When Springer and I rejoined Levi and the squad in the center of the battlefield, everything was chaos.

Titan corpses littered the ground across the field, but they just seemed to keep coming. For every foe we took down, it seemed there were two more to take its place.

I whipped my blade across the back of one of the titan's necks as we came upon the group and sent it crashing to the ground near Levi, who had just taken down another titan as well. He glanced over at me, blood spattered across his face in light patterns, and ran a hand through his hair, the sweat keeping the dark strands slicked off his forehead even after he dropped his hand.

Damn it all. Why was he always such a distraction?

"Tch. Nice of you to show up finally, (L/N)." He said, his voice flat, as he whipped upward into the air again, swinging wide around another titan as he brought his blade out again, held ready in his hand.

"Yeah, well...." I paused, bringing my sword down on the neck of another titan, and then whipped back around toward him. As I flew past him, headed toward another incoming titan, I said, slightly out of breath, "I had to make sure our damn titan kid was taken care of."

My sword flashed as I brought it down once again, the titan falling to the ground alongside all the other corpses, the warm, red blood spurting upward and covering the front of my uniform.

I landed on the ground beside Miller and Arlert, who were watching each other's backs as they tried to catch their breath. I backed up to them, so we were all facing outward, and then glanced over my shoulder at Miller. "You two alright?"

Sweat shone on her forehead, and her blonde bangs were stuck to her skin with perspiration. She gave me a nod, her bloody blade held weakly in her crimson stained hand. "Yes, Corporal."

Arlert turned his wide, blue eyes to me for a brief instant. "How can they just keep coming?"

I shook my head slightly. "Who knows?" I glanced over the battlefield. Still no sign of the beast titan or Jaeger. I swore under my breath. "Has anyone seen Jaeger yet?" A titan came barreling toward us. "Hold that thought." I shot up into the air, taking it down easily in one, well aimed swing, my sword cutting through its skin as if it were made of paper.

I landed back beside the pair of cadets. Arlert glanced over at me again, worry shining in his eyes. "No one's seen Eren since he drove the beast titan toward the wall."

"Oi, (L/N)!"

I flicked my gaze over to Levi, who landed lightly on the ground several feet away as another downed titan crashed to the ground behind him. He walked toward me, wiping the sweat off of his forehead as he said, "What's the status on Jaeger?"

"No one's seen him, or the abnormal, since they headed toward the wall." I wiped my blades on my cloak again. The gore was too much. It was blocking the sharpness too quickly. I'd have to keep an eye on them and make sure to keep them clean in between hits.

Erwin appeared beside us, his cloak soaked with blood, his face speckled with crimson liquid. He furrowed his brow, his voice stern, and said, "No sign of Jaeger?"

Levi and I both shook our heads. Erwin swore and glanced in the direction of the wall, his face serious. "This doesn't bode well. We'll have to send someone after him. If he's injured...." He trailed off. He didn't need to finish that thought. We all knew what would happen if Jaeger failed.

Levi stepped forward, his eyes dark with determination. "I'll go after him."

I stepped up beside him, meeting Erwin's gaze, and said decidedly, "I'll go too. You gave me the mission to watch out for Jaeger, and that's what I'm going to do."

Commander Erwin considered us both for a brief moment and then nodded. "Fine. I'll stay with the special forces. Get going." He flew upward into the air again, headed toward another group of incoming titans. Arlert and Miller followed close behind him, their blades drawn, their strength and determination renewed...for now.

I glanced over at Levi, meeting his dark gaze with my own. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't even think about complaining. I'm coming with you and it's already been decided. So let's go."

"Tch." He scoffed quietly. "Let's go then."

He started off toward the wall, and I kept close behind him, the only sound the battling below us and the whipping of our lines in and out as we hooked to trees and moved forward at a quick pace.

The wall came into view more quickly than I had imagined, and with it, Jaeger and the beast titan.

As we approached, I could see what was happening more clearly.

