The haft of the vibranium spear slammed into my gut, and I made a choking sound as the air was forced from my lungs, the strike strong enough to lift my feet clear off the ground. A moment later, I hit the dirt and rolled painfully, limbs flailing loosely like a puppet with its strings cut. Wheezing, I fought to collect myself, trying to regain my ability to breathe as I curled into a small, protective ball.

  “M-motherfucker,” I managed to choke out.

  Thankfully, there was no immediate follow-up; Thena had backed up a few paces to give me a little space to recover. I lay there for a few seconds, semi-dazed and gasping, before I forced myself to half-flop, half-roll up onto my knees. Shakily, slowly, I rose to my feet.

  My opponent stood watching me silently, an impassive expression on her face. She was still holding my spear, the butt firmly planted in the dirt—she’d disarmed me part-way through the fight, expertly twisting it out of my grip like she was confiscating a toy from an unruly child. She tipped it toward me slightly. “You were right, this is a good weapon,” she acknowledged lightly.

  I eyed her for a moment, touching my stomach gingerly and grimacing a little. I took another deep breath to try to steady myself a bit more, then flexed my arms a moment, stretching out the muscles a bit. I held out a hand, palm up. “Let me try that again.”

  “You want your spear back?” Thena asked, a slight edge to her tone.

  Oh, good. She wasn’t planning on making this easy for me. I nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Take it from me, then.” She didn’t move.

  Wisps of chaos magic flared to life in my hands. The Eternal wanted to play? Fine. I gestured sharply, red energy glimmering along the haft of the spear, and flicked—

  A brief, lightning-quick pattern of golden cosmic energy played across the outline of the weapon, shredding my magic instantly.

  What.

  I tried again, using a bit more power this time, and the exact same thing happened. I looked at her, blinking in confusion. “How…?” I trailed off.

  “Did you truly think that, when you saw the other Eternals call me ‘goddess’, they were speaking carelessly?” Thena responded, straightening slightly as she stared me down. Even though we were about the same height, it still felt, somehow, like she was looking down at me from above, like there was some presence beyond her physical form being imposed on the world. “The cosmic energy we Eternals command is the same that births Celestials. That makes gods. None of us were created truly divine, but it has been millions of years, and I have been venerated by hundreds of different peoples and cultures throughout that time.”

  I settled, semi-consciously, into a low, ready stance as she spoke, my hands tightening into fists as I summoned more chaos magic to them.

  “I am Thena, Goddess of War,” she declared, her voice ringing loudly out in the night, clear and fiercely proud. There was power in that statement. I could feel it. “No force in this world can simply steal from me what I have rightfully claimed as spoils in battle.” Thena raised the spear, pointing it at me briefly, then slammed the butt back onto the ground with a sharp crack—louder than I’d have expected, as though there was more to the strike than mere physical force. “If you want this weapon, come and claim it.”

  I was already moving before I’d even made a conscious decision to. Primed as I was, her words felt almost irresistible. It wasn’t mind control—not like I was capable of—but when the Goddess of War commands you to attack, you attack. Both of my hands snapped forward, almost on their own, twin bolts of chaos magic bursting forth toward her.

  Thena darted forward in response, her movements graceful, economical, and impossibly fast. She ducked under the first bolt, the golden wireframe of a circular shield coming together on her arm, which she used to swat the second out of the air. My hands crackled with power as I lunged forward to meet her, hoping the move would catch her by surprise and give me an opening—I aimed to knock her off balance, tear the spear from her hands, and maybe even score a clean hit to her side.

  Thena reacted as though she already knew what I was going to do—easily flowing into another block and deflection like it had been choreographed. She pivoted on her heel, bringing the vibranium spear around in a sharp arc that clipped my arm and spun me sideways. I barely recovered in time to shield myself from the follow-up thrust, the strike slamming into my telekinetic barrier less than an inch from my sternum with enough force to make my whole body shudder. A spike of adrenaline electrified my chest—if I hadn’t blocked that, it definitely would have skewered me.

  I thrust my hands forward, using a burst of power to bounce myself away and get some distance between us again, my eyes wide. “Hey! Careful! I really like this dress,” I said, my breathing a little ragged.

  Thena tilted her head briefly in acknowledgement. “I’ll be sure to take it from you in pieces, then.” She started to advance toward me a little more cautiously this time, golden light flickered beneath her skin as the shield in her off hand came apart, the threads of cosmic energy re-weaving into a long dagger.

