Me, two days ago: That lame ass show, "Princess Sissi!" WHAT TRASH!! So historically inaccurate!
Me today:
Anyway, here is a future fic with Helene leaving Austria which I may or may not edit an make a full fanfic!
Its not 100% accurate to the show so it can work for what I wanted to do, but if the show doesn't comply with history, I shouldn't comply with the show! (But I promise its cool)
The Effects and Downsides of Motherhood
Helene Von Grossberg watched as Captain VonTrapp, who honorably served under her father, was dragged, beaten and bleeding, back to the Austrian frontier by two guards.
Her expression exuded cold indifference, it was a specialty, second only to snobiness.
"Should we shackle him?" Asked one.
"No need, he is too beaten to do anything." The other replied. The Commander of the unit came to the window of her carriage.
"Duchess Helene Von Grossberg and her family, right?" Asked the Commander.
"Yes." She replied dryly.
"A member of the nobility trying to leave Austria eh? In times of war like these." He raised an eyebrow. "As we have your royal family locked up in their palace until they surrender. Why?"
Helene smiles a pearly white, but sharp smile, her green eyes and black hair rounding her cat-like features: "Commander, you clearly don't know me, or my reputation, well if you think I care for what happens to the royal family."
"I heard you were engaged to the Emperor back when he was a prince."
Her smile disappears and she huffs: "Yes, and he broke off the engagement for some Bavarian twit, whom this entire country seems to love!"
Commander raised an eyebrow, not fully believing her: "Your father was one the first generals to die in this war."
Helene balked at that a little: "Yes... Sadly, a foolish old man with misguided loyalty to a royal family that swindled his daughter." Her mouth tasted like bile at those words.
"Hm... Who else is in that carriage with you?"
"Just my family. My little Hela, my sons Fritz Reginald and Herbert and my dear husband Fritz."
As soon as Fritz poked his head out and waved with a sincere smile, the Commander jumped back:
"THE EMPEROR!" He reached for his sword, and things seemed to be escaping quickly, but the tension was broken by Helene throwing her head back and laughing:
"Oh no commander, please! You truly do not know about me do you?" She smiles, almost mocking: "My dear Fritz looking like the Emperor is a sad fact of life that I've learned to live with, and so should you."
The Commander looked skeptical and looked at her son and then her husband: "Your son also looks like the prince."
Fritz Reginald looked away, hiding his bright blue eyes, identical to his mother’s.
"Another unfortunate consequence of his father looking like the Emperor." She holds both of her husband and son's chins with pride: "They have all the handsomeness with none of the silliness. Weren't I clever to marry this one?" She pulls her husband in and kisses his lips lightly, grinning.
The Commander still seemed disbelieving: "You see... We received word earlier that the daughters of the royal family have escaped the castle last night."
"And?"
"Your son and husband--"
"Have the Emperor and prince escaped too?"
"No--"
"Then what is the problem?" She says, snapping her fan in clear irritation. "You are wasting my time, Commander! My husband and I have investments in England! Railroads! Industrialization! We do not have time to waste in this decaying country!"
The commander balked: "I just-- Your story doesn't seem--"
"Kill the emperor!" She almost screams: "Kill his children, the prince, the princesses, and PLEASE, kill that Goddamned Empress Sissi, that Bavarian twit! I despise her most of all! The only way I'll get back to this godforsaken country is under the promise I'll get to see her little blonde head roll into the executioner's basket, I don't care! Will.YOU.LET.US.GO?"
The Commander looked shocked, and neither of the noticed VonTrapp approaching the carriage and getting on Helene's window:
"Helene Von Grossberg, you disgusting, treacherous whore!" He screams right into her face, two soldiers running to try and pull him back, but he held on to the carriage and continued: "I am glad the general died before seeing what disgusting traitor of Austria you became! That man died for this land, for this country! I am glad he died before seeing his selfish daughter betray everything he fought for! BURN IN HELL!" He screamed and spat in her face, his spit and phlegm mixed with blood, hitting her pristine pale cheek as she turned to the side.
At that, the commander punched him in the face, knocking him out: "Lock that man up, you idiots! I am so sorry Duchess."
Helene was shaking, if it was of shock of furry, even she didn't know. She cleaned her face with a handkerchief: "Are we done commander?" She says, furiously: "Or do you want to inspect under my skirts to see if I am smuggling the royal children under them?"
"N-no, never! You may-- You may pass!" He pulls back: "Allow the Duchess and her entourage through!"
The soldiers open way and they continue to cross the frontier going straight to Bavaria:
"We've passed the Frontier!" Prince Karl, disguised as a coachman, said from the front.
"I am sorry Captain VonTrapp did that to you, Helene..." Franz, the Emperor, said as soon as he felt safe to do so. "If he knew--"
"If he knew, it wouldn't be a secret mission, wouldn't it Franz?" She asks and pulls her skirts up: "Ludwika, little Sophia, you two can come out now." She says as the two princesses come out from under her skirts.
"Is it safe, daddy?" Sophia, the eldest twin said, looking up at Franz.
"Yes, Darling, we're safe."
"Are we in grandpa and grandma's house?"
"Still some road to Bavaria, but we will be there soon." Helene answers to Ludwika.
"I can't believe that man talked to mama that way." Hela said with a frown.
"He was lucky the real Fritz wasn't here, he would have challenged him to a duel." Herb added, aware of how protective his older brother was of their mother. It was like that his whole life.
The plan had been simple: Initially, the idea was smuggling Sissi out with hers and Franz's children, leaving only Fritz, Helene's husband, an almost perfect doppelganger of Franz in his place, but Sissi refused.
Because of course she did:
"You Bavarian twit! We have to leave!"
"I will not! It will be too much if Franz, Franz Friedrich and I escape! I have to stay! The people need me!"
"She is right." Empress Sofia said, which felt almost like betrayal for Helene: "The people admire her, if she escapes, it will feel like Franz doesn't care about them, only about saving his own family. In fact, Franz II staying would also be ideal, but we don't have a copy for him." The empress spoke with practicality, weighing the political angles of it, the optics at the end of the actions.
"We actually do." Fritz II, Reginald, said and Helene's blood ran cold as she snapped her head towards her son, like a snake ready to pounce:
"Didn't I tell you to stay home and get ready for us to leave?" Her panic seeing her son there sounded like anger.
"I gotta do this mama, I look like the prince!" He adds, green eyes, identical to his mother’s, firm with determination: "It's what grandpa would have done!"
Helene still didn't know how they convinced her to leave her husband AND SON behind. She remembered being more selfish than this! She should have done what she said she was doing: Escape! Leave Austria behind, take her family to England, be rich, lie in a bed beside her beloved husband, her children sleeping peacefully in their rooms in a townhouse in London…
But no... She was now at the center of plot to smuggle the emperor and the prince out of the country, so they could retake it, so her son could have her family's ancestral land, so she could give the name she gave her husband and children be associated with Honor, instead of the shame she bought upon it in her selfish youth.
She wanted her husband and she wanted her son, but she also wanted her country and her parent's spirits to smile on her again.
Helene Von Grossberg wanted to do the right thing, and so did her son and husband... Who was she to stop them?
Maybe Sissi rubbed off on her a little bit, after all.
That stupid Bavarian twit! She better look after her Fritzes...
She better survive.
