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TWENTY ONE | THE PLANNER'S PLAN
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THE TENSION WAS thick between all of them as if one movement from anyone would suddenly result in a cataclysm. The feelings of hatred, tension and fear among them were almost palpable. The blonde girl in front of her, Vesper Lynn, maintained a steady look, monitoring everything. The blue flame-like energy coating her blade illuminated even brighter than before that the sorceress almost winced as she felt its heat against her skin. Cassandra then lightly scowled, pressing the tip of her blade to the base of the girl's neck a bit deeper as she realized the leader of the intruders was human just like the girl in front of her.
"Tell me where the girl is, or I swear to you, I'm gonna French fry this little freak." Their leader aimed his gun at Peter, much to the sorceress' rising vexation. If Cassandra wasn't only keeping an eye on this girl in front of her, she would've already flung her dagger at his shoulder to incapacitate him.
Instead, the Guardian lifted her hand to summon a blazing ball of flame just as the leader of the other group was about to release another threat. Floating above her palm, it coruscated like a hot medallion in a cloudless sky. Its bright golden glow reflected her sword turning it pale orange. It seemed to watch everyone's movements that Cassandra felt rivulets of sweat cascading down her face. Everyone's attention turned to her as the ball of flame slowly grew bigger.
"Go ahead, I dare you. Shoot him and I will burn both of them and I swear to all the divine beings out there, I will not regret it. Two for one." coldly retaliated the woman, her eyes glowing the fiercest gold Stephen for sure never saw before. Her voice was stern with no vestige of sympathy in its hardness as the corner of her lips twitched.
Cassandra Mason can indeed become ruthless if the situation calls for it.
The last time she was so full of rage and spite was when Kaecilius killed her father, but she was still merciful at that time. Two years have passed since then and she has learned to only spare mercy to those who deserve it. Stephen and her have caught three rogue sorcerers and let us just say, they no longer exist in this world because of her. Two of them were contained in an artifact and the other one was considered so dangerous to live that she had to eliminate him herself.
Tony extended his nanotech gun, aiming it directly at the blue skinned man's head. Just like her, he was unfazed by the threat. "I'm with her."
Out of the corner of her eye, Cassandra caught the female alien's antennas glow white and she swallowed, shivering. She was cocooned "She's -- she's telling the truth."
"Just do it, Quill! We can take it."
The alien squirmed in her spider web ties, leaping once forward. "No, we can't take it!"
Stephen's eyes flashed over to her and he shook his head, a bit fearful. Not for Cassandra, but for Vesper and the female alien. "She's right. You all can't. You two won't survive the blazing flame of Agni. That fire is unforgiving. It's literally hellfire."
"Oh, really, huh?" taunted the human, pressing his gun deeper to Peter's head. If Cassandra hadn't done the biggest eye roll in her life yet, she had already done it by now. "You all don't wanna tell me where she is? That's fine. I'll kill all four of you and beat it out of Thanos myself. Starting with you!"
She crossed her eyebrows at the mention of Thanos, but before she could ask, Stephen already beat her to it. "Wait, what, Thanos? All right, let me ask you this one time. What master do you serve?"
"What master do I serve? What am I supposed to say? "Jesus"?"
Tony and Cassandra exchanged annoyed glances like two siblings finding out who was pranking them and then rolled their eyes. The sorceress hung her head, turning her gaze to the blonde in front of her. "You're from Earth, Vesper?"
"Well -- "
"We're not from Earth." retorted the leader for her. "I'm from Missouri and my half-sister's from Alaska."
Tony stepped away, retracting his blaster back into his armor just as Cassandra extinguished the flame above her palm. "Yeah, that's on Earth, dipshit." remarked the man. "What are you hassling us for?"
"So, you're not with Thanos?"
Quill loosened his tight grip around Peter's neck, staring at all of them incredulously. Cassandra could feel his disgust and anger towards their common enemy even if she was meters away from him. It radiated not only from his face, but from his whole actions. "With Thanos?" He scoffed. "No, I'm here to kill Thanos. He took my girl -- Wait, who are you?"
"We're the Avengers, man." Peter admitted, like it was the solution to all the problems in the world.
"Oh."
At this, the female alien leapt up once again, exclaiming, "You're the ones Thor told us about!"
