fiction | Part of the journey is the end

2. What if... T'Challa became a Star-Lord?

The Watcher asked if in a multiverse of infinite possibility, are destinies determined by one's nature or by the nature of a world?

"The nature of your world," Loki answered. "We came to that conclusion when watching my variants."

"But it's also your nature," said Sam. "Steve and Skinny Steve both managed to fight in World War II even though Peggy Carter got the serum in Skinny Steve's universe."

On Morag in 2008, Star-Lord entered the Temple of the Power Stone.

"Morag again," Rhodey complained. "But this one's about Quill, I guess."

"I hate that you and Nebula knocked Other Me in the head," said Quill.

"Well, you were being an idiot," said Nebula. "I have no idea what my sister sees in you."

Quill spluttered while Gamora laughed.

He was wearing a purple jacket and the helmet's eyes were purple. His skin colour was not visible.

"Purple?" said Quill. "I prefer red, but purple's cool too."

Star-Lord got the Orb but was surrounded by Korath the Pursuer and two Sakaarians.

"Korath," Carol hissed.

The Guardians' heads whipped towards Carol. "You know him?!" Quill exclaimed.

"We were on the same team for years—Starforce."

"You were on the Kree Starforce team?" Rocket asked warily. "I knew you worked for the Kree, but I didn't know you were on the Starforce team."

"I'm not proud of it," Carol said quietly. "My memories had been messed with and I was lied to."

"You were taken," Bucky said kindly. "You got out when you found out the truth."

"But everyone knows the Kree are awful," said Quill. "There are some real psychos like Ronan and the ones running the Kree Empire."

"You know how Kree propaganda is," said Carol.

Thor and Loki shifted uncomfortably. Asgard always had relatively good relations with the Kree Empire before Ragnarok.

"Drax killed Korath," Gamora told Carol.

"Huh, that's good to know." At least Carol would have one less Kree after her.

Korath told him to identify himself.

Quill sighed. "Great, now I'm going to have to watch this again."

"Star-Lord was never going to stick," said Rocket.

T'Challa deactivated his helmet. He said he was an ordinary junker, but there was one name he may know him by.

Everyone looked at Star Lord T'Challa in complete confusion while Quill and T'Challa blinked dumbly. The Guardians were taken aback.

"What?" T'Challa said, baffled. "How did Other Me get to space?"

"Going to space is nothing special," said Tony. "Most of our variants have been to space."

"My variant hasn't," Scott said sadly.

"You were the in the Quantum Realm," said Sam. "That's just as weird as space."

"Star-Lord!" Korath exclaimed with excitement. "I'm a huge fan of your work."

There was a long pause as the Avengers and the Guardians digested that. Gamora stared at Star-Lord T'Challa, mouth agape.