Chapter 48

Visitors

It was a couple weeks after they arrived at the sea that they had camp set up. Everyone took turns on watch. Jean and Kara would spend their free times walking down the beach, hand in hand as they enjoy each other's company. Sasha and Kara shared a tent together.

Kara stood on the wall with a gun in her hands, looking out towards the ocean. It was a warm night. A light breeze came off the ocean. Kara closed her eyes as it touched her face.

"Kara." Jean's voice came. Kara opened her eyes and turned her head towards Jean with a smile on her face. "Wake up, Pipsqueak."

"I'm awake. Just enjoying the breeze off the ocean. It's a warm night tonight." Kara said as Jean came and stood next to her. Jean found her hand and took it. He squeezed it. Kara laid her head on Jean's shoulder.

"Whose replacing you?" Jean asked.

"Floch. He should be here soon." Kara said. Jean didn't think the boy would take his sweet time. Something caught Kara's eye and Kara grabbed Jean's arm. "Jean." She pointed out. A ship was heading towards the direction of the beach. "Marley." Jean nodded.

"Let's tell your father and Hange." Jean said. Jean and Kara ran for the steps as Floch is coming up.

"Hey. What..." Floch called.

"Ship in the horizon. We're going to tell the others." Kara called over her shoulder.

Soon everyone was gathered. A long boat was heading for the beach. A long boat was heading for the shore. Jean and his squad went ahead and captured the soldiers that were sent first. Jean brought the captured soldiers to Hange and Levi.

"Our crew will come for us if we don't come back." A blonde said. Kara looked at Hange and her father and saw Hange smirk as she looked at Eren, who disappeared.

"That's what we hope." Hange said. The others were taken away, but Levi held the blonde as they head for the rock. Everyone was sent to the trenches. Eren was getting into position as the ship moved closer. Kara and Jean were in charge of the soldiers in the Trench. They watched as Eren who transformed under water got under the boat and lift it up. Kara smirked as the Attack Titan carried the boat towards the beach and set it right on land. Hange ran to the front of the boat.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen of Marley! Welcome to Paradis Island! Nice to meet'cha. I'm Hange! And it's an honor to welcome guests who've sailed from oh-so-far across the sea to come here! The trip must've left you exhausted, so why not join us for some tea?" Hange said, pointing to the land. People were moving on deck. The blonde guy was sweating as Levi had his sword to his back. "Oh! I almost forgot. If you were curious about this guest of ours, he arrived just before you and we're already getting along splendidly!" Hange wraps her arm around the blonde. "Isn't that right? Tell them, Nicolo!" Hange giggles. Levi pressed the sword more into Nicolo.

"Please, Captain! Forget about me and gun these devils down while you can!" Nicolo yelled.

"Huh? What are you saying?" Hange asked.

"Captain!" Nicolo Yelled. Levi looked bored and Kara didn't blame him.

"He's saying that he doesn't wanna be part of your shitty skit." Levi said. Kara and Sasha snort. The Captain stood up.

"Know this, you wretched devils!" The Captain said, aiming his guns at the Commander. Jean had to grab Kara from jumping out of the trench.

"Don't." Jean hissed. Kara didn't look happy.

"Marley doesn't negotiate with filthy bloods like you! And we're certainly not gonna sit down with you and drink the pig piss you call tea!" The Captain said.

"HUH?! Aw. Ya sure about that? Maybe you should be more polite. Unless you wanna piss off the Titan looming behind you." Hange said. The soldiers gasp as they look to see the Attack Titan still standing behind them. The Captain ran to the front of the boat, aiming the gun. Kara had to bite her tongue.

"Marley will never bend to the power of the devils! This is all she to say to you!" The Captain yelled. Kara let out a scream as a gunshot rings out. Jean and Conny had to tackle Kara.

"Calm down. They are fine." Jean said. Kara looked and saw Hange and Levi standing up. Kara looked at the deck after seeing her father and Hange alright. The Captain was laying on the deck with a bullet in the head. A woman stood holding a smoking gun.

"She killed him." Conny said. A soldier pointed a gun at the woman.

"Put your hands up, Yelena!" The soldier said. Yelena pointed her gun at the soldier.

"Lay down your weapons." Yelena said. There was a commotion on the deck.

"What's going on?" Sasha asked.

"I don't know." Kara said. The woman takes off the helmet and looks at Hange.

"Hange. I'd like to accept your invitation. Let's have some tea." Yelena said. She looked at Eren as everyone stared at shock at the woman along with the crew of the ship.

