Chapter 13
I start to get a bad feeling and finish my drink. "Hey, where's a bathroom?" Aleta points to one and I nod, going through the crowd. I tap on my wrist com and pull up a map with some dots and a diamond. "Alright... I'm the diamond... Those dots are the ladies... These must be Dad and them..." I notice one veering away from the others and carefully go toward the dot, having a bad feeling about what was happening with that dot.
I get to the spot where the dot was and see Kraglin weaving through the crowd. I follow closely and he turns a corner, which is where I stop. "Krags?" I call softly and veer widely around the corner so that I don't get attacked. He puts his knife up and glares at me.
"Wha' ya doin' 'ere, kid?"
"I had a bad feeling. I've learned to listen to them, OK?" He narrows his eyes at me and suddenly grabs my hand, pricking my finger with his knife. "Ow! What the Hell, dude?" I hiss and put my finger in my mouth to stop the bleeding.
"Ah jus' had ta make sure..." I tap a few things on my wrist com and see my diamond right by a dot. "Wha's tha'?"
"Nothing." I'm about to swipe it away when there are screams and the other dots are moving quickly. "Shit... The others are in trouble..."
"Ya got any weapons?" I shake my head and he looks pissed. "Why?" He growls and I kinda glare at him.
"Aleta made me leave them on the M-ship! Shit! They don't have any weapons either, Krags!" I look at him and he rubs his face. "Give me your blaster!" He gives it to me and I attach it to my side, using my duster to cover it. I look at my wrist com and see the dots had gathered together in one spot, still moving quickly. "Come on!" I grab his wrist and pull him after me to go to where they are. He yanks his arm out of my hold but follows and I run, leaning forward slightly to stay upright in the crowd going the other way.
I see a flash of blue and compare it to my wrist com, continuing to run. "Kid! Cap'n's 'ere!"
"No, he ain't! C'mon!" I drag him still and we see them piling some tables up to make a barricade. I compare it to my wrist com and nod, running that way.
"Hey, guys! What'd I miss?" I slide behind the tables and smirk at them.
"Where the Hell did you go?" Dad growls and I roll my eyes.
"I found Kraglin and then all Hell broke loose. Skrulls?" He nods and I nod back, sending them the system I have on my wrist com. "It has our positions in case we get separated, you'll be a diamond and everyone else will be a dot."
"Why do you have that?"
"Because I'm a paranoid kid. And it's a good thing I am. I had Rocket and Groot help me sneak trackers in your boots a bit ago. Good move, huh?" I give Rocket a fist bump and take off the blaster from my belt loop, giving it back to Kraglin as Rocket hands me one with sights. "That's more like it," I smirk and look around a bit.
I spot a stand with a sign that would give me cover and nod slightly. "Perfect. What do the Skrulls got for weapons?"
"Blasters and whips. Why?" Dad asks and I adjust the sights a bit, glancing at him.
"It's time to get the high ground, that's why. Don't let me get shot." I bolt for the stand and go to the back of it, activating my boots to land on the top. Blaster fire goes flying above me and I lay flat on the top, sliding behind the sign. I point the barrel of the blaster through a space between the letters of the sign and aim for a Skrull that was sneaking on the group, firing.
They scream and fall to the ground, crawling the rest of the way. One of them deal with it and I work on knocking down the Skrulls that were surrounding the group.
My blaster suddenly stops and I curse, hitting it slightly. "Come on, you piece of shit!" I hiss and hit it again, causing it to go off. "Seriously?" I growl and blaster fire knocks the blaster out of my hands. "Well, shit..." I hear someone behind me and I'm getting thrown.
"Fuck!" I activate my boots and manage to not get hurt too bad as I slide to a stop past the table barricade that the group was behind. "Not cool, asshat!" I yell at him and squeak as I dodge a whip. "Hey! Watch where you swing that thing! I ain't into that shit, freak! Rocket!" He throws me another blaster and I catch it easily, noticing something. I press a button on each side of the blaster and it splits into two separate blasters. "Nice..." I blast the Skrull in front of me once with each of them and hear a blaster go off, hitting something behind me.
"Pay attention, girl!" Yondu yells and whistles sharply to send his arrow through another Skrull's skull.
