My brothers Keeper, an SI as the twin brother of Stalin (Reworked)

Excerpt from the Wikipedia Page on the Great Terror

The Great Terror (German: Großer Terror), also known in Germany as the Bloody '44 and '45 (German: Verdammte 44 und 45) and the Reign of Yagoda (German: Die Herrschaft Jagodas), was a campaign of political repression, mass executions, and ideological purges carried out in Soviet-occupied Germany between 1944 and 1945. Initiated shortly after the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War, the terror was overseen by Genrikh Yagoda, then Deputy People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union.

Originally framed as a campaign to eradicate remnants of National Socialism and militarism from German society, the purges rapidly expanded beyond the prosecution of major Nazi leaders into a broader restructuring of the German political, military, and social elite. The campaign began with a series of highly publicized show trials targeting prominent members of the fallen Nazi regime, followed by widespread arrests, deportations, forced labor sentences, and summary executions.

The purges were conducted primarily by the Soviet NKVD in cooperation with the Communist Party of Germany and its emerging intelligence apparatus, the M-Apparat, which would later be reorganized into the Stasi. Under Yagoda's direction, members of the Junker aristocracy, industrial magnates, former princes of the German states, SS personnel, Wehrmacht officers above the rank of lieutenant colonel, and senior Nazi Party officials; from regional Gauleiters to surviving members of the national leadership were subjected to systematic extermination. Executions were carried out publicly or in the presence of family members, who were subsequently compelled to bury the dead themselves.

The campaign extended beyond the upper crust of German Society. Rank-and-file members of the Nazi Party, former members of the Hitler Youth, supporters of the German Christian movement, and individuals affiliated with Nazi-aligned organizations were subjected to "struggle sessions," political indoctrination programs, and forced labor. Many were interned in former concentration camps repurposed by Soviet occupation authorities as re-education and labor facilities.

The terror reached its symbolic climax in April 1945 during the Auschwitz Trials, held within the grounds of the former Auschwitz concentration camp. Among those prosecuted were the signatories of the Industrielleneingabe ("Industrialists' Petition"), the 1932 letter urging President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. Following conviction, many defendants were executed by Zyklon-B gas in the same camp gas chambers previously used by the Nazi regime, with their families forced to dispose of the bodies in the crematoriums, the macabre spectacle was planned and overseen by Jugashvili himself.

Subsequent trials targeted surviving members of Hitler's inner circle, senior SS officers, influential industrialists associated with the Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft ("Circle of Friends of the Economy"), and high-ranking Wehrmacht personnel accused of complicity in war crimes or collaboration with the Nazi state.

August 3, 1922
Miri Baljuvon Fortress
Baljuvon Village, Bukharan People's Soviet Republic

I sat on a wooden stool near the center of the fortress courtyard while one of the Armenians in my detachment—a hard-faced cavalryman named Melkumov—gave his report. Dushanbe had fallen back into our hands in mid-June, and ever since then we'd been chasing Enver Pasha across mountains, valleys, villages, and whatever God-forsaken hole in Central Asia he decided to disappear into next.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked. "This is the tenth report we've gotten on him, and every other time the bastard slipped away."

"I'm sure, sir," Melkumov replied without hesitation. "One of the Red Guards brought the information in personally. Says Enver dismissed most of his men for a Muslim holiday. Eid al-Adha, I think. Claims he's only got a small escort left. Less than fifty."

I leaned back slightly and rubbed at my temple. "And this informant? He's still here?"

"He's with the men outside."

"Bring him in. I want to confirm a few things myself."

Melkumov nodded and disappeared through the doorway, returning a minute later with the informant in tow. The kid couldn't have been older than nineteen. Skinny, pale, red-haired, blue-eyed. Honestly, one thing I never got used to in Central Asia was the people. One minute you'd be talking to someone who looked straight out of Arabia, the next you'd meet some blond, blue-eyed bastard named Mohammedov who looked like the future wet dream of every racial theorist in Europe. Being raised in America had given me a very different mental picture of race. Central Asia repeatedly informed me that reality was under no obligation to make sense.

The boy stood stiffly in front of me, trying not to look nervous.

"So," I said, "you're the one who sold out Enver. Why?"

He hesitated before answering. "One of his officers belongs to the Fozilov clan. During one of Enver's raids, they killed my father. My family—the Musayevs—we already hated them before that." His voice tightened. "I don't care about Enver, Islam, the Soviets, or any of the rest of it. I just want to kill the son of a bitch who murdered my father."

I studied him for a moment. Anger was easy to fake. Resentment wasn't. The kid meant every word.

"Well then," I said, reaching for the pistol at my waist, "congratulations."

I handed him the revolver. His eyes widened slightly as he took it.

"How would you like to get your revenge with us?" I asked. "You in?"

He gripped the pistol tightly. "When do we leave?"

I looked around the room toward the assembled men.

"You all have ten minutes to get ready," I barked. "And somebody get me a new pistol."

