The skies already turned orange. All soldiers began to leave the abandoned town inside Wall Maria and prepared to return to Karanes. Not many death occured at today's mission to clear up some titans at the town that used to be Wall Maria's cetral town. Levi squad did amazing job as they managed to kill almost 40% of the population alongside with the veterans. The commander shot a retreat flame to the sky. Gunter, Auruo, and Eld already left the town since they already ran out of supplies first alongside with the other soldiers leaving Levi and Petra behind that still working on their best to kill the remaining titans left when Levi suddenly realized that he almost ran out of gas as well and began to leave the town.

"Petra, lets retreat now! Everybody left already forget about the remaining titans. My gas seems only enough to leave the town" He shouted at her after slashing a nape.

"You can go first Heichou! There are only 3 titans left there, I can do it myself." She said with pure determination on her eyes

"No need to, it's dangerous ! that's an or–" Just before he managed to finish his sentence. Petra already flew back to the remaining titan at incredible speed and maneuver. Then he saw from a far that she managed to kill two titans effortlessly. Her manuever was perfect and looked strong. Thanks to the tall enough building that made everything possible. She is indeed an exceptional soldier He thought and he chose to believe her at that momment and focused on getting out the town.

"AAARRRGHHHHHHHHH!!"

Suddenly miliseconds later, he heard a Scream followed by the sound of a collapsing building. God knows what happened, all he knew was the owner of that scream he just heard from a far. He felt a sharp sting on his heart as he quickly turned his back and flew at tremendous speed not cared about the remaining gas anymore to her spot.

Everything went black all of sudden. Cracking sound everywhere. Her body went numb. She felt as if a hammer keep smashing on her head on and on. And she felt a huge weight on top of her body. After what it felt like an eternity she finally able to open her eyes a bit.

"w...wh..what happened...?" 

There she was shocked to realized that there were many building materials above her body at ridiculous amount and weight. Bricks.. cobblestone..Wood...Steel..and Glass. She was literally under a ruin. She found that the right side of her body quite unluckier than her left side to be smashed by all of those materials. Sharp pain continued to overwhelmed her. She was sure that her ribs somehow must have broken as she started to cough some blood that painted all over her face. Blood also coming from her gashed forehead down to the side of her face. She felt lost.

Suddenly she saw a big hand tried to reach her useless body bellow. A flash of memory hits her. That was the titan that caused this. She thought. The 13m abberant manage to surprise her after she successfully killed the 2nd titan by straightly jumped into her and crashed into the building that caused this situation she at now. She was really furious on that titan and even more furious because she couldn't do anything at this state. The titan's hand kept rummaged the materials to get her. She really needed to shout for help right now or else she would definetly ended up dead on its mouth. But that attempt only caused her to coughed up more blood and hurted her thoat even more.

There she was.. really felt defeated. She couldn't do anything, and somehow she was ready to die at any moment by then. Dizzyness hit her and her eyes couldn't focus anymore and let the darkness filled her. All she thought was many regret in her past life before this happened. How she regretted not coming home to her dad before the mission. How she regretted that she failed her squad...failed her captain...and on top of that..how she regretted not having the chance to tell her feelings to him. 

"I'm..sorry...heichou.."

A sound of steel suddenly resonated her ear followed by a huge sound of a collapsing titan that had almost grab her. Somehow she managed to open her eyes again and tried to look what happened but couldn't see cleary.

"PETRAAA !!!"

There she felt a huge relieved that it was the voice of her captain that sounds so desperate to find her. She needed to make some noise from bellow, but she only managed to wailed. "....hhhggghhh...!"

"PETRAA !! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU ??!!" he sounded even more desperate

"...mmmgghhhh..!!!" She tried to shout louder. Finally it caught his attention above

"Petra..? Oh my god.." He was so shocked that she was down there in pain with all of those weight above her. He carefully went down to her direction and started to remove everything above her with all his might 

"Wait ok..! I'll get you out of there. Stay focused!" he said only replied by a small nod from her. 

Somehow there was a huge wood left above her that perhaps used to be the building's column. It was really heavy even for the humanity's strongest with those well built muscles. "Wait...ggr...up...okay...!" After few attempts finally he managed to remove the huge wood to her side leaving his fingers in blood now. He took couple seconds to catch some breath before continued.

