Past Friends

Part 162: Home Again

"Darius, please would you fetch the Chancellors for me, I need to speak with them immediately", you called over to one of the guards by the door, telling him it was important and to have them meet you here. You then turned back to your lady-in-waiting who followed you pretty much everywhere until you went home, asking her to take your personal guards to fetch Terra and Skylar. You then went over to the office area to speak with Agrippa, head of Transport and Shipments to see what cargo ships were leaving today, to find out if any would go by Earth on their route. You found out there would be one ship leaving in just over an hour, luckily heading off in the direction you needed and you took a moment to catch your breath, informing Agrippa that there would be a ship added to the manifest, along with you, Terra, Skylar, Nebula, and Rocket. You turned back to Rocket and Nebula, informing them that they'll need to get their ship over to hanger 3, as they would be taking the Cargo Ship Colossus to a Jumpgate that would take them near Nexis 4, and it would be less than a few hours to Earth from there if your math was right. 

With the help of the recovering Nova Corp, you had several Jumpgates installed, they would take you to different places across the universe so you could get supplies where they needed to go in a fraction of the time it would take just to fly through space. They were well guarded obviously, and to use them you needed a special permit, but seeing as you owned them it wouldn't be a problem for you, although it would be best not to arouse suspicion, so it was best just to use a Cargo Ship to get through, as it wasn't an uncommon practice for smaller ships to get around this way. You figured it would be best for you to be seen leaving on one of your own ships and not a stranger's vessel, as you didn't want to scare the people, as setting off panic would be very bad. 

You then went back over to the entrance to see your Chancellors waiting for you, and they all seemed a little nervous as you had never summoned them so suddenly before, they were worried something terrible had happened. You came over to immediately address them, informing them that you were leaving for your homeworld at once as there was a family emergency, and time was of the essence. "You'll be in charge until I return, and I shouldn't be gone for more than a few weeks, postpone any and all major decisions until I get back", you state very seriously, but not in a way that displayed how you were really feeling. You were all over the place emotionally, scared, hopeful, nervous, excited, you were completely overwhelmed for the first time in a while, sure you would stress about this and that but this was different. Although you weren't used to being the queen of an Empire you adjusted to the job rather easily, as you were good at adapting to new situations making you an ideal leader. 

After speaking with your Chancellors you headed back over to Rocket and Nebula, telling them you were just going to grab a few things for the trip and you shouldn't be more than 45 minutes, you'd meet them at the Hanger, having Darius escort them to their ship and Hanger 3. You then stepped out of the building summoned your fire wings and took off towards your house, to quickly pack some clothes for your children, doubting you would have any time to shop once you got to Earth. You double-checked to make sure you had at least three sets of outfits, their favourite toys, their favourite snacks and a few things for you, not that you had to worry about it too much as all your stuff was probably still at the Avenger's Compound. You then summoned your Firestar uniform, so happy that it still fit as part of you thought it wouldn't as you did give birth and you hadn't been working out quite as much as you used to. You grabbed all the bags and flew off back to your lady-in-waiting to get your children and head off to Hanger 3, to meet Rocket and Nebula quickly boarding the Cargo Ship Colossus. 

"What are those?" Nebula asked, and you raised an eyebrow at her, before bluntly stating, "these are my children," giving her a somewhat cold expression as your nervous 4-year-olds clung to your legs, they had never been off-planet before. "Loki nor Thor never mentioned you were expecting," Rocket said in his usual gruff sort of manner, and you told him they didn't know, you didn't find out yourself until after everything went down. "I'm sorry," Rocket apologized, but you told him not to worry about it, "I'll tell him myself, cause we're going to get them back, we're going to get them all back". Terra and Skylar then surprised you, letting out an audible gasp each, as they noticed Rocket, both of them wanting to play with the cute fluffy raccoon. "My darlings, I know he looks like a raccoon but I assure you he is not, nor a puppy, or a toy", you calmly shout while grabbing them one arm in each hand as you march them over to the room they would be staying in for the next few hours until they reached the Jumpgate.

You walked with them to your private quarters, as each of your ships had an apartment just for you, in case you needed to go with them for one reason or another. You told Nebula and Rocket to get comfortable, they were welcome to raid the mini kitchen as you asked your lady-in-waiting to have it stocked before you departed, so they both grabbed a drink and took a seat in the lounge area. You led your children into the bedroom, getting them to sit on the bed and put on their headphones to listen to some Louis Armstrong along with other classic Jazz. You then set up their favourite activity being an RPG, Dungeons & Dragons type game where they would have to answer math and spelling questions to complete actions, in order to save the princess from the Evil Spider King and Thunder Warrior, with the help of the brave Prince of Mischief, and hero characters of their choosing, each one being a medieval version of every Avenger. It was an interactive hologram game you made, and your children loved playing it, and oddly enough their favourite characters to play were Wanda the Witch and Pietro the Centar, seeing as in real-life they were twins too. 

 You came back into the other room to grab your kids a snack as they would usually have one at about this time at school so you decided to make them one, having all the necessary ingredients to make fruity egg muffins. You offered to make something for Nebula and Rocket but they declined, Rocket even mentioned you were probably the weirdest royal he had ever encountered, but you just smiled, understanding exactly what he meant. You got Skylar and Terra their snacks, cleaned up after them, got them to practice their magic and put them down to take a nap, and you had finally just come back in to sit and relax for a moment when there came a knock. You groaned as you got up to go open the door and there stood a guard, who was there to let you know they would be arriving at the Jumpgate in less than an hour and to get ready for departure. 

The guard carried your bags while you carried your sleeping children onto Rocket's ship, and you buckled them in before storing your bags and sitting down across from them, feeling rather worried. You hadn't seen them in so long, you hoped they wouldn't be angry at you for staying away, you hoped they would forgive you and hoped that they'd all give you a big hug. It wasn't long until you passed through the Jumpgate, and took off from the Colossus, heading back to Earth and luckily your kids slept through the entire flight, as practicing with their magic made them very tired. It wasn't long until you saw that familiar blue dot slowly coming into view and before you knew it you saw the Avenger's Compound, truly a sight for sore eyes.