Chapter 14: Perchance to Dream pt. II

Word Count : 12704

This is the longest chapter I've written to date. Took me forever to complete. Anyway, hope you enjoy it.

Sewers. No matter what planet one was on, the sewers could always be expected to be the same; dark, wet and smelly. Not many people enjoyed these kinds of environments, for very good reasons. But that was not the case of most mutants. They did not dislike the sewers. On the contrary, their kind thrived down there in the murky darkness, away from the eyes of civilization. But today, they were not thriving. Today, they were running for their lives. Bloodied, wounded and limping, more than two dozen misshapen abominations ran for all they were worth to save their pathetic excuses for lives.

One of them, a one-eyed thing with tentacles for arms lagged behind by several meters due to a wound to the leg. He paid for it dearly as the sewer was lit up with red light for a few seconds before the mutant fell over with a smoking hole right through the chest. None of the other mutants even slowed down to assist their comrade, happily leaving him behind to save their own skins. Seconds later, their pursuers rounded the corner. Death Korps Grenadiers, armed with hellguns as their skull-painted masks scanned the darkness ahead of them for hostiles.

Ignoring the dead body floating in the water, they pushed on, determined to chase down the fleeing mutants. Said mutants did not get that far. For when they rounded a corner, they ran right into a wall of las rounds. The first ranks were scythed down like weed before the survivors backtracked, desperate to get out of the enemy's line of fire. But their pursuers had caught up to them and were pouring fire into their rears. Trapped between two firing squads, the mutants could do nothing but wail in misery as they were all gunned down.

With the threat neutralized, the pursuing squad of Grenadiers advanced up to the corner, were three other Grenadiers met them from the opposite direction. The leader of the squad stepped forward, prompting one of the trio to step forward as well with a salute.

"Good work, soldier. Your idea actually worked," the commander complimented monotonously while surveying the dead mutants floating around like the garbage they were.

"Mutants are simple-minded creatures, sir. Place a legitimate threat behind them, and they will blindly run into whatever trap placed in front of them," Keled answered with equal amounts of monotone to his voice. The commander simply nodded his head.

"Keep this up, soldier, and you will make Watchmaster by the end of this campaign," he commented, right before the squad's vox operator joined the discussion.

"Sir, B squad reports stiff resistance at the power plant. They request reinforcements to break the deadlock," he informed. The commander was quick to react as he hefted his hellgun and strode to the forefront of his ten man squad.

"A squad, move out!" he commanded, right before they set off at a light run, leaving the dead behind to rot. Twenty minutes later brought the squad to a position right beneath the power plant.

"The heretics have their guns pre-aimed at every street and avenue up above, so we strike them from below," the commander decided before he turned to his squad, "Place explosives on the roof. Let's bring their very floor down," without hesitation, the Grenadiers moved to carry out his orders, forming human ladders to reach the sewer ceilings.

"Explosives in place, sir," the one at the top announced before he leaped down. the whole squad instantly fell back to a safe distance away before a cry of "Fire in the hole!" rang out. Seconds later, the explosives were triggered. The silence which had reigned down in the sewers for so long was dispelled with an almighty boom, while the squad found themselves blinded by a cloud of dust so thick that breathing would have been a challenge were it not for the gasmasks.

But before the smoke and dust even had time to settle, the commander charged into the unknown, chainsword and plasma pistol held high. Without even having to be told, the rest of the squad blindly charged in alongside him. Climbing up the rubble with all the speed they could muster, the eleven Grenadiers burst out in the lower levels, greeted by over thirty confused and disoriented heretics.

Fear and inexperience caused the heretics to freeze up at the sight of the Grenadiers, who for their part were more than happy to take the first shots. The first five out of the hole charged up to the nearest cover, a pile of crates, and let loose with a withering barrage at those on ground level. Those behind took the time to clear the walkways above of potential threats with quick bursts of lasfire.

Within seconds, eight heretics laid dead on the ground with the rest only now finding the will to move again and fight back. Soon, las- and auto rounds started flying back and forth between the two sides. Five heretics tried to use a pile of spare pipelines as cover to outflank the Grenadiers. They ran head-first into a patiently waiting Keled, who mercilessly gunned them all down before using the same trick they tried to pull.

A patch of open ground lay open in front of him before he could reach a stack of crates used as cover by the heretics. He calmly waited until fire was directed elsewhere, then charged. Too late did the heretics see him approach, and so he leaped over their cover, spraying them with las rounds before his boots even hit the ground. Fire from a stubber made him dive behind the same cover previously occupied by the heretics. Believing to have the advantage, the foolhardy heretic abandoned his hiding spot behind a container to empty his clip into Keled.

Poor aiming resulted in only three bullets actually hitting him, and those did nothing but dent his carapace armor. Keled in turn was not so sloppy with his shots, and so placed one single las round straight in the heretic's forehead. All around, the gunfire quieted down as the Grenadiers cleaned up the last heretics.

"Area secure, sir," Keled reported after having checked over the dead to make sure there were no survivors.

"Good, but we still have a whole building to clear," the commander announced before he drove his roaring chainsword into the stomach of a wounded heretic. He spent his last seconds in life screaming in pain as his stomach was cut wide open. The commander, along with every other Grenadier, watched dispassionately as the life left his eyes, none of them minding the blood splattered across the floor.

"Fan out. Search and destroy. And remember, leave no survivors," he finally ordered before he strode towards a stair leading up to the walkways. The squad saluted him before heading out. Keled, along with three others, went through one of the side doors on ground level. At first wandering aimlessly through the maze-like corridors, even ascending a few floors from their original level, the group eventually found a beacon to follow in the form of gunfire. Anticipation swelled up within Keled as they moved ever closer towards their goal.

Along the way, two of the Grenadiers broke off; one heading up a staircase and the other taking a sudden left turn deeper into the building, screams and gunfire that echoed back down the corridor signified enemy contact for him. Finally, Keled and his remaining comrade found that which had brought them here: a heavy stubber nest, set up inside an old office and manned by five heretics. They were continuously spraying bullets out onto the streets below. The occasional las round coming back up signified that there were Grenadiers pinned down out there.

So without hesitation, Keled and his comrade stepped inside the small room and let loose with full auto. The heretics stood no chance and were all turned to smoking corpses in seconds. Wait, one of them was still alive. Though only barely, as he clung to the heavy stubber just to stay upright with the black holes in his stomach and chest. Keled's comrade aimed at him, intent on finishing the job, but Keled placed a hand on his hellgun and forcibly lowered it. He received what he assumed was a confused look, and he answered by drawing a knife and striding towards the heretics.

"P-please… have m-mercy…" the heretic pleaded, but Keled was not listening. With cold detachment, he grabbed the man by the hair and dragged him up on his feet. Despite how much the man pleaded and screamed in pain, Keled remained numb to his distress.

"This is the fate of all those who opposes the Emperor," Keled stated, here breaking the Death Korps norm by allowing emotions to color his voice. It was with burning conviction he spoke those words, fanatical devotion even, right before he plunged his knife straight into the man's throat. He was left to gurgle feebly as Keled cut his throat wide open, spraying blood all over Keled's uniform. Then, with one mighty kick, he sent the barely still breathing heretic falling out of his former nest to plummet to his death below.

