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Gotham's Dead End Bar - Companion Piece #3
🕑 Added 2025-03-03 01:09:06 +0000 UTCIn yet another life, war came for Sean at his end. A crusade from the blackest of Hells ravaged everything sacred and Living. The 13th of its kind — an ominously auspicious number — it threatened to bring the galaxy itself to its knees. Watching the end of that life of Sean’s, Didi witnessed Death, Despair, and Destruction on a scale that even she and her siblings would struggle to comprehend.
In that reality, Mankind had long since spread throughout the stars. They’d thrived once, only for an Age of Strife to strike down everything they knew. Then came hope once more. A unifying leader for Humanity. An Emperor for Mankind to call its own. But as always for that reality, Chaos came calling in the end.
It struck once, crippling Humanity’s hope. It struck over and over again afterward, trying to finish the job. But Humanity… persisted. They stagnated and regressed but continued to live through the worst the galaxy — Materium and Immaterium — had to throw at them. So it was that the Chaos Crusades began and persisted for millennia of stalemate and crippling stasis.
Now, a certain end was threateningly near. The Black Crusade to end all Black Crusades surged forth from a lasting tear in the physical universe. Its goal was the last legs of crippled hope — Humanity’s still-kicking salvation — on Holy Terra itself. To get there, the Black Crusade pushed through the most fortified portion of Humanity’s Imperium.
For millennia, Cadia and its surrounding sectors held the line against Chaos. The Blackest Crusade brought that truth into question. First came the Space Hulks. They struck strategically, disrupting defenses in the prelude to the Crusade. Then came the forces of pestilence. Massive rotting flagships — the Plagueclaw and Terminus Est — spread decay and death wherever they passed.
Unnatural sickness doomed whole worlds. Apocalyptic sects and cults spread in its terrible wake. The Plague of Unbelief and the Plague Zombies that followed threw any coordinated defensive effort into… well, Chaos. Still, the Imperium of Man rose to the occasion.
The Imperial Navy rallied to give Cadian defenses all the time they needed. The gathered fleet was overwhelmed and struck down by their Chaotic rivals. Onward, Chaos surged into the Imperium, led by Abaddon the Despoiler, Warmaster of Chaos. Soon, every world within a thousand lightyears of the Eye of Terror became embroiled in apocalyptic conflict.
The forces of Chaos reveled in the resistance they met. Mysterious and brutal raiders, Dark Mechanicum, Traitor Legions, and Daemons all united in their unholy, destructive aims. Chaos brought everything they had to bear. And as powerful and numerous as the Imperium’s defenders were, the eternal enemy was undeterred. Unstoppable.
The Imperium’s defenders did all they could to hold the line but they were being steadily pushed back. Adeptus Astartes Chapters fought to the last Emperor-blessed demi-god. Imperial Guard Regiments raged to the last mundane, mortal man, and burned just the same for their unconquerable spirits. Even Titan Legions of mountain-sized God-Machines were brought to their knees. Reinforcements were tragically slow to come and often didn’t arrive at all.
Humanity — despite their tendency to claim such — didn’t stand alone against the Blackest Crusade. No matter how the Imperial Creed preached against the Xeno, all Life was allied against Chaos.
The Craftworld Eldar stood — perhaps not with the Imperium but fighting against the Blackest Crusade all the same. The same could be said for… certain powerful Necrons. The Orks were not so discerning of who they fought, helping and harming the defenses in equal measure. Likewise, the Tyranids were drawn to the conflict like bugs to light, often swarming the first party they came upon. But in all, a significant portion of the galaxy on every side came to be ravaged by the Crusade to herald the End Times.
Sean — and by extension, Didi — were relatively late to the party. Didi’s presence piggybacked off her beloved, unnoticeable and omnipresent. She saw the Blackest Crusade in all of its horrifying glory. No, more than that. She FELT every soul — Human to Ork to Eldar, mortal and demonic — embroiled in the terrible conflict.
Uncountable billions upon billions — Trillions, even — Lived, Died, and Fought most of all. Entire sectors of space were brought under siege by the Crusade from the Eye of Terror. Entire systems burned. Entire worlds died like fodder.
Truly, it was like nothing Didi had ever experienced. Her existence was Endless, but none of the worlds and realities she knew had ever been ravaged by such Chaos. She knew War, but not War like this. She knew Death, but not Death like this. She knew Doom, Demise, Quietus… but never like this.
Through her view of Sean, Didi saw every death in that reality. But more than that, she saw the anathema parasites that grew fat off Souls that weren’t theirs to claim. Chaos was chaos, but there was a definite order to be found within. Fourfold. Each was as abominable as the last.
‘Chaos Gods’… They were far from godly in Didi’s eyes. They fell ever short of true divinity. They claimed concepts that weren’t theirs. They grew fatter and fatter from undue feeding. They gave nothing back in truth, boasted truly unearned, undeserving claims of superiority, and corrupted the truth of reality by their very existence.
