This is the sequel to Dangerous Love but you do not have to read that to understand what is going on here because I will explain everything. I will be posting 1-2 times a week depending on how I feel and the chapters will be longer and more detailed compared to the last story. Thanks for reading!
Prologue
The view was of a dark blanket, contrasting with blacks and yellows. There are planets which dot the blanket in an intricate pattern. Across the deep ebony feathers of darkness, there sparkled the mysterious material of stars. Many were of different sizes and shapes, swirling, twisting, and churning amongst themselves in an enormous war that was too slow and much too big for the mind to contemplate. The twinkling of the stars were enchanting; they blinked and flickered away, and yet always returned like rogues hiding away in the shadows. Yet, no matter what planet, what galaxy, or what universe any small creature may be on, those fiery lights streaking across the skies in diffusing blue streaks will always be there.
"This is our galaxy, Alenna." Gamora whispers, slowly kneeling down to her young daughter and gesturing to the fascinating sky above them from the Milano's exterior deck. Alenna responded by looking up to her mother with confusion and an adorable scrunched up nose.
"Those are our stars." Gamora went on and pointed up to the shining lights amongst the darkness, then looked back to her child with a soft smile.
A young boy, the son of Gamora peeked from behind the wall shyly. He appeared to be frightened by the darkened sky and its wondrous creations. Gamora, being a warrior and an assassin, instantly noticed him and grinned. "Cassius." Gamora gestured for him to come closer. "Why are you afraid?"
"The dark." Cassius answered in a whisper, but didn't hesitate to move from his half hidden spot. Cassius's sister giggled behind her tiny hand at his petty fear.
Gamora looked back up to the sky. "I like the dark. Without it, we'd never see the beautiful stars." She explains. "And you are only afraid, because the dark is the unknown."
"What does that mean, mommy?" he asks timidly, and gradually begins to walk away from the wall. His eyes were wide with wonder and fascination.
"It means we need to explore it all." She replies and places her arm around her two short children. The two children looked at each other with baffled grins, giggling silently, before looking up to the sky with their mother.
"And what are my three monsters up to this time?" Peter asks, sneaking up behind them with a playful smirk. The two children scream in surprise and begin to laugh hysterically as their father reaches down and begins to tickle them.
"Daddy, stop!" Alenna squeals on the floor, but cannot put an end to her constant laughter.
Peter laughs and stops tickling them, leaving them to gasp for air on the floor with an after effect of quiet giggles. Peter rises to his feet, turning to his wife who has a pointed look but wasn't able to hide her amused smile.
"I was lecturing them, Peter." Gamora says sternly and places her hands on her hips.
"Are you ticklish?" He asks and tilts his head questionably, ignoring her words completely.
"Don't even think about it." she raises her eyebrows and takes a cautious step back.
Peter begins ticking her small waist and stomach and she begins laughing. She quickly smacks Peter's hands away. "Don't." she frowns and points a finger towards him. He rolls his eyes and smirks lightly, pulling her body closer to his. A gentle and warming kiss lingers at her supple lips and the only thing Gamora can do is forgive him.
"Ew!" Alenna cries out with a grimace, interrupting their little moment. She still was lying on the cold floor with Cassius by her side.
Peter chuckles, and Gamora just sighs at him and kneels back down to her children. Peter follows her and tenderly helps his son and daughter up to their feet.
"Your mother is right. The galaxy is full of adventures and new people." He says and looks over to Gamora with a loving grin. He wraps an arm around his children and wife, "We are a family, no matter what happens."
"We are family." Cassius repeats quietly.
Gamora smiles and presses her cheek close to Cassius's as her eyes arise upwards. "Our time is precious and I want you to savour every moment with each other." Gamora says.
Alenna hesitantly reaches down and grabs her brother's hand in a messy fumble. They look at each other blankly.
"Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." Gamora says quietly. "Will you protect me from the dark, mommy?" Cassius asks lightly. "Of course I will. We will. Daddy, Uncle Rocket, Groot, Drax." Gamora answers and can't help but smile.
Rocket, Groot and Drax observe the family from inside the ship. "Never thought I'd say this, but they're a pretty good family." Rocket mumbles with a soft smile.
"I'm Groot." Groot and Drax stare at Rocket with a slightly shocked expression at his sudden softness.
"Shut up, Groot." Rocket sighs, and continues to watch the family huddle and point to stars in the sky.
Alenna's POV – Nine years later
When I wake up, the other side of my bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking the warmth of my one night stand but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. He must have feared dealing with my parents and left during the night. Of course he did. My parents are scary.
I prop myself on one elbow and tug the warm covers over my bare skin. There's enough light in my bedroom to notice that he had left his jacket sprawled on the floor. I sigh and pull on my regular skin tight black bodysuit, a coat, boots, and tuck the garment of clothing he left behind under my bed. What was his name again? Jake? Jack? I couldn't even remember.
