Jean paced back and forth through his room. He had thought Eren would return, and Levi would manage to get him to change his mind about staying in Metz so that they could free Annie, Carly, and the others; then all of them could leave together. If they traveled together, their odds of making it to Switzerland and to freedom would be much higher.
He had packed anything important or sentimental, having decided it was time to leave the German Army and the war behind. He had maps, a compass, food for the road, a canteen of water, and warm women's clothing that Annie could wear, especially since she was dragged away wearing nothing.
However, night fell, and Eren did not return. Jean had gone over to Eren's room twice; he even asked some of the other officers and the hotel manager. No one had seen Eren since he left that afternoon.
Surely, he and Levi had not already gone ahead to the fort to free the girls! Maybe he misheard, and he was supposed to meet both of them at the French Resistance hiding area. He checked a map of the city again, memorizing multiple routes to the bookstore, just in case he met up with roadblocks. He looked at his watch and cursed.
Sure, he still had a few hours until midnight, but where was Eren?
His biggest fear was that something bad had happened. He could not do this alone. As much as Jean hated it, this time he had to rely on others for help.
In the midst of his pacing, a heavy hand pounded on the door. He stomped over, fuming with fraught emotions.
"I swear, Jäger, you are the most irresponsible son of a..."
He threw the door open and jolted at seeing, not the brown-haired first lieutenant, but a tall and brawny blond who forced even a tall man like Jean to look up.
"Reiner! What are you doing here?"
He asked sternly, "Were you waiting for Jäger?"
"Sort of. We were planning to go out tonight," he said, hoping to sound jovial, like they were going out for an evening of drinking, not planning to break into an internment camp.
Reiner stepped in and motioned for Jean to close the door. Already, Jean could see the grim look on Reiner's face with his squarish jaw was clenched. His SS uniform was wet from the rain outside, and on one shoulder sagged a black bag.
Jean shut the door and sighed. "That idiot got in trouble again, didn't he?"
Rather than answer, Reiner made a thorough sweep of the room, checking under lamp shades, feeling above the light fixture, kneeling down to examine under the bed, and opening Jean's closet to check every shelf.
"If you tell me what you're looking for, it'll go quicker. I have nothing to hide." Although he said that, Jean's foot shifted the packed bag under his desk.
Reiner closed the closet and turned toward the scraping noise. He stomped over, yanked out the bag, and opened it before Jean had a chance to protest. He saw the change of women's clothes on the top.
"Nothing to hide, huh? Unpack that, and make it look like the women's clothes were left here by accident."
"Why?"
"Because your room will be inspected before the end of the night. Unless you're planning to leave right now, you need to prepare yourself."
Jean's eyes narrowed. "What happened?"
Not waiting for him, Reiner took the bag and turned it upside down onto Jean's bed.
"Hey!"
He took one heeled shoe and placed it sideways under the bed, and the other he set slightly to the side of the closet, where it looked like it could be out of sight. He then took the dress and carried it over to be draped by the toilet sink.
"I asked you a question, bastard. Why would anyone inspect my room? What happened to Jäger?"
Reiner spun around. "Do you know what secret he hid from everyone?"
Jean folded his arms and scowled. "That he can't fold shirts? It isn't a secret."
Reiner walked up close to him and lowered his voice. "I mean the Jew he's been hiding, a short male Jew that Woermann, Galliard, and I witnessed sucking his dick by the river just two hours ago."
Jean let out a sound of disgust. "I know nothing of this."
Reiner could easily see that Jean was lying. "Jäger was shot."
Now Jean jolted. "What?" he cried out. His heart began to pound. Arrested, he might understand, but shot?
"I bandaged his wound. When I left, he was still alive. I went to a friend of mine in the Gestapo to help."
"The Gestapo?" he hissed, almost wanting to scream in outrage. "Do you honestly think they'd help?"
"They will follow the law, and as a German citizen, Jäger has certain rights. They will interrogate him properly—"
"They'll torture him!"
"He'll survive until morning. I wasn't so certain that even that was a guarantee, what with Woermann waving his gun around and talking about castrating him. Woermann is more dangerous than you can imagine. You don't know his history, what he's done to German officers, or how many atrocities he has committed. If I left Jäger alone with him, torture would be the least of his problems." Reiner sank to Jean's desk chair, took off his cap, and ran his fingers through his short, blond hair. Sounding exhausted, he muttered, "I told you, put that stuff away."
Jean scowled, hating that his well-organized packing had to be undone. Still, if the Gestapo were now aware of Levi and Eren's relationship, then Reiner was right: everyone connected to Eren would be investigated in order to be thorough. He began to put all the clothes and items back where they belonged.
"I couldn't do anything," Reiner growled in self-loathing. "If it was just me, I would have punched him for being stupid and then let him go. With a higher ranked SS and a Heer captain with me ... I had to play along and rough him up." He looked up at Jean, who saw that those blue eyes were tense with conflicting emotions. "You're the only friend of his I could think of. Everyone else from your old platoon is either wounded or isn't responsible enough."
"Responsible enough for what?" Jean asked cautiously, continuing to put his supplies away. "Why come to me and tell me all of this?"
"Because, all of us owe Jäger our lives."
"Actually, he owes me. Armin and I saved his life in Anzio."
"Well, I saved his life too in Napola, but he saved mine. Twice! I still owe him one more favor. It's probably the same for you, right? He either did something for you, or helped you in a way where you now owe him."
"He was supposed to help me," Jean muttered. If Eren and Levi were arrested, their plan to rescue Annie was ruined. That made Jean seethe deep inside.