"I am!" I yell back and blast one of them. It doesn't do anything and they throw me hard into the sign on the stand. I hit it with a grunt and fall to the ground with another grunt, dropping the blasters as blood comes to my mouth from the force of the hits to the hard surfaces. I get up after a moment with a bit of difficulty and brace my hand against the stand, grabbing the blaster closest to me.
A Skrull lunges at me with their mouth wide open and I jam the blaster into their mouth, blasting their head clean off as I say, "Eat this." I pick up the other blaster and wipe a hand across my mouth, blood dripping down the corner of it. Dad glances at me and I just blast a Skrull that's behind him. "Pay attention to not getting killed!" I bark and he looks surprised but does as I say, all of us dealing with the Skrulls.
After a bit, there's only one Skrull left standing and Kraglin goes over at Yondu's insistence. I start to follow, bad feeling still present, and Yondu stops me. "Tha's fer Krags." I nod and watch Kraglin blast the Skrull out of the realm of the living.
"Why in the Hell did you put trackers in our boots?" Dad looks at me as I sink to the ground against the stand and I shrug.
"If I had put them in your wrist coms, if they got broke the tracker would too. The boots seemed like the next best option after just injecting it into your body." I don't add that there's one in Yondu's arrow and Rocket doesn't either as Kraglin comes back.
"Why didja come ta find me?" He narrows his eyes at me and I raise an eyebrow at him.
"I told you, already. Bad feeling." He comes over and hauls me to my feet, pinning me against the wall with my feet off the ground so I'm eye-level with him.
"Ya walk away from the ladies an' ya jus' happen ta have tha' system ta track us? Ya tell them Skrulls where they was 'fore ya found me?" I slip out of my duster and fall to my feet, glaring at him as I shove him away from me. "Well? Didja ya?"
"No, you dumbass. I hate the Skrull as much as you do. They killed my sister too, Krags..." I hiss and he tenses.
He suddenly hits me to the ground and I catch myself, jaw hurting like Hell now. "Don'cha dare talk 'bout 'er 'gain, kid," He snarls softly enough only I can hear him and I stand, snatching my duster from his hands.
"Then don't fucking forget about what they took from both of us." He swings at me again and I use my duster to catch his arm, twisting it so his arm ends up behind his back. "And learn to fucking trust me, damn you," I hiss and unwrap my duster from his arm, backing away as I pull it on. "I didn't tip them off on anything about anybody. I wouldn't do that," I say simply and Kraglin glares at me, having turned to face me.
"Well... That was enough excitement for me for one day..." Rocket says awkwardly and I hand him back his blasters.
"That first one got blasted out of my hands so I have no clue where it went."
"Eh, who cares? It's useless once you use up all of the charge power." He shrugs and I nod. "How'd you like the sights on it?" He walks toward the exit and I walk next to him, ignoring the others to talk to Rocket who made decent conversation most of the time.
"They were good. A little off, but that might've been because of how fast I tried to adjust them." He nods and pulls out another blaster that had sights. "Where do you hide all of these damned blasters?"
"I'll show you one day," He smirks and hands me the blaster. I take it and adjust the sights carefully, not rushing through it this time since I didn't have to rush due to a Skrull attack. "Good. Now when you shoot, you'll be dead on."
"Literally," I snort and he throws his head back in laughter while we get to the ships, the others close behind.
"You did an OK job today." He pats my wrist and waves his hand when I try to give him the blaster back. "It's yours, kid. Those sights are Hell to adjust."
"Dope. Thanks, dude." I awkwardly pat his head and he tenses for a moment, shoving my hand off after another moment.
"Yeah, yeah." Aleta gets off of the M-ship we used to get here and gives me the box that had mainly my weapons.
"Here. You're riding with the guys."
"Wait, what?"
"You heard me." She boards the ship with Jay and shuts the door again before I can get on.
"What the Hell, Aleta?" Rocket was snickering and I shove at his head slightly. "Shut up, you." I attach my weapons after handing him my new blaster and he raises an eyebrow at me.
"Where the Hell do you hide all of those weapons?"
"These amazing things called pockets," I smirk and put the smaller stuff in my pockets, making sure everything was where it went.
