Prologue:
Everything Begins and Ends in the Darkness
Mikasa knew something was wrong the moment she opened her eyes. The sky that welcomed her back to consciousness was a clear, crystal blue – a shade that should have been impossible to see among the smoke that just seconds ago polluted the sky. Staring in confusion at the clouds, she waited for the imminence of death that would surely finally (finally) claim her life – waited for thunder steps to strike the ground, waited to hear the crunch of bones beneath a heavy weight, and waited until the sky would be obscured by the foot that would crush her like the bugs she had crushed when she was eight.
She waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Slowly, the sky turned and the clouds darkened until she was staring into the scarred face of the moon; a flash of lightning pierced the heavens. Mikasa's heart pounded loudly against her chest.
This was not how it was supposed to go.
She was not supposed to be here, injured but alive, staring into the darkness as water hit her face. She was not supposed to know what cold was, nor that if she stayed out here any longer she would catch a cold. No.
This is how it was supposed to go (and wasn't it funny that she had looked forward to this since the moment Eren died-): She was supposed to fight off a horde of titans, kick some traitor ass, tell the others to save themselves and leave her there, kill that bastard Reiner, and die. That was it. Nothing less, nothing more. The universe had an awfully funny way of messing up her plans, it seemed.
Slowly, painfully, she rolled into her side, huffing with exertion. The fight had taken quite a toil on her; she had at least three broken ribs, a twisted ankle, and a nasty gash on her left hip that if left untreated would become infected. She grimaced and pushed herself into a sitting position. If Armin were here, he would have—
Not now, Mikasa, there's no time for that.
Nervously licking her lips, she started to stand, shaking with the effort and breaking into a cold sweat. She gasped. Damn. Okay, so maybe she had miscalculated the extent of her injuries, but she really couldn't do anything about that now. Scanning the immediate area, she decided to head for the forest. Silently cursing herself, she thought that if Armin were here he would have yelled at—
No, no (please, don't be mad at me, Armin), not now. Preferably, she thought bitterly, preferable never.
Taking a deep breath, Mikasa headed into the darkness of the forest, dragging her injured leg roughly against the ground. Ideally, she would need to climb one of the taller trees to put some distance between herself and the titans that would surely be here shortly. Even with all the training under her belt, she wasn't sure how exactly she was gonna manage that, but she had to think quickly. Glancing at clouds overhead, she pointedly ignored the nagging voice at the back of her mind (which sounded oddly like—) that screamed at her that there was something she was missing.
She walked in, deep, deeper, and didn't look back.
Unbeknownst to the human girl, a pair of glowing eyes watched her enter the woods.