"Guys… I think someone just stole one of your ships…"

"Who's this…?" replied a distracted, slightly pissed off voice on the Ravager comm channel in a tone that added and how did you get our frequency.

"Nova…"

Which was of course about as far as I got before things started exploding spectacularly all around me. It was that kind of day.

"What was that…?"

"Oh, you know… The sweet sound of near death experience," I replied, sounding weirdly casual.

So... This was how stress affected me. I suppose one never knows until the situation arises. And having to protect my planet from a genocidal maniac while a bunch of mercenaries that were way into red leather were actually doing most of the heavy lifting was something I definitely didn't see coming when I got out of bed this morning. But damn… I'd never have guessed it would make me talkative of all things. In a middle of an aerial battle too. It wasn't as though I didn't have better things to do.

"Anyway. Calling to let you know I just barely dodged one of your people falling past me. Not a ship, just a guy. Screaming all the way," I said. As an afterthought I added a quick "I'm sorry for your loss."

"How did that happen…?" came a distracted reply some seconds later. They weren't much for sentiment, then. Or maybe they just knew better than to waste time on it in this insane situation. Probably the right call. Wish I had that kind of good sense...

"See, that's the thing. I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it myself. Someone dropped out of the Dark Aster, broke through the… Oh you son of a frostgiant," I cursed. "Sorry. Not you. Some moron just took a shot at me. We're supposed to be an elite fighting force dammit. Aim, asshole."

"You okay up there, Nova…?"

"Honestly? No. Big No. But," I added, finding I was smiling despite how much danger I was in right now. "I still think our side is coming out of this on top. Must have been seeing Nebula run for it. I mean that has to be a good sign."

"What?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you. Nebula dropped onto one of your M-ships, disposed of the pilot and just… headed in the opposite direction of all these exciting explosions…" I said, dodging bits of debris as I circled this confusing, three-dimensional battlefield.

"Nebula?" repeated the Ravager. If I didn't know better I'd think he just stopped short of calling me a liar.

"Yeah. Nebula. Blue, scary… currently operating heavy machinery, which… Ill advised, the state she was in."

"Are you sure?"

"How could I possibly mistake her for anyone else?"

"Right. Give me a sec…"

"To do what?" I said, having a terrible suspicion about what just occurred to him.

"Well she is in one of our ships,"

"Oh, you're not seriously contemplating…"

Oh, but he was. And before I quite managed to remind him that we were in a life or death situation here and this really wasn't the time, there was a hum of static and some pretty intense swearing came through my comm.

I immediately recognized her voice, somewhat metallic and perpetually angry. Currently complaining about impossible controls, which for whatever reason brought a smile on my face. If that was her biggest problem right now, she was definitely having a better day than the rest of us.

"Having trouble…?" I asked in my best oh, you poor thing tone.

My words were followed by half a second of silence that sounded decisively shocked. I must have freaked her out – an idea I found perfectly amusing, despite the fact that bellow me a giant Kree vessel was slowly descending towards my city. One might argue this was the time to find a way of distracting myself from the fact that there was absolutely nothing I could do about it from my own tiny ship.

"Who's this…?" came the snarl of a reply.

"The Ravager fleet tech support. I heard you're experiencing some technical difficulties," I said, with a grin.

I was enjoying the hell out of this. Up until the moment when one of the Sakaaran assholes took advantage of my inattention, that was...

And just like that, Nebula was all but forgotten. That's what getting hit does, I suppose. Rearranges one's priorities. Pissing off one of the galaxy's most wanted was pushed aside by the need to stabilize my craft and if at all possible try to stay alive.

Didn't take long, though. It wasn't a very good shot. It did some damage, but nothing dramatic enough to send me to the surface at an unfortunate speed. All that happen was that the front of my ship shattered in a way that was more annoying than anything else, exposing me to the frosty air currents of the higher atmosphere. Well, except for that one shard that was currently embedded in my arm. That was something more than just a mere annoyance.

I immediately started coping with the pain in the only way I knew how.

"The hell, Nova...?" said the Ravager.

"What?" I snapped, feeling defensive. Can't a girl go for the most inventive curses in her vocabulary? "It helps with the blood loss. That's a thing, right? Profanity encourages coagulation."

"How bad?"

