An Infinity Stone enables the wielder to command complete control over a given natural domain, limited only by his or her imagination and durability in channeling the truly infinite energies contained within the stones. The Other had been the most creative of Thanos' minions, but he knew the risks inherent to using any Infinity Stone and allowed himself to be limited by them. Until his final, spectacular failure, the Other had won success after success for his master, but never true glory.
The Other's limitations were never so patent as now. Sifting through the accumulated memories and knowledge of both their executed comrade and their lost Asgardian prince was a rather frustrating task for Thanos and his Children. The Other had used the Mind Stone to retrieve virtually every one of the Puppet's memories in the early days of his experiments. The stone had allowed him to do so quite easily, duplicating the vast recall network of the Puppet's living brain and mapping it into the Other's host mind. The experience would have been much like a dreamed version of the Puppet's former life. Unfortunately for the Black Order, dreams fade rapidly from the consciousness as they meld with the unconscious. The Other in mere instants would have known everything the Puppet did and understood the Puppet's memories in a way Ebony never would. Simultaneously, he would have lost any ability to comprehend how much he had learned. How much was new. He would have easily recognized Loki's personal experiences as not his own, but everything else, all that vast stored knowledge, even particular ways of thinking amassed over thousands of years... all of that would have seemed simply his own, even if he had no memory of learning it.
Only the Mind Stone would have allowed the Other to perceive the difference between his native thoughts and the memories he had stolen. The Other had not dared tamper with his own mind more than necessary though. He had used the stone to skim the surface of the Asgardian's memories, a scoping review for information immediately pertinent to Thanos' goals and plans. The vast majority of his stolen knowledge had remained unexplored however, unceremoniously dumped into the Other's own memory, along with an abundance of headaches and de ja vous. The damage was obvious and irreparable when Ebony delved into the Other's head. It was as if every revelation he had learned with the stone had come by surgically excising any contradicting notions he had had originally. Even as he first scourged the Other's mind, Ebony had identified thousands of broken pathways of thought the creature would never have been aware of losing. It was a chilling lesson on both the endless potential and the dangers of dealing with an Infinity Stone.
They were now without the aid of the Mind Stone at all. Thus, they were relying heavily on Ebony Maw's careful telepathy to speed up the process at hand. He had spent over a month now in sessions of telepathically linking his mind to those of his siblings, using the mental reserve of all six to consume and understand the memories both of the Puppet and of the Other. With the consecutive memory transfers, it was more like reading through a disorganized library than reliving someone else's life, unfortunately. The task would have been easier had they kept the Other alive to help, so they could surf his mind's pathways, associations, and connections between disparate thoughts rather than sort out the jumbled mess themselves. But none of the Black Order questioned their father's decision in that matter. The Other was mentally damaged, he had failed dismally, and he got his just deserts. There was no point in wishing it otherwise now.
Ebony was himself a finite resource, however. Constructing and controlling the complex mind meld rapidly burned through his magic reserves. At the end of each session, he was utterly spent and would fall into a deep, replenishing sleep for days at a time from which he was virtually impossible to arouse. Thanos had stopped asking for immediate updates after the third session, partly due to Ebony's need to rest, and partly because every new piece of information seemed to contradict what they already thought they knew. He needed to wait for the whole. Gamora had come to him after the last one, however, and informed him they were almost done, according to Ebony's largely incoherent mumbling before he passed out. Thus, Thanos had come today to sit with his children and at last discuss their next course of action.
Currently, Ebony was lying limply on what used to be one of the Other's work tables, utterly lost in his mind and magic. The only parts of him that moved, or seemed capable of movement at the moment, were his lips and his hands, which were twined in the hair of various of his siblings as he sorted information into and out of six different heads. Corvus, Cull, Proxima, Gamora, and Nebula were slumped around him, their minds usurped and their bodies thus incapable of voluntary motion, with only the barest power of life support left to them.
Thanos sat at the end of the table, Ebony's head cupped in his hands. Every so often, the Titan ran a loving thumb over the bony ridges of his son's skull.
"We are at a disadvantage," Ebony murmured after hours that felt like days of exhausting silence.
"What have you learned, child?" Thanos asked.
