Chapter 48: Center of the Webs
Reviewers: This chapter will be long. I just hope t makes up for it by being good.
Silvanas: Now that is a good idea. I'm thinking Tzeench has all his minions fight the Emperor's strike force while he escapes.
Marine Brother Shran: Hey thanks. It's Mr. Morden. I'll have a Star Trek chapter after this one ok? Tzeench is on a planet within the Warp so it'll probably be limited to the Space Marines. Thanks for the psyker ideas. I'll try and make this chapter the masterpiece you want it to be.
BGTom: Yes, but the Empire has no idea of the layout of the Imperium. They could make the wormhole come out anywhere. The Emperor was able to resist the temptations of Horus so I'm pretty sure he can resist Palpatine. The Emperor's blade may be heavy but the Emperor is so strong he could knock Vader though a wall with one swing even if Vader blocked it. Interdictors won't work against Transwarp. Ysalamari might not work on psykers because their powers are different from the force. The Emperor can kill Vader and Vader. His ultimate attack totally obliterated Horus's presence in the Warp, a.k.a his soul. Can the Empire build three Death Stars at once? If that's what's going to happen then I'll just have to bring out some Star Trek devices to even things up. Good call on the Rebellion though, if the Imperium doesn't get to them first. Maybe Luke can train the Apex Twins in the ways of the force, and the Emperor too.
Liljimmyurine: Sorry, I'm still an amateur pretty much. I'll try and improve my writing style. Remember West is from the Federation, so he's used to dealing with people like Bester. Gargatuloth will be in this chapter.
Oblivionknight7: Like who could stop who?
Grayangle: At least I'm getting better. I actually don't know why they don't. Maybe their worried it'll become so common battles will just be jumping around or something. NEVER GONNA HAPPEN! Even if Terra were destroyed the Emperor would use it to unite the Imperium by telling the people any of their planets could be next.
Onlooker: Thank you. Haven't seen your name before. The First Ones probably won't interfere but they'll have to be dealt with sooner or later, so yes I am going to do something about them.
Lennox: Thanks. The Shadows still have their flagship class ships and their planet killers. You're right about Bester. They'll probably go to Za'Ha'Dum for the final battle against the Shadows. I don't think we're quite that far gone yet. Thanks for the advice.
Anonymous: Already on it. Tzeench's fate will be revealed in this chapter. Armageddon is currently kicking major Ork but and the Imperium already had a base in Star Wars. Good idea of the Star Forts.
The Emperor's battle fleet flew through the warp, heading for the planet that had eluded Imperial psykers for millennia. The world where the senior commanders of the Lord of Change planned their conquest of reality. That was where it had been predicted the Chaos god would make his final stand.
In the Emperor's state room he and the Apex Twins were preparing for what would be their greatest mental battle ever. Tzeench would certainly use magic against them. Keren and Sharon had been sparring with each other and their new Father for days and their powers were stronger than ever. Ever since the Emperor had freed their minds from the darkness that had clouded them they had seemed to get stronger. It was almost as if their evil had been holding them back. In their latest sparring match with their Father they had almost managed to beat him. They were also an inch taller. They were taking a break when the Emperor walked in. He had just come from a meeting with Farseer Silvanas. They would reach their destination in mere hours. The twins looked up.
"Are you two ready?" He asked.
"Of course," they replied, smiling. They had shared the things they had learned in their travels with the Emperor. Including one secret that would likely prove the key to destroying Tzeench.
"Then prepare yourselves. We will arrive at the warp planet in three hours."
"I hope we can make you proud," Sharon said. She was turning out to be the more active of the two.
"I'm sure you will. The secrets you have shown me will ensure our victory. Just remember to be careful." The Emperor was growing more and more attached to the twins with each passing day. Though he was the ruler of all mankind, he enjoyed the love of having a family just as much as anyone would.
The fact that the planet was within the Warp itself meant that Imperial Guardsmen would be out of the question. Only Space Marines would be able to handle it. The Emperor had called in the most powerful Space marine psykers he could. Librarian Tigurius of the Ultramarines, Mephiston of the Blood Angels, and Chief Librarian Ezekiel of the Dark Angels, along with several powerful Inquisitors and sanctioned psykers. Together with detachments from nine chapters that had significant experience in fighting daemons the Emperor would launch an all out attack and destroy one of the greatest threats the Imperium had ever faced.
The planet itself was cleverly hidden in the depths of a warp fold. Without the Emperor's sight they would never have found it. The Lord of Fates had used it as a meeting place for his strongest followers. A place where they could spin their webs, and a place to weed out the weak amongst themselves. Now it would be their graveyard. A fitting resting place for those who had done such horrible things to the human race.
