Alright guys it's time for Chapter 6! I'd like to give a shout out to BIBOTOT, the user who has reviewed my story twice now. The user gave me advice on how to make the story better and I really appreciate it! This chapter is going to be a little different, you'll see how. I hope you enjoy it! :D
Quote of the Day: "Give me a gun, a google-eyed alien to shoot it at, and I'll die a happy man." – Guardsman Franx
Airika had always been nervous in large crowds. When she was a little girl on the planet Cadia, her homeworld, she always feared an invasion from the Eye of Terror, but not for the same reason as other people, she just didn't want to be locked in the house with her family. She couldn't take it. The thought of being locked in a small hab with her mother, father, two brothers, and sister made her squirm uncomfortably. The newcomer, Marxius, looked at her and asked;
"Are you alright?" he seemed genuinely worried, which was a first. Most people didn't care how she felt, maybe because she was a sanctioned pysker. She gave him an appreciative look and nodded.
"I'm fine, do not worry about me. How are you Marxius? Are you handling your first tour well?" Airika decided that if she should drop hints that she could his mind by asking him this. The idiot didn't seem to catch on when he answered.
"I'm handling better than most would I think. Vivian's really helped me progress as a soldier."
Airika looked at the woman that Marxius called 'Vivian'. She seemed too beautiful to be in the Guard, but Airika thought every woman who wasn't her was pretty, though she herself was quite attractive, she always told herself that she was a horror to look at.
"Is that right? Good for you." Airika didn't mean to sound rude; she just wasn't accustomed to conversing with other people. She preferred her books, and reading the thoughts of others.
Marxius seemed a little hurt at her lack of she noticed that he looked down at the ground. For the first time ever she felt an emotion in the back of her mind… guilt.
"I'm sorry Marxius" she said "I'm just not very good at speaking to other people." She hoped he wouldn't ask any questions but she could sense what was about to be asked…
"Why not?"
"Because I'm a pysker and no one likes talking to a pysker. We're a tolerable nuisance in many people's eyes. If they only knew all the work we did for them."
"You're a pysker?" He looked very interested "That's amazing! I've never met a pysker. Is it true you can read people's minds?"
Airika let out a girlish giggle "Yes I can, not every pysker has that power, but I do." She looked at her novel and decided to put it away. "It's a curse really. I always hear the mean things people want to say to me, but don't, because they're afraid I'll make their head explode."
Now that she thought about it, other than inquisitor Daerius, Marxius was the first person to be genuinely nice to her. However, Daerius was only nice to her, because he had to be, Marxius chose to be nice to her. She began to think about the people who had finally made her decide to become one of the dreaded Sanctioned Pyskers.
10 years prior, Kasr Vitoken
She opened her eyes after another sleepless night, the nightmares were getting worse. She was starting to awake with nothing but feelings of sharp pains. She looked at her home, a hole under one of the many clubs. She had learned to pacify and live with the rats that had already occupied the hole when she arrived. She had given them all names; after all they were her only friends.
She smiled at the rat walking past her "Hi Tikel."
Airika laid back against the rockrete beam in the hole she called home trying to fight back the stabbing hunger in her stomach. She hadn't eaten in three days, and was beginning to feel weak. She knew she should go out and get food, but she was afraid of the people, and what they'd do if they saw her. She looked at a ripped photograph that she had taped to the wall remembering her family;
"Daddy!" She sprinted towards her father as he entered the room.
He looked down at her and smiled "Hey there Airika! How was your day?"
"It was good; we went to the church today and learned about the Primarchs today." As she uttered the final words of her sentence there was a banging at the door.
"RELINQUISH THE GIRL HERETIC."
Airika's father turned around and stared at the door, awaiting the inevitable. With a crash the door slammed open, and a bear of a man wearing shining armour and charcoal black hair was standing in the doorway with at least a dozen PDF troopers. Airika's father looked at her and screamed;
"RUN!"
Airika tried to run but was grabbed by the black haired man. He gave her a stern, and very harsh, look as if he was telling to stand still. As the man looked up, he pulled out his bolt pistol and fired a round at Airika's father; Airika looked on horror as the shell made impact with her head.
"NO!" she tried to break free of the man's grip but was stopped without so much as a second thought from the big man and thrown to ground with a slight movement with his wrist.
"You will be coming with me, witch." She looked at the man with teary eyes, wondering how any man could be this cruel.
"I'm not a witch." She whispered trying to fight back the sobs as she looked upon her father's broken corpse. Just then a PDF trooper walked behind her and slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of her head.
