Freedom Fighters League of the Exiled

The Ring

"You're lying," I forced out. "He's alive," I said trying to convince myself. He was just here, he was fine. I tried to come up with a million different ways that he could still be alive but the truth was staring me in the face. They came back and he didn't/ The amount of blood on Pixis's hands it was obvious that something did happen.

"It was supposed to be an easy mission," I mumbled mostly to myself trying to figure out where it all went wrong. I felt my legs wobble under me and I let my knees hit the floor. My brain was trying to process everything all at once to the point where it just stopped processing everything all together.

"What?" Pixis asked quickly and I looked up at him to see what the problem was, "Is that what he told you?" he asked.

"He told us both that," Annie spoke up behind me. Pixis just closed his eyes before lowering and shaking his head.

"What? What aren't you telling us?"

"The mission was suspected to be a trap. It wasn't an easy mission in the slightest. Shadis was supposed to be the only one on it but Reiner insisted he needed some backup and volunteered."

"No you're wrong he told me-." I let my voice fade out as I thought about the way he said it. The way he was acting the number of times he told me he loved me before he left. The promise he made me. He knew. That son of a bitch knew and didn't tell me. "Damn him," I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth.

I felt as Annie put her hand on my back before sitting down next to me. A part of me wanted to push her away and tell her that I just wanted to be alone, but another part of me wanted to cling to her and not let go. I know I shouldn't be alone right now but I can't help partly feeling like I should be.

I wanted to be mad at Pixis and Shadis for letting him go on that stupid mission, but I couldn't I knew he would have gone anyway. I needed someone to blame but the only person I could think of was myself for not catching on sooner.

"The person who killed him?" I said looking to Shadis, "Did you make them pay?" I asked.

"There were two of them. I killed the girl, but the guy well, that's his head," he said pointing to the head and arm that was sitting a few feet away from us.

I just stared at it wishing I was the one who ripped it off. Before I could even think I was already on my feet and without any hesitation or a second thought I kicked the head as hard as I could before falling back to my knees. I couldn't tell if the pain in my chest was from my wound ripping open or from the pain of losing Reiner.

The room remained deadly silent for way too long and all I wanted to do was go to bed. "Annie?" I called and she walked up next to me. "Can you help me back to bed?" I asked not even knowing if I could walk by myself without my legs giving out.

"Okay," she said reaching her hand out for mine. Instantly I felt my legs start to wobble and she put my arm around her to help stabilize me. "I'm going to tell Mikasa that I'll stay with you tonight," she offered.

"You don't need to," I mumbled.

"I know. I want to." I didn't say anything back. If she wanted to stay with me then I'm not going to say no. The more I think about staying in our bed alone the more tears I feel sting my eyes.

"Franz please go see Ms. Magnolia," Pixis said knowing that Franz must be pretty traumatized realizing he just beheaded a man. Once Franz was out of the room he walked over to where I was sitting on the floor and reached his hand out to me. "Are you hurt?"

"No," I said, completely forgetting at one point I had gotten stabbed. I was too numb to everything to feel any pain.

"You're bleeding," he raised an eyebrow. I looked down at the huge gash on my arm.