Twice she saw Soviet troops as she made her way over, neither time were they any closer than a few hundred meters from her. The terrain was tough, but she continued on as best she could to avoid detection the entire way.

Having moved quickly down the levels of the abandoned apartment complex and past the covering roadblock, Maho was able to make her way down the steep gully slope, and climbing her way up the other side into the mass the wooden houses standing in front of the hopefully German secured building on the other side.

Amongst the small structures, as she made her way through. Always keeping in mind that at any move or moment all together, her luck could run out… and her life along with it.

However much to her own surprise, her luck… and her life remained intact up to that point. With but a few houses left behind her on the upward slope, she could finally see her destination in front of her. All that now was in the way was a small alley with a single doorway on the right side and the street that ran parallel to the apartment building after that.

Her progress to this point has largely been hampered by these little acts of high alertness to her surroundings. She passed the doorway to her right, cautiously swooped below the small windowsill that was on it.

She looked around both corners as cautiously as possible. There didn't seem to be much sign of activity were left. The buildings within the immediate area revealed nothing through intact and broken window alike; while not far down the street from her, a barely soiled Reichskriegsflagge hung from the upper floors of the main apartment building, slowly fluttered in the wind of that hot summer day.

'Both sides must have called back for the time being.'

She heard a whistle sound from ahead, and as she turned her head back towards the building, a German sentry was motioning for her to come across.

Maho couldn't imagine her luck, most others that she would tell after this would call it rather anticlimactic actually. She didn't cared for personal stories of that sort however, and in her mind the more anti-climactic this day ended the better.

She took her first step, about to take a running start.

"…Allo!?"

She stopped in her tracks.

Did she just hear that? Was her mind playing tricks in its present state of hyper alertness? Was there someone nearby?

She looked at the small home to her left. Much of the roof facing towards the road was almost completely caved in. Wooden shingles littered the floor around her, and thick black smoke was beginning to billow up from within it.

"...Allo! Kyo-to tam!?"

It was definitely Russian, that much she was sure of…

She paused for a moment, unsure of as what she should do next. No, she knew what she SHOULD do. However, she could feel the hesitation in herself, and she just couldn't figure out why.

'Move on.'

She startled. 'Was that just?' Although she couldn't identify the voice that just spoke to her, it couldn't have been the one trapped inside. And there was no one else around either, at least no one that could have talked to her as just before.

'Just move on already. Some Russian is nowhere near worth your time.'

It was her own, and at that moment of realization, it terrified her. More than anything that she had ever encountered or ever will.

She tried to shut it out of her consciousness, but the more she tried, the more it came back.

'Remember who and what you are Maho…'

That was a line she knew all too well, to the point that she could have an easier time counting the people that hasn't ever told her that at some point in her life. Her head wanted to split as she leaned up against the wall to keep herself steady.

She was fighting hard within the vicious dueling that was taking place within the deepest confines of her mind. The other side of her was winning though; slowly, but still winning over none the less. Someone was probably going to die again because of her weakness and she hated herself for that. She had to be strong, if not for herself, than at least for…

'Got cha!'

Her eyes shot open wide with new vigor. The battle had been won for now at least.

"Hold on!"

All she got in response was the muffled coughing louder and more horrid than anything she had ever hear someone make before.

Everything else in her mind became blank. Having seen no door on either the back or side before, the legs kicked right into action; and with precaution completely in the wind she ran right through the cluttered alleyway. And with little more than a quick glance around the edge of the building with little thought to what she saw, came right into the open.

Unbeknownst to her, the German sentry had already disappeared. Without any reliable communications throughout the newly taken building, he was quickly racing down the nearest flight of stairs to alert the unit CO of the incoming friendly from across the street way, alerting any other soldier on guard to avoid and incidents of friendly fire. While down the street quite always, a Soviet artillery spotter peered through his binoculars at the first sign of movement.

Reaching for his radio, he made a report of suspicious enemy activity within his area.

Ignorant of the quickly turning gears of the world around her, Maho simply focused onto the structure in front of her. Of very plain construction, there was little decoration to the house's exterior. In the front, all that broke out from the otherwise uniform pattern of evenly lengthen cuts of wood and nails, was only a single door and window.

The window was immediately out of the question. With the solid appearing metal framing that cut the already small opening into quarters, jagged shards of glass stuck out. Going through it would be no quick or easy task. Like with almost any other scenario of entering a building then, the door was her primary way by which to enter.

She reached for the metal knob to turn it.

It was locked.

Maho quickly fidgeted with the handle to get it to open, to no effect other than to grow her worry and frustration.

