Scorpio

FORTY - A Gauntlet for Destiny

The boy mumbled something, but being determined not to use the mind stone in the boy's mind, at least not for the time being, Thanos demanded he repeat himself.

"It would be a lot easier to hear if I could look up," the boy called to the floor.

On Death's door, and he still-

The boy is eating his own words, my love. Let him up.

Grumbling, Thanos acquiesced, flicking his index upwards. The boy's head jerked to the ceiling, flipping his mop of wild hair back, and his blue eyes bored back at him.

Release his head.

The boy moves things with his mind-

Release it. Thanos huffed, irritated at being treated like an insolent child, and Destiny's voice softened.

You'll still have control of his mind, my love. One wrong move and he kills the doctor.

Thanos relented. He'd almost forgotten the doctor was there. The boy's features relaxed, and he turned his head from side to side, as if testing it. Catching Thanos' pointed gaze at the doctor, he sobered.

"Your name?"

He cleared his throat. "My name is Alycastrum Kyle, but I-"

"Destiny, I present before you the carrier of the Tesseract, the last stone of the Infinity Gauntlet," Thanos announced to the skies, unwilling to let the Terran weasel another wasted minute out of him.

Alycastrum grunted as his feet carried him forward, crooking at the knees in a half-limp. Something buzzed as it glanced off the energy shield above them, and the boy looked up, his nonchalant expression finally cracking under the helplessness of his predicament.

Thanos held out his hand, palm up, and Alycastrum slowed to a halt before him. The boy's hands contorted wildly as he fiddled with the blue object tucked away on his person, joints audibly popping and cracking, and tracks of silver fractured his round cheeks. Thanos idly fingered the mind stone on the back of his knuckles, catching the boy's mouth part in a silent whimper in his periphery.

Why must you be so morbid?

Thanos held an index against his chin and nose, his smile languid and slow. "Patience, my love. My victory is long-awaited-" he gesticulated towards his gauntlet- "-and now, I have all the time in the universe to enjoy it."

The boy finally procured the Tesseract from his person, arms shaking as he held it out to Thanos. Thanos plucked it from his hands, ignoring the desperate scrape of Alycastrum's nails on the side of the impossibly smooth cube as a last-ditch attempt to hold on.

"Thank you," he intoned, letting the boy relax. The boy promptly drooped like a malnourished flower, his head hanging low and his shoulders sagging. He mumbled something incoherent, and Thanos paused. "What did you say, my child?"

"Why must you do it?" Alycastrum repeated, raising his head. Although his eyes held the phantom shudder of fear, the boy held a respectable amount of steadiness over his voice. "Collect the stones, I mean."

Thanos felt himself smile. Finally, someone has the intellect to learn about the legitimacy of my service.

It's a true shame he must be sacrificed.

Thanos decided to humour him nonetheless. Boy's dying wish, and all. "The stones determine the power of Destiny. They exhibit control over all aspects of the universe, animate and inanimate."