Some time after much of the Eye of Terror was swallowed whole by a relatively unknown, unlighted abomination, the Emperor's chambers began to hum with a light that had not shown for over ten thousand years. The Custodians bowed and kept their tears in check as they saw their creator wheezing, struggling for breath, to talk, in that sad state, but happy beyond belief that He was reaching out to them for the first time in a long time, physically. In short time, the High Lords of Terra had gathered, including several Lord Inquisitors, as they answered directly to the Lord of Terra and wanted to be there to see this momentous occasion and had the right to do so, as well as the Fabricator General of Mars bringing several high ranking acolytes which were to analyse the Golden Throne. There was much hope, but also quelled by much fear. This could mean anything, from the Emperor walking again - even in this sorry state - among humanity, to him declaring the End of Days and asking his subject to prepare, to damn right croaking on them and turn Holy Terra into a new Eye of Terror (God-Emperor, that would be the third one already, right? Some would think the Universe couldn't take so many "births", let alone a mere single Galaxy).
"D... The... Darkness... is coming..." The God Emperor of Mankind, his name forgotten in myth, legend, history or not even that, croaked, ominously, for the first time in ten millennia. The Ecclesiarch kneeled and started crying, the Lord Inquisitors gulped, while the others present attempted to keep their reactions in check seeing their lord and master in such a weakened state, yet willing and able to communicate with them. It had been said that the High Lords of Terra only answered to themselves, uncaring of the Emperor's original will for humanity. While between themselves, they saw each other as humans and pawns, and only few strong enough of themselves, they all had the holy fervor of great zealots when it came to the Emperor itself. Let it not be said that ten thousand years had diluted the rulers-in-action of humanity's piousness. They knew of the Emperor and of his right to rule over the Galaxy, that He had carved this Imperium for them and that it was rightfully His to command. To even ponder anything different was for them to fall into the foulest heresy and betrayal, becoming no better than the Arch-Enemy Horus himself.
"D-don't... stand... in its way." The participants did not show their shock, although they knew they all felt it. The Ecclesiarch was the first to break the silence.
"That darkness over the Eye... is it your rightful vengeance over the enemies of mankind?"
There was a long tense pause, in which the Emperor stared at them, unmoving, back to sleep or to greater awareness, and no wheezing or coughing could be heard. Then, he finally responded.
"No." After a few more bouts of coughing, he continued. "There are... worse enemies... of the Imperium... of mankind. We're... we're losing... you see that... you know that... every side... damn vermin... xenos... killing us.. killing us..." He devolved into more coughing, then continued. "Had no choice... you know that... they would kill us all sooner or later... I hanged on... more out of reflex... couldn't let go... of humanity... just a little longer... just a little longer... didn't expect... reprieve... only it... IT... it came to me... more than listen... came to me and vowed... you'll know... soon enough... had to... would've went to others... if I thought they'd listen... they wouldn't... they'd destroy all we've built... turn us against each other... could never negotiate... with those foul... but this one... new... open to suggestions... though implacable... will stop the rest... the Necron... Tyranids... Orks... will stop... had no choice... had no..." He devolved back into coughing.
"No end of days." He said clearer. "No final battle. Even if it is, we lose. Only Chaos remains. If we lose here. If the Imperium crumbles. There was never... never a last battle scenario. THIS is it. You've been... been fighting it for ten thousand years... and losing..." He now breathed in hard, then out just as hard.
There was not much to say. As zealots as they were, the High Lords of Terra knew most of what was going on in the Imperium. They lost worlds without being able to reclaim even half of them, from all sides. They had reluctantly let the Tau and Eldar get away with things in the hopes that they'd concede to help each other with the true and great threats, each of them a more-than-equal enemy of the Imperium, that they could have probably individually been able to hold up with the abilities of humanity. But four? It was a miracle the Imperium had lasted ten thousand years, and it was in decline simply from exhaustion. More died than were born, and they were all limited in one Galaxy, while their enemies were extragalactic in nature in the best case of the Tyranids and universal in the case of Chaos, Orks and Necrons.
The final battle of the End of Days was their only hope, now crushed by the Lord of Humanity. Lesser men would have broken, but these stood stoically before their Lord. For the Emperor and humanity. They understood. They couldn't give to despair, to Chaos, to hope, to some upstart evil god, to anything. Because if they did, they'd just hasten their everlasting torture in the warp. That was the Emperor fighting to stop, even for a few more seconds or years or centuries or - they didn't dare hope - millennia? And they wouldn't spit on that. As long as they had to live away from the Chaos Gods' influence, they would as free, thinking humans and not pawns of extradimensional sadistic abominations. And if the Emperor thought that a deal with them bought them some more time, then so be it. They would follow him into Hell if they had to, for they knew from empirical evidence that if they wouldn't later, sooner Hell would follow them into the physical universe. At least they'd go on fighting and dragging those foul and for the most part untouchable by the warp xenos with them.
"My Lord." Said the Ecclesiarch from his knees, crying fat tears on the ground. "The... our Imperial Truth... did we do well... did we please you?... even if..."
The Emperor turned His eyes on them, a look that would scorch worlds, with a rightful anger and indignation that was waiting for thousands of years to make its way on his ruined visage. Everyone waited with baited breath for his reaction though. The Ecclesiarch was fully expected to be smited, but he would gladly accept the punishment for his predecessors as well as himself. They did the best they could for humanity, even if they broke the Emperor's trust and beliefs. He was going to pay happily.
