| Aboard the Bucephelus |
I believed that my sleep would've been peaceful, but I was instantly proven wrong when I closed my eyes. Exactly as I closed my eyes, I perceived one of my final failsafes on a Primarch's fate activate and become erased. Not wasting a second, I locked onto that brief spike of my power to try and create a series of points to teleport through, which would eventually allow me to reach this son of mine.
Unfortunately, I found myself unable to create a point because of the interference of other powers that belonged to more than just the Four. I was infuriated by their usual interference and surprised that something else was blocking me.
Such a thing was far too unusual, and I couldn't help but question internally, 'What other warp entity is interfering? Just what could match the power of the Four in blocking me? Wait… This is not another power; it has no consciousness. But that doesn't explain… Or perhaps…'
I recalled the deal on Molech, the place where the original Emperor entered a portal to the Warp and pretended to sincerely bargain with the Four. That bargain was divided into two main parts. One was where he asked for the power and knowledge needed to create the Primarchs.
The Four agreed to hand it over on the account that he handed over some of the Primarchs and humanity to Chaos.
The second part of the bargain was laying the groundwork for humanity's inclusion in the Great Game. The Emperor would go around reuniting humanity and offer some planets to the Four. In exchange, the Four would agree to the clause that both parties limit their influence over the Primarchs, meaning that neither party could ever have a hand in the fate of the Primarchs until the agreed-upon time.
After a few more specifics and negotiations, both parties spoke vows tied to their true names to seal the deal. The Four believed they had secured new entertainment, more power, and new powerful followers in exchange for granting the Emperor a seat as the 5th Chaos God.
The Four waited in eager anticipation for the Emperor to fulfill one of the agreements by handing over some Perpetuals. However, the Emperor never did so. When they watched him create the Primarchs, they watched in fury as he removed their influence from the powers and replaced it with his own.
The Emperor had reneged on the deal; he had gotten exactly what he wanted. He regained powers that had originally belonged to humanity from the Four, who shamelessly tried to sell him what they had stolen long ago.
He used those powers and knowledge to craft tools—the Primarchs—in his image, which would aid him in completing his ambition of reuniting humanity. These tools were free from being utterly overwhelmed by the Four's influence, but he knew the Four would retaliate and make some of his tools betray him.
During his Great Crusade, he would identify the most useful tools and keep them by his side, while ensuring that the more flawed and useless ones fell to the Four.
The casualty of this deal was what the Four were harnessing to prevent me from directly teleporting to all of my sons and simply bringing them back to Terra. Vice versa, this deal was exactly what prevented them from drawing all my sons into their domains during the scattering.
I was infuriated by how well the casualty of that deal prevented me from acting, but I was also thankful that it prevented the Four from simply hurtling the pods holding my sons straight into a star, thus ending the Great Crusade before it even began.
Seeing that I couldn't teleport, I decided to do the next best thing: I would send my consciousness into the mind of my son.
Tellus sensed my distress and actions and concerningly asked, 'Why did you attempt to teleport? What is this law of casualty that binds you so? What happened to worry you this much?'
'One of my sons has had their fate altered,' I replied with cold fury and unconcealed worry laced into my words. 'The Four are taking their revenge by expending their power to change the future of one of my sons. I can't teleport to him and be there physically, but I do have a lock on his location, which is enough for me to send my consciousness to him. I will return soon. If something dangerous occurs while I focus on this, alert me.'
'I understand. Be careful, Andrew…'
Following her admonition, I separated my consciousness from my body and used my psychic energy to manifest within the mindscape of my son. Once inside his mindscape, I quickly scanned the surroundings through the eyes of my son. I wanted to know what he was facing and where exactly he was.
I observed the distorted landscapes that appeared to shift or crystallize. The sky was split between clear day, nighttime with unnaturally phosphorescent bleeding stars, and multicolored rains with unnatural, shimmering smoke. Beyond the immediate sky, far into the distance, was a slow but steadily growing colossal, swirling gyre of glowing nebulae, cosmic dust, and twisted stellar material.
'He is on a planet far too close to the Maelstrom Zone's edge,' I noted with a grimace.
The Maelstrom Zone is a massive spatial vortex and warp rift that occurred naturally, unlike the Eye of Terror, and it covers hundreds of light-years. Within it are multiple violent Warp Storms, nomadic singularities, ionic reefs, null zones, and lost worlds.