Just to be on the safe side, Keled strode up to the window and signaled whoever was down there that the coast was clear. He received a salute from three other Grenadiers down below before they entered the building as well. With that dealt with he strode out of the office, passing a still bewildered Grenadier on the way.

"Did not want to waste energy on him," he offered as an excuse, an excuse that more than sated the Grenadier who followed close behind as they were back to stalking after fresh kills. It was as they were about to round a corner that Keled signaled his comrade to halt. He had heard something. It sounded like… crying. Wait! There were voices there as well, he could hear it now. Creeping just a bit closer, Keled was able to hear what was being spoken.

"Please, look out for each other, and stay hidden until they're gone," someone, a woman by the sound of it, spoke worriedly, before someone else spoke up.

"What will you do?" this one sounded male, and definitively younger. A teenager, if Keled had to wager a guess. From then on, Keled ignored whatever else that was spoken, he had learned enough. They were not Grenadiers, and that made them enemies. Looking over his shoulder, he shared a short nod with his comrade as they made ready to attack. On some unspoken signal, the two of them stepped around the corner, hellguns aimed and spitting out rounds before they even had a clear image of who they were shooting at.

Two heretics, a man and a woman, went down with holes in their chests, while three others fled in panic. Keled's partner chased after them without a second thought, but Keled himself was doubtful. Those had all been fully grown adults, and he knew with certainty that someone younger should be present. So where did that boy go then? Carefully observing the two corpses, Keled found that from the position they were lying in, they must have been facing the wall when they died.

Intrigued, he walked up to said wall and slowly ran his hand over it. But nothing strange was found, and he frowned in contemplation. That boy he heard must have gone somewhere, but where? Then he heard it, a muffled sob. It put him on high alert and made him even more suspicious. For unless he had heard it wrong, that sob had come from inside the wall. Pressing his head against the wall, he listened intently for any sound. There it was! Light footsteps!

That was all the motivation that Keled needed as he stepped back and gave the wall a hard kick. Nothing, so he kicked it again. Still stood firm, but it moved a bit under the pressure. A sign that it was not a real wall, for it would have otherwise taken a grenade to get through. A third kick, and cracks started appearing. He could also hear screams of distress from within. A fourth kick made the wall buckle. A fifth kick, and the wall finally gave in.

With the obstacle gone, Keled confidently strode into the hidden room, hellgun held at the ready. But what he found inside caught him off guard. Apart from the young boy he had heard earlier, who Keled reckoned to be in his mid to late teens, there were also five others hiding with him. Children, the oldest being no more than twelve if Keled's guess was correct. They all huddled in a corner, with the oldest boy standing protectively in front of them.

"Don't you dare touch them!" he snarled out in anger, even as Keled could see the telltale signs of fear in him. Shaking limbs, nervously darting eyes and sweaty brow. No doubt about it, he was scared. Keled meanwhile found himself puzzled by the presence of children here. This was supposed to be a military compound for the heretics, so what was children doing here? Sacrifices? Most likely, given the sick and depraved ways of the heretic.

He was about to dismiss them and move on when he remembered. "Leave no survivors," those had been the orders given by his commander. But Keled hesitated. Was he really supposed to kill innocent children? Had this dilemma appeared a year ago, he would have happily pulled the trigger by now. But time had changed him, time and experience. What possible purpose could these children's deaths have? Could he really go through with it?

"Please, just let them go. Kill me if you have to, but please spare their lives," the older boy suddenly pleaded with him. For a moment, Keled considered it. Surely no harm could come by letting them live. He almost lowered his hellgun when he caught himself. What in the name of the Emperor was he doing? He was committing treason here! He had been given clear orders, and he was about to disregard them just like that! For what purpose? Because he had momentarily been overcome by the infernal weakness known as sympathy.

He was bordering close on more than treason with his actions, he would be committing an act of heresy if he let these blasphemous traitors to the Imperium walk away with their lives. In a single heartbeat, his sympathy vanished, and an iron-hard resolve took its place.

"No survivors," he spoke monotonously, just before he pulled the trigger and sent the boy to the floor with a smoking hole in his head. The screams of the children filled the room for the few seconds before Keled opened fire again. Seconds later, Keled emerged from the hidden room, leaving six smoking bodies behind. He never once looked back as he ventured out in search of more heretics to kill.

C squad had by far the easiest area to scout out, at least in comparison to A and B squad. The few heretic positions they had come across were pitiful to say the least. No command structure, no decent supply of weapons and no real training. Hell, some of the hideouts did not contain anything more than women and children hiding as best as possible. It had made no difference to the Grenadiers however, they had slaughtered every last one they found. None would be leaving this city alive, those were the orders.

But they soon found something entirely different as they moved through the remnants of a hab block. A sudden flash of light to the north of their position, gone just as fast as it had appeared. Wordlessly, they diverted their course towards this sudden anomaly, the vox operator trailing behind to send out a warning of a possible Warp disturbance occurring. Moving as fast as possible, the squad found themselves entering a square. Once most likely a place of beauty, now nothing more than scorched and bombed ground. But there were no signs of hostiles.

"Excuse me?" or at least that was what first glance had told them. As it turned out, they must have missed something, as a black-skinned boy wearing a peculiar set of skintight black pants, red shirt and no shoes stepped out into the open. He seemed to be in the midst of asking something else, but the Grenadiers did not even wait to listen and instead opened fire on him. The strange boy instantly pulled a device from his back and used it to form what appeared to be an energy shield to protect himself.

While caught off guard by this strange technology, the Grenadiers were undaunted as one wielding a plasma gun stepped forward and took aim. He never got a chance to fire a single shot before they heard a powerful roar seconds before something black crashed into their midst like Basilisk round, sending dust and Grenadiers flying all over the place. To their surprise, they found another young boy, dressed in black with an S on his shirt, to be the cause of this. They fired upon him, but all their shots did was burn through his clothes, along with pissing him off as he came at them like a missile.

He sent two Grenadiers flying and head-butted a third into unconsciousness. The rest tried to back off, but a yellow blur was suddenly in their midst, stealing weapons left and right. Four of them tried to stop this sudden attack, but a high-pitched cackle halted them in their steps before a smoke bomb went off at their feet. Sounds of struggle could be heard within the smoke before it dissipated, revealing four unconscious Grenadiers and a grinning boy in a red and black uniform.

"What manner of devilry is this?" one of the few Grenadiers still standing asked.

"They must be daemons, disguised as children," another concluded. The commander meanwhile had heard enough as he pointed his chainsword at the children.

"Daemons or not, they stand against the Emperor, and will pay with their lives. Attack!" he shouted before he charged, wordlessly being followed by what remained of his squad. They got about five steps before they were lifted into the air by an invisible power.

"Chaos sorcery!" one of the Grenadiers shouted in alarm, struggling to free himself from whatever had him in its grip. But the commander was not as convinced as he could just barely make something out, hovering in front of them.

"No, not Chaos," he muttered, right before the perpetrator made herself visible again, "Xeno," instantly, all the Grenadiers had eyes full of hatred directed at the greenskinned filth floating in front of them. Then, everything just turned dark for them.

"Well, I did tell you this would happen," Robin nonchalantly commented after they had tied the soldiers up.