Tony snapped his attention towards her, evidently intrigued as to how they knew the god of thunder. Cassandra stood up from her kneeling position and offered a helping hand to Vesper who gratefully accepted it. "You guys know Thor?"
Vesper eagerly nodded. "Yeah, incredibly handsome man. Tall -- "
"Tall guy, not that good-looking -- " interjected the male human just as the blue skinned man got up from the floor.
"You're totally describing yourself, Peter." vocalized Vesper, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Haven't you noticed?"
Cassandra blinked, once. "Oh, snap."
Peter, Spider-Man, pointed at himself, baffled. He looked like an adorable lost puppy looking for his owner. "Me?"
Quill glared at her as he continued saying, "... needed saving."
"So, your name is Peter too?" The teenager gawked, pointing at Quill.
It was then that the genius billionaire raised his hand to cut the conversation. "Alright, enough with this conversation. Tell us right now, where is Thor?"
NOT LONG AFTER they introduced each other, Cassandra approached Peter, concerned like how a doting mother would be for her child. She had just finished releasing Mantis, the female alien from the sticky web restraints that Peter wrapped around her. "Thank you." beamed the female alien, her black eyes growing slightly bigger in wonder.
Cassandra smiled in return. "No problem. I feel like this is the least I could do for you. I mean, I did threaten to burn you alive earlier so..."
"It's okay. You were just protecting everyone. I felt your rage, your anxiety..." she paused, looking at Stephen for a fleeting moment. He had just stepped out of the spacecraft, his red cape fluttering behind him like a waterfall. "Your concern for him."
"You're an empath?"
Mantis nodded.
Cassandra smiled only in return. "Take care of yourself, Mantis."
The sorceress spun around her heel to check the rest of the desolate planet the Guardians of the Galaxy called Titan. Brilliant burnt orange sand stretched before her with only a few bumps of rock and machine debris to break the monotony. The atmosphere above them was a dull glow, ravaged by electrical storms. The scenery before her reminded her of Mars with canyons, volcanoes, dry lake beds and craters all over. All the technological remains surrounding her proved that there once had some kind of life on Titan, but not very similar to that of life on Earth.
A second later, Peter's figure passed by her view and without any warning, she tugged the boy's arm towards her. Using her forefinger to tilt his head to the side, she checked his cheek and jaw for any bruises. "Are you okay?" queried the woman. "Were you hurt?"
"N-no, I'm fine. I'm good."
The Guardian continued examining the teenager, squinting her eyes every now and then to check if he had any injuries that needed him. She caught him slightly smiling and arched her eyebrow. "What are you smiling about, kid?"
"You-you just remind me of my aunt May."
The woman chuckled and sighed, shaking her head. "I hope I'm not making you uncomfortable. I'm just worried about you."
Blame it perhaps on the maternal instincts. She thought to herself. "Come on, let's go see the others." verbalized the sorceress, slightly furrowing her eyebrows when she saw Mantis leaping up and down in the air as if she was on a trampoline except at slow speed. The two followed Peter Quill, the leader of the group, who was using some kind of advanced machinery to measure their planet's surroundings.
Beside him was Vesper whose right arm has now returned to its normal state, made of flesh and blood, not steel. Cassandra flinched when the girl slapped the back of her half-brother's head, complaining how he acted so rashly earlier.
Cassandra shook her head and instead glanced at Stephen who sat atop the large boulders to meditate. Sighing, she knelt on the ground and drew an intricate rune she frequently used to identify any traces of magic. She felt Peter's gaze focused on her back as she raised the now glowing golden rune and pushed it forward. A powerful surge of energy vibrated through the atmosphere that all of the debris levitating around was pushed forward. Million sparks of ancient eldritch magic touched every surface of the planet before alerting her that there was no trace of magic in the planet. She needed to know if there was some kind of mystical force they would encounter in order to prepare ahead for it.
"Woah, woah, witch lady..." The sorceress heard Peter Quill breathe out, worried. "What did you just do?"
"I checked the planet for any source of arcane energy." informed Cassandra, sternly.
Tony asked, "And?"
"The planet's void of any magic. It's like it's... it's dead."
"Really?" Peter Quill furrowed his eyebrows and plucked out a gadget that he raised high in the air. "Ves, can you check for anything vital on this planet? Also, if you can, figure out what the hell happened here."
