Children of the Phoenix

by Slayzer

The uncorrupted clone of Fulgrim is found by the true Demon Primarch Fulgrim. Reshaped by the powers of Chaos and intended as a plaything she is instead reborn in body, soul and purpose. No longer a failed copy of fallen Primarch she struggles to rise like the mythic Phoenix and be a light in the Grim Darkness of 41st Millennium. (Gender Bent Clone Fulgrim)

2. Chapter 2

Thank you all for the kind and encouraging reviews.

I did not think this idea would be received well but I'm happy for your enjoyment of the story.

Once again Warhammer 40k is owned by Games Workshop. I make no money off this use of their intellectual property.

This story is rated M for Violence and Language.

Children of The Phoenix.

By Slayzer.

-Fornodran IV, Imperial Scrap World, Segmentum Tempestus-

The sand swept center of Fornodran IV's largest landmass was known colloquially as The Junkyard. It was a hot sun blasted desert with little of natural value. It had largely been ignored by the plant's human settlers. The humans who inhabited this world lived in the world's great Hive Cities. Billions of human souls pack together in ancient arcology cities.

When the world's mines ran dry of the ores needed to feed the apatite of its forges and factorums a solution was found. The worlds vast continent of dune swept deserts could be used to cushion the impact of a void ship's controlled descent. The ships could then be broken down and sent as scrap metal to the Hive City forges.

Over the millennia the ruined hulks of void ships from bulk haulers to great ships of the line dotted the desert waste. Like the carrion remains of great leviathan beast being consumed by tiny bugs those hulks would be swarmed by tens of thousands of humans and be broken down till only toxic slag remain.

It could take a Junkyard tribe generations to break down the huge hull of a multikilometer long ship. They would live in the shadow of the ship as they broke it down and then migrate to another wreak when they were done. They would use everything from hand tools, powered cutters and large manned wreaking machines. They would even use the antediluvian method moving sledges on rolling cylinders with levers if they had to.

The cycle was never ending with new void wreaks replacing the old.

But as time passed the toxins and waste metals mixed with the wind blown sand and the deserts of the Junkyard become poisonous. Yet there was no respite for the work had to be done. The endless wars of the Imperium made for a never ending stream of wreaks. In the face of the needs of an Imperium always at war the ecological devastation and hardship it caused one world was nothing. This world was needed to turn the refuse of battle into fresh materials to feed the Imperial war machine anew.

It had been so for millennia and the tribes of the Junkyard believed it would go on like that for millennia more.

This belief would be proven very wrong in the coming years.

-The Junkyard-

A small dune buggy raced over the chemically tinted sands of the Junkyard. Canvas packs holding high-grade salvage were strapped to the buggy's open frame body. The buggy had a driver, a spotter to the driver's right and a third passenger in a rear facing seat. All three of them were children belonging to the Stone Bastion Tribe.

Each wore a desert camouflaged mantle with a hood both to conceal themself and as protection from the sun. Their clothing was made from patchwork of salvage flak armor cloth. Green scarfs, the color of their tribe, were warped over their mouths and nose to keep the sand out. While their facial features, eyes and hair colors spoke to different human heritages they all had brown skin tones.

It was telling of how dire things were for the Stone Bastion Tribe that children barely past their ritual of naming were out scavenging in the Junkyard. The children could have been no older then thirteen years human standard. While they were young, they were not unwise or untrained. The many lessons the elders of the tribe gave them over their lives had prepared them to survive here. They knew how to navigate the desert, where the tribe's hidden survival cashes were, how to find the rare good scrap and how to use their weapons to hunt or kill if they needed to.

The one driving the buggy and leading this scavenger team was a girl named Robin. Named after the red plumed bird from Holy Terran legends as the girl's hair was of a similar red color. She knew not only how to drive the buggy but was also learned in the holy rituals of maintenance and appeasement for the motor's machine spirit. More than that Robin was clever, calm and clear eyed in purpose.

Robin's purpures right now was getting herself and her friends back home alive.

Not far behind the little buggy an Achilles Ridgerunner roared over one of the dunes. The Achilles was larger, more powerful, armed and just as capable of driving over the desert waste as the buggy was. A mounted heavy stubber gun and gunner tracked the buggy's movements but he had not fired a shot yet. They wanted to take prisoners, if possible, as healthy children sold well in some dark marketplaces. In the flatbed of the Achilles a set of four scavengers hooted and hollered as they enjoyed the chase. The vehicle and the scavengers riding in all bore the mark and reddish colors of The Rust Eater Clan.

Robin had to use every trick she knew the get the most out of her lighter dune buggy and stay ahead of their pursuers. If they could keep evading the Achilles in this motorized game of cat and mouse, they'd soon reach the area claimed by the Stone Bastion Tribe. Then it was just a matter of praying to the God Emperor that some of their tribespeople would be nearby to help them.

Sitting next to Robin was a boy named Timur. He had a pair magnoculars raised to his eyes. "I see the tribe's totem marker! We're almost home!"

In truth that didn't mean much. The Stone Bastion Tribe clammed a lot of area as they are one of the few tribes who didn't migrate. The past few centuries had been unkind to them as no new wreaks fell in their area of control. Now few of the adults who left to Scavenge retuned at all. The Stone Bastion Tribe was weakening and the others knew it and tried to capture the spoils of the once great tribe.

Timur put down the magnoculars and pick up a flare gun. He leaned out as far of the open frame of the buggy as his restrains would allow him to. The wind whip at his face tossing his wavy light brown hair as he aimed his flare gun into the bright cloudless sky. The flare streaked a burning trail of red into the sky. Timur hoped to see a return flare from his tribe acknowledging their peril. Maybe the threat of reinforcements would be enough to chase off their pursuers.

Unfortunately, the sky remained clear of a friendly return signal flare.

The last of the group was a quite girl named Nyla who had long black hair pulled into two twine braids. She was the one sitting in the rear facing seat keeping her well trained eyes on their pursuers. Nyla suddenly thumped the back of Robin's seat hard on the left side. Robin responded by juking the buggy to the left just a burst of heavy stubber fire kicked up sand where they had just been.

"Looks like they're done playing with us." Timur said and reached for his trusty bladed shovel. He knew it would be useless right now but the familiar heft of the tool gave him some confront.

Robin looked at Timur and smiled even as she dogged incoming fire from the Achilles Ridgerunner. "Do you want me to driver us closer so you can hit them with your shovel?"

"It's a 'bladed' shovel and I can do some real damage with it." A stubbed round whizzed past the open frame holing one of the packs but missing the children. "But I think we should leave this to Nyla."

Nyla the soft spoken of the group shifted a few packs around her and found what she needed, her long laz riffle. She braced a foot on the rearmost roll bar of the buggy, laid the laz riffle's barrel on top a pack, shoulder the gun's stock and aimed.

"So sloppy." Nyla said as the Rust Eater who was manning the gun fumbled around trying to load a new magazine into the gun. The extremely low recoil of most laz weapons meant that even a children could use them effectively.

