Chapter 1
Thanos sat, his shoulders broad and his expression stern, as he awaited the arrival of his absence child. Tapping his fingers against the golden edging of his throne, the titan rolled his eyes to express his annoyance. Ebony Maw, the eldest of his adopted children and soon to be general to his ever-growing army, had been tasked with a mission the titan thought too futile of his time. News of this mission travelled hastily across the galaxy - the result being the apparent genocide of millions. But it wasn’t this that fuelled his rage, it was the news of a failed mission and the escape of a long awaited asset.
His other children - young and still in training - stood either side of his throne as they awaited his acknowledgment. Nebula - the youngest of the two - stood with her hip cocked and her arms folded as her darting eyes avoided the man who called himself her father. She was loyal to him, without question, and yet she loathed him and everything he claimed to stand for. He’d eradicated her species and slaughtered her family and yet here she stood, serving him and calling him “father.”
Gamora’s story was no different and neither was the hate that surged through her veins. She’d tried to love him once, thinking it’d be easier somehow, yet whenever she looked at him all she could see were the corpses of her species left to rot on Zen-Whoberi. She too was loyal to Thanos - doing whatever it took to remain alive, even if it meant destroying the Gamora she’d always been in the process.
It was no secret that Gamora was the daughter Thanos favoured most.
She was deadly and he knew it.
“Where is my son?” Thanos’ voice echoed through the great hall, not aiming his anger at an individual or asking a question, but demanding his son’s presence.
Not a moment later, the heavy doors flung open and presented Ebony Maw before his father. He entered - not having pushed open the doors with his hands, but with his mind - followed closely behind by a tall figure. Unlike his sisters, Ebony felt no hate or rage toward his father. Unlike them, he hadn’t watched everything he’d known die and disappear. Or maybe he had, but he was too young to remember such a thing.
Thanos sat forward as his son entered, his focus not on Ebony but on the child being dragged behind. She was small - her hair knotted, her clothes tatted and her skin covered in dirt - but she was a fighter. Her bare, blooded feet shuffled against the stone floor as she pulled away, snarling as if she were a dog.
“What is this?” Thanos craned his neck to view the girl, still shuffling and fighting yet getting nowhere.
“She was dead long before we got there.” Ebony ignored the question, his eyes fixed on the floor as Thanos turned toward him slowly,
“How?” He yelled, his eyes wide and his fist clenched, “how did this happen?”
“Father...”
“I ask a simple task of you, Son. Bring her to me - alive. Is that so hard to do?”
The hall fell silent as the titan stood, the eyes of all within rising to look upon him. His gaze still did not falter from the child as she daringly glared up at him - her teeth bared and her disheveled hair covering the majority of her face. Unlike his own daughters, her eyes didn’t falter as he inspected her. Unlike his daughters, she wasn’t here to impress him and she certainly wasn’t afraid of him.
A small smirk crept across Nebula’s face as she looked the girl up and down; admiring her confidence and yet envying her ignorance. She was smaller than Nebula, her bones looking as if they’d tear right through her skin, and yet here she stood - before the mightiest creature in the universe - and she had no idea who he was, or maybe she just didn’t care. Either way, it was obvious that this little girl knew she was here to die and she’d already accepted it.
“This is her daughter. We found her with the body.” Ebony’s voice broke the silence as he stepped forward to address his father.
Thanos furrowed his brow as his eyes darted from Ebony Maw to the child in confusion, “Why is it still alive? Why did you bring it here?” He grimaced as if disgusted to even be in the presence of something he considered so much lesser than himself.
“We thought you should know...” Ebony’s eyes shifted from Thanos to the child, mimicking the same expression of disgust worn by his father, “she killed thirteen of your men before being apprehended.”
Nebula and Gamora shared a quick glance, both in shock as to how such a small creature slaughtered thirteen of the deadliest men in the galaxy. She grinned, her hair only covering a fraction of her face now, as she remembered the sweat deaths of the men who’d tried to take her mother’s body. Thirteen men were dead by the time she was taken down and only with the use of a tranquilliser were they able to do it. “Rabid” was the word she’d heard them use to describe her as they dragged her lifeless body onto their ship.
Looking down at the girl, Nebula couldn’t help but be reminded of herself, reminded of the girl she was when first brought to this place. She too had put up a fight - thinking she’d be executed - but her fate had been so much worse. She looked up at Nebula, her black eyes making their first full appearance since her arrival as she swept her unkempt hair away from her face. They held eye context for a moment, no one seeming to notice this girls lost interest in the titan and her fixation on Nebula as she looked her up and down.
“Kill it,” Thanos slumped back down into his throne, waving his hand as if it were nothing, “I don’t have time for this.”
No one spoke as the executioner flung into action - unsheathing a large polished blade as if from nowhere. Deaths were so common in this place they’d become nothing memorable, nothing but routine.
Nebula bit her lip as the executioner raised his blade ready to swing down upon the child before him. She couldn’t watch and yet she couldn’t look away.
“Stop!” The word, escaping her mouth so quickly that even she appeared to be shocked by the sound of her own voice, filled the great hall as all eyes were promptly on her.
Nebula couldn’t count the amount of times she’d wanted to scream during moments exactly like this, but she’d always been able to stop herself. She’d always been able to silence the screaming in her mind. Until now.
She now stood frozen in complete shock, her gaze locked onto the big, black eyes staring up at her in confusion.
Gamora scowled as she turned toward Nebula, rolling her eyes before raising her own voice in an attempt to redeem her sister, “She could be useful, father. If she possesses the same abilities as her mother.”