"Asgard... will be a difficult foe. I could detail their defensive and offensive capabilities down to the smallest detail for you, but for now shall simply summarize: they are formidable, with few true weaknesses, their reputation and interstellar supremacy justly earned. Every one of their great wars were fought against a race arguably commensurate in power, most recently the Jotnar, and Asgard has defeated all-comers utterly. Their enemies have universally come to ruin, and many I had never even heard of before because of it, such as the Dark Elves. Besides their own strengths and technologies, their race inherited several relics of the Creation War, and their other conflicts, along with the knowledge of the Stones. It is Asgard's line of kings which has subtly worked to keep the Stones dispersed throughout the ages. They have a secret law that no planet should hold more than one of the Stones, to prevent an amassment of power that could threaten their cosmic order..." Ebony grinned. "Odin has broken the edict, now. According to Nebula's report, he indeed holds the Tesseract and thus the Space Stone. Asgard also though holds the Reality Stone, secreted in the time of King Bor, though they call it the Aether, for the form it took when under the aegis of the Dark Elves. That was the enemy they claimed it from. The Puppet did not know the exact location of that Stone, though, only that it is housed somewhere on the planetoid. He only deduced the Aether and Reality Stone were one and the same long after learning of them. He has been within Odin's great vault, and did not see it, though that is not to say it is not there." He opened his eyes, which were bloodshot and rimy with need of sleep. "The Puppet has also seen a great war gauntlet in the vault, hewn from a golden metal with empty settings for six stones upon the dorsal plate. Asgard may have a working Infinity Gauntlet in addition to two stones." Ebony suddenly winced then, and Thanos realized his hold upon his son's head had become a vise. He let go, and stroked Ebony's pale forehead instead, smiling as his son relaxed again.
"Enough of Asgard," Thanos said. "We will plan later how to approach them. What of the other Stones?"
"The Mind Stone of course is on Midgard at present. Nebula confirmed that as well. I think the other the Puppet sensed is the Time Stone, and if it is not in New York, it is somewhere nearby, at least it was when the Puppet was there. It will be easy to find once the time comes. The signature is very recognizable. Any of the Stones will call to a magic-user as a flame in the darkness. The Soul Stone as we already knew is on the planet Vormir. Interestingly, I think the Puppet may be the only Asgardian that also knew this, yet he managed to uncover much more general lore of the Soul Stone than we did. He first heard of it from a witch who he encountered on Vanaheim, but was native of neither Vanaheim nor Asgard. I do not recognize her race and nor did he, it seems. He did corroborate as much of what she told him as he could, so I think we should take his understanding as accurate. The Stone will only bend itself to the use of one who sacrifices a loved one to it. That is fairly common knowledge. What I did not previously realize was that the sacrifice must be performed at Vormir, with a ritual incantation. The witch did tell the Puppet one, but of course there is no knowing whether it is correct as she was his only source for that information. Moreover, even though the primary power of the Soul Stone is in resurrection or communion with the dead, the sacrifice is permanent. Even the six stones together cannot reclaim the sacrificial soul from the arms of Lady Death. The Soul Stone can also permanently change a person as even the Mind Stone cannot. It can compel truth, see through illusions and obfuscations of mind magic or other tricks to reveal 'the heart' of the matter. The Puppet also deduced the method for raising the dead, incidentally." Ebony shook his head ruefully. "Our poor Puppet was such a scholar, Father. He centuries ago wrote an entire treatise for himself comparing and contrasting records of spells cast with the aid of Infinity Stones with similar spells using native magic only. Apparently, a number of the Infinity Stones' ancillary powers occur through interactions with spacetime via pocket dimensions contained within the stones themselves. This is the key to omnipresence using the Space Stone, conjuring using the Mind Stone, immortality using the Time Stone... Even after all this time, I still do not fully understand the nuances of the stones as it seems he did. Even the Other with the aid of the Mind Stone did not. I had always understood the Power Stone to be the uniting force of the six, but there is a suggestion that Mind and Soul are somehow apart from the other four. If only-"
"Do not wallow in our loss," Thanos admonished.
Ebony shuddered. "Of course. The only Stone we do not now know the general location of is the Power Stone. We do know more about how it works in concert with the others, however. I am also quite certain the Stone's signature would again have been obvious to the Puppet, so we can deduce to a degree where it isn't based on his travels more recently. It isn't on Asgard, Vanaheim, Jotunheim, Midgard, or Nidavellir. He would have recognized it. As we had already guessed, we can also somewhat predict by its historical pattern where it is more likely to appear. Of the six stones, the Power Stone is most likely to become involved in empire building and other power struggles. It has never been successfully entombed as the others have at various times, only fought over and stolen by the victors, and once lost for a millennium after a great war of attrition that destroyed both sides. Our best chance to find and retrieve it will still be during the Convergence, which will occur in just under four months. There are, however, several worlds that won't be accessible during the Convergence, so it might be worth our while to check them, as well as the conflict areas we have already been searching."
