Felicia was awoken by a dog barking. As her eyes fluttered open, blinking away the drowsiness, she recognized that it was her dog, Bacon.
She groaned in frustration, looking at her alarm clock.
3:00 AM
"Ugh. C'mon Bacon." She shifted out of bed and grabbed her phone, flicking on the flashlight as she trudged out of her room. "It couldn't wait until the morning?"
The reasonable part of her knew that the answer was "no." Bacon was a great dog, but he'd forget he was having a nightmare and then wake everyone up with his barking.
Well, everyone being just Felicia.
She walked into the living room of her house, looking out into the backyard through a large sliding glass door. Bacon was growling and snarling at the door, his hackles raised.
"Hey, Bacon." She grumbled as she approached the back door. Letting the dog out to find that nothing was out there was usually enough to get him to calm down for the night. The dog whirled around and immediately ceased barking.
"Glad to see you too, bud. Big scary monster out there?" Bacon whimpered as Felicia put a hand on the doorknob. His tail tucked between his legs and he backed off from the door.
"Bacon? You okay?" She released the doorknob and turned to her suddenly frightened dog, patting him on the head. Bacon received behind-the-ear scratches willingly, but Felicia could still feel him shaking.
She turned towards the back door again, this time with a raised eyebrow. Had something woke Bacon up?
She stopped scratching Bacon, and the dog retreated further into the house. Felicia let him go, instead moving into the kitchen and opening a drawer. Inside was a black lockbox, one she opened and retrieved a handgun from.
.44 Magnum, more than enough to stop a bear.
She had her doubts about it being a bear, but having a deterrent was better than trying to outrun an apex predator.
She pulled the door open and flipped a light switch. There was nothing out there, both with or without the light.
Her flashlight swung around as she looked for a reflective pair of eyes. Nothing.
Grumbling to herself about a dog with overactive dreams, she turned back towards the house and re-opened the door.
She had almost closed it behind her when she heard the thumping. It sounded like someone was constantly dropping a wrecking ball into soft dirt.
All pneumatics hisses included.
The handgun was up faster than anything in her life, her phone dropped as she swung it around. Her heart leapt into his chest and pounded like a jackhammer.
"Who's there?" She called into the darkness. Her 'backyard' was mostly bushes and plants of various kinds, so anyone approaching was given the cover of trees.
The thumping only grew louder.
"I swear if this is a prank, I'm not to blame for shooting you!" The gun was trembling in her hands, her fingers twitching just over the trigger. The figure suddenly came into view, leaving the cover of his trees and bushes. The gun fell to Felicia's side as she took in the colossal sight.
At least twelve feet tall, the…entity was covered head to toe in what looked like extremely heavy armor plates. Their shoulders were literally steaming in the cool night air, with significantly more vapor trailing from behind them.
One hand was almost comically oversized, ending with claws so sharp her eyes hurt just looking at them. The other hand held a gigantic mace, the head of the weapon as large as her torso.
But the spookiest thing? The completely human face.
It took another step towards her, and she noticed its feet were dragging. Large ruts in the soft earth had formed behind it, leading back into the orchard.
"I'm…sorry." The thing said. A deep, baritone voice that made Felicia's chest rattle. In the sparse light of her porch lamp, Felicia could see a pair of blood red eyes and…tears? "Forgive me."
The colossus promptly fell face-first into the ground, his porch shaking from the weight of the impact.
Horus's first thing upon waking was noticing that he was most certainly not in the Vengeful Spirit anymore. For that matter, he wasn't on a ship at all.
In fact, wherever he was had a lot of farm animals and hay. A pair of heavyset bovines were munching on his 'bed', giving a lowing moo when he sat up from his resting place.
There were several other animals in the barn, though basically all of them were smaller than the bovines. His first deep breath was plagued with the smell of grox dung.
Or, whatever these creatures were called. Notably less pungent but no more pleasant, the animals seemed entirely unthreatened by him.
He couldn't bring himself to snap at them, instead laying back down into the massive pile of hay. The ceiling of the structure was simple and tall, heavy wood planks supported by hefty log struts.
The sun began to rise, light peeking in through the front door of the barn. He still felt no inclination to move.
His final moments replayed over and over in his mind. He had died. Completely obliterated by a furious Emperor. The crushing weight of what he'd done to the galaxy burned in his soul.
