Warhammer 40k in the Year 2021: Kharn and Blood for the Blood God
a fan fiction by Daniel Trump aka Dalton Lewis
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I, Kharn, shot Mitch Starr with my plasma pistol in English class. He died instantly, brains exploding all over. Several students screamed. They tried to hit an alarm. It didn't go off. Then I tried to cover it up - which is tricky when you are in the middle of a high school full of inquisitive students and angry teachers. Many of them wanted to be heroes and had mental defenses and couldn't forget anything. We had just restarted real classes instead of that virtual bullshit so I was able to get into class with the other students and get a chance to kill some of them. I sat right behind Mitch so that he wouldn't know to dodge or anything when I killed him. I started with Mitch Starr because he offended me the most of the other students at the high school. I then turned to one of the demons that I worshiped, Damon Salvatore, a living legend, and snarled at him.
Damon Salvatore wore nice dress pants and a nice suit. He had dark hair and a perpetually brooding look to himself: he looked like a vampire. He looked like a vampire because he was a vampire.
"Cover it up," I said.
"You're going to be trouble, aren't you?" Damon asked. "I don't like when people snarl instructions at me, especially people who say they worship me."
"He's a rapist," I said. "I killed a rapist. Cover it up."
"Of course," Damon said. "Just remember who worships whom."
"I worship you because we can fight and kill countless enemies together," I said. "Don't be useless to me, okay, boss?"
"No," Damon said. "No, okay, we'll get things done."
"Good," I said.
"All right," Damon said. He looked at the class. "This person died of a brain hemorrhage. Nothing else. Understand?"
A few minutes later someone showed up and put the body in a body bag and cleaned up the area while we studied English.
The bell rang. I went into the hallways and started towards the next class. Elena Gilbert, a teen vampire, interrupted me. She had dark black hair and a skinny little CW body. She wore jeans and a t-shirt with a purple vest. She smiled.
"They're doing an evaluation," she said. "Evaluating everyone, who the heroes are, who the villains are. They're announcing the results soon."
"Oh," I said. I felt my stomach clench. My head felt like it was on fire. "I don't care what they say."
"You do, though," Elena said.
"I do," I said. "Why the fuck do I care what those idiots think?"
"Because you're a scary villain with a heart of gold? Kind of like Damon? And you don't know what you want them to say about you?"
"I don't know," I said.
"Professor X and Tony Stark are doing the evaluation," Elena said.
"I thought Tony Stark was dead," I said.
"So did I," Elena said. "He's not. Lex Luthor brought him back."
"Lex," I said. "A villain."
"Lex is trying to save people," Elena said.
"Bullshit," I said. "Remember when he nuked western California to make more money off his land in eastern California? Classic."
"Fuck," Elena said.
"Yeah," I said.
Professor X started to make an announcement.
"To the astonishment of no one, Lex Luthor's guilt has been proven. He tried to frame nine thousand, three hundred, forty-two pieces of evidence, including my telepathy, and then threw a shit fit when caught and threatened to kill the X-Men and take over our little alternate Earth. We are now at war with him."
Elena hugged me. "See? They didn't fall for Lex's bullshit."
"Good," I said. "Now my only problem is Angron."
"Angron?" she asked. "Your demon boss? I thought that our problem was a war with the tyranids."
I nodded. "Tyranids, yes. Angron, god yes. He's a bit...chaotic."
"We might need some chaos," Elena said.
"No, I mean, he's unhinged," I said. "He might go crazy and kill his enemies, or anyone he perceives as his enemies. He may just wander around killing people."
"Oh," Elena said.
"I don't know what to do," I said.
"Are you trying to be a good person?" she asked.
"In that I'm fighting for demons that I worship, yes," I said.
"Then fight for us," Elena said. "Help your boss. Try to help him see the light."
"Right," I said. "You've never met this guy."
The bell rang.
"Class in fifty seconds," she said. "Bye, Kharn."
I walked into my next class. "Bye," I said.
Class was class: boring monotony while the authorities taught us what they wanted us to think about life and society. They wanted to teach us to conform. They made us read the American classics, books which taught us to love America, treasure her values, and believe that this country somehow meant something. In the year 40,000 there would be an Empire - there wouldn't be an America. It would get scooped up and turned into the Empire, and the Emperor would be the eternal leader, a figurehead above the madness of leading a space government. Below him would be elected leaders, senators and presidents and the like. I would be against the Empire, against what America would turn into. Treason? I didn't think so. I didn't hate America - it didn't intend to turn into something evil. It just didn't have a choice.
