World on Fire

09

THANOS' MOTHERSHIP - SANCTUARY II

Thanos' ship dwarfed the massive ring-ships the Black Order had been using. Gamora sat near the throne deep inside the ship. Thanos walked up, bringing a cup of food and held it out to her.

"I thought you might be hungry," Thanos said.

Gamora took it, then hurled it across the room where it banged against Thanos' throne with a loud clack.

"I always hated that chair," Gamora retorted.

"So I've been told," Thanos replied. "Even so. I'd hoped you'd sit on it one day."

"I hated this room. This ship. I hated my life."

"You told me that too." Thanos mounted two of the four steps to his throne, turned, and sat on the second from the top. "Every day. For almost twenty years."

"I was a child when you took me."

"I saved you."

"No. No. We were happy on my home planet."

"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."

"Because you murdered half the planet."

"A small price to pay for salvation."

"You're insane."

"Little one, it's a simple calculus. This universe is finite, its resources finite. If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correction-"

"You don't know that."

Thanos scowled as his egotistical narcissism prevented him from fully listening to her. "I'm the only one who knows that. At least, I'm the only one with the will to act on it." He stood again and walked back to Gamora. "For a time... you had that same will... as you fought by my side. Daughter."

"I'm not your daughter. Everything I hate about myself you taught me."

"And in doing so, made you the fiercest woman in the galaxy. That's why I trusted you to find the Soul Stone."

"I'm sorry I disappointed you."

"I am disappointed. But not because you didn't find it."

Thanos leaned down to put their heads at a level, whispering fiercely, "But because you did." He looked at her. "And you lied."

Thanos and Gamora stood outside a large solid door that slid open vertically as they approached, then paused as a set of inner doors made of interlacing metal slide away. Inside, Nebula was face-on, suspended horizontally in the air in the middle of the room, her breath shuddering in pain.

"Nebula," Gamora called, hurrying to to Nebula's left side. She'd been partially disassembled, her components stretched apart -- a cybernetic version of the medieval torture rack. "Don't do this."

"Some time ago, your sister snuck aboard this ship to kill me," Thanos said.

"Please don't do this."

"And very nearly succeeded. So I brought her here. To talk."

Thanos curled his Gauntleted fist, activating both the Power and Space Stones, scowling -- causing Nebula's already extended pieces to stretch further outward. She began to scream.

"Stop. Stop it," Gamora begged as she put her hands on the Gauntlet, pulling it down. "I swear to you on my life. I never found the Soul Stone."

Thanos signaled a nearby servant who tapped on a control pad. Nebula's voice said, "Accessing memory files" and a sort of hologram of Gamora's face shuddered to life.