Chapter Text
Eren has been in the paths for an eternity, stuck in a loop with little freedom. Except it was all as he intended, after all with Ymir Fritz gone and his friends in the dark, he could finally go for real freedom.
Eren looked impassively as Paradis and his people were destroyed he looked with pity at the ultimate failure of his friends. That was what he never told Armin, the fate of them all was already written in stone. And then 2000 years after the end of the titans and his life a new power was born from his head and Eren saw it all, it made him scoff, the Titans but different enough to be worse then the old ones.
"In the end getting rid of it it's pointless and only makes things worse in the long run..."
Eren sighed in tiredness, this time the offspring of the creature that lived on his head had adapted to not relay on humans to repair, it did so due to Ymir leaving and understanding that it's parent wasn't there anymore.
Apparently the creature that attached to Ymir had ended up leaving offsprings and so on among all the descendants of the woman and their people who were infected through the nine, they ended up gaining new traits thanks to humanity own biology which it was why there were abnormals, some of those had allowed slightly better control to humans then others, some adapted to survive the scouts and their deaths, some were different due to belonging to descendants of either the Nines or the Royals bloodlines.
Eren had spent an endless amount of time and life-times, yes life-times, the Attack Titan had power to send memories back in the past wielders of it mind, but with the Founding Titan that ability enhanced greatly, and with the right combination multiple worlds came to be one after the other. The Attack On Titan real ability was concealed even to the previous holders of it, because seeing the future was only part of it.
Ymir Fritz ensured no one would know it so that she could get what she wanted, it still pissed Eren off, but he had let everything play out anyway, he needed her gone that is why he never warned his past self and played along, he had realized he got played many lifetimes ago, but he had been willing to endure, all for the sake of Freedom, Freedom from her. This was what the Attack Titan strove for in every era.
The real ability of the Attack Titan was that it could partly access the coordinate and be unaffected by the Founder Titan Power, it was greatly Ironic Ymir thought no one would question it, yet it seems her short-sightedness and his own cunningness tricked her into thinking she could get what she wanted.
Mind you Eren did feel sorry for her, but he also was pissed at her and he did not want to be in this position, except he now it's happy about it and wanted it.
Sure due to a lack of founding titan it's power was greatly diminished, Especially without the original entity, but he did not care he had enough to still gather information, just as he did in enemy territory, after all he only needed to access it the past through the Attack Titan own Coordinate to see just how much he could affect, and it was surprising to see that he had the ability to do so to all descendants of an Attack Titan wielder, Erwin was one, so was that members of the scout obsessed with his horse, it's how he did it to himself, but in order to keep Ymir in the dark he erased them immediately afterwards making it appears his younger self only had a nightmare.
Eren had spent countless worlds to find a solution, manipulating Dina Fritz was the easier part, the Titan had perhaps ironically, no intention of killing his mother, yet he pushed the consciousness of Dina to do so for his plans to work, especially since Ymir was in on it, he had long since accepted his father situation, and ironically he had a similar predicament, Mikasa and Historia, Eren perhaps ironically wanted both. Historia has been his partner in this endeavor to build a better future, Eren lied to her many times, he had no intention of giving her back Ymir, Frieda yes, but Ymir no. He'll have them both. Saving everyone it's impossible, he knew, but he can save a few. If he can save Petra and a few others he'll be happy.
Eren had seen how he could play it out, and it made him ponder, how much can he change, how can he go ahead with what he know. He needs time and he needs to be careful with his past self especially if Ymir Fritz catches winds of it this meant only one thing. He can't count on himself. He needs to manipulate the past attack titan holder his father.
He needs to take out Uri first. He pitied the man by what he learned of him. Zeke boasted of having been able to escape of his own from the Vow, but the truth it's that he only did that because of the small connection with the Attack Titan through their shared father and being a distant relative of Karl Fritz rendering Karl Fritz spirit within the Path useless on him, and the traitor never amount to anything beyond his usefulness to Ymir twisted desire. Albeit if his theories are correct he can return the previous holders of the Nine to life, as it occurred in the final battle, all According to plan, he just needed the Coordinate and the founding titan to do so, and perhaps expand it to return pure titans to normal, avoid the curse of Ymir submit the creature to him rather then then the original host.
Boy he had a lot to do. And he could do so only by going as far back as before Wall Maria was breached by Bertholdt.
