Hey! So this is the last official chapter of the story. There'll be an epilogue after this, but it'll most likely be fairly short. Hope you enjoy!
Gamora coughed from the smoke-filled air as she climbed gingerly to her feet, testing her limbs to see if anything was broken. Thankfully, she was all right. She glanced around the room to make sure her friends were still alive. Peter was retrieving an unconscious Rocket from the ruins of the Milano, and Groot and Scarlett were hauling a piece of debris off of Drax, who was also knocked out. Ronan was nowhere in sight, probably dead. She looked away from them when she heard Peter gasp, and only then did she notice, with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, the crumpled figure of Solo lying beneath the Milano.
"Shit!" Peter exclaimed, setting Rocket aside. "Gamora, help me get this thing off of her!"
Gamora wasted no time in rushing over to his side. Solo was splayed out on the ground, face-down, her eyes closed and her jaw slack. Her body from the hips-down was pinned beneath the Milano. Peter quickly pressed his fingers to the pulse point in her neck, and he gave a relieved exhale as he confirmed she was still alive. Gamora heard footsteps behind them, and suddenly Groot had lifted the whole ship off of his friend's body and thrown it aside.
Scarlett let out a scream, clapping her hands to her mouth. The ground around Solo's left leg was red and slick with blood. Blood that was pumping freely from a large open wound in the leg.
Gamora's mind was blank with shock for a few moments, before she snapped into action. She shrugged off her Ravager jacket and tore a large strip off of it. Then she ripped Solo's destroyed pant leg aside and used the piece of jacket to apply pressure to the wound.
Suddenly, the ship rocked violently in the air. More pieces of debris rained down upon them. Scarlett was sobbing, tears rolling down her face as she clutched Solo's hand, begging her to stay alive. If Solo could hear her, she didn't respond.
"Gamora," Peter said, shaking her shoulder. She didn't respond, only continuing to press her makeshift bandage over Solo's wound. "Gamora. I don't think there's any saving her. She's losing too much blood - "
Gamora wheeled around to face him, livid. "SHUT UP!" she screamed, and she was surprised to find that there were tears in her eyes. Tears of anger or sadness, she didn't know. "I have to try! She saved my life back at the prison, and I have to repay her!"
Peter fell back, biting his lip, then focused his gaze on something - Solo's quiver of arrows, which was still strapped to her back. His eyes widened and he seized an arrow from the quiver.
"That's it!" he exclaimed. "A tourniquet!"
"What?" Gamora asked.
"A tourniquet!" Peter repeated. The ship fell some more in the air. "When I was in the hospital with my mom as a kid, a man came in to the emergency room. He'd been in a hunting accident, and his arm was bleeding out. So his friend tied a tourniquet around his arm, and held it in place with a stick to stop the blood flow. We can do that here!"
Gamora exhaled. "Quill, you're a genius!"
Peter used the arrow to tear a strip off his own jacket, and then handed it to Gamora. She wrapped it around Solo's leg above the wound and tied a loose knot, before placing the arrow on top and tying another knot around it. She twisted the arrow slowly, and the blood flow began to stop.
"Is she still alive?!" she asked Scarlett urgently. Solo had lost a lot of blood, and her normally vibrant purple skin has taken a grayish tinge to it. Scarlett pressed two fingers to the pulse point in her sister's neck, and then cracked a smile of relief when she felt the pulse.
"She's alive!"
Suddenly, the ship gave a violent jerk. It slid forward as it was preparing to go into a complete nosedive. They had minutes before the Dark Aster would hit the ground. Minutes before they would all be killed.
"I am Groot," Groot suddenly said from the middle of the room. Everyone's head turned to him. He was kneeling with the still unconscious Drax and Rocket just in front of him. Groot gestured for the others to join them, which they did. Gamora grabbed Solo by the arms as Scarlett took her gently by the legs and they both carried her over.
Once the four of them reached Groot, he closed his eyes and raised both arms as if to circle the group completely. Small branches grew from his body, connecting with one another and forming a sphere around everyone. He was creating a shield, to protect them from dying. Gamora gazed up at him, mouth open in wonder, as she cradled Solo's head in her lap. Once Groot had formed the shield completely around his friends, even wrapping Drax in a protective cocoon on the floor, more of the orbs of light came from the branches and lit up the darkness.
