Okay, so this won't be the last chapter quite yet. As I was writing, I found that not only was I coming up with a chapter that was so long it was becoming unwieldy, but I was also abbreviating scenes that deserved to have more flesh to them in order to be true to the work. Therefore, I am deviating from my "four chapters per part" scheme in order to do the story justice. Thus, there will be a 5th chapter in the "Vengeance" section (which I already have two-thirds done, yay!), followed by the epilogue. I hope that doesn't make things too strange.
Praxidicae
-4-
Steve Rogers was engaged in fierce battle with two Skrulls, three Badoons, and some manner of creature that stood a head taller than him, with hands bigger than his head. He had suffered a number of superficial wounds during the skirmish and had just taken a spear-like weapon to the upper thigh when he heard the high-pitched whine of a large amount of energy being summoned to a point just behind and above him. He pivoted somewhat clumsily on his bad leg to position his shield between him and the imminent blast, and he immediately saw a brilliant flash of light that blinded him for a moment. He swung out randomly to try to deflect any enemies who might be taking advantage of his vulnerable state to mount an attack, but he felt only empty air. As his sight gradually returned, he could see that the circle of enemies he had been facing were now lying lifeless, their bodies arranged in a wheel-like pattern around him. Keeping his shield between himself and the unknown threat, Steve peered out above the edge of the vibranium to see what had caused the blast.
Hovering an arm's length above him was a supernatural being - a man, seemingly - whose eyes throbbed with luminous power. The Captain noted that the hairs on his own arms felt like they were raising below the fabric of his uniform, responding to the waves of energy that were radiating from the being that floated placidly above him.
"Who are you?" Rogers challenged him. "Do you serve Thanos?"
The man hanging above offered a coy smile, but he did not speak.
'I think they're friendlies,' Natasha stated over his earpiece. 'They seem to be eliminating our enemies, anyway, so that's promising.'
"That's . . . nice, I guess," Steve replied skeptically. "Wait - - did you say 'they?' You have more of these near your position?"
'I have a blue woman who is going absolutely berserk on a bunch of Skrulls about fifty feet to my left,' Romanov revealed. 'Plus, there is some little black, creepy thing with a lot of teeth that keeps consuming Badoons, which is really, really unpleasant to watch.'
During this snippet of conversation, Rogers noticed that the being that had vanquished his enemies had moved on but that he was still flying upright, his progress slow and deliberate. Whenever a blast connected with his form, it seemed to disappear - passing into him but not through. If Steve was not mistaken, the being's eyes grew more incandescent with every shot that he absorbed, and when he had collected so much energy that the surface of his skin was arcing with white-hot ropes of electricity, he would discharge a wall of power that would eliminate all opponents within a carefully controlled radius.
"Well, I have a guy who can absorb energy and then throw it back at anyone who attacks him," the Captain stated over his communicator. "Thank god he seems to be on our side, because I wouldn't know where to begin to fight something like that." When he had turned back to the stranger's position, he was surprised to see that the man was once again at his side, this time on terra firma.
"I am Maelstrom," the man announced. "Of the Inhumans," he clarified when he read no recognition in the other man's face. When there was still no acknowledgment from the Captain, Maelstrom shrugged. "Suffice it to say that we are currently fighting for a common cause," he said dismissively. "I am looking for the one known as 'Loki,' or sometimes 'Kaal.'"
They were joined at that moment by the blue woman to whom Natasha had referred. She appeared both breathless and angered in equal parts. "Juggernaut says Loki is heading for the compound," she spoke through ragged breaths.
"Good. If possible, I plan to be waiting for him." The Inhuman then took to the air again, moving swiftly toward Thanos' headquarters.
The blue woman looked affronted at being left behind with only Rogers for companionship. Steve tried to soften the tension by extending a hand in introduction. "Steve Rogers," he said with feigned confidence. "They call me 'Captain America.'" When he heard the words out loud, they immediately sounded a little pathetic, and he offered a charming grin to try to salvage his pride.
