CHAPTER 1: The Uncrowned Prince

Ruby awoke in a forest her last memories were that of her falling into an abyss between time and space, failure being her only feeling as she waited for the cold embrace of death. Getting up the little huntress gazed her silver eyes across her new environment. It was night in the forest with the woodlands reminding her of her home, the island of Patch yet something in her soul tugged at her that something was wrong, something was off of the forest but she pushed these thoughts down thinking them nothing more than paranoia caused by fear. Noticing her weapon, Crescent Rose was gone, the huntress panicked before spotting the oversized weapon stuck in the bark of a great tree. Walking over towards the tree to pull the scythe out Ruby heard the screams of a child. Grabbing the scythe out of the tree, Ruby used her semblance to turn into a cloud of rose petals traveling through the forest with lightning speed. As she got closer she began hearing the sounds of a rabid beast, a Grimm she thought at first. Reaching her destination she spotted a small child no more than seven years of age covered in dirt wearing a ragged outfit. Reforming her body with scythe in hand ready to fight whatever abomination of Salem greeted her, Ruby found herself facing something even worse than the creatures of Grimm before her eyes. It was a massive beast, its head that of a cat and wolf combined with multiple eyes across its ugly face, within its mouth were two snapping tongues. The thing's claws were massive the size of her arms, that looked like they could rip apart a paladin with ease, however the worst thing that caught Ruby's attention was the smell. It smelled wrong, tainted whatever afflicted it didn't belong in this reality. It was worse than any Grimm she fought, she could feel the sadistic joy it got out of killing the innocent. Her hands quivering in fear for a second the huntress tightened her grip as she composed herself ready to face whatever this… thing could bring.

"Run!" A booming voice shouted to them. Turning her head Ruby found herself greeted by a black armored giant whose armor resembled that of a knight who wore a weird backpack, on the stranger's chest was an odd symbol to Ruby, it was a winged blade that faced downwards. What kingdom is he from, she thought. The child she came to protect ran into the forest as the stranger raised two blocky pistols at the thing's face. The warrior shot at the beast with a discipline she had not even seen in the disciplined soldiers of Atlas or even their robots. Each trigger pull was a loud bang before the bullet exploded on the beast's flesh. Seeing the black knight as more of a threat the beast changed its attention towards the warrior. Regaining her composure Ruby zipped in a cloud of petals and slashed at the creature's right foot, her momentum being enough to cut through the wretched thing's bone. Roaring in pain the armored warrior used the opportunity the huntress had made and unloaded his pistols into the thing's dreaded face. Pulping its brains and turning its head into little more than a lump of disfigured flesh the beast slumped down dead. Satisfied that the monster was dead the knight reloaded his pistols switching magazines in that cold calculating efficiency she took notice of earlier. Walking towards her, Ruby noticed how the giant's hands seemed to twitch momentarily as if it was thinking if it should shoot her or not. Standing in front of her the armored giant looked down at Ruby, his red eye lenses meeting her silver eyes.

"Thank you for your assistance even if it was unneeded" he spoke, his voice loud through his helmet's speaker. With Ruby not being able to place the odd accent he spoke in anywhere on Remnant.

"It's my job as a huntsman to defend the innocent. I only did my duty" she replied meekly, unnerved by a weird sense of dread that washed over her. "What's your name, mister giant man?" She asked, her voice filled with nervousness towards the black knight.

"I am known as Zabriel of the First Legion,'' he replied. What in the brothers was the First Legion? Ruby thought to herself as she smiled to hide her confusion.

"Ruby Rose uh… Huntress of Vale" she returned in kind.

"You are not from Camarth?" Zabriel suddenly asked, causing Ruby to have a puzzled face wondering what he meant by that and what Camarth was. It didn't sound like anywhere in the four kingdoms let alone Remnant.

"What's Camarth and what kingdom is that?" she asked to see if she could get an answer from Zabriel. While she couldn't see his face Ruby was able to notice the confused look he was giving her.

"Camarth is the world which you and I find ourselves on." Zabriel replied. "Has humanity's realm devolved to the point where its own citizenry don't even know when they find themselves off-world?" He asked more directed to himself than Ruby.

"Did you say off-world as in planet?" She asked, her eyes widening in shock. That couldn't be right, humans on other planets? That couldn't be possible, unless… Remnant wasn't man's original home but she had seen man's creation by the brother gods, it didn't make sense. The more she learned of this new land the more it sounded like a terrible sci-fi B movie from Vale she and her team would watch on the weekends.

