Chapter One

"Sanguinius. It should have been him. He has the vision and the strength to carry us to victory, and the wisdom to rule once victory is won. For all his aloof coolness, he alone has the Emperor's soul in his blood. Each of us carries part of our father within us, whether it is his hunger for battle, his psychic talent or his determination to succeed. Sanguinius holds it all. It should have been his…,"

There are many things that lies in mystery within the Warp. Many things that are true become objects of doubt, many that are untrue become truth. The North becomes the South, and the West becomes the East.

Such is the nature of the Immaterium. It holds no truth to matter, for it does not obey the rules that define reality. Space has no control over it for the Immaterium is what to be, and what cannot be. One cannot contain it or even explain it, not even the gods of the long lost pantheon of Aeldari, not even the Old Ones for all their mighty wisdom before their fall at the hands of the Necrons. It is not bound by the shackles of time, for time has no power over it. Time has no meaning and no ending. A single day can be a thousand years and a thousand years can be an hour. Such is the nature of the Immaterium. In the Forty-Second Millenium, it plays host to the chaotic denizens that now call it home; the four gods with all their might and their mighty realms against the ever present presence of the God Emperor of Mankind holding the torch of the beacon of humanity to keep the darkness at bay.

For thousands of years, it remains a constant that everyone in the Imperium of Man has gotten used to, at least until Abaddon defied the odds and broke the fortress world of Cadia and the pylons that keeps the Eye of Terror stable. Thus enters the Era Indomitus and the light of Mankind has been severed as the Warp spills into reality creating the Cicatrix Maledictum, the Great Rift cutting the Imperium into two forevermore.

In these dark times, mankind sees not light but darkness as the times of ending seems to have come. The Imperium is in peril, cut off from hundreds of thousands of worlds from Imperium Nihilus and Imperium Sanctus under heavy peril from the attacks of traitors and heretics which brought countless words to heel. The Light of Astronomican fails to light itself in the dark part of the Imperium and the Emperor only knows what is going on there.

Yet in this time of hopelessness and darkness for the Imperium of Mankind, new heroes emerge from the darkness like stars would in the coming of the night.

From the tongues of men, legends arise, and with it hope; the return of the Avenging Son, Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines taking his mantle once more as lord regent of the Imperium most prominent of them all. The Indomitus Crusade blazes forth recapturing world after world stabilizing Imperium Sanctus while cutting through the Nachmund Gauntlet and fighting heads-on towards the darker side of the Imperium. Lord Dante of the Blood Angels also rises in power as Lord of Imperium Nihilus, making a cordon of security at the Baal System while slowly mapping once again world after world with the might of the Blood Angels and the Lords of the Blood now fully reinforced with the arrival of the new breed of Space Marines, Primaris Marines reinforcing the beleaguered Chapters. Then of course latest of the greatest news is the emergence of a small system reclaimed by the Lion, Primarch of the First Legion.

Yet that is not all the stars that burn brightly, no.

The Warp might bring the horrors of the night into reality, but sometimes, even just a little sometimes, it can also bring a miracle. How? No one really knows, for what are souls but bright lights that shine in the darkness of reality? And in the entire history of the Imperium of Man, there is one that shone brightly more than others and cut short too fast for it to truly make an impact.

The world of Thracia has always been an Agri-World at Segmentum Corinthe. It is nothing special to any other planet in the Imperium. It simply is one of the many Agri-Worlds unnoticed and unseen that serves as a cog of the mighty Interstellar Empire that is the Imperium of Man providing food for its own sector.

It is here that a miracle would happen.

One eye opens, gleaming dark red in color for a few moments before blinking turning it into cherry black and brown irises. He gasps, and breathes choking on the dust that seems to have clogged into his throat. He coughs out again, sending plumes of dust flying from his mouth. His mind whirrs as the twin suns of Thracia blinds him from above. He raises a hand to cover the blinding light before pushing himself up to a sitting position and realizing that he is stark naked with dust and ground falling off his torso and belly like a small hill.

He coughs again, his throat dry and parched. His head is ringing and his eyes are unfocused making him see quadruple. He drunkenly staggers to stand up only to fall back to his arse as the weight at his back makes itself known. He groans in pain at falling and drunkenly stands up.

"I need water," he thinks to himself as he can feel his entire being sucked dry like salt on water. He then hears it, the soft sound of a brook cascading and with mismatched steps he follows the sound.

It does not take long for his bare feet to touch water and he quickly fell on his knees on the wet pebbles ignoring the searing pain on his skin as he drunkenly wafts great mouthfuls of water to his lips with his hands. His golden hair falls in cascades at his sides but he ignores it as he gulps in greedily the water of the small brook where he is in.

He has no idea how long he has been there kneeling and drinking. It seems as if his entire body is dry and he cannot stop as he drinks more and more. It is like his entire being lacks the needed element and he needs to replenish it as fast else he would succumb to thirst. Finally he is done and he lets himself fall back again to his butt sitting there on the waters of the brook even as the water kisses his bare skin.

