Chapter Text
He was three months old he ran away from his home.
He did so because he saw a vision of someone like him at the spaceport.
There was one issue with this.
The spaceport was four cities away, He knew this because he searched the information up while he was matching images to his visions.
This led him to where he was now, attempting to board an intercity transport. There were a few issues with this, namely he didn't even reach the height of the average person's waist.
He stared out at the crowds of people from the nook he had jammed himself into. All he had to do was slip into the flow and past security. After that, it would be fine. He found himself chewing on his fingers as he thought, reminding himself that he hadn't eaten in a while. The sharp prick of pain flared as he bit too hard on one of his fingers and the coppery taste of blood seeped into his mouth. He pulled his fingers out and wiped them on his pants. It wouldn't do to get caught like that.
Pulling out his father's identification credentials he turned them over in his hand. Konor Alexos. He huffed. It was better than his name, not that it mattered. he would be able to choose a cool new name now. Perhaps he could name himself after the lord regent? Lord Roboute Gulliman?
He shook his head, images of pain and Roboute taking great offense flitting through his head at the thought of naming himself after the Macragge’s primarch. Never mind. It could wait. He could always haunt some crowded places and listen to some names until then.
But first. He had to get to Ischara's port. There was something interesting there and he was going to find it.
Slipping into the crowd, he pulled a shawl up over his head, shading his eyes and covering his pale face from the sun. Not that he'd burn. It'd would have happened already otherwise. It did however, give him more plausible deniability that he was just short.
Or something.
It didn't matter. Not really. He was going to sneak into the cargo hold and hide. And maybe there was food there. As people filtered towards the passenger lines, the raven haired child slipped away towards a maintenance door marked with in harsh ultramarine blue. Grinning, he licked his hand and slapped it on the genescan. Slipping into the door, he snickered to himself. It was a mystery to him as to why he could open any genelocked door he'd found so far. However he had no complaints. It got him where he wanted to go.
Slipping into the metal corridor he strode confidently through the short hallway. No one was going to stop him. If they tried, he was going to bite them. Getting to another door he stared at the keypad in front of him. Scowling, he stomped his foot.
Squinting to try and force a flicker of fey knowledge into his mind, he kicked the door hard with his sandaled foot when no vision of how to enter came.
"Not fair!" He squawked in frustration. Almost to mock him, a vision of an adult turning the corner and discovering him flickered through his mind.
Snarling, the boy looked for an escape. Spotting an air vent near the ceiling, he ran at the wall at the wall as fast as he could. Using the momentum, he scrambled up and caught the edge of the vent. Wrenching a hole in it, he pulled himself up and in so he could see what happened.
An engineseer scuttled into view, looking for what could have caused the sound of protesting metal. The boy slid back silently, holding his breath.
The mechadendrite of the engineseer twisted and turned, exploring for any abnormalities but coming up empty. Slowly, ever so slowly, it turned away and returned to its resting position on the engineseers back. The man lingered for a few moments more, looking this way and that before slowly continuing on his way.
The boy narrowed his eyes. He'd eaten a frog on his way to get here and learned what it was like to swim. Maybe he could eat the engineseer's head? He chewed on his fingers, thinking. Yes. That was a good idea. Wrapping a hand around one of the vent fins, he crept forwards. In one smooth movement he yanked the vent fin off and jumped out at the engineseer.
As the engineseer turned around at the shrieking of metal, an electronic beep of surprise escaping his vocoder just before the boy plunged his sharp shard of metal into his exposed throat. There was a short gurgle and the engineseer flailed as the metal bit deep, pushed on by the boy's uncanny strength but his instincts on where to strike were right. Within seconds, the minimally augmented man fell to the floor, dead.
The boy quickly cracked open and ate his prize, savoring the knowledge gained. New memories flickered in his mind of the station, of access codes and train timetables. With a bloodstained grin on his face he went back to the keypad and tiptoed to look at the buttons. He tapped out the code and wiped his hand clean on his tunic. He knew his mother would be annoyed if she found out but he didn't care.
There was adventure to be had.
The door hissed open, allowing him admittance to the docking yards. Humming a Mcraggian workers tune under his breath he carefully hopped along the tracks, heading for the still open cargo carriages and carefully dodging the eye lines of the workers. It wouldn't do for them to wonder why there was a child in a restricted area.
Getting to the cart he hoped was the right one he jumped up, catching the floor plate and pulling himself in.
As the train crossed between cities, it gave the boy time to think and think he did.
Leaving hadn't even been a particularly fraught decision. Home had been pleasant, for all he was a mutant. It wasn't as if he was going to have any hope to go to a Scholum or serve as a servant to one of the noble houses like his father. Thanks to the sights of the future, he knew that if he stayed his presence would bring the Ultramarines to his family, looking for him one day. He pulled out his father's identification again, turning it in his fingers. Maybe he could be Konor? It had a cool 'k' sound. Then he'd always have them.
