Chapter Text
“With one simple action, half the universe’s population was gone. It’s a moment I’ve seen many times as a Watcher, but this is first time I’ve seen it where Rocket Raccoon’s friends still lived. Separated from his mate, Rocket can only hope that Lylla is still alive out there- and the otter in question hopes the same as she, Nebula, and their newest ally make a desperate attempt to get to Earth…”
Onboard the Benatar, Lylla watched sullenly as Tony Stark (Iron Man’s real name) and Nebula played tabletop football- or at least, Stark was attempting to teach Nebula to play the game. The cyborg woman instinctually tried to grab the paper triangle out of the air every time Stark flicked it at her. Melancholy music played from the ship’s sound system as Nebula once again slapped the “ball” from the air.
“You really don’t need to do that because you’re just holding the position,” Tony said. He made his fingers into the goalpost and let Nebula have a turn flicking the ball, her shot going way off to the side. “…That was close.”
Nebula tried a few more times until she finally made a shot between the posts. “That’s one Nebula, one Tony,” Lylla sighed.
The two went back and forth, making goals until Nebula made one more point than Tony, winning the game. “Did you have fun?” he asked, holding out a hand to her.
Nebula shook it. “It was fun. Lylla, face me next.”
“Maybe next time, Nebula,” Lylla muttered, getting up from the table and wandering over to the ship’s controls. They were on autopilot at the moment, course set to Earth at a snail’s pace due to the Benatar’sextensive damage from their battle on Titan. No jump gates, damaged life support… “Rocky, I hope you’re still out there somewhere with the others…” she whispered to herself.
The sound of something clicking on turned her attention behind herself, seeing Tony sit himself down in front of his Iron Man helmet. The remaining nanotech of his suit was only enough to sustain the helmet, with which the human had been recording messages. Lylla stayed quiet as Tony began to speak:
“This thing on…? Hey, Miss Potts. Pep. If you find this recording… don’t post it on social media. It’s gonna be a real tearjerker. I don’t know if you’re ever gonna see these. I don’t even know if you’re still… Oh God, I hope so. Today’s Day 21? No, uh, 22. You know, if it wasn’t for the existential terror of staring into the literal void of space, I’d say I’m feeling a little better today.
“Infection’s run its course thanks to the talking space otter over there. Oh, you’d love her. Very adorable, and only a tiny bit sarcastic. We’ve been working with the Blue Meanie back there to try and fix the ship… The fuel cells were cracked during the battle, and we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge and bought ourselves about 48 hours of flight time. Uh, but it’s now dead in the water. Thousand lightyears from the nearest 7-Eleven. Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning… and that’ll be it.
“Pep, I know I said no more surprises, but I gotta say I was really hoping to pull of one last one. But it looks like… Well, you know what it looks like. Don’t feel bad about this. I mean, actually, if you grovel for a couple weeks… and then more on with enormous guilt… I should probably lie down for a minute. Go rest my eyes. Please know… when I drift off, it’ll be like every night lately. I’m fine. Totally fine. I dream about you. Because it’s always you.”
Tony turned off the helmet to end the recording, laying on the ground and closing his eyes. Silently, Nebula and Lylla moved the human into one of the chairs, his jacket wrapped around him for warmth. His speech had brought tears to Lylla’s eyes, as they had every night Tony recorded a message for Miss Potts. She didn’t know the woman at all, but the way he spoke about her reminded Lylla of how she felt about Rocket.
‘Neither of us may see our soulmates again…’ Lylla thought, a hand going to her stomach. ‘Oh Rocky, how I wish we could be together right now so I could tell you about…’
Suddenly, outside of the window, a bright light floated into view. Lylla swore it looked like one of the angels Quill had told her about. She looked near human, with an ethereal glow around her body as she floated in space, radiant energy spilling off her form. “Who… who are you?” Lylla gasped.
“My name is Carol Danvers. The Avengers sent me to help,” the angel said, giving a small smile.
