Once Upon an Us

That Awkward Moment When Your Dreams Come True, But Not in The Way You Planned

Fritz could think of at least four times he’d ever thought about what it would be like to be kidnapped and tortured by Nazis.  As of right now, none of his predictions even came close to the real deal. To his surprise, he hadn’t actually been tortured yet, something he’d thought for sure would occur within his first hour of capture.  Nevertheless, he remained relatively unharmed aside from the bruise forming on his jaw. He might have made the mistake of punching a guard after being separated from Carol, but that part had been something he’d imagined.  He hadn’t imagined how much it would actually hurt, but at least one thing was going according to his pre-imagined scenarios.

After being separated from Carol, Fritz had been taken to a room at the far end of the hall.  The officers had cuffed him to a metal table and left, leaving him to entertain himself, so he did.  Fritz sat in the cold chair, staring at the wall across from him and gave each individual brick a name and a story.  Growing up an only child provided him with an active imagination and it wasn’t the first time Fritz’s only entertainment happened to be a brick wall.  Luckily for the bricks, Fritz wasn’t an amatuer when it came to creating stories and instead of having boring lives, they got to live the dream. Susan was the mother of three other bricks and worked as a chocolate taster while her husband, Sven, worked in a chapstick creating firm.  Their neighbour, Tanya, was single and had seven parrots, two donkeys, and twelve ferrets. He was in the middle of trying to come up with Susan’s great aunt’s cousin’s friend’s job when Hoffman himself walked into the room and sat down across from him.

“Good afternoon, Fritz Gelfand,”  he said, smiling warmly at him as he laid a file on the table.  Fritz didn’t have to look at it to know it was probably his own, but he still did.  “Oh, you can have this,” Hoffman told him, sliding the file across the table to Fritz.  Fritz raised an eyebrow and flipped the file open. He frowned in confusion as he read over the file.  It wasn’t his, it was Tony’s.

“Why do you have this?”  he asked, reading the brief summary that had been written about Tony.  Fritz could tell right away the file was a fake, but continued to read it so he could tell Tony just what the Nazis thought of him.

“I just figured you’d want to learn more about your new friend,”  Hoffman replied easily. He leaned back in his chair and watched as Fritz flipped through the file.  Most of the pages were blank, a testament to just how little they knew about Tony. The little information they did have on him, though, was outrageous.  If they really wanted Fritz to believe Tony worked on the black market, they’d have to have more evidence than just a few vague descriptions about his “dealings”.

“You know this is all fake, right?”  Fritz said, closing the file and sliding it across the table and back in front of Hoffman.  Hoffman tilted his head, seeming intrigued by Fritz’s accusation. “I’ve met Tony Rossi and there’s no way he’s involved with the black market.  Aside from technology, he’s pretty useless. Everything in that file besides his name is probably false.”

“So I’ve been told,”  Hoffman replied with a smile.  He seemed pretty chipper for someone who’d just been told all the information he had on someone was fake.  “You see, I’ve met Tony Rossi too. I know we don’t have much on him, but I have his sister to thank for that; always makes sure the information we obtain about her brother is deleted before it can be written down.”

“Thea?”  Fritz asked before he could stop himself.  “You know about Thea?”

“That’s what she goes by now?”  Hoffman hummed amusedly. He chuckled and stood up from his chair, crossing his arms as he walked around the room.  “No, I knew her as Hilda and she was my best assassin.” Fritz frowned. Clearly Hoffman was talking about a different person.  However, as far as Fritz knew, Tony only had one sister and it was Thea. Besides, the name Hilda was pretty different from Thea.  “I’m sorry you didn’t know about this, I know they tend to keep family history on the down low. Tony did very well at getting her off my radar once she defected, but it only took one mistake and we got her back.”

“We must be thinking about different people,”  Fritz told him. Hoffman raised an eyebrow at him and pulled another file out from his briefcase.  “Thea would never work for the Reich. All offense, but she hates you more than I imagined it was possible to hate something.”

