Infinity Conquest

The Guardians of the Galaxy are traveling on board of their ship, The Benetar. A couple hours earlier, they picked up a distress call from s ship called “Statesman”

Gamora is currently very annoyed.

Quill and Rocket are bickering, Groot is carelessly playing his video game and Drax is snoring with his mouth open from his seat in front of Quill. Only Mantis seems focused on the task at hand.

Rocket, after wining an argument against Quill, yawns. ”Why are we doing this again?”

Gamora refused an urge to roll her eyes. “It’s a distress signal, Rocket. Someone could be dying.”

“I get that, but why are WE doing it?”

Before Gamora can snap at Rocket, Peter chimes in “Cause we’re nice. And maybe whoever it is will give us a little cheddar cheese for our help.”

“Which isn’t the point.” Gamora says with a glare. Quill points finger at her while also winking at Rocket “Which isn’t the point. But, if he doest pay up…”

“We’ll take his ship” Rocket says with a smirk.

“Bingo!” Quill exclaims with his own smirk.

Gamora facepalms as she sits into her seat. Sometimes, she asks herself, why she even bothers with them. Rocket and Quill are children in grown up bodies.

“We are arriving.” Mantis says, making all three of them to pay attention to their surroundings.

This isn’t some Spaceship in distress. This is a Graveyard. Debris and corpses were scattered all over the place around their ship. Some of the people were wearing armors, but most of them were clothed in civilian outfits.

"Looks like we're not getting paid," Quill observed with horrified look.

Nobody commented on his smart remark. Every single one of them was staring at the horror before them. There is a body floating towards them and in matter of few seconds, is sprawled over their windshield. He was a tall, muscular blond man, with short hair. He was also missing his right eye.

The little jolt, that went through The Benatar as his body collided with their ship was enough to even wake up Drax from his sleep. "Wipers! Wipers! Get it off!" Rocket screeched.

Suddenly, the man's left eye opened and al of them jerked back in surprise.

They pulled the mysterious man inside and put him on their table. His body was covered in dirt and drain blood. Without taking in consideration his missing eye, he was mostly okay and intact, he was just exhausted.

“How the hell is this dude still alive?” Quill asks with unbelieving voice.

“He is not a dude.” Drax says while looking at the man with admiration. “You’re a dude. This… This is a man. A handsome, muscular man.”

Quill looks offended and protests “I’m muscular!”

“Who are you kidding, Quill? You’re one sandwich away from fat.” Rocket says

“Yeah, right.” Quill says, clearly not agreeing.

“It’s true. You have gained a little weight” Drax quickly backing Rocket up, while motioning to his chin and belly

“What? Gamora, do you think I’m…” Quill starts, but Gamora ignores him, slowly circling around the table, inspecting the unconscious man.

Mantis slowly leans forward and puts her hand on The Man’s forehead, using her empathic abilities. She grimaces in discomfort. “He is anxious. Angry. He feels tremendous loss and guilt.”

“It’s like a pirate had a baby with an angel.” Drax continues to admire his figure in awe.

“Wow. This is a real wake-up call for me. Okay. I’m gonna get a Bowflex. I’m gonna commit. I’m gonna get some dumbbells.” Quill declares, completely ignoring both Drax or Mantis’s comments.

“You know you can’t eat dumbbells, right?” Rocket says with amused voice.

Gamora picks up one of The Man’s hand, running her fingers on his shoulder” It’s like his muscles are made of Cotati metal fibers.”

“Stop massaging his muscles.” Quill says slowly in clearly jealous voice.

Gamora looks totally unimpressed with his look, but eventually drops the man’s hand. Peter heavily signs looking towards Mantis. “Wake him up.”

She nods and closes her eyes, softly whispering “Wake”

The Man immediately snaps his eye open and jumps up, making them all go into defensive positions. He breaths heavily, frantically looking for something or someone from left and right.

He then turns to them, looking at their withdrew weapons, completely unimpressed. “Who the hell are you guys?”