The woman glared at his hand but did not accept it. "Nebula," she stated indifferently. He noticed an electronic quality to her voice as she spoke. "You're bleeding, Mr. America," she continued just as coldly, nodding to indicate the wound in his thigh. "You might want to have someone look at that."
"It's 'Captain'. . ." he began to say, but he was soon speaking to her back as she retreated from him.
***.**.***
The interior doors opened before Loki completely approached them, and what was revealed to him was overwhelmingly intimidating: there were dozens of powerful beings from across the universe lined up along either side of a very generous aisle, with Thanos and his most trusted lieutenants seated at its head. When the throng caught sight of the faintly glowing shape grasped in the sorcerer's plainly visible hands, all speech and motion among them ceased. There were loud gasps from several members of the gathering, and there were others who could not restrain sated grins from crossing their features. Undeniably, however, every eye in the room was on him.
The sorcerer hesitated at the foot of the walkway and simply willed himself to breathe normally - or at all, as the case may be. He was surrounded by some of the mightiest (and moodiest) of villains in the cosmos, and he was about to walk among them as if he were one of their own. He lifted his chin and straightened his posture, willing a sly but uncaring grin onto his lips as he propelled himself forward, and he concentrated on every step even as he strained to look unaffected. As he walked, Loki could hear the pleased murmurings of the others, although their specific words of praise were not clear to him. It also seemed to him that the others were leaning towards him as he approached the front of the room, and the path before him was being swallowed up in much the same manner as it had been on his journey to the compound, the ranks alongside him closing in until the open ground would eventually be totally consumed. He could nearly feel the eager hands of those around him gravitating towards him, their greedy clutches preparing to swipe out to claim the prize that he now held . . .
"Let him pass!" instructed the Titan in his deep, scolding tone.
The spectators along the aisle receded back into their appointed seats, although the hunger still lingered in their leering gazes.
"If any one of you attempted to use it, you would be consumed before you could draw a wisp of its power," Thanos chuckled, his eyes smoldering with the intensity of his amusement.
And likely his thirst for the power that was now within his reach.
"My Lord," Loki exclaimed in a steady, clear voice that effortlessly filled the room. He fell to one knee just steps from the foot of the Titan's throne and bowed his head in reverence. "I have come to bestow upon you the entity known as the 'Tesseract.' May it accord you with victory proportionate to the glory of which you are worthy." Wow, that sounded like a poor bit of prose even to his own ears. Surely, no one could be buying this charade!
The Titan rose leisurely from his esteemed seat at the fore of the room and bent to hold the sorcerer's chin gently in his hands (which, incidentally, were each the size of the supplicant's entire skull). "I am most appreciative, Kaal," he rumbled, and Loki winced just shy of perceptibly at the use of his prison moniker; it was a blatant reminder of his inferior position within his current company. "You have served me admirably, and you will be rewarded." There was a cagy smirk at the end of this declaration that prophesied the events to come.
Thanos did not move to collect the Tesseract but rather moved aside with a bow, sweeping his gargantuan arm behind him to indicate the platform at his back. It was constructed from a shimmering, glass-like material with a deep indentation pressed into its center, and from this center issued a force field, presumably to dampen and contain the restless energy of the Cube that Loki currently had in his possession. The mage stepped forward and placed the Tesseract into the hollow within as if he were gently releasing the form of a newborn child. As the Cube separated from his grip, it let a few threads of energy linger near his hand as if it were reluctant to be parted from him - as though it were grieving over being abandoned. Loki then backed away from the platform, his head hanging in deference and his hands folded before him.
"My esteemed colleagues!" the Titan began. His rich voice conducted the attention of all those present, even those among their number who themselves had fearsome reputations across most of the cosmos. "I have gathered you here today to witness the rebirth of our universe! My devoted servant has risked all that he holds dear - his name and reputation, in addition to his life - in order to bestow upon us this weapon, which possesses the energy to gain its bearer anything he desires!"
There was an exultant outburst at these words, but all chatter ceased when it was apparent that the Titan intended to speak again.
