hand clutched her necklace so tightly that it drew blood.
'What does that matter?' she asked.
'He seems to be under the delusion that he is a hero. What do you think of that?'
'I don't know.'
'Really. How disappointing. I know that you do not know who you are, but I had hoped at least that you knew who he was.'
'He's a good man,' she said, breathing slowly. 'He has done bad things, and he is capable of doing horrible things. To be honest, I am more scared of him sometimes than of anyone else I have ever known.
'Including you.
'But he is still a good man for all that. He has never intended to do wrong.'
'How.... interesting,' Sebastian said. 'So very blind. Shall I tell you about good people with good intentions? Good people are weak, you blind woman. I believed once that I was doing good, and others called me a monster. I had good intentions, plans to erase debauchery and weakness and barbarism, and I was branded insane. Anyone can perpetrate acts of horror and barbarism and claim that they had 'good intentions'.
'As for him, his intentions are as irrelevant as yours. Deeds are what matter and what have his shown him to be?'
Kats smiled. 'A good man. A strong man.'
'Strong? On the contrary, he is flawed. Weak. Incomplete.'
'Oh,' she said, softly. 'I don't know about that.'
Sinoval darted forward, Stormbringer flashing. She had not seen the preparation, but she had heard his breathing, and she knew him. Sebastian took a step back and raised his cane to parry, but Kats had expected that.
Leaping forward, she grabbed the cane and struggled to wrench it away from him. The power surged at her, and burned her skin. She screamed and let go, but she had done enough.
Stormbringer smashed into the human's side. She heard Sebastian's ribs break and saw his face twitch, for just one second, in a grimace of pain.
Sinoval kept up the attack. Sebastian took slow, measured steps backwards, a defender's steps. Sinoval's attack was that of a warrior - aggressive, furious, strong.
But as Kats cradled her burning hands against her belly she saw that Sinoval was too wild, that he had lost the control he had always exemplified. P
Then she saw Sebastian parry Stormbringer and hold it with his cane. The black blade of the pike seemed to absorb the lightning and draw it into Sinoval. She watched as his grip weakened, then she scorned her own advice and lunged forward.
It hurt to move her hands, but she had lived with pain before, far greater pain than this. She clawed at Sebastian's face, raking at his eyes, throwing her body at him. He slipped and stumbled, and his cane almost dropped from his hand.
Her momentum forced him to the floor. She swayed, but managed to stay on her feet. She stumbled back as Sinoval readied his final blow, a sideways swing that would surely break Sebastian's neck.
With inches to spare, Sebastian brought up his cane. It was less a parry than an attack on the blade of Stormbringer itself. Kats saw the ball of lightning form an instant before the strike. She doubted if Sinoval did, but he could hardly have missed the sound that accompanied the impact.
It was an awful noise: the sound of metal breaking, and a soul with it. There was a flash of light, a blur of motion, and a short, sudden pain in her stomach.
As Sinoval staggered back, seemingly blinded, she saw that Stormbringer was shattered. The piece that Sinoval still held was no longer than his arm. Sebastian leapt up and thrust forward with his cane. Sinoval tried to parry, but Stormbringer was not long enough, and he was moving too slowly, as if he were swimming in air as thick as blood.
Kats coughed, and realised that she was coughing up blood. She looked down.
And saw Stormbringer's jagged shard embedded in her stomach.
But it hadn't hurt at all, she thought dumbly as she fell forward to her knees. She managed to raise her head and look up, only to see Sinoval reeling backwards and Sebastian aiming carefully–judged blows at him. She tried to say something, but all she could do was open her mouth and cough up more blood.
The last thing she saw before she fell to the floor was something she had never realised could happen:
Sinoval, Primarch Majestus et Conclavus, falling on the field of battle.
<We offer you salvation.>
'No, you don't. You're offering us stagnation. You're offering us nothing, now and for eternity.'
<You are flawed. We offer you perfection.>
'Maybe we don't want to be perfect. Have you ever thought of that? Maybe it's our flaws that make life interesting.'
<We gave you life. Were it not for us you would be a broken shell, felled by your own sickness. We gave you....>
'You tried to control me, that's all you did! Don't you dare try this altruistic, we've–only–got–your–best– interests–at–heart spiel on me.'
<We have only ever desired to protect you.>
'Maybe we don't need your protection.'
<You spurn us. You spurn our gifts.>
'Well, that's a funny thing. One of your guys gave me a gift earlier. The gift of truth, I suppose it was. And it hurt. Oh God, it hurt.'
<It was....>
'Shut up! Damn you, I've stood here and I've listened to your crap for all this time, now you can at least listen to me! Yes, the truth hurt, but I'm glad he told me, because after I stopped blaming the person I shouldn't have been blaming, I looked around.
'You sent her there to die, you self–righteous sons of bitches. You sent Delenn to Z'ha'dum to die, and you probably knew she was pregnant and you didn't care one little bit! There's your perfection for you, there's your caring and nurturing and altruism right there. When it comes down to it, you'll throw people away just because it's convenient.'
<You are a leader. You know what it means to have to send people to their deaths.>
'Yes, damn it, I do, but I regretted it each and every time I did it, and I never, ever sent someone to die just because it was more convenient that way.'
<You were to be our leader, our general.>
'And Heaven forbid I have anything distracting me from that, hey? Like, I don't know, a wife and kid? I'm so sick of you and all like you trying to control me. You tried to make me turn against Delenn by giving me your truth, and for a time I did, because I was so angry I couldn't think straight! Sinoval tried to make me turn against you by mind games and parlour tricks and philosophy and I wasn't sure what to say because I had no idea what I was meant to be doing.
'For a long time I had no idea what I was meant to be fighting for, but after listening to all that crap you've spewed out, I've made up my mind.
'I'll fight for my friends, if I have any friends left. I'll fight for Delenn, if she'll even have me back, which she has no reason to. I'll fight for those who need someone to lead them who isn't a zealot like you or Sinoval.
'And I'll fight against you because you're nothing but arrogant, stuck–up, holier–than–thou puppeteers who think you've got the right to do whatever you want!'
<We have offered you power. We have offered you perfection. You have turned us down. You are the discordant note in our song, the stone that turns beneath our feet, the shadow that mars our light.
<You say you will fight us. We say this:
<You will obey us.
