Beta-Ray Bill POV
"How much longer?" a whine filled the cabin over the soft thrumming of the powerful engine.
"Probably exactly as long as the last time you asked, since you keep asking every damned second!"
"Oh, look at the little humie getting all prissy! What, it took you an entire trip across the known universe just to grow a spine?"
"Why don't you come closer and I can show you what I can do to your spine, you flea-ridden mangy mutt!"
"Hey! You take that back! I do not have fleas!"
"Oh, well in that case-!"
"We're here."
Bill's calm statement immediately put a halt to the discussion between Rocket (who was standing on the dashboard across from Peter) and Peter (who was poking the racoon in the chest). Their 'fight' had been loud, but without any real heat to it, the two hyperactive young men (… by their own unique standards, at least) merely acting out due to boredom.
While Bill hadn't suffered as they did as he was incapable of getting bored (not only because of his cyborg body, but also because of the worry for his people that had become a steadfast and continuous companion over the latter part of his life), he figured he understood where the others were coming from.
The Jump Gate system, while incomprehensibly vast, seemingly cut off a few star systems away from where the nebulous borders of Thanos' Sanctuary began. Whether the Titan had destroyed them in the distant past or whether he had simply chosen the location of his base because the Jump Gates ended just before its borders began was anybody's guess.
After all, it wasn't as if someone had bothered to ask the Mad Titan about it (or if any had, they clearly hadn't lived to tell the universe about it).
This meant that, after they had been spat out of the weird putty-like non-space that linked the Jump Gates to each other, they had emerged into a vast, uninhabited stretch of space that was filled with old, dim stars with millions upon millions of kilometres to go before they even neared their final destination.
And since Oliver no longer had access to the incredibly abilities he displayed when he was still juiced up by the Tesseract, they had to go the old-fashioned, slow way round. Not that that was entirely fair to Oliver, to be honest. His use of the so-called Boom-tube technology meant that they slipped through space far faster than any conventional (and many unconventional) sublight engines could ever hope to be capable of.
Still, as time was a function of distance travelled and they had to cross a lot of distance… well, you can only look at the inky blackness of space for so many days before you begin to lose your mind. Even the usual mesmerizing vistas of far-off galaxies and nebulas seemed absent here, so far out on the edge of the universe, where all light had begun to fade into nothingness. A bleak locale, fit for its equally bleak master.
Now, however, for the first time in close to a week, that morose monotony had been abruptly shattered: hundreds of thousands of kilometres ahead of them, yet vast enough to be clearly visible, was one of Sanctuary's many outposts. It was an enormous structure, dark and craggy yet clearly artificial. Between the spikes and spires Bill couldn't really determine any visible defensive armaments, but considering the data he possessed on the Mad Titan and his usual tactics, he didn't doubt for a second that the foreboding structure was filled with enough weaponry to rival a small fleet.
For a moment, silence reigned across Oliver's cabin as Bill, Rocket and Groot, Peter and Oliver himself stared at their first obstacle on their journey to the heart of the most feared man in the universe's home.
"Yeesh." Rocket softly muttered and Bill knew that his fellow cyborg was silently regretting an end to the boredom he had so cursed only minutes prior.
Boredom at least was safe, with a very low chance of horrible, imaginative death.
"It looks like if the Nova's got that Sauron guy to design the Kyln for them or something. Talk about screaming 'look at how evil I am!' I'm guessing Thanos doesn't exactly do subtle, huh?" Rocket scoffed, though his eyes never left the dark spires of the watchpost.
"So… just how important was this mission again? I mean, maybe we can-"
"It's a matter of survival for the entire universe. If we fail here, all of life in existence will be threatened." Bill immediately cut off, seeing the human slump in his seat.
"Of course it is." Peter muttered weakly.
"Oliver, my friend. Switch to real-space and cloak. Utilizing the Boom Tube technology so close to their outer perimeter is bound to set off whatever sensor arrays they have managed to steal during their raids across the universe." Bill ordered, a green glow from his instrument panel behind the steering wheel showing Oliver's agreement.
"Very well, sir Bill! We shall move forwards at once, undeterred by the foul machinations of our Lord Hyperion's villainous foes!" a mechanical, yet uplifting voice came over the speakers in the cabin.
For all that he had lost his power source, Oliver certainly didn't seem to have lost any of his heart, something that Bill was privately grateful for. While Bill had initially been weirded out when he first met the vehicle on Sakaar when it was still developing its sapience, he had come to feel a kinship to the valiant truck. He was no Scuttlebutt, but then no mechanical being in the universe could stake such a claim. That said, Oliver was certainly a worthy companion until such time Bill found a way to reconnect with his old ship.
As light shimmered and bent around them, they slid near-silently through the nothingness of space, the space station quickly coming closer into view. Where before the cabin had been filled with the competitive back-and-forth between Rocket and Peter (with the occasional "I am Groot!" thrown in for variety), it was now near-silent, all of their eyes glued to the tall spires of the looming structure as they glided past.
