One of the most apparent side effects of being cold and pushing others away is that eventually, people stop noticing or caring when you don't show up to things. Had Annie Leonhart been alive, perhaps she could have appreciated the irony of her actions, by pushing people away, she made her own 'disappearance' so much easier.
Very few people noticed she wasn't at breakfast that morning, fewer cared.
Only a few more noticed she wasn't present for hand to hand training that morning, but most assumed she was just skiving off.
It was only after lunch when Annie didn't attend 3DM training that the other cadets started to wonder where she was, but still, most were not bothered. Eventually, however, Shadis grew frustrated at her absenteeism and demanded to know her whereabouts.
When no one answered, he believed that someone must be covering for her and decided that group punishment would loosen some tongues. So, the 104th found themselves running laps until 'Someone tells me where the hell Leonhart is!'.
As the laps rolled pass with no forthcoming answers, Shadis demanded to know when the cadets last saw her. When the group consensus was dinner last night, the angry instructor turns on the female cadets, asking when Annie left the barracks that morning.
When an angry Ymir spits out "the bitch's bed was empty this morning, sir." it finally clicks for Shadis that this may not be some truanting cadet and orders the 104th to stop running and to stand at attention while he checks on the barracks.
Five minutes later, he returns and divides the cadets into groups of 3 telling them to search the camp from top to bottom.
Forty-five minutes later, there is no sign of Annie Leonhart anywhere within the camp. Rumours and theories are spreading throughout the trainees; everything from kidnapping to desertion was suggested.
Sixty minutes later, Keith orders the cadets to begin searching the surrounding forest, threatening to make Annie, and anyone who may be covering for her, clean the latrines with their tongues when she's found.
Two hundred seventy minutes later, Annie Leonhart disappearance is reported to the MPs.
With the usual arrogance of the MPs, when they finally arrived, they immediately order the cadets to stop searching, claiming they were not trained for this sort of thing and would only get in the way. Then they decided to spend several hours researching the entire camp and immediate surrounding forest believing the cadets may have somehow missed their comrade.
All in all, in the 6 hours since the search first started, all they had to go on was an empty bed and Annie's unworn uniform.
The sun was starting to set when the cadets were once again ordered to gather on the training field and stand at attention. MPs walked through the ranks demanding to know when each cadet last saw Annie and their whereabouts since that sighting.
It was an overweight, balding MP that stopped in front of the Shiganshina Trio, "You," he spoke at Mikasa, "when was the last time you saw cadet Leonhart?"
With a salute, Mikasa simply replied, "She was in her bed when I reached the barracks last night, sir."
"Did you see her leave the barracks at any point last night?" the MP droned back, sounding completely uninterested of the whole situation.
"No Sir, she was gone when I woke up this morning."
The MP looked around as if searching for something interesting to beat his boredom, "Did you leave the barracks at any point last night?"
It was fortunate that the MP wasn't paying attention to the trio or else he might have noticed Eren stiffen slightly at that question before Mikasa replied "No sir."
Over the next hour and a half, every cadet is questioned before finally being dismissed for a now very late dinner.
In the end in standard MP laziness they only stick around for two more days, and with no evidence or leads to follow they officially registered Annie as away without leave and a deserter.
Three Months Later
The next three months are increasingly stressful for Armin and Mikasa. They have to keep an eye on the two remaining traitors, keep Mikasa's newly acquired abilities hidden and plan their next move. They had agreed to lay low after dealing with Annie as if they assassinated another of the traitors too soon the survivor would likely panic and flee or rush to complete their mission.
Unfortunately for them, they had almost become victims of their own success. Practically all the other cadets believed Annie had deserted and most had already moved on, but not Reiner and Bertholdt. To their knowledge, Annie was killed in the undercity during her intel-gathering mission, and while this removed any possible suspicion from the Armin and Mikasa, it had the unwanted side effect of making the two traitors extra cautious.