Later. Hange and Levi were in the tent with the woman. Kara sat on a rock with the others looking out at the tent. Sasha was dozing off in front of them. Kara sat with her arms crossed. She didn't know if she trusted the woman.

"That big lady shot and killed her Captain without a second thought. What do you think she's hoping to do?" Conny asked, looking at the tent.

"Can't say, but even if she's on our side, we obviously can't trust her." Jean said as Sasha yawns. Mikasa grabs Sasha by the ponytail.

"No napping, Sasha." Mikasa said.

"Yeah, but this is still an incredible chance for us to gather information." Kara said. Armin nodded.

"We're really lucky we found them." Armin said.

"You're right." Kara looked at Eren, who didn't look happy. "We've been lucky. We managed to intercept that ship by pure chance. If Marley comes to this island in force, we're finished. We've gotta do something." Kara shared a look with Jean. Eren's go get lucky attitude has been disappearing and the light in his eyes was gone. Kara wasn't sure she was liking where his mind set was going.

An hour later. Levi and Hange came out of the tent. Everyone gathered around them.

"What's going on?" Kara asked.

"We are heading back to the walls. Apparently, they want to help us out." Levi said.

"What does that mean." Mikasa asked.

"There's some requests we have to pass with the others, but I'll explain more in the meeting. We leave right in the morning. It's late. Everyone to bed!" Hange called. Kara and Sasha walk to their tent.

"What do you think they are?" Sasha asked.

"I don't know, but I got a bad feeling it won't be without a cost." Kara said.

The next day. Kara sat between Jean and Sasha as they sat in the meeting hall. Hange was explaining what Zeke's requests were. Hange had explained to everyone that Zeke Jaeger, who was the half-brother of Eren, was the Beast Titan that Kara and Levi had faced down together and still wanted to take him out. Kara had a far off look on her face. She wasn't really paying attention. She was daydreaming of a future with no titans and no walls. A happy world where she was married to Jean and had children playing in a field with no fear of Titans invading the area and whipping out everyone. Kara couldn't help but smile at the thought. Jean nudged her foot and she looked at him.

"Stop daydreaming." Jean whispered. Kara's smile grew wider.

"So, that concludes Zeke Jaeger's requests." Kara and Jean turn back to the front as Hange finishes off her talks. "He claims that he can save the Eldian people, who's existence is currently under th..."

"Absurd!" A man shouted. Hange didn't look happy as she looked up from the paper. "We shouldn't even be listening to this! We're talking about the Beast Titan here! He turned the people of Ragako into Titans and speak terror within the walls!" Kara saw Conny looking down. Kara clutched her fists. "He hunted the Scouts to near extinction! Now he has the gall to come to us for requests?"

"Zeke Jaeger's one and only goal is to steal the Founding Titan from this island. He failed to by force, so how he's trying to obtain it through diplomatic means." Zachary said.

"Yes, he should know that we'll assume that. Regardless, I would still like to hear what else he has to say." Pyxis said. Hange nodded and looked back at the paper.

"Zeke Jaeger claims to have actionable plan that can solve all our people's problems at once. And to carry this plan out, we would need two key assets: The Founding Titan, and a Titan possessing Royal blood." Hange said. Eren gasps, making Kara's eyes flicker to him. "He says that with both, the world can be saved. However, he will only reveal the details of his plan after his conditions have been met."

"He's full of shit."

"What kind of feckless idiots does he take us for?"

Kara gasped as Eren stood up in anger, knocking down his chair.

"Eren?" Kara whispered.

"Zeke is telling the truth. I remember. The Founder's power has always been completely impossible for me to use. The only exception was when I touched a Titan with Royal blood. I recognize that Titan from a picture. It had to be my dad's first wife. Dina Fritz. Zeke is Dina's son. He must have figured it out, too. How to get around the King's vow renouncing war. How to activate the only hope that still remains to us Eldians. He knows how to wake the millions of Titans sleeping in the walls. How to start the Rumbling and crush the world." Levi turned to look at Eren. Kara didn't miss the tiredness on her father's face. He hadn't slept in the last 24 hours and Kara was going to kick his ass for that.

"Hey." Levi said. Eren looked at his Captain. "Why did you keep quiet about this for so long?"

"Because I was concerned for Historia's safety. At the time, I wasn't sure, and I couldn't let her get turned into a Titan based on some hunch of mine." Eren explained. Historia was looking at Eren in shock with all this news. "It wasn't a well-thought-out decision, I see that." Levi didn't look impressed.

"We'll talk about it later." Levi said. Kara didn't like this. Eren was holding stuff from them.