While Bill technically didn't need to breathe, he nonetheless found that he had stopped doing so nonetheless, none of his synth-muscles moving so much as a millimetre as he watched the darkened metal grow ever closer. He liked Oliver and trusted him, insofar that he really trusted anyone these days. Their successful infiltration of Xandar almost two months ago a fair display of his capabilities, even as it felt like years ago.
But Thanos was an entirely different beast altogether when compared to the likes of the Nova Corps, having targeted some of the most advanced and prosperous civilisations in the universe for uncountable millennia, having never been defeated or to anyone's knowledge so much as inconvenienced. And every nation sundered, every people broken, was yet more weaponry for his arsenal, technology to fuel his armada and build his defences.
There were legends, myths almost, of some races having launched counter-attacks against the feared Titan, beings who had been fuelled, galvanised by the immense losses they had suffered, charging into the desolate void of Thanos' Sanctuary.
None of them had ever been seen again.
So yes, he trusted Oliver and his stealth capabilities. But he was far wearier of the possible tricks the Titan had hidden up his sleeves to fully relax.
Glancing at his companions from the corner of his eye, he saw that all of them were holding their breath, much like he was. Even Oliver himself seemed apprehensive, the constant thrum of his engine having died down to a barely noticeable rumbling underneath him.
The only exception was Groot, but that was because he didn't need lungs to breath, still absorbing oxygen through the moss and leaves scattered across his tall body.
Still, after a full five minutes of stressed out waiting, anticipating alarms to blare and turbolasers to fire at a moment's notice, the massive spires of the lookout slid past them as it began to shrink in Oliver's rear view mirror.
Simultaneously, all of them breathed a deep sigh of relief, though the oppressive feeling that the knowledge of being in the midst of Thanos' turf brought with it kept them from celebrating.
Instead, Bill leaned slightly forwards, patting Oliver's dashboard with his massive clawed hand.
"Well done, my friend. Take us in deeper. The Daughters of Thanos await."
Once again, green lit up from the instrument panel as Oliver dared to go a little faster, the watchpost now far behind them as they ventured deeper into the lair of the Titan. There were no maps of Sanctuary, or at least not any known to outsiders, so what they ended up settling on was that Thanos was likely at the heart of the territory he had claimed, which meant his Daughters probably wouldn't be far off either. So, all they had to do was try to keep on course with the centre of this region of space, which Oliver swiftly managed to calculate and keep track off by triangulating their position based on the far off, near-dead stars surrounding them. Additionally, he could guide their way towards where his sensors read the most structures, the amount of watchposts and defensive structures increasing the closer they got to Thanos' seat of power.
Each colossal structure that they slid past brought the same tension with it as when they had passed their first one, the fear of discovery (or worse, the fear that they had already been discovered and that Thanos was merely humouring them so he could kill them all with his own hands) a constant presence weighing heavily on their minds. The amount of watchposts did indeed increase the further in they ventured, the infrastructure of Thanos little corner of the universe expanding the closer they got to its centre. They also had to start circumventing patrols. Most of them consisted of a trio of Leviathans, undulating slowly through the void of space, cruelly constrained within their cybernetics as Chitauri forces leered out into the darkness from the holes made in the large creatures' sides. However, the group also encountered many other forces and races that seemingly called Sanctuary their home (or at the very least their prison) many of which seemed old enough that they had trouble even recognizing them.
However, whether by Sterns' genius in devising Oliver's stealth generator, or by divine providence smiling down upon their quest, Bill's team managed to make it past all of these hurdles, having travelled close to an hour before they faced their greatest challenge yet.
"Well… that's not good." Were the muttered words of Rocket, breaking the silence that had been covering the cabin like a heavy blanket made of paranoia.
Bill agreed with the sentiment though, his horse-like face shifting into a deep scowl, giving his already fearsome visage a monstrous look. Because hovering several hundreds of kilometres ahead of them, above them and below them, seemed to be the entire gathered forces of Thanos. Massive Chitauri motherships, pyramids of chitin and metal, hovered over what seemed to be a large mesa of loosely interconnected space debris, consisting mostly of comets several kilometres long. Leviathans swarmed through the void by the hundreds, perhaps even thousands as far beneath them, on the largest comet of close to a hundred kilometres long, sat an immense palace.
Well, Bill called it a palace only because he suspected it was Thanos' home. In reality, it appeared as some sort of massive bunker, several wings clearly reinforced or added later, drawn up in dark stone and blackened steel that reached several kilometres high. A faint, hazy blue-purple shimmer surrounding the imposing structure indicated the presence of a powerful shield generator, which likely also served as a means of containing an atmosphere on the hunk of deadened rock.
"You guys know I hate to be the negative guy here, but I have to say… something tells me we're not getting in there." Peter spoke up, leaning forwards in his seat so his nose was almost pressed against Oliver's windshield, his bright blue eyes scanning the massive building in the way a thief would, searching for exposed entrances or hidden weaknesses, yet founding none.
"You guys know I hate to agree with the humie, but he's right. Look at the way that monstrosity is built and isolated. See how there's no adjacent structures or anything connecting the thing to any of the other rocks? Thanos is a smart guy. Total nutcase, sure, but smart. I'm willing to bet you an A'askavarian kidney, the generator to that shield is hidden deep inside on some of the most fortified and secure levels in the universe." Rocket grumbled, briefly tugging on one of his ears in thought before he let out an annoyed sigh.
