Angels of Death: Ch.4

Chapter 4: Mercy

"Look, I don't care how busy you are!" yelled Darrius into the handheld communicator. "We had a massive daemon incursion here that needs investigating!"

"I don't know why you're bothering." said Tauron as he sipped some tea while sitting beside him. "The ticks are gone, and you know it." Darrius didn't even respond to him.

Both were waiting outside the recovery room where Boone had been taken. She was awake now and medics were tending to her wounds. Aside from mixed reactions from her commanding officer that were part relief in her recovery, part impressed by her bravery and part annoyance of her running off in the first place, everything was back in order. Everyone save him and Tauron was inside.

"Ok, fine, if you can't be bothered to come, maybe I should nail a sign on the door saying "heretics and traitors welcome." How would you bureaucrats like that?" there was a long pause, and Tauron sniggered. "Don't you start accusing me of heresy; I'm the one who wants these bastards off this planet asap. Look, do I need to refer you to the..." there was another pause. "Ok, fine, wait right there." Darrius looked up and poked his head through into the room to check on everyone.

"She good?" he whispered. Xerxes, the techpriest who had been tending to the needs of the marines earlier and was now helping Grim with the various life support machines, nodded. Darrius beckoned him over, and he did so. "Could you just sort out a problem for me here? I need you to relay this communication to the grey knight captain. It seems the space-brains can't be bothered to come and check what's going on this planet because they don't believe it was a serious incident. I'm sure our holy brothers will put them in their place."

"If you say so." chuckled Xerxes, as he got to work relaying and patching the signal through to them. As he set to work, Darrius entered the room to join the others, leaving only Tauron outside.

Grim was almost mechanically and religiously monitoring Boone's life support. Raege sat at her side and continued to simultaneously praise and scorn her. The others didn't know it, but Darrius knew that somewhere in a dark corner, Shadow was keeping watch on everyone.

"I've been assured that all is well. I hope this to be the case." said Darrius in a calm and understanding tone.

"Yes...I'm fine, thank you sir." said Boone, who was sitting up in bed. It was apparent that she wasn't totally recovered though. A huge set of bandages covered her left shoulder and arm, and while she was smiling, she seemed a shaken by her experience.

"Words fail to describe how relieved I am to know that we put a stop to that...thing..." said Raege, as she sat at the side of the bed on a stool. She turned to Boone. "Ya did good out there kid." She said, nodding to her.

"Aww, thank you Conni...I mean Commissar Raege." She said with a huge smile. Grim seemed to take note.

"But next time you want to daemon-hunting, ask me first and take a bigger gun." She said, half jokingly, but with a degree of seriousness. Grim, however, sensed that there was more that was not being said.

"You shouldn't fear your emotions, Miss Raege." said Grim in his trademark emotionless tone. Raege looked at him with surprise, as he finished examining the life support apparatus and sat down.

"Excuse me?" she muttered to him, unsure if she had heard him correctly.

"As I said, fear not your own feelings. I don't wish to pry, but being what I am, it is all I can do." He tilted his head to one side, the alien skull upon it somehow remaining attached. "You hide so many of your thoughts under the surface."

"Well stop poking around in my head before I poke around in yours with something a little more physical." She said, getting a little angry at him reading her mind. He was totally unaffected by her threat, however.

"Ah anger, an old friend lost to me." He replied, turning away. "At least you can feel it...utilise it...unlike me." Raege looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"If I may explain...Grim here is...well...to cut a long story short..." said Darrius with a degree of sadness, trying to find the right words. "When his powers came into being while on his home planet, a daemon tried to eat his mind. He made the ultimate sacrifice bar his own life, and expelled most of his soul, killing the daemon but...well..."

"I feel nothing now." said Grim, finishing Darrius difficult explanation, still looking away. "No joy, no hate, no fear, no anger. Nothing."

"Surely you feel something!" said Boone, highly surprised by this, who was sitting up and taking note. Grim looked straight into her eyes.

"I can remember how it felt to have emotions, but I am incapable of feeling any myself." He replied. "I care not for the wellbeing of others. I only keep them alive because it benefits my own safety." Raege was a little shocked by how bluntly he spoke.

"But...you mean...saving me, means nothing to you?" said Boone, even more shocked than Raege.

"I want to be happy that you're still alive, but I literally cannot, any more than I can feel hatred for my enemies or joy for serving the emperor." said Grim. As he spoke, his voice grew quieter and darker. Raege was about to aggressively interject, but Boone somehow got in before her, and put a gentle hand on Grim's shoulder.

"I'm...I'm so sorry...for you. It must be living hell." Boone said quietly. Darrius smiled; her selflessness and empathy was certainly impressive.

