Erwin frowned up at the sky as the snow began to fall more thickly, coating his face, his hair, his shoulders in huge, wet flakes.

"What's wrong now, Erwin?" Hange called out, glancing over from where she and Tegan were bending over one of the carts, double-checking their list of supplies one last time. "Waiting for doomsday? You think the snow's gonna kill us?"

Erwin shook his head. He didn't reply. He didn't like the snow, but he didn't want to make anyone unnecessarily nervous either. Even he had to admit that the expedition had been blessedly uneventful so far. They had encountered exactly two Titans on the three-mile trek from the walls to the edge of the forest, and to be honest, the Titans had looked more surprised to see them than they had been to see the Titans. One of them—the one who was, as Section Commander Nayeri so eloquently put it, "dumb as shit"—had actually eaten one of their supply carts.

Hange had begged to keep the Titan—something about wanting to study the effects of gas on Titan insides—but Erwin had pointed out that they had no way to restrain the Titan, no way to transport it, nowhere to store it, and also that it wanted nothing more than to devour their flesh. Hange had only stopped arguing when Erwin finally reassured her that maybe one day they could work on capturing a live Titan. Hange had seemed satisfied—or at least placated—with this promise.

If a Titan eating a cart of gas canisters is the most excitement we see today, Erwin thought, eyeing the sky suspiciously, it'll be a miracle.

He wouldn't complain though. After everything they'd been through, the Scouts were due for a miracle.

"Section Commander," called Shadis, riding up to Erwin. "Is everyone in position?"

Erwin turned to Hange, who gave him a thumbs up and a grin, then back to Shadis.

"Looks like it," he replied.

The mission objective was simple, but important. For years, the Survey Corps had maintained several small underground supply caches, strategically positioned within five miles of the walls. If Scouts ever found themselves short of supplies for whatever reason, or if they were forced to extend an expedition for an extra day or two, they could raid a supply cache. The caches had come in handy several times in the past.

But maintaining the caches also meant reloading them every year or two, and this particular cache was three years overdue for a resupply mission. On paper, the expedition shouldn't be hard. They would send several Scouts ahead into the forest to spot any Titans. A train of Scouts leading supply carts would follow behind. The rest of the Scouts would remain at the edge of the forest, watching for Titans approaching from behind. They would reload the cache, turn around, and ride back home.

We've done this before, Erwin reminded himself.

But everything was easy in the absence of Titans, and the January wind was freezing, and the grey clouds overhead threatened even more snow than the two or three inches that already covered the ground. Even so, maybe Shadis was right. Maybe the expedition would be uneventful, and the brass would notice, and they would get their funding for the spring.

Shadis fired a green flare—the signal for the spotters to head into the forest. Erwin watched as the Scouts, Levi among them, sent their lines whizzing into the forest and disappeared into the trees. Erwin had hand-picked almost all of the spotters. Levi was the only exception. Apparently he had volunteered for the job this morning, and Shadis hadn't told him no. It wasn't typical to separate leaders from their squads, but Erwin could guess what Shadis was hoping for: that if the spotters did encounter trouble, a vanguard Levi might secure the Survey Corps a spectacular Titan kill to write home to the Capitol about.

A minute later, Shadis sent up the second green flare. The supply train began its one-and-a-half mile trek into the forest, accompanied by Scouts on every side. Erwin glanced up at the sky again. If they were quick, they could be back in an hour—except for the snow making the horses harder to maneuver.

It ended up being about an hour and a half before the first carts reappeared, emptied now of their supplies. The spotters emerged right behind them. One of the spotters, Jenna, made eye contact with Erwin and gave him a thumbs up, grinning. As they left the forest, the Scouts rejoined their squads, molding neatly back into their ranks.

No Titan encounters, and they were already about to head back. Erwin shook his head, allowing himself a small ration of hope for the first time that day.

"Head back!" Shadis called, and across the crowd of Scouts, leaders passed the command on to their squads: "Head back!" Spurring their horses on, dragging the empty carts, they turned around toward the walls, barely visible in the distance through the falling snow.

And then the Abnormal was there—hulking, twisted, crouched on all fours—as if it had risen out of the snow.

For a second, maybe two, the air was just clear enough for every soldier to turn in horror, to see the twisted Titan lock its eyes onto the crowd of Scouts, to watch it lurch into its twitching charge toward the dead center of the Scouts' formation. But just as the crab-like Titan lunged sideways, the clouds dropped their stores of snow, the wind rushed across the field, the blinding white whirled up and around and through the Scouts, and no one could see farther than ten feet in front of them.

