She was actually kinda impressed that he made it, Nebula had to admit as she was calculating the best way to navigate through the Terran solar system to get her companion back to Earth. He had never made a jump before and was badly injured, and still he had managed to keep it together. She could of course see that he had to fight against throwing up and that most of his colour had left his face, but the truth was, she had believed that he was going to pass out during the second jump. It was probably sheer will power that kept him awake, Nebula mused.
"When are we going to be there," he suddenly asked, his voice a bit shaky even though he tried to fight that.
"Soon," was her answer.
"Not very specific," came the snide back.
Nebula sighed. "Listen, Terran, I'm brining you home because you were right, I'll need help to face my father and kill him, and you have proven to be capable to standing up to him, not many people are willing and capable of doing so. But I do not need your constant remarks and sarcasm."
"Yeah, well, sorry, just potentially dying over here and wanting to know when we might get to a hospital, but if that isn't okay with you, fine," responded Stark.
Nebula nearly rolled her eyes. This man was tiring. She had only been on board with him for less than an hour and he had clearly shown to be as irritating if not more irritating than Quill. Not only due to his sarcastic comments, he also asked constant questions about everything – Thanos, the ship, for most people completely ordinary technology, and politics in space. He was clearly trying to keep his mind awake but it was starting to tire out Nebula. She wasn't used to so much talking due to her upbringing, one if not the main reason she preferred to work alone and had turned down the opportunity to join the Guardians in the past. A choice she was nearly starting to regret now. Nearly because becoming part of the Guardians might have meant for her to spent more time with Gamora but it would have also entailed spending time with Quill and that annoying raccoon – and if anything, sitting in this ship's cockpit together with Tony Stark for less than hour showed her that she was not up to handle something like that before turning into a killer again.
Stark was about to open his mouth again but an angry glare from Nebula shut him up immediately. Shaking her head, Nebula turned to the navigational arrays again, plotting a course through the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. Only a few seconds later, Stark let out an artificial cough. "What is it," asked Nebula angrily.
"I could be wrong, but I think these scanners have picked something up," he said, pointing at one of the screens in front of him.
Nebula pressed a few buttons and transferred the scanner image onto her screens. There was clearly something coming from Earth at relatively slow speed, meaning it was not one of Thanos' ships. "Somebody's leaving Terra."
"Thanos?"
"No, it is too slow to be one of his ships."
"Any idea who else it could be?"
Nebula shook her head. "It does not appear to be of any known class."
"Do we have visuals?"
"We are too far away to see it," Nebula answered, asking herself why Stark would even ask such a question.
"Are you telling me that we can only visually see what we can spot from the window," Stark asked, sounding surprised and as if he wasn't believing her.
"Of course," responded Nebula. "For everything else we got scanners."
"Yeah, only that those are not much help once they pick something up that they can't identify, are they?"
Nebula gave him another stern glare but didn't say anything since she knew he was right – and she hated to admit that. Suddenly there was a beep. "The computer has plotted the perfect course through the asteroid belt. In less than a minute we'll be in Terra's orbit and will most likely be able to see it."
"Well, better than nothing," muttered Stark. "I guess this is not going to be nearly as painful as the previous jumps?"
"Not even close," answered Nebula and accelerated the ship for a few seconds before letting it drop back to normal speed. They were now directly facing Earth and Nebula noticed Stark's features softening. There was even a certain awe on his face, which probably came from the fact that he had never seen his planet from this perspective in person, she supposed.
Nebula only took the sight in for a second, she has seen too many planet from orbit to hold any kind of wonder for this kind of sight anymore, before starting to search the scanners for the other ship, only to realise that it had left orbit and was now accelerating away from Earth. "It's leaving. We might get a chance to see it but I doubt it," announced Nebula and entered an high orbit at the maximum possible speed.
Stark only responded with a simple "mmh," clearly still left in his thoughts. Nebula decided to award him one more glance. He was working on something, prompting her to ask him what he was doing.
"You'll see," he answered and he continued to press several buttons on the work display in front of him. "Eureka," he suddenly shouted, which was kinda irritating. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., can you hear me?"
Before Nebula could ask who or what Friday was, a female voice answered. "Boss, good to hear from you."
"Good to hear you, too," Stark sighed with relief. "I'm in a spaceship at the moment and I'll need a landing space near a hospital equipped to deal with sever thorax trauma."
"I'm starting to look but it's complete chaos right now, half the population seems to have..."
