Ronan yielded.
Though deeply humiliated, Ronan ultimately gave in. He couldn't die yet. Not until he had avenged Xandar could he perish.
Ever since Ronan underwent his first warrior aptitude test as a child, his beloved mother had informed him that the Xandarians were, in fact, responsible for the deaths of his grandfather and father. His mother wished for him to study diligently and seek revenge once he had mastered his skills.
Young Ronan followed his mother's path meticulously until he joined the Kree Accuser Corps.
That was the heart of power within the entire Kree Empire, and upon entering this power center, Ronan stumbled upon something he found incredibly hard to believe.
All the elder members of the Kree Accuser Corps avoided discussing his father's death. Every question he raised was vaguely dismissed with "Xandar." Years of crawling through the trenches of war made Ronan smell a rat.
With all the senior Accuser members refusing to speak of the past, Ronan began his secret investigation. He felt his father's death couldn't be so simple.
He searched through all the classified information accessible at his rank but consistently found nothing. Then, during a routine battle with Xandar, Ronan unexpectedly captured an old veteran of the Xandarian Nova Corps.
From him, Ronan received invaluable news: at the time of his father's death, the former Nova Prime of Xandar was en route to Hala, the Kree homeworld, intending to negotiate with Kree high command.
In other words, the Nova Prime at that time could not possibly have ordered the Nova Corps to annihilate the Kree army led by Ronan's father.
Energized by this significant discovery, Ronan felt he was on the verge of uncovering the truth behind his father's death, and thus, he resolutely made a decision. He infiltrated a top-secret information database under the Supreme Intelligence, the Kree artificial intelligence god.
The truth was exactly as he suspected: the then-Nova Prime of Xandar had indeed later signed a short-term peace treaty with Kree high command, and the Kree Empire had used the time provided by this treaty to free up forces and swiftly annihilate the ancient cosmic empire, the Skrull Empire.
At this point, the tales of revenge told by his mother and elders shattered.
Fearing he might alert them, Ronan kept this secret buried deep. After accumulating numerous military achievements for the Kree Empire, he set his sights on the Kree Empire's forbidden zone. It was said to contain all major top-secret information from the Kree Empire's inception to the present.
Ronan believed that the truth he sought, the reason everyone was deceiving him, must be there.
So, on a moonless, windy night, Ronan, in disguise, began his infiltration. Having done his homework, Ronan's infiltration went smoothly. But just as he was about to push open the door to truth and obtain the data, he was expelled by the Supreme Intelligence, which had appeared unnoticed.
There was no room for negotiation; Accuser Ronan, who had once achieved glorious feats for the Kree Empire, transformed into a Kree traitor.
The Supreme Intelligence definitely had something to hide; he must have touched upon certain secrets from that era, which was why the Supreme Intelligence appeared to expel him.
The Kree Empire connection was severed. Although the expelled Ronan wasn't being actively hunted, he couldn't return. So, he turned his attention to Xandar. After all, that Xandarian Nova Prime had visited the Kree Empire and likely knew something, perhaps leaving behind secret information for her successor.
This was why he sought cooperation with Thanos. He would help Thanos find the Power Stone, and Thanos would lend him a large force to conquer Xandar and capture the current Nova Prime. His own forces alone were insufficient to breach Xandar's defenses.
"That's a nice story, but I'm not interested in your revenge," Lothar, who had taken Ronan's place on the command throne of Ronan's flagship, gently swung his foot. His summary of Ronan's confession was dismissive, his nonchalant attitude making Ronan's heart tighten. From Lothar's tone, it seemed he had no intention of honoring the previous verbal agreement Thanos had made.
"The Power Stone... what have you found out about it?"
"We've sent people to investigate," Ronan lowered his gaze, his face still bearing the shoe print Lothar had left, making him look particularly ridiculous.
"Who, when, where, what happened."
"Speak, now."
Lothar gave Ronan no opportunity to equivocate. The set of excuses Ronan had used countless times to fob off Nebula held no sway with Lothar. The unchallengeable tone made Ronan clench his fists, then slowly release them.
"...Yes."
Ronan took a deep breath, narrating the progress in detail. Nebula, standing beside Lothar's seat with The Other, watched with glittering eyes. This was the first time she had seen Ronan so submissive. Even during remote calls with Thanos, Ronan had never been so meek. In fact, Ronan even divulged specific planetary coordinates, a "treatment" she had never before enjoyed.
Nebula subtly glanced at the unfamiliar Lothar in the command seat, her mind replaying Lothar's dominant posture as he stepped on Ronan. She was beginning to form an initial understanding of this brother, whose name she had known since she could remember, but whose person she had never truly seen.
"Your Highness Lothar, why does this coordinate... feel somewhat familiar?" The Other, who had been standing with his hands behind his back to Lothar's right, looked at the planetary coordinates and desolate images Ronan projected, his small eyes sparkling with great confusion. He truly found it familiar, as if he had been there before.
"It's planet Gafa, Your Highness Lothar," Woz, having finished writing the report "Lothar's Journey Through Otherworlds," popped up. As an artificial intelligence, it instantly retrieved the desolate planet's former name.
"Gafa?"
This name, understood only by Lothar and The Other, filled Nebula's eyes with confusion.
....
Gafa ruins.
A man wearing a music player strolled through the ruins with a swaggering, "I'm the coolest" dance, easily reaching his target location. He also found the objective of his mission: a spherical object made of special metal.
"Found you, baby." A goofy smile spread across the man's face. With practiced ease, he disarmed the protective mechanism and retrieved the Orb.
"Hm?"
"What's this?"
Humming a tune, the man, having easily secured his prize, felt something under his foot. He crouched down, wiping away the dust on the ground, and a very stimulating, or perhaps eye-scorching, photo album came into view. On the cover, there was a review written by someone claiming to be an expert in cosmic gender relations:
[A being that shatters cosmic societal prejudices, proving that males can also display their charming bodies in the universe. He is a symbol of freedom...]
"????" Star-Lord flipped through the album, filled with full-nude pictures, his face a picture of bewilderment. After a long moment, he could only exclaim, "You cosmic folks really know how to have fun."
"This 'Ego' guy is really..."
Putting aside his dumbfounded expression, Star-Lord, operating on the principle of "this thing might be unsellable, but it could fetch some money," stuffed the album into his pocket. "If it sells, it's a symbol of freedom. If it doesn't, it's just a publicity stunt from some jerk!"
I wonder if this Ego has kids. If so, that kid's really unlucky to have such an irresponsible dad.
Star-Lord mused, then, stepping out, he heard the sounds of approaching outsiders. So, he expertly began to flee for his life.
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