This chapter has been rewritten, as the original chapter 2 was a mess, and confusing.
Link's Point of View
40 minutes after his arrival
How? How are you supposed to kill this thing? I think.
My fire arrows do nothing, I can't reach my bag of masks, and the giant has some kind of regenerative ability. Epona is barely outrunning the giant, and is continually getting more exhausted, so I don't know how much longer I can run from this thing.
I'm currently in a forest, a humongous one at that; the trees are very tall, many times taller than the giant chasing me. It's a dense forest, too, as I have to alter my course every other minute due to the many trees in my way. The giant chasing me dodges the trees with ease; it's very fit and fast for a skinless monster, I've noticed.
"What do you want with me?!" I scream at it. No response.
The monster's green eyes glare at me from above as I barely dodge its hand, reaching for me. I manage to slice part of its finger off, but it regrows in a matter of minutes. I'm low on mana, and I'm not sure if this new world I'm in has any to spare, so I know to use as little as possible.
Maybe I could hookshot one of these trees and fly away... No, then what would happen to Epona?
The Fierce Deity Mask isn't an option, either... I can't reach for it, and if tried to grab it right now I'd fall off my horse. Damn, this isn't looking good...
Suddenly, an idea comes to mind: ice arrows.
I can shoot the monster's feet to make it fall, its knees to keep it down, and its eyes to temporarily blind it. It's the only plan I can think of right now, so I go ahead and test it out.
I take aim to its left foot. I release the drawstring and let the ice arrow fly. Flawless shot. A layer of ice forms around the monster's foot and it trips onto the forest floor. Nice. I then stop Epona and turn her around to finish the job: I shoot both of its knees before it can get back up, and then one of its eyes. I then aim to its only remaining eye when I realize I have no mana left to create ice arrows. Shit.
Oh well, I think. I turn Epona around and continue riding away. The giant doesn't pursue me any longer. Just before it's out of sight, I turn around and look to it.
What a strange creature.
. . .
I traverse this new universe I've found myself in. I ride with my horse, Epona, all around the land, finding more forests, ponds, random wildlife, and even more of those giant monsters. Every once in awhile I'll stumble upon one of them, wandering about, and I then promptly change my course when I see one. Unlike the first one I met, they're all masculine, and are mostly disinterested in me, unless I get too close. It's a very mundane world compared to what I'm used to.
There are no Hylians, no Zoras, no other races that are smart enough to talk or nice enough to not try to eat me. None of the animals talk, nor do the giant monsters. Everything feels like it's... abandoned. There's not a soul anywhere near, but it feels like there should be. It's very lonely.
Why am I here? I think.
It feels particularly odd to not have some central problem looming over me. Ever since that morning in Kokiri Forest when I was suddenly woken up and told I was the world's only hope, all I've done is... solve problems. Defeated evil. Saved the world. Now, I don't have that feeling that I need to be doing something important...
Eventually, amidst travelling about this new world, I find a wall. A very tall one, at that. It's out in the distance; it's curved, and has a giant hole near the middle. I assume the wall was created to keep out these giant monsters, but an incident happened to where the wall was somehow breached. That's a shame, I think. If I had gotten here sooner I could've done something about it...
I decide to get a closer look at the wall. I ride towards it and just how tall it is becomes more clear; I'd guess it's about fifty meters high. Damn. I ride to the hole in the wall, avoiding the giants as much as possible, and notice that there was once some kind of wooden gate where the hole was made.
How was this wall even breached? I think. These monsters, with the exception of the first one I met, don't seem like they could've destroyed the gate to this wall. They barely even care about attacking me, much less tearing down a wooden gate.
The mystery surrounding this world fascinates me, and I almost want to further explore inside the wall. However, it starts to rain, so I decide to find some shelter, and take refuge under a certain tree to the right of the hole in the wall. I eat one of the many apples growing on the tree and play some songs on my ocarina. I don't play the Song of Storms; I'd rather lie down and listen to the sound of raindrops falling than go get myself into trouble like I usually do.
