Berlin, Nazi Germany – 24 July 1944

When Jan reached the ground floor, flames had begun to engulf the house. The doorway was burning, and a great flame was consuming the kitchen. Thick, black smoke was billowing from it, crossing the living room and streaming outside through the destroyed living room window. Through the fire and smoke, Jan saw the bodies of the dead soldiers, lying still on the floor with pools of blood beneath them. He didn't see Elisabeth nor his mother.

"Mother! Elisabeth!" he shouted through the smog.

He put his arm to his mouth and nose and began walking through the smoke. He was forced to squint his eyes when the smoke began hurting his eyes. He walked blindly into the room. His foot hit something on the ground; a body – but whose he wasn't sure. His heart beating fast, afraid of the possibility, he crouched down below the smoke and opened his eyes. His heart became lighter when he saw it was the commander, now dead.

His heart still anxious, however, he stood back up and began walking vaguely towards the corner. There, the smoke was thinner, and he could open his eyes more. On the ground was Elisabeth, lightly coughing and covered in ash and soot.

"Elisabeth!" he shouted in relief as he crouched down and held her.

"I'm fine," she said as she continued coughing.

As Jan helped her sit up, her eyes turned to the side. They widened in panic, and she started tugging on Jan's arm.

"Jan, Jan!" she said as she pointed to the side.

Jan turned his head and through the haze saw his mother, half-buried under rubble and the living room armchair. Jan left Elisabeth's side and rushed to his mother's. He held her in his arms. There was blood on her forehead, and she was covered in ash. Her body was still warm, but she didn't react to Jan's touch.

"Mother! Mother, can you hear me?" he said as he frantically shook her from side to side.

But there was no response. He brushed away some of the rubble covering her, revealing a piece of wood that had embedded itself in his mother's ribs. The clothes around it were drenched crimson in blood.

"Mother? Mother? Wake up, mother!" he said as he continued shaking her, more violently than before.

He put his head on her chest, but there was no heartbeat.

"No, no, no!"

Jan let her down and put his hands on her chest. He kept pushing on it, trying for dear life to pull her back from the edge of the abyss. But there was no response. While his own heart was beating loudly and quickly, despite his best efforts there was no heartbeat from hers.

"Jan," he heard Elisabeth speak softly from behind as she put her hand on his shoulder.

But Jan didn't respond. He kept on pumping, as if his arms could never waver.

"Jan, stop!" Elisabeth suddenly shouted.

Jan stopped. He held his head down.

"I'm sorry, Jan," Elisabeth said as she hugged him from behind. "I'm sorry. But we have to go. They'll come soon."

"No, no, no," Jan kept muttering as the tears started flowing from his eyes. "No!"

Father. Brother. Now, mother. They're all together now. He's the only one here, left behind all alone in this fiery world of chaos, death, destruction, and suffering. What is there to fight for anymore at this point?

Jan only had a brief moment of respite as Elisabeth slowly pulled him back to his senses.

"We really have to go, Jan," she said softly.

Jan nodded. He wiped the tears from his eyes, closed his mother's eyes, held her hand tightly, and then gently let her back down. They stood up, the air still thick with smoke. Elisabeth held his hand and led him towards the hallway. Though Jan followed her, his eyes were still stuck to his mother. She slowly disappeared before him, engulfed by the smoke before disappearing completely from his eyes as he reached the doorway. There, he stopped for a few seconds. His eyes were still looking in the direction of his mother, but he could no longer see her. There was now a great, grey wall between them, and they would never see each other again until the day he went beyond that wall.

Finally, he turned around and didn't look back into the living room. He heard the distant shouts of the German soldiers outside, calling for a firetruck. Elisabeth and Jan went towards the back door. She opened the door and stepped outside but noticed that he wasn't going with her.

"Jan? What are you doing? Come on, we have to leave."

"No, there's one more thing I need to do."

"What? We don't have time!"

"I can't let that bastard live."

"Who? Rudolf?"

Jan nodded.

"We don't have time, Jan. They could be through the front door at any moment. Besides, maybe he'll die from the smoke."

"I'm not leaving it to chance. You go first."

Elisabeth sighed.

"No, no way I'm leaving you. I'll keep watch here. But make it quick, alright?"

"Alright," Jan said as he turned back down the hallway. He turned at the end and walked up the stairs. He reached the top and looked into the upper hallway. The soldier's corpse lay dead, and Uncle Rudolf was propped up against a wall. Jan made his way to Uncle Rudolf and knelt beside him. Uncle Rudolf looked at him as he engaged his blade. There was no anger, no hatred. Only sadness.

"Come to finish the job?" he said, as blood began to seep through his mouth.

Jan didn't answer.

"I suppose this is how it ends," he said, relaxing.

"Mother is dead."

But at that, Uncle Rudolf's eyes widened again.

"What happened?"

"The explosion sent debris flying. It killed her."

Uncle Rudolf had a pained expression on his face and breathed a deep sigh.

"Things weren't supposed to end this way."

"How did you expect things to turn out? You were our enemy from day one, weren't you? Deep down in your heart, this is what you wanted."

"No," he shook his head. "I never wanted this. I had hoped that my friendship with your father would slowly convince him to turn from his ways. But we both know your father and what kind of man he was. He had the strongest conviction in what he believed in. Even though I didn't believe in the same thing, I respected that. Maybe because I didn't have that strong of a conviction as your father did. I merely grew up in the Order. It's all I ever knew."

Jan listened to him speak without uttering a single word, his blade ready and held in front of Uncle Rudolf's chest.

"I never intended to get your father killed. I just needed him to get away from the house. Your mother never realised, but someone snuck in here, trying to find what you finally showed me today. I even made it clear to the Order that I had no intention of killing your father. I told them it would be an unnecessary provocation. A lie, I knew from the start. But it all turned out that way. I was betrayed. They killed him."

"Do you think telling me all this absolves you from what you did to father?"

"No," he said. "No. I've carried that guilt from the day he died until today. But today, I think I will see him. If there is something beyond death, then I will see him."

He turned to Jan.

"Jan," he said. "It is her."

"What are you talking about?"

"The key. It's her. Elisabeth."

"What?"

"She is the key to all of this. Only she can end this war, one way or the other."

"The key is… a person? How do you know this?"

"It was in the letter your father wrote, the one you led me to."

He put one hand on Jan's shoulder.

"This is the only thing I can do for you. It does not pay for what I've done to you. But I'm doing it anyway."

"You expect me to thank you?" Jan nearly spat.

But Uncle Rudolf shook his head.

"No. This is just my penance. A great betrayal to my own Order, but this is my atonement to your father."

Uncle Rudolf coughed up more blood.

"If you're going to do it, then end it."

Uncle Rudolf sat back against the wall, closed his eyes, and let his body relax.

"May the Father of Understanding guide you."

With one swift, sudden blow, Jan dug his blade deep into Uncle Rudolf's heart. The suddenness sent a jolt through Uncle Rudolf's body, and his eyes instinctively opened, and he grunted in pain. But Jan kept pushing the blade in.

And then Uncle Rudolf whispered his final words.

"I'm… sorry."