Nightmares

by PrimeEmily135

When an item retrieval turns into a quarantine situation Yondu gets a glimpse at his crew's worst fears. "Ravagers" series (4).

::Nightmares::

When an item retrieval turns into a quarantine situation Yondu gets a glimpse at his crew's worst fears. Rated T.

...

(Yondu)

I've been to hell.

Nothing can scare me after that.

That ain't to say I'm lacking in common sense. I know that the proper thing to do when faced with a Bilgesnipe is to run like the devil's on your tail. I ain't stupid. What I mean is, I ain't got some deep rooted fear inside my soul waiting for someone to come take advantage of it. I gander most people are scared of something, but I never really thought about it, or even took it into consideration, until an incident we had a while back.

Item retrievals are relatively simple, granted that you aren't racing to beat someone to it. They also pay very well. Them Xandarian scholars love artifacts from ruined civilizations, and are willing to give a hefty sum of units for the weirdest pieces of junk. We've had some deals go south before, but none quite like this.

It started when a regular client of ours contacted me with a request to find an object on an abandoned world. He gave a vague description of it and an approximate location, and offered a count of units that I wouldn't refuse. It was relatively simple, and I dispatched a team to locate and retrieve the item without a second thought. It was a few Xandarian standard days before I got word from the team. The search had been a success, and they'd be rendezvousing with the Eclector within hours.

I was in the M-ship hanger when the team arrived, appearing through the doorway just as they stepped down from the ship. Kraglin and Horuz were by my side, but the latter moved away to yell at some poor saps not working fast enough. Idiots.

The hanger was mostly clear of people, and objects were tied down to avoid interfering with M-ship liftoff. The cold metal floor was a dull grey, rusted in places where wet ships dripped off onto it. I made a mental note of the few repairs that were needed, and I glanced at the line of ships across the hanger that needed to be fixed. Layla, my newest engineer was steadily at work on them, sweat lining her brow and grease smeared up to her elbows. At this moment she wasn't being surrounded by a group of gawking men. Good. I nodded to myself. Having a woman aboard had proved to be a hassle at first, but it seemed that the Ravagers were finally getting used to it. Glancing at the rest of the crewmembers in sight I counted about twenty. I wouldn't know until later that the number would be important.

After a boring debriefing I took the item to the M-ship hanger vault where we kept all of our merchandise readily available to sell. It was a strange little object, heavy to hold even when it was only about the size of my fist. It had an oval like shape, with three lumps in a row and a few protrusions that looked like spouts. Almost looked like the heart of some animal, petrified into stone, and covered in caked on dirt.

I shook my head, "It's nothing but a funky shaped rock." I reached to put it on an empty shelf, but stopped just short of letting it go. "It's just a rock…" I said again, but I stared at it harder, wheels turning in my brain. Something about it was making my arm hairs stand on end. Like a faint electric current… I mused, rubbing some dirt off of the object.

Upon closer inspection I found myself more wary than intrigued. It's just a rock! I was battling with my brain against my suspicious nature. The more I rubbed away at the dirt, the more of the stone I could see. Lines and markings, hieroglyphics maybe, covered the entire orb. It was nothing I recognized. The markings were made in an order, starting from one side with one spout, and traveling down to the end with two spouts in a continuous spiral. However, near the end the markings became jagged, like the person scrawling them had unsteady hands. At the very bottom the markings ended with one sharp scratch. Like he was interrupted…

I started scraping out the grooves and the spouts, and a pile of dirt dust started to collect on the metal plated floor. As I uncovered more and more markings I decided that the thing should be scanned before being stored away. My official excuse would be that we might get more units for it from someone else if we found out more about it. My actual reason sounded a bit paranoid. Truth was, I figured the thing could be dangerous.

While it was being scanned, I did a little research of my own. Kraglin filled me in on the mission recap details as I looked into the planet's history. The place the item was retrieved from was completely demolished. History showed the decline was due to war, but no evidence was ever recovered to indicate a cause or reason for a more advanced civilization to fall into ruin, and extinction. Looking into it further I found that the entire subject of the fall was wrapped up in conspiracy and speculation. One of the most predominant was that some Asgardians came in to wreck the place after some dispute with the culture. Most of the galaxy detested Asgard for some reason or another, so I paid that one no mind.

