At least forty people were grouped in the Underground Motel. The owner had apparently fixed his television, which was showing the worst of the worst-case scenario they could ever think about.
"An attack above New York... Tony Stark missing..."
"A similar attack in Scotland..."
"Their objectives are unknown, but this is not without reminding the assault of the Chitauris aliens six years ago, led by the war criminal Loki..."
Morgan frowned when they broadcasted some old footages, first in Germany, then on top of the Stark Tower. She and Som simultaneously turned their head towards him.
Towards the tall blond man with a moustache, who looked like everyone but Loki. Despite the tension, Morgan could not refrain a smile, while Som's jaw dropped open.
"Special updates about this alien threat!" The journalist suddenly exclaimed "Numerous ships have been spotted around the African nation of Wakanda, which very recently opened its borders to the rest of the world. For now, we are unable to receive more details about their movements, but what seems like an immense thunderstorm has just started above Wakanda forest..."
That was enough for them to hear. Morgan rapidly got out of the motel. She felt more anxious than ever. The threat had never been so close and so sudden.
"If Thanos was here, I would have felt it..." She nervously said.
"He probably sent his children..." Loki winced "Now, I know where Thor is."
Morgan rapidly opened the car and seized the Vibranium knuckle-duster, as well as her now sharpened hunting knife. She cautiously took off the lids of the four boxes and freed the snakes inside. Giving them to the Adelaide Hospital was the last of her concerns now. Strangely, the taipan was quite reluctant to leave.
"Should we take Bobby with us?" Som questioned, while checking his weapon.
"Is that a grenade?!" Morgan incredulously asked.
"I did not want to bring it to Nepal, but I have no remorse killing someone who wants to kill me."
"Are you seriously thinking about fighting?" Loki said.
"Hey, don't start with the stay-safe-here-while-I-save-the-world speech!" Som exclaimed "Statistically, I have one chance out of two to die very soon. And could you please quit that blond guy appearance?"
Loki waved his hand and Fandral's face disappeared in a flash of green. He carefully picked up the inland taipan, who crawled on his shoulder.
"I was not about to say anything like that." He said "I just want you to know that no one of us stands a chance against Thanos."
"True. However, I have tricked an Infinity Stone." Morgan smiled "Som has tricked one of the Sanctuary Keepers. And you have tricked Whatever-its-name. I think the three of us combined have a chance to trick a mad purple alien."
"Fair point." Loki smiled.
This feeling was completely new to him. It was not the same thing than with Thor, Valkyrie and the Hulk, when they defended Asgard. This time, he knew that he could count on them and that they could count on him.
"Oh man, I am really not comfortable with saving the world." Som shivered.
The feeling was mutual.
"Is this Wakanda?" Loki asked "It does not look like a battlefield."
"We are in Nakuru, Kenya. This is the closest I can get to Wakanda, I have never been there myself." Som explained.
"How long before we reach it?"
"I would say, thirty minutes by car. It should not be difficult to take one."
They were walking fast, almost running (at least Morgan was). People around them were anxiously watching every television screen they could get their eyes on, but most of them were running away, and it was not difficult to know from what. The alien spaceships, surrounded by thunderstorms, were extremely close to the city. Everyone was confused. People were casting frightened glances at them.
"You would better take back your other appearance." Morgan warned "They are currently reminded of your existence, and not in the most pleasant way."
"And, for Manasa's sake, take this snake out of your shoulder." Som laughed.
Right, Loki thought. He had spent so much time with these two exceptional humans that he had almost forgotten how easily Midgardians could be frightened.
"Do you at least know how to use your weapon?"
"I would even say that I am badass."
Screams echoed around them when the space ships suddenly exploded, struck by thunder.
"My brother seems to handle it quite well." Loki smirked.
"I hope so. No one is looking, I think we can take this car over there."
Som crossed the road, and Loki turned around to wait for Morgan.
He immediately saw that something was not right.
She was standing a few feet behind him, motionless, her hands on her head. But what suddenly alarmed him was her look.
He had never seen her so terrified.
"Morgan, what is happening? Is it Thanos? Do you see him?"
"He is here... He has arrived... Just right now..." She muttered "And the... And the Soul Stone..."
Loki felt a gaping fear in his veins. Morgan was trembling.
"The... The head...?" She muttered.
"What?"
A few kilometres away, Thanos snapped his fingers.
