Mon-keigh are pathetic creatures. Weak and inferior, with a laughable lifespan and a simply weak biology. This human was. . . no different. He is weak, his physic however was fitting of a warrior, but he is just as stupid as any Mon-keigh with a weak mind. . . and he just regurgitated on me.

His mental state is fragile, so in this little façade. . . I designed it to be as real as possible. I regret that decision, I have been altering the fabrics in his mind too much, his state seems too similar to his that night.

'. . . Sorry. . .' he apologised.

'It's alright, your. . . not quite yourself Kit.' I faked a smile.

'. . . Transit is five minutes out. . .' he stood up, grabbing onto a metal construct on the walls of the machine we rode, 'I'll. . . carry myself. . .'

'. . . That's fine dear.' More lies, the pretence of caring tastes strange to me.

I would just rip the answers I seek from his mind, but he is resistant. . . I would admire that from my own kin, not this feeble specimen. But still it was amazing how he resists me, his strength and his courage. . . for a while he would stand there, like a guardian to make up for his previous failings, and if he was in the right mind. . . no wonder he is a soldier.

'Were here.' He said, he looked and offered his hand to me.

Damn you Mon-keigh. . .

I took his hand and he led me from the crude craft to the outside world. This world was built of the memories of places he's been, but this wasn't what I was expecting. This was not the monstrous metal city which most Mon-keigh reside, but rather. . . wilderness and farmland.

He led me by hand along a dirt road, through the dark. I doubt he even knows where he's going, but he seemed. . . like the path was forever in his memory.

'Are you sure your. . . not too drunk?' I asked, faking a laugh.

'I could never forget the way home.' He assured me.

We carried on for a long time before there was any sign of a settlements or human structures. We climbed over a hill and I could see the lights of crude homes in the distance. We carried on to this. . . township and stopped at the door of some. . . hovel down the first road.

'Do you. . . have the key?' he asked.

'. . . Oh, yeah I-I'll. . .' I searched these horrendous rags on my body and found an odd shaped piece of metal.

'. . . Want. . . me to open it?' he asked, holding his hand to me.

I placed it on his hand, and he inserted it into a hole in the wall and it opened inward.

'Look whose too drunk now?' he joked, walking into the structure and holding the door open for me.

I entered the building and looked around. Wooden furniture covered with silk articles, hard stone floors and archaic technology built into the walls and some of the furniture. He looked around for a while before he took a seat. He sat there silently, staring at the floor. He coughed for a moment, before he had a full fit and covered his mouth. He drew his hand back, and blood spilled from it.

'I'll-I'll. . . get a M-Medkit!' I said, as I looked around this prismatic home.

'Kitchen. . .' he told me.

I don't know what that is. . .

The little room to your right.

Ok. . . what?!

Just help him. Let him have some peace.

This voice was a piece of his mind, something that broke off and became another person itself. Like. . . a fractured psyche.

I found a metal box with a white symbol on it, assuming it was right I brought it back to him.

He took it from me. He went through it and pulled a flimsy sheet material with lumps all over it. He pushed two of the lumps and two white pieces fell from the sheet. He held them in his hand and shook.

'C-can you. . . get some whisky please.' He asked.

I returned to the Kitchen and searched.

To your right. A glass bottle with an amber coloured liquid. Fill the glass beside it and take it to him.

I am not your servant.

No. . . but he needs you here.

I will cast you out and destroy you when this is done.

I'm fine with that, but go to him now.

I did as it told: taking the glass, filling it, and delivering it to him. He ate the little pieces and drank the whole glass. He coughed before he fell back in the seat.

'Thank you. . .' he told me.

'Are you alright?' Compassion Is a weakness, but here it is the key.

'. . . No. . .' he said, I tried to move back to the kitchen but he grabbed my hand, 'I. . . promised you a better life. . . this is not it. . .'

What am I to do here?!

Be compassion. . . be human. . . countless times he thinks of this moment, and he cant recall what she said. . . tell him. . . tell him-

'. . . What is wrong with this life?' I asked him, moving back to him.

'We live in my parent's home. . . far from a proper city, you should. . . attend gala's like tonight every night. . . you should live like a queen. . .' he told me.

