This isn't quite as well-edited as it should be but I'm leaving directly from work tomorrow to go away for the weekend. I wanted to post chapter 79 a day after this one but my motivation is flagging a little and posting usually gives me a little bit of a boost. Sorry it's kind of short though.

Anyway, cheers to chapter 66 coming out because I love everything about it and I'm hype to see the typset version.

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"Fuck." Levi tried to stand for a second time, his ankle buckling under him yet again.

"So what do we do now?" Eren's body swayed slightly and he rested his hands on the floor to steady himself. The angry look on Levi's face held as he slumped back onto the wall before touching at his wrist.

"Squads one and two. Come in." Levi listened to the jumbled up and staticky sounds for a moment before starting to fiddle with the frequency settings to no avail. "Shit."

"So what do we do now?"

"Hopefully it's just that the explosion messed with the signal somehow. Give it a minute." Please just be interference from the explosion. Don't let it be jammed.

The both of them sat in silence, Levi listening intently for any anyone who might be approaching and trying to quiet the ever-growing unease at the silence. Someone should have shown up by now. I've incapacitated four of their people. Everyone on this floor is radio silent. That should be cause for concern. They let a few minutes pass and watched the dislodged dust begin to settle like snow on the wide planks of the floor before Levi took a deep calming breath and tried the radio again.

"This is Hawk, come in." He listened to dead static stretch on and felt his heart slamming in his chest.

"So… what now?" Eren was looking at him, not completely cognizant of his surroundings yet but his senses sharpening faster now; his eyes beginning to focus and clear.

"We need to get clear."

"Everyone else…"

"You fucking heard Hanji. We need to get out of here and contact Moblit. We have no idea what's going on right now and everyone's instinct is going to be to get the fuck out of here."

"How?" Levi felt the bottom fall out of his stomach. Eren was slowly becoming more coherent, but even sitting down he was still swaying slightly, and with his own injured ankle there was no way that he could fully support another person. His eyes swept around the hallway, trying to think of something as his unease grew greater and greater by the second.

"I'll lean on the wall, you lean on me. My ankle sure as shit isn't broken – I'd be in a lot more pain – it just can't take my full weight."

To prove his point Levi stood up, hand against the wall for support before reaching down to haul Eren up as well. He grit his teeth against the throb in his ankle as he pulled Eren up, refusing to show the pain that he was feeling. There was only one thing on his mind; get the fuck out.

The four of them had made their way out of the excavated pit of rubble and onto the street above, the dim light of a distant street lamp barely illuminating their surroundings. They had already called Connie and Jean to let them know what had happened, and in hushed and angry voices they discussed what their next move would be.

"We can't backtrack through the tunnels at this point. It's going to take too long and I can only make a best guess about where they are." Sasha's face was grim. "They focused a lot more on where we were going when we were going over strategies and I guess now we know why."

"Well we know that they went in the opposite direction…" Krista trailed off and looked at Ymir with desperation.

"I don't want to acknowledge this, but we have no idea where that tunnel leads. It could have veered off in any direction after that. Sasha's right: now we know why they were so focused on making sure we were going where they wanted us to."

"I'm good at tracking, but I'm not so good that I can reverse engineer where they went."

"For all we know Hawk and Dr. Scientist were the ones at the right place and that's why we didn't see them before we started out." Mikasa was glaring at a wall with her teeth and fists clenched.

"No, we sort of know which direction Hawk and Dr. Scientist went in." Sasha crossed her arms in front of her. "They would have let more drop on a location that didn't matter so I'm pretty sure that isn't it."

"I'm going to take a look above." Mikasa received sympathetic though skeptical looks from the other three but stood resolute. "It's better than just standing here waiting."

Before any of the others could say another word Mikasa was pushing off the ground, grimacing at the twinge in her neck, a reminder of the last time she dealt with a Titan. Moving somewhat slower than usual she took care to put less strain on herself in case they had to deal with any attacks. She had only just cleared the roofs of the surrounding buildings when she saw a small plume of smoke a ways off in the distance. Hovering for a moment she tried to get her bearings to relay directions to the others.

Mikasa had only just started to go back down when she heard a large explosion. A lurch in her gut sent her back up again, unable to take her eyes off of an even larger plume of smoke now rising from the same place. Below she could hear frantic voices asking her what was happening.

She kept herself in check only long enough to tell the rest of them which way to go before she was in the air again.

This was a feeling she was all too familiar with.

It was also a feeling she hadn't had in seven years.

They had finally gotten to their feet and were starting to move forward. There was a window within view of them, and all that they needed to do in order to get out was to break it. Eren was conscious enough that he could hold on while Levi grappled them out, and having a bad ankle wasn't going to stop him from being able to use his gear. The landing wouldn't be easy but it wasn't a hindrance to getting out.

