Awakened

Chapter 23

Art of Arlise on the top by the amazing JesterEdin

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"Its okay," Mikasa said, wanting to calm Annie down. The situation was already messy, they didn't need anything to worsen it. "Whatever it is I can take it. The worst they can do to me is whipping. I can handle it."

"Whipping?" Erwin echoed, bringing Mikasa's attention back to him. "No, your punishment is execution."

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"What?" Mikasa exclaimed, lurching forward only to be restrained tighter.

Mikasa struggled against her restraints, and two more soldiers came in, pointing their swords towards her in a silent threat. Mikasa stopped, breathing heavy.

"You fucking idiot." Mikasa spat at him. "Do you even realize the consequences of my death? Your mission is as good as dead if me and my squad aren't there. Not only that, but if I die by your hands Eren will never fight under your command. You'll lose him too."

"Fuck Eren!" Tauriel spoke out, struggling against her own restraints. "You'll lose all of us too, you little blonde chicken shit! I will never work for someone who kills my Captain!"

"Pass me a sword," Erwin held a hand out, and a Scout came out of the circle formation and gave away his own. Erwin grasped the front of Mikasa's shirt and dragged across the dry ground, just a foot away from the others.

The other Scout who held her pushed her face to the ground, her cheek pressed up against the dirt.

Erwin raised his sword, the point aimed towards her temple.

"No!" Annie shouted, lurching forward but another Scout came in and helped the other restrain her. She kicked at them, but they, too, pressed her too the ground. "Mikasa!"

"It hurts doesn't it?" Erwin questioned at the Female Titan. "Seeing the one you care about the most be killed in front of you? This is what it feels like to be at the hands of people like you."

Annie's eyes turned frozen, and Mikasa could see the all the sins of her past race through them. Erwin's words punctured her, and all her wrongs suddenly weighed down on her more.

Mikasa didn't know how Annie has bore the weight all this time.

Tauriel's expression paled, and whereas other may have thought it was because she was remembering some loved one dying at the hands of Shifters, Mikasa knew it was because Tauriel was feeling rising shame in being one of them.

Erwin turned his attention to Mikasa, and he raised the sword. Annie stared back at her, and Mikasa closed her eyes. She didn't want to discern what Annie was feeling. Didn't want to see what her squad was feeling.

For a brief moment she wondered what Eren would think. Would he lash out at Erwin? Or would Erwin kill him too? Or would Erwin make some sort of lie to convince Eren that Mikasa was at fault? What would happen to her squad?

What would happen to Annie?

All these thoughts flooded her mind, and she squeezed her eyes tighter. She couldn't allow herself to mull.

No goodbye. No words. Nothing was said to those she cared about. They would know nothing, and here she was about to die at the hands of a man instead of a Titan.

How pathetic.

Mikasa squeezed her eyes. She was a soldier.

She would not die like this.

Mikasa heard a cry, and a man screamed suddenly. The Captain's eyes snapped open and she inhaled sharply.

Annie was just rising from the floor, leaving a scout with a broken arm on the ground. The other Scout swung a fist towards her, but Annie ducked under it, twirling, and raising a hand to his neck. In one quick move she had him in a headlock and she kicked the back of his knees, making him fall to the ground. Annie glared at Erwin, several blonde hairs falling in front of her eyes. "Let her go, or ill kill him."