“Have you ever wondered, Mr. Gelfand, how she came to hate us so much?”  Hoffman asked. He opened the file and slid it across the table to Fritz.  Fritz hesitated before looking down at the file, sure he was going to some other face.  To his surprise, Thea’s face glared up at him. He flipped through the pages quickly, skimming over her large file.  There was a thick stack of papers that were stapled towards the back of the file, each with three faces and names. Across each face was a faded stamp that read ‘done’ along with the location of their death.

“What is this?”  Fritz whispered, staring in horror at the sheer amount of people that had been murdered and stuck in Thea’s file.  He looked up at Hoffman who smirked down at him.

“That is Thea Rossi’s file,”  he told Fritz quietly. He flipped back toward the front pages that Fritz hadn’t bothered reading over and pointed to a faintly wrinkled page.  Fritz looked down to see a letter handwritten and signed by Thea, pledging her allegiance to the Reich. “Now that I have your attention,” Hoffman said softly, drawing Fritz’s attention up from the file.  “I believe we have quite a few things to talk about.”

Thea sat across the table from Pengin, watching him closely as he told her and Tony just what they were doing and why.  Tony bounced his leg beside her but she didn’t bother stopping him. It was better he use his energy to bounce than attack someone.  He never had been very good at controlling his temper and it only got worse when he was agitated with someone he didn’t trust. Thea also didn’t want to pull her attention away from Pengin in case a tell-tale sign he was lying or continuing to hide the truth escaped her attention.  It was hard enough to read Pengin as it was, she didn’t need or want any extra distractions. As much as she wanted to believe Pengin was being fully honest with her, Tony’s paranoia was rubbing off on her and she couldn’t be sure if he really was being truthful anymore.

“You failed to tell me Hoffman was back on your trail, though,”  Pengin said, staring pointedly at Thea as he took a bite of his sandwich.  Thea simply blinked and Pengin continued on. “We know he’s planning to take over once Hitler’s gone, but after your little midnight spy game with Brannon, we know he plans to do it in his own house.”

“Don’t tell us what we know,”  Tony interrupted, rubbing his hands together under the table.  “We want to know why we’re the ones who have to take care of it, how to get the others back, and just how we plan on stopping Hoffman.”

“I’m getting there,”  Pengin said patiently.  He took another bite of his sandwich and Tony looked about ready to combust.  Thea grabbed his hand, rubbing the back of it soothingly and getting Tony to calm down a little bit.  “I know all of you. I know you’re a good agent and familiar with the Reich--” he nodded to Thea who narrowed her eyes slightly then nodded at Tony to say, “--I know you can get through any firewall someone could dream up, I know Fritz is a good fighter and strategist, and I know Brannon is an excellent marksman and agent.  Carol has the best base set-up I’ve seen besides the OSS and no one would suspect her to be involved. I didn’t just throw a team together, I knew what I was doing. You five have the talent and determination needed to take this man out.”

“Fair enough,”  Thea conceded, ignoring Tony when his head snapped up to look at her in disbelief.  He’d never be satisfied with Pengin’s answers, she knew, so she moved the conversation forward.  “So what’s the plan? How do we get the others back?” she asked. Pengin sighed and slouched in his chair, leaning over the table and staring down at his half eaten sandwich.

“I have to be honest, losing Brannon, Bayer, and Gelfand wasn’t in the original plan,”  Pengin told them. He looked back up from the table at Tony and Thea. “We figured someone would get caught along the way, just not three people.  That doesn’t mean we weren’t prepared.”

“So you have a plan for how to break them out?”  Tony asked. Pengin hesitated, not sure he could call it a plan.

“I have an idea,”  he admitted. Tony didn’t immediately snap at him for not having a full plan, so Pengin counted it as a win.  “It may need adjustment, but I’m sure we can figure something out.” Tony looked at Thea and she gave a small nod at his unvoiced question.

