A/N : I owe you a big apology for abandoning this story for 2 months! I got major writer's block and I got caught up with lots of things that I missed my own deadline by a month. I hope you like this chapter, it was really hard to put in into words.

Disclaimer : I do not own Glee, but the plot of this story is mine

Reality and Nightmare

If Trent had to pick one emotion that overwhelmed him right now, he would pick disoriented.

Never would he have taught that they were finally able to penetrate McKinley's defense and wrecked them badly like this. As if luck had slipped off their palm, Dalton hit them hard by showing no mercy. The bodies of McKinley soldiers and, Trent tried and failed not to notice, civilians were piling up all over the land that he had to be careful not to step on one of them. Carmel helped in the terms of number too, even though the thought of them joining forces with the sound kingdom still disturbed him. Still, he would gladly accept their help if it means to be able to save Blaine.

His army, along with Jeff's and Sebastian's had swept the civilian area to find the prince while Nick's troops launched the first attack toward the castle to make way for the rest of the troops. So here they were, waiting for Nick to return and reported back to Sebastian.

The corner of his eye silently followed the new Great General. He never liked the man from the beginning but he did not hold grudges toward him. He just made sure that he could not use his power against him, one of Sebastian's habits that put him in so many difficult situations. However, he did not like the fact that the King chose him to be Wes' successor instead of Nick. Whatever reason the King had to choose the newest general as their Great General was a mystery to everyone, but no one dared to question him. So here they were, marching under the command of the youngest Great General Dalton ever had.

However, he could sense that something was off with the young general today. He was usually cockiest of them all when the odds seemed to be in their favor, but right now there was no sign of gleefulness or triumph in his eyes. In fact, those eyes looked dead the moment he finished his speech back at Dalton. He could not decide if this Sebastian was better than the Sebastian he knew.

As his troops were getting closer to the castle, Trent could see that the first attack was a big success. The main door along with the walls beside it was already been destroyed, making a clear entrance for the second attack. However, the victory was not without any sacrifice from their side. The number of Dalton soldiers that survived and now were standing near the castle, waiting for back up, were far less than Trent was hoping for. He only hoped that most of them were still fighting inside and not thinking of the worst scenario.

They finally arrived at the garden area outside the castle and were greeted by . . . Skylar?

"Sir, we have cleared most of the area inside the building but a small group of survivors including the Prince and a couple of generals are still occupying the first floor," the young soldier reported to Sebastian after giving him a salute. He did not look too good, thanks to the burnt mark on his left arm that reminded him of Wes, and seemed to be out of breath but other than that he still got the fire on his eyes.

"Where's General Nick?" Trent blurted the question before any of them could speak. "Why is Skylar taking command of his troops?"

"He stays at Dalton under the King's order," Sebastian cut Syklar as he was about to answer him. "You don't have to worry about Nick. He's safe."

The idea of Nick was safe instantly bloomed inside Trent's head. Well, if it was the King's order, there was nothing he could do about that and dropped the subject.

"How small is this group?" Sebastian gave his attention back to Skylar, who seemed to be disoriented a bit.

"Uh . . . no more than 50 people, but I don't know the exact number outside the entrance area."

"Doesn't matter, we're still winning anyway," Sebastian shrugged, then turned to Trent and Jeff. "Take your troops and clean up the survivors from the front entrance but keep the Prince and generals alive. Me and Skylar will go from the back to make sure they don't have backups waiting to ambush us, even though I highly doubt that," he muttered the last sentence.

They agreed to the plan and while Sebastian and Skylar along with their troops were splitting from the big group to circle the castle, Trent and Jeff were left to prepare themselves for the frontal assault. They withdrew their sword and looked at each other like they usually do before every battle, each one trying hard not to think that this might be the last time they see the others alive. One could say that they had outnumbered the enemy, but it would be stupid to underestimate McKinley. The most ferocious animals are those who are being cornered by their enemy.

He would certainly not underestimate the generals and Prince of McKinley himself, even if he never met much less fought him before.

"What are you going to bet today?" Trent asked Jeff casually, even though the coldness on both of his hands was betraying his calm look.