Robbie G walked into class. This wasn't his class - this was American Literature. We were reading Huckleberry Finn and talking about his abusive father and the impact of slavery and several other themes from the book. Robbie looked at me.
"Hey, Kharn," he said.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"I want to talk to you," he said.
"Why?" I asked. "We hate each other. I hate you. Do you hate me? You should."
"I need to talk to you about working together on an important project," he said. "I don't care if you hate me, and I don't hate you. I respect you."
"I hate you," I said. "I hate everything you stand for."
"I know," he said. "Let's talk outside."
I walked out of the classroom. "I hate you."
"But the final battle against the tyranid swarm is going poorly. We are losing. Abaddon and Celestine are teaming up to power up the device that will make peace between the tyranids and everyone on Earth. There's a problem, though. They lost a fight, and the artifact was taken. They need a team to take it back."
"And they need me," I said.
"They need the best fighters that aren't already on the battlefield," Robbie G said. "That's you and me. We need to ignore any fight between Horus and the Emperor and work together to make this happen."
"Fine," I said. "I'll kill tyranids for you, Bobby G. I just want one thing."
"What's that?" he asked.
"Thank me," I said.
"Thank you," he said.
"Good," I said. "Now, let's get started."
I, Celestine, lay in bed, naked, with my beloved Grayfax. She was naked, too, blonde and teen and beautiful. The sheet had mostly fallen off of the bed. She giggled.
"Hey, babe," she said.
"Hey," I said. "This is great. What is happening?"
"Don't," she said.
"Don't what?" I asked.
"Don't ask," she said.
"I'm asking," I said. "What's wrong? I can tell something's wrong.
She smiled. "We're in the tyranid hivemind," she said. "Enjoying a few last moments together. You are hurt, and I am the queen of the tyranids, and I wanted to spend time with my beloved Celestine, so we made it happen. We won't kill you. We love you."
"Oh," I said. "You can't just stop all this?" I asked.
"No," she said. "You have to turn on the device. Then you need to activate it. Then we will be your ally and respect you as equals and welcome you as an alternate hive. Then we will have peace."
"But not until?" I asked.
"Not until," she said. "Those are the rules. We can't break the rules."
"Oh," I said.
"Yeah," she said. "Come on, fuck me."
I fucked her - I probably shouldn't have but I did. We slept together for what felt like the briefest of eternities. Then we put some clothes on and sat next to the bed, talking.
"Oh," I said. "I'm mad at you, killing my friends."
"You've killed two hundred of my tyranids," she said. "I loved every one of them."
"Oh," I said.
"This is war," she said. "No one is innocent in war."
"I know," I said. "But you have to know that we are trying to be a hive. To be a qualified hive. To be someone that you should respect and not just want to devour."
"You are so primitive," she said.
"You seem primitive to us," I said. "With all biology and no technology."
"Technology is terrible," she said. "We destroy machines."
"No," I said. "Our mechs beat your big bugs now. We've developed mechs which can defeat your biggest monsters. I'm sorry. Kaijus don't beat Jaegers."
"Oh," she said.
"Yeah," I said. "We're winning. You have a lot of soldiers, but we can cut you off from your reinforcements indefinitely, starve you out, kill you. It won't be easy, but we're winning."
"Oh," she said.
"You didn't know that, hon?" I asked.
"We think we're winning," she said. "And we're pretty smart."
"And arrogant," I said. "Way too arrogant."
"Says the saint who can't die," she said.
A tyranid, a tyranid prime, walked into the room, and he began to talk in English - which I found a little odd. "My queen, they are sending an alternate team after the artifact. A small team, made of other heroes, not their main heroes. It shouldn't be a problem."
"Handle it," she said.
She looked at me. She loved me - she always loved me. That was never the question. She was always the destroyer of worlds. She always had the assignment to destroy worlds, and she was always tasked to fail at that job - to save billions. She was required to fail at that simple assignment to save people, lots of people. That was the scam we had designed when the evil degenerate politicians from the Empire started to talk about destroying planets to save a few lives somewhere else because the enemies couldn't take planets from us.
