A Farewell for a Beginning

Chapter 1

Mikasa stands there, cheeks streaming with tears. Her brother's blood sticks to her a life for which she now bears responsibility for taking. She kneels in the maw of his huge titan because her legs are failing, cradling the last remnant of a future that could have been to her chest, now wrapped in the folds of her tattered scarf. “I'm sorry, Carla. I couldn't protect him…,” are her last words before she drifts peacefully away, unaware that her surroundings are turning to stone.

A little girl chases after her childhood friends, like a mother trying to catch her mischevious boys. A light breeze surrounds her. Her long, black hair flutters in the wind, as does the red scarf that she always dons like a wreath around her neck. “Eren! Armin! Please wait for me!" Both boys laugh, but do not look back, neither do they halt their course to the old tree where they always played and rested. She remains calm, believing that she will catch up to them eventually.

The one with warm chestnut hair and emerald-green eyes holding a melancholy depth that she’s always tried to understand but never could — his tendency to get into trouble always strengthened her urge to look after him. Again and again, she has had to listen to criticisms that she is too focused on her brother and does not recognise that others and the mission ahead are just as important. But why shouldn’t she have this thought? After all, she is just a young girl who wants to protect her family.
Right?

Then, there is the other boy, with golden blonde hair and knowing sky-blue eyes, ever her support and guiding light. She has also come to see him as her family.

What? Where are these thoughts coming from? She tries to shake off this nagging unease within herself; to suppress it, because she wants more than anything to stay with these two boys forever. And so, she keeps running, but the path… it's endless — why can't both of them wait for her? It feels as though the both of them are getting further and further away and she’ll never reach them.

A fog slowly begins to surround her until she can no longer see either of her friend and she is left standing there alone.
She has long since grown used to being abandoned by Eren, but for some reason, the fact she cannot reach Armin frightens her all the more. Panic rises within her. "EREN! ARMIN! Please! This is not funny anymore!“ She calls, only to hear the haunting echo of their laughter in the distance. Unfortunately, loved ones leaving her has always been a constant truth in her life. First, her parents; killed before her eyes when bandits tried to break into her home. Then, her foster mother, Carla; devoured alive by the titan form of Dina Fritzs, not twenty metres away from her and Eren. Soon after, it was her foster father, Grisha Jaeger; first declared missing, only to be discovered later that Eren had been forced to consume him. And, finally, there was Sasha; killed in the attack on the Liberio district in Marley.
Pain lances through her temples, prompting her to touch her forehead. Wait a second. The mission… Liberio… Why does she know about such events? And who is Sasha?

Worried and confused, she looks around, but still cannot see anything. The coldness of dread surrounds her. Then, someone taps her on the shoulder, almost frightening the life out of her, but she recognises those sky-blue eyes all too well, though they now belong to a man of war and no longer to the boy she once knew. "Armin! Don't frighten me like that!” She grips his icy hand, towering over him in size.
Since when did I get so tall? And why do his hands feel so cold? A sense of bewilderment and mild alarm fills her. Armin looks at her, sadly. "Mikasa! Come on, let's go up a bit further.” She obeys, and continues to run alongside him, an oppressive silence between them.
Mikasa is used to being the reserved one of her trio, and so it’s unsettling for Armin to be so quiet.
"Armin, what's going on? Where are we going and where is Eren?” She twists around, searching. A moment later, she notices that Armin is still grasping for the right words, which unnerves her even more.
"Mikasa,” he begins, carefully, “I'll bring you back to where you should be.”
“’Back?’” She blinks. “Where? Did you hurt your head? Let me take a look! ” She says, moving towards Armin with concern.
“No! Don't you understand? You have to go!” She feels that icy hand pressing faintly against hers, as though the life within it were steadily creeping away. She stares at him, disturbed.
“What's going on, Armin? I am getting scared. Eren was behaving so oddly, too… saying to forget about him and other such nonsense."