Martreus was excited to have been selected to take part in the debriefing as Alpharius. He had been nervous about it since Horus had declared they didn’t need full armor with the conclusion of the ground combat. This made it harder to play the Primarch.
“Shouldn’t it be one of you, lords?” he had asked.
“It’s the end of the war games,” Alpharius had replied with a shrug. “Think of it as a final test, how well can you do without the helmet to help?”
“It’s also a good test of our brothers,” Omegon had added. “You look the closest to us without a helmet, can they tell the difference?”
“Alright,” Martreus had said, still sounding nervous.
“You can do it,” Omegon had said encouragingly. “When in doubt, just observe.”
When in doubt, observe, Martreus thought as he arrived. He was one of the later arrivals, though he noted that Lorgar hadn’t arrived yet.
Fulgrim still seemed to be upset about what happened in the battle. He made a gesture to Martreus that he didn’t recognize, and his face fell a little when it wasn’t returned. Perturabo had a sour expression on his face, clearly unhappy with the results. This wasn’t a surprise, as his focus was on siege warfare. Konrad looked livid about something, but it wasn’t clear if he was just mad that the Lion eliminated him or something else. The Night Lords had been a bit divided once Konrad was out. Maybe that’s what he’s upset about, Martreus thought.
Angron didn’t look any different, so he looked angry. Mortarion was clearly deep in thought, so far he was the calmest of the group. Magnus was gloating a little that Leman wasn’t able to get to him, and Martreus had to remember to be careful with his thoughts. Horus was trying to joke around with Perturabo, who wasn’t really having it. Lorgar was the last to arrive, with Joysepha in tow.
Martreus hadn’t met a lot of women, and all the ones he had met that weren’t girls his age had a distinctly soft, motherly appearance. Joysepha wasn’t scary, but was certainly harder than the other faces he’d seen. She had hair that hung just above her shoulders, it looked slicked down a bit with sweat and had a red tinge to it. Her eyes were a light hazel, it wasn’t clear to him if it was blue or green based.
The debriefing went quickly, and Martreus was happy that he didn’t have to do much, though he did thank Horus for his intervention with the Space Wolves. Angron at least relaxed a surprising amount when Horus and Joysepha explained what exactly happened to get him out. It wasn’t clear why Joysepha was in the area since the Word Bearers had been almost on the other side of the battlefield.
“Alright, lets met up with everyone else,” Horus said. “Back to the battlefield, Rogal doesn’t think there’s enough room in the butte for all of us.”
“He’s right about that,” Martreus said. “The cave system is pretty extensive for a butte, but it’s going to be limited on practical space.” *************************************************
The battlefield was a churned up mess, and finding a good place to gather took a moment. Pryskella had also surprised Martreus. She had vibrant red hair, that looked like it was long; it was in a braid that wrapped around her head like a crown. He wasn’t sure how it was being held in place until Joysepha called her out for being battle ready still. Her response had been to laugh and pull a long pin out of her hair, and the braid slipped down around her shoulder.
“I’ve never figured out how you don’t overheat with your hair up like that,” Joysepha teased.
“As long as my neck is bare it’s fine,” Pryskella chuckled. “What about here?”
“This looks good,” Rogal said. “Horus?”
“Agreed,” Horus nodded.
It was at this point that everything fell apart for Martreus. He had noticed the Lion and Leman looking at him closely, but now Leman was approaching him with a deep frown.
“What’s the meaning of this?” he asked. “You aren’t Alpharius.”
“Of course I’m Alpharius,” Martreus objected.
“No, you’re not,” the Lion said with a finality that told him there was nothing to do but admit the truth.
“What’s your actual name?” Horus asked gently, trying to get him to focus somewhere other than the Lion’s intense gaze.
“I’m Martreus,” he answered softly. “Lord Alpharius asked me to do this, as a final test of my ability to play him.”
“Ah,” Horus said, placing a hand on his shoulder. They walked to the edge of the area, paused a moment, then Martreus trotted off. *************************************************
“How long did you make it, Martreus?” Herzog asked as the initiate entered the campsite.
“I got past the debrief with our side,” Martreus said proudly. “However, I was caught by… two of the Hunters.”
