"Requiem?" Ben repeated, the name echoing strangely in the desolate air of Vormir.
He was about to press the Red Skull for more information when Brunnhilde, who had wandered closer to the cliff's edge, called out, her voice sharp with alarm.
"Ben, you need to see this!"
Ben strode over immediately, his eyes following her gaze down into the chasm. There, sprawled between the two circular altars, lay a broken figure that looked like a dry, discarded husk. It was utterly still.
"That's… Thanos, isn't it?" Brunnhilde asked, her voice uncertain.
Ben recognized the distinct form and the tattered remains of golden armor. He nodded grimly. "It is. I guess even cutting off his head on Xandar wasn't enough to finish the job."
A chilling realization dawned on him. "So Requiem sacrificed Thanos to get the stone. Does that mean Requiem… is Gamora?"
"Your assumption is correct, King of Sakaar."
The Red Skull drifted towards them like a ghost, his form untethered from the ground. "I was brought here by the power of the Space Stone and imprisoned by the Soul Stone for seventy years. My curse was lifted only when the stone was claimed." Due to that long servitude, the Red Skull now knew many of the universe's deepest secrets.
"Requiem is indeed Thanos's daughter, Gamora," he confirmed. "And her sole purpose in taking the stone was to ensure the complete and total destruction of the Mad Titan."
After the spectral keeper provided the details, a strange sense of closure settled over Ben and Brunnhilde. The fact that Thanos had survived decapitation proved that Death had rejected his soul, making a permanent physical death nearly impossible. Sacrificing his soul to the Soul Stone was, in a grim way, a perfect loophole—a way to bypass Death's judgment entirely. Down below, the body of Thanos was now completely devoid of any life force.
"If you don't mind, I will take my leave," the Red Skull said, his tone calm and utterly indifferent. He was aware that HYDRA, the organization he had poured his life into, had been all but eradicated by Ben. Yet, he felt no desire for revenge. What was HYDRA's ambition compared to seventy years as a cosmic warden? He had finally escaped his prison; picking a fight with a being who could slay Thanos was the definition of madness.
Ben had little interest in him either. With HYDRA gone, the Red Skull was a relic. Besides, the matter of his parents' death, a tragedy that occurred long after the Red Skull had vanished. He gave a simple wave of his hand, signaling that the former Nazi was free to go.
Brunnhilde stared down at Thanos's tragic end, a flicker of melancholy in her eyes. The once-feared tyrant, who had cast a shadow over the entire cosmos, had met such a miserable end—slain by his own daughter, his body left to waste away in the wilderness, his very soul annihilated. She felt no sympathy, but the sheer scale of his fall was sobering.
After a moment of silence, she asked, "What about the Soul Stone?"
She was asking if they should track Gamora down and take it from her. The Infinity Stones were too important to leave unaccounted for, and while Ben didn't covet them, he acknowledged their immense power.
"The universe is a big place. Finding Gamora now won't be easy," Ben said. "Loki can monitor the stone's energy fluctuations from Sakaar. We'll wait."
The Soul Stone had let out a powerful gamma-ray burst upon being claimed, which was how they'd tracked it here. Now, it had gone silent again. Patience was their only real option.
"Let's head back," Ben decided. A shimmering blue portal, a rift opened by the Space Stone, expanded behind him. They stepped through, leaving the desolate world of Vormir for the bustling activity of Sakaar.
They reappeared in the central command office, where they found Nebula sitting alone, pouring over data slates. With Caiera and Loki handling interstellar diplomacy, many of the day-to-day administrative tasks of the Plumbers had fallen to her. Though not yet a full-fledged Sheriff, her broad knowledge, a direct result of her brutal training under Thanos, made her more than capable of managing the logistics.
Seeing them return, she shot to her feet. "King," she asked respectfully "What of the Soul Stone?"
"Gamora has it," Ben said, seeing no reason to hide the truth. "She sacrificed Thanos to claim it." He carefully detailed the situation, explaining why Thanos hadn't died on Xandar and why Gamora would resort to such a drastic measure.
A wave of guilt washed over Nebula's face. "I'm sorry," she said, her voice strained. "If I hadn't begged you to let her go…"
"Don't think like that," Ben comforted her. "Even with the Soul Stone, Gamora isn't a threat to us. She isn't Thanos. She doesn't want to wipe out half the universe. My guess is she'll take the stone and disappear, hiding it from everyone. In a way, that's a good thing. It's one less cosmic weapon in play."
Nebula nodded slowly, the logic of his words easing her guilt.
Ben, however, had another reason for his calm. In truth, Gamora taking the stone had solved a major problem for him. How could he have claimed it now? while the stone wasn't in his hands, he had a feeling it was only a matter of time. The universe had a way of bringing these things together, and he believed that eventually, all the stones would find their way to him. Not that he had a grand use for them.