It had been a somber past few days for Rocket. Stuck on Earth with only Thor as a familiar face, the raccoon had left with the Avengers back to their base in America. Rocket had given them the basics of who he was (Guardian of the Galaxy, illegal genetic experiment, team leader) but mostly kept to himself. He cried a lot in that time, too, clutching tightly to his communicator in hopes that Lylla or anyone else on the team would reach out to him.
The other day, a human woman in wat Rocket recognized as a modified Kree uniform arrived on the planet, looking for someone called Nick Fury. Her name was Carol Danvers, an old friend of Fury’s who’d received a distress signal from the man. The Avengers explained to Carol what had happened with Thanos, with Rocket providing her the information that the other Guardians had gone to Titan and never returned. The space woman promised to go look for them there, and all Rocket had left was hope that his family was still alive out there.
Late in the night, a low rumble in the air made Rocket’s ears perk up. The raccoon ran outside, looking up to see Carol flying down with the Benatar in her grasp. “She did it… She actually flarking did it…!” Rocket said, a tearful smile coming to his face as Carol set the ship down.
Rocket was the first to run towards the Benatar was the exit ramp came down, the raccoon practically launching himself into Lylla’s arms, the two spinning as they held tightly in an embrace. “LYLLA!” Rocket cried. “I’m never leaving you again! I thought I- I thought…”
Lylla kissed him on the nose. “I thought I wasn’t going to see you again, too,” she answered, pressing her forehead to his. “…On Titan, we tried to stop Thanos, but… Floor died before my eyes, Rocket, and the others… Only Nebula is left.”
“I watched Groot and Teefs turn to dust,” Rocket replied. He looked up at Nebula, the cyborg taking a seat on the ramp. “Thanks for keeping my lady safe.”
Nebula simply nodded, the two animals taking a seat beside her as they took a moment. The Avengers greeted their friend, Tony, as well, one female with red hair in particular giving him a kiss. “That must be Pepper,” Lylla noted. “Tony’s wife. He’s kinda like you, Rocky, but with armor instead of guns.” The otter shifted, wondering if she should tell him about the two souls inside of her… but thought against it for now. They needed time to recover before discussing that topic.
Eventually everyone regrouped inside the Avengers base, the human called Rhodey giving everyone a briefing on what had been going down recently. “It’s been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth,” he said.
“World governments are in pieces. The parts that are still working are trying to take a census and it looks like he did…” Natasha, the Avenger known as Black Widow, said. “He did exactly as he said he was gonna do. Thanos wiped out 50% of all living creatures.”
“…Where is he now? Where?” Tony asked.
“We don’t know. He just opened a portal and walked through,” Steve answered.
Lylla looked over at Thor, the god contemplative and silent. “What’s wrong with Thor?”
“He’s pissed. He thinks he failed,” Rocket replied. “Which of course he did, but there’s a lot of that going around, ain’t there?”
Tony looked at Rocket, doing a double take. “You’re the Rocky Lylla was talking about? I thought you’d be…?”
“An otter like her? Rocket’s the name, don’t forget it,” Rocket snarked.
“We’ve been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep space scans and satellites, and we got nothing,” Steve continued the briefing. “Tony, you fought him.”
“Who told you that?” Tony questioned. “I didn’t fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleeker Street Magician gave away the store. That’s what happened. There was no fight, ‘cause he’s not beatable.”
“Did he give you any clues, any coordinates, anything?” Steve asked.
Tony shook his head. “I had a vision, a few years back. I didn’t want to believe it. Thought I was dreaming.”
“Tony, I’m gonna need you to focus-” Steve started.
“And I needed you. As in, past tense. That trumps what you need. It’s too late, buddy,” Tony spat, slamming the table. “You know what I need? I need a shave. And I believe I remember telling you all youse, alive and otherwise, that what we needed was a suit of armor around the world. Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not. That’s what we needed.”
“Well that didn’t work out, did it?” Steve said.
