She was taken to very big, very pretty room, there were paintings on the walls beside a long table with more chairs than Mina could count on her fingers, on the table were a jar with many pretty flowers - her mommy once told her the correct word for it, but Mina always forgot. At the very end of the table sat Miss Historia and the lady who took care of her the night before. When they noticed the guards beside her they waved them away.

"Good morning, Mina, will you come and sit with us?" Miss Historia asked, a warm smile on her face - it made Mina feel safe. The six year old made her way over to the chair beside Miss Historia, the lady from before sitting across from her. "Are you hungry?" She asked next and Mina wrapped her arms around her small stomach, nodding shyly.

"Breakfast will be served soon." The other lady finally spoke, she seemed preoccupied with a paper, but looked up to wink at Mina.

"Excuse me, miss.." Mina stuttered shyly, catching the dark-haired woman's attention again. "What may I call you?" Although she didn't mean to say something funny, the lady let out a bark of laughter, Miss Historia also letting out a small chuckle.

"Your Mommy sure taught you manners huh? Call me Ymir. I know it's a bit hard to pronounce, but if you struggle you can just call me Mir." She offered but Mina was already burning with another painful question.

"You knew my mommy?" She asked the two, who glanced at each other before answering.

"Child, did your mother ever tell you about what she was like before she had you?" Miss Historia asked and Mina shook her head 'no.' "Well, you see, she was in the same training class as Ymir and I. She fought Titans with us, to protect people. After we chose our sides we found out that she was a titan too - and that she had betrayed us. When people do bad things like that they need to be punished, but, your mom tried to run instead. She escaped after many many years and we had just found her location yesterday-"

When Mina looked confused, Ymir butted in. "We knew her a long, long time ago, she did bad things, but that doesn't mean she was always a bad guy, she raised you, and you are a good kid." She explained much more simply - Miss Historia seemed thankful.

They ate with small conversation, Mina discovered that Ymir was married to Miss Historia, and that made her a queen, and that Ymir was much older than miss Historia, even if she looked much younger. She discovered that she was going to be going to a place where another of their friends could take care of her and where she could be safe. She discovered that the thing from before was called a 'vase'.

When the guards came to take her away, both miss Historia and Ymir hugged her tightly and promised to visit her - Mina cried again but let the guards take her without a fight. For the second time in two days she was sitting on a horse while being taken to some scary unknown place, people staring at her with looks of plain hatred. Mina closed her eyes for the rest of the way. When they finally stopped, it was in front of a scary brick building and she was carried inside by the man from before.

They were greeted by an excitable woman with beautiful black hair. "Oh put the poor kid down!" She ordered the guards, bending down to look Mina in the eyes once she was on the ground again. "Hey there, I'm Hikari Zoë, you must be Mina, I have a little girl that looks to be your age - maybe you can be friends!" She stated cheerfully, but Mina just felt scared, her stomach rolling. "Come on, I'll show you to your room." She then ordered, holding out a hand for Mina to take. It was something her mommy used to do too.

She was lead down some stairs to a dark room, half of it was separated by iron bars, behind them was a bed with a table and chair next to it, with a few empty shelves scattered around the makeshift room. Really high up, there were broken chains fixed to the wall, there were some on the floor too - Mina wondered who was kept there before her - and if it was a bad guy.

"I know it doesn't look like much now, but I have some people going to pick up your stuff from your old room." Hikari said positively, looking down at Mina somewhat sadly. She leaned down again, to be in equal height with the small child. "Look, you've done nothing wrong, okay? You're not being punished, but your mom was very powerful and we don't know anything about you - people are scared of you, so they want you to be in the.." She paused, sighing. Instead of finishing her sentence, she hugged the child, scooping her up and letting her rest on her hip. "Is there anything you want from home?" She asked.

"My Mommy's books, as many as I can get, and the plant in her room. And my toys, please?" Mina mumbled from where her face was buried in Hikari's hair. The woman chuckled, louder when Mina hastily added 'and our blankets!'

/

It was a week later when Mina had first met Hikari's kid, woman had brought her along to meet Mina, and even let her go into Mina's room. Rosa was very much like her mom, her hair was black and somewhat messy, her eyes were bright and excited and the first thing she did was bound right up to Mina to give her a tight hug. The two were fast friends, so it wasn't long before the visits became an every day occurrence, with the two sitting on Mina's bed, talking or playing while Hikari watched over them.

"My mommy said that your mommy was a titan." Rosa had brought up one day, catching her mother's attention. Mina nodded at the question, still playing with the stuffed horse in her hands. "So does that mean you can also do titan things?" Mina looked up, thinking on it.

"I dunno, maybe, when I broke my arm last year, mommy said that it healed really fast." Unbeknownst to them, Hikari was scribbling this down in her journal, hoping to hear more on the subject she was disappointed however, when her daughter chose the wrong part of Mina's answer to focus on.

"Oh no! Did it hurt a lot? What happened?"

"Yes, I cried a lot, it was very scary. I fell of our horse, riding one without a saddle is really hard." Mina supplied, and that was the end of it - the two becoming distracted with their game.

Hikari liked to think that she was good with children, her own kid loved her, but she was never quite sure how to act around Mina, what to ask, how to ask it. When she had reported back to Queen Historia with very little information, the Queen had urged her to speed up her investigations. Many people were still on edge about the child, and needed more answers to what she was capable of than 'subject shows signs of accelerated healing.' So it was with a heavy heart that she started testing Mina - less like a child and more like a subject.