Screams. The pounding of horse hooves. A cacophony of voices, all shouting on top of one another until they all melded together into one useless roar. Erwin tried to spur his horse forward, but he wouldn't move, frozen in fear, just as blinded as his master was.

Erwin almost added the shout of his own voice to the rest of the hoarse cries—some order for the Scouts not to break rank, to hold their ground—but the command died in his throat. No one would hear him, and even if they did…

Somewhere—near or far, Erwin couldn't tell—the ground shook beneath the pounding of Titan hands and feet. Somewhere, the Abnormal was plowing through the blinded Scouts. From somewhere, the quick burning sound of firing flares reached Erwin's ears, but it was useless in the thick snow.

Then, from somewhere nearby, Erwin heard a voice he knew.

"Nobody move—I swear to God if a single one of you moves a muscle, I will kill you!"

Levi. Where was he? The wind caught the shout—it was impossible to tell what direction any noise was coming from—

"Ari, I'm serious, I will cut off all your fingers if you don't shut up and stand still right now."

Erwin spun around, listening so hard that his ears rang, but it didn't help. He had no idea where anyone or anything was.

"Can you all see me?"

A chorus of yes, sir. Strangled. Terrified.

"He'll charge back through at some point," Levi shouted, his voice carried on the wind. "I'll hear him coming—you'll definitely feel it—we'll have a five-second warning at best. Understand?"

A second chorus of assent.

"We do what we did in the exercise—the sixty-two seconds. I'm Dover. Dover, you back me."

Levi's voice was swallowed by screams from farther away on the field. The ground shook again, but closer. The Abnormal was moving.

"No one's dying." Levi's shout cut through the wind. "He's just another Titan. Nobody's dying today."

The earth trembled again, but this time, it was right beneath Erwin's feet. Fueled by pure instinct, he whirled around, and found himself staring straight at an upright pair of Titan legs.

Erwin drew his blades, pulled the trigger to send his lines flying upward at what he hoped was the Titan's shoulders. No luck—the lines flapped loosely back down, hooks landing near his feet, and a huge hand came reaching for Erwin down through the driving snow.

Erwin leapt back. For a split second, he could see the Titan's wide eyes, its leering mouth—and its shoulders.

He dove under the hand, narrowly missing its grasp. Slipping in the snow, he pushed himself up on all fours, aimed at the Titan's shoulders, and fired again. The hooks buried into the Titan's flesh, and Erwin flew up.

Confused, the Titan stumbled forward for two or three steps, reaching up to pluck this intruder off of him. Erwin waited until the hand was close enough, then slashed across the Titan's wrist, sending a spatter of warm blood into the white snow.

As the Titan yanked his hand away, Erwin looked down—and saw that the Titan had carried him just close enough to make out a tightly packed, wedge-like formation of Scouts on the ground below, one small figure standing just to their left.

Tearing his eyes away, Erwin grabbed the Titan's hair and pulled himself one step closer to the nape. He stabbed into the flesh, cutting the Titan's life out of him. Blood splattered all over his hands, his face, his chest. The Titan swayed a moment before he fell.

"Incoming!"

In the millisecond before his Titan fell, Erwin caught sight of the Abnormal emerging from the swirling white of the snow, barreling right at Levi's squad. Then the world blurred and the chaos of cries and commands whizzed past Erwin's ears until his Titan hit the ground and Erwin leaped, then rolled to safety.

Erwin dove over the Titan's limp arm. He had just started running in the direction of the Abnormal when out of nowhere, another giant hand reached in from the left.

Another one?

Distracted by this second threat, Erwin turned, but kept one eye on the Abnormal. It had halted its charge, the tendons and arteries of its arms and legs hacked by the blurry forms of green-cloaked soldiers who were whizzing around its body, lines crossing lines.

The snow kept it from seeing them, Erwin realized. They caught it by surprise.

Erwin grappled up onto his Titan, climbing onto the top of its head, half his attention stolen by the scene playing out not twenty feet away. The Abnormal roared as a pair of Scouts—Erwin couldn't tell who—hewed through the front side of its elbows, sending its forearms careening down to the ground. Meanwhile, a single figure launched himself over the Titan's backside, ran straight up the Titan's back, and jumped into the air, blades raised over his head, silhouetted for a single moment against a background of pure white stars.

