-The Island-
"You actually made it back this fast!" Mysterio pulled off his fishbowl helmet, relief evident on his face. "I genuinely thought we were done for a minute ago."
Tony's faceplate retracted. "We were worried about the situation here. The moment we got within Bifrost range, we had Heimdall pull us to Asgard. Then Wanda opened a portal from there."
As they spoke, the rest of the team emerged from the portal—Banner, Rhodes, Sam, Bucky—all battle-ready and alert.
Then Star-Lord stepped through.
The moment Peter Quill's feet touched Earth's soil, everything changed. That mysterious power source he'd been sensing, the one that had been awakening gradually under Thor's lightning—it blazed to life with overwhelming clarity.
It was right beneath his feet. Right here. Right now.
"Whoa." Star-Lord's voice was filled with wonder as blue-white energy erupted around his body, wreathing him in divine light. He floated off the ground without conscious effort, power flooding through every cell. "This is... this is incredible!"
For a moment—just a moment—he felt even more powerful than he had standing on Ego's planetary form.
-Deep Within Earth's Consciousness-
Earth's will immediately detected Star-Lord's presence. The consciousness inhabiting the planet had been waiting for this, had orchestrated this exact scenario through subtle manipulation.
When Thor had used lightning to attack Star-Lord during their training, it hadn't been Thor's power alone that awakened Peter's Celestial genes. Earth's will had assisted, channeling additional energy through the lightning, forcibly activating dormant genetic sequences that should have remained asleep for decades.
More than that—while Star-Lord was unconscious of it, Earth's will had constructed an energy conduit through the planet's crust, binding Star-Lord's power directly to Tiamut. An invisible channel that allowed Peter to siphon the gestating Celestial's energy whenever he stood on Earth's surface.
The plan had been elegant: use Star-Lord as a drain, slowly leeching Tiamut's power until the Celestial child weakened and died in its shell, unable to complete the Emergence.
But then Star-Lord had left Earth for Vormir, breaking the connection.
And Tiamut, sensing the sudden absence of the parasitic drain, had seized the opportunity to accelerate his awakening.
That's when Earth's consciousness had been forced to implement its backup plan: eliminate humanity through extreme climate disasters. But that approach had limitations—Earth's will didn't have the same degree of control over its physical form that Ego possessed. It could only influence weather patterns, geological activity, gradual changes over time.
The initial disasters had been subtle, building slowly, meant to unfold over years of careful escalation.
Star-Lord's return changed everything. The conduit reestablished. The drain resumed. And Earth's will pushed additional power into Peter Quill, making him stronger, making him capable of drawing energy even faster.
The cost was enormous—Earth's consciousness was burning through its limited reserves, depleting itself dangerously. But if it worked, if Tiamut could be weakened enough...
-The Island-
Star-Lord knew none of this. He only felt incredible, invincible, like he could take on the world.
Thor had already launched himself skyward, Stormbreaker crackling with lightning as he engaged Ikaris in aerial combat. The clash of cosmic beings lit up the sky—thunder and heat vision, hammer and fists colliding with forces that made the air itself scream.
Captain Marvel wasn't far behind, her body blazing with photon energy as she joined the fight. She fired concentrated energy beams that matched Ikaris's heat vision, creating spectacular explosions in mid-air.
Facing the combined assault of Earth's two strongest Avengers, Ikaris was being driven back. His heat vision was neutralized by Carol's photon blasts. His punches were intercepted by Thor's superior strength and combat experience.
"He's tough," Carol called to Thor, banking hard to avoid a retaliatory strike. "Really tough."
"Aye!" Thor grinned fiercely, clearly enjoying the challenge. "But not tough enough!"
On the ground, Wanda watched the aerial battle intently, red chaos magic coalescing around her hands, ready to intervene if needed.
Gilgamesh had withdrawn from combat now that reinforcements had arrived. He stood near Thena, who was sitting on a boulder with her eyes distant—the Mahd Wy'ry was being held at bay, but barely. He wouldn't leave her alone, wouldn't risk her having an episode without him there to calm her.
The three combatants fought further and further from the island, their battle ranging across the sky. Star-Lord watched them go, his hands twitching with the urge to join in, but logic prevailed. They didn't need his help against Ikaris—two was already overkill.
Strange turned his attention to the standoff near the volcano. He'd noticed Sprite holding Sersi hostage earlier but had been too busy fighting for his life to intervene. Now he finally had a moment.
