The Before [Prequel- Part 1]

A Choice

~~~Catherine's pov~~~

"This can't be happening..." I panicked under my breath and tried to calm myself down as I paced around the room to which I was confined.

"That's because it's not."

What?

My eyes widened at the unfamiliar voice that echoed throughout the room and I scanned for the source, but found nothing.

"Who are you?" I questioned, grabbing my gun and aiming it at the other side of the room.

Whoever this was, I'm willing to bet they're not a friendly and I was in labor, so this was quite literally the worst situation to be in at the moment.

"You're smart. You take after your father. So, I think you know the answer to that." The voice stated, and this time I could make out that it was a man speaking.

Instead of wasting brain power trying to figure out who the voice belonged to, I was more concerned that my contractions had stopped. Completely.

The baby was okay, I could sense that much. The labor pains, however, had just vanished out of nowhere.

"What's going on?" I asked firmly, placing one hand on my baby bump while the other grasped the gun tightly.

"I thought you would have been able to figure it out by now." A laugh rang out from around me and my heart beat faster with every passing second. "All of this is merely an illusion, young Stark."

"How do you know my name?" My eyes darted all around me, now paranoid and slightly terrified.

"I can thank Ebony Maw and your trickster for that." And then all the pieces clicked into place.

"You're Thanos." My breath shook as I came to the conclusion as to why my contractions were gone. "And I'm guessing my labor pains were caused by the Reality Stone?" I shouted, now infuriated.

I thought I was going to have to give birth completely alone. I thought Loki would miss everything. I thought I was going to die in here.

And all of it was just an illusion cast by a damn magic rock.

It makes sense though. Everything that happened from my water breaking, to the communications being offline, and the lights flickering were all worst-case scenarios the stone created to scare the hell out of me.

"See? I told you that you were smart." The alien said smugly and the entire room suddenly shifted so that I was standing in an all-white void.

"What do you want from me, you sick bastard?" My voice got louder and my heart raced faster. "I don't have any of your damn Infinity Stones!"

"It's quite simple, really. I want the child you carry."

You have to be kidding me.

"Hell no, sicko." I chuckled and kept my hand on my stomach as if to protect my daughter from the genocidal maniac that tortured her father six years ago. "In what demented reality do you think I would ever sacrifice my child to you? Especially after the hell you put Loki through!"

"I did what had to be done to ensure the Tesseract would come to be in my possession." He stated, but I still couldn't see him. I was still in the void.

"And how well did that turn out for you? You lost the Mind Stone and failed to gain the Space Stone. So, everything you did was quite literally pointless." I rolled my eyes. "Now, would you mind telling me where the hell I am?"

"Your mind has been temporarily linked to the Reality Stone. Your physical body, however, is still unconscious somewhere in the Wakandan palace. One of my soldiers is locating you as we speak."