**AUTHOR"S NOTE: PLEASE READ
Hello again, ok, so I got to thinking about what I posted in my previous chapter's author's note and came up with an idea. I decided on a compromise so I can keep the 'T' rating. I'm taking a page out of another author's story I seen on this site. I will have a normal 'T' rated story with the 'T' rated chapter posted there and another version in my author's stories list that will have the same chapter but with the unedited 'M' rated chapter. I hope that makes sense. So, in short, there will be two versions of the same story, one 'T' and one 'M' rated in my author stories.
For my readers who want to read the 'M' version, I'll make a note at the top of each chapter I post to inform you all if there is 'M' version available for each chapter I post here on out. Sorry if that's confusing and feel free to message me if you have any questions. I hope you enjoy this regular 'T' chapter. It was going to be a lot longer but I decided to cut it in half so I could update today. Enjoy!
Chapter Ten: Catfight
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"Judging from what I gathered from the ledger, there was a man and woman delivered from Earth on the last shipment, fitting Terry and Amelia's description to a tee. Amelia was sold to a man named Korvek from the planet Dorang. According to our nav system, it's the closest planet. Book says that she was bought under the pretext of 'Residential Use', meaning that she's basically a cleaning maid. She got lucky." Peter added, flipping through the ledger. Dani's head snapped up.
"Lucky? You call being ripped from your home and sold into slavery lucky?" She snapped, still irritated at him from the other day when he basically called her 'Loose'. Peter grimaced at her angry stare but stood his ground.
"Yes, she is. Slaves can be bought and put to use to horrors you don't want to think about, so in a way, she is."
His words ran through her like a knife. He was right, he was just being honest. Dani softened her expression.
"You're right. I'm sorry, please continue."
Peter nodded, turning his attention to everyone at the table. He took a seat and fiddled with the pages before resuming.
"We're only about a day away from Dorang. Once we find where Korvek lives, we'll stake his place out, find a way in. Should be easy enough." He explained.
"What about Dani's brother?" Drax asked. Dani didn't like the way Peter flinched at the question. He loudly cleared his throat.
"Uh, well, I think its important to focus on one rescue mission at a time. I mean, we have a lot of planning, stake outs, infiltration ahead of us, not to mention coming up with an exit strategy. No real point in weighing us down with too much at once, especially since we got to handle this first. Reminds me of an old Earth saying. 'We'll cross that bridge when…"
"Peter! You're rambling. How about you tell us where he is for starters? We can figure out the rest later." Dani interrupted his rambling. Peter chewed nervously on his bottom lip as he absently spun the ledger on the glass table top, unable to look at Dani. He really, really didn't want to have to tell her. It was really, really bad.
She leaned forward, placing her hands flat on the table. "Tell me."
Peter stared at her hands as he spoke. "He's on Zakkar."
Like that was supposed to mean anything to Dani.
Gamora audibly gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. Drax's mouth popped open while Rocket snorted, jumping up in his seat, clearly worked up.
"Zakkar? You're kidding, right?" He asked, hoping that Quill was joking. Peter silently shook his head, causing Rocket to scoff.
"What's Zakkar? Is it bad?" Dani demanded, becoming all the more agitated.
"It's a total suicide mission is what it is. I hate to break it to you Princess, but if he's not dead already, he will be before we can get to him." Rocket replied. Gamora leaned her elbows on the table, turning in her seat towards Dani.
"Zakkar is a very small planet with only one real function when it comes to a slave's usefulness. They're bought and then brought to Zakkar to fight in the Battle Pits."
Dani felt herself go ice cold.
"Like Earth's Roman gladiator fights?" She asked quietly, turning to Peter. He nodded, causing Dani's world to come crashing down on her head. She leapt up from her seat.
"Then we go there first!"
"What about Amelia?" He reminded.
"She's basically a housekeeper. She'll be alright for now. Terry is in more danger." She rationalized, unable to think about anything but her brother.
"Dani, wait." Peter called out, pulling her attention.
"There's a few things you need to take into account. First, according to the ledger, Terry was bought ten days ago. It's a four day journey from Alpha Bova to Zakkar. Second, once there, the slave masters spend about two weeks training the slaves to fight so that they'll put on more of a show. Terry's in training for at least another week. I'm not going to sugar coat it. It's difficult. He's going through a tough training regiment but he's alive. They spent a lot of units for him, they'll make sure he has any medical treatment he needs, proper food, a roof over his head. We're only a day from Amelia, maybe two until you have her back. If Korvek decides to sell her, we may never find her again. Not everyone keeps pristine records like the Salvagers. We need to be smart about this." Peter reasoned, trying to calm her and also to see the logic of this course of action. Dani numbly plopped back into her seat, torn on how to procede.