  “Promises, promises.” I grinned, sweeping my hands toward her, intending to catch her in a wide net of telekinetic force. She was stronger and faster than I was, but so were the Hulk and Pietro—if I could catch her, I could put her in air jail.

  Thena turned as the magic caught and started to lift her in the air. In a single, smooth motion, she reversed her grip on the long dagger of cosmic energy in her off hand and slashed through the strands of red energy, dispersing them.

  Oh.

  I’d kind of thought that, when the aspect of her that I’d encountered in her mindscape had done that, it had been a mindscape-specific thing, not a general cosmic-energy-blade-can-slice-through-my-magic thing. Before I had time to try to reassert control or flick my hands out for a follow-up, she flipped forward and landed in front of me like she’d dropped from a wire rig, eyes blazing.

  “Oh shi—”

  One foot caught the side of my leg and swept it out from under me, slamming me to the earth again in a jarring, full-body crunch. I rolled, more on instinct than anything else, barely dodging another jab from the spear that would’ve nailed me right between the shoulder blades. Thena flicked her wrist and the short blade in her off-hand transformed into a long golden glaive, the blade shimmering like fire in the starlight as I scrambled to my feet.

  “Okay, so I’m pretty sure if you actually stab me with that, I’ll die,” I panted. As I spoke, my hand dipped into my pocket, slipping my sling ring onto my fingers. I still wasn’t super confident about using portals mid-combat, but I was running out of ideas on how to beat her, and if there was an opening, I wanted to be able to take advantage of it.

  Thena tilted her head briefly in acknowledgement. “Then you should try not to get stabbed.”

  Okay, it was like that, was it? Cool, cool, cool. She really wasn’t pulling her punches here. Or, at least, I really hoped she wasn’t. Only just yesterday, I’d been posturing to Ross about being one of the most powerful people on the planet. I knew that some of the Eternals were right up there in terms of power, but I really hadn’t been expecting to feel legitimately outclassed here.

  There was no opening to use a portal. The spear and polearm spun through the air, and I barely managed to catch them on a wide shield. Summoning as much power as I could muster in the split-second that the block had earned, I forced the barrier to explode outwards in an omnidirectional telekinetic burst.

  Thena’s reflexes were faster—the glaive transformed again, this time into a large, full-body shield. She leaned in, bracing her shoulder against it for a moment as she weathered the burst of energy, then took a step forward and slammed it into me in a powerful shield bash.

  It was like getting hit by a truck. It didn’t feel exactly like the time the Hulkbuster had rocket-punched me, but it wasn’t far off the mark. I hit the ground—again—in a rough jumble of limbs. That was definitely going to bruise. I rolled onto my back, coughing hard, and flung my hand toward her, telekinetic energy ripping a nearby boulder of red-tinged rock free of the earth and hurling it at her as hard as I could.

  I lost sight of her behind the car-sized projectile for a bare fraction of a second, then the boulder split as she sliced it down the middle with a wickedly curved sword that had replaced the shield. The two halves continued past to either side of her, crashing into the ground while Thena stood there, blade held forward at the ready like she was a fucking anime character. She wasn’t even breathing hard yet, which felt a little insulting.

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  “Do you yield?” she asked, in a tone that made it seem like she’d be at least a little disappointed if I said yes.

  I snarled and dragged myself back to my feet, summoning another burst of chaos magic to my hands. “Not yet.”

  She didn’t smile. Didn’t taunt. She just nodded once and moved toward me again.

  The next exchange was brutal. I tried to push her back with a few scattered chaos bolts, but with the way she wove between them, it seemed like she was impossible to hit. I wanted to try using a portal, or blast her point-blank as she lunged in close again, but she was just so fast—it wasn’t quite like trying to tag Pietro, but it was close. She moved with such speed and fluidity that half the time I was reacting to where she had been, not where she was now.

  She caught my arm with the haft of the spear as I flicked my hand toward her chest, battering it aside. The butt of the weapon caught me in a rapid series of three precise strikes, sharp pain blossoming across my chest, my stomach, my shoulder. Thena let go of the spear as I staggered, a flicker of golden cosmic energy collecting it and forming a strap that secured it to her back. In the same instant, she stepped in, her foot catching mine to knock me further off balance as she seized my overextended wrist with one hand and planted the palm of her other against my abdomen. My feet left the ground as she turned, lifting me over her shoulder, then slammed me bodily into the dirt, the hand against my stomach winding me again.

