By the time Levi and Eren reached the brothel, the building had been surrounded by police cars. Officers were rushing in, and from inside they could hear women screaming.
Levi realized his fears were true. A Gestapo raid!
A chauffeur in a Waffen-SS uniform rushed out of the Mercedes and opened the rear door. Kriminaldirektor Magath stepped out, tall and imposing with icy blue eyes lined with years of hardened experience. With him were two other Gestapo officers.
"Kriminalsekretär Koslow," said Magath, "oversee the arrests. I want them alive, if possible."
"Yes, sir!" said the older, stout one, and he went inside to help with the search.
The younger one was someone Eren recognized: Kriminalassistent Colt Grice. He stood dutifully beside Magath as the Criminal Director oversaw the French police.
They heard a gunshot from within the building, followed by girls screaming in terror.
"Koslow!" Magath yelled. "I said alive."
"That wasn't our side, Herr Kriminaldirektor. Partisans are engaging the police in the basement. Shall we open fire?"
"Try to only wound them." He grumbled to himself. "Incompetent French police. Grice, make sure they block the side entrance we were told about."
"Yes, sir," Colt said, and he jogged around the corner of the building.
At the sound of more gunfire, Levi reached into his purse, plunged his hand through the stolen bandages, and pulled out his gun. Right away, Eren's hand covered over his wrist, holding the weapon down.
"What do you think you can do with that?" he hissed.
"What I can!" Levi growled.
"There are too many."
"Get the hell out of my way!"
Eren slapped a hand over his mouth. Harold and Eren yanked Levi into a hardware store across the street just as Magath turned to see what the noise was.
Levi finally shook off their hands. He turned a scathing look at Eren.
"If you're just going to hold me back, then get the hell out of here."
"Look, even if I gave you all of our guns and you managed a perfect kill-shot with every bullet we collectively have, you still would not be able to kill all of them."
"Then I'll slit the throats of those I miss."
"Levi, please! You need to calm down and think this through."
"Levi? Monsieur Ackerman?"
They all turned as a gray-haired man who was in the hardware store stepped forward. His height shocked Eren, who recognized him as the elderly bookstore owner, Yelena's grandfather. Levi and Harold also knew him.
"Monsieur de Marly," Harold greeted.
"Alexeï, what are you doing here, dammit?" Levi asked the man in French.
"I was just buying some supplies to patch the roof of my bookstore. The storm blew off some shingles, and it's dripping rain water. It already ruined two bookshelves, but luckily they were only old magazines."
"You need to get the hell out of here. It's going to get dangerous."
The old man scoffed and smiled at the warning. "Monsieur, I've seen this city ravaged by three wars. A little police raid isn't scary to me." Alexeï walked over to the boarded up windows and peaked between planks of wood. "Are Yelena's friends in there?"
"Yes," answered Harold. "We've been staying there."
"Carly Stratmann. Of course my little Yelena would turn to her for help." The old man shook his head with a grieved frown. "Her friends were always so kind to her. It's a pity."
Levi crept to the boarded windows and watched as the first member of the Resistance was dragged out, followed by another, and a third who had been hit with a bullet and was dripping blood.
Levi cursed in anguish. "Fuck, not again."
It was happening all over again, everyone he knew, everyone he cared for, getting killed while he survived. He was ready to bolt forward, but both Eren and Harold stopped him.
"We can't do anything, captain," Harold warned.
He snapped over to him and seethed, "Are you just giving up?"
"Obviously not, but maybe it's not that bad. Eld had begun an evacuation before we left. Perhaps most of them got out."
Levi looked back outside just as Oruo was dragged out of the building and pushed up against a wall, forced to stand at gunpoint in the rain.
"Not everyone got out," Levi whispered in anguish.
Alexeï advised, "Live long enough to see who is left, and go protect the survivors. They'll need you. If I can, I'll keep you all at the bookstore until you find a new home. It's not cozy or secure, but it's dry ... when the roof isn't leaking."
"See. We'll keep fighting," urged Harold.
Just then, Colt returned the Magath with three men being marched in front of him, their hands clasped on top of their heads, with Flagon in the front. "Herr Kriminaldirektor, I caught this one leading a small group out the side door. The police have now secured that area."