"Things are never easier..." Eren muttered frustrated he needed his father compliant, but revenge wasn't as strong a motivating drive past a certain point, Eren himself knew it all too well, he closed his eyes and thought. Then as he stared at the coordinate a plan etched in his mind.
"Maybe I can use Dad desire for his sister to be back instead... After all the Attack titan has essentially a weaker version of the founder power, but I can't revive people who aren't of the ninth, but if I have Krueger subtly gain hardening sever Aunt arm and make father think she still died by the dogs... Maybe I can have Krueger eat her attempt to see if he could harden objects that enters it's stomach, after all Ymir healed Zeke due to being a direct descendants by having him be swallowed by a titan... Eren could in theory do the same, he just has to use his own Coordinate rather then the main one, probably all the Nine could do similar things due to how they still regain the memory of the previous ones, just less accurately then the attack titan, possibly due to Maria Fritz child and first attack titan being a maverick of the family hating the world due to how it all went down for them, disgusted at her family she might have been the reason this all was possible in a way, perhaps it was what influenced Ymir too.
Eren however couldn't risk practicing those extra abilities out in the open somewhere else, but there is the thing, he had a chance, the Rumbling, he just needed to use the chaos to guide his headless body secured elsewhere and turn into a titan and see if he could do so, but first he needed to manipulate Krueger again only to eat his aunt instead and making it appear it was the dogs so that Grisha desire for vengeance could be spurred, he needed a near identical world as this one were he still did the rumbling, if Ymir will question it he isn't sure, after all he tried hundreds of time to cause a different path, except not to this extent, she is used to the same loop, not him going as far back as Krueger...
Actually perhaps he won't need Krueger, by what he saw, both the Warhammer the Armor and the Attack Titan come from Maria, meaning he only need to influence Maria daughter or Maria herself, but that is too far back they would notice, meaning Eren could only count on Krueger.
"Tsk figures..." But how does he operate exactly, sure he could attempt it, or maybe he could do something else, he could subtly do something better. Krueger needed to eat his aunt, then from her damaged body he could see if he could heal her, he had plenty of practice with his own coordinate to do that anyway, he experimented with his headless body in secret when no one noticed too busy with the Rumbling and Ymir being too focused for her desire coming true.
The ideas were forming in his head now, he had a lot of knowledge from Grisha meaning he could still do that, Krueger will however be stumped, but he can work with that, he just need to explain him the plan and why Grisha needs to remain in the dark until he first turns into a pure titan. He needed Krueger co-operation, and eventually he could count on him if he can bring him back once the time comes to make a move. Eren knew the only reason the creature in his severed head left him do this was simply due to the fact he'll be preserved anyway and feels a sense of gratitude so he looked at the creature which had shaped as his own Attack Titan fotm albeit different with a face closer to what Warhammer Titan Shifter had within their own version of the paths, it was how the creature communicated anyway, it abandoned the form of the original one to be more essentially inseparable from the composition of the human body.
"It better work Yeager." Came the multilayered voice that felt more like an Echo then anything else.
"It should work, besides as a fall back we just have another repeat by keep going with the loop untill we have a better chance, no different then what we did untill now."
The Attack Titan said nothing, but his green eyes glowed as he nodded. He pitied the first creature, after all it just wanted to live, it just happened to be the case for all of this mess to be tied with it and it acted the only way it knew, after all it did try to preserve him alive multiple times, not knowing Eren didn't need it, and that wasn't Ymir doing, by that point the Creature wanted him as a new host after Ymir wanted a different desire, he pitied leading to it's death.
But in the end now things could change for the better. The other of the Nine didn't know what really was going on as the Great Titan War occurred, but Eren did not want those animals to be even the slightest aware of it, because they were just as bad as the world outside of Paradis Island, meaning it was better Marley held the beast and other titans, the infighting was justified, which was why he had come eventually to understand why Karl Fritz did what he did and how he felt the Rumbling made it so for him to get it to, but the Tyburr? No those bastards always wanted power, that was why the manipulated Karl Fritz emotions, the Tyburr wanted complete control of the World thus they placed themselves into a position to do so, in fact the Marleyans that wanted the founding titan ironically were all controlled subtly by the Tyburr which had been secretly rising hostility toward Marley. It made Eren want to laugh that the Tyburr saw everything be for nothing after his arrival, the Tyburr were of Royal Blood meaning that they held all a chance to use the Founding Power, they never thought that Zeke was one, neither that the Attack Titans Shifter had done everything in their power to pave the path with his own future knowledge going to them in the past.
