Else in the Galaxy…
Peter Quill stared at his hands like they belonged to someone else.
Celestial light flickered beneath his skin—not the steady glow he'd briefly possessed during his confrontation with Ego, but something different. Fragmentary. Like static on a broken transmission. Blue-white energy pulsed through his palms for a heartbeat before fading back to normal flesh.
"Quill?" Gamora's voice carried concern. She moved closer, one hand instinctively going to the knife at her hip—not a threat, just readiness. Her lover looked shaken in a way she'd never seen before. "What just happened?"
The rest of the Guardians watched from their positions around the Milano's common area. Drax stood with arms crossed, perpetually ready for violence. Rocket's ears were perked forward, whiskers twitching. Groot's branches rustled with agitation. Mantis hovered nearby, antennae glowing faintly as she sensed the emotional turbulence radiating from Star-Lord.
Peter's hands closed into fists. When he looked up, his eyes carried a mixture of wonder and dread.
"Something awakened," he said quietly. "Out there. Somewhere in the galaxy. I felt it through—" He gestured vaguely at himself. "Through whatever Celestial DNA is still floating around in my genes. It was like... like hearing a family member's voice in a crowd, you know? Unmistakable."
"Your father is dead," Drax said bluntly. "We destroyed him."
"Not Ego." Peter shook his head. "This was different. Older, maybe. Or just... other. But I felt it. Someone—or something—just touched a power that connects to what I am. What I was." His jaw tightened. "They're out there. My family. My brothers and sisters. Whatever you want to call beings with Celestial heritage." He paused. "And they're coming."
Mantis placed a tentative hand on his arm, her empathic abilities reading the complex storm of emotions. "You are frightened. But also... curious?"
"Yeah." Peter's laugh was humorless. "Terrified and curious. The Quill family special."
Gamora exchanged glances with Rocket. The raccoon's expression was unusually serious.
"So what do we do?" Gamora asked.
Peter stared out the viewport at the stars beyond. "We wait. We prepare. And we hope that whoever just woke up out there is friendly."
But deep in his gut, Peter Quill knew better than to hope for easy answers.
The universe rarely provided them.
Dathomir - The Nightsister Village
Mother Talzin stood at the highest point of her stronghold, staring toward the clearing where she'd sent Asajj Ventress to complete her training. Even from this distance, she'd felt the disturbance—that cosmic ripple that had made every Nightsister on the planet gasp in unison.
Her expression was conflicted in ways her face rarely showed. Pride warred with apprehension, satisfaction with dread.
"Ilsigi's daughter has claimed her birthright," she murmured to the night air. "Power that hasn't walked this galaxy in ten millennia now flows through her veins."
Her hands clenched on the stone balustrade. "But are you ready, young Asajj? Ready for the path this power will force you to walk? The enemies it will create? The destiny it will demand?"
No answer came, save the whisper of wind through ancient trees.
Talzin closed her eyes and reached out through the threads of Nightsister magic that connected her to every witch under her protection. She felt their fear, their excitement, their questions.
And beneath it all, she felt something else approaching. Something old and terrible that had been waiting for exactly this moment.
"Gethzerion," Talzin whispered, the name tasting like poison. "You sensed it too, didn't you? Of course you did."
The game had changed. The pieces were moving faster now.
And Dathomir was about to become a battlefield.
The Clearing - Moments Earlier
Asajj Ventress sat slumped on the ground, head bowed, body trembling with exhaustion. Sweat plastered her scalp, running in rivulets down her pale skin. Her breath came in ragged gasps.
"Is this supposed to happen?" Wanda asked, eyeing Asajj with something that might have been concern.
"Patience," Kreia's holographic form replied. "Transformation is rarely comfortable."
They waited in silence—Wanda standing with arms crossed, the two Sith spirits hovering in their holographic manifestations. Minutes passed. Asajj remained motionless except for the rise and fall of her chest.
Then something shifted.
Asajj's breathing changed—became deeper, more controlled. Her hands, which had been limp against her thighs, slowly flexed. She pushed herself upright with visible effort, moving from collapsed heap to kneeling position.
"Did it work?" Wanda asked.
Asajj raised her trembling hands before her face, staring at them as if seeing them for the first time. Her ice-blue eyes—those new, sharper eyes—were wide with anticipation.
"Look within," Kreia instructed. "The power is there. You need only reach for it."
Asajj closed her eyes, turning her awareness inward. She felt past the Nightsister magic that now flowed through her, past the dark side that had been her companion for years, past the Force itself, searching for that place where the mysterious energy resided—
There.