"Oh, I'll live. It just hurts like hell," I said, wincing as I had to use my injured arm to maneuver, getting my ship into a higher elevation where there was hopefully no one that would bother wasting ammo on me. All the real fighting was happening way, way below me. I had the whole sky to myself up here. Too bad that left me with air that felt pretty damn depleted of oxygen. As if I didn't have enough to worry about...

"You know nothing of pain," came the metallic voice over the comm.

I kind of assumed she had her hands full with whatever was going wrong with her ship, too busy to listen, not to mention offer an opinion. Apparently I was wrong. Might have been because I was talking about something she clearly considered her area of expertise.

"Well, no, not compared to you. Obviously," I said, since there really was no question. "Wait... Did you just try to make me feel bad about that? I mean it's not a competition. And hell, it's not something to brag about..."

There was no reply. I sighed and did a quick scan of my surroundings. The thing to do now was to land before the blood loss got bad enough to affect my flying, but of course that would mean racing Ronan's battleship to see which one of us will make the surface first. That made staying put the saner option. So here I was, stationary and having very little to do now that it became clear that all the interesting action was happening elsewhere."Hey... Nebula?" I said before I could think better of it. "Mind if I ask you a question?"

"Yes," she snarled, her tone making it abundantly clear just how much she minded.

"Why? Are you in middle of something?" I said. Getting sarcastic at one of the scariest people in the galaxy probably wasn't my best idea, but then again it wasn't as though she could have picked me out of a lineup. "Why did you run for it? From where I am it looks like Ronan might actually win. That's your cue to tell me I'm wrong…"

"I don't care who wins."

Interesting insight into her scary, metal-encased brain right there. So maybe she wasn't in on Ronan's righteous crusade out of ideological reasons. "Next you'll be telling me that you don't actually want Xandar destroyed either."

"I don't give a damn about your little planet."

"And my little planet thanks you for it," I said. I could have sworn I heard the Ravager still on the line chuckle at that. "So this is it for you? You're just gonna disappear…? Because good luck with that, on a ship that can't make it out of the atmosphere without taking in a whole lot of vacuum."

There was no reply. Not from Nebula anyway…

"What exactly is wrong with her ship…?" he asked, in the tone of the actual Ravager fleet tech support. So it wasn't just me that had currently a whole lot of nothing to do.

"Well, she did break her way in through the glass. Guess that makes her planetbound."

"Not necessarily."

"What?"

"What?" said Nebula in unison with me. Her tone was quite different though. In fact she sounded almost glad she didn't waste time on switching off her comm. "Does this thing have a shield potent enough to…?"

"No, not a shield," he replied and started drowning her in the kind of terminology I wouldn't be able to follow even if I wasn't getting all lightheaded from the blood loss. It went on for several seconds before there was a somewhat subdued "Got it," from Nebula. "And this will work?"

"It's your best shot if you really want to try to get to the nearest jump point. But I'd grab a helmet just to be on the safe side. Unless you're modified to breathe vacuum," replied the Ravager in a casual tone that really didn't match the situation.

"I'm not," said Nebula, confusing me no end at first. "Is there a space suit or a helmet somewhere…?"

"Check under the seats."

I was so dumbfounded by that little exchange that it took me this long to realize I had to intervene. "Why would you tell her that?"

"What do you mean?"

"She's on a ship that's damaged because she damaged it. Killing one of your people. And you just gave her a shot at escaping while everyone's too distracted with what Ronan's up to," I said. "Did you seriously not pause to think who you're helping?"

"No," he replied, sounding like he'd never get on that train of thought if I didn't spell it out for him like this.

"No," I repeated. I'd facepalm if it wasn't the most painful thing I could do right now. It was that tempting.

"What?" he said, but before I could launch into a speech this clearly warranted the cyborg interjected a very angry comment about their idiot ships. Followed by a painful outburst of static almost immediately.

"What was that?" I said, wincing.

"You try fixing a ship, mid-flight with only one hand," growled Nebula.

I was going to tell her something about checking that attitude because I didn't break that ship, she did. But before I got the chance they lapsed into yet another conversation about what exactly was going wrong, this time with the navigation.

"Dude," I said. "Stop helping."

"Oh... Right."

"I mean, honestly. She's still a hostile," I said, shaking my head.

"No, I'm not."

"Oh, shut up, Nebula. No one asked you..."

I paused then, appreciating the fact that this was possibly the most insane thing I have ever said. Blood loss. Must have been the blood loss. Not to mention the thin air I was stuck breathing up here... And still I was the person who knew better than to get inexplicably helpful. She was still one of the bad guys however one looked at it. Though... "Fine," I sighed, giving her this at least. "Technically not a hostile. A deserter from the hostiles. Doesn't make you friendly."

