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Knowhere. The Collector's Museum.
The oppressive, beautiful purple glow of the Power Stone cast long, dancing shadows across the thousands of glass cages in the room. The hum of the raw cosmic energy vibrated in the marrow of everyone present.
After Gamora's chilling explanation of Thanos's genocidal intentions, Taneleer Tivan seemed unfazed. He simply adjusted his thick-lensed goggles. The Collector lived for the acquisition of the unique; the morality of its use was irrelevant to him.
He smoothly changed the subject, turning his gleaming eyes back to Peter Quill.
"Young people," Tivan said, his voice dripping with aristocratic greed. "If you happen to know the whereabouts of the other Infinity Stones—especially the Soul Stone—you can sell the information directly to me. I am willing to pay a substantially higher price to acquire them."
Quill frowned, crossing his arms over his red leather jacket. The overwhelming cosmic lore was giving him a headache.
"Why just the Soul Stone?" Quill asked, glancing at the purple gem. "Why not put out a bounty for the others? Send your little mining ships out to grab them?"
Tivan offered a patronizing, pitying smile. He clasped his hands behind his back, pacing slowly before the containment field.
"Because, my naive friend, the other four Infinity Stones—Time, Space, Reality, and Mind—already have their own masters. And none of those masters are easy to deal with. They are veritable overlords of the universe."
Tivan began to list them, his tone filled with cautious reverence.
"The Eye of Agamotto, which houses the Time Stone, was originally owned by the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth. The previous Sorcerer Supreme, a formidable being known as the Ancient One, passed away recently. The Stone should have been passed securely to the next Sorcerer Supreme."
"The Tesseract, the Space Stone, originally belonged to Odin of Asgard. For reasons unknown to cosmic historians, it ended up buried on Earth. However, after the great war where the Chitauri invaded Terra, it was retrieved. It should have returned to Asgard, back into the All-Father's impenetrable vaults."
Tivan paused, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
"The Aether, the Reality Stone, was missing for millennia. But I recently received highly classified intelligence that the wizarding race on Earth completely destroyed the remnants of the Dark Elves a few days ago. It is said that the Aether reappeared in the world during that brutal battle. Given the outcome, I can only speculate that the Reality Stone has fallen into the hands of their champion... the Cabbage Witch."
"As for the last one," Tivan sighed, shaking his head. "The Mind Stone. It is firmly in the hands of Gamora's father, the Mad Titan, Thanos."
"You're wrong."
Gamora suddenly interrupted him, her voice slicing through the heavy incense-filled air.
Tivan stopped pacing, looking at her with raised eyebrows. "I beg your pardon?"
"When the Chitauri invasion of Earth failed," Gamora corrected him, her expression grim, "my father lost Loki's Scepter. He lost the Mind Stone... The Mind Stone never returned to Sanctuary. It is very likely in the hands of the Witch now."
Upon hearing this, Tivan's feigned, aristocratic composure finally crumbled. The color drained from his eccentric face.
"If that's really the case..." Tivan muttered to himself, his fingers twitching nervously. "Doesn't that mean the Witch possesses two Infinity Stones all by herself? And half of the six singularities in creation are currently concentrated on that remote mud-ball called Earth?!"
As Quill listened to their conversation, the previously chaotic, nonsensical clues in his mind violently snapped together like magnetic puzzle pieces.
He suddenly realized the horrific truth of his afternoon. He slapped his forehead, blurting out loudly, "No wonder! Son of a bitch, no wonder that Witch appeared on Xandar!"
Gamora and Rocket jumped, looking at him.
"I thought it was just a freak chance encounter!" Quill paced frantically, his boots clicking on the glass floor. "She caught the fake Orb like it was nothing! She was practically waiting for me in that courtyard! She wasn't just taking a stroll... she was deliberately waiting for me there, all for the Cosmic Orb!"
Quill ran a hand through his hair, his mind reeling. "And what is this about a Sorcerer Supreme? A wizarding race?" He muttered, his tone tinged with profound shock and disbelief. "My homeland... is Earth really that powerful?"
He had spent the last twenty-six years believing Terra was just a remote, backward, defenseless planet full of people who didn't even know aliens existed. Now it sounded like the most heavily armed magical fortress in the galaxy.
Tivan, however, realized something was fundamentally wrong. The eccentric Collector spun sharply toward Quill, his velvet cape swishing.
"Wait," Tivan demanded urgently, stepping into Quill's personal space. "Who did you just say appeared on Xandar?"
Quill was startled by Tivan's sudden, intense reaction. He leaned back. "The Witch? The Cabbage Witch, or whatever you guys call her. I just escaped from her a while ago. She was standing right there with Yondu and the Nova Corps. That's who you're talking about, right?"
Tivan's expression changed drastically. His previous refined, untouchable demeanor vanished entirely, replaced by raw, naked panic.
He spoke rapidly, spittle flying from his lips. "You fool! As far as my network knows, the wizarding race has always lived in absolute seclusion! They rarely interact with the wider cosmos. I only recently learned through deep-cover channels that such a terrifying, reality-warping race actually exists on Earth!"
Tivan grabbed Quill by the collar of his jacket.
"And you're telling me that this Witch actually left Earth without a sound, bypassed all planetary sensors, and went all the way to the capital of the Nova Empire?! She's definitely actively collecting the Infinity Stones! Otherwise, there's absolutely no way an entity of her magnitude would have deliberately appeared on a crowded street to ambush someone as utterly insignificant as you!"
"A nobody?!"
