Rage boiled in Yondu's gut as he watched his men get spaced, one by one. His men, his crew, betrayed him and were now being ejected into the cold, silent void. Without hesitation, he whistled. The Yaka Arrow, a crimson blur of death, zipped through the corridors, piercing the hearts of every traitor who had turned on him.
From his cell, Kraglin watched in terror as the crew he had known for years was slaughtered. A cold dread washed over him as he feared Yondu, in his madness, would kill him too.
Fortunately for him, Yondu remembered seeing Kraglin's solemn frown amidst the traitors' jeering laughter. That small detail saved him. The captain decided to spare his life, to see what choice Kraglin would make now.
Yondu might have spared his life, but he wouldn't let the insubordination go unpunished. He controlled the whistling arrow, making it hover menacingly just inches from Kraglin's forehead. The threat was brutally effective; Kraglin nearly fainted from sheer terror.
Only after Yondu stalked away from the cell with a dry, humorless chuckle did Kraglin collapse to the floor, gasping for breath.
"Captain, what's our next move?" Taserface's former lieutenant, Tullk, asked, trailing behind Yondu as the few remaining loyalists began the grim work of jettisoning the traitors' corpses from the Eclector.
"We're going after Quill," Yondu declared, his voice rough. "Ego knows he exists. He'll be looking for him." Even after eliminating the mutineers, Yondu felt a hollow emptiness. He knew his Ravagers were no saints, but he never imagined his crew would be whittled down to a mere twenty men, plus one Kraglin whose loyalty was still in question.
He subconsciously gravitated toward finding Peter. It was partly out of worry for the kid, and partly to settle an old score with Ego. He might have been greedy and broken the Ravager code all those years ago, but Ego had played him for a fool, and that was a debt he intended to collect.
[Nebula flexed her newly installed mechanical hand, testing its joints as she walked.]
["We got a whole box of hands if that one don't work for you," Kraglin said, leading the way.]
[Without looking at him, Nebula replied, "It is fine."]
[Kraglin continued, "You think the Kree are gonna kill the captain?"]
["The Kree are a merciful people," she said flatly. "They'll kill him fast."]
[Kraglin nodded, leading her to a hatch and pointing to a small ship prepped for launch in the distance.]
["Okay! Well, right this way. This is our best short-range fighter. I've already programmed the jump-points to Ego's planet. Once we get the bounty, we'll transfer you your ten percent!"]
[He then asked curiously, "What are you gonna do with your share?"]
[Nebula was silent for a moment before answering. "As a child, my father would have Gamora and me battle in training."]
["Every time my sister prevailed, my father would replace a piece of me with machinery, claiming he wanted me to be her equal. But she won. Again, and again, and again, never once refraining..."]
["So after I kill my sister... I will buy a warship with every conceivable instrument of death. I will hunt my father like a dog, and I will tear him apart slowly..."]1
["...piece by piece... until he knows some semblance of the profound and unceasing pain I2 feel every single day."]
[Kraglin stared at her, utterly stunned. After a long, awkward pause, he finally mumbled, "Yeah... I was kinda thinking about buying a cool hat or something. You know, so the other guys'd be like, 'Damn, nice hat!'"]
[Nebula turned her head and gave him a dead, expressionless stare that made him swallow hard.]
["Anyway... you have a safe flight!" He patted her shoulder awkwardly and then beat a hasty retreat, eager to get away from the chilling woman.]
[Nebula brushed off the spot where Kraglin had touched her, her gaze fixed on the spaceship before her.]
"It sounds like your sister hates Thanos as much as anyone," Natasha remarked, her voice laced with an understanding forged in her own dark past. "Wanting to tear him apart like that..."
Gamora sighed, a flicker of pain in her eyes. "She's too paranoid. She convinced herself that Father favored me, and that jealousy just festered until it became pure hatred. She's always been hostile toward me because of it."
"She never understood," Gamora continued, her voice low. "It was always a fierce competition. I had to win. Every fight was a fight for my own survival."
It wasn't that Gamora enjoyed seeing her sister punished by Thanos. On the contrary, every time Nebula was taken apart and "upgraded," Gamora was gripped by the terrifying thought that she could be next. That fear drove her to fight with everything she had, to ensure she was the one left standing.
As time went on, Nebula's resentment only deepened, and the chasm between them grew too wide to cross. The constant, brutal competition made it impossible for Gamora to let her guard down, to try and build a real sisterhood with Nebula. She was never sure how Nebula would react, and she feared that any show of vulnerability would just give her sister an opening to hurt her.
Nebula, flying her ship aimlessly through the cosmos, stared silently at the screen. The version of her up there had laid her soul bare.
Thanos, however, was dismissive. His daughters were still incapable of understanding his grand design, mired in their petty grudges and personal hatreds. Such a narrow vision.
[Ego led Star-Lord to a massive, glowing statue. It was an effigy of his mother, Meredith Quill. Peter stared at it for a long time, his expression unreadable.]
[After a moment, he spoke. "My mother told everyone my father was from the stars. She had a brain tumor. They all thought she was delusional."]
[Ego started to speak, "Peter..."]
["Listen, I want to believe you," Peter cut him off, his voice tight with emotion. "But you're the one who left the most wonderful woman in the universe to die alone!"]
[He walked past Ego, the years of anger and abandonment finally boiling over.]
[Ego looked helpless, rushing to explain. "I didn't want to leave your mother, Peter! But I have to return to my home planet—to my light—or this form will wither and die!"]
[Star-Lord spun around to face him. "Then why didn't you come back? Why did you send Yondu? Why did you let a criminal pick me up?"]
[Ego's voice rose to a roar. "I loved your mother, Peter! I couldn't stand to return to a world where she no longer existed! You can't imagine what that's like!"]
[Star-Lord's face twisted in anguish as he screamed back, "I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THAT FEELS LIKE! I HAD TO WATCH HER DIE!"]
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