Death threatened to accompany every blow she felt as the enemy proved too much. Rosetta, fresh Celestian of the Order of Divine Light faced it with faith in her blade and fire in her heart. With every roaring breath, she cried out for her Emperor's protection.

Blood leaked from her broken nose and a thousand cuts inflicted with merciless speed. Even then she roared with grim triumph as she drove her blade through the abdomen of a knight. She relished the wretched traitor's squeals of pain as she withdrew the sword.

The fiery fury boiled her blood as another blade was driven through her torso, piercing a kidney and bringing her to her knees. Her heart thumped as she was brought low in a flurry of attacks.

At that moment she remembered the righteous vengeance and glorious bloodshed. She grasped that memory and took it to heart and holy fervour permeated throughout her numbing body. Time slowed, her enemies somehow slowed and her vision blurred as she lashed out with the might of the gods.

Swinging back and forth, she sliced the last of her foe in a storm of blood. It was beautiful, majestic even. Such purity and grace made every drop of blood sparkle like polished rubies in starlight.

Their golden armour glistened and glowed like lone suns in the night. A single piece stood out amongst the rest. A single object exemplified by refracted light in the form of a myriad of colours. She barely got a good look at it. It did not matter it had to be her's. Only once entrusted to her will its majesty be realised and preserved.

She snatched out of the air and like a jealous child, she stuffed away with her jewel.

The death cries of the dying wounded were the stuff of angelic choirs. In this moment of pure, unbridled ecstasy her eyes widened, her mouth smiled from cheek to cheek. All else became trivial matters now.

"Rosetta?" Asked a voice.

One would dare defile such a moment of divine perfection? No! Unacceptable! Rosetta swung impossibly fast over her shoulder to the voice's source behind her. Blood spurted into the air with all its intoxicating grace.

Then, the chilling grip of cold reality grasped her combusting heart and shattered her soul as Lara's wail smacked her ears. Then a powered blade lashed out at her. Parrying the blade to the left, Rosetta cleared her eyes. Then she gasped in horror at what she had done.

"Traitor!" Lara roared as she thrust her power sword at Rosetta's face.

Ducking, Rosetta instinctively struck back with a swift slash across the stomach. Lara could only gasp and strain in disbelief as she collapsed onto the floor, dead. A pool of dreaded blood was collecting around her corpse.

The world blurred. Rosetta's mind became numb again. She panicked, blasphemy had been committed by her hand. The Emperor would have her soul for this. He would be right to do so. She cursed the creature she had become.

"What happened to me" She uttered as she began to weep.

What have you done?

Hot tears ran down her cheeks, her eyes stung with rage and sorrow. She became lost. Nothing, not even joining the repentia would save her cursed soul. There is nothing but death left here for her now.

They will destroy you for this... RUN!

She scavenged poor Lara's body for ammunition. Once stocked up, she took her bolter and shot at the closest window, shattering it easily. Then she leapt out onto the street and took off. She cried out in despair and confusion while she sprinted from rooftop to rooftop.

When she got to the city limits, she dropped down to the street and blasted her way into a watchtower. It was not long before she was running along the parapets of the citadel walls. She was running. Running from her sisters, running like a child in a haze of despair, confusion and doubt.

Through fire and rage, she reaped a trail of blood and death as she ran across the wall in search of a worthy place to jump. There she found it. Where the northern wall held back the forest was her answer.

Reaching it, she jumped into the forest with musket shot whizzing overhead. Falling through the canopy, she hit the floor hard only to get back up and keep running.

By nightfall, she had disappeared into the wild.

-//-

Again, she found herself trapped in a broken body, pain flooding from shattered bones and bruised flesh. The moans and cries of her suffering sisters filled the room as they died, one after another.

The shattering of armour and Aura being dropped to the floor dead. The haunting presence of the heretic Astartes. The revoltingly familiar touch of his tendrils upon her skin. It all came back to her in horrific detail.

Then the blessed warm and light of a melta shot dispensing righteous vengeance caressed her skin. Followed by the divine light that revealed her saviour, dear Lady Mirabel. So powerful, so beautiful, so wonderful was she that all else just paled in comparison.

Then she awoke to the pale dullness of reality.

She found refuge all alone in a cave, like a lowly hermit. There, silence reigned broken only Rosetta's whispering voices as she wept. She rocked back and forth again and again. She maintained the sign of the Aquila with both her sweating palms upon her chest.

All the while she stared at the cave ceiling with wide, watery eyes through the red lenses of her hem. Some sign, some reassuring hope that divinity still found her worthy. She was an Adepta Sororitas, the utmost of the holy and the devout.

Even then, she realised that this dignity, the honour of wearing his blessed suit was more than what she deserved. Such pride had succumbed to passion when she ran. Its wearer was sullying this holy and pure armour.

In the name of justice, she took off her helm. In the name of the Sisterhood, she loosened her armour. In the name of the God-Emperor, she took off her breastplate. For honour and duty, she removed her mailed gauntlets and loosened joints throughout her arms.

In a single heavy clang, her pauldrons and backplate fell to the floor, pulling other parts with them. Then she removed her sabatons and everything that followed and rose to her feet. In nothing but her robes, she stumbled ever deeper into the cave gripping the jewels in her hand.

