For the first time in Mikasa's life, she nearly failed a training exercise. She and Kris… Historia crossed the finish line with barely a minute to spare before sunset, Shadis gives her a strange look, as if he was both confused and almost personally insulted that she had nearly failed such a simple exercise.
His eyes flicked over to the bandages wrapped around Historia's forehead. "Lenz, what happened?" he growled out
"Nothing sir, I just tripped over a tree root."
"Well, with such outstanding observation skills, you might be the first soldier in history to not see the titan about to eat you. Congratulations Lenz, you truly are the generation to save us all." He 'joked' dryly.
"Well, you both passed… just. Fortunately for you, the teams that arrived before you have already set up the tents. Go find one, Dismissed."
She gave the bare minimum response of a salute and a "Sir" before she marched off. She instructed Historia to find a tent away from the others so they could speak privately, while she went looking for Armin. He needed to know what had happened.
She found him sitting by a small campfire with his marching partner Mina, along with Sasha, Connie and Marco. They were all chatting idly, as Sasha skinned, gutted and cooked a recently hunted rabbit for dinner.
Mikasa ignored all of this as she approached Armin, as much as she tried to start trusting the others again, Armin was the only person she felt fully comfortable around. He hadn't changed as all the others had; he was still the same Armin she remembered.
She still remembered when she first met him; she had only been living with the Yeager's for a few days when Eren told her about his blond friend.
"You have to meet him, Mikasa, he's super smart, smarter than most adults! He's really friendly and has all these amazing books that have drawings of the outside world. Come on, I'll introduce you."
They had found him hunched over in an alley, his hair and clothes ruffled up. A book had been thrown some distance away which had several pages ripped out and discarded around the alley.
A pained moan slipped between his gritted teeth as he clutched his bruised ribs.
"ARMIN!" Eren had run toward him, dropping to his knees in front of the small blond. "Was it those arseholes again?! I'm going to find them and beat the crap out of them!" his body shook in barely contained fury.
"N…no" the blond croaks out "They're not worth it Eren."
"Not worth it? They are bullies, Armin, scum. You shouldn't let them walk all over you, Armin. You need to fight back Armin. You can't win if you don't fight back!"
A small pained smile crept onto the blonds face, "I am winning Eren… I'm winning because I'm not running away." Eren had only sighed and shook his head and let the matter drop.
Mikasa didn't understand at first, how could he not fight back? How was allowing yourself to be beaten up 'winning'? When Mikasa had first met Armin in that dirty back alley, she thought he was weak, cowardly and naïve.
She had never been so wrong.
Despite the countless times the bullies targeted Armin; all the times they would beat him, insult him or kicked him to the floor, he would never beg or plead for them to stop, he would never try to bribe them with money or food.
And he never once ran away from them.
It was several weeks after later when she first interacted with Armin without Eren being present. Carla had grounded him that morning for getting into another fight, and she had sent Mikasa out to get some ingredients from the market. As she made her way back from the stalls, she had found Armin, cornered by three bullies in a nearby alley. Both for Eren's sake and her own dislike of the bullies she fought them off before helping the blond boy up.
"Thank you, Mikasa. They seemed to have been offended by my 'heretical' opinions again." He gave a forced laugh trying to make light of the situation.
"Why don't you stand up for yourself, Armin? How is this winning?" she cut off his forced laughter with the question as she gestured towards his torn clothes and bruised face.
He looked at her with an unreadable expression for a few moments. She felt as if she was being weighed and judged.
"Not everyone can be strong like you and Eren, Mikasa. I doubt I will ever be that strong. But that doesn't mean I'm weak; I'm not going run away or change who I am just to appease some small-minded thugs."
"That's why I am winning because I won't live in fear of them."
Whenever she looked back on it, she believed that was the moment when her opinion of Armin began to change. He might not be strong in a conventional manner, but he wasn't weak, and he certainly wasn't a coward.
After that day their friendship grew, he showed her his grandfathers banned books, with drawings of the outside world; Lands of ice, fields of sand and the vast salt-filled oceans. He spoke about how humanity couldn't stay behind these walls forever, that one day they would have to face the titans and reclaim what lay beyond. He told her of his and Eren's dream to one day escape the walls, to visit the ocean and to explore the world. He asked if she wanted to come with them when they finally left.
Before long Armin had become part of her 'family', that small group of people, who as long as they lived, Mikasa would keep fighting no matter the odds. He became the anchor in her life, someone she could always rely on, someone who was always there to pick her up again when Eren said or did something that upset her. Normally it would be a knowing look or a silent squeeze of her shoulder, a sign of solidarity and understanding, and once, just once, he had punched Eren across the face for her.
That memory brought back something else that had been playing in the depths of her mind ever since they 'returned'.
If what Eren told them was true, that she only cared for Eren because she 'imprinted' on him during that day, that meant that Armin was her first real friend. The first person she chose to trust and care for, not because of her blood, or her 'powers' but because she wanted to.
She pushed those thoughts away, now was not the time for her to contemplate her relationship with the blond genius, she had a far more pressing issue to deal with.
"Oh, hey Mikasa, you made it. I was beginning to worry…" the boy in question must have heard her approach and turned around.
"We need to talk. Privately." She didn't wait for him to answer as she grabbed his hand and practically dragged him away from the campfire. She pretended not to hear Sasha's giggles and Connie's suggestive remark and whistle as they left.
Armin was puzzled at Mikasa's unusual behaviour. She was never one to make any kind of scene in front of the other cadets. So, it was surprising when one minute he had been calmly sitting by a campfire and the next she had dragged him off with no explanation and then practically bundled him into one of the outermost tents.
