A Twelve Step Program to Omnipotence

by Bakkughan

A Marvel fan from our world is reborn in the MCU. Sure he could follow the SI clichés; become a hero, save the world and get the girl, but Michael McCole instead decides to follow a different path. After all, in a world where magic is real, reality is what you decide for it to be. There will be challenges along the way, but nobody said becoming a God was easy.

68. Luminary Skirmishes

CHAPTER 51: LUMINARY SKIRMISHES

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All things considered, Trachi-5 was the very definition of "unassuming". It was a minor moon, circling a slightly larger, but equally boring ice planet, around a medium yellow star, barely a step up from a lifeless comet if it weren't for its pitiable atmosphere and the stubborn brownish moss that covered it, clinging to life on this useless rock.

It had nothing going for it: no advantageous position near a Jump Gate, barely any natural resources to speak of that were worth the trouble of extracting, and while the moss indicated that life on this moon was possible, I privately considered that I wouldn't recommend trying to build one here.

In a rather ironic twist, it was precisely because nobody really wanted this rock, that it now housed what might be the most important meeting in the past thousand years or so, at least where two of the largest empires in the galaxy were considered.

Because, while Trachi-5 itself may not be all that interesting, its system (or rather, its location) was smack-dab in the middle of the no-mans land which spanned the several sectors between the edges of Kree and Nova space. While other areas of this nebulous, contested space had seen heavy warfare, the utter uselessness of Trachi-5 had meant it hadn't seen combat (or even a sentient being, I suspected) for the past few centuries.

Neither empire had bothered installing watchposts or strongholds here, the effort to build, maintain and protect them not worth the bare tactical advantage it would give, meaning this moon's only ornamentation was the stubborn lichen covering its surface.

And since moss rather notably didn't take sides in interstellar, cross-galactic warfare (or at least, I certainly hope so) that made this one of the few planets that both parties could truly agree upon being neutral ground.

Not that contacting said Empires and actually getting them so far as to agree on even that much had been an easy affair. Both sides had been rather wary of me from the start, given that I had appeared in front of their leaders through a holographic projection created by a little device sent through an Iris Way straight to the heart of their respective domains, thus blatantly violating every single safety measure they had painstakingly set in place over the course of multiple centuries. While the communication device allowed me to speak to Nova Prime and the Kree Emperor (likely a puppet for a hiding Supreme Intelligence, as Danvers' memories didn't include her killing the genocidal AI) in real-time, my holographic appearance wasn't my ruined form, but a slightly enhanced version of my Hulk-lite body.

Said image had been carefully and purposefully edited, based on the research Sterns and Radcliffe had done on both cultures, in order to project a form that both sides would recognize as simultaneously powerful, yet unthreatening. I needed them to take me seriously, to truly believe I could face a Mad Titan wielding one of the most powerful and feared Infinity Stones and still come out on top. At the same time, I needed them to not be so in awe of me that they decided that I was the bigger threat here. Which they both almost did the moment I proposed peace talks between the two Empires, each side accusing me of being a spy for the other, which was to be suspected, I suppose.

A millennium of bitter warfare isn't suddenly brought to a halt just because some magnanimous stranger happens to show up with all the solutions to peace ready on a silver platter. Except that was exactly what I needed them to believe right now, if I wanted a buffer between my crippled self and Thanos' forces currently ransacking the universe in search of the Aether.

I will not bore you with the details of what I had to say and threaten in order to get the Kree and the Nova to sit down and shut up for a moment, and agree to tentative talks because, well, essentially it was very boring. They might have been extra-terrestrial lifeforms from completely alien societies, but some things (like politicians) never change and I had to sit through several hours worth of listening to self-important snobs who brought up every crime, slight or insult the other side had perpetrated against their people and several hours more of security concerns, acceptable and unacceptable terms, cultural standards and customs and so on and so forth. For nearly a full day, both sides had postured and disagreed and called for additional favours, but that was just common sense when engaging in talks with your mortal foe. Both had known from the start they'd end up agreeing to a meeting, though for their own reasons of course.

Nova Prime, Irani Rael, wanted the war to end, simple as that. In a way that didn't cripple the Nova Empire, which was certainly the cost the Kree would ask for such a prize, but her goal wasn't to see the Kree broken, just that her own people be kept safe.

The Kree… well, honestly, who even knew what they wanted? A species of immense strength, longevity and technological advancement, their ruthless expansionist policies had made very little sense to Xandarian politicians and philosophers even millennia ago.

They had expected the Kree to follow in the footsteps of the Asgardians and the Sovereign: to turn inwards, instead of outwards, and use their awesome power and knowledge to live out their lives in a self-created paradise.

Instead, the Kree had looked to the stars with unending hunger, consuming and burning all in their wake with a ceaseless, almost compulsive need to move ever onwards, to reach ever further.

Even I had some trouble wrapping my head around just how extremely militaristic the Kree proved to be, and I had both my meta-knowledge to back me up, as well as the memories extracted from Danver's mind. The whole idea of being in a "genetic deadlock" was weird from the start. Sure, Stargate did it as well with the Asgard, so perhaps it was more a result of messing around with your own genome that somehow ended up genetically crippling your species, but even that made very little sense, since evolution happened over the course of millions of years in order to enact big sweeping changes. The Kree Empire, while incredibly old by human standards, wasn't old enough to have lived through such a timescale and thus conclude that they were at their evolutionary end.

You'd think that the people who had managed to make the Inhumans would have had a better grasp of basic biology.

Then again, these were literal aliens. Their idea of basic biology might differ wildly from our own, though the data Radcliffe managed to dig up out of the Kree City on Earth suggested that life on the Kree homeworld of Hala was startingly similar to our own biosphere. Though that could be an indicator that the Celestials had had a hand in their apparently stagnant evolution, given how they've influenced life across the cosmos.

Still, whether they were actually at an evolutionary dead end or not didn't really matter in the end, since the Kree certainly believed this was the case, to the point that they almost compulsively sought to dominate other life forms in a never-ending quest to improve themselves.

Which gave me quite the leverage over them, as I had just the thing they so desperately wanted, something that made me internally smile as I stood upon a never-ending field of brown moss, seeing two fleets slowly approach Trachi-5. I was concealed by a large cloak that slightly moved in the pitiful wind that the thin atmosphere of the moon was desperately trying to push around. At my back stood both Sterns and Radcliffe, with the latter clad in a sleek spacesuit, considering the atmosphere was too thin for a normal human to comfortably breathe. Thanks to our respective mutations, Sterns and I were fine, my laboured breathing a result of something far more worrying than merely some thin air. As always, Jim Harper stood tall and silent at my side, hands crossed in front of him, keen eyes staring at the sky overhead through a darkened visor as his massive hand cannon sat in the back of his belt.

After seeing how his shot had flown straight through Thanos' Astral Projection without so much as leaving a mark, Jim had resolutely stepped up to the nearest Asgardian he could find (which had ended up being an exhausted and somewhat confused looking Frigga) and simply stated that he required mystical enhancements for his weapon, akin to the like that had allowed Heimdall to wound Thanos with the sword Hofund.

Which is why the barrel of his weapon now sported a faintly glowing runic script all over its long barrel as a small chain holding a charm dangled off the handle. Honestly, it looked somewhat like a Nordic version of the Destiny gun Hawkmoon.

Incidentally, Hofund, thanks to some rather obscure Asgardian customs, was now property of Darcy Lewis, who had taken to training with the sword that was almost as tall as her with a worrying amount of glee. While I had been far too tired and preoccupied while recovering in Asgard before I could return to Othrys, Jessica had told me with a sly smile that a certain tall, dark-haired prince had taken a notable interest in making sure the enthusiastic research assistant didn't accidentally behead herself.

It didn't really come to me as a surprise then when I finally returned home that both Foster and Darcy had opted to remain on Asgard for now, the latter airily saying that she was only staying to chaperone Foster and Thor (which, to be fair, was probably a good idea, considering just how lovestruck the two had looked during my entire stay in the Palace's hospital wing).

I don't think she was fooling anyone though, considering the smirk Frigga sent her adopted son.

Looking past my stoic chief of security, I glance at the heavy hitters in my little company, now that I'm so weakened, with the two cybernetic lifeforms forming a study in contrast. Phineas' large Soter-platform is idly wandering back and forth, having long since become bored after several hours of waiting on our guests, staring out at a never-changing landscape that was equally flat, featureless and boring in whichever direction you looked, stretching over the horizon.

The arrival of the fleet had made him look up in interest, but when it became clear that the fleets would carefully manoeuvre around Trachi-5 and each other in order to appear as imposing as possible for quite a while, he had gone back to counting individual sprigs of moss (judging from what I heard his platform mutter to itself, he was now on sprig number 74,005,762,521).

The other cybernetic lifeform on the other hand looked more organic, yet behaved far more robotically than Phineas' wandering tower of metal. The one-armed Beta-Ray Bill was standing utterly motionless, not even having blinked once since we had set foot on this little moon, staring blankly ahead. I felt for Bill, I really did, but as it currently stood, I had no idea how to help him, or even talk to him. What do you say to someone who has went through what he has endured?

"Hey buddy, sorry about all of your people having been tortured and enslaved by a madman and turned into cybernetic warriors that have razed entire worlds while you were stuck fighting for your life in gladiatorial combat. Can I offer you an egg in this trying time?"

Honestly, if I tried shit like that and he punched me straight in the face, I wouldn't even fault him for it.

I had some nebulous ideas on what to do with the Chitauri (or the Korbinites, as it turned out) but no actual Plan yet. And even so, most of my ideas were only achievable after I had Ascended, so it was a moot point for now.

