Freedom Fighters League of the Exiled

Too Late to Switch

I didn't even remember falling asleep, but suddenly I was woken up to a hand shaking my shoulder. I opened my eyes and looked up to see who was waking me. I thought it might be Levi at first but then I realized he was still sleeping in my arms. When my vision cleared I saw Pixis standing above me.

"Oh good you're awake," he mumbled before quickly turning around and looking away from me. "I'm waking everyone who overslept," he said as a quick explanation and I realized that it was already morning. Levi and I must have overdone it cause neither of us woke up early today.

A moment more I realize why Pixis was acting so weird. Not only were Levi and I both only in boxers with the covers mostly hanging off of us, but we were both also covered in hickeys. Shit.

Before I could say anything I heard Pixis mumble to himself, "thank god I was the one who woke you guys I nearly sent Hanji. Man oh man she would have had a field day," he shook his head. "Anyway wake Levi and get ready for mission practice," he said before walking straight out of the room.

I wanted nothing more than to crawl in a hole and die. Of all the people seeing me in this state, why did it have to be Pixis. I think in all honesty I would have preferred Hanji. Sure she would have bullied the shit out of me and Levi, but it would be less awkward. Hanji is more of a friend whereas Pixis is more of a parental figure.

I just lightly shook his shoulder. "Hm?" he mumbled. I couldn't tell if he was awake or just making noise.

"You up?"

"No," he mumbled back, "is it already morning?" he asked, letting out a sigh already knowing the answer.

"Yup, get dressed."

He let out a long sigh before sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"How's your back," I asked. He stretched it out and winced a little.

"Not as bad as I thought it would be, but it still hurts," he mumbled, "I'll live. It was totally worth it though," he said before leaning over and kissing me on the cheek.

He got out of bed and started getting ready and I decided I should do the same. When we had finished getting our costumes on we headed to the training area.

I looked around to see nothing but tired faces all around. I have a feeling these first few runs are going to be filled with mistakes. We should have Thomas save his power for the later runs, or else it will be wasted on careless mistakes.

I walked over to Pixis keeping my eyes glued to the ground. "Morning," I said awkwardly.

"Good morning," he said with an awkward nod.

"Everyone looks exhausted."

"I guess they didn't believe me when I said we would be getting up early," Pixis shrugged.

"We should hold off on Thomas's power until everyone has a chance to wake up," I suggested.

"Already on it, I sent out a few people before waking everyone. They went to get everyone coffee."

"Oh, awesome," I said. Makes sense why some people are missing.

"You should take this time to plan with your team. Also, Sasha is one of the people I sent out." Makes sense she can carry a bunch of coffees using her clones. As long as she changes the clone's clothes and hairstyle people won't notice it's the same person. At worst they'll think they are sisters or something.

"Thanks for the heads up, and yeah I'll go talk to them now." I walked back over to my team and noticed that Marlowe and Hitch were talking with Rico and Thomas. I kept my voice low as I addressed Marco and Jean.

"I wanted to talk about the actual plan for this group," I whispered and they nodded.

"What about Sasha?"

"We will fill her in later," Levi whispered.

"Before I start I want to remind you that those two," I said flicking my eyes over towards Marlowe and Hitch, "are to be protected at all costs during this mission."

"Are you sure we shouldn't just switch them out for Rico?" Jean asked.

"I know it might be a little late, to do so, but I was talking to her last night and honestly she seems really cool. I'm sure she would be down with our plan."

"I don't doubt that she would, but it's hard to just switch everything around so suddenly-," I mumbled before Levi nudged my arm. I looked at him and he straightened up. And his eyes flicked behind me.

I turned around and saw Pixis walking up. "What are you guys up to?" Pixis asked.

"Oh just talking about the mission," I shrugged, "what about you I thought you were going to talk to your team?" I asked.

"I was, but half of my team is missing at the moment, and the ones that are here got their roles down. I just thought I would check in with every other group," he shrugged.

"So what about the mission were you discussing?" He asked and I was positive he must have heard something that was until I felt Levi's hand on my back. I instantly felt Levi push his emotions onto me as a calm feeling washed over me. I guess he thought my panicking might blow it.

"We were talking about the team's layout and wondering if it would be too late to change some people around."

"I mean it probably is, but if you think it will improve how we work then it's worth considering," Pixis said shrugging. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, after a lot of thought we think it will be best to switch Marlowe and Hitch to team D and Rico to team A," Levi said and Pixis nodded.

"I think I understand why, but explaining your reasoning anyway in case I'm missing something."

"Well, our team is the front lines, and as helpful as both their powers are we think it's still too dangerous for them to be in the front lines. Our whole team's plans are being derailed because we keep worrying about their safety in every scenario." 

I jumped in, "We also think it makes more sense for Rico to be transferred to our team after assessing how people work together. While I was watching the teams practice together I noticed Rico was butting heads with Reiner a lot. Most of the people on my team have had a chance to talk with Rico and we think we wouldn't but heads as much."

"Lastly we think it also makes more sense since she's going into the guard barracks she would need to be closer to the front rather than towards the back. It would save everyone time rather than having her navigate past the other teams to get to her position."

Pixis just sat there for a moment thinking it all over. "It's hard to argue with those points, however, we need to check this change with Nanaba before I okay it. After Nanaba gives her answer we will make sure it's okay with Rico, Hitch, and Marlowe."

"Wait so we are actually considering this?" Jean blurted out before covering his mouth.

"It seems so," Pixis sighed.

"I should have just kept her on the team to start, I don't know why I changed them around," I mumbled.

"I mean both of your team setups were good but this makes sense. Honestly, I'm just surprised we haven't had to switch around anyone else. It just shows you did a great job of setting up the teams." Pixis said patting me on the shoulder.

I saw people walking through the door and looked over. They were back from their coffee run. They all walked around and passed out all the coffee before I called Sasha over. I quickly told her what we were trying to do while Pixis called Nanaba over.

"I hope she agrees," Sasha whispered as Pixis and Nanaba started talking.

"So we wanted to know if it was too late to switch around teams?" Pixis asked and I saw Nanaba bring a hand up to her head and rub at her temples.