"I did hope that we could have avoided unnecessary fighting, we are after all not here to seek enemies," Aqualad defended himself, receiving a scoff from Superboy.

"Oh please. If these guys were anything like Krieg, they would have killed you the first chance they had," he remarked gruffly. The team could not help but agree on that point.

"Speaking of Krieg. M'gann, have you found him yet?" Robin inquired of the Martian hovering in a lots position. Upon hearing the question, she let out a resigned sigh.

"I'm afraid not. There's too much psychic noise for me to make contact again," she answered sadly. A reassuring hand was placed on her shoulder by Aqualad.

"You did your best. We'll just have to find him the old fashioned way," he assured her, earning a grateful smile from her. Any other words were put on hold as Kid Flash spoke up.

"Why don't we ask these guys for directions? Their leader is awake anyway," he pointed out casually while pointing to a trio of soldiers tied back to back on the ground. True to his words, one of them, the leader, had just regained consciousness. The team was soon gathered around him as Aqualad kneeled in front of him so their eyes were at the same level.

"Do you know someone called Krieg?" he asked politely. All he received in turn was silence, and most likely a glare from behind the gasmask. But Aqualad was not so easily deterred as he remembered the other name Krieg had given them.

"Perhaps you know him as 769355-637566-Keled?" he inquired. Still no answer from their prisoner. He did not so much as twitch as he glared unflinchingly at Aqualad. 'Maybe a compromise can be reached?' he thought to himself.

"All we need to know is where he is. If you tell us, we'll let you go," he offered. That brought out a response from the commander, though not the kind he had desired.

"I have nothing to say to your disgusting kind, xeno filth," he spat out in contempt, "Do whatever you please, I will never betray the Emperor by consorting with you," despite the graveness of the situation, Kid Flash could not help but snort in amusement.

"I can definitively see where Krieg got his wonderful personality from now," he stated sarcastically. Aqualad ignored him in favor of addressing another member of his team.

"Miss Martian, is there some way to access information from him telepathically?" he asked, receiving a shake of her head.

"No, sorry," she admitted, eyes lowered in shame. Aqualad sighed before he stood back up and spoke to the whole team.

"It seems our search will be a little more difficult than we first imagined. Since we will most likely be here a while, we need to find a temporary base of operation. Kid Flash, Robin, you two scout out the area for a suitable location. Superboy, keep your eyes and ears open for any possible hostiles. Miss Martian, maintain telepathic communication with the whole team," he handed out the orders quickly and efficiently. But as it turned out, trouble was more close at hand than they anticipated as Superboy suddenly tensed up.

"I hear something. Multiple people, heading this way," he said with narrowed eyes, looking at what many would believe to be nothing. Those that were familiar with his powers knew better.

"Then we need to move now, hopefully we can shake them off," Aqualad spoke urgently. As one, the team fled in the opposite direction from where the enemy was coming from, leaving the defeated Grenadier squad behind. It was about five minutes later that the ones Superboy had heard arrived; another Grenadier squad.

"They reacted to this new threat pretty fast," the bound commander noted with what could almost be described as a curious voice, if such a thing was possible among the Death Korps.

"It is no surprise there, I had the vox channel open the whole time. Everything spoken here has been transmitted to every squad in the city," the vox operator announced from where he was bound together with another man. And so, the hunt for xenos had begun among the Grenadiers, and each and every one of them desired a chance to slay these sinister abominations.

Among Grenadiers, the concepts of "stop" and "rest" were not often practiced. They usually kept on going until either the enemy was dead or they themselves were dead. But in this case, A squad had actually halted their advance and was taking the moment to rest and recuperate. It was not tiredness that had prompted this action, but merely overwhelming success. All the squad's objectives had been cleared, and no counterattack had come. Fearless they may be, but not brainless berserkers. So they chose to halt and communicate with the other squads to get a better picture of where they were needed most.

Canteens of water were passed around as they inspected their gear for potential damage. Keled was the only one not doing any of that, he was just standing at the doorway of the destroyed building they were camping in. his gaze was distant as his mind wandered. For a while now, he had felt a sense of unease. It was not something he could explain, that he could hardly fathom, but it was there. That sense of impending disaster that made it impossible for him to unwind during this lull in combat.

"Attention!" the commander suddenly shouted as he rejoined the squad, having withdrawn to a separate room with the vox operator. Instantly, everyone present was on their feet and standing at attention.

"We just received word from D squad. A small group of xenos have infiltrated the city and managed to neutralize C squad," not a word was uttered by the squad as they absorbed the news, but they were all thinking the same thing. 'Xenos? Here? How is that even possible?'

"This five man squad eluded D squad, and are currently at large somewhere in the eastern sector, and all squads are tasked with locating and destroying this threat," many would normally assume that was an unspoken dismissing and begin packing up, but the Grenadiers remained where they were. They would only move when their commander told them to.

"By the way, does anyone recognize the identification number 769355-637566-Keled?" the commander suddenly inquired. From his position at the door, Keled felt like his heart suddenly leaped up in his throat. Nevertheless, he stepped forward confidently and saluted.

"Sir, that is my identification number, sir," he announced monotonously. To say that he was afraid or anxious would be a bit too strong choice of wording, rather he was curiously troubled. After all, what possible importance could his number have in this current situation? All eyes were upon him as the commander stepped forward until they were standing face to face with each other. Or rather mask to mask.

"These xenos interrogated C squad regarding the knowledge of your whereabouts. Now why would they be so interested in finding a lone Grenadier?" he asked, suspicion plain as day in his tone. Keled suspected he was but a single wrong word away from being executed. Again. And he was certain it would come soon, because Keled truly had no idea what importance he could have. But then, a wild and crazy thought struck him.'It could not possibly be them, could it?' he asked himself in doubt.

"You said there were five of them. What were their appearances?" Keled inquired. Logic told him his suspicion could not possibly be true. After all, they were never real, just figments of his imagination. But something was nagging at the back of his mind, telling him that he was maybe correct.

"One of them was dark-skinned with a red shirt, another was a greenskinned psyker with red hair. Three of them looked like humans, with one wearing yellow clothing, another was a short one with red and black and the last was dark haired in what appeared to be civilian clothes with an S symbol on the front," the commander listed off the known facts about these new variables, and Keled felt like a sledgehammer had descended upon him. His mind reeled with the implications this brought along. It was them, it could be no doubt about it now. But how was it even possible? It should not be possible.

"I know of them, but they are not meant to exist at all. They were illusions created in my mind by Chaos sorcery," he admitted. A tense silence followed as the commander digested the information he had been provided with.

"Chaos daemons then most likely, taking on the guises of things you have seen before," he finally concluded before striding back to the vox operator. But his words had a deep effect on Keled. He clung to them like a drowning man to floating debris. That had to be the truth, it had to be. They never truly existed, this was just daemons believing they could lull him into a sense of security by wearing familiar faces. Well, Keled was about to prove them wrong on that account. He would kill them, that he swore to himself. He would kill every last one of them.

At first, running away had appeared to be the safest course of action, but that wisdom was diminishing with each passing second. Wherever they turned, the team found more of those skull-faced Krieg look-alikes. So far, they had avoided discovery, but the ground they could flee to was swiftly shrinking.