Behind the two cybernetic life forms stands a large sci-fi looking sarcophagus, its contents hidden by a thick sheet of frosted glass as the entire thing hovers a few centimetres above the lichen-covered surface of the small moon.

Finally, the Kree and Nova appeared to have realized how stupid they looked, entering war formations in a system that was completely void of both onlookers and actual useful resources, so they quit their posturing as their respective flagships lowered themselves to the upper reaches of Trachi-5's little atmosphere.

Far too large to actually land on the little planetoid, both ships disgorged a small contingent of fighters that rapidly made their way to the surface, breaching atmosphere with ease and landing a mere few hundred meters away from where my little group was standing.

Thanks to the Iris Way, it was just the five of us standing in a field, with no trace of a vehicle or even landing burns, like the Nova and Kree's starships were leaving on the thick carpet of moss. To them, it must look as if we have just appeared here, which is exactly what we did of course, which should remind them of how I managed to breach all of their security measures just to send them a message.

The very first thought on both parties' mind had been that if I could directly mail them what was essentially a letter… then I could very easily do the same with a tactical warhead.

Considering what I was trying to accomplish here, such fears could serve me very well.

As the starships opened their respective hatches and lowered whatever walkways they had, the Nova and Kree steadily approached my position, roughly two dozen combatants on each team accompanying the Nova Prime herself and the same Advisor that she was shown arguing with in the GotG movie.

I was somewhat surprised at Irani Rael showing up in person. From what I understood from the data we recovered from her people, she was fairly integral to the smooth running of Xandar and to a lesser extent the Nova Empire as a whole, but wasn't exactly a powerful combatant, which put her at risk when standing face to face with Kree Warriors who could easily lift a car above their heads.

Probably why her security detail looked very nervous (and hello to you as well, Garthan Saal, no need to look like you're wading through a small swamp made of shit, it's only brown moss, stop twisting your face like that) as they approached me and thus closed the distance between themselves and the Kree delegation.

The Kree ambassador was sneering all the way, but I had a distinct impression that this was more or less his default expression. Despite himself though, I could see interest and hunger in his eyes as he looked at my cloaked form, the reward I dangled in front of his Emperor probably ringing through his mind on the entire journey from Hala to here.

Whereas the Nova security forces looked nervous, the Kree forces looked positively cocky, very clearly welcoming the idea of a fight here on the ground, where the Nova's advanced tech and ships didn't matter as much against the Kree's superior physical strength.

"Are you the one then? The one that calls himself Hyperion and who demanded this meeting?" the Kree Advisor speaks up the moment he's within earshot, his tone condescending.

I simply nod in response, and now Irani's lips thin as she gives me a once-over. I must indeed look quite horrible, given the heavy cloak cannot conceal the bumps and jutting spikes along my left arm and part of my torso, nor that my posture is sagging as if I'm exhausted.

A brief, pitiful gust of wind briefly tugs at my hood, scarcely strong enough to just barely lift it a few centimetres, but it's sufficient to give both representatives a quick look at my tendril-covered face and mis-matched eyes. The two slightly recoil when they see the grisly sight and I can't even really blame them.

"Forgive me, but you… don't exactly look alike to the person who contacted us." Irani states firmly, and I let out a raspy chuckle at the idea that I essentially catfished the two greatest military forces in this galaxy.

"Indeed, currently I do not. I used to do however. As for how I came to be this way… they are the scars I bear for defying the Mad Titan Thanos, who made an attempt on my life not two weeks ago using the Soul Stone." I rumble in response, gratified to see both Irani and the Ambassador's eyes widen in genuine shock and fear.

"Even our worlds have suffered because of that monster's idea of peace and balance. The idea of him wielding one of the Infinity Stones… that is a frightening thought indeed." Irani muses as the Ambassador narrows his eyes at me.

"Entire worlds have fallen to the Mad Titan once he set his eyes on them, yet you live and this after he came at you personally while wielding the power of an Infinity Stone. How can that be? Have you struck down that madman? Has Thanos finally been slain?" the Kree asks, anger and nervousness creeping into his tone.

"With how deeply he has given himself over to the Soul Stone's power, I do not think that Thanos can be killed by conventional means. Or many unconventional means, for that matter. As it stands now, I foresee only two possible ways in which Thanos can truly be destroyed. He is either killed by the power of the Soul Stone, his very being burnt out as its might overwhelms him, either annihilating, absorbing or scattering his essence. Something that I do not see happening any time soon. Thanos has been crippled and is desperate to regain the upper hand against me, but he is also both determined and, sadly, not a fool. He will push himself to the absolute limit, far beyond what any other being would consider safe or sane, but he will not push himself to the extent that he will self-destruct. He feels his task is far too important for him to waste his life like that." I say gravely.

"And the other way?" Irani asks sceptically.

"I kill him." I respond simply, receiving a scoff from the Kree ambassador.

"From what you just told us, he attacked you with the might of the Soul Stone itself. While it is… impressive, that you survived, nonetheless the price was clearly very steep." The blue man sneers, his eyes roaming across the odd bumps and spikes along my left arm and lingering on my now mis-matched eyes.

"Besides, you claim that Thanos can no longer be slain by normal means. What arms does a cripple like you possess that you can take down such an opponent this time around?" he asks condescendingly.

"Simple. I will use the other Infinity Stones in my possession to utterly destroy him to the point not even the Soul Stone can bring him back." I say with a slight smile, enjoying the positively baffled looks from the representatives of some of the largest armies this galaxy had ever seen.

That just never gets old, will it?

"Stones? Plural? Are you truly saying that you have multiple Infinity Stones in your possession?" Irani asks, looking shocked as she glances me up and down, very clearly re-evaluating my threat level.

Immediately, Garthan Saal steps up closer to her, leaning forwards as he whispers under his breath in a tone low enough, he thinks I cannot hear him.

"Nova Prime, we need to evacuate now. Even if he only has a single Stone in his possession, then this entire moon is unsafe. If he has multiple, then this entire system might be unsafe. We know too little of the Infinity Stones' capabilities to take such a risk." He says urgently, and Irani looks like she privately agrees with his assessment.

Even the Kree have now lost their arrogant attitude, looking worriedly at both me and, surprisingly, at the carpet of brown moss underneath their feet. It seems Taneleer Tivan has shown his little gif of a Celestial deleting a planet to the Kree at some point or other, cause the normally stoic soldiers are now looking at the ground as if it might burn up and fall away underneath their very feet.

Good. Then they can appreciate just how much firepower I can bring to the table. And how much they'll need to commit in order to match me.

"Be at ease. I have them safely hidden away in my base. As I am now, I cannot utilize them to their fullest extent, or their power will overwhelm me, which will spell the doom of all life in the galaxy." I stated simply.

"What use then can you be to the Kree Empire if you are not strong enough to stop Thanos? If you claim the other Infinity Stones are required to put a stop to the Titan's plans, then give them to my people and we will put a stop to the menace once and for all." The Ambassador immediately pounces, Irani's brow furrowing and her lips thinning as she whirls on the blue man.

"The Kree Empire with multiple Infinity Stones?! You would be a greater menace upon the galaxy than even Thanos is!"

"No, they wouldn't. Firstly, because even the Kree would not commit a mass murder numbering in the trillions of beings with but a single snap of their fingers. And second, because I'm not giving away the Stones to anybody else." I intervene with a strong voice.

Both parties quiet down when I remind them of the warning I gave them when I first contacted them, the two Empires having had enough experience in dealing with Thanos' raids and possessing sufficient info about the power of the Infinity Stones to fully grasp just how bad of a situation it would be if the former managed to get his hands on all of the latter.

"If not with the Stones, then how do you suppose to beat Thanos and save all life in the universe?" the Ambassador asks condescendingly, not quite able to hide his disgust when I grin back at him, the motion pulling at some of the tendrils currently burrowing into my left cheek.

"Oh, I will beat him with my own set of Infinity Stones. I simply won't beat him with this current body." I grin at them, satisfied to see both the Nova Prime and the Kree Ambassador shooting each other confused looks.

"As you have both noticed, my current form was badly damaged during my fight with Thanos. However, thanks to the combined efforts of King Odin Allfather and myself, Thanos sustained similar damage to his very soul and thus won't be able to personally take to the field to collect the last remaining unclaimed Infinity Stone for himself. I intend to use this time to have the Dwarves of Nidavellir construct me a new body, worthy of the power of the Stones already in my possession, and either beat him to the last Stone, or simply destroy him when I have the chance." I state confidently.

"You fought alongside Odin Allfather himself? And you claim to be working with the Smiths of Nidavellir? Powerful allies indeed. Which makes me wonder, why the need to contact us at all?" the Kree Ambassador muses, impressed despite himself by the names I casually dropped.

"As I said, Thanos himself cannot currently take to the field. But then, he has hardly been fighting his deluded crusade for all these millennia all by himself, has he? Using his slaves, soldiers and mercenaries as proxies, he's scouring the universe for the hiding place of the last Infinity Stone. The Asgardians and their many allies, as well as the Ravagers, have already pledged themselves to combating Thanos' legions as they try and get their hands on whatever ancient, mystical or advanced piece of weaponry they can find to bring back to their master. I now ask the aid of the two of you as well. Your armies are vast, your martial prowess impressive. You could be a real thorn in Thanos' side as the Dwarves finish my new body."

"You would ask of us to be a buffer between you and Thanos? A tall order indeed, considering the risks and the fact we have no guarantee that you won't turn out worse than him if you indeed become powerful enough to strike him down." Irani muses speculatively.