"...disappeared," Tony finished the sentence. "Yeah, happened all across the universe on every single planet." He took a deep breath. It was obvious to Nebula that he wanted to ask something very emotional next. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., can you tell me who's still there? I mean, is Pepper..."
"Miss Potts is still alive. She's currently in a phone conference with the remaining board members. Shall I call her?"
Stark let out a clear sigh of relief. Nebula deduced from that, that whoever this Pepper Potts was, she must have been pretty important to him.
"No, you don't have to. Any words from the Avengers?"
"No, boss, I'm sorry. They were in Wakanda and engaged the alien hostiles but there's no word about their survival yet."
This news clearly was not a positive one, Nebula knew so much without knowing what Wakanda was or who these Avengers were. They clearly meant something to Stark and it was a real possibility that they were dead. Not only that, the alien hostlies were clearly the Black Order and Thanos. The Avengers engaging them probably meant that they were some kind of defence force on Terra. Knowing the Black Order, odds were already against these Avengers, Nebula concluded, and with Thanos having control of the Infinity Stones they were slim to none.
But she didn't say anything, instead she tried to get them into a position from which it might have been possible to get a good look at whatever had just left Terra but they seemed to be too late. The ship, or whatever it was, had already passed the moon and was now going with near light-speed.
"We missed it."
"What?"
"Whatever just left Terra, we missed it," Nebula explained.
"Who is that, boss," asked Friday.
"Oh, this is Nebula, the pilot of the ship I'm on," explained Stark. "Now, how about some hospital coordinates?"
"Boss, I'd recommend landing the ship at the Avengers facility and get treated there. Some of the medical team is still there, including Dr. Brown," the woman said.
"Okay then," Stark replied and typed something into the display. "Those are the coordinates," he said to Nebula.
Nebula simply nodded and put in a landing course.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., can you make sure that we land safely without the military intercepting us?"
"Already on it, boss."
Nebula had to admit that she hadn't even thought of that. Terra might have been relatively primitive but it had military that was advanced enough to built weapons that could blow them out of the sky, she knew that much. She had seen the effect one of their missiles did have had on the Chitauri army years ago when Loki had tried to invade Earth in her father's name. And if Stark could make sure that they were not blown out of the sky, it probably meant that he was a very important person on Terra. Well, Nebula thought, if you had to get yourself onto such a planet, being in the companion of somebody with influence might be the best thing that could have happened to you.
Their descend was effortless. Terra's atmosphere didn't have any disturbances and no military vessel or missile was to be seen. Stark instructed her to come at the facility from the planet's north to avoid being spotted by the people in a city nearby. As they approached their landing spot, Nebula could see the city. On foot it would have taken days to reach it, but it was still clearly visible. The tall buildings, the tallest of which must have been over 600 meters tall, were hard not to see.
"What's the name of the city?"
"New York City, and this is New York State," Stark answered.
"New York? I think I heard that name before," Nebula wondered out loud.
"It was the city that Loki attacked six years ago. And it was the city the Black Order attacked a few days ago."
Nebula nodded. No wonder Stark didn't want her to fly over the city. The people there probably weren't too keen on seeing another ship fly by, especially after what just happened a few hours ago.
"How many people live there?"
"Eight million, within the city limits. Twelve, if you count the surrounding areas. Largest city in the country, used to be the largest in the world, but other cities in poorer countries tend to grow way faster."
"I take it, this country, New York, is a rich country?"
"The name of the country is not New York, it's the United States of America or simply America or US for short," Tony lectured. "And it is the second richest country in the world actually, right after Wakanda."
Nebula simply nodded, finally seeing the facility. It was wide area with some large warehouse style building on it and some obvious landing spots, which were probably intended for aircrafts. "Where should I land?"
"Landing spot 2 will is available. I'll send a medical team there," Friday said.
Nebula had nearly forgotten that Stark had linked the ship's communication array with the facility. Instead of arguing or answering she simply looked around and saw lights at one of the landing spots starting to blink. This must have been landing spot 2, she thought. She managed to bring the Benatar down in only a few seconds and performed a perfect landing.
"Thanks for bringing me home," Stark said and Nebula simply nodded. She didn't know what to say to that anyway.
The two got up and left the ship as four people with a gurney walked towards them.
"Ah, Dr. Brown," Stark greeted one of them.
"Where's the injury," the man he just greeted asked. He was a bit taller than Stark, maybe even of the same age, but with less hair and some sort of googles on his face. He wore blue scrubs and a white coat over it, while the three others all wore white scrubs.