"It feels like the whole damn city is coming after us," Kid Flash complained as he and his teammates ducked inside another abandoned house.

"Well, we did beat up one of their patrols," Robin commented quietly as a ten man squad of skull faces walked past outside.

"They started it," Superboy grumbled irritably. The team would have laughed at how childish he sounded then had silence not been of utmost importance for them. Eventually, the skull faces' footsteps grew fainter as they moved on. A few moments later, Miss Martian made herself visible at the doorway.

"They're gone now," she announced, to the relief of all present as they piled out onto the street.

"Now where do we go?" Robin asked curiously as he glanced down both ways of the road. Aqualad seemed to be in deep thought on that, but eventually he let out a resigned sigh.

"I honestly don't know. We have no way of knowing where Krieg is, and we're just running in circles trying to find him," he admitted shamefully. Ironic, in a way. They were so close to him, yet they still could not find their lost teammate.

"Be that as it may, we can't just give up now. We never leave a friend behind," Robin stated with conviction, bolstering the resolve of his teammates. But Superboy suddenly tensed up, putting the rest of the team on high alert.

"What? Did you hear something?" Miss Martian asked in worry. A few moments of silence followed as Superboy concentrated on what he had heard.

"The squad that just passed us, they've doubled back. And another squad is coming towards us from the opposite direction," he announced, instinctively tightening his fists in preparation for a fight.

"We can't risk getting bogged down in a prolonged fight here. We need to move, now. Kid Flash, scout the area in front of us, try to find as safe route for us," Aqualad stated, leading his team away from the two approaching squads while Kid Flash raced ahead. But as it turned out, those two squads were not the only ones prowling around. Their first warning was the unmistakable noise of armored vehicles coming closer. Panic gripped them as they barely managed to dive into an alley before two small tank-like transports rumbled past, more skull faces riding inside.

When the coast was clear, the team cautiously moved on. Eyes constantly peeled for danger. But they had only advanced a few blocks before Kid Flash returned, a panicked look on his face.

"Bad news, we've got another squad coming at us from that direction," he said while waving his hand at the direction he came from. Nervousness swept through all those gathered. Wherever they ran, more skull faces seemed to be lying in wait.

"It seems like our avenues of escape are swiftly shrinking for us," Aqualad observed, trying to keep a cool head in this mess they had landed themselves in.

"What do we do now then?" Miss Martian asked in concern. They were only supposed to find Krieg and get out of here, not start a war. Yet that was starting to appear unavoidable now, what with more of those skull faces joining in on the hunt. But the choice on what to do was taken out of their hands as the transports they had evaded earlier came crashing through another alley, spotting the team before they had a chance to hide.

"GET DOWN!" Robin shouted, right before he dove into a crater and dragging Kid Flash with him. Seconds later, the heavy machine guns on both transports let lose a withering barrage of bullets. Aqualad barely got a water shield up in time, but was forced into cover as the heavy caliber bullets hammered his shield to the point of nearly shattering it. Miss Martian screamed in fright, just before Superboy enveloped her in a hug and used his own invulnerable body to shield her.

"Thanks," Kid Flash said as bullets whizzed past overhead, all while he tried to calm his raging heartbeat from

"Anytime," Robin responded before he cautiously peeked over their cover to get a clearer picture of what was going on. What he saw was not a reassuring picture. His friends were all pinned down by the machine guns, and the transports' occupants had all disembarked and were closing in for the kill.

"Not good, not good at all," he muttered to himself before he was forced into cover by enemy fire.

"We're pinned down here! Unless we can break through, we're finished!" Miss Martian mentally shouted desperately, clearly distressed about their predicament. She was hardly alone on that matter.

"Robin, Kid Flash! Are you two in any position to provide cover?" Aqualad asked, still sounding calm and in control of the situation. In truth, it was merely a façade he struggled to maintain so as not to cause panic in his teammates.

"Sorry, no can do. Those skull faces won't let up fire for even a second," Kid Flash reported grumpily while laser- and machine gun fire zipped past overhead. But just as the skull faces were about to close the distance, salvation struck, and it struck hard. A sudden missile pulverized one of the transports before a hail of bullets descended from the upper levels of the buildings along the road. Three skull faces went down before they even knew what hit them, while the remaining dove into cover and returned fire as best as they could.

While this happened, the team regrouped and retreated a safe distance away before turning back to watch the unexpected firefight in bewilderment. They had most certainly not been expecting this to happen.

"Okay, definitively did not see that coming," Robin commented, right before he drew a pair of birdarangs and spun around to face a man that had been sneaking up on him. Armed with what looked like a futuristic rifle, he was dressed head to toe in dusty clothes with a scarf tied around the lower part of his face. Despite suddenly facing five hostile teens, he remained completely calm.

"Come with me if you want to live," he said before any questions could even be asked, then he turned around and fled into an alley. But the team lingered behind for a few moments, sharing doubtful looks amongst each other. No one said a word, but they were all asking the same question with their eyes, 'Can we trust him?'

"Well, it's either him or none," Robin suddenly answered the unspoken question. That seemed to settle the matter as they quickly, albeit cautiously in case of deceit, followed after their mystery savior. Behind them, the gunfire drew to a close, but the victor was anyone's guess. They were barely able to keep up with their guide as he led them through shelled houses and rubble-filled alleys. Always taking the hardest routes, always zigzagging across the ruined city, his path was obviously chosen to prevent pursuers from staying on his trail.

Finally, their path led the group to the doorsteps of an imposing cathedral. The whole team was in awe of what they beheld. Though bearing the scars of war like the rest of this strange city, it had still not lost much of its magnificence. Gothic architecture dominated this cathedral, whose size dwarfed every competitor it would have had on Earth. A single spire rose up towards the skies from this colossal monument, standing unharmed in a city at war. While they remained transfixed by the exterior, their guide slipped inside.

"Nice place," Kid Flash commented as he warily eyed the twin statues standing vigilant at the massive doorways, carved in the likeness of warriors wearing armor the likes of which he had never seen before while holding swords into the air like wards against invaders.

"We've come this far, no sense to turn back now," Aqualad commented before he squared his shoulders and strode inside. His team shared a few uneasy looks between themselves before they too walked inside. They were greeted with over fifty guns aimed at them, held by men and women who were all glaring at them with loathing. Silently, they raised their hands as a sign of surrender, not wishing to start a fight here. Unease swept through them as they were subjected to hateful glares from everyone present.

"Why do they seem so angry at seeing us?" Miss Martian asked telepathically, unable to keep a twinge of fear out of her voice, making Superboy unconsciously take a few protective steps towards her.

"I do not know," Aqualad answered monotonously as he kept a clinical eye on the mob gathering in front of them. It was at that point that their guide stepped forward, placing himself between the team and hi own supposed comrades.

"Peace, all. They're not our enemies," he tried to explain to his comrades, but they would have none of that. Exemplified by a middle-aged woman armed with what the team guessed was a flamethrower.

"Please, as if I would ever believe that bullshit, William. They're just filthy xenos," she spat in contempt while throwing a dirty glare at the team.