"Man, I hate it when the bad guys remember to put their generators inside their shields. Makes things much messier. Less explode-y too."
"Very well. Taking the barrier out completely is not an option, definitely not with the amount of security he has surrounding his base. Is there a way to fool the barrier somehow then? He and his troops still need to move through it, unless they take it down for every patrol and messenger." Bill mused, getting a considering hum from Rocket.
"Yeah, probably. Probably some sort of key code sending out a signal that is recognized by the security system that would let you pass through, maybe by making the shield permeable in a certain spot? Or a mini-generator of your own that surrounds you in a field that non-interacts with the shield, allowing you to walk straight through. Still, that kinda tech is notoriously vulnerable to tampering or theft: I'm willing to bet that A'skavarian's other kidney that Thanos got a whole bunch of checkpoints and security guards lined up once you're through the barrier itself. Something tells me he ain't exactly the trusting kind." The raccoon replied after some thought.
They all briefly glanced between themselves, before ruefully shaking their head as they realized one unavoidable fact: there was no chance in hell that they'd manage to blend in enough to fool Thanos' security forces.
"A cyborg, a walking tree, a thinking truck, a talking racoon and a dashing human walk into the evil lair of an evil bad guy. Sounds like the start of a bad joke."
"Your dad is a bad joke. And who're you callin' 'dashing' anyways?" Rocket immediately countered with a toothy grin and gleaming eyes.
Early on, when they had only just began working for Hyperion and were still on their way towards the hiding place of the Power Stone, Rocket once made a joke about Peter's mom.
Once.
Peter hadn't killed him, but it had been a near thing if it hadn't been for the fact that Michael and Bill had restrained the half-Celestial while Groot protectively grew a shielding bush around the shocked raccoon.
Peter had never elaborated just why his mom was off-limits, though his subdued request to Michael once they had landed on Earth and the madness of Hell Week had died down to give him some time to visit a graveyard in some place called Missouri had clued them in enough to make an educated guess.
Peter's father, apparently one of the mythical Celestials and the cause of the death of Peter's mother, was fair game though.
Before the half-human could respond to Rocket's tease, Bill spoke up in his deep, gruff voice.
"Enough. Focus. We do not have the manpower or firepower to force our way inside, the opposition is too well trained and our option for disguise and subterfuge too thin to try the stealthy approach. Think. What other resources do we have?"
For a short time, all was silent in the cabin, until to their surprise it was Groot that spoke up.
"I am Groot?" The large tree spoke, leaning forwards in his seat as his large eyes took in the massive fleet surrounding them with some trepidation.
"What? Buddy, we can't understand you, what did you say?"
"He said…" Rocket softly spoke up, looking out towards the opposing army, following the thin branch that Groot had extended as a finger.
"…what about them?" the racoon finished, a grin seeping into his voice as he also pointed towards something immense hovering over Thanos' palace.
Following the furry finger, Bill glanced upwards, taking in the several kilometres long ship that was hovering about a full kilometre above the dark grey bunker below, its immense wing spawn and swooping bridge giving it the appearance of a massive bird of prey that was stalking its next kill. While less massive than the solid pyramids of the Chitauri motherships floating a fair distance away, Bill guessed that from tip to tip, Thanos' flagship (for what else could it be?) measured about the same as the height of those bio-cybernetic machines.
"That should do it." Bill said appreciatively, but Peter was apprehensive.
"Whoa there! I admit, it's a cool looking ship, but aren't we forgetting something here? Aren't we supposed to be on a rescue mission? Bombing out Thanos' hiding space with his own flagship, even though it sounds like a ton of fun, doesn't really seem all that recue-y to me."
"Well, the boss did say only retrieve if possible. Clearly, as we've just established, that's not possible, at least not on our own." Rocket replied, somewhat annoyed as he jumped to the defence of his friend's proposal.
"He's correct, Quill. The information Gamora possesses… it must never fall into Thanos' hands, or all life in the universe may be doomed. If it can be kept from her father, even if only by her death, then we should do everything in our power to make it so. Every second she spends in his presence is another moment in which he may discover her and torture the information pertaining to one of the universe's greatest weapons out of her. We cannot allow that to happen. Do you understand?" Bill said firmly, but not unkindly, seeing the young human war with himself, before letting out a defeated sigh.
"Yeah, I get it. Universe at stake, failure is not an option. I was there at the briefing as well guys." The human eventually conceded, crossing his leather-clad arms in front of his chest, a somewhat morose look on his face.
"It just… that doesn't mean I have to like it."
"In this line of work, we're often forced to make the difficult choices. Do what we don't like, become what we struggle against instead of strive towards. Do the wrong things, for the right reasons. Because if we don't do these things, the alternative is far worse and we're too much of a good person, deep down, to allow that to happen to innocents. To our loved ones."
"Yeah? What line of work is that? A mercenary with a heart of gold or something?" Peter scoffed.
