Risk: Chapter Two

After a few minutes of asking questions and clearly getting no where with Rose, who remained as confused as ever, Hange Zoe, as they finally introduced themselves, found a chair for Rose to sit her shaky legs on.

"I'm going to go get Erwin. I still can't believe this!" Hange clapped their hands together and looked at Moblit – the nervous man from before. "Keep an eye on her and get her anything she wants. Food, water, whatever."

"But—" Unfortunately for Moblit, Hange was already out the door by the time he'd started speaking.

With the two of them alone, a deafening silence overcame the room. Hange had been the most animated one in here before, and with them gone, it was like a bit of life had been sucked from the area.

Rose wrapped her thin arms around herself, keeping her deep blue gaze to the hardwood ground, not wanting to make eye contact with the man who so clearly didn't trust her. And with every right, considering that, according to Hange, she had crash-landed through some hole in the ceiling and interrupted some type of meeting.

Rose also got the impression that there was something underlying Moblit felt for Hange, but she couldn't say one way or another since she'd only known them for all of twenty minutes. It was just a woman's intuition, or something.

"Hange may be buying your act," he finally said, not facing her but the door, "But I don't believe it for a second."

"Act?" Rose dared to ask, lifting her eyes to meet his back.

"You pretending you don't know how you got here."

"I – I really don't! I – " She sucked her lips together and slowly closed her eyes. She didn't want to get worked up; she didn't know what triggered – whatever that situation was that put her here, and she did not want to be sucked through that wormhole in the floor-ceiling-wherever again.

Except…

Where was she?

She never asked herself that.

"Where am I?" she asked him, trying not to let her voice quiver.

"What do you mean by that?" Now he turned to face her, his expression icy.

She tried not shake under his gaze. "I mean, where am I? Is this still Los Angeles?"

"What?" His brows knit together. "Where are you from, girl?"

She felt her cheeks begin to warm at the word 'girl', but only out of anger, not because she felt sudden embarrassment. She shoved it aside to answer him. "I just told you – downtown Los Angeles." Well, rural downtown, the worst part, but she didn't need to get into that. "Why?"

"You're not in 'Los Angeles'," he said the name of the city almost mockingly, "You're just outside Trost."

"Where?"

But before she could get more answers, Hange came back with two more men. A taller men with a shaved face with bright blond hair, and a shorter man with black hair and ice for eyes. Her gaze landed on him, not because of his stature or anything, but something else entirely about him. His presence seemed to take over the room, but she didn't have much time to think about it.

"Hange, you won't believe – "

"Did he treat you well while I was gone?" they asked, bending down to her level in the chair.

Rose blinked – to blink back tears at the sudden hospitality or to blink back tears at the reality that she was probably far, far away from home, she wasn't sure. But nonetheless, she nodded at their question.

"Good!"

"Hange – " Moblit placed a hand on their shoulder to gain their attention. They looked mildly annoyed at the distraction but looked back at him regardless. "She's not from here."

"Oh?" The annoyance drained away, replaced with intrigue, as they faced Rose again. "Rose… what year is it?"

"Huh?" She felt her cheeks getting hot again, this time in chagrin, but she ignored it as she answered them. "2024."

Hange's big, brown eyes widened, and a smile appeared on her face. "I'm afraid, my dear, you are very far from home."

"What?" The word came out like a whisper, as if she couldn't believe it. Her ears began to ring, and she felt her body start to shake as the anxiety of such knowledge consumed her. "What?"

"Oh, but it's okay!" Hange rested both their hands on her knees, as if to stop the quivering. "We'll figure out how to get you home, don't you worry."

The four of them had gone out into the hallway at one point to discuss what to do with her. Put her in the dungeon, was an option, apparently. But in the end, Hange insisted that Rose stay with them. For that, Rose felt grateful.

She borrowed one of Hange's long button down shirts as a sleep shirt; it almost reached her knees, no wonder Hange tucked her shirts in.

Actually, of the few soldiers – she learned that was who she interacted with today – she saw today, they all dressed like that. Button downs, tight pants – they had to be uncomfortable, they didn't seem practical, but what did Rose know? She wasn't in the military – long boots – also didn't seem practical, but oh well. She didn't question any of it.

She kind of had a bigger problem.

It was evidently the year C. 850, whatever that meant, meaning that she was far from home, needless to say. She needed to get back – to Bunni, to Uncle Charles, to school, to work, to home. But she didn't know how she got here in the first place, just that some type of portal-thing swallowed her up and threw her here.

