Recovery
“Damnit!” Peter shouted as he slammed his fist against the floor, uncaring of the cut the it opened because Venom would just fix it “Damn it all to hell!” He proceeded to yell. How had they lost? Everything was going fine and even after Gorr got the jump on them they had been able to hit back harder and faster until next thing anyone knew Valkyrie had been stabbed and Jane collapsed from exhaustion.
Thor on the other hand had quickly grabbed the king’s shoulder and carried her to the closest thing to a modern hospital that New Asgard had. Meanwhile Quill eventually calmed down once he realised that Jane’s coughing fit hadn’t stopped and that if what she said earlier was true about her having cancer then this could be very bad. Yet when he tried to move he was frozen, the person he saw in front of him was not Jane but was his mother.
The image from the day he had been taken had remained engraved in his mind and now it was playing back like some twisted and sick joke. Luckily this hesitation only lasted a second as the symbiote sensed it and quickly wrangled control of Peter’s body from him and used this to help Jane follow wherever Thor had gone.
The thunder god just hoped that they had been quick enough and that he wasn’t going to lose two of his friends whilst being helpless to stop it. As far as he could tell Valkyrie had been stabbed the Thunderbolt instead of the Necrosword and for that he was infinitely grateful as it meant there was a chance that human medicines could help her. Yet for Jane it would not be the same. While Thor might not understand some human terms he could understand fear and when it was shown on someone’s face.
When she had talked about her cancer and how it had reached its forth stage and the look of fear that she had told him that it was going to be an almost hopeless thing to defeat if even Mjolnir couldn’t help. Yet he refused to give up. The doctor’s of Midgard had proved themselves resilient and he was more than happy to include Jane in that list but if she kept pushing and pushing herself beyond her limits then he knew there was a very real chance that Jane wouldn’t make it in the end.
He didn’t want that but he also knew that Jane could be stubborn and if she set her mind to something then nothing was going to stop her.
And that was what he feared more than anything.
-
As this was happening Peter sat outside on a bench between the two rooms the women had been put it and it was all too familiar to him, down to the fact he tried to use his music to drown out the growing feeling of anxiety. He should probably find the guardians and tell them what happened or talk to Thor about their next move but he couldn’t bring himself to move because every time he opened his eyes he was that same little kid being pulled towards the hospital room by his uncle.
“Hey.” The voice pierced past the music and was heard clear as crystal “What do you want?” Quill spat too aggressively “We are sorry.” Venom said but that confused Peter “You didn’t do anything.” He said before sitting up and silently telling his companion to form itself “Exactly. We could’ve helped but didn’t know what to.” Vee apologised and for once it wasn’t the completely half-assed ones he would have to force it to say to the other Guardians after it ate their food.
Peter just sighed until being taken aback by the way that the sentient goop decided to show itself. Instead of forming its usually creepy face, it instead elected to form a hand to cover Peter’s. It was too big and essentially engulfed it but it still managed to calm the frayed nerves that Quill had. “It’s fine buddy. No point on focusing on it now. We can’t change the past.” Peter said but the nervously just made the words keep flowing “I mean we could…technically but ya know…time stone and we don’t have it…so yeah.” He knew he looked like a loser just stood in the middle of a hallway talking to himself but it could be worse, someone could actually be here and see him.
“There you are.” Someone said and Peter nearly jumped out of his skin before spinning around to see who it was. “Oh it’s just you.” Peter recognised the familiar sight of Gamora’s accusatory stare “I don’t think I want to know why you all go missing for a few days and you’re radio silent before suddenly falling out of the sky with two of the four of you in critical condition but I’ll ask anyway.” Gamora placed a hand on her hup and asked Peter what had happened without using any extra words.
And where to start? It had first gone wrong the second that Thor had his clothes flicked off in the Colosseum but she didn’t to know that and then they had figured out his entire plan only for Thor to be baited into calling the axe which eventually led to Gorr having the exact thing he need to reach eternity and now he could wish for anything.
“Yeah everything is fine.” Quill lied but between his nervous smile and agitated twitching it was obvious but what definitely gave it away was Venom finally emerging and explaining it all “Actually…” Venom decided there and then to divulge every little detail about the journey so far Peter watched in shock at the accuracy of the retelling.
