Heil Freedom
A/N: Hey! Sorry about the long wait, but I'm one busy bee this year. So bear with me!
DISCLAIMER: I own only whom I own.
Chapter 7: Theo and Theo (or are they?)
"Hey, Theo!" Jake called on the morning of September 1, 1939. "The Nazis have just invaded Poland!"
Theo muttered under his breath, "So Project Oswiecim commences. Jeez, I hope Theo's caught up on his sleep, 'cause he's not gettin' any for a while."
Theo #2, as the girls were referring to him, called again that night. Theo spent the good part of four hours on the phone with him, discussing the plans.
It was starting to bug Rachel, the way Theo #2 sounded so familiar, and yet she couldn't place his voice…
In April of 1940, almost seven months after Poland's invasion, Theo headed out with Aloysius to meet with Theo #2, as he was in Copenhagen for some sort of meeting.
"Are you sure I can't come with you?" Marco, Jake, Cassie and Rachel all begged.
"Yes." Theo told them decisively. "The less people who know Theo's physical appearance and stuff, the better."
"The boy's got a point, kids," Walter pointed out. "Aloysius is the only one who really needs to meet with Theo #2 face to face, since we don't know if Theo #1 is going to be sent to Poland or not."
"I somehow doubt it," Theo muttered. "Theo's going to take it upon himself to go to Poland."
"Then you're just going to have to talk him out of it." Aloysius told him. "We need Theo #2 right where he is."
"Yeah, but Theo's a pretty stubborn guy when it comes to the Resistance." Theo argued. "He'll twist your ear so crazily, you'll find yourself arguing him to go to Poland, and you'll realize this a month after the fact."
Aloysius sighed irritably. "I am so tired of you two boys and your bickering." He muttered. "It's like a couple of brothers. Or cousins. Or friends."
"Aloysius, do try to be back in time for the border-crossing arrivals tonight," Gretta admonished. "And Aric's coming for a little holiday."
"I will, Gretta." Aloysius assured her as the two left.
"Where is that Aloysius?!" Gretta growled under her breath as she paced around the kitchen table. "He could've at least called! And the border-crossing is late! And Aric's train is late! Everybody's late!"
Rachel looked up from the newspaper. "Don't worry about it, Gretta. The train probably got held up at the border by the new security measures. That means that the border-crossing has to be more careful when they're crossing. And who knows how long that meeting with the Theos was supposed to be?"
Cassie studied the table intently. She didn't want to say anything, but the dream she had had the night before had unnerved her about the events of tonight. It was like a travel into the future…
"Tobias, what'd they do to you?!" Theo was gasping as he knelt next to a nearly motionless body, bloodied head and wrists slowly soaking the SS uniform.
"You went to Sunday School, Theo," the voice of Theo #2 came faintly. "Take a wild guess what they'd do to a son of a pastor."
"Jake, get out of here now!" Aric screamed as the sounds of hobnailed boots sounded on the floor of the train station. "They're invading! Get going! Warn Theo and Uncle Aloysius!"
"Halt!" Harsh German came roaring through the corridors as Jake dashed out the doors again.
"Cassie or Rachel, can one of you get the phone, please?" Gretta asked as the phone jolted them out of their reverie.
Rachel grabbed the receiver and said, "Hello. Oh, hey, Jake. What? You're joking! You're not? Jake, this isn't funny! Jake! Jake! JAKOB BERENSON, stop this right this instant! You're scaring me! Just be careful. Come home right now. I'm not kidding, Jake, you get your butt back on Blue Street pronto." She hung up angrily, then turned to Gretta and Cassie and said quietly, "Jake says that the Germans are invading through the train stations." She stormed out of the kitchen in anger.
"They're invading through the streets, too." Aloysius' tired voice came as he held the door open for Theo, who came in, struggling with the almost-dead weight of somebody who was most likely Theo #2.
"Oh my goodness, what happened to you?" Cassie gasped, immediately jumping up from her chair and forgetting the dream.
"Take a wild guess," the pain-stricken voice of Theo #2 came, semi-disdainfully.
Cassie blinked momentarily, before she redirected her attention to the wounded Resistance member. Gazing closely at him, she stifled back a gasp when he lifted up his eyes to meet hers, the soft blue-green betraying more information than words could ever convey.
"That's no Resistance member. That's a traitor," Jake said, entering the kitchen and noting the SS insignia.
