When Edd awoke the next morning, around 9 am, he saw that Charleston and McGranth had been back home apparently and gotten the Marines' gear. He'd known so when he saw McGranth moving round in his bulky Terminator armour, his Storm Bolter dangling from a leather strap around his shoulder and his massive power axe hanging from his waist in a magnetic chain. Charleston had been sitting by the burnt-out fire and cleaned his plasma pistol. Edd had seen that he'd broken off specks of dust, or whatever it was, from the pistol's wenting holes.

Edd hadn't found McKenzie until about lunch, and then he'd taken with him a basket full of sandwiches. The Master Lexicanum had been sitting on a dirt mound in a meadow further into the forest, clad in his intricately decorated suit of power armour. He was holding a 2m10 tall stick in his hands. The stick was obviously made from fine mahogany tree and McKenzie was carving sigils and holes into it with a very sharp knife. All the while, he was muttering something in a tongue Edd couldn't begin to understand, but, being the fan he was of books, he thought it sounded a bit like Tolkien's eldar language; Quenya.

"Antataura sairon sina lelyarta Menel, teplë ecco et elen so calan." was what Edd heard McKenzie mutter before the tall Marine looked up at him, sensing his proximity. Edd now saw the other things that McKenzie had brought. By his side lay some other carving tools and several gemstones of varying size. Some were small, able to fit into a hand. The largest one Edd believed he couldn't even close his hands entirely around. It was carved in a beautiful brilliant carving. The blue colour of it gave it away for being a sapphire. Along with the gems and tools, was a pot of what looked like silver paint, though it glistened in a way silver never would be able to glisten. McKenzie noticed the young man's interest for his tools and smiled.

"They're gifts from the Eldar to me, when they worked with us together against the Evil One." the tall and slender Marine said simply. "The gems are from Eldar worlds, the tools of Wraithbone and the paint is liquid ithilmar, star silver."

Edd now noticed the thin, silver lines on the staff. He saw how they were written into a language he couldn't possibly read. Eldar, he concluded, as the words McKenzie had been speaking. Edd stood there for a long while. McKenzie grabbed a new tool and started to carve on a new place, a big, intricate pattern, and taking up were he left on the beautiful Eldar song/chant. Edd would never know if the other psyker raised his voice deliberately so that Edd could hear the beautiful words, but he would remember the song till his dying day. It was beautiful, but yet, the seriousness of their duty hung over it. This thought snapped him back to reality as McKenzie picked up the brush and started to paint out yet another unintelligible sentence.

"Care for some lunch, McKenzie?" Edd asked and raised his arm to show McKenzie the basket.

"Ah, salvation!" McKenzie said and put down the brush as he took the basket from Edd. "I've been working on this thing since before dawn, and I kind of slipped breakfast." McKenzie started sorting through it, his face halfway into the basket.

This made Edd smirk. For a powerful Master Lexicanum, McKenzie's behaviour could be unbelievable at times. Here he was, digging through a basket of food, with all the finesse and manners of a six-year-old. Edd also noticed the gemstones didn't lie in any special order. They were just strewn about. Edd didn't want to think what McKenzie's workshop had looked like. Sadly though, the Master Lexicanum heard his thoughts. He was obviously not so oblivious to the world as he seemed.

"You don't like messes, do you?" McKenzie asked without looking up.

"I'm only asking, what did your workshop on your home world look like?" Edd asked cautiously.

"A mess."

"Then, if I may ask, how were you able to find anything there then?"

McKenzie looked up at final. He chewed a while on the sandwich he was working on and swallowed. "Fringe benefit from being a psyker. I just think of what I need, and it comes to my hand." To state an example, he reached out his hand and aimed it at a small stick lying about 15 metres away from him. A few seconds later, it was in his hand. McKenzie tossed the stick away.

"I don't believe you at times. You, a trained soldier, and you can't even keep your workshop clean!" Edd sighed.

"Hah! You think you can imagine that? You should see my current apartment!" McKenzie said and grinned. His Terran counterpart was obviously a pedantic fellow.

"Nonsense!" Edd said as he walked off, rolling his eyes. It was obvious he and his Imperial counter didn't have more in common than looks.

"A little nonsense, now and then/relished by the wisest men!" McKenzie mockingly said in a singsong voice to Edd as the boy walked off.

"Wait a second, Edd!" McKenzie suddenly called, his voice having a stern note to it. Edd turned and looked at the tall man. McKenzie had put down his tools and was looking straight at Edd, all of his mind focused on the boy before him.

"I want to talk to you about a few things. Come over here." McKenzie said and gestured towards a stump beside him. Edd walked over to him and sat down on the offered seat. He could swear it hadn't been there a moment ago.

