𝗔𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘| 𝙀. 𝙔𝙀𝘼𝙂𝙀𝙍

𝐬𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐨

My arms fell by my side and my knees felt weak. Connie and Armin left my side, and Mikasa smiled softly at me.

I turned around to see Hanji standing in front of me, hair held up in their regular ponytail, with a... with an eye patch around her eye. I nearly sobbed in relief at the realization. I saved them. I saved them. And everything that I had been through was worth it all to see her standing there.

"Baby?" Hanji said, voice wavering. I swallowed once and took a step forward. And then another. And another until I was in her arms.

"Mom," I said and hugged them as tight as I could.

"Oh, oh my baby," Hanji all but wailed as we sank to the floor, cocooned in each other's arms. I started crying again, shaking in her arms; in my mother's arms.

"I remember, I remember. I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," I cried into their shoulder, apologizing for all the cruel things I did in the past week. I felt Hanji shake their head in disagreement, but that didn't stop my mantra of repentance. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

"No, you did nothing wrong," Hanji said as she pulled away to look at me. Her knees were on either side of me as she cupped my face in their hands. "You did nothing wrong. You did nothing wrong," she said again fiercely, making sure the words registered in my brain. I nodded once, even though I still didn't believe the words.

We all spent the next long moments catching up. All of us huddled on the ground, Hanji and Armin on their side of me with the other three sprawled out on the floor in front. I just took the time to catalog their new appearances in my brain while Armin spoke, filling me in on all the things I've missed over the past four years, but when he got to the part about Sasha, the room went quiet.

I looked up at everyone, but my eyes stayed longer on Connie and Jean as I spoke. "I'm sorry," I told everyone. Connie shook his head with watery eyes, and Jean looked towards the ground.

"She lived a good life. I just wish she could've seen you again. We didn't even know you were alive until after," Connie said. I felt Armin grip my hand next to me, but my eyes were staring straight ahead at Connie.

"What," I cleared my throat. "What were her last words?" I didn't ask who killed her yet, now was not a time to be rageful.

Connie's dim expression didn't change. "Meat," he replied. It was silent in the room again, until I broke it with a laugh.

"O-Of course it was!" I laughed with a rasp. I wiped a single tear of their humor or sadness, I truly didn't know which it was. But I stopped short when everyone was staring at me with a shocked expression. Connie just looked like he seconds away from sucker punching me.

"Why- Why are you laughing like that bastard?" He whispered fastly, eyes narrowed. I didn't know what "bastard" was talking about but I quickly defended myself.

"Why wouldn't I? You of all people know how crazy that girl was about her meat!" I exclaimed with a smile. "Remember the time she nearly bit Jean's hand off the night before Shiganshina!" I said while pointing at Jean who let loose a grin. I felt Hanji rumble with laughter beside me.

"Yeah, I was tempted to get a rabies shot after that," Jean admitted, which made me let loose a howl of laughter. Even Mikasa and Connie let out a chuckle at that.

I smiled as I watched everyone jump into the conversation, mentioning all the time they were close to death just because they either took a piece of Sasha's food or didn't share it with her.

This was good. This is how we should remember the dead.

But as the conversation went back to being one of catching up, I filled them in on my time in Marley.