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!