"A Hero." Bill simply replied, stunning the younger man as he turned back towards Oliver's dashboard.
"My friend, take us in closer to that flagship. Try to make sure we remain hidden and unseen. Such a massive ship must have crags and holes large enough for your miniature form to slip in easily."
"At once, sir Bill! Rest assured, we shall be as the deadly flee that took down the evil king Nimrod in ancient times!" Oliver immediately replied, confusing the hell out of all his passengers, before firing his engines (but only just) as they stealthily moved towards the massive underbelly of Thanos' flagship.
Given that a ship of such magnitude undoubtedly carried a whole swath of sensor technology, the tension in the cabin noticeably ratcheted up several notches higher than when they bypassed the watchtowers at a fair distance. Bill was tempted to ask Oliver to switch to his miniature size already, but that would've made the time needed to cross the intervening hundreds of meters unbearably long. So instead he settled for simply clenching his four-fingered hands into fists, focusing on the comforting hum of the impossibly powerful generators hidden deep inside his artificial torso as he prepared himself to leap into combat at but a moment's notice.
Wonder above wonder, they made it within mere tens of meters of the ship, Oliver speaking up in a whisper.
"Any closer and my stealth-field will start interfering with the ships own shielding and we'll be definitely spotted. However, at my smallest size, I can shut off the stealth-field and rely on air thrusters so that others may not spot us from a distance. To the ship's internal sensor-array, I will merely appear as any one of the hundreds of infinitesimal specks of space dust that continuously bombard it at any moment. Hold fast, my friends! The end is in sight!"
True to his word, as Oliver shrank in a burst of contracting flashes while his cloak deactivated, no alarm was raised: they were still hidden. From their fly-sized truck, the already massive starship suddenly seemed truly gargantuan, a landscape unto itself. But that also enlarged the many imperfections that littered its imposing hull. Scars from battles long past or merely the inherent dangers of travelling through space, pieces where the armoured plates didn't quite fit together as neatly as they could or should have. When you're smaller than even the smallest rodent, even a tiny crack may appear as a gaping canyon and without prompting or urging, Oliver accelerated straight into an exposed piece of fuselage surrounding a gun battery.
They had to traverse through what seemed to them like miles of wiring, circuitry and steel frameworks, worming themselves deeper and deeper into the very flesh of the ship, before Oliver managed to find his way towards what seemed to be some sort of ventilation vent.
As he shut off his thrusters, falling to the metal floor, he drove silently up to the intricate grating and his passengers could clearly see that they had landed near the bridge.
"I'm not an expert on evil warlord ships or shipcrews, but doesn't this seem… I dunno, a bit much to you all?" Peter whispered and his companions nodded in agreement.
Meters below them was a hive of activity, servants and soldiers running around performing a slew of task that Bill couldn't see or understand the purpose of, scurrying to and fro at the shouted commands of a lithe, blue-skinned figure standing tall in the middle of the bridge.
"Move it you maggots! Lord Thanos is ready to make his assault on the pretender! Let nothing interfere with his destined attack, his inevitable triumph! Or he will show you his displeasure… personally!" the blue woman shouted, an immediately noticeable robotic twang in her commanding voice.
At her threat, the activity surrounding her peaked in intensity, though for the life of him, Bill still couldn't figure out just what they were trying to do other than simply look busy.
Remembering the briefing Hyperion had given them before they left, the Beta-Ray concluded that this must be Nebula, one of the favoured children and assassins of Thanos and Gamora's sister.
"That explains the increased security. Thanos is planning an attack. Long-distance, probably needs his concentration. These guys sure as hell don't seem to want him to be disturbed, that's for sure." Rocket mumbled under his breath, having climbed up on Oliver's dashboard, furry palms splayed flat against the windscreen as he took in the hive of activity below with narrowed eyes.
"Shit! If he's going to attack… does that mean we're already too late?! Shit, please, and I honestly can't believe I'm saying this, but please tell me he just got his hands on some sort of long-distance super-nuke or something." Peter spoke up, getting a frustrated grunt from Bill.
"I'm afraid so, Quill. If he's going to launch an attack over such incredible distances, and it's only Nebula here to stand guard over her father… I fear the worst."
"So, then what do we do?" Peter asked in return as Bill sunk deep into thought, trying to find the answer.
Before he could speak up, Nebula gave one last withering glare across the room, before she spoke up again in a tone that clearly indicated she would suffer no complaint or questions.
"I shall retire to my rooms. Do not disturb me unless the situation regarding my father changes. To whomever is foolish enough to wake me for nothing, death will be the least of your worries. To whomever is cowardly enough not to wake me should something happen instead: your fate will be even worse. Is that clear?" she said in a deadly voice, getting a chorus of hasty agreements in response.
As the blue-skinned woman turned on her heel and imperiously stalked away from the bridge, Rocket gave a theatrical shudder.
"What a charming lady." He drawled, sarcasm virtually pouring off every whisker.
Bill however quickly spoke up.
"Oliver, try to follow her. I wish to see if she can give us any more information, before I decide on whether or not we should risk assaulting the bridge."
"Very well, sir Bill!"
