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“This is insane.” Peter mutters mostly to himself as he looks up at the ice wall. “Why did we think this was a good idea?” He asks looking over at Gamora.
She looks at him, shrugging one shoulder and replies, “Because going around it would take up to a week.”
He looks back up at the wall and the people already climbing it, making their way up and some making their way back down. A few of the towns people told them that people come here and climb the wall for fun. Then there are those who’s job it is to climb the wall, ensuring the ice is still sturdy and that those climbing aren’t going to fall.
“Maybe we should just go around it.” Peter says.
“We don’t exactly have the time.” Gamora reminds him and she’s right, he knows it.
There isn’t time for them take to a week to walk around the wall, through the woods that surrounds it on the right. Nova Prime hired them to retrieve this weapon, the longer they go without finding it the more likely someone or something else will get to it - something Nova Prime doesn’t want to risk happening.
“How tall is it again?” He asks.
Gamora looks up at the wall tilting her head, thinking before she answers. “Five hundred feet or so.” She takes a step closer to him and lowers her voice to a whisper. “Can we really trust them?” She asks, glancing over at the group of three men readying themselves at the bottom of the wall.
“I mean, we kinda have no choice really.” He shrugs, though he is a little hesitant himself. “But they do this at least once a day, who better to guide us up and help us than people who’ve spent years doing this?” Peter asks. “It’ll be fine, I promise.” He reassures her, running a hand up and down her arm.
He looks down at Groot who’s been sat on the ground and drawing pictures in the snow while they wait. He’s grown another three to four inches, getting a little too big to sit on Rocket’s shoulders these days but he still manages on the rest of theirs, especially Drax’s.
Since he’s the only one out of the three of them here who can actually feel the cold and could suffer from hypothermia due to the icy winds and low temperatures and inches of snow, he’s dressed in a massive fur lined coat and thick trousers and heavy boots. It’s absolutely heavenly, Peter can hardly feel the wind anywhere but his face. Plus his coat comes with a few pockets for storing things, so that’s where Groot will sit when they’re climbing the wall.
“Groot come on, let’s go.” Peter says’ patting the pocket at his chest.
“I am Groot?”
“You won’t fall out of it.” Gamora says.
“It’s deep enough for you and perfectly safe.” Peter adds. He looks over at Gamora and asks. “Are you sure you’re going to be warm enough? The higher we climb the colder it’s going to get.”
She squeezes his gloved hand and nods. “I’ll be fine.” She does have her own coat on but it’s not fur lined or as thick as his. She has her own thick boots on however but no gloves and her hair is pulled back out of her face in a simple pleat swaying down her back in the wind.
He takes her word for it.
One of the three men standing by the wall whistles to get their attention. Peter can’t tell which one, all of their names sounded vaguely similar and they all look like they could be a set of triplets. All three of them with shoulder length black hair and wide shoulders built like Drax.
“You two wanna climb this thing or what?” One of them calls over to them. They’ve already gotten themselves set up and tied to the ropes.
“Come on.” Peter says, helping Groot into his pocket. “It’s going to be fine.” He says again, not entirely sure who he’s trying to convince, himself or Groot.
The three men help them get situated with picks and spikes for their shoes to help with climbing the ice and then of course the ropes. They’re all on one big long rope, attached to each other with a good distance between each of them to give them space to climb without getting in the way of whoever is in front or behind.
“Hood up lad, the wind gets brutal the higher we get. Don’t want to lose your ears now.” Another one of the men say to him, Peter’s half expecting him to laugh at his own ear comment but no, the guy is deadly serious. All three of them put their own hoods up before turning to the wall in front of them and start to climb.
He puts his own hood up and secures it wondering just how people have lost their eras climbing up this thing.
The three men start making their way up first, one in front of the other and following each others moves and being practically in synch with whoever is in front of them as they climb while keeping an equal distance between themselves.
Gamora goes next and then Peter follows.
With each foot they climb the drop in temperature becomes harder to ignore. The speed of the wind increases the higher they get and Peter finds himself not wanting to and less willing to look down below.
It’s likely that they’re hitting the half way mark, not that there’s a mark in the ice to indicate when you’ve made it half way up the wall. And it’s not easy to tell when you’re climbing and unwilling to look down, given that every time he looks up it seems like nothing has changed. Like the top of the ice wall is blending in with the clouds.
The wind is getting a lot more bitter and harsh and loud, he can hardly hear himself think half of the time. The only sure thing he can hear is his pick every time he stabs it into the ice and his own heavy breathing on top of that.
Peter looks up to check how much more of this he has to endure and to check on Gamora but she’s doing fine or at least it looks like she’s doing fine anyways. She has the strength to pull herself up without much help from the spikes on her shoes. Which, god he wishes he had that much superhuman upper body strength, he’s constantly having to try and find his footing before putting his trust and weight into the picks.
