Chapter 2: Primarch Zero? Me?
On that day, as was customary, the Emperor presided over strategic deliberations concerning the Unification of Terra. Malcador the Sigillite stood nearby, while members of the Legio Custodes and senior commanders attended in respectful silence.
Without warning, the Emperor felt it.
A faint ripple in the empyrean.
Subtle.
Precise.
He lowered his gaze toward the polished floor beneath his feet. Far below lay one of his sealed gene-laboratories — a vault housing experimental weapons, arcane technologies, and… Zero.
"What troubles you, my lord?" a Custodian asked, kneeling respectfully.
The Emperor did not answer.
Instead, he exchanged a brief glance with Malcador.
In that instant, two minds bound by a millennium of shared purpose reached the same conclusion.
"The Sigillite and I have matters requiring our attention," Malcador announced calmly. "Remain here."
He rose from his chair — the only soul permitted to sit in the Emperor's presence during council.
The two departed side by side.
In a lowered voice, Malcador asked, "My lord… what do you believe this disturbance signifies? Could it be…?"
"My old friend," the Emperor replied quietly, "you understand as well as I do — she means nothing to them."
Within the Emperor's design, Primarch Zero had never been intended as more than a prototype — a control specimen. A preliminary vessel to refine the genetic template that would later produce the twenty Primarchs.
A trial run.
She had been engineered without a soul — an organic shell guided only by instinctual protocols.
To the denizens of the Warp, such a being was beneath notice. A vessel without a soul was less than an object.
Thus, when the Ruinous Powers scattered the Primarch infants across the galaxy, Zero had been ignored, left undisturbed within her incubation chamber beneath the Himalayas.
They ascended the long stairway toward the sealed laboratory complex.
The Emperor halted abruptly.
His brow furrowed.
Extending his formidable psychic perception, he pierced the laboratory's anti-psyker shielding and looked within.
Zero was no longer lying dormant.
She stood within the chamber, examining her surroundings with unmistakable curiosity. Behind her, the incubation tank lay fractured.
Malcador looked to the Emperor, confusion evident; his own psychic reach could not penetrate the warded chamber.
The Emperor took another step forward.
"My friend… do you believe it possible," he said slowly, "for a pure human soul to manifest within a vessel never meant to contain one?"
Malcador's eyes sharpened with understanding.
"A miracle… or an anomaly beyond our present comprehension."
"I do not know," the Emperor admitted. "Even a lifetime spent studying perpetuals and the nature of souls is insufficient to master such mysteries. Tell me, old friend — is this fortune… or catastrophe?"
"We will only know once contact is made."
They arrived at the laboratory entrance. The Emperor entered a complex numerical cipher, and the vault door opened with a resonant hum.
Within stood a tall, radiant figure.
The girl blinked, looked left, then right—
—and collapsed.
The Emperor and Malcador stared.
"…."
It's over.
All over.
Yuki lay on a bed large enough to serve as a parade platform, eyes squeezed shut in denial.
Of all the worlds to transmigrate into… it had to be Warhammer.
I didn't even sign the conscription order.
If I shoot myself now, will I respawn back home?
She had been awake for some time but refused to open her eyes and face reality. She had thought she had reached heaven.
Instead, she had crash-landed in the nineteenth level of hell.
Thinking about the galaxy's absurd power levels, apocalyptic wars, Chaos Gods, and planet-killing weapons made her chest tighten with despair.
She nearly fainted again from sheer stress.
"Enough. You are awake. Sit up."
The voice was calm, not loud, yet carried absolute authority.
Yuki opened her eyes.
The Emperor sat beside the bed, turning the pages of a book. He wore simple robes reminiscent of ancient Terran classical attire rather than auramite armor.
"Ahem… um…"
She sat up and noticed she wore similar garments. Several careful openings had been tailored at the back to accommodate her wings.
"What is your name?" he asked.
His steady gaze pressed upon her like gravity itself.
"Yuki," she answered obediently. "Yu as in the first day of the year, Ki as in sunset."
Only after speaking did she realize she was not speaking Mandarin. The sounds emerging were a form of Gothic.
How did that explanation make any sense?
The Emperor nodded, searching his prodigious memory.
"I see. From which nation? What era?"
"…2020."
"Two-thousand?" he repeated thoughtfully. "Do you understand your present condition?"
Yuki shook her head.
"Malcador," the Emperor said, "take her to the librarium. She must learn."
The door opened.
Malcador entered and inclined his head respectfully.
"Yes, my lord."
He led the way silently. Yuki followed, glancing about as they walked.
Silent Sisters passed in ghostlike silence. Custodians in auramite armor stood watch. Many cast curious glances toward her.
By height alone, she could almost pass for one of the Custodes.
But Custodians did not possess wings.
And she stood taller than many of them.
As for being a Primarch…
Impossible.
She had never heard of a Primarch that looked like her — let alone a female one.
…
Inside the librarium, Yuki turned pages at astonishing speed. She skimmed volumes in seconds, yet retained every detail with perfect clarity, even while letting her thoughts wander.
If she had possessed this level of cognitive processing in her previous life, even a perfect exam score would have been trivial.
Malcador sat nearby, sipping tea that seemed to materialize from nowhere.
"Well?" he asked mildly. "Do you understand?"
"Yes… mostly."
She looked up, now completely certain.
She was in the Warhammer universe.
Terran prehistory. The Unification Wars. The Imperium's birth. The Warp. Xenos. The Great Crusade yet to begin.
Her superhuman cognition had sorted the information with frightening efficiency.
"I have one question remaining, Lord Sigillite."
Malcador took another measured sip.
"Ask."
"…Who am I?"
"You are Primarch Zero," he replied calmly. "Daughter of the Emperor."
"Oh… wait."
Yuki pointed at herself.
"…Primarch? Primarch Zero… me?"