“I said we’d lose. You said, “We’ll do that together, too.” And guess what Cap? We lost. And you weren’t there,” Tony retorted. “But that’s what we do, right? Our best work after the fact? We’re the “Avengers.” Not the “Pre-vengers.”
Rocket and Lylla shuffled in their seats awkwardly. Both of them only knew bits and pieces of what the Avengers had done for Earth from their time spent with them, and clearly there was tension between Tony and Steve. Tony continued to chew out Steve before collapsing from exhaustion, his time in space having done a number on his body. Lylla was silently thankful her augmentations let her survive longer than most organic beings, one of the few things she could say her “creator” had ever done for her.
Pepper stayed by Tony’s side as they put him in bed, everyone else contemplating what their next action should be. “You guys take care of him, and I’ll bring him a Xorrian elixir when I come back,” Carol said, walking off.
“Where are you going?” Steve asked.
“To kill Thanos,” Carol replied.
Natasha called out to her, “Hey. You know, we usually work as a team here and, uh, between you and I, morale’s a little fragile.”
“We realize up there is more your territory, but this is our fight too,” Steve added.
“Do you even know where he is?” Rhodey questioned.
“I know people who might,” Carol said.
“Don’t bother. I can tell you where Thanos is,” Nebula said as she walked into the room. “Thanos spent a long time trying to perfect me. And when we worked, he talked about his Great Plan. Even dissembled, I wanted to please him. I’d ask where would we go when his plan was complete? And his answer was always the same, “To the Garden.””
“That’s cute. Thanos has a retirement plan,” Rhodey snarked.
“So where is he?” Steve asked.
Rocket stepped out, producing a holo-map of the universe. “When Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became ground zero for a power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions. No one’s ever seen anything like it. Until two days ago, on this planet.” He pointed out a planet on the far side of the galaxy.
“Thanos is there,” Nebula nodded.
“He used the stones again,” Natasha put together.
“We’d be going in shorthanded, you know?” Banner pointed out.
“He does still have the stones…” Lylla frowned.
“So let’s get him,” Carol shrugged. “Use them to bring everyone back.”
“Just like that?” Banner questioned.
“Yeah. Just like that,” Steve nodded.
“Even if there’s a small chance that we can undo this… I mean, we owe it to everyone who’s not in this room to try,” Natasha agreed.
“If we do this, how can we know it’s going to end any differently than before?” Banner argued.
“Because before you didn’t have me,” Carol answered.
Hey new girl, everyone in this room has been superheroing for a long time. Where the hell have you been this entire time?” Rhodey asked.
“There are a lot of other planets in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn’t have you guys,” Carol replied.
Thor stood up from his seat, summoning Stormbreaker an inch from Carol’s face. When she didn’t flinch, the god and space hero shared a knowing smirk. “I like this one,” Thor said.
“Let’s go get this son of a bitch,” Steve said, the decision final as what remained of the Avengers assembled to save the universe once more.
After making some repairs to the Benatar, the team blasted off to where the infinity energy had been detected. Carol did a quick recon flight over the planet once they arrived to confirm that only Thanos stood to oppose them on the surface. Once a plan was made, they executed it without mercy. Thanos didn’t know what hit him: Carol went in first, firing her cosmic blast before putting the titan in a headlock. Banner and Rhodey went in next, using the Hulkbuster and War Machine armors respectively to pin down his arms. Finally, Thor struck true with his axe, severing the gauntlet from Thanos’ body.
Rocket and Lylla entered the hut alongside Steve and Natasha, the two animals securing the gauntlet… only to find the stones were missing. “Oh no…” Rocket said, Lylla covering her mouth in a gasp.
“Where are they?” Steve asked Thanos.
“Carol tightened her grip on the titan’s neck. “Answer the question.”
“The universe required correction. After that, the stones served no purpose besides temptation,” Thanos explained.
“You murdered trillions!” Banner shouted, pushing Thanos over.
“You should be grateful,” Thanos said, getting a punch to the face for his troubles.
“Where are the stones?” Natasha demanded.
