What If...Marco Had Lived

The Weight of Lives

The 57th exposition of the Survey Corps had been a disaster. The long-rang scouting formation was a brilliant tactic, but the appearance of the Female Titan had thrown the scouts off guard.

Marco rode back into town. Thankful to have made it back alive. He was riding right behind the one of the wagons that carried the dead. He was grateful none of his friends were in there.

He heard the jeers and criticism of the crowd. He looked towards Reiner and Bertholdt, who were just behind him. Marco was furious. He had been told Annie was going to try and find Eren, but he didn't know she was going to kill so many people in the process. He was trying to figure out what he was going to say when he was able to get them alone again. An anguished cry broke Marco out of his thoughts. He looked ahead. A middle aged man had fallen to his knees before the famed captain Levi, bawling. "She can't be dead, she had her whole laugh ahead of her." Levi was silent. Marco looked to the wagon that contained the mangled corpses of Levi's squad. Marco's stomach turned thinking of Petra's father seeing her body, of Eld's fiancée seeing his body or what was left of it.

As Mr. Ral continued to sob, Captain Levi offered his condolences and rode on. Marco turned and shot a hard look towards Reiner and Bertholdt. Reiner just stared, Bertholdt looked down, trying to contain the tears.

Jean rode up beside him. "You ok?"

"Not really, I knew going outside the walls I would see a lot of death, but I didn't know it would be this hard" Marco said.

"Man Reiner sure lucked out, the Female Titan nearly crushed him in her fist" Jean said.

"Yeah guess so" Marco replied flatly. They rode past the sobbing father.

"I hate this" Jean said.

"That's Petra's father. She was in Levi squad"

"Heard the Female Titan wiped them all out but Eren" Jean said. "She was young wasn't she"

"Just turned 19 a few months ok" Marco mumbled. Marco was in squad Hange, and had helped Nifa find a birthday present for Petra. "At least her and her lover died together".

"Lover??"

"Oluo, the guy who dressed like the captain. One of Petra's friends told me about them. Met in training" Marco explained.

"Kinda like us"

"Jean I'm glad your alive" Marco said, desperately wanting to reach out to him.

"Come to my room tonight?" He asked.

Marco nodded.

**********************************************

The next evening, Marco stood in the woods waiting. He was exhausted, today had been the funeral service for the fallen soldiers.

He had told everyone he was going to a walk to clear his head. Word had come down that Eren was going to be taken into the custody of the Military Police.

"Marco..." Bertholdt called out softly as he and Reiner appeared.

"What the f*ck?!?" Marco cried as he grabbed Reiner's collar.

Bertholdt grabbed Marco's wrist. "Marco, we didn't know this was how it would turn out"

"Oh really?!? Look at how many people died, Annie did more than just kill them, she massacred them"

"Well they were trying to kill her too!" Reiner said.

Marco let go of him. Trying to choose his next words carefully. In a way he understood that Annie was defending herself, but he couldn't shake the image of Eld's mangled body out of his head.