It was a tradition that the generals, except Sebastian, did everytime they went into war. Each person would bet something valuable in their possession and pointed someone who would receive it if he was killed in a battle. The item must hold a deep meaning to the owner to motivate them from dying in the battle. It was starting as a dark joke but now it became their way to say 'Don't die' to their friends.

Jeff shrugged. "Still the same. My sword," said the blonde general, making a playful swing with the said item.

There was nothing fancy about Jeff's sword, but Trent and the others knew how much it meant to him. It was the sword that he used ever since he was still in the academy and he never changed it even after he was selected to be a general. All the scratches and serrated edge acted as a silence proof on how much he had fought to get where he was right now.

Trent nodded and said, "My uniform, then." He became a soldier because when he was a kid, he saw a general wearing this regal uniform and made him decided that he would wear that someday. All the sweats and blood that he sacrificed to get this uniform made it thousand times more valuable to him.

Jeff sighed and managed to put up a smirk at that. "I hope you survive because that's one ugly uniform you are wearing."

"Said the guy with jagged sword," he snorted.

The blonde general laughed at that. The smile subdued when Trent clasped his hand onto his shoulder. Even without uttering a single word, it felt like a promise that they would make it until the end. They were so close from ending this war and they would not give up no matter what.

They would win this for Blaine, Wes, and Nick.

Trent let Jeff go and turned his back to the troops that waited for their command. Traces of doubt and fear were wiped off immediately and were replaced with determination that was reflected by his soldiers.

"Front row, take position! Second row!"

For a moment, Trent re-organized their troops to adapt to current layout. There was only one entrance to the castle and this could be bad for them. The bottle neck made their number irrelevant so they had to push them back to get that advantage back on their side, and Trent wanted to try something new.

"Do not kill the generals or the prince!" Trent instructed his men after the formation was done. "Terminate the rest with extreme prejudice."

He could feel Jeff's shock look being aimed at him but he ignored it. He was done playing nice. He only wanted to bring back Blaine alive.

He raised his sword and yelled, "First row!"

The soldiers on the first line opened their mouth at the same time and blasted high pitch noise toward the open door. The second row took the task after that, trying to keep the noise nonstop to distract the enemy and took down their guard. Both line slowly close the gap between themselves and the door and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Trent could hear a faint sound of pained scream already echoing from the castle.

"Third!"

The third line quickly caught up with the first and second and proceeded to throw glass bombs through the door. As the bombs exploded, more screams could be heard from inside the building. As if it was the signal, both he and Jeff raised their sword one more time and together they screamed.

"FOR DALTON!"

Just when the last of McKinley soldiers, the generals, and Kurt managed to clear away from the door, a series of high pitch noises blasted from outside straight to their brain. Every single hand flew toward ears, trying to block the unbearable sound from scrambling their mind, which put their entire plan in jeopardize before they even got the chance to execute it.

The original plan was to build a wall between themselves and the enemy. They knew that Dalton was not stupid enough to walk blindly into a bottle neck. Whatever bombs or solid items they would throw through the door, the wall would offer them temporary protection until they could retaliate. Now, they could not even build the wall because the soldiers responsible for the task could not concentrate on their power. The noise was getting louder and they needed a new plan, fast.

"Can you use your power?" Puck suddenly yelled at Rachel from Kurt's side.

Rachel gave him a horror look. "Not in this situation, no!"

"Conjure fog as soon as the noise stops!"

Before she could reply back, Puck abruptly stood up and, to their utter horror, dropped both hands from his ears. Even with his ears blocked, Kurt could hear his pained scream as flame appeared on top of his palm and the next second he threw it toward the open door. Scream erupted from outside the castle and even though the painful shrieking did not stop, it clearly lost some of its power and sparked an idea to the other McKinley soldiers. Each one of those who had similar power took turn on throwing whether it was flame ball, water blast, rock as big as a person's head, or water blast, toward the door. Blood could be seen trickling down McKinley soldiers' ears but they simply shook their head with pained grunt clearly written on their expression and kept throwing things to the enemy.

Kurt may lost his power, but he would be damned if he could do nothing to help. He let go of his ears and in return put them to replace Rachel's above hers. He needed to do this since she needs her hands on the ground to conjure fog.

