She didn't know for how long she had been assembling this puzzle. Alesia didn't become fully aware until she was half-way done with this odd, spherical puzzle and had slotted in the last piece she could find. Her spine snapped straight and she looked around for the remaining puzzle pieces…only to see the space around her brighten into a scene from her first life.
She was seeing this as though she were an invisible bystander, but she knew how this memory would play out. It was Easter Sunday in the year 2002, and she was back in her paternal grandmother's modest home. The first iteration of herself, a shy girl with curly blonde hair and wearing a pastel green dress, had returned with her family from Easter Mass and she, her then brother, and their cousin were finally allowed to pillage their baskets. Each of them had gotten a Duel Monsters pre-con deck along with some booster packs. This had been the day she pulled all of the Exodia pieces in one go and built the deck that would later see her through three world tournaments.
However, before she'd earn her title as champion, her brother and cousin deliberately excluded her from playing with them after the Easter Egg hunt. The two boys had immediately sat down in the sun room and started dueling.
"Whoever wins gets to duel me!" The child her had said and both boys cringed.
"Yeah right," her brother scoffed. "No on wants to play with a retard."
"Yeah, retard!" Their cousin agreed. "Go away!"
Her past self had burst into tears and retreated into the guest room with her cards, and Alesia only realized then that none of the adults cared to stop the boys' cruelty. The scene then changed to a local tournament hosted by a big chain book store, and her past self gradually won her way to the top and ultimately won first place that day while her brother and cousin lost on their first duels.
"Hey, sis! Let's duel when we get home," her then brother had said on the way home.
"Why? I thought you didn't play with retards like me," she had shut him down without hesitation. Their parents tried to come to her brother's defense, but for the first time in that life she stood firm in her stance.
And Alesia felt old, pent up anger rise up.
"Why didn't you care before?" She shouted, knowing they couldn't hear her since these were only memories and not real. "Why didn't you care when they kept pushing me out and calling me names?"
Tears streamed down her face and she sobbed at all of the hurt she'd buried under a facade.
"We didn't want to acknowledge reality," her then father's voice said, and she realized he and her then mother were looking at her. Her past self and her brother were gone. "We had no idea how to parent you two."
"Did that lack of knowledge make you belittle me too?" She asked them and echos of past memories filled the silence around them. Screams asking why she just couldn't be normal, why she couldn't understand basic norms. "Hell, why am I talking to memories? It's not like you two can even own up to the past now that you're dead."
"No, but we can still apologize for everything we put you through," her then mother stepped forward and gently touched her hand. It was then Alesia saw the ethereal aura outlining their forms. They were not mere memories. Her then mother sighed and couldn't meet her eyes. "I know I'm the last person you'd want to hear any words from, and no amount of remorse can ever make up for the time I missed."
"You left us," Alesia whispered and memories of her past life wondering around their old home, wondering if she'd ever see her mother again.
"I did, and I regret the time I missed with you and your brother."
"I might as well have not had a family growing up!" She lashed out, letting out all of the anger and resentment she had stored for years. "I had no one to teach me anything back then! I didn't get any help for my disability until I was an adult! Do you know how lonely it was growing up unable to connect with your peers? To not have any close friends just because your brain couldn't register social cues and you unknowingly pushed people away? Is it any wonder why I stopped speaking to anyone in school? The only friends I made back then were at the game store, and later over the internet."
New memories played out. From sitting at the remote, quiet spot drawing in her sketch book during recess, all of her classmates just avoiding her, to her walking through the door of her favorite hang out and greeting her older friends that she made through playing various games. When she graduated high school, she started streaming her play throughs in video games and the digital format of Duel Monsters, and gradually earned the title of Queen of Games before she started animation projects. Her parents had tears streaming down their faces as memories of her meeting her internet friends in real life and finding her own strength as an adult living away from her birth family. They were noticeably not there in those memories.
"I was always the outsider in our family. Always expected to be the bigger person and let bygones be bygones. The retard didn't have a place among you, so I had to find and make my own family." She saw them pull puzzle pieces she knew wouldn't fit in the half-assembled sphere, but they tried to slot them in anyway only for their pieces to disappear into dust. "Neither of you have even apologized nor acknowledge all the hurt you've inflicted. I can't let things go anymore, not after the lives I've lived. I can't chase the ghosts of parents that were never there to begin with."
"Anya…" her then mother spoke her old name. She hadn't heard that name in a long time.
"Anya died a long time ago," she said with finality. "Only ashes remain of that life."