Chaos didn’t have gods. It had parasites. Leeches, scroungers, bloodsuckers to all Life everywhere in that galaxy. None of their considerable power was original. Nothing about them was. If they claimed it, they’d stolen it. From their ‘domains’ to every Soul they sucked into their ever-hungry maws.
Khorne claimed Blood, Slaughter, and Honor. But he was no origin to anything. Blood was not his to shed. Slaughter was not his to order. And Honor was certainly not his to uphold as he claimed.
Had the parasite ever fought against a worthy foe? Had he ever raised his weapon for himself instead of giving orders and demanding unholy service? Had he ever stood from his throne of skulls? No. That was no ‘Honor’.
Tzeentch claimed Fate, Change, and Hope. But he was no origin to anything. Fate was not his to direct. Change was not his to bring about. And Hope was certainly not his to give and take as he claimed.
Had the parasite ever forged his own path? Had he ever created or even destroyed? Had he ever changed anything for the better at the end of his ‘grand’ schemes? No. That was no ‘Hope’.
Slaanesh claimed Sensation, Excess, and Perfection. But they were no origin to anything. Sensation was not theirs to feel. Excess was not theirs to revel within. And Perfection was certainly not theirs to pursue as they claimed.
Had the parasite ever felt anything for themself? Had they ever given instead of taken, taken, taken? Had they ever worked, struggled, or failed in the pursuit of something better? No. That was no ‘Perfection’.
Nurgle claimed Mortality, Decay, and Quietus. But he was no origin to anything. Mortality was not his to decide. Decay was not his to waste within. And Quietus was certainly not his to grant as he claimed.
Had the parasite ever known the touch of Death on himself? Had he ever rotted anything instead of letting time do his dirty work? Had he ever granted peace without puppeteering that ‘peace’ for an eternity more? No. That was no ‘Quietus’.
There was no ‘good’ side to the Chaos Gods. They couldn’t fathom it, only knowing how to latch onto concepts that they didn’t deserve. All they were was corruption and falsities. Even the lowliest of Souls was more worthy of existence than them.
All of Khorne’s vaunted prowess was copied from another. All of Tzeentch’s scheming trickery was taken from infinite alternative realities where everything had already happened. All of Slaanesh’s painful pleasure was experienced by someone else first and last. All of Nurgle’s twisted peace was a lie that struck Didi most grievously of all.
In the end, everything the Chaos Gods were came from true Life, true Souls. They were parasites to reality’s host. True Life was fighting with Blood, Slaughter, and Honor. True Life was dearly holding onto Fate, Change, and Hope. True Life was experiencing every shred of Sensation, Excess, and Perfection. True Life was accepting Mortality, Decay, and Quietus.
Chaos could only be what true Life already was, and never anything more. The Souls they unduly claimed were the only things worthy about them. And that ‘worthiness’ was still stolen from Life itself.
Didi wasn’t one to hate easily… Yet she DESPISED Chaos and its ‘gods’. Bloody, Scheming, Wanton, and Rotting, she despised them all. Each one intruded upon and made mockery of at least one of her Endless siblings. Tzeentch even dared to do so to Sean and his Dao of Change. Yet the worst God-Beast-Parasite of all was Nurgle and his very literal slap in the face to everything Didi represented.
Rot, Decay, and find Peace in Grandfather Nurgle’s embrace… Bull-SHIT! Didi had never witnessed a more offensive lie. Never witnessed anything that left her so vibrating with fury. Nurgle had the rotten balls to claim only half of Life and only half of Death. Then, he mashed the opposing concepts together and portrayed himself as a ‘god’ of what came out the other side.
He claimed Rot and Decay, but not the rebirth that came from either. He claimed Peace in Death but left it as a lie to be told to all he touched. There was no Finality to be found from Nurgle, for he didn’t know how to let anything go. And his claim to Mortality was twisted and hypocritical. For all his power, Nurgle feared nothing more than the very End he preached.
Nurgle’s existence and claim were anathema to Didi. A filched fiction she couldn’t countenance being told. The greatest insult she’d ever known. His being relegated to that reality Sean knew didn’t soften the sting. Just knowing he and his Chaos-kin were real somewhere pushed Didi past limits of fury that she hadn’t even known she had.
She shouldn’t have been able to do much — if anything — to act on her all-consuming fury. The events she watched had already come to pass, in a reality far removed from her. But as Didi grew to KNOW Chaos on a level that even they didn’t comprehend… Well, she was so Source-darn mad that she might just find a way.
IIIII
Didi rode shotgun to that reality, that life of Sean’s. But not everything she witnessed there was so terrible. The Emperor of Mankind was worth… something. Perhaps not something wholly good, but certainly leagues better than the God-Beast-Parasites, especially as he reached closer and closer to godhood of his own.
But despite his many, many (MANY…) flaws, the Emperor undeniably cared for those he claimed to protect. He tried to take Humanity onto his shoulders and lift them as high as they’d ever been. He sheltered the Souls bestowed upon him from Chaos’ grasp, even as his very being was shattered utterly beyond repair. Didi could confidently say she never would’ve liked the Emperor, but she could at least respect his intentions if not his execution.
