Clint woke to the low sounds of a scuffle. While it was a slightly typical sound to wake up too, Clint always searched out the noise. Shifting, he looked out the groups little cell to see Gamora getting dragged down the hall by five guys. From what little Clint could remember of his conversation with Quill when they met in the first timeline, this fight was when the Guardians sort of started. They all decided to join together. Which meant, they all needed to move. He sighed as Bucky and Quill perked up as well, both sensitive to movement happening around them. Clint ignored them at first, muttering under his breath. "Aw, Gamora, no."
"Already?" Bucky wondered, shifting a bit to look out now as well. Clint nodded and got to his feet as Bucky pursed his lips. Though Bucky didn't truly know the Guardian's history, Bucky did know one thing. "Can't she defend herself?"
"I know, I know. I'll just be back-up," Clint soothed stepping out into the hall, mentally regretting not telling Bucky everything he knew about these first few days. Admittedly, it wasn't that much as even Rocket mentioned they hadn't been here for all that long and much of the story was just, 'they met, they joined together and they escaped.' And the little embellishment of Quill saving the day with his fighting prowess that Clint had known was a lie in the first place. Bucky snorted as Rocket perked up now.
"Wha's goin on?" the raccoon slurred. Clint waved a hand down at them all. While he knew that they'd likely follow regardless, Clint also knew telling someone not to do something was inviting them to go and do it. Especially people like Quill and Rocket.
"Nothing, go back to sleep," Clint told them before walking off.
"Yeah, no way," Quill grumbled before getting up himself. Bucky groaned as he realized this was going to be a venture for all of them. He got up just as Quill slipped out. Rocket cried out at the man but Quill kept moving. Huffing, Bucky followed with Rocket quick on his tail behind him. Considering he had only been seconds behind Quill and Clint, when Bucky left the cell, Quill was nearly rounding a corner down a different hall. Grumbling under his breath about idiots, Bucky jogged slightly after Quill, catching up to his just as Clint slipped into the shadows. "He's pretty sneaky."
"You have no idea," Bucky muttered before jogging ahead. If they weren't careful, they'd lose track of Clint and as Bucky had already found out, the Kyln was much bigger than one would originally suspect based on the main room that everyone was dropped off into. It also meant there were a lot of well known spots that weren't guarded by cameras, bots or guards. Almost like these people wanted the inmates to fight and potentially kill each other.
"YOU DARE!" a voice demanded from down the hall. Bucky pushed a bit ahead of Quill and Rocket to see Clint was already standing just slightly in the entry way of one of the more secluded areas. He snuck up closer. "You know who I am, yes?"
"You're Drax," someone answered. "The Destroyer."
"Clint, what is going on?" Bucky whispered as Quill and Rocket finally caught up, sneaking closer to get a better look. Clint glanced over to Bucky.
"These guys want to kill Gamora, obviously, but Drax is trying to laying first claim," Clint informed, talking over Drax's own questioning of the prisoner over his namesake.
"Ronan murdered my wife, Ovette, and my daughter, Camaria. He slaughtered them where they stood. And he LAUGHED!" Drax roared. Bucky raised an eyebrow as Quill winced and stepped forward.
"Clint," Bucky warned even as Rocket called out to Quill. Clint glanced over to him. "What have you gotten us into here?"
"Look, right now, Drax is putting out his claim on Gamora's life, Quill will stop it and they'll all be getting ready to escape tomorrow. We stay by them and we can get out of here," Clint stated. "We get out of here, we can get home, or we could ask for their help in looking for the Infinity Stones. We already know that the Power Stone was found by Thanos but if I remember right, the Nova Corps has it."
"WOMAN! Your words mean nothing to me!" Drax cried lifting a makeshift shank toward Gamora's throat. Bucky closed his eyes for a second, already picturing what was about to happen. Clint was going to drop their talk so he could save Gamora.
"Son of a bitch," he whispered under his breath as a voice cried out.
"Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Hey!" the voice called though it wasn't Clint's voice. Bucky's eyes snapped open to see that Quill had slipped past Clint and was in the room, a hand held out to defend himself while also showing he was unarmed.
"Oh, crap," Rocket muttered, moving a paw to his face. Bucky glanced to Clint.
