She transformed in a heartbeat. I knew because the blood flew into the air, metallic, before I even stopped myself from going over the edge after her.

She was in the thick of it, the other Titans beginning to grab at her, opening their mouths to take a bite of her, but she slashed those tapered fingers into their throats with a savage roar.

Something was different about this particular transformation. She wasn't manic with bloodlust like her past transformations. She fought with precision, accuracy. She slaughtered the swarm around her before leading what remained away from the wall.

"Eren?" Mikasa whispered.

"She's…in control," I told her. "Damara…she's in control." Then my mind registered.

Damara was giving us time.

"I'm going down there," I announced.

"Don't be stupid, Jaeger," corporal snapped.

"I can't just stand up here doing nothing!" I yelled right as a sharp, savage scream shattered the air.

She was swarmed, teeth tearing into her and she was screaming. It reverberated throughout my entire body and I could feel her pain. She was screaming in my head.

"Eren…!"

My eyes widened and I could almost see her face—the human face—twisted in pain inside of my mind. She was screaming in agony as her flesh was ripped into pieces. I couldn't move fast enough to the edge, hearing my comrades yell my name, as I bit into my hand and jumped—

The burning was intense and I could barely handle it. But I was aware, increasingly aware, I was aware of ripping my teeth into another Titan, ripping into them. To keep them away from her, I had to keep them away from her. The others wouldn't dare to interfere with two Titans fighting. I wanted to keep the others from getting hurt. When I got close, I ripped my teeth into the clawed Titan's nape.

Her human body arched out, every inch of her streamed in blood. I grabbed her in my hand, not tightly—I would crush her if I gripped the small body—and that's when I was aware of the hissing of the 3DMG gears. I was aware of pain…

"Eren! Eren!"

My lids felt so heavy and I was so tired.

"Eren! Wake up!"

Mikasa…?

My lids opened slowly and I could see Mikasa and Armin looming over me through the haze of my transformation. Then I remembered. "Damara. I pulled her out. Is she…?"

The backed away and I sat up. My Titan corpse was disintegrating and Damara's bloody body was lying in the steaming hand. Hanji was lifting her upright with the help of Historia and Sasha, but I could see that Damara's eyes were closed.

Was she…? She couldn't-!

I scrambled to my feet and ran to her, needing to reach her. When I got close, Hanji had her ear close to Damara's mouth, her own lips turned down.

No. "She can't be…"

"She isn't breathing, Eren. She has so many wounds…"

I gritted my teeth and grabbed Damara's body, not caring that my hands were getting covered in blood. "Damara, Kamilla! Whatever the hell your name is! Wake up!" I snapped at her. "Wake up!"

She barely stirred, her eyes didn't flutter, Her body was soaked in red, nothing but red. Her lips were parted, but blood streamed from them, a much darker red. "Wake up!" I yelled, shaking her. It didn't make any difference. She still didn't move.

"Kamilla James. That's my name."

"Damara was the name of the original clawed Titan."

I didn't care if her name was Kamilla. She was Damara now. But she wasn't moving.

"Eren?" Jean walked over to me. "Eren, she's dead."

"No!" I snapped, holding her to me. "Don't you touch her, horse face! Or I'll kill you right here!"

I felt a blow to my face, forcing me to let her go. Corporal looked at me, his eyes dark with anger. "Get yourself together, Jaeger. Accept reality. The girl died to give us a chance for humanity and you acting like a goddamn idiot is disrespectful to her sacrifice."

Tears stung at my eyes as I glanced at Damara, whose body was lying there and the blood stained her skin crimson. She sacrificed herself for us, to give us a chance to strike back, to give us a chance to take our world back. And corporal had said that I was disrespecting her memory. That she was dead. Another person that I've lost in this cruel world, whose blood was on my body now. I scrambled over to her, but even throughout the noise that occurred she didn't stir.

"Damara," I whispered, feeling my throat constrict. My eyes were filling again as I reached for her. My fingers brushed against her blood-coated cheek and I couldn't feel warmth that radiated from her body.

The knowledge dawned on me, sickeningly slow and then panic fast. And I was angry.

"This shouldn't be it!" I snarled at her under my breath. "I told you my dreams for us. This wasn't supposed to be how you die!"

Silence.

"DAMARA!" I roared, seizing her, my mind. "YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO FUCKING LEAVE ME!"

