Infinity War

In front of one of the exits from the Lighthouse base, which was discreetly linked with someplace inside the town of River's End.

Coulson handed Kol a piece of paper, and asked, "Are the instructions clear?".

Kol replied, "Yeah...", but paused.

As if hesitating about something.

Coulson didn't interrupt the silence.

After a while, "Coulson, I won't be coming back.", Kol suddenly spoke.

This was a bit too sudden, so after a few seconds of the silence of his own, "Why?", Coulson asked.

"I'm not human.", Kol revealed, and continued, "I mean... not 'Inhuman' either.".

"What are you then? Alien?", Coulson asked with a solemn tone of voice.

Kol replied, "Not quite! You know Thor? The Asgardians? You seem to be quite familiar with them...", then he paused.

"So what, you're an Asgardian?", Coulson asked, "But you didn't appear like other Asgardians, maybe because it was the future... but the way that you talk, you act, it's so different. Could you perhaps be Thor's son in the future? Why else would you want to come to this time? Thor is a part of the Avengers, they must've tried to save the world, but failed, and maybe died. So are you here to prevent that? And you want to leave now because we're doing something wrong, or maybe... we're holding you back?".

After hearing Coulson's speculations, Kol was taken back a bit, but then he told him, "Coulson, you have a very active imagination. You should become a writer after you retire from SHIELD.".

Coulson's contemplative expression instantly turned into one of embarrassment, although most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Then Kol continued, "I wasn't referring to the 'Asgardian' part, but the fact that they call themselves 'Gods'.".

"I haven't met any of them, so I couldn't say for sure, but they seem too weak to be called 'Gods'. Of course, some of them might actually be one, but not all of them. You see, 'God' is a race of celestial beings who possess within their souls, a Divinity, or authority over a rule, or a concept of reality, sort of like a cheat code of creation. That's not easy to come by.".

"And you're one of these celestial beings?", Coulson asked incredulously.

"Yep... But I'm not from this universe... from any timeline really. I am someone who looks for adventures across the Omniverse. I just love to travel, and if someplace, some world needs saving, then I save it. Of course, in most cases, I try to make the natives competent enough to save themselves, like what I'm doing right now.", Kol replied.

Coulson didn't know what to think at this point. Even after all the weird and crazies he'd experienced, it took him a while to wrap his head around it.

He had many questions, but in the end, he asked, "How? What do you mean by making us 'competent enough'? What are you doing really? Do you know what tears the world apart?".

Coulson realized that the clues were always there, little things with no apparent answers, but they just unconsciously ignored all these subtle hints because Kol was in the same boat as them, he was a part of the team. He fitted in too well.

Kol answered calmly, "I know everything. I have powers related to Time and Space, so I took a peek at the future before. You don't have to worry. I know it might be difficult to trust me now, but I've already taken precautions. Fitz and Simmons knew about me from the beginning, and I've told them everything. They know what to do.".

"Then why are you telling me this now? To say goodbye! I mean, you don't have to reveal yourself to me at all.", Coulson asked.

So Kol didn't beat around the bush, "You're dying. The others will find out. You'll tell them to let it be, but they won't listen. And the fact that they will try so hard to find a cure will be the event that will set into motion, the destruction of the world.".

Coulson was startled by this revelation. He exclaimed in surprise, "This is... ", but was interrupted.

As Kol continued, "I know this sounds absurd, but it is what it is. Ghost rider's curse is attached to your soul. It can not be cured by anything.".

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Kol pulled out a vial of red liquid from his M-Ring.

This was Sinara's blood after she transformed into a... let's just call them Dhampirs from now on.

Then Kol continued, "I know what you're concerned about Coulson. But this world needs you to exist for a few more decades, and I'm not just talking about this current threat.".

Then continued, "Daisy is just not enough. I think you're seeing something in her because you want to, not because it's there, or at least not there yet. She is not ready. Maybe Mack will be in a few years, but even then, you need to be there.".

Seeing this vial of red liquid and hearing what Kol said, Coulson understood something, and wanted to argue, but was interrupted.

"This cannot save you... Well, it can cure mostly anything, but your situation is a bit special, so you have to die.", Kol revealed.

Coulson calmed down, and asked, "Then why are you showing me this?".

"It cannot save you, you have to die, but it CAN transform you. You see, just like Odin has his Asgardians, I have also created a race. You must've studied the Asgardian legends after Thor showed up. About Valhalla and Valkyries. Coulson, you have to die because the human named, 'Phil Coulson' was meant to die. It has to happen. But after your death, you can be resurrected as something other than human.", Kol replied.

Then Coulson was silent. He had a lot to say, yet he didn't know where to begin. In the end, he just sighed.

"Something like that can't be for free. What about the side effects?", Coulson asked in a low voice.

Even after everything that Kol revealed, about how much the world needed him, he still hadn't made his decision because of what happened last time. Plus he truly did believe that Daisy could handle it, even if Kol, and May before him, disagreed with him.

