Xandar. Capital of the Nova Empire and the Headquarters of the Nova Corps, the military wing of the Empire. Its luscious green grounds were home to a thriving, diverse, technologically advanced and socially liberal population. Unless you were in the Corps. It was governed by a stratocracy, its leader the Nova Prime. Our land was covered by dozens of clear oceans, pure white buildings rising up into the clean atmosphere. Three stars brightened our days, two yellow and one red, the source of inspiration for the emblem of our military. But now, the luscious green grasses were trampled and muddy, dead bodies strewn all over. The once clear waters were tainted with the brown of mud, the grey of our buildings' materials and the red blood of the people. The skies were dark and cloudy, but the view of those dense clouds was obstructed by ships, large hunks of floating metal from which poured thousands of Kree.

I was one of them. The Nova Corps. Dreamt of it since I was a child. My parents encouraged me to follow my dreams, to further progress the abilities that I'd been granted with at birth. By the age of five I could fly around the neighbourhood and float my way to school in minutes, I could lift my fathers shuttle by the time I was ten, and I was able to throw balls of energy at bullies by the time I finished school. With the Nova Corps I was given access to much more power. The helmet that each Nova held so dearly allowed me to crush Leviathan, protect shuttles and convoys of travelers and keep my planet, Xandar, safe.

But then they came, with their psyonic technology, and took what they wanted. Like evil conquerors. The main building was the first to go down. In a flash of bright purple, pieces of compound rock began flying everywhere, landing wherever it felt like: on the grass, on the buildings, in the waters, on the people of our planet. The Nova were on high alert. Hundreds of Corpsman, Millenian, Denarian and Centurion were deployed within seconds. But not me. I was home that day, visiting my parents and nowhere near the Headquarters. They weren't like me - my parents. They didn't have the strength and durability that I did, and so when a hunk of steel collapsed onto my home, there was no way they could've survived.

I spent only a few minutes crying, my soul breaking to pieces while I tried to pull myself from the debris of my house. It felt like years. Staring at the bloody inert bodies of my parents for minutes, felt like years. Feeling my stomach rip open on a sharp piece of metal for a few seconds, felt like hours. It was agonizing, pain I had never experienced or wanted to experience again. And my heart broke in two when I told myself there was nothing I could do for my parents any longer, and left them in the crumbled home. But they couldn't be saved, and the rest of my planet could. There was no fault in my actions.

Though the ground glistened as though rain had just fallen, its colour wasn't clear as water but red as blood. Screams rang through my ears, ear-splitting screams, soul-shattering screams. Men, women and children alike were strewn across the war-ravaged ground, some missing limbs, other barely even touched but still ghostly pale and dead. The sound of Xanarian energy weapons soon made it to my ears, over the war cries of the Kree and pleas of the dying. I kicked off the ground, flying as fast as I could towards Headquarters. Purple blasts of energy came close to my face a few times, once hitting me in the leg. It stung for a moment, but the pain coming from my abdomen drowned it out, a trail of blood following me as I went.

Hundreds of Kree had invaded the main building, its officers in their once pristine peacock blue uniforms now fighting for their lives in torn suits or lying inert on the ground in positions not usually possible for a Xandarian body. From the deceased I took an energy weapon, checking how full the cartridge was and I shot my way through a few dozen Kree, using others as body shields to make my way to the armoury. It wasn't a surprise that it too was being defiled by the blue aliens, Xandarian energy weapons being stuffed into lock-boxes. I shot a few others, but my cartridge ran out. I ducked behind a wall and grabbed one of their own weapons, its purple energy activating when both my hands were placed in the correct spots. It took another few minutes for me to get through them, but once I did I wasted no time in running towards the uniforms. All the uniform cartridges were spread across the floor, and a few helmets were as well. I grabbed a blue cartridge, for women, and my helmet, which was covered in dust but still in its compartment. The suit was on me in seconds. With a press of a button, the Xandarian biotechnology had taken the alloys in the cartridge and solidified them, creating a near-indestructible suit that clung to my body. I ran out of the Headquarters as I put on my helmet, and felt the rush of power from the Xandarian Worldmind surge through me.

Something went wrong in my mind at that moment. I think it was a combination of anger and grief, but my body wasn't taking me where I thought it was. Instead of joining the forces below, fighting off the Kree that had invaded our home, I rose to the skies and towards the ships that were still unloading hundreds of Kree. I shot down many of the ships, golden beams of energy firing from my hands as I maneuvered myself in and around the starships. Soon, the Kree that were in the sky retreated, and most of the Kree below were dead. But that wasn't enough. These monsters had murdered my parents and half of Xandar's population. There was no way I was going to let them get away with it.