Stark pointed at his stomach. "Here," he said. "The nanobots of my suit have been sealing the wound off to stop the blood loss but there's definitely some internal damage and I don't know for how long the bots can keep the blood back either."
Dr. Brown nodded in response with a grim look on his face. "Get on the gurney," he told Stark and even though Stark rolled his eyes, he did as he was told. "What about you, Miss?"
"What about me," Nebula asked.
"Are you injured as well?"
Nebula shook her head. "No, and I doubt that your medicine could help me anyway," was her cold response.
The doctor didn't say anything, he simply shrugged and gave the signal to move Stark to their medical centre. As they entered the facility it was clear that chaos was afoot. People were running around, some in more serious attire than others, some holding some sort of communication device to their ears while others were tapping their ears, probably using some other kind of communication device. A few were shouting actual commands through the room. One one of these people stopped as soon as he saw them coming into the hall and started walking towards them at a fast pace. He was tall, a bit overweight with black hair and wore a black suit. The first words he said were, "Oh god, Tony."
"Hey, Happy," Stark responded. "Glad you made it."
"Made it? What are you talking about? What happened? What happened to you? And who's she," he asked, pointing at Nebula, while starting to walk alongside the gurney.
"Well, she's the one that brought me here. Happy, Nebula, Nebula, Happy," Stark introduced the two. "She flew the spaceship out there."
"So, she's alien?"
"Yep," Stark answered. "And as you can see, I was stabbed. So that's what happened to me."
"By whom," Happy asked and Nebula nearly rolled her eyes. This man was clueless so why would he think he would know who Thanos was if Stark told him the name, she asked herself.
"Her father," Stark answered and yanked his head towards Nebula. "He's also the one who turned everyone to dust. We tried to stop him, but, well, you see what happened," he explained.
Happy clearly needed a moment to process this new information. "Wait, her father," he suddenly asked, looking directly at Nebula.
"Yes, my father."
"Well, adoptive father," Stark added.
"Still," Happy started to protest.
"Thanos killed my birth family, destroyed half my planet, tortured me and the other children he abducted to turn us into killers, making us all despise one another. Believe me, I hate him, probably more than anybody on this planet does at the moment," Nebula defended herself.
Now this Happy guy was at a loss for words. "Oh, yeah, well, I'm sorry, for all that's worth," he said as they reached the medical bay, where the doctor told them to wait outside. "Does Pepper know you're back," Happy shouted after Tony but got no response.
"She does not," Nebula answered as they remained in the waiting area. "He established a communication link with somebody called Friday and told her to not inform this Pepper person."
Happy nodded and then ordered Friday to call Pepper, even though Nebula couldn't see anybody where he was looking at.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Hogan, but I've an order from Mr. Stark," answered the female voice.
Nebula looked around but didn't see anyone, causing her to realise something. "It's an A.I."
"Yes, I am. F.R.I.D.A.Y., Female Rational Intelligence Design All Yours, Mr. Stark's personal assistant."
"Fine," Happy said, "then I'll do it." He got out one of the communication devices Nebula had seen others holding to their ears. He pressed a few digits and then held it to his ear as well. "It's a cell phone," he told her. Nebula hadn't asked and she didn't think that she looked confused but maybe she had or maybe this Happy just was the kind of person who would explain something to somebody immediately if he thought they wouldn't know what it was. Normally Nebula found these kind of people annoying, but right now it was actually helpful since she was on a planet she barely knew anything about.
"Pepper, here's Happy," he said into his phone. "Yeah, it's about Tony," he then said, clearly responding to something said on the other end of the line. "He's in surgery right now. … No he was still awake when he came here. … I've no idea what happened, well not exactly. … He was stepped by some guy named Thanos. … I don't know who that is, but according to Tony he was the one who turned everyone to dust. … I don't know. … Yeah, you better." Happy ended his call and put his phone back into his pocket. "She's coming."
"You shouldn't have done so," F.R.I.D.A.Y. told him.
"Well, then why didn't you stop me," Happy retorted.
"I was only ordered to not call Ms. Potts myself," argued F.R.I.D.A.Y., sounding a bit confused.
Nebula nearly smirked. F.R.I.D.A.Y. was obviously programmed to follow Stark's wishes but she had clearly developed a subconscious, which she didn't even seem to be aware of.
"So, what now," Nebula asked Happy.
"We'll wait, or, you wait, I've some work to do. I'm the head of security around here after all," he told her before asking F.R.I.D.A.Y. to call him when Stark was out of surgery or Pepper was coming, then he walked away, touching his ear to seemingly speak to somebody.
