25 The Mad Titan
[3rd POV]
There was an eerie silence in the dimension as Thanos and the Ancient One entered a staredown.
There were no words, there was no movement nor was there ill intention. But the silence was heavy enough for the Ancient One to feel nervous.
Looking at Thanos sitting right in front of her, it dawned on her that she did not know much about him even after spending 15000 years in this dimension with him.
She never bothered to even know more about him because she thought she already knew him. But then she realized, she was wrong.
There was something more about the titan. Something more than that meets the eye.
He was not just a warmonger or a conquerer who went from planet to planet just for the sake of conquering or for power.
She had thought Thanos was something like Odin when he was young.
But she was wrong.
"Thanos. What is it that you want to achieve?" She asked the titan. He was so much bigger than her and only at arms reach but her voice held no fear.
"You want to know that now? After trapping me for all this time." He asked.
He did not even sound angry, his voice only held a tone of detachment for everything around him. It felt like voice could age, since it was so different from the last time she heard it.
But it was to be expected from spending a literal 15000 years in a prison isolated from everything else.
She could not even imagine what that would feel like. To even exist for 15000 years must be a different kind of hell.
Now you may ask why The Ancient One was thinking that, after all, didn't she spend the same amount of years with Thanos.
The answer was no.
Although the Ancient One was also in the same time prison, it was different for her since the basis of the spell was to rewind time.
That means that her body, mind, and even the majority of her soul were always rewinded. They were always on a reset.
So to her, it felt like she just finished trapping Thanos in the dimension and she suddenly had many memories of being killed - most of which she discarded from her mind immediately - and also a damaged soul.
But for Thanos it was different. Since he possesses the mind stone, his mind never had such a reset.
The mind stone negated that effect of the time stone. Only an infinity stone can match an infinity stone.
So in his mind, he experienced a continuous and linear time, the full length of 15000 hundred.
The stone might've kept him from being insane but it also cursed him.
It was the same way Dr. Strange won against Dormmamu in the movie. You can't expect a normal human who practice the mystic arts for a few years to not go insane after 5000 years of dying, do you?
But Dormammu on the other hand was beyond time and from outside the universe. So much like Thanos, he experienced the time prison in the same way.
But for Dr. Strange and even the Ancient One in this case, they had the memories, they had the damage on their soul.
But they lack the mental and physical toll from it. They did not get the experience.
That was why she was extremely scared of Thanos. He was able to last even longer than Dormammu, a literal world eater.
It was truly a wonder how that would affect someone, living for 15000 years. The Ancient One reckoned even though Thanos had not gotten insane, he must have changed.
Because no being would remain the same.
"Yes. I want to know it. What motivated you to go from planet to planet, slaughtering everything you see?" She asked, her voice was heated.
She could understand it if he simply loved the act of slaughtering and conquering. But she knew it was not. A person would not endure 15000 years of hell for the sake of their pleasure.
A person needs to have a reason bigger than themselves to endure such torture.
Just look at Dormammu who gave up easily to Dr. Strage because his reason for wanting to destroy Earth was only for his pleasure.
"Tell me what is so important that you would rather endure 15000 years of torture than lose?"
Thanos looked at her with his eyes - a mix of purple and blue. Then he looked at the sky and into the distance.
His eyes held a deep longing and loss. It was akin to the eyes of a kid who missed his home but did not know the way.
"You really want to know?" He turned his focus back to her and she flinched at his powerful gaze.
She nodded.
"I need half of all life in the universe." He said and the Ancient One narrowed her eyes at him.
it sounded like a delusion. Killing half of all life in the Universe was impossible and even if he could do it, why would he?
So that is what she asked, "But why would you do that?"
Thanos leaned back when she asked that. He contemplated whether he should answer this truthfully but in the end, he just went on with how the original Thanos would respond.
No one needs to know the true reason.
"It's a simple calculus really." He said, and a part of him was surprisingly agreeable and happy with what he said next.
Almost as if he truly believed it. No, maybe he did.
"This Universe is finite; Its resources finite. And if life is left unchecked life will cease to exist. It will end itself." He said and the Ancient One was absolutely baffled with what he was saying.
"It needs correction. It needs salvation."
..
..
The Ancient One started laughing at the crazy goal. At first, she thought Thanos was joking but the silence and the passion in his eyes said otherwise.
"Hahahaha"
She stopped, in her long years of existence she had never heard of a more absurd aim, and the fact that it appeared to be the truth made it funnier.
So this was the reason why he could bear through 15000 long years?
How absolutely laughable.
"How are you even going to do that?" She asked.
Thanos looked unamused at being laughed at but he still replied.
"When I have all six of the infinity stone, it would be as easy as snapping a finger." He said, snapping his finger, "Like this."
The Ancient One stopped smiling and all humor suddenly left her body. Because although what he said was insane, she was also the one who knew that it was achievable if he had all the stones.
"So you want to bring the stones together?' She asked seriously.
Now she was getting closer to understanding Thanos just a bit and why he was able to endure being in this prison without going mad.
"Yes." He said, showing her tbe mind and space stones. Then he pointed at the time stone on her neck.
"Half down. Half more to go."
The reason why he had not gotten mad was simple.
He already was.
He was insane and now she knew exactly why they called him,
The Mad Titan.
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