I do not own RWBY or Warhammer 40,000, only my original characters.

Return of Faith

Chapter Sixteen: Beacon Assault, Part 2

Kara wiped away the beginnings of a nosebleed with her sleeve as Kress ended the life of Glynda Goodwitch. The schola tutor's lifeless body fell over on its side with a soft thump and Kara kept her eyes away from what was left of the woman's head. Manipulating the perceptions of a person like that always made her nauseous – even with all the techniques and training she had received upon joining the Inquisitor – and the sight of mutilated corpses didn't help her churning stomach.

Unfortunately for Kara, corpses were all there was to see upon the skydocks of Beacon. Huntsmen and students, white armored Atlas soldiers, Inquisitorial stormtroopers and even a few Astartes, all lay strewn about them in grizzly repose. The spiced, heavy copper taste of blood and viscera hit her, and it was like an Ogryn's fist punched right into her nose.

Kara fell to her hands and knees and emptied her stomach out onto the flagstones. She thanked the Emperor she'd eaten a light breakfast, and only retched three times before she felt the metal encased hand of Kress upon her back. Kara heaved, once, twice, but nothing came out. Throat burning and head spinning, she allowed Kress to guide her back to her feet.

"Well done," he told her simply. Kara only nodded, focusing instead on regaining control of herself and ignoring the lingering taste of bile in her mouth.

Heavy boots on stone drew the attention of both, though Kara turned her head more slowly than her master did. Chief Librarian Syrus stood before them, followed close by four Black Lions Battle Brothers and Kress' stormtroopers, who moved to take position by the Inquisitor. The blue armored Astartes regarded Kara for a moment, eyes winkling with bemusement or respect, she wasn't sure which, though she sensed it was both. She noticed he carried a plasma pistol, though she did not recall seeing him draw or fire the weapon, yet she could see the heat haze shimmering about its muzzle, indicating recent use.

"I've sent the rest of my brothers and the Battle Sisters ahead to take the schola," he said, then gestured to the four behind him. "These four shall assist in securing our objective."

Kara could tell that Kress wanted to argue that. The less of the Black Lions that knew their true reason for being here the better. But the Huntsmen were strong, far stronger than the Inquisitor had originally believed. Four Astartes had fallen in the battle, along with two Sisters of Battle and five Stormtroopers. This had been against teachers and cadets; Emperor only knew how many fully trained Huntsmen there were lurking in the schola or set to guard the Song's source. The Inquisitor would be insane to refuse the Black Lions' aid.

"Very well," Kress said carefully, before ordering a Stormtrooper to give him his canteen, which Kress then gave to Kara. She eagerly drank from it, thankful to have a way to get the taste of vomit off her tongue at last. "How are things in the city," Kress then asked as Kara passed the now half empty canteen to the Stormtrooper, who accepted it with barely concealed disdain.

"My brothers have captured the main government building, along with the city's ruling Council," Syrus explained, "They have been persuaded to surrender. Vale is the Emperor's once more."

"Praise be," intoned the four Marines behind the Librarian.

"Praise be," agreed Kress, and then Kara after a brief hesitation. With that, the Imperial forces moved out. Though the enemy had more or less been neutralized, Kara remained behind the Inquisitor, preferring to err on the side of caution rather than tempt fate. The stormtroopers and Black Lions formed a protective escort around the Inquisitor, Kara, and the Chief Librarian, weapons raised and panning for possible threats.

No sooner had they begun that they stopped as a distant but clear roar shook the air. Kara and Kress both turned, as did Syrus and the rest of their escort. The massive Grimm dragon was slowly losing altitude as its wings were shredded by the heavy firepower of the Astartes gunships. Building size holes in the crimson membranes struggled to regrow under the focused assault and the beast roared in frustrated rage, swinging its head and tail to try and swat away its attackers.

A Thunderhawk gunship flew past its head, launching a pair of deathstrike missiles into its face. The warheads detonated with tremendous force, and the monster was finally knocked from the sky. A massive dust plume went up as buildings toppled under its weight and a tremor ran through the earth. For a moment, as most of the gunships turned heavenwards to dock with their ships for refueling and reloading, Kara thought the beast had been killed.

The defiant, furious roar heard seconds later punished her optimism.

