So apologies, I'm currently on holidays and haven't been able to write. Luckily I had this chapter drafted so I just touched it up and here you go! Thanks ^-^
Mikasa felt a pounding ache in her head, right at the front. It throbbed with white hot pain and she let out a groan. What the heck? What was wrong with her? Zound cluttered to her brain and Mikasa's eyes fluttered open. A soft blue light met her eyes and she stared for a few seconds. How nice.., but how off..,
"Mikasa!" A voice from her left startled her. Mikasa cast her eyes over to land on the face of her favourite scientist. Hanji sat next to her bed, their head propped on their hands. There was this soft smile on their face. Nice but like… why? Mikasa blinked twice.
She glanced around her. What? She was lying in the Survey Corps hospital bay. The room was dimly lit by a the blue light she'd seen and seemingly empty except for Hanji. The scientist was smiling at them, looking slightly relieved.
Mikasa was happy to see them. Hanji was one of her favourite people at work. Always up for a laugh, cracking jokes and making fun of Levi. Hanji was one of the few people that her cousin let make fun of him. That always amused her.
But why was she here? It didn't really make sense. It hurt to think. Why-!
A sharp pain flooded her system again and she cried out. She clamped her hand down on her face, only to scream from the pain that came from that. What the hell? Why did it hurt so much?
Two hands gripped her wrists and then her hands came away. Mikasa blinked the tears from her eyes to see Hanji leaning over her.
"Whoa, Mikasa," they frowned, voice distant. "Calm down. Your nose is broken. I've set it back in place so it should be okay but don't be going about touching it."
Mikasa stared blankly at them. "What? What… what happened?" She pressed a hand to the side of her head. Shit. Her head was pounding. Not exactly too painful but enough to be insufferably annoying.
Damn. What happened? She'd been… invading the Beast's headquarters? Yeah, that was right. They'd led an attack after Jean called in. Right. Yep. So where had that led?
She remembered fighting, ducking behind walls as they fired off rounds at one another. People dying. Her squad hadn't been doing so well until Armin showed up. And then finding Jean and Ymir. Running on ahead with Connie. She got a sinking feeling in her chest as her memory started to become clearer.
Annie. It had been Annie.
No wonder her face hurt like a bitch. It all made sense now. Her face dropped. She'd hit her.
Hanji touched her arm lightly. "Hey, it's okay." They cleared their throat. "It's easy to say the mission was a success in the whole save-Jean type of thing. I mean we didn't catch the Beast or even see him which is a downside. Though a lot of the data retrieved was corrupted, with Marco on the case, we've managed a recover a bunch of files."
They tilted their head. "A lot is science based and I've yet to go through them as I've been, um, quite busy with… things…" Their eyes flitted to her. "But once interpreted I say it'll be easy to see what goal the Beast is after."
Mikasa nodded. All that seemed right enough. They'd just been finishing when she darted off to find Annie. Annie. They hadn't mentioned the others of the gang. Mikasa looked up to see that Hanji was looking at the wall.
A rush of panic flushed through her. The gunshot. Connie had shot Annie. She'd fallen down next to her. Mikasa grabbed at Hanji. "What about Annie? What happened to Annie?!"
Hanji made a face like they didn't know what to say. Mikasa gripped the sleeve of their shirt, desperately looking at them. And Hanji sighed. "There's something you need to see."
~•~•~•~
"As you can see, when we retrieved them… the trio were unstable... Very much so," Hanji said quietly. "We've had to put them into solitary confinement for now until we can figure out what to do. So far, none of them have caused trouble."
Mikasa pressed a hand to the glass pane, staring in at the three separate rooms. Confined with the toughest metal and securely locked from the outside.
Reiner was in the first room, standing up. If anything he looked more beefy that he had. Muscles and pulsing veins ran down his neck and his eyes burned like furious coals. His hands were clenched and he let out a scream as he hit the wall. The glass kept it quiet but she could still see him. The man was raging.
Bertolt was sweating worse than usual. Bead after bead ran down his face and dripped down his chin. His shirt was soaked, even the bed sheet beneath him was soaked. Fear gleamed in his eyes as he hugged himself. He was rocking back and forth, seeming to sing or hum quietly. He stared at nothing.
Mikasa didn't even want to move onto the third room. Annie was alive. Thank god. But.. but if she wasn't anything like the others… She didn't even know if she wanted to see that. Hanji lingered beside her, watching her carefully.
Mikasa slid onto the third pane of glass and was surprised at how normal Annie was acting. She was sitting on her bed, back pressed against the wall. Her face was cold and still, not showing any emotion. She looked bored if anything. But she didn't move, didn't scream, didn't cry.
"She was shot…" Mikasa murmured. "How is she okay?"
Hanji tapped the glass gently. "I was wondering that myself. By the time Connie told us about what had happened, it should have been too late for her. It had been several minutes after the bullet entered her body. But when we arrived she was sitting up like it was nothing."
Hanji mimed injecting a needle into their neck. "Had to keep her down like this. She gave you a right beating though. You were out for hours."
Mikasa just didn't understand. This wasn't possible. No one could just get up from a bullet wound. That was impossible.
She stared at Annie, trying to puzzle it out. Scanning her skin, looking for some sign, something to tell her what was wrong. And slowly Annie turned her head as if to look at her. But she couldn't. This was one way glass. All Annie should see was a wall.
But those crystal blue eyes stared so intently at her Mikasa began to feel unnerved.
Hanji touched her shoulder. "I need to show you something."
Mikasa moved away from the windows to a nearby desk. It was littered with scientific looking stuff and sheets of paper. Hanji's desk she guessed. The scientist brought her over to a microscope and indicated for her to look at the slide. Mikasa looked at it from the side first. It was a bullet, she realised. Out of its shell. What?
"This is the bullet that hit Annie," Hanji explained. "I found if after the sweep of the room. Look at it. No blood or anything. It also was outside her body. But how? I don't know why."
Mikasa nodded, putting her eye to the lens. Slowly she adjusted the focus knob to get an accurate vision of the bullet.
"That's not the most interesting part," Hanji added. "Pay close attention to the head. See if you can see the blue shards."
Mikasa frowned peering at the head. As she focused she realised the scientist was right. There were blue shards of something on the head of the bullet. "What are they?" she asked.
Hanji scratched the back of their neck. "That's the weird part. They seem to be pieces of crystal. Yet not a single crystal was recovered from the scene. I just don't understand. It's mad. It's strange. But I'm very interested."
The bullet that hit Annie… was outside her body and covered in crystal. What could that mean? She didn't know but she would find out. She needed to know what happened to Annie.
She glanced back at the window to see Annie was still gazing at her. A shiver ran down her spine.
"Oh yeah the staring? She does that quite often," Hanji said. "It's like really creepy. But so exciting!"
Mikasa sadly could not the say the same. She was thankful Annie was alive but something was wrong with her. Something bad. Mikasa took a deep breath.
She'd find out. She was going to. For Annie. For the girl with the crystal blue eyes.