'It's just another target.' Nyla told herself just before she squeezed the trigger.

The Rust Eater gunner had just managed to chamber the first round when his neck was blown open by a laz bolt. He looked on dumbfounded even as his dead body fell back down into the truck's cabin.

Nyla held out a fist in victory and her two friends bumped it with one of theirs. That little moment of contact with her Tribe Kin reminded Nyla why she had just killed someone. In truth it had been a lucky shot as she was aiming for the man's chest. She could have just as easily nick a shoulder or miss all together. But her shot hit home and the man died.

'In the end it was either them or us who would die today.' Nyla told herself.

The Achilles Ridgerunner suddenly kicked into overdrive and quickly started closing the distance with the buggy. Robin did all she could, pulling every bit of speed and turning power out of her dune buggy.

It wasn't enough.

Time seemed to slow down for Robin as she saw the end coming. "Brace!" she yelled in warning. The children already strapped tightly still in had a few moments to tuck in their heads and hold on.

Achilles side swiped the little dune buggy and it went skidding wildly out of control. The impact bent some of the frame and the tires screamed in protest before one of the axels snapped. The buggy ended up rolling over serval times spilling all the collected scarp all over a dune before coming to a rest on its side.

Robin's vision was swimming and she could feel herself about to pass out as she saw the Achilles swinging back around.

It was Nyla's screaming that brought Robin back from the darkness. She looked around and saw that all three of them had been pulled from their wreaked buggy. Two of the Rust Eater scavengers watched them while the four other members were checking the spoils from the chase.

Nyla was being dragged off by her hair by one of the Rust Eaters. Timur tried to get up and help Nyla but he was kick back down he could get far.

Robin moved to help but a dirty hand suddenly covered her month and she felt a laz pistol press into the side of her head. "Don't go doing something stupid. I'd hate to lose out on all that profit if I'm forced to kill you." It was a woman who held Robin.

She was the driver of the Achilles and leader of her scavenger band. By the Emperor the woman stank of unwashed body odor and narcotic chemicals. Hygiene must not be much of a concern for the Rust Eaters. All the members of the Rust Eaters looked sickly and grubby. Their ghoulish pale skin burned bright red in place were the sun at hit them. They were originally a massive Hive gang that was forced out in to the Junkyard after a power struggle. Now they ran amuck in the Junkyard attacking any tribe they crossed.

"Hey!" She yelled with a mouth holding a dozen blackened teeth. "Don't break the merchandises! Girls don't sell as well if they been used already."

"This bitch killed Goran!" The scavenger who was dragging Nyla yelled as fresh tears cut trails though the grim on his unwashed face.

"Right, you two were close. Tell you what, If I give you the first turn with the boy will you stop crying?"

The distraught Rust Eater suddenly brightened up as if he was offered a new toy. He let go of Nyla and moved toward Timur.

"Timur!" Robin cried out in waring as the man approached the boy.

Timur still had the wherewithal to defend himself as best as he could. In a stroke of luck felt the handle of his shovel buried under the sand near him. He put that shovel of his to good use smashed the flat side of the shovel up against the man's jaw. The man stubbled spiting bloody teeth on the way down. It looked like Timur was just about to cave his opponent's skull in when a laz bolt hit the shovel's head knocking it out of his hands.

"Horus's Spite. Can't you dumb bastards handle one kid?" The Rust Eater Clan leader said holding her smoking laz pistol.

The injured Rust Eater didn't seem bothered by the injures he received even as blood flowed freely from his mouth. Timur still tried his try fighting back but without a weapon he couldn't protect himself that well. The man seemed to feel no pain and forced the struggling Timur into the sands and started groping awkwardly at the boy's clothing.

Robin looked away but felt the hot barrel of laz pistol push into the side of her head again and the woman who held it spoke again. "I want you to watch it happen. This will be a valuable lesion for the rest of your life. Who knows, your cute, maybe some big shot Hiver will buy you as a bedroom pet?"

There was nothing Robin could do but pray.

'God Emperor on Holy Terra. Please, let someone have seen our flare. Please, send someone to save us.'

With a crack that spilt the air the head of the man who was holding Timur down suddenly exploded into a red mist.

The Rust Eater Clan leader let go of Robin and jumped to her feet. "What the Fuck was that!?"

The remaining Rust Eaters looked saw a huge human figure walking toward them. They opened fire with their laz and subber guns but the figure just started running impossibly fast towards them. It was as if the shower of laz bolts and bullets were even less of an obstacle then the blowing gains of sand.

"Back to the truck!" Their leader order and the Rust Eaters moved to pile back into their Achilles Ridgerunner. The profit they'd make on selling the kids forgotten in the immediate need of survival.

Robin, Nyla and Timur all slowly stood up and watch as the figure, no, as the woman got closer.

Robin had prayed to the God Emperor to send one of her tribespeople to help them. To her and other the children it looked as if the Emperor had sent an angel to save them.

The woman must have been at least 12 feet tall and was beautiful beyond measure. The wind whipped her long sliver hair behind her so it looked almost like a halo. She wore the tattered remains of some bone like armor and had what looked like a sword wrapped in salvaged cloth on her back. In her right hand she held what to her were pebbles. With the same move you'd use to skip rocks she brought back her right arm and flick a pebble at her attackers.

A pebble to her was a rock the size of a fist to a human and it split the air with sound like a gun shot. The stone's impact caved in the chest of Rust Eater doing almost as much damage as if he'd been hit by bolt pistol round.

Phoenix was killing armed adults just by flinging rock at them.

Such was the gap in power that existed between a baseline human and a Primarch.

They did not know what they were fighting but knew for fact that they were out matched. The Rust Eater Clan leader got behind the wheel of her Achilles Ridgerunner and gunned it once the surviving member of her crew got in the flatbed. The engine roared, the tiers spun but the truck didn't move an inch.

Phoenix was keeping the Achilles in place by holding on to the back bumper. She didn't even seem to be exerting herself with the effort. She just looked at the terrified mortals pityingly.

"Pax?" Phoenix asked hoping to end this without more bloodshed.

Phoenix didn't know what world she was on or it's ways. She hoped to parley that informant from these mortals in exchange for their lives.

One of the mortals climbed up to the heavy stubber gun and swung it around to aim at Phoenix. He replied to Phoenix by opening up on her with the mounted heavy gun on full auto and screaming "Fuck You!"

Phoenix was showered in heavy stubber bullets at point blank range until the gun's magazine ran dry.

The hail of weapons fire didn't even break her skin.

Phoenix change her grip on the Achilles and then suddenly flipped the whole thing over slamming its roof into on the ground. She did this with all the at the speed and effort a human would need to flip a pillow over.

Credit to the construction of the Achilles Ridgerunner, the vehicle survived that impact with only dents to the armor. The humans who were riding inside it were now nothing but mangled corpses however.

