Chapter 4
I look around the room at all of the different colors of leather and other fabrics. "Awesome." I smile a bit and Yondu smiles a bit just as a guy with a bunch of fabrics and measuring tapes comes around the corner.
"Segs, ya min'?" He motions to me and the guy comes closer. He had a bunch of arms and was standing on two of them.
"Hello, my dear." He smiles at me and some antenna-looking things come out of the sides of his head. He starts to measure me but it isn't easy because I keep moving my head to watch him, finding him interesting, and he chuckles softly. "Please hold your head still."
"Oh, sorry." I stop moving my head and wait for him to finish measuring me, looking around the room some more with just my eyes.
"Alright. I'll have your outfit ready shortly with a few changes of it," He says and wraps his measuring tapes around his shoulders before climbing up a wall to grab some maroon leathers.
"This place is insane..." I mutter with a small smile as I look around the room still and Yondu just leads me out of the room to take me back to the mess. "What was Quill like as a kid?" He laughs at that and I watch him.
"Girl, tha' is a mighty long lis'." He chuckles and leads me back to the table. "So, Quill, yer girl's askin' bout ya when ya were a lil' 'un." Quill's eyes widen and he looks at me.
"You... You don't want to hear about that stuff." He chuckles nervously, blushing slightly, and I smirk.
"Oh, now I gotta hear about it. Cuz you're blushing. You must've been an amazing kid." I smirk at him and he blushes more.
"Well, as your father, I'm saying you aren't going to hear it."
"Yondu overrules you." He opens his mouth a few times and I look at Yondu. "Come on, I wanna hear about the trouble he caused." He smirks that knife smirk at Quill then looks at me and nods.
"A'ight. One time, I caugh' the boy in m'bed wit' a girl when he was a teen," He says and my eyes widen a bit.
"Seriously?" He nods and I laugh, turning to Quill. "You took a girl to Yondu's room to try to have sex?" He just blushes more and shoves some more food in his mouth, making me laugh more. "That's amazing." My laughter slowly dies and I smile, looking at him. "You're insane." He shrugs and smiles at me as I turn to look at Yondu. "You didn't kill him?"
"Naw. I gave 'im a whuppin' he didn' fergit." He chuckles and Quill coughs next to me.
"Dad!" He hisses and Yondu laughs. I had my head hung with a hand covering my mouth and Quill nudges my shoulder. "You good, Rogue?" I nod and my shoulders were shaking slightly. "What?"
I lift my head and breathe slowly, trying to stop laughing. "You... You got your ass handed to you as a teenager... That's hilarious." He scoffs, blushing, and finishes eating.
"Well, I'd watch it if I were you. Yondu might hand your ass to you too." He smirks at me and I shrug a bit. "What, you ain't worried about it?" I shrug again and take a piece of food off of his tray, eating it.
"Not really, no." I put my elbow on the table and put my chin in my hand, noticing them looking at me. "I don't care what happens so long as I get food regularly, I'm good." I notice Quill looking at me, confused, and shrug. "My grandparents cared sometimes, just not enough to make sure they had food left for me after they ate most of the time. And they were drunk more often than not. That's when they didn't care at all. They were decent enough, I guess. I wasn't on the street and had clean clothes, just not a lot of food. Plus, they kept my medicine stocked to keep me healthy enough. Mainly because my sister reminded them about it constantly," I scoff and run my fingers through my hair, yanking them through some knots.
"You should cut that," Stakar says and I nod my agreement. Kraglin gives me my pocket knife back and I open it grabbing the end of my hair before simply slicing through it.
"Ya coulda le' me cut it!" Kraglin says in shock and I shrug.
"This was easier." I close the knife and put it in my pants pocket with the clip on it, looking at him. "Where can I get a knife like yours?" He was taking a drink and coughs.
"Wha'? Why?" He coughs and I raise my eyebrow at him.
"You're able to cut a hand clean off with it. Do you know how helpful that would be? Especially if I learned how to fight with it?" He shrugs a bit and his coughing dies down.
"You might be able to find one from an arms dealer," Stakar says and I nod a bit.
"I only have Earth- I mean, Terra money, though. How would I pay for it?"
"I will," Quill says and thinks of something better. "Rocket might be able to make one. If he can make blasters and explosives, he should be able to make a knife like Krags." He taps the thing on his wrist. "Rocket."
"What do you want, Quill?"
"Would you be able to make a knife?"
