“Death?” she blinked in shock. “You speak... of the personification of Death, not a mere god?” she asked directly.

“Yes. You have set up a revolving door into the afterlife and back out again,” I told her calmly. “Your Worldmind, the very thing that generates the Nova Force, is literally empowering the living from the realm of the dead, however you care to look at it. Returning the dead to life on command, well, that is basically spitting in the face of Death.

“Life favors the young, Queen Aurora. To survive this course of Fate and Death coming together to eliminate you, you must choose a course of Life and Chaos. Otherwise, Fate and Death will follow you, and Xandar as it stands will indeed cease to exist.”

“Stopping the cloning rebirths?” She found that difficult to swallow.

“You are in contact with the Worldmind?” I asked archly.

“Yes,” she agreed.

“I do not believe you have access to Cosmic Awareness, but your Worldmind can do a form of Cosmic Calculus. Ask them the odds that they have not offended the personification of Death by being able to resurrect themselves endlessly.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, and there was a swirl in the air, as awesome and subtle amounts of cosmic energy started calculating swiftly around her. The Worldmind was literally an akashic computer, the hardware and software both non-physical now, aided and enhanced by the minds of thousands of generations of Xandarans. Even obliterating the arcologies would not end the Novaforce, as long as it had some manner of mortal and physical anchor to tie itself to.

The Novaforce was not tied to Xandar, but to its people, or anyone who accepted it!

Her eyes snapped open. “The Worldmind concurs, although there is... dissension on how to handle this.”

I nodded as I sat back down. “They all wish to live again, rather than being merely support for the living. But if you pit their wills against Death, I am afraid that in the end Death will win, and the ones truly being punished are their descendants. If killing them all is what it takes, Death has no compunction in doing so. It is clearing off a scattering of dust on the windowsill.

“You must break this cycle of death if you wish your people to live.” I tilted my head. “And, for your other consideration, the followers of the Mad Titan are among the most fervent worshippers of Death in space. If even a whisper of Her opinion passes to them, well... they will come here, and they will die for Her. You should help that happen.”

She lifted her brows. “It sounds like you have a plan already,” she noticed.

I glanced at Peggy, who just made a keep-going gesture, obviously wanting to hear this.

“Your evacuation fleet is already here.” She blinked, and her eyes turned to the space outside the walls. “The Acanti know countless worlds where the Xandarans can settle.

“You must vastly accelerate the number of free births, and return to a normal society, and begin the process of evolution once again.

“You must put limits on clonal reincarnation. Accidents, wartime, infection, disaster... certainly. But to think of a return from the Great Beyond to a new life is a right, and not a great privilege, well... breaking the Law of Death comes with consequences, and not even gods do so lightly, yet Xandar does so frequently and without restraint.”

She nodded once, slowly. “Removing the threat of Death Itself wishing to remove our people is of great importance,” she agreed slowly.

“I would propose one final rebirth for any souls in your Worldmind who desire it, and explode your population as you prepare for your diaspora. This must truly be a new life, a new world, and furthermore, they should all raise large families, making this next generation the largest Freeborn generation in your recent history.

“Your Freeborn should outnumber your Reborn at all times in the future. That should be a major goal of your people.

“Bring in the Reborn to help you scatter into the stars. Bring in the Freeborn to continue your people, as is the way of Life and Death.

“The Worldmind will remain. The Nova Force will remain. The heart of Xandar will remain... but it will not be the Xandar that is pissing off Death.”

Queen Aurora took a deep breath. “That is a mighty thing to ask of Xandar’s people.”

“I believe that is why Xandar still has a single monarch, and not a Council of Elders. So that in circumstances like this, there must be one voice, and they must obey.” I tilted my head at her. “Clearly this decision is of no benefit to you. It reduces your chance of reincarnation, and scatters your power and authority across the stars. No one can say you are doing this for yourself.”

She had to agree with that. “That my ancestors could see far enough ahead to know that they themselves would have to be overruled and denied at some point...”

“There will be violent dissension over this,” Peggy pointed out. “After all, Clonal Reincarnation is basically a right to many of your people, Queen Aurora. They will violently disbelieve any or all arguments to the contrary, especially ones dealing with things as ephemeral as Fate and Death.”

“Well, then, they are the ones who can stay behind, and fight,” I interjected simply. “Those who believe in the wisdom of their ancestors will form the vast majority, and they will disperse.

“Nebula is still coming with her fleet. You know it, and you can indeed prepare for it. All those who stay are going to die.

“There is nothing to say that Nebula and her fleet cannot die with them.”

Queen Aurora stared at me, and a hint of a smile tugged at her lips. “I watched vids of you smashing through ship after ship after ship of the Skrulls. You are indeed ruthless to your enemies, Miss Dynamo!