"Pe..Petra... you alright..?" His face was very concerned
"*cough*....honestly..*cough*...no" she replied

There he took off his cape and wrap it around her ribs area to prevent further bleeding. It wasn't just about the fractured ribs, but he was sure that a serious bleeding was happening inside of her judging from the tremendous blood accross her body and he really needed to hurry 

"Hang on.." he tried to reassure her

She winched in pain as he realized what else troubled her now were some woods that stucked into her leg from that wood column earlier. One of them was very big. 

"Petra.. I need to remove the woods from your leg. This will hurt so much." He took out the woods one by one. 

Petra managed to hold her cries from the pain. But she failed on the last big wood that he managed to take at last causing her to arch her back and screamed in pain. Levi skillfuly wrap the now bloodied leg with his cravat because it was all he had left to prevent her bleeding. 

"Petra..I cannot do anything about your bleeding forehead thoug..-"

He was too focused on his hand work until he didn't realize that her eyes already closed. 

"Shit" 

Pure shock hit him as he quickly grab her wrist to find a pulse. Nothing.

"Shit..shit..shit.." 

Tried to put a finger on her nose. Not breathing. 

"Fuck...this" He began to panic as he tried to put his ears on her chest to find some beating sounds. It was slightly there, but it began to quickly fade away. Knew that he could die any momments by now from those bloodlost he took a risk by doing a CPR right through her heart . He knew her ribs already badly fractured but he really got no choice or else she would die for real. He pumped her heart with all his might.

*Pump* "Petra.."
*Pump* "PETRA...! WAKE UP..!"
*Pump* "Please ....don't die like this ..."
*Pump* "THAT'S AN ORDER..!!*

Few more pumps but nothing happened. The world started spinning around him knowing that the young woman could be dead on him. There were so many things he hadn't manage to say to her.. Many things he regretted for not treating her well before and hurt her feelings before. About him being so hard on her than the others. All he thought that it could at least made her stronger and survived longer than average soldiers. He really wished a long life for her.. He really wished she would be there when they managed to eradicate all the titans. And finally able to tell her about his true feelings to her after that. Now he regretted not telling her earlier.

*Pump* "I'm sorry..."
*Pump* "For not being a great captain..."
*Pump* "But please...just wake up..please"
*Pump* "I love you..."

The last pump jolt her body up as she finally shot her eyes open and cough more blood and tried to suck in oxgen as many as possible. She hold on his shirt hard as if her life depended on it. Out of nowhere he quickly embraced her tightly leaving her dumbfounded.

"Thank god...I thought i lost you...god..." His voice was very croaked. 

His breath was ragged. He felt like a tear just escaped his eye but he didn't want her to see his weakness. He was very relieved.

"agh!" He just realized that the sudden hug hurted her so much

"I'm sorry...! Lets get you out of here" then he managed to lift her up bridal style and went outside the ruins. Securing her arms around his neck and let her face on his chest. She felt guilty that his shirt now fully covered with her blood. 

"Tch...I ran out of gas from that last kill.." He tried to look for her gear but realized that it was already broken. "I guess we have to walk..Hold on.."

She found it very difficult to keep her vision focused on him as she keeps feeling pain on every steps he took. Luckily there were no more titans around them as the town now being fully secured. As much as he wanted to run he was afraid that it might broke her body more, so he just walked in steady pace and kept her in sight. Her strawberry blonde hair glowing from the afternoon sky. There she felt secured at last on his arms.

"Hei..chou..." She managed to mumble the word on his chest not facing him with eyes closed since she felt really dizzy from the blood lost.

"What is it..?" He asked her with full concern

"I really..thought i had died there..it was a scary feeling... I'm really afraid of dying.." she mumbled more with cracked voice

"shh...you shouldn't talk more..just rest for now" he reassured her

"... Sorry...I failed you.." Her words stinged his heart even more. Still eyes closed and not looking at him. He realized that she was silently crying.

"You didn't fail anyone...and i won't let you die. Never in my life I'll let you die.. You hear me...?" He tried to convinced her

"...Thankyou.." Her voice was so low as she felt her consciousness started to fade away

"For what...?" he asked 

"For saving me...and.. Not giving up on me.." 

It was her last sentence before coming back to deep slumber, He realized that she fainted and he thought it was nice to finally saw her face in peace and breathe well again. At least she was alive. He needs her to survive longer at least until the time where all the titans eradicated from the world . He needs her to be there, so he could finally confess his true feelings to her. He felt like gently smilling on her but she didn't see it. Suddenly he kissed her forehead as a reminder that he would keep his pledge on her for the rest of his life.

"I promised you I'll never giving up on you.. I won't let you die.. Even if it costs my life.."

Ever.