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"Here," Erwin said gravely, tossing Levi an unsheathed knife. Anyone else would have panicked, but he caught it with ease. "I'm sure you know how to use this."

Levi nodded silently, holding the blade in a reverse grip. The prison was dead silent, as it always was at night, and hopefully, it would stay that way. His mind, however, was abuzz with activity. He had not stopped thinking about this night since the one when he, Erwin, and (regretfully) Armin had met to discuss the finer details.

This was a huge risk they were taking, and there was no guarantee that any of them would even make it out alive.

Erwin looked on coolly from the doorway, but for once, Levi knew the man was just as grave as he was about the situation. For the past week, they had mulled over the game plan together, making sure neither forgot even the smallest details and even discussing improvisational tactics in case something went amiss.

"Erwin."

His voice felt too loud, or perhaps it was just unfamiliar, the name strange on his tongue. It was not like he never said it. He simply preferred to nag and be an overall nuisance. Smith, asshole, fuckwit, shitbag. He was creative before he was polite.

"Yes?"

Levi's grip on the knife tightened. He offered a small, cocky smirk, looking past Erwin to stare past the bars of their cell. He did not want to look into those piercing blue eyes, did not want to see how the man remained so grim. "If you get hurt, I'm leaving your ass behind."

It was half-hearted. Erwin did not have to know that. The quiet snort he gave made the harsh words so worth it, even if they were a lie.

To be honest, Levi had no clue what he would do if something happened to Erwin. Erwin was the one with the connections, the one who made life in prison easier, the one who had an escape planned for him. If something happened to him, if something happened to Armin - which, to be honest, Levi was pretty certain something would - what guarantee was there that Erwin's people would still help him out? None.

At least, those were the reasons Levi gave himself for his hesitation.

"Whatever you say, Levi," Erwin said, finally smiling a tad. A call on his bluff. Once, it would not have been a bluff. Levi wondered when that had changed. He could not deny, however, that the show of positivity boosted his confidence that this all would work out. "It's almost time."

It was probably wishful thinking to hope everything would go off without a hitch, but it felt like optimism that things would work out felt like the only thing that had Levi following Erwin out of the cell. What the hell was he doing? A jailbreak? He was terrified of federal prison at first, of course, and perhaps that was why he would go along with such a stupid idea.

Still, he did not know which he feared more - being left behind without the protection Erwin had offered, or being dragged back after a royal fuck-up to the gaping maw of imprisonment and hungry inmates. Now was not the time to think about it, anyways. He could reflect later.

They knew the routes for tonight, and a guard's flashlight shone around a corner. Erwin shoved Levi ungracefully into an alcove in the hallway, squished uncomfortably in the corner, and he wanted to grumble about it. Instead, he waited with bated breath, heart pounding as the flashlight beam grew larger. Erwin's hand remained firm around his upper arm, grounding him.

And then it disappeared, and Levi heard the guard's neck snap with a resounding crack. Once, Levi would have described it as sickening. Now, it sent a thrill down his spine, watching Erwin's muscles flex under his skin, crushing a grown man's throat like it was nothing. Stole a pen, my ass. The movement was too natural, too practiced. Levi internally scolded himself; this was hardly the time to speculate about Erwin's past, and a romp in the closet was hardly the night's objective.

The alcove held a door to a janitorial closet, and they swiftly pulled the man in, Erwin snagging the taser and baton from his belt. He offered them silently to Levi, but he refused.

"You're sure?"

"I have all I need."

Erwin slipped the radio off the guard's belt. He pressed the input button three times in quick succession - nothing noteworthy to the other guards, maybe raising a single eyebrow, but a meaningful message to Armin in the command room. A signal.

Levi held his breath and counted to five, and then Erwin pulled the jammer from before out of his pocket. Another five seconds and they left the closet. All cameras should have been disabled, all hand radios in a mile radius jammed, all sirens disabled, and Armin would be on his way to meet them. Levi wished he could trust that.

With the patrol route memorized, they snuck down the hall, turning right and spotting the red exit sign that marked the stairs. On the other side of the door, they knew, would be a waiting guard. They crouched low and kept to the side of the hall, just in case the man on the other side of the door decided to glance through the window.

When they arrived at the door, a mere glance and slow blink was the duo's only communication before Erwin threw his full weight against the heavy door. Speed was of the essence, and speed was something Erwin had just enough of to allow Levi to slip through the gap and drive his knife into the guard's throat before he could even raise his taser.

Erwin let the door shut so silently that Levi did not hear the latch click over the gurgling of blood. His chest fluttering with a strange excitement he had not felt in months, Levi gave a harsh twist of the blade and watched the stab wound turn into a messy, gaping hole of skin and what he assumed was the man's trachea. The front of the man's uniform was already stained crimson, and Levi finally ripped the knife free, watching in satisfaction as blood spattered in an arc and landed on his own face and clothes.

The body instantly slumped to the ground, and Levi stared down at the blood and bits of flesh already caking on his hands, adrenaline pumping through his veins, and the powerful feeling that had been stripped from him after being brought to that hellhole rushed back all at once.

Oh, how he had missed this.

"Levi."

It was a quiet reminder, not a jibe or reprimand, not even a tad judgmental. A little amused, perhaps, judging by the barely concealed smile on Erwin's face, but Levi did not care. He felt amazing. Nodding breathlessly, he followed Erwin down the stairs.

The stairs felt endless with how slow they had to move. There more more guards, and they were dispatched quickly, effortlessly. Everything was running so smoothly. Too smoothly. In the high of near bloodlust, Levi hardly noticed.

On the bottom floor and down another hallway came a back room - a break room - and the floor was littered with unmoving bodies. Dead or unconscious, Levi did not know, but Armin stood waiting for them by a grey door marked with the same red sign as the stairwell.