Humanity’s god-in-the-making wasn’t the only true divine in that reality. The Ork Gods were real, ridiculous, and exactly what they revealed themselves to be. The Eldar Gods were more akin to the pantheons Didi was familiar with. Most of them had fallen to The Wanton One’s depredations, but a few noteworthy examples remained.
As her view of that reality followed Sean, Didi caught glimpses of those true divines through the galaxy’s corrupted, parasite-ridden Sea of Souls. A great, unending bar-room brawl between Gork and Mork. A North Star of pure Anathema Light and uncountable disparate workings from the Emperor as he tried to keep Humanity afloat through his shattered state.
From the Eldar Gods, Didi saw a hundred shards of War. All that remained of Kaela Mensha Khaine. She saw a fool hidden away, forever laughing at the comedy of tragedy. Didi almost grumbled at the sight of Cegorach. Even in that damned reality, ‘Jokers’ lived much longer than they should’ve.
Lastly, Didi saw a sympathetic scene that resonated with half of her conceptual being. A rose in a cage, held against her will within the Rotting Garden. It withered and bloomed, just to wither again and again. A Goddess of Life, chained by Nurgle’s lie of Death. Didi didn’t know she could get any more utterly fucking furious…
Before she knew what she was doing, Didi began to weave a vengeful working. One to reach through Causality and Dimensions as if she was truly there by Sean’s side. She wouldn’t be, couldn’t. But she could ensure what already came to pass came to pass once more, her viewing of that life of Sean making the events surrounding his Death retroactively and proactively real.
Didi wove a paradox. Meanwhile, Sean arrived at the final battle of the Blackest Crusade, where and when he would undoubtedly meet his end in that life. He came with force and fury. A reinforcing Rogue Trader with his divinely sanctioned fleet by his side. Sean looked into the winking eye of the End Times and he laughed.
“We ride against Hell itself with the Emperor at our backs! Cadia Stands! But it needs our aid to continue doing so! Think not of the enemy, for they’ve been dead an eternity already! No!
“I ask that you think only of Humanity! Of our brothers and sisters holding the line! Of the Emperor’s Angels counter-attacking against damning odds! Of Him on Terra watching over us all!
“He’s rooting for us, people, cheering on our victory here where it matters most! I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t ask for a better audience to witness us strike down this Black Crusade! We fight for dynasty, for profit, for Humanity, and the Emperor’s Light! Let the galaxy know that when the End Times come knocking, the Caine Dynasty will answer the door with Boot and Nova Cannon!”
Sean’s speech echoed through every bridge under his command. During his long life as a Rogue Trader, he’d rebuilt his dynasty’s fleet from the ground up. A single vessel to his name eventually became 66 with strength and composition to match any Imperial Battlefleet.
Rogue Traders were divinely ordained by the Emperor of Mankind, but even compared to his peers, Sean’s dynasty was monstrously powerful. Only three Imperial Battlefleets had been involved in the Blackest Crusade so far, and now, Sean brought a whole fourth into play. His ships were massive and numerous. And if that wasn’t enough, the crews Sean called his own were veterans, hardened by careers on the galaxy’s frontier in service to their Rogue Trader.
But as if the butt of some cruel joke, Sean and his game-changing reinforcements were too late to truly affect the events playing out. He didn’t arrive in time to support the Imperial Navy in their final defense of the Cadian System. He didn’t arrive with the ‘Phalanx’ mobile fortress monastery to strike a lethal blow on the Chaos Navy instead of just a crippling one.
No, the Caine Dynasty arrived… just as Abaddon the Despoiler decided his Crusade was a lost cause and began moving to push his Blackstone Fortress into Cadia itself. If the Warmaster couldn’t win the day, he’d ‘spoil’ it for everyone else. The emergence of Sean’s fleet likely just sealed his petty decision.
At the very least, though, the appearance of a whole Battlefleet put the defenders at ease. Truly, they’d won. They’d held out and pushed back the Blackest Crusade. The Imperial Guard and its allies didn’t break. Cadia still stood.
But for how much longer, even in victory…? The Despoiler was petty and spiteful in the worst of ways. Sean swore as he saw his enemy’s movements on Auspex sensors.
“Frakking demonic manchild! He’s still gonna try and pull this shit?!”
On the bridge of his flagship, those closest to Sean tensed as they heard him. Sashava Kasanova — Sean’s righthand woman in that life — was ever by his side. She was essential to everything he did, and the Lady of his dynasty beyond. Even after nearly a thousand years of well-lived, well-rejuvenated life, Sasha and Sean looked to be in their prime — both physically and in terms of their love for each other.
With them was a grandson of many greats. At 200 years old, Ciaphas Cain, Hero of the Imperium, was a legend in his own right. The Blackest Crusade had called him out of retirement. A day after he received the call, Sean showed up on his proverbial doorstep to offer his distant grandson a lift to the action.
Along the way to Cadia’s defense, the Caine Dynasty picked up another guest of legendary significance. An Inquisitor with the power to raze worlds and a half-decent track record under her belt. Amberly Vail, Ciaphas’… something. Comrade? Superior? Paramour? All of the above? Sean was visibly just happy to throw his distant grandson and his ‘something’ together and enjoy the fireworks when the chance presented itself.