“Gone. Reduced to atoms,” Thanos answered.
“You used them two days ago!” Lylla pointed out.
“I used the stones to destroy the stones,” Thanos replied. “It nearly killed me, but now the work is done. It always will be. I am inevitable.”
“We have to tear this place apart. He must be lying,” Rhodey argued.
“My father is many things; a liar is not one of them,” Nebula shook her head.
“Thank you, daughter,” Thanos said. “Perhaps I treated you too harshly.”
In a rage Thor lashed out, severing Thanos’ head from his body.
“Thor… what did you do?” Rocket said in shock.
“…I went for the head,” Thor replied, saying nothing else as he left the hut.
Everyone returned to Earth after that, feeling well and truly defeated. The stones were lost, and Thanos had gotten what he wanted, with no way of reversing it. Even with a repaired ship, Rocket and Lylla were hesitant to get back out there as the only two remaining Guardians of the Galaxy (Nebula was practically part of the team now, but they hadn’t asked if she wanted to stay after everything that had gone down involving her father). The two were offered a room at the Avengers base, which they gladly took until they knew for certain what their next steps should be.
A few days later, Lylla stepped out of a medical checkup with Dr. Banner, Rocket waiting for her outside. “How’s she looking, doc?” Rocket asked.
“Well, I’m not exactly a medical doctor, and I have even less experience with… non-humans,” Banner replied. “But the equipment we have here at the base I can say she’s fully recovered from whatever effects her time stranded in space may have had on her.”
“That’s great!” Rocket smiled, giving his mate a hug.
“There’s uh, also… something else…” Banner stuttered. “But I’ll, uh, let Lylla tell you that part.”
Rocket looked at Lylla curiously. “Rocky… remember the fun time we had during our honeymoon?”
“How could I forget?” Rocket chuckled. “One of the best flarking nights of my life.”
“Well… during my encounter with Thanos on Titan, something strange happened when he used the Soul Stone on me,” Lylla said, her hands going to her stomach.
Rocket’s eyes went wide in shock. “What- But- huh!?! Are you seriously suggesting that you- that I- that we-?”
“Yes, Rocket… I’m pregnant,” Lylla nodded, giving a small laugh as Rocket picked her up and twirled her around.
“Lady that’s- that’s incredible! We’re gonna have a kid- I’m gonna be a dad!” Rocket grinned.
“You already were a dad, Rocky,” Lylla said.
The raccoon got somber for a moment. “…I wish Groot was here. He’d be thrilled to know he’s got a little brother or sister on the way.”
“Floor and Teefs would be excited to be aunts. They all would,” Lylla said sadly. “But even if they’re got now, we have to keep living for their sakes, and for our child’s.”
“Excuse me, did I just here that the otter and the raccoon are having a kid?” Tony asked, entering the room. “I may be the tech guy, but I’m pretty sure biology doesn’t work like that- unless you two are just weird aliens that look like Build-a-Bears.”
“It may seem impossible, Tony, but that’s what the medical scans show,” Banner stated.
“I do have a theory about how this is possible,” Lylla said. “During our first time saving the galaxy, our team combined our efforts to hold the Power Stone and defeat a Kree warlord, Ronan the Accuser. I had decided in preliminary scans that direct exposure to the stone’s power had imprinted some of its energy into all of us Guardians.”
“So the magic space rocks let you two…” Tony made a “banging” motion with his hands.
“Yeah, Stark, the magic space rocks let me knock up my lady. Not everything in this galaxy can be explained by science,” Rocket rolled his eyes.
“I’d argue against that,” Tony shrugged. “Pepper and I are… we’re expecting our own kid too, now. Almost feels like the universe is playing a sick joke in a way.”
“We just have to keep living, Tony. To guide the next generation so they can rise and be greater than we are,” Lylla said. “We lost the battle today, but we can use this loss to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“…So, are you going to call your kid an ottacoon or a rotter?” Tony said.
“Flark you too, Stark,” Rocket sighed.