Freedom Fighters League of the Exiled

Desert Recon Mission: Part 2

"I can do a little more," she nodded, "besides, we've come this far haven't we. No point in giving up now."

I just nodded along. We tunneled a little further away and right as Marlowe gave us the all clear I felt a sharp pain in my arm. If I wasn't looking at it I would have sworn I had just been stabbed. I silenced myself biting down on my lip staying quiet. I didn't want to give away our position. I let my one arm fall down to my side as I help up the dirt with just one hand. I don't think I can keep this up much longer or the same thing will happen to this arm.

Eren noticed something was up and quickly took over for me without a word. He looked worried and watched as I quickly tried to apply pressure to where the unbearable pain was, it hurt so much to apply pressure, but I knew it needed to be done.

Erwin opened a big enough portal for us to crawl through and we each did one by one. Petra and I were sitting in the back as everyone went through neither of us able to move our arms. Hers were too stiff and numb to support her weight and mine was in too much pain to even think about trying. Before Erwin went through Eren gave him a nod.

Before I could even think about looking to Eren for help I felt something wrap around me. Vines? Hanji! I saw her hand and head sticking through the portal. She pulled me out and moved out of the way. I didn't have time to even think about what was happening as Pixis poked his head into the portal and the next thing I knew Petra came out in one of his force fields. They set us down on the ground and turned back to help Eren finish the last part of the mission.

Have I ever mentioned just how grateful I am that these guys stay awake and on standby incase of emergencies. Eren came through next telling them to quickly put the dirt back in. I looked over at the pile of dirt that was there from when Erwin portaled it away at the start of the mission. Just enough to fill the hole back up and make it look like nothing ever happened. Pixis dropped it in and Erwin closed the portal before it could all spill back out.

With the portal closed and the mission officially over Eren ran over to me to see what happened. Hanji and Pixis also came over to see if both Petra and I were alright.

Hanji took a look at Petra and could feel her arms wouldn't budge almost as if they had turned solid. "There's nothing I can do besides monitor this and hope it goes away," she mumbled.

Petra nodded and thanked her anyway. It's almost as if she expected her to say that.

"What happened there?" Pixis asked, a little worried about both of us. I was surprised he actually let an emotion show.

"Just some major backlash," Petra took the words right out of my mouth.

Hanji looked over my arm and scoffed, "Major indeed you have a grade 2 muscle tear." she said and I looked down and could already see some discoloration.

"Can you heal it?" I asked.

"I already tried too. Usually I would be able to, but I'm assuming that this is caused by your powers backlashing. That's why my power had no effect.

"What does that mean?" Eren asked and Hanji shook her head.

"It means he's out of commission for the next two months... maybe more."

"What? No!" I heard myself say before I could stop myself. "I'm scheduled for the other recon mission as well as one of the raids."

"Hun, you're not going to be able to use that arm normally for a long while."

"I have another arm!" I argued.

"Babe, now's not the time to be worried about missions now is the time to worry about yourself." I felt Eren's arms wrap around me. I could feel how worried he was.

I was going to keep arguing cause like hell were they benching me for the missions, but Pixis cut me off before I could start back up. "Eren's right. We will discuss what to do later, but as for now you just need to get some rest."

Nothing more was said as they helped Petra off the floor and back to her room Eren helped me up. He wouldn't let go of my hand the whole walk back to our room. He was dead quiet as he stared at the floor.

We got in the room and I had enough of his thoughts."For fuck's sake stop blaming yourself," I rolled my eyes.

"I'm the one who had you guys keep going," he whispered.

"We would have kept going either way, besides we did it. We completed the mission without being spotted."

"Yeah but at what cost? Petra might never be able to move her arms again, you are injured to the point you can barely move your own arm. It wasn't worth it." He plopped down on the bed, his eyes still glued to the floor.

"Are you fucking serious. Of course it was worth it, even Petra will tell you that. Do you know how many lives we will save with this information?"

He just stayed quiet. "I don't care about the damn information right now. The love of my life got hurt because of it," he yelled before going really quiet. "I know it's selfish of me but I would rather us never go on a mission again than see you in that much pain unable to do anything about it."

Eren was really worked up about this. I stopped trying to argue with him and just sat down next to him and leaned my head on his shoulder. "That's the same way I feel every time you over use your power on a mission."

"I'm sorry I never realized," he mumbled.

"Well one thing is for sure," I said and he looked up at me. "We're both idiots who make the other worry."

He just let a little smile slip onto his face, "ah true love," he said sarcastically.

I let out a little laugh and felt as my body screamed at me for sleep. Before I could even suggest we lay down I noticed a figure standing in our doorway.