Seated upon his floating throne, Thanos csped his fingers together, his golden armor glistening under the cold moonlight, casting a mesmerizing glow. The subtle intensity in his gaze stirred unease in Ebony Maw's heart.

  He couldn't decipher why Thanos had suddenly mentioned the moon—was it a cryptic warning?

  Ebony Maw, a master of reading Thanos' mind, suddenly felt uncertain about their supposedly foolproof pn. From what he knew of Thanos, the man never uttered meaningless words or performed actions without purpose.

  Raising his head toward the sky, the once gentle moonlight now appeared blinding, more searing than the midday sun. What did Thanos' words signify?

  Ebony Maw didn't know—and he dared not ask.

  Despite his current position as the favored commander of the Second Legion, draped in glory, he remained acutely aware of his pce. Everything he possessed came from the man before him. With a single thought, Thanos could reduce him to the pitiful wretch he once was.

  "Watch closely, Ebony Maw... Tonight belongs to Lothar."

  Leaning back against the cold chair, savoring this rare moment of quiet after countless battles, Thanos closed his eyes under the moon's caress. The image of a Great Ape flickered through his mind.

  That was Lothar's transformation under the full moon—an ancient, primal power buried within his adopted son. When Lothar was only one year old, Thanos, acting as his sole guardian, had attempted to bond with the boy by cooking a dish once beloved across Titan. He had even built a furnace on the outskirts of the Sanctuary base for the occasion.

  The result? The infant Lothar, transformed by the moonlight into a towering Great Ape, kicked over the furnace with one colossal foot.

  Boiling broth spttered across the ground. The infant warrior, overwhelmed by the surging power in his fragile nerves, became a rampaging beast. From that moment on, Thanos' vision for Lothar's future became crystal clear.

  Nutrient serums, nerve fortification, and endless battles—each step designed to ensure that when Lothar transformed, he could retain his sanity.

  To Thanos, uncontrolled power was no power at all. People sought strength to fulfill their long-held desires, not to become sves to their own might.

  A rare smile flickered across Thanos' face as he recalled five-year-old Lothar's solemn vow to master the Great Ape form.

  …

  "The defenses are tight... but I don't know if Ebony Maw is here."

  Lothar, creeping ever closer to the nutrient chamber under Thanos' watchful gaze, held his breath and melted into the shadows. The deeper he infiltrated, the heavier the security became.

  From scattered patrols to full squads, his path had grown perilous. He no longer had confidence in slipping past their notice.

  Narrowing his eyes, he mentally calcuted the patrol shifts, matching them to a timetable he'd devised. But no matter how he ran the numbers, success seemed impossible.

  After 116 days on the run, Lothar had learned firsthand how sensitive cyborg warriors were to intrusions. Unless he could eliminate them all in a single instant, stealth was out of the question.

  Worse still, he couldn't be certain if Ebony Maw—devious sorcerer that he was—y in wait for him to step into the trap. His dwindling supply of nutrient serum could only sustain him for another fifteen days.

  His decision was clear: strike now, while his body could still recover. Waiting would only guarantee failure.

  "Father once said... never wait for death to come to you."

  "So..."

  Thanos' teachings echoed through his mind. Steeling himself, Lothar picked his moment. His legs tensed—and then he shot forward like an arrow, straight toward a patrolling cyborg squad.

  "Let's do this!"

  Energy fred from his fingertips, piercing the cyborgs' neural cores in an instant. His crimson tail coiled around a corpse, using it as a shield to block incoming fire as he darted between positions.

  The young warrior moved with preternatural agility, weaving through the battlefield with hands, feet, and tail working in perfect harmony. Every step left a trail of fresh wounds on his body—but with each strike, another enemy fell.

  Over the past 116 days, Lothar had learned the most valuable lesson of all: strike hard, strike fast, strike true.

  No fshy tricks. No wasted motion.

  A warrior's duty was to cim victory with the smallest price paid.

  "Lothar!"

  Cull Obsidian's low growl echoed clearly into Lothar's ears. Arm bells bred in Lothar's mind as he instinctively rolled across the ground, narrowly avoiding the massive axe strike that carved deep scars into the floor where he had just stood.

  To Lothar, Cull Obsidian was a towering giant. The bck-armored behemoth leaped high from behind the nutrient pod, his silver-and-bck gauntleted left hand shooting out to seize Lothar's exposed red tail hanging outside his combat suit.

  A surge of overwhelming force coursed through Lothar's tail, leaving him powerless to resist. His small body lost bance, and the hulking Cull Obsidian yanked him forward, bringing him face-to-face with the titan.

  "You brought this upon yourself."

  With his tail gripped tightly, Lothar retaliated, driving his fist straight into Cull Obsidian's face.

  "Roar!"

  The painful impact made Cull Obsidian instinctively loosen his grip. However, Lothar's tail coiled around the brute's thick arm, leveraging the momentum to swing himself in a tight arc behind Cull Obsidian. In one fluid motion, Lothar's powerful whip-like kick smashed into the back of Cull Obsidian's helmeted head.

  Boom!!!

  The air-shattering kick fractured Cull Obsidian's helmet, sending the towering figure staggering forward, nearly colpsing to one knee.

  Now's my chance!

  Lothar had no intention of lingering. He knew his objective. With Cull Obsidian temporarily repelled, he sprang toward the nutrient pod's door.

  But before he could take flight, a massive mechanical hand—composed of numerous cybernetic corpse components—descended from above, swatting him out of the air and smming him into the cold ground.

  "Ebony Maw!"

  Though the sinister figure had yet to reveal himself, Lothar knew only one being within the Sanctuary capable of such telekinetic manipution.

  "Lothar!"

  Cull Obsidian roared his name once more, grabbing Lothar's small leg and hoisting him into the air. With brute strength, the titan hurled Lothar against the temple's hardened floor.

  Once... twice...

  By the sixth brutal sm, Cull Obsidian flung Lothar high into the air. The immense force shattered the temple's ceiling, sending Lothar hurtling into the endless starlight above.

  Cull Obsidian had no intention of letting him escape. Crouching low, he unched himself upward like a cannonball, pursuing Lothar into the skies above Thanos' domain.

  —

  Author's Notes:

  The concept of Saiyans transforming into Great Apes under moonlight due to Bruits Waves was introduced in Dragon Ball GT, though GT is technically considered an officially licensed derivative work rather than Toriyama's original canon. The original series never fully expined the exact mechanism behind the transformation. What was shown, however, was that the moon's destruction prevented transformations, and in one humorous instance, Master Roshi used Krillin's bald head as a makeshift moon. Additionally, Vegeta demonstrated the ability to create an artificial moon to trigger the transformation during the Saiyan Saga.

  —————

  Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my Patreón by clicking this [PrimalDemon] or the one in signature.