Phoenix turned to the three children she had just saved and smiled kindly. She hoped the good will of saving them override any terror they might have after seeing her kill a group of armed mortals as if it was nothing. Luckily the children were still in awe of her. She knelt down to minimize the massive height difference between her and them

"Are you three alright?" She asked in low gothic.

Robin, Timur and Nyla just stared at each other as if checking with each other to make that they all just saw what they just saw. They were all a little banged up, deep scratches and bruised mostly but they were not in any mortal danger or real pain. Robin cleared her throat just to make sure she was still able to make sounds. "We'll be okay."

"Good." Phoenix didn't want to rush the children and deiced to let the awkward silence play out. Children were far better at excepting and then processing new information than adults. "My name is Phoenix. I'm named after the mythic bird from Terran legends."

Robin nodded. "I'm Robin, I'm also named after a bird from Terran legends." The real world Robin having gone extinct with much of Terran's wildlife now existed only in folklore like the mythic Phoenix. "My Tribe Kin with me are Timur and Nyla."

"Well meet Robin, Timur and Nyla." Phoenix said nodding to each of them in turn. "I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit this but I seem to be lost. Do happen to know where I could find a settlement nearby?"

Robin looked at her crashed dune buggy. "We were on our way home but without our buggy it will take some time for us to travel there."

Phoenix flipped the Achilles right side up. "You could away ride in this vehicle."

Robin shook her head. "I know that rites of operation for a simple Dune Buggy and a few other machines. but I don't think I could drive that Achilles Ridgerunner."

"I said you kids could ride in it. Let me worry about driving."

The children looked at the 12 foot tall woman who would clearly not fit behind the Achilles driver seat.

Phoenix just smiled reassuringly.

-Ten Hours Later-

The sun had set many hours past and the temperature had dropped soon after. The sands did not trap much heat and with little to no moisture the once blazing hell dropped to near freezing.

Thought this darkness the headlights of the Achilles shone ahead while it cut quickly through the desert. The three children of the Stone Bastion Tribe rode outside in the truck's flatbed. They had also bundled up against the cold night air.

Robin climbed up to where the heavy stub gun was and looked thorough the magnoculars she borrowed from Timur. "I can see our Tribe's home. At this rate we should be there within the hour."

"That small rock mountain up ahead then?" Phoenix asked.

Robin was not surprised that Phoenix was able to see something that far way in near total darkness unaided. "Yes, that mountain is the homeland of the Stone Bastion Tribe."

She sat back in the flat bed with Nyla and Timur who were facing rear of the Achilles. All of them were still looking on as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing even as it happened in front of them. Phoenix who had one arm on each side of the Achilles's frame and she had been pushing it at a driving speed for almost ten hours straight.

It was almost ten hours straight because Phoenix instead that the children take a few breaks to eat and rest. When the children broke out their food and water rations, they had offered some to Phoenix who politely and firmly declined.

The children's journey together with Phoenix had been a quiet one in every sense of the word. Nothing happened after she saved them from the Rust Eaters and barely a few words were spoken between the children and their superhuman savior.

The children unsure of what to ask and Phoenix unsure of what she should say about herself and her situation. This uneasy had finally gotten to the point that Robin was willing to risk possibly offending her rescuer with small talk.

"Are you an angel?" Robin asked still a little awe struck by what she was seeing.

Phoenix shook her head. "No, I'm as real as you. I'm am but flesh, blood and bone just like anyone else."

"I'm absolutely sure that you are not like anyone else." Robin said.

Nyla nodded as if finding an answer to the nature of Phoenix. "She must be a Space Marine without her armor. Those statues of them in the Church are about as big as her."

Timur scoffed at Nyla suggestion. "Don't be foolish she's not a Space Marine."

"What makes you say that? I think it makes much more sense that she's a Space Marine then an angel."

Timur looked sidewise at Nyla. "Girls can't be Space Marines."

"We can't?" Nyla asked and looked like a weight had been tied to her heart. She knew it was unlikely but she still dreamed of one day being a Space Marine. "Why can't we?"

Timur shrugged. "I don't know why but the Emperor said no girls allowed when making the Space Marines."

"That's just dumb!" Nyla yelled as if shouting at a boy would change ten thousand years of things being that way. "Our Tribe only survives because we all pitch in and do whatever needs to be done. It doesn't matter if you're a girl, boy or two spirit you help support the Tribe and the Tribe supports you."

"Don't yell at me! If you don't like it fly off to Holy Terra and go yell at the Emperor if you want things to change!"

"I just might!" Nyla said stubbornly and folded her arms as if she just settled the matter.

Phoenix laughed. Her laughter was not maliciously or mocking but sincere amusement. The naïve boldness of a child who didn't like the way the world worked and vowed to change it. Phoenix was happy to see this side of the children, that they still had hopes and dreams.

In time the realty that those children would never have the chance or the power to act on those dreams would bleed the light of hope out of them.

"Nyla is actuality not far from the truth. My nature is very much like that of a Space Marine."

"So how are you like a Space Marine but not one of them?" Robin asked.

"Because I am alone." Phoenix said her reassuring smile failing for a moment and the children saw the depths of her pain. Phoenix touched the blue jewel at her neck that held Lileath but the Eldar Maiden had been silent for days now. The Azure Fireblade now wrapped and concealed in salvaged cloth on her back was silent as well. Not that Phoenix thought of a moment that she could communicate with the eldritch intelligence inside the blade she carried.

"A Space Marine is nothing without his battle brothers by his side."

It was just for the first time in her life, even in the genetic memories of Fulgrim, that she had felt so alone. Fulgrim's earliest memories of Chemos had been bleak but he had never been alone. In those dark times of endless days of hard labor just to keep themselves alive but there had been moments of friendship and comradery. You were struggling but you were not alone as the rest the work shift with you was struggling right there with you.

We are communal creatures and a Primarch is no exception to that basic human need.

In some ways Phoenix needed Robin, Nyla and Timur more than they needed her protection.

-Fornodran IV, The Junkyard, Stone Bastion Tribe Homeland-

The people of the Stone Bastion Tribe were so named because they had claimed an abandoned mine as their home. Many of the Junkyard tribes chased newer wreaks and were nomadic. The Stone Bastion Tribe set down roots as best as they could in this harsh wasteland. It had allowed them to be a fixed point in a shifting land, a place of commerce and neutral ground. Now that time had passed as enemies moved to bring the once great tribe down.

Phoenix had noticed the hidden dugouts and pillboxes in the sands. The weary eyes watching her as she and the children got closer. Then more obvious signs of fortifications with gun emplacements salvaged from a warship's anti-fighter defenses, more than enough to knock out the light armored vehicles that the Junkyard tribes favored.

They now passed old hab blocks order along paved streets. These must have been used by miners when this pace was still a working mine. Now they were bunkhouses and the last line of defense before the hard rock of the mountain. The main entrance of the mine was sealed with a massive steel shutter door.

