Marco might have not known Jean for a long time, that being three days in fact but he could already tell that Jean when he put his anger aside had the material to become a great leader, Jean understood being weak, he could relate to his fellow cadets in a way Marco never could. Marco had been forced to grow up fast at a young age to protect his family, he never had the luxury of feeling safe, no one in his village had that luxury and Marco felt becoming a soldier was his only escape from that cruel life so he could protect his family and then they would be treated better. Marco knew he was selfish, he didn't care about what other people went through as long as he protected himself and those he cares about from harm. But not Jean. Jean picked fights with those who tried to belittle him and those around him, Jean understood something that Marco never could.
"Where did that bastard go?! I want to smash his face in," Jean grumbled. He hadn't taken his defeat against Eren well, honestly, no one had expected Eren to retaliate, he didn't seem or act like someone who would pick fights and from the looks of it even Eren had looked shocked when he suddenly dodged Jean's attack before knocking the other boy onto his ass.
"Jean," Marco sighed; he had been dealing with this fall out for the last couple of days. After the fight, Eren left the Mess Hall and spent most of the following day keeping his distance from Jean as if he was scared that something like that would happen again. Eren had surrounded himself with the other cadets, spending most of his time with Reiner and Bertholdt or Armin, and even Ymir (how Eren got along with her without wanting to pull his hair out was beyond him). Jean had wanted a re-match but as Eren hardly stuck around long enough in Jean's presence unless they were training – Jean hadn't had the chance to pick a fight with Eren. Not that Marco minded, the less fighting there was amongst the cadets then it would lead to them working successfully as a team. Although he wasn't sure he would trust Eren and Jean in a team together with how Jean was acting at the moment, he could only hope as the weeks go by and everyone slowly got to know each other Eren and Jean… well, mainly Jean would get over their differences and get along.
"No, listen here, Marco! I hate people like him just because he so righteous because he's decided he wants to be suicidal and join the scouting regiment doesn't give him the right to look down on everyone else for their dreams," Jean snapped.
"Jean, you're getting yourself worked up about this. Have you thought that maybe, just maybe, Eren didn't mean it like that? If you think about it, we hardly know everything about Eren. He could just struggle to get along with other people, and we haven't really given him a chance to get to know us. We've only been at camp for three days; I don't know everything about you or vice versa. Maybe you should give Eren another chance," Marco suggested.
"But…".
"And," Marco said, shooting a glare at Jean when he tried to interrupt, "you let your own emotions cloud your judgment when you got into an argument with him. Just because we haven't yet seen Eren use the ODM gear doesn't mean he doesn't know how to use it, we don't know his circumstances. Maybe his family knew a soldier who taught Eren the basics when he was growing up. How about we agree to give Eren a chance to prove himself, tomorrow we're out on the gear so you can see first-hand what he's capable of and if Eren was being honest and he knows how to use the gear, then you have to apologise to him, you can't make everyone your enemy Jean you need friends to fall back on when you need to and for them to have your back? That won't happen if you try to fight everyone,".
"Fine" Jean reluctantly agreed before storming off. Marco sighed, maybe persecution was easier to deal with than Jean.
The dream was haunting him; it was a constant thought on his mind like it was calling out to him, forcing him to remember. Not that he could forget it, even if he wanted to. That girl, she knew him somehow; she knew who his parents were and his brother something that even Eren didn't know. When he tried to picture Dina and Grisha Yeager, his mind would always draw a blank, yet this overwhelming feeling of anger would wash over him, and his body would always shake with rage. Whoever his parents were, they were obviously not good people for his body to remember something that his mind doesn't.
But that wasn't the only strange thing that came from that dream. He felt like he recognised that girl; he wasn't sure why, but he did. He got this urge to obey her, that it took all his strength to stop him from going out and searching for this path when he woke up. It was scaring him. If this girl was this powerful, does that mean everything he is doing was not of his own free will but this girl planning his life so it would eventually lead him to her? This was all making his head hurt, like his body was trying to protest, telling him he wasn't allowed to remember. The girl said he would remember when he was ready, but does that mean she's stopping him from remembering but why would she do that, wouldn't it make more sense if he knew who he was then he could find this path place. None of this was making any sense. Why was he found outside the walls, where was Zeke, and what happened to his traitorous parents? What was happening to him!
Eren groaned his head was killing him. He rested it in his hands and closed his eyes as he slowly drifted off to sleep.
"Zekey, who is mummy and daddy? Colt has them and he says he loves them, and they look after him and they were going to give him a little brother or sister! I've never met my mummy or daddy? Who were they? What were they like?" a four-year-old Eren asked his brother when he came back from his warrior training that day, he tried to ask his grandad and nanny but they got this look in their eyes and would tell him to go away and play.
"They were horrible people my little hunter" Zeke replied pulling his little brother onto his lap, it was bound to happen, they couldn't keep the horrible deed a secret any longer, Eren was going to ask about their parents, eventually.
