Freedom Fighters League of the Exiled

Explaining

We figured it was pointless to have everyone wait here so we sent everyone else back through the portal. Only Levi, Erwin, and I stayed behind to see if this long-shot plan really worked. Hanna must have done a number on them because it's been nearly three hours and they are still unconscious.

"One of them is waking up," Levi said and I felt my blood run cold here it is the moment of truth.

"They just woke up the other guys," Levi said, his voice sounded monotone, but his jaw was clenched and his muscles were tense.

I saw him relax. "They just think they dozed off on patrol, neither of them remembers a thing. They don't even remember coming out here in the first place. The last they remember they were in the barracks waking up for their shift."

"That's a good thing?" Erwin asked, "did we erase too much memory?"

"No, they just assumed they were too tired to remember anything."

"Thank god," I mumbled. I honestly can't believe that worked that was such a last-ditch effort to save this mission and it actually worked.

Erwin opened the portal and we all walked through. Hanji stuck her arm back through and got rid of all the leaves and the vines that were on the mountainside. She made them all die and rot away so that no one would be able to find it.

Once the portal closed behind us I could tell we had a lot of explaining to do. Everyone was looking at me waiting for answers to why we had to randomly grab Hanna, why we sent two teammates home, why we took so long to complete the mission.

"Did it work?" Was all Hanna asked and I could see the others who knew what was going on were wondering the same thing. Everyone else looked confused by what she meant.

"Yes, it worked," I smiled. Now how do I explain this to everyone else?

"Everyone follow us," Levi said before walking down the hall. I just followed him. He has an idea of how to tell everyone, but where are we going?

He led us into the conference room and gestured for everyone to take a seat. "This is going to be a long conversation so I thought we might as well get comfortable. Not only do we have to talk about what happened on the mission, but we have to tell some of you about the camp's information and layout and such," He said looking over towards Pixis, Nanba, and Shadis.

Levi and I explained everything that happened on the mission. We started at the beginning not because we wanted to be thorough, but because we were dragging out getting to the part where one of us got spotted. I could see their responses already. While we explained I started taking off my braces my arms were starting to hurt with how long I left them on.

The missions off it's too risky. How could you make such a careless mistake? Why did you continue on with the mission without informing us? Last but not least, I knew at least one if not more of them would cut us off before we are able to explain and say something along the lines of see I knew Levi going on this mission was a bad idea, even though it wasn't Levi's fault. Ugh, why did this have to be so difficult... Why do they have to be so difficult?

I could see as a lightbulb went off in Levi's head as we got near to the point where everything went wrong. "For this next part I need everyone to promise that they won't interrupt before I'm done speaking," he said and everyone nodded.

"If anyone interrupts I'm sending you outside and you won't get to know what happens," he said, not fully believing them. That's actually really smart to say it should shut them up enough so we could explain everything.

"Fair enough just tell us what happens," Pixis nodded, wanting us to continue.

The second the words one of us was spotted left Levi's mouth I saw Jean's mouth open. Before he said a word I threw one of my braces at him.

Everyone's eyes went from him to me and then back to him. "Ouch, message received jackass," Jean mumbled, rubbing the side of his head where the hard part of the brace hit him. I'm not even sorry, I've been wanting to do that all night. I looked at Levi and gave him a wink. That was for you babe, I know his thoughts were probably really bad towards you all day so maybe that makes you feel better. I asked mentally.

"It does," Levi whispered as he gave me a smile. He quickly cleared his throat and continued talking. He said that it wasn't anyone's fault that we were spotted just that not all of us made the jump in time. After a moment of silence and doubtful stares, Thomas spoke up.

"He's lying. It was my fault. I hesitated when they told me to jump and because of that I was spotted."

"That's not your fault Thomas. I should have been more clear that the jump wasn't a suicide mission," Levi said giving him a nod, "besides even if you did jump without hesitation I think they still would have saw one of us."

"Nevermind all the specifics right now," Levi shook his head and continued on he caught them up on the rest of the mission. Once everyone was caught up and satisfied most of them left. The few that stayed we briefed on the camp's layout. It didn't take long to read them our notes and explain them. Once we finished talking about them we handed them over to Pixis for him and the others to study and come up with a basic plan... even though they are still going to probably have me come up with plans for both of these missions anyway.

After we finished briefing everyone we headed straight to bed. We were exhausted. This mission not only took way more time than normal but also way more energy too. When we walked into our room I saw my other brace laying on our bed. Jean must have left it here after I threw it at him. I put them both away and Levi and I got ready for bed.

We both laid down and closed our eyes. It looked like Levi fell asleep instantly, but I couldn't. Despite being so damn exhausted I can't keep my eyes closed. The events from today just played over and over in my head again and again and again. I stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours just replaying today's events. That could have gone a lot worse than it did.

The image of those guns pointing at Thomas. The thought that we could have lost another person today because I didn't plan ahead is eating at me. I need to be more prepared. I can't bear to lose another person let alone have it be my fault.

"It wouldn't be your fault," I heard Levi say. I looked up at him and his eyes were open.

"You were awake this whole time?" I asked him already knowing the answer.

"Yeah." His arm pulled me closer to him, "but what I said is true. It wouldn't have been your fault."

"You're right," I didn't want to argue about it so I just agreed with him. I mean a part of me knows he is right, but a part of me would still feel so guilty and responsible. "Still from now on, I want us to have a more concrete plan going into the mission."

"Well that's usually the goal, but sometimes it's easier said than done," he shrugged.

"I know." I couldn't help but let out a frustrated sigh. I wish we just knew all the information we needed to know and could just come up with any plan that would be 100 percent effective.

"At that point, you might as well just wish for all of this to be over," Levi laughed.

"Well, that has been my biggest wish for the longest time, but no one's granting it so I'm trying for some smaller ones."

"I think you're still reaching too high. To start let's just try asking that everyone makes it through these next two missions safely."

"Oh definitely," I nodded before letting out a yawn.

"Now we can talk about wishes and stuff in the morning but right now let's get some sleep, please. Before your thoughts start rambling on loop again and keep me up."

"Sorry. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." I closed my eyes before whispering. "I love you."

"I love you too baby."