"Kaal . . . if you would do the honors." Thanos stepped aside with more grace than his bulk should have allowed him to possess.
Loki nodded solemnly and proceeded to train his concentration exclusively on the object before him. He closed his eyes and called out to the Cube, and it immediately answered by emitting a faint glow. After several seconds, the illumination from deep within the Tesseract intensified, and tendrils of energy snaked across its surface in violent waves. As this spectacle began, the platform began to raise as if anchored on invisible tethers far above the vast hall. When it was almost at its peak - mere hands lengths from the ceiling and perched high above the admiring crowd - Loki conducted an extra burst of energy into the object's center, causing a surge of sapphire-tinted force to ripple along the ceiling, and then . . . nothing. The cube pulsed with light but released no further energy.
The Asgardian could feel the vitality draining from him with every passing moment as the Titan continued to extend the silence in a vain effort to heighten the drama of the moment. Please . . . just get on with it!
"The Tesseract contains an almost infinite potential for destruction," Thanos taunted, his gargantuan fingers forming into an emphatic fist. "Its might will sunder entire worlds and effortlessly reform galaxies into realms that will serve my purposes." After a few more strained moments, he finished the sentiment with a wicked grin:
"It's too bad that none of you will be around to witness it."
At last!
Loki finally unleashed the power of the Tesseract as if expelling a long-held breath. In order to prevent the wall of power from travelling outwards from its source unchecked, he needed to thread it among the pillars of the room, as well as past the Titan and his attendants at the head of the stage. The precise control that this endeavor required caused an immediate drain on his own power to the point that he felt a wave of vertigo, and he nearly needed to balance himself against a nearby surface to keep from collapsing outright. Determined not to show that level of weakness in front of this particular crowd, he stiffened his posture defiantly before performing the final mental manipulation that discharged the sum of the energy into finely honed streams of light, the shafts of which then sought out every member of the crowd behind him. Each one barely had time to cry out in horror before its physical form was reduced to a scorch mark along the polished floor.
"It worked!" the Titan exclaimed, the shock in his voice betraying that he was impressed with the thoroughness of the devastation that had been displayed. His triumphant laughter then rebounded off every corner of the virtually empty hall.
***.**.***
With the aid of their curious new allies, the Avengers were able to secure a path to the compound in relatively little time. Steps from the entrance, they found Blackout cradling the deceased body of Vermin, staring mournfully down into his widely open eyes. "He died for me," Blackout whispered, his eerie red eyes tearing over as he spoke. "He placed himself between me and the blast that killed him." Steve Rogers stepped cautiously toward the pair and laid a gentle hand on the Lilin's shoulder, kneeling beside him to show his sympathy. Blackout did not respond to the presence of the other man, continuing to rock Vermin softly in his arms for a time and whispering apologies that were unintelligible to the others. Finally, his movement ceased and both of their bodies stilled. The Lilin then used the pads of two of his cruelly-spiked fingers to gently close the eyes of his friend and ally for the last time. Afterwards, he slowly stood, gradually releasing the other man's body from his grip as he lowered it to the ground. He still looked pensive at the death of his friend, but his chin was protruding in an obstinate gesture. "I want to find Loki," he stated somewhat flatly, and yet there was a finely-honed layer of venom beneath this statement that was being restrained only by his grief.
At that moment, several laser blasts erupted around them, and the group ducked swiftly toward the cover of the nearby bunker. Maelstrom lingered at the exterior of the entryway, hovering above their line of sight. "I'll keep them occupied," he said to the others as he fired a spray of white voltage into the crowd of Skrulls that had been tailing them. "If I do not rejoin you before you find Loki, make certain that he suffers according to his treachery." These final directives were addressed to Blackout and Nebula.
The team made their way down the corridor as swiftly as their injuries and exhaustion would allow them. Surprisingly, Stark was able to keep up with the bulk of the group, although he had been badly injured in his clash with the Kodabaks. There was a clear breach in the armor on the left side of his torso, and he gripped it futilely with his right gauntlet as he struggled to maintain pace with the others. There was some visible blood and, although it did not appear to be flowing freely, Tony continued to grunt and gasp with almost every other step. When they made it to the end of the exterior corridor, they came upon the form of the God of Thunder, one hand tangled in his perspiration-soaked locks. He was pacing back and forth with his hammer gripped desperately in one hand, every visible muscle in his body clenched with fulminant anger.