Airika awoke in a dark room. The almost impossible darkness prevented her from even seeing her hands in front of her face. Her instincts screamed for her to try and find a way out of this blackened chamber. When she started to crawl along the ground she felt bare skin touching what felt to be rockrete, she noticed suddenly that she was unclothed, and with that continued her search for an exist. Decided to stay as close to the wall as possible, as it was so dark she felt like she would lose her way in the abyss that was her cell. Just as she found the courage to stand the door slammed open letting in a light so bright that it blinded Airika and caused her to close her eyes.
"Grab the witch and take her to the Chamber."
Two faceless men in olive green robes grabbed her by the arms and began to drag her along the freezing rockcrete floor. In utter silence she was dragged past room after room, and then with a sudden stop, one of the men let her go, and opened a door. The other man picked her up and took her into the room. As Airika entered she was taken aback at the grandiosity of the Chamber. The walls were adorned with portraits of heroes, saints, and martyrs that meant so much to the Imperium. Many of these people Airika did not know, but the one she recognized instantly was the portrait of Saint Lucia. As she saw the portraits of the greatest figures to ever live in the Imperium she was filled with a religious fervor and began saying every prayer she knew.
One of the olive robbed men seemed disgusted "How dare you say his prayers witch" and with a loud crack slapped her across the face. "Sit in the chair."
She was stunned, but complied fearful of any more blows from the olive drabbed brute. As she sat in the simple chair she silently began praying to the God-Emperor for her salvation. She didn't understand why these men called her a witch or why they had taken her hostage. She didn't understand why they had killed her father or why any of this was happening. She pinched herself in hoping this was another one of her awful nightmares. But she felt the pain, and knew this was not a dream, and she inwardly wept, so as not to provoke the men to more violence. As she began to resign herself to her fate two men in bright armour walked in.
"You can't do this, she is a child! She does not even know of her powers!" The younger of the two was yelling.
The other man made his rebuttal "Inquisitor Daerius, I may do as I please. You are too quick to trust the witch; she is most likely lying and must be punished."
She realized who this man was; it was the man that had killed her father.
"How do I know she hasn't corrupted you Daerius? Should I send for the Sisters to have you examined for heresy?"
Daerius was enraged at this comment "Do not ever question my faith again you bastard" he spit at the feet of the other inquisitor "Emperor damn you, this is not how we are supposed to treat his children." And with that, the only hope of salvation for Airika stomped out the doorway, and with a violent slam she realized she was damned to a fate worse than death.
The other man walked across the room and sat in a chair behind an eloquent mahogany desk, it was the size of at least two tall men. "Alright witch, I am going to ask you some questions, and by the Emperor you better answer them honestly."
She could no longer stifle the question brewing inside of her mind; "Why do you keep calling me a witch? I have done nothing m'lord."
With a harsh chuckle the man looked at her in the eyes and said "You can't fool me witch. I know what you are." With this he began his questioning.
"What is your age?"
"14 m'lord."
"Don't call me that witch, I won't show pity on you because you think you're an imperial citizen. Just answer my questions."
"Yes sir."
"What was your father's name, and what was his occupation?"
"His name was Takoa, and he was an executive at the Manufactorum."
This seemed to pique the Inquisitors interest. She was always taught that Inquisitors always knew everything about everyone. Either he was uninformed, or he was toying with her.
He looked at her and sighed, as if to say he was bored with this game. "What kind of nightmares have you been having?"
Airika was taken aback, how did he know of her nightmares? "H-how did y-you know about my n-nightmares sir?"
He gave her a stoic look and merely said "A citizen in the neighboring hab reported strange happenings coming from your home at night and he could hear your screams."
Airika never knew she screamed at night. No one told her, and what did he mean by 'strange happenings'.
"Now tell me girl, what is in your nightmares."
She looked at him and sighed, she knew no matter what she did that she was doomed to death. "The nightmares get worse every night. Something ne always happens to make it worse."
"Tell me." Was all he said and she began.
Airika stepped on the red tiled floor. She looked up and saw nothing but black, in a room that seemed to never end. She walked down the expansive corridor, which could hold hundreds of men walking side by side. She felt like an ant in the room. She continued her journey down the long corridor until she saw a solitary figure standing there. He was a huge man with blood red Armour and pale skin. He turned around as if sensing her presence.
"Come closer child."