The sounds of familiar and loud voices arise from behind my steel door, and I respond with a groan but continue to press the button to activate the door anyway.
I absolutely love my family but my brother, Cassius, can be an expectation. We are twins, fraternal. He looks like my father; radiant olive skin, bright blue hooded eyes, dark sandy hair and muscular build. While I, on the other hand, was blessed with the good looks of my mother; malachite green skin, large brown eyes, lighter brown hair and a lithe body figure.
We may be twins but we definitely did not look like each other. Most could say that we weren't even related, and not only because of our appearances. I am more bound to Rocket's mechanics and physical combat, while Cassius just reads. But everyone loves him because he can do magic, and I can't. He is smart and mature and everyone treats him like the older sibling although I'm the oldest! By like half a minute, but whatever.
And the thing is, is we're always fighting.
My thick leather boots make heavy thuds alarming them of my presence as I walk down the steel hallway, tearing my fingers through my knotted hair trying to make myself at least look somewhat presentable. It's not like that I cared about my appearance or anything. I just didn't want to deal with mom nagging me about this guy. I'm pretty sure his name was Jack. Or Jeremiah…
Rocket, Drax and Cassius were the only members who filled the room. Thank goodness my mother wasn't in sight. She would know what's up the minute she glanced at my messy bed hair and guilty face.
"Good morning Alenna." Drax smiled up at me as he continued to sharpen his already freakishly sharp daggers. I smiled lightly in return and I noticed Rocket – who didn't notice me – and was sorting through towers of steel boxes and drawers filled with foreign gadgets and metallic bits.
"Sup Rocket." I nod, and he pauses for a short second to look up and nod back before returning to his mechanics.
Drax, Rocket and Groot helped my parents raise me and Cassius on the Milano ever since we were young. They were like my uncles in a way. Drax was the knowing one, like a strange fatherly figure when Peter wasn't around to do his job. Rocket taught me everything I know about logistics mechanisms, and pranking Cassius when he fell asleep over his desk. And as for Groot, he grew very protective of me and Cassius in the public. It was kind of cute actually, despite it being slightly embarrassing.
I haven't been told how everyone met and how they got their name of 'The Guardians of the Galaxy'. I tried asking my dad about the first time they met but he kind of brushed it off and said that he forgot, although I knew he was lying. How could you possibly forget about meeting the very people you live with? I wondered about all the different scenarios in my head but nothing fit right.
"What are you doing here? Did someone leave your cage open?" Cassius, my asshole of a twin brother asks, with his eyes glued to some form of a book. It's always the same sort of way he acknowledges me. And I guess you could say I was used to it after sixteen long years.
"Good morning to you too, Cassius." I singsong, and begin to skip towards the table, courageous enough to add an enthusiastic twirl on the way. I just choose to ignore his sarcastic comments.
"Ooh, who got in your pants last night?" he smirks, and props his feet up against the table. Suddenly the book in his hands becomes boring evident by the way he promptly snaps it shut in a matter of seconds.
Rocket's ears perk up instantly at Cassius's words, and he stops for brief moment before he continues to sort through his junk. I could tell he was now listening. Drax just looks generally confused. How did Cassius find out? All I did was, say that I was going down to Starlin's Bar for the night, and then I sneaked back in late with a super gorgeous guy while everyone was asleep. At least I had thought they were all asleep. He was probably awake reading his stupid books and figured out what was going on.
"No one." I tense my jaw, and pretend to look generally confused. It obviously didn't work. Cassius raises his eyebrows and chuckles, "You're going to be in so much trouble" he sneers.
"Shut up Cassius." I growl through gritted teeth and glance to Rocket and Drax who grew strangely silent. Great, all I need is for the both of them to know about it. By the end of the day, I assure you, my mother would find out one way or another.
"You wouldn't understand anyway," I sigh and press down on one of the red colored buttons for a tall glass of water. The water appears from inside the table, from a distinctive opening. I absently take the glass and the opening disappears back into the table. "It's not like you have a thousand girls lining up for you anyway." I walk around to lean on his side of the table with a smirk, and take a slow sip of my water.
"If you're going to be a smartass, first you have to be smart. Otherwise you're just an ass." Cassius points out and pushes his legs off the edge of the steel table and gets up from his chair. Cassius always bugged me about me not being exactly the smartest out of the both of us. Just because is a super genius, and I was…somewhere below that.
Rocket and Drax raise their heads and they both stare for a moment, as if they want to say something but they're not sure what. They notice me watching and quickly clear their throats before returning to their activities.
"What's for breakfast?" I dismiss the topic and sniff, swirling the water in my glass around in circles.
"It's two o'clock." Cassius answers with a frown, gesturing to the brightened blue sky outside the glass panels. "Don't change topic. Mom is going to kill you, you know that right?" he laughs slightly with amusement. He thinks this is funny. Bastard.
As I open my mouth to speak, somebody else already does.
