The smell of decayed flesh threatened to overwhelm him. It was not the pungent smell one would have expected. It was sweet almost palatable. The six-foot figure with a roughly medium build and flowing white hair was in such horror. Never had he seen so many dead. Everywhere the eye could see the dead were piled one upon the other, so great were the piles that there was an entire necroscape of mountains, hills, and valleys, all composed of corpses without number. He fell to the ground in abject horror, his mind unable to cope with the mass genocide that lay before him. One of his hands went completely through the surface of the necroscape. It was most unsettling as he pulled his hand from a putrefied and rotting skull. He screamed until his voice broke. He was nearly mad as the sensory overload worked its shadows into his heart, his mind his very soul.

Only the crying of a small child was enough to bring him from his comatose state. It was a small yellow boy, probably one of the indigenous to the planet he had landed on. The language was indiscernible, but the child was afraid and crying as he waded though appendages and other limbs, which were locked in the eternal dance of petrifaction. But from one of the valleys of the necro landscape, he ascended, like a black phoenix rising from its long imprisonment from the incinerator. Large and terrible to behold, his massive frame covered with thick dense muscle. More then seven feet tall and his eyes were like razors cutting away the facade of life.

"Did you do this"? Came the traveler, the child clinging to his side in terror, sobbing uncontrollably. His only reply was a deadly smile and black vapors that were cold.

As ice came forth. "Why? For Death," he said; his voice was like the grave as it boomed across the necroscape.

"You are mad!" came the traveler

"No," he said, "I am Thanos!"

When the traveler awoke he was still in a fever, such a vision was terrible but he knew that it was a revelation that would one day be reality. This Thanos would arise and destroy all life. He had to prepare, he had to begin collecting for the next universe. It would be his all consuming passion he would be the Collector.

Her name was Sui-san and she was an Eternal, a race of extremely long-lived human like beings that were infused with the energy of stars. She was very beautiful, her skin smooth and without flaw. It lacked pores and looked almost like a statue. Her hands were slender and gentle, yet there was a sense of strength that great force could be generated if necessary. Her eyes could be any color as she used her limited control over her molecular structure to change them as her mood changed. Lately they had been dark.

Before her and Mentor came to Titan, there was a great civil war amongst their kind and the price on her spirit made her sick. No medicine seemed to help and things only got worse with time. But during her search through the world computer, I.S.S.A.C., she came across a passage from an arcane tome. It spoke of the dragon of the moon and how his followers were blessed with peace of mind, and an inner strength of staggering proportions.

She set up a parabola, as the file she downloaded told her. It instructed her to draw in ashes and a light candle at each axis point. She also found and ingested the strange herbs that it spoke of as the biotechnology of Titan could conceive of nearly anything. Sui-san began to chant the tongue on the manuscript over and over until it seemed to spill out of her mouth like blood through a gaping wound. The candles began to waver as a mysterious wind came into her bedroom. The temperature began to decrease and even her thick skin could feel the preternatural winds stinging her cheeks. She breathed deeply as she inhaled the icy cold that went all the way to her heart.

When she opened her eyes, she saw a great beast of obsidian, formed like the shape of a great black worm. Many were the legends of such a beast. It was rumored to be made of darkmatter, the material the universe itself used to make blakholes. Other legends had it as the Uroborus, the serpent that bit its own tail. She was not afraid. There was very little she was afraid of, it was one of her greatest strengths and her greatest weakness. Courage was a good thing but lack of fear could prove fatal even for an Eternal.

It embraced her in its icy grip. It did not crush her, but she could feel the great pressures as her hand went through the obsidian worm like an apparition. The only reason she knew it existed was the terrible cold that touched deep and the great pressures against her lithe form. It was cleansing as its breath went up and down her entire form.

"The life force in you is strong," it quipped as the icy grip of the dragon put her in a near cryogenic state. Her body temperature began to fall rapidly and Her mind went numb as gentle madness crossed her face. "So there are two life forces," came the dragon again. Its dark matter was now exerting incredible pressures with its dark matter.

The breath was forced out of her and she questioned herself, Two? For a moment she was lucid and There was no doubt what the implication of the dragon’s statement were. Sui-san was with child. She struggled helplessly against the creature which was the combination of a black hole and a psychic reaper. Memories were forced from her limbic system at its leisure and it displayed a great intelligence despite the fact the creature seemed primal and incredibly old. But her will was strong, even stronger then the dragon of the moon had counted on, and she fought with all her considerable mental strength, which actually caused some of the dragons dense mass to loosen its hold. She tried to scream but her scream was muffled for nothing could escape the living black hole, not even her scream.