Would his father be able to save the galaxy from what he'd done? Would his brothers? So many billions dead. By his hand.
He was so lost in thought he didn't hear someone approach.
"Oh, you're awake." He looked down at the person who'd just slipped through a small gap in the barn door, sitting up again in the process. "Glad, uh, glad to see you can move."
They, she, was a rather stockily-built person. Even by a malnourished agri-world's standards, she was a bit short. Likely no taller than five feet. A messy head of fiery red hair and chocolate brown eyes. She also wore a self-assured smirk that he had never really seen on a mortal in his presence. Fair skin glowed in the rising sunlight, though it was tanned from countless hours of field work.
The mortal's complete and utter lack of fear indicated she didn't know what Horus was responsible for.
"I had to use the forklift to get you in here and out of the cold, hope you don't mind." Horus looked around, but found no machinery in the building.
"I…do not." He replied in a measured tone. He looked down at the star of chaos filth on his chest plate. Had this world not been touched by his heresy?
Most any mortal would know the star of chaos by now, so this mortal not knowing was…he didn't know if his guilt or his relief was greater.
"Do you know who I am?" He asked simply. The mortal shook her head and raised an eyebrow.
"Should I? I checked the news this morning, and far as I can tell no thirteen foot demigod terminators have been reported."
Ah, so the mortal recognized cataphractii armor. The crusade had reached here after all. It was a small blessing to know that his misguided vengeance had not.
"I suppose not." He replied simply. "What world is this?" It'd be best to know so that he might send a signal to his father. He deserved complete and utter annihilation. The mortal screwed up her face in concentration and surprise.
"Well, guess that answers one of my questions. Uhh, welcome to Earth." He didn't recognize the name. "I'd take you to my leaders, but I feel like they'd probably stick you in Area 51 and try to dissect you." The mortal chuckled, but stayed at a distance from Horus.
"I…cannot blame them." He replied flatly. "I deserve worse." The mortal laughed this time and pushed the barn door fully open. The glorious morning sunlight blazed into the room, warming his pale skin.
"Sure you do, buddy. Nobody who says 'I'm sorry' and asks for forgiveness when they first arrive on a new world really deserves to be cut open like a fish."
Horus had done worse, and relished it. He deserved at least that much punishment. But this avenue of conversation wasn't telling him where exactly he was in the galaxy.
"What is the astartes' presence here? Ultramarines? White scars? What section of the galaxy are we in?" The mortal froze and raised an eyebrow yet again as the farm animals all moved out of the open door.
"Are these 'Astartes' guys like the galactic police or something? Because I mean if you're trying to turn yourself in to them, I'm afraid I don't have them on speed dial."
Horus chuckled at the dry humor, his armor rattling slightly from the motion.
"You call me a terminator, yet claim not to know the astartes. I'm afraid your lie is…flimsy."
"I mean you're not the terminator. I'm afraid even old 'Arnie isn't as tall as you. But I'm sure you'd fit in a terminator movie. Maybe as the humans' trump card."
"What?" What? Was this world touched by the Astartes so little? They knew the terminology, and this farmer spoke high gothic with remarkable fluency. And who was this 'Old Arnie'?
"Right." The mortal flinched. "Aliens probably wouldn't have watched the terminator movies. Sorry about that."
"I am…not a xeno." Horus replied. "I am human, even if distantly." The woman whistled as she looked up and down Horus's armor.
"Well, can I get a sample of whatever they're juicing you on, then?" Horus barked a single laugh. He couldn't, wouldn't dare subject a mortal to the trials of gene-seed. Not to mention that the mortal was far too old.
That and, as far as he knew, it wasn't possible to do it to women.
"I am afraid not. And I would not recommend it, the procedure is painful and often deadly."
"Damn. Well, I'll let you stay here if you want. If you're hungry, I left a cooler just outside the door with some food and water. If you get bored, I'll be in the fields with my tractor. You can come watch if you like."
The mortal then disappeared from the barn, heading about her day's work. Now truly alone, Horus's mind was running at a mile a minute.
What kind of strange planet had he arrived on? They spoke, as far as he was aware, perfectly fluent gothic. Even the average citizen had at least some distant recollection of what a terminator was.
