This post has the following content warnings:
"This is not a good idea," Grim says, sharp and bitter.
"Which of us is in charge again?" her Father asks, cool, the threat implicit in his tone.
"I- you, sir, I know but- this isn't going to-"
"We are being well paid to take Thanos out. So make it happen. Or do I have to remind you what happens when you defy me?"
Grim ducks her head, breathes out carefully, doesn't let her reaction show beyond that. "No sir. I understand."
"Then get it done." He hangs up without saying anything else.
...Is that what she's asking? Is that what this is? Her own experience of the word 'family' has never felt this warm.
"I- yes? Sir? If-if that's-okay?"
"It's very okay." He tussles her hair (and, again, he does so slowly to avoid startling her). "C'mere."
Still crouching down so that he's level with her, he opens his arms in an inviting embrace.
He knows that this much intimacy will probably be scary for her, but any daughter of his ought to be able to face down such fears.
-she recognises this gesture she thinks, from watching other parents with their children. She's still cautious, but she does step forwards.
He pulls her close. Barrel-thick arms that could throttle the life from a Kronan apply only gentle pressure to Grim's diminutive frame.
"You're home. You are my child and you are home."
After a moment of not knowing what to do with her arms, she wraps them around him as best she can in turn.
"Thank you," she says fervently. (Because he had every reason to hurt her, to kill her, and instead he's being more caring than her own father had ever cared to be.)
He holds her close for a long time, steady and quiet.
This is the foundation of her new life. He wants to give her room to drink it in fully. To remember it clearly, years or decades or centuries from now.
When he's satisfied in that regard, Thanos loosens his embrace and stands upright again.
"So, I hear you and Cull have started sparring?"
Chuckle. Nonchalant conversation. Let the weighty moment pass.
Thanos has other things that he'll need to discuss with his new child, but he'll have so many other opportunities to do so and these things always play out better if you take them one milestone at a time.
"I presume the fights have been quite one-sided so far."
"They have," she confirms, more amused by it than anything else. "Although he's helping me to improve against him."
"Good. You'll get there."
It pleases Thanos greatly that Grim has already taken the initiative in regards to training against his other children.
It's very important for siblings to be Perfectly Balanced with each other, after all.
That's just, like, Good Parenting 101.
"That will be the first objective I assign to you, in fact. To become stronger."
"Report back to the medical wing," Thanos says. "Tell the chief technicians--the ones with extra metal bits sticking out of them--that I'd like for them to take a look at you." When he notices her hesitating, he adds. "You can walk the Sanctuary II's halls freely now. No escort needed."
She smiles shyly. "Yes, sir, thank you, sir."
Pause. "I am dismissed, sir?"
She nods, and leaves in the direction of the medical wing to find a technician.
She runs into a couple of Chitauri warriors along the way. They regard her warily, but make no move to bar her passage. Either Thanos has somehow communicated her new status to the entire ship since their conversation earlier, or else he had already made up his mind (and disseminated the appropriate orders to his subordinates) before she spoke to him.
She returns to the section of the ship where she woke up after her initial failed attempt on Thanos' life. It bustles with more activity now than it did then: a lot of warriors suffered injuries during the siege the week before, and many are still in recovery.
After poking through a couple of technical-looking rooms, she locates the chief technicians. They don't seem surprised to see her.
"Lord Thanos said that he wanted you to take a look at me," she says without preamble.
The technicians nod, and lead her into an unoccupied operating room.
The operating room features a bunch of scary looking machinery, vats of artificial flesh, and furniture with rated-versus-superstrength restraints.
The technicians seem to expect Grim to sit down on one of the aforementioned pieces of mechanized furniture.
Comply?
...She breathes out carefully, reminds herself that Thanos had not seemed to be lying to her.
And even if he was. There was no way to avoid his will.
She complies.
It's not a pleasant experience.
Arguably, the cybertechs that Thanos employs rank among the best in the galaxy, but they come from a school of surgery that makes no accommodations for the comfort of its patients. She's given a sedative/paralytic that keeps her body from jerking about during the procedure, but they leave her partially conscious--with all sensory nerves live--in order to optimize the fine control elements of the cyberware they're installing.
The surgery itself takes about an hour. They do administer painkillers during the ensuing recovery period, at least; numbing her enough to make sleep possible.
...she was more conscious when her father had cybertech put into her. And had less pain medication.
This doesn't make it pleasant, but it allows her to objectively understand why they're leaving her nerves capable of giving feedback.
Sleep doesn't come easily, but it does come. (And the shadowy nightmares about every nerve and muscle in her body responding to the live wire sensation of her old cybertech are old friends, even if the new sensations make them more prominent.)
When she wakes, she finds Thanos waiting at her bedside.
This infirmary room is larger than the one she spent the night in before. Noticeably, it has a high enough ceiling for Thanos to stand fully upright.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