"Ilaria!"

My head turned at the sound of my name. It was Abel, my dearest friend. Despite the glowing yellow eyes of the Xandarian Worldmind, I could tell that he was scared. And despite the yellow eyes on my face, he could see my fury and the bad decision I was about to make.

"You know if you go after them without orders you'll be classified a deserter! You can't disobey the Corps!"

"Fuck the Corps, Abel. I just watched my parents die."

"Well, what about me!? You're just gonna leave me here? You're not gonna be able to come back if you leave, Ilaria!"

There was no hesitation as I darted up towards the retreating ships. I ignored Abel's pleas and wove my way between the Kree ships, shooting energy beams at their weakest points. Once I reached the edge of the atmosphere I lowered my visor and turned on my built in oxygen tank, then plunged into the quiet darkness that was space. Stars littered the inky background on any normal day, but this time no stars were to be seen. There were more Kree ships than I had expected, and a few motherships were sailing off at a rapid speed. With a growl, I darted towards them, shooting golden beams at the Kree that dared to try and stop me.

"You are about to exit the limits of Xandar. Please turn back," a robotic voice said in her mind.

"Shut up, helmet!"

"If you do not turn back within 12.36578 seconds, the Nova Corps will be forced to classify you as a deserter and sentence you to a lifetime of imprisonment."

"Fucking bullshit..."

"Exiting Empire limits in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... All connection with the Nova Corps have been terminated. Please await your sentence."

I scoffed and followed the Kree motherships with incredible speed, destroying any smaller crafts that I could. However, with the connection to the Xandarian Worldmind gone, my power lessened and I wasn't able to detect enemy fire. A few dozen Kree struck me with their psyonic weapons at the same time and blasted me far off course. My energy was running low, and it was hard for me to stay properly awake. In and out of consciousness, I saw the Kree sail away, unscathed, ready to conquer another planet. And then it all went black.

I didn't know where I was when I woke up, but I was still breathing, which meant that my eight hour supply of oxygen hadn't gone out yet. I blinked and looked around. The stars were different from where I was last. They were closer together, and the cosmic dust that surrounded them was no longer the shades of pink, yellow and blue I was used to. Instead, they were shades of white and yellow. The Andromeda galaxy was far away now, and there was no way I'd be allowed to return.

I winced as I tried to move, the pain in my abdomen had gotten worse. If I didn't get this cut fixed soon, I would die from blood loss in the middle of space. Without the help of my helmet and the Xandarian Worldmind, I gathered up all the power I could muster and flew at supersonic speeds towards the unfamiliar white galaxy. Soon enough, something came into view. It was a small planet, smaller than my own, but the colouration was similar: it seemed dominated by water, with smaller areas of land. I squinted and gasped. Before me was the planet Earth.

I should have predicted that people would have picked up on my signal once I entered the atmosphere and created a sonic boom while doing so, but I didn't care. All I cared about was getting to a medical facility of some kind and getting my stomach closed up so that I didn't lose any more blood. I landed in what seemed to be a park. It was quite large and beautiful, large trees creating a decent amount of shade for the creatures that roamed this planet. Humans, I think they were called. Strange looks came my way which I realised were normal because of the Nova Corps uniform I was wearing, and tapped a place on my wrist to retract the suit from my body and refill the cartridge with it. My helmet, once I took it off, fell into the shape of a cloth, which I folded and placed in my pocket. It was only then that I was swarmed with concerned people, seeing the red liquid pour out of my stomach.

A nice boy ended up taking me to a medical facility. He couldn't have been older than ten, but he knew his way around this dump of a city like the back of his hand. I would have asked where his parents were, but I could feel my consciousness slipping away so I let the brown-haired boy lead me by the hand through the city. The smell of chemicals filled my nose as we entered a sterile, white building, where people came rushing towards me at the notice of the blood dripping on their floors. I was hauled onto a bed, where my body finally gave into the exhaustion, and my vision faded to black once more.

The sound of constant beeping woke me up. I was excessively groggy, my mind slower than it had ever been. I was in another sterile white room, machines whirring and beeping all around me. There was a quiet hum somewhere off in the building. Her breathing was loud too, louder than it should have been. Eventually, the grogginess left and the sounds all died down, only to be replaced the quiet humming of a child. I blinked a few times and turned my head, green eyes landing on the boy from earlier and an anxious looking woman.

"Hey, Aunt May! The lady's awake!"