"Very good, Grice. Line them up against the wall with the rest."
Levi grimaced as he watched Flagon and the others getting shoved up against the brick wall of the brothel. "J'en ai assez de me cacher." I'm done with hiding! He pulled out his gun and began to stand.
Eren grabbed Levi's shoulder. "You can't go out there."
Levi growled, "Fuck you! I can free a few of my men and take some Gestapo bastards out with me."
"Please!" Eren begged. "Don't throw away your life."
"Wouldn't you do the same if they were your men?" he yelled.
"I might," Eren admitted, "but you have a promise to keep."
"My promise to you—"
"Not to me. To Petra."
At her name, the rage in Levi's eyes dimmed slightly.
Eren quickly begged, "Live, no matter the price."
Her final words echoed in his ears, and Levi felt the tension in his hand loosen. He had promised her to live all those years ago, and now here Eren was, begging him the same thing.
"Merde!" he hissed in frustration.
"I would fight by your side any day," Eren swore, "but we both know, we are out-manned, out-gunned, and if we fail, they will kill every person in that building: your men, those women, all of them. The Gestapo will not hold back their wrath. Or we let them be arrested, and maybe they all live. Perhaps we can even break them out of prison." Eren tried to smile with encouragement, although he could only imagine how brutally agonizing this would be if it was his men lined up against a wall by the enemy.
Levi slid his narrow eyes over at him. "Do you really think the Gestapo will only arrest them? I knew you were a naive little boy, but really?"
Eren's mouth dropped, wanting to say that yes, he believed the Germans would only arrest partisans and send them to a prison camp. Yet his mouth closed tightly, knowing the brutal truth.
This was the Gestapo; there was no mercy in their hearts.
Levi looked back out the window and helplessly watched as, one by one, the Gestapo and French police pulled out men, each struggling but knowing that escape at this point was impossible. Next they saw women also being brought out into the rainstorm, some in only underwear, one naked and screaming as the soldier escorting her groped her breasts.
"Stop that," Magath said blandly, and the soldier released her.
They then saw Carly stride out, two soldiers on either side. Her face held a sort of regal annoyance, calm and unperturbed but still glaring at the leader of the Gestapo.
In German, she warned Magath, "The General shall hear of this."
Magath walked right up to her. "The General shall not rush to your aid this time, harlot. He should count himself lucky for not being sent to a concentration camp for allowing you Jews to remain here."
Eren overheard and breathed in shock. "Concentration camp?" He looked at the armband that Carly was forced to wear, a badge that marked her as a Jew. "Are they finally arresting her? Oh no."
Then, with a sinking heart, they watched as Annie was also pulled out. She was screaming and struggling fiercely. It took two policemen to pull her along, one with a swollen bruised eye and the other bleeding from his nose. She wore nothing but a silk robe opened in the front, exposing her lean body. The red and pink silk was instantly drenched in the heavy rain and clung tightly to her limbs, as if the silk had turned into sinews of muscles that corded and pulled as she fought viciously.
Jean was right behind her, arguing as he pulled his tunic on, obviously having been caught in the middle of an intimate moment.
"Let her go, you bastards!" he screamed at the police.
Eren sighed. "Jean, you idiot. Don't get yourself arrested too."
Levi looked over at him. "Help her."
"I'm not leaving you!"
"She is far more important," he insisted.
"Why?" Eren hesitated, then softly asked, "Wait, which woman are you talking about?"
"The little girl, you idiot!" He gazed at the mass arrest. "My men knew what they were risking, losing Carly is going to severely hurt the Resistance, but that girl is innocent. She is the future of Israel. See if you can save her."
"I doubt I can do anything."
"Try!" Levi yelled. He lowered his voice and pleaded, "Please. If you don't, I will."
It was bad enough seeing his companions in the Resistance lined up, surely heading to their doom. At the very least, he wanted to help rescue the Jewish women again. At least them!
Eren still scowled, but they heard another gunshot from inside the brothel, and the women screamed. "Promise me you'll stay here."
"Just go already!" Levi glared outside and growled, "Fuck you, but you're right. It's not like I can save them, not without a lot more guns. The least we can do is protect the women."