Such a nature makes interstellar travel through it nigh-impossible, which makes it a perfect lawless haven for many pirates, renegades, xenos, and unspeakable horrors that know their way around its outskirts.
The most dreadful thing about the Maelstrom Zone is that, unlike the Eye of Terror, there is no grid of Necron Pylons keeping it contained. So, as it always has, the Maelstrom Zone will continue to slowly grow, consuming more of reality into its vortex.
Knowing all of this, I dreaded what might happen to my son the longer he stayed here. From what I learned years ago from Big E, when I asked about the possibilities of each Primarch, I was informed that there was only one Primarch who always landed near the Maelstrom Zone. But now, it could be said that he was practically in it, which was far worse.
I stopped observing the surroundings, then focused on my son and took in his appearance along with his current condition. He was lying unconscious on a shifting rock formation of barbed crystals due to his changed fate, which had harmed him greatly.
His form was that of a young child of about 14 years old, and he had a head of graying black hair, a common mutation caused by extreme exposure to the Warp. This mop of hair, which usually belonged to an aging mortal, became one of the main identifying qualities of the Eleventh Primarch, the second-to-last Primarch found and the future Forgotten and Purged Primarchs of the original timeline.
From what I knew, he originally landed on the death world of Mictlan and was found in his pod by the personal slaves of the Hueyi Tlatoani, the Great Ruler of the Tenochca Empire. These slaves were frightened by the fact that he had come from the sky and alerted the guards to his presence.
The guards believed it was a sign from the Four Supreme Gods, so they passed the news onward until it finally reached the ears of the Hueyi Tlatoani and the High Council.
Upon hearing the news, they assembled for a meeting in the Chicuēyi Citlalin Huēyi Teōcalli, a great pyramid temple with four shrines on top that doubled as both the place where they made decisions and where they made sacrifices to express their absolute worship of the Four Supreme Gods.
Inside the holy hall of the Chicuēyi Citlalin Huēyi Teōcalli, all kinds of artistry could be seen depicting Bldfurthbldgod, the Supreme God of War and Blood; Prsethallfather, the Supreme God of Life and Rebirth; Furshewhothrusts, the Supreme Goddess of Artistry and Kinship; and lastly, Furthchgerofwheys, the Supreme God of Knowledge and Change.
In the middle of the hall, the Hueyi Tlatoani and all 8,976 members of the High Council bickered for hours over whether to adopt this child from the stars or sacrifice him to the Four Supreme Gods. During their long debate, they suddenly received a revelation from the Four Supreme Gods in the form of a mirage.
This revelation told them that one day, a ruthless daemonic creature known as Anathema, the Dark King who brings ruin to all that exists, would descend upon Mictlan disguised as the human Emperor and order his Angels of Death to enslave everyone.
To combat this threat, the Four Supreme Gods poured their power together to create a new god made flesh. With their combined power, the newborn god before them would be the one who set the people of Mictlan free from the hands of Anathema.
Astonished by what they learned from this divine revelation, the Hueyi Tlatoani and the High Council wasted no time in raising the child as the god he had been declared to be. And a god was exactly what they named and made him. That was the origin of Teotl, the 11th Primarch.
Teotl was a Primarch who was meant to be the closest thing to a blank, thanks to his gift of being an empath, along with being made from a fragment of the forgotten Renegade God, the Hierarch of Terror and Anarchy, Malice.
Malice, formerly known as Malal, the 5th Chaos God, was a being whose nature embodied Chaos's usual indiscriminate tendency toward destruction, anarchy, and infighting. The other Four Chaos Gods, minor Chaos Gods, and other entities of the Warp found Malal to be intolerable due to how often Malal would attack them or sabotage their plans.
So, through a rare moment of unity, they all came together and erased Malal's original being and true name, leaving behind only the malice of a defeated and forgotten outcast god, hence its new given name: Malice. Because Malice was originally born from the nature of the Warp instead of the thoughts or actions of realspace.
It couldn't be completely erased so easily, which allowed fragments of it to continue existing by seeking out hosts known as Doomed Ones, chosen beings of Malice who would carry out its dead will of seeking out and destroying followers of other Chaos Gods.
