Chapter 3:  Waltz of the Fox

"OH COME ON!"

Bauer whined as she clutched the radio, not only did one of the most notorious people escape from a prison she had the job of guarding, but her friend was supposedly complicit.

"h-hey Vick.. it's probably not that bad, she could've been kidnapped.."

Bauer turned towards Carla, the Liberion witch who was speaking from experience but spoken in less than ideal words.

"HOW IS THAT BETTER?! AND WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"

"Vicks, it's cute!"

The Karlslander was a little offended at this slight nickname but sighed as she grasped her head.

"Can this week get any worse?!"

"Calm down, we'll find them soon enough"

Geena kept her eyes on the road, she was a steady presence in a rather uncertain time and her seniority was much needed. They've been driving for a few minutes now, Carla had brought maybe a dozen cola bottles and was now down to around five.

Bauer laid back for a moment, sighing to herself as she looked around.

“I could really go for a Lager..” she muttered.

“Ah, tried it once but Cola’s way better.. Although the cooks from lower Saxony do make some good food” Carla chuckled as she looked towards Bauer.

“Tch.. lower Saxony” she scoffed, “Mein father took me to Hesse as a child, far better foods are found there”

Carla pondered for a moment, “Hesse.. Should be fun!”

“Been to Karsland before?” Asked Viktoria.

“Not really.. But I have served in Britannia! That’s where I learned all about Europe! Gallia was Interesting to read up on, and spent lots of time on it!”

“Aye.. Seems like it.. Well it seems that managed to make you smart, I have the misfortune of being assigned with an idiot Liberion”

Luksic stared for a moment “Liberions aren’t stupid! Who made that up anyways?”

“You’d be pretty surprised at Louise, her skull is pretty much hollow”

“Really? Tell me the stupidest thing she’s done, bet you're just being mean Vicks!”

With a smirk, Viktoria turned and simply uttered.

“She thought Hispania and Romagna was the same, she believed Dacians are vampires and thought someone’s name was Merde”

Carla was just stunned, “What”.

Around 6 hours later, the three arrived at the same spot the Civilian convoy stopped, there was now a small checkpoint with armed soldiers stationed.

“You sure about this ma’am?” Asked Viktoria.

“No kidding.. Look at em all” Carla gasped.

“They won’t shoot.. They’re soldiers, not murderers” Geena said in a comforting voice maintaining her calm posture as she observed the soldiers, “They just seem.. On edge, I don’t blame them”

Bauer was quick to recognize one of them coming over to the car, he sneered at her as he came over to Geena in the driver's seat.

"Oi, Area's closed yankee"

Geena looked at the soldier with a stern look to talk.

"I'm Wing commander Preddy Geena of the 506th, rather inappropriate of you to call me Yankee"

The soldier stood there for a moment to process it, Carla and Bauer sat quietly as the former moved her hand slightly to the door’s handle. Geena thought for a second as she wanted to prod a little and decided to ask a question.

"Say.. What Karlsland unit are you from?"

"a-ah.. I'm a Schützen of the.. Karlsland.. Ninth.. special Infantry regiment"

"Interesting.. And did Gallia or Karlsland give the order for you to be here?"

The soldier was apprehensive, his combat buddies coming over drawing their weapons. The soldier repeated what he said to Bauer with a snare on his face as he opened the door.

"This is our operations area, Stay in your lane"

Luksic now placed her hand on the door, her other hand on a Thompson SMG, hoping not to use it.

“I’m a Wing commander, I can perhaps ask for some superiors from Karlsland to resolve our issue” Preddy told the guard.

“Miss Geena?” Squeaked Bauer as she looked nervously at her, the Liberion gestured her to calm but a response from the guard shot it down quickly.

“No worries.. We’ll resolve it here.. Right NOW”

The man retreated as the soldiers fired almost instantly upon the group, bullets flying as the witches got out of the car and into the ditches nearby.

“W-WHAT DO WE DO BOSS?” Whimpered Carla, as she raised her shield to block the oncoming lead, Preddy looked around as she saw Bauer in the other ditch and gestured her to come over.

The Karlslander refused to budge out of fright, the rounds kicking dust up around her which suppressed her. Geena then looked at her gun and then at the soldiers, Carla looked back in disbelief.

“B-boss no!”