Vesper watched as the younger blonde transformed the entirety of her right arm into metal and let her hand touch the ground, her eyes glowing a luminous blue. "She's right. This is almost a dead planet." announced she, fear lining up in her voice. "There are only bacteria around."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I can't see what happened here, Peter."
"That's fucking great. Oh, jeez, the heck happened to this planet? It's eight degrees off its axis. Gravitational pull is all over the place." reported Quill, raising his illuminating piece of gadget.
"We need a plan." verbalized Tony to himself, glancing at her. "We got one advantage. He's coming to us. We'll use it."
Cassandra uttered, "What?"
"All right, I have a plan." declared Tony, firm and determined. The gears in his head must've already started turning since he gathered everyone around including Cassandra. She was actually about to ask him what his next move was since he did convince her and Stephen to fight Thanos on this dead planet. "Or at least the beginnings of one. It's pretty simple. We draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. Definitely don't wanna dance with this guy. We just need the gauntlet."
The muscular man whose name was Drax yawned, showing boredom and disinterest in Tony's -- in Cassandra's opinion alone, half-baked plan.
"Are you yawning? In the middle of this, while I'm breaking it down?" Tony stared at him in disbelief. "Did you hear what I said?"
Drax nonchalantly replied. "I stopped listening after you said, "We need a plan.""
Tony pointed his finger at Drax while talking to Peter. "Okay, Mr. Clean is on his own page."
"See, "winging it" isn't really what they do."
"Uh, what exactly do they do?"
All four heroes glanced at the two aliens, blinking when Mantis proudly proclaimed, "Kick names, take ass."
Drax quietly shifted to a commanding position beside Mantis. "Yeah, that's right."
Cassandra glanced at Vesper whose expression morphed that into slight regret. "I know, I'm a bad teacher. My students haven't been learning anything."
Tony stood for a moment with a visage of hopelessness. "Alright, just..." he breathed out, exhausted and already getting frustrated. "get over here please. Mr. Lord, can you get your folks to circle up?"
The brunette pinched the bridge of her nose in vexation. Stark's plan was not detailed and she hated that. She had a dislike for plans that were half-baked. They needed to search for anything they could use against Thanos. They couldn't just confront Thanos and hope for the best by fighting him. She needed something more concrete. Starting to walk away from them, she tilted her head and snapped her fingers in realization. "Guys! I got it!"
"Alright, we're optimistic, yes." Peter vocalized, gesturing his hands to make his point. "I like your plan. Except it sucks -- "
"I have a more detailed and precise plan." voiced out Cassandra, catching Stark's attention.
"No, let me do the plans, and in that way it might be really good."
"Tell them about the dance-off to save the universe."
"What dance-off?"
Vesper exasperated, "Please, dear god, don't. I'd rather jump off a bridge than listen to that again."
"It's nothing."
"Like in Footloose, the movie?"
Peter Quill's mouth hung open in amazement and shock since someone finally understood his reference. He snapped his fingers, glancing at Peter. "Exactly like Footloose. Is it still the greatest movie in history?"
"It never was."
Cassandra winced. "I mean, there's Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, The Matrix film series... how can it beat those great trilogies?"
"Don't forget to mention the Godfather duology." Vesper quipped.
"Uh, it's a trilogy." Peter informed her. The sorceress' mind was then diverted since the blonde girl mentioned one of her favorite trilogies.
Vesper gasped. "What? When was the third movie released?"
"In 1990."
"Holy shit."
"Great," Tony bent his head forward in frustration. "Now we have three movie geeks in here." He tugged Peter's arm to leave them. "You two, don't encourage this, alright?"
"Okay."
"We're getting no help from Flash Gordon here. Now, tell me about your plan, Morgana."
"Flash Gordon? By the way, that's a compliment. Don't forget, I'm half human. So that fifty percent of me that's stupid... That's one hundred percent you." Peter Quill cockily pointed his finger at Stark and Parker and the woman blinked twice.
"And we're going to die." Vesper sighed, sitting down in despair.
"Your math is blowing my mind."
Cassandra rolled her eyes, finally clapping her hands to gather their attention. "Everyone, listen up! First of all, your plans suck."
"Wow, thank you." Tony sarcastically uttered.
Peter frowned. "That's unfair. You haven't even heard of my plan."
