Peter is disoriented at first. He wakes up slowly. Everything is blindingly white, and he shields his eyes with his hands. His body aches all over, his skin feels hot. Something next to him beeps at a steady rhythm. He feels his blood run cold. He remembers that sound and his heart skips a beat. Peter is in the med bay.
He sits bolt upright. He stares down at his hands until his eyes come into focus. Silver lines cover his skin, they run from his fingertips all the way up his forearms. It feels like the room is closing in on him. He can't breathe. He can't be here. This can't be happening again. He feels something attached to the exposed cybernetics on his neck. It's an odd sensation. He quickly rips them off, and the yanks the IV out of his arm. "No, no, don't! Okay." A familiar voice lets out an indignant huff. Peter is surprised when it burns and blood pours out of his arm. The machine next to him goes ballistic. It's an overwhelming cacophony of noise. Peter covers his ears and squeezed his eyes shut. He needs it to stop.
"Peter, " they says in a tone that indicates that they had to repeat his name multiple times to get his attention. Peter pulls his hands away from his ears. It was quiet. His physician was fiddling with the machine. The lights above them are turned off. It was better, not great, but better. "You're hyperventilating. I need you to hold your breath for ten seconds and then inhale slowly. " Peter can only shake his head. He wraps his arms around his chest. He tries to force himself to calm down but that only makes it worse. His hands start to shake. "I understand that you're frightened–"
"No, you don't understand." Peter hears Nebula snap. He glances up to see her standing off to the side, her fists are clenched. "What did you do to him? What in the stars are those markings?"
"Thanos had us upgrade his cybernetic enhancements, the markings are merely a side effect. Nothing to get fussy about," The white coat replies flatly. Nebula glares at them. They glared right back, they grab a syringe off a nearby cart. "He either holds his breath or I get to sedate him." Peter scrambles back on the bed and pinches his nose. The white coat smirks and leans against the wall, "Alright, very good, exhale slowly." Nebula scoffs at the white coat. Peter continued to follow his physician's instructions until he had calmed down completely. Exhaustion washes over him. His eyelids and shoulders suddenly felt very heavy.
The white coat doesn't give Peter a moment to rest. "Give me your arm." The blood is soaking through his bedsheets and making a mess, so he complies. His physician wipes the blood away with a warm towel and reinserts the long needle attached to the end of the IV. It earns a hiss of pain from Peter. They reattach the heart monitor as well as the other mysterious wires to his cybernetics. "These need to stay on, you should know this by now." The white coat mutters in a patronizing tone. "You're going to need a few days of rest before you'll feel better."
The corner of Nebula's mouth twitched down, a small crack in her mask of neutrality. "Killing you might make him feel better now, " she opens her butterfly knife with a flick of her wrist. "I know it would make me feel better."
The white coat backs away, "how'd you get a knife in here?!"
That wasn't the sarcastic remark Peter was expecting from Nebula. It catches him off guard. He can't stop himself smiling and then he's giggling and that turns into laughter. Nebula looks at him funny. "I'm not joking." The white coat runs away while Nebula is distracted.
When Peter finally gets a hold of himself, he nods and signs back: I know that. You were born without a sense of humor.
"Whatever, here this is for you." Nebula thrust the binder of notes and work assigned by their tutor out towards him. Peter scowled at the binder with contempt and disgust. Nebula drops it onto his lap. She makes an amused noise. "Just because you've been hospitalized doesn't mean you get to skip out on our lessons."
Peter huffs, and sighs: did you really come here to make me do homework? Haven't I suffered enough?
Nebula rolls her eyes, "don't be absurd. I needed to have my metal prosthetics replaced with a plastic alternative."
Why? Isn't it weaker now?
"Of course, " Nebula puts her hands on her hips. "However, with metal prosthetics, there's a chance that I could get frostbite where the metal meets my skin, in extremely cold climates. Our next mission takes place on a planet with subzero temperatures."