"You know, if killing Ronan is truly your sole purpose, I don't think this is the best way to go about it," Quill interrupted as soon as he knew he had everyone's attention. Bucky glanced back at Clint as the archer looked to him. A moment later, Clint nodded his head back a bit and the duo stepped away slightly. They could still hear the conversation going on and were close enough to rush in to help if needed but they had also given themselves a bit of privacy.
"Look, right now, they are all going to band together to get out of here. Once they do, they're gonna go somewhere, I can't really remember where or why," Clint admitted, shaking his head as he tried to pull up the conversation he had once had with Quill and Rocket. Much of the information had been mentioned so quickly or hardly detailed that Clint really only remembered the battles which Rocket and Quill tended to argue over who had the better moments so the reasoning for them doing things were shaded.
"Clint-" Bucky started but stopped when Clint shook his head again.
"That doesn't matter. What matters is that they can get us out of here. Once out of here, we can go home or we can ask for their help. They all want to screw Thanos over just as much as we do so it should be pretty easy to convince them to help us out with getting the Power Stone from the Nova Corps and searching for the other Power stone," Clint said. Bucky pursed his lips, glancing back to the others.
"...That's when you," Quill claimed, trailing off as he slid a finger across his throat in the mostly universal sign for killing someone. Bucky sighed.
"Why would I put my finger on his throat?" Drax questioned. Bucky sighed, turning back to Clint.
"This is stupid," Bucky determined. "Clint. Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"Kinda," Clint stated. Bucky's face blanked out in rage when the archer didn't continue. Clint grimaced. He sort of had a plan as to what to do but he wasn't sure how well it would work out. "Listen, they... They were my friends and we're gonna need their help against Thanos anyways."
"Not if we collect everything ourselves," Bucky pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest in challenge. Yeah, they hadn't gotten out of the Kyln yet, nor had they really been able to come up with a plan too, but Bucky was sure that wouldn't last. Once they got out of the Kyln, they could do whatever it took. There was no way to know for certain that the Guardians were the ones that could help them out in the long run. Clint sighed, rubbing the crook of his nose.
"Buck. They have the Milano. A ship that we can use to scour the universe for the last stone that we don't know about. Trust me. We need them," Clint informed, patting the Sergeant's hand just before they heard a clatter. Looking back to the others they could see that Drax had released Gamora and she was on the floor, coughing. Quill was looking down at her. Drax's attention shifted to the knife he had gained from someone.
"I like your knife. I'm keeping it," he claimed before spinning on his heel and walking off. The remaining prisoner that started this entire thing pouted.
"That was my favorite knife." Bucky scoffed and looked back to Clint as Gamora got to her feet and glared at Quill. Without a word, she stormed over toward Rocket, Clint and Bucky. As she stalked past, Quill chased after her calling her name. She ignored it. Rocket huffed and followed after, tossing his paws into the air in distress. Clint shrugged and moved to follow but stopped as Bucky grabbed his arm to hold him still.
"What?" the archer wondered.
"I'm trusting you on this, but you have to know how dangerous this is," Bucky warned. Clint pursed his lips.
"Buck, I know. Their meeting didn't start out-" Clint began to reply but stopped when Bucky shook his head.
"I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about all of this. We just keep getting thrown into situations and all we seem to be doing is stumbling along in the dark praying that the light we are following is the right one," Bucky pointed out. Clint sighed, looking to the ground. "I just want to make sure that your questioning this too. We can't fuck this up, again."
"I know Buck. I know," Clint agreed.
"I could care less whether you live or die," Quill announced as soon as Clint and Bucky finally caught up with the others. As far as first thing they overheard from the group, it wasn't the best. Clint hung his head while Bucky turned and glared at the archer. This was part of his point. Yeah, he had met the group before and knew somewhat of what they all became but Clint and Bucky didn't have time to waste waiting for them to get their shit together.
"Then why help stop the big guy?" Gamora snapped, stopping to turn back and look at Quill.
"Simple. You know where to sell my Orb," Quill replied. Clint stiffened as the word evoked the memories he had been skipping over. The Orb was the Power Stone. The same Power Stone that Clint had thought was with the Nova Corps this whole time. But if not, that meant it had to be here. And if Quill and Gamora sold the thing, Clint wasn't sure he'd be able to get it back. But, who had Gamora wanted to sell it too?