I was however intrigued by the idea of chemical or nuclear warfare. Such thing was banned on many planets, and in many galaxies, for such reasons as the fall of an entire civilization. It would explain why there were no survivors left on the abandoned world, but the theory was discredited by the lack of radiation or presence of damaging chemicals.

I looked up as the monitor in front of me sounded the completion of the scan. A 3D image of the object was brought up onto the table beside me, showing a number of nooks and crannies on the inside.

"What are you scanning it for anyway?" Kraglin asked, glancing around me to see the mockup. "It's just a rock isn't it?"

I growled quietly as I scanned the results. "Apparently so." Something didn't feel right about it, but the computer couldn't lie. It was just a rock with scribbles. "Here," I tossed the lump of completely organic material over my shoulder at him, "store this. I've got other stuff to do." I didn't really, but I was sick of looking at a rock and feeling suspicious for no reason.

Over the next few hours I made rounds about the Eclector, since I really did have nothing else to be doing. I scared the crap out of a few groups of Ravagers, grabbed a bite to eat, trying to do anything other than think about that rock. However, I still somehow ended up back in the M-ship hanger bay. I walked around the M-ships, "inspecting" them, but I always had the storage room within my sights.

Continuing with my inspection, I made my way over to my previously mentioned newest engineer. Although, I suppose she's been around long enough to be given a different title. It's been about nine standard months now…

In any case, she was still working alone on the M-ships, but I know she preferred it that way. After countless acts of sexual harassment against her, I've finally scared most of the Ravagers into keeping it in their pants. For a while, about the first four months, I was starting to really regret hiring her. But, time and time again, she proved she was worth the initial trouble. I'd never say it to her face, but I'm proud of her. She does good work.

And she's fun to mess with.

Stopping just in front of where she was lying underneath the M-ship's undercarriage, I bent at the waist to look at what she was doing. She had yet to notice my presence at all, and I seized the opportunity to get her flustered up. "You ain't done yet?" I said louder than necessary. The sudden noise had its desired effect and she jolted upright, hitting her head.

I snickered as she whined and rubbed her forehead. She rolled out from under the ship, sending me the hardest glare she dared to, and I grinned back. Layla is probably one of my favorite people to bother. I can get a reaction from her other than fear, and half of the time it is quite funny. Her face does this weird thing where it gets all red and stuff, and she bites her bottom lip to stop herself from talking back to me. I can see the desire to tell me to f*ck off in her eyes, but she keeps it in check. Not that she'd ever actually tell me to "f*ck off", she grew up too proper for any of that swearin' business. And I know she don't actually mind having me hover around. It's just a big sign that reads "keep the f*ck away from me" to all other Ravagers in the area.

"Did you need something, Captain?" she growled quietly, hand still on her forehead to relieve the area of pain. I looked at the already bruising area near her hairline, noting the severity of the bruise. It looked like it would take a while to heal up.

D*mn, she hit that hard…

I leaned against the side of the ship, glancing around aimlessly, "No." I replied, crossing my arms.

"No?" I chuckled to myself as she bit her lip hard.

"Nope." I glanced across the hanger at a loud noise as she attempted to regain her composure. Someone's getting irritated, I noted. Layla muttered to herself quietly, something along the lines of "men are so annoying", and slid back under the ship to resume her work.

"So, I'm putting together a supply run to Xandar in a few days…" I said, bringing my attention back to her.

"And?"

I smirked at her snarky tone, reveling in it actually. Had I known that a woman could treat me like anyone else I would have hired one ages ago. Then again, maybe that was just her. Not many people can backtalk me. I scare the living sh*t out of the people that do, so not many try. Layla has this way of having an attitude towards me without overstepping her bounds. Well, she has now and again, but she realizes when she's said too much and all it takes is a look from me to make her shut up. She's got spirit, and I like that.

"I just figured you'd like to tag along, since we'll be stopping by your home city." Her home city on Xandar wasn't the best place for a supply run. She lived in one of the higher, classier districts and everything sold there had prices jacked up a mile high. But she's a girl. I was figuring that she'd want to go home and see her folks. She hadn't had the opportunity to make a trip to see them since she joined up, and it had been about nine months since then.

"I'll pass."