On the planet's surface a frenzy of activity was taking place. Most of it was concentrated near what to mortal eyes appeared to be a massive palace. Tzeench had known this day would come eventually, just not so soon. The Apex Twins had disrupted his timetable. Somehow his vision had missed a single fate strand that stemmed from them. Now that single fate was growing into an unstoppable force that could possibly ruin the plans that had been growing for tens of millennia. Of course, he had planned for this. He would shift himself into another reality. He had long ago sensed this reality and had spent millennia forging a tunnel to it that he could open at will. Still, he would need time to weave the spells. For that he would need the one who was to be his herald in the material universe. The powerful daemon prince Gargatuloth. He had recently been banished by the cursed Gray knights, the weakling humans' greatest weapon against his armies. But even they could not stop him. If everything went according to his vision plans, the Apex twins would soon serve him. Fate could not be changed, only interpreted, and he always had the final say.
The Imperial fleet sailed through a monstrous warp distortion. Energy made of colors that could not exist lashed out and warp entities swarmed the fleet's ships. Tzeench was making it as hard as he could for the Imperial fleet to reach him. Shimmering bolts of warp lightning struck ships, clawing at Void shields to get at the souls within. The Warp around them seethed with creatures that tore at warp shields. These were the warp creatures that spacers feared. They swam around the ships like piranhas. Prayers of faith sent them reeling but new ones always took their place. Tzeench was trying to exhaust them before they even reached him. On each ship psykers joined their powers to repel the Chaos attacks. Slowly but steadily the Imperium fleet was breaking through the Chaos defenses. Then they hit the final barrier. A solid warp energy wall of iridescent energy. It surrounded the planet like a bubble. This was a direct manifestation of Tzeench, like a cloak he was using to protect himself. It would fail. The Emperor opened a channel to the fleet.
"All ships full power to void shields. All psykers focus your power on one section of the Chaos bubble," he ordered. He could feel the massive strength of the bubble, but if enough force could be put on one point it would pop. With a thought he summoned the twins and together they added their vast power to the energy already pouring into the Chaos bubble. The bubble flashed colors rapidly, slowly moving from blue to green, then yellow and finally an angry red as it was overwhelmed. With Tzeench putting all his power into opening the gate his power was no match for the Emperor at that long of a range. The barrier finally shattered and the Emperor's fleet entered orbit of the planet itself, if it could indeed be called a planet. It had been saturated with the energy of change, and now its surface moved like liquid marble, shifting every few minutes. Orbital stations recently brought there opened fire with strange warp weapons that passed straight through Void shields and detonated against warp screens, taking them down and leaving the crews of several ships open to the hungry warp predators.
"Keren, protect those ships!" The Emperor ordered. Keren shifted her focus from assaulting the orbital stations with psychic blasts to destroying the thousands of warp creatures surging in on the three unshielded vessels. She was able to destroy some and confuse the rest long enough for warp screens to be reestablished.
Imperial weapon batteries replied with thunderous barrages that ripped through the stations and left them falling into the planet, where they slowly sunk beneath the surface. This battle would not be decided with crude physical weapons. It would be mental strength that would that would see the final victor through.
On the surface Tzeench felt the strength of the minds on board the Imperial fleet. He knew Gargatuloth would have a difficult battle ahead of him, but if he won the entire galaxy would soon burn in the fires of change. The weak laws of reality would finally be broken and pure Change would dominate. His herald would see to that while he set his plans in motion in another reality, and when both realities were under his control, nothing could stop him.
As soon as the fleet made orbit landing operations began. Warp shielded shuttles and Thunderhawks conveyed space marines to the surface. They would battle Tzeench's minions while the Emperor battled Tzeench himself. When the transports landed marines from the Grey Knights, Exorcists, Ultramarines, Imperial Fists, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Relictors and the Doom Eagles moved into immediate defensive positions. Each marine's armor had been modified with wards of protection, the marines carried psycannons in place of bolters, and each marine without psychic powers had been given a null rod to defend against sorcery. Waves of daemons, cultists and Chaos marines charged. Greater Daemons flew through the sky, landing in the middle of the marine detachments. Their staffs carved through armor like paper. Their claws picked up marines and flung them through the air into the center of the daemonic army where they were torn apart. Return fire washed through the daemonic ranks. Psycannon bolts blew daemons apart and incinerators sprayed holy promethium on two Lords of Change that were mauling a squad of Imperial Fists.
Then the Emperor and the twins entered the fray. Blasts of power strong enough to shatter cities impacted against the minions of the change god. Cultists died in their thousands. Daemons were torn apart by the energies now impacting in their ranks. Lords of Change watched with interest before they too were obliterated. The Emperor and his daughters were holding back. They knew they would need as much power as they could muster to take down Tzeench. When the battle stabilized somewhat the three of them began walking towards Tzeench's palace. They used personal transporters to get behind the main lines of defense. Crowds of daemons charged them.