She then resorted to kicking several times before slamming her shoulder into it in frustration. Her wounded arm burned in protest, but still was unable to force the door open.

'This isn't good. This isn't good.'

Seeing that she wouldn't be able to force the door open under her own strength, she placed her head up against the door in hopes of hearing anything from inside. Nothing.

A large lump formed within her throat, but she would not just walk away now. Hoping that no one directly behind it, she took a step back from the doorway as she brought her hand up in front of her. Maho then squeezed the trigger three times into the area of the locking mechanism. Metal warped and wood splintered as the rounds forced their way through.

With one last kick, the stubborn lock finally gave way, and a thick black cloud of smoke burst through to great her.

Her eyes watered now from the heat, but she was already far to committed to pull back now.

From all directions within the room the sounds of dancing flames and crackling wood filled the red stained darkness that consumed it.

Had she been any closer to the girl without noticing, she probably would have tripped right over her. The heat and smoke blurred her vision to near nothing, but she was still able to distinguish her outline on the floor, along with a great beam that pinned her down to it.

Moving as fast as she could, she reached down and heaved the large boards off of her.


The first thing she noticed was the burning in her eyes, and the second being a similar sensation radiating out from both of her lungs as she began to cough on the heated air that filled them.

At first everything was but a dark blur. She couldn't seem to be able to bring up her right hand she closed her eyes as tightly as possible in an attempt to clear her vision.

Somewhat working, she was still only just able to distinguish out anything around from a dark haze filling the room. Smoke. Save for one side from which a bright red glow was emitted.

She looked through squinted eyes to what she was able to vaguely remember as the location of the small kitchen.

While the 75mm shell held nowhere near enough high explosive to completely destroy the building, (and killing her instantly along with it); much of the upper front wall and ceiling had been blown away, sending red hot shrapnel and debris as a result. At least one burning piece had landed in the kitchen; either directly on or in close proximity to the small stove's fuel source, and has quickly lead to the entire far side of the room be become engulfed in flames, filling the rest of the home much faster than the new opening could vent out.

Her first thought was of getting out as fast as possible. The thought of the Germans didn't even register to her, she had to get out of there.

She tried to get to her feet but couldn't.

Partially leaned up against the back wall from the blast. Her left arm was pinned under her body, and her right felt nearly twisted under the strain of several massive pieces of fallen debris.

Though she was a girl, she was still able to rank among the strongest of her village, a simple fallen wooden beam shouldn't be that much of a problem. She simply repositioned herself to force it off.

However, with even the slightest amount of pressure given to move the piece, a torrent of pain shot threw her arm in protest.

She made another hard effort to free herself under it, without even the slightest budge to reward her efforts. The way that the beams held her arm in made it impossible for her to force them off, and her awkward position against the back wall left little room to roll out from under either.

There was only one thing left that she could think to do that might just help her.

"Hello!?"

She called for help, as loud as she could muster, though little more than a normal talking kevel came out, strained to nearly beyond recognition.

"Hello! Is anyone there!?"

For a split second she thought she heard yelling. It was faint and muffled, but she swore that it almost sounded like it was…

The smoke was getting thicker, and with it the temperature of the air was constantly raising. Her throat burning beyond tolerance, and her lungs straining to absorb what oxygen it could from the deprived super-heated air.

She began coughing profusely to the point that her insides began to hurt from the effort.

Several muffled gunshots rang out nearby, but that was nothing new.

Her consciousness was fading quickly. It didn't seem like she was going to make it out of this place. She let her heavy eyelids close over, ready to accept the fate made available in hopes that the lack of oxygen would do the dead long before the dancing flames had the chance.

'I'm sorry Katyusha. I wasn't even strong enough to save myself this soon.'

Suddenly the weight that was pinning her right arm to the ground was cast aside with a heavy grunt before the sensation of a light hand holding onto her shoulder took its place.

She looked up expecting the form of a fellow Soviet rifle man looking down at her, or at least some sort of visual aid that would identify the person as such. Her eyes widened despite the heat.

Instead of the drown uniform that she had grown accustomed to over recent months, a dark clad figure leaned over her trying to pull her up. At first the urge to stand up and resist came forward, it drove her to get to her hands and knees, but then found that she was too dazed to go any further on her own.

Without any other option, she let the obscured person grab a hold of her and lift her up to her feet.


She was weak, nearly limp on her shoulder in much the same way as Muller not long before. She will have to find a place to look over her if she gets the chance. But before that she would have to get her way out of the small house before the smoke killed the both of them.

Turning back in the direction that she had come from, Maho looked to see a slight outline from the opened doorway as the smoke began to pour out through it.

