Oh look, it's another installment.
Un-beta'ed.
- o - o -
Nikki Gold is next.
It's not expected, any more than Charlie's death was. Except somehow, Yondu thinks this one is worse. Somehow, somehow this one is worse – worse because it doesn't happen in a fight and she dies by inches.
He remembers Nikki being all smiles and laughter as she recounts some tale from her home. One minute she's upright and laughing as she adds more details to the story, and then she's crumpling to the floor, face slack and pale.
She gets worse from there. Yondu, Martinex, and Aleta don't leave the hospital in Knowhere for days at a time. Nikki tries to push them away, telling them they have to go save the galaxy. That's what Yondu thinks she's saying, between the wheezes and coughs as she tries to breathe.
There's no cure for this. She's just sick, and she's not getting back up.
Martinex and Aleta leave the hospital first. They tear up the bars in Knowhere and get into brawls with anyone who even looks at them funny. Nikki tries to give Yondu an admonition for being such a terrible captain, but Yondu doesn't leave. He stays at her bedside, face buried in his hands, tears pouring out through the cracks between his fingers.
She dies a month after her first collapse, pale and wasted, fiery hair dying out to nothing and scalp glistening with sweat. They take her to the planet where they laid Charlie to rest and pour her ashes out of the urn. Yondu lets the last of them filter through his fingers and watches them dance away on the air.
They're still the Guardians of the Galaxy after that.
The spark's just not as bright anymore.
- o - o -
So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Should I stop killing Yondu's favorite people? Drop a line and let me know.