"Predator tanks and devastator squads are being diverted to deal with the monster," Syrus relayed to them from his Chapter's private Vox network, before resuming his march toward the main broadcast tower, accompanied by his Battle Brothers. Kress followed after him, the Inquisitor's thoughts focused solely on securing his prize. There was not a shred of concern for the warriors going after that thing. He either had absolute faith in the Black Lions ability to fell such a monster, or simply did not care how many of them died in the attempt.

Kara pushed the thought from her mind. The Black Lions served the Emperor, who's Will her master enforced. To die to further the Inquisitor's plans was to die in the name of the Emperor, an honor for any true servant of the Imperium. Instead, Kara focused on the Song. It was stronger now that she was on the surface. It was still weak, barely a whisper in her mind, but it could no longer hide from her, nor from the more powerful Syrus.

It led to the massive broadcast tower, at the entrance of which, a figure waited. He leaned lazily against the doorframe of the building and was clad in unassuming civilian clothes. Were it not his white hair or the two heavy auto pistols he carried openly, the only way Kara would have been able to tell it was Yole Lond would have been to read his mind. He frowned as they approached him, but a quick brush of his mind told Kara he was glad to see her and Kress.

He was also relieved, wanting to get off this world as soon as possible. Seemed that Remnant had not proven as much of a challenge as he had hoped.

The childishness of it made Kara smile with amusement, if only for a moment. "Tower is secured, Inquisitor," the infiltrator reported, stepping away from the frame to greet Kress with a shallow bow of his head. "When the assault came, everyone went running off to face it. Didn't even think to try and find the source of the broadcast," his frown turned into an irritated scowl.

"I'll find you a proper challenge when we finish our business here, Yole," Kress assured him, and Kara felt the man's spirits lift a little. "But we have more pressing matters at the moment. Kara? Chief Librarian?"

"It is close, my lord," Kara stated, hearing the Song clearer now. "Very close."

"…It is below us," added Syrus, his eyes closed and mind focused. "Beneath the earth, held between life and death… but there is something else. I did not hear it before, but the Song is… searching."

Kress' eyebrow raised beneath the cruel mask of his helmet. "What do you mean?" Kara too was curious. Even as she focused her mind on the Song, she could hear nothing that indicating it was looking for something.

"The Song is a call, Inquisitor, as your acolyte deduced, but it is not a call for help." His golden eyes opened and looked down at the Inquisitor. "The Singer has lost something. Something precious. And she is trying to call it back to her."

"'She'?" Kara clarified, to which the Librarian nodded.

Before the young psyker could question how Syrus had figured such a thing out, Kress asked, "do you know what she is looking for?"

"It is unclear," he answered slowly, "only that the Singer refers to it as her 'other half'."

One question answered only for ten more to take its place. What was the Singer's so-called 'other half'? How had Syrus been able to gleam so much from the Song while Kara could merely track it? Is this 'other half' dangerous? Would they spilt up to try locating it?

So many questions. Kara turned to her master and mentor, sensing his own mind buzzing through questions of his own. It was a rapid-fire stream of thoughts, hypotheses, deductions, and theories.

We stay the course, he thought, then – noticing Kara's attention – added, all questions shall be answered once we have the Singer in our grasp.

But what of this 'other half' she sent to him, should we search for it as well?

Once the Singer is secured, we will locate this 'other half', Kress assured her, we cannot split our forces at this crucial time. Do not loose focus on the task at hand.

She gave the mental equivalent of a nod of understanding and withdrew her mind from his. Kress then regarded the Librarian, "This is troubling, but irrelevant for the time being. Were you able to scry a way to our quarry?"

"There's a lift in the tower," Yole answered first, and all attention turned to him. "It has a hidden control panel built into it that goes underground, too far underground for it to be for a storage basement." He regarded the Space Marines with a slight wince, "unfortunately, it is too small to take more than one of you at a time, my lords," he added quickly.

"How do you know this?" One of the other Black Lions asked, his low voice made harsher by his helm's vox grill.

"I didn't say it was hidden well," Yole answered dryly.

"We must make haste for the lift then," Kress insisted, stepping toward the tower, only for Syrus to place a blue armored hand in his way.

"We do not know what lies between us and our objective, Inquisitor" he explained, "and the only known means of entry limits how many of us can enter at a time. Allow my brothers and I to enter first. We shall clear a path for you and your men to follow."

