Three days had passed since Emma saw the truth.
Not 'all' of it. Just enough.
Enough to bind her to me in a way that wasn't just about power, or lust, or even revenge.
We stood inside the room I'd designed beneath the estate. Sparse lighting. Reinforced concrete walls. A large steel table in the center, and a map of Europe sprawled across it, pinned with red markers and coded notes. Monitors blinked on the wall, showing tapped surveillance feeds and decrypted transmissions. A digital projection hummed above the table, slowly rotating the map of German-occupied Poland.
Emma leaned against the edge, her arms crossed, icy blonde hair tied back in a military bun. She looked at me like she had questions. Maybe doubts.
But she didn't speak.
She waited.
So I began.
"This," I said, tapping one of the red pins on the map, "is our first mission."
Her brow arched. "Mission?"
I smirked. "Yes. A trial run. You and me, working together. Not as student and teacher. But as a team"
She scoffed lightly. "Team of what?"
"Meta-Humans," I said simply. "One that doesn't exist yet. But it will. A team that doesn't follow government or humans. Only purpose. Balance."
"And why make this?"
I met her eyes. "Fate. Or arrogance. Take your pick."
She rolled her eyes. "Fine. What's the target?"
I gestured and brought up a new file on the projector—grainy photos, intercepted documents, and decrypted correspondence.
"Intel suggests that Auschwitz... isn't just a camp."
Emma's expression tightened. Even she, for all her chill, had to look away for a second.
"They've got someone there," I continued, "someone not like the others. A meta-human."
Her eyes snapped back to me.
"A mutant?" she asked.
"Yes and he is something worse. He is someone who's not being used by Hydra—but is volunteering."
Her lips parted slightly. "…he's hurting the prisoners?"
"Yes," I said.
"He is Sebastian Hiram Shaw a mutant with the ability to absorb energy. "
"His identity currently is 'Dr. Klaus Schmidt' a scientist working for the Nazis. He's been given free rein. No one around him to restrict him. No oversight. And he is mercilessly experimenting on the prisoners there"
Emma didn't flinch. But her voice was quieter. "Why haven't the Allies responded?"
"They don't know," I said. "Or they don't want to know. Some things get lost in the fog of war. Some truths are too ugly."
She nodded, slow. "And what's our objective?"
"When do we leave?"
"Tonight. We'll parachute in under cloud cover, rendezvous, then move by foot."
"Let's say it's our first official date."
She tilted her head. "This is your idea of a first date?"
I laughed. "I thought you liked excitement."
She gave me that icy smirk—the one that made men melt. "Just don't die on me Magnus. I still have a lot of things to do with you. And you have yet to fulfill your promise."
I leaned closer, brushing my knuckles against her cheek. "Don't worry. Currently it is very difficult to kill me. And I won't go even if you want me gone."
"Good," she whispered, lips brushing mine before pulling back.
I stepped away and grabbed the packed dossiers, sliding one across the table to her.
"One important thing," I said as she caught it mid-air. "We're not just confronting someone like us. We're going to destroy that camp at the end of the day."
"Due to his power he believes that mutants are superior to humans and were meant to rule them. And now that he is a Nazi scientist he sees it as an opportunity to explore the limits of the human mind under extreme duress and experiment to his hearts desire."
"Then we need to take care of him." Emma said with a grim look on her face.
"Yes"
The silence in the room was heavy, broken only by the hum of the surveillance monitors.
I pointed to a marked location on the projected map. "Our insertion point is a few kilometers west of here. We'll need to move quickly and discreetly to avoid detection by the patrols."
Emma nodded, her focus now entirely on the mission. The initial shock of the location seemed to have solidified into a cold, determined resolve. "What about armaments?"
I gestured to a weapons cache built into the wall, revealing an array of silenced pistols, knives, and a couple of more specialized items. "Subtlety is key, but we won't be going in unarmed. Take what you're comfortable with."
She selected a pair of sleek, lightweight pistols and a thin, almost invisible blade. Her movements were precise and efficient, a testament to the training I had pushed her through.
"The destruction of the camp," she said, her gaze returning to me, "how do you intend to achieve that without causing further casualties among the innocent?"
"It will require precision and timing," I explained, tapping a series of points on the projected map. "Strategic demolitions targeting key infrastructure – the research facilities, the power grid, the main guard towers. We create chaos, facilitate escape routes, but minimize direct explosions in the populated areas."
"A delicate work," Emma observed, a hint of respect in her voice.
"One we'll have to execute flawlessly," I affirmed. "The lives of countless innocents depend on it."
As we finalized our preparations, the weight of the mission settled upon us. The "first date" banter from earlier felt like a distant memory, replaced by a shared sense of grim purpose.
The transport – a modified cargo plane I'd acquired through less-than-legal channels – rumbled to life in the hidden hangar. As we boarded, the cold night air rushing in, I glanced at Emma. Her face was set, her eyes reflecting the stark reality of what lay ahead.
"Ready?" I asked, my voice low.
She met my gaze, a flicker of something unreadable in her blue eyes. "As I'll ever be, Magnus. Just try not to get us killed."
"Wouldn't dream of it, Emma" I replied, a grim smile touching my lips.
The plane ascended into the darkness, carrying us towards the heart of occupied Poland, towards the unspeakable horrors of Auschwitz.
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