Peter's eyes light up. He sets the binder on the bedside table, where he plans to conveniently forget about it. "A mission!" He chirps and then signs: has the competition started yet?
"It's not that kind of mission," Nebula replies flatly. Peter's shoulders slump. If there wasn't going to be a competition to decide who gets to go, that meant that everyone was going on the mission. "Dr. Morgen met his deadline. The AI we retrieved has been copied onto a fleet of warships. Dad is going to test them out on a solar system colonized by the Razoria, enemy of the Kree. If it goes well dad will make a fortune selling the technology to our allies. We can also increase our artillery if we don't need a crew for each ship."
A knot forms in Peter's stomach. He signs slowly: how did you learn all this?
Nebula raises her chin slightly, "I'm the best fighter in our age bracket so I get to attend the meeting." Peter thinks of the war room and fights back a shudder. If being the best fighter in their bracket meant spending more time near Thanos, Nebula could keep that spot. She sighed and looked towards the door. "Well, I've been here long enough already."
"Oh," Peter sinks back into bed. The med bay was terrifying for lots of reasons, but the many hours you spend alone with only thoughts for comfort had to be one of the worst. It crept up on you slowly. Fine, leave me here to be tortured and forgotten, he signs.
Nebula huffs, "I know the med bay is awful that's why I want to leave." Peter pulls the blanket over his head. He hears Nebula groan and in a softer voice she says, "I'll tell the others that you're awake." And then she left him all alone.
Peter tries to go back to sleep but everything hurts far too much. He can't get comfortable. His thoughts start to drift back to the other night. He keeps reliving everything that happened. Kekallie wanted to kill him. She would have slit his throat open without a second thought. She would have killed Heather too. Older siblings are supposed to look after the younger ones, she was supposed to protect them. Peter held back against her during their fight and ended up here. He wouldn't make that mistake again. He never should have trusted her.
Tears stung his eyes and his chest ached. It hurts. Kekallie was a liar and a murderer but she was a corpse now. Peter thinks he shouldn't care anymore, but that only makes him feel worse. Everything was wrong here. It was this place, Sanctuary II corrupted people. It made them awful. It made him awful. People will do terrible things to survive, her words ring in his head. They're oddly comforting now. Peter has to survive this place. Peter squeezes his eyes shut, covers his ears, and starts to hum.
He isn't sure how much time passes. He sleeps poorly, every mundane sound in the med bay startles him awake. Eventually, he hears a familiar voice and peers out from under the blanket. "It's very important so we have to be careful with it." Heather leads their little brother, Nexus inside the med bay.
"What's so special about an old plastic box?" Nexus frowns at Heather.
In her hands is Peter's Walkman and headphones, "it's from Peter's homeworld." Heather nods to herself as she turns the Walkman around to inspect it, "and I think it was a gift." Their little brother was carrying a small vase with flowers from their garden.
Nexus glances up at Peter and stops walking abruptly. "You are awake!" He drops the vase in his excitement.
"Oops!" Heather throws out her hand. The vase freezes in the air, inches from the ground. "Oh, I caught it! I caught it!" She yells before gleefully throwing her hands into the air and sending the vase crashing into the ceiling. The kids shrieked as glass rained down on them. Peter burst into a fit of giggling. The Aprons picked up the flowers and shards of glass. "I'm really sorry about this. I'm still learning." Nexus elbowed her in the side and grinned. Heather slowly turns around to look at Peter, "You are awake!"
Nexus and Heather raced over to Peter's side. They're yelling over each other trying to be heard. "I was so scared—worried about you—hit your head—nobody to tuck me in—so sorry." Peter holds his palms out in a defensive gesture and then presses a finger to his lips. Heather and Nexus copy him, they make a soft "shush" noise.
Peter signs slowly and Nexus translates aloud, "One… At… a time. Can't… hear you." Heather and Nexus exchange glances and she nods for him to go first.
