Chapter 3
I have my music blaring through my headphones and reach for a switch, not knowing what the words above it said but it was the only thing nearby so it must open the door. I stop a couple of inches from it and breathe shakily, retracting my hand. I back up a step and see movement in the small window, whirling around to see Yondu and Kraglin stopping inside the doorway. I push my headphones off of my ears and back up to be against the airlock door. They freeze and put their hands up to show that they weren't going to hurt me. I reach for the switch and there's a whistle, my arm suddenly stuck to the metal by the sleeve. They both come over quickly and get me away from the airlock. I don't fight and let them, looking at them as I notice the flames on their dusters.
"What do the flames mean?" I ask suddenly and they both look at me.
"It means we're Ravagers," Yondu says as he takes me back to the room with the big window just as there's a message for Yondu. He answers it and bows his head slightly as he pounds his fist over his heart twice. "Cap'n Ogord."
"Yondu. We'll be docking in your bay very shortly. We need to talk, son." He nods and Captain Ogord hangs up the call.
"Krags!" Yondu barks as he starts to walk and Kraglin follows with me right behind him. We get to a huge room with a lot of spaceships and I look around in awe just as the doors open to let another ship in. I stand slightly behind Kraglin as they watch the ship come in and stop just inside of the doors before a tall guy with grayish hair steps out along with a man covered in sparkles. "Stakar." Yondu bows his head a bit at him and Stakar comes over to look at him.
"I hear you're dealing with kids again." Stakar looks at him sternly and Yondu looks away.
"No, Sir." Stakar raises an eyebrow and looks at me.
"Who is she then?" Yondu and Kraglin look at me and Yondu starts to speak when I step forward, looking up at Stakar.
"Granddaughter of the Ravager Captain Yondu Udonta of the Eclector, Captain Ogord." I pound my fist over my heart twice like I had seen Yondu do and bow my head slightly. I look up to see Stakar crouching in front of me as he looks me over and maintain eye contact with him. "Which would make you my Great Grandfather, Sir," I smirk slightly and he looks at me in surprise.
"Well, she ain't Kraglins kid. Quill's?" Yondu nods and they look at me. "You're pretty young to be a Ravager, don't you think?"
"No, Sir. I don't. It's in my blood."
"Well, if you're gonna be acting like a Ravager, you're gonna need to look like one too." He smiles at me and I was a little confused. "You need your Ravager leathers, girl." I nod a bit and bow my head slightly at him out of respect as he stands.
"He gits ya respect 'fore I do?" Yondu scoffs and I look at him, unamused.
"You have used your arrow to pin me to something at least three times, Gramps," I smirk up at him and he laughs.
"Girl, yer gonna be a damn good Ravager." He smiles at me and I smile back a bit as another ship starts to come in.
"Who's this?" I look at the ship before looking up at Yondu again and he just smiles at me as the ship stops. "Yondu?" I turn to look at him as I hear someone get off of the ship and turn to see Peter with his group, lips curling back into a snarl. "Why is he here?" I glare at him with venom in my voice and Kraglin puts a hand on my shoulder to keep me from leaving.
"Cuz he's m'boy an' yer Daddy," He says simply and watches Peter as he comes over with his group. I clench my jaw and watch them come over. Peter crouches in front of me and smiles at me a bit.
"Hey, kid... Look, I get th-" He's cut off when I punch him in the face, knocking him onto his ass, and grunts a bit.
"That was for leaving my Mom, you asshat!" I growl at him and he rubs his jaw a bit, looking at me. "I don't care if you say you didn't know! I don't care about your damn excuses! You had your fun with her and then left like it was nothing!" I growl at him and he keeps his eyes locked on mine. "You gave her a fake name! You told her your name was Terran! You used the knowledge that she didn't have to make her believe you! It was a dick move and... And..." I drift off and just growl, all of my emotions driving me crazy. "I... UGH!" I yell in annoyance and rub my face. He goes back to his crouching position and gently touches my shoulder.