"Tonight, right? Is it the brothel girls? I talked to Colt Grice before coming here. He mentioned that you and Jäger were at the brothel during a raid yesterday, and that you didn't want to let one of the girls go. She's special to you, that much is obvious to the Gestapo, which is why I checked your room first, to see if they already bugged it. I guess they've been too busy. If we rescue Jäger, he could still—"
"Rescue him?" Jean yelled, but he quickly brought his voice back down to a hiss. "Don't you realize, that was my plan? To break into that fort with Jäger and Levi so we could rescue Annie. Without them, how am I supposed to do this? Are you going to help?"
"I already did," whispered Reiner. "I gave Jäger a gun. It's not much, but it was the best I could do for now, to either give him a chance to escape, or at the worst, give him a noble way out."
Jean sneered at the idea. "You idiot. His head ... it got damaged out there. He might actually shoot himself."
"I would rather rescue him before he gets to that point, but I can't think of anything. I can charge into battle, but I was never good at tactical planning, whereas look at you! You worked your way up from soldat to Unteroffizier in just a few years, then got your commission to Leutnant."
"Most of it was bad luck for the men around me," he muttered.
"No, it was skill, your ability to take charge after the person in command got killed. Over and over again, the bad luck of others gave you the chance to show your natural leadership talent. Jäger admired that, even if he was bad at admitting it. So I'm turning to you now, Kirschstein. I'll follow your lead."
Jean sighed and collapsed onto his bed mattress. "Dammit. If this was a battle, I'd do what felt instinctively right. Jäger often said I had a sixth sense, an ability to know where enemies were and when to react. The enemy now is ... everyone. Dammit. I wish Armin was here."
"Do you mean Arlelt, the small one in your platoon?"
"Yeah, he was the strategist. Jäger listened to his advice more than anyone else, and I have to admit, his plans were a million times better than mine."
"Isn't he in the hospital? Maybe we can talk to him."
"We shouldn't bother him. The poor man has been through enough. Just let me think." He began to mindlessly fold his clothes and put things back away.
Reiner stood and pulled the black bag he was carrying a little higher up on his shoulder. "You think. I'm going to use your toilet."
Jean stared ahead at nothing. He really did wish he could consult Armin about this, but if he did, Armin would insist on helping. Jean knew Armin should not get involved.
After a minute, he heard a commotion outside, with fists pounding and voices barking to open doors. Jean quickly hid the last few items and tossed his bag into the closet. Then he walked over and opened his door to look out at the chaos. His eyes widened in shock.
The entire fourth floor was full of local police officers, with a few Gestapo agents directing the raid. One came straight up to him.
"Name, rank, and commanding officer," the man demanded.
"Kirschstein, Jean Michael, Leutnant, formerly of Hauptmann Carl Großmann's company. I'll be transferred to Saarbrücken in two days and assigned to Hauptmann Ulrich Schmidt's company. What is all this about?"
"Your room is subject to inspection."
"May I ask why?"
"You may not," the man answered tersely.
Jean stepped aside. "Very good. Heil Hitler." He watched warily as the agent and two policemen pushed their way in. Reiner was right, and if not for his warning they would have seen the bag.
A moment later, Reiner stepped out and saw the officers. His eyes narrowed.
"Hey, Kirschstein," he called out. "Your lady friend left some clothes in here."
The Gestapo agent went right up to him, but he needed to tilt his head far up to see Reiner. "Name, rank, and commanding officer."
"Braun, Reiner Robert, Untersturmführer. Commanding officers are Hauptsturmführer Peter Stumpp and Sturmbannführer Rudolf Pleil."
"Waffen-SS are not housed in this building. State your purpose."
"Kirschstein and I used to serve together. We were planning to go out drinking before he leaves for Saarbrücken. Am I subject to investigation as well?"
The Gestapo agent looked him over, but Reiner held his hands out, showing he had nothing to hide. "Move out of the way."
Reiner stepped aside. "By all means. Kirschstein, hopefully I'll see you later and you'll introduce me to your lady friend before you leave town."
Jean looked over at him, his brow pinched. Lady friend? Did he mean Annie? Did this mean Reiner would still help him? He also realized that Reiner's bag was missing. He glanced into the bathroom where agents were searching around.
I swear, if he left something suspicious in my room, I'll kill that guy.
Reiner stepped through the chaotic hallway, watching as officers were shoved out of rooms and police went in. Right at the staircase, he met up with Ian Dietrich, who was standing aside from the onrush with his arms folded in annoyance.
"Heil Hitler, Braun," Ian greeted, raising his folded arm slightly in salute.
"Heil Hitler," Reiner replied back, his arm raising just as casually.
"Do you know what's going on?"
Reiner looked around. "A random search? Not uncommon."
Ian scowled as he looked around. "It's more than that."
"Well, I'm not going to stop the Gestapo and ask them. If you dare to, good luck. I'm going out. I just came here thinking Kirschstein wanted to go out drinking before he leaves. You're leaving soon too, right? We could celebrate."
Ian's eyes looked frigid. "I'm not interested in drinking."
"Your loss. I hope this is just random and not something to do with partisans."
Ian huffed and looked away.
"Good evening to you, too," Reiner muttered, and he left. What a pompous man!
Luckily, the rest of the walk down the stairs and out the door was uneventful. Outside, he saw the police cars that had surrounded the building. He was again stopped, questioned, but allowed to leave. Reiner walked across the street and looked back up to the fourth floor.