Too late, Geena then raised her rifle and fired, a round tore through the head of one of the soldiers and left the witches in shock.

“We have no choice..”

Geena had to rely on Carla's shield as she provided the most accurate fire on the field, tearing through each soldier one by one.

One of them however flanked them, using the firefight as a distraction and unhooked a grenade from his vest before throwing it right at Bauer's feet. The Karlslander outrighted panicked as she kicked it towards the car, Geena and Carla watched as it slid right underneath and the wing commander got on top of Carla to protect her.

"NOOOO THE COLA!" Cried Carla as she watched a small explosion tear through the car as it destroyed her Cola. The Liberion felt a wave of anger go through her as she lowered her shield and blindly started to fire the Thompson she took, tearing through the remaining soldiers.

There was only one left, he struggled to reload his bolt action before Carla rushed towards him and smashed the stock against his face.

The fight had ended.

Carla's eyes quickly widened as she dropped her gun, the carnage surrounding her overwhelmed the Cola cat. Geena immediately rushed to her side to check on her while Bauer walked over to the burned out car.

"H-He's dead! T-they're all dead!" Cried Carla as she turned towards Geena, the stoic Liberion comforted the poor Cola cat as she started to think, looking away from the bodies of the soldiers.

"Bauer, what can we gather?"

Bauer stood there quietly, staring off for a while as she gripped her SMG tightly. Geena spoke up once more.

“Bauer?”

"A-ah.. well.. Nothing.. Nothing from the car is recoverable ma’am”

Geena nodded before looking at Carla, still shaken as she picked up her thompson.

“I.. I-I didn’t.. He-” Luksic felt an embrace from Geena, trying to get her out of that state of mind.

“I didn’t want to.. We just had to” she softly said, petting her.

Viktoria then began to scout the checkpoint with Geena and Carla soon joining in, there was a single Kubelwagen sitting nearby most likely used for patrols. As Bauer walked over to it, she noticed something rather off as there was a red piece of cloth, a flag in the back. The Karlslander yanked it out and took a look at it.

"What the.."

"Hmm? That's rather unusual"

Geena said as she took her own look at the flag, it had a cross with arms in white circle, only bearing a passing similarity to Karlsland's symbols. The three were now outright confused as they tried figuring out its origin.

"I don't... it's just like Karlsland.."

Carla had a large knowledge of the European continent and appreciated European culture but even she was confused.

"Karlsland.. Karlsland never used this symbol..."

"There's something off, this is something new"

Geena looked back in the rear and saw something rather useful, an MG42 with some boxes of ammunition and a mount. Preddy immediately got to setting up the Machine gun as the other two acquired supplies from the checkpoint, minutes later the trio got into the kubel and drove towards Sainte.

"What's the plan ma'am?"

"We're going to observe them.. this is strange."

"Roger that!"

[3 Hours later]

Eva had arrived the next morning at the very same checkpoint, Keera had long since fallen asleep even though she was rather uncomfortable bound in rope. She leaned out of the cab to assess the carnage and came to a single conclusion.

"Seems like Bauer was here"

Borngen got out of the truck to look around, always looking out for any reinforcements as it's more than likely they'd kill her on the spot. she stumbled upon a pair of car tracks and sighed to herself.

"Okay, they probably went that way"

"Are you sure?"

The Karlsland witch turned to see Keera awake and leaning out the cab, The Gallian was giving off an annoyed look as she struggled in her binds. Eva stared for a moment before coming back over and getting back in.

“Had a nice dream?” Eva snarked as she sat down in the cab to pull Keera in.

“Funny.. You didn’t really need to come along” she replied, struggling a little.

“Hah.. like hell I’d stay back there” Eva giggled a little as she looked at the Gallian in binds “Out of a cell yet still confined”

“Shut up, don't need to make these so tight!” She Growled as she struggled more “Would you please just untie me already! Unless you're planning to carry me all over the place!”

Eva thought for a moment about untying Chris.

“I’ll kill you if you try anything” Warned Eva.

She reached over and undid the binds much to Keera's delight.

"Too easy"

Eva was immediately grabbed by her throat, gasping as she struggled against the Assassin. Eva flailed as she slammed her foot on the pedal, knocking Keera off her balance as she regained herself.

The Gallian was quickly grabbed by the throat tightly as the Karlslander got the upperhand, she gripped Eva's arms managing to loosen her grip to speak.