"Why does he have to different communication devices on him," Nebula found herself asking.
"His in-ear communicator only functions with other people having them as well who also happen to be linked into the same communication network, meaning that only other people working in this facility can be communicated with using those, while a cell phone can be used to contact everybody with a phone device, which is nearly everybody on the planet," F.R.I.D.A.Y. explained.
Nebula nodded and started to look around. She didn't really feel like sitting around here but sneaking around and exploring the facility probably wasn't a good idea either. "I'll go back to the ship. You still have access to its communication array?"
"Yes, I have."
"Then inform me when Stark gets out of surgery," Nebula told her and left, not even waiting for an answer.
Nebula was sitting in Gamora's quarters, which she had quickly realised were also part Quill's as well. They seemed to have been in the transitional phase of moving in together. If Nebula would still have had the ability to actually cry, she would have done so at this moment. Instead she wept silently, holding a picture of her and Gamora close to her chest. She didn't know when it was taken but it must have been during one of her run-ins with the Guardians after the Ego incident. It was one of only two pictures on Gamora's bedside cabinet, the other one was of her and Quill. Gamora really must have been in love with that irritating human, Nebula thought. And while that irritated her, it also made her kind of happy. Not only had her sister found somebody to love who actually loved her back, but she, Nebula, was the only other person as important to Gamora as the man she loved. But just as soon as this happiness had started to root itself inside of her, it broke her again. Because Gamora was dead and there was nothing she could do about it.
Then, suddenly, there was an alarm that made her jump. "What is going on?"
"Mr. Hogan and Ms. Potts would like to acquire access to your ship, Ms. Nebula," F.R.I.D.A.Y. answered.
This irritated Nebula even more for a second. She had forgotten about F.R.I.D.A.Y. for a moment, which was kinda embarrassing for her. "Ah, thank you, F.R.I.D.A.Y.," Nebula replied, nearly stammering. "I'll meet them outside."
"I'll tell them," F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced.
Nebula shook her head. This was really weird, she had to admit to herself. She had been on so many ships, barely any of them ever talked back to you. Then again, F.R.I.D.A.Y., at least to her knowledge, only had access to the communication array and not to any other function of the ship. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have an A.I.-assistant helping you run a ship, Nebula thought but quickly dismissed that thought. She was not going to ask some human to develop an A.I. for her, especially since it would have had to be compatible with the ship's computer's base programming anyway.
Banning these thoughts out of her mind she got out of her sister's quarters and made the way to the ship's exit. Lowering the exit ramp she saw Happy and a woman with red-orange hair next to him. She was dressed in dark grey attire with a skirt instead of pants. She clearly had been crying. "You are Nebula, I suppose? I'm Pepper Potts," she introduced herself, stretching out her hand in a greeting.
Nebula nodded and took her hand a bit awkwardly. After a quick shake they both let go. "Is Stark out of surgery?"
"No, not yet, but the doctor's are optimistic that he's gonna make it," Pepper answered. "Why don't you come with us and tell us what exactly happened."
Nebula could tell that this was not a request or an offer but a demand, despite Pepper's friendly attitude. The woman clearly knew how to make people feel welcome while pushing them into doing what she wanted. "Why not," Nebula replied and the three set off for the building. Under other circumstances she would have argued but right now she didn't really have it in her, which she didn't want to admit to herself and instead she was rationalising it by telling herself that she had to work together with these people to get her revenge on Thanos, which wasn't untrue either.
Pepper led the way. Not to waiting room for the medical bay but instead up some stairs and down a long hallway into a conference room.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., make sure that Ross or whoever else will not call in, understood," Pepper ordered and the A.I. immediately followed the order. "Good, then, please take a seat," Pepper offered. Her strong attitude beginning to crumble and somebody more vulnerable started to shine through. "Would you like a drink?"
Nebula shook her head. "I don't drink. I have no need for it."
Pepper raised her eyebrows and looked at Happy, who simply shrugged. Nebula sighed and explained her being a cyborg and that Thanos had done this to her and why. She wasn't used to tell her story to anyone, but she continued to tell herself that she needed the trust of these people.
"I'm sorry," Pepper breathed and Nebula really believed the woman. He strong facade seemed to have been vaporised by her story and now it was just two broken women sitting across of one another. "So, I don't wanna press you but, what exactly happened to Tony?"
