Oberleutnant (1st LT) Lise Hohenstein is a character that appears in Schwarzesmarken. Theodor Eberbach's step sister whom he had thought to have been killed by the Stasi 3 years ago. A TSF pilot previously dispatched in Eastern Europe, she is assigned to the 666th TSF Squadron as reinforcement to make up for the injured Pham Thi Lan. Her Callsign under the 666th TSF Squadron is Schwarzesmarken 09.
When she first reappeared in front of Theodor she immediately hugged him tightly with joy. However Theodor could not express the same sentiment as he was shocked to see that his step sister was still alive and had become a TSF pilot. He thought this was too much of a coincidence and started to suspect that she could possibly be a Stasi spy but his love for her made him dismiss that possibility.
Lise's History (Schwarzesmarken side story Requiem vol 2:"I Dream of Those Happier Days")[]
Theodor Eberbach was adopted into Lise's family at age eight. Brought into their home, he was introduced to his new little sister, who was a mere few months younger. Immediately stricken he was left at a loss for words at the sight of her, unable to respond coherently when her father requests that he be good to her and protect her as her older brother. At first Lise was worried about the prospect of a new boy her age living with them, that if he was anything like the other children in her grade he would be immature and possibly bully her. Theodor, however, appeared to be of a different sort and possibly mature beyond his years. She notes his lovely crimson hair and teal colored eyes that remained fixated upon her, which she describes as "though he had seen a wondrous gem of light after having been lost in a dark cave". She curtsies politely to break the ice and introduce herself, giving her name and for the first time referring to him as her big brother.
Over the next seven years the two become nigh inseparable. Lise excels in her school academics as a straight A student, becoming multi-linguistically proficient and taking her electives in the art of drama and theater. Theodor appears to have less ambition for his future aside from noting Lise to be what is most important to him, though she ultimately feels the same way for him.
In the years leading up to 1980 trouble looms for the Hohenstein family as her father finds himself in increasing trouble with the government for his critiques and less than pro-Stasi behavior. As the Stasi become more and more overbearing over time with the recent purges and executions, Lise being ostracized and hazed by her peers in school for her parent's alleged capitalist sentiments, and no longer being able to find sufficient work to support his family, Thomas Hohenstein decides it is in their best interests to attempt to escape the Iron Curtain.
In 1980, Lise, Theo and their parents are caught by the Stasi during their attempt to smuggle themselves over the Berlin wall. Lise is tortured through various methods such as nail pulling, water boarding, severe beatings, hanging upside down, sleep deprivation, and lacerations, but refused to say anything that would indict either her parents or Theo, resolving that if she is tortured to death in the process it is worth not giving in and selling out her family. After several days of no results, becoming increasingly frustrated with her lack of cooperation, a Stasi official has her taken into a separate room where she is then gang-raped for several hours.
Reentering the room after what Lise describes as "several hours of violence that I try but can't repress" the Stasi official reveals photographs of the act that were taken and that her brother Theodore was still alive. Lise is simultaneously relieved that Theo lives yet horrified by the implications that they had most likely been torturing him as well, and what it would do to him if they showed him the photographs of the kinds of things they have been doing to her.
She assumes that, in order to protect her, Theodor would most likely do anything they ask, even selling himself out if necessary. The official, however, offers an alternative. He states that, while all four members of her family are slated for execution and it is impossible to save her parents as they were the "ringleaders" of the crime, he could have her brother spared if she were to sell herself out instead and pledge loyalty to the Stasi. If she refused, he would have them both killed anyway. With no choice left and seeing that if she takes the fall her last remaining loved one will at least be spared, even if it's at the cost of her own continued suffering, she hesitantly swears the oath, straining to resist the rising urge to vomit in disgust at the words she is forced to speak and choking on her tears. The Stasi official, revealed to be Heinz Axmann, declares her as his subordinate and dog.
Over the next several months, Axmann uses Lise as his personal sex slave before forcing her to undergo training to become a Swallow (a female spy who uses her body to get intelligence). Axmann keeps her continued cooperation underfoot with the leverage that he has kept tabs on Theodor's whereabouts and threatens to have him killed if she does not comply. He then assigns her to training to become a TSF pilot, all as a part of his long term plan to have as many combat capable agents as possible on his side for the coming faction war within the Stasi.
The numerous sexual relations she is forced to engage in many of which involve older and unsightly men disgusts her and makes it hard to suppress the urge to throw up much of the time. Lise remarks to herself that, if given the choice, the only person she would have ever wanted to be with sexually was Theo.
