Seriously, people? A single review? I am disappointed. Was the last chapter really that bad? Whatever, I'm not giving up yet. So here's another chapter. The fight scene in the flashback was inspired by an image I found when I was digging around the Tvtropes Characters page for Attack On Titan. Basically it's Annie and Mikasa duking it out and as soon as I saw it, I needed to include a scene where that happened. Sorry for the delay on the update, but my time has been taken by having been ill lately, spending Christmas with my family and problems with moving my files to my new computer and getting Word to actually work on the damn thing.

maesde: Thanks, reviews are the lifeblood of a writer. It's nice to have you and Yoruko-Chan reviewing nearly all of my chapters.

Trost District? T-Minus/Plus ?

Mikasa Ackerman was dreaming.

It was no ordinary dream, that much she could tell. She dreamt of death, of annihilating the Titans with her bare hands and taking revenge for Eren.

It was also completely absurd.

As much she would like to believe otherwise, the dream was far too unrealistic for it to be true. For one, the battle made no sense. A human could not take on Titans like she did in her dream, no matter how good they were. Secondly Mikasa was already dead.

Or was she?

She was pretty sure that she was.

Her last memories before she entered the dream were fuzzy, but she remembered being surrounded by hordes of Titans with no escape route. Mikasa was most likely dead, devoured by the Titans before being regurgitated out and her body left to lie before eventually decomposing.

So what was this, then?

Was this some sort of Afterlife, a punishment for her failure?

It was the only really logical possibility she could come up with.

Or at least more logical than the possibility that the dream was true. But that was simply absurd. Reality didn't work that way. You didn't get second chances like that.

And even if you did, Mikasa had already used hers up when Eren saved her.

A chance that she had failed.

It made much more sense that this was some cruel trick, a hallucination to torment her whilst she awaited whatever judgment that may come. She wished that she might see her family, both adoptive and biological, once more before being cast to whatever hell awaited her, but she didn't really think it would happen.

The living world was cruel. Why should the Afterlife be any different?

This dream was getting even weirder, it was unlike any other she had ever experienced. For one, usually she was, you know, involved in the actual dream, instead of watching from the sidelines like she did just now. It was like watching someone else's dream, but not quite.

She felt each of the blows, strains and wounds her dream-self suffered, but the sensations were distant, detached.

She felt each of the blows, strains and wounds her dream-self suffered, but the sensations were distant, detached.

She felt her body move and fight with the same moves she would have used herself, but she did not direct it.

She felt the anger and grief run through her veins but she couldn't, for the life of her, understand why she was so angry.

She saw her dream-body wade through the Titan hordes, some of the accursed creatures falling near immediately, some of them taking their time. One of them in particular, a brown-haired male, slowed her down significantly but it eventually died like the rest, its broken and steaming body left lying in the ruins of the once-proud city of Trost.

Finally, after jumping, boxing, wrestling and punching her way through countless Titans, it seemed like she couldn't take it anymore, and the Titans were on her, pinning her down and finishing her off. She couldn't honestly say she wasn't relieved that this confusing nightmare would come to an end, and she could move on.

But then, as she waited to die, a voice came from somewhere beyond her sight. It was angry, insulting and degrading. But that wasn't what caught Mikasa's attention. It was the content of those words

"-This is some sort of bizarre plan to avenge Eren-"

"Eren."

Eren.

Eren.

How could she have forgotten?

She remembered it now.

The news of his death.

By Titans.

Her own suicidal charge.

And Eren.

The memories of the cabin in the woods, of her savior, came back to her. She remembered the nights when Eren had comforted her and offered a shoulder to cry mourn her dead parents against. How he had made sure that the children of their neighborhood would accept her as their own, how he introduced her to Armin. How the Yeager family had taken her in and treated her as one of their own.

For the first time, Mikasa dared to hope that maybe it wasn't all a dream.

If the world was beautiful enough to give her Eren when she needed it, maybe it could give her a chance for revenge. And for the first time, she dared to hope that whatever would come after this, it might not be that bad.

The world of the living was cruel. But it was also beautiful. Why should the Afterlife be any different?

But above all, she remembered how all of that was taken away from her.

By the Titans.

The detached feeling disappeared, and Mikasa began to feel what was happening to her body. She was pinned down by a dozen Titans of varying sizes.

They would all die.

