[completed] Infinity war as a book

Vormir

[Cut to Thanos and Gamora appearing on sand dunes alternating with  shallow pools around the base of a mountain. The sun is in full  eclipse, lending eerie lighting to the scene. Screen title: VORMIR]

Thanos: The stone had better be up there...For your sister's sake.

[The walk up the mountain seems to be long, but not difficult.  Paths worn by centuries or more of feet lead up to the summit, where  Thanos and Gamora encounter a floating hooded figure].

Stonekeeper: Welcome, Thanos, son of A'lars. Gamora, daughter of Thanos.

Thanos: You know us?

Stonekeeper: It is my curse to know all who journey here.

Thanos: Where's the Soul Stone?

Stonekeeper: You should know... it extracts a terrible price.

Thanos: I am prepared.

Stonekeeper: We all think that at first. [The figure  touches down and glides out of the shadows, revealing the face of who we  know to be Johann "The Red Skull" Schmidt from Captain America: The First Avenger] We are all wrong.

[The Stonekeeper guides them to a temple-like structure at the summit.]

Thanos: How is it you know this place so well?

Red Skull: A lifetime ago, I, too, sought the stones. I  even held one in my hand. But it cast me out, banished me here. Guiding  others to a treasure I cannot possess.

[They stop on a semicircular engraving overlooking a sheer  drop. It decends in three shallow steps to a final half-circle cutout,  the whole bisected by a deep cut that runs between the two spires behind  them. Far, far below is a full circle with similar engraved  decoration.]

Red Skull: What you seek lies before you. As does what you fear.

Thanos: What's this?

Red Skull: The price. Soul hold a special place among the Infinity Stones. You might say it has a certain wisdom.

Thanos: Tell me what it needs.

Red Skull: To ensure that whoever possesses it... Understands its power... The stone demands a sacrifice.

Thanos: Of what?

Red Skull: In order to take the stone you must lose that which you love. A soul...For a soul.

[Gamora begins to laugh at the irony of the situation.]

Gamora: All my life, I dreamed of a day...A moment when  you would get what you deserved. And I was always so disappointed. But  now...You kill and torture...And you call it mercy. The universe has  judged you. You asked it for a prize, and it told you no. You failed. And do you wanna know why? Because you love nothing. No one.

Thanos: [turns to face Gamora with tears in his eyes]

Gamora: Really? Tears?

Red Skull: They're not for him.

[Gamora looks at the Red Skull, and as her bitter smile fades, realizes what is about to happen, as do we...]

Gamora: No. This isn't love.

Thanos: [thoroughly convicted.] I ignored my destiny once. I cannot do that again. Even for you. [Gamora  stares down unseeing for a moment, then up at the resolution on his  face. She grabs the red-jewelled dagger from his belt with lightning  reflexes, triggers the blades and stabs herself in the stomach... except  it's only bubbles.] I'm sorry, little one. [he grabs Gamora by the arm and walks inexorably to the precipice]

Gamora: NO!

[She tries in vain to break from his grasp, much like she  tried to pull free from the Child of Thanos so many years ago, but, pain  showing clearly on his face, he throws her over the edge, and watches  sorrowfully as she falls to her death. Light pulses overhead as the  sacrifice is correctly accomplished.]

[Thanos finds himself lying in one of the shallow pools back  at the base of the mountain. He opens his hand and sees that he now has  the orange Soul Stone.]