The Cost of Becoming a Warrior

Chapter 15- Marco Bodt, The Fraud

Everyone in that room was stood in a very heavy silence as they stared at eachother. Marco was done for. He just knew it. Jean decided to break the silence. "ARE YOU GOING TO ANSWER ME?! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE?!" He screamed again, just wanting answers, he couldn't fucking believe his eyes. Marco was on PARADIS?! Marco gulped and took a deep breath, he might as well be honest at this point, he has nothing else to lose anymore. "I..I was sent here by Marley to infiltrate Paradis and take back the founder." he admitted, feeling humiliated. All of the scouts faces looked...hurt, and betrayed. Marco couldn't bring himself to look at them, he felt like utter shit. In a weird way, he felt like he was betraying them, which he did, he supposed. Thankfully, Jean said nothing that could be interpreted as revealing Marco being from Paradis, lets just hope all the scouts would keep their mouth shut. That was all he was asking for. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as someone else spoke. "So, decided to come back to your birth place, you fucking traitor?" Connie glared as Marco's entire body froze and his mind felt like it went static. This was it. There was no way to talk his way out of this.

"Born here? The holder of the JAW TITAN? An ISLAND DEVIL?" The tall blonde woman smirked, she seemed more excited about this information than she seemed horrified. Marco started shaking, there was nothing he could do at this point, the second he got back to Marley he'd be fed to another candidate, probably Falco or Gabi. The blonde woman suddenly started laughing "oh this is PRICELESS! What are Marley gonna say when they find out about you?" she crouched and smirked as she edged closer to Marco until her face was inches away from his. Marco kept trying to avert his eyes from her face. He couldn't think straight. What was he meant to do? Run? Stay and confront reality? In the midst of everything he locked eyes with Jean. Somehow, in some way, this calmed him down a little. The, almost gentle and sympathetic look, felt familiar and comforting to the warrior. Marco's own panicked eyes softened as he looked at the scout. He hadn't felt like this in a while. He was literally just exposed as a fraud and a traitor to Marley, yet, he felt calm. Something about Jean made him feel reassured, even though he was an enemy. They were best friends in his previous life and Marco could see why, something about Jean made Marco feel weirdly safe, even though Marco didn't even know who he was just over a month ago and they weren't even friends now, probably closer to the opposite. He also remembered their reunion, Marco absolutely despised him back then, after all, he did destroy his home and was part of the reason Zofia and Udo died. Marco finally came out of his own thoughts as the blonde woman was still teasing him as everyone else just watched in horror. "I can't believe one of Marley's most useful weapons is from Paradis Island. You're nothing but a FRAUD." she laughed, clearly enjoying this. The word fraud echoed over and over in Marco's head. He knew he was a fraud, he'd been telling himself that since he learned the truth, but hearing it from someone else crushed him even more. Not knowing what else to do, the Jaw just turned around and ran off in the direction he came in from. He didn't care where he was going, he just needed to get away from these dungeons ASAP. 

Marco ended up outside as he was bent over clinging onto a pillar, panting and vomiting. "Shit....SHIT!" he yelled through tears and crouched down to the floor. He was mentally and physically exhausted. He didn't know who's side he was meant to be on at this point. He didn't know who's side he WANTED to be on. He didn't know anything. He was having a full blown identity crisis at this point, he didn't know who he truly was nor who he SHOULD be anymore. "Maybe being eaten doesn't sound so bad" he mumbled to himself and wiped his mouth as he finally finished vomiting. He stayed crouched on the floor for a while as he contemplated his whole life and how it had been, since he'd be losing it pretty soon. But, maybe that wouldn't be so bad, it would mean he wouldn't have to be a burden on not only himself, not even just the warrior unit, but even on the scouts. Everyone would've been better off if Reiner did just finish him off that day. He pushed those thoughts to the back of his head and pulled himself up off of the floor, he had a mission to do after all. He just had to pretend like none of that shit had ever happened, so, nothing new. The word 'fraud' just kept echoing in his head. He was no longer Marco Bodt, Jaw Titan. He wasn't even, Marco Bodt, Island Devil, at this point. He was Marco Bodt, the fraud.