More minutes of climbing go by, maybe even close to half an hour. Hell if he knows. He has no concept of time when he’s busy scaling this thing. But it maybe is closer to something of half an hour of climbing when he starts to notice something is wrong.
There are others climbing wall, either side of them each a couple yards away each at most. A good enough distance between them that they don’t overwhelm the ice and don’t end up disturbing it and knocking chunks out of the wall, them along with it.
But that’s exactly what seems to be happening, despite the precautions put in place that are supposed to prevent this.
The split in the ice happens a couple feet above Gamora and a couple yards over, he watches it happen and watches it grow and split right along to where they are to just below the feet of the third man they’re following.
Just when Peter thinks that’s the end of it. Just when he thinks they’re safe and they’ll just have to be extra careful when climbing until they get above that point-
It breaks off.
All of it, from the crack line to right under his feet and further down as well as over where the other climbers are at the side of him the group that causes the crack and it looks like it even goes just past them.
And it’s not just a thin layer of ice either, no. Its a good ten feet in depth that breaks away from right under him, from under Gamora and the two of them drop a little as well having nothing to hold onto apart from the rope.
“I am Groot.” His voice is muffled from being inside Peter’s pocket but he understands him and can’t at this moment in time find the breathe to scold the kid for swearing.
Peter’s too busy trying to swing his feet or one of his picks to get a grip on the ice in front of him but he can’t reach it. He notices Gamora trying to do the same and both of them are unsuccessful in their attempts to grab onto the ice so that they’re not just swaying in the wind.
He looks up trying to make out what the three men are doing, what their plan is to try and help them because surely something like this has happened before and they have a solution to pull them up or help them get to a patch of ice they can grip onto.
Or they’re going to cut them loose.
Shit.
Gamora looks down at him, panic in her eyes and he see’s the men above cutting through the rope with a knife.
“I am Groot!” Groot shouts over the wind, his voice panicked as he tries to bury himself further into the pocket.
“It’s fine!” Peter shouts back, “Put the Zune on bud!” He looks around frantically and off the side notices a ledge close enough that if he swings enough he can get onto it and be able to stand for a minute and find a way to get Gamora down to him or something, anything. He’ll figure it out.
But first he has to grab onto that ledge.
Peter starts swinging left and right, further with each swing building up as much momentum and power that he can so that he get’s himself right onto the ledge. As he’s doing this he can hear faint singing coming from his pocket, as Groot settles down with the Zune.
“You lift my feet off the ground, spin me around”
After a few swings and the help of his pick and the spikes on his shoes, he gets his pick nice and deep into the ice, sturdy enough so that he can pull himself over and get one foot onto the ledge and then the other.
“Feels like I’m falling and I, I’m lost in your eyes”
He shakes his head and focuses on surviving instead of the music coming from his pocket and hacks his other pick into the wall of ice, further away from where the breakage was and shuffles over trying to be light on his feet. It seems stable enough and shouldn’t break.
“See.” He lets out a long sigh of relief and catches his breath. “We’re good.” He says looking down at Groot who’s poked his head back out of the pocket with a relieved smile on his face.
When Peter looks up following the rope he see’s that the guys have almost cut it. It looks like a struggle like the rope has froze slightly during the climb but he has about a minute to figure out how to help Gamora down before she falls.
He realises that there’s nothing he can do, no way for her to get down quickly before the rope is completely cut. He just readjusts his grip on his pick, digs his heels into the ice below him and holds onto the rope.
HIs heart sinks into his stomach as Gamora falls and when she screams briefly. Peter keeps a firm hand on his pick so that he doesn’t fall with her. He grunts, gritting his teeth and leans back when she’s fallen before him, he regains himself quickly and starts pulling her up with the rope.
Gamora starts to pull herself up the rope, slowly and carefully. He keeps his balance and continues to pull the rope helping her but also making sure he doesn’t tumble over the edge.
“I am Groot?” He asks, voice nervous and head ducked back down into the pocket.
“It’s alright, I’ve got her.” Peter reassures Groot and himself. “I’ve got her.”
Once he’s confident he’s not going to go toppling over the edge or that the ice will break from under them, again, he let’s go of his pick and uses both hands to pull the rope up. The second she’s within arm’s length he crouches down enough to be able to get her hand.
“Here!” He shouts over the wind and his own breathing, stretching his hand down to her.
Gamora switches both picks into her right hand and reaches up for his with her left, taking a hold of his gloved hand and he’s able to pull her up onto the ledge with him.
“You get the best of both worlds, chill it out, take it slow” The wind picks up more music from the Zune, the songs changed or Groot got bored of the first one. He’s not sure but he tries to block it out.
Once they’re up and she’s safe he grabs back onto his pick that’s still in the wall and wraps one arm around her shoulders pulling her in for a hug and away from the ledge. Her arm goes around his waist, face tucked into his shoulder and they both take a second the breathe with each other.