Performing both spywork and combat against the BETA threat takes its toll on Lise physically and mentally, causing her to make mistakes in combat training that contribute to the continued verbal abuse and harassment she receives from her peers, which had started with the common knowledge that she was technically an ex-convict and thus came to be called "traitor" by the others. That she would then leave training for work as a Swallow added to the abuse including an incident where one of the other pilots graffitied the word große Schlampe (big whore) on the inside of her TSF. On numerous occasions, Lise would take the rare opportunities she had alone to cry. It wasn't often she had the chance to let her true feelings out, but when she did, she would break down hard. Unable to stop the tears from flowing forth, she'd beg to the emptiness for her big brother to save her even though she knew that he would not appear like a valiant prince from some fairy tale to rescue her from her waking nightmare. Still, she would cry out for him no longer able to take the constant torment any longer.
Suicide becomes an increasingly enticing concept to her as time goes on, offering itself as an escape from the hell of her life. But she knew that, if she died, there would be no one to stop Axmann from punishing her brother; this keeps her from going through with it. So long as she obeys, Theo would at the very least be safe from Axmann, and there may someday be a way that she could help free or at least protect and maybe even be with him again.
In 1982, in order to eventually get her recruited into the Werewolf battalion so that she can serve internally as a spy for him, Axmann assigns Lise to serve in the frontier guard force despite her protests. On her first mission, she captures the attempted runners they were after alive, relieved that she managed to do so without killing any of them. As Axmann arrives he engages the leader of the group in a speech about the necessity of the Stasi's job of stopping them from jumping the border in order to keep the country united in the face of the apocalyptic BETA invasion as they are not only defending their own nation but also acting as a shield for the rest of Europe. He then goes on to state that by making a cruel enough example of them here they will deter more people from attempting the same, to that end he orders Lise to personally execute all 20 on the spot.
After she is resistant to do so, Axmann threatens to kill them all himself anyway and also kill her and Theo as well if she doesn't. Once again finding herself left without choice, she carries out the deed before attempting to leave to head back to base to throw up, shower, and cry herself to sleep, which had become somewhat of a regular routine for her. But before she's able to go, Axmann orders she execute the two remaining teenagers and the infant by using a nearby rock in order to conserve ammo.
The act was shocking to Lise and, though she was able to suppress most of the memory of it, this moment marks a turning point in Lise's psyche. Pain, fear, despair, and the constant poison of Axmann's taunting words finally take their toll and Lise resigns to the fact that there is no escape from the Stasi as they have become too far reaching and too powerful within the DDR to resist. Having lost what little belief she had left in any possible hope of rebellion ever succeeding, Lise manages to resolve that, if she still yet has the strength of will to do these dirty jobs where she must, she could at the very least continue to protect her brother.
Her TSF piloting skills were honed during the days she served the frontier guard force and this lead to her joining the Werewolf battalion. The Major of the battalion Beatrix Brehme agreed to let her meet Theodor if she would help her in the upcoming internal conflict within the Stasi instead of helping Heinz Axmann. Seeing that in Beatrix's plan there is a better chance at securing Theo's safety and even a chance for revenge against Axmann for the torture and years of slavery and torment, Lise agrees, mentally noting to herself that if the coming power struggles within the Stasi end up weakening their defense enough and the country either collapses upon itself due to civil war or the BETA break through the defensive line, there is a chance she and Theo could also finally escape the country once and for all by crossing over the border like they had attempted to with their parents years before.
In February 1983, the Stasi decided to send Lise to the 666th TSF squadron. She managed to trap the 666th TSF squadron, giving Beatrix Brehme the chance to catch Irisdina Bernhard.
Fate :spoilers:[]
Anime[]
Upon the destruction of the rest of the Borkwalde squadron, Lise was lured into a trap set by Theodor. She was hit by the reactive armor plating of Theodor's MiG's DS-3 Shurzen, destroying her TSF's head unit and ruining her optics. Theodor's second attack used the same shield to damage Lise's cockpit, crushing the outer frame and sending fire and shrapnel into the cockpit, hitting Lise across her chest and face.
Later, Theodor removed the cockpit seal and lowered himself down to Lise, who was mortally wounded and in hysterics over what she saw as a foolish mistake he made in trusting the rebel forces. Theodor thanked her for saving him from the Stasi and apologized for not being able to protect her from them, but said that it was finally his turn to save her, and that it was because he was her older brother that he had to do it.
Taking out a pistol, Theodor executed Lise with a single shot.