"It's not that bad. I don't feel pity. I don't feel fear. I never mourn, regret, or feel sad or truly depressed." replied Grim. "Still, what I do and do not feel is not important. It is you who is the unsung hero of this day."

"Wait...what do you mean by that?" said Darrius. Raege was also confused by this comment.

"Don't pretend that you don't know that I know." continued Grim, almost ignoring the others, looking directly at Boone. "Your powers may be negligible, but if you had not assisted me as you did in that final critical moment, my gambit would have failed and all would have been lost. Every one of us would have died by the daemon's hands."

"Wait...Boone helped you kill the daemon too?" said Raege with disbelief. "How? Without meaning to be rude, she couldn't hurt a Gretchin with her powers." Grim looked to Raege knowingly.

"A single grain of sand blown on the wind may chip off the paint from a titian. A whole desert's worth can bring it crashing down." He replied. Raege still looked confused; she wasn't that good at deciphering riddles and metaphors. "What I mean is that the beast was so weakened by our main attack, that it would only take a negligible increase in concentration of it to stop it altogether. That is what your friend Boone here supplied in the critical moments, and that is what brought the beast down in time."

Raege looked down at Boone with amazement.

"Do you realise how dangerous attacking the daemon directly with your powers was? It could have made a break for it and jumped into your mind!" she said with rising anger again. "If that had happened, I don't know what I would have done!" Boone looked down with a little sadness.

"I know...I...I was just so scared that...that the monster would have got you instead. I'd rather get thrown into the warp and watch it happen to you." said Boone quietly before looking back up at Raege. "If that had happened to you, I don't know what I would have done either."

There was a period of silence, as everyone thought about everything that had happened. Only now, it dawned on Raege and Boone how close they had both come to loosing each other. Finally, understanding dawned upon them.

"You're the one I'm meant to protect, not the other way around, you...you foolhardy...naive, stupid, fearless...selfless, glorious...little hero." said Raege, a little lost for words.

"No retreat. No surrender. Isn't that what you say?" said Boone. She was sniffing a little and was near the point of crying, but smiling none the less.

"Don't let this go to your head. A cocky psyker is a dead psyker, no matter how powerful or weak they are." added Darrius. "That said, I think we all deserve some R-N-R, and some congratulations are more than certainly in order."

"Agreed." replied Raege, as Boone lay back in bed, trying to relax as much as possible and get some rest.

"We still haven't had proper introductions to one and other, have we?" said Darrius with a little embarrassment.

"No, I do not believe we have." replied Raege, wondering where to start. It wasn't often anyone was this casual of friendly with her. "So...where are you from?"

"Hive world, far away from this place. No intent on going back any time soon." He said. "Yourself?"

"Awkward upbringing, rather not talk about it." She concluded firmly. Darrius nodded and had no intention of probing any further, so changed the subject.

"Believe it or not, Tauron and Grim aren't my full retinue. Over the years, it's grown rather...expansive. At our height, there were fifteen of us." said Darrius with a faint smile. "Well, to be fair, they aren't really a retinue. Tauron and Grim are officially my guards, but most of the others are more of a personal team."

"How'd you keep control of that many?" she chuckled. Darrius lifted up his mechanical arm and the chainsaw blade revved. Raege nodded.

"Never thought about it, but come to think of it, I've never invested in the help of a commissar as yet." He changed his tone a little. "I'm a reasonable person with my men, and I'll happily put up with even the most wayward, awkward and downright strange individual so long as they're faithful to the Emperor and do their job. But they know what happens to traitors." He said with a wicked smile. "I've got a few nicknames in my time, like "The leader of odd-jobs." I do seem to have a knack of attracting some strange people."

"I hope you're referring to Tauron when you say that." said Grim, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah...yeah...me and by big mouth; I didn't mean it like that." chuckled Darrius, scratching the side of his head while laughing weakly.

"If I have any nicknames, I certainly don't know about them, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know about them." Said Raege, dreading to think what sort of bad stigma Commissars attract. She looked over to Boone, who shrugged her good shoulder.

"I don't know any." She confirmed.

"I think we are getting off the point a little bit." commented Grim.

"Ah, yes, I think we might be." agreed Raege. "So, why were your men here?" she asked to Darrius.

"Just passing through. Checking up on old friends and then heading to a new assigned location. From what I've heard, this next mission should be a cake-walk." He smiled. "We're being attached to some another units, who I don't know yet, and from there it's a defence mission."

"Really? Would the objective you are defending happen to be on a planet called Iona-7?" she enquired, as if she knew something he didn't.

"Why...yes." said Darrius with surprise.

