Chapter Summaries

Dane defeated and killed Xu Wenwu, claimed the Ten Rings, and buried him as Shangqi and Xu Xialing sensed a blood relative's death and set out for home. As the Convergence brought a spatial anomaly to London, Jane Foster traced it to an abandoned factory and encountered Dane there.

• Dane crushed Xu Wenwu with a single attack, and Wenwu died after realizing he valued his family more than his ambitions.
• The Ten Rings left Wenwu's body and returned to Dane, who buried Wenwu in an unmarked grave.
• Shangqi and Xu Xialing sensed a relative's death from afar and each decided to return home.
• Dane investigated the Convergence in England with Doctor Banner, suspecting the Reality Stone had chosen Jane Foster as its host.
• Jane followed abnormal readings into a London factory, found the strongest spatial distortion, and met Dane in the corridor.

Dane Davis entered a spatial rift with Jane Foster, explained the Celestial Convergence, and found Aether hidden in a pillar. Aether chose Jane as its host, and after they returned to the abandoned factory, it unleashed a shockwave that left the surroundings in ruins while Dane remained unharmed.

• Dane told Jane that Earth was at the center of the Celestial Convergence and guided her through the spatial rift toward Aether.
• Dane found Aether inside a pillar marked by the Bifrost and lifted the stone trapping it.
• Dane gave Jane a Ten Rings bracelet for protection, but Aether entered her body while she was unconscious.
• Dane explained that Aether had chosen Jane as its temporary host and led her out of the spatial rift.
• Dane invited Jane to Umbrella to learn more, but Aether burst from her body and destroyed everything nearby except Dane.

After the Aether entered Jane Foster, Dane took her to Sokovia, where Thor arrived with Frigga’s warning that the Dark Elves had awakened and were coming to Midgard. As the Dark Elves prepared to reclaim the Aether, Dane accepted Thor’s help and planned to preserve their ship and technology; Jane realized she might be at the center of an approaching war.

• Dane told Jane the Aether was inside her and that his Bracelet was protecting her from its deadly effects, then showed her Umbrella’s forces waiting below.
• Jane agreed to go with Dane, and Malekith awoke with Algrim and ordered the Dark Elves to travel to Midgard and reclaim the Aether.
• After Dane brought Jane to Sokovia, Thor arrived and relayed Frigga’s prophecy that the Dark Elves were coming for a powerful secret treasure.
• Dane accepted Frigga’s warning, thanked her through Thor, and agreed to let Thor help fight the Dark Elves.
• Dane asked Thor to spare the Dark Elves’ main ship so Umbrella could study its technology, and Thor questioned whether Dark World technology could be useful.
• Jane asked whether the Aether had caused the coming war, and Dane said surrendering it might prevent the conflict.

Dane prepared Umbrella’s forces to defend Jane by choosing the waters near Tiamut Island as the battlefield, where they ambushed the Dark Elves’ flagship. The Dark Elves launched a counterattack, and Atlas soldiers breached the warship as its defenders rushed to meet them.

• Jane agreed to let the Dark Elves take her, but Thor assured her that Dane would protect her.
• Dane ordered Umbrella’s forces to prepare for war and brought Jane and Thor to Tiamut Island, where he planned to use Jane as bait.
• Umbrella’s Bifrost beam exposed the cloaked Incinerator, and the fleet destroyed dozens of its fighters with electromagnetic shells.
• The Dark Elves sent an assault force beneath the sea, surprising Atlas and prompting Dane to order his soldiers to seize the flagship.
• Atlas assault boats used melta guns to weaken the Incinerator’s shield, melted holes through its hull, and pushed inside as Algrim ordered the Dark Elves to defend their ship.

Dane’s forces repelled the Dark Elf attack on the island, with Dane crushing their fighters through Telekinesis and Thor joining the battle. Aboard the Incinerator, Malekith turned Algrim into the Dark Elves’ last Cursed Warrior as the Astartes advanced.

