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"Thank you, Inquisitor," I said warily.

Again with the not-smile, the statuesque woman stood at the center of the room, completely at ease, "You did well despite your inexperience."

The room had an array of slabs around its edges around a central empty area for particularly large servitors, the squad had been playing the dice game in that empty area, but had scattered at her inexorable approach before scampering to the walls at my declaration of her title.

"I got quite lucky," I countered with a careful shake of my head, leaning into Bella's stiff right side for support, my left elbow on her shoulder as the mess of dendrites that formed my left forearm and hand held the coolant pack to my temple. "Both that Ordnatus accepted me in any capacity, but also that the operator…s?" I trailed off in thought before metaphorical shaking it off, "The whatever it was that was the motive force behind the Warhound was stupid enough to get into melee with Ordnatus and I."

The Inquisitor strode forward; calling it walking wouldn't have done it justice. It was a struggle to meet her eyes, both due to my own predisposition to talk without meeting people's gazes and her own intense gaze, but also the far more mundane reason of ow my head. That and outright missing an eye.

Her hand came up, and Bella nearly flinched away when the Inquisitor almost tenderly touched her ear, "I must say, I'd heard of the felinids and their looks, but you look quite well, especially after coming into conflict with Chaos."

A little thrown off by the tangent, my head turned slightly to look at the action, finding the Inquisitor's fingers gently rubbing at the delicate feline ear, making the young woman tremble for just an instant before she started to relax. The Inquisitor's blonde hair was in a tight bun, and there was a cold, distant beauty to her. Even though Bella and I were sitting on one of the tall slabs, she loomed over the two of us, perching like a bird of prey.

Hell, she must have been nearly seven feet tall! Her lips didn't have the subtle sheen of lipstick, but they were still a deep, dark red– and it was then that I picked up on the implied suspicion by her wording.

"Bit… weird to say given that she's the only one of the squad hit by enemy fire…" I had to note, gesturing with a dendrite at Bella's bandaged left shoulder.

Crystal blue eyes swung to my own gray-green one, pinning me in place, her fingers not stopping in their motions. I swallowed, but I kept my eye on hers even as she spoke, her voice and tone unwavering, "What of yourself? Internal bleeding, minor aneurysms in the brain, internal burns, hairline fractures in your right hand, damaged electoo inductors, damaged MIU, burst eardrums, ruptured eye… suffering may bring us closer to the Emperor, there is such a thing as excess."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "That's really only two… actually, three things."

Anything else I might have said, or the Inquisitor might have asked was cut off by another voice, "Okay, look, are you just here to make us uncomfortable or is there an actual purpose to this skak?"

The Inquisitor turned to look at the speaker without letting go of Bella's ear, the only person in the room that was tall enough to meet her gaze without looking up. An enigmatic smile crossing her face, "I must say sergeant, you did well in holding off the great enemy as you did."

Umma just frowned, "All we did was hold the skakkers off until coghead here got that Knight working, after that we just held onto his coattails." He crossed his arms, "But that doesn't explain what the skak you're doing."

Blonde eyebrows rose as the Inquisitor's blue eyes bore into the large man, her voice betraying nothing as she asked, "Are you questioning the Inquisition, sergeant?"

"Yeah, I kinda am." The squad collectively choked on air, Oscar sputtering and the others just staring at their sergeant agape, heck, even I was a bit surprised. Only the Inquisitor herself didn't obviously react, Bella's dark tail thrashing about behind us as she was startled out of her reverie. But Umma wasn't done, "Look, I just don't want my little girls wrapped up in some heresy shit. I can sorta get questioning the coghead, but we just shot skakkers." His eyes darted over to me, "No offense scrapheap."

I gave him the best thumbs up I could with my bandaged hand, "None taken, look out for your own and shit."

"But you're messing with one of my muties, that makes it my business." Umma crossed his arms over his chest, "And unless we're getting accused of heresy or some shit, I want us out."