"You of course want to see Terra become a part of the Imperium, right?" McKenzie asked. He didn't leave Edd with his gaze for a second.

"What do you mean?" Edd asked, feeling spooked by the look he was given. "Isn't Earth a free standing world in space? You're the aliens..."

"DON'T use that word!" McKenzie exploded. "No, we're not 'aliens', we're also humans. It's a long story, but let's just say that Terra, I mean; Earth, once was part of the Imperium. In fact, if you ever make contact with the Human Galactic Empire, to give its correct name, you will have to rewrite all of your recorded history, more or less."

"What do you mean?" Edd asked. The air in the meadow felt suddenly cold.

"I mean that Terra was seeded with human life." McKenzie let this sink in, and it apparently scared the young man before him. "I know, sounds unbelievable, but it's true. Terra was an experiment to see if Humanity would get anywhere, without influence from other human worlds, and from the Emperor. But, seeing how your history has developed, I'm afraid it'll be many hundreds, maybe thousands of years before we will see that happen..."

"You mean..." Edd began, but McKenzie finished the sentence for him.

"Yes, I mean that I've read your history quite thoroughly. I managed to become a librarian in the city where I live, and, well, I've studied your history intently the last two years. All the parts that were written in the Codex: Terra, I already knew the truth about, but it was good to see the Terran view on it all. And the things that terrify me so, is how Terran humans have killed and murdered each other over the millennia. Of course, we had criminals and rebellions and revolutions in the Imperium, but nothing of the magnitude of your Second World War, as you call it! 60 million human lives is a great waste, and you couldn't even catch the culprit! Okay, so you had the Nuremberg trials, but you didn't nail the mastermind, did ya? I tell you, we never suffered from systematic genocide in the Imperium. Terran humanity has degraded, and it's sad..."

Edd looked shocked at the Master Lexicanum. The chilly feel in the air was gone and replaced with the warm summer's breeze that blew before. The Imperial servant had a point, though. War was a horrible thing; Edd had always thought so. He'd thought his times in power armour as necessary to retain the peace amongst the stars. To fight, to kill other beings; he hadn't liked it. Was he seeing that replicated in his Imperial counterpart? Edward McKenzie, Master Lexicanum of the Death Angels. A psyker of almost incomprehensible power. Did he too despise the killing so, even if it was the abhorrent deamons, the cruel Dark Eldar or the bestial Hive Fleet minions? Edd wasn't sure. He at least was sure that McKenzie hated unnecessary violence and killing, especially between humans, and who didn't? Yes, Terran humans had degraded, that couldn't be denied. All Imperial citizens could rally behind one single leader, the Emperor, despite differing culture and traditions. Despite coming from different planets! Edd silently concluded that Terran humans couldn't say the same in unity.

"So, my other thing." McKenzie said and looked up from his contemplations. This tore Edd almost hearingly from his thoughts.

"What?"

"I've felt this... pulse, lately. Haven't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"The psychic pulse. You have to have felt it! It wasn't there six months ago. I mean, there are lots of untrained psykers here," McKenzie spat at the ground at this point. "But none of them have been of the power I've felt lately. They could at a height bend a spoon with their powers, if they trained their blunt minds, but this force... it's a danger to all of us."

Now Edd realized what McKenzie was talking about. "Now I know! I've also felt it, yes. It comes from our cul-de-sac..."

"I think I know from where." McKenzie said silently. "See, I fear this person has powers far greater than you and me put together..."

"What?"

"Yes, and if not trained, he will certainly attract a deamon, a very powerful such. Or maybe even attract a Hive Fleet or the robots we're currently considering a major threat."

"What do you mean 'he'? How can you be so sure it's a he?"

"Yesterday, I felt a strong force, a really strong force, when I stood there on the stage. You must've felt it too. It's coming from that boy with a plank by his side..."

"Jonny 2X4!" Edd said, his blood chilling at the thought that Jonny could become potential prey for a deamon.

"It's quite obvious, when you think about it." McKenzie said with a wry smile.

"Yes, he's always been talking about that Plank as it was a person." Edd replied with a thoughtful look.

"Then he's more talented than we think. He's probably psychically attuned the plank, so he considers it a person. Sadly though, it's probably inheriting a deamon, if we're unlucky. If lucky, it might contain the spirit of some long dead Eldarain hero."

"What do you mean 'psychically attune'?" Edd asked, feeling a bit ignorant for the first time in long.

"It means that you make an inanimate object capable of receiving psychic signals, like this piece of mahogany wood here." McKenzie held forth the tall staff. It looked more like a staff than a stick now. "This is however going to be a huge receptor for psychic energy, like the deamon staff you used two years ago."