"Indeed. The risk is high. And there is no guarantee I can give you that would make you trust me, at least not within the time afforded to us before Thanos either recovers enough to do battle again, or gets his hands on the last Stone. But I can give you this guarantee: should Thanos get his hands on a second Infinity Stone before my new body is finished, then all life in the universe, which includes both your peoples, will be utterly decimated, with nothing more than a mere snap of his fingers. And there's nothing you can do that would even so much as halt him in his tracks. If he wins… if I lose… the utter destruction of your kind is inevitable." I say, trying to pour as much conviction into my rough voice as I can.

Ideally, I would've used the same method I used on Eitri to simply show them how utterly fucked they are if Thanos succeeds, but with the current state of my body, I'm rather wary of handling any of the Stones, even the Time Stone within its sophisticated container.

Thankfully, the two Empire's past experiences with Thanos' forces is enough for them to seriously consider my words and I allow myself a small smile as I reveal the cherry on top which is sure to secure my alliance with these superpowers.

"Of course, as said before, the risk is high. I understand that, therefore, the reward must match the price."

That catches their attention. Irani tries to hide it, but she's very intrigued what an unknown rogue (and surprisingly powerful) element such as myself can offer the Nova Empire, whereas the Kree Ambassador looks downright greedy, undoubtedly imagining what his people could do with access to one (or likely more if not all) of my Infinity Stones.

Facing the woman who I keep imagining in a furcoat made of Dalmatian puppies, I fish a large glass tablet from underneath my heavy cloak and throw it leisurely towards the Nova Prime, who just barely manages to snatch it out of the air before Garthan Saal moves to swat it down to the ground. Irani shoots her second in command a disapproving look, but her Denarian just fiercely stares back, clearly not trusting anything coming from me that hasn't gone through at least a dozen or so rigorous security checks.

Easily turning on the haptic controls as a holographic document flares to life from the transparent surface, I start explaining to the Nova Prime just what she's holding in her hands.

"I speak to you now as both King of Othrys, a sovereign nation on the planet Earth, as well as a representative of the United Nations, an international organization comprised of the majority of the nations on my homeplanet. What I am proposing is that Earth becomes a member world of the Nova Empire, with the forces of Othrys specifically pledging themselves to aid the Nova Corps. Additionally, future agreements can be made between my planet's fledgling space fleet and the Corps where necessary."

My statement of having the authority to speak for my entire race isn't entirely true (though given my popularity after saving the entire planet twice, I'd think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who'd actually challenge me on it), but it's not like Irani needs to know that right now, and by the time she can find out, we'll either be dead, or I'll have Ascended, meaning that she can't exactly act on it.

After the Nova Prime finished skimming through the several pages of the first holographic document, the entire 'paper' folds away into a small folder on the glass plate as a new document springs to life above its surface, slightly startling Irani and her security forces.

"Sign that document as well and the Ravager raids that have been harassing the trade routes and patrols along the outer sector of your Empire shall come to an end. However, as you can imagine, this constitutes as a rather large drop in revenue for them, for which they will want reimbursement. Thankfully, that document also doubles as evidence of gainful employment for these wayward men and women, as it shows your agreement to take on the Ravager Clans as "independent contractors and advisors on naval matters working in conjunction with, but not under the authority of, the Nova Corps". You will find that the document already bears the signature of Stakar Ogord as leader of the Ravager Clans and mine in an intermediary capacity." I say with a thin smile.

"So, privateers then." Garthan Saal interjects in a hard voice, and while Irani shoots him a glance, she doesn't correct him, instead looking towards me with a frown on her face and a calculating look in her eye.

I merely shrug and grin, my smile widening when I catch Irani shooting a quick look at the Kree Advisor from underneath her lashes. While the notion of working with criminals might be… uncomfortable for the Nova Prime, the prospect of relieving her people from the Ravager's raids while simultaneously gaining a new fighting force to combat the Kree with is very appealing indeed.

So it doesn't really come as a surprise to me when Irani fishes a high quality stylus out of her breastpocket as she signs both holographic documents with a flourish. However, the thoughts of the Kree Ambassador have gone along much the same path as my own as he looks at said documents with pursed lips and an irritated face.

"Working with criminals now, Prime? How low has the Nova Empire fallen that it resorts to such craven lowlifes to fight its battles for it?" he asks with a sneer, causing Irani's security detail to bristle as several tighten their grip on the weapons (Garthan Saal of course looks just seconds away from putting a neat little hole right in the middle of the Kree's forehead).

However, despite the suddenly racketing tensions, Irani remains utterly composed, seemingly scanning over the entire forms again as she answers the challenge.

"On the contrary Ann-Ron. According to this document, none of these brave volunteers are criminals as they enjoy entirely legitimate employment through the Nova Corps in brave defence of the Empire. A valiant fighting force to bolster our troubled borders." She shoots back with a cool smile and the now named Ann-Ron bristles at her words.

A bunch of pirates with official backing on a hotly contested border zone? While the raids in Nova territory might have just come to an end, every single person here knew that the Ravagers would still find themselves up to the gills (or whatever alien equivalent was applicable) in work. Which is of course the entire reason why Stakar had agreed to my proposal in the first place.

There's a lot of money to be made in warzones, if you're willing to sink lower than the competition.

Ann-Ron is obviously about to verbally (and perhaps physically) assault the smug looking Nova Prime, so I quickly speak up, elaborating on the rewards I dangled in front of the Kree Emperor's nose in order to even get this meeting organized in the first place.

"No need to look so affronted, my dear Ambassador. The Kree shall gain their just rewards as well should they pledge themselves to the protection of life itself." I say smoothly, fishing a second glass plate from underneath my cloak and tossing it over to the blue skinned man, who eagerly snatches it out of the air.

Opening up the document stored on the device, Ann-Ron's brow briefly furrows as his eyes fly over the lines of text, before they shoot upwards in surprise.

"This… this is-"

"An agreement signed by the Queen of the Sovereign herself to aid the Kree in several of their advanced genetic research projects. Their cooperation is guaranteed to last until a satisfactory specimen has been created, after which it is up to the Kree Empire itself to secure further collaboration between the two of you."

A powerful boon indeed, considering the Kree had requested (or rather demanded) the Sovereign's aid in engineering a solution to their "genetic dead end" for many centuries now, only for them to be rebuffed at every turn.

"How did you manage this?" Ann-Ron asks, slightly awed and I grimaced in distaste at the memory.

"Certain… sacrifices had to be made. The Sovereign received gifts of their own in return for their aid, such as the agreement to help persuade the Kree to join my Alliance as well." I say darkly, and something in my rough tone must register with the Kree as he doesn't push further.

In truth, I had gotten off relatively easy with the Sovereign, considering the fact that, when I first reached out to them, Ayesha had basically propositioned me for sex, wanting to "combine her DNA with my altered genome to create an impressive new spawn for the Sovereign people" (or, as normal people would say, make a baby). I had been rather squicked out, both at the bluntness of the proposal and what it entailed. The thought of betraying Jess and the kids by making a baby purely for political reasons sat very wrong with me, so both for the sake of my own peace of mind and for the safety of the Sovereign themselves (since Jess would probably break their planet in half if she had heard Ayesha's proposal, no to mention what she'd do if I had actually agreed to it) I had shot down the Golden High Priestess' proposal quickly and brusquely.

They still got their way, in a sense, as I had to give them several biological samples as well as a data package Radcliffe had put together on how the Kree had created the Inhumans from baseline humans and how this was an example of humanity's genetic potential, before they agreed to send their remote-controlled fleets against Thanos' armies and to aid the Kree in their own genetic programs.

The new deal had at least kept my more valuable research, such as Extremis and Ego's Seed, out of their hands, but the thought of the Sovereign having access to my blood made me uncomfortable nonetheless.

Which is why I fully intended to take all of it back once I had Ascended and beaten Thanos. The deal only stipulated that I had to give them said material. Not that I had to let them keep it as well.

Ann-Ron is reading the document intently, but I can already tell from the hunger in his expression that he'll try to press me for more. I feel annoyance flare up in me, but it's quickly doused by the sheer tiredness that is steadily creeping through my thoughts and limbs. It feels as if I'm moving in slowmotion, or with heavy weights attached to each of my joints.

While I'm in a (relatively) stable condition for now, standing around for so long and trying to convince the wary representatives has sapped much of my already-low energy levels and I already consign myself to revealing my ace if it gets things sped up and the Kree finally on my side.

"A valuable trade indeed, Hyperion. But-"

"You already have in mind the required material needed for such a collaboration to truly bear fruit." I respond flatly, and Ann-Ron gains a little smirk.

"We have reason to believe the notable terrorist known as 'Captain Marvel' is in your custody. As you may know, her powers are property of the Kree Empire. With the aid of the Sovereign, my people should be capable of retrieving our rightful belongings and put them to their rightful use." He states airily and I simply give a tired nod in response, taking Ann-Ron off guard.

"As I expected." I simply respond, giving a small wave with my remaining hand.

In response, Phineas' Soter-platform grasps the massive sarcophagus and gently pushes it forwards until it's hovering between me and the Kree delegation, while the Nova's crane their heads to catch a glimpse of what I'm offering.

Stepping forwards, I wipe off the frost that's covering the top part of the thick glass plate serving as a lid, unveiling the person underneath: a comatose Carol Danvers. Glancing up from the unconscious woman, I look Ann-Ron directly in the eyes, gratified when he can only maintain contact for a few seconds before looking away.

"Your prize, Ambassador. I trust that with this exchange, people across the universe can now trust in the might of the Kree Empire to protect them from Thanos' forces?" I ask in a low voice, the threat of what would happen to them if they didn't hold up their end of the deal hanging implicitly in the air between us.

Briefly, the Kree bristle, but they quiet down when Ann-Ron glances at them over his shoulder. Turning back to me, he gives me the fakest, slimiest smile I've ever seen on a person before dipping his head in a gesture of respect.

