Chapter 18: Echoes Beyond Earth
Part I – The Awakening Above
Space was silent.
But silence, Billy would learn, could scream.
In the void beyond Earth's orbit, a dead satellite drifted. Its panels were cracked, its circuits long frozen. Yet, tonight, it moved.
Something pulsed through the metal — black and green veins spreading like frost over glass. The signal rippled outward in invisible waves, whispering through the vacuum.
It wasn't man-made.
It wasn't from Earth anymore.
And it carried his heartbeat.
Inside the S.H.I.E.L.D. orbital station Helios-7, alarms flared to life. Red lights swept across the metallic halls as technicians scrambled to their consoles.
"Energy surge in the dead zone!" one shouted. "Origin unknown — frequency matches Ironroot's previous signatures!"
Maria Hill stepped into the command deck, her voice sharp. "Track it. Now."
"It's coming from beyond low orbit," the tech replied, hands flying across the board. "Signal's piggybacking off an old Stark satellite — designation 'Vigil-5.'"
Hill's stomach dropped. Tony's early AI-relay prototypes.
She tapped her comm. "Fury, you seeing this?"
His voice came through, calm but tight. "I'm looking, and I don't like what I'm seeing. Whatever that pulse is, it's not just energy. It's broadcasting."
"Broadcasting what?"
"Coordinates."
A pause.
"Straight to the outer rim of Mars."
Hill frowned. "That's impossible. We have no active outposts there."
Fury's voice darkened. "We don't. But someone else does."
Part II – The Signal of the Red Planet
Seven hours later.
Billy stood aboard a containment transport headed for Helios-7.
The stars burned cold beyond the window, but his mind was far colder.
He could still hear the hum — that double-rhythm heartbeat of the Green and the Black Root, whispering like two voices trapped in one body.
They're calling you, Billy.
Your roots reach further than you think.
He pressed his palms against the reinforced glass. "You stay quiet," he muttered. "I'm not your messenger."
The voice chuckled inside him. Then why do you feel them?
The door hissed open. Hill stepped in, her face pale but steady. "You feel it too, don't you?"
Billy turned slightly. "The signal?"
"Yeah. Ever since it flared, bio-readings across the planet shifted. Plants, fungi, entire ecosystems are reacting. Like they're… listening."
He frowned. "It's not Earth they're hearing."
Hill nodded. "We traced the signal back. There's something growing on Mars — black, organic, spreading under the dust. The same energy signature that corrupted you."
Billy's eyes darkened. "The Black Root found a new home."
Fury's voice came through the ship's comms:
"Suit up, soldier. We're going off-world."
Helios-7 – Launch Bay
The launch bay doors opened, revealing the transport shuttle Argus One, retrofitted with Stark-tech thrusters and vibranium-shielding.
Billy stood at the loading ramp, armored in his new suit — dark, flexible plating layered with green biometal that pulsed faintly with his energy.
Fury approached, trench coat fluttering in the artificial wind. "If what's on Mars is connected to you, you're our best shot at figuring out how deep this infection goes."
Billy smirked faintly. "And if it's worse than we think?"
Fury's one eye gleamed. "Then I hope you've learned how to burn weeds."
They locked eyes — an unspoken promise between soldier and survivor.
Hill called out from the console. "All systems green. Coordinates set. Mars orbit in 14 minutes."
Billy stepped into the shuttle. "Let's finish what they started."
En Route – The Black Drift
The stars bled red as they neared Mars.
The closer they came, the stronger the pulse grew — a deep thrum that seemed to vibrate through Billy's bones.
"Reading energy at critical levels," Hill reported. "It's spreading under the surface — almost like it's growing."
Billy's voice was distant. "It is."
The shuttle broke through the thin Martian atmosphere, descending toward the surface. The sandstorm below parted like a living sea — black vines twisting just beneath the crimson dust.
They landed hard. The air outside shimmered faintly with radiation, but the energy wasn't mechanical. It was alive.
Billy stepped out first, boots crunching on red soil. The landscape stretched endless and barren — until the ground began to move.
Thin black tendrils pushed through the dust, twisting toward him like they recognized him.
Hill's voice echoed in his comm. "Billy, readings are off the charts — it's responding to you."
He took a step forward. The vines froze.
