A/N: I am trash and should be writing other things but here we are. I missed my readers! Hope you all enjoy!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
"Well, fuck."
Levi turned his head and spit a rather large amount of blood out of his mouth, curling his lips in disgust.
Not more than five feet from where he stood, Mikasa rolled painfully onto her back. She took a moment to take inventory of everything that hurt. The back of her skull was buzzing, and just about her whole body throbbed, but nothing seemed indicative of a break.
She tentatively sat up.
"You alright, Ackerman?"
"Yes, Captain."
Mikasa took a quick survey of him, as well. He seemed fine, but he was the most disheveled she had ever seen him. There were about four nasty gashes on his cheeks, his nose, his lip; his jacket was ripped and his 3DMG gear hung from his hip an an unnatural angle. In combination with his lack of cravat, he was almost unrecognizable—barring that familiar deadpan glare.
She was sure she looked about the same. Something warm trickled down from her head, momentarily obscuring her vision. She pressed a hand to her throbbing forehead and wiped blood out of her eyes.
He regarded her, frowning, and looked up. She followed his gaze, craning her neck to get a better look at the towering peak of the cliff.
It had been a considerable distance to fall. They were lucky.
That morning, the Recon Corp had set out on another in a line of countless missions to reach the Jaegers' basement. They had ridden for miles, encountering only a handful of titans, all of which were avoided using Erwin's flare system. Mikasa hadn't even needed to deploy her gear. In fact, it had been the smoothest mission the Corp had embarked on thus far.
They should have known it couldn't go well for long.
As the landscape became more barren, more varied in topography, it was the unspoken understanding of every soldier that no mission had ever made it this far. Predictably, many of them were unprepared to fight in such a venue when eight titans appeared from nowhere.
Chaos exploded. Positioned in the front guard, Mikasa was one of the first to spring into action.
All at once, everything was clearer, sharper. She heard the clicks and whirrs of gear deploying on all sides, smelled the stench of rotting titan breath and felt their heat around her. Her blades sang, soldiers screamed, gaping mouths yawned and meaty hands batted the air in slow motion. Her eyes narrowed.
Eren was in the right flank, Armin in the left. If she killed them all before the back of the formation caught up, they would be safe…
She locked on to the quickest titan first as it moved toward the center of the formation. Mikasa's wire connected with the titan's flesh, jerking her forward and causing her to whip around it at breakneck speed. She forced the torque of the spin into her sword, slicing deep. It collapsed within seconds. She barely had time to land before a wave of hot liquid drizzled over her; above, a man's final screech for help was cut short as a titan bit him clean in half.
Mikasa gritted her teeth, firing a wire at the monster's shoulder. She tore upward, the gear flinging her straight toward the clouds. She passed the monster's head in her ascent. As she reached the peak of her trajectory, she disconnected her wire, intending to let gravity act as her accelerator.
Her climb slowed. For a moment, as she hung in the air, time stopped. She saw the entire battlefield laid out below her like an appalling work of art. Red painted the landscape and saturated her vision. To her surprise, a mere four titans remained—but before her eyes, a squad took another down.
Now there were only three.
Those three, however, had managed to corral the remaining soldiers before a massive cliff.
Gravity re-engaged. Mikasa felt the pull of the earth once more. Just as she began to plunge downward, a flash of jet black hair skirted the corner of her vision.
Captain Levi had seen the tactical danger, as well.
And he was already hurtling toward it.
She spun as she came down on the titan, screaming. The earth rumbled as its body contacted the ground.
Eyes wild, she turned just in time to catch a blur of spinning steel take down another titan.
As the Captain swung toward the final two, his gear made one loud, distinct, chink.
Her ears, attuned to the noises of battle, caught it before her eyes could. The sound seemed to echo over the clamor of the dying.
His cables went limp. He fell toward the ground, headlong, contacting the dirt and rolling six or seven times before coming to a stop. He scrambled up immediately, still light on his feet after the violent tumble.
He had become the sole occupier of the two titans' attention. They grinned eerily, advancing in unison, clearly excited by what looked like an easy meal.
Hundreds of feet below, the man dug his heels into the dirt. His only weapon was the stub of one shattered sword, no bigger than a steak knife. His teeth clenched in a murderous, wild expression.
Mikasa balked. He wasn't fleeing, but there was no chance he could live—
The rest of the squadron went flying by behind the great monsters.
It hit her. He was acting as a distraction, allowing the rest of the group to escape.
He intended to die.
Her body moved before she could think. She engaged her gear, shooting off at top speed. A part of her knew she would exhaust all her gas, but she didn't care.
The world ripped by her in an indistinct fog. As she neared, she felt herself racing against the looming grasp of the first titan. The shadow fell over her like a blanket, warning her just how little time she had. A snarl tore from her throat. She strained forward, using every ounce of her strength to reach him first.
The Captain didn't see her until she was upon him.
His head turned, his eyes widening briefly as she came crashing into him. Both grunted loudly, the incredible force of the collision causing them to careen uncontrollably forward.
He didn't even have time to reprimand her before they went careening off the side of the cliff.
The tumble lasted forever. Mikasa's gear dug into her hips with every rocky punch. She did her best to curl into a ball, protecting her head and neck from any fatal blows. The world spun painfully, just barely giving her time to hope the Captain had made it. Rolling to a stop on the ground had not been much more pleasant.
Now, from their vantage point at the bottom, the two tensed; a grotesque, swollen head flashed briefly above the precipice.
Mikasa leapt to her feet. Her swords had been ripped from her hands during the violent plunge. A quick appraisal of the gear on her hips told her that it wouldn't be helpful any time soon. She fumbled with the straps, letting the useless metal fall in a heap at her feet.
"The woods. Now," the Captain ordered, detaching his gear at nearly the same moment. The two took off like runners in the final stretch of a race, neither looking back.