I Cannot Be Both Your Son and Your Father

Fabius Bile's laboratory, and the technology of Clone Primarchs.

This was indeed information capable of drawing Cawl's attention.

That Clone Primarch, Fulgrim, seemed to harbor a certain obsession with Fabius Bile, who had created him.

He had always been searching the galaxy for traces of Fabius Bile, trying to capture him and unravel the mystery of his own birth.

But Fulgrim himself possessed only limited knowledge of biotechnology, nowhere near enough to decipher Fabius's creations.

Cawl, as the foremost Magos within the Adeptus Mechanicus today, had naturally become Fulgrim's collaborator.

"He discovered a surviving remnant of Fabius Bile's work on Murder Planet. There are several partially destroyed Clone Primarch prototypes within. Clone Fulgrim wants me to go to Murder Planet to investigate and study them." Cawl extended a finger and drew out a fine nerve from the clone body before him. The magnification of his mechanical eye allowed him to examine the nerve's twitching in greater detail.

"You cannot go." Primarch Prime spoke calmly to Cawl.

Cawl's movements stopped.

"I am Belisarius Dora Cawl," he said. "There is nothing I cannot do."

"Even the gods are not omnipotent." Primarch Prime remained firm in his assessment.

"Very true!" Cawl looked up at Primarch Prime. "But I am human."

"There is nothing humanity cannot accomplish, nothing human intellect cannot achieve. He, they, taught us so."

Primarch Prime's throat worked faintly. Cawl's words angered him.

He restrained the anger from appearing on his face, but in doing so failed to restrain the expression of pain rising instead.

A flash of pain crossed Primarch Prime's face. Because of the flaws in his body, he suffered pain every moment of every day.

If Cawl truly could do anything, then he should... But Primarch Prime ultimately did not speak those words.

Cawl opened his mouth slightly,