But the Emperor's look of righteous anger - that which would ironically feed Grimdark all so greater - faded, and though he did not smile, he did not scoff either. "Yes," He lied. "You kept this Imperium strong and safe. You... did good, my sons."
The Lord Inquisitors looked at each other in this pause with worry. There was little to no possibility that the Emperor had been truly corrupted by Chaos, or his body had been hijacked. They believed this not due to superstitions that the Emperor was some all-powerful God. They had known for a while of the possibility that the Throne would fail and many sygils were put in the Imperial Palace to ward against Chaos, even under the Custodes' noses. In retrospect, they may have let them, a small concession to a group of people who also wanted the best for humanity. So if by an unthinkable power some Daemon had taken over the Emperor's body, clear signs of... well, great destruction would have been witnessed upon it. Truly, this was the waken Emperor with possibly the last message to his kind before the inevitable happened. Or who knew, maybe his last, and maybe not best, ploy would work. Maybe he'd be eventually able to rise again and restore the Imperium to its rightful place. They had to hope, in the name of the Emperor and not some other God.
He coughed again, those an almost playful laugh could be heard. "Maybe... maybe Grimdark has a point... h-hunker down... keep positions... keep what you can... Terra, Mars, Sol... some outer worlds... call in the Space Marines... call in everyone... Chaos will come... soon... be it Abaddon or... or the xeno... or even him." He paused for a while. "The Tau... forget the Tau... forget the damned Damocles Gulf... if they want it... let them have it... let them keep it... if they can... Armageddon... leave that cursed world too... too much blood there... Cadia's lost... Krieg... Krieg's earned their redemption... a long time ago... let them enjoy it... while it lasts ... Tanith... they've been good boys... to see them fall one by one... wish I could have... wish I had the power... they deserved to..." He wheezed some more.
A Lord Inquisitor finally found his voice. "What of the Eldar, Lord?"
"Nothing to gain from them... too set in their ways... too treacherous... even as they near extinction... along with us... still clinging... if they shoot us... shoot back... if they fight alongside us... let them..."
"And the Tau... make deals... diplomacy... talks... whatever you can get out of them... their tech... not dangerous... not warp-touched... will need failsafes... but manageable... hire them as mercs... give citizenship if need to... close to the end now... we survive for a little while... more... together... or die alone..."
"So tired... so tired..." He let his head rest on a golden aura that appeared next to him, his last coherent thought before he finally truly fell asleep for the first time in dozens of millennia was "This sure turned into an uncomfortable chair..." If he would have remained awake, he would have noticed a dark aura surrounding his spirit and stopping all the voices from penetrating his slumber, the raging waves of the warp completely muted to his finally resting consciousness. "Rest for a while... you deserve it..." Said a very dark voice that was surrounding him with its body.
Author's Notes:
Sorry for the relatively short chapter, but I didn't want to clog it up with any other parts. Even if the story is about Grimdark, other characters will relate to it as well, as is obvious. Grimdark won't be talking in words we can comprehend for a while now, or even for ever. That was for the Emperor's benefit, as a sign that it considered him an equal and thus spoke with his words. Otherwise it's just going to communicate through images and thoughts, as it has until now.
A reminder in case you haven't checked it, but Chapter 3 is updated with more background information, that I was originally going to add to Chapter 4 before it spiraled into Abaddon's personal chapter, in a similar manner as this did so into the Emperor's.
Edited for a few tweaks and also because I had forgotten I had put Krieg under Grimdark. Damn, Krieg was the only silverish lining in that whole chain of planets, now it'll sound even grimmer. It wasn't my intention, but that's how it turns out. If you have any more suggestions of other planets or species the Emperor should refer to, I might squeeze them into this chapter at a later date. Those that I mentioned were the most known and... controversial, and I'd imagine if the Emperor were to finally wake up for a limited amount of time and mention anything, it'd be a very sketchy tactical suggestion to the Imperium's de-facto leaders. If He hadn't mentioned Cadia and Armageddon as lost, you just KNOW several Imperial crusades would rush headlong into them, heedless of the price and believing in the result. This way, the Emperor cut their belief in any positive result and will have them regroup and mobilize in the core worlds much faster.
Answers to reviews:
Derain von Harken: Again, someone who understands. Not much to answer than that you have described the situation very well!
BIBOTOT: Thanks, but there's really no other name that comes to mind. To invent some alien unpronounceable name would feel like a cop-out. It was either God of Grimdarkness all the time (which sounds needlessly long and convoluted) or just Grimdark. And in retrospect, it's not such an unfitting name. Grimjaw for example worked and sounds cool and I didn't see anyone make any fun of it. Also, I don't really think Grimdark or God of Grimdarkness is worse than She Who Thirsts for example, or the Blood God or Great Deceiver for those who don't want to say their name. This is a similar case.
I'm glad you enjoyed the discussion with the Emperor, in retrospect his decision seems a little rushed, but then again, in the warp he had enough time to see all the possibilities, I just didn't describe it as well. I just feared that I'd get a nasty backlash for the Emperor making deals with Chaos again, and I'm glad it was (for now) unfounded.