Kara could sense Kress wanted to argue. Before he could open his mouth to do so, Kara reached out with her mind: Let them go first, my lord, she sent to him, we cannot rush into this blindly. The Hunters are powerful and unpredictable. The Space Marines are our best weapon against them. Let them go first.

Yole added his own voice to the argument, though he was unaware of Kara's own efforts. "I agree with the Astartes, Inquisitor. It will be slow going getting everyone down there, and no telling what's waiting down there for us."

"…Very well," Kress relented, turning to the Librarian, "you and your brothers have the vanguard, Chief Librarian. Clear us a path."

With that, the group entered the base of the tower. The hololith of a woman flickered in and out of existence, trying to offer welcome to them. They ignored it, entering a room filled with cogitators and several white armored bodies. Bullet holes marred the walls and screens of dozens of cogitators, and several windows had been blown out from stray fire as well. Yole lead them to the main tower lift, revealing the hidden control panel and swiftly breaking its weak encryption code.

The Stormtroopers maintained a defensive perimeter around the Inquisitor and his acolytes as the Black Lions traveled down the lift, one by one. Several patrolled the lanes of cogitator booths, checking for any hidden threats lying in wait, but they found nothing. When it was time for the Inquisitor and his retinue to head down, they pulled back to the lift, entering it five at a time, not wanting to slow things down more than they already had been.

It wasn't until the last group had packed into the lift and the doors slid closed behind them, that a raven-haired woman leapt into the room through one of the broken windows. With a furious scowl, she approached the lift doors, counting off the seconds until she would follow them down and exact her vengeance.

~o0o~

Penny was sure that, if she was flesh and blood rather than metal and circuits, she would be sweating quite a lot right now.

The android girl was running through the Beacon campus with other survivors of the failed skydock defense. They were Academy students, none of them were faculty or Atlas soldiers, and most were wounded in one way or another. Some had to be helped along by others, causing them to lag behind as the rest kept going.

Built as she was, Penny could have easily outrun all of them. Her state-of-the-art carbon-fiber endoskeleton and synthetic muscle bundles already granted her the capability to outpace them. Enhanced by her Aura, and she would have reached the main Academy building five point forty-three minutes before the other students did. It would have been the logical thing for her to do as well. With the enemy pursuing them, it only made sense to get as far away from them as she could as quickly as she could.

But Penny did not do this. She could not bring herself to abandon these students, despite every logical part of her central proc- of her brain telling her to leave them.

Her heart told her it was wrong.

Her father had told her that listening to the heart was a very important human trait, one that always worked out in the end, one way or another. Penny wanted to be human, so she listened to what her heart told her and stayed with the group.

An internal sensory alarm flared in the corner of her vision, alerting her to incoming projectiles. Spinning on her heels and bringing forth her swords, Penny managed to intercept or deflect several small, self-propelled rockets that would have otherwise blown out the backs of the fleeing students.

The armored soldiers who fired them were charging after the group of students, their gilded brutish pistols barking with each shot fired. Penny managed to deflect several more of them, but she could only do so much. The bolts that soared by detonated against the backs of the students, killing four of them. Those remaining scattered, breaking off from the group and fleeing into every direction the powered armored invaders weren't.

Some managed to escape, but most were cut down by a stream of high velocity bullets as the boxy walker sprayed into campus with its massive minigun. The barrels glowed red from continued use and the air around it shimmered with heat haze.

As the clumsy but brutally effective machine tore through the students, its smaller power-armored allies focused their fire on Penny. She deflected or prematurely detonated as many as she could, but the number sent her way was becoming too much for even her advanced targeting software to handle. Even worse, her swords couldn't endure the punishment they were taking, one had already been blown apart by a poorly timed deflection and three more were showing signs of serious damage.

Her enemies seemed to sense this fact as well. They charged her at full speed, bounding across the campus impossibly quickly. They raised their chainsaw swords high, firing their pistols as they ran.

They would be on her in moments. She could dodge their attacks but was not confident in her ability to deal sufficient damage in melee combat. She'd have to try something risky.

Penny pulled her remaining swords to hover in front of herself and activated their firearm setting. A growing thrum alerted the invaders to her intentions, and they immediately broke formation, but they were a fraction of a microsecond too slow.

