Not my best work, I wanted to get rid of this one before tackling the next part *
Mikasa is flying through the air, alongside Sasha and other cadets. They just received the order to evacuate after the Female Titan had somehow called a horde of other Titans to eat her – rather than get captured. She is still scared for Eren, even though she knows that he's protected by Levi Ackerman, and an elite squad of the Survey Corps.
He's going to be fine
Suddenly, she can hear a scream coming from the depth of the forest, a scream that, while terrifying and loud, she had learn to come to like.
Eren's Titan was out. And that likely meant trouble.
Immediately the raven changed course, hooking on nearby trees to use her momentum to do a 180, going back from where they are escaping.
"Mikasa! What are you doing? We're supposed to escape!"
Sasha's frantic cries come after her, but she only has one thought in mind, and that is Eren's wellbeing.
What happened to the squad? Is it possible that they told him to transform? But if that's the case, why wait until now?
They were put in different sections from the beginning of the mission, and while neither were ok with it, they knew that it would've been better that way – As long as everyone does their job correctly, Mikasa thinks grimly. Her resolve to always stay near him only increased, and she knows that she has to talk with Eren about it – but for now, she just follows the screams.
She reaches the place where the two giants were fighting, and she can't help but scream at the sight. The Female Titan had knocked Eren down on the ground, whose head was almost completely gone, leaving just a section of the neck behind. Now she was unhinging her jaw to impossible angles, mouth open beyond what she thought was possible, and just bites down on the dark haired Titan's neck – making Eren surface, obviously still dizzy and not responding from the fight.
"Eren!" – Mikasa tries to increase her speed, but she can only watch as the Female Titan eats Eren, closing her mouth immediately after she manages to fully insert Eren in there.
The raven at first doesn't know what to do, having seen her family get eaten, but immediately receives an adrenaline rush like never before, and immediately lunges at the Titan's body
I'll make sure that you're dead!
Using her gear, she maneuvers around the legs of the Titan, slicing left and right, hoping to make her fall down – after one last slice at the tendons, the giant finally falls down, stopping her fall with only one hand, the other at the nape of the neck to protect herself from Mikasa's rage induced
attacks.
"Just hold on a bit longer, Eren! I'll get you out of that place! Just wait!"
Launching herself from a high branch, she swoops down, using gravity and the gear to achieve neck breaking speed, aligns herself with the neck, both hands grabbing blades, winding back as far as she can, and finally brings them both down on the nape, screaming with rage.
But instead of the satisfying clean slice across her neck, the raven only finds herself holding broken blades, the Titan's hardened skin already disappearing – "Ok...I'm going to keep slicing you until there's nothing left, and I am going to get back Eren – mark my words, I will make sure to bring you down!"
Suddenly she finds herself being dragged mid-air, an arm grabbing her waist and flying them both out of the reach of the Female Titan – looking up, she sees the face of the commander, Levi Ackerman. "Don't worry, I'm with you – but we've got to pull back for now"
He notices the disappearing remains of another Titan, and right after asks the girl – "Is Eren dead?"
"Eren is alive! The Titan put him in his mouth, and her objective was always to not kill him – so he's alive!"
They both keep flying through the air, chasing the Titan, who seems slower than before – certainly not as fast as she was. Levi notices this : "Now she seems more tired, now it's a chance that she changed her objective and to save herself some trouble killed-"
"EREN IS ALIVE!"
The commander now looks really closely at Mikasa, trying to figure out if he already saw her somewhere, when he speaks again. "Now I remember, you're Eren's friend, from the trial – from looks alone, you wanted to break every bone in my body. For future reference, let me tell you, you wouldn't have succeeded"
Mikasa still stares him down, clearly unimpressed by what Levi has just said. "Fine – we'll assume Eren is alive. We can't kill her, the skin is too tough for that – but we may be able to retrieve Eren nonetheless. You'll serve as a distraction, and let me handle the rest"
With that said, they both flew towards the Titan at full speed, Mikasa getting in front of her and making herself get noticed. She avoids the first arm that tries to slam her into a tree, when Levi, using the gear masterfully, swivels around the arm and cuts everywhere.
He is fast, too fast for her to harden herself.
The combination of Mikasa's agility and Levi's skills quickly overpower the Titan, making her fall down, the hand covering her neck Now supporting her weight – The neck! I can kill her now! – Mikasa quickly uses a burst of gas to speed over to the neck, now her attention focused solely on the target in front – when suddenly, after a shout of "WATCH OUT!", she sees Levi using his leg to kick and stall the hand, with a sickening thud coming from the man's leg.
