LEENA SLAMMED HER palms against the console of her ship, her eyes squeezing shut as she leaned back against the rickety chair that squeaked under her weight. She was trying to shake away the lost expression that stained the Solider's face. It was impossible to bring everyone back.

Unless — No!

It wasn't even worth wasting a second thinking about, or even believing there being a fraction of hope.

There was none.

She grabbed at her chest, feeling an uncomfortable sensation that made her heart skip a few beats before the blood began pounding in her ears. Leena groaned as she tightened her hold on her shirt, and stomped her boots against the ground to force away the images that smothered her.

Her mind began flashing with floating ash.

Children were screaming for their parents.

Parents were screaming for their children.

Panic settled over every single face that she made eye contact with, hands grabbing at thin air as their loved ones body disintegrated with a single touch. Leena, in her confused state, had even reached her hands out to catch a young girl, screaming for someone to help her as tears streamed down her face, only for her to fall through Leena's fingers like sand.

Crashes resounded from up above her, the whipping propellers of a helicopter that sliced through the air suddenly cut through the windows of a fifty storey high building. Agonising screams came to a sudden halt as everyone stared at the building. A moment later it crashed in on itself. The smoke of the rubble filling their lungs as everyone began sprinting away from the collapsing building.

Leena felt frozen. Her entire body frozen with an unknown feeling. A feeling she had never felt before and one she never wished to feel again. But it consumed her whole.

She noticed a young boy standing by the building, frozen, just like her. Leena forced her legs to move, and before she knew it, she was picking the young boy up in her arms while the thick fog surrounded them. Covering the boys head with her hands, she felt prickles of glass fall into her hair, scratching her face.

The boy sniffled and cried away in her arms once they escaped the choking smoke, Leena felt her eyes prickle and her throat clench.

"Andrew?" The boy's teary green eyes shot around him, "Andrew!"

Suddenly a plump woman, covered in dirt and red stains across her clothes, ran towards Leena. The boy wriggled in her arms, so she set him down and watched him run towards her. The woman gripped him tightly in her arms and offered Leena a small, watery smile, "thank you," she breathed out in relief.

But Leena couldn't accept her thank you. She didn't deserve the woman's appreciation. And as she turned to look over the destruction that Thanos and her had caused, a tear trailed down her bloodied cheek.

Leena jumped at the sudden bang from the door of her ship. She opened her eyes and only to clench her fists, awaiting an attack. She quickly grabbed ahold of her swords and made her way towards the door, she glanced at the monitor beside it only to roll her eyes in annoyance, and drop her arms down beside her as her shoulders loosened.

Smacking her hand against the keypad, the door slid wide open to reveal Nebula. Leena barely glanced at her sister, she was shifting her eyes around the empty field of Droag before moving back inside towards her chair while Nebula stepped foot inside of her ship.

"Whose ship did you steal?" Nebula queried, her hand grazing over a red leather jacket that was three times the size of her sister. "A Ravager's?"

Leena threw a look over her shoulder, "he disappeared in the Snap. The ship won't be missed."

"How do you know he disappeared?" Nebula asked, her mechanic voice reaching a pitch higher in question. "Did you not just kill him?"

"Because I had to sweep away his ashes." Leena said shortly, turning her attention to the monitor in front of her, she logged into the GPS and watched as the nearest planets loaded up on her screen in small, orange dots. "What do you want?"

"To talk."

"We don't talk."

Nebula tapped her fingers against the wall of the ship, "Gamora is dead."

Leena paused. Her finger hovering over the coordinates of the Planet Lark. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, forcing away the irritable sensation in her chest and the burning in her eyes.

"I know," Leena sniped. She opened her eyes and began typing in the coordinates once again.

"Gamora is dead." Nebula repeated, her tone thickening. "And half the Universe is gone. We helped him do this, we helped him find the Stones, we have to now help them get everyone back."

