2 Dreams and Recovering

(A/N - There's a lot of complaining about 'How could Thanos take on the Viltrumites?!' and how it's soooo unlikely, so I thought I'd do a little rundown on how it could happen through a dream sequence. Shout out to OOOOOOOOO00 who actually consider the possibility that Thanos could do it instead of saying 'Viltrumites are planet busters tho!! :('. Which they aren't, by the way. Viltrumites are strong, sure, but they're not planet busters. Not on their own, anyway.)

It had happened so quickly. The destruction of Viltrum, that is.

First of, we were kept on the planet by energy fields so strong they were near-impenetrable. Even our strongest fighters, Grand Regent Thragg and Lord Nolan Argall, were no match for the barrier.

It didn't take us long to figure out that the barrier was being powered by the surrounding stars. Trillions of units of solar energy were drained from the stars, so much so that the stars flickered and disappeared from the skies - only to be replaced with another star that would soon be sucked dry. Even after weeks of trying, we were unable to burst through the shield that covered our planet.

Morale was low. Hope of escaping this cage was even lower.

I remember wondering where the Viltrumites off-world were. Had they not heard of our plight? Or did they just not care? In the future, I would find that they were already dead. Used as guinea pigs for a specific experiment.

Soon after I thought that, was when the ultimatum arrived from Thanos.

[Give me the Infinity Stone, and I will be merciful to your race.]

We knew it was a lie. The Mad Titan was renowned for his lunacy and for his genocide that caused the stars to run red with the blood of trillions of lives.

He reminded us of the old Viltrumites. Viltrumites who conquered planets and wiped species from the stars. But even the old Viltrumites never fooled themselves that they were doing a noble thing - they were expanding the glorious Viltrum Empire and if a few races had to be wiped from the galactic map for that? So be it.

But I digress. We stubbornly refused Thanos' ultimatum. We were the mighty Viltrumites! How could we ever give in to a fight before it even began? We knew that if Thanos released the shield, we would storm through his armies and bring his ships down from the sky, striking them down like the false gods they believe themselves to be. Viltrumites would never lose a war based on who was stronger.

The average member of our species could lift tens of thousands of tonnes. Their battle ships would be torn asunder or dragged to the planet's surface by a dozen peerless warriors. Their armies of feeble and brittle fodder would be torn apart with even the most casual movements from our soldiers. They could never win a war of power with the people of Viltrum.

Except...Thanos had never intended to fight us head-on. He was, admittedly, too clever for that. And even in his lunacy, he had prepared ways to bring us down from our pedestals of strength.

Clouds of green smoke came through the shield around our planet. Continent sized clouds that covered our planet in a smog of green.

At first, we thought it was a poison. Meant to kill us or weaken us. We were right in some ways, which is why we implemented re-breathers and bio-hazard suits to every single Viltrumite. But, it just hadn't been enough.

The smog ignored our filters, our suits, our invulnerability and our extremely robust immune system. It needled it's way into our bodies. At first, nothing happened and then the smog cleared. On our sensors, it was gone. We had survived Thanos' first wave of attack. We were arrogant in our mocking as soon as the smog disappeared. Warriors flying up to the shield and throwing offensive hand-signs up at the ships not too far away from the shield.

It was very short-lived mocking.

Within a week, people began to fall violently ill. Organ failure, cell death--their bodies were shutting themselves down, seeming to force themselves to die. And yet, no matter what our doctors and scientists did, we couldn't save the patients who developed these symptoms.

Within the first week, hundreds of millions were dead. Within the next week, billions were dead. On the third week, Viltrumites became an endangered species. On the fourth week, we became a near-extinct species.

Our remaining scientist had realized what had caused this on the second week. It was the green smog, and it was actually an airborne virus. A virus specifically engineered to kill Viltrumites. As if to rub it in our faces, giant holographic screens were cast through the shield and projected images of Viltrumites being tested on and experimented on, all to demoralize us.

They were the Viltrumites off-world. They had been captured and used against us for the purpose of making this virus.

I remember when we named the virus. The Scourge Virus. But the event name was what came before that and what influenced the naming of the Virus. We deemed it 'The Great Suffering'*.

(*A/N - Scourge pretty much means 'suffering'.)

I remember getting this Virus. I woke up, choking on my own blood, convulsing and unable to control my body. I remember being put in a bio-tube. As the Prince of the Viltrumites, all efforts were put towards helping me. My mentor, Thragg, made sure of it.

My relative, Lord Nolan Argall, was also infected with the virus. When I had the barest amount of consciousness, I could see his bio-tube across from mine.

And we survived. Others also survived.

The strongest warriors survived on the merit of their own strength. Royalty survived on the merit of their bloodline's innate resistance. And those who were lucky survived because they were...lucky. Or maybe they were actually unlucky.

Because days after I recovered, the shields surrounding our planets disappeared. And Thanos' army swooped down from the skies like predatory birds.

Orbital bombing on major population centers, Armies of millions of creatures marching on every other city. It was full-blown war. Now, would this have been a problem usually? No. A dozen Viltrumites could take over planets on their own. So, even if there were only a few thousand of us left, we had more than enough to take on Thanos.

Except, there was a very deadly after-effect to the Scourge Virus for Viltrumites who survived it.

Our strength and durability were both greatly diminished. Orbital bombardments the average Viltrumite wouldn't have even felt were now fatal. The billions of soldiers we would've normally been able to crush...were now able to hurt us. Our strength was no longer as boundless as before. Whereas before we were walking one-man armies...we were now feeble and weak in comparison. As such, Thanos' attack...was a slaughter.

Even weakened, we fought. Myself included. Viltrumites raged against our attackers, slaughtering millions before finally being killed. Except whatever we killed, was soon replaced. And we didn't have the benefit of being a billion Viltrumites strong anymore.