"Dani, Quill's right. Terry is fine for now but we're so close to Amelia and we don't know her situation. It makes sense." Gamora said delicately, agreeing with Peter.
Peter spoke up. "It's your call though, Patrick. This is your rescue mission."
Dani's mind focused on Terry. She couldn't banish the images of him most likely being beaten, knocked around, forced to learn to fight in order to survive. He must be so terrified. Every fiber of her being screamed to go to Zakkar and save him first. However if Peter and Gamora were right, he wasn't going anywhere and despite the situation, he was technically being taken care of. The same couldn't be said about her friend's fate.
(Dammit it all to hell!)
"What's it going to be? Dorang or Zakkar?" Drax asked. She took a deep breath.
"Dorang."
Peter nodded.
"All right, Dorang it is."
Everyone stood up away from the table. Peter moved around it towards Dani. He wanted to talk with her privately, to apologize for what he said on Alpha Bova. Also, to be honest, he really wanted to try to get her to rethink the whole 'We would never work' issue but she moved away too quickly, chasing after Gamora.
Gamora.
Another person who he cared deeply for who was also not speaking to him.
(Dammit, I need a smaller ship.)
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"Gamora, wait up!"
Gamora paused, clenching her eyes shut. She didn't want to be around Dani right now. After embarrassing herself earlier that day with Quill, she still hadn't gotten her emotions completely in check yet. It wasn't Dani's fault for how Quill was feeling towards her but Gamora was hurt and angry nonetheless. She morphed her face into a mask of indifference before the blonde caught up with her.
"What is it?" She demanded, a little too harshly. Dani's steps faltered, noticing the change of attitude. She chose to brush it off.
"Did you want to have a dance session? We haven't had one in a few days. You seem stressed so I figured you might be in the mood for some grooving." She teased, swaying her body and arms in time to some nonexistent music. She, however, halted when Gamora continued to stare blankly at her attempt at humor.
"No, thank you. I think I've had enough of dancing honestly. It doesn't interest me anymore and no, I don't want to talk about it."
As confused as Dani was by the change in attitude radiating from Gamora, she decided not to push her for any enlightenment. If she wanted to talk about what was bothering her, Dani would let her be the one to start the discussion.
"Um, ok. How about a sparring lesson then?" She suggested instead. Sparring sounded better to her at the moment anyway, Dani had some pent up frustration that needed to be burnt off and some combat training sounded perfect.
"Not right now, I don't think that is a good idea." Gamora responded flatly. Dani's heart deflated.
"Please? If things are really going to get as dangerous as you all say it will with these missions, I'll need to get in as much training as I can."
"I said no, Dani!" Gamora snapped, causing the other woman's eyebrows to lift in alarm.
"Wow… what's going on with you? You have been uptight and snappy with me all day. Did I do something wrong?" Dani blurted out, unable to hold her tongue anymore. She was beginning to feel as though Gamora's bad mood was being directed at her, but she couldn't think as to a reason why.
Gamora grinded her teeth. For some reason, Dani's innocent questions set her off to the point of near recklessness.
"Fine, you want to train? We'll train. Let's go." Gamora huffed out, making a beeline down to the bay area that they used for dancing/sparring lessons, dragging Dani in tow. Pausing hesitantly once inside the bay area, Dani darted her gaze around the room in trepidation. There was definitely something wrong.
"Is there something you need to tell me?" She asked, her movements shaky as she pulled her hoodie off, adjusting her tank top. Gamora laughed sarcastically as she eyed the weapons rack that was set up in the corner of the room.
"Of course not. Everything is great, just absolutely wonderful." She snipped, grabbing two wooden staffs off of the weapon rack. She threw one at Dani at such a fast pace, that it clattered loudly to the floor at the blonde's feet, she missed catching the weapon completely. She bent down and retrieved the staff, holding it awkwardly in her hands.
"Uh, we haven't practiced much with the staff, you know. You said yourself we were focusing on hand to hand combat a little longer." Dani remarked, unease growing in the pit of her stomach. Gamora had practiced a few times with her on the staff, primarily just defensive blocks before realizing quickly that Dani's hand eye coordination wasn't ready for that just yet.
"You need more of a challenge. You want to take on the universe to find your loved ones? You gotta push yourself to your breaking point and then some." She said in a low voice that did nothing for the blonde's nerves.
Dani's unease reached an all new height.