Phoenix let the Achilles she been pushing for the better part of the day come to a stop. All around her hundreds of armed men and women, a few of them in Sentinel walkers and other vehicles surrounded her. The people around her were all young. Some were about the age of Robin and her friends or a little older. Most seemed to in their twenties and only a few were in their thirties. The older ones seemed to move sluggishly or would twitch every so often. None of them looked healthy.

Phoenix knew she could fight her away free from this place but in her heart, she wished that it would not come to that.

Just then some unnatural feeling pricked at Phoenix.

There almost lost among the tans and browns of the of sand camouflage and the splashes of green for Stone Bastion color was an old woman.

Unlike the salvaged flak cloth everyone else was wearing her dress was hand woven from vibrant green colors. She was standing strong like a rock albeit if with the aid of a wooden cane. Like the other's her face was coved with a green scarf but you could see some of her winkled face and gray braided of hair. One of her eyes was a blinded milk white while the other light brown orb locked on to Phoenix with intensity. The old woman moved forward and the people clear space for her as if she was this army's general.

Robin, Nyla and Timur jumped down from the back of the Achilles and greeted the old woman as she got close. "Elder Jaga. We salvaged some valuable scarp, captured an Achilles Ridgerunner from the Rust Eater Clan and we brought back…" Robin froze on just what to call Phoenix. "…a friend."

Jaga nodded and then even quicker than Phoenix thought possible for the old woman she hit the three children in the head with her cane. It was not a heavy blow but it wasn't a light tap ether. Robin, Timur and Nyla were on their knees rubbing their sore heads. "You three rascals had us worried! I told you to stay close to our homeland and to not venture out into the open wastes! I'm sure the only reason you fools made it back here at all is because of your new friend here."

Phoenix felt the same uneasiness again as Jaga looked her over and now knew what it was. Elder Jaga was a Psyker but not a very strong one. Aware of her gifts but unable to affect the material world with them. Her gifts still gave her otherworldly insight and an understanding of the nature of things. "They call you friend. Have you helped these wayward children of ours?"

"I saw them being assaulted by others and came to their aid. I attempted to make peace with the others but they refused."

"And if we should also refuse you?" Elder Jaga asked as those around her readied guns.

"Then I will leave and find my way to place that will not refuse me shelter."

Jaga took a deep breath as if to brace herself. "The hospitality of the Stone Bastion Tribe would never allow us to turn away one who came to the aid of our people. Even if the ones saved were disobedient children who think themselves too clever to obey their elders." Phoenix thought she could hear a smile in the old woman's voice as she reprimanded those disobedient children.

Jaga turned back to face the three children. "You lot. For your punishment you have to show our new guest around. Take her thought the ritual of cleansing and see that she is given a room and accommodations fit for her."

"Yes, Elder Jaga!" The three said and went to wave Phoenix after them.

Jaga muttered something so softly that only Phoenix could hear it as she walked past. "There will be much of us to discuss at a later time, Phoenix."

Phoenix nodded her head slightly to show she understand before followed Robin. It didn't escape Phoenix that the old woman Jaga called her by name when she hadn't given it.

Perhaps this Elder Jaga wasn't as weak a Pysker as Phoenix thought.

-The Stone Bastion, Outer Cleansing Area -

Before entering the Stone Bastion proper those who have been out in the Junkyard for any length of time have to undergo a cleansing ritual. As the sands of the junkyard were contaminated with toxins and every poisoned grain of sand had to be removed before entering. A repurposed void ship decontamination lock had been fitted into one of the Stone Keep's openings to accomplish this.

These could only handle small to medium sized groups at a time. Being more egalitarian and to keep things moving those groups this would be mixed gender.

The first area is where they would remove the sand from their bodies. They would first disrobe and pass their clothing under a sealed bin so those garments could be cleansed in their own manner. Phoenix refused to give up Lileath's stone and the azure fireblade as she wouldn't let them out of her sight. Everything else she had on her went to be cleaned.

Now naked they would each go to a cleaning station. Each station had vents in the floor to catch all the sand that fell off their bodies as they would be hit with blasts of pressurized air. The stations also had hand-held brush tipped vacuum hoses to suck up any sand from their hair or other hard to reach places. Water was too valuable a recourse to waste on something like this. Phoenix ignored the slight indignation she felt at being essentially vacuum cleaned.

Once they were sand free a new door would open to the second area.

This was the powder bathing area.

A pile of white cleaning powder was placed in the middle of the room. They would have to take handfuls of it and rub it over their skin. This was to exfoliate their skin and remove of any chemical residue that the sand may have left on them. Phoenix had to ask that Robin, Nyla and Timur help her get her back as she couldn't reach.

Once they were done with that the last area was another full body vacuuming cleaning to remove the cleaning powder. They would then be given their now decontaminated clothing and be allowed to redress.

Phoenix had learned something from this however.

She had noticed Robin, Timur and Nyla all had some precancerous skin lesions on their bodies. As well as faint chemical burn scars from toxic exposure. All very treatable now but over a lifetime their health would degrade. The fact that there were so few able bodied people over the age of thirty put those children's future into bleak clarity.

Phoenix realized that she had been thinking of Robin, Nyla and Timur as children when they were likely already middle aged with the short life expectancy of the Junkyard.

"Phoenix are you coming?" Robin asked as she just finished rebraiding Nyla's long black hair into two twin braids. She, Timur and Nyla were dressed and all waiting for Phoenix who was lost in thought.

Phoenix had saved these children and they had called her friend.

Growing up under the care of Fabius Bile did given her superhuman brain and pictographic memory exposure to one of the most brilliant, if horribly amoral, medical minds alive. Phoenix was already planning everything basic medical treatments to gene therapy to repair damaged DNA. Not only for the kids but the whole of the Stone Bastion Tribe.

Phoenix put Lileath's stone back in place in her now decontaminated Eldar armor and grabbed her still bundled sword. "Led on."

-The Stone Bastion, Bazar Street-

For a several millennia old mine turned settlement the Stone Bastion was rather nice. The floors were finished to a flat even surface and the walls had geomantic relief carvings. The area was massive as it once accommodated ore trains but it didn't feel dark. Lumines hung in ornamented yet functional holders running along the ceiling and walls proving light to the tunnels. The mine tunnels were also reinforced with the metal ribs from void ships. People walked along talking to the few shop tenders and merchants there. Some of those running the shops were from other Junkyard tribes with their own colors proudly displayed.

The people of the Stone Bastion Tribe now away from the toxic and ever blowing sands dressed in colorful woven robes, tunics, togas and dresses. Their bodies adorned with bead worked hair ornaments, necklaces or bracelets. Most of their clothing and accessories favoring greens, teals, browns, tans and with the occasional splash of red or yellow. Still, everyone they passed gawked at the giant woman in their midst.

"This use to be the main bazar for the whole Junkyard. Before we were born, you'd have seen merchants from other tribes and even some from the hive cities." Robin said pointing to the few open shops in the area.

"Now we can't even defend our area of control so most traders and merchants can't travel to our home anymore. If they try, they'll get attack by the Rust Eater Clan or others." Timur added.

