Erik wrapped his arms around Daisy and held her to his chest in a single breath drenched in all the desperation he had been pressured by her absence, the absence of his daughter.

The meeting was over and Wong, Dr. Strange's partner in sorcery, assisted Daisy's initiative with a transport spell. Unfortunately, his participation was restricted to only that since Earth had to remain protected in the temporary leave of their Sorcerer Supreme and he was the only practitioner with availability and experience.

Milano, the Guardian's ship, has never been as crowded as then, when Tony attached a loaded container above it with his tech and all who have signed up for the war on a short notice have been transported inside by Wong's portals. Peter Quill was actively worrying his ship was not in a good enough shape to carry all the extra weight fast across the galaxy, far less the universe, but another Peter was waiting his turn to hug his sister, just released from Erik's embrace which has cut all intention of stuttering.

Daisy met Peter Maximoff's clingy embrace with the strength of having missed him and the guilt which poured silent tears of her eyes. Though the mutants which have answered the call were no strangers, Daisy felt that even in this little corner with her family, she shouldn't let her weakness be seen.

Storm, Scott, Kurt, Kitty, Colossus and Logan too, all have joined as active members of the X-Men on a truthfully short notice.

"I'm so sorry," Daisy mumbled, beginning to realize, through the palpable contact her mental illusion faltered in mimicking sometimes, that her denial state has put everyone in danger.

"What are you sorry about?" Peter ceased the hug and leant back. His gloved hands, because he was suited in what the X-Men would wear for missions alreadt, rested a little while longer on her shoulders before falling off. Realizations of his own were much darker on the expressions he carried: Daisy felt weak. "Dad said some alien messed you up and now wants to kill all of us."

"This wouldn't have happened if I just beat him the first time!" Daisy finally lost the composure of her voice, hinged together barely ever since she escaped the chains. A little louder than the chatter in the ship, her voice and the implication of her words have drawn the attention of all eyes.

Charles deamnded some privacy telepathically, while ashamed, before them, Daisy sat down, next to the wall, right on the ground. Somehow, she guessed Quill would advice against touching the floor with her hands, so she tucked them under her opposite arm, hugging herself in the rhythm of little sobs.

"How many were there?" Erik asked, tone sternly sharp, just the right amount for its neutrality to draw upwards the cried, glassy gaze of his daughter. Then, the bluntness shattered into compassion and he sat down next to her. "When Jean transported you to the fight out of nowhere, was it just Thanos?"

"His Order was with him," Daisy hiccuped, uncertain. From an outside perspective, it felt wrong to be this old and still need the easy comfort of a parent, however, on the inside, things changed. The gentleness of this conversation was exactly what she needed.

"How many?"

"Five more," she replied to his repeated question.

"You were alone, in a place you did not know, fighting against a group of trained space killers, Daisy. You did your best..."

"Did I?" her voice cracked and she looked up at Charles, seated in front of her in his chair. Peter has taken the other seat beside Daisy, not planning on leaving her out of his sight until he was sure she was alright. Now, obviously, she wasn't, even if contorl got her back to whispers and not mindless shouts. "Six months I fought Jean back from trying to make me act and stop Thanos. I risked us all just because I was scared and I liked my illusion."

She couldn't keep eye contact with Charles for too long. Especially with her next words, she had to drop her gaze and try to hide the close of her eyes, rolling another set of tears down her cheeks, "I lost it, you know..."

"What did you lose, Daisy?" Charles asked and Erik reached his hand to take hers. It was almost impossible to muster how exactly they'd be in their right minds to allow her to join the fight in this condition. But would anyone really follow this plan without her imposing presence? Charles sensed the unfairness like a guillotine above their hands in morality.

"The telepathy," she sniffed. Somehow, Charles guessed it, without even knowing how such a thing would be possible. Surely, Daisy has destroyed mutated genes before, as in Adam's case, but to consciously nullify her telepathic abilities was a concept he could not find any decent reasoning behind. "Jean was right, I was able to stretch that mutation further than even Cerebro... but now, every time I try to use it, I just feel pain. I don't think...," Daisy's little sob stuck in her throat and she bowed her head again after having just risen her gaze. "I lost it forever, didn't I?"

"Sis," Peter spoke before any of the older adults could interfere and perhaps make it tougher than it had to be. He was simply glad to have their little flawed family back together, even if it meant some other aliens had to be fought to assure their stay. "You're just tired. I think all you need is a nap to get your forces back, hm? How about that?"

It wasn't sleep nor rest which Stephen Strange got though when he reached the location where supposedly, Jean Grey, the Phoenix, was caged from exerting her powers in the world by the primordial rules they all existed by. Stephen reached to hold nothing but empty chains, floating over his hands while his cape carried him closer. The chains held nothing but once he grazed just one fingertip on them, lighted runes surrounded them in bright blue.

