Chapter 15
"What happened to not taking your eyes off your opponent?" LJ asks as I close my eyes for a moment about forty-five minutes later and I catch his fist easily, opening my eyes to look at him.
"Figured I'd make it a little easier for you. Still not fast enough, though. It's a shame."
"It's been an hour," PIXEL says and I nod, looking at him.
"You weren't awful. Congrats."
"Thanks... I think."
"Yeah, that's a compliment. The kid just sucks at 'em," Rocket scoffs and I ignore him, tossing LJ his shirt and duster.
"You'll get better and might even earn a 'good job' or something like that. Right now? Right now you're not awful. Just take it." I shrug into my duster and look toward the door as Morgan barges in, panting with Indri on his heels, faring better in the breathing department. "You're out of shape. Indri?"
"We found out who posted it." She tosses me the holopad and I catch it, scanning through the information quickly. "And... Someone else did another thing... It's on there." I scroll down and grip the holopad tightly enough that it starts to crack before I ease up. "What do you want to be done?"
I open my hand and my ax soars into it, making people jump out of the way. "It could just have been from their wrist com," Morgan says quickly, still panting slightly, and I look at him.
"You know that isn't what happened. The proof's on here."
"I thought it might calm you down a bit... Didn't work, did it?"
"Outta m'way."
"Nope, it didn't. OK. I tried. Hang on. Just... Hang on a second, alright?" I glare at him and he holds his hands up for a moment before pressing a button on his wrist com.
My Quarters fill with dings as we all get a message and Dad opens it to go wide-eyed. "Narblik did what?"
"Now he gets brought here. Problem solved. Just wait." I walk out into Controls and the Navs see the message then see my ax, bolting as I go over to Controls.
"Narblik! Controls! NOW! If anyone intercepts him going anywhere else, drag his ass here," I bark over a ship-wide announcement and wait, putting my ax across my back.
Gef and Retch drag Narblik in with Brahl right behind them and throw him at my feet. "Captain, I didn't-" He starts as he stands and I growl, making him shut up.
"You're gonna try and lie to my face now? And I didn't know I told you to open your trap!" I kick him back to the floor and he falls onto his side with a soft grunt. "You're gonna tell me that it wasn't you when the evidence against you is this solid? How stupid do you think I am?" I kick him in the ribs and he curls up slightly. "You're gonna tell me this ain't you?" I grab his hair to show him the picture of him on the cameras posting information about LJ on his bounty and he clenches his jaw slightly. "Nothing to say now, huh?" I slam his face into the floor as I stand from my crouch and look down at him. "Get up."
He struggles to his feet and I watch. "Thought your boy should meet his older siblings," He smirks coldly and I look at him, what little control I had slipping away.
I grab him around his throat with my right hand and lift him off of his feet, slowly tightening my grip while my eyes stay locked on his. "And I think it's time you meet whatever God you believe in." I twist my wrist sharply and snap his neck, letting his body go limp in my hold. "Space the body," I state simply as I drop it and Brahl deals with it. I regain full control and look at LJ, seeing he was kind of terrified. "He broke the Code and he did it with my son. No one will make it out alive by doing that." He nods after a moment and I can still see the fear in his eyes but don't comment on it, not sure how to. "You should go eat something. G'on." He leaves to head to Mess and I watch for a moment, knowing he was going to be fearful of me now.
"Rogue... What did Narblik mean? LJ's older siblings?" Dad asks as I head back into my Quarters with them following and he shuts the door.
"Gabriel," I say in an eerily calm voice and he appears in front of me. "Is it possible that the other kids are alive?"
"I didn't bring them back."
"And I didn't ask if you did! Is it possible someone else brought them back? Yes or no?"
"Yeah, it is."
"Find out if someone did."
"Sorry to break it to you, but I'm not a Ravager. So you can't boss me around."
I press my sword and katana against either side of his throat and he tenses, looking at me. "I'm well aware of what you are and are not. Just like I'm well aware that I gave you your life source and I can just as easily take it back. Would be a shame for you to die and leave Sammy boy without you, wouldn't it?"
"You wouldn't."
"You won't have to find out if you find out what I want to know."
"Fine. I'll see what I can learn."
"Good." I sheath my swords and he disappears again.
"Did you just threaten an angel?"
"Archangel, Dad."
"Wow. OK." I hear something upstairs and furrow my eyebrows slightly. "Is that your shower running?"
"Lights." He kills them and the shower turns off. Rocket tosses me a small sack and I unfurl it, moving silently to the stairs.