"Do I even want to know why you have her carrying so many weapons, Yondu?"
"Tha' girl is tiny, Stakar. Ya see tha', don'cha?"
"Hey! I'm not tiny!" I argue and Yondu raises an eyebrow at me. "You guys are freakishly tall! That ain't my fault."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Get on the ship." Dad guides me on board with his hands on my shoulders and lets them go when I bite at him. The others get on and Kraglin and I are forced to stay near each other despite wanting to kill each other.
"No killing each other on my ship!" Dad yells over his shoulder as he suddenly shuts a door and I stand, going over to it.
"What the Hell, dude? Open the damn door!"
"Not until you two get along again, even if you have to stay in there after we dock in the hangar," Dad says over a speaker and I bang my hand on a porthole. "Hey! Easy on the ship!" I growl at him and he turns to go pilot the ship.
"She's gonna kill you when she gets out of there, Quill," Rocket warns and he shrugs one shoulder.
"Nah. She'll try, sure. But she won't kill me, kill me. Hopefully..." He pilots off of the planet and I sit on a crate in the room, Kraglin on the other side of it. We sit in silence and glare at each other.
"Well?"
"Well what, Obfonteri?"
"Ya gonna say sorry?"
"For what?"
"Ya wan' me ta make ya a list?"
"Yeah, make me a list of why I should apologize to you."
"Ya followed me, ya ordered me ta give ya m'blaster, ya dragged me all ova tha' damn place, ya put a tracker on me an' Cap'n without us knowin' 'bout 'em, ya ain't had yer weapons on ya like yer 'sposed ta when ya ain't with me or Cap'n, an' ya talked 'bout m'sister!" The others could hear us because we weren't being quiet.
"This oughta be good," Yondu chuckles and leans back in the co-pilot chair, listening.
"Oh? Really? Really? Well, how about you apologize to me?"
"Wha' fer?"
"I'll give you a list! You accused me of selling everyone out to the Skrulls, you hit me in the face, you made me bleed out of nowhere to check my blood, you keep forgetting that Aleta Ogord made me leave all of my weapons on board that ship, and you seem to be stupid enough to not realize that if I had sold you guys out to the Skrulls, I wouldn't waste my time and energy to fight against them with you!"
"She's got a point there, Krags!" Dad says over the speaker and I stand, slamming my hand on the porthole as we both yell
"Shut up, Quill!" Kraglin comes over and pins me against the door.
"Ya don' talk 'bout m'sister, kid," He growls right in my face and I just punch him in his face, making him let me go.
"At least my breath doesn't smell like shit!" We get into a fistfight and Yondu pulls up the feeds from the camera in there, since we're just floating in the deep to give me and Kraglin time to work out our issues.
"Tha' part 'a yer plan?" Dad shrugs and they watch the fistfight, seeing me land a few good ones. "Damn, girl. Guess ya do lissen when Ah talk ta ya..."
Kraglin knocks me to the floor and punches me a few times in the stomach since I was guarding my face. I wrap my arms around his side and roll, flinging him off of me. We both roll to our feet, ending in a crouch, and I watch Kraglin closely. He launches at me and I roll out of the way. "You use that trick in training, dumbass!"
"Kid, ya keep callin' me tha' shit an' 'm gonna hafta hurt ya fer real!"
"HA! As if!" He knocks me to the floor again and pins my hands under his knees, smirking down at me.
"Yer cocky, kid. Makes ya sloppy."
"And you have a cock. Gives me a good weak spot." I knee him in the crotch, very flexible, and he groans, falling off of me. I roll away and watch him, wiping a hand across my mouth.
"Gittin' tired, kid?" He asks after a minute and I narrow my eyes at him.
"I can do this all day." I knock him to the floor this time and punch him in the face twice before he lands a punch to my jaw that sends me careening off of him with a grunt. He kicks me in the stomach and sits on a crate, watching me.
"Ya relent?" He asks as I push myself into a sitting position against the wall, panting, and I glare at him. "If ya do, ya jus' gotta say tha' one word."
"Asshole? Cunt? Dick? Fuck you?"
"That last one was two words, Rogue," Martinex supplies helpfully and I can't decide who I'm more pissed at right now.
