Realization dawned. This was no simple asteroid field or ruins of rocks. No, this was Asgard itself, destroyed, obliterated to simple rocks. The golden ruins, the statues of Thor and others, they were all real.
"What happened here?"
"Ugh!"
The colossal ship was still on his heels, firing randomly at the ruins, causing random destruction everywhere. The massive chunks of rocks struck the ship Tony was steering.
Not good.
Making a quick decision, Tony prepared his suit for space travel and ejected out in stealth mode, hiding all his heat, electrical, and visual impressions. He rushed, however, as the massive spaceship neared.
In an enormous explosion of sparks, the ship he'd borrowed from Sovereign was obliterated behind him. Tony kept flying away to get to safety, and soon enough, he watched the large ship leave.
Finally, taking a deep sigh of relief, he continued to look around for clues. He could leave whenever he wanted, but he wanted to return with answers, at least. Asgard was supposed to be a powerhouse. If Thor was anything to go by, Odin was supposed to be among the most powerful beings. How could a single ship destroy the entire Asgard?
"Jarvis, start scanning for any signals or survivors," Tony ordered and flew around the space debris. "Search for Hela."
An invisible beam of scanning rays spread out from Tony's suit, coating all the debris around as he kept flying at a fast speed. It was devastating, countless dead bodies were floating about, and from the looks of it, there were a lot of small ships too, filled with corpses. He reckoned they were escape ships, but never got to lift off.
A colossal statue of Odin was also there, headless now. Asgard was no more.
"Sir, Hela has been spotted."
Tony quickly looked towards the marked direction. Hela was really there, kneeling beside the body of an old man with a large white beard and a golden eyepatch, a majestic armor on his body and also a magnificent crown on his head.
Can't tell if she's sad or angry.
Tony came out of stealth mode and approached Hela slowly from the front. Her facial expressions gave away nothing, cold as ice. Her gaze, smudged with that dark makeup was just focused on the corpse before her.
"Uh, hi… So, clearly I missed a memo—and maybe a few explosions," Tony said, glancing around. "Is that Odin?"
Hela didn't look up at him, "Odin was mine to kill! Mine!"
Tony awkwardly scratched his metallic jaw since he couldn't really remove the helmet in deep space. "That's… on a different level. And I thought I hated my dad. But who did this? What about Thor?"
"Thanos! It was his ship," Hela replied coldly, venom filled in her voice. "Thor seems alive. I couldn't summon Mjolnir."
"Thanos again? Great. What's his beef with Asgard now?"
Instead of responding, Hela placed her hand on Odin's chest, and the entire golden armor seemingly melted away, moving like viscous liquid and climbed up Hela's arm. It reforged itself around Hela's body, taking a darker color, but eventually looking like armor. From Odin's chest armor to his helmet, she took everything, leaving the old man in plain white robes.
Taking everything from the old man, even his spear, Hela stood back up again. She glanced around at the massive field of ruins. This was Asgard that she wanted to rule. This was the Asgard she wanted to expand.
What's there left to conquer now? Tony wondered, hoping her mind wasn't up to something evil.
"Tell me, Stark—are Midgard and the Sovereign the extent of your knowledge?" Hela questioned.
Tony pondered for a while, shuffling through the files from that Kree ship. "There's Xandar, Hala, Sakaar, Contraxia…"
"Xandar. That's where we go," Hela declared, finally turning to Tony. "Thanos coming after Asgard is an ominous sign for your home, Stark. He's no longer chasing planets to annihilate and sell. He has a motive."
Pretty indirect way to ask for my help. Tony chuckled inside. Hela's voice and face may be hard to read, but her words were not.
"And we'll find the answer at Xandar?"
"Perhaps," Hela replied, entertaining his questions. "Xandar is home to the Nova Corps. They would know of Thanos' actions and motives."
"Great, so we're going to meet the space police?" Tony geared up and started to create the portal to Xandar. "Gonna take a moment… or two."
He moved his hand in a circle, soon creating sparks. Seeing how long it was taking, he reckoned the planet was pretty far away. But he tried to focus, using Jarvis to stimulate his memory as well.
"Uh… Any moment now."
Shhh…!
"There!"
Without wasting time, Hela moved, and unceremoniously grabbed Tony's arm and dragged him along as if he were just an iron puppet. Well, she was taller than him by a bit.
"Kinky—" Tony joked, but as soon as they stepped into the other side, both froze at the sight. "Not the view I was expecting."
"Neither was I," Hela revealed a frown.
While not destroyed to bits like Asgard, the planet of Xandar was in ruins. Its massive cities were flattened, and most of it was still burning. Dead bodies littered, the living tried to save what was left. Enormous craters dotted the landscape.
Hela stopped holding Tony and summoned her horned helmet, then Odin's spear. "Thanos was here—Follow me, Stark."
####
It was hard to find anything on Xandar. The Nova Corps was decimated, and most of the high ranking members were dead. The ones left were busy managing the aftermath. So, Tony stepped up and just took over Xandar's secure data storages. It didn't take much time for him and Jarvis to dismantle any safety that the Nova Corps had put in.
Once inside, he gathered all the relevant videos from countless cameras across the planet. Soon, Thanos was spotted, and using multiple angles, all his actions and movements were traced.
"That's an Infinity stone!" Hela exclaimed once it became clear what Thanos took. "The Power Stone, no less. And he's wearing the gauntlet."
"That sounded like a TED Talk in Klingon. Slick delivery, still nonsense," Tony muttered, shutting the video. "Infinity Stone? Enlighten me."
Hela narrowed her gaze at Tony. "Infinite power, torn from the birth of the universe itself. Each Stone commands a fundamental force—time, space, reality, mind, soul, and power. Together? They rewrite existence. Even gods fear them."
Rewrite existence? Tony wondered if she was serious or just exaggerating.
"And Thanos has them?"
"Not all, no. The record showed he already has one—Space Stone, I believe. Now he's taken the Power Stone too. That leaves four. If he gets them all..." She gripped the spear tighter. "The universe will bend to him. And no one—not one soul—will stand in his way."
Tony sighed tiredly, knowing where Thanos would likely head. He didn't know about the Power Stone, but he knew what Thanos took from Asgard. And finally, he also knew what was inside the Tesseract.
That stone inside Loki's Scepter must be the Mind Stone. And the rest… must be around.
"Let's bag him before he lands on Earth," Tony said, glancing at Hela. "Pretty sure he's going for another stone. And unlucky us—Earth's on the menu."
He eyed her carefully to gauge her reaction. Is she also power hungry like Thanos? What would she do if she got all the stones?
"With the Space Stone and Power Stone in his grasp, he's beyond defeat."
"If he bags the whole set, we're toast," Tony said, tapping his temple. "Nova Corp's data's a mess, but I think I can whip up something with a little bite—just need Thanos distracted long enough to plug it in."
Hela eyed Tony for a while. It'd been a year since she met him, and by now she understood him mostly. He never suggested something that he couldn't do. Perhaps that was why her magic guided her to him.
"I suppose if you are to fulfill your word to conquer the Kree Empire without a fight, we'll first have to take care of Thanos. Very well, I shall distract him for as long as I can." She gave her word. "What follows is your burden."
Tony clapped his hands. "That's great! Let's get to work then."
"We don't know where Thanos is headed."
"Oh, I know that," Tony smirked. "Benefits of knowing the Asgardian language."
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