Finally Updated Everyone! Well I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, it is a bit emotional but I know you can through it!

Counting the seconds for Eren's return, Mikasa sat on the wood, chipped floor and leaned against the cracked, gray-beige wall, waiting. She rubbed her hands together to generate enough heat so that she would be able to shelter her shivering toes in the warmth, and fight off the cold. Nothing was worse than the winters in Poland. From time to time, the average temperature would reach up to -4'C/25'F, but would drop as low as -35'C/-31'F overtime. During these seasons, Mikasa always had her mother and father to keep her warm throughout the days and nights, but seeing their corpses laid across the ground made her grow rigid. Mikasa continued to wait for Eren which felt like an eternity nearly, but she didn't mind much, reflecting on the promise, she trusted that he would come back. Mikasa then commenced to twist up into a ball and shut her eyes; however, there was a boisterous noise that rushed motion back in her body. She reared up swiftly in fright then reached over to grab the knife the German boy had left behind to defend herself. Staying entirely hushed, the raven-haired girl picked up the sound of pattering human feet scurrying around the same building she was in, in her direction. Her heart thumped like falling rain along with her nerves cracking like lighting; only fate knew what was about to happen and Mikasa braced for this impending plot. Clenching the knife firmly in her hand, she heard a young familiar voice call her name.

"Mikasa, is that you?" A girl with brown, medium-lengthened hair, poked her head out from beyond the doorway. She trapped Mikasa in her view along with two other kids who stood behind her.

"Sasha! Connie! Ymir!" Mikasa's throat filled with excitement and lungs flooded with relief. "I can't believe you guys are still here."

"We can say the same about you." Ymir shot her a judging look as she crossed her arms.

Ymir: Everyone knew her. She was the oldest out of all 8 the kids in the complex; coming in as 12 years of age, and the bad-mannered. Ymir wasn't exactly a bully, just more of an impulsive teaser. Before being brought here, her life use to be back in Russia, in a cozy cottage with her mother and her father. She was an only child so life was simple. With her mother being a teacher and her dad being a doctor, she gained an education and medical knowledge from both, making her a bit more intelligent from the rest.

"Ymir! Don't be such a sassy pants." The other brunette in the room scolded.

"Be glad there are more survivors." A boy with the gray buzz cut linked.

Sasha & Connie: They were the complex clowns. With both at the age of 10, they were highly optimistic about their lives, and they always foretold that things would turn out for the better. Coming from the south end of Poland, they've been together since birth, being a dynamic duo hand in hand. Before, they lived in a different complex. Sasha's mother and father were bakers working in their own shop called "Braus Bakery". Sasha, as much as she loved potatoes, love bread equally which explains her obsession with food. As for Connie, his parents were ranchers; caring for livestock like horses, pigs, cattle, and chickens. Although they might be dim-witted at times, they have hidden talents that are yet to be revealed.

"I was joking. The more the merrier am I, right?" Ymir smirked, playfully rolling her eyes.

"Where did you three hide away during the heaving?" Mikasa curiously asked, biting her lip.

"Ymir had a secret, miniature door behind her closet and we hid there. It was surprisingly comfortable." Connie smiled, giving a thumb up.

"How about you Mikasa, where were you this whole— "being unable to finish her question due to Ymir, Sasha kept quiet.

"Come on guys, we don't have time for this. We can talk about our hair and nails when we get there. Now let's go!" Ymir marched out of the room, taking the lead.

Connie and Sasha trailed right behind her with Sasha gently holding Mikasa in hand. As they hastily made their way out of the building Mikasa jerked her hand from the brunette's grip.

"Mikasa, what are you doing?" Sasha interrogated, "We have to go." She reached over to grab the pale girls hand again, but she withdrew.

"I-I have to wait for him, he told me he'd bring me back Genevieve." Her eyes darted back in the route from which Eren had gone.

"Mikasa what's the hold up? Who is 'he'?" Ymir questioned, walking up to Mikasa with one hand on her hip and the other in a hand out position. Her body language seemed rather impatient.

"A boy…. His name's Eren."

"Hmm? There was never a boy named Eren around here, or at least not that I remember." Connie divulged, scratching the back of his head, muddled.

"Is he a Jew?" Sasha then quizzed.

"No, German actually."

"GERMAN!?" Ymir upstretched her voice and furrowed her dark brows. "Are you senseless, Mikasa? Germans are no good, foul people. Where you under a rock this whole time!?"