Bert seemed to become even more nervous, constantly looking like he wasn't even comfortable in his own skin. He sweated more than ever and seemed to curl into himself both mentally and physically whenever he was separated from Reiner.
And Reiner? Well, he was confusing. Sometimes he was quiet and withdrawn, sticking close to Bert as if his life depended on it (which it did, not that he knew that) and other times he was 'normal', the 104th protective big brother, he joked with Connie, tried to flirt with Krista and offered help to anyone he thought might need it.
Armin had remembered that after retrieving Eren from their failed kidnapping, Eren had been debriefed and told everyone that Reiner seemed to be losing his mind, as he was acting like two different people. A split personality as one of Armin's books had called it.
It was strange, it seems so obvious now that something was wrong with Reiner compared to last time. Armin wasn't sure if it was because he knew what to look for or the Annie situation had further weakened his mental state.
But it wasn't just those two who had changed...
Occasionally, Armin would find Mikasa merely staring into the middle distance, oblivious to her surroundings. When he called her name, she would slowly look at him with an unreadable expression before suddenly realising where she was. The first few times this happened she'd waved off Armin's questions claiming tiredness, but eventually, she told him the truth.
"I keep seeing… things. Flashes of people I've never met and places I've never been to. It's like a dream but different." She grips at the scarf around her neck, a clear indication of her discomfort and confusion. "There's a man… he's talking to me, but I can never hear what he's trying to say."
And Annie's memories aren't the only thing Mikasa inherited; during hand to hand training, Armin noticed Mikasa starting to use some of Annie's moves. She started sweeping the legs of her opponent from underneath them rather than merely using her sheer strength to overpower them.
But what concerned Armin the most is that she wasn't consciously choosing to do so; it made him wonder just how much influence the previous shifter could exert on the current holder.
If holding one titan had been enough to influence both Mikasa and himself, it would explain why Eren had changed so much. Before they 'returned' he held three titans; the 'attack' titan, the founding titan and the Warhammer titan.
Three streams of memories in one mind, all influencing his beliefs and actions.
He wondered how much of Eren, the man who had once been his brother in all but blood, was truly left in the end.
Mikasa knew she was never the most approachable person, she hadn't been the first time in training and certainly not this time around. After everything she had been through, after everyone she had lost both before and after wall Maria fell, in her mind, only Eren and Armin were important. In her mind, they were only people she could trust and that anyone else would eventually be taken from her, like her parents and the Yeagers.
She believed she had no more room left in her heart to care for any others.
Slowly though, over the years, through battle after battle, that had changed. After training, Trost, joining the scouts, overthrowing the government, retaking wall Maria and Marley she realised that her circle of trust had expanded.
Jean, Sasha, Connie, Historia, Hanji and even that midget of a captain, Levi had all become important to her. People she would fight for, kill for, to protect.
But now they were all so different, practically strangers wearing her friend's faces;
Connie was a carefree comedian, continually joking and messing around. This wasn't the man who had lost his entire family, village and best friend in the crucible of war. This wasn't the man who would fight to his last breath to defend those he had left.
Jean was more egotistical; he only cared about joining the MPs, praising them and denigrating the scouts in ways that would have disgusted the proud scout she knew.
Sasha… Sasha was alive again but still spoke with that fake city accent, trying to hide her rural origins. When Historia left the scouts, Sasha had been the only other girl in the special operations squad, and as such, she had occasionally confided in Sasha things she hadn't even told Eren or Armin.
But this wasn't her Sasha; this wasn't the veteran scout she had fought alongside time and time again. This Sasha, like Jean, wanted to join the MPs, only so she could live a safe, food-filled life.
And finally, Historia.
"Come on Mikasa, we are making good time. We need to get to camp before sunset." The girl in question had stopped a few metres ahead and called to her.
Historia, or Krista Lenz as she still called herself, the illegitimate daughter to a secret king, who wanted nothing to do with her until it suited him, and a mother who hated her very existence. She had changed the most.
