The Phoenix - AoT

To the Boy who Sought Freedom, Goodbye

Eren flicked his eyes up to see Mikasa looking down at him with a soft smile on her face. She bent down and held his face in her hands, tears glistening in her eyes. Her hands were so warm, and he was burning, but he was so cold at the same time. Mikasa leaned forward and placed a kiss on the top of his head, her thumbs grazing the deep grooves under his eyes.

Mikasa pulled away and unsheathed her pairing blades, taking a few steps back as she held them out in front of her.

Eren didn't feel anything. He already knew how it would all end. He'd known for a while and had long since accepted it. He had tried so hard to try and push them all away so that this moment would be easier on them, but as he looked up at Mikasa's soft smile and teary eyes, he knew that doing all that hadn't worked, not a bit. Because he was Eren, and she was Mikasa, and there was Armin and everyone from the 104th too. Eren knew that even after everything he had done, they would still mourn his death.

But still, Eren didn't feel anything.

and that was a lie.

Because Eren could never stop feeling.

Even as the monster Eren now was, he mourned every death that The Rumbling caused. He said, "I'm sorry," as children were ripped from their mothers as he was, and friends and families were torn apart as the footsteps of the thousands of Colossal Titans flattened the Earth.

So Mikasa stood in front of him with that soft smile and her teary eyes. All Eren wanted to do was tell her to stop crying and that it was alright.

Because under that front he had put up over the years, he was still that hard-headed, hot-tempered boy who had run without hesitation to go help a boy who had hair the color of the sun from boys who were many years older than them. He was still the boy who had saved a little girl with hair the same as a raven's feather from men larger than himself. Because he was still...

Eren

No matter how hard he tried, he would always be Eren. The hot-tempered, reckless boy who constantly butted heads with Jean, who was always having Mikasa come to his rescue, the boy who wanted to stay with the people he considered his family. The boy who always had a selfish desire for freedom.

Eren... didn't want to die.

He didn't want to die, and he never did. He never accepted the ending. He just told himself that it was alright because he was a monster. Eren didn't push them all away for it to be easier on them only, he did it for himself too. So that when the day came for them to cut Eren down, he wouldn't have to look into their eyes that once held love and trust, but instead he would see eyes of betrayal and hate. Hate never came, and he really wished that Mikasa and Armin would just stop trying to save him... or find another way. Because he had tried, but the day Willy Tybur declared war, that was when the future that Eren saw really was set in stone.

Eren didn't want to die, but it was alright. In spite of the fact that he lacked the knowledge of what would happen after this, he knew that Armin would be the one to save Humanity.

So as Eren glanced back at Mikasa, he gave her a small smile of his own. And that was enough to break the dam as the tears began to roll down Mikasa's cheeks. They left tear tracks as they washed away the grime from her face.

With one last loving smile, Mikasa jumped forward, slashing her blades at Eren's spinal cord.

"See you later, Eren" she had said.

And Eren Jaeger, the Devil of Paradis Island, was no more.