Chapter 2: Explanations
Peter raced onto the Milano with his blasters drawn and ready for a fight, Gamora following silently at his heels with her Godslayer clutched in her hands.
"Fucking took you long enough! Where the hell were you two?" Rocket demanded from his position on the bridge.
"Where's the damned fire at? Rocket, I swear if you called us back here for something stupid-
"Where's Groot and Drax?" He interrupted, ignoring Peter's chagrin completely.
"They're right behind us." Gamora replied.
As if on cue Drax burst through the doors with Groot on his shoulder, blades drawn as he roared ferociously, slicing and dicing through the air like a deadly windmill of destruction.
"Uh, when you're through threatening that chair, strap in for take-off you d'ast idiot." Rocket sighed, buckling himself in as he spoke.
"This ship will take off when it's Captain says it takes off." Peter said authoritatively, to which Rocket snorted.
"And the ships Captain can stay here on this planet and get eaten if he wants to, but the rest of us are gonna find a non-cannibalistic planet to explore." The Raccoonoid said in a mock-baby voice.
"Eaten?" Drax asked with a frown of disgust.
"Yeah as in how do you like your Guardian? Medium-rare or well done?" He groused.
"I know what eaten means," Drax grumbled as he sheathed his knives.
The noise of the doors to Rockets quarters hissing open and footsteps clamoring up the steps interrupted them as Nashira's shocking purple hair and piercing green eyes came into view.
"We need to move, they're coming." She gasped, one hand clutching her injured side, the other clutching at the brightly lit stone in her chest.
"Is that what I think it is?" Peter asked, eyes widening at the sudden appearance of the infinity stone.
"Yes, and in case nobody told you, its rude to stare. Quill, this is Nashira Saal; Garthan Saal's daughter. Nash, this is the team of schmucks I'm stuck with." Rocket said by way of introduction.
"Nice to meet you guys, but we should really take off. I can explain as we fly?" She offered, clutching her side again and offering Quill her documentation as a citizen of Xandar and a Special Agent of the Nova Corps as proof of her identity.
Peter shrugged and handed her documentation back to her.
"Alright, get this sucker airborne to Xandar." He told Rocket, who was already halfway through undocking the Milano.
"They won't let the ship go easily. No off-worlders are ever supposed to get off the planet alive," Nashira warned him, making Rocket practically beam with happiness.
"Good. That means I get to shoot something," He said rapturously as the Milano released its docking clamps with an exuberant hum.
"You're injured, you should get below and rest, the bridge isn't the ideal location for healing." Gamora told her as an alarm announced two approaching battle cruisers on their port and starboard sides.
"I can help you, once we're clear of the atmosphere." She told Gamora, gesturing to the stone in her chest.
Rocket had the shields up at maximum, so when the battle cruisers fired their torpedoes, they bounced harmlessly against the Milano's shield matrix, nearly rebounding upon their aggressors.
"You're welcome for the upgrade Star-geek," The Raccoonoid called behind him with glee, letting loose a volley of his own experimental weapons just as they cleared the atmosphere and Nashira sent out a supernova blast of her own; a concentrated violet beam incapacitating both of the ships that were pursuing them, leaving them floating harmlessly in the planets orbit.
"Why couldn't you just do that from the surface and save us the hassle?" Peter asked cluelessly.
"If I use the stones power to any great capacity on the surface of a planet, I can completely destroy the entire world. Not everyone on the surface is a cannibal or a criminal; in fact most of the people back there are the victims of the Marcari and their associates." She replied, as though this should have been obvious.
"Then how the hell did we survive that laser beam you just shot out?" He asked, looking confused.
"I can control its effects on a short range basis, just long enough for me to send it out beyond the ships shields to do the damage it needs to do," Nashira explained.
"Speaking of the stone, how did you get it?" Gamora interrupted the mundane back and forth between the two Terrans.
Nashira sat back in her seat and sighed as though this were a narrative that she had long ago grown tired of telling.
