New chapter. As always, the next two chapters are up on my P-a-t-r-e-o-n, here: h*t*t*p*s :/ w*w*w . p*a*t*r*e*o*n user - ? - u = 52718582 (remove the spaces and stars)
The Emperor finished speaking, watching Isha's reaction closely as her features twisted in shock, horror and sympathy.
Speaking of all this was painful. He had not discussed it with anyone in a very long time.
Malcador knew, of course, but they did not talk about such things.
Part of him said that he should not have told Isha any such thing, should have kept his secrets close and held her at a distance.
Yet, another part of him had longed to tell her, had longed for her to know and understand.
"I understand how this must seem to you, of course," the Emperor murmured. "I have remade myself in the image of my enemies and used many of their same tactics and strategies. And yet, I have no choice. I wish…"
He trailed off. He wished there was another way. He wished he had not had to sink to this. He wished things were different.
But there truly was no other choice.
This was the only way.
Or is it? A voice asked in the back of his mind. And is a different way standing in front of you?
He squashed that thought relentlessly. He had come too far and had done too much to change his path now.
He must succeed. There was no other choice.
Or all his sacrifices, all the people who had died because of his choice…they would mean less than nothing.
"Your Majesty, I…" Isha trailed off, searching for what to say. "So this is why all this has you so disconcerted. I see now. Do you…do you fear that there may be surviving Men of Gold leading the Ethnarchy or the Selenar? Or even the Mechanicum?"
"It is possible," The Emperor acknowledged. "I had thought them all gone, but since Chaos has blinded me…"
And oh, how that thought still rankled. It had been aeons since he was so blind, and it made him furious that it had taken him so long to even notice.
More practically, it was also alarming. The Ethnarchy and the Selenar could be dealt with, but the Mechanicum…conquering them was not impossible, but he did not have the time. Even with Isha drastically accelerating his timetable, conquering Mars without damaging the infrastructure he needed would take far too long.
And there was no other industrial base in the galaxy that could fuel the needs of his intended vision. Not anymore.
"I understand," Isha said, her eyes filled with sympathy. And she did, didn't she? "Is this why you do not trust the Men of Iron? Even those uncorrupted by Chaos?"
"Yes," He said with a sigh. "There were Men of Iron who had…valid reasons for rebelling," It rankled to admit that, but it was true. "But that does not change the fact they did rebel and that making humanity reliant on them again would be a mistake."
Isha hummed, and he could see in her eyes that she disagreed, but she said nothing. "Thank you for telling me this, Your Majesty," She said instead. "I appreciate the trust you have shown me."
"Thank you," The Emperor said quietly, turning back to the sky. It felt strange to confess all this to anyone, much less an Eldar warp-construct, but…it also felt good. "Tell no one of this, however. This knowledge should remain lost to history until mankind is ready for it."
"Understood."
The Emperor paused for a moment, almost tempted to tell her the last piece of the truth. It could be important. If the hand behind the Mechanicum's rise in opposition to him was who he suspected it was…
Then the moment passed. There were some things he was not ready to confess to Isha. He had already told her far more than he had ever thought he would, far more than he should have, in all honesty.
But in the end, he could not resist the temptation to speak to someone who truly understood.
After all, who could understand the pain and horror of watching your people tear themselves apart better than the Mother of the Eldar?
The Emperor's words still haunted her thoughts even as Isha examined the corpses of the various enhanced soldiers that the Ethnarchy had deployed, in the cool, sterile labs of the Emperor's floating fortress.
It was crude work, but…effective, she supposed. Designed to create potent but expendable shock troops, who were genetically programmed to be perfectly loyal.
In some ways, it was uncomfortably reminiscent of both work of the Old Ones and that of the Emperor.
And that was the crux of it, wasn't it?
Learning the details of the Augment Wars and Cybernetic Revolt explained much about the Emperor. Especially how he did not seem to trust humanity even as he was fiercely dedicated to its protection, how he truly did love them, but that love was buried below bitterness, disappointment and mistrust.
Isha could understand that. She loved her children still, but…
Nevertheless, even as it answered much about the Emperor, it also raised several troubling questions.
