It has been roughly five hours since Apophis has returned from Sanctuary and took note of any work that needed to be done on the Necrocaft. Apophis had finally returned to sleep after remembering everything he needed to fix in the morning.

The peaceful slumber he found in once again interrupted as the sound of a door opening was heard. He slowly opened his eyes to see that it was his bedroom and narrowed his eyes, wondering who was entering it.

"Who is it?" He asked, letting out a yawn as he sat up slightly.

"Uh, Apophis, it's me," Nebula replied, sticking her head into the bedroom slightly.

"Neb?" He wondered why she was here since the Dark Aster shouldn't have reached the Kyln yet.

"You know what, never mind," Nebula said, shutting the door slightly."Also, don't call me that!" She commanded as she closed the door all the way.

"What was that about?" He questioned as he climbed out of bed and went to the door to see if she was still outside, but he didn't see her in the hall anymore.

'She seemed to need something important, but she changed her mind for some reason. I will ask her in the morning about it.' He thought, closing the four and heading back to his bed to sleep away what was left of the night.

Apophis woke up after the last couple of hours of sleep for the night until morning time. He let out a loud yawn as he sat on up in bed.

"I wonder if Nebula is awake yet," He said, getting on out of bed and heading to the bathroom to wash on up before changing out of the pajamas he had on last night.

Soon as he was done washing up in the shower, he walked back into his room with a towel and started getting dressed in a red and black long-sleeve shirt and matching pants.

"Now, to find Nebula and figure out what she wanted before getting me some breakfast and working on the repairs some of the Necrocaft needed to be done to them," He said, leaving his bedroom to search for Nebula.

Apophis was currently looking around the ship for Nebula after not finding her in her bedroom. He heard a noise coming from the docking deck and went down the steps to see Nebula sitting inside one of the Nercocaft near the controls.

"Hey," Apophis said, causing Nebula to look up from what she was doing and watch him walk over to the tools he left in here last night before he stole a glance at Nebula's expression."Did you sleep well last night?" He asked.

"Yeah, of course," Nebula lied as she let out a mechanical-sounding yawn. She took a deep breath as she tried not to think about the reason she didn't sleep so well last night."Head me a screw."

Apophis nodded and pulled out a screw, and headed over to Nebula and headed it to her and saw she was fixing the control system like he made a note of last night and realized she was reading over the notes he made on the tablet he left in here.

"Nebs, you didn't need to do my work for me, "Apophis said as he stretched his stiff muscles from lying in bed." Anyway, was there something you needed last night?"

Nebula remained silent as her eyes were trained on the movement of Apophis's muscles as he stretched his chest out and arms behind his back. Apophis chuckled to himself as he noticed that Nebula was studying his chest.

"You like what you see, Nebs?" He asked with a smile, causing her to look away from him."It's okay. I don't mind. My mother always told me I had my father's good looks."

"You shouldn't listen to lies," Nebula retorted, keeping her eyes focused away from Apophis."As for

last night just forgot about my visit to your room. It wasn't important," She said as she shook her head, empty of the voice telling her to tell him why he wandered to his room during the night once they got back on the ship.

"I don't believe that, Nebs," He commented.

"Ugh, stop calling me that!" She snapped, annoyed by the nickname."And forget it already. It wasn't important, so I left you to sleep. Come on, before all the breakfast is eaten."

"Alright, I'm coming, but don't expect me to believe a word of what you're saying about it not being important," Apophis said as he followed Nebula out of the docking deck to eat breakfast for the morning."You might not believe it at the moment, but you can tell me anything. I will listen."

"I might have accepted your false kindness last night after my father's words, but that was just once, so stop it and forget about me coming in there. It wasn't important," Nebula muttered as she continued to walk towards the Consumer deck to eat breakfast.

Apophis followed right behind her, studying her tense muscles, and knew there was definitely something going on in her mind bothering her. However, he decided it was best to let her be and wait for her to tell him what was wrong when she was ready.

"Fine, I won't force you to tell me the truth," Apophis said as they entered the large consumer deck where many of Ronan's lackeys were finishing up breakfast. He spotted Krobb sitting at the same table as the other guards."But it is not false kindness. I care about you and will keep telling you that until you get that through your head, Nebs."

Nebula glanced at Apophis and sighed at his annoying attempts to be her friend and using that dumb nickname again. She didn't know what his deal was or why he had come up with such a dumb nickname for her recently. Nebula wasn't interested in his so call friendship and never expected to find any friends with the life she was forced to live with her Cybernetic enchantments.

Apophis was in the same situation as Nebula. He didn't have many friends back on his home planet except for Celestial, a female Nagain. He was constantly on the move with Ronan and a dangerous Assassin now, which made making friends less likely to have now. He now sometimes wonders if he could find love like his mother and father did. They both were always showing so much love for each other every day.

Apophis eyes wandered over to Nebula, messing with her Cybernetic arm with her other hand like she often did as a distraction from her thoughts. The two reached the counter and grabbed a bowl of blue soup that was made for breakfast, and sat down at a table away from the large table of warriors. Apophis felt himself looking at Nebula again and narrowed his eyes in thought.

'Krobb's words keep playing in my head, and now that I think about it, more maybe he is telling me I'm in love with her like my parents love each other, but can that really be true.' He thought, picking up his spoon as he glanced at Nebula.

"Will you stop that," Nebula muttered, catching Apophis gaze on her and pausing to drink her juice.

"Yeah, my bad was lost in thought," Apophis apologized quickly, dining his spoon into his soup and eating it.

"Well, get lost in thought, not looking at me or just saying whatever you're thinking about me around!" She snapped in annoyance.

"Woah, relax. I don't have any comments about you if that's what your thinking," He said."If anything, I think you're outfit looks lovely with your lovely blue skin."

"You're a fool," Nebula replied, shaking her head.

Yeah, another chapter for A Suvior's Strength has been published. I hope you enjoyed it. It took me awhile to finish writing. It felt like it was missing something, but now I believe it had a nice bonding moment between our future lovers. Very soon, we will be getting into more action once they reach the Kyln to get Gamora.

Even though this was more like another filler chapter, I hope you enjoyed reading it. Feel free to share your thoughts. I would love to hear what you think of the chapter or story.

Thank you, everyone, for reading my story. The support is appreciated!

Word Count: 1410