And so they did, sticking to the vents as they tried to follow Nebula's footsteps through the long and winding corridors of the flagship. They almost lost her several times as some of the passageways in the vents didn't quite line up with the hallways, though thankfully there seemed to be some sort of unifying floorplan built into the ship as they always crossed paths with Thanos' Daughter not long after.
It took close to ten minutes before Nebula had walked far enough to reach her quarters, which from the looks of it appeared to be an ordinary, stark bedroom, nothing in the way of personal possessions or decorations denoting it as the blue woman's room other than a rack of blades similar to the ones she had strapped to her belt hanging off one of the walls.
Or so Bill thought at first, until Nebula slowly, almost hesitantly walked towards the bedside table, shakily opening the bottom drawer. He couldn't see what it was that she retrieved until she turned back, dropping heavily into a seating position on the footend of her bed: an ornately decorated silver handle encrusted with rubies, two blades shooting out from either end.
He only realized the significance of the blade as Nebula wrapped her fist tight across the handle, all of her limbs shaking and her face drawn in a rictus of fury, before she slowly brought the flat of the larger blade to her forehead, leaning it against her marred skin as angry tears uncontrollably began pouring down her cheeks.
As the young woman's muffled sobs filled the room, a feeling of both dread and melancholy settled over Bill and his group as he turned to face his companions.
"It would seem that we are indeed too late: Gamora… has been killed by her own father. Thanos now possesses one of the most dangerous artefacts in the universe." He said deeply.
"And from what we've heard, he's planning on using it on Michael asap." Peter muttered darkly.
"So… what the hell are we gonna do now? We failed." Rocket finished sadly, but Bill shook his head.
"Not yet. Nebula mourns her sister. I trust that this means she hates her father. We may not be in time to save Gamora… but we still may have the chance to avenge her and protect her sister. Oliver, take us into the room." The cyborg commanded, receiving a green confirmation signal from Oliver's dashboard.
A rocket-assisted jump through the grating carried them into the room and to the floor. Without warning, Oliver expanded to his true size in an expanding series of flashes, Nebula's room, while stark, thankfully large enough to easily accommodate the truck without squishing the Daughter of Thanos.
Said offspring nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden appearance of the strange vehicle, years and years of brutal training and ingrained reflexed causing her to fall into a low combat stance before her mind even had the chance to fully process the impossible scenario in front of her. The double switchblade twirled in her hand as she readied herself for combat. Said switchblade was immediately sent flying the moment Bill exited the cabin, the cyborg managing to catch the weapon mere inches away from his face as he stared Nebula down.
Seeing Groot, Rocket and Peter exit from the cabin as well, Nebula merely bared her teeth, unsheathing her swords as she squared off against the group that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
"Assassins? Come then, face me and die!" the augmented Luphomoid snarled, yet Bill noticed that it wasn't merely bravado that caused the woman to not shy away against numerically (and in two cases, physically) superior foes.
In her black eyes, Bill could see the same look that had stared back at him in the grimy, broken mirrors of Sakaar's slave dungeons for so many years, before Hyperion had found him. The look of someone that did not care whether or not they came out of a fight alive. In fact, they might wish not to.
"Lower your weapons, Nebula, Daughter of Thanos. We mean you no harm." Bill attempted, though the woman scoffed at his words, the situation not helped in the least by Rocket's muttered "well, maybe a little bit of harm if she doesn't put those pokers away".
Ignoring the smallest combatant, Nebula's dark eyes remained fixed upon Bill's towering form.
"Do not insult my intelligence. For what other purpose could you have snuck your way aboard this ship, and into my chambers no less? Came stalking towards me in the shadows, scurrying around like rats in the night?"
"Look, angry lady, if we came here to assassinate anyone, wouldn't it make more sense if we came here to put down your old man instead?" Rocket drawled, his tone lazy, but his grip was firm on the handle of his quad-barrelled gun.
"Perhaps you fear to face him. Perhaps you know that he cannot be killed, so you go after his lieutenants instead. Whatever the cause for your cowardice, it matters not to me. Kill me or die by my blades, I don't care which. The time for talk is over!" Nebula snarled, launching herself at Rocket, who was clearly physically speaking the weak link of the group (and who had quickly proven himself to be the most annoying as well).
However, as Groot and Peter moved to step in front of the grinning racoon who had hefted his massive weapon higher, Nebula was bodily halted mid-leap by the thick arm of Beta-Ray Bill.
It wasn't exactly a full-force clothesline as that would've slammed the reckless woman to the ground, but it stopped her dead in her tracks nonetheless. Still, wildly lashing out in pain as she very clearly was, Nebula was still one of the universe's best trained assassins, so without pause she shifted the grip on her swords as she whirled around, trying to bury the two lengths of steel deep into Bill's belly.
Bill stepped into her attack however, taking her left arm by the wrist and yanking it wide open as he deflected the second blade with the very switchblade he had caught earlier. As Nebula was physically pulled off her footing, Bill followed up on his turn, twisting around and bodily lifting the woman by the forearm up and over himself in a perfect hip-toss, throwing her back onto the bed.
