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Britz was laying on his bed, trying to fall asleep. It was his first night in the Taranis. Turning sideways toward the wall, he could only hear the children walking through the compartment and talking about something. After long days of wandering through the steppes and forests, sleeping on the ground and eating almost nothing, a comfortable bed and a full dinner felt like a luxury. And being in the tank, for the first time in a long time, he, just like the others, had the opportunity to take revenge...
“Is that the son of that deserter?”
But he didn't stop listening.
“Yes. They took him into the army as a kid precisely because his father decided that he would be better off in Gasco. Surrounded by these disgusting felineko.”
He was laying alone on the bed while the others shared the space between them due to the limited number of beds. And he couldn't get rid of the obsessive thoughts.
“He seems quiet. Could he be plotting against the Berman Empire?”
“How about reminding him what happens to traitors?”
“Are you crazy? He's seven! He's younger than all of us here!”
But no one paid any attention to that.
The sounds began to manifest themselves in his ears. That same feeling of alienation and loneliness began to grow again.
He was knocked to the ground. It was raining, and all his clothes and fur were covered in mud.
“Well, are you going to continue being a punching bag?”
He heard the arrogant phrase above him as he barely held himself up with his hands on the ground. Blood flowed from his mouth and fell to the floor.
“Do you want this to stop? Then defend yourself! Prove that you're daddy's little boy!”
Laughter all around. Britz barely found the strength to kneel and raise his head.
“What are you looking at me for? Do you want pity? Oh, you poor thing!”
A strong blow. This time to his right eye. Britz fell to the ground again. Laughter could be heard all around him.
“Son of a traitor! Son of a traitor!”
“Useless. You can't even defend yourself! You have no place in the army!”
Britz could hardly move. His right eye barely opened in pain, and a huge bruise, along with the bags under his eyes from lack of sleep, adorned his face. He glanced around the local arena. Most of the Bermanites were laughing and shouting insults. There were those who remained silent and clearly did not like what was happening, but they were afraid to do anything. And the only thing Britz could do was quietly curl up and start crying. Not because of the pain, not because of hatred, but because of the truth. He cannot defend himself, cannot stand up for himself. He is weak and hopeless.
“Oh dear, look who's crying!”
But at that moment, he heard a horn honking.
“Hey, what's going on here?!”
All the boys scattered.
Britz was breathing heavily and rapidly. His eyes, which still hurt from old beatings, began to water. He lay on the bed and listened to every sound. He recognized the quiet footsteps, which became clearer with every passing second.
“Do you think he's awake?”
“If not, then after what's about to happen, he'll definitely wake up!”
“Defend yourself! Defend yourself!”
A zigzag wound was bleeding on his head.
“Betrayal is severely punished!”
Experiments on felineko.
“Mom, Frita...”
“No, please don't!”
All his thoughts merged into one. Britz grabbed his head.
“Shut up, you scoundrel!”
“I'll help you escape...”
“If I go back, I'm done for...”
“What should I do... How can I...”
“AAAAAAHHHH!”
Suddenly, Britz turned around and jumped out of bed, pulling out his sword and pointing it at... Hack and Chick. Noticing Britz's sudden attack, they screamed and stepped aside. Britz was breathing heavily. His pupils were dilated, and it was clear how much he was sweating. Noticing the twins, he said after a few seconds:
“Oh, it's you...” and lowered his sword.
Suddenly, quick footsteps were heard from the control room next door. Kyle and Hanna appeared from around the corner.
“What happened?!” Hanna exclaimed.
She and Kyle noticed Britz's sword and the terrified twins.
“Were you threatening them?!” the guy with the tie asked angrily.
“No... I didn't...” Britz couldn't get the words out.
“Chick, Hack, what happened?” Hanna asked.
“Well, we... um...” Hack tried to say something, but he was more embarrassed than scared.
“Well, Hack wanted to wake Britz up in a surprising way...” Chick admitted.
“Oh my God, seriously, pranks again?” exclaimed Hanna, annoyed. “Britz hasn't even spent a day in our tank, and you're already planning to make fun of him!”
“We... um...” Hack didn't know what to say.
“Apologize to him.”
Hack and Chick turned guiltily to Britz.
“Sorry, Britz...” Chick said.
“I'm sorry...” Hack repeated.
Britz, who was still breathing heavily after waking up, finally exhaled:
“No need to apologize... It's not your fault... I'm a Berman, after all...”
The last words sounded somewhat sad. Chick and Hack nodded and left.
“Do you need anything?” Hanna asked Britz, who had woken up, noticing how he was trembling.
“No... I don't need anything...” Britz replied, then carefully lowered himself back onto the pillow. “Just... don't touch me...”
“Huh?”
“We're offering you help, and that's what you say?!” the felineko in a tie responded angrily.
“Kyle!” the girl shouted at the guy in displeasure, which made him suddenly regret his words.
“They shouldn't trust me...” Britz said to himself, “Otherwise, I'll hurt them...”
