A/N-With this chapter, we begin to see where in the MCU timeline we are while setting the stage for Taylor's journey to begin.

Chapter Three: The Demon

Two diurnal cycles later, in the depths of the sleeping shift, Swan heard the faint shift of clawed feet against her floor. She opened her eyes and saw the dim gleam of her Other's cybernetic implants in the darkness.

"I beg forgiveness, Mistress," the Other said with a deep bow.

Swan sat up; the light globe quickly illuminated the room as it sensed her wakefulness. "What is it?"

"Eldest summons you. Mighty Thanos holds court, and would have you attend."

"I come."

"Eldest instructs you to come armed and armored."

"Very well."

The Other bowed and left the room.

"Fetch my under armor," she said to her attendant servitor. The small, six-legged servitor skittered away as Swan entered her washroom and began to prepare herself. She did so quickly, not wishing to keep her father waiting. The servitor skittered back quickly with her under armor. She pulled the single-piece body glove on before she stepped into her main armor.

The suit system activated and closed around her back and wings. She pulled her vambraces and boots on, then her helm. Her thruster pack fit low over her back, secured in its cradle by the armor itself, and her great sword slid home in the sheath built into the pack.

When she left her chambers, she was surprised to find Maw waiting for her. He nodded approvingly. "You were hasty-good. Father was not expecting the delegation."

"Will I need to defend him?"

"No. They come seeking his favor. This way; we will enter from the lower level."

"As you say."

She followed the eldest of the Black Order down gold-infused chita stone steps. She could see her father on his golden throne in the distance. The throne hovered a distance from the petitioning stone where their unexpected guests had gathered. She searched across the field until, against the lower pad, she saw a Kree Accuser docked at the palace shipyard.

Maw led her to what looked like a treacherous series of smaller floating stones. At a glance, it appeared as if the lightest touch would send them flying away. In truth, they were all grav-locked together.

He levitated over the spaces easily-Swan followed with flaps of her wings and the nullgrav of her repaired armor, until they reached a point just off the side of the petitioner's stone. The acoustics delivered the words of her father's petitioners as clearly as if she stood beside them.

"The war with the Nova Empire has slowed to a standstill because of this demon. While the Skrull are able to fight back with the demon's help, we cannot do our part to keep the Nova Corps from interfering in your efforts!"

Maw nodded to Swan, and then floated on his telekinesis onto the stone in front of where father's throne hovered. Swan took a deep breath before flapping her wings and leaping up until she joined him on the opposite side. She took her position on her father's right and stood facing the party of Kree that had come to petition her father.

The leader stood in the long, dark ceremonial gown of a Kree Accuser. He held his Cosmi-Rod in his hand like a hammer-topped staff. Behind him stood other Kree, most blue skinned, though a couple were pale skinned almost like Swan herself.

The Accuser glanced from Maw to her, and in his charismatic eyes she saw recognition. Though she did not know it at the time, a tactical drone had recorded her battle with Augulux the Brave. Video of the battle was disseminated across the cosmos.

From his golden throne, Thanos leaned forward intently. "This demon of yours-show me."

The Accuser leaned his cosmi-rod outward, and from it the air lit with a large, high-fidelity hologram. Swan watched as a figure that glowed like a star shot up from a purple-green planet as fast as any missile. The figure blasted warheads from orbit using photon bursts from her bare hands, and when the feminine figure got close to the Kree Accuser warship, she somehow accelerated and blasted through the hull itself.

Swan had never seen anything so beautiful, or so dangerous. Kree warships were strong enough to challenge all but the most powerful of her father's Q ships.

Still the hologram played, showing other scenes of the glowing female easily destroying Kree forces on the ground. "Tell me about her," Thanos said.

From the delegation behind the Accuser, one of the pale-skinned infiltrators stepped forward. As far as bipeds went, he was a handsome man with striking yellow eyes. He bowed his head. "I am Yon-Rog, Commander, Starforce. The demon is named Vers. She was a Starforce warrior who turned traitor to assist the Skrulls. We believe she was empowered by an artifact one of our researches used. An object called the Tesseract."

Thanos leaned back on his throne. "I see."

Swan heard in those two words her father's interest, and suddenly she knew why she was there. This demon could destroy ships with ease-therefore only a being equally powerful could be a challenge to her.

Maw spoke the question Swan knew father wanted to ask. "Do you know where this object is? If it is capable of turning a Kree into such a weapon, would you not wish to possess it?"

Yon-Rog bowed his head. "Starforce was unable to obtain the object. We believe it was on planet C-53 twenty years ago, but the Skrulls and Vers almost certainly moved it. We looked for it later, but were unable to locate it."

