What If...Marco Had Lived

A Brighter Future (Ending 1)

Epilogue 1 (look I don't really remember much about how else to break the curse of Ymir so bear with me, this is considered the happy end so it may be a bit cheesy, but it can't be any worse than the actual ending 🥁😅)

It's been 2 years since the Scouts capture Zeke. After that, things moved quite quickly. The Scouts were able to retake Shiganshina and get to the basement of Eren's home.

For a while the routine had stayed the same for Marco, Bertholdt, Reiner, & Annie. But I order to have some bargaining room with Marley, they were slowly allowed to integrate back in with their peers. Annie chose to stay alone, she still was hated among the Scouts, but Hitch would come by often to see her.

At first it seemed that Paradis and Marley were on the brink of war. Tension began to rise quickly, making Marco wonder if they had made the right decision. It didn't help that during this time there was turmoil within the Military Police and the Royal family. After all was said and done, it turns out Krista or well Historia was the rightful Queen of Paradis, and despite being young she took her duties seriously. Ymir had been allowed to become part of the Queen's personal guard. She never told anyone about her Titan.

Despite the actions of Zeke and the Marley military, Zeke and Pieck were treated well as POWs. Marco was involved in a lot of meetings with high military officials, along with Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie. What surprised Marco the most was learning that Zeke was Eren's half-brother, something that was hard for Eren to process.

The Marley government was hesitant to want to meet with the government of Paradis. While waiting for official correspondences, the military was utilized to destroy any remaining Titans with the help of Reiner, Annie, Eren, Bertholdt, Pieck, Zeke.

Connie refused to let the military kill his mom. He argued that she was immobilized and wasn't a threat. After a lot of tense arguments, they agreed but she had to be covered with a heavy sheet to prevent sunlight from reaching her. Connie and Sasha would go see her everyday.

Finally after 2 long years of high tension negotiations, both sides being ready for war. The two agreed to meet. What had helped was other nations getting involved. Paradis and Marley agreed to meet aboard the ship of an East Asian nation of Hizuru. They also had a keen interest in trade with Paradis, especially the Iceburst stone reserves.

Marco had never been aboard a ship before, let alone actually see the ocean. He remembered how excited Armin had been when the expedition team has made it to the  coast line.

Marco found himself repeating the same things over and over again during the negotiations. He was quite impressed with how well Historia carried herself, not being intimidated by men who were much older than her.

Finally on May 1st in the year of 853 the Marley-Eldian peace treaty was signed. Later on the holiday would be celebrated by both as "May Day". The next few months were quite chaotic. With Eldians' being freed from Libero, many choose to leave Marley and immigrate to Paradis.

He and Sasha stood at the harbor with Bertholdt and Reiner in the heat of August.  Annie's father had arrived in June. As the ship made its way closer to the docks, Reiner started pacing.

"Reiner!!!!", a young girls voice cried out, waving from the railing.

Reiner grinned waving back at his young cousin. For the first time he felt at peace, he was glad his family had decided to immigrate to Paradis with Mr. Hoover.

"That's my cousin Gabi" Reiner explained to Marco and Sasha. "I was so scared she would end up in the Warrior unit, do things she would later regret".

"She looks about Kaya's age" Sasha said. "Maybe they can be frien-" she was cut off as she felt something hit her stomach hard. She looked down and saw red splotched on her shirt, and the stinging pain. They all looked up to see Gabi with a sling shot laughing.