Phoenix nodded along. "The other Tribes know they can't attack and take the Stone Bastion by force so they are trying to starve you out. It's one of the most basic siege tactics."

Nyla shook her head sadly. "If a new wreak would land near our area we could harvest it for metal and sell it to the Hivers. All we can do now is search the unclaimed wild areas and hope to find the savage what broke off from ships as they fell."

"How do you know who has what area?" Phoenix asked.

"A tribe will put its totem in an area and clam it. You can cross almost any territory you like but If you take savage from an area clammed another tribe it will be seen as an act of war." Robin explained.

"Do these areas of control shift or change often?"

"Only with new wreaks and tribe migrations so most areas are changing. We have a map of the whole Junkyard if you'd like to see."

Phoenix nodded. "I would like to see that."

-Stone Bastion Tribe, Hall of Records.

The Hall of Records was a huge open space with rows upon rows of parallel bars rising from the floor to the ceiling. Each bar about a hundred loops of cable hanging off them, those loops would then have metal beads of different shapes and colors placed in along them. The floor had large symbols carved below those huge stacks of bars and loops of beads. In the middle of the room was a giant sand table representing the Junkyard and the tribes within.

Robin waved an arm to the whole room as if showing off the grandeur of the room. "These are the records of our Tribe going back over three millennia."

Phoenix looked at the patterns of the beads noticing how some of them sifted in tens like metric counting. It only took few a few moments to understand what was being said. "Your tribe keeps their records on khipu. Well maybe it's not so much knots on strings but as metal beads on noncorrosive wire but the idea is similar."

Phoenix started to decode the system as easy as if she was raised in it. "This stack here is amount of scrap traded to the hive cities. Trade with other tribes. This is an inventory of all the provisions and supplies that the Stone Keep Tribe has on hand."

Phoenix when on like that deducing what stack of rows was telling her. She came to two stacks next to each other both heavy with symbolism and lacking the metric numbers of the other khipu bands. She knew that each bar was a century and each of the hundred loops on it was a year. Each of the beads on those loops were large and made of brass with a name carved into it. Both of the stacks seemed to keep even with each other until a few decades ago when one greatly over took the other.

"This one is the number of children born into the tribe." Phoenix said of the beam whose loops held fewer and fewer beads. "This one keeps the names of the tribe members who have passed on." Those loops had grown heavy with the beads of dead tribe members over the last few years.

"Your half right." Timur corrected Phoenix. "Those are the record of our Tribe kin who have died. The other isn't for the number born but those who survived long enough to be named."

Timur, Robin and Nyla each looked sadly at some of the beads that recorded of the dead. Names of friends, sibling or parents must have been kept there. The dead now nothing more than memories and beads in an endless chain.

Phoenix thought of her own brothers who had died.

Ferris who she had never meet but still feels guilty over his death at Fulgrim's hands. Sanguinius the brother who stayed loyal until death and was martyred. Even tragic Konrad Curze who died believing the in worst of the himself and humanity. Horus the most beloved of the Emperor's sons only to become the most hated.

Did she even have the right to think of the other Primarchs as her brothers?

Phoenix slowly walked toward the sand table that was a massive representation of the Junkyard. Tribe totems marks were place around the map with long black stones that represented wreaked void ships. Circles of colored sand around those totems made for the area a tribe controlled. Some tribes held areas that had half a dozen void hulls while other only had one or two at most. The major points of refences were the massive hive cities and their rail lines that connected them to the scavengers of the Junkyard. One anomaly however was a large area colored with black sand and no markers of any kind. "What's in this blackened area?"

"Death."

Phoenix turned around to see that Elder Jaga had entered the room. "You will only find death there. Any tribe that has gone into that land has disappeared; no scavenger team sent in has ever returned. It has been a place of death for centuries and we do not go near it."

Phoenix looked at that black sand and felt something bugging her. Like something was just out of reach and if she could just stretch a little more, she'd have it.

Robin, Nyla and Timur seemed to be in a huddle talking amongst themselves but they broke and ran up to Jaga. "Elder Jaga, a moment of your time."

"What is it?"

"Me, Timur and Nyla were just thinking that since Phoenix doesn't belong to a tribe that we should make her a member of the Stone Bastion Tribe."

Jaga looked like she just heard the best joke in her long life of sixty years. "A member of the Tribe!? That thing!?" She pointed incredulously to Phoenix.

Robin and the others didn't back down. "We are named members of the Stone Bastion Tribe. By our right as named Tribe Kin the three of us can nominate someone to join the Tribe. Phoenix is tribeless and alone but we can give her both a home and a people to belong to."

"Bah! We'll give her a home and she'll bring nothing but trouble to our land!"

"Good thing it's not up to you Elder Jaga. The choice is up to Phoenix."

"Rascals! All of you! None of you think before you act! You'd all have some Foolish Ogryn Girl join our Tribe!"

"Ogryn!?" Phoenix was more than a little offended at being called an ogryn when she was clearly not.

Jaga didn't back down and march right up to Phoenix and jabbed the Primarch with the end of her cane. "You are a Foolish Ogryn Girl if I say you are! And a Foolish Ogryn Girl you will remain unless you want to tell me about yourself!? Shall we have a talk about that Eldar armor your wearing? That fancy blue jewel on your neck or that sword you are trying so hard to keep from us? Would you like to clear my misconceptions about these things or will you stay as a Foolish Ogryn Girl!?"

Phoenix looked away unable to hold down the gaze from the angry old woman. Jaga huffed again seeing that Phoenix wasn't going to speak. "Bah! Foolish Ogryn Girl it is then."

Robin and her friends came to Phoenix's aid. "Don't listen to Elder Jaga. We are the ones who offered you a place with the Tribe. It's your choice if you want to stay or leave."

"Yeah, we never really listen to Old Woman Jaga either." Timur added hoping to sway Phoenix into staying.

Nyla gave Phoenix her best puppy dog eyes with whimpering lips. "Please, won't you stay and be our Big Sister?"

Phoenix let herself have a genuine smile. She was only hoping to find a place to lay low and wait while she worked out a plan with Lileath. However, her eldar friend having gone silent since they came to this world and she didn't how long it take to hear from her again.

"Alright. I would love to be a member of the Stone Bastion Tribe."

Nyla, Robin and Timur rejoiced at the news.

Jaga threw her hands up in defeat. "Beloved Ancestors who have gone to join the Emperor in His grace please forgive me. Our once great tribe is now filled with disobedient Rascals and Foolish Ogryn Girls!"

"Stop making a fuss Great Elder Jaga and do the naming ritual for Phoenix." Robin said happy that Phoenix was going to stay.

"No, you rascals have done this. You lot have to see to that Foolish Ogryn Girl's naming."

Timur and Nyla both looked to Robin as she was the only one of the three that knew any letters. Robin took a deep breath and nodded to herself. "Okay, I can do this."

Robin went picked up a large blank brass bead and a small sharp engraving tool. It would be up to her to engrave Phoenix's name on the bead that would be her name in the Stone Bastion Tribe's records. Being skilled with her hands using the engraving tool was no issue at all for Robin.