Quill shakes his head, brining himself out of his staring trance “Who are we?… Who are you?! And what happened here?“

"I am Thor, son of Odin, God of Thunder and New King of Asgard. As to what happened… Asgard was destroyed and I was leading my people to Earth, but or path was crossed by the Mad Titan."

That name sent them all shivers down their spines. Gamora focused more on the fact, that Thor called himself “New King of Asgard”. The former King of Asgard, Odin, was extremely powerful and also one last obstacle preventing Thanos from collecting The Infinity Stones.

If Odin is gone…

“Thanos?” Drax shouts in angry manner and Thor nods.

“Why did Thanos attacked you?” Gamora asks with suspicion.

“Before Asgards destruction, my brother Loki had taken possession of The Tesseract. It held an Infinity Stone inside it…”

"So now Thanos has it?" Gamora asked with dread.

“Aye.” Thor confirms “The Titan is now in possession of both Power and Space Stones.”

Wait, wait, wait, I thought that the Power Stone was on Xandar, protected by the Nova Corps” Quill said, with slightly worried look.

“It was, until Thanos’s forced decimated Xandar and stole it last week” Thor reveals and The Guardians all exchange sad looks.

They weren’t on Xandar for a very long time, but Peter stayed in touch with one of their friend and member of the Nova Corps, Dey. Their last conversation was only two weeks ago…

“What does Thanos even want with those Stones?” Rocket asks

“To bring balance to the Universe by wiping out half of all life. He used to kill people planet by planet, massacre by massacre…” Gamora explains with pained expression.

“Including my own.” Drax says, sadly.

“If he gets all six Infinity Stones, he can do it with the snap of his fingers, like this.” Gamora snaps her fingers as demonstration.

“You seem to know a great deal about Thanos.” Thor points out with suspicion.

“Gamora… is the daughter of Thanos.” Drax says and the rest of the Guardians give him looks.

Thor’s eyes dangerously narrow as he walks directly before Gamora who keeps an eye contact with him the whole time.

“Your father killed my brother.” Thor growls

Quill gets between Thor and Gamora, pushing her slightly behind him. “Oh, boy. Stepfather. Technically, she hates him as much as you do.”

Thor’s expression softens and turns into a sympathetic one. He sidesteps Quill and puts a comforting hand on Gamora’s shoulder.

“Families can be tough. Look. Before my father died, he told me I had a half-sister…that he imprisoned in Hel. Then she returned home, and stabbed me in the eye, so… I had to kill her. It’s life, isn’t it, I guess. Goes round and round and… I feel your pain.”

“And I feel your pain, as well. I mean it’s not a competition, but I’ve been through a lot. My father killed my mother, then I had to kill my father. And that was hard. Probably even harder than having to kill a sister. Plus, I, came out of it with both of my eyes-”

All of them ignored Quill’s jealousy-induced rant while Thor eyed one of Drax’s knifes. He remembers his hammer, Mjolnir. The wound is still fresh…

“I need a new weapon.” He declares moments later and moves to the control panel on the side of the wall. He starts pushing buttons, but nothing happens

“How do I open this thing? Is there some sort of a four-digit code maybe… Maybe a birth date or something…”

“What are you doing?” Quill asks

“Taking your pod”

Peter just puffed up his chest and took a step towards Thor, mimicking his voice and accent. “You are not taking our pod!”

The Guardians and Thor all turn to look at Peter as if he was crazy.

"Uh... Quill, are you making your voice deeper?" Rocket asks, feeling embarrassed for only knowing the guy.

"You are," Drax agreed with Rocket, "you're imitating the god-man. It's weird."

"No, I'm not," Quill retorted in the same voice.

Mantis pointed at him accusingly: "He just did it again!" she exclaimed.

"This is my voice!" Quill insisted, again imitating Thor.

Thor feeling already annoyed with the smaller man steps closer to him in threatening way “Are you mocking me?”

Self-preservation was never one of Quill's strong suits. It’s clear when he fires “Are you mocking me?” back at the pissed off God.

“You just did it again….” Thor says while a tiny lightning flickers in his eye.