"I know that you probably don't care... But, I'm sorry, kid... I really am... I swear I didn't know that she was pregnant and I wouldn't have left if I did... I would've suggested she come with me... With your sister... I am so sorry..." He says softly to me and I don't look at him, not sure what to say. He gently touches the sides of my face with his hands and has me look at him. "Just... Just give me a chance... Please..." He whispers and I look at him, searching for any lies in his eyes for a couple of moments while everything is silent around us.
"Fine." He smiles at me a bit. "On one condition!" He looks at me and nods a bit. "You have to call me Captain," I smirk at him and he gapes at me while everyone else laughs.
"Not happening," He says simply and I shrug, starting to move his hands. "Alright, alright! Do I have to, though?"
"Yes. In front of Yondu's whole crew."
"Kid, that's gonna be embarrassing as Hell."
"That's the point." He looks confused and I look into his eyes. "I went through seven years of embarrassment because I didn't have any parents and was being looked after by alcoholic grandparents and, when school started, getting picked on and beat up by jerk kids. You can handle a moment of embarrassment to make up for it, can't you?" I raise an eyebrow at him and he just nods a bit. I look around and see his ship again.
"Actually... I'll give you another option."
"Yes," He says quickly and I smile a bit.
"Alright! Then let's go!" I start going toward his ship and he quickly stops me. I smirk at him and he's confused. "You should've listened to the other option before you agreed, Quill."
"What is it?"
"You got to let me fly your ship," I smirk at him proudly and his mouth drops open as he starts shaking his head. "Ah, ah, ah." I shake my head and look at him. "You already agreed."
"I also agreed to call you Captain. Let's do that instead." I think a bit, tilting my head from side to side a bit as I weigh the options against each other in my head, and nod after a moment.
"I'll accept that. And you have to introduce me to the whole crew before I walk into the room as Captain."
"Why Captain, though? Out of anything you could've chosen, why that one? Why not... Princess? Or your majesty?" He suggests desperately and I scoff.
"Cuz, those are lame. Being called Captain is way cooler. You have him," I point to Stakar before continuing to speak, "Who's a freaking giant of a man. Then you have Yondu who can control an arrow by whistling! That's fucking cool, dude!" I smile and he looks at me.
"You're taking this a little too well..." I shrug and put my hair up in a ponytail, revealing a scar I always forget about.
"Whoa! Where'd ya git tha'?" Kraglin asks and places his hand on it. I tense and grab his hand tightly, digging my thumbnail into the groove next to his thumb. He growls out in pain and I let him go as suddenly as I had grabbed him, blinking a bit.
"Sorry..." I mutter and put my hands in my pocket to fiddle with the Walkman. Someone suddenly has it out of my pocket and hands. I spin and my eyes land on the raccoon who was smirking coldly at me, I think.
"Who's an adorable pet now, kid?" I glare at him and can feel my temper rising.
"Put. It. Down," I growl loudly and he laughs.
"If ya say so." He throws it to the floor but the tiny tree catches it before it can hit the ground and rolls with it over to me. I crouch down and catch both of them, holding them both close to me as I glare at the raccoon.
"This is one of the few things I have left from my home that isn't medicine to keep me alive, you ass!" I gently push both of them in Quill's hands and rush towards the raccoon. He pulls out a thing that looks like a toy gun and points it at me.
"I've been meaning to try this out," He smirks and I simply snatch it out of his hands, slapping him across his face. He staggers backward and looks shocked. I look at the toy gun thing and just hold it out to Gamora, the green lady. She takes it and I go back over to Quill and the tiny tree, taking him and my Walkman back from him.
"Thank you for catching my Walkman..." I say softly to him and he smiles.
"I am Groot!" I smile a bit and don't notice the other watching our interaction.
"Nice to meet you, Groot. I'm..." I think a bit, hating the name Andrea, and look at the others. "Can I go by a different name than what I was born with?"
"Why?" Quill asks and I kinda shrug.
