On his way back to his apartment, Theodor remembered his decision to buy things for Natalie. He doubted that a store would still be open at this time, but fortunately, there was still a clothing store that hadn't closed. Making the purchases and ignoring the looks from the cashier, he continued on his way home. The reset of the trip passed uneventfully.

Ascending the stairs of the apartment building, Theodor finally got to his floor and walked to his door, unlocking it and entering.

"I'm home," he said.

"THEO!" an excited voice greeted him as Natalie's head popped up from the sofa she was sitting on "I-I mean, you're back."

She tried to to return to her monotone, but it was already to take back what had come out of her mouth. Theo let himself have a chuckle over the the now flustered girl's reaction.

"W-well anyway, you're home," the flustered girl said training to regain her usual monotone as she got off the couch and made her way to Theodor "What do you have in those bags?"

"Ah this?" Theodor said acting clueless "Well I've got this and that..."

The girl pouted at his reply. Theodor had a short laugh again.

"Okay okay, well I bought myself a "Walkman" and some cassettes," Theodor explained "And in this other one I have..."

Theodor trailed off, keeping the answer from her, wanting to see her cute pouting again. The girl huffed before turning around and walking back to the couch. It seemed that she wouldn't take the bait.

"Ah wait," Theodor said urgently "Sorry for teasing you like that. I bought some clothes for you."

The girl stopped upon hearing his words.

"Are you really sorry?" she asked in her monotone.

"Yes truly," Theodor said trying to appease her.

The girl turned around again and walked back to him.

"Well?" she asked.

"You want to try them already?" Theodor asked acting clueless once more.

Thus, another round of teasing and Theodor laughing at the girl's expense was started. In the midst of this, Theodor couldn't help wonder when he'd gotten this soft. More importantly, did he deserve to be this happy?

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It was late at night when Theodor woke up. Natalie was still sound asleep in his bed as he dressed himself, put on his coat and scarf and exited the apartment. Among other things he learned from the two men he paid, was the fact that this "RLF" was having a meeting today in an unused warehouse. Theodor wondered how they managed to find a warehouse that was unused in a citadel city dedicated wholeheartedly to fighting off the BETA but decided it wasn't worth dwelling on right now. With questions in his mind and conviction in his footsteps, Theodor set off towards the meeting.

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While finding Katia was still his main objective, Theodor knew trouble brewing when he saw it. That violent crowd affiliated with the RLF at the soup kitchen wasn't good news no matter how you looked at it. So this is why he was in his present situation. He was surrounded by self styled teen revolutionaries in an unused warehouse.

Theodor had to hand it to whoever was pulling the strings behind this whole movement. They had a rather good sense of aesthetics. Any successful movement needed a good look, whether that was banners, uniforms or something else. The Nazis (Theodor barely disguised his disgust at the thought of them) knew this fact and among other things had Hugo Boss design their uniforms.

Looking around, he could see bold and brash banners hanging with proclamations such as "Peace, Security and Freedom" and "Unite Against The Oppressors" emblazoned boldly on them with some kind of thunderbolt of eagle imagery. He looked down at his sleeve, an armband given to him by the person who admitted him around it. Even the way the podium was set up and the way the light dramatically focused on whoever would be speaking spoke of the work of a master manipulator. Brash music popular with these kinds of "outsiders" blared as the teenagers did activities typical of what you would expect, treating the meeting like some sort of rave. Sex, drugs, you name it. Yes, whoever was in charge knew how to manipulate the minds of his audience of young impressionable teenagers with an urge to rebel and a need to fit into something larger than themselves and make a difference in the world.

To say only, teenagers were here would be inaccurate, they were simply the largest majority. He also saw people who were around his age and people who were older as well. Some stayed above the influence while others dived straight into the debauchery. Theodor himself was given more than a few offers to join in, some of the offerors enough to get him arrested and placed on watchlists if he took them up on it. Despite himself, Theodor couldn't help but admire the work of a master of his craft at work.

In the middle of Theo's analysis of his surroundings, the lights suddenly dimmed and the din around him dissipated as the crowd hushed. It seems that the main event was starting.