Within a few minutes Robin had carefully etched the five letters of Phoenix's name on the bead.

"Done." Robin said feeling so very proud of herself.

The name that would recorded within the Stone Bastion Tribe read Fenyx.

Jaga snort laughed like she had just heard the second best joke in her sixty years of life.

"Did I do a bad job?" Robin asked worried that she may have done something wrong.

"No, It's perfect." Fenyx said with a smile as she added name bead to the loop for those who had been named that year.

-Three Months Later-

Fenyx having decided to stay with the Stone Bastion Tribe had gone into a flurry of action. At the beginning only Robin and her friends seemed to trust Fenyx. So, she had to work hard to earn the trust of her fellow Tribe Kin.

The Stone Bastion was built into an old mine and most of the lower levels were uninhabitable due to the air filtration system down there breaking centuries ago. The system was like many things salvaged from an old void ship. It seemed that the knowledge of just how they cobbled it together and kept it all running was lost over the long centuries but Fenyx figured it out within an hour. It still took her three full days to get it working and then another week after it started working to make the air breathable for baseline humans.

Fenxy spent the better part of the next week upgrading the Stone Bastion's geothermic powerplant. While before it had enough power to keep the lights on and run the water purification system for a few hours a day. Now they had more than enough power to run some of the old cogitators again and purify several times as much drinkable water.

The founders of the Stone Bastion Tribe had planned to turn this old mine into an archology. Even if the means to do this have been forgotten the bones of that ambition were solid. Fenyx's plan for the Tribe wasn't to compete with their enemies for scrap but to turn their home into self-sufficient fortress.

To the Tribe it seemed like a time of miracles had come to them as amazing blessing happened one after another. Lost arts once forgotten were being relearned. Medical treatments that Fenyx had developed had improved the lives of everyone in the tribe.

The toxins and poisons that once made so many sick no longer plagued them. There were some for who these treatments came too late and their bodies would never fully recover to what they should have been. For many others the medicine was an Emperor sent gift that improved their quality of life greatly.

In battle the Stone Bastion Tribe began to acted with a cunning and ferocity that the other tribes had not seen. While not taking to the field herself Fenxy worked to improve their arms, armor, vehicles and would coordinate the battles via vox link. Those that had once pushed boldly into the Stone Bastion Tribe's area now started to keep their distance.

Right now, Fenyx and several dozen other volunteers were tending to the seedlings in a new hydroponics farm. The improvements she made to the water purifiers gave them enough water to start crop cultivation. Going at this rate Fenyx was sure the Tribe would be self-sufficient within the year.

Fenyx was now dressed in a green and blue saree her Tribe Kin had gifted to her. Her long sliver hair was pulled into braids and knotted elegantly in the behind her head. On her hip was a black scabbard she made herself for the Azure Fireblade. Around her neck was chain that held Lileath's stone now hidden within a locket. Over the past few months Fenxy had acquired several outfits tailored to her large frame. Some very utilitarian like workers clothing or even a giant flak armor vest. Fenyx was also deeply thankful for the bras and other undergarments that proved her with much confront.

Fenyx was in the middle of reading the nutrient levels of the water these seedlings were growing in. Their seed stock had degraded in storage over time. She had done what she could to engineer better plants to grow in this artificial environment. The results were promising but it would take she could do better as the situation here improved.

"Hard at work again I see, Foolish Ogryn Girl."

Fenyx fought to keep a grimace off her face for a moment before turning to face Elder Jaga standing behind her. "I'm busy as always Elder Jaga. How are you this day?"

"That dreadful medicine you insist I take turned out to not be poison after all. I have not breathed so easily in decades, my liver pain and the aches in my bones have all faded."

"I'm glad to hear that…."

"Foolish Ogryn Girl, it's long past time we had a talk." Jaga said cutting Fenxy off.

"Okay." Fenyx couldn't keep the annoyance off her face or from showing in her voice anymore. Months on and Jaga still called her 'Foolish Ogryn Girl' every chance she could. Despite how wrong that statement was it has gone on long enough that some members of the Tribe really did think that Fenyx was an Ogryn. "I'm free to talk anytime anywhere."

"Meet me in the church where we can talk privately."

Fenyx did not like that idea. "The church? Couldn't we talk in your room or maybe the Records Hall."

"Bah, I said we will speak in the church! You have been running everywhere in our Stone Bastion from the poisoned depths to slogging through the waste recovery pipes. Yet you have not once set foot in our Holy Church. Could it be our Foolish Ogryn Girl would rather be trudging through shit in dark tunnels then standing in front of our Holy Emperor?"

Fenyx bowed her head. "I will be there."

-Stone Bastion Tribe, Church of the God Emperor-

One of the oldest and lest touched place in the Stone Keep was the church dedicated to the God Emperor of Mankind. Cut from the rock of the mountain by the miners who worked here thousands of years ago.

The church was beautiful.

A cathedral craved into the bones of mountain. Huge statures of the 9 Primarchs were spaced long one wall while on the opposite wall of stood a statue of a Space Marian of that primarch's chapter. Bas relief carvings on the walls showed the warriors of mankind, Space Marinas, Imperial Guard and Adepta Sororitas all laying waste to Aliens, Mutants and Heretics. Overhead the metal support beams resembled the pillars and ribbed vaulting ceiling of a cathedral. Huge lumen lanterns hung from the ceiling bathing the church in a soft glow.

Fenyx hated this place.

She couldn't help but feel that the statues of her brothers gazed angrily down at her. The that shows cast on their faces were scowls of contempt for their traitor kin.

Lion El'Jonson.

Jaghatai Khan.

Leman Russ.

Rogal Dorn.

Sanguinius.

Ferrus Manus.

Roboute Guilliman.

Vulkan.

Corvus Corax.

Fenyx felt like she didn't even have the right to walk in the shadow of those loyal brothers. Most unbearably of all for her was behind the altar in the back was a statue of The Emperor of Mankind now ascended to his Golden Throne. Above that a caving of Sanguinius's broken body and murder here depicted as holy martyrdom.

It hurt to be here.

Regardless, Elder Jaga waited impatiently at the church's altar for Fenyx to arrive.

Fenyx would not let her pain or discomfort show but she knew it wouldn't matter. Elder Jaga had a gift to see right through anyone, even her.

"So, the Foolish Ogryn Girl finally found her way into our humble church." Jaga gestured to where Fenyx should sit in front of the raised altar.

Siting on the floor before the altar had put Fenyx and Jaga more or less at eye level with each other. Fenyx's sapphire blue eyes locked with Jaga's eyes one of which was a blinded milky white cloud and other a shade of light brown. Jaga drummed her fingers on lid of a small wooden box set on top of the altar. "Just how long are you going to keep playing around, Foolish Ogryn Girl?"

