Where an Annoyed Reluctant Angel Tells Off an Angery and Somewhat Bitter Man Who'd Been Forced to Become a God...

To say that the man known nowadays as the Master of Mankind, ruler of the Imperium of Man is more than a thrown for a loop at this situation .

It wasn’t just that an ODD bunch of youngsters (with a wayward and apparently injured Primarch--especially THIS particular Primarch-- in tow) just suddenly appeared out of thin air.

Even now and here, despite EVERYTHING, the Imperium could accomplish similar tricks with their version of transmat technology. Compared to the countless legends of what humanity had been able to accomplish back in it’s heyday--the Dark Age of Technology--this couldn’t/wouldn’t have even raised an eyebrow. He’d done similar himself more times than he cared to remember back then...

It wasn’t just that they were all armed (some rather oddly) or armored. He was sure that he could hold them off long enough for his Palace Guards to attend to them shortly.

The guards were, after getting over the shock of hearing from him, ever so eager to serve... But then again . . .something about these unexpected “houseguests” is decidedly NOT hostile. VERY VERY odd indeed, considering the very LAST time he’d seen SOME of them...

HE was, now that he was almost recovered from his . . .extended unwanted convalescence. He could handle this small group. He detected no smell of great psycker power upon most of them, for whatever reason . And as the one who looks like Warmaster Horus?

Well, he looks like he’s on his last legs and his power is nearly depleted, whoever he REALLY is! It is not like Horus was BACK after . . .

After he’sent his son into the Beyond by his own hands. BY His own HANDS he’d sent his favored son into the Be...

. . .

Clamping down on his feelings the Emperor concentrates on the task here and now, and not dwelling upon regrets of the past.

So many regrets...

Ah, but the task? Hardly a challenge when (and IF) their ploy finally reveals itself!! Except for Horus (or the one who wore Horus’ form), there wasn’t even an inkling of Psyker power to be detected from this group. That was why he had not as of yet KILLED them all for having dropped in on him unexpectedly.

Why was the Golden Throne not only no longer fading, but having (without any input from him or his subjects) reverted BACK to what he’d originally intended it being? Let us not forget that thing hadn’t been originally intended as life support for his shattered....

His . . .no longer shattered husk of a body?

MAYBE they’ll be able to explain the recent events as to just HOW he is yet again alive? Why the Warp . . .is so quiet?

For all the gods he didn’t believe in!! It was like the Chaos Gods had all at once suddenly cried out in sheer terror . . .and vanished

THAT was utterly ridiculous and VERY much too much to ask for after so many thousands and thousands of years...of him wrestling with them to keep them OUT of the physical world and keeping his people SAFE from their direct deprivations. Keeping them from closing off the Warp to the Imperium and the stars accessible to his people....and reluctantly accepting the energies provided him by his believers in his divinity in the process of it all.

It graveled him having to do such things but he’d kept playing the final, backup and last ditch scenario he’d been forced into: that of playing the god card.

Bad and dangerous, that. Danger that whilst playing in the Warp as such a thing he’d . . .lose himself and actually start BELIEVING in his own divinity. That was a dangerous thing. Might become as the very demonic Warp Entities (the Chaos Gods) he fought. Terra only knew that sometimes the clergy that preached in His name were only better than those Ruinious Powers by degrees.

If only....if ONLY he’d been able to create within his people a means to have insulated themselves from the Warp by turning their beliefs inward towards themselves and not towards otherworldly, gods and goddesses. The Ruinous powers had a bad habit of being able to eventually pervert even the most benign religions. OR the Warp entity that was almost always created by the belief of those of religious inclination turned . . .bad over time.

Something of a reflection of why churches and temples (according to SOME out there) eventually become: corrupt?

Maybe. Maybe not. WAY too touchy and controversial of topic for this story, though!!

Yeah, and as one might have guessed from past clues earlier about Horus and the Imperium. What it is and all that. THAT was one of the main reasons for the Imperial Truths.

The Emperor would have nodded in agreement with this quote from what would have been a LONG defunct public Internet encyclopedia quote (Wikipedia):

Imperial Truths:

The contents of this belief involved the removal of religion, faith and superstition that plagued numerous Human worlds that had been recontacted by Terra. Instead, the Imperial Truth was offered by Iterators that provided the cold clarity of logic and science to the masses.

The Imperial Truth began to disintegrate due to the Horus Heresy and encounters with the Dark Powers of the Warp. Many either turned Traitor as a result or embraced the growing Lectitio Divinitatus which proclaimed that the Emperor was a god.

He’d then point out that this was ancient history (been the state of affairs for a few thousand years or so, friend) and then say something about getting about to finally FIXING this mess. Humanity had kind of inherited the problems of Chaos (who’s origins IF you are so inclined in researching can be seen here: http://wh40k .lexicanum. com/wiki /Chaos# Ancient_ History), but he was going to make DAMN sure that humanity would be around long enough to evolve into something that could and would overcome that and every OTHER threat out there in this d*mnable universe! He’d planned and schemed enough over the years and all that to not LOSE....

This sudden return and these events, however, hadn’t been in his plans or backup plans.