Rocket stirred in Peter's arms, his eyes opening, before he sat up and realised what was going on, what Groot was sacrificing.
"No, Groot!" he exclaimed, and Gamora was surprised to see tears in his eyes. She'd thought that Rocket was far too hardy for tears. But then again, she'd been wrong about all her other friends so far ...
Rocket limped over to Groot and took his face in his hands. "You can't! You'll ... die." He choked up, tears running down his face. "Why are you doing this?! Why?"
Groot smiled sadly at his friend, wiping away his tears with one of his branches, and addressed the group.
"We ... are ... Groot."
Gamora had to blink away tears of her own as she held Solo's unconscious form even tighter. She lowered her head and hoped nobody would notice her crying.
Every part of my body hurt. My head felt like it had been hit with a brick. My body felt like someone had put on shoes made of concrete and decided that kicking me would be a fun pastime. I definitely had some bruised ribs or something. And my leg ... Oh fuck, my leg felt like it had been dipped in liquid nitrogen. It was completely numb, but I also felt like if I could actually feel it, it would be agonizingly painful.
"S ... Soh? Can you hear me?"
At Rocket's familiar voice, my eyes opened. I lifted my head from the ground slowly, wincing at the pain that shot through my temple. I was on Xandar, I could see that much, but everything was destroyed. The ground was covered in dust, rubble, and ... twigs? The surrounding buildings were broken down and partially on fire, and there was a whole crowd of terrified looking spectators nearby.
"Rocket?" I said slowly, squinting as my dusty eyes watered in pain. Last thing I remembered was being hit with the ship. I must have been knocked out. I just considered myself lucky I had survived at all. "W-what happened?"
"We crashed," Rocket said, and I was startled to see that his face was stained with tears. "We would've died, but ... "
It was only then that I noticed something off - Gamora, Peter, Drax and Scarlett lay nearby, Scarlett knocked out cold and the other three simply groaning in pain. But ...
"Where's Groot?" I asked. "Rocket, where is he?!"
Rocket's face crumpled, and only then did it click. The twigs on the ground ...
"No," I whispered. "No. No, it's not true. He ... he can't be! He can't be ... dead?"
"I called him an idiot," Rocket whispered, picking up one of the twigs and clutching it to his chest. "I didn't even get to say sorry ..." His voice cracked and he bent his head, but not before I saw the fresh tears in his eyes. I put my arms around him and gently rocked him back and forth as he dissolved into sobs.
Groot, one of my best friends, who had been like an older brother or father to me, was dead. I didn't know. I didn't even get to say goodbye. I continued to comfort Rocket, trying my best to keep it together for his sake. He needed me right now, and goddammit, I was going to be there for him.
Or at least, I would've been, if it hadn't been for that fuckwad Ronan turning out to not actually be dead like the dickweed that he is.
Rocket noticed him before I did, turning his head around to look behind us. Once he saw that the Accuser was, in fact, still alive, his face contorted with rage and he pulled away from me.
"YOU KILLED GROOT!" he screamed, running towards Ronan in blind fury.
"ROCKET, NO!" I screamed after him. Ronan gave Rocket a disgusted glance before using the power of the Infinity Stone to toss him aside into a pile of rubble. He raised the staff again to deliver a final blow.
Here's where I got really pissed. Ronan was trying to take Rocket away from me, just after I'd lost Groot at his hands as well. Never before in my life had I wanted to murder someone as badly as I did Ronan.
In my anger and desparation, I seized a chunk of debris and hurled it as hard as I could at Ronan.
"YOU BAG OF DICKS!" I screamed at him, before I began screaming every single slur I knew at him, tears of rage falling down my face. Ronan directed his attention towards me instead of Rocket, and with what looked like a roll of his eyes pointed his staff at me and blasted me sideways. I collided with Rocket and lay on the ground, too stunned and angry and pained to move. We'd failed ... after all we'd sacrificed, all of those pilots had died for us, after we'd lost Groot, we'd still failed our mission. Ronan was still going to win.