“Lion and Leman most likely,” Alpharius said.
“We knew there was a chance of failing the sniff test,” Omegon added, nodding thoughtfully.
“I’ll go,” Alpharius said. “Good job, Martreus.” *************************************************
“Don’t be mad at Martreus,” Alpharius said as he walked up to the group, noting the Lion’s quick glance over him. “I put him up to it.”
“You still aren’t Alpharius,” the Lion announced.
“No, he’s Alpharius,” Leman said. “There’s the mark I made on him when we were fighting in the butte.”
“Then where’s the mark I made on him when we fought outside of it?” the Lion asked sharply. Alpharius sent a signal to Omegon, indicating he needed to get up there quick. He got a response indicating that Omegon was already on the way.
“I can explain,” Alpharius said, not wanting the two Hunters to get physical. “It’s just going to be a moment. I’ve been keeping a secret from all of you.”
“What is it?” Angron asked. He wasn’t a fan of deception.
“I am Alpharius, but I’m not Omegon,” Alpharius said.
“I am,” Omegon added, joining the group. “I spotted the marking on my armor just after you left.”
“What exactly does this mean?” Magnus asked.
“I think I understand now,” Joysepha said. “Twins. That would explain why sometimes I’d think I was getting a response from two of you.”
“Response?” Lorgar asked.
“I was given a sign to use, a way of marking who the actual Alpharius was when dealing with the initiates,” Joysepha explained. “It’s a sign Valdor gave me.”
“Oh!” Fulgrim said. “I came up with…. Wait, wait. What are the names of the actual initiates?”
“Martreus, who you all met,” Alpharius started.
“Dwancis, Qayle, and Chathyn,” Omegon finished. “I was Frederick as a cover name.”
Fulgrim’s mouth hung open a moment, then he snapped it shut it surprise. “You’re the one who’s been--?”
“Yes,” Omegon said, trying not to giggle. He wasn’t surprised that Fulgrim didn’t seem to want to mention the dzira, at least not without it. “That was me.”
“Then why didn’t I get two replies?” Fulgrim asked. “Like Joysepha?”
“Because I told Alpharius that we had one, but not what it was,” Omegon shrugged.
“Before we get too off track,” Rogal said. “You’ve been keeping this from us, including the Triad?”
“No,” Alpharius said quickly.
“Of course not,” Omegon said at the same time. “Father and Malcador have known since before we picked names. “Valdor found out later.”
“When?” Horus asked.
“When you were all abducted,” Omegon said. “You all saw me then too for a bit.”
“The inside man?” Fulgrim asked, remembering that he had demanded that one wash his hair. Omegon nodded.
“Why Frederick as a name?” Leman asked.
“You have Lion to thank for that one,” Alpharius giggled. The Lion turned a beet red and mumbled something under his breath.
“I think we’re going to have to explore this in more depth later,” Rogal said. “After we’ve had time to adjust to the idea of there being two of them.”
“I have one question I want answered before we turn to other topics,” Angron growled. “Why?”
“That’s more a question for Father,” Alpharius said hesitantly.
“Not the deception,” Angron clarified. “I can see that being Father’s idea, and you went along with it because of how young we all were when that would have happened. Why now?”
“It wasn’t our idea to do it like this,” Omegon said quietly. “This was a trial, a baby step. We’re almost never out together in the same area. When we all go off-world one of us goes with the family, the other stays with the Legion. We’ve always swapped off who was out, even going to Nova. We weren’t supposed to get close to Lion or Leman, we knew they were likely going to be able to smell us.”
“Omegon is right,” Alpharius said as his twin fell silent. “This is the first time we’ve actually done something like this. It was meant to be a trial for us being out together in a more normal way, then we’d assess.”
“Does your Legion know?” Lorgar asked.
“Just the group with us here on the ground,” Alpharius said with a shake of his head. “Omegon was on the other Thunderhawk, and it crashed. I didn’t handle it the best.”
“I think we’re going to need some time to process this,” Horus said. “Do we want to look at this deeper on the way home? That way we have Father present as well to answer questions?”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Alpharius said. “Omegon?”