"When I was born, my Parents were told that I had a few unusual traits that could be honed and developed as I aged for the greater good of Xandar, but I would have to begin training at an early age and go to a special boarding school back on my home world for people like me. My Mother wasn't too keen on the whole idea as she was a Terran who came to Xandar originally to study medicine before meeting my Father and marrying him, and she wasn't accustomed to the ways of Xandarian culture. Dad finally convinced her to let them take me to the school because if people like me don't learn to control ourselves, we can become dangerous or even run off as mercenaries for hire as adults. Of course what also sold her was the fact that we would be allowed to visit back and forth for holidays and birthdays and certain weekends and such, so I went to school and studied my ass off and by the time I was a teenager, I was given a guard post with the Nova Corps. They were proud of course, but I was mostly just happy to have a life outside of the school walls. I had been given a post and an apartment of my own and a pay grade, what wasn't to like? After my Father was killed and the Infinity Stone was left for the Nova Corps to guard, I was one of the people with 'special abilities' assigned to guard it. About a year ago, there was an attempted theft of the stone by a group of Kree and Badoon raiders; they had rigged explosives around the vault where the stone was kept with inside help. I was in the vault on duty when it exploded; the explosion was powerful enough to destroy the orb holding it, but not the stone itself. I had been blown onto my back several feet away from my post but when I saw the orb shatter and the stone emerge, I knew that it had to be contained immediately. I was about two feet away from the stone when a second explosion rocked the vault, the force of it embedded this damned thing into my chest, but instead of dying like I should have….my body just….contained it. I was studied and poked and prodded, but nobody knows why this happened," Nashira shrugged, then winced when the movement disturbed her injured side.
"So what, now Nova Corps just sends you on missions to other planets or….?" Peter asked.
"Not really. I'm supposed to be in hiding on Volaris Prime, but our ship had experienced a systems failure on the way there and we made an emergency landing a few months ago back on Marcaris for repairs. There were only five of us including me on board and at first, we were shown hospitality and friendliness while the Marcarians were "repairing" our ship. The crew began acting stranger and stranger the longer they were on the planet, which was making me anxious to get the ship repaired as soon as possible, but when I snuck into the docking port where we had docked, the ship was being stripped for scrap, not repaired. When I returned to our rooms, the crew had gone off to a casino and I couldn't talk any sense into them whatsoever. They didn't want to leave the planet and they were completely unconcerned about the ship being scrapped or about the stone that was embedded into my body that I was trying to protect. All I could do was keep an eye on them while trying to keep myself out of sight completely, but I was gathering intel at the same time from the other off-world inhabitors of the planet, just observing how people were in the casino or black market or bars one day and then mysteriously gone a few days later. My crew went missing the same way, but Xandarian soldiers and members of the Nova Corps are injected with tracking devices in their femurs as soon as they enlist, so I followed the readings to a warehouse and a disgusting heap of bones and skin. That's all that was left. I must've tripped some kind of automatic defense system because I got shot on the way out, but nobody pursued." She explained shakily, making Peter blanch and Gamora gasp.
"I have enough evidence for the Nova Corps to convict, but there are far too many of the Marcari there to go after them ourselves. It'll take a fleet of us at the very least," Nashira sighed, the haunted look in her eyes giving them all pause as they took in her story.
"So are we heading to Xandar or Volaris Prime? I mean technically, we can take your evidence and present it to Nova Prime. It's probably priority to get that thing off the streets so to speak," Rocket said, gesturing to the Power Stone.
"No! I don't want to go into hiding anyways, I never did! What good is that going to do? I could be out here helping people instead," Nashira protested anxiously, looking fearful that they were going to drop her off on Volaris Prime without her having a say in it first.
"Hey, relax. I was only asking," Rocket assured her, laying in a course for Xandar.
When Nashira returned to Rocket's quarters to rest, the Guardians held an impromptu meeting on the bridge while Rocket piloted them through a complicated asteroid cluster, intricately maneuvering through the debris fields.
"I think that she's right, she could do everyone a lot of good out here. I mean, as long as she can control the stone…." Peter trailed off, Drax and Gamora nodding slowly in agreement.
"Yeah, I mean what are they going to have her doing in hiding anyways? Twiddle her flarkin' thumbs?" Rocket scoffed, knowing from personal experience that confinement did little good for anyone.
"Well Nova Prime might actually order us to escort her to Volaris Prime whether she likes it or not. What's our stance on that if that is what happens?" Quill asked, glancing around at each of them as his words sank in.
Drax's expression soured as he sharpened and cleaned his blades.
"I will not drag a female to a strange planet against her will. It is not honorable," He growled sternly.
"Yeah, I agree with the walking Thesaurus," Rocket chimed in from the Pilot's chair.
"Same," Quill shrugged, looking at Gamora for her answer.
"I was once forced to do things and go places against my will and you all saved me from that fate, I would like to help someone else in that position in return." She replied with a small smile.
Meanwhile in Rocket's quarters, Nashira was having a difficult time laying still any longer. She was so accustomed to always being on the move now that it made rest extremely difficult to say the least.
She sat up with a sigh and turned towards the nightstand beside the bed, which held an assortment of data pads, repair manuals, and a strange looking copper sphere that looked like a puzzle of some sort.
"Well, I have absolutely nothing else to do." She muttered, picking up the spherical puzzle to wile away the time until Rocket's eventual return.
When Rocket finally turned over the piloting to Quill and Gamora, he headed towards the cargo bay habitually until he remembered that Nashira was in his quarters.