"How about later? You seem to be in a bit of a bad…"
Gamora let out a yell that reminded her of a battle cry that Dani had seen only in war movies as she charged forward, shocking the hell out of Dani. Gamora had always started off slower when she was on offensive to allow Dani a moment to get in the flow of a fight. Whatever was going on with her right now, it seemed that slower building of momentum was out the window.
Gamora aimed high, bringing her staff down toward Dani's head in a flash of movement. She blocked, barely. Dani tried to anticipate which way she was attacking but the blonde had no idea how fast Gamora truly was.
Taking a few fast and well aimed hits in the arms and a very painful hit to the stomach, Dani was officially so over being used as Gamora's anger outlet.
"Gamora, stop! I can't keep up at this pace." She called out as she dived forward, abandoning the staff, to roll in an attempt to get away from the onslaught. If Gamora's attacks escalated anymore, she may end up seriously injured or something worse in no time.
Dani dove underneath a nearby metal table. Gamora threw her staff aside, striding over and reached under to grab her. Running on pure adrenaline, Dani kicked out, catching her hard in the elbow, causing Gamora to yell out in pain. She reached her other arm under the table and grabbed Dani by her hair, yanking her roughly around once she pulled her out. Dani's body kicked into fight or flight mode, accepting that Gamora was too much in a blind rage to stop.
She balled her fist tightly and swung as fast as she could, landing a hard shot into Gamora's kidney. The brunette's grip weakened as she cried out and Dani seized the moment of distraction, she pulled her head away from her grip, ripping out some hair in the process. Dani swung again, connecting with Gamora's temple, momentarily stunning the other woman. Dani bolted in an all out run for the door.
"Somebody help!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Her leg buckled under her, causing her to crumple face first to the floor like a ragdoll. Gamora had shaken off her hit and kicked her in the back of the knee before she could reach the door. Gamora grabbed her up by the front of her tank top, punching Dani hard in the face, stunning her.
"Why couldn't you have just stayed on Earth?! It's not fair, it's not suppose to be this way!" Gamora angrily sobbed, tears streaming down her green face. She went to hit again but Dani deflected her arm this time. Dani wasn't naïve, there was no way she could win this fight. All she could do was buy herself some time and pray that someone heard her scream for help.
It was time to fight dirty and embarrass herself.
After deflecting Gamora's hit, Dani rocked herself forward, latching her teeth into the exposed skin of Gamora's forearm as hard as she could, praying the element of surprise would work in her favor.
Gamora screamed in shock, pulling her arm away at the same time Dani reached up and tangled both of her hands in the other woman's dark hair. She pulled as hard as she could, causing Gamora's knees to buckle forward, bring them both crashing to the floor. Dani rolled, flinging herself on top of Gamora, attempting to pin her enough to keep her from punching Dani as she continued to cling to her dark hair for dear life. Gamora painfully yelled out as she used her leg to brace herself on the floor and flipped them over, Dani on her back and her on top. Dani panicked when she felt the other woman's weight shift, knowing Gamora was raising her arm to throw another punch. She braced herself for the impact but the hit never landed. Dani stared dumbly at Gamora's body being lifted off her own. She felt someone else prying her hands open, her brain playing catch up to what was occurring.
"Let go, Dani!" Drax hollered, using all his strength to pin Gamora's arms down as she fought to get away from the iron tight grip. Dani's hands shot open, releasing her hold on her hair.
She felt arms slide under her underarms, pulling her upright. Dani glanced over her right shoulder, bringing her face mere inches from Peter's. Relief flooded through her. He let her go once he was sure she was steady on her feet.
"What in the Sam Hill is going on here?" He yelled, stepping between them, shooting confused glances at the two women.
Dani leaned forward, bracing her hands on her knees as she breathed raggedly, catching her breath, her chest heaving painfully. Gamora stopped struggling against Drax, slumping limply in his arms. Dani trailed her eyes up slowly to Gamora's, startled at the regret and shame that had overtaken her expression.
"Dani. My god, I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me." Gamora pleaded, her voice strangled with emotion as more tears cascaded down her face. She could hear the remorse in her words but was too far gone to process them.
Dani straightened up to stand and turned away, numbly heading out the door. She made it halfway to her room before she came to a dead stop and slumped awkwardly to the floor, pulling her knees up to her chest as she broke down, sobbing in the cold, harshly lit hallway.
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**Okay, please don't hate me! I love Gamora's character, she's such a bad ass. I felt like when I was writing this that this needed to happen. In my story, she had just had heart torn out by the man she was falling in love with and she's a person with emotions after all. She just didn't know how to cope with the rejection and acted on those emotions rashly. Moving on, I hope you didn't absolutely hate this chapter.