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Klaus awoke to the sound of gunshots. Okay, that’s normal, he thought, He is in Vietnam, afterall, but these gunshots were much closer than usual. He sat up from his bedroll, the rest of his squad doing the same. Charles, who was closest to the tent’s entrance, carefully looked outside, only to see their small camp being raided.
“Shit! Everybody up, now!” Charlie yelled, and everyone scrambled for their weapons before quickly exiting the tent. The enemy soldiers had already slaughtered most of the two other squads that were with them and they were coming for them next.
Klaus felt a hand close around his ankle and he jumped before looking down. It was one of the young soldiers from the squad in the tent next to theirs. He bent down and pried the young boy’s hand off of his ankle, holding it tightly.
“Help, please,” the dying man rasped, and Klaus felt nauseous.
He squeezed the boy’s hand tightly, determined for him not to die alone. A few minutes later he felt the hand go slack and saw the boy standing over his body. Klaus knew that death happened in war, but these men had attacked them in their beds, slaughtering men and young boys alike with no mercy. They didn’t take prisoners. Klaus, to put it simply, was pissed. He dropped his rifle and started to walk towards the middle of the firefight. When his squadmates noticed, they called out to him, telling him to stop, and inadvertently drawing the attention of the Vietnamese combatants.
As the Vietnamese and American soldiers alike turned towards him, Klaus’ fingers began to glow an electric blue, his facial expression somehow simultaneously cold and emotionless as well as full of fury. The light glowed brighter and-
“Holy shit,” whispered Charles, frozen in awe, the others stopping behind him.
Klaus’ feet lifted off the ground, his body floating a few feet off the ground, and the blue light rippled out from him like a shockwave, illuminating hundreds of people in various states of injury. For a split second everything went silent. It was eerie and so, so unnatural. Even the animals fell silent. Then they heard it, heard them.
The people, the ghosts, Charlie corrected himself, were wailing. The noise was horrible, he wanted to clamp his hands over his ears but forced himself not to.
Jesus that kid is strong, thought Oliver. He deals with these things 24/7? Jesus fucking Christ.
The ghosts moved forwards, passing right through those members of the 173rd that were still alive, only to solidify as they hit and shot and stabbed the attacking Vietnamese soldiers. The sight of it was both horrifying and awe inspiring. They’d all known that Klaus could speak to ghosts, maybe conjure one on a good day, but they had no idea that he could do something on this scale.
The Vietnamese soldiers didn’t stand a chance. There were so many ghosts, it was a war, after all, and all of the ones Klaus had summoned appeared to be American soldiers, angry and eager to get revenge for their deaths and hoping to protect others from the same fate.
All of the attacking soldiers were dead within minutes. The surviving members of the 173rd were still frozen, but Dave managed to gather up enough courage to slowly approach Klaus.
“Klaus?” he said quietly, reaching out a hand. “There gone now, Klaus.”
Klaus heard him, and slowly the ghosts began to disappear, the blue light around his hands flickering. As it finally went out, the ghosts disappearing with it, Klaus fell out of the air. Dave caught the unconscious man as he fell, carrying him back to the others.
Charles turned to those who survived from the other squads, and said, “This never happened, got it?”
They all nodded and voiced their agreement and Charlie led the men from his squad back to their tent.
Dave set Klaus down on his cot and sat down on his own. Oliver walked over and sat next to him.
“Did you know he could do that?” he asked.
“No. I’m glad he did, don't get me wrong Oliver, but that was a bit terrifying,” Dave answered quietly.
He saw Klaus begin to stir and quickly took a step towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Klaus, wake up. You’re okay, everyone’s okay. Wake up.”
Klaus bolted upright, frantically looking around.
“What-?”
“You conjured like 200 ghosts while levitating and then passed out.”
“Did I get them?”
“Yeah, they’re all dead, Klaus. All of our squad and most of one other are alive, plus a few from the other squads. You did good.”
“That’s good,” Klaus replied, yawning. “I'ma go back to sleep now, g’night, Dave.”
Klaus’ eyes flutter closed and he starts to fall sideway, but Dave catches him and guides him back down, smiling fondly.
“Goodnight, Klaus.”