"I hope they don't find it," he whispered, and he took off into the night.
* * *
In the internment camp, the screams had finally stopped, leaving behind a sepulchral silence. Eren sat in his cell staring straight ahead, trapped in a world of grief and horror after being forced to listen helplessly for hours as his lover was tortured.
Colt watched Eren through the window bars of the thick cell door. The screams they heard had been awful, almost inhuman in the amount of agony in those howls. The young Kriminalassistent was silently glad he had not needed to witness the interrogation itself. He was a detective, not a torturer.
Colt suddenly stood at attention as Magath came forward, swinging a small black drawstring pouch in his hand. At a nod, Colt unlocked the door, and the Kriminaldirektor strode in. He knelt in front of Eren to look eye-level with him. Eren's eyes did not even blink.
"Are you still in there, Jäger?"
There was a slight movement, his eyes adjusting to focus on the weathered face, only to slip away into the distance again.
"I want you to know, I considered going easy on him. He could have been useful in a prisoner exchange. However, based on his record, I deemed him too dangerous." His eyes narrowed. "Everything I do is for the glory of the Third Reich. Hitler himself approves all actions I take. Remember that."
Eren's mouth moved slowly, less than a whisper, as he continued to stare forward, lost in shock. "Is he dead?"
Magath shrugged. "He was still breathing when I left the room." He saw that his words had minimal effect. "I don't think you even begin to fathom the lengths your brother has gone for you. Every time we find one of Lord Zeke's contacts, he uses another, all to maneuver you around Europe and keep you out of the worst danger. You were originally meant to be sent to the Eastern Front; instead, you were sent to Italy. The Anzio invasion happened, and he got you transferred to Paris. Then he learned that the Allies were planning an invasion, so he got you sent inland so you would not be in the initial battles. We have evidence that the original order was for your entire company to be sent to the Normandy Coast, but somewhere along the way, that order changed to only the SS platoons in your company."
Eren shook his head. He could not understand why Zeke would do all that for some half-brother he had never even met. Wouldn't Zeke naturally hate him? He was the son of the woman who replaced Zeke's mother, after all.
"Then there's Kitz Woermann," said Magath. "Do you know much about him?"
Eren's shoulders twitched in a weak shrug.
"Before being sent to France, he was stationed near the Kraków Ghetto in Poland, known for punishing Jews by slowly torturing them. Two years ago, Woermann attempted to kill a Jewish boy by crushing his head with his boot. A young lieutenant shoved the captain aside and told the boy to run. Woermann shot both the boy and the lieutenant. Unfortunately for him, this young man was the son of a high-ranking member of the Nazi Party. Woermann was lucky not to be outright executed. Instead, he was transferred to France and put on beach patrol for two years, until you were placed in his company, along with new orders: to go inland, just south of the Ardennes Forest, and flush out some members of the French Resistance. He blundered the operation, bombed the town, which chased away the civilians, including any partisans. He managed to capture only one unlucky courier girl."
Eren's eyes tensed in sadness, remembering Caven and how bravely she withstood Kitz's torture.
"Just days after taking the village, two SS platoons arrived in town, including an old classmate of yours, Reiner Braun. This was no lucky chance meeting. Lord Zeke had been following your progress and kept tabs on anyone you knew. He feared that Woermann's history of killing a lieutenant in Poland put you at risk, especially since there was a high probability that you would also be sympathetic to Jews because of your mother. So he personally picked a member of the SS who knew you, and thus would be more likely to protect you should Woermann go rogue. Reiner Braun's orders were to kill Woermann if he stepped out of line, and to make sure any officers in the battalion were not harmed."
Eren heard the words, and he had no reason to doubt them. Many Heer soldiers had wondered why the Waffen-SS was getting involved in a tiny village in northeast France. The idea that Reiner, of all people, was sent to that village was beyond mere chance.
"I questioned Hauptmann Woermann just now," Magath went on. "He figured out why the SS were there, so he behaved himself. He realized that you had sympathies for the Jews, he wanted to kill you on principle, but he guessed the SS would kill him as soon as he harmed you. He purposely targeted the Jew Levi, hoping to push you into a confrontation, a legitimate excuse to shoot you. He was reluctant to admit that your resolve to act like a proper Nazi impressed him. He grew to enjoy seeing you mentally shut down and blindly carry out orders to hurt the Jews."
Eren flinched, remembering the weight of the whip in his hand as he swung it down on Levi's back.
"Then came the orders for the Waffen-SS to leave town. Like I mentioned, it was originally supposed to be your whole company. Shortly after they left, Hauptmann Woermann murdered a soldier named Marlo Freudenberg. The official report was that it was an unknown gunman, but the coroner also pointed out that it was a .455 caliber bullet, a Webley, the same gun that Woermann oh-so-proudly displays on his hip. The captain confessed to me, he had merely been waiting to kill Freudenberg in particular for his Jewish sympathies, and he hoped for any excuse to kill you next. He chose Levi to be raped by a male Jew, purely to see if you would try to defend him."
Those words crushed Eren. Then, it was his fault that Levi suffered that public humiliation!
"Your company never received orders to evacuate to Metz; again, this was Lord Zeke's doing. His goal since you graduated officer training school has been to keep you safe, and he's been pulling strings all across England, Germany, Italy, and France to protect you, his baby brother. That would be a touching family story, if it didn't involve treason."
Magath quietly stared at Eren's unresponsive face.