Eren did not like the idea of leaving Levi alone, but he also knew the man well enough to realize he really would risk everything to save a group of Jewish women; he had done that before! He looked over at Alexeï and told him in German, "Behalten Sie ihn im Auge." Keep an eye on him. Then Eren straightened his cap, pulled his coat around tightly, and left the store. He marched out into the heavy rain with his umbrella and crossed the partially flooded street.
Magath was focused on the activity inside the brothel, but Colt recognized Eren. He walked away from the Criminal Director and up to the first lieutenant.
"Oberleutnant Jäger, what are you doing here?"
Eren casually thumbed over at Jean. "We came here last night for some girls. I stepped out to get some food, and I came back to chaos."
"Which girl were you with?"
He shrugged. "Blond? Most of them don't speak German, so I don't bother to ask for names. What's happening?"
"We received information that partisans were hiding in this brothel."
"Partisans?" Eren cried out in shock, and he glanced over at the lineup of men. "Are all of these men in the French Resistance? Damn! Right under our noses. One would think the Gestapo would have surveillance in a place like this."
Colt's mouth tightened. "We do. Their activities were well-hidden."
"So, why arrest the women? Are they with the Resistance as well?"
"The brothel owner at least had to have known about them, but we've not determined the extent of her involvement. While we were raiding the brothel, one of the police officers grew suspicious and spoke in Yiddish. The women who reacted were immediately arrested."
Eren scoffed lightly. "Oh, come on! Knowing a language doesn't prove anything. After all, I speak English, but that doesn't mean I'm a Jew-loving Brit."
"I agree that it's not evidence, we can't punish them on that alone, but given the circumstances surrounding this brothel—plus the harsh penalty for having intercourse with a Jew—we are simply taking an overabundance of caution. Until we can sort it out, any suspected Jews are to be held prisoner."
Eren laughed and patted Colt's shoulder in a friendly way. "If the boys in the Gestapo are lonely, you don't have to arrest all the whores. Officers are accepted here. You could have come and enjoyed yourselves anytime."
Colt looked flustered. "That is not the reason for their arrest. In any case, why is Jean so upset? I know he has a temper, but this seems unreasonable, even for him."
"Oh, that one there is his favorite. He told me that she has a really tight pussy and her mouth—"
"I do not want to know," Colt cut in.
"So, what will you do with them?" Eren asked, trying to sound casual but watching the Gestapo agent cautiously.
"First, we will investigate their records. If their backgrounds check out, they'll be free to return. If we discover that one of them is in fact Jewish, they will all be sent to labor camps."
"All of them?" Eren cried out in shock. He tried to laugh it off. "Surely you're not planning to close the whole brothel down over a single Jew. Who will the men fuck? Each other?"
Colt grimaced. "That's not funny. Still, if we can't trust one, we can't trust any of them. To be honest," he said, lowering his voice and glancing back at the Criminal Director, "Magath has been wanting to close the place down and ship them all to labor camps since the first bombs fell back in September. I mean, a brothel run by a Jew and filled with Slavic sex slaves?" He glanced over to Carly. "That woman has some friends in high places to still be in business, but that ends now. Don't worry, the brothel isn't completely going away. There are some French prostitutes, after all. Only the ones from Russia and Poland will be sent away. Hitler has taken all manner of steps to ensure tainted blood stays out of the Aryan population."
"All for the strength of the Reich," Eren said, knowing that was the safest response. "We don't want to mix Aryan blood with Jewish blood."
"Precisely!" Colt smiled at him, glad to see Eren was not protesting. "Nor Slavic blood. A swift and prudent course of action is needed."
"Will Jean also be arrested for sleeping with a Jew?"
"Of course not. After all, these are prostitutes. Who knows how many men they've pleasured. We would have to arrest half the officers in Metz. Can you calm him down, though? He's making quite a scene."
"I will try to talk to him, but you know how stubborn he can be."
"Oh boy, do I!" he sighed in exasperation. "You should have seen him at age thirteen! I have no idea how his mother tolerated him."
Eren walked over to Jean, who looked utterly devastated as Annie was held by a policeman, who gazed at her wet body lecherously.
The policeman growled at her, "Vous frissonnez, mademoiselle. Vous avez froid? Je peux vous réchauffer." You're shivering, miss. Are you cold? I can warm you up.
