The deleted 1200 words of this. I do suggest reading the original first if you haven't already
"From the legion mother," Cato says, passing the letter over. Guilliman's eye twitches.
He'd told them, dozens- if not hundreds- of times now to stop calling you that. Yet somehow, his orders have fallen on deaf ears. They were too attached, and you weren't exactly stopping them either.
"Thank you," He says with a sigh. "Though I'm surprised you're the one delivering it."
"She insisted. Said to personally make sure it made it to you."
A frown touches his lips. You weren't so paranoid that you couldn't trust his legionnaires to pass a message along- why, then, would you demand someone like Cato to do it when he had far more important duties?
An unpleasant feeling twists in his gut, and he waves the man away so that he might read privately.
Already not a good sign that you were using his last name. You'd called him Roboute since you'd met, all those long years ago while standing at his lost brother's side. He still remembers how it had made his chest itch in a strange way.
I am writing to inform you of an event that has transpired since last you visited.
It goes on to outline an altercation between one of his Ultramarines and one of your Luna Wolves that ended in a physical fight. The whole thing was…strange. Other than the fact that this wasn't something you would ever write to him about, it read extremely formally. Almost forced.
Your letters were always easy, you wrote them as if he were in the room and you were speaking to him aloud. He could always hear your voice in the words you scribbled and sent to him. This didn't sound like you at all. You'd written it for sure, he would know your handwriting anywhere, but the more he stared at it, the more he found wrong with it.
Words misspelled, points where you'd pressed the pen down too firmly, normally smooth lines bent- as if you were shaking while writing them- and understanding dawns on him. You were afraid. Someone had either threatened you, or something had happened that made you feel threatened.
You were calling for help, and trying not to be obvious about it.
He's on his feet all but chasing after Cato before he even realizes he's doing it. He needed to know how long ago he was there, when did you give this to him- and worse of all, was it possible he was too late? Were you dead? Taken? Had the traitors found you? Demons? Xenos?
Damn it all, how could any of them possibly have gotten to you? Had the walls around you crumbled that much since Dorn's disappearance? Where were your sons? Why had they not protected you? Had they, too, finally turned against you like Horus and the rest of his legion?
His men mobilize quickly at his order, and even quicker when they hear it's you they're rushing towards. They may not be your sons in the same way the Luna Wolves were, but he was somewhat glad in this moment that they had attached themselves to you so firmly. They were loyal to you. Protective. they would run screaming into battle at your command even before he could tell them otherwise.
It takes the same amount of time as normal to get to you, yet somehow it feels like the journey lasts forever. He maintains his calm as best he can, focusing on what he can do in the moment, but as the hours tick by slowly, he feels himself become more and more anxious. It becomes so bad, he almost feels relief when they arrive and discover the carnage.
The fortress is quiet, and from the smell of things, had been for at least a few days. Nothing had been cleaned up in the slightest. Traitor astartes mixed with loyalist Luna Wolves and servants lie dead, the battle between them clear as day. Walls and doors were cracked and broken, furniture destroyed, and you were nowhere to be found.
He and his soldiers search every corner, and come up with one serf, barely alive. There's no saving her, not with her injuries, but she wheezes out answers to their questions before finally going limp after successfully completing her self-given duty to pass along information.
You'd apparently sent one of your most loyal attendants away very suddenly the day after Cato arrived to check in on you at Guilliman's request. You hadn't told anyone why, and once the woman had left, you'd gathered your sons into a meeting no outsiders were allowed access to.
Not long after, the chaos astartes kicked the door in, and all hell broke loose. They'd gunned down anyone who stood between them, and you, tearing the fortress apart in their mad attempt to get to you before you could escape them.
She insists, with her final breath, that you got out, but her last hints of life leave her before they can ask here where you could have possibly gone.
It leaves Guilliman with even more questions.
Whether you'd known what was coming before you sent that letter, or just suspected and thus felt the need to reach out for further aid quietly was unknown, but it was clear enough to him that you'd been prepared. You had an escape plan, your sons knew their duties, and they executed them to the best of their abilities.
Now you were out there somewhere, guarded by whatever astartes you had left. Not free, but no longer trapped behind the walls Guilliman had built to protect you.
"My lord, what do we do now?"
He looks around at the silent, bloodstained fortress.
"Find your legion mother," He says. "Before someone else does."
That, however, ends up being much easier said than done, as you prove to be very good at hiding. Despite his best efforts, you'd all but vanished without a single trace left behind. Though, if he were honest, that didn't surprise him all that much.
You were Horus' widow, after all. If any baseline could outsmart a primarch, it would be you.
He'd searched the fortress he'd kept you in several times over the next few years, and found only bits and pieces of information left behind.
You'd been preparing for the day the traitors came for you for a while. In a page of a journal left behind, you'd written that though you weren't sure how exactly you were getting out, you knew the chaos of battle would be your only chance to make a run for it.
It makes him feel guilty- he hadn't meant to keep you trapped for so long. He'd always intended for you to be released at some point once things settled. But they never did, and so you never got to leave. It's something he swears to apologize for once he found you.
And he would find you. He had to. He couldn't let you disappear and die somewhere believing him to be cruel and uncaring. You had to know that he'd done what he thought was right, and that he would accept whatever punishment you deemed necessary as long as it meant you came back with him.