-//-

She wandered about for hours and hours without end through the darkness. Death awaited her here. She was a traitor, a heathen, a heretic, death awaited her and she awaited it. She would die here and that would only be a fitting fate.

Her belly ached with hunger; her feet burned with pain and yet she carried on walking, stumbling and thinking. How could she be so blind to the monster she had become? It had been her gifted purpose to protect and serve all her life.

The God-Emperor of Mankind watched over her as she did his citizens. In his very image, she was a guardian, a living breathing bulwark against the anarchy of the heretic. Then it dawned on her that she was never so perfect.

It was a secret she hid even from herself. She was helpless in a violent galaxy. As much a sheep as the sheep she guarded. It was undeniable now.

She was helpless as a child, always relying on strong, dependable Aura. She was helpless five years ago and she is helpless now. Ever a useless child, chasing after dreams and idols. Chasing after Mirabel.

Oh, Mirabel, such is her majesty that now in her hour of shame the Canoness' memory made Rosetta's heart throbbed with adoration. Then the jewels in her hand began to glow as they often did in the dark.

She raised them up. Holding them by their chains, she dangled them in front of her face. One was the same disc-shaped marvel it had always been. The other was different. It was a small crescent moon. It sparked beautifully in a myriad of infinite colours. These things, at least she'll have them until the end.

Then the strange high pitched tune of an ancient organ echoed and blared throughout the hollow halls of the cave. A sad tune of low notes, spanning the duration of an octave played games with her mind.

The jewels glowed but revealed little in the darkness of the cave. The music shook Rosetta's soul. Scaling from low to high in pitch and tone with no thought to rhythm or rhyme, the accursed music seemed to erode into her very soul.

Moulding it, shaping it with every second it crept in Rosetta's ear. Every note was an idea, every idea was an implication, every implication, a message. Rosetta dropped to her knees, gripping her head.

"W-what is this?" She asked herself.

"Away, away, away she runs. Away from grace, away from the light... Away from the God-Emperor?" came Aura's villainous voice.

"NO!"

"Are you not the good girl you once were? The dear sister for whom so many have died for?"

"NO! WE DO WHAT WE MUST FOR-"

"For... What? Life with no choice? Life as a puppet of this God-Emperor?"

"I-"

"Must do what is right? Is that what made you kill poor old Lara?"

Rosetta felt the words hit home like a sledgehammer blow.

"I serve the sisterhood. I serve the God-Emperor. I Serve, I Serve! Is that not enough thief?" She cried out.

"Not enough to save Lara was it? Hmph! I don't need falsehoods to hide from the blind. I am a Goddess! You are nothing!" Aura replied.

Anger followed sorrow, Rosetta's heart burned with every ounce of its existence with pure, unbridled rage. Such offensive words cannot go unanswered. She was offended. Her stomach twisted and churned with anger at the monster that now haunted her.

"I will-"

"Do what? Kill me? Yes! Kill me! Soak your bloody hands with even more blood!... It only ripens you for the slaughter."

The organ grew silent. For a time, there was nothing. Rosetta took another step looking for signs of Aura's presence but silence and darkness were all that remained. Rosetta sighed.

Then Aura's snickering face appeared in the jewel's dim blue light. A vile smile stretched from cheek to cheek. Rosetta gasped as she recoiled. With rolling eyes, she gestured to the source of the sound of crumbling rock and dimmed clank of heavy armour.

"They come." Aura warned her.

Rosetta lashed out as Aura disappeared back into the darkness.

Run

Rosetta looked up to find two sets of green eyes staring down at the cavern below. They both locked onto her and fear gripped her heart. She began to run somehow navigating the rocky terrain she did not see.

Bolters barked in the distance, blasting apart the rocks she hid behind and showering her with debris. The world lit up with the light of dozens of detonations, the air shuddered with the loud thunder of every explosion.

She ran and ran as giants charged in after her. Sliding through every gap, every crevice and finding her way deeper into the tunnel network she slipped away from her hunters. Panting and gasping for air she took a moment's respite.

Twas only to be frightened by the rumble of traitor Astartes smashing their way through the rock to get to her. She looked ahead and began running yet again. Run, run, run this is all she could do. She cursed her fate, she loathed herself but still, the desire to at least live burned brightly beneath her skin.

Brought warmth in the coldness of the caves.

You must live. Live and tell the truth! Only in the truth is peace found.

"Yes! I must." She answered between breaths.

"Ha! As if the truth will set you free! Death is what awaits you! That is the truth!" Barked Aura.

Rosetta smiled grimly. She had been thinking all this while. She never realised it but through her sorrow, she and paved her own path in the Emperor's light.

Yes, she conceded. Yes, she was a puppet. Yes, she was a weapon and no, no longer shall she live as such. Now she leads her own path. Her own way. She shall never bow her head again. Nor shall she fruitlessly worship some distant deity.

"Death awaits us all." She remarked.

With that, she committed herself fully to running. There was no dishonour in living and working to live. No this is not how she will die. It was her sisterhood whom she had wronged. It is by their hand that she shall die.

  -//-