Chapter Text
"What's past is prologue" - The Tempest
Chapter 1
Lion sat upon his throne, in a pose that would have had the artificial lights glinting off his glasses if he wore glasses. Not that he would ever need glasses, the idea of primarchs getting old and their eyesight failing was a ridiculous one. Hmph. It would never happen to him.
But enough about that. Lion was not pondering primarch biology, no. He was pondering the metaphorical orb that was Imperium Secundus.
It really was convenient that Sanguinius had been there to become their new Emperor. The Lion shuddered at some of the potential Emperor nightmares he might have had to deal with. Emperor Russ. Emperor Fulgrim. Emperor Russ. Emperor Guilliman, bleh. Emperor Russ. Quickly, to avoid dwelling on the horror of that thought, he mentally groped around for something else to think about.
If it hadn't been for Sanguinius, Imperium Secundus would have been that most horrifying thing for an aggressively atheist state…heresy.
And Guilliman ruling it…eurgh. It's true he was good at a lot of things Lion didn't really care about, but he lacked it where it counted - the ability to make hard decisions. He was too pragmatic for hard decisions, Lion thought to himself. Instead, he actually made decisions that had long term benefits. But they lacked moral clarity! Doing things like negotiating with people instead of carpet bombing them from orbit was slave morality.
Moving along from Guilliman, Lion decided to ponder a completely different metaphorical orb. Curze. His nemesis. At first he had been happy to hunt down Curze because he was the enemy of the Imperium, but then Curze had made it personal…by trying to kill Lion in a fair fight. Soon, there would be a reckoning with Curze, yes.
But now, he had a meeting. Meetings truly were a constant beyond death and taxes for humanity. Humanity has had meetings since the first man gave birth to Drach'nyen. Metaphorically. Metaphorically gave birth. Drach'nyen was not the result of mpreg. Do not misrepresent what I said. Even death could die, (thanks Perpetuals and also Chaos), and there were tax-free zones…but even the Dark Apostles had meetings to discuss the correct shade of red for their armour. That was far into the future, though. For now, he had to deal with this specific meeting.
"Let's hear the prophecy from the Librarians," said Lion. "About this one planet with a name I don't care to pronounce."
"A great darkness falling upon a world of grey and blue. Flames unending, a cacophony poured into the skies. Murder walking abroad, borne swiftly on midnight wings," spake the Dark Angel reporting to Lion.
"It's Konrad," said the Lion decisively.
After all, it was Konrad that the meeting was about. As per usual, only his inner circle knew what the Lion really was doing - hunting Konrad. Everyone else thought he was being responsible and securing the borders of Imperium Secundus. Even the other Dark Angels. Trust no one, not even yourself, because if he got found out, Guilliman would yell at him. And Lion didn't want to get yelled at.
"It might not be Konrad," spake Redloss, a different Dark Angel. "There are remnants of the Shadow Crusade hanging around. The people we are supposedly out here to stop, you know, those guys?"
"'Midnight' is a Night Lord thing. They wear midnight-coloured armour," said Lion. "It's Konrad."
He paused.
"Holguin, you haven't said anything."
"Well," said Holguin, "you keep ignoring me, so I got tired of banging my head into a stone wall."
"Right," said Lion. "I forgot, you want us to abandon our honour, cease the pursuit of justice, and stop chasing after Curze."
"Hey, that's not what I said!" protested Holguin. "I just think we have higher priorities than running through every single one of the 500 worlds with a fine toothed comb trying to figure out where Curze is! I just think maybe we should actually do our jobs and ensure the security of Imperium Secundus!"
"Curze IS a threat to that security," said Redloss. "The greatest threat. Yes, one primarch, alone. The greatest threat. Are YOU a threat Holguin? Haah?"
"What? No!! I'm loyal! I'll do whatever you say, my liege!" said Holguin, to Lion.
"Don't worry about it," said Lion. "I know disagreeing with me doesn't mean you're actually disloyal. I'm not stupid. It's the people who agree with you to your face, but inside they disagree with you, those guys are the ones you have to watch out for. But we definitely aren't doing that with Imperium Secundus. We definitely aren't agreeing to Guilliman and Sanguinius' faces and then going behind their backs to do something completely different. Nope."
'What's this 'we'?' thought Holguin.
"Anyways," said Lion, "your mistake is thinking that Curze thinks like a rational person. He doesn't. He's basically like the Joker, he does whatever the writer thinks an insane person would do. He is compelled to cause problems on purpose. But randomly. Which is why we need to rely on psyker visions to find him. Yes, us, the most loyal legion. I see no contradictions with relying on psychic powers."
Redloss coughed.
"We're heading out to that planet!" said Lion. "Curze, you're not getting away this time!"