"Master." Atrocitus, leader of the Red Lantern Corps, knelt before Thanos, his voice carrying a faint tremor.
"It seems you did not bring me the news I wanted." Seated atop a meteorite floating in the void of space, Thanos looked calmly at Atrocitus kneeling before him.
At this moment, his gauntlet already bore the emblems of three Lantern Beasts: Green, Yellow, and Red. The beasts representing these three energies were Ion, Parallax, and Butcher.
"Please punish me." Atrocitus lowered his head deeply.
"Master, please give us a little more time. We will definitely find the other Lantern Beasts for you." Bleez, another Red Lantern Corps warrior, also knelt and pleaded with his head bowed.
"You have disappointed me." Thanos clenched his gloved hand into a fist, and a crimson beam shot into Atrocitus's body.
Bathed in the red light, Atrocitus seemed to suffer unbearable agony. He abruptly threw back his head, the whites of his eyes showing through the pain. His entire body was lifted into the air by the red light, and after a violent convulsion, he was blasted away, rolling across the meteorite's surface for some distance.
The pained howls gradually faded. Atrocitus pushed himself up from the ground in a miserable state. Bleez and the other Red Lantern Corps members did not dare make another sound.
"I granted you the peace you had long lacked, freeing you from the influence and control of the Red Lantern's power. In exchange, you serve under my command and search for the Lantern Beasts. I remember giving you precise coordinates. Yet you failed to bring it back." Thanos's matter-of-fact tone weighed on everyone present like a mountain.
"It escaped. Please give me one more chance. I will bring it back to you." Atrocitus pleaded.
"Sector 2814. This is your last chance,"