"Wanda," he called. "Can you locate her real position among those illusions?"
He quickly described Sprite's powers—the ability to create perfect sensory illusions, indistinguishable from reality.
Wanda frowned, concentrating. "I'm not sure. I can try to detect which ones have physical substance versus which are just light and thought, but—"
"Jarvis," Tony interrupted. "Scan them. Full spectrum analysis."
"Initiating scan, sir," the AI responded. Satellites overhead focused on the cluster of identical figures. After several seconds: "I'm afraid the technology is insufficient, sir. I cannot determine which figure is the primary entity."
Tony's jaw tightened in frustration, though he wasn't entirely surprised. Sprite was an Eternal—if her abilities could be defeated by simple thermal imaging and mass detection, they wouldn't be very impressive.
Chaos magic began drifting from Wanda's hands, visible red energy forming complex patterns. The display of power immediately caught Sprite's attention.
The small Eternal knew Scarlet Witch's reputation. The broadcasts had made it clear that Wanda would eventually become one of the most powerful beings on Earth. Sprite wasn't about to underestimate her.
"I warned you!" Sprite's voice came from multiple throats simultaneously—all the illusions speaking in perfect synchronization. "Don't move, or I'll kill her! I'll do it!"
Tony's faceplate materialized over his face, his expression completely neutral. "Here's the thing, kid—we don't actually know this woman. I don't even know her name. So your leverage is kind of questionable."
Despite his callous words, Wanda stopped gathering energy. She wasn't going to call Sprite's bluff when Sersi's life was at stake.
But Star-Lord, floating overhead, had discovered something the others hadn't.
His connection to Tiamut—that energy conduit Earth's will had created—went both ways. He could draw power from the Celestial, yes. But he could also sense the planet itself, feel the earth and stone and magma beneath their feet with a clarity that rivaled Ego's planetary awareness.
And most importantly: he could feel which figures below had physical substance and which were merely phantasms of light.
Sprite had one pair of eyes. She was tracking multiple opponents simultaneously, but she couldn't watch everyone at once. She didn't notice Star-Lord's gaze focusing on her true position.
Blue-white energy erupted from the ground directly beneath the real Sprite's feet—a pillar of divine power that formed so quickly she had no time to dodge.
Her eyes widened in shock. In the next instant, tentacles of solidified energy knocked the knife from her hand, sending it spinning away across the rocks. More tentacles coiled around her body, lifting her into the air, binding her completely.
The illusions vanished like soap bubbles, leaving only the small, struggling Eternal suspended in Star-Lord's grasp.
"Let me go!" Sprite thrashed desperately, but she had no combat abilities of her own—her power was deception, not strength. Against raw force, she was helpless.
Ajak didn't hesitate. She rushed to Sersi's side, golden healing light already flowing from her hands. The abdominal wound began closing, tissue regenerating.
"Ikaris!" Sprite screamed toward the sky. "Help me! Please!"
But Ikaris was fighting for his own survival. Thor's hammer came at him like a meteorite. Carol's photon blasts seared past his head. He dodged, weaved, countered when he could, but he was clearly on the defensive.
He circled the island in a desperate holding pattern, unable to retreat too far—if he left, they'd accomplish their goal unopposed—but unable to press forward through the combined might of Thor and Captain Marvel.
It had to be acknowledged: Ikaris's power was genuinely formidable. Even without using Stormbreaker's full potential, Thor was having difficulty achieving a decisive victory. In a two-on-one fight, Ikaris was holding his own, though he looked increasingly battered and exhausted.
"He can't save you," Strange said, floating down to face the bound Sprite. A slight smile played at his lips—there was satisfaction in capturing one of the people responsible for this mess.
"So what now?" War Machine asked, surveying the battlefield. "We've got one hostile neutralized, but the main problem is still underground."
Sersi, fully healed by Ajak's abilities, pushed herself to her feet. "Tiamut is still beneath the ocean floor. I need physical contact to transmute him, but I can't reach him while he's encased in the Earth's crust."
She looked frustrated, helpless. Her power was useless if she couldn't touch her target.
Star-Lord descended slowly, still wreathed in blue-white energy, power radiating from him in visible waves. "What if I could build you a channel? A path directly to Tiamut's physical form?"
Everyone turned to stare at him.
"You can do that?" Phastos asked, his scientific mind already racing with the implications.
Star-Lord looked down at his glowing hands, feeling the connection to the planet, to the Celestial gestating within it. "Yeah. I think I can."