Author's Notes: One thousand and one apologies for this chapter taking so long. I went overboard again once the busy nature of the holidays ended, and so this POV section will now be split into THREE parts. I hope you'll forgive the delay, and I am trying to get this section done as soon as possible. Now, time for the review responses!
Leonard Church 814: I'm glad you're still enjoying it, you guys who have stuck with this story ever since I started this thing last year are a gift. Sorry to to make you wait so long, the next chapter is here (finally)!
Coranadomontes: I'm relieved you liked the idea. Yui is one of my favorite SAO characters, and the return of the Scouts to Aincrad I felt was the best place to bring her in.
Urs-v: Yes, I know that chapter was a bit on the dark side and also not too plot-heavy, but I wanted the Scouts to face the devastation the Titans had wrought head-on before encountering the SAO characters. I'm glad you liked it, and hopefully the rest of this three-parter will continue to please.
Now that that's out of the way, it's mandatory disclaimer time (ugh): I do not own Sword Art Online or Attack on Titan. Enjoy the new chapter!
Year: 850 KS (Kyojin Sekai)
Thankfully, there was no need for Armin to fight; though they rode for the rest of the day, they encountered few Titans, if any, on the subsequent floors. It was slow going navigating down through the rapidly shifting environments of each floor. To the Scouts who were not aware of the true nature of the world of Aincrad, the widely different sights and sounds and smells that assaulted their senses each floor was mind-boggling. Armin knew the man who had created Aincrad, Kayaba, must have added them all in to present various and different challenges, but still it was something that was difficult to get used to.
Even when Armin and the others thought they might have accomplished this feat, nothing could have prepared them for the 61st Floor. As they emerged from the dark tower that connected this floor with the one above it, the outside world seemed to be in the midst of dusk. If anything, however, the newly-appearing night sky made the sight t greeted them all the more dramatic. For a moment, Armin was struck still, as were the other Scouts. They all stood there, atop their horses, staring at what lay before them in wonder. I was right, thought Armin. If we rid this place of the Titans, people can live without having to cower behind the Walls after all. Who would want to leave this?
"What is this place?" Sasha asked, rubbing her eyes as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"I've only seen something so beautiful once before..." Connie said, drawing his horse up next to her.
"What?" Sasha asked. Connie immediately blushed and looked down at his feet, which caused Sasha to laugh, though she blushed a little as well. Despite the circumstances that had brought them back to this world, Armin couldn't help but create a small smile on his face.
"We should make camp on this level. I don't think the others can keep up with this for much longer."
"Ooh, Captain Levi wants to lay on the beach under the stars?!" Hanje said, making a mockingly sweet expression.
"He's right, we've been riding all day." Moblit said. Hanje turned to Armin, and he nodded. Besides, he thought as he looked around, we might die in this world. Armin was well aware that they would be facing at least a hundred Titans, if only that, and their chances of everyone who had rode through the portal on his, Jean, Hanje, and Levi's words returning alive were practically nonexistent. He gazed once more to the awe-inspiring vision that greeted them in the rapidly-fading light of day. I'd always wanted to see something like this before I died. Now I can.
Once the Scouts had located a good spot to make camp, they started unpacking the tents they had carried on the back of their horses', and not for the first time Armin wished they'd been able to bring a couple of the supply wagons with them. He'd argued the point with Hanje and Levi during the final planning of the mission, but the short black-haired scout had been dead-set against it. It WOULD have been too difficult for us to take one without Erwin noticing, Armin thought to himself, grudgingly acknowledging the captain's line of argument. So the bare-minimum approach had been adopted instead, with them taking only what their steeds could carry.
Still, Armin wanted to get his tent up as soon as possible, to give the little girl a place to lay other than the sandy ground. With a sigh, he scooped her up in his arms and laid her gently back down on the mat that was the standard-issue Scout Regiment field bed. She looks so peaceful, he thought as he watched her shift ever so slightly in her sleep, so innocent. Was anyone born in my world ever like this? He heard the trot of another horse approaching his tent, and his own animal's call in greeting. The blond poked his head out of the tent, and saw Eren atop his horse, his cloak dotted by splotches of blood. His friend's brown hair was rustled and strewn about, and his eyes seemed to seem far too old for the body they provided sight to.
