Hiding in the Shadows

Chapter 45 - The Stones

"So if we give the time stone back to Dr. Strange and the space stone to Loki, what do we do with the other three? Thor, you said that Thanos decimated Xander, correct?" I questioned as we went through each of the stones, trying to determine where to send them.

"That may be so, but he doesn't tend to destroy the entire population when he invades the planet. If that's true in this case, then we can still bring it back to them. They also have control of another planet, Xitaung where we could send it, perhaps it would be a bit less obvious of a place," Nebula contributed, causing me to nod in agreement.

"So power stone goes back into the control of Xander, how about the reality? It is unlikely that the collector is still alive and even if he is, I wouldn't necessarily trust him based on Quill's opinion of him," I continued.

"We could keep it here," T'Challa suggested, speaking up for the first time in a while.

"But with the mind stone, time stone, and potentially the space stone on earth, do we really want to risk keeping another stone here?" Natasha asked.

"The collector does have a cousin," Loki proposed, perking my interest.

"Who is it? I've never heard of this before," Quill interjected, making me a little wary to trust what Loki was saying.

"It may not be the best idea, but he calls himself the Grandmaster-" Loki began to explain.

Thor quickly interrupted him, "not that idiot. Loki, how could you even suggest that?"

"Well, I don't think anyone would think that we would return to Sakaar anytime soon. Perhaps if we were to disguise the stone somehow and not let him know the true power of it, Sakaar would be the perfect hiding place."

"How do you even know that the Grandmaster is related to the Collector? How close did you get to this man, Loki?"

Loki rolled his eyes, "I got close enough for him to trust me, I don't know if you picked up on this but he tends to like to talk about himself. I merely retained the information he shared so that I could overthrow him later on."

"Ok, let's get back to the point, shall we? Loki, do you think this Grandmaster would use this stone for evil?" I interrupted their conversation, trying to rein the conversation back in.

Loki shook his head, "at least not to a scale of trying to take over the galaxy. I'd imagine if he were to discover the stone's true power, he would react in a similar way to his cousin."

"Quill, what do you think about this? I know you didn't approve of the Collector having control of the stone in the first place, but I know Shuri and I can create something to conceal the stone's true identity. We could perhaps do a trial run to see how he acts with it and you can check up on him every now and again," I proposed, just hoping to get the stone away from earth.

"I think that might work, but we should take a vote on it," Quill replied, still seeming a bit unsure.

Only a few people voted against delivering the stone to the Grandmaster. I suspected most of those who voted for giving it to him felt similar to me in that we couldn't have the stone on earth.

"So that leaves the soul stone, does anyone know where Thanos got it from?" I questioned popping it out of the gauntlet and examining it.

Nebula stepped forward, "he traded my sister's soul for it on Vormir."

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously, not aware of this part of Thanos's plan.

"I had a sister, Gamora, she was actually a member of the Guardians. Thanos had sent her to find the location of the soul stone years ago and although she was successful, she chose to keep the location from him. However, Thanos threatened to kill me if she did not reveal where it was hidden. The soul stone requires a sacrifice to acquire it and when Thanos came back from Vormir and Gamora did not, I knew what had happened."

"If the stone required her as a sacrifice, could returning the stone reverse those affects?" Tony questioned, making me remember why people considered him a genius.

Quill seem to perk up at that, "I don't know how the stone works, but if there's a chance of getting her back then the Guardians are willing to travel to Vormir for it."

"It's settled then, you will return the stone and hopefully get Gamora back," I finalized, placing it into one of the boxes that reduced the effects of the stone and allowed a normal person to carry it. I then handed the box to Nebula who handed it off to Quill with a nod. "Loki, you and Thor should take the reality stone to the Grandmaster once we have made modifications to it. And the Guardians can return the power stone to Xander. The rest will remain here under our protection."

I handed the space stone to Loki and put the power stone in one of the boxes before handing it to Quill. Afterwards, I picked up the reality stone and Shuri and I left the meeting to start inventing. Peter followed us, although he did seem a little nervous to do so. Once out of the room, I slipped my hand in his to assure him that I was happy he had come with us.

"So, do you have any ideas what to make, (Y/N)?" Shuri asked as she sat down in her lab.

I shrugged, "well the first thing that comes to mind when I have a stone would be setting it in jewelry, perhaps a ring or a pendant? But that would bring attention to the stone, which we don't necessarily want. Plus I don't know if the Grandmaster would be into fancy jewelry like that."

"How about some sort of box, like a jewelry or music box?" Shuri suggested, causing an idea to pop in my head.

"Shuri, I know I always say this, but you are a genius! If we make a jewelry box and pretend the real gift is whatever is inside then that will distract from the stone, but the stone will still be hidden in plain sight!"

We designed the box together with Peter meandering through the lab, simply taking in all of the advanced technology. Once it was designed, Shuri began to program a machine that would build it for us. I, on the other hand, began to brainstorm what to put inside the box.

From what Loki had said, I figured that the Grandmaster must enjoy riches. I decided on making him a gold embroidered cape, one that would compact into the small space of the box allowing for easy storage.

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(A/N): so I planned this scene but then realized I had no idea where to send any of the stones so I gave placed that had a bit of logic, but not a lot of logic so sorry about that. Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter regardless!