In the heart of the battlefield, Steve Rogers raised his voice, his shield glinting in the light. "Avengers, assemble!"
The call reverberated across the battlefield like a tidal wave, igniting the spirits of countless Avengers. Their battle cries erupted like a mountain roar, and the army surged forward with unrelenting determination, charging directly toward Thanos.
Opposite them, Thanos stood stoically, the Overlord Sky Blade gripped firmly in his hand. His dark army stirred behind him, their weapons gleaming with lethal intent. With a subtle motion, he raised his blade high, and his soldiers surged forward like a tidal wave to meet the Avengers.
The battlefield erupted into chaos as the two armies clashed, a cacophony of steel, energy blasts, and roars echoing across the plains.
Thanos, however, remained still. He observed the carnage with cold, detached eyes, an evil smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "Senseless resistance," he muttered, his voice low and disdainful.
If Tony or the others had been close enough, they would have noticed something strange about him. This was not the Thanos they remembered. His face, once a smooth, deep purple, now bore two layers of grayish discoloration. Wrinkles etched his features, giving him a weathered, almost decayed appearance. If the Thanos they fought years ago resembled a "purple sweet potato," this one looked like a moldy, rotting version.
This was no Thanos from before
On the battlefield, the Chitauri soldiers released giant apes from massive cages. These beasts roared ferociously, their enormous frames barreling into the Avengers' ranks. Thanos watched the chaos unfold and then gave a subtle nod toward another cage being wheeled forward.
"Release him," he ordered. "His presence will break their morale."
Several Chitauri soldiers stepped forward, pushing a heavy, reinforced cage. Inside was a hulking figure, its body shackled and its neck bound by a suppressing collar.
It was the Hulk.
"ROAR!"
The caged Hulk's primal bellow shook the battlefield. Devoid of reason, reduced to a mindless beast, he charged the Avengers with unbridled fury. His arrival sent a wave of unease rippling through their ranks.
As the battle raged, Thanos stood motionless, his thoughts drifting to the past.
This Thanos was not of this universe. He hailed from another parallel timeline, one where his conquest had been absolute. From the moment he began his crusade, his mission had been clear: annihilate all life in the universe.
He had been unstoppable, his forces overwhelming Earth with ease. The Avengers had fallen before him, and only the Hulk was spared, reduced to a pet under his control. The rest of Earth was left desolate, its people eradicated, its cities turned to ruins.
But his hunger for power did not stop there. Thanos turned his gaze toward Asgard, determined to crush the ruler of the Nine Realms. Despite Thor's ascension as God King and the combined might of Asgard's forces, they could not stand against Thanos' dark army. The Nine Realms fell, reduced to lifeless wastelands.
By then, Thanos had become more than a conqueror—he was the destroyer of all life. With each battle, his power grew even as his body aged. Eventually, he stood as the sole living being in the universe, save for his dark army and his subjugated pet, Hulk.
He had achieved his goal. He was the supreme king, the emperor of a dead universe.
But the price of his conquest was an unbearable loneliness. For the first time, Thanos felt empty, his existence devoid of purpose. With nothing left to destroy, he found himself consumed by boredom. In his despair, a mad idea took root: he would travel to another timeline to prevent his younger self from repeating the same hollow cycle.
The task, however, was daunting. The six Infinity Stones, long since destroyed, were crucial to time travel. Without them, the challenge seemed insurmountable.
Yet Thanos was a master of the universe's most advanced technologies. After countless failures, he finally succeeded in developing a device capable of traversing time and space. All he needed was someone in the past timeline to anchor him, ensuring he wouldn't be lost in the endless streams of time.
It was then that he encountered another version of himself—one who had taken a far different path. This Thanos was a humbled farmer, living in quiet retirement after his defeat at the hands of the Avengers.
The sight enraged the old conqueror. How could he, the destroyer of the universe, share any resemblance with this broken figure?
His first instinct was to kill this weaker version of himself, but the farmer Thanos intervened. "Rushing in will only lead to failure," he warned. "The Avengers of this timeline are far stronger than you realize. If you wish to succeed, you must act with caution."
Though skeptical, the older Thanos agreed to a temporary alliance. The farmer proposed a plan: he would locate potential allies in this timeline to ensure their success. The conqueror, in turn, would set the stage in his own universe, ready to strike when the coordinates were aligned.
When the preparations were complete, the conqueror returned to his timeline and finalized his plans. To ensure the secrecy of his operation, he enlisted Mordo to erase his memories of these events using the Mind Stone. Content with his work, the farmer Thanos resumed his peaceful life in the garden, unaware of the chaos to come.
Now, standing on the battlefield of this new timeline, the older Thanos gripped the Overlord Sky Blade tightly. His eyes burned with cold determination.
The other Thanos—the farmer—had played his part. Now, it was his turn to act. With every piece of his elaborate plan falling into place, he was ready to establish himself as the ultimate force in this universe.