Epilogue
Somewhere
Kay was falling though pain filled golden light. Every single fiber of her being hurt. The pain was centered on the arm where she had been shot, but it eclipsed everything. She tried to work beyond it, but it was everything around her. She was pain and she was rapidly losing her mind.
She barely felt armored hands on her and then a solid surface underneath her. She could not see, could not speak, could not hear. When she tried to reach out to any machinery nearby, the cacophony of hate and horror seared her to the bone. She knew what surrounded her. Not Imperium machinery but the foul workings of Chaos! She was a prisoner of Chaos again. She knew her limits and she had passed them in her fight with Rashinos. She was doomed. They would take her and break her this time. They would use her against the Imperium and Georgia… She would never see Georgia again! Or worse, she might!
She couldn't move. All she could do was cry as she felt movement.
"Emperor be merciful." The horrified words hit her brain with stunning speed and for a moment, Kay did not recognize the female voice. Then she did and she screamed in her mind again as the female voice she hated more than any other continued. Lily! The Canoness who had burned her alive three times! "She is awake and aware! No! No, get her into the bath! Now! We need to ease the burns or she will go into shock! If that happens, they will take her! Quickly, you fools or we will lose her to them!"
Kay was still screaming in her mind as she started to slide and then felt fluid surround her. She couldn't move! Her Emperor given strength was useless when she couldn't move. Rashinos had found that out early on. He had done so many horrible things to try and get her to reproduce. She couldn't forget them no matter how hard she tried.
"Lady Kay." A male voice, not Lily's, spoke up from nearby. Kay did not know him. Did she? He was familiar. "We know you are awake. We know your fear and it is justified. You will not believe anything we say and good for you. Your wounds are beyond any tech or sorcery that any of us know of. You are healing but the wounds you suffered are too grave. You will go die or mad if we let you. We must not."
Something was slathering over Kay's body and she could hear prayers. But...she knew those prayers. She knew them well! Someone, no, several female someones were praying? They were beseeching the Emperor for healing. In a Chaos stronghold? What the hell?
"You will hate us and we deserve it." The male Kay did not know was sad. "As bad as what the black shields of the First Legion did to you was, what we did was just as bad. You do not remember the years after you escaped from Rashinos' foul mobile temple. You were broken in mind and body when we found you. We rebuilt you and we strove to use you. While our methods were far gentler than Rashinos', they were no less pervasive. We failed and that is a good thing." He said heavily. "Just like the Dark Angels, we did not know. Until we brought you to our sanctuary, we had no idea at all who you were, Lady Kay. When we discovered the truth? We were torn. We have to do what we do or the entire galaxy is doomed. But you are his daughter. A prize that any servant of Chaos would give his or her immortal soul for, because the reward that the Gods of Chaos would give them for you in chains would be beyond imagining. But we could not give you to them. You are his daughter." The man repeated.
What was he saying? Kay barely felt the pain in her extremities fade as unguents that smelled so familiar soothed her hurts and the fluid she was lying in soothed the rest of her. She was scared, so scared. But the hymns, the scents, the feel. All of it was familiar. So familiar! Sororitas.
"You are wondering why this place feels familiar. It should. You spent almost five years with these sisters while you healed from Rashinos' horror, Lady Kay." The male voice was oddly gentle as fingers traced her cheek. They felt hard. Armored? "They kept you drugged and tried to put forth a persistent illusion of a normal cloister of the Sororitas. If there is such a thing. You saw through their deceptions so we were called. We attempted mindscrubs, but they failed as well." He chuckled a bit ruefully. "You were a hell of handful. Now that you have ascended? You will heal even these horrible wounds, Lady, but it will take time. Time that you will not be given if anyone discovers you still live. The Imperium, the Chaos gods, xenos races, they will all try to subvert you. To use you for their own ends. You would fight, it is all you know how to do, but in the end, as broken as you are, you would fail. You would break. At best, you would go mad and at worst? You would become a ravening monster like Horus ended up being and Abbaddon is."
