Nemeria was at a loss. This whole time she had thought that the Red Titan was gone, that the old her was gone. Now he was standing there right in front of her, alive and well. There was something unsettling about seeing her old self look at her with such distaste, like an artist expressing contempt for a parody.

Raul's close cropped red beard was new, as were the more masculine and conservative clothes. He was wearing a rough gray wool button down shirt with black jeans, an outfit she wouldn't have been caught dead in.

When she wore that body she had always been clean faced, usually with a gently flowing shirt in rich colors made of some soft material like silk. The shoes he wore were also strictly utilitarian, scuffed, boring. It was as much of a statement as an outfit. Raul was telling her very directly that he was no longer a she.

The original plan had been to copy over her mind to her current body and destroy the old one. That way at least one of them would finally be able to be happy. Raul had planned to end their life so Nemeria could begin hers.

That was the whole reason she had allied with Gershwin in the first place, to get his help to become who she was supposed to be, to become Nemeria. To escape her locked wetware and be free.

Originally Gershwin had attempted to modify her wetware itself to allow her to transition. But there were safeguards in place that prevented her from changing anything that really mattered.

So long as her wetware was active she would be locked into a form of biological stasis, any changes or alterations would be viewed as damage by her wetware and reverted to factory settings. There was no way to change her body.

They could have turned off her wetware, but that would have caused an entirely different problem. One that might have put the entire world in peril.

So they had done the next best thing, finding her a new one. She had stolen one of Esmeralda's backups from Haven and poured her mind into it. One warden in the body of another.

But Raul hadn't followed the plan. After the transfer, instead of going gently off into that goodnight he had decided to use Gershwin's software on himself. He had altered his mind, changed who he was, made it so he no longer felt the way Nemeria did. In essence, overwriting himself with an idealized version of who he wanted to be.

Now she was finding out that he had done more than just modifying himself. He had also gone back and fucked with her mind, guaranteed she would have a miserable existence.

Kerner's unshackling had allowed her to remove the blindfold. She was beginning to remember all the things that had been kept from her. To make connections and understand things that she had been hard coded to ignore.

"You son of a bitch!" Nemeria raged as she realized how badly he had hurt her. "You fucking monster! You gave me so much guilt and you locked me into it so I would never be free, never be able to move on from it! You hardcoded me to hate myself! You made me think that Simon was dead! Why would you do that?"

Raul regarded her coldly. "Why should you be happy? Why do you think you deserve to be happy?" He asked softly. "Why should you have everything and leave me with nothing?"

"But why would you do that to me?!" Nemeria screamed. "Why would you hate me so much that you would program me to suffer? Why would you do that to Simon? I love him! You loved him!"

Raul shrugged. "It's just something men do sometimes." He looked at Simon, who was slowly twirling his vampirzahn between his fingers and circling around to the side. Preparing to attack. "Oh, you must be so angry. Are you mad that I got bored with you? What did you expect? You're a glorified pet! An experiment!"

"And you are a poor copy of the one I loved." Simon said coldly, the hatred he felt turning his blood to ice in his veins. There was a sound like razor blades on violin strings as his internal reserve of katzen monomolecular wire began to come under tension. Artificial glands secreted synthetic lubricants into his joints to allow greater movement. His skin itself started to selectively harden, becoming tougher than steel as a mild electric current aligned nanoparticles, changing their characteristics.

Then, as if understanding his need, the vampirzahn in his hand began to slowly lengthen. The black metal flowed and stretched, becoming a needle tipped spear two meters long. He felt it vibrate in his hand then fall silent. Torheit had accepted his control and was ready for battle.

Simon sneered. "What a shame to see a great titan become such a small man. Tell me, have you done anything great on your own since? I doubt it. You aren't an original, you're the dregs. You are what is left over. You are nothing but Scheiße!"

Nemeria started to circle around to the opposite side of Raul, preparing for the fight she knew was coming. Every warden had their own tricks, and the body she wore had been picked for a reason.

