-Chapter 4-

"ARE YOU READY TO OFFER YOUR EVERYTHING TO HUMANITY?!" Erwin Smith's strong, booming voice reached all the soldiers' ears as they sat on their horses. A loud, "YES" spread throughout the group and the gates began to open up.

The sky was cloudy that day, of course it was. Mikasa hoped with all her might that it wouldn't rain.

She looked over at Eren, "Please stay close to me."

Before he could answer she said the same thing to Armin, who nodded with a soft look,

"I won't let anything happen to you Armin. It's okay, just remember what I taught you yesterday." Mikasa reassured Armin.

Armin smiled and began to look calm.

The horses began to move forward and adrenaline began to kick in. The land that lay ahead couldn't look drier. The trees without the green leaves looked a bit haunting but that wasn't what was unnerving Mikasa. There was a look on Erwin Smith's face that made her wonder what exactly was waiting for them all. She cleared her mind of all the garbage, worries, and stress. In order to survive in this world, you had to fight and that was exactly what she intended to do. Fight or die trying for Eren and Armin.

The groups began to split into three different ways. Thankfully, she was with Armin and Eren. After a while of simply riding on ahead, they got into a part that had old, ruined houses. They stopped there for a while to wait for a signal that it was safe to keep on going but none came. Had things turned out for the worst again? Slightly, it began to rain when suddenly a black flare appeared. Mikasa took out her blades instantly knowing very well what exactly was coming,

"A deviant titan this fast? Ackerman, make sure it Eren is safe." Levi took out his blades and began to ride, the crew began to follow Levi and Mikasa was towards the back watching over the group.

"Two other black fares! One from our right and one from our left, Levi!" Mikasa called out. She couldn't exactly hear what Levi had said because it had begun to rain.
Where were all of these deviant titans coming from? What was Erwin hiding? Mikasa could feel her blood boiling, waiting to take out a deviant titan as soon as it came.

She turned around, there they were. Two of them, rather large,

"Two of them are approaching, they are rather large! Levi, what are your orders?!" Mikasa yelled through the group,

"Take them out, Ackerman. I'll take the other one-" Suddenly there was another deviant titan that was approaching quickly from behind the group. Mikasa nodded as she began to slow down her horse and waited for the titans to get closer to her.

Of course, they ignored her and went straight past her. They were after Eren where they not? What exactly did Eren have that they needed to have him?

Mikasa fired the 3D maneuver gear towards the feet of the deviant titan. The momentum that she got was more than enough to send her flying up in the air. She began to fall down quickly, which helped her slice enough skin off of the first titan that she was supposed to destroy. Next came a fairly larger one that had not paid a single attention to her as she killed the last titan. She jumped and fired the gear; it sunk onto the lower back of the titan. The cold rain hit her face rather hard as she swung closer to the titan. Releasing the gear's clutches, she went straight ahead towards the neck and she sliced it easily and effortlessly.

"Mikasa!" Armin yelled towards her as he brought her horse,

"Thanks Armin, let's go."

"Good work Ackerman. Damn it. Here comes three more. Let's move! Come on, double speed!"

Mikasa looked behind her. They were pretty far away but they were coming towards them very quickly.
Mikasa went up to Levi,

"Do you know what is going on?"

"No. I just know that we were suspecting for Eren to be seriously attacked." Mikasa's eyes widened with anger,

"Which is why we have a second plan!" Erwin's voice boomed behind her and noticed that they were a considerably larger group.

Armin's eyes widened as he realized what was going on, he always caught on to Erwin's plans rather fast. Mikasa just wanted Eren to be safe, he looked worried, ready to turn into a titan if need be. Was he in on the real plan?

"Hanji!" Erwin called out.
"Alright~! Let's go everyone, our adventures of our day sadly end here~!" Hanji turned around and began to ride towards the titans. Mikasa followed suit and rode behind as she, once again, took her blades out.

"Ohoho, no no Mikasa-chan, we don't need those!" Mikasa put them away and Hanji threw something at her,

"A gallon?"

"Yes, yes! I'm going to need for you to make your way around these titans and pour the liquid all over them! And then you can use this!" She was thrown a metal device that looked like a gun.

Mikasa pressed a button and flames came dancing out. So, they were going to burn them?

"Who knows what will happen?! Hopefully it'll buy us some time!" Hanji laughed joyfully as Mikasa looked at her in a concerned manner.

"You take those two and I'll take the other two that are just appearing! Deal? Okay off we goooo~!" Hanji flew in the air and Mikasa began to follow the given orders. After the titans were on fire, they took a different route so that they wouldn't have to worry about them.

They reached a small abandoned town that looked destroyed. The rain was still coming down fast.

"Let's stop for a small bit here." Erwin ordered as he began to look through the deserted town.

"Darn it, I wanted to see if the fire would do anything to the titans!" Hanji began to whine.

"How are you guys doing?" Mikasa asked Eren and Armin,

"Good. You're doing great Mikasa!" Armin nodded as Eren nodded as well.

"Do you know what's going on Armin? I noticed earlier that you caught on to the plan." Mikasa asked Armin.

"I don't really know what is going on, but I do know that Smith only told Eren, Hanji, and Levi. They still don't know who to trust."