"Aren't you impressed with your big brother?" he asked, but Eren still did not move or blink. "I'm slightly curious what he would do now to free you. I'm expecting half the British special ops forces to barge in here. That is why I plan to deliver you to Berlin in my own car tomorrow, before dawn, and hopefully before word of your capture can reach London. All hell may rain down on Metz because of you, Jäger. Your friends will die in a firestorm wrought by your British brother. Live with that!"
He stood, and Eren finally looked up at him. Magath caught sight of those eyes now directly looking at him.
"Oh? Are you actually aware? Is your mind still working somewhere in that broken shell of yours? Good. I was afraid I was talking to a man already dead inside." He looked at the bag he had been swinging in his hand. "Your lover wanted to see you one last time. I figured I'd let him."
Eren felt a rise of hope, but then the black pouch was thrown at him. Magath quickly marched out, slamming the door shut behind him. Eren realized the bag felt wet. Fear leaped up in his throat, and he yanked the drawstring to open it.
He screamed and threw the bag. It fell open, and Levi's severed eyeball rolled out, with the bloody optic nerve still attached. Eren clawed at his face and kept screaming, insane with horror.
Magath strode out of the internment camp like a black shadow that had come to bring despair, and now was moving on to the next victim.
* * *
Porco Galliard and Kitz Woermann had the duty of dragging the small Jewish man back to a prison cell, with Koslow following behind. Levi was unconscious, bruises everywhere, blood dripping from his hand and down half his face. Worst was the trail of blood leaking out of his naked ass.
Out of the corner of his eye, Colt saw Eren look up at the sound of footsteps. His screams finally stopped, listening now, trying to hear anything he could. It almost looked like he wanted to stand and walk over to the door to get a peek.
"You don't want to see," Colt warned softly.
"How bad is it?" asked Eren.
Colt forced himself to hold firm. "Bad." Colt fell silent after that, nodding familiarly to Koslow as they walked by.
"You missed a hell of a show, Grice," Koslow said with a broad smile. "Although, you'd probably vomit like this guy did."
Galliard still looked green around the lips. "I've never seen someone get something shoved up their ass, let alone that far in. I'm shocked he didn't die on the spot. And the eye!"
Koslow chuckled sadistically. "The eyes are just for fun. Magath is good at his job. The Jew won't die yet. He won't live long, either."
Hearing that, Eren slammed his eyes shut.
He heard them dragging Levi down the hall, and then the far off sound of a door slamming. The men walked back, but Kitz stopped by Eren's prison door and peered in.
"Did Kriminaldirektor Magath give you his little present? Ah," he said, seeing the bag with the eyeball roll out. "You should take better care of that. He really, really wanted to see you, after all. Your fag lover also wanted you to have these."
He threw in bloodied pale things, which scattered across the floor of the prison. Eren stared at them and picked up the nearest one. He quickly dropped it as he realized it was a fingernail ripped out of Levi's hands. He heard Kitz's sadistic laugh, and Eren looked over at him in anguish.
Kitz then held up two severed fingers. "I'll hold on to these, dry them out in salt, and keep them as a souvenir. Unless you want them. Maybe you can stick one up your ass. It's not much smaller than his dick." He laughed again as he continued down the hallway.
"So, Captain," said Galliard, "are you heading back?"
"No, I think I'll stay in the fort with Koslow. I want to make sure Jäger's platoon doesn't try to break him out."
"They couldn't possibly be that stupid."
"They were led by a Jewish faggot for a year. Who knows how stupid they became under him!" Their voices slowly faded away down the hall.
Eren slammed his eyes shut. "It's my fault," he whispered in despair.
He never should have told Levi about his feelings. He never should have kissed him. He should have kept it all bottled up, if only to save Levi's life. Now, he had been brutally tortured, cut to pieces, he was dying, and Eren felt it was all because of him.
It was his fault.
After all, he was the one who fell in love.
* * *
[Hey everyone, real quick! If you want to hear my audio ad lib of this scene (with a little sound effect I added in) it's on Soundgasm. I often act out scenes like this to get realistic dialogue, and I thought it turned out so good, I wanted to share it with you, so feel free to listen and follow along as you read.]
https://soundgasm.net/u/WildRhov/Dangerous-Territory-Eren-in-prison
* * *
It was nearly an hour later when Eren heard footsteps and a familiar voice, but he was too far gone to feel even a spark of hope.
"Halt! What are you doing here, Jean? State your business with the prisoner."
"Oberleutnant Jäger is my former commanding officer. I need to talk to him so I can report back to his platoon."
Colt sighed heavily. "If you were any other man, I wouldn't allow this. Be quick, before anyone else comes this way."
The thick door creaked open. Jean stepped inside, but he felt a crunch underfoot. He looked down and saw bloodied fingernails scattered around. Then he also saw the severed eyeball, and his stomach surged up. He carefully stepped around the bloody bits.
Eren was on the cot, blood on his swollen nose, the undershirt darkened with blood seeping through his bandaged shoulder, and cradling a grotesquely broken arm. However, Jean realized that Eren's fingernails were fine. That meant what he stepped on had been Levi's, as well as that eyeball, all tossed in to mentally torture Eren.
The cell was so small, Jean had no place to sit. He stood in the corner, gazing at Eren as he stared into nothingness. Jean had seen plenty of shell-shocked soldiers before, but none quite like this.
"Reiner came to my room and told me. I informed the rest of your platoon," he said into the silence. Anger welled up inside Jean. "You're a fool, Jäger. A suicidal idiot, and you dragged everyone else into your mess. The hotel was raided. By the time I reached your platoon, they were already being searched and questioned. It'll be lucky if they're not all punished as well, all because of you."
