thinking about it and... look, you shouldn't need to treat me the same way when I can't remember anything."

"No, I should, I-"

"Historia, stop." Ymir put her hand on Historia's mouth. "Historia, no one can see a Looper who's not Awake and think of them as being their friend, or their lover, or their sibling. It's... this cruel, horrible thing. And you're right about us. We're not good people."

Ymir's hand dropped off of Historia's mouth. "We're just two selfish kids who thought they could be happy together."

Historia looked up at the girl she thought she could be happy with. "Ymir, why don't we just... talk. Talk about each other, and just trust one another." Historia sighed. "We want each other. Now we need to trust each other."

Ymir gently wrapped her arms around Historia. "You're... you're too selfless for your own good."

"At least take this seriously Ymir,"
Historia said softly. "You never take things seriously."

"You think... You try too hard to be perfect Historia. You should set your own standards to live up to."

"You're insensitive and untrustworthy."

"And you're a liar and bitch."

Ymir and Historia stood there, holding each other. "I'm sorry," the both blurted out. They both jerked in surprise, Ymir recomposing herself first. "No, I'm sorry, that was out of line."

"No, I-" Historia caught herself when she realized where that train of thought led. Ymir caught on as well, and after a moment Historia led her girlfriend back to her bed. "Ymir, if this is... We rushed into this. I mean, we saw each other. We kissed. We were together. And now I can see that-"

"We shouldn't have been so fast," Ymir summarized. She sagged. "Look Historia, when I saw you, and I remembered your name, I knew, from the very beginning, that you were this beautiful, amazing woman. I was beyond happiness when you kissed me."

"I know. You were the person who understood me. You loved me even though you could see that I wasn't really Christa Lenz." Historia shook her head. "There is nothing that I wouldn't have traded your love for. You inspired me. I live for you."

"That's not healthy."

"No, it isn't." Historia shrugged. "I guess, all things considered, it's the best bad choice I could make." Historia leaned closer into Ymir, cuddling her. "I never regretted it though."

Ymir gently ran a hand through Historia's hair. "I'm glad... that after seventy years in a living nightmare, after seventy years as a Titan, I finally got to dream of you, Historia Reiss."

The night went on, and on, and on, and it held not but sweet dreams for the outcasts named Historia and Ymir.

17.1: Yes, men have modesty as well.

17.2: Something is wrong here...

17.3: Death solves little.

17.4: Fear... is rife with potential for comedy!

17.5: Armin... what are you doing?

17.6: A bad loop? For the local goddess of awesome and win? IMPOSSIBLE!

17.7: Shovels

17.8: Just kiss already!

17.9: Just kiss- Oh wait, you are. Carry on.