Warhammer: Adventures Of The Two

986.M41 Aurorum III

Michael waved to Kiara as the shuttle doors closed. The two of them had spent the better part of the past three days together, sometimes just talking, sometimes playing games, and other times she would fall asleep in his l.a.p, exhausted from the day's activities. She always hated having to say goodbye.

Michael had explained that one day, he might not return. He had kept from explaining who Lucius was or what he did -- a four-year-old girl didn't need to hear any of that -- but had explained what they were going to try to do to him. Jarod and Elirom had been spending the time granted to them furiously working to find some way to fix the mess, some way to kill Lucius once and for all.

Maybe it was just the effects of knowing his own death was imminent, but Michael had all but accepted what was happening to him. He certainly wouldn't turn down some kind of miracle, but until that happened, he wouldn't complain.

Stepping off the transport and onto the Emperor's Boot, Michael made his way to what was now considered his sleeping quarters. A simple room with a cot, toilet, sink, and mirror. Outside the room stood two guards -- not to actually face whatever might to break out of the room, but to report if something tried. Granted Michael was only sleeping there, being able to travel about during the 'day.'

Michael tossed himself onto the cot, closing his eyes in order to get some sleep.

[-----]

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Michael's heart was beating out of his c.h.e.s.t. His breath was ragged. His limbs ached. He forced himself up, grunting from the effort. Looking to the side, he saw a silver blade laying on the ground. He reached for it, grabbing the weapon by the hilt. He forced himself to his feet, turning to face the one who had almost killed him.

"Stay away from him!"

He heard her voice call out. Her small, young, broken voice. He grunted in pain and lifted his eyes. There, in front of him, stood Lucius the Eternal with his back turned to him. The space marine held his arms open wide, saying something that Michael didn't hear. It didn't matter.

He was going to kill him… he didn't care what happened after that.

Dashing forward, he lept into the air and thrust the sword forward, only for Lucius to turn suddenly and swat the weapon to the side, sending Michael jerking to the ground. This wasn't how this was supposed… wait…

"Congratulations are in order, I suppose," Lucius said, his voice soothing and grating at the same time, "It's been a while since I've been killed by a guardsman."

Michael blinked. This wasn't the real world. This had already happened. "I've killed you already, haven't I?" he asked, forcing himself to his feet.

Lucius laughed, "Well, I thought that much was obvious. Now, if you don't mind, I think we've been talking long enough." he said, reaching his arm out. The Laer blade shot towards his hand, fitting perfectly into his palm.

Michael blinked.

The scene surrounding them changed. Instead of the ruined craftworld, they now stood inside Michael's cell. Lucius raised a curious eyebrow.

"Oh? Do you think this is somehow a better place for your demise?" Lucius asked.

Michael looked around, his breath settling into a steady rhythm. He was right, this was a dream. He blinked again.

The scenery changed again, this time to an island beach. A treeline to his right, an ocean to his left, and Lucius a hundred feet in front of him. Lucius' smile fell, and he glared at Michael as the guardsman's own smile spread across his face.

"Answer me this, Lucius the Eternal, what is a dream?"

Lucius' eyes went wide. It couldn't be, he couldn't possibly… but the look in Michael's eyes proved it. Michael grinned as he stepped backward -- right off a cliff that hadn't been there just seconds before. Lucius tsk'd as he dashed forward after him and off the cliff himself. This wasn't the first time someone had realized what was going on, but it was the first time someone had seemed so… thrilled about such a fact.

Lucius angled his body towards Michaels form, willing himself to fall faster. Just as he was about to reach the guardsman, Michael turned around suddenly and allowed Lucius to see the large weapon held in his hands, before he felt the searing heat of plasma melting the flesh from his bones.

Screeching in pain, Lucius willed a pair of bat-like, scarred wings into existence to slow his fall and to get away from the guardsman. Meanwhile, Michael took the opportunity to change their location yet again, this time to a large, empty metal room. Lucius hovered a dozen meters away, seething as his charred flesh slowly regenerated itself.

This was his realm. He was the one in control, not some lowly mortal guardsman!