Why had he remade himself in the image of his enemies? And why did he consider it so vital to his plans?
There was something deeper there, something he wasn't telling her. One did not reshape themselves to be more like those you hated without excellent reason.
The Emperor felt he could exploit it somehow, but how? Even if he felt it necessary to rule humanity now rather than merely watch it from the shadows, there must be some reason he had chosen to emulate the Men of Gold so closely.
It was not something she felt comfortable pressing him on, not when it might endanger the trust he was showing her, by bringing her along on this campaign and telling her the truth about humanity's downfall, but it still bothered her.
Isha sighed. There was no point in dwelling on the matter for the moment. The Emperor might well tell her the whole truth in time, or he might not.
In any case, what mattered most was that their relationship was improving. A proper alliance might be within reach.
Or so she hoped.
Returning her attention to the corpses in front of her, Isha resumed her examination of them.
The Ethnarchy's soldiers came in a variety of different designs, but they all shared the same, crude emphasis on loyalty and brute force above all. Their genetic strands were twisted and broken, and the more Isha unravelled them, the more disgusted she became.
She wished that she could resurrect all these lost souls, and give them a chance at life which did not involve being bound in shackles forever, but reviving the dead soldiers of the Emperor's enemies would be a step too far.
As the Emperor had said, however, there was no sign of Chaos corruption in any of the corpses that had been retrieved.
It was suspicious and worrying. What was Chaos up to? They would not have shielded those not under their control from the Emperor if they didn't have some sort of scheme in mind.
…Bel'akor, perhaps. The First Damned remained formidable even after losing the favour of his masters, and he had always longed to reclaim his position as most favoured. She was uncertain she could defeat him in her current state if he were summoned at his full strength, and even the Emperor would at least have to exert serious effort to defeat him. Bel'akor was old and wily, both cunning and powerful, and if he could capture her, the Four might very well restore him to his status as the Dark Master of Chaos, the foremost of their Exalted Champions.
It was a distinctly unpleasant thought.
A knock on the laboratory's doors pulled Isha from her musings, and she noticed that she had begun to lose control of her aura, causing plants to spring up from the metallic floor. Hastily reigning her power in, Isha ripped the plants out with a wave of her hand, conjuring boxes with soil to levitate them into. With another thought, she restored the floor to its previously pristine state and then turned to the door.
"Come in!" She called.
Her Custodian Guard, Shield-Captain Juno, entered.
"Lady Isha," She greeted politely. "There is a visitor who wishes to see you?"
"A visitor? Is it Primarch Horus?" But, no, his presence was on the side of the ship, with his father. The soul standing outside her doors was new but somewhat familiar…ah.
"One of the Thunder Warriors, my lady," Juno said, confirming her suspicions. "Legate Ushotan of the Fourth Legion wishes to speak to you."
"Well…let him in." The Emperor had imposed several rules, but he had not forbidden her to speak with his soldiers, and she would be lying if she said she was not curious.
Juno nodded curtly, stepping back outside the door and gesturing.
A moment later, Legate Ushotan entered.
He was tall and broad as all the Emperor's warriors were, clad in heavy golden armour, carrying his helmet under his arm. One might have almost mistaken him for a Custodian.
But that idea was easily dispelled at a closer glance. The armour was closer to bronze than gold, and instead of ornate medals and honours, the only decoration was scars and dents. The armour was well-maintained, nevertheless, but it was worn compared to the gleaming plate of the Emperor's Ten Thousand.
And unlike the flawless features of the Custodes, Ushotan's features were more roughly hewn, more honest, and more human. His hair was brown and close-cropped, his features bearing scars of various wars. Her children might have called him ugly, but Isha found it refreshing. This was a person, not an automaton wearing the mask of humanity.
"Legate Ushotan," Isha curtseyed. "What can I do for you?"
"Not much," Ushotan answered simply, his dark eyes sweeping across the lab, lingering on the corpses of the dead. "I just wanted to meet you."
"Oh?"
"You're the one who fixed me," He said. "Who fixed all my brothers and sisters, when we were ill and dying."
