Galactic Year Unknown
Centuri-Six
(Third Person POV)
The day started off as monotonous as it had been since their arrival on Centuri-Six nearly fifty years ago, the passage of time marked more by routine than by any true change.
They had a rhythm by now, one that had only shifted slightly with the recent arrival of baby Edward, the first Viltrumite child born since the massacre of their race two hundred years prior.
Tobias would continue to tinker endlessly with his technology, whether meticulously refining the cure for the virus that had wiped out their race all those years ago, or improving upon the remnants of what their once-great civilization had created. The quiet hum of machinery and the faint glow of the many computer screens had become as constant as his own breathing.
It was almost obsessive at this point. Yet it was understandable. The Scourge Virus had wiped out all on Viltrum, from the lowliest warrior to the great Thragg himself, leaving behind only silence where once there had been conquest and pride. Yet it had not taken down their leader.
No, the Great Argall wouldn't be taken down by something as lowly as a virus. No, Argall had been killed by treachery, murdered in his sleep without the chance to rise, to fight, to prove his strength as a Viltrumite should.
Only a few Viltrumites had survived the purge, mainly because they were off-world serving the Empire when it fell. She and her husband were two of those few, and likely among the last.
From the scattered rumors she had managed to gather, whispers pulled from intercepted transmissions and half-broken networks, someone was hunting their people to extinction, determined to erase the final traces of what was once, and would have been, the greatest empire across the stars.
Thula, once a formidable warrior who reveled in chaos and bloodshed in battle, now spent most of her days within the quiet confines of their home, tending to her child and grappling with feelings she had never been meant to experience.
After all, every Viltrumite was raised to believe that such things were weaknesses.
Love and affection, warmth and safety, fragile emotions that no Viltrumite should ever care for.
Yet when she held her child in her arms, feeling the small, steady warmth of his body against her own, those beautiful emerald-green eyes staring up at her with unguarded love and trust as he nibbled on her fingers with a bright, toothless smile, she found herself unable, unwilling, to resist the quiet pull of those forbidden feelings.
Three hundred years had left her with an abundance of time for reflection, more than most of her kind would have ever allowed themselves. She knew now that the Viltrumites had not been perfect.
Their endless infighting, their ruthless culling of the weak, had left them blind, too consumed with proving strength among themselves to notice the danger growing beyond their borders.
They had been so busy quarrelling with one another that they never saw the attack coming until it was far too late.
To this day, she did not know who had been behind it all, and despite hiding on a remote, largely uncharted planet, she had done everything within her power to gather information.
In the end, she had found little. Tidbits and hearsay, nothing more than scattered echoes of a truth that refused to reveal itself.
Information she could not trust, no matter how much she wished to. Perhaps they should seek revenge, but what good were two Viltrumites and a child against an enemy that had brought an empire to its knees?
No, she would give her child time to grow, to become strong, before even considering such a path.
"Aha! Finally!" Tobias shouted from his laboratory, his voice sharp with triumph as it cut through the otherwise quiet home, followed by the rapid, uneven thud of hurried footsteps approaching the nursery.
The door to the room slid open with a soft hiss, revealing her husband framed in the dim light of the corridor. He was well built, as all Viltrumites were, tall, broad-shouldered, and powerfully muscled, his presence alone a reminder of the strength their race once embodied.
A black mustache framed his upper lip, while his short-cropped black hair, now streaked with grey at the sides, spoke to the long years they had endured.
In his hand, held with a care that bordered on reverence, was a tiny vial filled with a softly glowing light-blue liquid.
Her eyes widened ever so slightly, a rare crack in the composure forged by a thousand years of enforced emotionlessness. "Is that…?"
Tobias nodded, a bright, almost boyish smile spreading across his face, an expression she still found herself unaccustomed to, even after shedding the rigid conditioning forced upon them since childhood. "It's the cure. I've done it, Thula. Nearly a century of work… but I've finally done it."
"And you're certain it will work?" she asked, unable to fully mask the skepticism laced within her voice, no matter how much she wanted to believe him.
Tobias nodded again, more firmly this time.
There was something in that simple gesture, so full of conviction that it sparked a warm feeling of hope within her chest.
Her husband drew breath to speak once more, but before he could, a thunderous boom tore through the air, rattling the very foundation beneath their feet.
The walls shuddered violently, a deep, reverberating tremor coursing through the structure, startling young Edward awake with a frightened cry.
Tobias's hand jerked instinctively, the vial slipping from his grasp, only for her to move in a blur, catching the precious cure just before it could shatter against the ground.