This same fragment was what was supposed to make Teotl like a blank because his essence would hate everything related to Chaos. His enhanced empathy was supposed to let him detect traces of taint, empower those around him, and serve as a reminder of what he fought for.
Lastly, his psyker abilities, granted to him, would allow him to project his attunement to anti-Chaos like a field. He could protect those around him from corruption by corrupting them first with the will to seek out and destroy followers of Chaos.
This was the idea the Emperor had in mind when he created Teotl: the perfect executioner of Warp-tainted worlds and future possible renegade Primarchs. Yet, when the Emperor arrived on Mictlan, all he saw was another utterly ruined creation who could no longer fulfill his intended purpose.
Teotl had lived for years surrounded by people who acted like the followers of the Chaos Gods he was supposed to hunt, and worst of all, he lived like a Chaos God. The people of Mictlan obeyed his every word, no matter how unreasonable, and they would regularly conduct rituals where they sacrificed animals and people to him.
In secret, these sacrifices were what the Four used to invade and twist Teotl's mind until he became a mockery of his intended purpose. Teotl now lacked the capacity to understand empathy, the value of human life, or believe in anyone other than himself, making him a replication of the cruel and willful Chaos Gods the Emperor loathed.
If it wasn't for the fact that the Great Crusade was tight on time and desperately needed another Primarch to aid in its efforts, he would've taken this misguided and wayward son down to the Dark Cells to be corrected.
Instead, he accepted Teotl not as a son, but as a general, just like Angron. He spent three days explaining to him everything wrong with his homeworld. After explaining everything and feeling gratified that Teotl surprisingly understood his warnings, the Emperor handed over the 11th Legion to Teotl, left directives about what to do next, and informed him that some of his brothers would arrive to guide him. Then he left to continue his work after ordering Exterminatus on the world of Mictlan, and naturally, Teotl felt nothing for the loss of his people.
But what he did feel was a growing hatred of the Emperor for two reasons. Teotl believed himself to be a god and could not tolerate being lorded over. And ever since the Emperor departed, he had felt an inexplicable urge to kill the Emperor and all his followers.
Teotl didn't know that the urge came from the fragment of Malice, which sensed the future Dark King and wanted it and its followers dead. All he knew was that one day, he would raise his axe against the Emperor and kill him. Then he would take his rightful place as the figurehead of the Imperium. He would be the God whom all of humanity would worship.
This seed of rebellion, spurred on by the fragment of Malice, led to Teotl purposely holding back during the future Rangdan Xenocides and even attempting to befriend the Rangdan as allies to take down the Emperor. The Rangdan pretended to accept his surrender and later trapped him. They then took control of him and used him as a double agent.
Teotl was manipulated into sabotaging the Imperium's efforts and indirectly causing his brother, Gideon Pyrrhus, the Primarch of the 2nd Legion, to spiral into madness. Gideon lost all sense of self and performed actions that altered him completely, which infuriated the Emperor.
Gideon was later put down by the combined efforts of Leman Russ, the Primarch of the 6th Legion, and Lion El'Jonson, the Primarch of the 1st Legion. As for Teotl, he was able to be saved, and his mind control was removed.
However, his utter incompetence, which delayed the Great Crusade and indirectly caused the death of a Primarch, utterly infuriated the Emperor. Teotl was thrown into the Dark Cells, where he would rot until the day the Emperor required him not as a general again, but as a one-time-use weapon.
Following that day, everything about the 2nd and 11th Legions was erased from all Imperial records. Furthermore, to ensure that nothing was known, everyone in the Imperium was mind-wiped, including the Primarchs, who could no longer recall much about these two brothers of theirs and their Legions. No one besides the Emperor and Malcador was ever to know about such a disgraceful end to the 2nd Primarch and the incompetence of the 11th Primarch.
As for the Legions, those who were completely innocent of their Primarchs' actions and remained uncompromised were assigned new places in the Ultramarines and Imperial Fists Legions.
This was the truth of the Lost and Forgotten Primarchs, the fate of my son that he never escaped in multiple timelines. But now, that fate was gone thanks to the actions of the Four, who had forced his pod to land on this new death world.
Seeing that the only change so far was his landing on a different planet left me feeling quite relieved, but downright livid at the obvious scheme. My decision here would be twisted in the future to influence my son.