This 'Krista' persona she had was almost sickly sweet; always kind and considerate, selfless and caring, beautiful and skilled yet humble and polite. She was 'an angel come to Earth' as Mikasa had once overheard her being called. A made-up personality for a made-up person.
But deep down, Mikasa wondered if continuing to live that lie would be better for her than the fate that awaited her.
Many people might believe that becoming a Queen would be wonderful; all that wealth and power at their fingertips, but that was not the position Historia inherited. She was a figurehead, a powerless public face only there to provide stability and legitimacy to the military government.
Then she had practically been forced into becoming a broodmare on the orders of Zeke Yeager and the military to maintain the royal bloodline, with the ultimate end of her inheriting the beast titan to activate the loophole in the founding titan's power.
A puppet, then broodmare and finally a weapon. No one deserved that fate.
Mikasa sped up, falling into lockstep with the blond, "Sorry, I was distracted. It won't happen again."
"Oh, no problem. So… why do you think Shadis paired us up? Not that I don't want to be your partner, of course, it's just that normally you team up with Armin or Eren and I'm with Ymir."
"He wants to see how we perform when working with people we don't often work with or don't get along with."
Shadis had paired up all the cadets that morning, before sending them on a 25-mile hike through the forest, telling them if both cadets didn't make the finish by sundown then both of them would have to redo the exercise. Most pairings were like theirs, two cadets that rarely trained together, as a way to form new bonds. But some had been between cadets that didn't get along such as; Ymir and Reiner and Eren and Jean. Maybe Shadis believed it would bring them closer, or perhaps he just found it funny.
"Ah, that makes sense. I guess you can't only fight beside people you know." Krista says as they hike through the woods.
Mikasa hummed in agreement but didn't reply otherwise.
They continue to walk in silence for a while, with Krista trying to tempt Mikasa into a few more conversations, all of which are short and slightly awkward. It's during one of these attempts when Krista stops paying attention to her surroundings and trips over an exposed root.
Like a bullet from a rifle, Mikasa's hand shoots out, grabbing Krista's forearm to prevent her fall. But the second contact is made they both go completely rigid, every muscle in Mikasa's body locks solid as what feels like electricity crawls up her arm, to her head.
The forest disappears, leaving only a small wooden house and a man on his knees in front of her, his head is bowed, and his arms were on her shoulders. "Annie… I'm so sorry. I don't expect you to forgive me, but please, please just stand your ground, even if the whole world stands against you, even if every other creature alive comes to hate you, your father will always be on your side... So please. Promise me...that you'll come back!"
More memories follow; a yellow armband, then a red one. A training yard, and a bug being crushed beneath her feet.
Mikasa yanks her arm back, unwittingly allowing Krista to fall. It was him… the man she kept seeing, it was Annie's father. She had heard him.
"M…Mikasa?"
She looked down at Krista, who had rolled over and pushed herself up. She had a cut on her forehead from hitting the ground and was looking around in utter bewilderment.
"His… Krista, you're bleeding, are you okay?"
"What? Wait, Krista? What's going on? Where are we?" her bewildered expression changed to one of apprehension, and Mikasa watched as her hand drifted down to her midsection. The gesture was a protective one, a natural maternal instinct to defend an unborn child.
Such a movement would be reasonable for a pregnant woman to do in a stressful situation but seeing a 14-year-old cadet, in muddy combat overalls, sitting in the middle of a forest doing it was anything but ordinary.
Unless of course, said 14-year-old, wasn't, mentally, 14 anymore…
'No,' Mikasa thought in disbelief, 'it can't be.'
She didn't realise how dry her mouth had become until she tried to speak.
"H…Historia?" she croaked out.
Their eyes met, and time seemed to stop. The older, empty eyes the blond girl now had was enough to confirm Mikasa suspicions.
Somehow, just like herself and Armin, Historia had returned to the past.