At this point I had completely forgotten about the mysterious rock that I was so suspicious about, and my focus switched entirely to her. "You'll pass?" Those two words that she had spat out instantaneously echoed in my ears, confusing the hell outta me. Here I had gone, admittedly a little out of my way, and set up a trip where she could go home and see her family, and she didn't want to go?

Layla continued her repairs in silence, her expression showing confliction. I know she didn't talk about her family much, but from what I'd heard her parents were outstanding people in all that high society crap. She had an older brother too, a doctor or something of that nature. She only ever said positive things about them.

My eyes narrowed at her when she looked up at me.

"What? I have too much work here that needs to be done." She turned back to the open panel above her. "Besides that, I wouldn't be able to visit my family anyways. This time of year they leave on holiday."

I frowned. "Surely you've got friends though." I insisted, feeling a rise of my suspicious nature for the second time that day. What are you hiding? What am I missing here?

She shook her head. "None that I'd care to go see."

I huffed, rolling my eyes. This is what I get for trying to do something nice for someone. Ungrateful woman…

There was another loud noise across the hanger, drawing my attention back to the apparent commotion going on. This one was louder than the first, and it seemed like things were beginning to escalate. I sighed, growling as I stomped off in the direction of the argument.

As I encroached upon the scene I took note of everyone involved. Two Ravagers were in a fistfight, three more watched from the side egging them on, and Kraglin was in the middle of it trying to break it up. I couldn't hear what the argument was about, all I could hear was grunts and growls coming from the two. Probably an argument over something stupid, I figured…

"Alright, break it up!" I clamped a hand over one of guy's heads, pulling him away from the brawl by his long-ish hair. The man continued to struggle against my grip, and it surprised me momentarily. I lost grip of him and he dove right back into his fist fight. "You hard of hearing?" I shouted, clocking the guy in the ear before pulling him away again. "I said break it up!"

The man continued to struggle against my grip, and when I cast a glance at Kraglin I could see that he was facing a similar issue. Kraglin at this point looked absolutely exhausted.

"There's no reasoning with them Captain! It's like they can't hear us at all!"

I growled, noticing briefly that the small crowd cheering on the fight was now backing away slowly. I wrapped my arm around my captive's throat tightly, deciding to suffocate him into submission. He didn't go down quietly. As I slowly started to squeeze the breath out of him he screeched, clawing at my arms. It wasn't easy, and hell it wasn't pleasant, but he was out cold in a few minutes. I dropped him unceremoniously onto the floor and marched over to help Kraglin with the other guy.

The other Ravager, who had stared on as I took care of his opponent, looked at me with fear. Instead of struggling to attack the other guy, I suspect he was struggling to be free of Kraglin to escape my pissed-off self. He went down just about as quickly as the first guy.

I growled at the two men now passed out at my feet, kicking one of them in the shoulder as I spat blood out of my mouth. The first guy had managed to bash his head into my face, cutting my lip open on my teeth. "Idiots." I muttered, wiping the residue from my lips. I turned to my second in command. "You want to explain this sh*t?"

Kraglin gaped at me with wide eyes.

"What?"

I stared right back at him, my eyes narrowed. Something about the situation felt off… Kraglin blinked twice, opened his mouth to speak, but then swallowed hard when the words wouldn't come out. Later he would tell me why he was looking pale as a sheet, but at that moment we both jumped at the sound of a piercing scream.

Layla… I was pretty sure that none of us male Ravagers could make that kind of sound, the kind of sound that could shatter glass if just a little bit higher. I'm ashamed to say that Kraglin was the first to act, racing ahead of me in her direction. I wasn't too far behind, but for a brief moment I had been frozen in place by the shrillness of her cry. It sounded animalistic, frightened and trapped.

"Layla!" Kraglin stopped just short of running into her, his hands wrapping around her shoulders tightly as he looked past her at what was approaching. I stopped beside him, my hand going immediately for my Yaka arrow. There were a dozen Ravagers approaching us, bloodlust in their eyes.

I refer back to my previous statement. I've been to hell, and nothing can scare me after that. I was more confused and conflicted than anything else at this moment. These were my Ravagers, my crew, the ones working in the hanger bay all day- only twenty of them in total, two of which were out cold –and they looked ready to turn on me. That confused me and pissed me off simultaneously.

As soon as Kraglin had touched her, Layla had become a quivering mess. From where I stood slightly behind her I could see tears running down her face, a complete one-eighty from her calm, almost snarky attitude just minutes ago. Her eyes were shut tightly, her lip caught between her teeth to keep from crying out loud.