***
At breakfast, Britz sat next to Sheena at the end of the table. He sat as quietly as possible with his head down, staring at his plate of food, only quietly poking at it with his fork. Yesterday, he had found it much easier to force himself to eat something because he was very hungry. Now he could barely bring himself to eat a single bite of his steak. He could hear the children's voices coming from all around him. He raised his head for a second and glanced at everyone sitting there. They all looked so happy... falsely happy. He used to sit in the army mess hall in much the same way. While the others were engaged in heated discussions, Britz sat quietly eating his portion, which he sometimes couldn't even finish. There were usually no fights in the mess hall because wasting food was punished, but then anything could happen to him afterwards. Sometimes he deliberately didn't finish his meal because he knew that afterwards he would have to fight in the arena, where he would once again find himself the main target...
“Are you okay?” a voice suddenly came from his left. It was Sheena, who addressed Britz, sitting next to her, with her cautious voice.
“Yes...” he replied uncertainly after a few seconds.
“You haven't eaten anything...” the girl remarked. “Aren't you hungry?”
“Hungry...” Britz said very quietly, so that Sheena couldn't hear him.
“What?” she asked again.
“I'm not hungry,” he replied louder this time.
Caninu glanced around at all the kids sitting there again. No one seemed to be looking in his direction, although many had smiles on their faces. And really, who needed him? He was only here because he was a deserter, whom the Berman army did not spare at all; they would have executed him immediately upon seeing him. With nowhere else to go, he decided to help the other children in their battles with the Bermans. But being with them was not much different from what he had experienced before. To him, their smiles seemed so... false, unnatural. The only difference from the previous kids was that he wasn't sure if he would have to defend himself in an hour.
“Britz,” he heard Sheena's voice again, “You need to eat.”
“No... I don't need to...” he said, “I'm a Berman, you shouldn't feel sorry for me...”
“Why do you think that?”
“You should keep me locked up... So that I suffer and gradually give you all the information about the Bermans...”
“God, Britz...”
In response, he shook his head and then stood up from the table, drawing the attention of everyone else.
“Excuse me, I need to go...” Britz said quickly while his head was bowing and then went to the next compartment.
“Britz?” Malt said, noticing lefting caninu, but he did not respond.
“Well, if he doesn't want to eat, then he doesn't have to,” Jin replied somewhat sharply to Malt's remark. “We're not going to force-feed him.”
“Jin!” Sheena exclaimed indignantly.
“What? Did I say something wrong? If you want, you can feed the Berman by yourself with a spoon. It's easy for you to forget who sent your family to a concentration camp.”
“Oh, you...!” For the first time in a long time, Sheena was truly angry, but then Hanna intervened:
“Stop it, both of you! Right now!” she exclaimed, then turned to the bandana-wearing caninu. “Jin, we know that the Bermans executed your father, but Britz has nothing to do with that! He lives with us now and deserves the same warmth and comfort as everyone else.”
“Excellent!” Jin jumped up. “Let's give all the Bermans delicious food and shower them with love and warmth, because that will bring back all your loved ones and to me an entire lost family!”
Caninu left the table and walked to the elevator to the lower level.
“Jin!” Hanna shouted.
“I'm full. I'll be on the lower level fixing the fuses,” he said before getting into the elevator.
“And what is he wrong about?” Kyle added casually.
“One more word, Kyle, and you won't get any food for the rest of the day!” Hanna exclaimed, which again made the felineko regret what he had said.
There was no trace left of the previous merriment. All the children froze and were afraid to say anything. It was the first time in all their jorney that they had really quarreled. And it was also the first time that the children's plates were not left empty.
***
Britz took control of the machine gun: unlike the other children, he had been taught to shoot and knew how to aim accurately to hit various targets without missing. The Taranis moved on. The burning remains of the Berman tanks were left behind...
“Malt, this can't go on,” Hanna said anxiously. “We have to do something.”
Several days had passed since Britz arrived on the Taranis. After that argument at breakfast, the situation only got worse. In order to “not disturb the others,” Britz began to eat alone in the common bedroom, with Sheena bringing him his food. Many of the children who passed Britz cast uncertain, slightly fearful glances at him, while Jin and Kyle preferred not to see him at all. During breaks, Britz himself was either busy catching scrap metal or sorting through some details alone, trying not to be seen by the others. The wall between him and the other team members was only getting stronger. Soon it could become impenetrable.
“I know, Hanna,” replied Malt. “But the problem is that there's not much we can do about it. Britz tries not to see anyone and doesn't try to communicate with anyone. He distances himself from us.”
“Do you think it's his fault too?” Hanna asked indignantly. “Look at him, his face is covered in scars! We don't know what they did to him in the army, but after something like that, he's not going to consider everyone he meets a friend.”
“I understand that, Hanna... But until Britz opens up to us, we can't help him with anything.”
