It was cold morning, snow covered the area but the day was sunny. On the mountain side was a small cabin, in one of its rooms was a young man covered in blankets. Finn started to wake up slowly bit by bit, he stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before he started to look around.

The curtains covered the window, reducing the amount of light significantly. A wood stove sat in one of the corners, the wood glowed lightly as it burned.

Finn: Where am I?

Finn attempted to sit up but the pain in his upper body shocked him, he lifted the covers and saw that his jacket and parka were gone and only had his service shirt. His shirt was unbuttoned and he was able too bandaged across his torso, he started carefully getting out of bed cursing under his breath at the pain of his body. His shoes were gone as he noticed he was wearing different pants and fresh pair of socks, his usual black pants were replaced with a pair of light grey ones.

Finn: What is happening?

He walked over to the window and looked outside,he was met with the snow-covered mountainside.

Thunk

He turned towards the door in response to the sound, he waited for the door to rattle but nothing happened. He looked around for anything he could use as a weapon, he couldn't find anything. He found a spoon next to the bed, it was better than nothing.

Finn: Push comes to shove, it's better than nothing.

He crept towards the door and gripped the handle, he took a deep breath as he threw the door open and ran through it. However, as he passed through the doorway, he tripped and fell face first onto the hard wood floor. The impact stung his upper body as he had the air knocked out of him, he struggled to breath as he rolled on the floor.

????: Looks like sleeping beauty is awake.

The room filled with chuckles as Finn started recovering his breath, he was pulled up from the ground and sat on a chair. He looked at the three people sitting at the table, at first he didn't noticed but then realized that their clothing was familiar.

Finn: Where am I?

????: Relax, we're not gonna do anything to you.

Finn looked at the man who was sitting across from him, he was wearing a gas mask and a helmet, he could just barely make out the eyes within the lenses.

Emil: My name is Emil, the one to your right is Joseph, the one of the left is Kruger.

Finn looked at Joseph, he looked like he was in his early 20s or late teens, he was eating a slice of bread with jam. He noticed Finn looking at him and gave him a small smile.

Emil: Joseph is our scout, he handles the horses and is the one that found you.

Finn: Do you know where my friends are?

Kruger: You have friends? you sure you didnt bang your head?

Emil: Lip, Kruger.

Finn looked at Kruger, he had dark eye circles and had a scarf around his neck. He had a light beard, Kruger looked back at Finn and smirked at him.

Kruger: It's a joke Emil, I'm just teasing.

Emil: Ignore Kruger, he isn't known for his kindness. And no, we don't know where you friends are, all we know is that Ärztin led Joseph to you.

Finn: Ärztin?

Emil: Come Ärztin.

Emil extended his hand towards Finn, the crystal around Finn's neck glowed white as an orb of the same color exited it. Once it did, the crystal returned to it's yellow color, the orb floated towards Emil's hand and seemed to rest upon it.

Emil: This is Ärztin, she's the one who saved you and did most of the work in fixing you. She used that shield crystal to keep you alive using it's power instead of your soul.

Finn: Wait explain that last part.

Emil: You're not from here so you don't have access mana, if you didn't have that crystal, she wouldn't had been able to attach herself to you and you would had just become a solid piece of ice.

Finn: How do you know all of this?

Joseph: We've actually been here for around 2 to 3 years here. We were part of the Kaiserschlacht and at some point we appeared here.

Finn: Kaiserschlacht??

Kruger: Never heard of it? that's surprising.

Finn: That doesn't make sense, before we got here it was-

Emil: The 1940s.

Finn looked at Emil, Emil had Finn's Soldbuch open.

Emil: Finn Lorenz, promoted to Unterfeldwebel in 1943.

Finn tried to feel for his Soldbuch but realized he didn't have his jacket on him.

Emil: You don't really look like one but hey, I've seen weirder things.

Emil tossed his Soldbuch at him, he stood up and walked towards a bundle on the floor and picked it up. He passed it to Joseph who then passed it off to Finn, he opened it and saw his uniform in it.

Emil: We cleaned and stitched it up for you, put it on because we are heading back to town.

They finished eating and started getting ready, Joseph went to get the horses ready. Kruger and Emil put their winter coats under the white linen they had altered to fit over their coats and helmets, Finn changed into his winter uniform.

