1935 then 1945, wanna guess whose showing up next chapter? c: Also! The speech excerpts are not mine, they actually are apart of the Nuremberg Speeches for the Nuremberg Laws. (They're owned by Hitler)


"Remember to keep your distance, woman." Hitler wasn't in a good mood it seemed. That wasn't exactly rare so I simply nodded and took another step back, I was already disguised as a man in my own black suit, boots, and hat. At first he'd resisted a women following him around to keep him safe, then he watched a training session.

We stood behind a couple of doors with other people on the side, waiting for him to announce his antisemitic laws. He'd begun his reign of terror already, restricting jobs and intermarrying. HYDRA continued to say this was only the beginning but that they must wait before sliding the rest of the the people into his ideal society. 1935, September 15th...it had begun, the limiting of freedoms and liberty. It made me angry not angry enough to risk myself and the thousands that stood in front of us with their pads of papers and pencils or children and their toys.

"Today we see the new era beginning. Today! We have made a stride for all of Germany. We see the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour! And! the Reich Citizenship Law! Only true Germans are here today! Russia planned a world revolution and German workmen would be used but as cannon-fodder for Bolshevist imperialism. But we National Socialists do not wish that our military resources should be employed to impose by force on other peoples what those peoples themselves do not want. Our army does not..." His speech voice was always mildly interesting. He was nearly expressionless but his voice...it held qualities of power and of dignity. It jumped to leave an impression even if it was in German.

This was a shorter speech so I surveyed the crowd. They were almost in a froth with admiration for this awkward man. I knew his rise to power had a lot to do with HYDRA but I didn't understand how the German people fell for this...well. They'd been starving, dying, and angry. They would have fallen for anything.

"The brutal mass slaughters of National Socialist fighters, the burning of the wives of National Socialist officers after petrol had been poured over them, the massacre of children and of babies of National Socialist parents, e.g. in Spain, are intended to serve as a warning to forces in other lands which represent views akin to those of National Socialism..." Good grief, he was pulling at the heart strings now. Lovely.

This was just to smooth it over when he began to assist Franco in the Spanish Civil War that was also the doing of HYDRA. I was again reminded of their slogan, "Cut one head and two more will grow." it appeared that these heads were Hitler and Franco for now. They couldn't seriously be continued after so long...probably.

I saw him do his little Heil signal with his hand as he turned and went back inside, the crowds went bloody wild to return his signal with gusto. He never did the full hand in the air signal, which was just as well considering I never did it.

"Where to next, leader?" I queried as I followed behind him, hands behind my back.

"We must prepare for Spain, of course. The early bird catches the worm." He declared, walking down the carpeted hallway to out of the building. We were on the road again then, wonderful. I hate the car rides.


"Again, Halles?" I sighed, wiping the sweat off my brow as I stood up from the training mats. He'd been my trainer for the last 18 years, going on 19, I was officially 37 years old but I know I didn't look it. I hadn't grown or aged since I was infected with their serum according to the scientists and doctors that surrounding me like rats. I almost wished that it'd killed me all those years ago.

"You may take a break." He rolled his eyes, throwing a bottle of water my direction. I caught it easily and opened it, taking a sip. I'd begun to forget what life was like in America. I couldn't recall what my father's face looked like the day I left home to go join my Women's suffrage cause I just knew he'd be angry or disappointed. He'd be 19 years older now considering his birthday had been in June and it was already December. Life must have moved on without me in America.

"Halles." I looked back to the brown haired man that had both ruined my life and prolonged it exponentially. He was always serious looking, brown eyes with a tight mouth and narrowed eyes. He raised a brow, not actually answering my call.

"What are you called?" I tilted my head, looking at him. He looked genuine taken aback as he processed my question.

"Luke. My name is Luke." His mouth tightened when he answered. I realised his eyes had roamed and so had he apparently, turning abruptly away to speak to one of the rats in white coat about my progress.

"Prooms, follow me." He gave me a rough hand gesture and started down the rounded hallway. Sometimes I felt we were in a bomb shelter, and that could have been very likely given HYDRA's propensity for paranoia.

We came into a larger room whose walls were lined with some form of technology I hadn't paid attention to before, large metal boxes and strings of metal were everywhere. In the center stood the same doctor that I'd remembered from the Workhouse in Virginia.

He looked meek now, holding his case to his front and frowning at me. I'm sure I was quite the sight, sweaty and wearing men's clothes. Another man stood next to him, taller and more grim looking with black hair that had been shaven down and blue eyes. His shoulder bore the Nazi swastika, reminding me of where I was.

The tall man smiled at us as we came into the room. I stopped beside Halles and waited for a command of some sort. "Doctor Erskine. How kind of you to join us from the Swiss border." Halles greeted both the doctor and the tall man that I'd come to realise was Johann Schmidt.

I'd seen him at multiple meetings with Hitler's commanders. He was important to the leader because Hitler share a passion for occult power and Teutonic myth. Hitler used his fantasies to inspire his followers, but for Schmidt, it was obviously not a fantasy. For him, it is real when I came into existence...so why was he here and not in Spain to assist with the civil war?