Levi plunged his blades into the nape.

The Titan was batting at Erwin, trying to pull him off his head. Erwin grabbed a fistful of hair and pushed himself backward, away from the Titan's hand. He leaned back, slashing at the Titan's neck with his free hand, trying to make contact but unable to see clearly enough.

Then he felt the blade's resistance as it met flesh, felt the Titan stiffen. He prepared to jump from the Titan before realizing with a lurch in the pit of his stomach that he had lost his bearings in the air, and he wasn't sure where the ground was. The wind rushed past him as the Titan fell through space, and Erwin caught sight of the ground at the last moment. His body made heavy contact with the earth halfway through his jump—not enough time to roll—his head slammed into something hard, and the blow snatched everything away: the field, the Titan, the sky, his breath.

The world was underwater.

Or was it just him?

Somewhere nearby, someone was shouting.

"Go go go! All of you! Go!"

"But what about—"

"If any of you breaks rank, I'll eat your liver tonight! Run back to Wall Maria, stay together, don't stop, you know what to do if you see a Titan—"

"We can't see the wall!"

"You're a Scout you idiot do you have a fucking compass or not?"

A shuffling commotion broke through the haze. Someone was running. Everything was so stupidly cold. Why did they have to come out in January? Why hadn't they waited?

A wide-eyed schoolboy raised his hand, so focused on his question that he didn't even notice the fear in his teacher's eyes.

"How do we know…?"

Erwin grabbed the red, fuzzy world, dragged it back into focus, willed the pounding pain in his head to subside just enough to bring reality back.

He had to make it back.

He had to know.

He opened his eyes just in time to see a Titan's fingers closing around him. He struggled, trying to break free, but the grip was too strong, his head still pounding. Erwin couldn't think, couldn't move. He shouted obscenities at the Titan's gaping mouth, his whole body shaking with rage as the Titan's fist carried him closer to the dripping saliva, the stained teeth—

And something whizzed right past his head—first a pair of ODM lines, then a flying figure that catapulted around the Titan's head, perched astride his nape, and slashed through the flesh. The Titan's arm froze, holding Erwin suspended in midair. For one second, Erwin's eyes met Levi's.

Then the Titan fell.

Its grip on Erwin loosened as it fell, spilling Erwin out into the snow before it even hit the earth. Erwin pushed himself up off the ground just in time to see Levi dive off the Titan's shoulders in the half second before the monster landed.

But the Titan's shoulder hit the ground at just the wrong angle, and its body rolled toward Levi. The Scout dove for safety, but he wasn't quite fast enough, and before Erwin could even process what was happening, Levi disappeared from his sight, crushed by the Titan's shoulder.

Erwin staggered to his feet, head still screaming in pain, and stumbled over to the Titan. Levi's torso, legs, and one arm were trapped beneath the Titan's huge shoulder.

He wasn't moving.

Erwin grabbed hold of the Titan's thick skin, braced himself against the snow, and heaved upward. His hands slipped and he fell into the dirty slush of bloody snow that coated the ground. Erwin wiped his hands on his cloak, only dimly aware that some of the blood on his hands must be Levi's. He dug the fingers of his right hand into the shoulder, fingertips piercing Titan flesh, and pulled with all the strength he had left.

The shoulder lifted—just enough—and Erwin dragged Levi out by the arm. His stomach turned over as he realized that one of Levi's blades had also been caught beneath the Titan.

There was blood everywhere.

The wind had lessened, the falling snow had lightened just a little. Squinting hard, Erwin spun, searching around him for some sign of life. He strained his ears, listening, but heard no sound except the rush of the wind in the nearby trees.

He shook his head. There was no way of knowing whether there were any more Titans in the area. He and Levi needed to get to a safe place. Erwin reached down, picked Levi up, slung him over his back, engaged his gear, and went flying up into the branches of the nearest tree.

Breathing hard, Erwin sat down on the wide branch and carefully laid Levi down in front of him. The blood was already all over Erwin's hands and arms. Cursing quietly to himself, Erwin tried to inspect the damage. Levi's chest had obviously borne the brunt of the shoulder's weight. He probably had a broken rib or two, some gashes from his blade. Based on all the blood matting Levi's hair, his head must have hit a rock or something, too.

Erwin had to stop the bleeding.

"Hey!" he shouted, pulling off his cloak. "Is anyone still here?"

He examined the dirty, bloody cloak for a moment. He didn't have other options. He folded it up and applied some pressure to Levi's chest—but not enough, he hoped, to do any more damage to his ribs.

