"What do you want us to do?" I asked Eren. I knew we would be the ones to break the standoff, but how did he want us to. Were we going straight for violence? Would we try and find a peaceful way that would probably inevitably backfire. No matter what he decided he had to tell us quickly. Everyone was waiting on his word to move, not just our team, but all of the teams. Thomas had all of our team leaders connected while someone with a similar ability from another team helped connect us with the others.

No one was moving a muscle, not us, not the army of guards in front of us. I know what we are waiting for? But what are they waiting for? Could they be trying to prove the point that we are violent and will attack even unprovoked? Could they be stalling until more reinforcements arrive? I'm too far to hear their thoughts from here, but I know whatever they are waiting for can't be good.

"If they are waiting for violence then there's probably a reason," I said thinking out loud.

"I know," Eren mumbled. It's odd they aren't attacking us. We need to find a nonviolent way to make the first move. He thought before looking at me. I got it!.

He turned around looking at our team. "Levi, Armin, Jean, Erwin, Hitch, and Rico. Come here," he said, calling them over. Well, he has a plan. I don't know if it will work, but it seems like the best play.

He went over his thoughts with the others and they all seemed to agree to it. I mean we didn't have any other options. The other option was to go in guns blazing and hope that no one dies

"Okay Jean," Eren said, getting ready. Jean started giving us a steam cover. "Armin, go for it," Eren whispered, starting up the second phase. As Armin disappeared he turned to the others. "Hitch, count to 10 then start the illusion. When you start, tell Erwin and have him start."

I heard Hitch counting down and watched as she nudged Erwin. Erwin teleported away and we waited. I waited watching for my part to start through the steam. The guards were clueless that anything was even going on. On their side, it looked like we were still in a standoff with a little bit of steam coming from our side.

On our side Armin was slowly removing their guns, I was using my power to move them to Erwin who was portalling the guns behind us. Lastly, Hitch had pulled a wall over their eyes making sure that they didn't see what was actually happening. We didn't have much time to disarm them all, before Hitch's illusion collapses, but we will try to get as many as we can before that happens. If we run into any civilians on our side we can maybe have them pick the guns up so they aren't just left defenseless, but for now, we thought about just destroying them.

We finally decided to portal the guns to some of the other teams who had met up with some civilians willing to fight. Those teams can evenly distribute them as they see fit.

We got a good amount of the guns removed before Hitch whispered to us that she wasn't able to hold the illusion for much longer and that we would have to do the next stage of the plan.

"Give them the signal to get out of there," Eren whispered to Jean.

Jean stopped making the steam and instantly made it vanish. "I watched as Erwin instantly snapped his head over to us before teleporting back behind the wall.

"Where's Armin?"

"Here," Armin said, reappearing in front of us as he leaned over putting his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath.

"Alright, Hitch you have enough left for the next stage right?" Eren asked and she gave a nod.

"Erwin-."

"On it," he said, opening a portal right in the middle of where they were standing. "Ready?" he asked Rico.

"Ready. Open the portal again in two minutes," she said before walking through.

We waited and saw as the guards started to go down. One at a time, a few at once, a good portion of them went down. When a good portion of them had gone down and two minutes had passed we opened the portal back up and she came walking through.

We gave Hitch the okay and she dropped the illusion. We watched as the guards started to panic, noticing that half of their team had been rendered unconscious, and a good portion of them were disarmed without us even moving a muscle, at least in their eyes.

They were more on guard than before and some of them fired a few shots at our barricades. I guess those were warning shots.

"We mean you no harm, your men are just unconscious, they are unharmed and will be able to wake up after without injury. Please realize we are not trying to fight, we just want our rights," Alastair yelled out from a little ways away from us where he and his team were positioned.

We all knew this wasn't going to work, but we wanted to make a point to disapprove whatever propaganda they were trying to push with this standoff. It was obvious the men before us were nothing more than fall guys. They were all young and looked like they had never seen actual combat before. They were sent here to die for whatever cameras they have set up to keep this propaganda that they have been feeding the masses.

Sure enough, Alastair's speech was met with silence and more guns pointed at us. A few gunshots were even aimed in his direction to shut him up. "You have to come to your senses, we can't remain peaceful forever. We aren't going to sit back and let you slaughter us, we will have to defend ourselves. We don't want this to get violent, but violence is what you will get if you keep killing the innocent. Please, end this before anything gets out of hand. The last thing anyone wants is unnecessary bloodshed. You don't want blood on your hands, no one does, please re-evaluate your morals. You are on the wrong side of history."