Peter looks up at the three men who have stopped climbing to watch them. He can’t get a good read on if they’re surprised or happy or pissed that they survived or not but a second later they’re back to climbing like nothing happened.
“Assholes,” He mutters. “they were just going to let us die.”
Gamora lifts her head to glance up at them and then takes in the huge chunk of ice missing from the wall.
“If only Rocket could pick us up from here.” Peter jokes light heartedly, but well he’s only half joking. If there was a way in which he doesn’t need to climb the rest of the wall he’d take it.
“There’s nothing keeping us connected to the top of the wall anymore.” Gamora points out, which shit. Peter hadn’t even considered that minor detail. “We’ll have to go the rest of the way, just us and carefully.”
Peter looks up at the wall and sighs. “Better up than down.”
Groot pops his head out of his pocket, taking the earphones out for a second to ask, “I am Groot?” While music plays a lot clearer and louder from the headphones.
“Pop it, lock it, polka dot it, country fivin’ hip hop hip.”
Theres a second where the two of them look down at Groot and Peter’s pocket, hearing and recognising the song before moving on. “It’s going to be fine.” Gamora reassures him, she takes a step over to the side and looks down then up. “We’re more than halfway already.”
“Do you think this ice will hold?” He asks, keeping a hold of his pick and refusing to move his feet even half a step. Being stuck here is making him nervous, it feels like the wind is trying to push him off.
Gamora shrugs, “Let’s keep to the left.”
“Lean in left to clap, three times, shake it out head to toe.”
“Hey bud you wanna put those earphones back in?” Peter suggests to Groot so that he doesn’t get distracted by the music while climbing the rest of the way.
Gamora goes first, testing the ice above them by stabbing her pick into a few times before committing and starting to climb. Peter waits with Groot, giving her a minute before he follows behind.
For the rest of their climb Peter only focuses on his feet, the ice in front of him and making sure Groot is still doing okay in his pocket. And it really doesn’t take much longer or at least it doesn’t feel like it took much longer for them to finally reach the top.
The shock from almost falling to his death and nerves clearly kept him occupied enough to not notice the time it’s taken to get the rest of the way up.
During the climb at some point its clear the earphones have been knocked out of the Zune because the music is now a lot louder and he can hear it a lot more clearly over the wind.
“I can almost see it…
That dream I’m dreaming.”
Once Gamora’s pulled herself up over the edge, Peter makes sure his chest is level with the top of the wall and let’s Groot out of his pocket so he doesn’t squish the small tree when he essentially drags himself up over the rest of the way.
Groot scrambles out with the Zune in his hands, holding it close tight and humming along to the song.
“There’s a voice inside my head saying, you’ll never reach it.”
Peter laughs slightly and shakes his head before dragging himself up the final few inches.
The second he’s over himself and there’s solid ice below him that’s he’s at least seventy percent sure won’t break beneath him, he let’s himself just collapse and lie flat on his back. And although the air is colder up here and is slightly painful on his lungs, he doesn’t care at the moment and just tries to breathe and take in as much air as possible.
He is so not going to need to work out or spar with Gamora for at least two weeks now after that.
“You okay?” Gamora asks him.
Peter nods and holds up two thumbs. “I’m good.” He says before propping himself up on his elbows to see that she’s already sitting up and undoing the rope from around her waist.
“Groot, back away from the edge a little bud.” He says waving his hand for Groot to move back and then shuffling back himself since his toes are hanging over the edge.
“There’s always going to be another mountain…”
“Hey, take a look at this.” Gamora says tapping his shoulder before she stands up.
Curious, Peter looks over his shoulder and catches a glimpse at the sky behind him. Woah. That is the most beautiful sunset he’s ever seen. He takes Gamora’s outstretched hand and stands up turning to watch the sun as it dips behind mountains in the distance.
“Aint about how fast I get there, aint about what’s waiting on the other side…”
It’s painted the clouds above it vibrant shades of yellow, gold and pink the literally stretch out for miles swirling into one big marble effect. The clouds are thick and fluffy, probably full of snow. And parts of the mountains reflect the colours in the sky.
“It’s the climb.”
He’s never seen anything like it before.
“Holy shit.” He breathes.
“Wow…” Gamora says, eyes fixed on the view ahead, her voice getting carried off into the wind. “so beautiful.”
Peter turns to look at her, the soft sun beams hit her face at the right angle making her skin glow and her eyes look golden. Its like a faint halo has been casted around her and she looks ethereal.
“Yeah.” He agrees, unable to take his eyes off her. “So beautiful.” He repeats as he wraps his arm around her shoulder and presses a kiss to her head.
“But these are the moments that, I’m going to remember most.”
“I am Groot?”
“In a minute.” Peter replies, looking back at the sunset. It’s not everyday you’re standing on top of a massive ice wall with the best sunset view in the galaxy, he wants to savour the moment a little before they move on and continue down.
“Aint about whats waiting on the other side…
It’s the climb.”