Martyrs[]
Lise route[]
In his attempt to protect Lise Theo goes with her and joins the Werewolf battalion all the while hoping to find an opportunity to escape with her and possibly link back up with the 666th for the rebellion. This opportunity never arises however as a union between the rebels and Axmann's forces from the Berlin faction of the Stasi results in Lise's tsf being shot down and her capture by the rebels.
With Lise's absence and Theo's reason for assisting Beatrix gone she barters to help rescue Lise from the rebels so long as Theo continues to help her in turn. During an engagement against the 666th Theo hears Katia's speech being broadcasted from Berlin reinvigorating his motivation to fight for her ideals. He turns on Beatrix at the last moment and assists Iris in delivering the killing blow before exiting his tsf to plead with her directly for Lise's whereabouts.
To extract information from their prisoner the rebels turn Lise over to Axmann. She is tortured and implied to be raped again in addition to being injected with a confession agent (truth serum). She next reappears completely brainwashed into aiding Axmann eliminate his competition within the Stasi. Theodor tracks them down and engages Axmann's assistant in a firefight and kills him, but before he can shoot Axmann as well Axmann uses Lise as a human shield and comes to a stand off with Theodore.
Questioning why Lise is so unresponsive, Axmann reveals to Theo that she is brainwashed to respond to his every command and that while she does not fully register what is happening she will remember everything once the effect wears off. He then takes the opportunity to brag about all the horrible things he made her do in the past three years to incite anger and pain in Theodor and shake his resolve. Theodor understands Lise's situation and does not hold what happened against her, comparing it to his own past experiences surviving for the last three years. Knowing she has kept him alive all this time he determines to save her here and now at any cost. Unable to get Theo to back down Axmann resorts to ordering Lise to fire on Theodor, and being unaware and unable to resist she shoots Theo in the abdomen.
The Stasi-grade fortified suit he's wearing resists the shot and he charges Axmann punching him in the face and separating him from Lise, then fires on him while holding her tightly with his other arm.
When the effects of the brainwash wear off and she remembers where she is and what happened, Lise attempts to take her own life.
Stating that she can't take it all anymore, that she didn't want Theo to know about what happened to her, and she can't stand that she almost killed him she puts her own gun to her head. Theodor manages to talk her down by reminding her of their promise to always be together and that if she let herself die now she would be breaking that promise.
She lowers the gun and breaks down crying, as he holds her Theo decides that with the rebel victory they would have to flee to avoid trouble due to both being members of the Werewolf battalion. At that moment Axmann fires off a single shot into the air before finally succumbing to his wounds and dying. Seeing that man still alive gives Lise a panic attack resulting in a mental breakdown combined with the side effects of the drug. An undiagnosed chemical induced brain injury strips Lise of her memories of the past three years and much of her cognitive functions causing her to behave much like a young frightened child.
Taking her west across the border after the fall of the Berlin wall Theodor resolves to take her somewhere far away where he can help her recover in the meantime and keep her safe no matter how long it may take.
At the end Lise reveals that while she does not remember the Stasi or the events of the last three years she still remembers her promise, and the two reiterate their vow to always be together.
Taking the nature of the ending and meaning of her character song played during, it can be said that quite literally Lise's deepest wish has been fulfilled to return to a time when she and her big brother were happy together and without the horror of her life's recent events plaguing her mind.
Trivia[]
- Lise's route name and theme song is "Lost Heaven." The song's lyrics are sung by Lise's voice actress and speak from the character's heart. In it she expresses her deepest heart's desire to start life over anew somewhere far away with her soul mate, the one she loves above all else including herself. To wash away the pain with her tears, even if just to warm his hands she would use her own soul as the kindling, however much she must sacrifice he is her eternal happiness.
- Yoshino Nanjo, Lise's voice actress, is the lead singer of Fripside and is also the voice of Ayase Eli of Love Live! and Kokoro Akechi of Milky Holmes.
- An additional scenario from the Muv Luv gacha game "Strike Frontier" features Theo taking Lise away to a secluded location rather than taking her prisoner for the rebels, noting that he was wrong for calling her his enemy and he understands the hardship that had led to her current involvement in the Stasi and that she had suffered far more than he has ever experienced. Deciding that much like Katia gave him hope and turned his life around, it is his responsibility to do the same for Lise as best he can. Predicting that due to the Stasi fighting the rebellion the border guard would be stretched thin if not totally absent at the opportune time, he takes her with him to hop over the border. The scene offers an alternative possibility similar to the ending of the Lise route albeit without Lise being afflicted with amnesia by a brain injury for better or worse. Regardless by the end Lise is blissfully happy to be with Theodor again and if there is anyway to work towards healing her of her trauma, this is it.
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