'. . .Kit . . .' I got up close to him, 'I cannot ask for any better. . . when I'm with you.'

'. . . You don't-' he began, but then I refused to listen to the voice and. . . acted like a animal.

I closed the gap between our lips, trying to show passion. . . I was afraid. . . afraid he would see the lies here. . . I don't know how she did it, or if this is right. . .

This is demeaning. . .

This is what animals respond to. . . just give him what he wants.

. . . I don't think-

I felt his hand gently graze the side of my head, a soft and kind gesture. But eventually he broke off and stood up. He left me alone and disappearing in the rear of the building.

'. . . I'm sorry. . .' he said, before he left and went into another room in the back.

What did I do wrong? I was. . . letting the animal have his way.

Its not you, this is something else. . .

I thought you knew all.

Not this fool. . .

You can't keep me quiet, bitch!

Don't antagonise her!

I should destroy you now. . . why shouldn't I?

. . . I don't have an answer for you except. . . he would be alone again.

. . . He would have me.

You? A liar, a manipulator, a xeno?

I will pretend only a while longer. . .

And he will suffer when he finds out, have you no decency xeno?

Why should I have decency? Why should I care for you Mon'kai?! You have perverted my kin's resting places, spreading like locusts across the stars, laying claim to what we once held. . . why should I show any of your kind decency?!

. . . You don't, but. . . you can. . . would you care for someone who you hurt. . . you are using the form of one he lost and your using it to try and take information from him. . . could you stop and think that maybe. . . if you actually cared then maybe this universe could be different. . . maybe this galactic blood shed could cease between us. . . or maybe not. . . maybe we should all rip each other apart and let a darker force consume us. . . so. . . why bother pretending to be human?

I carefully crept into the room he went into. He laid alone on a bed of fabrics and cloths. Alone. . . shaking. . . in pain.

Be human? I. . . have no desire to. . . nor do I intend to. . . but. . . but. . .

I carefully approached the bed, and slowly climbed atop of him while he seemed. . . distracted. But I eventually got to where I wanted.

'. . . Mere. . . Mira? What are you?' he asked.

'Shhh. . . Kita.' I told him, and I gently kissed him.

It felt intimate, and affectionate. It was strange how humans interacted. . . but like this, I honestly wished I could be who he thought I was. . . just to feel what it could really be like.

The line between reality and the lie was blurry. . . it was hard. . . to tell what I was feeling. . . except his arms around me here and now feels. . . real. I'm not human, and. . . am I ok with that? I can't tell the council about this, I don't even know what they would say about my. . . investigation. My methods were unheard of, and it's. . . it's as if I defied the gods. . . All the paths and this was the one I took, listening to the broken mind of some Half-Psycher. . . and yet. . . His embrace, and. . . this home is. . . no, this must come to an end.

'Kit, can I ask you something?' I asked, not knowing if he was even awake.

'Yeah, of course.' He responded.

'. . . The officers at the Gala, they had weird stones put on their uniforms, where did they get them? I-I might put one on your uniform.'

'. . . Yeah, they are rare. . .' he began, 'we dug up a deposit of the stones on a survey exercise. Eldar artefacts apparently, they. . . most of them were destroyed when we found them, by accident while the rest were taken as. . .'

'Trophies. . .' I finished for him.

This is the truth of humanity: takers, defilers, monsters. . . these foul creatures are a plague among the stars!

'. . . I may be called again soon, I may. . . be taken off world this time. . .' he said as he climbed out of the bed, '. . . I have. . . something to give you, I know the call is coming but I don't know when.'

He went through a small cupboard in the room, he was searching something hidden, hidden from me and yet vivid in his memory.

He turned to me with a cloth in his hand.

'It's weird but. . . when I picked this up, it. . . it cried in pain.' He unwrapped the cloth from it and revealing a pale white stone, which gave a curious hue of light, 'but eventually it said my name, and I said its. . . like it knew me. . .'

It was a soul stone, a lost brother or sister of my kind. Offered the stone to me, and I took it in my hand.

'Take care of her. . . please.' He asked me, his eyes pleading to me.