"A-aahh Y-You!" growled Borngen

"BASTARD! I'm trying to do something here! Get out of my way!"

"Like hell I'm letting you run off!"

The two fought for control, nearly crashing several times as they bloodied each other in the cab. Eva was once more caught in a chokehold as the Gallian smiled.

"You were a pain in the ass!"

Unfortunately, they were too distracted to see themselves about to slam into a Hanomag heading down the road. The next minute was a flash, the two woke up to German screaming and guns being pointed right at them.

"GET OUT OF THE VEHICLE!"

The soldier forcefully opened the door as he looked inside, he was horrified at the mess with the two witches dazed. Eva thought for a moment then started to yell in a Frightened manner.

"YOU HAVE TO HELP! SHE ASSAULTED ME!, S-SHE'S ONE OF THOSE PARTISANS!"

The Soldiers were quick to react, one of them dragged Keera out in a chokehold as the others surrounded and pointed their guns point blank at her, Eva was helped out of the vehicle by a medic.

"Y-YOU PIECE OF- ACK!"

"Shut it!" Barked the Soldier as he and two others dragged her back, the assassin didn't go down quietly however as she pulled out her familiar to distract the soldiers.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

"THE PARTISAN! SHE'S GOT FOX EARS!"

The three soldiers didn't notice Keera reaching for a knife in the webbing of the man holding her, she takes it and immediately slashes through both of the men in front of her before slamming the stunned soldier that was holding her into a tree.

Chris immediately snatched the gun and ran off into the forest seconds before the MG on the Hanomag turned to fire upon her blindly. As the other soldiers rushed off to find her, the medic and a captain stayed behind to tend to the wounded Eva.

"Madchen? What's with the uniform? don't tell me you are one of them!"

Eva stopped as she decided to explain her situation, looking at the medic.

"Listen.. If it's worth it, I can help you.. And more importantly.. I can explain what a hexen is... somewhat"

The captain and the medic stopped for a moment to discuss their situation.

"Sir.. she's wounded, and if she's being honest.. we could use her help"

The captain shook his head.

"While that may be the case, the Hexen we dealt with so far had caused harm to us.. we can't trust her just yet.."

"Well.. how about we tie her down then... secure her?"

The captain thought for a moment before looking at Eva, the witch sighed and agreed to be restrained. As Eva is tied up and placed in the Hanomag, the rest of the soldiers kept looking through the forest for Keera. Hours later, the squad returns, one of them holding a disposed striped prisoner shirt riddled with tears, Eva looked at it and expected them to tell her the obvious.

"This is all we found.. she's disappeared"

The Captain nodded but then the soldier continued.

"Theo had disappeared somewhere.. Permission to leave two of us to look for him"

[An hour later, Lynette]

Around two hours later, Lynette drove towards the checkpoint thinking she would probably try to engage with the guards. She saw what was the checkpoint but this time, trucks and soldiers were at the area with a barricade being put up.

"What? What is go- AAAAA!?"

Lynette raised her shield as she started to come under fire from the guards, the poor Britannian busted through the barricade and sped away with the soldiers quickly began taking chase.

"WHAT DID I DO TO YOU!? STOP SHOOTING!" Lynette pleaded loudly before a hail of bullets forced her to duck, taking her eyes off the road. Rather than bored guards being a little rude, she encountered very angry infantrymen, yelling at her.

"YOU GODDAMN HEXEN! MURDERERS!" Screamed one of the soldiers, quickly gaining on Lynette in his truck with the intention to ram her. Lynette had no choice, she dodged and swerved as her attackers relentlessly chased her to sainte.

Bishop's blood was running cold as her mind raced, what could she really do? She looked into the forests and sighed to herself, it's her best hope.

"Why can't this be a bad dream!" Lynette whined as she drove into the forest, the enemy quickly stopped and began chasing her on foot. The Britannian witch snatched what she could including a radio and a Sten gun leaving behind the AT rifle, she soon began to look for somewhere to hide and be safe.

She kept running and saw a cave, it would be a good enough place to hide she thought and kept running.

THUD! She tripped and sprained her ankle, all Lynette could do was bite her lips and stop herself from screaming. The soldiers taunted Lynette as they called out for her, however they weren't the only things alone in the forest.