"Ymir!" Sasha mediated.

"he's not like that, There's something different about this one." Her coal eyes drifted to the center of Ymir's pupil. "I have to wait for him."

"You've got to be kidding me." Ymir pinched the bridge of her nose in disappointment.

"Mikasa, think about this. what if it's a trap? What if he comes back with soldiers? You can't outrun. If we don't go now, they'll catch you." The freckled one pulled at Mikasa's thoughts in hopes to trigger some logic in her.

"Make up your mind Mika, we're either leaving with or without you." Ymir stated, giving her a hardened glare.

The raven-haired girl felt imprisoned between the two choices. She wanted to stay for the sake of getting Genevieve back and allowing Eren to fulfill his promise, but on the other hand, Ymir had a point. She didn't truly know Eren. It could be possible this was his plan to ambush her, and do her like they did her parents; take their lives away without genuine purpose.

"Alright I'm in. Where we going?"

"That a girl! Come on, I'll tell you where we're going on the way there?" Ymir said happily, giving the pale Jewish girl two pats on the back

"Wait Mikasa, you're going to need these." Sasha passed her wool boots along with a semi-thick jacket. "It gets pretty cold out there, trust me."

As soon as they departure the apartment complex, Mikasa gave one last, despairing glance back and never turned again. Trudging down stairs to the first floor, they headed in the direction of the woods behind the structure. Soon all three of them disappeared into the thickness of the tall trees.

By the time Eren had return, Mikasa was long gone. He searched in each crook and cranny looking for her throughout the building, shouting her name each time, "Mikasa! Mikasa! Where are you?". He cupped his hands around his lips to amplify his calling, but to his attempt, there was no response, there was no Mikasa. Eren stood there alone with Genevieve in his hands, wondering where Mikasa had gone, what had happened to her in the time he was absent, and if he would ever see her again. This time Eren was the one who felt helpless, and oddly scared. The thought of German soldiers coming back around for a second searching alarmed him. The fact that Mikasa was a Jew, there was no doubt they had already taken her to a concentration camp. Eren looked down at the fixed doll then his hand.

"I'll find you Mikasa, I-I promise…" smattering tears formed at the edge of the boy's eyelids. With one hard blink the tears swam down his face, and he clenched his fist.

"I promise." He repeated once more.

But little did Eren know he would cross paths with Mikasa again in 5 years.

With nightfall quickly approaching Ymir, Sasha, Mikasa, and Connie set up camp.

"Hey, Ymir, what's this place we're going to tomorrow?" Mikasa yawned slightly, rubbing her eyes.

"Oh, that's right I never told you." The brunette chuckled, combing her strands out of her face. "We're going to this secret lodge my parents build in the middle of the woods, just in case this sort of situation happened. If I'm right they should be waiting for us there."

"How do you know they're there?" Connie questioned, stretching both his limbs and arms across the knitted fabric of his blanket.

"They left early in the morning. I stayed behind to help any of the kids who needed to escape the reaping and flee to safety. You 3 are the only ones." Ymir laid her head against a soft oak log, and relaxed. She didn't seem to have a single bone of unease nor did she display real sorrow. Everything was nonchalant in her world. Her parents, growing up, taught her to be durable, daring, smart, but nonetheless, manipulative.

"How are you not scared of the soldiers, the concentration camps?" Sasha quivered at the concept. She was constantly told stories of the cruelties done both to the Jewish boys and girls. The lack of food leading to malnourishment, the deficiency of medicine causing the spread of disease, the sexual and physical abuse that leave people scarred inside and out. In concentration camps, the survival rate was drastically low.

Ymir stared up at the darkening blue and observed the glimmering stars of the night. "My dad told me there was nothing to fear. That the Jew are strong beings, no matter how much we suffer or how many of us fall in the arms of death. He knows that one day we will triumph over the evil and surpass the limits. I remember him looking at me straight in the eye, and telling me, 'But until that day comes, promise me that you'll never forget who you are, a Jew. No matter what happens to me, your mother, your friends, or even you, you must remain strong.'"

"He's very wise." Mikasa noted, watching Ymir over her shoulder as the freckled girl doodled in the air with her forefinger.

"Mhm." She agreed plainly as she sheltered her body with an angora blanket to trap in the heat.

