Plura Ater Nox

Chapter 10

The group, La Résistance, was formed around the same instance, a small group of dissidents within the heart of the German empire found themselves in disgust of the Third Reich and its leader, the Führer. They began to speak of their disrespect and disinclination towards the forced loyalty to their Machiavellian dictator leader that savagely overran Europe in the storm of a blinding Blitzkrieg.

Unlike the majority of the resistance factions that sprang up for the people's cause over the landmass of Europe, this particular group found itself in the heart of it all and would soon find themselves at the ruthless hands of the Gestapo. The only problem was, they didn't know it. They truly believed that they were doing what was right, as many others did.

The three leading figures were two males and a female. They had entitled themselves The White Rose after a recently published Spanish novel one of them had read recently. In addition to just themselves they had a group of friends who felt the same way, join them. They all shared their common hatred and disgust for the Third Reich.

They were somewhat of an underground resistance force, as many others were. They slowly began to plot their glorious uprising in the streets against the suppressive government that was more beast than man. They had some leaflets that had been written up, crying out their tale for the world to hear.

Brushing her platinum, pale whitish-blond hair from her face, the leading female of the group, stood up from her chair, swinging her legs around as her feet came into connection with the hard linoleum floor. She smiled brightly at her best friend, on whom she had a mild crush, but couldn't ever confess. After doing so, she moved to where he was and gazed over his shoulder at what he was writing.

The young man, a golden-eyed lad with striking silverish hair, slaved over a document that would be the latest of the group's leaflets. A pensive expression spanned over his featured, as he intensely gazed at he page, his hand fiercely working to script down the latest details the group had found. They were only on their second leaflet, but they certainly had captured the fancy of the people.

A second young man gazed up from his work. He pivoted his chair around to watch his friends, as he did, his less-than shoulder length hair spun with him. It was a deep chocolate brown and was contrasted with strikingly soft grey eyes. He wore in his hair a white rose as a symbol of his cause.

"How's the scripting faring?" He queried, gazing at his silver-haired friend.

"Not bad, we'll be done this leaflet soon enough." The golden-eyed youth replied; gazing up at the young woman that stared down amiably at him.

"I have the necessary stamps needed for circulation." The young woman injected. "How far do you want to expand our campaign today?"

"As far as we can, without catching any attention from the bloody Gestapo."

"They seem to be crawling everywhere these days. Avoidance oft seems inevitable. Had a horrid encounter none but yesterday."

"They didn't note you much? Did they interrogate you?"

"Thankfully no, but they certainly give me the creeps. Lord I feared my blush and red ears would have given me away as some form of a traitor. I felt that they surely would have plucked me off the streets and charged me with treason." She touched her hand over her heart and let out a breath of relief.

"That's good. Don't need them damned bastards breathing down our neck because of twisted ideas that horrid man has. Can't believe the German folk were desperate enough to have voted that asshole into power!" The golden eyed young man snarled.

"Calm down. No need to get riled up. Save that energy for later." The female replied, her slender hands gently massaging his tense shoulders. "It's not good for your health."

The golden eyed youth moaned softly. Her hands could calm him so easily. "I guess you're right. I should save my energy for when it's really needed."

"We have an incoming request from Silent Lightening!" The other male stated. He wandered over, picking up the receiver. He switched into French. "Oui, Plant Guardian, over."

"Plant Guardian, this is Silent Lightening. I'm glad you're there!" The one who claimed the handle moniker of Silent Lightening cooed eagerly over the radio. "We face great problems here! One of Hitler's lead men has taken over our base, making it near impossible for us to conduct any meetings without being subjugated to intense scrutiny. Over."

"Intense, how so? Over." Concern deeply laced the voice of Plant Guardian.

"To the point of discovering that there is a form of dissent here, a small rebellion and resistance in the works." Silent Lightening replied, her voice shaking, as if she felt she was being closed observed. It could be noted that her hands were shaking from the break in the consistency of her voice inflection and level.

"Or so they think. Try hiding pointless evidence to misguide them for the time being until you and others can get your plans back in tact." Plant Guardian sighed softly, his breath echoing in the equipment. "They don't know about the lines of communication yet? Over."

"Hopefully not. Though I fear greatly that...that they might be monitoring us, waiting to...to attack and make us pay." Her voice was cracking. Though no one could see her, from the sound of it, she was likely on the verge of tears.

She swallowed reflexively. Her breath was hardly under control. "I...got a threat this morrow for the documents found beneath my mattress in the barracks I share. I...I fear for not just my life but for those of my friends. Over."