Even on the Golden Throne, a broken and battered husk, he’d been having plans to overcome his plight...as an aside for the moment.

If worst had come to worst and all his efforts of reincarnation had kept failing due to his “ever so faithful” minions of his Church going out and snuffing his new bodies before they were ready for him to fully integrate into....

Uh...Psyckers--if they’re powerful enough like say on the God Emperor of Man--can do stuff like that. WITH a lot of effort. With a LOT of luck and the Chaos Gods of Warhammer 40K missing a trick or three. Used to be that way before the birth of the Chaos Gods for all of the early times with the Shaman (known as Psykers nowadays, just without the mystical mumbo jumbo)....

D*mn those IDIOTIC Inquisitor’s and those fool Clergy. BAD enough he’d had to be shoehorned into actually playing the part of a diety (NOT that he ever wanted to be such a thing). He’d only wanted to be known, in the end, as a great man. NOT a #$@%@#$ god!

No, they had to keep on killing every attempt at coming back in a new, whole body due to some misguided attempts to prevent Heresy from endangering the faithful...

Yes, he’d REALLY like to know just what in the Hells was going on here and would enjoy squeezing the answer out of these trespassing...

But whatever the Emperor had been expecting, even as his guards are pounding their way past the vault doors to this room, it wasn’t quiet THIS!

First had been the rather unusual utterance of surprise from one of the winged young girls. Just WHY would anyone mistake him for her uncle? That isn’t TOO off-putting, but then . . .

“Father, what . . .why are you like this?” Horus asked, somewhat unsteady on his feet but waving off offers of help from the others. The Emperor blinks as he sees that now that he looks closer as his “son” the man . . .has signs a somewhat serious concussion by the looks of things.

The group who’d accompanied him meanwhile have been oddly silent ever since his guards had arrived. Or maybe NOT so surprising, considering that in the end ONE side had the inclination of being ready to blast trespassers who’d dare step within the holies of Holies of the Imperium (only held in check by the Emperor’s unvoiced commands) and the other side wishing NOT to have to resort to violence in order to at least START the beginning of the ending of their Quest.

Finally regaining enough of himself and his somewhat still depleted Power, the Emperor looked at where to begin first. Whatever had gotten him back amongst the living had rather SAPPED the Emperor‘s reserves momentarily, so this had to wait a bit until now.

There was something about the other trespassers that was offsetting. Something that whispered to him. Something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end. And that made him even more angery and perplexed than he had been before.

He’d never felt the vibes like he’d gotten from these strangers in all the TENS of thousands of years of his life, and that made him . . .somewhat cautious for now. Made him hesitant about looking to THEM for answers using mystical might, but . . .there was someone here who he had not hesitation over.

So, without even with a “by your leave“ he looks within Horus (staggering the Primarch, and causing him to cry out in pain AND to cause his companions to cry out in protest at his treatment) the Emperor and . . .sees within his somewhat concussed mind a set of VERY startling things.

“Your Horus . . .but not mine,” he blinks, openly amazed at what he’d seen. Shocked into something of an indiscretion, actually “And you’d not only refused to be seduced by the Chaos Gods but lived to tell about it? What .. . .how?”

“Oh Jesus CHRIST!!” the blue haired (and winged) woman finally shouts, patience at an end with this travesty. “Questions upon questions upon questions for an endless parade of distractions? He’s on the ground and dieing!!

“HE NEEDS A MEDIC!!” Rei shouts at the rather sizable group of palace guards and one God Emperor of Mankind who are almost gob-smacked that anyone would DARE order them about. “HELP HIM for God’s sake!!”

In the face of so much firepower and might? How insane is that? One volley of bolter rounds wouldn’t even leave enough for a teaspoon to bury, so splattered all over the grounds these trespassers. One glance and the Emperor could kill them outright where they stood!!

But when you’re this far down and facing these kind of odds Rei and her group? Well, when you’re in this kind of position a bit of bravado and all that, just to show a bit of defiance, was what they did. Better that than to be shot down and laid low, begging on their knees.

Muttering in disgust, Rei and the others stop waiting for the others to get off the dime and try to help Horus the best they could with what they had...which was Sailor Moon’s/Setsuna’s powers. Horus was . . .sort of human but was too far above and away from the normal human model to be easily (or readily) healed by the medical scientific equipment Rei and her friends wre carrying around. Thus, desperate measures were needed, apparently.

Rei’s school of magic was dangerously incompatible with Horus’s Psyker powers but maybe (just maybe) Setsuna’s school could heal Horus, who was bleeding out of his eyes, nose, and ears.

Or kill him outright. Was a risk but IF the Emperor couldn’t or wouldn’t lift a finger then d*mn if they wouldn’t do anything about. . . .

“Let . . .me,” the Emperor says softly, Waving back his guards who look rather like they’ like to “discuss” with Rei her arrogance, the most powerful Psyker of all times stepped forward.

The Master of Mankind then touched the prone Primarch and began to draw upon his powers to . . .undo what he’d done. subdued (and sounding uncharacteristically chastened) and perhaps a bit shamed by a young seeming angelic woman with red eyes...

1. Not every day one got away at telling HIM where to get off and get away with it, but then today was NOT the usual run of the mil days, eh?

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