[Scene: Between Life and Death – The Twilight Meadow]
It is neither night nor day here.
The sky above glows in a muted gold, soft and strange, as though sunlight were filtering through an endless ocean. The air hums faintly, not with wind, not with sound, but with memory itself—every particle carrying whispers of what once was.
At the center of this meadow, a tree rises.
Tall. Unyielding. Its bark streaked with veins of faint light, pulsing gently like the heartbeat of something alive.
I know this tree.
Or maybe… I remember it.
Eren's POV (as the bird)
I land on its highest branch. The wood feels warm beneath my talons, alive with something more than nature.
The leaves stir. Not from wind—there is none in this place. They stir because of a voice.
Armin (Tree): "You came back."
The sound doesn't echo in the air—it vibrates through the branch beneath me, through the trunk, through the roots. Through me.
I tilt my head. In this twilight meadow, I can understand him.
It's Armin… but not the same Armin I left behind in the waking world. His voice is steadier, deeper, carrying the weight of time itself. He has been here far longer than I can grasp.
Eren: "You've been waiting here… all this time?"
Armin: "I promised I'd protect both of you. Even here. Even now."
I look down from the branch.
Beneath Armin's shade, a small flower grows. White petals, soft as breath, swaying gently in the still air. Fragile—yet unyielding. I know her even here. Mikasa. Her essence lingers in the way her stem refuses to bend, in the way her petals lean upward, reaching always for something beyond.
Beside her, in darker soil, another flower blooms. Its petals are deep crimson, glowing faintly from within like embers refusing to die. Mine. A flower that only grows in this place… this limbo they call hell.
Armin: "I've kept you both safe. The world outside may forget… but not here. Not as long as I stand."
A breeze sweeps the meadow. No, not wind—something else. The breath of eternity. It pulls at my feathers, a tug that feels both distant and familiar.
From somewhere beyond this twilight, faint echoes rise. Waves rolling on a distant shore. Laughter carried by unseen voices. Warmth.
Eren: "…Is this heaven?"
Armin: "Not yet. But I can guide you there. Both of you."
The ground trembles faintly as roots stir, stretching outward like guiding hands. My wings twitch. The crimson flower and the white one both begin to glow, pulsing as if answering Armin's call.
I leap from the branch, the air catching me. In my beak, I carry the petals of both flowers. They feel weightless—and yet heavier than the sky itself.
[Scene Shift – Bridge of Light]
The horizon is no longer meadow but light itself—an endless span of gold.
Beneath me, Armin's roots stretch impossibly far, forming a bridge that holds against the void. Every fiber of that bridge thrums with his will, pushing me forward, urging me onward.
I glance down.
The white petals glow with warmth, carrying Mikasa's scent—every memory, every word, every silence we shared. The crimson petals pulse with hers, answering in rhythm, as though the two were never meant to be apart.
Ahead, a gate rises. Vast, shimmering, made of light so bright it almost hurts to see. Beyond it lies a home. Not the one we knew, not the world we fought for… but something purer. A place that feels as though it had always been waiting.
Eren (to Mikasa's flower):
"Even if I have to fight gods… or become a demon again… I'll never leave you alone."
The petals stir in answer, glowing brighter, as though she heard.
[Scene Shift – New Life]
Time fractures. Seasons collapse into one another. The golden horizon bends and folds until the meadow reforms—changed, gentler, eternal.
I am no longer flying. I am standing.
Human again. Whole again.
And beside me—Mikasa. Her hand in mine, steady and warm. Her presence fills the silence, not with words, but with the quiet certainty I had always longed for.
We live here now. A small house beneath the tree's watchful branches. Days pass without war, without fear. Nights are filled with peace instead of fire. And always, Armin's great trunk towers above, his roots stretching endlessly, guarding us in silence.
One morning, beneath the tree, a golden bloom unfurls. Its petals gleam softly, and through it, a voice lingers.
Annie (Flower, softly): "I'll stay with you… for eternity."
Her vow melts into the meadow.
[The Eternal Garden]
And so, in this quiet afterlife, a garden begins to grow.
Eren and Mikasa tend to it together. Each blossom carries a story, each blade of grass a memory once lost to blood and war.
At the garden's heart, the ancient tree stands eternal, its roots reaching both above and below. Some wind into the heavens. Others sink into the soil of the world.
And hidden within those roots is the truth.
It is Armin. His essence flowing through the earth, a silent guardian threading between two realms—heaven and earth—so his friends will never feel alone again.
At the base of the tree, two flowers bloom side by side.
One carries a strange beauty touched with shadow—cursed, yet enduring. The other radiates light and warmth, eternal as the sun.
Between them rests a small red muffler. Old. Weathered. Yet whole. As if it had been waiting across lifetimes just to be here.
A blue butterfly drifts lazily into the garden. It lands gently between the two blossoms. Slowly, both flowers lean toward one another, as though drawn by a force older than the world itself.
Their petals touch.
And in that moment, the entire garden breathes. Whole. Complete.
[Narration – Third Person]
And when their time comes again, the cycle does not end.
This time, there is no curse. No chains of Titans. No weight of sins passed down like iron shackles.
The world breathes freely.
Every soul—friend and foe alike—finds themselves reborn. Scattered across a new earth, beneath a sky with no walls, but destined to meet again.
Even King Fritz, the one who began the first chain, is not spared rebirth. But in this new life, his crown is gone. His fate is only to live—and to know the pain he once inflicted.
And somewhere, carried on a wind unbroken by stone or fear, three voices whisper.
Eren: "Roots…"
Mikasa: "…and wings."
Armin: "…will always find each other."
✨ End of Chapter