Heil Freedom

A/N: Wow! You actually like my story! *sniffle* And in answer to the question of why they didn't just morph small and escape, I didn't realize I hadn't put in that they're unable to morph. Otherwise, it would just be too easy for them to escape. And about the whole suddenly-becoming-other-people thing, I'll explain that in due time. And don't worry: I haven't forgotten Marco and Ax. They'll show up in due time.

DISCLAIMER: I own nobody but Otto, and Theo.

Chapter 5: On The Way To Freedom

            "Oh, man, how many people are we going to meet that we knew from the good ole days?" Jake grumbled. "First Tobias, now Aric."

            Meanwhile, Otto was frowning at Aric Konrad, an old school friend of Jake's from the days when he could actually go to school. "Aric? I thought Theo was taking this round."

            "Theo had to go off on another camp inspection for Fritzenfeld." Aric responded. "One of those kinds."

            Otto nodded in understanding. "Poor guy." Then he turned to Jake and Rachel. "Well, okay. It's no longer Cousin Theo. It's Cousin Aric. Good luck." Then he pushed them out the door.

            "This should work out perfectly now because I really do have an aunt and uncle in Copenhagen." Aric said.

            "Hey, Aric." Rachel spoke up quietly. "What do you know about Tobias?"

            "Absolutely nothing." Aric responded. "There's nobody in the SS named Tobias."

            "Why don't I believe you?" Jake muttered as they exited the car and retrieved their suitcases.

            "Good morning, Herr Konrad," the desk clerk said. "Copenhagen?"

            "Yes. I promised my aunt I'd return my cousins to Denmark. Despite the increase in security since the Fuhrer came to power, she still doesn't quite trust that some vermin might slip though the cracks." Aric answered. "She prefers that I accompany them directly to Copenhagen."

            "That's understandable," the clerk responded. "Go on right through, and have a pleasant journey."

            "Oh, I'm sure of it." Aric answered.

            Aric breezed all three of them past the physical inspections: the guards didn't even glance at them. But 'Dieter' and 'Adelaide' didn't relax until the three of them were comfortably seated in a compartment. And even then, they were still wary.

            The sounds of weeping fugitives as they were discovered at physical inspections were what they were subject to as the train pulled out of the station. Otto looked broodingly out the window. Rachel, also watching out the window, turned away as she caught a glimpse of Tobias stepping off another train. "Hmph."

            The voyage itself had virtually no problems, besides one very drunk SS entering the compartment and trying to molest Rachel. Aric and Jake quickly took care of him.

            "COPENHAGEN! ALL OFF FOR COPENHAGEN!" the conductor yelled through the aisles.

            The three stood up to get off, when Rachel suddenly clutched at Jake's sleeve. "Tell me I'm not dreaming," she whispered, face pale.

            Jake patted her hand. "I can't." he responded.

            Aric got off the train, followed by Jake and Rachel, and led them to an older couple. He greeted them, then a small voice said from behind the woman's legs, "Rachel?"

            "Sara!" Rachel gasped, kneeling down and swinging her sister up into the air. "You're safe!"

            "Of course I am." Sara responded semi-disdainfully. "I've been waiting for you forever. What took you so long?"

            "How long have you been here?" Jake asked suspiciously.

            "Umm… one month and one day." Sara answered.

            Before Rachel or Jake could comment, Aric asked his aunt and uncle, "Wasn't there supposed be a border-crossing arriving tonight?"

            "Yes, with Hans." Aloysius responded. "We'd best be going. Are you staying the night, Aric, or do you need to return to Germany now?"

            "Much as I'd love to stay the night, Uncle Aloysius, my, ah, 'duty' calls me back. Besides, I'm not the best person to be greeting the new arrivals." Aric allowed his Aunt Gretta to embrace him fondly one last time before he turned around and stepped aboard the train heading back to Berlin.

            "I've been learning Danish," Sara informed Rachel happily as she skipped beside her sister. "Frau Gretta's been teaching me. Frau Eva and Herr Walter too."

            "Eva and Walter?" Jake asked. "Marco's parents?"

            "Yep." Sara answered.

            "Marco?"

            "Jake?"

            "Ax!"

            "Rachel."