The casualty of the bargain prevented me from interfering too much, which, in this case, meant hovering by their side for too long during their growth. The bargain had stated that neither side could interfere until the agreed-upon time, and the Emperor had used very tricky wording to create his own loophole to this.
But the condition was that each Primarch would, tacitly and in their own way, acknowledge the Emperor as the one they would follow until the end. It was something that could not be forced by the Emperor simply having them swear fealty.
For that reason, the Emperor in the original timeline waited patiently and always showed up at the perfect moment to earn this tacit swear of loyalty that would complete the condition. Unfortunately, it only worked for a few Primarchs, which led the Emperor down the path of isolating the ones he couldn't truly keep an eye on.
As for what this meant for me, at some point, I had to leave my sons' side to avoid the penalty evoked by my true name. If I left, they would constantly whisper to him, claiming that I had abandoned him to help a son I favored more. It was a common tactic of theirs that was devastatingly effective when used at the right moment.
So, this open scheme left me with only one choice to avoid everything down the line. I broke off a part of my soul and anchored it in my son's mind. This way, I was technically not interfering; it was simply a part of me that would lie dormant and act only when needed.
The only cost of this would be the increasing pain in my body, mind, and soul, as well as my current power decreasing from overexertion.
With the core problem identified and my only solution implemented, this situation was just about temporarily resolved.
I had to return to my body to order Alpharius to drop what he was doing and make haste to this planet. It also seemed that I could no longer go speak with the Castigator Titan in person, but I could still send over my psychic form while my flagship also made its way to this planet.
But before I did that, I left behind some words for my unconscious son.
'Stay strong, my son,' my voice echoed through his mind. 'Know that I am rushing as fast as I can to your side, to take you away from this damned world in the Maelstrom Zone. You will hear voices trying to feed upon your emotions and your thoughts, and in turn, they will feed you doubts. Ignore them. They are nothing but parasites who speak more lies than truth. Very soon, you will be safe from them and the warped creatures of this planet.'
After saying those words, I prepared to return to my body, but I felt my son's mind stir into partial consciousness, and he called out to me.
'Waittt… Just who are you? What am I? Why do I exist? What makes you more trustworthy than these voices I constantly hear?'
My heart tightened at his words. They spoke volumes about the madness that was being slowly inflicted upon him after landing on this planet.
In response to his words, I gently connected my consciousness to his and let him glean all that he needed to know from my mind.
With the influx of information in his mind, he confusedly voiced all that he had learned. 'Imperium of Man… The Four Chaos Gods… 11th Legion… The Great Crusade… Hope… Father?!? You… You wish to leave. No… NO, DON'T GO!!!'
I smiled sadly at his plea, and to comfort him, I lightly sent waves of my power over his consciousness. It was the equivalent of giving him soothing head pats.
'I'm sorry,' I began to say remorsefully. 'This is not abandonment of any kind. I must return to properly guide my vessel and your brother's vessel to you. I promise you I shall return, and together, as a family, we will travel this galaxy to see all that it has to offer.'
Feeling him beginning to lighten up, I gave him one last head pat before returning my consciousness to my body.
Upon returning to my body, I wasted no time teleporting myself straight to the command throne of my flagship. I sent a direct, urgent message to Alpharius, informing him of what had occurred and giving him the exact coordinates of where to go.
Alpharius was much closer than I was, so he would reach the planet first. I gave him permission to use any means necessary to reach his brother and retrieve him.
Next, I forced the Bucephelus out of its Warp jump to Magnus's location and reset its calibrations to follow the new coordinates of my newly found son's location. I reactivated the Warp drive, and my flagship initiated a Warp jump to the nearest area to the planet my son was on.
In the background, my Custodians and the elite naval officers stood at attention, awaiting my commands after noticing my sudden appearance and actions.
I quickly addressed them, saying, "My son, the Primarch of the 11th Legion, has been found. We are heading to him, so prepare for sudden deployment at any given moment."
They all nodded and continued their current work while also spreading the word and handling the logistics of having every Custodian and weapon ready.
With that settled, I projected my psychic form onto the Photep, next to Magnus, who was inside his command bridge being briefed on all the logistics. The Space Marines present saluted and lowered their heads.
"Clear the bridge," I ordered, and, following my order, they all made their way out.
"Thank you for your help, Father," Magnus immediately began to say after the doors shut behind the last Space Marine.