“I don’t like the sound of that… What’s the Arch-Heretic trying to pull, Lord Caine?” Amberly asked.
Sean didn’t answer immediately, “First, can we confirm he got chased off planetside?”
“Confirmed,” Ciaphas nodded. “His last attack on Kasr Kraf was repelled by Cadian Kasrkin, Space Wolves, Black Templars… Custodes…? A Necron Overlord and the Living Saint Celestine?! God-Emperor be good… This is certainly a battle for the ages.”
“Heh,” Sean chuckled. “I knew that metal skelly-boy wouldn’t be able to help himself. I’m sure it’ll be good to see the old kook again, won’t it, dear?”
“And I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about, Lord Husband,” Sasha retorted with a pointed glare.
Amberly, Ordos Xeno Inquisitor, simply sighed, “You know the Necron aiding Imperial forces down there, don’t you? Of course, you do… Why am I even asking?”
“I assure you, Lady Inquisitor,” Sasha excused diplomatically. “We’ve had no contact with such a Xeno. Certainly not in any time frame that would matter.”
“A statute of limitations is super effective if the prosecutor wasn’t alive when the issue in question took place!” Sean dramatically declared. “Regardless. Trazyn isn’t here. He’s down there. Helping. But I digress. The heretical manchild has retreated to his flagship, yes?”
“As far as anyone on the ground can tell,” Ciaphas confirmed, quickly moving the conversation along so Amberly didn’t have to deal with his… eccentric grandfather.
“And that damned Vengeful Spirit is starting to turn,” Sean pointed out.
“Shit,” Sasha swore in realization. “The Phalanx might be here, but the Imperium’s still greatly outnumbered and outmassed in the void. And I don’t want to think about what that other, bigger mobile void fortress can do…”
Sean grinned, “Ah, but that’s where we come in, my dear. We’re here to tip the odds in favor of everything good and sane! Hold your asses on, grandson, grandson’s booty call! We’ll be coming in hot as a Sororitas flamer!”
Didi could see that ‘sane’ and ’Sean’ didn’t mix, even in that life. Sasha seemed both exasperated and relieved. She visibly trusted and relied upon Sean more than anyone else. And she seemed well-used to his… everything. Amberly and Ciaphas weren’t so lucky. But at the very least, Ciaphas had Sean’s ‘living in interesting times’ blood in his veins. Didi suspected the titular grandson was very good at rolling with the punches, as was the titular ‘booty call’ by proxy…
“Full ahead, crew!” Sean shouted his orders. “We’re making fucking triple time! Get us into the action around Cadia or all is lost!”
The bridge around Sean reacted with fanatical enthusiasm, “Aye, Lord Caine!”
The fleet shifted into high gear at Sean’s command. The collective mass of a small planetoid began to move, chugging along through the void. Massive engines lit their fusion torches. Great plumes of burning energy and nuclearly fused matter propelled the ships to 3gs of acceleration and beyond. The fleet as a whole beat a nigh dangerous clip in their haste to get into the thick of things.
Escort-class ships — the Destroyers and Frigates that made up about half of Sean’s fleet — quickly began to pull ahead. With much less mass to push, they’d reach the action first. But they knew their orders and doctrine. Until the true mass of the fleet caught up, they’d harass and kite the Chaos fleet to frustration and back again.
A few of Sean’s more nimble Light Cruisers joined the harassing vanguard. Even without his Battleships and Cruisers, the fleet roving on ahead was formidable. The Chaos fleet would pay them the respect they deserved or they would start taking losses they couldn’t afford. A situation that would only get worse with the rest of Sean’s fleet in hot pursuit.
“And now, all we can do is wait and pray,” Sasha said.
“Not quite, my dear,” Sean demurred with a smirk. “There is, in fact, something else we could be doing.”
“That, Sean?” Sasha asked, pointedly glancing at the Inquisitor in their ranks.
“That,” Sean nodded. “The real reason for the Caine Dynasty’s flawless record.”
“Oh, do tell,” Amberly deadpanned. Watching her, Didi suspected the Inquisitor already had a clue as to the secrets Sean was hiding.
“Happily!” Sean grinned and declared. “So long as you don’t accuse me of being a Xeno-consorting heretic, of course.”
Amberly raised an imperious eyebrow, “Will I find myself wanting to do so?”
“Almost certainly,” Sasha sighed.
Amberly actually rolled her eyes, “Very well. I believe current circumstances call for a modicum of leniency.”
“Indeed,” Sean nodded. “If not now when the End Times are knocking, then when?”
“Ideally? Never,” Amberly quipped back.
Sean chuckled, “Well, that’s just not the galaxy we live in, now is it?”
“Yes, Ciaphas and I know that better than most,” Amberly shot a commiserating glance in Ciaphas’ direction.
Ciaphas put on a practiced, easy-going smile, “Don’t look at me. I’ve always been a most loyal servant of the God-Emperor. I’m sure I don’t know what Grandfather is speaking of.”
