5 5: Witness Me!

Worry pounded in Sabine's chest. It fueled her in her desperate search for her Guardsman, her Octus. He was lost to her at the moment, which was entirely unacceptable for the Sister of Battle. She needed to be right by his side, to keep him safe, to make sure none of these traitors laid a finger on what was hers.

The longer Sabine searched, the more her mental state degenerated into an obsessive fury that someone from the 3rd millennium might call 'yandere rage'. Luckily, she had plenty of acceptable targets for her rage at the moment.

Stuck in their perches on the walls of the Hive thoroughfare, the traitors didn't even get a chance to flee from Sabine's wrath. Bolter rounds exploded into rockcrete and metal shrapnel and heretic brains. Her battle cries were answered by the Guardsmen and women fighting on her side. Sabine's yandere rage quickly became the spearhead for the regiment's counterattack.

And then things got even worse for the traitors. One of them on the lower perches of the wall decided it would be a good idea to charge the frenzied Sister of Battle and overwhelm her with numbers. A charge was mustered and traitors poured onto the thoroughfare like a flood of ants. A quarter of their number was mowed down instantly by concentrated lasgun fire. Then they hit Sabine's hastily thrown grenades…

Only about half of the original charge reached Sabine. And those that did instantly came to regret their decision. Sabine's chainsword revved and the traitors found themselves face to blade with a manic Sororitas who would cut through anything to get to the man she didn't even consciously realize she had claimed.

Sabine barely even registered that she was carving through a crowd of traitors. Even as blood and gore sprayed into her face, her eyes were scanning her surroundings for Octus. The absolutely desperate and wild look in her eyes made traitors freeze and whimper before her chainsword sawed through their torsos, even though it wasn't directed at them.

Sabine unintentionally painted herself as an angel of death and duty in the eyes of the Guardsmen who watched her slaughter her way through a horde of traitors by herself, always desperately looking for something… someone… She came out the other side drenched in traitorous blood and barely panting. And still, her head was whipping back and forth, looking for something only she could find.

She didn't even pause for a second, leaping right back into action in her seemingly never-ending search. Everywhere she looked, heretics died almost as an afterthought. But Sabine knew that every traitor she killed was another that couldn't harm her Octus. So she slaughtered dutifully, trying to ignore the growing frantic desperation and need in her heart.

Where was he?! How could she have lost him so quickly?! No! Sabine refused to continue that line of thought. He wasn't gone. She would find him! And then she would clutch him to her chest and never let go again. And if these traitors had harmed a hair on his head then only genocide would satisfy her fury.

She threw her bolter into the air and her power-armored fist snapped out to vaporize a traitor's head. Her chainsword tore through the chest of another. As she caught her bolter again and took a moment to observe the havoc she'd wreaked, an absent thought surfaced from a disconnected portion of her mind. It may be too late for genocide.

'Serves them right,' a dark part of Sabine's brain hissed. Even a bit of collateral genocide wasn't enough to raise her spirits though. The pit in her stomach was steadily growing the longer she went without finding Octus.

She couldn't rest. She could barely think. She was pushed to the edge of hopelessness and could only lash out at the traitors around her. Her body was a blur of movement and violence. The fact that she didn't attack her comrades in arms in her yandere rage could only be attributed to nearly two decades of discipline in service to the Emperor.

And still, the righteous violence did nothing to quell Sabine's desperation. If anything, it only got worse. Hundreds of traitors died by blade and bolter and still, she didn't see the end to both the ambush and her search. The flame of her faith and duty to the Emperor roared strong but slowly began to flicker with each minute apart from Octus.

The bark of her bolter beat a constant staccato that hammered the passing of each second into Sabine's brain. Each shell ejected by her holy weapon saw another traitor dead and another moment without the newly-realized light of her life. The revving of her chainsword acted as the lead guitar to the soundtrack of Sabine's frantic descent into madness.

Suddenly, her breath caught in her throat as she saw a fleeting glimpse of that perfect silvery hair she was looking for. She dropped everything in an instant, barreling straight through a pack of traitors in pursuit of that brief sighting. Their screams and death rattles never reached her ears. She sprinted across the battlefield at full tilt, obliterating anything that got in between her and the mere chance of finding Octus again.

Sabine skidded around the corner of a Chimera. Her bolter was already up and snapping off shots before her mind could catch up with her eyes. Lady and Lacey stood back to back against the side of the vehicle, lasgun and bolt pistol blazing into an advancing crowd of traitors.