"Why did you even bring these things here in the first place?" another one, a young boy, asked suspiciously. The team tried to remain calm and not provoke these people, but it was proving to be a challenge for them. Their guide tried to continue his explanation.

"They were attacked by a Grenadier squad, and I thought that…"

"You should have left those disgusting xenos to die! Would have served them right for polluting the galaxy with their very existence!" someone suddenly shouted from the back of the armed group. To the team's worry, murmurs of agreement began spreading like wildfire. It did not help that Superboy had a very short temper here.

"Hey! Don't you dare talk like that about us, you coward!" he snarled out in anger. The mob was instantly in an uproar.

"Did you hear that? The freak threatened us!"

"I told you, didn't I? That monster only came here to kill us all!"

"Kill it now, before it attacks!"

"My mama always said that the only good xeno is a dead xeno,"

"Kill the xeno! Purge the unclean!"

And these were only the comments that the team was able to hear in the sudden cacophony of noise, and none of what they heard made them feel any safer. Fearing an attack, they began to slowly back up towards the doors. Any second now, it looked like someone was going to start a fight.

"ENOUGH!" someone suddenly roared. The whole mob fell silent upon hearing the command. Within seconds, they wordlessly parted like the Red Sea, creating a path for a giant of a man. Standing well over 2 meter tall, he easily dwarfed everyone he passed on his way to the front of the mob.

"What's all this ruckus about?" he asked, voice as hard as steel while his grey eyes traveled accusingly first over the team, and then over his comrades. One man was brave enough to step forward to speak.

"Sir, these are xenos, we should kill them now and…"

"I don't care who or what they are! We are on the brink of annihilation here folks, we can't afford to be picky if we want to survive!" he roared at them, none dared to speak against him after that, "Now all of you, back to your posts!" like a pack of scolded children, the mob dispersed with their heads lowered, though there were still plenty who sent venomous looks at the team before leaving. With that dealt with, the giant man turned his full attention to the team. He may have just saved their lives, but they could see that the same suspicion filled the man's eyes as he approached them.

"I trust you five have a reason to be in this shithole," he stated as he stood before them. No apologies for the conduct of his men, no inquiries as to their wellbeing. Aqualad suspected that this would be the closest to hospitality they would receive here.

"We're looking for a friend of ours. We fear he may be lost," he answered politely, no reason to sound hostile and provoke another possible fight. The man just nodded his head while indicating for the team to follow him as he walked back the way he came. The team did follow him, albeit hesitantly and on constant alert. They never turned their backs to a single person they passed along the way. A wise move, considering everyone they passed had a sudden urge to finger their guns more visibly whenever they spotted the fivesome.

"Then I suggest you find this friend of yours and get the hell out. Those damn Death Korps are scouring the entire city, killing anything that so much as moves," the man grumbled, walking on with his back turned to the teenage heroes. Kid Flash could not help but loudly scoff at that.

"What? Those skull face guys? We took down ten of them in mere minutes, so they're obviously no problem for us," he arrogantly boasted. That brought the man to a halt as he spun around with a deadpan look on his face.

"So you killed ten Grenadiers? Congratulations, that's a whole squad," he congratulated dryly, completely missing the whole team flinching at the accusation of them having killed, "Now let's see here. From what my few remaining sources still alive have told me, there are over twenty other squads spread out across the city on a search and destroy mission," that definitively shut the speedster up, as he looked a bit more thoughtful now. But the big man was not down yet.

"And did I mention that they are only the advance force? That there is an entire army just a few days away from here? Not to mention that they are packing air support, field artillery and more tanks than I can count," the whole team collectively went a few shades paler at the information. This was so not what they needed at the moment.

"Anyway, the blasted governor and his heretical nobles were the ones that brought the fury of the Death Korps down upon our home. We here are just simply trying to keep our heads down until this war is over," he added as he began walking again, heading towards an altar placed before a golden statue of what the team guessed was their deity.

"Why not simply surrender to these Death Korps and escape this city? From the sound of things, it will not be a safe place soon," Aqualad found himself asking. He was intrigued, for now that he really looked at those gathered, he could see that they were no true soldiers. They were merely refugees, trying to survive in a warzone. A mirthless laugh was what he first received in answer.

"Kid, you've obviously never met Death Korps before if you think that would work. When they attack, they don't bother to tell the difference between friend and foe. They will show no quarter and spare no one. They will kill every man, woman and child on this planet, for no other reason than that they happened to be born on a world whose leaders went rogue," he calmly explained, ignorant of the horrified looks shared between the team. To them, such genocide was incomprehensible. Such an act of cold blooded ruthlessness was something even the villains back home would undoubtedly baulk at.

'And this is the army that raised Krieg,' none of them were sure exactly whose thought that was, but it left an equally bad taste in their mouths. To think that their friend had been raised and brainwashed by these psychopaths made their stomachs churn. And Lord knows that they could be doing to him now. A tired sigh drew their attention back to their host.

"I may be a faithful servant to the Emperor, but I am not going to just throw my life or those of my countrymen to a bunch of cold blooded lunatics. So we're planning on just laying low and hope that the Death Korps just pass us by," here, he suddenly turned his hard eyes back to the team, "Which is why I stopped my men from killing you. We'll need all the help we can get to survive, so I'm willing to cut you all a deal. You help us fend off any possible attack, and we'll give you food and shelter," so that was what they wanted. Well, Aqualad and his team did need shelter, and this was probably as good an offer as they would get. He did not even need to consult his team to know their answer.

"Considering the position we are in, we gratefully accept this offer," he said politely. The giant man just nodded his head before he knelt in front of the statue.

"Then we have an understanding. Feel free to find an unoccupied spot in the church, and try to avoid antagonizing my men any further," he nonchalantly said over his shoulder.

"Hey, we didn't start it, they did," Superboy grumpily protested. The man just shrugged his shoulders at his irritation.

"Technically you did start this when you set foot inside this holy bastion of the Emperor, an offence that would have seen you tortured and killed in the most painful way possible," he commented absentmindedly, "Not that it would have mattered what you xenos did anyway, you would have been killed for the sole reason of existing," he added as an afterthought, before he began to murmur his prayer, leaving five horrified and disgruntled teens.

"And I thought Krieg was bad," Kid Flash muttered under his breath as the team set out to find a place to rest, hopefully somewhere with a quick escape route nearby in case their newfound "allies" got any funny ideas in their heads.

"G squad just reported in. they engaged the xenos, but were ambushed by rebels. They drove back the attackers, but the xenos had already escaped by then," the vox operator announced as A squad trudged along the ruined street. The commander acknowledged the words with a simple nod, and said not a single word out loud. Walking along at the center of the squad, Keled found himself brooding. Everything was becoming so confusing to him with the arrival of these daemons. Or were they really daemons? What if they truly were who they appeared to be?

NO! He would not think such thoughts! He could not think like that! The team had never existed. They were just conjured illusions, end of story. But no matter how much he told himself that, a sliver of doubt kept itself lodged in his mind. But it was more than the team's apparent return that brought out his doubts. For the more he thought about it, the more he began to wonder about a particular question; why was he still alive?

Why had he and his fellow soldiers been spared when they fell to the machinations of Chaos? Why was he allowed back into the army after his admittance about his hallucinations? And why was he not executed on the spot by his commander when the truth came out earlier? He knew how Death Korps regiments worked, he had seen its work first hand, and he knew how uncompromising Inquisitors were. So why, why was he still alive?

