Freedom Fighters League of the Exiled

Premature Celebrations

We got Nanaba onto Rico's back as Quinn helped Alastair back up. We started heading down the tunnels desperately looking for an exit. We went down a few tunnels and every few minutes we would check in on Nanaba and Hassam making sure they were still conscious.

"How are you doing Nanaba," Quinn asked after it had been a little too silent for too long.

"Still fighting," she said, her voice was weak but I could tell she wasn't planning on giving up now, not after all the effort we went through to save her.

"How about you buddy," Xander asked Hassam. Little buddy? When did those two get so close? I thought Xander wasn't very fond of him. I almost laughed it off until I realized the silence in the air. After a sickening long silence, Xander stopped walking.

"We have to keep going," Rico said quickly, not paying much attention to anything aside from getting Nanaba out of here.

"Hassam?" I asked and I felt Levi's hand grab my wrist. When I looked at him and saw him fighting back tears I had to stop myself from breaking down right then and there.

"Hey little buddy, it's not funny to play these jokes," Xander said, shaking him a little. "Little buddy?" He asked again, this time his voice was a lot quieter than last time.

"He's gone," Levi finally broke the silence. His voice cracked ever so slightly but it was enough to make me close my eyes tightly to stop from crying.

"No come on little buddy, I'm going to carry you out of here, you still have people up there waiting for you," Xander said again and I watched as he took a deep breath realizing he wasn't going to get a response back.

"You should set him down," Alastair said quietly.

"I'm not leaving him down here. No man left behind," Xander said, craning his head to look back at him and Quinn.

"He wouldn't want us to take him with us," Levi said, speaking up, "carrying around a corpse is just going to slow us down."

"How can you say that? Wasn't he your friend?" Xander said quickly before taking a deep breath realizing he was starting to get emotional.

"He was," I cut in, "which is exactly why this is a hard thing to say, but we don't have a choice. If we don't we could lose more than just him today. Hassam was in this to save people, to make things right, we need to do just that which is why I don't think he would mind being left behind." I said taking everything I had not to cry. My voice had cracked as I tried to speak and I had to take a few deep calming breaths to stop myself from losing it.

It took a moment but Xander gently set Hassam down on the floor and patted him on the head, "You did good little buddy, you fought hard. You can rest now. We will finish the fight." He said before turning away, but not before I saw a tear roll down his cheek.

"Did you hear that?" I asked Armin while looking around. "That sounded really bad. I think it came from that direction," I pointed down a long dark tunnel.

"Could it have been a cave-in?" He asked.

"I hope not. Go ahead and check if you can see anyone that way," I asked, already moving down the tunnel.

"Alright, Mikasa, you need to wait here or I won't be able to find you," Armin said, grabbing my arm to stop me from racing in blindly.

"Fine, but just hurry. If people are hurt we need to get there quickly."

"Alright, just stay put." He vanished and I felt like I was waiting an eternity before he came back. "I didn't find the cave-in, well at least I don't think I did. I found a place that might have had it but there's no one there. However, I did find more people in this direction," Armin said, filling me in.

I nodded. I had to take what I could get. I just hope no one got hurt from that. We headed down the tunnels, a few of them turning in odd directions as we made our way around some rubble that could easily cave in.

Armin led me through a small hole and on the other side, I nearly cried as my eyes landed right on Annie.

"Mikasa?" She said standing up.

"Hey baby," I said running over and giving her a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"I would say the same, but I knew you would be. You're here. I told them you would come, though I wasn't so sure since they think that they are going to start attacking again. We thought you might have to stay and fight them."

"They did," I said quietly, feeling the guilt hit me. "I was going to, but Hanji told me that there were other people I had to take care of right now," I said with a nod.

"Hanji's okay too. Thank god."

"Okay, enough chit-chat, Marco's trapped and needs help," Jean cut us off and I looked past Annie and saw Marco's legs trapped under some rubble.

"Oh, sorry about that," I said before walking over to him.

"It's fine, take your time, it's not like his life is on the line," Jean rolled his eyes.

"Jean I swear if you don't shut up I will smack the hell out of you," Marco snapped at him. "It's not like I'm dying, I'm just pinned."

I ignored their bickering and walked over to Marco. I had Annie move Sasha out of the way so she wouldn't get hurt by any rubble that may fall. Once she was clear I helped lift the rubble off of him. "Okay, can you crawl out?"

"No, I can't move my legs," He said, reaching for Jean. He didn't hesitate to grab Marco and pull him out with the help of the other girl in here.

They set Marco safely on the floor before I filled them in on what was happening on the surface. I told them that just down the tunnel there was a ladder where everyone else was waiting.

"Well, what are we waiting for? We are finally getting out of here!" Jean said excitedly, getting to his feet. He looked like he was about to try and pick up Marco when Annie cut him off.

"Here you take Sasha," Annie said, passing her off to Seraphina, "I'll take Marco."

"I can carry him," Jean argued.

"No, you are injured and Marco would kill me if I let you carry him," Annie said ignoring the rest of Jean's protests before she turned to start heading down the tunnel before freezing in place.

"You said it was this way?" Annie asked.

"Yeah," I said before freezing hearing what she was hearing.

"There's gunshots coming from that direction."