cassandra's head still hurt.
as peter quickly veneered the ship through the thick clouds of smoke that were completely encapsulating the surface of the planet, she was in the washroom, wiping a cloth along the patch of skin underneath her nostril. her top lip was stained a soft red from the blood and the towel was thick and scratching against tender skin. once she was done, she looked at herself in the mirror and thoughtfully frowned at the sight staring back. her top set of teeth were stained bloody, and she looked like shit.
she set the towel aside, pushing her fingers in her hair and pushing it back, a sigh escaping past her lips. what a fucking day. she jumped at the sound of her dad and gamora's heavy footsteps passing down the hall. she quickly made her way out the bathroom and moved to join them in the medbay with rocket.
gamora connected the computer to rocket's system (just more wires.)
peter mumbled to himself, hurriedly, staring down at rocket's body as he connected more wires to his chest. cassandra watched from just next to him, chest tight, praying for something. some sort of reaction. a witty comeback, maybe, or a rude remark. she was beginning to miss that.
the screen whirred as groot made his way next to cassandra. peter glanced up at the screen as it chimed, breaths small and hitched. "alright, rocket, c'mon. go." he whispered, as if he was telling him time to get up. come on. stop scaring us. stop scaring me.
cassandra's gaze fixed on the screen, which kept whirring with a soft buzz emanating from it. the text started slowing, and cassandra's brows furrowed. gamora's gaze met hers, and she trailed it to the screen, turning to glance at it, scanning a finger over it.
".. this isn't right."
"no, no, no. it's good. it's gonna work. it's working." cassandra hummed unsurely at the thought that maybe peter was just trying to convince himself– even though she wanted to bury that thought as deep as she could possibly bury it. rocket would be fine. good. amazing, even.
"it needs to be faster."
cassandra looked down at rocket. manual breaths rocked his chest unsteady and rough, and cassandra couldn't bring herself to say anything as she stared at the unusual pattern. deep inhale, deep exhale. pull your entire self in, push your entire self out. again. she wasn't sure how much her words would help anyway.
a soft ringing started. cassandra and peter both glanced back, rocket's chest highlighted red on the screen as a heavy tremble shook his body, and peter quickly turned back to him. "no, no, no.." he mumbled, placing his hand under rocket's head. "no!" he yelled out, desperately, beginning to try to compress his chest. cassandra sighed. "dad.."
"come on!" he grunted, still desperately trying to revive rocket, and his pained grunts were beginning to cut through the sharp yet low ringing from the monitor. cassandra's eyes crinkled slightly as tears began pooling at the lids, before she blinked and a few narrowly escaped, rushing down her cheeks, which were hot from stress. a tear pooled at her bottom lip. she could taste salt burning her bruise-bitten lip.
"no!" he shouted out, before trembling another breath and screaming again. cassandra reached and placed the back of her hand over her lips, a sob rocking it's way out of her chest and escaping hoarsely from her throat.
"quill–"
"no!"
"quill."
peter desperately glanced back at the monitor, looking for something. he pulled wires from rocket's chest. "i'm not gonna lose him."
"he's gone." a gag and a sob mixed in cassandra's throat and escaped out of her chest, making her chest tremble as she coughed it out with her tears.
"i'm not letting him go!" peter shouted, before going back to desperately pushing down on rocket's chest, compressing it. cassandra let out another sob as branches landed on her shoulder. groot did nothing more than that, and he didn't need to. it was his way of showing support, when he probably had it much worse than cassandra in the moment.
suddenly– after an agonizing minute of peter's thick breaths and tear-less sobs mixing with the sharp ringing from the monitor that just kept screaming– a sharp gasp emitted from rocket and his eyes shot open. the text on the screen started whirring faster, and cassandra sharply inhaled, chest tightening. "the passkey's going through."
gamora turned and grabbed a pack, ripping open the bag and pulling the pack itself out, before placing it over rocket's chest and activating it. she moved at such a speed, that cassandra was beginning to believe that gamora had begun to care just as much as they did in the moment– even if she didn't know him, he still had a life, he was worthy of keeping that, gamora recognized that, and that enough proved that gamora, this gamora, was worthy of compassion. she was worthy of all the tender emotions and bittersweet feelings that the gamora they knew had worn on her sleeve, on her smile, in her hair, in her eyes.
peter pulled the oxygen mask from rocket's snout, him and cassandra both staring intensely down at rocket. soft breaths, struggled breaths, escaped rocket, and cassandra let out a sob– one that was both swimming in grief, but absolutely drowning in unbridled, overwhelming joy. he was okay.
peter laid a hand on rocket's chest. rocket looked up at him with those beady, tiny eyes. ".. quill?"
peter let out a sigh of relief, letting his arm gently rest on rocket's chest as he leaned forward and embraced rocket, and cassandra leaned forward, and she wrapped an arm around rocket's shoulder, letting her hand rest on his upper back. it felt nice to feel his fur under her fingers. groot leaned forward and joined the embrace.
".. where's nebula?" rocket asked as the three of them pulled away from him, even though none of them wanted to. if it was up to cassandra, she would've hugged him until he popped.
peter breathed. "she's.."
"because her code is on the comm behind you."
with that, peter, groot, and cassandra all slowly turned to look, and sure enough, nebula's code was flashing, accompanied by rhythmic beeping. "what?" peter whispered to himself, reaching up and pressing down. "nebula?"
"where are you!?" her voice suddenly emitted, and cassandra sighed to herself. "thank god!" her dad sighed, walking to the front of the table.
"we're here to get you out of here."
"out of where?" peter asked, breathlessly, groot following behind him slowly.