"Better to continue my work on the Worldmind," he murmured to himself.
He returned to his private lab, where a three-dimensional projection of the Xandarian supercomputer floated in the air. He could replicate it in days if he wanted to, but what was the point? The total output of the Nova Force was finite. Building ten more Worldminds wouldn't generate a single watt of new energy. Besides, its power was, in his opinion, lackluster. Even a Centurion was little more than a super-soldier.
But what if I concentrate all of it? he thought. Or… replace the power source entirely?
A new idea sparked in his mind. The Nova Force could be returned to Xandar. Their world was now a protectorate of Sakaar, and the Nova Corps could be reformed as a Plumber auxiliary unit, guarding their planet under his authority. But the new Worldmind he was building would not use Nova energy. It would use his.
It would use Mana.
It was an energy unique to him, with vast, untapped potential. It was the same energy that had prompted the Ancient One to offer him the title of Sorcerer Supreme. She had seen its potential to free Earth's sorcerers from their reliance on dimensional lords, for the Mana itself was magical in nature. By developing it, Ben could slowly become the master of his own dimension.
Then who would dare threaten Earth? Dormammu? He'd get his fiery head handed to him.
The only problem was that becoming a full-fledged Dimension Lord would fundamentally change him, and Earth might no longer be able to contain his presence. But that was a concern for another millennium.
"Looks like I need to schedule a chat with the Ancient One," Ben noted to himself. First, however, he would finish his project. And he wouldn't call it the Worldmind.
"Since it's using Mana as a power source," he decided, "We'll call it… Genesis."
A few days later, the machine named Genesis was complete.
Life on Sakaar settled into a new rhythm. Brunnhilde began training a new generation of Plumbers. Rocket and Groot, growing bored with stationary life, teamed up with Peter Quill to form the Guardians of the Galaxy—this time as a special operations team under the Plumber banner, officially renamed the "Galactic Volunteers."
Tony Stark had isolated himself in a private lab. The recent battle had left a deep fracture within him—something fundamental had broken. Driven by obsession and haunted by the possibility of the next threat, he poured himself into a single solution: the Ultron Global Defense Program.
Looking at the data streams projected by JARVIS, he bit his lip, his face etched with exhaustion. He hadn't slept in what felt like days. The sheer scale of the project was crushing. Monitoring the entire world, arming it with an army of automated defenders—it was all bottlenecked by one critical component: artificial intelligence. JARVIS was powerful, but not powerful enough. Tony needed something more.
Would be nice if Ben were here to help, he thought, then immediately recoiled from the idea. He wiped his face with a greasy hand, smearing oil across his cheek.
"What are you talking about?!" he muttered to himself, slapping his own face lightly. "You're Tony Stark! The genius! You think you can't build Ultron without some kid's help? You think there's anyone smarter than you?!"
He slumped back in his chair, his defensive anger deflating into weary self-justification. "I just meant… research is faster with two people. You need ideas to collide. He's one of the few people whose IQ I actually acknowledge." He shook his head contemptuously. "Forget it. The kid's unreliable anyway." The fact that Ben hadn't been on Earth for the initial attack still stung.
The lab fell silent, save for the hum of machinery.
"Sir," JARVIS's calm voice emanated from a speaker. "Talking to yourself can be an early indicator of certain psychological conditions. Given your elevated anxiety levels, I would recommend consulting a therapist to preclude the potential onset of schizophrenia."
Tony reflexively threw a spare servo motor at the speaker. It did nothing.
"You are aware I am a disembodied computer intelligence, Sir," JARVIS continued patiently. "Furthermore, Captain Rogers and the others have returned from space. According to their reports, the Chitauri and Thanos have been neutralized. I believe you are overdue for a period of rest."
Tony just shook his head. "Thanos is gone, sure. But the universe is full of monsters. What's next? Some other would-be conqueror with a god complex? A hive mind that wants to devour the sun?" He paused. "Steve's back? What about Ben?"
Ben did return to Earth, about a week after the Captain. May and Ben Sr. smothered him in hugs, checked him for injuries, and then promptly sent him on his way. In the two months he'd been gone, they, along with Wanda and Pietro, had become capable Plumbers in their own right, handling minor missions in the city.
Ben's first order of business was to find the Ancient One and discuss Genesis. But a more terrestrial problem was waiting for him at the Plumber base.
Mary Jane Watson stood with her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently. She knew Ben was Prime. But she had just learned that Felicia, her best friend—the one with whom she had sworn a pact of solidarity—had been the Black Cat all along. And had gone to space with him.
"We had a deal, Parker!" she fumed the moment she saw him. "A united front! And she just… goes off to space with you behind my back?! What happened to the sisterhood?!"