Chapter II
Terana System, Southern Rim
Lord Inquisitor Marion had seen much in his life. From entire world turned nest of pestilent daemon flesh that screamed words of madness from light-years around themselves, to little children becoming avatars of terrible, dark powers capable of snapping in half a imperator class titan with the flick of a wrist.
But even so he was not prepared for the sheer amount of resources the adeptus was dedicating to the operation Second Born, as the intercepted files refereed to it.
As soon as his ship cleared warp space into the Terana system, a Ad-mech controlled system far in the southern edge of the imperium, he was greeted by a impressive sight.
Dozens of Mars-class battleships, hundreds of strike cruisers, carriers, transport ships, and other, bizarre vessels that he could even begin to classify were in orbit around the blackened, polluted ball of Terana Prime, oddly enough the only detectable stellar body in the system apart from the small white dwarf on it's center.
Leading the massive Fleet was the most impressive vessel he had even seen. At twenty-five kilometers in length and built like a monstrous, space faring bolter, painted in the rust red of Ad-Mech and sprouting countless lance batteries amongst it's length like the spikes of some hellish creature, the ship dwarfed even the battleships surrounding it.
That was not a simple task force, but a full fledged crusader battlefleet. The military might that the Mechanicus had committed to this endeavor was something that even Marion had hardly suspected they possessed, let alone be capable of mobilizing in such a short notice.
"Lord Inquisitor! We are being targeted by their weapons. Six thousand firing vectors are locked on us and raising!" Exclaimed the sensor officer, with as much emotion as was possible for a mind-wiped, psy-indoctrinated menial, which meant that the only thing that allowed to discern the urgency on his voice was the slightly higher volume than normal.
Marion immediately began barking orders left and right. He had been too confident on the cursed witch foul sorceries, and because of that he now was faced with the very real chance of utter annihilation. If Aeniss hadn't misled him saying that the message spoke of a "task force" instead of a full fledged fleet he would have waited for his reinforcements before proceeding to rendezvous with the Ad-Mech..
"Activate void shields! Start evasive maneuvers, and broadcast Inquisitorial code in every band!" He shouted angrily. "And send for the witch NOW!" Two of the storm troopers tasked with guarding the ship in case of boarding immediately left towards the sealed chamber were Aeniss spent most of her day, knowing full well who Marion meant by witch.
"You go first." Said Gorgue, trying to sound professional, as they stared at the thick, plated door to Aeniss chamber. In it was engraved the double headed eagle of the god-emperor , and a wide array of arcane symbols used by the ecclesiarchy and the inquisition for purification, mostly litanies to the Emperor in archaic high-gothic.
"What? No way! You do it!" Storm trooper training be dammed to hell, the last thing Rocky "the Brick" Alekien needed was to enter that Emperor-forsaken place.
"You bloody coward…." Muttered Gorgue lowly. "The brick" made honor to his name, and Gorgue was more of the sneaky type of guys, so arguing with the ridiculously muscular brick was out of the question.
"Okay, on the count of three?"
"fine" Agreed the brick gruffly
"ONE"
"TWO"
"THREE"
"FOR THE EMPEROR!"
ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzAAAAP!
Gorgue couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh, as he saw "the brick" sprawled on the floor, a rather menacing Aeniss towering over him with her hand extended, small wisps of blue energy floating around it.
He, like every storm trooper and non mind-wiped personnel that crossed Aeniss, knew exactly how much of a pain was to be hit by that. It didn't hurt physically, but it gave a hell of a headache, as well as some other, embarrassing side effects, and Aeniss was far too liberal on it's use.
So he did what any smart guy would have done, and allowed "the brick" to enter the room alone. The guy after all had the record for mind Zaps (as they called it) of all the entire storm trooper detachment under Inquisitor Marion's command, so Gorgue reasoned that one more would do little harm.