The accusation of 'playing around' upset Fenyx more than being called an ogryn. "Playing Around!? I have blistered my dirty hands getting ancient machines to work like new! I have brought light, water and food to this tribe! I have made you all medicine to give you back your health! How is any of that playing around!?" Anger had entered Fenyx's voice and such was the displeasure of a Primarch that even battle harden Space Marines could be cowed like a frightened child.

Elder Jaga just huffed at Fenyx's anger. "So, what!? Are you a mechanic? Are you a farmer? Are you an apothecary then? No, you know that you are not any of those things yet you insist on playing those parts. Yes, we are better off now with you here than at any point in our history. And as much as I love everyone in this Tribe as if they were my beloved grandchildren, we are but one people in wasteland backward on small world among countless lights. You have made us safe but what good is that if the galaxy is burning down around us."

Gathering herself for a moment Elder Jaga opened the box on the altar and removed her set of The Emperor's Tarot. "I'm sure you've noticed that I am wyrd touched, or a psyker in the common low gothic tongue. My long life among our people can be attributed to this gift of mine. My power is not great but if I pray and clear my mind the Emperor's Tarto will reveal things hidden to me."

Jaga shuffled her tarot cards and then fanned them out in a long arc on the altar. She then started to draw cards and place them in a six card matrix.

The Wolf of Blood, upright.

The Fortress of Faith, inverted.

The Shattered World, upright.

The Despoiler, upright.

Fenyx could feel the ill omen in those cards even before Jaga explained them. "These four cards have come up in my reading many times over the last few years. I now see them in my dreams as the disaster they portent draws closer. The servants of the blood thirsty beast will ravage this world, it's fortress will fall, the world will be lost and the Arch Enemy will kill us all. Then a few months ago when you came here, I started drawing two new cards."

The Dishonored Scion, inverted.

The Candle, upright.

"These cards speak of a scion once cast out but returning in glory and the light of hope they will bring with them. These two cards are about you. You are one who can shake the very stars in the heavens but you are hiding away in the dirt with us. I know what you are even if you would rather pretend not to. It is far past the time for you to stop hiding and face these things."

Jaga didn't say another word. She carefully gathered up her Tarot cards and placed them neatly inside their box. She walked past the trembling form of Fenxy and out of the church. Jaga did order that the doors to the church be shut and that none were allowed to enter while Fenyx was inside.

Now alone Fenyx let herself cry with all the pain in hearts.

The memories and guilt she carried of what Fulgrim had done in the Heresy. The betrayal when her maker and father figure Fabius Bile sold her. The nearly transcended fear, as it was not a fear born of a threat of death she felt it so keenly, that no matter how much good she did the Emperor would not forgive her. That the Emperor, her brother Primarchs and all of humanity would reject Fenyx as a traitor and an abomination.

It was only in this moment Fenyx realized how much those painful feelings weighted on her hearts. The giant stone effigies of her brother Primarchs and the Emperor offered Fenyx no comfort as she cried.

Fenyx did not see it.

She would not have believed it even if she had.

The bas relief of Sanguinius shed a single tear in solace with his sister.

-Stone Bastion Tribe, Fenyx's Room-

Fenyx's room was large enough to accommodate her 12 foot tall body and the few pieces of furniture had been built to her scale as well. The room was slowly filling with things Fenyx had accumulated, been gifted or built herself. Fenxy often use to room to change clothing before running off to help with another project as she rarely slept.

Now she needed some space to think as it had been several hours after her meeting with Jaga.

Fenyx was now feeling more frustrated than sad. The only sound made was that of her bare feet slapping against the floor the as she paced around the room. She had changed into a simple blue gown she used as nightclothes and let her long hair out from their braids. She really wished she had someone to talk to about how she was feeling. Sure, the people here cared about he but they could never understand her.

Fenyx held the chained locket which housed Lileath's jewel in both hands. "I don't suppose you feel like talking?"

The blue jewel remained beautifully flawless with breathtaking bright inner fire. But it also remained silent much like it had for months now.

Fenyx had finally run out of patience.

"Damn all cryptic Eldar and their Gods! Why can't any of your kind just come out and say something plainly!?"

Fenyx flopped down on top of a bed she rarely used and yelled all her frustration with her life and everything Aeldari into her pillow.

Rolling over onto her back Fenyx deiced to rest. Not just laying down to give her body a chance to recharged while her mind worked on plans and new schematics but to sleep.

Fenxy close her eyes and let her mind go quiet from all her worry, self-doubt and frustrations.

For the first time in months, Fenyx let herself dream.

A gentle breeze carrying the scent of flowers ticked Fenyx's nose as she felt delicate fingers brushed through her hair. Fenyx opened her eyes and saw that she was now lying in a flowering meadow with her head cradled in Lileath's lap.

"Maybe the issue isn't that my people are cryptic and it is perhaps that yours are just impatient." Lileath said as she ran her fingers thought Fenyx's hair as the Primarch's head rested in her lap.

Lileath looked much better than the last time Fenxy had seen an image of her. The scars were gone and she was now wearing a more elegant pink and rose colored Aeldari dress. A blindfold still covered her eyes but it didn't seem to bother her as her golden blond hair blew in the breeze. The Eldar Goddess and the Primarch seemed to be of equal height in this place.

"Am I dreaming?"

"Yes, but I was the Aeldari Goddess of dreams and fortune. When you sleep I am able to speak with you. We could speak previously because the world we were on a world that resided within the warp."

"Amazing." Fenyx said siting up.

"What I find amazing is that you can go for three months without sleeping. I have been with you this whole time but I have been unable to speak a word to you."

"You're up to date with everything?"

"I believe you found some good people here. They are a hard people by necessity but their hearts are not jaded or cruel. In fact, their hearts are filled of devotion to each other. The bonds you made here will be helpful, I think. You even let those children rename you."

"Fenyx is just a unique phonetic spelling of the name I had already chosen for myself. More importantly the Emperor's Tarot says this world is in danger."

"I cannot see the fate of this world as I have lost that power. I can only see your fate and dimly at best. However, and I say this as a Goddess of Seers and Prophets but divination is poor light to guide you. Such things often only become clear in hindsight or when the moment is upon you. Knowing your heart is far better than know the future." Lileath placed a caring hand over Fenyx's two hearts. "Yours are trouble."

"I rejected Fulgrim and swore to kill him but I'm worried that as I'm still fundamentally just a copy of him. I worry that there is some flaw hidden inside me. That in when the critical moment comes, I will turn from my ideals and betray everything and everyone I love like Fulgrim did."

"There is no flaw in you as there was none in Fulgrim. He is the result of choices he made more than anything. That is true of all of us." Lileath waved a hand and vision of world and possibly floated in the air. "Fulgrim and any of your brothers could have change things greatly by making different choices in critical moments."

Fenyx looked at the possibilities of worlds that could have been.

Guilliman, the Warmaster of Chaos, his once blue armor now black facing down the Emperor. While laying on the floor beneath them was the broken body of Horus of the Luna Wolves.

Magnus leading his red armored Thousand Sons alongside Imperial Guard armies against a fallen Leman Russ and his beastly Space Wolves. The Russ and his sons now just blood thirsty slaves to Khorne.