She had mentioned a 'movie'. Perhaps a local name for holodramas? It was quaint, but accurate in a way.
He reached out into the warp to see what he felt.
And found nothing. Not 'nothing' in the sense of he could see there wasn't anything nearby. There was, well and truly, nothing. No distant screams of a trillion tortured souls. No endless madness waiting around every corner.
The warp was…calm. Instead of a roiling storm of insanity and emotion, there was instead a form of…peace?
It made no sense. So he dismissed it for now as yet another trick of chaos.
'I will learn nothing by sitting here and thinking. I should ask the mortal more questions.'
He stood, feeling the weight of his inactive power armor around him. He was thankful for that, as the generators likely would've set the poor woman's barn on fire if they'd remained active.
As the armor was an extension of himself, he activated it with a thought. Power plants thrummed to life and he felt the familiar rumble of the engines.
Stepping out of the barn he saw the 'cooler' that the mortal had referred to. Delicately, he opened it after placing his mace on the ground. It would not serve him here, anyways.
Inside was indeed some water, which he gratefully drank. He did not need it, but it was sweet and cool. Something to soothe his dry lips.
The food was also unnecessary, but an indulgence he was no less grateful for. Some kind of processed animal meat cut into slices with sweet bread and tangy cheese.
All in all, a meal that he enjoyed far more than he had any right to. Perhaps he could finally make some more good of himself by assisting the woman instead of pestering her with questions.
He was not one to look a gift from his father in the mouth.
"Oh, hey big guy!" Felicia cried to the giant not-alien. She'd just gotten off of her tractor, inspecting a few pipes that ran outside of this field.
Internally, she noted that the giant looked bigger during the day, somehow. Maybe it was because she could actually see his whole body.
"Greetings." The lumbering titan said as he approached. "I felt I should not take advantage of your hospitality, so I am here to render whatever assistance I can. Though, I admit, I am no farmer."
Felicia laughed and slapped his armored thigh, turning back to the pipes. "No worries fella. Right now I'm just trying to sort out some water pressure issues. The pump is fine, and as far as I can tell there's no leaks in the line."
She watched the titan examine the pipe, looking up and down the field with scrunched eyebrows. His buzz-cut hair also wrinkled a little with his scalp.
Had that been there last night?
Shrugging, she continued to let him do his thing. At least it gave her a break from failing to find the issue.
"There seems to be a series of cracks on the bottom of the pipes near the pump. The pressure is high enough there that water is being driven into the ground like a knife."
The pump? But…that was over three hundred feet away! How could he-
Space age superhuman. Right. She was still wrapping her head around that one.
"Oh, great! I'll go grab the welder and I'll get it fixed up. You…" she trailed off as she realized she was about to treat a literal demigod like a farmhand. He turned to her with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes?"
"You can relax if you want. You're not an employee."
"Better a laborer than a prisoner of my own mind." The giant replied. "Please, I want to help." Felicia internally noted that he was a fan of melodrama. Or maybe he wasn't. She didn't really have room to tell him what space was probably like.
"Well, then you can help by being a good guest and not working. My momma would kill me if she found out I made a guest, especially one from space, do any farm work."
He went silent again, letting her go as he stared a hole into the ground. Hmm. If he was a guest, she was being a rather poor host even now.
"What's your name, big guy?" She mostly asked in the hope that she could stop referring to him mentally as 'the giant' or something similar.
Even if he kinda did look the part of Hogarth's Iron Giant.
"Horus. Horus Lupercal."
"Cool. I'm Felicia."
This coaxed the first smile from him she'd gotten to see. It was gentle and reassuring, like a big brother.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Felicia."
With that, she took off towards her shop to grab the tools she needed to repair the damaged pipe. Once she was what she hoped was a far enough distance to put her out of his earshot, she rolled his name over to remember it.
"Horus, huh? Egyptian god of war. What a funny name."
The repairs were quick and simple once she knew what the issue was. Horus practically stayed glued to the spot she'd left him in until she came back outside.
He watched her in complete silence as she repaired the pipe, and about halfway through she could feel herself getting self-conscious.
"So, Horus?" She asked as she flipped up her welding mask. "What's it like out there? Space, I mean." She practically felt the mood die. His expression didn't change in the slightest, but she could just tell.