With the girl now firmly braced against her, Maho moved for the opening as low as possible. The distance was small, and the time thereafter within the quickly burning structure brief.

She prepared to make for the building across the street where she could tend to the girl within a secured area. With the sound of a pop and a splinter though, she came to a halt.

The almost tranquil environment had completely changed with quick burst of fire sounded out from multiple directions, though nowhere near the intensity to indicate that either side was preparing to make any serious move onto the other.

Not wanting to be caught in the open with the girl on her shoulder, she kneeled down just outside the door looking around her.

Crossing the road at that moment was clearly out of the question, and the similarly destroyed house to her left was not much better as a second option. The intact hut on the right hand side that she had just past before was at the moment the best of her available choices.

The ground to the left of her licked up with the echoing pop of a distant rifle. She hugged up against the wall for cover and inching over with the girl still leaning against her.

Heading right back down the small alleyway to the side door that she had passed not long prior. She was grateful that the door was unlocked requiring little more than a quick turn of her free wrist to gain entry.

Unlike with the flat that she had entered in before, the thought of searching the area didn't even register to her as she turned her attention to the barely responsive girl leaning on her shoulder.

Maho glanced around the room to see a door slightly ajar on the far end revealing a bed placed behind it. She briskly walked through it with a quick thrust of her leg to open the way through.

The bed showed no sign of recent use to the point that a layer of fine dust has long since settled onto it. Not wanting to kick the particles into the air, Maho slightly leaned down towards the mattress to fold over the top blanket before helping the girl down into a sitting position as gently as possible. She didn't even care or notice as her cap was knocked off her head by the girl's arm.

With her seated in front of her, Maho took a long look at the other girl for the first time.

Her skin was as white as the finest quality porcelain, and her hair as dark as the deepest corners of the black forest itself.

From what she could see as well, she seemed to be slightly taller than herself. And while her clothing was almost completely covered in thick soot, she could still make out that it was that of a soldier of the Red Army.

She couldn't see her face as she was coughing towards the ground. The smoke had definitely taken its toll on her.

'It might not be that much help. But it's better than nothing.'

She reached for her canteen. There was little more than a few sips left inside, and while it was still better than nothing in helping to ease the girl's scorched throat, it was far from the amount that she could have hoped to have in such a situation.

"It'll have to do."


" Es wird zu tun haben."

Her eyes shot wide open to the sound of her just so called savior's voice. That was no Russian; far, far from.

A uniform that was indeed as black as night, and nearly drenched in blood at a number of places.

She looked up to the person's face to see that the person was turned away from her reaching for something on the ground. While she couldn't see the other person's face, something else caught her eyes however. Something that turned her mental state from that of milled shock and confusion, to one of almost absolute horror.

'Are those, Skulls?!'

At the sight of the cap by the German's side. Her skin paled completely to stories from soldiers about the occupied west. Tales about the black wolf packs that followed close behind the sweeping German army, descending from city to village alike, and leaving little but burned rubble and bodies in their wake. The young, the old; men, women, chil-.

She felt towards her waist where her belt was secured to find her blade still there. The world around her began to slow. If she was going to pull it off, she'll have to do it quick.

Nonna lunged forward onto the unsuspecting soldier, and in a quick blur of black and brown was firmly straddled on top of her with a knife at her throat.

She didn't seem to have made her move fast enough though, as the same moment her blade brushed onto skin, a firm jab hit right into her.


Instinct took a hold of her as she dropped her canteen and reached for her still open holster at her hip.

For as shocking to her as to the girl atop of her, she came back to her senses to already find her sidearm fully drawn and pressing into her assailant's chest.

Neither of them moved afterwards, the Russian with her blade resting on her throat, and her sidearm firmly held against the girl's chest. Both brown and blue eyes locking onto the other to preempt the other's next move.

Much to Nonna's surprise however, the firm pressure from the pistol at her chest pulled away.

Through gritted teeth Maho then spoke. "Listen carefully. There are only two possibilities that can come out from this. One, we can both kill each other as we are now and become just two more rotting corpses in this godforsaken place. Or two, we can put aside our differences for just a brief moment then take our separate ways after. Your call."

While her Russian may be far from perfect to say the least, it seemed her message had gotten through as after several more moments of silent silence the pressure of the blade on her skin began to slowly loosen up before the girl completely removed herself from on top of her.

Standing back up one after the other both of them looked at one another. Moment after moment of silence passed between them before Nonna finally cleared her throat to speak.

"Sie sprechen… sehr gut russkiy."

Maho could tell she was one with very little experience with the German language. She wasn't, much better with but a few high school level language courses though.

