Dreamer stopped when he reached the ground floor.  The humans, his former fellow slaves, stood around the ruined room in groups.  Geena, the petite young redhead he'd thought of as a friend, was standing in the doorway with that meat cleaver in her hand, barring his exit.  It looked like he truly had no friends here, after all.<br/><br/>And yet... they looked confused and angry... but frightened, also.  Several sets of eyes were looking at Maeve's still-battered face with looks of regret and dismay.  He knew some of the slaves were probably glad of what had happened to her, but surely most of them knew how kind and fair a slave mistress she had been.<br/><br/>Would they react differently, now that Lanner was dead?  Would they have any inclination whatsoever toward -protecting- Maeve now?  No, that would mean defying Shark, and they wouldn't do that.  ...would they?<br/><br/>He straightened a bit, making sure everyone could see his ruined shirt and the barely-visible bruises on his chest Lanner's gun had caused him.  He'd wasted much of his serum, but its effect had helped somewhat anyway.  It would surely make it look like being shot had been barely an annoyance.<br/><br/>Many of the people in the room were still drunk, or half so, from the liquor they'd taken from Maeve's supply.  Some still nervously clutched or sucked at cigarettes.  Many weapons were exposed, but there were few firearms; Lanner had probably claimed the best weapon in the area for himself, and now Dreamer had it.  Mostly they held kitchen utensils or farming tools.  He suspected that scythe poking up over several people's heads would do more damage to the rebels than to his trio, were it to come down to a fight.<br/><br/>He finally faced the man with the meat cleaver, a man he didn't recognize.  He pointed the SMG at him vaguely and gave him dead eyes.  "That's the idea," he declared.  "Are you in charge?  Are you going to try to stop me?"  He gestured vaguely at the two men that had come downstairs after Lanner's death.  "Or haven't they been clear enough about what happened to Lanner?"