"Ah, Nebula! Long time no see—and look what magnificent specimen you've brought me!"
The Collector's face lit up with genuine delight as they entered his private chambers. Taneleer Tivan had always appreciated hunters like Nebula—competent professionals who understood the difference between genuine rarities and worthless scrap metal that other scavengers tried to pawn off on him.
This time, however, his hungry gaze fixated entirely on Ben's disguised form. The Collector's pale hands twitched with barely restrained excitement, clearly itching to examine every inch of the supposed alien specimen standing before him.
But as Tivan reached out to conduct his tactile inspection, his fingers passed harmlessly through empty air. Ben had phased his body into an alternate dimensional space, leaving only an intangible projection visible in normal reality.
"Fascinating!" The Collector breathed, his excitement only intensifying rather than diminishing at this unexpected development. "Dimensional phase-shifting! Absolutely extraordinary!"
Ben studied the Elder of the Universe with equal curiosity. Tivan appeared deceptively human—pale skin, silver-white hair, and a face that seemed neither young nor old, frozen in some indeterminate middle age. His clothing was elegant but practical, and his overall demeanor suggested someone accustomed to handling powerful artifacts and dangerous beings with casual ease.
Despite his unassuming appearance, Ben knew better than to underestimate the ancient being. Anyone who had survived millions of years while accumulating the galaxy's most dangerous treasures clearly possessed power far beyond the obvious.
"Another dimension entirely—this is absolutely magnificent!" Tivan continued, practically vibrating with collector's enthusiasm. He turned to Nebula with eager eyes. "You understand, I've been much more selective about my biological acquisitions since your father's genocidal crusade ended. His death means I no longer need to preserve specimens against universal extinction. But this—" he gestured toward Ben, "—this represents something genuinely unique. I've never encountered such a species before. He might be the only one of his kind in existence! I'm prepared to offer an unprecedented sum!"
"Sorry to disappoint you," Ben replied, his voice carrying the raspy undertones of his Necrofriggian disguise, "but I'm not for sale."
The Collector paused, blinking in surprise as he registered the implications. His gaze swept over Ben more carefully, noting the absence of restraints or control devices. "Not a prisoner, then? My apologies—I assumed Nebula had captured you for my collection." But rather than backing down, Tivan's expression grew even more determined. "No matter! The principle remains the same, Mister...?"
"Big Chill will suffice."
"Perfect! Big Chill, might I interest you in a mutually beneficial arrangement? I'm not suggesting imprisonment—quite the contrary! I respect the autonomy and dignity of my sentient specimens. You would enjoy complete freedom of movement, access to my resources, and comfortable quarters. In exchange, I would simply require the rights to your remains after your natural death. Hardly an inconvenience for you, while providing me with an invaluable addition to my collection!"
Ben fell silent, genuinely considering the proposal. From a purely logical standpoint, it wasn't a terrible deal—assuming he didn't die, nothing would change, and he'd gain access to whatever compensation Tivan offered.
Sensing his potential customer's interest, the Collector pressed his advantage. "Consider the success story of Beta Ray Bill, the Korbinite champion. He made exactly this arrangement with me not long ago, trading the future rights to his corpse in exchange for his people's massive ark-ship. I placed no restrictions on him whatsoever. He went on to join your Plumbers organization and has achieved considerable fame and success! Why not leverage my resources to enhance your own prospects?"
Ben's expression darkened behind his alien mask. So Bill had literally sold his body to the Collector in exchange for the Korbinite fleet? The revelation left Ben feeling both impressed by his subordinate's pragmatism and disturbed by the cold calculation involved.
More importantly, it meant the Collector was already eyeing one of his Plumbers for future acquisition. That was unacceptable.
Even if Bill viewed his eventual death as an inevitable biological function, Ben refused to let any of his people become museum pieces. The arrangement would be terminated, regardless of existing contracts.
Nebula stepped forward, positioning herself between Ben and the increasingly persistent Collector. "We're here looking for someone," she interrupted firmly. "Gamora should have visited you recently."
"Indeed she has," Tivan confirmed without hesitation. His trading services had never included client confidentiality—bad for repeat business. "In fact, she hasn't left yet. Continue deeper into my repository and you'll likely encounter her directly."
"What did she want from you?" Nebula pressed.
The Collector gestured toward the interior passages with theatrical flourish. "Why don't you ask her yourself? My staff will guide you to her current location."
Two of Tivan's exotic servants—humanoid beings with elaborate eye makeup and intricate facial tattoos—stepped forward to escort Ben and Nebula deeper into the collection. Eunice, however, remained behind, her synthetic curiosity clearly piqued by the countless specimens surrounding them.
The Collector was delighted to have an appreciative audience for his treasures. "Please, feel free to examine anything that catches your interest," he offered, settling into his favorite role as tour guide and narrator.
"You even collect Earth animals?" Eunice asked, pausing before a display case containing a golden retriever wearing a primitive space suit alongside a duck dressed in what appeared to be a business outfit.