Eren still stared ahead, not giving the slightest hint of acknowledging that Jean was there. Jean came forward and knelt in front of him, lowering his voice so Colt could not hear him.
"There's more at stake here than your sorry ass. We were supposed to get Annie tonight. I can't do it alone, and now the whole fort is locked down. I almost couldn't get in here. Any chance I had of saving her is gone. Now she could die, all because you wanted your dick sucked! If she dies, I don't care if the Gestapo wants to keep you alive, I will find a way to kill you myself!" Jean stood up again and walked toward the door.
A weak voice croaked, "I'm sorry, Jean."
He spun back around, but Eren still stared ahead, shattered with guilt.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I failed you. I failed my men."
"You failed Germany," Jean snapped.
"No." Eren's bloodshot eyes turned to him. "Germany failed me. I didn't choose to be this way. I'm what I am, from the day I was born. I didn't choose this!" His gaze sank again. "I only chose to be honest with myself for once. I used to think I could be happy simply never knowing love. I thought it was okay. But it wasn't. What is living, if you kill who you are? What is life, if you keep your heart dead so it never feels anything?" With tears dripping, he looked back up to Jean, now with anger in his eyes. "I didn't choose to be like this. Germany chose not to accept me for the way I am. I have been loyal to my country, even as it spit on me. I gave Germany everything," he screamed in outrage, tears bursting out, "and it couldn't give me one chance at knowing love. Germany failed me."
With a hiccuping sob, he turned his face to the cold brick wall.
"And I failed the man I love," he whispered with a shaking voice. "I failed my platoon. I failed you. I failed everyone. All because I wanted to feel love before this war kills me. Instead, Germany itself will kill me. No..." Eren shook his head, staring forward in disillusionment. "Nazis will kill me. Germany is still Germany. It's Nazis who say I should not exist. It's Nazis who hate Jews, Romani, homosexuals, disabled, and anyone who isn't pure Aryan. When conformity is more important than loyalty, the government has failed its citizens."
Jean watched him, conflicted, afraid to even try to comfort him, lest he be wrapped up in accusations. "If you're trying to get my sympathy, it won't work. I'm not going to save your ass, Jäger. Not this time. This isn't a battle where I can run in on my own and save the day, like in Anzio. You made a damn stupid choice, and I hope you live long enough to realize how many people will suffer because of you."
Eren's face cringed, and he whispered miserably in defeat, "I know."
"Then I hope you live every day of your life regretting it."
He turned and left the cell. Colt locked the door again, and Jean stood in the cement and brick hall, his brow pinched as he tried to hold back emotions.
Jean asked in a whisper, "Will he be executed?"
"No. He'll be transferred to Berlin in the morning."
Jean jolted and looked over in surprise. "What does Berlin want with him?"
Colt shrugged. "I can't divulge the details."
Jean nodded solemnly. Of course, the Gestapo could not explain their reasons. Still, it meant Eren would survive, at least for a little while. He muttered thanks to Colt before marching out of the fort as fast as he could.
Jean climbed onto a motorcycle he had ridden out to the fort and headed back north, into the heart of Metz. He drove to the officer's hotel and saw that the police cars that had swarmed the place were all gone. He went up to the fourth floor to see some of the lieutenants standing around, looking shaken after the inspection.
Holger bolted forward. "Jean! Did you talk to him? Is it true? Eren's wife ... it was a male Jew in disguise this whole time?"
Surma looked like he was calculating. "The first Louise was definitely a woman. She had been brought in to work at the brothel, and those women went through frequent inspections. That means the other Louise was a man dressed to look like her."
"All this time," Samuel whispered in shock, "he was buggering a man."
Daz sneered. "Disgusting!"
Jean snapped at Daz, "A man who fucks as many whores as you has no right to say someone else is disgusting." He turned away in anger. "It looks like the Gestapo really roughed him up. They shot him in the shoulder when they arrested him."
"My God," Holger said, shivering at the thought of Gestapo interrogations. "Are we next?"
Wim insisted, "We didn't do anything."
Samuel looked over to Jean. "By the way, that Stabsgefreiter friend of yours arrived. The small one with his head all wrapped up."
"Armin?" Jean asked in surprise. "Dammit, what is he doing out of the hospital? He shouldn't even be up and walking yet."
Surma shrugged. "I guess he heard the news. He looked dizzy, and you left your room unlocked, so we told him to wait for you in there. All the Gestapo swarming around made him nervous."
Holger rubbed his arms. "They made me nervous, and I've never broken a law in my life."
Jean walked past the men, into his room, and shut the door, locking it just in case. Armin was sitting at the desk, his head still in a thick bandage. He had spread out a map of Metz, but Jean realized Armin's eyes were not zipping around the map to search terrain like usual. They were stuck, lost, focused on the south of Metz. Jean could see Fort Queuleu marked there with both the French name and the German Feste Göben.
"What are you doing out of the hospital?" he scolded. "How did you even get out of there?"
"Reiner helped me to sneak out and drove me here."
Jean growled under his breath, "That bastard."
Armin's eyes turned up to him, and he whispered in a trembling voice, "We knew. We knew about Levi. We helped him. What if the Gestapo finds out we knew?"
"Keep quiet and no one will ever find out."
Armin still shook with fear. "I don't know what's right or wrong anymore, but I can't accept that Eren is evil. I don't know why he loves a man, but ... but I know his feelings are real, they are strong, and both of them are sincere. I can't accept that a love that pure is bad." He finally looked up to Jean, his blue eyes huge with terror. "They would arrest me for even thinking that."