"This is Section Commander Erwin Smith!" he yelled again, then listened carefully. No sound returned but the echo of his own strained voice.

Erwin closed his eyes. Levi's blood was soaking through his cloak, staining his hands. What could he do? He needed clean cloth, water, alcohol maybe, bandages—

His eyes flew open. The supply cache.

He gathered up the unconscious soldier again, as gently as he could. Pulling out his compass once to make sure he still had his bearings, Erwin went flying into the trees.

Maneuvering with ODM gear while holding onto a body was much slower and more awkward than he had imagined, and Erwin was painfully aware that if he ran across a Titan in this state, his chances weren't very good. He would have to drop Levi and fight, but even then, he might not be able to make up for the lost time.

Under normal circumstances, the trip might have taken ten minutes. But carrying Levi, Erwin couldn't gauge how long they had been traveling when the flat wooden platform, painted with the Wings of Freedom, finally appeared below them.

Erwin dropped to the ground, set Levi down, and reached for the hidden lever. The trapdoor swung upward. Erwin scooped Levi up and climbed awkwardly down the ladder into the small underground bunker. After laying his soldier back down on the concrete floor, Erwin pulled the second lever built into the wall and sent the trapdoor clanging back down, submerging the two Scouts in total darkness.

Fumbling around in the dark, Erwin searched for the lantern they always kept near the ladder. His left hand struck metal, almost knocking the lantern over. After feeling around on the floor nearby, he caught hold of a book of matches. He struck a match and lit the lantern. Dim light spread through the room, illuminating piles of supplies and one very injured Scout.

"Sorry, Levi," Erwin muttered. "Give me a minute."

He pushed his way through the crates of supplies. Cloth and water, cloth and water. The first few boxes contained extra lines and food rations, and then Erwin opened a box with several full canteens. Sighing in relief, he tossed some of the canteens out onto the floor, then returned to his search. Several boxes later, he found a pile of about five extra cloaks.

That'll do, Erwin thought. He stumbled back to Levi, kneeling beside him.

"You're not going to like this very much," Erwin said out loud, pulling off Levi's cloak and carefully undoing the buttons on his shirt. "But I promise you need it."

When Levi's shirt had been removed, Erwin paused for a second or two to examine the wounds. He stood by his earlier broken rib theory, but the gashes themselves didn't appear deep enough to hit muscle or bones.

"Okay, brace yourself," Erwin said. He took one of the canteens and poured across the injuries, washing the blood and dirt away. Levi's muscles stiffened and he let out an unconscious groan, but he didn't react nearly as much as Erwin had anticipated.

"Sometimes I think you're made of something different from the rest of us," Erwin remarked, talking out loud not so much to Levi as to himself, just to clear his own head. He uncapped a second canteen and poured again. He used up a third canteen for good measure, although he didn't actually remember from training exactly how much water it took to wash out a wound. Levi had stopped making noise, but his whole body had started to tremble. Erwin carefully reached out to touch Levi's skin. It was ice cold.

He grabbed one of the clean cloaks, folded it, and pressed it onto Levi's chest. Levi drew in a sharp, ragged breath. Erwin maintained the gentle pressure on the wound for exactly five minutes, counting out loud to himself. Then he turned his attention to the rest of the cloaks.

First, he tried to rip one of the cloaks into strips, but when the thick fabric resisted, he drew one of his blades and cut through the cloth instead. For several minutes, Erwin worked at the cloak, half tearing and half slicing it into long strips of fabric.

Once he had ripped the cloak into shreds, he turned his attention back to Levi, inspecting the gashes. They were still seeping blood, but the pressure from the bandages would help. Working quickly, carefully, Erwin bandaged the wound.

When he had finished, Erwin collapsed back against the wall. He examined his handiwork. Obviously, it wasn't the work of one of the Survey Corps' medical specialists, but his clumsy first aid job would have to do for now. At least Levi's breathing was even, his pulse consistent, if a little weak.

Back resting against the wall, legs splayed out in front of him, Erwin closed his eyes.

What were they going to do?

There was always the chance that Shadis would send a team out looking for them. Under any normal circumstances, everyone would assume they had died in the Titan attack—and it would be a reasonable assumption to make. But even if they thought Erwin was dead, Levi had been alive the last time his squad saw him. As long as the squad reported that fact to Shadis, everyone would know there was a chance that Levi had survived.