With that, he bowed and stepped back behind the Accuser with the rest of the delegation.

Thanos sat still upon his throne, staring down at the Kree while he thought. Swan knew he did not care about the demon named Vers. Nor, really, about the Kree. They were a large, powerful empire whose belligerent nature helped keep the Nova Corps away from the crusade. He would help them destroy the Nova Empire, and then he would in turn destroy them and purge their heavily populated worlds.

Sixty million Agulla prompted his action. What about fifty trillion Kree?

"Do you know where this creature is?" Father asked.

"Yes," the Accuser said.

"If I help you, you understand, Ronen, that you will owe me. Correct?"

The Accuser stood and stared intently at Thanos. He was taller than his fellow Kree by a fair margin-augmented to the fullest extent of his people's capability. Swan knew from her reading of their occasional allies that the Accusers served the same role to their Empire that she and her fellow Black Order served for Thanos. They were destroyers of worlds.

Before Thanos, the Accuser looked small.

"So be it," the Accuser said in a heavy tone. "The Supreme Intelligence has decreed that Vers must die. If my owing you a favor is the price, then I will do so."

Thanos leaned back on his throne, satisfied. "Very well. I will lend you Black Swan, the youngest but most powerful of my children. You have seen her work?"

"I have seen," the Accuser stated. "Augullux was known to us." He nodded directly to Swan. "A worthy fight."

Not sure what to say, Swan opted instead to nod back.

Thanos waived his hand. "This creature that haunts your sleep is no fleet. So no fleet will accompany you. I grant you no ships nor armies. Instead, my daughter will travel with those of you who know this Vers best so that she may hunt the demon down and destroy her."

The Accuser didn't look particularly pleased. Behind him, the yellow-eyed Yon-Rogg bowed. "I am leading a team of Starforce that has been dedicated to hunting Vers down. She will be a welcome addition."

The Accuser never took his eyes from Thanos. It was both a challenge, and an acknowledgment that Thanos' words were the only ones that mattered. "Agreed."

"So be it." Thanos turned to look at Swan. "Go, Daughter. Kill this Vers. Learn from her all you can of this power, and then return to me."

Swan bowed her head. "I shall, Father."

~~Titanomachy~~

~~Titanomachy~~

Since her waking, Swan had never been separated from Father or her siblings. While she felt some nervousness, a small part of her exulted. As she fell in with the mostly blue-skinned Kree at her father's command, she couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement at the opportunity to go out into the broader universe.

"Shall I call you Black Swan?"

The question broke her out of her thoughts. She turned and looked into the yellow eyes of the pale-skinned commander, Yon-Rog. "Swan is fine."

"Good." Like all Kree, Yon-Rog looked like a fit and aesthetically pleasing specimen of his race. Their society was too regimented for any to be otherwise. If her reading was true, the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree did not permit anything but perfection to even be born.

They had to walk several minutes to reach the platform where her father permitted guests to land or dock. The Anvil-shaped Accuser hung just off the platform. But on the landing platform itself she saw a smaller, obviously military vessel. Dark green and gray, its hull looked slick with various anti-detection shielding. It was only sixty meters in length, but she spotted multiple plasma cannons and missile launchers.

"Stealth features?" She guessed.

"Yes," Yon-Rog said with a wry smile. "The Helion-type ships are designed for infiltration and transport. By your pardon?"

The commander turned to Ronan. "Thank you for your assistance, Ronan."

"Thank me by getting the job done," Ronan declared. He turned and walked briskly away toward his waiting shuttle. He did not acknowledge Swan. The rest of the Kree in their delegation left after the departing Accuser.

"Accusers are not ones for niceties," Yon-Rog noted. "If you'll accompany me? My insertion team is at Hala. The Supreme Intelligence determined it was wiser to limit the number of Kree we sent to petition Thanos."

Unsure what to say to such a statement, she chose instead merely to nod as she followed the Kree toward his ship. He led her to a ramp under the nose of the vessel, which rested on supports low against the Chita stone plating of the hangar. All around, the servant species of Thanos worked to prepare his vast war machine for the next Purge.

She paused at the ramp of the Kree ship, but only for a second. Ducking her head, Swan folded her wings tightly against her back and followed Yon-Rogg into the craft.

It felt cramped. The low ceiling gave her only a few inches of clearance for her head. The narrow fuselage provided seating for ten, with weapons storage on either side of each seat. She followed Yon-Rogg to the cockpit of the small fighter, but realized that with her wings she could not fit in the small seats.

"I'm afraid it will be a few hours before we hit the first jump point," Yon-Rogg called over his shoulder from the pilot's seat.