"Enough!" Gamora yelled, just as Thor muttered "He's doing it first" just loud enough for her to hear. “We need to stop Thanos. Which means we need to find out where he’s going next”

“Knowhere.” Thor says while still glaring at Peter, but moving away from him. It was Gamora’s turn to look confused “Why would he go to Knowhere?”

Thor signs “Because for years, the Reality Stone has been safely stored, there with a man we call The Collector.”

"If it's with The Collector then it's not safe," Quill said, "Only an idiot would give that man a Stone!"

"Or a genius." Thor argued through gritted teeth at the implication. Sensing another pissing contest starting, Gamora brought the discussion back on topic "Thor, how do you know he's going for the Reality Stone next?"

"I don't. Not for sure. But I know that the Mind Stone is safely on Earth, under the protection of The Avengers, Time Stone is also on Earth. As for the Soul Stone, well, no one’s ever seen it. No one even knows where it is. Therefore, Thanos can’t get it.“

At the mention of The Soul Stone, Gamora looks like a deer caught in highlight, but luckily for her, nobody notices. She completely cuts out Thor’s exploration about who The Avengers all from her mind, but seeing the unimpressed look on Quill’s face makes her quickly act.

"Then we have to go to Knowhere now."

Thor disagrees “Wrong. Where we have to go, is Nivadellir.”

“That’s a made up word.” Drax says, still admiring Thor’s great figure.

“All words are made up.” Thor point out, making Drax go into a deep thought.

“Nidavellir is real?” Rocket asks while limbing on to the table “Seriously? I mean, that place is a legend. They make the most powerful, horrific weapons to ever torment the Universe. I would very much like to go there, please.”

Thor smiles “The rabbit is correct, and clearly the smartest among you.”

“Rabbit?” Rocket asks, confused and slightly offended.

“Only Eitri the dwarf king can make me the weapon I need.” Thor says then looks directly at Rocket “I assume you’re the captain, sir?”

"Actually, I'm the-" Peter tried to butt in.

"Quiet!" Thor shouts, without giving Peter a chance of finishing his sentence and turned back to Rocket "You seem like a noble leader. Will you join me on my quest Nivadellir?”

Rocket looks deeply in thought before he answers “Lemme just ask The Captain. Wait a second, it’s me! Yeah, I’ll go.”

Thor grins “Wonderful.”

Rocket opens up the doors to the pod and Thor climbs in. Then Rocket starts to collect some thing around the ship to his backpack.

“That’s mine backpack.” Quill said, pointing his finger at the back pack, but Rocket completely ignores him. “Quill, sit down.”

Peter looks at Thor in annoyance “Look, this is my ship. And I’m not going to… Wait, what kind of weapon are we talking about here?”

“The Thanos killing kind.” Thor answers, simply.

“Don’t you think that we should all have a weapon like that?”

“No. You simply lack the strength to wield them. Your bodies will crumble as your minds collapse into the madness.”

“Is it weird that I wanna do it even more now?” Rocket asks, looking towards Thor who shrugs “A little bit. Yeah.”

“If we don’t go to Knowhere and Thanos retrieves another stone, he’ll be too powerful to stop.” Gamora tries to reason with them.

“He already is.” Thor says as he makes himself comfortable in The Pod.

“I got it figured out. We got two ships, and a large assortment of morons. So me and Groot will go with the pirate-angel here, and the morons will go to Knowhere to try and stop Thanos. Cool? Cool.”

“So cool.” Thor agrees with a smile.

Peter leans towards Rocket who starts to enter The Pod. “For the record… I know that you’re only going with him because it’s where Thanos isn’t.”

Rocket turns to look at him. “You know, Quill, you shouldn’t talk that way to your captain. Come on, Groot. Put that game down. You’ll rot your brain.”

“I am Groot…” is Groot’s annoyed answer as he steps into the pod.

As soon as Groot is inside the doors to the pod close and Thor gives the remaining Guardians one last glance with a small smile and wave. 

“I bid you farewell and good luck, morons. Bye.”

Gamora was nervous as she observed Knowhere grow bigger and bigger from one of the Benatar's portholes, as she and the other remaining Guardians closed the distance with the humongous severed head of a dead Celestial.