"Hexen! Come here!"

"Little girl! Come out come out! We won't bite!"

Lynette threw off the extra things and tried to hide in the foliage, curling up into a ball and whimpering softly to herself as the soldiers walked around her. She soon heard the same soldiers scream as she looked over to see a bear rush out of its cave.

She kept her head down and did her best to make very little noise, the bear was doing the work for her and sending the men running for their lives. Minutes later, the bear went back to its cave, the soldiers had run off and all was silent, Lynette consoled herself by eating a bar of chocolate she took with her.

The Britannian slowly got up, she was still dazed but decided to try and make her way to the jeep hoping the soldiers didn't steal anything. As she limped all the way to the jeep, she began to speculate on why the soldiers were angry at her.

"Murderer?.. what do they mean by.."

Lynette then thought back to the checkpoint, there were medics and ambulances there but the most important detail she recalled were white rags over bodies.

"It must have been.. Geena... something must have happened between them and the enemy"

Finally she got back to the car and it had unfortunately been looted with the Boyes rifle gone, the poor girl sighed as she sat back into the jeep to think about her next move.

The bushes next to her then rustled, Lynette had no time to think as she gripped her Sten and took aim. Those next seconds filled her with dread as finally someone emerged from the foliage.

"You want me dead, I get it.. But I think we have bigger issues Bishop.. "

[Meanwhile at Geena’s group]

"Alright.. they've got tanks.. inside the converted garages next to the church" Geena reported to her comrades as they wrote it down on a map. The sheer amount of material present was rather startling for them as Geena finally sat down somewhat exhausted.

They had figured out the terrain so far, the region had mountains to the east and north of the now occupied and converted villages while there were only two ways out, through where they came in which was the western narrow road to Valence and a southern route they haven't scouted out yet.

"haah.. well now, what do we have so far?" Asked the wing commander, Bauer was in complete shock as she looked over the information while Carla looked at her boss with complete dread.

"It's like.. there's been a Karlsland Panzer division sitting here somehow.. This.. Boss, none of this makes sense!"

Geena nodded, she too had been shocked at the sheer amount of enemies in the area but kept herself together to compile the report.

"Could we get back to friendly lines?" Asked bauer, Carla shook her head for a bit.

"Those gunshots came from where we came from.. they're on alert and I bet they're really mad!"

"Indeed.. it's best we keep on moving" Geena thought, then she caught the glimpse of a halftrack headed towards the church.

“You think they’re mad that they were left behind?” Asked Bauer before shaking her own head “No no.. that’s stupid”

“Well if that was it, it would be no wonder why they’re so mad but then again they would be dead bones by now” Carla responded “Maybe something made them crazy, some Gallian artifact like that Idol!”

“Oh that “Idol” is nothing but some tall tale the 501st made up” barked the Karlslander.

“Eh? There’s lots of old stuff in Europe, the idol story sounds weird but with what the strike witches told us.. That tale does sound kinda real”

“Maybe… I just think the strike witches make tales to intrigue people, nothing concrete.. Over pumping their ego a little” Bauer paused for a moment to look at Carla, “At least I don’t hate them a lot”

“Huh? What do you mean by.. Hate?” the Liberion asked curiously,

“Ah.. Eva Borngen.. She hates them with a Burning passion!” Viktoria answered, gritting her teeth.

“Now why is that?” Geena asked as she turned to look at Viktoria.

Viktoria simply said “The witches at the top do it for the fame and glory, there’s no true dedication”

“No dedication!?” Carla hissed “What does she think the 501st does? Sit on their asses? Everyone’s done their part! We’re all dedicated!”

“Well.. that’s what she believes”

Carla was stunned “Is that she believes? Well I believe your friend is a brat!”, A pause followed for a bit before Bauer retorted.

“And that brat is like a sister. Say what you will.. I know she’s still a good person”

Luksic sighed as she muttered “Maybe she is the secret sister of the Prinzessin”

Viktoria nodded but before she could say anything, Geena refocused onto something.

"Hold on.. eyes on that Hanomag.."

Carla and Bauer quickly join in to look through their binoculars to the halftrack, both quickly being surprised.

"T-THEY GOT EVA?!" cried out the karlslander.

"No sign of Keera.. Hopefully she bought the farm this time," muttered Carla as she kept looking.

