**Author's note: Giant revelation chapter, and updates will be slow for awhile. Still doing the rewrite while also trying to keep my housing. Thank you all for reading!**
Darkness overwhelmed him, and the consuming power of the xenos crippled his systems. The Archmagos found himself thrown into a strange hallucinatory location, which he presumed was somewhere within his mind.
Distantly, Null knew that his body was now being controlled by a will that was not his own, and he felt a flicker of a vision of his body reeling and struggling near the green energy crystal, which shimmered with a bright emerald light against the surrounding empty glass coffins of the large round engine room.
Back inside his mind, Null stood quickly, swaying on unsteady metal knees inside his own dreamscape. He was bleary and slightly disconnected from the ballast of sanity by nature of being present here, but the Archmagos was able to recognize that he had been here before. This dreamscape resembled a flawed reconstruction of one of the old abandoned Martian storage vaults hidden deep within the red planet. These were forbidden places of cold, dusty dark metal where no living creature would walk for centuries (or even millennia, in some cases) at a time.
His inexact (and admittedly spotty) memory had reconstructed this location to appear like an old warehouse more commonly used by more conventional fleshlings, but its purpose remained that of an area of secure storage, and a place where forbidden tech was stored. Within this space, the ceilings were tall, and large decrepit shelves leaned against the walls like crippled men. Strongboxes, locked chests, and all manner of hermetically sealed containers were messily strewn about on both the shelves, and on the floor. There was an air of devastation here, almost as if an earthquake had struck. The lighting flickered between green and red, giving this dreamscape an especially dangerous feel this time around.
Back in the real world, Null heard himself speak in an alien voice to the Inheritor in a threatening manner. Before his awareness was pulled back to the dream warehouse, the Archmagos then heard the blast doors slam shut, essentially trapping him in here with the vulnerable energy crystal.
Mentally, Null struggled against the invading force, but found himself utterly unable to return to the conscious world. Instead, the Archmagos began to further study the constructed dreamscape he found himself trapped within. Most of this large space was decrepit Martian storage, and now he noticed that there were dataslates, wrecked cogitators, and even mundane scrolls strewn about here and there among the messily organized storage containers. This was similar to the spaces that he had explored deep within Mars with Nimmie Amee in his youth. Curious, he picked up a cracked dataslate, and discovered a partially corrupted text file that described a being of incredible divine power known as "Red Voice." Quickly reading what he could of the file, Null then saw an instruction that seemed to be written to him!
"You must unlock the vault, loyal son! Remember that which has been forgotten, and escape this land!" a flashing line of binharic code communicated to him before the dataslate sparked and exploded into useless scrap in his hands.
The Archmagos' attention was then drawn to a shining area on the wall of this warehouse. With a blink, he found himself instantly standing before a very tall and heavy locked door of solid metal. It appeared to be a sealed circular vault with a heavy round portal at least twice his height. Beside the barrier, Null noted a small keypad, which glowed somewhat enticingly. Adjacent to the locked vault, a secure group of locked filing containers containing some of Null's conscious memories stood nearby. Paying little mind to the locked boxes, the Archmagos found himself extremely curious as to what was inside the mighty sealed vault, and extended his gold hand toward it. Something within him demanded that he uncover the secrets hidden deep within. Curiosity had always gotten him into trouble, really...
As he stared at the heavy vault door, the Archmagos' body began to shake, and then, Null found himself back inside his body and conscious mind. Here, he was made strangely aware of the clear stasis box in one of his hands, the one that contained his portrait before his modifications. Sensing the Archmagos' will assert himself, the invading presence again assailed Null's consciousness with a wave of furious energy. While he struggled against this force, an intuition struck Null, and he committed the code on the back of his portrait to memory before being pulled forcefully back to the dreamscape by the fearsome alien presence.
Back inside the warehouse, a warmth at Null's waist distracted him from his struggle, and he felt that his belt was glowing once again. The longer he wore it, the longer it was beginning to feel like a piece of him, which now greatly disturbed the Archmagos. After he had opened the secret room at the base of the pylon, Nimmie Amee had warned him of what this belt could possibly be, and it had chilled him deep within every piece of his metal to hear. It was so awful that he had even shouted at his beloved in his denial, but now, deep in the landscape of his subconscious, Null was beginning to consider that she may have been correct.
Could it truly be a C'tan shard, Null thought as he raked his metal fingers across the welded joints of the belt in a vain attempt to remove it. The Archmagos had no direct experience with such rare and destructive creatures, and to theorize that one was now trapped in a belt that was now also melded onto his body was a frightening revelation! Nimmie had theorized that only high-potency Necron tech or the might of a C'tan shard was truly potent enough to cause any kind of change in the blackstone pylon. Whoever had first closed the room had been in possession of the same tech, and so therefore, it had been theorized that the pylon had simply reacted to a similar energy source when he had come within close proximity.