He had not questioned these things before due to his training. Never question or disobey a commanding officer, that was one of the many rules that had been drilled and hammered into his skull. But these daemons, they raised so many questions, and those questions led to even further questions, and those further questions created doubts.

To say that he was despairing would be a bit too strong a choice of word, but he did feel a level of depression he had never experienced before. 'Why must everything be so damn complicated in my life? Why could I just not have been given a short and simple life in service to the Emperor?' he asked himself mentally. He never asked to be something special, he never wanted it. He did not desire to be an object of interest to anyone, be they man or monster.

"Get ready, men. We're closing in," the commander announced. Instantly, safeties were switched off and sights were rechecked. Keled gratefully took this distraction to purge his mind. There were no emotions, no thoughts and no doubts. There was only the mission. And the mission was simple; kill the daemons, by any means necessary. And by the Emperor, was he going to do just that when he got his hands on them.

Apart from the hushed whispers going back and forth among the rebels, it was a quiet affair inside the church. The reasons for this sudden quiet were seated together in a corner by themselves, holding a telepathic conversation with each other.

"I don't like this place. These guys haven't stopped glaring at us for even a second," Robin commented sourly as he discreetly took a peek over his shoulder. As he had expected, there were at least seven people glaring hateful daggers at them. And those were only the ones he was able to see.

"I'm afraid we don't have much choice. At least this way we have a base of operation and don't need to fight every single armed group we come across," Aqualad reasoned. None of them could deny the wisdom behind those words, but it hardly made their situation any less bearable.

"Maybe, but I ain't turning my back to these crazy fellows anytime soon," Superboy commented with his usual grumpy voice.

"He's got a point there. Besides, that guy with the knife is giving me the creeps," Kid Flash added while nervously glancing at the aforementioned guy, who was in the midst of slowly sharpening his knife while his eyes remained fixated on the ginger. Before anything could escalate, the doors of the church were flung open and a bleeding young man came rushing in like the Devil himself was on his heels.

"GRENADIERS! THERE ARE GRENADIERS COMING THIS WAY!" he shouted in pure panic as he kept on running, until he literally ran into the giant man leading this force, at which point he bounced back and landed flat on his ass.

"Calm down, son," he admonished the hyperventilating soldier before lifting him back up on his feet, "Now take a deep breath, and tell me; what happened?" the soldier took his word to heart, calming his breathing before speaking again.

"Grenadiers, sir, lots of them. At least thirty of them are coming at us from the east. We tried taking the longer route to confuse any would-be pursuers, but ran straight into another twenty coming from the south and west. Most of us got slaughtered before we managed to get away," unshed tears began gathering in his eyes at the last news, his body trembling as he struggled to keep those emotions inside.

"We hurried back her as quickly as possible, but another gunfight had erupted to the north, and we went to help our comrades. Turned out another twenty Grenadiers were coming from that direction, and were mercilessly mowing down any who got in their path. What was left of my squad stayed behind to delay them while I was sent to deliver the news," by this point, a crowd had begun to gather around them, anger and dread sweeping through their ranks. Frantic whispers erupted as many wondered if they should turn tail and run.

"Alright, ya pansies! We got uninvited guests banging on our front door! Let's get ready to tell them to fuck off!" the leader of this motley band of survivors suddenly roared. His order brought a sense of direction to the mob, as they began scurrying back and forth to prepare for battle. And in the midst of this chaotic preparation, the team pushed themselves forward to the commander.

"Seems like you get a chance to earn your living earlier than expected. We can't allow those Grenadiers to find our hideout, so we're gonna have to take them on out in the city," he stated while loading a grenade launcher. Aqualad nodded his head in understanding.

"My team and I will deal with the Grenadiers coming from the north," he volunteered, receiving a grunt of affirmation from the giant man.

"Good, that leaves me open to focus my troops into choke points," he muttered to himself. Aqualad took that as a sign of being dismissed and so rejoined his team and silently led them out of the cathedral.

"So what's the plan?" Kid Flash asked as they rushed along the road.

"Just as I said, we'll deal with these Grenadiers," Aqualad answered evenly. Truth be told, he had not drawn up a working plan just yet.

"You think we should interrogate these ones as well? In case they know where Krieg is?" Miss Martian asked, but Aqualad shook his head at that.

"I doubt they'll be any more cooperative than their comrades from before. We'll just neutralize them, and don't bother with prisoners," he stated. Several tense minutes of silence followed before the noise of gunfire reached them. Soon afterwards, they ran into a killing field. Four bloodied and ragged rebels were taking cover inside a half demolished house while laser rounds whizzed past overhead. Well over two dozen bodies lay strewn about, both inside the building and out on the street.

One of the last survivors was at least returning fire with what looked like a futuristic version of a Bren machine gun, screaming profanities like there was no tomorrow. The moment the team jumped inside the building, the three remaining rebels turned their guns on them, the fourth was still too busy spraying bullets down range to notice what was going on right behind him.

"What the hell? Are those xenos?" one of them, a textbook definition of a hillbilly, asked in equal amounts of confusion and disgust. Once again, it fell to Aqualad to act as a peace keeper.

"We're not here to fight you, we're here to help you," he stated while holding his hand in a nonthreatening gesture. A scoff came from the second one, a young blonde woman with a shotgun in hand.

"Like we'd believe that bullshit," she spat in contempt, finger dangerously twitching on the trigger. In the end, it was the third, a bald man bearing frightfully similar looks to Lex Luthor, who diffused the situation as he pushed down the guns of his two comrades.

"We don't have time for this, not with those Grenadiers breathing down our necks," his statement was punctuated with a laser round burning a hole through the Bren operating man's shoulder, rocking him back for a bit before he resumed firing with another string of profanities that made Miss Martian blush in abashment, "if they're here to help us, then let them. We can always shoot them later if we survive this,"

That seemed to calm the two of them down, at least to the point that they were not aiming their guns at them anymore. A moment of tense silence followed between the two groups, with none sure how to proceed from there.

"What the fucking hell are you three doing?! Stop fucking jerking yourselves off and start helping me kill these cocksuckers!" the one operating the Bren suddenly shouted while he reloaded, never taking his eyes away from the window he was manning. That made them snap out of their little stupor, as the surviving rebels each took a firing spot and started pouring out shots.

"Superboy, advance down the middle and draw their fire! Kid Flash, swing wide and try to flank them! Miss Martian, switch to camouflage mode and give me a bird's eye view of the battlefield! Robin, use the buildings to get closer! Try to find their commander and take him out!" Aqualad was swift to bark out orders to him team, a speed only matched by the team's ability to carry them out.

With their attention fully fixated on the front, Robin made use of his acrobatic skills to swing up on the upper floors and started moving closer towards the enemy's position. About halfway there, he found that he did not need to go the whole way. Apparently, these Grenadiers were not great fans of stale combats, as they had all charged right down the street and sparked a violent brawl with Robin's teammates.

