CHAPTER 6 - Nova Corps

The room fell into silence as they thought over everything that had happened. Clint was close to passing out at this point, his body having gone through far too much in a short period of time, even with the healing ointment. Loki had a deep frown on his face as he watched the archer. This was more than he had expected of the human. Quill watched over Clint, wishing there was something he could do. Rocket focused on the ground. Groot didn't concentrate on any one thing and Drax looked like he fell asleep. Gamora, like Loki, was frowning at the archer but like Quill, she wished she could help. Finally, something struck Quill.

"I thought you said you were from Earth," Quill called. Clint nodded.

"I am. But, I'm assuming that not every alien out here cause it Earth," Clint replied. Quill nodded his head. Most called it Terra. Clint nodded his head to Loki. "Loki's people call Earth, Midgard. So I wasn't lying, nor answering incorrectly. That is indeed a name of where I come from."

"Ah," Quill hummed. Clint sighed.

"That's one thing I learned about truth collars a while back. While you have to state the truth, it is a truth you know well or believe. As I believe Earth is named Midgard, it isn't a lie. If I believe it was, I don't know, Planet Bob... Then, I could say that," Clint explained.

"So, why not say a nickname for your kid?" Rocket asked. Clint winced.

"I ain't letting any more people know about my family," Clint growled. Seconds later, Arath returned.

"Let try again. Who is-"

"Tony Stark?" Loki quickly interrupted, knowing right away how to cover this. Clint smirked and gave out as much detail as he could about the Avenger, planning on stalling. Silently he sent out a mental apology to his friend, but it was better than talking about Cooper. Arath snarled, glaring at Loki. Loki smiled back at him. The gray alien turned back to Clint.

"Who is-"

"The man who taught you how to use a bow?" Loki finished. Clint answered with not only Buck's name but also Jacques. Arath let out another angered noise.

"Who is-"

"Lady Sif?" Again, Clint answered. The alien spun and smacked Loki across the face and it was now that Loki noted what Clint had meant. His eyes were burning but he wasn't going to let it stop him. Just like Clint.

"Who is-" Arath tried again.

"The fourth President of the United States!" Quill shouted, quickly understanding what Loki was doing.

"James Madison," the archer sighed. Arath loudly growled at Quill.

"You all silence," Arath demanded. He looked back to Clint. "Who is-"

"The first one of us you spoke to?" Gamora cried. Arath screamed over Clint's answer.

"WHO IS-"

"Your best friend?" Rocket called.

"Natalia Romanova," Clint reported with a wince. Loki made a face at that but didn't say anything. Arath glared at everyone.

"Silence!" the alien roared. "WHO IS-"

"Flash Gordon," Quill continued. Arath made an inhuman screech that had everyone wincing even as Clint dutifully reported all he knew about the fictional character. This whole thing went on for maybe a half hour. Loki, Rocket, Quill and Gamora traded back and forth with random questions. Anything from the brand of his favorite food to information on fictional characters. By the half hour mark, everyone could see that Arath was wearing thin.

"WHO IS-" Arath started.

"Your favorite Disney Princess?" Loki asked, fishing for questions at this point. The room fell silent other than Clint's pained response. What was a Disney Princess?

"Moana," Clint answered. He hated that Loki knew about Disney thanks to Nate and Lila's love of it. Arath shouted and punched Clint in the gut. Clint hardly reacted. Now too pissed to continue, Arath stormed out. There was a minute of silence before the room erupted into laughter.

"Oh my god, thanks," Clint finally stated, looking them all over.

"I doubt we'll be given the opportunity again, but we have stalled him for now," Loki informed. Clint nodded. He appreciated it none the less. As they waited for the alien to return, they chatted about this and that. Comparing different stories and overall just trying to make the best out of a shitting situation. Then Loki went silent and twisted his head.

"Loki?" Clint asked the second he noticed it. Everyone went silent.

"There are explosions," the trickster informed.

"Wonder if that's good news for us," Quill replied.

"We'll see," Clint commented, knowing he really hadn't had much luck with alien species so far, outside of the guardians. Slowly, the explosions drew closer. Along with shouts of pain and fear. It was maybe a minute later before there was an explosion nearby that blasted the door to the cell inside. Rocket cried out in shock as he had been closest to the door. A few seconds later, a head popped into the room.

"DEY!" Quill cried at the sight of the man. The man looked across the room and frowned.

"Hello," 'Dey' replied. Quill shook his chains.

"Wanna help us get out of here?" Quill asked. Dey looked them all over.

"And if I say no?" Dey wondered.

"Then I'd say you aren't doing your job," Clint muttered unable to help himself. The damn collar was still on him. There was a pause before Quill and Rocket burst into laughter. Loki gave Clint a questioning look. Clint rolled his eyes and nodded his head toward a small glittering part of Dey's outfit. There were marks on the man's sleeve and Loki noted it looked like some sort of military marking.