And so, at the very least, this was high-end and dangerously unknown Necron technology, or a damned C'tan shard...
Thinking forward, this had another chilling ramification, as it now appeared that the traitorous governor Langwidere had also been able to open the pylon to gain access to the minefield controls, and Nimmie Amee's physical body. This meant that the Fabricator-General's daughter had been dabbling in dangerous heretical sciences, and was likely far more dangerous than anyone had previously known!
Hearing the sound of scraping metal, Null realized then that he was no longer alone. The Archmagos turned about, stepping away from the vault. Ahead, he witnessed a swarm of skittering metal alien scarabs crawling en mass toward him through the dream warehouse! Each little mechanical beast was about the size of his head, and had many spindly insectoid legs of dark metal, and blinking green lights for eyes. Bracing himself once again for the conflict that would happen inside his mind, the Archmagos withdrew his arc scourge, and struck the floor before him threateningly with a mighty crack. These were the same metal insects that had threatened to consume his mind when he had experienced his brush with death after Nubua!
Unlike the last time he had been mentally compromised, the chittering mass did not seem to be interested in overwhelming him with brute force. Perplexed, Null watched curiously as the scarabs briefly surrounded him in a chittering ring before they all began to pile sickeningly upon one another like hungry rats, forming some sort of amorphous column of spindly legs and metal. The scarabs then began to liquify, and the shape grew tall, easily towering over the Archmagos. Within a few moments, the shape became humanoid, and then, an alien silhouette shaped itself into existence as if from the invisible hands of a sculptor. The coalescing figure stood before the locked filing cabinets, and it appeared to be tugging upon them, paying no mind that the Archmagos was standing beside him.
Even though it apparently had its back to him, Null could now tell that this creature was a Necron, and a very distinctive one at that. It was very tall and very thin, and it stood stooped over what appeared to be a paper filing cabinet as its physical body came further into focus. It, (or rather, he) hummed to himself as he began to rifle through one of the filing cabinets that lined the wall adjacent to the vault after forcing it open. The alien still did not appear to be aware of Null's presence.
After a few moments of searching, the xenos became annoyed. "Useless information," the Necron muttered in a metal alien voice while he closed the filing cabinet with a slam, his body still positioned with his back to Null. The xenos then walked over to large locked vault Null had seen earlier, and began to prod ineffectually at the keypad with irritation. The alien mumbled to himself in a cooing, almost appreciative voice. "Impressive security! Most impressive! The alien thief hides his mind from me, yes. Intelligent! Maybe even useful? Maybe an opportunity?"
Null held his scourge in his gold hand, preparing himself for symbolic battle against the intruder that was assaulting his mind. A spark raced down one of the lengths of the charged weapon with an electric crackle. This noise caused the stooping metal creature to pause his rummaging, but he did not yet turn to face the Archmagos. "Ah, you're here, thief! I've found you! You have fled deep within your mind! But, since you are in possession of a stolen shard of the Sleeper, Rza'Thae, you cannot truly hide, and I can easily interface with you from a distance!"
"You failed to conquer me before, and you will fail once again. You will be destroyed. The holy will of the Machine God flows through me!" Null exclaimed bravely, refusing to be intimidated. He was a true follower of the Omnissiah, and he knew not to concede to the wickedness of xenos.
"No, I don't think so, former human," the creature replied in a deep obscene voice. The Necron then slowly turned about, straightened up, and stepped forward so that he could be seen.
The familiar alien stood tall over the Archmagos, his eyes blazing green with contempt edged with a hint of instability. He wore a distinctive sharp jeweled metal crown that added a hand's length above his bald head, and a long scaled cape of what appeared to be ruby plates fell from his shoulders to land behind his knees. A staff topped with a glowing orb appeared in a sharp-fingered skeletal hand. Across his entire body, gleaming emeralds and other gemstones were implanted in the alien's metal flesh; they sparkled in the surreal red and green light of the manufactured warehouse within Null's subconscious.
This was the very same alien that had invaded his circuits back on Kolch! And, apparently the same one who had attempted to remotely tear into his mind after his near death experience on Nubua.
Before him stood a representation of Roquat the Red, the mad Nome King of the Tomb World of Kolch, Overlord of the eccentric Nomes.