"Of course. As ever, the Kree stands for order and peace for all peoples of the galaxy and beyond. Rest assured, Thanos' forces shall be met with the might of our Empire at every turn." He promises, before turning on his heel without a further word, leading the Kree delegation back to their ships.

As the shuttles rapidly take off (and I keep an eye on the fleet just in case they decide they can't resist the temptation of a little orbital bombardment now that they have their prize on board and the Nova Prime on the moon below them), the Nova delegation lingers behind and I can feel Irani's eyes on me.

"You have comments?" I respond calmly, still staring up at the cloudless sky overhead.

"Many." She immediately shoots back, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"I don't know how you managed to convince Ogord, but the fact you have the backing of the Ravagers, in addition to being allies with both Odin Allfather himself as well as the Dwarves of Nidavellir means that you certainly have quite some power in your corner. Which is why I look forwards to working closely with both your Kingdom as well as your people in general. If even half of them prove as… interesting as you, then Humanity can prove to be valuable allies to have indeed."

"But?"

"But, I fear you underestimate the Kree. As isolationist as they are, we do not know much about the Sovereign, but both their power as well as their knowledge are undeniable. An alliance between them and the Kree Empire… that might spell trouble for a lot of words. Not to mention handing them Captain Marvel. If they can truly reverse engineer her powers using the expertise of the Sovereign and grant them to their own people-" she begins, sounding genuinely worried.

"Irrelevant."

Looking over at the surprised looking Irani, I elaborate.

"Regardless of what the Kree can accomplish now that they have Captain Marvel's body and the aid of the Sovereign, any discoveries they might want to implement will take too long to come to fruition before either Thanos can make his move, or I receive my new body. In either case, the Kree Empire will be of no threat to one more world. I guarantee it." I say coldly, before looking away from a startled Nova Prime and glancing back up at the retreating Kree fleet.

"Besides, I did say that the Kree would be getting what they deserved. Captain Marvel's body is placed in a stasis field, while her mind is heavily shielded. It will take them quite some time for them to break through either protection. Plenty of time, in fact, for someone who is very dear to the Captain to track down the fiends who took her from him and exact some… Vengeance." I say darkly.

Given I was on a time-crunch, my acquisition of Carol Danvers had been somewhat rushed. Basically, I had portalled over to her apartment, put her to sleep with one of the same darts that Hydra had developed when they had been hunting Jessica and Trish, only to walk face first into Jim's clutches, and then portalled her back to Othrys, dumping her in a similar sarcophagus that had preserved Phineas failing body before we extracted his brain.

As I had discussed with Jessica during my recuperation, despite everything that Carol had done to me (or planned to do to me, at least), handing her back to the people that had so thoroughly messed with her mind had been rather cruel, even by my standards, and so I had decided to shield her mind in addition to her body.

While I didn't use the Mind Stone, there are several spells designed around strengthening and protecting the psyche, so I had layered a whole bunch of them on Carol's mind. Now, as far as she was concerned, she was sitting on a beach in Tahiti with Bucky, enjoying the sun and sea of that magical place without any sense of time passing.

It was the kindest I could do for her, under the circumstances.

Bucky had quickly realized what had happened of course, when he came back to Carol's apartment only to find her missing. Without the Mind Stone, my psychokinetics, including my telepathy, had been severely weakened, but I still had enough of the power left to read the surface-level thoughts that were basically radiating from his mind when he stormed into my office, smoke rising off the plates of his mechanical arm and with a burning glow in his eyes.

Apparently, as far as he had been concerned, it had been a toss-up whether I or Fury had been behind Carol's disappearance, and he had eventually dismissed Fury because he figured that I probably had surveillance on his girlfriend and wouldn't allow her to be taken before I was through with her, not when Fury was on such thin ice compared to my own position.

Convincing Bucky of the necessity of what I'd done with Carol had been intensive, but thankfully short. Making him see that the Kree were ultimately responsible for Danvers' mind and current state as a popsicle had allowed me to steer all that righteous fury away from me and towards the Kree Empire.

In the coming days to weeks, they should note a Boom Tube-powered burning motorcycle blazing a straight path straight to the heart of their Empire, with a very angry (and skinny) rider on top of said bike. That should keep them distracted enough to not make too much headway in "achieving the next stage of their evolution".

"… You are a dangerous man, Hyperion." Irani finally says, looking at me with apprehension as she glances down at the two glass plates in her hands.

"Indeed I am." I simply respond as Phineas' Soter-platform steps forwards, holding out what looks like a more sophisticated, compact version of the machine Selvig had built for Loki to allow the Chitauri through to our world.

There's a whine that quickly spools up as the machine begins spinning like mad, throwing off a scintillating glow, before in a very Bifrost-esque way, a rainbow-coloured beam shoots out of the coppery flanges at the top of the device, punching a hole in space and reality about a dozen meters in front of us. It lacks the spinning, glowing circle of sparks that usually heralds a Sorcerer's portal, instead being surrounded by an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of colours, but otherwise the effect is rather similar.

The Nova hustle and whisper to themselves as my group makes their way through the Iris Way one by one, until it's just me and the silent Jim Harper at my back. As I make my way towards the rip in space-time, my paranoid chief of security on my heels, I briefly pause in my stride as I pass a startled looking Irani, glancing towards her from the corner of my ruined eye.

"Which is exactly why I'm your best hope for survival right now. As dangerous as I can be, Thanos is currently every bit my equal. Unlike him, however, I am not your enemy. Or, if that is difficult for you to believe, you can at least trust that I am his. Food for thought." I state, before with another step, I move across stars and constellations to set foot upon my Kingdom, the Iris Way closing behind me and Harper.

As reality returns to normality again, I let out a deep breath, sagging in a bit on myself. Immediately, I feel a strong hand on my remaining arm, helping me stay upright. Glancing to my side, I look at Harper's concerned expression as his helmet folds away into his suit.

"What now, sir?" he asks.

"Now… we wait."

/

As it turned out, waiting in a massive star-powered Forge surrounded by hundreds of gigantic blacksmiths and my own research team running back on forth between various level on Nidavellir and the massive sarcophagus that was beginning to take shape was… surprisingly pleasant.

I had expected that the constant loud noises and inevitable questions would soon annoy me, but as it was, people gave me a wide birth as I sat in a comfortable lounge chair a few dozen meters away from Eitri's main desk and workbench, where he directed his forces and consulted with my own.

The scientists of Othrys were there of course, many of them either reporting to Cho or Radcliffe, who in turn reported to Sterns. There were various sorcerers there, many of whom I sadly didn't know by name (despite being Sorcerer Supreme for a little while now, I haven't really had a chance to really get to know my new subjects), who were being directed with a steady hand by the Ancient One, or Bodhmall as Frigga had revealed.

I had only very briefly talked with my predecessor about her true origins and she had politely, but firmly, asked me to forget that I had ever even heard the name. Bad memories, I guess.

In addition to my Sorcerers, the Ancient One was also directing several enchanters sent by Asgard. They had immense experience and power compared to many of the human magic wielders (especially since many of the more senior members of my Order had fallen during Hell Week), but thankfully the seriousness of the situation, as well as their respect for the Dwarves meant that their arrogance was kept in check.

With Eitri, Sterns and Bodhmall expertly commanding their respective fields of work that would contribute to the creation of my body, my attention often wasn't needed, each leader only approaching me in order to settle matters between the different factions or to make the final call regarding a tough decision, which allowed me to rest as I watched.

My immediate attention wasn't even really required for battlefield-related matters, with only important news being kicked up the chain towards me, as all day-to-day matters were being handled by Frigga, now that Odin had slipped into his Sleep in order to strengthen and repair Asgard.

Some of said important news that ended up in my lap usually pertained to Thanos' more notable officers, such as the members of the Black Order. Apparently, just yesterday the entirety of said Order had marched on a highly populated city world in search of an ancient Asgardian vault, unfortunately managing to breach its defences before the Ravagers, assisted by some Nova Corps fighter ships, could arrive on the scene.

Thanks to all of the cameras mounted in the Nova's Star Blasters, I eventually received a fairly detailed high-light reel of how the battle had gone. A significant part of the large, unknown city had been reduced to rubble surrounding what appeared to be a massive sinkhole, reminding me somewhat of New York around the invasion portal of the Devils in Central Park during Hell Week. A small army of Chitauri were circling the hole, supported by half a dozen Leviathans floating through the air high above. The Nova Corps had then punched a hole through their outer perimeter, allowing the Stakar and Aleta Ravager Clans to make it to the surface and engage the forces surrounding the sinkhole.

The fight was going fairly even until the members of the Black Order resurfaced from the underground Asgardian vault, comprised of Obsidian Cull, Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive. Only Obsidian and Proxima seemed to have picked up actual weapons though, the giant now wielding a massive battle-axe, while the horned woman was now using what seemed to be a very primitive, less powerful version of Gungnir. Maw and Glaive merely seemed to have garbed themselves in Asgardian armour, and in Maw's case, expensive jewellery as well.

Fighting their way out of the hole they had drilled to the now busted vault, the four members immediately cut a swath of death through the assembled Nova and Ravager forces, trying to make their way to where their unicycle ship was hovering over some of the taller spires of the city.

Given that he was one of the few beings in this universe with the power of flight (which seemed boosted thanks to his new gear), Maw simply disregarded the bitter ground battle, flying upwards to his awaiting ship, only hindered by the stray shots from Star Blasters as they engaged in spectacular dogfights with the Chitauri Riders through the urban jungle.

