Hi everyone, i got another chapter ready and once again it was wonderfully edited by SmittiMJC. I really cant wait for feedback on this chapter as this was my favorite to write. i really hope you like it guys enjoy the read.

Chapter 6: Breaking

Armin had known his injury was bad, the nurses often informed him of what bones were broken and in what way. Even so the information had honestly gone over his head. He had never read anything related to the medical field, but he was intelligent enough to know why it required several months to heal. Despite being armed with this foreknowledge, when he let himself fall to the side of the bed the pain that erupted in his body was unlike anything he had ever experienced and it tore from his throat a scream that seemed to last forever.

For the first time Armin could feel how bad his injury was. It was far more than medical textbook jargon, the sensation. It was a feeling unattributed to mere words. Foreign to every part of his body he needed to move him forward. But still, he moved.

He inhaled and exhaled to calm down, hoping the pain would eventually subside. In hindsight, he realized that maybe he should have looked for some sort of leverage to stand himself up. After all he did have one working leg that he could have used. He crawled to the door and each movement continued to send jolts of pain in not only his leg, but his entire body. When he was an arms width away he pushed his torso off the floor and with his free arm he mustered as much strength as he could, took hold of the knob and used it to stand himself up.

He almost fell again as he unconsciously put weight on his injured leg, resulting in more pain. Regaining balance, he panted as he opened the door, his entire weight on one leg. He began to hop slowly, making sure to stick close to the walls of the hallway to keep himself upright. Even without weight on his injured leg the pain was overwhelming and he was sure that he was increasing his recovery time with every step he took, but he had to do it. He couldn't explain the reasons why but he had to and he would. Armin reached the end of the medical hall and opened the door.

"Mikasa..." He took a step and stumbled. Once again weight fell on his injured leg and Armin let out a grunt of anguish. He refused to scream.

He took another step. "Annie..." He almost blacked out for a moment but somehow he remained conscious.

He continued to walk. each step was more agonizing than the last but, he pressed forward.

Eren Jaeger was frantic as he searched for his adopted sister. Where the hell could she be? And why the hell had she just run off like that!? Eren shook his head to clear it of stray thoughts. The reasons why did not matter right now. Armin had told him to find Mikasa urgently, so this had to be urgent.

He continued to run when he spotted two female forms walking down the hall. He recognized them immediately. "Sasha, Mina, have you seen Mikasa?"

Mina shook her head, while Sasha shrugged. "No we haven't seen her. She might be in her room, we can call her for you." Mina offered, but Eren had already started running towards the female dorms, giving the two girls a thank you over his shoulder.

"Wait, you can't go over there that's the girl's section!"

Eren didn't hear Sasha's shout.

Annie had once heard the phrase 'Unstoppable force meets an Immovable object' and she had a feeling that it described the situation perfectly. Mikasa was radiating an aura of red hot rage while, she was emanating an icy fury. She always wanted to put the dog in her place, prove that she was superior. Annie refused to accept that all the training, all the blood sweat and tears that she had put into her fighting ability was second to some girl. A girl who in her opinion had even less personality than her, was dependent, obsessive, arrogant, unpleasant and somehow was better than her.

Annie was not an overly prideful person, but she refused to submit to Mikasa Ackerman.

One moment both of them were still, but the next they were moving. Annie began to dodge as fast as she could, Mikasa's inhumanly rapid punches making her back away. She knew that the only reason she was avoiding these strikes were because of her sharp instincts rather than her ability to actually see the incoming blows.

Annie dodged again, thanking whatever god out there that the oriental girl was all rage right now and was applying no thought to her attacks.

But she was no fool. She knew that in terms of strength, Mikasa had her beat. If she had any chance of winning she had to rely on her skills rather than brute force.

Annie dodged another punch- a straight right- and used the opportunity to grapple the limb and flip Mikasa over her shoulder.

She expected no less when Mikasa recovered, flipping in the air and landing on her feet, then launching a kick at her abdomen. Annie back-stepped, causing Mikasa to miss by mere inches. The blonde could even feel the heat from the speed of the kick.

'An opening!' She thought.