But when Levi didn't come back with the rest of the expedition, what were they supposed to think? Outside the walls, an unconscious and injured Scout was a dead Scout. Besides, would Shadis really risk the lives of an entire search team for one soldier? Especially a soldier who had caused as many problems as Levi had?

Shadis had wanted Levi in a command position—but Erwin doubted whether that desire was really strong enough to outweigh all the disadvantages of sending Scouts back out into a snowstorm for the second time in twenty-four hours, searching for someone who was almost certainly dead.

On the other hand, they could just wait out the storm. They were inside a supply cache—they had food rations, water rations, flares. Nobody on the walls would be able to see a flare during a snowstorm like this, but when the storm finally subsided, Erwin could go back to the edge of the forest, send up a flare, wait for the Scouts to show up with an extra horse or two, come back for Levi, and ride back to Wall Maria.

The sound of chattering teeth tore Erwin away from his thoughts. He opened his eyes. Levi was shivering violently.

Cursing himself for forgetting, Erwin reached for one of the extra cloaks and wrapped it around Levi, then leaned back against the wall. He watched Levi's face for a minute or two. The Scout's shaking subsided a little, but not enough. Vaguely, Erwin remembered something from his training about blood loss sapping body temperature—and it didn't help that the supply cache wasn't insulated, even if it was dry.

Erwin sighed.

"I hope you forgive me for this someday," he said, and then pulled Levi into his chest, wrapping his arms and cloak around the unconscious body of his shaking soldier.

What options did they have other than waiting?

They could take their chances in crossing the terrain all the way back to Wall Maria on their own. It was theoretically possible, yes, but practically it was barely worth considering. Even when Levi woke up—if he woke up, Erwin acknowledged—he wouldn't be able to walk even a few feet, let alone over four miles.

Those aren't all the options, Erwin reminded himself. I could go alone.

His ODM gear had enough gas to take on a few Titans if he ran into any of them. His head still ached, but he was otherwise uninjured. If he set out for Wall Maria alone, his chances of making it were by no means guaranteed—but it certainly wouldn't be the riskiest mission he had ever undertaken.

Let's say he made it. Could he come back for Levi?

Erwin looked down at the small figure folded in his arms, listened to his rattling breaths. No, he admitted. In the absolute best-case scenario, it might take Erwin two hours to return to Wall Maria, secure backup and extra horses, and come back to the bunker. As strong as he seemed to be, Levi still wouldn't last two hours in sub-freezing temperatures. Not in this condition.

He felt Levi stir a little and sighed. If Levi hadn't stayed back to save Erwin, he would have been safely back inside Wall Maria by now. Was Erwin really going to leave him to die?

Without warning, Levi's whole body jerked, arms and legs flying. Erwin jumped, surprised, and before he could react, Levi's elbow had slammed into the side of his face. Instinctively, Erwin grabbed Levi's wrists as the smaller figure tried to twist away from him before freezing, crying out suddenly in pain.

"You're okay," Erwin said quickly. "It's me, you're okay, it's Erwin."

Levi stared up at him. His eyes widened in recognition.

"Holy hell," he croaked. "Erwin."

"Maybe don't hit me again," Erwin said, readjusting his position against the wall. "How do you feel?"

"Like shit," Levi replied. He looked around, wincing, and finally seemed to register that he was, for all intents and purposes, curled up in Erwin's lap. Levi stiffened, immediately pushing away from his superior officer. He winced again.

"Sorry," Erwin said. "You were cold."

"Yeah," Levi said. "Okay. Yeah. I'm just…"

He did not finish his sentence, instead gingerly removing himself from Erwin. He tried to sit up, groaned sharply, and fell flat onto his back inches away from Erwin.

"Yeah," he said again. "This is fine."

"Do you want me to…?"

"No," Levi interrupted. "This is fine." Delicately, he ran a hand over his bandages, then reached up to touch the blood caked in his hair. "What happened?"

"You killed the Abnormal," Erwin said simply. "A Titan caught me by surprise. You stayed behind and saved my life." He paused, just a little awkwardly. "Thank you."

"I fell under the Titan…and you…" Levi looked around again. "Where are we?"

"The supply cache," Erwin said. "I guess you didn't really see the inside."

"Oh," said Levi. "How long was I out?"

Erwin shrugged. "I'm not sure. Maybe an hour. Maybe less, maybe more."

"Okay." Levi drew in a shaky breath, then let it out again. "What's the plan?"