"Then don't say it out loud, idiot."
Jean folded his arms and looked aside. Armin was right. They could be arrested or killed simply for being sympathetic. He was also threatened because he had fallen in love with Annie, a Jew. Maybe it was not quite as bad as Eren, but if the Gestapo figured out that he was aware of Annie's heritage, he could be arrested for breaking the law .
Eren was also right: it was not Germany who hated him, but the Nazi Party.
"Country before party. Loyalty before conformity."
Armin's shaking stopped at the soft utterance of those traitorous words.
"I signed up for the military because I wanted to protect Germany, not to fight purely for the ideology of the Nazi Party. Right now, my duty is to protect the lives of Germans." He looked over to Armin with burning conviction. "All Germans!"
Armin calmed down, and he nodded in agreement.
Jean walked over to the table and leaned over Armin to look at the map. "What have you got?"
"Not much. This map doesn't have many details."
"Dammit. I had the schematics for the fort, but I gave them to Levi."
"Schematics? Wait!" Armin gasped. "Was that what Reiner meant?"
"What did that bastard say?"
"He said, 'I left something that will guide your way. It's in Kirschtein's bathroom.'"
"He was in there right when the Gestapo arrived. Come to think of it, he arrived with a bag but left empty-handed."
Jean went to the bathroom. Where could Reiner have hidden such a bulky bag? He checked under the sink, only to realize the Gestapo would have checked obvious places. He even looked inside the toilet, but there was nothing there.
"He couldn't have hidden it in the bathroom..." Jean froze. He looked down at the toilet again and saw the faint hint of boot prints that someone had tried to wipe away. Jean stood on the toilet and realized it brought him eye level with a vent. He reached to his belt, pulled out his multipurpose tool, and undid the screws. Looking inside, he saw nothing, but as he reached his hand in, he immediately felt fabric. Jean pulled on a strap, and a black bag slid out from the hiding place.
"You took one hell of a risk, you bastard."
He brought the bag to the main room, set it down on the desk, and opened it. Right on top were Levi's trench knives. Jean burst out a laugh as he picked them up.
"These are definitely Levi's. He threatened me with one of these knives this morning."
"Threatened you?" Armin cried out.
"I yelled at Jäger, and the Jew didn't understand that I was actually trying to tell him that staying in Metz was a mistake."
"I thought Eren planned to leave with Levi. That's what he told me yesterday."
"A lot has happened since yesterday," Jean muttered, pulling out more supplies: clothes, a compass, and then the Tanakh. "You asshole. If they had found this—" He pulled out more until finally he brought out the blueprints. "Here we are! Good."
"Why would you have the fort's blueprints? For that matter, why did you give them to Levi?"
"Like I said, a lot happened. The short version: the Gestapo massacred all of Levi's Resistance friends and arrested many of the prostitutes, including Annie."
"The girl you like? Why?"
"She's Jewish."
Armin's mouth dropped in shock. "Did you know?"
Jean pouted. "I've known since before you and Jäger left for that battle up north. He was the one who told me. I love her, and I don't care if she's related to Israelites or prays to Moses."
"Jews don't pray to Moses."
"Whatever! I love her, and when they dragged her away from me, I swore I would get her back or die trying. Levi was going to help me. Or more accurately, I was going to use my rank to distract the guards while he and the French Resistance freed the Jewish girls."
"The French Resistance? So, they're not all dead."
"I'm not sure how many are left. The Gestapo killed quite a few."
Armin hummed as he inspected the map. "If only we knew where they were. They know this city better than anyone."
Jean pouted and awkwardly mumbled, "What if ... we did know?"
Armin looked up so sharply, he got hit with dizziness and had to hold his bandaged head. "How ... wait, do you know where their hideout is?"
"Shh!" Jean looked around nervously. "I was supposed to meet Levi there at midnight. I don't even know if he warned them that I'd be there, or if they'd shoot me on sight. Besides, I speak maybe ten words of French. It was going to be hard enough with Levi there. Without him, I'm just some German soldier showing up out of nowhere, and I can't even explain things to them. They'd shoot me."
Armin's brow pinched. "I've learned quite a bit of French, but I'm not fluent."
"Forget it. You're injured. You shouldn't even be up walking."
"Well, I'm up, and I'm not returning to that hospital until I know Eren is safe." He looked at the blueprints. "On our own, getting them out would be impossible. We need more people. If the French Resistance is willing to help us, then we might stand a chance. Prisoners have escaped from Feste Göben before."
"Yes, but those two are wounded."
"How badly?"
"Jäger has a broken arm, and Reiner said he was shot. I saw his shoulder bandaged up. One of the guards told me that Levi was tortured until he fainted. I ... I saw ... there was an eyeball thrown into Jäger's prison."
Armin flinched in horror.
"That Jew may be dead already. Let's focus on Jäger."
Armin felt sick, but he forced himself to steer his mind back. "I'll have to look over these blueprints. If there's a tunnel, sewers, anything we can use to help them escape the prison, it'll be easy from there. A few kilometers southeast of Feste Göben is a hospital. I don't know if Americans or Germans control it now. If Americans do, Levi can get help. If Germans do ... maybe they haven't heard about Eren's arrest yet, so he could at least get his arm fixed." His finger dragged along one of the maps he had been looking at earlier. "This whole area is going to be a war zone soon. Once Metz falls, General Patton will sweep through all the way to the Westwall. The safest path for Levi is to head west, straight into the heart of France. He'll be safe there."
