Risk: Chapter Thirty-Eight
Rose awoke early, just before dawn, but even so, Levi wasn't in the room. Part of her was relieved by that fact, the other part of her just wanted to see his face, to read him somehow, search behind his eyes into his head and see what he was thinking.
Oh, well.
She made breakfast quickly – pancakes – and set them aside for the Squad to tear freely before heading to the stables. When she was feeling down like this, brushing Lacy made her feel better. At Lacy's stall, the horse huffed at her approach, as if to greet her.
"Hello, girl," Rose said softly, retrieving a brush and beginning the relaxing task.
She must have been gone for awhile, brushing and petting Lacy, as she didn't even hear Levi come in, now leaning against the entryway, arms crossed and watching her. She nearly jumped out of her skin upon seeing him, dropping the wooden brush in the process. "You scared me," she said, pressing a hand to her beating heart.
"You should be more observant of your surroundings." Hardly an apology, but she'd take it. He pushed away from the wooden wall and slowly walked toward her, at first hovering over her, then, as she stood up, he simply watched her, as if trying to anticipate her next move.
"Were you looking for me?" she asked, trying to break the silence.
"Actually, yes. Hange's here and wants to talk with all of us."
Rose blinked; usually when it came to Scout business she wasn't directly involved, just filled in later by someone else. What was so important that Hange wanted Rose in the conversation, too?
Giving Lacy one last stroke along her face, Rose followed Levi out of the stables and back into headquarters. Everyone else was inside, breakfast long gone, dishes cleaned, kitchen picked up – as to be expected if one was to work under Levi.
"Good, everyone's here." Hange beamed as Rose took a seat next to Lily, looking to her for answers, but Lily simply shrugged in response. "So, I went to talk with this Jake this morning, and I got quite the great idea from him. Involve Rose."
Rose instantly glanced over at Levi, who was regarding Hange heavily. He clearly didn't like where this was going.
"Rose, you've been practicing going between different areas and timelines, haven't you?"
Rose nodded, afraid to speak. Where was this headed?
"Evidently, Jake can do the same thing. However, in his titan form he grows tired easily. However, if you were to, say, assist him in some way while he's a titan – "
"That sounds like a terrible idea," Levi interjected. His arms were crossed, but Rose could tell he was squeezing his hands rather hard.
Oh, he was angry, to say the least.
"And how would you know?" Hange inquired, lowering their goggles to look at him with their one good eye. "We wouldn't unless we tried."
"He's a criminal," Levi reminded them.
"And a traitor to his people, according to him. He hasn't been back in awhile because –" Hange stopped speaking, gaze falling to Rose. Chagrin took over the younger woman and her head hung a little, eyes falling to the table. Hange continued. "At any rate, I think it's a good idea. With his titan, and how quick it is, and how strong Eren's titan is, we could start annihilating titans more quickly than before."
"I hate to say it, but she's right," Armin chimed in, not looking at either the Commander or his Captain. "We'd be better off having him as an ally at this point than an enemy – and it looks like we kind of have an ace up our sleeve to keep him an ally."
Ah, yes. Rose, the bait. She didn't really like the sound of that.
Neither did Levi, apparently. "The answer is no." He added, then, "She has no battle experience, has barely seen titans – and once again, he's a criminal."
The room began to erupt with opinions. A lot of the Squad believed that Rose and Jake should, in fact, team up to start helping to fight off the titans. A few thought that it was a bad idea, agreeing with their Captain. Hange and Levi kind of went back and forth on the matter. Even Lily joined in – on the opposition, thinking that Rose out on the battlefield was a terrible plan.
Finally, Rose couldn't handle it anymore; she'd grown more and more frustrated the more people argued about her.
"Hey – hey!" she called over them, knowing her face was red with slight embarrassment, as she didn't like being the center of attention like this. "Don't I get a say at all in what I get to do?" Silence followed; no one had an answer to that, apparently. "I know it sounds like a bad idea – terrible, actually – but… but I want to try. I feel like it could do some good to give this plan a chance."
"Are you serious?" Levi asked, his voice sounding a bit incredulous.
"Absolutely," she answered earnestly, meeting his grey gaze. "Please – I want to at least give it a shot."
"And if you fail?"
"Then you were right. End of story." And she would probably be dead, but she didn't want to say that part out loud.
