Chapter IX:
The rocky structures stared back at them with menace as they stumbled to their feet, the biting wind providing little comfort.
There was a dark energy Yelena felt with this place. A fetor of death. A familiar pain that curdled her gut. Though this was her first time here, half of her already felt familiar with the purple sky and dying sun. It was a place she knew she visited before in dreams. Of course, now, she could not remember how they ended.
"Well, this sucks," Percy intoned, his sword already drawn.
Yelena nodded. "Very."
A new voice appeared, "Really? I think it's quite lovely!"
Swiveling to the new sound, they were met with the sight of a man. Not just any man though, one with a red and black jumpsuit, and a mask completely covering his face.
"Hey there! Yelena, son of uh… Ivan!"
"And you are?" Yelena asked, her gun pointed at the space between the masked guy's eyes.
"Woah there spice girl, let me finish here first, then I'll tell ya." The mask scrunched. "Perseus son of Poseidon? Poseidon, yeah yeah. And…Michael! Son of Makorioa."
"Your name was Michael this entire time?" Percy gawked at the flerken. "What?"
"Answer my question, who are you?" Yelena demanded, ignoring them.
"Deadpool!" The mouth behind the mask grinned as he bowed. "And you can consider me your tour guide for finding the Soul Stone!"
"Tour guide? You got a map or something?" Percy said, eyeing the flerken and Deadpool with no small amount of suspicion.
Deadpool clapped his gloved hands together. "Man I wish it were that easy, but it ain't. You can follow me up these steps though, I'll show you where you can find it! So exciting!"
Yelena's gun remained aimed as it was. "How'd you know our names?"
Two people, back to back, who knew their names without them telling. What were the odds?
"It's part of the job. There's this little voice in the back of my head that gives me the rubdown on everybody that shows up here." Deadpool tapped his temple. "Gets a little annoying sometimes. Wish I could change the settings to make it sound like a girl instead of an old man. Can you imagine touching yourself, knowing that you got an old man in your head?"
"This is ridiculous." Yelena shook her head. "This must be some mistake."
"Unfortunately it ain't." Deadpool's hands found his hips. "To get the stone, you gotta follow me up these steps. Then we can talk about your next move!"
Yelena met Percy, who gave her a shrug.
Why did she have a bad feeling about this? Why was everything never normal? Why was Moby's real name Michael?
Some of those questions were answered when they arrived at the top. Greeting them first was a looming cliff, the smell of death growing stronger with the wind. Below the fall was Vormir's horizon, stretching out as far as the eye could see, shrouding Yelena with insignificance.
"To get the stone, you gotta give a soul. It's that simple." Deadpool said, tapping his index fingers together.
Percy stared at him confused. "What?"
"A soul for a soul," Deadpool explained with a casual shrug. "A sacrifice. It's just how it is, hate to break it to you guys. The last dude that ran this place was a lot more poetic about it, but I figured you guys would appreciate me being all dick no balls about it."
Yelena's jaw flattened. "So you're saying that…"
"...One of us has to die, to get the stone." Percy finished.
"You gotcha!" Deadpool exclaimed, pointing at them with finger-guns. "Surprise!"
Yelena felt her heart thud unpleasantly to the ground, felt the blood drain from her face completely. Scared, she dared to face Percy, his expression grimmer than hers, his eyes narrowing in thought.
"And there's no other way?" She whispered.
Deadpool waved his finger. "Nope. Nada. Lo siento."
Percy had a dangerous look to him now. A look that she had never seen before with him. There was no longer a spark in his eyes, only… acceptance.
"No other way…" He whispered.
"No Percy, don't even think about it." Yelena blocked his path to the cliff. "Absolutely not. We are thinking this through."
Percy stared at the sword in his palm, avoiding her gaze. "Yelena, I'm not even from this world. It's gotta be me, this is your mission, no? This is yours to finish, not mine."
Yelena grabbed the scruff of his shirt in anger, teeth gritting and eyes shiny. "I'm not losing another person in my life. Especially not you."
From birth she was surrounded by death, whether by force, choice, or some gray line between. It was trivial to try and count the amount of times that she had seen it. Watched the life drain from somebody's eyes. Helped dig the holes where they were laid to rest. Mourned their loss during her many sleepless nights.
She was not ready to add another one to that tally. Not with him.
Gently, Percy's hand covered hers, finally meeting her face on. "Maybe jumping off that cliff is how I can get back to my world. How I can get back home."
Yelena's grip tightened. "You're saying you want to leave me?"
"Woah, getting all sentimental on me now?" He smiled, and it took all of Yelena's will not to punch him. "I'm just trying to cushion the fall, you know."
"Ooooh, is that a pun!" Deadpool interjected. "I'm a master at those."
Yelena pointed her gun at Deadpool, and then back at Percy,
"You are not jumping off that cliff, so help me God."
"But what other way is ther—"
Moby meowed—No, he roared.
Drawing everybody's attention, the flerken began to contort, growing, stretching, changing colors until… pop!
