"What do we do next?" Stark asked, glancing warily down the corridor outside the command room. Although they'd just taken down the Chitauri commander, waves of soldiers were still closing in. The danger was far from over.
"Don't worry. We're not in immediate danger," Daniel said calmly, raising his wand toward the passage. In seconds, a thick wall of ice sealed the entrance completely. The ice kept expanding, steadily reinforcing itself with layer upon layer until it blocked the entire hallway.
Daniel was confident—given enough time, he could freeze the entire ship solid.
He turned to Stark and said, "Tony, it's your turn. Find the self-destruct system. We need to bring this whole thing down."
Daniel didn't know exactly how the Chitauri controlled their army, but he was certain of one thing—if the mothership exploded, the soldiers would collapse. And even if they didn't, they wouldn't survive long in the vacuum of space.
"That, I can do." Stark didn't pretend to know the inner workings of an alien ship far more advanced than anything on Earth, but he knew how to find a self-destruct trigger. Those systems might be hidden, but not invisible. Once located, accessing and activating it wouldn't be too difficult.
While Stark got to work, Daniel walked over to Thor and asked, "Can you still summon the Bifröst?"
It was their only way back to Earth. They couldn't rely on Loki to open the space gate—assuming he ever intended to. Daniel doubted it. Loki knew Thor too well. The Chitauri ship might be strong, but killing Thor wouldn't be easy—especially with allies by his side.
If the ship was destroyed, survival in deep space would become impossible. Delaying their return could be part of Loki's plan.
Stark could manage for a while, and Daniel had protective spells, but the real concern was Hulk. The cold of space was pushing him to the edge, making him increasingly unstable—more rage-fueled and unpredictable by the minute. Eventually, Daniel and Thor might not be able to control him at all. Just getting near him would be dangerous.
No one knew what Hulk could become if left in that state.
"Found it!" Stark called out. A translucent panel slid open beside him. Inside, a black button was revealed.
Daniel raised an eyebrow and said, "Black? I always thought self-destruct buttons were red."
"Yeah, me too," Stark replied dryly. He quickly inspected the system. "No fingerprint or retinal scan needed. Just one press, and thirty seconds later—boom. Whole ship goes up."
Thirty seconds. Just enough time to get far enough away—especially out here, in space. A fully powered ship could cover tens of thousands of kilometers in that time. More than enough.
"Let's move, Stark," Thor urged. He clearly didn't want to linger. Since encountering Thanos, Thor had carried a silent tension with him.
Daniel understood. Thor had matured. He'd seen the cracks in Odin's rule during Loki's previous chaos in Asgard. And now, he saw something else—something far worse—in Thanos.
Thanos was still testing the waters, not fully committed yet, but the threat was clear.
"Okay," Stark said, and pressed the button.
Alarms screamed across the ship. Thor lifted Mjolnir and hurled it forward, smashing the reinforced viewport at the front of the command room. A bitter storm from the vacuum of space rushed in.
The three of them flew out immediately.
No one noticed Daniel grabbing a scrap of skin left behind by the fallen Chitauri commander.
Handled correctly, it could be used for deception. And whoever Daniel planned to deceive with this wouldn't be an ordinary target. Someone that required such measures might even be worth bringing Thanos himself down upon.
Daniel hoped to study the skin and uncover secrets—possibly even traces of Thanos's manipulation.
The Mind Stone was hidden inside the scepter. Thanos had given it to Loki, but it was foolish to believe he had done so without planting something within it. Loki may not have known, but Thanos certainly did.
In the original timeline, Stark and Banner had used the Mind Stone to create Ultron—and eventually Vision. Even though Ultron was destroyed, Thanos had already turned his attention to Earth and begun laying groundwork.
Daniel's goal was to prepare. This fragment of the Chitauri commander might help him do just that.
If he could remove Thanos's influence, it could become a powerful disguise. It might even allow him to infiltrate enemy territory—especially among Thanos's forces.
Against someone like Thanos, no preparation was ever enough.
The three of them—Thor, Daniel, and Stark—raced through deep space, looking for Hulk.
Earlier, a blast had thrown Hulk far from the ship, but fortunately, he'd been flung in roughly the same direction the team had come from. It didn't take long for them to close the gap.
Before they could reach him, a brilliant explosion lit up space behind them.
Some say sound doesn't travel in space, but that's only true in a perfect vacuum. As long as there's matter—gas, dust, debris—sound can move. And this explosion was deafening.
Even from a safe distance, they felt the shockwave. Blinding light, thunderous noise, and a sweeping burst of energy washed over them. The heat from the blast even made things feel—strangely—less hostile.
Instead of cold emptiness, the space around them felt alive. The aftermath shimmered with energy particles, as if the universe itself had stirred from sleep.
The three were unharmed. And Hulk, farther away, was safe too. If anything, he looked calmer—less agitated.
Once they regrouped, Thor scanned the surroundings. With no sign of the space gate reopening, he wasted no time. He lifted Mjolnir high, and the Bifröst burst to life, enveloping them in radiant color.
In an instant, they vanished, streaking across countless light-years toward Earth.
Back in deep space, it was a long time before another Chitauri fleet arrived to investigate the destruction.
Thanos had fleets to spare. The loss of one was nothing to him. What mattered was learning more—about Thor, the Avengers, and Earth's defenses.
He hadn't recovered the Tesseract this time. But he had left seeds behind.
And he knew this wouldn't be his last opportunity.
Long after the new fleet left, the space gate to Earth remained closed.
Maybe Loki had never truly planned to let the Chitauri invade Earth. Maybe he had only ever intended to seize power for himself.
As for Thanos—Loki might've bent the knee for now, but he had never been loyal to anyone. Deception was his nature, betrayal in his bones.