At Arthur's request, the ship's course was changed. Yondu didn't argue, he simply complied, and the entire spacecraft veered toward the Sovereign's territory.
According to the star charts, the journey would take at least half a month. Conveniently, that time gave Arthur a chance to recover and heal.
But lying in bed was torment, an agony only those who had been through it could understand. Especially when even the simplest act of turning over required someone else's help. That kind of dependence was torture that gnawed at the soul.
The first two days were the worst. Arthur genuinely felt like a useless wreck.
Eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, rolling over, pulling up a blanket, every little thing required assistance.
The only small mercy was that Tony was the one helping him… not Natasha. In the midst of his humiliation, that was the one comfort he could cling to.
Things between him and Natasha were already painfully awkward. If she had to be the one handling such personal, intimate tasks, Arthur was certain he wouldn't even be able to look her in the eye again.
And yet, once all those tasks were finished, Natasha would always come to sit quietly by his bedside.
"I don't have to take care of you," She said once, her gaze unwavering. "But I have to see you."
When Natasha said that, Arthur knew, no excuse he could come up with would drive her away.
Sometimes, he thought back to Tony's words: Why not just have both?
But the very thought made him want to slap himself. Such a selfish, shameful idea.
When a woman is willing to entrust her entire life to you, what right do you have to accept another? What arrogance makes you think you can shoulder that weight?
No, it wasn't even about responsibility anymore.
It was about fairness.
It would be unfair to Natasha and Lily. And, ultimately, it would be unfair to all three of them.
It was unbearable. Not the melodramatic kind of suffering, though it sounded that way, but a real, grinding torment that left him trapped in a deadlock with no way forward. And by the look of it, this dilemma wasn't going to let him go anytime soon.
It took three full days before Arthur could even set his feet on the ground for the simplest of activities. Like a patient fresh out of major surgery, he staggered through the motions of rehabilitation, trembling with every step.
But the effort brought him no real progress.
Because his affliction wasn't of the body, it ran deeper than that.
He even tried using the Eye of Horus to accelerate his recovery. The effect was negligible, laughably so. Even the Eye itself seemed feeble and lifeless when he drew it.
At this point, the only remedy was time. Only by waiting, only with patience, would his body return to its proper state.
Since physical training was meaningless, Arthur turned his attention to what he could do. He sought Yondu out, and the two revisited a discussion they had once already agreed upon, one concerning the matter of cooperation.
At first, Arthur's negotiations with Yondu had been awkward. The lingering friction between Star-Lord and Yondu didn't help, mostly because of a misunderstanding, one entirely on Star-Lord's side. Their cooperation had felt like sneaking around in the shadows.
But after recent events, the two finally managed to get their relationship back on track.
The truth was, their so-called grudge came from a joke.
When Star-Lord was a child, he had been led to believe he'd been kept aboard Yondu's ship as… emergency rations. He carried that belief for years. In reality, Yondu had discovered Ego's secret and deliberately kept Peter with him, cutting ties with Ego entirely.
As far as Ego was concerned, he had sired far too many children for one to matter. There was no need to make a fuss over a single boy. And so, Star-Lord ended up living under Yondu's wing for years.
When Peter finally learned the truth, he and Yondu had a massive blowout fight… only for it to end with Peter sobbing like a child in Yondu's arms. That happened after they returned from Ego's planet. Arthur had been unconscious then, missing the scene entirely, a regret he'd call one of the great tragedies of his life.
Luckily, Tony had recorded the whole thing. Arthur had watched it plenty.
Because of all this, Arthur's dealings with Yondu now went smoothly. He owed Yondu and the Ravagers a massive debt of gratitude. To the ones who hadn't betrayed Yondu, Arthur wasn't just an ally, he was their savior. He had saved all of their lives.
Helping Arthur out was the least they could do. And with Star-Lord's face on top of it, there wasn't a Ravager who would say no.
Once those discussions wrapped up, Arthur turned his mind to other matters.
For example, how to handle the Sovereign.
The Sovereign were no helpless people. Their signature titanium-steel batteries were a rare energy source across the galaxy. A species producing something that valuable would've been wiped out long ago without the means to defend themselves.
But after two crushing defeats, the Sovereign weren't in any shape to stand against Arthur and his allies.
The group agreed on their approach. They were going to reason with the Sovereign. That meant no killing.
The Superhero Alliance wasn't a band of butchers. Everything they did was for the safety of the universe, or, if you narrowed it down, for Earth. Slaughter for its own sake wasn't their way.
The plan was simple: infiltrate in disguise, land directly inside the Sovereign's palace, subdue all key personnel, and then reason with them.
When Tony heard the plan, his eyes lit up. He rubbed his hands together. "If we can figure out the production process for those titanium-steel batteries, I could power my armor, and maybe even Sumer, with a whole new energy source!"
His capitalist enthusiasm was immediately shot down by Arthur. "We're going to reason with them, not loot their labs. We are not stealing scientific research!"
Tony blinked in disbelief, then Arthur added, almost as an afterthought:
"Of course, if they feel deeply remorseful about the damage they've caused us, they might voluntarily hand over a few things as compensation. After all, as a defeated nation, they should pay some kind of price."
Tony's grin returned instantly.
Star-Lord looked around the group, a little uneasy. "…We are the good guys here, right?"
Everyone nodded in unison.
Star-Lord forced himself to believe it.
(End of Chapter)
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