"Armin...is she ok?" He asked weakly, and as he dismounted the horse he stumbled. Armin scrambled to catch his friend, putting his shoulder under Eren's and placing his hand on the boy's chest to steady him.
"Who?" Armin asked, though he figured he already knew.
"The girl...Yui..." he said, slowly straightening himself with Armin's help.
"Still sleeping like a rock." Armin said. He looked once again over at the bloodstains on Eren's cloak. "So, h-how did the reconnaissance mission go? Did you find the Floor's city?"
"Yeah..." Eren said, walking into the tent and sitting down beside the sleeping SAO player. Armin followed him in, and sat down next to his friend. He left the tent flap open behind him, to let the cool breeze from the water in. "We found it all right. It's just a few hills over, across this little strip of land. It's not as big as some of the others, but it looks like something you'd see behind Wall Sina."
"Any survivors?" Armin asked, though from Eren's eyes and the simple visual evidence they'd gathered from the previous floors he felt he already knew.
"None. None at all! Just more reminders that we let them die here like the stray sheep a farmer feeds to wolves to keep them sated!" Eren said angrily. Of all those Armin had personally told about what really lay on the other side of the portal after Erwin's plan had been put into action, Eren had taken it the worst visibly. I didn't want to hurt you, Eren, Armin thought, but you had to know. We all did so we could stop this.
Realizing that he might wake their young charge sleeping in front of them, Eren lowered his volume. "She's the only one we've found." Armin said, regarding Yui with a concerned gaze. Why is she the only one? She's just a kid, how and why would she have been left up there? Armin once more found his eyes turn towards the blood stains. "What happened there? Are you hurt? Did we lose someone?"
Eren shook his head. "There were three Titans wandering around the city, and Levi had the others take them out. I got too close when Auruo cut into one is all."
"I'm glad." The blond responded, and felt his own exhaustion begin to take it's toll. Right as he was about to succumb to it though, a small sigh escaped from the little girl's lips. She shook a little, as if shivering from cold or a bad dream. Eren tried to take off his cloak to make a makeshift blanket for the girl,but as Armin guessed might happen he was not able to simply pull it off. As the obvious question formed on his friend's lips, however, the girl suddenly sat up, wide awake.
"Where?" She asked, in a small, melodic voice. "Where?" She repeated.
"Don't worry." Eren said. "You're safe now." That's not true, but she's safer than she was before.
"Yeah." said Armin, removing and wrapping his own cloak around her using the menu, as her shivers made it evident that she was in fact cold. "We're taking care of you."
"Who?" the dark-haired girl asked, hesitant as if she was remembering the words, "who...are...you?"
"I'm Eren," the boy began, and gestured to his right,"and this is Armin."
"Ere..." The girl said, as if studying his name and not quite getting it. "Ere!" She pointed at Eren enthusiastically. Armin then felt that same finger directed at him. "Min!" She exclaimed happily. Eren sighed, but they both realized she was probably too shaken up by everything to be busy learning new names.
"And your name is?" Armin asked. I know what she said back in the Coliseum, but I don't want to go around calling her the wrong name if that's not it.
"Yui...I think."I think, Armin wondered? Could she be so scarred as to hav suffered amnesia?
"Yui, where are your parents?" Armin asked. Please, he thought as the girl seemed to consider her answer, please don't tell me the same answer I would have to give, that Eren or Mikasa would have to give. Please.
When Yui finally spoke, her eyes had that same soul-examining quality they'd seemed to posses back in the Coliseum. "Momma and Papa are scared. They're afraid...everyone's afraid. They're all so scared." As she spoke these words, Yui's eyes seemed to widen as if glimpsing whatever had caused her to utter such a cryptic response. Suddenly, her features constricted themselves into a rictus of pain, and she let out a sharp, quick cry of agony before falling silent once again.
"Yui, what is it?!" Eren exclaimed, but the girl was unable to answer. After half a minute or so of shrieking, though, she seemed to relax, and blinked at the scared looks on Armin and Eren's faces as if in incomprehension as to why they would be there. Instead she stood up, and once again Armin was taken aback by how young she was. Yui walked out of the tent, and Eren and Armin followed her. The child's expression broke into a smile as she saw the environment of the floor, and she ran towards the water.
