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*****
When Fini's vision finally cleared, he found himself standing in a desolate wasteland.
The burnt-orange horizon, the vast expanse of the starry sky, and the singular, glowing celestial sphere hanging like a permanent eclipse made it undeniably clear: he was no longer on Earth.
Most importantly, Earth didn't feature a floating Red Skull dressed like the Grim Reaper in a tattered black cloak.
As he watched Fini suddenly materialize, Red Skull's excitement was beyond words.
Seventy years. Seventy long years. After serving this post for nearly a lifetime, could he finally retire today?
"Are you here to replace me?" Red Skull drifted toward Fini, his face a mask of desperate hope.
"Replace your ass! Get lost!"
Fini was in a foul mood. The moment he laid eyes on Red Skull, he knew exactly where he was. He had imagined coming here one day, but never this early, and certainly not like this.
Fini could swear he hadn't even touched the Tesseract. The closest he'd gotten was ten centimeters away. Even if he had touched it, he was wearing armor; it should have been fine.
He briefly wondered if Nick Fury had set him up, but dismissed it immediately. First, Fury gained nothing from this; second, SHIELD didn't have the technical capability to pull off a targeted intergalactic banishment.
He also thought of Loki—that exiled, wandering prince—who might know the Cube well enough to mess with it, but even he shouldn't be able to strike from across the cosmos.
Crucially, right before the teleportation, Fini had sensed a distinct flicker of surprise. It wasn't a sound, but a feeling emanating directly from the Tesseract. Coupled with his current location, he was ninety percent certain: he'd been played by the Space Stone itself.
Red Skull, meanwhile, began to realize he'd jumped the gun. If someone were truly coming to succeed him, the Soul Stone would have notified him beforehand.
Realizing his freedom wasn't imminent, a wave of melancholy washed over him. He fell back into his duty, utilizing the power granted by the Soul Stone to peer into Fini's essence. Floating closer, he intoned:
"Fini, son of Eli!"
"You, shut up first!"
Fini glared at Red Skull, the crimson optics of Incursio glowing with an intensity fueled by his rage, causing the specter to pause.
In seventy years, this was a first for Red Skull. Most visitors arrived through conventional means, yet this boy wasn't surprised to see him, didn't ask who he was, and instead stood there fuming in silence.
After taking a few deep breaths to steady himself, Fini ignored the curious gaze of the Red Skull and immediately checked his Sling Ring. He tried to manifest a portal back to Earth.
However, his portals weren't even capable of free-form travel across the entire globe yet, let alone spanning the unknown light-years between Vormir and Earth.
"Dammit!"
Fini cursed, dropping his hands. He knew he couldn't return on his own power.
Still, he wasn't completely despairing. He had his "Violet Chicken Rolls" so he wouldn't starve, and there was water on this planet. Even if there wasn't, he could use the "Aureolin" technique to condense moisture from the air. Survival wasn't the issue.
Furthermore, while he had told Skye he'd be busy for a week, she would eventually realize something was wrong and seek out the Ancient One at Kamar-Taj. Fini couldn't open a portal this far, but surely the Sorcerer Supreme could.
Thinking of this, he felt a bit more at ease. At most, he'd have to live like a hermit for a week.
Once he got back, even if it meant a total fallout with Nick Fury, he was going to figure out why that damn blue rock decided to screw with him.
Looking over at the abnormally quiet Red Skull, Fini recalled his earlier words and walked toward him.
"So, you're the Stone's guardian, right? Red Skull, HYDRA, the whole bit. Where's that damn Soul Stone? Take me to it. Don't worry, I know the drill—sacrifice what you love, soul for a soul, blah blah."
Hearing Fini rattle off his titles and the secret of the Stone, Red Skull froze, staring at him with suspicion.
Was he really sure this wasn't his replacement?
Red Skull obediently led Fini to the summit, where a strange altar stood flanked by two massive, jagged stone pillars resembling a giant electrical plug.
"Who are you?" Red Skull couldn't help but ask. The Soul Stone told him the name, but not the history.
"Who am I?" Fini sighed. "An Earth college student, a provider for Kamar-Taj, the Sorcerer Supreme's disciple. I've got nicknames like Silver Knight, Divine Punishment Knight, Silver Mage... take your pick."
"But right now, I'm just an Avenger looking to settle a score with a certain rock. Specifically, the same rock that turned you into... this."
Recalling Red Skull's history, Fini felt a sudden, strange sense of kinship. His tone softened slightly.
"So you really were sent here by the Tesseract!" Red Skull was visibly moved. He had recognized the familiar energy signature of Fini's arrival. "But... why are you still intact?"
"Do I look 'intact' to you?" Fini snapped. "I've got it worse than you. At least you were trying to grab the damn thing when you got sent. Your body failed because you couldn't handle the power. But me? I was ten centimeters away. I didn't even touch it, and it kicked me out anyway."
Fini felt as much indignation as he did anger. He had been planning to let his Blue-Eyes White Dragon have a taste of the Space Stone eventually, but the enemy had struck first.
You're a Space Stone, not Mind or Time. You can't read minds or see the future, so why the hell are you being so proactive with the revenge?
Red Skull didn't know how to react. He actually felt a bizarre sense of "meeting an old friend in a foreign land."
"To receive the Soul Stone, one must lose that which they love. An eternal exchange. A soul for a soul. You cannot meet the requirement," Red Skull said as they reached the edge of the abyss. He had stopped obsessing over Fini's situation and returned to his script. Seventy years of isolation had smoothed over his sharpest edges.
"Hah! A soul for a soul? It can exchange itself with its own grandmother for all I care!"
Fini, still clad in his armor, walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down with disdain.
Thinking about it, he didn't believe for a second that the Space Stone had sent him here for no reason.
Unfortunately, the Soul Stone was the one he had the least hope of acquiring, so even though he was here, he felt no urgent desire to claim it.
However, if the Space Stone had a consciousness, then surely this Soul Stone—which set up guardians and conditions—had one too?
He was currently debating how to demand an explanation and compensation from the Stone. It might not be quite "the sins of the father," but these Stones were essentially brothers. The logic held up well enough.
(End of Chapter)