"I hate my name. It's stupid," I say simply and he shrugs back.
"Don't see why not. What's it going to be?" I think a bit, trying to figure out a badass name, and come up with one.
"Rogue."
"Rogue?" Quill repeats and I nod.
"I'm gonna be a Ravager, I should have a name that reflects that. Besides, it's better than some name that no one would even get because it's a... What do you call Earth, again?"
"Terra."
"Because it's a Terra, Terran, whatever thing. Rogue fits and that's my name now. So fucking deal with it, Quill."
"Alright, hang on a second. I got a few conditions of my own now."
"Nope. I got to make the conditions because you're trying to get into my life, not the other way around."
"It's two conditions, just hear them out," He says simply and I motion for him to talk, still holding Groot. "Chill with the swearing, Rogue. And stop calling me Quill. I'm your Dad, you should call me that."
"Did you already forget that I punched you to the floor? If so, I can remind you." He sighs and rubs his face. "I'm not going to call you that." He starts to stand and I say something else. "For the time being. If you can prove to me that you're not a total asshat, then I'll start that. You may be my father, but you haven't been a dad," I say simply and slip my Walkman into my pocket.
"What music do you listen to with that?" He asks and I narrow my eyes at him a bit before slipping my headphones off of my neck, handing them to him. He puts them on and I press play to what happens to be a death metal song. "Jesus!" He yells and hits my headphones off of his head while I pause the song, catching them and slipping them back around my neck. "What the Hell was that?!"
"One of my songs. I have a lot of different ones on here."
"Like what?" He raises an eyebrow at me and I think a bit.
"I have... Classic rock, heavy metal, pop, hip hop, rap..." I drift off as I see him looking at me weirdly. "Did you not listen to any music when you were with my Mom?"
"Just mine." He stands and goes to his ship. I look at Yondu and Kraglin to see them rolling their eyes. He comes back after a minute with his Walkman and headphones, slipping them on my ears before clicking play. I listen and hear a familiar song near the end, smiling a bit. "What?"
"Mom loved this song..."
"Which one?" I give him the headphones and he listens, smiling. "I bet. I kept playing this one when she gave me something to look it up on to play it."
"Her phone?" He nods and smiles.
"How'd you know?" I shrug a bit.
"Mom told my sister and my sister kept telling me whenever I asked about the song. She said that 'it was so annoying yet so amazing at the same time'? She must've been talking about you more than she was talking about the song," I smirk and he kinda blushes.
"Girl, yer gonna fit right in," Yondu laughs and I smile.
"That's the whole point, isn't it?" I set Groot on my shoulder and he smiles.
"I am Groot!" He says happily and I laugh softly.
"Is that all he says?"
"Yeah, it is. And he says that he hates you and your guts," The raccoon says and I glare at him before looking at Quill.
"Get your trash panda before I turn him into roadkill."
"Rocket, calm down. Rogue, no killing tonight." Rocket laughs and I look at him with a glare. "You should get to bed. I can introduce you to the crew as Captain Rogue tomorrow in the mess, alright?" I nod and hand Groot to him. "Good night, kid." I nod and head out of the room, following the way I came with Kraglin and Yondu from the room with the big window.
"Krags."
"Yes, Cap'n."
"Make sure she don' git lost."
"Aye, Cap'n." Kraglin follows after me and sees me stop in front of the big window. He goes over to me and looks out it with me.
"It's beautiful..." I whisper and he looks around. "You're probably used to it, but it is..." I look around at all of the stars and sigh softly. "I don't want this dream to end... I know that when I wake up I'll be in a hospital bed on Earth from tripping and hitting my head or something... And my life will go back to sucking... So I want to try to memorize everything... Plus, it felt so good to hit my Dad in the face..." I smile up at Kraglin and he smiles back a bit. I look back out the window and rub my eyes a bit, tired. "Can you help me find my room?" He nods and leads me to it.
