A slightly smaller Mess

"You're not old enough to be on my level. You'd need tens of thousands of years to even come close."

"You have no idea how old or powerful I am. You never stood a chance. If I didn't have some degree of pity for you, I'd have literally devoured and consumed you without even a struggle."

"Did you ever have a choice in what you are or your objective here, or were you just told by someone else?"

"Exactly. Look at yourself boy. You were created to be a puppet. You're a slave. That's why I pity you. Why I'd rather see you freed."

"When a farmer breeds cattle for the sake of slaughtering them for meat, does it thank the farmer for giving it life? Or is it created entirely for the purpose of serving that farmer with no say in the matter. Think about it. They told you you were strong enough, you weren't. They aren't infallible. So other things they said could be wrong too."

"Are those your words, or theirs?"

"you know there's at least some truth to what I'm saying, don't you? How many people did you kill just to get stronger? Were they innocent? Did they deserve that? Was that justice?"

"you didn't answer me. You killed innocents to get strong enough to kill me and your mother, two people who's entire job is to help innocent people. How is that justice?"

"That's the job of most inquisitors. We're different."

"And I stop the other two from doing that."

"On the contrary. What we are is exactly why I'm more protective of them. I have to protect them from eachother. See this?" *he pulls out his hip-flask* "Synthetic blood. we need to drink blood to survive, but I refuse to hurt people to do that. So I use this."

"Then why is it in need of a refill?"

he sighs. He telepathically shows the boy images of him doing exactly what he just said he does, helping people. The boy's a telepath, he can tell it's not fake.

"look...son. I don't want to fight you."

"You're my son. What do you think I want."

"No. Fathers are meant to mentor their sons."

"Parents are meant to raise and love their children. To look after them."

"If I wanted anything else, you wouldn't be alive right now"

OOC: Henry isn't Akira's son :p

Ooc: akira and max don't have any kids together. Both vee and Henry are max and some random bint he shagged at a hive lords party.

*after some time chilling the hell out, Hera manages to quell the flames consuming her body.*

Mac: *carefully approaching* "Hera... you okay?"

Hera: "...Fine... fine... Charles will take care of that... thing."

Hakken: "Reckon we won't be seeing it 'gain."

Hera: "If we do I'll kill it myself. It's too dangerous to leave alive..." *theres a long silence as the three metaphorically and litterally get their shit together.* "Right, we move down to the lower hive levels, if there's an uprising it'll be down there."

Mute: "He made the new astartes. That lord guilliman brought with him?"

Byrne: *he drains the last of his brandy, and puts the glass down on the handrail. Then fishes a slim metal case from his jacket pocket.* "Is that her?" *he pops open the case, internal springs slowly open it. Six very expensive cigars, and a gold lighter, engraved with an Aquila on the viable side. He takes one out, and gestures with it towards the book* "The girl there, she's your daughter?"

OOC: I'll ask Azrok when he's online cos she's his char.

Caiber: yeah... this was her diary. She always envied you humans for your hair, so I managed to get a wig for her so she'd feel better about herself.

Chard: aye. Well, in the lull in the fighting after the destruction of the blackstone fortress, he and his forces had arrived. Apparently he'd found evidence of pylons like the cadian pylons on another planet that the black legion had devastated from orbit in a previous black crusade. His studies had uncovered almost every black crusade involved the destruction of a planet with similar pylons. The same ones that kept the cadian gate open.

Charles pauses.

Charles: look. *his restraints go* I'm going to leave you here. Don't try to get out, this place has held more powerful beings than you before. I'll make sure you're fed and kept comfortable for now. Give you time to make up your mind.

Charles: Farewell kiddo. *he leaves the cell, leaving some food for him. he psychically teleports back to hera after shutting the door*

*Byrne flips the cigar around in his fingers, and bites gently on the 'foot' of the cigar. Then takes a guillotine cutter from the case, and trims a few centimetres off the end of it. Placing the cutter back in the case, he takes it out of his mouth and flips it around again.* "You know torturing yourself does no good?" *He gives caiber a very pointed look*

Mute: "mmmn."

*Hera hakken and mac are hustling down a set of stairs when charles teleports in.*

Hakken: "Fuckers dead then?"

Caiber:.... honestly this is about as good as it gets. She's the only reason I've let myself keep breathing.

Chard: the archmagos beleived that with his research, he could do something with the pylons to force back the forces of chaos for good. And so, the final battle began, with the surviving imperial forces gathering around the central pylon network, as the black legion descended from all sides, the warmaster at their head.

Charles: not yet... I did a bit of an... assessment. He's been brainwashed, but there's hope. He's locked up, I've talked to him. When we get back, we decide what to do with him. If we've got to kill him, we've got to kill him. But you know me, not a fan of killing if I can help it.