The One-Handed Guard Captain wasn't exactly returning to tranquillity as he returned from outside the walls. He had seen Pilerius and co off, reluctant at first but seeming a bit more relived as he stepped back inside the gate.

In truth, he'd faced too much insanity, these past few days and was hoping the Nine would grant him some time off.

"Seal the gate!" He called, expecting to hear the groaning of the gears, getting to work but finding himself disappointed.

"Seal it!"

He was somewhat low on patience, the stump that was once his hand flared as he grew more and more frustrated with his lot.

A few moments of being ignored was all it took for him to storm his way over, ready to bite off some recruit's head.

"What's the matter, are you people deaf!?"

"C-Captain!? They're back!" One of the younger guards called out. Captain Savlian Mattius wasn't exactly expecting this to be the case, prompting him to jump up the stairway, onto the boardwalk.

"Are you mad? They..." His approach to the boy was cut short as he saw the figures, morphing into shape at the top of the hill. One of the beasts was making his way towards the City... Alongside him a well-dressed young woman.

The weirdest thing about all of this was that they were alone, no one else seemed to be behind them and neither of them had their weapons drawn or at least looked like they were ready to use them.

Not quite understanding this, Mattius glanced back to his men.

"I'll intercept them. Cover me and wait for my signal."

"Sir!"

With that, Mattius dropped down and made his way over.

"Stupid Humans! Building City on hill makes it annoying to reach!" Ogrel groaned, catching his companion's eye as she looked to him, with a bemused look.

It was like travelling with a child.

"That's the point, Ogrel. It repels invading forces." She explained, she wasn't exactly fazed by the climb as she was used to walking great distances by now. A steep hill wasn't much worse than the road from Chorrol to Kvatch.

"Mrgh... Ogrel would smash them harder for wasting his time! Wouldn't stop Ogrel, just make him mad!"

"Well, I guess nobody built anything with you in mind, Ogrel." Rachael pointed out as they reached the top, finding that the city gate had already been attacked and the soil in front of it had already been disturbed.

It took her a moment to take it all in, not bothering to move any further until she had. Dry blood on the floor, holes in the walls from some sort of... crossbow? This destruction was unlike any she'd ever seen but it had the signature of any conflict she had been unfortunate enough to witness.

"N-No!" The Nemer gasped, rushing ahead as she approached the gate, immediately finding herself cut off by the Guard Captain.

She noticed that his hand was missing and the wrist was heavily bandaged... It looked fresh, given that the bandage had traces of fresh blood on it.

"Woah! Let's reel it back a bit, Ma'am!" Mattius began, extending his non-existent hand before sighing and switching to the other one.

"What're you and... that thing doing here?"

As he spoke, he gestured to Ogrel, in a manner that felt kind of rude to the two of them. Ogrel, due to him being the target of the racist slight and Rachael, because her companion hadn't done anything wrong... yet.

"That 'thing' is Ogrel and he's with me!" Rachael insisted, folding her arms.

"I've come to see Pilerius, the Count?"

"Well, thanks to Ogrel's kind, the Count has gone on a mission to a nearby Ayleid Ruin. I reckon that he'll be gone for a few hours, assuming that he comes back at all."

"Wait... You know what Ogrel is?" Rachael observed, glancing back to him and eyeing the creature, who was looking at the stone work, baffled by it all.

"Can you tell us more? I'm trying to help him figure out who he is... It'd help me understand the situation as well. I've fought alongside Pilerius before, I'm sure that I could again."

"Erm... Very well but I'll have to be quick, those creatures might be back soon and we barely repelled them last time." Mattius stepped aside and gestured for them to come through with one hand, whilst holding up his stump, to signal his guards to remain docile.

Ogrel wasn't a threat yet and he didn't intend to make either of these two enemies of Kvatch...

They returned to Pilerius' castle and Mattius concisely and methodically went through everything that he knew about this mess. Ogrel lost interest as soon as it stopped being about him, dwelling on the label of 'supermutant.'

Ogrel did have some form of desire to fight, kill even and this would explain all of that but he didn't have a desire strong enough to hurt Rachael or Captain Stumpy.

"So... Ogrel and his people came from another dimension? Like a plane of Oblivion?" Rachael asked, finding herself interested.

"Hmm? Yes. That's what I got out of it... Though I've been told that it's not a plane of Oblivion, they come from a strange place known as... 'Dee Cee.' Along with that... Vagabond, in the coat." The Guard Captain seemed almost as out of the loop as she was, which proved rather frustrating to her.

"Hmm... Ogrel, do you remember anything, based on what Matius has said?"

