To Lyger 0: Vive la Resistance!
To Geft: D-Day has only just begun…
"I just realized: Agent Coccinelle, Davidstern, la Resistaonne… all of them were there."
Nath cocked his head, looking down at the notes that Marc held out to him. "Yes, they were." He blinked, glancing across the table in shock. "Did they really come that close to finding out about each other during the War?"
Emilie nodded. "From his journals, Grand-père was curious about it, but he didn't realize it at the time. It took until after I was woken up, when Fu and I were comparing our notes, before we figured out what had happened… and what could have happened." She sighed, her face falling. "I have wondered how differently things might have gone, if anyone had asked the right questions back in 1944. But then I look around at you kids and everything that you have accomplished, and I remind myself that all of our actions – the good and the bad – led to this point."
Paris, June 6, 1944
Racing across the rooftops of Paris in the darkness, la Resistaonne threw her head back and breathed in deeply of the crisp air, bracing and invigorating after spending so much of the last four years hiding away inside. Henri had insisted that they were not running away, that they were not cowering, that they were still doing their part for their country by sending out their butterflies and feathers to empower the Resistance. But la Resistaonne had chafed at that, at having to watch Davidstern and the others fight on their behalf. How long had it been since she had left the house while transformed? The wind whipping through her short curled hair – how she had missed that sensation!
Lights around Paris remained off – the blackout was still in effect, not that it would do the Germans any good tonight. Ironically, their own regulations had made it so much easier to carry out the first phase of the operation. As she jumped from rooftop to rooftop on her way to the rendezvous point, she glanced down to see phonelines lying in pieces on the ground across Paris, all of them having been cut the day before. She smirked. The Nazis had never seen it coming; none of them had even thought to look up when she sent her senti-crab to clip the last few intact lines in the city. She was just leaping across the Seine when a sudden explosion illuminated the cityscape to the north, followed by several more in quick succession.
It had begun.
"It has been far too long since I did this," la Resistaonne moaned, enjoying the feel of the air blowing through her hair as she landed on the south side of the river, sprinted across the street, and sprang up to the roof of the boarded-up department store on the other side, turning sharply to follow the river.
"Just make sure you take care of yourself," le Maquillon warned her, the voice crisp over her communicator. "Please don't take any unnecessary risks this evening – you are more important than any mission."
"You worry far too much, dear."
He hummed wryly. "Given that you are actually going into a fight against the blasted Nazis, while Davidstern is on the north side of the city and the Allies probably won't be here for at least a week… I would say my worries are absolutely founded."
La Resistaonne rolled her eyes. "I know exactly what I'm doing, love," she told him, springing off the roof, her sky-blue skirt billowing around her waist to slow her descent the slightest bit. Landing with her legs bent, she ran forward another half-block before skidding to a stop in the shadow of a pair of tall apartment buildings where she could just make out a group of about a dozen men and women. "I just arrived at the rendezvous point," she informed le Maquillon under her breath.
"Be careful," he replied. "And fight well."
She smirked. "You keep an eye out for any more German patrols."
"Are you Resistaonne?" asked a taller man with a tricolor armband, examining her closely up and down.
She nodded. "That's me. I take it you are Agent Remy?"
"Correct." He nodded to the others. "Philippe here is with CDLR – that's most of the manpower for our group tonight, with the exception of yourself, madame." Glancing up at the sky, he let out a breath. "Now that we're all here, let's move out. We have about an hour or so to get into position for our part in the plan. We'll take up positions now, attack at dawn, just as they are sending up the first of the patrol planes."
"I noticed a couple of explosions on the way over," la Resistaonne pointed out, falling into step with the others as they jogged across the city, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. "Your handiwork?"
"Agent Coccinelle's group is going to destroy bridges and roads to prevent the Nazis from reinforcing the coast," Agent Remy answered, nodding. "Agent Jean-Claude is leading another group which will disrupt rail traffic. One of them must have already started."
"Agent… 'Coccinelle'," la Resistaonne repeated, humming pensively. "A fascinating codename. If we all survive tonight, I would like a chance to meet this Agent Coccinelle."
Agent Remy raised an eyebrow at her dubiously.
La Resistaonne sighed, shaking her head. "Or not, I suppose."
"Unfortunately, we can't allow anything like that," Agent Remy apologized, picking up the pace as the first rays of sunlight illuminated the city around them. "It could compromise the security of an entire network, if an operative were turned or captured and gave the Nazis the wrong information."
"I understand the desire for caution," la Resistaonne assured him. "Believe me: there is no security measure you could put in place stricter than the security we have been living under for the last four years!"
Agent Remy cocked his head to one side, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. La Resistaonne withdrew her fan and flicked it open, just as a German patrol blundered around the corner in front of them. One of the two men let out a bawdy laugh and slapped his companion on the back. His companion grinned proudly and repeated something in German. Suddenly, the two soldiers froze in place, staring at the group of Resistance fighters in shock. Without hesitating, Agent Remy raised his small pistol and fired two well-placed shots, catching the two soldiers right through their eyes.
