The Milano — Outer Rim Approach
The Milano cut across the void like a blade of light.
Knowhere hung ahead — a hollowed Celestial skull, its orbit haloed in neon and mining dust, its streets alive with traders, bounty hunters, and ghosts pretending to be people.
Peter whistled low. "Every time I come here, I forget how creepy it is."
Rocket grinned. "Big floating head. Holes full of criminals. Feels like home."
Gamora's eyes never left the viewport. "Nova's coordinates point beneath the extraction mines. Deep Net sector. No public access."
Max leaned forward, eyes distant. "That's where Zeta's signal ends. She's under the surface — buried in the bone."
Peter squinted at him. "Buried or hiding?"
"Both," Max said quietly.
Knowhere — The Vein Market
The market throbbed with noise: coolant smoke, neon spore-dust, the laughter of species with too many teeth.
Peter led the way, coat collar up, trying to look casual while Rocket pocketed loose tech like a pickpocket on holiday.
A hooded vendor hissed, "Biolinks. Fresh harvest. Synthezium grade. No questions."
Gamora's dagger was out before he blinked. "Where did you get those?"
The vendor's smile cracked. "Came through Deep Net salvage. Collector clearance. Rumor says — Evolutionary tech."
Max's pulse flared blue for a moment. The vendor stepped back instinctively.
Rocket leaned close. "Guess we're in the right sewer."
Deep Net — Sub-Level 7
They followed stolen schematics down into the skull's neural tunnels.
The air grew colder, denser — thick with the hum of old Celestial machinery grafted to new wires.
Drax touched a wall reverently. "This place lives."
"Barely," said Gamora.
A door pulsed ahead. Max's biolink veins reacted, glowing faintly in rhythm. The lock disengaged without a key.
Inside lay a half-collapsed lab: vats filled with inert silver fluid, tubes like veins reaching into bone, consoles scrawled with symbols in both Takion and Kree glyphs.
Rocket's whiskers twitched. "Smells like science and bad decisions."
Peter found a stasis cradle in the center — empty, save for a child-sized outline burned into the dust.
"Nova's kid?" he asked.
Max nodded slowly. "She was here."
The Awakening
As they moved deeper, faint light pulsed through the conduits.
A holographic shimmer unfolded in the air — not Zeta, but something smaller, softer, with a child's voice layered beneath synthetic tone.
"Theta Protocol active. You came back."
Max froze. "Theta?"
"Primary AI fragment Zeta offline. Directive: protect genetic heir of House Mk'rah.
Secondary directive: transmit codex seed to Ma'ex Stel."
A small sphere rolled from the debris, hovering uncertainly before him. Within its shell, light swirled — data, memory, sorrow.
Max reached out. "Show me."
Images flooded the room:
— Pods scattering through space.
— Obsidian standing defiant before Thanos.
— A lab of metal and bone where the High Evolutionary grafted energy into flesh.
— Zeta splitting herself apart, a piece whispering: "Run, little one. Find him."
— The child's pod colliding into Knowhere's carcass, where Theta nested it within the Celestial's neural marrow.
When the light faded, Max was trembling.
Gamora spoke softly. "She hid her in the skull of a god."
Rocket muttered, "Great hiding spot — right next to the universe's creepiest landlords."
The Collector's Shadow
Alarms flared through the tunnels. A voice echoed over the comm-band — polished, amused.
"Guardians. And the elusive Takion. How pleasant to see my old investments walking."
Taneleer Tivan's tone oozed through static. "Null-3 was off-limits, you know. That pod was mine before Nova got curious."
Peter rolled his eyes. "I liked him better when he was less alive."
Gamora hissed, "He's using Knowhere's relay network. We're being tracked."
Max stepped toward the dark. "He's not the only one listening."
For a moment the walls themselves seemed to breathe.
Deep beneath Knowhere, an older resonance stirred — slow, planetary, almost warm.
A voice, vast and gentle, hummed through the metal.
"Ah. There you are, Star-born."
Peter blinked. "Please tell me that's not another ex of yours."
Rocket frowned. "That sounded… familiar."
Max didn't answer. His skin glowed faintly, the pulse under it aligning with the skull's vibrations.
Nova Vault — Encrypted Feed
In Xandar's underground vaults, Commander Rellan watched the telemetry spike.
"Knowhere's neural core just came online," the analyst whispered. "Energy source — identical to Ego-class readings."
Rellan's face went pale. "Then we've just sent them into the mouth of a god."
He keyed a warning transmission, but the signal drowned in static.
Knowhere — Descent
The tunnel floor cracked. Energy rolled up through the bone like thunder underwater.
Theta's sphere flickered, voice strained.
"He's awake. The Celestial remnant stirs. This isn't Knowhere — it's part of Ego."
Peter's jaw dropped. "Wait—part of what now?"
Before anyone could respond, the chamber shuddered.
Celestial light burst through fissures, outlining a hidden core deep below.
Gamora grabbed Max's arm. "What's happening?"
Max's eyes glowed like twin stars. "It's calling me."
Closing Scene — The Pulse Beneath
As the Milano scrambled for launch clearance above them, the tunnels below blazed with light.
Theta's voice echoed one last time in Max's mind:
"Zeta sleeps, but the grid remembers.
The child lives.
And the heart you lost… beats beneath this world."
Max looked up through the fractured ceiling toward the dim light of the skull's open maw.
For a moment, he thought he saw stars moving — not distant, but watching.
Deadpool Meta-Cut
"Plot twist checklist!
☑ Child engineered by a space raccoon's evil twin scientist.
☑ Floating skull turns out to be the decapitated brain of a god.
☑ Hero glows like a cosmic glow-stick on espresso.
Tune in next time for Ego Ergo Sum — when daddy issues get planetary!"