"Remember... Yes. Remember... Vault 87, mutants... very angry, lots of weapons, no end to list of enemies. We fight, kill, eat! It... Used to make Ogrel happy, Ogrel not sure now."

"Hmm... What changed your perception?" Matius asked, finding himself interested in the Mutant's shift in perspective.

"Ogrel work with Sky Lady. Sky Lady and Ogrel work together, strong together. Me no survive on own, Sky Lady save me and give me name. Me not able to kill Sky Lady. Me would be weaker for it."

Rachael considered that to be the nicest thing that a blood thirsty monster had said about her.

Or one of them anyway.

"So, you understand the necessity of compromise, based on our experience?"

"Erm... Yeah. Think so. Ogrel not understand words but understand points. Ogrel thrive better under Sky Lady."

"Why... Sky Lady?" Rachael asked, it wasn't that she'd just picked up on it, it was starting to sort of bother her as it made little sense.

"Lady blue, like sky. Make Ogrel head hurt, longer he looks at her. Like Sky. Sky Lady." Ogrel shrugged.

"Also, Richard McDonald too long name for Ogrel. Ogrel like short name. Sky Lady."

Rachael sighed, figuring it would be something like that...

At least Sky Lady was dignified... In fact, it had a bit of mystique and gravitas to it.

"Well... I suppose this is where you and I part company, Ogrel. I need to go and help Pilerius in the ruin."

"Wut? Ogrel no understand! Why Ogrel can't go!?" Ogrel pointed out.

"Ogrel can g-" She had to stop herself, realising that this caveman talk was somewhat contagious.

"You can go but I didn't think you'd want to... You don't know Pilerius or me and you'd likely be fighting your own people..."

"Ogrel only know Sky Lady! Sky Lady Ogrel's people! Ogrel not want to be left behind, with Captain Stumpyhand and his robot human friends!"

"I..." Rachael couldn't really argue with that... 'logic?'

"I'm happy to have you, just didn't want to make you think you had to come with us."

"Ogrel want come, Ogrel need weapon and Warpaint though."

"War Paint?" Matius asked before it quickly dawned on him.

"Of course! You all look so alike; it would be hard to tell you apart from the others!" The Captain realised, looking around.

"You're in luck actually, the Arena has a lot of warpaint. I'm sure they'd donate some."

"Yes! Me want stand out!"

"Be quick! Every second could count here!" Rachael demanded, not wanting to lose too much of the time that they had left to playing dress up.

Denis recognized the route, quite well. His pipboy map data was a scrambled mess for rather obvious reasons but it wasn't exactly like he needed it. The White tower, arches and steps were exactly as he remembered them being, even though he'd seen them all from a different perspective, running for his life as he was chased by every savage nightmare he'd ever encountered.

Geoth had been observing Pilerius as he'd walked, not really caring where they were going. All they could observe his former pupil and notice the difference. He hadn't expected to run into him again, though to see him so strong and powerful, in such a position of power. It was... Incredibly.

"I honestly had no idea; you'd be the Count of Kvatch."

"Of course not." Pilerius said, indifferently.

"You'd stopped caring about me, the second that I couldn't be your little suicide potion."

"Well, you'll have to forgive me for not guessing that the boy that I raised, with common parents was related to the Count of Kvatch."

"You speak treason, Geoth and you're close to giving me the means to have you killed, like I've been wanting for hours."

"Oh... Wouldn't want that." Geoth admitted, with a sigh.

"Still, my impression was that the Count had some sort of... male heir, who lived the adventurer's life? Whatever became of him?"

"I am him, clearly." The Argonian knew what Geoth was talking about but had no intentions of spilling the beans.

"Wait... So... The Count wasn't a blue lizard man, like Pilerius?" Maeve asked, looking to the Dark Elf, in confusion.

"So... He's...?"

"A fraud? Yes."

"Not another word!" By now Pilerius found himself, staring his former master down, with an intense glare. Maeve was half expecting him to shoot lasers out of his eyes, like an assaultron, that had powered up.

"No, I think I want to hear this, if the two of us are going to be working together." Denis pointed out, gesturing to the soldiers at the back.

"They can't hear us, given how far away they are so... Tell us... What is it that you don't want us to know?"

"Mrgh..." Pilerius scowled, almost ready to have everyone who heard Geoth's insinuations clapped in irons to contain the leak.

"Pilerius killed the heir and took his place." Geoth shrugged.

"Forged the evidence to put himself there and came back as the..."

"Prodigal son?"

"No idea what that means but I'll go with it, sure." Geoth shrugged.

"Wait, so you... Murdered some guy and took his place?" Maeve asked, doing her best to keep her voice low.

