It was a topic they had covered before. More than once. A road well traveled, some might stay.
Still, every now and then, he asked that old question. Perhaps he was testing his companion. To see if time or reflection would change the answer.
"Do you regret bringing them back?"
Vulkan's lip thinned. His eyes, like smoldering coals, burned with the shadows of a thousand regrets and million resolutions. His hand, massive enough to grip the arm of a dreadnought, gentle enough to calibrate a clockwork gear smaller than a grain of rice, gripped the handle of his mug. Guilliman had added a palette of recaf to their regular shipment inventory. It came directly from his personal recaf merchant. "My father..." he began slowly, "...intended for us all to be together."
"Ah, the father's intentions defense," B's pale face split into a smile. "The apartments under the throne room, where you could all live together as a happy family. After the war, of course."
"After the war," Vulkan agreed. He leaned forward, his coal red eyes making contact with B's sickly grey-purple. "Now you'll point out that from what you know of the Second: he didn't wish to go to war. And I'm just repeating my father's cruelties, training him, and expecting him to do the same."
"Ah yes. And you'll dismiss my accusations with platitudes about giving them a choice, a real choice, you'll argue passionately, unlike your father." B shifted back in his seat. Not a retreat. If anything, it was to show how unafraid of the demi-god in front of him he was. Few mortals could resist the aura of the Primarchs. B seemed immune to it. The scientist spread his arms wide, bringing in his point, "Yet here we are."