He was grateful that she caught his intention fast and went into action almost immediately. She closed her eyes, planted both hand onto the cold surface of the marble floor, and concentrated. It was not long after that until Kurt closed his eyes too, trying unsuccessfully to ignore the pain shooting right through his ears. He tried to use the side of his arms to block them but he could already felt blood oozing from them.

When white smoke slowly escaped the cracks on the ground, Kurt let out a relief choke. As Rachel's frown grew deeper, the fog slowly but surely grew and enveloped the door area and some part of the outside until Kurt could not see anything beyond a feet from him.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Puck's face scrunched in pain as his hands flew back to cover his bleeding ears. He mouthed wait to whoever he made eye contact with then followed with the word roof. Kurt simply nodded before letting out a howl of pain. The sound was weaker than the first time but it was still painful for him, especially since he could not block his ears. His grunted pain was distracted by Rachel who tried to turn her head toward him, worry clearly reflected from her golden eyes. However, Kurt forced her to the original position and hoping she could still hear him. "Just focus on the fog!"

Good for them, the noise seemed to get closer to them. Most of the caster must pass the door already by this point. Just when Kurt collapsed to the ground, Puck yelled, "Now!"

Kurt did not see what happened after that but he heard an explosion coming from the direction where the door was and was followed by heavy solid things collapsing onto the ground. By the sound of screaming replacing the high pitch noise, they must have had destroyed the roof on top of Dalton soldiers who went pass the door.

Someone turned him to his back and through his blurry vision he recognized Marley, towering over him. In the middle of the thick fog still hanging in the air, Kurt could see that she was screaming urgently to him but only a faint murmur came through his bleeding ears.

Move to the back.

Accepting her hand to pull himself to his shaky injured legs, Kurt let her guided him away to the source of the thickest smoke. His eyes were blinded by Rachel's power and he was a bit disoriented from the splitting headache he had just now so he trusted her.

That was, until a familiar sound splitting through the dead silence hanging between them.

The Queen's scream.

"No!" Kurt made a move to abandon Marley but her arms tightened around him.

"Sir, it's a decoy!"

If it was only a decoy, he was not the only one being fooled by it. He heard Puck and Rachel's voice telling their men to stay down despite a hint of doubt on their voice.

But the voice, it sounded very real . . .

Another voice ripped through the first one and Kurt's heart dropped to the floor.

"Rachel!"

"Finn?" Rachel's voice rang like a lost child. Finn's scream of pain along with the Queen's blasting through everyone's hearing and sent chill down their spine. "FINN!"

"It's not real!" Puck's voice tried to overcome the others without any success. "It's their . . ."

"KURT, RUN!"

That got everyone's attention, especially Kurt's.

"RACHEL, GET EVERYONE OUT HERE!" Finn's voice broke at his fiancé's name.

If the voice was fake, it was supposed to lure them toward those Daltons. Chill slowly crept from the bottom of Kurt's feet to his head as the realization dawned.

They were real.

With whatever strength left inside him, he half threw Marley aside and ran blindly toward the source of the voice. He was not getting too far away as someone tackled him to the ground and pinned him with their whole weight.

"Let go! LET ME GO!" Kurt half yelled half sob. "That's my mother and brother!" The only family he had left.

"Kurt!"

Kurt looked up to see Puck's eyes pleading at him.

"It's not real. It's not real, Kurt. They're playing with our head," he spoke with such remorse as if every single syllable was a dagger to his own.

Kurt drew out a harsh breath and voiced his nightmare. "What if they are?"

The general gritted his teeth and his tone turned harsher than before. "Then I'll be damned if I'm going to let you commit suicide for them."

Somehow, the fog dispersed and Kurt finally got a hold on what had happened around him. The first thing that caught his attention was the giant pile of rubble lying on the spot where the door was supposed to be earlier. There was a giant hole in the ceiling above it that gave Kurt the idea of the scene. Then his ears caught a familiar howling noise few feet ahead of him; Rachel was on the same position like he was, struggling helplessly against few McKinley soldiers who pinned her to the ground. She was clawing at the rescuer without any success until finally she just succumbed to the ground and cried even harder. His heart clenched at the sight.

