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So, even if it came across as abrupt and presumptuous, Hermione asked anyway.
Thanos was quiet for a moment, as if weighing his words. Or perhaps he had simply never explained this to an outsider before.
"Gamora," he began, his voice low and measured. "Her home planet was already on the brink of collapse when she was young. Resources depleted, civilization barely holding together. I took her away, and erased half of her people."
"After that, she saw it herself — how the other half thrived. How the planet recovered. How it bloomed into something like paradise."
"So she can understand what I was trying to do. She knows that sacrificing a portion is what allows the rest to live better lives. That is the only truth that sustains a universe. Even now, when she opposes me, it is only because she is too soft to accept that I must be the one to carry it out."
"As for Nebula..." A trace of contempt entered his voice. "She is nothing more than a modified soldier who craves battle and slaughter. Power and conquest — that is the entirety of her mind. She cannot comprehend the great balance I pursue, let alone contribute to it. Her only value is as Gamora's sparring partner. To hone her. Make her stronger."
Hermione turned that over in her head.
She still found Thanos's entire logic chain a bit... poignant, in a delusional sort of way. But it was at least more decipherable than simple "a father's love is boundless, no reasoning required."
Stripped down, it was this: Gamora had personally witnessed the "beautiful outcome" of his plan's success, so Thanos believed she understood him on some level, even if she couldn't bring herself to accept it. Nebula had never seen it and was single-minded to begin with, so she got reduced to a tool.
Nearby, Ebony Maw, Corvus Glaive, and Proxima Midnight all wore identical expressions of barely concealed astonishment.
Lord Thanos was explaining something this private, family matters, inner thoughts, to an outsider he had barely met?
This had never happened before. Not once.
It seemed the Cabbage Witch carried far more weight with their master than any of them had imagined.
"Right." Hermione clapped her hands together. "Family talk done. So, Lord Thanos — you went to all this trouble to drag me out to Titan. What exactly do you want? You didn't set all this up just to ambush me here, did you? If that was the plan, you're underestimating me."
She glanced around the ruined landscape, perfectly at ease.
Thanos shook his head slowly. No hostility radiated from him at all. "I admit, before you landed on this planet, I did consider it."
That candor caught her off guard.
"But I ran through it carefully and let it go." He continued. "Your abilities are too unpredictable. That spatial magic of yours especially. Even if I brought everything to bear, I don't believe I could stop you from leaving. Without the Space Stone, I cannot hold you here."
That kind of frankness actually bumped him up a notch in her estimation.
At least this purple yam wasn't a pure brute. He knew how to read a situation.
"So?" Hermione folded her arms. "You didn't actually call me all the way out here just to talk, did you?"
Thanos nodded. "I did."
"...Huh?" She blinked. That genuinely short-circuited her for a second. It was so thoroughly off-script she didn't know what to do with it.
Thanos paid her reaction no mind and turned his gaze toward the horizon.
"Look at my homeworld. Titan." His voice carried a sorrow so faint it was almost inaudible. "It was once among the most prosperous and advanced civilizations in the universe. And in the end, it still fell, unchecked population growth, resources stripped to nothing. That is the fate no civilization escapes."
"The universe's resources are finite. Life's capacity to multiply is not. Left uncontrolled, every civilization ends the same way Titan did, grinding itself to dust in endless internal conflict and competition. No victors. No survivors."
"I have traveled to countless planets over the years. Watched civilizations rise and collapse. And I arrived at one conclusion: for life in the universe to continue, for those who live to have a future worth living, the only answer is to randomly eliminate half of all life."
He turned and fixed his gaze on her, eyes burning. "I do not slaughter because I enjoy it. I do it because it is the only solution. A necessary sacrifice. For the greater balance of the universe."
Right, so today he invited me out here to give me a sermon.
Hermione listened without expression, her internal monologue going absolutely feral:
But, hold on, six Infinity Stones. Six. Instead of wiping out half of all life, couldn't you just... create infinite resources? You have the most powerful artifacts in the universe in your hand and your big solution is mass murder? Does that not sound a little stupid?
She kept all of that firmly inside.
Though, to be fair, maybe this universe genuinely had some kind of rule in place. Like, anything goes except creating matter out of nothing? It seemed like everyone just instinctively skipped past that option without questioning it. And if she pointed out this gaping plot hole out loud and drew the attention of some Universal Will or cosmic arbitration system, she was going to have a very bad day.
In that moment, Hermione felt distinctly like she'd wandered into one of those logic-horror thought experiments.
Don't ask. Asking means it's just The Rules.
Thanos seemed to catch the skepticism in her eyes. He didn't mind.
"I know," he said. "The vast majority of beings in this universe cannot understand my thinking. They see only the slaughter in front of them and call me a tyrant. A madman."
His tone shifted, becoming more deliberate. "But you are different. You possess power that stands alongside my own. At your level, you should be able to see the meaning beneath what I do."
"And furthermore, " He looked at her steadily. "You disguise it well. But I can sense that you are not someone tethered to conventional morality. You prioritize practical outcomes over sentiment. That is not an insult. If anything, it is precisely the quality required to save this universe."
"So," Thanos said, finally arriving at it. "I want you to join me. To stand beside me and complete this great mission together, and bring true, lasting balance and peace to the universe."
Hermione stared at him.
...No, actually, even at my level, I genuinely cannot understand why you'd choose killing over resource creation. Have you ever taken a math class?
Still, he had gotten one thing right.
In the Marvel universe, she really didn't have any particular moral baggage dragging her down.
"Join your cause?" Hermione smiled. "You want the Infinity Stones, don't you."
Thanos nodded. "Once I gather all six, I can erase half of all life in the universe in a single instant. No pain. No resistance. That is the greatest mercy I can give them."
➤ Next: Fiendfyre vs. Corvus Glaive
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