That made no sense at all! Kay remembered the flight from Rashinos! She had fled across dark and ravaged worlds until she had found… She had… She sobbed harder as she realized her memory was wrong! Dark patches were stacked across what she could remember. She had been tampered with and never realized it!
"Don't cry, dear Kay." The male voice sounded upset now. An armored hand gently grasped her left one. Her right hand was numb. "It is not your fault. Nothing that happened to you was your fault. The Emperor was interrupted before he could finish his work. You slept through the ultimate horror of brother fighting brother, of entire sectors put to the sword in the name of power and greed. We didn't know until you came here who and what you really were. We learned. We let you go when you demanded it. We wiped what we could from your memory and let you go, but we kept an eye on you throughout your travels. It was hard, letting horrors happen to you, but we could not approach. You would have fought us. Now, however? Things have changed. We will protect you." That was an oath.
Georgia… Kay begged in her mind.
"Your daughter lives." The man reassured her. Was he reading her mind? He chuckled. "No, not mind reading, that doesn't work on you. The only method that does work is similar to Inquisition non-invasive mind scanning. We could have hoped for your daughter to find a slightly less dangerous job, but Illusmar seems a reasonably decent sort for an Inquisitor and the Space Marines are falling all over themselves to provide a suitable escort. He has made them choose a single champion to accompany her and the competition for that post is fierce from what I understand."
"He wasn't given a choice about the other escort." Lily's voice spoke up from nearby and Kay went still as hate slammed through her again.
"Be silent, Lily." The man commanded. "She has cause to hate you and she is incredibly stressed right now. Any human would have gone mad by now from what she has endured. We must ease her and hearing your voice stresses her. You had no choice, but still… Get her resting place ready."
"Yes, Milord." Why was Lily calling this being 'Milord'? She was a Canoness, she bowed to none but the Emperor! What was going on? The other sighed and the hand holding Kay's left hand gave a gentle squeeze.
"You are very confused and you have a right to be." The man or whatever he was said quietly. "Lily didn't want to do what she did, but she had no choice. If you had stayed in that cloister, you would have seen things, discovered things, remembered things that would have put countless lives in jeopardy. Not just the sisters there, but millions of others across the Imperium. She didn't want to drive you away and certainly not like that, but she had to, so she did."
The pain was gone now and Kay basked in the lack for a moment. She opened her mouth and tried to speak, but something was in it! She panicked and the other soothed her with soft words and caresses of her left hand.
"No, no, don't try to talk." The man cautioned her. "We had to put a tube in to ward your breathing. You spent far too long in raw Immaterium before we got to you and we had to be sure there was no internal corruption. There isn't." He reassured her when she tensed. "The rest of your injuries are very bad, but you will heal in time."
How bad? Kay said in her mind and the other sighed again. Please?
"Your right side took the brunt of the explosion." The other said quietly. "Your right arm and leg are mostly gone. Your skull is intact, but badly burned. You lost your right eye. We could see your internal organs through burns on your right side when we pulled you in. Our Apothecaries were sure you would not survive to get here, but now that you have? We will ward you while you heal."
Apothecaries? Space Marines? Kay stiffened. Chaos around her and Space Marines! Traitor Space Marines! She was tensing to do something when cool numbness drew her in and set her down on softness. Whatever she had been given was powerful, her mind was fogged and all she could do was cry as the hand that held hers gave another squeeze.
"No, sister." The other was sad again. "Your fighting days are done for now. I estimate that the Fulgurite that scummy Inquisitor shot you will take at least a century to work its way out of your system. Until then, you are as vulnerable to death by many causes as any human. Combined with the blast and radiation damage, you will take a very long time to heal. Centuries at the very least."
Kay fought with every fiber of her being, but whatever drug had been given to her was too powerful and she was floating again.
"You have no reason to trust me. Many reasons not to, sister." What had to be a Chaos Space Marine was oddly gentle and calm. "But we will protect you now. You will be safe here. You will sleep until your wounds have healed. Then your brothers and sisters will ward you until you can take your rightful place at our father's side."
