Watching Gamora and Star-Lord get hauled away by Nova Corps officers, Rocket looked like someone had just stolen his wallet.
"Where to now?"
Mario stared at Star-Lord's retreating figure, a smile spreading across his face. "Where? Back to the ship. We wait for someone to call me."
Ronan would definitely head to Kyln to retrieve the orb. All Mario needed to do was make sure the Accuser got a nasty surprise when he opened it.
Rocket had no objections. He followed Mario back toward the ship, Groot lumbering along beside them.
The moment they stepped aboard, Rocket looked around the cramped interior and let out an exaggerated whistle.
"Whoa... yours is so small."
Finding proper lodging on Xandar had proven more difficult than expected, but Mario had discovered something useful, for a management fee, he could park his ship anywhere he wanted. If he paid enough, Xandar would even provide maintenance, repairs, and upgrades.
The discovery had made him abandon the housing search entirely. Why bother with an apartment when he could just live on the ship?
Right in front of Rocket and Groot, he pulled the waystone from his inventory and set it up in the cockpit. The once-spacious area instantly became cramped as the stone monument took up valuable real estate.
Groot shifted uncomfortably, clearly unhappy with the confined space. "I am Groot..."
Rocket chimed in, "That rock actually glows. Pretty cool. But if you cram anything else in here, this ship won't even be able to take off."
"This ship isn't flying anywhere anymore. Put your hands on the waystone, find the option for Endstar, and mentally confirm the selection."
He guided them through the process step by step.
Neither Rocket nor Groot seemed surprised by the holographic interface that appeared. One of the perks of being well-traveled across the galaxy, weird shit didn't faze you as much.
"Endstar? What's tha—"
Before Rocket could finish the sentence, both he and Groot were engulfed in brilliant white light from the runes. They vanished instantly.
---
On the small planet, Rocket felt the world flip around him.
"This is a long-distance spatial teleportation gate. My god."
His mind immediately went to business opportunities. "No wonder he's loaded. With tech like this, you could make a fortune smuggling anything across the galaxy."
Then, remembering Groot, he quickly spun around. He sighed when he saw the tree standing right beside him, looking equally bewildered.
"How you feeling?"
"I am Groot."
"Yeah, I feel pretty cool too. But first we need to figure out where the hell we are."
Rocket pulled a device from his pack and activated the locator. His eyes widened as coordinates appeared on the small screen.
"This place is not far from where we finished our last job. Huh. Never knew there was another inhabited planet out here."
White light flashed again, and Mario materialized beside them.
"Welcome to Endstar. Don't just stand there gawking. I'll introduce you to your future partners."
Hearing Mario's voice, Rocket put away the locator. "This is where you live?"
He looked around at the construction equipment and prefab buildings. "Looks decent, but these machines are ancient. I'm pretty sure they were obsolete when Groot was born."
Mario reached out to ruffle Rocket's head, but the raccoon clearly hated that kind of affection. His body trembled involuntarily as he quickly dodged away, though he didn't seem upset.
"Come on. I brought you here because I need your help researching some new things."
All that cash for some R&D work?
Rocket blinked in confusion. After all that money Mario had given him, this was what was needed? He'd mentally prepared himself for something way more demanding, maybe even dangerous.
---
The Sanctuary.
Thanos' domain was a bizarre place, chunks of rock and debris floating in the void of space, yet somehow possessing both gravity and breathable atmosphere. The physics made no sense, but then again, little about the Mad Titan's domain followed conventional logic.
Today, the Sanctuary had a visitor: Ronan the Accuser.
Thanos sat on his stone throne with his back turned.
Ronan was clearly agitated, gripping his hammer.
"With all due respect, Thanos, your daughter caused this mess, yet you summon me here."
Before Thanos could respond, one of his subordinates stepped forward. "Watch your tongue, Accuser."
A stream of accusations followed, each one more pointed than the last.
That was the final straw. Ronan raised his hammer and pointed it at the subordinate's head. A translucent shockwave burst from the weapon, striking the cloaked figure in the skull.
The man's head twisted a hundred and eighty degrees. He collapsed to the ground, dead before he hit the stone floor.
Thanos didn't even flinch. The death of a subordinate was as meaningless to him as the death of an insect.
Ronan showed no fear. "I only hope you take this matter seriously."
Finally, Thanos turned around, looking down at Ronan.
"The only thing I don't take seriously is you. Your political games bore me. You act like a petulant child. You even drove away my beloved daughter."
He leaned forward slightly. "I will honor our agreement, Kree. But you must bring me the orb. If you appear before me empty-handed again, I will paint the stars red with your blood."
Unlike before, Ronan's eyes burned with resentment and unwillingness, but he still didn't raise a hand against Thanos.
After several seconds, Nebula broke the silence. She stood up and addressed Ronan directly. "Come. We're going to the Kyln."
She paused, then added flatly, "You cannot win."
Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked out.
Ronan followed, using the excuse to extract himself from the situation. But as he left, he shot one petty glance back at Thanos, who didn't care. A uniquely manic smile spread across his face.
Soon, the Sanctuary was silent except for the Mad Titan sitting alone on his throne.
That's when a blue portal opened before him.
A voice echoed from within. "You sure your throne has built-in massage functions? Don't bullshit me just because I'm new to this. I'm pretty sure your throne is just carved stone."