The both of them pressed onward slowly, moving barely a foot at a time as they tried to work together to go forward and looking like the least coordinated entrants in a three-legged race. The nauseous and painful churning in Levi's stomach increased with every inch they moved forward. He hadn't seen more than a handful of Titans on the floor above and the Titans on this floor had gone down practically without a fight. It had been at least twenty-five minutes since he had incapacitated the first Titan on this floor and not a single person had shown up to check things out. Then it began to dawn on him.

This was all a fucking set-up, wasn't it? They drew us in.

Levi was so lost in frustration that he almost didn't hear the click of a detonator and the first in a string of explosions. He operated purely on reflex as he pulled Eren to the ground, letting out a sharp grunt of pain as his ankle buckled again. The explosives ripped through the building; parts of the ceiling above crumbling and falling in a crash of plaster, crates from the attic space falling and crashing. Levi scrambled to pull them both closer to the wall as flaming beams and crates came crashing down. The dust hadn't even gotten a chance to settle before flames began to eat away at old wood, sending smoke billowing into the air.

They had accelerants packed in with the explosives. Fuck. Fuck everything.

Levi coughed, his lungs trying to expel the smoke and plaster dust as he looked around and tried to assess just how fucked they were. The window that they had been heading towards was now blocked off by shattered crates and chunks of ceiling and flames were beginning to take hold of more than just what had fallen from above. Flames were beginning to lick and catch at the exposed wooden lathes in the wall and scorch the wide planks of the floor. In no direction could Levi see a way out of the building; they would have to search for a new way out themselves. The way behind them was blocked worse than the way ahead and Levi could only hope that they found some way out before they had to go down any stairs. Having taken in as much of their surroundings as he was able in a few minutes, Levi finally turned back to check on Eren. He had expected him to be somewhat shell-shocked by the sudden explosion, but he hadn't anticipated him curling in on himself, his brow furrowed and his body tight.

"Hey! We don't having fucking time for this." Eren remained non-responsive. "We don't have time for this bullshit. We need to get out of here before we burn up or the building collapses so –"

Comprehension dawned on Levi, his face dropping from frustration to worry. His hand hovered uncertainly above Eren's body as he debated how best to get his attention.

"I really need you to get up, Eren." He laid a hand on Eren's should and shook him a bit rougher than he probably should have. "So help me I will fucking drag you if you don't get your ass up."

Eren turned slightly to face him, eyes wide but his jaw set in determination as he nodded. His arms shook slightly as he pushed himself up and his breath came faster than usual. Levi pushed himself up before grabbing Eren, his ankle screaming in protest as he put his full weight on it in order to pull him up. He had joked about dragging Eren but he found himself practically dragging him anyway. Eren was fully upright but stumbling along, head down and refusing to look up.

Together they moved forward, Levi guiding them to skirt around the burning fallen debris as they choked on smoke and ash and his ankle throbbing and screaming in protest. He grit his teeth against the pain, continuing to focus on finding a way out. It was slow and difficult but eventually they did make it to the end of the hallway and turned around the corner, hoping that a way out would come into view. Instead they found a windowless hallway, a doorway at the end offering some small amount of hope.

They had barely gone ten feet down the hallway when they watched as an entire wall exploded outwards, sending massive chunks of plaster and wood flying into the opposite wall. Fuck everything. Just can't catch a fucking break today. A moment later a person came into view. I take it back. Thank fucking Christ.

Standing at the end of the hallways was a very angry and frantic-looking Mikasa dodging piles of fallen ceiling as she ran towards them.

"Fucking take him and go." He shoved Eren at her and she caught him easily. "Just tell me where I can get out and I'll be behind you."

"Go through where I came. I knocked out a chunk of exterior wall near there."

"Thanks." They gave one another a curt nod before she lifted Eren easily and carried him off.

Well at least I don't have to worry about carrying him anymore. He took a step forward and began to limp forward as fast as possible, ignoring the pain that shot up his leg with every step he took. Rather than trying to find a clearer route he scrambled over the chunks of wall that Mikasa had crashed through until finally a hole to the outside came into view. He dragged himself over, getting just close enough that he could use his grapple gear before shooting out the wires and jumping as soon as he felt them go taut.

Landing when you were essentially swinging into a wall full-force was never easy; doing it with only one leg while dazed from inhaling smoke and ash made it even more difficult. It was one of his less graceful landings and he couldn't bring himself to care even a little bit when he flew full-body into the wall of the neighboring building, his arms held in front of his face and his good leg bent forward in an attempt to lessen the impact before loosening the wires and lowering himself to the ground. He dropped to all fours and shook as he coughed violently, gasping as his body tried to expel the smoke and take in fresh air.