What Could of Been

PART TWO - the aftermath

The King Of Rock 'N Roll, by Prefab Sprout was playing on in the background of Nebula and Peter working on the ship. The two had bonded over the week they had been stuck together. They learnt all about each other. At first, it was awkward. They sat in silence and did their own thing, but while Peter was returning energy to a third of the ship that was broken, all the small electronics came back to life, including Quills stereo which automatically started playing music. Nebula heard Come And Get Your Love playing loudly from one of the rooms so she walked closer and closer before seeing Peter dancing around happily- the first time she had seen him genuinely smile and it reminded her of Quill. The two spent the next 9 hours talking about their favourite memories; Peter talked about helping Tony fight captain America, how he saved his classmates, and how his Aunt found out he was Spiderman. Nebula talked about her father, Thanos, when she used to try kill her sister, and when she and her sister finally made up.

Ever since, they kept fixing the ship with music on in the background and occasionally worked with happy faces. Peter can deal with not eating much, his super strength helps him fight extreme hunger, but he was getting worried as they were about to run out of their rations, even with eating so little.

They had restored most of the ship, but without going outside to fix it externally, the engine was completely broken and they were just floating around space, occasionally sending out distress signals but they had no clue where they were, and the GPS couldn't track the dead engine.

On day 10, the lights were starting to flicker and what little heat they had was running out and slowly stopping. Peter could account for the lack of food, but not the lack of heat. He kept wearing his iron-spider suit, Tony had put a heater in there, but When Thanos had stabbed him the suit had broke, and after the whole fight there was barley any suit left to heat him up enough. Nebula was fine, she didn't need to rely on food, although she ate if something tasted good, and the lack of heat didn't effect her. Sadly, the only thing that would truly kill her would be loneliness, which she was starting to accept by day 14.

Day 16...Peter was sluggishly walking around when he felt a sharp pain to his stomach. Was that what starvation felt like? He kept on walking before he suddenly fainted. Nebula, being right there, caught him before he hit the ground. She sat him upright in the captain's chair and put out a table In front of him in case he fell forward...but she was worried this would be his last day. Space was terrifying to look at. Sure, when it was an idea it was beautiful, but when it's all that surrounds you it seems like you might as well be dead. Peter's eyes opened to see space...still. He didn't know how long he had passed out for, but some part of him knew that he couldn't go for much longer. Nebula saw him move and came right over. "Nebula?" He croaked out. Nebula didn't let him stand up, she kept her hand laying on his shoulder to stop him. Whilst trying to find the words, Peter pointed to Quills pad of paper from afar, and the pencil next to it.

Nebula sat the paper and pens next to him on the table. As Peter was reaching for the paper, Nebula grabbed his hand and looked at him. Peter looked bad, his skin was pale, his eyes were red, his hands was cold. She relaxed her face and gave the same smile Tony did before he died, hoping Peter would understand he wont make it any longer than he had. Peter gave the same face back- he understood. "I just want to write a letter," he said nodding his head. Nebula didn't want to watch when Peters heart stopped, so she slowly came in for a side hug and awkwardly stood there. She obviously wasn't overly familiar with the concept of a hug, but she knew she had to try for one in this moment. They shared one last look before Nebula wiped her cheek free of tears and left, leaving Peter to look out to space and write. With only one piece of paper, he had to combine all his letters into one although he wanted to do individual ones. His hand writing wasn't the neatest, but Peter tried his best and put his thoughts to words.