She turned her head around and saw where the voice that had mentioned Eren in an insulting manner. It was a bunch of frail little ants, standing nearby, watching.

Probably laughing at her.

Laughing at Eren.

Mikasa Ackerman saw red.


Mikasa's rage faded as she crashed through the building the Brown-haired Titan had thrown her through. The infuriating creature had apparently not had enough and decided to come for more. She had been happy to oblige him, even though it slowed down her vengeance on the ants a little longer.

At least until it became apparent that her revenge might not be just slowed down.

Until it became apparent that it might be stopped entirely.

The Brown-haired Titan fought like possessed, not giving her an inch and forcing her to the defensive. She managed to wound him as well, but in the end the Titan managed to hurl her through a nearby building, burying her in the rubble.

As she lied there in the cold darkness of her soon-to-be grave, Mikasa, feeling detached from her body once more and taking that as mark that her time was up, mentally readied herself for what was to come. She had done her part. Now, all she wanted to do was to simply lie down and sleep. And on some level, Mikasa knew that if she slept now she would never wake again.

But she was okay with it. She had slain dozens of Titans in vengeance for Eren. What more could anyone possibly want from her?

As Mikasa laid there under the rubble thinking, memories began to resurface on her mind. Curiously enough, they were from their training in the 104th. Specifically from her fight with Annie after she had seen the Bitch and Eren in an… unusual position during hand-to-hand training, and decided to break them up by throwing Reiner at them.

She managed to smile at the memory of Annie's face when she saw the 6-feet boy hurtling through the air, about to crash into them. She had approached her under the pretense of wishing to learn the moves Annie had been teaching Eren as well, and the Bitch had mumbled something about Humans and beasts before agreeing to a spar.

She remembered all too well what happened after that.


"Hey, are they actually going to fight it out?"

"Which one is it going to be?"

"I think it's going to be Annie."

"Are you stupid? I'll bet my whole dinner on Mikasa."

"I think Mikasa's got this."

"No way, Annie's really good!"

"But so is Mikasa."

Mikasa ignored the voices of their little audience. The only opinion that even mattered to him was Eren's, and he had decided to stay silent when Reiner questioned him. Instead, she stared on Annie, who had raised arms in a guard.

It was mid-summer, and the weather was slowly getting even warmer. The sky was clear, and the rain that had lasted for quite some time had stopped a few days ago and given way to an incredible heatwave. The Trainees finally got a break from theoretical teachings and a chance to go outside, so the Instructor Shadis had decided that today they would be practicing hand-to-hand combat, and then left them to their own devices.

Mikasa had spent most of the day wiping the floor with Reiner while ignoring Jean's constant glances at her. She still hadn't figured out what the deal with the boy was. He could be tolerable most of the time, but Mikasa disliked him on the principle that he constantly picked fights with Eren, and made annoying comments about how he was going to join the Military Police when he graduated.

The fight with Reiner was frustrating, not because he was difficult of an opponent, the opposite in fact. She knew for a fact that Reiner was holding back, and though she couldn't understand why he hadn't dropped the act once she had made it clear she could take it, but Mikasa couldn't fault him, because so was she. In recent times she had realized why Eren became so hostile to her anytime she received praise or succeeded.

The boy was angry, and jealous even, that she could easily succeed where he struggled through. She had gathered that Eren resented her for being better than him even while he was the one with the motivation, he was the one who made it his life-mission to kill Titans.

Mikasa had tried to talk things out, but the boy wouldn't understand that just as Eren had his, Mikasa's mission in life was to protect Eren. Her attempts at reconciling had simply made things worse, and even Armin, usually the voice of reason, hadn't been able to stop Eren from storming out when Mikasa had confronted him.

Thus, Mikasa had taken up the habit of holding back during training, of not raising her hand when Shadis asked a question and of generally not doing her best at all times. Whenever Instructor Shadis walked by, she would limit herself so as to not to cause further friction between her and her adoptive brother. Eventually Eren had begun to cool down, and whilst Mikasa hadn't dared to test the ice yet, Eren hadn't yelled at her recently and had even smiled at her. It was slow, but at least it was progress.

But then the Bitch (as Mikasa had taken to calling her in her own mind) came along. For some reason, Eren had decided to ask Annie for close quarters training, and for some reason the Bitch had accepted, which eventually lead to their current situation.