We were a very finite in population now. Every death was a full-step closer to extinction.

Which is why I was forced off world by Thragg and Nolan. I was injured and battered, and yet I still wanted to fight. I had broken bones--no, I had bones that were crushed. I had torn muscles. Lacerations and cuts that stretched all around my limbs and body. I was scarily close to disembowelment and I was dripping so much blood I was unsure on how I was still functioning. But I was angry. Wrathful. I'd had to watch my people die, slaughtered by a madman for an Infinity Stone we didn't have. Killed for no reason other than to satisfy a lunatic.

Yet faced by the just as injured Thragg and Nolan, I could say nothing as they pleaded for me to escape. To survive. To raise the Viltrumite people up once again one day.

And like a coward, I ran.

I flew as fast as I could and I shot through the stars. I was shot by laser fire, kinetic rounds, missiles, and despite my growing injuries, I flew. I was untraceable due to a device given to me by Thragg, they couldn't follow my speed and their radars couldn't track or figure out where I was going.

I escaped. But I continued to fly. The stars shot past me, alongside planets and meteors and moons...I just kept flying.

And finally, I found a destination that supported life. As shown by another device called a Galactic Map. The blue and green pearl was called 'Earth'.

Drained of energy, I flew myself toward the planet and just let it's gravity pull me in.

The continued until I reached close enough that I had to slow myself down. Yet, I underestimated how injured I was. How weakened I was from the virus and from said injuries. Upon impact, I blacked out.

. . .

Gasping awake, I looked around the room in a panic, my heart thumping in my chest.

My breathing heavy, I recognized the room I was in. I wasn't on Viltrum anymore--that was a dream. A memory. A...a nightmare, I guess.

Leaning back into the bed, my breathing still hard and my pulse still through the roof, I closed my eyes and tried to get my breathing under control. Slow, calm breaths. And slowly but surely, I began to calm. My breathing was no longer ragged and harsh gasps, and my heartbeat had slowed down to a more human rate.

I slowly relaxed the taut muscles in my body as well. It seemed like it'd entered battle mode of some sort. I guess that's what happens when you've been trained for 200-ish years for combat by a mentor like Thragg.

Realizing I was clenching something with my hand, I looked down and saw I was gripping the bed frame I was on. Prying my hand free, I saw that I'd completely warped the solid metal of the frame, leaving behind an imprint of my grip.

Sighing in wonder, I looked at my hand, "...And this is my strength even though I'm weakened by the Scourge Virus?" I questioned, both shocked and surprised, "Though...that's more than enough of a reason for me to wait until I recover fully. That knife didn't penetrate my skin but who knows if I could take a tank shell and still be fine," I mused to myself, still looking at my hand.

Which made me think about this body's memories also.

This body had been alive for around 200 years before I came and took the control seat. Which meant I had so many memories...and they all came naturally to me. There was no unfamiliarity to me because I was the one who experienced them. I was both Theo, the Human from Earth and Theo, the Viltrumite Prince from an alien planet. It was a peculiar thing to think about, mainly because I could see if being a problem of not knowing who exactly I am in the future.

...Honestly, it feels weird to say it but I feel like both of these people. Especially with how both sets of memories feel natural to me.

Altogether, it's like being a new person.

"Just keeps getting more and more complicated," I sighed, dropping my head into my hands before I heard the floorboards outside my room creaking before the door started to creak open to show the nun from earlier walking into the room with a tray of food.

Except this time, and with my memories, I could really see her in slow-motion. It was like she wasn't even moving.

Standing up, I walked toward her and actually looked at her face.

Olive brown skin, dark eyes, black hair, big eyes, full lips--soft features. She was pretty. Not outstandingly beautiful like an actress or a model but she was pretty enough for most people to admit they'd take a second glance at her if they passed her on the street. Not the type of woman you'd expect to see working at an orphanage as a nun, I guess.

Before she caught up to my speed with me standing still for so long, I walked back to the bed and sat down in the same place I'd just in and let my perception of time slow down again. And with it, the nun began moving in normal speed once again.

She approached with the aforementioned tray of food, a smile on her face as she lifted the tray a little to be more in my eye line, "Food for you," she said in the same rusty English and I stood to receive the food, though her smile quickly disappeared as she hurried next to me, "No no no no, sit, sit, señor, sit! Your injuries!"

"My injuries are fine," I smiled taking the tray off of the nun before placing it on the bed when I realized something. Sticking out a hand, I spoke up, "My name is Theo. Thanks for treating my injuries while I was out of it,"'--Though they would've healed on their own' was something I didn't bother to add-on to the end of my sentence. Would've probably just soured the interaction with someone who actually helped me.

The nun, seeming surprised by the gesture, slowly took my hand and shook it as she spoke, "Rosa. It's...it's nice to finally know your name, Theo," she smiled and I tried my best to lightly shake her hand. Fortunately, I didn't crush her hand or pull off her arm.

...Man, having super strength is weird. I never had to worry about tearing a person's arm off back when I was the old me. Luckily I have the experience of this body's previous owner.

Without it I'd be dead in the water and destroying my surroundings with every movement.

A pretty dark thing to think about, honestly. So, I'm gonna stop. And instead, I'm gonna look down at the lovely food made for me.

"Looks lovely," I said, looking at the tamales with some small side dishes filled with some sauces. Reaching down, I ignored the fact they were steaming hot and unwrapped the tamale before taking a bite out of it. No scolding temperature, no pain--it felt hot, sure, but it didn't hurt. All that was left was the wonderful taste.

I guess it wasn't all bad, huh? I get to have a few weeks of resting in Mexico, eating lovely food and with no real troubles. Nice.

So, I ate some nice food after having a rundown of a traumatic experience through a dream.