The ultimate failure that was the Paradis Operation lasted almost nine long years. Two Warriors, Marcel Galliard and Bertholdt Hoover were killed, while Annie Leonhart was held captive by the enemy. Reiner Braun, the only survivor of the mission, was put under a tense military inquiry after being brought back by Zeke Yeager.

The Shiganshina extraction was a near equal failure, but Pieck caught her first glimpse of the Island Devils of Paradis. She had the pleasure, or displeasure, rather, of unknowingly holding you in her mouth all the way to the Marleyan Port. She bursted through the dilapidated houses Shiganshina to rescue Reiner, while you were intercepted when your squad leader, Hange Zoe, was nearly killed.

The Marleyan Brass were obviously going to kill you. Why wouldn’t they? Allow an Island Devil on their soil? Absolutely not.

They were a hair away from simply shooting you on the port and dumping your body in the ocean, before Zeke and Reiner intervened. Reiner’s protest seemed almost instinctive, almost as if he cared for a devil like you, much to the horror of the government. Zeke, however, was quick to dilute that accusation, instead proposing that it would be better if an example was made of you. A bargaining chip for when the time inevitably came for Marley to go to war with Paradis.

“And down that way is the bakery…” Pieck points down the street, which is currently occupied with other eldians of the Liberio internment zone.

She keeps a slow pace as the two of you walk, her arm loosely wrapped around your own. You were standing up as straight as a board, looking around wearily at your new “home”.

For the first few weeks, you considered escaping. It had taken you a very long time to grasp the fact that not only did other people live comfortably outside the walls you were trapped in your whole life, but there was an entire world that hated your supposed “race”…

You were plucked from one cage and placed into another. You now lived in the internment zone as an Eldian civilian with Reiner and his mother.

You were like a feral cat, dressed in scratchy hand-me-down clothing from Reiner’s mother that did not fit you, forced to wear the armband that labeled you as an eldian.

The noises overstimulated you. Not only because you were kept in solitary confinement a month after being brought to Marley while the Brass tried to figure out what to do with you, but because you were exposed to a whole new industrial world.

You would flinch at the sound of a car horn honking, jump in your seat whenever a telephone rang, covered your ears at the screeching of the train coming to a stop.

It made sense, Pieck figured, as Reiner explained such inventions didn’t even exist on Paradis…

You were ashen, tired, and much too thin since arriving in Marley. Pieck was sure you looked much prettier in your homeland, even if you were an Island Devil.

“What a hot day…” Pieck lazily fans herself with her free hand, sighing as she manages to somehow walk even slower.

“There’s an ice cream stall around the corner, we’ll go get some and sit…” She smiles up at you, patting your elbow before seeing your face twist slightly at her words. That face isn’t uncommon, in fact it’s been your go-to since your arrival.

“What’s…” Your voice, hardly used in the last few weeks, has been rough like sandpaper in the rare moments you decided to speak. You swallow thickly, glancing at her from the corner of your eye. “What’s that…?”

Piecks shuffling feet come to a halt, before she tilts her head at your question, black tresses obscuring her face as a result.

“What’s what?” She inquires, seemingly pleased with the fact she finally got you to say something.

“Ice cream?” She prods, her eyes gleaming with what seems to be amusement, if not slight pity if it’s true you’ve never at least heard of ice cream before. It makes her laugh, she can’t help it!

“My…” She breathes out once she catches her breath. “Reiner was right about you. Your kind is really sad…”