"How are we gonna sell it when we and it are still here?" she countered. Quill looked down to Rocket as Bucky glanced to Clint again. While he didn't know the secondary name for the Power Stone, Bucky could tell that the archer was distressed over something. He crossed his arms over his chest, waiting to see if Clint would tell him anything.
"My friend Rocket, here, has escaped 22 prisons," Quill informed. Clint snorted, pulled from his thoughts at the words. To have escaped 22 prisons that meant Rocket had to have been caught 22... Well, now 23 times.
"Oh, we're getting out. And then we're headed straight to Yondu to retrieve your bounty," Rocket declared. Clint looked to the sky as Bucky turned and glared at him. Yeah, the guardians didn't have a good start to their relationship with each other but Clint knew they got better. They got closer.
"This is who we're trusting?" Bucky hissed, unlocking his arms to wave a hand toward the others. Clint winced.
"How much was your buyer willing to pay you for my Orb?" Quill questioned, looking to Gamora. Clint frowned, focusing on them. If he had an amount, it might limit down who she could have been selling too. Sim months in space and chatting with people tended to get a lot of information. Not many had insane amounts off money.
"Four billion units," she admitted. All of the men all cried out in shock at the amount. That was a lot of money. Even if Bucky didn't know unit convergence, four billion anything was a lot. "That Orb is my opportunity to get away from Thanos and Ronan."
"And risk the damn universe," Clint growled, stepping forward. He couldn't handle the ignorance. If they sold the Orb then the entire universe was at stake. Hell, if they got rid of it period, the whole universe would be ruined. Bucky glanced to Clint, surprised at the harsh interruption. "Do you even know what that fucking thing is?" Gamora looked at him curiously as Bucky began to understand something. The Sergeant placed a hand on Clint's arm in an attempt to stop him from speaking but it was far, far too late. "It's the god damn Power Stone. You sell that for anything and Thanos will get his damn hands on it."
"You're wrong," she accused though there was clearly a tinge of surprise and fear on her face. Quill and Rocket backed off, realizing they didn't understand much of what was going to happen. Bucky sighed as he realized the full amount of trouble they were in. With the Power Stone here, Ronan (who works for Thanos) on the way, Clint with the Aether inside of him... There was no way of possibly doing any of this quietly anymore.
"I'm not an idiot about this Gamora. Talking about the damn stones isn't smart anywhere but I promise you. You sell that damn thing to anyone and Thanos will get it and he will use it," Clint threatened. Gamora backed down thinking. Not many people knew of what Thanos was trying to do. And most who learned about it were killed by the Black Order, Nebula or herself. For Clint to have learned this...
"Uh, I'm gonna sell the damn thing for that much," Rocket informed, holding a paw up as if he was asking a teacher to be called upon. It was clear that the raccoon likely didn't know about the dangers of the Infinity Stones. "And I ain't sharing the profits with you."
"I rather live than have that many units," Bucky growled, stepping forward even as he pointedly clenched his metal fist. In for a penny and all that jazz... Besides, Rocket just wasn't understanding what Clint had been saying. If the Orb got into the wrong hands, everyone was doomed. And it wasn't worth the price of any amount of money. "Thanos got a hold of all the damn stones once and snapped away half the damn universe."
"What?" Quill, Gamora and Rocket asked, stunned at the Sergeant's admission. Bucky sighed, slightly realizing he had walked into a subject he possibly shouldn't have gone into. If he thought it had been bad enough when Clint admitted to the Orb being the Power Stone, it was nothing to their reaction right now.
"Time travel. We did it to stop Thanos," Bucky huffed, pointing to Clint and himself. Gamora looked to Clint before back to Bucky.
"Wait, so you know us?" Rocket wondered. Clint nodded while Bucky tilted his head to the side a bit. He had met the guardians before but hadn't really spent enough time around them to call them friends. More, passing acquaintances.
"I know you guys and I know that you guys aren't the friends I knew. But you need to understand, the Power Stone is dangerous and in the right hands can destroy an entire planet. And that's only one of six stones that he needs," Clint answered. Rocket crossed his arms over his chest, looking to Quill and Gamora for guidance.
"How can we be sure you're telling us the truth?" Quill inquired.