Nebula started to tell them what had happened. How Thanos was the last of his people, how he believed that he had to kill half of every population in the universe to save the other half, how he had kidnapped children like her across the known cosmos to raise them as his own to become weapons for him, how he had started to look for the Infinity Stones and what they could do, and that he now seemed to have had control over all six of them, which had given him the ability to destroy half the universe with the snap of his fingers.
"Oh my god," Pepper breathed. "And he stabbed Tony?"
Nebula nodded. She then continued to tell them how Thanos had captured her, how he tortured her and got Gamora to tell him where the Soul Stone was hidden by doing so, how she had escaped Thanos' ship and crash-landed on Titan, where the Guardians of the Galaxy and Stark together with some wizard and a boy in a red suit were engaging Thanos in battle. How they had nearly won if she hadn't made Thanos confess to killing Gamora, causing Quill to lose his cool, breaking Mantnis already weak grip on Thanos' mind and how the battle continued with Thanos raining one of Titan's moons upon them, taking them all out besides Stark, who continued to fight and even scratched Thanos, managing to make him bleed for the first time in a long, long time. Then Thanos used Stark's own blade, which his nanobots had conjured up, to stab him, before the wizard, Dr. Strange, gave up the Time Stone in exchange for Stark's life.
"And then Thanos disappeared through a portal created by the Space Stone," Nebula finished her tale.
Pepper looked and Happy. "He went after the last stone," she realised before closing her eyes. "Vision."
"Who?"
"Vision, an android, Tony had a hand in designing. His base consciousness was Tony's first real A.I., J.A.R.V.I.S.. He was powered by the Mind Stone," Pepper explained.
It wasn't the first time today Nebula thought about doing something that she didn't need to do but would have totally done if she was still an organic creature, in this case it was swallowing down a lump in her throat.
"And all the others disappeared," Happy asked.
Nebula nodded in response and the other two looked at each other in horror.
"You mean the kid is gone," Pepper asked shocked.
"Yes. He died in Stark's arms, saying something I couldn't clearly make out," Nebula said. "Were the two close?"
The other two averted her gaze. "Peter, Peter Parker, was Tony's protégé," Happy said. "And I was kinda his babysitter for a while."
Nebula closed her eyes and sighed. "Stark clearly seemed to care about him."
"I think he saw in Peter the chance to form somebody not unlike himself into somebody better than him," Pepper said. "He was the son he didn't have and since Peter's parents are dead and all he has left is, was, his aunt, he saw a father figure in Tony."
"Only that Tony would have never admitted that," Happy added.
Silence lay over the three of them, neither knowing what to say. It was a lot to take in for all of them. Nebula didn't ask further questions about the wizard, the look Happy had given Pepper once she had mentioned that and Pepper's look in response told her that the two didn't really know much about this person either. Before they could lose track of time F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke up, "Mr. Stark is out of surgery and is brought into the anaesthetic recovery room at the moment."
Pepper let out the loudest sigh of relief, but Nebula found herself also relaxing. She had only known Stark for a few hours and he was annoying but he also had an obviously magnetic personality, drawing people to him. His heroism of Titan and his apparent genius did the rest to impress Nebula enough to realise that he had been right – she would need his help in defeating Thanos. That was why the wizard had let him live. He needed to live, she needed him to live to defeat Thanos. And with the loss of the Guardians she would also need another group of people who resampled something like friends to her, who she could at least trust to a certain degree and who would come to her aid if needed. Right now, Stark seemed like the best option she had in this case as well.
The three of them got up and walked to the waiting room across the facility. Dr. Brown was waiting for them and told Pepper how it looked. Stark was apparently going to make a full recovery but he needed rest for the next couple of days if not weeks. Pepper, who, as it turned out, was Stark's fiancée, and with that soon to be wife, was tasked with making sure that he was going to stay in bed for at least a short while. A task Pepper seemed to take up gladly.
"When can we visit him," Pepper asked but before Dr. Brown could answer, F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke up again, announcing a quinjet coming in, whatever that was.
"Do you know who it is," Happy asked.
"It's me, Happy," a male voice answered. "Together with Steve, Tasha, Thor, Bruce and some raccoon calling himself Rocket."
Nebula had never thought that new of Rocket coming to her location would make her feel somewhat happy, but it actually did. One of the Guardians had survived after all.
"Did he say raccoon," Brown asked.
Happy and Pepper simply looked at Nebula, who had told them about the Guardians. "We'll greet you at the hanger," Happy said.
"You can go as well, Ms. Potts, it won't be until an hour or even two until Mr. Stark will have woken up," the doctor told Pepper, who nodded and then followed Happy and Nebula to the hanger to greet the new arrivals.