Genesis sits in Guilliman's study, or at least the version of it his grandson remembers. They are still in Guilliman's mind. He is doing this to get a feel of the Primarch's thought processes and version. They are both out of their armor and wearing robes of Ultramar blue and sitting around a wooden table with a map of the world carved into it and having a meal of fruit and meat. It is a calm setting to talk about a nightmare.
"So, ot was all true," asks Roboute as he rolls a grape on between massive fingers, "The Imperium has truly become the nightmare that thing showed me."
"In all truth," replies Genesis, "Much of the Imperium was a nightmare before you were ever a part of it, Roboute. The difference in this nightmare is there was no restraining hand or guiding light. My son is a corpse on a throne while his soul moves through the Warp. The Primarchs are dead, injured, or missing. The former government was more interested in greed or religion than doing anything useful. Every choice they made damned worlds while making them feel like kings and queens. The Mechanicus hoarded knowledge but remained too stupid to use it because of their worship of a god they don't even know is just an old being trapped at the center of Mars. Enemies at every gate, old and new. All of it bathed in the influence of the Warp. This is what happens when you build an empire on lies, half-truths, and ignorance. Which my son certainly did."
Roboute is quiet for a few minutes. He eats and drinks a little more, enjoying the memory of how everything tastes. Genesis does the same, though; for him, the food is real, not a sense memory.
"But, if you knew all this," asks Roboute, meeting his grandfather's golden eyes, "Why did you not stop it? Why did you not come during the Great Crusade or Horus's rebellion? Why now?"
"Because, when I made humanity," says Genesis between bites, "I made you with unique souls and free will. I didn't make robots or puppets, even though you all did a great job of that yourselves. I made a living, thinking beings who I then sat back and watched. I made higher versions of you, the Perpetuals, to guide you. I made the Emperor, as he came to call himself, to be the best of you. Then I sat back and watched you run yourselves into ruin just like every other race that has ever walked this galaxy. I didn't come back because I am not your god, and I am not your protector. I am your maker, and I gave you all the tools needed to succeed, but those were misused and wasted. I didn't come back because I had given up on you long ago and hadn't even cast a thought in this direction for probably around fifteen to twenty thousand years, as you understand it. I did not come back because I was going to let you all go down the path you made for yourselves or let Chaos make for you. Once I create, I watch, that is all. Or at least it was. I decided that was not a fair assessment. I put you all in a very old galaxy surrounded by the creations of my siblings and a cursed shard of one of our actions that plagues everything we create. It is still no reason to get involved, not truly, but then again, I don't need one. So, I picked a timeline, bargained with the others and my love, and I came."
"Who are the others, and who is your love," asks Roboute, truly engrossed now, "What are you if not a god?"
"The others of my race, which are the First," says Genesis, "Of that race, I am the oldest. I was not birthed. I simply was. The same goes for the others; there were thirteen of us, but there are now only twelve. We created the universe and reality. The term gods fits us and was even created by one of us. But I do not use it. The belief in gods leads to worship, which leads to churches, which leads to priests or others who claim to speak for their god, which leads to different interpretations of what the god said or wants, which leads to different doctrines and denominations, which leads to infighting that turn to religious wars. From there, you get messiahs, saints, heretics, laws based beliefs, crusades to stump out other religions because, by this time, there are a hundred other gods who have had a thousand children, persecution, the belief that any little thing has to have been done by a god or against a god, devils, daemons, Hell, Heaven and a thousand realms in between. That is the short version. As for my love, one of her names is Time. She is not one of us. She does not create. She watches and calculates the stories of those we create. She decides on events that must happen and events that can be changed. It is complex math that we have all agreed to abide by, for to upset her calculations is to trigger the destruction of our creations. She is beautiful in every way. It is her that I truly had to negotiate with because she had already calculated the end of mankind. Getting her to factor me in and change those calculations accordingly took about a eon of smooth talking and outright bribery. But here I am, and to be honest, I am conducting my own experiment. I have my own end goals. The elevation and salvation of humanity is just a side quest."
"So, we are pawns," asks Roboute with a bit of an edge, "Just toys for you to use and throw away? Do you not feel for us? Care for us?"
Genesis smiles at him, "If I did not feel or care for you, Roboute, I would not be here correcting mistakes or fighting with you. I wouldn't be giving you warriors and technology capable of standing against any foe, alien, daemon, or in between. I would not have put this galaxy under my protection. I would have waited for you to all be dust and screaming souls in a galaxy consumed by the Warp and then proceeded to test my theory. Instead, I am here. I am breaking you out of the destiny you are doomed to walk and setting you on a new course. I have an end goal, yes, but I will not burn humanity to reach it. You are my creations, and you will survive. You will just have a helping hand to do so. All be it a helping hand that can snap reality into a new shape altogether, but I have put restraints on myself for the time being as part of my deal with Time."
Roboute studies him, not sure of what to say or how to feel. Genesis knows why. He believed wholeheartedly in his father and his dream, only to be told that both were failures. He is now sitting across from a man who claims to have created all of humanity and who says he is here to save it but basically as a side project but who also says that he is no god. Genesis doesn't blame him for being skeptical about any of this, but he is also really beyond caring.
"Since you seem to be driven by goals, Roboute," says Genesis, looking him in the eyes, "Let me tell you my goal for humanity. Peace, by any means necessary. Not unity that is a by-product, but peace. I did not make a race whose only existence is war. That is what the Orks were made for by their creators. I made humanity to be what the Aeldari and Necrons failed to be. Only my creations to be the worst of all. Not only that, but the stupidest as well. So, now, I am here to be the shepherd my son failed to be. Yes, there will be war, but it is not a war that will be won with the blood and tears of trillions while trillions more suffer so that it can be fought. It will be a war fought by me and those I have chosen to stand with me. It will be a war against those who stand in the way of the peace I want for my people. Xenos, daemons, traitors, the church, the Mechanicus, and anything and anyone else. I want peace, and I will have peace. Anyone who wants different will find I am ready for war as well and that I am very, very good at it. Yes, this is a game to me on many levels, and I don't play fair Roboute. What I offer is peace, prosperity, learning, and protection from the predation of the universe. Many will die rather than accept this change, and that is their choice. I will gladly help them along that path. I gave humanity free will, and I won't take that. However, choices come with consequences. The consequence now is me. Will you join me? Will you fight for that new goal?"
Genesis offers his grandson his hand. Roboute looks at it for a long moment without moving. Genesis waits as patiently as a mountain. Roboute slowly reaches out and takes it, and in doing so, his evolution begins as his mind unlocks and his transformation into the first Unshackled Primarch begins.