Move Along Home

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This is perhaps the fourth time I've decided to rewrite this bad boy, so congrats, you're getting a freshly renovated experience that's maybe a hair less cringe than the last time :D Welcome aboard.

Disclaimer: As is expected, I own none of the canon characters. 

Throughout the story there will be some blood, self-harm, references to torture, and character death. Trigger warnings will be tacked up at the beginning of each chapter that contains one or more of these elements. Please stay safe.

That said, I hope you enjoy the ride!
______________________________

And I never wanted anything from you

Except everything you had and what was left after that too.

-Dog Days Are Over, Florence + the Machine

He should have known it would come to this. 

Thanos had created a simple game. The game involved trying to guess what messengers were going to say before they said it, and Thanos had won over five hundred times so far. When a Chitauri messenger scuttled towards him one afternoon, he began round number seven hundred and fifty-two. 

The messenger came in with a hesitant, crawling gait, its back hunched over as though ready to sprint away at the first sign of danger. It was grinning. Chitauri didn't smile unless they were trying their very hardest to convince their master of something. Thanos concluded that the messenger must be bringing astonishingly bad news. 

"Great and mighty Thanos, a problem isss at hand," the Chitauri hissed in clumsy universal tongue as it threw itself on the floor in a bow. 

Bad news, check. Another round won within a few seconds.

"What is it, slave?" Thanos asked. "You do realize that every moment you spend floundering at my feet compels me less and less to spare your life, don't you?"

The Chitauri bowed so low and hard that it scraped its bony nose on the floor. "My lord," it barrelled on, the hissing between consonants even worse than before. "The problem isss very very bad. You sssee, a prisssoner who has been tortured isss dead."

 Well that was what tortured people did. 

"I see," said Thanos.  "Is there a reason why you've come to tell me this? Any reason?" He ran a finger across the armrest of his throne, and that simple movement made the Chitauri shrink back in fear. It muttered to itself in its home language, trying to remember the message it had been given, then hesitantly switched back to universal speech. 

"Or...Not dead! He...he cannot move? Yes!"

"Why is that?" Thanos asked. 

"I... Hmm...Perhaps you should come see for yourself, my lord?" suggested the Chitauri hopefully. It was doing its very best to get out of having to explain the science behind the issue. 

Thanos sighed and rose to his feet, towering above the slave which scuttled out of the throne room, saying, "This way, my lord!"  Of course, Thanos knew the way to the torture chambers on his ship much better than the Chitauri did, considering he himself had built the ship, but he followed the Chitauri through the maze of halls and doors. 

The Chitauri and its master made their way through the Sanctuary II  all the way down to the first deck. Prison cells lined both sides of the hall. The cells were all made of soundproof glass, so even though Thanos could see prisoner #16 throwing herself against the wall of her cell, mouth open wide, throat heaving and eyes bulging, he didn't have to listen to the garish sounds she was making. The Chitauri inside of the room were laughing by the looks of their gaping jaws, and as Thanos walked past cell 16, he caught a glimpse of them working their transformative magic out of the corner of his eye.