"The choice is yours, but if you give in, all those you care about the most will shun you, and your soul will be irredeemable."
The sentence echoed in her head and weighed heavily on her now clear conscious. Yet the visions she had seen did not leave her, they were of things she wished for most. To see the enemies of the Empire laid out before her, bleeding onto the earth. Broken, mangled, and dead. Those visions she had the power of the Chaos God Khorne. In those visions, she was a literal demon on the battlefield. Unbreakable, unyeilding, and relentless. There was no time for rest, no want for it. Only the unending hunt for more and more of the Aschen's enemies. The time spent out of combat was wasteful, she craved to forever be hunting down the enemies of her Emperor and with that power, it would be certain. The Emperor would have need for no other sword so long as Appollonia was his to command, that was what she felt. It was what she believed to be true if she obtained the power this Chaos God offerred.
Despite this deep and compelling feeling she could not help but ask the woman before her for assurance in this matter.
"If I take that power....will I be able to keep them safe? I don't care if they despise me for taking it. My soul was never mine, me and all I am was given to me for the purpose of taking the beatenings they could not. Losing it for their well being would be just another sacrifice I made so they would never suffer at the hands of the enemy. It is only worth it to me, if with that power I may chase the enemies of our people and my Emperor into the very caverns and pits they hide in."
Again she asked. "If I take this fall, can I keep the ones I love most from falling?"
The wise goddess stood there listening to Appollonia's case, she considered it, before she looked out towards the valley before them. With a wave of her hand, everything disappeared. The scenery warped, and shifted to a planet, specifically the Cosmora Archipelago's capital city of Lyra.
Daemons of Khorne were fighting Aschen soldiers all around them, as the Aschen desparately tried to hold the city against the incursion.
In an instant they were all turned to ash as a Thalaron weapon detonated nearby. Athena slowly put her hand upon the skull of one of the now deceased soldiers.
"It was your god who razed this world to ash." The Goddess said, picking up the skull and presenting it to Appollonia. "The answer to your inquiry is clear." She said, holding the skull up, before surveying the wonton destruction all around them.
"You wouldn't be able to protect them, because you would be their enemy, and inevitably they would be destroyed..."
Reality shifted to the Caprican Imperial Palace, disruptor burns, bolter fire, balefire charring, mangled corpses, and daemons could be seen all around them, with Caprica City burning in flames.
"Behold, the shape of things to come." Athena said, gesturing to a mutated daemon standing over Prince, whom was wounded, bloodied, and propped up against the wall; dead confessors all around them.
That daemon was a mutated Appolonia, and she was holding a bolter to Prince's head.
Athena turned back towards Appollonia, watching her, letting her consider the sights before her.
Appollonia spectated the scene before her and listened to the words of the Goddess before her. Khorne's underlings had struck against the Aschen before. Many noble and courageous acts on the Aschen's part were made futile before the daemons, whom sought only to butcher and slaughter in the name of Khorne.
If she took Khorne's power, she would become the very thing she wished to fight. An enemy of the Aschen.
The next scene solidified this thought even further as the Caprican Imperial Palace came into view. A hellish battle having taken place there. Plasma burns, disruptor fire, dispensed bolter rounds, warpfire roaring, mangled corpses and much more that Appollonia could see but to describe it all in detail would take far too long. It was hell manifesting itself. The very nightmare she wanted to prevent becoming real. The War Adept was visibly disturbed by the scene as rage and sorrow were both shown on her face. Perhaps it was the surreal bliss of this plane they now inhibitated and were able to view such visions from that kept the normally feral Appollonia from acting up?
At the Daemon who stood over Prince she glared but as Athena revealed the identy of this being. Tears fromed in her eyes.
"I see...this path leads to ruin...". There was an effort to compose herself but this failed. Appollonia collapsed under her own weight and embraced herself, tears running freely down her face to her lap.
" Not glory, nor renown. Only the power to protect them. That's all I want. They could have discarded me. Broken me. Killed me. Instead they gave me strength and a chance to continue living. A chance to atone... Athena... Can I too become a Hero for them?"
Athena watched quietly as everything settled in. "I am only showing you one possible reality out of many, this is the sum total of your decision to embrace Khorne." The Goddess said, moving around and resting a hand on Appollonia's shoulder. "To take this power is a display of your own weakness, but you can find it within yourself to become a champion of your people. Galvanize your mind with what I have shown you, and a rightous anger will burn deep within your soul, and you will be given the strength to carry out justice against this evil."
The Lord of Kobol gestured out to the reality as it shifted back to Nirn, the Taiyou ship in orbit preparing it's Wave Motion Gun.
Reality shifted again back to Olympus, and Appolonia would be staring from the mountain down to Nirn, down to the Steel Ronin and her own unconscious body, down towards the Sorcerer.
Athena took Appolonia by the hand, then she reached out and tugged at the collar of the Peplos, revealing a small mark just under her collarbone, an owl-like symbol.
"You will become my champion, you will be my shield, and my spear." Athena said. "You will be able to dig deeper within a power yet untapped, you need only reject the temptations of Khorne and the gods of Chaos, and strike down your enemies in the name of truth, and justice." Athena said.
____________________-
Athena awoke. The voices roaring in her mind almost instantly. The battle before her continued but like before it was nothing more than a stalemate that would eventually turn in favor of the Chaos Sorcerer. Was it all a dream? Appollonia pondered this for an instant but her hand fell on her collar and there she felt it, the mark of Athena. As a Tauron, she had many tattoos on her but this was not one of them. It was confirmation, relief, and most of all it was the second wind her warrior spirit needed.
The Cable that secured her to the Ronin snapped. In what seemed like an act of desperation, the Aschen War Adept threw herself towards the Sorcerer. If actions spoke louder than words, the billion voices that plagued her (even the ones that came from her own demons) ceased. With only her bare hand, she would take on the Chaos Sorcerer. Perhaps it seemed foolish but this was infact Appollonia's strong suit from the beginning.
Hand to hand combat. From their fighting earlier and what glimpses she got to see whilst secured to the Ronin, she had been able to memorize the details of the Sorcerer's attacks thanks to her photographic reflexes. The strike she opened up was big, wide, and powerful but it left her open. One solid hit from that sword and she would be but another who died to him but soon as she him react, was when she abandoned her attack. For all his size and prowess in battle, it was not easy to stop a sword whilst it was mid swing. Apple put her trust in that martial knowledge and rather than strike him with her fist, she feinted and tackled him with the force of a freight train. Even while she missed half an arm, she chose to wrestle with the Colossus. It was 2 on 1. If he warped to stop him, she could only trust the Ronin to cover her.