He turns back and returns to his tent. His cousin is just getting out of her vehicle when he arrives. "Grey! how good of you to meet me."

"Anna, I told you it wasn't safe yet. Why are you here?" Grey is already frustrated by everything and doesn't want to deal with his cousin.

"You said that there was no sign of the Aelven. That the last defense they had was down. I thought it safe enough so I came. And I brought company." Anna says with less enthusiasm. She doesn't like Grey's current mistress.

"Sheila, just what the hell are you doing here?" Grey lets his temper out on the female now exiting the vehicle. He doesn't like having his personal life and business life together. He'd left Sheila safely behind, far behind and that's where he preferred her.

Sheila pouts, "I heard Lady Anna was coming so I hitched a ride. I got lonely Grey and wanted to see you."

She's pouting and her voice is whining. Grey doesn't like it when the females pout and especially when there is whining involved. "You shouldn't have come Sheila. I don't have time for you right now. Anna shouldn't have brought you or even come herself. You should leave. Now."

Anna hides the smirk that's on her face. She knew that Grey wouldn't like Sheila coming that's one reason why she brought her. The other being if Grey was busy yelling at Sheila he wouldn't yell at her.

Grey controls his temper when Sheila stubbornly refuses to get back in the vehicle. He doesn't wish to make a scene in public so he reluctantly ushers them in the tent. "We are not to be disturbed, unless there is a life threatening emergency. Understood?" The young guard swallows hard.

"Yes, sir understood." The implied threat being his life would be threatened if he didn't comply.

Inside the tent Grey turns on the lamps. He takes his chair and Lady Anna without asking sits in the other. Sheila looks around the tent and finds the only other seating the bed. She sits there and smiles winsomely. Grey turns his steely gaze on her.

"Sheila I don't know what the hell game you are playing but it stops here and now. I suppose it's too late to send you and Anna here," he gives his cousin a look filled with daggers, "back. I'll find somewhere for you both to sleep, but it won't be here and it most definiely won't be in my bed Sheila."

Grey turns his glare onto his cousin. "Now go outside and wait by the damn vehicle. I have a few things to say to my cousin." Not even Sheila dares disobey Grey when he's angry like that.

Grey keeps his voice low. But Anna knows that when Grey does that he's very angry. She bites her lips so she doesn't say anything to make things worse.

"Just what the hell were you thinking Anna? You know as well as I do that the Aelven are sneaky tricky bastards that could have left all kinds of traps behind. I'm still not sure that the last defense was completely deactivated. The only one that can tell me is in a medically induced sleep because of poisons the queen left hidden behind on the console of the weapons control." Grey holds onto his control as hard as he can but he's having a hard time of it.

Anna turns white with this information. Damn Grey has valid reason for being angry with her. She had acted foolishly. "I'm sorry Grey. I'll leave in the morning." Anna replies softly hoping to turn some of Grey's anger.

Grey isn't mollified but he does take his anger down a notch. "Just make sure that bitch is in the vehicle with you, I don't want her around. There's something not quite right about her being here." Grey says. The more he thinks about it the more he knows he's right. Sheila being here isn't right something is most definitely wrong.

"I'll see to it. Even if I have to knock her out and throw her in the vehicle myself." It would be a pleasure for her to do so. Anna smiles in anticipation.

"Taren will help you if you need help. He doesn't like her either," Grey sighs. He doesn't know why he chose Sheila either. That she's good in bed there is no denying but that's all she's got going.

"As for you, I guess as long as nothing else is found you can stay." Grey says and Anna smiles at him. Grey grumbles to himself as he goes to the door.

"Is the VIP tent up and ready for use?" Grey demands.

"Yes, sir." The guard replies a little nervously. He's never seen Grey so angry before.

"Have someone guide them there and take care of any needs they might have." Grey looks over at Sheila and amends his statement. "Other than sexual that is." Sheila gives him an angry stare. It was past time to get rid of Sheila.

Returning inside Grey hears, "Really Grey you should settle down and stop going for whores. They are as like as not going to sell you out one day." Anna says and Grey gets dizzy as he sees a knife aimed at him by a very naked Sheila. Grey shakes it off and sits down. That was weird.