"I guess, why?"
"Further precaution in case somebody gets the drop on me during a fight." He lies easily and waits for Rocket to respond.
"Yeah, sure. I'll have it ready in an hour. Got any design?"
"Like Kraglins. You gonna be able to do that?"
"Course I will," He scoffs and there's a beep as the transmission is stopped.
"Smooth lie." He nods at me a bit and looks at me.
"Figured it might be better to lie than tell him the truth seeing as how he almost shot you."
"Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Everything else, you either do it or you don't. There's no almost. I think he's mainly pissed that I hit him. And you know it." He shrugs in response and looks at the scar on the back of my neck.
"What happened there?" I touch it and look at him.
"A whiskey bottle. The alcohol sterilized it as soon as it was in," I scoff and he narrows his eyes at me.
"Somebody hit you with a whiskey bottle?"
"Nope. They threw it at me and then it hit me. Kids are ruthless," I say simply and he scoffs.
"That seems to be an understatement." I shrug and he looks at me. "So, you're gonna be a Ravager?" He raises an eyebrow at me and I look at him.
"Yes. We've only been talking about it all morning, Quill." He nods a bit and there's a clatter before flashing lights are going off. "What the Hell is going on?!"
"The ship's on lockdown," Stakar says and there's someone over the intercom.
"Cap'n, we need you in controls!" They yell and Yondu gets up, quickly going that way. Kraglin, Quill, and Stakar stand and follow.
"Stay here!" Quill yells over his shoulder at me and I scoff, following them anyway. The crew ignores me and continues to eat their food. I follow as quietly as I can and stay in the shadows of the control room.
"Kree..." Yondu says softly and presses a button as something pops up.
"Battle Slave, we are here to take you back where you belong."
"Sorry, boys. 'M where I belong." He snarls and I move slightly from the shadows behind him, the Kree's eyes landing on me.
"What about that back there?" Yondu spins to glare at me and I look at him. He whistles and my hood is pinned to the wall before he turns around.
"Tha' girl is not fer ya," He growls loudly and I slip out of the hoodie, going over silently to some controls that look like a shooting arcade game. Kraglin sees me and comes over.
"Wha' are ya doin'?" He growls softly and I look at the control then look at the small ship out in front of us. "Ya think ya can shoot it down?!" He growls and I notice Stakar and Quill looking at us.
"Yes, I do. And there's only one way to find out for sure. Get back to the Captain and I'll deal with them," I say softly, feeling other crew members' eyes on us, and he looks at me.
"Quill, git ova' here." He nods Quill over and he comes over. "Help her take it down," He growls and he nods, leading me over to the controls. I press behind my ear and the visor shows up.
He pulls me over and puts my hands over the controls, covering them with his hands. He pulls up the crosshairs and helps me aim at the Kree ship.
"Disengage your weapons or we will open fire on you ourselves." Yondu's eyes snap over to us and he glares.
"Turn them off, boy!" Quill quickly turns them off and Yondu glares at me. "Git out," He growls and I leave, grabbing my hoodie as I do. I go to the room with all of the ships, I think it's called a hangar and go over to Quill's ship quickly and quietly. I see Gamora, the guy with red markings, and the lady with antennas get off of the ship.
"Rocket, keep an eye on Groot," Gamora says as she leaves and I quickly get on the ship, slowly going to the control.
"Hey!" Rocket yells and I turn to see him pointing the toy gun, blaster, at me. "Get the Hell off this ship!"
"Something named the Kree is here and want Yondu! I want to help but they won't let me! Please help me help them!" I yell back, worried for them, and he looks at me before nodding. "Show me how to shoot the weapons and you can fly, ok?" He nods again and leads me down to the weapons controls, showing me how to quickly.
"We're in lockdown, do you know how to get out?" He scoffs and leaves me. I sit in the chair and strap in. The ship starts up and I feel us start to move. The alarms finally stop and I watch as we go out of the ship quickly before the doors slam again.
"The lockdown is back on, but we're out. You better be able to take these Kree down and don't get us killed or I'm gonna kill ya," Rocket says over a speaker next to my head and I laugh nervously. He flies carefully behind the ship to get to the side of it and I put my hands on the controls, breathing slowly to settle my nerves. I carefully aim for one of the wings and hear the same voice from earlier telling us to disengage our weapons or they'll open fire on us in retaliation. I narrow my eyes and slam my hand on the speaker.