Everything happened like in a dream. Morgan had never felt such an intense fear. Even when meeting the Soul Stone.
She saw ashes.
Loki, who had taken back his appearance, slowly stood up and looked at the people around him turning into dust. He was as lost as her.
Morgan could not think correctly. It was wrong. It was wrong. It was...
She dashed towards the other side of the road, avoiding the cars and the panicked pedestrians, running as fast as she could.
"M-Morgan? W-what's happening?"
"SOM!"
She rushed to grab his hand, but, as she was about to do so, she only touched ashes.
Ashes?
Som was...
Som had...
Morgan was still standing, unable to move. She was disconnected. Everyone around her was screaming in distress, yet she could not make a sound.
She heard Loki's voice, but could not answer him.
Because the pain was coming.
It started like the migraine she knew very well, the one she had for five minutes when she spent too much time in Whatever-its-name, or for a couple of hours when she had to deliver a mental shockwave. But it grew. And grew. It became a terrible flame, and then it turned into Hell itself.
Fire. Burning pain, blistering pain, blinding pain. Her whole body was burning and would soon turn into ashes.
Ashes. Only ashes around her. It was too much, too much at the same time.
It was wrong. Too much pain. She could not even scream.
Her vision was blurry. She did not know where she was. She was not safe. She would never be safe.
I have to get out.
It was the only thing that mattered at the moment. Getting out. No one should be able to trap her.
Suddenly, she felt a hand clenching her right arm and panic rose in her chest.
"Get off me!" She roared.
Her head was hurting so much. So much. She could not fight. All she could do was running away. But the hand would not let her.
"It is me, Loki."
A voice. Too close.
"No! Get off me!" She shouted again, struggling with all her might to escape the hand.
She felt blood running on her face, from her nose and her ears. Her head was going to explode. Her feet would not support her for long. And she was trapped.
In a desperate attempt to get free from the hand, she bit it. No taste of blood in her mouth but an exclamation of surprise and a loosening of the grip. That was enough for her to run.
Run away. That was what she always did and would always do. She was fast. But all her body hurt. She heard someone else catching up on her and fear sparked adrenaline in her legs.
But the hand caught her again.
"GET OFF ME!"
Her scream was pure terror. She stumbled.
"Morgan, I will not hurt you!"
Same voice as earlier. Everything was burning to ashes. It hurt.
She gladly welcomed unconsciousness.
Ironically, unconsciousness proved to be even worse.
Morgan felt herself drowning in ashes. She could not refrain spasms of disgust when she felt them against her nose, her ears and even her eyes.
It was wrong, it was wrong, it was wrong...
She could not get this sentence out of her head. Ashes were wrong. Too much ashes at the same time. Too many deaths at the same time.
Morgan was drowning in death.
"Is this how I die?"
She could not stay here. She could not stay under the ashes. She had to stand.
Come on. Stand.
But why? Why standing? There was nothing to save.
Som is gone.
What could she do, now? What could she do when everything was already lost?
Observe.
She had to observe. She had to open her eyes to see, her ears to hear, her mouth to breathe.
She stood up.
It was... peaceful.
No more ashes. No more pain. The place was beautiful.
Morgan was standing in the middle of a flower field. She put her hands on her face and did not feel any wound.
The sun was setting.
Alright, maybe she was dead. Nice. She would not suffer anymore.
Someone over there. She was not alone, then.
Morgan tranquilly walked across the field. Wild flowers. Something like poppies. She felt peaceful. No ashes outside, no pain inside.
She saw him.
He was sit on the porch of his house, which reminded her of the Outback wooden cabin, and was watching the sunset, a nostalgic smile on his face.
He was very tall, incredibly muscular, and had purple skin. He also had a wide wound on his torso, but the bleeding had stopped. He did not seem to feel any pain either.
Morgan was not afraid. As always, she was curious. She observed.
The thing was, he spoke to her.
"Hello, little one."
His voice was deep. Not surprising at all.
"Hello." She answered "May I sit?"
The Titan's gaze was still fixed on the setting sun, as if he did not want to lose one drop of it.
"You may. I have heard a lot about you."
"So have I." Morgan chuckled "The least I can say is that you are not overwhelmingly praised."
She sat on the other side of the porch, barely four metres away from him, and took another look at the sun. The colours were magnificent.