The room immediately erupted into motion. Men checked rifles, ammunition belts, grenades, saddles. One of them handed me his sidearm and I holstered it while making my way toward the gate.

Finally.

Actual fighting.

Not wandering from village to village reopening mosques, threatening Party officials into accepting tribal elders and imams into the Communist Party at gunpoint, or supervising executions until I couldn't smell blood without getting hungry afterward. A real battle. A proper hunt.

I laughed quietly to myself as I crossed the courtyard. Somewhere along the line I'd become addicted to combat. Maybe I always had been. Maybe the revolution simply gave me permission to stop pretending otherwise.

Then I spotted Elsa.

Or rather, I spotted Elsa beneath the enormous black paranja she still wore outside the palace grounds. Even now I wasn't entirely sure whether she hated me for forcing the veil on her or merely enjoyed making me feel guilty about it. Probably both.

I walked over anyway.

"Hello, Elsa."

"Mika," she replied in her usual cool tone. The veil hid her expression, though I could imagine it perfectly well.

To be fair, I understood her irritation. I had, after all, forced a Swedish humanitarian into full Central Asian attire because I needed to play politics in front of half of Turkestan. But politics here was theater, and theater required costumes.

-----------------------------------------------

"Hey, Elsa. Thought I'd have a quick chat with you before I headed out."

"Headed out?" She stopped walking. "Let me guess. More families to execute? Another village to massacre?"

"Perhaps." I nodded casually. "If Enver Pasha decides to put up a fight, then the unfortunate little village he's hiding in will suffer for it. And if he doesn't…" I shrugged. "Well, you already know the answer."

She said nothing. I couldn't even see her face beneath the paranja, but I could practically feel the judgment radiating off her.

"I'm coming with you," she said finally.

"You don't ha—"

"The clinic here is already functioning," she interrupted sharply. "I'm going so you don't massacre everyone."

I sighed dramatically. "Whatever you say."

It had become a pattern by then. When I rode out alone, villages tended to end in smoke, executions, and chemical shells. When Elsa managed to catch me before I left, things usually ended with surrender negotiations, concessions, and me pretending I wasn't irritated by my own conscience. I couldn't really say no to her.

If Maria had been here…

No. If Maria had been here, it would've been exactly the same.

That was the problem. Elsa, Maria—they were different people, but somehow they occupied the same place in my head. The only women capable of grabbing the leash and pulling me back before I went full Joker.

"Just make sure the damn paranja doesn't slip off," I muttered. "I'll have one of the men get you a saddle."

August 4, 1922
Outskirts of Chaghan Village, Bukharan People's Soviet Republic

The first rays of dawn spilled across the mountains, washing the valleys in pale gold. Central Asia had a haunting sort of beauty to it. The kind that made you momentarily forget you were standing in the middle of a war zone. For a brief second, I imagined myself as nothing more than a traveler wandering the world—not one of the greatest mass murderers of the modern age.

Unfortunately, reality tapped me on the shoulder.

I turned and saw Melkumov standing there.

"Comrade Jugashvili," he said, "the village is surrounded."

I looked toward the hills encircling the settlement. My men were already in position along the ridgelines, silhouettes against the growing light. I nodded once, then glanced back at Elsa, still hidden beneath the black folds of the paranja.

"Stay back," I told her. "You can come in once we clear the place out."

She didn't answer. She just stared at me silently through the veil, which somehow felt more judgmental than words.

I mounted my horse, securing myself awkwardly with one hand while raising my sword-arm toward the hills.

"Give the order," I said to Melkumov. Then, after a moment, I added, "And remember what I said. No shooting unarmed civilians. I wouldn't want to upset Lady Elsa."

Melkumov glanced at her, then back at me, and gave a slow nod.

A whistle cut through the dawn.

Immediately the hills erupted into motion. Men mounted horses, rifles raised overhead as screams echoed across the valley. From every ridge came shouting, war cries, the thunder of hooves. Then we charged.

I glanced back one last time toward Elsa and the small escort I'd left with her before turning my attention to the village ahead.

It woke violently.

Doors burst open. Villagers stumbled from mud-brick homes in confusion, some half-dressed, others clutching children. It was a small settlement. They never had a chance. We had the numbers, the horses, the machine guns, the rifles. Most importantly, we had momentum.

A few of the Tajiks serving in my detachment began shouting orders at the civilians. I only understood fragments of the language. "Inside." "Drop it." "Surrender." Things of that nature.

Then the actual fighters emerged.

I saw rifles in their hands.

The moment my men spotted them, gunfire exploded through the village. Several insurgents dropped immediately into the dirt. I pulled my revolver free as my horse pushed through the narrow streets, firing at anyone still carrying a weapon. Truthfully, it was disappointingly one-sided. I only managed to shoot two men myself before my soldiers had already overwhelmed most of the resistance.

"Try to wound and disarm them!" I shouted over the gunfire. "I'd prefer to take Enver alive!"

The shooting continued for several more minutes. A few of my own men fell. More of theirs did. Then, just as quickly as it began, the fighting died away.

