Freedom Fighters League of the Exiled

Practice Leads Nowhere

Author's note~ sorry I was a little late on the chapter I missed my alarm. Hope you enjoy~ TJ

When both of us walked up to practice I could see the concerned faces of everyone. I had to admit I was just as worried as they were, but Levi is sure he can pull this off. He beat me in the spar then surely he can pull off this mission. I'm just hoping that he didn't waste all his energy on the spar.

"I didn't," he whispered to me.

Pixis addressed everyone, "good morning. It's time for practice. I know all of you are probably confused by Levi being here." He let out a sigh knowing their reactions before he even broke the news to them. "He is still on the mission."

"What the fuck," Ymir yelled.

"That doesn't seem like a good idea," Armin mumbled.

Erwin just rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head knowing it wasn't his place to question this decision.

"I know you all probably have your questions and concerns, however, Levi is confident he can keep up with you all on the mission. He's even proved himself by beating Eren in a sparring match using only half of his normal powers," Pixis said, catching everyone up.

"We aren't worried that he's going to hold us back," Ymir rolled her eyes, "we are worried that he is going to hurt himself even more. He got injured because he kept pushing himself when he needed to rest and he's doing the same thing now." I watched as she glared at him down. Normally he would stand his ground and look her in the eyes as she glared, but his eyes were towards the ground and his head lowered almost as if he was trying to hide from her glare.

I couldn't tell why right away, but after a few minutes, I realized what was going on when I felt Levi's worry hit me. He was afraid that she was right. That he might end up hurting himself more if he's not careful. He knew he needed rest, but he kept pushing himself to continue.

A part of me wanted to tell him that everything will be alright and he will do just fine, and the other part of me wanted to tell him I told you so. I didn't do either. I just took a deep breath and placed a hand on his shoulder drawing him out of his own thoughts. I gave him a smile and a nod before moving my hand down to hold his good one.

"Thanks," he mumbled.

Pixis had us start practice and we were all mostly still blind about the plan. All we had was don't get caught which was pretty much a given. I did have Hanji try out some things with her vines to see if certain things would work. I had pretty much everyone try their powers out in some way to see if certain things would work.

I had Hanji make a bunch of vines and Levi moved them around and mold them into the shape of a bush or tree, that didn't really work like it thought it would, she was able to make a bush just fine but the bigger it was the more out of place it looked. The "tree" if I could even call it that looked nothing like it; it just looked like a giant pile of connected leaves.

I had her try a few more things. One of the things that I wasn't expecting to actually work, but did was that she was able to make a net out of vines that actually was quite sturdy. I don't know if it will be helpful in the mission at all, but who knows at this point we are all just firing in the dark.

I also tried to test just how much Levi can do seeing where his new limits were, but they weren't as accurate since he already wasted a good chunk of his energy on the spar earlier.

I also tested out Hanji and Erwin powers together if he puts portals all around like he did in the other forest and Hanji blocks some of them with leaves it could work as a cover for a short time. It can't be long-term cover since it doesn't look the most natural, but its definitely something we can use in a pinch.

I tested out a few things for my powers too, but nothing really helped with what we were going to do for the mission. After hours of just shots in the dark Pixis finally called it. "I think this is about as good as we could have expected from this." He sighed. I could tell he was just as disappointed as I was.

"So we are just going in blind," Erwin asked.

"Pretty much," I nodded, "but as long as I have knowledge about what your powers can and can't do I should be able to come up with something on the spot once I figure out the terrain," I nodded. Hopefully.

We all headed out of the training area. When I walked up Jean and Marco were waiting for Levi and me.

"What's up?" I asked walking up to them.

"We were going to spar and we needed someone to watch," Marco smiled.

I looked at Jean who looked like he was going to start sweating bullets. "Okay I can do that," I said looking at Levi who also nodded with me. As we were walking I looked at him again and he gave me a nod.

Okay, so it isn't my imagination. Jean is losing his shit. He's probably worried about using his powers again after the last time. Either that, or he's worried about Marco finding out about his backlash.

We made it to the sparring area and they walked into the circle. Jean hesitated before stepping in. We stood outside the circle and waited for them to get ready. They both gave us a nod and I watched as Jean closed his eyes took a deep breath to try and calm himself before calling out that he was ready.

We counted them down and watched them fight it out. They were both being a lot more methodical about everything. This match was dragging on longer than any other I had watched. I thought Marco was going to win a few times, but then Jean looked like he might win a couple of times. They were pretty evenly matched and were both trying hard to knock the other out without hurting each other. Jean looked like he was going to push Marco out with a wall of fire, but Marco countered by blocking it with a wall of ice.

All of a sudden Levi rushed in the circle and broke them up yelling, "Stop the fight."

"Why what's wrong?" Marco asked, dropping everything.

Jean froze and looked down at his hands before looking up at Levi. I realized what was happening just as I followed Jean's eyes.

Levi quickly covered for him, "Jean your adrenaline must've been too high cause I know you didn't feel it at first, but I know you can definitely feel it now," Levi said, giving him just enough time to fake a pained expression before Marco turned to him.

"I think we went a little crazy," he said trying to catch his breath and faking a pained expression. "I burned my hands," he winced showing Marco. He was horrible at it and Levi must have been thinking the same thing because his pitiful fake pain looked like it turned real after a moment. My eyes drifted over to Levi who was pinching his own arm to push the emotion onto Jean while he was out of Marco's view.

"Oh my god are you okay babe?" Marco asked running over and looking at his hands. While Marco was looking Down Jean glared at Levi, "don't worry the pain isn't that bad, I'm sure Hanji can help me out," he said.

"I'll take him to Hanji," Levi offered.

"Okay," Marco nodded. "We shouldn't all crowd Hanji thought. You two go Eren and I will be waiting in our room," he said giving Jean a kiss on the cheek.

"Okay thanks, babe," Jean said before they walked away. Levi don't leave me with Marco. How am I supposed to lie to him? Levi just gave me a sympathetic look before following Jean to go find Hanji.

Marco and I headed to his room and we sat on the bed waiting for them to come back. The room was quiet and awkward when I heard Marco let out a sigh. "Am I going crazy or is something going on with him?" He asked. Great how the fuck am I supposed to answer this. I don't want to lie to him, but at the same time, I promised Jean.