Chapter 19: Pack Your Things and Leave
Dara didn't know why she cared as much as she did, but, she did. She didn't have to watch over the Lord of Thunder as he laid out on a mat on the floor of the champion's quarters. She didn't have to eye him up and down as the healers went to work on him. She could be doing anything else besides chastising her grumpy roommate as he soaked up his aches and pains in their hot tube. Dara wasn't the caring type or at least that's what she tried to convince herself over all these years. So, Dara didn't know why she did, but, she couldn't help but feel bad as she saw the bruises and cuts littering the well-sculpted prince of Asgard.
Stupid Asgardians, she thought from her spot on a plush chair. They were all so stupid and eager to get themselves killed. She learned this first hand from being on a team with Skadi. Granted, Thor didn't have much of a choice to fight but still, he reminded her greatly of her old team member. She often thought back to her short time as a Guardian. She wondered how they were doing, she still heard stories of course, they were still out and about saving the Galaxy but she couldn't help but wonder what would've happened if she hadn't left them. If she had tried to be a part of their family a little harder. She knew for a fact that she wouldn't be here.
She had soon left the champions quarter's not wanting to continue to be lost in thought over it. She rolled her eyes at herself, getting a weird feeling that more was going on than simply Thor and Loki being stuck on Sakaar. Now that she knew who they were she couldn't play it off as a simply coincidence. It was one thing for one of them to wind up here but for both of them? Especially after Loki's initial reaction to seeing his brother. There was something inside Dara telling her to walk away from it but she had this nagging feeling telling her to look into this further.
Finding her way back into her room after hours of pacing around the compound and stopping at one of the bars to find a drink, she stood in the doorway. She could see as Thor stood near the large window of the room, staring out to the world outside as if he was in some sort of trance. She could see Hulk off in his giant bed, snoring loudly. Clearing her throat as she made her way into the room, he jumped, his eyes flickering from a shade of gold back to his shade of blue. Raising a questioning eyebrow, Dara looked him up and down waiting for an explanation.
He took a deep breath, startled by not only her sudden appearance but from the vision he'd just had. He'd been taken to Asgard by Heimdall and shown the destruction Hela had brought to it. His sister, Skadi was practically being held prisoner, unable to make a move against Hela alone and now was forced to follow her; or at least that's what he hoped. Heimdall had told him that he could see her struggle and want to fight but knew the odds were against her.
Thor though couldn't help but feel a sting of mistrust, Loki and now Hela leaving him with trust issues within his siblings. He hadn't seen Skadi in years, he didn't know her from a hole in the wall. How could he know if this was a trick of some sort? Never the less, he tried pushing these thoughts into the back of his mind and still begged Heimdall to watch over her and try to free her from Hela's grasp until he could find his own way home.
"You okay there?" She asked him, her voice trailing off as she stood in the center of the room.
"No," He said simply, wiping his hand across his beard, trying to wipe his worries away with it. "No I am not. I need to get off this damned planet."
"Good luck with that," She chuckled, moving to go sit back in her chair. She nodded to him as she sat, not wanting his attention to leave her. "You're Skadi's brother, aren't you?"
Thor looked at her harshly, uneased that she knew that. He felt even more off edge now. Hela had sent her here, and now here was someone who knew his sister; his sister who was conveniently back on Asgard with the goddess of death.
Now being the one to look her up and down, he puffed his chest out a little more, "How do you know my sister?"
"We go way back, short of." Dara started off, grabbing a piece of fruit from the nearby table. Taking a bite and chewing before speaking again, she wiped her chin. "We stopped Ronan from destroying Xandar with the power stone, then saved the world from her boyfriend's evil dad a few months after. That was four years ago although and I haven't seen her since."
"Whh-aa-t?" Thor questioned, faltering in his stance. He was once again brought to how he barely gotten to speak with his sister, having had to leave Asgard the moment he arrived. He had so many questions for her and wanted to know where she'd been, how she gotten back to Asgard.
Before his fight with Hulk he'd been down in the cells when Loki appeared to him, obviously using his magic because Loki didn't care enough to physically go down there. Loki did answer one of his questions, saying he'd finally found their sister, now that he had full access to the Bifrost and sword, using deep and dark magic to bring her back home. Thor was furious that he lied to their sister and still hadn't fully forgiven him for helping her run off in the first place. He didn't want to image what she'd been through while taken by the Kree.