Jean screamed, "Nimm gefälligst deine dreckigen Pfoten von ihr!" Get your dirty hands off her!
Oktyabrina held him back, trying in broken German to explain that he was only going to make things harder for Annie if he acted like this.
Jean saw Eren walking up, and both rage and grief played on his face.
"They were here?" he hissed. "The fucking Resistance were here? Is that why you came? It was never about finally agreeing to sleep with women, was it? It was him."
Eren approached closer and whispered, "Watch your mouth. If Carly's documentation on the women holds up, they'll be released."
"And if not?" he snapped.
Eren glanced across the street to where he knew Levi was hiding.
"Jäger," he said, pleading softly. "We can't let this happen."
"And what do we do, huh? The entire Gestapo force is out here. We can't do anything right now."
Jean snarled and whispered like a snake about to strike, "Then later. I know you have contacts."
Eren hushed him. If anyone overheard Jean, they might both be arrested. He glanced back at Levi, and slowly he shook his head, showing there was no way for him to stop Annie from being arrested. Then he whispered to Jean, "We'll figure something out." He looked over to Oktyabrina. "You. After they leave, gather all the foreign girls and be prepared to get out of here. They're coming after the rest of the Slavic women next. Do you understand me?"
Oktyabrina nodded, looking stern but determined. "I understand. Where do we go?"
"A bookstore. I caught enough French from the old man to understand that he plans to hide the Resistance there."
"The bookstore by the cathedral?"
"Do you know the place?"
"Da. Carly sent me there once."
"Be careful." He glanced at the doorway, where other women were peeking out in fear. "I truly hope you can protect them, and I'm sorry I can't do more."
The Russian gave him a gentle smile. "You gave us warning. That helps enough."
* * *
Across the way, Levi saw Eren shaking his head.
"Putain!" He knew that expecting the Gestapo to simply not arrest someone just because an army officer asked nicely was too much to hope for, but he still wished Eren's notorious good luck might have worked this time.
He now counted eleven members of the Resistance lined up against the yellow stone walls of the brothel. Eleven out of twenty-five. Harold had said that six left to hunt down Duran, plus Eld had begun to evacuate.
If this was all of them, then it meant half had escaped. Although, he wondered how many were killed underground in the struggle.
Finally, Eld stepped outside, making it twelve. He looked like he had put up quite a fight, his face bashed in, one eye swollen, his lip bleeding, and holding his arm, blood pouring between his fingers from a gunshot wound. Levi shook his head in stubborn determination, fettered only by Harold's and Alexeï's hands on his shoulders.
Magath strode along the lineup, eying each man, one by one. Some lowered their heads in fear as they muttered prayers, some stared straight forward proudly, while others glared at the Gestapo inspector in fierce defiance.
Magath asked in French, "Which one of you is the leader?"
Eld lifted his chin. "I am."
Magath paused, walked back over to Eld, and glared at him. "You? According to our report, your leader is a short, dark-haired Jew named Levi."
Then the Gestapo car door opened, and Duran stepped out. He walked up to Magath. "He's not the leader. He's Levi's right-hand man."
Oruo shouted in rage. "Duran, you traitor! You sold us out. How could you?"
Flagon sneered. "Nazi collaborator!"
"I warned you guys, don't attack the church." Duran walked up to Eld. "Levi was right about one thing: we all have the freedom of choice. I will not choose to stand around as a church gets destroyed. I don't care about Jews, I don't care about whores, I don't even care much for Germans. But God would send me straight to Hell if I stood around and allowed one of His churches to be bombed."
Eld sternly replied, "God damns traitors as well."
"I'm not a traitor. My loyalty is to God above man, that is all."
"Even your friends?"
Duran's lips tensed. "True friends don't turn on you for having morals."
Ouro began to lunge at him. "May you rot in Hell, you son of a..."
A police officer suddenly shot him. Ouro froze, stunned for a moment. His hand slowly went up to his chest, and he looked down in confusion as blood pulsed out, saturating his shirt. Slowly, he dropped to his knees and coughed as blood filled his lung. His gaze slowly rose to Duran.
"You and your mother ... can suck cocks in Hell ... you Nazi-loving swine!" Then he smirked and sang defiantly, "Ami, si tu tombes, un ami sort de l'ombre, à ta place." Friend, if you fall, a friend comes out of the shadows to take your place.
