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Experiment: Flame and Ash (Chapter Three)

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There's nothing to say tonight You've made up your mind To leave this behind Stead of standing in line You're sure that in time You'll be alright

'Cause it was not meant to be this way If you could go back in time Swear you'd change it all But that's not possible Tell me what you're running from

Peter hadn't stayed still for more than a few moments, the longest had been when they had docked the Benetar before they boarded the Quadrant.

He had paced around nonstop. "Why her?" he asked for the millionth time, a question no one had the answer to. "What could they gain from her?" he turned around as if expecting someone to answer, but none came.

Mantis was wringing her hands in the corner, Drax sharpening his knives over his knee, stiff and ready to go get Gamora and Kraglin back, if only they actually knew where they were.

Rocket was silent and going through a hundred files on the navi-computer, Groot watching him from his shoulder.

"The more you ask the more the answer is still, 'no one knows'." Rocket answered irritably. "So shut the hell up already. I'm workin' on it."

Peter sucked on his teeth and finally spun around to Tess, silent as death and staring straight ahead at nothing. "Will you please say something?" he spread his arms out in emphasis.

Silver eyes went straight to his and Peter froze, seeing that deadly promise inside of them and not knowing what to think of it. He knew she was more than pissed—raging, actually—so her being still and quiet was probably a mercy rather than a punishment.

"Tess, I'm sorry, I just want to find them."

"Don't you dare even half insinuate that I don't." she stood and took a few steps toward him. "They just took the most important person in my life from me, for all I know they'll torture him...kill him. He's already hurt. I just don't know what to do!"

She was forcing herself not to cry, cursing and tearing herself apart internally to just hold back the tears that were stinging her eyes and burning in the back of her throat, but it was so hard.

She was scared. And couldn't admit it. Kraglin wasn't there to notice, neither was Gamora.

And Yondu...he wasn't going to tell her what to do. She couldn't just go to him for guidance. She had to do this alone.

"I know, I know, I just...I can't lose her." Peter's voice was no more than a breath. "Either of them."

Tess nodded, breathing in deep and looking around at the others. "Rocket?"

"Still nothing. These guy's are ghosts."

"There had to have been a symbol," Peter said, "Something to trace back—"

Tess suddenly spun around to them, looking mostly at Peter but glancing to Rocket and Drax. "Did anyone recognize the ship model?"

Rocket thought for a moment and nodded. "Yeah, some kind of o’nine inter-space remodel from the inner sectors, Kree territory."

Tess bit her lip and started pacing. She was beginning to think maybe she knew what this was. And she was getting colder the more she thought about it. "Rocket, set me up the long-range comm." she said quietly.

"What for?" the humanoid looked over his shoulder to ask.

"I need to reach out to someone, they might be our only chance of tracking these people down."

- - -

Martinex T'naga was not usually a cautious man, at least not for his own life, but when it came down to his captain, or his crew, anything could seem risky to him.

That was why suspicion was all he could truly think when he saw the transmission that had come in from deep space, saying it was from an old Ravager vessel he barely recognized anymore.

Yondu's contact code was on it, but he knew that it wasn't him before the female voice came over.

"This is Tessa Udonta, I'm needing to speak directly to Stakar Ogord, I'll come alone, you pick the place. It's important, otherwise I wouldn't have asked."

There was a pause in the message, almost like she was collecting herself before continuing, it only made Martinex's radar go off more.

"It...it possibly has to do with the Kree, I think. My brother—Kraglin...his life may be in danger. Please... I don't know who else to turn to."

He only stared at the screen for a few minutes, at a loss, but the way her voice sounded, so desperate... so scared, it made his demeanor soften just a bit.

My brother.

That seemed like a jab right where it was most tender. Since hearing that Yondu was dead he just couldn't shake the knowledge that they had never spoke again, even if he had technically broke the Code and the Code said that they couldn't anymore, they were still brothers, maybe it would have been more honorable to at least ask why Yondu had done it in the first place.

He would never get the chance now.

His life may be in danger.

Martinex didn't know a whole lot about Kraglin, only what he'd heard from different sources. He especially did not know the man he was now, his only memories of the two or three times he ever saw him being a boy of all bones and a narrow, calculating gaze...the same one Yondu had had, the gaze that marked a survivor. He was only twelve when Yondu had brought him into the fold, and some of them would've thought he'd been welded to Yondu's side for the way he never left it unless made to.

