Canoness Katherine strode through the corridors of the Arbites barracks, drawing plenty of surprised looks from the men and women of that august force. The directions she had been given turned out to be thankfully accurate, and she found herself standing at the Interrogator's door, though strangely, his nametag had been taken down from the door. Cocking her head slightly in curiosity, she rapped on the door with the back of her knuckles.
Another damn visitor. Delphias thought, slamming a box of pics down on his bed and turning to open the door. He was jarred by the sight of an armored sorita standing in the threshold. Delphias sputtered for a moment before finding his voice. "Katherine- what are you doing here?" he asked, confused.
"I was hoping to speak with you...privately," She replied, glancing down the hall at the arbitrators, some of whom were watching surreptitiously, other openly staring at the bizarre sight. "About the attack on the Pompeii Estate."
"Urm, of course. If you would come in, I know it isn't roomy, but it is private," he said, more for the benefit of the half a dozen arbites watching him than for Katherine. Hopping onto the upper tier of the bunkbed- Gorson had slept on the lower one, he gestured to a small chair in the corner. Between Sister and Arbitrator, there was not much room left. Delphias slid the door shut. "What did you want to talk about?"
Katherine cleared her throat as she backed up against the wall. Her glance darted to the closed door, knowing she was breaking one of the cardinal rules of the Adeptus Sororitas...No Sister should even be alone with a man. She took a deep breath, "I will come straight to the point...Aside from Inquisitor Godschilde, you are the only one to have encountered Gaius and lived. I hoped that you would tell me anything you could about him. His appearance, weapons, and powers he displayed. I'm afraid we know nothing of him in this incarnation."
Delphias took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You want to know about Savitiae." his voice was quite. "You must understand, sister, that this is difficult for me. His appearance? He wore armor, violet, or near enough. His weapon? A whip, not normal but it-" Delphias stopped. "It cut well enough." He closed his eyes, leaning back against the wall of the cell. "His other hand bore claws like the most horrible renditions of the Warmaster." Delphias spoke, his voice wavering, then simply sat.
"Claws...that's new," Katherine nodded. "The purple armor and the Neural Whip are old favorites though."
"The armor...writhed, it was alive-" Delphias cut himself off. "He spoke to me, before he disappeared. Gaius claimed to have ascended, said that he was no longer a man...he was a demi-god." The arbitrator looked away, eyes held shut.
"Delusions of Grandeur?..." Katherine pondered. "Or has he had some sort of dark apotheosis during his stay in the Eye of Terror. Has Slaanesh favored him so greatly as to make him some sort of daemon-infused Sorcerer?"
"I'm afraid I wasn't taking detailed notes, Katherine." he said, darkly. "Forgive me for being distracted by...other things."
"It is not my intention to pressure you, Delphias...just what you can remember," She watched him for a moment, "I know about your friend...Gorson. I won't insult you by making speeches about sacrifice, martyrdom, and grieving. I'm sure you've heard it all before."
For a moment Delphias did not move. When he spoke again, his voice was strained and quiet. "I am the messiah of Slaanesh, the apotheosis of mortal man." The arbitrator stopped for a moment. "That is all I can tell you about him."
The Mother Superior stroked her chin, "All right." She moved toward the door but paused before opening it, "If you should think of anything, I would very much appreciate it if you would seek me out. I'm not usually hard to find." She laid a hand on his shoulder, "Emperor Protects, Delphias."
He looked into Katherine's eyes, for a long moment. "For some of us, Katherine. For some."
Having felt the stinging loss of so many beloved friends and fellow sisters, and the mentor she loved before all others, Saint Magdalena, Katherine chose not to reply as she left the room.
Sixty kilometers from the capital of Constantius, tall mountain peaks loomed over the foothills upon which the foundation of the city was laid. White-capped with snow, the great mountains were covered in dense fir and pine trees, deep valleys cleft into them, snaking far into the range. Northeast of the city, some forty kilometers into the mountains, was a ridge of granite and sandstone, jutting out from side of the mountain, a thousand feet above the valley floor. Upon the precarious ledge was perched a walled keep of thick stone quarried from the bones of the hill itself. Tall guard towers with Phaeton air defense autocannons stood silent sentinel over the fortress. Within the walls stood four stout buildings of irregular stone and mortar surrounding a modest cathedral of like manufacture.
The Abbey of Saint Celestine.