"Rune magic," Stephen noted. "Thanos had help with these..."

He was glad he got to see the chains and identified what the current danger for the universe and for Earth had as assests, especially since Daisy let him know her own chains have been decimated by Sol, however, a problem came with the emptiness which gave this corner of the universe the name of void: Jean was not there.

It made no sense though. Daisy said she conversed with Jean, that she was in her head at all times almost, Dr. Strange tried to find order in his thoughts and piece together why he was holding chains with no struggle signs on them. This is the only place where traces of Phoenix Force signaled in my tracking spell from Daisy's prison. Where is Jean-?

A wild yellow glow came from behind him and his trust cape fluttered to alert him of a presence behind him; a not so friendly someone was shinning dangerously close to the sorcerer and the chain he will take with himself now as proof.

It was a woman's voice which addressed Stephen, "You've got some explanation to do and fast, before I deem your existence just a pain in my ass."

Daisy Vince has had her body resting for six months. Though the conclusion of the reunion with her family was that she needed to rest, restlessness was what roamed her veins along with the carnal guilt of not having done more. Milano could do only so much in carrying everyone and the ship was crowded with people in for a long ride across the universe, in a considerable stealth.

Tainted grace found itself in Daisy's tiptoeing through and over the people sleeping on improvised beds all over the ship's floor. She passed her dads successfully and didn't wake up even Tony, though she was aware Pepper has declared him quite the light sleeper, considering his antecedents. Incredibly careful was her try of getting over Steve, Bucky and Sam, all bundled up, probably by Captain's idea to humbly save space for others. Only Daisy's legs were hardly long enough to get across this barricade without somehow stepping on the shield laying there too and slipping.

"Are you feeling better?"

The frank voice flinched her into setting her lifted foot down and accidentally stepping on the side of an arm. She closed her eyes and braced for a violent reaction, however, since none came, she looked down and made a mental note to never mention Sergent Barnes of how absolutely grateful she had been for a second that he owned one metal arm.

But then again, she realized no one of the floor could have asked that, since they were all sleeping. Looking up and to the right made her realize the strong voice was fitted to the awake King of Asgard. Thor Odinson with a thin blanket over his legs and his muscled arms crossed at his chest was looking at her.

Daisy could have sworn his eyes were closed and he was leaning his head back as relaxed as in a sleep, guarding over his brother, laid beside him in quite the fetal position. Loki was certainly soundly asleep, Sol made sure of it, regaining his strength under that blanket of his. Everyone received thin material for blankets from the Guardians, though the origin of those should not be questioned under any circumstances.

"I overheard a little of your conversation with your family earlier," Thor explained, finding it just a little difficult to dosage his tone so that he could be heard by the girl and not also be the cause of everyone waking up moody. "It's a small ship and sound travels..."

There was no way she could pass the barricade in front of her, but there was a little space left on the bench, to Thor's left. It was far more appealing than the stress ahead, so Daisy made her way closer before answering. "I wasn't feeling myself. But don't worry, I'll be in my best condition for the fight... How come you're not resting?"

Thor shifted just a little bit to the right, until Loki's hard boots came against his leg, to give Daisy some room to sit beside him. At her inquiry, he glanced down at his brother with a undeniably pained laugh, be it low or believable, "It will sound stupid, but I am maybe just a little bit afraid he'll disappear. Or that I am just imagining he's alive? You know." Thor turned his gaze to Daisy, "Like this is how I cope with having watched my brother died without being able to do anything?"

Daisy nodded, to his surprise. He watched her intently how seriously she leant forward and studied Loki and watching his breathing, lifting and sinking that grey blanket. "He's real," she nodded firmly at last. "Sol is the Soul Stone and if anyone can bring someone back to life, it's definitely her, you know. And we all watched him give us the location of Thano's headquarters... But I get it," her little shrug faded into leaning back against the wall their bench was stuck into, "with all the weird shit that's been happening, I question my sanity and reality all the time too."

"I didn't get the chance to thank you before," Thor cleared his throat on the words which he has been holding at the bat of his lashes. Daisy meetinf his gaze made him look away and straighten his back, "Sol said you wanted to find us and that's how they discovered the distress signal."

"We were too late," Daisy replied. Bitterness returned on her tongue as a permanent venom. Once again, guilt pierced through what she thought would have been her sturdy bridge to get over the last events and focus on preventing the future she has been warned about. The bridge was slowly catching fire, its underlayment was turning to dust and even the lightest breeze could have her tumbling back into the pouring streams below, raging and racing to whatever end, shallow.

"Could you have stopped Thanos if you arrived earlier?" Thor considered out loud. "What would you need all of us for if you did?"

