The Soulmate Initiative: Book 2

11. Thanos is on their trail

LOCATION: MORAG 2014

Nebula and Penelope are crouched behind a rock, watching past Quill dancing along and singing badly. Penelope looks at Nebula, unimpressed "So, he's an idiot?" "Yeah." They get out from their hiding space and Penelope knocks him unconscious. Nebula searches his bag and pulls out a device, which Penelope asks about "What's that?" "The tool of the thief." They approach a door, that they had previously found and couldn't get into, Nebula inserts the tool and the door unlocks. Before Nebula can step inside, Penelope throws out an arm "Wgoa, whoa, whoa. This is the part where spikes come out with skeletons on the end of them and everything." "What are you talking about?" "When you break into a place called The Temple Of The Power Stone, there's gonna be a bunch of booby traps." Nebula just walks forwards "Okay. Alright. Go ahead." She follows behind. Nebula approaches a pedestal with a glowing purple casing, a ball inside. When she reaches out to touch it, her hand goes through it, but it burns. She grabs the ball and pulls it out, her arm now charred and glowing from the searing heat it just endured. She drops the ball into Penelope's hands and blows on her fingers "I wasn't always like this." "We work with what we got, right? Let's sync up." They both put their suits back on "Three. Two. One." But when Penelope presses her device and disappears, Nebula's doesn't work. Her eye piece is malfunctioning. She retracts her helmet and groans in pain, collapsing on the floor.

LOCATION: THANOS' SHIP 2014

Past Nebula screams as yet another projection starts up for Past Thanos to watch. It's Regina shouting at Thanos "You murdered trillions!" "You should be grateful." Penelope asks "Where are the stones?" "Gone. Reduced to atoms." Regina shouts afsin"You used them two days ago!" "I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be. I am inevitable." Past Gamora asks "What did you do to them?" "Nothing. Yet. They're not trying to stop something I'm going to do in our time. They're trying to undo something I've already done in theirs." "The stones." "I found them all. I won. Tipped the cosmic scales to balance." Past Ebony Maw speaks up "This is your future." "It's my destiny." Padt Ebony Maw plays another recording, this time it's Nebula, just moments after the previous recording "My father is many things. A liar is not one of them." "Ah. Thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly." But then they see him being decapitated, past Gamora is startled, but past Thanos isn't, as he says "And that is destiny fulfilled." Past Ebony Maw steps forward "Sire... you daughter..." He uses his powers to wrap metal around past Nebula's neck and tighten it "Is a traitor." Past Nebula struggles "That's not me. It's not, I could never." Past Thanos approaches her "I would never betray you. Never. Never." He breaks the metal around her neck and strokes her cheek "I know. And you'll have the chance to prove it."

LOCATION: MORAG 2014

Nebula's projector shuts down, she had just witnessed the whole thing "No! He knows!" She gets up and runs to the pod, where she works the comms "Romanoff! Romanoff, come in. Lavina! Come in, we have a problem." She's getting no response "Come on! Come in, we have a... Thanos knows. Thanos-" She hears a noise outside and looks up, to see a ship overhead a beam coming down, it sucks her and the pod up into it.