Thats when both Stakar and Martinex knew he had found his right-hand man, only he had a lot of growing to do before that.

Tessa wanted to speak to Stakar, but the last time she had wanted to 'talk' apparently she had barely made the decision not to kill him, there was no way he was letting his captain go alone to her again. Niece or not, he didn't trust her.

Maybe Stakar would be angry for it, but he knew what he was going to do.

"Aleta, I need someone to cover for me for a rotation, I'll explain later." he pressed his finger to the comm to say, he knew she would trust it, but he also knew she would ask a million and one questions when he got back. He could live with it.

And it was not a hard decision to delete the transmission from Tessa and leave without a word to Stakar.

- - -

One chance, that was all she would get to make him agree to help her. The first sign that this could end badly and he was done.

After what she had pulled with Stakar months ago, Martinex felt this may be more than she deserved. But even after that, he acknowledged there was a small piece of him that still just wanted to know her.

The fact that she was Yondu's daughter—his chosen daughter, like him and Martinex had been sons to Stakar—is what made him send her a location to meet at.

As he waited in the hazy cantina a dozen different scenarios played in his mind of how this would go down, and a dozen more of just what she would be like.

"She's just like him."

He found himself actually hoping that was true.

The door opened, and a cloaked figure stepped inside slowly, but with some kind of deadly, maybe dark air about them as they stepped, considering everyone and everything around them.

The figure felt feminine, and for a woman was averagely tall but thin, strands of silver hair falling out of the hood like they had escaped a hasty braid.

He kept staring as the woman kept looking around. A little less than a full hour early to the time Martinex—under the guise of Stakar—had said to meet. Ravager behavior.

Then this was Tessa.

This was Yondu's line.

He followed her with his eyes, resisting the urge to stand and address her and just watched, seeing her calculate everything around her. She was looking for Stakar.

- - -

Brothels and bars were not exactly Tess' favorite places to be, not when the memories she had from them either hurt to think of her lost life or that she had spilt an unholy amount of blood in them. But today she barely even thought about where she was as she stepped into the dimly-lit bar, the smell of alcohol and unwashed bodies was all that reminded her to think of her surroundings.

She gazed around, looking for Stakar and getting a scan of everyone in the decent-sized room, mostly harmless drunks and a few scantly-dressed waitresses. Maybe some were prostitutes, Tess didn't exactly care at the moment, the only thing that mattered was finding the Arcturan man who may just hold the fates of Kraglin and Gamora in his hand.

Her edge was peaking a bit as she swept her eyes around the space, but she couldn't find Stakar. She was sure this was the location he had chosen, being early was no issue because Yondu had always told her Ravagers came to their meetings an hour early whereas most others arrived only about half an hour.

He had to be here.

She swallowed the dryness in her throat and took a breath, focusing. And when she did she noticed the eyes that had been following her since she had walked in.

She paused, discreetly moving herself to where her eyes couldn't be seen in the shadow of her hood but she could look over at the golden eyes that hadn't yet left her, and the Pluvian man that they belonged to, sitting in the corner of the cantina.

She moved herself around the opposite way to get a better look at him, some kind of familiarity to him that she was trying to recall.

She acknowledged the navy blue leathers he wore, then, finally, the flame on his chest, and she knew. Her mind flashed back to that day that had changed her life, the day those golden freaks had shown up and sent them off on the last mission they would ever have—the one that had left her life ruined.

He was the same man that had stood beside Stakar when he had been on Contraxia, stood there with a posture that seemed defensive and protective as the older man had yelled all kinds of things to Yondu about the Code and how he had broke it. Bringing exile upon himself.

He had come in Stakar's place, but Tess only wondered if he had been told to, or if he had done it upon his own decision.

She considered only for the smallest moment to turn and leave, she had said she wanted to speak directly to Stakar, anyways, but now was hardly a time to be picky.

"Where is he?" she asked as soon as she made it to the table in the dark corner, looking down at those gold eyes that had not removed themselves from her yet, that face that looked like crystalline shards carefully molded together set in an indifferent expression.

"Not coming." the man answered, his voice edged with a sound like the gentle scrape of metal echoing through it.

Tess felt a tiny spike of regret wash through her. She never did know for sure how bad she had left him... "He dead?"

"No," came his calm reply. "He doesn't know you want to talk to him."

"And why?" she held her jaw tight as not to snap the words.

"Because as first mate it's my job to watch my captains back, so I'm here in case this isn't what you say it is."