"I already know what's going on, Cassius." Mom walks out from a hallway with a stern look in her eyes. I curse silently under my breath and set my glass of water down, as I refuse to meet her eyes.
"Hey, mom." I muster the courage to look up and even smile, although the smile comes off slightly as a grimace.
She frowns and tilts her head at me, "You told me that you were going down to Starlin's Bar with a few friends." I bite down on my lip nervously.
"She doesn't have friends." Cassius comments quickly and chuckles. Mom shoots him a dangerous look then he instantly goes quiet.
"About that," I wring my hands anxiously, and try to conjure some lie up in my head that would cover everything but I simply went blank. Mom just sighs and presses a hand to her forehead then looks back up at me, "Wait until your father hears about this."
"Uh oh." Cassius and I say together. Cassius looked almost entertained about what was going on.
Mom looks across to Drax and Rocket, "Did you two know about this?" she asks slowly.
Drax looks to Rocket, and Rocket turns his back to Gamora to pick up a sphere silver bomb shaped object and stuff it in one of his boxes. "About what?" Rocket asks mindlessly. He knew what was going on, but he just didn't want to get involved and he might also be covering for me.
"Don't worry." My mother mumbles then looks back to me with a small frown, "You are in trouble. You're not going out for the rest of this month." She says and turns to walk away.
"What!" I cry out and gape at her back. No going out for the rest of this month? That's still, like, a full month! And it also meant no seeing my friends, my (many, many) boyfriend(s), drinking, dancing. No way!
She turns around to me, "We're going to Xander today. Rocket has new machinery and technology plans for Nova. We will be meeting with your grandparents." Her voice sounds stiff and stern. "By the way, you're grounded."
As I stepped out of the door, a blast of steaming hot Xanderian air hit my face. I fanned myself with my hand, even if it didn't help much. I felt the beads of sweat form on my hot neck as I walked out of the ship with everyone else and the sun beat down harshly at us. The heat rained down on us like the breath of Hel. I huffed as I squinted past the heatwaves. That water fountain looks totally appealing right now.
"Hot." I stated simply, and Drax agreed with a nod.
"Drax and I will go meet Nova with the plans. I'll be meeting Meredith and Adam there." Dad said as he closed the Milano up.
My Dad had only met his parents recently in his life, a few months before I was born. He was raised only by his mother back on Terra, without his father who hadn't even bothered to show up when he was born. Later in life, he discovered that his mother was slowly dying inside from a serious Terran disease. Shortly after her death, he was abducted by Yondu and the Ravagers and that's how he basically got here.
A few years later he met Gamora, Rocket, Groot and Drax. He didn't go in to too much detail about that. Then he abruptly met his mother who he had thought died back on Terra all those years ago, but she said the ruse was only to protect him, herself and the Infinity Stone of Time given as a gift by his father. The Infinity Stone helped her live and stay young. And then Dad met his father, who he said that he didn't like very much. His name is Adam Warlock, and Dad hated him for what he had done to his mother. Just leave her on Terra like that as a prey to this bad dude named Thanos.
Adam taught Dad and even Cassius magic and different types of sorcery. They were the ones who inherited the proper genes for that sort of stuff. I had Mom's genes, sigh.
Dad met my gaze and I began to chew the inside of my cheek and slowly look to the floor with guilt about what had happened earlier. Mom had told him already. He sighed and looked away from me. Later on, he was going to have this little 'talk' with me. Thanks Mom.
"The rest of you should go wait over there." He pointed towards the water fall that I had been staring at beforehand.
"Hey, what about me?" Rocket frowns and looks up to Dad.
"You babysit Groot." Dad responded with an enthusiastic grin.
"I'm Groot?"
"What?!" Rocket growled as if leaving him with us would be the worst thing ever. I mean, come to think of it, it actually would be the worst thing. We are loud, embarrassing, different – the kind to stand out in a messy crowd like this even if we weren't exactly 'famous'. Rocket mumbled some things under his breath as he walked with us away from Dad and Drax, and towards the water fountain.
"Look at the bright side!" Cassius said down to Rocket, with a large smile. "You get to spend some good old quality time with us!"
"Sarcasm is going to get you nowhere, Cassius." Rocket grumbled lowly as we finally reached the water fountain. Clear water spurted from every direction, creating an umbrella-like effect. The spurts fell back in to the pool of water and ready to be taken back up through the pipes.
Mom and I sat at the edge of the water fountain while the others stood up, as we started to wait. Groups of busy people walking past gave us funny looks, staring at Groot then getting an eyeful of Rocket. And then my mother. I sighed, under the boiling heat that I had almost forgotten about with all these thoughts running through my head.
Everything will be just fine.
What do you think of Alenna and Cassius? Who is the better twin? Is this starting off okay? Trust me; it will get better in the next chapters. This chapter was just to explain what is happening. Thanks for reading! Tell me what you think below :)
- Dark-Prisim