In the time Mikasa took to regain her balance from her missed strike, Annie was already on her, connecting a straight left hook with Mikasa's jaw. Annie didn't get to enjoy digging her fist into Mikasa's skull for long as the Asian girl contorted her body enough to drive her knee into Annie's exposed torso.

Both staggered back at the force of each others blow.

Mikasa righted herself and glared at Annie.

Annie fixed herself back into her stance.

Annie had never felt a hit so strong. If she hadn't trained her body for so long and was not in top physical condition, her internal organs could have been rearranged.

They maintained eye contact with each other, silently acknowledging what the last exchange was.

A warm up.

Mikasa charged again, coming in low.

Annie realized in a split second that she was trying to pin her.

She almost smiled. If she wanted to play that game then she would happily indulge her.

She met Mikasa halfway, both their open fists clashing before closing around each other. Their battle turning into a stalemate. Their gazes interlocked, and Annie gritted her teeth when Mikasa's eyes lit up, renewed with the recent knowledge that she clearly had the advantage of strength.

Unfortunately for Mikasa, Annie was not here to compare muscles with her.

In one swift movement Annie shifted her weight, causing Mikasa to lose her footing.

It was just what Annie needed.

The oriental girl stumbled forward and Annie used the opportunity to snake her way around Mikasa and position herself from behind. Swiftly, she grabbed Mikasa's arm and let her weight go causing them both to fall to the ground.

Annie was clearly in the advantageous position, as she now had Mikasa pinned beneath her, a firm grip on her right arm. She twisted it in a tight awkward angle, effectively trapping her.

"Give up, Ackerman."

"I won't let you win..."

Mikasa struggled in Annie's grasp.

"Don't do anything stupid, Ackerman. I can break your arm, and you could be following Armin out of here." She increased the pressure, causing Mikasa to groan in pain. "But then again you're not like him are you? Top of the class, perfect Mikasa. They'll keep you around as long as it takes till your all better."

All it would take was one push, one last burst of strength from her, and Mikasa's bone would crack.

"That's the kind of screwed up world we live in, Mikasa."

Annie felt Mikasa jerk, The oriental girl clenched her jaw and with all her strength began to push back.

Annie's eyes widened considerably as her grip on Mikasa was met with more resistance than she imagined anyone was capable of having in a situation like this.

"I don't want a terrible person like you, telling me about the world."

Annie was shocked when Mikasa continued to push, even when the blonde was using all her strength.

"You don't have anyone to save you from yourself, Annie."

Annie felt rage stir in her, and she used it to tighten her grip, but Mikasa continued to push back.

"You're alone..."

Mikasa's words poured a stillness over her, muscles and mind. She froze.

Alone.

A split second of vulnerability, of weakness, was all Mikasa needed to escape.

Seeing that she had lost her only advantage, Annie rolled away and climbed to her feet to reform her stance.

As she did so, Mikasa gave her arm a few cautionary stretches to test the damage. Nothing broken, and nothing dislocated.

She was good to go.

"I find it funny that you of all people think you know what kind of person I am..." Annie stated beginning a careful advance on Mikasa's position, taking small, steady, and deliberate steps.

Annie and Mikasa began to circle each other in the hallway, both their defenses up. "When this is over, you will know exactly the type of person I am."

When she was close enough Annie launched a lightning fast kick aimed at Mikasa's lower leg. It was the fastest offensive technique in her repertoire, most people would not be able to even see it.

But Mikasa Ackerman was not most people, and she managed to freaking catch it.

"Goddammit." was all Annie managed to get out before Mikasa slammed her into the nearby wall. Pain exploded on the back of her head, temporarily dazing her. Out of instinct Annie put up her guard, crossing her arms over her face. She was lucky she did as Mikasa began to rain blows down on her.

Each hit was pure agony, The girl's strength really was unfair sometimes. It shouldn't be humanly possible to be this strong.

Annie gritted her teeth, fed up with being used as a punching bag. She pushed off from the wall, bringing Mikasa along with her. Mikasa was startled by her sudden counter and Annie took the second her reaction allotted to grab Mikasa's shirt and pull, at the same time she unleashed a knee strike to Mikasa's abdomen. She could hear the other girl gasp in pain as the air was unwillingly discharged from her lungs, a small amount of spit and blood being forced from her mouth alongside the evicted air. Annie was glad to know that finally one of her strikes seemed to phase her.