Kol replied, "Just ask Jemma. She knows everything, about how to use this and the changes you'll go through... just take it. I know you need time to think, so you do that... and I'll be leaving.", then handed him the vial, and turned around to leave.

"Where're you going after the phone calls?", Coulson called out from behind.

Kol replied without looking back, "This and that, saving the world. Then off to find another adventure."

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Thanos and his Children - Proxima Midnight, Ebony Maw, Corvus Glaive, and Cull Obsidian - attacked Thor's Asgardian ship and took the Space Stone, then killed off half the population of Asgard, including Loki and Heimdall.

[Images]

Then Thanos ordered his children to take his spaceship and head to Earth, while he himself used the Space Stone to go to Knowhere to get the Reality Stone from Collector.

They decided to randevu with Thanos on planet Titan after collecting all the Stones from Earth.

Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian attacked the New York Sanctum for the Time Stone.

[Images]

Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Peter Parker, Stephen Strange, and Wong were at the scene, and they fought valiantly, but ultimately Strange was abducted, and somehow, Tony and Parker tagged along for the ride.

Along the way, Tony and Parker managed to kill off Ebony Maw and rescue Strange, but ultimately, they still decided to go to Titan in hopes of defeating Thanos there.

On the other hand, the Guardians of Galaxy received the distress signal from Thor's Asgardian ship and rescued Thor.

Then after understanding the situation from him, they headed for Knowhere, while Rocket, Thor, and Groot headed for Nidavellir to get Thor a new weapon.

On Knowhere, Thanos had already retrieved the Reality Stone, so he ambushed the Guardians, and captured Gamora. Apparently, after torturing Nebula, he'd learned that Gamora already knew where the Soul stone was and was keeping it from him, so he took her with him.

Afterward, the Guardians left for Titan to intercept Thanos and rescue Gamora.

On Titan, they met Tony, Strange, and Parker, and decided to work together to defeat Thanos.

It was at this time that when Tony and Quill were arguing about the plan to defeat Thanos when Mantis noticed Strange's strange behavior.

"Excuse me, but... does your friend often do that?", she asked.

Strange was surrounded by green energy, floating in the air, had his hands and legs crossed like in meditation. His head was... vibrating, moving around with inhuman speed.

"Strange! We all right?", Tony called out to him.

Getting no response, he walked towards him.

But just as he was about to reach him, Strange fell down.

"You're back, you all right?", Tony asked.

"Hey, what was that?", Parker asked.

So Strange replied, "I went forward in time, to view... alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict.".

Hearing this, everyone suddenly had a concerned look on their faces.

"How many did you see?", Quill asked.

"Fourteen million six hundred and five.", Strange replied.

"How many did we win?", Tony asked.

"Seven million three hundred and three.", Strange replied.

This was more than half.

So with such favorable odds, everyone took a sigh of relief and even cheered up a bit.

However, Strange's expression was still as solemn as ever.

Which didn't escape Tony, "Strange, what's wrong?", he asked.

Strange replied, "Every single time we managed to win, it was on Earth. We can't do it here. Alone, we'll lose.".

"What's the difference? Is it Captain? Or did Hulk finally decided to man up?", Tony asked.

Strange hesitated whether to answer this question, but in the end, he still replied, "Someone else. Someone we've never met, or even knew existed... even I... We... we need to go back.".

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Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive attacked Vision to take the Mind Stone from his head, but Wanda was there too since they were dating, so she held them back until Steve Rodgers and Natalia Romanoff came to the rescue.

Ultimately, Glaive got seriously injured, so Midnight chose to retreat.

Currently, the Avengers were in Wakanda and had tasked Shuri with safely extracting the Mind Stone from Vision, so that they'd be able to destroy it, thus preventing Thanos from ever getting his hands on it.

Unfortunately, Thanos' Outrider army had also managed to track them down, and not a difficult task either since Thanos' giant spaceship, Sanctuary-2 had been floating outside Earth's orbit all this time. It was cloaked so no technology on Earth detected its presence.

This was something many should find unsettling, but unfortunately, the governments here were more concerned with keeping the Avengers in line than preventing Earth's destruction.

In any case, currently, the Avengers, alongside the united Wakandan armies led by King T'Challa were having a staredown with the enemy forces.

Wakanda was protected by a giant dome-like force field, but a great number of Outrider Dropships had landed outside and it was overall quite a deterrent for the people inside.

Midnight and Obsidian walked out from one of the Dropships and stood outside the force field.

Romanoff, Rodgers, and T'Challa went forward to talk.

"Where's your other friend?", Romanoff mocked Midnight in a sarcastic tone.

She was referring to Glaive.

"You will pay for his life with yours, and Thanos will have that stone.", Midnight answered.