"It was…beautiful. Humanity was on the cusp of greatness. Our future is…I can only hope for the best going forward. Emperor knows that the 31st millenium is…'' he trailed off.
"31st? Y'all use a different time scale out there?"
"Do your years not involve a 365-day rotation around Terra's sun?"
"Can't say we do. We use our sun, but the number of days is right." Horus looked up at the sun, his eyes not squinting in the slightest.
"You…you okay?"
"What year is it here?" He asked with a sudden severity. His eyes leveled with hers, his brows coming down into a harsh frown.
"Uhh, two thousand and-"
"Two thousand." He whispered. A thousand yard stare took over him, his gaze completely losing focus. "Two…thousand…Earth."
She placed her welding wand on top of the power brick and turned completely to face him.
"Are you high?"
"This…this is Earth. Not Terra." She looked around, her confusion and frustration mounting.
"Hey, big guy, you gonna let me in on the secret?" Horus shook his head inside his armor, returning to the world of the regular people.
"Ah-yes, sorry. I…I had not expected to be quite so, how to put this, out of time. I come from the future. The very, very far future it would seem."
"The 31st millenium, even?" She asked. Even though her voice was dripping with sarcasm, she found herself believing it. Why not, after all? He was already from space, might as well be from the damn future too.
"Indeed. I would elucidate you further, but it is quite a lengthy tale." Felicia rolled her eyes and flipped her welding mask back down.
"We can talk about it over dinner, I guess. I'll make sure to make extra for ya."
"That will not be necessary."
"Uh huh."
As the day wore on and Felicia continued about her work, even Horus's incredible mind managed to grow just a bit bored. He of course managed to disguise excusing himself as a desire to see what old Earth was like, and she seemed to buy it.
She had a remarkable resilience to his psychic aura, something he was, surprisingly, not ungrateful for. It allowed him to have conversations with her that he could never have possibly expected in his own time.
He also hadn't completely lied to her, as he did indeed want to see what the world had to offer. He couldn't remember getting here, only waking up in that barn surrounded by farm animals. If he were to be entirely honest, he was surprised he'd been able to stand still and watch her work for so long.
His massive strides took him quickly across her impressive plot of land. On any planet besides an agri-world, this kind of land-ownership would've made her at least a minor planetary noble. He could see no bounds to her land, nor any fences to indicate its ends. He walked up a somewhat tall nearby hill and couldn't see much in the way of other people, either.
Atop that hill, he could see everything.
A boundless expanse of green pastures and browning fields. The sun was still far from the horizon, but it was setting now. The sky was slowly becoming less blue and turning more golden red. He let the warm rays splash across what little exposed skin he had, his face warming under them.
He didn't deserve this. Terra was a hideous wasteland of technology and architecture. This Earth? Earth was a jewel. A brilliant gem of natural majesty beyond imagining. He was supposed to die by his father's hand. He had no right to see Terra in its previous form.
He heard (and smelled, though he knew better than to remark on it) Felicia approaching. She trekked up the hill next to him, coming to a stop at his side on the hilltop.
"Whatcha looking at?" She asked plainly. Horus suppressed a sigh. He supposed she would not find it as beautiful as he, given that she had grown up here. Hive worlds and desolated planets were uncountable in the galaxy, so coming upon a place like this was a treat he had never experienced.
Not even when he had served his father.
"Earth is beautiful. Far moreso than the world it becomes in my time. Every mountain is replaced with a building, every tree with scorched rock. There are more people than clouds in the sky." Not that it was saying much. Terra didn't really have much in the way of any weather. Clouds didn't exist there.
"Sounds awful." Felicia said in a similar tone. He turned to look down at her to find that she was looking up at him, smiling. "I started some stew last night, and it's about six. So, dinnertime. You hungry?"
Framed by the gentle rays of the sun, Horus was forced to admit that she had a kind of plain beauty to her. Something beyond the reach of the extravagant excess of Slaanesh. He almost wanted to reach out and pat her shoulder like one of his sons.
It was only thanks to the fact that he was still wearing his armor that he did not. She was also standing on his right side. The one with his lightning claw.
"I am not. As a primarch, I do not get hungry." She raised an eyebrow and the smile fell. She crossed her arms under her chest and glared at him.