"Play Quill's music!" There's silence for a second before the music starts to play and I smirk. "Let's fucking do this, Rocket!" I reach to start firing when I see a warning pop up about us being aimed at and hear Yondu yelling at us.
"Git yer asses back here!" I reach over and hit the speaker to respond.
"I have a clean shot to take out a wing, Captain! If I can shoot, they'll be sent down and-"
"And they'll land on the planet below us, killing hundreds of people! Get your asses back in the hangar! NOW!" Quill yells.
"They have ten seconds before we open fire and kill them," The Kree says in an eerily calm voice and I shudder slightly.
"Don't! There's a kid on board!" Quill yells at the Kree.
"Ten seconds starts now," The Kree says and I disengage the weapons before being jerked to the side at the suddenness of the ship moving.
"Rocket! Stop!" I yell at him over the speaker and there's nothing. "I am not going to let them take the damned Captain, Rocket! Help me destroy their damned ship!"
"NO! You're going to shut up and let him fly!" Quill yells as there's a hologram of him next to Yondu in front of me and I glare at him, breathing heavily. "Rogue, get your hands off of those damn controls! Now!" He growls at me and I glare at him.
"I am not letting them take him," I growl back and grab the controls tightly, aiming through the window of the Kree ship after engaging the weapons again.
"Girl, git yer hands off them controls!" Yondu growls and I look at him. "NOW!" He bellows and I flip the switches Rocket had switched, letting go of the controls.
"Rocket, get in the damned hangar and don't let her off of the ship," Quill says simply and the hologram disappears as we get into the hangar. The doors slam shut behind us and I stand, pissed. I go over to the bunk and punch something.
"Damnit!" I growl and sit on it, head in my hands. I take a couple of deep breaths and take my knife out of my pocket, flipping it open. I open and shut it repeatedly as I'm locked on the ship and wait for the others. I close the knife, keeping it closed, and spin it around my fingers as I wait for them, feeling like it's taking them hours. I look at Rocket and see that he's working on the knife.
"How's that coming?"
"It's coming," Is all he says and it's silent on the ship again, other than Quill's music. I sigh and lay back on the bunk, closing my eyes for a bit.
I stand up, more or less falling off of the bunk, when the big metal door opens and Yondu, Kraglin, Quill, and Stakar come on, all of them looking pissed. I stand from where I was crouched on the floor and grip my knife in my hand, heart racing. Damnit, not the time. I grip my knife tighter and try to get my heart rate to slow down, reaching up to turn the visor off.
"Wha' the hell were ya thinkin', girl?!" Yondu suddenly yells and I barely keep from flinching, heart beating faster. I grip my knife tighter that my hand starts to shake and my knuckles were white. He notices and takes a step forward. "Ya scared, girl?" He growls and I stand straighter, looking him in the eyes.
"Hell no," I say simply and loosen my grip on my knife, my heart rate slowing down.
"Ya should be." He whistles sharply and the arrow is flying for my face. I roll out of the way and crouch on the floor to see the arrow frozen while the others look at me. "Sure ya ain't scared?" He smirks at me and I stand.
"I'm sure." Quill starts to stalk towards me, very pissed off, and I barely manage to avoid him grabbing my arm.
"What the Hell were you thinking?!" He yells as Kraglin slams a button to shut us all in the ship and he tries to grab me again. I spin away and look at him.
"I was trying to help, Quill. I wasn't going to let them take Yondu or talk to him like he was somebody's property!" I growl, pissed too, and he glares at me.
"We weren't going to let them take him either, you idiot! We were waiting for reinforcements and you nearly blew it by getting blown up!" He yells and I glare at him, too pissed at how he's talking to me to feel bad.
"Don't pretend that you care! You just don't want the guilt of me dying! You don't give a shit about me!" He suddenly grabs me by the front of my hoodie and pulls me close to him.
"Don't you dare talk to me as if you know what I think. I don't care what you think about me, you don't know what I think or how I feel. So don't you dare pretend that you do," He growls and I glare at him. "We clear?"
"Screw you, Star-Lord," I growl back and he just pushes me onto the bunk, walking away from me.
"Rocket, out," Quill growls and Rocket grabs Groot, leaving through the big door before it's shut again. He turns to look at me, pissed, and runs a hand through his hair. I open my mouth to say something and Stakar snaps.