"But not Jäger," Jean pointed out.
Armin shook his head. "There are no safe places for him anymore."
"We were talking about maybe going to Switzerland."
"That would be best. If it was just him and being injured, I wouldn't think he could make it, but between the two of you, you stand a chance. It's either that..." Armin looked up sadly to Jean. "...or hide, wait it out, see which side wins, and pray that when this is all over, maybe you and Annie can be happy."
"But not Jäger," Jean realized, his brow pinched as he realized the unfairness.
Armin also looked upset. "Maybe there's some place in this world that won't kill him for being what he is."
Jean sighed and slumped down onto his bed. "We don't have time to worry about that. What are our options for breaking all of them out?"
"I don't know yet, but I do know about one window of opportunity. It's risky, and I'm not sure that it'll even work."
"We'll make it work," Jean said with conviction.
Armin smiled, feeling hope in Jean's stern eyes. "Right! So, I picked up some Allied radio chatter while I was sitting in the hospital. My English isn't great, but I think..."
# # #
# #
#
I promise, no more injuries to Levi.
In my original rough draft, Levi was tortured by Magath, but nowhere near as badly. Then I saw the wounds he got in the manga. I rewrote this scene so Levi's wounds match his canon injuries. It broke my heart to do that to him. Waaaaaaaaaaaah!
Added Names — Jean's middle name "Michael" is from his English voice actor, Mike McFarland, while Reiner's middle name "Robert" is from his English voice actor, Robert McCollum. I used to try to name-drop actual people from the anime, but I ran out of names that would work (and who don't show up later on) so the commanding officers are inspired by German serial killers: Carl Großmann ("The Berlin Butcher"), Ulrich Schmidt ("The Holiday Killer"), Peter Stumpp ("The Werewolf of Bedburg"), and Rudolf Pleil ("The Deadmaker" ... probably the coolest serial killer nickname ever).
(Germans pose with Jews in front of the gate of the Kraków Ghetto)
Kraków Ghetto was one of five major metropolitan Nazi ghettos during the occupation of Poland. More than 68,000 Jews lived in Kraków at the time of the German invasion. By the end of 1940, around 43,000 Jews were removed from the city. The remaining 15,000 were deemed "economically useful" and relocated to a walled-off ghetto. The Kraków Ghetto became a staging area for separating "able workers" who were sent to the Płaszów slave-labor camp, from the "unfit," usually women, children, the elderly, or anyone sick, who were sent to extermination camps. The Kraków Ghetto was fully shut down by March 1943, as Germans wanted Kraków to be the "racially cleanest" city in the General Government. 2,000 Jews were sent to slave-labor camps, 3,000 were sent to Auschwitz, 11,000 were sent to Belzec extermination camp, and 2,000 were simply shot in the street.
#
Being Gay in Nazi Germany
An estimated 5,000 to 15,000 homosexuals were incarcerated in concentration camps, marked with an inverted pink triangle. 60% of them were killed. It is uncertain how many gay Jews, Romani, and Slavs there were, as concentration camps based those groups on ethnicity, not their sexual orientation. So there could have been many more non-straight people who were murdered by Nazis.
Homosexuals suffered an unusual degree of cruelty by their captors, including being used as target practice on shooting ranges. They were also used as test subjects for Nazi scientists who were trying to find a "cure" for homosexuality. This ranged from hormone treatments, brainwashing, various surgeries, types of castration, lobotomies, and other mutilations as scientists experimented with how to turn a homosexual person into a straight person.
Despite their sadistic experiments, they never found a "cure" to homosexuality. Not even Hitler could "pray away the gay."
After the war, both East and West Germany continued to have anti-sodomy laws. This meant that many gay men were released from Nazi concentration camps only to be immediately re-arrested and imprisoned for being homosexual. Courts used Gestapo records as evidence that the men were homosexual. Some of these men died in prison, having never experienced the freedom that other Holocaust survivors got to have.
Being Jewish was no longer illegal, being Romani was no longer illegal, being a Jehovah's Witness was no longer illegal, but being non-heterosexual was still a crime for another 30 years. While other Holocaust survivors gave interviews, wrote books, and movies were made about their suffering and survival in the concentration camps, gay men in Germany feared to talk about it, since speaking up was confessing to a crime.
Thus, the horrors that homosexuals suffered in concentration camps did not come to light until after the anti-sodomy laws were repealed in the late 1960s. Finally, gay men could speak up about the torture they endured and the atrocities they witnessed in the camps.
In 2002, 70 years after Hitler rose to power and began his attacks against homosexual men, the German government finally apologized to the gay community.
#
LGBT Legality Around the World
Being non-straight and non-cisgender has been a legal nightmare around the world since colonization by people adhering to Abrahamic religions spread anti-sodomy laws laid out in those religions. Gay hate and gender binary customs spread to areas that used to recognize multiple genders and accepted all forms of companionship.
Even in countries that have never banned homosexuality—like Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam, to name a few—these countries also rarely gave homosexual people legal protection against discrimination, or even barred them from basic rights, including the right to marry, obtain higher education, hold certain jobs, buy a house, adopt children, and guaranteed medical care.
The first European countries to decriminalize homosexuality were Andorra and the Kingdom of France in 1791, although both retained many restrictions. (France legalized same-sex marriage in 2013, and transgender people finally gained the right to have a sex change without sterilization in 2017.)