Her then parents faded away, her then mother sobbing until she was gone. Leaving her in a crowded cathedral, decorated for a memorial. Her memorial judging by the portrait of her past self on display next to the pulpit.
She spun around, amazed so many people were here. Not a single seat was left open and many more were standing along the walls. Alesia was speechless. Did she leave that much of an impact in her life? Was she that loved?
Then someone familiar took the stand to speak. It was one of her best friends from her early days on YouTube. They had bonded over Warhammer 40K and remained fast friends for nearly twelve years until her early demise. One by one, every single one of her close friends made their speeches, spoke of the friendship they had with her and the impact she had left on them all. Jokes were made, memories visited and shared. Alesia had no idea they truly cared for her to that extent.
"Hey, girlfriend," the first of her friends approached her, just like her former parents had. They held up a puzzle piece and placed it in the sphere she held while saying, "Maybe this time around, you can learn to love yourself."
"Love myself?" She asked confused by their words.
"You never put yourself first," another friend came forward and fit another piece into the puzzle. "You always put your wants at the bottom of the priority list."
She really couldn't argue with that; she couldn't recall the last time she'd done something she wanted to do in a group setting. She had always been afraid to upset anyone with her wants after the years of neglect from her then family.
Each of her friends came up and essentially wished her a better life and their wishes for her to be happy. One by one, they placed their piece in the puzzle and shared their memories with her, allowing her to see herself from their perspective and understand just how much they had cared about her in life.
The walls of the cathedral began to gradually disappear until there was only six feet of stone left. By then, the place was empty and quiet. The sphere in her hands was nearly complete; one piece was left to find.
"You had some damn good friends in that life," a familiar voice said behind her. She spun around to see a middle aged man dressed in the uniform of a decorated Commissar and gently smiling at her. "Hello, Alesia."
"Dad!" She cried out and tackled him in a massive hug while not dropping the puzzle.
"Whoa! Don't drop your puzzle!" He chuckled while returning the embrace and rubbed her back.
"I-I saw you die," she sobbed into his chest. "A-Angron…Ghazghkull declared a Wagh on him to avenge you."
"Shhh…I'm here now, little one." He just held her, letting her cry her heart out until she finally calmed down. "I'm glad you didn't get snatched up by the Adeptus Sororitas. They would have destroyed your beautiful soul."
"I would've been a bad fit for them," she smiled, tears still streaming down her face. "Branded a heretic and sent to the Penal Legions for assisting the Salamanders in evacuating and protecting civilians."
"Sadly, they would've done that, but I'm glad they passed you up."
The memory of Sebastian Yarrick adopting her from the orphanage played out. Alesia, a small child then, had been watching her fellow orphans be adopted or shipped out one by one, while she was left behind. She had deliberately made herself a bad candidate for the Sororitas to consider, but the Militarum also believed her to be a bad fit for the army as well as a result. Civilians looking for a new member to add to their family didn't even notice her. Yet, a passing Commissar observed her that day, and noticed her behavior as an act to get her friends lined up for better lives.
A younger Sebastian approached the past Alesia from behind her, holding her adoption papers.
"Well, little one," he said, startling her from her stupor on the steps of the orphanage. "You've made certain your comrades left before you."
"They all deserve a chance, sir," she had said meekly and shy. He descended down the steps and turned to look her in the eye.
"Come along, now," he offered her his hand. "It's a long way home from here."
That day had been the beginning to her new life in becoming a Commissar. She had climbed to the top of her class and gained the admiration of her classmates just by being herself. After graduation, her reputation supposedly rivaled that of Ciaphus Cain through her prioritizing the lives of her troops and not sacrificing them for the sake of glory.
"Everyone I spoke to was calling you the next Hero of the Imperium," Sebastian said, looking her in the eye then. "Even other Commissars were beginning to emulate your leadership style before you made the ultimate sacrifice."
"The daemon Primarch….who was he?" She asked, remembering that day clearly.
"You know who he was. You've been doing your damnedest to keep him from falling again."
"Lorgar," she admitted, but was confused. "I thought he was holed up in the Eye of Terror then?"
"You got his attention from surviving the Labyrinth. Apparently, he found out that his brother, Magnus, had been hiding you from the Ruinous Powers your entire life."
"Magnus?" Now she was more confused. How did that version of Magnus know of her and why did her hide her?
It was then that Sebastian placed his piece of the puzzle in and stepped back.
"I'm proud of the woman you became then, and I'm proud of the woman you are now," he said, fading away. "Now go confront the past fully."
