Webway, Blackstone Fortress
Sanguinius
189.M32
The time he had long awaited had finally arrived. A reunion with one of his brothers, or rather, loyal brothers, with whom he had shed his blood in defence of Terra and the Imperium.
Jaghatai may not have been the closest of his brothers, but he and Sanguinius got along very well. They shared similar approaches to many matters and had fought alongside each other many times. Above all, however, they both held each other in high esteem and were loyal to their father, the Emperor.
Although the latter might not have been entirely true for the Primarch of the IX Legion, who, with time and a different perspective, was only now realising what the Imperium of Man was and how different it was from what he had imagined in his mind during the Great Crusade.
His brother, however, was likely still completely loyal to the Imperium and humanity. Therefore, Sanguinius dreaded this meeting as much as he looked forward to it.
Now, however, as he held him in his embrace, only the sincere joy of reunion remained, for among the Primarchs, none valued their brotherly bond more than he did, and none sought to foster it more.
Their brotherly embrace not only expressed happiness at their reunion but also encompassed all the emotions tied to their brothers' betrayal and what had happened afterward.
Releasing his brother, the Primarch of the Blood Angels looked at Jagathai carefully, searching for signs of wounds or other irregularities.
He saw nothing serious, but he could see his brother watching him intently, taking in his slightly different appearance.
"You probably have many questions, and I promise I will answer them," he said. Then he glanced at Varok and the Krorks gathering around him in increasing numbers and ordered, "Varok, secure the station, then contact Mind. I want it transferred to Ilmarin as soon as possible."
Old Krork placed a fist to his armoured chest and, with a nod, began shouting orders, and the large forms of Krorks moved to carry them out, faster than their size would have seemed possible.
A moment later, the brothers were left alone in the hall. Sanguinius turned back to the White Scars Primarch. "Perhaps we should speak on my flagship?" he suggested, to which Jaghatai nodded.
"I think that's a good idea, brother. We do indeed have much to discuss. Lead the way," the other replied.
"It will be quicker if I teleport us there, so don't be surprised," Sanguinius warned, then grabbed Khan by the shoulder, and a moment later they found themselves in his private chambers on Angel Pride.
Jaghatai looked around the room in surprise, probably not expecting something like this. Sanguinius had never been a typical psyker, despite his talent.
"Let's sit," he suggested, leading the other Primarch to the armchairs surrounding a small table containing Aeldari beverages prepared by Orain.
Once they were seated and he poured the alcohol, Jaghatai watched for a moment, took a sip, and then sighed contentedly. "Pretty good. Better than anything I've had in ages. What sector is it from?"
Sanguinius shook his head slightly. "It's an Eldar drink... prepared by a friend."
If his brother was surprised, he didn't show it; on the other hand, according to Sanguinius, he was always the most composed of the Primarchs.
A short silence fell between them, broken only by sips of alcohol.
"So, since when have you been friends with the Eldar or commanding intelligent Orks?" Khan asked, looking at him over the top of his goblet.
Sanguinius raised a slight eyebrow, a smirk playing on his lips. "I expected you'd be rather curious as to how I'm alive and standing here before you, but we can start from the end."
"First of all, you must know that over a thousand years have passed since the betrayal of our brothers and the war that tore the Imperium apart."
The Primarch of the White Scars' eyes widened, for he certainly hadn't expected his hunt to last so long. "A whole millennium?" he asked quietly, his voice thick with disbelief.
Sangunius nodded and continued, "The Imperium isn't what it once was either. Guilliman is wounded and held in stasis; the rest of our brothers are gone. The Imperium is a slowly rotting corpse, worshipping our half-dead father as God-Emperor."
Khan stared at him with disbelief on his face, which a moment later turned to anger. But when he expected Jaghatai to explode in fury, he took a deep breath, instantly calming himself.
"Since you know all this, brother, why haven't you returned?" he asked, his voice calm, though the tension was palpable. "There is no one better suited to lead the Imperium now that our father cannot."
Sanguinius looked his brother in the eye and sighed, replying, "Because I'm no longer blind and no longer believe in our father's vision. If the Imperium is supposed to be this ascension of humanity, then it's truly a bad joke. It treats its people little better than chaos and xenos, and sometimes even worse."
"Perhaps now, but during the Great Crusade, it wasn't. We had a vision," Khan replied heatedly, but Sanguinius only shook his head.
"You don't believe it yourself, brother," he said, taking a sip of Eldar liquor. "We murdered all who disagreed with us. The people toiled and died, lured by false hope, and the Mechanicus..." He drew in an angry breath.
