We kept walking while trying to make a plan of how we could get information. Ymir came up with the best idea of speaking sorta loud and saying have you heard what the curses are doing now and see what thoughts pop into people's minds about what we've supposedly done before, but even that could be reckless. It draws attention to us as well puts us in a corner if anyone actually asks what they've done.

"How about we keep brainstorming and we will consider that our backup plan," I suggested.

"Okay," she nodded as we both went back to the mental drawing board. We slowly walked down the sidewalk slowing our paces as we lazily strolled along without a place to be. I'm glad we left in the early morning so we didn't have to worry about the sun setting for several hours. "We need names," Ymir finally said.

"Names?"

"Well, if someone stops us we can't just say our actual names."

"If someone stops us we might have bigger problems if we can't show them any identification."

"Oh." Her voice came out a whisper as she realized that we were screwed in more ways than one if we were to get stopped.

I just took a deep breath and stopped walking. She turned to look at me stopping in her tracks to see what I was doing. I just leaned up against the wall and closed my eyes letting the sounds of the city swirl around me. It was a shame we didn't get this freedom more. I opened my eyes upon hearing sirens in the distance. My stomach dropped as they started getting slightly closer. "It's best if we keep moving," I whispered.

We saw a sign of hope in the distance. "Well ain't that a sight for sore eyes," Ymir said letting out a little chuckle. An old newspaper rack that still had some newspapers in it.

"I thought these things went extinct years ago," She mumbled.

We bought a newspaper and quickly scanned through it before coming across anything that had to do with exiles or the cursed. When we finally spotted an entry it was about how more and more exiles are starting to fight back more and more violently. My eyes went straight towards the middle of the article. "Group of exiles leaves multiple soldiers' heads on wooden stakes as a warning of what is to come." I read it out before looking at Ymir.

"That sounds like the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard, does it say where this supposedly happened?"

"Nope. it just says they were found just outside of town." I said scanning over the rest. Something else caught my eye as I looked for the location. "Among below the soldiers' heads were the mutilated bodies of civilians tied around the stakes," I read in even more disbelief than before.

"No one is safe," Ymir said as she started reading the last line of the article, "the exiles must be stopped at any cost."

We looked up at each other and our eyes locked. She was thinking the same thing as me. This can't be good. This is just one newspaper and we are already getting such horrendous stories like this. I mean this story is clearly bullshit, but ordinary people aren't going to see it that way. What else could they possibly be saying about us?

We filled up the newspaper and I slid it into my pocket so we didn't lose it. It bugged me that it was sticking out of my pocket and digging into my abdomen as I walked, but it couldn't be helped.

"Where else do we look?" Ymir asked knowing that this wasn't enough.

"There's a small drug store over there, do you have any money on you?" I asked.

She checked her pockets before pulling out a few dollars. It must have been from when we last did a grocery run. "Why getting hungry?" she asked.

"No, I don't know about you, but when I think of fake information that leads to brainwashing I think of magazines. They are bound to have something right?"

"Maybe," She nodded and we started walking towards the store. I saw some soldiers walk in just before we crossed the street to get to it. I put my hand on her arm and stopped her.

"We bailing?" she asked.

"No, we just have to fit in more," I said before letting out a frustrated sigh. "Hand me the money," I said and she did." Okay. Just trust me on this one." Those words alone were enough to make her cringe; we both knew this was going to be unpleasant.

We walked into the store acting like we belonged there. If there was one way to not raise suspicion it's to not act suspicious. My arm was around Ymir's waist as we walked her hand lovingly placed on my back. We looked like a normal happy couple on the outside. On the inside, we were both bitching about the situation. Pretending to be normal was bad enough, but pretending to be straight was so much worse.

We walked around a little and grabbed some drinks to make it look like we didn't come here just for the magazine. We headed to the cash register and got in line just behind the soldiers. One of them was eyeing us. He was debating about talking to us. He didn't seem fully convinced.

Before he could say anything Ymir put on her best girly voice as she reached the counter where some magazines were lazily placed for last-minute purchases. "Babe, can we pick one up? I want to see what the latest gossip is?" she begged me with a pouty face. Her thoughts threatened me saying if I ever spoke of this she would send poltergeists to haunt me.

