Early the next morning, we were back on the road, riding alongside the wall as we headed westward again.

As we rode, I couldn't help but think that it was a beautiful morning, even if we did have to keep a constant lookout for titan bastards. The sun was shining on the trees, wet from the night of rain, and the birds were even daring to emerge and sing to each other.

I glanced over at Levi, who was wearing his usual dark expression despite the sunshine, and then said under my breath to Johnson, who was riding beside me, "Johnson. Do you think it's possible for one person to bring the clouds back to the sky again?"

Johnson flicked his eyes quickly over to Levi and then back to me, giving me a slight smile as he said, "I don't know. But if anyone could do it, Corporal Ackerman could."

I chuckled under my breath, enjoying this quiet moment of light hearted ribbing while it lasted, and muttered to him in amusement, "Sometimes, I think he's not even really upset about anything. He's just worn that scowl for so long that his face is stuck like that now."

Johnson laughed at my remark and Levi shot us a glare, as if he knew we were talking about him. Johnson clamped his mouth shut and blushed, focusing his gaze downward on his hands that held the reins. I wiggled my fingers at Levi, giving him a slight smirk, and he scoffed before turning forward again.

After a few moments of silence, Johnson pulled his horse a little closer to mine and, glancing over at Levi to make sure he wasn't looking our way, asked me quietly, "Corporal. Has he always been like that?" I raised an eyebrow at him and he hurried to clarify. "Corporal Ackerman. Has he always been the way he is now? I know you two grew up together and I was just curious what he used to be like before he was this way."

I glanced over at Levi, who rode in silence, his eyes focused on the road ahead of us, and felt my heart skip a beat in my chest as I remembered what had happened last night. His touch on my skin....

I focused back on Johnson, who was looking at me expectantly. "No, Johnson. He wasn't always like this." I flicked my gaze back over to Levi quickly. "He was very different growing up. Sweet, and open, and braver than anyone I've ever known." I felt a small smile curve my lips as I remembered our younger years. I looked back over to Johnson, growing serious again. "That part hasn't changed. He's still braver than anyone I've ever known, but the way the world is now...it would change just about anybody. It's not a surprise he's adapted the way he has."

"Oi, (L/N)."

Levi's voice calling my name broke into our conversation. I pulled away from Johnson and rode over to him, coming up beside him as he glanced over at me. He pointed toward the horizon. "What do you think of that?"

I looked to where he was pointing, above the stretch of trees in front of us, and saw what he was referring to. A large, dark pillar of smoke was rising into the air ahead of us.

"What the hell?" I said under my breath, squinting my eyes to try and put the column into closer focus. "There's no other squads out this far is there?"

"Tch." He shook his head. "Not that Erwin mentioned. We're the only corps out this way."

My horse danced nervously underneath me, snorting and pawing at the ground, and I reached down, laying a calming palm along its neck as I glanced over at Levi. He met my gaze with his dark eyes, his face calm, though I knew he was just as worried as I was about what lay ahead of us.

He adjusted his grips on the reins in his hands as his own mount snorted nervously, throwing its head back to sniff the incoming wind with flared, nervous nostrils.

And then I smelled it. The acrid, stinking smell of titans, blood, and destruction was carried toward us on the hot breeze.

"Levi...." I said in alarm, not even realizing I had used his first name in my urgency.

He nodded. "I know." He whirled his horse around to face the cadets, who watched us with wide, uncertain eyes, and called out loudly, "This is what we've trained for, brats. Don't let us down now. Any sane person would head away from what's waiting for us, but that's not our job. We're going straight in." He motioned between the two of us. "Listen to our commands, stay together, and above all..." He glared at them dangerously. "Don't let the titans through."

He pulled hard on the reins, his horse rearing slightly as it spun on its back feet to face westward again. He kicked into its sides and the black stallion took off at a dead run into the woods, headed straight toward the large column of smoke in the distance.

I followed close behind him, the cadets on my heels. I could hear the pounding of all of the horses' hooves behind me as they dug into the wet ground of the forest and spurred mud upward, flicking it all around us.

I kept my head low and my body pressed against my mount's back as we sprinted through the forest, weaving between the trunks of trees and jumping over shallow creek beds. Branches whipped over my head and the hot wind flung my hair in and out of my vision as we pressed onward, toward the dark smoke growing closer in the distance.

We reached the edge of the trees, and Levi pulled up abruptly, his horse's hooves throwing up mud as it slid forward a few feet from the sudden stop.

I yanked my mare to a stop beside him, the cadets managing to stop in time behind us before they barreled us over, and glanced down into the valley where the smoke was coming from.

Levi swore under his breath, his eyebrows furrowed into a scowl as he looked at the scene below us. "Damn bastards."