He repeated the words the Badoon spoke to himself again. He'd never heard of this Ronan before, but he did know of the power stone. His father had once taught him of the Infinity Stones alongside Loki when they were boys. That much didn't make him think, Skadi had always wanted to be a warrior and he knew she had it in her. Stopping this Ronan guy from using the power stone to destroy a planet wasn't what was so concerning to him. No, there was something else that the Badoon mentioned about his sister that somewhat struck a nerve in him.
"Boyfriend?"
"Really? That's what you got out of that?" Dara shook her head, taking another bite. "Yes, boyfriend. She has one last time I checked; he's a moron but then again so is she,"
"Have care with how you talk about my sister," Thor warned, raising a finger at her, his steps heavy as he moved closer to her.
Dara rolled her eyes, but continued regardless, "I take it you haven't caught up with her in a hot minute. I thought once she regained her memories she'd rush back home or something. She nearly got us all killed trying to get Peter to reconnect with his father."
"And Peter is her boyfriend?" Thor questioned, not really following. He moved to stand in front of her, his hands resting on his hips.
"Yes, Peter Quill, but he calls himself Star-lord," She rolled her eyes, still not taking his 'code name' seriously.
"That's a stupid name," Thor muttered under his breath, already not liking the guy.
"You're telling me." Dara laughed out loud, nearly spitting out her fruit.
Thor nodded to her, feeling slightly amused but now more anxious than before. He needed to get off this damned planet and after his conversation with the Hulk only a few hours ago, he had no one to help him. He felt so relieved when he first saw the giant green rage monster in the arena; he had saw his ticket out of there. He could picture the pair of them teaming up, tearing through this place and stealing a ship and racing off to Asgard and saving his home. But Hulk had plans of his own and Thor couldn't help but not blame him. The more he thought about it the more he knew why Hulk liked this planet. People were truly afraid of him on Earth and it was true that Thor was never particularly close and or the nicest to Banner.
He turned to face the Badoon, eyeing her up and down before an idea sparked in his head. She had said she had once worked with Skadi to save a planet and the whole galaxy, she also appeared to be friends with the Hulk. Could he use her to convince the Hulk of joining him? And her also? Surely, she didn't want to stay on this planet forever and could promise her freedom if she helped him escape. If Skadi had trusted her enough to be on a team with her then Thor could trust her as well.
"How would you feel about saving the galaxy again with me?" He asked her, putting on his most charismatic smile. Dara stared blankly at him, only shifting her expression to raise an eye at him. He could see that she wasn't impressed by his charm and groaned. His desperation showed in his eyes as he moved closer to her, "Look, I really need to save my planet. My eldest sister, Hela, has been freed because of Loki and is now causing Ragnarok, the end of my world and people, and most likely holding Skadi as a prisoner. I need your help to get off this planet and convince Hulk to join us. I need all the help I can get."
Dara blinked at him. She was unsure of half of what he said, not knowing what Ragnarok was or who this Hela person was, Skadi never mentioning she had a sister during the short time Dara was there when her memories first came back. But Dara couldn't ignore and be unsure of the fear in Thor's tone. She could feel it radiating from him to her. Blinking again, once swearing that she'd never join the hero life again, she opened her mouth to speak.
"What about Loki? Can't he help you?"
"Loki cannot be trusted." Thor shook his head, frustrated. He couldn't count on his brother in the slightest, there was no point in trying to bother with him any longer. "Please,"
Dara nodded, taking a deep breath. She wasn't stupid, she knew that the chances of them somehow getting off this place was slim but she didn't know how much longer she could play nice with the Grandmaster. And if they failed, Dara knew they'd die trying and there wasn't much else for her to live for here so what was the point of declining Thor's offer? Say yes, and have the possibility of escaping and being free or say no and forever be doomed to live on this planet until she eventually died of old age; it was pretty much a no brainer.
"Fine, but we're going to have to get these probes off our necks," She jerked her thumb at her own probe. "We'll need our powers to get off of this place and the moment Grandmaster knows what we're up to we'll be fried to no tomorrow."
