Chapter Text
Four years since he’s been betrayed. A young adult, and he still can’t look in the mirror without seeing a pair of puppy dog eyes stare back; he used to look in sadness and sincerity, but then it became disgust. Jean could say he still loves the man, but how can you love somebody you don’t know? He can’t really give in to thinking about Marco right now, because, for all he knows, he could be incredibly trained at what he does, and since he’s never shown his titan or his genuine skills, he’s practically unpredictable.
Now that the 104th had just entered Marley after crossing the beautiful and virtually endless ocean blues that were everything to Jean, his ignition is revving up little by little every day. Jean used to deny the existence of the ocean completely, and after crossing the rough waves, he’s now in enemy territory.
No man’s land, not for his kind of men.
Now Jean is in Marco’s territory, Marco’s home, except it’s not Jinae.
He slides his sandy brown hair and tucks it out of the way, also wiping sweat from his forehead after all the anxious thoughts circling him since they’ve begun sailing this way in the first place. He splashes clean water on his face and dries it quickly. Jean takes one last look in the mirror as he hears calling from the outside, Eren is erupting from the floor beneath the stage, and they need to act now. All he can hope is that this ends soon, and if something happens to him, he hopes it’ll be brief.
Marco sits in a dark leather chair, dark brown hair slicked back into an elegant look, yet with a stern face cold as ice, his Marley uniform is growing tight in his arms with another sudden growth spurt, but he won’t be given a new jacket until his General has decided. His defined cheekbones, slightly overgrown sideburns, and eyebags are too evident to ignore, he may be 19, but he barely feels like an adult. His uniform makes him feel subconscious about his identity, especially the armband; he feels exposed.
He wishes to say he loves his home, but for some reason, he misses the weird sense of… freedom back with Jean, as ironic as that is, he eyes the window next to him, revealing a stage with a crowd that piles in front of it. Marco pays them no mind, it would probably be more entertaining to stare at the empty desk in front of him and daydream about Paridis before showing interest in something other than his current mission.
This one has been more pressuring ever since he got back with no success from his initial orders.
Eradicate the island devils.
Take back the founding titan.
His only ever role. His calloused fingers fiddle with the jacket, trying so hard to seem calm and collected, yet still having the inability to keep himself cool; heartbeat so loud it sounds like the thudding footsteps of a titan.
He hears some older men chitchat outside of the room he’s in, Marco has been waiting to get some intel on the islanders, their tactics, their methods, and what exactly their goal is. At first, the officials would gather everything they knew by all the information he, Reiner, and Zeke had, but after a while, everybody had concluded that all the old information would be on standby, but for now and the foreseeable future, they had to think of something high-tech and durable.
Marco always knew that Eren had always been clawing to get outside the walls, and of course the island, but Marco didn’t know what Eren’s plans were after that. He’d pretend to indulge in Eren’s fantasies and rile him up by asking what his dreams were, almost revealing them until the ironic timing of his weirdly planned betrayal to the 104th. If only he could’ve loved them a little longer. If only he could’ve loved Jean a little longer. Nonetheless, Marco had specifically told his Generals of Erens ambitious behavior, and that no matter his demeanor, he will do everything in his power to get what he wants.
After waiting for at least half an hour in the dark room, occasionally looking out the window, Marco’s back begins to hurt from keeping his posture straight while waiting for his General, and as he tries to slowly relax, he hears the doorknob shift and locks in as straight as a ruler again.
The door doesn’t open, but instead, the stage with the crowds of people right outside the building suddenly erupts with lightning and smoke. Marco snaps his head in the direction of the light, and once he hears the sound of a titan roar, he knows precisely who it is.
The building beneath him shudders as he covers his ears. Marco stands up and backs away to distance himself from the window, seeing the fire stretch, hearing the people cry, and watching Eren’s Titan crush everything beneath him.
A man bursts into the room, not his General, but definitely an administrator, “Bodt! What is-” he views the horrific sight right outside the building as Marco stands up and backs away from the window in surprise, and he turns back to the man, hoping to get sent away yet knowing he’s going to have to “Fight! What’re you doing? Fight that thing! That island devil!” He dashes away from the room, barely sticking around to see if Marco will actually listen to his order.
Marco decides to run to the roof, taking the opposite route from the administrator to not be seen; sneaking his way past every person in the building, and locking the door behind him when he reaches the roof, still hiding, yet getting a good look at the destruction. Rocks and bricks are scattered all around the floor, barely being seen by the smoke, and as he shuffles his way behind the concrete, he can hear his heart pound in his stomach as Eren slowly stands, light gray smoke encompassing him, green eyes emitting an evil glow, and a plane overhead with black figures swatting around him like flies. Unless the Survey Corps got a new uniform to blend in with the shadows, Marco doesn’t recognize these people.
