"Don't take too long, guys!" Peter yelled from the hatch. "We can't be stayin' too long since that guy replied,"
"Okay, Peter, stop worrin'," Rocket yelled back, walking along with Groot and the others. "But why can't Lianna come?"
"I gotta check the engine, it started sputtering and glitchin' when I went down there earlier," Lianna yelled out from behind Peter, grease covering her hands and a wrench that she held in grasp.
He smiled and said "Alrighty then, make sure you don't burn yourself then," and continued on walking.
"I won't~" she said, turning around to walk back up the hatch. When it closed, Peter found Lianna in the same seat as she was in from in the morning, wiping away the grease she rubbed on her hands to play along with the act.
"So, are you ready to continue the story?" Peter asked. "Ready as much as you," Lianna said, chuckling a little
Bright lights were blinding me. I squeezed my eyes closed and slowly cracked them open. Everything around me felt different, almost like I just swapped bodies with someone. I groaned and went to push myself up when I soon realized I was strapped down to something. I looked and saw I was on a board, an IV hooked up to me along with a heart monitor as well.
"Lianna?" The voice sounded soft, but I knew it was Stein.
"S...S-Stein?" My throat was aching and my voice sounded croakish.
"Oh, Lianna, you're awake!" Soon I felt him wrap his arms around my neck, and I flinched a little in surprise. I was glad he cared about me again, but then something clicked and moved from behind my neck. I watched Stein stand straight up and hold in his hands an advanced shock collar. Was I really that bad? I thought to myself. Did I hurt someone while I was out?
"How are you feeling, Lianna?" he asked, going to un-strap my arms and legs next.
"Mmm...yeah," I meekly said, my throat still hurting. "But, where am I?"
"You're in 'HCZ', short for 'Hazardous Containment Zone', which is the second level of the facility," he said, finishing un-strapping me.
"'Hazardous Containment Zone'?" I said, slowly lifting myself up from the board.
"You were not alone as well in the transfer too," He pointed to two large two-way windows that were on my left and right. I carefully stepped off the board and looked into the right window, the mirror effect being on the other side of the wall. All I saw was Groot, strapped down to a board exactly like mine and hooked up to a heart monitor and other machines that we're in my current room. He wasn't struggling or anything, so I guessed he was knocked out.
I turned around and confronted the mirror part of the left window, squinting and shading my eyes to see into the other room. There was Rocket, hooked up to the same things as Groot and looked as he was waking up. He turned his head slightly to the right, and quickly woke up when he saw me. He began to struggle in the grasp of the straps and continuiously call my name from what I read off his lips.
"Oh my god, Lianna's awake!" I heard from inside his head. "I gotta tell her what happened while she was knocked out for months!"
"I was out, for months?" I asked Stein, looking at him from behind my shoulder. "You were only out for two weeks," he said. "But very much happened during that time you were asleep,"
"Like what?" I asked, turning away from the window then.
"Well, after we tranquilized you, much fuss had come up. Rocket continuiously complained about the method we used on calming you down and refused to do the last of his Math and English tests before moving him on to skill testings,"
"Did he miss me?" I asked, moving back to the window to watch Rocket stare back at me with an exhausted look. "He must of, for he refused to eat for five days and stayed huddled in the corner of the room, apparently hugging and or stroking your satchel bag. It wasn't until the next day did he actually do something, and awful something,"
"What did he do?" I asked, still looking at Rocket.
"He had bitten one of the staff members," I was shocked, and gave that same expression to Rocket.
"H-He bit someone?" "Two actually," Stein said, making the number gesture with his hand. I was shocked even more, actually almost horrified. The thought of Rocket doing something violent scared me. Sure, he can be 'rough 'n' tough', but never that harmful.
