The human was oddly silent. Thank- well, not god, she's never going to thank a god again, but well, thank whoever. She'd initially planned to let the human die, she knew that while the white gooey substance was blocking the external flow of blood, it was doing nothing to stop the internal damage caused by her father. It would be very easy to let the human- what was the phase? Pass away. But she'd also heard what the Wizard had said, keeping this terran (apparently, they preferred the term 'human') alive was the only way, and if there was even a slight chance that this 'human' could help her defeat Thanos and avenge her sister, she would take it.

So, she'd gotten him onto the ship, dragging him along as gently as she could because there was no way in hell she would ever carry a being from Terra. She'd placed him on one of the beds on board – again not carrying him – thinking that it might encourage the human to sleep, or at the very least be quiet and not die. She'd even managed to get him out of his ridiculous metal suit by pressing a strange button, which of course had revealed the extent of the red lines decorating his body, hundreds of blotchy red spider webs beginning to stain the otherwise black clothing.

She had done her best with the limited medical supplies on board, applying pressure where it was needed, tying several bandages, dabbing cream at the countless angry red lines. She could almost see Gamora smiling proudly.

She'd even given the human some pills, not because she cared about this humans' misery of course, but because he kept moaning and she simply wanted him to Shut. The fuck. Up.

And it worked. For 20 minutes. The first hour of their journey had been quiet, which Nebula had subsequently realised was due to shock. The human being the one in shock of course, not her. Then the blood loss kicked in and that combined with the shock meant that the human started talking and moaning and refused to stop. She also vaguely remembered something about humans not liking silences, although she had never found out the reason for such preposterousness.

One hour and 20 minutes of silence in a journey that had so far been four hours and would be at least another three before they got to Earth. Between countless ramblings of a spider who he seemed especially fond of, a shield, and a weirdly complicated winter, Nebula had finally decided that she'd heard quite enough from this creature who called himself "Tony" and thus had gone in search of anything that would give her some much needed quiet. Hence, the pills. She had also found some duct tape but decided against it. Gamora definitely would've been proud.

20 minutes of silence had gone by and Nebula almost smiled. Almost.

"My dad," the human slurred deliriously, "He was a jerk."

Nebula smirked. That was one thing she could relate to.

"But you know what?" The weirdly talkative creature's distant brown eyes stared right through her. She wasn't sure if he was even fully aware of her presence. "I loved him anyway."

"Lucky you," Nebula whispered.

"What, you don't want to talk about daddy issues?"

"Nope."

"Ah come on! It's important to talk these things through, you know. You see, my dad was the biggest jerk, he was – "

Nebula sighed. "Not that I care about your human problems, but believe me, if there was a competition on who has the worst father-related issues, I would win."

"Oh yeah? Well, let's see. I hated my father. For a long time. In fact, I kind of still do," the human chuckled joylessly. "He was obsessed with his soldier and his stupid shield. Never paid any attention to me, his son. It was only after he was killed, by my friends' brain-washed best friend no less, that I realised I didn't just hate him. I loved him, too." Apparently, it was very important that she knew he loved his father. He glanced at her, "I think I win."

The blue lady sighed. "I had Thanos as a father." The human went quiet, having apparently forgotten this fact in his blood loss/drug-induced delirium.

She was going to leave it at that, she certainly didn't owe this human an explanation, but she found herself continuing. "He destroyed my world, slaughtered half of the entire population of my people, and did the same thing with my sister, Gamora. He took us in and he raised us, destroying the children we once were. He tortured us, routinely pitted us against each other. He tried to kill both of us more than once, all in the name of "making us stronger."" Nebula laughed. "As if such actions could ever be justified.

"And just in the last few hours, he tortured me, literally tore my insides apart, to get to my sister, who he then murdered in order to get his precious stone. Which he then used to destroy half the universe." The human was quiet for a couple of moments.

"Wow…okay, you win."

Nebula simply looked ahead, her eyes not quite able to hide the sadness that plagued her. "I win," she said quietly.

"But I'm serious though, fathers are complicated, you know? Howard was a dick, he was always distant-"

"I know what you're trying to do," Nebula interrupted, sighing as she did so. "Ignoring the pain, attempting to focus on irrelevant things that honestly don't matter anymore – "

"Hey, my father issues matter heaps, okay?"

