Nebula
Even though she has found a real family to call her own, things aren’t quite the same.
It is her sister who convinces her it’ll never be the same again.
Gamora is her sister, but at the same time, she is not—her sister was sacrificed for a stone. This sister came from a time before that, before them.
Nebula watches her silently leave after the battle is won, and she feels her heart grow heavy.
She knows they won’t be seeing each other again for a long time.
She finds a place, though, among their (her) Gamora’s family. For five years, it had been just her and Rocket. Now her life felt...crowded, in a way she couldn't explain.
Drax listens as she explains the rules of the game to him and patiently helps him understand to not throw the bits of folded paper like he would his knives, but to flick them.
Stark had been patient with her, as she told him about her sister’s (her) family. He in turn told her stories about the Avengers, the team he had left behind to fight the Mad Titan on his home planet. They may have run out of food and water, but they hadn’t run out of words.
She guides Mantis during a sparring session, feeling a mixture of pride and sorrow when the empath knocks her to the floor with a move she recognised as one of Gamora’s.
Romanoff reminded her of her sister in more ways than one. Nebula liked her the most out of all of the Avengers. It only felt natural to report back to Nat after a mission well done during those five years. More natural than reporting to Thanos ever had.
Nebula joins Quill in his quarters on the anniversary of his first meeting with Gamora, and she listens to him quietly sing along to music she now knows by heart.
She knows the look in his eyes. She had seen it in Rogers’ eyes, every time he looked at the pocket watch he carried around with him. In her own eyes when she looked in the mirror of the Benatar after patching Stark up. She hadn’t properly mourned then. She still hasn’t.
For Thor, she offers little but her silent company—he is still unsure of his place here, and she feels the same.
She soothes Groot to sleep when he wakes with nightmares, and joins Rocket in his workshop to help him repair his aging cybernetics.
Gamora often did the same for her, during their time with Thanos. She wonders when she had started to replace her sister.
It hurts to think like that.
So, she doesn’t. Nebula wears a brave face (not brave. Carefully neutral) and works hard to earn her place on a family that is more her sister’s than her own.
It’s Rocket who tells her that she doesn’t have to, that she had been a part of their family since Ego (since five years ago, she hears in his words). She lets herself believe him.
A few months after, Gamora (not hers) contacts them, and her world is turned on its head once more.
She assures Nebula that she is alright, but she will not say if she will join them (join her). She still needs time to process her new reality—here, Gamora had spent four years free from Thanos. For this Gamora, though, it has only been four months.
They all accept this with varying degrees of reluctance (Quill excuses himself to his quarters near the end of the call, and doesn’t come out for two days). Nebula is just thankful for the chance to speak to her again, despite the strange feeling it leaves in her gut.
Even though she has a family of her own now, it isn’t quite the same.
It is her sister who convinces her it’ll never be the same.