Child of Thanos: Part Six: Books

Do you know what is the most dangerous weapon in all the universe, Thor? It is not something that can be forged in the fire of a star, nor is it a suit of metal or a shield made of vibranium.

It is the power of the conviction; the absolute certainty that without a shadow of a doubt you are in the right and everyone else is wrong, and, no matter what, no matter what must be done, there will be victory. This conviction, whatever it may be, stands like a marble pillar in the centre of the mind, unbreakable and unshakeable, and all thoughts must wrap around it, becoming twisted and tangled, but nevertheless, attached to the central conviction which dominates the mind. There is little room for anything else for the conviction demands absolute loyalty and devotion; everything else becomes secondary to carrying out the mission.

And yet there is a kind of cool pleasure to having such focus, to be freed from the fires of doubt and uncertainty and fear, to know who you are and what you want from life, to have a singular, clear end-goal in mind and with the confidence that you cannot fail.

Unwavering conviction is also highly attractive. People love to have a cause to fight for: a war, animal rights, politics, or even over as something as idiotic as wanting "justice" for a badly written TV show. People need a purpose whatever it may be. People also love simplicity. So, it is all too easy to snare people in a net by baiting them with a simplistic solution to all of life's problems, to win their undying loyalty and have them follow every order issued without question. The bait becomes exceptionally shiny and attractive to some if is presented in such a way as to make the target feel special, that only a select few possess the intelligence and wisdom to understand the cause and what must be done. Anyone who disagrees with them is a fool.

You're giving me that look again: the one where your face is trying to suppress the judgement and pity, while wondering if I'm aware of what I am saying, but is failing miserably and only serves to make you look weird. For the record, you asked me for a honest account and I'm giving it to you. If I were manipulated and brainwashed at all by the Black Order, then I'd want you to understand what a simple trick it is, that it could to happen to anybody.

And may I remind you that some years ago you were absolutely certain that invading Jotunheim was the correct thing to do, very nearly resulting in a war? It only took the smallest of pushes from me for you to set your mind upon it. You wanted to do it from the moment we discovered the Jotuns in the vault, all it took was for me to inform you that you were right. It was that simple, that easy.

Do not look too guilty, brother. A short time later I also suffered from the same conviction, that wiping out all Frost Giants, committing genocide, would be a good thing to do with no negative consequences for me whatsoever. And this is in spite of being raised with the belief that killing in cold blood, away from the battlefield, is evil, wrong and highly dishonourable. And in spite of watching you being banished by Father for only killing about thirty Jotuns.

You knew that going to Jotunheim was forbidden and would probably cause a war. I knew, deep down, that genocide would not make me your equal in Odin's eyes. But, we both chose to ignore the voice of reason, or it was simply drowned out by the strength of our convictions, because we believed that we were right and thatthe crimes and murders we committed were justified! The sons of Odin can do whatever they like, right?

As I said, don't bother to wallow in your guilt, Thor, there is no point in it. You're a different person now with the invaluable benefit of experience under your belt. You're the one who told me that growth is important and you have grown. Apart from your hair. It seems to be getting shorter with – ow!

So, you see now how the most dangerous of people are those who are the most certain, the ones who won't take no for an answer, who are completely unable to consider if they might just be wrong to believe what they do, and are willing to do anything in order to be proved right? Even by killing billions?

And as for me, what did I learn? Not much, to be honest. I simply relearnt old lessons. Mainly, don't trust people.

Moving on, the next time I woke up, I found that a small pile of books had been left by the bed. It was an innocent enough sight, but I would never get used to the idea of someone creeping into my room whenever they felt like it. Fully aware that I was being watched on camera, I picked the books up, dumping them onto the bed and inspected the titles. And then I did what do best. I read.

I read through the book as quickly as I could. It was all a load of old tosh. But, at least, some of my questions were finally answered. They had spoken of wanting to save the universe, but hadn't specified from what or how. Now I knew.

According to them the universe was in need of saving from over population. True. And not really what I had been expecting. I'd been imagining something along the lines of Lord of the Rings, and, yes, I know you've not read them. Don't worry about it. I like to make references for my own amusement and imagine that someone out there would understand.

The books also claimed that there are not enough resources to go around, it claimed. Wrong. There are enough resources, but they lay in the hands of the richest 1% of the universe e.g. Asgard.

Imagine how different the Nine Realms would have looked if we had just shared out even the smallest fraction of our gold or offered up our technology. Peace might have prevailed for once instead of there being constant wars every time we turned our backs.

But, was there one single mention of better resource management among the pages? Nope. Instead it waffled on for a hundred pages or so about all the horrors that would befall planets should their populations continue to grow as their resources shrank. And with some very questionable statistics thrown in and a whole lot of extremely graphic depictions of people starving and being cramped together in tiny spaces, I knew that was holding a fine piece of propaganda in my hands.

So, what was the Black Order's solution to this tricky and complex problem? What would their great Thanos have them do?

Although, the book did not explicitly say so, and going by what I saw on Tri's planet, it was heavily implied that nothing less than slaughtering half of the universe's population would suffice.

Don't get me wrong, Thor, I couldn't care less about the rest of the universe. Any outrage I felt was purely intellectual rather than moral.

For starters, how were they even trying to achieve this goal? Simply travelling from planet to planet, massacring the people and then moving on? Hardly efficient. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but the universe is quite a big place, so simply bringing balance to one planet at a time just isn't going to work. Plus, like I just said, the universe is huge, but the Black Order is tiny. Eventually, the universe would notice them. How would they win such a battle? Them vs the rest of the universe. These people were destined to lose.