Three spiraling beams of green energy lanced into the squad. A black and gold helmet disintegrated, along with the head housed inside it. A leg was shorn clean off a soldier's hip, and another had his arm shot off. The leader – she assumed he was the leader due to his distinctive red helmet – had taken the blast directly in the chest. He staggered, then fell, the golden winged skull decorating his breastplate burnt away along with much of the armor itself. To Penny's amazement, he was still alive.

Due to their inhuman speed, Penny had been forced to fire at only a third of her cannon's total strength and had compensated by splitting the beam into three in order to make the most of the low powered attack.

She had never tried something like that, but it had been incredibly effective! One confirmed kill and three fatal injuries. Almost half the squad out of action. She would sure to provide the general with a recording when she had time for it. He would want to analyze this data.

The other invaders were not deterred by her attack however and kept charging. They spread themselves out, already anticipating the possibility of a second blast and adapting their approach to reduce further casualties. Their reaction time was impressive, she would give them that. With their numbers reduced Penny finally had a chance to get into cover. She bolted for a nearby archway column, doubling her speed the nanosecond she registered the sound of those terrible barrels spinning up. Penny made it behind the stone pillar just as the minigun opened fired, tearing chunks of stone and masonry out of the pillar and creating a cloud of dust.

In the time it took for the heart to beat once, Penny deduced the pillar would not last much longer against this barrage, she would need to move. Luckily – she believed this is what would be considered lucky – the dust now filling the air would provide the android with some additional cover, enough to put sufficient distance between herself and the foe. She hoped it would be sufficient anyway.

Penny would need to time it just right, wait for the dust to build up enough to- the barrage suddenly cut off. A new sound was registered.

StompstompstompstompSTOMPSTOMPSTOMPSTOMPSTOMP!

Eyes wide, Penny launched herself to the left just zero-point-five seconds before the boxy mech smashed through the pillar with a brutal shoulder charge. Masonry and dust went flying everywhere as the ornately decorated war machine brought the rest of the archway down. The two exhaust vents on its back ejected gouts of black smoke, like the angry exhalation of some wrathful giant. It turned to face Penny, swinging at her with its crude grasping arm. She backflipped out of its strike, then sent one of her swords flying toward the vision slit of the coffin like cockpit.

The mech saw the attack and rotated its torso, causing the sword to deflect off its heavy armored hull with a shower of sparks. The exhaust vents fumed again, and Penny saw the barrels of its minigun were all glowing an intense red.

"Vile traitor," The mech boomed, the pilot's voice augmented to sound like an avalanche of stone and old gears. "You taint the purity of this world with your betrayal. You will pay for your blasphemy!"

It charged again, trying this time to grab Penny. She jumped, letting the fist fly below her before landing atop its armored casing. She struck at the exposed joints and servos of its arm, but to her shock, only accomplished minor damage. As the mech adjusted to shake her off, Penny leapt again, this time landing on flat top of the machine. As it tried to shake her off, she slashed and stabbed at exposed cables and wiring, which was far more susceptible to her attacks.

The mech seized and juddered for a moment, and Penny wondered if she had severed a vital power cable or control line. Then the mech began to spin, rotating its torso at such high velocity Penny was thrown from her place atop its back. She rolled when she hit the ground roughly forty-five feet away, coming out of it in a kneeling stance as the mech came down on her again.

"I have not committed any blasphemy," Penny corrected its pilot, "I am protecting this school from your unprovoked attack!"

"LIES!" The pilot roared, bringing the mech's fist down where Penny knelt. She rolled to the side, sending two more swords to slash fruitlessly at the exposed leg servos. "You have corrupted this holy world! Turned its people against the God Emperor! The Black Lions shall cleanse this world of corruption! The Hydra will not have Mordellus!"

"Mordellus?" Penny repeated, confused, then gave a cry of surprise and pain as the mech's thick metal fingers clamped down around her body. As the hand started closing on her, Penny pushed back, using her mechanical and Aura enhanced strength to try and pry the fingers open. The pilot must have noticed this, because he raised the mech's arm into the air, his intent to slam her against the ground clear as crystal.

Penny's processor burned as she desperately tried to figure out a means of escape. Even with her mechanical body and Aura, there was only so much damage she could sustain before dyin… before shutting down. She couldn't use her swords or their alternative firearm forms, doing so would require her to move one of her arms away from pushing open the mech's fingers, which did not end well for her in any hypothesized scenario. Her only viable option was to break free of the mech's grip, but the probability of her successfully escaping before it crushed her into scrap was roughly ten-point-zero-five percent and dropping.