She didn't like that answer, but she knew Malt was right. Even if they wanted to help him, it was impossible to gain the trust of the rest of the team until he showed them some friendliness. And even Britz himself understood that.
***
“Enough! You're kicking a man when he's down!”
“So what? If this ‘son of a traitor’ doesn't learn to defend himself, this will happen to him all the time!”
“What does honor mean to you then? Is it just an empty word? Or have you forgotten how important honor is to the Berman people?”
They stopped.
“Why are you defending him all of a sudden? Before, you stood at the edge of the arena, calmly watching him get beaten up.”
“Because even enemies should have the opportunity to defend themselves. And he doesn't have that opportunity!”
“Really? Then what are his paws for?”
However, it seemed they had lost their enthusiasm.
“All right, if you feel so sorry for him, we'll let him go for now. Maybe you can teach him how to fight, because next time your attempts to stop us won't work.”
They left. One of Britz's fellow soldiers approached him as he lay there breathing heavily.
“Don't think I helped you because I feel sorry for you. It's just that these bastards forgot what honor means to a Berman.”
“And indeed, what is our honor...?” Britz asked himself from time to time. They were constantly told that they were defending the honor and dignity of their family, their Berman blood, that everything they did was for the good of their homeland. But no one really understood what these phrases meant, and the more important question for Britz was always: “If we are willing to commit so many terrible acts for the sake of honor, is it really worth fighting for such honor?”
This issue became particularly acute when he ended up in a concentration camp in Gasco. Britz hated his father for betraying the Berman Empire and leaving his family to deal with the consequences of his actions. Britz swore an oath to the Berman Empire, promising not to repeat his father's mistakes. And although he constantly had to fight with other boys and constantly hear how everyone hated him, for a long time he believed that this was the price he had to pay for betraying the Berman Empire. But when he was sent to a concentration camp for felineko and heard the cries and pleas for help from women, old people, and children, and when he saw with his own eyes how a living boy and girl were turned into some kind of substance that Berman scientists called “bio-energy,” — he realized that this was not what he wanted to fight for. This was not the honor that needed to be defended. That is why he helped Sheena escape. That is why he was ready to betray the Berman Empire. But at the same time, another question arose: what should he do next? He hadn't seen his sister and mother for several years. He was in a country completely unfamiliar to him and didn't know whether its people would accept him or treat him like a punching bag, as kids did in the army. His fear of the future grew with each passing day, and even when he boarded the Taranis, he still didn't know how to fix everything.
***
When Sheena went upstairs after breakfast the next day to check on Britz, she found only an untouched plate of food on the bed. Britz himself was nowhere to be seen. Felineko became a little worried and started looking for him. He couldn't have gone downstairs, because the other kids would have noticed him, so she decided to check the control room first, and then, not finding him there, went upstairs. Going up to the next floor, she heard sobbing coming from outside above. “Looks like he's on the roof...” the girl guessed. Going out onto the balcony, she climbed the stairs and found Britz sitting on the floor by the wall. He was crying and sobbing heavily. The sleeve of his right arm was rolled up, and his arm was scratched until it bled. He had scratched himself.
“Oh my God, Britz!” Sheena exclaimed and quickly ran up to Britz, grabbing his hand. “Your arm...!”
“I... don't know... what to... do...” Britz managed to say through his sobs. He continued to cry and couldn't find the strength to look at Sheena. He didn't want her to see his tears.
“Enough, Britz! Calm down, what's going on?!”
“I... I don't know...”
After this short sentence, he turned his head and looked at Sheena with his tear-filled eyes.
“Why... did I get all this... Why...?” he said.
“Britz, please, please!” Now Sheena began to cry too. “Please calm down! Tell me what's bothering you!”
It was difficult for him to string sentences together, but his emotions loosened his tongue.
“They all hated me... Everyone in the army hated me...” Britz said, sobbing constantly. "I always thought I deserved it... Because I'm the son of a traitor and I'm paying for it... And I had to give my mom and sister a chance to live a normal life... The only thing I could believe in was that sooner or later my debt to Berman would be repaid and it would all end... But it didn't end... I hadn't been in touch with them for several years, and no matter what I did, nothing changed. There was only hatred. And when I saw the cruelty of the Bermans in that concentration camp... I lost all faith in what I was doing. I helped you escape because I didn't want you to experience that cruelty... But when... when we parted ways... And I wandered the steppe trying to survive... I began to ask myself over and over again: why did I get all this... Why do I have to endure all this... Why does the world want me to suffer endlessly, so that I...
“Britz...”
“Why...? Why me...? What did I do...?”
“Britz...!”
“When I boarded the Taranis, I knew I had to change everything. I knew I could fix everything... But every time I closed my eyes, I started seeing how I had to fight in the arena... When I heard the guys' footsteps and conversations, I always thought they were talking about me... that I was so wrong, that I shouldn't have been born...”
“Britz...!!!” Sheena was already crying.
“Why... Why do I... I don't want to, I didn't want to... Maybe the world wants me to just jump off the roof of the Taranis now, break my limbs and neck, because no one will remember me, no one will cry for me, no one...”