"Who are you?" Dey asked, staring right at Clint.

"An ex-carnie who got lost in space and just wants to go home," Clint retorted, fighting from spilling too much but giving enough to stop the force of answering. Dey opened his mouth to ask another question when his eyes focused on the collar around Clint's neck. The officer sighed and entered into the room more. Now that he was in, Dey noticed all the injuries littering Clint's body. Surprised, Dey just stared. "Picture lasts longer."

Dey looked up to Clint shocked again before he shook it off and headed closer to take off the collar. When it was removed, Clint couldn't help but sigh and relax his body in relief. Dey then turned to Loki, figuring that while Clint should be the first one down, there was no way the archer would be able to not only help but stay standing. With an apology on his face, Dey yanked out the instrument that had never been removed from the trickster's gut. While Dey was distracted, Loki undid his spell on Drax, which didn't really matter as indeed, the guy was sleeping.

"What happened here?" Dey wondered, searching the room for a way to release the captives.

"We got trapped here by a larger ship, they drug us into their landing bay, blew out the back door, fired on us till we dropped, then we woke here, and they tortured the new guy while hardly asking any questions," Quill summarized just as Dey found what he was looking for. Sadly, it was near the door again. Slowly, the officer went to Rocket and started undoing the cuffs.

"So, you weren't trying to rob them?" Dey accused, his eyes focusing on Rocket even as the shackles released the raccoon and Groot. Dey moved onto Drax after that.

"What? Now why would we do that?" Rocket tried to innocently answer.

"Yeah, doubt he'd believe you," Clint mumbled. Dey snorted as he allowed Drax to fall face first onto the floor. Amazingly, Drax didn't even stir.

"No, we were led into a trap by a false distress signal," Loki explained. Dey looked at the trickster even as he unhooked Gamora from her shackles. The officer then moved to Loki. Everyone but Loki and Clint ignoring Quill's cry of distress. Course all they did was glance at the guardian before focusing once again on Dey.

"You're one of the Asgardian Princes, right?" Dey inquired. Loki stiffened for a moment before nodding. "What happened to Asgard?"

"We... We were attacked and had to abandon our home. Currently, the remains of our planet are on Midgard," Loki reported, careful in his speech.

"Dude... You're a prince?" Rocket muttered, awed. Loki rolled his eyes as Dey finished. Without speaking to anyone, the trickster headed to Clint and quickly began healing the archer's injuries. "Uh... Why didn't you do that before?"

"The spell requires touch," Loki stated, backing away so that Dey could free Clint. Once the shackles came off, Clint sadly dropped nearly to the floor before Loki grabbed hold of him. "I cannot help blood loss."

Clint grunted in thanks and with Loki's support, got back to his feet. Dey nodded to the group and headed to the door. Clint frowned, glancing back at Quill who just sighed. Gamora and Rocket had headed over, intent on waking Drax and so they hadn't really noticed Quill was still trapped.

"Are... Are you seriously gonna leave him?" Clint wondered, not getting a good feeling about this guy anymore. Dey stopped and looked back with an extremely disinterested look. Gamora looked up to see Quill still imprisoned and sighed. Of course Dey would do that.

"Oh. Forgot he was there," Dey retorted with the most sarcastic look on his face. Clint shivered. That wasn't anything like how he expected he had expected this rescue to go. Dey wasn't someone that Clint wanted to be around anymore. Especially given the treatment Clint had been getting by a lot of the aliens he had run into (Drax, Groot and Gamora aside) since all this started.

"Ha ha ha," Quill replied with a version of humorous sarcasm that still made Clint uncomfortable with the officer. Dey smiled and headed over to unlock Quill's cuffs. With all of them free, Dey headed to the front of the group to get them out to safety. "What brings the Nova Corps to this ship?"

"There was a warning that these Trogziks had been luring ships in for an attempt at riches, slaves, and information," Dey informed.

"So, you knew we might have been victims?" Quill snarled actually pissed off this time and it looked like none of the others liked the idea either. Dey shrugged and Clint frowned deeply, harshly watching the man. He wasn't right. Clint couldn't say what it was. Just Dey wasn't good. Loki glanced at Clint and noticed that archer's distaste of the officer. Frowning, the trickster paid more attention to the man. He couldn't sense anything but given Clint's rather impressive intuition, Loki was going to trust the archer.

"It is you guys," the officer replied.

"I'm beginning to think we asked for help from the wrong group," Clint joked as his eyes narrowed on Dey in a way that was so much different than his tone. The guy really wasn't painting himself in a good light but Clint wanted to see if he'd treat Loki and himself the same way he treated the guardians. Dey couldn't stop his snort of surprise.