"I…yes," Isha acknowledged.
"Thank you," Ushotan said, kneeling on one knee, his voice practically bleeding with gratitude, his face open and honest. "If…you hadn't, we would have all died or gone mad, becoming dogs that needed to be put down."
Oh.
"Of course," Isha said, stepping forward to clasp one armoured hand in her own. "You do not need to thank me, though. What had been done to you and your comrades was a travesty, and fixing it was the only thing I could do."
"You were the only one who could do it, you mean," Ushotan said with a crooked smile. "Even the Golden Man couldn't, but you could. You're something more than what you pretend to be, aren't you? The Emperor hasn't told us the full truth about you."
Isha stiffened, as she wondered how to answer his words without violating the Emperor's edicts.
Ushotan must have noticed because his next words were softer. "You don't need to answer that. I know His Imperial Majesty-," And there was a faint tone of sarcasm there. "-doesn't like it when people disobey him. I just came by to thank you and to tell you that we all owe you. If you ever need anything…my Legion and I will answer. You just have to ask."
His words were delivered with complete sincerity, and as she looked into his soul, Isha was vividly reminded of Gorkamorka.
How she missed her old friend. Not the mockery of himself that he had become after she and her pantheon had torn him asunder, but how he had been, stalwart and true and loyal, more than just a weapon of war despite his origins.
"Thank you," She said softly.
Ushotan nodded, standing up. "Thanks for meeting me, milady."
With an inclination of his head, the Thunder Warrior left the room, shutting the door behind him as Isha was left alone again.
As much she appreciated his words, Isha could not help but feel melancholy settling upon her once more. He had reminded her of Gorkamorka specifically, but he had also invited thoughts of how she missed everyone else.
She missed her mother, Morai-heg. She missed her twin brother Vaul, always bubbling with clever ideas and new thoughts. She even missed Asuryan, for he had been her friend and even lover once before he had become only her cold, distant king.
More than anything, she missed Lileath and Kurnous.
Her beloved daughter, the embodiment of the hope for a new future that her children had gained in the aftermath of the War in Heaven.
And her husband, her truest love. Divine relationships were not like mortal ones, neither of them had been the other's only consort.
But Kurnous had been her husband and she was his wife. Even if they had sometimes gone to others, in the end, they had always returned to each other.
No one could and ever had replaced him in her heart.
But Kurnous was gone with the rest of her family, and Isha was alone.
Cegorach was still out there somewhere, but…he wasn't enough. Isha loved him, she truly did, but the Clown God had never recovered his sanity after the War in Heaven. If he was still Hoeth and not Cegorach, perhaps, but…
How was she ever going to free her people and defeat Chaos? Even with the Emperor's aid, even if he came to respect her as a true equal and friend, Isha did not have the first idea of how to go about killing Slaanesh.
In the end, all she might be able to do was go out fighting.
As Isha brooded, reality rippled around her and the Emperor appeared.
"Ushotan visited you, I see," He remarked. "His gratitude is understandable, but see that you do not exploit it."
"Of course not, Your Majesty," Isha murmured.
The Emperor nodded curtly, satisfied. "Anything interesting?" He asked, gesturing to the corpses she had been examining.
"No," Isha replied, concealing her melancholy as best as she could. "No traces of Chaos whatsoever."
"Good," The Emperor said, though his expression remained grim. "Do you have any ideas for anything that you can do against them? Not bioweapons, but anything else."
Isha mulled it over for a moment, but the answer came quickly. "Many of them are programmed to be genetically loyal. Creating a virus to break the genetic loyalty without harming them is easy enough."
"Do that, then. Most of them should be easy enough to convert to my cause once the ingrained loyalty is gone."
"Of course."
"That aside, we will be reaching the Ethnarchy's main factory in the area soon," The Emperor said, his eyes gleaming. "It is where they are building their automaton soldiers."
"Ah, and you intend to dismantle it?"
"I do," The Emperor said with a small, vicious smile. "And you are going to help me do it."
Author's Note: Morai-heg being Isha's mother is from Rise of the Ynnari: Wild Rider.
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