“Yeah, I agree,” came the almost whispered response.
“There’s no need to be shy,” Fulgrim said. “You weren’t before.”
“It’s not that I’m shy,” Omegon said quickly. “It’s just weird knowing you all know I’m me and not Alpharius.”
“That’s reasonable,” Lorgar said. “But Horus is right, here’s not the time or place to sort everything out with this.”
“If we’re turning our attention to the battle, I have a question for Lord Sanguinius,” Pryskella said. “What happened there at the end?”
“Azkellon over-reacted to my elimination,” Sanguinius said. “As he is of my Legion, I will oversee his punishment.”
“Understood,” Pryskella said, dipping her head and then turning her attention to Ferrus. “Lord Manus, do you want to discuss things with Lord Fulgrim now or later?”
“Later,” Ferrus said quickly. He was avoiding Fulgrim’s attempts at eye-contact. “I… think that will be better.”
“I… have a peace offering,” Fulgrim said. “It’s just not with me right this moment.”
“So do I,” Ferrus said. “But it should be later?”
“Yeah,” Fulgrim agreed. “Omegon can join us as a neutral party.”
“Why me?” Omegon asked, surprised.
“You know why,” Fulgrim said, with a bit of a grin.
“If we can turn back to the fight?” Magnus asked. “Leman, it looks like you were late.”
“I was not,” Leman objected. “Ferrus went early.” He was mad that he had missed a chance to have a fight with Magnus as they had been arguing again. Ferrus ducked his head, looking at his feet.
They decided to go around and discuss all of their experiences, including Omegon. The Lion discussed noticing Omegon, and then had a lot of fun describing his fight with Konrad. Fulgrim wasn’t happy with his performance, admitting that he hadn’t actually been trying to take out Ferrus. Perturabo was mad that Rogal had not only beaten him, but then beat Fulgrim as if neither fight had been anything to him.
“You just have to stay cool under pressure,” Rogal said smugly. “Inwitt is a good place to learn about staying cool.”
“Fenris is better,” Leman said, causing Rogal to roll his eyes.
“Not that you’re particularly good at that,” the Lion snorted.
“Guys, it’s Jaghatai’s turn,” Magnus said. “Unless you have more, Perturabo?”
“No, Jaghatai can go.” *************************************************
After almost another hour, they got through everyone. With the discussion done, everyone went back to their respective camps. Fulgrim, with Omegon, and Ferrus ran off to get their items and met back up. Pryskella and Joysepha had insisted that they be present, but would stay off to the side.
“Are you sure about this, Fulgrim?” Omegon asked as they arrived at the tree.
“Of course!” Fulgrim said. “You’ve been confirmed as a Primarch, you should remember that I fully intended for you to participate anyway.”
“You aren’t angry at me for lying all these years?” Omegon asked. “It feels weird.”
“I’m trying not to be too riled up by things,” Fulgrim said with a shrug. “I’m not Angron.”
“Even he doesn’t seem to be angry,” Omegon noted. “It’s weird that no one seems to be angry about it.”
“Many are probably still processing the concept,” Fulgrim said. “Some may want to know which one they were talking to at various times.”
“That wouldn’t surprise me,” Omegon admitted. “We’re probably going to have to sit down with everyone. Perturabo and Ferrus actually are especially complicated.”
“Why’s that?” Fulgrim asked, untying the bottle and the two headed off.
“We play some mind games with them to get stuff,” Omegon said. He felt no need to keep any further secrets. Alpharius had also agreed that they should tell Perturabo and Ferrus about those.
“Stuff for what?” Fulgrim asked. “Some kind of secret lair?”
“Yes, actually,” Omegon said, suddenly aware that this might go badly.
“How did you do that without Ferrus finding out?” Fulgrim asked. “I can’t do anything without him knowing.”
“We had a lot of time while everyone else was at Nova,” Omegon said. “We usually alternate days, unless there was something one of us was especially looking forward to.”
“Lords,” Joysepha said, joining them on the way to the meeting place. They nodded to her, and they continued on.
“What is that?” Ferrus asked, pointing to the dzira.
“My apology gift for you,” Fulgrim said. “It was Omegon’s idea, and he helped.”
