In the cold depths of the universe, among stars too distant to name, a battleship the size of a small continent moved without haste through the dark.
Sanctuary II. Its silhouette swallowed light. Its heading was a fiery red planet still many hours away.
The bridge was nearly empty. At its center, a floating throne held a figure in dark gold armor, eyes closed, hands resting on his knees. The silence around him was not the silence of waiting. It was the silence of a man who had already decided.
Unhurried footsteps broke it.
A slender figure in a gorgeous black robe crossed the threshold of the bridge and approached through the dim space.
Before the visitor had crossed half the distance, the purple-skinned figure on the throne spoke without opening his eyes. The voice carried no inflection.
"Let me guess. The Blood Brothers and the Chitauri fleet failed. Even Loki is dead."
Ebony Maw stopped. His expression shifted for only a moment before composure reclaimed his face. He bent low, head down.
"Great Master, you are worthy of being the only mind that holds the mysteries of the universe. Nothing has deviated from your expectations."
"Ebony Maw." The figure on the throne exhaled slowly. "I am not a wise man. I am simply an old one who understands certain cruel truths better than most living things in this universe."
He rose from the throne. The armor creaked with the shift of mass. He stood fully upright, and the bridge seemed smaller for it.
"In the eyes of those cosmic races that were sacrificed and purified, I am called the Mad Titan. The war madman. The world-destroying overlord." His voice did not change. "What I long for most is to become a farmer in a universe at permanent peace. To weed a field. To turn soil."
Ebony Maw raised his pale face carefully, fixing his gaze on the figure before him. He swallowed.
"My master, all your wishes will come true in time. But what do we do now? Should we send all the Black Glory Generals and the Vanguard Army to Earth? We could wipe out the human race entirely and recover both what was lost and what has not yet been obtained."
Thanos turned away from him and faced the viewport.
"Take it back? No. Humans are not important. The Earth is not important. Even the Infinity Stones are not important in themselves. They are a convenient tool, nothing more. A way to save effort. We can do without tools."
He turned his head slightly.
"Ebony Maw. My longest servant. My most loyal. Have you still not understood? Nothing else matters. The only path to saving this universe is to win the eternal war."
The great armored body turned fully, and for the first time the lines of Thanos's face were visible in the low light: the deep creases at his chin, the eyes that held no warmth and no cruelty, only a certainty so complete it had become something else entirely.
Ebony Maw lowered his head immediately.
"My master, please stop. Those great beings that transcend reason cannot be spoken of. Even hearing a fragment of their names brings irreversible misfortune."
"Haha." The sound was not quite a laugh. "Ebony Maw. What are you afraid of? Destiny is on our side now." A pause. "Or rather: I am Destiny."
Thanos spread his arms wide.
Between the gaps in the dark gold armor, beneath the rough purple skin, thin threads of colorful energy pulsed and shifted, bright then dim, cycling through colors that had no easy names. It lasted only a moment before he lowered his arms again.
"In order to fight the five invading gods from beyond the known universe, the eternal war across the sky has bled us dry of troops." His voice dropped lower. "Now that death has a purpose, the livable planets we encounter next do not need to be kept in balance. These beings were born in this universe. They owe the universe a price for that. They will pay it."
Ebony Maw's pale face had gone the color of old wax. Blood was beginning to run from his nose, from the corners of his eyes, from his ears. He fell to his knees on the cold floor, his slender body curling inward, and his voice came out as something between a scream and a wail.
"Lord Thanos, if we move this decisively, every alien race in the universe will rise and resist instead of accepting their fate as they have before!"
"Resist?" Thanos looked down at him without moving. "How? When the gods who created them are on my side, the fate of all sentient life was already decided." He let a beat pass. "And do you wonder why I no longer pursue the Infinity Stones so urgently?"
Ebony Maw tried to answer. The word that reached his ears instead dropped him flat.
A thick stream of black blood left his mouth and hit the floor. His body curled tighter, trembling in long slow waves, consciousness going out like a lamp.
Thanos regarded him from above with eyes that showed no particular concern.
"Annihilation, one of the five gods, has rewarded me with the true location of a Cosmic Cube." He let that settle in the empty air. "Poor servant. How can you become the chosen one if you cannot even endure their names? And if you are not chosen, how can you fight the five beings that threaten the life of this entire universe? And if those five gods should fail..." He turned back toward the viewport and the distant red planet beyond it. "Who else is there among all the creatures of the universe to carry that weight?"
He was quiet for a moment.
"After considering it carefully, there is only me. Thanos."
More than ten days of stable transit brought two ships of very different sizes back toward the blue-white point of Earth.
Nolan and the others had discussed the matter of arrival at length during the return journey. The Chitauri mothership was enormous, and bringing it directly into view of the global public without preparation would produce the kind of panic that created problems of its own. The decision was to dock it in lunar orbit for now, out of easy sight, where it could be studied at a pace that allowed for planning.
The Cobra-class destroyer, under David's direct control, descended alone. It crossed the low-Earth threshold, picked up the Antarctic airfield on its augur arrays, and settled back into position above the ice, deck panels aligning with the landing platform below.
The ship would not rest long. Its role had shifted. What had been a weapon of the first counterattack would now serve as a space fortress for the Guardians of Terra, carrying the burden of solar system defense and early warning against any further incursion, until Tony's planetary defense concepts matured into something more permanent, or until a new ship could be built to replace it.
Whichever came first.