Jaeger held the beast titan pinned in front of him, its back to the wall, his hands around its throat, as it struggled to push itself away from the wall. As Jaeger slammed the abnormal back against the wall again with a loud roar, stones cracked and crumbled down around the two battling titans.

"Ackerman!" I called out to him as we closed in. He glanced over at me, and I motioned to Jaeger. "He can't let it off the wall or it will overtake him. We need to weaken it somehow so he can let up and finish it off."

Levi seemed to consider my words for a moment and then nodded briskly. He shot ahead of me, hooking his lines to the large wall that loomed above the struggling beast titan. When he connected, he paused for a moment, hanging above the titan's head, his feet pressed against the bricks of the wall, watching the battle below him, considering the options.

Suddenly, the beast titan heaved itself forward and broke free of Jaeger's hold.

With a gigantic, rage filled roar, it threw Jaeger to the ground, its own hands at his throat now, and bit down, ripping away a large chunk of flesh from his shoulder. Blood sprayed and Jaeger let out a pained, angry, cry as he struggled beneath the beast titan's weight.

I had to weaken the abnormal. It was the only way Jaeger would be able to gain the upperhand.

Without thinking, I whipped out my 3DM line and sank it into the back of the beast titan's neck, hurtling through the air toward the titan that was still crouched over Jaeger. With an angry yell, I brought down both of my blades across the back of the abnormal's neck as I flew past.

My swing was strong enough, my cut deep enough, but it did nothing.

The beast titan glanced over at me as I swung back around, but quickly turned its attention back to Jaeger, reaching out a clawed hand to strip more flesh away from his chest, revealing gleaming white bone. Jaeger's roar of agony seemed to cause the wall to tremble

I landed beside Levi on the wall, my chest heaving with exertion, and glanced over at him. "What the hell do we do? My blades did nothing."

He shot me a glare. "I'll lecture you later about doing something so reckless and stupid, but for now, I think the only thing we can do is hope to draw its attention away from Jaeger so he can take it down."

The beast titan tore another chunk of skin from Jaeger. Another roar.

I met Levi's gaze with slightly panicked eyes. We were going to be too late soon. We had to act now. "So what do you suggest?"

His black eyes flicked down to Jaeger, still on the ground, and then to the wall above us. His lips flattened to a thin line as a look of resolve came over his face. He met my gaze again. "We break the wall. Get clear"

"What?" I couldn't believe what he'd just said, but before I could say anything else, he shot off toward the top of the wall and out of view.

Within seconds, he reappeared again, standing on top of the wall, his blades drawn. "Oi, you son of a bitch!" He called down to the beast titan. It glanced up at him briefly, drawing its attention away from Jaeger for a few seconds. I couldn't see his face from here, but I could swear from his voice that Levi was smiling in triumph as he called down from the wall, "It comes to an end here." He raised one of his blades into the air. "Say goodbye, bastard."

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the wall, and Levi disappeared into a cloud of smoke and debris. I covered my head with my hands as a small hail of pebbles rained down on me. There was a pause of silence, deafening after the explosion, and then I heard a faint sound coming from above me. The sound of crumbling.

I looked upward, just in time to see the top portion of the wall falling downward, toward the beast titan at the base. Huge chunks of rock crashed down against the surface of the wall as they fell, but miraculously, didn't seem to damage anymore of the wall in their path.

The beast titan let out an enraged roar, as if it knew it had been bested at its own game, and then it was crushed beneath a large piece of the falling wall that sent it crashing to the ground beside Jaeger.

Levi suddenly appeared beside me, suspended from his 3DM lines as he glanced at the pile of rocks, the downed beast titan, and Jaeger below us. "Tch. That's all I can do for him. He'll have to find the strength now to finish it himself."

I looked below us. The beast titan was struggling with the chunks of wall, trying to free itself from the downed pile of rocks. Jaeger still lay on the ground nearby, unmoving, blood running from multiple wounds down his broad chest and into a dark puddle onto the ground.