It felt awkward ringing the comm to get into his own place, but she answered immediately, and the doors hissed open to reveal that she was sitting cross-legged in the middle of his bed; his spherical puzzle half completed in her hands as she hunched over the handheld mechanical wonder.
"Hey," She greeted with a smile, gently placing the puzzle back on the nightstand and hopping off of the bed.
"Hey. I was just dropping by to see if you needed anything before I head to the cargo bay," He explained, hanging his jacket in his closet.
"Aren't you going to sleep? After all the piloting, I mean?" She asked.
"I uh…. I don't sleep much. I got a project I'm working on right now anyways that I'd like to get back to." He replied with a shrug.
"Is it one of those big guns? I watched the interview that you guys did after the battle with Ronan, I remember you had this huge telescoping blaster. It was pretty cool," Nashira confessed, blushing slightly.
Rocket's ears twitched at the way she smiled and reddened, but he mentally shook it off. He had to be imagining shit.
"Yeah, I was working on something just as big but slightly lighter with a different kind of scope." He told her.
"Can I come and watch? If not, it's cool. No pressure, I'm just getting kinda restless is all." She asked hopefully.
Rocket shrugged and swished his tail.
"Sure. I can't promise you won't get bored after a while though; a lot of small components to put together right now." He replied as she followed him out of his quarters and down the hall.
"Thanks," She said, sounding relieved that he had agreed for her to tag along.
"That's the kitchen and the smaller communal bathroom which I have no clue why we have since we all have full bathrooms in our quarters since the remodel," He grumbled to which she chuckled.
"Definitely just upgrades you to luxury spacecraft." She shrugged.
"Oh yeah, nothing says luxury like extra places to poop." Rocket blurted, making Nashira laugh so hard her eyes watered.
Smooth move exlax.
Rocket mentally facepalmed at his stupidity. Flirting was decidedly not one of his strong points.
When the cargo bay doors hissed open, the lights automatically came up and adjusted their brightness as they entered.
One wall behind Rocket's work bench was lined with shelves that were lined with his handiwork; most of which were guns and other weapons.
"Oh my gosh. Did you build all of these?" Nashira breathed, moving closer to the shelves to view his work better.
"Uh… yeah." Rocket shrugged, unused to anyone being interested in his inventions unless they were in mortal peril.
"Wow… they're gorgeous." She beamed, tucking a stray loch of her hair behind her ear as she moved along his collection; her reflection gleaming in some of the polished chrome surfaces.
Rocket tugged one of the bulkier models from a lower shelf and held it out for her.
"This is the one from the interview," He said, pressing the release on the side to initiate it's telescoping feature.
"She looks pretty well-loved; like she's seen some action." Nashira said admiringly.
"Here," He offered, adjusting the sight.
"Oh, I couldn't" She said, biting her bottom lip.
The blush made an appearance again.
"The safety's on and it ain't gonna bite," He pressed.
Nashira took the gun and shouldered the stock, looking along the sight across the cargo bay.
"Fuck, that is heavy! Oh my gosh, sorry." She said, covering her mouth as she let the cuss slip.
Rocket snorted.
"That ain't the worst these walls have heard, trust me." He assured, replacing the gun on the shelf and leading her to his latest project.
She followed eagerly, her fingers tracing over the detached barrel curiously.
"Telescoping necroblaster?" Nashira asked in awe, recognizing some of the components that he was using as well as the signature gleam of gunmetal and chrome plating over a solid polystone core.
Rocket was instantly impressed with the on-sight identification.
"What the hell do they teach you guys in that school?" He asked with a smirk.
"Foreign diplomacy?" She offered innocently.
"Bullshit," He chortled, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Hey, there's no law saying a girl can't know how to defend herself." Nashira replied with a wink, making the shells of Rocket's ears go pink.
"Guess not," He agreed, rolling the cart with his project over to his work bench and gesturing for her to take a seat.
"So, you're just piecing together the flux capacitor next right?" She asked curiously as she saw which tools he was laying out.
Rocket paused and smirked before nodding affirmatively.
Nashira watched him work in a comfortable silence for several minutes, finding some sort of solace in the sure way that he handled the tools laid out before him and the tiny components that larger hands would have surely fumbled clumsily.
"So, are you basically in charge of weapons and mods and stuff like that?" She finally asked softly.
Rocket's ear twitched and he shrugged.
"I guess that you could say that; not to mention all of the ships flarkin' repairs whenever anything breaks down around here. Pete would have you believe otherwise of course but," Rocket sighed and rolled his eyes in put upon exacerbation.
"I totally understand, trust me. In the Nova Corps, nobody took me seriously because besides being young I was a female, and a small female at that. When this happened to me, the rest of my team just looked at me like they weren't surprised; like they were all just sitting around waiting for me to fail." She confessed, gesturing to the stone in her chest irritably.