I climb into the bed and under all of the blankets, sighing softly again. "Best dream ever..." I murmur before falling asleep and Kraglin shuts the door, going back to the others.
"She thinkin' it's a dream, Cap'n. Tha's why she takin' it so good." Yondu nods a bit and looks at Quill. "Oh, she said tha' it fel' good to hit Pete in the face." Yondu laughs and Quill stands.
"She'll realize it isn't a dream when she wakes up tomorrow."
"Hopefully she will hit you more. That was very funny," The man with red markings laughs and Quill sighs.
"Thanks, Drax." He looks at Rocket and crosses his arms. "You threatened to shoot my kid," He growls and Rocket shrugs.
"She would've had it coming! She's a twerp!" Rocket is suddenly pinned against a wall with Quill's hand in his vest and their faces very close.
"You so much as threaten to hurt her again, Rocket, we'll be seeing how good a robot raccoon tastes in a stew. We clear?" He snarls and Rocket nods, straightening his vest when he's set down on the floor again. "Krags, where's her room?" He turns to look at Kraglin and he looks back at him.
"Wha' fer?"
"Waking up somewhere you thought was just a dream is rough, especially for a kid who's already been through Hell. Where's her room?" Kraglin motions for him to follow him and he does, after passing Groot to the lady with the antennas. "Keep an eye on Groot, Mantis." He murmurs as he walks after Kraglin and sits on the floor across from my bed to keep an eye on me. "Thanks, Krags."
"No problem, Petey." He leaves and I shiver a bit, still cold. Quill stands and takes off his duster, draping it over me. I settle down and sleep peacefully. He sits back down and watches me sleep until he falls asleep himself.
I sleep for a long while until my body finally decides to say get the fuck up and I sit up carefully, rubbing my eyes before opening them. I look around and tense. It wasn't a dream. My eyes fall on the still sleeping figure of my Dad and I quietly get out of bed, leaving the room. I wander aimlessly and accidentally bump into some big yellow guy, falling on my ass. He turns and glares at me as I get up. "Watch where yer goin', girl." He growls and I nod, quickly moving past him, accidentally bumping him again. He grabs me and throws me against the wall with a growl. "I said, watch where yer goin'!" He yells right in my face and I wince a bit, not looking at him. He grabs my chin and makes me look at him.
He drops me to the floor on my feet and punches me in my stomach. I grunt and drop to my knees, struggling to breathe. "Next time you'll watch where yer goin', won't'cha?" He grabs my hair and lifts my head to look at him. "Won't'cha?" He repeats and I nod slightly. "Good. Now, git. Unless ya want more." I try to get up but am struggling a lot and he yanks me to my feet with a huge hand around my torso, tightly, to 'help'. I move as fast as I can away from him and hear him laugh at my pain.
I end up in the room with all the spaceships and sit behind some huge stacks of crates, trying to breathe through the pain.
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About an hour later, Quill wakes up and stretches a bit, seeing my bed empty. He stands up and starts looking for me in the mess and the control room. He quickly walks out to find security and bumps into Stakar, who was walking with Kraglin and Yondu, without realizing he did.
"Quill? What's wrong?" Stakar asks and the three of them start to follow Quill.
"Rogue's not in her room or the mess. I can't find her, Dad. I know you trust your crew, but I remember what some of them did when I was a kid. It could be ten times worse for her because she's a girl." He was worried and scared as he walks quickly to the security room, the other three men following him. He gets in and starts to look through the security feeds.
He sees me walk into a hall with a blind spot and then out of the blindspot, too long after I should have. He looks through the rest of the cameras and sees me go into the hangar. He leaves and starts to go that way, not even noticing the other three following him at this point. He was running at this point and skids into the hangar, looking around. "Where would I hide when I was first on here?" He murmurs to himself and starts to head towards small spaces. "Look in any small space you can find!" He yells at the other three and keeps looking.
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I hear Quill yelling and try to stay quiet, curling myself up a bit more causing me to hiss in pain.