"Kraglin…" I moved in front of both of them, keeping my gaze on the Ravagers surrounding us. "Take Layla and make a run for my fighter." Layla made a small pathetic noise, like a squeak, when Kraglin pulled her away. Kraglin said something reassuring to her, but it was drowned out by their retreating footsteps.

I did a little mental math and I found that all but five men from the hanger were accounted for, meaning that the twelve Ravagers in front of me were not the only ones roaming around still (I would have to take care of that later). Upon closer observation, and by that I mean as they started to turn and approach me, they seemed like wild animals trapped in a corner. There was a certain fire in their eyes, the kind of aggression that stems from fear. People are normally afraid of me, but not like this. Something was wrong.

What happened next is a bit of a blur really. I cannot recall who attacked whom first, but I blinked and all the Ravagers were at each other's throats, some of them even attempting to pick a fight with me. It was a fight or flight situation, and I quickly chose a tactical retreat. I ain't a coward, and I wasn't afraid or nothin', I just knew I had to contain them somehow before they killed the whole crew… yeah, that's exactly what happened.

Managing to get by them I bolted for the nearest wall panel, and in seconds I had the entire hanger bay on lockdown. No one was going to get in or out. Only three Ravagers had decided to follow me. One took a fist to the face, the second kissed the floor, and the last I decided to simply outrun. It wasn't until I was aboard my M-ship with the hatch properly sealed that I allowed myself to take a breath. I jolted away from the hatch as the last Ravager banged against it with full force, screaming bloody murder as he did it.

What the hell! I shook myself, adjusting my red leather jacket as I walked towards the common room, where I figured I'd find Kraglin and Layla. I could hear the man's screams the entire way, and it made the hair on my arms stand on end. It wasn't natural.

I heard Layla crying before I even entered the room. She was hysterical. Her face was buried in her hands, her body curled into a ball facing away from Kraglin as she shivered and sobbed. She had the overall demeanor of a kicked puppy, and Kraglin just stood there looking helpless.

The whole situation felt like a strange kind of nightmare. The really confusing ones where you have no idea what is going on. Each individual component on its own was not very disturbing. I've had multiple riots and even mutinies on my ship before, that wasn't very new, and I'd even dealt with Layla's female weirdness. But with all the strangeness happening at once it felt unreal. What were the odds? There had to have been something else going on, some unseen common denominator.

I took a seat, expelling a pent up breath from deep in my lungs. I could still hear that man screaming, and it was irritating as hell. Kraglin turned to speak to me, I could see his mouth forming words, but all I could hear was that eerie screaming. It was echoing around in my head, like the way sound bounces off of walls in empty hallways. Cold concrete hallways, wet with rain, stained with blood…

"Captain?"

I flinched, finding Kraglin had entered my personal space, and he was staring at me. "What?" I snapped, seeing him flinch back in return. I shook myself of the memory, trying to ignore the itchy sensation of claustrophobia kicking in as I took stock of my situation.

Layla was obviously down and out for the count. That left myself and Kraglin and whoever else was still sane on my spacecraft to figure out what the heck was going on. I paced a bit, passing Kraglin to the upper portion of my personal M-ship. The pilot control panel was a bit dusty, having been unused in a few weeks. I brushed it away habitually.

Small blue hands wiped at the blood dripping from another person's face. She appeared to be dead. "Mama! Mama!"

I flinched, the scream shrill in my ears. My heart started to race. That voice, I'd heard it before. "What the hell…" I pressed my palms over my ears, but it still penetrated. "Mama! Mama!"

"Mama!" The small Centurian boy cradled his mother's head in his lap, wiping the blood away in search for the wound. They had come again. They always took her away, but she had never returned like this before! "Mama… wake up… please wake up…" Hands pressed against the wound, hoping to still its flow. "Mama?" The boy cried, tears streaming down his face as the red fin atop his head folded in despair. "Wake up…"

I gasped for breath, my hand shooting out for something to stable myself as I swayed on my feet. I eventually gripped onto the pilots' chair.