His first instinct was to leap down and help his friends, but he was stopped when he felt the familiar cold touch of a rifle muzzle pressed against his neck. Instantly, he froze up in shock, internally kicking himself for such a stupid rookie mistake. 'Why the hell didn't I check if I was alone. How could I be so stupid so as to think that the enemy would not have also thought of using the buildings to outflank us?' he used these questions like mental batons to beat himself half to death with, all the while trying to come up with a plan of escape.

"Drop the disguise, daemon," his captor suddenly ordered harshly, with a voice that sounded very familiar to Robin.

"What?" he responded in confusion, obviously not having the tiniest clue what he was babbling about. In response, the gun was pressed harder against his neck.

"Stop with this useless charade, daemon. I know the truth, so you can stop pretending to be Robin," he stated coldly. His words caused Robin's eyes to widen in surprise. He called him Robin. No one here could possibly know his name was Robin. Unless…

"Krieg, is that you?" he asked hesitantly.

"Don't call me that, daemon," Keled snarled at him. That confirmed it in Robin's mind, this was their missing teammate.

"Listen, I'm not a daemon, it really is me," he tried to explain, but Keled would have none of it as he viciously kicked him in his back, bringing Robin to his knees.

"Enough. Your lies won't ensnare me a second time. I know that my supposed time on Earth was just a mere illusion now. And now here you come, thinking you can fool me by wearing the faces of imagined comrades," Keled sneered at him, still keeping his hellgun pressed against his back.

"No, you've got it all wrong, Krieg! You're trapped in an illusion right now!" Robin desperately tried to explain, all the while he discreetly slipped a few smoke pellets from his belt. He received a scoff from his teammate.

"You truly expect me to believe the words of a daemon?" he questioned condescendingly. Robin could definitively see that he was losing control over this discussion, and tried to steer it back on course.

"I'm telling the truth! The Joker captured and tortured you, so we brought you to the Cave's infirmary. You must at least remember that," indeed, Keled did remember it. He sometimes even felt phantom pains from the torture he supposedly endured, gone so fast he barely had time to truly feel them.

"We left you in the infirmary to recover. But when we went to check on you the next day, you had slipped into a coma. We called in Martian Manhunter for help, and he determined that you were trapped in some kind of psychic illusion," Robin explained while trying to keep a calm head, knowing full well the trigger happy nature of Krieg.

"If that's true, then why didn't you just wake me up?" Keled asked skeptically. A sigh came from Robin before he continued explaining.

"We tried, but whatever it was that was holding you would not let go. Nothing we did worked, and Martian Manhunter fears that it's such a deep-rooted grip that if you die in here, you'll essentially become brain dead. But we did find a way to send others into this dream world of yours, to break the hold it has on you from the inside. So we came to rescue you," Robin truly expected that to at least make Krieg consider his words. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

"Now I know that you're lying. There is no way that the team would be stupid enough to risk all of their lives just to save me," he stated with conviction. He knew this to be the truth with absolute certainty. He was a mere nobody, a simple cannon fodder destined to die on some unnamed battlefield. No one in existence could possibly think that he was important enough to be saved.

"That's where you're wrong, Krieg. You're our friend and teammate, and we don't leave our friends behind. We're all in this together, as one team," Robin countered him with equal amounts of conviction. That actually made Keled hesitate, made him wonder about the truth in Robin's words, but it only lasted for a short moment.

"Do you truly expect me to believe those lies of yours?" he sneered at him. Strangely enough, Robin remained completely calm this time.

"If you really believe I'm lying, why haven't you pulled the trigger yet?" he asked. This time, Keled said nothing, his finger just tightened on the trigger. Robin's reaction was instantaneous. He dropped the smoke pellets to the floor, engulfing them both in thick black smoke, before leaping back up and kicking aside Keled's gun just as he discharged a shot. Drawing a birdarang, he flipped right over Keled's shoulders and sliced off the cables connecting his hellgun to its power pack.

But Keled recovered faster than Robin had expected, spinning around and swinging his now useless gun like a two-handed club at him, striking a powerful blow to his chest that slammed him straight into a wall. Keled quickly threw aside his gun and charged right at Robin, coming at him with a haymaker that was barely dodged. Robin moved under Keled's guard to land a quick blow to his stomach before darting back to avoid an elbow strike. Adopting a boxing stance, Keled pressed the attack, sending punch after punch at his nimble opponent.

"Please, Keled, you have to trust me! This isn't the real world, you're just being used!" Robin continued to plead with him, even as he backpedaled to avoid the barrage of strikes that Keled let loose on him. Keled meanwhile said nothing, focusing all his attention on beating him to a bloody pulp. Striking out with a sideways kick, he hoped to knock Robin off balance. But Robin was too fast as he dodged the attack and delivered his own kick to Keled's other leg, causing him to lose balance and topple over.

He was up on his feet in no time again, and caught Robin's fist as he tried to blindside him. He twisted the whole arm to the point of nearly breaking it, eliciting a cry of pain from the young hero, before he sent a fist straight into his face. Blood squirted out of his broken nose as his small body went flying through a hole in the floor and landed painfully on the first floor. Robin groaned in pain, feeling like his spine was cracked by the impact. Feeling a shadow falling over him, he instinctively rolled aside, seconds before Keled's booted feet impacted the ground he previously occupied.

But the impact seemed to have jarred Keled quite a bit, as he did not move from his position, and took several seconds to just straighten up from his prone position. robin took the chance to strike back, coming in with a spinning kick that knocked Keled over before straddling his back and placing his arms in an arm lock behind his back.

"I don't want to fight you, Krieg. But if I have to beat the truth into your thick skull, then by God I'll do it," he threatened. What he had forgotten to take into consideration was that he was a small thirteen year old boy, and Keled was a sixteen year old soldier with a lifetime of training and physical conditioning. With some effort, he rose back up on his feet, with Robin now desperately clinging to his back.

Too late did he realize that he probably should have let go, as Keled suddenly threw himself backwards, straight into a wall. Robin ended up squished in-between the wall and Keled for a short few seconds, before Keled stepped away and slammed him into the wall again. And again. And again. And again. And again. Finally, Robin had had enough and slid off Keled with a weak groan.

Keled was swift in picking the young boy up and slamed him against the wall, hands around his throat. Yet despite this, Robin showed no signs of fear. Instead, he looked straight at Krieg with a sort of calm resignation.

"Is this really how you want to end your days? As the plaything of some sick bastard manipulating this whole world? After all that you've gone through, you're going to just give up like this?" those words stung deeper than Keled desired, but he was determined to block out the lies spewing from this daemon's mouth. That is, until he uttered these twelve words;

"What would your beloved Emperor think if he could see you now?" instantly, Keled's whole body went rigid, like a thousand voltages had just been pumped through them. What went through his mind at that moment, no one would probably ever know. But in the end, he violently threw Robin aside, sending him crashing through a moldy table. Before he could even recover from the impact, Keled had seized him by the cape and dragged him towards the door leading outside, where the sounds of battle were still raging on strongly.

Temporarily blinded by the bright sun as he was thrown out on the street, Robin soon found himself hoisted back up and felt a knife pressed against his throat. Now he started to feel a twinge of worry.

"Drop your weapons, or the child dies!" Keled roared over the noise of battle. When Robin's eyesight finally cleared enough to see again, he found that everyone had frozen up in surprise, and that his teammates were looking at him with horror in their eyes. He wanted to assure them he was fine, but the knife was suddenly pressed harder against his throat, hard enough to draw blood.