Mikasa nodded, that made plenty of sense-

A large, crumbling sound came from behind them. Mikasa turned around, instinctively moving her horse and getting in front of Eren and Armin.

"RETREAT! EVERYONE RETREAT, TITANS ARE COMING!" Erwin came forth from behind a building and right behind him was a crawling, jumping titan.

"Eren, Armin let's go!"

Mikasa and the rest of the group began to ride away from the town quickly. At the moment she didn't have time to worry why this was happening.

The next few scenes happened slowly in Mikasa's mind, but quickly at the same time. It was how all tragic events happened, wasn't it? Just like when she saw Eren get taken by Annie, it was slow motion for her but at the same time it happened so fast. There was nothing she could do about it just like there was nothing that she could do about the events that were unfolding in front of her.

"MIKASA WATCH OUT-"

Mikasa turned her head to the right as she passed a building and saw the crawling titan jumping towards her direction. She sped up but looked behind to see that Armin and Eren's horses had been hit and within a couple of seconds Mikasa was by their side. Armin was on the floor and he looked unconscious, Eren was bleeding but he seemed alright.

Mikasa quickly got off her horse and began to bring Armin onto her horse.

"Get on- Quickly Eren!" Eren shook his head as he brought his hand up to his mouth. Mikasa pulled him onto the horse,

"The rest of the titans aren't here yet! Once they catch up, I am sure that we'll need you. Please." Mikasa pleaded.

"Ackerman, behind you!" Levi's voice was clear. The jumping titan was coming behind her, there was no space on the horse for her. Not with their 3-D gear.

"No, Mikasa! No, no!" Eren seemed to recognize her thoughts almost instantly as she began to push the horse out of the way.

She would survive; she would always survive for Eren. Fight to survive right? Mikasa shot her gear towards the bottom of a nearby crumbled house. She began to slide quickly towards that direction and slid underneath the jumping titan. As soon as she got to the crumbled house, she shot her gear towards the titan and almost instantly was taken towards it.

'Fight to survive.'

She kept telling herself quietly and confidently. As Mikasa rose in the air to kill the crawling titan, she saw about a dozen of titans coming for her too. Instantly she saw to see if Eren was safe and noticed that they were already far ahead. She smiled lightly at him as she nodded; an angry looking Eren was seen fighting to get back to her.

Reality sunk in as she began to drop towards the titan and her heart dropped. Even if there was only this titan that she had to defeat, there wouldn't be time for them to stop and wait for her to catch up. There were only about 10 soldiers left…the brutal truth was that they needed a distraction. That distraction had been Mikasa, she had chosen that destiny the minute she let Eren and Armin onto her horse.

Once she sliced the neck of the crawling titan she began to make her way into the small town ready to face the incoming titans. She knew she could kill them, she was worth 100 soldiers. She was going to stay alive for as long as she possibly could, for Eren.

The cold rain was still coming down and Mikasa had just finished the last titan. She gasped from pain, her heart was beating fast and her breathing was hard. She had been knocked to the floor a couple of times, she could feel a sharp pain on her ribs but she still hadn't given up. Mikasa made her way slowly towards a house that was somehow still intact. She closed the door and rested on a corner far away from the window. The room looked peaceful. It was oddly still clean and it was almost as if someone had just been there. There was a bed, table and a countertop left; the rest of the house had been diminished somehow. Mikasa suddenly noticed a wooden square on the floor beneath the bed. Mikasa's body began to shake and she realized that more titans had somehow been attracted to this place, the loud thumps where the sound of their steps. Mikasa groaned every time her body shook but she was going to have to see if there was something that could save her life underneath that bed. She could collapse from pain when she was dead.

Mikasa crawled towards the bed and realized that it was locked. She tried not to panic and took a deep breath. Fight to survive. Fight to survive. She firmly told herself and began to look throughout the room to see if she could find a key. She found nothing so she made her way towards the bed. She would have to hide in there, there was no time to try and find another safe building because the titans were now roaming close to that house. She laid there trying to breathe lightly but found it rather difficult with the piercing feeling that accompanied every breath.

"There." Mikasa panted when she saw the key underneath the bed. The titans seemed to be right outside the small house so Mikasa wasted no time. She reached for the key and immediately tried to open the small door, the small home that she was in began to creak and Mikasa knew immediately that it was about to fall down. There was no way that she would survive if the whole house came down on her but she would try until the end.

There was enough room for Mikasa to fit in, so thankfully she wasted no time taking her 3D gear off. As she begun to slide into the opening, a loud crashing noise swept over the room and Mikasa knew she had run out of time. The small home was coming down. Immediately she tried to fit herself in. As the raven haired girl closed the wooden door, she was mortified to see through a small opening that there were dozens of titans wondering about. Mikasa heard the house fall apart, she closed her eyes tightly and hoped that the wooden door was strong enough but doubted it. The loud noises of the titans roaming around and the chaos of the house falling in on itself made it hard for her to think. Suddenly, Mikasa felt an overwhelming crush all over her body and knew that indeed, the wooden door had not been strong enough. Shutting her eyes tightly she managed to spare her last thought to Eren:

Eren. Thank you…for teaching me how to live. Thank you for giving me hope and for being by my side…

And with that, Mikasa felt a cold darkness grow throughout her limp, lifeless body.