Perhaps for the first time since they had descended into the bunker, Erwin remembered that he was Levi's commanding officer, that it was his responsibility to dispense plans and give speeches and instill hope. For a moment, he considered telling Levi not to worry, that he had already decided on the best course of action.

But they were miles away from home, and he didn't see the point.

"There are a few options," he admitted. "But I'm afraid I don't like any of them very much."

"Yeah, well," said Levi, grimacing. "Not that I'm telling you how to do your job or anything, but at some point, you might just have to pick something."

"I know," Erwin said. "I want to rule out the option that Shadis sends someone out to find us first."

"See, I knew it. You do have a plan." Levi shifted the position of his shoulders, wincing at the movement. "You just don't want to tell me what it is."

Erwin raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"You're going to leave me here," Levi said flatly. "What else are you supposed to do?"

Erwin was silent.

"Someone might come," he said finally.

"Yeah, okay," Levi said. He didn't sound convinced. Erwin couldn't think of anything to add, so for the next minute, neither of them spoke. Levi's eyes slowly closed as Erwin's thoughts began to drift. Another a minute or two passed. Levi's breathing began to deepen.

"Hey," Erwin said suddenly, remembering something else from his training. "You shouldn't fall asleep. Not with your head injury."

Levi let out a frustrated sigh. He didn't open his eyes.

"Doesn't really matter now, does it?"

"You need to stay awake," Erwin said firmly. "Just talk to me."

"What the hell am I supposed to talk to Section Commander Erwin Smith about?"

"You can tell me how you met them," Erwin said.

"Who?"

"Your friends in the Underground. Church and Magnolia. How did you meet them?"

"Nope," Levi said, staring straight up at the ceiling, both hands pressed to his chest. "I'm not doing that."

"What brought you there anyway? Were you born there?"

"I'm really not doing that." Levi paused. "There's something I want to know, though."

"Hmm." Erwin crossed his arms and rested his head back against the wall. "What's that?"

"Why'd you give me the cloak?"

Erwin eyed Levi carefully. "What cloak?"

"Don't do that," Levi said, shaking his head. "I'm going to die here anyway. Just tell me."

Erwin shrugged. "Every Scout has a cloak. You didn't have yours, and you needed it."

There was another moment of silence. Levi pulled his cloak more tightly around his shoulders.

"Why'd you join the Scouts?" he asked abruptly.

"You won't answer any of my questions, but now you think you can interrogate me?"

"Humor me," Levi said dryly. "It's not like I'll ever get a chance to tell anyone."

Erwin considered his answer carefully.

"I want to beat the Titans," he said at last. "And when the Titans are gone, I want to tear down the walls. I want all the people to stream out into open fields—I want them to dive into lakes and rivers, to lie in the grass and stare up at the clouds, to watch their children run and play in the forest. I want to give every man, woman, and child the opportunity to step into the unknown and not to be afraid. I want humanity to be free."

Erwin's final words echoed off the bunker's small walls.

"Yeah," said Levi. His face was turned away, his voice so soft that Erwin could barely hear it. "They told me you were good at making speeches."

He almost sounded…moved.

"So that's why you want to be commander so badly."

"Yes," Erwin replied. It wasn't a lie—not entirely—and so he wasn't sure what possessed him to add, "That's one of the reasons."

"What's another one?"

"There are things," Erwin said, "that I want to know about the world."

As he said it, his stomach did a flip. It was the exact same feeling as leaning out over the ledge of Wall Maria. He knew he was treading on dangerous ground, and he searched quickly for a different conversation topic before Levi could probe any further.

"I answered two of your questions," Erwin said. "At least answer one of mine."

"Maybe," said Levi. He had draped his right arm across his eyes, and his voice was noticeably weaker than it had been a few minutes ago.

Erwin frowned.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Tired," Levi said. "Cold." He paused, then said, "You should go. I'm going to sleep."

"No," Erwin said. "Keep talking. Why did you stay behind to save me?"

"I don't know," Levi said. His voice suddenly sounded so far away. "Doesn't matter."

"It does matter," Erwin said, reaching over to place the back of his hand on Levi's forehead. The burning hot skin didn't worry Erwin nearly as much as the fact that Levi hadn't jerked away at Erwin's touch. "Tell me."

"I don't know," Levi said again. "I guess…" He broke into a cough—a violent, hacking cough that rolled through his body like an earthquake. When he finally pulled his arm away from his mouth, there were flecks of blood on his sleeve. "You know where you're going. Nobody else knows where they're going…"

He trailed off.

