The air was so cold and humid that visible clouds of fine mist formed every time (Y/N) breathed out. Deep silence, which was occasionally broken by sounds of falling water drops meeting with the cobblestone ground, surrounded her. Neither the cold nor the fact she was now sitting on the edge of a plain bed, handcuffs still on, in what struck one as being a prison...

in an unknown, eerie cellar...

bothered her. Maybe it should but it didn't. Because one thing was certain, she was in trouble. Sooner or later someone was going to interrogate her. So at least she had some time alone on figuring out how she was going to approach this situation.

There were at least three, perchance four, possibilities presenting themselves as plausible at this particular moment. She brought her right leg up, close to her chest so she could rest her chin on it.

Apparently, it was year 850.

Taking everything she was able to see up to this point into consideration, led her to an assumption that she wasn't familiar with this year 850, not even through history books and lectures. If this wasn't the past 850 CE nor BC, it could be future. Which would suggest that something important had to happen for people to start counting years from zero again.

She scanned the environment once more and her eyes got lost in the mesmerising, dancing lights coming from the only source of light: a simple torch connected to a wall on the other side of this prison's metal bars. Her mind raced like never before.

She was consumed by her thoughts, she almost missed the specific sound of cracking wood. The nearby gate opened. Ears suddenly on top of her head, concentrating on a muffled conversation that was trying to hide behind the stomping of its speaker's boots. She recognized the voice, it was the man who put her here speaking.

"When I was delivering the message for Garrison of the Trost district as you assigned me to do, Sir, from top of the wall I saw a bolt of lightning struck the ground out of nowhere. I didn't think twice about it and rushed to the place of its occurrence and that's where I found her."

"Did she try to defend herself? Was she resisting?" Second voice, most likely man's voice, considering its low timbre, asked.

"No, sir, in fact, she didn't resist at all, I guess she was just too surprised by me showing up. And the only thing she asked while I was arresting her was 'what year is it?', I don't know what game she's playing but I don't like it."

"Does anyone else know about her?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Good. Thank you, I will take care of her from now." Door slam followed and only one pair of steps was left there with her. Until they stopped right in front of the cell she was sitting in, revealing the man they belonged to.

This man seemed like someone who could be called objectively attractive, (Y/N) thought. Many studies were written analysing human appearance and conventionally beautiful features and this guy had them all. Tall, blond, masculine, with a jaw and cheekbones which, under right circumstances, could probably cut glass, face symmetry on point. His inspecting icy blue eyes landed on (Y/N)'s crouching body. In complete silence, she looked at him, her head slightly tilted to the side, trying to read as much information as she could.

He interrupted this stare-off first.

"My name is Erwin Smith, commander of the Survey Corps. I don't think we've met before."

(Y/N) had so many questions but she was immensely uncertain of the situation to ask anything. She wasn't sure what type of person she was talking to. The uncertainty was so overpowering it caused another long pause.

"I am inclined to think you are fully aware of why we've brought you he-"

"What am I accused of?" She cut him off, earning a direct response.

"Act of treason." Meaning there was a war going on. To be fair, there's always a war raging somewhere. People are incorrigible. This has to be the military commander then. Although he seems fairly young for the role...

Nothing but honesty lingered in her calm voice when she spoke again. "I can prove to you that I don't propose any threat. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." Literally.

"I am not guilty of such a crime." The commander stood there listening closely, knitting his thick eyebrows.

"I understand that I am in no position to set any conditions. However, may I first speak to someone, anyone, who leads scientific research? I'll then proceed and explain who I am and why I am here." I need to talk to a person who most likely thinks outside of the box, someone innovative. A scientist who won't be caught totally off guard by my story and by the contents of my backpack. I hope everything is still intact, otherwise getting out of this will be much harder.

She got the commander interested. Besides there was no reason why wouldn't he at least consider this offer and he realised that too. That's why his face relaxed a bit. He sent the hunched-over woman a closed-eyed nod, a sign of agreement. And without another word he left.

»»————-　　————-««

To find the section commander truly wasn't a difficult task.

"Has anyone seen my reports?!"

Hange's voice echoed down the hall. Their office door was wide open displaying the pure chaos that was in the room behind it. The commander knocked firmly on the door frame to get a glimpse of Hange's attention. They didn't even glance in his direction.

"Moblit, I-"

"I would have told you to drop everything and come with me but it looks like you've already got that covered," Erwin said when eyeing the utter mess. The wooden floor and furniture were barely visible, buried under stacks of books and paperwork.