“Ah, that’s why you wanted him here,” Ferrus said. “That still doesn’t really answer the question though.”
“You told us about how disagreements are resolved on Medusa,” Omegon said. “It sounded interesting, and this seemed like a good time to use it.”
“Oh!” Ferrus said. “Dzira! That was a great idea. It’s not Leman approved, is it?”
“Noooo,” Fulgrim giggled, drawing the word out. “Or at least it shouldn’t be, it hasn’t been long enough.”
“That’s good, I don’t think Father would approve if that was the case,” Ferrus said. The other two nodded.
“We don’t have any cups,” Omegon said suddenly. “Cups are a part of the ritual.”
“Not all the time,” Ferrus shrugged. “Beside, we aren’t doing any of this quite properly.”
“And since Mortarion isn’t partaking, it should be safe for us all to use the jar,” Omegon said.
“There’s not a lot,” Fulgrim said sadly. “We haven’t actually tasted the finished product because of it. The berries here are juicy, but not numerous.”
“That’s alright,” Ferrus said. “We’re really only supposed to have about one swallow anyway. It’s a very pretty color.”
“Thanks!” Fulgrim said, smiling happily.
I’ve known them my whole life, but it’s still weird how fast they’ve made up, Omegon thought. They didn’t even want to talk at the debriefing, Ferrus passed giving any commentary on his own experience. What changed? It can’t be just the dzira.
“Omegon! Have your taste,” Fulgrim said, pulling him out of his thoughts.
“It’s good!” Ferrus said, passing over the jar. Omegon took a sip, and nodded in agreement. He glanced at the Custodians, then looked at the jar.
“There’s not enough for Joysepha and Pryskella,” he said.
“It’s alright, Lord Omegon,” Pryskella said. “We just wanted to make sure there wasn’t going to be another fight.”
“I was just thinking about that,” Omegon said. “This whole time there’s been this rift between you two, and now the war games are over and it’s like nothing has happened. Was it all role play?”
“No,” Ferrus said, turning more serious. “None of it was acting on my part. I can’t speak for Fulgrim though.”
Fulgrim fidgeted, looking at his feet. “I made an error in judgment. I was leaning a little on the idea of this being a game, but it wasn’t really meant to be acting.”
“So you would ask me to betray our brothers if you were going to rebel?” Ferrus growled.
“But what if I thought you were on the wrong side?” Fulgrim asked. “What if you were the ones rebelling?”
“I’d never betray Father,” Ferrus said firmly.
“No one said anything about betraying Father,” Omegon pointed out. “But Fulgrim does have a point. What if a xenos witch altered your perception of reality and while you might not think you’re going against Father, you are? What if any of us were?”
“I appreciate the effort, Omegon,” Fulgrim said. “But there isn’t anything that deep or noble about what I was doing.”
“So you would try to get me to betray allies?” Ferrus roared.
“You had the opportunity to get me to turn traitor if you wanted,” Fulgrim grumbled. “I want to be on the same side as you, Ferrus. That’s what I was getting at. Even if we’re on different sides I want to find a way to be on the same team as you.”
Ferrus froze at that. It had never crossed his mind that he could try to convince Fulgrim to come over to their side. He had been more interested in not getting caught by Vulkan or Corvus when they were speaking before the void battle, and too angry when talking later.
“So, you view us as a partnership?” he asked, realizing that Fulgrim and Omegon were staring at him.
“Of course!” Fulgrim cried. “We’ve always been the closest. We balance each other out so well. If this has shown me anything, it’s that we’re better together than against each other.”
“My side did win,” Ferrus pointed out. “So maybe you should have switched.”
“I don’t think you get to make that pitch after the games are over,” Omegon said. He felt like he was taking a risk, but he wanted to try and show the brighter side of things. Clearly the conversation had reached an important point.
Fulgrim and Ferrus stared at him, then looked at each other. The silence stretched, and Joysepha and Pryskella also shared a glance. To Omegon’s surprise, Ferrus cracked first, snickering for a moment before Fulgrim joined and it devolved into full laughter.
“He’s got you there, Ferrus,” Fulgrim said after a moment. “Hey! Didn’t you say you had an apology present?”