"Hey," Erwin said. "Don't fall asleep."

But Levi didn't answer. Erwin felt for Levi's pulse. It was there—but slow. His breathing was unsteady. He needed to see a real medic, or he wasn't going to make it.

"You're going to leave me here. What else are you supposed to do?"

And it was true. For all Erwin's strategizing, for all his pretense that there were multiple potential plans to think through, there had only ever really been one option. Go back to Wall Maria alone. Come back after the storm and bury the body.

Erwin stood up. He adjusted his cloak, tightened his gear, double-checked his blades. He stared down one last time at Levi, lying unconscious on the floor, then crossed over to the ladder. One hand gripped the ladder, one foot stepped onto the bottom rung, ready to climb up and out into the forest.

And he stopped.

"Killing Titans, Smith. He's the best at killing Titans, and before this morning, he had never seen one before in his life."

Levi, tearing the Titan that killed Furlan and Isabel to pieces with a blind rage. Levi, suspended in midair just before plunging his blades into the Abnormal's neck. Levi, scouring every last inch of the training forest while the other Scouts fled.

"I got fourteen. I got them all."

Erwin shook his head. He was volatile. He couldn't work with a team. Even after months of training, he didn't know how to listen. No Scout, not even a Scout as talented as Levi, was worth anything in the long run unless he could learn to follow orders.

But then there was Levi, scrubbing the stables until his hands were raw.

"Is this not what you ordered me to do?"

Erwin turned back to look at Levi. He could have retreated with his squad. He could have saved himself and left Erwin to die. Instead, he had risked his own life to save his superior—the same superior he had sworn to kill not even five months ago. Why?

"You know where you're going. Nobody else knows where they're going."

Erwin stepped back, dropping his head into his hands, running back in circles through the same two potential options—and the same two likely outcomes. If he went back alone, his chances of survival weren't great, but they weren't bad either.

No, he told himself. You're a strategist. Be precise.

Okay then. He ran through the simulation in his head, imagining each distinct scenario as it branched away like forks in a road. He calculated the odds, forcing himself to be as exact as possible. If he went back alone, his chances of surviving were maybe as high as 75%, maybe as low as 65%, but not lower.

What if he took Levi with him?

The odds were easier to calculate, at least. There weren't as many scenarios to imagine. If they crossed paths with a Titan—any Titan, at any point along the way—their chances were very bad. Even though the snow would give them some cover from the Titans, it would also give the Titans cover from Erwin. If Erwin met a fast-moving Abnormal alone, he might succeed in killing it, but if he also had to drop Levi, engage his ODM gear, and find a place to grapple in an open field…

If he brought Levi with him, he had a 40% shot at best. Probably 30% at worst.

Humanity needed Erwin. When Shadis slipped up and proved his inefficacy as commander—as soon he would, Erwin was certain—his replacement would need a surgically focused vision, a calculating mind, the willingness to take all necessary risks, the ability to foresee as many steps ahead of the enemy as it took to win in the end. Without that kind of commander, what hope did humanity have? And who else, realistically, could possibly fill that role?

Who else but Erwin Smith?

Levi stirred fitfully; his forehead furrowed. He mumbled something inaudible under his breath. Slowly, Erwin walked back over to his unconscious soldier.

"Isabel…" Levi murmured, this time just loud enough for Erwin to hear. "No…Furlan…please…"

Levi, kneeling in the muddy grass, his stricken face turned up into the pouring rain.

"Stop. Don't regret this."

Erwin knelt down and gathered Levi up into his arms.

"You couldn't have known how the choice you made here today would turn out, but you can give that choice meaning…"

"Kenny?" Levi mumbled as Erwin rose to his feet, the unconscious Scout cradled in his arms like a sleeping child. As Erwin walked back over to the ladder, Levi stirred again—just a little.

"Thanks," he said, so quietly that his lips barely moved.

As Erwin emerged from the supply cache, the icy wind whipped the snow around him into twisting flurries. The storm had not yet subsided, but this time, Erwin counted the thick snowflakes as a blessing rather than a curse. No Titan would be able to see the two Scouts unless it stumbled right on top of them.

He was almost out of gas, he noted. There was maybe just enough to carry the two of them half a mile, but he decided to save it in case they did run into a Titan. On the off chance that he managed to engage his gear fast enough, he might as well keep enough gas to put up a fight.