"Oh, now I get it. So Jonny has attuned his subconsciously then?"

"Most probably. He wanted a friend so badly, I believe, that his power awoke and he created this Plank for himself."

Edd got up and decided not to stay for too long. He was getting hungry too. "Let's hope for Eldar Hero..." he muttered.

"Yes, we should." McKenzie replied quietly to himself. "Tell the others I'll be done by nightfall, and where they can find me. Those who wish to join our quest shall come here then. Tell them that too."

Edd nodded silently and walked back to the campsite. McKenzie picked up one of the fine Wraithbone tools and carved a new line in the fine wood and started to sing silently in the Eldar tongue once again.

By nightfall, as McKenzie had predicted, the staff was finished, and the other two Marine commanders, the Eds and Rolf gathered by the meadow. None of the other kids had yet showed up, and, speaking frankly, the Eds weren't surprised. Ed caught a glimpse of the big staff McKenzie had created.

"Looks cool!" Ed exclaimed simply.

"Thank you, Ed." McKenzie replied politely.

"So, how are you supposed to power the thing then, even less use it?" McGranth asked, looking a bit concerned. "To me, it looks a whole lot of Eldarain, and last time I checked, Eldar weren’t really trustworthy blokes..."

"No probs Eddie," McKenzie replied smiling. "I did it myself and I can use it quite efficiently, thank you. Besides, it's not Eldarain, well, not entirely. It is mostly deamon in its nature."

"WHAT?" McGranth said sounding shocked. To take help from deamons was the last thing he'd expected from McKenzie.

"I didn't have much of a choice. It's the only way to travel through the Warp without me needing to create a new warp-gate, and the Gate included material they don't have here." McKenzie made a pause and stroked the staff kindly. "Besides, I have found this!"

McKenzie pulled off the covering of moss from where he'd been sitting most of the day and revealed the same kind of socket that Edd had 'found' on Secondus. However, the runes weren't as unintelligible as the ones Edd had encountered. These seemed more human in nature. Like the Egyptian hieroglyphs. These were also written with the same kind of paint McKenzie had used for the staff: ithilmar. And, strangely, the socket for the crystal at the bottom of McKenzie's staff, seemed to fit it exactly. McGranth knew there was psychic-witchery to it all, but he didn't comment on it.

Charleston suddenly turned round and trained his plasma pistol at the sound he'd heard. This was a reflex, innate after over five hundred years of constant warfare. But he lowered his threatening aim as he saw that the sound had come from a boy, a boy that had been present yesterday.

"Hi guys!" Jonny said, as he got closer to them. He carried Plank with him, of course.

"Jonny, you mean you actually believe us?" Edd exclaimed, surprised at the joyful sound in his voice.

"Well, I still don't know, but Plank said it might be fun." Jonny said and joined the other seven.

"If I can ask, who's Plank?" Charleston asked, cocking an eyebrow and holstering his plasma pistol.

"He's my best friend." Jonny said and held up Plank for all to see. McGranth, McKenzie and Charleston just stared.

"I told you so..." Edd thought to McKenzie.

"Yes, I feel the presence now..." McKenzie replied by psychic means. "Jonny is truly psychic, and that can mean problems for us. That the Plank wants to go good be both good and bad, if you see what I mean?"

"Okay then Jonny, you're in on our quest." McKenzie said to Jonny. He restrained from doing psychically, it could've shocked the boy.

"Is your baby-sister coming, sergeant?" McGranth asked Ed, using the young man's rank.

"Nope, she and Jimmy left this morning. Anyway, it's going to be too dangerous for her and Jimmy, and I think they'd only get in the way." Ed replied.

"Can I insert something here?" McKenzie asked politely, raising a finger.

"Shoot, Master Lexicanum..." McGranth replied simply.

"I think it's time to rethink our Outlaw friends' ranks. They have more than well earned themselves higher ranks, and well..."

"They're Outlaws, McKenzie. That's not our concern. Besides, do you think we'll ever find armour for them, and the others?"

McKenzie fell silent upon this remark. Charleston seemed to ponder on something however. "But, aren't we all Outlaws? I mean, there's no longer an

Imperium where we going, at least no Space Marine Legions..."

"Hopefully, Ed, there will be an Imperium!" McGranth snapped off his junior officer.

"But no Marines." Rolf said silently. "I made sure of that, last time we were there."

"Great!" McGranth said and sighed. He looked at McKenzie. "So what did you have in mind, Edward?"