'. . . I-' I was going to lie to him, but he fell to his knees, 'Kit?!'

I tried to run to him, but through his chest burst an Eldar blade. Brother. . . He fell to the ground, and as he coughed and gaged in pain, the lie faltered. very room around us turned to embers and ash. As the dream was burned away, my Brother stood behind him with a bloodied blade in hand. We returned to his prison, and he laid there bleeding and shaking on the ground.

'Sister, this. . . animal is of no use to us. . . he has nothing to offer.' My brother said, standing over him with his blade ready.

'You idiot he has knowledge of our fallen kin! he knows where the soul stones are!' I told him, but he looked at me in shock.

'What did this Mon'kai do to you?!' he questioned, and I looked down to see they were torn. . .

It was real. . . It was real. . .

He was about to strike him again but ran up and seized the blade in his hand.

'Be gone Kanin!' I shouted at him as I shoved him back, 'You will not interfere. . .'

He stared at me in confusion, but then anger. He turned his back on me and stomped off, radiating of malcontent and spite. When he was gone, I approached Kit. I knelt beside him and held him in my arms.

'. . . M-Mira?!' he asked me.

'. . . I'm sorry. . . no. . .' I said to him.

'. . . S-she's still there. . . I have. . . to save. . . her. . .' he said to me, he closed his eyes and tears slid down his face, 'Save. . . her. . .'

He stopped shaking, then he stopped breathing. He left me, not by choice. . . but by violence and the hands of my kin. Mon-kai are a clumsy, loud and slow. Eldar are precise, quiet and fast. Both humans and Eldar can be the monster the other sees the other as, but. . . I didn't want any of us to be the monster. . .

I walked along a dirt road lit with sunlight, passing through the lush nature around me. The road was long, and it was hard to tell how much time has passed since he came here. I walked along it alone, stripped of my armour down to my bare garments, I carefully glided my hands along the foliage around me. It was beautiful.

I walked over a hill, to see a familiar sight: a settlement in ruins. I entered the ruins and walked down the street, after a few hundred yards I stopped at the doorstep of a familiar hovel. The roof and half of the walls were completely destroyed, the inside was burned and damaged while the door was completely shattered into the main room. I walked inside, into the burnt remains of a home. I passed a blood stained, burned seat into the kitchen of the place, there was a set of glasses and an undamaged bottle of the whisky. I poured a glass and drank a mouthful, coughing a little as I finished it. I put down the glass and turned down the hall and approached the bedroom. The bedroom was burned much like the rest of the house, but through the broken walls grew plant life. After the destruction, life seems to fill the gaps. I looked to the side and saw a small undamaged cupboard.

I approached it and opened it. The only things there: a piece of parchment, and something covered in rags. I took out the parchment and saw markings in what I believe is Low Gothic. I took a moment and deciphered it.

Mira, I'm sorry I broke your promise, but I feel it was the right thing to do. You always told me that a military man didn't suit me, and that I should pick up a hoe or a shovel and make the life for us here but I'm sorry that I feel that life doesn't suit me either. In the time that I spent with you, you told me anything of what suits me, I feel it is only right that I defend what is precious. The monsters are at our door, and I must go face them.

I don't want to leave you, for every time I do I feel that I leave behind what makes me human, but I do wish that like all the times before I return and hold you in my arms again and maybe one day create a child of our own.

I put my hand to my belly, gently rubbing it.

I want a child, a legacy. A brave boy or a precious girl, but I know it should be you that decides when your ready. I go to face the monsters, I am ready for them and for a child, and I will be if I return. I'm sorry Mira and forgive me. Forever yours, Kitty. (I still hate that name you gave me)

I'm sorry. . . I'm not the one you love. . .

I dropped the note, and let it fall to the floor.

I had no right. . . I can't. . .

I looked to the side and saw a familiar red wood table, its draw was slightly open. I pulled it out and pulled out an object covered in cloth. I pulled off the cloth and in my hand rested a smooth round stone. Only a moment, and I could feel her presence.

Where is that Mon-kai? He was so careful, he protected me. . . where is he?

I'm sorry sister, but he is gone.

. . . that is a shame, I'd like to see that human one last time.

. . . So would I.