"Why do you care?" Leena asked coldly, turning in her seat with her brows furrowing together. "You never cared about people. Thanos ripped away any shred of humanity from you and replaced it with mechanical parts. Why do you suddenly feel for people?"

Nebula tensed as her face hardened. Her shoulders straightened while her fingers carefully grazed against her waistband where her blaster comfortably sat. "He killed Gamora and she felt. She felt everything." Nebula's mechanical hand clenched, "I have been searching for my humanity for the last few years and she showed me what it means to feel something other than anger. She created her own family and now half of them are gone. I owe it to her to bring them back."

Leena pursed her lips, staring at Nebula with an impassive expression, but it weakened as she turned her gaze away.

"You still want him dead," Leena murmured, lifting her glistening brown eyes back up to meet hers. "You want to kill Thanos."

Nebula remained silent, confirming Leena's assumption. An uncomfortable feeling settled in Leena.

"He can't be killed, Nebula. He's too powerful. Even without the stones you wouldn't have a chance, and with the stones, he's damn near immortal. You failed the first time and you will fail again."

"And what of bringing everyone back?"

"We can't!"

"Thanos never taught us to lie, Leena," Nebula said, her black eyes glaring.

Leena shook her head, an agitated look crossed her face. "It's impossible! Firstly, no one would be able to handle the power of all six Infinity Stones, it would kill them, and it's not as easy as snapping your own fingers. There are consequences for playing God." Leena's foot tapped against the ground, she could barely conceal her irritation, "if snapping your own fingers was the plan, how do you expect to even retrieve the stones from Thanos? He would kill you all before you even glanced upon the Stones."

"If we offer you up to him, we might have a chance," Nebula mumbled, she attempted a smile when Leena looked at her with wide eyes, her irritation momentarily disappearing and replaced with utter perplexity.

"Was that a joke?" Leena asked in confusion, "and what the hell are you doing with your mouth? That's not a smile, that's just downright terrifying."

Nebula rolled her eyes. Her terrifying smile dropped into a straight line. "The point is, we'll figure it out."

"I can't feel them Nebula," Leena insisted. Her face dropping as she stared at her hands, stained grey from the fingertips up to the dried blood in her palms.

"Just because you can't feel them, doesn't mean there isn't a chance of bringing them back." Nebula pressed, "your power might not stretch this far."

Leena turned away from her, biting down on the inside of her cheek.

"Which I know seems like a shock to you after being told your whole life depended on being the Saviour," Nebula bit out, her tone shifted venomously after being reminded of Leena being worshipped like a Goddess while Nebula was fed to the dogs. "But we can't give up. Gamora would want to fight, she would want us to fight..."

Leena's mind flashed darkly while Nebula's voice faded into the background of her greying thoughts. Her fingers curled and uncurled. The tapping of her foot increased in speed while her eyes glazed over with a nagging feeling poking at her chest.

Leena shook her head, forcing herself back to reality, and tuned in to Nebula's last few words.

"... The Universe is vast, there must be someone out there that knows what to do."

"We're not exactly the most liked, Nebula, in case you forgot about the countless times you murdered people," Leena snapped, "and the Terrain's, well they're Terrain's. They're useless."

Nebula didn't disagree with Leena's statements. She stared at her for a few moments before asking, "why do you want to help?"

Leena furrowed her brows and shrugged.

"Well you asked me," Nebula's gaze hardened, "now I'm asking you. Where did your humanity come from, sister?"

Leena felt uncomfortable. She turned to face the monitor. "Don't you need to fly those Terrain's home?"

"Thor's taking them back. Kang left through a portal. So, I'm here to talk to you. Where did your humanity come from?"

"I saw them die," Leena said faintly. "When I left —"

"Left?" Nebula asked, a brief flash of confusion in her eyes.

Leena paused. She tilted her head, frowning lightly, as she recalled the memory. The Terrains and Thor had seen her run away.