"Shut it!" Kraglin yells and all sound around me freezes. I curl up tighter and growl very softly. "I think I foun' her!" He yells and crates start to move from around me faster than I can do anything about it. I try to sneak around them but someone catches me and I freak, going into fight or flight mode and I fight like Hell.
I scratch, claw, kick, bite, and scream to try to get away but nothing helps as they just hold me tighter, causing me pain. I gasp softly and they set me on the floor slowly. I wrap my arms around my stomach and crouch down to make myself smaller, something I learned to do when kids were beating me up. Someone gently lays a hand on my shoulder and has me sit down. I sit and can't help but hiss at the scrunched-up position I'm in.
"Put yer legs down, girl. It'll hur' less." I slowly do and wince a bit, keeping my arms wrapped around my stomach. "Ya a'ight, girl?" I nod, not looking at them, and hear someone scoff.
"So you won't mind if I look to make sure for myself?" Quill asks before he's suddenly lifting my shirt and I try to stop him.
"Damn, girl. Yer still breathin'?" My torso was covered in bruises and the worst one was between my stomach and ribs.
"I'm managing to, yeah..." I scoff and wince when it hurts.
"Who did this?" Quill growls and I look at him to see that he's pissed. I shrug a bit and he grabs my face gently, still making me wince though because I had bruises there too. "Rogue, tell me who did this. Now," He growls and I don't look at him.
"I... I don't know... It was some big yellow guy..." I mutter and he nods, standing up. He gently pulls me to my feet and looks at Yondu.
"'M on it, boy." Yondu taps something on his wrist and starts to speak, his voice echoing all over the ship. "All crew report ta the mess hall in five minnits." He clicks the thing on his wrist again and stops transmitting his voice, looking at me. I was looking at the thing on his wrist and he follows my gaze. So do the others and Stakar goes over to his ship, coming back with the same thing all of them have on their wrists, but smaller plus a couple of other things.
He gently grabs my wrist and puts it on it. "You'll have to get Quill or Kraglin to set it to their frequencies for you. Mine's already on it." He turns my head slightly and places something behind each of my ears, making sure they stay in place. "Those'll grow with you. Kraglin and Quill each have the thing behind this ear, the other one's just for you. New tech." I press my fingers against the thing behind my right ear and a metal mask forms around my face with red discs for eyes, through which I can see other people's heat temperature.
"Awesome!" I gasp and press it again to make it disappear. "What's the other thing?" I look at Stakar and he shrugs, motioning for me to click it and find out. I carefully press it and a visor appears in front of my eyes. I look around and can read the names of the ships that were previously in different languages. "Whoa..." I breathe and look around still, finding it so cool. Someone presses it and makes it disappear. I spin and kinda glare at Quill. "Hey!" I cross my arms over my chest and wince very slightly as it hurts.
"Five minutes are done. Come on." He gently grabs my shoulder and follows the other three to the mess hall. We go up a flight of stairs and stand on a landing just above it. The entire crew was in there and were being loud.
"Lissen up! Cap'n has somethin' ta say!" Kraglin yells and everything goes quiet.
"I know I told y'all ya weren't ta touch this girl when we picked her up," Yondu says in an eerily calm voice and whistles sharply, his arrow appearing from under his duster before he looks at me slightly.
"Who was it, Rogue?" Quill asks quietly, his lips barely moving, and I look around the crowd below us, spotting the guy. I carefully point him out to Yondu and he nods slightly, almost imperceptible. He whistles and his arrow guides the guy out with steady pressure on his back. He steps out from the crowd and freezes. Quill goes down to the mess hall and I watch, kinda hiding behind Yondu.
"Your Captain told you not to touch her and you did anyway?!" Quill bellows and I watch as he punches him in the face. The guy punches him back and I'm pissed.
"Hey! You fungus-looking ass! Don't you dare fucking hit him again!" I yell, stepping out from behind Yondu, and everyone's eyes are on me.