They came apart and Mikasa backed away clutching her stomach. Annie didn't get to enjoy her victory for very long as she felt her knee start to throb. It was like she had just kicked a steel pipe.

What the hell was this girl made of!?

Annie didn't have time to think anything further as Mikasa was already back on her feet, charging at her with a war cry. Annie should have avoided the assault, but the unexpected ache in her knee slowed her down just enough for Mikasa to plow right into her.

The two females crashed unceremoniously through a nearby window.

There was a sharp but shrill splintering of noise behind her as the glass gave in under their combined weight. Rather then lingering on the pain of said glass, Annie couldn't help but think of how familiar the sound was.

Eren, ran in the direction of the cafeteria. He would have to avoid several of the female trainees for the next couple days as he learned the hard way that busting down doors yelling 'Mikasa' in the girls section was a recipe for disaster.

He turned a corner and let out a breath of relief as came upon his destination.

Some of the trainees might still be in the cafeteria. One of them might have seen where Mikasa went!

Eren burst into the room, startling several people."Guys have any of you seen Mikasa? It's important!"

Connie, who was now playing chess with Ymir and losing miserably, simply pointed in the direction of the training ground.

"Check around there."

"Checkmate." Ymir said, clearly bored.

Connie turned around to the board "Are you shitting me!?"

He flipped the board dramatically as Ymir cackled.

Eren, had not paused for the exchange. He thanked Connie and ran off in the direction he had pointed to, but everyone including Eren stopped in their tracks when the distant sound of broken glass pierced the air.

"Damn it, Armin. Why are you always right!" Eren ran faster, hoping that he could stop whatever was happening.

Armin really hoped this didn't kill him. He was almost positive that it wouldn't, but he really didn't want to go around testing his own mortality. He had been on the verge of passing out for the last 10 minutes but he hadn't. His mind refused to let his body succumb to the pleasant bliss of unconsciousness, not while his friends could possibly be hurting each other.

"Come on, Armin, just a little further." he said to himself.

He had surmised that Annie would be either in her room or around the vicinity of the training area. His mind had told him that she was most likely in her room, getting rest and enjoying her day off. But his body had guided him in the direction of the training ground. Luckily there was a hallway that led directly from the medical room to the training area, but it was slow going.

"If I keep it up, maybe I can reach them." Armin really hoped that when he got there that everything was fine and dandy, but he knew there was almost zero chance of that happening. Mikasa was not the most reasonable person when it came to protecting her friends, add on the fact that this was Annie Leondhart of all people only made things that much worse. His observant mind had picked up the tension between Mikasa and Annie from day one. He had a few guesses why they seemed to not like each other, but it was all speculation on his part. The simple fact was that their personalities clashed. Armin didn't want to see what the outcome would be if something else besides their egos went head to head.

Those thoughts sped him on, his torment increasing along with his speed.

Annie stood up shakily. Her head hurt, hell, her entire body was on fire. She did a mental assessment of her condition. She was probably bruised all over, and she would be feeling that slam against the wall for at least a week, but other than that nothing was broken.

She brushed her hair away, the thing becoming a nuisance as it was let loose from it's usual tight bun. Annie took a look at Mikasa and smirked at what she saw. A long gash was visible on her left leg, blood trickling from it and onto the ground. Mikasa was shifting her weight to her right, avoiding putting extra stress on her injury. Annie figured that a piece of jagged glass had done the damage when she had tackled the both of them out the window.

"Bad luck, eh Ackerman?"

Mikasa grunted and spit out some blood from her mouth. "Not done yet..." her voice was still calm despite her injury and her wrath.

For the fourth time that day, Annie positioned herself back into her fighting stance.

"I'm going to make you regret this, Ackerm-"

Annie froze, her eyes widening in shock.

Mikasa had slowly but surely formed her stance, her father's stance. The one she had slaved over for years! Did Mikasa plan to use her kick against her as some sort of message?

"You..." Annie couldn't even begin to express the all encompassing fury that she felt in that exact moment.