That was all the rest of them could gather as well. They tried to get information out of her, but she was hesitant to tell them anything. She did claim she'd hit her head rather hard, and some things were fuzzy, which seemed to appease Hange and Erwin – by the looks on their faces, anyway – but Levi and Moblit seemed harder to convince. At any rate, they didn't press her too hard on Los Angeles and home, and let her go with Hange as the sun began to set.

"We're about to go over the walls, you see, and I'm going to get some spectacular specimens while we're over there." Hange was practically drooling at the mouth just speaking about it.

Rose tilted her head. "Over the walls?" She didn't know why, but that sounded rather dangerous.

"Oh, right, you might not know what that means. What a blessing." Hange turned away from her for a moment then faced her again with a notebook in hand. "Here, read the first few pages before bed. It's my research so far – and the collective research we've gathered of our world." They said our like it was far more fascinating than what Rose experienced.

So far, that seemed to be true.

Tentatively, Rose opened to the first page of the notebook and skimmed the words, while also glancing at the illustration. Only when she fully read the text, her mouth now agape, did she understand a little about what "over the wall" meant. "Wait, you fight these things? Titans?"

"Yep. It's mostly to reclaim some of our land, but also to further discover just… more about them. What makes them tick, what they're made of, et cetera, et cetera."

"Why?" Rose sounded incredulous now, and with good reason. It sounded foolish to battle creatures so much larger than yourself, and in such large droves.

"Like I said, for the sake of discovery and reclamation. Someone has to."

Now Rose was the one intrigued, if a little frightened, as she continued to swallow the words on each page, and especially the pictures partnering them. Before long, however, she had drifted off to sleep, the notebook hanging by a thread at the edge of her fingers, her hand swinging off the bed. Hange at one point must have put a blanket over her, but she hardly felt it as she'd been shivering when she awoke – with a cold sweat. She breathed heavy, in and out, through her nose, to try and calm herself down.

Rose had dreamed of titans, of giant, naked beings trying to swallow her whole. She could narrowly escape them, and the people she loved and had come to get acquainted with had also become victim to their unrelenting wrath. By the time her friends, family, the others had all been consumed, she had become surrounded and then –

"Oh, you're awake." Hange had come back in at some point while she was reliving her dream – or rather, nightmare. "Good. I laid out some clothes for you to wear. Petra said you could have them; she doesn't wear them anymore now that she's in the scouts."

"Who?" Was that someone she'd met yesterday? She'd met quite a few soldiers the previous day, she could hardly keep up. And they all had strange names as well. Oluo, Eld, Gunter – yes, Petra was one of them. She had short red hair and eyes just as fiery. She was sweet, though – kind of like a big sister. "Oh."

"Hurry and get dressed," Hange said, coming to her side and helping her out of bed. "We have a lot to go over before we leave."

"You're leaving today?" They did say they were leaving soon, Rose just didn't think it would be this soon.

"This afternoon. So hurry!" Hange flashed a smile before exiting again, leaving Rose with her racing thoughts and racing heart.

With careful fingers, Rosemary plucked the clothes off the chair they'd been resting on. A long brown skirt and a cotton long sleeved shirt. Slipping into the new clothes, she looked in the mirror and wondered what to do with her hair. She had a single ponytail, which she'd used to create a braided half-up-do. Opting to just keep it as is, she fixed it up to some degree before slipping on her shoes from yesterday – at least they felt her loafers were good enough for this timeline, what did that say about her? – and rushed downstairs.

They were all quietly talking but hushed as she entered the room. Petra and Hange were smiling at her, Erwin had a kind look about him, everyone else regarded her warily. Very justified, she knew, but she didn't have to like it.

"You look so cute," Petra commented, approaching her, her eyes scanning the younger woman up and down. "I should give you my other hand-me-downs."

"At a later date," Erwin said, his voice commanding all around him listen. And listen they did. "As you know, we're going over the walls today. We will, as a promise to Hange, be capturing a titan or two for the sake of research."

Hange seemed like she wanted to jump out of her shoes from excitement, but managed to contain it. Erwin continued.

"It appears that amidst everything, we've had a new discovery. And with that discovery, we are going to need to station her somewhere trustworthy while we're gone."

"Not to the damn MPs," Levi commented under his breath, crossing his arms and averting his icicle gaze to the wall, as if he was talking to no one in particular. And maybe he wasn't, but Erwin answered him all the same.

"No, of course not. I was thinking Commander Pixis."

Was that someone she met yesterday? Rose couldn't recall that name a face to it for that matter.

"I imagine our guest doesn't have any objections?"

Now everyone faced her expectantly. Rose's cheeks grew warm, but she ignored it as she shook her head in answer.

"Excellent, so it's settled. I'll take you there personally, to ensure you make it there safely, and then," to the rest of his squad, "I'll meet you at the front lines, soldiers."

"Sir, yes, sir!"