Not all of the vision were twisted mirrors of history.

In one Eldrad Ulthran's meeting with Fulgrim ending with the Primarch surrendering the cursed Lear Blade without issue.

Horus making peace with the Interex after executing the traitorous Erebus for trying into steal Anathame.

Guilliman refusing to force compliance on the city of Monarchia. Thus, making the Emporor confront Lorgar as a father to his wayward son and not like a king to his disobedient general.

These and countless other visions of what could have been drifted by.

"However, in every one of those timelines your Emperor's Great Crusade ends with the betrayal of half of his sons. The Emperor believed he was playing Regicide on a galactic scale but in truth he was rolling dice that the Four had loaded against him. Given enough rolls they would win against him."

"Then we are always going to fail."

"You are not your father and if we are carful, you will not make the same mistakes he did. Last time you didn't know what evils that were hidden in the warp but you know them now. You can drag them into the light and destroy them."

Fenyx sighed feeling a little better about her nature.

In truth the dysphoria Fenyx often felt was from the fact that she was a clone of a monster. She did not ask to born as such but that was an undeniable fact. It wasn't planned but her gender change had let her take hold of her identity and control of her life for first time. Fenyx's life started to slowly feel like it was worth living after being born as a forgotten lab experiment.

That's when it clicked.

The thing scratching in the back of Fenyx's mind for months. The problem just out of reach was finally with her grasp.

Fenyx knew why she was here.

Fenyx woke up with a start and quickly got dressed.

She rushed though the Stone Keep's tunnels and pathways and didn't stop until she reach the Hall of Records. She made her way right to the sand table with the map of the Junkyard.

There he was.

That area marked in black sand where no one ever returned from.

It was a brief memory from when Fenyx had been but a young child in Fabius's care. A small half remember glimpse of a map and list the Clone Lord had kept close. Only now did Fenyx realize what she had seen. It was a list his hidden laboratories.

One of them was hidden in the waste lands of Fornodran IV.

Fabius Bile was here on this world.

It was time for Fenyx to have a reunion with her father.

-end-

Good lord there was a lot of talking in this chapter.

Last one barely had any conversation at all.

Next chapter more fighting.

Fenyx goes full Primarch on Fabius Bile's hideout. Of course, Fabius will have every twisted monstrosity, mechanical terror and menagerie of horrors his brilliant mind can throw at her.

It should be good grimdark fun.

Still right now we have reached the point of needing boring mortal characters around the Primarchs for the sake of plot progression.

Fenxy has moved passed her needs of her survival and freedom from the last chapter and is now questioning who she is and what she wants. She now feels alone and adrift in a galaxy that she believes will reject her. (Best Brother Sanguinius did try his best to show his love and support for his sister.)

Elder Jaga is clearly the wild witch woman from classic folklore. If her name almost being Baba Yaga didn't make that clear. The firm but maternal guiding hand that Fenyx needs even if she doesn't know it. She the one saying Fenyx's grand destiny is out there and but Fenyx is still indoors sulking and playing Minecraft.

Robin, Timur and Nyla are children of the world that raised them. So, by our standers they are cold blood psychopaths who could kill without remorse. This is because their world is trying to kill them and everyone they know and love is slowly dying around them. It's not extreme to them this if that's what they have to do to survive. Not the kids you'd want to be around but just what you're looking for in Space Marine neophytes.

Oddly enough I kind of proud of writing for the Stone Bastion Tribe and the world Fornodran IV. I kind of like the haunting image of beached ship hulls in a scrap yards. So, take that idea and stretch it out over a continent to accommodate the stupidly huge ships of the 40k world and you have the Junkyard. Also, you really can't do desert tribes in post apocalypse setting without dipping into Mad Max at some point.

Anyway, going forward I'm going to take a shot for every TTS refences a reviewer makes.

I already fear for my liver.

On that note here's a jokey extra side story thing. I thinking about making this a thing at the end of each chapter going forward.

That is if the readers enjoy this nonsenses.

~That's Not Fucking Canon~

Emperor: OKAY. SO. MY SON FULGRIM WHO WENT ON A TEN THOUSAND YEAR BENDER OF DESINGER LABELS, DEMON HOOKERS AND SPACE DRUGES HAS COME BACK HOME AS A WELL-BEHAVED YOUNG LADY.

Fenyx: You're missing a lot of steps there but overall, that's gist of it.

Emperor: WOW. MY SON MAGNUS COMES BACK PART DEMON. MY SON VULKAN BECOMES PART ORK. NOW MY SON FULGRIM COMES BACK PART GIRL. WHAT KIND OF FATHER HAVE I BEEN?

Fenyx: First off, I am not 'part' anything, I am all woman! Secondly, you will start using she/her pronouns for me and you are going to reframe from calling me son or deadnaming me. Thirdly, when did Vulkan become part Ork?

Rogal: I shall answer that question.

Fenyx: Rogal Dorn!

Rogal: Yes, Sister. It is I, Rogal Dorn. I will now speak on the most peculiar fate that has befallen our Brother Vulkan. It seems that Vulkan's undying nature as a perpetual has mixed with part of the Ork gestalt consciences during the War of The Beast and the two have fussed together within him.

Fenyx: I just knew that awful shade of green on Vulkan's armor was setting him up for something bad.

Rogal: Father, thinking of the fates of my siblings it is far less remarkable that one has undergone gender reassignment when one Brother is part Demon and the another is part Ork.

Emperor: …. WHILE THE MEMOIRES I HAVE OF YOU FROM BEFORE MAY CLASH WITH HOW YOU ARE NOW. PLEASE KNOW THAT I DO NOT WANT TO PUSH YOU AWAY. MY CHILD WHO WAS ONCE SO LOST HAS COME HOME AND THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS. MY DAUGHTER HAS COME HOME.

Fenyx: My Emperor and Father, I am once more ready to fight for you and the Imperium.

Rogal: I too will do better to make this home more welcoming given your transition.

Fenyx: Oh?

Rogal: Yes, in an unforgivable oversight of architecture and construction I have neglected to install women's restrooms in the Primarch wing of the Imperial Palace. I will rectify this oversight immediately.

Fenyx: Thank you Dorn but you don't have to go to any trouble for me.

Rogal: I will also reinforce the fornications for when your time of Red Rage happens. Leman Russ told me of this violent condition that afflicts the female body. Judging by the name it must be like when Magnus turned into a Giant Red Demon and almost deconstructed several of the Palace's buttresses. I will also make sure set alarms so that everyone in the Imperial Palace knows when you're in your time of Red Rage and that they should not approach you.

Fenyx: ….(Speechless)

Emperor: ROGAL IS TRYING HIS BEST. IT'S JUST WHEN HE MISSES THE MARK HE MISSES IT COMPLETELY.

"If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device" is by Bruva Alfabusa.

Please leave a review, comment or criticism if you want as all are appreciated.

Thank you for reading.