“BRITZ!!!”
Sheena's cry could be heard clearly all around. Britz stopped saying various phrases and just began to sob, lowering his gaze.
“Britz, listen to me!” Sheena sat down in front of him and took his hands. “You're not there anymore! Do you hear me?! You. Are. Not. There. Anymore!”
In response, Britz just breathed heavily.
“You suffered a lot before you ended up here. Yes, that's true. But that's in the past, Britz. Understand, everything is different now! These guys... They helped me. They saved me, just like you did. You all believed in me, you all wanted me to live when I thought I was the reason for my family's suffering. But now I want you to want to live too, Britz! Everything can be fixed, you're not there anymore! The guys are avoiding you not because you did something bad to them, but because they don't know you! They don't know what you've been through. But you can fix it! You can tell them about yourself, let them know that you don't wish them any harm, that you want to be friends with them, and that all this time you've just been hurting. Please, Britz! Please believe in yourself! Like you believe in me... Like I believe in you! Please...!”
She uttered her last words, tears streaming down her cheeks and falling onto Britz's hands. She prayed to every god she could think of that Britz would hear her. For a few seconds, all that could be heard were their shared sobs and moans, and then Britz said:
“Do you think... I can do it?”
“Yes...! Yes, Britz! And if it's difficult, I'll be there for you. I'll help you...”
He lowered his head, then looked up at Sheena and added:
“I'm... scared...”
“That's normal. It's normal to be afraid. You're alive, Britz, understand, you deserve better...”
Finally, Britz took a deep breath. The sobs began to subside.
“Okay, Sheena. I... believe you. And I'll try to change...”
***
“Um, hi, Malt, Mei,” Britz greeted siblings, who had just finished catching scrap metal. Standing next to him was Sheena, who looked at him and encouraged him to start talking.
When Britz calmed down and Sheena, with the help of Nono power, removed the wound from his arm, she asked him who he would like to try talking to first. “Well... This might sound a little strange, but I'd like to start with Mei...” he said slowly. “She reminds me of Frita, my sister...”
“Hi, Britz,” Malt replied. “I saw you and Sheena come down from the roof. Everything's okay?”
Despite the events of the past few days, Malt was still friendly. Britz felt like this kindness was fake, but he tried not to think about it too much.
“Yeah, yeah... everything's fine,” Britz replied, although his tear-stained shirt and slightly disheveled appearance made it clear that he was being disingenuous. Then he looked down at the girl. “Mmm, Mei.”
Hearing her name, the girl glanced at Britz slightly fearfully. The boy noticed this emotion and swallowed, frightened, but then looked at Sheena, who nodded slightly, approving of Britz's action, so he then stretched out his hand, held up three fingers, and said:
“How many fingers do you think I'm showing?”
“Um... Three,” Mei replied, a little uncertainly.
“Exactly three?” Britz asked again.
There was something else peeking out between his index and middle fingers. Mei noticed it and came closer, and then Britz lowered his hand, revealing that the “fourth” finger was a wrapped chocolate bar.
“This is for you,” he said.
The girl's face suddenly lit up.
“Hooray!” she exclaimed, snatching the gift from him. Then Britz straightened up and turned to Malt.
“I found it in the ruins after our last battle. I saved it for an important occasion, and it seemed to me that now was the time.”
Malt was a little surprised by the sudden change in Britz's character, but he just smiled in response.
“Mei, do you want to play a game?” Britz asked the girl again. “Any game you want!”
“Yes!” she said. “Hide and seek! Let's play hide and seek!”
“Okay, then start hiding, and I'll count to ten.”
“Yes, okay!” Mei happily ran past Britz into the next compartment.
“Just don't climb into any dangerous places!” Malt called after her, then turned to Britz. “I can see you like Mei.”
“I have a younger sister too,” replied Britz, then frowned slightly. “Actually, I haven't seen her in a long time...”
“Really? Will you tell me about her later?” asked Malt.
“It won't be easy... but I'll try.”
“See, Britz. It's not that hard,” she remarked.
“It's all because you were there,” Britz answered
“You're helping him start talking to the children?” asked Malt.
“A little. Britz has a... complicated history, but I want everyone to understand that he doesn't wish anyone any harm.”
“Yes... No one,” repeated Britz.
“Hey, where's the score?!” a loud, thin voice suddenly rang out across the floor.
“I was counting in my head!” Britz shouted back. “It's already 10! I'm going to look for it...!”
***
“Britz, can you slice the carrots while I deal with the onions?” Hanna asked the Berman who was helping her cook.
“Yes, of course,” he replied, grabbing a knife and starting to slice the carrots.
A minute later, all the chopped ingredients went into a pot on the stove.
“Wow, you did that quickly,” she said. “Have you cooked before?”
“A little,” he replied. “Before being sent to Gasco, I was transferred to a border garrison for a while. They were short-staffed there, and my platoon was assigned various duties. I had to help in the kitchen, mainly with cutting.”