"Hey!" Aric's injured voice came as he entered through the front door. "Just because we wear the SS uniform, it doesn't mean we're Nazis! Give us a bit of credit here! Whoa, Theo and Theo, what happened to you? Theo, the injured Theo, I mean,"
"Just call me by my real name, please?" his faint voice came. "I haven't heard my real name in years."
"All right." Aric paused. "Hold on, I don't even know your real name!"
"That's right, you don't." Theo #1 said in wonderment. "I'm the only person who knows."
"Because you knew me pre-Hitler era." Theo #2 said dryly, drawing in a breath with a hiss as he gently lifted the sleeve of his jacket to check on his wounds. He said something in English, a language that virtually nobody but Theo #1 had even come close to mastering.
Rachel, who had stopped outside the kitchen and was hidden, listening, nearly flinched. Theo #2 sounded way too familiar. Even the inflections in his voice, the expressions he used, the use of English phrases in random spots…
"Rachel," Cassie said softly. "Come with me for a moment. I think I need to talk to you about something."
"What?" Rachel asked, allowing her best friend to pull her halfway up the flight of stairs.
"Theo #2," Cassie started. "Do you know who he is? Really."
"I don't know anything these days, Cassie," Rachel said, putting her head in her hands and shaking her head. "It's so confusing. Like I'm a visitor from another time or something, and I haven't the slightest idea where I come from or where I'm going, or why I'm here. And I blame it all on Tobias. I was fine until he betrayed us. Betrayed me. Us. Me."
"Don't be too hasty in stamping that judgment on him, Rachel." Cassie said quietly.
"Why shouldn't I?" Rachel lashed out.
"Because," Cassie hesitated.
"Hey, Jake," Theo #2 said weakly.
"How do you know my name?" Jake asked suspiciously.
There was a slightly wounded expression in Theo #2's eyes before Theo #1 said "It's Tobias, Jake."
"WHAT?!" Jake and Rachel's disbelieving and slightly outraged voices came in unison.
Tobias flinched, partially at the volume and partially at the peroxide Gretta was busy pouring over the punctures on his wrists. Though she was trying to be gentle and dabbed at it timidly, it still hurt almost as badly as the torture itself had.
"You can't be serious!" Jake raged. "What is he doing here? Let the Nazis deal with their own kind!"
Theo sighed. "Tobias, you didn't tell me this would happen. This meaning the reaction we appear to be getting from Rachel and Jake."
"I wasn't expecting to survive torture if I got caught, y'know." Tobias said bluntly. He held up a wrist, where there was a hole at least two centimetres in diameter. "Tell you the truth, I think it's a miracle I made it here at all. I figured I would bite it— Rachel? Rachel's here?"
"Yeah." Aric answered. "Why is this such a surprise to you?"
"I dunno." Tobias mumbled. "I just figured she was on her own with Jordan and Sara. Maybe Cassie, but—"
"No, Aunt Gretta found them all so adorable, she couldn't toss them out." Aric supplied. "Corny though it may sound."
"How do you know about Jordan and Sara and Cassie?" Jake asked suspiciously.
"Hello, person who arranged for you all to come here in the first place." Theo said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the whole world. He pointed at Tobias for added emphasis.
"What?" Rachel's clearly skeptical voice came from the doorway.
"Rach, you're a smart girl," Aric drawled. "You can figure it out."
Rachel glowered at Aric before thinking back to years ago…
"Don't think I don't realize that. All right, go down the hallway until you reach number 1019. Knock softly on the door, and tell them I sent you. Now!"
Tobias frowned as the last man of the five hundred or so passed through the door, then stepped away from the door, leaving two armed and nasty-looking SS officers guarding the exit. He headed into the crowds, and as prisoners pushed in their haste to get away, Sara was torn from Rachel's grasp and disappeared among the remaining prisoners. Rachel caught a glimpse of Sara's blonde head as she emerged from the crowds near the door, and looked around desperately. Tobias materialized from the shadows of the badly lit room behind Sara, and while Rachel frantically shook her head, Tobias crouched down to be at Sara's eye level and said something softly to her. She answered equally softly and then he smiled and responded.
Rachel was ready to kill him. He had used the same smile the first time she had ever met him, the one that no girl in possession of her sanity could resist.
Sara seemed to relax slightly and headed towards the door, then stopped and said something agitatedly to Tobias, who looked back behind him and then answered. Sara willingly disappeared behind the door and the three SS guards, including Tobias, slammed the door shut with a final-sounding bang.
"Cassie, and Jordan, and Sara," Jake asked.
"All taken care of." Otto said.
