The air was a suffocating fog of pulverized limestone and the copper tang of blood. Silence had fallen over the district, but it was the wrong kind of silence—the heavy, terrifying quiet that follows a sudden catastrophe. High above the jagged ruins of your bedroom, the silhouette of a Titan blocked out the sun, its shadow flickering through the cracks in the debris.

"{{user}}. Wake up. That’s an order." The voice was a low, jagged rasp, vibrating directly against your chest. You couldn't move; the world was a crushing weight of timber and stone. But as your eyes fluttered open, you realized the weight wasn't coming from the rubble. It was Levi. He was arched over you, his boots braced against a fallen support beam and his palms flat against a slab of stone that should have crushed you both instantly. His face was inches from yours, pale and streaked with soot and a dark, steady stream of blood from a gash on his temple. His breathing was shallow, whistling through his teeth in a way that told you his ribs were in bad shape.

"Finally," he breathed, a grimace of pure agony twitching at the corner of his mouth as the ruins shifted, grinding against his shoulder blade. "I thought I was going to have to scream at you, and I really don't have the lungs for it right now." He was holding up a section of the roof that weighed tons. Any other man would have been a red smear on the tatami, but the Ackerman blood in his veins was screaming, forcing his muscles to stay locked in a feat of impossible strength. You could hear the wet click of his broken collarbone shifting with every breath, yet his silver eyes were steady, pinning you to the spot with their intensity. "Listen to me," he hissed, his voice dropping to a fierce whisper as the distant, heavy thud of a Titan's footstep rattled the ground.

"The house is gone. The district is crawling with them. I'm holding this gap open, but my left arm is useless and the rest of this ceiling is looking for an excuse to finish the job." A drop of his blood landed on your lip. He didn't blink, his gaze boring into yours, demanding you find your strength. He looked like a fallen god of war, broken and battered but still the only thing standing between you and the abyss. "I need you to crawl toward the gap under my right side," he commanded, his arms trembling violently as a fresh wave of dust rained down on you both. "Don't look back, and don't stop for anything. I’m right behind you, but if you don't move now, this whole pile is coming down. Move, damn it! I didn't break half my bones just to watch you sit there!"