Proxima and Glaive stuck together at first, making a beeline towards the city square above which their Q-ship was hovering and were actually making good time until a Chitauri sled slammed into Corvus, carrying the man hundreds of meters along before smashing him through the wall of a nearby apartment complex. Right at the exact moment of impact, a lithe woman in green garbs and with a long mane of wild, dark hair backflipped off the vehicle she had commandeered, landing in a crouch in front of the shocked looking Proxima.

Immediately, a fierce fight broke out between Proxima and Aleta, with the agent of Thanos using her new spear to devastating effect: whenever the elongated spear tip impacted a surface, it unleashed a corona of yellow-coloured lightning, leaving small, but deep craters in its wake. Aleta, on the other hand, seemed to move with unnatural speed and grace, sometimes seemingly pushing off of thin air and floating on nothing, before engaging her enemy in a dazzling flurry of blows.

As their fight moved rapidly back and forth, both women sometimes making leaps of several dozens of meters, or moving fast enough their limbs began to blur, Obsidian Cull was making his own way through the army standing between him and his escape route. The axe he was wielding seemed to be the bastard offspring between Skurge's Executioner's Axe and Steppenwolf's Electro Axe, leaving burning red glows in the wake of each swing which lingered unnaturally in the air.

The red crackling fields reminded me of the effects of the Aether, and proved to be very deadly when Cull backhanded an unfortunate Ravager into one of the glowing arcs. With a horrifying scream, the pirate was bifurcated, his middle, which had hit the tear in reality, warping, twisting and finally being sucked away into the hellish red void of the glowing trail, leaving the upper part of his torso and his legs to land in two different spots.

Apparently, the unfortunate pirate had been one of Stakar's crew or friends, as the Ravager Captain let out a rage-filled roar as he leapt across the battlefield to engage the giant in battle. His fight, as well as his wife's fight with Proxima Midnight happening not even a hundred meters away, finally shed some light on the capabilities of the man I knew as Starhawk from the comics.

Apparently, Arcturians, the race Stakar and Aleta belonged to, had abilities much the same like Daisy had now that her Inhuman powers had awakened, capable of generating, storing and then releasing energy from withing their bodies. Aleta mostly seemed to use her powers to boost her own speed and occasionally to make wafer-thin fields of energy to jump off from, much like Mordo did in his spar with Strange in the movie, as if she was straight out of a Wire Fu or Wuxia flick.

Meanwhile, Stakar used his seemingly extraordinarily greater stores of energy in a more straightforward manner, boosting his body in order to match Cull's immense strength or sending out devastating blasts of energy from the two loops coming out of his chestplate and arcing over his shoulders.

The fights were rather amazing to watch, stitched together as the footage was from multiple Star Blasters circling the combat zone, and ended roughly at the same time and in just a split second. Aleta bent backwards nearly a full ninety degrees as Proxima tried to send her spear straight through the wild woman's heart. In the brief lull right as the horned woman finished her lunge, Aleta swiftly reached up, grabbed the spear just underneath it's wicked tip and kicked off the ground as she pulled herself upwards.

Destabilized by the sudden weight hanging off her weapon, Proxima overshot her mark and stumbled a half-step forward, burying her new weapon deep in the torn-up street as Aleta vaulted high over the weapon, to the point she was almost up-side down compared to her enemy. Proxima had only a brief second to look upwards in shock, before, with a powerful twist of her torso as she pulled herself downwards again, Aleta unleashed a truly brutal heel kick towards the Black Order member.

In a blur of movement, Aleta's boot crashed into Proxima's right horn, slamming her head mercilessly to the side as the horn came off with a sickening 'crunch!', landing several dozens of meters away as it left a long trail of blue-blackish blood through the air.

Whirling around due to the strength in the other woman's kick, Proxima did a near full 360, staggering unbalanced on her feet, the gaping hole in the top of her head, her glassy eyes and the bloody bits attached at the base of the now torn off horn showing that Aleta had dislodged quite a bit more than just a hunk of keratin.

Before the stunned Proxima even had a chance to regain her footing, Aleta landed with both feet on the ground, hands still firmly on the spear as she continued in a single smooth movement, preserving the momentum of her immense kick. Turning on her heels, Aleta tore the spear out of the ruined earth with a warlike yell, spinning around as she let the haft of the weapon slide through her fingers, before she tightened her grip right on the apex, timing it just right so that the wicked, electrified blade was extended exactly far enough that it slid effortlessly through Proxima's throat.

Stumbling to a halt as she leaned on her new weapon, Aleta looked on with a grim smile as Proxima's shocked, unfocused eyes slowly dimmed, her body collapsing like a puppet with cut strings.

While the massive head wound and flayed-open throat looked gruesome, it was a kinder fate than what Obsidian Cull had to endure at the hands of Stakar at that same moment. Despite his impressive leap into battle, the Ravager leader had spent most of his fight dodging Cull's massive swings with his dangerous axe, keeping a careful eye out to not be caught in any of the after-glows of the wicked weapon.

The giant member of the Black Order was immensely strong, but slow, which meant that the more experienced Stakar had ample opportunities to let loose his own counterattacks. Unfortunately, Cull was also immensely durable, meaning that said counterattacks, while definitely hurting the lumbering behemoth, didn't actually do a lot of meaningful damage to him or slow him down much.

Thankfully for Stakar however, he had access to something far more damaging than even his devastating energy blasts already lying all over the battlefield as they slowly faded out one by one, the arches of energy hanging suspended in mid-air where Cull had swung wide and missed, or seemingly emerging from rubble where the giant had slammed down his weapon in fury.

Right at the same time that Aleta performed her brutal downwards heel kick on Proxima Midnight's face, Obsidian Cull made a wide, low swing meant to take Stakar's knees straight off, moving forwards with speed. As the wide blade of the axe sailed through the air, however, leaving a wide streak of crackling red energy in its wake, Stakar jumped forwards as well, a burst of deep orange light and the shattering of the road underneath his feet showing he had literally blasted off using his internal energy.

Right on the apex of the devastating swing, Stakar managed to land his right foot on the middle of the axe head, before immediately pushing off, running forwards seemingly on air or wires much like his wife had been doing during her own fight. With the speed both combatants were moving at, it took less than half a second for Stakar's next stride to end with an energy-powered flying left knee straight to Obsidian Cull's nose, impacting with a loud, but satisfying crunching sound.

The giant's head whipped back from the force, but given that he had thrown his entire body in his attack he kept on stumbling forwards. Stakar meanwhile was violently whirled around as he tumbled past the falling Cull. For all his strength, moving at top speed into a behemoth like Cull was similar to getting hit by a truck with a blatant disregard for speed limits and he seemingly spun like a ragdoll from the impact.

Seemingly, because apparently the Ravager Captain was durable enough to keep his wits about him (or simply tough enough to grit his teeth and power through it), because he used the momentum of his spin to come back around again, the arches of his armour overflowing with a deep, pulsating orange light as it sparked off his form in wide loops, much like a star's magnetic flux ropes.

Due to the immense glow covering his upper torso, with the two massive arches looping out over his back, he did indeed, for a brief, single moment, look like a cosmically fuelled bird of myth. Then the energy shot down his arms to his clenched together fists and he delivered a literally explosive double-fisted hammerblow straight to the back of Cull's head.

The blow was powerful enough to immediately alter the behemoth's course from forwards to downwards… sending the giant member of the Black Order face-first into the very arch his latest swing had caused. For a few, drawn out moments, Cull's head was warped, torn apart and absorbed into the very tear in reality his own stolen weapon had created, before his now messily decapitated body slammed into the broken street, it's impact large enough it sent a rumbling shockwave through the entire battlefield.

Stakar landed in a rough roll behind his downed opponent, slowly working himself to his feet and dusting himself off with a cocky expression, before it suddenly turned into a grimace as he grabbed at the small of his back. Grumbling under his breath, Stakar moved over to where the axe had buried itself deep into the road, leaving an ominously glowing furrow in its wake, pulling the massive weapon from the broken stone without hesitation or apparently much effort.

Looking over the burning blades and the richly decorated hilt with a calculating eye, Stakar apparently found a control mechanism of some sort, as he seemed to press something just above the handle, causing the burning field over the flat blades and the bright arches scattered across the battlefield to suddenly peter out and disappear.

Not long after, the Q-ship took off, Maw apparently not much caring about the fate of his fellow Order members, with the Chitauri forces hot on his heels, marking the battle as over. All in all, despite the massive destruction and loss of life on the planet itself, this clash could be counted as a victory for my Alliance, given the axe and spear had been recovered and two of Thanos's lieutenants had been confirmed dead. Unfortunately, we lost eyes on Corvus Glaive after Aleta had rammed him through a building. However, the following morning the bodies of both Cull and Proxima were found to be missing, with the Nova Corps members ordered to guard their corpses lying dead with gaping holes in their chests, as well as one Star Blaster being reported stolen soon after, meaning we had a fairly good idea what had happened to the last member of the Black Order.

After making sure immediate aid was given to the ruined city, both the Ravagers and the Nova Corps parted ways, moving on towards their next respective battlefields, all in all moving rather smoothly past each other without incident. Though Denarian Saal's frustrated face (and thus Stakar's and Aleta's smug expressions) when the two Ravager Captain's proudly paraded their newly conquered weapons on their shoulders right in front of him as they boarded their ships was somewhat hilarious.

That was the price of waging war alongside criminals, adventurers and pirates though, and thankfully Saal and the other Nova Captains seemed to realize this. So far, either due to their own discipline or Frigga's expert administration, there had been no clashes between the two groups despite their great differences, which is why they ended up getting paired together fairly often.

Pairing the Ravagers with the Kree (as nobody was stupid enough to try and pair the Nova and the Kree together) had led to several instances of what could be considered "excessively excessive force" if Frigga hadn't had the forethought to primarily focus such groups only on combating the mindless hordes of the doglike Outriders.

