The atmosphere of Titan was thick with tension as the few Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy held Thanos down and tried to pry off the Infinity Gauntlet.
Peter Quill was standing in front of Thanos, making sure he didn’t try to do anything while under the sleeping spell. He spoke to the Titian to try and get him to answer the question Quill had been dying to find the answer to; “Where is Gamora?” He asked, tone harsh and full of hatred. That purple asshole had taken away the love of his life and probably had her somewhere being tortured like the sick bastard that he was.
“My Gamora.” Thanos croaked out. He was still in some control of his mind which was not the best thing, but Mantis was doing all she could. Quill rolled his eyes.
“Oh, bullshit!” He gritted his teeth and asked again, “Where is she?” He was going to get his answer somehow and no one would get in the way of that. He needed to find Gamora.
“He is in anguish.” Mantis said with a strained voice. Quill had to hold back his laugh.
“Good. He deserves it.” He couldn’t care less. The Mad Titan deserved absolutely every ounce of pain he felt. He had hurt too many people with his psychotic antics.
“He mourns.” Mantis seemed upset. It looked like she knew why, but she couldn’t say.
Drax held onto Thanos with all his strength and growled, “What does this monster have to mourn?” He had a burning rage in his eyes and Quill figured it was because he was thinking of his wife and daughter.
Nebula came up and stood behind Quill. “Gamora.” Her voice was quiet and she seemed to have a few tears in her eyes, something Quill hadn’t seen before. Nebula never cried or showed any emotion besides anger.
“What?” He looked at her with confusion and waited for an explanation that he knew was most likely not want he wanted to hear. Worry began to weave its way into his chest.
“He took her to Vormir and came back with the soul stone, but not her.” Nebula turned her gaze to the ground and realization crashed over Quill. He stopped breathing for a moment and his vision went fuzzy with tears.
Thanos killed Gamora.
Gamora was dead.
No.
Quill felt something inside him break. Whether it was his heart or self control, he didn’t know, but something snapped right in half and Stark seemed to notice.
“Okay, Quill, you gotta cool it right now. You understand?” His voice was filled with unease, like he thought Quill was going to do something extremely dumb. “Don’t, don’t. Don't engage. We almost got this off! Come on, Quill. Don’t.” He gazed intensely at the guardian. Quill ignored him, rage filling his body at an unknown speed.
“Tell me she’s lying.” He couldn’t help the way that hurt sounded in his voice. “Asshole, tell me you didn’t do it!” He demanded. Pleaded.
Thanos said nothing for a moment, but then he spoke and Quill snapped even further. “I had to.” There was anguish in his voice. It was so plainly there and Quill hated it. He hated how that fucking dick felt pain even though he did it. He was the one who killed her. He didn’t deserve to feel pained by it.
“No, you didn’t. No, you didn’t.” Quill shook his head, tears flooding out of his eyes. “You didn’t have to do shit!”
He turned around and tried to get the though out of his head, but it was stuck there. Just stuck.
Gamora was dead.
He lost all sense after that. He turned around, pulled out his gun, and started to beat Thanos with it. Stark stopped trying to pull of the gauntlet and jumped to Quill, grabbing his arm and holding it still.
“Hey, stop! Stop! Quill!” He tried to get the guardian to calm down. “Stop! You need to just breathe, okay? Breathe.” For a moment he faltered, but then he looked at Thanos and those lifeless eyes and the anger filled him again.
“He killed my girlfriend you dumbass! I can’t just breathe.” He shoved Stark off and went straight at Thanos just as Peter was meer inches away from yanking off the gauntlet.
“It’s coming! I got it, I got it!” He cried out happily until Quill took another swing at Thanos. That hit brought him back to reality. He pushed Peter off his arm and secured the gauntlet before ripped everyone else off. A predatory grin twisted onto his lips.
Quill, fueled by his rage, tried to attack, but Thanos took advantage of his infinity stones and shot a blast at Quill and the others. It made them hit the ground with a thump.
It was as if the anger was sucked out of him when he hit the rocky ground. He laid there for a moment with a blank expression. He didn’t want to get up. He barely could make himself.
Without Gamora everything seemed pointless. He loved her so much and yet that didn’t matter. She was still taken from him and it looked like the universe didn’t care.
It was like his mother all over again.
Quill’s thoughts drifted to the letter his mother left him. He thought of the ending of it.
You are the light of my life, my precious son, my little Star-Lord. Love, Mom.
Then he thought of the last thing Gamora said to him.
I love you more than anything.
He let tears trickle out of his eyes and down his cheeks as he stared at the sky. Why did they have to die? Why couldn’t death have taken him instead?
Why?
Why?
Why?
The answer would be because death didn’t care who it took. It had no reason to care. It had no heart or soul. It just took whoever was in its sights.
As it turned out, death was planning on taking Quill too and he welcomed it with open arms. He turned to dust quicker than the others with a relieved smile on his face.