"Not a word out you," He says simply and I shut up, clenching my jaw slightly. Quill paces a bit and my eyes follow him slightly. He stops and turns toward me.
"You nearly got yourself killed," He growls and looks at Yondu. "What would you have done if I did something this stupid?" He scoffs and looks at him.
"Ya would'a git whupped. She's jus' a lil' 'un. Yer gonna hafta figure it out, Son." They were talking softly and I was finally managing to calm down, everything hitting me hard. I nearly died... I met my Dad... I have a whole huge family... Made up of aliens... And my sister's dead... I'm not on Earth anymore... I press the thing behind my right ear to make the mask form to hide my face and hold my head in my hands a bit, tears coming silently. I'm on a spaceship with a bunch of aliens... And three of them are talking to my Dad as if I'm not even here about me... I nearly got killed by a ship of other aliens that called Yondu a battle slave... I tried to fight them with a raccoon... On a smaller spaceship... My breath hitches and I wrap my hands around my head in the mask. My sister's dead... So are my grandparents... I got beat up by a big yellow alien and cut his leg to the bone... Kraglin cut his hand off... I'm getting a knife from a raccoon... My... My sister... I let out a soft sob at that and someone touches my shoulder.
I jerk away and look up to see it's Quill. "Hey, calm down..." I scoot back to sit against the wall and pull my knees up to my chest. He sits on the bunk and watches me, not sure what else to do. My body shakes from my silent sobs and I bury my head against my knees, starting to sob softly. He gently touches my shoulder and I look up slightly. He gently pulls me to him and wraps his arms around me tightly, turning the mask off. I bury my face in his shoulder and he holds me close.
"She... She's dead..." I whisper between sobs and he holds me tighter.
"It's gonna be OK..." He says softly to me and rubs my back. "I got you... Just... Just let it out, alright? It'll feel better after you have..." He whispers and I wrap my arms around him to cling to his duster as I sob. He rubs my back still and lets me cry.
After a little while, I calm down and let him go to rub the tears away with my hoodie sleeve. He lets me go and gently grabs my face with both of his hands. I look at him a bit and he smiles gently at me. "It's going to get better... I promise..." I nod a bit and finish wiping the tears away.
"Sorry for being such a jerk..." I mumble, not looking at him, and he snorts, making me look at him.
"According to Yondu and Krags, I was the same way." He gently ruffles my hair and I smile a tiny bit. "Never tried to shoot a Kree ship down, though," He scoffs and I kinda shrug.
"I didn't want them to take Yondu away..."
"Why?" Yondu asks and I turn to see the others looking at me.
"You kept dragging me out of my burning house... And didn't leave my bag to burn... Besides, they sounded like asshats and you're too good of a Captain to be taken hostage by some asshats." I shrug and he laughs, nodding his agreement.
"Yer righ' 'bout tha'." I smile at him a bit and rub my sleeves across my face to clean it off fully.
"You just scraped by without getting whipped, Rogue. But only because you seem to be sorry and regret doing it. Right?" I shrug a bit and they gape at me a bit. "You don't regret doing it?"
"I didn't say that... I do... Kinda..." Quill crosses his arms over his chest and looks at me, one eyebrow raised. "I regret that I made you guys worry and angry, but I don't quite regret doing the action..."
"So you regret making us worry but not the thing that made us worry?" Quill raises an eyebrow at me and I nod.
"Exactly."
"Would you regret it if you got whupped?" I look at Quill and shake my head.
"No. I kind of regret not taking the shot to blow the asshats to bits."
"Ya would'a got whupped if ya did," Yondu growls and I look at him, thinking.
"Would've been worth it." I shrug a bit and he scoffs.
"Ya sure 'bout tha'?" I nod and he shakes his head. "Why?"
"You wouldn't have had to worry about them and they wouldn't have been able to get any word back to their leaders or whatever they have."
"They would've been waiting for the ship to get back and would send more when they weren't back," Stakar says and I mess with my sleeves a bit.
"I didn't think about that..." I mumble and don't look at them, looking at my lap instead. I look up at a snap and see Yondu watching me.
"There are two species you want to avoid at all costs. Kree and Skrulls." I nod and recognize the second one, looking at Yondu and Kraglin.
"You said that some Skrulls were at my house on Terra. Why?"
"What?!" Quill stands up and looks at the two of them. "Why were they on Terra?!"
"Sit down, boy!" Yondu yells and Quill sits back down. "They knew somthin' we didn' an' were there fer yer girl."
