Jaw

Epilogue

It was the dawn of a new world, and the old Titan Shifters had yet to find their place in it.

As they returned to Marley, Pieck, Annie, and Reiner could only stare at their home. After all these years, they didn't think they'd be the only survivors of their Warrior class.

They'd lost so much. And as they moved, their bones creaked. Their souls were heavy as lead; they never thought they'd have to grow old, and this broad horizon stretching before them was as guilt-inducing as it was crushing in its potential. Why had they been given another chance when everyone before them had perished?

Annie left her friends without a word, her small form hurrying in the direction of home. And really, Pieck couldn't blame her. How long had it been since she'd gone home?

Reiner left in much the same way, parting with an apology and a guilty grimace. He was leaving Pieck with the responsibility of telling Silena about Porco's death.

She told him that she didn't mind, almost meaning it. Silena had been her best friend for longer than she cared to count; she and Porco had become like family in the absence of the other Warriors. It felt like her responsibility to tell Silena that she wouldn't get her wedding. But to do it alone? Her hands shook at the prospect, and even if Reiner was her only hope for company, she'd take him over nothing.

But she was stronger than she looked, so Pieck put one foot in front of the other until she reached her house and, next to it, Silena's. As she stood on the front porch of the Lehmann home, she gazed longingly at her own. Her father was inside, and she had the urge to run in and collapse into his arms and cry. Silena wasn't the only one who'd lost someone when Porco died– she felt his loss aching somewhere deep inside her, and she no longer had Titan fire to burn those feelings away.

It was someone else's hand who knocked on the Lehmanns' door. A long moment passed before a tall man came to answer it.

Pieck had never met him before. As he asked for her name, she peeked around his narrow shoulder. Bettina and Adele were sitting at the kitchen table, a bottle of whiskey open between them. Pieck may have told the tall man her name, or she may not have as she pushed past him.

The twins looked up at Pieck as she approached the table. As Bettina spoke the words, Pieck somehow knew them. The world went silent and she may have screamed, may have cried, may have ran out of the house. Or she may have stood stock-still until one of them asked if she wanted to sit. She didn't, of course. She wanted– needed to be– she didn't know.

She needed to be not here. She needed to be twelve years in the past, when they were just kids and their biggest problem was whether or not Silena's mother would let her take the Armored Titan; she needed to be two weeks in the past so she could urge Porco to stay home and look after the woman he loved.

Pieck's head fell backwards as she let out a choked cry. The sun burned behind her closed eyelids, and it was nothing but a big ball of gas that she would travel around for a long, painful lifetime.

...

In the coming weeks, there was a recurring dream that the three Warriors had. When they put their heads together, they decided it was the ghost of the Paths, still burned into their unconscious brains.

They were looking out over the beach at sunset. A light breeze blew and the setting sun painted everything a hazy orange. The world was silent save two people.

The woman walked with her feet in the water, her skirt hiked up so it didn't get wet. In it, she was collecting seashells. A silver ring glittered on her finger, the hand of which was looped securely through her husband's elbow. Though they couldn't see their faces, something about the man's posture suggested an ease they never saw in life. He listened to her speak and didn't complain when she kicked up her bare feet to splash him.

As the pair walked away from them, they knew their friends would find peace where they went. To the mountains or a train with no destination, or perhaps more beach, the sun would never set and darkness would never find them.

//A/N: Omg?? Cried but did the thing! As always, thank you so much to everyone who stuck with this for so freaking long-- this has been my not-so-passionate project for three very long years, and I can't express how grateful I am to all the people who've paid my little brainchild attention while I grew up with it. I've got some more AoT stuff planned but not for right now-- maybe one day. For now, I've got some stories for other things posted on my profile which aren't nearly as sappy as this. Thanks again!!!! <3