"Vy tozhe khorosho govorit'."

Both working to slow their labored breaths as they stood outside of arm's reach of each other. The mild anger and frustration that either saw in the other's eyes slowly faded away, whether or not the feelings behind the look was still there though neither could tell from the other.

The creak of the floorboards beneath the Russian's feet were enough to slightly startle her.

She then watched as the other girl turned towards the bed, still slightly watching her from the corner of her eye until she had spun all the way around into a fairly dignified and anxious sitting position.

Opting to do the same, Maho sat back down as well though she did so leaving a bit more room between them than before.

It was then that she noticed the pistol still in her hand. It was much lighter than she was used to, and the lock back slide was all she needed to figure out why that was the case.

'Empty!?'

She must have used the last three rounds in the clip to get through that door. She was thankful that neither of them noticed before, she could feel a bead of sweat sliding past her temple just thinking about it.

Seeing the girl next to her looking down at her hands, and saw the same thing.

Nonna couldn't help but feel a wave of suspicion flood through her mind as to how he German's gun had become emptied. She thought back to right before she first saw her through the thick smoke, she did recall hearing the distinct sound of a sidearm.

'She must have unloaded it all into that door I locked behind me… I don't remember hearing more than just a few rounds however…'

As she saw her simply place the gun in its place still unloaded however, only greater confusion came about.

'Wait… Why did she just…?'

Nonna than watched her as she reached back towards the floor.

Turning towards her with something in her hand. Nonna tensed, prepared to defend herself if the situation called for it. Her knuckles clenched, ready to knock anything out of the German's hand if it proved to be a treat and push the offensive as she had done before. Her gun was unloaded after all.

The girl turned towards her with the object in full view in front of her. Nonna however simply froze at the site of it.

"Here. It'll help your throat."

Seeing the small canteen stretched out in front of her, it might have been the girl next to her had grown another head.

The German quickly shook it in mild annoyance.

Nonna took it from her though was hesitant to drink from it. She looked at the bottle with a questioning look.

'Poison? No, why would she do that after going through everything that she did? …But still…'

Gaining a seen about the other girl's hesitation, Maho snatched the canteen out from her hand and took a small sip before handing it back to her to take it. This time she gratefully took the small container from her and placing it to her lips. It may not have been much, but it was definitely helping.

One sip after another. She tried to conserve it, but it was already gone before the thought even fully resonated.

"Is it empty?"

Nonna turned to see the other girl looking towards her. She was at a loss to the German's question before seeing the direction of her gaze. "Yes… Thank you, it definitely helped a lot."

"Your welcome." Maho responded before looking off towards they both assumed to be the kitchen "One moment, I'll see if I can find something."

Apart from an occasional faint squeak of a loose floorboard or unoiled hinge, there was very little that gave away to the other girl's presence in just the next room from her. Not long later, with a glass and something that she couldn't quite make out, Maho came back into the main room.

She than sat back down with her and grabbed her bag to her side. She opened it up, and after a few shuffles through its contents brought out an unopened bottle of what appeared to be red wine.

"Here. I'm sorry, but this is all I have on me now."

Nonna looked over to the bottle's plain paper labeling to see its all but plain brand name in large bold letters.

"Mukuzani?"

"Well, if that is what it says…"

"So you can speak and understand me, but you cannot even read the label?"

"Learning Cyrillic was not regarded as much a necessity as speaking and comprehending the spoken tongue."

While talking she brought the bottle onto her lap, and revealed the object that she had brought from the other room as a small corkscrew. The cork gave some resistance, but with a few firm tugs it gave way. The bottle quickly opening up with a loud 'pop'.

She didn't exactly know whether not using wine was the best thing she could do. But seeing once again the absence of anything else, it would have to do.

With signs of experience in the art despite her age, Maho smoothly poured the bottle into the borrowed glass and handed it to Nonna before bringing out a small tin from her bag and did the same for herself.

Having seen the German open the sealed bottle in front of her Nonna took the cup without hesitation and let the smooth liquid flow down her throat.

She slightly coughed again after taking her first sip causing Maho to look towards her.

"Are you alright?" Her expression was almost completely masked, but the slightly worried tone in her voice was enough to show her concern.

"Yes, thank you."

"Do you need some more?"

"No… That's alright, I don't drink much."

It was half true. While she was known to drink on occasions, they were always either by herself, or with people that she had known for a long time. She never drank with a stranger, let alone in a situation like this.

Maho didn't try to press the conversation any further, turning instead to take in her surrounds in deep thought.

While the wooden walls were well proficient in blocking out the smoke and heat. The Crackling of burning lumber, and the whoosh of dancing flames was still just enough to still be heard.

Nonna also seemed to notice it. While the person sitting next to her is still an enemy, she couldn't help but keep in mind the gratitude that she at least still owed her.

"I would have been dead for a while now had you not got me out… Spasibo."

Maho paused for a moment with her mouth open. Feeling the weight in her mind that had developed from her comment.

"You know…For a moment, I even considered leaving you there."

Nonna was taken quite aback by her response. She could imagine that few others would have done anything differently than simply moving on. So then…

"Why didn't you?"

"…"

Maho tried to answer, but the words died in her mouth before she could think of them.

Her thoughts then turned back to Miho's smiling face in front of her as she looked onto the fire in contemplation. Warm, comforting, never in judgement over the actions of others. Any thought of ignorance or self-preservation died without resistance. While there will be many things that she will have to do to if she is to ever see home again, there will always be boundaries that she will never dare to cross.

Silence lingered within the room before Maho shook herself back to reality. "…It's complicated."

Silence filled the room, the sounds of fighting nearby had died off for quite some time as both sides within the area stopped to lick their wounds. Beyond the immediate area however, the sounds of heated conflict continued on with little pause.

Maho looked towards the door, to wait any longer than she has already would be ill advisable.

"It's time for me to leave."

Bringing out her sidearm from her holster, she inserted the spare magazine into the grip and fluidly slid back the action to set the first round into the chamber before placing it back by her waist with the flap unstrapped.

Knowing full well as to the necessity for her timing in departing; Nonna simply watched her as she gathered her things and stood back up before stopping directly in front of her.

Feeling that she had little use for it left, Maho corked the bottle of wine and handed it to her. The Russian took a hold of it, but quickly handed it back. She shrugged, but placed the bottle back into her bag anyway, not saying a word while doing so.

Nonna didn't feel anything more was needed to be said between the two either as she just simply watched her pace across the room towards the exit. However, the realization came of one last thing that she couldn't help but say to the mysterious girl before she left.

"You never told me your name."

Maho stopped and turned to look back at her.

"I know. Neither did you."

Nonna only responded with a single nod, which Maho respectfully returned before closing the door behind her without another word.


Author's Note:

There we are, after about a good three months of almost pure frustration, I have finally completed this. Ouch, that was a lot of rewriting I had to do, but I feel happy with it.

While I still feel that both Maho and Nonna had had at least a few OOC moments thus far, I couldn't help but try my best in balancing it out, while at the same time working to make the story as enjoyable as possible.

My knowledge in German sentence structures is somewhat getting better. Though even after volunteering at the local friends of the library as of late, I can say I have seen almost every language dictionary come through its doors BUT Russian, I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't one within a hundred miles of me.

I wouldn't expect either to be very good at speaking the other's language anyway. Though some of the research materials I have read over as of late does show that a good number of German students at the time because of the political pressures to the laying the groundwork of the inevitable "Eastern Policy".

I just couldn't find much about the same during the Stalinist era Soviet Union, especially in the more remote regions save for specific exceptions, though ironically in the main series Nonna was one of the few characters that did actually show foreign language skills on screen.

I think one of the last main points I have been pondering over was something I saw raised by Theralion in reviewing for the story The Panzer Diaries (a fic I haven't had the opportunity to fully read, but plan to in the close future) mainly regarding the background on how women came to be fighting in the first place. That's one of the top things that The Heimatfront series excels in confronting in a realistic manner befitting the time era and situation throughout the series.

Me however. I'm just going to go with the notion that it just happened, mainly that unlike the real WW2 era Europe, that sexist sentiments in the military are just more like over the last 5 to ten years then as back then. Mainly that it was allowed for women to be placed in pacific front line combat or support units like in the Red Army at the time, though not necessarily approved upon by the the majority of male combatants and commanders.

I not the kind of person that would spend great time and depth of thought to fabricate some complicated or unrealistic scenario that lead to women becoming eligible into the WW2 era panzer corps. And after reading Mein Kampf a few times and how the top man thought back then, I would be possible without lengthy explanation by a long shot.

So like with the number of fictitious Cold War novels in circulation that describe the course of warfare between the east and west, but never quite going into the issue of actually caused a start in hostilities; I'm going to leave it at that.

Have a good one!

Translations/Important Terms:

Mukuzani: A brand of red wine from the Georgian Mountains dating back to the late 19th century. One of the best known and highly prized varieties from the Caucasus region.

Reichskriegsflagge: Imperial War Flag - The flag of the German Armed Forces from the mid 19th to 20th centuries in one a number of different forms and patterns depending on time period and form of government.