This isn't so bad, I think. I don't have any worries. There are no problems to be fixed and no lives I have to save. It's just... me, and this new world that I can do whatever I want in.
I think... I think I might stay here for a while.
I eventually drift off into sleep, and wake up to see the rain gone and the sun shining from above. I smile. For the first time in a while, I haven't woken up due to a nightmare, nor woken up to someone telling me to help them, nor woken up relieved I didn't die in my sleep. No, I've woken up from a good sleep, ready to take on a brave new world.
Around this time is when Annie, the Female Titan, is fighting Eren, in Stohess. After chasing Link the day before she went back inside the walls where she continued with her daily life until Eren showed up to fight her.
Eren's Point of View
later that day
"Eren!"
"Eren, please, come back! Just come back so we can talk about this, okay? You're not well! Just please... no more!"
I awaken.
Those voices... Was that a dream? I don't even recognize them. Hm.
I'm in a room, with nobody else in it; I still feel weak, and once I try to get out of bed I suddenly remember that I just recently fought Annie.
Dammit... Where did everybody go?
I then recall talking to Mikasa a bit earlier, and then she left to get some food or something. She hasn't returned. Where the hell is she?
Fuck it, I think. I can't get out of bed because my body's still all jacked up from the fight, and nobody's here to talk to me. Might as well sleep.
I doze off once again and find myself in the middle of a fight. I'm on the streets of Shiganshina, fighting some random kids that I'm very angry at for some reason. There's three of them, and one of me, but despite that, I continue punching them and try to sway them away; eventually, they knock me down and start kicking me, though.
"Why are you defending this heretic, you idiot?" one asks. I turn around to see the heretic they're referring to: Armin. He's nervously clutching a book a few meters away, anxiously watching the fight.
"B-because! He's my friend and I'm not gonna let you goddamn bastards make fun of him!" I yell in response.
"Good for you, you're wrong!" another says. He looks down at me with a nasty glare, and before I can get back on my feet he lands an excruciating kick on my chest.
"Armin..." I sputter out. "...run..."
I've lost to these bastards, I think. Unless Armin runs, they'll take his book and beat him up, too, and on top of all that, I'll probably be in a shit ton of trouble when I get home. Damn...
Suddenly, I hear a voice.
"Eren!"
Mikasa. Yes, Mikasa's here!
"Eren!" she calls out. "Eren! Eren, wake up!"
Huh?
"Eren, come on, wake up already!"
I open my eyes and realize I was dreaming and see Mikasa and Armin standing by my bed, desperately trying to wake me up. A look of worry is on both of their faces.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"It's Annie!" Armin replies. "She-she's gone!"
. . .
As we walk throughout the district, we talk about what happened with Annie while I was asleep. It's very crowded, probably due to my fight in Stohess, and everyone looks either worried or scared. I honestly don't blame them.
"So, did she escape, or did someone let her out?" I ask.
"I'm not really sure," Armin replies. "It's complicated. It's like... she vanished. One second, she was trapped in her crystal, the other, she was gone."
"I can confirm," Mikasa says.
"So nobody knows where she is?"
"Nope," Armin says. "I guess we'll have to go through the trouble of finding her and beating her all over again."
"That sucks," I tell him.
Whilst walking I happen to hear a conversation between two military policemen talking about Stohess. I stop for a moment to listen.
"If you ask me, the Survey Corps should just disband. It's not like they even achieved anything before today, and now they've destroyed a district and countless lives."
"I agree," says the other - a girl. "Why were those lives lost? To kill one titan? No. That's bullshit."
I turn around and glare at them. They initially don't notice. Mikasa and Armin turn around and try to get me to continue walking, but I refuse. I try to form a fist in my right hand, but my grip is still really weak.
The man notices me. "The hell you looking at, kid?"
"Do you know what the Survey Corps' sacrificed? Do you even know what they've done so far for humanity?"
"Eren, it's not worth it," Mikasa tells me, pulling on my arm.