As she immediately rolled back up into a kneeling position, arms spread wide and low at her side, she froze in her movements when she felt cold steel on her throat. Looking up, pitch-black eyes met pure white as Bill and Nebula stared each other down.
"Come on, then. What are you waiting for? Do it." She snarled up at him, baring her teeth when his monstrous face remained unmoved, his eyes unblinking.
"Do it!" she roared at him, surging to her feet as she dropped her own weapons, pressing her throat against the dagger resting on her skin.
There was no movement in the room, not even a drawn breath as Bill looked down at the woman in front of him.
"He cannot be killed you say?" he eventually spoke up in a low voice, taking Nebula off guard.
"Thanos. You say assassinating him is pointless, as he cannot be killed? How do you know? Have you tried?"
"Me? Tried? No. Never. But I have seen others who have. And I have seen what remains of them after an attempt." Nebula hissed back, malice dripping from every word.
"Hmmm. So, you've never tried. But…" Bill slowly mused, before straightening and taking the blade of Nebula's throat, who blinked up at him in surprise, before her eyes widened as he lowered his hand, his palm splayed open as he offered the switchblade back to her.
"… I'm willing to bet that you've considered it, have you not?"
For the longest moment, Nebula merely stared at the offered weapon, before the fight seemed to visibly leave her, the woman slumping in on herself as she took the switchblade with a trembling hand.
"Yes…" she eventually whispered, turning the blade over and over in her hand, her eyes looking at it, but with her mind very clearly far away.
"My sister… she was responsible for… this. For my pain. My… augments. I've hated her for so long… but she was still my sister. And he killed her, for power. All of his favouritism, his compliments, his care… nothing. It all meant nothing to him. Means nothing to him. He threw her off a cliff."
Tears had once again begun to flow down her mismatched cheeks, anger burning furiously in her dark eyes as she looked back up at Bill again with bared teeth.
"He threw my sister off a fucking cliff!" she snarled lowly.
"And you want revenge for that." Bill prodded, seeing the anger deepen on the woman's face.
"Yes!" she hissed, before the fire in her eyes dimmed and she slumped down on her bed again.
"But it's no use. He was the strongest being in the universe that I had ever seen before. Now, however… with the Soul Stone, he has become so much more powerful. I cannot kill him."
The young woman bowed her head and closed her eyes in a mixture of defeat, frustration and shame.
"I cannot kill my father. I cannot kill Thanos."
For a moment, an oppressive silence hung over the room, before Nebula's head snapped up as Bill leaned down and placed a massive hand on her thin shoulder. His face, modelled after the greatest and most fearsome predator the Korbinites had ever known, showing a facsimile of kindness, his pure white eyes conveying a kindness that belied the towering form of muscle and steel.
"Neither can I." Bill began, before he was interrupted by a scoff from behind (and below).
"Great. That's just a great way of cheering her up." Rocket scoffed, before he quieted down as Bill shot him a look over his shoulder.
"But sure, go ahead. Shutting up now."
"Thank you."
Turning back towards the slightly bewildered Nebula, Bill continued.
"Neither can I. You were right. We did not come here to assassinate Thanos. Even before the Soul Stone, with both his army and members of the Black Order present here it was unlikely we would be capable of killing him. Perhaps I could have, given enough time to overclock my body and if I were willing to sacrifice myself in order to take him down, which I cannot do, as I owe it to my people to survive and look for them, protect them. So, it was never our intent to take a life here. Instead, we were sent to save one. Two, if things turned out well." The cyborg explained, nodding his jutting chin at the blade cradled in Nebula's hands.
"Gamora. You came here to save her? Why?"
"Our leader, he was aware of what she had found and what it meant is such an artefact fell into Thanos' hands. He could not let such a thing happen. He knows the power of the Infinity Stones well, and Thanos' quest for them. He knows that Thanos is always seeking them, that all his thought is bent on them and so he has gone after them first, in order to turn their might against Thanos. He already possesses four of the six, only two remain out of reach. The Reality Stone, hidden away in ancient times by Bor, son of Buri, the king of the Asgardians. And-"
"-the Soul Stone." Nebula said, catching on, receiving a nod from Bill.
"Indeed. He is one of the few people aware of the location of its hiding place. Moreover, he knew that your sister was aware of it as well and refused to let that information to fall into his enemies' hands."
"If he knew, then why did he not go there himself! Take it so that Thanos never could claim it, so that he wouldn't-… so that he could never make the sacrifice." Nebula trailed off with a hitch in her voice, and Bill's shoulders dropped somewhat.
"He couldn't. Because, while he knew it's resting place, he also knew the price that the Soul Stone demanded. It was a price he could not pay."
"So he's a coward then! Weak!" Nebula snarled, but Bill remained calm, shooting her a pointed look.
"By that logic, does that make your father courageous? Does his murder of your sister make him strong in your eyes? For if that is so, then you are indeed a Daughter of Thanos and you are truly lost." The tall cyborg rumbled.
Nebula briefly opened her mouth to respond, but found that the words died in her throat, the weight of the switchblade in her hand, despite its perfect balance, suddenly feeling impossibly heavy, nearly too much to bear.