"Yes. There are no jump points into or near Sanctuary."

Yon-Rogg nodded, glanced back at her briefly, and then began skillfully piloting the ship. She barely felt anything as it lifted from the landing platform and flew out into open space that had been swept clean of any objects by the nova that destroyed Chita Prime. Soon enough, the ship was set on its course. Yon-Rogg turned his seat around entirely to face her.

"That is extraordinary armor," he noted. "The ship noticed that you appear to weigh almost six tons."

"I apologize, I forgot to re-activate my null-grav generator." She did so, reducing the weight of her armor and sword.

The ship beeped something that made Yon nod. "Yes, that lowered power consumption considerably. Thank you. May I ask what it's made of?"

"The armor and sword were forged from neutronium alloy," she said.

The Kree studied her for a long moment, his face blank. "Neutronium."

"An alloy of it, yes. The blade has a higher percentage than the armor."

He tilted his head and studied her. "If I may ask, Swan, how strong are you?"

"I am as strong as my father needs me to be."

He smiled at her. "Of course. Since you are our honored guest, may I interest you in any food? We keep the Helion well stocked for long missions."

"I have never tried Kree food."

"Oh, we have more than just Kree Cuisine," Yon-Rogg said with a mischievous smile. He stood from his seat. "The cosmos is quite…cosmopolitan after all. We have Cuisine from multiple member worlds of the Kree Empire, as well as a few from the Nova Empire. Come, let me show you."

It was an odd thing, Swan thought, to sit at a narrow bar on the end of a small warship and eat alien food served by a complete stranger. If she were not there at her Father's best, it might almost feel like a leisure voyage.

She found Kree food to be like what she read of Kree life—highly regimented and bland. Even Yon agreed. But the foods she tried from the Nova Empire burst with flavor. Some were astonishingly spicy, some sickly sweet. But everything had a strong, compelling flavor that the Kree cuisine intentionally omitted.

"The Kree Empire had an unfortunate run-in with the Agulla fourteen years ago," Yon-Rog said over his own collection of food sample packs. "We are a large Empire, and though I think we possess many good qualities, the Kree are aggressive in our diplomacy. We started a fight, thinking they were a weak, primitive species that could service us. Ahl-Agulla produced the most breath-taking pearls in the galaxy, and their water silk was regarded as some of the finest cloth available."

"You lost."

Yon-Rogg snorted and shook his head. "Lost implies we put up a fight. There was no fight. The Agulla destroyers blasted our Accuser warships from the skies, and their warriors slaughtered ours so quickly we didn't even have time to establish a command base on their surface. We retreated and then sued for peace."

"You were there?"

He shrugged, then rubbed his chin. "It is my honor to serve the Empire. I was there, and I've been many places besides. I have served in Starforce for forty years now, and I can expect another twenty before I am allowed to retire. It was hard seeing so many of my fellows fall, and it was worse to know the loss was due to our own arrogance."

Swan tasted a fried root, enjoying the saltiness of it. "I am surprised to hear a Kree admit to arrogance."

Rather than laugh, he actually sobered. "Vers was a product of our arrogance. I personally gave her the transfusion that saved her life. She was touched by something that made her more than Kree. The Supreme Intelligence thought it could control her; I thought so as well. While she served on this ship, she was a fine Kree warrior. But the moment the Skrulls got their claws into her, they…." He stopped talking. Then he stood and began disposing of the various containers.

"This Vers. You care for her."

His back was turned toward Swan, but she could see from his shoulders how her words affected him. "Yes," he said. "Which makes the betrayal hurt worse. A friend and colleague—a sister of my crew—has since murdered over five thousand Kree, and who knows how many others. And yet, if I could have her back, I would."

The ship beeped. He glanced toward the cockpit on the far side of the ship. "We're coming up on our jump point."

He quickly cleaned up, taking her emptied packets as well. He even took a little wipe and cleaned the eating surface. Only then did he make his way forward. Swan followed, finding herself a little less apprehensive on the strange ship.

Though she could not fit in any of the seats within the cockpit, she could stand just outside it and stare out at the star field. Yon worked the controls with practiced ease; she watched as he did so, memorizing the control lay out of the ship. She could read Kree, just as she could read a dozen other languages from the more advanced species of the galaxy.

Ahead, space itself seemed to shatter into an impossible pattern of polygons. The Helion burst forward into one of them. Light from energies beyond understanding flashed around the craft, harkening to the very creation of existence, before moments later they emerged into normal space.

"Two more jumps," Yon said without looking back.

Twice more space disassembled itself, leaving her trembling with the need to understand what it was that made her heart beat every time they passed from real space into the teleportation network.