“I see. Um... can I ask you a personal question?”
“Of course, I'll try to answer.”
“You tell us so much about life in the army, but did you really have nothing else besides that? I mean, did you really have nothing else that wasn't related to it?”
Hearing this, Britz gave Hanna a slightly puzzled look, then lowered his head and said:
"I already told you that my father was executed for treason, so I had to protect my mother and sister from ‘shame’, as the Bermans put it. They were sent to an unknown location, and I was sent to the army. I was 7 years old at the time and the youngest in the platoon.
“What a nightmare...”
"Since then, I remember little about my life before the army. I had to serve so that my family would be left alone. And even if I wanted to leave, where would I go? I would be considered no less a deserter than I am now, and that is a direct path to execution.
“You endured almost three years of constant hatred from those around you just to protect your family? That's... cruel, but very noble. But the question is... this may not sound very nice, but aren't you afraid of what will happen to them now?”
“I am afraid, but... to be honest, it's easier for me to think that they are no longer alive.”
“What?! No...!”
“It's not that I'm happy about it,” Britz quickly reassured her. “It's just that if I hope that they might still be alive somewhere out there, then I'll constantly doubt all the decisions I made after escaping from the concentration camp. And I don't want to think that way. Even despite all the contempt and hatred I had to endure, the experiments they conduct on felineko are absolutely inhumane. It's wrong. I didn't want to be a part of it all just because I had no choice. It's just... wrong.”
There was a brief silence, interrupted only by the bubbling water in the pot.
“Britz,” Hanna began, “I'm sure that if everyone in Bermia were as kind as you, there would never have been a war.”
“Thank you, Hanna. I'm glad you think so... Oh, look!”
The pot began to shake, and water started spilling out from the edges. Hanna quickly reacted to the cry, lifting the lid of the pot and turning down the heat.
“Oops,” she smiled. “You have to be careful when discussing difficult topics!”
“Ha-ha... yes,” Britz laughed.
It seemed to be the first time Hanna had ever heard the Berman laugh.
***
“Jin would be the hardest...” Britz sighed.
“Don't worry. Like the others, he just needs to get to know you,” Sheena reassured him.
“Okay...” the caninu sighed and entered the workshop.
Meanwhile, Jin was tinkering with something on the pipe on the wall.
“Um, hi, Jin...” Britz began.
“I'm busy,” the boy replied sharply. “If you don't have anything important, leave.”
Britz turned around for a second, noticing Sheena looking worriedly from behind the door. The thought flashed through his mind that he should listen to him and leave. But Britz knew that Jin would “never” have time to talk to him.
“Yes, it's important,” he replied, turning to Jin. “We need to become friends.”
“Ha-ha, what?!” Jin exclaimed, pausing and looking at Britz with a fierce gaze. “I'll never be friends with a Berman! I've already heard from the others that you've suddenly become very sociable. What, are you trying to get us to tell you our secrets?”
“No, I just want to become a friend,” Britz continued to insist.
“You...!” Jin said, gripping his wrench tighter in anger. Sheena, watching Jin's reaction, was frightened, but Britz continued to ignore Jin's fury.
“You want to hit me? Go ahead. I'm kind of used to it now.”
“Kh...” Jin really did have a strong desire to punch Britz, but something held him back, so instead he asked loudly, “Why? Why are you letting me hit you and not even defending yourself?”
“Because I understand why you hate the Bermans,” replied the caninu. “They took away the father you loved. They took mine too, only I hated mine.”
“What...?”
In short, Britz recounted the story of his life.
“So... you're the son of a traitor,” Jin said in a calmer tone.
“If only you knew how many times the Bermans said that to me. Wherever I went, wherever they sent me, the first thing they said to me was, ‘Ah, it's the son of that traitor.’”
“And you had to put up with that for several years.”
“Yes...”
“Hmm... you should forgive your father.”
“Huh?”
“He understood that life in Gasco was better than life in the Berman Empire. He wanted his family to grow up in better conditions, because he saw it for himself.”
Britz didn't answer right away, thinking about what Jin had said.
“No, I'm afraid I'll never be able to forgive him,” he replied.
“Why?”
“I understand why he did it, but the price of his mistake was too high. Because of his failure, my whole family had to pay for it. We were torn apart, and I had to endure three years of unrelenting hatred. If he hadn't betrayed the Berman Empire, none of this would have happened.”
“And if you were a father and had to choose between letting your family continue to live in unfavorable conditions or trying to change that, what would you choose?”
Britz thought for a moment. Indeed, he had never asked himself that question before. He had never tried to put himself in his father's shoes.
“I... I don't know,” Britz admitted honestly. “I just want them to be okay.”
“I'm sure that's what he thought when he betrayed his homeland,” Jin concluded. “I understand that you've had a hard time because he failed, but it's not your father's fault, it's the fault of those who took him away from you and forced you to be their slave.”
