Lines | Guardians of the Galaxy |

Chapter Two

The vixen jerked awake, ears rotating quickly and eyes wide. She'd been aroused by a shout. There were low, menacing voices to accompany it, and someone said something about cleaning up blood. The fox stood up, her claws flexing as she dug them into her palms. She stepped over the various sleeping prisoners, then gave up on the parkour and dropped to all fours, hopping from person to person.

Avenna stopped short when a group of prisoners came storming by, wrestling with a struggling Gamora. She crouched down, pressing against one of the prisoners laying at the edge of this sleeping room. They walked by without paying her any notice. She was about to go and follow when of course another person showed.

"Drax," Avenna hissed, standing back up straight, on her hind legs. "What are you doing?"

The brawny man jumped and looked somewhat startled. "Go back to bed, Avenna," he whispers in a not-so-quiet voice. "I'm handling this."

"There's nothing to handle," Avenna retorts sharply. The fox steps out onto the balcony beside him. She hears a scuffling noise behind Drax and whirls around to look but there's nothing there. She stares in that direction for a moment, nose twitching, then curses as she realizes that Drax has continued walking with a scary kind of stealth for someone his size.

"Go back to bed," Drax repeats when she steps behind him.

"No. I know what you're doing. You go back to—"

"Shh." He holds out a hand as he slows down, creeping around a turn in the hall. They're just outside the showers now.

"Drax..." Avenna tries one last time. He promptly ignores her.

Her friend stands there in the doorway to see three of the prisoners holding a Gamora against one of the shower walls, all of them with knives against her neck.

"You dare?"

Avenna starts to punch at his legs, telling him to shut up, hissing at him under her breath to stop.

"You know who I am, yes?" Drax asks, continuing to ignore her and stepping deeper into the room.

"You're Drax," the prisoner says, and he sounds rather frightened. "The Destroyer."

Her ears twitch as she hears someone speaking behind her, but she ignores it at the moment, more focused on trying to keep Drax from making a fat mistake. She knows she's making a fool of herself by pushing pathetically at his legs and trying to get his attention, but she really does not care anymore.

"And you know why they call me this?"

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

"Ronan murdered my wife, Ovette, and my daughter, Camaria. He slaughtered them where they stood. And he laughed!" He leans towards one of the prisoners and his shout echoes around the shower room. Avenna stilled, unsure of what to do now. She knew better than to follow him out onto this minefield.

"Her life... is not yours to take." Drax stalks closer, eyes on the lead prisoner. "He killed my family." Drax looks back to Gamora. "I shall kill one of his own in return."

Then where does the cycle end?

"O-Of course, Drax, h-here, I-" The prisoner nervously gives his knife to Drax, hunched forward in a fearful manner, resembling an old man whose joins have long since supported him properly.

Drax stalks closer and Avenna begins to panic slightly, knowing she needs to make this—well, maybe not. Maybe she could just let this happen. After all... well, Gamora did have a lot of enemies. Not only would someone else get her soon enough, but maybe Drax would feel better after this. She loathes the thought of him killing someone here in the prison, though. He did that just once, cracked a prisoner's neck in front of her after he kicked Avenna in the ribs.