The Emperor's Key

Chapter Three

Authors note:

Here's where we have fun, after two chapters we finally find out what is going on and why the Space Marines are risking so much (if you don't know what I mean read the reviews or better yet post one).

Note two

I've had to re write the ending because it contained some musical lyrics sorry but it had to be done now that Fanfiction has cracked down on music. (can't understand why though)

After they got Buffy home the three Space Wolves, as they were called, sat down not for the first or last time Dawn was shocked at the barbarity of them. While she excused herself for the bathroom she over heard them.

'Old Wolf to pack. We have found The Key, Russ be praised. Track and report here. Now.'

'My lord, I fear for the woman.' Njal spoke up.

'What is it Njal, is the protection of Russ too weak to hold back the Corrupter?'

'Never my lord. I fear she is to weak to resist. A great hole echoes within her heart. She loves.'

'Hmm'

'Her world is love. Love for her sister, love for her friends and love for her family.'

'Love is not always good, but it is pure. How can the Corrupter use this?' Ulrik spoke up.

'She loves a man who is now gone. This is a great danger, for her heart is not yet healed, it may never. There is more. Her dreams are haunted by her last memories of this man. Because of her actions he never accepted that she returned his affection. It is a great tale, one worthy of song and celebration but for the death of her heart.' Njal answered in that annoyingly whimsical voce of his

'This is indeed dangerous.' Started Ulrik. Dawn could hear him pacing as she got changed. It was difficult with only one working arm but god only knew what would happen to Buffy if she went to the hospital 'With a dead heart within her the Corrupter can fill it with illusion. Is her desire to forget her love or seek a new one.'

'With two hooks you can catch twice as hard.' Njal also seemed to be a master of fortune cookie philosophy.

'Looks like one of us might have to fill in for this dead love. Great lord, with you permission...' Ulrik said just as Dawn walked in. She couldn't see his face because he hadn't taken of his wolf skull helmet but some thing in his voice hinted he wasn't serous. Logan smiled. It was a warm smile, friendly and full of mirth.

'Get in line old man!' The three of them roared with laughter. 'Ah Dawn. My guard will be here shortly then we can get moving.'

'I have to ask, you've been very kind and everything but why?'

'Ulrik I think this is your job.'

Ulrik sat gently down on one of the chairs. 'More than three thousand years in your future Earth will be in civil war. In that time great Empires will rise and fall, wars beyond your imagination will be fought with all the degenerate races of this galaxy. But in the end Earth will be almost ripped apart by strife. It is know to us as the Age of Strife. A time when we forgot more than technology we forgot who we were. From amongst the ruins and destruction rose the greatest human. The Emperor. Great wars and greater deeds followed. Within a few hundred years our ageless saviour united Earth and stood at the head of the great armies. No force could stand against him.

'At that time Terra, as it became known, was surrounded by a rift in space. no ship could pass through it. The rest of humanity existed out there passed the rifts and the danger. In his great wisdom the Emperor knew the rift would end and contact could be made with the galaxy again. With the ancient knowledge now lost to us he created twelve children we know as the Primarchs. True gods amongst men the Emperor used arcane arts and technology to improve on his own self. Humanities greatest foes, the four Gods of Chaos saw the power that these twelve had and feared that one day their power would be enough to banish them forever. They called upon their many servants and raided the labs on Terra, spiriting the unborn Primarchs away.

'Four Chaos Gods? What do they want?' Dawn was getting lost in the story, despite wondering what it had to do with a brainwashed slayer and a still broken arm. She shifted it uncomfortably. The Wolf Priest noticed and knelt down beside her, opening a small box.

'The four Chaos Gods wish to rule this, the physical, realm. They can control people here through perversion and sin. The one we call the Corruptor uses an excess of pleasure and pain to corrupt and control his minions. It is the dark god of sated lust and it is that pleasure that first corrupted your sister which is still a danger to us and her.' He had taken of his gloves and was mixing some sort of greenish paste. 'This will heal your arm and make it whole again in time.' Gently Ulrik covered Dawn's lower arm, it tingled for a bit before becoming warm. As the warmth faded so did the paste. After a few seconds it was nothing but a thin transparent layer.

