Freedom Fighters League of the Exiled

Thomas

When I woke up I looked over at Eren and made sure he was still sleeping. I quietly slid out of his arms and got dressed. I headed to Thomas's room and knocked. A quiet come in came from the room. When I walked in it was almost like he expected me to be showing up.

"I'm sorry about screwing up the mission," he blurted out.

I just froze for a moment. Had he been dwelling on that all night. He looks like he hasn't slept much or at all. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about," I said before walking closer to him. He was sitting on his bed. "Do you mind if I sit?" I asked and he gave a small nod and scooted over to allow me room to sit next to him. "You know none of us blame you right?"

"It doesn't matter if I would have just listened-" he said and I had to cut him off.

"No, what I asked of you was unfair. I should have been more clear with the plans."

"No, I should have realized that you guys had a plan. Nanaba told us from the start that some instructions might sound bad in the heat of the moment but there's always a reason that they are given. I should have listened. I knew better than to freeze up. Levi I should have known," Thomas said pulling his legs closer to his chest.

"Thomas look, I know you think at the moment you should have known. We all think that after the fact, but at that very moment all of our minds were racing. It was impossible to think straight let alone remember something Nanaba told you months maybe even years ago. You weren't the only one with doubts. The only reason I think everyone else jumped is that they have a better knowledge of our powers, you guys haven't been with us as long as they have. Even some of our team had doubts about jumping. Honestly, I don't even think Armin did jump. I think he panicked and his foot phased through the cliff's edge. It wouldn't be the first time," I mumbled laughing to myself.

"Really?"

"Yup. Trust me you weren't the only one hesitating. "Also like I said last night I think we would have been spotted even if you didn't hesitate. We were all too slow; they would have seen your head as well as Ymir's. The only reason they didn't see Ymir's head disappear was because you were blocking their view. I think it was better that you did hesitate."

"How so?"

"Because if they saw us disappear over the cliff they would have known there were at least two or more and would have probably just called for back up straight away, but because they only saw you they didn't think there might be more and they didn't see you as a threat right away meaning we could take them out before they alerted anyone."

"So what does that mean?" he asked a little confused about where I was going with this,

"It means you hesitating was actually the best thing that could have happened. You saved the mission."

"I-I did?" he asked looking up at me.

I gave him a smile and nodded. "Damn right you did."

He smiled and then looked down at the bed before whispering out, "thank you. I needed to hear that." He let out a yawn and I could tell he got the closure he needed to be able to get some rest.

"You get some sleep I have to go talk to Pixis and see when they are planning for the next mission," I said before standing up.

I stopped in the door and looked back at him and he was already laying down with his eyes closed he must have been exhausted. He was asleep before I even left the room. I turned back around and left the room. Before I could even think about heading to Pixis I bumped into Nanaba.

"Oh, sorry didn't see you there," I said quickly.

"My bad," she mumbled awkwardly, "sorry I know I shouldn't have been eavesdropping, but I was going to check in on him when I heard you talking."

"It's alright," I shrugged.

"That was really nice of you," she smiled, "it's not easy to get someone to stop blaming themselves, but you did it so effortlessly. How did you do it?"

"I just told him the truth."

"That's it?" she asked a little surprised. "Usually the truth isn't enough to convince people."

"Sometimes it's not, but this time it was," I shrugged. "Anyway I have to go check in with Pixis," I said trying to excuse myself.

"Oh yeah, Eren's already there waiting for you."

I just nodded and started walking. Damn Eren's already awake. I wanted to talk to Pixis before Eren could wake up. I want on the mission even if my arm isn't fully healed. Eren might try and talk him out of it. I'm not sure if he will after last night's mission, but he knows that I was doubting myself he might tell Pixis that. I headed straight into his office and saw Eren and Pixis sitting there.

"Oh there you are," Pixis smiled greeting me, "Eren told me you would be coming and we should wait for you."

"He did?" I asked. That's surprising. I guess he isn't planning on trying to get me off the mission. No, his thoughts say the opposite. He wants me on the mission.

I know how stressed you were last night, but you did amazing, and you showed everyone that even injured you still got it. Remember our promise we go on the mission together or we don't go at all. I want us both on these next missions because with us together we got the best chance of winning. Eren thought to me.

"I'm assuming you two wanted to talk about the next two missions," Pixis suggested.

"Yes, we need to start planning. These are going to be some of the hardest since we are doing two missions in one night and we don't have as much manpower since we are splitting our group in half, Eren explained.

"We need all hands on deck," Pixis nodded. "People who don't normally go on missions might have to help out."

"Exactly," Eren nodded.

"We need to practice more hand to hand combat," I suggested.

"We could have people in the front lines remove the weapons from the equation and then have an easier time having the others take people down by hand?" Eren suggested going off of what I was saying.

"Sounds like you two have already started thinking about the plan.

Eren nodded before continuing, "the only issue I keep running into is that for both teams to be able to remove weapons and go into hand to hand we would need Levi on one team and me on the other. We are the only two who would be able to pull that off, and we aren't splitting up," Eren said quickly.

"Not necessarily," I said, taking a moment to think. I mean yes our powers are the easiest when it comes to removing weapons, but I think more of our teammates can do it too, just not in the same way."

"Explain," Pixis said, listening intently.

"Well, like Sasha can have her clones appear and disappear at will. If she gets close enough she could have clones pop out and disarm some guards, Petra, though I doubt we could talk her into it could melt the guns or turn them into gas. Franz could copy my power before we split up and during the mission, he could keep copying someone else's and help with that. Connie could pull the weapons out of their hands before they even know what happens. Just to name a few," I shrugged. "I mean if we got really creative we could probably do more, but we would have to test people's abilities first."

"Then that's what we should work on for the next week or so and then we can figure out when we are planning on going through with the mission."

"Now that sounds like a plan," I nodded patting Eren on the shoulder. He was stressing too much about the overall plan. I swear he's changed it like 10 times in his head already. He's stressing about keeping everyone safe this time around. He keeps thinking that everything rests on his shoulders, but it doesn't he can rely on us to help. He can rely on me.

He looked up at me and I gave him a smile. Everything is going to go right this time around no one is going to get hurt no one is going to die.

"We've got this," I whispered to him and he gave me a smile.

I hope you're right. He thought.