16 15. Jerry's Free

'Uncle?!?!?!?!?!? What the Fuck!' Jerry was taken aback, barely managing to maintain his facade of feigned death at that moment.

It was true that over the past week, they had interacted extensively due to their mission on Counter-Earth. However, he had been oblivious to when she began considering him an uncle figure.

When she referred to him as "Uncle Maw," an abnormal chill ran down his spine, causing him to shudder remembering that moment.

Gamora, presently around 23 years old, was only two years younger than Jerry at 25. The age gap was not substantial. Despite that, he can't fault her for seeing him this way, after all, in this body Jerry was a several centuries-old fossil.

Nonetheless, his plan had succeeded!

Gamora had escaped, never suspecting a thing. She would believe that Maw had departed the realm of the living.

For securing his future, it was imperative that Gamora believed him to be dead. Well, the Zen-Whoberi wasn't someone who you could trust a secret to.

When that girl could reveal the location of fucking Infinity Stone to Thanos, sending the universe to hell just for Nebula's sake. Then telling the baldy that Maw was still alive out there would be no problem for her at all.

Jerry rose, dusting off his black robe and activating the portable terminal on his wrist to confirm Gamora's departure.

Through the same terminal, he ordered the army to come back and then headed back to the command center. As he strode there, he couldn't help but sigh at the destruction that he and Gamora had wrought.

Not to worry; apart from the bridges shattered by the leviathan, everything could be restored within a day. Furthermore, none of the damage disrupted the ship's operation.

Arriving at the Command Center, he stretched before gathering what he needed for the next phase. Employing his acting skills once more, he filmed a video using his wrist terminal, then performed several edits.

He had to do quite a bit of back and forth around the ship for the shoot, but after 40 minutes, the video was complete.

Jerry reviewed the final footage. The video conveyed a sense of urgency, desperation, and somberness, appearing hastily made.

In the video, he could be seen panting and limping forward. Stability was minimal as it was captured by the wrist terminal's camera.

-Start-

"She's somehow breached our systems... The army is in chaos. Anarchy has taken hold. Mayhem reigns as everyone attacks everyone... hah hah She has gravely wounded me... hah hah ... My time is limited, Sire."

"I am heading to the command center to turn the course... Sire, but if this turns out to be my last message then I hope that you forgive me for my failure for not being able to serve you any longGah!!"Pain and regret etched his expression.

The video shifted, revealing the ceiling after a tumble, then back to his bloodied face. "I'm concluding this message, Sire. May our destinies be fulfilled." His chin quivered with sorrow, and tears threatened to flow out of his old eyes.

-End-

'Hm, looks perfect!'

After sending the video, he brought out specialized equipment procured from the Ravagers. They were quite expensive... Or he just got scammed with the prices (It wasn't his money anyway.) but it still worked as expected.

Both of them are rare intergalactic contraptions that are an invention of the Ravagers themselves, one could copy the signatures of any ship and was often used to fool the pursuers into following whatever carrying this device instead of their real target.

While the other could alter the signature of a ship into something random but unique.

After Jerry altered the mothership's signature, he installed its original signatures into the other device and lodged it into a Necro ship, and then send it for a dive into the Counter-Earth's sun.

He had already overwritten Thanos's commands several hours ago, removing him and everyone else from the command hierarchy, making this ship and the army completely his.

That's how he orchestrated the whole ship-gone-hostile act. The wound he suffered during the last minute was also obviously fake, the shot by the soldier was a non-lethal energy blast that served the purpose of tearing the blood packets installed in his suit.

However, the bang on his head was real. Though, it wasn't something a simple med pad could heal in an instant.

That injury was also a planned move on his part, he had to make it seem that he was shaken and his guard was low when he was shot near the heart. Because no way, Ebony Maw would ever be done in by a random Chitauri soldier like that.

Jerry had to put a lot into directing the fake escape, each movement and position of the army was programmed.

All the effort was worth it. No one could trace Maw now. With his final message, Jerry had set Thanos against Gamora, while being sneaky enough to not mention her name in the video... ensuring the Mad Titan would be occupied with the culprit instead of probing Jerry's supposed death.

And he was sure that the Mad Titan wouldn't do anything to Gamora. He loved her like a real daughter, after all. Maybe, Thanos would be even proud that Gamora was able to best Maw.

'I'm sure, with this Thanos's attention would be more into finding and then stalking Gamora than trying to get into the depth of my death.'

Jerry leaned on his chair and sighed and then a warm smile formed on his wrinkled face, "Freedom..."

A profound sense of triumph washed over him. He was liberated, free to live as Jerry Johan Anderson, not Ebony Maw.

'Best warp away quickly,' he thought, inputting Earth's coordinates—wait, better change that to Mars for safety.

And so, the Chitauri Mothership disappeared from the Counter-Earth's solar system with a spark.

This mammoth vessel housed 200 million Chitauri militia—soldiers, leviathans, and gorillas. It carried a hundred thousand dropships, harboring 600 million ferocious Outriders.

A total of eight hundred million troops.

Not to mention all sorts of weapons of mass destruction inbuilt and loaded on the ship. The fuels and supplies needed for the army were already enough to last for a decade, so he had nothing to worry about.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that it alone could conquer dozens of planets. Except for Earth, of course.

The ship was a force to reckon with—save for its Achilles' heel. The whole army which was united and was made undyingly loyal to him via the Hive Mind Core would drop dead if it was destroyed.

A single nuclear bomb was enough, Loki learned it the hard way.

Arriving at Mars, Jerry simply parked the ship at a suitable place and after that, he retired to bed.

As he lay on the bed, his mind wandered off, thinking about how he'll be melding all sorts of DNAs stored in his lab in his new body, while still keeping the human aesthetics.

He'll keep the basic features like eye, hair, and skin color the same as in his previous life while modifying his face structure to look a bit more handsome.

In his last life, he was particularly dissatisfied with his nose's shape but he couldn't afford surgery, however in this life, for many nights he even prayed to get even that nose back.

'Well, I'll make myself the most handsome hunk, for sure!'

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Yeah, so, sorry for no chapters last week. I had midsems...

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