Trying to not think too much about the pain, he uses the hand as a jumping point to slash the Titan's mouth open, from where the unconscious body of Eren falls out, into the readied arms of Levi. Seeing the worried look on Mikasa's face, he quickly reassures her – "He's alive, a bit dirty, but alive", which makes the girl a bit relieved, but still worried for Eren.
"Hey – don't lose sight of the objective – it's difficult, but focus on one thing at a time. You won't get a redo if you mess up" – the stare from the shorter man makes Mikasa understand that, while he gets the reason, her change of plans almost risked ruining everything.
"I'm sorry sir...I...wasn't thinking straight – I let anger take over me..."
"Don't sweat it. Mistakes happen. What we can do is learn from them"
The first thing that Eren feels is his body being shaken – he has no idea of where he is. He's in a carriage, as far as he can tell. A man with bandages around his head notices he's awake, to which he says "Hey, you're awake finally" Eren is still missing some pieces, and he doesn't respond immediately.
"Eren! You're awake!" - the boy recognises the voice and turns towards it, his friend approaching the carriage on a horse – "Mikasa? Wha- what happened? Where is the Female Titan?"
Mikasa's face turns grim, looking down before answering. "She escaped". The brunette notices that he's covered by a survey corps jacket, and after noticing the missing one from Mikasa, can only ask "Did- did you save me again? What happened?"
"Nevermind that, Eren, just rest. You need it right now"
Eren then notices some scratches on her hands and face, and tries to lift himself up on his elbow, only to crash on the carriage.
"Eren! Jus-" "Are you ok? Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine Eren – just a few scratches, nothing more. Just lie down now please. We're approaching the walls"
Mikasa is thinking about how they'll be forced to turn Eren in to the military police – she knows that even if she wasn't here, Armin wouldn't let it happen, in fact she's pretty sure that no-one in here would let it happen, even though she's pretty sure the last part is wishful thinking.
"Mik – don't worry. Everything will be ok", Eren says, knowing what the raven is thinking. " Armin will think of something, you know that"
*At the entrance of the underground tunnel with Annie*
"COME ON! ENOUGH WITH THE JOKES ANNIE! Just come here and admit you're part of some stupid prank!"
The blonde still stays still, not wanting to move. She looks at Armin, a small smile coming to her face. "Disappointing, Armin...when exactly did you start looking at me like that..." – Armin blushes a bit, to then answer the girl "When you lifted the hood off my face, and didn't kill me, plus the fact that you reacted to my face...I somehow knew that you were the Female Titan...but I wanted to be wrong! I still do! Just, please, get in the tunnel – otherwise..."
"That's enough – I've heard enough..."
Mikasa draws her blades, walking towards the shorter girl, who is still standing on the spot, unflinching at the sight of the murderous intent on the raven's face.
Too bad, Armin...
As soon as she starts lifting her hand to her mouth, the girl gets immobilised by at least a dozen men, all bigger than her, relying on their superior size to avoid getting knocked over by the fighting master.
Armin and Eren can only watch the scene, the former with more sadness in his eyes, still wishing that Annie was somehow roped into something bigger than her, only for both to be dragged into the tunnel by Mikasa, grasping both kids by the collar of their shirt – an instant later, a blinding light covers everything, and what remains of the man is splattered onto the walls, followed by a giant hand trying to capture Eren.
"How-how did she do it? Did she bite her tongue?"
"She had a blade on her ring – she must've thought ahead"
They turn towards the men waiting in the tunnel, giving them a warning, when a giant hand slams through the tunnel, stopping the trio in their tracks.
"What is she doing? Doesn't she care if Eren dies?" Mikasa screams, bringing Eren closer to herself – the blonde needs only a couple of moments to reply – "Now she's desperate...she needs Eren, but she played her cards...and now she's giving it one last chance – a gamble"
Eren immediately grabs both friends and brings them closer to him, "Ok, I'm going to try the same thing I did with the cannons, hopefully it will be strong enough to withstand Annie's fists"
The trio groups around Eren, who is biting into his hands, but nothing happens – Eren is still biting more flesh, causing more wounds to open, but he's not transforming.
"THAT HURTS GOD"
Eren can only cover his injured hand, baffled by the fact that he's not transforming – But I have a clear intention, I need to protect my friends...why isn't this working!