Then, in moments that spanned the galaxy, they emerged over an emerald planet. A young, bright white-yellow star illuminated continents filled with constant urban growth. She saw oceans, but they were shaped in patterns that suggested a means of weather control.

She saw vast tracts of green land, but like the oceans the tracts were shaped and surrounded by the unending sprawl of a city that seemed to encompass the world.

It amazed her that Father had not come to purge the world already. Then a cynical part of her whispered, He wouldn't win. The unified Kree Starforce could defeat his forces in a pitched battle from numbers alone.

Just the rebellious thought alone was enough to make her head hurt. She dismissed the traitorous thought and leaned forward to get a better view as Yon-Rogg effortlessly piloted the ship through thick lines of orbital traffic. She spotted hundreds of defense stations in a grid pattern over the world that bristled with weapons emplacements. She doubted that Father's entire fleet of Q-ships could even make planet-fall.

Though there were many war ships, she also saw thousands of civilian ships of nearly every description. "I've read that even though the Kree are at war with Nova Prime, you still engage in trade with them."

"Through intermediaries, but yes," Yon-Rogg said. "Trade is the lifeblood of interstellar civilization."

They dropped into the atmosphere—a thick atmosphere that tended toward a green-blue shade under the white of their distant star. Yon flew the ship toward a beautifully built hangar with the starburst symbol of Starforce set over the main opening.

They settled down on one of a hundred waiting pads, and through the canopy she saw dozens of other ships almost identical to this one. Walking toward them she saw a group of Kree in Starforce uniforms, each bristling with weapons.

"As soon as they're loaded, we'll be on our way," Yon-Rogg said.

"Of course." Swan felt she did a good job hiding her disappointment. She knew her mission, and that she represented her father, but she would have loved to be able to explore this new world.

As if the Supreme Intelligence would allow a daughter of Thanos access to their world. That realization settled into a quiet sadness. The Kree were not allies; Yon-Rogg was not her friend. Thanos and the Black Order had neither. They were only tools to be used until it was time to purge them as well.

Still, I would have liked to see their green spaces.

The ramp opened below. Swan stood as the secondary airlock opened and the rest of Yon-Rogg's team arrived. There were five in all-four males and one female. The two largest were also the most diametrically opposite in appearance.

"Black Swan, may I introduce you to my team?" Yon-Rogg said as the Kree warriors saw her for the first time and froze. The commander quickly took control of the meeting and pointed to the first of the two large warriors. "This is Bron-Char, a fifty-year veteran warrior and an expert in all melee weapons."

The huge, white-bearded blue warrior appeared to be heavier-set than all the others. He bowed his head in silent greeting.

Yon pointed to the next tallest, who was thinner but just as strong-looking. Brilliant, ice-blue eyes looked at her from a bald head wrapped in cybernetic enhancements. His skin was a rich, dark color that marked him apart from most blue-skinned Kree.

"Korath," Yon explained. "He suffered significant injuries at the hands of Vers, but now stands stronger than ever."

The tall, power-looking Kree met Swan's gaze squarely. "I saw your battle against the Agulla," the warrior declared. "Be warned. Vers is many times stronger."

"Yes," Swan said simply.

Yon introduced the rest-Att-Las, who was the last of the original team to fight Vers, and their two newer members, Vin-Tak and the sole female, Arr-Timas.

"Thanos has granted us Swan's service to hunt and destroy Vers," Yon said to his team. "Now that introductions have been made, get your gear stowed and we will be on our way."

Swan felt extraneous as she watched the five warriors quickly and efficiently store their gear with practiced ease. She found a corner and stood there quietly. Arr-Timas left the others and moved forward to assume the pilot's seat that Yon used earlier. In moments, the ship was out of the hangar and piercing the lines of civilian and military traffic both in atmosphere and beyond, until abruptly they jumped into empty space.

Rather than jump again, Yon stepped into the center of the cargo space. He held his hand palm-up, and from the glove of his uniform appeared a detailed hologram of a subsector of space. Swan did not recognize it, which meant it was in one of the many sectors she hadn't studied yet.

"Latest intelligence puts Vers here, in Sector DZ-492," he said. "Two hundred systems, but only forty inhabited worlds and moons."

The heavy, older Kree named Bron-Char chuckled darkly. "That's still a lot of real estate to cover, Commander. We trained her in infiltration-she won't be found unless she wishes to be."

Yon-Rogg nodded. "Command agrees. We have had a plan in place for some time, but lacked the tools necessary to even hope for success." He nodded toward Swan. "With our guest, we may have that tool."