None of us dare to even breathe as they come down the stairs and pause at the foot of them, fumbling for something. I quickly yank the sack over their head and take them down, holding their wrists behind their back tightly. Loki slides a chair over and I put them in it, restraining them in it with rope from my desk. "Let me go!" Dad turns the lights up and I look at the person before yanking the sack off their head. "Ack! A warning would've been nice!"
"Who are you, how did you get in my Quarters, let alone on my ship, and who do you serve under?" I ask simply and they look at me, blinking a few times to get used to the light.
"Who do I serve under? What am I supposed to say? Jesus or Buddha?"
"You're from Earth."
"I'm from Colorado."
"That's on Earth, dumbass. How'd you get here?"
"No clue. Some dude was here and told me I should take a shower, get the blood and ash off of me...? He was weird. Trench coat, black hair, beautiful blue eyes, though."
"Castiel, then. Talked like he smoked a pack of smokes every hour for twenty years?"
"Yeah...? Who are you?"
"I'm asking the questions. You're the one who broke onto my ship, even if you did get help from an idiot angel."
"I'm not telling you who I am until you tell me who you are. You don't look like a person that'll hurt a seventeen-year-old girl. So all of your threats are void and null."
"Admiral Emyrada."
"Your parents had high hopes for you. What kind of name is Admiral?"
"It's my rank, you imbecile. Name. Now."
"Emyrada..."
"First name or last name?"
"Last."
"First name?"
"Everyone called me Kat. But-"
"You're name's Keiko," Martinex interrupts and she nods.
"Yeah. The weird trench coat guy said I'd find Razi in here. Where is she?" She looks around and I look at her.
"I go by Rogue now and I'm genderfluid so they/them are my pronouns. Ya mind usin' 'em?"
"Hilarious. Where's my sister?"
"Does it look like I'm joking?" She looks at me and I cross my arms slightly.
"Well... You do have some of her features... But you're too old. Razi's only ten."
"Sorry to break it to you, sis, but you've been dead for near forty years."
"What?"
"Mhmm. Remember those two?" She looks at Yondu and Kraglin and pales as she seems to remember. "Yeah, they kept their promise. Not dead yet."
"The thing from Mom! Did you ever find it?" She looks at me, worried, and I nod.
"I found the compass."
"Oh, thank, God." She relaxes slightly and I look at her for a moment. "You are Razi... Wow..." She looks me up and down. "Wow. You did not age well, did you?" She smiles cheekily and I look at her.
"Better than not aging at all."
"I'm still older than you."
"Not after not aging for forty annual cycles. Sorry to break it to you." She rolls her eyes and I take out my katana.
"What are you doing?" I easily slice the ropes off of her and she rubs her wrists after a moment. "Oh... OK..."
"Yeah." I go over to my mini-fridge behind my bar and open it, crouching to look in it. "You ain't eaten anything, right?"
"Right. Do you have venison?"
"No deer in space. So... No. Gotta restock this with snacks," I mutter to myself as I grab two shaker bottles and look at one for a moment before tossing it to her. "There. Smoothie."
"Sweet. It... It won't kill me, right?"
"Is it a light purple with black seeds?"
"No...?"
"Then no. Enjoy." I go around the bar to lean against it, taking a sip of the smoothie, and she looks at hers then at mine. "They have the needed protein, vitamins, blah, blah, blah, all the good shit. Drink it."
"And if all the good crap tastes like crap?"
"Trust me, it will not. Rogue is known for having a sweet tooth so they will refuse to drink it unless it is a decent amount of sweetness," Loki explains with a slight smirk and I shrug one shoulder, drinking mine since I hadn't ate that much today. She takes a sip and drinks it slowly while I keep a discreet eye on her, noticing her shiver.
"Right. Terrans get cold easily. Forgot about that." I take my duster off as I go over to her and wrap it around her shoulders, tugging it slightly in front of her. "Heh. I'm bigger than you now. Feels weird."
"What the heck happened to your arm?" I look at my left arm and only see my scars.
"Um... Knives?"
"The other one!"
"Oh." I look at my right arm and nod slightly. "Yeah. I got run over by a car, my healing factor wasn't doing its job, got it amputated, and now I have this after a few other events that aren't that important. Anyway, you should finish that smoothie and I'll see what I have that'll fit you until we figure out where you're going."
"Wait, wait, wait! What? We aren't about to just breeze over what you just said!"
"What I said was what happened so... You finish that smoothie and I'll find you some warmer clothes. OK? OK. Drink up. L'Chaim." I head upstairs and can feel her watching me, confusion radiating off of her. "Christ... Ask and you shall receive answers if I feel like answering the question," I call over my shoulder and go over to my closet, digging through it.
