FIND THEM

Octavian's glare didn't lessen as the woman the group called 'Mantis' was untying the rope from around his wrists. His wrists were already begging for a release from the coarse material, and Mantis was taking her sweet time undoing the knots. 

"I'm sorry, I can't wrap my head around this." The most human looking of the group raised a hand to his head, as though trying to rub a headache away. He dropped the hand almost immediately, the hand going to rest again on his hip. "You're from a different reality, and you've come here to help us?" 

Octavian clenched his jaw. This man was being way too thick headed for his liking. "Your dumb ass is friends with a talking raccoon and a teenage tree, and you're finding the idea of another reality difficult?"

"Well... yeah." 

"Excuse Quill, he lacks the brain cells to barely function." The raccoon sassed. Octavian's eyebrows shot up to his hairline, a tiny smirk crawling it's way onto his face. This animal had more personality than most people he knew. 

"Oh yeah? At least I can reach the top shelf!" The man argued, attention completely removed from the siblings. Octavian rolled his eyes at their antics, exchanging yet another look with his sister. She had a small smile on her face, her eyes unfocused. 

Octavian leaned over towards Messalina as far as his restraints would allow, Mantis still fumbling with the material. "Are you okay? You haven't seemed yourself since that chick did her voodoo on you." 

Messalina blinked, the smile getting bigger on her face. "Don't they remind you of someone?" 

"You're avoiding the question." Octavian kept his focus on her, tuning out the incessant arguing in the background. "Did you see the bad stuff?" 

"The bad stuff, the good stuff, the boring stuff. I saw it all at once." Messalina turned away from him, paying attention to the pair bickering. Now, the purple man who they found out was called Drax got involved, insulting Quill even further. Behind them, a moping teenage tree sat cross legged on the floor fiddling with a game. "They're a family. They remind me of us." 

At last Mantis had gotten the rope removed from his wrists. He instantly shrugged it off, standing up from his chair and going to Messalina. Mantis made a move to help Messalina - he cut her off. "I've got it." 

Mantis nodded, turning towards the chaos happening amongst her friends. Octavian didn't care about any of that - he just wanted to get his sister safe and then find the others, and take down Thanos. He stood behind her, fingers working smoothly to untie the knot. 

"Want to talk about it? The stuff you saw?" He could feel Messalina tense. 

"There's no point. It's the same stuff we talk about over and over again. It's not going to make it disappear." 

Octavian rolled his eyes. "Aren't you the one always preaching about how talking helps?"

Messalina remained quiet, not uttering another word as Octavian undid the knot. The moment it fell loose she stood up, turning to walk away from him. Instinctively his hand shot out, grabbing firmly onto her shoulder. Her eyes rolled, as if she was expecting him to lecture her on how she needs to talk about it.

"You're right, they do remind me of us. You and Curio are definitely the raccoon and Quill." A faint smile adorned his face, falling as quickly as it rose. "I wish we knew where they are."

Messalina patted his hand on her shoulder, then moving out from under it. "We'll find them. We have to."

"Right." Octavian let his hand dangle in the air for a minute before letting it drop. "The offer to talk is still open." 

She paused, her head turned away from him. "We'll chat later. Now, we need to babysit some imbeciles." Taking a deep breath in, she placed her fingers in her mouth and whistled sharply. The sound cut through the air, silencing the childish chatter. "Can we get back to saving the world?"

*

"So in the reality you're from, we're all dead? The only one alive is this Dr. Strange guy who can make portals to other realities. This all happened ten years ago, in 2008?" Quill scratched at his beard, staring at the two siblings across from him. Octavian had a bandage covering the top of his head, a small speck of blood already staining he fabric. Messalina held an ice pack to the back of her head, still throbbing some being knocked out. They nodded. 

"Man I need a drink." Rocket mumbled, wiping at his eye with his paw. Octavian still couldn't comprehend the talking animal; it was something he was going to have to quickly accustom to. 

Messalina let out a huff of a laugh, leaning back in her seat. Even when she wasn't trying, she looked breathtaking. Octavian wished he could that at ease, his back stock straight and scowl permanently etched onto his face. "Ten years ago he looked for the stones. Our planet was using more resources than it could find, so he took it upon himself to, well, save us. We were given an anonymous tip when he first started searching, so Libertas was founded and given the purpose of finding all the stones before Thanos and destroying them. Under the ruse of being formed to stop Loki, The Avengers initiative born. It was a test, in a sense, to see if a group of heroes could work together and work past their differences to save us, to defeat a god. The added bonus being getting rid of the Loki problem. And they passed. So they were given another mission, this one more secret - protect the stones. I bet you can guess how that panned out."

"What happened?" For the first time, the green skinned woman spoke directly to the pair. Her gaze was trained on them, as though they were the only people in the room. 

Messalina heaved a large sigh, giving Octavian a small smile when he placed a hand on her knee, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Her voice was strong - the thin film coating her eyes revealed the truth. "He managed to get five of the six stones. That didn't hold him back. Thanos heard about the intervention and... took it upon himself to speed up his plans. A lottery was created to decimate the population, with each lucky winner getting hunted down. Some people were on the run for years, but eventually everyone on their hit list was murdered. We were lucky, in a way, that Dr. Stephen Strange had studied under the Ancient One, and learned her ways. He came across the Time stone, and has kept it in his power ever since. But one day, the Black Order hunted him down. He barely escaped with his life, and the stone was destroyed. Or so he thought. It became him, and this just made him an even bigger target. "

"The Black Order?" Quill questioned. Octavian barely refrained from rolling his eyes, his teeth grinding against the others. Messalina shot him a warning glare - it only powered his irritation. 

"Look, the quicker we tell this story, the quicker we can all go on our merry way. So why don't you just shut the f-" An ear-piercing incessant beeping cut him off. Octavian nearly cursed aloud again if it hadn't been for the Guardians' reactions. They all jolted out of their seats, rushing off into another part of the ship. 

Octavian and Messalina stared at their retreating backs, brows furrowed. "Should we follow or..."

Messalina shrugged, jogging after them. Octavian took a moment to hurl swears at their backs, mumbling under his breath about how he didn't have his proper running shoes on. He hadn't stopped complaining when they reached the main deck, all of the team members situated in a seat, pressing buttons. 

"What's going on?" Messalina wondered, walking down the walkway and sitting down on the step. Octavian kept his eyes glued to her, leaning against the back wall.

"That was a distress call, and it's nearby. We need to see if they're okay." 

"Oct, maybe this was where we needed to be after all." Octavian merely nodded, gaze moving to the window at the front of the ship. At the corner of his eye, he saw specks in the distance. Unconsciously, he took a step closer. 

Smack. 

An unfamiliar face was mushed against the glass, his body muscular and adorned in battle armour of some kind. He had an eye patch covering one eye, and the other eye they could see was closed. 

"Get it off, get it off!" 

"Jesus, how many of you people are there?" Quill exclaimed. 

Messalina and Octavian frowned. "He's not with us." 

"Then who is he?" 

Whoever it was, they needed help. 

-

hey guys! i know i said i might not be able to post as i'm on holiday but the wifi is good and i just realised i hit 100 votes! thank you all so much!

fyi, the liklihood of this book going on hiatus is VERY likely. after this chapter i have 2 chapters left pre written and then nothing, and i still need to watch the film again.

anyway, how are you all? i always feel guilty writing about just me in these notes...

-thirdwheelchurchill