"I-I know you believe in a superior man b-but. I cannot supply you with this specimen." Erskine was hesitant, scared even. I wonder what they could hold over them that would be so precious as to deal with these people.

"Professor Erskine...we know that the superior man will not be born. He will not be a member of any "master race". No, he'll be a race unto himself and you are going to help me make him." Schmidt smiled, putting his hand on Erskine's shoulder as a show of dominant power. He motioned to me, for me to step forwards. I followed his commands with little regard for this situation.

"This...woman is our poor concocted master piece, our Officer X, but we must make a man. The true superior man, Professor. Do you understand?" Schmidt's eyes slanted away from mine back to Erskine's who looked to be on the verge of a breakdown. I didn't realise I'd gained a title in my time.

"Yes, I-I understand. But. You... work with Nazis even though you do not follow their ideology?" His voice shook as the hand on his shoulder gripped him harder. There was something else going on here if they'd asked him if he understood. He had to have shown his lack of loyalty some how to be treated roughly but he had the knowledge they needed to keep him alive.

"Well that is a story for another time. We're not as likely to believe you, Doctor. So. We wanted to assure you that your wife, Greta and your children...Marlene was it? And little Klaus, will be in Dachau." I peered back at Halles as he essentially introduced the leverage they held over this man.

Halles was a cruel man. I knew that from the moment I'd met him and he nearly broke my nose, he was vindictive with little patience but what he lacked in patience, he made up in determination. I looked back to see Erskine's face ashen even more if it were possible. He was scared now.

"Perfect. You will be working with Professor Arnim Zola. He's already given us many wonderful inventions." Schmidt motioned for a round-headed man with a receding hair line to come away from the boxes of metal. I couldn't recall seeing this man before and had to assume that he'd been recently recruited over the last year. I didn't like him either but to be fair, I hated literally everyone in this room excluding parts of me.

"O-oh?" Erskine's voice shook still as he sat down the traveling case he'd been using as a sort of shield.

"Oh yes. He's given us many wondrous war machines. Exo-skeleton suits, vehicles, weapons...we are proud to have him." Schmidt praised the rat-like man whose walk reminded me quite a bit of duck...or a pregnant woman.

"I look forward to working you with Erskine." Zola adjusted his glasses to sit higher up on his nose as he went to shake Erskine's hand. It'd occurred to me that I'd been brought in an example of what these men should be striving towards, a freak case in the number of deaths they'd had. I was supposed to die in absolute agony and I did for a time, then it was like a switch had been flipped and I awoke.

Halles bowed his head to Schmidt who waved us away, we'd fulfilled our purpose entirely and he didn't care for us anymore. Halles followed me silently to my room where he dawdled along the doorway.

"Is there anything more I am needed for?" I stared at him as he blocked my passage into the room for some god awful reason, I just wanted to change clothes. While I enjoyed wearing trousers, I wasn't fond of them sticking to my skin.

He paused for a second which threw me. "The leader will be holding a meeting in exactly 30 minutes, I expect you there in 20. Heil Hitler." He did his little stamp and raised his arm in the typical Nazi salute. Mine was as enthusiastic as Hitler's, a little halfhearted movement of my elbow, it was a formality.


I was bored most of the time, no one dared to lay a finger on the leader, I'd followed him from Spain to Lithuania to Poland as he captured and assisted in each territory's chaos. It seemed everyone finally figured this out ten years later as Hitler's forces began to shrivel up and Schmidt asked for me to come back to his fortress.

I'd actually asked why when I received the orders from the leader who claimed it was because I was needed as a subject now that Doctor Erskine had been taken by the Americans. I envied Erskine in that moment, even more so than I hated him. The fortress itself was cold and black, everything had the oddest blue glow to it.

"Officer X, its been a while." Halles greeted me with a straight face, it was odd that he'd address me by a nickname instead of just 'Prooms' or 'Lillian'. His uniform was even odder than the nickname. It was all black and held the HYDRA insignia on his belt and medals.

"I suppose." I shrugged, nodding back to him. I was tired of these people and this game of cat and mouse with the German empire. I wanted to go back home.

"The real reason I have called you here is to tell you that the Americans are slowly taking our bases. They have already captured France, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia as of February." Schmidt spoke up from his table covered in maps and thumbtacks for areas of attack. Oh great. I was actually asked here to kill more people. Lovely.

"And you can only assume they are coming here now." I motioned to the surrounding snow covered Alps with a sigh. This was the last base as it was the heart of Schmidt's mythological studies.

"Exactly." Schmidt nodded giving me a tight smile. I stared at him for a second, his skin...just looked odd to me. Tight. Too tight over his face. At first I was entirely put out with this set of circumstances but...then my brain began to roll. If the Americans had come all the way to the Alps...they were strong. I could get out of here using them. But I need to wait for the right moment.