Then the ground split open.
From the crack, a massive structure rose — ancient and pulsing with black and green veins. It wasn't built. It had grown.
In the center, a sphere of crystal light hovered, flickering with shifting colors — green, then yellow, then deep purple.
Billy's chest tightened. He knew that energy.
"The Mind Stone…"
Hill's gasp came through static. "But the stones were destroyed!"
Billy whispered, "Energy can't be destroyed. Only transformed."
The Black Root had found what remained of the Mind Stone — and was feeding on it.
You feel it, don't you?
The Source remembers you.
Billy dropped to one knee, clutching his head. Visions flashed through his mind — cities collapsing, vines crawling across galaxies, and at the heart of it all, himself, seated upon a throne of roots and bone.
"No," he hissed. "I won't become that."
You already are.
Part III – The Birth of the Rootmind
The ground erupted in a storm of energy.
Black and green lightning tore through the sky, and from the center of the structure, something massive began to rise — a form shaped like a being but made of pure energy, its face shifting like smoke.
The voice that came from it was layered, echoing with a thousand tones.
"We are the Rootmind. The memory of the stones. The will of creation."
Hill's voice was faint through the comms. "Billy—run!"
He stood his ground, green energy pulsing from his hands. "If you're what's left of the Mind Stone, why come to me?"
"Because you are the bridge. Flesh and root. Will and fear. You are balance — and imbalance."
The being extended a hand — thousands of vines reaching toward him.
"Join us, Ironroot. We will grow beyond stars."
Billy's jaw clenched. "You're not life. You're infection."
"All life begins with infection."
The vines struck. Billy leapt into the air, slamming his palms together — green energy erupting in a massive shockwave that tore through the sky. The explosion shook the desert, hurling debris for miles.
The Rootmind reformed instantly, laughing in a thousand voices. "Futile."
Billy's breathing was ragged. "Then let's make it hurt."
He thrust both hands into the ground — and for the first time since the fusion, he let both forces rise.
Green and black spiraled from his body, colliding, merging — a storm of creation and decay.
The surface split open for miles. From beneath, massive roots burst outward, forming a colossal tree of energy that reached into the upper atmosphere. Lightning danced between its branches, connecting heaven and hell.
Fury's voice came through faintly from orbit. "My God… he's becoming the storm."
Billy screamed, channeling everything he was — pain, anger, love, guilt — into one focused burst. The black energy inside him flared, trying to consume him, but he held it steady, shaping it instead of fighting it.
You think you can control us?
You are us!
He grinned through the agony. "Then watch me."
With a roar, he slammed his fists into the Rootmind's chest — green light detonating from the impact. The explosion ripped through the Martian surface, sending waves of dust and energy out into space.
The Rootmind shrieked, its form fracturing, collapsing inward. The vines turned to ash, scattering into the thin air.
When the light faded, the great structure was gone.
Only Billy stood — his body smoking, armor shattered, breathing shallow.
Hill's voice crackled through static. "Billy… do you copy?"
He exhaled. "I'm here."
"Is it over?"
He looked down at the ground — where faint, black sparks still pulsed beneath the dust. He shook his head slowly. "No. It's never over."
Epilogue – The Whisper in the Void
Back aboard Helios-7, Fury stared at the live feed from Mars.
A faint energy pulse still shimmered, though barely detectable.
Hill leaned beside him. "He stopped it — for now."
Fury's gaze hardened. "That's what worries me. You don't stop something that old. You delay it."
Hill turned toward the stars. "What now?"
Fury's jaw tightened. "We call in the big guns. I'm getting Stark's AI, Banner's readings, and Strange's relic archives reopened. If that Rootmind connects to the stones, Earth's in more danger than it's ever been."
He paused.
"And keep an eye on Ironroot. He's the key… or the next catastrophe."
Meanwhile – Deep in Space
Far from Earth and Mars, beyond the asteroid belt, something stirred.
A derelict Kree warship drifted in the dark. Inside its silent corridors, a faint pulse of black light shimmered — crawling through the walls like veins, spreading across the ship.
Then, from the darkness, a pair of golden eyes opened.
A deep, ancient voice whispered.
"The seeds awaken. The Garden must bloom."
The light flared — spreading out like fire across the stars.