• Astartes ambushed the Dark Elves with Bolters, killing many and destroying their Black Hole Bombs before they could be used.
• Dark Elf fighters attacked the island, but its Electromagnetic Shield absorbed their energy shells.
• Dane froze the fighters with Telekinesis, crushed them into iron spheres, and left Atlas to surround the retreating force.
• Thor flew into the battle to fight the Dark Elves, while Cortana reported that Atlas had entered the Incinerator and was searching for its control room.
• Malekith gave Algrim the last Cursed Stone and admitted that he had underestimated humanity.
• Algrim crushed the stone and transformed into a Cursed Warrior as Bolter fire and Astartes footsteps approached.

Algrim’s attack ended in his death and the Dark Elves’ surrender to Dane’s forces. After the battle, Dane took control of the surviving Dark Elves and their technology, including the genetic archive and frozen embryos that could restore their population.

• Malekith sent Algrim into battle, where Bolter fire drove him back until he used Black Hole Grenades to charge the Astartes.
• Algrim was overwhelmed by the Astartes and detonated his Black Hole Bomb, killing himself and three of them.
• Malekith surrendered, and Dane accepted on behalf of Umbrella and its forces; the other Dark Elves laid down their weapons.
• Thor questioned Malekith about the Cursed Warriors, and Malekith taunted him about Odin and the succession to the throne.
• Dane learned that 477 Dark Elves survived and that Malekith’s flagship held the last genetic archive and frozen embryos capable of restoring their race.

Dane forced Malekith to remove the Aether from Jane Foster and quickly subdued him when he tried to use it. After securing the Reality Stone, Dane kept Malekith alive as a prisoner and continued collecting Infinity Stones for research.

• Dane moved the Dark Elves’ gene banks and frozen embryos into secure custody, then ordered Malekith to send his people back to Svartalfheim in small, rotating batches.
• Thor returned to Asgard, and Dane brought Malekith to the shore base, where Malekith agreed to extract the Aether from Jane Foster.
• Malekith removed the Aether from Jane and absorbed it, then attacked Dane with its power.
• Dane crushed Malekith’s limbs and threatened to destroy his head, forcing him to expel the Aether without using it to heal himself.
• Dane’s ring gathered the Aether into a small red stone, and staff carried the wounded Malekith away after Dane left with Jane.
• Dane placed the Reality Stone in a special container, adding it to the Mind Stone and Cosmic Cube already in his possession.

Nick Fury grew suspicious of Project Insight and Alexander Pierce, but a staged lead about the Winter Soldier only deepened his doubts. After leaving the Triskelion, Nick was ambushed by police and fought his way through a citywide pursuit until a Black Hawk appeared overhead.

• Nick asked Alexander Pierce to convene a council and reconsider Project Insight, but Pierce handed him a file showing the Winter Soldier near Wakanda and claimed Wakanda held vast Vibranium deposits.
• Nick agreed not to show the file to Captain America, while suspecting Pierce had offered it to distract him from investigating Project Insight.
• After Nick left the Triskelion, patrol officers watched him before a police car rammed his Chevrolet at an intersection.
• Nick called Hill for help, used his vehicle’s machine gun to break out of the police blockade, and drove away despite a fractured arm and a damaged flight system.
• Police cars repeatedly pursued and cornered Nick until a Black Hawk arrived overhead.

Nick escaped the police with help from people posing as Natasha and Hawkeye, but the Skrulls revealed themselves and left him unconscious. Steve, Natasha, and Hawkeye began tracking him while Dane oversaw Jessica’s Umbrella examinations, where she greeted him warmly.