"Desertion presumes loyalty," replied Nebula almost calmly.

I rolled my eyes. I was slowly but surely losing track of which one was pissing me off more. And keeping this conversation going was somehow still a better alternative to watching what was going on with the Kree ship.

"This... this is what happens when you help unhinged sociopaths. They stay on the line making comments no one asked for," I groaned. "Oh and a word of advice? If you want to win people over maybe don't openly admit to being disloyal. Not a nice quality. Not that you don't have worse ones. What?" I snapped, since there was a kind of meaningful silence coming through the comm.

"Sociopath? Really?" said the Ravager. "That's a bit harsh."

"Which one of us has a degree in criminal psychology?" I said. Neither. The answer was neither, though he didn't need to know that. "There's a chart. She's off it. And she has a spaceworthy ship now," I added, annoyed. That was what the sudden lack of swearing and weird noises from Nebula indicated and she didn't offer a denial so that made it pretty much official. Just great. "For the record, I still think there will be trouble if you try making it past the atmosphere. I'd take my chances in Nova prison if I were you…"

"Not an option," came a reply, immediate and nowhere near as angry as what I've come to expect.

There was something about the way she said it. It was all that raw emotion that stripped the metallic quality from her voice and made her sound like what she was. Someone who had hard time believing she was now free to make her own stupid decisions. Because what she was up to was in no way smart. I've seen that M-ship. I had serious doubts about it making the trip off Xandar, not to mention anywhere past our space. And I might not have been remembering this right but I could have sworn she said she was flying it using only one hand. Suddenly I had the insane idea of trying to find out what exactly happened to the other one and whether she lost the organic or the metal one.

That was when the bizarre lightshow on the ground usurped my attention. I even managed to forget all about the blood, now thoroughly soaking my uniform. "What the hell…?" I whispered involuntarily.

"No clue. There's a whole lot of screaming coming from Peter's channel. That can't be good," replied the Ravager in the I have a bad feeling about this tone this warranted.

"Who's Peter?" I said, confused.

"What's happening there?" interjected Nebula, before I could get an answer. She didn't quite manage to hide how curious she was. Not about Peter, whoever he was, but about the oh-so-special purple stone, obviously.

I was about to try - and fail - to describe to her just what went on underneath me. And then, just as abruptly as things started happening, they just... stopped. "Never mind. False alarm. Everything's fine now," is what I landed on.

"Fine? How does that qualify as fine?" interjected the Ravager. Because yeah, there was a giant ship nestled in middle of a public square.

"Well – the city is still there, isn't it?"

There was a silence. It stretched in a way I didn't like, made all the weirder by the fact that I could tell somewhere out there Nebula was waiting for news just as tensely.

"Yeah, everything's fine. The stone has been contained."

I released a breath I didn't know I was holding. The feeling of relief was something I couldn't begin to put into words. "Is Ronan…?" I added, just to clarify.

"Dead."

At that something that sounded like a small relieved sigh came through from Nebula's channel. "Is that good news…?" I said, wondering. I really wasn't that clear on her allegiances or motivations.

"One less enemy to worry about."

"Well... Good for you," I couldn't help saying as I pointed my ship downward and begun a descent.

There was no reply from her. Not entirely sure why I expected one - still, to have her out of my life just like that, at a flip of a switch felt somehow wrong. Not entirely satisfying. "I'll miss you too, you blue psycho," I sighed.

I landed, clumsily, as was to be expected what with one of my hands slick with blood and slippery on the controls.

This place was a mess and there was not a single member of Nova Corp in sight. Great. I guess that meant it was time to work for a living. Maintain a perimeter. Tell the civilians to disperse since there was nothing to see here. The usual. Maybe look for a medic if I got a spare moment...

"Hey, Nova…?" came the voice from my comm before I even managed to untangle myself from my seatbelt. Which was a lot more complicated process with a shard of glass sticking out of me. I quickly redirected his channel to my personal comm before jumping out of my craft. It didn't feel like this conversation was quite over yet.

"Still here. What's up?"

"We should probably get our story straight."

"Why? Is anyone likely to ask questions? No one else was on this channel. No one would ever suspect me from helping someone with her record get away. And in fact I didn't. You did. And you probably still don't get how weird that is..." I sighed.

