Five days earlier.
"Are you willing?" asked a deep voice.
"Anything for the great purpose of my lord" replied a pale, elderly looking, hunched alien before Thanos.
Thanos did not respond, he had known Ebony Maw for years and understood that words were unnecessary.
Sitting on his chair, almost a throne, he placed his right hand on Ebony Maw's head and began to use the Soul Stone.
Soon Ebony Maw's body fell lifeless to the ground.
Thanos did not spare him a second glance before ordering him taken away.
---
Meanwhile, in Asgard, deep within the prison, a blond beauty capable of enchanting any man with a single glance stared mockingly at the female guard in front of her.
That woman always looked at her with hatred and resentment, Amora had too many enemies to bother remembering each one, so she paid it no mind.
Today, however, that guard had started an argument on her own, which surprised Amora slightly.
"Maybe he simply never loved you" Amora replied to her accusatory words.
"Impossible, my husband loved me more than anyone, until you arrived" the guard spat with fury.
"Seems he did not love you more than me" Amora answered with a mocking smile and a calm voice, fueling the woman's anger even further.
"You... I will kill you" she finally said, consumed by rage.
"How?" Amora laughed. "Leaving aside that you are weaker than I am, even as a prisoner I have far more value than you. Touch a single hair on my head and you are dead."
But the guard did not flinch as she would have in the past.
"Very well. I made a deal with someone, he will kill you without anyone noticing."
"...ha, ha, ha, ha, ha." Amora fell silent for a moment and then burst into laughter at the absurdity of her words.
"Kill me in the most secure prison in all of Asgard without anyone noticing?"
The guard frowned with hatred, but her expression changed the moment she felt something strange.
The necklace she wore, which held a small transparent marble at its center, began to heat up and glow with a bright orange light.
"He is here" she whispered with devotion as she removed the necklace and took the marble between her fingers.
Amora felt an immediate sense of dread.
"What is that thing?" she asked cautiously.
There was no response.
The guard threw the marble at Amora. She dodged it effortlessly and smiled when she saw it fall to the floor and shatter easily, but the smile lasted only a moment.
From the broken crystal an orange aura spread, and a translucent figure emerged, lunging at her.
Amora's body collapsed to the floor, where it began to convulse, her limbs twisting at impossible angles while the guard watched in horror.
After a few seconds, Amora stood up as if nothing had happened.
"Mental powers… as expected, I have good compatibility with this body" she murmured to herself.
"Is it done?"
"It is done" Ebony replied, looking at the guard.
She broke into tears. Her only purpose in life had been to kill Amora, who ruined her marriage and her peaceful life.
If her husband had fallen in love with another woman she would have accepted it eventually… but she discovered he was only manipulated by Amora's enchantments, used as disposable material in a love triangle with Thor, who ultimately rejected her as well.
Her rage became obsession when she learned that Amora was not executed, only imprisoned.
So when a mysterious man offered her a chance at revenge she did not hesitate. She asked nothing. She simply accepted.
What Ebony Maw would do with Amora's body no longer mattered to her.
She did not even have time to think further.
A bar pierced through her abdomen, dropping her onto a pool of blood.
A second bar went straight through her skull, pinning her to the floor. She died instantly.
Through the gap left by the broken bars, Ebony slowly stepped out of the cell.
"Even though my lord Thanos warned me not to waste time and to leave Asgard to avoid delays in the plan, if anyone notices that I am not Amora it would cause far greater complications" he said while looking at the corpse.
"Rejoice, you have served the plan of lord Thanos."
He walked out without stopping.
The cell lay in the deepest floor beneath the prison, so his ascent led him to encounter more and more guards.
Even so, they posed no threat. Ebony, master of mental power, had developed his abilities to such a level that he could enter minds and even manifest that mental power physically in the real world through telekinesis.
Using that vast mental power, he amplified Amora's mind control abilities to another level, taking control of every guard before they could even attack as soon as they saw him.
Despite his power and the absence of Thor and Hela in Asgard, Ebony never considered attacking the realm.
The orders were clear: recover the Time Stone first, the only one with a known location, then retrieve the gauntlet.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
After politely inquiring where the transportation chamber was and having the guards activate the entire system for him with courtesy, Ebony Maw arrived on Earth.
His destination was Hong Kong, but first he had to get rid of a bothersome tail.
SHIELD would consider him a medium threat due to not knowing his true identity, but Thanos warned him to be cautious.
SHIELD is omnipresent and omniscient on Earth, avoiding them would require disappearing completely, which would only draw more attention to him. The goal was to become something not worth chasing.
So he adopted a new identity. It was not enough to avoid suspicion, but enough to lessen interest.
To delay those following him he did not kill them, he confused them.
He blended truth with lies, reality with illusion, creating a delayed image of himself.
It was indeed him, and any camera or passerby could confirm it, but it moved slightly slower than he did so that the distance between them increased naturally as time passed.
His reflection walked with seconds of delay, then minutes, then hours… eventually days.
While the illusion continued along his trail, the real Ebony had already reached Hong Kong just in time.
The other collaborator of Thanos acted as well and the next phase of the plan began.
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80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)