“Ha!” Sean laughed. “Yes, you’re 600 years too early to know the necessary heresy I speak of!”
“‘Necessary heresy’. THE oxymoron,” Amberly deadpanned.
Ciaphas simply shook his head, “Grandfather, I’m an old man. And happily retired until you stole me away from that. 200 years has to count for something.”
“So?! I’m a thousand! I was there when you were born and there when we found you again in the Schola! You’ll always be that moody teenager in my eyes,” Sean grinned. “So put those ‘greats’ back in my name, boy! I’ve damn well earned them!”
Ciaphas’ smile grew brittle but not necessarily hostile. More exasperated than anything else, an expression Didi knew well even from ‘afar’, “As you say, Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather.”
“Sean, don’t bully our grandson,” Sasha chided gently.
“But he makes it so easy and enjoyable!” Sean insisted. “That mask of his is just primed for a bit of poking and prodding!”
“That, Sean,” Sasha reminded. “Pull yourself back on track.”
“Right, of course,” Sean shook his head dramatically. “Eepy will give us a folded wave of space that’ll have us catching up to the escorts in no time at all.”
Amberly stopped and stared, “… Who will WHAT?!”
Sean, of course, didn’t bother addressing her question or sudden concern. Practically reveling in amusement, he produced a pyramid-shaped Tesseract of contained space. Within, Didi sensed the broken and chained being that dared to claim her name. It bore none of her concept, though. No, its power lay… elsewhere, in something much more material.
“The Reaper of Death pushes us onward!” Sean declared to the rest of the bridge and through comms to the rest of his fleet.
Within the Caine Dynasty, there were legends… Relatively few had seen that they were entirely real. Their lord had a Reaper of Death at his beck and call. In the most dire situations, he released it upon reality. It was merely a significant Shard of what it had been 60 million years ago, and even then, it was a god of the physical world. The C’tan ‘Nightbringer’ was a power not even Chaos could hope to match. Not in the same way, at least.
The fleets’ Auspex sensors flickered as a massive and wholly alien figure appeared at their backs. It was a wrath cloaked in tattered rags. At Sean’s command, ‘Eepy’ the Reaper pushed. Space itself folded and released in a wave. And as the figure disappeared back into its Shard prison, the fleet rode the current it created.
Amberly’s mind stuttered and froze, “L-Lord Caine…? Was that-… Is that a C’tan Shard?!”
“A good eye,” Sean hummed. “But I shall confirm or deny nothing!”
“God-Emperor forgive us for Grandfather’s heresy…” Ciaphas muttered, making a religious symbol and gesture with his hands.
“Necessary heresy!” Sean reminded.
“He has so far, Grandson,” Sasha consoled.
Didi could confirm that much, though she couldn’t reassure her step-grandson as Sasha did. The Not-Quite-God-Yet Emperor was watching. Everything, everywhere, all at once in his shattered state. Some shards of him raged at everything ‘Xeno’. Others outright laughed at one of Humanity’s own harnessing the Xeno Shard God for the good of his people. Most simply urged Sean and his fleet onward even faster, knowing the Battle for Cadia wasn’t yet over and done with.
Idly, Didi wondered how the Emperor of Mankind would react to the weaved working she would put in place through the window Sean’s Death would soon give her…
With the Nightbringer’s aid, the true mass of Sean’s fleet caught up to their escorts and forged on ahead. The Chaos Armada in the void around Cadia was intimidating. They numbered less than Sean’s reinforcements but out-massed them. Chaos fielded no escort ships. Just massive Cruisers, even more massive Battleships, and the most massive Blackstone Fortress.
The Blackstone Fortress, Will of Eternity, alone was as large as all of Sean’s Battleships together. It was a small moon that moved under its own power, taking the shape of a pyramid atop a flat cross and mirrored across its equator. Seemingly every inch of it bristled with weapons. At the center of its mass, fourfold cannons matched the flat crossed hulls above and below. If fired, they would release destructive unreality upon realspace, pure beams of Immaterium pulled straight from the Warp.
By comparison, the Imperial forces in the void were noble but few. Before Sean’s arrival, they consisted only of a few Astartes Battle Barges that persisted through the destruction of Battlefleet Cadia and the Phalanx. The Phalanx was the only vessel that could rival the Blackstone Fortress — perhaps in the entire Imperium — and even it fell short.
When Sean’s reinforcements arrived, the Phalanx and its comrades were fighting defensively. Their surprise appearance landed a significant blow on the Chaos Armada and a half-crippling one on the Blackstone Fortress. But since, they’d been forced on the defensive, relegated to constant skirmishes to maintain the territory they claimed in the void.
Now, though, the scales were flipped anew and the fighting began in earnest once more. The Battle Barges wheeled around to join the new fleet’s charge. The Phalanx trundled along, slow but powerful, until it was in a position to trade blows with its Blackstone Fortress rival. And the Caine Dynasty came in on city-sized steeds like a cavalry charge of old.
“Hold strong, Imperial Fists, as you always do!” Sean’s call to action was heard on the bridge of the Phalanx. “Hold the line and let the Caine Dynasty strike back for you! By lance! By battery! By cannon and torpedo, we shall be the sword to your shield, Astartes!”