Fingers wrapped around a set of bars, so tightly blue skin turned nearly white around the knuckles. No matter how the young man shook them they would not budge. That didn't stop him from trying. He screamed, pulling on the bars with all his might. Callouses on the palms of his hands pealed, and soon his blood spilled to join the bloodstains already on the dark grey concrete below.

"Captain."

I spun, a fist made ready to strike. The voice had not sounded like Kraglin's, yet I stalled as I saw him in front of me. He had become deathly pale, and as I glanced him over I could see him shaking. I lowered my hand, clasping it in my other as I worked to steady my breathing. "What?" I growled, ghost visions of that cold dark hallway haunting me. I could still see it. Lights became darkness. Rooms became prison cells… My vision was blending the present with the past.

"What are you seeing?" Kraglin asked, awfully serious.

I glared, and I'd be lying if I said my voice didn't crack. "Hell."

For about an hour we sat in the common room, watching Layla with a careful eye as we discussed the situation at hand. After some initial ideas we had settled on the theory that some hallucinogen had been released into our air supply. And for some reason it was making us see our greatest fears, and our worst memories. I had fought the theory at first out of pure stubbornness, demanding to know why the hell it wasn't affecting Kraglin, to which he calmly replied that it was but he knew the person haunting him was already dead. Apparently, he was seeing visions of his father beating on his ma and three sisters. I knew the story, and I knew how it ended. I didn't need to hear it again, so I decided to roll with the theory.

I grit my teeth, looking at the security footage into the hanger bay. I had quickly pulled up a monitoring system to watch over the scene. The riot had yet to still, and at the moment I was unable to do much more than watch it all unfold from the relative safety of the M-ship. My men were killing each other in front of my eyes and I couldn't fight the flashbacks off long enough to get out there and put a stop to it.

"So what do we do now Captain?"

"Hell if I know..." I was familiar with chemical warfare, as I had come to cross paths with it several times in my life, but this time was different. Being hacked into the Eclector's security system gave me full access to the chemical monitors around the ship. As far as the detectors could tell there were no chemicals that could cause hallucination within the hanger.

No known chemicals. My brain supplied helpfully.

The liquid, steaming in its container, felt ice cold as it was poured over the boy's feet. The resulting chemical burns made walking impossible, let alone running away. His screams could be heard throughout the cell block.

So, the hallucinogen is something unknown. Taking a last glance at the monitor, I sighed and turned it off. My mind was forming the beginnings of a plan, one that didn't involve alerting the entire crew to what was going on. With my string of luck they'd decide to open the hanger doors and suck us all out into space. It wouldn't be the first time that one of my Ravagers tried to kill me. Unfortunately the plan I was concocting involved a certain mechanic who was quivering in the farthest corner away from me.

It was strange to see Layla like this. I'd seen her overwhelmed, scared briefly, nervous, and pretty much anything else. The woman has a plethora of emotions at ready disposal. But I don't think I've ever seen her so broken and terrified. Kraglin was doing his best to keep her calm, and gave me a wary look when I shooed him away.

"Layla," I reached out to grasp her shoulder, despite Kraglin's obvious silent hand gestures not to. She stilled under my hand, her whimpers coming to an abrupt stop. Her breaths became deeper as she steadied herself. "I need you to-" I'll admit I was unprepared when she moved, a fist swinging at me and catching me in the nose. As I stumbled backwards she shot past me to who knew where.

"D*mn!" I cursed, blinking in shock as I felt my nose. It wasn't broken, but she'd bloodied it pretty good. "D*mn that hurt… Shouldn't have taught her how to punch a guy…" I muttered, wiping the blood away on the back of my sleeve. There was a pretty steady flow of it. I ignored Kraglin's undignified snort and followed after the sound of retreating feet. "Layla!"

I found her hiding in my personal bunk room. I didn't share this M-ship often, but when I did it was nice to know that there was somewhere I could go to be alone. This room was much more personalized than the one I had on the Eclector. I had an assortment of trinkets here and there, and walls filled with star charts. Sometimes if I was having a bad day I'd just come here for the heck of it. Layla had made her way to the darkest corner of the room, curling up behind my large bed and huddled against the wall. I sniffed, wiping the blood from my nose again. The girl could pack a wallop.

I decided to change up my approach. She was obviously being affected to the same degree that the others were. Keeping her within my peripheral vision, I made my way across the room to a specific wall cubby. I needed her, she knew the M-ship hanger better than even Kraglin. He and I would need to fend off the others so she could make a run for the control room. For that to happen she needed to be able to control whatever this was. I had an idea, a simple one, and I could only hope that it worked.

