Nebula looked down at the coordinates displayed on the screen in front of her. She was definitely in the right place however the further she flew down the large rock tunnel in front of her the more she doubted herself.
Two weeks ago Nebula had awoken to find a set of random coordinates programmed into the system of her ship along with a date for two weeks time prominently displayed on the screen in front of the driving seat. There was no indication of who left the message or how they'd managed to get into the spaceship's system but Nebula reckoned that if whoever it was going to try and kill her they would have tried to do it then so she decided to go to the coordinates on the day and see what whoever it was wanted. Of course if they did try to kill her once she got there she could defend herself.
It had taken her about a week to fly out to the coordinates and now she was here she got the distinct feeling somebody was playing a trick on her. After all who arranged a strange meeting this deep into a tunnel without expecting trouble?
The tunnel was getting increasingly dark as Nebula flew down it until eventually she had to turn the lights fitted to the front of the ship on. She looked down at the screen again, only a few more metres until she was at her intended location.
Just as the last of the light from the entrance of the cave behind her filtered out a green glow appeared in front of her. It didn't take long for her to fly forward enough to see somebody she never thought she'd see again standing on a rock in front of her.
Loki Laufeyson stood before her in all his glory as Nebula landed her ship and climbed out. The first time the two of them had met Loki and be battered and bruised from a session with Thanos. He'd been streaked with blood and had at least five broken bones, not to mention the fact he'd been half starved to death. Ultimately he'd been powerless. Weak. That didn't seem to be the case now though. Loki appeared to be working at full power, if the green light he was producing in his hand was anything to go by. And for the first time Nebula doubted her ability to beat him in a fight.
"Nebula," Loki said with a fake smile,
"Loki," She replied, "You look very well for a dead man," Loki nodded,
"Are you referring to the fact I was rumoured to have be killed or the fact that Thanos is no doubt hunting me with the intent of making good on his promise to give me a fate worse than death because to be honest you're no better than me in that regard,"
"I will kill him before he gets a chance to kill me," Nebula replied,
"So I've heard," Loki drawled,
"Well then your information appears to be more up to date than mine,"
"It was," Loki replied, "However I've lost my main source of information,"
"Oh what a shame," Nebula sighed restlessly, "What do you want Loki?"
"I want in on your man hunt," Loki announced,
"You want to help me kill Thanos?" She asked, deciding to ignore the fact that Thanos was not a man.
"Yes," Nebula let out a huff and took a step towards Loki,
"Why? Why do you want to help me? Why not mount your own attack? You're hardly a team player," Loki smirked in response,
"You are not wrong but, as I think you can agree, Thanos is bigger than either of us, perhaps bigger than any one being, if he's going down it will not be at the hand of a single person,"
"But why me?"
"Because you were already on the hunt, and you are perhaps the only person with a bigger stake in this than me, aside from maybe Gamora but she's made it quite clear that she wants nothing to do with this," Nebula narrowed her eyes,
"You've spoken to Gamora?"
"No," Loki said, "but, as I said, I used to have resources, I kept an eye on you and Gamora and I watch your parting conversation. It was very touching," Nebula frowned and took a few steps back, that conversation had been private and it sent a shiver down her spine to think somebody had been watching,
"What happened to your resources?" Nebula asked, trying to change the focus of the conversation,
"I was King of Asgard," Loki said seemingly out of the blue as he gazed at the rock behind them,
"Well good for you," Nebula drawled, "Looks like you got what you wanted,"
"Hardly," Loki scoffed before turning to look back at Nebula, "I was parading as Odin while I did it. But being King of Asgard has many perks, and I could use all of Asgard's resources so I did. I monitored you and Nebula, I looked for ways to defeat Thanos, I hunted to Infinity stones but alas when you're walking around in a mask you will always get found out,"
"So they kicked you out of Asgard," Nebula finished without a note of sympathy or pity,
"No I ran," Loki said causing Nebula to scoff,
"Coward,"
"They would have killed me!"
"So? It seems like the entire universe is trying to do that," Nebula spat, walking back to her ship,
"Now tell me why I should let you come with me or I will leave you here,"
"Just leave me?" Loki grinned, "Not kill me? My you have changed,"
"It seems like you'd be dead within a week anyway,"
"You underestimate me," Loki said, "I've lasted three weeks thus far. I know how to defend myself," Nebula looked him up and down,
"You're forgetting, I've seen you fight, I've seen you try to command an army, every time you got beat,"
"Maybe I was trying to lose," Loki snapped,
"You were trying to lose?"
"Yes. I knew that if I lost I would get taken back to Asgard along with the Tesseract, the one place that actually stands a chance at defending itself against Thanos and in the process I united a group of mortals who had a chance at defeating Thanos,"
"So why are you here talking to me instead of begging them to let you help," Loki snorted,
"I was wrong about them, I thought they could take Thanos but it would appear they were unsuited for the job. They imploded and they attacked each other before they could become aware of just what a threat Thanos is,"
"And what makes you think we won't do that?"
"Because we know the stakes," Loki said, walking over to stand in front of Nebula, "Plus we aren't delusional enough to think that we're friends," Nebula nodded as she edged away from Loki,
"That is all well and good but you didn't answer my question: Why should I let you come?"
"Because you need me," Loki said simply, "It's quite clear you have no idea what you're doing or how to start with your mission, you've been at this for over a month now and your no closer to killing Thanos than you were when you began,"
"And you think you can help me with that?"
"I didn't waste Asgard's resources," Loki explained, "Like I said, while I had them I looked for the Infinity Stones and I watched Thanos, I know his plan, I know what he's going to do and when and I know what his downfall will be," Nebula rolled her eyes, trust Loki to be dramatic,
"So you have a plan?" Loki nodded,
"I have a plan,"
"Fine," Nebula relented, "You can come with me but let's get something clear straight away, this is my ship and you will follow my rules," Loki smirked,
"I wouldn't expect anything less from you," he mused as he climbed into the ship. Nebula scowled at him before following him on board,
"And no doing magic on my navigation system, or whatever you did to it before," she added,
"Whatever you say," Loki agreed as he settled down in a chair, "Now how about we leave this cave and I'll tell you my plan?"