"Yeah!" he replies. "They go outside the walls and get killed, and come back with like five people left. Rinse and repeat. What have they done so far, kid? Nothing! Nothing but cause death! Now get out of here!"
I attempt to punch him, but Mikasa forces me backward. Her grip's too strong. She eventually pulls me back until I can no longer see those two damned MPs.
"What the hell, Mikasa?! Why'd you do that?"
"Because we don't have time for your temper tantrums. If they wanna criticize the Survey Corps, let them, it doesn't affect you."
Dammit... I guess she's right. Still, she can't just tell me what to do all the time! Who does she think she is?
Whatever.
"So, what exactly happened?" I ask. "I know you said she disappeared or whatever, but what was happening before and after?"
"Let's see..." Mikasa thinks for a moment.
Mikasa's Point of View
I glare at the message Annie left for me carved into the crystal.
"It's probably because you prevented her from escaping, Mikasa," Hanji tells me. "Calm down, she can't do anything."
"Then how did that message appear if she 'can't do anything?' The only possible explanation is that she did it from within the crystal. She carved the message with her ability."
"But she's passed out! And she's not in titan form! How could that be possible?" Hanji questions.
Erwin stands up from the bench and strolls over to Annie. He stares at her face, then at the message.
"She's right," he says. "It's the only way. That material can't be broken or even dented, so she's the only one that could've done it."
"Are you telling me Annie can use the hardening ability even when she's not in titan form?" asks Armin.
Erwin turns his head to him. "That's my guess."
Suddenly, something in the corner of my eye catches my attention. Movement. I quickly spin my head around to see nothing out of the ordinary. I turn back around to Annie. Except she's not there, only the crystal.
"Where did she go?!" I yell.
All the other scouts in the room are looking away, just as I was - they're just as surprised as I am.
"What the hell just happened?"
Eren's Point of View
"So she just disappeared in the one moment nobody was looking?" I ask as we reach the stairs that lead into where Annie was held.
"No, something else happened, I'm sure of it. We didn't all just randomly look away at the same time, something caused it. It felt like something was moving in the corner of my eye, and I'm guessing that happened to everyone else, too."
"Yeah, I felt that too," Armin says.
"So, she did that? She made you all look away, and then, what, teleported out?"
"Your guess is as good as mine, Eren," Mikasa tells me.
"Crazy shit," I say under my breath.
We make our way down the long stairway until we approach a hallway, that leads to yet another stairway. We pass by a ton of scouts and even some military policemen, and we also see Hanji, who asks us where Levi is. After a while, I ask Mikasa another question.
"You said she left you a 'message,' right?" I ask. Mikasa looks to me.
"Yeah."
"What'd it say?"
"'Die Mikasa.'"
"Damn. She probably hates you, doesn't she?"
"Not as much as I hate her," she bluntly replies. I remember back in military school, before any of this happened, and when I didn't know Annie was a titan - she was my friend, and I thought she was cool. Mikasa hated her and hated it when I hung out with her. I never knew why, and always argued with her about it.
I guess her hatred is justified now, though.
After a while, we finally reach the room with Annie's crystal. Nobody else is in the room but us, and despite that, the atmosphere feels tense. I notice the message carved into Annie's crystal: Die Mikasa.
"Why was I brought here, again?" I ask, studying the crystal.
"We thought you'd want to see it for yourself," Armin replies. "And besides, you probably needed to get back on your feet."
"What he needed was more time to heal," Mikasa suddenly interrupts.
"I'm fine," I say.
The three of us stay in the room for a bit, talking about the entire Annie situation, and, eventually, Armin leaves. Before he does, though, I mention how we're going to find Annie again, but both Mikasa and Armin simply reply "We'll figure it out."
Then, it's just me and Mikasa in the room. She initially doesn't speak but when I ask her about Annie again she interrupts me.
"Eren."
"What?"
"Do you know why Annie wanted to take you away?" she asks, sitting in the corner of the room.
"No, why?"
