Dangerous Territory

Overlord

He thought about Levi's words. "I've spent my life preparing to be a soldier, studying about war, not about science or biology. You have a brilliant mind, Armin, far smarter than I'll ever be. I think if someone can disprove what German scientists have been saying, it's you. But later. We're at war, and there are friends and enemies in a war. If we make friends with our enemies, we end up being traitors."

His voice stayed quiet. "I don't think the Jews should be our enemies. I think treating them like slaves is wrong. Killing them just for believing a different religion is wrong."

"Then it's a good thing we soldiers only have to kill British and American soldiers, and not Jews."

"We're still expected to."

"I will never ask you to shoot a Jew, Armin. I promise." He began to turn to the door.

"Would you?" he shouted out, but the small soldier cringed back as those sharp, teal eyes gazed down in surprise. "Kill one, I mean."

Warily, he answered, "If I was ordered to."

"But if it wasn't an order, and you just found one. If you had been alone that day and found those Jews hiding there, if Jean wasn't right there with you, if you weren't pressured by anything else and could have made the call alone, would you have shot them, or simply let them escape?"

Eren held back on answering, although he already knew the truth. If it had been just him, if Jean had not followed him into the house, if he had opened that closet door, saw the huddled group, and had the choice to look the other way, pretend he saw no one, and call the house as empty...

He could not answer out loud, but the answer was clear in the regret darkening his eyes. He silently pulled on his cap and marched out the door, leaving Armin with a tiny smile as he realized that this war had not yet thrashed the humanity out of Eren.

Armin's question rang through his ears. If it had just been him that day, he would have protected Levi's group, if possible. At the very least, he would have let them continue hiding. Maybe they could have escaped on their own during the night, a quick dash into the forest under the cover of darkness. The Belgian border was not that far away. Levi probably could have kept them alive in the woods.

However, if he had been alone that day, if Levi's group could have escaped, he never would have gotten to know the tiny Jewish man. He would have continued blindly believing all he had been taught. Now, he was starting to question everything.

"Jäger!"

Eren paused and saw Reiner trotting up to him. "Guten morgen, Untersturmführer Braun. Congratulations on the new platoon."

"Guten morgen. I'm glad we finally got new recruits, what with all the bombings of the rail lines. Shame none speak French. I bet you can't wait to shoot that damn Jew."

Eren's jaw tightened. Reiner was often called the ideal Aryan, and Eren saw why. Not just his blond hair, light blue eyes, and bullish build, but even his way of thinking was a perfect model of Nazi education.

"Do you know what this meeting is about?" Eren asked instead.

"I've heard rumors. It seems Americans have landed in France."

Eren jolted. "What? Americans? Aren't they busy fighting the Japanese?"

Reiner scowled. "That's what I thought too. Then again, they use everyone they can in their military: Negroes, Latinos, Orientals the Natives. I bet they even let Jews and fags fight! Maybe they sent all of their fags to Europe to fight us. If that's the case, they should be easy to defeat, and we can slaughter them all without any sort of guilty conscience."