Konrad Curze had just gotten the news of the planet-wide destruction on Terra and his little sister's condition when he returned to his flagship. He did not care much for the state of the Imperium's throne world, but his sister…
The Imperial Princess, out of all of his siblings, had been the only one he knew to be genuine in her displays of kindness and love towards him. The rest mostly stayed away from him except for times they needed to cooperate or when he'd show up on Discordia. Ferrus would be polite to him, but he never felt any real connection to any of his brothers or older sister. Alesia, however, was gradually becoming the exception. She had installed a hydroponic garden on his flagship just to ensure he'd have his own supply of those rhubarbs he had an addiction to…and to discourage his habit of breaking into her gardens.
His addiction for the odd plant started when his young sister gave him a sample of the vegetable to taste after he admitted to her that he didn't particularly like the sweets the Space Maids were obsessed with making and that he didn't have a favorite food. She had decided to ask him to taste a raw and cooked rhubarb, and Konrad found that he particularly liked the extremely tart flavor of the raw vegetable. He enjoyed the taste. It was the first thing aside killing and torture that he truly enjoyed, and he craved more.
The first time he broke into the special gardens the rhubarbs grew in, he'd accidentally damaged the facility and Alesia repainted his armor with glow-in-the-dark neon pink paint as punishment. He learned that his sister was very protective of her gardens, and the damage he did had unleashed a fury he never wanted to see aimed at himself again. She had set up traps he couldn't detect after that. After the third time, she had set up his own garden and told him to just ask for more in the future instead of stealing from the gardens. She didn't ask him why he did it, she just gave him access to his own supply.
"You gonna go see her?" Jago, the one Night Haunter Konrad didn't distrust as much, asked. Konrad didn't look to the man; he was lost in his own thoughts as they travelled to the next world to conquer. They had not jumped into the Warp just yet.
"Why should I?" He asked, not expressing any emotion. He would never admit that the news of his youngest sibling falling into a coma she might never wake up from shook him.
"Because she's your favorite sibling, maybe?" That got him to look the heavily scarred man in the eye and quirk an eyebrow. "She gave you your own supply of those weird plants after you got addicted to them. Hell, you messed with her through stealing the damned things just to interact with her."
"You're pushing your luck."
"But I'm right, aren't I. You stayed on Terra just to mess with her."
"It took forever to get the paint off."
"And you learned not to piss her off again."
Konrad had a brief vision of a certain brother of his teleporting onto the bridge, so he turned to face the spot where Magnus would appear and was not disappointed to see him appear.
"Curze," said the Red King.
"Cyclops," Konrad greeted his brother while Jago remained silent. "Why are you here?"
"I figured you would've had a vision about it, but that doesn't appear to be the case," Magnus pulled out what appeared to be a partially assembled 3D puzzle made of gold, and it looked oddly familiar to Konrad. "Father, Malcador, Erda and I were able to mostly sever Alesia's connection to the Warp, but the process shattered her mind. She's slowly repairing half of her mind, but her other half manifested in golden puzzle pieces to be assembled in the material realm."
"That is very weird," Jago commented, clearly ready to call bullshit, but Konrad detected no lie.
"The whole situation is weird, even by my standards. So far we've found pieces on Father, myself, Malcador, Alesia's personal guard and Lorgar, and since Terra is in a state of disarray I'm tasked with finding the rest of the puzzle pieces."
"So you think I have a piece, do you?" Konrad asked, seeing where this was going. He had many questions, but those could wait.
"Do you?"
He reached into one of his pouches…and pulled out a golden puzzle piece and slotted it into the assembled mass Magnus held out.
"Do the others know about this?" He didn't hear anything of this in the reports.
"No, communications with Terra are limited to the Sol System as many systems were damaged or destroyed. Can you—?"
Konrad pulled out his personal data pad, got onto Discordia and sent out a message to their brothers, making sure they'd notice it on their shared discussion channel.
"Thank you, brother."
"Get going." Was all he said to his brother before the red giant teleported away.
"You believe all of that?" His First asked, not at all hiding his disbelief of the whole situation.
"I believe he told us what we needed to hear for the moment." Was all he'd say of the matter before having ship set course to their next conquest.
Kithes pulled his bike up to the known residence of the Imperial Princess's former nanny, allowing Erda to slide off first before he disembarked. The Perpetual woman had quickly remembered that he didn't have his piece anymore, and she'd have to join the piece she had to the other piece to transport it. Magnus had spoken true that the gold pieces phased through a person's hand if it wasn't their piece.
The Custodian quickly approached the front door of the modest abode that had suffered minimal damage from the disaster. The former nanny had received a generous retirement fund as thanks for her service plus the monetary gift the Emperor sent as a wedding gift. Sylla and her family were set up for a comfortable life. The woman in question was sweeping up broken glass when she spotted them approach and she waved in greeting.
"Honorable Custodes! Lady Erda!" The former nanny greeted them and approached, being careful not to step on debris. "I'd invite you in, but everything is a mess."
"It's alright, but we're in a time sensitive situation," Kithes proceeded to give a simplified version of events leading to Alesia's comatose state while omitting the more classified details. The woman understandably became worried over her former charge. "She's under round the clock care, but we're here to see if you suddenly found gold puzzle piece like this."
Sylla looked in her apron pocket and pulled out a similar puzzle piece. She slotted her part with Erda's without prompt.