With a respirator in hand, I turned towards my mechanic. She was watching me now, her expression torn between fear, anger, and sadness. "Leave me alone!" she attempted to sound threatening, but her fear was choking her. "You can't keep me here forever!"

So her hallucinations are about entrapment… Shaking myself I steeled my reflexes for what would happen next. I could chase her around the ship all day, but I honestly would rather not. The door locked at the touch of a button, cutting off her one escape. My only concern was possibly hurting her. She was tough, but she wasn't made of adamantium. I couldn't just shove her up against the wall, that could give her a concussion. But the bed, if I restrained her there it wouldn't hurt.

Always preferred women in bed than against the wall…

I blinked, unsure exactly where that thought had come from. "Layla, ya ain't gonna like this, but I'm out of f*ckin' ideas." I then proceeded to do the one thing I later swore never to do again, even if the circumstances were dire. Through an intense amount of struggling I managed to drag Layla from the ground and trap her on top of the bed and underneath myself… It was with her hands trapped above her head and her legs between mine that she proceeded to knee me in nuts.

It took all of my will not to let go of her arms. She continued to struggle, and I'd be lying if I said she was the only one making some undignified noises. I could have cried, but I settled with barely audible cursing. "…f*cking d*mn sh*t-nuggets!" I breathed in harshly and set about the rest of my plan. Gripping both of her wrists in one hand, I reached to the side to grab the respirator that I had dropped. She screamed in defiance as I forced the breathing piece over her lips and nose.

The struggle continued for some time, and I was beginning to think it wouldn't work when I noticed that she was calming down. She had stopped moving her legs around (Thank. God.) and I was able to release some of the pressure I had on her wrists. Her protests lessened until they finally stopped, and she looked at me in something that wasn't fear. If I had to put a word to it I'd say it was mortification. Her eyes got all wide and she flushed pink.

I breathed out slowly, pain still pulsing through my body. "Are you yourself again, or are you gonna continue your vendetta against my future children?" I cringed as she shifted underneath me, pressing up against my very tender man bits… She seemed to realize her mistake and turned from pink to downright crimson.

"I'm okay." She said quickly, "W-what's going on?" her eyes got a little crossed when she tried to look at the respirator covering half of her face.

I sighed, pulling away from her slowly, being careful to keep the respirator over her mouth until she took it from me. "We've all been exposed to some kind of chemical agent. It's turned everyone crazy." I leaned against the wall, bending forward in an attempt to relieve some of my pain.

Layla sat up, both of her hands clutched around the breathing device as she stared at me. "Are you okay?"

"Peachy." I growled.

She shook her head, almost removing the mouthpiece when she spoke again, but she quickly pressed it back into place. "No, I mean, are you okay? Is it not affecting you?" she looked thoughtful for a second before hastily shoving the breathing device towards me. "You should be using this. You're the Captain!"

I growled again, pushing off of the wall to force the device back against her face. I held it there, despite her already having a grip on it. For a second she just looked at my hand over hers, and she stopped breathing. "Layla, breathe d*mn it! I didn't just get kneed in the balls for nothing here!" She took a breath and I rolled my eyes at her. Stubborn woman.

"Why isn't it affecting you too?"

"It is." I said simply, finally moving away. "It's affecting everyone differently."

"Then why are you giving me this?"

I gave a small humorless laugh, scratching at the stubble on my chin. It'd been a while since I shaved last… "I'm giving it to you because I need you to run like all of the devils in hell are on your tail."

A few minutes was all it took to explain my plan to both Layla and Kraglin. The first was terrified of the idea, but still willing. The latter thought the idea was plain crazy but agreed to go along with it because why the hell not?

We emerged from the M-ship cautiously, finding the room had gone dead silent. The air was still, and it felt thick in my lungs. Something about it had the hair on my arms standing on end and my heart racing in my chest. I held out an arm to keep Layla behind me as I scoped out the hanger. I saw several Ravagers laying on the ground, scarily still, but the others had seemed to make themselves scarce.

As we took our first steps off of the ramp I turned to survey the rest of the hanger. Still, no one was to be seen. I didn't like it. It felt like one of those films about the undead. Like any moment something would jump out of the shadows to bite me. I grit my teeth at the thought, feeling somewhat childish. I was freaking out because of an empty room.