Gamora just blinked as if she didn’t believe what she was hearing “So you ended up at some Greek arena, got uninvited to an orgy then attacked to try and steal Zeus’ weapon but after crashing a ship through a window you then proceeded to get ambushed before the king of Asgard got stabbed and then you proceeded to lose the axe in an attempt to retreat.” She recounted the summary and there wasn’t a point trying to deny “Pretty much.” He shrugged and he had gone from too angry to too casual in the space of a few minutes.
The assassin just gave him a look of confused disappointment “Alright then.” She seemed to accept his response “Well I guess you tell the rest of is when you next set off because I wouldn’t put it past your own stupidity to go on your own again.” She tells him and If he was being honest with himself she wasn’t wrong. “Well we have an idea of where he’s going to be and honestly I don’t think we’d want to do it alone. Plus we kinda need a ship that is space capable so ours should do the trick.” Peter reasoned hoping that one final attempt would be the key needed to final putting this guy in the ground.
-
As this was happening Thor tried to keep himself composed the couldn’t help but need some sort of outlet for his anger and suddenly the fridge without a door handle was looking very punchable. Afterall what idiot would design a fridge and the forget the handle?
Gathering all the dropped food he headed towards Jane room and spotted Peter and Gamora talking so gave them a quick wave but only got Quill’s unnerved look as a response but he brushed it off as his boyfriend’s usual antics before stepping into Jane’s room and grimacing at the withered look she had whilst bedridden.
“That bad huh?” She remarked flicking through the various channels that the TV had “No you still look…good.” He hesitated and that gave him away “You don’t have to lie to me but I am interested to know why you have a bunch of candy.” Jane gave him a quizzed look “Well I was passing by and someone made this fridge but it didn’t have a handle so I opened my way.” He smiled in a childish manner as he dumped all the food onto the tray on Jane’s hospital bed.
She didn’t seem to fully buy it but didn’t argue any further or at least she didn’t on that matter in specific “We can’t do much here. We need to get back out there. If he has Stormbreaker then he’ll get to eternity.” Jane tried to sat up but winced at the pain “I don’t know if that is the best idea.” He tried to object but Jane wasn’t hearing it “We can’t stop now. If he gets what he wants then all you gods could die.” She tried to inform as if Thor didn’t know already
“I know but what I’m trying to say is that I don’t think it’s best if you went. Every time you use Mjolnir it consumes all your mortal strength until your body cannot fight off the cancer and that is why you are the way you are now.” He explained hoping that if she stayed out of it this time then they would have enough time to do something about her disease “I’d rather help you out there to make a difference rather than hoping for a miracle while stuck here.” Jane countered almost pleading but Thor wasn’t going to risk Jane’s life or any of the lives of his friends.
It was why he was going to do this by himself.
-
Finally being back on his ship and surrounded by his family brough a sense of relief like no other. That was however shortly brought to an end at the sound of lightning and thunder that grew distant. Whatever the source of it, it didn’t feel right and Quill had learnt after years of travelling with the ravagers that his should never doubt his instincts. Running out he saw the sight of Gamora rushing over to this “What’s going on?” He asked from the entrance “He’s ran off on his own!” She shouted back and instantly Peter knew what she was on about.
“Oh that fucking idiot.” Quill muttered before running to the cockpit of the ship and into the captain’s chair. The buttons he pressed where second nature to him as every one got into their own seats “So where too now?” Rocket asks abruptly “The ninth ring of hell.” Comes Peter’s curt answer that Drax responded “We cannot physically got to these rings of hell.” He argues “Well we might as well be.” Peter says before looking at the jump device.
He looks to rocket and remembers when the racoon had done an absurd amount of jumps to arrive at Ego’s planet and if they wanted to go to Eternity then they were going to have to do even more “So you said it was over seven hundred jumps right?” He tried to confirm “Yeah, why?” Rocket answered “No wait-“ The animal realised all too late “Good, because we’re about to do over one thousand!” He warned but before any of them could react Peter pressed the confirm button and sent them flying though space.
Peter wasn’t about to let Thor get himself killed on his own because of his pride or worry.
-End of chapter 7-