"Eren I..I lo..I love you" was the last thing Mikasa said before embracing the silence inside the room waiting for an explanation from Eren as to why did she have to go through everything just to end up back here and how did she even get back here? She didn't have to wait long for Eren's reply as he said "Mikasa before I explain I want to say that I love you too ever since we were children ever since the day I killed these monsters and looked into your eyes I was in love with you" Eren said trying to hide his blush by acting calm but it was futile "and as for the answers to your questions I have to introduce you to somebody else first for you to understand everything Mikasa."
Just then the corner of the room is full of smoke and there was something or someone stepping out of it until they were fully visible it was a blond little girl with a white headband and white torn clothes she was looking at Mikasa with an ear to ear smile and she kept getting closer to Mikasa until she was a step away from her and then she spoke with a barely audible voice
"Hello there Mikasa Ackerman".
".."
".."
"Who are you? And how did you get here?"
"I'm th-"
"She is the founder Ymir" Eren cutting off their little chit chat "founder Ymir this is Mikasa, Mikasa this is the founder Ymir, shall we skip the introductions and get straight to the point" Eren sarcastically said, after spending an unfathomable amount of time reliving the same nightmare over and over Eren developed a twisted sense of sarcasm and humor, he could no longer take anything seriously unless he wanted to and his rage and headfirst personality went away replaced by a calm and collected even bored one.
"So I think I should start explaining now shouldn't I ?"
...
Eren then went on explaining how he and the founder Ymir were stuck in a loop starting by him waking up under the tree and ending by Mikasa beheading him only to back again in the paths, he also explained the attack titan's ability to see the future and why did he do the rumbling.
"Let me ask you something, how long have this been going on?" Mikasa questiond still trying to take everything in
"I lost count a long time ago but a rough estimate would be between 2000 to 10000 years." Eren said with empty eyes
"..."
"..."
"oh." Mikasa looked at the love of her life in concern and adoration she wanted to hug him and have him let everything out, she wanted to shoulder his pain and sorrow, she wanted to save him from the cruelty of this world and be at peace, she wanted to be beside him.
"Eren I'm so sorry you had to go through this all alone"
"It's okay you don't have anything to be sorry about, now that you know the truth I'm truly happy" Eren said with hope while looking at Mikasa with longing and adoration.
Mikasa noticed and couldn't help but blush a little trying to hide it she replied "I'm glad that you are happy".
"Hey, don't forget I'm here, now is not the time for your lovey deovey shit" Ymir said with a dark grin and voice full of sarcasm.
"Sorry" both of them said.
"So..what do we do now?"Mikasa asked.
"I don't know"Eren replied
"How about we tell the others? They would surely help us out"
"HELL NO, I don't want to be put in a mental asylum" both Ymir and Eren shouted at the same time
"Why...not?"
"Mikasa when I told that we were in a loop, do you think that I and Ymir didn't try and break it?..."
"No I haven't actually thought about that but now I do I think that you did and from your answer to my previous suggestion I'm guessing that things didn't go well with you when telling the others am I right?"
"Yeah you're right, we oops I mean I got put in a mental asylum for it and this bitch did nothing but laugh" Eren shot a death glare at Ymir while replying in a flat monotone voice
"Hey not my problem that I am dead from 2000 years ago" Ymir said with grin and trying to stifle a laugh
"Uhh what's wrong with her? How does she find any of that funny?" Mikasa was surprised at the founder Ymir's actions "is this supposed to be the founder Ymir that started the titans, I thought she would be more... Mature" Mikasa thought
"Staying in the paths for so long affects one's mind, while mine let's say grew and I no longer act on anger and emotions, The founder Ymir well... She was another story or shall I say the opposite happened to her" Eren said wanting to move on from this topic because his time in the paths was not a pleasant one and he does not want to remember it.
"It doesn't matter if the paths changed me or not..... Anyways let's move on shall we? Any of you have any plans" Ymir with a creepy smile to Eren's favor jumped in and changed the topic.
"First we need to research and gain info on our predicament" Eren putting the first pillar of the plan in place
"Why research? don't you two have an idea why you were locked up in this loop?" Mikasa questiond
"We don't actually every time me and Ymir try to use the full power of the founding Titan to break free we get stopped it's like something is blocking us, and when we try to find out anything about our situation the paths start acting weird and stopping us at every turn, me and Ymir think it's someone who put a vow like the vow to renounce war from behind our backs" Eren replied
"Maybe we can find something related to this on the island? Maybe a history book that has reports about this." Mikasa suggested
"No we already searched the island and didn't find anything" Eren immediately shot down Mikasa's idea
Eren then looked around the room and spotted a bed in the left corner of it and neared then immediately slumped on, looking up at the ceiling thinking and trying to form any idea. He remained like that for a while and the room fell into silence Mikasa was sitting in a chair she grabbed from the room's desk and Ymir was looking out the window doing nothing aside from staring
"What about the Warhammer titan" Eren spoke out of nowhere
"Hmm?" Ymir and Mikasa confused
"The Warhammer titan was only inherited by the Tybur family and that never changed since the first titans, this means that that the current wielder Lara Tybur has all the memories of the past Warhammer titans since they passed them from generation to generation. So if we get Lara to talk we will be able to unravel the thruth" Eren explained
"But didn't gain the Warhammer memories already since you ate Lara in the past loops? And since the founder Ymir is here why can't she just show us thier memories?" Mikasa trying to find an easier route for the plan
"No,I need to be related to the Tybur family to inherit their memories" Eren replied to first question
"And I can't access their memories because like Eren told you before dummy tHeRe iS sOmEtHinG blocking me from being able to use my power" Ymir replied to the second question with a passive aggressive tone trying to rile Mikasa up just for fun.
"Fine then how do we get to them?" Mikasa tired of Ymir's attitude asked wanting to get straight to the point.
"Maybe we get close to them as a political rival since you are next to the throne in hizuru Mikasa" Eren suggested
"No I'm not ruling hizuru, and why don't we just infiltrate them and get the needed info and leave." Mikasa refused and offered a new suggestion
"We can't go to Marley just like that the risks ar too high and an attack on them will automatically result in them declaring war on paradis since they know who I am, we need a way to get to them without risking our death since this a once in a lifetime chance and I don't you will remember anything in the next loop, So as I said being a political rival guarantees our survival since killing us will result in hizuru declaring war on Marley and that's the last thing they want because they are fighting the Mid-East alliance" Eren shot down Mikasa's suggestion and doubled down on his.
"But I don't want to rule Hizuru Eren.." Mikasa said looking sad not wanting to be chained to a throne
"Don't worry I will rule with you" Eren stated
"What? You're an Eldian and also not from the royal family"
"If I do good enough the people will eventually like me to a point that the Hizuruian government can't take me down"
".."
".."
"."
"Fine, but do we get to that supposed point?"
"Hizuru is currently suffering from a poor economy since they have a strict rule that rejects Eldians from working and that resulted in a weak man-power in the country when we get there we will remove the rule under the reason of the country's future and then slowly integrate the Eldians into the society and from then on we can get to the tybur family on a political visit"
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"Fine then hizuru it is" Ymir said agreeing to the plan
"I'm in too" Mikasa joined in
"Great now we need to get to the ocean tommorw since from my memories there's a ship with Eldian prisoners that will get turned into titans coming and we will take it over and use the radio to contact the azumabito family"
LATER IN THE EVENING
After Ymir left and disappeared into then air
Armin came knocking on the door to Eren's room "Eren are you there?"