Madeleine sat huddled in a corner table late that evening, anxiously biting her nails. She was stuck at a crossroad. She'd overheard Hoover, Braun, and Leonhart talking about her a few hours ago, and the conversation was playing in her head, over and over on repeat.
Rounding a corner into the women's dorms, a familiar voice made Madeleine stop in her tracks. Though she couldn't make out exactly what it was saying, it was clear whom it belonged to. As she prepared to jump out of nowhere and scare him – and he should be scared, a boy in girl's dorms was completely inappropriate – his angry tone made her reconsider.
"What the hell is she even doing here?" Reiner was whispering angrily. "It's not like she can help us take down the walls, and the three of us can handle looking for the Coordinate on our own."
"She's not that bad, Reiner," she heard Bertholdt trying to reason with him. "They probably just sent her to check in and make sure we're okay."
"No way," a female voice cut in. It had to be Annie. "They know we can check in with Zeke anytime we want, and they wouldn't have sent a Marleyan, especially one who isn't even in the military. There's no reason that Marley would've sent her, which means her family did."
"Why the hell would they do that?" Bertholdt's shock could be heard in his voice. "It's a suicide mission."
"Who knows?" Annie responded. "Have you ever been out to the Iscariot's land?"
What a stupid question, Madeleine thought to herself. Of course they hadn't. The Eldians held in Liberio would never be granted permission to go far enough into Marleyan territory to reach her family's home.
Nevertheless, Annie continued. "My father and I snuck onto their land one evening, he wanted me to see what they put their children through, so I'd know I didn't have it so bad."
Reiner laughed through his nose at the thought. "A rich Marleyan family torturing their children? Yeah right."
"No, not torturing. Training."
The talking between the three stopped, and Madeleine used the moment of silence to reflect on the fact that Eldians – at least Annie's father – had taken notice of their family's training. If someone looked too closely, they might start asking the wrong questions. Questions like the one Hoover would ask immediately after.
"Why would they be training their children? I've never even heard of an Iscariot joining the Marleyan military," Bertholdt pondered.
"They don't," Annie responded coldly. "Father told me he checked in Marley's official military records, there isn't one recorded Iscariot ever joining the military, or even the police for that matter. It makes you wonder, what would they be training their children for?"
"You think whatever they're training for, it has to do with her being sent here to monitor us?" Reiner asked.
There was silence again, and Madeleine assumed that Annie had nodded her head to Reiner's question. "Whatever it is, it's probably dangerous," she heard Annie say next. "We need to keep her at arms length – distracted, even."
None of them trusted her because of her status as a Marleyan. It made sense, why would Marley have sent a non-shifter to assist them? She couldn't make her family's blood status known to them, so explaining her real intentions was out of the question.
This made their suggestion to her an hour later even more suspicious. Reiner had recommended she join the Scouts, see how far they'd progressed outside the Walls and determine if there was any risk of them reaching the edge of the island and discovering that they weren't alone. This would also allow her to determine if they'd discovered the true identity of the monsters that inhabited their island. This was a conundrum. Did they just want her to stay away so they could enact their plan alone? Not share the glory? Not that she was there to help Should she stay with the Warriors and ensure they locate the Founder, or should she spy on the Survey Corps and intervene if necessary? Marley would be at a disadvantage if the people in Paradis discovered they weren't alone, especially if the four of them were unable to obtain the Founder. That, plus the Attack Titan disappearing years ago, meant that if it was here on Paradis, they may be able to put up a fight once Marley invaded. Part of her was worried that the Warriors would fuck up and blow the whole operation, or if they got separated then she might miss the boat out of here once they'd gotten the Founder. But they clearly didn't trust her, which meant that her sticking around may distract them from their goal.
Then there was the matter of the plan for Trost. Regardless of how they felt about her, they seemed to understand that keeping her filled in on their plans was required. Trost would be their next hit: in one year, they'd demolish the outer wall and then Wall Rose the same way they had Shiganshina and Maria. The idea excited her, as she hadn't been witness to the glorious demolish of Wall Maria. In fact, prior to coming to the island, Madeleine had never seen a Titan in real life. However, in order to witness, she needed to be there. That meant the joining the Military Police was out of the question.
So she was left with the Garrison or the Scouts. Frankly, there was no reason to join the Garrison, she had no interest in reinforcing the Walls, not when they were here to destroy them.
That only left her with one option. A frustrating one, given the hissy fit she'd thrown in front of Commander Erwin just the night prior.
Erwin Smith sat in his desk, head in his hands, staring down at the small stack of papers in front of him. He'd failed in recruiting the only Cadet he had really taken an interest in from the 103rd Training Corps, but that wasn't what was bothering him. There was something off about the Iscariot woman, her file was much too small. When he first noticed her rising through the Cadet ranks quickly, he'd requested her official file, and that was what he had in front of him.
When it was first retrieved for him and the messenger set it on his desk, he'd frowned. "Where is the rest of it?" he asked, making a show of picking it up to look underneath, as if more would magically appear. The folder was exceptionally small, even for a Cadet.