"The first one was just one of my assistants. He were taking in some food for Rocket since the food deliver system was took out in that hallway. He went in, and said 'Here's your food, 89P13', and sat the tray down on the bed. Rocket quickly grabbed his wrist and said 'Where's Lianna?' in a serious voice. My assistant said he didn't know where she was, and Rocket just said 'Wrong answer', and bit into his arm, drawing blood," I was just horrified as I imagined how it looked. I clenched my eyes tightly and put a hand on the window, feeling myself being to tear up to see I didn't raise him good enough(thank you, motherly species, like I needed you at all).
"And who was the other one?" I choked out a little, trying to hold back my tears as I turned to face him.
"Me," He pulled up his right coat sleeve and revealed a bandage wrapped below his elbow. I covered my mouth, feeling myself fall deeper into parental failure. He went to comfort me when I sprang him, clutching him and slowly cracking down my non-existent shell of bravery and toughness.
"I-I'm so sorry, I-I never knew R-Rocket would e-ever hurt anyone f-for real?!" I was like a sobbing mess. I just couldn't believe Rocket would have ever done that. But soon I felt a reassuring hand stroke and pat my back, and I cracked down even more.
"It's okay, Lianna, it's not your fault," he tried cooing, but I popped my head off his shoulder and gave him a slightly meaner look as I gripped his shoulders then.
"But it is! I was his caretaker, his guardian, his family, and I must've not did good of a damn job if he went off and fuckin' bit someone!" I was just a clusterfuck of sadness, failure, and anger right now. Stein was just staring at me with a shocked looked, like he just heard his mother call him by his full name. "I-I'm sorry," I said, loosening my grip on him. "That was the motherly species coming out of me,"
"It's alright," he said, caressing his hand on my cheek. "You've been through some tough times right now; you need to relax,"
"Yeah, I guess," I said, immediately feeling all my stress flow out of me. "So where will I be staying?" "In one of the cells in this level," he said, placing a hand on my back and leading me towards the door. "Your bag will have to stay in my office for security reasons, but you'll be fine without it, because soon you'll have your old roommate again,"
And he was right. It was almost nighttime and Rocket was being release from the testing chamber. I sat there in my new cell waiting for his arrival. All the walls, ceiling, floor, and door was padded with soft, yellow, thick memory foamish material. The door opened up like a normal door and revealed a guard covered in white, advanced armory.
"Stein said he needs you in his office, and you are trusted to go on your own," The guard said, and walked down the hallway. I got up and peeked my head out the cell, looking both ways for anyone. I felt skittish around people in this level since they seemed mean from what I could hear and see. I slowly walked out of the cell, and closed the door behind me, it instantly locking up. I don't think this is gonna go well, I thought to myself. I can sense there's gonna be trouble ahead.
"'L-07'...'L-08'...'L-09'," I counted aloud the room numbers as I walked down the deathly silent hall. I thought of it strange for extremely, hazardous creatures to be so quietly in this zone. But then something caught my eye. It was room L-12, the room Groot was in. I was curious and pressed my ear against the door, and surprisingly heard groans from the other side. I suddenly felt a little sorry for him. Sure, he did try killing the scientists and almost me at some point, but he was just scared and freaked out. I noticed then a small rectangular window at the top of the door, and decided to take a peek in.
I slowly levitated myself up to the window and felt a little relieved to he looked fine, misusing the fact I ripped off his right arm, but it looked to be slowly growing back. I smile to myself a little to see he was fine and not hurt, I couldn't really vow him to agonizing pain for being scared. Soon I noticed a set of red buttons beside the door, and stretched my hand over to them, thinking thoroughly of which one to choose. I closed my eyes and randomly picked like 'eenie-minie-mo'. The door opened, and I opened my eyes to see my finger on the second button. I then lowered myself down to the floor, cautiously walking into the room with the door closing down afterwards.
"I...am Groot?" Groot groan, looking up from the board, but showing a slightly scared expression towards me. I just kinda there, like if I moved he would attack me.
"U-Um...hi?" I meekly said, my eyes locked on to any movement he made. "U-Uh, how's it goin'?"
"I am Groot?" he said, raising his body up more to look at me straight forward.
