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Another Life is Calling my Name

Summary:

A poem/songfic from Armin's POV set at the end of the series.

Notes:

For maximum effect, please read it while you listen to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2wh40oAmJo
Enjoy!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

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Eren Mikasa

I’ve finally made it to the outside world

Everything has a finer quality here

The grass is greener, the skies are clearer, and the air is sweeter

I’ve come across flora and fauna that continue to baffle me

Sometimes, I don’t want to sleep, terrified that when I wake,

The titans will return, along with the nightmares

The world beyond the walls is an open cage

Yet I still can’t take off like a bird

Many lives were sacrificed to get this far

And though we’ve made it, the struggles persist

Countless citizens have succumbed to strange new sickness'

Disease has ravaged the land

Sasha has fallen gravely ill

Connie stays by her side, coaxing her to eat

I don’t have the heart to tell him that his dear friend will not make it

Submerged in shock are humanity’s brain and brawn

Hanji’s eyes have lost the glittering genius they once held

Wasting her days gazing at the oceans I’ve told you two about

Levi built himself a cottage overlooking a meadow

He can be found in the fields, immersed in pain

And I ask myself

Was it worth it?

Cruelty, sacrifice, betrayal and other irreconcilable crimes against humanity

We’re not good people anymore

I think this is what my parents imagined when they wanted to flee

The burning water, lands of ice, plains of sand

Just two lovers exploring a world so beautiful and free

And I tell myself

It was worth it

To live a life no longer stained with corruption and gore

A world where people can flourish and worry no more

A world where knowledge can go beyond a page

A world of children who will never have to see

Fellow comrades dying, screaming

Please save me

A world where the titans can’t hurt us anymore

A world that will never know of their life before

The one ruined by titans and wars galore

But I refuse to forget and in this world

I will write of mankind’s perils that allowed them to finally see the shore

As a retired soldier, I have no intention of using weapons anymore

But there’s an old saying that the quill is mightier than the sword

Life may not be perfect, but I will never forget

I'ts better here than it was in those hellholes called walls

Sometimes I perch on the steps of a dock near the sea

And I wish the two of you were here to see this with me

I wish for the times when we were a group of three

Little kids, before the first wall fell, chatting innocently

Eren you lied to me, telling me you couldn’t die

And you Mikasa, you left before I could say goodbye

But had the two of you never made the sacrifices you did that day

I would have never lived to see this day

Your friend till the end,
--- Armin Arlert
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Notes:

The song is from the Zankyou no Terror OST and the song is called seele.
Seele means soul in German and I think the track just sums up Armin very well.