Silence settled over the village, broken only by groans and distant crying.

I dismounted and looked around at the aftermath. Smoke drifted lazily upward from one of the houses. Chickens wandered through the street as if nothing had happened. War always had moments like that. The world refusing to care about human catastrophe.

I spotted Melkumov nearby.

"Gather the bodies," I ordered. "And get the kid who informed on Pasha. I need him to identify the corpse."

"Yes, sir."

The next half hour was spent dragging bodies into the village square. They were stacked in rows beneath the growing morning heat while villagers watched from doorways in terrified silence. Elsa eventually entered the settlement with her escort, still wrapped in black from head to toe. She didn't speak while the dead were arranged before us, though I knew her well enough by then to understand exactly what she was thinking.

Pity.

Too much of it.

Once the bodies had all been gathered, I looked toward the informant, Ilkhom.

"Well?" I asked. "Which one is Pasha? And don't bullshit me."

Ilkhom walked slowly past the corpses, examining each face carefully. He moved down the line in silence for nearly a minute before finally turning back toward me.

"He's not here."

"Are you kidding me?" I looked at the kid, more irritated than angry, though judging by the expression on his face, you'd think I was about to execute him on the spot.

"Wallahi, he's not among them," he stammered. "I saw him before. His body isn't here."

I exhaled slowly and looked around the village. Then my eyes drifted toward Elsa.

If she hadn't been here, this would've been simple. Line the villagers up, demand they hand over Enver Pasha, and if they refused? Shoot everyone and burn the village to the ground. Brutal, efficient, uncomplicated.

Instead, I had a Swedish humanitarian attached to my conscience like a restraining bolt from Star Wars.

"Fuck," I muttered, more frustrated than enraged. "Form a perimeter around the village. Nobody gets in or out until he's found. Search every house. Tear the damn things apart if you have to."

My eyes settled on one of the nearby homes. I pulled out my pistol and motioned toward several soldiers.

"You. Follow me. We're searching that one."

Then I turned toward the others scattered through the village square.

"And stop standing around like idiots and start searching!"

I began walking toward the house when Elsa's voice stopped me.

"Mika."

I turned. She was already following behind me.

"I'm coming with you."

"Elsa, what if he's in there? What if he shoots you?"

"And will you show restraint if I'm not?"

"I…"

"Exactly," she said coldly, brushing past me. "I'm going."

I sighed and followed after her.

We approached the house and pushed the door open. Inside sat several women huddled together beneath their paranjas. At least, I assumed they were women. At this point in Central Asia I'd learned not to trust anything covered head to toe in cloth during a manhunt.

Behind me, soldiers began overturning furniture and ripping through the house.

Then a thought struck me.

"Search the women too!" I shouted. "Unveil them! Maybe Pasha's disguised himself as one!"

The soldiers hesitated for half a second before moving toward the group.

An older man sitting in the corner immediately began shouting in protest—which, honestly, was fair enough. We were storming into his house and unveiling the women one by one at gunpoint. Revolutionary justice rarely scored high on etiquette.

There were five of them.

The soldiers began pulling the veils back one at a time.

Then suddenly one of the figures screamed and lunged directly at Elsa.

I saw the knife flash in the dim light.

Instinct took over before thought did. I shoved myself in front of her just as the blade slammed into my side beneath my ribs. Pain exploded through me.

"Son of a bitch!"

I drove my forehead into the attacker's face. The impact cracked against their jaw hard enough to stagger them backward. They were taller than I expected—stronger too. I ripped the veil away and immediately realized why.

It was a man.

And not just any man.

He slammed into me again, trying to force the knife deeper. With one arm and a metal prosthetic, I was losing that contest quickly. So I did the only thing left.

I bit him.

Hard.

My teeth sank into his throat and I clamped down like a starving animal. Blood flooded into my mouth instantly, hot and metallic. He screamed, trying to pry me off, but I kept biting harder. If I couldn't overpower him, I could at least make this horrifying enough that he'd regret being born.

"What are you doing?!" Elsa screamed at the soldiers. "Help him!"

Finally my men rushed forward, dragging the attacker off me. Blood poured from the man's ruined throat as he collapsed onto the floor, choking violently.

More soldiers flooded into the house, including Ilkhom. The kid froze the moment he saw the dying man.

"That's Enver Pasha," he said, pointing at him.

"Well," I grunted, looking down at the knife still lodged in my side, "that's nice to fucking know."

I looked up at my men, blood dripping down my chin.

"And somebody get me a fucking doctor."

August 15, 1922
Hisar fortress
Hisar, Bukharan People's Soviet Republic

I lay back on the bed, my side still throbbing from where Enver Pasha had managed to stick a knife into me before I bit half his throat out like some rabid animal. Rain hammered softly against the fortress walls outside. Odd weather for August in Central Asia. Apparently God himself had decided to contribute to the atmosphere.

The door creaked open. Elsa walked in carrying fresh linen bandages.

I looked down instinctively toward the wound and placed a hand over it carefully before forcing myself upright. Elsa set the bandages down on the nightstand beside the bed.