In fact, Glaive was alive and well, but Midnight just misdirected them, so that he'd be able to sneak in later when they'd be too busy fighting Thanos' army and steal the stone from right under their noses.

"That's not gonna happen.", Rodgers commented.

T'Challa loudly declared, "You are in Wakanda now. Thanos will have nothing but dust, and blood.".

Seeing her plot had succeeded, Midnight decided to go in for the kill, "We have blood to spare.", she declared.

Then she raised her sword high up and signaled the Outriders to get off the Dropships and attack.

[Images]

However, it was just at this time that all the color seemed to have faded from the world. Time... stopped at this very moment.

A streak of light came from nowhere and consecutively passed through the five Dropships in the front.

It was so fast that it had no apparent end or beginning. It was so abrupt that it seemed like there was no other light in the world.

But it soon disappeared on the horizon, just as suddenly as it had arrived.

It wasn't even a second, but for all the people present, it seemed like time had stopped for a moment.

It was like looking at a natural disaster in the face, facing your certain doom. But when it passed, the color finally returned to the world.

And when it did, "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!", the five Dropships exploded one by one.

Heatwave assaulted Midnight and Obsidian, their pupils shrank as the realization of what had just happened finally dawned on them.

Then bodies were assaulted by the airwaves as they were flung at the forcefield.

As for those inside it, the situation was a bit too confusing as sand and dirt impeded their vision.

However, not long after, "SWHOOOO!!", a loud gale came from nowhere, and with it, it brought a force that blew away the sandstorm.

When the vision finally cleared up, the people inside were shocked by the scene playing out in front of them.

Midnight and Obsidian were slowly trying to stand up as a man observed them from nearby.

He was hovering a few feet off the ground.

His long black hairs were moving with the wind, his purple eyes looked calculating, like in deep thought, but with a calm look on his face, as he observed them curiously with his hands behind his back.

For those still wondering, this was undoubtedly Kol.

He had merged with Cole not long ago, and decided to participate in the events of 'Avengers, Infinity War'.

That, and he was interested in Thanos.

Unlike the one in the comics, this Thanos perhaps never knew Lady Death, because even though she was a multiversal entity, the scope of her activities was mostly limited to Marvel 616.

So although Thanos' actions were that of a homicidal maniac, his intentions were actually, quite good.

After arriving at the scene, Kol didn't bother with the introductions.

He adjusted his angle of flight and just flew right through the enemy's Dropships at terrifying speed, enough to blow them up and disintegrate anything inside.

Then he doubled back, took a deep breath, and blew away the aftermath of the explosion, thus clearing up the field of view.

"Cough! Cough!", Midnight tried to cough out the dust stuck in her throat, as she found her sword on the ground and slowly got up.

But Obsidian was faster.

The big guy picked up his hammer and charged at Kol.

He roared like a beast, "ROARR!!", his footsteps slightly quaked the ground due to his weight.

In response, Kol slowly raised his right hand in front of him. His index finger and middle finger were straight while the rest were closed, like a one-handed Ram hand sign from 'Naruto', but more relaxed.

Kol's whole person was relaxed like he was just out on a stroll.

He raised his hand, and just casually waved his index and middle fingers across horizontally.

And just then, "Bang!", Obsidian's lifeless body fell.

Even as he was running, it seemed like his head didn't follow together with the rest of his body. It was separate, cut off by some invisible blade.

A simple application of Telekinesis. That's all it was. The hand motion was a way to help him focus, not necessary, but Kol just felt more at ease with it.

On the other hand, Midnight, who was just about to join Obsidian, halted her footsteps.

She was afraid. This was something that even Ebony Maw couldn't do, and he was the strongest person with Telekinetic ability that she knew.

Not to mention him, if this man in front of her was the one who destroyed the Dropships, then perhaps he was even stronger than Thanos.

Her instincts were screaming at her to run away, but she took a deep breath and asked, "Who are you?".

Kol replied, "As warriors, at some point in our lives, most of us are presented with a situation like this, when we are offered a choice. Do, or die.", and paused.

Then continued, "In case you haven't figured it out yet, it's your turn to choose now. Make no mistake, I may be the one with all the power, but your life is in your own hands. What you choose decides your fate.".

Then he flew a little closer to her, and continued, "Will you follow in his footsteps and die a meaningless death?", while referring to Obsidian's dead body, "Or will you surrender, and perhaps live to fight another day?", then he offered his hand to her with a small smile on his face, like a King would to an enemy they'd just shown mercy to.

But in Midnight's eyes, this smile seemed more like Devil's sneer. She lowered her head, trying to hide her true thoughts, trying but failing, as Kol's smile grew more apparent.

Right now Midnight really wanted to ask, "Live to fight another day? For what! To die? What a hubris to think that she would ever have a chance!", at this point, she could only bide her time and wait for Thanos to arrive.

Only if Thanos managed to collect more stones would they have a chance for a comeback.