The alien then seemed to relax, and shook his head before speaking. "Ah, but I am forced to commend your willpower, former human. To stand up to the power of the shard means you have a formidable constitution. Since your memories are not being immediately forthcoming, tell me who you are, little thief, and why you felt the need to steal my shard of Rza'Thae. Before I destroy you, your friends, and your vessel, let's have a nice chat! I believe that I am owed an explanation as to why you and your wicked crew assaulted myself, my Tomb World, and my people with Gir'Auda."
"I don't owe you any explanation, xenos," the Archmagos snapped. Null's metal shivered, but he was able to hold his ground before the metal fiend. The alien grinned in a mad way that none of the abhorrent cold Necron race ever could emote. The Archmagos held his arc scourge in his gold hand, and stood his ground. While the Omnissiah had intervened personally to save him once before, but he did not think that he would be so lucky this time, but he had to be strong!
"Brave you are indeed for not falling to pieces against my might!" Roquat laughed, his voice hollow like the choke of a dying engine. "Perhaps your bravery extends from the fact that you know not the danger of what I wield, and what I use against you?"
"And what is that, xenos?" Null bristled, and continued to hold his ground. "Do tell me then. What is this 'shard of the Sleeper' you speak of? If I'm about to die anyway, I'd rather die in knowing."
The Necron king laughed heartily again, even pitching his crowned head back. "You must be joking! Did you truly steal a C'tan shard under the assumption that it was a simple bauble?" The xenos swung his glowing staff near to Null, and the Archmagos noticed that the two artifacts glowed. Intuitively, he sensed that they both hungered to be together!
So it was true, Null observed with fright. He was melded to an artifact that imprisoned a C'tan shard! One of his hands grazed the artifact that glowed around his midsection in reactive horror.
Roquat the Red smiled poisonously from above when he recognized Null's fear. The room then shook as though experiencing a small earthquake, and the alien continued to grin madly. "I see you're frightened, little one. Frightened of the power clinging to your body, and frightened of me invading your mind! Through your surface thoughts, I can at least recognize that you're quite intelligent for those of your race. Outside, and in your body, I am presently moving you into position to destroy my stolen energy crystal. The explosion, my Crypteks have estimated, will either cripple your vessel, or even destroy it outright. I won't even need to use my cannon! Destroying your legendary vessel appears to be quite easy thanks to your act of stealing my shard."
"Then why not kill me right now?" Null defiantly inquired of the Nome King. "You would not be engaging in conversation unless you wanted something."
"Very perceptive! Yes, I suppose do!" the xenos happily clapped his metal hands. The Nome King paused thoughtfully, and shifted his weight. He made a thoughtful noise, and then, nodded. "So, I like to consider myself a reasonable fellow, one who enjoys a broad and healthy spectrum of emotions due to my vivacious soul. While I'm not happy that you have stolen from me, I've decided offer you both forgiveness, and a job, little one. After meeting with a very nice human Space Marine fellow, I've decided that we Nomes need an emissary to carry our words to the alien races of the galaxy now that we've been awoken. Unlike much of my kin, I recognize having a representative of another race to act as a go between for us and your humans may be good for us. You may not be completely human, but you're close enough!"
"You want to recruit me?" Null asked the monster dubiously. The thought was absolutely disgusting, and the Archmagos immediately dismissed it, but he decided to keep the alien talking for now in hopes that it would display a weakness he could exploit.
"Indeed I do, former human," the Nome King continued to smile madly down at him. The xenos then raised a metal finger, and tapped his jaw thoughtfully. "Yes. I believe you have worth! Perhaps I will not destroy the energy cell with your hand, and I allow you and your vessel to survive, at least for a short enough time so that I can retrieve you via teleportarium. Someone like you could live richly among us." The Nome King then swirled his ruby cape dramatically about him. "I and my people are the wealthiest and most luxurious Necrons in existence! We hold superior technologies humankind cannot even conceive, and we have a certain... process, I should say, that can even grant you immortality!"
"I have my loyalties," Null responded sternly, not even considering this repulsive offer, but still keeping the xenos talking. Distantly, through his physical body, the Archmagos could hear the sound of heavy bootsteps striking metal, and the sliding of heavy doors. The Inheritor had sent Lian to stop him, and he was nearly here. Good. "What would happen to my crew?"
"They would all die, of course!" the Nome King smiled. "I have no use for those fools. Do consider my offer. I think it's more than fair, considering how much damage you and your nasty crew has done to me and my world. I'm being more than gracious here."
Null stalled further, and then, slowly nodded, falsely accepting the xenos' offer. The Nome King clapped his hands giddily. The Archmagos strained in an attempt to regain control of his body, but all he could recognize was the sound of an Astartes charging down metal corridors and opening doors to get to him.