• Natasha and Hawkeye pulled Nick from the chase in a Black Hawk, but the two rescuers revealed themselves as Skrulls and shot him before he passed out.
• Steve, Natasha, and Hawkeye learned that impostors had taken Nick and suspected Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Hill tracked Nick using a locator he had arranged for S.H.I.E.L.D. to monitor, and the team set out to rescue him without informing Phil.
• Jessica underwent Umbrella examinations in Clinton while Dane explored whether her spatial powers could aid research into Captain Marvel.
• Jessica smiled at Dane and said she had missed him, and Dane raised the laboratory equipment into the air with a thought.

Dane used his new Telekinesis to examine Jessica’s quantum field, then declined her concert invitation but offered to take her somewhere else. After learning Nick Fury had been captured, Dane identified the attack footage as showing Hawkeye and suspected a shapeshifting alien; meanwhile, Nick confronted Arnim Zola and learned Hydra had been embedded in S.H.I.E.L.D. from the beginning.

• Dane used Telekinesis and the Quantum Field Generator to study Jessica, then refused her concert invitation and invited her to go somewhere with him another day.
• Dane reviewed footage of the attack on Nick Fury and recognized the events as resembling Captain America 2, then spotted Hawkeye in traffic surveillance.
• Nick woke in an old S.H.I.E.L.D. base and learned that Arnim Zola had preserved his consciousness inside a computer.
• Zola told Nick that Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. had been one organization from the start and claimed Hydra had helped make Nick director.
• Nick smashed the computer displaying Zola, ending their conversation.

Nick discovered Hydra’s plan to use the Zola Algorithm for a worldwide purge, while a Skrull impersonating him took his place at S.H.I.E.L.D. and ordered Agent Hill captured. Hill escaped and contacted the Avengers before calling Dane, who was at Oscorp’s Octavia Laboratory with Jessica as they began a visit with Otto Octavius.

• Arnim Zola told Nick that Hydra would use Project Insight and the Zola Algorithm to eliminate people deemed threats, enforcing Hydra’s order through an allegedly selfless program.
• Nick realized the Skrulls had joined Hydra and that a Skrull impersonator could be using his face and memories.
• Alexander welcomed the fake Nick at the Triskelion and tasked him with replacing the real Nick and ensuring Project Insight proceeded.
• Agent Hill noticed the fake Nick was not acting like the real one, fled the Triskelion, and called the Avengers before contacting Dane.
• Dane and Jessica arrived at Otto Octavius’s Octavia Laboratory, where Dane criticized Jessica’s rough use of her powers.

Dane attended Otto’s thermonuclear fusion demonstration, where the Miniature Sun initially succeeded but grew dangerously unstable. Norman ordered the experiment stopped, and Jessica destroyed the controls, making the miniature sun vanish.

• Dane explained to Jessica that Umbrella and Stark controlled their clean-energy reactor technology while their electricity initiative expanded worldwide.
• Otto demonstrated his four-clawed tentacle apparatus and began the thermonuclear fusion experiment before the assembled audience.
• The fusion reaction formed a glowing miniature sun, and Dane noticed the crowd was exposed to dangerous heat and ultraviolet radiation.
• The magnetic field became abnormal, Jessica’s silver ring was pulled into the reactor, and the miniature sun began drawing metal objects and equipment toward itself.
• Norman ordered Otto to shut down the experiment, but Otto insisted he could control it, so Dane restrained him with Telekinesis.
• Jessica flew to the console and smashed it, cutting the power and causing the miniature sun to contract and disappear.

Dane recruited Otto after his fusion experiment failed, supported the Avengers’ mission to rescue Nick, and prepared to permanently integrate Druid’s psychic ability. The Avengers infiltrated the New Jersey S.H.I.E.L.D. base while Cortana began a digital battle with Arnim Zola.

• Dane diagnosed flaws in Otto’s experiment and gave him a business card, which Otto secretly accepted.
• Dane agreed to provide the Avengers with an armed transport aircraft and kept Project Insight under surveillance with a space-based weapon ready to destroy its Helicarriers.
• Dane developed the Matter Transmuter using Phastos’s ability and chose to permanently integrate Druid’s mind-control power.
• The Avengers arrived at the New Jersey base, and Cortana guided them through its surveillance zone toward Nick’s location underground.
• Cortana and Arnim Zola launched a network battle as the Avengers began their infiltration.

