Lines | Guardians of the Galaxy |

Chapter Nine

Above the din of the words they say, there's another voice.

"Quill! Don't you move, boy!"

And then they're running, and Avenna bites down on her lip to avoid the pain as Groot continues to run his fingers over her raw wounds while they're moving.

"No," she calls in a broken voice. "No, Drax! We have to help him!"

"I am Groot."

"We can't help him right now," Rocket says. "We've gotta get out of here."

"NO!" Avenna shouts and immediately hisses as she feels the agony in her stomach again. She attempts to sit up a bit, only managing to lift her head. It hurts so badly she wonders briefly how she's even able to move at all.

They stop in front of a line of some strange pods, Rocket stopping Groot from getting in one. "I told you, you can't fit. Now, wait here with 'Venna. I'll be back."

"Groot, listen to me," Avenna says and she squirms in Groot's grip as Rocket leaves in the pod. He's done leaving the aloe on her wound and has torn the tattered remains of her shirt off so they don't touch her flesh, leaving her without a top and her scars exposed. She's just glad that nobody else really got to get a good look at them. He looks down at her. "We need to help Drax," she says. "We couldn't go with them. But we need to help him."

Whatever that cream that Groot had put on there was working miracles already. It felt as though it were sinking down into her lungs and fixing those, too, eradicating the agony that was splitting through her whole upper body.

"I am Groot?"

Avenna swears, not understanding. "Let me down," she orders. "Thank you for the goo stuff, it really helped. But we—I—need to go help Drax, he can't do this by himself."

There's a long moment where Groot just stares down at the fox in his arms, then heaves a sigh. His branches creak as he bends down and slowly lets her feet touch the ground. Her legs shake as she stables herself by placing one paw on his own trunk of a leg, but she's okay.

Weaponless, injured, and shaky, but okay.

"I am Groot."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Come on, we have to go." Avenna begins to walk, stumbling slightly as she ignores the way the aloe stuff mixes with the charred blood on her front, creating an almost morbid paste. "Come on."

Groot does not move, and Avenna swears under her breath again. She continues to move, breaking into a run as she ignores the wretched stinging in her front, which has dulled significantly already.

She finds herself in the front entrance of Tivan's home again and stops short, seeing as Drax stands there, watching as Ronan... oh, horrid Ronan... walks away from him. He turned his back on Drax's challenge, and the red-tattooed man would not take that lightly.

"No!" Her friend roars and Drax begins to sprint forward, rapidly closing the distance between himself and the Accuser.

"Drax! Stop it, please!" Avenna's voice isn't loud enough.

Her words aren't heard.

"Nebula, retrieve the Orb," Ronan orders. Avenna keeps moving, snatching up a shard of metal from the ground.

Drax and Ronan jump into combat. Her friend swings once and their enemy leans backwards, avoiding the hit, and then Drax is thrown backward, smashing into a wall.

"NO!" Avenna screams, and then gets down on all fours. She begins to run, ignoring the pain in her chest as she throws herself at Ronan. He turns and kicks her right in the stomach--narrowly avoiding her burns. It was half an inch away from them. She, in turn, is flung away. She rolls across the dirt for a moment, but slowly forces herself to get up as much as she can, growling in displeasure at the way dirt is now encrusted into the wound and the aloe goo stuff.