Mikasa adjusted, so her right foot was slightly in front of her left. "Me..." She mocked in return. The Asian knew exactly what she was doing, and she was enjoying it.

Annie would have unleashed all hell on the girl if she hadn't noticed something, Mikasa was telegraphing her moves, Annie had trained for so long with this particular form that she knew every detail about it. If Mikasa had really just copied her, then the oriental girl had unknowingly given Annie the advantage. As Annie stared, she could already tell, the kick was coming from the right.

But one fact above all was that Mikasa's left leg was injured. Annie knew Mikasa was not dumb, she would never in her right mind attack her with that leg that was bleeding like a river.

Mikasa was fast, the fastest person she had ever seen, but if Annie could see it coming then it would be her victory. Her reassuring thoughts calmed her.

Mikasa had made the mistake of underestimating her and her intelligence.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Annie moved in, her guard up. All the while Mikasa slowly got into her position and Annie put all her senses into countering the incoming kick, knowing that if she did, her victory was all but guaranteed.

She was completely ready to catch the kick as soon as she had closed the distance between them, her mouth nearly watering to taste the sweet nectar of victory when she finally pinned Mikasa to the ground and claimed superiority.

But none of that happened.

Annie had just been hit with a devastating left kick.

She couldn't contain the surprise or the suffering from her face as her body curled into Mikasa's leg. A squirt of blood coming from the oriental girl's torn open limb as it made contact with Annie's ribs.

Annie spun and flew from the impact, tumbling against the ground painfully and finally landing in a heap.

Silence followed, the only sound being heard was the almost simultaneous heavy breathing coming from Mikasa and Annie.

Annie had barely managed to keep conscious from the blow and had Mikasa's leg not been sliced up she knew that several of her ribs would've possibly cracked.

Annie laughed quietly, bitterly to herself.

The stance, the injury- Mikasa had used it and outsmarted her. The worst part of it all was that she had lost because Mikasa hadn't underestimated her intelligence, but counted on it. She didn't know whether to be mad or happy about that.

It was her loss, utterly and completely her loss.

"You lose, now g-go apologize."

Mikasa swayed then dropped to her knee.

"Annie!"

Her grogginess, her pain- even her semi conscious state seemed to clear up in an instant as she heard her name.

It was Armin and he was peeking his head from the window she and Mikasa had crashed through. He took a long look at her, his features trading torment for relief.

"You're alright..."

Annie, on the other hand, could not believe what she was seeing. Had Armin walked over here? Last time she checked one of his legs were broken. It should not have been possible for him make it here all on his own.

"How did you...?"

The look of relief vanished on Armin's face though when he saw his childhood friend. "Mikasa! You're hurt!"

"Armin?" It seemed even Mikasa was having trouble figuring out how he got there.

"Mikasa!" The loud shout could be heard by all three of them.

"Eren..."Mikasa whispered.

"Mikasa!"

This time they could hear multiple footsteps. Eren arrived, several members of the 104th following behind him.

"Whoa..." Connie whispered in awe at the destruction,

"Did Mikasa and Annie just fight!?" Jean exclaimed in disbelief.

"Armin!? What are you doing here?" Eren went to his best friend's side and let Armin lean against him as he was clearly struggling to stand up.

"Hey...Eren...you were kind of slow." Armin laughed a bit.

"Reiner!" Eren barked " Go help Mikasa, I'll help Armin back to his room."

The bulky blonde nodded and avoiding loose glass, climbed over the window, making his way to the brunette.

"No..." There was the sound of broken glass being stepped on before Annie also vaulted over the broken window and back into the hallway.

"I'll do it..." She locked gazes with Eren.

Eren was hesitant at first, not willing to let an injured person carry another injured person, but he knew it was for the best. Mikasa looked like she was bleeding pretty badly and Annie would not have asked if she thought she couldn't handle it.

"Alright, fine," He gently laid Armin on Annie.

She could feel the heat of his blush, "Sorry, Annie."

She made sure to have all his weight on her, and began to take him back to the medical room. "It's fine..."

She was heading for the Medical area anyway and the day had drained her of all her energy, so she kept the talking to a minimum.

She didn't even notice Mikasa staring at her back as she walked away.