Penny began to feel something then. A strange… racing in her chest. The need to hyperventilate despite not needing oxygen to function. Was this fear? No… maybe panic? Either way, Penny doubted she would figure it out before demise. Her whole body lurched as the mech brought its fist down for the finishing blow.

Thoughts and memories flashed over her eyes for a brief nanosecond. Waking up for the first time. Learning how to interact with people. Meeting General Ironwood. Her first birthday. Coming to Vale. Meeting Team RWBY. Ruby Rose accepting Penny as a person rather than a machine…

That last memory had taken on a melancholic quality after recent events…

The flagstone path of the Beacon campus rose up to meet her plummeting form. Penny shut her eyes. She wasn't entirely sure why she did it, though. It merely happened. It was not like she needed to see in order to know what was happening of course, but the fact it happened at all puzzled her.

She wondered, if her remains ever made it back to Atlas, if her father might know what it meant.

Penny waited for the inevitable impact, for that brief blare of internal noise as her systems and warnings flared in her head before everything went silent. The sound of straining metal and catching servos suddenly filled the android's ears, the sound of her body breaking against the force of the mech's strength no doubt.

Only… Penny hadn't felt herself hit the ground…

Confused, Penny opened her eyes to see the ground, seven inches beneath her. She blinked, not understanding why the mech had halted its attack. Penny craned her neck to look at the mechanical claw holding her in place… and saw a curious phenomenon.

The limb, and upon further inspection, the entire mech, was enshrouded in a unique aura of faintly glowing, dark-hued energy that held the machine in place. She took a scan of the energy, the readings of which led Penny to deduce that it was some form of Semblance, but who-

"Get her out!" a voice cried out. Penny turned her head to see two students running toward her and the frozen mech, with a third standing behind them, her arms outstretched and hands glowing with the same energy as was encasing the mech. The two moving in were a male and female and armed with machine pistols and a grenade launcher respectively. The third had a shield and spear strapped to her back, too focused on holding the mech in place to wield them.

"Vile sorcery," the mech snarled, joints creaking as it fought against the student's Semblance. A trio of grenades impacted against its boxy torso. They did little real damage, but the force of the explosions, coupled with the mech's own attempts to break free wrong footed the machine when the girl holding it in place released her Semblance. The mech lumbered backwards, staggered by the attack.

"Ren! Zap me!" A peppy voice demanded, followed by the telltale noise of lightning dust rounds being fired as the male student fired his machine pistols at his comrade. Bolts of lightning danced over the girl's body but did no damage to her. If anything, the maniac grin she now sported seemed to indicate that she had either enjoyed the experience or received a boost from it.

The girl leapt into the air, her grenade launcher transforming mid leap into a large warhammer that she brought down on the machine's arm with tremendous force. It would seem the later hypothesis was the correct one, as the girl managed to deal significant damage to the limb, her weapon coming down on the armored joint section of the arm. There was the sound of bending metal and sparking wires as the pressure on Penny's body gave out and she managed to push out the fat fingers that had held her.

Penny landed on her feet, turning to face the damaged mech, calling forth her remaining swords, her mind constructing several dozen strategies to employ now that she had backup. But rather than press their advantage, the moment Penny was free, the two students turned and ran, each of them hooking Penny under the elbow to drag her off with them. This of course nearly sent them stumbling to the floor, as they had not expected Penny to weigh as much as she did.

"Holy crap! What have you been eating?!" The girl with the grenade launcher/hammer exclaimed.

Penny was about to protest, tell them that they should stay and fight. "We can't fight it," the male student stated before she could even voice her objections, "it's too strong and the soldiers escorting it are too tough to take head on. We'll die if we stay here."

As if on cue, Penny's sensors notified her of approaching hostiles. She turned, and saw the black armored soldiers running toward them, pistols up. The fired as they ran, with some of them stopping by the damaged mech, taking up a defensive stance in front of it. A blur of bronze and red flashed by Penny's vision as the third student rushed over, her shield out and raised. The bolts detonated or deflected off the shield's surface, leaving visible dents in the metal. She then hurled the shield at the leading soldiers, its edge impacting against the helmet of one soldier before ricocheting against another.

