Thorax woke up in a bunk bed. That was a little unusual. Morgan tended to have them up in a normal queen bed. Bunk beds were for the kids- or the occasional rare bed in an alternate world.
This bed wasn’t the fun kind. Those beds often felt nice. And soft. Thorax could feel springs digging in his back. The metal framework beneath pushed up too. His back hurt before he even stood up. Could a thing thinner than the width of a finger even count as a bed?
Thorax could’ve asked the person in the bed above him. Or in the beds beside him. All of the beds he could see in this low light had a person in them. It didn’t make Thorax feel any better. Usually, rooms full of occupied bunk beds don’t end happily.
He could feel the phone in his hand. He had hands now, alright cool. Thorax looked around the darkened space, deciding if he should call her now or later.
Given that some of the people were shifting in their beds, that answer was ‘no’.
An alarm went off. Bright lights switched on. Thorax could finally make out dingy metal walls, the black metal of the bunk bed and even the basic khakis and military shirt he himself had on.
Wait hold on, military shirt?
The alarm kept going. The others in here climbed out of their beds, including the person above him. Thorax pulled himself out of bed, tucking the phone into his khakis. The men around him moved quickly and with a purpose. Thorax copied them at first.
Then all at once, muscular memory activated.
Thorax started moving with authority. Where he was indecisive, the body picked up his slack and made each movement intentional. The borrowed body put in the groundwork with Thorax reaping benefits.
He dressed himself in black armor. A symbol appeared there that made Thorax want to scream. Worse yet as he did, he finally noticed the large flag put just beside his bunk bed. A red fabric with a black six legged squid.
HYDRA
Thorax remembered Morgan ranting about them. He remembered watching them in the movies- and what Morgan said they represented.
And he was one of them.
Definitely not part of the plan.
==TCD==
It was different from where he was supposed to have landed.
See, Thorax the Changeling went over the details a lot. In the past six months, there were a lot of conversations with his marefriend/fiancee/wife about how this was supposed to go.
Morgan was nothing if not meticulous about these things. She explained a lot of her world’s movies to him. There were a lot of movie nights over the past few months, or just of Morgan watching the movies to make her own notes. Thorax thought her little jokes she made that she thought nopony could hear were adorably funny.
More than that she explained her past here. Her sister, Killjoy-Darcy-Nikki- ‘honestly human names were so weird’- found copies of the movies that starred Morgan and herself. Thorax was told by outside parties that his pupils went heart-shaped the entire time. Could he be blamed? The main side-character was hot.
It was a recurring condition. Thorax didn’t like to talk about it. Morgan couldn’t without blushing.
So he watched the movies- Iron Man featuring Night Mistress, both 1 and 2. He watched Thor featuring Night Mistress, and was almost (very) jealous about seeing his marefriend/wife hanging out with a god of chaos and mischief.
Killjoy thought it was funny. Like, the funniest thing she’d ever seen. Human humor was so weird.
But Thorax watched it. He was a comic nerd, could he be blamed for being excited?
He was supposed to appear in what was the modern-day for that time. He would find out his location, then he would call Morgan. Better yet: if he was in New York, he would just walk to her place.
It would be hard to call Morgan from a phone that didn’t have buttons. Or to walk to a building that didn’t exist yet.
And when everybody around was a Nazi. That tended to bring down the mood.
==TCD==
That had been hours ago. Thorax went into a patrol routine that he only knew off instinct. He didn’t get a moment to himself for ages. Other HYDRA soldiers stood around him at all times. Any private space was occupied before Thorax could even use it.
The patrol route had him seeing a lot more than he would’ve liked. Weapons and tanks. Fellow soldiers enjoying what must be their day off. Generals discussing top secret plans. Thorax tried to keep his ears open for all the info he could get.
Lunch rolled around. He still hadn’t called Morgan. Would she be worried? Would the phone even connect? It might not. What would Thorax do then? Morgan never even considered this- Thorax hadn’t either. Who would expect being thrown back in time? Thorax should’ve been in the modern era. That he wasn’t there terrified him.
He knew nothing about this time period. He was a shapeshifting pony who could grow antlers, not a human who passed 5th grade social studies!
Thorax knew HYDRA were the bad guys- the Nazis. The Nazis were bad for a whole list of things. Thorax asked Morgan. She said that they wanted to commit genocide. Killjoy/Darcy told Thorax a lot more detail than required.
Gas chambers.
Torture.
Concentration camps.
Beatings.
Hangings.
Burnings.
That was for the people they actively hated. What about people on their side that betrayed them?
Had Thorax betrayed them?
Or was he still one of them?
Thorax couldn’t handle the kinds of people here. Torturing people for things they couldn’t control? Cutting them off from everyone they knew and loved? Treating enemies as worthless, barely worth the energy to take them down but still an infection to be purged?
Yeah no way was Thorax a part of that. He turned against a regime like this once before. He could do it again.
Thorax found time in his patrol to sneak away. Outside, tucked in a little alleyway between buildings. A largely unused space. It looked familiar, but Thorax wrote that off as that instinct in his brain.
He put himself behind a large crate. He took a breath, letting himself show his panic. The chain around his neck had words on it in another language. Thorax squinted at the letters- trying to will them into translating.
It took him longer than necessary to even notice that his brain supplied translations. His head was still full of adrenaline and fear, so that can be excused.
The words came in his brain then out his mouth.
“Theodore Price.” Thorax leaned back against the brick. The name sounded right- like it fit in his head. While the name would work, it wasn’t the main issue here. Thorax had bigger things on his mind.