“Good,”  he said, turning back to Pengin and Langley who was sat beside him.  “Let’s hear this idea.”

Thea walked into her bedroom to find Tony messing with something on his bed.  She barely batted an eye when she saw a gun in his hands, only pausing when she realised it was one of hers.  She watched him for a moment until he stopped to look up at her. He smiled sheepishly then went back to fiddling with her gun.  He didn’t explain what he was doing to it or why, continuing to take it apart and put it back together purposelessly. The longer Thea watched him, the more she realised he was trying to become familiar with it.  She sucked in a breath when she realised he was expecting to go in with her.

“You can’t stop me from coming with you,”  Tony told her. She wasn’t surprised he’d noticed her sharp intake of breath or understood what it meant.  “You may be the best at what you do, but that doesn’t make you invincible.”

“We need you outside,”  she said, reaching for her gun.  Tony pulled it out of her reach and she scowled.  “You know how to monitor and hack every computer; you have to be the one outside.”

“I showed Marie,”  he said. Thea frowned.  Marie always did fieldwork when she had the chance.  Why had she agreed to monitor security footage and play tech geek instead of shooting Nazis?  “I also bribed her, but she only agreed once I promised to follow you and not ask questions. Something about me not knowing how this goes and you being the best.”

“Flattery isn’t going to get you anywhere,”  Thea deadpanned. Tony sighed and handed her back her gun.  She stuffed it in the waistline of her jeans and sat down beside Tony.  “I know you want to do more, but no one else is as good as you with computers.  No one else could tell if they’d been detected. No one else is as knowledgeable as you when it comes to hacking Nazi databases.  Besides, you’re kind of the only one I know I can trust to have my back.”

“Flattery isn’t going to get you anywhere,”  Tony repeated. Thea rolled her eyes and nudged him with her shoulder.  He groaned and fell backwards on the bed. He turned his head to look at her and frowned.  “If you get caught, I’ll kill you.”

“Deal,”  Thea agreed.  She stood up and held out her hand to help Tony up.  He groaned loudly as she pulled him to his feet then disappeared into her closet to grab more weapons.  “It’s gonna be fine, Tony,” she assured him, rummaging through her drawers and stuffing guns in the many pockets of her black cargo pants.

“You’re about to infiltrate a secure Nazi facility with no backup and only Marie,”  Tony reminded her. Thea shrugged.

“It’ll be fun,”  she told him, closing her closet doors and heading out of the room.  Tony rolled his eyes then followed her out to find Pengin and Marie.

Jude was sprawled out on the floor of his cell, listening to Carol talk quietly from her own cell across from his.  He’d only just returned from what he had decided was probably both illegal and uncalled for questioning. Hoffman himself hadn’t showed up, but he figured the man was around somewhere, just waiting to pop up and reveal the fact he knew who Jude was the entire time.  He’d learned within two minutes of his return that Fritz had been brought in too. Carol had told him about it before the guards even left and Jude didn’t have the heart to tell her she should have acted as if she didn’t know him. By now it was too late and Carol already seemed worried enough.  He didn’t want to cause her any more panic than necessary.

“Fritz!”  Carol exclaimed.  Jude lifted his head up from the floor to see Fritz being escorted into the cell beside his own.  Carol ran to the bars of her cell and pressed against them, asking what had happened and if he was alright.  Unlike Carol, Fritz waited until the guards were gone to say anything.

“Did you know Thea worked for the Reich?”  Fritz asked, ignoring Carol and addressing Jude.  They couldn’t see each other through the wall that separated them, but Jude was willing to bet Fritz wasn’t smiling happily.  “She acted as Hitler’s top assassin for ten years. Did you know that, Jude? Did you know we were being played this whole time?  God!” Fritz yelled. Jude heard a dull thud followed by a hiss of pain. He sat up and looked across the room to Carol. She was watching Fritz with wide eyes, glancing at Jude every now and then.