  Thena let go of me as she straightened, looking down on me as she surveyed her handiwork. Honestly, it was kind of hot. I didn’t try to get back up this time—I just lay there, chest heaving, arms limp at my sides, the night sky above me spinning.

  “Oof.” A chuckle from off to one side made me turn my head, and I saw Gil leaning against the stone wall that encircled their homestead, a grin on his face. I’d been so focused on the fight, I hadn’t even noticed him come out to watch.

  “You have potential,” Thena said, matter-of-factly. She offered me her hand and, after a moment’s pause, I took it. She helped me to my feet before stepping back, once again looking me over with an assessing gaze. “A great many battles still lie ahead of you. I can feel the weight of them.” She paused, weighing me for a few long, silent moments as we stood there.

  I took a few deep breaths, trying to get back some semblance of composure. I ached all over already—nothing seemed broken, but I had the sinking suspicion that if Thena had wanted to, she could have messed me up a lot more than she already had.

  It obviously hadn’t been a serious fight, but I was still a bit shocked by how thoroughly she’d beaten me. I knew I wasn’t the best fighter in the world, relying on my magic to overcome things with brute force more than I did technical skill, but it was still rather sobering. If someone had asked me last week who’d win in a fight, me or Thena, I’d have said ‘me’ without a second thought. It was making me reassess the threat posed by the other Eternals… Thena had only managed to keep up with Ikaris for a short while, after all. It was a really good thing that I hadn’t planned on fighting him without Carol and Thor—and hopefully Thena and Gilgamesh, now—backing me up.

  Thena was still staring at me. After a few more seconds passed in silence, she finally spoke again. “Wanda Maximoff. You gave me back my ability to fight,” she said, steel in her voice. “More than that, you gave me back the lives I hadn’t known I’d lost. I am my truest self now, thanks to you. I owe you much.”

  “I told you before, you don’t owe me anything,” I said, shaking my head. It still felt good to hear.

  “So powerful in magic, yet still so ignorant of the weight and cost of your actions,” the goddess remarked, her sky-blue eyes boring into me. “A debt is owed. I would repay it, so I make you an offer: Become my student. I will prepare you for the battles to come, train you as a warrior in truth.”

  My eyes widened a little as I felt… something. Not just a small spike of excitement at the offer, though there was that, too. I may not have been a big ‘training’ person, but being personally tutored by a literal goddess of war? That seemed like it was too good an opportunity to pass up. But there was something else there. The air felt heavy. I opened my magical senses a bit, feeling it out. It was diffuse, but Thena’s cosmic power was exerting a pressure of some kind on me, as if the offer itself had a weight and significance to it.

  “Thena. Hold!” Gilgamesh’s voice rang out, interrupting before I had a chance to accept.

  As he strode over to us, Gil put a hand on Thena’s shoulder, firmly guiding her back a few paces to put some space between the two of us. I watched them silently in the moonlight. His expression was hard, but Thena’s gaze didn’t waver at all—she was still staring at me. “Are you certain?” he asked eventually, his voice quiet.

  “I am.” Thena didn’t look at him. I couldn’t look away from her either. The weight of the tension that was in the air was almost mesmerising, and I didn’t know why.

  Gil stood silently for a few moments, then let go of Thena’s shoulder and turned to me, taking a few short steps to interpose himself between the two of us, breaking the intense eye contact. I blinked, snapping out of it, and looked at him. “I won’t tell you to refuse,” he said, a low warning in his tone. “But this is not something offered lightly. Thena does not… this is something you would need to take extremely seriously. A commitment. If you accept—if you begin the path—you will follow it until she is satisfied. No second thoughts. No hesitation.”

  Holy shit.

  This was awesome.

  I licked my lips, trying my best not to literally physically vibrate with excitement.

  Gilgamesh moved, stepping back out of the way so Thena and I could see each other again. As he did, she spoke again. “Do you know why I am the way I am?” she asked.

  I wasn’t really sure what she meant by the question. “Why?”

  The golden strap of cosmic energy that had secured my spear to her back disappeared as she reached for it, taking the weapon in both hands and spinning it slowly, her gaze focused on the tip of the blade. “I am a warrior and protector, yes, but that is only part of the purpose Arishem built me for,” she explained. Her eyes flicked up, fixing on me once again. “I am a general. A strategist. Conflict breeds innovation and growth, and it was my role to help cultivate that among the peoples we protected. And a general is nothing without soldiers, without armies.”