"What do you want?" hissed Aeniss. The damn storm troopers were an annoyance. They spoke behind her back; they lusted for her body and envied her powers. They insisted in treating her like some foul mutant, and she was forced to put them in their place. A little shock to their brain does no lasting damage, but it went a long way towards ensuring that they respected her.
Under the great shadow of the Inquisitor Marion, the crew of the merciless forgot that she was an interrogator, second in command only to Marion, just because she didn't go around making a mess of the hallways with bolter rounds.
Besides the purity seals messed up wither perceptions, and put her into a very agitated state. The dreams she had while in warp transit didn't help much her mood either.
Gorgue stood upright, his hellgun hoisted on his shoulder, and spoke in his most disciplined voice, which for a storm trooper was rather impressive.
"Lady Aeniss, we-" he took a glance at The Brick "-I am to escort you to the bridge"
Aeniss allowed her energy to dissipate, and went back inside the chamber. Picking up her psychic hood, a metal helmet that left only the lower part of her face visible and helped focus her powers and block off dark influences, she put it in place.
She left the chamber and nodded at Gorgue.
"Go"
Space tactics are slow, draw out affairs. Even in the 40th millemium, the physical realm is still bound to the laws of relativity, which means that without the use of ungodly expensive and rare technologies like teleporters, warp drives or sorcery, there was no way to do anything faster than the speed of light.
With weapons capable of effective ranges of millions of kilometers, a single volley of lance batteries could take minutes to reach the target, and non-energy weapons, like torpedoes, fighters, or kinetic rounds could take hours.
It was no surprise then that despite the impending doom looming over the merciless, there was a relative calm on the bridge of the ship. Relative, as in knowing that because of their very nature, it was impossible to actually evade a lance volley, since by the moment the light of the beam reaches the sensors of the ship, then there is a 100 chance that the beam itself has scored a hit, and with a battlefleet that size aiming at them, the first volley would vaporize the ship into nothingness.
That's why in space nobody can hear scream, not as much because of the void, but because, simply, death comes at the speed of light.
Much faster than sound, at least.
Aeniss had this in mind as he surveyed the bridge, seeing the menials and officers moving about in a deceptively calm manner. Of course, the oppressive feeling of fear and anxiety permeated the bridge, like a dull grey mist appearing to her psyker sense, and in the center of that mist, was a boiling red sun of wrath.
"Lord Marion, did you call?" she asked, taking position a behind the command throne of the ship, although minding a reasonable distance. No amount of psych power would help her against Marion…he had a fortitude, a strength of the soul born of hatred and war, of faith and zeal that made him hard to probe with her powers, and she was sure that if she were to unleash a direct assault on the man, it would be like assaulting a diamond hard fortress.
She had seen him stare into the purple maddened eyes of sorcerers mightier than herself and smirk in anticipation to the judgment he not once failed to administer. It was men and women like him who kept the imperium united, at the cost of millions of lives…whenever that was the sort of men and women that could lead the imperium to ultimate victory over the ruinous powers and the xenos, was an entirely different matter.
"Tell me Aeniss" his voice was cold and rough, spitting her name in a hiss "does that look like a "task force"" he said pointing at the panoramic monitor in front of him.
Aeniss was about to respond, but even her words hitched on her troath as she saw the full extent of the mechanicus fleet. The memory of endless nights pouring her senses over the mechanicus strange machine code came back. The code could be unraveled, but its complexity made impossible for her to discern the small inflections, the plays of word that would have allowed her to predict the sheer amount of resources the mechanicus had mobilized
"No sir…it seems my assessment was…lacking in precision" She said, in what in retrospective was a far too calm tone of voice. The schola telephatica tried to teach it's students to keep a tight leash on their emotions, but right now, Aeniss failed to realize just how much her calmness would irritate the already boiling Inquisitor.
"Lacking in precision…Lacking in precision…lacking in precision!" It took only a moment, but in a feat of agility that would have made an astartes proud, Marion turned his command throne, stood up, and made a backhanded slap to Aeniss with his augmetic arm.
