The sound of the titan's footsteps was getting closer.
Jack pressed his ear to the corner of the building, listening to the rhythmic thud-thud-thud that made his teeth ache. They'd been so close—the south gate was maybe two hundred meters ahead, and he could already hear the shouting of soldiers organizing the evacuation. But now a massive chunk of stone blocked their path, probably torn from a house wall when the titans first broke through.
"Can we go around?" Reiner whispered, his voice tight with controlled panic.
Jack shook his head. The debris field stretched between two buildings with no gap wide enough for them to squeeze through. To their left was a dead-end alley. To their right, the street they'd just come from—where that ten-meter class was methodically searching every building.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Getting closer.
"We're trapped," Bertholdt breathed, and Jack could hear the edge of hysteria creeping into his voice.
Annie was studying the boulder that blocked their way, her calculating gaze taking in its size and position. "It's too big. We'd need a dozen people to move it, maybe more."
The stone was massive—easily two meters wide and probably weighing a ton or two. It had gouged deep scratches in the street when it fell, and one edge was embedded in the cobblestones. Jack walked around it, running his hands along its surface, testing its weight.
Thud. Thud.
The titan was maybe thirty meters away now. Through the gaps in the rubble behind them, Jack caught a glimpse of massive fingers feeling along a doorframe.
"Jack." Reiner's voice was carefully controlled, but Jack could hear the fear underneath. "We need to find another way."
"There is no other way." Jack planted his feet, put his shoulder against the boulder, and pushed. It didn't budge. Not even slightly.
Think. Think.
The footsteps were getting louder. Twenty meters. Maybe fifteen.
Annie's POV
We're going to die here. The thought came to Annie with crystalline clarity. They were going to die because of a piece of rubble, killed by some mindless titan while their real mission went unfinished. The irony was almost funny—brought down not by the Founding Titan or enemy fire, but by bad luck and physics.
She watched Jack examine the boulder like he was solving a puzzle instead of accepting their fate. There was something different about him, something she couldn't quite identify. The way he moved, the way he assessed threats—it reminded her of Marcel in their time back in Marley, when they were trained to be weapons.
He was just a kid, a stranger who'd been kind enough to help them when any sane person would have run by himself.
Thud.
The titan was close enough now that she could hear the wet sound of its breathing, the scrape of its fingers against stone. In maybe thirty seconds, it would round the corner and see them.
She started to reach for the ring on her finger—better to transform and fight than to die helplessly—when Jack did something that made her freeze.
Jack's POV
The muscles in Jack's legs burned as he braced himself against the ground. He'd found a slight gap between the boulder and the building beside it, just enough space to get leverage. Not to push it aside—that was impossible with the forward path blocked by debris—but maybe to lift it. Just enough to create a gap they could crawl through.
This is insane, part of his mind whispered. You can't lift something that weighs more than a horse.
But another part, a deeper part that had kept him alive on the streets for years, was already calculating angles and leverage points. His body seemed to know what to do even if his brain was screaming that it was impossible.
Jack wrapped his arms around the boulder's narrowest point, feeling the rough stone scrape against his palms. He took a deep breath, thought about Henrik lying still on the bakery floor, thought about these three kids who'd already lost too much, thought about the terror in Bertholdt's eyes.
And he lifted.
His eyes became a little blurry as adrenaline was secreted densely inside him.
The stone shifted. Just slightly, just enough to make Annie gasp behind him, but it moved. Jack's vision went white around the edges as every muscle in his body screamed in protest, but he held on, raising the boulder inch by impossible inch.
"Go," he said through gritted teeth, his voice strained but somehow still steady. "Crawl through. Hurry."
Reiner stared at him like he was seeing a ghost. "That's... that's not possible."
Thud.
The titan was right around the corner now.
"Go!" Jack's smile was tight with pain but genuine. These kids needed to see strength, not fear. They'd been through enough already. "I've got this."
Annie was the first to move, dropping to her belly and wriggling through the gap Jack had created. Bertholdt followed, then Reiner, who kept looking back at Jack with an expression of dawning recognition.
The boulder was getting heavier, or maybe his strength was giving out. Probably both. But the gap was still there, still wide enough, and that was all that mattered.
"Your turn," Annie called from the other side.
Jack's laugh was breathless but real. "Can't exactly let go and crawl at the same time."
Thud.
The titan rounded the corner, its massive head swiveling toward the sound of voices. Dead eyes locked onto Jack, and that horrible grin spread across its face.
"RUN!" Jack shouted to the others, his voice echoing off the narrow walls. "Just run! Get to the boats!"
"We're not leaving you!" Bertholdt cried, but Jack could hear them backing away slowly—good, smart, they needed to survive this.
The titan took a step forward, reaching down with one massive hand.
"I said RUN!"
The sound of wire-gear cut through the air like a blade. A figure in a brown coat dropped from above, dual swords flashing in the sunlight. The titan's nape opened in a spray of blood and steam, and the massive body toppled backward, crashing into the rubble behind it.
Jack let the boulder drop and spun around to see a Garrison soldier landing on the fallen titan's chest, his blades already retracting.
"You kids all right?" the soldier called, his voice gruff but concerned. He was older, maybe forty, with graying hair and scars that spoke of experience. "Heard shouting."
Jack's legs nearly gave out as the adrenaline faded, but he kept his smile fixed in place. "Yeah, we're good. Thank you."
The soldier nodded, then looked at the boulder and the stone Jack had somehow lifted. His eyebrows rose slightly, but he didn't comment. "Evacuation's at the south gate. You'd better hurry—last boats are leaving soon."
After the soldier helped Jack pass above the boulder he launched away with his wire-gear, Jack turned to find the three warriors staring at him with expressions he couldn't quite read.
Reiner's POV
Marcel.
The name hit Reiner like a physical blow as he watched Jack push them to safety, watched him face down a titan without hesitation. The same selfless courage that had gotten Marcel killed trying to protect him from that Titan in the ground.
But this time, someone had lived.
This time, the person trying to save them had actually made it through.
Reiner's throat was tight as Jack approached, acting like nothing had happened, like lifting impossible weights and facing down titans was just another day. Like Marcel used to do—always strong for them, always protecting them, right until the end.
"Come on," Jack said, that easy grin never faltering even though his hands were shaking slightly. "We've got a boat to catch."
Don't get attached, Reiner told himself, but it was too late, even though he had just known Jack for a day he had already worked his way under his defenses, the same way Marcel had.
And they were going to have to betray him, just like he failed Marcel.
The thought made Reiner want to be sick.
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AN: Hello there.
Heres your favorite author who forgets to upload chapters for his novels! personally doubt I'm your favorite but lets say I am.
So... yeah! Hope you guys like it, I'm personally loving writing this one.