Thanos sat calmly on his throne, watching the portal open. But the moment the figure stepped through, all his attention locked onto one thing.
The four Infinity Stones embedded in that metal gauntlet were so dazzling they nearly blinded him.
---
"Is that what he sits on?"
Inside Thanos' domain, Mario and Infinite Thanos emerged completely through the portal, which closed behind them.
Honestly, Mario wasn't impressed. The stone throne looked uncomfortable as hell, and it was clearly custom-fitted to Thanos' exact proportions, tight with no room to spare. He definitely wouldn't fit properly.
Hearing Mario speak, the Thanos on the throne finally tore his attention away from the sight before him. His gaze fixed on the figure that looked exactly like him, especially the four gems embedded in that gauntlet, each radiating powerful energy that screamed "threat." His eyes narrowed.
"Who are you?"
In all his years of existence, Thanos had never encountered something so utterly confounding.
Mario glanced at the seated Thanos, then turned to the version standing beside him. "He's all yours. And don't break the throne. Doesn't really suit me as-is, but with some modifications it should work."
That throne, in the comic universes, was a rare treasure, capable of flight, spatial movement, energy attacks, shields, and more. In the MCU it would probably get nerfed to hell, but it was still valuable.
Infinite Thanos walked toward the throne unhurriedly.
"I know you're curious."
"I'm you from another universe. Your future has already failed. Only by joining us can you save this reality."
With four Infinity Stones at his command, Infinite Thanos was not something baseline Thanos could resist. So he spoke without fear.
"Your plan is meaningless."
After hours of debate with Mario, Infinite Thanos had fully grasped the truth: simply controlling population served no real purpose. It could only delay the universe's inevitable heat death, not prevent it.
Only the power Mario offered provided a true path forward for the universe.
Even the Infinity Stones couldn't grant such hope. They could alter things within the universe, but they were bound by its fundamental laws. They couldn't produce even a shred of power beyond the universe's upper limits.
The Stones were born of the universe, and thus constrained by it.
Infinite Thanos' words shook the younger Titan. He rose from his throne, staring sharply at this alternate version of himself.
"You're not me. This is the only way to extend the universe's—"
Infinite Thanos shook his head, already knowing exactly what his counterpart was thinking. He cut him off, "Let me show you the universe's future."
Seeing is believing. Hearing means nothing.
He raised the Infinity Gauntlet. The Mind Stone fired a beam of yellow light that struck younger Thanos directly. With his physical abilities, he could have dodged. But he had no confidence he could defeat a version of himself wielding four Infinity Stones.
In the instant before the beam hit, one final thought flashed through his mind.
The Mind Stone... didn't I give that to Loki?
Then countless memories flooded into his consciousness. Everything Infinite Thanos had experienced unfolded like a movie: lonely wandering, Gamora, another universe where Thanos succeeded and died, parallel worlds where armies were wiped out, a completely law-defying life of farming, and the man standing before him who was eyeing his throne with obvious greed.
All of this occurred in a single moment. Younger Thanos quickly regained clarity, though his gaze remained complicated as he looked at his alternate self.
Infinite Thanos' lips curved into a faint smile. "I believe you've made your choice."
"Yes. I've seen the path forward."
Only then did younger Thanos turn his attention to Mario. The Italian didn't particularly care, he just smiled.
In terms of raw power, the Mad Titan wasn't even on par with Captain Marvel or Scarlet Witch. The only noteworthy thing about him was his unmatched reputation across the galaxy.
Younger Thanos stepped down from the throne. Using telekinesis, he made the stone seat float over to Mario.
"I can remodel this throne for you. I guarantee you'll like the result."
Mario gave Thanos an approving look, then stepped forward and sat on what had been the Mad Titan's throne, no, what was now Mario's throne.
"To avoid confusion, you'll be called Young Thanos for now. If we come up with a better naming system later, we'll deal with it then. Now the question is: will your subordinates follow you in reshaping this universe?"
Most of Thanos' army were basically war profiteers. Killing people and razing planets was their specialty, but farming? Mario seriously doubted they even knew which end of a hoe to hold.
Infinite Thanos spoke up. "They won't disobey my commands. But I hope you will take control of this army, to deal with future threats."
Standing nearby, Young Thanos said nothing, just watching silently as his parallel universe counterpart sold off his entire military force without hesitation.
Sitting on the throne, Mario felt puzzled. "In this whole universe, as long as the cosmic-level entities don't interfere, and as long as I don't go looking for trouble, what dangers could there possibly be?"
Seeing Mario's questioning gaze, Infinite Thanos continued, "Resources in any universe are finite. I'm concerned that forces from other universes may target ours. If a predatory reality appears, we cannot simply wait for destruction."
Mario drummed his fingers on the throne's armrest.
He isn't wrong. If my abilities didn't come from Minecraft, once I grew strong enough, I'd definitely target parallel universes too.
He'd already taken the Tesseract and Mind Stone from Universe-2. And then there was Kang the Conqueror lurking in the Quantum Realm. Who knew how powerful that guy really was? His movie showing hadn't been impressive, but he was at minimum far stronger than Thanos, and had already destroyed countless parallel timelines.
"This army is yours to command, with Young Thanos assisting you, to handle whatever crisis comes next."
"Yes."
Both Thanoses spoke in unison.