"Hey, Elsa," I said quietly as I began pulling my shirt off, exposing the layers of bandages wrapped tightly around my torso.

"It seems the wound is healing properly," she said in that same calm, clinical tone she always used whenever my body was involved. "Stand still. I'm going to remove the old bandages and redress it."

I obeyed while she carefully began unwrapping the cloth from around my ribs.

"This is the second time you've saved my life," I said. "If you manage it a third time, I'll have to get you another chest full of money."

"Please let me do my job," she replied flatly. "If you keep moving while talking, the wound could reopen."

I sighed dramatically but nodded anyway.

The last layer came off, exposing the ugly stitched wound beneath. Elsa had cleaned it, sewn it shut, disinfected it again, and somehow kept me alive despite my repeated attempts to get myself killed in increasingly theatrical ways.

She began wrapping fresh bandages around my torso. The entire process took more than ten minutes. By the end of it I was genuinely close to falling asleep from boredom. It made me respect her even more. I would rather charge machine guns than spend my days changing dressings and sewing flesh back together.

"Thank you, Elsa," I said quietly once she finished. "Seriously. You saved my ass again."

I chuckled weakly before sliding off the bed and sitting beside her.

"Then again," I continued, "this probably means thousands—no, millions more people are going to die because I'm still alive."

I looked at her. Her expression remained cold and unreadable, though by now I understood that was simply how she survived listening to me.

"You say millions as though you've seen the future."

"If you knew what I knew, Elsa…" I shrugged and smiled faintly, though there wasn't much humor in it anymore. My mind drifted toward what was coming. Another world war. Camps. Cities burning. Entire families fed into gas chambers. Humanity bureaucratizing murder with criminal efficiency.

Knowledge really was a terrible burden.

"But it doesn't matter," I continued with a sigh. "No matter what I do, I'm only one man. All I can really do is go with the flow and try to mitigate the damage."

"You call what you've done 'mitigating'?" she asked, sounding almost amused despite herself.

"Like I said," I replied, "if only you knew."

She studied me carefully now. "You sound so certain all the time. Tell me, what exactly do you supposedly know that makes you so certain?"

"Certain about what?"

"That millions will die at your hands." She tilted her head slightly. "Why do you believe that?"

"Germany," I answered immediately. "You saw the treaty they signed after the war. Do you honestly think they're just going to accept that humiliation forever?"

I stood up slowly and began pacing the room.

"They'll go the way of Italy. Fascists and socialists tearing each other apart in the streets until eventually the fascists win, which they will, I'm certain of it. Then Germany will get its own version of them. They'll rearm, rebuild, and start another great war. And we'll get dragged into it because Europe has the collective survival instincts of a drunken lemming."

I glanced toward her.

"You thought the First World War was terrible? The next one will make it look civilized."

The rain outside intensified slightly.

"And if we want to survive it," I continued, "we'll have to industrialize this country at absurd speed. We'll have to drag Russia kicking and screaming into the modern age."

I laughed bitterly.

"And the peasants won't exactly volunteer for that."

I raised my hand like a pistol and mimicked a gunshot.

"Eventually the state is going to collectivize agriculture. Seize land. Force people into factories. And guess who's going to be responsible for making sure terrified peasants obey?"

I pointed directly at myself.

"Like I said Elsa. Millions."

For a brief second, my hand trembled.

Then I forced myself to smile again and placed my hand gently on her shoulder.

"But…" I said quietly, "with you around, maybe some of your goodness rubs off on me. Maybe on Joe too. Maybe on the rest of us."

I looked at her carefully.

"Because you're the only person who keeps me from going insane."

Before she could respond, I pulled her into an embrace, holding her tightly with my remaining arm. I felt her body stiffen immediately.

"I'm sorry for putting this burden on you," I murmured into her shoulder. "But I love you. I truly do. And I need you."

I closed my eyes for a moment.

"That day we hunted down Enver… I was going to line up the entire village and burn every house to the ground to kill him."

I laughed softly, though there was nothing funny about it.

"But because you were there, I chose restraint. I killed him without killing everyone else."

I pulled back slightly, enough to look at her again.

"You'll save an unimaginable number of lives if you stay with me."

Then I smiled faintly.

"And yes," I admitted openly, "I am absolutely manipulating you right now."

For a moment she said nothing.

Then I heard it. A faint sniffle.

Then another.

And finally, quiet sobbing.

I tightened my arm around her gently.

"I'm sorry," I whispered again, trying to console her even while fully aware I was probably the source of half the misery in her life. "I'm sorry for forcing this burden onto you."

March 26, 1913
Okhtinsky district
St. Petersburg, Russian Empire

I entered my apartment, yawning as I stretched my back. It had been a long day at work: roughing up criminals, taking bribes, working for other criminals. Nothing beat being a corrupt cop in the capital of the Russian Empire.

