Disclaimer-I do not own Naruto or Warhammer...unfortunately.
Note-This story is AU, the characters are OOC, and this story will NOT follow canon. Elements of canon will be extracted, but canon will not be what this story is about.
That is my first fic, so NO FLAMES.
Note: found a good cover image for my fic, all rights reserved.
Lone Raven.
Chapter I.
He was taken from his homeworld by the Blood Ravens. Back then he was barely four. He didn't find any information on his homeworld later and actually he never bothered. He never was loved there. Were those these strange birthmarks on his cheeks? Oh maybe he was top unbearable as a child? Maybe that was the consequences of having a psyker's gift that started to resurface later?
He will never know.
And he will never care. He was Adeptus Astartes now. He served as Blood Raven for more than two centuries. However, even a hero like him, may found himself in a really problematic situation.
Many years ago, he was framed and blamed in the crime that he had never committed. However, Kyras, the Chapter Master of the Blood Ravens managed to persuade the Circle of Captains that if he wants to prove his innocence so much, he must prove it… in battle.
Thus he was followed by the horde of his cheering brothers, but his grim face, hidden by his helmet, was never seen. Followers of Kyras smiled, looking at his back, others narrowed their eyes, feeling the dark times coming for their Chapter.
Thus, his long travel started.
He never bothered to return to his chapter, he knew, that no matter what he did, he will be assassinated by one of his brethren. At least, while Kyras was alive. Staying as far from the chapter as possible was the only way to survive, so he traveled across the Imperium, slaying heretics and xenos, who dared to pass the borders of the Empire of Man.
During one of his travels he met a woman… as he later found she was an inquisitor from Ordo Malleus. Linda Olsen, as he later found it was her name, saved his life, asking for his service in return. And he agreed.
He followed her without a question, moreover he wasn't really talkative in last years. Lady Inquisitor was in her right to ask for his help, aside from him, she quickly acquired young Battle-Sister Attia from the Order of Our Martyred Lady and captain Yirra Blake, Kasrkin from the 405th Regiment of Cadian Shock Troopers from the Imperial guard.
Experienced elite trooper and young Battle-Sister, who just survived several battles, they were of same age but difference was clear. Since she lost her parents, Yirra was prepared to become the best of the best, she was enlisted in her regiment when she was fourteen. Thus, he understood his value and Yirra's, but Attia? Answer came to him when, during their next mission, fireball attack of one of the psykers just diminished and turned into harmless bunch of sparkles.
Attia's faith protected them well and where it didn't, there were always Nemesis Daemon Hammer of Nathaniel and Yirra's Hellgun that dealt with those who managed to pass through. Lady Olsen, as he and others called her, wasn't really a pleasant woman.
Her attitude, character and methods gave her a lot of enemies. Among them, the most notable was a xenos, who she viewed not as enemy, but as rival. Farseer Siren. He didn't know, how old she was, her face was as young as the human woman of twenty-five years, and he dared not to ask.
He never hid his age when the girls asked him, but they nearly used him as practice dummy, when he asked about their age.
Later, he still found out that they both were the same age, twenty-four standard years, plus-minus several months.
Anyway… as it was said, Linda was dead set on beating the crafty eldar in something. She battled her on swords and lost miserably, left alive on the whim of the witch. She tried to overpower her in a duel, using her psyker abilities, which was dumb to even try, at least from Nathaniel's point of view, and once again failed.
Moreover, Siren was appearing on every task, which Linda took. Maybe it was somehow connected with the fact that all recent tasks that they took were connected with largely spread cult of Slaanesh worshipers.
They hunted down the cultists all over the sector, to find out that the goal of the damned was rather unusual.
Childbirth.
For Slaanesh to rule, Prince of Pleasure needed a proper Herold and leader. After all, only the incompetency Abaddon the Despoiler, who thirteen times failed to took the Cadian Gates, stopped Chaos from ruling supreme in the Imperium. So, Prince of Pleasure wanted his followers to summon the Great Daemonette of Slaanesh and then one of the cultists, chosen by her, should have given her a child.
They found a true name of the needed Great Daemonette, she was perfect for the plan, since she represented the physical appeal of the women. Of course, a bit twisted by the Warp.
And as always everything went wrong. They got to the place, where the ritual was held, just in time, unfortunately, Great Daemonette was already summoned to Material World.
Looking over her naked body, Nathaniel was forced to admit that she was… exotically beautiful. Extremely tall, lean body, without even drop of fat, her face was… for the lack of term otherworldly beautiful, but Nathaniel couldn't decide was it good or bad, since she came from the closest place to Hell that existed in this universe.
Two pairs of curved horns grew on the left and the right side of her head, long raven-colored hair reached her buttocks and purple skin sparkled in the light of torches and candles, making it even harder to remove the gaze from her. The only pieces of clothes that she wore were armored gloves that covered her hands and high, armored boots.
She covered her mouth with her left hands giggling, while she looked over the rows of the acolytes. Her other… arms? Nathaniel blinked several times and finally managed to see what the strange play of light and shadow.
Daemonette had four arms.
And her upper arms held a pair of very sharp and large scimitars.
Then his visor-cowered gaze met the eyes of the Daemonette, which glowed with unholy, purple flames. She smiled and her left hand left the position near her mouth and spread in his direction. Elegant finger with sharp, long, black, claw-like nail, pointed in his direction.
"I chose him." said this avatar of sinful perfection and shit hit the fan.
She jumped into the air, preparing to grab her prey, she spent a lot of time hunting Space Marines both loyal and fallen and knew how to deal with them. She will gain his attention with her blades and then the living whip will deal the trick.
The only difference this time, was the fact that she needed this Space Marine alive.