He was about to ask just what the hell was going on when he noticed they weren't the only occupants in the tent.
"Krista?" he asked, still confused about what was happening.
The shorter blond sat upright on top of a sleeping bag, her hands were grasped together and were resting on her stomach, "Hello Armin." She spoke coolly and elegantly, so different from the happy and friendly tone she always had, and yet it was strangely familiar to Armin.
"What? I don't..."
"Armin." Mikasa interrupted softly, "She's just like us."
'She's just like us? Well yeah she's a fellow cadet but what do you mean…' his mind started to race, could it be possible? They had returned, so someone else coming back wasn't unthinkable.
He looked at Mikasa, with the unspoken question clear in his eyes. She gave the smallest nod in response.
His head slowly turned to look at the illegitimate royal.
"It's nice to see you again, Armin. It has been a while."
"Historia" he breathed out her name as if fearing that merely saying the word would cause her to disappear. "How is this possible? When did this happen?"
"I don't know. I was hoping that you could explain. You were always the smart one. As for when, well I think Mikasa could explain that better."
They both turned towards the half Asian girl, who had sat down while they had talked.
"When we were walking through the forest Historia tripped over a tree root, I reached out and grabbed her before she could fall but when I touched her something happened. I froze up, and I had another 'vision', but this one was different. It felt more real than the other times… I heard him Armin, the man. It was her father." Her voice tapered out, a look of contemplation crosses her face as she recalled whatever it was Annie's father had said.
Armin was about to say she didn't have to continue if she didn't want to when Mikasa starting to talk again "When snapped out of it, I let her go by accident and she fell." She gestured towards Historia's head and the bandages wrapping it. "Sorry about that. I don't know how it happened, but whatever caused my 'vision' must have affected Historia as well."
Historia gave a small smile at Mikasa apology, before nodding in agreement with Mikasa's recollection.
"One minute, I was resting on my porch, Johan had asked me to come in as it was getting late. I was about to when I heard an explosion and saw smoke starting to rise only a mile or two downstream. Then I felt lightheaded and dizzy, I collapsed and the next thing I know I was in that forest."
"Then what happened?" Armin queried the two girls.
"After getting over the shock, Mikasa explained to me what the two of you had gotten up to while you've been 'back'. She told me about the plan you two have to deal with the three shifters. Well two now, I suppose."
"But I guess my return will change some of your plans, right Armin?" she asked pointedly.
"Actually, you were always part of the plan, well Krista was."
"You wish for me to become the Queen again." It was a statement, not a question.
Armin's eyes flickered towards Mikasa, they had spoken once about Historia's fate, both had been horrified by it but had viewed it as a necessary evil for the situation Paradise was in at the time.
They wouldn't allow that to happen again.
"No, we won't let that happen again if you don't want to."
Historia looked surprised by this, her wide eyes locked onto his. Clearly, she hadn't expected that.
"We can take down the government another way, but there is something that we need you for Historia. If we are going to have any chance of winning this war against Marley, we will need as many shifters as possible either on our side or at least not on Marley's. We already have Eren, and now Mikasa. Soon we will get the Armoured and Colossal, but there is still one more shifter on this island. One who is loyal only to you."
"Ymir" Historia whispered her name. "She's alive."
"You were the only one she seemed to care for Historia, and she only revealed her abilities when you were in danger. You don't need to become the Queen this time; we just need you to keep Ymir on our side."
Historia looked completely shaken, she must have already resigned herself to going through the same fate again; she could have never guessed this would be Armin's plan.
"I… I" she started before an argument from outside the tent interrupted her.
"Good job idiot, this is your fault. Now we have to do this all again."
"My fault?! How is this my fault?"
"You had the map dumbass."
"And you didn't listen to my directions! You just wandered off the wrong way!"
"Whatever moron, why don't you go find your lanky boyfriend and leave me alone."
The three of them left the tent in time to see Reiner storming away from Ymir, muttering something under his breath. Historia has frozen at the sight of Ymir as she stood there smirking at Reiner's retreating back.
She turned and smiled when she spotted Historia. "Krista, baby. There you are, I was wondering…" she wasn't able to finish the sentence before a blond cannonball slammed into her midsection.
Historia had wrapped her arms around Ymir and was holding on for dear life. Tears started to leak from her eyes as she buried her face into Ymir's chest.
"Krista! What wrong, what happened to your head?" Ymir's eyes locked onto Mikasa, blazing with anger. "What did you do to my Krista?!"
"Nothing, stupid." Historia voice was muffled by Ymir's body "Nothing's wrong, not anymore. I missed you, that's all, I missed you so much."
Ymir was obviously confused about what was happening, but she was never one to reject Historia's physical contact. She wrapped her arms around the crying blond completing the hug. "I missed you too, babe. Don't worry, next time Shadis tries to split us up, I'll tell him where he can shove his training exercise instead."
Armin couldn't help but smile, both at the scene before him and at how this would benefit the plan. He was happy for Historia, he knew she cared deeply for Ymir and if everything went as planned Ymir would stay by her side, and the two of them might be able to carve out some happiness in this cruel world.
He also knew that with Historia firmly on their side, that Ymir would be as well. The Jaws titan may be one of the smallest titans, but its ability to shatter titan crystals would be of great benefit to them.
With Ymir and Eren or Mikasa working together they could easily take down the Armoured Titan. Ymir could tear off chunks of its armoured plating, and the other shifter could target these exposed areas. With Ymir, they wouldn't need the thunder spears to deal with Reiner.
'Yes,' his smile widened 'things are going just as planned.'