Chapter 6
"That's your plan? That's not even one percent of a plan!" We had moved into the living room and I roll my eyes at Rocket, gathering up everything necessary for leaving the planet.
"It is at least ten percent of a plan!"
"I am Groot!"
"Thank you, Groot! See, Rocket? He agrees with me and he's smart!" I look up as I finish gathering my stuff(mainly clothes and weapons from the Skrulls) to see him eating a leaf off of a tree branch that was near a window and Rocket raises an eyebrow. "He's smart for a tree, OK? Gods... OK, no, I don't have much of a plan. But, a plan is still a plan. It's just... Being developed."
"You're entire plan is getting a team together and kicking the Kree's ass. That's just an idea, not quite a plan," Tony says and I look at him. "It's true."
"Thank you, Stark! He's smart!" I flip Rocket off and put my stuff in a bag, shouldering it easily.
"Well, first thing first... You need a new First Mate," Stakar says simply and I can see the awkwardness and pain in his eyes as he says it.
"Nebula," She looks at me from where she was leaning against the door frame and stands straight. "You're my new First Mate."
"Aye, Captain." I nod and look at Stakar, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Anything else?"
"Just that you have all of the Ravager Clans behind you. Just as any Captain would." I nod and raise my eyebrow at Peter when he steps forward.
"I can help, too."
"Kid, I appreciate the offer, but no."
"Well, tough. You don't get a say because we're helping you," Steve says simply and I press my hands together, taking a slow breath while looking at them.
"Why?" I point my fingers at them with a bend of my wrist and Peter kinda laughs before clearing his throat to cover it when Tony quirks an eyebrow at him.
"They have it in their idiot heads that we're family," Rocket explains with an eye roll and I rub my face slightly as I nod.
"I see... Fine. I ain't coming back to the planet until next Christmas, so you aren't getting a ride back from me." Indri comes over with a bunch of photo albums and I look at him, raising an eyebrow. "Why do you have that shit?" He sets them on the coffee table and opens them all up, arranging them a certain way. "I love not getting an answer when I ask a question," I scoff and go over to him, looking at the pages they were open to.
"I think I know where your Mom's life source was. See? Your grandparents kept pictures she made and put them in the albums. Gramps said that you said your Mom pulled a Superman? Who's Superman?"
"A superhero from another planet who got sent to Earth, Terra, here as an infant because his home planet was being destroyed. How would she know what her life source looked like if she was a baby when she landed here, smart guy?"
"She could have gotten visions about her life source. Do I have to figure everything out for you? I mean, I already found bits and pieces of what it looks like," He smirks and I hit him in the head for being a smartass.
"Watch it, smartass. Finding bits and pieces doesn't mean you've figured everything out. Gods, just like Dad," I mutter under my breath and kneel next to him, looking at the pictures. "They're pretty well detailed... They're dated too... She would've been about fifteen to eighteen when she drew these... Hm," I carefully take them out of the sleeves they were in and arrange them carefully. "Fucking Celestials, man... First, there's Ego being an egotistical jackass... Then there's my mother... Why can't I have a normal family? Is it that much to ask?" I mutter under my breath as I continue arranging the pictures and look at them when it's done.
"OK... Do you recognize the picture?" Indri tries and I look at him.
"I have never seen that before."
"Maybe you didn't study other systems as well as you should have," He scoffs and looks at me.
"Kid. Get away from me. Or I might hurt you." He gets on the couch and I notice something in the corners, grabbing a notebook and pen from under the table.
"What the Hell are you doing?" Rocket watches me and I scribble out the letters, arranging them the way they're supposed to be.
"Going on a scavenger hunt, apparently," I scoff and stand, going over to the bookshelf. "The picture that the puzzle of other pictures formed is supposed to be a planet, I guess. But, it's too ridiculous to be one, I've never once seen it, and Yondu made me study every planet in the stars to keep me from annoying him. In the corners of the pictures, though, there's a language on there. It's a Terran language. Keiko had me study the alphabet of it. I can't remember what it's called."
"What does it say then?" I look at Tony and he shuts up before I continue to look at the bookshelf, grabbing one. I thumb through the pages quickly and press the open book to my forehead for a moment, taking a deep breath.
"OK... Fine..." I see Morgan standing next to me and simply pick her up, putting her on the stairs. "Stay."
"What are you doing?"
"Trashing the cabin. Like this," I grab the bookshelf and throw it onto the floor, having muscles and strength from constant fighting.
There's a door behind the bookshelf and I simply place the groove of my boot(between the heel and sole of it) against the bottom of the bookshelf, shoving it farther away from the door. I try the handle and it's locked. "I think I saw a key around here somewhere," Loki supplies and I look at him.