Letting go of Bella's ear and turned fully to face Umma, I couldn't help but note that the tall woman kept me in range of her peripheral vision, "That's a bold demand sergeant. I'm not sure whether I should shoot you where you stand for that..." the lines of Umma's face deepened as he scowled even as his face turned pale, "Or if I should offer you a job."

Another choking sound came from the squad, and even Umma seemed thrown off by that one, but my mind, already racing, was focused on something else.

Why was she here?

She was in here completely unarmed as far as I could see… unless…

The coat had a golden trim with the cog-like notches that most high ranking magos did, both of her hands were flesh and blood, nails were clean, she had rings on her fingers, but only a few… probably digital weapons actually. Still, ten people, nine of them fully trained Imperial Guardsmen… if she'd actually suspected we were traitors… the door was closed even. No, this was too risky. She couldn't truly believe we were heretics… or that I was… no, she had those rings near Bella's head and even now it was pointed at me… there was nothing at her hip or back, so no serious weapons. Still, this was unnecessarily risky if she truly thought we were heretics… even if she had a fucking space marine out there, if we all ganged up on her or one of us was a sorcerer or able to unleash a demon… there's no way she'd survive.

"Well… I think I'd rather go back out to shooting at charging Orks if I can?"

That same cold, unreadable smile crossed her face, "Are you so eager to get out from under the Inquisition's gaze? Many would say that such a thing indicates a guilty mind."

"I don't care what they think. Investigate us all you want, we're not heretics," Umma countered with a scowl, "But I don't want my squad getting roped into some bullshit witch hunt, we've already got enough skakking problems dealing with the usual groxshit we're sent to fight."

"Your faith in your squad is admirable," the Inquisitor said, turning back to me, "Does your captain share your faith?."

The words obviously confused Umma for a moment, but just for a moment, and then the emotions flashed across his face quickly, shocked realization, brief terror, and then anger. His hands bunched around his folded arms, his teeth grinding together as he looked away, "That bastard."

What? She just- their captain. Shit, right, politics. Their captain, she was implying that he was going to use this as an excuse to get rid of them. Fuck. And it apparently was an effective threat from the Inquisitor based on Umma's reaction.

Her hand came up, taking the coolant pack from my dendrite, which… okay? I let it go, both because she was a fucking Inquisitor, but also because it wasn't all that cool anymore and wasn't helping with the ache in my head as much. I met her gaze and asked the million Throne question, "What do you want, Inquisitor?"

The sound of my voice seemed to draw Umma back to the here and now, the tall man stiffening and paling even as the Inquisitor's blonde eyebrows went up. Her facial expression barely shifting otherwise, "Another person questioning the Inquisition? Impertinence upon impertinence."

"You're just wasting everyone's time." Bella beside me stiffened as I stared up at the Inquisitor, "You wouldn't be here like this, alone with us, if you truly thought we were heretics. And if you don't think that we're heretics… I'm a nobody, even knowing about my past is just something to investigate after dealing with the cult on the planet before they go to ground or disappear… And you should have already figured out that I don't know anything that can help, you already heard everything I knew about it… and there's not a damn thing I'd be able to get at or know that you wouldn't be able to do easier, faster, or better, especially given your obvious links to the Adeptus Mechanicus," I gestured at her coat with my bandaged hand before scowling up at her. "So why are you here? Why are you here, wasting your time with us when there's a chaos cult here? You're here for some reason, but I don't have the pieces to put it together, and all of this so far has just been a pointless power play. You're in charge, we get it, now what do you want? What the flying fuck does a squad of Guardsmen and a Lexmechanic have that's worth the time of the Emperor and his Inquisitor?"

There was a twinkle in the woman's crystal blue eyes, and she turned away, walking back towards the center of the room, bouncing the coolant pack in her hand as she did. Her words were almost like liquid honey, "What if I told you that I had an STC?"

I frowned, taking just an instant to process that, "I'd ask what the catch was."

She looked over her shoulder at me, but despite the Inquisitor's even tone, Bella stiffened beside me, "The 'catch?'"