Erwin paused to make sure that Levi's cloak was wrapped tightly enough to keep him warm, double-checked his compass, and then began trudging west into the forest.

It must be nearly evening by now, Erwin thought, peering ahead of him into the trees. Although he could barely see the sky, the shades of grey beyond the falling snow appeared darker than they had been earlier. The trees were nothing but flat silhouettes, their crooked shapes nearly invisible through the swirling storm.

Several inches of snow had piled up on the ground, and every step was more onerous than Erwin had anticipated. His head was pounding, his arms already aching, and his ears rang from the strain of listening for approaching Titans.

"Okay, Levi," Erwin said between heavy breaths. "I've decided to be generous. Ask all your questions. What do you want to know?"

His injured companion, obviously, did not respond.

"You want me to tell you about my time as a cadet?" Erwin paused to take a few more deep, labored breaths. "I was twelve years old when I joined the Training Corps…I know…I was young. But I had something to prove…"

The snow rushed by, stinging Erwin's face. Each sentence was painful. Breathing in the freezing wind took so much of Erwin's energy that he found himself pausing for whole minutes between sentences, sometimes even between words.

"You see, my father was a teacher," Erwin continued. "And he taught our class about the history of our people…about how all humans outside the walls were killed by the Titans, and the survivors rebuilt civilization inside the walls to protect themselves from the Titans…"

His story slowed down as he stumbled forward. The spaces between his phrases stretched from five, to ten, sometimes even to twenty minutes now. At some point—he didn't know how long it had been—he happened to look up and realize that he could no longer see the shadows of trees above him.

"Look at that, Levi," he said. "We're out of the forest."

But they still had miles of open field to cross, and Erwin hadn't finished his story.

"He told us…that all the records of the time before the walls…had been lost…"

In between sentences, Erwin reached down occasionally to check Levi's pulse. His heart kept beating. Erwin kept walking.

"But I had a question…that I asked in class…and he didn't answer it then, but when we got home…he told me his theory…do you want to know what it was?"

Still no Titans. Erwin's legs burned from the effort of pushing through the snow. His hands were growing numb.

"He had this hypothesis…that the First King had somehow stolen the memories of our people…that the records had all been destroyed…because somewhere out there, there's a secret about our world…a secret the royal family has to keep…whatever it takes…"

Erwin let out a shaky breath, suddenly afraid that he had spoken too rashly, that his story had not fallen on deaf ears. "Levi?"

No answer. Good.

"I was a fool…I told the other children…and my father was killed…they said it was an accident, but I know the Royal Government killed him…because he knew too much…"

Erwin was surprised to feel the sting of tears in his eyes. He blinked. The tears froze before they could fall.

"It was because of me…because I said too much…"

Was it his imagination, or was the ground beneath his feet beginning to slope upward? Were they anywhere near the walls?

"When I joined the Training Corps…I kept talking about his theory…I told the other cadets…"

Erwin squinted, straining for a glimpse of Wall Maria through the snow. Nothing yet.

"But since I became a Scout…I haven't told anyone…"

Erwin thought that if he had to take another step, he would collapse. They would be long dead before the Titans ever found them, frozen together in the snow.

"I told you there were things…I wanted to know…about the world…"

There! Up ahead in the distance. Was that…a different shade of grey? A flame ignited in Erwin's chest, and suddenly the heat was radiating into his face, his hands, his feet, and it was as if the wind was passing over and around him, leaving him bathed in a warmth that only he could feel.

"That's why I have to be commander," he told Levi, coughing between his words, tripping over his feet. "I have…to know…"

And then, out of nowhere—stone.

The wall appeared so suddenly that Erwin nearly crashed into it, but he pulled himself back at the last moment. Trembling, he dropped to his knees before laying Levi down gently in front of him. He fumbled for a flare with numb fingers, finally managing to fire it up into the sky.

"Hey!" he shouted as loudly as his hoarse voice could manage, afraid that the wind would carry his voice away. "This is Section Commander Erwin Smith! And Squad Leader Levi!"

For a moment, all was silent—and then, somewhere up above, he heard an answering cry. The words all tangled together, and Erwin's tired brain couldn't piece them together enough to make sense of the shouts. It didn't matter anyway. They had seen the flare. They knew there were humans down below.

Erwin looked up, heard the far-away creaking of ropes, and saw a wooden platform begin to descend. He could have wept. He nearly did.

"We're here, Levi," he said. "We're alive."