"The damned Mechanicus did whatever they wanted, with our father's permission. Fucking inhuman cyborgs. Representing the worst of our race. WE liberated the planet and its inhabitants, only for THEM to turn them into food or servitors... FUCKING MONSTERS!"
Jaghatai stared at him silently, clearly shocked by his outburst, then sighed, "I didn't know you hated them so much. I didn't expect this, not from you. I always thought you were the perfect Primarch, and I saw you as the Warmaster."
"Don't get me wrong," he added quickly, "Horus carried out his duties truly well, and we all respected him, but he lacked will, the same will you possess in abundance. You always represented the best of humanity."
"I am not, and I was not, perfect..." Sanguinius interrupted, and Khan raised a hand.
"I'm not saying you are. But that's exactly what I'm talking about, your unwavering will. I know about Black Wrath and Crimson Thirst. Every day, every moment, you fought to become as close to your ideal as possible, and no one came closer. In this grim and brutal universe, that requires inhuman willpower and sheer determination. I've always admired you for that."
Sanguinus had to admit to himself that he felt truly touched by his brother's words. He hadn't suspected his brother thought of him that way, though he should have expected it. Jaghatai had always been quiet and observant.
"Besides, even if I wanted to, I can't return to the material world," he said after a short moment. "I have no body, and what you see is a manifestation of my soul. I am confined to the Immaterium and the Webway."
Hearing this, Jaghatai began rubbing his head, probably realising that this was only the beginning of absurd information.
"Start from the beginning, brother. I feel this is all more complicated than I thought," said the Primarch of the White Scars, then took a large swig of alcohol.
So Sangunius began his story from the beginning, and his brother listened calmly—or rather, he wanted to, as only a few minutes passed before he interrupted.
"One moment, let me just get this straight. You mean to tell me, somehow your soul regenerated itself in the Warp, you looked into the Well of Eternity, which holds both the past and the future, and the Old Ones..."
"He remembered you mentioning them to me during one of our conversations. According to the Aeldari, they were supposed to be their creators, gods even, who lost some ancient war and were never heard from again... Apparently, until now."
Sanguinius nodded, then added, "That's right, except that Prophet, Mind, and Seeker are merely fragments of once more powerful beings. Imagine an entire race like our father, and they still surpassed him in most respects, except perhaps in power."
"But all this knowledge, the Aeldari and Krorks, the hidden fortress in the Webway, is too much, Sanguinius. You not only collaborate with the xenos, you now command them."
"Moreover, these beings fought in a war that, according to you, was so terrible that it created three of the four chaos gods. This all goes against everything we fought for," Khan whispered, probably feeling overwhelmed.
Sanguinius looked at him with understanding but also gratitude. Jaghatai still took it better than any of his brothers. Lion and Leman would have attacked him long ago, calling him a traitor and a heretic. However, the Primarch of the 5th Legion always maintained an open, calm mind.
"The truth is," Sanguinius said after a moment, "that we are doomed unless we find a way to unite. Humanity has no chance of defeating Chaos, for it feeds it constantly, every day. Not to mention that Chaos is not the only threat. There are others, which we will discuss later."
"At this moment, we cannot be certain whether the Emperor is not also a threat or whether he will become one when his body dies. When his soul, in the Immaterium, strengthened by the prayers and faith of trillions of people and the daily sacrifices of thousands of psykers, is freed from the chains that hold it." After these words, both fell silent, fully aware of how true they were.
Sighing, Khan rubbed his tired eyes and said in a voice that expressed pure human exhaustion, "From a certain point during the Great Crusade, I had doubts about it and our father's plans in many respects."
Sanguinius looked at him, indignant, but didn't interrupt.
"With each new 'reclaimed' planet, each new battle won, I began to wonder if we were becoming what we were meant to fight. What I was meant to fight... tyrants."
"Instead of bringing light to humanity, we brought fire, destruction, and the chains of enslavement. But what was the alternative? There was none." Jaghatai laughed darkly, without even the slightest hint of humour.
"That's the worst, isn't it, brother. The Imperium may be terrible, but there's truly no better alternative. Not when we were surrounded on all sides by our enemies..." Suddenly, his brother's black eyes settled on him.
"Perhaps there is another path now... Tell me, what are you planning? What is your plan to fight the Ruinous Powers, the Drukhari, the Orks, and those other threats you mentioned? And where does humanity fit into these plans?"
A small smile of victory crept across Sanguinius's lips. Khan might not be convinced yet, but at least he agreed to listen.
So Sanguinius took a few seconds to gather his thoughts, during which his primal mind ran through hundreds, even thousands, of possible scenarios before finally settling on the simplest one: straightforward honesty.
"The plan is very simple. I intend to become a god," he said, his voice more confident than he actually felt.