"I will not repeat myself a third time. Drop your weapons and surrender, or he dies," Keled warned monotonously. At first, no one dared to make a move, and Robin fear mounted with each passing second. 'Don't do it, guys. You'll die if you do,' he desperately tried to tell them mentally, whether they actually heard it or not was unclear. But deep down, he knew they would comply. Like he told Keled just a few moments earlier; they never abandoned a friend.

Aqualad was the first one, dissolving his water swords and dropping the handles. And one by one, the rest of the team raised their hands in the air as a sign of surrender. Wordlessly, the Grenadiers rounded them all up and forced them to kneel in a line, a Grenadier standing behind each one of them with a hellgun pressed against their necks. Robin was brought before the commander, whose sole focus was on Keled.

"Why did you order them to surrender? We do not take prisoners, especially when dealing with daemons," he stated monotonously, though he still managed to slip in a hint of distaste at the mention of the word "daemon".

"I merely thought this would save us the time and effort it would have otherwise taken to kill them in a prolonged battle," Keled answered dully.

"Very well, then I suppose you would not mind being the one to kill them," the commander stated before he held out his plasma pistol for Keled to take. At that moment he hesitated, making no move to take the offered weapon, or even uttering a sound.

"I will not repeat myself, soldier. Kill these daemons," he ordered forcefully when Keled made no move. Finally, Keled slowly reached out a hand and grasped the offered gun.

"Yes, sir," he answered, voice a complete void of emotions as he forced Robin down on his knees in front of his friends.

"Don't do this, Krieg. Don't believe whatever lies you've been fed. I know you're smart enough to see the faults I this world," Robin pleaded with him, being thoroughly ignored. And when the team heard his words, all their eyes were drawn to the soldier looming above the kneeling Robin with a plasma pistol in hand.

"Krieg?" Miss Martian asked, voice more like whisper.

"What the hell are you doing, man?! We're your friends, for crying out loud!" Kid Flash shouted in equal parts surprise and betrayal.

"Ignore their lies, soldier. Finish them all, that's an order," the commander interjected, drawing a particularly heated glare from Superboy.

"Krieg, listen to me. If you do this, they'll be no going back. You will have killed a comrade, and doomed yourself to be trapped in this fantasy world for the rest of your life," Aqualad tried to reason with Keled as he slowly brought the gun to the back of Robin's head.

"Good soldiers follow orders," Keled replied hoarsely, uncertain whether he was trying to convince the Atlantean or himself on that point. Miss Martian was full out crying at that point, Kid Flash was screaming and begging Keled to stop, Superboy was trembling with rage, Aqualad watched it all with despair in his eyes. But once again, Robin was strangely calm, despite having a gun against his head again.

"So this is how it ends, huh? Killed by my own friend, who was too blinded by pride and belief to realize he was nothing but a puppet on a string," he wistfully remarked, letting out a humorless laugh at the end, "And here I hoped I'd meet my end at the age of eighty, peacefully falling asleep in my own bed,"

During this whole time, Keled did not move so much as a muscle. Like a stone statue, he remained standing there with the plasma pistol pressed against Robin's head. His finger twitched on the trigger, but he did not pull it. Thoughts swirled through his mind, thoughts he had never expected to appear in his mind, making him hesitate. Making him doubt.

"What are you waiting for? Eliminate the enemy now," the commander ordered forcefully. And finally did Keled find the will to act again. And it was an act he would have never in his life thought he would do.

"Affirmative," he replied monotonously as he raised the gun and pulled the trigger. The Grenadier guarding Aqualad fell back without a head. Before the rest could react, Krieg had fired three more shots, killing the guards for the rest of the team as well. Instantly, all hell broke loose as the startled Grenadiers sprang into action, at about the same time as the team.

"Traitor!" the commander shouted as he came right at Krieg with his chainsword. He dodged the first strike, and was forced back step by step as he kept on coming with slash after slash. Robin tried to sneak up on him from behind, but he must have sensed it as he spun around with a decapitation strike that Robin barely avoided with a limbo move.

Instantly, Krieg as on him with a barrage of boxing punches that knocked him back. Krieg would have pressed on, but the commander recovered with surprising swiftness and counterattacked with a series of wild slashed that forced Krieg back alongside Robin. Seeing their opponent slowly approaching, Robin was about to leap in and attack again, but Krieg stopped him with a firm hand on his chest.

"Go help the others, I'll deal with him," Krieg ordered firmly, receiving a doubtful look from Robin.

"Think you can handle him by yourself?" he asked in concern. Krieg's way of answering was by shoving him back roughly.

"Just go," he snarled out in irritation. This time, Robin did listen and left with one last worried look thrown over his shoulder. The moment he was gone, the commander was on him again with an overhead strike meant to cleave him in half down the middle. He sidestepped the attack and tried to bring his plasma pistol up, but the commander pushed inside his guard and knocked his hand holding the gun aside with the flat of his sword.

As the blade revved up for a bisecting strike, Krieg brought up a leg and kicked the commander square in the chest, knocking him back and giving Krieg enough room to aim his plasma pistol. But once again, the commander recovered faster than anticipated and was charging right at him again before he had even pulled the trigger. One shot that graced his shoulder was fired before the commander was on him again.

A wild slash nearly cut his arm off before he ducked under a decapitation strike and coming up with a surprise haymaker, disorienting the commander and causing him to take a few steps back. That was all the time and space Krieg needed as he raised the gun again and fired a single shot. It blasted a hole straight through his chest, spraying the street behind him with charred pieces of flesh and bone.

Finding that his strength had disappeared with that shot, the commander collapsed to his knees, but still stubbornly holding on to his chainsword. Moments away from dying, he raised his head and looked Krieg straight in the eye.

"How does it feel to be a traitor to the Emperor and humankind?" he simply asked, then he fell over dead. Krieg did nothing, he just stood and gazed at the corpse of his former commander, his mind still trying to comprehend just what he had done. Absentmindedly, he noted that the sounds of fighting had stopped altogether. Even as the team gathered around him, he still would not tear his eyes away from the corpse at his feet.

"Krieg, I know it must feel hard, but none of this is real. You haven't really killed anyone here. You've just…" Robin's attempt at consolation fell short when Krieg whirled around and aimed his plasma pistol straight at his face. The whole team froze up in shock as they beheld their teammate.

"Listen here, Robin. I just committed high treason by siding with you, and branded myself a heretic by consorting with xenos," here Krieg paused in his furious rant to glare accusingly at Superboy and Miss Martian, "I did all of this on the basis that I put my trust in you. But if it turns out that you were lying this whole time, then by the Emperor I will make you suffer like never before,"

The sheer amount of fury and anguish in his voice, so unlike the usually stoic and emotionless Krieg, told the team that he was not messing around here. He was dead serious about his threat. With his mind spoken, Krieg lowered his pistol and picked up the commander's chainsword from his cooling fingers.

"We are wasting time standing out here in the open. We need to move," he intoned monotonously as he strode past him teammates. They lingered behind for a few moments, sharing a wordless conversation with each other before hurrying after their comrade.