They were stunned only for a brief moment, for Penny and the remnants of team JNPR to escape the courtyard and the range of the soldiers' pistols.

~o0o~

The descent underground was quiet, tense, and claustrophobic. Kara, Yole, and their master stood crammed inside the lift along with two of the Inquisitorial Stormtroopers. Kara was pressed against Kress' power armored bulk, feeling like a piece of meat in a ration tin. Any movement was accompanied by the sound of armor clacking against armor and the muttering of agitated soldiers.

When the lift finally stopped, a chime sounded, and the doors slid smoothly open. The Stormtroopers and Yole rushed out, weapons raised, into a massive, dimly lit hall. It was an elegant space, with wood carved walls and marble tiled floors lit by the soft glow of light sconces affixed to the walls. A strange darkness shrouded much of the hall, concealing the high ceiling above as well much of what lay ahead of them. Still, Kara was sure she could make out turns, divergent pathways leading to Emperor knew what.

Furthermore, Kara noted how empty it was. Discounting the Imperial forces that had come in before them, Kara could see no other sign of anyone else being down here. No bullet holes in the walls, no blood stains on the floor, even the air was clean, untainted by the stench of ozone, gunpowder and bodily fluids that marked a passing battle.

The others took note of this as well, guns panning for expectant threats but finding nothing. Their confusion and wariness were easily felt and shared by the young psyker. Something wasn't right here…

She reached out with her senses, feeling the minds of those around her, and searching for any enemies lying in wait. The Song made this difficult, however. The psychic projection was much louder here than on the surface, going from a barely sensed whisper to a loud and clear cry for help. And she was certain it was a cry for help now, the emotions laced within its notes spoke of pain, imprisonment, defilement. Whoever she was, the Singer had suffered greatly and desperately sought an escape from her agony.

Kara pushed past the sorrowful notes, moving further ahead. She could see the psychic trail of the Song leading her on, toward a light at the end of the hall. Then she realized that it was not a light, but two. Two souls awaited them up ahead, the Singer, and someone else. Kara trying to navigate the psychic Song and see this other soul, to grasp their mind and develop an understanding of them. She could sense little of their thoughts with the Song ringing in her mind, but if she could just reach out a little bit more-

Get. Out.

Kara screamed in pain and fell on her back, as if physically pushed over. She curled in on herself, arms wrapped around her head as it throbbed violently. Blood trickled from her nose and white noise filled her ears. She looked up, seeing Yole kneeling over her and Inquisitor Kress looking down at her, his expression hidden beneath his helmet. Yole was saying something to her, but she couldn't make it out. The pain was too much, she felt like her brain was going to explode.

Something large and metallic pressed itself against her forehead then. For a moment, Kara thought it was a gun muzzle, but just as she was about to welcome the peace such an end would bring her, it began to fade.

Like nighttime terrors driven off by the rising sun, the pain that had been so doggedly besieging her mind was banished, replaced by something calm and reassuring. It was a peacefulness she had never felt before, unlike anything she could describe. Was… was it the Emperor's Hand upon her? Had He reached down to remove that horrible pain from her mind?

No.

As her senses cleared, Kara looked up to see a large blue armored gauntlet obscuring her vision. It moved away – the peace that had fallen over her mind going with it – to reveal Chief Librarian Syrus kneeling over her.

The Space Marine looked down at Kara, his golden eyes gleaming with power. To his side, Yole and Inquisitor Kress stood, watching both her and the Librarian with anticipation. "Acolyte Kara, are you recovered?"

Kara gave a shaky nod. "I-I am, my lord," she stuttered, and made to stand. Syrus held out his hand to her and helped Kara to her feet. She swayed and was forced to lean against her staff in order keep herself from falling over. "There is someone waiting for us, up ahead. I tried to see into their mind but…" she paused, searching for the correct words, "they resisted me."

"Psyker," Kress asked, but Kara shook her head.

"I do not know, Inquisitor. But their mind and will is strong. The moment they sensed my touch they pushed back. I do not know if I can alter the perceptions of such a being." She immediately wished she had not said that aloud. If she could not affect this person's mind, she would only get in the way once the shooting started. She swallowed the bile that was rising in her throat.

She saw Kress turned to the Librarian and his battle brothers. With the immediate danger of a possible psyker turning herself into a living bomb dealt with, the four tactical marines had taken up a defensive line at the front of the group, standing stock still but ready to move at the drop of a hat. The Stormtroopers had also moved on to the front, though a number of them regarded her with their fingers closer to the triggers of their hellguns than Kara liked.