Jaghatai simply stared at him. "A god?" he asked after a moment, incredulous. "You mean a god like the Ruinous Powers? Or perhaps like those Old Ones? Or perhaps those worshipped by the Eldar?"
Sanguinius shook his head slightly. "No, I don't intend to become one of the gods of the Immaterium, essentially incredibly powerful aspects of certain forces. Nor do I intend to become one of the gods of the Immaterium, like the C'tan, also known as the gods of matter. I intend to become a true God. Almighty. Omniscient, indestructible, and eternal. God of both the Matter and the Immaterium."
Jaghatai suddenly jumped to his feet and began pacing nervously, an unusually explosive reaction for him.
"How?" he rasped out a single word.
"As I told you, right now, I only have a soul, an incredibly powerful soul, and no body. But we have a plan to create one. An indestructible, immortal container," he began to explain, then with a single thought, he allowed his armour to dissolve, revealing his torso.
"We've practically already taken the first step," he added, and Jaghatai's eyes widened as they rested on the shard of living, liquid metal, the diameter of a Primarch's fist, located in the centre of Sanguinius's chest.
The Primarch of the White Scars' eyes shot upward, and he looked seriously into the Great Angel's eyes. "What is it, brother? What have you done?"
"You already know of the Black Rage that persecuted me and my sons, and now I will reveal its origins to you." Sanguinius began, taking a deep breath and placing his hand on one of the Shards of Mag'ladroth lodged in his chest.
"The ancient Necron race I mentioned earlier, after defeating the Old Ones, turned on their C'tan masters, exploiting their war-induced weakness, shattering them into Shards, which they hid or began using as a source of power or weapons of mass destruction."
"Wait a moment, Sanguinius, do you want to tell me...?" Jaghatai tried to interject, but he raised a hand, cutting him off mid-sentence.
"Let me finish, brother. As I was saying. The most powerful of the C'tan was Mag'ladroth, a Void Dragon wielding the terrible power of the Void, which erased everything. One of that C'tan's Shards was imprisoned beneath the surface of Mars."
Jaghatai stopped and looked at Sanguinius in shock, as if understanding the full meaning of his words.
"Are you telling me that Omisaias of that accursed Mechanicus actually exists and is a damned god of xeno machines at that? And Father didn't know it?"
"Oh, no. He knew perfectly well. After all, in the 2nd Millennium, he fought him and imprisoned him again," he denied, igniting even greater anger in his brother's eyes.
"That fool," Jaghatai growled. "And he let the Mechanicus do whatever they wanted... But what does this Void Dragon have to do with Black Rage? "Just please don't say it's also from that C'tan?"
Sanguinius smiled faintly, but it was rather wry. "You're right. I don't know how, but somehow I was tainted by Mag'ladroth's power as an infant, and his will, in the fury of betrayal and his imprisonment for tens of millions of years, manifests as Black Rage."
Jaghatai sat in silence after these words, trying to process everything he had just heard. A good few minutes passed before he spoke again, asking.
"But what about that fragment in your chest? I've already guessed it belongs to one of the C'tan."
Sanguinius nodded. "Yes, it's one of Mag'ladroth's smaller Shards, which I've been trying to gain control of for several years. Fragment by fragment, I will unite him into a whole and destroy his self, taking control of his strength and the aspect of his power, the Eternal and Infinite Void, which consumes even Chaos. This will be a major step towards my ascension into God."
Jaghatai looked at him sceptically. "I have two problems with this," he said. "First: Are you sure you can overcome his will? After all, he is a powerful being. And second: do you truly intend to become a machine?"
"As for the first, that is why I am doing this one shard at a time, slowly gaining control over his powers. And as for the second question, when I fully take over his body, made of living metal, while still possessing my now even more powerful soul, I will be able to shape the matter of my body at will. Into living tissue as well as metal. "Just as I'm doing with my soul now," Sanguinius explained, already anticipating this type of question.
He didn't know what Jaghatai would say at that moment, as Varok's voice came over the communicator. "Lord Sanguinius. We've secured the Fortress, and Orain and the Master Mind are preparing it for relocation."
"Understood. Let the Angel's Pride also head to Ilmarin," he replied, then hung up.
"So, what exactly do you need this Blackstone Fortress for? What do you intend to use it for?" his brother asked, clearly intrigued.
Sanguinius glanced at him with a smile, knowing he'd be surprised by the answer. "I don't want to use it for destruction, but for creation. The Necrons used it to shatter Mag'ladroth. It and its sister fortresses will serve me to connect more Shards to my soul."
"You're mad." But I think there's some hope for this cursed galaxy in this madness," his brother sighed.
Sanguinius laughed loudly. "Come, we have much to do… A long-delayed meeting with my sons awaits."