Gamora
Peter caught up beside me, and I could see him holding on to his ribs slightly from the corner of my eye. The words unintentionally kept replaying over my own thoughts, finally driving me insane.
"…I remember the first moment I looked at her standing next to me and realized that somehow the rest of the world seemed to vanish when I was talking to her…"
Peter did seem slightly disturbed when we first spoke to each other though.
When the other girls crowded him, I felt this foreign burning feeling stuck in the pit of my stomach and throbbing in my chest similar to anger. I wanted to believe it was anger, but it wasn't. Was this jealousy? I cannot a recall a time I was jealous before. I had always been my fathe- Thanos's favourite out of all my 'sisters'. And even if I wasn't his favourite, I don't think I would have cared.
Thanos tortured me and slaughtered my family, therefore making me the only survivor of my race, the Zen-Whoberis. I wanted to escape his continuous missions of evil, and I wanted to lose my title of 'the most dangerous woman in the universe' and 'daughter of Thanos'. But I have learnt, sometimes you don't get what you want.
Speaking of which, I wonder what happened to Nebula. She was the nicest out of them all back in Titan, and that just goes to show you how truly insane they all are.
When Peter had chosen me out of all those attractive Xanderian women, I couldn't place how I felt but it was a relieving sort of emotion, even though I did not want to show it.
Focus. We had to look for Taneleer. In Xander. How hard could it be? You could spot that man if he was invisible; wearing extravagant articles of leather, fur and other fabrics.
I wonder what he wanted from us. He didn't exactly do anything wrong for us to lose our (cautious) bond of trust – it was his servant, Carina if I recall, at fault to create the explosion. So, I suppose we were going to be fine. I hope.
"Where is this guy?" Peter sighed after moments and moments of silence.
"Keep looking." I mutter, forcing myself to keep focused.
"I am. I have been for the last thirty minutes." Peter groans, weaving his way in and out through the crowds of Xanderians. He complains too much.
"Well you kept a promise to find him, did you not?" I raise a brow while nudging past a group of girls who refused to move out the way.
"Yeah," he sighs in defeat. "I always mean what I say." he mumbles and looks in my direction for a lingering moment, before pushing through more people.
As we reach an opening, he flicks on the communicator connected to his wrist and waits a moment for the mini projector screen to regenerate. A blurring hologram of Rocket's close profile shimmers into view along with the sound of cackling due to technical difficulties. The sounds of cheering, laughter and chatter slowly increases as the image of Rocket clears. Cheering, laughter and chatter?
"Any luck?" Peter asks Rocket lousily, and stops walking. As do I.
"What?" Rocket's voice utters almost accusingly.
"Um, have you seen him yet?" Peter repeats, frowning slightly.
"Seen who?" Rocket asks and the laughter in the back increases.
"The Collector." Peter answers roughly.
"Rocket, what have you been doing for the last thirty minutes?" I ask slowly.
"Uh," Rocket starts and whooping begins in the background. "CHUG, CHUG, CHUG!" crowds of people chant.
Peter and only have to turn to each other to understand what is going on. That idiot, Rocket, hasn't even been looking for The Collector this whole time. I grab Peter's wrist to get a better view of the projector, "Where's Drax? And Groot?" I ask sternly.
Rocket sighs and raises his wrist so we able to get a view of a bar type atmosphere filled with Xanderians, liquor and illegal gambling. Drax stands around the gambling table, cheering along with the rest and chugging down some form of alcohol. It seems as though Groot is standing behind Rocket, due to the evident bark legs in view.
"We'll bring the party to you!" Rocket shouted over a clatter of glasses and chairs.
"You were the one who told us about this mission," I say, managing to keep my anger under control. "Ow!" Peter says, swatting my grip of his wrist. Okay, not quite.
"Sorry, can't hear you!" Rocket yelled as more laughter erupted. The screen returned to Rocket's face. "We seem, BUZZ, to have some technical, BUZZ, difficulties." Rocket lied, and shook the screen rapidly every now and then.
"Rocket!" Peter warned.
"You're, BUZZ, -ing out. What did you say? BUZZ."
"Will you stop with the, BUZZ, crap?!" Peter expressed.
"Wait until I get my hands you. You are –", I begin to threaten, but the projection session closes and it is obvious that Rocket has ended the call.
"Typical." I mutter, pressing my fingertips to the bridge of my nose.
"Now how are we supposed to find The Collector? It's going to take forever."
"It seems," a familiar voice drawls from behind us. "As though I… have already found you."
I quip around, to find – "Taneleer Tivan, The Collector" a new assistant introduces although we already have met on numerous occasions before.
The assistant's eyes, like the rings on Taneleer's fingers, were pools of iridescent gold, sculpted upon her rose coloured face like dazzling jewels. Strands of molten gold tumbled out of her scalp, cascading down her back like a waterfall. Cherry lips, crystal white teeth: she truly was a beautiful sight to behold.
I turned to Peter, who clearly noticed her beauty as well; his mouth hanging agape, and his eyes wide. He quickly shut his mouth and cleared his throat.
I chose to ignore the familiar burning sensation tightening in my chest and didn't once glare at the attractive servant.