Eren had a plan, a big one at that.
It meant trying again.
It meant sacrifice as well. He needed Armin sadly, but he also needed him out of the picture if necessary, Armin can't inherited the Colossal this time or Bertholdt would end up influencing him too much, albeit that wouldn't be much at all due to Armin already harboring similar tendencies and it only enhances them. He needed to essentially alter at some point the timeline in a way that has his father eating Uri and surviving Kenny while giving him the titan at the same time as his father did. He needed a situation that could trick Ymir, he didn't know how much she knew from foresight and if it was limited to him showing it to her...
Eren eyes snapped open.
"Wait. Why am i worrying about Ymir? She clearly knew very little of the future meaning she can only go compared to what I show her!" Eren said and the Attack Titan had a similar expression.
"Then it means that until now we really had Ymir do as we wanted, but how do we lead her to follow along this time?" The Titan muttered and Eren just stared at the path, he blinked...
That was the big question, after all Ymir was still subservient more to the royals and she clearly didn't know that he was behind the visions, how to do that... He could probably use Historia after all the moment the founding was devoured Karl Fritz had all but became pointless, there was a risk that using Historia could be problematic with that King trying to stop it, especially considering he puppeteered his descendants, and if Historia is not a Titan that influence it's a lot weaker compared to a Founding Shifter, same for a pure one... Except that he didn't need total power over the original coordinate, just a small bit and Historia and Frieda were the best options, but he needed to do so in a way his Father doesn't end up using the power himself. Meaning He needs his father to die and being devoured, he needs again to drive his new younger self by causing his mother death.
Thinking back on it, he can try through Dina Titan to see if he can use his own coordinate to heal his mother... Albeit see if he can do that at all, and instead he could just use her instead of Historia for her royal blood, just Dina Titan. He partly did that before he can do so again. But what to do about her? Dina still subconsciously chose to kill her mother due to jealousy and royals are a different kind of beast when it comes to being pure titans when it comes to consciousness... Yet so are abnormals, they all descends from various of the Nine Titan Shifters.
A plan already was forming in Eren mind... He could this time take the Jaw from Ymir, he tried to feel sorry for Historia on doing that, but the fact was that Eren didn't really had it in him. Sure he was sorry for it, but also he won't stop until he reaches freedom, and this isn't freedom, he is in another cage, and he can't stand it, he also can't stand those animals, he needed ironically to place himself in a position of power...
'How much can I change? If I get Historia and Frieda out of there at least I'll have Historia a bit more joyful, his younger self could use her and Mikasa around, I want to see if I can save Thomas and Marco, maybe this time I'll let the older me learn bit by bit far sooner, I'll let him gain future memories through Historia once the time his right, I can fuel dad with the promise of sparing his families and bringing aunt Faye back if this works maybe I can have Krueger have Dina eat fay corpse if I can find a way to preserve it... Wait can it be possible that even without a titan through my own coordinate I could simply have Faye body slow it's decay after all my head did so too, I'm not sure if it counts tho... But it definitely did for the Original Founder, meaning I still have a chance of doing that.'
Eren nodded to himself the plan was made he knew what to do. He knew also he could either have Annie join his side when necessary. Then he shook his head. No. He'll have her devoured by Dina if anything else so his father could be more compliant... Actually maybe I could have her go to someone else that will be by his side instead. After all he had an idea on how to break the curse and gain victory over the outside world. If he can spare some people he will, he'll just need to ensure they will be fine with it since he wanted to end this pointless cycle of hatred. As much as it pained him he had to do that anyway, as proven humanity can't stop unless someone decides to take a stand, he felt a weight on his shoulders, if he manipulate history right he can create a better outcome now then ever, he needed to destroy the old world and build a new one, he had the power, and he had already carried many weights in many different lifetimes. Guilt due to inaction. Guilt due to success, guilt due to circumstances. In the end he had always ended up moving forward, and sadly as it was in the end nothing mattered until drastic actions are made. Whatever Ymir Fritz had known or not, he did not cared if he acts in the past she'll likely never know anyway since she left him in the paths immediately after she played her little metaphorical actions of manipulating him and Mikasa so that the latter killed him as a way to rapresenting herself and the first Eldian King.
Eren expression soured, there was no choice. He needed to be the usurper.
'Fight. I need to fight. Fight. Fight. Fight!' Eren expression switched to a determined one, time to his his power to change time once more.
Time for his plan to go into motion.