Freedom Fighters League of the Exiled

Blaringly Obvious

I felt all at once as Seraphina's power wore off. I moved my neck feeling a sharp pain from the awkward angle my head was laying. I stretched my neck for a second as I got to my feet before turning towards her with a glare. "I get that what you had to do was necessary, but if you do that again I swear-."

"Jean, could you shut up god I'm actually upset that her power wore off. You're so annoying sometimes. All you do is yell at other people and pick fights when it's not needed," Annie snapped at me.

"Are you fucking kidding me I-."

"Babe, she's right," Marco mumbled and I stopped dead in my tracks, "there's no need to pick a fight right now and if you're just going to do that then you might as well go back to being silent."

I plopped down next to him with a wince and didn't bother to say anything. He's right. As much as I want to sit here and argue it's not going to solve anything. I mean arguing is all I've ever known so of course, it's my go-to reaction to stressful situations. Right now I need to figure out how to get Marco free and help all of us get back to the surface.

I felt Marco's hand grab mine as he gave me a small smile, "thank you."

"Sorry," I said looking towards Annie and Seraphina. I am being kind of a dick and I don't mean to, but I hated that feeling. The feeling of having no control over my body and just having to sit there and watch as Marco almost died.

"It's fine we are all stressed and you must be in a lot of pain. We just need to take a breath. You need to take it easy," she said pointing at me. "The last thing we need is your injuries getting worse."

"I think I should take a look around and see if I can find anyone else, there were a few tunnels back where I fell in. Who knows maybe there's someone down there who can help free Marco."

"What if you get lost?" Seraphina asked.

"I'll leave a trail so I don't," Annie said before turning her hand into the crystalized materials and dropping a little crystal shard on the floor at her feet. "It will also help anyone who comes across the trail cause it will either lead them to you or to me," She said before she started walking back towards the small narrow hole that opened up with the large crash.

"Wait, here take this," Seraphina said, running over to her and handing her the lit candle. "It will help you more than us."

"Thank you," Annie said before continuing on. Her footsteps faded away and I couldn't tell if I was hopeful that she would find someone or scared that she would get lost.

Seraphina came and sat down next to us before putting her hands on my chest. I put my hands up and looked at her with raised eyebrows not really sure what she was doing. Before I could ask she shook her head, "You haven't worsened your injuries just yet from what I can tell which is good," she said before letting her hands fall away from me.

Oh that's right earlier she said something about being able to feel the blood pumping through my heart and she knew my injuries. I never did get a straight answer.

"So what exactly are your powers?" I asked, I mean she has to have more than one cause there's no way that she could tell all of that by her paralyzing power.

"I can paralyze people, which you already know, and I can manipulate blood. My own blood, other people's blood," she shrugged, "so I can feel where your blood is moving in your body, and through that, I can usually detect some injuries."

"Can you check Marco?" I asked. I mean he did have a giant concrete rock crushing his back and chest and his legs are currently pinned.

"I can try, but it gets more difficult the more injuries there are, and if blood flow is constricted then I won't be able to tell much of anything aside from that," she said, giving me a heads up before placing a hand on Marco's back.

"His ribs don't seem to be broken, but they are probably bruised a little. As for his legs, the blood flow is being constricted so I can't tell what is happening there," she mumbled before taking her hand off of him.

"Thanks for trying," I mumbled before looking back at Marco who was just listening to us talk. He seemed to be in his own mind zoning out. I wonder what he's thinking. Is he thinking up a way to get out of here? Is he giving up? I can never tell when his face is like that.

"Penny for your thoughts?" I said, giving his hand a little squeeze.

His eyes shot back up towards mine as he snapped out of whatever he was thinking about. "I was just thinking about how today everything will be different no matter what. I mean we knew it would be, but not like this. We expected the mission to either fail or succeed, and I mean sure we expected to lose some people along the way, but this. How many people have we already lost? How many people are we going to continue to lose?" He let out a big sigh before closing his eyes, "I don't think the explosion was their endgame," he said before looking back up at me. "I mean when is the best time to attack?"

"When the enemy is at their weakest," I mumbled, realizing what he was thinking. They are going to try and attack us while everyone is scattered, trapped, and injured."

"How long do you think we have until they start?" Seraphina asked, jumping to her feet.

"Who's to say they haven't already."

"Hey guys look who I found," Annie said, squeezing back through the hole. We all turned to look at her and she was carrying Sasha in her arms. "Why the long faces?" She asked, realizing something was wrong as she laid Sasha on the floor.

As Marco and Seraphina talked to her about the recent revelation I turned to Sasha to see how she was doing. Obviously, something was wrong if Annie was carrying her, but I wanted to see just how bad it was.

"You're hurt?"

"Just my legs, they are completely shattered," she shrugged, "what's wrong with you?"

"Broken ribs."

"Damn, no internal bleeding right?"

"No, not yet," I said, glancing back at Seraphina who had told me that if I kept it up then I could injure myself more.

"Lucky bastard," she mumbled, "I mean yours probably hurts but at least you can still walk," she elbowed my arm not that I felt it.

"I mean hey at least you got to be carried around," I said, picking up with her banter trying to keep her in a good mood. It seems like she needed this right now and it was probably best if I kept her distracted from the conversation happening behind us. As I kept Sasha's mood up Annie's dropped. I almost forgot what they were talking about until I heard Annie's voice go loud.

"Mikasa would never let them do that," She said, pulling both Sasha and my attention to their conversation.

"I mean if they are attacking right now you know damn well she's holding them all off.

"Which means she won't be able to come down and help anyone," Marco said, making my heart sink.

"You guys are forgetting the blaringly obvious," Seraphina cut in. "They might not even be sending actual troops, they could just drop a bomb on us and we would all be toast."

"What?" Sasha whispered before going dead quiet and looking at me to catch her up on what she's missed. So much for keeping her positive attitude.