The Nome King did not notice Null's struggle, and continued to speak. "Now, I'm sure you're a good former human and that you're not trying to deceive me, so I need you to do one more miniscule thing for me so I know that you're telling the truth," the Necron purred. The Archmagos found himself facing the vault once again, and Roquat motioned him forward to the keypad. "Willfully drop the barriers of your mind. I wish to see your secrets so I can know you!"
A whisper passed through the Archmagos' mind, and once again, he remembered the words "You must unlock the vault, loyal son! Remember the past, and escape this land!" Null gripped his scourge again, and clenched his jaw beneath his facial implants.
"And don't think of doing anything stupid, former human. I won't hesitate to snuff your consciousness out should I need to, but I'd rather not, because you're intriguing! I'd prefer you come to my side! Think of it! All the treasures of the galaxy, the wealth of an immortal eternity, the boundless advances of our unique technology! This will all be at your disposal for you if you join me!" the Nome King announced before snapping his metal fingers. At this motion, another swarm of scarabs appeared from the corners of the warehouse, and began to surround their meeting. The message was definitely clear, Null observed sadly. If he refused to join the Nome King, he would be destroyed.
After stalling a moment, the Archmagos walked forward. The scarab swarm chittered with evil hunger nearby, and the Nome King gestured ahead once again, motioning where he wanted Null to go. The Archmagos now stood trembling before the secure vault, and the stack of locked filing boxes. Somehow, he knew that if he were to open the filing containers, he would be exposing his consciousness to the hated Nome King, but if he opened the alluring vault, he would be opening a different unknown door in his mind, one that both frightened and intrigued him.
Back in his body, Null distantly sensed that he still clutched the clear stasis box in one of his hands, even causing a crack to arc across its surface in his tight grip. Lian was growing closer, and now stood at the blast door to the engine room, which was slowly being opened.
There was little time, Null realized as Lian grew closer. It then dawned on the Archmagos that it was likely that the Fallen had been commanded to execute him for this magnitude of betrayal and corruption. The xenos within his mind was growing stronger, and he could not allow it to completely overwhelm him, lest he lose control and destroy the battery, condemning humanity's future to darkness. Null thought of his beloved Nimmie as he mentally struggled against himself, and with his gold arm, he continued to clutch the clear stasis box in trembling fingers. The Archmagos had devoted his life to innovation and the advance of the marriage of the sacred machine and the human spirit entwined in divine matrimony. Knowledge had been his water of life, even if it had gotten him into trouble, he considered.
He didn't think it would end like this, really.
Back in his dreamscape, Null turned toward the vault. This would buy Lian enough time to kill him, yes. They would be safe if he was killed, but before his death, he wanted to know what was behind the bewitching vault door.
Filled with both stoic resignation and hidden excitement, Null's gold hand worked quickly to input the code in the keypad beside the vault. The Nome King laughed behind him, fully under the assumption that he had won this conflict.
The Archmagos let out a short gasp when, in the process of entering the code, he discovered and quickly decrypted a cipher that had been hidden in this string of letters and numbers. It almost caused his artificial heart to stall, its discovery was so surprising.
"Sit nomen viator benedictum?" Null breathed out as the last keystrokes unlocked a torrential flood of memories.
And the memories were terrible...
Instantly, Null recognized a new command within him that would immediately purge his body of any foreign intelligences seeking to infect his mind, and he quickly executed it, causing the Nome King's mind to flee from him with a surprised cry. With a gasp, Null returned to the real world just in time to see Lian barreling into the engine room.
The Fallen raced into the room like a charging bull. He rushed the struggling Archmagos, picked him up, and pinned him against one of the closed glass coffins that lined the walls of this round room.
Within him, impossible memories began to shatter his identity and restructure his sense of self.
The horror! Null thought, a low whine of agonized denial escaping his throat. That's not true! That's impossible!
Null reeled in shock from the influx of abominable information! Deep within him, he then learned of another bodily purgative command that, when activated, could crowd out any unwelcome physical presence infecting his body. If these memories were true, these "new" functions had been installed within him thousands of years ago as part of a series of heretical alien upgrades, and the knowledge that he had used this particular tainted alien knowledge had brought him shame, so this had been one of the memories he had purged from within himself. Effortlessly, the jeweled belt that had been the source of his worries fell with a clatter to the metal floor, pushed away by bodily defensive directives. It remained glowing for a short time on the floor.
"What in the name of the Emperor has stricken you?!" the Fallen shouted at the Archmagos furiously, holding a crackling electric power sword to his throat. "Explain yourself!"