"Shut up, T'Naga!" Kraglin yells and I rest my head against the wall, slowly getting my diaphragm to cooperate again. "Ya relent?" He asks again, smirking, and I kick a crate toward him. He stops it with his foot and looks at me, eyebrow raised. "Well?" I clench my jaw slightly and raise my hands when he starts to stand, choking down my pride.
"Yes, I relent. Happy?"
"An'?"
"No."
"C'mon, say it."
"No. Cuz I ain't."
"Ah can make ya."
"No, you can't. You're the one that owes me a damned apology, Obfonteri! I followed you because I had a bad feeling as to why you left the other idiots in there! And you fucking accused me of working with the Skrull! So fuck you!"
"Ya ain't got no right ta put trackers on nobody, kid!"
"Like Hell I don't!"
"Ya ain't!"
"Then you don't have a right to put trackers on me!"
"Tha' ain't the same!"
"How? How is it not the same?"
"'M yer First Mate! Yer jus' a damned mechanic an' m'kid brother's giant pain in m'ass! Ah ain't even wan'cha on the damn ship cuz yer a giant pain in m'ass! Yer dramatic, moody, emotional, an' ya cry fer no damned reason! So yer Momma died! Git ova it! All 'a our Mommas died! So yer shitty family died! Be fuckin' happy! Leas' they ain't sell ya ta the damned Skrull with yer sister! So yer sister got killed by the Skrull! M'sister did too! Git ova it!" He yells at me and I stand, going over to him. "Wha'cha want now?" He growls and I look at him, debating about it for a moment before I just hug him.
"Git off 'a me!" He tries to shove me off and I just hold him tighter.
"No."
"Kid! Git off 'a me! Now!"
"No." He growls loudly but stops trying to get me to let go of him and pats my head gently.
"Fine..." He mutters under his breath and lets me hug him, awkwardly resting an arm on my head.
"That's not... Never mind..." I mutter and let him go after a moment. "I'm..." I cross my arms over my chest and slowly let out a breath. "I'm sorry for all of the stuff you listed off..." He just wraps an arm around my head in a headlock sort of hug and pulls me into his side using it.
"'M sorry too, kid. Ah can git..." He drifts off and I help him find the word.
"Stupid? Idiotic? Stubborn as all of the Hells? Annoying? Rude? Dick like? As stupid as Dad?"
"'Ey!" He hits me upside the head at the last one and I duck under his arm after it.
"Hey, if the boot fits."
"Wha'?"
"Right. Um... Never mind. You were being as stupid as Dad is." He kinda glares at me and I smirk, shrugging one shoulder. "Y'know, it'd be cool if you could pull your damned punches for once. I like being able to eat solid food."
"Ah pull punches when ya can hurt me with yers." He smirks at me and I shove his chest.
"Dick."
"Shorty."
"Screw you!" I scoff, smiling a bit, and he pats my shoulder, hard, before pushing me to sit on a crate. "Why am I sitting?"
"Cuz 'm yer First Mate an' Ah wan'cha ta. An' yer Daddy ain't gonna open tha' door 'till we dock." He grabs a medkit and drags a crate over to sit on before he works on fixing up my face.
"And cuz you feel bad for screwing up my pretty face," I smirk at him and he rolls his eyes.
"Shuddup so Ah can fix yer ugly mug." I scoff and stop talking so he can finish fixing my face.
"You should've been in Med instead of the hangar," I chuckle when he's done, placing bandages on any open cuts, and he flicks me in the forehead. "Hey, I'm just saying, you're not bad at it. Fork it over." He hands me the medkit and I adjust how I'm sitting to be able to clean his face up, having gotten a few hits in that made him bleed.
He was smirking and I flick him in the forehead. "Wha'cha do tha' fer?" I raise an eyebrow at him as I wipe away the blood and he chuckles. "Yer short, kid."
"Yeah, I know. Shut up. You don't have to remind me." I place some bandages on his open cuts and he lets me, watching my face. "What?"
"Ain't say nothin'."
"You're staring at me. So you don't have to say anything. It's creepy."
"Yeah, a'ight." He shoves at my head slightly and I just sit on the crate, crossing my legs while I look at him. "Wha?"