I loved her more than life itself. That was never the question either. The question about me - would I die for the cause? It was expected. I was expected to die for the humans, to defend the humans against everyone else. They worshiped God, and I was a Saint of that God. They deferred to me on almost everything, and the only price was everything. They demanded everything from me - I needed to die, over and over, for the cause, for God, for the Emperor, to save Earth, to save everyone. I did it fearlessly every time. I was beginning to question why I did it.
The connected people all thought that the war had to end today. We had to win the giant battle and send the tyranid hordes back to the far reaches of space. I remember - I remember attacking them. I remember trying to plant the artifact and waiting and laughing hysterically at the thousands and thousands of tyranids that charged at the half-dozen of us who tried to defend the artifact, and I remember all of us falling, Horus the last to fall. I remember him, fighting gloriously, ripping apart tyranids, defending the artifact, finally falling.
We lost - we lost everything. We collapsed and were turned into bodies, bodies in a healing chamber, a healing chamber on a capital ship, a ship in a terrible battle against the tyranid hive fleet. I realized that I could hear explosions around us. I could see Grayfax turn part tyranid for a second and then turn back human again. Reality was creeping in. Reality creeped in more and more.
Then I could see them: the others. I saw Liselle of the Ad Mech; Betty Cooper; Negasonic Teenage Warhead; Lelith Hesperax; and Abaddon and Horus of the Chaos Marines. We were in a healing chamber, with Belli frantically trying to heal us. Belli, the junker droid, turned out to be Bellisarius Cawl of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the smartest, most advanced cybernetic being in existence. He was desperately healing our bodies aboard a capital ship while the Emperor's forces were repelling wave after wave of the tyranid forces.
I began to be healed enough to walk and speak and be fully functioning. I began to talk to Belli, to convince him, to convince them, that they needed the artifact…
I, Kharn, didn't know why I agreed to any of this fucking bullshit. I wore my power armor, painted red for the World Eaters. I wielded my chainaxe and my plasma pistol and walked next to Robbie G of the Ultramarines. We walked up to the entrance of a cave in the desert of Arizona. We didn't see a person or thing for hundreds of yards in any direction. I frowned.
"Should we have brought a third person?" I asked.
"No," he said. "This is it. It's in here. They gave it to Old One Eye. We have to finally finish him off."
"Good," I said. "We've fought him enough times."
A sound came from above - a drop pod landing.
"I brought reinforcements," Robbie G said.
"Good," I said.
A dozen Ultramarines showed up with bolters and chainswords. They walked up to Robbie G and saluted. We walked into the creepy tunnel into the cave below the surface of the Earth together.
We turned on lights to be able to see everything around us. We saw that the walls had been turned pink and red with tyranid growth all over them, growth which was pulsing with life, life that could detect us. I looked around. We were noticed. The cave descended at a steep angle down for five hundred yards before opening into a grand chamber. We walked down the cave towards the chamber, weapons at the ready. We made it to the bottom of the path and to the opening to the large chamber. It opened to madness.
This was a tyranid hive base. The entire place was purple and pink with the ground, ceiling, and walls writhing with life. The tyranids had turned this place into a person - a person that didn't like us or want us here. They lived here - this was a home, not a base. I looked around and saw something I would never forget: an alien family that looked nothing like humans or had anything to do with human culture.
We saw five huge bugs - huge tyranids - at the far end of the room: exocrines. They had huge gaping holes in which they shot superheated plasma onto the battlefield at us. There were twenty genestealers in between us and the exocrines, making sure that we couldn't get to the exocrines to face them in combat. I swore and started to shoot at the genestealers. So did Robbie G. The marines began shooting bolter fire at the genestealers.
The exocrine's plasma began to hit - two shots slammed into a marine next to me, rending his head from his body. Another marine exploded into pieces onto the ground. We swore and got under whatever cover we could find. The genestealers stayed back, guarding the exocrines and taking shots from the bolters.
"Fuck," Robbie G said.
"Yeah," I said. "Pinned."
"Ideas?" he asked.
"None," I said. "Charge? They can't shoot their own genestealers."
Robbie G smiled. "Chage," he said.
We charged straight at the genestealers, trying to get in the midst of them and prevent the exocrines from shooting at us. The fight with the genestealers was intense - they had lots of arms and scything talons and rending claws to rip us into pieces. We started to rip them apart with my chainaxe and the marines' chainswords and Robbie G's sword and power fist. We lost another marine, one ripped apart by a genestealer who knocked him to the ground and pounced on him, ripping him apart and eating part of his chest. I chopped the genestealer's head off with my chainaxe.