Chewing my lip for just a moment in thought I nodded, "Yeah, there's no way you have a full on STC, not without some sort of catch. Even a corrupted one would be beyond invaluable to the Adeptus Mechanicus…" I scowled, "Even if I'd accept you not wanting to give it to the forge worlds, to not give it to at least Mars… I'd go so far as to say it was heresy, working actively against the Imperium's interests. And I don't think you're doing that… So, again… what's the catch?"

The not-smile widened and she turned back away, almost idly turning the coolant pack about in her hands, "What if I told you that there was an STC in the sector?"

My eye narrowed, 'What are you getting at…? It can't… where are you leading this…? An STC in the sector…?'

"Nnnooo… that doesn't sound right either… if you were even half as connected to the Adeptus Mechanicus as you seem to be you'd be on the quest for… it… too…"

The Inquisitor's eyes slid back to me as I trailed off, the realization starting to hit me, "Mm?"

I looked back at her, "You don't think there's one, but you think that others do, and have been tempted to heresy while searching for it…"

"Tell me," the coolant pack dropped into one hand and stayed there as she turned back around, blue eyes boring into me as she asked, "Why, pray tell, did a Lexmechanic's emergency override work on an Archaeotech Knight?"

I couldn't help but note that she hadn't confirmed or denied anything we'd said… Still, I shrugged, "I legitimately don't know?" Her eyes hardened, but despite the little quiver of fear in my chest, I shrugged again, giving a little shake of my head, "Seriously. I half expected it to blow my head off for the attempt with such a low ranking code."

"Then why did you get into it?"

"Because it was our only chance?" I said incredulously, good god, I know this was probably the intention but she was seriously throwing me off with all the subject changes! "We were outnumbered massively by obviously traitor forces, stopping them in return for getting chewed out for it later was worth it, and it was the only chance I had of contributing to the fight."

Her voice dropped, low, and dangerous, "And what else would be worth it?"

My mouth opened, then closed with a small click as I glared at her, cutting myself off. That was a fucking trick question at its core damnit, and she knew it. But not answering or trying to lie weren't really options. Taking a slow breath, I boiled it down as best I could, "… my life for others… my soul for the Imperium."

"And the Emperor?"

Bella trembled beside me at the Inquisitor's tone, but my world had narrowed to that pair of piercing eyes, my lips pressing into a thin line, 'That's… ugh, that's another one of those.' My eye flicked down as I tried to figure out how to answer, 'Speaking from the heart would be too easy to misinterpret–'

I never even saw her cross the distance.

Pain flared and the world suddenly jerked and blurred, and the next I knew I was pressed back up against the wall, her knuckles up against the underside of my chin, the intricate details of her rings digging into my skin, as she said in a soft, almost nonchalant tone, "Contemplation is the womb of treachery."

She might as well have been talking about the damn weather, even as small points of heat made themselves known against my skin, my brain quite resoundingly confirming, 'Gun-rings, gun-rings, gun-rings, gun-rings–!'

"H-Hey-!" Bella started only to cut herself off with a squeak.

My entire body tensed for a moment before I forced myself to relax, my eye closing as I sat there. Think. I couldn't do anything about this physically, and panicking would not help, either she'd kill me or she wouldn't, all I could do was be honest. I forced the small tremble to stop, letting my chin rest on the rings, my chest heaving and my heart thudding against my ribcage. With my fear at least partially contained, I countered with something I'd thought about for a good while since arriving, "Fragile is an idea that has not been questioned."

Her knuckles twisted, her voice low and increasingly dangerous, "A questioning mind betrays a treacherous soul."

I couldn't help myself, I bristled with anger, "And weak is the faith that cannot withstand doubt!"

The room was silent aside from the faint sounds of the burning candles and the popping of wax, before the heavy emptiness was broken by a menacing question, "And do you have that faith?"

Eyes closed tightly, my hand started to ache, clenched as tightly as it was as I almost growled out, "Yes."

The rings twisted further, pressing me harder into the heavy adamantium wall of the holding cell, a small trickle of blood actually dripping onto her knuckles as the intricate details tore into my skin. But… there was nothing else to say.