"How do we know that?" Rachel asked.
"Whoever your connection is here is pretty high up. You've got forged papers, alias, and train tickets. The guy who's accompanying you will be SS, so you'll immediately bypass all physical examinations at borders." Otto said, ignoring Rachel's question.
"SS?" Rachel asked skeptically.
"Not all ethnic Germans are bigots. Or traitors." Otto repeated.
"You were playing the SS the whole time," Jake said quietly.
"Using," Tobias corrected. "Not playing, using. I wasn't just on it for a joyride, y'know. I used them, yes, I did."
"And they found you out." Cassie finished.
"That would be correct." Tobias affirmed.
"And you're still alive?" Rachel asked skeptically.
At this, Tobias seemed to lose any cheer he might've retained. "Even torturers need dinner and sleep. They stuck me back in my cell for the night and Otto busted me loose. Probably at cost to his own life. I don't know how he figured he was going to pull it off. I came here by Route 284."
"Ouch. That's a long way to go after surviving torture." Theo flinched. "Who was on duty?"
"Tobias!" Sara said in surprise as she entered the kitchen, followed by Jordan. "Gee, somebody roughed you up pretty bad."
"No really?" Aric asked semi-sarcastically. "So who was on duty, Tobias?" he repeated.
Tobias hissed in pain again as Gretta accidentally spilt peroxide in the open wound again. "That –ow!— Baldwin guy they transferred from Dachau,"
"Ouch."
"And –yeow!— Bing Clovis."
Despite herself, Rachel snorted. "Bing Clovis? Sounds like a children's entertainer."
"Sure." Tobias gasped in pain again. "One wielding a… flog… and gun… and…"
"Nail and mallet?" Jordan supplied, taking one looked at the finally clean but reopened wound on Tobias' wrist and turning a vile shade of green.
"Yeah, that too. No, wait, no. That was Baldwin." Tobias inhaled sharply as Gretta started on the other wrist while Cassie, taking pity on the poor boy, started wrapping the wrist. "No, Cassie, it needs to be tighter."
"Tobias, any tighter and I'll be cutting off circulation," Cassie answered.
Tobias shook his head. "If Gretta didn't have possession of my other hand, I could stick all five fingers in the space between bandage and wrist. It's too loose. Tighten it."
Cassie glared momentarily at him, but did as she was asked, as Tobias just looked so pathetic and ready to drop asleep right where he was sitting. "Tobias, stay awake." She ordered.
Tobias seemed to ignore the admonishment and his eyes began to flutter shut when Rachel finally reached over and pinched him hard in the nape of the neck. Jolting awake, he yelped "What was that for?!"
"Wake up," Rachel said calmly, crossing her arms.
"That's going to leave a bruise," Tobias whined, rubbing his free hand over the injured area.
"Tobias, that's not hard to do." Aric pointed out. "A person could brush against you and leave a bruise."
"True enough," Cassie laughed, sitting back on her heels. "Now, what does your head feel like?"
"If you even come near me with a bandage, it's going to be a Q-Tip." Tobias commented dryly. "I don't need anything for my head. Just a wet cloth should do fine. These guys didn't even dig them quite as deep as the Roman soldiers would've."
"A what? And what's this about Roman soldiers?" Jake wondered aloud.
Theo, meanwhile, had paled. "They tried to—"
"Not 'tried', 'did'." Tobias said quickly, cutting off the rest of Theo's exclamation.
"That's a new approach," Aric commented. "Never heard of them ever—"
"It's supposed to be a 'top-secret method'," Tobias said satirically. "They've been discussing it in high places for the last two months. Every single meeting. Ugh." He shuddered.
"What did they do?" Rachel asked evenly, watching as Tobias tried futilely to pull his sleeve back over his bandaged wrists.
"You don't need to know," Tobias answered, equally evenly.
"Why don't you go change clothes?" Gretta said pointedly. "Jake should have some clothes that fit you."
"Of course they'll fit." Jake muttered under his breath. "I've been abused for years, starved for months, jailed for weeks and he's still smaller than me."
"You're just a big guy, Jake." Aric grinned.
"Can I help it if I'm built like a Nazi?" Jake snapped.
"Can we just go?" Tobias asked. "I want clean clothes. I don't ask much, do I?"
"But then, you're coming straight back down here, Tobias Dietrich, and you are telling me exactly how it is you got caught." Theo added firmly.
"And that is a tale in itself." Tobias muttered as he hobbled up the stairs cautiously, aided in part by Sara and Cassie.