Editing Cypher (section)

==What he's up to==
[[File:Cypher.png|400px|thumb|right|Heh... nothin' personal... kid]]

His actual allegiance is a mystery- he's been just as likely to fight Chaos as he is to assist it and there have been multiple incidents where he showed up to save an otherwise doomed Imperial force or even turn on the very cults he helped create. (He even managed to steal the identity of an Inquisitor at one point without anyone noticing until he had long since gotten away with it.) His intentions regarding the Dark Angels are equally bipolar; for every time the Dark Angels have been led astray by him, there's another time where Cypher's trail just happens to lead to the capture of one of the other Fallen or even the discovery of a new recruiting world. Some members of the Inner Circle even theorize that he may be an emissary sent by the Emperor himself to test the Dark Angels' resolve (which is supported by several of Cypher's own statements, [[Troll|including a message he sent to Azrael]]).

Either way, he is slowly heading in the direction of Holy Terra, a bizarre mission that has the Dark Angels worried as hell. He may even want a word with the God-Emperor. "OH SHIT HE'S GONNA TATTLE ON US!"

In truth it's believed that he has the [[Lion El'Jonson|Lion]]'s sword, and that he intends to return it to the Emperor, ergo earning his/their absolution. Or maybe he's going to assassinate the [[Emperor]]. Or maybe both somehow considering the whole [[Perpetual]] thing, which to the best of everyone's knowledge tells us that if the Emperor kicked the bucket then he'll just reincarnate and finally get off the throne and get back to business. ...Or Cypher could be betting on [[Vulkan]]'s ''Talisman of Seven Hammers'' acting as a dead-mans switch for the Throne and causing Terra to explode in a fiery inferno the moment it ceases to function, possibly also resulting in the entire human race becoming unprotected warp gates for daemons and enveloping the entire galaxy in a warp storm that makes the Eye of Terror look like an anthill.... Cypher just might be the bearer of the end times. Who knows? Either way, the Dark Angels want him dead before they can find out.

During [[Abaddon]]'s [[Black Crusade|13th successive failure]], he had the balls to walk onto his capital ship, talk shit, and shoot the only friends Abaddon made in ten thousand years. This happened when Abaddon blinked. As in, closed his eyes and when they opened, corpses. Then he walked out again. [[Awesome|Clint Eastwood]] ain't got shit on this motherfucker. Thus it is now a known fact that Abaddon also fails at blinking.

Also, he is sometimes depicted with green armour even though pre-Heresy Dark Angel armour was black. The Dark Angels who rejected [[Luther]] painted their armour green during the Heresy, and were fighting him before the [[Lion El'Jonson|Lion]] ever showed up on [[Caliban]] (this is evidenced by Merir Astellan, who hated both El'Jonson and Luther alike and kept his armor black). ''The Unforgiven'' confirms that Cypher changes colour scheme whenever he needs to. His armour is black during that book, but Belial notices that there are still traces of green paint on it (presumably left over from when he [[Alpha Legion|played loyalist dress-up]] during the attack on Piscina in ''Angels of Darkness''). That would at least explain why he shows up all over the place, dressed exactly like a Dark Angel, rustling their collective jimmies.

In one instance in the [[Ophidium Gulf Crusade|fluff]] he was being pursued by the combined efforts of a single Black Templar vessel and a Dark Angel fleet. Even though the Black Templar single-handedly managed to apprehend Cypher because they get shit done, the Dark Angel fleet threatens to destroy the Black Templar ship if they won't hand over their prisoner. Begrudgingly, the Templar ship hands over Cypher, starts to send a short message to their High Marshal and then "mysteriously disappears without a trace". Likely {{Blam|++THEY GOT LOST IN THE WARP++}}. The smug Dark Angels then proceed to fly back home, thinking mission accomplished until they arrive and find the cell containing Cypher to be empty. Poof motherfuckers.

