Chapter 47

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POV: You

Spring is here the snow of winter is all gone. Only a year after the victory in trost, The government has permitted availability for the refugees of wall Maria to return to their homes. Wall Maria becoming habitable to those who once called it home or would like to. With Bear and Levi's effort of bringing the titan count to zero within the walls. Now, the scouts lead an expedition outside the walls, to go all the way in one go.

"We're almost there, half a day at most, then we'll be there" I thought as we raced south.

"This all brings back memories. Bad ones" Ymir says while ridding next to me.

"Me too" Annie adds "How about you (Y/n)?"

"It's foggy, but some of the scenery has felt familiar. Only one thing has stuck to my memory" I say to them.

"The dock" Annie says and I nod.

"You know, It felt like yesterday when I traveled with the others towards the walls" Liam states.

"Maybe because it wasn't that long ago old man" Ymir says "It's been years for us"

Liam shrugs "I will admit, the untouched scenery is pleasing to the eye. I'm so used to ruins of war"

"Sadly, War is just over the horizon" I say. We then see a red flare shoot up into the sky. I raise a brow as the flair meant there was a titan. Due to the lack of titans we assumed they were all within the walls "Let's go check that out"

We ride over to the direction of the flare. When we arrive, we see a small titan with a large head and abnormally small limbs. Behind it was an obvious path that it had created as it tried to drag itself to the walls. Grass and even tree saplings growing within the path. Eren and Floch had gotten off their horses, Floch with his blades out. Eren walked up to the Titan and out his hand on its head.

"Hey, carful" Floch says to Eren.

"It was shipped to paradise, which means it's a fellow patriot" Eren says, I take not of his wording like everyone else "Let's go, We're close"

Eren gets on his horse and rides off, Armin follows him, Mikasa holds of for a moment before going after them "Just hang on, is it okay to leave this thing here. Shit" Floch says then leaps onto his horse and going after them along with the rest of the formation.

I get off my horse as I looked at the titan. Annie, Ymir, and Liam watched as I stepped close to the titan and looked at it "I can't save you from you're nightmare, but I can ease your pain"

I draw my knife and climbed up onto the titan. Looking at the nape of the titan, I hold onto my knife with both hands and plunge it into the nape then slicing a large chunk of it out. After a moment, the entire body begins to steam up. I stand up and jump off the now dead titan.

"For being the Monster of Paradise, You're pretty merciful" Ymir says as a sly comment.

"It's the fine line in the sand that separates me from our enemy. I'm willing to be merciful, doesn't mean I'll always be" I say then got on my horse.

"Heh, sounding like a king" Liam says.

"I would rather be a monster than a king" I tell him before riding off. They soon followed.

{Timeskip}

Lush plains and hills turned to Rocky Mountains and sandy desert, like if a beach went on for miles inland. We were close, we knew it. Over the whipping wind of the desert, the muffled crashing of water could be heard. We are then met with a large stone wall, we look up at the man made structure and I frown.

"Here we are" I say.

"I remember this being much bigger" Ymir says to us.

"Maybe cause you fell from it" Annie says "No offense"

"None taken, it was like 60 years ago" Ymir says with a shrug.

We ride up a hill, going around the wall. The sun shining our way before we see it. A view of nothing but blue, stretching all the way out to the horizon. The sea...the ocean...it's been awhile.

"Here it is. The sea"

Everyone was curious about the sea, a salted lake that's bigger than anyone here could imagine. We tied up the horses and had made our way down to the beach by the dock. To me, Annie, Ymir and Liam, it isn't much of a wonder. It's something we've seen before. I took my gear off and left it with the horses like everyone else. Liam decided to stay with the horses, he wanted his own solitude I guess.

As I stood at the beach, I looking out to the horizon "I'm a step closer Mom. Just hold on a little longer"

Annie and Ymir come up to me "Did you just see that? Jean tried to drink the water" Ymir says with a small laugh.

"No, sorry" I say then shook my head then faced them " I have to talk to you two about something"

"Is that so?" Annie says.

"Before we left, Erwin promoted me to Captain, he wants me to have a small squad for when we go to Marley. He said I could pick who I wanted and I'd like to have both of you to join me" I say to them.

Annie's mouth arches up a bit "Why wouldn't I, Marley deserves what's coming for them"

"No shit I will, I may not be able to be with Historia all the time but being with you all the time works too" Ymir says with a grin "Are we the only ones you want? Cause I wouldn't mind a threesome with Annie too"

"Does your mind always go to sex?" Annie questions.

"Was that a no?, cause I didn't hear a no" Ymir asks.