"Well, I was thinking something like this, if we encounter human pockets of resistance, cause I doubt the Imperium has risen again," McKenzie made a pause, thinking on how to formulate himself. He sent down one hand into his pocket, and pulled it up again. "For the Terminator captain, Eddy, I have thought of granting the prestigious rank Commander of the 1st company. It's more or less only a brevet rank, but..." McKenzie fell silent. Eddy only nodded that he understood. That he was now formal commander of the Death Angel 1st company meant that he was no longer an Outlaw.

"Here, Commander Eddy, I grant you also the mark of the Order of the Deathwatch, the Inquisition's militant arm of Space Marines." McKenzie handed Eddy one of the small tokens he'd had in his hand. It was a small silver skull, with crossed bones and an ‘I’ behind it. He stuck it on his shirt.

(Author's Note: The Inquisitorial I looks somewhat like this: =I=, to make it simple for you)

"To young Edward," McKenzie said and held out a similar token to Edd, with the exception that the crossed bones had been replaced with two stylised lightning bolts. "I grant you the sign of the Order of the Deathwatch, but I also promote you to Epistolary Librarian. That makes you second in psyker rank to me. I also grant you the sub-name Keeper of the Keys, which is, as your friends rank, just brevet."

Edd bowed before the tall man in thanks. He was now as well as Eddy, a member of the Death Angel Legion. McKenzie turned to Ed. First he handed Ed the Deathwatch mark, the same as Eddy's. He also told him the same he'd told Edd and Eddy about the Deathwatch.

"I also grant you the rank of Lieutenant Commander of 8th Company, due to your non-selfish acting during times of great need." McKenzie said. He knew the stare he was receiving from Charleston as he uttered Ed's new rank. But McGranth seemed to catch what it all was about now.

"Well," McGranth said simply, turning to Charleston. "That means you're Commander of the 8th. Congrats Ed! Time to paint on another stripe on your arm!"

"I guess I have to!" Charleston said and smiled broadly.

"It was about bloody time anyway..." McGranth muttered. He'd been about to promote Charleston to Commander when Kharn invaded, and since then, it had slipped his mind, always. But now it was out of the world. In fact, McGranth had wanted to promote Charleston to commander of the 8th after the Ork/Berzerker invasion on Armageddon, but Sebastian had been adamant that he deserved the Mark of Armagon the better. To give you a comparison on how brilliant this mark is, it's comparable with the Lenin Order of the former Soviet Union, an order that mostly was dealt post-humously.

Ed bowed as Edd had done before McKenzie and put the tiny mark on his shirt, just as Edd and Eddy had done.

"Your ranks will have to wait." McKenzie said over his shoulder towards the coming Kanker sisters.

"You heard us?" Lee asked startled.

"Something like that..." McKenzie muttered.

"So, you're coming too?" McGranth said flatly.

"Why not?" Lee said and shrugged. "We've got nothing better to do this summer."

"Besides, we couldn't let our boyfriends go off without us." Marie said and smiled. Edd swallowed. Ed started sweating. McGranth, McKenzie and Charleston stared at the three young boys. Eddy just glared at the Kankers. Although he didn't want to admit it, the last three years had been to the better for the Kankers. They'd all become more attractive, and it made Eddy feel odd. He knocked away the feeling.

"Not a word." Eddy grumbled forth to the three tall Marines.

"You address these three boys as your boyfriends." McKenzie suddenly said, his voice having a stern note to it. The Kankers nodded. "Then I hope you won't let your feelings guide you on this mission! This is no Sunday-trip!" The Kankers looked a bit beaten down, and Edd thought that McKenzie maybe was a bit hard on them.

A few minutes later, Nazz and Kevin came along as well. Eddy was thoroughly surprised. He hid it well though. He hadn't thought Kevin would come, even if it so concerned his life. Well, it did, more or less.

"Hi guys, wait for two more crusaders." Nazz said and smiled. To hear the word 'crusaders' over Nazz' lips felt odd. Maybe there was more to Nazz than giggles and good looks?

"I can't believe I'm doing this..." Kevin muttered.

"Ah, come on Kevin, it'll be fun." Nazz said and looked lovingly on Kevin. "Besides, you've always wanted to travel."

"Kevin," Edd said and smiled he too. "I can't believe you actually agreed to come."

"Get this straight, Double Dork, the only reason I'm here is to see the looks on your faces, when this... thingamabob malfunctions, or whatever."

McKenzie glared at Kevin, and gave Edd a psychic message. "Pleasant little so, and so, isn't he?"

Edd had a hard time to stop himself from smirking.

McKenzie turned to Nazz. "Young lady, I wouldn't use the word fun to describe our mission, cause what we're up against is the very master piece of a race that once created us humans."