“You're probably right...” agreed Britz. “Well, then we have common reasons to hate the Bermans.”
“Don't think that you'll become my friend right after this conversation,” replied Jin. “But... I now understand why you were so closed off. I'm sorry if I was rude.”
“There's no need to apologize. It was my mistake.”
“No... there is.”
After saying this, Britz extended his hand to Gene.
“So, is it a truce?” he said.
Caninu, in turn, smiled and shook the Berman's hand.
“Truce,” he concluded.
Perhaps if they managed to make peace, then maybe the whole of Gasco could improve its relations with the Berman Empire?
***
A few days later, there was no trace left of the “old” Britz. He began to try to communicate with all the guys in the tank. He still felt a certain insincerity in their relationship, but not as strongly as before. Britz diligently helped the guys with their work and even suggested some innovations for the tank to Socks and Jin, drawing on the technical knowledge he had gained at military school. But most importantly, for the first time in a long time, Britz began to feel like part of the team. For most of his life, he had relied only on himself and tried to deal with all his problems on his own. Now, if he needed help or if something was bothering him, the other children were happy to help him.
It also turned out that he was a good storyteller. Usually, Malt told Mei various stories and fairy tales at bedtime, but one evening, when the team leader took the elevator up to the bedroom, he noticed Britz sitting on his bed, with an open book, captivatingly telling the girl about the epic confrontation between good and evil. Mei listened to the Berman with great interest, and he seemed to be delighted by this. Malt, noticing this scene, just smiled gently.
“You managed to make him friends with the others,” he said to Sheena, who was sitting next to him on her bed and also watching Britz.
“No, I didn't do anything,” replied the felineko. “He just needed a little confidence.”
“So you managed to give him that.”
Sheena just smiled in response.
The wall that threatened to become impenetrable finally collapsed.
***
The Taranis was approaching the concentration camp in Lhasa Apso, the main checkpoint of the Berman army in Gasco. A little earlier, the children had managed to rescue Sheena's family from the concentration camp in the province of Mau, from which Britz and Sheena had once escaped. Now they had to rescue the rest of their relatives, because everything indicated that they were being held here. There were more and more tanks, and the fighting was becoming fiercer. The Bermans were definitely guarding something here.
Britz took the elevator down and went to the Soul Canon Chamber. No one would hear him here. The battle was raging, so he asked the kids to leave for a few minutes. He took the letter hidden in his pants pocket and reread it:
“We know you've joined the children in the Taranis. Frita who is your sister and your mother are our hostages. If you don't change your mind and return to the ranks by the end of the day, they will be executed tomorrow.”
Britz's eyes were not mistaken. The letter was definitely addressed to him. It was a warning.
Caninu slowly lowered his hand with the letter, and then...
“AAAAHHHHH!”
There were sobs, followed by a loud punch against the wall. Due to the explosions, his cry was difficult to hear outside the room. He fell to his knees and began to sob, hugging himself. Once again, that oppressive feeling of loneliness. Once again, he began to feel helpless.
“What should I do...? What should I do...?”
Britz couldn't know for sure whether the letter was a lie or not. He couldn't know for sure whether the letter was supposed to reach him today or earlier. But if there was even the slightest chance that his family, whom he hadn't seen in so many years, was alive and in danger...
“Guys... I didn't mean to... I'm a terrible friend...”
All he wanted, the reason he was sent to the army, was to protect his family. He made his decision. All that remained was to cast aside his doubts.
***
“Honor is the most important thing for a Berman...”
“Can you read that again?”
“The key points of invasion in Gasco...”
“I would like to see how the Bermans live in the city.”
“Glory to the Berman Empire!”
“Britz...”
“Your family will have problems...”
“Please... believe in yourself, as I believe in you...”
“AAAAAHHHH!” Britz yelled with tears in his eyes, sitting in the only tank blocking The Taranis's path. He was breathing heavily, his thoughts jumbled together. He couldn't think straight, but he had only one goal — to prevent The Taranis from advancing.
“Britz!” a girl's voice came from The Taranis's megaphone. “Don't do it!”
“I HAVE TO! I HAVE TO! I HAVE TO!” he cried, firing a barrage of missiles at the Taranis. “I am your enemy! I always have been! Kill me or you won't get through!”
As expected, the barrage of missiles did not cause much damage to the huge tank.
“Please, Britz, stop this!” the other, male voice Britz heard “Explain what happened?!”
“I serve the Berman Empire, that's what happened!” the Berman continued to yell. “You should never have trusted me! Never!”
Another barrage. The Taranis was damaged again, but its retaliatory strike was rather weak.
“Why are you holding back?!” Britz yelled, sobbing. “Why don't you want to kill me? If you don't, I'll destroy you, and you'll never be able to protect your loved ones!”
“Britz, please!” Another female voice reached the caninu's ears, and he even recognized it: it was Sheena. “I know you! You would never do that!”
