The Trial of Thanos of Titan:
He snapped his fingers and all he had worked to accomplish had come true. He snapped his fingers, certain of what was to come. He snapped his fingers, and he found himself under an orange sky.
"Thanos, son of Dhar," a voice called, full of authority.
Thanos looked and saw a small human female glide towards him. He snaps his fingers, but she does not move. The sky is still orange and the ground beneath him still watery.
"Who are you?" He asks the smaller figure.
"I am," she replied simply, her dark brown eyes staring straight into him.
"Why am I here?" He presses, where even is here?
She looks almost irritated as she answers, "the universe has placed you on trial. One does not collect all six stones of Infinity without expecting a price tag."
"My daughter paid the price," Thanos argues in reply, angered by the girl.
"You mean this one?" She held out her hand and a smaller green one took it as a young Gamora looks up at her adoptive father.
"You did it," she says tentatively, fear emanating from her small stature.
"Yes, little one," he kneels to reach out to her, but she fades away, turning to the dust that so many others had.
"The universe demands a greater price than this one. She is but a mortal child," the woman states, her face emotionless.
"Who are you?" Thanos ignores her.
"I am Quinn," she answers.
"What are you? If I am a Titan what does that make you?" Thanos pushes.
"I am beyond. From outside of infinity."
Thus, why the gauntlet failed to work on her, the Titan reasons, "where are we?"
"This is the soul world, the storehouse of the soul stone," Quinn explains as if it was obvious.
That explained the crystal-like orange sky.
"Why here?" Thanos continues.
The girl smirks, "the universe is nothing if not ironic."
"Why am I here?"
"To stand trial," Quinn answers simply.
"For what?"
You really are a pathetic mortal, the small figure retorts, snapping her fingers in the way he did as the gauntlet disappears from his hand and re-appears before her.
"Did you really think you could collect all six stones of infinity, wipe out half the population of the universe and think you could walk away free?"
Thanos pauses, "it is merciful. To save those who remain. I work for the greater good of the universe."
"You only serve my point mortal," she replies, her tone indicating that she clearly was done with him. "You collect all six stones of infinity to commit your "acts of mercy" without fully understanding their power. You realise that those who try to hasten the end will only delay it while those who work to delay it will only bring it closer. While you only planned to wipe out half the universe, you succeeded in wiping out nearly 58 percent of the universe due to a cascade effect."
"And a better life for those who remain."
"You truly believe you are correct, don't you," Quinn stares, her face would have been surprised if she didn't already know everything.
The last son of Titan spreads out his arms, "yes. But others think I am wrong. Labelled me a mad-man for discovering a solution to their problems," he says tiredly.
"The scariest part of you is not your size, nor your infinity gauntlet," Quinn speaks softly, "but rather the part where you are so blinded by your vision of the future that you fail to see that you are wrong."
"And how do you know that."
Quinn fixes her dark brown eyes upon his, "you wouldn't even begin to understand me mortal." Her voice drips with venom as her chocolate brown locks stir in the gentle breeze.
The girl sits down, and the primordial dust forms around her as a brown-haired boy in red and blue armour is emerges from it. His eyes are closed peacefully as he lies dead in the girl's lap. She cradles him fondly as the mad Titan remembers him as one of the ones who had fought him on his home planet.
"Peter Parker, a son of Adam," she answers for him, "your friendly neighbourhood Spiderman. His aunt lived you know. Going mad at the thought of her nephew never returning home from school. Tony Stark is beside himself with grief and anguish."
"And they live a better life because of his sacrifice," Thanos insists, his resolve cracking slightly as he is suddenly standing in a small room watching another woman pace up and down, pause to stare at a television set, check her phone before repeating. Over and over. And over again.
The scene fades to orange as Peter slowly dissolves back into the dust that once formed his ancestors, the words "I don't wanna go" and "please" and "I'm scared" echoing gently on the light breeze.
Quinn is gone. Thanos reaches out to where the gauntlet floats in mid-air and pull it back on, hesitantly snapping his fingers as nothing happens.
"It is hard for something to work when you put it inside of itself," Quinn smirks, gliding back towards him, the water waving back as on either side of her feet. The Titan turned to her, noticing figures on the horizon.
"They are ones who paid the price. Suffered at your mercy to save an already doomed universe." Quinn looks behind her, "and I know every single one of them. You aim for godliness, but you forget the most important part of being a leader. Compassion and kindness. The universe is not in the business of trading lives. It did that once and look at where you stand today."
Thanos looks down at her. "Why are we still here? You said the universe has placed me on trial. What has it decided?" The Titan questions, tired of the girl's games.
"Thanos, son of Dhar. you have sought the stones of infinity for genocide in the name of mercy. During your journey to collect them many have tried to stop you." She shifts and begins to glide around him. "Yet none truly succeeded."
"Mercy comes at a price," Thanos argues.
She stops in front of him, staring him dead in the eye as she replies, "I don't see you laying down your life for it. There is a tree over there, shall I hang you on it?"
She looks over her shoulder before continuing, "the universe is rather ironic. It's rather amusing for those of us who are beyond it. And the universe has decided the price of your actions."
Thanos scoffs, "as if my daughter's life was not enough." His face falls as he remembers the loss of his beautiful little one.
"It would have been if you had simply sought them to create more with them," the girl answers tactfully.
There is a silence, and Thanos is not sure if an eternity or mere moments had passed.
"You lose," Quinn finally speaks, her eyes alight with amusement, "ironic is it not?"
"I lose? But I have already won," The last son of Titan boasts.
"And a race can be lost after it is finished. Time is more malleable than you think," she replies gravely.
"I lose?" He repeats as the girl glides away, disappearing into the orange cloud of the soul world.
Thanos snaps his fingers and returns from the stone. Thanos snaps his fingers and is uncertain as to what is to come. Thanos snaps his fingers, knowing he is going to lose.
A/N: My late addition to the Infinity War reaction fics. This is based on the theory that Thanos and little Gamora have that final conversation inside of the soul stone itself, so I played with that a little bit. Hope you all enjoyed. :D