"I don't know baby I only brought enough money for the drinks," I said, trying to make this sound believable.

"But babe," she whined. I was just glad the soldiers couldn't see her eyes. Any believability would have gone out the window seeing her glaring me down for making her do this.

I was about to tell her it was okay when the guard cut me off, "money trouble?" he asked, staring me down. Shit, that's not what we wanted. If I say yes he's going to ask for identification to make sure we didn't have any powers, but if I say no he might not believe me. We have to-. Before I could finish my thought Ymir was already on it.

"No, not at all sir, this big dummy just decided to leave his wallet at home for our daily walk," she said rolling her eyes at me.

"Well sorry, usually we don't walk for this long. I wasn't expecting us to get this thirsty," I said shaking my head back and letting my arm fall away from her waist. She did the same with her arm as we started standing slightly farther apart.

"Why? I told you that I wanted to walk for longer today."

"I thought you meant like ten minutes longer not an hour," it's working. Our argument is distracting them.

"Well, I just wanted to get out of that stuffy house for once is that so bad?"

"No, but-." the soldier nervously cleared his throat trying to get our attention.

"Oh, I'm so sorry sir. He's been picking fights with me all morning," Ymir started up again and I found the opportunity to prove her point.

"Oh, I'm the one picking all the fights?" I asked, getting defensive. "You were the one who threw a whole fit when I said I wanted to stay home. Then when I agreed you threw another fit. I just can't win with you!" I said, raising my voice slightly. I let out a deep sigh and turned to face away from her annoyed.

"We maybe if you weren't such a shut-in" she started before the soldier cleared his throat uncomfortably again.

We both turned back to face him. "Sorry," Ymir said with a tired sigh, "I think we've just been cooped up in the house together for too long," she explained.

"I see. Everyone's getting a little testy nowadays," he said before pulling out a wallet and handing Ymir a five and saying, "buy your magazine sweety."

She gave him a big smile and started gushing to him, "Oh my, you are so kind thank you so much, sir."

He turned to me and just looked me up and down before letting out a sigh, "next time don't forget your wallet with such a pretty lady here it would be a shame if someone stole her away."

Before I could say anything his buddies called from him and they exited the store. Ymir and I just looked at each other both trying our damn hardest not to laugh and or vomit. We bought the drinks and the magazine and walked out of the store.

Not only did we get a magazine that could possibly have information to help us out, but we also had our enemy pay for it. If that ain't the biggest fuck you ever then I don't know what is. We waited until we were far enough away from the store before we started cracking up laughing.

"God I felt so stupid. He looked at me like I was a piece of meat. I wanted to kick him in his meat," Ymir rolled her eyes while I laughed.

"That was the most awkward experience of my life."

"You felt awkward? I had to act like a total ditz," Ymir sighed, "please tell me we never have to do that again."

"Hopefully not," I laughed, "then again we make a good fake couple. I mean at least we have the stupid arguments down."

We took a seat on a bench and looked through the magazine. At first, we thought it was a total bust until we got to the last few pages. "Here we go," she said pointing at the page and reading a sentence out. "Exiles have started attacking people at random state officials warn everyone to stay indoors at night and follow curfew." she pointed out. I waited for her to continue and when she didn't.

"What else does it say?" I asked and she just shook her head.

"That's it the rest goes on about random politicians saying the same exact things in different words," she shrugged.

"Wait, it names them? I asked her to angle the magazine towards me.

"Yeah, why?"

I looked through all the names and what they were saying. I looked up at her and smiled. "I'm not sure yet, but I think this can be important." I couldn't put my finger on it exactly. There's no way we can do any research into who these people are, but maybe we could have someone else do it. Someone who isn't being watched as heavily. Maybe this could be the next step.

"What are you thinking?" she asked and I realized I was staring off into space with a smile on my face.

"I'm thinking we might have found answers. Maybe not the ones we were looking for, but some that we can use to not only get more information but also change our fate as a whole. She just stared at me confused wondering how the hell we were going to do that. I pulled out the newspaper and put the magazine with it putting them both in my pocket.