Yole was still looking at her, his expression one of stone. Kara considered reaching for his thoughts, but resisted the urge, feeling that she should conserve what strength she still had.

Kress turned to Kara. "Can you still fight," he asked, though it was anything but a question.

Kara nodded shakily, gripping her staff as an elder would grip a walking stick and forcing herself to stand straighter. She refused to let herself become a liability. "Yes, Inquisitor. I can still fight."

He studied her, and for a moment, Kara feared he would dismiss her from the operation. Then, he turned and gestured for them to advance.

They moved swiftly through the underground hall, their Space Marine escort taking the vanguard while the Stormtroopers watched the rear. Kara didn't think it necessary as she had sensed no other presences in the complex, but better safe than sorry.

Soon, they reached their destination. The group stopped some fifty yards from the end of the hall, Space Marines and Stormtroopers raising their guns to aim at the individual waiting there for them.

He was, in many ways, an unremarkable looking man. He was clad in dark green coat and trousers, under which he wore a vest, and some other style of clothing Kara could not recognize that bore a jeweled cross decoration. A pair of small spectacles sat on the bridge of his nose, and he rested both hands upon the head of an ornate but simple cane. He looked no older than forty standard terran years, but his hair had grayed prematurely, and there were lines at the corners of his eyes, eyes that regarded the Imperials with contempt, pity, and determination.

It took Kara a second to recognize him from one of the many reports sent in by the twins. Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy, and an incredibly powerful Huntsman.

Behind him, Kara saw what she could only describe as a stasis pod, though of a design unlike any she had ever seen in the Imperium. The Singer was inside that pod. She could not see the body resting within its glass shell, not with her physical eyes at least. Her witchsight allowed her to perceive beyond the mundane universe and see the colors and tones of the Singer's tormented soul, kept alive only by the technology that held her.

All they need do now was extract the Singer and leave the reconquest of Remnant to the Black Lions.

"Are you proud of the destruction you've caused," Ozpin suddenly asked, his voice calm but carrying a clear edge. "All this chaos and needless bloodshed. Eighty years of peace shattered, and for what? A distraction for the true prize." His hands gripped the cane tighter.

"Spare me the theatrics, Professor Ozpin," Kress responded harshly. "Your people brought this on themselves the moment they turned from the Emperor, but I am not here to lecture you on your mistakes and failings. I am here for the Singer."

Ozpin frowned. Kara sensed confusion. "What Singer?"

Kress cocked his head. "Why, her of course." He gestured to the statis pod behind the headmaster, who wisely did not turn to stare at the unconscious women inside. "It was her Song that led us to this twice forgotten world of humanity, otherwise we would have never known you existed."

The professor's confusion grew, then hardened to resolve as he narrowed his eyes at the Inquisitor. "Ah, I see what this is," he said, almost to himself. "I can admire the dedication to the part, but you can drop the act now."

"Act?"

"Yes. Act." Ozpin gestured to the Space Marines with a jerk of his head. "Do you honestly expect me to believe your armored lackeys to be divine beings sent by some fictious god to punish Remnant? You may have fooled those cultists, but you cannot fool me." Kara could feel the fury and outrage pouring off from the Black Lions at the brazen rejection of the Emperor's divinity. The man did not notice it however, instead, he lifted his cane up and held it to the side, brandishing it like a duelist with a rapier. "I know she sent you here, not your emperor. So, drop the cliché holy avenger act and tell me who you really are."

The demand was not spoken loudly, yet it echoed like it had been shouted from a mountain top. Silence reigned for several heartbeats, before Kress broke with single word:

"She?"

He uttered it with unmasked curiosity and bemusement, his tone conveying complete ignorance to who the headmaster was referring to. Ozpin hesitated, genuinely taken aback by the Inquisitor's question, his earlier surety giving way to doubt, unknowingly leaving himself vulnerable.

Kara didn't waste her chance, with a thought she reached out to the headmaster's mind, using his uncertainty as a window from which she could breach his mental defenses. Kara had to be quick. There was no telling how long she had before he forced her out. Instantly she flew to his memories, intent on finding something in them she could use against him.