"That's it, sir," the young man had shrugged. "Nothing more for Madeleine Iscariot."
Opening it, his brow had furrowed. It was missing far too many official documents. There was no birth certificate, no schooling history, nothing on family or relatives. She didn't even have a Next Of Kin listed to notify in case of her death. The only thing the notice contained were her personal and Cadet details.
An official request to Karanes District had turned up less than favorable, when he received a simple note back instead of documentation a few weeks later.
There are no records of Madeleine Iscariot in Karanes District.
How could that be? He was certain it had been her hailing region in the initial application to the Cadet Corps, surely someone had double checked that she was who she said she was. Her file – which he'd now kept at his desk since the initial inquiry was made – was quickly pulled out to verify her application, and there it was. Karanes District. She'd lied, he had proof of it. It was then that he'd decided to have Levi keep an eye on her.
After more than three months of intermittent surveillance, Levi had reported no unusual behavior, but had voiced how annoying he found it that he was doing grunt work. But he was the only one Erwin could trust to stay under her radar. If she wasn't who she said she was, who knows what else she may be hiding?
Erwin was troubled by the lack of documentation. She'd lied on her application, meaning she either was a criminal or had ulterior motives for joining the military. She was older than a majority of recruits by nearly a decade, why didn't she already have a career in Karanes, if that was where she was really from? It was clear that she had been formally trained, her hand-to-hand combat and weapon techniques were unlike anyone he'd seen fresh out of the Cadets. She was exceptional. The 3DMG had clearly been new to her, but she took to it like a bird to flight. So who trained her, and why was she here?
"Are you still looking at that stupid girl's file?" Levi stood, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed.
"Yes," Erwin responded shortly, choosing to keep his theories to himself.
"I take it you couldn't convince her to join?" Levi asked, taking the seat across the desk.
Shaking his head, Erwin responded, "No, I couldn't. I tried, but she appears to have her heart set on the Military Police. Who could blame her?"
"I don't get why you wanted her so badly anyways," Levi said, eyeing the folder sitting on the desk between them. "If that's her file, then she obviously doesn't have any accomplishments listed if it's that small. She's nothing special."
Erwin chose to metaphorically bite his tongue. She was special, if only for the reason that she was a complete mystery. "Her skills were unrivaled by any of her comrades, we could use them out in the field."
"As bait, maybe," the smaller man said under his breath. "Forget about her, you have a speech to make."
Madeleine had heard that Erwin's speeches to each Cadet Corps were increasingly darker every year, but even with the warning, she never would've expected the man to outright admit that he was asking them all to die. Titans must've been a much bigger threat to the Survey Corps than she'd realized. It made her wonder what they were doing wrong; after all, she'd managed to get inside the walls without any imminent threat from Titans. Sure, they were around, but she'd had no problems sneaking around and avoiding them.
Standing on either side of Erwin Smith were four other soldiers, none of whom had said a word. Immediately to his right was a short man - even Madeleine was probably taller than him, and she was the shortest in her family – with dark hair and a bored expression on his face. Despite his clear lack of interest in the moment, he was remarkably handsome for a devil. To the right of that man stood an individual with messy brown hair and glasses held to their head by straps around the back. She watched as their eyes shifted around the cadets, then the stage, then the rafting above them; their cheeks puffed up, and she could see their tongue poking around inside their lips. It was like watching a child in church when they'd rather be anywhere else. On Erwin's left stood the tallest man Madeleine had ever seen, with shaggy, sandy blonde hair and a goatee. His eyebrows were scrunched together what looked to be permanently, giving a dead serious look to his face. On his left, the fourth and final man had more of a kind face than any of the others, and had a white bandana wrapped around his hair. She wondered which of these men was Captain Levi – it was likely either the very tall one, or the very short one. Both looked like they knew their way around a Titan or two and were much more serious than the counterparts next to them.
Standing silently when the speech had finished, her face lit only by the light of nearby torches in the late evening. In groups, as if it were the most obvious choice in the world, her comrades walked off to join other regiments after being dismissed. When the movement around her had stopped, she could count on one hand the number of soldiers still standing in front of the Commander. One in particular stood out to her, and Madeleine found herself staring at the back of not-so-little Lila's head.
No.
His eyes scanned the five remaining soldiers. Less than last year, and even that had been a new record at the time. Erwin didn't recognize the Cadets standing in front of him as he looked them each over. Three men, two women -
"Looks like your trap caught a little white mouse," he heard Levi mutter under his breath, interrupting his inner monologue.
His eyes came to rest on the person he'd least expected to be standing in front of him. Madeleine Iscariot stood At Ease behind her four comrades, an indifferent look attempting to stick to her face. But her pursed lips and the fury in her eyes gave her away – she was clearly unhappy to still be standing there. Nevertheless, she was there. Erwin wondered what had changed her mind, she'd been so set the previous evening on joining the Military Police that she wouldn't even listen to his proposal.
As he loudly welcomed the remaining five, his mind couldn't help but drift back to being curious about her, and the lack of information that came with her. There was no doubt he'd be keeping an eye on her, but even he would never imagine how this would end up.