Chapter Text
Groot is gone.
Rocket can hear voices faintly but he’s hardly paying attention. He’s crying and he can’t stop. Groot’s gone, turned to dust right in front of him, so much the same way the last Groot did. And there was nothing he could do to stop it anymore than last time.
They were supposed to stop Thanos. That’s why he came out here to begin with. There was a lot he could lose. There was everything he could lose and he has no idea what happened to the others.
Is Peter okay? Or Gamora? Or Mantis? Or Drax?
Or are they all gone too, turned to dust like Groot?
(Gone like Floor and Teefs and Lylla.)
And it’s days that Rocket has to wait before he finds the answer. The others have yet to show up and no signal they’re trying to send out to the ship is getting through. They could be too far away. Maybe the ship was damaged and they’re stuck somewhere and just need rescuing.
But maybe they’re all dead.
All he can do now is wait for Carol to fly out to Titan to see what happened. There’s other people who were gone to Titan to who the Avengers are looking for – but Rocket can hardly care about that at all right now. He just needs to know what happened to his – his family.
It’s days before Carol returns. He runs outside with the others the moment they see her coming in with the Milano.
His heart is pounding and all he can do is wait as the ramp lowers. Someone is going to be gone. He knows that much. They can’t all be there. Half the universe was snapped. At least two more of them are probably gone. He’s not stupid enough to hope after already seeing both Groots die in front of him.
(Yes, he is.)
Only two people come off.
Some man and Nebula.
There’s no one else there. They’re all gone. All he can feel is numbness.
Nebula sits down on the edge of the ramp, silent and unmoving. He hasn’t seen her in a long time. They aren’t friends really and never have been but she’s Gamora’s sister and she must’ve been there when it happened.
He heard a bit about her from Gamora sometimes.
The only thing left of the family they half shared – if sharing Gamora can be counted as that – is each other. He crosses the field quietly, sitting next to her and reaching for her hand. She takes it without a word.
He was just teasing Peter about how he was actually the captain. And now he is.
He almost misses seeing Groot’s stupid video games.
And Drax’s absolute weirdness.
And Mantis… ridiculous emotional manipulation jokes.
And even Gamora’s sharpness and being the sole brain cell half the time.
“You and Stark ruin the ship while I was gone?” Rocket asks. It falls flat. He can hardly think about joking right now.
“It’s a mess,” Nebula replies tersely, “We never thought we were getting off.”
“What happened?”
Nebula’s hand clenches reflexively. “We were the only ones left after Thanos was finished. The ship didn’t have enough power to bring us here.”
So they were stuck there, thinking they were going to die. It reminds him of the time he thought he was about to, alongside Floor, Teefs, and Lylla. They were going to be killed the next day. And they only had once change at getting out. He roughly shies away from the thought.
Rocket stands and Nebula follows him onto the ship. It is a mess, not that that isn’t always true. It feels like walking into a ghost of the past. Something that shouldn’t be the past. He wants to cry again. He almost thinks it hurts too much for that.
But he can smell the other’s lingering scents – thanks to being a racoon – so clearly, as though they were just here. Even if Tony’s and Nebula’s are a bit stronger because of how long they were on board.
Something breaks inside him and he’s crying again without meaning to. And now that he is, he suddenly can’t stop again. Nebula’s hand ghosts across the top of his head. She’s silent other than that. There’s really nothing to be said.
“You going to stay?” Rocket asks finally.
He can’t imagine it if she doesn’t. He wouldn’t have – anything at all if she didn’t. But he expects she can say the same.
She only hesitates for a heartbeat. “Yes. But I’m still going after Thanos.”
“Me too,” Rocket says, viciously. He’s not going to let him get away with killing every single of his family. And then another thought occurs to him. “If he’s still got the Stones, could we do something?” He’s afraid to hope but if those things caused this, then…
“First we’ll have to find him,” Nebula says bluntly, “But we can track the energy readings from the stones. That’s a start.”
Rocket bounds after her, deeper into the ship. “Then what’re we waiting for?”
***
Nebula got used to being on this ship the weeks she was here with Tony. But it feels almost like she’s getting used to it again now that one of her sister’s friends are here too. She knew all of them only briefly but well –
They were family to Gamora. And that… means something, since she’s her sister. It means they’re friends to her on some level too.