Two Valkyrie orbital transports banked into view of the Abbey, flying low in the valley. The bulky war machines rocketed over the trees at combat speed, behind them two smaller Argus lighters. They were painted in the mottled grey of the Byzantium Legions, the markings of the Legio Sextus on the wings. The pair of Valkyries suddenly pitched up, arcing high into the sky and rolling into an attack pattern.
Missiles slung under the wing streaked forth, white contrails of smoke behind them. They slammed into the nearer defense towers with explosions of fire and debris. The autocannons of the far towers opened fire, but were woefully ineffective at the long range. Lances of brilliant light streaked outward from the nose-mounted lascannons of the aircraft, blasting apart the defensive gunnery stations.
Seconds later, the Valkyries were dashing in and hovering over the Abbey, small arms fire ringing off the armored hulls. Rear bay doors opened and from each leapt six armored figures clad in pink and lavender. The Sisters of Slaanesh hit the ground running, their perverse warp-spawned weapons howling as they fired pulses of psychic agony. Defenders in burgundy and cream returned fire from the walls with a mixture of weapons. Lasguns, hellguns, shotguns and other small arms hailed down at the heavily armored Sisters of Slaanesh. Two of the daemonic-tainted Sisters carried long poles with a standard of a six-rayed star…the Icon of Slaanesh.
The air seemed to ripple outward from the Icons, as though reality was reflected in a glassy lake into which someone had dropped a pebble. Then reality tore itself asunder with a shrieking cacophony of sound. Daemonettes with clawed hands fell from the great rends in space-time, rushing toward the nearest defenders, laughing with sadistic glee.
Overhead, the two Argus lighters arrived and opened their bay doors. Another squad of six of the Twisted former Adeptus Sororitas leapt from one. From the other Gaius Romulus Saevitiae looked down upon the battle raging below. Sporting a hellish grin, he dropped from the craft, landing in the Abbey's courtyard with the sound of a thunderclap. "Rebecca!" He shouted.
The former Canoness flew down with terrifying grace on her wide, bat-like wings of black. "Yes, master?"
"Bring me the Acolyte girls…alive," He ordered sternly. Katherine would mourn the deaths of so many children to be sure, but would also take solace in their "glorious martyrdom" for the Emperor.
But…if he captured them…tortured and defiled them…and turned them as he had the sisters of the convent…
…That would surely break the Canoness' heart.
Rebecca licked her lips and nodded, "Thy will be done, Master." Not only the location, but the very existence of the Abbey for training girls to become sisters was a well kept secret on Byzantium. The populace, Senate, and even the Ecclesiarchy were unaware of it. However, Rebecca had been the former Canoness, and now the traitorous Sister was ready to sacrifice the souls of those poor girls for her new lord and master.
A blast struck Gaius shoulder, causing him to rock back, though his daemonic armor held firm. Thirty meters away, a handful of carapace-armored sisters were piling out of one of the buildings, firing their hellguns. Snarling, he extended his arm, and with it his power. A ripple of psionic energy pulsed out, sweeping over the women. Each fell to the ground screeching as though their every nerve was on fire.
Nearby another cluster of older sisters in flex armor covered with burgundy and cream tabards emerged from the small Cathedral. They raised lasguns and shotguns to their shoulders, but Gaius was on them before fingers could pull on the triggers. In his left hand was the Lash of Torment, a whip of vile, pink flesh…a daemon crafted into the form of a weapon. It arced out, boring into two of the defenders, its touch paralyzing them with rapturous torments and ghastly pleasures. He reached out with his right hand, clawed like a daemon, and grasped a helmed head. With a frightful wrench he ripped it from the woman's body, and used it to club down another. Another stabbed at him with a bayonet attached to the end of her rifle, but it glanced off the living plates of his daemonic armor. His counterattacked punched his hand through her flex armor, and through her abdomen to explode in a fountain of blood from her back.
Gaius' brows creased as he sniffed the air, "Something is wrong…" He turned his back on the Cathedral to survey the battle. Only three of his daemonically-tainted sister were lying dead or wounded. Scanning the scene, he noted dozens of defenders clad as acolytes strewn about the courtyard of the keep. Not one sister of the Adeptus Sororitas in their distinctive Vestments power armor, wielding their Godwyn pattern bolters. He looked down at the dead woman still impaled on his right arm. The Lash of Torment wrapped itself around his left arm, moving of its own volition like a snake, leaving his other hand free. He removed the woman's helmet to see a middle aged face of a woman in her early forties. Raising her corpse, he sniffed her neck. "You smell of sin…of the seed of man. You are no Acolyte, nor Sister." Looking down at her bare arm he saw a tattoo of the Aquila with a Byzantine "V"…the symbol of the Fifth Legion.