Hurry up, Marco.
His pulse is beating like a drum.
Don’t let us down, don’t be stupid.
He slicks his hair back to assure himself as he steps away from the cover and grabs a small pocket knife from his jacket, bringing it up to his palm as he slowly inches forward. Eren hasn’t seen him, but when the yellow sparks of light emit from Marco’s palm, the only thing he can see is an electric current running into the sky. It’s so bright and so golden, that you could almost confuse it for a sunrise. Before the smoke clears away, and before Marco can fully develop or even see at all, he feels a burning pain through his face. A rock-hard punch knocks him over and catches him off guard, but he can’t back down this easily, he can’t be that quick of a fight. He uses the Bone Hardening of his titan to lock in Eren’s feet, feeling and also hearing the stomps in the ground as he walks. Marco finishes generating the rest of his face with the bone shield against his skin, leaving small horizontal slits open for his eyes, and lines across his cheeks, revealing skin underneath.
He’s never fully observed his own titan, but he knows he has hair on his head, there’s no mouth, or maybe covered-up one because he swears he can feel it, and along his upper spine and shoulder blades there are several additional pieces of the hardened bone that he uses to work as extra limbs.
They are about as long as his body that extend to his ankles and they regenerate very quickly even if a big amount is cut off; however, they aren’t very durable, so when he needs something more sturdy, he occasionally twists them in the form of an extra arm, and seeing as Eren wastes no time, he uses his extra arm to wrap around Eren’s fist that comes flying at Marco when he turns back around.
When Eren is caught off guard just for an extra moment, Marco takes his chance to aim for his face, is he punching him? Is he ripping his skin off? Marco has no idea, he just knows he needs to do something. As he grips the locks of his hair and controls the stability he has, the flies and black figures from the plane begin to surround the both of them, and Marco begins to realize–
–Those are the 104th.
By the looks of it, they don’t carry blades anymore, or at least aren’t their main weapon, because one person behind him launches some kind of spear and it lands at his foot, exploding right on impact and causing Marco to fall. With his bone hardening locking into place with Eren’s arm, he brings Eren right down with him, and Marco uses the crystal hardening to protect his nape before he takes his other leg to jam it into Eren’s stomach. Another dozen spears jam into Marco’s back and burst into his spine, completely incinerating his mobility and unable to regenerate with the insane amount of damage it does; within a couple of minutes, Marco tears out of the nape and makes a run for it, using his memory to amble around the rubble and into a back alley that he’s had mapped in his head for so long it feels like a walk in the part. He takes one look back into all the smoke that has never left, watching the light from the plane search around, and watching Eren throw the titan body off and notice its immediate disintegration.
He knows the titan holder left the body.
As Marco runs further down the alley in the opposite direction, with now only a plain collared shirt with the armband and scuffed-up pants, each door he comes across is either locked or leads to a crushed building, and his luck is beginning to run out. Eventually, he reaches a small local government building, and if he’s able to rest and hide out for just a minute, he’ll be able to restore his energy and go back if instructed.
Right as he grabs the handles of the small brick building, not even knowing if it’s locked or if anyone is inside, he hears the sounds of ODM gear zipping around from up above. Two metal springs lock to the ground on his left, and when he turns to his right, a black figure knocks him over and slams him into the brick floor. There’s a loud thud against his skull when he slams into the ground, and the person above him keeps him there as he stabs two swords in Marco’s arms and in between the bricks to hold him against the ground.
“Not sure how you got into the top 10 if you just performed whatever shit that was,” a familiar voice scolds him, Captain Levi,
Marco groans against the dusty floor and brings his head to the side to open his eyes, trying to look up but only seeing part of the building and Captain Levi’s silhouette. He feels his calves also get stabbed with the blades he used to wield four years ago, hands grabbing his ankles and wrists, the 104th pick-up Marco and holds him tightly to keep him from escaping,
“Don’t even bother trying to transform, I know those thunder spears have you out of breath,” Levi remarks, “Hurry up, let’s go,”
As Marco looks around to the people beside him, he sees… Sasha is on his left, trying hard to keep a straight face when they make eye contact, trying hard to contain herself when she realizes who he is. Marco coughs and struggles to walk when he turns to his right and sees Mikasa holding his arm and pushing him forward, not really holding any expression, but definitely noticing something. Marco just isn’t sure what.
Although Marco could use up everything he has to flee, but he knows outrunning two Ackermans isn’t a wise idea, because Reiner had to warn Zeke about him and Zeke still fell to Levi.
Marco doesn’t really want to see if Jean is there.
If Connie is there.
If Armin is there.
Marco wants to go back and leave them all here, though he can feel the guilt bubbling in his stomach, but... why?
Hurry up Bodt, don’t let the devils catch you, don’t let them beat you.
If you let them finish you, then you’re just as weak as them.