It was unfortunate really. A few years ago, after Kato was born, I'd originally planned to move to America. Start over. Quiet life. Open McDonalds before it became a thing, then eat hamburgers and die fat and happy with my millions.

But Joe was still out there somewhere, neck-deep in his idiotic Bolshevik activism, and Mama refused to leave if Joe didn't come too.

So I settled for the next best thing: the capital.

All the money I'd saved in Georgia, every bribe I'd pocketed, every dirty ruble I'd scraped together, I traded it all in just to secure a transfer. And now here I was. I'd only arrived last summer, but I was already making the money back. More importantly, I was making connections. Connections that could get me the fuck out of this hellhole once the revolution finally exploded.

Because there was no way in hell I was staying in this country once the Communists took over. Fuck that. I had zero interest in starving in a snow-covered dystopia or getting shipped off to a Gulag because some bureaucrat decided my face looked counterrevolutionary.

I stepped into the kitchen and spotted Maria cooking something on the stove.

"Hey sweetie," I said, walking over to her. She turned around just in time for me to wrap my arms around her and kiss her.

Maria was one of the few genuinely good things in this life. In this country to be honest. Her, the kids, Joe, and Mama. That was about the entire list.

"Whatcha cooking today?"

"Just some borscht and pelmeni."

"They smell delicious."

"A letter came in. Along with a newspaper."

"A letter? From who?"

"It's from Iosif."

That stopped me cold.

I hadn't heard from him since October. He'd been in St. Petersburg before getting arrested and shipped off to Siberia. Then he came back again around the same time I moved here, but we were both too busy to actually meet. Me with police work, him with Party work. Though I had managed to slip him some money through one of his Party intermediaries so he could go abroad.

"Where is it?"

"I left it in our room."

"Thank you."

I kissed her again before leaving the kitchen.

The letter sat on our bed beside a copy of Prosveshcheniye — Enlightenment in English. A Bolshevik magazine. One of several revolutionary publications I subscribed to.

Not because I believed any of this shit, obviously. I followed it to keep tabs on the Party, see what Joe was up to, and figure out whether the lunatics were gaining or losing ground this week.

And, well... history.

Technically, I was living through it. Curiosity was inevitable.

I picked up the letter and immediately recognized Joe's handwriting.

Dear Mika,

I am writing this letter from the village of Turukhansk, deep in Siberia. I was arrested back in St. Petersburg in February. I am sorry I was unable to visit you or Yakov, but unfortunately Party work keeps me busy.

I hope you find the current article in Prosveshcheniye interesting, for I have finally published my first theoretical work in it. Please let me know what you think of it should you write back. And if possible, would you be able to send some funds? Siberia is cold, and even in the best of times the weather is unkind.

I know I have put a great deal on you, with you raising Yakov and helping me travel abroad last year. I assure you, Mika, I will never forget what you have done for me, and I will be sure to pay you back once our movement has triumphed.

Send my regards and love to Mama and Yakov. And send my regards to your wife and children.

Regards,
Iosif V. Stalin

P.S. I have adopted a new alias which I would like for you to refer to me by once we are reunited and in front of Party officials. My name is now to be Comrade Stalin.

I slowly lowered the letter.

Then I opened the magazine.

I flipped through the pages until I found the article.

Marxism and the National Question, By J. V. Stalin.

I closed the magazine immediately.

Then I set both the letter and the magazine down on the bed before collapsing backward onto it with a long sigh.

"Stalin," I muttered to myself.

No response. Naturally.

"Stalin."

Another sigh.

"Fuck."

No. No, this couldn't be happening. Joe? My brother? My older twin brother?

It was one thing for me to have died and reincarnated. I'd already accepted that around puberty. Modern soul. Peasant body. Weird shit happens. Fine. Whatever.

But this?

Joe was Stalin.

That Stalin.

The Stalin.

And I was his brother.

I closed my eyes and internally cursed the American school system for somehow spending twelve years talking about algebra and the mitochondria without ever properly explaining Stalin's early life.

My thoughts raced ahead anyway. Revolution. Civil war. World War II. The Holocaust. The Cold War.

Stalin.

Stalin.

Stalin.

The man who shaped half the twentieth century with paranoia, industrialization, and a body count large enough to make Satan himself raise an eyebrow.

"No." I shook my head. "Nope. Fuck that."

I wasn't getting involved. Absolutely not. I wanted a quiet life. An easy life. McDonald's. The golden arches. That was my destiny. I just needed enough startup money and I'd be set for life in America.

Then another thought crept into my head.

Who the fuck would willingly accept Stalin's brother?

The scenario immediately played out in my mind. I escape to America, build a nice life, maybe own a restaurant or a business, maybe finally relax for once in my miserable existence — and then some Russian émigré with a grudge against Stalin figures out who I am.

Boom. Dead.

Or worse, they go after my children instead.

Then came the even more terrifying possibility.

Stalin was paranoid. Historically paranoid. Weaponized schizophrenia levels of paranoid.

If Joe ever realized I was living comfortably in the United States, with his son of all people. I'd become a liability. The twin brother of one of the most feared men on Earth living overseas as a successful businessman? That practically screamed loose ends.

What if he decided to remove loose ends?

What if one day I got shot in an alley because my own brother didn't want me talking about the time he pissed himself during winter as a child?

I started laughing. Not because anything was funny, but because the absurdity of it all was finally crushing my brain under its own weight.

I was trapped between a rock and a hard place.

I couldn't flee. Not if Joe really was Stalin.

I picked the letter back up and reread one specific line.

I will never forget what you have done for me, and I will be sure to pay you back once our movement has triumphed.

"Pay me back," I muttered.

I stared at the ceiling.

"How exactly are you planning to pay me back?" I asked myself. "Are you going to shoot me or make me a Field Marshal?"

Silence.

Which, honestly, wasn't reassuring.

Looks like I was staying in Russia after all.

God, I hated this fucking country.

The New York Times
January 25, 1973
Nelson Mandela killed in Rescue attempt

Robben Island Assault by Guerrillas Leaves Scores Dead; South African Crackdown Intensifies

CAPE TOWN, Jan. 24 — More than two dozen fighters belonging to the South African Red Army and uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) infiltrated Robben Island late Tuesday night, Jan. 23. According to interrogations conducted by the South African Defense Force (SADF), the objective of the raid was the rescue of imprisoned leaders of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party.

While several ANC prisoners, among them Govan Mbeki, reportedly managed to escape during the fighting, the operation itself is being widely regarded as a failure following the death of Nelson Mandela, one of the founding figures of MK.

The operation, according to testimony obtained from captured insurgents, was planned by Joe Slovo, commander in chief of the South African Red Army and widely rumored to be third in line within the Communist Party hierarchy for the position of general chairman.

In a statement released during the early hours of Jan. 24, the South African Communist Party declared:

"Nelson Mandela has passed into the pages of history, another martyr at the hands of the Fascist regime in Pretoria. We shall fight to the last man to liberate South Africa from the grip of fascist tyranny. Death to the NP, death to Vorster. Long live the world proletariat revolution. Long live a free south Africa."

The SADF has since moved to heavily fortify Robben Island, stationing a garrison of 1,000 men to guard the remaining prisoners and instituting daily naval patrols in the waters surrounding the island.

The Government has meanwhile announced that trials will be held for the five captured insurgents, with death sentences widely expected. Search-and-destroy operations were also launched by the SADF throughout townships surrounding Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Cape Town, in conjunction with sweeps through the so-called "Liberated Zones" reportedly held by the South African Red Army, particularly along the borders of Rhodesia and Portuguese Mozambique.

In Washington, military and economic cooperation with South Africa has reportedly been expanded, with American special forces personnel and military advisers expected to arrive within the coming weeks.

January 23, 1923
Ak-Saray Palace
Shahrisabz, Bukharan People's Soviet Republic

Elsa stood near the entrance of the left tower. Calling it a tower felt generous. The palace had long since collapsed into ruin, leaving behind only fragments of what had once been the seat of one of history's most feared conquerors: Tamerlane.

Rain drizzled steadily over the broken stone. It usually rained this time of year. Though for the people gathered outside, things were different now.

Tents had been erected near the ruins, with long lines of villagers waiting beneath them. Women clutching children. Elderly men leaning on canes. Thin-faced boys carrying empty bowls. Red Army soldiers moved between them, handing out bread, soup, tea.

A "gesture of goodwill," according to Mika. Something to win "hearts and minds."

He talked about that often during dinner.

"I don't mind having to shoot everyone in the region," he'd casually told her one evening while pouring tea, as though discussing the weather. "I was given carte blanche after all. But I'd rather not create martyrs and recruit for their cause. That, and I miss Moscow. I want to finish this quickly."

I don't mind having to shoot everyone in the region.

The memory made her shiver beneath her layers.

She believed him. Entirely. If anyone on Earth possessed the will to carry out such a thing, it was Mika.

And yet now he stood out there beneath the rain, smiling as he handed bowls of soup to starving villagers. Waving at children. Speaking softly to old women.

There was no cruelty on his face. No rage. No bloodlust. No grief.

Just a smiling man standing in the rain.

Elsa still didn't understand him. Even after all these years.

She adjusted the paranja wrapped around her head, quietly resenting him again for making her wear it. Though she'd noticed many of the local women had begun wearing theirs once more after Mika announced the restoration of Sharia law.

She stepped out into the rain anyway.

"You don't have to go out there today," he had told her earlier that morning. "You just recovered from your fever. Take it easy."

As if she needed coddling from a man like him.

She approached the tents slowly, boots sinking into damp earth.

Mika turned at the sound of footsteps.

He was holding a baby.

The child rested easily in the crook of his right arm while Mika gently nudged at its cheek with the stump of his left. The baby immediately grabbed onto it with both tiny hands, trying to gnaw on it with toothless determination.

Mika laughed.

Not the sharp laugh he used around Party officials. Not the dry, cynical one he used during meetings.

This one was warm. Unrestrained. Almost boyish.