Yawns circulated thereafter. The 4 kids huddled together under a tree and dozed peacefully into sleep on the dry, cooling floor. Connie and Sasha lightly snored, but it wasn't as much of a problem knowing that the hums of nature would secrete their noise. By morning, Mikasa was the first one to wake up, then Ymir. They noticed that the ground was covered in snow; it must have been over night. Connie and Sasha, on the other hand, sustained slumber, and so both mindful girls shook them into consciousness.

"Huh? What's going?" Sasha murmured while rubbing her eyelids.

"Morning already…?" Connie then drowsed.

"Come on bozos, we gotta get a move on." The 12-year-old ordered, hoisting both the children on their feet.

Mikasa had finished packing her things as well as the group and walked along the trail of footsteps Ymir had made using the snow. It was a frosty morning, seeing as Mikasa could detect her breath in the air. She snuggled her nose in the burgundy scarf, and inhaled deeply. Thoughts and memories of Eren swamped her mind. She desired to forget about him, but it seemed almost impossible; something about him kept her wanting to know more. The fact that he tried to kill her, but concluded by helping her in the end gave the impression of lingering innocence within the boy.

"Ok guys, we're almost there." Ymir declare, figured they had walked nearly a mile deeper into the thick forest.

"How much longer? I'm tired." Sasha groaned, slumping over onto Connie who also appeared tired.

"It should be around her— "Ymir stopped.

At that moment, she was paralyzed. Both her parents had been captured and held at gun point right then and there. One German combatant watched over then while another two continue to search throughout the cabin for any the inhabitance. Fulfilling awareness back into mind, Ymir hastily reacted into hiding.

"Everyone hide behind the trees!" she harshly whispered in command.

Mikasa took cover behind a broad pine as well as Sasha and Connie. They all kept quiet, praying to not be spotted. One of the officers came out of the lodge, holding a leash with a German shepherd on the other end of it. The dog picked up a familiar odor in the air. Trained since a pup, it could track, locate and hunt free or escaped Jews under any condition. Sniffing the air once more, it had sensed the kids and began to bark.

"What is it dog?" The owner of the animal question.

The pure bred commenced to tug at the leash and toward the woodland. The man pursued to follow it, getting even closer to the children with each step. Ymir and Mikasa had looked to their right and noticed the dog had been getting awfully near the tree where Sasha had been hiding behind. Sasha trembled in terror while sweat slid down her temples. Her eyes shut tightly as she held her fist close to her mouth. Ymir, feeling it was her fault, couldn't help but act. She picked up a heavy rock, and launched at the man's head and yelled

"RUN!"

"Get those fucking Jews!" the injured man roared as he unleashed the German shepherd.

The 4 kids sprinted for their lives. Mikasa looked back only to see Ymir's parents get shot straight in the head, busting their brains out. She then looked at Ymir who silently cried as she heard the firings. Mikasa knew what she was feeling inside, the angst and shock that once conquered her emotions. She reached out and grabbed Ymir's hand firmly. The freckled girl looked as Mikasa with bloodshot eyes as they continued to course through the dense snow, and approached a frozen lake.

"We can escape if we get across the water." The tan girl proclaimed in her cracked voice as she led the rest of the kids.

As they ran further, Connie was unsighted to the veiled branches under the white, slush, he tripped and twisted his ankle. Screeching in pain, he began to cry.

"CONNIE!" Sasha Screamed, with also steaming tears in her eyes.

Mikasa looked back and saw the battered boy. His foot was fractured to the side in a bizarre way. Behind, the dog and the 3 Germans rapidly advanced to them, that it would impossible to pick him up and get him across the lake in time.

"Sasha leave him we have to go!" Ymir bellowed.

"No, we can't leave him, he's my best friend!" The girl reddish-brown locks wept as she tried to pick up Connie on her own.

"We don't have time, let's go!" Ymir forcefully snatched Sasha by her forearm and pulled her away from Connie. "Mikasa, come on."

"No!" Sasha Screamed once more while looking back at the boy with the buzzcut.

"Please don't leave me! Please!" Connie sobbed as he reached toward the girls but they didn't look back.

The German soldiers as well as the dog caught up to Connie, surrounding him. Sasha turned only to catch a glimpse of the men knocking him out and taking him away. Never had she felt such pain before, but she had already known that there would no greater pain in the world than the pain of losing your best friend and perhaps the love of your life.

Again, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter, and there is still more to come. Please comment and let me know what you think!