But to her surprise, he was more than a match for her, two falchions blocked her scimitars, after slicing her whip in tiny countless pieces. In his mind Nathaniel blessed the connections of the Inquisitor. It must have been really hard to get him the ammunition of the Grey Knight.
"I can't understand, why are you resisting so much? Get laid, relax… You deserve at least something like this for all these selfless years of servitude."
Nathaniel sighed. Another his secret. Dark and grim voice that was with him for as long as he remembered himself. Voice of the demon. He was possessed.
"Technically you are a demon host, Naruto." Answered the voice. "An look after her tail. M-m-m, such a fine piece of ass it is attached to."
Nathaniel jumped in the air, evading the tail attack from the spinning Daemonette. This action gave him enough view to acknowledge the last comment of the demon… Then he remembered that he once again called him by his old name.
Naruto Uzumaki was a weak child, bullied and beaten by everyone. He is captain Nathaniel from Blood Ravens' Chapter of Adeptus Astertes. He does not know fear or remorse. His job is to face darkness every minute and protect the Humanity through it.
He growled behind his helmet and with ferocity and speed that surprised even the demon he was fighting, he charged forward into the battle.
Meanwhile, Yirra and Attia focused the fire from their weapons on the heretics.
"What about xenos?" asked Attia, turning the head of another heretic into the bloody stain on the wall. Her shoots were rare and accurate, with each one another body fell to the floor.
"Don't provoke them unnecessary." Said Yirra, making the heads of the several cultists explode with the laser shots of low power.
At this moment inquisitor Linda decapitated the large fat cultist with her sword. He fell on the floor, covering the arcane books and glowing circle, that he tried to protect with his body, in his own blood. Linda licked her lips, eldar strike team did as well as did her own team.
For a brief second she turned her head to the fighting forms of Nathaniel and Daemonette. Still not wounded, Space Marine, however, was breathing heavily, as a pair of bellows, his armor was covered in cracks and slash marks.
Daemonette on the other side was covered by small wounds, but each time Nathaniel slashed her, she let out the scream of ecstasy, which became louder with another wound. Looks like both were in stalemate. She understood that she needed to end it quickly. Nathaniel's powers weren't limitless and she didn't like, how this four-armed bitch was looking at him.
She slowly put her hand inside her pouch and her fingers grasped the edges of the ancient artifact. It was icily cold, even through her glove, she managed to feel it. Made by the eldars, its primary function is to seal daemons and serve as their prison. She made a step forward to the colossal battle that happened before her eyes.
And at this moment she saw her.
Siren was jumping from one cultist's shoulders to another, either decapitating them, or stabbing her sword in their necks. She did it saw gracefully that she seemed like dancing in the air, surrounded by the crimson liquid, that was blood.
Such a beautiful and nearly perfect view of her enemy infuriated Siren to no end and she changed her direction and slowly walked to the elder female, who just stood inside the calm circle of space, surrounded by chaos and death of this chaotic battlefield.
Farseer looked into her eyes as Linda stepped inside the circle.
"I was waiting for you." Said eldar, takin her sword in reverse grip. "Let's settle this."
Nathaniel jumped backwards, evading the strikes of scimitars.
"This is going nowhere. Take my power. Crush the whore. Dominate her and…"
Nathaniel cut the mind link between himself and the creature. It was problematic enough to deal with one horny daemon. He didn't need the second one. Nathaniel ducked, letting the scimitars pass above his head, and stabbed his falchions into deamonette's unprotected belly.
Her reaction was rather unexpected.
She shrieked. Her body started to shake, long tongue fell from her mouth and she fell to her knees. Visage of ultimate bliss was on her face.
"Oh, darling… You surely know, how to give it to woman in need… really hard and really deep. Such a fine material like you is wasted with all these boring women." She fell upon her back, still twitching from the pleasure. "I will certainly snatch you away from them… after I will rest a bit here… You surely did a number on me… darling."
She smiled and closed her eyes. Rhythmical movement of her chest showed that she was still alive. Just unconscious. Nathaniel shook his head. This Daemonette was strange. She was certainly more 'mortal' at least in her character and the way she carried herself.
However, she was still an enemy.
Nathaniel sheathed his falchions. He would have surely killed her. It was just the order that he received that stayed his hand.
"Keep telling this to yourself, kit. I saw how you looked at her body. And I also know, how you check the bodies of your female companions."
Not just bodies, Yirra has really pretty eyes… curse you fox.
Power sword of Inquisitor clashed with beautiful sabre of Farseer. Both of them were psykers, but on the side of Farseer were countless centuries of battle experience. Slowly but surely, Inquisitor started to lose her ground.
Two blades clashed and sparks flew everywhere from contact.
Neither eldar nor human wanted to step aside, stubbornness of both kinds clashed in this duel, alongside their pride. In this bladelock, however, Inquisitor slowly gained the better hold. She sucked the power from the eldar relic and slowly overpowered her opponent.
But the duel was rudely interrupted, when something large and red crushed into the xenos.
Surprised and confused, Linda looked at the Nathaniel, who breathed heavily. She opened her mouth to berate him, for interrupting their duel, but large hand, covered by red Power Armour grabbed her and slowly raised her into the air. To the level of glowing red visors.
"What are you doing? The energy in the artifact, is strictly for sealing the Daemonette. If you took too much we will be helpless against her. Deal with her first, while I'm dealing with the eldar."
Inquisitor nodded and left him on her former position.
Space Marine slowly raised his armored arm and blue energy covered it. Several bodies, thrown in his direction by psi energy, stopped in the mid-air. Next moment they fell creating the mountain made of bodies.