He manipulated the hologram with minute movements of his fingers. "Planet DZP-92 has been confirmed through intelligence as containing a Skrull settlement. The native species actually welcomed them, the fools. It will only be a matter of time before the native species find their leadership completely infiltrated by the shapeshifters. Which is why we're sending in Accusers."

"And this Vers has allied herself with the local Skrulls?" Swan asked, confirming her suspicion.

Yon smirked at her, and nodded. "If we flush her out, you attack. If not...the world's been compromised by the Skrull infestation and needs to be purged anyway."

"Play the footage you showed my father," Swan asked.

Yon complied. She moved closer to the hologram; the other Kree made away for her as she watched Vers move effortlessly through space. "She ignores inertia," she said. "Her power grants complete control over her acceleration. She will have the advantage in movement. While I can function easily in vacuum, my flight pack is still subject to physics."

"That flight power of hers is inconvenient," Att-Lass said. He had a wry smile as he spoke, and she remembered he'd fought the demon before.

"You have all been hunting this creature. How many times have you found her?"

Bron-Char cleared his throat, looked around the table, and then spoke. "The finding part is not hard, Lady Swan. We've hunted her down on at least seven occasions."

Vin-Tac, a Kree of average build, raised his hand. "I'm replacing the warrior lost on the last occasion," he said.

"Who was a replacement for the warrior lost three encounters ago," Yon said. "She toys with us, Swan. She enjoys the game, I think. She is so much more powerful than anything we can bring to bear against her that she has begun acting out of contempt."

"Arrogance," Swan said, recalling their earlier conversation.

"Exactly. She is smart-very smart. She's had training from the best. But for the past two decades she's been all but untouchable. Even the best warriors can grow lax without challenge."

Across from the commander, Alt-Lass nodded while Bron-Char ran a hand over his long, luxurious beard.

"Can you provide me footage of all your encounters with her?"

He complied. "Play at three times speed," she added.

The hologram began speeding forward. The fidelity was such that there was no image degradation, which allowed her to study the footage in detail. She watched without intent, letting any patterns that might exist slip into her mind without prejudice or expectation.

It did not take long for the pattern to emerge. It was a mere percentage at first-a measly fifty-eight percent of the time. But as the engagements repeated over the course of decades, the percentage increased as the demon encountered no negative consequence to following her natural inclination.

"She is left-handed," Swan said.

While some of the other Kree appeared surprised, Yon nodded. "She often favors the leftmost ship of any formation for attack," he said.

"In her last five encounters against an Accuser, she did so four times," Swan agreed. It did not surprise her that Yon caught the pattern. The leader of Kree society was an artificial intelligence. "When you engaged her in battle, regardless of the end result, what did you find was the best way of catching her?"

"She walks into ambushes intentionally," Yon said with a bemused shake of his head. "Because she has yet to encounter one that provided any threat. Whole fleets have been destroyed, and she flew away without a scratch."

"Because energy weapons cannot harm her," Swan said. She reached up and with the black tips of her fingers paused and expanded an image of Vers being hit with a particle cannon blast that could have leveled a city block.

She slowed the speed down and traced it with her fingers. "It is amazing," she admitted aloud. "Her power manipulates the underlying fabric of space itself. It is not just that she can ignore inertia-her power is able to negate and even draw power from it. See here-that blast has at minimum 200 terajoules of directed energy in the form of hyper accelerated particles. But you can actually see from the fluctuation of her personal field that all of the particles with mass never reach her skin. And any pure energy beams are instantly absorbed. You cannot kill her with energy or particle weapons."

"We've tried kinetic energy weapons," Bron-Char noted. "They knock her about, but don't kill her."

"Because the amount of her resistance will increase with the speed of the attack," Swan said. "And because her power makes her so strong and fast...yes. I can see your frustration. She is remarkable." She fell into contemplative silence as she considered the enemy she faced.

"Lady Swan?"

Blinking, she saw Bron-Char looking at her intently. The other Kree did so as well.

"Summon your Accusers," she told them. "I shall be on the left-most ship of their formation."

"I'll alert Ronan. It will take the Accusers two hours to arrive. When they do so, they'll prepare to bring you aboard."

"Not in the ship, Commander. On it. This Vers is powerful and fast enough that I may have only one clear shot at her. I'll be on the outer hull, and you'll be nearby waiting for my command."

Vin-Tak cleared his throat. "Do you need a holographic space suit?" He sounded earnest, as if about to offer his own.

Swan bit back an urge to smile and pet the man. "Thank you, but I don't require a suit in vacuum. I suggest we be about our mission."

"Agreed," Yon said. "I'll make the calls."

A/N: Next Chapter-an unstoppable force meets and immovable object. And everything changes.