"BEHOLD!" Ronan shouted, adressing the citizens of Xandar. "Your guardians of the galaxy! What fruit have they wrought? Only that my father, and his father, shall finally know vengeance!"
I then spied something out of the corner of my eye. A few metres away, lying half-buried in the rubble, was my still-full quiver of arrows. My eyes widened as I hatched a plan. I looked over towards Peter, who was lying nearby, and gestured for his attention.
"Distract him!" I mouthed.
"How?" he replied. He then glanced over at the radio of his ship, which somehow was still functioning ... and which happened to be playing a song. A grin curled onto his lips as he got to his feet, stood before Ronan, and began to dance and sing along.
"Oooh chiiild, things are gonna get ea-si-eeer! Oooh chiiild, things'll get brighter! Listen to these words."
Ronan was too stunned to react, simply staring at him in confusion. Taking advantage of the situation, I got to my knees and began to slowly crawl towards the quiver.
"What are you doing?" Ronan inquired, actually sounding genuinely curious.
"Dance-off, bro. Me and you!" Peter said, breaking into more exaggerated dance moves. He gestured for Gamora to join him. "Gamora!" She shook her head quickly. "Subtle. Take it back!"
At this point, I had finally managed to drag my broken body over to the quiver. I lifted it out of the rubble, and pulled out one of the more powerful explosive arrows. Hopefully it would be enough to do what I needed it to do. Thankfully Ronan hadn't noticed me yet, but I signalled to Peter that I was ready.
"What. Are you. DOING?!" Ronan demanded, confusion obvious in his tone.
"I'm distracting you, yah big turd blossom!" Peter replied, a proud smile on his face. At that, I lifted the bow and pulled the string back. Just as he turned towards me, I aimed the arrow towards his staff and let it fly.
The staff exploded on impact. Time seemed to slow down as Peter's eyes fixed on the falling Infinity Stone and he dived towards it. Ronan reached to grab it, but Peter was faster. His fist closed tightly around the Stone just before Ronan could get it.
"NO!" Gamora shouted.
As soon as Peter grabbed the Stone, the air around him exploded in a haze of purple and black smoke. He fell on the ground and began writhing in agony, purple cracks appearing in his skin, which began to disintegrate. Purple sparks flew all around him as he screamed in pain, his body being forced rigid and upright. The close proximity to the sparks was painful for me, but it sounded like the worst kind of agony for him. I managed to open my eyes a fraction and look at him, and immediately wished I hadn't; all of his wounds from the battle and the crash were being ripped open and exposed to the Stone's power. His eyes had turned completely dark and his flesh was beginning to come apart. Ronan stood before him, a sadistic grin on his face.
It was in that exact moment that I wished Peter would just drop the Stone and let us all die.
But then, something incredible happened: Gamora managed to stand up. She extended her arm towards Peter and called for him.
"PETER!" she screamed. "TAKE MY HAND!"
Peter looked at her as the skin on his face completely disintegrated, revealing glowing purple flesh underneath. And although his eyes were fixed on her, it looked like he was seeing someone else entirely. Someone who wasn't there at all.
"TAKE MY HAND!" Gamora shouted again, desperately.
And without a moment's hesitation, he did.
Immediately, Gamora's body went rigid and spread-eagled as well. Her legs planted firmly to the ground. Cracks began appearing on her body and she started to scream.
And then, I knew what I had to do. With extreme difficulty, I managed to stand myself upright on my uninjured leg, and, dragging the useless one behind me, I made my way over to Gamora and grabbed her hand as well.
My body went completely rigid, both legs planting firmly to the ground and rendering me unable to move. My hair stood on end and my head was thrown back as I screamed and screamed. The pain was unlike anything else I'd ever experienced. It felt like I was being blown up, stabbed, and lit on fire all at the same time. All I wanted to do at that exact moment was to die and end the torment. I managed to force my eyes open and saw Drax latching onto Peter's shoulder, and then Rocket reaching up and grabbing Drax by the finger.