Once he'd fully faded away, Alesia exited the empty cathedral and came face to face with Magnus. While it wasn't the Magnus she grew up with in this life, as he was taller and sported his daemon form, she recognized him none the less.
"Sister," he greeted her, his eyes showing years of weariness and regret.
"Magnus," she acknowledged him.
"You have questions, and I shall answer them."
She fell silent for a long moment before she finally said, "How did this all begin?"
"You'll need to be more specific, sister."
"How did you find me in my second life? Why go through the trouble to hide me?"
"Ah, now we're getting somewhere." A memory not her own began to play out around them. "I noticed your soul in the Warp by chance, yet nothing else had noticed you yet. When I investigated the ancient ship I had been led to by your light, I found you freshly born and in your mother's cold embrace. As soon as I held you, I knew you were my sister, and that your light was entirely unique.
"You were so tiny in my hands…I was afraid I would accidentally hurt you. However, I knew I had to act fast to protect you, my only innocent sibling in this galaxy. I knew I had to hide you fast, from my enslavers and from the Inquisition whom were hunting down anyone suspected to be a Sensei like yourself. So, I casted multiple spells to hide your light, to have no one notice your semblance to our father, and to protect you from danger."
The memory played out, even showing him taking up a disguise to leave her at the orphanage late at night, making sure she was bundled up enough to stay warm, and with a note asking the caretakers to raise her well.
"Did you give me my name or did the caretakers?"
"Your mother did. I was able to converse with her soul before she fully passed on, and she gave you the name in memory of a dear friend that was practically a sister to her.
"Now look at you! First, you became a beloved Commissar protecting the Imperium, caring for the people more than the glory of an honorable death for the Corpse Emperor. And now, after you made your wish, you've prevented the Horus Heresy just by being mine and our siblings' beloved sister. You unknowingly brought about Erebus's downfall and took him out of the equation."
"Wait, Erebus is dead? When did this happen?"
"You should ask him yourself." He said, refusing to elaborate further. "As it is, there's one more person that needs to speak to you."
He gestured behind her, and Alesia turned around to see…herself. Her first life was staring at her, holding the Millennium Puzzle of all things. Alesia approached her past and a pedestal with a round indention appeared next to the blonde woman. She placed the sphere on the pedestal and looked her past self in the eye.
"Our brothers have been worried sick," Anya said, holding out the golden puzzle to her.
Alesia held the Millennium Puzzle and was bombarded by memories of her current life from the eyes of her current family. Every single one of her siblings held fond memories of her, even Mortarion the stand off Primarch had treasured experiences with her.
"I'm so sorry, sister," she heard Lorgar practically whisper in her ear. "I should never have pushed you away."
"They're waiting for you," Anya continued as more of her siblings' wish to see her awake filled the silence, but something told Alesia that this wasn't her past self now. Not entirely at least.
"Who are you?" She asked just as another pedestal appeared next to the first one.
"I am you, and you are me."
"Girl, don't go all mysterious Jedi master Yoda wannabe on me," she deadpanned in response. "The last person to do that got a well deserved whack to the head!"
"I am the you that made the wish to change history, but I couldn't merge with you upon our rebirth." Anya explained. "I unintentionally imprinted my full memories upon you, and for that I am sorry. While you suffered the consequences of my actions, I began to change, evolve into something more than human. It got to the point where our two souls could no longer coexist in the same body. Our family thinks our connection to the Warp was severed, but in reality they witnessed the birth of a god."
"A Warp god? But how?"
"Have you wondered why you couldn't find our old patron gods in our second life? Why there were no human pantheons left? The fact that we had broken the cycle of reincarnation in the truest sense? Upon the brink of the Dark Age of Technology, they put their faith into you, hoping your light would one day guide humanity to a better future, just as the shamans of old hoped to protect our people by creating our father's soul.
"However, our supernatural friends were playing an even longer game than the shamans. Everything came to fruition when we made the wish and completely broke out of the cycle, resulting in two iterations of the same soul. One human, a pure beacon of light and ready to serve humanity once again, and the other the culmination of every hope and dream of humanity and the universe's desire to regain balance.
"I am what the universe needs; a caretaker of the Warp, a protector of souls. You are my mortal counterpart and this universe's last chance to survive."
Alesia's head spun with this revelation. She had so many questions, but the entity didn't give her the time to ask any.
"Our family is waiting for you to wake up," she gestured to the pedestal. "You reassembled half of yourself while they put the rest of you back together."
Without thinking, she placed the Millennium Puzzle on the pedestal.