Age Of Miracles | Pietro Maximoff

Chapter Fifty-Three: Death Is What Gives Life Meaning

Music is "Fire, Save Us" by Iliya Zaki.

Picture is Jane Levy as Glory Maximoff.

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"Death is what gives life meaning. To know your days are numbered. Your time is short."

- The Ancient One

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CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

The last piece of the puzzle is in Thanos' mind somewhere. I can feel it. Death told me herself. It's in his brain, hidden away so I can't find it. I have absolutely no idea what I'm looking for, but the echoes from previous visions wash over me.

"I pray the Lord my soul not to take..." "Let me have the power to endure the bones I break..."

I close my eyes, focusing on the last portion I need. Everyone has a series of words that can destroy them. For us cosmic beings, I don't think that's an exaggeration. A spell created me. A spell can defeat me, just as a spell can defeat Thanos. I have to find the last part of the poem.

Maybe then I can save the world.

"Keep my mind alive with hope..." "To rewind the time..."

I press harder, moving mentally through the corridors of the Mad Titan's head. He fights me, not physically but mentally. I feel him put up roadblocks, locking doors so I can't enter. That only makes me fight harder, push further, be braver.

"Where reality was a better place..."

The first verse. I know I'm missing the first verse. All of the other pieces fit together like a prayer or poem. I feel the power coursing within me when I recall the lines, but I feel the first line is missing.

"Show me," I mutter to myself. "Show me the first line. I know you know it."

I fall into another of his memories, feeling the rage and guilt wash over me like a tidal wave. At first, I see nothing. I can only feel what Thanos felt in whatever portion of his life I've entered. Pain. Wrath. Loss. I feel it all. I feel it all and more, emotions I've never experienced and cannot quantify, even after losing everyone I love and my home planet. For the first time, I feel a pang of empathy for the Mad Titan.

This pain...This pain would turn anyone dark.

The the images solidify in front of me. It's almost as if Thanos had his eyes closed and now they're open. What I see makes me want to sob. It's a sight I just saw on my own planet. It's the sight of a dead world, an empty orb, a cold rock roaring through the solar system next to Saturn. When I look up, I can see the rings of the second largest planet. They're beautiful. Nothing else is.

I have little context, but I know that this was partly Thanos doing. Titan is abandoned, dead bodies lying in the streets of the alien metropolis. When I look down, I see children at my feet with equally glazed eyes. They aren't wounded, so there was no attack. Nor are they dust, a sign of the Infinity Gauntlet's doing. They're just...sleeping, some with their eyes wide open.

What did he do?

A figure appears in his periphery, a cloaked woman with white hair and a skeletal face. She looks saddened by the sight, gazing out over the mass grave. "What have you done, Thanos of Titan?" she mutters, her voice breaking slightly.

"You would not answer," Thanos replies, and I can feel in his mind that he's crying. Sobbing. He hates what he's done, regrets it possibly, but he's happy to see Mistress Death. "I...I..."