Thanks for reading what I've posted so far. We're picking up where the flashback left off last time. Sorry/not sorry about the cliffhanger. :p

Update: It concerns me that my story stats say people have read this chapter, but not chapter three. It's like people are skipping that chapter for some reason. Maybe they're not realizing there are two new chapters since they last looked or something. Folks, read chapter three!

Four: Safe

Once she knew he wasn't going to stop her, Mikasa was content to let Levi call the shots. Dispatch tried to talk them down, so they switched their helmets' radio frequencies and kept going. Levi led her to the highway where he had last seen my dot on the GPS monitor, headed north.

After a couple of minutes, a new voice reached them over the radio: Armin.

"I'm not going to try to talk you out of it," he reassured them. "I just wanted to say, I picked up Eren's signal on my computer at headquarters. They're still on the highway."

"How far ahead?" Levi asked.

"About a mile. They're only going a couple miles per hour over the limit—not enough to catch the attention of highway patrol."

Mikasa revved her bike forward, but she was still behind Levi. They were thinking alike.

"I'm guessing you're looking for a four-door vehicle," Armin went on, "with tinted windows and a local plate. Something fairly new and a dark color."

The description did narrow things down. They were about half a mile behind my signal, starting to actually look for the vehicle in the distance when Armin said, "It's stopped moving."

"Stopped?" Mikasa asked.

"Yeah, you'll be on top of it in a few seconds."

"There's no exit for three more miles," Levi said. He knew this highway well from many patrols.

Mikasa scanned the side of the road, but she couldn't see any parked vehicles.

Levi's next words chilled her, and she realized she had been trying not to think of the most obvious explanation. "They found the tracker and threw it out the window."

They were surging forward again, and Levi switched on his motorcycle's flashing lights and siren. She did the same. They had to find me before the vehicle reached the next exit. Otherwise they would have to split up, halving their chances of overpowering my kidnappers, and from there the branching roads would offer endless possibilities. They would most likely lose me, maybe forever. The fact that they had found the tracker meant I had little chance left of convincing them I wasn't cooperating with the police—otherwise I would have told them about it as soon as the bugging device was destroyed. Plan C was to tell them I didn't know the tracker was on my person, a story they probably wouldn't buy.

At first, I wanted to watch the scary movie first, so I wouldn't have that on my mind right before bed, but Levi reasoned that watching the Lego movie first would probably put me in such a hilarious mood that the other wouldn't seem so bad. I put in the DVD while he starts making dinner.

"Do you want to watch the previews?" I call to him.

"No thanks," he answers.

I sit on the couch and watch the ads for various games and upcoming movies by myself. Then I watch the menu and wonder what Levi's throwing together until he wanders out to join me.

"It'll be ready soon," he says, putting cups on coasters on the coffee table. "You want Mountain Dew?"

I nod, smiling at him. Soon he's back, pouring my favorite soda into my cup and fruit juice into his. "What's for dinner? It smells good."

"We're having 'Whatever Ramen' tonight," he reports.

"Oh, good. What flavor?"

"I'll let you guess what's in it when you try it."

Levi is really good at throwing random leftovers together and making something surprisingly good out of it. When he brings the bowls out, I gather a large bite and blow on it. "Obviously ramen noodles," I say. "And I see peas and carrots." I take a bite. "Mm. You used the flavoring that came with it—beef, right?"

He nods.

"And some sort of soup... oh, that leftover cream of potato soup. And there's a chopped up hotdog. Do I taste garlic?"

"Just a little."

"Did I miss anything?"

"You had some leftover chopped onions, so I threw those in. And a little salt."

"Nice. Well, I like it a lot."

"Good."

We settle in and start the movie. Soon I'm laughing so much, I have to be extra careful not to spill my supper, or spit it out when something surprises me. It's the funniest movie I've watched for a long time, and laughing feels good. Even Levi is almost grinning some of the time, and I catch some breathy, voiceless laughs when something in particular strikes his sense of humor just right.

I don't bring up the fact that he's almost really laughing. I've learned that drawing attention to a smile of Levi's is the quickest way to kill it. When I finish eating, I set my dishes aside on the coffee table and pull my feet up onto the couch, leaning against Levi a little bit. It feels really good. Safe.