"Yes." The Blue Argonian didn't even hesitate to answer, as blunt as the mace of Molag Bal.

"He was weak, hesitant. Kvatch needed a real leader, not some lucky playboy, who happened to have been born with the right blood connections. That simpering boy wouldn't have survived this siege, he wouldn't have made any of my decisions and your Father's damage control measures would've been dismissed."

"You don't actually know that..." Denis pointed out.

"I do know that Kvatch needed me at its throne, not some kid, who doesn't know a damn thing about the stakes ahead of him." The Argonian Blade found himself pausing, taking a deep breath.

"The people didn't even question it, they wanted me to lead them. They were relieved that I was the Count's heir, even though it was basically impossible. Why question a stroke of good luck? The Hero of Kvatch was its lifeblood, this whole time and now he'll keep us safe! Give his gifts to our soldiers and give us the security we've longed for.

They'll only feign outrage, when its safe for them to do so. For now, they're mine to lead."

"Jesus..." Denis murmured, feeling like he'd swallowed back some vomit as he heard that tangent.

"You make Naomi seem on the level."

"Would you kill anyone, to get your way?" Maeve offered, getting the Argonian to glare down at her.

"In a case like that? Yes."

"Even me?"

"Yes."

"Well, at least I can be confident that you'll lead us through this now." Geoth admitted, with a shrug, sighing heavily as he looked away.

"If we get attacked by little girls or young boys, none of them will stand a chance."

"At least I haven't resorted to butchering the men, under my command. Crimson Guard." Pilerius spat, growing tired of his absentee Father Figure criticizing him, with every step.

"Not yet at least..." Geoth found himself observing as the Ayleid ruin came into view.

"Though there's still time."

It was somewhat profoundly disappointing that the ruins weren't guarded but it became obvious that this wasn't exactly by accident. The Supermutants inside were hardly discrete, when it came to their chatter, stomping around and random shooting. It would seem that the vast majority of their force had taken up residency in here.

"Idiot humans on way! We kill them, then Cow-vag!" One of them yelled, doing about as well as one would expect as far as discretion went.

Maeve had to stop herself from giggling at the butchered pronunciation of the city, it was so stupid, that it was almost brilliant.

"What's the plan, My Lord?" One of the guardsmen whispered.

"Do we rush them?"

"No." Denis hissed, cutting through whatever Pilerius would have said.

"Supermutants aren't pushovers and there's dozens of them in there. You do not want to take them on in bulk!"

"I didn't ask you; I asked the Count!" The Guardsman found himself raising his voice a little, prompting Pilerius to slam a hand over his mouth and press him against the wall.

"You need to control your voice, soldier or I'll be forced to silence you and you don't want that. Secondly, I'd listen to Paladin Callaghan as he has more experience than anyone in this realm, when it comes to the Fel Orcs!"

The Guard nodded.

"Denis, what do we do?" Pilerius asked, his orange eyes made prominent by the torchlight's glow.

"I... I know that mutants are big but they're incredibly stupid. We could quite easily trick them into something but I'm not sure what would be affective..."

The Lone Wanderer kind of wished that he had a few wind-up toys on him, for situations like these.

"We could quite easily bottleneck them from here. Maybe lay down some explosives or something?"

"Of course, I have a few spells that could blow them up in this tight environment!" Pilerius offered, holding up his hand and letting the flames dance in it.

"We have the blasting sticks, Sire! We can destroy whatever's left, to be sure!"

"Pilerius can teach me an explosion spell or two, so that I can assist him, I may not have his gift for magic but I know a thing or two."

"Alright... This should do for now." Denis whispered, prompting Maeve to step forward, giving her father a smirk.

"I'll be the distraction!"

"Only if you run it by me first."

"Urgh... No fun in that..." Maeve sighed, putting her hands around her mouth and calling out for help.

"Mommy! I'm scared!" The food yelled, at the front gate of the rock fortress.

Even Elaine, the smartest and most composed of the Supermutants was starting to feel her mouth water. It sounded like that brat, who was in the Dunwich cellars before. Well fed, probably full of fats and sweet sugars but simultaneously quite healthy.

Young, tender flesh, growing bones rich with calcium, sweet blood, fresh new organs and a chance to make her pay for her cocky attitude in the process. What a glorious meal she'd make!

However, while Elaine managed to compose herself, her brethren found it a much bigger challenge.

They roared in unbridled rage as they rushed off, into the tunnels, not even bothering with their posts anymore as they went for food. Their idiot Master hadn't fed them and now they were blind with hunger!

"FRESH MEAT!"

"I'M HUNGRY!"

"EAAAT!"