I watched one or two of the men look around, not many seemed to be convinced with Alastair's words, we didn't expect them to be, however seeing the few sparks of realization hit them I had to speak up.

"Don't you realize you were sent here to die!" I yelled out, "they wanted to use you as an example to push propaganda that we are violent, don't you think it's odd that they sent the fresh meat out as the front line of defense?"

There it is again a few more sparks of realization. A few of the men with and without guns were looking around. I'm too far to read their minds but it was written on their faces as they realized we weren't just spitting bullshit. They looked too afraid to step out and agreed with what we were saying. They stayed still until I watched one brave woman step out in front of the others.

"They are right," she announced before throwing her gun on the ground. She looked even younger than us yet here she was standing up to a wall of guns.

A flash and it was all over she had crumpled to the floor with a hole in her head. Shot by another recruit with a sickening smile on his face. "Any other traitors?" he asked, looking around.

"How brainwashed do you have to be? Who are the violent ones here? Us who have done everything we could possibly do to have a peaceful resolution or you who are shooting people for choosing peace over war?" Quinn yelled. She looked so angry and sad.

"Any other people who want out we will get you out safely, please, don't let them keep you brainwashed by fear," Eren yelled out. I could feel the anxiety on our end rising. We were getting through to them, not many but a few of them. Which is a few more than I ever thought we would be able to convince. I watched as a few of them looked around frantically trying to figure out the right choice.

Quinn walked over to Pixis and had him pull a few people out. I guess her range was a little farther for mind-reading than mine was. Pixis put them in Force fields and we let them walk behind the barricades.

The rest of the people there stayed put. They looked even more pissed, their guns were ready, they were ready to fight. After the people made it to the other side of our barricade I could read their thoughts.

Some of them were wondering if they had made the right choice, other's wanted to fight with us. All of them were very awkward. Their thoughts, though they were unsure, seemed very genuine. Whether they weren't sure if they made the choice, or if they weren't sure if they wanted to fight with us, they seemed very sure that they were being used as pawns by the other side. They seemed sure that we wouldn't hurt them.

"What do we do about the rest of them?" One of them had asked quietly. I wasn't sure if she was talking to us, or if she was just thinking out loud, I'm not even sure if she knew.

"Violence is the only thing they understand," Eren whispered to me.

"We've done all we can with peace, but sometimes violence is the only way to get through to them," I whispered back, but loud enough so that the person who asked could hear me.

"I hate this," Eren said back.

"Do we even have a choice?" I asked.

"No, you don't," they said cutting in. "They won't go down without a fight. You were right about the cameras, and they are stalling right now, they are trying to call in more backup as we speak," they said, giving us a heads up.

I turned around and walked towards her a little to talk while Eren stayed where he was as he tried to come up with a plan. "Thank you," I said back before looking the person up and down. She wanted to fight with us. "Did you need a gun back?" I asked.

"Um, yeah that would help," she mumbled. "How did you do that?"

"We will have to explain later," I laughed just mostly hoping we actually live long enough to explain it. She seemed genuinely amused by it.

"Hopefully I'll live to hear it," she said what I was thinking.

Before we could decide what to do to break the standoff a grenade landed at my feet. I watched my whole life flash before my eyes in a millisecond. this was how it ends. I have no time to throw it away or even yell out to warn them.

Before I had time to do anything, even scream I heard the explosion go off and the force of the blast pushed me to the floor. My ears were ringing but I didn't feel any pain. Either I'm about to bleed out and the pain hasn't hit me yet because of the adrenaline, or I'm already dead and the ringing in my ears is just an aftereffect because of how I died. I'm dead. I'm so dead. There's no other way. I opened my eyes and looked around and realized I was alive. The force of the explosion was what pushed me over but there was no actual explosion? The grenade that was at my feet had gone off inside a small see-through purple bubble. Pixis's force field. Oh, thank god.

"Are you alright? I've never used a force field for a grenade."

"I'm okay," I said before looking to the woman next to me who looked equally as surprised to be alive. She nodded to way too shocked to even get any words out.

Eren slid next to me in a second his knees scraping against the asphalt. He didn't even wince as his knees started to bleed from the jagged pebbles hitting them. His face was fully focused on me looking absolutely terrified but also relieved. He looked me over with his eyes and took a deep breath seeing I was okay. He wrapped his arms around me for a moment before pulling away and standing up. He helped me to my feet and I saw his eyes darken. "They'll pay for that."