There was a large group of titans gathered below us, surrounding a crumbling supply base. The smoke was curling upward from the freshly demolished buildings, and the titans were squabbling amongst each other as they dug through the rubble, looking for any human remains that were left behind after their rampage.

"The message didn't reach them in time then." I said under my breath to Levi, my eyes never leaving the scene of destruction before us.

"This wasn't some happenstance that they came upon this base. This was planned." Levi spoke again, his voice holding an edge of barely controlled anger, his fingers turning white as he clenched his reins tightly in his hands.

I glanced over at him, surprise flickering across my face, and said, "You think the abnormal organized this?"

His dark eyes flicked to me, anger simmering beneath the surface. "Damn right I think that bastard organized this. That son of a bitch was last seen in this area, and we know that it controls the other titans somehow. This wasn't random, this was staged."

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind, a flash of realization, and I felt my stomach drop. "Ackerman...." He met my gaze and I kept my voice low so the cadets wouldn't overhear as I muttered to him, "What if this was planned....for us?"

His eyes widened slightly as he caught my meaning. He glanced back down at the group of titans below us and swore under his breath again. "Damn it. It's got us right where it wants us."

Levi turned to face the cadets, some who were watching our whispered conversation with curiosity and some still staring in horror at the scene below us, and stated calmly, "All of you brats. Listen to me carefully. And follow my directions to the letter."

Johnson glanced over at me, fear flickering across his face. He could tell something was wrong.

Levi continued, glancing over his shoulder quickly to make sure the titans were still where we had left them. "You all turn around, right now, and you head back the way we came. Don't stop to take out any stray titans, it's not important. What's important right now is that you head back, and you don't stop until you get inside the wall." He scanned his dark, commanding gaze over them one by one. "Do I make myself clear?"

I had kept my gaze on the titans below us while he talked with the squad, wanting to make sure nothing happened while our backs were turned. Suddenly, a flash of movement on the other side of the valley caught my attention.

I watched in horror as the beast titan emerged from the trees, its huge, hulking, furry form dwarfing the other titans around it as it crushed the last of the standing buildings beneath its feet, its long arms swinging at its sides. Its gaze searched the treeline, and landed directly on us.

"Ackerman...." I yanked my horse backward a few steps, coming even with him, my eyes never leaving the abnormal standing below, watching our every movement.

He glanced over at me, and noting how white my face had gone, asked in a concerned tone, "What is it, (L/N)?"

I kept my voice calm, so as not to panic the cadets, but inside, my heart was pounding and my stomach had dropped to my toes. I lifted my chin toward the abnormal as I said quietly, "It's here. We have to go now."

Suddenly, the beast titan let out a bellowing roar, pointing in our direction, and the titans, as if moved by a single, connected string, all turned their heads toward us, their gaping, grinning mouths wide as they stood, frozen for a few, eternal seconds.

And then they were sprinting toward us, hundreds of arms and legs flailing, heads thrown back.

"Levi!" I yelled out, panic setting in as they charged toward our group. "We have to leave NOW!"

A determined look crossed Levi's face and he threw me the reins to his stallion. I glanced down at the leather clutched in my hand and then back to him, his brow furrowed with concentration. He shot upward on his 3DM gear and landed on a branch above us, pulling out his blades as he called down to me, "Get the cadets out of here, (L/N). I'll try and hold them off long enough to give you a head start."
Before I could protest, he took off, whipping through the trees toward the sprinting titans.

"Damn him. Always having to be the hero." I muttered under my breath. I jumped off my mount and threw both horses' reins to Jaeger, who looked at me in surprise. I whipped out my blades, giving him a brisk nod as I said, "Jaeger, you're in charge. Get the rest of the squad out of here. We'll keep these bastards busy for awhile."

"Corporal!" Johnson called out to me, but I was already flying upward into the trees, headed toward Levi and the group of titans.

As I whizzed through the trees, the branches snagging at my hair and clothing as they whipped by, I could only hope that those idiots had chosen to listen to us and were on their way back to the wall.

I reached the edge of the treeline and whipped outward on the 3DM lines, slashing my blade across one of the incoming titans necks, blood splashing across the front of my uniform as the titan crashed to the ground, the titans behind tripping and falling over its downed body.

I passed another titan, swinging my blade across the skin at the nape of its neck as I flew by. Another flash of dark blood, another falling body.

I landed briefly next to Levi on a branch, wiping the steaming blood from my face as I looked over at him and flashed him a grin. He shot me a glare as he wiped one of his blades on his cloak. "What the hell do you think you're doing here, (L/N)?"

"What? You didn't think I'd let you steal all the glory did you?" I asked him, not waiting for an answer as I took off again, circling around another titan to bring a blade down on the back of its neck. I ripped the blade out from its flesh, just as Levi whipped past me, blades drawn, and took down another titan behind me, the spray of crimson blood flying upward into the air and raining down on his dark hair.

