Levi's POV

The guards were slumped over the floor, unconscious, all with large bruises or open wounds on their heads. Blood was splattered on the ground and walls. The door was open, the lock obviously picked. And there was also a strange chemical smell in the air. And worse of all, Eren's cell was empty, its former occupant gone.

Really Eren? I leave you for 10 minutes to take a bath and you escape?

"Captain!" I look over to see Moblit and Hanji staring at something on the ground. I walk over and see that it is a thin metal rod used to pick locks. I had seen my fair share of them while living in the Underground, and still had one tucked away in my desk drawer.

Hanji bent down gingerly and picked it up. It was also covered in blood, and in fact had a few small chunks of flesh stuck to it.

"Moblit, tweezers please." she reached down and picked up a piece of her glass,she holding it up to her nose and sniffing it,before staggering back as if she was suddenly dizzy.

"It's a knockout agent."

"What?"

"I know this smell, it smells the same as the chloroform we use to knock out people before surgeries." she takes another sniff, and blinks. "But this is much more potent than anything we have. It could knock someone out in maybe a few seconds."

I huff, running my hand through my hair. Where had he gotten a pick, and a glass bottle? Come to think of it, where had he gotten the chocolate? We had searched every inch of his clothing before his interrogation, and his pockets were empty save a handkerchief.

I hear footsteps, and Auruo and Gunther walk in.

"Well?"

Gunther shrugs. "He's gone. We found two more pairs of guards knocked out. One of them had their 3DMG stolen, another their cloak. We've moved them to the sickbay, and they'll have no permanent injuries."

Auruo snorts. "Damn greenhorn got lucky, escaping just when we were having lunch."

I nod wordlessly, If Eren had escaped even 5 minutes earlier or later he would have encountered dozens of Survey Corps members going about their activities, but he had escaped during the time when the majority of them had congregated for lunch, leaving only a handful of guards to oppose his escape.

From outside came an explosion, and the sound of titan footsteps.

"What the hell?"

"Did Eren come back?"

"To the top, now!"

We run back up the stairs. I kick open the door, expecting to enter a dimly-lit corridor, but instead i emerge into open air.

The Armored titan is running into the forest, the giant crystal the Female Titan shifter is trapped in clutched tightly in his right hand. A huge chunk of HQ has collapsed, the hole leading directly into the room she was stored in.

Several soldiers are perusing it. They attempt to stop it, launching attacks on its nape, but their blades break harmlessly against its skin and they are forced to withdraw.

Erwin ran up to me, his 3DMG already on. "Levi! Forget the Armored Titan! Other squads will handle it! Gather your squads and move out to Trost!"

Auruo and Gunther open their mouths to protest, but Hanji beats them to it.

"What? Why? Not only is the Armored Titan one of our worst enemies, but it has just rescued the Female Titan! Surely-"

"Hanji," Erwin interrupts her "We still do not know the identities of our titan enemies, but we know for certain that they are intelligent, acting on a cohesive plan. If the Armored Titan would attempted such a bold rescue attempt, it can only mean that they are already on the offensive."

I step forward. "Are you saying Trost is going to be attacked?"

"Levi, I'm saying that it already has."

Eren's POV

I wanted to both kill and hug the Commander in Chief of Logistics.

Before we had set out on our scouting mission into the walls, we had run into the problem of concealing supplies on ourselves if we got caught. No matter how small the supply, a thorough search would detect it right away. He was the one who had come up with the bright idea of cutting open and hiding small quantities of supplies in our bodies, in the forearm and thigh areas. This way none of our organs were affected, and if done correctly it wouldn't affect our movement.

Only downside was that it hurt like hell.

I winced as i stumbled out of the steaming corpse of my titan form. While my body could heal itself, it couldn't do anything about the pain. Not to mention i had exhausted myself running around for the past hour trying to find my way out, and i couldn't exactly ask for directions.

I collapsed next to a small river. After so much fruitless searching i had finally found a landmark i recognized from my scouting of the walls. I looked around, managing to find a reasonably sharp rock. It was nowhere near as sharp as the rock i had used in the dungeon, but it would have to do. I rolled up my pant leg and tore off a piece of my shirt and stuffed it into my mouth, to prevent me from biting on my tongue.

Biting down on the cloth, i hacked away messily at my thigh, ignoring the warm crimson fluid flowing down my leg and arm, until i saw brown cloth sticking out. With one swift motion i pulled it out, finally allowing the wound to close.

Untying it, i tipped it over. Several metallic parts and a small package fell out. I tore open the package and stuffed the crumbled biscuits inside into my mouth, washing it down with a few mouthfuls of river water.

As i ate i assembled the parts together, which was actually a gun that could be built jigsaw-puzzle style.

It was quite small, with only room for three bullets and a flare, but it was enough, especially coupled with the 3DMG and swords i had 'borrowed' from the Survey Corps. If i encountered a few Survey Corps members or other soldiers, i could distract them with the gun and escape using the gear.

If there was anything else, my titan form would take care of it.