"They were gonna make her a battle slave?" Stakar asks and Kraglin nods. "Good thing your crew was there." I look between them and was confused.
"They were gonna what?"
"They were gonna make you fight for your life for their amusement," Stakar says simply and I gape at them.
"So... They killed my family and you killed them to keep me safe from having to fight for my life against other species? So that they wouldn't be bored?" I ask carefully to make sure I understood and they nod. I nod slowly and suddenly punch the edge of the bunk, making Quill jump. "They killed my sister? You're sure about that?" Yondu nods and I punch the edge of the bunk again, making my hand bleed. "What do they look like?" I look at them and ignore my hand.
"They have green skin, yellow eyes, and green blood," Stakar explains and I nod.
"They can shapeshift," Quill adds and I nod a bit, taking a deep breath to calm a bit. "You OK?" I nod and look at my hand, just tearing off the collar of my shirt to wrap around it so it hopefully stops the bleeding. I go over to where Rocket was working on my knife and look at it then Kraglin.
"Can you teach me how to use this?" He nods and I nod back. "Good." Quill goes over and opens the door, letting Rocket on. He comes over to me and grabs the knife, spinning it in his hand a bit.
"It's done." He flips it and hands it to me by the handle. "Quill's a shitty liar." I take it and wrap my fingers around it, my other knife on the bed. "All I ask in return is your other knife." I grab it from the bunk and toss it to him.
"Go nuts." He catches it and tosses me a holster-looking thing. Quill catches it and looks at it.
"For the knife. It goes on her shoulder like Kraglin's."
"Captain." We all turn and see Segs with a handful of clothes made out of leather. "Her leathers are ready." I take the holster and slip the knife into it before going over to Segs. "I hope you enjoy them, dear." He grabs my hand and kisses it. I smile awkwardly and take them from him.
"Thank you." He smiles and leaves. Quill guides me to a room and opens the door.
"Get changed." I go inside and he shuts the door. I sigh softly and get changed into one of the outfits quickly. I look around but see no mirror and go back out to the others, bringing the other clothes too. I set them on the bunk at Quill's nod towards it and he grabs the duster out of it, handing it to me. I take it and slip it on. Kraglin takes the holster and attaches it to my shoulders, making sure the handle came over my left shoulder.
"Grab it." He backs away and I grab the handle, sliding it out. "Not bad. Ya need ta work on the speed'a it." I nod and think. I take the holster off of my shoulders and take off the duster, nodding a bit as I think. "Wha'?"
"If we adjusted the holster, I could put it on my thigh to be hidden by my duster or to be put between my shoulders. If I get captured, it'd be the last resort and I'd be able to grab it and take someone down or as a hostage." I look at the holster then at Rocket and he looks at me. "Could you make me a second one?"
"Wha' fer?" Yondu scoffs and I look at him.
"Two is better than one." I look at Rocket and he was already getting started on a second one. "You got a thigh holster?" Quill motions for me to hang on and looks for one, grabbing it out of a drawer. He tosses it to me and I catch it, turning it over in my hands as I look at it. It matches my pants and I grab my knife, comparing the handle to the holster.
"Wha' ya doin'?" I look up to see Yondu looking at me and he comes over.
"If the handle matches the holster and the holster matches the pants, no one will know it's there. Not until I'm closer."
"No one better be getting close enough to see your damn thigh!" Quill growls and I roll my eyes slightly.
"Not the point, Quill. No one will be able to tell I have a knife on my thigh until it's too late." He nods a bit and I look at Yondu. "Would Segs be able to adjust this to fit my thigh and the knife?" He nods and grabs my wrist, tapping a few things. He then motions for me to ask myself and I shrug a bit, tapping the final button.
"Yes?" His voice comes from over it and I am a little surprised.
"Segs, would you be able to adjust a holster to fit my leg and a knife for me?"
"Anything for you, my dear." I see Quill look angry and smirk a bit.
"Great. I'll be there in ten minutes with it."
"I'll be waiting." I click the thing and it disconnects. I look at Rocket.
"How long until that one's done?" He looks at it and shrugs.
"Eight minutes." He shrugs and I nod, slipping my knife back in its holster. I slip my duster back on and notice it doesn't have a flame on it.
"Where's the flame?" Yondu looks at me and just smiles. "Enlightening." I lean against a wall as I wait for Rocket to be done with the knife and listen to the music still playing.