Airika complied and walked towards the man. She studied him, his armour was adorned in trophies of past battles, and scarred from various weapon types. Could this be one of the legendary Astartes in her dream? He turned to face and let a slight welp at the sight. Instead of the Imperial Aquilia on his armour there was an eight pointed star, along with heretical runes tattooed upon his face.
He looked at her with a gentle smile and said "My name is Magnus the Red. I am the Primarch of the Thousand Sons traitor legion."
She was frightened, and rightly so. One of the great traitors from the Horus Heresy was in her dream; But why?
"W-why are you in my dream M'lord."
He looked down upon her and said "Do you know of your powers little one?"
She shook her head. What powers was he talking about?
He sighed "It pains me to do so child, but locked deep inside of you there is a great power, and the only way to bring it out, is pain."
With that he turned on her and entered his true form, The Daemon Prince of Tzeentch. As he walked towards her, the room began to fill with blood. The Daemon picked up Airika and tossed her on the Alter that he had been standing in front of. She screamed for help, but her pleas went unanswered, and as the consumed her, the only thing that remained uncovered was her face.
"Why are you doing this to me?" She asked the Daemon.
The Daemon looked down upon her with the look of great sadness upon his face. "Because child, you have a great power that will change the Imperium forever, and though I may have been branded a traitor by my father, though I watched Prospero, I will never stop believing in my father's belief in helping humanity. We just go about it in different ways."
As those final words were uttered from his mouth the blood consumed all of Airika and she slowly began to drown in it. The blood was filling up the olfactory glands in her nose, and drowning her lungs. Though she suffered, she would not die, the Daemon was keeping her alive. Suddenly the blood dissipated, and she was free from its clutches. She coughed and vomited the blood of her system, screaming in horror. But the Daemon was not finished with her yet. He let out an ear piercing whistle, and three cultists came out of a door in the side. On their back was a man. Dressed in black with skin as pale as bone; with a satchel at his side. The cultists put him down, and walked over to Airkia, scrubbing the blood off her skin harshly. All the while Airika was sobbing, praying that the Emperor would free her from this prison.
"Your corpse god has no power here fool." The cultist said as he cleaned her. Suddenly the cultist's head was grabbed and squished like a grape under Magnus' firm grip.
"I have always hated cultists, believing that my Father has less power than the Dark Gods is absurd. The Emperor is the pure embodiment of everything that is good and is a bright light in this universe of darkness."
Before Magnus could continue his diatribe the man in black hushed him and said in a cold steely voice "You mussst be ssilent if you want my work to grace her mortal body." With that Magnus silenced himself and turned away.
Airika was about to ask why Magnus turned, when she felt a searing pain upon her chest. The black clothed man was carving chaotic runes all over her body. She had never felt pain like this before. The man was using an ancient blade with a thin and extremely sharp edge, covered in a poison that burns blood into instant coagulation. She screamed and screamed. The man was obviously starting to get agitated, but he kept working anyway.
"W-what are these markings on my s-skin?" she asked with the last of energy.
The man did not answer her question, but instead began carving on her legs.
That's when she awoke last.
"Like I said before m'lord, the dreams progressively get worse every night."
The inquisitor looked at the girl, contemplating what must be done to her. He eventually decided that he'd just execute her tomorrow.
"I see, you may return to your cell girl. I will come by tomorrow to tell you what will be done with you."
With that the men grabbed her and began to drag her back to her cell. When she returned one of the guards left, while the other remained. She looked up fearful for what was about to happen. She had heard the stories of what happened to girls in Imperial prisons. When he began to walk forward she closed her eyes awaiting the inevitable pain she was about to feel, but instead, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry child, I won't let that bastard hurt you."
He gave her his cape and then left the room and closed the door.
Airika opened her eyes; she was back in her hole with the rats. They were sitting around her, with a look that almost looked like they were worried.
She let out a girlish giggle, "If only you guys where sentient. Then maybe I wouldn't be so lonely." This made the rats relax and go about whatever business rats did.
Airika's hunger finally got the best of her and she climbed outside the hole to go find a meal, but the minute she climbed out there was a hand on her shoulder. She recognized that hand. It was the man that had saved her.
It was Daerius.
ALRIGHT sorry this chapter took so long to come out, but I had to do some SERIOUS editing. I had a lot of other things in this chapter and it was complete last night, but instead of posting it, I decided to go back over it. Maybe once the stories over I'll release the original chapter 6… but then again maybe not LOL. Oh yeah, I'm also gonna be starting my Katawa Shoujo Fanfic soon too so when it comes out check it out ;)