La Resistaonne raised an evaluating eyebrow at him. "Impressive shots."
His mouth set in a thin line. "When you only have a finite supply of ammunition, you learn to be careful with what you have."
"Understood." La Resistaonne nodded, glancing up to scan the rooftops and sky above them carefully for any signs of movement. At any moment, a dark-colored cloak could rustle on the breeze. The clink of a can on the road surface behind her, that could be the scraping of metal on metal. She forced herself to focus, to block out everything that could distract her. This was part of the reason she was here today. On her way to the rendezvous, the skies had been likewise clear. But just because she hadn't seen der Ritter or those others yet didn't mean they weren't about. And the last thing the Resistance needed was der Ritter or that Vampir appearing this morning to throw everything into confusion. She indicated her fan. "Fortunately, running out of ammunition is not a situation I have had to worry about before now."
"So I see." A few minutes later, about twenty minutes before dawn, Agent Remy held his hand up for them to stop, three blocks from the edge of the city closest to the airstrip. Freezing in place, la Resistaonne peered past him into the darkness, searching for any threats. "We'll fan out from here," he muttered. "Wait until the signal, and we hit them from all sides at once."
Nodding, la Resistaonne leapt up onto the roof of the closest residence, bending low to keep her profile to a minimum and running quickly across the roof to jump to the next building. Her heart pounded in her chest from the combination of exhilaration and anxiety; landing on the balls of her feet, she bent her knees and rolled to avoid any noise that might alert the Nazis ahead of them to their presence. Rolling to her feet, she froze in place, listening intently to the noises in the darkness. A couple of animals scurried around; the fluttering of wings came from somewhere nearby. But she was still alone. Carefully, la Resistaone made her way closer to the airstrip, scanning the street below at each intersection, as well as the darkened airfield ahead. Figures seemed to move in the darkness below her – the other Resistance fighters. As she went, movement caught her attention as one of the other Resistance fighters stumbled into a German guard, grabbed him over the mouth, and slit his throat. Finally, la Resistaonne reached the edge of the field and dropped off the roof to the ground, scanning the end of the runway intently. Four German fighters sat at the ready on the other end, nearest to the hangars. Sighing, she settled in to wait, crouching in a clump of bushes close to the runway.
Less than fifteen minutes later, activity erupted at the far end of the airstrip as a group of maintenance workers raced out toward the planes, followed moments later by figures in the garb of pilots. The first maintenance workers reached the closest plane and began sliding a ladder into place, while others ran to the front of the plane and started studying the engine. La Resistaonne furrowed her brows, watching them carefully for a long minute. Suddenly, gunfire erupted from the opposite end of the field, and two of the maintenance workers fell to the ground. The rest scattered, with two of the pilots scrambling into the cockpits of planes. A maintenance worker managed to kick the chocks away from one plane, just before the engine turned over. La Resistaonne gritted her teeth, plucking a feather from her fan and focusing all her concentration on it, merging the feather into the French flag pin she had affixed to a buttonhole on her suit's blouse. In front of her, four paws appeared, growing up together to form a body which sprouted a maned head, tail, and wings. The griffin's feathers and fur rippled as it shook itself, and la Resistaonne placed a hand on the senti-guard's shoulder.
"Are you ready?" she asked it, quirking an eyebrow as the first of the planes taxied down the runway. The griffin looked up at her excitedly and let out a shriek. "Go!"
With a snarl, the griffin bounded forward, leaping into the air and catching an updraft as it rose higher, pumping its wings furiously and circling around before diving toward the taxiing airplane just below it. The plane lifted off and almost immediately juked downward as the griffin pounced, nearly striking the ground before leveling off. Accelerating, the plane rushed forward, straining against the drag. The griffin clattered down onto its fuselage, its talons digging into the metal surface and ripping off small pieces as it drove its beak into the metal and tore out pieces of wire, spitting them onto the runway surface. The plane wobbled, trying to climb into the sky, but the griffin clutched it tightly, sheering off one of the wings entirely. Overbalanced and destabilized, the plane screeched, flipping over and slamming into the ground as the griffin launched off of it and higher into the air, circling around to search for the second plane.
Rushing out after the griffin, la Resistaonne flicked her fan out to full length and drew it back, just as the second plane reached the end of the runway. With a shout, la Resistaonne leaped and spun around to hurl her fan, sending it whipping through the air. The fan's edge hit the plane's propeller and cut through the nose cap, sending the plane into a nosedive straight back down into the ground. La Resistaonne held out her hand, drawing the fan back to her, just as the plane crashed down and flipped over onto its back.
Finally, la Resistaonne let out a breath and smiled. "These two planes won't be taking off anytime soon."
As she spoke, explosions rocked the opposite side of the airstrip. Resistance fighters ran away from the hangar. Moments later, the other planes and hangars crowded at the other end of the runway all exploded in a massive blaze of glory.