“Then you didn't know me very well!” Britz cried back, sobbing. “I've never been good... I've always been nothing but a disgrace to everyone...!”
“Britz, no!” She replied. “You're not a disgrace...!”
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT I AM... WHO I AM... BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW MYSELF, I ONLY KNOW THAT I CAN'T LET YOU PASS!!!
There was no response to this loud outburst. Britz was already sobbing so hard that he began to get confused with the buttons and miss his attacks. The pain inside him was hellish. It was tearing him apart.
At that moment, his tank received a powerful blow to its missile system. The weapons failed, and it was impossible to launch missiles.
“You need to forgive your father...”
“I just want my family to be safe...”
“Once the guys get to know you, they'll warm up to you...”
“You can't even protect yourself. You don't belong in the army!”
“AAAAAAH!!!” A loud scream heard, followed by several very strong blows with fists on the table.
The Britz tank's attacks ceased.
“Britz...” Another voice came from the Taranis' megaphone, but there was no response.
A few seconds later, the tank hatch opened and Britz climbed out. He was holding both hands because they seemed to be hurting. Caninu didn't just jump, but fell from the tank to the ground and staggered toward the Taranis, but after taking a few steps, he fell to his knees.
“Kill me...!” he cried in tears. “Please, kill me...!”
“Britz...” came a voice from the Taranis.
“I can't take it anymore... I can't stand this life...”
“Shut up!” came a girl's voice.
“Why, Britz?” Berman could recognise the voice of Jin. “Why did you do it?”
“I had no choice... They... they took them... my sister, my mother... I gave my whole life to give them a chance to live normally... If I hadn't done it, they would have been finished...”
“But, Britz...”
“They're alive. They were in Lhassa Apso. We freed them right after you left...!”
What he heard made Britz's tearful gaze turn to the Taranis in shock.
“But... the letter... said they were being held hostages...” he said, sobbing. “I didn't think they were in Gasco...!”
“They're alive, Britz!” said Sheena. “They're alive and free! You don't have to suffer anymore to protect them!”
"They tricked me... so they tricked me... Bastards... But..."
“It doesn't matter... It doesn't matter anymore,” replied Britz, lowering his gaze again. “I'm a traitor... It seems I've lived up to my nickname — the son of a traitor...”
“Don't say that, Britz!”
“No, it's true!” he cried. “It will always be true! I have no place in this world... I don't know what to do... I don't know if there's any point in living... Because... because I... I just wanted to live. I just wanted it all to end, I just... I don't know...”
His sobs grew louder.
“All I know is that I'm not worthy of it...” he continued. “It doesn't matter whether they're alive or not... it will never change... My past... will never change... I will always... just try to live up to someone's expectations... Please, kill me... I don't want to live anymore...”
However, there was no verbal response, nor was there any shot fired from any of the Taranis' weapons. Britz understood that the children would not shoot. He covered his face with his hands and continued to sob. “My life will never change...” flashed through his mind.
But then he heard footsteps. Through his fingers, he saw figures coming from the Taranis gradually approaching him. Eventually, the children surrounded him. He remembered how his colleagues used to stand up in a similar way to create an arena for duels...
“Britz,” he heard Malt's voice. “We're not going to kill you. We can't. But not because we're afraid to do it, but because you're part of the team. And please, hear us out.”
“All your life, you've been taught about honor,” Kyle began. “You told us about that. Honor before the country, before the Motherland. All of that may be important, of course, but you were never taught to be honest with yourself.”
“You joined the army to protect your family,” Hanna continued. "You saved Sheena because you couldn't let her die. But you forgot the most important thing, who you need to protect first and foremost.
“Yourself,” concluded Socks. “You didn't even think about protecting yourself.”
"I can't protect myself..." Britz was about to reply. "I tried... although maybe it's because I didn't really want to..."
“All this time, you thought you were paying for your father's actions,” continued Jin. “You always thought you owed someone an explanation, that you had to justify yourself to someone, because that's what your whole life was about.”
“But that's not true!” continued Mei.
“Not at all!” added Hack.
“Britz, the most important thing the army took away from you wasn't even your family,” Chick continued.
“But a sense of compassion,” said Sheena.
“You were bullied so badly that you stopped believing there was anything in people other than hatred and selfishness,” Kyle continued.
“And that's why you always tried to live up to someone else's expectations,” added Boron.
“Before the army, before your family, even before us and Sheena,” said Malt. “You always thought that life was all about making others understand that you were doing the right thing. At the same time, you completely ignored what you wanted yourself.”
“But didn't you enjoy being with us?” asked Hack. “Didn't you like playing with us?”
“Or reading Mei?” continued Sheena. “Or helping Socks and Jin?”
Britz hesitated before answering, but finally replied with difficulty:
“I enjoyed...”
“Then you have to understand, Britz,” Socks continued. “You didn't like it because you were fulfilling your duty to Sheena.”
“It was because you wanted to,” Sheena continued. “Because you wanted to bring joy and warmth to those around you.”