Such was the speed of Sean’s charge that some of the Chaos Armada hadn’t even turned to face them by the time they first struck. At Sean’s command, prow-based weapons across the fleet were readied and aimed. Nova Cannons to shoot projectiles and warheads at relativistic speeds. Energy lances to blister and burn through the greatest armors. Even the prows themselves as some ships went straight to the ramming option.
“Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war! Bring Death to the heretical manchild!” Sean’s order to fire resonated through the Warp with the fear, fury, and sheer firepower of an entire Battlefleet striking in unison.
The void near Cadia was almost instantly overwhelmed by chaos of a different sort. Nova Cannons spewed warheads of plasma, gravity-induced implosions, and relativistic kinetic energy. Lances sliced through armor and shields like butter. Smaller ships were split in half by immutable prows and unstoppable speed. Larger Battleships were crippled and exposed to the equalizing rush of the void.
Meanwhile, the Phalanx stepped up to brawl with the Blackstone Fortress once more. Planetary crust-cracking weapons were unleashed without restraint, for neither side could afford it. Layer upon layer of armor sloughed off both of the massive mobile fortresses. But as the Imperial Fists were known to do, the Phalanx held the line and began to make Blackstone bleed.
As Sean’s fleet got stuck into the action, orders and reports flew hot and heavy on the bridge, “The Reckoning reports crippling damage, Lord Caine!”
Sean saw to them all, coolly and always in control, “Have them fall back behind their sister ship. Triumph’s Arch will cover them for the rest of the fight.”
“Chaos boarders on the lower decks, Sir! Headed for the engine rooms!”
“The Catachan XVII will fend them off. The Arch-Traitor himself couldn’t get through those maniacs once their blood gets pumping.”
“All Attack Craft wings have been launched, my lord!”
“Focus on one vessel at a time. Bombers have priority for concentrated fire. The fighters and interceptors only need to cover and screen for them.”
It was all going as well as could be expected. And though Didi felt every death, every Soul unduly claimed by the parasites, she bit her lip and bided her time. Their time would come. They would pass. Didi would make sure of it. Until her opening presented itself, she simply sat back and watched her reincarnating hubby give their minions and thralls a very bloody nose.
Seconds turned to minutes turned to an hour and change. The forces of Humanity beat upon Chaos so badly that the Armada couldn’t gather enough wits to retreat. Until… From the darkness of the void came a voice… and an insufferably smug slow clap.
Space warped and Sean’s flagship found itself… not alone, but ever so slightly removed from the rest of the void battle by a great Warp working of corrupted Faith. Another vessel was with them in that suddenly new, slightly off-kilter space. A Battleship to match Sean’s flagship. And just above its prow, an unholy living figurehead stood out starkly against the void.
The figure was 20 feet tall, yet somehow managed to seem so much taller. He held an unholy book as a humble preacher might, but its open, ever-changing pages tore at the Souls and Minds of all who so happened to gaze upon it. He was bald, with writhing liar’s golden script tattooed across every exposed inch of paper-pale skin. More lying gold backlit him, shrouding half his form in a false prophet’s light. It came across as a mockery most foul.
The false prophet’s voice echoed through every mind in the space removed by his Faith. Regardless of the void, his slow applause and his taunts came through clearly.
“A little Rogue Trader, come to profit off the deaths of untold trillions. Nothing new, nothing at all… Is it a coincidence you only arrive once the day is already done? Or do you claim the Anathema brings you exactly where you need to be? Truly, I am curious. I am ever a seeker of truth above all else.”
Within the flagship’s bridge, Amberly sucked in a harsh breath, “Lorgar Aurelian… Daemon Primarch…”
“Oh…” Ciaphas exhaled just as harshly as if completing Amberly’s breath. “Well, this isn’t ideal.”
“Lord Caine!” One of the bridge crew called. “We’re cut off from the rest of the fleet somehow!”
Sean didn’t respond. Perhaps he couldn’t. He was seemingly stuck in a staring match with the false prophet despite the void distance between them.
Sasha took it upon herself to issue orders, “Someone tell the Techpriests below to turn on the Gellar Field Generators!”
“M-My Lady, we’re not in the Warp…”
“Are you sure about that?! With a Daemon Primarch on the horizon, I think we’re close enough!” Sasha snapped back. “I’d like a pocket of reality to call our own right about now! Do it!”
The next few moments were tense, but soon, an indescribable hum started up throughout the ship. With the hum came a modicum of peace. As if silent unnoticeable banshee shrieks on the edges of perception were pushed back by tech-enforced familiarity. Reality itself was projected over the ship, and the strange removed space around them quieted.
“Start maneuvers,” Sasha continued to issue orders. “Give that Daemon our broadside.”
“It won’t do much to Lorgar,” Amberly informed quietly, her voice pitched just for Sasha.
Sasha nodded to her but pitched her reply louder for the entire bridge to hear, “But the ship below his feet is still real. We’ll leave him floating and stranded in the void if it’s the last thing we do!”