"Just trying to figure out how someone with that ugly of a mug can have all of the females on the crew going googly-eyed when he walks into a room. Same with Yondu."
"'Ey! Ah can 'ear ya!"
"I know!" I smirk and Kraglin rolls his eyes, blushing blue. "And it's fair of me to be curious about it. Besides, learning how you guys do it might help me make some guys go that way for me."
The door suddenly opens and Dad's standing there. "Like Hell that's gonna happen!" I go over to Dad and shove him into the room while Kraglin leaves it.
"Have fun in there," I smirk and lock the door on him, nodding slightly.
"Let me out, Rogue!" I pretend to think and look at Kraglin.
"What do you think? Should we let him out?" He looks at Dad and smirks, shaking his head.
"Naw. Leave 'im in 'ere fer a bit."
"Couldn't agree more," I smirk at Dad and he glares at the two of us. "How close are we to the ship, anyway?" I turn and head toward the chairs in the front where Rocket was sitting in the pilot's chair.
"We'll be docking in a few minutes," He says and I nod, leaning against the chair slightly.
"That fight was very entertaining!" Drax laughs and I roll my eyes. "Especially when one of you would knock the other down!" He roars with laughter and I put my hair up in a ponytail with a hair tie that I always keep around my wrist, looking at Kraglin. He was just as done with Drax and Drax sits down on the bunk, quieting down after a moment.
"Are you always this annoying?" Drax looks taken aback and Rocket laughs, adding to a headache I was getting. "Hey, Rocket..."
"What?"
"Shut up." He glares at me and I pat his head simply. "Thanks." I sit in an empty chair by them and rest my head against the wall, closing my eyes.
"Wha's yer issue?"
"She does not get enough sleep because she hides in the hangar to kiss Jay," Drax says simply and I snap my head to look at him, glaring. "What?"
"Wha'cha been doin' in the hangar?" Yondu growls and I look at him, seeing him looking at me, pissed.
"Hey! Nuh-uh! When I'm in the hangar, I do my job! I don't make out with Jay!"
"Yes, you do. I have seen you."
"Drax! Stop talking! And even if I do, that's fucking creepy of you to watch! What the Hell, dude?" They all look at him weird and he looks at me.
"I have not watched. I have seen you kissing him and then I have left. Numerous times. In the room where they keep the spare parts." They all look at me and I close my eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath.
"I go in there to talk to him about Terra," I say after opening my eyes and cross my arms over my chest. "And he listens because he's interested in it."
"I don't know if this will help, but I can confirm that's all that we do," Jay says over a transmission and I motion toward it then do a double-take.
"Wait, when the fuck did you connect a transmission to the other ship?"
"While you were calling Drax a creep."
"Oh. OK."
"Where is Peter?" Gamora asks and I smirk. "Rogue, what did you do?"
"He's not dead. He's in that room back there."
"Why?"
"Payback is a bitch."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"He locked me and Kraglin in there so now he's locked in there until we dock in the hangar. He'll be fine! He might even gain some brain cells, but that's not very likely... There's still a chance, though," I shrug one shoulder and she shakes her head, ending the transmission.
A new one comes in and Rocket looks at it. "I ain't answering it."
"I can," I go over and answer the transmission, seeing a person from the Nova Corps. "Hi."
"Hello... Who are you?"
"We'll get to that later. What do you want?"
"I'm looking for a Mister Peter Quill...?"
"He's currently... Unavailable. How can I help you?"
"Who are you exactly?"
"Let's go with his secretary."
"OK... Xandar is hosting a party to celebrate the defeat of Ronan and the prosperity of Xandar. Nova Prime requested for me to extend an invite to the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Udonta Ravager Clan Captain."
"I'm gonna be honest, that sounds super boring. But I'll pass on the message. Buh-bye." I end the transmission and Rocket laughs. "There, dealt with." I give him a thumbs up and look at Yondu. "You got an invite to a boring ass party. Congrats," I smirk and he hits me upside my head while Kraglin scoffs. There's a beep from the holoscreen and Rocket swipes the thing over to me. I look it over and smirk a bit.