"And would the defensive objective be a place called Fen-Wrath Mine?" she continued. Darrius was now even more surprised.

"Either you are a secret psyker or you've been spying on my personal data." said Darrius light-heartedly. "How, in the name of Terra, did you know?"

"Because I'm being out posted to the same place!" she said. They both smiled.

"You mean we're all going to the same planet?" said Boone, who was now paying attention again. "Does that mean I can meet the other people in your team, captain?"

"Of course, I think it would be rude to do otherwise." He chuckled. "We won't have too much time for merriment however. "Orks as far as the eye can see;" that's what the locals say."

"I didn't hear that part." Boone said, her smile fading a little. "I thought you said it was going to be a cake-walk."

"At the present, the orks on the planet are leaderless. We need to get there, and as well as playing a defensive role, we need to make sure they never form a leader. If we can do that, we might as well be shooting trees." He said reassuringly.

"And besides, it isn't like you'll be riding shotgun on the front line." Said Raege.

"I guess that's ok then." She said as she lay back down in bed.

"It's likely that me and my team will be working on the assassinations of rising warbosses." said Raege. "I take it that you are your team will be playing the deffensive role?" Darrius nodded in responce.

"I'll be more than willing to pump a few reserves in to help you if the time came." He said supportively.

"Ditto." replied Raege.

While all this talking had been going on, Xerxes had finished patching through the communications to the Grey Knight captain. He had been listening in, and under his respirator, he smiled.

"Hey, Captain!" he croaked. Darrius looked over to him. "You were right, the Knights put them in their place."

"Put who in what?" said Raege, a little confused.

"Just trying to ensure an investigation of all the events here. I've taken the liberty of filing the papers of everyone here, so we shouldn't be interrupted by the investigation by people coming after us with questions, and at the same time, it should make sure any residual traitors are found and destroyed." replied Darrius.

At that very moment, Shadow burst through the door, almost falling over, and ran to Darrius.

"Sir, captain, there's someone outside who says she needs to be here right now!" she said, clasping her silenced stub-pistol almost in fear and seeming to be out of breath.

"Well? Why don't you let her in?" said Darrius, raising an eyebrow. The others were all shocked, having yet to actually see Shadow. "Ah yes, Raege, Boone, this is one of my assassins, Shadow." Shadow seemed to ignore what he said.

"I think you should come and see who I'm talking about before you make any judgements." She said, almost panicking. Raege got up too.

"Maybe I should come too?" she said.

"Yes, maybe you should." said Darrius, his own concern growing. As he drew his laspistol. Boone was suddenly worried, and Xerxes retreated to her bedside protectively. Raege, Darrius and Shadow went to the door.

"I I reeaally ththink thissss may may beee a a liiiittle inaaapprooopriaaaate." came a strange voice from the other side. There was, however, something strange about it. It echoed unnaturally, sometimes repeating itself, and didn't seem to originate from behind the door. It actually felt like it came from inside their own heads. Raege instantly recognised it, and holstered her weapon.

"Ah, yes." She said. "I understand your concern, but this one's with me." Shadow looked over to her.

"You serious?" she said a little disbelievingly.

"Now Shadow, be polite to our good friends here." Said Darrius firmly as he stepped forward and opened the door.

Tauron was still outside and was staring up at someone, his mouth almost hitting the floor with surprise. Who he was looking at explained why.

She was over two meters tall, with long white hair, pink/light purple skin and finger nails like long, sharp needles and both her eyes were lenses. The biggest, most noticeably strange thing about her, however, was her mouth. From cheek to cheek stretched a grin full of teeth the size of combat knives that fit together so perfectly that they almost formed a solid wall. The figure turned to the three of them, and noticed Raege among them.

"Ooh, bossss, I waass wonderiiing where youu were." She said, communicating psychically. Her mental voice was ethereal yet discomforting. "I I heard that there wassssssome commotion aand the littllle one wasss aaaattacked. Isss thissss true? Isss shheee ookkaayy?"

"If only I could stomach such an understatement, but yes, she's fine now." sighed Raege. The figure looked at the other people present.

"I I doon't beeelieve wee've met." She said psychically, her smile somehow getting wider and becoming more strained. "My my naame isss Cuddlesss." The others were all a little surprised and somewhat shocked by her, but what Tauron was about to say was about to make things even worse.

"She's...she's so...beautiful." he whimpered, before promptly collapsing into a giggling heap on the floor. Raege looked to him, and buried her face in one of her hands, groaning a little.

"And so we find another..." she thought to herself.

To this day, no one save Cuddles herself knows whether Tauron truly fainted, or whether, perhaps in a moment of her own embarrassment, she somehow invisibly and psychically caused him to.