More silence. I gritted my teeth and for once, I wanted to be a Titan. I wanted to destroy everything, rip apart everyone. I wanted total annihilation to fill the void that appeared when someone I loved had willingly thrown herself into a massacre. Her broken body was laying here in front of me and I had no outlet for revenge. There was no outlet whatsoever.

"Eren," Mikasa murmured, touching my shoulder. I threw her hand off of me and shot to my feet and paced backward and forward, unsure of what to do with my rage.

"Eren!" Jean yelled. "You're losing your shit! Calm down, man!"

I threw my fist at him, connecting with his jaw and sending him sprawling. Connie and Armin grabbed my arms to restrain me. Hanji was trying to calm Historia and Sasha, who were crying hysterically. All the while, all I heard in my head was her voice. All I saw was her face. Her lying in front of us all, so still and so cold, was forever burned into my retinas. I could still see her, on that remarkable day that we first met. She had stood outside of my dungeon, her violet eyes wide when she saw me, her small hand holding the bar as she had asked me for my name. I had gone to see her after I had learned that I saved her life. Three years later, she was there in the Survey Corpse, confident, top of her class. I was fucking proud of her. I was able to hold her hand and be with her.

I lost her. I collapsed to my knees.

"How could she do this?" I asked, my voice cracking in my throat. "How could she just…" I trailed off, my voice in the wind.

"She must have known," Hanji muttered. "After that transformation, everything must have come back to her. That has to mean something, a clue to figure how to survive and take back our world. Wouldn't you say?"

"She jumped," Sasha whispered, her voice laced with tears. "She jumped off the wall, with no 3DMG. I had almost thought she was…committing suicide."

"She may as well have," corporal crossed his arms with narrowed eyes. "But she did jump for our advantage."

I wanted to punch him. I wanted to punch my superior right in the teeth for saying something like that. But I couldn't. I couldn't.

We've lost more people than we ever thought possible to the Titans. Damara was one more casualty to the war, another body to bury. My friends lost a comrade; I lost my heart. I went to Damara; I wanted to hold her one more time before she was burned. I remembered her last words and they echoed in my mind.

"I'm so sorry, Eren."

I leaned down to press my lips to her forehead, my tears falling free and onto her face. "I love you," I whispered against her skin. "I love you so much."

Then…a sharp breath.

Next thing I knew, the body in my arms was convulsing, coughs escaping her lips. I looked down at her and everyone was swarming around us. Damara's body was wracking with coughs and blood dripped from her lips before her eyes fluttered and opened slowly. Those violet irises shifted to everyone before landing on me, and her hand weakly rose up to my face, her fingers pressing against my skin. "Eren?" she whispered to me.

"Damara?" My own hands found her face, a rising warmth from her skin seeping into my fingers. When her eyes filled with tears and a faint smile on her lips, it took all the will I have not to kiss her right there. "You're alive," I whispered, my tears starting to fall, dropping onto her bloodied face and leaving trails of her pale skin free of blood.

"Oh my God, she survived," Connie muttered in surprise, his eyes wide.

I held her tightly to me, shutting my eyes. "You stupid…you fucking scared me!" I told her. "Do you have any idea…why would you do something so stupid?"

"I…wanted to give you guys a chance to survive…" whispered Damara. "I wanted to give you your survival…"

"That wasn't your damn decision to make!" I snapped at her. "That was not your goddamn decision to make, Damara!"

"I'm sorry, Eren…" Her sob was soft in my ear, her body trembling in my arms. "I'm so sorry…I didn't want to leave you…but it was either they rip my body apart or yours."

That made sense to me. To everyone else, Damara was not the key. I was. She said so herself, she was a Titan. However, she was more than that to me. "Damara, you are such a damn idiot."

"I thought I said my name is Kamilla," she said softly.

"Shut up." I looked at her. "You're Damara. I told you that."

Her arms were around me. Her body was shaking and her sobs were much louder. I held her just as tightly.

"All right, you brats," corporal interjected. "Get up. We still have shit to do."

I stood up and helped Damara to her feet. She clung to me and her fingers laced between mine. "Eren…I love you."

My heart stopped. Then raced.

Everyone swarmed to hug her, laughing and crying in spite of what corporal just said.

I smiled, more to myself if anything. Whatever God was up there, he gave back what was everything to me.

And we're going to fight back together.