"Hey, the place where that party is has a bunch of shit we could get a whole Hell of a lot of units for." He looks over my shoulder and sees a priceless artifact.
"Yeah. Tha' one can be 'bout..." He drifts off as he thinks and I look at the information on the party.
"The party's about two, three hours long, meal included, so there'd be manpower there, fuel from a ship to get to Xandar, any tech or clothes to blend into the party and be able to get the artifact, and the time to find a buyer for it. It says the party isn't until two solar cycles from now, so that would give a good amount of time to line up a buyer," I say, mostly to myself, and look at the artifact, thinking. "We could probably line up a buyer to buy it for... A billion units, at least, after some heckling. If that doesn't work, we could get about fifty million?" I shrug one shoulder and look at Yondu.
"Uh... Yeah... Tha's 'bout right... Le's do it..." He nods and had his eyebrows furrowed slightly.
"Where did you learn any of what you just said?" Rocket scoffs and I shrug one shoulder. "Nuh-uh. Spill."
"I pay attention when people talk and eavesdrop on conversations in the vents when I don't have anything to do in the hangar and my chores are done. Unlike what I've heard about Dad."
"Hey!" I turn and see that he had gotten out of the room. "It's my ship, I know how to get out of that room."
"Let me guess. Cuz Captain locked you up in it when you were a kid cuz you were a little shit?" He looks unamused and I smirk. "So that's a yes. You got an invite to a party celebrating the defeat of Ronan. Ooh, so spectacular," I say sarcastically with an eye roll and look at the information on the party again, swiping a holopad from a nearby area to tally up the cost of what we have to put into the mission.
"What are you doing?" Dad asks and I type numbers into the holopad.
"Shh!" I pause now and then to think and talk to myself under my breath to work through a few things, on autopilot. "Formal dress so whoever goes will need nice clothes... Segs says that those can cost thousands of units... Ten thousand, five for each person who goes... Fuel for the round trip would cost about... A hundred units, maybe more... The ship is a few jumps away from Xandar... Making the cost of fuel go up to five hundred... Total units lost by us... Ten thousand five hundred... Getting fifty mil from the buyer would compensate for the units we spent..." I move to hand Yondu the holopad and notice that I'm on the other side of the ship.
"How'd I wind up over here?"
"You were walking while you were doing whatever you were doing and talking to yourself. Looking like you're insane," Dad supplies and I roll my eyes, going over to Yondu.
"Here's what we'd be spending on formal wear for you and Kraglin and fuel to get from the Eclector to Xandar and back with an M-ship. Give or take a few hundred units. But, I'm pretty sure that's the exact cost."
"Wha' 'bout me an' formal wear?" Kraglin looks at me and I look at him.
"The invite's extended to the Captain and he can take a guest, meaning you."
"Yer kiddin'?"
"Then who would go with him?" They all look at me and I shake my head. "Nuh-uh. Nope. Not a chance. No way. Not happening. I don't do formal wear. Fuck that."
"Take one for the crew, Rogue," Dad pats a hand on my back and was smirking at me.
"I ain't going unless I'm ordered to." Yondu smirks at me and I look at him. "You're about to order me to go, aren't you?" He nods and I sigh. "Well then... Guess we've got to find a formal wear place, Captain."
"Nah, Segs can make 'em." I don't argue and Rocket docks us in the hangar. "C'mon, girl. Time ta see Segs."
"Woo-hoo!" I follow him off of the ship and to Segs's workshop.
"Captain, my dear!" He smiles brightly at us and I return the hug he gives me. "What can I do for the two of you?"
"We need formal wear, Segs. Can you help us out?"
"I'm afraid I can't. I don't have the supplies to make formal wear onboard the ship. I can, however, come with you to find a good shop and I'll help you pick them out. Come along." He leads us out and we follow, Yondu looking pissed.
"I'm guessing telling you I told you so would be a bad idea?" He glares at me and I put my hands up slightly. "Never mind." We go into the hangar and onto the Warbird. Yondu sits in the pilot's chair and Segs sits in the co-pilot chair.
"Strap in, girl." I sit in the other chair and strap in. He pilots us out of the hangar and somewhere that had a lot of shops, Kraglin being left in charge of the ship.