He wonders if the Aelven have left behind some sort of hallucinogenic gas or something.

"Grey? Grey?" Anna's voice sounds like it's coming from far away at first then he steadies himself and he's back to the present to find himself face to face with a concerned Anna kneeling in front of him.

"I'm fine Anna." A knock sounds and Grey tells them to enter.

"Ah, Taren, will you show Anna and her companion to the VIP tent please?" Grey says.

"It will be my pleasure. Lady Anna if you would follow me?" Once more Grey sees a different scene than what he should. He sees Taren dressed in Romanesque armor leading a Lady Anna dressed in clothing of medieval Europe design.

Grey is getting a headache. None of this is making any sense. He turns off most of the lamps and prepares for bed. It's been over twenty-four hours since he's had any sleep. Maybe these visions are because of sleep deprivation.

Though he falls easily into sleep the dreams make no sense. There he's talking to the girl Ariele. He does all he can to make her smile and considers it a triumph if he can make her laugh. He's happy with her. In his dreams he's in love with her.

"You are going to kill me Grey." The words she says he still denies.

"Just because you don't want it to be true doesn't mean it isn't Grey. I'm dying let my death be worthwhile. Let me save you and the others in the castle. If you kill me it will." But he can't do it. He can't kill the woman he loves, even if it means everyone dies.

"Everyone dies Ari. Why should they live if you die?" Grey finds himself saying in the dream but is horrified by the selfishness it shows.

"The Aelven made my life a living hell for ten years. You and Lady Anna, you've made me feel wanted here. Like I could never be there. I was neither Aelven nor human, I didn't belong anywhere. That's why the bitch used me like she did." And Grey understood one of the mysterious she was a half breed. But generally half breeds weren't allowed to live. The queen must have had a reason.

"When the time comes I want you to kill me Grey, save your people with my life." He can tell Ariele wants him to promise but he can't.

In the dream Grey gets angry and the girl Ari shrinks away from him. That pulls him up sharp. "I'm sorry Ari." He gathers the girl in his arms and holds her until her shuddering stops. "I won't hurt you."

"Then the castle falls and you will all die. I'll die no matter what Grey. Let my death have some meaning, let me save you." Grey's heart nearly breaks at her words but still he can't make her the promise she wants. Instead he kisses her and is lost in the wonder it invokes.

Grey wakes up crying at the unfairness of it all. Ari willing to die to save them. Ari dying anyway.

Grey wakes up even more, wait Ari is dying now. Does that mean that she wants him to kill her? But the castle has already fallen. He's the invader not the protector of the castle. Just what the hell is going on?

Grey gets dressed and is surprised to find that he's gotten far more sleep than he'd realized. It was nearly five in the morning. He goes to the infirmary, he doesn't care if it's too early or not.

He gets there and finds Jeshua asleep in one of the nearby beds. He nods to the night duty nurse and goes back to the stool he had used earlier.

Jeshua wakes up and finds his commanding officer there. He slips his gun back to where it was. Grey had taken it all in and was pleased. "Good morning Jeshua."

"Sir. Sorry didn't know it was you until after..." Jeshua mumbles.

"No harm done. I was glad to see it actually. It means that I chose the right man for the job. Any trouble during the night?" Grey wants to know.

"Nothing serious. A couple of idiots thought to make trouble but when they saw me here they backed off quick enough." Jeshua says as he stretches.

Grey didn't think there would be. Jeshua is intimidating even to ranking officers. But he doesn't intimidate Grey

"I've got guard duty in a couple of hours. I'll just get ready for the day then I'll bring you some food. You did eat it all last night right?"Jeshua doesn't want to deal with an angry cook.

"Yes and I even talked to the cook when I returned my tray. You shouldn't have any troubles when you tell him you're getting my food." Grey could get rid of the temperamental man but he could cook. The troops might rise up against him en masse if he did. The other armies are jealous of how well they eat.