With a deep breath he continued the story; 'Knowing that the time of the great rift was near its end and that it would take too long to re-grow the Primarchs, if such a thing were possible, the great Emperor made what he called the gene-seed. Thus part of the primarch was recreated, a gene-seed is placed in a young man when he is accepted as an Adeptus Astartes, or "Space Marine" as some people call us. Twelve Space Marine chapters, one for each Primarch. When the great rift ended did the Emperor look out and see a galaxy divided by war. Thus began the Great Crusade. Leading the combined might of the Astartes the Emperor reunited the galaxy. He found his lost children who had been scattered to the fates and gave them their armies. By the end of the 38th millennium the galaxy was whole once again.'

'That explains who you are. Not why you are here. Not that I am complaining...' Dawn fought back the impulse to giggle for some reason.

'For a long time the galaxy was peaceful until one of the Primarchs became corrupted by Chaos. No one knew why or how but some how all the dark gods united behind perhaps the greatest of the Primarchs. Horus. His betrayal ripped the galaxy asunder yet again. In the end the Emperor fought his traitorous son and both were mortally wounded. As Horus died the Emperor was placed on his golden throne and encased upon it by a status field at the same time our chapter, the Space Wolves chapter, were celebrating the end of the Heresy and toasting to the memory of the Emperor.

'In the middle of this great feast did our Primarch the great Leman Russ stand to toast fallen comrades. Before he could he was struck by a mighty vision. It is said that for the longest time he stood immobile. Then without another word he drained his drinking horn. Calling the oldest and strongest of his men he left leaving only one, Bjorn the Fell Handed, behind. Many more years passed before Bjorn took the position of Great Wolf, the head of our chapter.

Still he went on and Dawn knew she should be board of this guy that sounded like Giles on a bad day, if he had a thousand years of practice. 'His first order was the first Great Hunt. No one knew where Russ had gone, Bjorn's single wish was to find him. Since then there has been many, many Great Hunts each one has done much good for our chapter and for the galaxy but we have never found him. Each Great Hunt is started by Russ himself. He appears in the dreams of the Rune Priests and in visions to the Great Wolf.

A few months ago Njal was visited by Russ many times. Our Great Wolf, Grimnar, had visions and they all told of a great danger in the past that we must stop. The vision was for us to find you. And we have.'

Dawn had to take a moment to gather her thoughts, as she did the skull headed story teller peered into her eyes. 'I'm sorry, I can't think right now. I'm very tired.' She said her eyes losing focus.

'The field dressing contains a powerful painkiller. It may be too much for your slight body to handle. You should sleep now Njal will watch over your sister While I watch over you.' Dawn poked her broken arm and felt nothing. She tried to stand but blacked out

At that moment in time three people were passing over the outskirts of Spain. One of them was stuck in a never ending cycle. He had been gone too long and he had lost the woman he loved to a man he loathed. It was all his fault, he didn't pick up the phone or the pen to tell her he was back instead he let the ponce and his mission get in the way

He could see the pain on his loves face when she saw him back from the great beyond. He would fall on a sword for her. Hell, he would have walked into sunlight if she asked him to, instead he hid in L.A. Why? because of a bunch of ethireal types that wanted to play gods and he got sucked into their games with the brooding wonder.

Well damn them! Damn the ponce and his mission! Damn the powers and the senior partners, whoever they were! Damn THEM ALL and damn him straight to hell for letting those sodding higher powers mess him around.

Moments before losing it completely and taking the aircraft apart he stopped and deliberately slowed down. In an effort to save himself he pieced her together with words.

Blond hair breaking across her shoulders like a wave. A smile that rivalled the sun. Green eyes that pierced his heart. Using the image he created of her he calmed down. Once again he whispered to himself 'Sorry pet, I'm coming back to you. No force in this world or any other will stop me. This I swear.'

And once again the cycle began again...