Nebula continued like she hadn't heard him. "'It's a technique I myself have tried dozens of times. But it won't make the pain you feel hurt any less and it definitely won't make the pain go away, believe me," she advised, slowly turning to look at the human she'd been stuck with for the past several hours. His eyes changed with her words, they were still glazed over but a new pain that had not quite been visible before was now starkly clear. She recognised it all too well, it had been staring back at her through window panes and cracked mirrors for the past few hours.

"I should've died," the increasingly irksome human stated. Nebula was tempted to agree with him, but she sensed that now was not the time for such comments.

"And why is that?"

"Should've been me. The kid shouldn't have even been there. He was supposed to – "

"It would've happened anyway," Nebula interrupted.

"What?"

Nebula sighed for what felt like the millionth time that day. "Even if your adolescent hadn't been there, Thanos still would have got the stones, he still would have destroyed half the universe, and your kid as you call him would still have died," Nebula said, sensing her anger that had been brimming just below the surface starting to join the overwhelming sadness that she felt.

There was a brief pause.

"This situation is so fucking shit." Finally, something they could agree on. She had thought previous situations had been shit, the time Gamora had sworn that she would kill her if she ever saw her again although of course she hadn't meant it, the time Thanos had literally stabbed her in the back while simultaneously yelling at her for daring to feel pain, the most recent time when Thanos had literally torn her heart apart and left her waiting in agony for hours (and of course he had never actually come back for her). All those times she'd felt like she was alone in the universe with no one who loved her. But of course, she'd never really been alone. Until now.

She was angry, so incredibly angry, at her father who had never been a father to her, who had the nerve to grieve over her sister whom he murdered, as if he hadn't had a choice. She was angry at the universe for allowing such a being to exist in the first place, and then allowing said being to destroy half of it (granted her knowledge of the infinity stones wasn't perfect but she knew how Vormir worked, a soul for a soul, someone you love, etc. She also knew that Gamora would never have sacrificed herself willingly, so how the fuck could the universe consider that love? Claiming you love someone and then tossing them over a cliff against their will and that apparently counts as love? What the fuck, universe).

She was angry at this human for being as irritating as he was, in that way he reminded her of Gamora, despite how different the two of them were. She was even angry at Gamora herself for choosing to save her, even though she had no way of knowing that Nebula was not the one who needed to be saved.

But mostly, she was angry at herself; for not knowing better, for not succeeding in killing Thanos when she had the chance, for wasting so many years hating her sister who had always loved her. And as much as she hated to admit it, she was angry at herself for being jealous of Gamora, as fucked up as she knew that was, jealous that their father even cared enough to kill her sister personally, while leaving her own life up to chance.

She was angry, so fucking angry. A waste of parts, he'd called her. She was going to be the most powerful, most expensive fucking waste of parts in the universe. She was going to kill him. Oh yes, she would kill him if it was the last thing she did.

"You and me both," she heard a low voice chime in. Crap, she had not meant to say all that aloud. Why was the human still talking anyway? They were notoriously fragile creatures, both physically and mentally, surely this human should have fallen asleep by now?

"Maaaannn, that was beautiful! Quite a speech you gave, I especially liked the part where the universe is kind of an asshole, I completely agree! And the part where–"

"You know, I personally hate most of the phrases you creatures have come up with but there's one that I have taken a special liking to."

"Which is?" The man asked drowsily, his eyelids closing, his energy finally dissipating.

"Fuck off." She could almost hear Gamora chastising her, urging her to be nice, to go easy on the human. But Gamora wasn't there.

Several surprisingly uncomfortably quiet minutes passed, the silence hanging above her like a noose. She glanced back at the human, thinking that maybe she should, not apologise but maybe, just maybe offer a word of comfort – only to find that he had passed out. Typical.

/Line break/

Two hours and 55 minutes later, Nebula found herself softly whispering, coaxing her companion who now mysteriously had a blanket draped over him, back to consciousness. She had not coaxed anyone since, since…she could barely remember the last time she'd partaken in such an activity.

"Hey, hey wake up," Nebula whispered gently. The human did not wake. "You need to wake up, we're here now." Nebula whispered a little louder, shaking him a little. Still he would not wake. "What is it-Tony? Tony, you need to wake up, you're home."

The eyes finally opened. "We're home?" He asked, groggily.

She paused.

"You are, yes." Her voice only slightly shook.

A/N This movie gave me feelings so I decided to write about them. Also, Nebula is really fun to write.