"Yes, what of it?" Zabriel replied as if it were common knowledge. Panicking at what he just told Ruby used her semblance to scale the treeline until she could see the night sky. Looking out at the sky Ruby's eyes searched for the white glow of Remnant's shattered moon but was only greeted by a massive gash in the sky staring at it with her eyes she felt pain. Losing her balance as she gripped her eyes, Ruby fell to the forest floor breaking her aura on tree branches before landing in the cold metal hands of Zabriel as he caught her.

"What is that!?" She cried.

"What do you speak of?"

"The sky, what is… that in the sky!" She screamed before falling unconscious.

Waking up, Ruby found herself in a tent on the grassy floor of the forest she now found herself in, rubbing her eyes as they still seared from pain she was relieved to find Crescent Rose next to her before picking up her weapon and setting it on her waist before weakly getting up. Walking out of the tent she found it was midway with her being greeted by a campsite of dozens of people at work in somber silence all giving her an uneasy look as she walked past them with some looking like she had kicked their dog. Seeing the child she attempted to rescue earlier, Ruby waved her hands at them, with the child staring at her before running off somewhere else in the camp.

"You're awake" the familiar voice of Zabriel said. Turning around, Ruby found the giant without his helmet, being surprised that the giant was human. His face was that of someone who appeared to be in their late forties to early fifties suffering from gigantism with his hair peppered with gray. Staring at her with blue eyes his skin was a rough brown in color.

"Did you think I was some mere automaton girl?" he asked jokingly, taking notice of her staring.

"What no… of course not… it's just…"

"How can something so giant and methodical be that of a man?" he finished, causing Ruby to giggle a bit in embarrassment. "Come we have much to discuss. I have my questions and you have yours." Gesturing to a tent across the campsite, Ruby attempted to keep up with Zabriel, finding it difficult as he strode towards his tent. Entering the tent Ruby found it scarce with very little in decoration, only seeing his massive pistols neatly arranged on black and red cloth. Hypnotized by the strange weapons her trance would be broken by a grunt from Zabriel finding him sitting down in the middle of the tent with the giant gesturing for her to do the same. Sitting down in a similar position to Zabriel, Ruby smiled awkwardly as he stared at her for a few long seconds before speaking.

"I have served since the times of Unification when the symbol of the Imperium was merely the eagle and lightning bolt and have seen many wondrous and terrible things this galaxy has had to offer, I have fought all manners of aliens and human empires and helped in the compliance of hundreds of worlds but you Ruby Rose are the strangest thing this galaxy has shown me so far." Zabriel spoke.

"And why would that be?" She asked, perplexed by many things in his statement.

"You are a relic of an era I thought long gone, you are a psyker yet no nothing of the Great Rift which has torn the galaxy in two, you speak a dialect of Low Gothic long dead, and no nothing of the Imperium of Man."

"Psyker? Low Gothic? Imperium of what?" She asked, confused as she felt her mind was about to explode from the information overload.

"Tell me how did you end up on Camarth?" He asked, ignoring her previous statement. With a deep breath Ruby began her tale.

And so that's what she did she told Zabriel of Remnant, of the witch queen Salem, and the creatures of Grimm, she explained about the fall of Atlas, and how aura semblance worked for what felt like an eternity with him only interrupting her to ask the occasional question.

"Fascinating" he replied when she finished her tale. "Your world, this planet of Remnant, reminds me of Caliban before the Imperium came."

"You keep mentioning an Imperium, what is it?" Ruby asked with curiosity on her face.

"It was mankind's greatest empire in the aftermath of Old Night, an empire that seeked to reunite the lost tribes of man under one banner and bring about a new Golden Age of understanding and science, now… it's a backwards rump state ruled by decadence, tyranny, and blind zealotry for the corpse of a man who didn't want to be a god." Zabriel told her his last words were bitter and filled with contempt.

"What happened to it?" she asked.

"Betrayal of the foulest order." he replied simply.

"At our height we were betrayed by our greatest military, leader Horus Lupercal who was corrupted by fell powers beyond this plane of existence, with his treachery eight of his brothers joined him in damnation and waged war against the Imperium with it ending in his death at the hands of the Master of Mankind who was entombed on Terra where he apparently still sits to this day, that was ten thousand years ago."

