CHAPTER 6 - Taking Back Wall Maria

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"Commander Erwin." Mikasa called as soon as she returned to the quarters with her Captain, Levi.

"Yes? Mikasa?" Erwin asked after he looked away from his child who was sleeping, before he looked at Mikasa who was at the doorway of their room.

"I just want to ask something." Mikasa said before continuing her words. "When will we take back Wall Maria?"

Erwin faced her and walked towards her, as Hanji was busy folding their clothes that she had just got from the laundry.

"The garrison had already started to fix up the holes. And Jean and his squad were the ones in charge in leading the other squads of the scouting legion there." Erwin said as he looked down to see what Mikasa was holding. "What's that?"

"I-I went to Wall Rose and saw this on the area where Eren and Reiner fought." Mikasa said as she pulled the necklace from her neck and tried to give it to Erwin.

"It's the key to the basement." Mikasa said as she placed the key onto Erwin's palm.

"Eren might have accidentally dropped it or he intentionally did it at some point." Hanji said as she was walking towards the two. Little did they notice that Levi was listening from the living room.

"It will take a year for us to fix everything in Wall Maria." Erwin said as he walked towards a cabinet and placed the key into a safe place.

Mikasa stared blankly, as she thought of what might happen if they finally knew what was in the basement.

-

Months passed as the garrison and the other soldiers of the scouting legion was fixing Wall Maria, the Special Operation Squad along with Hanji, Erwin and Historia were busy thinking of a plan on how would they find the basement of Eren's house.

As the horses started to run around inside the walls of the district of Shiganshina, Mikasa and Armin slowly furrowed their brows as they looked around.

Mikasa could not remember anything anymore. When they tried to go there once. Everything has changed. A lot of things were damaged by the titans. Things suddenly became unfamiliar to her. No, everything became unfamiliar to her.

The Shiganshina District became an unfamiliar place for her- to them. Making her and Armin think that they had nothing to return to anymore. All of them spread out around the district, no titan could be spotted for them to kill, and their mission for that day was to find the basement of Eren's old house.

Mikasa unconsciously went up to the mountains with her horse, as she saw their old house. She did not notice, or she was too bothered to notice, that someone was following her. She went off to her horse and looked at the old worn out house that was in front of her.

Plants were covering the surroundings of the house, as she saw a familiar purple flower that was planted with the other plants in front of her. She slowly walked towards it, as she unconsciously picked one of those up.

She then, used her swords to cut down the plants that was on her way, as she started to walk towards her old home. She slowly opened the wooden door as she started to remember the good things that happened inside that house. She walked inside, and went to her old room. Nothing changed at all, their old things were still there but most of them were worn out. She smiled faintly as she remembered how happy she was,  but she was startled when she heard a sudden footsteps that was not hers.

She went outside her old room and looked at the person who entered, before she suddenly remembered how her father died right in front of her, right after opening the door of their house.

"Heichou..." She said, as soon as she saw the person who owned the sound of the footsteps that she heard.

"How could you enter here? The place is so dirty." He immediately said right after Mikasa called him.

Mikasa walked towards the table, near the door. The table where her last moments with her mother and father was spent. She touched the dusty table and slide her hands around it. Levi furrowed his brows as he found what Mikasa was doing disgusted him.

"Oi, brat. Get your freaking hands off that dirty table." He said as he walked towards where Mikasa went and grabbed her arm, causing Mikasa to face him. His eyes grew big when he saw her face full with tears. "O-oi, w-what's wrong?" He said, as he slowly let go of Mikasa's wrist.

Mikasa smiled at him causing him to feel unreasonably confused and worried about her.

"Mikasa..." He said as he tried to grab her hand when Mikasa suddenly spoke that made him stop.

"This is my old home. And this table..." Mikasa said as she looked at the table on her left before she continued her words. "This is where the last time my parents and I gathered together." She said as her tears would not stop from falling.

Mikasa slowly kneeled down in front of Levi, as she started to cover her face full of tears. Levi kneeled down as well as he faced her. He softly placed his right hand on her head, as it slowly slide down to her shoulders, before he placed his left arm at her back, slowly pulling her towards him as he give her a hug.