Michael smiled as he let the plasma gun fade into non-existence. Dreams really were a wonderful thing. If you weren't conscious then they simply passed you by and you never even realized it, but if you were lucid… things became a lot more interesting.

"What's the matter, Lucius? Never had to deal with someone who's had a Lucid dream before?" he taunted. It may be tempting fate, but Michael actually felt he might have the upper hand as long as he/she/it didn't decide to intervene. Slaanesh may have given Lucius his power, but it had given power to an untold number of others, and not all of them were still alive.

"I will admit, dealing with someone like you is… rare, but you are far from the first. You may be more difficult to deal with than most, but you will fall, just like all the rest." Lucius declared as his skin finally stitched itself back together.

"See, that's something that's been bugging me," Michael said as he began conjuring up another creation. A suit of armor that wrapped its way around him colored in red and gold, "You seem so confident in your ability. You think you're invincible. Why is that? There was the time you realized you could beat your own Primarch in a one on one dual, but I don't think Slaanesh values you high enough to let you kill Fulgrim."

Lucius glared at the mortal as the final piece of armor clicked into place. How did he know his own thoughts from over ten thousand years ago? Lucius shook the thoughts from his mind -- Clever as he may be, this guardsman would fall. Needed to fall.

"I am just a man after strength and thrill," He said with a grin, before his expression turned to a snarl, "And you're standing in my way."

Michael chuckled, "Bring it on then."

Lucius charged, his weapon surging forward faster than the n.a.k.e.d eye could see, but Michael managed to parry it to the side with his forearm, lifting up his hand to blast Lucius in the c.h.e.s.t, sending the Astartes flying backward. Lucius remained on his feet but didn't have any time to retaliate as Michael kept going, blasting him with bright beams of blue energy.

Lucius finally managed to roll out of the path of the beams, getting close enough to strike at one of Michael's legs. Michael managed to dodge the strike at the cost of redirecting his repulsors and jetting backward. Lucius used such an opportunity to continue with another strike, sending the blade stabbing towards Michael's abdomen. Instead of parrying the blade this time, Michael caught it, wrenching it out of Lucius' hands.

Laer blade in hand, Michael lifted the weapon high before bringing it down on his armored knee, shattering it. Lucius grunted in disappointment, but simply reached backward to summon another copy of his weapon. Oddly, Michael copied the gesture. Lucius barely dodged the flying hunk of metal that landed its way into Michael's hands, the silver hammer crackling with blue electricity.

'Where had a mere Guardsmen learned to conjure objects like that in a dream?' Lucius thought to himself as he felt his body mutate further, pinkish tentacles sprouting from his arms as they waved wildly about trying to find a victim to capture and violate.

Michael spun the hammer by a loop hanging from its pommel, before rocketing forward and smashing into Lucius, sending him flying into the metal wall. The champion of Slaanesh looked down at his c.h.e.s.t to see his armor's c.h.e.s.t piece bent inwards. Had this been real, he would likely have died from the impact of the hammer alone.

Lucius grunted in pain and lurched forward, sending his tentacles reaching to grasp at Michael's body. The guardsman knocked away a few of the offending limbs before one managed to grasp his left leg, lifting him high into the air, and allowing several other tentacles to find purchase. Eventually, they held him upside down, four tentacles for each limb as the rest tried to pry open his armor.

"Yeah no, I don't need to know where this is going," Michael snarked as he summoned another weapon. Dozens of panels in the walls opened to reveal loaded bolter turrets ready to strike the nearest enemy. They immediately locked on to the thrashing limbs and opened fire, blowing them into fleshy bits and releasing Michael.

Once free, Michael used his jets to right himself before conjuring a large, grey weapon the likes of which Lucius hadn't seen before. It began glowing, and at first, Lucius assumed it might just be a plasma weapon of some kind. Then he felt his entire being get boiled and ripped apart as a ball of argent energy was sent flying forward, obliterating any form of living tissue in its wake.

