On the far side of Earth, there was an ancient man sitting at a desk. He was nearly 10,000 years old. He has gone by many names and titles in that time. In an alternate time, one day he would have simply gone by The Emperor, but that was not to be. Not anymore.

He has experienced history as it happened. He helped create the first writing system, he was there when the first pyramids were built, and there again when they made even larger ones. He saw a man who had come to wrongly be viewed as the son of God get crucified. He had experienced and guided history all this time. And now, here he was in front of one of the most advanced pieces of technology on the planet, The Tevatron Particle Accelerator, learning the secrets of the universe.

And he was bored. For weeks they had been running the same experiment and fine-tuning it, for weeks he had been watching the same monitor and slightly changing readings. However, that changed in a heartbeat. He jumped on his desk, slamming his knees into the bottom and sending pens and papers flying. Something happened in the warp, something had left it and was on Earth.

Looking around, his colleagues were all looking at him. "Jesus Jim, you fall asleep at your desk again or something? You need to start sleeping more man."

Nodding his head and he looked at the clock on his desk before rubbing his face to give the illusion that he had dozed off before responding. "Yeah, yeah I know. I think I'm going to head out and get some rest at home. Tell Dr. Richards, I got sick or something and I'll get you a case of beer after work next week. I'll see you all Tuesday." Getting up and going to leave the facility while the other technicians and scientists bid him farewell, his attention was split.

Part of him was focused on leaving and getting where he could not be seen but the majority of his attention was focused on the warp. For a moment he looked around, ignoring the predators that called this place of unreality home. In the distance, his gaze lingered on 4 points of collision energy. Red, green, blue and finally though much smaller but more formed, pink. He had slowly watched as they grew and condensed over the years. It worried him about what might happen when they finally woke. Or formed in the latest case. He knew it was a matter of when not if and he had to prepare humanity for when that happened.

After he had exited the facility he currently worked at, he quickly made his way to somewhere cameras could not see before fully bringing himself into the warp. He brought his attention from the spots to what he had come to call The Oversoul, a collection of every human soul that had died untainted by the warp which all slowly merged with his own and gave him more strength. Carefully looking it over for a time, he determined that the warp anomaly had not harmed it or anyone within it in any way.

Looking away from the oversoul, he started looking for where the breach had happened in reality. There, upper Scotland, in the Highlands. He thought back to the last time he was in that area. Sure he had been all over Europe in the last century due to the wars but had not been in that area of Scotland in almost a 1000 years. He had heard of some up-and-coming psykers wanting to make a school to teach others to control their powers. He had visited under the name of Merlin to see for himself and give pointers but left it at that. He never did go back to see if they ever followed through on the idea.

He 'moved' to the area and was able to make out individual souls of the people, though his attention was solely focused on one, or well 3 combined into 1. He 'saw' the main soul, a leech off of it but more importantly, he saw his own. Or an infinitesimal small fragment of his. It was unmistakable his very own but also different, far more powerful and ancient. This was not something that had ever been encountered before. Even with all his talks with the Aeldari 'gods' they had never spoken of something like this.

Moving forward to examine it better, he was mildly surprised to bump into a psychic barrier. While it was not strong, by his standards at least, the barrier was still impressive. He examined the barrier for a moment. It seemed to act as a repellent for warp entities and not allowing anything from the warp to appear in that area, like a weak bubble of reality. He knew that he could bust through it with very little effort, He decided not to and just appeared near it back in the real world.

Looking around, the man who would have one day been Emperor was surprised by what he saw. He expected a modern city or village but seemed to step right into the 1500s. He didn't see anyone around, though figured they were in bed due to it being nighttime. Looking up, his eyes went wide. There in the distance was a huge Castle, surrounded by the same barrier he had seen in the warp. And from it, he could feel his soul fragment. Quickly he set off, wanting answers as to why it existed.

As he was walking to the castle, he began to feel something. Like power was being fed directly to him. He knew what it was, he had seen this happen hundreds of times in the warp. He was receiving belief. He had seen it before, belief slowly coalescing into warp beings that were viewed as gods. He had never thought it would happen to himself, he was no god. He knew there were no gods. This was different though, This was something that believed with his entire body and soul that He, the guardian of humanity, was a divine being. They had an absolute, unshakeable faith that He was a god.

Hiding his presence in both the warp and reality, he sped up. He had to know what this was. Who was this person that put such an absolute faith and belief in him, why did they have a piece of his soul? Before long he was at the castle and then began to feel his way towards the fragment. Before long he had come to what looked like a 17th-century Hospital.

He looked and saw something completely unexpected. There, between two of the beds, on the floor, was what appeared to be a cyborg wearing a red cloak or robe. It seemed to be off or asleep right now, he couldn't tell. But that did not stop him from knowing just what this was and where or when it may have come from.