"You do this?" Levi asked as he stepped over a sprawled body, surprised. Armin nodded smugly.

"I didn't get in here for nothing," he said proudly. Levi snorted and rolled his eyes. Still, he was surprised; this looked to be quite the massacre. He was more than a little envious.

Erwin put a finger to his lips and placed his hand on the door handle. "This is it," he murmured. They all fell silent, grim expressions overtaking their faces, and anxiety rose in Levi's chest. This really was it. They either escaped, or they did not. Most likely, they would be killed if they did not make it out.

He half expected some kind of pep talk before they went out, but was glad when it did not come. It would have just made him more antsy. Instead, he made sure to unlock his knees, crouching slightly and readying himself as Erwin pushed open the door. Armin made the tiniest of fearful whimpers from behind him, Levi not even having the heart to tell him to shut the hell up, and then they started to run.

The first thing he spotted were the beams of searchlights. Levi had known they would be there, but damn it, he had prayed they would get at least halfway across the field before they swept over the trio. The stretch was just too long, and when he saw a spotlight moving to collide with their party, even a burst of speed to his sprint did not save him.

A siren blared - a manual one, an alarm that could be hand-cranked. It was faint, far quieter than the prison system's alarms, but loud enough to alert the other towers. Levi could not help himself; a string of curses left his mouth as they continued to run and the searchlights honed in. The gunfire started, the spray of bullets making dirt rise in little puffs around their feet, and they spread out in an attempt to be harder to hit.

And then, with a sense of dread settling in Levi's gut, came the sound of angry men and snarling dogs behind them.

"Faster!" was Erwin's urgent command, and Levi tried. He tried his hardest, but of all the things man can outrun, bullets are not one. Pain exploded in his thigh and he tumbled ungracefully to the ground.

He was ashamed of the pathetic cry that left his lips, and his heart thundered in his chest as the triumphant howling of the German Shepherds sounded behind him. Levi chanced a glance and found them all racing forward, feeling bullets whiz past him as he eyed the saliva dripping from the hounds' vicious teeth. This was it, wasn't it? He had known the risks, and yet here he was, cowering, watching his life about to come at its end at the claws of snarling beasts.

Well, it wasn't as if Levi did not deserve such a fate. He was surprised death had not come sooner, really. Maybe his corpse would distract the dogs long enough to let Erwin get out. Levi wished that thought soothed the terror.

"Get up," came an angry growl from behind him, and then strong hands were lifting him off the ground.

Agony shot up Levi's leg, and he could not help crying out as he mistakenly put weight on that side. Then Levi was weightless. He yelped as Erwin threw him over his shoulder, bony frame digging painfully into his stomach, and started to run back towards the fence.

It took Levi a shameful amount of time to get over his shock. Erwin had . . . he had not left him behind. Gasping out painful breaths, Levi focused on trying to prevent his leg from being jostled so much, reducing the pain somewhat. Before he could dwell too thoroughly on the matter at hand, Armin appeared in his line of sight, having lagged to run alongside Erwin.

"Take this!" he shouted, and Levi barely managed to catch the gun Armin tossed to him. "It's full!"

Levi glanced up towards the horde behind Erwin, and there were the dogs, gaining on them. Levi breathed as deeply as he could through the pain and narrowed his eyes, raising the pistol. They were not out of the hills yet, but they could be soon. Levi would make sure they made it.

They were relying on Levi. He refused to be dead weight. He would not let Erwin's decision to help him be a fatal mistake.

It was a shame; Levi had always liked dogs. It made him far guiltier seeing them fall to the ground and twitch pathetically than any murder of a human had. Five dogs later and he only had four bullets left, and his ears were ringing.

Levi was about to make them count when he heard the distant buzz of Erwin's voice, and he fought hard to tune in. When he tried, he picked up a name.

"Mike!"

He looked over his shoulder and saw, on the other side of the gate, a camouflaged Jeep with no tags. A hefty man - even bigger and more built than Erwin, if that was even possible - hopped out of it with a pair of bolt cutters, wrestling with the lock on the gate as they advanced toward it. Just in time, it snapped, and Erwin barreled through the gate with Armin on his heels.

Mike practically leaped into the driver's seat, Armin scrambling into the passenger side. The back of the Jeep was almost completely open with no second row of seats, clearly modified. Erwin threw Levi in ungracefully before hoisting himself up and squeezing inside.

Levi leaned against the back of Armin's seat, clutching his wound and breathing hard through his nose. Everything was starting to get muted, noise growing muffled and the forest around them getting blurry as Mike sped off, and he noted how much blood was on Erwin's shirt as the man yanked him down to press flat against the floor of the vehicle.

Erwin's arm caged him in, hand firm on his head as though expecting him to try to pop back up, when in fact Levi found himself rather comfortable simply laying there. His breathing was a little more ragged now, however, and far noisier, choked noises escaping every few moments. The rough movement felt like it had absolutely set his leg on fire.

"Levi?"

It was Armin's voice, high pitched still from the tension of the chase and laced with concern. Levi wanted to groan. What did that little asshole want? He was a little busy, here.

"Mike," Erwin said urgently, almost imploringly. A grunt from the burly man, and the sound of Armin rummaging in the glove compartment. "Levi, stay awake."

"I am," Levi tried to say, but it only came out as a mumble. In a sudden stroke of clarity, his mind supplied him with the term 'blood loss.' What a way to go, he thought, probably too amused. Escaping one terrible fate only to fall to another.

"You will be after this," Erwin muttered under his breath, surprisingly clear compared to all the other sounds around them, and then he smelled alcohol.

And then he forgot all about his leg being on fire, because the entire world was on fire. Erwin was right. He was very awake. And then, with an agonized scream torn from his throat that left it sore, he passed out.