For some reason, as soon as all five of us were standing together, the pain began to subside. I found that I was able to move again and the cracks in my body began to close up. The five of us all stood our ground, sharing the energy of the stone amongst ourselves, and stared down a cowering and confused Ronan.
"You're mortal!" he shouted. "HOW?!"
"You said it yourself, bitch," Peter said coldly, glowering at Ronan with his now vibrant purple eyes. "We're the guardians of the galaxy." He opened his palm and unleashed the full power of the stone upon Ronan.
It looked almost like he was shooting purple flames at him. The energy of the stone enveloped him completely, lifting him off his feet, as his mouth opened wide in horror and he screamed in pain. I watched with some amount of relish as my enemy was consumed by the stone's power and destroyed. Finally, Ronan the Accuser was no more.
As soon as Ronan's body was destroyed, the energy began to go back towards us. Before we could be killed by it, however, Gamora slammed her Orb down upon it, trapping it within once more. The sparks and smoke in the air disappeared, and we were free.
My leg crumpled beneath me, and I fell to the ground. I heard the arrow in my tourniquet snap as I fell heavily to the ground, and felt blood begin to trickle slowly down my leg again.
"Great ... " I panted, my vision going dark around the edges. "We won ... "
"Solo?" I heard Rocket say. "Oh, shit! No! SOMEONE GET A FUCKING MEDIC!"
"Oh, not this shit again," was my last thought before I slipped into total unconsciousness.
Rocket sighed sadly to himself, drumming his fingers against his leg. He has been sitting at Solo's bedside ever since she'd come out of surgery, which had been a few hours now. The doctor had said that it would take a while for the anasthesia to completely wear off, and that there was no point in waiting around, but he'd stayed put anyway. He wanted to be absolutely sure he was there when she woke up. To make sure she wasn't alone.
It had been a hectic few days. Just after Solo had collapsed, she'd been taken by a few Xandar citizens and taken over to the hospital with all the other casulaties. They'd managed to stop the bleeding in time, thank God. She hadn't been the only one who needed hospitalisation; Quill had lost a pretty big chunk of his face, Gamora had a broken wrist and badly bruised ribs, and Solo and Gamora's sister - Scarlett, he was pretty sure her name was - had flipped her shit upon regaining consciousness and had had to be knocked out with laughing gas to get the mind control chip removed from her brain.
Once he knew his friends were OK, he and Drax had gone back to the scene of the crash to scavenge what they could of their belongings. But as soon as Rocket laid eyes on the pile of twigs that were once his best friend, he'd completely broken down into hysterical sobs. Surprisingly, Drax had comforted him, simply keeping him company as he cried until he had no tears left in him. He still wasn't exactly close with the guy, but he could at least call him a friend now.
He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice Solo was awake until he heard her speak. "Fucknuts, my head hurts."
He looked up sharply to see Solo struggling to prop herself up on one elbow and rubbing her temple. She looked up at him sleepily and smiled a little. "Hey, Rocky," she said, "Good to see you."
He smiled back in spite of himself. "You too," he replied, leaning forward in his seat and giving her a hug. She hugged him back fiercely.
"So, what happened?" she asked once they'd broken apart.
"Well, you collapsed just after we killed Ronan," Rocket said, leaning back in his chair. He found that he was still holding her hand, but he didn't much feel like letting go. "I mean, holding the Stone kinda fucked all of us up a little, but you were especially bad, because you were more injured than the rest of us. You started bleeding again, but you got medical attention in time, thank fuck. You were in surgery this morning for your leg, actually. Are you feeling all right?"
"Yeah, I think I'm good," she said, leaning back in bed. "I mean, I still feel kinda woozy and sick, but I'll be fine. Is ... everyone else OK?"
"Yeah," Rocket replied. "Quill needed some stitches, Gamora hurt her arm pretty bad and your sister needed to get that thingy removed from her head, but everyone's pretty much good as new by now." He'd hoped she wouldn't notice that he'd deliberately excluded Groot. He hoped in vain.