And there in front of them, standing tall, solid, and most of all, safe, was Sabine's Guardsman. Sabine could have cried. She'd thought him lost and yet, there he was, firing into the horde and holding his own with a certain steel in his eyes. Sabine had never seen a sight as beautiful and reassuring as the one before her eyes.

All at once, Sabine's mental state did a complete reversal. The flickering flame of faith in her heart roared into a great inferno. The dark parts of her mind were pushed back by the new light of her life. Though their time apart could have been measured in mere minutes, Sabine had been on the verge of breaking. Just seeing Octus safe and whole with her eyes saved her from collapse. And she knew in her heart that the Emperor had been watching over her, guiding her back to her Octus.

Sabine's arrival had been noticed by everyone in this little corner of the battlefield. Lady and Lacey couldn't pay her more than a moment of attention. Octus, though, turned to her and flashed that goofy smile of his, all without pausing his defense for a second. And Sabine realized she had been wrong just now. This was the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen.

Then her instincts tingled and a premonition flashed before her eyes. She saw Octus lying on the ground, bleeding out from a chest wound while she knelt over his body and cried. Sabine was moving before she realized. She dove at Octus, knocking him out of the way just as a traitor they'd both missed jabbed at Octus with a jagged piece of steel. The makeshift blade glanced off the shoulder of his Flak Armor and the pair landed on the ground a little ways away.

Sabine had landed on top of him and now found herself staring into those perfect eyes of his. She could see Octus' shock and surprise but he still smiled at her in a way that sent her battle-hardened stomach twisting pleasurably. She felt tears welling in her eyes as she returned the smile with a shaky one of her own. Then both of their worlds exploded…

… They were falling. That was the first thing Sabine noticed when she came back to awareness. Falling into an endless darkness like she'd seen in her dreams. She couldn't see Octus but she knew he had to be nearby.

And just like in her dream, Octus suddenly appeared out of the gloom. His form was slack as they plummeted into the unknown. Sabine reached for him and like in her dreams, he eventually reached back. She held him close, squeezing her eyes closed against the darkness while she tried to figure out what had happened.

She remembered lying on top of Octus after pushing him out of the way, saving his life. Then… there was an abrupt bloom of heat and light… A concussive force detonated against Sabine's power armor and the ground crumbled out from beneath them.

They'd been hit by something. That much she was sure of. Some kind of explosive. A grenade or rocket or even a mine that the regiment had avoided by some miracle… The fact that Sabine's larger body and power armor completely covered Octus was probably the only reason he was just unconscious. Not that it mattered now…

Tears tried to sneak their way out of the corner of her closed eyes. From the amount of time they'd already been falling, there wasn't going to be anything left of them when they hit whatever ground was beneath them. This all felt like some kind of cruel joke to Sabine. Probably one played by mad gods…

It was all just too much, too quickly. She'd met people she could consider friends for the first time. She'd found out that she was playing some part in a Chaos play. She'd been separated from her new friends by a traitorous ambush. She'd slaughtered her way through more traitors than the rest of the regiment combined. And when she finally found her Octus again, they were sent crashing into the dark unknown.

Her life was finally changing after so long but it was changing too much. The bad ripped all of the good changes away from her before she could truly appreciate them. And now she had no idea what was going to happen. Probably her death… At least she would die in Octus' arms…

The fall seemed to stretch on into eternity. Sabine had enough time to fully fight back her tears and even settle her resolve. She would not die here. She refused! She would not die before getting to know Octus more or seeing what her last vision was about or finding out who her children's father was.

And in her resolve, Sabine fell back on the one constant in her life. She prayed to the Emperor, steeling her conviction and reaching out with all her faith. This wasn't the Emperor's plan for her and Octus. It couldn't be. Sabine refused! She knew he would watch over them, would protect them! He wouldn't have brought them together just to end it here.

Unseen and unfelt by Sabine, a dim golden glow began to light up the darkness. The Aquila on her chest shined with the light of the Emperor's miracles and heated up until it was hot enough to brand itself into the chest of Sabine's power armor. Their fall slowed and slowed until Sabine and Octus were practically floating.

Sabine's miracle couldn't have come a second too soon. She realized she was no longer falling at terminal velocity when the wind on her face calmed and the next moment, her feet were landing on solid ground. She stood on surprisingly shaky legs and hesitantly opened her eyes. Octus, barely conscious but not aware, leaned against her and she breathed a sigh of relief.