With that reassuring promise that the fight would go on without him, Oruo collapsed forward.
* * *
"No!" Harold howled, and he jumped up.
Levi was too numbed to react. Alexeï tried to grab Harold, but the man was known for his speed, precisely why he had been sent as a runner. He bolted out of the hardware shop.
"Oruo!"
Guns turned and opened fire. Levi grabbed Alexeï and pulled him down as some bullets missed their mark and crashed through the windows of the shop, sending in blasts of glass mixed with icy air. When he looked back up, Harold and Oruo were both lying in pools of blood.
Levi felt a stab to his heart. "Shit! Duran, you bastard!"
Alexeï hummed as he dusted off broken glass from his coat. "My little Yelena said she thought there might be trouble within the ranks."
Levi sneered. "I can't even fucking do anything, dammit."
"No," Alexeï agreed. "Sometimes in our life, as much as we want to help others, we simply can't. It's not a weakness; it's just reality biting the tip of our dick."
Levi arched an eyebrow and glanced over at the old man. "That's definitely something Yelena would have said."
"Because it's something she told me long ago." The old man smiled wily at him. "Don't think all my words of wisdom come from literature."
* * *
Magath seemed unperturbed by the violence. He glanced around, searching the brothel girls and patrons who had been dragged onto the sidewalk. "Has it all been cleared out? Every room, every broom closet?"
"It's emptied out, Herr Kriminaldirektor," Koslow reported. "We had to kick down a few locked doors, but we checked every single room and multiple levels of basements. This place was a damn ant's nest!"
Duran frowned as he searched the women one by one, including pulling their hair as he searched for a wig. "Levi was staying in one of the rooms."
"With a prostitute?" asked Magath.
"No," he said with a sneer of disgust. "He's the prostitute." Duran walked over to Jean and Eren.
Across the street, Levi let out a strangled cry. "No. Oh God, no! Don't you dare..."
In stilted German, Duran asked, "Was Huren ihr haben gefickt letzte Nacht?" Which whores did you fuck last night?
Eren raised an eyebrow. That was horrible German.
Magath snapped in French. "Leave the questioning to me. Don't butcher our language."
Duran glared at Jean and Eren and instead stuck to French. "Levi's client is a German officer."
Magath looked intrigued. "A homosexual officer? Wehrmacht or SS?"
"I don't know. I've never seen him myself." Duran smiled smugly. "But I know his first name."
Levi bolted out of the store, aimed his gun, and fired five shots. Duran was hit once in the head and twice in the chest, dropping dead instantly.
Another bullet hit dead center in the forehead of the lecherous policeman holding Annie, giving her the chance to run into Jean's arms. He grabbed her protectively and stared at the gunman in awe. Jean would recognize that face anywhere!
The last bullet aimed at Magath, striking him right in the heart. The Kriminaldirektor stumbled backward from the force of the hit, but he did not fall.
Levi stared in confusion. "Comment...?" How...?
There was not even blood, although he clearly saw a hole in the tunic right over the heart. A bulletproof vest? Levi sneered, angry at himself for not aiming for the head.
"Salopard de nazi!" Nazi bastard! He pulled the trigger again, but he was out of bullets. "Putain, tu te fous de moi." You're fucking kidding me.
Eren stared in horror as he saw the blond person in a dress and blue coat looking murderous with rage.
"Verdammt!" he hissed under his breath.
Magath's eyes narrowed at Levi. "Disable him, but don't kill him. I want him alive for questioning."
Eld yelled, "Fuyez, Levi! Continuez le combat pour la liberté!" Run away, Levi! Keep up the fight for freedom!
Magath added, "Execute the rest."
The police raised their rifles. Levi screamed in rage, but a deafening roar pierced the air as the members of the French Resistance were riddled with bullets. Bodies dropped one by one, and the blood that poured out mixed with the rain, turning the flooded streets of Metz red with the blood of her brave sons.
Levi stared, frozen in horror, tears in his enraged eyes. Then he looked over at Eren.
At least he was safe.
Eren lipped silently, "Go!"