===More Recently===
According to [[Gav Thorpe]]'s latest novel, Cypher tracked down a Ravenwing squad, killed an enemy Fallen, willingly threw down his pistols, and demanded to meet with the Inner Circle. There followed a series of events where Cypher reveals that [[The Rock]] has secretly been host to the '''Tuchulcha''' Engine for all this time, and it is part of a triumvirate of entities that, when brought together, can cross the bridge of time, the other two being the '''Ouroboros''' buried within the core of Caliban (and later remains in Caliban's ruins) and a third device/entity held by [[Typhus]]. Cypher's involvement in bringing the three together is accompanied by unusual behaviours from the [[Watchers in the Dark]], which serve to convince the Dark Angels of Cypher's importance, if not his sincerity. When they are brought into proximity in the Caliban system, they open a rift which appears to stretch back in time to Caliban's destruction, to the interest of multiple factions: [[Azrael]] skeptically but hopefully wishes to use the rift to prevent the catastrophe, while [[Fallen Angels|Astelan]] thinks to help his rebels win, while Typhus thinks merely to use time travel to cause [[Chaos|carnage]] in the name of his [[Nurgle|dark master]]. Cypher, as we'll get to in a second, seems to want the overall picture to stay the same.
*On an amusing sidenote: Cypher seems to actually like and think rather highly of Azrael, saying that he would have made a fine seneschal for [[Lion El'Johnson|the Lion]].
*It's actually revealed that this is not the first time that Cypher has been a prisoner on the Rock. He has over the last 10,000 years presented himself many times as a prisoner and each time he has walked free. The shocking thing is that he has never actually escaped, rather each time the current Supreme Grand Master has "let him go". Of course, this is kept all very hush, hush or Asmodai would literally explode in anger.

When shit hits the fan, it appears that the enemies are closer to the rift than the Dark Angels; [[Ezekiel]] is the one who convinces Azrael to destroy the rift, since the Fall of the Lion was simply meant to be, and who-knows-what could happen if their enemies traveled through, or brought something back forward in time. However, in the aftermath, there is the implication that destroying the rift in the 41st millennium may have been the [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination_paradox causal factor] in the event which broke apart the planet of Caliban and which initially scattered the Fallen across time [[Just as Planned|in the first place]]. Cypher escaped into the time-rift, adding yet more evidence to the theory that he is traveling back through history trying to change events, but his entire motivation for bringing the Dark Angels back to the ruins of Caliban (and therefore uniting the three pieces and destroying 30k Caliban) [[Just as Planned|remains uncertain]].

====Gathering Storm====
Cypher somehow shows up again later at the close of the 41st Millennium, presumably either traveling back forward through time or by waiting 10,000 years ''(which considering what we already know is actually quite plausible)''. This time, he shows up on [[Macragge]], at around the same time [[Roboute Guilliman]] is miraculously resurrected. While the "Terran Crusade" is making their way back to Terra, they are set upon by the [[Red Corsairs]], and Guilliman is imprisoned by [[Kairos Fateweaver]] on a '''Blackstone Fortress'''. Cypher is brought to the fortress by Harlequins and pointed in the direction of Guilliman's cell, offering to save the Terran Crusade from the Red Corsairs and guide them away, on the condition that Guilliman takes Cypher and the Fallen to Terra and to the Imperial Throne, ''for undisclosed reasons''. Guilliman promises to do so, but swears that if Cypher is up to any trickery or deceit he will regret it. Cypher then guides the crusade through the webway, while being pursued by the forces of the [[Thousand Sons]], eventually getting to Luna, where Guilliman has a showdown with his brother [[Magnus]]

However, when they eventually get to Terra, Guilliman recognises the sword on Cypher's back, and has no intention of letting him anywhere near the throne room. He double crosses Cypher, and orders him arrested by the Custodians, who put him in a prison that no-one has escaped from in thousands of years; naturally, Cypher escapes within the space of a paragraph, and is currently at large on Terra.

After his miraculous escape, Cypher is apparently being chased by (or more likely leading) a force of the Adeptus Custodes. You know you've made it big when the guardians of the Emperor of Mankind himself have been tasked with catching you; although it's unlikely that they are heading towards a happy ending, as they themselves are being unknowingly shadowed by an, as of yet unidentified force of ships.