"Mr Johnson says that horrible people get taken away and that sometimes a whole family is horrible. If our parents are horrible, does that mean we are too? Are they going to take us away from grandad and nanny?" Eren said, his eyes wide and slowly filled up with tears. He didn't want to lose his grandad and nanny, he loved them.
"No, nothing like that will ever happen to you! I'll protect you Eren, I promise" Zeke said. He willingly turned his own parents in to protect his grandparents and his baby brother. He wouldn't let something or one hurt Eren, not whilst he's still breathing.
"Who's going to protect you?" Eren said, his forehead wrinkled, a clear sign to Zeke that his brother was trying to think really hard, "I can protect you Zekey!".
"Yeah, sure you can. I'll protect you and you protect me" Zeke agreed before pressing a kiss to his brother's chubby cheeks.
"I love you Zekey" Eren shouted, throwing his small arms around his brother's chest.
"I love you too, my little hunter,".
"These devils are idiots. They fight over the stupidest of things, and the military's punishments are child's play. What do I learn from running around some track for hours? None of these people would have made it into Marley's military or even been considered becoming Warriors if they still held these stupid notions" Jaws complained as he walked over to his fellow warriors, they had spent the last couple of days settling into the military life and routine, it was embarrassing how easy the higher ups decided what training they were going to give the cadets hoping to turn them into soldiers. No wonder so many died outside the walls. Marley would never go that easy on anyone joining their military, both Eldian warrior candidate and Marleyan soldier.
"They live in a native world where they have still yet to discover what titans are and they are far from prepared to deal with an attack of the colossal titan or the armored titan when wall maria fell proved that much" Gemini said, he had been around these devils long enough to know that they believe in their walls a little too much, hell, there was an actual religion where people prayed to the walls. It made him wonder what the wallest would think if they knew that the walls which protected them were filled with the same creatures that wished to devour them.
"I don't care, nothing will seem hard to me after my father's training," Annie said shrugging, "what do you want us for?".
"Not much. Whilst we are completing our training, it is very doubtful that we will get any useful information from here. The cadets here are stupid, and they know nothing. I think we can say for sure that these devils no nothing that would help us with locating the founder. As we have previously discussed, we will have to force the founder to come to us. Next week we will have the weekend off, I will comply with all the information we have into a letter for Marley, if there is anything information about this mission you want to send back then at some point in this week past me a coded letter containing said information. I want to leave early on Saturday because of the distance between the docks and wall rose," Gemini said. After the fall of wall maria, he hadn't had the opportunity to sneak away and update Marley on their current situation. This weekend, if he aims it right, he'd be able to disappear and escape the wall before the other cadets woke up. Connie and Franz's snoring would drown out any noise he'd make, and it wasn't that hard to get out. The walls had the same flaw.
"How would you get out of here? The garrisons will not let you saunter out the front gate and the scouting regiment aren't leaving the walls for another few months" Reiner asked, when he had passed through the walls pretending to be a refugee, he had seen how guarded the gate was, there was no chance that Gemini could slip out unnoticed by the Garrisons.
"Security hasn't changed much. The garrisons main aim is to keep titans from entering the walls and now ensuring that the armored and colossal titans won't be able to breach the walls once more that being said there is a small flaw in the bars allowing the river to flow through the district, the bars haven't been changed since the construction of the walls, they are old and rusty, if you pull one of the bars ever so gently, it will create a hole large enough to slip through. All I need to do is leave camp earlier enough to sneak into Trost and through those bars before anyone notices that I'm missing. I've done this countless times and like we've said before, these devils are stupid, they aren't expecting someone to break out. I'll be fine," Gemini explained. It also helped when he was with his host family he could ask his 'mother' to keep everyone away from him because he was feeling overwhelmed. It was shocking how stupid and trusting these Eldians were.
"If the titans were just a bit smarter, these Eldian devils wouldn't have stood a chance. Is that all you wanted to talk to us about?" Bertholdt asked, it was getting late and they couldn't be around each other for long, it was too much of a risk, if someone saw them together and then later in their mission if one of them was revealed to be a shifter it would be obvious who their accomplices were.
"No, there's something else, there's something I need to ask you," Gemini started, "it's about…".
How could he! How dare he! They were family, the only ones left, and he had abandoned her for them, for people who didn't know him, who didn't understand him but she couldn't do anything, she was already walking on thin ice after the stunt she pulled just before they signed up for the cadet corps. She was trying to save his life why couldn't he understand that, joining the scouting regiment was certified death, he wasn't special without her, he wouldn't survive without her. Armin understood her. They both know that Eren will die after he graduates but Armin has all but given up trying to save Eren from his impending doom. If only she could stop him from graduating... that's it! A smirk appeared on Mikasa's face, it didn't matter if Eren had a one-way ticket to the scouting regiment if he failed at being a soldier then there was no way he could join, if she messes with Eren's progress making him look like he was incompetent then Commandant Shadis would have no choice but to kick him out of the cadet corps. This could work, and Eren would never suspect a thing.