Unable to do anything more, Levi turned and fled. Colt Grice led a group of Gestapo agents and French police to follow him, blowing whistles and shouting in German and French to stop.
Eren watched as Levi turned sharply down a street and vanished. He had to trust that Levi was quicker and knew the streets of Metz better. Then his jaw tightened. He looked over at Jean, who had Annie safely in his arms. At least the women had not been shot along with the Resistance.
Magath looked over the carnage of the massacre. "Have the local police clean this up. Take the Jewish harlots to Feste Göben. If I hear that you fucked one of these Jewesses, I will personally remove your testicles and send you to a labor camp. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir," the remaining Gestapo agents shouted.
Carly and two other women were led away. One Gestapo agent came up to Jean, who had Annie crushed against his chest, looking fiercely protective, ready to fight for her.
"Jean," Eren said softly. "Let her go."
"No!"
"She'll survive, but you won't if you keep this up." He leaned into Jean's ear. "We'll figure out something."
Jean glared at him, then gazed down at Annie. She was trying to act brave, but there was deeply buried terror in her voice as she whispered, "Ne ostavlyay menya." Don't leave me.
Jean had no idea what the words meant, but the fear in her eyes stung his heart. He stroked her blond head, wishing he knew how to protect her from this.
"Jean," Eren warned.
He wanted to scream at Eren to shut up, to not be practical for once. Why couldn't the world just let them stay together?
Carly glanced back at the two lovers and shook her head in regret. After all, she was partly responsible for pushing the two together. In Russian, she ordered, "Idi syuda, devochka. Ty ne khochesh' byt' prichinoy yego smerti." Come here, girl. You don't want to be the cause of his death.
That jolted Annie, and with another heartbroken gaze up at Jean, she realized what she had to do. Her father had taught her how to be strong. Now was the time to prove that strength.
"Ya lyublyu tebya, i mne ochen' zhal'." I love you, and I'm very sorry.
She pulled away, Jean tried to pull her back, but she raised a hand, showing him to stop.
"Auf Wiedersehen," she managed to say in German, so he would know she needed to go.
Annie pulled the robe around her tightly as she turned to go.
"Here," Eren said, and he handed her his umbrella. He could not do much, but he could keep these women out of the storm.
She took it with a grateful smile. Then she joined the other Jewish prostitutes, who all huddled under the umbrella. Carly wrapped her arm around Annie. She gave Jean a nod, a silent promise that she would personally protect her. Then her eyes turned to Eren, and a firm command filled them. She sharply looked out at the chase after Levi.
'Save him, and you might be able to save us.'
Eren nodded in understanding. If anyone could help them now, it was Levi.
Eren slipped away from the chaos and back over to the hardware store. He stormed in and stomped up to the old man.
"Where would he go?" he shouted.
"If you follow and they catch you—"
"I know the risks!" Eren growled, his teeth gritting and his breath shaky as he prepared himself for the worst. Whatever happened, so long as he saved Levi, it was worth it.
Alexeï saw the fierce conviction in his eyes, and he waved for Eren to follow him. "This way. There is a safehouse nearby. Levi is probably heading there. Hurry!"
Eren followed him as the old man loped through the store to a door in the back. He opened it, and Eren saw an alley. Despite hearing shouts and whistles from the Gestapo, Eren firmed up his resolve.
He would not let the Germans capture his boyfriend!
# # #
# #
#
RIP to the freedom fighters of France. There are 25 active members, not counting Yelena, non-combatants like Carly and Wald, or Udo who got kicked out for being too young. These are just the ones who got named. Who lived and who died is based on canon deaths.
Claude Duvalier never makes an appearance in the manga or anime. He was mentioned in the Attack On Titan Guidebook; however, with such a French name, I had to give him a part. Lima also only gets mentioned in the manga; I don't think he's been shown in the anime. I thought it'd be funny to add Kemper Boltz, Carly's canon boyfriend, and that the two "just fuck." I have a whole back-story in my head about him, like how he was the one who convinced Carly to agree when Yelena asked that the brothel be a backup safehouse. Also, he thinks of himself as a pimp, and Carly teases that he has a below-average dick; it's his tongue she prefers.