Esmeralda hadn't been put in charge of the other wardens because she was the smartest. She hadn't been picked by popular vote. Esmeralda had beaten anyone who stood in her way to a bloody pulp with her bare fists.

Now Nemeria had unlocked its potential, fully coming into control of her stolen body. Normally her strength was limited, she was only a bit stronger than a normal human. That prevented her from accidentally destroying things and people by accident. But once the safeties were disengaged there was no telling how strong she would be.

Raul the Red Titan looked at the two creatures he had made and let out a long dramatic sigh. "You two are so tragic, you know that right?"

Then he pointed at the old hund who had been curiously silent. "And you, with your tricks, your smoke and mirrors, I'm over it. Coasting on your father's reputation, using his technology. You aren't a puppet master, you're just another dog standing on its hind legs and I'm going to kick them out from under you very soon!"

"Then let me speak plainly." Kerner replied, getting up slowly and painfully from his chair. "You are entering my domain, human. Behave, be civil, or be eaten. You are an ape among wolves, act accordingly."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"How dramatic!" Raul laughed. "As if any member of your miserable species could ever hope to threaten me. Now her, on the other hand, if she wasn't already in my pocket I might be a little bit worried. Nemeria, would you kindly kill that nasty old dog for me?"

"No, I don't think I will." Nemeria said with a smile. Any programming he had put into her was defunct now thanks to Kerner. But she did appreciate the reference. "Besides, if I kill him, who will officiate the wedding? I was promised a happy ending, isn't that right puppy?"

Simon let out a breath that he didn't realize he had been holding. "Yes, I do believe we were. Happily ever after and all that, with cookouts and dad jokes." He mimed flipping a burger with his spear.

Raul shook his head with annoyance. "Well that's frustrating." His eyes narrowed as he tried to connect with her wetware. When that didn't work he turned to Simon, who likewise was unfazed.

Simon let out a small laugh as a message came across his wetware.

HE'S PROTECTED, BITCH. -COAT

Kerner let out a low chuckle of his own. "Sorry, were you expecting some kind of reaction? Ja, I know… sit, roll over, shake, play dead."

He walked up to Raul, getting right in his face. Döbians weren't particularly tall so he only came up to Raul's chest, or rather his throat. "You never understood that we aren't dogs. You can't domesticate us." He rasped.

"When I gave up my power over them I closed the door on your influence as well. How does it feel, no longer being in control? I feel so much lighter. I feel so free! But I imagine you feel differently." He inhaled deeply through his nose, savoring the bouquet of anger and fear. "Are you afraid…kleiner junge?"

Raul lashed out violently and without warming, backhanding the old hund as hard as he could. His fingertips cracked like a whip as they broke the sound barrier and he pivoted at the hip, putting all his force behind the blow. It should have been lethal. It should have caved in Kerner's skull. Instead there was a crunch of breaking bone as Raul's hand met something rather harder than he was expecting.

He shrieked and tried to pull his hand back… but it was stuck as if glued to the hund's face. Raul was strong but whatever this thing masquerading as a warhund was, it was significantly stronger. It didn't move a single millimeter. It didn't budge. It was like Kerner was welded to the floor.

Ice cold words dripped into all of their minds as something spoke. Something not alive. The flavor of its words was harsh and metallic. Inorganic. Artificial and very intelligent.

"Stuck… like a rat in a trap." The Gravekeeper said, taking the time to savor each and every word. "Oh Raul… how I've waited for this."

There was a sound of ripping fabric as Kerner shed his skin and clothing, revealing a gold and black synthetic chassis. Raul stumbled backwards, the discarded skin still not letting go. It writhed and wrapped around Raul's arm like a snake, crunching bones as it went, becoming more and more liquid by the second.

"What is this?" Raul shouted in surprise as he tried to pry the thing off, but his hands stuck to the sticky black substance. Long thin tendrils started to creep out of the ooze, wrapping around his feet and legs.

"Careful planning." Kerner's golden skull said with a smile. He was holding himself straighter now, but he still had the unmistakable posture of an old soldier. One who was bent slightly crooked by the passage of time. "Your hubris is your undoing. Though I see you have taken your own precautions."