"I — I left. When our father — when Thanos," she corrected herself, "snapped his fingers, I wasn't there. Thor struck him with an axe and Thanos reached out for me but I had already keyed in another place on Terrain, and I — I left. I ran away."

"That's why he wants you." Nebula said slowly, the cogs in brain working overtime as the missing pieces began to fit themselves together. "I thought you left after he had snapped his fingers. Or that you had done something to perhaps reverse the effects. I didn't know you left before it had even happened."

Leena nodded slowly, a tight feeling in her chest as the memory played over and over in her mind. She had ran away from her destiny. She had ran from Thanos.

"Doctor Strange —"

"Strange?" Nebula cut in, "he told us to find you."

"He told me to run away."

"He told Tony to find you," Nebula whispered under her breath but Leena managed to catch her words. Nebula began pacing up and down the ship, her mouth moving but no words leaving.

"Tony?" Leena asked, standing up. "Where's Tony?" She couldn't help the pinch of relief she felt in her chest after hearing his name, she thought he fell victim to the Snap.

Nebula paused. She glanced over her shoulder and shook her her head solemnly, "he — he didn't make it."

Her stomach flipped with the news. Leena downcast her eyes to her boots. She expected as much but to hear the concrete truth twisted her insides.

"Wait," Leena said, her voice fogging over with questions, "why would he tell Tony to find me? Tony's gone."

Nebula shrugged her shoulders, placing her hands on her hips. "We don't particularly understand what Strange meant. He's dropped all communication with everyone after taking us back to Terrain. No one can find him."

"That makes no sense," Leena said hotly, "he must know something. I ran away from Thanos because Strange told me to, he told me to give Thanos the Time Stone. Why would he do that? Why would he ask you to find me and then disappear?"

"We don't know." Nebula admitted, her metal fingers scratching her forehead, "I think he's dead but the others aren't as accepting of that idea."

"You think Thanos killed him?"

Nebula nodded her head. "Who else?"

"Thanos wouldn't waste his time, he's done what he wanted to do. He's created balance."

"He still wants you," her sister said quietly.

"I betrayed him. I went against everything I was told." Leena offered a sardonic smile, "I betrayed my destiny."

"And now you want to fight against Thanos?" Nebula asked, her lips pulled tightly. "You won't go back to him?"

Leena's meek smile never left her face as she gazed out across the sunset of Droag, the fields burned with reds and oranges, and large black animals with haunting white eyes creeped out from the forrest lines and feasted on the decaying bodies, cracking their bones with their razor sharp fangs.

"I saw my destiny. I watched it with my own eyes as the Universe fell, piece by piece, because of what I helped Thanos to do. Some planets have thrived off Thanos' mania." Leena said softly, her hands twitching. "These planets revel in the fact that they are no longer at war with their own people, hunger has ceased, poverty is thing of the past, and they thank the Universe for wiping out half of its own people."

"But it's not right," Nebula said harshly. "It's not right for Thanos to have that much power."

Leena turned her soft smile onto her sister, "I have also seen the other side to my destiny. I watched a child disappear in my arms. I heard the screams of innocents crying for their family. I travelled the stars and have seen civilisations fall because they cannot function with only half of life, their way of living is now worst than ever before."

"So help us. Help us bring them back. We can make right the wrongs we committed under his control, Leena."

Leena's smile fell from her face, "I have seen both sides to my destiny, sister, and I no longer care for what my destined path holds." She breathed in deeply and stared at her sister with a newfound layer of independence, something she has never experienced in all her life, and it terrified her. "I will stand by you. I will stand by you all."

She choked down the fear the best she could.

"We will bring everyone back."

A few moments passed before Leena mumbled under her breath:

"Maybe."

There was a thump.

"Ow!"

_____
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have you guys seen the falcon and winter soldier? what did you guys think? i'm so excited to see where they go with it! and i hope you enjoyed this chapter too!