Chapter 363: The Last Stand
25th April 2015, New York City
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
She was tearing up now, "I know that what I did was wrong, and that I lost your trust. But is it horrible that I don't like seeing the woman I love turn into this broken thing?"
"You're the one who turned me into this, remember?"
She didn't have anything to say to that and just looked down. After ten minutes of silence, she asked, "Would you have ever let me out, if you didn't need me to fight?"
I looked at her. I saw the woman that had been my trusted companion for thousands of years, that I shared my joys and sorrows with, and all I could feel was disappointment at her betrayal. I let my face stay as impassive as possible when I uttered the word, "No."
I could tell that it hurt her deeply, but she had asked for the truth, and I delivered it. She buried her obvious distress in her mind and stood up, "Alright, we've wasted enough time. Tell me about that plan of yours and how we're going to kill a Cosmic Entity."
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(Wanda Maximoff POV)
The last couple of years in Wanda Maximoff's life weren't the best. While her relationship with Jean was going well, she couldn't say the same about the one with her mother. It wasn't Jasmine's fault, she knew that, but it was hard not to be resentful at the creature wearing her mother's face, and yet didn't have an ounce of her compassion and humanity.
Ever since that bitch Selene betrayed her, Jasmine started to lose whatever remained of her humanity. She was always something more, something above, like a Goddess among men, but now, she was like an apathetic sentient computer. Jasmine stopped trying to stop supervillains, stopped trying to help the magical world she had invested thousands of years into, and she stopped caring about the fate of the race that she had created, the mutants.
What remained of her was an apathetic empty shell with her memories that still had the same face. Comparing her to the woman that had saved her all those years ago from her prison and fought for her so zealously just because it was the right thing to do, it was like she was a different person.
Wanda liked to think back to those days of just spending time with Jasmine, learning how to control her magic. How she wished that those days never ended. Still, even though she suffered, it wasn't until Rose's betrayal, which was orchestrated by Selene, followed quickly by the bitch's own betrayal, that put the last nail in the coffin. All of Jasmine's suffering started because of her toxic relationship with Selene, which is why it was grating to see the bitch walking next to her mother as if nothing had happened.
Yeah, Jasmine had called her and Jean, told them that the battle for the multiverse was the following day, and that they should start assembling their forces for both conflicts. They did their best; they had assembled a council of the heads of each faction. Emma Frost for the mutants, the Ancient One for the Sorcerers, King T'Chaka for Wakanda, Peter Quill for the Guardians of the Galaxy, Tony Stark for the Avengers, Reed Richards for the Fantastic Four, hell, even Victor Von Doom who Richards was able to convince to attend somehow, was present. The mage community was deemed to be too divided and weak to make a point, and they wouldn't survive being exposed to the spotlight like that.
Everyone was arguing, of course, until Jasmine entered the room, followed by that bitch, Selene, where everyone quieted down. Jasmine nodded to herself and started speaking, "Some of you may know me, some of you may not, but that doesn't really matter. My name is Morrigan, and I have asked to meet with you today because we face a threat that is far larger than anything any of us have dealt with alone. I am not talking about a nice fight with some supervillain that's in over their head, I am talking about another extra-terrestrial attack."
King T'Chaka questioned, "Then why don't we let the Avengers fight them again? They did beat the invasion in New York."
"New York was a sham, with a fraction of the forces available to them, without any heavy hitters around, that was bottlenecked by a portal. They will not make that mistake this time, and an entire fleet will try to attack as well. This is an active threat to humanity, and to a larger extent, the entire universe."
Jasmine waved her arm and an illusion of a giant muscled purple alien appeared, "This is our enemy, Thanos. He's also known as the Mad Titan in the Galaxy at large. He's a scourge, a disease, he conquers planets, and actively seeks to wipe out half its population by random. He's coming to Earth to find artifacts of great power, the infinity stones. There are six of them, he has already claimed two, probably even three, and we have three in our possession."
Emma Frost shook her head, "Why don't we just give them to him, he won't be our problem if we do, will he?"
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"He seeks the stones so that he could commit genocide on a universal scale. With all six stones, he'd be able to wipe out half the universe with the snap of his fingers. So, giving him the stones equates to half our planet dying. And it'll be random, each one of you will have a fifty percent chance of dying. So, what do you think? Should we give up the stones?" Jasmine answered with a sarcastic tone.
Reed Richards was the one to ask another question, "It's logical that we need to stop them, but why risk collateral damage by bringing the fight here? We could just bring the fight to them."
Wanda shook her head and spoke up for the first time, "Mutant powers don't work after a certain distance from the planet. We would have to not use any mutant fighters, and that'd pretty much destroy our already small chances at surviving this."