"Hmm. You will have to explain the exact nature of the Convergence to me later. I had thought it an alignment of every world accessible through the Invisible Network."
"No, the Convergence strictly speaking is just the alignment of the Nine Realms along a single axis of the network, lasting approximately five days in total. A majority of lesser worlds will cycle through the axis at some point during the Convergence, but not all."
"I see. And the gauntlet?"
"The Puppet had less interest in that, unfortunately, except from a theoretical perspective. He deduced certain necessary materials and some of the necessary circuitry, but no more than that. He never had an intent to acquire and use the Stones for himself, after all. Nevertheless, other than the relic in Asgard, there is no known gauntlet in existence, and none outside of Nidavellir and Asgard itself confirmed to have the skill and resources to reconstruct it. Midgard has all the raw materials needed, but despite their recent advances, no known smith to design and forge it. Titan would have been similarly positioned before the cataclysm."
Thanos grimaced. "You may sleep soon, my Ebony. But first, tell me while you still hold the others in thrall and unable to hear you... knowing all there is to know from you and your siblings, the Puppet, and the Other, how would you unite the Stones and save the universe. How would you accomplish my dream?"
Ebony hesitated for only a moment. "If we move on Asgard, Midgard, or Nidavellir, Odin will surely notice, guess our purpose, and mobilize to stop us. When we move, it must be in haste. The Convergence will aid us in staging a simultaneous strike against all our targets, so long as we pick the right starting point. Our base on Titan will probably work, actually. It may not be one of the Nine, but it enters the axis of Convergence early and remains within it for twenty hours. The Power Stone should be our priority, and if we cannot locate it before the Convergence, we will need to locate and retrieve it as our first priority when the Convergence is upon us. That will be my task, followed by the Time Stone if the others are unable to find it quickly enough. Nebula and Cull are the most sensitive to them. Send some of the others for the Mind Stone, since it remains with the Avengers, and you should go to Nidavellir to extort a gauntlet, with one other to prevent any calls for help. Once these are retrieved, we should retreat temporarily to obtain the Soul Stone, so that we can confront Asgard with four Stones against their two. To retrieve the Soul Stone, you will have to sacrifice one of us... If we are able to obtain the Power Stone prior to the Convergence, it may be possible to accelerate the course and obliterate Asgard before they can even unite their own Stones. I would go with some others of the Black Order to Midgard. Either you would proceed directly to Vormir with a sacrificial victim, or depending on how much you trust them, you could still go to Nidavellir and instead send Corvus and Proxima to Vormir."
"Do you think I could trust Corvus to sacrifice Proxima?"
"Possibly. I am more certain that Proxima would sacrifice Corvus for you, though."
"Interesting... but no. If we take the lore you have learned of the Soul Stone literally, then it will bend only to the person who has made the sacrifice. I cannot risk that."
"Actually, the Puppet did find two accounts of dual-wielders of the Soul Stone. The sacrifice was beloved by both wielders. If the deed is performed under your orders, and the victim is one that you truly love, then the Stone will still be beholden to you."
"A possibility then. You have done well, my son. Rest now, and we shall plan the details with your siblings when you are awake."
Author's note: I'm back! Sorry. Distracted. Not a whole lot to say about this chapter. It's an exploration of the power and limitations of telepathy: even if you can read minds, you're not going to "know" things the same way your subject does, unless your own mind transforms (as happened to the Other with the "perfect" memory transference with the Mind Stone). In reality, every time you recall a thought, it is slightly changed by the act of recollection. This is because of neuroplasticity; using a connection in the brain reinforces it, strengthens it, makes the circuit more likely to fire again. For example, a certain scent might trigger a memory because of the close connections between the olfactory cortex and hippocampus, but in the future, not only will the scent be more likely to trigger the memory, but you will also remember that that scent triggers that memory, and so the act of recollection is itself changed. You can remember what you have read before as well as when you last read it and how you felt at the time... Learning what someone else knows is very, very different from experiencing what someone else experiences. This gets into the difference between declarative (what you can say, "I remember...") and nondeclarative memory (unconscious, unstated memory). Declarative memory is subdivided into episodic memory (personal experiences), and semantic memory (general knowledge). In this story, the Other accidentally incorporated Loki's semantic memory as well as some nondeclarative memory to such an extent it seemed an extension of his own (even if some part of him must have realized his error, he could not consciously detect the difference), whereas he could recognize episodic memory as Loki's or his.
I am very unsatisfied with my chapter title. Oh well. Bonus points to anyone who comes up with a better one in the reviews.