"I remembered, I even asked my parents where babies come from." Mikasa continued to speak as Levi was softly caressing her hair, not removing from the hug. "Mom and Dad looked confused and they didn't answer my question." She said before she laughed sadly.

 "Then after that..." She said before she moved her head and rested her eyes on Levi's shoulder. Her hands that was lying on the ground moved to Levi's chest as she started to grip his shirt, quietly crying on him, before she felt Levi's hug tighten as Levi slowly rested his head on Mikasa's shoulder.

"Someone knocked on the door... Father thought it was Dr. Jeager, Eren's father. But when he opened the door, he was stabbed by the person in front of him before mom tried to defend us but she also got killed." Levi could feel his clothes being wet by Mikasa's tears, but he did not mind. 

It took time for her to calm herself down, she felt a little sleepy that made Levi think that they should go back to where the others were. Thinking that they probably were looking for them already. She assisted Mikasa as the both of them stood up, and he was surprised when Mikasa suddenly held his hand while they were walking, but he let her be.

Levi and Mikasa started to look for their horses when they only found one as Mikasa remembered that she did not tie her horse somewhere.

"Heichou..." Mikasa called as she sat behind Levi on the horse. Facing down on his shoulders, Levi only took a glimpse of her before preparing for the horse to run.

"Mm?" He responded, before Mikasa wrapped her arms around Levi's waist as she leaned on his back. Placing the right part of her head on his left shoulder facing their left, she said. "Gomen ne..." As tears started to fall form her eyes once more.

Taking back Wall Maria was not what she thought it would be. Taking back Wall Maria, also meant taking back the good and bad times... Times that she wanted to remember, wanted to forget.

-

"Mikasa!" A guy called out as he excitedly slammed the book he was holding in front of Mikasa who was sitting on a chair in their dining table of their old quarters, back in Wall Rose. "Finally! Historia gave this to me!"

"What's that?" Mikasa asked Armin as she looked down at the book that Armin held.

"Remember the old book that father had? It's the exact same copy! I brought two so that I can give you the other one. They are exactly the same!" Armin said as he smiled at her widely, Mikasa smiled a little as they scanned through the book.

Feeling a little bit sad because one of them was missing. One of the two that she had always been trying to protect.

"Oi, Mikasa." A familiar deep voice called the lady who was walking around the sand as she was holding the top of her horse on her left hand while looking at the giant lake that she knew. Breathing the unfamiliar smell of the sea, as the breeze caressed her face while her hair was playing with the wind.

"Heichou." She said and suddenly smiled at him, that caught him off guard.

"You're creeping me out with your smile. Have you find anything?" Levi said as he went down from his horse. 

Mikasa smiled more with what her captain said, that made Levi's brows furrow but he knew deep within him, he was glad to see her smile genuinely, unlike before. He walked beside Mikasa while holding his horse' rope with his right hand.

"Nothing but this giant lake." She said as she smiled and faced the sea, she did not notice how her Captain was staring at her. Memorizing every detail of her face. Levi looked at the sea as well before he looked back at Mikasa who sighed. "I wish Armin is here. He could have seen this."

Levi looked back at the sea before he spoke. "He will see it, soon." Levi started to look down on his feet as he watched the waters touch his boots and return to the sea over and over again.

"Heichou..." Mikasa said, that made Levi look at her who was still facing the sea while talking to him.

"Mm?" He responded, as Mikasa faced him suddenly which he did not expected.

"Do you think Eren have seen this already?" She asked Levi with her curious eyes when Levi just shrugged his shoulders off before he answered her question.

"He might have." He said, before Mikasa suddenly smiled at her that made him curious how and why.

"You're smiling a lot lately. You're creeping the hell out of me." Levi said as he looked at his horse and touched its hair. "How come you can smile now when Eren's the topic?"

Mikasa's smile suddenly faded, as she looked at the sea. Levi noticed the silence after he asked the question that made him look at Mikasa, as the wind played with her hair, sad eyes visible as you could see that she was thinking about something deep.