Jasmine nodded to her, "Wanda is right. We have to keep the fight contained here, but in a somewhat isolated location, which is why I'm asking King T'Chaka if he would volunteer Wakanda as the location of the battle. Thanos will go after the stone wielders, that means that we can pick the location ourselves. The forcefields inside Wakanda are unrivalled, and you have infrastructure to prevent an invasion, that makes it the perfect location."
"What about my people?" the outraged Wakandan king yelled back.
"We can evacuate the civilians easily enough. But honestly, do you have any better idea? I am not doing this to be antagonistic, but the fact remains that your kingdom is the single most protected place on the planet that is large enough to have a battle of this scale in. The surrounding lands are mostly desert, and you have the technology to rebuild, and your buildings are all technically strong enough to withstand a lot of damage. I'm sorry that I have to ask you of this, but your people are all at risk and we need every advantage that we can get." Jasmine replied with a cold tone.
The man sat down, still looking displeased, and Wanda's mother continued, "I have already asked for Asgard's help and Thor had pledged that he would help us as a favor for something I did a few years back, so we have a good army coming. Emma Frost, I want you to get Genosha's entire army ready. Get Doormaker and Clairvoyant to mobilize them at a second's notice. T'Chaka, I'm leaving the command of Wakanda's resources to you, and Sorcerer Supreme, you know your strength better than I do, so I'm leaving you to make any decisions on it. Doom, I want you to bring an entire army of Doombots with you, same with you Stark and your drones. Also, Tony, find Nick Fury and tell him to call in Carol. We're going to need her. We need every advantage we could get. Richards, I know you're queasy about it, but you need to bring every big gun you have on this thing. Quill, I want you to put Rocket in charge, and make him and the Guardians responsible for organizing the defenses outside of Wakanda's forcefield. Gamora should be able to give you insights on Thanos' methods of attack, use them to plan out an actual defense. You're joining me and the rest of my team to fight the bigger fish."
Tony Stark spoke up for the first time, "What bigger fish?"
"Not that he would admit it, Thanos is a pawn to someone a lot stronger than him, and stronger than me. I designed a team, tailored to fight this being. This is a fight your entire forces wouldn't survive past a minute, and that's me being generous about it. I was able to turn it into a duel of sorts, the team I chose will not interfere with the fight against Thanos, nor will he, thus giving you an actual chance at succeeding. The team will be composed of myself, Jean Grey, Selene Gallio, Peter Quill, and Loki of Asgard. On your side of the battle, you will be led by my daughter, Wanda Maximoff, and you will follow her words as if it was me being there. In the event I do not survive my battle, I ask of you to consider her my heir, and she will take my place protecting humanity from its countless dangers."
Wanda froze at this, and so did the rest of the faction leaders. Jasmine was giving her command. Why would she do that? For some reason, everyone in the room ended up cowed in some way. They all nodded, and Jasmine clapped her hands, "Alright, now, prepare yourselves. We have less than a day to do anything. Say your goodbyes to your families in case we lose, and they end up being wiped out. I wish I could be reassuring at this time, but things are looking grim. However, I have faith that humanity will survive this crucible. Fight with everything you have and even more so, because it's not just some random lives on the line, it's the ones belonging to your families, your friends, your colleagues. Everyone is at risk. The question is whether or not you wish to cower in fear and hope that chance saves you, or if are you willing to fight against the coming storm."
With that said, Jasmine gave them all an imperious nod, and they all disappeared to their homes to prepare, leaving only Selene, Jasmine, Wanda and Jean.
The reality manipulator wanted to throttle her mother's ex-wife the moment she saw her, but she contained herself, "You're making me lead?"
Jasmine nodded, "You are my daughter. I have taught you everything I could, it's time for you to grow into your role as my heir."
"And now is the time to do it? With the entire multiverse as risk? You decide to give me even more responsibility now? I'm supposed to be in the fight with you and you know it. I'm strong enough to do it."
The woman gave her a sad smile and shook her head, "You're the person I trust the most in the world, Wanda. You're literally the last anchor of whatever remains of the person I used to be. Is it wrong that I want you to remain slightly safer? It's why I'm even doing this in the first place."
"Doing what?" Wanda questioned.
She didn't have the time to react when Jasmine palmed her chest with a glowing purple gem. The reality manipulator started feeling hotter and hotter, like a fire starting from her chest burning herself out. She could barely even think of anything but the pain that surrounded her. But there was something else, something more, outside of the pain.
Pure Power, that's what Wanda realized it was just before the world turned black.
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