"There you go," he murmured softly, letting the baby continue chewing at his sleeve. "Strong little bastard, aren't you?"

The baby squealed happily.

Elsa stopped walking.

Without realizing it, her grip tightened around the fabric near her chest.

Mika lowered his head slightly toward the infant, smiling in that same quiet way she remembered from Petrograd. From Moscow. From those rare evenings when he sat with his children instead of burying himself in reports and executions and war.

The baby grabbed onto his finger again. Mika let it. Completely patient. Completely still.

Rain collected in his dark hair. He didn't seem to notice.

For a moment, the world around him blurred into something distant. The soldiers. The tents. The rifles stacked nearby. The bodies she had seen hanging weeks earlier from rebel villages. All of it faded behind the sight of him gently rocking a child in his arm as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

Her chest tightened strangely.

Annoyingly.

She looked away for a second, irritated with herself, only for her eyes to drift back toward him again.

The baby's mother approached nervously, and Mika carefully handed the child back to her.

"Give her extra rations," he told one of the soldiers.

"Yes, Comrade Jughashvili."

Only then did he properly notice Elsa standing there.

"Elsa?" His expression shifted immediately. "Why are you outside?"

There it was again. That look.

Concern. Genuine concern.

"I told you to rest."

"I... wanted to help."

"You can't help me if you get sick again."

He walked toward her without hesitation, casually placing an arm around her waist to guide her back toward the tower.

Elsa froze slightly at the contact.

Warm.

Solid.

Far too familiar.

The same effortless closeness he used when hugging her. As if touching her had become second nature to him without either of them noticing when it started.

"I want to help," she said, firmer this time, turning toward him.

"Elsa..." He sighed. "Come on. Don't be stubborn."

"I'll be as stubborn as I like."

"Elsa..."

To her immense irritation, he sounded almost pouty. Like a child trying to negotiate his way out of being scolded.

"Please."

"No." She stood her ground. She was not going back inside.

Mika stared at her for another second before finally sighing in defeat.

"Alright," he muttered. "But only if you promise you'll wear more layers so you stay warm."

Elsa felt the corner of her mouth twitch upward despite herself.

"That can be arranged."

-----------

Later that night, the palace grounds finally emptied.

The last families drifted away into the rain with blankets, bread, and whatever scraps of hope the Red Army had handed them for the evening. The food cauldrons sat empty now, the fires reduced to faint orange embers crackling against wet stone.

Elsa sat beside Mika inside the ruined gate of the Ak-Saray Palace. Wind pushed rain through the broken archways in soft bursts, carrying the smell of mud and wet earth into the ruins.

Mika leaned against the ancient stone wall near the open doorway, one leg stretched out lazily in front of him. A bowl of borscht rested in his lap. He ate slowly, unusually slowly for him, as if deliberately savoring each spoonful.

For a while, neither of them spoke.

He simply watched the rain.

Not casually, either. Intently. Like a man hypnotized by it.

"I hate rain, you know," he finally said.

Elsa glanced toward him.

"I hate the way it leaves your clothes damp afterward. That disgusting wet feeling." He stirred the soup idly. "Maria used to make fun of me for it."

A faint smile appeared on his face.

"She'd say, 'Mika Jughashvili,... terrified of water falling from the sky.'" He snorted quietly. "I tried explaining it properly, of course. But she never listened. She insisted I was afraid of rain."

He took another spoonful.

"And now here I am."

The smile faded. Not dramatically. It simply... disappeared.

"She's dead," he murmured. "And I'm alive."

Rain tapped softly against the broken stone outside.

Elsa looked down at her own bowl, suddenly no longer hungry.

"They say people die twice," Mika continued quietly. "Once physically. Then again later, when people stop saying their name."

He swallowed another spoonful before setting the bowl beside him.

"I'll die eventually too. That's guaranteed."

His remaining hand tightened slowly in the empty air beside him, fingers curling shut as though grasping something invisible.

"But after everything I've done..." he said softly, "and everything I'm going to do... no one's going to forget my name anytime soon. Maybe ever."

His eyes remained fixed on the rain.

"In a strange way, I'm becoming immortal."

Then, quieter, "And Maria won't be."

Elsa felt something ache in her chest at the way he said it. Not dramatic grief. Not self-pity. Just exhaustion. The kind that settled into someone permanently.

Mika shook his head lightly and gave a dry laugh.

"Sorry. I sound sentimental." He leaned his head back against the stone. "Most Communists hate sentimentality. The only reason I haven't been laughed out of the Party is because of the amount of blood on my hands and because I shot the right people."

He laughed again after saying it.

Not because it was funny. Because it was true.

Elsa stared at him quietly.

She thought about Kronstadt. About the firing squads. About villages he'd burned in retaliation during his campaign here in Central Asia. About the corpses she'd seen crucified on the roads during the campaign.

Then she thought about earlier that day.

About the baby chewing on the sleeve near his missing hand while Mika laughed softly beneath the rain.