"What do you mean?" Nazz asked. She didn't like the turn this was taking.

"Long story..." McKenzie said silently. He looked Nazz straight in the face. "You remind me so of Canoness Nazerine Almita of the Order of the

Bloodied Rose..."

"What?"

McKenzie shook off his daydream. "Anyone else coming?"

"Nope." was Kevin's curt reply. McKenzie prayed that the boy's attitude didn't hamper their mission too much. There was too much of Brother Lieutenant Commander Poole about him. Far too much.

McKenzie wavered all off from the socket in the ground. He needed working room. "Okay people, stand back. What I'm going to release are immense psychic powers. If anyone who can't protect their mind gets too close, you'll find your brain all over the place."

This comment left McKenzie with a ten metres wide berth. He smiled. Grabbing the staff with both hands and closing his eyes, he began a chant in the Imperial Nobility's tongue: High Gothic.

"What's he doing?" Kevin asked astonished, his voice a whisper. He hung on to every word that the tall, thin man was uttering.

"Praying." was McGranth's simple reply.

Kevin, Jonny, Nazz and the Kankers stared at him, and then on McKenzie, and then back at McGranth.

"What, it's common where we come from." McGranth said and looked surprised that the children did not know the delicate procedure of psychics.

At the socket, or pedestal, McKenzie opened his eyes, a blue light shining from them. He raised the staff high into the air, the psychic energies loaded into it jumping and sparkling of its surface, barely contained by McKenzie's iron will. The big, sapphire at the bottom of the staff glowed nearly white of barely contained energies. With a few sweeping gestures and a sentence of a completely alien tongue, McKenzie slammed home the staff into the socket and turned it half a turn.

Eddy suddenly felt that his lips were moist. He licked them and felt the taste of metal. Taking a few steps backwards, we wiped away the blood that had come from his nose. He knew he'd been standing too close. He didn't want to think what could've happened if he'd stood even closer. He once again focused his thoughts on McKenzie. He'd seen this before. Edd had done it on Secondus, but with a staff that had been crafted by a deamon, and that still had had some of the deamon's power in it.

The white light had subsided from McKenzie's eyes. Instead, the white light was now travelling ever upwards in the staff. The Master Lexicanum let go off the staff and backed off he too. At the top of the staff, a beautiful, golden, twin-headed Imperial Eagle was situated. As the light spread to the Eagle, the gold seemed to burst. White streaks of light shone through cracks that originally hadn't been more than visible for a microscope. Suddenly, with a roar, the energies broke loose from the staff and roared up, through the canopy of the surrounding trees in the meadow. What followed was an unearthly silence. No birds sung, nothing. It was as if the world had stopped.

"Yeah, right, like it was going to work." Kevin said and smiled. Eddy knew better. "I told you dorks..."

Kevin was cut short as the roaring sound returned. The white beam of psychic power had apparently taken a turn somewhere up in the sky and came crashing down into the staff again. Blast and shockwave threw them all to the ground, except McGranth, who stood steadily on the ground in his nearly 300 kilos heavy armour. There was dust in the air, and no one could really see what had happened immediately. Rolf took his time in trying to find his peaked cap. As he put it back on, back brim first, he turned to look at where the staff had stood. He recognized the bowel-turning colours of the Warp at once. McKenzie had done it. Of the staff, however, there was no trace. It had obviously been atomised by the sheer force striking down at it.

McKenzie got up and dusted himself down. "Everybody get through the hole, now! It's not open for very long!"

McGranth took the initiative, followed by Rolf, Charleston, and the Eds, Jonny, the girls and lastly McKenzie. The hole closed behind them with a sucking sound. The only thing that marked that there once had been a Warp Portal there was the burnt out crater of the socket and the shattered remains of a golden Imperial Eagle statuette.

Kevin would, after this adventure was done, never more want to Warp travel like this. He thought it had felt as he had fallen as soon has he'd stepped into the strange hole. The falling feeling had been replaced by the feeling of being stretched out and suddenly and painfully slammed into a wall. Still, he'd been able to walk out at their destination. McKenzie never told the others, but he'd used the warp signature of Kharn monolith on Armageddon as guidance. Place was no problem, but time was, so he'd made a hefty guess.

As the twelve humans were thrown through the Warp, two shadowy figures watched them. They were both winged, and they both were muscular. Two pairs of burning red eyes watched the dozen as they made their way through one thousand light-years of normal space. Then, suddenly, the two shadows disappeared into darkness, as only shadows can.

The humans hadn't given up yet, that was for sure. And the new non-biological threat, well, it was just as much a threat as these twelve humans...