What If...Marco Had Lived

The Whole Story

"We've got a lot of ground to cover", Reiner sighed. "Might as well sit down, this might take awhile."

Still a bit on edge, Marco sat down on an adjacent log from Annie. He kept one hand in his pocket, keeping a grasp on the knife he had in his pocket. He looked around the forest clearing, making sure he had an escape route.

"You can stop trying to find the fastest way out of here" said Bertholdt flatly. "We have always established we aren't going to harm you"

"I-I wasn't..." Marco stammered.

"Bert's good at reading people" Annie said. She turned her attention to Reiner. "Are you still sure this is the best option?"

Reiner looked to Annie then Marco. "I'm sure if he had told someone, the MPs would be on us at this point."

"Look, I don't break my promises. I promised to help and keep your secret safe. If you want me to trust you three you have to trust me in return." Marco said as he removed his hands from his pockets.

"Well, guess it's story time then" Annie said.

She launched into the tail of Godess Ymir, the Great Titan War, King Fritz, Helios, Paradis and the 9 Titan shifters.

"Titan shifters??? So that's what's Eren is?" Marco asked. "What you three are?"

"Yeah, since we were 14" Bertholdt said.

"How do you become a Titan shifter?"

"Well first you have to be an Eldian or have some Eldian blood in you, then you have to be selected by the Marley military, then you eat the previous owner of that Titan." Reiner said.

"You....you eat your own comrade??" Marco said his face going pale.

"We don't have much of a choice. I couldn't even look at the guy before I inherited the colossal" Bertholdt. "He left behind 2 kids and a wife"

"What would happen if you didn't eat them?"

"So being able to shift into a Titan, it's called the curse of Ymir. So once we become a Titan shifter we only have 13 years left to live", Annie said flatly.

"So that means...." Marco counted in his head. "You guys only have 10 years left to live, and then you'll be offered up to the next unlucky b*stard?"

The three nodded silently.

"So every year you guys spend here, you lose with your family in...Merl...."

"Marley"

"So I guess that's why what you guys did 4 years ago, and just 2 days ago, it's easy for you. You don't have much time left, so you don't see lives of innocent strangers as nothing more than a means to an end"

Bertholdt jumped up and in an instant was is Marco's face. "You think we enjoy this?? You think I didn't care about the people I've killed, the families I've destroyed, killing people
I've been training with for 3 years?? Tell me Marco who actually wants to do this, who wants to kill people? What I did at Wall Maria and what I did the other day. I'm going to live with that the rest of my life!" He had Marco's shirt collar in his fists now, tears in his eye.

Reiner put a hand on Bertholdt's shoulder. "Ease up, he still doesn't know the whole story"

Bertholdt took a deep breath and let go of Marco.

"Bertholdt....I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out like that"

Annie, looking at her feet, spoke up, "I get what you were trying to say, we are desensitized because we know of our own impending death"