Guardians of the Galaxy [1]

3

Astra woke to the sound of her cell door opening, and before she could process what was happening, she was dragged onto her feet with a knife held to her throat. She could feel herself being held up by prisoners, the ones who had shouted at her the loudest when she'd first arrived. She tried to wriggle out of their grasps, but they were too strong for her and the knife at her throat made a tiny slit.

"Take them down to the showers. It'll be easier to clean up the blood down there," said a voice as her captors met up with more prisoners. They were supporting Gamora, who was in the same state of Astra. Then the two sisters were both dragged down to the showers and pushed against a wall.

"Gamora, Astra," a prisoner said, "consider this a death sentence for your crimes against the galaxy."

"You dare?!" said a deep voice.

The prisoners turned around to face a big, bald, muscular man with grey skin and red tattoos all over his face, chest, and arms.

"You know who I am, yes?" said the man.

"You're Drax. The Destroyer," said the prisoner who had threatened Astra earlier.

"And you know why they call me this," said Drax.

"You slayed dozens of Ronan's minions," said the prisoner.

"Ronan murdered my wife, Ovette, and my daughter, Camaria," said Drax vengefully. "He slaughtered them where they stood. And he laughed!" He yelled the last sentence. "Their lives are not yours to take. He killed my family. I shall kill two of his in return."

Astra inwardly groaned. Here we go again. More death threats.

"Of course, Drax," said the first prisoner. "Here-"

As he handed Drax his knife, Gamora and Astra exchanged a glance, grabbed the knives out of the prisoners' hands, kicked them, and stabbed one prisoner each. Astra now held a knife against the first prisoner's throat, while Gamora had one at Drax's throat.

"I'm no family to Ronan or Thanos," Gamora seethed. "I'm your only hope of stopping him." Then she dropped her knife and it clattered on the floor.

Drax yelled, pushed Gamora against the wall, and held a new knife to her throat. He began to choke her with his other hand.

"Woman, your words mean nothing to me!" he snarled in her face.

Astra kicked away the prisoner who'd had her at knifepoint and backed away, not wanting to get involved.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey, hey!" shouted a familiar voice. Quill rushed into the shower room, and Astra could see Rocket facepalming at the entrance.

"You know, if killing Ronan is truly your sole purpose, I don't think this is the best way to go about it," said Quill quickly.

"Are you not the man these wrenches attempted to kill?" Drax growled.

"Well, I mean, they're hardly the first two women who tried to do that." Quill pointed to the scars he had on his chest. "Look, this is from a smoking hot Rajak girl. Stabbed me with a fork. Didn't like me skipping out on her at sunrise." He pulled down his shirt collar. "Right here, a Kree girl tried to rip out my thorax. She caught me with this skinny little A'askavariian who worked in Nova Records. I was trying to get information. You ever seen an A'askavariian? They have tentacles, and needles for teeth. You think I'm seriously interested in that, then-" He stopped as Drax turned his glare to him.

"Okay, no one cares. But here's the point. They betrayed Ronan. He's coming back for them. And when he does, that's when you-" He slid his finger across his throat.

"Why would I put my finger on his throat?" Drax asked.

Astra facepalmed. This man did not understand modern language at all. And by the looks of it, she was older than him!

"Oh, no, it's a symbol for you slicing his throat." Quill slid his finger across his throat again.

"I would not slice his throat," said Drax. "I would cut his head clean off."

Astra and Quill exchanged exasperated looks.

"It's a general expression for you killing somebody. You've heard of this," Quill said impatiently. He turned to the other prisoner still standing and slit his finger across his throat. "You've seen this, right? You know what that is?"

"Yeah, yeah," said the prisoner, clearly taken aback by his tone.

Drax looked like he still did not understand.

Quill sighed and pointed to Astra. "Do whatever you want with her. I don't care about her." Then he pointed back to Gamora. "But what I'm saying is, you want to keep her alive. Don't do his work for him."

Drax looked at Quill, then back at Gamora, and then he finally let go. She fell to the floor, coughing.

Then he looked at Astra and walked towards her. She was ready. As he approached her fast, she spun and sent a powerful kick square into his stomach. As Drax stumbled back and groaned, she crossed her arms. "That's what you get."

Drax groaned and stood up. "I like your knife. I'm keeping it," he said to the other prisoner, picking up the knife, and then he left.

"That was my favourite knife..."

"Listen! I could care less whether you live or whether you both die." Quill followed Astra and Gamora in the direction of their cell.

"Then why stop the big guy?" Gamora turned around to face him.

"Simple. You both know where to sell my Orb."

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but leave me out of this." Astra pushed past them and began to leave.

Gamora grabbed her wrist. "Screw you, Astra. For once, just hear us out." She turned back to Quill. "How are we gonna sell it when we - and it - are still here?" she asked.

"My friend Rocket here-" Quill looked at Rocket- "has escaped twenty-two prisons. Without killing anyone."

"Oh, we're getting out," Rocket agreed. "And then we're heading straight to Yondu to retrieve your bounty."

Astra glanced at Gamora. "Let me guess. In your agreement, your buyer was willing to pay you for the Orb much more than the Yondu guy, right? How much?"

"Four billion units."

"What?!" Rocket exclaimed.

"Holy shit," said Quill, impressed.

"That's actually pretty impressive!" said Astra softly.

"That Orb is my opportunity to get away from Thanos and Ronan," Gamora went on. "If you free us-" she looked at Rocket- "I'll lead you to the buyer directly and I'll split the profit between the four of us."

"I am Groot."

"Five of us," Rocket translated, annoyed. "Asleep for the danger, awake for the money, as per frickin' usual."

***

"What exactly makes you want to get away from Thanos and Ronan?" Astra demanded as she and Gamora walked back to their cells. "You're Father's golden child. You've got everything you could possibly want. What makes you so spoiled that you must find every possible way to please him and steal every once of love he has to offer?"

"I'm not being spoiled." Gamora turned around to face Astra. "I'm being sensible. Look at yourself. You're blindly following Thanos and Ronan into the most treacherous thing they've planned. The Orb contains something extremely powerful. It's got much more power than any of us could contain. And if Ronan gets what he wants, he wipes out Xandar and puts the whole galaxy at risk. Is that what you want?"

Astra took a few moments to let Gamora's words sink in. The woman wasn't wrong.

"Thought so. I'll let you sleep on it." Gamora walked away. "Tomorrow, either help us escape and sell the Orb, or don't help us and go back to Ronan without the Orb. Your call."