Quill's ego instantly flared. He violently shoved Tivan's hands off his jacket, deeply displeased. His tone rose sharply as he nearly jumped up.
"Hey! What do you mean 'insignificant'? What 'nobody'?! I'm Star-Lord, man! Legendary outlaw?!"
Quill huffed, looking genuinely puzzled by the Collector's meltdown. "So what if she's looking for it? A single Cosmic Orb is worth five billion Star Coins! I'd want to collect them too if I knew what they were! Is it really necessary to have a panic attack just because some little girl is trying to collect a few shiny rocks to pawn off?"
Quill was still fundamentally, dangerously naive. In his smuggler's view, no matter how much destructive power the Infinity Stones held, they were ultimately just highly valuable treasures. The whole point was to sell them for more money to buy nicer ships and better drinks.
Tivan glared at Quill with sheer, unadulterated exasperation. He looked at the Star-Lord as if examining a hopeless, suicidal idiot.
"Do you honestly think all the ancient, powerful beings in the universe are like you, boy? Only interested in petty credits and bar tabs?!" Tivan hissed, gesturing wildly at the glowing purple stone. "What they want is power! Absolute, subjugating power over reality itself! For warlords of her caliber, money is nothing more than worthless, combustible paper!"
Gamora suddenly spoke, her voice dropping to a terrified whisper.
"I remember now…" Gamora said, her dark eyes wide with dawning horror. "Thanos once told me a rule. There is an unwritten, ancient consensus among the supreme beings in the universe. Once a warlord obtains an Infinity Stone, and they possess the strength to hold it, that stone belongs to them completely. No one else is allowed to try to take it without starting a universal war."
She looked at Tivan, who was sweating profusely.
"But on the contrary," Gamora continued grimly, "this person can never actively seize a second unclaimed Infinity Stone. To do so is to declare war on existence itself."
Tivan nodded frantically. "Exactly! That's right!"
Tivan paced, pulling at his white hair. "If the Mind Stone and the Reality Stone were simply spoils of defensive wars that fell into her lap after an enemy's defeat... then it's barely understandable that she possesses two. The cosmos could consider it a special, defensive case. We could ignore it."
He pointed a trembling finger at the Power Stone on the pedestal.
"However, her leaving her realm to openly and actively seize the Power Stone completely changes the paradigm! She is building a gauntlet!"
Suddenly, Tivan stopped dead in his tracks. His pupils contracted sharply to the size of pinpricks. The gears in his ancient, brilliant mind finally clicked into place. He turned sharply to look at Quill, his voice cracking, pitching up in sheer terror.
"No... wait. Logically speaking... since she came to Xandar specifically for the Cosmic Orb, and she exposed your fake... there is absolutely no way she would have just let you leave!"
Tivan backed away from the group, his eyes darting toward the ceiling. "You actually managed to escape the Nova Corps unharmed? You weren't detained by her? You weren't subjected to agonizing interrogation to reveal the location of your ship?"
"I mean, we broke out of the Kyln..." Quill started defensively.
"This means..." Tivan whispered, the blood draining from his face.
"NOT GOOD!"
Tivan seemed to understand the entirety of the horrifying trap instantly. He suddenly roared, his voice sharp and echoing off the glass cages.
"CARINA! Activate all defense systems in the Void! Maximum shielding! High alert! Enemies are approaching! NOW!"
Quill looked completely bewildered. He was startled by Tivan's explosive reaction and turned to Gamora, throwing his hands up. "What's wrong with this guy?! Why is he screaming?!"
Gamora's expression turned incredibly ugly. She glared at Quill with a mixture of pity and furious realization.
"Don't you understand yet, you idiot?!" Gamora yelled over the blaring red sirens that suddenly erupted throughout the museum. "That little girl let you go on purpose! Not because she didn't want the Cosmic Orb, but because she already considered it hers!"
Gamora drew her Godslayer sword, her eyes frantically scanning the shadows. "We've been used. She used you, your ship, and your greed as bait to lure out everyone who covets the Orb! Thanos's spies, Ronan's fleet, the Collector... she let us bring it here so she wouldn't have to hunt us down!"
The Chinese idiom was playing out perfectly: The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
"She's trying to wipe us all out in one strike!" Gamora finished, gripping her hilt until her knuckles turned white.
Quill finally, horrifyingly understood why Tivan had reacted so strongly.
Because Tivan was the buyer. Tivan was the target. They were all just rats who had dragged the cheese out into the open for the exterminator. And that terrifying girl could come knocking on their door at any moment.
After everyone understood the scope of the trap, a profound, collective shudder ran through the crew. The girl looked cute and innocent on Xandar, but she was actually a cold, calculating, apocalyptic lunatic.
It seemed reality was eager to verify Gamora's terrifying hypothesis.
Just as Tivan finished screaming his orders to the automated defense grid...
SCREEECH—CRUNCH.
A sickening, deafening metallic creak instantly resounded throughout the entire museum, vibrating through the floorboards of the Void.
All of the heavy, multi-barrel automated defense energy cannons that had just descended from the ceiling and poised to fire were abruptly, violently crushed. It was as if a pair of invisible, god-sized hands had simply squeezed them. They instantly turned into crumpled piles of scrap metal, electrical sparks raining down everywhere like a fireworks display.
Space itself in the center of the room began to distort and fluctuate violently, folding inward with a heavy, atmospheric pressure drop.
Golden sparks flared.
A petite figure appeared out of thin air, hovering gracefully above everyone's heads.