"Lady Gamora," Taneleer begun to bow his head and dramatically wither his hands in to some form of 'welcome'? Taneleer inherited the same white hair, tanned skin, tired eyes and lip marking from when we had last seen him. And as to my guess, he was yet again wearing an extravagant get up made of leather and fur.
"An honest pleasure to meet you once more…" he said, his gaze slowly wandering towards Peter.
"And, where are your…slaves?" Taneleer asked, yet continued to watch Peter. Peter raised an eyebrow under his eerie gaze, "Slaves?!"
Taneleer chuckled lowly and I sighed. We've spent at least an hour trying to find The Collector, and I hope he wasn't going to be wasting our time. "They are elsewhere on… urgent matters." I nod to myself.
"How do you, explain that?" Taneleer questioned his gaze settling on me.
"Explain what?" I ask, starting to get impatient.
His gaze flickered behind us, and Peter and I slowly turned to find the Milano landed on top of a crushed waterfall that spat water in various directions. Citizens of Xander curiously crowded the ship, murmuring lowly among themselves. Suddenly the door blasted open with a familiar looking tree figure and followed by a small fluffy creature and a man. Those imbeciles.
"Hey! I said we'd bring the party to you!" Rocket shouted and crawled up to Groot's shoulder, the three of them started to grow closer. "Party?" I frown and stare at the damaged ship.
"You ruined my ship!" Peter yelled, staring at the scene with disbelief.
"Yeah, note to self: never let Groot drive." Rocket said and crawled down Groot's frame.
"I am Groot." Groot shrugged innocently.
"I said turn left but you turned right!" Rocket argued.
"My ship is ruined…" Peter continued.
"I had nothing to do with this." Drax said.
"Yes, you did we saw you!" I told Drax.
"Oh." That's all Drax said. And then everyone grew in to an eruption of arguments, it was madness. Peter started complaining about Groot, but then Rocket decided it was a good idea to defend him and admit that it was his fault. I was yelling at Drax and then told Peter and Rocket to stop being so childish. It was all a blur of nonsense words.
"Enough." Taneleer interrupted and everyone slowly silenced.
"Oh not this goon again…" Rocket mumbled.
"Who is this?" Drax asked, stepping forward.
His assistant spoke up, "Taneleer Tivan, The –",
"We get who he is already!" Rocket said. "Yeah and uh sorry about ending the conversation so soon," Rocket said to the servant, referring to the hologram message they shared. "Groot pressed the wrong button."
"I am Groot." Groot folded his arms defensively.
"I did not slip!" he differed, and then glanced back to the servant with a smile.
"The reason why I had… called you all here is because I need you to, collect something for me." The Collector said.
"And, that is?" Rocket motioned with his paws for him to hurry up.
"The Tesseract." He answered dramatically.
I remember the hologram images he had showed us. The Tesseract is one of the oh-so powerful Infinity Stones. It was the glowing blue cube which controlled the mind. Why would he need that?
"The Tesseract, another Infinity Stone? Why would you need that?" I ask, curiously not meaning to be suspicious at all.
"To add to my collection." The Collector answers lowly.
"And not to blow up anything, I hope?" Peter asks, glancing towards his new servant who looked slightly confused. Peter was still irritated from his crashed ship.
"Of course not." Taneleer smiled lightly, setting an unsettling environment. "Anaconda, restore their ship to its full potential and then return with the coordinates." He orders and the servant, known briefly as Anaconda, nods and mutters a small "Yes, sir."
"I will explain everything later, but for now you are able to stay in residential services nearby." He says and straightens his posture, turning to leave.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. How much are you paying us exactly?" Rocket interfered and I stepped on his foot, receiving a small groan. Is that all he ever cared about?
Taneleer slowly turned back, "Twice as much as I offered you beforehand." He said dully and continued off.
Twice as much?!
Third Person – Hours Earlier
"Bring them to me." An incredibly deep voice ordered.
"I think you doubt them. They defeated –"
"That's because Ronan was weak! Pathetic! And power-driven." The voice boomed. "Taneleer, you are one of the only living species left of your race. We wouldn't want you to be extinct now, would we?" The voice continued.
After a moments silence, The Collector begun to pace across the familiar gloomy stone plane. "And why me?" he asks and continues to pace, only briefly pausing to glance at the others. Specifically, the Asgardian one.
"Because I am supposed to be dead!" the raven haired man answered. "Must I remind you, that I brang you the Aether?" he continued.
"Loki," the booming voice interrupted. "Must I remind you, you lost the Tesseract?"
Loki mildly smirked and decided to keep his mouth shut.
The Collector came up with an idea to lure them here, but wondered many other things. "And what do you intend to do with them?" he asked.
"Rid of them. I already have a group of these 'protectors' to deal with. Hopefully, that is not a problem to you?" The voice asked cautiously.
After a few moments of silence, "No," The Collector answered. "It is not."
"Very well." The voice said and the stone throne turned to reveal Thanos, the purple titan. "These Guardians of the Galaxy will feel the wrath of our power." He smirked, chuckling lightly.
Rushed chapter, but I had to quickly post! Thank you all once again for the reviews, follows etc. they really do help me form this story.
What do you think is going to happen next? When do you think Peter's father will appear? So many questions…
Yeah, but thanks for reading!