Nexus points back to the broken vase, "we brought you some flowers from the garden. Daddy said they were weeds but I thought they looked pretty, so he said I could keep 'em!" One of the aprons placed the flowers into a plastic cup and set them down on the bedside table. "Nebula and Allace won't play games with us, and the others are all really boring. All they wanna do is read or fight!" Nexus complained before tackling Peter in a hug. Nexus nuzzled his head against his brother's chest. "I've been lonely. I missed you."
Peter giggled and rubbed Nexus' back. "Missed you, " he echoes softly. He scoots over so Nexus can snuggle up next to him on the bed. His little brother wraps one arm around his chest.
"You're talking, already?" Heather blinks in surprise. She takes a nervous step closer, "Did Dr. Motti say that was okay?" It takes Peter a moment to remember that Motti was the name of his current physician. He shrugs and rolls his eyes. Heather frowns at him but after a tense moment, she changes the subject. "I got your singing box, for you. I had to borrow your security card." She gives Peter his Walkman and headphones.
Peter beams and signs: thank you. Simply having the Walkman near him brought him a small amount of comfort. "Your plastic box sings?" Nexus stares at it with wonder. Peter chuckles and nods, he carefully slips the headphones over Nexus' ears. He started the music.
Heather fidgets with the blankets and looks at Nexus with longing. Peter rolls his eyes. He nods at the empty space next to him. She scrambles across the bed and crawls under the covers. There isn't a lot of room. They have to squeeze together to all fit on the bed. Heather whispers so only Peter can hear, "I wanted to apologize for everything that happened with–with Kekallie. I made you protect me because I was too scared to use my abilities, and then, " Heather's voice breaks. She shifts so her face is buried into the crook of Peter's neck. "And then you almost died. I'm so sorry. It was my fault."
Peter shakes his head and rubs her back. "Always protect you." Peter rested his cheek against her head and squeezed her so tight it hurt. And Heather understood. They laid together for a long time. Peter never felt safe in the med bay, but this moment felt close to safe. This moment was warm.
~~•˖✧•✯•✧˖•~~
With a little effort, Peter pushes open the heavy library door. It hurts his shoulder a little. The library smelled of must and rot. He glances back at Heather. "I'm certain that she's here, " she responds to his thoughts. He nods inside the library and raises an eyebrow. Heather takes a step back and shakes her head solemnly. "It's for the best if I don't go with you. My presence would only complicate the situation." Peter disagrees with her but he doesn't push it.
He steps inside the library and let the door close behind him. He wanders up and down the aisles, on the lookout for any signs of his siblings or his tutor. Peter very quickly gets lost. All the bookshelves look the same and he can only remember one of the Kree's four alphabets. Peter is about to give up when he hears a startled gasp and the shuffling of paper.
He peers between the books to see Photon crawl under a table. Peter creeps around the bookshelf and slowly walks over to the table. Photon held her breath. He knelt down and tilted his head to the side. She flinched away from him, she's hiding behind her book. Peter sighs quietly to himself, he very slowly pulls his gun from his holster and sets it down on the floor next to him. He can feel his little sister watching him closely. Peter pushes the gun away and it slides across the wooden floor, out of his reach. "Hi there, " Peter says. Photon lowers her book while narrowing her eyes suspiciously. Peter waits a minute for a response that is never going to come. "I'm coming closer, " he says in warning. Photon lowers the book further and nods. Peter slides under the table, he sits with his knees pressed up against his chest. Photon makes herself as small as possible, her breathing is staggered and panicked. He tilts his head to the side and signs: what are you reading?
Photon furrows her brow. She doesn't answer right away, her eyes dart between the book and Peter. "It's a collection of old stories, " her voice trembles.
It's Kree?
Photon shakes her head slightly, "the book is in Hala Kree, but the stories come from planets they colonized." Her posture relaxes and her expression softens as she talks. Peter nods along. "There's one in here that comes from Alpha Centauri and I really like it because… because..." Photon trails off and stares down at the page in front of her. Then she wordlessly closes the book and sets it down. She tenses up again when she looks at Peter. "You know after that night… I kept waiting for you to tell dad what I had done, but you never did. Does Heather even know?"
