Thanos emerged from a portal near the shattered remains of his once-vast fleet, his eyes ablaze with barely-contained fury behind the Mad Titan's imposing visage.
BANG!
He slammed his fist down on the armrest of his throne, reducing it to a cloud of shattered fragments that scattered like dust through the air.
"Before the mighty Thanos," he growled, "all will become dust."
His underlings recoiled in fear, bowing low before their enraged master, all except the Saiyan prince, Vegeta, who met the moment with a faint nod and unwavering glare.
Thanos turned his gaze on the proud warrior, studying him in brooding silence. Then, without breaking eye contact, he stepped forward.
"Show me this energy you and your kind wield."
Vegeta's eyes widened slightly, caught off guard by the request.
He wrestled internally with the implications. Teaching the Mad Titan the secrets of Ki manipulation could have catastrophic consequences for the universe. Logic screamed no. Instinct warned it would be suicide.
But his pride, his Saiyan pride, roared louder.
The same pride that had led him through endless battles, that had pushed him to rise even in the face of gods, now demanded he accept the challenge.
Vegeta met Thanos's stare, his voice calm but burning with conviction. "I can do that."
Thanos gestured silently, and the Saiyan followed him deeper into the ship, down corridors lined with alien metal and cryptic runes, until they reached a massive chamber, built for war, forged for monsters.
Outside the ship, the Power Stone pulsed with an intense glow. Energy swirled around it like a miniature sun, casting ghostly shadows across the void. Its gravitational pull dragged in nearby debris, threatening to birth chaotic new worlds if left unchecked.
Thanos's forces worked feverishly in orbit. Machinery, drones, and armored researchers assaulted the radiant shell surrounding the gem. Their efforts were bolstered by potent sorcery, at the forefront stood Ebony Maw, whispering ancient incantations, pouring his dark wisdom into the task.
And yet, nothing breached the Stone's barrier. Every attempt was swallowed by the seething light, consumed like offerings to an insatiable god.
Frustrated, the Maw let out a guttural scream. With a sharp motion, he conjured a vortex of dark energy, a writhing singularity that shimmered violently before him. It crackled with destructive potential, threatening to rupture reality.
"DIEEEEE!" he shrieked.
WHOOSH… RUMBLE!
The singularity slammed into the Power Stone's radiant shell, triggering a cataclysmic reaction. Waves of distorted gravity and warped light erupted across space. A storm of raw force rippled outward, scattering drones and shattering physics itself.
And yet… nothing.
The Power Stone remained suspended in its blinding storm, untouched, unbothered. Its glow intensified, as though mocking their efforts. Each pulse of light sent further ripples of devastation, turning nearby fragments of matter into shimmering vapor. Space itself seemed to buckle in protest.
The Worldmind on Xandar felt it.
So too did a distant, living planet.
And farther still, in the deep void, beneath the glass dome of an old Ravager ship, a young man with spiky dark hair stared up at the stars.
His brow furrowed.
Something... stirred.
He turned and shouted over his shoulder.
"HEY, YONDU! Wake up! I think I found something!"
From the next room came the sharp clatter of metal tools hitting the ground.
"GODDAMMIT, BOY!" a gravelly voice bellowed. "What'd I say about yellin' like that?!"
A blue-skinned alien with a sleek, blazing red mohawk stuck his head out of a nearby hatch, glaring daggers.
The boy rubbed the back of his head and chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry."
Meanwhile, deep within the ship, Thanos and Vegeta stood within the heart of the training chamber.
Carved from the core of dead stars, the room echoed with echoes of ancient violence. Dozens of massive circular glyphs glowed faintly along the obsidian walls, containment runes, ready to suppress cosmic force should the need arise.
The air was thick with gravity, every breath weighted. Energy vibrated in the floor and walls like a coiled beast waiting to strike.
Thanos stepped into the center of the chamber and turned.
"Show me."
No hesitation. No preamble. Just a command.
Vegeta scoffed.
"You're not just going to stand there and watch, Titan. Ki isn't like your stones, or your tech, or your magic. You don't collect it. You cultivate it. It comes from within."