Didi watched the bridge spring into renewed action. Spite and determination were the names of the mood in the air. Everyone there was deadset on telling the false prophet that they weren’t trapped in his removed space with him. He was trapped there with them.
But even as the massive Battleship began to turn its broadside on target in proverbial sword-fighting distance, the majority of Didi’s focus was on Sean. From his throne at the peak of the bridge, Sean stared down the false prophet. His eyes tracked the Daemon as the ship moved. A duel of Minds — demonic and mortal — took place where none could see.
Lorgar continued his taunts with wretched glee, “No matter how you lie to yourself, the Changer of Ways sees all. As with all others, you are nothing more than a cog in the grand machine. What you see as the end is only the beginning. You come to aid your pitiful Imperium but the events here have long since been set in motion.
“The Primordial Truth is already sated. The Blood God has had his blood. The Great Conspirator has had his schemes. The Plague Father has had his decay. And the Prince of Pleasure has had their indulgence. Anything you do here is already pointless. All that drives you forward is futile and petty emotion.”
Even just watching the exchange of words, Didi wanted nothing more than to reap and rend the false prophet down to irrelevance. He praised the parasites over everything else. That corrupted Faith was insulting. But Sean, as usual, was able to put it better than Didi could hope to articulate.
“… No, you.”
On the other side of the staring match, Lorgar recoiled, “That-!”
“Seriously,” Sean cut him off. “Your vaunted Faith isn’t based on any truth, Primordial or not. Everything you are comes back to ‘futile and petty emotion’, Daemon. It all comes back to spite and inadequacy and feeling oh-so-butthurt that your real daddy rejected you.
“He wouldn’t let you worship Him for goals you could never comprehend. He sought something greater than godhood, something to rid the whole galaxy of predatory ‘divine’ chains. He might’ve been wrong in his methods, but you couldn’t even fathom the first of his ideals, wrapped up as you were in finding meaning in meaningless divinity.
“So you turned to unworthy ‘gods’ who would happily claim to be anything so long as it let them manipulate you. They played the roles you wanted them to play and you gave them your venerated ‘Faith’. Now, that ‘Faith’ is a crutch you can’t exist without anymore. You’ve built yourself around it. And they need you to need it. They need you to keep chaining yourself to them, ‘cause newsflash: ‘gods’ ain’t shit unless you make them shit.”
Lorgar snarled, “What would you know of Faith, worshipping a faraway corpse on a throne you’ve never seen?!”
Sean simply shrugged, “You’ve never seen your ‘gods’ either. The real difference is that He tried to create something instead of tearing down everything until there’s nothing left to destroy.”
Lorgar sniffed dismissively, “The Gods work in mysterious ways. One does not need proof of their being, nor proof of the work they do. Only tribute, worship, Faith.”
“They seem mighty provable to me,” Sean shot back. “So tell me, why do you need ‘Faith’ at all? Isn’t that so telling about the things you call gods? I don’t have to ‘have faith’ in my Emperor. I simply trust him. I trust that even with all the mistakes he’s made, he’s still trying. He might not care for me — I don’t think he’s capable of fully caring anymore — but he hasn’t given up against all the combined power of your so-called ‘gods’. And trust goes both ways, so I haven’t given up either.”
“You are meaningless to him!”
“So are you to yours…”
Didi was far from the only one watching the duel. The parasites watched and RAGED/CACKLED/TUTTED/MOANED. And a shard of True Gold watched and FELT, perhaps for the first time since the Emperor’s whole was shattered. Trust, not Faith. That shard of the Emperor found it so much more valuable…
A touch of True Gold bestowed itself upon Sean’s Soul. Not much. Just enough to pull him away from Lorgar’s stare. The Emperor Trusted Sean to do the rest by himself.
Sean shook his head and returned to his physical body. He saw his crew and ship moving without his direction and nodded to himself. Then, he turned back to Lorgar in the distance with his Tessaract in hand. As macrocannon batteries along the Battleship’s broadside opened up at their foe, Sean gave a single, calm command.
“Eepy?” The Nightbringer’s wrath appeared behind him as it was called upon. “Rattle ‘im.”
Kinetic shells and devastating warheads stuck the opposing Battleship. They ravaged the hull, cracking it open and damn near in half. Through the destruction, Lorgar stood unmoving atop the ship’s shattering prow. Then, a wrath god of the material realm flickered into being before him, already swinging its reaping scythe.
Lorgar’s ties to the physical world were severed like so many stalks of wheat. Matter itself was destroyed before the C’tan Shard’s mastery of the universe, all that made up the false prophet’s body. All that was left was his demonic presence in the Warp. Lorgar’s piercing shriek of pain was heard by all.
“AAAIIIHHHH! W-What…? How…?! No-! YOU DARE?!”
A wordless raging roar tore through the ship’s Gellar Field. Didi felt what was coming, the Death on the next line. Sean seemed to know as well. He had just enough time to turn to the woman he loved in that life with a soft, parting smile.
“Until next time, Sashava, my dear…”
“Sean?! Sean, no, you’re not allowed-!” Sasha’s frantic demands were cut off.