"It is painful, for now." He began "But pain will fade. And, out of the balance I established, peace will emerge. The peace everyone deserves."
Morgan swallowed with difficulty. He was not so different from what she expected.
"Does pain really fade?" She inquired.
For the first time since they engaged conversation, Thanos turned his head towards her.
"No. Pain just evolves. It either rots and poisons you, or blossoms. Like these."
He pointed the flowers.
"Have you ever been to Earth? I mean, before you annihilated half of humans?" She questioned.
"Earth was already on its way to annihilation way before I decided to prevent this."
"It did not seem painful at all, for those who turned into dust. They just ceased to exist. Like that. Snap."
"There are more painful ways to die." Thanos grinned.
"Indeed. You know that too well. However, I have felt every single breath you took. I was buried under the ashes if your victims."
"I am sorry you had to come through this, little one."
Morgan wanted to have a physical body, just to rummage a little in the ground. Or to pick a poppy.
"Is your duty over, then?"
"I have found peace in my pain. You should do the same. Do not waste this life of yours."
"I still think that your concept of saving humanity is the most stupid I have ever heard." Morgan smiled.
Thanos gave her a long look.
"The Soul Stone remembers you."
"Not for the better, I presume." She laughed.
"Out of the countless bearers it created, you stand out, little one."
"Flattery has never worked with me. Sorry."
"It offered you wisdom and you refused it."
"I took what I wanted, nothing more. Wisdom should never be imposed, and it goes for salvation as well. The survivors have all lost someone. Family, friends... Pain never fades. And, because humans are what they are, they will come up with incredible innovations to improve their life. Along with their side-effects of suffering and destruction. In the long-term, you made no difference at all."
"It is a shame to see that you have no hope left in you." Thanos sighed.
He really seemed sorry for her. Morgan turned her head to examine the inside of the cabin. There was not much to see, except for the giant, half-destroyed Gauntlet, with six shining stones on it.
She immediately knew which one it was. The gleaming orange colour was hypnotizing.
"Infinite power..." She muttered "Over space, time, energy, reality, mind and soul. You controlled all of this and you used it to turn half of the Universe into ashes. This is laughable. But not so illogical."
"You surely are an arrogant human."
"Absolutely. Destruction is so much easier than creation. Maybe you could have created enough resources for all humanity, but the thing is, wiping out half of it was just simpler. The same way killing is easier than forgiving."
Thanos stood up and started to walk across the poppy field. Morgan followed him. She spotted a scarecrow in the middle of a crop field, dressed in armour. That detail made her smile. She wondered if such a connection was possible between all those who had encountered the Soul Stone. Perhaps the only way to know was to ask the Stone directly. But the Gauntlet made that hard.
"Have you ever forgiven someone you wanted to kill, little one?"
Morgan suddenly felt very small.
I am the one who killed your daughter.
You are the real monster.
I killed you, remember? And I can kill you again.
"No." She muttered "I did not even think about forgiveness."
"I do not blame you. I did the same. Something had to be done, at this very moment. Every other option would only have worsened humanity's condition."
"Life is not only about resources. Humans always find ways to be sad when having everything, and happy when having nothing. There is no "threshold" of what makes a good or a bad life. There is just life. That is all. And you claim to have saved life by ending it."
Thanos had stopped, right in the middle of the field. He cast a severe glance at her.
"Don't you believe in anything, little one? Don't you hope for a better future? I have lived a very long time. I have seen countless horrors and marvels. I have done terrible things, to ultimately give humanity a chance."
"Hm. You did it. You are the most powerful being of this Universe, and you gave it a chance. You were a warrior in crusade and now you have achieved your holy task. You think yourself a god, but you will never be one."
She saw an ironical grin on Thanos' face.
"Funny that you say so... Someone told me the same thing, not so long ago. He called himself a god but was small and afraid."
"Well, I am small and afraid too." Morgan shrugged.
"The night is falling. Go home, if you are afraid of the dark."
"I am not going home, I am going out. My friend turned into dust in my hands. I will come back. And I will kill you."
"How do your people call you, little one?"
"You can call me Adder. How do you call this place?"
"You can call it the Scarecrow Planet. You can come at any time. I hope you will not, though. Killing you would be disappointing."
"Everything seems disappointing, to you." Morgan sneered "You should have fun once, before you die."
Suggested end song: Jimmy, Moriarty.