Thanos Tested

Thanos. Image source.

[content note: spoilers for "Avengers: Infinity War"]

Some time later the stones tested Thanos. A voice said to him, “Thanos!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

The voice said, “Take your daughter, your only daughter, whom you love—Gamora—and go to the planet Vormir. Sacrifice her there on a mountain she will show you.”

Early the next morning Thanos got up. He took with him his infinity gauntlet and his daughter Gamora.

Thanos followed Gamora as she led him to Vormir. As the two of them went on together, Gamora spoke up and said to her father Thanos, “Father?”

“Yes, my daughter?” Thanos replied.

“The soul stone extracts a terrible price,” Gamora said, "How can you pay it?”

Thanos answered, “The universe will provide the soul stone to me, my daughter.” And the two of them went on together.

When they reached the top of the mountain, Thanos stood there and looked out, at the expanse of land all around them and at the steep drop down the side of the cliff. He was silent. Gamora started to laugh. "The soul stone isn't here. The universe has judged you. You asked it for a prize and it told you no."

Thanos turned to face her, and she saw his eyes were moist. "Really? Tears?" she said in disgust.

Then he reached out his hand to pick up his daughter and throw her off the cliff. She cried out, "No! This isn't love!"

But a man with a face like a red skull called out, “Thanos! Thanos!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the girl,” he said. “Do not do anything to her. Now I know that you are worthy, because you have not withheld from me your daughter, your only daughter.”

Thanos looked down and found a new shiny stone had appeared in his hand-- the soul stone. He placed it in one of the openings of his gauntlet, and there was a sudden flash of light.

The Red Skull called to Thanos a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the soul stone, that because you have done this and have not withheld your daughter, your only daughter, I will surely bless you and give you all six infinity stones. You will be more powerful than any being who has ever lived, and through you the whole universe will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

Then Thanos and Gamora returned home.

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Related:
Dr. Strange's Ways Are Higher Than Our Ways

And this fantastic post from Samantha Field:
for Thanos so loved the world