A brilliant flash blinded her, the dots in her vision taking more than a couple seconds to dissipate. And when they finally did, she could now officially say that she had seen it all.
What could only be described as a vampire edgelord, now stood in Moby's place. A man whose skin was whiter than white, hair blacker than black. If the wind was any stronger, he might have blown away. If they were not in the middle of discussing which of them might die, it might have been funny. Hilarious, even.
"Hey uh, yeah. Hello. I'm Dr. Michael Morbius."
"What." Percy and Yelena said in unison.
Percy sputtered more, "You were—How—Why—Huh?"
Deadpool screamed like a little girl, "Oooh plot twist!"
"Who even are you?" Yelena took a step back. "How? Why?"
"I am, or was, I guess, a doctor back on Earth." The flerken-suddenly-turned-man explained with a touch of ego. "And I was trying to heal myself from a fatal disease, and by doing so I injected myself with flerken blood. And…" His hands swept over his body, "accidentally became a flerken."
Yelena was sure she was hallucinating. Though she was not as stunned as Percy, by the looks of it.
Awkward handshakes went around, a limp in the way Morbius moved obvious as he greeted them both,
"It's been a pleasure meeting you, but my time has come. I've found my calling." He then proclaimed, pointing to the cliff. "My true purpose of existence."
"Wait, you're going to jump? Why?" Percy's face shifted. "But you'll die."
"Don't worry Percy, Morbius never dies." Morbius' smile went sly. "Oh, and you might need these."
From Morbius' mouth came the Infinity Gauntlet and Stones, which he carefully placed in Percy's hands. If Yelena's brain was functioning properly, she would have found it disgusting.
"Best of luck, my friends. Moby thanks you all for bringing him along on your great adventure."
Yelena could have sworn the existence of a tear in the corner of Percy's eye. Maybe there was one in hers too.
And with those as his last words, Morbius leaped over the edge, his lanky figure flailing, before disappearing through the cloud cover forever.
Deadpool let out a long whistle,
"Damn, that was pretty crazy."
-Ω-
Both Percy and Yelena stared at the completed Infinity Gauntlet, still standing in the pool of water they awoke in. The mountain of Deadpool was little more than a footnote in the background. The sky above the same purple as before.
"I'm half-god, Yelena. I think I'm our best chance at using this thing."
Yelena bit her lip. The discussion had been going on for well over an hour now. Plus, however many minutes they spent making sure the gauntlet did not blow up when adding each stone. The Tesseract was the most painful, given that it took them a hot second to realize that they needed to break the cube, to get the stone inside of it.
"I used the Tesseract before, and the Power Stone kind of." Percy added. "I think I can figure it out."
Yelena looked him dead in the eyes. "Neither of us know how to use it."
"You said it yourself Yelena, we got literally the most powerful thing in existence now. I'm sure if I just tell it to go back to wherever you came from, we can do it. Same thing goes for killing Dormammu."
Yelena wanted to say something, but could not find anything to argue back with.
Percy smiled. "We're probably going to die, huh?"
"Don't say that." Yelena stomped on his foot.
Percy laughed a nervous laugh, the sound ridding some of her tension,
"Not the first time I've faced death before. I'm basically a pro, you know."
Yelena scrunched her nose. "Do you even know who you're talking to?"
An annoying yet endearing smirk appeared on Percy. "Who are you again? Do I know you?"
Using both hands, Yelena grabbed his shirt again,
"You're an idiot." She mumbled, pressing her face up against his.
The sensation was warm. Salty. Smoky. Sweet. Everything she imagined it would be.
"Wh–" Percy murmured, eyes widening in surprise.
Yelena pulled back some time later, satisfied. "Shut up. Save it for later."
"Right." Percy answered, eyes magically ten times brighter. "Save it for later."
Somewhat closer now, their attention returned to the gauntlet.
"You ready?" He asked.
"I don't like any of this." She answered.
"Well, that sucks."
With her help, Percy's hand slid into the gauntlet, his veins alighting with a multitude of colors. Fear struck the chords of Yelena's heart as he yelled, falling to his knees, his skin bubbling and boiling, before settling back down.
"Percy!" She held his chin up, him having collapsed into her hands. "Are you okay?"
"Never better." He said after a deep breath, his damned smile still on his face.
Without waiting, Percy raised the gauntlet above his head,
"See you on the other side, sunshine."
Author's Note:
And that's all she wrote for this pupper :)
I found it proper to end the story with a somewhat ambiguous ending. There's an infinite amount of ways this story could have concluded, and I felt like it wouldn't have been right to constrict it to only one. The story was pretty dumb on all accounts, but god damn it was fun to just shut my brain off and write.
This was supposed to get rid of my writer's bug for Yelena, but I'm not entirely sure if I'm cured. Who knows, if you stick around my profile long enough, Percy and Yelena might make another appearance.
Feedback, thoughts, dicks, anything would be appreciated. Thanks for all the support, and hope you enjoyed it :)
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Winston Churchill