She read between those lines, and knew what he meant. He would stand a better chance against her than Stakar if this was another assassination attempt.

Even if she knew that was not her intention by a long shot, she knew enough about his kind to wonder how hard it would actually have been to kill him first had he been there with Stakar that day.

Steel against crystal... she wondered which of them would break first.

He seemed to wonder the same, the way he kept glancing at her hands.

Bold. She respected that. That was real honor—loyalty, and if she hadn't already been irritated and overrun by emotions she might have admired it.

"Who are you?" she asked, bracing her hands on the table in fists.

"Martinex T'Naga."

Tess cocked her head slightly, then ran her tongue over her teeth as she slowly sat down, trying to reign herself.

Martinex was noticing so many things about her, from the way she carried herself, the way she talked, her small habits when she was frustrated... they were all Yondu. Those things this young woman did were all like his brother.

She was mostly what he had pictured, only, admittedly, more beautiful, especially with the knowledge of what she had been before this life.

She appeared Arcturan or Xandarian in features, only her flesh had a look about it that made him know she wasn't either of those. He had never seen skin that looked like the veins beneath glistened. But her eyes were what confirmed it.

They looked like orbs of steel sitting just under the shadow of her hood, the sheen stark against the pupils and he could see webs of black and white flowing through the irises.

But for all she was unlike anything he had ever seen before, he could feel her power radiating off of her like fumes. He was feeling all that rage and power and bitterness, absorbing her energy—and somewhere underneath it all he could feel a passion, some kind of love that she clearly reserved for very, very few.

"I truly do just want to talk." Tess said, her voice more even as she leaned forward, elbows up on the stained wood surface.

"That was the impression you had my Captain under last time."

His voice was cold. Tess held back a sharp retort. "I was...in a different mindset then."

"And now?"

"I just want to get my brother back."

"Kraglin." It sounded like a question.

"Yes, and they have my friend, too."

"Any ideas on who took them?"

"No, not really. Just that they're trained. And they were ready for us. I think... I think they were actually after me."

"Then if they took him that means they're waiting for you."

"I know what it means." He looked down from her, running his fingers up and down the glass of dark liquid he held between his hands, and Tess took a deep breath. "I wouldn't have came to you if I had another option."

"That's what worries me."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He jerked his eyes back up to her. "It means you're a loose canon, and if you truly would've never reached out if not for desperation, then how fast will you be to mark me, or the others as expendable?"

Tess leaned forward, and he saw something light in her eyes, like all the vein-like colors in them started to softly glow. "Loyalty actually means something to me." she gave him a pointed look, sweeping her eyes quickly over him. "Like it should to Ravagers."

"Don't you imply it doesn't to me—"

"Then why did you abandon him?" she instantly hissed, her voice suddenly acidic as her throat burned. "Why did you throw him away?"

He drew back slightly, knowing who she was talking about without her saying so, and he realized that despite the situation she was begging him to help her with, those questions still burned inside her, she still wanted answers. He knew all too well what that kind of pain looked like.

And he knew what it felt like to lose someone you loved. To feel like you were alone.

Martinex shook his head a little, looking away from her. "He broke the Code."

"No, don't throw that bullshit at me!" she snapped, her voice low but harsh. "Did you even try to figure out what was fully going on?"

"It didn't matter, Stakar told us what happened and that was the end of it." he closed his eyes tightly, but she didn't care, in her eyes he betrayed Yondu as much as the Ravagers in the mutiny, she didn't care that they had done that Ravager funeral. It would never feel like enough for the pain she knew he went through. That was her father, and he wouldn't know they had ever done it anyways.

For some reason it made her feel like she had done something, as if her getting answers would make sure he knew the truth. "He didn't know what really happened—!"

"I didn't want to!"

Tess was a little surprised at the sudden outburst, not really a shout but more like an exclamation he was trying his best not to draw attention to them with, his glass-like fingers balling into a fist and slamming the table once when he said it.

"Then why did you?" she asked slowly, almost accusingly.

"As first mate, you have to make hard decisions, even if I didn't like it, Stakar was still my Captain, the man who gave me a home, a family... We were taught that the Code was obsolete, and the fact that he would deal in children... I just couldn't face him."

"He didn't deal in them! He was lied to, and you wouldn't know that because you never cared enough to find out yourself."

"That's not true." he looked broken as he said it, but her heart was too cold at the moment to pity him. "Me and Yondu... we had like what you and Kraglin have."