"Heichou, you told me once that crying won't actually solve anything but instead, you lend you me your shoulder and let me cry on you. I can't do anything now but to think that nothing bad will happen to him and most of all, I think I feel that I am slowly understanding what you meant. We lose people but that doesn't end our lives. We could always get up, and continue. And I think I learned how you handle things, like how you said we could work this out, like how you always used to." She said before she face her Captain with her genuine smile on her face, that only he was able to see.

"I also remembered what Sasha said before. It's alright if you're weak, there are people who will come rescue you. I owe you a lot, Heichou." She said before she walked beside her horse and went on it. She looked at her captain as she furrowed her brows while looking at him.

"Heichou, let's go?" Mikasa said as Levi looked at him and slowly showed a genuine smile, that made Mikasa grew her eyes big for a moment before she returned it with a little smile.

Levi rode on his horse, as the two of them started to go where Hanji and her squad was, as the mask returned to its place, back to their faces again.

"Levi!" Hanji called as soon as she saw Levi riding his horse with Mikasa on his side. As soon as Levi got to where Hanji and her squad was, Levi shook his head as Hanji nodded.

"They really went somewhere didn't they?" Hanji said as she tried to think of where the Titans' hideout might me.

"Are we going to look for their hideout? Hanji-san?" Mikasa suddenly asked that made Levi and Hanji look at her as Hanji shook her head as her answer to Mikasa's question.

"We need to tell this to Erwin and Armin." Hanji said before she pulled the rope of her horse as the horse started to run towards the road that would lead them to the great Walls of Maria.

The scouting legion did several expeditions, but all of it was not successful. They saw the outside world but the titans cannot be found. Not even a single titan was seen. The fact made Erwin and the others think that what they have thought was right. That the titans were limited, and there were only few of them left. And they were sure, that the Titan boss was planning on something.

-

Armin, Sasha and Connie had told the others about the book that they saw about the Asians and the Ackermans as Mikasa and Levi finally knew a small detail about who they were and what they were capable of.

Mikasa has a lot of advantage because she had both bloodlines flowing through her but still thinking about that she was the only left who was like that, made her feel lonely, and not special at all.

It has already been six months since the tragedy happened. The other members of the scouting legion and the garrison was still helping them to rebuild Wall Maria when they still could not find where the basement was.

There was a knock on the door of the scouting legion's quarters early in the morning, when Armin opened it as he saw two military police in front of him. The two men saluted at him before they started to tell Armin the message that they were assigned to tell them.

"Soldier Armin Arlert, Queen Historia has requested to see you and the whole Special Operation Squad with Commander Erwin and Squad Leader Hanji to the cities of Wall Sina." One of the two men said as Armin saluted and nodded at them.

He called out the people that were spoken of as they prepared themselves to go to Wall Sina, as said by the Queen's orders.

-

"Annie, you're always just sending me food here. Why don't you let me go outside of the room?" Eren complained as Annie went again to his room and placed his breakfast on his table. "I'm stuck in here for how many months already?!"

"Six months." Annie answered before she tried to walk towards the door to go outside of Eren's room again.

"Annie, would you at least talk to me? Where's Bertholdt, Reiner and Ymir? I know you're allies with them." Eren said before Annie looked at him with her furious eyes.

"I don't know, I'm just being ordered around here." Annie said before she tried to open up the door of Eren's room when Eren suddenly called her again.

"Annie, tell me... What do you guys want?" Eren said, with his pleading voice as Annie gripped the door knob before she faced Eren.

"I don't know Eren. I don't know. I already told you, I'm just following orders." Annie said as Eren's eyes widened when he say a tear fell from Annie's dull eyes.

"I can't understand a thing!" Eren said as he buried himself on his pillow.

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Caution: I edited a part in chapter three, it is about Eren's hardening ability. Sorry for suddenly revising the information that was given there.

This is the part that I edited (So that you won't have to go back to chapter 3 anymore)

Out of the three years of experimenting Eren, they did not find anything that Eren could produce with his body that could be used for fighting. He could not harden his skin for combat just like how the armored titan could, or even make a crystal out of it as his shield.

***He could only use his hardening ability to rebuilt the walls. I thought he couldn't do the hardening ability but I just reread the manga and found out that he could. Sorry for that. ✌