"No need." I kick the door beside the handle twice and it breaks open. "I had one in my boot." I push the door open more and look toward Tony when he whistles, catching the flashlight he tosses me. "That's helpful." I turn it on and point it into the room, looking around it.
"What are you doing?" Natasha asks and comes over, going inside. I pull her back and a shotgun goes off, blowing a hole into the door across from where she was.
"Seeing if there were any of those. How about being patient before just barging into a hidden room in the house that had a huge stash of guns and money all over it?" She doesn't respond and I take my knife out of my thigh holster, crouching down to slice a wire that she had hit when she went in. I check the doorway for more tripwires and step through it, taking the shotgun out of the hole in the wall to hand it to her. "Enjoy the memento."
"Gee, thanks." She rolls her eyes and I try a light switch, nothing happening.
"Damn." I sweep the flashlight across the room and stairs, going down them. "Hey, any of you have a sledgehammer?"
"I mean, we have Hulk. Will that work?" Tony calls down and I look up at them.
"NO! A hammer! Not Hulk!"
"No, we don't."
"Of course not." I look around the room and whistle softly, my arrow flitting around my head while I sweep the flashlight around the room. "Hm..." I point it at the floor and feel something at the back of my mind which causes something to eat at my gut before I fall against a wall, head swimming.
"You alright?" Natasha asks from my side and I take a couple of deep breaths. "I'm getting the Docs." She goes to do that and I follow up the stairs carefully, head still swimming as I do.
"Cap'n, you alright?" Tex asks once I'm up the stairs and I point toward the Master Quarters up the other stairs.
"Get your gear in those Quarters. Now." He nods and does that while I grab the doorframe of the hidden door, head swimming more.
"Ya a'ight, Kid?" I go upstairs to meet Tex in the Master Quarters and can feel them watching me, not caring right now.
I sit heavily on the bed and Tex looks at me. "Cap, what's wrong?"
"My head... Check it over... Everywhere... Get a picture of it with one of your things like you would if I had broken my arm... Hurry up..." I pant and he does as he's told, checking my head over meticulously.
"That ain't right... I'm gonna get Lumes, Cap'n." I motion for him to have at it and close my eyes for a moment, opening them again when they come back. "Look." He shows her what he saw and she furrows her eyebrows in confusion. "That ain't supposed to be there, is it?"
"No... It isn't... Rogue, we'll be putting you under to figure out what that is."
"Have at it... Do it quickly..." She nods and helps me lay down on my stomach where I could still breathe before putting me under.
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When I wake, my head isn't swimming but it does hurt a little bit and I sit up carefully. Lumes and Tex look at me and she does something on her wrist com. "What'd you just do?"
Stakar comes in and pulls me to my feet by my jacket lapels. "What the Hell are you doing?"
"What?"
"Why do you have the technology to spy on us in your head?" He growls and I furrow my eyebrows in confusion.
"What? I have no clue what you're talking about, Stakar..." He lets me go and takes a holopad from Lumes, shoving it in my face as he plays a video on it. I watch and it was everything that had happened from my perspective. "What the Hell is that?"
"Data from the technology they took out of your head." Lumes shows it to me and I look at it, eyebrows still furrowed. "Kree technology. Why was it in your head?"
"I don't know. I didn't put it there and I didn't know it was there. I guess that's what was screwing with my head... Stakar, the Kree probably put it in so they could watch the fights I was in afterward whenever they wanted." I look at the two Docs and they look at me. "Thank you for getting it out of my head. I appreciate it." They nod and leave when Stakar waves his hand slightly, looking at me.
"Yondu wants to talk to you." I nod and Yondu comes in after Stakar opens the door for him.
"Hey, Gramps..." He shuts the door behind him and locks it. "Um... What's up?" I look between the two of them and neither of them was happy.
"Ah ain't yer Cap'n no more."
"Right... Are you just now realizing this?" I chuckle kinda nervously and he smirks a bit at me.
"So... Ah ain't got no right ta keep ya in line no more."
"Um... OK...? What's this about?"
"You've gotten out of line, Rogue. Yondu just hadn't told me about how he kept you in line on his ship. Until earlier."
"Well, Pops, Gramps has always been the weird one when it came to me," I chuckle nervously and Stakar grabs a belt from the dresser, making me tense slightly. "Oh... That's why that was brought up... Y'know... That's seriously not necessary," I try and Stakat crosses his arms over his chest, just glaring at me. "And you don't agree with that..."
"Girl, ya know tha' gittin' a whoopin' ya earned 'as a'ways been part 'a yer life," Yondu scoffs and I cross my arms over my chest.
"Yeah, well, I'm getting the sinking feeling that Stakar wants to take that belt to my ass because I had Kree spyware technology in my skull when I didn't even know it was there."