“The Bermans wanted you to do nothing but follow orders without question,” Hanna pointed out. “By separating you from your family at an early age, they robbed you of the chance to have a normal life.”
“But that doesn't mean you can't get it back,” added Malt. “It doesn't mean you don't deserve it.”
“All you have to do...” began Hack.
“...Is to believe in yourself!” finished Chick.
“And if you don't believe in yourself,” said Jin, “Then at least trust us.”
“Not because we expect great things from you,” said Sheena.
“Not because we expect you to easily defeat Hax,” added Kyle.
“And it's not even because we expect you to be able to make delicious buns out of thin air!” added Boron.
“It's because we want you to experience a normal life,” concluded Malt. “We want you to know that there is more to the world than hatred and pain...”
“But also joy, happiness, and love,” continued Hanna. “As corny as it may sound.”
These words echoed in the Berman's head. For a few more seconds, Britz stared at the floor with tears in his eyes, and only then he looked up and said:
“Do you think... Do you think I still have a chance to a normal life?”
“Of course you do!” exclaimed Hack and Chick almost simultaneously.
“You've suffered a lot, Britz,” said Hanna. “More than any of us.”
“You don't deserve what you've been through,” concluded Jin.
“But, please, believe us,” added Sheena. “Believe that things aren't as bad as you think!”
“And if you need help, we'll be happy to give it to you,” concluded Malt. “Right, guys?”
“Yes!” came the chorus from all sides.
Britz didn't know what to say. He still felt an unrelenting pain inside... But at the same time, he began to feel warmth. Such a pleasant and long-forgotten feeling.
“I... I'm so sorry...” Britz wanted to say something, but then he noticed Malt coming up close to him.
“No, it's not your fault, Britz. And you don't need to say anything.” He put his hand on the Berman's shoulder, then said to the children around him, “Guys, come on over, let's go!”
After saying this, Malt hugged Britz. Through his tear-filled eyes, the caninu noticed how all the other children began to approach him and, sitting down, also embracing him. Eventually, they surrounded him on all sides. Every member of the Taranis team wanted to give him all their warmth. A former soldier, deprived of any joys of peaceful life, felt so many tactile sensations on himself for the first time ever. A few seconds after all the guys hugged him, he cried again, but not from pain, but from a mixture of joy and shame. Hearing this, Malt patted him lightly on the back with his palm.
“Well?” he asked Britz.
“It's warm... And very pleasant...” Britz admitted. “Thank you, guys... thank you for everything... I know you don't want me to owe you... But I will live... For you.”
“Well, that's much better, you have to admit!” Malt concluded.
Britz smiled through his tears.
***
Vanargand was defeated, and Hax perished. The Berman Empire's invasion in Gasco was halted, and the war ended with the declaration of a truce. Although Gasco had now become an archipelago of many islands, the children were glad that it was finally over. It was time to return to their families.
The meeting place with the adults was Petit Mona, as half of the children of The Taranis were from this village. It was a great miracle that the village and its immediate surroundings had not been touched by Vanargand's beam at all, allowing to rebuild Petit Mona which had been burned down by the Berman army in the past. The children were dropped off in a field where their relatives were already waiting for them.
Britz looked around carefully. He noticed that Hanna had already met her mother, Malt and Mei had met their grandparents, and Kyle had met his father. He tried to find his mother and sister, but it was difficult to do so in this crowd.
“Britz!” he heard Sheena's voice. The girl ran up to him, grabbed his sleeve, and pulled him along. “Let's go!”
The Berman followed the felineko until they left the crowd. Then she stopped and pointed to two caninu, a girl and her mother, standing a little apart from the others. They were asking a man if he knew a Berman boy who had arrived with the other children. But they didn't wait the answer: the girl turned around when she noticed her brother and shouted, “Mom! Britz!” which made the woman instantly turn in the right direction. “Britz!” she exclaimed joyfully. Britz froze for a second, not believing his eyes and ears, but then rushed forward at full speed, shouting, “Mom! Frita!” In tears, he ran to his family and hugged them as tightly as he could.
“It's you... it's really you,” the woman cried, hugging her son, whom she had not seen for several years.
“It's been so long... I thought I would never see you again...” he said.
“We didn't know what had happened to you...” the girl added in a thin voice. “We even thought that you...”
“It's okay... I'm fine,” replied Britz. “What's more... I found friends who helped me finally meet you... Friends here, in Gasco. They are all so good... With people like this here, we will never have to suffer again, we will never have to part... Mom, Frita... I missed you so much...”
For Britz's courageous actions in defending Gasco, the people of the country gladly welcomed the refugees into their midst. Britz also participated in spreading the truth about the Berman concentration camps so that such inhumane experiments and slavery would never happen again.
“Well, Dad...” Britz said to himself, “It seems that your dream has finally come true. We are in Gasco, and we are happy. Forgive me for hating you. You wanted the best, and it really turned out that way.”