The Avengers escaped Arnim Zola's base after learning that Hydra was preparing Project Insight, but Alexander and the fake Nick rushed the operation and launched the Helicarriers. Nick called Tony Stark for help, and Stark sent the Iron Legion toward Washington as the Avengers raced to intervene.

• Cortana and Dane defeated Arnim Zola in their digital battle, allowing the Avengers to rescue Nick Fury from the underground base.
• Arnim Zola stalled the Avengers until missiles approached, but Umbrella's transport aircraft intercepted them and Cortana helped the team escape through the elevator shaft.
• Rumlow reported that Nick knew Hydra's plans, so Alexander and the fake Nick authorized Project Insight and launched the four Helicarriers.
• Hill alerted the Avengers that Project Insight had begun, and Nick chose to call Tony Stark for help instead of asking Umbrella.
• Stark deployed more than a hundred Iron Legion suits from his orbital factory, and they reached the Helicarriers before the Avengers.

The Avengers and Umbrella exploited the chaos of Hydra’s coup to attack S.H.I.E.L.D., while Skrulls and Hydra operatives turned the battle against the loyal agents. Steve and Natasha headed for the Helicarriers, but after their transport was hit, Jessica rescued them; Steve then insisted she leave him to take on one carrier alone.

• Tony and the Iron Legion attacked the Helicarriers while Steve’s broadcast sparked fighting between Hydra and loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
• Dane spread Steve’s speech to S.H.I.E.L.D. branches worldwide, triggering a purge as Umbrella operatives seized researchers and Dane and Cortana attacked Arnim Zola for the Zola Algorithm.
• Alexander enlisted the fake Nick and activated Hydra’s remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives, while Skrulls seized the armory and helped Hydra gain the advantage.
• Nick and the Avengers arrived amid the confusion, and Steve split the team’s efforts between the battlefield and the four Helicarriers.
• Steve revealed he knew Natasha was connected to Umbrella, and Natasha considered recruiting him before their transport plane was damaged by a Helicarrier.
• Jessica caught Steve and Natasha after they jumped from the damaged plane and carried them onto a Helicarrier, where Steve told her to leave him and attack another one.

Natasha, Jessica, Tony, and Steve struggled to stop the Helicarriers without causing mass casualties, while Nick Fury confronted Alexander and his shapeshifting double. Tony prepared to sacrifice the carriers, and Hawkeye froze when the fake Alexander transformed into his wife, Lara.

• Jessica and Natasha landed on a Helicarrier, where Jessica fought its soldiers while Natasha infiltrated the engine room and devised a plan to shut down the carrier so Jessica could push it into the ocean.
• Tony and the Iron Legion seized two Helicarriers, but an onboard artificial intelligence blocked J.A.R.V.I.S., and Tony slowed their ascent by destroying turbines.
• Tony argued that the team had to choose between destroying the Helicarriers and risking civilian deaths or allowing Project Insight to begin; Steve objected but could not offer another solution.
• Tony informed Nick Fury of his decision while Nick and Hawkeye confronted Alexander and Fake Nick at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base.
• Hawkeye used a Smoke Bomb Arrow to help Nick approach Alexander, but Fake Nick intercepted Nick and kicked him aside.
• Hawkeye wounded Fake Nick with an arrow, then froze when Fake Nick changed his face into Lara, Hawkeye's wife.

Nick captured Alexander and uncovered his plan to use Project Insight to rule the world, but the control interface was suddenly taken over. As Tony prepared to destroy the Helicarriers, Steve chose another way and Jessica began pushing one Helicarrier toward Steve’s in an attempt to redirect their crash toward the sea.