Thanos raised an eyebrow, intrigued but impassive.
"Then teach me."
Vegeta floated a few inches above the floor, his aura flickering to life, a sharp, golden-blue flame that crackled around him. He didn't power up fully, but enough to make the chamber groan under the pressure.
"Ki is the energy of life, born of spirit and body. It is will, sharpened into fire."
He raised his palm and summoned a glowing orb of energy. It pulsed softly in his hand before blasting toward the far wall. Upon impact, the runes flared red-hot, and a crater the size of a starfighter burned into the stone.
Thanos stared at it, unreadable.
Then he stepped forward.
"Begin."
Vegeta narrowed his eyes and began circling him.
"Close your eyes."
Thanos didn't move.
"Close them, damn it. You asked for this."
Grudgingly, the Mad Titan obeyed.
"Now breathe. Not with your lungs, breathe with your core. Focus just behind your navel. That's where your Ki pools."
Thanos inhaled slowly. The chamber groaned faintly. Energy thickened.
"Feel the pressure inside your limbs. The warmth. The tension. Now compress it. Draw it inward."
Nothing.
Vegeta sighed, his voice sharp. "Of course it's not working. You've spent your life commanding others. Ki begins when you command yourself."
The glowing glyphs along the walls flickered erratically, reacting to an unseen build-up.
Thanos's eyes snapped open.
"I feel... something," he murmured.
Vegeta tensed, Saiyan instincts on high alert.
"Don't force it," he warned. "Let it build on its own."
But Thanos, ever the conqueror, did the opposite.
He clenched his fists and roared.
BOOOOM!
A shockwave erupted from his body. Vegeta was hurled back, colliding hard against the chamber wall. Protective runes surged, absorbing the impact, sparing him from pulverization.
As he stood, Vegeta stared, stunned.
Black Ki, tainted with golden fractals, swirled around Thanos. The raw, unrefined energy coiled like a living storm. He raised his hand, and the energy surged upward, forming a towering, celestial orb above his palm. It grew rapidly, dense and furious, a moon-sized sphere of black and gold that scraped the top of the chamber.
The air grew thick with pressure. The walls trembled.
Even Vegeta, no stranger to power, was momentarily speechless.
Vegeta landed lightly on the obsidian floor, cracking his neck as he shook off the impact of Thanos's earlier surge.
"Tch. That's enough showing off," he muttered, wiping a streak of blood from his chin. "If you're serious about learning Ki, then prove it."
Thanos's swirling black aura with golden fractals still burned around him, licking at the chamber's runes like a living inferno.
"Prove it?" he echoed.
Vegeta's eyes narrowed. "Deactivate your enhancements. No armor. No magic. No tech. Just you. Strip yourself down to what you really are."
Thanos paused. The room fell into a pregnant silence, broken only by the crackle of unstable energy.
"And why should I?" he asked, voice gravel and thunder.
"Because Ki isn't a shortcut. You want to fight like me? You fight fair," Vegeta snarled. "No stones. No shields. No tricks."
A long pause followed. Thanos studied the Saiyan with something bordering on respect. Then, with a flick of his fingers, sigils along his armor dimmed. The nanotech plate dissolved from his body, falling away in gold-etched slivers. Runes along his gauntlet sparked and died. The glow in his eyes dimmed.
And for the first time, the Mad Titan stood bare: no armor, no arcane tether, no cybernetic cheat. Just raw muscle and cold purpose.
"Very well," he said. "We do this your way."
Vegeta smirked. "About time."
In a flash, Vegeta surged forward, delivering a flurry of high-speed blows. His fists were blurs, slamming into Thanos's midsection, ribs, and chin; each impact echoed like thunder against the chamber walls. Thanos grunted, absorbing the blows, but was clearly on the back foot. Without his augmentations, he was slower, heavier, and forced to react instinctually.
Vegeta pivoted and launched a savage kick that sent Thanos tumbling across the chamber.
"Feel that? That's discipline. That's what you can't brute-force your way through!"