"I accept all offerings, regardless of their apparent significance," Tivan replied with infectious enthusiasm. "Collection isn't merely about value assessment—sometimes the most mundane objects tell the most fascinating stories. This canine specimen, for instance, originates from Terra —a remarkably primitive world that only achieved basic space travel a few decades ago. Can you imagine the audacity of sending a domesticated animal into the space void as an exploratory pioneer?"
He moved to the adjacent case with evident pride. "This duck, however, possesses a far more extraordinary origin. He hails from an alternate dimensional reality and demonstrates higher-order cognitive abilities despite his unremarkable appearance. Quite dangerous when provoked, actually!"
Tivan continued his guided tour, leading Eunice to a display featuring what appeared to be biological organs suspended in crystalline matrices. "And here we have the life-preservation organs of the Vildorian species!"
"You're showing me preserved body parts?" Eunice's tone carried a mixture of fascination and mild disgust.
"The rarity makes them invaluable!" the Collector insisted. "The Vildorians achieved extinction over two hundred thousand years before I began my collection. It took me millennia to locate even this single, partially intact specimen from a long-dead corpse. They represent a completely lost branch of galactic evolution!"
Eunice nodded politely, then shifted to her actual objective. "I assume you also possess raw materials extracted from Knowhere itself?"
"Ah, the Celestial bone marrow!" Tivan's expression grew more calculating. "Of course I do. I've always known the mining operations here would eventually exhaust the easily accessible deposits." He guided her to another section where metallic samples gleamed under specialized lighting. "These represent the purest concentrations of divine genetic material available anywhere in the known universe."
The specimens looked like refined metal ingots, but Eunice's scanners detected the complex quantum signatures that marked them as genuine Celestial matter—exactly what Ben needed for potential DNA extraction.
"What would you charge for a sample?" she inquired casually.
"Money?" Tivan's expression turned dismissive. "My dear artificial being, this is a private collection, not a retail establishment!" But his mercenary nature quickly reasserted itself. "However, if your friend Big Chill reconsidered my earlier proposal, I might be willing to discuss an exchange of specimens..."
Eunice turned and walked away without another word, unwilling to continue the pointless negotiation.
Meanwhile, Ben and Nebula had penetrated deeper into the Collector's repository, guided by the elaborate passages that wound through what had once been the Celestial's brain cavity. The atmosphere grew progressively more oppressive as they moved away from the public areas, the lighting dimming to create an almost sepulchral mood.
When they reached the designated chamber, their escort gestured toward an ornate door. "Miss Requiem is meditating within. Please be cautious—she has specifically requested not to be disturbed."
Ben and Nebula exchanged glances before pushing through the entrance.
Inside, they found Gamora suspended in midair, her legs crossed in a meditative pose while her sword lay abandoned on the floor beneath her. Her face was twisted with visible anguish, sweat beading on her green skin despite the chamber's cool temperature.
But what immediately captured their attention was the Reality Stone itself—no longer contained within any housing, the Aether flowed around Gamora like a river of liquid crimson energy. The particles moved in complex patterns, occasionally sparking with otherworldly power that sent ripples through local spacetime.
"I wouldn't recommend touching those energy flows," one of the servant girls warned sympathetically. "They seem to react poorly to external contact."
"The Aether has bonded directly with her cellular structure," Ben observed grimly, his enhanced senses analyzing the quantum entanglement between Gamora and the Infinity Stone. "This is more complex than simple possession."
The various Infinity Stones affected their users differently. The Power Stone was universally lethal to organic contact—its raw cosmic energy could obliterate planets. But other Stones, like the Aether, were designed to merge with suitable hosts. Malekith's ancient modifications had specifically calibrated the Reality Stone for symbiotic bonding rather than external manipulation.
The question now was how to safely separate Gamora from the Stone without killing her in the process.
"The Asgardian mystical techniques I learned from Frigga might work," Ben mused, "assuming she's willing to cooperate."
"Don't even consider it!"
Gamora's eyes snapped open, blazing with the scarlet fire of Reality Stone energy. When she spoke, her voice carried harmonics that seemed to bend space around her words.
"The Reality Stone belongs to me! I won't let anyone else be destroyed by it!"
The Aether responded to her emotional state, instantly surging outward in a circular wave of reality-altering force. Ben's spider-sense screamed warnings about the approaching energy, recognizing it as something far more dangerous than conventional attacks.
In the split-second before impact, Ben analyzed their options and acted. He grabbed both Nebula and the terrified servant girl, pulling them into Big Chill's intangible state just as the Aether wave passed through their location.
The reality distortion continued past them, striking the chamber wall with devastating effect.
BOOM!
The explosion wasn't merely physical—the Aether rewrote local reality, causing the solid stone walls to simply cease existing in their current configuration. The blast continued outward, threatening to tear through the Collector's entire repository.
From the outer chambers, Tivan's voice rang out in panic: "Contain that immediately! You're going to destroy my entire collection, Requiem!"
The Collector's mental powers surged to life, his consciousness expanding to encompass the runaway Aether energy. With millennia of experience handling cosmic artifacts, he managed to guide the reality distortions back under control, preventing catastrophic damage to his specimens.
