Freedom Fighters League of the Exiled

Buckled

I opened my eyes and saw Jean and Levi hovering over me. "What happened?"

"You blacked out again."

"How long?"

"Just a minute or so," Marco answered from behind us, a little calmer now. He took a few steps towards us before shrugging. "He didn't blackout, he just fainted. He said he had a bad migraine, and with how fast he stood up I'm not surprised that he went down."

Jean slowly helped me back to my feet and held me tight as I wobbled on my legs. My vision going in and out for a moment.

"You okay?" Jean asked as I started to stabilize a little.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Just try and take things very slowly," Marco said before he looked over at Levi who was still kneeled on the floor. "Are you okay?" He asked and Levi shook his head.

"I can't move, my knees locked up," he said, his voice shaking a little. "Help this really hurts," his voice came out quickly. Marco quickly grabbed Levi's hands and helped him off his knees.

"That's never happened before," Levi admitted, shaking his head. "I don't know what that was."

"Hey, let's not jump to conclusions, it could just be because you're really sore," Marco said, still not letting go of Levi while his legs shook a little. Levi shook out his legs, bending his knees to make sure nothing was wrong. He looked confused when nothing seemed to be actually wrong with them.

"Maybe you're right," he shook his head, "god this is so nerve-racking. Never knowing what's permanent and what's temporary."

"I know," Marco whispered. "We'll figure it out together," he said, looking at me and Jean. "Isn't that right?"

"Yup," we both said.

"No matter what happens, we're going through it together," I said, walking over and wrapping my arms around Levi.

"Thank you. I needed that," he whispered before clearing his throat. "We should head to the meeting room."

We were right to head there early. It took us a while to just get to the stairs. Levi's hand held onto mine the whole time and I could tell by the way he would squeeze my hand every once in a while he was worried that I might collapse at any second again. We slowly started heading up the stairs. Jean and Marco insisted on walking behind us in case I blacked out again. My migraine was starting to let up a little, but my head was still hurting. I'm glad Levi's powers weren't working at the moment or he would be suffering through not only his own backlash but mine as well.

We had only made it about halfway up the stairs when Levi suddenly fell backward. I'm glad Jean and Marco insisted on walking behind us. I'm sure they were as shocked as I was when it was Levi who they had to catch rather than me. I grabbed the makeshift railing and squeezed his hand as tight as I could when I saw him start to fall. Marco was right behind him to stop him from falling too far.

Once I was sure he wasn't going to fall back and hit his head I was about to check what happened to see he was still conscious. I thought he had fainted or something, but he was just staring up at me in fear just as confused as I was.

"My knees buckled, I think." He was trying to hide it but I could hear the fear in his voice, first in the room, now going up the stairs something was definitely going on. Hopefully, it's just his muscles being sore, but that is definitely wishful thinking. At this point, this could be anything.

Marco slowly lowered them to the floor so we could take a minute to figure out what was going on. We sat on the stairs knowing that anyone who saw us here would probably understand why we are blocking the staircase without us even having to tell them.

He was trying to be strong as he told us he was fine. That his muscles were just sore that's all, but the way he was squeezing my hand tighter and tighter I could tell he was freaking out.

The more he tried to convince us the more his breathing started to pick up. He was freaking out more and more. I hated seeing him like this, but there's nothing I can do to make this better besides comfort him. I can't promise everything will be okay, I can't promise that this won't be permanent because none of us know. None of us have the answers to the millions of questions he probably has swarming his mind.

I just wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close, "I'm right here baby, we will get through this, okay? I'll be by your side the whole time."

He started taking some deep calming breaths and just leaned further into my arms. "And I'll be by your's," he finally breathed out, "sorry, this is stupid. I mean we knew there would be consequences, I shouldn't be freaking out over-."

"Hey, just cause you know something's going to happen doesn't mean you'll be prepared to deal with it when it finally does," Jean said, placing a hand on his back.

"Yeah, it's okay to take a moment and process everything." Marco chimed in.

Levi didn't say anything else, he just took a deep breath and gave us a nod. "I think I'm okay to keep walking," he said, moving his legs a little to test and see if they still felt off.

"You sure?" I asked, double-checking. I mean we still aren't really sure what exactly is wrong. If it is just sore muscles, or if him walking around is making things worse for whatever is happening.

"You aren't carrying me," Levi said quickly.

"Did your powers come back already?"

"No, but I don't need mind-reading to know how you think," he rolled his eyes. "We don't know how fucked up you are yet either."

"I could do it," Marco suggested.

We all just turned to look at him. It would sure make me feel better if he did, but it was up to Levi, not me. He didn't answer for a moment. He was thinking about it, I was sure he had the same thoughts that I did. We don't know what is happening and if it's only getting worse, maybe Hanji can tell us, but even she has a hard time figuring some backlashes out at times.

He finally just gave a defeated nod. "Only up the stairs though, the room isn't that far away," he whispered. I think he just didn't want everyone to see him being carried into a room. I mean it might be different if I could carry him in, he could just blame it on me being overprotective; Marco carrying him in would have no excuse.

Marco turned around and Let Levi get on his back. When he stood up I could see Levi's cheeks go red from embarrassment. I tried giving him a comforting smile, but he just laid his head down on Marco's shoulder hiding his face. Yup, he's embarrassed. I might have teased him if the circumstances were different.

We headed up the rest of the stairs and Marco carefully put Levi back on his feet and we headed into the room without another word. When we walked into our surprise a few other people were already in here. Some of them looked okay, the others looked like they were struggling to even sit in the chair without collapsing.

I held back from walking over to everyone and checking on them. I'm sure we will check in with everyone during the meeting. We walked in and took some seats and waited for everyone else to join us in the room. I felt as Levi slipped his hand into mine. "We have each other's backs, but we also have to have theirs as well," he said just as a reminder.

"I know, some of them are really going to need it."