It felt refreshing for him feeling the freshly cleaned wool fabric, it reminded him of when he had first received it.

Finn reached for his MP 40 and Luger that were on a table, he inspected the gun and magazines for damage and found none. He got the sling around his shoulder and placed the P08 in his holster, after putting his visor cap on he walked outside. There he saw two horses, Joseph was riding on one of them while Krueger attached hooks from a sled to the other. On the sled were ten wooden canisters behind the seat of the sled, Finn approached the sled and opened the top of one of the canisters.

Inside was what appeared to be the visible top of a big egg covered in snow, he noticed a small amount of vapor rising from around the egg.

Finn: What is this thing?

Krueger: Something you better keep cold unless you want to be turned into soup.

Finn:... Pardon?

Krueger: It's a person chicken.. thing. They like the heat so they put them in a frozen mountain, we take some eggs and sell them to ring fights.

Finn: How does that relate to turning me into soup?

Krueger: After they kill you, they turn your bones into liquid and just swallow you.

Finn looked back into the wooden canisters as he started packing snow into them.

______

Tanner took the last swig in his canteen, he was now out of whiskey, he tried some of the local's liquor but it was too watery for him. He took out a cigarette and his lighter, he looked at his remaining cigarettes and saw he had 3 left.

Tanner: Blimey..

He looked off into the dark horizon, he struggled to sleep so he had decided to take a stroll in the night.

Tanner: What are we doing here...?

The things Janeczek had said bothered him, he started pondering as to why they were with Jahangir at all. It felt as if a veil had been removed, they'd been listening to him without a good reason.

He looked towards the camp, a sentry stood guard at one of the tents, Jahangir's tent. Tanner got an idea, he picked up a stick and got to the edge of his field of vision, he measured the distance between him and the sentry.

Tanner: Roughly 12 meters..

Tanner tossed the stick at the sentry, hitting him in the head.

Sentry: Who did that?!

The sentry looked around to see who had struck him, he walked off to seek the perp. Tanner waited for him to pass and slipped past him."What a pillock" thought to himself as he let out a small chuckle.

Tanner walked though the tent's flap and was greeted by another flap. He approached the second one quietly, listened for a bit but heard nothing. Pulling the flap to the side, he saw Jahangir sitting on a chair turned away from him. Tanner tried to say something but realized that Jahangir hadn't moved an inch, he approached him but still hadn't moved. "No way he hasn't noticed me," Tanner thought as he moved around the desk to look at him directly.

The mask on Jahangir's face was lifeless, it was supposed to be full of glowing lines but those lines were dark. He noticed a familiar symbol, a small λ within a circle pulsed softly, "Lambda?"
He'd seen it back in college but didn't know why it would be here.

The mask started to glow, Tanner momentarily panicked as jumped towards the front of the desk. Jahangir sat up on his chair and turned towards Tanner, he leaned onto his desk and looked up at him.

Jahangir: Can I help you?

Tanner: I uh.. needed to ask something.

Jahangir: And what might that be?

Tanner was used to his superiors attempting to intimidate him, but this was different, people give away details to their intentions by their facial expressions alone. He couldn't see through the mask and it made him uneasy.

Tanner: I was wondering as to our purpose here.

Jahangir looked at him for a bit and stood up, he walked towards a map on the wall of the tent.

Jahangir: This country, Janhurst, possesses an ancient art, the ability to bring others from elsewhere. Those who are brought here are given the title of "Hero", but in reality they are merely tools for Janhurst to abuse.

Jahangir turned back towards Tanner, he look at him in the eyes and walked to his desk.

Jahangir: They need to be exterminated to prevent them to be used by Janhurst to expand its borders, it's the reason we brought you here, fighting fire with fire.

Tanner attempted to understand, but some things didn't quite add up.

Jahangir: Will that be all?

Tanner snapped back to reality.

Tanner: Oh yes, thank you for the enlightenment.

He began to head out of the tent when Jahangir spoke.

Jahangir: Tell the sentry to come and see me.

Tanner walked out of the tent, he startled the sentry as he tapped him on the shoulder.

Tanner: He wants to talk to you.

The sentry's face turned pale as he looked at him walk away, he swallowed as he hesitantly walked into the tent.

The sentry wasn't seen again after that night.

What it be what it do back from hibernation, thank you for reading, that's about it see ya