Mikasa would be lying if she claimed she wasn't angry at Annie for getting so close to Eren, but partially she wished to see just how good Eren's new instructor was for herself. She didn't wish for Eren to waste her time learning under someone who had no idea what she was talking about, after all. She had acted on an impulse when she threw Reiner at the two of them, and this seemed to be the best follow-up.

After a little more staring and evaluating each other, in an unspoken agreement, the two of them lunged at each other, fists raised.

Just before they hit each other Annie dropped under Mikasa's fist before attempting to punch the Oriental girl in the stomach, but was blocked in turn by Mikasa's arm.

After trading several more blows, they retreated and began to circle each. Sweat was running down their bodies after many hours of training outdoors in the blistering heat of the sun. Everyone present had already gotten rid of their jackets, leaving only the white shirts.

Mikasa took a long look at Annie and gathered what she knew of her adversary.

From what Mikasa had seen earlier in the girl showers, Annie had a respectable six-pack and wasn't lacking muscle elsewhere either, but even just looking at the way the white fabric of her pants stretched as she moved, you could see that most of Annie's strength was in her legs. Her upper body, while not exactly scrawny by any measure, paled in comparison.

In comparison, Mikasa knew for a fact that with the possible exception of Reiner, she was easily the physically strongest member of the 104th, and she was pretty sure she could beat even him in endurance. Mikasa had, as long as she could remember, been abnormally strong for someone of her age and build. She hadn't interacted much with other children before she meeting Eren and couldn't really compare, which, when added to the fact that her memories of her life before Eren had become increasingly fuzzy over the years, she couldn't really be sure when it began. Mikasa supposed it might have had something to do with the murder of her original parents, but she couldn't say for sure. She had simply found that she could carry twice as much firewood as her adoptive brother, or lift and throw him with one arm. She knew Eren hated it when the subject was brought up, and they had settled into a routine where didn't bring it up unless they had to and danced around it if they did.

Mikasa was also a good fifteen centimeters taller than Annie and thus had longer reach, but the problem was that Annie had probably fought nothing but people who were stronger and/or taller than her. And that meant that she had probably built her fighting style around negating such advantages, which didn't bode well for Mikasa. Against tough opponents she preferred to blitz them before they got over the surprise that the 5'6'' girl could and did exceed them in strength. As much as she disliked the girl, Mikasa did not believe her to be the type to underestimate her opponent, and after that first exchange she definitely wouldn't.

In sheer skill, Mikasa knew that she was good, amongst the best in the 104th, but she knew little of Annie's actual skill beyond hearsay and rumors. That was, after all, what she was here to ascertain.

After a little more circling around, Annie decided to break the ice by attacking. The blonde charged across the distance between them very rapidly, throwing a punch at Mikasa. The black haired girl moved to block, but just before they came into contact, Annie dropped low and kicked Mikasa in the leg. Disoriented, Mikasa only managed to block the first of the follow-up punches towards her face, and the remaining two hit her in the chest.

Mikasa retaliated by throwing a punch at her, but Annie sidestepped it and used her leg to sweep at Mikasa's left leg, forcing the taller girl to drop to one knee to prevent falling down. Having driven her opponent to the defensive, Annie smashed her elbow to Mikasa's face, and a mean-sounding crunch emanated from Mikasa's nose as blood dripped to her white shirt.

The pain wasn't unbearable and while the blood was going to be annoying later, it really wasn't a big deal. Mikasa had taken harder blows. But apparently the crowd didn't know that.

A gasp went through the gathered crowd, and Mikasa could hear some of them moving their bets to Annie. Mikasa's eyes darted to Eren, but the boy's expression was unreadable.

'So be it.'

With a grunt, Mikasa got back up and counter-attacked by driving her right fist to Annie's gut, before smashing her left to the blonde's jaw.

Mikasa could have followed it up, but she hesitated. She saw Eren's expression change ever so slightly, but Mikasa still couldn't read what emotions went through the boy's head. Anger? Concern over her new girlfriend?

Would she only hurt herself in the long run if she beat Annie?

But, these bitter thoughts were violently removed from Mikasa's mind by Annie punching her in the face, having taken advantage of her hesitation.