She intended to only skim his surface memories, now was not the time or place for a deeper dive into his subconscious. Kara envisioned the memories she sought as fish in a pond. Like a swooping fishing bird, she swooped down to collect the memories in her metaphorical talons and fly off with them. It was difficult but simple technique; one she had employed many times prior to her appointment to the Inquisition.

She sunk her talons into the symbolic waters of Ozpin's mind, snatching something. The image of a beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes filled Kara's vision, smiling warmly. An old love? A dear friend? The woman held importance in the headmaster's mind meaning she was valuable. Kara made to heave the memory out of the mental waters, her mind throbbing with the effort of lifting the deceptively heavy moment in the headmaster's life.

The she was pulled under.

The weight of the woman upon Ozpin's mind resisted the psyker's strength, instead yanking her down into what she now realized was not a pond, but a vast ocean of memory. A million moments, from a thousand lifetimes flashed before Kara's spectral sight, too numerous and too fast for her to make any sense of them. She saw a tower full of traps, then a battle in a desert, hordes of Grimm creatures, the bottom of a bottle.

Then, she saw the woman again, but changed, twisted. Her rosy skin and blonde hair had become pale as ice. Veins of blackness pulsed darkly from the corners of her eyes, which were now red halos in pits of oil. The smile had become a furious snarl and dark, malicious powers swirled around her.

She could not move. Transfixed by the sight of this once-woman, this daemonic thing, Kara could do nothing but sink further into the impossibly deep waters of the headmaster's subconscious. More memories bombarded her, pushing her even deeper down. A family, a crown, a sword, a staff, a lantern.

An antlered figure of bright light beside a horned figure of shadow.

It was too much. Kara needed to escape before she drowned. She surged for the surface, but it was as if heavy stones weighed her down. Even when she released the woman's memory back into his mind, Kara could not escape. Her abilities had never been overly powerful, she did not possess a mind of brute psychic power. There was only so much she could do before her strength gave out and she became lost in countless memories of the Beacon headmaster.

Just as it seemed her fate was sealed, something huge reached for her. Massive fingers wrapped around her body, heaving her out of the metaphorical sea of memory before forcefully expelling her from Ozpin's mindscape.

Her astral form was thrown back into her physical body, and she collapsed to the ground, blood running from her nose and her head swimming. Her eyes were impossibly heavy, and her heartbeat thudded loudly in her ears. She could feel something warm trickle from her nose and eyes. Tears? Mucus? Blood? She didn't care, Kara was just relieved to have survived that bottomless abyss of a mind.

Kara watched as the Space Marines and Stormtroopers fired their weapons but could not hear their discharges. They impacted harmlessly against a barrier of green energy that Kara did not remember seeing there before. Had the headmaster summoned it? Was it a psychic projection or a form of native technology? These questions pained her already overtaxed mind and she banished them. As it became more and more difficult for her eyes to stay open, Kara saw Syrus charge forward. The Black Lions' Chief Librarian threw out his gauntleted hand, conjuring a bolt of psychic lightning that arced violently toward the Headmaster's barrier.

It struck hard, stabbing cracks into the green barrier, and giving Syrus time to reach the Headmaster. Kara tried to keep her eyes open, to watch this battle unfold, but it was a losing fight.

Before she was pulled down into unconsciousness, Kara watched the Chief Librarian swing his force staff at the strange barrier, followed by a blinding light as it connected.

Then, Kara saw only blackness.

~o0o~

Author's Note:….. This took me WAY too fucking long… I am sorry for the weight for what is a subpar chapter guys, I truly am. It's been a busy few months for me and with it being summer, I find myself feeling drained and used up way more often, especially after 8 hours of heavy lifting. Furthermore, this chapter was a lot harder for me to write than I was expecting it to be, especially the last part. I wasn't planning on ending it like that, hell, I wasn't even sure HOW to start it for a while. Its one of those moments you can't wait to get to but once you reach it, your like… 'fuck, now what?' It didn't help that the way it ended up coming out made me feel it needed to take up multiple scenes, hence the cruel cliffhanger I gave you guys.

I did have a blast writing the dreadnought scene, however. That one got finished really fast.

Again, sorry it took so long. Probably doesn't feel worth the wait either huh? Still, thank you for sticking around despite how long its been taking me as of late. I really appreciate it.

As always, please Fav, Follow, and Review! Thank you!

DeadRich18 Out!