She hadn't said a single word for the entire trip. Instead, she just kept playing a small pocket knife that Thanos gifted her when they first met.

She lost her parents that day. Her father wasn’t a good guy, he was always drunk and brat her and her mother for no reason. Her Mother had her times, but she was mostly focused on pleasing her husband, ignoring her Daughter in progress.

She hates Thanos for what he made her. The Most Dangerous Woman in The Galaxy. But, she also can’t help herself and love Thanos the same way any Daughter loves her Father.

Unlike to Nebula, to her, Thanos was always loving and caring Father who taught her everything she knows.

Thanos wasn’t always a ruthless monster that traveled for planet to planet and murdered half of the population.

No. Once upon a time, Thanos was just ordinary man. He was differently then the others on Titan and for that, he was shunned down and humiliated, but he didn’t pay to much attention to it.

Over a time, he became one of the most loved leaders on Titan, despite his mutation. What happened to his home world broke him on a unimaginable level.

He will never stop…

And for the safety of the entire Galaxy, he must die..

“Gamora. Do you know if these grenades are the “blow off your junk” kind or the gas kind?”‘Cause I was thinking I might hang a couple on my belt right here. But I don’t want to..” Quill starts while inspecting the grenades in his hands.

She is brought are out her thoughts as Quill walks up to her, holding two grenades in his hands. “Gamora. Do you know if these grenades are the “blow off your junk” kind or the gas kind? Cause I was thinking I might hang a couple on my belt right here. But I don’t want to..”

“I need a favor.” Gamora says cutting him off and Quill just blinks at her “Yeah, sure.”

“If things go wrong… If Thanos gets me… I want you to promise me… you’ll kill me.”

There is a beat of silence and Quill again just blinks before shouting “What?!” Gamora signs in exhausted manner “I know something he doesn’t. If he finds out… The entire Universe could be at risk.”

“What do you know?” Quill asks, curiosity all over his face. Gamora just looks at him with disbelief “If I tell you, you’d know, too.”

“If it’s so important, shouldn’t I?”

“Only if you wanna die.”

Quill uncomfortably grimaces “Why does somebody always have to die in this scenario?” Gamora again signs, not wanting to continue this conversation anymore. “Just… trust me. And possibly, kill me.”

“I mean, I’d like to. I really would…” Quill starts to rant but GAMORA silences him by covering his mouth with her hand, giving him a hard and demanding look. “Swear to me. Swear to me on your mother.”

Quill hesitantly nods “Okay.” and Gamora releases a breath of relief.

She pulls him down towards her, kissing him. The two kiss, until an odd crunching sound startles them. Drax is standing in the corner, eating chips.

“Dude! How long have you been standing there?” Quill pouts, annoyed that his moment with Gamora was interrupted.

“An hour.”

Quill’s jaw drops in unbelievable manner “An hour? Are you serious?” Drax nods, proudly before exclaiming “I’ve mastered the ability, of standing so incredibly still… That I’ve become invisible to the eye. Watch.”

Drax stands motionless- until he eats more of his snack. “You’re eating a zark nut” Quill points out.

“But my movement… So slow… And it’s imperceptible.” Drax says and Quill and Gamora shake their head, telling him that he isn’t invisible. “I’m sure I’m invisible.” Drax mumbles in convinced voice.

Mantis suddenly appears beside him, waving at him “Hi, Drax.” Drax just blinks, putting down his snacks and whispers “Damn it.” to himself as he walks away.

As they approached Knowhere, Quill could sense that something was wrong. The place was usually bustling with life: miners working, muggers stealing, drunkards stumbling in and out of taverns, and all sorts of questionable individuals crowding the streets. Now though, there wasn't a single person around. It was too quiet.

They proceeded slowly inside the gigantic head. Everywhere they looked, there was nothing but silence. It looked as if all the people had magically disappeared all at once.

I'm reading movement from the third quadrant," Drax said, looking over his console."Yeah, I picked that up too," Quill replied, "Let’s put it down right here."

The group enters The Collector’s collection room, which is in ruins. In the middle of the room, Thanos is threatening The Collector, holding him by the neck, while the Guardians quickly hide behind the rubble.