My captor made it clear that she didn't believe for one moment that I didn't know the homing device had been in my shoe, but I insisted my innocence pretty convincingly, and she didn't seem ready to kill me just yet.

"You may be useful anyway," she said, and through my fear I was starting to get the sense that I'd seen her somewhere before that day, though I had no idea where. "It's a shame Doctor Jaeger moved his practice out of town, but if he knows you're with us, he may be willing to commute."

I felt uneasy at that, but I sincerely hoped that Levi and the others would find me before my dad got dragged back into this mess... if they were still alive.

I didn't have long to wait. It was minutes at most between the discovery of the tracker and the sound of sirens. I looked out the back and saw two police motorcycles headed our way.

"Keep driving casually," was the instruction.

I was hopeful until I realized that there were other vehicles of hers all around us, ones that were ready to distract or block the motorcycles from reaching us. They couldn't tell I was in this one because the windows were tinted. I sighed and sank down in my seat. I couldn't do anything, and I didn't want to watch. Didn't want my captor to see how anxious I was.

"Are there only two of them?" she asked, sounding curious and unconcerned.

"Looks like it," her driver answered.

"The others should be able to keep them busy. Take the next exit."

"Yes, ma'am."

I didn't look back. A minute later, I couldn't hear the sirens anymore. The driver was signalling to leave the highway. The police probably had no clue where I was, and soon there would be no chance of their finding me.

I'm going to die, I thought suddenly. Probably not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. They'll eventually decide I'm not useful and kill me. They'll probably never find my body. Armin and Mikasa won't be able to bury me. I'll never be able to tell the captain that I'm sorry I botched the mission. That I know it's not his fault. And my dad... I had to abruptly stop myself, or I was going to tear up. Then she would know I'd been putting on an act the whole time.

"These people are blocking us on purpose," Levi told Mikasa. "That means we're close."

She looked frantically at the vehicles beyond the ones blocking her and spotted a shiny, new-looking, black four-door pickup truck with tinted windows. A Nissan Titan. It was just so ridiculous, it had to be the one. "The pickup," she said.

"Either you're right, or they're out of sight," he answered. "Let's hope that's them."

"They're signalling to get off."

"I'll follow at a distance. You go park on the bridge and tell me which way they're going."

Mikasa didn't argue. She went with the flow of traffic until she got to the bridge and then pulled into the breakdown lane. She took off her helmet and looked around. Below her, she could see the truck making a right turn. "They made a right off the exit," she said.

Levi turned off the highway and made his way slowly down the exit ramp.

"They're signalling left now," she said, starting to fear that Levi was too far behind. True, he didn't want to be seen, but if she lost sight of them, that would be it. They'd have to start searching for the truck from scratch. "No, wait—they're pulling into a gas station."

"I see it," Levi said, now on the road below.

"They're pulling around the back."

"OK. Keep watch until I'm at the station, then come down and join me."

Mikasa waited, her heart pounding. The black pickup didn't reappear. There was nowhere they could go without her seeing from that vantage point, as long as her gaze didn't waver.

"All right, I've got eyes on the building. Come down."

She returned to her motorcycle and spun it around with superhuman force before riding it up the breakdown lane against the flow of traffic. She dove left down the exit ramp and wove between cars to reach the road, barely glancing for an opening before making her right turn. When she reached the gas station, she cut her engine and coasted to a stop beside Levi.

"If we take time to clear the area or wait for backup, we'll lose them," Levi said. "We probably won't be able to capture the hostiles."

"But we can get Eren out."

"You have a full clip?"

She nodded. "And this," she said, pulling out her truncheon.

Levi pulled a knife from the sheath on his belt. "I'm going to try to get their tires if I can. You focus on getting Eren out of the vehicle, but stay out of sight as long as possible."

"Yes, sir."

Inside the Titan, I was listening to the conversation and trying not to show my despair at the cops' losing my trail.

"Mack says one of 'em stopped on the bridge and the other was somewhere further back when they lost sight of them," the driver said, phone pressed to his face. "Want 'em to circle back around?"

"Just one vehicle," she answered. "I want to know what they decide to do."

