The Cost of Becoming a Warrior

Chapter 14- Mission to Paradis

"INFILTRATE PARADIS?! ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?!" Marco yelled at Pieck's suggestion. They hadn't spoken much in the past month and Marco felt slightly offended at the fact that this was one of the first things she had said to him in a month, seriously? Not even a 'how are you'? Not only that, but that's where Jean and all the other scouts were. He couldn't avoid them forever, he was almost certain he'd get found out if he went. This was a dangerous plan anyway, but it was even worse for Marco, this was literally life or death for him, if any of the scouts saw him he'd be completely fucked. 

"I know it sounds crazy,  but it was Magath's idea. He thinks it'll catch them off guard and make it easier to capture the founder." Pieck explained, trying to calm down a clearly panicking Marco. She couldn't quite understand why he seemed so apprehensive about going, Marco had spoken about how he'd love to go to Paradis and annihilate everybody there before, this was what he wanted, this was part of the reason he became the Jaw Titan. She thought he'd be ecstatic about this, but Marco was clearly beyond nervous. He'd been acting weird ever since the attack on Marley..it must've really fucked with him, after all, he was humiliatingly defeated. 

A few weeks had passed and Marco was wearing the scout uniform and had somehow successfully infiltrated Paradis and the Survey Corps' base. So far so good, he hadn't been recognised yet nor had he recognised anyone. He'd been here for a few days at this point and him and Pieck were camping out in the woods nearby. In the meantime, he'd had some time to explore around Paradis, the place he was born. What he'd noticed was that life was somewhat...peaceful. People weren't separated into any type of groups and there weren't really any 'forbidden' zones only certain people could go to. Obviously it had it's own issues, as far as Marco could tell, in terms of development, it was DECADES behind Marley. It was nice, in a way, nobody saw Marco as scum because of his race. It was...nice. He didn't feel like he was being used as a weapon, he felt somewhat normal for the first time that he could remember. Well, as normal as you can be when you're infiltrating a foreign military. He had a job to do. Before all this shit happened, he would've been beyond enthusiastic about the thought of this, but now that he knew he had some very close personal connections to not only the island, but some of the people who lived here. This mission was suddenly a lot harder and weighed even heavier on his concious. If he was being completely honest, he didn't want to do this shit. But at the same time, he really wanted to, he could never make his mind up nowadays. The past few weeks had worn out Marco to no end, he felt like he was in some type of nightmare. 

Pieck said Marco would likely have a few hours to kill whilst she located and actually got to Eren and convinced him she was on his side. So, using this time, he decided to explore around the base a little, maybe gather info on what Paradis were planning to do to Marley. He might be able to find something useful to bring back to Marley. He wandered around the base, trying to blend in as much as possible. The base seemed nice enough, it was pretty basic, but it got the job done. The military base back on Marley was huge, probably around 5 times as big as this one. As he was walking around, he came to a lone door at the edge of the building, it likely led to a basement of some sorts. A basement seems like an appropriate place to hide shit, maybe Marco could find information there. He pushed the door and he gasped softly as he heard a creak, it was open. He took another deep breath and slowly opened the door. As expected, there were steps leading down, this did lead to the basement, or so he thought. He walked down the steps slowly and quietly, he had no clue what could possibly be down here. As he made his way down, he suddenly heard some very muffled voices. Marco panicked and froze in place, he couldn't make out how many voices there were or whether they were male or female. He hesitated before deciding to keep going, if it was another military official he could just make up some bullshit excuse as to why he was down here. He walked for a while until he came across...cells..? Were these underground cells? "Makes sense I suppose.." he mumbled to himself, honestly feeling disappointed there wasn't anything more exciting down here. He was so lost in thought that he never even noticed the now very clear voices who were about 10 feet away from him. 

"I-is that the Jaw Titan...?" a male voice said, clear confusion in his voice. Marco froze, for real this time as he slowly turned to look in the direction the voice came from. There stood a tall blonde woman with a bowl cut, a dead body at her feet and a man stood behind her, he must've been the source of the voice. That would've been horrifying enough, but another, more familiar voice decided to make it even worse. "M..Marco...?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" That voice was undeniably Jean's voice. Marco looked into the cell the tall blonde and the man were stood in front of. Jean was stood there with wide eyes, as well as Connie, Armin and Mikasa, as well as some other people he didn't recognise. They all looked horrified, even the people he didn't recognise had the same scared look on their faces. Marco went completely pale as he felt his world crash around him, a feeling that was all too familiar to him now. He had really fucked it now, he knew he'd get caught eventually but he didn't know it would be this quickly. He was done for.