"My mutants! Stop! We are better than this!"

"MOVE AWAY! I'M HUNGRY!" One of the beasts roared, shoving Elaine to one side. Needless to say, she was losing her patience with these fools.

She watched as they charged upwards, followed by a series of gunshots, explosions and the occasional blade slash. Her foolish soldiers had walked into an ambush.

"No! My Mutants!" Elaine found herself calling out, into the dark, falling to her knees.

"WHY YOU NO LISTEN!?"

The Super Mutant's fists repeatedly hit the tiles as she loudly sobbed against the cold stone, she cared little for the Argonian, Dark Elf and Vault Dwellers, surrounding her, accompanied by a group of 'Cow-Vag' Guardsman.

"WHHHY!?"

"I'm sorry." Denis sympathized, stepping forward to the weeping hulk on the ground, though still keeping his distance, to avoid being grabbed. Even if she was being genuine, she was still dangerous.

"We had to stop you. We couldn't save your comrades but we can save you. Give yourself up to us and I promise, no more Supermutant blood will be spilt, we'll work something out."

It was hard for Denis to make his offer as Elaine constantly whaled over his voice, drowning out his kind words with childish groaning. However, the longer it drew out, the more... off it began to seem.

Elaine started to hyperventilate or that's what it sounded like, in actuality, it became apparent that she was laughing in a rather demented way. It was at the height of all of this, that they noticed the doors open up, the corridors became laden with metallic/leather boots pounding the stone.

"Idiot humans..." She began, curling her fingers and staring straight into Denis' eye.

"You offer peace, while your boots are caked in blood of my kind! You lord over as superior, thinking you win! NO!"

Denis found himself looking around as Mutant Brutes, Masters, Primuses and even an overlord or two marched into the room, weapons trained on Denis and his companions.

"I win! I sacrifice weak! Take out you and your friends, then destroy Cow Vag!"

"Kvatch." Geoth corrected her.

"Shut up, human! It will be 'rubble' soon, so me no care what dumb name you give it!"

The portal shimmered, prompting the Mythic Dawn robed Dark Elf to step through. Despite his less than impressive height, Degaul did look rather grand, in the light of an interdimensional portal.

He emerged, clapping slowly at the situation, with a low and rather faint chuckle.

"Oh, well done! Well done! I am truly sorry that I doubted you, Elaine!" The Dunmer grinned, putting his hands behind his back.

"The Hero of Kvatch, the Lone Wanderer and the Nerevarine's right hand man, believed to be the Nerevarine himself! What a Victory for our order!"

"You beat an old man, a little girl and a man who couldn't name any of the nine divine! An impressive victory, you bald loon!" Pilerius found himself spitting, tightening the grip on his sword.

"What are you even trying to achieve!?"

"It's rather simple, to be honest." Degaul admitted, with a shrug.

"We wish to bring the destructive forces of your world to Tamriel, allowing Mehrunes' Dagon the chance to obliterate the land, without lifting a finger!"

"Supermutants alone won't achieve anything, you'll be just throwing a new threat into the world. A world of Goblins, Ogres, Trolls..." Geoth pointed out.

"The list is endless, the only significance you'll be throwing in is another annoyance, the novelty of which will wear off pretty quickly."

"Supermutants not annoyance! WE ARE YOUR FUTURE!"

"Alright, Elaine! That's enough, my dear!" Degaul sighed, looking straight ahead.

"That's exactly what I want... Another annoyance."

The Dunmer's mouth twitched in a twisted grin, somewhat bafflingly to most in the room as he hadn't come close to explaining himself.

"You plan to annoy us to death? You think these... Creatures, that couldn't destroy Kvatch, unaware are going to rid Tamriel of human life?"

"They don't have to." Denis interjected.

"All they have to do, is bring their guns, their armour, their energy weapons and supersledges and christ knows what else to your Empire's front doorstep and it'll start a technical revolution. A revolution, where the intention will be keeping one ahead of an ever-invading army.

The realm will be at war for so long, they'll probably forget why they started. If they defeat the Supermutants or at least beat them down, they'll have a stockpile of weapons but with no one left to fight and then they turn on each other." The Regulator sighed, staring Degaul in the eye as he came to his conclusion.

"Like our world, you'll consume to the point that it's unsustainable, you'll fight over resources to avoid going back to the life, that you once lead and will likely destroy each other with all kinds of horrific weaponry.

Leaving nothing but wasteland in your wake."

"Aaah!" Degaul pointed to Denis as if pointing out a star pupil at the back of the class.

"Glad there's some brains between you! An excellent bit of deduction!"

He stepped down, pacing around but doing his best to keep his distance.

