Unlikely Heroes

Chapter 27

"Rufioh!" A familiar voice called from behind him. Rufioh turned as much as he could, which was just enough to see his dad.

"You're alive!" Rufioh exclaimed.

"Keep quiet. ¿Cómo has llegado hasta aquí? (How did you get here?)" Simon asked quietly.

"Eso no importa. ¿Dónde está el Ajax?(that's not important. Where's Ajax?)" Rufioh and Simon had to talk in Spanish, so the Germans couldn't understand.

"En la otra habitacion. lo están interrogando. Tengo la sensación de que va a ser el próximo. (In the other room interrogating him. I have a feeling you'll be next.)" Simon explained, looking over at the door.

"Dammit..." Rufioh muttered, trying to free his hands. They were much easier to move when his feet were on the ground.

"Smaller Nitram!" Another soldier held hostage called for him. All of them were tied down to the wall and forced to crouch, unable to get up.

"Qu-what?" Rufioh asked, still struggling.

"That's not gonna work." The soldier explained quietly.

"Why not?"

"We've all tried."

"I've been in a worse situation with things like this. I think I can get it." Rufioh explained, managing to get of of the parts untied. His left hand was freed. He kept his hand next to the rope and waited for an opening to at least try and take a shot.

When Ajax was being lead out of the room, bloody and broken, Rufioh noted that all the soldiers were turned around. He knew it was now or never. He grabbed his gun, which was discarded on the ground, and pulled it up to where he could reach it. He quickly took a shot at one of the soldiers, before the gun fell out of his hand. "Shit!" He yelled as the bullet barely skimmed the side of a soldier.

All of them hopped up and walked over to Rufioh. A gun was placed to the middle of his back and another to his forehead. Rufioh's eyes widened as he desperately tried to stay calm. He wasn't doing too well.

A larger soldier said something to the others and they lowered their guns. Rufioh let out a shaky breath. The larger soldier walked over and untied Rufioh, before he could do anything two other soldier grabbed him and forced him into the room Ajax came out of. Rufioh was tied to a chair in a room only lit with one light. "I noticed you've met another group of us before." The soldier pointed out.

Rufioh didn't answer, but he knew that the soldier was talking about his missing finger. He curled up his hand, trying to hide his finger.

"Did you happen to be the soldier with the child?" The soldier smirked.

'Karkat...' Rufioh thought to himself. 'How does this bastard know Karkat?! Or who I am?!'

"Oh, that got a reaction." The soldier noticed Rufioh's expression changed to anger. "Karkat vantas I believe. We killed his father. Are you going to say anything?"

Rufioh didn't flinch. He didn't speak either, just glared.

"Tough. Just like them. You do know what they did? They disobeyed the law and started a school for the ghettos. They taught children and adults how to read and think. They made the animals smarter. All of them were animals. Not people. Never people. That child was never born a person."

"Shut up!! He's a person just like you or I!" Rufioh finally spoke, glaring still.

"So it speaks finally. Even though I kill people and do not care, you still consider me a person. Why?"

"It's your job! So what? I have to kill people too." Rufioh felt odd. He was having a conversation with this sadistic bastard.

"But you didn't."

"What do you mean?"

"You could've easily killed any soldier in that room. You didn't. You hesitated and missed by a centimeter. You knew where you were shooting."

"I'm missing a finger! Like you said before. I don't have any aim!"

"You hit the bottle directly beside my soldier. Dead on."

Rufioh looked to the ground. He knew the soldier was right. He couldn't kill anyone, ever.

"I see what makes you upset." The soldier walked over and flicked on more lights. Rufioh realized why only a small light was on before.  Lined up against the back wall were thin, starving children and teenagers. They were his age and younger. Rufioh's heart sank. "I took them from the concentration camps and others are from near by towns. None of them matter, but to you they do."

Rufioh looked at the people, cowering in front of him. He wanted to get up and save all of them. He struggled against the restraints, nearly flipping the chair over. He noticed two people in particular. Sollux and Mituna. "où est Psiiya?" Rufioh asked Sollux, luckily the soldier wasn't paying attention. He was grabbing something.

"disparu..." Sollux said very very quietly.

"je suis vraiment désolé..." Rufioh frowned, looking at the ground. He looked over at the soldier and glared again.

"You speak a lot of languages, do you? How many? I just want to talk. Nothing more." The soldier seemed oddly calm.

To not draw suspicion anymore than he had, Rufioh responded. "I speak three. I can understand four, though."

"Spanish, French, English...and?"

Rufioh had no idea how the soldier knew that he knew Spanish. He hadn't spoken it with him around at all. "Japanese..."

"Oh, what an odd language to know."

"Uh...my girlfriend doesn't speak English very well..." Rufioh didn't now why he was talking to this fucker, but it kept him from killing the others in the room.

"Hm." The soldier nodded, picked up a knife and a gun. He walked over to Rufioh and smirked. "Two options. You shoot them, or I shoot them until you tell me where the others are and when they are coming."

Rufioh's eyes widened. He couldn't kill. He knew he couldn't kill, but he couldn't watch them die. He knew that if he didn't speak then Sollux and Mituna would die. He couldn't tell Karkat that his two friends died.

"Okay, I take it I will kill them. First question, who were you talking to?" The soldier pointed the gun at a person on the end. Sollux and Mituna were in the middle, directly across from Rufioh. He bit the inside of his mouth until it bled. "drei..... zwei.... eins...." The soldier counted down. He looked at Rufioh and shrugged. Without any hesitation he killed the quivering child.

"NO! PLEASE!!" Rufioh yelled, the blood dripping out of his mouth.

"You wanted to stay so quiet you bit yourself and let a child die." The soldier shook his head, making Rufioh feel awful. "Next." He pointed to gun. Three people away from Mituna. "Who was it?"

"A soldier! Just another soldier!" Rufioh blurted out, more blood and saliva mixing as he dripped onto his lap.