Without thinking, I screamed down to him, "Jaeger! Jaeger, you have to finish this!" He stirred slightly, attempting to rise from the ground, but fell back down into the pool of blood again. I steeled myself and yelled out to him again. "Jaeger. Remember the promise you made me! NO ONE ELSE TODAY!"

He was still for another brief moment, and then with a tremendous roar, he pushed himself up and back onto his feet again, the blood running in crimson rivers down his battered body. He advanced toward the still entangled beast titan, his sharp teeth glinting in the sunlight, and grabbing its shoulders in his hands, smashed it back down against the ground, stopping its struggled movements.

He leaned over, and with one more enraged roar directly into its face, spittle flying everywhere, he brought his teeth down around its neck. With a gigantic throw of his head, Jaeger tore the beast titan's head from its body.

I collapsed back against the wall, relief flooding through my chest. "Damn. That was close."

Levi remained silent next to me, his gaze still on Jaeger, who was finished off the beast titan far below us.

I glanced over at him. "How did you get the garrison to let you destroy the wall?"

He raised a shoulder in a slight shrug as he met my gaze. "You threaten enough, they let you do anything you want." He flicked his eyes upward for a brief moment. "Beside, I didn't completely destroy it. I just used a cannon blast to knock the top layer loose. It'll be an easy fix and it still keeps the titans out."

I was about to reply to him, when a glimpse of movement below us caught my eyes.

There was a lone titan headed toward Jaeger and the destroyed body of the beast titan, its shambling gait somehow familiar to me. As it drew closer, and I caught sight of the long, stringy hair, the stooped shoulders, it clicked.

My heart pounded in my chest, anger and bile rising in my throat.

I was transported back to that day. Johnson pushing his blades into my palms, the gaping grin of the titan, the feeling of warm blood as it showered over me....

With an inhuman yell, I pushed off the wall and shot down on the 3DM lines toward the incoming titan, not caring about anything else at that point. Nothing else existed-not Levi, not Jaeger, not the mission.

It was just me, and the burning feeling of rage and retribution that was consuming my chest.

As I closed in on the titan, it glanced up at me, hearing the whirring of the 3DM gear as I neared. Its eyes were just as I remembered-large, dark, empty, soulless. Its mouth was twisted in that horrific grin. It reached out toward me, its claw-like fingers snapping as it tried to grab me out of the air.

With another enraged cry, I whirled in the air, my blades flashing around me in blurs, and evaded its grip. All I could see was red. But I knew exactly where to aim.

I whipped over its head, and with a large grunt of effort and anger, slashed both of my blades down hard across its neck. The blades connected with bone, sending a tremor up the swords and into my arms, but with another push of effort, they were clear and flying free again.

The titan's head separated from its body with a spray of hot, red blood and its body crashed to the ground, sending up a cloud of gritty, thick dust.

I landed beside the titan's body and, sheathing my blades, walked over to the severed head which lay on the ground several feet away. I stood for a moment, looking down on the grim, empty features. The skin was already beginning to melt from the bone with the heat from the sun, and steam rose from the pool of blood surrounding the head.

I lifted my foot, and without another thought, brought my boot down onto that titan's head. The thick sole went right through the already decaying bone, crushing the skull beneath my foot, and my boot quickly filled with warm blood.

I stood there for what seemed like forever, watching the skin continue to fade from the crushed head, my boot full to the brim with steaming titan blood, until someone put a hand on my shoulder.

I heard Levi speak from beside me, his voice quiet. "Oi, (L/N)." I didn't look over at him. I kept my gaze on the gleaming skull at my feet. He spoke again. "He would have been proud."

Tears suddenly filled my eyes at his words. I ducked my head so he wouldn't see that I was crying, but it was no use. He slid his hand from off of my shoulder and I felt him interlace his fingers with mine. His pale, blood stained skin was cool against my own blood speckled hand, and I knew, in that instant, through his touch, that he knew exactly what I felt.

We stood there for a long time, not speaking, hand in hand, looking down at the slowly decaying skeleton of the titan at our feet.

And I didn't feel the need to say anything. Because I knew Levi understood me. He always had.