"No, don't you dare compare that!" she found herself straightening up, squaring her shoulders almost like she was about to stand and walk away. "If Yondu had exiled him I would've tried to figure out why, I would've been there for him, we both would've for each other."

"You don't understand. You don't know how hard it was—He was my brother, we grew on that ship together, learned together. When Stakar brought him there I was twenty three, and I hadn't even made it to first mate yet. I was the first person Yondu trusted, and by the time he was healthy enough to train we trained together. Sound familiar?"

She didn't know how he knew, but she didn't have time to think about it, even if her mind couldn't help but imagine; her father, younger than she was now, and only a little older than she had been when brought to the Eclector, that weak and scared kid, even if anger was always their masks. Him and his big brother, just like Kraglin and her. He had been the first person she had trusted even a little, when he had kneeled in that cell and spoke softly to her. Some part of her knew from that moment that everything was going to be alright after that.

"You aren't the only one who has regrets, Tessa." Martinex's hallow voice sounded more distant, his words coming in a little breath of a sigh that sounded like the ringing vibrations of bells or metal—something in that noise like he was remembering times or recounting all the things he could have done different.

Maybe he had never said those three words she had never said either. Maybe it was too late for both of them.

Tess felt a lump lodge itself into her throat, its presence becoming more demanding as she thought longer on that regret, she would not have the same regret for Kraglin. Or Gamora, for that matter, so she collected herself and tried to make her case. Resorting to that emotionless, suck-it-up demeanor she took when she couldn't afford the emotions. "Listen, Sparkles," she said, leaning forward again. "It may be too late for you and your brother, but as far as I know, it ain't too late for me and mine, and if you truly cared about Yondu, then you'll be willing to do anything to help the man that made up a huge chunk of his world."

He didn't respond, but was sucked backwards in time when he heard her words, saw the way she acted, how she was like a replica of the man he had known. And how she could call him that. If it weren’t for the files him and Stakar has first received about her Terran origins, he would have believed in an instant that Yondu’s Centaurian blood was flowing through her veins.

"Bested again, that's nine outta twelve for me." Yondu, still only twenty years old had sneered in good nature down at the older man, pinned under his broad hands and his legs pressed into the floor by the Centaurian's knees.

"I let ya off easy for that." Martinex sassed, nodding towards his brother's busted lip and cheekbone leaking dark blue.

"Ah, don't be sore about it, Sparkles, ya just don't wanna admit I'm stronger than you."

He snickered up at him. "You're yet to make me bleed, Blue."

"Now that," Yondu hauled him back up one-handed, squinting at his taller stance. "Is real petty."

It hurt, even if he would never admit it, it just hurt.

All those years ago the two had sparred with each other over Yondu's considerable strength and Martinex's near-unbreakable body, both of them forever trying to best one another.

And then, there they were, separated in life and in heart, standing in the snow, golden eyes glaring into crimson and not a single word spoken yet so many hurts and truths revealed in those few seconds.

But no apologies, no forgiveness... nothing.

Strangers. Enemies.

"If you hate me, I understand," Tess said, forcing him back from the thoughts. "I do, too, but Kraglin means more to me than anything. He meant the world to Yondu, too."

His brother's son.

He carefully looked up at her. "How far are you willing to go for him?"

She picked apart the question, but there was only one answer. "I would die for him."

"I can't help you get him back without resources, and Stakar will have to authorize them."

"Can't or won't?"

"Can't."

"I know what this is about, but I would never betray someone who helped me, especially with something like this." She rose from her seat, feeling her anger start to boil over the flame of fear. "I don't have time for solutions that aren't definite."

"He wouldn't turn his back on his grandson."

"Yeah like he's done shit for him for years!" she hissed. "Don't you worry, T'Naga, I’ll figure it out myself. If I have to rip every archive apart myself, I will find him."

She didn't give him the chance to respond before she stalked away, but not before giving him a gesture of inclining her index finger towards him as she turned around, tossing the door open when she got to it.

He instantly knew that gesture, Stakar's gesture... he had passed it to Yondu, and in turn, to Tess. He wondered if she was purposely trying to be his replica or not.

But Martinex had heard what he needed to. She was loyal to who was loyal to her, and she was willing to die for her family, like a true Ravager.

- - -

Tess was shaking again as she walked briskly back towards her small ship, her footfalls not even registering. Not much was.

Her world fell into numbness when she realized she was back on square one, with no real way of finding out who those people had even been.