(Esplanade during the Siege of Metz, 1870)
"I've seen this city ravaged by three wars" – I have in my notes that Alexeï de Marly is 84 years old. That means he was born in 1860 during the Second French Empire, would have been 10 years old during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and in particular, he would have remembered the Siege of Metz (August 19 to October 27, 1870). He would have been 54 at the beginning of World War I (although Metz was never attacked, the garrison was active due to nearby battles), and considered himself "German" until he was 59, when the 1919 Treaty of Versailles returned Metz to France. His 80th birthday was darkened as Germany blitzed through France, and Metz fell under German control again for four years. Now here he is, a wise and brave man of 84, living through the Battle of Metz. This man really saw the world change!
[This used to be a picture of Annie in her Titan form, but Wattpad deemed it to be "unsafe." I guess TECHNICALLY Titan-Annie isn't wearing clothing... or any SKIN for that matter. So TECHNICALLY it is a picture of a nude (and skinless) female form. Still... ARE YOU SERIOUS? YOU FLAGGED ME FOR A SCREENSHOT OF AN ANIME? REALLY???]
Annie's Robe – The description of her red and pink robe is meant to recall Annie's Titan form. I will let you imagine how fiercely she fought against being arrested.
(WWII body armor - British flak jacket, American showing off how his Doron plate vest mostly stopped a bullet, and Soviet SN-41 "steel bib" showing it saved a soldier from three bullets)
Bulletproof Vest – The first bulletproof vest was commissioned in 1538, yet by WWII, warfare was less about bullets and bayonets, and more about tanks, grenades, flamethrowers, torpedoes, and air strikes. While the Soviets had the Stalnoi Nagrudnik (nicknamed the "steel bib") based on World War I plate armor, for most of the warring countries, steel was in dire short supply, needed for tanks, ships, planes, and trucks. Countries experimented with alternative designs, from the British flak jackets for bomber crews, to American vests made from Doron plate (a fiberglass laminate). Germany produced bulletproof chest armor for SS assault squads, but most body armor used by the Wehrmacht was stolen Russian equipment.
(Soviet assault pioneer wearing a "steel bib" SN-41, taken captive by a German soldier)
There was an option, not standard for any army, but available to soldiers who were rich enough to personally buy it. Back in the 1890s, a Polish-American monk named Casimir Żegleń came up with a way to use specially woven silk to create a lightweight, flexible, bulletproof vest, available for $800 ($6500 today). The legend goes, the inventor gave these vests to many leaders of state: Russian Czar Nicholas received one, but it didn't stop the uprising that slaughtered him and his family. American President William McKinley was offered one, but he turned it down. Six months later, the President was shot, something he might have survived had he been wearing the vest. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was also given one of Żegleń's silk vests, but (the story varies here) he either turned it down, or decided not to wear it on the fateful day when he was shot, sparking the start of World War I.
So while it was less common during WWII for soldiers to wear bulletproof vests, they did exist, if you could afford it. A cautious man like Magath would have bought one before the war began.
(Casimir Żegleń loved to have public stunts showing how his silk vest could protect from gunshots. The bullets hurt due to pure kinetic energy, but the vest could save a life, which was the Polish monk's goal.)
Side note: Żegleń's vests were not affordable for most, but he was onto something. 130 years later, scientists are taking another look at silk as body armor. Modern body armor consists of 33 layers of Aramid, commonly known as Kevlar. Being so thick, it has its limitations. In 2014, scientists genetically modified silkworms to produce spider silk, one of the strongest materials in nature. Just four layers of fabric could stop a .22-caliber bullet, as opposed to over 30 layers. The U.S. Navy and Air Force are pumping money into the development of this new material. Why genetically modified silkworms? Because spiders are more likely to eat one another than live peacefully in a colony. And they bite!
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Behind The Scenes: I actually had 4 completely different routes this chapter could have taken.
1) In my first draft, the Resistance had not fully vacated the winery yet, more than half of them got caught there, and Yelena's grandfather hid Levi and Eren in his bookstore. (I set up him having a bookstore across the street precisely for that reason.) The prostitutes were not around, so Eren never ran out to stop things. Instead, after Levi shot Duran, Alexeï helped Eren to an alley where he met up with Levi and they ran away from the Gestapo together. Levi went on to hide in the second safehouse at the brothel with only a small handful of survivors.
