A Partisan's Fight - COMPLETED!

Chapter Nineteen

It hadn't taken long for a dark shadow to cross Markus's face. He couldn't stop that from happening. The woman might have meant well by the question, but it brought back the memories that he hated to think about. He remembered the countless rocks being tossed through his parent's windows because of where they were from. He remembered someone once trying to start their home on fire. He remembered being ridiculed every time he stepped out of his house. All of it had scarred him.

He'd told his parents countless times that he wanted to move. Countless times that they could have a better life somewhere else. At first, he'd wanted to hate the Americans for treating him the way that they did, but the reality of it all had quickly changed his mind. It wasn't their fault for hating him. For fearing him. It was the fault of his heritage. Of the people he'd counted as his home. His family.

Germany had quickly been wiped away from his memory as being his home. He'd grown to hate it and its people with a passion unmatched by anyone else. They were the reason why his mother cried herself to sleep at night. The reason why his younger brother had come home beaten and bruised after being jumped by people who couldn't handle the fact that he was a German — a Nazi — living in their country. They were the reason for everything that was wrong with his life. He wasn't sure that he could forgive them for that, and every one he killed in this war purged the world of one less sad excuse for a being taking up space that he lived in. Breathing the air that he shared.

"Are you just going to stand there and remember thoughts that I clearly do not know, or are you going to answer my question?" The woman stared at him, frustration edging her voice. He could feel the temper in her rising. Honestly, he was surprised that she was staying as calm as she was.

He cleared his throat, rage building in his eyes. It didn't heat his gaze up; it chilled it, sharing that chill with his voice. "That heritage ruined my life. It ruined my family. I will not rest until I've purged the world of their very existence. Your father may not have seemed like a very bad man, but your fiancé was far from being the ideal citizen that you think he was."

Spite filled the woman's eyes. He recognized it the same way he recognized it from the girlfriend he had in America when he told her he was moving to England to join the war. She hadn't understood his reasoning and part of him wondered if the same reason could be applied to this woman's reasoning for the look.

"I do not know what happened to you in America or in England, but we are not in either places right now. We are in a full out war. If I offered you an important role could you compromise your feelings on the matter?" Her voice was distant, yet full of opportunities.

Intrigued, Markus bit on the question. He wondered where she was going with this. "Tell me what you're thinking and I will tell you if I can do as you ask."

He couldn't read her expression. Her blue eyes were made of steel; her expression stoic. "I have a plan to change the way this war is going. I have no desire to see the Fatherland win, it will only make the things they are doing there worse. I need help to make the impact I want to make, but there are stipulations."

"There always are." He couldn't help but comment dryly. In spite of that dryness, he was still interested in seeing what her plan was. He was just as interested in making a difference, and sitting behind bars was not getting him anywhere in that quest.

She studied him for a moment as if disgusted with the dryness in his voice before continuing. "I need my people to be able to follow orders and give one hundred and fifty percent. You cannot be worried about dying."

Swallowing hard, he nodded. "I can do that."

Following orders from someone he wasn't quite sure he respected would be the hardest part, but he wasn't afraid to die if it meant stopping a rogue power from taking over places they had no right to be in.

He could see the skepticism inching through her, but regardless of that she still didn't seem to be swayed from the idea of recruiting him. Honestly, he had no idea why she'd even let the idea cross her mind after what he did to her father.

"I need you to be able to stay in control of your emotions. We cannot mess up."

"Understandable. I can do that."

"You have yet to prove that to me." She leveled with him.

It was completely understandable given the last hour and half. He'd done little in proving that he could follow orders without letting emotion cloud his judgment.

Her eyes narrowed. "I can set aside wanting to see you dead, if you can agree that some of our people are good and are worth saving. I cannot work with someone who thinks all of our people should die."

Glancing down at the ground, Markus chewed on his lip. He let the words sink in. She was right, not all Germans were Nazis that caused him unnecessary pain. In spite of that, it didn't change the fact that shit had happened in his life and he blamed them all for it. He pulled his gaze back up to her. "I can't make a promise that I'm not sure I can keep, but I can try"

She didn't look convinced.

Gripping the bars, he hated the desperation seeping into his voice. "I will try."

She stared at him as if weighing out if she could believe the words he spoke. He watched her throat make the necessary adjustments to swallow before she nodded. "Okay." The word was simple. She turned to leave with no more stipulations and no more words.

"Wait!" Markus yelled after her.

She paused, not turning around to acknowledge him. He didn't need her to.

"I told you the one secret that could give me unfair treatment among these people. The least you could do is give me your name."

She didn't speak for a long while. She just stood there as if fighting with the idea. She probably was fighting with the idea because giving him her name was, in a way, an act of kindness. And act that she needed to feel no obligation in complying with.

An act that he didn't deserve.

Regardless of that, she surprised him with an answer. "My name is Mina."

With that she left him alone with his thoughts. Alone to decide if he'd given her the right answers and made the right decision in agreeing with her cause. Alone to contemplate the actions he'd completed today. It begged the question of if he was truly worthy of being forgiven. If he even wanted that.