I downed another mouthful of river water, before getting up, gripping my gun tightly in my hand. Less than a mile from this river was Trost district. My best option was to escape close to Trost district, since Leola and Soren were camped just a short distance south, but not near enough to be spotted by the troops stationed there. I thanked my lucky stars that i was part of the only military organization that still regularly used 3DMGs. Sure, the Survey Corps equivalent might be less balanced and heavier, but i could still use it to escape.

I'm jolted out of my thoughts by the sound of galloping horses. Hastily throwing the blood-covered stone into the water, and ducked behind a large boulder to hide myself, and peered over the edge.

A dozen horses rushed by me, their rider's cloaks emblazoned with a double rose symbol. It wasn't the symbol of the Survey Corps, but another branch,the Garrison, Mikasa had called it.

I frowned. I had seen several garrison units since i escaped, and they were all heading in the same direction, to the South. Where were they all going? The Garrison only handled crowd control, security and… protecting the districts from titans.

My head snapped over to the distance, roughly where i knew Trost district was. Don't tell me its been…

I pushed myself up, and began to run.

Mikasa's POV

I curse as the 17 meter class aberrant swings at me, forcing me to move out of the way of its hand, wasting precious fuel. My 3DMG gear was already half empty and there was no end to the titan onslaught.

"Connie, Jean!" I yell over to my comrades, facing down the titan with me. "Flank it! Distract it so that i-"

"Ahhhhhh!"

Nearby, a 4 meter class has seized a small girl in its hands, bringing her up to its mouth.

"Change of plan! Keep it busy!" Jean and Connie nod, and i turn my attention to the girl.

I'm too late. I watch in horror as the titan begins to bite down on the little girl, already halfway inside its mouth. But its teeth never gets a chance to touch her as it's blinded by a gunshot, causing the titan to roar and bring her out of its mouth involuntarily.

Eren swings in, a gun in one hand and sword in the other. He slices the titan's hands off, catching the child and placing her safely on the ground, before decapitating the titan in one swift stroke,destroying its nape in the process.

He lands on the ground, and turns to her. "There's a large number of troops in that bell tower. Run over there, they'll protect you." she nods and begins running for the tower.

"Eren!"

He spins around, his finger on the trigger. When he sees me his face tenses, but his gun hand dips slightly.

We stare at each other for a few tense moments before he speaks.

"I'm leaving the Walls."

"E-Eren." i stutter, lost for words for once. The body of the 17 meter aberrant collapses beside me, but i ignore it.

"Look Mikasa, what happens within the Walls is no longer my concern. I'm not going to just throw away my life for-".

"Then why did you save that girl?"

"Just because i'm from another country doesn't mean i'll just stand by and let people die." He grimaces. "Just because i'm a titan that does not mean i'm a monster."

"Eren, you know i don't think you ar-"

"You know that i don't know you." Hurt stabs through my heart.

I sheath my swords and tentatively stretch my arms out towards him, as if by this simple gesture i could keep him from leaving. "Eren,i know that w-we've had some disagreements, but please, don't g-".

"Don't make me hate you Mikasa." I blink, surprised.

He sighs, "Look Mikasa, i don't know how much of the past few days was real. Maybe you were faking all of it for information, maybe we really spent most of our entire lives together. I don't know what to believe, but trust me when i say i want to believe that it's real. "

He takes a deep, shuddering breath. "But i have another life outside the Walls. No matter what, that's my life now, and i'm going back to it."

His gun hand slowly rises up to point at me, and the grip on his sword tightens. "Please don't try to stop me. I don't want to have to fight you."

From the alleyway behind him steps out two titans, one a 5 meter class and another a 9 meter class. In his emotional state, he doesn't notice as they reach down for him.

"Eren!" I lunge forward, drawing my blades. He yells in alarm and fires.

Pain sears through my right arm, causing me to drop my sword. I bite back my cry of pain and kick Eren out of the way, slicing apart the hand of the 5 meter class. It didn't matter that i was wounded, or that i only had one weapon left,or that my 3DMG was almost out of fuel. None of it mattered except for the fact that i failed to protect him once.

I would not fail him again.

Leola's POV

"Soren!" I hastily shook the white-haired male, who was currently hunched over the portable radio listening to a coded message.

"What is it?"

"Look!"

Dozens of titans were rapidly converging upon our location. More precisely, they were converging upon the ape-like titan that we had fought to rescue Eren, who was standing on a cliff with his arm raised and flanked by a quadrupedal titan.

The titans gathered in one unruly mob in front of the ape. He stared at them for a moment, before turning around and sprinting into the distance, causing them to charge over the hill with him.

"That's… in the direction of the Wall isn't it?".

"They've started their attack." Soren pulled out a revolver from his pack and threw it to me, before pulling out his own rifle. "Prepare yourself. This is our chance. We'll infiltrate their defenses in the chaos, and extract Eren from there."

I stuffed the gun into the holster on my belt and pulled on my combat boots, before slipping on the standard issue combat rings, which had blades built into them. I looked over at Soren, who was already ready. I nodded, and he leapt off the tree, transforming as he did. I leapt onto his shoulder, and he took off running, chasing down the mob of titans that had just left.

We're coming for you Eren.