They were both chewed out like there was no tomorrow, Keith Shadis, the frightening instructor of the trainee academy had laid it on them. There was screaming, and punishments were lined up for both of them for at least a few months.

"My two best recruits acting like stupid monkeys! Since when have I ever condoned turning on each other like this!? I am going to make examples out of you two, when I'm done nobody will think twice about beating the shit out of each other like you two again. Understand maggots!?"

"Yes, sir." Mikasa and Annie answered together. They were still dressed In the same attire that they had fought in, bandages scattered about their bodies. Annie rubbed her throbbing ribs and flinched. Even the simplest touches were painful. Mikasa was on the bed to her right, her leg wrapped up tightly. Annie figured the gash must have been shallow as none of the nurses fretted over it while they were treating her.

Keith Shadis calmed down just a bit and spoke without screaming at them for once "You two are among my best recruits, you have bright futures in the military, do not jeopardize that."

"Yes, sir."

"We already lost our brightest In Arlert! Do not make me lose my strongest too."

Annie mentally scoffed 'like you would ever let us go.'

"Yes, sir."

"And Leondhart, I'm disappointed to see you once again in the middle of something! Straighten yourself out trainee!"

"Yes sir." she was really getting tired of saying that. Couldn't he just say what he wanted and leave?

"And you Ackerman, you're lucky your reckless behavior had not resulted in a more serious injury! When you are healed up, you report directly to me Ackerman. I'll deal with you personally!"

Keith gave them each long looks then walked out of the door without another word.

The silence that followed was tense, Annie felt irritated as she stared at the ceiling. Did the idiots at the academy lack the common sense to realize that putting two people who had just fought each other in the same room was not a good idea, or were they even more clueless and stupid than she thought they were.

"I'm sorry..."

Now that was the last thing she had expected to come out of Mikasa Ackerman's mouth.

"What?"

"I said you didn't care about anyone, but you do care. You're just a very convincing liar."

'Enough to convince you but not him...' she thought.

"And you're not alone...I think you can see that."

Annie said nothing, not really knowing how to respond to what Mikasa was saying

"I still don't like you..." Mikasa stated blandly.

Annie rolled her eyes "Likewise."

The door suddenly squeaked open and Reiner along with Bertholdt came into the room, They gave Mikasa a quick hello then went to stand at her bedside.

She paid them no attention, but in her mind she was wondering what the hell those two were doing.

Bertholdt waved at her while Reiner smiled awkwardly, "So how you feeling?"

"What do you want?"

"Nothing, we um...we just wanted to see how you were doing that's all." Bertholdt explained nervously.

She nodded, she could live with that.

She thought they would make their way out, but she raised an eyebrow when they remained in place.

"So..." Reiner began to fidget and Annie could tell he was struggling to find something to say to her. It wasn't like she had long, gripping conversations with them.

"...I guess the wedding is off-mmph!"

Reiner Braun collapsed courtesy of the vicious punch he had just received from Annie Leonhardt.

Yeah annie lost the fight, i hope i did both girl's justice. as i was writing this there were times where things just got to an extreme level and i had to stop and reread it and be like "Holy shet they are killing each other". so tell me what you guys think of this chapter! =)

SmittiMJC: ha thank you, Reiner really is an awesome friend, i wanted to show that, and i wanted to show interactions between the 104th since there is not enough of those.

chromate: like i would ever stop a mikasa annie fight lol =). as for ymir and krista...well youll see

istaylazy: Zhe fight is my friend XD!

MostardaProductions: i hoped it lived up to your expectations. i dont know about secondary couples, if it comes off that way is not intentional. the romance i write wil focus on Aruani mostly.

Pansy25: lol no prob, yeah poor bertholdt, its never easy thinking the person u like wants someone else. hoped u like the fight!

Brook Uchiha Daughter of Zeus: boy did they fight!

Kage Kitsune No Yami: it did get ugly lol,

VulpineSnow: well i dont want to spoil things but annie is a complicated person so we will see what changes as the story progresses.

waterxeno: i was laughing when i wrote it lol, and yes there needs to be more ArminxAnnie in my opinion =)

MariiDii: The spanish speaker! im really flattered that you take the effort to translate my story in order to read it. thank you =)