A/N: I should have added this in the first chapter, but there will be spoilers in this fanfiction, both if you're not caught up on the anime and (in the future) if you haven't read the manga. I have finished the series and will be following the original storyline, but I'm a pretty slow writer, so I won't catch up with the manga likely for a while. But obviously there will be references to Season 4 of the anime, as there already have been. Read at your own risk. Anyways, enjoy!
His face was so close to hers that Madeleine could practically smell the cigarettes on his breath. Did they even have cigarettes on Paradis? Or did the man naturally reek? Her mouth ran dry as she realized that he had a sizable knife pressed against her throat, and she could feel blood running down her neck, threatening to seep into her shirt.
"Oh no, we seem to have startled the poor thing." His voice was gruff, and mocking. His face wore a wicked grin that didn't reach his eyes. "Where are ya from, pretty lady?"
Shaking her head from thoughts of her death, Madeline noted that the voice in front of her face was different than the one that had woken her, and she noticed movement in her peripheral vision. At least two other people accompanied her and this man in the tree.
A hand gripped the hair on top of her head, roughly pulling it back and exposing her neck. "I said," growled the man with the knife, "where ya from?"
Her brain struggled to recall the names of the towns on this God-forsaken island. "Shi-Shiganshina," she rasped, throwing out the first name that came to mind. "I'm from Shiganshina."
"Shiganshina has been deserted for nearly a year," the man pondered, tapping his knife to his chin. "You haven't been out here a year. You're skinny, but not that skinny." He nudged her in the side with the knife. "Wanna try answering that again? Preferably with the truth this time."
Her mind was blank. Why would this happen now?!
Sensing her trouble answering, the man grinned again. "Looks like we got ourselves a runaway." He released her hair suddenly, standing and backing away from her. "Thought you were one of them albinos at first, you would've made me a killin'."
"With hair like that, she's still worth a good bit," came a suggestion from her right.
Madeleine's eyes widened. Were they talking about slavery? Trafficking? These people really are savages, she thought to herself.
"You've got a good point, Raltz," said the man with the knife. "Search her and bag her up. Nico, keep an eye out for those giant fucks!"
As the man disappeared from the tree, dropping into the underwood, someone to her right seized her arm and jerked her to her feet, hard enough that Madeleine was sure there would be bruises. Search her? Bag her? She shrieked as this new man began feeling up her sides just below her breasts. His hands continued downward, and she grew more and more nervous; it was only a matter of seconds before he found –
"What's this?" His hand brushed over the cuff of her form-fitting boots, where she'd stashed her knife. There was undoubtedly an impression of something concealed. Without it, she'd be defenseless. As he made move to retrieve the mystery item, Madeleine inwardly prayed for forgiveness before kicking him square in the chest as hard as she could, sending him flying out of the tree to the ground below.
She didn't have time to stick around, she was severely outnumbered. As soon as the kick had done it's job, she launched herself off the branch she'd been sleeping on, swinging lower and lower between the trees until she reached the ground. When her boots hit the soft grass, she took off as fast as her legs would carry her towards the Wall. There had to be someone around that could help her, or somewhere she could hide.
"Get back here, you bitch!"
As she reached and ran alongside Wall Maria, she could hear them gaining on her. If she didn't find help now, she was dead for sure. With a bang, a whizzing sound flew past her ear, and her eyes widened as she realized she'd been fired at.
"Don't shoot her, ya fucking moron! Nobody's gonna pay for damaged goods!"
She was so focused on the human footsteps behind her that the rumbling of the ground took her by surprise. The Titans clawing at the Wall had taken notice of the gunfire and were headed in their direction, fast, at least five of them from what she could see without turning around. There was no way she'd survive if they caught up, they'd all die. Weighing her options, she chose to slow her pace to a walk and allow the men to catch up with her.
With a sickening crunch, a fist connected with the left side of her face just as she turned to face them, knocking her to the ground.
"The hell was that for?" she heard the man with the knife growl.
"Revenge," Raltz spat. "You said I couldn't shoot her, and I didn't. What's the big deal?"
"The big deal is - "
"Hate to break up the love fest," a third voice butted in. "But we've got six Titans approaching from the North, we need to get out of here."
Madeleine was pulled from the ground by her arm for the second time in ten minutes. "Don't even try anything funny this time," he snarled. As she opened her mouth to protest, a blindfold was pulled over her eyes and someone punched her again. Probably that asshole Raltz again.
When Madeleine woke, the blindfold was still over her eyes but she was lying on what felt like a wooden floor with her wrists bound behind her back. The ground beneath her jostling meant that she was likely in a carriage of some sort. She could vaguely hear city bustling outside, it sounded like they were back in the walls. Since Maria had been deserted since Hoover and Braun broke down the gates, they were likely inside Wall Rose. Meaning she'd been unconscious a lot longer than just a few minutes.
She bent backwards, bringing her feet to her hands behind her back, feeling blindly for the knife in her boot. It was gone. She'd been silly to think the one called Raltz would've left it alone after she'd kicked him over it. "Where are we?" she mumbled, unsure if there was anyone close enough to hear her.
"We're in Trost," a response came – the third man from earlier. Had he been called Nico? Nicolas?
"Why is nobody helping me?" her voice quivered, but she remained quiet. These men were dangerous, there was no telling what these monsters would do if she caused a scene.
There was a shuffling next to her, before Nico whispered, "There's a hood over your face and you're laying in a cart, nobody can even see you. You were unconscious for nearly a day, we made it inside Wall Maria, through Titan Country, and to our rendezvous point before you even stirred the first time."
