"This changes everything," Hanjii said. The longer they spoke, the faster they moved, and the faster that they moved the more that they spoke. Mikasa could barely move her eyes fast enough to keep up with them.

Though the crystal, which had seemed so heavy in her hands, was now gone (Hanjii having long since grabbing it out of Mikasa's hand) and her palms empty, she still felt weighed down. The world seemed to bear itself down on her shoulders, and the room dark room she was in seemed to grow smaller and smaller the longer that Mikasa stood in it. Hanjii hardly seemed to notice the walls closing in around the two, or three if Annie counted.

Annie, who still lay hidden behind a wall of crystal, eyes closed and lips turned down.

Mikasa couldn't be sure how long she had been in the room. Hanjii had woken her up, gasped at the sight of the crystal, and torn it from her hands. Since then, they had been moving around the room, muttering to themself and yet loud enough to wear Mikasa could hear them.

Loud, so very, very loud.

Perhaps even Annie could hear Hanjii's words.

Mikasa froze, her eyes again locking on the crystal.

The more the room tightened, the closer that the two were.

Isn't that what she wants? Mikasa thought, looking back. She always seemed to come back to the blonde, even when she did not want to, as if Annie herself were making her do it.

And she would only do it if that was what Annie truly wanted.

"Mikasa!"

Mikasa turned. Her heart beat against her rib cage - so loud, so very, very loud. Could Annie hear it? Did it echo inside her crystalline cage?

"Mikasa, how did you get this? How?" Hanjii's eyes gleamed, and they stepped closer and closer to her. "Mikasa, I can't even begin to describe how fantastic this is. Whatever you did could really help us. Erwin and Levi will be so pleased to hear this." One word tumbled out of Hanjii's mouth after the other. "Please tell me, Mikasa. I must know!"

"I," Mikasa stammered. Her hands shook, her sweaty palms vibrating. "I don't know."

"Mikasa-"

"I don't know!"

For a moment, there was silence, neither moving.

"Was it a knife?" Hanjii asked. "A sword? Did you crack it slowly or did it all come off at once? Could it have just fallen off of the crystal?"

The moment one word was in Mikasa's ear, the next was quickly forced out. "I don't know. I just woke up and it was... It was there, in my hands."

Right where Annie had left it.

She closed her eyes, blocking the room from her vision. Yes, Annie had given it to her, right after the two had been in the field.

The field...

The field with the big trees and the endless sea of long, green and yellow grass. The field where Annie had been, smiling and looking as if she had never been bruised in a fight before. She had seemed so unusually happy, and her unexplainable joy had only increased when she saw Mikasa.

Mikasa forced her eyes open. The feeling of grass tickling her legs disappeared and the small breeze stopped tickling her face.

She was back, in that dark room with Hanjii. The walls were even smaller than before.

"Mikasa, what's going on?" Hanjii's voice had risen even higher. Their face was crinkled and eyes wide, locked on her. "You've been acting so strange lately. Both Eren and Armin mentioned it to me. Is something the matter?"

"I, I-" Mikasa stepped back. How could she finish that sentence? Every thought left her mind, flying off and leaving her brain empty. There was no rational thought here, and could not be. Not when the walls were closing in, not when Annie was so close...

She turned.

She ran.

Annie would have stiffened if she could. The scent of Mikasa had faded from the air, until there was so little of it that it was hard to tell if she had ever been there.

Come back, Annie thought. Had she had the strength, perhaps she would have tried to run after her. But it was so much easier to simply let Mikasa inside than to break through the crystal itself. And after all the energy she had used the night before...

There was still a strong scent in the air, dirt and sweat mixed together. Even the loud, frantic footsteps alone alerted Annie of who was there.

She could just faintly feel Hanjii running their fingers over the surface of the crystal, sending small waves running through its inside. They had been going at it for sometime ever since Mikasa had left.

"But there's no cracks," she faintly heard them say. Their words shifted, more like sounds strung together than words. It was like when she had been younger and accidentally fallen into a lake. A few of her friends had cried for help, their words, seemingly so far away and spoken in such a strange way, filling her ears as water had filled her lungs. It wasn't until her father had dove in and pulled her out that she had she had heard things correctly again.

Her father-

She could still see him, younger than before, without the wrinkles that had slowly begun to fill his face years later. Back then, both had known how to smile. Her father had been strong then, and hadn't needed her to be strong for him.

Not yet.

Mikasa, Annie thought, struggling to tear the images of her father from her brain. Mikasa! Mikasa! Come back! Come back!

"No fragments," Hanjii continued.

Annie kept screaming, filling her head with words and images. Mikasa's face, which had been so close to hers only hours before, when her breath had hovered against Annie's neck, was at the very front of her mind. If she could just focus on it...

Eventually, the waves stopped, and Hanjii's footsteps moved away. Silence descended on the room, and eventually even the smell of sweat and dirt vanished.

Mikasa breathed in once, then out once again. Her mother had taught it to her years before as a calming technique.

"Do it like this," her mother had said. A smile had crossed her pale, pretty face, and her dark eyes had never looked away from Mikasa. "I can't say that it will fix everything, but it should help you, especially when I'm not there."

Mikasa breathed in again, letting the familiar scent of wool fill her nose. Her red scarf, the oldest thing she owned, was wrapped around her nose and mouth. With it so close to her face, it was hard to ignore the way that the color had faded over time and the loose strands of yarn that were beginning to come undone. Had Carla been around, perhaps she could have fixed it; she had made it herself, and even made her a matching hat one cold winter. The hat was gone by then, Mikasa having long since outgrown it.

Mikasa breathed out. She would do it again and again at least until her heart stopped racing. As her mother had said, it couldn't fix everything. Still, it was all that she had.

If I just relax, Mikasa thought, then perhaps I can leave the city. There have to be other places I can go, places that need help.

Maybe she would go where Sasha was stationed. Were there Titans there? Mikasa had heard rumors, and whether or not they were true didn't matter. Not any longer, when just about any other place in the world seemed better.

If she ran, then she could escape, to a place free of Annie. To a place where she could truly fight and truly help people.

Surely Eren and Armin want to leave, Mikasa thought. With the way things are going, the Survey Corps probably don't even need us around. Not when they have so many problems of their own to deal with.

As soon as relief entered her body, a warm fire filling her chest, it was quickly extinguished. The Survey Corps was not about to give up Eren, not when he had the chance to answer the thousands of questions he had. He was their only Titan Shifter, and they would sooner let another wall fall than see him go.

Armin? Hanjii seemed to have grown a liking for him, complimenting him and asking for help.

Mikasa?

Mikasa knew who she was.

All that time trying to be the very best, the top of your group, she thought. All that time trying to be unbeatable, to protect the people you love and care for... All that time and you can't even protect yourself.

Mikasa took another breath in; for the longest time, she did not let it out.