To make things worse, there was an explosion from outside; loud enough to shake the ground beneath them. The ruble in front of them collapsed into smaller parts until nothing stood between them and Dalton army that awaited them. For a brief, terrifying moment, Kurt thought that the enemy would just barged in and launched full attacked at them, pissed by the small delay just now. He guessed wrong when only three of them walked through the sand of rubble and stopped only few feet from where the door had been previously.

Kurt did not know who they were but Puck and some of the McKinley soldiers took a sharp breath when they saw them moved toward them.

"Back off! Whatever you do, don't make body contact with any of them!" Puck instructed urgently as he dragged Kurt backward with him.

While letting Puck dragged him away, Kurt's eyes were still on the three Dalton. The one standing on the very left was bulkier than the other two, with short brown hair and a chubby face. The one on the middle got dark skin and by the look on his face, he was very nervous being there. The last one was the tallest, towering the others and stood out the most with his blonde hair. Right now, none of them drew out their sword yet so his men were only putting their guard up while putting a great distance from them.

Kurt did not mean it to happen but when he looked at them, he caught the gaze from the man with blonde hair. He then nudged his friend next to him and now all three of them were looking at him straight in the eye.

This was not going to end well.

When the blonde man moved his lips, Kurt immediately shut his eyes and clamped both hands to his ears. He had almost none experience in fighting Dalton before today and his imagination ran wild trying to guess their power.

Hearing another voice speaking inside his head was at the bottom of his list.

Give up, Prince Kurt. You are fighting a loss battle.

Kurt's eyes flew open in sudden shock, but the hall was still dead quiet except for his own harsh breath. When he looked at the Dalton men again, this time he did not close his eyes as the blonde one moved his lips, followed by the man in the middle. No one could ever them but as soon as the second man opened his mouth and looked straight at Kurt, Kurt heard a voice as if someone standing next to him spoke right to his ear.

There is a good reason why only two of your generals are here right now.

The prince froze at that. He felt Puck pulled his arm but he needed to know. He had to.

"What do you mean by that?" His little voice echoed around the hall, breaking the silence for the first time. Now all of their eyes were on him.

General Evans was murdered by Carmel when they were cleaning out your patrol posts near the border.

His breath was sucked away from him as those words dug deeper into his head and heart.

"You're lying," Kurt said, voice shook like a leaf. Puck at this point almost threw Kurt onto his shoulder and carried him away but the prince still fought him. "You're lying!"

"Don't listen to them!" Puck yelled to his ears but the previous voice was all Kurt could hear.

Sam was dead. Dead like Santana.

There was no hint of mockery in their expression but a shade of sympathy beneath the stoic mask.

We do not know General Finn's whereabouts right now but Queen Hudson is currently with our King as we speak.

Kurt felt like someone slapped him to his wake and next thing he knew, he fought like an animal trying to pry Puck's strong arms away from him in pure horror.

"You leave my mother out of this! No more deaths! Take me but don't hurt them please . . ." The voice was quiet for a moment until finally Kurt stopped fighting and just slumped to the ground, dragging Puck who still trying and failing to get into his head along with him. "Please just stop . . ."

He did not care if he broke down in front of his men and the enemy. He taught he still had the will inside him to fight along with the last of McKinley soldiers and his friends, but the latest news just sucked all of them away and replaced it with hollowness.

His parents. Santana. Sam. Countless men, women, and children of McKinley. His step mother and brother might be next.

And Blaine . . . With wounds like that and no chance for Kurt to come back to him, he probably would have been dead by now.

Kurt wanted to wake up from this nightmare already.

Are you ready to cooperate? The sound appeared once again with the same grim tone.

Before Kurt could answer the voice, Puck suddenly abandoned his effort on trying to drag him away and instead raised his sword and yelled from the top of his lungs. "ATTACK THEM!"

"No!" Kurt's scream was ignored as McKinley soldiers threw everything they had got to where those three men stood. They managed to jump away to the left to avoid few balls of flame from the angry general and finally pulled out their sword, but not before shouting to their army to stand down.

Even though they were outnumbered and some of McKinley's soldiers were standing too close to them to be able to get under their power, they did not use it. They just dancing around them, dodging whatever being thrown at them and made a move with no intention to kill. Kurt then realized that they were giving Kurt time to surrender and end this peacefully.

And that was exactly what Kurt was going to do.

