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When Gamora finished her explanation, Tivan shifted gears and turned back to Quill, something sharp flickering behind his eyes.
"Young man, if you happen to know the whereabouts of any other Infinity Stones — the Soul Stone in particular — sell me the information. I'll pay handsomely."
Quill frowned. "Why only those? Why not the others?"
"Time, Space, Reality, Mind." Tivan folded his hands. "Those four already have masters. And not the kind you'd want to cross, each of them is a power unto themselves, rulers of their corner of the cosmos."
"Only the Power Stone and the Soul Stone remain unclaimed. That's why every faction in the universe — Thanos, Ronan, the rest of them, is scrambling to get there first."
Quill's curiosity sharpened. "So who has the others?"
Tivan settled into it.
"The Eye of Agamotto, the Time Stone, belongs to Earth's Sorcerer Supreme. The previous holder, the Ancient One, passed away recently. By now, the mantle has presumably passed to a successor."
"The Cosmic Cube, the Space Stone, was Odin's, though somehow it ended up on Earth. After the Chitauri invasion failed, it should have returned to Asgard. Back to Odin."
"The Aether, the Reality Stone, had been missing for some time. But I recently received word that Earth's witch clan destroyed the Dark Elves. During that battle, the Aether reportedly resurfaced. My best guess?" He let the pause hang. "The Reality Stone is now in the hands of the Kale Witch."
"And the last one, the Mind Stone, belongs to Gamora's father. Thanos."
Gamora cut in. "Not anymore." Her voice was flat. "The last time the Chitauri invaded Earth, they failed. My father lost the Scepter of the Mind in the aftermath." She paused. "The Mind Stone is almost certainly with the Kale Witch too."
The composure Tivan had been wearing like a second skin finally slipped.
"If that's true..." he murmured, almost to himself. "The Kale Witch holds two Infinity Stones on her own? And three of the six are concentrated on that backwater planet?"
The threads in Quill's head had been tangled all conversation. Now they pulled tight.
"That's why." He said it before he'd fully thought it through. "That's why she was on Xandar. I thought it was a coincidence, just bumping into her like that, but she was waiting for me. The whole time, she was there for The Orb."
He kept going, something like wonder creeping into his voice. "A Sorcerer Supreme. A witch clan. My home planet is actually..."
He trailed off. He'd spent his whole life thinking Earth was a dead-end rock in an unremarkable corner of space. Apparently, he'd been wrong.
Tivan's attention snapped back to him. Fast. Urgent.
"Who did you just say appeared on Xandar?"
Quill blinked at the sudden intensity. "The Kale Witch. I was there a little while ago, barely got out, and she was the one I ran into. The same one you've been describing."
The color drained from Tivan's face. Whatever elegance he'd carried into the conversation evaporated.
"The witch clan keeps to themselves," he said, words coming fast now. "They've been hidden from the wider universe for as long as anyone can remember. I only learned they existed recently, and even then, through very particular channels." He leaned forward. "For her to leave Earth. To go to Xandar, specifically. To intercept someone carrying The Orb, "
He shook his head.
"She's collecting them. There's no other explanation. She wouldn't travel that far, to that specific place, to intercept someone like you unless she was after The Orb."
"Someone like me?" Quill's voice jumped an octave. He nearly came out of his seat. "Excuse me? The name's Star-Lord. Star-Lord. You want to run that back?"
Then the offended look slid into something more genuinely confused.
"And anyway, what's the big deal? The Orb sold for five billion units. If I found these things lying around, I'd collect them too. She picks up a few shiny stones, why are you acting like the sky is falling?"
Quill still didn't quite get it. In his experience, powerful things were valuable things, and valuable things were worth selling. That was the whole equation.
Tivan stared at him. The look was somewhere between pity and contempt.
"You think everyone out there thinks like you? Money? That's your framework?" He made a small, disgusted sound. "The people who want these stones want power. The full, uncontainable force of the Infinity Stones. For those people, money stopped meaning anything a long time ago."
Gamora had gone quiet, working through something. When she spoke, it was measured.
"There's an understanding among the strongest players in the universe. Unspoken, but universally observed. If someone secures an Infinity Stone, and the other powers recognize it, that stone is theirs. Permanently. No one challenges it."
"But," she continued, "the same rule cuts the other way. Once you hold a stone, you don't go after another unclaimed one."
Tivan nodded. "Precisely."
If the Mind Stone and the Reality Stone had both come to the Kale Witch as spoils from defeated enemies, that was defensible. Unusual circumstances. Edge cases that the understanding could accommodate.
But moving openly on the Power Stone? That changed everything. That was a declaration.
Then something shifted behind Tivan's eyes.
His pupils contracted. He looked at Quill differently now, not with annoyance, but with something that looked almost like dread.
"Wait." His voice had changed. "If she came to Xandar for The Orb and walked away without it, she should never have let you leave. You escaped. Unharmed. Not even questioned." He stopped. "That means, "
"Not good."
It came out sharp, almost a shout.
"Activate every defense system in Knowhere! Maximum alert! Now! We have incoming!"
Quill went blank. He turned to Gamora. "What just happened?"
Gamora's expression had gone hard. She looked at him like she was barely keeping her patience.
"Think. She let you walk. Not because she gave up on The Orb, she's already decided it's hers. She used us. All of us. You were the bait, and we followed you right to her. She wanted everyone who had a stake in The Orb in one place."
The rest of the sentence didn't need to be said.
She was going to take everyone out at once.
Quill finally understood why Tivan had gone pale. He was on the list. That girl could come through the door any second.
A chill moved through the room.
That cute little girl. An absolute lunatic.
As if Gamora's words had been a cue.
The moment Tivan stopped shouting, a shriek of warping metal tore through Knowhere, the kind of sound that set teeth on edge and didn't stop.
Every defense cannon that had just powered on, every system that had just armed itself and locked in, crumpled. Invisible force crushed them like paper, one after another, until they were nothing but smoldering scrap, trailing sparks across the floor.
Space itself shuddered.
And then, out of nothing, a small figure appeared above them.
➤ Next: Ronan — Clash
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