“Oh!” Ferrus said, turning and pulling out squares from a pouch. “They’re not as exciting as your dzira.”
“What are they?” Fulgrim asked, checking them over.
“Potholders,” Ferrus said, trying not to turn red. “Pryskella taught me a bit.”
“Oh! They’re nice,” Fulgrim said with a smile. “I can use them when Father lets me cook!”
“That was kind of the idea,” Ferrus said. “There’s one for each Legion.”
“That’s so cool!” Fulgrim said, clearly excited by them. His face froze a moment, before turning serious again. “I doubt things will be exactly as they were before, but you are still my favorite brother. Can we work on having something close to what I broke?”
“I think so,” Ferrus said. “But like you said, it won’t be the same.”
“Didn’t Malcador tell us once about a tradition on the Dragon Isles of mending something that was broken with molten gold?” Omegon asked. “Not the same, but not less for what it went through.”
“I knew Fulgrim had a good reason to bring you along,” Ferrus said with a chuckle. “Thanks for helping him come up with something.”
“Of course!” Omegon said. “It helped me too a bit. I’d never denied being Alpharius to any of you before this.”
“When you told me you were Frederick?” Fulgrim asked.
“Yeah,” Omegon said. “We’ve always used that name on the rare occasions when…”
“When what?” Ferrus asked when Omegon trailed off.
“We’re out together in close proximity,” Omegon finished. “Like we mentioned before, I was out briefly during the abduction incident.”
The Custodians shared another glance. Valdor hadn’t told them about Omegon at all, and it had been fairly clear to them that none of the other Primarchs had known either. Fulgrim thought a moment, then he glared at Omegon with a fury they hadn’t expected.
“You worked with our abductors?” he shouted.
“No!” Omegon said. “I lied so they wouldn’t suspect me. I have no idea if they had an inside man or not. I just needed to get close to signal to Alpharius that Father was on his way. I’d traced the ransom message back to their location.”
“How did you do that?” Ferrus asked.
“With the cogitator you and Perturabo made parts for,” Omegon said. “It’s in our lair. You two do really good work.”
“Thanks?” Ferrus said questioningly. “Wait, we made those in several different pieces.”
“And you guys get to be the only tech people?” Omegon shot back. “Even Angron can make a cogitator.”
“True,” Ferrus said.
“Is this what you meant earlier?” Fulgrim asked. “When you said you were surprised about us not being angry.”
“Yeah,” Omegon said. “I was kind of waiting for you to figure out where you had heard of someone called Frederick before.”
“I still always think of the Lion’s imaginary friend when you say that name,” Fulgrim chuckled. “And you owe me a hair washing.”
“Haven’t we gotten off topic?” Omegon asked, trying to deflect. “This meeting was about you two working out your issue?”
“We did that,” Ferrus said. “Or at least, I’m satisfied with where we are.”
“Me too,” Fulgrim said. “Which means we can focus on sorting things out with you.”
“Can’t we do that on the Imperator Somnium?” Omegon asked. “That way everyone’s together.”
“He’s got a point there, Fulgrim,” Ferrus said. “Also, he doesn’t owe you a hair washing.”
“Why not?” Fulgrim pouted. “He’s the one I pointed out.”
“You specifically wanted one of our abductors to do it, he wasn’t actually one of them.”
“Lords,” Joysepha said, hiding her amusement at Omegon’s discomfort. “Lord Lupercal is asking you to rejoin your groups. It’s time to go back to the fleets.”
“Right, we’d better get going,” Fulgrim said. “We’re not done though, Omegon.”
“Somehow, I’m not surprised.” *************************************************
“How did it go?” Alpharius asked as Omegon trotted up.
“Well, they aren’t trying to kill each other anymore,” Omegon said. “How did you fare?”
“Uh, I think we’re going to get interrogated by the Lion when we’re back on the Somnium,” Alpharius said.
“That’s not going to be pleasant,” Omegon muttered. “But we can’t really help it. What do we think about the rest of the Legion?”
“We should tell them, before the initiates do,” Alpharius said. “But we have to get your Thunderhawk out of the ground first.”
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