            The reunion was a bit strained. Marco and Ax, who had been living with Marco's family, had moved away almost a year before, when Walter and Eva decided it was too dangerous to stay. Jake and Rachel were sick from their extended stay in the prison; Ax and Marco were barely recognizable as the jumpy duo they had been in Germany.

            "What's a border-crossing?" Rachel asked at dinner that night.

            "That's when we get a group of refugees who have been traveling 24-7, from the camps, from prisons or directly from the cities." Eva answered, frowning at Marco as he attempted to flick a bread crumb at Jake. "They should be arriving soon."

            There came a knock at the door. Gretta opened the door to find a group of five bedraggled fugitives, led by an equally bedraggled middle-aged man, who said through chattering teeth, "Wouldn't have some hot coffee to spare, would you?"

            "Oh Hans!" Gretta exclaimed. "All of you, come in, come in." the group entered and Gretta, Eva and Rachel quickly poured some coffee into mugs for the weary travelers.

            Hans was relating some details of the journey to Aloysius, Walter, Eva and Gretta. Meanwhile, two of the fugitives had thrown their arms around the rest of the group.

            "Oh, Cassie…" Jake whispered and stroked the back of her head as she lay her head down on his shoulder. "You're safe. No more running for us."

            Meanwhile, Sara was jumping excitedly around Jordan, who being caught in a stranglehold by Rachel.

            "Cassie, may I speak with you alone for a moment?" Ax asked quietly.

            "Sure, Ax." Cassie answered and the two went into the living room as Jake joined his cousins.

            "Cassie, do you sense that something is not right here?" Ax asked.

            "I have the same feeling, Ax." Cassie agreed. "Like, I can remember the Yeerks and everything in the 90s, but I've got the memories of this time, of a childhood in Germany. It makes no sense: this is way too long ago for me to have been alive. I'm not even supposed to be born for another 43 years! My grandparents are supposed to be like, in their childhood and adolescence now. Why would this be happening if this is one of the Ellimist's tasks?"

            "I do not know, Cassie." Ax admitted. "It seems strange that Marco does not recall anything about the Yeerks or the Animorphs. He truly believes he belongs in this time. He is telling me I must grow out of these 'childhood tales'. And yet he speaks to me like I'm a child."

            "Rachel and Jake don't remember anything either." Cassie sighed. "And who knows anything about Tobias anymore. Frankly, you would think with his father having been a pastor— see, there it is again. I know Tobias lives with his uncle and has for a really long time, but I can definitely recall meeting his parents on more than one occasion. Right up until five years ago, after Hitler— again! We came in 1936, right? Right. So why do I recall 1933, 1928, 1925?!"

            Cassie was really getting worked up now.

            "I do not know, Cassie." Ax said softly. "Come. We'll leave this for tonight."

            The other three escapees had introduced themselves: Lysbeth, a woman about 40 who had escaped from Dachau, where she been imprisoned for refusing to allow her children to join the Hitlerjugend; Friedrich, a man in his mid-thirties, Aryan but wanted by the Nazis for aiding the Resistance; and Henry, an elderly Jewish man, whose family had already left for the safety of other countries: Canada, America and England.

            "I told them to get to safety first and I would follow later," he related later that evening, with tears in his eyes. "Then the Nazis withdrew my visa." He pulled out the only thing he had brought with him: a wallet containing nothing but pictures of his three children, three children-in-law and ten grandchildren. "Solomon and Ilsa and Sarah, Reuben and Nathaneal left for England three years ago. Deborah and Jakob and Elijah, Josef and Aaron have been in Canada for eight years. Thaddeus and Rachel and Naomi, Absalom, Benjamin and Ezekiel have lived in America for six months."

            "Mama's name is Naomi." Sara commented gravely. "And my name is Sara. And I have a sister named Rachel. And my cousin's name is Jakob. But we call him Jake."

            "What a coincidence." Henry smiled. "How old are you?"

            "Ten years old." Sara said proudly.

            "You're the same age as my Sarah and Reuben." Henry said. "When I write her in England, I will be sure to tell her about Sara in Denmark who is the same age as her and whose mama has the same name as Cousin Naomi, whose sister has the same name as Auntie Rachel and whose cousin has the same name as Uncle Jakob." Sara giggled and the laughter made its way around the kitchen. It was interrupted by the phone ringing and rudely cut short as Aloysius Mm-hmm-ed and Oh, no-ed and then hung up grimly.

            "They've caught Theo."