"So… a psyker?" elegant figure of the Farseer slowly walked from behind the mass of corpses. "I presumed that you are a man of many abilities… Nathaniel."
If Space Marine was surprised be the fact that eldar knew his name, then he didn't show it. Nearly magically, two falchions appeared in his hands.
Farseer whistled.
"Quicker than expected… but still no match for…"
When he appeared behind her, she didn't notice. However, she managed to evade the attack, but not quick enough: armor on her back now had a pair of not deep slash marks and her white and black tabard was ruined.
Nathaniel, meanwhile, took a defensive stance and prepared to face the eldar.
Siren took her blade in reverse grip. She had already faced Nathaniel, long before he started to serve the Inquisitor actually. She posed as Howling Banshee, from elite forces of Autarch M'Kel, seeking to reveal a hidden traitor in the forces of said Autarch.
Back then, she faced Nathaniel for a first time.
Like them, Imperium was also worried by the movement of the Dark Eldar. So the Death Watch was send there to deal with abominable xenos thread. Among them was young sergeant Nathaniel, recently promoted, very young by the standarts of Adeptus Astartes, he was still chosen for the Long Watch.
To deal with Astartes, who boarded the wandering Space Hulk where the hideout of the Dark Eldar was, Autarch just ordered to dived them, using the massive armored doors between the sectors and then deal with each of them, one by one.
But even the best laid plans always had some kind of a problem, there are always some things that cannot be predicted. Things like Nathaniel. He just didn't care that he was nearly all alone on clearly hostile abandoned ship. Fighting with power, speed and anger, worthy of his Unknown Father, Lone Raven fought his way to the remains of the captain bridge, where Dark Eldar allied with Word Bearers slowly pushed back the forces of M'Kel.
That day, champion of the Emperor and the Autarch of the Eldar fought back to back against forces of Chaos.
Something unusual also happened, when Autarch fell, wounded by one of the Dark Eldar, he stood in front of the waves of heretics and abominations, protecting him. An act unusual for Mon-Keigh, especially for ever loyal servants of the Emperor.
After this battle she took an interest in this strange, yet also very attractive follower of the God of Humanity. Her curiosity grew stronger, until it reached the level of unwavering obsession.
And today, here he was, facing her, prepared to shed blood. He was just a Mon-Keigh… their race was feeble and full of greed. She shouldn't care that another one will face his end today. But she cared… it was so wrong… and so painful.
Falchions and Witchblade clashed and neither of the wielders wished to step down.
Linda was holding the eldar artifact in her hand, she slowly walked in the direction of the Daemonette.
"Weeeeel… Look who we have here! Little naïve woman, who thinks that she can fool anyone, even the Masters of Deceptions themselves… What a pitiful sight."
"What are you mumbling about, bitch?" asked Linda, with her voice full of anger. Daemonette started to walk in circles around the Inquisitor.
"Ohh… don't be like this… You can stop this useless act, while you are around me. Trust me, it is very easy for me to sense these feelings…" she suddenly stopped, only to appear near her, with on pair of arm grabbing Inquisitor's and raising them upwards.
Daemonette's slim hands were surprisingly strong, so when she gripped Linda's wrists, she, with loud scream, dropped the artifact. Then another pair of arms locked behind her back, nearly breaking her spine.
"Ah! I can see now!" her voice, sounding in several diapasons at once and amplified by magic, nearly instantly resonated with some primal instincts in Linda's body. Strange heat slowly started to consume her. "Not only you wish this hunk of an Astartes, but I also feel this more than just 'honest' desire punish the eldar whore. Yeeees, you wish to punish her and then again, and again, and again."
Daemonette smiled.
"What was the Inquisition saying about this? Wasn't Xenophilia punished by death through electrification, with following confiscation of the dead man's property?"
However, she couldn't continue to gloat. Something big and red slammed her in her rib cage. She let go of the Inquisitor and fell to her right side, flying several meters from the power of the impact, but she managed to land on her legs.
"Weeell, look who we have here? My dear, beloved knight, in not-so-white armor. Whatever, in my position you can't be picky and your wardrobe can be changed, after we will be properly married… What is that thing in your hand?!"
While she was blabbering some kind of nonsense, Nathaniel raised the eldar artifact with his left hand. His right was resting on the lower nineties of the eldar Farseer, whom, bound in best traditions of BDSM, he carried on his right shoulder pad.
White beam of energy hit the Daemonette right into her chest. Nathaniel sighed a bit disappointed, seeing how easily artifact had dealt with the Slaanesh Deaemonette. Of course he sighed because of the lack of battle, certainly not because he thought that the night with this certain Daemonette maybe was worth risking his soul to eternal damnation…
He hated his work.
And he needed to kill somebody, right now. Preferably some Khorne cultists, or maybe a World Eater. Yes, World Eaters were always simple and steam blowing. After all, when every cell of your organism is modified for eternal war, you tend to be under constant stress.
Attaching the artifact to his belt, Nathaniel turned to see how his other followers were doing. Yirra was shooting left and right and each of her shoots brought death to another unfortunate heretic. Her battle knife, attached to her Hellgan pierced the stomach of the heretic, who managed to get too close to her. Several bodies with similar wounds were already lying around.
Attia, armed with Power Sword and bolt-pistol, was covering her back. Her sword, red from blood once again fell, cutting off the arm of the mutant, who attacked from her left, suddenly she turned and raised her left hand with bolt-pistol, exploding the head of the heretic with a shoot from nearly several millimeters.
"Girls! We have what we came for! Get the fuck out of there!" hearing the command of the superior officer, the duo started to walk in his direction. Their movements were a bit slow, so decided to change tactic. Nodding to each other, girls through the smoke grenades, to cover their retreat and while their enemies were distracted by this sudden and rather… unprecedented action, in minds of the heretics, imperial servants always fought till the last one. They managed to pass through.