"Anything?" Phil asked as he stepped out onto the common floor. They had been preparing for a 'family' dinner at the moment but it looked like it was going to turn into an informational meeting. Steve and Natasha were clearly tense and worried. Neither of them could really do much of anything to help find their friends. It wasn't their expertise. Tony and Bruce looked like they were running themselves ragged, trying to find any clue what-so-ever. Loki seemed disappointed and often angry though the anger was directed more at himself then anyone. Thor was the one holding it together best. He was doing what he could to find Clint and Bucky but he also knew his own limitations. It was likely not going to be him that found the missing duo.
"Nothing on our end," Tony pouted, pointing to Bruce and himself. Bruce softly nodded even as he scowled down at the table. "It's like they aren't even in our galaxy."
Loki's head snapped up at the word before he cussed in Asgardian.
"I'm such a fool!" the trickster snapped mostly to himself, getting to his feet and walking away to start pacing the room. Why had he not thought of this before? It made sense that meeting them was the next most obvious step. While not what Loki had expected and certainly not anything planned, it would work out in their favor. The outburst had everyone look to him. When he turned to see they were looking, he sighed. "If Clint's luck holds as it always has, I know where they are."
"Where?" Steve demanded, getting to his feet and ready to save his friends. Loki shook his head with a weary smile. Bruce frowned, looking down toward the floor as he tried to figure out where Loki assumed they had ended up. There wasn't much out there that would have Loki act this way. The doctor could tell that Loki wasn't as worried anymore now but what could have caused that reaction?
"We can't get there," Loki admitted though he still didn't seem worried and his small smile didn't dim.
"What? Why not?" Steve wondered. Bruce gasped, finally realizing. If they couldn't get there and Loki wasn't worried...
"Are you thinking the Guardians?" the doc questioned, looking up to stare at Loki. The trickster nodded. It made sense in an odd sort of way that somehow Bucky and Clint ended up there. So far, seemingly since the beginning off all this, Clint had often turned up in the right places. And in doing so, got the right things done. Like learning of the dangers in Asgard. Getting the Aether without letting Malekith get it. Loki's mind quickly flashed to the last conversation he had had with Clint where the archer had asked about pre-written stories. Not prophecies, but a story revolving around a sole person. Could it be that he actually knew that?
"Guardians?" Phil pressed.
"Peter Quill, Drax, Gamora, Rocket and Groot," Loki answered. "Clint and I had met them when the Space stone on his property sent us across the galaxy. They helped us return home."
"They also helped us defeat Thanos," Bruce added. "Rocket went back in time with us. And Nebula... But I guess she isn't a Guardian?"
"No. Nebula is Gamora's sister like I am Thor's brother. They are both daughters of Thanos," Loki started and paused as Natasha, Steve and Tony cried out in shock and anger at this news. After a moment, Loki held his hands up to silence them.
"Is it wise for Clint to be with Gamora while he carries the Aether?" Thor inquired. Loki sighed, realizing now of that little trouble. While he hadn't chatted with the Guardians as much as Clint had, Loki knew one thing. The Guardians had at one point dealt with the Power Stone hidden inside the Orb. And based on timeline, it was likely that Clint and Bucky would be meeting the Guardians in the early days. Loki really didn't like the idea of the Aether and the Orb being so close to each other but it was better then believing Clint and Bucky were left on their own in some other godawful place.
"She's trying to leave Thanos. Doesn't believe in his mission anymore. It took Nebula until the SNAP before she felt the same," Loki explained, praying that everything was indeed as he remembered and things wouldn't change.
"Still lends the question, is it safe for Clint to be near Gamora?" Natasha demanded. Loki sighed deeply.
"As long as he doesn't do anything stupid."
Yeah, I missed a week. Slept all of last Friday away and thankfully spent most of the week working on the stories otherwise you likely wouldn't have gotten anything today. Spent most of last night in an emergency room when a migraine went from three to a thousand in two minutes. Terrifying to be home with the kid when suddenly you are in pain, cold sweating, vomiting, dizzy and confused. Called hubby to close early so he could be home and then went to the hospital where they deemed it migraine with dehydration. Yeah. Hopefully it was just that cause it didn't feel like just that.
Darius is good. Been picking up after himself most nights and has been spending most of this morning worried about me. Poor kid was trying to check on me last night and every time he opened the bathroom door to see me, I'd hurl. But, things worked out. He's having fun today and can't wait for his grandparents weekend tomorrow. And while he's gone, if I hopefully have energy, I'll go through all of his toys and such to make it easier for everyone to clean and know where things go cause right now... Yeah.