Kay struggled and fought, cursed and strained until one set of muscles answered her desperate cries for compliance. Her left eye opened and for a moment, she was blinded by the golden light that shone all around her. She stared at the dark form that sat on the edge of the stone basin she was lying in. The Astartes' armor was green, but not Dark Angel's green. He wore no helmet. She didn't know him, but she did. Somehow, she knew him.
"Hello Sister." Alpharius, Primarch of the Alpha Legion said in a kind voice. "You need to sleep now."
She was begging, pleading in her mind, screaming for her father as dark forms in green armor stepped forward to drag her away from the bliss. Alpha Legion Apothecaries! They were gentle as they bound her ruined right arm across her chest, bandaged the wreck of her right leg. She couldn't move as they laid cool things over her face, They left her good eye free. Then they lifted her out of the soothing pool. She was trying to fight, trying to do anything as she was carried through halls that seeped with malevolence. Her limbs would not obey her. She barely noticed through her fear that the malevolence did not touch her. Alpharius never released her hand as she was carried.
Please! Kay begged in her mind. JUST KILL ME!
"With so much Fulgurite in your system, you won't come back if any kill you this time, Sister." Alpharius said heavily as the procession neared a number of kneeling women in Sororitas armor. The markings were Order of the Sacred Rose, just like Lily. "I might have been so inclined. You have suffered enough. But Father commanded and I obey as I always have."
What? Those words stunned Kay and she was unable even to think coherently as the sisters rose and shoved something aside. A large metal rectangle that stood high enough to be entered. A dark hole shone underneath the lid and Kay felt new fear tear through her as she realized what the thing was. The Sarcophagus of a Space Marine Dreadnought! A Chaos dreadnought! Anyone who went into one of those went mad!
"NO!" Kay managed to scream into the tube in her mouth as she was laid into the thing. She was still screaming as the connections were made and the lid started to close, but then it stopped and Lily's face shone in her view.
"Not a dreadnought, a resting place. I am sorry, Kay." Lily was old. She looked ancient and she was crying. "My life is forfeit for the pain I did to you. I stayed alive in the hope of paying you back for what I did. Now? I can. You can neither forgive nor forget, but someday I hope you will understand. The Emperor protects and he will protect you as he always has. Rest well, Beloved Daughter of the Emperor." She bent down and kissed Kay's forehead. Then the lid shut and the machinery activated.
Kay felt…
She was…
The darkness she fell into was tinged with gold and it was welcoming, not terrifying. It was so familiar that Kay was crying again but this time in relief as her father gathered her up and held her close to ward off the nightmares that would hunt her while she slept. She fell into oblivion soothed.
Ten minutes later
Lily stared at Kay's sarcophagus as servitors was lowered into position amongst the catacombs. In appearance, it was exactly the same as the millions of other sarcophagi that surrounded it. It would take a miracle or the Emperor to find her there. The Chaos Gods had no way of penetrating this area, especially now. She felt her master coming but she could not look away. She hadn't stopped crying since Kay had gone to sleep. She couldn't.
"It had to be done, Lily." Alpharius said quietly.
"I know. She wouldn't be safe anywhere else." Lily dashed her face with a hand, but that did nothing to stem the flow of tears. "The Emperor protects, and I… I..." She slumped. "I am ready."
"Come." Alpharius took her hand and led her up out of the catacombs. The two dozen Sisters who remained in the convent had gathered in the main chapel. They knew what was coming. Most had been crying. This mission had been harrowing for so long, but the horror they had done to Kay had been the tipping point. They had all known they could not continue. And now? Now was the time. Alpharius released Lily's hand and the Canoness walked to her sisters.