"And ... Groot?" The look she gave him was almost pleading, she wanted so desperately for him to tell her that Groot was OK too. And he wanted to tell her that, wanted it to be true as well more than anything, but he knew he couldn't do that. After a long, horrible pause, he reached down beside the bed and picked up what he hadn't wanted her to see. A flower pot with a single twig stuck in it.
"This was the biggest piece of him we could find," he said softly, hoping he wouldn't start crying again. He couldn't cry in front of her, not when she needed him.
Slowly, Solo took the flower pot from him and put it in her lap. She stared at it for a long moment, clutching it like it was her life line, her bottom lip trembling. And without warning, she suddenly wrapped her arms around the flower pot and began to cry.
Rocket was startled, to say the least. In the ten years he had known Solo, he'd never once seen her cry. Not when she was first arrested with them at thirteen, not when she'd almost died in that explosion when she was fourteen, not even when they'd gone on a visit to the remains of her home planet the year before. When he'd asked her why she never did, she'd simply replied with "Crying doesn't solve your problems" and left it at that. To see her break down like this was one of the most jarring things he'd ever seen. These weren't simple tears either - these were the full-on, heartbroken sobs of someone who'd had more happen to them than they could bear.
Seeing her cry like this over the remains of their best friend made him want to curl up and cry too.
But he wouldn't.
Instead, he got off his chair and climbed up onto the bed beside her. He gently put his arms around her and stroked her back, whispering comforting nonsense into her ear. "Shh, shh," he said, "It's OK, it's OK. I'm here. It's all gonna be OK." Which was a filthy lie. It was not going to be OK. It probably never would again. Losing Groot was like losing a part of himself; and in a way, it was. He may have ridiculed him, chastised him and called him every name under the sun, but he still loved him and cared for him more than he had anyone else, with the possible exception of Solo.
"I - didn't even get to - s-say g-goodbye!" Solo stuttered out, choking on her own tears as she rocked back and forth, hugging the flower pot close to her chest. "I didn't even know that he was - that he was gonna - " The rest of her sentence was incomprehensible as she pressed her face into his chest.
"It's OK," Rocket continued to whisper, still rubbing her back. "It's OK."
Eventually, Solo's grip on the flower pot slackened. Rocket took the hint and gently removed it from her hands, placing it on the bedside table behind him. Solo clung to him, pressing her face into his shoulder and continuing to cry. He began stroking her hair in the same way Drax had done to comfort him and stopped talking, opting instead to let her cry until she couldn't anymore. Eventually, the sobs were replaced with small, dry, choked-up cries. She pulled her face out of his shoulder, sniffing and coughing. As gently as he possibly could, he wiped the tears from her face and then reached behind him for the tissue box on the bedside table so she could clean herself up properly.
However, he stopped suddenly as a tiny, high-pitched and adorable voice said from behind him some oh-so-familiar words.
"I am Groot?"
Rocket and Solo both slowly turned around, only to be met with the shiny black eyes and bright, innocent smile they both knew so well. Somehow, incredibly, this little twig had started to grow back into Groot.
"I am Groot?" the little Groot repeated, an anxious look on his face. Of course, he wanted to know why they were so upset. Did he even realise what had happened to him? Did he remember dying?
Rocket didn't care. All he cared about right now was the fact that he had his best friend back.
Apparently Solo thought the same thing, for she picked the flower pot up and hugged it tightly, a huge smile spreading across her face. She then extended her arm and pulled Rocket in for the hug as well. Normally he would have protested, but right now, he didn't mind being cuddled. He didn't mind at all.
However, the group hug was ended abruptly as Solo pulled away from Rocket. She handed Groot to him, her brow furrowed.
"Rocket," she said slowly, "You said that I needed surgery. What did I need it for?"
He didn't answer. He didn't know how. He'd hoped he wouldn't even have to answer these questions; he'd hoped the doctor would do it for him. But no such luck.
"Rocket, why can't I feel my leg?!"
Rocket sighed, knowing that there could be no beating around the bush with this one. There was only one way of telling her. He got back into his chair, grabbed the thick blankets that covered Solo's bottom half and pulled them off.