"Well...I see your gettin' better, hehe," I felt stupid. I was telling him, the creature that terrorize everyone, how he was looking better, after I had ripped his arm off. Nothing weird at all. "I am, Groot," he said, looking over to his generating arm.
Tension seemed to fill the air as the both of us went silent, and it was awkward as being put into a room with someone you didn't know, which was ironically this situation. But soon I just couldn't go slow and calm anymore with him.
"Look, I'm sorry I hurt you and ripped your arm off," I said, walking towards him. "It's just you were hurting people and I wanted to keep them save and you did hurt my best friend too, so I just went into action. Even though we don't really know each other, would you accept my apology?" I stood there by his bad arm, waiting for a response from him.
"I am Groot," he grinned, and moved his small arm to rest on my mine. I can tell it was a 'yes'. "Ya know, you ain't that bad once you get to know you; you actually seem like a sweet person when your awfully calm," I said. He grinned even more, but it quickly faded away when his body went limp. I grew scared and went to comfort and ask him what's wrong when I heard the door open.
"Lianna? What are you doing in here!" It was Stein, and he sounded pissed. "I specifically said come to my office and you go in here?!" I hunched over and backed up some, like a puppy being scolded. "I needed to tell you Rocket was being held back a day for hostile actions," I quickly sprang up straight when I heard that. 'Hostile actions'? Come on, Rocket.
Afterwards, I was sent back to my cell with the addition of a collar because of the event. But later on Groot was surprisingly added to my cell all because he seemed so calm with me and they wanted me to keep him like that. He made good company, even though he only says three words. And I was especially glad he was there when Rocket came in that night.
The door opened up and I felt someone being thrown in. I opened my eyes and anger slowly built up when I saw it was Rocket. I wanted just smack him upside the head, but I was too scared to confront him. I just huddled more closer to Groot in hoping to him from him.
"'Ey, you," Rocket called out to Groot. "Do you know anyone by the name of 'Lianna'?" I felt Groot hum a 'yes' and moved his arm up, blowing my cover and making me quietly curse. "Lianna!" Rocket cried, soon dropping to his knees and laying a hand on my side and back. "Oh Lianna, I missed you! Did they hurt you in anyway?"
Hurt. That word immediately lit a match in me. He didn't know what he did hurt me. So I just kept myself facing the wall, trying to ignore Rocket's worried tone. It was just sickening me more and more. Finally, he asked Groot what was wrong with me and I just blew.
"You wanna know what's wrong with me?" I said, slowly sitting up and turning myself enough to see him from the corner of my eye. "I'm disappointed," "Disappointed at what? That we had to move to another level?" Rocket said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I'm disappointed of you," At that moment I felt him take his hand back.
"Me? Why me?" "You did the one thing I've told you not to do since the day you started lessons, and what do you do!" I stood you and faced him, saying "You go and bite two people!" with my arms thrown out in front of me.
"They were annoying me, you wouldn't understand," Rocket said, his voice slightly timid, but raising as well. "'Wouldn't understand'?! How about I just randomly bite you right now since you're annoying me!" Groot then began to stand up and back up a little from our growing fight.
"You wouldn't know how it feels to be alone!" Rocket striked back, a snarl pulling at his lips. "I spent four years alone without anyone to comfort me, and then I stayed even longer to save your sorry ass!" "I didn't need saved, I could've gotten on without your help! You were just an obstacle in my way!" "Well you were one too! You pathetic, fucking rat!" It was like a spear striked him to the heart, and he looked like he was about to cry. "Maybe I should've never helped you! Maybe I should've never came to your cry for help! Maybe I shouldn't have came here! Maybe...I-I should've stayed home," Soon I felt myself begin to tear, and I laid back against the padded wall, feeling myself slide down to the ground to curl up into a ball.
"M-Maybe...I'm a monster," I just laid my head down on my legs and began to quietly crying, knowing that was the true after all. I was just a big, mean, brutal monster. But soon, I felt Groot's hand lift my head up. He store at me with worry, but soon changed to a soothing smile as he caressed my cheek. "I, am Groot," he said, soon growing a flower from his wrist and plucking it off to put into my hair. I just smiled, and leaned into his touch, feeling all the bad feelings fade away.