“Everyone in the Galaxy knows you’d sell your own brother if you thought it would add the slightest trinket to your pathetic collection. I know you have the Reality Stone. Giving it to me will spare you a great deal of suffering.” Thanos says, clearly loosing the patience.

The Collector spits out blood “I told you. I sold it. Why would I lie?” Thanos looks at him with unimpressed look “I imagine it’s like breathing for you.”

“Like suicide.” The Collector mutters silently, but Thanos hears him and smiles “So you do understand. Not even you would surrender something so precious”

“I didn’t know what it was.”

“Then you’re more of a fool than I took you for. Last chance, Tivan. Where’s the Stone?”

“Today…” Drax mutters as he tightens his hold on his knifes. Realizing what Drax is planning to do, Quill tries to reason with him “Drax. Drax!”

But Drax completely ignores him, his eyes focused only at the Titan before him  “…he pays for the deaths of my wife and daughter.”

“Drax, wait! not yet, not yet, not yet. He doesn’t have the Stone yet. We get it, and then we can stop him. We have to get the Stone first.” Quill pleads with him, asking him to follow the plan.

“No. No. For Ovette. For Camaria.” Drax says and stands up only for Mantis to touch his shoulder and whisper “Sleep.”

Drax immediately looses conscious and falls down, causing a ruckus that catches both Thanos and Collector’s attention.

Quill clearly panicking “Okay. Gamora, Mantis, you go right. I’m…” Gamora ignores him and starts running towards Thanos.

“The other right!” Quill shouts but it’s to late Gamora attacks Thanos, stabbing him twice, killing him. Thanos’s eyes are wide “Why? Why you? Daughter…”

Thanos falls down, holding his hand out to her, blood pooling out from his neck wound. Gamora stares at his dead body with wide eyes before she shakily lets her sword drop from her hand. She falls to her knees, taking a hold of Thanos’s hand and breaking down in tears.

“That was quick.” Quill whispers as he runs behind Gamora, watching her with concern. “Magnificent! Magnificent! Magnificent!” The Collector cheers, clapping his hands.

Suddendly, Thanos’s body disappears, letting Gamora’s hand that she was holding his arm with, to drop. Everything on the scene disappears in red glow, revealing everything around them burning and Collector’s dead body not far away from them.

Thanos reapers beside Gamora, making her and Quill jump a few steps back. He holds his left hand high, revealing he already has The Reality Stone in his Gauntlet.

He stares Gamora in the eyes, completely ignoring the other people present “Is it sadness I sense in you, daughter? In my heart, I knew you still cared. But one ever knows for sure. Reality is often disappointing. That is, it was. Now… Reality can be whatever I want.”

“You knew I’d come.” Gamora whispers, wiping away the tears from her eyes. Thanos nods “I counted on it. There’s something we need to discuss, little one.”

“Thanos!” Drax shouts "You monster... You will pay for the death of my wife and daughter!" Drax bellowed before launching himself at the titan with a battle cry.

Thanos wasn't fazed in the slightest. He just raised his gauntlet. The red gem glowed again, and in a second, Drax's body was reduced to a pile of cubes dropping to the ground. Mantis met a similar fate before she could even react, being turned into fancy ribbon-like streamers.

Both Quill and Gamora are looking at their friends with horrified expressions. Thanos uses this distraction to grabs a hold of Gamora’s hand, pulling her closer to him.

“Let her go, Grimace!” Quill growls, while pointing his blaster on Thanos who just looks at him with slightly amused look.

“Peter..” Gamora whispers and Quill’s eyes snap toward her “I told you to go right.”

Gamora chuckles brokenly “Now? Really?”

“You let her go!” Quill growls, turning his attention back at Thanos “Ah, the boyfriend.”

“I like to think of myself more as a Titan-killing long term booty call. Let her go. Or I’m gonna blow that nut-sack of a chin right off your face!”

“Not him…” Gamora whispers, tears again, shining in her eyes. Quill hesitates. He does not shoot. “You promised! You promised…” She urges on him to shoot.