He tossed the body away unceremoniously and cocked his fist back angrily. The heavy doors of the Cathedral shattered as he struck them in his rage. As he stepped into the holy sanctum, he was immediately beset upon by a cadre of shieldmaidens, crusaders of the Inquisition in carapace armor and suppression shields, bearing blades humming with power.
The Lash of Torment found its way into his hand again and he tore into them, licking his lips in revelry of his power. The Whip claimed one, then a blade cleft through the warp-spawned power of his armor, thrusting into his left bicep. "Arrgh! I'll have your soul you little bitch!" He roared, his psych power unleashed. It flooded the woman, who collapsed to the tile floor, thrashing and wailing. The "Gift of Slaanesh" was one of the most horrible powers of the fell Chaos gods, overwhelming the ill-fated victim with ecstasies so wretched and agonies so sublime they defied the bounds of human language to express. The short, but intense torture was so great, it opened the mind to the horrors of the Warp. The crusader's body ballooned outward, sprouting tentacles and pseudopods. The flesh split into numerous ghastly mouths ringed in razor-like teeth. Her soul howled as it was consumed and she became a Spawn of Chaos.
The spawn reached out and wrapped another Crusader in its tentacles, dragging her kicking and screaming against its horrific bulk. The woman's terrified screams echoed throughout the small Cathedral as she was devoured by a dozen toothy maws. The last Crusader swung for Gaius' head, seeking to decapitate the fiend, but he ducked under the powerful blow. The Messiah of Slaanesh grabbed the edge of her shield, ripping it from her grasp and split her in twain with the Lash of Torment.
As the two pieces fell to the ground, splattering the sepulcher with gore, Gaius looked up to see a woman by the altar. She was dressed in power armor of the Vestments pattern, but in burgundy and cream, rather than the crimson and white of the Order of Saint Magdalena. Her chestnut hair was plaited in braids, bundled at the back of her head. She raised a bolt pistol and fired. He ignored the rounds ricocheting off his armor as he stepped forward, four great strides getting him close enough to strike. The Lash whipped out and wrapped itself around her wrist, crushing it like the deadly embrace of a python. Her pistol clattered to the floor and Gaius took her by the neck, forcing her back against the altar. "Where are the Acolytes?"
"Gone," She choked. "Out of your reach, fiend. Torture me as you will, but I know not where."
Gaius sneered, mumbling, "Clever girl, Katherine…" He understood now. Katherine had predicted that with Rebecca's "conversion", he would find out about the Abbey and seek it out. She had moved them somewhere else, leaving behind a skeleton crew of defenders to look after the facility. Deep inside, he gained a slightly greater measure of respect for the Canoness…"Hmmm…Sacrificial sheep left for the slaughter so the good little lambs could escape. Impressive. I didn't think she had such ruthlessness in her."
"Ruthless?" The woman snorted, "We volunteered, every one of us. For even the slightest chance of destroying you and your perverse monstrosities…sure martyrdom is a small price." Gaius looked down upon the defiant woman and nodded. Zealots…civilian women who were impure or otherwise unsuited to become true Sororitas, and retired female Legionnaires who swore themselves to the service of the Convent. Her eyes dropped to his arm, where his red blood was flowing freely down the deep violet of his armor. "And we have shown the Messiah of Slaanesh is just as mortal as anyone…"
His lips curled up into a wry smile, "Not precisely, little priestess. You are one of Sister Bethany's heretical priestesses aren't you?" He reached his left hand up and stroked her cheek, leaving a smear of his blood as grisly decoration. "I will enjoy the opportunity to test your faith, little girl. I will enjoy making you scream…and moan…and beg for more."
