Gaia

For the first time in history, a pair of eyes opened up. It's awakening caused all the living creatures on Earth to freeze in confusion. The aura of it's presence rippled through the galaxy, but the further away the descendants of Earth were the less likely they were able to feel it. Then the children of Earth returned to their business, completely confused by what they had felt.

It looked through the influx of information it received that would have turned even the most intelligent humans, except for possibly the Emperor of Mankind, as if it was light read. What they learned brought them great joy and sadness. It learned of the wonderful achievements of its children, and the horrifying mistakes made.

As it started to compare what it had learned to what its other knowledge, it was surprised by the events of this timeline.

In many timelines, it was common for a particular species of its children, humanity, to go beyond its embrace and journey into the stars. Humanity would spread across the stars and colonize multiple planets, but all beginnings had an end before something brought about humanity's extinction. The number of timelines humanity expanding beyond Earth decreasing with the more territory humanity claimed until only a few timelines where humanity had colonized more than a thousand worlds.

So, it came to a shock to find that not only humanity had colonized more than a million worlds, but beyond the Milky Way Galaxy.

"Why are you so focused on humanity, sister?" asked a voice that it was intimately familiar with. "I thought you would have paid more attention your other descendants that humanity had brought with them. After all, humans are strictly under my domain."

"Alaya," it addressed it's sister, "What humanity achieved in this timeline was just too shocking."

"Indeed, Gaia," Alaya nodded. "I cannot disagree with you there. I had the same reaction when I first awoke."

"I could imagine that." Gaia rolled her eyes. "Did my awoken have something to do with you?"

"That's right. My strength might be tied to the number and collective strength of humanity, but a not-so significant proportion of my strength is also connected to state of Earth. And well–"

"–My body is a mess," Gaia interrupted dryly. "I suppose it was in your self-interest to awoken me." She shrugged nonchalantly. "I hope you are not thinking that I will be the only one to fix my body." Gaia shot her sister a suspicious look.

Alaya's shoulders drooped. "I had been hoping you wouldn't say that…" The collective unconsciousness of humanity sighed. "I cannot help you as my hands are currently tied with keeping the million plus worlds humanity has spread itself safe."

"I would appreciate if you were to have your Type to help me," said Gaia while glancing towards a particular half-living corpse sitting on what the Imperium of Man called the Golden Throne.

- O -

The God-Emperor's soul that was playing 4th dimensional chess with the Chaos God suddenly shuddered. He diverted a fraction of his attention, which would have resulted in the loss millions of human lives and several worlds had it not been for several of his past incarnations helping out. His face paled in the horrifying discovery that not just His Mother, but also His Mother's alter ego slash sister, aka His Aunt, had awoken.

If any other time, the Chaos Gods would have crackled in glee and taunted the God-Emperor, but that had been become old news when they had discovered the 4 dimensional chess they had played with just the Emperor had turned into 5th dimensional chess when Alaya had joined in the Great Game.

The discovery that another new player entering the game started to worry the Chaos Gods, as the possibility that more players such as the vanquished Aeldari Pantheon might appear out of nowhere started to trouble the Chaos Gods.

- O -

"Sorry, but my Type's past incarnations will be busy fixing the present Type and playing crucial roles in pushing back the numerous internal and external threats that humanity faces," Alaya shook her head.

Gaia groaned, but she had been expected that response.

"If you want something done, do it yourself," complained Gaia. "I'm going to have to borrow some of your Od, sister."

"Go ahead, just don't drain more of my Od from any particular planet."

Suddenly, if the Imperium had the ability to measure all the humans under its banner then it would have found that billions of humans across the galaxy had dropped dead as Gaia draw out their life-force. Yet, if this abnormality had been discovered, it would have been ignored as billions of humans died every second for countless reasons. The Imperium did not measure the state of humanity by the number of humans, but the number of planets.

What didn't go unnoticed to the Imperium was what the sacrificed human's Od was used for.

The inhabitants of Earth, now called Holy Terra by the majority of humanity, first noticed plants and animals, which had managed to adapt to the ruined environment that Terra had become, grow larger. People first brushed it off as their eyes playing tricks on them. They was nowhere the weeds and vermins that somehow survived on Holy Terra could change.

This notion quickly started to disappear as the black and dark colored plants and small animals evolved for Hive Worlds transformed, reverting to a state when Earth had been least polluted and ruined by humanity. It did not stop there, where there had been huge wastelands so polluted and economically not viable for the Imperium, began to change. Forests and oceans teeming with life appeared.

Soon the entire Earth started to regain the bright green lands, deep blue oceans and the white clouds that it had once possessed so that it could once more claim the reputation as the jewel of humanity.

"How was it?" asked Gaia as she turned to her sister. "I took special care to not damage the Hives that your children inhabit."

"You did well sister," Alaya beamed. "Now all we need to do is watch how the Imperium reacts!" She giggled while creating a sofa for the two sisters to sit down and a bucket of popcorns to munch on. "The finest reactions to watch would be the Lords of Terra. I bet that they will have a heart attack!"

"You are underestimating their sturdy minds. My body regaining some of its former splendour is nothing compared to the worst they have faced…"