"Thor!" Phil hailed him as the group approached.
The Asgardian continued to tread back and forth over the same span of ground, his mouth moving occasionally as if he were mumbling to himself. When Phil repeated his name again, there was still no response. Natasha stepped toward the large man cautiously, eventually creeping into his line of sight, and her presence was finally obvious to him evidenced by the way he stopped and made eye contact with the female agent. Despite how enraged he appeared from a distance, she could see that his eyes were brimming with tears. "Hey, Thor," she said gently, moving towards him more boldly than she likely should have. "What's going on? Where's Loki?"
"Loki-" he began, but then his voice began to boil with anger once more so he pressed his lips together and then drifted back to merely distraught. The erratic nature of this emotional turn worried Natasha deeply. Then he surprised her even further by barking out a short, almost manic laugh, the force of which drove the wetness around his eyelids to roll down his cheeks in two brief but distinct rivulets. "Loki has played us all for fools," he said and then laughed again. "He is within the compound, behind an impenetrable barrier . . . " He gave the mentioned dome another exasperated blow with his hammer, and the awful clamor caused Natasha to take several steps back. "He has the Tesseract, and I can only assume that he is taking it to Thanos."
Natasha suddenly noticed Tony at her elbow, still panting and holding his side.
"So, this is it, eh? The end of all things" he wheezed. "Hmmm. Somehow I thought it would be - livelier, somehow."
"'Not with a bang but a whimper'," Banner quoted. He was still trembling slightly from his transformation into his monstrous alter-ego, but his words were steady. "Are we certain that he's taking it to Thanos?"
"When we were on Midgard, Loki revealed to me that Thanos desired the Tesseract in order to eliminate all of his direct competition, leaving him the undisputed King of all the known universe," Thor confessed, grasping the handle of Mjölnir so tightly he seemed to be considering using it on himself as penance for his gullibility. "I aided him in delivering it to the Titan's door!"
"Are we sure that this thing is impenetrable?" Tony asked as he flung himself limply onto a chair in an adjoining alcove. "I mean, perhaps it can't be breached with force, but maybe if we analyze its structure, somehow we could . . ."
"It is finished!" Thor growled impatiently. "Thanos has the Tesseract, and he can move his forces toward your world at any moment he chooses. We are powerless to stop him!" The resignation in his words was obvious despite the volume of his declaration.
A terrible rumbling began suddenly within the structure, and the team could see the slight shifting of the walls as a wave of sound advanced towards them, along with a visible ripple in the ground that knocked some of them off balance as it passed. The disturbance was followed by a rush of bluish-white light that hurtled down the corridor and collided violently with the dome wall. It then crawled up the surface of the barrier before disappearing somewhere above.
"What in the hell was that?" Coulson gasped, righting himself.
"Whatever it was," Steve replied, "I'm willing to bet it wasn't good."
"I've felt that manner of tremor before," Blackout said. "When Loki used the Cube to collapse the Raft."
At that moment, Maelstrom swooped in from the corridor and landed gracefully upright at the center of the group. "The entrance is secure, for a time," he announced. "There are still squadrons about, but they are not an immediate threat." He was speaking only to his own colleagues, essentially ignoring all others in the room. When he finally did make a cursory review of the others around him, he raised an eyebrow as his sight passed over the form of Tony Stark, who was still holding desperately to his seatback and breathing forcefully. "Is he going to be alright?" the Inhuman asked with a hint of revulsion. "He looks . . . ill."
"Him?" Rogers smirked. "Nah, he's fine. He's just tired from all the fighting he did before you arrived." This last statement was almost accusatory in its nature, and the Inhuman's eyes narrowed. However, he was interrupted before he could respond.
