Kiva was glad to be back in a port of the Black Run what happened back on the planet had left her feeling almost ill. Those that she ended up tagging along with save for Silas seemed to have something very wrong with them at their core so this was a welcomed change. She was never one for saying much, but was genuinely happy to be in the company of just Angel and Silas. She thought about where they would go from here this was the first time in her life that she would set out on an adventure with no idea where she might end up, and in a way that excited her. It was unfortunate that such adventures were not meant to be. For that moment when the train exploded changed everything for Kiva Zadori. There was an intense heat, a loud thunderous noise that drowned out the screaming, and pain unlike anything she had felt before. Then there was nothing. What seemed like an eternity passed in the limbo between consciousness and non-existence. As her thoughts slowly returned, the arbitrator was certain she had died. The darkness receded slowly as blurred vision revealed a pale, blue ambience surrounding her. It was as if everything around her was washed out in color and hue. She looked around shaking her head to try cure the blurred vision, but it seemed like everywhere she looked it was the same. What she could tell is that wherever she was it was not on the station anymore, but confusion riddled her mind was she dead? “Hello? Is anyone out there?” She called out not really knowing what to expect, but it felt like the natural thing to do. The surrounding area offered no response. Washed in greying blue, the station of 624-VL was a haunting place. The lack of life, the lack of crowds or the sounds of a hundred talking species were absent. In fact, except for her own voice, there was a lack of noise altogether. In the distance stood a solitary figure in stark contrast, clad in ominous, tattered black robes. The figure was vibrant, standing out against the dull surroundings, contrasting to such a degree it was almost painful for Kiva to keep her eyes upon it. Then it rose a hand, pointing an unnaturally elongated finger towards her. “Kiva….” The words echoed throughout the station, surrounding her, reflected off with a multitude of echoes. “Kiva….” She looked away from the figure her eyes felt like they were burning every time she look upon it. Then it spoke her name ringing in her ears with a piercing pain, but she tried her best to push past the notions of pain. She slowly took a few steps towards this black robed figure, the empty station filling the pit of her stomach with a feeling of dread. Despite how she felt she called out. “Do you know me? I-I think I’m lost, and I need help.” Kiva heard Angel screaming. The noise was distant, muffled. Silas was yelling. She couldn’t make out what was happening. It sounded so...off, like an old recording that had been played far too much. The figure stood motionlessly until the sounds receded. “Kiva…” It repeated. “Your time...is up. Your destiny...has been culled by the cruel machinations of others…” “My destiny is my own I will make of it what I choose.” She said with courage. She found it hard to even believe herself, and hearing her friends scream around her it dawned on her that where she was what this thing might be it it scared her. “If my time is up does that mean.. does that mean I’m dead?” “Your life thread is fading,” The voice responded. “You are on the precipice of destruction. This is the world between worlds…” The voice was haunting in it’s own way. Kiva could hear it, but it had no unique tone or pitch. She felt it’s words more than she heard it. It was unsettling, haunting. She felt herself choking up as she tried to speak she didn’t want to accept what she was being told it sounded surreal, but then why was she here why not just.. dead. “I don’t understand how such a place can be, I may have gifts myself but never have a read about anything that can explain this. If you have brought me here what is it you want from me? I can only assume it’s why I’m here.” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSRXUqsHh88" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSRXUqsHh88</a> The robed figure extended it’s arms outward, and as it did black wings unfolded wide in a 5 meter arch. The sounds of fluttering feathers were like explosions of pin drops against the silence. The face of the creature was hidden behind an ever-shifting mask, red rorschach-esque shapes forming every minute it spoke. “I have halted time itself,” The voice continued. “In defiance of the false fate of heathens. You...you…” Everything was spinning now, the realm of men collapsing away to a thousand, thousand stars across the milky way galaxy. “You were fated for greater things. The villainous and treacherous would rob you of this greatness. I will see you restored, and to enact vengeance against the transgressors…” It took a short while for what she had just been told to sink in how could she be destined for greater things? If that was true then why was such a thing so interested in her when it could time time itself. “You can restore my life, return me to my friends? I have nothing to give you my life is gone.” “No, your life is spent. You have nothing to give,” The voice of the being was shifting. “But you have everything to take. Take your vengeance, take your revenge, take back the destiny that was robbed from you. Take the fates of those that dared to usurp the grand plan.” “A little payback wouldn’t be so bad..” She thought about this, and the more she dwelled on it the more what she was being told made sense to her. She should take away from those what they took from her. “I wish to take my vengeance out on those who have wronged me, and if this aids this grand plan you speak of then so be it, it doesn’t concern me.” She felt herself tingling all over as if every fiber of her being was fighting against her decision, but it didn’t matter to her it’s what she had decided was best for her. The entity offered it’s hand. “Accept me as your Lord and Master, and I shall revive you. You shall become the instrument of my will, and in return you shall be empowered to take your vengeance.” She moved closer walking seeming on nothing till she was at arm's length from the being. She took it’s hand with her own, and dropped to one knee. “I accept you as my master, and I shall do your bidding so long as I have my vengeance.” “The deal is struck…” The entity said, suddenly melting into a vortex of mass and energy. The swirling energies struck Kiva in her chest, passing through her multiple times as she felt a piercing pain. Then the blackness and nothingness returned… --- “Anomalous entity detected,” Brother-Codicier Antigonus of the Dragon Knights Space Marines held his hand to halt the squad he was attached to. The tactical marines came to arms. The screaming erupted. Lesser men would have ran in terror. The marines of the Adeptus Astartes held firm. The bio scanners were detecting nothing. But the sudden rising of the half-fleshed skeleton that entered the room staggering spoke otherwise. “Daemon!” Antigonus hissed. “Open fire!” The sergeant of the squad ordered. The sound of bolter fired transfixed on the form. With a bestial howl, the skeletal figure waved back the rounds, and in an explosion of psychic might the marines were reduced to cinders. The flesh forming around the skeletons arms began to solidify and darken. The face, without it’s skin, tendons and muscle exposed, began to cough as new lungs took in air for the first time. The pain was almost unbearable, but as she took she first breath anew she felt the raw power within her. She had heard of the Adeptus Astartes from legends told, but to have effortly rendered them to cinders put a sickening smile across her skin-less face. She lifted the now vacant helmet of Brother-Codicier Antigonus, the internal vox-network chiming relentlessly. “Brothers...Brothers…”, the voice of other marines spoke out. “Rendezvous with Squad Avengion. Unexpected resistance…”