"Stay in control. They thrive off fear. You started the resistance, now hold up even in the face of fear. You're leading strong women and they need a strong leader. Over."

"Plant Guardian!" His golden eyed friend exclaimed suddenly. "We've got GESTS."

The young man nodded. "Silent Lightening, this is Plant Guardian, approaching Gestapo! Over and out!"

Promptly hanging up and killing the connection, Plant Guardian worked to conceal the presence of the communication equipment whilst his colleagues worked with disguising everything else.

The young woman sighed. "Don't they ever get tired of enforcing laws that are absolutely meaningless at this point." She twirled a strand of hair around her finger as she spoke.

"Apparently not." The silver-haired youth bitterly replied, walking to the door, opening it. He was greeted by a group of about seven unimpressed and impatient Gestapo officers, headed by a burly man with a mean face.

The man grabbed the youth by the collar. "All right, listen and listen carefully. For the last three months we've detected radio waves coming unauthorised from this area. Explain and choose your words wisely for they may be your last!"

"It's true, we do have a radio and we've been using it to communicate with family over across in Austria who have military connections and loyalties. They haven't considered a telephone yet, for that is too ungodly for them." The young smiled sweetly in attempt to pass off a blatant lie and twisted truth in place of the hard facts.

A menacing growl escaped the officer; a red hint of anger visibly flashed in his eyes. "I sense a fib in your words, but you appear to be telling the truth. I'll let you and your comrades get away with it, but if we should find out you have indeed lied to us and that there is more than what meets the eye, expect a brief trial and execution for lying to the state."

"I've never considered lying, sir. I believe in the state and that we will prosper from the war in the long run." He added to himself. 'That's a crap load of shit if I ever heard it!' The burly Gestapo officer curtly thrust the boy to the ground and summoned for his officers to halt the raid. "You won't find anything worthwhile in this hovel."

"Right!" The men saluted their commanding officer.

Turning back to the three youths, the commanding officer of the present Gestapo faction, let out a short growl and scathing words. "As for you three, I want to see proof of citizenship right now."

The three youth, in the heat of utter fear, fumbled for the papers resting on their desks and handed them to the officer. Seizing them with aggression, his eyes glanced over, carefully searching for anything that would incriminate the greenness.

He turned to the young lady. "State your name, date and place of birth."

"Elisabet Schuldich, born January 2th, 1923 in München, Bayern."

He nodded. Casting a hard piercing death glare on the first of the two young men, he snorted scornfully. And made a short gesture for said young man to reply to the same question.

"Nickolaus Wendell, born June 23rd, 1921 in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstien." The one who adopted the handle of Plant Guardian for his own usage.

Without missing a beat nor wishing to heed the prompt from the commanding Gestapo officer, the final youth, the young man with the smooth gazing golden eyes rattled off his data with confidence. "Theodor Dietrich, born April 4th, 1921 in Vienna, Austria. Immigrated to Berlin in 1938."

The officer curtly glanced over the three youths before thrusting the papers in frustration onto the table. How he loathed not catching the dissents when he believed he was truly right. But he did have this nagging feeling about these three that he couldn't write off.

Growling in frustration, commanding officer, Constable Aaron Schnip, turned from the group of three, storming out. He had been so sure he'd catch either some defiant Jew or a dissent. On his way out, his massive hand knocked over a table, toppling a pile of documents, which he paid no mind to.

Behind him scurried out his minion officers. They trampled the pile of fallen papers. Their boots left notable track marks over what were immaculate white sheets of paper. Some even went as far to purposely scuff their boots over to destroy what might be still salvageable after their little visit.

Glaring in contempt as the Gestapo faction departed and shut the door with a building shuddering slam, Theodor muttered something under his breathe, " Scheiße...wertloser sohn eines weibchens!"

* Shit...worthless bastards.

Elisabet could only sigh, feeling helpless. Her soft eyes roved over the area coming upon the stack of ruined papers. Staring at the mess for a moment, she got a strange look in her eyes. Her pupils became dilated and her eyes wildly sightless. At the same moment an unusual brilliant breath-taking white light encased the papers, returning them to their original state of being.

Author's Notes: The White Rose was one of many youth resistance groups formed in Germany at the height of the Second World War. It's main objective was to get people to resist the Third Reich and its dictatorial powers that stole rights from the average citizen and restore the older government.

The White Rose - [http://www.jlrweb.com/whiterose/]