She awakened in a cold sweat, her companion, Mentor, was already awakened from her struggles.

"Are you all right?" he asked. "You struggled with the covers as if they were alive," he said in a fatherly manner.

Sui-san collected herself, for she was not one to trouble others with her problems, "It was merely that I have not slept with someone in a long time, normally I use a sleep environment because it monitors alpha waves and ensures that the sleep cycle is uninterrupted." She half smiled and tried to side step the question as she lay her form against his great chest, and put her hands through Mentors silvery crown. Mentor was her companion and the leader of the Eternals, and it was he that brought the sundered Eternal to Titan to begin with

"Sui-san, you cannot deceive me. I know you better then any other, what is troubling you?"

" Mentor," she paused.

"Yes," he replied as he placed his great jaw upon her back and pulled her closer

"I believe that I am with child."

Mentor pulled back, "We can do an examination at the first light if you like."

She looked into his eyes, "There is no doubt I am pregnant and worse I fear for the child's life."

The next day she was brought before the citadel of the world computer I.S.SA.C It appeared in holographic form, a representation of the computer in humanoid configuration. This form was how the computer usually presented itself to the populace of Titan when speaking to them.

The world computer did not hook her up to wires or inject her with chemicals. It merely gazed up and down her form with its holographic head that was fed information from the world computer itself. Its form was like the universe, only carved into the shape of a man, and its head was like a Helmut used to conceal ones self in battle.

"There appears to be no abnormalities, but preliminary scans show that there is a child."

Mentor looked at Sui-san and was amazed of the intuitive nature of his wife, and he to now feared for the child. "Can you bring up a visual?"

I.S.S.A.C gestured and an image of an extremely developed fetus was looking at the group, almost as if it were aware of what was going on. It was still small and not all of its features were clear, but it seemed to smile and Mentor and Sui-san were in awe for one thing was indeed certain: the child was aware. This was confirmed moments later by the world computer who registered active alpha waves, which meant that it was cognoscente.

After that day, Mentor began to teach it in the womb, by reading books and reciting mathematics. Everyday Mentor would sit and speak to Sui-san’s belly. Mentor had often thought that teaching could be done in this fashion. If his son, as the computer had predicted, was truly aware then its impact would be even more profound if he taught him while still in the womb and very important if he was to be the next prince.

There were even signs that the child was trying to communicate, as it kicked and moved in a commutative fashion.

One day, Sui-san came across the strange herbs she had ingested, or at least thought she did when confronting the dream of the moon dragon. This made her wonder if perhaps they were the same herbs that she had used in her dream when she encountered the dragon of the moon. But if it was just a dream then, why were they here? A sense of fear came across her again but she quickly put it aside when the child kicked and seemed to be aware of the herbs presence. The child seemed to want his mother to ingest the herbs.

Then it occurred that perhaps the herbs had made the child aware. She took the herbs and did so until the day her child would be born.

There was one thing that technology did not seem to change: the look on a father’s face as he sees his son being born. With the technology at Titan’s disposal, it was not a painful process but a few minutes at most.

Things were going smoothly until the world computer signaled that the child had stopped breathing. Sui-san screamed as she heard this. Mentor tried to restrain her, but the angst in her was great. She was injected with some chemical agents that were nano-technology based and they were programed to go inside her and take care of what was causing the problem.

There was pause and the air of Titan grew still as an eerie quiet blanketed the world computer chambers.

I.S.S.A.C then confirmed that the process had worked and that the child would live.

A sense of relief crossed their faces as the world computers last bit of data had eased Mentors mind.

Sui-san screamed, however, as her Child's face was bloated and purplish in appearance. The world computer said that the child would be kept for observation. Sui- san was given a relaxing virtual reality emotion stimulation module to give her peace of mind.

Then I.S.S.A.C spoke, "There is something strange; it appears to be a mutation of the amygdala, the part of the brain that was once called the God-center. Religion and God are like a template that is overlaid, but in this case it appears abnormally large. His synapse fires at incredible speeds and his signals move across his cortex so quickly it often appears to be simultaneously."

"What all does this bear?" said Mentor evenly.

"It is unknown I have never came across such readings. Only time will tell if it is good or bad."

We hope you enjoyed this first chapter in a new series which will dig deep into the hidden past of Thanos the Mad Titan!  If you enjoyed it, please let us know by e-mailing cpufeedback@yahoo.com or by filling out the form below.  Now, check out Chapter 2!