Yirra threw the grenades behind her back, Attia did the same, after that they tripled their speed and orientating in the booming sound of Nataniel's metal boots, they ran away from the heretics' lair.
Several days later.
Many Inquisitors preferred to create their bases on their personal ships. Mobility was a dare need in their line of work. However, despite that, Linda had a constant base of operations. Deserted planet, far away from the most populated areas of Imperium.
Right the spot for a secret science laboratory.
Here in med bay, Linda returned to her senses. When she opened her eyes she was greeted with the sight of the white ceiling. Lamps on it were a bit too bright for her eyes, so she covered them, to adjust to the light.
Suddenly the light disappeared a shadow of something big covered her lying form. She could easily guess, who it was. After all, he always checked each member in the hospital if they returned with a pair of new holes in their bodies.
"Came to see me?" asked she.
"I waited to lecture you." Answered Nathaniel. "Your recklessness nearly costed us our lives and Imperium – its existence. I don't even want to imagine, what kind of terrors would have been unleashed upon it by the Herald, had we not sealed the demon. And you tried to spent all the energy in your fight with your rival!"
She turned her gaze away, in shame from her actions. Everything was as Nathaniel said. But back then…
"I'm very disappointed in you, Linda." These words pierced her entire being like a sword. "I thought that I follow a true patriot and Inquisitor, who can sacrifice everything for the betterment of Humanity. Yet you couldn't let go even this pathetic rivalry of yours."
He breathed out and made a pause, trying to calm himself. "We will speak about this later, Linda. Right now I must check on the girls."
He turned his back on her and left.
Linda, meanwhile, held on the tears of rage. Why? Surely she was a bit zealous in her chase of Siren, but being so… so…
"This is just too unjust, isn't it?" asked really familiar voice. "Well… you can always show him what he is missing. Just listen to me and this hunk of an Astartes will be yours, just like you secretly desire and the eldar bitch will wear that maid outfit that you bought just for her."
Linda smiled. This voice was very familiar to her. But in her current state of mind, she embraced the promises of future rewards. They eased the pain in her heart and etching ego.
Meanwhile with Nathaniel.
"You shouldn't have done this."
For several hours his neighbor told him this, while he stood on the platform, looking at the white deserted surface of the planet. He tried to calm his mind, but the memories of the past plagued his thoughts, and the stunts of Linda made it worse.
He remembered the face of Daemonette, perfect and still smiling, even when he was sealing her into the artifact. Demons never give up. That was the lesson all Blood Ravens knew. Return of Ulkair had just proved it.
He sensed that something was wrong the way this daemonette was sealed was just too wrong. She gave up nearly instantly, without even a shred of a fight.
He burst out of the room. Right now he needed a weapon, a Power Axe will suffice.
On the lower level of the base, Yirra and Attia sat across each other and played poker. They sat near the prison bay, where, in one of the cells, disarmed and sedated, was contained Siren. Nathaniel ordered them to guard her until he will return. He also ordered them to not listen to any orders of the Inquisitor, shall she rise in following hours, but it was five days since they fought in the dungeons and they started to worry.
"Hey, do you think that Lady Linda is alright?" Attia was the first, who finally decided to speak these words out. Truth to be told, Yirra was also very bothered by the unknown. Lack of information had costed her the lives of many friends, back when she was still serving in Imperial Guard.
However…
"All that we can do, is wait." Answered she.
"Wait?! Till when? It has been five days already!"
"Till Nathaniel will give us orders, till our Lady awakens or some other weird shit that usually happens during the work days of the agents of Inquisition happens. Pick your choice."
Their discussion was stopped by the Nathaniel, who, armed to the teeth, charged inside. Girls instantly got ready to the worst.
"Linda! Where is that foolish girl?" roared he looking at them.
"Isn't she supposed to be in the med bay?" asked Yira.
"She was, but when I decided to check on her again, there was only an empty bed, and this is only half of our troubles."
'What can be worse than an Inquisitor, who disappeared, Emperor-knows-where in the most protected part of her own secret base?" asked Attia.
"The relic with the sealed demon has disappeared." Answered Nathaniel, walking inside the prison bay. "we will need additional help if we want to survive this day. And I see only one possible ally in this situation."
With a hissing sound doors of the Siren's cell opened.
Hidden chamber inside the Inquisitor's base.
Unknown to everyone, Linda was always fascinated by the power that the ancient warriors had. It didn't matter to her, were they heretics or loyalists, she had read that Primarchs were able to move the mountains on their shoulders and psyker might of the Emperor and Magnus was unimaginable.
So deeply, secretly she was trying to get at least a grain of such power for herself. For a bit power, that she received from her position was a perfect substitute, but with time the desire of the ancient powers has returned. She was jealous of Nathaniel, who had the gene-seed of the Primarch implanted in his body.
Partly, it was the reason she decided to enlist him as her follower. She wanted a powerful weapon, which she can use in any kind of case. Thus she forced him to learn from different kind specialists. Medics, technicians and so on. None of them said anything bad about Astartes. Lone Raven was an eager and excellent student.
With time however, he became her obsession, she knew that she will never have him in a way she wanted, but it still hurt her. More than that she was hurt by his words spoken to her in the infirmary.
So when the voice came, she didn't resist.
And several minutes later she stood in the hidden room of her underground complex, relic on the altar that she created many years ago, finally prepared to achieve the power she desired, and converting her followers into her loyal subjects.
She made a step… and floated into the air.
Meanwhile. The prison block.
"Fuck! She is too heavily sedated, to give us any kind of support." Said Nathaniel as he inspected the captured eldar.