Ben returned his group to normal phase just as the energy dissipated. The servant girl immediately collapsed to her knees, hyperventilating from the near-death experience, while the Collector stared at Ben with even greater fascination.
"I'm sorry," Gamora said, her voice returning to normal as the Aether settled around her like a crimson cloak. "I lost control for a moment. Nebula? What are you doing here?"
Her expression shifted from confusion to recognition, then to something that might have been relief at seeing a familiar face.
"We're here for the Reality Stone," Nebula replied directly. "But first, I want to know why you're collecting Infinity Stones again. Why change your name to Requiem?"
Gamora's shoulders sagged with exhaustion. "It's... complicated. And painful to explain."
Rather than deflect or evade, she began recounting her recent experiences with weary honesty. "That King of Sakaar didn't actually destroy our father. Thanos is immortal in ways we never understood. To truly eliminate him, I took his body to Vormir, seeking the Soul Stone. I thought its power over life and death might finally erase his existence."
Her voice grew hollow with regret. "I miscalculated catastrophically. Instead of destroying him, the Soul Stone absorbed his consciousness. Now he exists as a psychic presence inside my head, speaking to me constantly, offering advice and criticism and demands..."
Tears began streaming down Gamora's face as she finally voiced the torment she'd been enduring alone. "He appears in my mind day and night, commenting on everything I do, everyone I meet. The father who raised me and the monster who destroyed my world—they're the same person, and now I can never escape him."
The confession broke something loose in Gamora's chest. Despite her hatred for Thanos's genocidal ideology, he had genuinely been her father figure for most of her life. The psychological complexity of loving and hating the same person had been tearing her apart since Vormir.
Seeing her normally stoic sister reduced to tears touched something in Nebula's heavily cybernetic heart. She'd struggled with similar contradictions regarding Thanos—the abuse, the competition, the twisted form of care he'd shown them both.
"No wonder Thor and Coulson reported concerning behavior," Ben commented with newfound understanding. "Is he... present now?"
Though his Necrofriggian form lacked specialized spiritual senses, Ben could detect the subtle signs of psychic interference in Gamora's brainwave patterns.
"He never leaves," Gamora confirmed miserably. "He's been trying to convince me to kill those Plumber agents you mentioned, but I refused. That's the only victory I can claim."
As if summoned by the conversation, Thanos's spectral form materialized within Gamora's psyche, visible only to her. The Mad Titan's expression carried an unusual mixture of regret and satisfaction as he studied Nebula through his daughter's eyes.
"Look how well she's recovered," Thanos murmured in Gamora's mind, his voice carrying the same paternal pride he'd once shown when praising their combat achievements. "Ben Parker actually restored her original body. Tell her I'm proud of how far she's come. Tell her I'm sorry for what I put her through."
He reached toward Nebula with an incorporeal hand, knowing he could never touch anything in the physical world again. The gesture was heartbreakingly gentle—a father's affection filtered through cosmic damnation.
"He's... touching your face," Gamora translated reluctantly. "He says he's proud of you, and sorry for everything he did. He seems more gentle now than he used to be, but underneath he's still exactly the same madman we remember."
"That's thoroughly disturbing," Nebula replied, though she found herself laughing despite the circumstances. The absurdity of receiving posthumous apologies through her sister from their genocidal father was too bizarre for any normal emotional response.
Gamora began laughing as well, a slightly hysterical edge to the sound. "Right? It's like having a therapeutic counseling session with a space war criminal!"
The laughter seemed to ease some of the tension that had been building in the chamber. Even Thanos's presence in Gamora's mind quieted momentarily, as if the sound of his daughters' shared amusement gave him some measure of peace.
Ben had expected their reunion to devolve into combat—the last time he'd seen these two together, they'd been trying to kill each other in service to opposing sides. Instead, he was witnessing something closer to family therapy.
"So he's still trying to influence you to continue his mission?" Nebula asked once their laughter subsided.
"Not exactly," Gamora replied, her expression growing pained again. "He's actually less demanding than he used to be. But he's still himself, fundamentally. He suggests killing people we encounter, offers tactical advice during conflicts, criticizes my choices... I can't stand the constant commentary. I thought if I could gather enough Infinity Stone power, I might be able to destroy his soul permanently."
She gestured helplessly at the Aether surrounding her. "But I've failed repeatedly. The Stones seem to strengthen his connection to me rather than severing it."
What Gamora didn't mention—couldn't bring herself to admit—was that her attempts to use the Reality Stone against Thanos's soul had damaged her own psyche in the process. Each failure left her more vulnerable to his influence, creating a dangerous psychological feedback loop.
"In that case, you should hand the Stone over to me," Nebula suggested practically. "I don't have any spiritual connection to him. Maybe I can—"
"No!" Gamora's rejection was immediate and absolute. "You don't understand the risks involved. The Infinity Stones can't be kept in close proximity for extended periods, especially by the same person or organization. The resonance effects become catastrophically unstable."
The warning carried the weight of hard-earned experience—Gamora had witnessed firsthand what happened when too much space power accumulated in one location.
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