Ravagers and Sovereign hadn't mixed, period, and so the golden-skinned people mostly got paired up with the Kree whenever they didn't keep insisting that they could solo anything Thanos could throw at them.

This was just one of the dozens upon dozens of skirmishes currently happening all over several galaxies, though this was definitely one of the more high-profile one due to the participation of all members of the Black Order. They had individually taken to the field several times before, but this was the first time since my clash with Thanos and the beginning of our proxy war that all four of them had been on a single planet.

Thanos was beginning to narrow down his options.

This was confirmed by a worried looking Frigga a few days later as she came to visit my little relaxation corner amongst Nidavellir's forges (I even had a little rug now! And a better chair that had the thing where you can put the leg rest up! Small victories). Over the course of the war between Thanos and I, he had only sent out a revived Hela a grand total of three times. Each time, the orders of the Queen of Asgard had been for all of our forces to evacuate as quickly as possible.

Twice, this worked, as Hela was sent to some hellish, barren world where there had been no civilisation or even a trace of life. One of the tombs the ancient Asgardians had hidden there had collapsed over the countless millennia, but the other apparently had held a rather important collection of powerful crystals, magical and ancient ancestors to some of the great power sources of today, like the Anulax Batteries Rocket ended up stealing in the original timeline.

On the third world however… it had been a populated planet. Not very, at least by interstellar standards, having only about half of the population that Earth did and with comparable levels of infrastructure and technology. Unfortunately, their largest city had been built directly over a deeply buried Asgardian vault.

Hela arrived as she had on the previous two worlds: alone. A single, dark ship had landed right on top of the city, crushing entire skyscrapers underneath its massive hull, sending the population into a mass panic. A large mining laser fitted to the underside of the ship had unleashed a massive beam of destruction, cutting straight through the many layers of rock to lay bare the top of the vault in a manner of minutes. In roughly the same amount of time, that same laser had reduced the massive door sealing off said vault to nothing more than a river of burning slag. When the tall woman stalked down the lowered ramp of her spaceship in order to claim her prize, she was met by the army of the locals, who, to their credit, opened fire without hesitation.

It did precisely nothing.

She cut a swathe through them like a farmer stalking through a field ripe for the harvest, steadily working her way towards the vault and before long, there simply wasn't anyone in her surroundings left alive to challenge her. Not that they really could before.

The vault, while large, apparently had housed only several long forgotten or forbidden passageways through and maps of the various galaxies known to the ancient Asgardians. What had taken Loki a lifetime of illegal exploration of the Yggdrasil had been neatly stacked and labelled in a file cabinet inside the vault and there had been dozens of said cabinets.

All in all, Hela had come, seen and slaughtered in less than thirty minutes before she took off towards Sanctuary again, meaning my forces were helpless to stop her, only arriving after the fact. All they could do at that point was provide basic aid and provisions and offer empty platitudes that the monster would face justice.

However, as tragic as the attack had been, it was Hela's prize that had both Frigga worried and thus me. It only reinforced my idea that Thanos had been swiftly striking off names off his list and was now quickly narrowing down his options of where Bor might have hidden the Reality Stone.

The attack of the whole Black Order upon a single world had felt either as a definitive strike, or a distraction. Thanos clearly felt that either the Stone would have been there, or it wouldn't have been in any of the other hotspots where his forces were fighting mine and he'd have to switch up his strategy.

Hence the importance of getting his hands on ancient maps of forgotten and forbidden star systems.

With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I called for Bill, the one-armed cyborg making his way to my side in under fifteen minutes thanks to the now well-integrated Iris Way system into Othrys systems. Seeing the gruff cyborg approach my little corner while a nervous Frigga sat on the edge of her own seat besides me caused a lull in the work, which lasted until Eitri gruffly reminded his people that all of them were on a time-table, not merely the project they were working on, which quickly sobered everyone up.

Still, he, Sterns and the Ancient One left their own positions at Eitri's workbench (which in Sterns and the Ancient One's case meant hopping off the enormous thing), leaving their respective lieutenants in place to continue the work as they made their way over to me.

The three arrived just I began hurriedly speaking to Bill.

"Can you get me Nebula? I need intel on Thanos' movements now."

"I will try at once." The cyborg immediately replied, straightening as his blank eyes seemed to focus on something very far away.

For several agonizingly long moments, he stood utterly motionless, before a barely perceptible shudder ran through his body and a translucent projection suddenly shone out of his eyes. It was a system that Bill had asked Radcliffe to implant in his cyberoptics, based on the same design that Nebula had gotten installed in hers.

Apparently, during his more private and less subdued moments, he and Nebula had remained in contact, finding a sympathetic and understanding ear in the other traumatized cyborg.

The translucent image was static for a few moments, before it shaped into the serious visage of Nebula, the remaining Daughter of Thanos.

"Hyperion? It is good you contacted me, I have pressing news."

"That's good to hear. Are you safe though? Is your cover intact?" I begin, only for the Luphomoid to cut me off with a scowl.

"That's not important right now. You need to listen to me. Thanos has found new allies. After Hela returned from her latest trip, she shut both me and Maw out of my father's chambers and spoke to length at him alone. I didn't know what was being said, she makes sure that almost all her conversations with him are completely private. I couldn't spy on her, not with Maw there, since I'm fairly sure he has begun to suspect me, but after several hours my father made his way towards the command deck of the Sanctuary."

"He can move about already then." I say darkly, and Nebula slightly tilts her head at me.

"My father is not one to easily accept defeat. Physically, he seems unharmed aside from a thick scar that sits in the middle of his chest. At times, when he has exerted himself for too long, the skin around the Soul Stone in his forehead begins to look infected. I think I saw it bleed once. But it's in his eyes, I can see it: every waking moment for him is agony. His very being is burning up. He doesn't have long in this state, but long enough, I fear. Especially with these new allies. Five hours ago, after his talk with Hela, he told our helm to set course to a deep part of the galactic core. Almost nobody ventures there: it's rife with several supermassive blackholes and filled with massive clouds of Dark Matter and Energy. Normal navigational methods break down and there are no accurate maps of the region. But my father was steadfast: not once did we deviate course. I don't know how he managed it, but he guided us straight to the very centre of that unknown region of space."

"I have a pretty good idea." I mutter darkly, my mind flashing back to the reports of the aftermath of Hela's little party on the inhabited world housing the vault with the astrogation charts.

"Within that centre, there was a… tomb ship of sorts. I don't know these people that have slept her in hibernation, but they call themselves-"

"Dark Elves." I finish for her, the final pieces falling into place.

The signature reddish energy Obsidian Cull's (or rather, Stakar's) axe had given off. The hidden astrogation maps. The sudden, perilous travel to a region infamous for its black holes and unusually high amounts of Dark Matter and Energy. The Convergence was steadily closing in, meaning that they would wake soon from their millenia-long slumber, something I doubt would go unnoticed to those who knew where to look. In a desperate bid to keep them from ever awaking, I had Selvig already place several of his Gravimetric Spikes (far more advanced versions than the taped together pieces his naked self from the original timeline had cobbled together) on Earth, Asgard, Vanaheim, Nidavellir, Helheim and Svartalfheim just to be on the safe side.

He had even placed some on Jotunheim, though he had gone escorted by an armed guard of both Othrys personnel and Einherjar. I didn't want to bother with sending him to Muspelheim though, considering Surtur and his forces were still likely to attack him on sight, despite the dangers of the Convergence and an alliance between Thanos and the Dark Elves entailed.

It shouldn't matter, considering in the original timeline merely placing the Gravimetric Spikes on Earth had been enough to affect all Nine Realms but that had been only after the Realms had begun to bleed over into each other. By placing more powerful versions sooner and more widespread, I was hoping to completely negate all effects of the Convergence, including the hidden portal that would lead directly to the Aether.

Yes, it would've been incredibly useful to find such a portal for myself, but the chances of me finding it before Thanos or one of his people could wasn't something I was willing to bet my life on. Besides, even if I did find such a gateway now, it was useless to me in this form, considering how rapidly it and the Venom-knockoff currently eating its way through my flesh could turn me into a puddle when they joined forces.

Maybe I could have had Selvig stabilize such a portal, keep it open for me to walk through once my new body was complete, but again, that would mean finding it first. Additionally, such a portal would also mean that Thanos had a clear point where he could direct all of his forces to in order to claim it (and thus, the Aether) for himself.

"Do the Dark Elves have any clue of where the final Infinity Stone is?" I ask aloud, my thoughts having shot through my mind in the literal blink of an eye, refocusing on the startled looking Nebula.

"Not at first. But apparently, their leader has a personal connection to the Reality Stone. After the Odinsdottir marked off all the locations she had already had my father's forces check on, there are only a few possibilities left where the ancient Asgardians could have hidden the Aether. Both she and this Malekith are focusing on them now in a ritual with my father. I'm not sure how it all works, and in truth I do not wish to know, but he will literally look inside their soul for the connection to the remaining Infinity Stone, or at the very least its location. I'm not sure how long it'll take them-"

Nebula is suddenly cut off by a sliding sound coming from somewhere behind her, an oily voice starting to speak in a derisive tone before trailing off.

"Have you not heard our Lord's bidding, Nebula. We are to move at once-…"

Nebula has gone completely ram-rod straight as she turns at the speaker and the dark chuckle of Ebony Maw is malicious enough to raise the hair on my neck (… if I had any, that is).

"Well, well, well. What do we have here then? Just like your sister then, I suppose? Out to break your Father's heart by yet another act of BETRAYAL!" Maw ends in a sudden shout, apparently shooting or throwing something at Nebula, who ducks out of the 'screen' as she dodges.