"However, if everything that you're saying is true, then Zeke's secret plan holds up." Hange said.

"You trust them? Have you lost your mind, Hange?" Nile said. Kara looked around. A lot of the MPs that were there didn't look happy.

"The fact is, we can't risk letting these Marleyan soldiers roam the island freely."

"If we were smart, we'd hang them!"

"No. That's not an option. If we want to protect Paradis from Marley's Survey ships, we need the volunteer's help. They have something called a radio and it will keep us updated if a ship is coming and lure them to us." Hange said. Some of the MPs didn't look happy.

"If you think it will help, then do what you have to." Historia said. Zachary nodded.

Week went by and another ship was seen in the distance. Armin volunteered to be the next one that attacks the ship as Yelena radioed the ship to the shore. Kara stood with Levi on the shore as long boats were roaring to the ship that was now on the shore with two soldiers.

"You think it will work?" Kara asked.

"We'll find out shortly." Levi said. He looked at his daughter. She was standing with her squad holding a gun she favored. A frown was on her tired face. Jean was with the others as backup. "Just be ready." A yellow light comes out of the water and the Colossal Titan stood to its full height in the water. Yells and cries came. Soldiers were jumping in the water from the ships and longboats and swimming to shore. Water was falling onto them from the Colossal. Levi approached the bank with Kara and the others following as the soldiers approached the bank. Levi knelt in front of a man and put a gun to his head. "Welcome to our defiled island of filth-blooded devils. You're gonna love it here." Kara cocked her gun as the soldiers looked around and saw that they were surrounded with guns pointed to them. The soldiers put up their hands. "Long as you like drinking pig piss. Feel free to turn us down, but if you don't wanna come ashore, you'll need to swim back home." Armin had destroyed some of the ships. He stood looking down at the soldiers.

As the days went. Everyone got to learn of the outside world from the others. Kara, Jean, Conny, and Sasha were hanging on every word. Hange even got excited. Everything was a mystery to them, and Kara got her hands on some of the books of the history and would be up all night reading them to her father's horror as she would miss trainings and stuff because she was exhausted. But soon they had the wall that was used to make Titans was torn down and they were building a fort and barracks.

One day. The four friends stood outside a hut where Niccolo was making food for them all. They were dressed in casual wear today because they had the day off. It was food no one recognized, but Kara's mouth was watering at the smell of it. It smelled delicious, but she like her friends were hesitant to touch it. Mikasa and Armin joined the friends. Kara stood next to Jean as they looked over the food.

"What the hell is this food?" Conny said.

"Is it even edible?" Jean asked.

"It smells really good." Kara said.

"Smells pretty fishy." Mikasa said.

"Have you never had seafood before?" Yelena asked. She pointed to Nicolo. "Nicolo's a master when it comes to Marleyan cuisine." Nicolo was mumbling something. Sasha picked up a lobster. Kara had a bad feeling as she bit into it. Sasha let out a yell as she threw her head back with a chunk of meat in her mouth, her eyes wide with delight.

"Sasha?" Kara asked. Sasha started eating the food like it was going to run out.

"It's so good!" Sasha said.

"Slow down!" Conny said.

"You're going to choke." Kara said.

"No fair, Sasha." Jean said. Sasha was crying.

"You're a genius. This is the best food I've ever eaten!" Sasha cried. Nicolo looked at Sasha in shock.

"Hey. Stop eating like some kind of pig!" Nicolo said. Kara grabbed some food and started to eat, and the food melted in her mouth. It was delicious and she started eating with the other. Nicolo defiantly knew how to cook, and she ate the food.

Later that day. Kara was sitting in one of the shooting areas with the gun. She was kneeling on the ground, aiming at some glass. Kara looked through the peep hole and fired. The glass shattered on impact.

"Nice shot." Kara didn't turn to look as she aimed her gun at the other jar and fired. It shattered on impact. "You're getting better." Kara turned as she lowered her gun and looked at Jean.

"Not as good as Sasha, but I still prefer sword, like father." Kara said. Jean came up to her. "You think we'll ever be free from fear?"

"I don't know. We're least having the Marleyans help us with building." Jean said.

"It took a while for them to cooperate. I still see the distain when they look at us. They don't trust us. I think the prospect of freedom is making them want to help. I still don't trust them." Kara said. Jean pulled Kara to him.

"Maybe one day we'll have them trust us. For now. Focus on us." Jean said. Kara leaned up and pressed a kiss to his lips. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close as they enjoyed a kiss.

AN: I'll stop there. Till next time.