"Can I help Her Highness in any way?" Sylla asked, genuinely worried for the Princess.
"Perhaps when things are more calm, you can come visit her. She'd appreciate it."
Sanguinius didn't expect to receive a message from Konrad of all people, but he had to wonder if his brother was having a psychotic break while typing this message three days ago. However, it would explain the appearance of that odd piece of gold he found in his pocket when he heard the reports coming from Terra.
"Brother!" Magnus's voice startled him and he spun to face his giant brother.
"Magnus! We've talked about this!" He scolded him lightly.
"I know, but this is urgent. Did you read Curze's message?"
"Yes, I did." He held up his piece of the puzzle and slotted into the assembled object that looked oddly like the Millennium Puzzle. "How is our baby sister?"
"Barely alive, but she can breath on her own at least." His bother sighed, clearly distressed over the state of their youngest sibling. "Last I was able to check, her former nanny has been visiting her and assisting in her care."
"That's good, at least. How are you holding up, Magnus? Are you getting enough rest?"
"I'm fine, Sanguinius. My next stop is Nocturne and I will get a quick rest there."
Ding. Sanguinius looked back to his data pad and saw a message from Ferrus Mannus.
"Oh! Ferrus and Fulgrim are also making their way to Nocturne, and it looks like the others are grouping up to make it easier for you to get their pieces."
"Really?! Well, we might just save our sister faster than expected!"
Once his brother was on his way, Sanguinius couldn't help but think back to his sister and the rare few times he got to visit her. His first real interaction with her had been after her first birthday. He had gotten some down time and decided to spend that time bonding with Alesia through flying around with her in his arms under the close watch of their father and Malcador incase something happened. The joyful laughter of the then baby Princess was like music to his ears and she had fallen asleep in his arms when he began the descent back to the ground. It was easily one of his most treasured memories, and a core memory for his baby sister.
The Primarch of the Blood Angels could only hope his sister would pull through this and recover.
It took a few days after they met on Nocturne for Magnus to arrive. In the mean time, Vulkan and Ferrus took to the forges to keep themselves busy and their minds off of the current situation regarding Terra. Fulgrim ended up watching over his brothers, unable to focus on anything for long.
"Brother's, does our little sister prefer the sword or the spear?" Vulkan suddenly asked, bringing Fulgrim out of his thoughts and getting Ferrus to put down what he was working on. "I know she is proficient in both, but which would she rather have in a fight?"
"Uh…That's a good question." Fulgrim admitted, trying to think back to the times they'd all sparred with the Imperial Princess. There was one time she'd used two practice scimitars and held her own against them for longer than normal. That had been after she had played the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. "Actually, remember that time she tried to emulate Riju's fighting style with those scimitars?"
"Oh yeah! She nearly kicked our hides that time doing that." Ferrus chimed in, clearly having a light bulb lighting up moment. "Sigismund looked so proud watching that session."
"She probably would have won had she been using properly balanced swords for that fighting style." Vulkan looked to have been inspired by that thought and was about to return to his forge when the brother they were waiting for finally arrived.
After exchanging brief greetings with Magnus, they each slotted their puzzle pieces into the collected amalgamation of gold. Once that was done, Vulkan guided their swaying brother to a place to rest, leaving Fulgrim with Ferrus.
"This has been bugging me for a while," Fulgrim said to his closest sibling, "but does it feel like we're missing a few crucial details regarding Alesia? How in the hell does she have enough power stored up to cause such massive damage to the Imperial Palace of all places?"
"I've been wondering about that too, brother," Ferrus admitted. "However, there may be a reason why they're keeping it a secret. It may be something they don't want used against her or the rest of the Imperium."
Horus assisted his sister, Nekona, in planning possible locations for her Maid Cafe's on worlds now just brought up to standard with Guilliman inputing logistical issues that may occur. They were on his ship docked on a station world for some needed repairs and maintenance (which he had been putting off until his siblings rendezvoused with him and scolded him for his neglect).
"You okay, brother Horus?" Nekona asked him. "You're zoning out again."
"Sorry, sister. I…I've been thinking on how I'm to apologize to our little sister."
"Apologize? What for?"
"For how I treated her when I was allowed to teach her to fight."
"Brother…"
"Then why not go visit her, brother?" Said Guilliman. "She may not be conscious, but according to Magnus, she can still hear what's going on around her."
Horus couldn't argue with his blueberry brother on that, but he didn't know why he didn't do as his brother said and just go see her in person. What was holding him back?
"I…I honestly don't know…" he admitted. "Ever since I got booted from teaching her, I've been bringing more and more worlds into compliance."
"Essentially throwing yourself into work instead of owning up to your mistakes," Nekona read him like an open book then. "Guilliman, do you want to explain?"
"Horus, from someone who misses the man that raised him and dearly wishes to have one more conversation with him, don't put this off anymore," the blonde giant surprised them with no cold facts. "Do you know how much I want to speak with the man I called 'Father'? Every. Day. Everyday I regret not being there to save him. I regret not having one more moment to tell him how much he meant to me."
This completely caught Horus off guard. It was rare to see Guilliman of all of their siblings to show this much vulnerability. Nekona looked surprised by this as well, judging by her wide eyes.
"Once Magnus retrieves our pieces of the puzzle, go visit her. None of us know when our last day will come."