"Don't worry, sir." Said Yirra, coming inside the cell, with a syringe in her hand. "This thing will purge her organism of this sedative, lady made it especially for such case."
"Good. We will need everything and everyone ready, when we will fight against the Slaanesh daemonette." said Astartes, preparing the armor and weapons of the eldar.
When Siren has returned to her senses, the first thing she saw was Nathaniel, placing the last piece of her armor on her body. He instantly noticed that she was awake. He slowly rose her to her feet, but the eldar fell to her knees, her legs were to shaky to held her.
"Take time, we will need you at least standing to fight the demon." Said the large warrior.
"So… the sealing just postponed the inevitable… And here I hoped that at least once I will be mistaken." Weakly said the Farseer.
"What have you seen?" instantly asked Nathaniel.
"I saw demon… I saw you… I saw hammer… and then… only darkness…" even these words were hard to tell for her, so Nathaniel gave her so needed rest.
"Commander…" he turned to Attia and Yirra. Both females seemed greatly worried. 'What shall we do?"
Nathaniel smiled, but his smile was a sorrowful one. "I shall do what must be done. Help Farseer recover. I will do what I must."
"Commander, what do you…" their voices were shut down as he closed the door and picked the numbers to lock it. He knew what he needed to do. And he didn't like it.
Not even tiny bit.
Several minutes later, he clapped his giant hands turning on the light in his personal armory. Terminator armor, Power Swords, Thunder Hammer… and many other weapons that he used in battle depending on the time and situation.
This time he took his plasma pistol and double edged power axe.
He was in no mood for taking prisoners. Both of them had their chances, and he will be damned before he will let the daemonette roam free again. His hand grasped the amulet in form of the Inqusition symbol that he wore on his neck.
Last chance weapon, since his might of psyker is to great and dangerous to tame and use. He must use it carefully. As he thought before there will be only one shot.
Inside the secret chamber.
Linda fed the spell, shown to her by the daemonette, with energy. She felt how her muscles were slowly filled with power, how her body changed, not visibly, but on unseen, molecular level, making her stronger, faster, smarter… yet still too blind to realize what kind of a trap she had built for herself.
Her mind twisted by the emanations of the warp, already didn't see that she no longer controlled the situation.
Actually she didn't even care about this.
"Finally… Soon I will have what I wanted!"
"Not if I have a say in it." With a loud booming sound, massive form of Nathaniel landed near her.
"Ah… you are finally here. Just as I wanted." Said the fallen Inquisitor. "Let us see how my newfound powers will fare against yours…"
"I do not care about this…" said the astartes, ripping of the talisman from his neck. Next moment, both demon and human felt his true psyker might, not hidden by his amulet. Felt and became terrified.
He was bordering Alpha plus ranking.
Then the astartes raised his hand.
And there was nothing but the light.
Milky Way Galaxy. Year 2183. Station Atlas.
Jane Shepard, captain of the super-frigate Normandy SR-2, looked at the crucified form of the David Archer and thought how more terrifying things she will see in her life, until some higher powers that always place her in some kind of a mess will be satisfied.
When she saw something like this before, it was always a heavy blow to her faith in Humanity. Sometimes she questioned herself, maybe the Reapers were right, maybe it would have been better if Galaxy was purged of life?
But she always pushed these thoughts away with a little effort. She was Lioness of Elysium, damn it! She will not cry like a little girl!
But after missions going like this, she always felt the terrible taste on her mouth.
"What the Fuck! What in the Nine Hells is this?! God, Archer… It's your own brother!" screams of her own team filled the room of the laboratory, with last one belonging to, surprisingly, Miranda, where David was attached to some monstrous computer.
"We must get him out of here." Said Shepard.
"Please… don't…" started doctor Archer, when shit hit the fan. Suddenly the blinding white light filled the room. Shepard managed to cover her eyes, so unlike her companions she wasn't blinded by it. But the light was around her for far too long.
She too was disoriented, and when the light stopped, she opened her eyes, to see the large fist, clad in red armor.
Then there was only darkness.
Ex-captain Nathaniel.
Where he was he was certain that it wasn't the Inquisitor's secret base anymore. When he stopped binding the unknown and probably hostile humans, he started to search through the base, in hopes of finding his comrades.
When he saw the corridors, partly those of the base, partly belonging to whatever place they were in, he feared that he will find his… friends. Here… he felt that he can be honest, at least with himself. Two girls were dear to him.
For Emperors sake! He was even slightly worried for the Eldar. To his surprise, jail quarters, alongside some armories and other chambers were nearly unscratched.
When he got them out of the cell he was nearly killed by three angry females… though he couldn't understand, why the Eldar was so angry. Well… whatever, it looks like, that several hours alone, quickly turned them into the close allies.
Against the terrible monster… him.
Or at least that was how he had seen it.
Back with the Normandy group.
Jane Shepard slowly opened her eyes. She was chained and the first thing she was the headless body of the doctor Archer. Somewhere near it lied his head. It looked like… someone took the brains from it, at least opened up skull, showed nothing that was supposed to be inside.
Second later she saw the giant, cover by the red armor, alongside the several new faces, all female ones. Missing brain was found in the hands of the giant, judging by the biting marks on it, and the fact that he constantly was moving it to his mouth, he was eating it.
Shepard saw only the back of his head, covered by the long blond hair. But she was pretty sure that she didn't want to see his face.
Finally, the giant finished his terrible feast and turned to them. Surprisingly he wasn't all that scary, except for blood on his face and glowing red eyes. And whisker marks on his cheeks were even… adorable.
"You know that I could have just taken the knowledge from their heads?" asked the woman in the strange, yet very elegant armor, Shepard narrowed her eyes, stranger had the pointy ears, she definitely wasn't human.