He pulled out the phone. A small burner flip phone. Thorax struggled with the touch screen ones so Morgan got him a flip phone. On her planet in her time, Thorax had fun with it. Now it was a lifeline. The only thing connecting him to sanity, to any sense of understanding.
The phone flipped open. Thorax pressed ‘1’.
With bated breath, he waited.
Thorax wanted- no, needed it to ring. If he didn’t...he had no way of reaching Morgan or anypony...stuck with Nazis...Thorax couldn’t imagine a worse hell.
The phone rang.
As the dull hum vibrated his hand, he relaxed against the brick wall. This was a good sign. It had to be. If it rang, that meant it was connecting to something...
Or maybe not and Thorax had no idea how phones worked.
It kept ringing. It hummed with the pounding of Thorax’s heart. His very human heart. Thorax never understood his humans put up with their bodies- he missed his equine body. That made sense. He could use the familiarity.
“Pick up.” Thorax pleaded under his breath. “Come on, Star, pick up.”
He tightened his grip on the phone. He heard footsteps from down the alley. Another patrolling soldier- like he was supposed to be doing. Had they noticed he abandoned his post? How long did Thorax have before they started looking for him?
Still ringing. No answer.
Thorax couldn’t stay out here much longer.
Then he heard it- a familiar voice that always filled him with comfort and the knowledge that he was safe.
“Thorax? There you are. I was wondering when you’d call.” She laughed, like him taking so long was a funny joke and not Thorax being afraid for his life. “Sorry I took so long, I got stuck in a meeting.”
“It’s fine.” Thorax replied, panting as his heart went to a normal beat. It really was fine, because she answered at all. “I’m in trouble.”
“What? What kind of trouble?” The laughter left her voice, instead she sounded as panicked as Thorax felt.
Thorax heard loud mechanical noises. He looked out, seeing soldiers marching alongside tanks. “I’m not in New York.”
“Okay where-”
“I’m in Germany.” Thorax told her. “...Morgan, I think I’m HYDRA.” The large tanks drove by his hiding space. Thorax shuddered at the sight. “During the war.”
“...oh...kay...yeah that’s trouble.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Really big.”
“Not gonna argue about that.”
“You- it- fucking shit.”
“Yeah.” Thorax let out a sigh. He slumped against the wall behind him. “Fucking shit.”
He heard loud stomps behind him. Thorax snapped to attention. Memories popped in his head again. Of what happened to people that broke their routine, their patrol. If he got caught-
“I need to leave.” Thorax pleaded.
“I can work on that. I just need-”
“No, I really need to leave.” Thorax sat up. He adjusted his uniform, catching for any creases or damage. “They’ll notice if I’m off my patrol route. And- and they’ll- do things. To deserters.”
“Oh. Uh. Right. Okay. Just give me the date.”
“Right, yeah.” Thorax took a quick breath in. He scrambled his brain, trying to find something. Anything to help her. She wanted this information. He would provide it. “It- I think it’s-”
Whatever life this body led before, Thorax could barely keep track. The days blended together ever since he was assigned to HYDRA. The same dark, dreary existence. The same loud, painful screams. The marching. The tanks. Even the sky. They never changed.
“-I don’t know.” Thorax panted. “I don’t know when I am.”
“I’m going to help you, Bee. I promise. It’ll be okay. We’re going to figure this out together, yeah? Together.”
“Together.” Thorax swallowed. The idea of walking back out there, to help these people...by the queen, his stomach rolled and rolled. His rage grew too. “I love you.”
“You too. I love you so much, okay? And I’m bringing you home.”
Thorax hung up the phone. His heart dropped when he couldn’t hear her voice. It made everything worse. The world looked darker, scarier, without her there.
HYDRA soldiers marched by. Thorax hid himself against the wall. Each step echoed the thrumming in his ears. His heart pounded in his chest, racing at a speed that hurt. He could hardly breathe.
He needed to leave. Thorax needed Morgan to help him. He wouldn’t last here- he knew it.
But wait...wait his mind betrayed him again. Thorax- no, Theo had a job to do. An important job. What- what was it? It was-
Thorax choked down a gasp.
He needed to deliver...things to Doctor Zola.
==TCD==
Thorax lay in his cot. HYDRA soldiers slept all around him. None of them tossing and turning, mind whirling with all the horror they’d seen today. Ears probably not ringing from the screams of ‘enemy’ soldiers. Their hands didn’t feel blood soaked.
Thorax only worked one day, and the day couldn’t suck more.
So Thorax made a choice. A choice that he would make again and again.
==TCD==
He walked by the prisoner’s wing. He marched up to a cell. They had dozens and dozens of cells. Small, cramped things with thick metal bars that no man could squeeze through.
The prisoners all tensed, cowering away from Thorax. Normally this would sicken him. But in their defense, Thorax did look like a HYDRA commander.
(He would need the bubbliest bubble bath after this.)
Thorax, as the commander, grabbed the key ring from his belt. They’d been easy to pinch off a sleeping guard. He cleared his throat.
The soldiers stood up, gearing for a fight.
“I am-” Thorax coughed again. “I’m here to help. Who needs to leave?”
The soldiers braced themselves. Two stood up for a fight.
“Nononono-” Thorax shook his head. He held up his hands, the keys jangling as he did. “Um. I messed this up. I’m here to break you out. Not- not all of you. Cause- uh-”
“Why should we believe you, you son of a bitch?” One snapped.
Hurtful, Thorax thought but I get it. This is a high stress area.
“You have no reason to trust me.” Thorax said. “But I’ll do what I can. What’s happening here is wrong. I can’t do much to stop it, but I can do this. Who needs to leave?”