Her eyes snapped open.
Blue-white light erupted between her palms.
It wasn't the dark side's crimson lightning. Wasn't the green mist of Nightsister magic. This was something else entirely—a luminescence that seemed to exist at the boundary between energy and matter, pulsing with potential.
"What is this?" Asajj breathed, awe and confusion mixing in her voice.
Ajunta Pall's holographic form leaned forward, ancient eyes widening with recognition. "Impossible. I haven't seen this in... in ten thousand years. This is what we sought to replicate when we first split from the Jedi. What we tried to recreate through Sith alchemy."
"What are you saying?" Kreia demanded.
"This is the Force in its primordial state," Pall said, voice carrying notes of reverence and hunger. "Before the Jedi codified it into their rigid philosophies. Before the Sith twisted it into pure destruction. This is raw creation—the power to shape matter at the molecular level, to weave reality itself."
Kreia's attention focused entirely on Asajj. Through the Force, she sensed the depth of what the woman now carried. "You could potentially transcend both Jedi and Sith. With proper training, you might achieve a balance that neither order has ever managed."
Asajj barely heard them. She was too focused on the light between her palms, watching it shift and flow like liquid starlight. Instinctively, she began to shape it—will it into form.
The energy responded.
It condensed, solidified, transforming from raw light into a sphere of blue-white radiance that pulsed with each beat of her heart. She held creation itself cupped in her palms.
"I did it," she whispered. "I actually—"
The words died.
Every head snapped up simultaneously. Wanda's hands ignited with chaos magic. Asajj's right hand burst into flame while her left called her lightsaber to it with the Force. The Sith spirits' holographic forms crackled with dark side energy.
A woman stood at the clearing's edge.
She appeared elderly at first glance—white hair, weathered features, body bent with apparent age. But the appearance was pure deception. Power radiated from her like heat from a forge, warping the air itself. Her crimson robes were decorated with bone fragments and carved with symbols that hurt to look at directly. Her eyes, milky white and seemingly blind, tracked every movement with predatory precision.
Wanda's gaze locked onto those symbols, recognition dawning with cold certainty. "Gethzerion."
"In the flesh." The ancient Nightsister's voice was surprisingly melodious, almost playful. "My reputation precedes me. How flattering." She studied Wanda and Asajj with undisguised interest. "The Scarlet Witch and the Star-Child. Both wielding power beyond your understanding. Both still children playing with forces you cannot comprehend."
Her attention shifted to the Sith holocrons. "And Sith Lords, reduced to ghosts in crystalline prisons. How the mighty have fallen." Her smile was cruel. "Tell me, does it burn? Watching power flourish in others while you can only observe?"
Kreia's expression didn't change. "An interesting accusation from someone who covets that same power."
Gethzerion laughed—a sound like breaking glass. "The pot calling the kettle black? Is that the Terran expression, Maximoff?"
"What do you want?" Ajunta Pall's voice carried boredom that didn't quite mask wariness.
"Want?" Gethzerion spread her hands in a gesture of innocence. "I merely wish to satisfy my curiosity. When I felt that cosmic ripple—the awakening of power not seen in millennia—how could I resist investigating?" Her smile widened. "And I'm so glad I came. You're even more interesting up close."
"You're disgusting," Wanda said flatly.
Asajj found herself silently agreeing with the Avenger for the first time ever.
Gethzerion ignored the insult entirely, her attention fixing on Asajj with laser focus. "Star-Child. You have no idea what you carry. The potential sleeping in your blood." She took a step forward, voice taking on a seductive quality. "Join me. I can teach you to wield your gifts properly. Together, we could reshape this galaxy into something glorious."
Asajj's hands tightened around her weapons. "While I appreciate the offer, I must decline. I've made promises to my clan. I don't break my word."
For a moment, genuine surprise flickered across Gethzerion's features. Then she laughed again—this time with actual amusement. "How quaint. Loyalty. Such a charming weakness."
She reached into her robes and withdrew something that made both Wanda and Asajj freeze.
The object was difficult to describe—a lattice of copper hexagons forming a cage around something that pulsed with blue-white light remarkably similar to what flowed through Asajj's hands. But this light seemed withered, corrupted, trapped within the geometric prison.
Wanda's eyes widened as recognition slammed home. She'd seen that light before, felt that specific resonance—
"Zalem," she breathed. "You took it from Zalem."
"Very good." Gethzerion held the artifact up, and its light intensified. "This, children, is a gift from the stars themselves. A fragment of the power that created the universe. The Zalem fools had no idea what they possessed. Now it's mine." Her smile turned predatory. "And it resonates so beautifully with you, Star-Child. Can you feel it calling to your blood?"