"S-should we go after her?" Armin asked, not sure.
"Why not?" Eren said as they gazed at the land, or rather lack thereof, of Floor 61. It was covered almost entirely by water, with only a few large islands with very narrow bridges connecting them. "We promised each other that we'd find a place like this."
"What do you mean?" Armin asked.
"We promised we'd go to the outside world one day, and find the ocean your book talked about, remember?" Eren said. Armin nodded. The memory of their childhood in Shiganshina made him smile, but it was bittersweet. Eren had been his only friend then, the only one who had listened to him about the outside world, and the future of humanity.
It's not the ocean beyond the Walls, Eren. Armin wanted to say those words, but the childlike happiness that glistened in his friend's eyes, if only for that moment, was not something Armin wanted to be responsible for killing. He wanted to believe what Eren said as well. So instead he smiled and nodded, and together they stood and watched Yui frolic on the shore. Connie and Sasha were already there, sprawled out on the sand as the stars seemed to emerge. The unfamiliar patterns and locations of the night sky luminaries only served to remind Armin of the artificial nature of Aincrad.
"She's awake." Jean said, remarking as he walked up to them from the camp.
"Yeah, she woke about five minutes ago." Eren said.
"At least we saved someone." Jean said, though Armin knew it bugged the boy just as much, if not more, than it did him that she was the only survivor they'd found the whole day. "Did she say if she knows whether or not her parents are alive, and who they are?"
"She thinks they're alive, but aside from that I don't really know." Armin said sadly. "It seems almost as if she has...amnesia. When she affirmed her name for us she sounded as if she wasn't sure. She did mention something about a Mama and Papa, and that they were scared, but that's all."
"We'll find someone tomorrow." Eren said, placing his hand on Armin's shoulder.
"As much as I hate to ever agree with him, Eren's right. The Titans couldn't have gotten much further, and the players would've organized some sort of defense by now." Jean said. Armin nodded. Despite Jean's reassuring words, however, his expression spoke a different story. They must have organized a defense by now...or at least tried to.
Shortly afterward, Jean went back to the tent he shared with Connie for the night. Armin and Eren sat on the beach and watched Yui, silent except for the crash of the water on the shore. She had joined Sasha and Connie in constructing something from the wet sand, which soon took the shape of a castle. He watched the girl building the tiny sand structure, as her long hair blew in the soft breeze, and something clicked in the blond's brain. "Eren!"
"Eh?"
"I think I know why Yui looks so familiar." Armin said. Why didn't I see it before?
"You mean you thought you'd seen her before too?" The boy asked, looking surprised.
Armin nodded. "She looks like Mikasa did...when you and your dad first brought her to Shiganshina."
"She does, doesn't she? At least a little." Eren said, his head reclining back as he seemed to recall their childhood days in Shiganshina, just the three of them. Even back then Eren had been dead-set on joining the Scouting Regiment. Even though they were more aware of the sickening nature of humanity's residence behind the walls than others their age, their lives had still been possesed of the relative innocence of childhood until that terrible day five years ago when the Colossal Titan had destroyed the outer Wall of Shiganshina...
He could see Eren following the same thought pattern from his facial expression as it darkened, and Armin spoke. "That's why we're here. We're trying to avert that happening again to the people of this world, and to give our own a hope of somewhere safe."
"And she can grow up...without having to fear them." Eren said. "Without having to curse them every day she lives for what they took away." Eren said, with determination. Armin looked at Yui once again, at her childish glee, as if whatever unseen force that had plagued her before had vanished as if never there.
Soon, Armin heard a faint female voice trying to make itself heard, and turned back in the direction of the camp. Eren noticed this, and followed the sound of the voice with his eyes as well. Approaching them was an orange-haired female scout.
"Petra!" Eren called out, waving.
Petra waved back, before cupping her hands to her mouth and yelling "Eren! Captain Levi's got the squad setting up our part of the camp, and if you don't get over here and help Auruo might actually bite his tongue off this time!" They both laughed, although Armin was puzzled as to what was funny, and as Petra left the two boys walked back to Armin's tent.