"My mutants will rampage the countryside, whilst my cultists infiltrate society's most vulnerable spots and will create... complications, to speed things along. The odd power vacuum here, the odd race or religious themed crusade there... Make them all start wishing that Cities and entire regions can be wiped off the map before... Oh! Oh look!

IT CAN!"

It was obvious that the Dark Elf was getting rather excited by all of this, much to the dismay of those observing, who understood. It was... terrifying to imagine someone so happy about the end of the world.

"It's the one thing that unites these worlds, I'm afraid. For all of your hopeful speeches, derived from your favourite children's books, you all exist as products of conflict. Made by loss, destruction, rage and war! From this child's conception to this old man's hermit lifestyle, every one of you was forged in the fires of destruction.

I will bring the conflict from your dead world, to bring death to my own. The two worlds will merge identities, will be destroyed by each other in a method, long since tried and tested, on Mr Callaghan's world! I believe that his world even has a saying for it!

War never changes."

This was difficult to refute, not that it was absolute truth but there was truth to it. Conflict was certainly a driving force behind both of these worlds but there was also something else. Maeve could see that.

"You're forgetting something!" Maeve called out, getting the Dunmer's attention.

"There's something else our universes have in common. Heroes. Like my Dad, Pilerius and Geoth here! That... Scire dude and the Chosen One of Arroyo. None of them will stand by, while you tear their world apart!

We're just a taster of what's waiting for you and you won't be able to run to either world, without being hunted down by one group of Legends or the Other!"

"Quite." Degaul agreed.

"Which is why I think it's high time that I have you all killed." The Dunmer shrugged, snapping his fingers and prompting the mutants to raise their rifles. Within the blink of an eye, a barrage of bullets and lasers hit them from the sides.

None of the Kvatch Guards were fortunate enough to defend themselves, shot to pieces or vaporized before they realised what was going on. Pilerius was fast enough to snatch Maeve, crouching down and holding up his shield to defend them both from the heavy fire, coming their way. The Argonian was fast, rolling out of the way of damage and breaking into a sprint, heading straight past Degaul, towards the portal.

Denis also found himself snatching a guardsman's shield, using it as a method of protection, against the bombardment as he and Geoth closed ranks.

"Wait!" Degaul found himself screaming as the Super Mutants began blasting at both him and Elaine, following Pilerius' movements, who ran between them. He was too fast to catch and the weapon bombardment forced the two leaders to throw themselves down to the floor.

"STOP FIRING, DUNDERHEADS!" Elaine roared, in an almost-earthshattering way.

"LIZARDMAN ESCAPE WITH FEMALE SNACK!"

"Argh! That's the last thing we need!" Degaul found himself especially frustrated now.

"We kill humans!?" One of the Mutants yelled, at the back.

"N-No! Change in plan! These two will make good hostages, in case the Lizard and the Brat try anything untoward. It's the closest thing we'll have to leverage over them."

Denis found himself sighing with relief as he lowered his shield but found himself somewhat startled by the clattering of the dropped shield. He turned back around to see Geoth, stumbling lightly as blood oozed from the cracks in his armour, going pail as he struggled to stay upright.

The Dunmer fell to his knees, with a huff before keeling over, landing face down on the floor, with a loud and rather pained exhale.

"Shit!"

The Wanderer threw himself onto his knees, looking the Dark Elf over.

"WHAT HUMAN DOING!? GET UP!" A Primus yelled, marching over to Denis as he towered over him.

"GET UP NOW!"

"Wait!" Degaul called out.

"He's a physician! He can prevent the Dunmer's death for a short time, correct?"

"Yes! Though I'll need space to work!" Denis countered, not exactly appreciating this mess that he'd been thrown into.

"No supermutants, no guns and no talking!"

Degaul glared at him before finding himself shrugging.

"Fine but on one condition. You turn in your weapons to my mutants, without a fuss as well as the Old Man's."

"Fine! Whatever! Let me work on him!"

"Weapons first!"

Denis found himself scoffing, throwing his weapons to the floor as he let the Mutants scramble them up, clearly not in the mood for this shit. His patient was losing blood by the second, he didn't have time for this idiocy.

"Brown Man have sharp knife!" A mutant observed, snatching at Denis' wrist.

"That's my scalpel, you idiot! I need it, to operate!"

"NO WEAPON!"

"N-No! That's quite alright!" Degaul observed.

"I do appreciate your vigilance though, it shall go rewarded. I'll permit the use of a scalpel, provided that its returned to us as soon as it is no longer needed."

"Thank you." Denis sighed, finding it hard to believe that he'd had to say that...

This was turning into one those days.