"I'm really sorry for your losses though, I cannot imagine how-"

"No," Thor raised his hand. A gentle smile rested on his lips and he closed his eyes, listening in on Daisy's puzzled silence to the calm he was showing. Calms are what cover up storms. And oh, the natural disasters which hid inside of him were unmatched with bloodthirst. Yet it was not the blood of friends, nor the blood of just anyone which he needed to spill in order to be satisfied. Thor needed Thanos to pay.

"It's not your deed to apologize for," he explained, opening his eyes. Daisy found the meaning of God of Thunder hidden in his eyes. They darkened as the clouds before a rain, "Thanos and his Black Order killed my people... He's the one who will be begging for mercy and we will show him none, right?"

Daisy held no grudge for being imprisoned and tortured as strong as what Thor was feeling or Gamora has been fighting her entire life. Sol too has been haunted by how objectified Thanos had made her feel. Tony and Steve were survivors of what Thanos' plans have done to Earth through Loki, nothing but another victim of the titan. Her hatred was different because she saw what he was planning to do.

She saw the deaths of almost everyone, their sacrifice, their pain. Thanos was planning to kill so many souls and amongst them was the entire mutant race. If that was to be their end, it would laugh in the face of everything she's been trying to achieve and protect. Where was the fairness in that? How could that future not make her blood boil?

"Right," Daisy answered certainly his rhetoric question, dipped the slightest in doubt. "He'll get what he deserves."

Tuun, a dark planet benefiting from hardly a few minutes of starlight from the cluster of asteroids, moons and neighbouring space objects separating it from the center of its system, was the home of the entire battalions under Thanos' rule. A third, red glowing stone has been added to his golden gauntlet, flaunted by his side while he sat on his lonely throne and pondered. Not too far from him was Nebula, perhaps more quiet than usual considering the uncontrollable rage her "father" let out upon discovering Taneleer knew nothing of the other stone's location.

And there was always the matter of how exactly he will go around convincing Sol to willing give herself to his cause.

The blue android, a tortured soul plunged into darkness and retrieved as cruelly pitch black, was hued in the nuances of red of the dawning Tuun as a mirror of her Mad father. Some glint of hatred, shy and scared of being noticed, crept into her gaze at him, while his eyes were staring into nothingness, far away.

Power, Space and now Reality too was at Thanos' will. He could destroy anything, anywhere and create world of his own to control, but there was more which he wanted still. The disease of greed cloaked in corrupted good intentions was outshone by the plague of silence being interrupted.

As a storm emerging from entire moments of stillness elongated into existence, Proxima Midnight marched through the tall chamber's doors. Amber-like glass and stone from molten destruction made the height of the lonesome throne room to stand as a homage for the greatness of Titan and its plunge into destruction.

"Father," Proxima knelt before Thanos' throne fast, bowing her head. She waited a second, her right hand over her chest, before getting up with the ease and agility of the fearsome fighter she was. "The Time Stone is no longer on Earth."

"The Sorcerer cannot possibly know about our plans yet," Thanos reassured calmly. He was not wearing his full armour, having discarded it at his very feet after the disappointing meeting with Taneleer. "He had left in the past too, he'll return. Have you confirmed the location of the Mind Stone?"

"Not yet," Proxima admitted.

"There's something wrong," Nebula noted. She has been attentive to the conversation and catching onto Proxima's little twitch was a finesse of ease.

If looks could kill, Proxima would have murdered the adopted daughter of Thanos in an instant, however, she was instead stuck with lowering her head, "Our insider in the Earth organization, Anchor, which you have instructed us to infiltrate, has been eliminated, my lord."

Their insider in Anchor was a Skrull Thanos has threaten enough to convince their enslavement to the cause. They were loyal and fearful for their life, so betrayal was not an option to be considered. Their only options were that it was either a mistake or someone outed their plan to the humans or the mutants, none of which was lowering the anger levels of the Titan, but instead building up the typhoon display of power.

Thanos asummed the worst. He gritted his teeth.

author's note:    I am literally soo proud of this chapter, not just for how the action is tying up, but also for the fact that though I have been feeling quite low these days, not receiving feedback and seeing my stats on books go down, I still pulled myself together for the passion I have for this book 😭💖 So yes, important chapter...

NOW ONTO THE BIG RANT I HAVE HERE..

1) Not Dr Strange stumbling into trouble gracefully... who do you think he came across??? What are your theories on Jean disappearing?

2) I feel relieved to base Daisy's need of parental reassurance as an adult on myself at last. It is normal to need familial support as an adult when you haven't been receiving properly in your childhood.

3) I FOUND THE THEME SONG FOR THIS BOOK, brace yourselves: