Disclaimer: I don't own Inglourious Basterds or the characters, apart from own creations, they belong to the wonderful Mr. Tarantino. The views of the characters certainly do not reflect my own.
"I'm not a man you say "go away" to. There's over three hundred dead bodies in Italy, that if they could, would testify to that! After what i've done you, you disrespect me at your own peril!" Fredrick shouted, he couldn't believe this. He had done all of this for her and she had spoken to him as though he was dirt on her shoe. He had been nice to her, charmed her, took her out to dinner and introduced him to Dr Goebbels himself, and she wouldn't even let him in the projector room for a little kiss and cuddle. He wasn't one to lose his temper but she had tried his patience. He was waving his finger angrily at her and his face was menacing.
"Lock the door!" she said all of a sudden, in a much softer tone than before, and Fredrick looked at her confused at this sudden change of behaviour.
"What?" he asked her in disbelief.
"Lock the door, we don't have much time" she repeated quietly.
"Time for what?" he asked her suspiciously, thinking it was too good to be true. A minute before hand she had spoken to him as though he was the scum of the earth, now she offering herself to him?
"Forget it" she sighed in annoyance and began to turn away from him. But Fredrick had finally realised that she was being serious and not wanting to miss his chance with the lovely Emmanuelle he quickly tried to get this chance back.
"No, no, no...wait!" he exclaimed grabbing her attention once more. "You want me to...lock the door?" she had crossed her arms as he confirmed what she said.
"For the fifty-seventh time, yes!" she sighed matter-of-factly, looking as though she was getting bored of all this now. He didn't need telling twice. He didn't want to lose out on this oppurtunity because he had been playing silly games with her. His smirk grew once more as he turned and went for the door. He heard Emmanuelle running to the projector and suspected she was going to strip her clothes off but he jumped in fear when he heard a loud bang, followed by extreme pain in his shoulder. She had shot him.
She pulled the trigger twice more. He fell to the ground in agony, clutching at his chest and he rolled on to his stomach. He was in shock, what was he to do? He wasn't dead yet, he had to play this carefully. He let him muscles relax and pretended to play dead, though if she would have inspected his face more carefully she would have seen his face scrunched up in agony. Well, at least she wasn't shooting at him anymore. He planned in his head what he was going to do. The gun! He remembered the gun he had managed to sneak into the cinema with him for protection. And he could easily retrieve it because his hand was close to his chest already. He pulled it out subtley and waited for her to come closer, but she didn't. He knew he had to make her come over to him, and so he let out a genuine groan of pain. Either she would come on over to finish him off once and for all, or she would come and comfort him in his last moments. He betted on the latter but just in case he readied himself. He knew he had to outsmart her or else he really could end up dead. It was either her or him.
It worked. She came over, shuffling her feet as though she didn't know what to do, before she finally bent down and put an affectionate hand on her shoulder to roll him over. But as she did that, he rolled himself on to his back, gun in his hand, and without a second thought he fired three shots striaght into the unsuspecting girl who had now been blown backwards, blood oozing out of her as she lay twitching on the floor.
"Fucking bitch!" Fredrick grunted through gritted teeth as he managed to sit himself up and observed her dying figure. She wasn't going to let him have the last word however, and as he crawled over to her she took as deep a breath as she could.
"My name is Shoshanna Dreyfus, and you are all going to die" she informed him in shallow gasps as she sucked in deeply trying to overcome the pain that was seeping through her body. She clenched her fist and for a moment it seemed to help as she put all her energy into creating it, but soon the pain became to unbareable and she couldn't help but let out a moan of pain as she rolled over on her side. She took some short, sharp breaths but each breath felt like a thousand knives stabbing her in the chest. She knew it wouldn't be long now. She would be joining her family in heaven. All this pain would stop soon and no one could ever harm any of them again. Her only regret in dying was that she would never get to see Marcel again. She hoped he would be safe and live a happy, fulfilling life without her.
Still in quite some pain himself, Fredrick had managed to pull himself up and wobbled on to his feet. He could feel the blood still trickling out of him, but he knew he would survive. He had more important matters at the moment. Shoshanna Dreyfus? That was a Jewish name. So after all this time I was after a fucking Jew? He laughed in disgust at his stupidity. Well, no one made a fool of him, he had just proved that. He watched her fidgeting and twitching on the floor as she slowly bled to death. Well, it had never been in his nature to watch dumb animals suffer. He still had his gun in his hand, and he put it to Emmanuelle...Shoshanna's head, resting it against her soft, blonde hair.
"Goodbye Shoshanna Dreyfus" he said and Shoshanna closed her eyes, fearing the pain of the bullet. It was over in a flash. Blood splattered on to his face but he didn't even flinch. Her skull had shattered and her brains and blood soaked his shiny new shoes. At least she had stopped twitching now. He spat on her body.
My name is Shoshanna Dreyfus, and you are all going to die! It rang in his ears as he looked over her almost unrecognisable corpse. Even her beautiful golden hair was turning strawberry blonde, no, flaming red as it soaked up her blood and brains. He tried to seperate the words to understand them. She had obviously meant it as a message. My name is Shoshanna Dreyfus, obvious enough she had changed her identity because she was a Jew. And you are all going to die? Who was going to die? How? Why? And then suddenly it clicked. The Fuhrer was in the building, as were all the other top Reichsmen. She had planned something. She was going to kill them. It was going to be a mass killing. It had to be...
A BOMB!
Fredrick managed to get himself from the projector room to the corridor that led to the opera box, leaving a streak of blood on the white walls as he slid against it for support. He felt releived when he finally reached the corridor and the two guards protecting the Fuhrer looked at him with their guns pointed until they realised who it was. They both stood to attention again until the one closest to him noticed that he was limping and making his way back rather slowly.
"Private Zoller, you are bleeding" he observed, and went up to him to assist him. Fredrick pushed him back and tried to straighten himself up, putting his hand over the bigger of wounds and feeling the sticky blood still oozing out of it.
"Be ready to escort the Fuhrer out of the building" he ordered them and the two of them looked confused but didn't dare to question him. Instead they stepped forward and awaited further instructions. Fredrick staggered into the box. Goebbels turned around when he entered, curious as to the disturbance, but Hitler continued watching the film.
"Fredrick, where have you been? My God what has happened?" he gasped at the sight of blood on Fredrick's once pristine, white uniform. He staggered once more but managed to keep himself composed, turning to the Fuhrer himself and trying to steady his nerve and voice.
"Mein Fuhrer, forgive me, but you have to evacuate the building. There is an attempt on your life" he told Hitler at once, and both of the men looked startled at this announcement. Neither needed telling twice and they both shot up out of their seats, making their way out of the box closely behind Zoller, who opened the door for them and left them in the protection and care of the two soldiers. With two guards in front and Zoller keeping up at the rear, the three men escorted the Fuhrer and the Minister of Propaganda out of the corridor and in to the lobby, where there stood more bodyguards who looked alarmed to see their Fuhrer marching out of the building. After a quick order from the two leading guards, more of the soldiers joined the escort and made their way outside to a safe distance from the cinema. Some of the guards had stayed in the cinema to make sure everyone evacuated it safely.
The Fuhrer, Dr Goebbels and Private Zoller were all in the relative safety of Hitler's hotel, sitting in comfotable chairs in his private study room with drinks to steady their nerves. Or in Fredrick's case, ease the pain. He had been treated by the Fuhrer's private physician and had been assured that the wounds were not life threatening. He had managed to remove the bullets and he hadn't been shot in any organs or in any arteries. He was quite lucky really. But try telling a man who was suffering from the pain of being shot three times that he was lucky! He had been given morphine but it was starting to wear off, and the Fuhrer had insisted he see the man who had saved his life, to both congratulate, thank and question him.
"You have done well Private Zoller. How did you come to know of the plot?" the Fuhrer asked, wanting to get to the bottom of the case.
"I was in the projector room with Mademoiselle Mimieux when i discovered she possessed a pistol" Fredrick lied. He couldn't very well tell him what had really happened before the shootings. He didn't even know what he was going to do to her himself before the incident, but he had a rpeutation of being charming and a gentleman. He wouldn't risk his reputation for a stupid, Jewish slut. "Upon mentioning it to her she shot at me and supposed me dead. I managed to shoot her and in her dying breath she told me of her real identity and that we were all going to die. I simply put two and two together and realised that she had planted a bomb in the cinema" he explained simply, realising that the Fuhrer was leaning in towards him, soaking up every word he said.
"Real identity?" Goebbels questioned from next to him, furrowing his brow.
"Yes, Shoshanna Dreyfus" Fredrick informed him.
"Shoshanna Dreyfus?" a fourth voice quipped up. Hans Landa had managed to escape the cinema himself before it had exploded, though he never told anyone why he had evacuted the building in the first place. He was good at adpating and acting, and obviously he could never tell them what had really happened. That he had comitted treason against the Third Reich. "Ah clever rat" he smiled. So simple, he couldn't believe he had missed something so obvious.
"You knew of this?" Hitler turned to him, raising his voice in rage and his face turning red as though he were going to explode.
"I knew a Jew by the name of Dreyfus who managed to ...escape my grasp once" he explained, chosing his words carefully.
"You idiot! Some Jew Hunter you turned out to be! And you are the Chief of Security, how could you fail to notice this woman acting strangely. Didn't you check the building?" but before Landa could defend himself, Goebbels cut in.
"Well the main thing is that we all escaped unharmed thanks to the quick thinking of Private Zoller. Others were not as lucky" Goebbels began to trail off at the thought of his friends who had not managed to escape from the cinema alive before it blew up. Fellow politicians, soldiers, wives, children. His poor Francesca who had nipped into the loo before Private Zoller had returned! "I think this calls for some home release and a promotion" he added, patting Fredrick on the shoulder quite firmly in proud admiration.
"I was just doing my duty, sir" Fredrick humbly observed. Both Goebbels and the Fuhrer began to laugh at this.
"Nonesense, modesty doesn't become you. Private Fredrick Zoller, protector of the Third Reich" Goebbels announced as though he had another movie in mind. Zoller was even greater than before now. Not only was he a top sniper, he had preserved the Reich by saving the Fuhrer. He was more than a hero now, he was a legend.
"Yes, I think I would rather have you by my side" Hitler confirmed. It seemed this boy was no fool and he was far more competent than others, particularly Herr Landa. He would deal with him another time, "But I give you permission to take home leave, you certainly deserve it young man" he smiled at him, and Fredrick couldn't help but beam back at him in honour and joy at having gained the respect of such a great man. He also guessed that the Fuhrer was thinking of promoting him to his own personal guard. What an honour that would be!
"Thank you mein Fuhrer" he showed his gratitude. A moment later there was a knock on the door and before anyone invited the person in they opened the door and entered the room on their own accord. Another one of Hitler's many guards.
"Mein Fuhrer, they have caught the Negro" he announced, and a smile appeared on Hitler's face at this news. Finally he could get to the bottom of this plot.
"Good, get all the information you can out of him and then take him to Berlin. I want everyone to see what happens to those who go against the Fuhrer" he coldly relayed to the guard. He would go on to tell whoever had custody of him now, probably Himmler now that Landa had failed in his duty. He would punish them all in time to come. No one messed with the Fuhrer and lived to tell the tale. Nobody!