The bridge crew was paralyzed as Aeniss fell to the floor, her jaw clearly broken and bleeding. A chilling cold began to invade the bridge, making all of the present shiver.
Except the inquisitor, of course.
Aeniss saw red. The power of the warp flowed trough her, filling her body. Behind her hood, her eyes began to glow with an unnatural blue light, and sparks began to dance around her body. She was not used to physical pain, at least not this kind of physical pain. Marion's blow had hurt more than anything she had ever felt.
Marion looked coldly at the witch in front of him, not bothered in the least by the aura she was exuding. Calmly, he pulled his bolter out of his holster, and leveled it at Aeniss.
"I had enough of you wi-"
"My lord, we have incoming transmission from the mechanicus flagship" Said an officer bravely, one of the non-mind wiped ones, reasoning that dealing with the enormous fleet menacing their existence was a more pressing matter for the inquisitor than his distaste towards Aeniss.
"Interrogator Aeniss, for gross incompetence, you will be secluded in your quarters until a suitable date for your execution is chosen." Marion waved at Gorgue, who took an Arbites shock baton of his belt and proceeded to use it on Aeniss, whose psychic aura collapsed the moment she was faced with Marion´s bolter and her imminent death.
Taking the unconscious psyker off the bridge, Gorgue left towards her chamber.
Marion sat back on his throne and signaled the communications officer to patch trough the Mechanicus flagship.
Immediately, the main screen shifted from the strategic overlay showing the fleet to something akin to a bundle of wires tied around two glowing spheres. The wires started to move, revealing a sickly pale face, the glowing spheres eyes for the strange cyborg.
"Inquisitorial vessel, you are under blockaded Adeptus Mechanicus territory in violation of the 65375R2 103-M33 amendment of the High council of terra regarding our autonomy. State your purpose immediately or engage warp drive to the provided coordinates. Failure to do so will result in extermination." Stated the cyborg, in a metallic, monotone voice.
"Negative Mechanicus vessel. Under Inquisitorial Authority, I am here to oversee operation Second Born, transmitting authentication codes now." Said Marion, sounding as calm and collected as a rock
The cyborg twitched for a moment, and there was a prolonged silence.
Suddenly the screen shifted, revealing a figure draped in a rust red cloak. The hood covered all and any features of the figure's face, save for the faint glow of augmetic eyes. Two mechadendrites moved lazily behind the cloaked tech-priest, while a servo-skull stared menacingly at the inquisitor.
"Inquisitor Marion, I presume?" Asked the figure. The voice was soft enough as to be impossible to discern it's gender, but it carried the same neutrality and coldness that Marion had grown to hate in the members of the Ad-Mech.
"Yes. And you will be?" Asked the inquisitor, impolitely. Marion was more of a warrior than a diplomat, specially towards those he disliked. And the Mechanicus was rather high in that, very, very long list.
"I am Fabricator General Tabris, director by the will of the Omnisiah and the high council of terra of the operation Second Born" Answered the cloaked man.
And if you had watched Marion carefully at the moment, the paling of his features was unmistakable.
A high lord of terra, here?
'Damn witch´ Was the only coherent thought running trough the inquisitor's mind at that moment.
Souther Rim, Uncharted Space
His throat was sore and his eyes were glazed over, his mouth filed with the unpleasant taste of bile as he rested against the cold ground. Never on his life had he felt so exhausted in mind and body. After realizing that his nightmare was real, the memories had assaulted him with a vengeance.
The term nervous breakdown was something that Naruto had seldom thought could happen to him, but it did. For what seemed an eternity he had lied there crying and cursing desperately as he remembered the horrors.
And he had lost all of his lunch when he was forced to remember his horrific conception.
Weakly he got to his knees. The forest looked odd…the first rays of light were breaking trough the dense canopy, but for Naruto, his surroundings seemed to be permeated by a dark aura, like a primal mist made to instill terror in the nightmares of men of old.