Null could not speak. Terrible memories of past deeds began to fill him, pouring their shame into his mind which expanded by an order of magnitude. He wasn't even paying attention as Lian shouted at him, such was the horror of the depth of the revelations that blossomed within him. Lian noticed the belt on the floor, and he was now asking a question concerning it. The Archmagos still could not respond. Was this all true? The obscenely powerful jeweled alien artifact now somehow felt like the least of his worries.
Null's shame pressed down on him, and his vision filled with static. What have I done, he thought, feeling his identity cry out in pain. The measure of his wrongdoings gripped him so completely that he became somewhat unresponsive. It would be a mercy if Lian were to kill him now! Null closed his eyes, cloaking the world in black before his vision, now finding himself unworthy of being able to see, or even exist at all. Could this be true? I should never have read the code. The horror! I should never have read the code...
The Archmagos gazed into his abyss, and there, he found ugly, wretched things staring back at him. Memories of deformed hereteks and the bellowing growls of daemon engines dragged through his mind, and to his reproach, Null realized that he had categorized these memories as pleasant! Legions of corrupted Sktiarii kneeling before him as he spoke in a mighty voice to his followers many thousands of years ago on Mars, calling for outright rebellion against all of mankind in a great betrayal! No! No! These could not actually be his memories! This was impossible!
"The Inheritor tells me not to kill you. Consider yourself lucky for this mercy, betrayer!" the Fallen bristled. Null's incredible shame surrounded him like a heavy black cocoon, and he still could not respond to any words spoken by Lian. Did what he witness actually happen? Was this all really him? Maybe it was simply a trick by the xenos, or a further mnemonic infection by the belt?
"He doesn't respond." Null was able to make out some of what Lian was speaking through his haze of paralyzing mortification. A flicker of a forbidden memory of himself walking along a metal corridor beside a very large and very corrupted Space Marine wicked black armor almost caused him to faint! A... a traitor Primarch? No!
"Bring him to the bridge if you can. I don't want him near the energy crystal. I'll absorb him if there's any more trouble."
Oh, that voice, Null thought distantly as he felt himself hauled up and over Lian's armored shoulder. He was now being carried like a child. How the mighty have fallen, he thought with a sigh, fully accepting his fate. Was this all true? Why wasn't the Inheritor swiftly killing him? Maybe she wished to kill him herself? Before departing the engine room, the Fallen asked a nearby glowing holographic display another question, but Null was still plunging deep within the existential pit of his new memories, and could not quite parse what the Astartes was saying.
The mighty voice of power answered the Fallen that carried him, "Leave the belt alone. Don't touch it. Just come back to the bridge."
That voice! Very familiar, yes. A similar quality to something he had heard so long ago, yes. Female now, though. How could he ever have forgotten how it felt to behold? And how could he have ever denied it?! The sheer force of presence! How foolish had been been so many years ago! Terrifying! Powerful! Yes! This was the Omnissiah! The Machine God had saved him before, and now, the avatar had saved him again, displaying inexplicable mercy by not immediately executing him for his failure! It was true!
After a few moments of being carried swiftly along metal halls with his eyes closed (and continuing to debate whether or not his new memories were true), the Archmagos then easily conceded to himself that his terrible shame was entirely warranted, and that if the Omnissiah's avatar were to spare him her wrath in the coming minutes, that he would pledge himself anew once again. If she decided to execute him, it would be just, Null thought as he continued to rifle through thousands of years of lost memories like a tiny fish in a black ocean of guilt. He then realized that there were still massive holes yawning in his past. According to these memories, it seemed that as a precaution against himself, Null had encrypted other banks of memories beneath other codes similar to the one he had just unlocked, and that if he truly wished to discover the full knowing horror of who he actually was, he would need to find these other codes.
"I asked you a question, Tech-priest!" Lian scolded him as he was carried through blessed gold corridors that looked just like parts of the Imperial Palace. Memories of walking along glittering gold corridors of Terra alongside the former incarnation of the Omnissiah in a before-life swam in his mind. What had he looked like? Why couldn't he remember it well? Null had not been paying attention to the Astartes, who angrily asked again: "What madness has come over you?!"
"The need for repentance for foolish choices," Null dreamily groaned. Would he keep the name of Null? He would need to think about this, yes. Was it true, or were these memories simply implanted? Or, was he actually a clone? The thought caused Null to shiver in revulsion once again, disgusted with himself.
Lian did not respond to Null's mumbled response, and the Archmagos quietly continued to marinate in the mortification of remembering that he had once led so many of Mars away from the light of the Omnissiah so long ago, and that he now knew the fate of Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal.