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guardian-angel12 · 1 year ago

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Experiment: The Ravager Code

When the night was full of terrors And your eyes were filled with tears When you had not touched me yet Oh, take me back to the night we met

Chapter two

He'd been tasked with making sure nothing went wrong with the girl until she woke up, and Kraglin was going to make sure he did that.

After the Captain had insisted on bringing her back they had tried their best to do anything to keep her alive, injecting a needle into her arm to start hydrating her again, and covering the bleeding cuts, but there wasn't much to be done about the rest of the wounds on her body. For now, just cleaning her system of the sedatives would have to do.

He just glanced over every few moments between scraping away at a little block of wood he had, not really planning on anything, just seeing what would come out.

He wondered what the kid would be like—maybe like Quill, but he had been half her age when they had taken him. Just a little boy. No, he was sure she would be different. In what kind of way he wasn't sure.

Just as he thought it he saw her mouth twitch, her dark-ringed eyes slowly opened and started to dart around at the metal walls of The Eclector.

He stood up, hoping she wouldn't panic but realizing she still couldn't really do anything, so he put his hands out in front of him slowly. "Hey, hey, you're alright..." and reached for the comm system on the wall.

➳︎➳

Yondu was staring out at the stars from the control console of the giant ship, so many things had went through his mind since Kraglin had called him into that cold cell in the lab until now.

He knew he had sealed the fates of so many kids in the last few decades, so far he had only saved one.

If he had known all those years ago that he had merely been enslaving children that he thought to just be reuniting with their father, he never would've went through with it. No kid deserved that life, they deserved parents, a home... something he never had as a kid.

Maybe this girl had a chance, but he tried not to get his hopes up too high, chances of her living we're probably more slim than he would like to believe, given all the things that were wrong with her.

Those scars all over her— etched in so many places, some thick or still trying to close from hasty stitches... his jaw clenched with his fist when he thought of it. What had been done to her? He knew first hand what the Kree did, they tortured and beat kids into compliance, he had his own patch work of scars from it, but they had never chosen to experiment on his body.

He thought of Quill... wherever that boy was now, and what would have happened to him had he delivered him to Ego as agreed.

With how stubborn and rebellious he had been as a child—and an adult— there was no doubt he'd have ended up dead too.

One, maybe two kids out of dozens saved. That would never fix it.

And for some reason, if the girl ended up dying now, he would feel even worse, somehow maybe he could have done more to help her, if she—

"Uh, Cap'n, the girl's awake. Figured you should get down here."

Maybe she'd be okay after all.

"I'm on my way." he said back through the comm.

➳︎➳

Kraglin just stood by as the scared girl continued to watch him with pleading eyes, he knew she thought maybe this wasn't as good a situation as he had tried to convince her.

The doors slid open and he stepped back when Yondu walked in.

"Only looks a little better, not much." Kraglin informed.

Yondu nodded and looked over to her, she was already watching him, but had calmed a bit more. "She talking yet?"

"Nah, haven't really asked nothin' either though. Hey, maybe this time no jokes about eating her like you did with Quill? It ain't all that funny."

Yondu looked at him like he couldn't believe he really thought he'd do it to a sick and scared kid with as many open wounds as she did but decided not to touch the subject at the moment and stepped over to her and kneeled down next to the little bunk she was on. "Hey there, lookin' a little better ain't you?"

She swallowed down hard, lips moving to try and speak. "Wh—where am... I?" she whispered, her voice hoarse and dry.

"Safe. Far away from that place."

"They... they won't come for me..?"

"They ain't never gonna find you again. Don't you worry about that."

She closed her eyes briefly and breathed in. "Thank you."

He nodded, smiling softly at her. "You're gonna be just fine, Tessa."

She looked at him confused for a moment, but didn't say anything.

Kraglin walked over with another syringe needle and she flinched hard when she saw it, chest raising and falling faster as he came closer.

He noticed and put his hands up slowly to show he wasn't going to hurt her, but the way she panicked and her blood-shot eyes darted to him then to Yondu made him realize what she was scared of.

"It's alright, it's just something to get your strength back," Yondu said but reached out for the needle instead.

She relaxed and he took her arm and slowly injected it. Trying to ignore the dozens of little marks that were already on her pale skin.

She sighed in almost relief and slowly seemed like some of her pain was gone.

She looked back up at him, seeming like she couldn't comprehend any of this but was still grateful. "Thank you."

He just nodded again, looking at her eyes, they were so silver they looked like the sheen on the metal of the brand-new airships from Xandar, but flecked with blacks and whites that made them look like two little cosmic phenomenons sitting on her ruined face that still held a bit of the beauty he knew was there.

She drifted off to sleep after the relief of the serum and he stood up, covering her more with the sheets and watching for a few moments before walking out, Kraglin in tow.

"What do we do now?" he asked his Captain.

"You look at the files we pulled?"

"Uh, no, not really. Why?"

"That jackass Ronan, he was comin' for her in a few days."

"What would he want her for?"

"Those maniacs are looking for fighters. You saw all that shit they put in and on her, they were making him a personal slave."

Slave. Slave. Slave… not a kid, not a helpless girl. A Terran, no less, probably with no knowledge life exsisted in the Galaxy.

"But if you just took away his booty ain't he gonna look for her?" Kraglin asked quietly.

"He can try."

"I really don't know if this is a good idea."

"Ain't nobody have to know about her."

"We ain't the only ones that know about her, the rest of the crew won't like it."

"The rest of the crew is going to believe she's dead. Because that's what we're going to go out and tell them. If word gets out about her, not only will that asshole Ronan and them titan fools come, but the damn Nova Corp too, they'll hear about her and want to come make sure no Ravagers have that kinda asset, and do you really believe for one second Stakar would blink an eye at tellin' em it would have to be us when the other factions get questioned?"

"No."

"Look, that kid ain't gonna be able to do anything for herself for at least a while, do you wanna send her to either of those fates? Back to a damn lab to be played with?"

"No, I don't." How could he? For as much as Peter had bothered him he’d wanted to keep him away from Ego. Tess was no different, and Kraglin knew about half as well as Yondu what it was like to be kidnapped, enslaved and tortured for someone else’s gain. They’d want to make Tess a warrior beside Ronan, just like when they’d cast him and his Xandarian strength into the fighting pits and expect him to win.

"Good. Now, if Ronan or Thanos come, we'll be ready, but I already heard what those jackasses want, some kind of galactic dominance and don't you go thinking they're gonna stop because we took her, just gonna slow down a bit."

"So that's the only reason you saved her? To slow it down?"

Yondu turned quickly to look at him. "I hadn't seen the files until an hour ago. Of course it's not. Now don't even go telling Quill about this, that boy'd have half the universe knowing before we ever turned around."

Kraglin nodded. "Yes, sir." And followed as they went out to the rest of the crew.

"Hey, Krag?" one of them asked. "How's the captains new Terran toy?"

Kraglin looked up and closed his eyes, he knew that wouldn't go over well. "She ain't a toy." he said. "She ain't nothing no more."

"What happened?"

"She's dead." Yondu cut in.

"Dead?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"Then what was the point of taking it if we weren't gonna use it?"

"She couldn't survive the trip in her condition," Kraglin said.

The man seemed like he was questioning it, but thought better than to admit to it.

Kraglin followed Yondu down the bridge as he looked at the rest of the crew. "Set a course for the outer rim," the captain said. "I want as far away from any Kree provinces as possible."

➳︎➳︎

Two days later.

Tess was moving her hands around slowly, trying to grasp the odd feeling in them, she was able to sit up now, but most moments still hurt at least to the point that her body felt entirely bruised. She'd been asleep for a whole day straight, then most of the next, but whatever the two Ravagers kept making sure was in her blood stream had obviously worked. And for the first time in almost a year she was able to think pretty clearly.

But now she just felt dirty. Her body was still covered in old blood and different substances that the labs had used on her, she was pretty sure they hadn't been bothered to clean her properly throughout the time though.

"Alright, hope you're hungry," The doors slid open and Kraglin ambled in, bowl in one hand and he was obviously trying to be cheery for her.

She only looked up and watched him silently as he sat down beside her.

"Now, I know it's been awhile, figured maybe you might want a little something real to eat."

He was right, the only nutrients had come from injections and the chemical-tasting clumps she barely touched, but she wasn't so sure she could stomach this now—but she wanted to. Not only for herself but because she wanted to do anything for these men after all they had done for her.

"If you think you ain't ready that's okay," he said.

"No," her voice was still dry, and some words wouldn't come properly, but it was good enough for now. "I'll try."

He passed her the bowl and she took it from him with slightly shaky hands, he discreetly used his foot to pull an empty little bin out from under the bunk when she did.

Tess took the first sip, the taste and texture so foreign, but she knew it was good.

But first swallow and she knew it was a bad idea, she grimaced as her stomach turned over.

Kraglin handed her the bin and she threw up into it, gasping at the pain.

He patted her back and took away the bin, she just looked like she was afraid he'd be upset.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

"Don't be, it's alright. Cap'n said you should probably be okay to use the showers now, you up for it?"

She nodded slowly and he stood up, taking her hand to help her up.

She grabbed his sleeve tightly, (secretly relishing his warmth against her cold skin) her feet holding most all of her weight for the first time in so long.

She felt shaky at first, but he helped her walk until she let go and tried herself.

"Alright, you need anything, comm's on the wall." he said as she stood in the open doorway.

"Thank you."

He walked away and she stepped into the tiny little room, just a sprayer on the top and a drain beneath. She turned on the water and stepped in, it was cold, but she didn't care, she just went about scrubbing herself and getting all of the dirty feeling out of her hair. Once she finished she stepped back out and began drying off, slipping into a pair of dark undergarments and looking up, there was a small, cracked piece of glass on the wall that she looked into, and for the first time ever saw what she had become.

She could barely remember who she was before but just knew this wasn't it.

Her hair was metallic silver in most of it, some of it darker strands—almost black-gray—streaking through it like waves through the wet, coiling strands.

Her skin was so pale and broken, tight around all of her bones like it was painted on. Scars and marks and old stitches covered almost every inch of it.

She slowly touched her finger to the dark metal rings in her chest, moving over her collar bone like a clasp holding her together, and she felt tears in her eyes as she slid on the black pants on the floor and a dark grey shirt without sleeves. A tear slid down her face without her thinking about it, that finally made her look at her eyes... they were like an aliens.

Her once brown irises now the color of fresh steel, making her black pupils look piercing and mutant. Little webs of darker color and white swirled through the silver like veins.

She breathed in hard, and an image of a blue man with dark eyes and black streaks down his face flashed before her.

"My master has said she will do."

His menacing voice had said.

She flinched at the memory, and before she knew it, her fist was slamming against the glass and shattering it. But no pain came... and when she saw her hand, she couldn't see skin, just metallic grey material—steel. Her clenched knuckle was made of metal.

She sobbed and lost her ability to stand for a moment, dropping to the floor.

"Monster." she whispered.

➳︎➳

It had been a while since Kraglin had last seen Tessa go to finally clean herself, he'd told Yondu almost immediately and he had kept track of the time.

It had been a while, but he knew enough about women to know it could take long.

Still he wanted to make sure she didn't fall or anything, so he kept half of his attention on he upper level in case any loud noises came.

It was about thirty minutes in when he heard the shatter, not even really knowing what to think he headed up there, passing Kraglin in the hall outside.

"You heard that, right?" he asked his captain.

He didn't answer, just went to the small iron door and tapped on it. "Kid?"

There was no reply. "Kid, are you alright?" He clenched his jaw, hoping beyond hope she wasn't hurt. "Tessa, just open the door." He finally turned to Kraglin behind him. "Give me the pass," once it was in his hand he jammed it into the door and it slid aside, he saw the sickly girl curled up into the corner, her small frame shaking with sobs.

His mind raced back to twenty four years ago with Quill... the weeks after they taken him when his mother died he'd found the boy like that a lot. Kraglin had been scared, too, but considerably older when he'd joined them.

Yondu knew he had once been that scared kid crying in the dark long ago, but it made him hard. Even if he had been too hard on Quill, he was just a boy after all, he couldn't change it and go back to comfort him the way he should have, but maybe this was a second chance to to it better.

"Hey," he motioned for Kraglin to stay put and stepped into the small room. "What's wrong?"

"Don't come near me..." she whispered. "And don't look at me."

"I already have seen you, I didn't see nothing wrong."

"I'm a monster." She sniffled.

That made his heart hurt. "No, you ain't." He kneeled down beside her and put his hand softly on her frail shoulder. "Look at me."

She reluctantly turned around, steely eyes full of tears.

"Do you think I'm a monster?"

"N—no." She shook her head.

"Well, some do. But some people only see what's outside. Now there are pretty people who have nasty insides, and ugly ones with good, then there are some, like you, who are just as pretty inside as out."

She didn't know how to take it. Why would he want to make sure she felt better about herself? But she found that she believed him.

"Why'd you break the mirror?" he asked.

"I—I'm sorry..."

"It's alright, things happen. Just tell me why."

"I... I saw someone in it."

"Who?"

"Ronan."

His blood boiled at that. "He ain't never gonna find you."

She shuddered and looked down, but he put his finger under her chin. "You're safe here."

➳︎➳

Two weeks later Tess had become a little stronger, her speech more fluent, and she could stomach regular food again. Resulting in gaining back about thirty pounds, but still leaving her skinny and just barely where she didn't look like a skeleton.

Yondu and Kraglin had managed to keep her existence a secret, and treated her like she really belonged.

She hated the mirrors, and never looked in them, but by now had cut her hair to just fall at her breast for the amount of damage that had occurred to it. Not that it had grown all that long during the time in the lab.

She usually stayed in the little cabin near the Captain's quarters, but so many feet seemed to stomp by all day that she feared for the day one would open her door and find out that she really was alive.

She heard the ship groan and looked up from the things she was fiddling with, little spare parts and junk. She loved to create, since she had started to remember things about herself she remembered that she was good at making things.

She heard footsteps and stood up, every time the anxiety spiked before the doors slid open and she could see whether or not the two welcome people in her life were coming or someone she had never met.

To her relief Yondu stepped in after the doors parted and she relaxed.

It took only a moment for her to realize something was wrong. "What is it?" she asked.

"Quill, he ain't answered his comm in a week."

By now she'd heard him talk about this man enough to know who he was. "Maybe he's busy?"

"Or got his ass captured. Or killed."

"I'm sure it's not that."

"I am too. But I knew it would become this way..." he gazed off, as if he was regretting something. She took that as her cue to try and ease it.

"Where did Quill come from?"

"Terra, like you." She nodded, even though she couldn't remember her life on Terra. "He was just a kid, mom died that day. I had no idea."

She could just feel the way he hated it, even if he would never admit it, she knew there was something more to the way he felt about him than he was letting on. "I was supposed to deliver him, I thought I was bringing him to his father, but I found out what was really going on just before I did and I just couldn't let it happen. I couldn't make that boy go suffer more. But now I know even if I thought I was giving him better I still didn't do none of it right. But it's too late to change it now."

He sat down and looked ahead, Tess didn't know what to say but knew that he'd been good to her, maybe just to make up for Quill? It barely mattered though because she trusted him more than anyone, this felt so right to her so how could he have made Quill so resentful that he would cut off this life?

"I'm sure there's a part of him that knows you tried." she said. "I know there is. Because just like you love him but don't show it the right way, he loves you and doesn't know how to show it."

He shook his head slowly but said nothing, but, to her surprise, he didn't deny it.

He stood up and put his hand on her shoulder. "You get some sleep, I'm thinkin' maybe we do something different tomorrow, time you got strong again."

She nodded. "Okay."

➳︎➳

Night looked exactly like day out in space, so it wasn't like if you woke up you would know what time it was, but it couldn't have been earlier than midnight.

She was twitching in her sleep, eyes squeezing a little harder every few seconds and little gasps escaping her mouth.

The images came back every night.

The machines, the needles, the scalpels, the eyes... the Kree warrior and his blue glowing thing he made her head hurt with. The thing that had made her see Thanos for the first time, and he had never left her mind since. Always there were whispers, little words and things being said that made her shiver, and she wondered if it would ever go away.

She sat up with a gasp, looking around to be sure it was all real, and that it hadn't been some long dream about being rescued.

The metal walls were the safe ones. She was there in her little bunk, on a huge ship full of aggressive pirates thousands of parsecs away from any of the bad people, as Yondu and Kraglin had assured her many, many times.

She felt cold, while most people woke from nightmares drenched in sweat she woke up freezing cold. She was always cold when fear came over, and assumed it was from the freezing steel that rushed through her veins when her instincts spiked.

She wrapped the blanket around herself but just couldn't make it go away, if anything she was freezing more as each second passed.

She didn't know what to do now, she felt scared and alone and every small creak had her jumping, she swallowed and tried to ignore the creeping feeling she was getting.

Monster.

She heard a whisper.

She yelped but it wasn't in the room, it was inside of her head.

Mine.

She jumped again, breathing hard.

She couldn't do it anymore, and slid off of the bunk and to the door, she hesitated at the controls but hit them anyways, this would be the first time she ever went out without escort, but everyone else should be asleep.

She looked down the hall, she knew Kraglin's cabin was somewhere down it but couldn't recall which door, she wasn't going to dare tap on the wrong one.

But the Captain's quarters, she knew exactly where they were. The only place that seemed safe was there right now.

She padded softly, her teeth felt so loud as they clicked together from shivering.

Then came the footsteps behind her and she turned around quickly to see a larger man walking through the hall, seemingly drunk.

She almost collapsed with fear when she saw him but stayed still, hoping maybe he wouldn't even notice her on the way to his room.

For some reason she would blame herself if he did anything.

He nearly walked by, but stopped at the last second, looking at her with unfocused eyes.

She gulped when he pointed at her. "You was supposed to be dead..." he said accusingly.

At that moment she felt like she was in so much trouble it would have been better if she took her chances through the airlock.

He came towards her and tried to grab her shoulder, but she moved out of his way, fear taking her heart.

"Come here..." he grumbled, his hand went into the wall when he missed.

"Please..." she whimpered, her body went stiff.

He grabbed at her again but this time her body pulsed and he stumbled back again into the wall, anger etched his face. She didn't even know she could do that. Much less how she'd done it.

He grabbed for her again and this time grabbed her wrist, pulling her towards him roughly.

She couldn't get her arm away from him, it was so small in his huge hand that it was locked tightly inside with no escape.

She grunted against his force as he growled close to her ear. "I'm gonna teach you a lesson..."

He suddenly jerked away from her and was punched into the wall. "You ain't gonna teach her nothing!" She heard a familiar voice snarl.

She finally got a hold on the panic and slowed down enough to see that Yondu had stepped between her and the other Ravager, he must have heard the noise from his quarters then... she wasn't sure if she was going to be chastised or not.

The other Ravager looked scared, but too drunk to fear for his life like he should.

She watched with wide eyes when the Captain put one hand out to show her to back up and the other grabbed the man's wrist, yanking him up menacingly. "You're going to forget this night ever happened. Nothing but one reminder to keep your mouth shut," he jerked and there was a sick snap, the man cried out and Yondu let go of his wrist, showing that it was now hanging limp. "Touch her again and I'll do far worse. Get your ass out of here!"

Tess swallowed, she had no idea he could be that dark.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He looked her over, checking her arm.

"I—I'm fine... I'm sorry, I just—I couldn't sleep, it was so cold and I heard something..."

"You heard something?"

"Yes, a voice. In my head."

He looked confused.

"It said 'mine'." she whispered.

He looked concerned but just put his hand on her arm. "Look at me, it's alright. This wasn't your fault. I never should have kept you cooped up in there anyhow, it wasn't safe, I know. But I do know I was right about one thing; tomorrow, we're gonna start gettin' you able to defend yourself."

"How?"

"You'll see. We're gonna make the best of this. You have a fighter in you yet."

#guardians of the galaxy #yondu udonta #kraglin obfonteri #tessa udonta #experiment:the ravager code #fanfiction

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