"That sounds tempting, Erwin, but not now! I should be heading for the castle in no time, on top of that I lost my records somewhere..."

"We've found another one," he knew exactly how to get each one of his soldiers to cooperate without constantly abusing his high rank and position of power. This was one of many reasons why he was so popular among the subordinates.

"What?" the spectacled brunette looked up, eyes wide, interest peaked.

"A shifter. Bolt from the blue and there she was. Right now she awaits in the cellar."

"Oh my... then what are we waiting for?" in a blink of an eye, Hange was on their way to the lowest part of the SC Headquarters, commander Smith following closely behind.

"What do we know about her?"

"Not much, she appears to be a woman in her late 20's, (h/l)(h/c) hair, horrendous posture and..."

"Skip the boring stuff."

"She works in the science field."

"Excellent! What else did she tell you?"

"She didn't tell me anything."

"Then how do you... oh... it's hers isn't it?" Hange asked while pointing at the black backpack Erwin held. "Are you gonna tell me what's in it?"

"No, not here. You will understand soon enough."

"Great. Why do I even bother asking..." a childish frustration crept into section commander's voice.

"Listen Hange, I am fairly certain she has a story she's going to tell us. If it's true or not we probably won't be able to tell. But we can't have her locked up here otherwise someone will find out and that would pose unnecessary complications. So what I want from you is to take her to the former headquarters with you and keep a close eye on her, befriend her. Wait till she slips and report it immediately. I think she possesses vulnerable information about the outside world..."

"Not one but two shifters in one place? And a fellow curious mind? Sounds good to me." Hange almost sang these lines. With a new wave of excitement, they pushed the massive basement gate open.

»»————-　　————-««

"Hey there, Titan girl!"

On the surface, (Y/N) didn't even flinch but on the inside, this loud unexpected greeting scared her half to death. She didn't know human voice could go to such volumes and frequencies.

"Titan? What do they mean by 'titan', like in Greek mythology? Is that some type of slang?" barely audible whisper escaped her mouth.

"Mythology? Hah, we wish! Am I right, Erwin?" This what (Y/N) assumed had to be the head of research playfully nudged commanders side. "Anyway, what do you mean by 'Greek'?"

"Nothing, it's just a word I... came up with..." Hmm, terminology usage without any knowledge of its etymology, Mediterranean area, or its history. "Tell me those 'Titans', who are they and why are they dangerous?" Because if they weren't enemies of some sort, whoever they are, I wouldn't be sitting here in the first place, being accused of treason and simultaneously being called a Titan.

"Why do you think I am one of them?"

Hange frowned just a bit. "What did you do to her?" Right after this reproach meant for the commander, the spectacled brunette shifted their attention on (Y/N), crossing arms on their chest. "You can't be serious. This must be an attempt for deception otherwise how could you not know about the Titans?"

"Hmm, or could your amnesia possibly be even worse than Eren's..." they thought out loud.

(Y/N) stood up from the bed because one of her legs was falling asleep and it was getting uncomfortable. The other side of the bars grew fully alert and aware of every one of her movements and she noticed that. They think I am a threat even like this.

"The answer is pretty simple yet complicated at the same time. I am not trying to deceive anybody I simply don't know anything about this place in time.

I am a scientist, a physicist to be exact, and right now also a time traveler."

The brunette let down their hands and stared at her in disbelief. (Y/N) took a huge risk and simply continued. There was no going back. "Research papers are in my bag. All information, data, hypotheses that I aggregated for my experiments, everything is there. I was trying to create a wormhole through time, yes I was, but I wasn't planning on going in yet. Opening one would be enough, then examining it and figuring out how to get it to stay open. Our understanding of dark and exotic matter is very limited." And judging from the fact people here went back to using torches as a source of light it's probably safe to assume their understanding is no better. "I had everything only on paper, calculated to the last bit, but I didn't have the chance to try it out and stop it from closing on me. Dangerous overheating and electrification were what threw me off. My assumptions were wrong and I should've expected it. The huge amounts of energy I was working with were asking for it.

And that's how I ended up here. It just so happened that the wormhole led me in your point in space and time,"

While she was talking, the commander opened her backpack. Y/N figured honesty and truth were the best way to go and waited for a reaction. The brunette looked intrigued.

"Look for a dark blue folder and a black notebook. It should be there somewhere."

Erwin took out one of the many books that were in his way and gave it to Hange to hold.