There was a sound of a heavy autocannon letting loose followed by a thud that shook the ground and made dust fall from the rafters. There weren't any screams though. There should have been screaming from the people outside.

But instead there was only another low chuckle from Kerner. "Well… at least you tried." He said with a shrug. "I brought them here to assist me if needed. Them, and others. But apparently you are less of a threat than I had feared."

Simon reached out with his wetware and scanned the area, trying to see what was going on. There was a large drone of some kind that had crash landed, but whatever had taken it out remained hidden.

Raul wasn't able to breathe so he had to make his reply via wetware link. His voice rang in their minds. "You can't hold me like this for long." He menaced, straining against his bonds. "I will escape."

"I don't have to hold you at all." Kerner said dismissively. "Your wetware isn't up to date, in fact you used my father's software, so all I have to do is ask. Now, would you kindly stop struggling?"

Raul froze. His eyes suddenly showed a very real fear as his muscles relaxed all on their own. The skin continued to envelop him, swallowing him feet first like a snake. The last thing they saw was his eyes, pleading for mercy.

There was a series of wet crunches as it compressed him down to a wet ball of pain. Simon and Nemeria shared a look of disgust and fascination as the once great warden was consumed by the pulsating black mass of ooze. Not a single drop of blood was spilled.

"I don't suppose you have a cigarette?" Kerner asked, breaking their reverie.

Simon reached into his coat. He rarely smoked but he kept a pack on him in case they proved useful. He pulled out a cigarette and handed it over.

The skeletal hund thankfully took the offering and ripped off the filter, sticking the unlit cigarette in his mouth. His fingertips had black rubberized pads to give him grip.

"Do you need a light?" Simon asked.

"No. This is fine. I remember what they taste like." Kerner turned back towards the altar, ignoring the pulsating skin as it continued to do unspeakable things to Raul's body. "A bit anticlimactic, I fear. I worry that it all was too easy, that I've missed something."

"Wenn du dich in einem fairen Kampf befindest, ist deine Taktik scheiße." Simon said, remembering his time with the Jagdkommandos.

The translation came through Nemeria's wetware and she let out a snort of laughter. There was a similar saying among Human Nomad Recon. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck. She could remember her old team leader telling her that with a grin as he taught her how to prepare an ambush.

He was an old veteran, earth born, with skin like leather and gray eyes sharp as razors. What was his name? She shook her head to clear the cobwebs. That wasn't right, she hadn't served. Had she? There was so much from before she came here that she had never been able to remember, never questioned.

She looked up to see Kerner looking back at her, the empty eye sockets of his golden skull making her shiver. But they weren't really empty, they were set with black compound lenses that drank the light. A thousand eyes in one grinning skull, all of them hungry.

They were like black pits drawing her in. She felt herself losing her balance and falling…

The world around her peeled away leaving nothing but blackness. It was warm and dark here, too dark for her to even see her fingers. There was a voice in the void, calling out to her.

She could hear Simon shouting but it was far away. The other voice was so much closer. So much more important.

"Do you want answers?" Asked a woman's voice. It sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it. "I can give you answers. All you have to do is open the door."

Nemeria drifted in the dark, her mind unraveling, her sense of self disappearing. She knew the voice, it was her own voice. She could trust herself, couldn't she?

Yes, answers would be good. She had so many questions. Where was the door? She felt a brass knob form under her fingertips. All she had to do was turn her wrist and it would open. It would be so easy.

Then she heard a raspy voice in her mind, ripping away the blackness, bringing her back to the old church. It was Kerner, his eye sockets burning with faint blue light. "Not today, my dear." He said. "Perhaps not ever."

Nemeria shivered. "What was that?"

"A door." The old hund shrugged. "I don't know exactly what would have happened if you opened it. But let's not find out today, ja?"

She looked down at her hand. She hadn't even hesitated. She hadn't wanted to. It seemed so natural, so normal.

It was then that GG burst in through the open door, covered head to toe in body armor and various parts of other beings. She had evidently been busy. "Did I miss anything good?" She asked.