The other books were even worse, if that were possible, but much more informative and entertaining. I loved them. These were about Thanos himself, autobiographies written by Ebony, I suspected. Turns out he's not a god, but a Titan, but he would very much like to be a god and enjoy the universe's unthinking obedience. They talked briefly about his childhood, how he was this misunderstood genius and how planet Titan fell apart because no one would listen to him. Fact or real, I drank up every detail and stored them away in my memory.

Ah, you have you trusty notebook ready. Why write it down when you could just read them for your yourself? There you are. Did you expect anything less from me?

After I had finished, and fully saturated with literary garbage, I was burning to leave the room and go exploring. I tried the door and was thankful that it opened for me. I had half expected it to be locked.

The doughnut ship was vast and as you might expect, not built or designed for comfort. It was rather warmer than was comfortable for me, but I could do nothing to let on about this, what with being Logi of the Wildfire. I was anxious to find the bridge, steal as many access codes as I could, and work out how to pilot it – just in case. And after that I'd planned on finding the engine room, stealing as many schematics as I could, and working out how to sabotage the ship – just in case.

However, I never made it to either place. I had just located the elevator and discovered that there was an ugly monster inside. Tall, humanoid and with six arms, all bulging with muscles, it snarled at me as though it wasn't pleased to see me.

I blew out my cheeks. "Fine. I'll take the next one."

But the creature wasn't having any of it. It stepped out of the elevator, arms flexing, mouth stretched wide. I summoned a flame into my hand, ready to hurl it into its face.

"Outrider, stand down," a cool female voice ordered.

I flinched as Supergiant floated straight through me to wave the Outrider back into the elevator. It felt like my vital organs had temporarily been put into stasis before suddenly jumping back to life again. The Outrider silently obeyed Supergiant, but not before flicking it's serpent tongue at me. So I flicked it the bird. Equal exchange.

"The Outriders are vital to our mission," Supergiant said, floating a little way above my head. "It sensed you snooping about and so it came to investigate. They're extremely loyal. Well, that's how we program them to be."

As always, Supergiant had an ethereal feel to her appearance, flickering between being solid and ghost-like. Her cold, black eyes were like two marbles, staring at me unblinkingly.

I snuffed out the flame. "Ah, yes, the mission to resolve the overpopulation problem. They must be invaluable to you. Thanos was indeed wise and generous to offer you such an army. And I do not snoop!"

I saw the faintest of smiles flicker across her blue face, although the eyes remained just as hard as ever, and knew that I'd said the correct thing. I figured that as long as I praised Thanos with every other breath then I could get away with anything.

She floated down the corridor saying, "There is none who is greater than my father. I know that you've read the books. What do you think of him?"

I had no choice but to follow after her.

"A breath of fresh air," I answered. "I've seen far too many people go without the necessities: food, water, shelter, medicine. I've seen innocent children drinking from puddles and going to bed with empty stomachs. Something I never want to see again. But, never before I have come across someone with the good sense, the courage, to state the obvious: that there are too many people in the universe. It is a harsh truth, maybe, but sometimes to you have to be cruel to be kind. We must do what we can to lower those numbers, no matter what the cost."

Supergiant came to a sudden halt. "Cruel to be kind? Killing is never cruel, Logi. Fun, maybe, but not cruel. Living on the other hand, now that is cruel. My father has promised me the honour of being slain by his very own hand once the mission is over. I live for nothing else; I live to die."

I felt a small chill run down my spine. The woman was unhinged. It's common enough to enjoy murder, but to wish it upon yourself by your own father is something else.

I kept my face as still as a mask, so as to hide my discomfort.

"The book said that Thanos has rescued many children. You were most fortunate to be chosen out of so many. Not just for the Black Order, but to become one of his." I was sure to inject a longing tone into my voice.

The subject of adoption was not something I wanted to discuss, but it had to be done if I were to uncover more information and to make myself appear to be more trustworthy.

"What was your father like?" Supergiant asked in a soft voice which didn't quiet suit her.

Inwardly I smiled. We were both mining each other for information. Throwing titbits at one another to see what we would gobble up.

"Which one?" I said, bitterly, this time no affectation was required. "I murdered my biological father. Well, every son kills his father, as the saying goes. And as for my adopted father, he despised me. He took me purely for his own gain. It had nothing to do with love."

I was ashamed to feel hot tears prickling in my eyes, but for once I didn't try to stop them. I had to be seen to be broken. What? Oh, fine, I admit that I was broken. I was forever alternating between states of numbness, horrific emotional agony, and rage, and therefore was easy pickings for carrying out the will of the first group of strangers I came across and who offered me even the smallest amount of sympathy. Happy?

Supergiant had lowered herself just enough to wrap her arms around my neck and pressed her forehead to mine.

I gasped as feeling of fire swamped my mind, burning out every memory and thought. Replacing them was a vivid range of images of a universe at peace, gloriously empty and thriving. It looked pretty fake to me, but all cynicism was overridden by Supergiant pushing feelings of peace and adoration into me. It was awful And at the centre of it all was the one they called Thanos. He was sitting alone in a hut watching the sun rise. It was only a fleeting image, but it was enough for me to get a taster of how much Supergiant adored and loved the titan.

I wrenched myself away, feeling disorientated and dizzy. "What was that?"

"Just a hug," Supergiant replied simply. "With our vision for future thrown in." She licked her top lip. "I wish I were allowed to consume your mind, Logi. I'm sure you'd be delicious. Of course, if you prove to be not as useful as Corvus thinks you could be then maybe I will..."

"I will be indispensable to your cause," I said, hurriedly. "You can rely on me."

They really couldn't.

"Then follow me to the training hall. Corvus wants to fight you."

AN: Thanks for reading.