Chapter 42 – Stranger

[2014 – March]

[Knowhere]

Shaken, but otherwise uninjured, Gamora left the ruins, that moments before was still the Collector's museum, together with Peter by her side.

"We have to bring this to the Nova Corps. There is a chance that they can contain it.", Gamora intoned rather desperately, as she turned to the human beside her, holding up the Orb containing the Infinity Stone.

Gamora knew that it wasn't just Ronan they had to hide the Infinity Stone from, because even worse than Ronan getting the stone would be if her adoptive father, Thanos, got his hands on the stone.

She knew he was looking for the Infinity Stones all over the Galaxy and she could only pray that he would never find them.

"Are you kidding me?! We are wanted by the Nova Corps! Just give it to Ronan!", the cybernatically enhanced racoon Rocket, called out in response to her words.

"So he can destroy the Galaxy?!"

And before she could respond, Peter did, causing a fierce argument to erupt between the two.

"What are you, some Saint all of a sudden?! What has the Galaxy ever done for you?! Why would you wanna save it?!"

"Because I'm one of the idiots who lives in it!"

"Peter. Peter, listen to me. We can not allow the stone to fall into Ronan's hands. We have to go back to your ship and deliver it to Nova.", interrupted Gamora, her muscles tensing and nerves strained every moment the Orb wasn't safely locked away.

"Right. Ok. I think you're right... Or we could give it to somebody, who is not going to arrest us, who is really nice, for a whole lot of money.", Peter answered, causing the blooming hope to extingush inside her heart, as he continued, "I think it's a really good balance between both of your points of view."

"You're despicable.", she said as she turned away, dejected but not overly surprised.

"I-..."

"Dishonorable. Faithless!", Gamora called out, angry at not only him, but herself as well for trying to rely on someone else.

She had thought that the gruesome training under Thanos had long since taught her to rely on no one but herself.

Her short introspective though, was interrupted by the arrival of dozens of Necrocrafts.

"Oh no...", she voiced out instinctually, as the blood in her veins slowly turned colder and her heart was gripped by fear.

"Today I shall meet my foe and destroy him! Haha!"

Drax, another one of her temporary companions called out in insanity.

"You called Ronan?!", Peter shouted in disbelief, bringing Gamora back to the present.

As if the situation wasn't already bad enough, suddenly men in Ravager clothing turned around the corner and spotted them.

"Quill! Don't you move, boy!", Yondu, their leader, shouted in their direction.

And just as Gamora was searching for the best escape plan, the world turned silent.

A dim blue glow was enveloping everything in her sight, freezing every kind of movement except her breathing, and turning noise into silence.

Feeling herself being trapped and unable to escape, even her hardened heart couldn't help but slowly sink in despair, similarly to when she had been at Thanos' side and had to watch him and his armies slaughter countless innocents without being able to help or make a difference.

At the end she had given in to that helplessness and despair, shutting off her emotions and becoming nothing more than a tool for bloodshed. It had taken her years to free herself from that self-made cage and resolving herself to escape.

Suddenly her heightened senses perceived the sounds of footsteps and just a few moments later Gamora saw whom they belonged to.

Black fabric tightly wound around a perfect physique with neatly braided platinum hair, a man appeared. The lower part of his face was covered by a black mask and his eyes were spewing blue flames as he looked around leisurely.

Gamora didn't know who that man was, but her instincts – trained and sharpened through all her life – practically screamed at her to get away from him. The man was like the incarnation of danger. There was no chance of winning, no chance of even resisting.

His back facing Gamora, the man looked at the Necrocraft that had landed a short distance from them and with a wave of his hand the small vehicle was ripped apart.

Shocked, Gamora could see Ronan and her sister being dragged out from the wreckage and placed right in front of the man.

*SHING* *THUD*

An abyss-black spear with blue-glowing veins all over its body suddenly appeared in the stranger's hand and in the next moment Ronan the Accuser, whose name alone caused terror for countless living beings in the galaxy, lost his head.

No hestitation. No questions. No explanations.

Such ruthlessness, caused even her breath to hitch for a moment.

Another wave of the man's hand and Ronan's carcass disappeared in a cloud of dark blue smoke.

Gamora could hardly even react to the events happening in front of her, before the spear in the stranger's hand had already vanished again.

Suddenly the man, holding all their lives in his hands, turned around half-way as he looked at Drax and a voice like aged Sakaarian wine sounded out – a little raspy, but very soothing.

"Even though not by your own hands, your family is now avenged. Any dissatisfaction or rage still lingering in your heart, you may take out on Ronan's crew."

And with that, Drax – like Ronan's corpse – was swallowed up by a cloud of dense midnight-coloured fog, before the stranger turned back around and settled his gaze on her sister.

Gamora was already fearing for the worst, as the panic in her mind slowly reached the limit. But despite her unwillingness, she was powerless to do anything but stand there quietly.

Relief washed over Gamora as the unknown man turned around again a short moment later without harming her adoptive sister. Though this relief was rather short-lived, as a pair of blazing eyes suddenly found her own.

"I will be taking that.", she heard the man say, before the Orb left her grasp, sped towards the man and settled in his outstreched palm.

"The Power Stone, finally.", whispered the man and shattered her hope that the incredibly powerful stranger may not know what was being kept inside the Orb.

With what seemed like pure physical strength the man ripped apart the Orb and exposed the artifact containing infinite power to the surroundings.

When Gamora saw what the man wanted to do, she wanted to scream in horror, unable to even imagine the consequences of a being such as him trying to touch the Infinity Stone.

The memories of what happened a few minutes ago and what she had seen in the clips Tivan had shown them, still vivid in her mind.

The tensing of her temporary teammates muscles that she could see out of the corner of her eyes, told her that they felt not unlike herself right now.

Seeing the man grab the stone with his bare hands, she wanted to instinctively close her eyes, but kept them open nonetheless.

If death came for her, she wanted to be brave enough to face it with her eyes opened.

Blazing purple energy streamed out of the Infinity Gem and rushed into the man's body, but unlike the Kylorian slave before him, he didn't let a single sound escape from his lips nor did his body deconstruct under the enormous influx of cosmic energy.

Low rumbles spread out with him in the center, shaking the space nearby.

The trembling of the blue veil restricting her movements was the only indication that the stranger had to endure the baptism of an Infinity Stone and even these minute irregularitties stopped a few seconds later.

Meanwhile purple veins were pulsing on the man's body, fueling every inch of his flesh with uncontainable power. And yet his gaze still showed nothing but determination and a blazing fire as if portraying his unyielding spirit.

Moments later, as if subdued, the Infinity Stone's struggles ceased and the bright purple veins on the man's form lost their glow.

*FUU*

A deep exhale could be heard from the man, as the tension left his body.

Gamora found it nearly impossible to believe what just happened before her very own eyes.

An Infinity Stone had been tamed just like that!?

Who was that man, that he could do something like that with hardly any effort!?

Once again the fiery gaze of the man landed on her and her temporary teammates.

"Let's talk somewhere else.", the stranger said with a voice that made a pleasant shiver run down her spine, before she too was swallowed by dark blue fog.