2) In my second draft, it was Eren himself who turned in the Resistance, shortly after he witnessed Yelena murdering Greiz, and he called Levi a terrorist. His mind was utterly warped by battle at that point, suffering from intense feelings of guilt about the fact that he was "sleeping with the enemy" after having lost his platoon. He reasoned that this was a way to atone, to continue being loyal to Germany: he couldn't help being gay, but he could at least make sure his boyfriend was no longer a "terrorist" by eliminating the French Resistance. He pulled Levi out of the brothel for a lunch across the street, playing it off as him apologizing for calling him a terrorist, but located close enough so they could witness the Gestapo raid, Eren's own twisted idea was that "if he sees it's pointless to resist the might of Germany, he will give up being a partisan." However, Eren watched as the prostitutes also got arrested (in this version, all of them) although they were innocent, and the Resistance was not merely arrested as Eren had assumed they would be, but massacred in the street, which horrified Eren. In the end, he realized just how wrong he was to think the Nazis would simply "carry out justice," any battle-heightened political fervor he had was utterly crushed, the last of his enchanted views of the Nazis were burned to the ground, and he saw far more brutally than ever before just what sort of people he was fighting for. Plus he realized that these were not just some "terrorists" who took Levi in; they were his friends, and now he was the reason they were killed. Eren was so deeply plagued by guilt, he pulled away from Levi throughout much of Book Three. When he finally confessed what he had done, Levi was so outraged—both that Eren was the cause of a massacre and that he hid the truth for so long—he severely beat up Eren. Levi left for a while, and it seemed like they broke up, but he calmed down as he realized Eren was not mentally well at the time. In a sense, he was "doing his duty" as a soldier, just as he had killed many German soldiers because it was his duty as a partisan. He returned to Eren, only to see that he had attempted suicide, and Levi was barely able to save his life. The two of them deal with trust issues for the rest of the war. Although this was a major plot point in my second draft, I also realized it made Eren COMPLETELY UNFORGIVABLE; I came to hate Eren as he hid the truth from Levi, and I simply could not justify Levi still wanting to be with him. In the end, although it meant removing some beautifully emotional scenes and whole chapters of Book Three, the entire plot was scrapped. I couldn't make Eren that deplorable.
3) Replacing that monstrosity, I wrote up a quick but boring version, where Jean heard from his drinking buddy Colt that the Gestapo was about the raid the brothel due to Greiz's report about a prostitute he hired who was dirty because a previous client had wanted anal sex, thus Greiz thought there might be a potentially homosexual officer in the ranks (you can go back to "The Mouth's Blessing" and see where he mentions this, a remnant of that abandoned plotline). Jean wanted to rescue Zofia before the raid and turned to Eren for help, knowing he has "connections." Eren is unaware of the Resistance staying at the brothel, so he never tells Levi about the upcoming police raid, thinking it's an unimportant detail. The French Resistance got Zofia out of the city to go live with Louise. This put Jean into Eren's debt. The raid happened, the Resistance were discovered and executed, but Zofia was safe. There wasn't much tension in this version, so I ditched it.
4) In a much more tragic version that I honestly loved and came very close to keeping, Eren and Levi were out visiting Armin and returned to see the brothel getting raided, just like what happened last chapter. Annie got arrested as a Jew, but at some point she tried to break free to run to Jean. The Gestapo shot her, and she died in Jean's arms. This traumatized Jean and cemented him turning against the Nazis. This version was utterly tragic, since it meant Annie would die. (Those who read my first draft know, I originally killed her off rather quickly when she was in the role now filled by Caven.) However, the trauma was taken off Levi losing the entire French Resistance and any hope of hiding away until the battle was over, and more on Jean's trauma, how unfair it was for this one innocent girl to be gunned down. It also led to Jean not wanting to help Eren later, since he blamed Eren for Annie's death, and that caused problems for what's coming up.
5) However, this version ended up being what I needed for all the characters to be in the right place at the right time and in the right frame of mind. Eren isn't an asshole, Carly is arrested and thus can't help Levi anymore, Jean is so desperate to do anything to save Annie that he is even willing to go against the German army, and Levi is on the run, his disguise blown, his men slaughtered, and running out of options.
It's crazy how much a single scene can evolve.