"No, I get it."

"So why?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"She asked for help," he said vaguely. I started laughing and not just because she definitely didn't as far as I remembered. There was something about the simplicity of that answer that just got to me. And as painful as laughter currently was it still took quite a while for me to stop.

"Hey, do me a favor and never say that to someone who has the authority to space you. I know it's the truth but... Honestly, just make up something else. Anything else. Say that her sad backstory got to you or something. Say the bounty on her will get bigger the longer she's at large. That sounds pragmatic enough, right? Ought to work," I told him, walking slowly, painfully along the drastically changed landscape. "What a weird goddamn day," I said under my breath.

"I know what you mean."

"And on top of everything else, it'll be so hard to think of her as a monster now. I know, I know. Who is and isn't a monster depends on who's telling the story," I sighed, really hoping I'll never have to. Because this story will have me kicked out of Nova Corp for sure. "Hey... This might sound crazy but... Can you hear music…?"

There was only laughter coming through the comm. I decided to take it as a yes. "Good. So I'm not hallucinating that…" I said as I started making my way through the crowd of badly battered civilians.

"It's rather lovely. Don't think I ever heard it before," I frowned. I had harder and harder time focusing.

"It's Terran."

I nodded to myself. Yeah, that would account for the unfamiliarity. "Terran music. Who knew," I said, leaning against the hull of the Kree ship, which was currently my best hope of staying upright. So this bleeding was slightly worse than I thought. Maybe walking around wasn't the best idea I had today. And it had a lot of competition, so that made it kind of impressive.

"You okay, Nova? You sound a little..."

"Injured in the line of duty?" I said, smiling even as my knees started to buckle. Why was it such a priority to stay vertical anyway? Maybe if I just sat down for a moment and closed my eyes and... "Oh come on. Could your ships be any louder?" I growled in a tone that damn near matched the one of the cyborg that was probably systems away by now.

I forced my eyes open to find... Nova Corp. Nova Corp everywhere.

"Well, you took your sweet time, guys."

"What?" came the voice from my comm.

"Not you. Talking to the dicks that were supposed to have this under control. And yes, I'm aware I'm one of them. But, seriously... we're minus a magic stone, half the city is ruined and I have some very confusing sympathy for the devil situation with the PTSD poster girl... That's just not professional."

"Who are you talking to...?" said the Nova officer I found leaning over me when I looked up.

"Don't know. In all this mess we never quite managed to make it to the first name basis. Who am I talking to...?"

"Not telling you. Not when you know I'm accessory to you-know-who's escape," replied the Ravager. "My record is long enough as is."

"Oh, come on. I thought we were bonding here."

"Is that one of the...?" started the young officer as he was helping me to my feet.

"One of the people who helped defend this city? You bet. And before you start unloading your uninformed prejudices on me let me just tell you that given how many people we lost today I definitely have a promotion coming. I outrank you," I translated in face of his incomprehension. "And I'm telling you right now, some of my best friends are Ravagers. So go ahead, be a dick about it."

"Ignore her," interjected the only one of my friends that was in fact a Ravager. So I exaggerated. So what? "That's just the blood loss talking."

"Nope. I'm fine. Really. Still perfectly capable of taking this thing out of my arm and using it to stab him in the neck," I said, doing my best to sound threatening, even while fighting for my grasp on consciousness. Behind me someone started laughing. I wasn't entirely surprised to find it was a racoon. I smiled back at him before leaning on the guy I just threatened to kill for reasons that weren't entirely clear even to me. Maybe it was the blood loss talking after all.

"Take care Nova," came the voice from my comm, sounding suspiciously like a goodbye.

"Take care yourself..." I sighed as the comm went dead.

"Kraglin."

"Huh?" I turned my head to see who spoke.

There he was, someone wearing too much red leather, because of course, and to add to that timeless look he also seemed at least as beat up as I felt. Which would be very. "The guy you were talking to," he said, nodding at my comm. "His name is Kraglin. He's... a friend from work."

"You could hear him too...?" I sighed with what was very real relief. "You know I was starting to think I just imagined his part of the conversation to allow myself to stay in denial about helping the blue menace..."

"I have no idea what you're saying."

"Makes two of us," I said, looking away from... Peter? I thought I remembered there was supposed to be someone called Peter down here. I could have asked him but... it just wasn't that much of a priority right now. "So... What does a girl have to do to get her hands on some industrial grade painkillers around here...?"