"Konor…" He said, testing the words. The way it fell in the air was almost familiar. Maybe he'd had a similar name and forgotten. Konor shrugged. It didn't matter. He picked, so the name was his now. No other name would do.
He paused as the future whispered at him. Perhaps he would allow for more names. He could collect them. He could have a whole lot and have secrets!
He snickered quietly, a pale hand stifling a yawn. The carriage's rocking lulled Konor slowly to sleep, tucked between crates and hidden away.
A dark presence pressed down around him, ordering his obedience. He snarled back at it.
"You do not even let your tools stay dead!? Foul wretched beast of a god! Was I not good enough for you? Was the punishment I exacted not enough?" Konrad spat.
Pressure built as will pressed against him, driving him to one knee.
"Go on." Konrad grinned. "Deprive yourself of on more tool dear king. I have no interest in playing your games. I am dead, left to my own punishments."
"Perhaps I shall."
The train shuddered as it slowed, jerking Konnor out of his terrible dream. He scrambled upright, clutching at his mother's shawl. He scrunched his nose as the smell of the dried pieces of the engineseer reached his nose. A bath was in order then.
His eyes scanned the carriage, assessing what could have woken him and noting the deceleration. Unfolding himself out of the ball he had scrunched himself into, he looked around for a way out. Nothing stood out, perhaps he would have to run to get past people. Or… he supposed, looking at the corners, he could go up again. There were enough small pipes and things to let him wedge himself in one the top corners.
He scrambled up, holding still and digging in as he heard footsteps approach. The door swung open, two shadows reaching across the light to paint themselves in the carriage's cargo.
Gasps and exclamations rang out from the railyard workers as they took in the sight of blood smeared hand prints and the pair fled, shouting for someone to get the guard. Konor dropped down. That wasn't exactly to plan. He grumbled to himself as he scrambled out of the carriage and made a bee line for the edge of the rail yards. It wouldn't do for his adventure to end so soon!
Following the fence line he ran as fast as he could, snickering to himself. Seeing the platform up ahead for passengers Konor made a running leap, hauling himself up and making his way into the crowd. Ignoring the shouts of surprise that followed his arrival he exited the station into unfamiliar streets.
Looking around, he picked a direction and began walking. He wasn't quite sure if this was the city with the spaceport but he needed to get clean before he started asking people.
And that meant a bath. He looked around, trying to find a place that could possibly be a bathhouse. With a huff of frustration at not seeing anything he picked a direction and started walking. The paved streets looked much the same to him as he walked, the stonework's uniformity still bearing a similar style to his home but not giving him much direction to work with.
Adults side eyed him and avoided him as he walked, their whispers following him. Konor pulled his mother's shawl tighter around himself to hide his strange proportions from prying eyes and as he did so spotted dark red splatter on the precious fabric. He hissed. Now he really needed to find a bathhouse.
Squinting to try and make images come to his mind, he peered around an intersection. To his frustration nothing came, leaving him standing alone in the crowds of people. Taking a breath, he folded his mother's shawl inside out in an attempt to hide the mess he'd made of it then looked around for someone to ask directions.
After some consideration, he approached what looked to be a young apprentice.
"Excuse me." He squeaked. "I need to find the bathhouse. I was sent to go there."
The apprentice looked around at his head height first, looking confused when he didn't find anyone. Konor tugged at the bottom of the apprentice's tunic, directing his attention.
"Oh. sorry. didn't see you there. The bath house, right?" The apprentice crouched to get closer to Konor's level. "You need to go that way straight for five blocks, uh… have you learned your numbers yet?"
"I can count. I'm sure I can count higher than your brain can manage." Konor drawled acidly.
The apprentice shifted, taken aback by Konor's sharp tongue. "Its five blocks east and one block south. do… you think you can get there on your own?"
Konor nodded. "I can. I have a superior sense of… of everything."
For a moment, the apprentice looked like he was going to argue but closed his mouth. "If you get lost ask for Marcus at Augustus and son then. I'll… see what I can do." He paused and then pointed. "Its uh, that building there."
Konor looked over towards a richly designed building with a sign carved into its front facade proclaiming it to be the firm of Augustus and son. He turned back to Marcus, nodding sharply. With that, he walked off.
Marcus watched the young boy disappear into the crowd, fascinated. There was something magnetic about the child. Something that made him want to stay and talk to the midnight haired boy.
Although… something was odd. It had almost felt like talking to a peer than a young child. He shook his head. He was thinking nonsense.
Standing, he dusted himself off. His fingers, coming away with an odd texture. Lifting them up to examine them, a dark red dust flaked away on his fingertips. Sucking in a breath, he looked between his workplace and where the boy went.
He had to report this. A feeling crept up his spine that he had just seen the last of his peaceful days leave. Dragging his clean hand across his face he trudged off towards the nearest guards.