But Thanos wasn't broken. As he rose, battered but unbowed, his breathing deepened. His eyes closed briefly. The swirling black Ki returned, this time more focused, less chaotic. The golden fractals spun tighter, weaving into strands that danced across his limbs.
Then he moved.
Faster.
Cleaner.
He vanished from sight and reappeared behind Vegeta with a seismic punch that sent the Saiyan flying.
Vegeta twisted midair, regaining control, only to find Thanos already upon him. They exchanged a furious volley, fists clashing with explosive force, Ki flaring against Ki. Each blow rocked the chamber, glyphs sparking wildly with every collision.
"He's adapting," Vegeta realized grimly. "That fast?!"
Thanos didn't just react, he anticipated. His raw black Ki began to mimic martial flow. His punches weren't just strong; they were trained. Where his form was once crude, now it was deliberate. Each move felt like the birth of a new warrior, homed in real time.
Their battle blurred into a storm of light and shadow. Black and gold Ki met Vegeta's golden-blue aura, clashing in streaks that carved glowing trails through the air.
Finally, Thanos caught Vegeta in a grapple, lifting him off the ground.
"You are strong, Saiyan," he rumbled. "But so am I."
Vegeta smirked, blood in his teeth.
"And now, you're finally worth my time."
A sudden detonation of energy knocked Thanos back.
A brilliant golden blaze erupted from Vegeta's body, blinding and primal. His hair spiked upward, now gleaming like molten fire. The chamber shook as if the spirit of a dying star had awakened inside him. His aura ignited the air itself, electricity snapping through the void.
Thanos stepped back, hand shielding his face. "What... is this form?"
Vegeta vanished.
BOOM!
A shockwave detonated behind Thanos as Vegeta drove a crushing knee into his spine, sending him flying through one of the glyph-stabilized pillars. The structure imploded in on itself as Thanos skidded, tumbling end over end before slamming into the far wall.
"Super Saiyan," Vegeta growled, hovering with his arms crossed.
Thanos rose, staggering.
The black Ki with golden fractals that once snaked around his body had become unstable under Vegeta's new pressure, his golden energy flaring like a sun too close to collapse.
Vegeta descended, fists blazing. Every strike was a concussive boom, each blow driving Thanos deeper into the floor. The Titan blocked one, two, but the third, an uppercut, launched him skyward with a sickening crack.
Vegeta followed.
In midair, he flashed behind Thanos and struck again. Elbow to throat. Then spin-kick to the temple.
Ki burst from his palm, firing point-blank.
The explosion illuminated the chamber like a second dawn.
But as the dust settled, Thanos didn't fall.
He stood, blood trailing from his lip, body cracked with stress fractures, but… smiling.
"I see now," Thanos muttered, dark energy coalescing around him.
He closed his eyes.
Black Ki spiraled inward, compact, dense, pulling even the light into it. And then came the fractals, golden glyph-like patterns, glowing with purpose, spiraling outward from his core like a divine language only the universe could read.
He opened his hand and performed his signature attack.
Snap!
The fractals exploded across his body in precise geometry, and his power surged.
Vegeta charged, but Thanos was gone, then behind him. A calculated joint-lock flipped Vegeta, slamming him headfirst into the ground.
"You rush," Thanos said calmly, stomping him.
Vegeta erupted upward, roaring, attempting to catch Thanos in a grapple.
Thanos seized the moment. His fist connected with Vegeta's gut, a blast of gold-black Ki detonated inside him, sending him rocketing backward.
"You fight to prove yourself," Thanos said, approaching. "I fight to master everything."
Vegeta coughed blood, aura dimming. Knees bent.
"No... I fight... to surpass myself."
The chamber dimmed. The glyphs on the walls flickered. Then, everything went white.
Thanos shielded his eyes, for the first time... uncertain.
A new energy surged, twice as dense, twice as wild. Vegeta stood again, hair longer, sharper, now burning with golden-white radiance and faint blue streaks sparking at the edges. His muscle mass increased slightly, but it was his presence that shook the room.
Vegeta had transformed further into his Super Saiyan 2.