The room was staring at Levi now, awaiting his final answer. At last, with a sigh, he told her, "We have an expedition in two weeks. You and Jake have two weeks to get ready – and if he so much as looks in the wrong direction – "
"I get it."
Yeah, she got it.
"Are you ready?" Jake asked Rose in a low voice.
Rose thought her heart would be pounding so hard she could barely hear anything else; she thought her head would be spinning so fast with racing thoughts of titans and death that she wouldn't be able to stand. However, neither of those things were true; she was calm as a cucumber, actually.
"Yes," she said to him, voice just as hushed, glancing down at herself again; she was wearing a Scout uniform, of all things – white pants, long boots, a plain white shirt, her hair now up in two braids, finished off with the jacket.
They'd been practicing for quite some time with her abilities, her creating portals and phasing them into different areas of the forest they normally used when experimenting with Eren's titan capabilities. She'd gotten it down to a science at this point, and she felt confident at how quickly she could create a portal in the face of danger.
The wooden elevator finally lowered on the other side, and they all exited, the Scouts horses on a different one. They went to go retrieve them, Rose and Jake close behind, knowing they wouldn't be using one.
As everyone mounted, Jake stepped forward, out of the way, and pulled out a knife from his pocket. Levi approached him from the side to speak to him. "Remember: if you pull a single hair from her head, one single scratch, and it's over for you."
Jake nodded once in understanding, waiting for Levi to leave, before he brought the knife to his hand and the familiar lightning show that came with titan shifting appeared. Rose thought she would grow bored with watching such a light show, but it was fascinating each time.
In Jake's place stood a grotesque looking creature: it had long light brown hair, big eyes, and a long face with a massive jaw, and just like Armin said, long pinchers where its thumbs were supposed to be, sharp as swords, she could tell. It balance easily on a set of four legs, abnormal for a titan – but Jake was, in fact, abnormal in himself, so that was to be expected – and it stood probably four meters tall. Not too tall – but tall enough that, once she mounted him, she would feel like she was pretty high up off the ground.
The titan – Jake – came over to her, almost like a spider on those legs, quick and agile, and stopped just in front of her. He lowered his head and neck for her, and she grabbed hold of his long hair and pulled herself up, just like she'd done before, and placed her legs on either side of his neck, holding on tight. The first couple of times, she'd actually fallen off, but she'd learned her lesson, surely.
"Alright, to your formations!" Hange ordered, and the horses were off in an instant, Jake following suit.
Jake was to stay with Levi's squad at all times, attacking only when he said so. Levi would assess the size of the titan first, ensuring that they could – more importantly, that Rose could – take them on, and if so, they would go in for the kill, just as planned.
They didn't see anything for awhile, green flares going up. Then, after a few more minutes, a red flare shot up, several meters ahead.
"Stand back!" Levi commanded to Jake.
Rose pulled on Jake's hair, and the titan beneath her reeled to a stop, pulling grass and dirt up as he did so. Levi went ahead with the rest of the squad, and just as they did, the titan revealed itself. It was a little taller than Jake, Rose could tell. Seven meters, maybe?
Levi raised an arm, the signal that Jake was good to go.
"Jake!" Rose called, and in response the titan growled before charging forward.
Jake did move rather quickly, it could probably rival Levi in speed. Rose held on tight as the titan drew closer – almost there. Then – she reached her arm out and summoned a portal, big enough for Jake to go through, and she envisioned being on the other side of the pure titan, them coming out just as planned. Jake used his pincher hands to slice at the nape of the titan, and fell it instantly, having dug deeper than he probably necessarily needed to. Jake landed on the ground beside it and then made his way back to the Squad. Rose gave one last glance to the fallen titan – and laughed. Really laughed.
"We did it!" she called to him.
In response, Jake gave a small roar, as if he was also celebrating with her.
They traveled a little further out, then another two red flares.
"Let's go, hurry!" Levi yelled to his team, getting a resounding "yes, sir!" in response.
Jake flanked the back, as he was supposed to, Rose clinging tightly to his hair, legs clenched to either side of his neck; it was the only way to ensure she wouldn't fall off when he went so fast.
They arrived at the flare point, seeing two titans. One just over ten meters, the other about eight. The support squad seemed to be having trouble controlling the situation, it seemed.