[-----]

Jarod looked at Michael's sleeping form as he pondered the predicament they had found themselves in. Michael had fallen asleep fifteen hours ago, and since then had been incredibly restless. Medical scans revealed that he had a fever of what roughly translated to ninety-nine degrees Fahrenheit. The Imperial's didn't use the Fahrenheit scale of course, but Jarod could make an educated guess.

His brain activity was also off the chart's as well, with his pain receptors and cerebral cortex going haywire. Jarod had tried to psychically enter Michael's mind, but all he found was a solid wall that blocked him from entering. He wondered if this was what happened when Lucius started to take over…

[-----]

"Check," Michael said as he moved his knight into place.

Lucius grunted, moving his own rook to capture the knight. For what seemed like the millionth time, another tentacle tried to penetrate the bubble shield that Michael had summoned.

"You know this would go a lot faster if you just stopped trying to take over my body right?" Michael asked as he moved his bishop.

"I'm stuck in your head until I kill you and get my own body back. It's not like I'll stop any time soon." Lucius explained as he captured a pawn.

When it became clear that Michael's imagination could halt any attack Lucius threw at him, the two had devolved into simply arguing over the situation. Lucius had tried to seduce Michael, but the dimensional traveler wasn't having any of it. They started fighting again, using more creative methods, sending armies towards each other as they tried to get the upper hand.

Eventually, they settled down and just decided to play chess.

"Where did you even learn such a game?" Lucius asked, "It is similar to regicide I will admit, but it seems so much… simpler."

Michael shrugged, "I grew up with it. Jarod's a heck of a lot better than I am at it, but I have to say I'm not all that bad."

The two of them continued to play for what felt like days. Michael didn't quite know how time dilation in dreams to reality worked, but even he started to wonder how long it had been.

"Checkmate." Michael declared as he moved his pawn right next to Lucius' king, "You want to play something else?"

Lucius sighed, slouching in the seat, "I would be lying if I didn't say this activity has become rather… boring."

"Well, let's play something else then. Or we can cover the topic that you seem so eager to avoid." Michael said, earning a groan from the Astartes.

"Again, I will not move in my beliefs. Slaanesh has given me strength! Power! Skill! More than I ever could have dreamed of under the Imperium's control." Lucius said again, before narrowing his eyes at Michael slightly, "And when did you shave?"

Michael blinked, holding up a mirror to his face. Sure enough, his face was cleanly shaven.

"Huh… well, I guess not everything I do is conscious." he said with a shrug, before looking up at the non-existent sun that came into view just so he could see it, "How long have we been in here?"

This time Lucius shrugged, "Time is an irrelevant concept in dreams. In the real world, it's probably been a few hours at most. In here though…" he paused, frowning slightly, "I'm not entirely sure. As you've seen we do not possess any kind of day-night cycle, so I can only guess. That being the case I would say we've been at it for about six months, perhaps longer."

Michael hummed, waving his hand to remove the table and game board from the dreamscape.

"Do you feel connected to Slaanesh right now?" Michael asked suddenly.

Lucius blinked. An odd question, but not an unexpected one. If he wanted to change the space marines thinking then he would have to try something that could shake ten thousand years worth of conviction, and as has been proven already, that is not an easy feat to accomplish. Still, Lucius would at least indulge him.

"I will be quite honest with you, I have not felt the call of the dark prince since I was killed by you. Perhaps it is an effect of being inside another's mind, perhaps it is simply how my ability works." Lucius explained.

"Well then… I guess that explains why he/she/it hasn't tried to intervene." Michael said with a light chuckle.

"He/she/it?" Lucius asked incredulously.

"A nickname Jarod and I have come up with. Well, we didn't come up with it but it works all the same." Michael explained.

"I see… such a title is not unwarranted I suppose." Lucius said with a chuckle. He looked around, seeing the large, white landscape that Michael had conjured into his mind, "Your soul is quite spacious."

"Well, you of all people would know. I killed you after all, and we've spent what amounts to half a year fighting in here."

"Heh. Indeed we have. To think, in all my ten thousand years of life that I would be bested by a mortal."

Michael laughed, leaning back in his chair, "All it took was some clever imagination too! Guess that says a lot at how the people of the Imperium think."