“I did,”  Jude admitted, pulling his legs to his chest.  He waited for Fritz to yell at him and wasn’t surprised when he did.  “Are you going to let me explain?” Jude demanded, raising his voice to be heard over Fritz’s angry shouts.  “Or are you going to just fall right into Hoffman’s trap?” That shut Fritz up immediately. “Thank you. Now, what exactly did Hoffman tell you?”

“She worked for them for ten years!”  Fritz repeated angrily. Jude rolled his eyes and bit back a retort about how Fritz had already said that.  “Both of them, goddammit. Trained and raised by Hitler’s best SS officers after they were born into the Lebensborn Project.  We were played and you knew about it,” Fritz said, sounding more upset that he hadn’t caught on earlier than he sounded about the fact they’d been played.

“Okay, so that’s all true,”  Jude mumbled. He sighed and walked to the corner of his cell in hopes of being able to see Fritz.  Fritz must have been pressed against their shared wall because Jude couldn’t see him anywhere. “Obviously it’s not my story to tell, but I think I can help shed some light on it.”

“You might as well,”  Fritz grumbled. Jude glanced at Carol who was watching him expectantly.

“Yes, Thea and Tony were Lebensborn and raised by the top SS agents,”  Jude said. He heard Fritz take in a sharp breath and continued. “They didn’t know better.  They were kids caught in the middle of the Reich’s big plans and grew up to be the best of the best.  You’ve seen how Tony is with technology; there’s literally no one else alive who could rival his skill.  Thea was trained to be a killer. She was a woman. It was easy for her to lure targets out of their safety nets and therefore easier for her to kill them.

“I’d like to say I was the one who helped them realise what they were doing was wrong, but I don’t think that’s entirely true,”  Jude chuckled and shook his head, “No, they had already made up their mind to defect when I found them. I’m not sure why or how they came to the decision to leave everything they knew, but they did.  Thea joined me in the OSS, but Tony was done working for agencies. Started his own thing on the black market and now they’re here.”

It was silent for a few minutes as Fritz process everything.  Jude wasn’t sure if he’d end up believing him or not, but for all their sakes, he hoped so.  If he knew Thea and Tony, they were probably on their way to breaking them out right now. The last thing they needed while making a hasty escape was Fritz to think they were being led into a trap when they weren’t.

“How do you know all that?”  Fritz finally asked. That wasn’t exactly the question Jude had been expecting, but at least Fritz wasn’t flat out calling him a liar.

“I was sent in to kill them,”  Jude said, looking at the ground.  He still remembered the day Pengin had given him the mission and demanded he kill both Rossis no matter what the cost.  “Pengin wanted them gone. They were tearing apart the OSS and he needed them off the playing field if he was going to be able to get rid of the Reich.  As it turned out, they wanted to help us. Unfortunately, even with their help, we failed and the OSS was almost entirely killed off.”

“That doesn’t strike you as suspicious?”  Fritz asked, walking to the bars of his cell and looking at Jude with a frown.  “The Reich’s best agents defect and the OSS gets destroyed, that doesn’t rub you the wrong way?”

“You don’t know them like I do,”  Jude said, trying to hide the venom in his voice.  He knew how hard Thea had tried to right all her wrongs and how even if he hadn’t been apart of the OSS while it was around, Tony was trying to make up for his mistakes as well.  “The OSS was doomed from the start. An illegal agency in a world of liars and cheats? We were destined to fail. The Rossis didn’t cause it, though. Without their help, we would have been decimated years earlier, so trust me when I say we can trust them.”

“I don’t know if I can do that, Brannon,”  Fritz replied coldly. He backed away from the bars and Jude lost sight of him.  “This whole arrangement is fishy. We haven’t known each other more than a couple weeks and you expect me to trust you with my life.”

“Well, yeah,”  Jude said as if it was the most obvious thing he could do.  Fritz scoffed. “You have a choice, Gelfand: trust me and therefore trust the Rossis, risking betrayal and death, or stay here and die at the hands of Hoffman.  Let me know when you’ve made up your mind.”