I landed on another branch, wiping some of the carnage from my blades as I checked our progress. I swore under my breath. No matter how many of those bastards we took down, there seemed to be dozens more to take their fallen comrades places.

I heard crashing off to my left and glanced through the trees to see a large titan that had broken off from the group, headed in the direction that we had left the cadets.

I flicked my gaze back to Levi, who had just downed another titan, and called out to him, "Ackerman!" He glanced over at me and I motioned behind me. "There's a titan headed after the squad. I'm going to take care of the bastard. Give me ten minutes and then come after me. We need to pull back. If those idiots listened to us, they should be out of range anyway."

He hesitated for a moment, but then his dark eyes scanned the horizon before us, which was filled with more titans than before we had started, if that was possible, and he nodded briskly. "Fine. Ten minutes. That's all you get. Then we're retreating."

I took off through the trees after the lone titan, the lines of my 3DM whipping smoothly as I navigated around the closely knit trees of the forest.

I caught sight of the titan's large, hulking back in front of me, its long, dark, greasy hair falling in strands down the scarred skin of its hunched shoulders. A smirk crossed my lips. An easy target. I came closer to the titan and raised my blades, getting ready to bring one of them down across its neck, as I muttered under my breath, "Die, you son of a bitch."

Just as I brought down the blade toward its nape, something connected with me with such force and speed that it sent me spiraling out of the air, down toward the forest floor.

I couldn't right myself in time, I crashed into the large trunk of one of the trees as I fell, knocking the wind out of me as I fell downward through the branches, finally hitting the ground with a hard thud.

I sat up, groaning as I put a hand to my ribs, and glanced toward the titan. What in the hell had just happened?

And then I saw it. The abnormal. The beast titan, standing in the woods behind the lone titan I had been following. I swore a humanlike smirk crossed its face as it stared at me, a large boulder held in its hand. It had thrown a boulder at me, taking me out of the air before I could slay the titan. But why?

I didn't have time to ponder the motive, the lone titan had turned toward me, its large, gaping jaws open, dribbling saliva onto its chest as it let out a loud cry, shambling in my direction.

I scrambled for my blades, trying to find where they had fallen when I had tumbled out of the air. I glanced over my shoulder, the titan was growing closer, its large, bloodstained teeth gleaming in the dim light of the forest. My ribs were screaming with pain, my lungs were crying out for air. Where were those damn blades?

Suddenly, someone was beside me.

"Johnson?" I looked at him in shock, forgetting to continue looking for my blades in my surprise. "What the hell are you doing here?"

He gave me a sad smile. "I had a feeling you and Corporal Ackerman might need help. I stayed behind." He glanced over my head at the titan, which had reached us and was stretching out a long, blood marked arm toward us. He looked back at me again as he handed me his blades, pushing the cool metal into my hands. "Take these. You'll need them."

"Johnson....What are you...." I got out, glancing down at the blades he had pressed into my palms.

He flashed me one more small smile. "I'm going to give you enough time to get out." The titan's hand closed around his waist, its dirty fingernails digging into the survey corps emblem marked on his chest. "Tell Mory I'm sorry." He said to me, his voice growing fainter as the titan's grasp tightened around him, raising him upward and away from me.

"Johnson! NO!" I screamed out as the titan raised the boy to its wide, gaping mouth full of dirty teeth. I struggled to push myself up off the ground. I had to do something. This wasn't happening.

I fumbled with one of the blades, trying to lift it upward with my injured ribs. I screamed again in anger. I couldn't keep a hold on the blade, the titan's empty eyes leered at me as it bit down on Johnson, tearing his body in two.

Blood sprayed down on me like a terrible rain, and I couldn't tell if my face was wet with tears or Johnson's innards.

Suddenly, Levi appeared beside me. He grabbed my arms and dragged me backward from the titan, who was loudly munching on my cadet's lifeless body.

"You bastard! I'll kill every one of you! Johnson! NO."

Levi continued to drag me backward through the trees as I screamed, crazy with anger and despair, away from the gruesome scene.

I kicked and fought, trying to get back to the titan. I would kill that son of a bitch. And I wouldn't stop until the beast titan was dead at my feet.

Levi shoved me back against a tree, holding me still with hands on my shoulders as he forced me to look at him. "(L/N). Stop being an idiot. That boy sacrificed himself so we'd have enough time to retreat. Let's not waste his last act."

The tears were streaming down my face, mixing with the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. Johnson's blood. I choked back a sob and managed to nod to him.

He was right. Johnson had saved my life by giving up his, and that would be wasted if we remained out here and died anyway.

But that didn't change the fact that I wanted to die in that moment. I couldn't feel anything. Everything was numb and the scariest part was, that I couldn't bring myself to care.