"You know that there might be consequences." Answered her the giant, cleaning his moth and putting his helmet back on his head. "I must be in rightful state of mind when we will start the… diplomatic games with locals. Moreover, the whole technical specification of that thing behind our backs was in said man's head, I now know, how we can get him out of said machine."
"You can get David… out of that thing?" asked Jane.
"But of course I can." Answered the giant of a man. "I didn't have once of the worst dinners in my life for nothing. I took information from his brain… About politics, language and current war situation."
"By eating his brains." Raised her brow Shepard.
"Not the best way, I agree, but I didn't have time to find another option. I do not know where we are, and counting what happened before we got here, I'm certain you will not blame us when you will hear our reasoning. Now, I think we started a bit rough, my name is Nathaniel, those three ladies behind ma are Yirra, Attia and Siren."
Three females behind him nodded as he called each by name.
"Jane Shepard. Captain of the ship Normandy SR-2. Officer of the Alliance and the Spectre of the Citadel."
"And a dead woman, according to the memories of our dear doctor." Said the giant.
"I got better." Smiled commander.
"And I'm glad for it… Well… we are… with exception of Farseer here, protectors of Imperium of Humanity. We don't exactly know where we are… but I know enough about you from the memories of the dead man. You are not called when others can manage without you. Rising you from the dead is an act of despair. So… we wish to give you our skills and knowledge as… mercenaries."
"Looks like you don't like to be a mercenary." Noted Shepard. "We always need good soldiers in the ranks of Alliance. But you better get rid of that brain-eating habit of yours."
"Serving Alliance means giving a vow to serve, commander." Answered Nathaniel. "I gave mine many years ago. To always stay loyal to the Emperor and Humanity. And usually I do not need to eat brains, most of the humans in Imperium speak on the Gothic, at least briefly, so I could have understood them. But my abilities will be discussed later. What do you think about my proposial."
"Well… I suppose it's better than nothing. I agree."
"Good. Now we can unbind you and get your followers into their senses. We will need to take some equipment. I hope your ship is large enough."
Normandy SR-2. Sometime later.
Nathaniel didn't lie about the loads of equipment, they were even forced to stay for a while, until astartes managed to attach everything to right places and took all kind of weapons that were still functional.
When she asked him where he got these guns and were this Cerberus' inventions, he answered that part of the complex where they were before the transportation, changed the places with some of the laboratory's rooms.
Now she stood in front of armory, where most of equipment was located. She felt really… uncertain. She didn't feel like this even with the Eldar. Seriously, when Shepard greeted her, like they greeted all new races in the Citadel space, she felt that Eldar was about to kill her for something.
Fortunately, she didn't. Maybe her mimics are a bit different, even if she is so similar, at least in facial appearance, to the humans. Attia and Yirra were even easier. Both were soldiers and both instantly decided to spent their free time inspecting their weapons (Yirra) and if she understood the chanting correctly, in praying (Attia).
However, the brain-eating mass of steel and muscles was something that she, albeit slightly, feared. He seemed so unnatural, too powerful. Shepard cannot even grasp what he was thinking about. And that was scaring her.
However, when she entered the Armory…
"I think that this will not work, sir."
"Jacob… last time… when someone like me tells you that this will work, it will work, because new weapons are created in the laboratories and working exemplars are created in the armory, according to the blueprint. Now… give me this battery."
Shepard started to move faster. And she managed to see what they were doing before everything had ended.
They were testing laser weapons.
LASER weapons.
At this moment, Shepard forgave this giant everything, starting with his brain-eating and ending with spooking her to no end. She and her team now had laser weapons. Fucking, awesome laser weapons!
Sometime later. Normandy SR-2. Med Bay.
Nathaniel thought that the confrontation with medic never was good. Especially when the medic in your squad is sometimes higher then you and has the gene-seed extractor and other really scare things. Of course, when he finished his apprenticeship, he too received the needed equipment.
But still… Karin Chakwas was still… scary. Even without impressive arsenal of the medics from the grim future.
Without a doubt she was the best among her fellow colleagues, otherwise she wouldn't have been here… but in case with Nathaniel she failed… miserably.
The only thing that he let her do, was putting an implant-translator into him. Very useful thing. He slowly started to understand what was that fast-speaking alien with a broken horn spoke. However, she unleashed her fury on the two innocent girls, who were with him, and while she was giving two naked girls a full-body medical checking, Nathaniel decided to leave.
"Party pooper." Ahh, how could he forget about him? Living in one body means that he will adapt to all his tricks, especially, when they shared it for so long. "You could have stayed under the disguise of caring doctor."
Yeah, with Karin inside. What was that pervert speaking about? He was too young, to be castrated by the raging woman, who really skillfully wielded her scalpel.
Nathaniel hissed.
Just imaging something like this raised the wave of dread inside of him.
Former captain decided to check on his armory to calm himself a bit. Here he was once again found by Shepard, who finally managed to get over the fact that he created the laser weapon nearly on his knee and stopped drooling over said weapon.
Commander entered when he was cleaning his double-edged Power Axe, she looked at weapon in his arms and wisely stood near the door, while he will not stop cleaning. When astartes finally finished and stopped cleaning she waited till he will walk to her.
"Commander. I think I know why did you come." said Nathaniel, greeting Shepard.
"It is that obvious?" smiled Shepard.
"You don't have standard laser weapons that I created. So… yes, it is that obvious. Fortunately, if your 'Alliance's' scientist are smart enough we will manage to receive all needed weapons. When will you send them the scans?" asked her astartes.