“Oh, daughter. You expect too much from him. She’s asked, hasn’t she? Do it.” Thanos says as  he shoves Gamora towards Quill’s gun, egging him on. “Do it!”

Quill begins to tear up, looking at Gamora “I told you to go right…” She closes her eyes with sad smile “I love you, more than anything.”

“I love you, too.” Quill says and pulls the trigger. The is no shot fired, only bubbles come out of the gun. Thanos smirks to himself and bends down to whisper in Gamora’s ear “I like him”

A blue portal opens behind Thanos and he walks inside, with Gamora, leaving Quill looking at the direction the portal was in in stunned silence.

“I thought you might be hungry.” Thanos says in gentle tone as he passes a bowl of food to Gamora who accepts and angrily throws it at Thanos’s throne, creating a load crack that echoes through the room. “I always hated that chair.”

Thanos hums in acknowledgment as sits before her on the stairs towards the chair. “So I’ve been told. Even so. I’d hoped you’d sit on it one day.”

“I was a child when you took me…” Gamora whispers “I saved you.” Thanos protests.

“No. No. We were happy on my home planet.”

Thanos titles his head to the side “You weren’t happy. Going to bed hungry. scrounging for scraps. Your planet was on the brink of collapse. I’m the one who stopped that. Do you know what’s happened since then? The children born have known nothing but full bellies and clear skies. It’s a paradise.”

Gamora doesn’t say anything except “Because you murdered half the planet.” Thanos nods with little sign “A small price to pay for salvation.”

“You are insane!”

“Little one, it’s a simple calculus. This universe is finite, it’s resources finite. If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correction.”

“You don’t know that!” Gamora snaps

“I’m the only one who knows that. At least, I’m the only one with the will to act on it. For a time…you had that same will…as you fought by my side. Daughter.”

Gamora looks down on the ground and does say anything. What can she say ? He is right…

“I made you the fiercest woman in the galaxy. That’s why I trusted you to find the Soul Stone.” Thanos says with a proud look in his eyes.

“I’m sorry I disappointed you.” Gamora says sarcastically and Thanos’s lips twitch upwards “I am disappointed. But not because you didn’t find it. But because you did. And you lied.”

Gamora’s eyes widen in fear when a large metal door open at the side of the room. Inside the other room is Nebula, suspended horizontally in the air in the middle of the room.

“Nebula…” Gamora whispers with horrified look. She turns to Thanos and pleads with him “Don’t do this…”

Thanos ignores her and walks to the side, looking at Nebula with disappointment. “Some time ago, your sister snuck aboard this ship to kill me. And very nearly succeded. So I brought her here. To talk.”

“Please…” Gamora tries again but Thanos ignores her.

Thanos raises his left hand and both Power and Space stones begin to glow. Nebula’s already extended parts stretch even further outwards, making her scream in pain.

“Stop. Stop it. I swear to you on my life. I never found the Soul Stone.” Gamora continues to plea in desperate voice.

Thanos signs, he signals one of the guards, who was standing in the corner of the room, behind Nebula. The Guard presses some buttons in the console and Nebula’s cybernetic eye glows. “Accessing memory files”

A hologram footage begins to play from her eye. On it are Gamora and Nebula talking, while fighting.

“He can never get them all.” Memory Gamora tries to reason with Nebula who tries to attack her “He will!” Gamora dodges, rolling to the side “He can’t, Nebula. Because I found the map to the Soul stone and I burnt it to ash. I burnt it.”

The hologram disappears and Gamora stands there, frozen in place. Thanos moves right before her. “You’re strong. Me. You’re generous. Me. But I never taught you to lie. That’s why you’re so bad at it. Where is the Soul Stone?”

Gamora shakes her head, looking down and Thanos signs, again. Be turns back to Nebula with raised hand and she starts to scream, louder then before.

Gamora can’t take it anymore, she starts to tear up and yells “Vormir!” Thanos immediately stops and turns towards her, waiting for her to elaborate. “I.. I never found it, but the answer to it’s location is on Vormir.” 

Thanos nods as Gamora rushes to Nebula, sadly caressing her face. After giving them little time he opens a portal and looks directly at Gamora “Lead the way.”