Eren sighed with exhaustion from the day as he got back on his horse. "Goodnight, Armin."
"You too, Eren." Armin said, waving as his friend began to trot back to his squad's portion of the camp. "I want you rested for tomorrow." Eren nodded, and Armin turned around to retrieve Yui from the beach.
Yui returned without protest, tired despite having been only really awake for about half an hour. Could it have something to do with whatever happened to her earlier? Armin, thought, worried. He went to ask Hanje about it, but he was harshly told that their mini-formation's makeshift commander was fast asleep by Moblit, and to kindly save whatever it was for the morning. With nothing else to do other than put the child to bed, Armin did so. The blond de-equipped his gear via the menu when he turned to his tent, and soon found himself slipping into the unconsious bliss of sleep on the floor of the tent.
Armin felt himself being poked, and quickly the boy snapped awake. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of Yui, looking down at him. The girl was regarding him with an expression of childish petulance, as if he had failed to do something. The light pouring in from outside the tent told Armin that the day was already well underway. The sound of people barking orders, hurried footsteps, and the excited cries of the horses told Armin that the other scouts were readying to leave. I still have all my supplies to repack, he thought with a sigh.
"Get up, Min!" Yui said, tugging on his right hand with her little arms.
"Ok, Yui, I'm up." He said, rising to the highest crouch that his tent permitted. He flipped open the menu once again and went from his simple undershirt to a fully-dressed and equipped soldier of the Scouting Regiment in a small series of repeated blue flashes. I'll never quite get used to this, Armin thought, but at least it makes dressing easier.
Armin emerged from the tent, blinking in the sunlight, and Yui followed him, still wearing in her plain white dress she had on when they found her. Eren was waiting outside, holding both their horses by the reins. Armin saw that his own steed had already been saddled and loaded with everything but his tent. "Eren? W-what are you doing? Shouldn't you be helping your own squad get ready?"
"We were the first squad to get up and take down our tents." Eren replied. "I didn't want to wake you, and everyone else was preparing to go."
"Eren..." Armin was too surprised to say anything. I have to be thinking clearly today. Hopefully we'll find the players, but we need to be ready for whatever kind of situation we find them in. He shook his head, though the tiniest hint of a smile crept onto his face. "We should probably take the tent down."
"Let me help!" Yui said, and after exchanging a quick glance the two boys nodded. They quickly packed up the tent.
"I've got to get back, or Captain Levi's going to make me clean every inch of the squad's blades again..." Eren said, sighing at the idea. "Stay safe, Armin. Protect yourself and Yui."
"You too, Eren. Don't risk yourself. You're too important to humanity, to all of us...to me." I should just focus on the mission. Eren knows how to take care of himself...Armin thought, though the awful time during the Battle of Trost where he'd watched Eren dissapear down a Titan's throat, presumably to his death, flashed through his mind once again.
"Of course, Armin." He said, and rode off. Armin knew better. When it came to Titans, Eren was a blazing ray of pure emotion, deadly but unfocused.
Soon, Armin heard hoofbeats behind him, and turned to face Hanje. "I see the girl is awake. Has she said anything?" She asked, nodding at Yui.
"Her name, which we already knew. She has parents in this world, but other than that they're alive she has no idea where they are."
"I look forward to meeting them. Imagine, someone from another world!" She said, her expression shifting into the manic glee she was known for, before reverting to a serious one. "You're still in charge of her, Arlert. Anything she notices on the trip you think is useful, inform me at once."
"Understood!" Armin said, and saluted.
Hanje's manic grin returned, and she raised her flare gun over her head. "Move out! We've got Titans to kill and people to save!" The woman cried, and fired into the air towards the next floor's entrance with glee before turning her horse and galloping off in the same direction. Armin boosted Yui into the saddle, the girl excited but nervous. He slung himself on behind her, and with a tug of the reins they were off.