"Ten thousand years?!" Ruby repeated in surprise. "Just how old are you?" She asked Zabriel who in response chuckled which unnerved her seeing it as unnatural coming from the giant.

"I am merely only a few centuries old, not ten thousand. My current circumstance is due to an incident I do not wish to discuss at this moment." he replied.

"Still, how have you lived so long?" She asked.

"Come now, I thought you were more intelligent isn't it clear I am not what you would call the standard mold of a human being?" He asked.

"I didn't want to be rude" she whispered, ignorant that Zabriel heard her, causing the giant to give her a warm smile.

"You mortals are an interesting bunch I have learned, to answer your original question I am an Astartes, a genetically engineered warrior made for the purpose of conquering the stars in the name of the Imperium thousands strong our legions marched and freed countless worlds from the vile tyranny of the alien. I was in fact one of the originals created by Him during the Wars of Unification, one of the Uncrowned Princes we were called." Fascinated by his tale Ruby couldn't help notice the venom Zabriel placed on the term alien, she didn't like that it reminded her too much of the many racists she had met across Remnant who despised the Faunas.

"You mentioned that I was a psyker earlier when talking about the… Great Rift earlier what did you mean by that Zabriel."

"Ah, now we discuss the Calibanite Lion in the room"

Ruby looked at him with a confused look. "You mean the elephant in the room?" Ruby said, not getting the old Astarte's euphemism.

"Yes, forgive me I spent the latter days of the Great Crusade on Caliban could say I went a bit native" he smiled. "To get back on topic you and the rest of the populace of your world are what those of the Imperium call a psyker, one born with the ability to control the energies of the warp, an parallel dimension to our reality where thought is made real, many liken it to magic at least most in this current age of ignorance."

"Are most people not psykers?" She asked confused as it went against everything Remnant knew of the human soul and aura.

"Yes most human are not psykers thankfully, if that were the case humanity would've gone extinct long ago"

"You make out being a psyker as a bad thing Zabriel shouldn't they be proud of their gifts?" The girl asked the veteran space marine.

"Psykers are conduits for the warp; those not trained on how to control their powers will become nexus points for the Neverborn. Too many worlds were lost during Old Night because their planetary populations did not keep their psykers in check either with purges or the correct training. Even in the Imperium the witch is still hated, rightfully in my eyes." Zabriel explained. Ruby's anger flared as Zabriel waved off what practically sounded like genocide as justifiable in front of her.

"Does that apply to me?" Ruby asked with a hint of her anger apparent in her voice.

"That remains to be seen but so far I would say your psychic discipline is strong. I've only ever seen such mental fortitude in the Thousand Sons, most mortal psykers at your level who've had their heads explode or be gibbering like mad man." Zabriel replied in that same flat voice either not noticing or caring about Ruby's anger towards his previous comments.

"Oh" she replied sheepishly, her anger evaporating as she began wondering if her head would explode at any minute.

"You… said you were part of an army Zabriel where is the rest of it? Do they have a ship off-world?" She asked, seeing if there was any way to get back to Remnant from what he described in his tales.

"The only other Astartes on this throne forsaken world are the Bastards as the locals like to call them and the remains of the Ruby Crescents that garrisoned this planet" he replied curtly. Causing her frown, her head down in disappointment realizing she was stuck on Camarth.

"Tell me Huntress Rose you said earlier when we met in the forest that your duty was to the innocent?" Zabriel asked.

"What of it?"

"While I cannot offer you harbor off this world I would ask for your help the people of Camarth have been hunted by the warp mutated beasts or the foul Ten Thousand Eyes since the Rift opened I have made it my duty since arriving to defend what survivors I come across, will you assist me in this endeavor?" He asked, raising his gauntlet towards her.

"Of course, I wouldn't be a huntress if I didn't." she replied with a smile, grasping the cold ceramite of his gauntlet. Whatever it takes I will get back home, she thought before the two stood up and went about their duty to defend the people of Camarth.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

The chapters from Ruby's pov will follow the events of the novel Lion: Son of the Forest (highly recommend btw). With some changes here or there in dialogue or events, credit goes to Mike Brooks, author of the book.

FUN FACT: When Zabriel refers to Ruby speaking a dead dialect of Low Gothic he's referring to the fact that Vytan sounds like the Low Gothic spoken in the techno-barbarian state of Merica from the Unification Wars. I did this to explain away why everybody in 40k seems to speak with a British accent more or less and also to show just how old Zabriel is even for a marine from the Great Crusade.