Begin again

Men or monsters?

"Amagi! You're back!" a small child-like girl ran up to the aforementioned woman Lanius had escaped with. "Yes Mutsu I'm back." They embraced, Lanius and Graham stood back on the ship watching. "Seems she is well respected here." Lanius said as he crossed his arms. His helmet hung by his waist, leaving his scarred face exposed to the world. Joshua looked out of hte corner of his bandaged eyes to the fellow legate, "It is not only respect. It is love, something I do not think you know of. Though having been in the legion, I can't blame you." Lanius huffed then set off down the ramp.

The child looked up upon hearing the thunder of Lanius weight, combined with his metallic boots crashing down the gangway. "Eep!" She hid behind Amagi, scarred of the armored giant who stood taller than any warrior she had ever seen before. Amagi chuckled then goaded the child out from behind her legs as Lanius stopped before her, staring down into her smiling face. He wasn't smiling, his lips set into a firm line that bordered anger and hunger for battle. Amagi turned back to look up at him, "you know, if you smiled more you might not scare off so many people."

Lanius ignored her, plopping down to get closer to the little girl. He still had to lean to be face to face with her, "So even the children train..." He looked up to Amagi, "What age do you start training them?" Amagi was confused and didn't answer him. "You will make a fine soldier one day." He pulled a serated knife out. Mutsu froze, scarred of what he would do. He flipped it around, holding it by the blade. "Every child in the legion learns to wield a dagger before one day being given a machete. Take up your blade."

For a while she stood there, shaking, as the monster of a man looked into her eyes. She slowly reached forward and took the handle, it was only now that she noticed the sticky, slick feeling of it. It was covered in dry blood. Lanius smiled, it was not something that was pretty, or encouraging, "There, you are now ready for war..."

Amagi reached down and took the knife, Mutsu still shaking. "Lanius, I don't know how exactly you did things back home, but we don't let children have knives here!" she scolded him. "Then you must not really be at war then." He stood up, staring down at the girl who shook like a baby in Alaska. "Run along, the adults must talk now." She bolted, running like an NCR grunt at their first battle.

Lanius watched the child run off, impressed at how quickly she moved. Amagi turned back to the giant as Joshua, Ulysses, and Akagi came down the ramp, "What goes through his mind? Giving a 10 year old girl a weapon!" Ulysses voice answered her, "Lanius was raised as a tribal, by the age of 7 or 8 he had taken his first human life." Akagi huddled closer to her sister, now growing more concerned about the man that had saved her sister. "Is he nothing but a brute?" She asked, running situations through her mind. Joshua sighed, "From what I heard after being thrown down the canyon, Lanius was taken from his family at the age of 6. He killed a veteran soldier with his bare hands trying to save his mother. She was taken to be a legion slave."

He turned his charred body towards the figure of the legate, growing more distant as he trudged ahead, "He was thrown into the arena to fight for the amusement of Ceasar. He lost any humanity he had after that. He had to give up his compassion to survive. Eventually, a soldier bought him from the arena. He trained him up and when he died, so too did the las semblance of Lanius the man. And born from the fire of hate was the monster of the east."

Amagi shivered, and it had nothing to do with the weather. Her rags had been replaced by one of her sister's outfits. She had never before seen someone she believed to be truly evil. Even Lanius had some good in him, he had been willing to drag her out of the prison even shile her bad health caused them to lag behind. "Joshua," she asked, "Yes?" the priest said as he started to follow Lanius towards the base. She took a shuddering breath, "what is the meaning of Lanius' name?" He did not turn back as he said "butcher. Butcher of men." Amagi, Akagi, and Musashi shivered at the revelation.