As they headed lower and lower in their descent through the floors of Aincrad, a worrying sign appeared. While all the floors they had visited had possesed the same marks of devastation that were found in the land between Walls Rose and Maria, there had been relatively few Titans. Aside from the horde of stragglers on Floor 75, no floor had had more than ten Titans on it. Now Titans were far more common, and more than once if not for the evasive capabilities of Erwin's formation design they would have had to engage the monsters on open ground, a fight Armin did not want to have. Finding the inhabitants was of a higher priority than killing the Titans. The increasing numbers did give Armin one shred of hope though: more Titans likely meant that the floors they were crossing were more recently abandoned. We're coming closer to the front line, Armin thought. We've crossed twenty floors, surely the Titans can't have gotten much further?
As they traveled, occasional landmarks, whether apperantly man made or natural, would catch Yui's interest, and she would point them out to Armin. He shared the girl's wonder, as the sights they saw were things he'd only seen in the pages of books. Other things defied any concept of reality whatsoever, Titans or no Titans. Floating pillars and fanciful plants were among many such sights. The many settlements they passed through gave Armin hope once again that Aincrad could eventually become a safe refuge for the struggling remnants of humanity in his own world, once the Titans were removed. The smoke and devastation in the towns, however, coupled with the grimly noticable stains of blood that marked the landscape, sobered Armin's view of the world they were passing through. We can't let this world become the same as ours. For our own sakes, and for the people of this world, the players of SAO. For this little girl.
The land of the 55th Floor, at least what Armin had seen of it so far, appeared to be a windswept, rocky plain. It felt cold, colder than Armin had ever felt when dry. Armin could make out snow-capped mountains far off in the distance, but it was unlikely he'd get a chance to see them up close. They were exiting the mouth of a large canyon that had held the entrance to the labyrinth connecting to the upper floor, right as the sun was beggining to fall away from the apex of it's daily cycle, signaling the afternoon.
Armin felt a tiny finger poking his cheek, and saw that Yui was looking at him expectantly. "Y-yes?" he asked, surprised. For the past couple hours the girl had been mostly silent.
"Look!" she said, and pointed. Armin turned to the left where she had indicated, and gasped. Off in the distance was a massive metal fortress, with high black metal walls surrounding it, and tall stone and metal towers climbing above it. Could that be this Floor's city? Armin wondered. Jean's squad was closest to the city, and Armin turned his horse to come alongside them.
"Are we going there?" Yui asked.
"Maybe." Armin replied. "Do you remember it? Have you been there?"
"No...I don't know." Yui said sadly. Her mental confusion seemed to distress the girl, and Armin wished in vain there was something he could do to help her aside from trying to locate her (hopefully alive) parents.
"Armin!" Christa called out as she spotted him approaching the squad.
"What are you doing here, Armin?" Sasha asked quizzically as they rode.
"I need you guys to do something." Armin said.
"Oh, come to use your command squad priviledges to get us to do your dirty work?" Ymir asked mockingly. "Do you need us to babysit?"
"Cut it out, Ymir." Jean said. "What do you need us to do, Armin?"
"I think we may have found this Floor's city." Armin said. "It's over there." He pointed the same direction as Yui had earlier.
"You want us to go check it out?" Connie asked.
"Yes. You're the closest squad and-" he began, but Jean simply nodded.
"We understand. We'll meet back with you as soon as we've checked the state of the town." The boy said, before motioning to his squad to follow him on the new course.
"Jean!" Armin called out as the squad peeled away. "Try...to keep everyone alive."
"You know I'll try, Armin!" Jean shouted back, before spurring his horse onward.
"You're worried about them?" Yui asked.
"I'm worried about all of us." Armin replied, before leading his own horse back to the command squad.
Approximately half an hour later, Connie rode up to the command squad. By then, Armin had informed Hanje and Mikasa of the city, and they all listened to the report. "We're pretty sure it's the main settlement." said Connie. It's called Gran-something. The wierd thing is, it's completely sealed. The metal gates are shut tight, and there's no breach in the walls. Jean thought there might've been people inside, but after about ten minutes he realized he'd just been shouting at empty air to open up."
"Did you try scaling the walls with your manuevering gear?" Hanje asked.
"Bertholt tried that after a while, but he said there was no one there."
"They must have abandoned it." Armin said. But why? The Titans couldn't have killed them all. Where are the players?
Author's Notes: I hope you liked this chapter! Please leave a review or PM me with any comments you may have! Hopefully I'll actually be able to get the next one out shortly. Thank you for reading!