Freedom Fighters League of the Exiled

Permanent

I woke up to someone shaking my arm and whispering my name. "Eren, Eren, wake up. Come on Eren please."

I opened my eyes and looked up at the shadow figure standing above me. Everything was so blurry and dark.

"What time is it?" I asked, still trying to figure out who exactly I was talking too.

"Shh, quiet down you're going to wake Levi. I don't know what time it is it's the middle of the night," I heard the voice say.

Well, I guess that crosses one person off the list of who it could be. I mean it was a guy talking to me but in my sleep trance, I couldn't pinpoint it exactly even though it sounded really familiar. I wasn't even sure if this was actually real this all feels like a dream, but that could just be my tiredness talking.

"Can we talk in the common room?" they asked.

"Sure," I said before wiggling out of Levi's arm and throwing off the covers.

"Um, please get dressed first, I'll meet you out there," they said and I realized I was still only in my boxers.

I got dressed into some lounging clothes and woke up a little before walking out to the common area where I saw a lantern lit and a person sitting at a table.

Well, this definitely isn't a dream. I walked closer and they turned around to look at me.

"Jean?" I asked getting a clearer look at his face. "What's up with all the secrecy?" I asked taking a seat across from him at the makeshift table.

"I have something I want to say, but I don't want Marco or Levi to know. Can you keep this a secret from Levi?" He asked and I just stared at him.

"The man can read minds, how the hell do you expect me to do that?"

"I mean you've done it before," he said and I knew exactly what he was referring to.

"If you are talking about when I hid my crush on him that's different it was years ago and he's gotten better at using his powers and he's way less oblivious, besides he knows when I'm keeping secrets now by just my body language alone."

"Well if he does find out can you tell him not to say anything?" Jean said desperately.

I've never heard him sound this desperate before... or scared. It's starting to worry me. "If he knows it's a secret he won't say anything," I nodded.

"Okay good," he took a deep breath.

"So what is this about?"

"I think I found out about another backlash," Jean said his tone sounded worried.

I felt a shiver go down my spine. Backlash was never a good thing to find out and it's always scary and I'm assuming it's something really bad since he seems really scared about it. "What happened?"

"Well it's been happening for a few weeks now." Jean said, biting his lip. A few weeks why didn't he say anything sooner? "Remember right after Ilsa's death we all started sparring and one day we decided to spar all night long to keep the thoughts away?"

"How could I forget," I said rubbing at my own wrists which definitely suffered some backlash.

"Well, remember how I said I felt like we overdid it by a lot?" He said looking down at his hands.

"Yeah."

"Well, I don't think I realize how much I overdid it," he took a deep breath and looked back up at me. "I thought it was nothing that it would just go away after I got some rest. When it didn't I thought maybe I just needed a day and a day turned into a week and when it hit the two week mark I started to get nervous, now it's been almost three weeks and it still hasn't gone away and I'm afraid I may have done permanent damage." I could feel the fear radiating off of him but I still wasn't sure what he was talking about.