She was risking more each second. And now she had to deal with the surreal knowledge that she had just sat across from the man that was everything to Yondu that Kraglin was to her.

That she had just sat down and faced everything she had been running from and trying to hide from for the sake of her brother that she felt was all her life truly needed to be.

"Tessa."

She stopped like she had been shot through the chest when she heard that burnished voice behind her. She turned around slowly, just her head over her shoulder mostly.

Martinex was a few paces behind, seeming like he had hurried out of that brothel to make it this far before she left. "I can get you coordinates." he said. "But after that, I think that's all I can do."

Tess just stared for a few silent moments, almost like she was waiting for him to change his mind. It was too good of news after his initial refusal, she told herself.

"I have the feeling you don't need help on the physical side anyways. Just send me the information you have, and I can work into it."

Tess swallowed hard. "Thank you." she managed to get out, eyes going a little soft.

He nodded, and his eyes fell on the small flame emblem she had been subconsciously fidgeting with between her fingers, tied to a string that hung around her neck. She held onto that flame...the symbol of who they were, because her heritage had become the same as his. He found himself hitting his chest twice to her, a soft salute.

Tess nodded, blinking rapidly. But she couldn't get herself to do it back before she walked away.

- - -

"Tess, where the hell have you been?" Rocket started following her as she moved through the landing bay, walking fast to make it back up to the main deck.

So he had either been waiting for her, or he was the only one who knew she was coming back at that moment. For some reason he seemed so... protective of her since Yondu had died, even if he had a sort of strange way of showing it. Like he was trying not to make it clear. She wondered why but wasn't going to breach the subject right now, not when she was so close to having a lead.

"Getting intel."

"Wanna share how you came by that?"

She made it to the navi computer and Peter and Drax were already there, both looking at her like they expected a full explanation.

"I didn't kill anyone." she told Rocket as he continued behind her.

"I don't care about that, I just wanna know who from."

She stopped in her tracks, and looked at him, then glanced at Peter. "Ravagers."

Peter turned his head sideways a little, processing the answer. "Wait, Ravagers?" Tess didnt answer and went straight to the computer, fingers running across the controls almost as fast as Rocket usually did. Peter walked up right beside her. "Like you spoke to them?"

"I met up with them, I knew if I had even a little information on the ship then he could hack into that."

"Who? Stakar?"

"No. His first mate."

"And you didn't think this information should’ve been shared before you took off? Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"Because I needed to do it alone."

"No offense, but I dealt with them a lot longer than you did, you should've told me."

"Damn it, Peter, don't smother me! Nothing happened and I can handle myself."

Rocket was shaking his head but said nothing, Peter just pressed his lips together and started ambling back around the room, hands on his hips.

"Did you learn where Gamora and Kraglin are?" Drax asked, hands clenched like he was itching for a yes.

"I hope so."

"Hope so?" Rocket asked.

"Wait, a, second." Peter drew out his louder words, throwing a hand out to gesture at Drax. "You're not going to say anything to her?" his voice hit a higher tone.

"I asked her if she got the intel." Drax answered matter-of-factly.

"No. About her just leaving," he threw a hard glare at Tess. "without telling anyone."

"Tess can handle herself." Drax said like it was obvious, his broad shoulders lifting just slightly.

"Thank you, Drax." Tess said, giving an irritated look at the other two.

Rocket rolled his eyes as Peter turned around. "So, spit it out already. Where are they?" the anthropoid asked.

Tess pulled up a holo and ran her fingers across its surface, showing a glowing image on nearly the opposite side of the expanse of space the Quadrant hovered in now. She let out a breath. "I owe you one, Sparkles."

"That's halfway into the outer rim," Rocket said as he looked over the map. "Not only that, it’s in the Dark Sectors. Worse parts than anything you've seen in the frickin' Andromeda. Crime in there is a sorry excuse to what's in that Sector."

Peter's sea-green eyes were a little wide as he stared at the map, Drax squinting at it as if just waiting for them to say 'screw it' and forget the hesitation. "Yondu used to tell us that jobs out there were too risky to take, even some of the bigger factions got cut in half out there."

Tess nodded, swallowing and looking down. "None of you have to come. I can handle it myself."

"Like hell you can." Peter instantly said. "I didn't survive Ronan and a Celestial just to chicken shit out of a guild."

Tess looked at Rocket and Drax, both of them nodding, fire behind their eyes. "Alright then. Let's get them back."

"And kill everyone who gets in our way." Drax added.

"Agreed."

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