The sun is warm as it welcomes him on his rays and he looks at the sight again. He has no idea why it is fascinating him so much. It is not as if it is his first time seeing sunlight. He has seen many suns of different varieties of many elements, so why is he so fascinated?

Speaking of which where is he?

He looks around at the landscape. Miles and miles of open stretch of land with nothing in sight but only dust and broken rock. Small grass and some alien exotic plants are growing near where the brook flows but the rest? It's just bare rock and dry ground. It is as if someone has taken the life of the planet. It reminds him of his old home in Baal, only a lot more depressing. Baal despite its hostile landscape still holds swaths and sections of life with wonders here and there. Life after all he realizes in his long life always finds a way to establish itself even in the most hostile of environments, adapting, living, just like humanity tend to do.

He almost vomits all the water that he managed to drink as without warning everything comes into order.

The great wars of the galaxy as the treachery of his brother Horus was revealed, how he wept when he realized that his dearest brother rebelled against their father and left them on the Signus cluster to die at the hands of Demons. He remembered how Horus and he had such a bond that was unseen by the rest of his brothers. He remembered being made Emperor of Imperium Secundus by Guilliman and the Lion when they doubted their father's death. He remembered the Siege of Terra when he fought against the agents of his brother Horus when they assailed the great gates of the Imperial Palace and threatened to tear them down. He remembered the great fighting as he stood with his sons, and his brothers' sons leading them in sally after sally against the traitorous forces that dared assail the gates of Terra. He can still smell and see them as if they are just a stone throw's away from him, the mountains of dead, and both mortal and Astartes lying still and unmoving over the walls and grounds of the Imperial Palace.

He remembers it all.

He can recall in his mind's eye the fighting he himself had dived into to. Fighting off daemons so powerful that can unhinged a mortal's mind. He and his sons had managed to block the tidal wave of natural and unnatural forces that his brother had brought to bear in the name of his new gods. He recalled casting down Ka'Bandha one final time as the Foul Bloodthirster of Khorne challenged him in single combat. He can still recall that earth shattering crack as he broke the daemon in two.

Then of course the weaves of fate cut off his end. He can remember fighting his brother Horus in his battleship, the Vengeful Spirit. Even as his body was broken on every single strike by the abomination that his brother turned into to, he fought reserved not willing to truly kill the brother he so loved. Even if he had not foreseen his end, Sanguinius would still hold back his blows. He cannot and would not bring himself to truly kill his brother. Wound him terribly that he would not be able to move, yes, but kill? Never kill. He would not be able to do it.

Thus resulted his demise as his broken and battered form finally met his end on that battle barge.

It should have been his end, the period of the story of the Great Angel of the Imperium. So why is he here? He is naked, free of wounds and scars and hale as the noonday sun. He has no idea. Sanguinius truly believes the Imperial Truth that his father is intent to make the galaxy believe in. He personally believes that it belongs to a man to forge his own destiny, be he mortal or Astartes. Each is entitled by the strength of his own arm to carve out his own path of greatness. Sanguinius himself carves his own destiny as do many of his brothers.

He does not believe in an afterlife, so why is he here? He once more stands, this time in more steady feet with the water he manages to drink fortifying his Primarch physique giving him the strength and endurance he needs to survive. He is still unsteady but this time he manages to right himself in a way without falling. Black and brown eyes look around at the desolate world that seems empty and devoid of life short of this brook and the green that surrounds it.

Sanguinius had been to hundreds of worlds, many of them human in nature. He had been curious then, studying their cultures, their ways of life, and their beliefs. All human worlds that he managed to visit during the Great Crusade and brought to the fold of the Imperium had their own specific brand of faith. Back then, he painstakingly studied each belief defeating their wisest and most avid philosophers in the manner of debate as he brought the Imperial Truth to bear. Sanguinius found it out that too truly subdue a people to the Imperium, it would be better if they willingly enter it than brute force them into compliance. Such a tactic he saw after all was inefficient. Nine times out of ten, said world would be rebelling in a few years' time and he would be back with his legion to pacify it all over again.

That was one of the reasons why Sanguinius opted the way of nobility bringing the light of the Imperium with peace and sense at more cultured worlds rather than the flames of war. It was in a way more efficient and easier compared to putting the hammer down. It was also better to be loved than hated after all. Sanguinius truly wished that the newly inducted Imperial citizens would be able to contribute to the buzzing new Imperium after all rather than be a liability. He was not like one of his other brothers who thought that a mortal's life was a waste.

Speaking of life, Sanguinius focuses his mind back to the present. He has no idea how he is alive when he should have been dead. He has seen it countless times through his gift of prophecy how his end would come. For a moment he even thought he managed to escape it when he became Emperor of Imperium Secundus. That hope however was dashed when he heard that the Emperor was alive and well at Terra and it was his fate to defend him and face his brother to the last.

Now he is here on this cold and barren rocky deserted planet with no end in sight. He's pretty sure that this is no afterlife. An afterlife after all if it truly existed and his father is wrong about the Imperial Truth, is about a place of eternal rest and peace where one would see paradise. That is what the ancient texts of nearly all the cultural books he managed to read during the Great Crusade. Where he is right now seems to be the farthest that a place could be to an afterlife.