"How did you get run over by a car?"
"HYDRA made me the new and improved Fist of HYDRA, the Tundra Soldier. I was on a mission with them to catch a kid and kill their parents. I shot out the tires and went to the front to deal with the parents when the dad ran me over, destroying my arm in the process. When I got up and caught up with them, the Avengers showed up to stop me from fulfilling my mission to HYDRA, blah. Blah. Blah. And blah. I got a vibranium arm from those asshats and got more mental trauma. Woo-hoo," I cheer sarcastically and pull out the smallest set of Leathers I have in my closet from when LJ was in here, resting.
"Wait, more mental trauma?"
"Yeah. Hm. Next question not relating to that?" I pull out a turtle neck tank top followed by a wide neck long sleeve shirt and take them downstairs, a pair of boots over my shoulder.
"What's all that for?" I set it down and look at her.
"You're putting all of this on."
"Uh, no. I'm not."
"Yes, you are."
"Nope."
"Look at any window on this ship and you will see stars, galaxies, everything you ever enjoyed seeing on Terra, in Colorado, the mountains at night multiplied by a thousand, at least. You think space is all warm and fuzzy and shit?"
"I know it isn't."
"It isn't, right. It's fuckin' cold. Colder than cold, in fact. Think of it like this... Climbing Everest without any gear."
"God..."
"Now take that thought and multiply it. By itself. A hundred times. That should be close to the amount of cold out there. It's better in here, on the ship, because we have oxygen and body heat. That only does so much, though. So. Put the damn clothes on or I'll put them on you myself. OK? OK. Good talk."
"When did you become so terrifying?"
"I have my moments. It's cold and Terrans are more aware of it. So just put on the clothes, OK?"
"Alright."
"Was that so hard?"
"Impossible," She smirks with a slight eye roll and I scoff softly, handing her the clothes. "The boots? Seriously?"
"Better than the shitkickers ya got on."
"These shoes have withstood school, work, and saving your sorry butt from bullies. For two years."
"Yeah, then a fire happened. Didn't withstand that, did them?"
"Fair. Come on, though. Do you have anything... Better looking?"
"How are you two even related?" Dad asks and we look at each other then turn to look at him.
"Adoption," We say together and he nods.
"Makes sense."
"Anything nicer?"
"Keiko. I love you, I truly do."
"Thanks. I love you, too, Captain Gonzales."
"Hilarious."
"Right?"
"But, if you don't go put those clothes and boots on, I'm gonna put them on you myself and I'm not known for being gentle."
"Geez, Louise! I'm going! Gosh," She grumbles as she goes upstairs.
"And stop filtering yourself like that. Damn. It's embarrassing for everyone around you."
"Well, golly! Who woulda thought?"
"You're doing this on purpose to piss me off."
"'Lil ol' me? Never!" She was giving herself an exaggerated southern accent as she gets changed and I groan.
"Gods, stop. This is worse torture than any form of torture that has been inflicted upon me."
"Glad to see you're still as dramatic as ever," She scoffs as she comes back down and I lean against the bar, rolling my eyes. "It's my job to make your life miserable. And I think it's fair after all the grief you put me through."
"What grief did I put you through? All of that was the idiots that lived around us. Blaming a child for a car accident that was caused by Skrulls. Assholes."
"Any time you forgot your inhaler."
"That only happened, like... Twice."
"A day. Every day. For three years."
"Yeah, OK, Miss Valedictorian Prom Queen."
"I didn't get the chance to go to prom. You know that."
"Oh, please. Everyone you knew, which was everyone in that school, was talking about how they were voting for you or whatever. Probably to reenact Carrie. See if you were as big of a freak as I was. Gods... Fuck that place."
"I wouldn't have been able to go if all of that hadn't happened, anyway. I would've had to work."
"Uh-huh... Sure. Cuz your bosses wouldn't have given you, the only minor on the staff, the night off to get a break from that and your freaky murderer younger sibling. What sense would that make?"
"You believed that crap too easily."
"Amazing what a kid will believe when they get told it often enough, ain't it?"
"What about now?" Martinex asks and I shrug, having forgotten they were even here.
"They weren't wrong about me being a freak. Although... I embrace it, revel in it, and accepted it as who I am. I'm not like they were and that made me a freak in their eyes. Now I'm just a crazy-ass biracial person with powers and enough baggage to make airlines on Terra jealous." Keiko snorts at that and Loki looks at me, letting me know I was in for it later. Fun.