"No, you will not…" Despite the pressure around her throat, a smile broke across her face. Her eyes became glassy and her voice unnaturally soft. "…My martyrdom was assured when you broke down the door…"
The Messiah's eyes narrowed as she went limp in his arms, eyes wide open and the smile still on her dead face. Poison. He thought as he released her, and she slumped to the flagstone tiles. She had taken poison when it was clear they would lose the battle, to ensure they could not be taken and turned against those they loved. Gaius rubbed his face absently, streaking his own blood across it. Looking up, he saw the Simulacrum Imperialis, the statue of the Emperor on the Golden Throne looking down upon him with his stern gaze. Once he too had worshipped and served the God-Emperor…the desiccated corpse kept alive only by the mysteries of the Throne…and the life energy of thousands of psychics a year…
Gaius stared into the eyes of the Simulacrum, whispering, "You're closer to a daemon than human, aren't you, Corpse-Emperor?" With a sudden burst of fury, he reached up and grasped the statue, toppling it. It crashed to the ground, shattering into several pieces. The head rolled across the floor to the doorway, to stop, looking up at Rebecca.
"The child-acolytes aren't here," She said carefully. The eyes of the former Canoness fell down to the stone head of the Emperor and felt a sudden pang of guilt in her heart.
When she looked up again, Gaius was standing directly before her, ice blue eyes regarding her intensely…as though he could peer through her, directly into the core of her being. "I know." He bent over and picked up the head of the Simulacrum, regarding it with a grin, "Keep it…a souvenir. I destroyed a convent and all I got was this stupid stone head."
He dropped the head into her hands and walked past her, out the door and into the courtyard. She followed him, glancing over her shoulder at the dead priestess, "We took few prisoners, and all of them wounded. Most fought to the death and those wounded who were able took their own lives rather than be captured."
Gaius shrugged, "Kill them, in whatever ways amuse you and the Sisters the most." He signaled to the Argus lighters and they circled, preparing to land. With command of the entire Sixth Legion established, he now had access to their resources.
"The girls will enjoy a little recreation." Rebecca smiled wistfully, tossing the head between her hands casually, her brief guilt seemingly having passed. "What next?"
The lighter landed before him, the rear ramp opening. He stepped up the ramp, looking down at his bloody arm, "We check our sources to find out where those children are…if none of our remaining Ecclesiastic or Arbitrator assets can uncover their location, perhaps Hema can." He turned with a shrug, "But breaking Katherine is just a side project. Come…we have a planet to conquer…"
Simone stepped off the armored transport in front of the Hall of Order. Scores of Arbites and Judges were coming and going on daily business and barely spared her a look. But the tension of the events of the last few days was present here. The officers were alert and on edge. Maybe Delphias had a point in suggesting this move. The Cathedral was a beautiful, and she had thought, secure place to work from but here might be better. Surely, they all would be better served surrounded by the highly trained troops of Arbites. She would have to thank Delphias for his excellent thought on the matter.
It didn't take her staff and the extra Arbites helping her long, to move her meager belongings and equipment into a new set of quarters. She tended to travel rather lightly in the first place. The Arbites' command building already had holding cells and interrogation rooms that she would be using so there was no need to make due with the rooms under the Cathedral. Yes, it was a good suggestion Del had had.
Simone took only an hour or so to set her command center up and had things humming along in record time. Malachi and Lucas were stationed, as they always were, one at her back and one at the door while she worked. That morning was made up of reports to be read and sent. And she was still digging for files on the Thunderfall campaign. There was something there. Something not …right. She could feel it waiting just under the surface, if she could only find a way to get to it. She rubbed her forehead, a slight headache blooming behind her eyes. The fierce pain she had felt before she had 'met ' Gaius had not returned. Whatever he had done to her had broken it's hold on her. Whatever he did? she questioned herself. Or did he simply open the door to what was already lurking in your mind. A corruption you should have been aware of? She stopped and laid the handheld computer down. A feeling of nausea roiled in her belly. Corruption you have carried all your life. She took off the small round spectacles she wore. The Church calls it a benediction. It is something to be used to serve the Emperor. She tried to reassure herself. When it is known, registered, molded by training. She stood up, though it was a little early for her midday prayers, she felt and urgent need to cleanse herself with the rituals of obedience. "Malachi," she said to her older Crusader, "I will be… I need to be at my devotions."
The trooper nodded, "Of course, Mistress." If he thought it odd that she was early, he said nothing.
Simone made her way from the office to the small room she had set up as a temporary chapel. The banner of the God Emperor hung on the far wall behind a simple soldier's alter. She lit the single fat white candle on the altar and dropped down to her knees, folding her hands together.
