HENRI

After hours of taking risks, fighting my enemies, and watching some of my closest friends get eaten, I stood at the top of the hill and tried to calm down. There was a cool breeze that slowly pushed my light red hair out of my face, and the sun had almost completely set. I sighed and sat down on the grassy hill, hoping that I could feel at least a little peaceful after witnessing everything that had happened today.

Then I felt somebody tapping my shoulder, and I spun around as quickly as I could. I sighed in relief after realizing it was only Mia Zoe, one of my closest friends and the girl of my dreams. "Henri," Mia asked me softly, "what are you doing out here?"

"I had to get some fresh air," I replied. "Today has been a really hard day for me, after all."

"I know what you mean," Mia whispered. "Losing ten people who were close to me wasn't very fun for me, either."

"At least you made it out alive," I mumbled.

"Henri, the only reason I'm alive is because you saved me. If it wasn't for you, I would already be titan fodder," Mia admitted.

"I would never let that to happen to you, Mia."

"Excuse me!"

I glanced over to the right and noticed Lucius Hoover standing near a tree with a smirk on his face. I tried not to roll my eyes at him, for he was such a pest- at least in my eyes. Mia has recently taken an interest in him, and it drove me bonkers.

"I hate to interupt your little moment, but the others are expecting you inside." Lucius sneered.

"May I ask what this is regarding?" I snapped.

"Ah, curious as ever, Solomon. Well, if you must know, Meghan and I have found ten new cadets that could be useful to us. Mia- your mother has informed me of thier abilities, while they may seem abnormal, we have decided to welcome them and allow them to join us." Lucius explained.

"What do you mean abnormal abilities? Are they titan shifters or something?" Mia asked gently.

"Not that we know of. I'll explain everything to you later, but for now, let's not keep them waiting on us any longer." Lucius replied.

I reluctantly folowed Lucius and Mia to the cellar and saw ten people standing impatiently behind one of the cells. Lucius unlocked the cell and a small girl stepped out. The girl had bright hazel eyes and curly, mud brown hair with caramel blonde tips, light skin, and heart-shaped lips. She was extremely pretty, but at the same time, there was something about this girl that made her seem troubled.

"You must be one of the new cadets," I greeted the girl. "I'm Henri. Henri Solomon."

"I'm Michaela Powers. It's a pleasure to meet you, Henri Solomon." Michaela said, shaking my hand.

"You too, Michaela. Also, this is Mia Zoe and Lucius Hoover. And I assume you've already met Meghan Ackerman," I responded.

"Nice to meet you, too." Michaela said to Mia and Lucius.

"So who are your friends over there?" Mia asked Michaela.

"Well, there's Nathan Rogers," Michaela pointed to a tall boy with golden blonde hair and brown eyes. "There's Stella Rogue," Michaela pointed to a thin, pale girl with short, bleach blonde hair and grey eyes.

"I'm Devon Brody, by the way- the cool one," A tall boy with dark brown hair and deep hazel eyes boasted.

"Devon doesn't have a clue what he's talking about," a girl with braided, white blonde hair and jade green eyes snorted. "The name's Tiffany by the way. Tiffany Hassibor."

"You're finally using your real surname, eh, Tiffany?" A man with sandy brown hair and brown eyes scoffed. "I'm Jared Trigger, by the way."

"Stephanie Trigger, nice to meet ya," A girl with auburn hair and sapphire blue eyes cooed, "I'm Jared's daughter, in case you were confused."

"Tristan and Phoebe Wells are over there," Michaela glanced at a boy with curly brown hair, grey eyes that were framed with black, square-shaped glasses, and tan skin. She was also looking at a young girl similar to the boy. I figured that they were Tristan and Phoebe Wells, but there was still one cadet that Michaela hadn't introduced yet.

The cadet was a tall man who looked about the same age as Jared, give or take a few years. He had neat black hair, a bushy mustache, ocean blue eyes, and fair skin. He was holding a black and silver sword in his right hand, almost as if he was trying to hide it from me.

"Who is he?" I asked Michaela, still staring at a man as politely as politely as I could.

"That's my father, Henri. His name is Lucas Powers, and I'm sure he will be good enough for...what did you say you wanted us to do again?" Michaela awnsered.

"Well, Miss Michaela Powers, you and your little group of friends are invited to join the scouts in our war," Lucius said to Michaela coolly.

"What war?" Phoebe inquired.