Mikasa punched Annie in the jaw once more, drawing a bit of blood from her lower lip, before the shorter girl retaliated by slamming her knee to Mikasa's stomach. Mikasa took a step back and threw a punch at Annie, but the blonde ducked under the blow and grabbed Mikasa by the sleeve and the front of her shirt, before flipping the taller girl over herself, throwing her face-first into the ground.

Annie quickly followed up her attack by landing a heavy blow to the back of Mikasa's head, knocking her face to the ground once more. It didn't knock her out, but it did succeed in disorienting the black-haired girl for a crucial few seconds, which Annie used to slam down on Mikasa's back and put her on a hold.

She landed on Mikasa's back, using her right arm to painfully twist Mikasa's hand backwards and hold it there, while she used her left elbow to press Mikasa's left hand to the ground, rendering it immobile. In the meantime, Annie used her left hand to press Mikasa's face to the ground, smearing blood across the dirt.

"Surrender," Annie's voice whispered in Mikasa's ear, too quiet for their audience to hear.

"Never."

Mikasa attempted to twist out of the hold, but Annie simply clasped on even tighter, twisting Mikasa's arm back and eliciting a grunt of pain.

"You are weak."

After tightening her hold to stop another escape attempt in response to her words, Annie continued.

"You willfully make yourself weaker in order to not hurt his feelings by advancing beyond him." She leaned in even closer, her voice hissing in the mid-day heat and dust that permeated the training field.

"What is Eren to you?"

"She is my brother." Mikasa hissed a response, not letting her calm façade drop.

"You wouldn't go that far just for a brother. I've seen the way you look at him. I saw how you looked at his reactions throughout the fight. What is he to you, really?"

"He is the reason I'm alive. He helped me when I suffered and gave me a home and a family when I lost mine." Mikasa didn't know why she was saying this now or to the Bitch, of all people, but she did nonetheless. "I owe him everything, and I would give away everything for him."

"Even your own friendship with him?" Mikasa didn't respond, and Annie continued.

"You hold back to preserve his feelings, or more accurately, to protect yours. You could give him the motivation to train harder, hard enough to have a chance against the Titans he hates so much, by being the milestone he needs to beat in order to prove himself. You hold back even though you could be the best in our class, thus hampering your ability to protect him. You, even in your anger against me, consciously held back in our battle, and thus learned nothing from it. I have even heard that you have cut down on your workout schedule recently. Why? Why would you do that, even when it might endanger Eren down the line? Why do you say you would give away everything for Eren, even when you aren't willing to risk your friendship with him?"

Annie let go of the hold and shoved Mikasa, still shocked by the blonde's words, away from her, the black-haired girl stumbling to the ground.

"Think about it. Think about what it means to really be ready to give away everything for someone. Have a nice day."

The Bitch then stood up and left, leaving Mikasa lying down on the ground.


Those weren't especially fond memories, but they were necessary. After that battle, Mikasa had taken those words to the heart, and stopped holding back during training, and paid the Bitch back by utterly trouncing her in their re-match one and half months later. Eren had resented her and for a while their relationship plummeted, but over time things stabilized between them. During training, Mikasa could often see Eren irritated whenever Mikasa overshadowed him, but on the other hand, just as Annie had said he would, he threw himself at the training exercises ever harder, and his performance began to raise steadily. Mikasa couldn't keep herself from trying to protect Eren at every opportunity (not that she would even if she could) and the boy lashed back at him repeatedly, but mostly they settled into Mikasa hovering around and Eren tolerating her presence.

But it still didn't make any sense why these memories were surfacing right now. They didn't seem all that important in the grand scheme of things. Memories of her parents, all four of them, and Eren would have been far more appropriate.

Maybe even her subconscious wanted to screw her over.

Then, Mikasa saw something in the darkness.

No.

It was someone.

As the shape got closer, Mikasa could make out who it was...

It was... Annie?

The hell?

Kudos to those who manage to catch the most obvious Pirates of The Caribbean reference in the history of Pirates of The Caribbean references. And I'm really hoping for reviews here. They are my primary motivation after all. Also, for the nitpickers, yes, I know that Mikasa is 5'7'' but that was a flashback, she still has time to grow. Another thing to note here is that this is from Mikasa's perspective and thus her interpretation of the events may be a little flawed.

Next time, Mikasa's dream sequence continues and a bunch of other stuff happens, which may or may not include several speeches/lectures by short blondes of both genders. We will be staying in Mikasa's POV for quite some time, as she is the main character of this fic after all.