"What is this material?? It's soo shiny." they rubbed the hardcover with their finger till it made a weird squeak. "And the vivid colours! This is beautifully made!" They flipped through its pages. "And it doesn't look like it's letterpressed..."

(Y/N) hasn't seen so much enthusiasm over a kid's encyclopedia, from an adult, probably ever. Although she could relate to it.

"I know, it's really pretty. My favourite part is the chapter about the universe. It has pictures of all the planets in our solar system and also an interesting part about moon landing..."

"Moon landing?!" Their sheer surprise and amazement were obvious. No knowledge of antic civilizations, 60's space race, or mass-produced books. What is this place? What happened here? It feels like everything about human history was removed, forgotten. The progress too.

Hange grinned. "I thought we got our hands on another shifting human - you know when there is one there could easily be another - but this is even crazier! I didn't understand half of the things you said and it all sounded like straight up from the wildest dreams... soo exciting!"

They weren't the only ones who didn't understand a word. "Shifting humans", "Titans"... They maybe spoke the same language however the meanings got lost before reaching both ends.

"I would lie if I said I've never dreamed about traveling to the moon or flying boats for example... wouldn't that be awesome... but in our situation, it's out of the question. It's nearly impossible to develop those ideas more."

"Anything that doesn't help humanity, that doesn't get us closer to discovering the truth, is useless." the commander added to that.

"Oh my... Erwin, wait, what is this? Is this a weapon?!" the brunette screeched, getting hold of a huge 1l metal thermos.

"No, it's just a vacuum flask. You put hot liquid in it and it stays hot throughout the whole day. I always have black tea with me. You can have some if you want." Just appear as friendly and trustworthy as you can (Y/N).

"That's nice of you although I wish it was a weapon."

"Well, it kind of looks like a torpedo if you ask me," she tried to joke a bit. "Or you can probably hit someone with it, it's pretty heavy after all," the conversation was getting nowhere with this "small-talk". Or at least that's what (Y/N) thought. From the perspective of the commander, everything was going smoothly.

"By the way, what should I call you? I think I didn't hear your name."

"I am doctor (Y/N L/N)."

"Nice to meet you, doctor (L/N) section commander Hange Zoë, at your service," they let out a friendly giggle. "There's no need for us to be that formal is there? You can call me Hange," and with that section commander extended their right arm through thick metal bars, completely ignoring the fact (Y/N) was still a prisoner.

"Ehm," she coughed and shook her handcuffed wrists a little.

"Sorry, I forgot."

"Doctor, I don't think you are lying," the commander said rapidly and seemingly out of nowhere, closing the blue file (Y/N) told him about. "This is actually really advanced, all of the books from your bag have years of publishing 2000 and up, places of publishing I've never heard of.

I think there's no need for us not to believe you."

That was quite simple. Maybe even too simple. No government officer would let her go that easily. She tried to analyse commander's face but it told her nothing. All she saw were calm and collected features. However, something seemed... off. She could sense it.

"What will happen with me now? I don't know where I am, I am not familiar with 'the situation' you talked about earlier, and I have a lot of questions that need answering."

"I have an idea!" section commander cried out, their excitement not fading the slightest. "Right now we are the only people who know about this, let's use it to our advantage. I think we can help (Y/N) and she can help on our quest of scientific discovery!"

They were so on board with this that she was growing suspicious every second. What has she got herself into? Keep calm, you still don't know enough, you are at a serious disadvantage here.

"Doctor (L/N), do you think you can help us?"

"It depends on what's the issue." There was no better way of answering commander's vague question. I am no superhuman solving every occurring problem and I won't promise something I can't accomplish.

"She definitely can! Plus I wouldn't mind having extra hands available in the laboratory and she seems more than capable."

"I basically grew up in a lab, I can make myself useful in that matter," that's all it took. Key tuned in a lock with a metal click. Commander Smith held the prison cell door open for her.

"Because we can't simply let you wander around and let you enter the Titan territory illegally again, you will be supervised by section commander Hange. I hope you understand why it's necessary." (Y/N) nodded. "Please, turn around." Another set of clicks and she was able to move her wrists again.

Even though she wasn't being imprisoned anymore she wasn't free either...

»»————-　　————-««

Yey! You made it! Thank you very much for reaching this point. I hope at least some of you enjoyed the beginning of this fic and will stick with me, new chapters coming soon 🖤

If anything bothered you or you simply didn't like it, please, let me know, so I can improve my writing. Same if you have any questions or requests, just message me.

Otherwise stay happy & healthy, bye!