Even if it doesn’t stop a deep running bitterness that they were the family Gamora chose, not her. At least not until later. It constantly felt like she was blindly reaching for her sister, just wanting to have one, because Midnight with her harshness and distance wasn’t someone Nebula could begin to see that way. But Gamora only seemed to care for pleasing Thanos and then she left, and she was somehow still Thanos’ favorite.
But that doesn’t mean Nebula doesn’t still care for the… guardians of the galaxy, or whatever insane name they chose for themselves. And Rocket is the only one left.
Because Gamora gave up the location of the Soul Stone to Thanos to save her. That he was able to succeed – is all because of that. She tried to kill Thanos to prevent that and she… failed.
And yet, Gamora was willing to let half the universe die to save her. All the times throughout when they were children, she never did anything for her until that. It means more than she can ever say and now she’s never going to see her again. That moment she left with Thanos is the last she’s ever going to.
Rocket’s fussing over the equipment they have on the ship, trying to get readings on the Stones. There was a massive energy surge on Earth from the Snap but where the Stones are now, they still have no leads on.
Thanos never named the plant he was going to after his plans were over. Nebula can’t believe there was time she’d looked forward to that. To getting to be there with him and –
To maybe not needing to get something else ripped out of her, because there wouldn’t be a need for it anymore.
It’s late into the night now when she finally suggests getting some food, not that she wants to eat right now. Hasn’t cared to since the moment she realized she would never see Gamora again. She expects Rocket can say the same.
They go to the kitchen together.
Nebula’s gaze is drawn instantly to the picture stuck up on the refrigerator that she’s seen every time she’s come in here. It never stops hurting to see.
Rocket freezes, staring at it.
She could almost find it amusing that Gamora and Rocket are the sole one who’s who are smiling – though why Peter is crying in the picture, she has no idea. Drax also looks… ridiculous. And there is no way Groot has ever been that huge but it says enough about who drew a picture so sloppily.
It hurts unreasonably that it was something she never got to be a part of, but most of all she just cares that her sister is gone. And so are the rest. That picture is all that is left of them now, of what they once were.
Rocket looks like he’s about to cry again, but he doesn’t. She can’t tear her eyes away from the green girl who looks nothing like Gamora, but it’s literally all Nebula has left of her, too.
“Groot drew this?” she guesses finally.
Rocket nods. “He cut off my tail hair for it too.”
“That’s probably why you’re the only one who looks realistic,” Nebula can’t help remarking, “Groot wasn’t that big then, was he?”
“No. He was still tiny. He stole Drax’s soup to draw him in purple.” Rocket seems almost amused for a moment but it’s fleeting. “And he let off a bomb. I still don’t know if he drew the picture to catch me in his trap.”
“Trap?” Nebula repeats.
“I fell into a hole and then got grabbed by his vines.” He looks some mix of grumpy and fond before it fades into misery again.
Hmm.
Sounds like they did a much better job at raising Groot than Thanos ever did. Not like that’s a shock.
There’s a long pause of silence as they both keep looking at the picture.
“If we can Unsnap, we can get them all back, right?” Rocket speaks up finally.
She wants to believe that. But – “No,” she corrects, “My sister wasn’t taken in the Snap. Thanos killed her when he went to get the Soul Stone.”
She doesn’t know why or what happened. But the fact is that she’s gone. And Nebula doesn’t know if that’s something they can change. Changing this at all feels almost unreasonable and like wishful thinking, as it is. And she’d prefer to be realistic when it comes to meeting a challenge like her father.
Rocket goes still. He’s still staring at the picture but then he flees from the room, without looking back. She can’t imagine eating anything after this conversation either.
She keeps thinking about the moment Rocket took her hand. She doesn’t know how to offer comfort. It’s never something she’s been given. But she goes to find Rocket anyway. He’s back in the room with the devices still running readings to find the Stones. And it still comes up with nothing.
Nebula sits down next to him. She’s the one who reaches very uncertainly for his paw first this time, and he takes it. She doesn’t know what to say but… there’s not much that can be said.