Nebula (Andromache×fem!OC)

VI

"...Don't stop, Nebula."

"What?"

"Keep going. More... Please."

"Oh!" She felt so happy Andy wanted to hear more of her rambling, not noticing the way the older woman was gazing at her as she spoke. "We could still meet for the first time through your friend. The Livre... Umm... Book guy? You wouldn't have to find me because I'd come to you. Or maybe you'd come collect me? Fuck, that would be hot - I mean - sorry. Uhm, anyway, by getting these little pieces of each other's memories, we'd be even closer than we are right now, no? Do you feel we are close like I do? Does any of this make sense to you?"

"I haven't let anyone other than my team get this close in centuries but now, there's you. You and I might not share the mind link that broadcasts our memories but Nebula, it's even worse in this way because I... I willingly want to share it all with you. Every last piece. I want to know what you will do with it, how you will feel, whether you will cry for me or run away. I want your comfort and your presence and I can't... I can hardly believe how insane you've made me. Does that answer your question?"

"...Do you think it's true in some alternate reality? That I'm one of you and we could stay side by side forever? That I could be a part of your family?"

"Perhaps. We were all fighters before we ever met each other. But perhaps you could be our medic?"

"The healer in the party. An important role in video games. Not so much as the fighters, though so maybe it's for the best that I'm not among you," Nebula said with a soft, almost bitter laugh. "Also, idiot, you guys don't need healing! Wouldn't want to slow down the team. I'd be honored to be an immortal if the only reason was to I look after your injuries and yours alone, Andromeda. Take care of you personally since you don't know how to care for yourself like you should. I'd make sure you stayed with us forever- oh! And anyone else that lost their ability, of course. You're not... You know... Special or anything."

"Oh? Well. I suppose I wouldn't mind shooting you a couple of times so I'm on board with this idea." They shared a brief laugh. Nebula couldn't tell what emotions lay behind it, only that it wasn't exactly a happy one.

"How does it feel, by the way? To be vulnerable to injury and death when you'd never been before?"

"I... Had never before experienced the prolonged pain of a bullet or stab wound. How it can last so long, even with pain medicine, till it fades away. The pain once came and went so quickly but now, I really am risking my life during missions. I never thought about death after being alive centuries until I witnessed another immortal die. That was when I began to worry, not for myself but the person I loved. As it turns out, there wasn't a need to try to predict things or prepare myself for that outcome. I lost her in a much more horrific way than something as simple and quick as a death."

"Her? I... I mean... Sorry. I didn't know."

"You haven't offended me. I have no need for your apologies. There's a lot you don't know about me. What you should know is that I've lived too many lives to be scared of death, anymore. It's not the experience or what may come after that bother me. I made peace with the uncertainty long ago, wondering every time I was put down if that would be my last moment alive. It's who and what I'll leave behind that matters more. I've done many things I'm not proud of. Killed people who didn't deserve it because it seemed right at the time. If life were fair and just, I should have been condemned to execution a long time ago but I'd say a life as long as mine is a worse punishment than the end. Cheating death takes a toll; one I've paid it too many times..."

"A little longer, And? For me? I'd like to have you give me that cool stare of yours for some time to come before I have to leave."

"Planning an escape, little raven?"