"Right general. She has hardly moved though at times I think she's in a great deal of pain. Her whole body kinda spasms and her mouth opens like she wants to scream." Jeshua says looking at the poor girl sadly.

"She very likely wishes to scream. She was poisoned and there is no antidote." Grey replies to the unasked question.

Jeshua nods and heads out to get ready for the day. That would explain a great deal. All except for why the General would wish to sit next to a dying girl.

"Grey?" The voice says softly with love in it.

"Yes, Ari?" Grey had liked the shortened version his dream self had called the girl.

Ari smiles, "Promise me Grey that when the time comes you'll kill me."

Now Grey stops smiling. He doesn't know this girl but she's asking him to do the same thing as the dream Ari asked the dream him to do.

"I can't do that Ari." Grey finds himself saying. He can't go along with this but he can't seem to stop it.

But Ari has other plans. "If you don't kill me someone else will and they won't be as compassionate as you. They will take out their hatred of the Aelven on me. My last moments will be of tortured pain. If you take me out general, than it will be a quick clean kill."

Now the general is at a loss. What is going on here?

"Ari, what is going on? How did you know my name and the nurse's?" Grey demands. Ari shrinks back from him but other than that doesn't move.

Ariele replies in a small voice, "You won't believe me even if I tell you."

"Don't be so sure about that. " Grey says then decides to go for broke. "Last night I saw a vision or something of my mistress Sheila trying to kill me. Then I saw you and I talking and we weren't wearing modern clothing. You asked me to kill you then to save the people in the castle. That Lady Anna was in charge and I was defending. I saw my second in command escorting Anna in the weird mix of roman and mideviel clothing."

Ariele relaxes. Grey is confused but not angry. At least not yet and not at her, yet.

"I don't know all the answers. When you were shelling the castle I fell and hit my head. When I woke up you were there dressed as you say in roman armor. You were in charge of protecting the castle against an enemy. You were sent to protect me.

"Later I fell again, and you took me to see your cousin Lady Anna. It was she that explained things to me. Although your cousin Lady Anna here is unlikely to know anymore than you.

"It seems that somehow the other Lady Anna called using magic to find someone to help her against an enemy too great for you to beat off. I was the result. She somehow pulled me from this world and took me to another. Something like a parallel world in a parallel universe. Something like that.

"There she set you as my protector. Made your brother Taren the temporary leader. Jeshua was someone you trusted and eventually took your brothers place as second in command since you resign.

"Alexis was made my lady's maid. And she has a secret that helps to save the castle. But in the end it all comes down to you. You kill me to save the people of the castle. You didn't want to and you only do it because you loved that Ariele so much. And partly I think because you didn't want to live when she died.

"Since you killed her without reason the law dictates your death. Anna didn't want to sentence you to death but she was going to have no choice.

"That's what I know." Ari says not wanting to spoil the bittersweetness of the ending that Ariele had. She knows that this Grey feels nothing towards her and might feel horror at the idea of killing her outright but in time he'll do the job. Her death is immutable. It's written in every world and universe that crosses her world. If she lives in that world she dies. Very rarely does she get to be with her love.

Grey is appalled. He kills an innocent girl. "I want you to kill me when the time comes general. The anti Aelven sentiment is strong here. There will be many willing to kill me and when you find the dungeon and all its instruments they will enjoy nothing more than to use them on me." Ari smiles sadly.

"What they don't know is that the Aelven have already used them all on me. The only exceptions were ones that unavoidably cause death. The queen ordered them to not kill me. She was furious when I almost died after the one rape." Ari says it all so matter of factly that Grey almost doesn't catch it.

He decides to change the subject. He takes out the translator and gives it to her. "Yes, this is what I was telling you about. You move this here and push this here. Choose which language you want it translated to and move the camera over the page. The translator will give you the translation almost immediately." Ari gives the machine back to Grey.

"Don't trust any surface with your bare hands. I don't know what the bitch covered in poison and what she didn't." Ari warns him once more. "All I know is that she wanted to destroy this world." Ari didn't say it but thought and me especially.

"Where are the Aelven?" Grey asks intently. He watches for any sign of discomfort or tells of her lying.