173. Confrontations

Vox awoke in the apothecarium with Titus by her side. He wore robes and absently stroked over her fingers in deep thought. Before she was fully conscious about what she was doing, she had half crawled out of the bed and sunken into his embrace.
“Welcome back, my angel”, he breathed into her ear.
“How long?”, she slurred and her right wing crept around his shoulder to envelop him in tenderness. The left was rather numb.
“Four days”, the lover informed her and rearranged his grip on her. “Guilliman has requested to see you on his ship as soon as you’re awake.”
Vox swore indistinctly.
“I have to talk to the other Primarch first”, she managed and tried to merge her mind with Titus but got only a flash of his memories before she shied back. She felt hungover. Every sensory input was too much.
Titus made a soothing noise and stroked her neck and the onset of her wings.
“Our other Primarch is next door”, he informed her, pointing to a connecting door in the wall. “We haven’t given him an armour yet and he hasn’t spoken to anyone. I think he’ll keep until you feel better.”
Vox sank back on her slab, only now noticing the bundle of tubes that led into the backs of her hands. One of them had been pulled free and dripped the contents of the infusion on the floor.
She groaned.
“Here we go again”, she said and actually laughed weakly about it.
“I’d really wish you stopped doing that”, he said easily and then grinned and leaned down to kiss her hand. “On the other hand it is really good to see you back to your old form”, he had to admit.
“Was I really that bad?”, she wanted to know.
“Oh, yes”, Titus confirmed happily. “No considerations for personal safety whatsoever. The perfect soldier.”
“Oh, damn you two!”, Vox chuckled.
“Did Sanguinius just break it to you that you’re a commander now?”, Titus inquired innocently.
“You never agree on anything!”, Vox complained and there was this amusement about her that had been so long missing. Titus was unable to fathom how much he appreciated seeing it again.
He smiled serenely and snuggled up closer until Gerneya walked in on them.
“Oh, may the Emperor forgive you…”, she sighed when she saw the pulled out needle. She stalled the flow of the bottle and started to run a few checks on Vox.
They had already tested her implants while she had been asleep. Most of them had suffered and several of them were without function. Like always, the black carapace had been damaged worst of all. Both Gerneya and Dankwart estimated that Vox would never be able to use a power armour again. Unfortunately, the inability to operate a vox com would follow in the wake of this. 
One of the two progenoid glands that were carrying her gene-seed had been completely destroyed. Her hibernator and mucranoid, the two organs enabling a Space Marine to enter suspended animation for a long time and protect her from external influences were unresponsive and all the others had at least suffered. Vox’s secondary heart had been still for several hours again. A small hope remained for the batcher’s gland because it could not be tested on unconscious subjects but in the general scheme of things, expectations were low. After going through the depressing list, Vox inquired about their new friend and was informed that he had suffered even worse. The extensive use of the white fire on him had literally healed him from his implants with exception of the black carapace, which seemed to work erratically.
Vox and Titus exchanged a glance. At least, this would allow him to wear armour. It could almost be called luck.
When Gerneya left, Vox was still not prepared to meet either Primarch, so Titus suggested that he could send the rest of Aegis in while he found her something to eat.
When the team filed in, their heated faces and freshly maimed armours proved that they had been training. Dankwart was missing and they only knew that he was in the apothecarium somewhere.
Most of them reached out their hands to Vox, pressing down on them for a moment. Only Arrick got an embrace when he presented his black, mechanical digits to her.
After the salutations were over, they started to chat idly and brought her up to speed on the current developments from their point of view. Since Xavor was in the group, this was a rather unique one. From their report, Vox was able to extract that they had left the orbit of Custos and were about six more days away from the Mandeville point. Apparently, Guilliman wanted to travel to Terra and had ‘politely asked’, as Xavor put it in rather too exaggerated inverted commas, that the Wings of War accompanied him. Vox made a mental note to inquire if Titus had managed to initiate this. It was exactly what they wanted and it was important to know if this was the first part of the favours they needed from Guilliman or a lucky development. Bringing seven-hundred Astartes of an unknown chapter to Terra was nothing she could imagine him doing without an ulterior motive.
Curiously, Arrick and Corven kept silent. They had found a piece of wall to lean against with crossed arms and said nothing, just watched the proceedings with their dark eyes.
When Titus rejoined them and sent the squad back to training, the two of them asked to stay a moment longer. Unprompted, Xavor came to their side and the atmosphere changed. It was most notable in the youngest Space Wolf who dropped his playful demeanour for the first time ever.
The three of them lined up in front of Vox’s slab. Aware of the tension in the atmosphere she pushed her blanket aside to swing her legs off the bed but found too little strength to stand up yet.
“Now, my shades”, she addressed them. “What do you want?”
Curiously, the two older wolves shot Xavor a meaningful glance and the large man straightened up. He was as tall as the new Primaris Space Marines. His black hair and beard together with his usually so mild, dark-brown eyes hardening gave him a wild and unbending air. Neither Vox nor Titus had ever seen him like this. He was the youngest. Not only among the wolves, he was the youngest in all of Aegis. He was the joker. The one that made silly comments when the situation began to tip. Who brawled with his captain when he needed to hit someone. Who sang songs before his brothers went hostile on a black shield and who pointed out that a naked angel was female if she seemed lost in the face of her worshippers.
