INFERNO │ Marvel

1 - The Return

Amelia Stark's screams rang out through the large vessel. She had never felt pain so awful in her whole life. To be fair, she had never expected her life to go this way, to have to flee her own planet, get stranded on another and then face off with a psychotic goddess. She had never expected their ship to be attacked after finally thinking they were safe. She didn't expect to be bested by the Mad Titan. Amelia had tried to fight, but she hadn't expected him to be so strong. Nor did she expect the power stone to be in his possession.

Thanos pressed the stone to her head once more as he clutched her by the neck, forcing a shriek from her already aching throat. It was like the stone was attacking every fibre of her being. Her fire and the added power of the mind stone were trying to fight it off, but there was only so much it could do. The stone was, ironically, burning away at her defences. In the back of her mind, she willed her body to do something, anything else to help. But the pain was too much. The man had even bested Thor. What good was she against him?

Eventually, Amelia was thrown to the ground amongst the rest of the people. Loki had watched her be tossed aside like garbage with a grimace. The two had never gotten along but they had fought by each other's side to save Asgard regardless. She was undeserving of the treatment, he thought. But what was he to do?

"Hear me and rejoice," Ebony Maw spoke as he walked among the fallen Asgardians. "You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan. You may think this is suffering. No. It is salvation. Universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile. For even in death, you have become Children of Thanos."

Amelia tilted her head to look back at the Titan. He was standing over a beaten and bruised Thor. The god had fought bravely to once again protect his people, just as Amelia had, but almost everyone had fallen in the attack, even them. Thanos bent down and picked Thor up by his head, taunting the God of Mischief with his brother's pain.

"I know what it's like to lose," he remarked. "To feel so desperately that you're right... yet to fail, nonetheless. It's frightening. Turns the legs to jelly. But I ask you, to what end? Dread it, run from it... destiny arrives all the same. And now, it's here. Or should I say... I am."

Thanos squeezed his gauntlet once more and the power stone glowed brighter. Amelia had felt awful pain from it, and she hoped that Thor would fare better than she did, considering he was a god. Still, he had coughed up blood because of his already sustained injuries and he just looked exhausted. Coming straight from fighting a goddess had weakened them all. They were not in the slightest bit prepared for Thanos or his minions.

"You talk too much," Thor taunted. Thanos squeezed his head a little tighter. Loki looked terrified for his brother.

"The Tesseract," Thanos said. "Or your brother's head. I assume you have a preference."

"Oh, I do," he replied. Amelia let her eyes close for a second. If anyone could change Loki's ways it would have been Thor, but he was going to let his brother die. "Kill away."

Thor cried out in pain when the power stone touched his head, just as Amelia had. She had to look away, unwilling to see her friend being tortured. But the screams didn't let her escape from it.

"All right, stop!" Loki yelled. Even he couldn't withstand seeing Thor in such pain. Amelia looked back as the cries stopped.

"We don't have the Tesseract," Thor explained through heavy breaths. "It was destroyed on Asgard."

Loki looked away from his brother in shame, instead gazing at the Titan as he lifted his hand and summoned the blue cube. Thanos smiled. Amelia huffed weakly at looked away from the interaction they were having. She was exhausted, so tired of all the fighting. Quietly, she was feeding off of the flames around her, but it wasn't so she could jump back into a fight. She simply wanted to stave off the pain she was feeling after the power stone attack and her powers helped her do that.