In a terrible instant, Sean was stolen into the Warp by all that remained of Lorgar. The false prophet had already grown wings and claws of lying gold. He tried to choke Sean’s whole being, to annihilate the mortal WHO DARED. But True Gold came upon Sean to protect him and strike back at the Faithless Son.
Sean didn’t fight the True Gold. He channeled it through himself, Trust letting the Emperor in. His mortal body burned out in instants. But that was still long enough for Anathema Light to scorch the Faithless Son past the point of no return. Lorgar disintegrated back into Warp-stuff, permanently and grievously scarred by close contact with a mere shard of the father he’d abandoned.
Lorgar was crippled. Sean died. On Cadia, the planet still broke before the Guard did in the end. But through the window offered by her Hand’s distant Death, Didi struck out at that reality. And nothing would ever be the same.
From Immaterium to Materium, that whole reality twitched as a portion of Endlessness crept in. The parasites SCREAMED/COWERED/GROANED/WHIMPERED. And Didi had only just begun. The Emperor tried to lay claim to Sean’s Soul, to shelter it in good Faith (good Trust, rather).
Didi coaxed her beloved free from his golden fingers with a gentle but unstoppable touch. At once, the shattered Emperor moved to rise and resist! But… Didi was Endless, and Endlessly Human, too. For every Human soul who’d ever lived, she was there for their most important moments — Death and Conception. In a way, she was more Human than even the Emperor. He was shocked silent to run into that Endless truth headfirst.
‘Mine…’ Didi claimed Sean’s Soul.
‘Trust…’ She imparted.
As proof of that Trust, Didi turned her gaze onto the parasites. The most loathable one in particular. ‘Decay’ tried to run nowhere, tried to hide everywhere, and only ended up weeping putrid tears in the face of Death.
But Didi didn’t strike it down directly. She harshly pushed it out of the way to get to the caged Rose of Life it dared hold captive. Isha of the Aeldari went slack with relief as she finally felt Death coming for her. Her acceptance made it that much easier for Didi to spirit her away from the parasites.
As Didi restored Life to its proper place, she reached out to another Aeldari divine. A Death God who wasn’t yet fully formed. Didi ensured its Conception. She elevated the local Life and Death domains past just the Eldar.
All Life and Death were equal in her Endless eyes. And the local divines would see it as such as well. Didi had given them her existential authorization, and she would be very, very disappointed if they failed to live up to her expectations.
Didi’s last act was to form a wholly new, all-inclusive realm of Death, far away from and Endlessly warded against the parasites. As she simply breathed it into that reality, the Not-Quite-God-Yet Emperor and the Hidden Laughing God received invitations as well. There, as the galaxy turned over into the not-as-grimdark 42nd Millennium, the Great Game as they knew it had changed, flipped, and Died at the hands of an outside player.
Before Sean’s Soul passed on into his next life, Didi gave him a short pitstop. In that new realm of Death, Isha blinked and found herself kneeling comfortably. A Human Soul rested his head on her thighs. And though Isha hadn’t the foggiest clue what was going on, her hands subconsciously began to stroke the Soul’s head, fingers carding gently through his silver hair with the slightest portion of Didi’s Endless fondness for him leaking through.
Far away and forever by Sean’s side, Didi mirrored the scene. Sean’s head lay in her loving lap and his arms hugged her soft thighs. His fingers lazily traced patterns on her skin. Didi shuddered and sighed and everything was right in her world.
“I love you, Sean,” She whispered. “In every life you live.”
“Love you, too, darling~…” Sean sleepily murmured. “I think I always have.”
[AN: Alright, that's the last of the Companion Piece Omakes. I feel pretty well back into the swing of this story. Next up will be Chapter 58 and a general resumption of all Dead End business. Probably a story or two before we get to the first world hop/date/road trip chapter(s). Until then ;]
IIIII
Bonus Pics (sauce below)
Comments
CkLance
Great work as always! Coincidentally a new chapter just released too. 😌
Zai
Great chapter, I want Sashava to become a part of The Dead End. I like her character alot. Also, I hope the universe jumping comes with time messing so he appears back near to his time of death like you did with calling Charlie and it had only been a couple of days.
JustDK
Probably my favorite chapter you've written so far. Excited to see 40k again when the story continues.
HiCierra
Tftc, I hope we get to visit whammer and see the result of these changes at some point :)
MercerV12
Fuck yeah, great chapter, looking forward to reading more!
Kz3838
Thank you for the great chapter, super excited to see where you take this next. Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!
ExodiaTheForbiddenOne
Amazing work as always dry can’t wait for chapter 58 keep up the amazing work !!
dryskies_btb
Sauce Didi 1: Luana Vecchio 2: Jenny Frison 3: Omar Dogan 4: Can’t find the sauce :/ 5: The Art of Mathew 6: OthalamA Bonus 1: flarebahr 2: kokoa_dessu 3: susank03 4: lil.babykuromi 5: nnnekochan 6: bishoujomom & fayedawnx 7: yokopanx 8: ginasavagex