Lucius smiled. It was an odd expression that he rarely wore. It wasn't the crazed, manic grin that he wore when slaughtering his enemies, but was instead a warmer, softer smile. Perhaps spending so long outside of Slaanesh's influence had done him some good.

"How about this," Michael began, "Considering there's no way you're going to be able to kill me in here, how about we make a deal? I get to wake up, live my life, and you get to live all cozy inside my head. How does that sound?"

Lucius, for his part, laughed amusedly, "You're trying to strike a bargain now are you? I suppose you would be getting tired of us just senselessly arguing. Though I must say that even if I do accept your proposal, what do I get out of it?"

Michael shrugged, "Continued existence? Something to change the pace of life? Honestly, I'm just trying to get out of this situation." he said candidly.

"I suppose I cannot fault you for that. Fine then, We shall postpone my trying to kill you until a later date. Maybe I can actually catch you off guard next time." Lucius agreed.

"So, what now?" Michael asked with a sigh of relief, "Do I just, wake up or some-"

[-----]

"-thing?"

"You're awake!" was the first thing that reached Michael's ears as he opened his eyes. He g.r.o.a.n.e.d as the light in the room shone down on him, squinting his eyes and pulling his hand up to shield his face, only to find that his arms had been strapped down.

Lifting his head slightly, Michael looked down at his body to see that several leather-like straps held him to a cot, keeping him from moving. Aside from those, a dozen wired nodes were attached to his b.a.r.e c.h.e.s.t, which ran across the room towards a machine that seemed to be reading his vitals. At his bedside stood none other than Jarod himself, standing over Michael with a grin on his face.

"So… what happened? Did Lucius try to take over? Did Slaanesh try to take your-"

"Stop! Definitely not, no, and I don't really know yet… in reverse order." Michael said.

The two of them made quick work of the straps and nodes, freeing Michael of the medical equipment. Jarod asked many questions, and Michael did his best to answer them, describing the events of his battle with Lucius to the best of his ability.

"And I'm really not sure where to go from here. I mean, I've got what's essentially a champion of Slaanesh trapped inside my head, and we've actually come to a beneficial agreement. I know it'd technically be considered heresy by Imperial standards, but I'm pretty sure we're beyond that at this point." Michael finished.

"Well, I guess that explains the metal wall you had set up. Even with my powers, I couldn't see inside your head." Jarod explained.

Michael nodded in understanding. With the number of defenses he had set up to keep Lucius from taking over, it was no wonder that Jarod had found a mental block of some kind. It did make him wonder though, how was he, a supposedly normal human, able to block out an alpha or higher level psyker like Jarod?

"Actually, I may be able to explain that." a voice said in the back of Michael's head.

Michael immediately jumped, looking around the room.

"What's wrong?" Jarod asked.

"I heard a voice. It sounded just like… just like Lucius."

"Indeed! I am here, though… not in the same way I had expected." Lucius explained.

Michael's eyes widened, "He's in my head! Lucius is talking to me in my head!"

"An astute observation! And a correct one at that. Yes, I am in your head, and as for why you're are so capable of creating a mental block, well, I do believe you are a latent psyker!"

"Ok… Jarod, you're not hearing this right?" Michael asked.

"No, I'm not hearing anything. Actually, hold on a second." Jarod closed his eyes for a moment, before opening again, "Jarod has officially entered Michael's head chat. Can you hear me?"

"Um… wow, it's weird hearing your voice and not seeing your mouth move…" Michael commented.

"Interesting. Are you capable of hearing me as well?" Lucius asked.

"Yes, you twit. We're both talking inside Michael's mind, obviously, we can hear each other." Jarod explained.

"Fair enough I suppose. Anyway, as I was saying, I think Michael is indeed a latent psyker."

Jarod blinked, "What now?" He asked audibly.

"Even though his abilities remain dormant, he is still capable of many things most people are not. Absorbing other's emotions, passively reading thoughts, or putting up an immovable wall." Lucius elaborated in an amused tone.

"Great. More warp shenanigans." Jarod lamented.

Lucius only laughed hysterically.

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