“Daughter, bring me the gauntlet,” Thanos’ voice echoed around her like something out of her worst nightmares. But this was real. He was back and trying to end it all this time.
Nebula had no doubt that he would succeed. He always did. And she always paid the price. She thought back to her old self, the one she’d just killed.
Rhodey would call that poetic. Tony would call it the final stage of her ‘heroes journey’.
She supposed she’d never see either of them again. Or Gamora, at least not this younger, harsher version of herself.
It was nice to think of seeing her true sister again once it was all said and done, though Nebula had never been one to believe in happy endings. At least not for herself.
She turned to face Thanos, the boy Stark had mourned as his own son standing at her back.
“What are we going to do?” he sounded frightened, he sounded young in a way she couldn’t remember being.
“I’m ending this once and for all,” she had to hope this would work.
No one had tried it but Eitri was known for his craftsmanship. And Dwarf magic was a formidable weapon in its own right.
She slipped her hand into the gauntlet and was immediately overwhelmed by the power surging through her at a voltage she’d never imagined. Yondu routing her circuits through the pod had nothing on this level of agony.
She consciously flipped the switch in her mind to shut off her pain circuits. She didn’t need to know when each fuse blew and each part stopped working. There was no coming back from this. She was no Titan.
She was no daughter of Thanos and by the look in his eyes he realized it moments too late. “Nebula!”
Nebula faced her torturer, her tormenter, her mentor for the last time before wishing he, his armies, and the Black Order out of existence in one smooth Snap of her fingers.
Dust.
So much Dust filling the air, filling her lungs, clouding her vision. Or was that tears. She couldn’t tell. She didn’t know. All her circuits were malfunctioning, suddenly she could feel again and it was unthinking, crippling agony.
It hurt so bad, worse than anything.
It was all too much and not enough. Not enough air, or space, or time. All she knew was all that mattered. She’d won. They’d won. Life would go on without the threat of the Mad Titan seeking to destroy them all.
Her vision went dark. She’d completed her heroes’ journey.
~~
“Nebula?” she opened her eyes in a land of twilight mist. Sunset on the most beautiful beach she’d ever seen. It was like something out of a dream.
“Nebula?” She turned to see Gamora, her Gamora in a dark red dress that matched the ends of her long curls. “Sister, you did it!” she beamed at her and ran until they were hugging, holding so tight like they’d never let go.
“Gamora, are you really here?” she asked shakily, afraid to lose her again. She’d left everyone else behind.
“Wherever ‘here’ is. Yes, we are. But your time hasn’t come yet,” she said softly.
“What do you mean? I did it. I finished what we started!” Nebula insisted.
“You did, but you still have so much life to live. Don’t let him take that from both of us.”
“I tried to save you, to bring you back but the stones wouldn’t-”
Gamora shushed her gently. “If there is a way you will find it. And if there isn’t know that I’m at peace and I’ll be here when your time has truly come.”
“Gamora,” Nebula gripped her hands tightly, not wanting to let go, but her sister stepped away with another warm smile. “You must wake.”
“My body is destroyed, I do not wish to be a burden on my friends,” Nebula admitted lowly.
Gamora gave her a playfully exasperated look. “Nebula, They’re not your friends. They’re your family.”
Nebula blinked and
~~
~~
~~
“You missed the part where the hero gets the girl and lives happily ever after. Or maybe we never got that far? Was it because we watched Braveheart? You should have paid more attention to Avatar. They’re blue too! How you managed to relate more to William Wallace is beyond me.”
Nebula opened her eyes to a sunlit bedroom done up in warm colors. Her body felt odd. Felt pain free. Something she hadn’t been able to imagine in the last, blindingly painful moments of her life.
Or not, as it were.
She turned her head to see Tony sitting at her side looking weary but satisfied. “You back with us? You’d better be. Morgan was so worried she cried more than she did at the beginning of Up. She’s been giving you kisses everyday to help you wake up. Hey, how would you feel about changing your name to Aurora, Sleeping Beauty?”
She took a breath and tried to speak, taking comfort in his usual stream of consciousness chatter. “I-I’m back with you. But I don’t know how?”
Tony shrugged absently. “Eh. Rocket and I are known to work pretty well together. Besides, we have Thanos’ records of the…procedures he put you through so we had a good roadmap to use.” He concluded faux casually.
“Thanos’ records?” she choked out, horrified that her friends-her family knew what had been done to her. The horrors she’d been too weak to stop.
“From his ship, Carol brought it down but the mainframe was still mostly intact. “You’ve been out for nearly three weeks but we got you back in working order.” He sat back in his seat with a soft smile. “You’re amazing you know? To survive all that and wield the gauntlet on top? You’re my hero, Rhodey would be jealous but you’re his too!”
Nebula felt her face break into a small smile. “Aren’t younger siblings supposed to look up to their elders?”
Tony clutched his chest in mock horror, “Ouch! It’s not fair that you look so much younger than us you know? It’s not right!”
She laughed out loud at that. At the joy of seeing her brother again. Of the promise of seeing the rest of her family finally living free of her tormentor. Laughed until there wasn’t enough air, until her ribs ached, and her vision blurred with tears.
But it felt so good, better than anything.