She turned her gaze back to her husband, and in that instant, every trace of warmth had vanished from his expression, replaced by the cold, unyielding stare of a Viltrumite warrior ready for battle.
"Have they found us, then?" he asked, already moving toward the nearby window, his posture tense as he tried to pinpoint the source of the tremors shaking the ground beneath them.
Another impact followed, then another, and another, each one coming faster than the last, until the very air seemed to shudder with the relentless barrage.
A normal person would have likely been thrown to the floor by the constant shaking, unable to keep their footing. However, they were not normal.
"My god…" Tobias breathed, his blue eyes fixed on the sky, wide with something she couldn't quite decipher, shock, disbelief, or perhaps something far worse.
Thula hastily scooped Edward into her arms, tucking him tightly against her chest as she gently rocked him, trying to soothe his frightened cries even as the tremors continued to ripple through the structure.
Without wasting another moment, she moved to stand beside her husband, following his gaze upward.
A small gasp escaped her lips as her eyes fell upon a sky no longer its natural hue, but instead a sickly pink, choked with the looming presence of warships.
Each vessel loomed like a predator overhead, their massive underbellies split open as an endless stream of Chitauri poured forth.
Behind them, armored leviathans slithered through the air, followed by their armored gorillas.
One ship, however, dwarfed the rest. It resembled a massive letter Q, its structure centered around glowing red rings that pulsed ominously with energy. That ship was descending, slow, deliberate, drawing ever closer to their isolated position far from the distant city of Centuria.
She exhaled slowly, the sound heavy with resignation. "They've found us, then," Thula said, her voice steady despite the dread settling deep within her chest, her gaze dropping briefly to the bundle in her arms as Edward continued to fuss against the unrelenting tremors.
The massive ship finally came to a halt directly above them, its shadow swallowing their home in an instant. Before either of them could react, it began to descend further, the sheer pressure of its presence forcing the air to churn violently.
As it neared the ground, a panel along its side slid open with mechanical precision, releasing a familiar green gas that spilled outward and began creeping steadily toward their home.
Tobias and Thula's eyes widened, not with mere concern, but with true, unfiltered fear, for they were staring upon the very thing that had wiped out their race.
They locked eyes for a brief, silent moment, then glanced down at the vial still clutched in Thula's hand, before finally looking to the child in her arms. With only one vial, there was no room for hesitation.
And after the past year of love, of growth, of change, the choice was simple.
Tobias dashed into his laboratory and returned in less than a millisecond, a small, specialized device gripped tightly in his hand, a compact gun with an empty slot designed for a vial and a thin, gleaming needle at its tip.
Thula wasted no time, swiftly inserting the vial before snapping it securely into place, her hands steady despite everything as she lifted her gaze to meet her husband's.
"Are you sure… Thula?" Tobias asked quietly, the weight behind his words far heavier than the chaos surrounding them.
She gave a resolute nod, her expression unyielding. "We prepared for this. The ship is ready to depart, we only need to hold them off for a short time to allow it to leave the atmosphere."
"And this planet… this Earth?" Tobias pressed, his voice tightening. "You're certain they won't find him?"
"It lies so far beyond known space that I still do not know how I found it," she replied, her tone firm with conviction. "They will not. And by the time they ever could… our son will be strong enough to fight his own battles."
The green gas continued its slow, inevitable advance, and a brilliant blue beam of light suddenly lanced down from the Q-ship, striking their front lawn with a deafening hum.
Within its glow, two figures emerged, one a towering, armored monstrosity wielding a massive two-headed battle axe, and beside it, a tall, pale-skinned woman with blue lips and eyes, clad in similar armor, a golden energy spear humming faintly in her grasp.
Tobias turned his gaze to his son, his expression softening in a way the Viltrum Empire would have never allowed before.
He had wanted to raise Edward. To teach him the ways of the Viltrumites, to show him both their greatness and their failures, to pass on knowledge on his love of science, of technology, of medicine.
Slowly, he bent down and pressed a gentle kiss to Edward's forehead, the infant responding with a soft giggle, unaware of the weight of the moment. "Goodbye, my son. Live… and make Viltrum proud."
Thula moved swiftly, descending into the basement that doubled as a hidden hangar for their escape vessel.
The ship was modest in size, built for speed and survival rather than combat, yet it carried everything their son would need, records of the Viltrum Empire, the full breadth of their technological advancements, and countless recorded messages from both herself and Tobias.
Strapping Edward securely into the pod at its center, she activated the ship, setting its course for Earth. The drives hummed to life almost instantly, systems coming online within seconds, and for a brief moment, Thula simply looked at her child one last time.