I wanted to know, too, but I tried to look more impatient than worried. I kept my gaze out the front, staring at a dumpster at the edge of the lot.

"This must be stressful for you. Let me help," the woman said.

Next thing I knew, she was putting something over my face, and I breathed in a little before I realized that was a mistake. I instantly felt woozy, like I was going to pass out. At the same time, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye... like a person ducking behind the dumpster. A kid or a small adult. The driver hadn't seen. He was turned sideways in his seat, the better to talk to his boss. I held my breath, trying to hang onto consciousness. Then I saw it again: a person coming out from behind the dumpster and rolling forward until they were out of sight in front of the truck's hood. I hardly dared believe it, but it looked like Levi.

There was a strange sort of loud tearing noise and the truck tilted to the left. The driver just had time to curse in confusion before we heard the sound again, and now the truck was tilting forward.

"Drive!" she exclaimed, no longer sounding calm. Her weird accent was gone, too. She had dropped the cloth she'd covered my face with, and I took in clean air, still very out of it.

Something hit her window then, as the driver put the truck in gear. I looked over and saw Mikasa, whacking at the window with a truncheon with all her strength, which is saying something.

The truck lurched forward a couple of feet before the sound came a third time, and it finally dawned on me that it had been the sound of something tearing into the tires one by one. I knew a car could drive with flat tires, but not very far or fast without all the rubber tearing away and leaving the vehicle on the rims.

The driver was cursing up a storm now, and I saw him reach into his jacket. He drew out a gun and cocked it.

I had revived a bit and I was done pretending. I went to grab the driver's arm, but to my surprise, the woman grappled me, getting me in a really good headlock.

The driver was aiming at Mikasa. His finger was on the trigger.

"Gun!" I said in a half-strangled scream, but I didn't think she would hear me or comprehend in time.

Then the same tearing sound accompanied the truck's back left corner sinking down, and the driver's wrist wavered up and down. He had already committed to pulling the trigger, and the gun went off as his hand bobbed down. The bullet tore through the glass of the rear window, leaving a fairly round hole and a web of cracks. It had gone low, under Mikasa's upraised arm. She brought it down, and the weakened glass shattered.

The woman was climbing over me, shoving the opposite door open. She didn't worry about trying to take me with her—just flew across the tarmac like a gazelle and into a waiting car. I hadn't noticed it pull up there... I'd assumed any other vehicles around were just there by chance.

The driver was shoving his door open roughly, clambering out—I heard an exclamation of pain that sounded like Levi, though I'd never heard anything like that from him before. I heard Mikasa shouting, telling the man to stop; then I heard a couple of shots.

"Let them go; they won't get far," said Levi. "Let's get Eren out of here."

Mikasa ran back to the truck where I was shakily getting out the door the woman had left open, brushing little glass particles off my jacket. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the convenience store where a few people were peeking out the windows.

"Should we make sure they're OK?" Mikasa asked.

"It looks like they are," Levi answered. "If anyone's hurt, there are plenty that aren't to call an ambulance."

I noticed he was limping and went to start his motorcycle for him. A nearby squeal of tires made us all start, and we had the same thought: to get out of here as quickly as possible.

I managed to get the bike started, and Mikasa had no trouble with hers.

"Get on," Levi told me.

I did, and next thing I knew, he was behind me with his arms around me.

"Drive."

I should probably have mentioned that I'd been drugged, and Levi with his bum leg was better than me with my impaired judgment, but said impaired judgment was exactly what kept me from thinking of it. Fortunately, I wasn't too far gone, and by following Mikasa, I managed to do all right. We didn't stop until we were back at headquarters.

Armin met us as we were going inside. He ran up and hugged me, something he hadn't done for quite a while. "Thank God you're safe," he said, squeezing me tight.

I hugged him back, relief making me shaky again. He helped me into a chair and someone gave me a glass of water; people were asking me questions and saying how glad they were that I was all right.

I looked through the crowded room and saw Levi discreetly making his way to his office. I felt guilty when I saw that he was still limping. He had risked his life for me. I had always known Mikasa would do that, but I never expected it from him.

Thanks for reading. Hope you'll leave a comment if you can spare a moment. We'll have more in the present next time.