Avengers: Zero to Infinity

Chapter 9

• Stephen Strange

Upon our arrival at Knowhere, the place looked completely normal, like Thanos hadn't come for the Reality Stone yet. Now that'd seem like our luck, but just like in the previous time loops, this may just be another one of Thanos' illusions. Never judge a book by it's cover. That's one of the things I knew from my lingering journey. If Thanos has the Reality Stone, then it'd be easy for him to fool us.

"Don't think like that, Stephen." I could hear Loki's confident, optimistic voice. "We have to stay positive throughout this war, okay?"

"Loki?" I questioned him. "How'd you know what I was thinking?"

"Hmm..." Loki muttered quietly. "I guess you could say Wanda told me."

"Wanda. Of course."

However, even without Thanos, I doubt that The Collector would let us get the Reality Stone that easily. He'd challenge us into a fight before finally handing it over. He probably won't even believe us even if we say that a substantial threat might cause the death of half of the universe. He'd do anything to keep his precious little Reality Stone to him and to himself only. He doesn't even know what detrimental prospect coming for him if he doesn't hand it over to us!

The Collector seems so proud now, but he doesn't know about Thanos. He probably thinks that he's stronger than the mad titan, but eventually the latter would end up kicking his butt. It was similar to how we underestimated Thanos plenty of times in the past.

"How can we tell if this is an illusion or not?" asked Nebula. "Thanos is much smarter than you guys think he is."

"No need to worry, Nebula." said T'Challa. "We have pretty intelligent brains with us as well."

"Yup, and it's definitely not Quill's brain." Rocket added egoistically. "But I thank you, King T'Challa, for I know you are referring to me~."

"Really now?" questioned Quill. "Tell me, skunk. How can you fit a huge brain in that tiny head of yours?"

"I'm not a skunk, you dummy!" Rocket shouted at him furiously. "And by the way, do not judge a book by it's cover, Quill. It may look small, but it's actually a lot smarter than yours!"

"Guys, stop!" Gamora shouted at the both of them. "Can't you guys just get along?!"

"He started it!" Both Quill and Rocket shouted in unison when the both of them pointed their index fingers at one another.

"It doesn't matter who started it; you both got in an argument anyway!" Gamora shouted at them. "We're in the middle of saving the world, so there's no room for arguments between one of us!"

"Fine, fine." Rocket muttered. "But only for a while."

"I'm going to get back at you with my savage roasts, raccoon." Quill said.

Rocket smirked sarcastically with his eyelids tightly pressed against one another and his eyebrows twitching like crazy. If Rocket was unable to control himself now, he would jump at Quill and pin him down to the ground before beating the crap out of him.

"So the only problem we have now is to see if this is an illusion or not." Nebula said. "It's possible that Thanos already got his hands on the Reality Stone and is using an illusion to fool us."

However, I couldn't see any signs of Thanos talking to Tivan, threatening him to hand over the Reality Stone. Everytime Thanos created an illusion, it always had something to do with him pulling a weakened Tivan by his collar and questioning him where he hid the Reality Stone. And the real Tivan had already been killed by then. That's why a slight tangibility of hope was wriggling inside of me. It was possible that this image in front of us wasn't an illusion after all! It was possible that we got here before Thanos did!