The memory returned so vividly it unsettled her. The warmth in his eyes. The instinctive gentleness in the way he held the child. The easy smile she'd never seen him wear around Party officials or soldiers.

That image refused to reconcile itself with the man sitting beside her now.

She hated that it lingered anyway.

"What do you mean," she asked quietly, "everything you're going to do?"

Mika looked over at her and smiled.

"I said it before and I'll say it again, Give it twenty years."

The way he said it made her uneasy immediately. Casual. Certain.

"This country will be unrecognizable by then."

He tilted his head slightly.

"Millions of people are probably going to die."

Elsa felt cold despite the layers she wore.

He said it the same way someone might comment on bad weather.

"You sound very sure of yourself," she said carefully. "Why?"

"That," he replied lightly, "is a secret."

The smile stayed on his face.

"But I'll tell you this: Lenin will die eventually. And Stalin..." He paused briefly. "My brother will come out on top."

Elsa stayed silent.

"You've seen him," Mika continued. "Joe is more ruthless than I am. Smarter too, unfortunately." He chuckled softly. "And when he rises, I'll be his sword."

"Aren't you afraid?"

"Of what?"

"When the sword stops being useful."

Mika shrugged.

"If that day comes, I already told him he should be the one to shoot me."

Elsa looked at him sharply.

"He should look me in the eyes while doing it too," Mika added. "And afterward, he should personally explain to our mother why he killed her favorite son."

"You say these things so casually."

"Because I've already accepted them."

"You don't mind dying?"

Mika looked down at his hand for a moment before answering.

"As long as my children are taken care of, I don't particularly care what happens to me."

"That's not living."

"No," he agreed calmly. "It isn't."

The honesty of the answer caught her off guard.

"People like us don't really get normal lives, Elsa."

Then he looked at her directly.

"Which is why I need you."

Her brow furrowed. "Me?"

"I already told you." He shifted slightly toward her. "I love you."

Elsa's pulse stumbled embarrassingly at how plainly he said it. No hesitation. No shame.

"You're the only woman in this damn country who doesn't either fear me or try to use me to climb the Party hierarchy."

He laughed softly under his breath.

"I could sleep with practically any woman I want in this country. It doesn't mean shit."

His eyes stayed on hers now. Steady. Exhaustingly sincere.

"They're not you."

Elsa looked away first.

"You actually want to help people," he continued quietly. "You mean it. Even after everything you've seen, you still mean it."

His voice softened slightly.

"You're what Maria would've been if she'd lived."

Elsa immediately frowned. "So that's what this is?"

He blinked once.

"You want me to replace her."

The words came out sharper than she intended.

"A surrogate."

Mika didn't flinch.

"Yes."

The bluntness stunned her.

He stood up then and moved beside her, sitting close enough that she could feel warmth through the layers of clothing between them.

"I feel guilty about it too," he admitted. "Like I'm betraying her." He gave a tired shrug. "But I'm still human, Elsa. I have needs."

She stared at him in disbelief.

"And I already told you the truth."

His tone remained calm. Almost gentle. Which somehow made the words worse.

"You've seen the difference yourself."

He leaned slightly forward, elbows resting on his knees.

"The difference between you being here and you leaving is the difference between me showing restraint... and me massacring every village Enver Pasha hides in."

Elsa felt herself stiffen.

There it was.

Not romance. Not persuasion.

Blackmail.

Only Mika could emotionally blackmail someone with the lives of entire populations.

He leaned sideways then, resting his head lightly against her shoulder as though the conversation wasn't horrifying. As though this was normal intimacy between them.

"If you leave," he said quietly, "I'll understand."

His voice remained soft. Calm.

"But I'll stop restraining myself."

Elsa's throat tightened.

"And considering the influence I already have," he continued, "and the influence I'll gain once Joe takes power..."

He exhaled quietly.

"The government itself is going to be shaped partly by me."

Rain continued falling outside the ruined gate.

"Who knows," Mika murmured. "Maybe instead of tens of millions dying... only a few million will."

Elsa felt tears begin burning in her eyes.

Not because she was frightened of him anymore. That feeling had existed for years.

No, what terrified her was that part of her understood exactly what he was saying.

And worse — part of her believed him.

"You could do a lot of good, Elsa."

She hated him in that moment.

Hated how monstrous he was.

Hated how calmly he spoke about death on a scale her mind struggled to comprehend.

Hated that beneath all of it, beneath the manipulation and blood and ruthlessness... she could still remember him standing in the rain earlier that day, smiling softly while a baby clung to his hand.

Hated that her heart had betrayed her then.

"Look at me," he said softly.

She did.

Mika smiled at her gently. Not triumphantly. Not mockingly.

Just gently.

"I love you, Elsa," he whispered. "I truly do."

Then he leaned forward and kissed her.

Elsa's eyes shut immediately.

And when he pulled away, she began to cry quietly into her hands. Because deep down, she knew she could never leave, she was trapped.

Note: She can't fix him, only mitigate the damage. Given how my stories are, happy endings may or may not come