Asajj did feel it. The energy in her palms pulsed in sync with the artifact, like twin hearts beating in rhythm.
Wanda's hands erupted with chaos magic, a blinding sphere of crimson energy forming between them. Her lightsaber flew from her belt, igniting mid-air to hover beside her in a corona of scarlet light.
"You won't keep it long," Wanda snarled, and unleashed the chaos magic directly at Gethzerion.
The ancient Nightsister yawned.
She raised one hand almost lazily, and the chaos magic simply dissolved against an invisible barrier. The artifact in her other hand pulsed brighter, drinking in energy from dimensions Wanda couldn't see.
"Adorable," Gethzerion purred. "But you're a novice wielding forces you barely understand. Watch how a master works."
She thrust her hand forward.
Sickly green lightning exploded from her palm—not the clean blue-white of Force lightning, but something older, more corrupt. Nightsister magic amplified beyond sanity, channeled through the stolen artifact.
Wanda's lightsaber intercepted the lightning, the crimson blade drinking in the energy. But the force behind it drove her backward, boots carving furrows in the earth. Cracks spider-webbed across the ground beneath her feet.
"Good!" Gethzerion's eyes gleamed with delight. "Now let's see what the Star-Child can do!"
She redirected the lightning at Asajj.
The Nightsister-turned-Sith-assassin-turned-something-new raised her double-bladed lightsaber in defense. The green lightning crashed against the red blades, and Asajj felt the impact like being hit by a speeder. She channeled the Force to anchor herself, but it wasn't enough—
Instinct took over. The blue-white energy erupted from her core, forming a shield that reinforced her lightsaber's defense.
For three seconds, she held. Then the lightning intensified, and the shockwave sent her flying backward into the hull of the abandoned ship, metal crumpling around her impact crater.
"Don't overextend!" Wanda shouted. "You just learned that power!"
Asajj dragged herself from the wreckage, spitting blood. The blue-white energy flickered uncertainly around her hands.
Gethzerion hovered above the ground now, suspended by pure power, the artifact blazing in her grip. "Magnificent. Both of you. Such potential." Her expression turned regretful. "But alas, I have other appointments to keep. Dathomir is merely one piece of a much larger game."
Green energy swirled around her, forming a tornado of corrupted magic.
"We will meet again," Gethzerion promised. "And next time, I won't be so gentle."
The tornado contracted, compressing into a beam of light that shot skyward and vanished among the stars.
Silence crashed over the clearing.
Wanda stood frozen, chaos magic still crackling around her fists, staring at empty air. "She... she just left."
Asajj pulled herself fully from the wreckage, equally stunned. Both women stared at the night sky, trying to process what had just happened.
"Why did she leave?" Ajunta Pall asked, confusion evident in his ancient voice. "She had the upper hand. She could have—"
"She was testing them," Kreia interrupted, her holographic form utterly still. "Measuring their power. Confirming her suspicions about the Star-Child." A pause. "And ensuring they knew she possessed the artifact."
"The seed," Asajj said slowly. "Where did it come from?"
"Zalem's territory," Wanda confirmed, her voice tight with urgency. "There's a site there that emits that same blue-white light. I felt it when we attacked—thought it was just ambient energy from their experiments." She looked at Asajj. "But that artifact... it's the source. And now Gethzerion has it."
The implications settled over them like a shroud.
"The alliance," Asajj said, her voice hollow. "All those clans banding together to fight Gethzerion..." She laughed bitterly. "What chance do we have against someone who just swatted us aside without effort? Who wields a cosmic artifact like a toy?"
Wanda felt the weight of it too. She'd spent days negotiating with clan leaders, building consensus, preparing for war against an ancient threat.
How could she tell them their enemy had just demonstrated power that made their combined strength look like children with sticks?
"We need to warn Mother Talzin," Wanda said finally. "And then..." She looked at Asajj. "Then we figure out what that artifact actually is and how to fight someone who wields it."
"Simple," Asajj muttered sarcastically. "Just defeat an immortal Nightsister with a cosmic weapon. Should be easy."
Despite everything, Wanda almost smiled. "Welcome to being an Avenger. This is basically Tuesday for us."
"I'm not an Avenger."
"Keep telling yourself that, Star-Child."
They gathered their equipment in silence, both women processing trauma and revelation in equal measure. Above them, Dathomir's moons tracked across the sky, indifferent to the struggles of those below.
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