"Alright, should we start heading back?" I asked.

"I think we can find more information. There's an electronic's store not far from here that usually has the news playing on TVs. After last night's mission, Reiner's death, and Shadis and Franz killing some guards we might learn something else if they decide to bring it up." Ymir said and I nodded. We started walking in that direction. We ran into a billboard that had a phone number on it. Telling people where to call if they see a cursed or an exile around.

We made it to the store and sat on a bench across the street. I pulled out the newspaper again and handed her the magazine and we pretended to read while we watched the TVs that were playing advertisements at the moment.

After a few moments, we heard the TVs whirred to life with that sound that signaled the news was back on. We had to wait through the boring traffic alerts and the weather forecast until they started getting into the news.

"Last night during a routine patrol two brave soldiers lost their lives as a gang of exiles ambushed them. This horrendous crime has left two families devastated." So they are not only changing the narrative but also playing the sympathy card.

"The cursed beheaded another one as well as partially dismembered him cutting off one of his arms as well last night leaving his body parts in a different place than his body what this could possibly mean we aren't sure yet."

"I think they are trying to send us a sign," the co-host stated.

"That could very well be a possibility," the other host said back, "but all hope isn't lost. Those brave heroes didn't die in vain. They managed to bring down an exile while they were at it. We have one less menace on our hands. That is all, for now, we will update you when we have more but now for Ryan with the sports."

it took everything I had not to get up and smash that TV. I looked at Ymir and saw her holding the magazine so tightly I thought she might rip in in half. "Hey," I whispered getting her attention. "Don't." She took a deep breath and let herself calm down before giving me a nod and reassuring me in her thoughts that she was okay.

Ymir and I looked at each other for a moment and stayed sitting for another ten minutes so as to not get up and leave after getting the specific information we came for. "Now it's time to head back," Ymir said seeing that half the day was spent walking around.

"Yeah, we will have to be careful getting back into base if anyone sees us we will have put everyone in danger," I warned.

"Well, we have a while before we have to figure out how since we are a few miles from there," she said.

"It's going to be a long walk back." We were used to walking a lot, but today we were walking for a few hours straight even running at some points. Both Ymir and I were exhausted and our muscles were already screaming at us even though we had no choice to push forward.

We walked towards base Ymir having Gabriel check ahead to make sure our path was clear. I heard her talking to Ilsa at one point to see if she could help us too. I think Ilsa wasn't too happy with us for sneaking out cause her and Ymir seemed to be arguing. When I was sure Ilsa had left I decided to ask, "so do you know if Ilsa has seen Reiner?"

"She hasn't, well at least I don't think she has. If she has she hasn't told me."

"Okay," I whispered. It was worth a shot asking. When we saw home base in the distance a feeling of both relief and panic washed over us. We're home, but also we have to make sure not to expose this place.

"I'll call in more reinforcements," Ymir said right as I heard someone's thoughts right behind us.

Oh shit. I felt someone tap on my shoulder and so did Ymir. fear washed over both of us. Ymir thought it was a stranger and it scared her. It scared me because I knew exactly who this was and it definitely wasn't a stranger.

We turner around to see Mike glaring down at us. "This way," he said, leaning us into an ally way where there would be a portal back into the base. It's safe to say he was about to go track us down. He just left the base though does that mean they just found out we were missing.

"Busted," Ymir whispered.

"Busted indeed. Good luck explaining your way out of this one," Mike whispered back as we walked through the portal. I read his thoughts and sure enough, they knew for hours they had just finally decided on sending Mike out since we had been gone for too long. They thought we were captured.

Walking through the portal into the common room we saw everyone. Sitting or standing around. The main ones that stood out to me were Pixis, Shadis, and mom dead center with their arms crossed over their chests as they glared down at us. Just behind them was Eren and Christa with the same angry expression on their faces.

"Want to explain what was so important that you both left and jeopardize everyone's safety?" Pixis asked, not really expecting us to have an answer.

Ymir and I looked at each other and without hesitation turned back to everyone and said one single word with all the confidence we could. "Answers."