Because he lost his stolen sword in the midst of chaos that happened just now, his eyes then landed on a piece of sharp stone; possibly once a part of McKinley's castle. Oddly for Kurt, his heart did not beat as crazy as it was before. Maybe it was because this time he knew what he had to do or the fact that simply did not care about his wellbeing anymore.

He took a deep breath, filled his exhausted lungs with dusty air then placed the tip of the jagged stone on his neck and yelled as loud as he could with his already hoarse throat.

"MCKINLEY!"

For a brief moment, he was afraid that they would ignore him. Then, one by one, they reluctantly looked back to where he was standing and made a gasping noise as soon as they realized what Kurt tried to do. The Daltons saw this too and took the chance to escape from Puck's sword when one of McKinley soldier pulled the general and made him look at the prince. Not too far from him was Rachel, eyes widen in horror. Shock, fear, and betrayal were flashing on their eyes but at least he got their attention.

Kurt did not need to raise his voice anymore because once again silence covered the entire hall. "Stand down or I swear by McKinley I will do it."

When his legs brought his numb body toward where the Daltons stood, even though the sea of the last remaining of McKinley soldiers parted in fear, they kept chanting pleads to their prince. My Lord, please. We can still fight. Don't give up now.

He felt like a traitor who walked toward the gallows.

Kurt stopped between Rachel and Puck. This time, no one made a move to approach him and he was grateful for that. Tears were threatening to spill from their eyes and Kurt himself was undone when he saw this.

"Thank you for everything, guys. I'm sorry I let you down again," Kurt's voice broke but he managed to form one last smile for his best friends. Friends who stood by his and his family side from the beginning. Before they could react, Kurt moved forward and presented himself to the Daltons.

"Wise choice, Prince Hummel," the bulky Dalton commented still without any hint of mockery on his voice.

"Just promise me you will let my men live," Kurt whispered, suddenly felt really tired.

"Of course," he agreed. "My King is currently waiting for us at the Great Hall. After you, My Lord," the soldier added, motioning for Kurt to lead the way. It was nice to have some respect from the enemy. For a moment, Kurt thought they were going to humiliate him in front of his men to rub on the shame on his face.

He was starting to walk away from the scene when the sound of something heavy dropping on the ground got his attention.

Kurt's eyes went wide at the new player from behind his troops but by the time he tried to warn them, more McKinley soldier crumbled on the floor without the chance to put any fight for some reason. Their open, lifeless eyes were hard hit much to Kurt's horror. As his men were falling down, another troop of Dalton emerged from their back and kept throwing invisible attack at the helpless McKinley, being cornered from both sides.

"You promise!" Kurt screamed at the bulky Dalton. The look of shock on his expression did not register in his head and instead he swung the sharp stone he still carried to attack him. The Dalton recovered quickly and grabbed the hand that held the weapon before it got to him. Kurt saw a flash of reluctant when he saw him opened his mouth.

"Show me what you fear the most."

When Kurt opened his eyes, he was the only one standing in the hall. Lifeless bodies scattered everywhere around him. All of their eyes were golden.

From the corner of his eyes, he caught sight of Puck and Rachel on the ground. He dropped to his knees and cupped Rachel's face. Wake up, he pleaded but her eyes were still empty like the rest of his people. A sob broke from his trembling lips when looked around and registered more familiar faces.

Sam.

Santana.

Queen Hudson.

Finn.

When he looked at the destroyed door, only black smoke and ruins covering the whole land of McKinley.

No sight of Dalton and Carmel soldiers, as if they had finished what they came for and left Kurt to deal with the aftermath.

As he looked up, he caught someone else standing at the other side of the hall. This time, he let tears of relief fell from his eyes.

"Blaine," he managed to croak the name, letting a bit of warmth creeping up his cold body as he stood up and began to walk toward him. He still got someone to fight with.

Kurt did not hesitate when he threw his arms around the Dalton prince and hug him as if his life depends on him. "I'm so glad you're alive." When he pulled back, Blaine gave him a smile that inflates his hope that everything would get better eventually. As long as he got . . .

Pain suddenly exploded on his stomach. The smile was gone and when Kurt's gaze fell down, Blaine's hand was still clutching at a dagger that now was deep inside him.