A peal of laughter bubbled up in Sabine's throat, "Haha!… The Emperor protects."

"Damn straight…" Octus mumbled, almost unintelligibly.

They weren't dead. It was a miracle. Quite literally in this case considering Sabine was a Sister of Battle. She doubted she'd get Sainthood because of it but she couldn't bring herself to care. Right now, only Octus was important. And he was not looking good at the moment. He'd been shielded from most of the explosion but seemed to have a concussion at the very least.

Sabine worried at her lip. She wasn't a Medicae. She didn't know what she would be able to do to help her Guardsman if he was truly injured. But first things first, she had to find a safe place to check him over.

Her eyes took in their surroundings, adjusting to the darkness. Far above them, a light shined down the tall shaft they'd fallen down. They'd landed in an intersection of what looked like a series of tunnels. It was almost sewer-like in its dank, dark atmosphere. They must have fallen into the Underhive.

She propped Octus up on her shoulder as she surveyed their options. He hung there almost limply, unable to support his weight. His state worried Sabine as much as the vague flickering light she saw at the end of one of the tunnels leading off of the intersection. She did not doubt that she could handle any dweller of this dank Underhive but could she do that while keeping an injured Octus safe?

Sabine decided she didn't want to take that chance. She deliberately chose one of the dark tunnels and started walking down it. Octus' weight didn't bother the power-armored Sister one bit and after a bit of fiddling, she managed to find a ChemLight on Octus' belt for light. She held the light in one hand and held up Octus with the other, repressing everything she was feeling at that moment. It could come out when they were safe…

They walked through the dark, damp, cramped tunnels. The ground squished under her armored boots. It was so quiet that Sabine could hear the drips of liquid waste, water, runoff, and whatever else. Occasionally, there was an abrupt echo of violence from far away. Sabine ignored those as best she could and kept scanning for a secure nook for them to rest in.

Sabine could make out various creatures skittering around in the darkness at the edge of her ChemLight. Some were small enough to go nearly unnoticed. Others were big enough that even Sabine was on edge. None of the mutated creatures bothered them though, keeping to the shadows and crevices in the tunnels they called home.

Eventually, Octus' delirious mumbles got to Sabine. They were as entertaining as they were worrying. He was saying things she could barely make out. Like things about the "spooky skelly man" and "evil space chicken" and other complete nonsense that Sabine couldn't make heads or tails from. In particular, he kept going on about "Sisters in thigh highs" and "holy zettai ryoiki"… Whatever that meant.

It got to the point that Sabine didn't feel comfortable continuing without giving Octus a chance to rest. She found a little side room that branched off from the tunnel and prepared to hunker down there until Octus woke. She used a bit of rubble to form a makeshift barricade at the room's entrance.

Once they were at least passably secure, Sabine sat down against the back wall of the room with Octus' head in her lap. She stroked his hair and studied his face in the green glow of the ChemLight. Despite everything that had happened, he seemed as at peace as he always did. But just seeing that relaxation on his face and finally having a moment to breathe was all it took for Sabine's composure to break. She bent over, clutching Octus' head to her, and the tears finally started to flow.

The room was filled with Sabine's quiet sniffles. She'd never been one to cry but meeting Octus had changed something in her. Maybe broke something as well… She felt overwhelmed, cast adrift on an unknown sea.

For the first time in her service to the Emperor, Sabine's Sisters were out of reach. All she had was Octus, herself, and her faith. And she truly did not know if that would be enough. Enough to get them out of the Underhive they found themselves in, through a traitorous Hive, and back to their friends and her Sisters. For all she had been through, Sabine knew she'd never been tested like this.

But slowly, her tears dried and her ironclad conviction took back over. She was a Sororitas. A Sororitas with a duty, a mission, and someone to protect. She had her faith. She had her Octus. She would overcome anything the traitors and heretics had to throw at her. She knew what she had to do and she knew she had the will to do it. The Emperor would see her through. Octus would see her through. The Emperor had sent him to her, destined them to be together, and Sabine would not rest until she got the happy ending she saw in her vision!

If a million people got in her way, a million people would die. If she had to literally carve her way out of this Underhive, even adamantium would yield before her. Even if the Chaos gods themselves stood before her, she would find a way.