"Really? You expect me to believe that someone your size, wearing that kind of armor all day, isn't hungry? Dad always said that the biggest guys eat the most, and I'm inclined to believe him. Unless you're actually really small inside that armor."
"I am not." He chuckled. The sheer contempt this woman had for his refusal to eat was, again, not unpleasant. It was…a welcome change. "Though, seeing as you are so insistent, I am willing to sit with you as you eat."
"You're willing, are you?" Felicia rolled her head and turned down the hill. "I'll be eating when his high and mighty majesty decides to join us mortals!" She called back. He watched her go with the faintest of smiles, something he didn't notice he was wearing until he looked away.
Perhaps he could've picked his words better.
She'd brought the stew out to the barn, knowing far better than to think he'd fit in her house. It was big for a regular human, but Horus was anything but regular-sized.
It was in a crock-pot for easy storage and to be kept warm, the broth bubbling gently as she scooped some into a bowl for herself. The aroma relaxed her, the sweet scent of rosemary and thyme filling her nostrils.
'Talk about a good recipe.' She thought to herself as the bowl she'd just served steamed in the cooling air. It was an old family recipe, using chicken broth for a base and paired with some sausage. If she was feeling adventurous, she could throw in some cream as extra thickener.
She hadn't wanted to risk it, though, on account of not knowing what Horus liked.
"I wonder if he even likes food." She wondered aloud as she heard the heavy metal footsteps of her guest from beyond the stars. She pushed a smile as she thought about the expression he'd been wearing up on that hill.
There was an unimaginable amount of pain there. She'd guessed from his general mood that Horus wasn't someone who'd lived a peaceful life, his armor an even more obvious pointer to that.
But that? She didn't even know where to begin with the heart-wrenching misery she'd seen in his eyes. He probably thought he hid it well, and to be fair he did the best job he could. But she'd been taught by her momma how to read any man, no matter how taciturn.
Was his version of Earth really that awful? She'd always liked seeing a city on the skyline
"Greetings, Felicia." Horus greeted as he entered the barn. The massive door was pushed aside like it was paper, the evening sun blazing into the barn. "That smells delightful." She did her best to ignore the flush that brought to her face.
She took pride in her work, dammit! She was allowed to feel complimented by the strange, scary-looking alien!
"Thanks!" The bowl was suddenly stuck into Horus's non-clawed hand, and before he had a chance to reply she turned back to her pot and got herself a bowl. "You can thank me for letting you stay for as long as you need by eating." She turned around and winked at him. "It's called good guest manners. I sure hope those haven't changed too much in the zillionth year or whenever it is you live."
Horus blinked as he met her eyes, the bowl of food steaming in his hand and remaining uneaten. Felicia quickly lost her nerve and returned to the pot, serving herself.
'What the hell was I thinking?!' She chastised herself. She took her bowl and sat down across from him on the dirty barn floor, but didn't dare to look up at him. 'I haven't even known him for a day! How am I this bad at socializing?!'
Horus didn't say anything, though she thanked everything that was listening as his spoon clinked against his bowl. A lot.
Daring to look up, she saw him glaring down at the tiny spoon that had been in the bowl, fumbling with the utensil while attempting to eat.
He was dead-focused on it, so he thankfully didn't notice her staring. He said something, though it was whispered so quietly that she didn't catch it. Her guess put it somewhere between a swear and a quiet grunt.
She reached up and grabbed the ladle from the pot and stuck it in his bowl.
"Better?" She asked. "Sorry, I shoulda thought that a teeny little spoon like that wouldn't work for you." Horus smiled at her, something she returned. "Anyhow, eat up. And if you have anything but good to say about it, I'll be hitting you upside the head with that same ladle."
"Hm." Horus chowed down, bringing the food to his lips and drinking from the ladle. A sigh filled the barn as he seemed to savor the taste of the food. "This is delightful. Thank you for your insistence." Felicia grinned triumphantly before digging into her own bowl of stew again.
"Glad you like it." She said between spoonfuls of her own food. "It'd be pretty embarrassing if I managed to make one of my bad batches on your first night here."
Horus laughed- actually laughed -and continued to eat his own stew. Was it necessary for him? Hardly, but he was already re-learning to appreciate the simple joys of life. He hoped it would not be too long before he could find some way to repay her for such kindnesses