Suddenly the lights went out and everything went black. "Groot?" I called out, feeling his hand on my shoulder for assurance. "R-Rocket?" I called out, only hearing a shuffling sound come close by me. Soon the cell began to slowly light up a soothing yellow, and it was emitting off of Groot. The little, light spores were floating among us and gave off enough light to be a night-light until lights came back on.
Groot yawned and began anchoring himself to the wall, I decided to use him as a pillow. The shuffling sound drew closer to me, and I saw from barely closed eyes it was Rocket, hugging himself as he just laid against the wall beside me. He looked like he was acting he could sleep by himself, but I knew he couldn't. So I acted as if I was grabbing my favorite stuffed animal, grabbing Rocket by the arm and slowly dragging him over to wrap my arms around him. He easily gave in, and huddled against me.
"I love you," I whispered to him, feeling him be shocked by my words. "I...I-I love you, too," he said, curling up against me as he drew closer to me. I smiled and buried my nose in his head, slowly drifting away to sleep.
In the morning, everything was a lot better. We were all caring for each other, making each other laugh, giving each others flower crown(Groot started it), but then Stein came in with news for us. Rocket was to begin his skill tests tomorrow and I was to be put into experiments to find the cause and cure for my strange outbreak in rage, and Groot only had to go in with me for a quick sample and some tests.
One and a half weeks later, everything was hard on us. Rocket had been through four tweaking surgeries and I've had three shots per day with four tests afterwards, making it a total of thirty-three shots and forty tests. During that time, Groot's been our stay-home mom; caring for us and our almost constant needs from our 'day's work'. It wasn't until the day Rocket was going in for his fifth surgery when we saw this place as hell.
Groot was just rubbing our backs when Stein came by to get Rocket. He walked down the wall with him, but didn't fully close the door when he left. Groot had laid me down beside him and was looking curiously at the doorway. He kept looking back to me and the doorway, apparently thinking I was asleep since my eyes looked closed to him. Just then, he got up and popped his head the door. He looked back at me once more, and left, closing the door behind him. I knew I needed to go after him, but everything in my body was sore and crying for rest. And soon, I found myself drifting off to sleep again, like I had no care in the world what Groot was doing.
Suddenly, the sounds of alarms awoken me. I quickly shook off my sleepy expression and was soon greeted by the door being ripped off by Groot holding Rocket like a baby. His face showed fear as he quickly gave Rocket to me and went to put the door back in place. Rocket was groaning in pain, and I noticed a large leaf wrapped around his back, but what caught my attention the most was the blood staining the leaf itself. I panicked, and held Rocket closer to me as Groot finally got the door back in place and went to huddle over by me. "What happened?!" I yelled over the alarms, but soon the door came down, and guards came into the room with Stein behind them. "What the hell is going on?!" Stein yelled. We soon were put into a horrifying lecture from Stein, him yelling and poking his finger at us. It was terrifying to see him so angry. But that wasn't the bad part.
One day later, we were told that we were going to be put into separate cells and that Rocket had to be completely restructured since Groot had apparently ripped him out of his back surgery session, possible causing future back problems for him. I wished it was all a nightmare, but I soon saw we were living a nightmare. So then that night, we planned our escape. We would bust out of cell and go to the control room, taking out the security and door locks so it was about smooth sail afterwards.
And we did it.
Thirty miles away from the facility, we were living in the alleyway beside a restaurant, trying our hardest to survive in the shitty place we found. It was high in crimes and pollution and drugs, alcohol, and lust just painted the streets. It was just perfect, being in a place where I couldn't keep Rocket safe from those three things. I was able to keep him safe from the drugs, but the alcohol and lust sadly got to him. He'd spend some nights at the bar and come back puking, and the lust caught him around his mating season. I could sadly deal with the occasional 'drunken sailor', but when it came around that 'time of the year', me and Groot tried giving him as much room as we can, trying not to get hurt or let alone 'loved' by him. He did seem more 'huggative' during that time towards me, but he never went as far as kissing my head now and then.