  “That makes sense,” I said slowly. And it did: Thena wasn’t a goddess of battle, or a goddess of protection. She was a goddess of war.

  “But I do not train simple soldiers. My purpose is war, and I have laboured toward this purpose for millions of years. I am not merely a skilled warrior, not merely a veteran of more battles than you could hope to understand. I raise champions. Warriors without peer. In a single day, I can impart more than a lesser master could in a dozen lessons.”

  Wait. Was she saying…? “Hang on, are you telling me you have some sort of, like, conceptual training booster?”

  There was a brief pause, Thena’s brow creasing slightly.

  “You can literally train people faster than they would usually be able to learn?” I clarified.

  She nodded. “That is not normally how I would describe it, but yes.”

  My face split into a wide grin, eyes flashing with excitement. I couldn’t help it—I’d hit the fucking jackpot. For once, something I’d done had turned out even better than I could ever have hoped for. This could be a complete gamechanger. “I still don’t think you owe me anything,” I said firmly. “But if you’re offering? I accept. Absolutely, yes.”

  Something shifted. I still didn’t know its full significance, but the weight in the air seemed to settle, locking into place on me. Accepting the offer for her to become my teacher wasn’t just a matter of simple words; there was something more to it. If I focused, I could feel some sort of connection between Thena and me, now—it was faint, but unmistakable.

  Something unidentifiable flitted across Gilgamesh’s face, and he gave me a slight nod. He turned back to Thena. “I’m going to go clean up. I’ll leave you to it.” With that, he left, trudging back toward the house.

  “Stand ready,” Thena ordered, her voice clear and sharp as she brandished the vibranium spear. “As before. Reclaim the spear from me, if you can.”

  I winced a little—I’d really have preferred to have a short break before getting back into it, but I wasn’t going to have the very first thing I did after accepting Thena’s offer be to whine about needing a rest. I settled into a ready stance, watching her in the half-light.

  Ten minutes later, I was flat on my back again, part of me wondering if Gilgamesh had been pranking me when he’d told me that Thena was effectively aromantic and asexual. Looking up at the way she stood above me, her foot solidly pressing against my solar plexus, something predatory in her eyes as she stared down at me… It certainly felt like there was a massive amount of domme energy at work here—then again, that might have just been wishful thinking on my part.

  Beautiful women? Yes. Beautiful women who could kill me? Hoo boy. I either had a type, or a problem. The fact that I couldn’t tell the difference right now might actually be some cause for concern.

  Either way, I could definitely see why people had worshipped her.

  The tip of the spear moved from my throat, precisely tracing the curve of my neck using only enough pressure that I could feel it without it cutting me. The blade paused against the strap of my dress, and for a moment, I was certain that she was about to slice through it—that she was preparing to claim me the same way she’d claimed my spear. The thought was… incredibly arousing.

  Instead, the weapon moved again, lightning-fast, scratching skin and drawing blood. I gasped at the sudden movement—she could have easily just stabbed me in the throat, and there was literally nothing I could have done to stop her. The tip of the blade had snagged the chain around my neck and, with a quick flick, Thena released the haft with one hand just long enough to catch the pendant containing the Mind Stone out of the air.

  The heat that had risen within me was quashed as my insides turned to ice. I started to summon magic to my hands, but Thena had already lifted her foot from my torso and started to walk away.

  “Hey!” I barked, concern gripping my chest tightly as I scrambled to my feet.

  Thena—the Eternal, the Goddess of War—turned back to face me, the Mind Stone’s pendant dangling from her fist. She cocked her head to one side, in much the same way that a wolf or raptor might turn its head to better hear its prey.

  “Absolutely not,” I said to her, making a slashing motion with one hand and injecting as much firmness into my tone as I could. “Taking the spear is part of the training, okay, that’s fine, but we are not making a game of this with an Infinity Stone. Give that back.” My hands had clenched into fists, thick wisps of red energy dripping from them.

  “This is no game. If you want it back, you know what you must do,” she said, her words simple and direct—a challenge.

  There were lines—the Mind Stone was far too dangerous and powerful to play around with it like this… and it was mine. I wasn’t going to mess around getting it back. Thena really wanted to do this? I scowled at her, hands tightening into fists. Alright, fine. No more holding back, then. I’d just have to show her what the Scarlet Witch was really capable of.