Alone… cold… The metal floors beneath his bare feet were rough and sharp, making him bleed. He stumbled through the hallways away from the window peering out into the nothingness and blackness of what he would eventually learn to call space. The smell of iron still lingered in his nose, and the red blood of the aliens he had killed still stained his hands. He was shaking from head to toe. There had to be more… Lurking in the shadows somewhere, there had to be more of them. His teeth set in a tight grimace, determined to kill anyone else unfortunate enough to cross his path…

Hours went by, and he searched the large air ship from top to bottom, but he found no one else. Eventually he found himself back in the room with the window that looked out into the black emptiness. The two aliens still sat in their chairs, eyes lifelessly looking at him as he entered the room. He gagged, feeling his resolve weaken at the sight. It was not the first time he had killed someone, but he had never killed someone so… messily.

Pitching to the side, the young man emptied his stomach out onto the floor. He quickly retreated from the room, finding a wall panel to shut the door behind him. His body began to shake worse, having been made weaker by the vomiting. As he stumbled away from the room the hallway seemed to spin around him, and he found himself quickly on the floor.

He had no strength to move. All adrenaline had left his body, leaving him a quivering mess on the floor of his pirated cargo ship. After all that he had been through, he wasn't ashamed to cry. His body ached, his heart hurt, and he was frightened. He was so frightened…

I closed my eyes, willing my thoughts to stay focused. Taking a deep breath, I nodded to Layla and she slowly made her way down the M-ship ramp. The oxygen mask was still held securely over her mouth and nose, and her eyes darted back and forth like a scared cat.

The three of us started towards the hanger control room, careful to remain quiet, but walking along as quickly as we could. Layla was just ahead of me, and to my front left Kraglin acted as a second shield for her, just in case. That just in case came in handy very quickly.

We were just turning around another grounded M-ship when a Ravager flung himself at us. Layla took off running as Kraglin and I turned to face the immediate threat. As planned of course, Layla ain't a coward. Kraglin caught the guy in a headlock, bringing him down with relative ease, but leaving himself open for the next Ravager to pounce on him. I was quick to put myself between him and the second crew member, blocking his initial attack and jabbing him in the ribs. His eyes were glazed over, staring at me with milky white orbs as he snarled. He was like a rabid dog.

I grunted as he got a hit on me, but recovered quickly enough to grab a hold on him and flip him over my shoulder. I could hear the breath get knocked out of him as he landed.

It appeared that as soon as the first guy attacked everyone else started to come out of the woodworks. Pretty soon Kraglin and I were surrounded by five Ravagers, all milky-eyed and rabid looking. We fended for ourselves well enough, but even I had to admit that we were going to get overrun. I didn't want to kill them, if my plan worked they would eventually be okay. But fighting to preserve their lives without endangering our own was easier said than done. We were trying to be careful, they weren't.

"Any time now, Layla, would be great!" I shouted, my arm wrapping tightly around a man's throat. He struggled in my grasp, but I wasn't about to let go. This guy had a knife, and he had already torn through my favorite sweater. I could feel blood pooling down my side. I tried to ignore it. "Layla!"

Kraglin went down first. I attempted to pull the remaining four Ravagers off of him, but suddenly found myself in a similar position. Two of them ganged up on me and I was tossed to the ground like I weighed nothing. I wondered briefly, and with no small amount of terror, if they were going to tear me limb from limb. They were both rather large men, if I didn't get into a position to defend myself again I could be dead.

I got half way up to my feet again before I heard a loud snapping sound. The air in the hanger rushed past me, the force pushing me back onto the ground. The sound was deafening, and then suddenly it was gone. Complete and utter silence replaced it, along with the inability to breathe.

I stared up at the ceiling from the floor, choking on complete nothingness. My vision began to ebb at the sides, and within seconds I lost consciousness.

All of this had gone according to plan. Layla had run to the control room and sucked all of the air out of the hanger. And in the next few seconds she refilled the hanger with purified, uncontaminated air. Apparently, she had seen security footage in the control room of the rest of the Eclector being in chaos, and she had manipulated the air in the rest of the ship as well. That is why it had taken her so long to complete her task. Hell, I hadn't even known that the rest of the ship had been affected. Her quick thinking saved lives.