"That doesn't explain why am I alive here and retaining full functionality of my body," the Lord of the Ninth Legion thinks to himself as he looks at his limbs all intact and solid. Last time he recalls looking at his limbs. All four have been rag dolled, courtesy of Horus' war mace.

"There is also the fact that in the unlikely event that I survive, then my sons or at least my brother Dorn would have carried my body to the Healing Wards of Terra and woken me there. Not dump me in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere,"

He breathes in and out again as he looks around for the third time. Sitting here and wondering would get him no answers. It is time for him to fall back to his roots and that means dealing with the world one space at a time. First things first and he needs to find civilization, hopefully Imperial and find some answers, and clothes.

"I would not be walking though," he thinks as he wills his great wings to open, the white appendages spreading into their full wingspans in recognition to his command.

With a couple of flaps, he ascends quickly to the sky as the two appendages at his back carry his full bulk as a Primarch effortlessly. Within seconds, he is up in the air with the world around him nothing more than dots and lines, a map that stretches forth to where the eye can see. Then he sees it, there in the far off distance that is actually several kilometers away is a copse of brown buildings beside a lake where green can also be seen.

Decided now with his direction, Sanguinius flaps his wings forward, the white feathers carrying him quick and fast to his destination. The Great Angel has countless times taken to the skies, but right now it feels as if it his first time as the wings carries him sluggishly together with the updrafts of the wind. He with great will stabilizes it though as he quickly bridges the distance between him and his intended target. What would have taken regular man hours of walking is mere seconds to him as he bypasses over the wasteland passing the great lake that he has seen easily before looking far ahead where the green grass grows the most.

What seem to be brown are to be cottages at least twelve or so with pinpricks on the ground that signifies people. They are surrounding a two towered cottage that looks like a temple of all things. Also around the green grass that stands out like an island of green with the barren world around it are pens upon pens of quadrupled horned domestic like animals that resembles a pig and a cow of Terra. It seems to be Sanguinius that he has stumbled into a simple village of humans and nothing more.

A small scream however that might have been unheard in mortal ears with how high he is mid-air he hears. Looking down at the direction of the scream he can see it. A small girl running away from what seems to be a spotted furred quadrupled carnivore with four eyes and two mouths which is chasing her.

His gene enhanced mind quickly and easily calculated speed and time in a microsecond making him absolutely sure that the carnivore would be upon the girl in moments before she can even reach the safety of the houses. Down below he can see the pinpricks of people also clamoring as they see the same threat to the little girl as he does.

He does not even think it. He has the power and the capability to fight off the predator, and he would do it. With a few flaps, his wings folded carrying Sanguinius like a bullet down below. Countless times of repetition allows Sanguinius to easily land with his wings opening to slow down his descent. He still stumbles twice however as his body seems to not respond fully yet to him. Yet he has never felt more alive as he puts himself between the predator and the escaping little girl.

He does not turn to look at the girl but at the charging predator who roars with its two mouths showing fangs and teeth as it regards the new prey. Sanguinis simply raises his hands up. The animal is bigger in person, bigger than even him, a primarch outside his armor. Still it does not dissuade Sanguinius. He has killed things bigger than him many times.

The attack has come without warning as the animal charges forward at him. Sanguinius is silent as he caught it in both jaws before pulling it above him, his supernatural strength enabling him to pull bigger than his weight throwing the animal to the ground at the opposite side. It whines upon impact but quickly returns to its feet clawing and scratching. This prompts Sanguinius to roll lest his bare skin be turned to mincemeat. The claws are almost the size of a person's forearm each.

As it is, he and the creature circle one another once more, both predators of their own form. Then as if recognized, the animal charges forward once more roaring in anger as it attempts to maul the Great Angel. Sanguinius this time however is ready. Just like in the days of the Siege of Terra, no matter how dangerous the maw of a beast is, no matter how savage. Sometimes it is also its only weakness.

He grips the two maws at the edge of both sides, his strength as a Primarch making the beast howl in agony as he keeps it open, unable to close. He pauses it in its charge as it thrashes against his strength. With a great heave and with a shout, the Great Angel pulls on opposite directions with a resounding CRACK!

Author's Note:

Hello readers. Now this is my first Warhammer 40K pure story since I've been wanting to write something about Warhammer 40k for a very long time now but don't have ideas specifically. The warhammer universe is large.

I've been collecting Black Library Books since I am a fan of the universe and I guess part of me dreams to be a Black Library Writer. I've fallen in love with the lore of both Guilliman and the Lion in the Plague War and the Son of the Forest. So I thought to myself. Why not write about another Primarch? And what Primarch there is than the most beloved of them all.

I've also noticed that there are extremely few Sanguinius stories even in the Black Library. So here I am trying to make justice to the character, a story that revolves around him ten thousand years in the future when the galaxy needed him most. Anyway I hope all of you enjoy this start. Cheers for all Warhammer40k fans.

As usual, the Emperor Protects.

Please Review for your reviews are the song to this writer's heart.