"Part of it, yeah." I wave my hand slightly at Stakar as a 'see?' motion and Yondu rolls his eyes.
"Tha' ain't a good reason ta whoop 'er, Stakar."
"And why not?"
"Cuz she ain't know 'bout it. Ya can't whoop 'er fer somethin' she ain't know nothin' 'bout," He explains with another eye roll and I sit on the bed, rubbing my face. "An' she 'as already been through 'nough fer one solar cycle."
"I second that," I add in and let out a huff of a laugh when they both glare at me. "No, listen. At four in the morning, Indri and I saw our parents get shot by the Kree while he was being kidnapped by them. That's traumatizing, even at my age. Bound to be worse for Indri... And this family sucks at emotions. Unless it's hiding them until we're alone in the dark and it's impossible to hide anymore. Or maybe that's just me... Why am I still talking?"
"Tha's wha' we wanna know," Yondu scoffs and Stakar looks at me.
"I'm just gonna... Shut up about that..." I rub my face slightly and they watch me. "Well... Not that this hasn't been amazing... I've got to figure out puzzles from my insane family on where my inherited life source is. Yay," I say sarcastically and go to do that, which they allow me to do.
The rest of my family and the Avengers were watching data from the spyware on a holoscreen and Indri was sitting on the couch, clearly shocked. "Shooketh," Peter mutters and I watch from my perspective as I kick the ass of an older female Centaurian before sending my arrow through her throat.
"That was my first fight... Once Tressit knew I was good at it, he kept lining them up..."
"Was this before or after you stopped trying to escape?" Drax asks carefully and I brace my hands on the back of the couch, looking at the holoscreen as I think.
"After. Does it have audio?" Rocket nods and I think back to before the fight. "'They took too long getting you your first fight. You're bound to be weak so they started you off with someone just as weak, if not weaker.' Assholes... Between that and their damned mantra of 'fight, kill, win' I wanted to whistle my arrow through my skull..." I look at Indri and he was avoiding my gaze. "What's with you?" I try to touch his head and he avoids my hand, looking at me with some fear in his eyes.
"You killed her... She looked like Gramps but you still killed her... For no reason..."
"I was there when it happened. I'm well aware of what I did and who she looked like." He glares at me and I look at him calmly, hands back on the back of the couch. "This was after I was told everyone was dead, Indri. Everybody's names, faces, and memories got shoved into a deep, dark pit in my soul."
"Why did you kill her? How many people did you kill?"
"That's a good question. The first annual cycle I had about four hundred eighty fights, give or take. After that... Let's see... Went from ten fights every seven solar cycles to fourteen every seven solar cycles... Fifty-six, give or take, every lunar cycle... So, about six hundred seventy-two for the other six annual cycles... About five thousand one hundred eighty-four fights. Probably more, if I'm being honest."
"And you killed someone in each fight? Why do you sound proud for doing it?" He yells and I look at him calmly.
"No, I didn't kill my opponent in each fight. Not at first..."
"Why'd you stop then?" He crosses his arms and I sigh softly, leaning forward on my arms.
"If I didn't kill them, the Kree who claimed to be their 'owners'," I make finger quotes as I say owner with one hand. "Would let Tressit deal with them. He would torture them relentlessly for solar cycles before killing them. In front of me. My second fight. It was against a, um... A Xandarian that was about my age. Tressit had allowed me to kill him, but I didn't because he had a kid that was a slave to the Kree." I glance at the holoscreen and motion toward it slightly. "That's what he did to him."
The Xandarian was chained up and getting beaten, whipped, cut, and other torturous things repeatedly. "Tressit kept that up for fourteen solar cycles. Making sure to tell both of us it was my fault that was happening. I let... One thousand two hundred ninety-six people live only for Tressit to torture and kill them. While broadcasting all of it to all of the other cells. Opponents begged for me to kill them so they wouldn't have to go through that. An arrow through the throat leads to a little while of pain and fear, but it was better than being left to the mercy of Tressit. So, any of the other opponents, I killed them to keep them from suffering a long and painful death."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Indri scoffs and I look at him.
"Bold of you to assume I sleep even with that logic. Now, not that this conversation hasn't been great, I've got a puzzle to solve. If you guys haven't already." No one responds and I go down the stairs behind the hidden door, seeing Yondu and Stakar standing by the stairs from upstairs as I grab the flashlight. I sigh softly and look at all of the information. I find some pages that have what I think are clues and riddles, looking at them in confusion.
"Why? Just... Why?" I grab the pages with the clues and riddles and take them upstairs, needing to translate them so I can read them off to the others. I grab the notebook from earlier and write out the corresponding letters in English from the language that was on the papers.