𝙶𝚁𝙾𝚆𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙿𝙰𝙸𝙽𝚂

Twenty Three

Helena woke up next to a giant purple man. For a moment, she was utterly confused, but then the events prior caught up to her. She sat up quickly to move away from him, but her vision turned blurry and her head was aching.

Thanos looked down at her with an odd smile that made her stomach turn queasy with fear.

"Careful." He said, "That was quite the injury you sustained."

"W-who are you?!" Helena demanded as bravely as she could.

"I am Thanos. I have come to save the universe with the infinity stones." Thanos looked down at her, "That is why I need you to give me the reality stone."

"You're lying." Helena said, scooting further away and looking around her.

She seemed to be in a giant stone throne room with no windows.

"Am I?" He asked.

"If you wanted to save the universe, you wouldn't have attacked me." Helena said.

"I apologize for that. I believe I... misunderstood you." Thanos said.

Helena heard someone approaching and looked up to see three aliens pushing a green woman into the room. The woman was struggling against them, but stopped upon seeing Thanos, and then Helena.

"Still kidnapping innocent children, I see." Gamora said to Thanos with venom in her voice.

"Hela isn't like you." Thanos shook his head, "No one is like you, Gamora."

"Kid, you gotta run, this guy is bad news. Whatever he's told you was a lie." Gamora told her.

Helena's eyes were wide and panicked. She felt even more scared hearing her intuition confirmed by Gamora.

"It took quite a large number of my forces to get to you." Thanos said, "I raised you well."

"You didn't raise me. You trained me!" Gamora cried, "I was never anything but your soldier!"

"That's not true, daughter." Thanos said.

"I hated doing things for you. I hated this room. I hated that throne. My life with you was despicable!" Gamora yelled.

"Calm down, Gamora, you'll scare the girl." Thanos said, as if he wasn't the one scaring Helena who had been trying to take off her magic cuffs with no luck.

Gamora didn't answer.

"You know why I called you here. Where is it?" Thanos asked, "Where is the souls stone?"

"I'm not as good as you thought I was then." Gamora said, pushing an alien off of her, "I never found it."

Thanos sighed loudly.

"Sorry to disappoint you." Gamora said sarcastically.

"I am disappointed, but not because you didn't find it. Because you did, and you lie." Thanos stood up from the stairs he had been sitting on, "Follow me."

Two aliens moved forward and grabbed Helena's arms, pulling her up despite the pain in her head and wobbling feet. They dragged her out of the throne room and behind Thanos and Gamora. Gamora kept sending concerned looks towards Helena as they walked. Helena tried to come up with an escape plan, but fell empty handed. She was no match for an entire army of aliens, even with Gamora's help. If she could get Thanos and Gamora alone though, and tell Gamora to take off her magic cuffs, then maybe they could escape.

They entered a room with a blue woman that was partly made of metal, suspended in the air by something Helena couldn't see.

"Nebula." Gamora said sadly.