"Eren! The big one!" Levi told the young boy.
Eren didn't hesitate, just leapt off his horse and to another area where he, too, could transform into his titan form. Once again, Rose found the light show amazing, not able to look away – until Jake huffed, gaining her attention back.
"Sorry," she muttered to him.
"Jake, go!" Levi said, pointing with his sword to the smaller one.
Jake did as he was bid, rushing toward the smaller titan head on. Just like before, Rose waited until the right time to summon the portal, and when she did, they ended up in a position as they exited just above the titan. Jake used his sword-like thumbs to slice at the nape again, but as they fell, Rose found herself falling forward. She let go of him, and as she did, she created another portal, picturing being on a roof nearby.
She fell through – hard – and at first needed a moment to get her bearings. Then she heard her name being called from down below, and she stood up slowly, raising her arms to wave at those yelling for her.
"I'm up here!" she said, looking for Jake in the next second; he was beside his kill, but gazing up at her with those large, black eyes, and she could have sworn there was worry behind them.
"You were to not let go of Jake," Levi reminded her, voice laced with annoyance.
"I know, I know," she called back, holding her hand out for a portal and stepping in, coming through on the other side just beside Jake. She climbed back on top of him, holding even tighter onto his hair. "It won't happen again, Captain."
"It better not." Then Levi, eyes narrowed, looked between Rose and Jake before trotting away, checking on the support team to see if there was any injured. "Lily, this way," he ordered her sister, who was the one with the first aid.
It was until after sunset that they stayed out fighting titans. Rose didn't want to admit it aloud, but she was growing so tired; these soldiers do this all the time though, and if she wanted to be of any type of assistance, she needed to push past her fatigue and move forward, fight. As they headed back, the back flank fired off several red flares and one black one.
"An abnormal?" Connie called, sounding a little panicked. "And is that three other titans?"
"Keep going," Levi ordered, leading his horse in front of everyone. "Survive – that's an order."
However, the titans were ganging up on them, especially the abnormal. Rose dared to glance back – they were but, what, five hundred, or three hundred, meters away from them? Their horses – and Jake – were surely running out of residual fuel to outrun to bastards. So Rose had an idea. Looking forward again, she envisioned the wall – as close as she could – and then she held out her hand and called for a portal – long and tall – with the picture she had in mind before them.
"Just keep going!" she yelled, knowing that it might have appeared frightening to those who had never been through such a thing before.
They did as she told, their horses galloping straight through the entryway and into the other side; Rose closed her fist, and the portal shut behind her, the titans now way behind them. The Garrison above were now firing off canons to give the Scouts some time to pull themselves up over the walls again, which was a good sign.
They were almost home.
"That was so cool!" Sasha exclaimed, eyes large as they gazed admirably at Rose. Then her expression turned to worry as she assessed the older woman. "Rose?"
Rose could barely hear her. She found herself growing weak, unable to hold onto Jake any longer. Eyes closing, exhaustion taking hold, she fell to the side, rolling onto the grassy ground. She barely felt the impact, could barely hear the people calling her name as she was separated from everyone. Then she heard the thundering of titan feet, and she believed – this could be it. The plan failed. Levi was right.
Instead of being swallowed up, though, the titan in question scooped her up in its mouth and carried her limp body back toward the wall. She could barely think, but she knew the one holding her was Jake. He had come back for her – even though she had worked to ensure he was safe from the sudden titan attack. He rushed forward, and before she knew it, they were at the elevators. She felt herself being dropped onto the dirt ground again, and she watched as steam spewed from the nape of Jake's titan, the human Jake emerging from it.
"Rose!" he yelled, jumping down to kneel by her side. "Rose, are you okay?"
She couldn't bring herself to answer, she was far too weary to speak. She felt someone – Jake – lift her into the air, into his arms, and carry her toward the elevators. As they rode up, she found herself coming to a little bit, and she looked up with bleary blue eyes at Jake, who was staring at her, desperately sad and panicked.
"Is everyone here?" she asked, her voice just above a whisper.
"Yes," he said, "Thanks to you."
She smiled then, tears brimming her eyes. "That makes me… so happy, Jake. We did it."
"Yeah – yeah we did."
Drained, she closed her eyes again and allowed exhaustion to take hold of her again, completely blacking out.