"The war against the titans, of course. What other war would we have to fight in?" Mia replied.

"Wait, as in...the titans that are taller than houses and use humans as a food source? Those type of titans?" Stephanie asked.

"Those are the only titans I've heard of," Mia grunted.

"Oh my gosh...and if we traveled back in time...that can only mean...NO WAY!!" Stephanie eagerly exclaimed.

"What? Whats the matter, Stephanie?" I asked.

"Okay, Henri- this is going to sound really weird, but we grew up in a world where titans didn't exist." Jared answered for Stephanie, who was too stunned to speak.

"A world without titans? Is that even posible?" Mia stammered.

"I've never heard of anyone that grew up without living in fear of titans," I added.

"That's because we're from the future," Devon stated.

Lucius tried to contain his laughter, but it wasn't having a positive effect on him. "Good one, Devon," he snickered. "Are you considered the funny one in your group of friends?"

"Well...yeah. But I wasn't joking." Devon winced.

"Then how did you get here?" I inquired.

"We had a tape measurer that sent us back in time...speaking of which, where did it go, anyways?" Tristan stated.

"It's gone," Lucas interjected.

The cadets turned to face Lucas with a look of doubt on each of their faces. "Surely Devon still had the tape measurer with him while we were traveling through time, right?" Tristan scoffed.

"I'm certain that he did, but it was destroyed when we arrived here." Lucas replied.

"How?" Phoebe and Tiffany chorused.

Lucas sighed and said, "A titan smashed it to pieces. Now the only way that we can go home is if we can find a Scaper from this era. That's the first step, anyways."

"So...we could be stuck here forever?" Phoebe gasped.

"Who knows?" Stella shrugged.

"Well, if we do stay here forever, we might as well accept our offer for joining the Scouts. We've never had to live in fear of the titans, and I don't want to start living that way anytime soon." Michaela announced.

"Sounds like a plan," Stephanie smirked.

"Count me in!" Nathan added.

"Us too!" Every other cadet except for Lucas exclaimed.

Lucas just stared at the floor, trying to act casual with his sword, and mumbled, "I'm in."

"Great! I'll show you where you'll be staying!" Mia cheered.

x•x•x•x•x•x•x•x•x•x•x•x•x•x•x•x

Mia led the ten cadets to a small cabin near the Scouts' headquarters and said, "We had to separate you from the other Scouts because of your abilities, but since you aren't known for being titan-shifters, we didn't want to lock you in the cellars overnight, either." Mia explained. "I'm sorry if it doesn't have everything you're used to."

Mia opened the door to the cabin, and when the cadets stepped inside, their faces fell. There were five bunk beds that didn't look very comfortable, a bathtub that was covered by a linty, lavender-colored curtain, and a desk that had three lit candles sitting on it. There was only one window in the entire cabin, right next to the desk, but it was extremely hard to see a clear image out of.

"Again, we're sorry if it's not ideal," I apologized.

"We tried to make it up to you by providing clothes for you, including your new uniforms." Mia handed everybody a stack of neatly-folded clothes without hesitating.

"Thanks Mia," Michaela said with a kind smile on her face.

"I'm still confused, though," Stephanie confessed. "I mean, no offense, but why are we even here?"

"When you arrived here, you were almost killed by a titan, but your abilities defended you. When the rest of the Scouts heard about this, they figured that they could use you until you were able to go back to your home." I informed the cadets.

Lucas nodded and avoided making eye contact with me. I had to know if he was normally this quiet, but I was afraid to ask. All I knew was that he reminded me of somebody that I would never want to mess with.

"I don't know what you'll be using us for, but I'm excited to find out!" Phoebe said.

"Good," Mia said while turning around and walking away from the cabin, "because we'll begin your training first thing tomorrow morning."

I followed Mia out of the cabin and closed the door behind me. Stephanie, Jared, Tristan, Phoebe, Nathan, Devon, Tiffany, Michaela, and Lucas were all on my mind when I fell asleep that night. I couldn't help but wonder how they would all handle their training when they woke up.

A/N: Hey guys! We hope that you enjoyed this chapter (written by IlluminatiSistersXOX but the next one will be written by Mia)! Just so you're not confused, though, Henri Solomon is an OC that we both created, but he wasn't featured in "New Recruits" or any part of the Dreamscaper Society Trilogy. He was meant to be a part of "New Recruits", but he's just in this book for now, so...there you go!

❤️❤️Luna & Mia❤️❤️