"None of this matters," Juggernaut interjected. He had weathered the recent shaking extraordinarily well and remained standing proudly at the rear of the group. "The entire cosmos is about to fall to Thanos, and, regardless of what we attempt, the ending will be the same. I, for one, intend to at least get what I came for: vengeance against that infernal Asgardian!"
In that moment, Tony detected a presence at his back, and the hairs at the nape of his neck stood at attention. He slowly rotated his head until he met the gaze of the absolutely enormous creature that had somehow appeared behind him. "I believe I can convince you otherwise," the gigantic being said. The ominous depth of the its voice rattled the viscera of all of those who were present, leaving each of them feeling both ruffled and somewhat desecrated.
"Wow," Stark declared, shaking off the sense of agitation the sound had caused him. "That was intense. You know, I would totally move several light years to the left if I felt like I could get up right now. You have got to get that vocal rampage of yours under control, my friend."
"You have done quite enough convincing for my tastes already," Nebula spat at the giant. "You knew about his plan to betray us from the beginning, did you not? And you led us all along, the same as he did."
"Yes, I have been culpable in deceiving you to serve his purposes," Apocalypse said. "However, it is not in the manner in which I have presented it to you."
"Come again?" replied Maelstrom, his face slack with surprise. "Do you mean that you have lied to us again?"
The ancient mutant stood completely composed, his arms folded and his eyes bright with amusement. "I do," he stated calmly.
"I do not see where this has any relevance right now," Juggernaut boomed. "We need to find a way through that wall so I can break that traitorous sorcerer's neck before the world ends!"
Beside the chair where Tony sat, there was a small workstation with a minimal screen and a keypad that glowed faintly in the near darkness of the alcove. Apocalypse crossed over to this area now, typing in a series of codes and then waiting patiently while a cone of red laser-like lights scanned his eye. A computer-generated voice then spoke several stilted sentences in a language that none present other than the mutant could comprehend, and then he said two words that were similarly incomprehensible. The computer answered him shortly, and then the sound like rushing air that Thor had heard when the dome lifted repeated itself - only in reverse. Tentatively, the Asgardian reached out a hand to where the dome had been, only to find that this hand passed through it freely.
"The dome - it has been lowered!" he gasped in surprise.
"Alright, Apocalypse, I have had enough!" Nebula snarled. She drew the sword-like weapon at her back and stalked over to him as if she were preparing to attack. "Tell us what is going here!"
"Yes," Maelstrom added, joining her just steps in front of the leviathan, and his eyes began to glow faintly, revealing that he was preparing to tap the energy he was holding within him. "No need to hold back. This is the end of the known universe, after all." His strained tone belied that he was struggling to stay within the boundaries of politeness.
"Yes, it is," Apocalypse responded. "But only for some."
***.**.***
The world before him was swimming violently, and for a moment Loki was convinced he would lose consciousness. Fortunately, the faintness passed, but it left an abject weakness in its wake. He struggled to focus, his mind clouded with the fatigue that was nearly overpowering him, and yet he could still perceive the figure of the Mad Titan sitting before him, laughing in pleasure and in triumph. The Tesseract continued to hover above the room, the intensity of its light waxing and waning as it awaited further instruction from its Master. Just a few more moments and he would have the clarity to finish this undertaking, he thought as he fought back the bile in his throat and the overwhelming desire to wretch. Instead, he used his mind to reach out to his strongest ally, whom he could sense was nearly within the perimeter of the compound .
'Nur,' he communicated to the mutant. 'I need the others in position.'
'It is nearly so,' came the reply almost instantly.
'Now, Nur,' Loki emphasized as he steadied himself on a nearby bench. His surroundings faded ominously in and out of his vision. 'I do not have much time.'
'I will inform you as soon as they are in place,' was the only answer he received.
Thanos stood proudly at the head of the room, a grin of assured victory on his furrowed countenance. He turned unassumingly to his chief lieutenant: "Corvus, it is time to launch the fleet."
At that moment, the Cube on the platform above began to increase in illumination. The change went undetected by those below it until a layer of perfectly smooth energy came bursting out of it, covering the room from end-to-end.