• Nick shot the Skrull, and Hawkeye pinned Alexander’s calf with an arrow before Nick captured him.
• Nick accessed Alexander’s control system and discovered his backdoor authority over Project Insight and his plan to rule the world.
• Alexander offered Nick a share of power, and Nick hesitated as Alexander described Hydra’s plans for the project’s second and third phases.
• The control interface changed into streams of code, and Nick questioned Alexander and Tony, but neither claimed responsibility.
• Tony deployed the Iron Legion through two Helicarriers’ engine rooms as Hydra agents fled, while Steve told him he had chosen another way.
• Tony saw Jessica and Natasha’s Helicarrier falling toward Steve’s and learned from Steve that Jessica was applying the force redirecting it.

Jessica failed to steer a falling Helicarrier into its target, but Dane seized control of the carriers and redirected them against Hydra’s shipyards. After destroying two facilities, Dane continued toward the remaining targets to erase Hydra’s warship research and weapons data.

• Jessica could not approach or control the falling Helicarrier, so Natasha, Steve, and Tony abandoned their original plan.
• Steve attached a programmable explosive to the reactor, but an unknown hacker shut down the carrier’s weapons and took control; Steve jettisoned the bomb before it exploded.
• Tony identified Dane as the hacker, and Dane explained that he intended to destroy Hydra’s shipyards, blueprints, databases, and experimental reports.
• Dane crashed a Helicarrier into a Washington shipyard, wiping it out and causing a major earthquake; he assured Tony that someone would handle the reactor leak.
• Hydra sent Quinjets to intercept the remaining carriers, but Dane used the Helicarriers’ weapons and their sheer mass to defeat the fighters.
• Dane drove a second Helicarrier into a coastal shipyard, destroying the facility while most of its personnel evacuated, and continued targeting Hydra’s technical data.

Dane used Umbrella’s space-based weapon and the Zola Algorithm to eliminate Hydra technicians and Skrulls while the battle over S.H.I.E.L.D. continued. As Steve and Nick clashed over whether Hydra members should be controlled or eradicated, Dane prepared to capture Zola and considered using him to create a new artificial intelligence.

• Dane used the Positron Cannon to kill 3,756 fleeing Hydra technicians, and Tony confronted him about the weapon.
• Steve left the Helicarrier to fight at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base, while Dane used its weapons and the Zola Algorithm to eliminate Skrulls in Washington.
• Dane considered combining Cortana, Zola, the Mind Stone, and the Life Cradle to create a new intelligent lifeform, but decided Zola’s allegiance made him dangerous to keep close.
• After the Skrulls were killed, S.H.I.E.L.D. forces defeated the remaining Hydra fighters, while outside organizations searched for S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel and technology that Dane had already moved.
• Dane had Atlas personnel locate the computer array holding Zola’s disconnected consciousness as the purge continued for several days.
• Nick argued that Hydra members should identify one another during the investigation, and Steve angrily challenged his plan to use them.

Steve exposed S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secrets and had Hawkeye confirm them at a public hearing, forcing the government to purge Hydra and dismantle S.H.I.E.L.D. As Nick Fury fled a global manhunt, Dane’s researchers at Umbrella discussed artificial intelligence and quantum computers as they explored how to house Cortana’s consciousness.

• Steve revealed to Nick that he had made S.H.I.E.L.D.’s classified files public and arranged for Hawkeye to confirm their authenticity at the hearing.
• Congress ordered a purge of Hydra, dismissed Nick, and disbanded S.H.I.E.L.D., while its former personnel faced investigation.
• Nick escaped custody, fled to Europe, and discovered that most of his capable agents had disappeared.
• Dane held a seminar at Umbrella on artificial intelligent life, drawing in Helen Cho and specialists from several fields.
• Dane described a proposed new computer for Cortana’s consciousness, and Bill Foster offered suggestions on quantum computing.
• Dane explained that a special metal extracted from the Celestials’ embryo could stabilize atomic structures and maintain a steady temperature.