Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Chapter 27

The Bowie, Deep Space

Peter had begun to brace himself the moment he heard Mantis's cry ring out through the Bowie, but no amount of bracing could prepare him for the firestorm his sister unleashed when she found him on the bridge.

"You!" Mantis stormed towards Peter. "You dirty, rotten, stupid, nasty liar!"

Nebula rose instinctively from her piloting seat at the outburst, though she didn't jump in immediately. Drax was still sound asleep in his own chair, but at the shout, he began to stir.

"Liar!" Mantis punctuated the second snap with a shove, one that Peter was too stunned to dodge, and he stumbled back a few steps before Nebula intervened.

"Hey!" The cyborg stepped between the siblings, arms raised to keep them apart. "Mantis, what the hell is going on?"

Mantis and Peter shared a look, the former fiery and the latter confused, but before either of them could get a word out, footsteps sounded from the edge of the bridge, and Peter turned to find Gamora standing in the doorway, brow furrowed.

"Is everything okay in—"

She was cut off as Mantis rushed towards her, shoving her out of the doorway before punching a button on the wall to keep her out for good.

"Hey!" Gamora rapped at the door, her voice muffled by the sudden barrier between her and the others. "What the—"

"Go away!" Mantis slammed a fist into the door's fiberglass pane, and Gamora flinched back. "You're not a part of this!"

Peter was tempted to intervene, to tell Mantis to calm down, to go after Gamora and invite her back in, but all he could do was stand back and watch as the green woman considered the closed door a moment longer before storming away.

Though, if their conversation was headed where he thought it was headed, maybe her absence was for the best.

"Mantis!" Nebula pulled her teammate away from the door. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Have you lost yours?" Mantis threw her hand off. "She's not one of us. We don't know that woman! She doesn't care about us!" Her gaze landed on Peter. "But that I guess that doesn't matter to some people."

The accusation was followed by a stark silence, and Nebula regarded Peter for a moment before turning back to her other teammate. "Mantis...what are you talking about?"

"Ask him." Mantis pointed an accusing finger at Peter as her voice wavered. "Ask him about the deal he made with Fallon, and how she promised to help him fix things with Gamora, and how he invited our enemy onboard just so he could get back with his stupid not-girlfriend!"

For a moment, Nebula didn't move, didn't blink, didn't breathe. And then, she turned, the confused furrow in her brow morphing to one of anger as her gaze fell upon Peter.

"You son of a—"

...

"Well." Fallon folded her arms over her chest as she leaned back against the couch. "I've got to hand it to you, this is a very creative way of destroying the Guardians."

Adam winced at her words, and the feeling only worsened when the distant shouting picked up again. "I didn't mean it that way."

One moment, he'd been with Mantis, finding an odd sense of comfort in having his feelings so deeply understood by another, and the next, he'd been alone, left to find his way back to the common room in a daze as the bug woman went on a frenzied hunt for Peter.