It wasn't home. Yes, it was Titan, but it was the surface; the civilization lay deep below the crust and below the subsurface saltwater ocean. The surface was too cold, 180 degrees Celsius below zero - cold enough that the earthlike dunes, mountains, valleys were not made of stone but instead of water ice rendered as hard as granite by the chill; cold enough that the rivers, lakes and seas were black, oily flows of hydrocarbons that were gasses on Earth; cold enough that the volcanoes were made of ice. Titan was conducive to life, but not to the kind like the four men who were <i>on</i> that surface. Life on Titan was young, microscopic, and based on methane instead of oxygen. The lack of oxygen was what kept the orange-brown atmosphere of photochemical smog from igniting, and, along with the cold, was what kept the four men inside the stadium-sized scientific research center they would use to analyze the Foesitian Rod. They were on the surface to keep the interior safe. Safe from the rod and safe from the elder son of Titan who had once taken advantage of the closed system to destroy it, funneling nuclear bombs through the vortex at Titan's southern pole that lead to the interior. Perhaps one day Thanos would be welcome in his homeland again, but that day was not today. Eros had not been home in over a Terran year, and though he was an adventurer who gallivanted throughout the universe, that was still a long time. It was frustrating to be so close and yet so far away. His frustration was nothing compared to that of Elysius, who had left on a diplomatic mission to Kranea and thus missed seeing Mar-Vell; she hid her feelings under her facade of aloofness that granted her the ability to convince herself that it was for the better. Mentor was so powerful that perhaps he could be considered <i>all</i>-powerful, but he never interfered in the troubles of the universe unless the troubles were on Titan, and this was no exception. Perhaps a man almost 200,000 years old had reasons for his inaction; reasons that his younger son could not yet understand and that his older son gladly took advantage of because he too could not yet understand. The enormous research lab was lined on the inside with Titanian technology and scientific instruments, while the center of the containment where the four people stood around a plain-looking round table was padded by a wide mote of empty metal floor. The pieces of the Foesitian Rod hovered above the center of the counter, surrounded by holographic analytical data as the supercomputer ISAAC ran (or tried to run) analyses of age, composition, energy, origin, usage history, and basically anything. Despite the large empty space, Eros felt cramped. It could be that Thanos's large size or his usual role as the enemy made the table feel crowded. Whatever the reason for Eros's discomfort, he secretly felt that his only anchor to reality in sight was the doctor Stephen Strange. Even the sorceror's presence did not rule out the possibility that this was all just a dream. After all, Thanos and Mar-Vell appeared together only in Eros's dreams; Mar-Vell alone only appeared in Eros's dreams. <i>Unable to analyze,</i> ISAAC kept saying as the supercomputer's intelligent AI summoned instrument after instrument of unparalleled technological advancement that floated over from the walls to make their attempts at measuring. <i>Unable to analyze.</i> The reasons why were written in the projections around the foreign object and many of those reasons were the possibility of destruction, both of the rod and of the containment. ISAAC was, however, able to identify that Thanos had recently used the broken item. Eros was adept at technology, though his knowledge was piddling in comparison to his brother. When ISAAC would finish, Mar-Vell's cosmic awareness could possibly elucidate valuable information, and Doctor Strange's mastery of magic had them covered in all cases if the rod was magic alone. The redhead, however, had insisted that they allow ISAAC to perform testing before they touched the item themselves either physically or metaphysically. He didn't want anyone to get hurt or have revelations of profound horror if it could be avoided. ISAAC was running different biological history tests when Eros, who had been uncharacteristically silent as he read the rapidly changing charts and text, finally looked up and made solid eye contact with his brother. The question was not just for ISAAC's benefit, but for Eros's as well, because he had yet to be told. He did not know if the other two had been told, though he did know that they had encountered Thanos before he did. While Eros was mostly relieved that he had been ignored by his brother, a tiny part of him felt inadequacy because of it. He had acknowledged the feeling and let it pass, knowing that it was just a remnant of the veil of childhood. His question, while not spoken in a hostile manner, still belied his reflexive suspicion towards his brother. "How did <i>you</i> get it? thanos-of-titan