"Damn, I like her." Vesper chuckled, shrugging.
"This is Thanos with two Infinity Stones we're talking about. According to Bruce Banner -- "
The blonde raised her hand. "Who's Bruce Banner?"
"He's a friend."
"Strongest Avenger. The Hulk would beat Thanos to a pulp. Unfortunately, he's not here right now."
Cassandra clasped her hands together. "Anyways, Thanos has the Space and Power Stones. He can open portals to other locations and can even allow interdimensional travel. He can rewrite the very laws of physics and unlock doors across the universe." She explained, her mind drifting through multiple information as she uncovered her plan. "The Power Stone embodies both the sustaining and destructive forces of this universe. It grants its wielder tremendous energy --
"Yeah, yeah. We know." Peter Quill interjected. "We had the opportunity to control that Stone."
'I'm sorry, what?"
"I told you to tell them about the dance-off." Drax crossed his arms.
"Excuse me, but..." The distressed tone of Mantis cut the banter that was about to begin. Cassandra followed her gaze and was taken aback by Stephen's current situation. He was sitting cross-legged, hands poise in a mystic gesture with the Time Stone suspended. His eyes were closed, and his head was jerking rapidly from side to side. She was certain he was using the Time Stone to peer through different futures. "Does your friend often do that?"
Not missing any second, she pushed her feet forward and waited for Stephen to snap out of his reverie. Tony was also by her side when Stephen finally got out and fell on the rock he was levitating above, letting out a pained cry. Both of them steadied him as he shut his eyes.
"Stephen, talk to me. Are you okay?" Cassandra sat beside him, her hand patting his back. He inclined his head to look at her and his face grew dramatically stricken. The last time she saw this expression of his was when he attempted to snap her out of Dormammu's influence. It was the time when he hesitantly fought her in the Dark Dimension.
One thing was for sure, whatever he witnessed, it was definitely devastating.
"I -- "
"Strange, we alright?"
"It's okay, it's okay. You're back." The woman brushed his hair back, concerned for her partner. "You're alright. You're with me."
"Hey, what was that?" Peter queried, curious to know what Stephen did. Stephen subtly gripped Cassandra's hand as if he was searching for support, but something was telling her that it wasn't for himself, it was for her. That terrified her.
Stephen spoke breathlessly, his voice trembling like the tremor in his hands. "I went forward in time to view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict." As Cassandra badly wished to witness those futures as well, she felt like she wouldn't be able to carry the burden once she knew what it would cost to win the war.
Every war demands a sacrifice.
"How many did you see?"
"Fourteen million, six hundred and five."
The Guardian swallowed. Millions of outcomes, surely there were a few they won. "How many did we win, Stephen?"
The Sorcerer Supreme paused for a while as if unsure how to convey his answer. There was a faint note of fear in his azure eyes and it was unmistakable. Fear crawled over her body, prickling her skin as he replied, "One."
An unsettling feeling began welling inside her. The atmosphere was dense and strange. It was as if she was doused with ice cold water and told to run by some primal instinct in the back of her head, but she couldn't because there was a wall blocking her way. She squeezed Stephen's hand, wordlessly telling him that she was afraid.
He gripped her hand tight as reassurance, his lips pursed in a tight line. "You all should listen to her. It's her plan that worked." he announced to everyone, making them all turn their heads to her.
She drew a sharp breath and her heart clenched with dread. "What?"
Tony nodded, his visage displaying respect for Cassandra. He rose to his feet. "Well then, lead us, Planner."
A cold wave embalmed her as the hairs rose on the back of her neck and her mouth ran dry. There was only one in fourteen million futures they won, but if her plan doesn't work the way it should, then they would lose and half of all life in the universe will be annihilated. She might even lose Stephen in the process.
No, over my dead body.
The Guardian stood up, letting go of Stephen's hand. She will not let that happen. She will not just stand aside and witness how it all went down. Cassandra was trained for this moment her whole life and it was time she put everything she learned to use. Perhaps, the reason why she encountered the Darkhold and Dormammu was this: to win against Thanos.
If embracing her darkness was the first step to unleash all the power that lay dormant, then let it swallow her whole.
With newfound courage and determination, she clenched her fist and her eyes flashed a swirling kaleidoscope of purple and gold color, the combination of Eldritch and Dark magic. "Here's what we're going to do..."