I passed through the genestealers, and so did Robbie G, leaving the marines to face them. We started to attack the exocrines, which didn't have much melee capacity. We wrecked them, ripping them to pieces with our super-powered weapons. They screamed and screamed as they died, trying to shoot us at point-blank range but missing because of the difficulty of shooting into someone who is fighting you at melee.
The marines continued to fight the genestealers. Three of the marines ripped apart two genestealers, chopping limbs off with their powerful chainswords. The genestealers continued to fight, listening to someone for guidance. I knew that they were getting orders from someone on the battlefield. The question: who? I looked around for the synapse creature. There!
I spotted, on the ceiling, a neurothrope, floating in the air, just ordering around the tyranids with his mind. I shot my plasma pistol at him, supercharging the plasma. I hit him repeatedly. The neurothrope tried to shoot psychic energy at me.
I blocked it with my mind. I had mental defenses: I spent countless hours training my mind to resist such attacks. I resisted any and all mental attacks which were sent at me. I shrugged off the smite that the neurothrope tried to attack me with and shot him over and over with my plasma pistol. He collapsed to the ground, dead. The remaining exocrines and genestealers ran away from the room as soon as he fell, disorganized and leaderless. As they left I saw something towards the bottom of the chamber: the artifact. I smiled.
"Paydirt," I said. "We have it. Now we just need a giant fucking army to defend us while we charge up and activate the damned thing."
"Cool," Robbie G said.
We just had to activate the artifact and defend an open area with two entrances, one up to the surface and one down to the bottom, back deep into the Earth, where the tyranids lived, with thousands upon thousands of warriors.
I, Celestine, Saint of the Sisters of Battle, smiled at Belli. "They found it," I said.
"Yes," Belli said. "They found the artifact. We can begin the final battle. We will try to provide support from up here. They are trying to enter the ship and disable it."
"Tell me where," Abaddon said. He and Horus began to run over to face the tyranids who were infesting the ship and trying to take it from us.
"Wait," I said. "We need everyone at that artifact."
"I agree," Horus said. "We need everyone there."
"Let's go," I said.
"There's a drop pod I could give you," Belli said. "It's over here."
We all walked over to the drop pod - Negasonic, Betty, Liselle, and Lelith had gotten healed and got into the drop pod with us. I smiled.
"Just like normal," I said. "Desperately trying to save the day."
"Fun times," Liselle said. "I'm glad we do this."
"Me too," Betty said. "Archie's not gonna believe this one."
The drop pod fell from orbit at thousands of miles per hour.
"Like an amusement park ride," Negasonic said.
I smiled. "Exactly," I said.
We slammed into the ground. The drop pod doors opened to insanity: thousands of space marines fighting thousands of tyranids around a small entrance to a cave that led down to a chamber where Kharn and Robbie G were holding the artifact.
We ran towards the entrance. The entrance was held by a trio of tyranid warriors.
The trio of tyranid warriors held boneswords and lash whips and faced us down. Horus charged forward with his lightning claws, trying to rip them apart. Abaddon teleported behind one of the tyranid warriors and stabbed at him from behind. He turned to look in pain at the sight of Abaddon, sword in hand, behind him, impaling him. He tried to stab Abaddon and held Abaddon's sword in one of his hands to prevent blocking. He stabbed Abaddon in the gut, piercing his terminator armor. Abaddon fell backwards, stumbling to the ground.
He lay there, bleeding, on the ground, and looked at us. He looked at Horus. "Continue with the mission," he said. "I'll be fine, I have this rock to sit on." He sat on a rock, watching the fight, clutching his stomach, unable to fight. I used my flamethrower on the third tyranid warrior, burning it into ash before us. Negasonic slammed into the one stabbed by Abaddon, finishing it off.
The fight was madness and pain and chaos. People screamed orders over vox. Tanks exploded or launched superheated shells at huge tyranids. Enormous carnifexes and mawlocs and haruspexes ran through the battlefield, wrecking anyone near them and shrugging off enormous amounts of damage before falling. There were no lines - just chaos, people surrounded by enemies, fighting in little pockets, desperate and scared.
