Cold Corpse

Armin coughed at that familiar smell. Blood. Dust. Smoke. The whole district was burning to ashes as titans came closer. Many soldiers were already dead, but there were no victims in the population. The evacuation had been controlled, prepared. It was kind of a victory, even though the district's loss was a new defeat. The mankind wasn't able to fight against titans, that was easy to understand : they were bigger, taller, and they had almost no sensitive point. Killing them was getting harder and harder for the most common soldiers ; but in another hand, some were doing great. Mikasa, for instance, had already killed five titans that day, while Levi, their corporal, was flying in the air with his swords after having killed his tenth giant. Thanks to those two, there weren't so many victims as there used to, such as in Trost's district, months before.

But still, Armin began to wonder what could happen if they were there. What would happen if the toughest soldier and the greatest corporal of the Human Army were killed ? How could they survive after that loss ? Moreover, the blond boy wondered where they found that strengh. Levi was a total mystery, but Mikasa was an old friend and he knew what -or who- was the reason for her to fight. Eren...

Where was he ? Oh yeah, just there, in that roof, behind Jean and Conny. The three of them were admiring her way of dodging and hitting her preys ; she was a hunter, that was an evidence. No one could even imagine how hard it was to stay calm and no to give up while facing those barbarians. However, when they looked at her, it seemed... easy. Her strengh was her determination, or rather her devotion. Such as Levi, she considered human's lives as precious, and Eren's life even more. After all, he was the only one she had now. Her parents had been killed, many years later ; she could barely remember their faces and voices. Eren's parents, who've adopted her as their own daughter, had also been eaten by titans, at least in his mother's case. Even some of their promotion's friends were dead now, such as Mina Carolina and Tomas Wagner, or Annie Leonhart. It was painful, but Mikasa never left her feelings control her.

The only moment she had lost her will to fight was during Trost's battle, when she had thought that Eren was dead. Armin had noticed it : she wasn't as self-assured as she used to, she was loosing her composure. And then Eren came back, and for the first time of his life, Armin saw tears rolling over her face. It was both beautiful and hurtful...

The blond-haired boy jumped to reach his friends with his own team.

"Armin ! You alright ?" Conny asked nervously, as usual.

"Sure ! We should come back to the Wall !"

" Mikasa and Levi are still fighting", Jean replied intently, "we can't leave them here !" Then he turned his face to watch the girl, and screamed, "Mikasa ! Hurry up, we must come back !"
She didn't reply, but Armin heard a soft grumble from his right side. Eren ? His face was pale and tense ; his eyes tried obviously to avoid Mikasa's form in the air. His best friend blinked, surprised, and asked him if everything was okay. The other boy began to walk in the opposite direction from where his adoptive sister was fighting and, as Armin followed him, he muttered :

"Is anything wrong with Mikasa ? Did you have an argument... ?"

"No, that's not it, Armin. It's just... Pff. That's almost boring, don't you think ? We come here, all of us. There are deads, and finally, only those two can slace those things without being hurt."
"You're not serious, are you ? Do you prefer to loose more of our friends so that the battle is more exciting ?", Armin whispered, kind of shocked.

"No, that's not it ! You don't understand. Of course it's great to have two fantastic warriors like them but..."
"Oh, I see. It's because Mikasa is one of the fantastic warriors, isn't it ?" The other boy didn't reply, his eyes lost in the vague. "Eren, you know she wants to protect you... You shouldn't be so rude with her. She's not scared for her life, but she is for yours..."
"You seem to forget that I'm not a child anymore ! I don't need to be protected by any big sister now ! I can even turn into a titan myself. So why does she feel the need to..." He didn't finish his sentence and sighed. In a way, Armin understood that Mikasa's overprotective devotion could be annoying, but still... She was doing her best for him, he should be grateful. "I have always been behind her, but I am not her equal. If I was, she wouldn't be constantly over me. She still thinks I'm a child..."
"Eren... You two have lost everything there in Shinganshina. You can still believe in your father's reappearence, but she had already no father and no mother. You're the only one she cares about, and you know why ?"
"Because I'm her little brother ? Yeah, I know, Armin, it's no use to remind me of..."
Then the roof began to shake, making Eren and Armin let go of their swords. Armin almost yelled in horror as he noticed three-meters-high titan climbing on the roof. His mouth was open, and huge and dark and monstruoues ; his hand was about to catch Eren's legs. The two ofthem heard Conny and Jean crying out their names, but they could barely move. In those moments, the greatest soldiers are those who remember to stay calm.
Mikasa was one of those soldiers. She reacted immediatly as she saw Eren was the titan's prey, and forgot her original victim to protect him. Armin have never been so happy to see her slender frame and her glittering swords. She easily approached the beast and, while he was fighting to stay on the roof, she managed to hit his neck. A beautiful and dangerous move. Armin sighed of relief, and reached Eren, who was standing, somewhere between relief and annoyingment. She had saved him one more time. But his mixed-feelings didn't last long. His face grew paler and paler and his voice was only a demonstration of despair when he yelled :