"Right now will be a bit impossible, but after we will deal with situation on 'Purgatory' and acquire a new member for our team… I think I will be able to contact them and send them some of the scans that we made."
"Good." Said Nathaniel. "Captain Yirra will be needed on the frontlines and she will not manage to help you with your problem. Moreover… I highly doubt that there will be enough equipment to create the so needed industrial chains for creation of the lasguns. I… overlooked your technological progress, commander. Your firearms differ from their analogies of the twenty-first century only by the capacity of the magazine. Compared to some of the exemplars they even… lack in a lot of ways."
These words hurt Shepard a bit, who liked her choice of modern weapons very much.
"Hey, not everything in modern warfare is so…"
"Outdated? Outplaced?" asked her astartes. "Yes it is. Actually the only things that can be called truly modern belonged to the geth."
Shepard remembered the walking tanks and other things that machine race created and the words of criticism never left her lips. Slowly, the entered the room where the pod with David was kept. Shepard slowly walked to the pod and placed her hand on the glass.
"You shouldn't worry about his brother, Shepard." said Nathaniel. "You did the right thing, when yiu took David from him."
"I know, but… He was possibly the only relative that David had." Said Jane.
Nathaniel walked to the pod and also looked at the sleeping form of David. "He didn't do it as an act of despair, Shepard." Suddenly said he.
"What?" asked Shepard not understanding what Nathaniel meant.
"His elder brother. When I consumed his memories…" Shepard changed in face at this moment. "I also so the true reason of his motives. He never cared about brother. And he just wanted to see what may happen if he will do what he had done."
Shepard shook her head. "And I had a bit of a sympathy for a man because of what happened to him."
"You mean his remains. The man had died painlessly, I doubt that he even understood it." Answered the astartes. "I was swift and fast. He didn't manage to feel anything."
Shepard just shook her head.
Before she believed that everyone deserved to live, but then… she was killed resurrected by the terrorist organization, her commanding officers didn't want to hear about her 'problem' with the Reapers. Her friend except several few are nowhere to be found. And then… soldiers from another universe.
Shepard sighed, she will surely get a lot of gray hair on her work.
"So… what is the mission?" asked Nathaniel and Shepard finally managed to return from her grim thoughts.
"Simple trade one. We give money and receive the new member of the crew." Answered Shepard.
"Hmm… but before we will go to that… Grissom Academy?" asked astartes.
"Yes… they work with biotics and… people with strange abilities." Answered Shepard.
"Why do I hear… 'victims of terroristic organizations and illegal experiments' instead?" asked her Nathaniel.
Shepard smiled. "And here I thought that you have no sense of humor."
Somewhere.
Naked and bound to a cross, Linda Olsen once again returned to her senses from the nightmares that tortured her mind. Unfortunately, the nightmares of reality were even more terrible than the ones she dreamed about.
"Ah… You are finally awake, my dear? Good… that means that we can return to our 'activities'." The silky voice of the daemonette was something that followed her in her nightmares… were that dreams and reality… since she didn't need Linda as her host anymore.
Now 'former' Lady Inquisitor tried to adjust to the half-darkness that was in the room and finally see where she was. She saw daemonette nearly instantly. Giant yet sinfully beautiful demoness was holding something with her hands and rocking her hips, sticking her long tongue out from the sheer pleasure she felt.
Linda snarled. Looks like some unfortunate soul, maybe it was xenos, but even they do not deserve to be caught by one of the warp demons, get attention of the demoness and was seduced by her.
Several minutes she looked how the daemonette mercilessly and tirelessly plundered the creature under her. Then at least half an hour later her frictions became rapid and finally she fell upon whoever was under her and held him or her in her arms.
Slowly she rose up, but Linda still managed to mention how something was shrinking between her legs. Daemonette slowly turned to her captive and as she was, without a single shred of cloth, walked to Linda.
Linda also managed to see the partner of the daemonette, it as the blue humanoid, by the look of the body, female one, however she had no hair or ears and on her head was something akin to tentacles, also her skin was a bit scaly.
"These… asari… as you can see are quite some fun. I'm really interested will she become pregnant or not. And if she will… will it be asari or something else…" muttered the daemonette.
"Seeking to give your dear Prince another race?" asked Linda.
"Why should I, my dear Inquisitor?" asked her daemonette. And seeing the surprised face of the Inquisitor, continued. "Since you were mostly unconscious, I will tell you one little thing: we are not in our universe anymore. I think it's a parallel one. You see, there was never such thing as a Chaos Gods here, there is of course something in the Warp, but none of them had reached the power of the High Daemon. It means that right now, I'm the greatest Warp entity here, Linda. And all thanks to you. There is no psykers here, no true believers, no… Emperor." At the last phrase eyes of the Inquisitor opened widely. "Only me and countless souls to tempt and seduce. And all thanks to you. But anyway, I cannot give you a lot of attention now. The reproduction system of these asari is very… efficient. They can reproduce with all known races of this Galaxy and all children will be asari. I'm very interested… what will happen if I will give them a small 'donation'."
Daemonette turned her back at the Inquisitor than on her half-way to the asari she stopped. "Ah I had nearly forgotten. Anaya! Entertain our guest." From the shadows stepped out the figure of woman. Everything in her, from exotic choice of clothes to the pointed ears, showed that she was part of Dark Eldar.
"She was once a very successful warlord of her people. But she decided to play with powers that weren't hers to command. Now she is just my toy. With her mind, voice and everything still with her, but with absolutely no power to fight my will and commands."
"I will one day reap your heart out of your chest to feed upon it." Snarled the eldar.
Demoness sighed. "See? Absolutely no respect. Anyway, Anaya, show her this famous hospitality that your race is famous for."