Thanos tilted his head as Gamora spoke, his eyes never breaking contact with Nebula’s, “What are it’s abilities?” Ebony fumbled, pushing the child forward as his father spoke.
“Plant manipulation,”
Ebony remembered the deaths of his men as he spoke - their screams, her rage and the smile she wore were burnt into his memory. Men had fallen as roots rose from the soil and tangled those in her path. They’d choked and coughed up blood and bile as her vines slithered their way around the necks of her victims like snakes. Her now black eyes had turned white as she raised her arms to summon the plant-life from the earth - a smirk plastered across her face as she pictured the fate of the men before her.
“Appears to be trained in martial arts,”
He recalled the cracking of bones and wails of pain that filled the air as the child flung into action to defend herself and her mother’s body. She was so deadly yet so graceful in the manner that she fought - as if dancing to a rhythm that only she could hear. It was both mesmerising and chilling to watch, knowing that she could gut him down without a second thought. But he stood there frozen and unharmed almost as if she’d kept him alive simply to watch her work.
“And a variety of empathic abilities.”
She’d forced those men to feel unspeakable and unimaginable pain simply through the contact of their skin. She tore her way through that room like a hurricane, but that wasn’t the worst of it. That wasn’t the moment that had branded itself into Ebony’s mind.
He swallowed hard - his throat dry and sore.
They’d captured her, dragged her onto their ship and confined her to the floor with chains seeming too large for her frail body. She’d fidgeted and stared, not having spoke since entering the ship - which only unnerved the crew more.
“What are you?” He’d stood over her, assuming he had the high ground and that her silence was a result of fear, “answer me!” She sat in silence, her eyes unfaltering as he grabbed her face and pulled her forward.
“You are scared,” her eyes fluttered as the emotions belonging to the general surged through her entire being, “You have disappointed him.”
His hand thrust forward, making slick contact with her face and causing her to fall back and whimper like a dog against the cold metal of the floor.
Ebony Maw, one of the most feared creatures in the galaxy, was terrified. Terrified of a little girl.
“That is all we’re aware of, Father.” Ebony found himself back in the great hall once again, his mind wandering still to the battlefield and the undeniable strength of the girl stood beside him. To others, she may present herself and be assumed as benign or docile - but he knew what she was. He’d seen the monster inside of her.
Thanos sat stewing - his eyes drifting yet his body tense as he pictured the strength he’d seen in this child’s mother. They were practically identical, from their glowing antenna down to their bare, boney feet. He’d admired her mother, perhaps even loving her in the past - before she’d realised what he was. What he was capable of.
He’d known her well enough to know that she would never willingly join him - even if it meant taking her own life to prevent it. Her powers, in the wrong hands, were more dangerous than either of them knew. Yet here stood her child - possessing magnified abilities her mother could only dream of - and a second chance for the titan to gain the power he’d so desperately craved.
“It will stay with Nebula,” he turned to his daughter, his face ever more frightening due to it’s lack of expression, “she seems to have developed a liking for it.” His words were cold yet burned Nebula like hot ash. She was to share her living quarters with a creature that, for all he knew, would kill her in her sleep and he couldn’t care less.
Nebula strode forward, her movements almost mechanic as she watched the chains that had curled their way around the child’s body drop to the floor around her feet.
Grasping her frail wrist, she lead the disoriented girl away from her father before his mind could be changed. She could sense the girl’s entire body tense up as their skin came into contact - her antenna now a glowing shade of pink.
This girl could feel every emotion surging through Nebula’s being and it was unbearable.
Halting as they reached the open doors, Nebula turned to watch the executioner slide his blade back into his cloak. She would witness no death on this day and yet her body ached in remorse. This was no victory - she’d merely subjected this girl to the same harrowing existence as herself.
The doors slammed behind them like a gunshot as they passed the threshold and were no longer in the presence of the mighty titan. Nebula exhaled, her body loose and her breaths steadying. Even a non-empath would feel the anxiety and fear that cloaked her when within his proximity. Now it was as if that cloak had been torn off and here stood a completely different creature.
“How could you?” She could sense Nebula’s inner turmoil yet she couldn’t understand, “how could you follow him?”
Stopping to inspect the corridor that they had stumbled upon, Nebula inhaled deeply as she released her grip from the wrist of her newfound companion, “I don’t have a choice.”
“There is always a choice,” She was outraged - entire body shook with fury yet her eyes were wet with tears. She was so used to feeling and manipulating others emotions that she now realised she’d never once been this overwhelmed with her own, “I don’t understand.”
“No. You don’t.” Nebula found herself turning a colder shade of blue as she took a step back, “My family, my species and my planet are gone. This is all I have now.” She raised her arms limply in resentment, “I don’t want to die in this place - not here, not with him.”
Her words crowded the desolate corridor, practically suffocating them both with the weight and reality of their meaning.
They were in this together now.
Nebula’s face grew hot beneath the gaze of those large, black eyes. Beneath the matted hair she looked sympathetic, almost as if she herself knew nothing of the pain Nebula felt, as if she hadn’t lost everything she’d known only hours ago. She focused on Nebula, as if that would somehow mask her own pain and loathing.
Their bodies stood lifeless and cloaked with grief as silence fell amongst them and Nebula’s words sunk in. Their eyes didn’t falter and neither did the warmth that surrounded them as they continued to walk - their shoulders brushing against one another.
“I’m Mantis.” Her petite hand thrust forward followed by the sweet curve of her plush lips as they came to a halt. Nebula was so accustomed to hate that the simple comfort of a smile from this girl made her blush a deep shade of purple.
“Nebula.” She smiled as their hands met.