Rosa was a godsend for most of these tests, her daughter was Mina's personal cheerleader, even taking some tests with her. The first was just a simple endurance test, her mother was known for it after all. Rosa was healthy for her age, and had average endurance, but Mina? She ran laps around the field for hours more than Rosa, it seemed that her healing was indeed helping her endurance - allowing the child to push her limits over and over again. When she had finally stopped - it was because she had become dizzy. She had burnt as much energy as she could without collapsing.

Queen Ymir had visited sometime after this test, and listened with great interest as Mina excitedly told her about it, it warmed Hikari's heart - many of their circle knew by now how Ymir had longed for a child for many years, and seeing how she acted around Mina, it was bittersweet.

Ymir's visit seemed to motivate the child though, the next test - strength - had Mina pushing herself even further than before. Rosa was stronger than Mina, lifting more, having more strength behind her punches and kicks. Mina had become frustrated by her lack of strength though, and had pushed a bit too hard, allowing another test. The child broke her wrist during the test, and Hikari monitored her healing - it was very much like a Titan's, her wrist even steaming lightly. The next meeting with the Queen was supervised by a greying woman with a blood red scarf. Hikari had never had the opportunity to meet Mikasa Ackerman before then and she wished she hadn't.

Mikasa was serious, intense, she radiated power despite her age and demanded that she be allowed to observe the next tests with Mina. Really Historia couldn't refuse her - but Hikari wished she had. Mikasa was unsettling - terrifying - and ever since Annie Leonhardt killed Eren, rumours stated that she was even somewhat erratic - unpredictable. She showed up early- before Hikari could do anything to prepare Mina for the stranger - the girl was trying to read one of her mother's books at the time, only looking up from the difficult words she was concentrating on when Mikasa took a seat outside the cell.

The sudden fear was obvious and instant - completely instinctual, if the scientist didn't know any better she would think it was in her blood to fear Mikasa. Mina had jumped away from the bars of the cell, book in hand, making her way to her bed to get away from the woman in the red scarf. The child didn't say anything to Mikasa, didn't whimper, or look at her a second time, simply staring at her book without really reading - face red up to her ears.

"What will the test be today?" Mikasa had asked lowly, eyes never leaving Mina's shaking form.

"We-" Hikari began, but was cut off by the greying woman.

"It doesn't matter, you're going to see if she can transform." Hikari opened her mouth to protest but Mikasa settled her heavy gaze on her. "Are you about to question an order from your superior, miss Zoë?" A threat disguised as a question, Hikari was in no position to fight an order from the head of the survey corps. Instead, she bitterly looked at her shoes.

"No ma'am."

When Hikari had heard the rumours about Mikasa Ackerman losing her mind, she had thought that they were exactly that - rumours. Nothing could have prepared her for what the next test would be like. At first it was okay. They had taken Mina to an open field not unlike the one they used for her endurance tests, a large tarp at the end of it; and had asked her to transform. The child was confused, needing explanation - and even then she had no idea what they were talking about. Hikari was ready then to accept the test as inconclusive, Mina had no idea what a titan looked like, only that they had abilities humans didn't. She had never seen her mother transform - she had told Rosa that much once before.

Mikasa, however, was unwilling to end the test there.

"There are different ways to trigger transformation." She had stated in a growl. "Annie was known for her survival instincts, I am sure that the child has them too, we just need to scare them out of her." Hikari was glad that she had left Rosa at home, for what happened next. As if she had expected the test to go like this, Mikasa gave a signal and the tarp was lifted to reveal a titan in a cage, only a small one, but no less dangerous than any other titan.

"What are you doing?" Hikari had demanded, ignored completely.

"That is a titan!" Mikasa had barked, at Mina, the terrified child staring at the caged beast with wide, unfocused eyes. "If it gets you, it will eat you!" She explained slowly so that Mina would understand clearly. Hikari felt sick, Mikasa wouldn't really release it, right? It had to be a bluff. "If you do not transform within the next minute, I'll let it go, and it'll come for you."

"This is unnecessary, she is a child!" Hikari tried once more, only for Mikasa to whirl around to face her, face impassive, but eyes murderous.

"You have a daughter at home, if you want to go back to her, I'd suggest mounting your horse."

The conflict was unbearable, she couldn't let this happen, but Mikasa was right. She had a daughter, Rosa needed a mother, if Hikari had her gear with her then she would have had the option of staying - but if she stayed as it was now, the titan... She mounted the horse, Mikasa watching her coldly. "I am going straight to Queen Historia about this, ma'am. There is no justification for treating a child like this, not even if her mother was a criminal."

With a heavy heart, determination, and one last look at Mina, who was cowering with her eyes squeezed shut, Hikari turned and spurred her horse forward.

Right-o, Mikasa. Now in any other story or situation I'm trash for Mikannie, however that obviously would not work in this case. Looking at canon material, each time Eren's (or Armin's) death is teased, Mikasa goes... Er wonky. For the sake of avoiding spoilers for anime only fans, I will leave out the most recent situations where we see this in the manga (as the anime might one day get there), but she is always out for blood - recklessly so.

Although I have not specified where Armin is in this story, I think it's safe to say that Mikasa most definitely would NOT be okay after the death of Eren, and since Annie is dead, who can she take it out on?

It may not even be that obvious in her own brain, perhaps she's deluded, maybe she's looking for justification, or maybe she's just old.

Anyway thanks for reading :)