Getting rescued by Nova Corps was actually more helpful then Loki or Clint had thought. The Trogziks had started fixing the Milano for some reason so some Nova Corps agents stood there protecting it. Quill and Rocket (with Groot on his shoulder) rushed the smaller ship in excitement and wanting to check over the repairs done. Drax followed slowly after them but Gamora waited with Loki and Clint.

"Do you want us to bring you both back to where you come from? I'm assuming it's Terra," Dey wondered. Clint looked to Gamora before looking back at Dey and shook his head. Loki smirked, hiding his surprise at Clint's response. Even if the archer had had a bad feeling about Dey, there was no way Clint was getting it from the entire Nova Corps. But the trickster figured Clint was done with answering questions at the moment. He would have to ask about this later. For now, he'd follow Clint's intuition.

"I believe we will be fine with them. They were very helpful with their assistance," Loki cooed, making Dey frown but nod. With permission from Dey, the group headed to the Milano and took off again. As they flew off, Gamora focused on Loki.

"I'm curious as to why you chose to stay with us, rather than go with Nova Corps," Gamora stated once they took off. Loki glanced over to Clint, unsure if the archer would answer. Clint shrugged.

"Something about that guy felt off..." Clint admitted. Loki frowned. He had just been willing to follow the archer. Clint got into numerous amounts of trouble on a daily basis on Earth... Who knows what could happen to the archer in space. "I mean... I get that Nova Corps supposed to be like this elite space police group but... I didn't get a good feeling."

"And you get a good feeling from us?" Rocket countered. Clint shrugged again. It was hard to explain. "As I said, you're messed up in the brain."

"Clint, what was off about him?" Loki asked, now extremely curious. Clint frowned, trying to figure out how best to state it. But he couldn't.

"I don't know," Clint growled, unsure what else to say. Loki gave him an odd look. "I don't know what to tell ya. I just didn't like him."

"Did he remind you of someone?" Loki pressed. Clint huffed, looking away from everyone. Loki shifted closer, getting the feeling that that's what it was. "Did he remind you of someone?"

"My dad... He reminded me a bit of my dad," Clint hissed, looking quickly to Quill and then away again. The ship fell silent.

"Would that not make one happy?" Drax questioned. Clint flinched keeping his eyes focused away from everyone. He doubted even Loki knew this much about his past.

"He beat you," Gamora noted. Having her own experience with Thanos beating her, she could see similar signs on Clint. But the archer didn't confirm or deny what she said.

"That's rough man," Quill called, his voice soft. Clint huffed. It was because of Quill that Clint got that feeling from Dey. There was no way it was fair to treat someone that was a prisoner in one custody and leave them just because you don't trust them or even doing it as a joke to a 'friend.'

"He beat the shit out of my mom, my brother and me. Nearly killed me a few times since he started before I could even walk. Guy was drunk nearly 24/7. That's why for my sixth birthday, he wrapped him and my mom into a tree, making my brother and I orphans," Clint explained.

"What happened to your brother?" Quill inquired. Clint sighed.

"Don't know. Last I heard he might have been arrested for petty theft, but there was also rumors that he died and/or works for the FBI now," Clint grumbled.

"You do not care?" Drax wondered. Clint exhaled sharply.

"When I was sixteen, he tried to kill me. Left me for dead on the side of the road. Kinda stopped caring what happened to him after that," Clint replied before moving to the bunk rooms, not allowing anyone else to ask any more questions. Once he was gone, the guardians looked to Loki who was frowning. He had heard a bit of the story of Clint's brother trying to kill the archer, but he had not known about the rest of Clint's family. The trickster now understood why Clint had been so willing to stand up to Odin for his sake and he almost was tempted to find a spell that could send him back in time to return the favor.

"So... Any impressive back story we get from you?" Rocket joked. Loki smirked.

"I am a Prince of Asgard but Asgard was destroyed and our people have since moved to Midgard," Loki reminded before moving to follow Clint into the bunk area. Distantly he heard Rocket give an innocent 'what?' Sighing, Loki ignored it all and went deeper until he found Clint sitting in the room they were set to share. He was on the bed, head in his hands. "I did not mean to pry."

"Nah... Its just... Not many people know about my full history. Laura only got the edited version of my dad got drunk and killed mom in a car accident. And I told her lovely amazing stories about working at Carson's... But I was abused there too. If I missed a shot by even a millimeter, I was beaten raw and then told to do it again. I was forced to practice for hours on end so that they knew I could preform even while exhausted or sick. Being a headliner meant my act was scrutinized more than others. I got blamed for anything from a light failure to missing in the slightest way," Clint explained. There was no good way to say how bad his life actually had been.

