DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from Guardians of the Galaxy, either in its movie or comic incarnation. I own any OC I can invent, though. I am not making a £ out of this. It is just for shits and giggles.

I am not trying to bash Nova Prime in this chapter, but to show her as an efficient and ruthless politician, who sees the big picture and has the interests of the Xandarian Empire as her top priority. Too bad for everyone who stands in her way.

Honest.

Enjoy!

Ronan wakes up from another nightmare to find none other than the Nova Prime, also known as Dame Irani Rael, standing at his bedside.
She looks down at him with a carefully blank expression on her pale pink face. Her eyes glitter, hard like diamonds.

"You are one of the survivors from the airstrikes. - she says, not asks - That was why you were so angry at the negotiations."
Ronan blinks in confusion, then nods. A shard of pain goes through his head, painting stars under his eyelids.
"Which one? The Academy on Kilda? The military compound on Scatha?" she asks neutrally.
He knows the victim counts of each, they range in the hundreds, if not thousands, yet she says the names as if they mean nothing.

"The Great Temple. On Hala." he rasps.
Nova Prime nods. "Ah. You didn't make it in time to the ceremony, I suppose." she says calmly, as if she is speaking of the weather.
"I was there. Inside the Temple." Ronan growls.
This makes her change expression, at least. Her eyebrows arch in surprise.

"You are one of the fifteen, then." she says.
There are only nine now, the others have succumbed to grief and guilt, and there will be eight when he dies.
"I am not one of the seven thousand three hundred and seventy-six." he retorts. That was the final count, considering even those whose bodies, vaporized in the explosion, were never found.
Nova Prime does not even blink. "When the strategy was planned, it seemed wise to sacrifice a few thousand to stop a war that could have killed millions." she states calmly.

Ronan tries to sit up, to launch himself off the bed and attack that sanctimonious woman. Agony shoots through his body, and the chains yank him back.
"They were civilians! Children!" he explodes.
Nova Prime just takes a step back and stares at him unblinkingly.
"I want you to know that I always opposed that strategy. - she says - It was unnecessarily heavy on collateral damage, and we should have imagined that wiping out your leadership would have not stopped the Empire. Your warlike indoctrination is too strong. You just do not know when to stop." she comments loftily.
Ronan is struck speechless by the callousness of that seemingly frail woman.

"We should have realized that starving you out would have been the best solution to obtain what we wanted. - she adds - It worked, didn't it?"
"Or you could have met us in battle, you cowards!" Ronan exclaims.
"We could have, but why should we? - she replies - We don't train our children to be killing machines since the age of six. We don't share a fetish for heroic death with you Kree. We do what is practical, not what is honourable. We like to win, not to fight uselessly." she explains.
"You are craven. Without honour!" Ronan protests.
"Maybe, but we won. - she retorts seraphically - And now, thanks to you, that treaty is set in stone. We should give you public thanks, really." she adds sweetly.
Ronan struggles against the chains, furious and nearly mad with pain.
"Actually, some conspiracy theorists say that you were working for us all along..." she continues, and he freezes as if struck by a deadly blow. That is a shame he didn't even know he was bearing.

"Your people should thank you too. - she goes on and he can't tell if she is oblivious of his pain, or quietly reveling in it - Your civilization was stagnant, dying. Trapped by rituals and ceremonies and unable to progress. The treaty will force them to change." she concludes.
"The treaty will push people into destitution! - he objects - It will give free reign to greed and ambition and turn honour into an empty concept!"
"You say this as if it is a bad thing. - she chides him - Ambition is good. It drives progress. Your politicians have realized it, finally, with some help from Kathair Fiyero. Better later than never." she comments smugly.
"He was your man!" Ronan accuses.
"Of course. - she replies offhandedly - War is a long game, we like to be prepared on all fronts. We have just shown him that here on Xandar, hard work is repaid with something a bit more substantial than a ceremonial weapon and a place in that abominable collective intelligence of yours after death."
"Honour is its own reward." Ronan spits.

Words cannot express his disgust towards the scion of House Fiyero. If he were free, he'd make his mission of accusing him and bringing him to justice for high treason.
"Maybe, but wealth is a bigger incentive. - Nova Prime concedes - Perhaps it will even give your oppressed lower classes the ambition to do something on their own, instead of looking for protection and guidance from you. They will be free."
"Free to starve and to steal. Free to sell their honour to the highest bidder. - he retorts - What sort of freedom is that?"
"It is the only kind. - Nova Prime replies - They will adapt, I am sure. Everything does if it wants to survive. You will too. Or maybe not. I have heard that you people are fond of ritual suicide." she adds, coming closer to the bed and staring at him hard.

"Now that the entire Galaxy knows that we have taken you prisoner, and that we are treating you humanely even after what you have done, we don't really need to keep you. - she says in a quiet hard voice - You are free to shuffle this mortal coil the way you prefer. You'll spare us the expense of cell and keep."
Ronan is even further appalled by her words. Thankfully, he is not haaq to the Xandarians, or she might even order him to take his life, and he would be honour-bound to comply.
"Then I will live, if only to spite you." he declares.
Nova Prime shrugs. "I don't care either way. - she says and it rings true - Your moment of glory, so to speak, is over. You are history. Live or die, you are no longer a threat to us." she concludes.
The worst is that she doesn't even hate him. He can see that.
It is not personal for her, not a question of principles. It is just business.

"I didn't do this for glory! I did it for justice." he says nonetheless, wishing he didn't sound so desperate.
"I had imagined. - Nova Prime comments - Those pilots you killed... we knew they had been responsible for the airstrikes. Well done. Now the truth is dead with them." she points out.
"I have proof." Ronan insists.
"No, you have not. - she declares - We have it, whatever has not been destroyed in the crash of the Dark Aster. We'll keep it safe for you." she pretends to reassure him, but her face and her voice are blank, empty.

"You can rest assured that it will never see the light again. - she promises quietly but with steel in her voice - We can't have something like that reach the public. It would be... inconvenient."
"I will proclaim the truth! You will have to kill me to keep me silent!" Ronan shouts, feeling like a trapped animal, with increasingly less space to run.
"And who will listen to you on Xandar, after what you have done? - she asks sweetly - You are a terrorist and a criminal. Your word is worth less than nothing here. As I said, you have no power to hurt us anymore."

As much as he would like to deny it, Ronan recognizes that it is the truth and that there is nothing he can do to change things.
He has failed.
Everything he has ever fought for, all his life, has been for nothing.
Justice will not be done, and it is in good part his own fault.

Something breaks anew inside him, and from her expression, he can tell that Nova Prime has noticed.
She does not gloat, though. Her expression is sad instead.
She pities him, which makes it all worse.

"I am sorry for your loss. I really am. - she says and it sounds like the truth - But you should have let it go. You should have moved on. Your government has, finally. They didn't even ask for formal apologies from us. They are eager to leave that phase behind." she reveals.
"It is wrong! It is wrong!" he cries.

Rows and rows of mostly empty tombs, shattered families, grown people who couldn't sleep at night without medication because what if they come back? What if they burn us from the sky again?
It means nothing any longer. To no one.

"Right, wrong... Justice, honour... You Kree are surprisingly naive. - Nova Prime says - Reality is much more complicated than that. It's time that you learned it." she says before she leaves.

Blind with tears, Ronan only hears the door close behind her.