"He's alive, but just barely…" a voice said from just beyond his reach. The young man groaned, blinking blearily at the bright light above him. There was another voice, but he couldn't discern what was said. The first voice replied in a softer tone, "He must have been the one to escape the prison camp. Those bastards…"

"He's been floating out here for weeks." The second voice said, coming into his range of hearing. "He's lucky to be alive. Had he snuck aboard any other ship they would have killed him."

The young man groaned, trying to move away from the light. It hurt his head.

"Be still, you'll only aggravate your injuries if you move." The first voice said, and he could feel a light touch on his shoulder. "You are safe here. You are under Xandarian protection now." He did not stop moving. As he recalled more and more of what had happened to him he became restless. He needed to get out. He needed to find a way to free his people! He needed to get them out!

As if reading his mind, the owner of the first voice gave his shoulder a light squeeze. "They are alright. You caused quite a ruckus when you escaped. A distress beacon lead Xandarian forces right to the camp. Your friends are safe…"

"Yondu…" I heard a voice at the edge of my consciousness. My head and my chest hurt. "Yondu… don't be dead, you can't be dead…" I felt the briefest of touches on my cheek before something was forced over my mouth. Suddenly breathing became easier and I gasped for it. After a few breaths I opened my eyes. My vision was blurry, but I could just make out Layla's blond hair and small form crouched over me. She was holding my respirator over my mouth, not letting it budge in the slightest. I didn't resist, instead letting my eyes close again for a moment. I breathed easily, feeling my body tingle. Layla didn't move from my side.

After I had regained some of my bearings I proceeded to take care of the rest of what needed to be done. The air had been changed out, but the fact remained that something had contaminated it. And I had a sick feeling I knew what it was.

After assuring Layla and Kraglin (who had apparently woken up just fine) that I was okay I went to the storage room and locked up our strange cargo in an air tight container. The rock looked menacing in its new vessel, and I treated it with upmost caution, sealing it away in a vault that nothing could penetrate. I would dispose of it properly later on. I couldn't chance something like it falling into the hands of the wrong person. Putting it away felt oddly anti-climatic. After all that had happened, it just didn't seem right that the cause had been such a small object…

Things only got worse from there. As we picked up the pieces and took stock of our injured comrades, we found that many Ravagers aboard the Eclector had been killed. Everyone had turned against each other, friend against friend, brother against brother. It took a full day, but when the final numbers came in I was told that over a quarter of the crew had been lost. The number was sickening. I went through standard procedures in a state of numbness. Some Ravagers called me insensitive, or indifferent to the deaths of our comrades, but I had no will to rebuke them. I set in motion the plans for the bodies to be sent back to their home planets, or if they had no home that they be given a proper space send off. After all of that was taken care of I retreated to my quarters.

I sat in the dark, feeling absolutely sick.

It was my fault. All of it. As Captain it is my responsibility to take care of my men. I had felt suspicious of that stupid f*cking rock and I didn't do anything about it! And now my men, over a quarter of my crew, were no longer alive. I had killed them… Every last one of them. Their blood was on my hands.

Drinking did little to ease my guilt. And to make matters worse my mind was still dredging up memories of that place. That place that I had spent so many years trying to forget about. That place that had tortured me, my family, and my people. That place that had made me into what I was. That place that raped my mother, murdered my father, and drove my brother to insanity. That place that I called hell.

I don't know how long it took for the combination of guilt and memories to reduce me to tears, but I found myself crying in the dark. Every drop was pain. Every breath was regret. I almost wished that I had died with them. Maybe then the guilt wouldn't have torn me apart so much. They all died for nothing.

After some time, I picked up a long-range communicator from a cupboard and sat down on my bed. I didn't know what time it would be locally, but I just needed to see her. I hadn't seen her in so long, I could hardly remember what she looked like, or the sound of her voice. I was an a**hole for not contacting her enough…

The communicator buzzed a few times, signifying that the other side was ringing. I waited for minutes, almost giving up before the other side blazed to life.

"Yondu?" The woman on the screen looked at me with tears in her eyes.

"Hey mum…" I smiled sadly, not even bothering to hide the fact that I was still crying. I felt like such a child… But with her I knew I was safe from judgment. "I screwed up big this time mum…"

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