"We have to save her!" begged Bauer, She looked towards the halftrack and at Eva as she's driven towards the church.

Geena said nothing as she placed her hand on Viktoria's shoulder, the poor girl looked back to the Liberion desperately.

"Please.. We can do this.. there's-"

"no"

Viktoria insisted and insisted but Geena didn't budge, she soon began to slowly break down a little. Carla meanwhile looked around their position for a way out and back to allied lines.

"Well there's no good choices.. we stay here, we smash through their blockade and back to Valence or.. take a look south"

“Alright Luksic..” Geena answered, she looked at the young girl with concern “You are okay right?”

The lucky girl stopped for a minute as she looked at her boss, her small smile faded as she answered honestly “I don’t want to kill anyone else.. It’s not right”

“Understood… Hopefully we don’t have to”

Carla then looked southwards as the sound of gunfire roared through the valley, the other two quickly joined in to watch as the battle raged.

"Is that.. Keera?" Viktoria muttered "Miss bishop too?!"

Geena made her choice as she got in, "We'll go save them and then.. we'll establish an escape", Bauer nodded quietly as she got in with Carla.

Meanwhile, Keera and Lynette took cover behind a truck as wehrmacht troops fired back at them, bullets flew past as Keera fired back in bursts.

“This isn’t real! I-I this is a bad dream!” Cried out Lynette as she watched Keera ruthlessly fire back, “I wanna wake up! This isn’t happening!”

The Gallian could only stare with disappointment at Lynette muttering as bullets crashed around her, then a thought flew into her mind as she crawled over to her.

"Hey Bishop, raise your shield" Chris whispered into her ear.

"Wha?" But before the Britannian could say anything, she felt herself being grabbed from behind which triggered her shield. Keera rushed out, using Lynette to block bullets as she gunned down two soldiers, the duo ran towards a house, bullets smacked into the ground as the two leaped into one of the windows to take cover.

"What was that for?!" Lynette whined, she had been slammed through the broken glass and was slightly cut.

"I have no shields.. I'm old" Keera replied bluntly "Told you to raise it, not like you were doing anything of use".

A grenade then was tossed right at them to smoke them out, Lynette quickly grabbed it and threw it out at their attackers, scattering them behind strewn out objects and vehicles.

As the smoke cleared, a kubel appeared and started to fire upon the enemy troops, scaring them off. Someone had arrived to the two’s aid.

“RUN FOR IT!” Screamed one of the Soldiers as he’s unfortunately cut down while his comrades ran as the MG fired upon them, soon the kubel stopped as two of the occupants jumped out and immediately it was apparent who it was.

“So it’s Geena,” Keera uttered as she peeked for a moment, “Seems like they’re not going for the kill!” She yelled.

“It’s alright Keera, come out, you too Bishop” Geena called to the two, she came over to their side as they got out of the house.

As they got out, Keera aimed her gun at the fleeing soldier and fired, Carla immediately got mad.

“THEY ALREADY GAVE UP!”

Keera looked back at her and hissed “If we don’t kill them, they’ll bring more!”

Bauer who was manning the MG leaped out and rushed towards Chris Keera and grabbed her by the throat as she pinned her to the wall.

“YOU BASTARD! YOU GAVE EVA TO THEM!” Screamed the Karlslander, Geena pulled her off the Gallian as she was recomposing herself.

“I didn’t!” replied Keera, “She decided to let herself be captured!”

“WHAT KIND OF-” Geena handgagged the witch to try calming her.

“I know you don’t believe me! I don’t really blame you either..”

Geena stopped Keera for a moment as she placed her hand on her shoulder.

“So why did you decide to come?” Asked the Liberion.

“I was curious about the ordeal.. , I knew you wouldn’t let me come so I had to do some work of my own. Your friend is a rather alright at fighting for her age”

Bauer stared at her with anger, Keera sighed a little as she turned towards Geena.

“I suppose we’ll be working.. Tch.. Alongside for a bit?” she asked.

Preddy thought for a moment, “Yes”

“What?! This bastard sent Eva into their arms!” Viktoria rebutted furiously, Carla agreed as she voiced her concern “She’s lied to us a thousand times!”

“I get it! See it for yourself!” Replied Keera.

“Damn right! And if you're lying, I’ll put you SIX FEET UNDER!” Barked Bauer.

To Be Continued