Konor slunk into the alley beside the bathhouse and curled up to wait for sunset. The world flickered in front of him and the person was gone. they weren't at the spaceport. Blindly konor groped through his vision to try and find the person like him, only to see them standing in the early morning sun, speaking to someone. He focused, trying to tell where it was, to gain any detail.
The image sharpened and the same apprentice from earlier was revealed, Marcus. He stood on the roadside, speaking his person in the early morning light.
Konor gasped, the whiplash forcing him back to reality and the headache of what he tried to do crashing down on him. Grumbling, he pressed his hands to his head until it stopped hurting then refocused on the more immediate task.
A bath.
He eyed a somewhat open window near a drainpipe. Much too small for a grown up to get into, but far too high for the average child to get to. Konor smirked. Too bad he was neither.
Shimmying up the drainpipe, he pulled himself into the window and into the pump room of the pools. Humming to himself, he made his way through the complex to the nearest pool.
Running across the tiles he jumped into the water. He flailed for a bit, getting his limbs coordinated but then martialed them for froggy swimming as his clothes weighted him down. He put more power into his kicks and before he knew it he was shooting across the pool. He snickered as he sat on the steps he had the whole pool to himself.
Looking back towards where the pump room was, Konor wondered if he could make the pool hotter. It was always nicer when it was hot.
Leaving his mother's shawl to soak, he marched back into the pump room to see if there was something he could mess with. To his gleeful surprise, he found a whole panel of knobs and dials and buttons. He squinted at them, trying to decipher what they said but alas. He had not bothered to start learning to read yet, there had been much more interesting things at hand.
Experimentally he pressed a button, followed by another. Some of the readouts moved slightly. Satisfied that poking things was doing something, Konor eyed a large valve on a pipe that radiated heat. He began to turn it and to his joy, the pipe rumbled with the vibration of water rushing through it.
Laughing, konor ran back to the pool to see that there was now an active current in the pool and steam starting to rise off of the inlets. The water was now rising, ready to be swum in.
Jumping back in the pool, konor appreciated the hot water. It'd never been allowed to be that hot before in any of the baths he'd been in. He played for some time before returning to the steps of the pool and scrubbing at his mother's scarf. After a minute or two, it came clean and Konor cheered.
Putting the shawl to one side, he jumped back into playing in the water. Evening turned into deep night as he splashed away, laughing.
Moon hanging high above, Konor stopped as one of his launches out of the water onto the side if the pool did not bring him onto dry land as he expected but instead into a shallow shimmering pool of water perhaps less than a finger deep. He frowned, splashing over to pick up his mother's shawl. That wasn't supposed to happen. Perhaps the pipework was not functioning correctly?
Resolving to touch some more buttons and levers, Konor made his way back to the pump room and tried a bunch more of the buttons. None of them gave him the result he wanted, only eliciting a plaintitive beeping from the console.
Deciding it was probably better to cut his losses, he escaped the way he came. Sliding down the drainpipe he disappeared into the night.
Marcus stared down at the far too serious looking child -Was it a child? he wasn't sure, it acted too much like the one from yesterday.
"I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?" He asked, shaking his head to try and focus his thoughts.
"I said. My name is Ferrus Manus. I am looking for the nearest Astartes posting. Do you or do you not know what this is and how to find it." The tiny child folded his arms and glared at Marcus.
Marcus fought the urge to coo. If only his girlfriend was here, she'd coo enough for the both of them. Speaking of his girlfriend, he was late to meet her. "Are you sure you don't want me to point you in the direction of the PDF instead?"
"I'm sure." Ferrus said flatly.
"Well I… um…" Marcus shifted under the weight of the boy's pale eyes. "If its anywhere It'll be in the capital? Or on Macragge?"
Ferrus snorted and opened my mouth to reply but was interrupted by a flying tackle by the same odd boy from yesterday.
"I found you! I knew you'd be here!" The boy from the day before cheered, hanging onto Ferrus like sanguinalia had come early.
"What! Konrad? Get the hell off me! Why are you here? How are you here?" Ferrus squawked, pushing at the other boy.
"I saw you with Marcus, so I found him and I found you! You're like me! And you gave me a name! I have two now!" The so-called-Konrad babbled.
Marcus backed away slowly, wanting to put distance between himself and the two unnatural children. There was something deeply wrong and he wasn't quite sure in what way yet. "I'll… leave you to figure things out."
Faster than he could react, Ferrus's hand struck out grabbing his own in an iron grip. "No. It will be easier to travel with a perceived adult. Congratulations. You've been volunteered."
"I have to meet my girlfriend!" He protested.
"Don't care."
"What's a girlfriend?" asked Konrad.
"They make you weak." Ferrus said shortly, glancing to make sure his brother was following.
Marcus complained all the way to the station.