"What'd you call me? Come say it to my face!" He growls and I start to head down the stairs, more pissed than scared now. Kraglin stops me and hands me his knife from yesterday that he pointed at me. I take it and put it in my back pocket for now as I continue down the stairs. The guy had his foot on Quill's chest and I pull the knife out of my pocket, holding it against my wrist.
"I called you a fungus-looking ass."
"And you're a disgusting little Terran! Just like this slimeball!" He snarls and presses his foot harder against Quill's chest. I suddenly move forward and under his leg, cutting it to the bone. "Fuck!" He growls and falls backward, nearly onto Yondu's arrow. I'm suddenly on top of him with the curved part of the knife to his throat and he stills, staring at me.
"You were saying, smartass?" I growl and he says nothing. "What? You don't got anything else to say about me or him? You seemed to have plenty to say a minute ago!" I press the knife closer to his throat and he tilts his head up slightly. There's a whistle and the arrow is in front of me.
"Off 'a him, girl," Yondu says and I get off of him, backing up a bit. Quill is there and grabs my shoulders gently. "Which hand he use?" Yondu asks and I look up at him before nodding at his left hand. "Kraglin, git yer knife from tha' girl an' deal wit' him."
"Aye, Cap'n." He comes down the stairs and takes his knife from my hands, grabbing the yellow guy's left hand before cleanly slicing it off. The guy screams and holds it to him. I watch, not sure what else to do, and Quill squeezes my shoulders slightly.
"If another one 'a ya touch tha' girl, ya will get worse!" Yondu yells and looks at Kraglin, nodding his head towards the door slightly. "Take tha' idiot to med."
"Aye, Cap'n." He drags the guy out of the mess hall and it's completely quiet as Stakar and Yondu come down the stairs.
"Quill, git the girl some food." Quill nods and leads me over to the food line by my shoulders. He gets a tray for both of us and gets enough food for the two of us before heading to the table that Yondu and Stakar were sitting. We sit and Kraglin sits after about ten minutes and getting his food. I look at my tray of food and blink.
"What. In the. Everloving. Fuck is this?" I ask and look at them.
"Food. Eat up," Quill says and starts eating.
"Wow. Enlightening. Thank you, Star-Lord." I scoff and they look at me. "What?"
"What'd you just call me?"
"Star-Lord...? I saw it on your duster this morning. Chill out."
"Nuh-uh. I ain't got Star-Lord anywhere on my duster. Where the Hell did you hear that name?"
"My sister overheard you and your drunken escapade with our Mom one night. She heard you call yourself that." I shrug a bit and run a hand through my hair. I look at the food again and pick up something that doesn't look like it'll kill me. "How much of this stuff has the chance of killing me?" Kraglin scoffs and shakes his head, eating his food. I glance at Quill out of the corner of my eye and mimic how he eats the stuff. It isn't bad. I eat the food, glancing at Quill now and then, and don't notice the other three watching the two of us for a while. Then both of us look up to look at them.
"What?" Quill asks around a mouthful of food and I roll my eyes, muttering something. He swallows the food and looks at me. "What was that?" He was smirking and I scoff slightly.
"I said, attractive. I bet you just reel the ladies in talking around mouthfuls of food all the time," I say from behind my hand and around a mouthful of food. He smirks at me and I roll my eyes. "I'm ten and a Ravager in training, so screw you, Dad," I mutter and he hears what I called him, barely keeping from grinning. "Shut up. I can hear your happiness and it's fucking loud."
"You know, at least I'm not swearing in every sentence like you are."
"At least I don't steal from my Dad," I smirk at him and he blushes before going back to eating. "Thought so," I smirk and go back to eating. Stakar shakes his head slightly and finishes his food.
"You aren't a Ravager in training or Ravager period until you have your Ravager leathers, kid."
"Oh, right! When do I get those?"
"Ya done?" I nod and Yondu leads me to drop the tray off at a cart before going to a room on the other side of the ship. "Ya git measured now." He smiles at me and leads me into the room while I follow him.