"What is this?" Thanos asked to no one in particular.
Loki receded within himself to the core of his magic, concentrating only on the source of the power inside him. He had never attempted anything of this kind before in his life, but he knew the basic approach; he called all of the forces within himself to a centralized location and then sought out the Tesseract with his thoughts. It answered without hesitation, as if it had been lying in wait to garner his attention once again, and a flow of energy began between the object and the sorcerer.
"What is going on here!" the Titan roared, his words sounding almost a little worried. "Kaal! Stop this immediately!"
There was no response from Loki, but the Cube did provide an answer of sorts: the blanket of energy above the room began to turn. The circular motion was sluggish at first, but its pace quickly increased until it was twisting overhead like a tempest, the mantle of energy undulating restlessly as it moved.
***.**.***
"Please, just please - stop talking, I beg you." Tony looked pale and possibly a little delirious. "That voice of yours is killing me faster than the wound in my side." He spun his chair back towards the other members of the team. "Look, I think I can clear this up in a much faster and much less disturbing fashion."
"Really?" Natasha challenged him. "Are you sure this isn't the blood loss talking?"
"I'm pretty sure," he replied, although his eyebrows creased as if he were harboring some doubt. "When we were downloading the plans for the compound into my suit there were several extra files present. That was what was taking so long, remember?"
The ones who had been in attendance during the incident nodded in agreement.
"Well, what we were downloading were files that Loki intended us to find when his plan was completed - if it was successful, of course."
"What kinds of files?" Bruce inquired, immediately concerned.
"His entire profile from when he was in prison, among other things. Everything he endured and what they did to him after he was released to the custody of Thanos' lieutenants. Ugly, ugly stuff - worse than you could imagine."
"Get to the point, Iron Human," Nebula said impatiently. "I can hear the sounds of Thanos' fleet preparing for deployment."
It was true: the high-pitched moans of starship engines whirring to life was audible within the corridor.
"Well, the last file was a video that Loki made himself, outlining the strategy for his plan. The short version is that he is inside the main assembly hall right now preparing to create a singularity of biblical proportions, which will destroy Thanos, plus his compound and all of his merry men along with him."
"Is that right?" Blackout grunted.
The others all looked to Apocalypse for some hint of confirmation. He nodded wordlessly.
"Wait - wait just a second," Bruce stammered as he tried desperately to get a handle on the situation as he knew it. "He's going to use the Tesseract to create a black hole? Inside the compound? Won't that kill us all?"
"There is no time for a full explanation," Apocalypse said. He pointed one enormous finger toward Maelstrom. "You must come with me." He then indicated Blackout who was lingering skeptically at the back of the group. "You must come as well."
The Lilin scoffed at the mutant's declaration. "Why me?"
"Come, now," the mutant demanded, his voice sounding far more impatient than it had in the first instance, "Or the entire universe will die."
***.**.***
Within the Hall, things were rapidly falling into a state of chaos. Several of Thanos' lieutenants had tried to approach Loki but were repelled by the intense flood of energy that he was channeling from the Cube. The revolution of the energy layer had now accelerated to the point that it was creating a violent tempest, which was beginning to draw everything to its center.
"No matter what you are trying to accomplish with this little rebellion, you will fail!" Thanos roared over the rush of the developing cyclone. He was using his large hands to grip various pillars within the room, steadily making his way toward the sorcerer. "My army is departing for Terra as we speak, and when it falls - as it so easily shall - I vow to you that our next destination will be Asgard!"
Asgard. That word should have meaning to him, but its implication was out of reach, in the world beyond to which he was no longer anchored.