Dark Eldar took the whip from her belt. Soon the sound of clicking whip and flesh smacking flesh filled the air alongside with pleasurable growling of the demoness, who returned to her asari partner.
Normandy SR-2. Several days later.
After everything that happened in the Archer's lab, Miranda constantly felt the growing migraine. And reason for it wasn't in the metal fist of the astartes that hit her, no. It was in his sheer existence. Usually, our dear Ice Queen was always pedantic in her reports to the Elusive Man.
First half of her report, that concerned David Archer was easy to write, he was liability and he wasn't a volunteer, he wasn't even a Cerberus asset, he was dragged into the experiment by his fool of a brother. Since everything was Archer's mistake, Miranda completely agreed with the decision of Commander Shepard.
But what happened next… Miranda was no fool, she knew that Illusive Man doesn't care about other people, especially about the colonists in the Traverse, no… He wanted the technological marvels that will be left after the Collectors.
All this… Normandy SR-2, revival of the Shepard… everything…. Was to receive the technological wonders of the Collectors. After all, when Commander Shepard decides to bring peace to the Galaxy, after technologically advanced races remains really cool loot.
And then there were technologies of these otherworldly travelers. Their weapons armor and in case of astartes, creation of the super soldiers… Everything was what Illusive Man and Miranda's father wanted.
She hated to do it… Playing with Illusive Man was very dangerous after all. And she still had to think about her younger sister. There was no one else, aside her after all.
Normandy SR-2. Med Bay.
"Here, doctor Chakwas." Said Nathaniel giving her a blood sample that came from one of the devices that Chakwas used for her 'usual' medical check-ups. "Blood sample of the Farseer. I do not know, how you managed to do this, but as she said… everything is alright, no aggressive viruses or pathogens detected."
"Yes… as she told. By the way, when will you let me have a medical check-up on you?" asked Chakwas.
"Do not push your luck, doctor. My organism's secrets must stay as that, secrets." Answered her astartes. "Yet very good try. Just remember the words of the Commander. Think about the consequences of such medical check-up. This may be a Pandora's Box, that you will not wish to open."
Chakwas smiled. "If you wish to truly impress me… maybe you will let me check myself?"
Astartes just sighed and left. He tried to focus on something when he went to doctor Chakwas. This universe was too… confusing. Humanity existed alongside the xenos… This alone was heretical according to his hypno- programming. Fortunately, Blood Ravens were known because of their unorthodox view on things.
Nathaniel feared that if he was some Ultramarine, he would have already slayed all the fucking crew on this ship.
First of all, xenos here were tolerated and viewed as the equals and sometimes… the betters of the human race.
Nathaniel studied them carefully. First were turians, the race that evolved from the carnivorous avian creatures. They were given the seat in the Council for the help with Krogan Rebellions. Those so-called 'protectors' of the Council space already battled the Humanity once.
And the mighty 'protectors' found themselves in the stalemate, until the other race, asari, the founding race of the galactic Council, didn't interfere on the Humanity's behave. This also led him to change the subject of his research.
Asari were monogender race that originated from the planet Thessia. Reach with the element zero, it caused the populace to envelope biotic abilities. This fact instantly got suspicious from the apothecary from within him.
He heard about the element zero and also heard that nearly all, who got themselves with the contact with such element without any kind of protection will soon develop some kind of cancer… yet asari were somewhat natural to this poisonous element.
This fact intrigued the scientist inside him to no end.
Taking a note to look inside this in the future, he decided to continue his self-education. Aside from biotic powers asari were known for three more things: being political mediators, read great manipulators, the large span of their age, that reached above eight centuries and the fact that they can have children from any kind of race, not only asari, and those children will be asari.
At this moment, Naruto made a deep breath and taped another search in the extranet. Aside from the porn, he received what he had expected. Asari, with turians, with salarians, with some large creature, with some squid-like creature and with… humans.
Remembering that asari have some kind of natural abilities, he also started to search for the facts and proves that they can control the minds of others.
And he had found absolutely nothing.
After asari, salarians were really mundane race. Evolved from reptiles, they were able to think faster than any kind of known race and though that others are slowpokes and in addition they also died at the age of forty-five at best. Race that gave birth to the greatest scientists of this galaxy and continued to do so until current time.
But they were also known for their infamous STG units and at the moment Nathaniel had read about this, he understood that their doctor isn't as harmless as he tries to be. He saw many starnge cases in laboratories, but there were none of them that could cut off one of the horns that doctor head.
At least none that Nathaniel knew about.
Maybe there were different kind of experiments in the labs of these universe.
Alas, he highly doubt it.
Other xeno races weren't so interested. Volus, elcor, hanar… After he had read everything that he could find about his possible enemies he decided to look into the fourth race that had entered the Council.
Humans.
As it was said, humans got in conflict with turians, getting themselves the reputation of aggressors and savages, for the war and their fast expansion into the Traverse regions. After the expansion they got in conflict with other race – batahrians.
Soon after it escalated into the another war, which Batharian Hegemony lost. Being the bitches they were, they instantly went to the Council, bitching about the subject and demanding for Humanity to be brought to justice.
However, they were basically said to piss off and batharians closed their embassy on the Citadel, becoming an official rogue state.
Nathaniel sighed. This reality was actually no different from the one he came from, of course there were no Chaos Gods and heretics, but the "so good" aliens also surrounded the Humanity and they had absolutely no desire to be equals with Humanity.
At this moment, doors to his room opened and Commander Shepard entered the room.
"I see that you are searching for information about your current situation?" asked commander. "Looks like your search gave you a lot of questions?"
"Not as many as the questions about warfare."
"Well…" said Shepard. "If you don't mind… the briefing will start in thirty minutes."