"MIKASA ! WATCH OUT !..."

Armin turned his face, without understanding where the problem was. Then he repeated his friend's scream. But it was too late. Another titan had appeared while the girl killed the three-meter-high one. He was taller, this time, and quicker. She couldn't escape. Before anyone could move and in front of Eren and Armin's eyes, he took her, brutally, in his hand, and putted her in his mouth. She yelled, both surprised and frightened, but could not escape. The mankind remembered this day how it felt to see his toughest warrior being killed. Eren cried out and began to run in her direction, but Levi, Jean and Conny arrived as well and forced him to leave this roof. To leave Mikasa at her fate.

The boy yelled and refused to give up, but his corporal was stronger ; he simply took his soldier and escaped, ignoring the titan who was biting Mikasa's legs. Ignoring her screams and Eren's, as well as Jean and Conny's glares.

"Don't you all understand ?! They are too many titans, there is nothing we can do."
"No ! No, we can save her ! We can kill it ! Let go of me, corporal ! Let me go !"
Levi hit Eren's face, and just said :
"She would never want you to be killed now ! She would bear to sacrifice herself to save your life, idiot ! Don't do stupidities now, for her sake !"

Armin followed his superior and friends, glancing nervously at his back. He secretly hoped that Mikasa would appear, there, onto the roofs, jumping and running as she used to. But the titan was already walking to another place, which meaned that he had ended playing with her. Mikasa Ackerman, the best soldier of her promotion, the last Asiatic of this city, was dead. As he thought of it, he felt tears rolling over his cheeks, and did no move to chase them. Around him, Jean was clenching his teeth ; Conny looked scared, as he could not believe that was happening. The worst was Eren, who was now crying and screaming. His friend understood his thoughts : Mikasa was dead because he had been reckless, because he was talking about her, because he was saying she was overprotective... And now he realized that she had given her life, her whole life, to him.

Most of the soldiers had turned back to their homes now. Only Eren, Armin, Jean and Sasha stayed onto the Wall Rose that night. Conny arrived later, and tried to cheer Sasha up by giving her food, but she didn't notice it. Her eyes were full of tears as she thought of the soldier and friend Mikasa used to be, of the times she had saved her life without a doubt. Sometimes she muttered that it could not be true, that Mikasa would arrive, as beautiful and graceful as usual, her clothes covered with titans's blood. She wouldn't even be hurt or anything, and would just say "what ? that titan ? that was nothing". Maybe her representation of the soldier was a little bit disturbed by her admiration, but she really hoped. Because hope is the last thing people can lost, the last thing she could believe in.

Armin tried to give some food to Eren, but he didn't even reply, nor he looked at him. His eyes were lost, somewhere into the district where his sister had lost her life. He looked abnormaly calm ; Armin have never seen him so distant. Mikasa's death was more than anything he could have beared. He had seen his mother being eaten by a titan, he had seen friends being killed and he had killed himself many monsters, and yet he could not talk after what have happened that day.

That whole night, the soldiers were quiet. They listened to the silence of the world and wished for Mikasa to turn back. But as the hours passed by, hope left them. Sasha prayed, cried and called her name, but no one ever replied. Conny glared at the sky, looking for something to lead them to her. Jean sat down on a mall and clenched his teeth again, forcing himself to bear the pain. Armin remembered all the moments he had seen Mikasa, all the times she had saved him in Shiganshina, all the times she had been there to help him. And Eren just glared at the streets, quiet and somehow broken.