He stood up groggily after several attempts. There was a slight tremor, a sound in his ear that reminded too much of the mind shattering wails of the warp. Shadows moved at the very edge of his perception, to quick and ethereal to make him fully aware, but enough to make his already battered subconscious go into overdrive.
With the same care and trepidation he had used when he had first walked the shattered hallways of his soul, Naruto began to walk trough the ominous forest.
The taste of bile on his mouth was quickly becoming unbearable, and Naruto realized just how thirsty he was.
Past the slight tremor on his ears, he could hear the sound of flowing water not too far away. He stumbled towards the general direction, his steps showing little of the careful shinobi training he had undergone.
Then again, the Konoha academy never bothered to train their students in the ability to hear the laughter of the dark gods and not lose your sanity or being able to wield pure hatred as a weapon.
After a while he reached a small stream. Naruto went to his knees to take a ship from the cold water, but as soon as he looked at the crystalline flow, he stooped.
It was Him. The rapist. The Murderer. The Traitor.
His reflection stared back, and the rumor on his ears became stronger as it began twisting, dark, foul tattoos spreading in his other-self's face. A cruel lopsided smile appeared on the reflection, mocking him.
'This is what you are, SON' the voice thundered inside his mind like a sledge hammer, a voice dripping with malice and contempt.
"NO!" He shouted, punching the water.
As soon as it came, the rumor banished and the reflection in the water returned to normal.
"What…what is happening to me?" he asked to nobody in particular in a miserable tone of voice, holding his head between his hands.
"Naruto!" "Naruto-kun!"
Naruto turned his head to look at the two approaching figures, and despite all what he had endured, he couldn't help but smile gratefully at the sight of two familiar faces.
But the smile didn't last long.
Hyuuga Hinata was known for a great deal of things. She was the heiress of the Hyuuga clan, wielder of the byakugan, noblest of bloodlines. She was a chuunin of considerable skill and promise.
However, as much as people could say about her, they could never say that she had mastered her emotions. For experienced shinobis and even perceptive civilians, the young woman was as easy to read as an open book.
She stutters when embarrassed, she blushes easily, she seldom raises her voice. Her anger is implacable, but just as easy to predict.
So, it was no surprise to see the distraught look on her face, evident despite the slightly disturbing appearance of bulging veins spreading like snakes around her eyes, courtesy of the tremendous amounts of the power of the immaterium flowing trough her eyes.
She scanned ahead desperately while jumping trough the treetops, her eyes showing her everything around her, a power that was the one of the prime products of ten millemia of careful crossbreeding and eugenesic practices under the guidance of men from the stars.
Of course, Hyuuga Hinata did not know that, and even if she did, that would have been the last thing on her head as she landed at the shore of the small stream were a pitiful figure, covered in rags and dried blood was whispering to itself, head cradle between it's hands.
She didn't hear the sound of Yamato landing behind her as she noticed the blood stained blonde hair that the figure was gripping between it's fingers.
"Naruto!" Called Yamato behind her.
"Naruto-kun!" she shouted horrified.
Naruto let go of his head, and turned to look at them. His face was set in a expression of pure misery, of utter defeat, but he managed to smile at her. Usually, his smile never failed to send a fierce blush to her cheeks, but this smile was devoid of all of his exuberance. It was a small, weary smile that didn't reach his eyes.
And then she noticed his eyes. There was something unnatural about them, faint purplish and red slivers of light dancing inside the blue iris.
Suddenly, his smile was erased, replaced by a look of absolute fear, and then, his eyes lit up in a red burning flame, and he snarled.
"No! Stay away!" He growled and with a blast of red charka, Naruto sprung into action.
Petrified by the sudden aura of pure fury that Naruto was exuding, as he was shrouded crimson flames, Hinata could only watch helplessly as he leaped towards her, his hand stretched like a claw, crackling with red sparks ready to tear her apart.
Suddenly she was thrown to a side, as Yamato pushed her and raised a wooden wall to stale Naruto´s advance.