The right leg looked normal. Skinny, muscular, purple, with a few scars here and there, some new, some not. But the left leg? Well, the problem with the left one was that there was no left one. Just a bandaged white stump poking out of the outsize hospital gown.
Solo inhaled sharply. It appeared that she was at a complete loss for words. Rocket couldn't blame her. "Well," she finally said, "That explains it."
"Yeah, well, they had to tie another tourniquet to stop the bleeding," Rocket explained. "I mean, you almost bled out, right there in the hospital. It was terrifying. But the doctors managed to get to you in time. By the time they were able to operate on you, though, your leg was pretty much dead. They had to cut it off. But don't worry," he said, reaching under the bed once again and grabbing the plans he'd made. "I'm not gonna let you hop around on crutches for the rest of your life. I'm makin' you a prosthetic. Here's some prototype sketches."
She took the papers from him and looked at them. Once she'd read through the first one, she gave a small smirk. "Interesting," she said, an obvious snicker in her tone. "But, uh, why exactly am I going to need rocket launchers and machine guns in my leg?"
"Because it's cool?" Rocket replied.
Solo snorted. "Touche, Rocky."
"Hey, what did I say about calling me that?!"
"That it's adorable and you want me to call you that for the rest of eternity?" She gave an exaggerated pout. "You know that I love to bug you. It's my favourite hobby."
Rocket rolled his eyes. "You're such a fucking dork," he said.
"Hey, you know you love me anyway," she teased, poking her tongue out at him.
He shrugged. "Well, you got me there," he said. He might have been wrong, but he could've sworn that she blushed at that. She rubbed the back of her neck and smiled awkwardly. He'd never really noticed how ... well, cute her smile was. Solo wasn't exactly what one would call pretty, but damn, with her adorably messy pixie cut and her lopsided grin and her green eyes that always lit up whenever she was happy or excited, she was undeniably one cute little shit.
"Rocket," she said, "Listen. There's something I need to tell you - "
Her sentence was cut off as the curtain around the bed was thrown back, revealing a messy and disheveled Scarlett.
"You're awake!" she cried out, throwing her arms around her younger sister's neck. "Finally! Gamora and I were waiting for hours! Oh, I'm so happy that you're OK!"
"Yeah, I'm great!" Solo said in a strained voice. "Uh, Scar, you're choking me. You're choking me!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Scarlett said sheepishly, releasing her grip. "I sometimes forget my own strength. You do know about, uh ... "
"My leg being amputated?" Solo asked. "Yeah, I noticed. But I'm fine, Scar. Really."
"I am Groot!" Groot suddenly piped up. Startled, Scarlett glanced over at him, then raised her eyebrows in confusion. "Uh, what - "
"We don't know either," Rocket interrupted. "And we don't care. Honestly, we're just glad he's not dead still."
Scarlett nodded, still looking somewhat confused, but she decided to drop it for the time being. "Anyway, I came here to tell you both that Nova Prime wants to speak with us as soon as possible. Here's some clothes for you," she said to Solo, dropping a blue Nova outfit onto the bed. "Just change into this and we can go."
"All right," said Rocket, getting up from his chair and picking up Groot and the sketches he'd made. "I'll take Groot and go meet up with the others. I'll see you two in a few minutes?"
"See you then," Scarlett said, already helping Solo sit up in bed.
"Bye," Solo said, waving to him as he went off. He couldn't help but wonder what she'd wanted to say to him.
Welp, there we go. I tried to make this chapter as emotional and feelsy as possible, but I couldn't resist throwing in a bit of lighthearted fluff in at the end. Epilogue will be here VERY SOON! Hopefully ... If I can be bothered to get up off my lazy arse and write, that is. If you have any constructive feedback, please feel free to share it, yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, thank you guys so much for reading this chapter. If you liked it, punch the review button in the face, LIKE A BOSS! And, high-fives all 'round! *whapish-whapish* But thank you guys, and I will see all you dudes, IN THE NEXT CHAPTEEEEER! (If you get that reference, you're my new best friend. If you don't, then you probably think that I'm a complete weirdo, but whatever).