His bright emerald eyes gazed up at her, filled with nothing but love and trust, utterly unaware of the storm raging within her. For the first time in two thousand years, her vision blurred as tears gathered in her eyes.
Leaning down, she placed a lingering kiss upon Edward's forehead, her hand brushing gently against his cheek.
"Be well, my son… your mother loves you."
With that, she turned away, exiting the ship as the hatch sealed behind her with a final hiss. The vessel lifted smoothly from the ground, its blue warp-drives flaring to life as the hangar doors slid open, revealing the war-torn, pink-tinged sky of Centuri-Six.
A thunderous crash echoed above, followed by the sharp crack of a sonic boom, and in that instant, she knew, there was no more time.
It was time to let go… and to buy her child enough time to give him the future he deserved.
Thula surged forward in a blur of motion, tearing through the walls of her home as if they were nothing more than paper, launching herself directly toward the invading forces.
Her fist connected with the monstrous creature's chin with devastating force, sending the massive being hurtling skyward.
Yet only moments later, as she drew breath to continue the fight, the deadly green virus filled her lungs, the same poison that had eradicated her people.
From their research, she knew the truth, five minutes at most before her strength would begin to fail, before the virus took hold completely. Five minutes… and she would spend every last second ensuring her son's escape.
Steel settling her resolve, she pivoted instantly, launching herself toward the pale woman who was locked in fierce combat with Tobias.
Grabbing her long braid, Thula dashed towards her at full speed, swinging the blade affixed at its end toward her opponent's neck in one fluid, lethal motion.
The battle erupted into a violent exchange, the four combatants trading blows that shattered the ground beneath them and split the air with every impact.
Then, suddenly, Tobias staggered, a thin stream of blood trickling from his nose, the first undeniable sign of the virus taking hold.
A moment later, the monstrous creature's axe struck him with far more force than it should have, sending him reeling.
When Thula felt the telltale warmth of blood beneath her own nose and the sudden, violent urge to vomit, she knew the truth, they were out of time.
Summoning the last reserves of her strength, she launched herself forward in a final burst of speed, intercepting the woman just as she drove her spear toward Tobias's heart. Her hand lashed out in the signature Viltrumite slash, slicing clean through the woman's spear arm in a single, decisive strike.
But before she could press the advantage, a crushing force slammed into her side, sending her hurtling backward into the dirt, her body carving a six-foot-deep crater upon impact.
Thula struggled to rise, her body trembling as her strength betrayed her for the first time in centuries.
Yet even then, she turned her gaze skyward, her fading vision locking onto the small speck of light growing ever more distant as it streaked away from the planet, until it vanished into the endless expanse of the stars.
As the monstrous creature loomed over her, raising its axe for the final blow, Thula allowed herself a bloodied, satisfied smile.
Then, at last, darkness claimed her.
-
A blue beam shot from the Q shaped ship down to the recent battle ground, revealing a thin humanoid creature with wrinkly grey skin and pointed ears wearing a black robe.
He took in the scene around him, the two dead Viltrumites and his siblings injuries before he floated towards the living quarters and inspected them further.
What he found was most interesting. It appeared the two had managed to procreate before their untimely demise. Judging by the ship that had entered warp-space not a few minutes prior, it is safe to assume that said child managed to escape somehow.
He frowned at such a thought. Father would not be happy when he heard of this.
-
Earth, 1992
The quiet skies above Earth were broken with the sound of a space-ship breaking into view in the vast expanse above. This would have been exciting for those monitoring if not for the fact they had just dealt with a potential hostile invasion a few months prior.
The Haulcraft appeared briefly on scanners, alerting those monitoring incoming activity but quickly disappeared as soon as it entered Earth's atmosphere, cloaking itself from view.
It descended through the clouds before hovering briefly over America and scanning for potential homes for its charge. The scans stopped over the eastern seaboard near New York City, information showing several unusual energy signatures and humans with strange powers practicing outside a large house. A place where it would not be unusual for her charge to grow into his own abilities.
A small, circular hole opened and dropped the pod holding the child, its thrusters taking it towards the set location.
Yet as it made its way towards his new home, Edwards pod was knocked off course by a nearby flock of birds, sending the pod careening of course miles North of the mansion that would have been its new home straight into an open field.
It went undiscovered for a few days until a unit of military personnel and scientists arrived on the scene having clocked the strange vessel exiting the atmosphere. One particular scientist, who seemed to be the leader of this group approached the pod which opened to reveal what appeared to be a human baby but was anything but.
The scientist ran a finger over the boy's forehead, black eyes gleaming red for a moment before they turned to their original form.
"You will do perfectly."