We had finished the warriors and continued down the tunnel towards the tyranid base and the artifact. We fought some tyranids along the way, knowing that time was essential, knowing that we needed to get down there to help, knowing that Robbie G and Kharn were down there hoping for us to make it down there to help them. We made it halfway down when someone stood in the hallway to greet us: Old One Eye. We faced the monstrous carnifex a third time. Horus charged straight at him, and Old One Eye slammed Horus into the wall, knocking him down and stunning him. He tried to stand and staggered down to the ground. Negasonic charged at Old One Eye and slammed into him. Both of them fell backwards, stunned from the collision. Horus got up and continued towards Old One Eye, ducking below Old One Eye's powerful crushing claws. He then stabbed Old One Eye's underbelly, doing lethal damage to him. Old One Eye fell to the ground, crushing Horus as he died. Horus fell, downward, appearing to be dead, next to the giant carnifex.
"We have to continue," I said.
We charged downwards, continuing down the tunnel that was costing us so much. We heard a loud explosion coming from down below us then, and we hurried, sprinting down there. We made it to a huge open chamber with eight marines, Kharn, and Robbie G, and no tyranids at all.
"They're regrouping," Robbie G said. "Glad to have the help. Abaddon? Horus?"
"They're hurt," I said.
"Dead?" Kharn asked.
"Hurt," I said. "Just hurt."
"Good," Kharn said. "They need medical. Soon as possible."
I called for a doctor who was willing to go to a medical situation in a battlefield. Elena Gilbert appeared a few minutes later.
"I'm here," she said.
"Horus and Abaddon are up that tunnel, injured," I said. "They need help."
"I'm on it," she said.
She ran faster than the eye could see, up the tunnel.
We looked at each other.
"So," I said.
Everyone laughed.
"How's everything?" I asked.
"Nothing matters but this," Kharn said.
"No?" I asked. "No girl?"
"No," Kharn said.
"No hobby?" I asked.
Pause. "I watch football," Kharn said.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Yeah," Kharn said.
"Robbie G?" I asked.
"Strategy gaming," he said.
"You any good?" I asked.
"Pretty good," he said. "But I could do better. I could always do better."
"Why do they attack us?" Liselle asked. "It seems bizarre that they attacked Earth."
"We don't seem like intelligent people to them," I said. "If we activate the device they will realize that we are a smart, hardworking hive that shouldn't be consumed."
"Ah," Liselle said. "Peace."
"Yes," I said. "Peace."
"If the device activates," she said.
"It's at eighty percent," Robbie G said. "They have one more push."
We heard noise - movement, rumbling, tunneling, and running towards us. We got ready, made a perimeter, took what cover we could.
"We're ready," I said.
I, Kharn, knew something was wrong. Horus and Abaddon, two of the better space marines, were down, and Elena Gilbert, a vampire, was fixing them.. The daemons were saving us, and the humans were letting us die to win their war. So be it - I would help them win their war. I would give everything to win this one for them because I had agreed to do so for a thank you.
Robbie G stood next to the artifact, and so did I. We heard rumbling. Then the ground exploded. Next to us slammed a trygon prime, slamming up into the air from below the ground. It was a huge, snakelike kaiju towering over us. It brought with us hungry raveners, raveners hungry to rip us into pieces. The kaiju tried to eat me, but I dodged away and slammed my chainaxe into its long neck. The snake recoiled and slammed electrical energy at me, slicing through my armor and hurting me. I staggered back but didn't fall. I remained in between the kaiju and the artifact.
The artifact started to hum and glow. The tyranids grew enraged and redoubled their attacks. A tyrannofex arrived in the huge chamber with his acid flamer. Next to him walked in the greatest tyranid in the history of their race: the Swarmlord. The Swarmlord held four monstrous bone swords and ran straight to the artifact. Betty Cooper tried to shoot him but was knocked down to the ground, unconscious and collapsed. Liselle tried to engage the Swarmlord with her omnissian axe, but the Swarmlord knocked it clean out of her hand and stabbed her in the midsection, ripping her in two. Mechanical parts flew everywhere as she fell into pieces. Her face still glowed, looking at herself as she slowly died.
The Swarmlord was the epitome of the tyranid: alien and powerful and ignorant of human prowess at anything, ignorant of the progress of technology or the improvement of society through technological progress. He didn't care or feel for us, just wanting to devour and consume us for the swarm. He didn't hate us because we were beneath hate. We didn't mean anything to him except to provide a moment's challenge during his aeons of life.
