It's time. I felt my heart pounding in my chest. I mean I know I'm used to putting myself in dangerous positions for the sake of the truth, but this is the first time that I've been worried about my own government killing me. I know I will have backup, but the thought of standing in front of a crowd of people one second and being dead is something I couldn't get out of my head. I mean snipers are a thing. I don't know how far the government is willing to go to get rid of me. I mean they want me dead, but will they be willing to kill me in front of hundreds of people? Not to mention people will be recording hundreds of thousands of people who would see it. It wouldn't be something they can easily cover-up.

I took a deep breath and walked into the common room. Pixis greeted me with a welcoming smile. He looked ready to go. "Are you going to?" I asked, realizing he wasn't the only one. Shadis, Hanji, and Annie were also ready to go.

"We're your backup. If something goes wrong and these three," he motioned to Mikasa, Sasha, and Erwin, "can't handle it then they will call us in."

"Oh I remember Eren saying something about that," I nodded before realizing Eren wasn't here, and neither was Levi. "Where is he?"

"They are going to be sitting this one out," Pixis nodded. I wonder if something happened because I know they were supposed to be part of the backup, but I guess they are busy at the moment?

"Okay," I took a deep breath and put on a normal black mask, and watched as the others did the same.

"This feels weird," Sasha said awkwardly, slipping on the black mask.

"I know they aren't our normal masks, but they'll have to be. The last thing we need is to draw attention to ourselves," Mikasa mumbled.

"I know but my checkered one is way cuter," Sasha mumbled before making some doubles of herself. Nanaba quickly styled their hair differently. Their clothes were already different from Sasha's which was weird. I couldn't process how she did that. With the masks on it was harder to see that the face was the same anyway. It helped that Nanaba put different contacts on the three different clones.

After that was taking care of, Pixis made eye contact with me, "you ready?"

"I guess so," I mumbled.

"Good, Mikasa, you're the mission leader." He handed her a burner phone.

"What does that mean?"

"It means she has full say over the plans made, if something goes wrong everyone will be following her lead."

"Hopefully nothing will go wrong," Mikasa said, patting my shoulder before looking at Pixis.

"I will be making some changes to the plan before we go in," she said and Pixis raised an eyebrow. "We can't use code names for obvious reasons, but I don't think it's good to use our real names. I'm giving everyone fake names for the mission."

I backed away cause that didn't apply to me. Everyone out there already knows my name so giving me a fake name wouldn't do anything.

"I'll keep them close to our actual names so it's easier to remember, Sasha, for this mission you are now Sarah, Erwin, you will now be Edman, I'll be Michelle," she said looking at everyone. "Got it?"

"Got it," they responded.

"That's a good idea," I heard Pixis whisper.

"Alright everyone ready to go?"

We all nodded and she gave Erwin the go-ahead to open a portal. We were a few blocks from where the protests are. "Alright, this next part is going to be the trickiest," she whispered to me. "We have to get there without being spotted.

I don't know why I just assumed we would be dropped right into the crowd, then again that wouldn't be the best idea. "We have to do some ninja stuff?"

"Not exactly," she laughed, "just pretend you're playing a very high stakes game of hide and seek, except the seekers don't know they are actually seeking."

"More like and the seekers have guns ready to shoot the hiders," I heard Sasha mumble before Mikasa elbowed her.

"Ignore her she's stupid," she rolled her eyes. "Just stay close behind me," she said with a comforting nod.

She started walking towards the edge of the alley. She did a quick look around before motioning for us to follow. We ducked down in the alley that continued across the street. She did the same thing poking her head out and doing a quick look around. This time she backed up and shook her head. She walked back to the other end and froze once more before looking at us. "We are getting surrounded," she whispered.

She took a second to think before turning towards Sasha. "Can you make some doubles? One in your normal costume, and one in the reverse of your costume?"

"Done," Sasha said, popping two new doubles out.

"One needs to run that way," Mikasa said pointing one way, the other needs to run that way. She turned towards Erwin, "I need you to make portals on either side of us that go all the way to the wall to make it look like we aren't here.

"Done," he said before putting the portals on either side of us. Sasha's doubles started running. We heard gunfire go off and Sasha led them away as we stayed still and stayed as quiet as we could. When the streets went silent I thought we were good to go.

"Have you lost them yet?" Mikasa asked Sasha and I realized her clones couldn't just disappear or they would know something up.

"Almost," she whispered. Her eyes were closed and I realized that she could see everything they were. It must be confusing seeing multiple different things as well as trying to navigate surroundings and trying to control multiple different bodies. I was going to have to ask her later how she managed to do that.

"Alright, lost them, destroying the doubles," she whispered before opening her eyes.

Erwin dropped the portals and Mikasa double-checked the street. "Alright we're clear," she said before leading us towards the crowd that was now in sight. We had no other issues getting to the protests.

When we got there I saw a few people I recognized talking in front of the crowd. When they made eye contact with me they looked like they had seen a ghost.

"Hassam!" They greeted me running towards me. "We thought you were dead."

"I'm alive," I said, spreading my arms out a little showing them.

"I heard they gunned you down in the night?"

"They tried but I escaped. With some help of course. I'll explain later." I didn't know how much I could explain. I mean I didn't plan on telling them anything that could compromise my new friends' safety, but I could at least tell them that some exiles saved me.

"Well I'm sure you want to tell everyone that the government tried to kill you," they said loudly before pulling me up onto the "stage" which was just the roof of a damaged car. They handed me a megaphone and waited in anticipation.

I starred out at the sea of people in front of me and took a deep breath. Any one of them could try and kill me. I don't know who is an actual ally and who is working for the government. God, I sound like a crazy person, but in this case, it's actually true.

I put the megaphone up to my mouth and started talking. As I was explaining what happened, even after I started getting into the story Pixis and I had talked about me sharing I couldn't help but wonder when it would be lights out. I would have no warning, maybe the slight sound of a gunshot before everything went black. No matter how long I talked, nothing happened. I heard no gunshot go off, I never got shot.

I hopped off the stand and walked back over to where they were standing keeping an eye on me. There was no time to stick around and hang out after. Not with a target on my back. The last thing I need is someone bumping into me and pricking me with a needle and poisoning me or something. God, I really do sound paranoid.

"Ready to go?" Mikasa asked.

I gave her a thankful nod and she led us to the edge of the crowd. She looked around the area and made sure it was safe to do so before heading down and ducking into an alleyway. I thought we would teleport out here but realized that wasn't the case.

"Too many people here we need to get farther away," she explained, probably realizing I was confused.

We made it farther in before she saw some guards a little way down one of the streets. "This will have to do," she whispered. Erwin quickly opened a portal and we walked back through. I fell to my knees and let all of my adrenaline wash out of me. A wave of exhaustion hit as my breathing evened out.

"That was the scariest thing I have ever experienced."

"Even scarier than being shot at?" Pixis asked, patting me on the back.

"Even scarier than that because at least then I knew who the enemies were. Going out there I didn't know who was a friendly, and who was an enemy."

Pixis just nodded and offered me a hand to get off the floor. I took it and let out a deep breath. For the first time tonight, I was able to get a full breath of air.