"Are you ready?" The Emperor asked the girls.
"Let's do it," they replied. They joined hands and a blinding golden wave washed through the enemy ranks, dissolving everything. They walked through a sea of daemon blood before finally reaching a massive gate. They pounded on the gate until it shattered. Within the palace lay a maze of corridors and passageways. All guarded by the top minions of the Change God. Greater Daemons came at them along with daemon princes of change. Each foe wielded terrible sorcerous powers, but each was overcome and banished by the incredible might of the Emperor and his daughters. The Emperor knew Tzeench was trying to drain them so they would not be at full strength for the final battle, but the twins just seemed to keep getting stronger. The Emperor noticed that they seemed natural in this place, as if they somehow belonged here.
Finally they emerged into a titanic throne room. The room seemed to stretch into the sky. A massive throne occupied one portion of the room, and on that throne sat a being of pure sorcery. Pure knowledge. The Emperor knew who this being was. The Herald of Change. Tzeench's second in command if there could be such a thing. The daemon prince Gargatuloth.
"Welcome!" He boomed. "Welcome Emperor of mankind, and children."
"Daemon, where is your master!" The Emperor demanded. Gargatuloth laughed.
"Why would I, the Herald of Change, bow to the wishes of an insignificant mortal?" The daemon prince asked. He knew if he was able to anger the Emperor he could force him to lose focus, and that would be his undoing. Tzeench had already passed beyond. Now, after he defeated the Emperor, he would be the ruler of this realty. The Emperor and the girls smiled.
"Because if you do, we will make your death swift," the three spoke together, launching a devastating psychic blast at Gargatuloth, who swatted it aside with ease. Now it was his turn to smile.
"Perhaps you misspoke. If you bow down to me I may make YOUR deaths swift," he replied, launching an attack of his own that threw the Emperor and twins against a wall. They got back up quickly enough, but Gargatuloth was far stronger than they had predicted. Tzeench given him power enough to rule this galaxy, and being within the warp only made him stronger. He fired a blast of warp fire that the Emperor knocked away with his rune sword.
The Emperor and his girls stood together. They knew Gargatuloth was strong, but every foe had a weakness, and the Emperor was about to show it to Gargatuloth.
"Every daemon is a servant of its master. To ensure loyalty every daemon is given a name. They may be known by many thousands of names as you are, but only one is the true name." Before Gargatuloth had been banished, he had driven an Inquisitor insane. But that Inquisitor had immersed herself in Gargatuloth and discovered his true name. That name had been used by the Gray Knights we banish him. Now the Emperor too spoke the true name of Gargatuloth, whose thousand faces shattered. Tzeench had freed him from his true name enough to keep it from making him a slave to a mortal, but the name was still enough to weaken him.
"You see!" The Emperor said. "You may posses knowledge beyond what men can fathom, but it is all contained in you. The knowledge may survive your death, but without you it will have no meaning. Without you to teach it, it is simply meaningless."
"I will not be defeated. You have already allowed yourself to be defeated by bringing one of my masters' greatest weapons back here to me. Come to me," he said pronouncing a name the human throat could never produce. The Apex Twins were suddenly jerked forward. They found themselves bowing to Gargatuloth.
"What are you doing to them!" The Emperor demanded. Gargatuloth grinned, his face barely viable within his curtain of light.
"I am calling them home. Here, let me show you," he said, and a great light engulfed the room.
All four beings found themselves back on the twins home planet. They saw the twins parents fall in love, then, as the twins future was just barely beginning, they saw the power of Tzeench go inside the twins mother and fuse with her unborn twins. They watched as it slowly buried itself in their souls, perverting them with the purest essence of Chaos. On the Black ship that essence made itself known. It had become the twins during their journey through the galaxy. Then came the scene where the Emperor defeated the darkness.
"You merely sent the darkness into sleep. I have reawakened it. Now your greatest weapons are under my control." The twins looked at the Emperor. Their eyes were the ones he had seen when he had first confronted them on the medieval planet. Dark and evil.
"You thought you could bend us to your will. You were wrong," they said, the evil that had been banished from them now returned in full.
"No, this cannot be," the Emperor said. His eyes showed nothing but confusion. Gargatuloth tried to read his mind but the Emperor's mental defenses were still too strong.
"You see, there is no way to defeat me. I have planned for everything. Look, your own men leave you here to die," the daemon prince said, showing the Emperor his marines retreating to their ships and lifting off. "Now you are the only thing standing between me and the rule of Chaos." He stepped down off his throne and levitated over to the Emperor. He took the twins hands of his own. "Now my daughters of change, let us end this," he said and together the three of them merged their minds with the Emperor.