"As I said, bar one, my leader has managed to secure the other Infinity Stones, which is why your father is attempting this desperate attack of his. He knows that Hyperion can beat him, so he must act now, while my leader is weakened and before he has fully consolidated all of his allies and forces. Which means that there's still time."
"Time? Time for what? My sister is dead, lying broken in a chasm at the bottom of a cliff father threw her off. Already, he has secluded himself in one of the deepest chambers in the palace below, preparing himself to use the Soul Stone. My sister is dead, my father's attack has begun. What more is there left to do?" Nebula growled in a morose tone, but once again Bill's hand took her by the shoulder, fire creeping into his tone.
"It's not too late to interfere! To throw a wrench in Thanos' plans! You may have little faith left, but I know Hyperion! Even weakened as he is, Thanos cannot kill him, not over such a large distance. The fight isn't over yet, this is merely the beginning of the end. One Stone remains and we must ensure that there, we will not fail."
Leaning in closer, capturing Nebula's black eyes with his blinding whites, Bill pressed on.
"We failed your sister. We failed you. We had faulty information: we were led to believe that Thanos would not make his move for years to come. We did not anticipate the cruelties he would sink to out of his desperation to oppose Hyperion. That must change. That can change. Through you."
"Me?" Nebula asked, blinking in surprise.
"Indeed. Tell me. You said you could not kill your father. But can you deceive him? Can you spy on him, report his every move to his enemies, lay bare all the weaknesses he tries to keep secret? Can you expose the belly of the beast to the blade of my leader, uncover the chink in his armour so Hyperion can slip his scythe through Thanos' ribs and into his foul heart? What say you, Nebula, sister of Gamora? Will you help us avenge her?" Bill asked, and as he spoke, a fire returned to the blue-skinned woman.
For a moment, both cyborgs stared at each other, before Nebula gave a grim scowl and a dip of her bald head.
"We will need a way to communicate. And you will need a means of escape." She simply said, her thumb caressing the rubies set in the hilt of her switchblade.
"Leave the escaping part to me. Just, see if you can't get me a powercoupler, a hydrospanner and a Klklk'sright hemisphere antenna and then leave me alone with a control terminal for ten minutes." Rocket spoke up, holstering the massive gun onto his back as he rubbed his little paws in glee, the overhead lighting giving a menacing glint to his pointed teeth.
For a moment, Nebula merely stared down at the giggling racoon, before she gave in.
"Why the Klklk antenna?" she asks hesitantly, her eyes widening when Rocket starts guffawing.
"Cause it's hilarious! Have you ever seen a Klklk without one of its antennae?! Funniest shit I've ever seen, it's like their drunk and have a walking disability! All they can do is run in circles while garbling nonsense and shitting themselves! Hahhahha! Oh, but do make sure to only pick one though, if you tear off both they'll explode. And they're gooey on the inside, so you don't want that. Or bring an umbrella."
"… what."
"Ignore him. Just get him to a terminal so he can interact with the ship's software. We can use this ship to both target the palace and run interference with the rest of the fleet while we make our escape."
"Allowing such a thing would break my cover. Even if it didn't, the demonstrated incompetence would still mean my death at Thanos' hands." Nebula coldly stated, before one of her hands came up to softly trace the metallic structure forming her left eye socket.
"Or perhaps worse." She muttered.
"Leave that, and the communication, to me." Bill resolutely stated, grabbing his left arm at the shoulder as he mentally gave a command to his body.
Usually, these types of command codes were only meant to be issued in order to facilitate repairs, such as when he had opened up his torso to fix an internal rupture when Hyperion first came to see him on Sakaar. However, for this particular situation, Bill had something other than repairs in remind.
Quite the opposite in fact.
With a twist and a violent eruption of hissing steam, his left arm completely disengaged from his torso as he took it off. He could still feel every part of the arm, even move it while they were so close together, though his control (and the sensory feedback he'd receive) would significantly lessen over great distances.
Which is why he walked over to Oliver's cabin, ignoring Nebula's and Peter's shocked looks. Rocket didn't seem particularly surprised, but then again Bill's files on Groot's species did state that they were capable of impressive feats of regeneration, so this is probably not the first time the bounty hunter saw someone get dismembered and not be bothered by it.
"Oliver, could you insert one of your communication buoys into the innards of my severed arm, please. Your quantum-entangled connection to it should allow us to remain in contact with the arm even from the other side of the universe. All Nebula then needs to do is manage to keep it around where she has access to it, perhaps as a trophy she claimed in battle and she can immediately relay to us all she hears while in her father's council."
"At once, sir Bill! Rest assured, your valiant sacrifice will not be in vain, I swear it!" the robotic voice immediately replied.
There was a series of short beeps, whirrs and hisses, before Oliver's glove compartment popped open on its own, a freshly made communication buyo already waiting for Bill.
As Bill took it from its compartment and began to work it into the inner structure of his severed arm so it wouldn't stand out even under scrutiny, he kept one ear on the conversation behind him between his group and the remaining Daughter of Thanos.