The wall buckled and blackened as Yamato held his hands against it, flinching as he tried to contain the Naruto´s onslaught.
"We will cleanse you! The black hand of chaos will never reach your souls as long as we draw breath!" Growled the possessed Naruto in a distorted voice that was not fully his own as the wooden wall splintered and he crashed against Yamato like a red bullet.
The two were sent crashing against several trees, destroying them and leaving a trail of crimson flame on their wake.
Hinata stood up, running towards them, and activating her byakugan. She staggered little as the aura of dreadful charka Naruto was emitting became ten times more brilliant, his figure lit up like a crimson star, bouts of red flame lashing angrily at everything around him.
The Yamato that Naruto had tackled brunt into a crisp, the smell of wood revealing it to be a replacement, while the real Yamato broke trough the canopy, lifted in a column of pure wood that Naruto wasted no time before starting to climb it using his enhanced nails, while Yamato forced spikes of wood to grow from the pillar to stops his advance, only to be burnt into nothingness by Naruto´s fiery aura.
"Naruto stop!" cried Hinata, as she saw Yamato being forced to leap from the wooden column as it fell from the sky, losing it's support as it was consumed by the fire that sprouted wherever Naruto sunk his claws.
However Naruto wasn't listening as he let out a cry on a strange tongue as he used a massive burst of red charka to push himself from the burning pillar towards the freefalling Yamato
Air bound and with a rapidly approaching Naruto, Yamato reached for a kunay, throwing it at the incoming kinchuruuki.
The red aura surrounding Naruto grew a whip like appendage, and batted away the projectile. Yamato, unable to use his techniques without direct contact to the ground, prepared for the inevitable as the blonde came face to face with him, his eyes blazing with mad fury.
He reared backwards his claw, to swipe at the man, and Yamato closed his eyes. But he felt himself hit the ground hard, yet still in one piece. He opened his eyes to see Naruto above him, clawing at thin air while snarling in a tongue Yamato could not understand.
"Leave them be! How dare you to prey upon the son's of Man in front of our eyes!" Naruto shouted in that distorted voice of his.
Hinata reached the burning clearing were the two had fallen, dodging the pieces of flaming wood falling from the sky and Naruto stopped his attacks at the air to look at her.
"EVEN HER?! NOTHING IS SACRED TO YOU CURSED DEAMONS? WE –SHALL- SEND YOU TO –OBLIVION-!" He snarled again, and then ran towards Hinata, shouting more words in the other, strange language of his.
Despite the pain he felt after, falling from thirty meters of height, Yamato was capable of standing up quickly enough to take advantage of Naruto´s lapse in focus.
As Hinata fell into a shaky battle stance, ready to attempt to fend of Naruto should he choose to attack her, Yamato broke into a sprint after the jinchuruuki, a slip taking a slip of paper between his fingers.
Hinata watched in horror as Naruto charged towards her on all fours, snarling ferally as with every step the grass was consumed by the fiery flames of his fury. She readied herself to fight him, but her limbs were shacking terribly, both from the feeling of naruto´s charka and for the sheer brilliance of his figure in her byakugan sight.
Naruto was about to reach her, a red foam dripping from his mouth as he seemed to fall deeper into whatever possession he was under, when he suddenly let out a horrid roar, his aura banishing and then he feel on a dead faint, a panting Yamato behind him as a slip of paper burned with a green fire on Naruto´s back.
"W-what happened?" asked Hinata, kneeling to check on Naruto instinctively.
"I don't know…" Yamato was frowning as he spoke. Naruto´s behavior had been more than a simple case of going berserker like Jiraiya had described his possessions by the Kyuubi "as of now this mission is over. We must return him to Konoha so Tsunada-sama can check on him" He said Yamato, picking Naruto´s limp body and hoisting him over his shoulder.
Hinata looked worried at Naruto´s limp form, but followed quietly as he leaped into the tree towards Konoha.
"…Naruto-kun…what happened to you?"