Robbie G jumped at the tyrgon prime, wrestling it to the ground and pummeling it with his power fist, the Hand of Dominion. He fell into the ground with the creature, disappearing along with the trygon prime as they fought beneath the chamber. I looked around. There was no one upright and near the artifact except for me. Lelith, Negasonic, and some space marines held off a small army of genestealers and tyranid warriors while the Swarmlord charged at the artifact. The only thing in his way: me.
I looked at the Swarmlord.
"I'm never giving up," I said.
He said nothing. He stood there, gauging me.
"I'm never, ever going to stop fighting you," I said.
The Swarmlord leaned in and slashed at me with two of his four bone swords. I blocked both of them and began to fight the Swarmlord. I tried to shoot him with my plasma pistol at close range, but he dodged to the left and tried to flank me. I adjusted and blocked him from getting to the artifact. He tried to kick me and knock me down, but I stayed upright and tried to stab at him with my chainaxe. It slammed into a bonesword, and the Swarmlord blocked. He backed two steps back and looked at me.
He knew, then, that I was going to win, that the artifact was going to activate, and that he was going to have to leave the planet to us, the humans, and that this was going to be his greatest failure. He didn't accept this, though, and charged straight at me.
"Hit me," I said.
He charged into me. He slammed into me, full speed, and we fell onto the ground. I slammed my chainaxe into his midsection, causing a huge gash in his stomach. He stabbed me in the side with a bonesword. We were entangled, unable to separate. I slammed the chainaxe deeper into his side, and he slammed his bonesword deeper into my side. We stared at each other, both hunters, neither one surrendering.
I grabbed my plasma pistol and pointed it at his head, supercharging it. I shot it at his head.
Bam.
The weapon exploded in my hands. I laughed. Unbelievable fucking bullshit. My hand practically exploded, and the Swarmlord and I both fell down to the ground next to the artifact. I turned then to see the artifact activate. It glowed, pulsed, and then sent a pulse of energy through the planet: indicating that we were a hive worthy of respect and not merely food for the swarm.
The tyranids quickly scuttled away, leaving the fight and heading away from the planet and onto their hive ships, leaving Earth and heading back to some unknown region of space far away from us. Robbie G appeared from below and smiled and hugged me.
"Hey," he said. "We did it. We did it. The tyranids are leaving. We won. We won the war. They are leaving."
"Yeah, I need a doctor," I said.
I collapsed.
I woke up again a little later. I was in a room with Abaddon and Horus. They were sitting around watching a basketball game.
We had won: the tyranids had left Earth. Earth had learned of the existence of aliens and stopped them. The space marines were a real thing, with the teenage Roubute Guilliman, aka Robbie G, as one of their leaders. They were tasked with protecting a very young Earth from whatever alien forces may cause trouble for Earth and its people. Celestine, Abaddon, and everyone got a thank you from the new leader of the space marines: the Emperor.
"Hey," I said to Horus and Abaddon.
"Hey," Horus said. "Good job fighting out there. You really did great. The tyranids left. They stopped bothering us. They won't be a problem for us any longer."
"Great," I said. "We won a war."
"Yeah," Abaddon said. "Good job, us."
"I learned nothing," I said. "No life lesson."
"Smart," Horus said. "We learn nothing from endless war, only learning from the small moments of peace in between the terrible wars. Did you know that we are being treated by a daemon? A vampire? A wonderful one? Her name is Elena Gilbert. Marvelous."
"What are you saying?" I asked.
"We should fight the Emperor," Horus said. "The three of us. We should attack him. He wants to take over for the humans. We want the daemons to have an area, the orks to have an area, the elves to have an area, and so on. The emperor, he wants everything. We need to stop him."
"I get the feeling that this will end poorly," I said. "But I'm in."
"Me, too," Abaddon said. "You're right. We should stop him. Where is the Emperor, anyway? Wasn't he kidnapped by the genestealer cult?"
"Just got rescued, considered a great hero for not breaking and doing time in a cell, just water, no bread, basically starved for a month and a half. He used psychic power to stay alive, feeding off his own cells, desperately hungry, not caving," Horus said.
"A worthy opponent," I said. "Sounds good."
We sat there, in the hospital, talking about life, planning for the future, and getting better. We wanted to do something special with our lives. We wanted to start a heresy.