EPITHET || [l. loki]

iv. Happy Partnership

──⇌•♚•⇋──

❝Pleasure to work with you❞

SHE WAS NEVER afraid of Thanos. Not when she was younger. Not when she was all alone, aboard the acclaimed ship of the mad titan with no one to turn to, no one to protect her.

She didn't remember the blood from the day she was taken; only the soft touch of her father's hand as he led her into the light. Only the gentle words and lies woven by his mouth as he pushed her to her limits in training. Only the warm sensation of the lights as she sat, legs crossed, beside him patching up her wounds from the day. Only those stories he told that couldn't have been a lie.

Her father spoke so fondly of the planet from whence he came. The greens, the lights, Thanos smiled with such love on his face before it all went dark. A cap to a candle. Then he smiled again... only this time, it wasn't the same. His eyes gleamed with untold ambition as he whispered in his poison... his goals. A balanced universe. But how can it be balanced when everyone was dead?

Still, Cyra had once sworn to see his dreams come true.

Her gaze never wavered- not for a second as she watched the bloodshed unfold before her very eyes. She was no stranger to brutality. From purging the criminals to entire massacres and annihilations of innocents she saw it go through.

He commanded, she slaughtered. It was her pride as the daughter of death.

Then she would sit by his side in the evening all over again as they drift through the endless, colorless voids of space. Cyra would wince as she patched herself up. She would watch as a smile spread across her father's face. It was her only source of happiness.

The stones. The legendary infinity stones. She could practically picture them in her head, glowing with all their splendid power over space and time. Yes, her father cannot be happier if she found them herself and dedicated them in his name. She longed for the day that mission was to come. And now, it was here.

Sometimes Cyra wished that her sisters had never came into her life. Never joined the order, never been targeted by her father. They could've led a life of freedom. Yet it was also selfish.

She knew better than anyone that had they never came, she could've been the unstoppable force in the universe alongside her father. Her inhuman power could've never failed her in combat. Her blood manipulation could've had entire systems kneeling at her feet. Her tactical advantages could've made her a genius analyst of war.

Yet it was her heart that decided against all. It made her wonder: "why did I take his hand if power was never the thing I craved?"

Gamora showed her affection, then Nebula showed her strength. And finally, Laria showed defiance. She had died for something; something that Cyra was never taught to have or understand.

She knew better than anyone that the second her father unites all six stones of infinity, half of the universe would be gone in a blink of an eye. They would be at peace at last. And all the hatred of the universe would be on her at the same time. She could barely stand the weight of Laria's death and Nebula's screams- How can she bear to have peace whilst all of the universes was burning in flames? It was like... Cyra wakes up to find everything gone. No Gamora. No Nebula. Despite her angering disputes with the members of the Black Order, she couldn't imagine her life without them.

"Fight today," she whispered to herself, strapping her emerald dagger to her side, "Think tomorrow," she shut her eyes tightly, grasping the other dagger. The last thing she possessed of Laria– where its sapphire stone stared into her like Laria's eyes. There was hate in her eyes as she stared at the dagger. The cursed dagger that brought bloodshed into her life– yet she could quite let it go either.