“My lady”, Xavor said in his deep, booming voice. “With all due respect, we would like to be assured that you deem it a good idea to bring a certain man on board without the Primarch who would probably recognize him, knowing it.”
Vox held his gaze. They had sworn an Oath of Secrets for this mission and Xavor respected it. He did not ask for details. He just wanted to be reassured that they were doing the right thing. Since none of them knew what they were doing here, he in fact submitted himself even deeper into trusting her. She was impressed by this and just a little annoyed when Corven did not let her and his son have this moment of silent appreciation.
“You know”, the grey wolf started to explain uninvited. “Xavor recognized him.”
“You wouldn’t let him speak otherwise, right?”, Vox prompted and an impish smile flashed across her features. 
“Right!”, Corven replied, seemingly unbalanced by this. “No need to have the kid say more than necessary.”
“And we’re not saying that we forgot our oath”, Arrick cut in.
“We just talked among ourselves”, Corven said nervously. “And just wanted to be assured that you know what you’re doing.”
“Just in case”, Arrick added uncomfortably and made an uncertain gesture with one bionic hand. “You know? In case you got the wrong guy.”
“I think we’re blabbering, Arrick”, Corven noted.
“Yeah, I think so too”, the captain agreed. “Why hasn’t Xavor gotten us out of this yet?”, the white wolf inquired and both of them turned to their youngest.
Xavor was still standing upright between them, just looking at Vox.
“How did you recognize him?”, she inquired into the ensuing silence.
“The haircut”, Xavor replied. “Or rather the sudden absence of hair altogether after we sent him bathing.”
“I didn’t get the wrong guy”, Vox let them know in the same soft tones. “He will serve his purpose.”
“May I inquire what you are intending to do with him?”, Xavor asked.
“I’ll make him a part of Aegis.”
It was at this moment that Xavor dropped his unusual demeanour. His shoulders sagged, he seemed to shrink and he threw up his arms.
“You know?”, he asked sarcastically. “Sometimes, I think I’m a complete waste of space.” He drew the pause out for a moment. “I can never be as crazy as real life.”
There was the noise of someone quietly clearing his throat behind them. Without any of them noticing, Dankwart had entered from the adjacent room.
“At least Xavor is very well audible beyond that door”, he informed them. “And I’m not certain that his ears have been damaged enough that he couldn’t hear the rest of you.”
“Has he spoken yet?”, Titus inquired.
“Not a word in my presence”, Dankwart replied.
He and Vox exchanged a glance.
“Nothing for it”, she sighed and allowed him to help her stand up. “You get back to training. All of you!”, she ordered.
“Just one thing”, Xavor said and actually tried to keep his voice down. “If you’re making him part of the team, how friendly do we have to be?”
“He’s badly injured”, Vox pointed out. “I require you to leave him alive while you win your hierarchy struggles against him.”
They nodded and left.
“Do you think the others have recognized him?”, Arrick asked his comrades on his way out.
“I’ll ask them!”, Xavor promised. “Did you know that Tiberius has a surname?”, was the last they caught before the door closed behind them.
Vox and Titus both sighed deeply and then had to laugh.
“Oh dear, I dread to speak to him like this”, Vox said and leaned against Titus for a moment.
“Now you mention it”, he agreed with a comfortable grin. “You might want to put on some clothes.”
There was a robe ready for her in one of the cupboards but before they went into the other room, Vox hesitated.
“I should probably go alone”, she said.
Titus was less than enthusiastic about this idea but he conceded that Horus might prove even more difficult if he felt threatened. He nodded his agreement.
“I’m not up to this”, Vox admitted quietly.
“You saved him”, Titus pointed out.
“You don’t know how he can be…”, she whispered.
Titus lowered his gaze for a moment.
“No, I don’t”, he conceded. When he looked up again and saw her uncertainty, he stroked her cheek.
“Vox, I need to show you something”, he said and held up a hand.
Vox needed several seconds to understand what she was seeing. Titus’ left hand had been crippled in the mine over Oertha but where the stumps of his fingers had been, were strong, healthy and completely functioning digits. She tried to understand what had happened and finally remembered that the white fire had wrapped itself around Titus when he had pulled her away from Abaddon.
A disbelieving smile spread across her face as she grasped his hand. Starting to glow in boundless joy, she stroked and kissed the marvel she herself had created by accident.
Gently, Titus let the fingers of his other hand comb through her hair and placed a very gentle kiss on her lips. She was still visibly marked by what she had done but her joy overflowing made her so beautiful, he could not have resisted it had he tried.
“Whatever you do, my angel”, he said. “Remember, that you’re a healer. Not only of bodies. You heal minds and souls. That’s why we walk with you. That’s why we stand at your side. You struggled so hard to become you, to remake yourself in the face of all the odds, including your own errors. I know you don’t remember but I also know that you don’t have to. I see you every day. You’re still you. Let nobody take that from you.”
Vox stared at him with wide open eyes until he let his forehead sink against hers.
“I love you”, she whispered when he drew back and Titus felt a shiver run through him for these simple words. He had heard them only once from her, he realised. Since then, they had been only feeling, never sound. He answered her and took her into a last, reassuring embrace before he let her go to confront the man who had been Abaddon.