These characters are under copyright by Hajime Isayama and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.

A/N:
Be careful not to skip Chapter 6! Since it was only two pages, I loaded two chapters tonight. This one is three pages, so together you get a total of five, which is more consistent with my earlier downloads.

Chapter 7 – Perceptions

Seven Corps insignia. How could we have left behind so many bodies, so many emblems? Levi's earlier thought had become terrifyingly more believable. Did anybody else make it? Am I actually the sole survivor of the mission after all? How many of us set out? And just what the hell was the mission, this time? What had we been trying to do?

He'd stopped hobbling a short while ago and was standing still now, no, swaying. He could barely stand at all, but he knew if he fell now that he would never rise again. Move. You have to move. Move! But silently screaming the order at himself didn't work this time.

Even if he survived, he was going to lose his leg. He'd been loosening and tightening the tourniquet as much as he dared risk, trying to keep the tissue from dying, but Levi was certain the Underground doctor who'd taught him the importance of that had never envisioned a scenario quite like this one. He couldn't remain in the Corps if he lost a leg. What the hell is the point, if I can't be in the Corps?

He didn't hear let alone see the Titan until it was towering before him, fifteen meters of horrific naked monstrousness. He couldn't let go of the crutches. If he let go, to draw his swords, he'd fall. He refused to die on his back in the dirt like a dog. Better to die on his feet like a man, even if there was no one save for him to see it. Besides, his swords were so dull from shaping the wood that they were completely useless, and he'd used the last of his gas getting out of the pit. The tanks on the corpses he'd found had been empty, too, which no doubt had contributed to those Scouts dying. He couldn't fight and he couldn't retreat. So why wasn't he already being eaten?

The Titan stared mutely down at him, glowing intense green eyes focused upon him.

Wait. Green? It can't be, can it? Levi squinted up at the Titan, through dirt and vomit matted bangs, the image blurring and wavering in the twilight sky, as if shimmering in the heat of his fever. "Eren?" he croaked.

"Eren!" a far louder voice cried out.

Levi blinked. That hadn't been his voice. Was he having auditory hallucinations too now? Was this part of his delirium?

"Eren! Why have you stopped? Open your hands, damn it! You've closed your fingers up all the way this time! We can't see a thing!" a girl's voice scolded.

Ackerman?

"At least he hasn't crushed us," a soft male voice soothed optimistically.

Arlert?

Definitely Yeager Titan. Levi snorted. "Tch. It's about bloody damn time, stupid brat," he scolded the Titan, as he pitched forward into oblivion.

0 0 0

Armin yelped, clinging to Eren's finger for dear life as the left hand cupped over their heads was suddenly snatched away and without warning Eren was lunging forward.

Mikasa peered over the rim of Eren's right hand, wondering what he was attacking. Her eyes widened. Not attacking: catching, cradling. Eren set the two of them on the ground, and reached for the man in his left hand with his right, the one that had been holding them.

"Eren wait!" Mikasa commanded, and Eren hesitated, his attention focusing on her instead.

"He could be badly injured. You need to be really gentle. Let me and Armin help him, alright?"

Eren grunted and nodded his head, pushing her toward the man in his left hand with his right. She stumbled and nearly fell, but regained her balance quickly.

Mikasa stared in shock in the failing light, as she got a good look at the man. Was that really Captain Levi? She didn't know which astonished her more: that he was actually alive or that he was covered in filth and blood, looking nothing like the image of the man she knew. His clothes were stained and ripped and ragged, his leg was bandaged, he smelled like blood and vomit, and his crutches looked homemade.

Seeing him after a battle was one thing: the blood and gore of the Titans vaporized after all. This was something else entirely. She wouldn't have thought the finicky little clean-freak could have survived half of what he must have, to look this terrible. Her respect for the man suddenly grew by leaps and bounds. What the hell had happened to him?

"Is he…is he still alive?" Armin asked dubiously.

Shit! He hadn't just died, had he? Not now, when they'd finally found him? Mikasa quickly felt his throat and to her relief found his pulse, not as strong as she would have liked, but not nonexistent, or as weak as it could have been. But that could change all too quickly, considering how bad he looked, how hot his skin was to the touch, and the way he was shivering, whether it was from shock, blood loss, exposure, fever, infection, or all five. She took off her own cloak and laid it over him.

"He needs a doctor, now. We have to get him back to the City right away. We can't waste time backtracking to find the Corps, and all our medics are dead, anyway. But damn it, it's so far away! I don't know how much more he can survive. Home is so much closer. I wish Eren's dad was still there, that he could treat him."

Mikasa yelped as unexpectedly she and Armin were both scooped up into Eren's other hand, and then pressed against his chest. Apparently Eren was afraid they'd injure Levi worse if they were with him. Then suddenly Eren was running, full tilt. Oh no! Had he seen a Titan? More than one? Were they being chased, by one of the fast ones? By someone like Annie?

0 0 0

Levi's shivering gradually eased and then stopped altogether as he unknowingly burrowed into the warmth of Eren's hand, which was carefully cupped against the pectoral muscle of his chest.

So warm. Hard muscle under soft skin.

BA-DAH, BA-DAH, BA-DAH, BA-DAH.

Rhythmic, like a heartbeat, but too loud, too fast.

Soothing. Good.

Levi snuggled into the warmth.

Warm. Safe. Erwin.