Ebony Maw: On the Brink of Death

Part 1: Jettisoned

In all his years of service, Ebony Maw had been an indispensable servant to the Great Titan, and he was not about to let some pretender with a few parlor tricks destroy that prestige.

At the moment, Maw's ship was soaring through the galaxy, on a course for Titan, his master's home-world, and he had the infernal magician captive. The Time Stone, integral to the noble Thanos's quest to save the universe, was there as well, but contained within his necklace, trapped behind a spell. If only he could make this human understand the greater importance of all this, that Thanos would actually save Earth and countless other worlds in the process, and do it all quickly, mercifully, and painlessly, then maybe he would hand it over. Humans were so disappointing with their short-term thinking.

So, he set the ship on auto-pilot, and went over to the human, whose name Maw had discerned was Strange, though that didn't matter to him. He grabbed the tools Thanos had retrieved from Maw's planet when he'd saved it from extinction, and bestowed the honor of being his herald, and helping him on his mission, upon Maw. Using his in-born telekinetic abilities, he lifted Strange's body into the air, and put the needles toward his face. Strange woke up, and took in his surroundings.

"In all the time I've served Thanos," he said, approaching Strange, eye to eye, "I have never failed him. If I were to reach our rendezvous on Titan with the Time Stone still attached to your vaguely irritating person, there would be...judgment." He began to inch the needles toward Strange, with one entering his left cheek. The pain became immediately apparent, but Strange resisted. "Give me the stone." He moved other needles toward the necklace which housed it, and a spell arose to protect it.

Strange continued to push back against Maw's torture, but it soon became excruciating. "Ahhh," he screamed in agony. Maw smiled to himself, knowing that in short order, the stone would be his.

"Painful, aren't they?" he asked. "They were originally designed for microsurgery. And any one of them—" a thud interrupted his speech, and Maw's slight suspicion that they weren't alone was confirmed. "—could end your friend's life in an instant," he addressed to the intruder, as he turned around. Standing there was the man from Earth who had derisively called Maw "Squidward," whatever that referred to.

"I gotta tell you, he's not really my friend. Saving his life is more of a professional courtesy." He was in his full metal exoskeleton, and possessed the misconception that this armor would save him from Maw. Little did he know.

Maw summoned a large hunk of metal, and held it next to him. "You've saved nothing," he retorted, marching toward the red-suited man and summoning another piece with his other hand. "Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine." Now, Maw could properly finish him off, then return to his work with Strange.

"Yeah, but the kid's seen more movies," the guy said. Maw didn't know what a movie was, but he recognized the sound of a tiny missile escaping from the man's suit. It shot its way to Maw's right, and in a split second blew a hole in the ship, which sucked Maw toward it. He didn't have time to react.

Once he got over his initial shock, he realized he was beginning to freeze. The punishing vacuum of space began to take its toll immediately, and Maw passed out.