"A cyborg, a walking tree, a thinking animal, a talking vehicle and a human have come to oppose my father? Is this some cruel jest?" the shocked voice of Nebula rang out in a flat tone.
"Hey, that's what I said! Though, actually, it's a dashing human. Dashing." Peter replied and Bill didn't need to turn around in order to know that Nebula was giving the duster-clad hybrid an incredulous look up and down.
"Dashing? You run away a lot then? Odd. I do not often meet men so willing to admit to their cowardice. Though I suppose that is a form of courage in itself."
"Ouch. Also, ouch." Peter replied morosely, though his fallen mood was probably more to blame on the racoon laughing his tail off besides him.
"Oh! Ohoho! I like this one!"
The conversation was interrupted when Bill returned, brusquely holding out his severed arm towards Nebula. To the woman's credit, so only raised an uncomfortable eyebrow for a few moments before she took hold of it.
Briefly, she glanced from the appendage in her arm to the cyborg it was attached to mere moments before, before she shook her head.
"This is not going to work. Not believable enough. This is too easy. Too clean."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at the shoulder: this was clearly disassembled, not torn off in battle, or severed by my blades. Trust me, both I and my father know perfectly well how such a wound would look. We have seen often times before, after all. This needs to be more battle-scared. For that matter, so do I." she stated firmly, gaining a frown from Bill.
"Are you certain of this? That seems… needlessly cruel."
"Cruel? Perhaps. But if you must learn one thing during your stay here, cyborg, it is that cruelty is simply a manner of existence in Sanctuary. It is as needless as food and water. A small strike team, capable of taking over the Sovereign II and then escaping, evading a pursuing fleet without a single casualty beyond an artificial limb? Mighty foes indeed: not the type of enemy I could face in battle without a scratch. I am good. One of the best. But, I am not that good. And my father knows this. If I am to claim this arm as a spoil of battle, then I need to appear as if I actually did do battle. A life or death one, preferably. Anything less, and my father will immediately see through the ruse. The more damaged I am, the less closely he'll scrutinize me or my story. Do not concern yourself with me. I will be rebuilt."
Softer, she whispered under her breath in a low tone only Bill could hear, "he always does."
"I see. Still, to attack an ally? Injure them enough to the point even Thanos would not question it? I admit to feeling uncomfortable with such an act." Bill stated, fully realizing the hypocrisy of the statement after he had corrected Peter's own misgivings not so long ago, but unable to help it.
It was simply not how he was built, even before he had gotten his artificial body.
Briefly, Nebula scowled at him, before looking back down at the arm in her hands again, seemingly deep in thought. Bill couldn't hope to guess at what the bereaved woman was thinking about and there was an unsettling itch that climbed up the cybernetic synapses lining his metallic spine as she glanced at him with a very odd look in her glistening black eyes.
Part triumph, part… remorse?
"Tell me, this body of yours, it is not original? In fact, you appear even more modified than I am."
"Indeed. It is a synthetic body, crafted by my people, the Korbinites, to be their ultimate protector: the Beta-Ray, the culmination of my people's knowledge and skill." Bill proudly, but wearily, responded.
"Korbinites? I see. And you mentioned earlier that you still need to find them? Protect them?" Nebula slowly answered and Bill knew that if he still had any hairs, they would've been standing up straight all over his body, a hard pit settling uncomfortable in his stomach/fuel tank.
"Say what you mean woman." He intoned, a dangerous edge creeping into his gravelled words.
From the corner of her large eyes, Nebula looked up at the tall cyborg, her face an unreadable mask even as her blackened orbs showed sincere regret.
"It seems that it was not only my sister you failed, Beta-Ray Bill of the Korbinites. You were also too late to save your own people. They serve my father now."
"Impossible! They would never aid such a madman!"
"Perhaps not. Not when they were still the Korbinites you remember. But as they are now, they have no choice but to obey my father's will, chained as they are to his mind prison. You are too late, Bill. Again, you are too late. Your people are now my father's most loyal forces: after all, everyone knows how utterly loyal the cybernetic slaves of the Chitauri are to the Mad Titan Thanos."
The four-fingered fist that impacted Nebula square in the face came as a nothing more than a blur, powerful enough to lift her straight off her feet and into the far wall.
AN: So, I had more POV's planned, but this one is the most important one and I figured I owed you guys after I uploaded the MCU Gamer fic instead. I have two or three more scenes planned. One in which Michael gets himself his allies that he discussed with Odin, then perhaps/maybe/hopefully a scene on one of the battlefields where Michael's and Thanos' proxy-armies are fighting over some long-forgotten Asgard stash. I'm thinking of using both Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive for that one, since I already have a scene planned with Black Maw in Sanctuary at Thanos' side and Obsidian Cull is always paired up with him. After that, another Nebula scene, this one after a little time-skip where she has regained Thanos' trust and is in his inner circle so we can see the aftermath of the fight on Asgard for him, as well as what exactly Hela is up to. Additionally, she'll have a bit of back and forth with Maw, who has his own suspicions about the grieving Daughter. Also, this Interlude (and the second part) is called "Gathering Allies", by which I don't just mean Michael and his side of the war… ;p