Before Magnus could continue, I raised my hand, signaling him to stop, because I knew he was blaming himself heavily for the near failure of his mission and the losses suffered by his Legion.
I strengthened the projection of my psychic form and then walked closer to Magnus. I used one arm to pull him into a half hug and said to him, "All fault rests on my shoulders."
Magnus tried to protest, saying, "No, that's not—"
"Listen," I asserted in a tone that commanded obedience, and I continued. "I sent you on a mission that you were not ready for yet. I put you in a position of danger, and something beyond danger came for you. I then ordered Osiris, one of your own sons, to bear the weight of the Legion's fate. His soul was removed from his body, tortured, and then he effectively died after I descended into his body.
"All of this was my command, not yours… I failed here. I ordered the deaths of your sons, and in the future, I will continue to do so. Every day, I sacrifice the few to save the many, and in exchange for their sacrifice, all I've ever offered was a fleeting dream of mine."
"Father, enough," Magnus pleaded. "There is zero need to demean yourself just to give me words of comfort. I understand sacrifice. I know that many will die cruel deaths, and I know just how demanding the Great Crusade is. What I've come to realize… What really bothers me is how I could ever possibly honor the sacrifices of those unknown heroes.
"You once told me that people truly die when they are forgotten. An innumerable number of people will die during the Great Crusade. Many will die a hero's death like Osiris, but unlike him, their sacrifices won't be recorded because no one was there to see them. How can I ensure that all these heroes and future heroes are never forgotten by the Imperium?"
I anticipated and braced myself for all manner of actions or questions from Magnus in response to the end result of the mission I gave him. Never once did I believe it would make him ask me such a thoughtful question. He was correct about how many would become forgotten, and it was simply impossible to keep track of every heroic action across the countless battlefronts of the Imperium.
However, perhaps he could develop a psychic-based archive of what he could record. Then, should the Genesis Project succeed, that archive could be opened for everyone to see. Every citizen of the Imperium would be able to trace their roots and learn about their ancestors who died for a better tomorrow.
I smiled softly and told him, "Such a task is impossible, and many Legions and regiments of the Imperial Army have their own ways of honoring their dead. However, you can start a reform in the Imperium that targets recording history much more accurately.
"Many would happily share stories about the heroics and honor that they or someone they knew earned alongside a Primarch. Perhaps, like Archmagos Trazyn, you can bring back the concept of museums and memorials to every planet possible in the Imperium."
"I understand now, Father," Magnus replied, his face visibly brightening. "My Legion and I will become historians dedicated to preserving monumental moments in the Imperium's history. We will recover what was lost—not just items, but morals and societal standards. We will record all that we can, guaranteeing that no sacrifice goes unnoticed. The people of the Imperium will always remember what they've lost, what they have, and what they shall gain."
"A fine declaration," I proudly said. "As always, you make me proud, Magnus."
I watched in amusement as Magnus tried to hide his pleased smile at my words. After a few moments of comfortable silence, I turned my gaze downward to the colossal, pearlescent gray-white, sleek humanoid-built Titan with a massive Titan-class power fist and a multibarreled cannon.
Below us was the Castigator Titan, the Father of all Titans, which was created during the Dark Age of Technology and was the only Titan piloted by artificial intelligence. It featured many differences from the Imperator-class Titans of today, such as the fact that its head was located in its torso.
The Castigator's head was located atop its body, similarly to that of a normal human, and it was currently looking up at the flagship in space. Its twin, triangular, burning green eyes glowed fiercely, as if it were scanning the Photep.
"Well, Magnus, it has come time to speak with the Castigator Titan. Let us go down to the surface," I said to him while drawing upon my power to quickly teleport the two of us before the Castigator Titan.
In a quick flash of gold, we were both in the air in front of the Castigator Titan. Hopefully, this negotiation would go well and it would consider joining us.
-To Be Continued...
(A/N: Meant to use the chapter as a timeskip recap and Castigator Titan meetings, but somehow it turned into a lore dump. Lmk if something is seriously wrong with the lore I made up, especially the whole reason I came up with for the Emperor being restricted by the bargain.
Next chapter should go over the Castigator and what happened during the timeskip.
Feel like someone might question why Magnus or anyone else didn't notice the increased damage on the MC. It's because he is in psychic form so he can easily hide any abnormalities, but if he was there physically they would notice instantly.)