"I apologize," Loki muttered. "Had I kno-"

"Don't. Even if you knew, they would have gotten it out of me too. People know I got abused, but they never knew who did it," Clint sighed. He hadn't even told the Avengers the full stories of what had happened to him. There was no way anyone was prepared for that and he was certain that Natasha and likely Bucky, would try and do a pissing contest about who had it worse. They already did it to themselves, no need to through the archer into the mix.

"So, you want to delay us again, to go help this 'Sovereign' person?" Clint summarized nearly a week after their run in with Dey. They had gotten the call earlier that day and while Gamora almost tried to take control and force them on the path there, Quill called for a group meeting. It wasn't just them anymore.

"They have my sister captive and if we defeat the Abilisk for them, they will hand her over," Gamora stressed. Clint could see that Gamora wasn't doing this out of the kindness of her heart. He figured her relationship with her sister was rather similar to his relationship with Barney.

"And the reward for her on Xander is amazing," Rocket whispered.

"I am wary of being near both Daughters of Thanos," Loki grumbled. Clint frowned.

"Dude, what is your beef with Thanos?" Quill finally demanded. Loki rolled his eyes, not willing to get into any of it.

"Thanos tortured him for over a year before making him attack Earth," Clint snapped, sick and tired of all the god damn fighting. Loki glanced at Clint but the archer didn't even attempt to look at the trickster. The Lie-smith knew it would have come out sooner or later and rather than getting upset with Clint, Loki couldn't help but sigh in relief. At least it wasn't him who had to state it.

"You should seek vengeance! Like I," Drax declared. Loki huffed.

"I'm much rather never see him again," the trickster retorted finally knowing where he had heard the name from.

"Drax, buddy. No offense but if the magic user doesn't want to be near Thanos, doubt you'd get anywhere close to revenge," Rocket pointed out. Drax frowned.

"Drax the Destroyer will get his revenge on Thanos! Or I will die fighting!" Drax cried. Loki snorted.

"Be that as it may, not everyone holds the same sentiment," the trickster mentioned.

"I am Groot," Groot called. Loki sighed.

"I understand that many of you feel the same. But, I would not like to be involved. I merely wish to return to Midgard and stay far away from him," Loki argued. Clint rolled his eyes a bit. He had the same sentiment as the trickster but he was also a hero. The archer couldn't help about seriously thinking of helping.

"I am Groot."

"Do not presume to know me." Clint looked over to Quill and Gamora for help but they just shook their heads. This was up to Groot and Loki.

"I am Groot."

"You are nothing in the grand scheme of things," Loki hissed.

"I am Groot."

"You really think this team can best him? You have one of his highly trained daughters with you and you still do not hold a shot at winning." Gamora actually winced at that, even if Loki had a good point. Thanos had trained her. He knew how she fought and would easily overwhelm her.

"I am Groot."

"Name calling will not change my opinion."

"I am Groot."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Groot, that's enough. Rocket, watch what you say around him, and Loki... I understand your feelings on this. But this needs to be done. We can't wait till after we drop you off," Quill responded. Loki snorted.

"You are courting death just as much as he," the trickster snarled and walked off to the bunks again. Clint sighed, watching him go. When he turned back, the guardians were staring at him.

"Look, it's your choice on the matter. We're just along for the ride. But honestly, we just want to go home," Clint begged. As much as he wanted to help, Clint feared what was happening on Earth. More particularly Cooper. Likely the teen though he had killed Loki and Clint. Quill frowned.

"I have not had a lead on my sister in nearly a year. If I skip this chance now, I may never see her again," Gamora growled focusing on Quill. Rocket also leveled a glare at Quill. The reward for Nebula was rather astonishing and it would help in the long run.

"I'm not saying we shouldn't do it. Trust me, I'm more than willing to help the Sovereign but... We risk a great deal by having you, her and Loki aboard," Clint stated, looking to Gamora. That took the wind out of everyone's sails as they seriously thought about it. "We have to look at the big picture. Getting Nebula just paints a gigantic target on our backs. And as Loki said, I don't think we even have the slightest chance of winning."

"I'm sorry Clint. But we're taking the job," Quill declared after a quick look around at his friends. Clint sighed. He already knew this was going to be their choice. Didn't make it any harder to hear. "We can't just ignore this."

"I understand," Clint sighed again before turning and going to find Loki. Quill looked to Gamora.

"Are they right? Is this going to be a bad idea?" he asked. Gamora sighed.

"Even if Loki was not here, bringing Nebula and myself together is a dangerous combination. A combination that you would never have questioned if Loki did not mention it," Gamora replied, making sure that Quill knew her well. If Clint and Loki weren't on the ship, they would already have been halfway there in this moment. Quill sighed. He had to trust Gamora knew what she was doing.

"Lets go to Sovereign," he announced.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!