I took a deep breath and finally looked around. "We have a few ideas," I mumbled, keeping my voice really low as I addressed everyone. Levi was watching everyone's thoughts near us to make sure they weren't suspicious of us. "Hitch maybe can put an illusion over all of us and we can sneak out, but this would be a big illusion and we're going to have to be fast at this, or we could try and get towards a less crowded area and have Hitch do an illusion on us as we all rush through one of Erwin's portals. However, the problem with this is we wouldn't be visible, and someone else could walk through the portal."

"Any other ideas?" Pixis asked not really a fan of the risks of those two.

"Well, Christa could smooth talk us out of here, but that would be even riskier," I mumbled.

"Yeah that's probably not good," Christa mumbled.

"I think our best bet is to use Hitch, but there is always the option to wait this out I mean they aren't going to hold everyone here forever... I think." I stopped and took a minute to think. Was this press conference televised? I can't remember. If not we might be in more danger than I thought. If it wasn't live then all they have to do is kill everyone here and make it look like some sort of accident or attack from exiles. Would they go that far to keep this out of the public?"

I looked to Levi so he could tell me I was being irrational. That I was just thinking of the worst possible outcome. I expected him to just give me a calming look but instead, he just stayed quiet before finally whispering, "get me close to some guards." Shit, could that really be their plan? I'm not leaving. I can't. If that is actually their plan then I can't leave with a good conscience. I would stay and help save as many people as possible.

Levi gave me a nod and agreed with me. We split off from the others to get close enough to the guards to check their thoughts as they whispered amongst themselves.

Levi got close to my ear and was whispering what they were saying, "What are we going to do." One whispered.

"We're going to have to let them go eventually. What do they expect us to do hold them here forever. I mean the conference was live on the news there's no way they can fix this now." Another said.

"Do you think that was actually the truth?"

"Hell if I know."

"Well everyone seems to be acting so suspicious now that he said that. I mean the higher-ups are pissed and their orders aren't making any sense. Not to mention some of the stories they've been telling us don't make any sense."

"What are you saying."

"I'm saying that if you think about it he probably was telling the truth. If that's the case then how many people have we hurt. If they aren't fighting us then why are we killing them?"

"Get a hold of yourself. You do realize that the man was probably lying. You're overthinking this."

"You know what no. I don't think he was. The fear sounded genuine and with how quickly they pulled him off the stage."

"Guys this is not the time for this. Just follow your orders and have this crisis on your own time," another man cut in. Levi stopped whispering to me and nudged me to head back.

"They aren't planning on killing everyone besides it was televised so at least we are okay on that front," he whispered before we met back up with the group.

"So waiting it out is an option," I mumbled.

"I don't know. The longer we stay here the more in danger we are," Pixis mumbled.

"Not necessarily. They are going to be looking for the people who disappear. Staying might actually be our best chance to remain a part of the crowd and out of their sights longer."

Pixis took a moment to think about it and nodded. "You're right,"

"So are we just waiting this out?" Erwin asked.

"I think that's our best bet, but if shit hits the fan we always can use the backup plan with Hitch."

"It's always good to have a backup plan," Pixis nodded as we sat back and waited.

After about an hour half of the people there were either panicking or sitting on the ground. Keeping everyone locked up had the opposite effect that they had wanted. The longer they were keeping us here the more people who believed that he was telling the truth. People were starting to panic about what they were going to do with us.

Levi was filling us in every now and again, but I could tell he wasn't doing so good. There were so many people and their thoughts were waiting on him not to mention all the emotions going around. He looked like he was about to collapse any moment.

We could probably pass it off as a medical emergency or a panic attack or something, but they need to let us go soon or he really might collapse. He was trying to focus on my thoughts but I can tell it wasn't really working. We were sitting on the floor and I could see as he struggled to keep his eyes open and stay sitting straight, his body every once and a while leaning over as he became unstable. "Lean on me," I mumbled. Sitting with my back to him. He leaned his back up against mine and I kept him up straight as he leaned his head back on my shoulder.

"He's unconscious," Pixis mumbled, scooting closer to stay by his side. God this sucks I can't even help him. I'm just stuck sitting here like this. I can't even hold him close and keep him protected.

Finally, after another half an hour, someone finally walked up to the mic to address what had happened. "Sorry about the wait guys. We were trying to deal with the technical issues. You all should be able to leave soon. We did want to address what happened but we had to figure out exactly what happened before we did that. So the man was actually cursed. He was a spy for them."

"You're full of shit," I heard a voice a little bit away from us and I realized it was Nanaba. Not her voice, but definitely her. Her power was starting to wear thin and her backlash was going to start heavily affecting her soon, but even still she's trying to make everyone know.

Another voice spoke up, "Yeah you wouldn't have kept us here this long if it was something like that." someone else spoke up.

One after another more people started yelling until everyone erupted in chaos. It just took one voice to make everyone stand up.

The person rushed off the stage and the doors started to open up when they realized that people weren't going to listen no matter what. They let everyone go. Levi was still in and out of consciousness. I threw him on my back and while passing the guards we explained he had a panic attack because of all the commotion and was okay he just needed to lay down. They believed us and let us pass. I'm sure they would have believed anything at this point since everyone else was busy yelling at their faces.

We texted Annie's groups and had them head over to the meeting point. We all headed back to base with a mission accomplished. The second the portal closed behind us there were several relieved sighs as we all relaxed. "We actually did it. A mission that didn't go horribly wrong." I mumbled to myself.

"See I told you it would all be okay," I heard Levi weakly mumble as his arms wrapped loosely around me. I guess he's conscious for now. I still didn't feel good about putting him down so I kept holding him. I turned my head to face him so I could kinda see his face that was resting on my shoulder.

"How are you feeling hun?"

"Exhausted and drained," he said before letting his head fall limp on my shoulder. Holding his head up was taking too much energy.

"I'm going to take Levi to bed," I said to everyone excusing us. They all nodded before talking to some of the people who had gotten worried waiting for us. We did take an extra amount of time and weren't able to notify anyone the mission would take longer than we had stated.

I carried him into our room and sat down on the bed letting him slide off my back onto the bed. He quickly laid down and looked at me.

"Do you want to be alone right now?" I asked knowing that sometimes when he gets this overwhelmed he needs to be alone before he could start getting better.

"No, I want you to get your ass over here and cuddle with me," he said weakly raising an arm so I could go slide in next to him.

"Alright you don't have to tell me twice," I laughed before laying down next to him. He let his head lay on my chest and his eyes closed. He was asleep almost instantly.

"Sorry, you had to go through that baby. I love you," I said, placing a kiss on his forehead and just running fingers loosely through his hair as he slept peacefully.

I wonder what will come of today because now there are a couple hundred people who believe the message we sent and witnessed it first hand. There's no telling how many people saw it on television. Will anything come of today or will it just be forgotten? What if all of this is for nothing and it just becomes another forgotten headline. We've worked too hard, lost too many people for this to die out quickly.