"It's just... She's probably going to do the same thing again, right? She went through all of the trouble back on that forest expedition, just to capture you... Have you ever wondered why?"
"Where are you going with this, Mikasa?"
"What if... We just let things go? What if we didn't go after her, only made sure she didn't come back? We brought her into Stohess to capture her but we only made things worse, Eren. Even you know that."
"Are you saying we need to let her loose and allow her to cause even more death?"
"No, I'm just saying maybe we should take it a little more easily. We constantly train for battle and plan out how we're going to capture Annie or defeat the Colossal or whatever, but why can't we forget about all of that, at least for now?"
"I'm not going to rest until she's gone, Mikasa. You should know that better than anyone, so what the hell are you talking about? Of course we're going to try to capture her again! Of course we'll plan it all out, track her down, and yes, I'll risk my life for all of that!"
"See! It's that, it's that right there! I want you to stop risking your life so much, Eren. It's just like Jean said, you really are like a suicidal maniac sometimes."
"Like hell I will! My whole life is dedicated to this, Mikasa! It's why I'm here! If you think I'm just going to drop everything I care about, then you're wrong!"
"But you're doing the same to me, Eren," she says. I walk towards her, over from the crystal.
"What?"
"By doing what you do, you're making me have the possibility of losing what I care about, why I'm here. Do you not see that?"
"Oh. OH. So this is what it's about? You don't want me to fight for your sake? That's bullshit!"
"Okay, okay, calm down, Eren."
"Answer this, Mikasa: Why am I all you care about? Why do you insist on keeping me safe? Why do you treat me like some child that doesn't know what they're doing, all the damn time?"
"Are you turning this into one of those conversations. Eren?"
"Don't pin this on me! You started it! Look, every time I ask you about this you either change the subject or give me the same damn response every time. So I'm going to end it. Stop! Stop treating me like your inferior! Stop having your entire life revolve around me! I don't want it! You've followed me everywhere ever since that day five years ago, even when you could've had a better life! You had a chance to join the military police, but you instead followed me to the Scouts! Whom you hate!"
"Stop it, Eren."
"Only when you stop. I am not your responsibility, and I don't want to be. I mean no offense and I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but please, no more of the nonsense."
"It's not nonsense."
"But it is! Can you not see? Are you so blinded by your desire to protect me that you haven't stopped to think whether you've done more harm than you have helped? Why, Mikasa, why? Why do you do this?"
"You want a real answer? Fine," she bluntly tells me.
"Remember the night you gave me this scarf?" she asks. She holds up her red scarf.
"On that night is when everything I had ever loved was taken from me in an instant. My mother and father were both killed, right before my eyes. In the blink of an eye, I lost all I cared about. And when those men kidnapped me, as I laid there in that cabin, listening to the disgusting things that would happen to me, I learned something: the world is cruel. I hated everything. I didn't want to continue living. That's when you showed up. You taught me the most valuable lesson I've ever been given - fight to live, or die. And then you took me in, without hesitation... The night I lost everything, you were there, protecting me from the harsh world I wasn't yet accustomed to. The night I lost everything, you were there, holding out your hand, telling me, 'let's go home.' Eren, the night I lost everything, you were there to give me this scarf when I said it was cold; at that moment, I realized the world was not only cruel, but also astonishingly beautiful. You were there for me, so I have to be there for you. You're the only family I have left, and I'd do anything to make sure that family stays alive."
I... I guess she's right...
"Eren, know this: know that I will do anything it takes to spend another day with you. Know that you're the one that I care about the most, that the possibility of losing you is what keep me moving forward. It's what wakes me up in the morning and keeps me up at night. I know you think I'm clingy, obsessive, controlling, and whatnot, but if that's what it takes to keep you alive then so be it."
She stands up, and leaves without saying another word.
I'm a total jerk, I think.
And thus, Eren learns why Mikasa does what she does, and he later returns to his room that night, thinking about what she said. Mikasa, on the other hand, meets a certain boy garbed in green that night; that boy would change her, as well as Eren's, life forever.