"Blaine . . . " he choked on his own blood that spilled from his mouth. Kurt's head went limp and landed on Blaine's shoulder as the other embraced him into an almost intimate hug, as if to mock him when the dagger went deeper to his stomach.

"Thank you for letting me in," a familiar voice spoke coldly to his ear before everything went black.

Trent pulled back his power and unconsciously took a step back from the prince who was now on the ground, body trembling badly and eyes were wet but blank at the same time. What was that he just saw? That could not be right. His eyes went back to his victim in confusion. The vision flooded his mind and blocked his surroundings, including Jeff's voice who was participating in screaming battle with Sebastian.

Why was Blaine take part in prince of McKinley's nightmare?

The obvious fact that made his heart beat faster was that Blaine managed to make direct contact with the prince and left good impression on him. But then the whole scene was just plain weird, starting from when Hummel went straight to hug Blaine and had the look of relief and longing on his face.

The last scene confirmed something bad for Trent, that Blaine's cover was blown. If it had not, his eyes would be gold instead of his usual red. That means Hummel had seen his real eye color. Yet, still went to him at the first place and without any fear or even a hint of wary on his expression. If what he saw was Blaine being responsible for all of those deaths in the first place and Hummel knew this, he would get it. But this . . .

"Trent!"His head snapped back at Jeff's sharp voice that called him. "We're being called to the Great Hall. Grab the prince while I deal with these two."

Trent finally acknowledged his surroundings. The sight that greeted him was unfortunately not that different from the prince's nightmare. Every last one of McKinley soldiers in that hall were scattered on the ground except for the two generals who were standing motionless beside Jeff, Trent was pretty sure they were under his power right now. Not too far from them was Sebastian, mirroring the annoyed look that Jeff wore and a bit of impatient expression added on his gestures.

"Sebastian, take the generals and the prince with you. Jeff and I are going to coordinate with our men to make sure that we still got the upper hand here." He was glad the lies rolled smoothly from his lips.

The Great General eyed him for a moment, as if knew that he was lying, but then shrugged and signaled his men to grab their prisoners. "Be quick, the King is waiting."

As soon as Sebastian and his troops were gone, Jeff berated him loudly. "Why didn't you stop them? We were finish down here and he just barged in and killed everyone and you . . ."

"Shut up and listen," Trent's sharp voice cut him. He was about to open his mouth when the last person he expected to see right now showed up from the side of the hall where the wall broke down too.

"WES!" Both of them could not contain their shock when they former Great General approached them, throwing down the hood of his cloak and gave them grim smile.

"What are you doing here? If I know you can walk already, I won't let Smythe take your position," Jeff grumbled not unkindly though as he patted him lightly on the back, afraid to hurt him.

For a brief moment, Wes seemed to be confused on something. His next words that were coming out of his mouth looked as if it was not the answer he was looking for. "I have to bring Blaine back, just like what you are sent here for. It was my fault that he is here in the first place and when everything went downhill . . ."

"Yeah, about that," Trent once again took over the conversation. "There's something I need to tell you two."

He retold his vision to his fellow generals and their reaction was no different than his.

"Somehow I get this weird vibe that we are here for the wrong reason," Jeff commented, frowned deeply as soon as Trent finished. "Too bad the King hold Nick back in Dalton. He could shed some light right now."

"That would be a big advantage for both Sebastian and the King," Trent added bitterly, then his expression turned to fear. "Gods, what if something bad happens to him?"

"We can't do anything about Nick until we get back, so let's focus on finding Blaine and figure out Sebastian and Anderson's secret agenda," Wes tried to reason with the younger general. "I will keep looking for Blaine. I figure Sebastian ordered you two to find the prince?"

"You miss the party, Wes. I think the last survivors and members of Hummel family are being gathered in the Great Hall by the King and Sebastian."

Trent saw Wes gritted his teeth. "What a coincidence, everyone in the same room. What are the odds that Blaine might be there too?" Jeff's eyes grew widen.

"You can't go there! If the King notices you being here, he will put a kill order on you!"

If it was possible, Wes' red eyes grew a shade darker than before. "If that happens, this time I won't go down without putting up a fight."

I don't know when I will post the next chapter but if you want to know how Kurt will react when he see Blaine, you have to wait patiently...