But then came our final moments together.
We were huddled behind the dumpster, our usual sleeping and hiding spot. I heard someone walking down the alleyway, and saw it was a person holding a gun. I was thinking it was that bub that was trying to woo me and was threatening me now for not 'falling in love' with him. I carefully pulled out the gun I've been hiding down my boots from the others and sprang out from behind the dumpster. "What do ya what?" I ordered, my gun cocked sideways to look more threatening. The person also had their gun at me, but it soon fell down to their side and into it's hostler. "Lianna?" Their voice sounded feminine, and it hit me. "Mom?" I asked, and soon knew it was her when her hood came down. He ran into each other's arms and bear hugged. It was really surprising that I finally got see her again(she had to leave me to go back to her home planet when the president signed the agreement, leaving me with my father at age two). Soon the others began waking up, and the first thing I heard was "Where da hell did you get a gun at?" from Rocket. I introduce my mom to the two, but was asked something shocking afterwards.
"Lianna, I think you should come home with me," my mom said, my hands in her grasp. " I haven't seen you for about 18 years, and your father's been there for you ever since, so I feel it's my turn now; teach you everything I know about exploration and trade markets," "I wish I could, but I have these guys to look after," I said, looking back to Rocket and Groot. "Okay, I guess the easy way didn't work," she said, catching my attention. "Lianna, I was actually here to bring you back to Langara, lawfully," "A-Am I under arrest?!" "No, sweetie, your not, but since you've gotten your blood taken by those scientists, the president ordered an immediate return and sent me to find you. I know this all may feel like what I said before was a lie, but it actually wasn't. I've really missed you, Lianna. I regretted every moment for not refusing to the order and staying there at Terra with you and your father," Now I knew I didn't have a choice. "Could I still bring Rocket and Groot with me?" I said, gesturing a hand towards them. "I'm sorry, sweetie, I can't. I can't even take them to a better place for them to continue on with their lives,"
Soon I felt Rocket holding my free hand, drawing my attention. "Lianna, just go with your mom, you'll be more safer with her anyways," He said, rubbing his thumb against my hand in assurance. "But I can't leave you guys alone, you barely even know anything about being out in the real places," I said, kneeling down to his level. "That's why it called 'learning on your own', Lianna. I've toughen up a good bit out here, and I got Groot by my side to help, so you don't have to worry about us, about me," I looked Rocket in the eye and hugged him tight, Groot joining in as well.
"Honey, we gotta get going soon," my mom said, resting a hand on my shoulder. "I'll meet you in front of the thrift store, mom," I told her, and she nodded and left.
"Will you promise me one thing, Rocket?" I asked him, placing my hands on his cheeks." "What is it?" he said, putting his hands on mine. "Stay strong, stay bold, and shine one," And with that, a placed a kiss just on the corner of his lip, and left for Langara, hoping that the stars would lead us together again.
"And we did, five years later," Lianna said, laying back in her chair.
"But my question is why did you kiss him so near his lips?" Peter had his genuine smirk on his face again, making her blush a little.
"Ugh, okay, I did like Rocket for some point of time before we departed," she admitted, but only getting a bigger smirk from Peter.
"Was it because he was jackin' off in the corner and giving you all those 'hugs' and 'forehead kisses'?"
"Peter, I swea', ta gawd, shut da fuck up,"
HHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNN I'm such a bad author for updating two weeks later. Well plus a day too since it's 6-13-15 and is like 2:30 in the morning and I neeD TO SHUT UP. But it was because of school being out and everyone's usually out somewhere and *blows raspberries*.
Bottom line is, I'll try to keep myself of a schedule to Friday and only a stretch to Saturday if I'm bad behind. Also I had help with this chapter from XA55assinxeliteX, and I'm glad I did ^^
Hope you enjoy it as much as I messed up my sleep patterns TwT
-xXFangirl311Xx