She started with the simple chants, designed to focus the mind. But the peace that always accompanied these prayers eluded her. A feeling of tension stretched her shoulders taunt and kept her from focus. She shifted on the hard floor. She suddenly darted a look over her shoulder. She would have sworn someone was …watching her. She shook herself and resettled to the prayer, struggling to channel her rambling thoughts on the God Emperor. But her mind refused to cooperate. A feeling of paranoia settled over her heart. Something was wrong here.
Not with the peace or properness of the small chapel, but maybe with her. A deep-seated sensation of unease rolled over her. She sprang up and paced a small circle in the 10 x 10 windowless room. There was nothing here, she told herself. Nothing to be…afraid of. She blew out the breath she hadn't known she was holding and returned to the center of the chapel and resettled herself. She bowed her head over her hands and restarted the prayers.
As she knelt before the Simulacrum, she felt a stiff breeze of cold air wash over her and snuff out the small candle flame. She heard a deep voice behind her, "Good morning, Inquisitor." She turned her head to see an Arbitrator Judge, standing in his distinctive uniform and armor of blue so dark it seemed almost black. On his breast was a nametag that read Lucius Scaevola.
Simone leapt to her feet, whipping around to face the intruder. "Who.." she choked out. Scaevola? The name beat at her like the wings of a trapped bird. She pressed both hands to her head: her brain suddenly on fire. Her vision doubled painfully as the world swam before her. Lucius Scaevola, the missing Judge. The missing judge that had brought her attention to Byzantium in the first place. But unless this was the man's ghost, she knew instantly that this was not Lucius Scaevola.
The Judge stepped forward, his form seeming to waver like a heat shimmer rising from an asphalt road in the burning sun. The deep blue shifted hue to that of dark violet as the figure seemed to grow to imposing size. In two steps he had transformed from the missing judge to a figure she had come to know entirely too well...
Gaius Romulus Saevitiae.
"Miss me?"
Simone's eyes grew wide and she backed away from him. "How?" she stopped as her thighs barked up against the Simulacrum. "How can you be here?" she realized in a panic that she wore neither armor nor carried a weapon. Why should she? After all she was safe as could be surrounded by her own guards and hundreds of Arbites! She steeled herself and settled into the hand to hand stance she had been drilled on in her training. "Lucas. Intruder!" She called as loudly as she could. She may not be able to kill this son of a whore but her Stormtrooper certainly could.
"Shouting will do you no good, Simone," He smiled, continuing forward to press her up against the statue of the Emperor. If you call that boy in here I will kill him, as I did the other one at the estate. I'm just here to talk, little Inquisitor." He looked down upon her, invading her personal space so that the plates of his anatomical-looking armor brushed against her corset. "Extend your senses, Simone...you think I have come alone?"
And she could feel that was the truth. The thin fabric of reality that separated the Warp from real space was strained and pulled taut by the press of daemons in the Immaterium. Behind that gossamer veil that most beings could not sense, they pressed against it, snarling and covetous of the living flesh of those in real space. As a living Icon of Slaanesh, they followed him through the Immaterium, and he need only flex his will and the veil would tear, spilling the foul daemons into the world.
Simone fought down the bile that rose as she felt the evil that followed him like a shadow. Quickly, before she could think about it, she slammed her hands against the chest piece of his armor and shoved him away from her as hard as she could. "Away, you dog!" she snarled as she tried to move him.
The power welled up from within her, unconsciously, instinctively. The pulse of psychic power pressed against him, knocking him backwards two steps. He righted himself with a raised eyebrow and a crooked grin, "So...a bit feistier than last time we met. I like that. And your powers are coming along nicely." He cocked his head to the side rakishly, "No 'thank you' for awakening the part of you that has slumbered so long?"
"No, no thank you for the corruption you planted in my head!" she snarled. She fought not to pant. The pulse of energy had nearly knocked her over. Drawing herself up as best she could, she raised her hands in the gestures of prayer and began the invocation against evil. "The Emperor rebukes my enemies. The Golden Throne is my refuge in the day of evil…"
Gaius rolled his eyes as he stepped forward, slapping her open handed across the cheek, "Enough of that drivel. You know quite well I planted no corruption in your head. You know, deep inside, that you have always harbored the taint of Warp in your mind...though you feared to peer into your own soul and see it."
He clenched his fist between them as if reaching out and grasping something, "Time for you to seize the day, Simone...to cast aside your foolish prejudices and realize the strength and power within you."