"out of the high evolutionary's ship."
"no, i got off the ship."
"wait," cassandra's brows furrowed. "so they're on the ship?"
"what!?" nebula huffed from the other end, and peter glanced back at cassandra, a look of confusion on his expression from her statement. ".. i don't know, are they?" he whispered to her, and cassandra shrugged. "where are you?" he asked.
"on the ship!"
"on the ship!? why are you on the ship!?"
"to save you, obviously."
"no, i told you to go back! you gotta know by now that i always figure out an incredibly clever way to fix it!" which cassandra gasped at, considering it was her who jumped out the fucking ship and nearly killed herself– for rocket.
peter glanced over at her. "actually– it was cass that time. besides the point." cassandra rolled her eyes and flashed her dad her fuck-you finger, middle finger, and peter chuckled to himself.
"– pay attention or play with the kids. one or the other."
gamora hummed. "play with the kids?"
"how did you get out?" mantis asked.
"that's not really important–"
"i am groot." cassandra jumped a thousand feet to her death and killed a guy. it was freaky.
"jumping a thousand feet to your death without a parachute and killing somebody is a clever way of fixing it?"
peter shrugged with a sigh. "i didn't tell her to do it– i think she had a mental break, it was scary."
".. you're all just making up stuff he was saying, right?"
rocket hummed from his seat. "the important thing is, we're all okay." which was right– so right, and cassandra smiled at rocket, who nodded back, a small chuckle escaping him and rocking his chest, which was probably still weak.
".. rocket?" nebula's voice was soft, almost weak. which was unusual, considering nebula was usually the loudest– no, strongest, in the room. she was never weak, or unguarded. the wall she had built around her, viciously continuing to place stones until her hands were grimy and bloody, had never unwavered. sometimes she removed a stone, peaked through and spoke, but usually the stone would be very quickly replaced. sometimes cassandra and rocket both tried to remove stones, both tried to take a few and toss them, telling nebula that she can't make hersel hurt forever. it won't validate what she went through anymore than every part of her that has been replaced.
"yeah," peter nodded. "he's here, and he's okay."
"rocket.." mantis started. "we love you very much, and we're happy you're okay."
cassandra knew that mantis– her aunt, always knew what was technically the right thing to be said. she could always figure out what needed to be said for everything to fall into place, even if it wasn't what they exactly wanted to hear. she had done it to both cassandra and peter before, alot. that caused peter and rocket and nebula to all stray away from talking to mantis sometimes, afraid they were going to hear something they didn't want to hear– cassandra always appreciated her words. it was the fact that mantis is her aunt and peter would always somehow hear that made venting to her awkward. cassandra hoped that them saving him from a near-death experience would teach him a little bit about appreciation.
"well, that makes you the idiots then." she wasn't surprised.
"he's right about that."
suddenly– heavy breaths rocked rocket's chest and his beady eyes darted around the room, almost like he was panicking, scanning the room for escape? maybe it was just an internal reaction, making sure there was no threat physically present in the room. a paw slowly raised to his chest and rested upon it.
"back in your cages!" a man barked from the other end, and then the muffled sounds of what seemed to be children screaming of some sort of mix of thrill and fear filled the background. cassandra could recognize that voice– the high evolutionary.
a loud blast erupted from the other end, and peter glanced over at rocket, and then his gaze shifted to cassandra. "nebula?"
gamora, groot, and cassandra all walked forward. cassandra peered over peter's shoulder, a hand resting on it. "nebula, come in!"
a quick breath murmured before a voice rose. "so, you'd like to joust, would you?" cassandra, again, couldn't help but wonder what was under the mask– what was so bad that the high evolutionary felt the need to conceal flesh over it, as if the uncanny nature was any better than whatever horror may have been lurking just beneath.
peter and cassandra both glanced over at rocket, who's ears were perked like an alert dog. "go to hell, you sick son of a bitch." peter breathed before continuing, and cassandra knew better than to stop him, even though she knew it wasn't exactly smart. "you killed all those people."
"as i will your friends." cassandra had to compliment the swiftness of the comeback– had he planned peter to say something in that order? had he been that careful, cunning? cassandra knew they were dealing with a larger-than-them threat– and she was mostly sure they would come out victorious, because somehow they always did, and despite dealing with her own grandfather who wanted to place cassandra and peter alongside him to rule the universe, and a weird-looking, purple alien who wore the power to destroy the entire multiverse on his knuckles, this somehow felt more threatening.
he knew exactly what to say. exactly what would affect each, and every, one of them. being able to reach a hand that deep into one's chest, and take grab of their heart like that, was something that did, truly, intimidate cassandra. it intimidated all of them, in their own ways.
"i'm sending you the coordinates." gamora placed her hands on her hips, now just as invested as the others. "they will die unless you bring me what is mine!"
cassandra couldn't help but think what a whiny bitch.
peter seethed at that. he had that look on his face, that look when something had gotten him particularly. he had only ever worn that expression a few times. one time was when he had the kill his own father– to protect the universe, though in that moment, he only saw his daughter.
he wasn't going to respond well to this.
"screw you, you stretch-faced, robo-cop looking, skeletor-wannabe, purple-nurple piece of shit!" the high evolutionary had ended the call by then.
".. he hung up."
"what a dick." cassandra murmured, and peter nodded in agreement.
gamora hummed. "yeah, you think?"
ஓ๑♡๑ஓ
𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓 ; 2206
thank you sm for reading! sorry if this chapter seemed like not alot happened beside rocket becoming revived(yayayay!!!) but honestly the word count was going up quick I was surprised lol. anyway thank you sm for reading and any support/appreciation is appreciated!!