I had faith in the God Emperor, maybe not the kind of faith the ecclesiarchy wanted, maybe not 'true' faith, maybe I was a heretic by their measure… but… I had faith. And despite the thudding of my heart against the inside of my cyber-mantle, I forced my trembling right hand to open and relax.

And then the pressure keeping my head pressed back was gone and I almost fell from the sudden lack of support–! I promptly overcompensated, head whipping back up and knocking the back of my skull into the wall, "Ack-! Ow. Ow." I cringed, my bandaged hand flying to my shaved head, "… ow."

"Tell me, Lexmechanic." The menace was gone from her tone, "How would you go about finding these heretics?"

Slumping down against the slab, I rubbed my head carefully with my hand and rested my elbows against my knees, trying to order my thoughts, "Ugh… fuck… well… I'd try and find out who's in charge of the Redwood. They're the absolute minimum amount involved in this." Gesturing uselessly with my dendrites when there was no further questioning, I continued, "I'd want to find out the structure of the groups involved in it as well as the past sanctioned efforts and experiments on the Redwood, who carried them out, who pushed them forward, and who approved them, most of that would be in the databases… which would mean you could probably get at it without tipping them off that you were doing so, at least with a better set of codes than I have or just a better techpriest… if you have a better idea of what things could make the rift possible then you could trace it from there."

There was a long moment of silence as I rubbed my forehead, trying to ignore the insistent throbbing that had returned between the stress and the lack of a coolant pack. I opened my eye to find a palm before it-?!

Strong fingers pressed to my temples and eyebrows, digging in and rubbing small circles, the motion somewhere between painful and relieving, and with a little grunt my eye closed once more against my will.

"Could you pilot again?" the Inquisitors smoky voice was soft; the question surprisingly gentle.

I shrugged uselessly, "… maybe? If my MIU isn't totally fried, if they'll let me back into the Knight, if Ordnatus accepts me again without there already being a fight…?" I sighed, fucking tired, I'd been thinking hard, panicked… it'd been a rough day, "I dunno, probably?"

"[i]Good.[/i]"

Her hand patted my shaved head before she pulled away, and I cracked my eye open to glare at her slightly, "Can you at least give me some idea what the rust is going on? If you want me to shoot things with Ordnatus, it'd probably be better if I had an idea what I was shooting before going in."

Schrodinger's smile was back on the Inquisitor's face as she stood fully, "We will see."

My lips pressed into a thin line as I slumped against the wall, "You are infuriatingly vague, you know that right?"

The Inquisitor blinked a few times before a smile spread across her face, a genuine one this time, "I do my best." She stood and turned, crimson coat flaring out as she strode towards the door, "Sergeant, come along, the Inquisition has need of the services of you and your squad."

"Aw skak."

"I do find that that is the most appropriate response, yes." The door opened soundlessly at her approach, revealing the even darker hallway of the forge at night, "Come, we have work to do." She paused just outside of the door, looking to the right, "Titus, keep watch over our cute little Lexmechanic, I'll vox you the coordinates when it's time."

"Of course, Lady Veyla."

There was a loud thump and… oh… oh my, that was a Space Marine.

The man… the Astartes actually barely had to duck to fit into the room, the door was built large enough for heavy duty servitors to be forced through after all. His armor was solid black… and the pauldrons actually don't look that stupid up close. But those red lenses focused on me, and more than a few of the Guardsmen swallowed hard. Rook, despite his previous nervousness, actually scowled at the Astartes, who stood a head taller than even the staggeringly large Inquisitor and Umma.

… they're quite a bit bigger in person…

"Sergeant," the Inquisitor's voice came back through the room, "Don't hold up the Inquisition."

The sergeant sighed before growling out, "Yes… my lady." His own blue eyes swept over his squad, "C'mon girls, we've got a new mission."