"Agreed, have any idea?" Thor said, beginning to pick and pull at his own, hissing at it zapped him.
"Well not like that-," Dara began, crossing her arms against her chest as she was cut off by Hulk's grunts.
She turned to look at him, seeing as he rustled about in his bed, sitting up and staring at them. His face looked tired and annoyed; their conversation waking him up. The Hulk looked between the two, seeing Thor's upset face as he quickly gave up on trying to pull the device off by force.
"Thor's sad."
"Shut up." Thor pouted, not bothering to look his way.
"Thor's sad!" Hulk insisted on being paid attention too. He stood from his bed, walking past Dara and roughly pushing Thor to the ground as he repeated himself loudly, almost amused.
"Idiot! I'm not sad; I'm pissed off!" Thor shouted, pulling himself up with a glare. His anger increased as Hulk pretended to care, making a fake 'awh' sound as Thor pushed past him. Thor kicked the nearest object to him, causing it to jet across the room. "I'm angry! I've lost my father, I've lost my hammer, and I'm stuck here with you!"
Dara quickly took a seat, wanting to watch the fight explode from the background, amused as the Hulk was finally being talked to like this by some else besides her. Eyes jetting to the green champion, Dara watched as Hulk continued to fake pity as Thor vented his worries. Thor kicked a shield laying on the ground, angry that Hulk wasn't listening to him. Having enough of being talked to like this, Hulk picked up another shield, wiping it across the room.
"You're being a very bad friend!" Thor shouted as the shield narrowly passed him.
"You bad friend!"
"You know what we called you? We called you the stupidest Avenger!" Thor breathed heavily, definitely pushing the bounds of what Dara would say was what could push Hulk into kill mode.
"You tiny Avenger!" Hulk shouted, feeling the rage burn even more in his veins. He picked up the next closet weapon near him, wiping it even harder towards Thor.
If Thor hadn't ducked in time, he'd surely be in two pieces on the floor. Thor paused, stunned as he saw an axe now impeded into the wall behind him. He couldn't believe that the Hulk would be so careless. Throwing a shield around was one thing; their friend Steve Rogers did that all the time. But Thor would be dead right now because Hulk was acting like a child. The God of Thunder turned to Dara, seeing if she shared his bewilderment. He huffed, seeing her watching amusedly snacking on another piece of fruit.
"What, are you crazy?" Thor shouted at his old friend. His rage matched the Hulk's as he saw him now pick up a Hulk sized-mace. "You know what? Earth does hate you!"
Against what Dara thought would've happened after that comment, Hulk seemed to actually be deeply offended by that comment. His face looked like it was about to break, like he was about to cry like a child. It reminded Dara of when Groot was a little tree and was told he couldn't stay up a few minutes longer and had to go to bed. Or when he'd get in trouble for getting into Rocket's tools or for stealing Drax's Zarg-nuts. She felt herself want to lash out at Thor but stopped herself, instead standing up from her spot and giving him a disapproving look.
"Low blow, even for me." Dara stated before walking over to sit next to Hulk as he pouted on his bed. She placed a gentle hand on his large arm, feeling bad for the big guy.
"Look I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things.' Thor started, walking up to them. "You aren't the stupid Avenger, no on calls you that. You just can't go around throwing axes and shields at everyone."
"I know, I know. I'm sorry I just get so angry. Hulk always angry." He tried explaining, shaking his hands and clenching them to fists to better explain himself.
"I know, we're the same you and I. Just a couple of hot-headed fools." Thor agreed, as Dara looked between the two, feeling as if she was out of place.
"Hulk like fire. Thor like water," Hulk nodded, looking down to Dara as if for her to agree with him.
Dara scrunched her face, unsure of that analogy, "No I think you'd both be like fire, if you're both hotheaded, Hulk."
"But Hulk like real fire. Like flaming fire, Thor's like smoldering fire-"
Dara could sense Thor about to retort and for once not wanting to encourage another fight, Dara cut them both off by placing a hand on either one of their arms. "You're both the fire, we've settled on it, let's move on. How are we going to get out of here?"
Thor met Dara's eye as she looked at him, quirking his lip as he thought. Another idea clicked in his head, turning to look past her and up to Hulk, "Hulk I need you to do something for me."