"We have done our duty. The sanctuary endured and our sisters who studied here will spread our task across the galaxy. She sleeps in hiding." Lily said sadly as she knelt. "The poor dear will sleep until her wounds have healed. Then and only then will she rise to serve her father again. The Inquisition is coming along with many angry sisters. None of us can be interrogated. None can know our service to the Alpha Legion." She drew her bolt pistol and nodded as the other sisters did the same.
The sound of crackling flames heralded the squad of Space Marines coming into view. Each held a flamer that they were playing over the beautiful trappings of the building that Lily had called home for so long. Burning the hidden Chaos markings along with the holy ones. Alpharius stepped back, his face grave as his armor shifted. One moment, it bore the trappings of a Traitor Legion, the next, it bore the yellow heraldry of the Iron Fists, the Sons of Dorn. All of the Space Marines shone in yellow as Alpharius put on a red helmet.
"You will be remembered, Lily." The Primarch of the Alpha Legion promised the ancient matriarch. "Not just for what you did to Kay. Your sisters of faith and fury are spread across the Imperium now and not even the Ecclesiarchy can corrupt them all. When this war is done, if any humans at all survive, Kay will need sisters she can count on and your order will provide them. Out of shame, out of need. You will redeem your honor, sister."
"Our honor is the Emperor's." Lily said as she put her bolt pistol to her own head. Every one of her sisters did the same. "We live for him, we die for him. Hydra Dominatus."
"The Emperor protects." Alpharius and all of his legionnaires saluted in the ancient style of the Space Marine Legions as Lily and all of her sisters pulled their triggers in unison. The legionnaires turned the flamers on the corpses and in moments all of the dead were burning. There would be no evidence found here.
He turned from the pyre and strode for the door, his brothers at his side. The convent would burn, but nothing further would. The fire suppression systems here were second to none but the building would go up. No one looked too closely at the squad of Space Marines as they made their way out of the burning convent. No one would try to put it out. Not if Imperial Fists had set it alight. Not even a Sororitas convent.
"Should we leave a servo skull watcher?" His second in command of the squad asked as they marched away in formation.
"Not here." Alpharius replied. He looked up into the smog choked skies and shook his head. "They will not find her. She will sleep until she is healed, protected by the Emperor's proximity and anonymity."
All of the Space Marines turned to look at the massive wall in the distance. Even here, even now, the Imperial Palace of the Emperor of Mankind's walls shimmered. Holy Terra in all its glory and majesty.
As they made their way towards their planned escape, none of them noticed the golden form who stood upon the wall of the palace, staring at the burning convent for long minutes. If they had? They would have taken him for a Custodes, one of the guardians of the Emperor's throne.
They would have been wrong.
The transparent golden hologram was of a huge man with dark hair in golden terminator armor. His eyes were streaming tears as he stared at Kay's secret resting place.
"Again, my most loved ones pay for my hubris. Maybe someday, you will forgive me for leaking to Rashinos the information that you existed, Daughter. For making Cypher and his men ignore your pleas. For letting you be captured." The Emperor of Mankind's projection wavered as his focus was needed so many other places at once, but then it solidified. "We needed more of you and Rashinos was one of few who might have been able to duplicate what I did. If he had managed as he claimed to be able, Alpharius would have pulled you and any progeny out. Instead, that scum was a sadistic fool and you hurt yourself and then escaped on your own. You make me so proud." His eyes went far away and he smiled a bit less sadly. "All in all? It was better this way. Even with idiot Mechanicus messing things up, they did a marvel themselves, so I won't punish them but so much."
"I have a granddaughter." He shook his head and his psychic hologram faded out, but his words remained.
"Something tells me things are going to get very exciting around Georgia now if she is out of the convent for long and can start thinking about boys. Maybe a nudge here and there to see if your traits breed true? Maybe not. For now? Sleep, my brave Kay."
Where he had stood, words appeared inscribed in gold upon the stone in a obscure language that predated High Gothic called 'Arabic':بقية جيدا، ابنة الحبيب. انا اشاهد.
No one from the Imperium would ever know, but in High Gothic, the words translated imperfectly to:
Rest well, beloved daughter. I am watching.