Grogar's spaceship was easily one of the largest ships in existence. Almost as big as a space station, packed with weapons that could take on a fleet of enemy ships with minimal damage, meant to intimidate.
Anyone who saw her instantly would try to run away and be destroyed, or immediately surrender… and then be destroyed.
But here, in the throne room, Grogar truly felt at home. A throne carved from meteorite ore, almost as old as its owner.
Perched at the base of the throne was Hitch Trailbrazer. No shackles bound him, no collar caged him, but he knew attacking would be useless, and escape doubly so.
He was sitting there, waiting for Grogar to decide what to do with him, who entered the room with a bowl of hot food in his hand.
"I thought you might be hungry..."
Hitch grabs the bowl…only to fling it across the room, where it slams into Grogar's throne with a loud crack.
"I've always hated that throne..."
"So you told me" Grogar said, as he sat on the base of the throne "Still I hoped... that one day you would sit on it".
"I hated this room… This ship…" Hitch growled. "I hated my life".
"You told me that too..." Grogar said "Every day...for almost twenty years".
“I was a child when you took me in…”
"I saved you".
"No" Hitch said, as the memory of his dead parents came back to him "No… We were happy on my planet".
“Hungry? Begging for crumbs?" Grogar asked "Your planet was on the brink of collapse. I was the one who put a stop to that".
Hitch didn't even dare to answer that.
“Do you know what has happened since then?” Grogar asked "Children born have only known a full belly and clear skies. It's a paradise".
“You murdered half the planet...” Hitch growled.
"A small price... for salvation".
"You're insane..."
"Little one, it's a simple calculation…" Grogar explained, as he looked at the Infinity Stones on his gauntlet."This universe is finite, its resources are finite. If you don't control life, life will cease to exist. It needs a correction…”
"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" Hitch yelled, totally furious.
Grogar didn't even flinch at the cry of his son.
“I am the only one who knows. At least, I'm the only one with the will to act” Grogar explained, standing up and putting his hand on Hitch's shoulder “For a while... you… had that same will… while you fought by my side… son”.
Those words really tensed Hitch.
"I'm not your son..." Hitch said "What I hate about myself... you taught me".
"And in doing so, you became the Fiercest Man in the Galaxy" Grogar said, as if it was something they both didn't know "That's why I trusted you to find the Soul Stone".
"I'm sorry I let you down" Hitch growled.
“Yes, you let me down...” Grogar admitted “But not because you couldn't find her. If not because you did it… and you lied to me”.
Elsewhere in the ship, well away from the throne room, Grogar schooled Hitch (at spearpoint) to the dungeons in the deepest, darkest part of the ship. And from there, past a series of cells for the prisoners Grogar deigned to keep alive (and there weren't many).
They reached the last cell, at the end, when the heavy bars swung open, revealing an occupant that made Hitch worry: a man his age with golden-blond hair... and a series of metallic components incorporated directly into his organic meat.
"Sprout…"
Hitch ran to his side, but stopped when he saw what had become of his stepbrother, Sprout Cloverleaf.
He had been literally disarmed, his arms and head severed from his neck and torso, his legs separated from the rest, even his cybernetic left eye was loose.
Sprout was still alive, he was made to be repaired easily enough after all, but keeping his body apart like that must be agony for him.
"Don't do this..." Hitch growled, as he pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes, looking at Grogar.
"Some time ago…" Grogar explained "Your brother snuck aboard this ship to kill me…"
"Please don't do it…"
"And he almost got it..." Grogar continued, ignoring him "So I brought him here… to talk".
At that moment, Grogar activated the power of the Power and Space Stones. A similar glow of energy engulfed his prisoner, and Sprout screamed as his components separated further, stretching them to their limits.
He was literally tearing it apart.
"ENOUGH!"
Grogar stopped, but only because the demonstration was over. He looked at Hitch, waiting.
“I swear to you on my life!” Hitch pleaded. "I didn't find the Soul Stone!"
Grogar points to a nearby servant, who activates a control panel of the cell.
“Accessing memory files” the voice from the control panel said.
At that moment, from Sprout's cybernetic eye, a hologram of a younger Hitch and Sprout was projected… deep in private conversation.
"You know what he's going to do" the young Sprout said "Finally he's ready and he's going for the Stones"
“He'll never have them all” the young Hitch replied.
"He will!"
“He can't, Sprout...” the young Hitch said “Because I found the map to the Soul Stone and reduced it to ashes. I burned it!"
The hologram faded at its completion, and Hitch felt the will to live slipping from him.
Grogar knew it. He had always known that.
“You are strong… for me. You are generous… for me” Grogar congratulated “But I never taught you to lie… and that's why you do it fatally”.
Grogar then raised his gauntlet again, and the Stones' energy covered Sprout again, causing him to scream in pain.
"Where... is... the Soul Stone?"
Hitch couldn't reply. He couldn't.
Sprout was even now shaking her head, silently pleading with him not to. Like Hitch, he wanted to die before he let his father win.
Grogar looked at his son's challenge and unleashed more of the Stones' power, whose silence was broken as he screamed in excruciating agony.
Hitch winced, tears streaming down his cheeks as he felt his brother's pain as deeply as his own.
The screams rose in pitch until they threatened to break more than crystals, shattering what sanity Hitch had left… until he finally couldn't take it anymore.
“IN VORMIR!”
Grogar stops instantly and Sprout gasps into the air. Hitch walks over to him and caresses his face.
“The Stone is in Vormir…”.
“Take me there...” Grogar growled.