Loki fed the last sizable stream of his magic into the heart of the Tesseract, holding back just enough for his last premeditated act. A blinding flash of radiance emanated from the heart of the Cube, followed immediately by a deafening rumble that shook the walls nearly to their breaking point. The layer's rotation increased by another degree, and even the mighty Titan was forced to pause his advance and cling desperately to the column at his side. Then a voice could be heard somewhere inside Loki's consciousness: 'They are in position. You must act now or all will be lost.' It was a deep voice, almost malevolent, and more than a little unsettling. But what did it mean? He was losing all touch with his corporeality at this point, his mind grasping at small tendrils of his identity but unable to weave them into anything useful. 'Loki!' the voice said again, this time in exasperation. 'You must direct the energy toward Maelstrom immediately or all will be lost!'
'Loki' . . .
Yes, this word had some meaning to him, and it brought him around, albeit briefly. He pulled his consciousness out of the quickly draining core and toward the surface, where he had a faint sense of his body still in place around him. The pull of the savage rotation above was beginning to draw him toward it slowly, and he could feel the friction of his boots on the ground beneath him as he moved gradually inward. He thought over the bodiless voice's instructions once more: 'direct the energy toward Maelstrom' . . .
***.**.***
"I cannot keep this up for much longer," Blackout insisted. His face plainly showed the strain of maintaining a shadow over the entire fleet of starships. Their engines were still activated, but they were paralyzed without the ability to read the instruments or see the controls. Twice they had even heard ships drift into one another's paths and forcibly collide.
"Is this going to work?" Tony asked. He was leaning heavily on Steve as his strength continued to wane.
"Just be sure to remain behind me," Maelstrom instructed. "That level of energy could cause my powers to become . . . . erratic." The Inhuman seemed more than a little apprehensive about the prospect himself.
There were still several battalions of enemies roaming about the moon, and one of them was suddenly noticed to be closing in on them.
"What now?" Natasha asked Steve. "Do we engage them?"
"I think I'm out," Tony breathed, perspiration running in beads along his sideburns. "My part in this is over. I've got nothing left."
"Fair enough," Steve said, understanding. "Natasha, you and I will cut across -"
"No," stated Juggernaut. "I will deal with them."
The others stared at him in silent questioning.
"My friend," Maelstrom informed him. "If you are not behind me then I cannot vouch for your safety. You might be killed."
"I am Juggernaut," he decreed, thumping a hand against his massive chest. "I cannot be stopped, and I cannot be defeated."
"For your sake, I hope you are correct," Maelstrom sighed. The mutant lingered there, watching the Inhuman's face to seek his permission. "Just go, if you must," he said and waved Juggernaut away wistfully with his hand. The mutant threw one satisfied glance back over his shoulder as he thundered in the direction of the line of opponents, his speed increasing as he crossed the open ground. When he was nearly to the enemy squadron, an incredibly bright beam of light broke through the outer wall of the compound and struck Maelstrom from the rear. He continued to hover in the air above the team, but he twisted and struggled brutally as the energy invaded his form. Within seconds, his eyes were so luminous that the humans could not even look upon him without risking damage to their own sight.
When the flow of energy ceased, Maelstrom remained contorted like an abandoned marionette suspended in the air above. Gradually, he smoothed out the lines of his limbs until he resembled his previous form. He looked down at the Lilin. As he opened his mouth to speak, it was filled with the same brilliant illumination as his eyes. Strangely, the quality of his voice was somewhat altered; it flowed out in waves, striking the eardrums of the others with cascades of sound.
"Blackout!" he shouted. "Now!"
The Lilin rescinded the darkness around the fleet and then collapsed to his knees. He was heaving as if he had been lifting impossibly heavy objects, and he went limp with his loss of vitality. Simultaneously, Maelstrom unleashed the unfathomable energy that he had gathered in an unrestrained flood of light and sound that barrelled straight at the line of ships, causing them first to ignite and then to explode in blinding succession, the fire and glow increasing in a rapid deluge across the otherwise blackened sky. A second spatter of force then fanned out haphazardly along the rocky surface of the moon, and, although it was obviously a mere fraction of what had been discharged the first time, it managed to scorch the ground and eliminate all beings in its path, effectively destroying whatever remained of Thanos' mighty armies. After the mayhem subsided, Nebula ran forward to scan the surface of the moon for signs of remaining life.
There was no detectable trace of the Juggernaut.