She hadn't been asking him, more speaking to herself, and wouldn't have expected an answer. Why would he answer a question like that anyways? They were kidnapping her, weren't they? "I could scream right now if I wanted to," she warned. It was meant to sound threatening, but the hesitancy in her voice gave her away. "People could hear me, you'd be so screwed."
"Nobody would help you," he chuckled. "Don't you know who we are?"
Madeleine shook her head, hoping to God that the man didn't notice that she'd been shuffling her wrists back and forth against each other to loosen her binds.
He must not have. "That was Kenny the Ripper," he said, and she assumed he was looking at the knife-wielding man from earlier. "Notorious Mass Murderer? Famous for slitting MP throats? Sound familiar?"
No wonder he'd seemed so deadly; he clearly had no regard for people, not when he was planning on selling her like a dog. Not willing to let on that she wasn't from Paradis, she changed the topic. "What are you going to do with me?" she asked.
"What do you think? They're going to sell you. Men in Wall Sina will pay a fortune for beautiful women, and your white hair is a rarity. Does everyone in your family look like you?"
"Not a chance," she snorted. "It's because of a birthmark, if you pull my hair line back, the skin underneath it is dark." There was a moment of silence, and then her hood was pulled back and her hair was gently pushed back. She was surprised her captor cared enough to actually look.
When he released her, they continued to ride in silence until the sound of charging horses caught her attention. "Keep quiet," the man ordered her. "Or they'll kill you for sure."
Apart from fast hoofbeats, she could hear a crowd forming and a few cheers emitting from it. The cart they were in slowed to a stop, and Madeleine managed to slip her hands from her binds. Rubbing her head against her shoulder, she managed to move her blindfold up just enough to see underneath. The light was blinding when she hadn't been able to see for a day, but once they adjusted, she saw a multitude of horses about a hundred meters behind the wooden cart she was laying in. The men and women on horseback all wore matching cloaks and boots – clearly some branch of the Paradis military. The captor in the cart was right next to her, but she watched as his head turned in the opposite direction towards the crowd. Now or never.
Things seemed to move in slow motion. Madeleine freed her hands and shoved her blindfold up and launched herself out of the back of the horse-drawn cart. She could feel the hand of the captor grasping at her hood as her feet hit the ground, but didn't dare turn around to look. She ran as fast as her feet would carry her, and a shriek left her throat as she caught someone chasing her out of the corner of her eye. The scream caught the attention of the individuals on horseback, and she saw the pursuit of the man chasing her falter.
A pair of arms encircled her from the front, and she panicked before realizing that she'd reached her target – someone near the horses had caught her running. He was taller than her, despite being significantly younger, with short blonde hair. She'd landed right in the arms of one Reiner Braun, the exact person she was looking for. What were the odds? She recognized him immediately from his photos, he'd hardly changed in a year. "Whoa, hey, what's the rush?" His voice was deeper than expected for a boy around eleven. It was hard to remember that he was still a boy, likely going through puberty, and not just a Warrior.
Madeline glanced backwards to see her captors stalling behind her, not willing to engage with the military ahead. Returning her attention to the people in front of her, she mumbled an introduction to him, putting emphasis on her last name. The widening of his eyes in recognition of her family name didn't escape her notice. "I'm here to help you." Her voice was barely above a whisper. "But right now, I need you to help me first. Those men are trying to kidnap me."
"What men?" he asked, looking over her shoulder.
He was right. As she turned around, the three men who she'd met outside the walls were nowhere to be seen, the cart where they'd kept her captive included. She breathed a sigh of relief before focusing on the boy again. "I need you to call a meeting with Hoover, Leonhart, and Galliard. We all need to talk."
Reiner rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "That's going to be difficult, Annie is in the capital, looking for the target."
"What do you mean, looking?" she asked, suspicious. "You know where it is, why haven't you gotten it? This was supposed to be a simple in-and-out mission."
Grabbing the shirt collar of a dark-haired boy nearby, Reiner pulled them both into a nearby alley as the horses ahead of them began to head off outside the wall from Trost into the territory between Maria and Rose. She'd been so focused on Braun that Madeleine hadn't even realized that Hoover had been standing with his back to them, listening in.
When they were far enough away from other people, Reiner began to explain. "Someone stole the founder before we could, it could be anywhere."
Madeleine was dumbfounded. Who would do such a thing? Weren't they the only Marleyans inside the walls? "So it's a matter of luck now? Why are you staying, we need to get out of here and back to Marley and give them a report! Why is Leonhart in the capital? And where is Galliard?"
The look that both Reiner and Bertholdt gave her at the mention of Marcel was enough; they'd lost the Jaw Titan, likely on the way into the walls. Great. So not only was the Jaws gone, but the Founder and Attack Titans were gone as well. Marley was losing little-by-little every minute.
"So what's your plan now, if it's not to return to Marley? Why haven't you gone back?"
"We can't," Reiner sighed, lowering his head to his hands. "If we return after more than a year, Marley is going to want more than just intel. We have to find the Founder and retrieve it."
"You said you're here to help us, right?" Bertholdt piped up. "Does that mean you have the Scout Titan?"
The mention of the Scout piqued Reiner's interest as he glanced up at her between her fingers. He looked more than disappointed when she responded, "No, I don't. And I won't get it if I don't help you retrieve the Founder, so I guess we're working together on this."
"But why would they do that to you?" Bertholdt asked. "Isn't sending you to a foreign nation that we have conflict with, without a means of defending yourself, a suicide mission?"
Madeleine paused. The boy had a point - why would she be sent here to prove that she was worthy of the Scouting Titan? Wouldn't they have a better chance of succeeding if she'd been sent with the Titan?