Despite their hesitation, the squad began to stand and start to file out of the holding cell, skirting past the Astartes. There were a wide variety of emotions, Felix seemed almost in awe, Rook seemed nearly angry, Novianna stone-faced, Umma scowling… but the majority emotion was nervousness.

"Hey," I called out, thankfully getting them to pause for just a moment. I gave them my best smile, "Good luck. Emperor protects and all that. I doubt you need it, but just to be safe."

"Aren't you supposed to say something about the Omnissiah?" Felix asked.

I snorted, "Skak that, the Omnissiah isn't supposed to intervene, the Emperor is. I expect him to protect you better. Emperor be with you."

There were a few smiles from them at that, and it wasn't much, but… I felt a lot better about seeing them off.

Soundlessly, the door closed behind them as the squad left, leaving me alone in the room with the massive space marine, who held an equally large plasma rifle in his hands. His helmet prevented me from seeing his face but… nothing on his right shoulder, just a black expanse, and on his left… an intricately carved silver skull and crossbones over the Inquisition's rosette, all on a silver pauldron and vambrace.

Big power ax, bolt pistol, grenades… eeeeeeyup. Space marine.

"So… hi?"

The Astartes head tilted down slightly to focus on me, but said nothing.

I just raised my eyebrwos, "Any chance you'll give me an idea what I'm going to be asked to do?"

"No." Okay, even through the helmet's speakers, he had a nice voice, a calm bass rumble, "The Inquisitor doesn't want to risk the heretics catching wind of her justice."

I scowled for just a moment, but kept my tongue, thinking. 'So, we're bugged… but why'd she… ask…?' My bandaged hand came up as I facepalmed, "... ow. Gonna be happy when that's healed up…"

With a sigh, I eased myself back onto the slab, the snakelike tendrils slipped out and pulled my folded up shirt back over and set it under my head before laying back onto it, "Ugh, right, I'm going to try to rest up."

Rubbing my forehead, I let my dendrites coil up upon my chest, the smooth metal warm, 'She already has a lead, one actually unrelated to what I figured out. What I realized might be a red herring or something, she's using that to throw off the real people as to where she's going.'

There was a few soft thuds as the Astartes moved about the room some.

'Okay, so…' I mentally began ticking off what I knew as I lay there on the slab, 'She asked if I could pilot, so that means she probably expects me to shoot things… or wanted to use that as a threat to whoever is listening…?' I made a face, 'Ugh, fucking spy-thriller shit. You know that I know that you know bullshit and I don't have a fraction of the puzzle pieces.'

A few small, mechanical whirs and the sound of something unscrewing came from the Astartes. I had a brief instant of fear before I shoved that silliness aside. For one, she had ordered him to protect me, for another, if he wanted to kill me, there was all of fuck all I could do about it. And it'd at least probably be pretty quick. Besides, he was probably checking up on his weapons while on guard duty. So I relaxed, rubbing my temples carefully with my aching hand.

'Okay, so, I get tapped for the boom. Odds are that it's going to be hereteks… genetor hereteks probably…? Well, we do have a surprising number of genetors here… so… bio-skitarri? Or possibly genetically engineered monsters…' I cringed again at a new thought, 'Or possibly demonically possessed genetically enhanced monsters. Fuck.'

There was a few thumps as the Astartes approached and-... something wet and cool laid across my forehead…?

Cracking open my eye, I looked up in the darkness to find a small towel folded up and draped across my forehead and the Astartes moving back to the center of the room, his back to me.

My mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before the hint of a smile spread across my face, "Thanks."

"The Emperor protects, Lexmechanic."

A warm, pleasant feeling filled my chest despite the continued ache in my head, "Not sure I'd call this 'protection', but I definitely appreciate it. So still, thank you."

The Astartes was silent and unmoving, the large, blocky backpack of his power armor facing me as the candlelight played across the black paint on his armor, glittering off of the silver left arm. Quietly, he rumbled, "Rest up, Lexmechanic, you shall have the Emperor's work to do."

With a resigned smile, I let my eye close again, settling back onto the slab. He had a point, after all.


A.N. - N/A