El Salvador was the first South American country to decriminalize being gay in 1822. The Ottoman Empire revoked their anti-gay laws it in 1858, although after it fractured following World War I, many of the countries emerging from it criminalized same-sex activities (and it's still a problem!) Guatemala was the first gay-friendly Central American country in 1871, followed immediately by Mexico becoming the first North American country. Japan was in 1880. Ironically for how many Catholic countries banned homosexuality, Vatican City itself decriminalized it in 1890.
Switzerland followed in 1942, so it would be a safe place for Eren. Palestine decriminalized it in 1951, yet Israel wasn't until 1988. East Germany banished anti-gay laws in 1968, and West Germany in 1969, the same year as Canada. Australia legalized it nationwide in 1997. In New Zealand, which used to be tolerant of same-sex and transgender people before the arrival of Christianity, it was always okay to be lesbian, but British anti-sodomy laws from Great Britain spread in the 1800s; being gay was illegal until 1986, although Niue and Tokelau took until 2007, and the Cook Islands overturned laws criminalizing homosexuality and being transgender on June 1, 2023 (just a couple weeks ago as of writing this, yay for them!) India finally decriminalized homosexuality in 2018, and Singapore in 2022.
Where I live in the USA, homosexuality was not decriminalized nationwide until 2003. However, 14 States never repealed their anti-sodomy laws: Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. In some of those States, the law forbids oral sex between same-sex partners, and nine include anal sex between heterosexual partners.
You could be STRAIGHT and still arrested for consensual "butt stuff."
Granted, the 2003 Supreme Court's ruling means those State laws can no longer be enforced (federal law trumps state law) but so long as they are still in the law books, nothing is guaranteed. After all, America recently saw women's right to bodily autonomy overturned by a conservative-majority Supreme Court, and the issue of gay rights keeps coming up before the Court. People in those 12 States where anti-sodomy laws are still in the books live in a precarious situation, constantly at the mercy of a 20-year-old ruling that could easily be overturned.
And don't think Republicans aren't vehemently trying to abolish gay rights! Over 120 bills restricting LGBTAQ rights have been introduced in 2023 alone, trying to limit health care, education, access public accommodations, weaken the Civil Rights laws, restrictions on marriage (yep, THAT is still being contested) and even freedom of speech ... 120 bills this year alone, and we are only into June!
This is why it should be VERY important to Americans that we repeal old laws targeting the liberties of women, people of color, and homosexuals, even though we think they have been nullified by the Supreme Court, and we need to vote for Congresspeople who will enshrine those basic human rights into federal law!
(Sorry for the American-centric rant but THIS IS AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT TO ME because I have family living in four of those states and I worry for them.)
My point is, all countries that have legalized homosexuality need to work hard to keep that right protected. No law or liberty is set in stone. We should constantly fight to expand human rights to ALL people. If you live in a country where non-straight, non-binary, and transgender people do not yet have basic rights (which is about 1/3 of the world) see what you can do to help, even if it is just being a friend and safe shelter to someone under threat.
It is still illegal to be LGBTAQ in 64 United Nation member States and punishable with execution in the following countries:
* Afghanistan – death by stoning for all non-straight people.
* Brunei – death by stoning for men, caning and 10 years in prison for women.
* Chechnya – Although Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, it is de facto illegal in Chechnya and punishable with imprisonment in concentration camps or execution.
* Iran – 74 lashes for "immature men," execution on the first offense for adult men, 100 lashes for adult women, execution for women on the 4th offense.
* Mauritania – death by stoning for men, two years in prison for women, but the country has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 1987 so no one has actually been killed for being gay.
* Nigeria – 14 years in prison, death by stoning in 12 states.
* Qatar – death by stoning for male and female Muslims, 7 years in prison for non-Muslims.
* Saudi Arabia – While there is no criminal code in Saudi Arabia, they follow Sharia law, so homosexuality is punished by castration, up to 450 lashes, or death by stoning.
* Somalia – 3 years in prison, punishable by death in Jubaland.
* Uganda – illegal for men since 1902, for women since 2000, 20 years in prison for straight people promoting the "normalization" of homosexuality, life in prison for gay sex, and as of 2023 they passed a law calling for the execution of serial gay offenders.
* United Arab Emirates – 10 years in prison, flogging, chemical castration, or death by stoning. (It's a huge problem for tourists wanting to see Dubai!)
* Yemen – 100 lashes for non-married men, death by stoning for married men, three years in prison for lesbians.
There are still many cases of vigilante executions around the world by overly-religious zealots. This is why little acts of normalization like Pride Month and Pride Parades are so important.
(Here is a link to a picture of me at the 2017 Portland Pride Parade, playing my trombone. I was HOT in that long-sleeved dress, ugh! I wish I had worn a maxi dress like that guy next to me. They asked us to dress in a solid color to make a rainbow. I picked green to match my trombone! You can't tell, but my hair clip was flashing rainbows.)
References:
https://features.hrw.org/features/features/lgbt_laws/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37653459
http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2010/09/polynesias-ancient-same-sex-acceptance.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiewareham/2023/04/07/new-maps-show-where-its-illegal-to-be-lgbtq-in-2023/
https://www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/pride-month
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Afghanistan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Brunei
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gay_purges_in_Chechnya
https://www.advocate.com/world/2017/4/10/report-chechyna-torturing-gay-men-concentration-camps
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/01/world/europe/chechen-authorities-arresting-and-killing-gay-men-russian-paper-says.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Iran
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Mauritania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Nigeria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Qatar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Somalia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Uganda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Yemen