Annie sighs then I reply to Ymir's original question "Yes" I say then looked at Sasha from across the way as the chaos trio were messing around in the water "Sasha!, can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Yeah, I'll be right over" She says with a smile on her face. Sasha walks over to us parts of her uniform wet from being splashed "What do you want to talk about?"

"I want you to be apart of my squad" I tell her.

Sasha told her head a bit "You're squad? Does that mean you're a captain now?"

"That's right, and we're with him" Ymir says.

"But why me though? Wouldn't you rather have someone like Mikasa?" Sasha questions.

"Mikasa as a fighter is better than you but that isn't what I need. I need your skills and instincts. When we get to Marley, we are the ones that will be doing things in the shadows" I explain to Sasha.

"Like what exactly?" Sasha questions.

"Like saving my mother" I tell her.

Sasha smiles "Then yes, of course I'll be apart of you're squad"

Now it's set. Guardian Squad with I, the guardian titan as its leader. Annie Leonhart, the possessor of the female titan and a top notch fighter. She's also knows her way around infiltration if the situation were to arise. Ymir, the possessor of the jaw titan, her hardened strive to survive will be useful. Then there's Sasha Braus, a skilled hunter with excellent instincts. My thoughts came to a close as I heard someone calling out to me.

"Yoo-hoo, (Y/n)!, come over here" Hangi calls out while waving over to me.

"On my way" I reply then looked at the girls "You three have fun, or relax. Whichever"

I head over to Hangi who was with Levi "So, looks like you picked your squad" Then says jokingly says "If you asked I would have said yes"

"You do know he's 16 right" Levi states.

"Shut up! If you're going to be grumpy go be grumpy somewhere else" Hangi exclaims to Levi.

"Don't get mad cause I'm right" He says before walking away.

"How about you not be grumpy!, women don't like grumpy men!" Hangi tells him. Hange then looks back at me "Sorry about that....um...you don't mind older women do you?"

"No?" I say with a questioning tone.

"That's great! Oh, shit, I didn't think I'd get this far" Hangi exclaims then coughs a bit before poking her index fingers together "Okay so, I know it's wrong but...I like..like you...god what am I even saying. I'm telling a teenager that I like him, I'm almost 30!"

Hanji holds her head as she goes through a mini crisis "I'm sure there are weirder relationships" I state.

"What did you say? Is that a yes?" Hangji questions.

"As long as we don't make it weird, it should be fine" I say.

In Hangi's eye, it looked like a tear was building up "That's fantastic!" She says then hugs me tightly.

"Oi!, not to burst your bubble but the commander wants a chat with your new experiment" Levi says.

"Fine" Hanji says and lets go of me.

"He's on the dock (Y/n)" Levi tells me.

I look at the direction of the dock and I see Erwin standing at the edge of the dock. I walked to the dock and down to Erwin. He stood near the end looking out to the sea. As he hears my footsteps, he turns a bit to look at me.

"(Y/n), have you decided on who're squad will be?" He asks me.

"Yes, I have. Annie, Ymir, and Sasha sir" I tell him and he nods a bit.

"I see" He says then turns back to the sea "I thank you for letting me experience this (Y/n). You saved my life and helped me prove my father right"

"I can't take all the credit sir. Sure I may have done a lot to get here but I wasn't alone" I say to him.

"That's true, but I must give credit where credit is due (Y/n). Though I must admit, I used the scouts for my own selfish ambitions" He states.

"I have something confess as well then, I was using the scouts so I could one day save my mother" I tell him "That's the first thing I'll do upon stepping on that land"

Erwin lets out a soft chuckle "Looks like strong men, good or evil, must be at least a little selfish"

"Sir, why give me a squad? You never gave me a proper answer besides wanting to do things in the shadows" I ask him.

"Marley is your enemy, and if what you told me then that means the world simply does as they say out of fear. Tell me. What do you think would happen when the world hears they lost many of their titan shifters" Erwin asks me.

"War" I state simply "If someone is confident enough then they'll try their hand at taking Marley down"

"Correct" He says and looks back at me "That's where we make our move. Well even the playing field"

"Mom first. Then Marley. They'll kneel, if not, they'll get destruction"

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I'm sorry for the long wait, kinda had writers block and was writing other stories. When it comes to the time skip and stuff. I'm going to do a bit of how things go in the anime and do the flash backs, however, I'm not changing much of what happens in the time skip so I'll only add flash backs that have changes. For example, I'm not going to write a flash back with Yelena and the 50 year plan as it's not something I'm changing. I hope you all understand.