“Leaving, but behind us we shall leave the most potent weapon systems that Xandar has ever made for when they attack.” Her eyes flashed brightly. “The Nova Force is Xandar’s greatest creation... but it is far from our most lethal. If Xandar is to truly die, then this time, we shall show them the price of killing us!”

-----------

Days of hard work later...

“I could have studied the tech on that ship for years,” Tony Stark admitted as we lined up to head home. I could have popped the Portal, but Thor was here, so no need. Stark was looking a bit gaunt, as he’d been almost completely ensconced in the Starholder’s Engineering section since Chandilar, co-opting Ebersol and Jenkins at times to go through stuff.

Despite his envy, I had quietly told Norbert to swallow all his resentment and play the good lab assistant. He was going to watch one of the world’s great geniuses at work, and he was going to learn a lot, and have his brain tested in new ways.

If he could prod Stark’s brain in new directions, that would only be better for both of them.

The Fixer had definitely done some good work, a mixture of respect and resentment hanging around him at being exposed to someone just as gifted as he was, but further along the tech curve.

“You’ll have other chances, Fritzie,” I said, handing him over a tube of hair gel. He looked at me, looked around, and I flicked up a holo-mirror in front of him. He stared at his image, swore, and started squeezing out the gel.

I handed him a comb and a squeeze-tube of touch-up to get rid of the dark lines on himself, too. He didn’t look at me, and I didn’t look at him.

“Thank you, Goddess of Public Appearance?” he muttered under his breath, applying it all with the easy skill of frequent use.

“Some of us can’t stop the photographs from recording us at our worst,” I riposted. “Should have polished your armor, too. You look like you went on a bender.”

“Hard-working billionaire inventor adventurer, that’s me!” he defended himself, even as he armored up slowly. Walking around in power armor here was basically useless, as EMP weaponry was anything but uncommon. Such things didn’t work on Nova uniforms, which basically operated on a cosmic energy variant, but we’d seen few mechanized units among the Skrulls that didn’t have force fields specifically to stop such things... which took a lot of juice and happily made them less threatening weapons.

“More like sleep-skipping alchemical-ingesting tech addict,” I muttered back. “Who do you think made all those drinks?”

“The Goddess of Sleep is for the Poor?”

“Your eyes look like you have a fever.” I shook my head. “Send ten pounds of platinum over to the Baxter Building. Because you’re not Poor.”

He gave me a look. “You can get rid of needing to sleep?” he asked hesitantly.

“No, but I can reduce the need down to two hours a night.” I turned my chin slightly. “Don’t give up dreaming. You do your best work after you dream. You’ll be having crazy intense dreams.”

“What, are you spying on my bedroom?”

“I do notice your posting times, Crazyeyes.”

He peered at his eyes in the holo-mirror, and winced. “No eye drops?” he asked.

“I switched Goddess Domains, remember? Hey, Richard, Jessica!” I eyed the two starbursts on his chest, and the one on Jewel’s, both of them in blue and gold now. “Ehhh, demoted and then promoted in the same day, I guess?” Jewel’s helm had to be adjusted to fit her Specs, too.

Rich stuck out his hand, and I gave it a good shake, and gave Jessica a big hug. “There’s going to be some major changes in Xandar shortly,” Rich told me, glancing at Peggy. “It was hinted I might be deployed to Solspace before too long, maybe as soon as I can pass my Centurion test.”

“How long to your next Core Levels?” I asked them both quietly.

“They are really opening up the energy convertors, especially in the non-standard bands after some of the weapons used against them. A month?” He glanced at Jessica, who nodded agreement.

A Core Five Millennian or Six Denarian would be just crazy stoopid. It wouldn’t last. “They want me to teach a new class on flying combat techniques,” Jessica smiled cheerfully. “Footwork while Flying! The women are especially all for it. I, uh, think Queen Aurora is going to be in the first class...” She got a little wide-eyed at herself.

“You make damn sure you get training in their advanced stuff, too,” I said softly, looking at them both. “The Nova Force is cosmic energy. It can be used to do more than tank, fly, and hit stuff, right?”

“Got it,” he nodded, only a little hesitant. “Can you do that stuff?”

I reached out and tapped his chest. “Uniform. Super-science. I’m just doing stuff I could already do, just boosted. You’ve gotta be something more than me, right?”

“Yeah!” they both grinned, puffing up proudly.

“And don’t ever forget to grind those Cores. They are life and death to you. Nova Corpsmen who are slacking on their Cores are basically just killing time before they die and get a free pass out. You got subordinates, you ride them to get their Cores up. If it hurts, even better for ‘em!”

Richard chuckled evilly, a special gleam in his eye. “I can guarantee you that any recruits I get are going to learn what I went through, and appreciate it all!”