Simone's head snapped back as Gaius' hand connected with her face. She staggered back against the Simulacrum barely staying upright. She rubbed the back of her hand across her mouth and was unsurprised to see a smear of blood. She raised her hands again, crooking her fingers into the sacred gestures, " His Name goes out before me…His Banner is my guide…"
The sorcerer of Slaanesh whipped his left hand up and struck her other cheek, "Calling for the Emperor to send you his power? Have you ever considered how identical that is to a devotee of Chaos calling to our gods?" He leered with his crooked smile, "Do not deceive yourself, girl. The Emperor is every bit as much a daemon as my master. Is he human? Was he ever? From the strands of his DNA they crafted the superhuman Marines. He sends out his powers to his faithful, just as do the four beings of Chaos. He is little more than a daemon spirit trapped in a dried husk, fueled by consuming thousands of lives every year."
She reeled as he struck again. Stop making him mad, part of her screamed. She hauled herself back upright. Shaking her head, she tried to remember the next part of the invocation as he spewed his sacrilege in her ears. "NO!" she snapped out. "You are wrong, you foul thing. Slaanesh has twisted you till you can't know truth from lies." She raised her face to his, sweat rolling down her forehead with the effort of standing before him.
As he pressed in close again, she could feel his foul power closing around her, pressing inward on the edges of her mind, as though she were in a vice. "No, my dear Simone. I have had the veil of blind faith lifted from my eyes to see the greater truth. And I will help you remove your blinders as well." He took her wrists in his hands and pushed her against the Simulacrum, pinning her there. "I have such things to show you."
Simone twisted like an animal in a trap, even bringing a booted foot up and bracing against Gaius' hip, trying desperately to break his hold on her. She cried out as his power washed over her in a foul wave. She felt her eyes roll up in her head as he dug in to her mind. His power hammered at her mind one minute then cajoled the next. She gagged as the sickly sweet siren song of the Eye filled her ears. The Inquisitor strained backwards as Gaius' grasping power overwhelmed her. "Get…Out..of my…HEAD!" she lashed out with everything she had left to call on, shoving every ounce of her will against him.
The head of the Messiah of Slaanesh snapped back as though struck, staggering backwards nearly to the far wall. To her surprise, he was laughing at the top of his lungs, "Good! Good! That's it! Reach down into yourself, to that damned part of your black soul that touches the Warp! You needn't fear that power, Simone, you should revel in it!" He lifted a cupped hand to his ear, "Do you hear that? That is the laughter of the daemons in the warp. They've felt you now, felt your soul as it tapped into the fell power of the Immaterium."
He straightened and crossed his arms over his chest, "You have become what you always hated. You have become tainted...heretical...like Katherine and her girls..."
Simone did fall to the hard floor this time, cradling her splitting head. She had felt the squirming vile things behind the curtain of reality. She had touched the Warp. The shattered woman clutched her hands to her thin chest, a silent wail lodged in her throat.Get up! She screamed in her own mind. GET UP! She pushed back against the stone floor levering herself up inch by tortured inch. "No, Gaius….not ever…not ever …again." She spat out, coughing and gagging.
Gaius loomed over her with a cold smile splashed across his face, running his fingers through his blond curls, "No? You should know better than that, Simone." He reached down and lifted her chin, forcing her to look in his eyes, "Once you've had the taste, it will forever haunt you. You can't unsee the truth and go back to wallowing in ignorance." He leaned over, his lips against her ear, his breath hot on her neck, "You've taken your first step...to joining me."
Then he released her, both his hand from her chin, and the clamp-like vice of his psychic power on her mind. In a whirl of his lavender cloak, he walked out the door, his form shifting into the form of an Arbitrator Judge...
Simone stood shaking from head to toe but she refused to fall back to the floor. She kicked herself into action. Stumbling to the door, she yanked it open. Lucas stood beside the doorway, his eyes far away as he watched the hallway. He jerked around, startled as she came charging out wildly scanning the hallway. "Did you see…?" She stomped a few paces into the hallway, searching.
"Ma'am?" Lucas unslung the Hellgun and paced beside her, a confused frown on his young face.
She stopped and drew a shaky breath , "A Judge? In dark armor…" she faded off. Obviously Lucas had seen no one. That may be a good thing, she thought. Remembering Gaius' threats and what he had done to Clayborn. "I'm done here, Lucas. I need… some rest. Just a little rest"
"Of course, Mistress." He said cautiously.
Simone drew in her last bit of strength and straightened her tunic with a tug. It took everything in her to simply walk back to her new private quarters and not jump at every shadow.