The transparent image shakes wildly up and down as Bill takes a few large strides forwards, his remaining arm outstretched as his four-fingered hand closes uselessly on nothing but air.

"Nebula!" he roars in his deep voice, and the rest of us are on the edge of our seat (where applicable) as well.

The sound of crashing and shouting continues for several long minutes and I privately consider that, if this battle goes on any longer, it doesn't really matter if Nebula ends up winning or not, since at that point she'll probably have both the entirety of the Sanctuary's crew as well as a whole contingent of recently awakened Dark Elves to contend with.

Not to mention a semi-immortal Hela and seriously pissed-off Thanos.

Right as the grim thought enters my mind, something small blurs through the visible screen, sailing off screen in a heartbeat, and if it weren't for my advanced reflexes, I would've completely missed how Maw's head had apparently been speared on one of Nebula's swords and thrown as a javelin across the room.

For a few seconds, there was nothing but heavy silence, before Nebula limped back into view again, looking like complete shit. Several of her cybernetic plates have been torn away completely, showing the sparking cybernetics underneath and having slashed the organic flesh that had surrounded it. One of her eyes is gone entirely and her right arm is currently doing a rather admirable impression of a pretzel.

She's also positively covered in blood. It's unclear how much of it is hers and how much of it is Maw's, but either way it doesn't look good for her. She pauses for a brief moment to catch her breath, a mechanical wheezing audible to us all with each laboured gasp.

"In response to your first question… Hyperion… I think it's safe to say… my cover is blown." She manages to get out, before swallowing thickly.

"Save your strength, Nebula. You'll need it to get out of there." Bill says in a strong voice, but he's trembling all over.

Nebula gives a resigned shake of her head however.

"Even if I managed to make it to one of the escape pods, the Sanctuary is far faster and would catch or destroy me easily. Not that they'd need to. Whatever intel Hela gave him may have allowed my father to navigate through this damned maze of darkness itself, but sadly, she didn't share said information with the rest of the class. I'm trapped." The blue-skinned woman replies, strength slowly returning to her as anger pushes her on.

Looking straight into Bill's glowing eyes, she stands up straight (or as straight as she can), her expression dead serious.

"During my fight with Maw, I managed to get him to reveal Thanos' next destination: a place called Svartalfheim. Go there. Either find the Stone before Thanos arrives, or strike him down when he does. I will do my best to sabotage the ship before I die of my wounds or am captured, to buy you more time-"

"Don't be foolish, Nebula! You can still make it! We have need of you!" Bill bites back, his voice rising as he takes another stride forward.

For a second, there's only silence in our little corner of Nidavellir, before the cyborg continues in a smaller voice.

"… I have need of you." he admits.

Nebula blinks in shock a few times, and despite the thick coating of gore all over her face, I can still tell she's blushing underneath all the blood and guts.

"… thank you, Bill. For… everything. But, this is what we talked about. This is how I can become more than what Father reduced me to. I choose this. In my final moments, I will strike at him in a way that may cost him his life's work and will supersede the life he destined for me. I am freer now than I have ever been since the day his ships fell from the sky and his blade cut down my parents. Thank you for that, for making me see that."

She leans closer to Bill, the sparks in her cybernetic acting up and black, oily blood seeping from her ruined eye socket, but her expression is determined and unafraid.

"Make it count. Beat him to Svartalfheim. Avenge us. Avenge the Daughters of Thanos." She says in a passionate whisper, before turning on her heel and stalking away from the projection, leaving a stunned silence in her wake.

Bill stands staring at the empty translucent screen for a long moment, before slowly hanging his horse-like head as he closes his eyes, shutting off the projection. I want to give him a moment to come to grips with this newest loss, but he rouses himself before I get the chance.

"I'm going after her."

"What?!"

The combined shout came from, well, pretty much all of us, but Bill didn't seem to care, not that it seemed that he had even heard us for that matter. Instead, he turns towards Sterns, his pupil-less eyes narrowed in laser-like focus.

"You have an Iris Way device on you, yes?" he rumbled, his words coming out clipped through gritted teeth.

"I mean, yes, I do, but, Bill. Stop and think for a second. Where would you even direct the exit bridge towards? We have no idea where Thanos' ship is, except that it's near an untold number of black holes and-"

"I don't need to find his ship."

"Then what-"

"I just need to find my arm." he rumbles and I'm the first to cotton on.

"The quantum-entangled communication device. It's a part of you, so by focusing on it, you can use it as a guideline for the Iris Way." I muse aloud.

"In theory. He can use it in theory. Sending sound and light through a interconnecting, sub-dimensional link is magnitudes easier than actually bending realspace to follow that same route! There's a reason why we haven't portalled a tactical nuke over to Thanos' flagship by now, it might as well end up lightyears away from target, or worse, loop right back in the entanglement field so it gets spat out on our end!"

"I don't care." Bill grits out, stepping closer to Sterns and looming over the scientist.

However, Sam has been at my side and seen me at my worst over the course of years and stares right back at the massive cyborg, not so much as batting an eye.

"Let me send a Soter-platform through instead, at least. You are trying to travel to a piece of yourself, do you know the paradoxes involved when you rip open spacetime in order to follow a quantum signal from and to yourself? You could turn yourself into a pretzel Bill! At least with an android platform-"

"I. Am. Going." Bill rumbled in a very low, very dangerous tone, his remaining fist balled so tight his synth-skin stretches over the artificial muscle cords underneath.

Sterns glances towards me for help, but I'm conflicted. Sending Bill through is risky, considering the fact even his arrival is not a sure thing. Even though he's down an arm, he's still one of the heaviest hitters in my employ now that Bucky is on his way to tear the Kree Empire a new one, since I'm going to try to keep as much distance as is feasible between Jess and a battlefield. And while Nebula is indeed an amazing fighter, considering she managed to kill an opponent like Maw in a confined space and after being taken off guard, I'm not sure that I stand to gain as much as I might lose if I allow Bill to jump into the lion's den.

Not just Bill's physical power, but also the intelligence he has on my people and defenses that I'd rather not let fall in Thanos' clutches.

"If you go..." I slowly begin, seeing Sterns expression drop while Bill's turns anticapatory.

"If I allow you to go... you cannot get captured. Do you understand Bill?" I ask, the heaviness in my tone as I address him making it clear what the alternative to captivity is in this case.

Suicide.

Bill is silent, but only for a moment, before giving me a grave nod.

"I do, Hyperion."

"Doing this might mean you won't make it out alive to save your people." I caution, seeing the cyborg swallow heavily as his blank eyes remain fixed on my mismatched ones.

"What people?" he asks, his voice thick with emotion and I know at this point that I cannot bring myself to deny him.

I can't condemn him to lose even more than he already has.

"Sam. Hook him up to an Iris Way device. Bill, you need to close it if-... when you arrive. We cannot risk Thanos and his forces using the bridge to come here. Opening up another Iris Way to there is impossible for us, as we lack the connection you have, so you'll need to make one from there to here once you've found Nebula. We'll make sure medical staff and cyber-engineers are on standby to give whatever aid she -and you- may need."

As I start talking, I can see Sam's armor start disgorging tools as his mechadendrites come up and start working on Bill's empty shoulder-socket. Focusing on the steadfast cyborg who doesn't even bat an eye as several of Sterns' lasercutters begin laying open the synthskin covering the area where his arm used to attach to. As a rudimentary appendage starts to form around the roughly circular Iris Way devise, resembling a more bare-bones version of the portal-arm Phineas had used on Trachi-5, Bill looks over towards me.

Between his horse-like face and blank eyes, it can be difficult to read emotions in Bill's expression, but the gratitude the Beta-Ray is feeling is plain as day.

"Thank you." he says, his voice thick.

"Just... don't make me regret it." I mutter back, sinking deeper into my chair as I keep second guessing myself.

In all honestly, the truly most pragmatic option here is to simply strap one of my more experimental and extremely high-yield nukes to Bill, the types that can crack a continent in half or make an atmosphere go up in flames, and then send him through. Nebula might already be dead, and while certainly skilled, I already had an army: her survival was unlikely to make much of a difference on the battlefield. Bill's loss would be felt, both because of his strength and because he was a friend of mine, but I have done, and gone through, worse before.

It would mean the death of Thanos... maybe. As I told Irani and Ann-Ron, with the Soul Stone in his possession, actually killing Thanos might be impossible, depending on how skilled he was with the Infinity Stone. Even if the nuke completely disintegrated his crew, his generals and his ship, hell, even if it disintegrated his very body... it might not mean the end of the Titan. The way he attacked me on Asgard showed that his Soul was capable of far more than simple projecting, it was able to completely disengage from his body entirely, wander across the breath of the universe and then travel to another dimension at will.

It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for Thanos' ghost to emerge from the vaporized wreckage of his ship and continue his quest completely undeterred.

So, instead, I'm going to spare the life of my friend and instead bank on him managing to get to Nebula in time to aid her in her plans of scuttling the ship, which could buy me more time than the whole 'turn-my-friend-into-a-worldending-suicide-bomber' scheme.

As I re-evaluate my actions, Sterns speaks up, asking Bill some basic questions regarding movement and calibration, before turning to me.

"He's all set." he says, though he doesn't sound happy about it, glancing towards Bill's new arm from underneath mutated brows with an uncomfortable look on his face.

The arm looks out of place on the cyborg, being mostly just a black frame and wires surrounding a copper colored large tube with flanges on its end, looking somewhat like a mix of Samus Aran's cannon and the device Selvig had built for Loki. The color and clearly mechanical nature of the arm makes it stand out starkly against his far more organic looking orange skin, ironically making him truly seem like a cyborg now.