"Guys, I can't do it! It's not working"
Mikasa, thinking that Eren is still coming to grips with the fact that Annie is the Titan, tries to knock some sense into him
"Are you still thinking if Annie is the Titan? She's the one who killed your teammates, she's the one who played around everyone, she's-"
Mikasa stops, realising that her words are doing more harm than good, and instead tries a different approach – "Eren...without you, there will be countless losses...you need to transform now"
"I'm trying, but I can't! I can't..."
A Eren who openly admitted defeat was rare, and it brings into the two other kids a sense of reality...they needed to step up and help bring Annie down, somehow.
"Ok. Until Eren manages to transform, me and Mikasa will distract Annie. You go to that end, I'll go to the other, hopefully Annie will begin the chase – then we'll rendezvous, after Annie realises that Eren is not with us"
Eren is flabbergasted at the duo, not seeing even a hint of doubt in their faces.
"How...how can you fight? How can you go on?"
Eren is mainly looking at Mikasa, even though the question was to both – and it is Mikasa who stares Eren down, reminding him of what he said to her years ago.
"The world is a cruel place, Eren. We can only fight"
The duo stare are each other, a silent understanding between them.
Then, Eren brings his hand to his mouth, and bites hard
*After the battle*
Mikasa, Armin and Jean are standing around an unconscious Eren, still recovering from his fight with Annie. Annie had put up a good fight, dismembering Eren with deadly accuracy – it was Eren and Mikasa's determination that finally brought down the Female Titan, alongside with making the terrible discovery that there were multiple Colossus Titans inside the wall.
"Crazy when you think about it, uh...how long do you think they've been in there...and why" the tall blonde talks to the other two people, who are thinking the same thing.
"Probably someone knows more than we do...after all, the talk of reinforcing the wall was always stopped by certain groups, but who knows if it was because of this knowledge or something more idealistic..." Armin can only bring up assumptions, and while he is the most gifted, intelligent wise, this speaks of something deeper than what they originally thought.
The door of the room suddenly opens, and a man is calling for Armin to attend at the meeting with Erwin, who requested him.
"Mikasa, do you want to come too? I'm sure they'll let you in"
"No, I want to stay here with Eren" – Mikasa doesn't miss the smirk from Armin's face, and can only manage a blush in response.
After Jean left with everyone, Mikasa just stares at Eren – she wanted to talk him for so long...during missions, she still needs to learn to keep her head straight, and what happened was proof of that...because of her, humanity's strongest was out of commission for who knows how long...and with these news, trouble is sure to start appearing more frequently.
A rustle from the bed makes her pop her eyes over to Eren, who has started waking up, and trying to get up.
"You should rest, Eren...you were so tired after the fight that you collapsed"
True to that testament, Eren can barely manage to rest on his elbows, and looks at Mikasa – "I'll rest now...I just wanted to be sure if you were ok?"
A smile makes her way towards the girl's face, happiness at the evident concer form the boy showing. "I'm fine Eren, you don't need to worry about me"
"I do though, and even with Annie...you almost got out on a suicide mission because I couldn't tap in my powers...I want to make sure that that will never happen again...I don't want to be the reason more people get hurt, especially you!"
Mikasa's hand rests on top of one of his, thumb caressing the skin gently, and eyes locking on his green ones. "You'll get there, I know you will...and don't beat yourself up Eren, everyone makes mistakes...I almost messed up rescuing you too..."
Eren had heard about what happened, and what was the cause of Levi's injuries. He wasn't surprised at all about Mikasa's outburst.
"Listen. Yes, you made an error in judgement, but without you, Levi wouldn't have been able to catch me. He knew that killing Annie was impossible, and he told me that the main reason you saved me is because you pushed him to" – his hand was fully grasping hers, pulling it towards him – "I'm here because of you".
Both kids just stay in silent, watching each other. All of a sudden, Mikasa gets up, and drops immediately next to Eren, hugging him tightly.
Both were tired and needed sleep. Both also needed to know that the support they had to the other was still there.
After making some adjustments, Mikasa and Eren are erith under covers, still hugging, ready to get some well deserved sleep.
The door, still open just a creak, closes, without making a sound, revealing on the other side Jean, who had stayed and watched the whole scene. He wasn't best friends with Eren, but he was learning to deal with that - much to his dimay, he also found himself rather invested in their growing relationship, wishing to just tell them to kiss already, it was a distraction watching this will they, won't they develop.
Oh well...they'll do it when the time is right. Or, we can just push them.