"She knows, " Peter replies too quickly.
"I see." Photon looks down at the floor, "why didn't you get me in trouble?"
Peter looks out across the library and sighs deeply. He signs, What good would that have done? I don't want to see you get hurt. And dad wouldn't have stopped you from killing her anyway.
"But I hurt you, I tried to kill you." Photon's voice breaks. She might cry. "I'm so sorry."
Please, Peter signs back, Neb tries to kill me every Thursday.
"Peter, I'm being serious," Photon replies.
He rolls his eyes, and signs with more urgency: You were trying to stall me, not kill me. If you couldn't kill me, you weren't going to kill beans either.
"I dunno." Photon frowns and leaned her head against Peter's shoulder. She blinks her eyes rapidly. "I'm always going to be second best to Heather. Everything comes so naturally to her, Ebony says it's because Heather is gifted. She's his favorite." She sniffles and glares at nothing. Peter shakes his head. He's certain that's not true but he doesn't know if he could convince Photon otherwise. "She's your favorite too."
"Is not."
"She's your Jellybean, " Photon mutters bitterly. "You let her sleep in your cabin when she got scared. You buy her candy."
"Okay, " Peter half shrugs and signs, so I spoil her sometimes. Doesn't mean I like her more.
Photon groans and kicks the table leg. Papers fall off the table and flutter to the floor. "You don't get it. I just want someone to tell her no for once."
~~•˖✧•✯•✧˖•~~
"Heather, I said no." Corvus, the first mate, growls at her. "While you are a skilled warrior, you lack precision and control. Ebony has advised against your inclusion in the battle. I respect his judgement, you can join your siblings when he decides that you are ready."
Heather sighs loudly, "but it will be lonely here by myself."
"Enough! Do not test my patience, little girl, " he snarls at her. She jumps back out of arm's reach, nearly colliding with an Apron carrying provisions for the trip.
The crowds part for Proxima Midnight, she touches his shoulder. "Calm yourself. The hatchlings are still learning their place here."
Corvus scoffs, "I will never understand how you can stand to be near them, disgusting little vermin." Midnight chuckles and Corvus glances around the crowded hangar bay. It was a kind of organized chaos. The servants and soldiers helped load ammunition and provisions onto the ships. While the engineers and programmers milled about making last minute preparations to the ships' equipment. "Where are the rest of the vermin? I need to assign them to a ship." Proxima snaps her fingers and the children quickly fall into line. They all stand at attention, obediently waiting for orders. Her mouth twitches into a smug little smile.
Corvus nods, "and what of Nexus? I was informed that he would be participating in the coming battle as well."
Proxima shrugs, "the master requires the boys talents elsewhere."
"Very well, " Corvus glances down at his notes and then waves vaguely towards the dreadnought behind them. "The master has a special objective in mind for the vermin. He wants them on the first wave." Proxima barks their orders at them and the children are quick to follow.
Peter waves at Heather as they pass and Nebula shoves him. She hisses under her breath, "don't cause trouble. She shouldn't be here." The crowds part for them as they make their way towards the warships.
Peters chuckles, "relax, they're not watching." He nods back at the Black Order. He walks faster to keep up with Nebula, he studies her expression. "Hey, are you nervous?"
"No!" She replies too quickly, too forcefully.
He smiles, "you are nervous! You always do great on missions, don't worry so much."
"This is different." Nebula lowers her voice so it's barely above a whisper. "Dad will be watching us this time. This is my chance to prove myself."
Peter shrugs, "if you say so."
"Peter stop dawdling, " Proxima snaps at him. Peter rolls his eyes and Nebula smirks. He doesn't know why he always gets yelled at. They're ushered quickly up the ramp and into the airlock. The door closes behind them. There is a distant rumble and Peter can feel the ship move beneath his feet. They prepared for battle.