The four were once again on a dark plain with black lightning. Only this time the twins were joined together with Gargatuloth.
"So, this is the place your mind has created as your graveyard," Gargatuloth remarked. The twins stepped forward.
"Let us join our powers," they said in unison. Gargatuloth merged his powers with the twins and together they began creating the blast that would obliterate the Emperor.
"I don't think so!" The Emperor called out. He sent a blast of the twins light energy they had given him that threw Gargatuloth back and freed the twins of his control for a moment. "Your knowledge may be vast, but we know one thing you do not, and that one piece of knowledge will be your end."
"Lies!" Gargatuloth replied, firing a series of blasts that forced the three humans back. They somehow managed to avoid everything he threw at them. Something was aiding them. Something beyond even his massive sight.
"Don't you ever wonder what happens to the emotions that don't belong in the warp?" Sharon asked. "Emotions like kindness, compassion and courage?"
"Simple. They do come into the Warp but they are twisted by the darkness of the Warp," Gargatuloth replied. He knew everything about the ways of the warp.
"Wrong," Keren said. "Some of it is lost to the Dark Warp, but the rest flows into a place that not even your master knew of. A sub Warp if you will. A place of light and warmth. The exact opposite of your Warp. We were taken there once." She spoke a word. A word not of the material realm and not of the warp. It filled the Emperor with warmth and Gargatuloth with pain.
Another vision came. This one showed a ship the twins had traveled on. A terrible warp storm had hit and the vessel had been lost. However, as the twins were sucked screaming into the depths of the warp, a tiny speck of light appeared and the fell through it. When they came to they were floating in a golden light. They felt things they had not felt since they were taken to the black ship. Love, compassion and the warmth of the light. Then they heard it. A song, not of words, but of the essence of love itself. Somehow they had been taken to a place where all the true and pure love and emotions of light resided. Then they felt the darkness in their souls rebelling. This place was poison to it. It returned them to the material universe and they forgot the song. Until the Emperor rescued them. Gradually they had remembered, and they had found a way to use the Warp of Light to destroy the Lord of Change. He had gone, but it work just the same on his herald.
Gargatuloth had made a mistake. He had not anticipated anyone possessing information he did not know. He was a god! He tried to return to the throne room, but the twins held him here.
"You tried to use us. You thought of us a nothing more than weapons, but now, thanks to the Song of Light and the love of our Father, you're DONE!" The twins shouted. For the first time ever, Gargatuloth knew fear.
The twins and the Emperor immersed themselves in the song letting its light flow through them. Then suddenly, the twins started glowing pure white. Their ribbons undid themselves and fell to the ground. The twins' bodies grew larger and energy formed into new cloths for them. When the light faded the twins looked sixteen instead of six. Their hair flowed down to their waists. Their new cloths were a light blue body glove for Sharon and a pick one for Keren. Wings of energy formed on their backs. They now looked like angels.
"Now!" They shouted together. "Light of Miracles!" A wave of light made of colors not of the warp or material universe washed over Gargatuloth. He felt an energy that had no right to exist in any part of the warp move through him and take him apart. He knew he world eventually find a way to return, but this energy ensured it would not be for a very long time.
"You have not seen the last of me!" He cried as his head vanished into the light.
The Emperor and the twins suddenly found themselves back in the throne room of Gargatuloth. Without his energy to sustain it the entire planet was falling apart.
"Hurry, we must get outside," the Emperor stated. The twins followed his back through the maze-like corridors. When they reached the outside they found a Thunderhawk waiting for them. The rest had left to fool Gargatuloth that they thought the Emperor dead or lost. Two Gray Knights waited on the ramp, motioning for them to hurry. The twins had returned to their younger forms so the Emperor carried them. They ran up the ramp and belted themselves in. The Thunderhawk lifted off just as the ground crumbled beneath them. As they rejoined the fleet they saw the Chaos planet begin to break apart. Without a controlling force, the essence of change that had made the planet was tearing it apart.
After the planet had completely destroyed itself, the Emperor's fleet began its return to Terra. Now that Chaos had been dealt with, for now at least, the Emperor could focus his attention on this Galactic Empire that was proving to be a major pain for the Imperium. But first he needed to go to what had once been Borg space, for there lay the Imperium's newest and greatest weapon. Soon the Galactic Empire would know the true meaning if fear.
Whew that was long! But was it good? Please tell me it was good. Tzeench has escaped, but now the Imperium is free of the Chaos gods. What is next? What is the Emperor's new weapon? Will the new Apex Twins be a match for the forces of the Sith? Stay tuned and find out. In the next chapter we return to the Star Trek galaxy for a chapter. See ya then, and don't forget to review!
ENTILZA