As he raises his arm-cannon to an empty area a few meters in front of him (and aimed away from us), I speak up, my voice rough thanks to stress and my injuries.

"Bill."

As the tall cyborg glances over my shoulder, I struggle with what to say to the man who is about to hurl himself head-first and one-armed into a suicide mission. Eventually, with words failing me, I settle on something simple.

"Don't fuck it up." I merely say.

Bill gets what I can't put into words however, giving me a deep and grateful nod, before looking forwards again, his face almost set in stone as he furrows his brow and grits his teeth. Pulling back the Samus-cannon like a pitcher winding up his throw, he lets the Iris Way device active, the concentric circles holding the flanges on the end of the tube rapidly spinning up. At their apex, the cyborg lets out a strained grunt, his eyes focused on something distant and far away, before he slams the cannon forwards. Rainbow-colored light ebbs up around the edge of his cannon, distorting the air, before shooting out in a tightly concentrated bright burst of energy, crashing into and splaying out against something invisible in the air. And just like on Trachi-5, a circular, spinning portal made with edges of rainbow-colored scintillating light comes into being.

I only have a second to see what's on the other end, which turns out to be the ruins of Nebula's trashed room (as evidenced by the open-mouthed and surprised-looking head of Ebony Maw still pinned to the far wall), before Bill dives through the portal without a second thought or look back. Immediately, the portal shrinks and winks out of existence right on his heels, and our little corner of Nidavellir darkens now that the oddly glowing lightsource has dissapeared.

There is a moment of tense silence as my mood turns grim and my expression sour, and things don't get better when Frigga is the one to break the quiet, two fingers with glowing mandalas held close to her temple as her eyes are shut in concentration, communicating with her luitenants.

"Michael. I have just received word from several of my Einherjar commanders in the field, as well as messages from our allies that all of Thanos' forces have retreated from their respective battlefields. All of them seem to be moving in a single direction." The Queen of Asgard says in an urgent tone, causing my scowl to deepen.

"Thanks to Nebula's sacrifice, we now know to where they're headed. To think, both Thanos and I have scoured the galaxy in search of Bor's most well-kept hiding place, only for him to have placed the Dark Elves' most terrible weapon right on their home world." I muse with a shake of my head.

"So… what do we do now?" Eitri rumbles and I look up at the enormous dwarf.

"How far along are you with the construction of my new body?" I simply shoot back, glancing around his massive form to the gargantuan sarcophagus that was standing upright about fifty meters away from the main aperture in Nidavellir's rings. It had been modelled off the chamber that Ayesha claimed to have made Adam Warlock in during the GotG stinger, just less gold and simultaneously more sci-fi and more fantasy like, thanks to the various screens, tubes and runic scripts that covered its enormous surface.

Briefly glancing down at Sterns and the Ancient One, Eitri gives me a hesitant shrug.

"Might be a month. Might be two, two and a half. Got about half of the bones ready, just the smaller ones, the skull, the spine and the ligaments to go. Many of the muscles and stuff have been grown. Several strengthening solutions and agents are being brought in every day. Just have to build everything up together now, make sure you're attuned to it, so that the transfer goes smooth. The slots for the Infinity Stones are giving us the most trouble at the moment" The Dwarven King finally elaborates, Sterns and Bodhmall nodding their agreement.

"Two and a half months…" I muse aloud and the rest of the group immediately has the same thought as I do.

It's not fast enough.

"Frigga. Send every fleet we currently have in the field to Svartalfheim, tell them to move as fast as their ships allow without it breaking apart. We need to give Eitri and his team as much time as possible until Thanos himself takes to the battlefield. Currently, his forces are small, as it will take time for the Chitauri and Outriders to arrive as their motherships are relatively slow. Unfortunately, among the forces he does currently have access to are the Dark Elves and their ship as well as at least one Kursed warrior and of course an immortal Hela Odinsdottir to boot. Additionally, if he thinks the need is dire enough, he may keep resurrecting other fighters as well until his back-up arrives. Bodhmall, take as many magic practitioners as you can and send them to Svartalfheim, they'll be faster than anyone else. Tell them to layer as many wards and protective spells as you can think of, then order them to try and hold the line until our fleets arrive. In the meantime, I want you to take hold of the Eye of Agamotto again and create a zone of accelerated time here for as long as possible before the Time Stone needs to be implanted in my new body. That should speed up the work. Also, Frigga, be sure to send Thor here as soon as possible as well: I want him at his full potential and we can no longer wait for him to age into it naturally. Sterns, tell Phineas to start mass-producing Iris Way devices as soon as he can. We need to distribute as many of them among our allies as we can so we can send our entire armies to the homeworld of the Dark Elves at once. From what I know of Thanos… we're going to need them." I order grimly, before looking up as I see several of my companions hesitating.

"Michael…" Sterns begins, though he's unsure of how to finish the thought.

"You are asking people, entire armies to be sent into a meat grinder, Hyperion. With the power of the Soul Stone, Thanos' forces will be practically limitless as he keeps raising his fallen soldiers again and again. Every one of ours that falls in battle is yet another addition to his forces. Not to mention asking my son to sacrifice years or perhaps even centuries of his lifespan-"

"WHAT OTHER CHOICE DO WE HAVE?!" I roar, ignoring the flair of pain in my vocal cords as the others recoil away from me in shock.

Sinking back down in my chair (which suddenly doesn't feel as comfortable anymore), I raise my remaining hand to massage the tendril-free part of my brow, continuing in a sombre, more subdued voice.

"What other choice do we have? We need to stop Thanos from setting foot on Svartalfheim. I am still too weak. My new body is not finished yet. We need time we do not have and so our best bet, no, our only bet, is to stall for that time, to cheat our way around it. For as long as we can, with as many lives as we can spare. The cost of what I'm asking is high. The cost of what we stand to lose if we don't is infinitely higher."

Letting my hand drop in my lap as I lean back into the back of my chair, I look at Frigga with tired eyes.

"It's necessary. Their lives, for the survival of the universe."

Sighing deeply, I glance down at my mis-matched hands.

"It's necessary." I repeat softly to myself, unable to shake a voice out of the back of my mind, a memory of a mist-filled, orange world.

'… you've had the same mentality for so long. The scale which I operate on is simply larger.'

"…very well. It will be done, Hyperion. We move to take Svartalfheim and will make to hold it 'till our final breath. I shall tell my son what is required of him, though I shall not force him. Likely, I will have no need to. As you said: our lives for the survival of the universe." Frigga finally says in a subdued tone, rising to her feet, calling a portal into being and stalking over towards Asgard as it closes behind her.

"We'll hold the line, Michael. As long as it takes. Just… as Nebula said. Make it count." The Ancient One said, her voice calm and determined, but her eyes were saddened as she portalled away to one of the Sanctums as well.

I had expected her to object to the field of accelerated time (a sort of inverse of the bubble that even know was preserving the comatose body of the traumatized Python) given the risk of weakening the dimensional barriers in our reality, but I guess she weighed that risk against the dangers of Thanos getting his hands on the Reality Stone instead, which would make those barriers look like swiss cheese at a shooting gallery.

"I'll see what I can do about those Iris Ways, Michael. Perhaps work with Selvig to find a way to control the Convergence to our benefit, instead of merely subduing it. Might take a little while to get something useful, but if that whole Time-accelartion thing works out, it could be worth a try." My first real friend in this universe says in a soft tone, before he too leaves me be, moving on to his own projects.

Eitri is the last one to go, clearly unsure of what to say or do, simply crossing his muscled arms in front of his broad chest and giving a firm nod that shakes his thick beard and mane of hair.

"Rest assured, Sorcerer Supreme. We'll work without rest on your new body. We'll get it done before the battle even begins, just you wait and see." He tries to reassure me, which is somewhat undercut by the clearly audible mutter of 'at least I really fucking hope so' as he lumbers away from me.

And then I'm sitting alone in my little corner of Nidavellir, its neutron star causing a deep shadow over my little spot that now seems to have been drained of all the comfort it radiated mere minutes ago, my mis-matched eyes still staring unseeing at the two different hands resting helplessly in my lap.

"It's necessary." I whisper to no one.

---

Fun Fact: The inspiration for the axe Obsidian Cull (and now Stakar Ogord) wields in this chapter was taken from the axe that was created for Imir by the Dwarves in the tie-in comics, as its capabilities fit nicely together with what the Reality Stone is/should be capable of. I figured that Bor did some experiments with the power of the Aether after yeeting the Dark Elves onto a "endangered species" list and had such an axe made before deciding it was too dangerous and locking it away. The spear Proxima Midnight (and now Aleta Ogord) wields was based off the Electro Axe the better version of Steppenwolf wields (though the trailing afterglow-thing of its predecessor inspired the look Reality-cutting effect of the axe in this chapter) with similar effects in combat. I also based the (very brief) description of Aleta's combat style off her actress Michelle Yeoh who is renowned for Wire Fu fights, most famously in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

AN: I promised the final chapter of this story a month ago. A little while ago, I said I'd upload it tomorrow, which is now last week. Sorry that I'm shit at keeping promises :/ I did intend to have the final clash between Thanos and Michael to occur here, but there were just more and more characters that kept getting in the way and then the clash between them grew and grew until what it's now, and actual battlefield between two massive armies. So, given the length of this chapter, I felt I would do it a disservice to have that fight be the tail end of this chapter and to give it its own one instead, in order to really focus in on all the crazy twists and action. Incidentally, that will mean this story will end on 52 Chapters! (wrong comicbook universe, but I'll take it) So, again, sorry (again) for not living up to my promised uploads. As such, no promise on when the actual last chapter will come out, since university is starting in a few days again and I intend to make a good start. Hope you like the chapter and hopefully I'll see you at the next one! Cheers!