He had looked into the future many times over the years but aside from some minor pieces of the future. His visions always ended up returning to the same vision. He was sitting in a single room, large golden warriors mining the walls and massive kilometer-high doors at the end. Moving all around working on various bits of machinery were people just like the one laying on the ground. While not an exact replica, it was clear that they were of the same group or faction. While he wasn't sure how far into the future that was, he knew it was a very very far-off time.

Extending his own soul in the warp to the fragment, the guardian of humanity would try to commune with the fragment, hoping to know why it was there and what caused the man to be sent back, though this would not happen. As soon as the parts 'touched' it began to use his power, attacking the leach and after just a second removing it entirely and casting it back into the warp. Acting quickly, he snatched the fragment to examine some time in the future. The fragment of his own soul then turned back to the main soul and set against it, almost as if it was guarding it, in a way it was. And then back in the real world, the man from the future woke up once more, causing the never-to be Emperor to move back to the door and sit there and watch, wanting to know what he would do before intervention.

The feeling of belief he was getting increased immensely once the man was conscious. The man believed wholeheartedly, with every fiber of his being, that the guardian was his god. There was no question about that. Even if he didn't know his god was right outside the door.

He watched as the man moved to a nearby door and knocked. He watched as he entered then exited the room with an older man and woman before they began to talk. So he did what he always had and listened. He learned the name of the castle, Hogwarts, and that it was a school. So the 4 from that 1000 years ago did do it.

He listened as the man, who he now knew as Magos Vitaetus, explained why he replaced his body. It was horrific to see what he had done to himself and the reasoning behind it was concerning. This was a full religion. However, it was not all bad. If he could replace a few limbs and eyes, what else could he make? If this Magos could share the technology, medical technology would never be the same. Amputations could be replaced, the blind could see, the crippled could walk once more. It was glorious what could be done. But at the same time, it could and most likely would be used for war. He could clearly see at least 3 weapons on the Magos. He came from the far future, he could have weapons able to destroy the entire planet, not then at least massively destructive ones.

Putting that on the backburner to think about more later, he listened as the Magos talked about an Imperium headed by someone simply known as The God-Emperor. A civilization that had lasted for 10,000 years. An empire spanning a million worlds and all giving their faith to their immortal protector, known to Vitaetus and his group as The Omnissiah.

He wanted to know more but kept watching. He saw the Magos run to a suit of armour and rip it apart before welding the chest plate to his back while praying. He could hear it. The prayer was clear to the humanities guardian, asking for the machine to be appeased and calm, asking for it to not explode. This cemented something that worried the guardian, he is, or was or will be Vitaetus Omnissiah, or at least that is what Vitaetus entirely believed. An entire civilization of planets spanning the galaxy all giving their faith and worship to him. This was concerning also, yet another thing to talk to Vitaetus about, and very carefully at that. He was ending up with more questions than answers.

The topic of conversation finally went to the current date. Vitaetus said he was from almost 40,000 years in the future and of course the headmaster told Magos Vitaetus when and where he really was. Naturally, he was not believed but once he looked at the stars. After he did, he simply fell to the ground, many metal limbs splayed out around him. He looked broken, lost, abandoned. He watched as Dumbledore approached Vitaetus before quickly being snatched by the throat and lifted into the air by a huge metal claw.

He was going to step in and stop the headmaster from being killed but 2 things Vitaetus said froze him. The Imperium had ten quadrillion souls all devoted to him. That was unimaginable. Just how powerful was his future self? If he could somehow merge that fragment of the future soul, it could increase his current power immensely. Maybe he could even stop the 4 in the warp from coming into being. But the other, equally important thing was what he said. He held every piece of knowledge ever collected by his group. 10,000 or more years of knowledge, the ability to build practically anything.

Dropping the old man, Vitaetus then bent to the ground and burned something into it before praying there. The guardian listened, wanting to hear it. He was begging for a reason for being in the past. If the priest was asking for a reason, the guardian felt he should give one. He was the one being asked after all, even with his distaste for religion due to all of its faults and effects on humanity he should answer. If not to comfort the cyborg, then would it not be better for the advanced but dangerous technology to be used for good by him? To advance humanity to new heights, and earlier than he had before?

Stepping forward and revealing himself, The man who would have been Emperor, Vitaetus' Omnissiah spoke for the first time since arriving. "I too would like an answer to that and more questions. Namely what happened in the future that causes me to only see a single image of a room and why you, Magos Cogblade, have a piece of my soul."

He watches Vitaetus turn and look at him, the green glowing eyes are odd in this modern world. The guardian could feel Vitaetus reach out with his own soul. So, the priest was a Psyker as well? A powerful combination of metal and mind. As he felt Vitaetus reach his own soul, he saw the priest reel back in shock and fall to the ground, bowing before him.

Hey everyone, I wanted to apologies for not updating in a while. The story isn't dead, I just got burnt out for a while but am slowly getting back into it. I will keep posting chapters, sometimes longer in-between, sometimes shorter but i will one day finish this story. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed. As always, please give your feedback and enjoy.