"Maybe they're just jealous, because it picked you and not one of their sorry asses." He surmised, drawing a small smile from her.
"Yeah, just like Peter's probably pissed off that he cant build stuff on the fly like you can?" She asked.
"Oh he's definitely jealous of that, he can barely throw a grenade straight, let alone build one." Rocket agreed, making her giggle.
"You're uh… a lot different than I thought you'd be," Nashira told him as he bent over his work, handing him a coil spanner without him even telling her he needed it.
He looked down at the tool in his hand in surprise before continuing to modify the necroblaster.
"How so?" He asked guardedly, wondering how he was supposed to be.
"I don't know….. In the interview, you kind of sounded like you wanted to punch the reporter, so….. I don't know….. I thought you were just all gruff and mean and hated everyone," She explained pensively.
"I did wanna punch the reporter, he was a total douche. He wasn't even gonna interview me at all because he thought I was the Guardian's mascot or Peters Pet," He spat, looking equal parts angry and embarrassed.
"Ugh, what a fucking asshole." Nashira agreed, seeing how much it upset him to be treated like a non-sentient being.
"Look, fuck that guy. That's what pisses me off about Xandar; for such an 'advanced society' they're still so backasswards on so many goddamned levels. You guys are so lucky that you can come and go as you please and you barely have anyone to answer to or look over your shoulder every five minutes to make sure that you aren't doing anything wrong." She sighed in frustration.
Rocket's tail swished as he studied her curiously for a moment, wondering if she was being genuine or not….
"Well, just because I got a reputation to protect here; I do hate almost everyone. There's like a handful of people I can tolerate, so make sure if anybody asks you that that's what you tell them." He replied, making her chuckle.
"I mean it," He tossed over his shoulder, trying and failing to hide a smirk.
Nashira gathered herself and put her hand over her heart.
"I promise that's what I'll tell them; I'll even toss in that you threatened my life several times at appropriate intervals and that it was terrifying." She said, trying and failing to keep a straight face.
"You're a terrible actress, but we got time to work on it." He snorted, lifting the necroblaster and triggering the telescoping mechanism; eyes gleaming with pride as it silently elongated along the barrel and scope.
"Wow. I hope I'm not drooling here," She muttered as she edged a bit closer to inspect his handiwork.
"You aren't, but I won't judge if you do." He quipped, handing her the gun and punching a few commands into the Milano's computer to set up a forcefield and controlled atmosphere to test out his new toy in.
"Why don't you do the honors?" He offered as a target appeared within the forcefield.
"Are you sure that we should fire this thing in here?" Nashira asked anxiously, looking around at all of the other weapons and explosives surrounding them in the cargo bay.
"It's fine, I remodulated these forcefields myself. Trust me, ain't nothing getting through this baby." He reassured her, helping her adjust the necroblaster's stock on her shoulder as she took aim at the target.
Nashira let out a breath she had been holding and fired, the sound of the blast loud enough to echo down the corridors and reverberate along the walls.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ROCKET?!" Peter's voice called irritably.
"Nothing!" They replied in unison, Nashira making her way back to his work bench quickly and holding her sides as she shook in silent laughter.
Rocket was nearly crying as he guffawed, throwing himself down beside her and placing the necroblaster back on the cart.
"Wish I could have seen his face," He huffed out as she nodded in agreement, wiping the tears from her cheeks too.
She took a deep breath to compose herself, but her mind wandered elsewhere as she realized belatedly how handsome Rocket looked when he smiled; like really let go and smiled.
"You think he shit himself?" She asked, making him chortle anew.
"I hope he was with Gamora if he did," He nearly choked, trying to catch his breath.
They heard heavy footsteps pounding towards them and Rocket quickly grabbed her arm, gesturing for her to follow him quietly as he lead her off to small holographically camouflaged room near the shelving.
They huddled there closely and silently as Peter stormed into the cargo bay looking an equal mix of leery and pissed off.
The Terran sighed when Rocket appeared to be absent as he spied the newly built gun resting on the cart beside the work bench.
"Gonna fucking blow us to smithereens one damn day," He muttered, inching dangerously close to their hiding place as he inspected the other weaponry along the shelves.
Nashira huddled closer to Rocket instinctively in their miniscule hiding place, close enough that the soft fur of his face brushed against her cheek and their hands touched.
She turned towards him smiling mischievously as Peter continued trying to locate his teammate, but as she caught Rocket's eye, the Terran's voice seemed to dull into the background as she studied the raccoonoid beside her.
His tail swished and he swallowed nervously, part of him torn between just yanking her out of hiding and telling Peter to go flark himself; the other part of him wanting to know exactly how good her full lips would taste.
But it was Nashira herself that made up his mind for him as she closed the tiny gap between them, pressing her lips to his own.