As we finally reached Orbit, the crew's morale was understandably low. The loss of one's Teammate is never easy. Like every loss, it came in Stages, and right now, they were all in the 1. One, Denial.
The scanners were turned to maximum after Rocket told everyone that he had given Yondu a space suit and an aero rig. Still, the possibility that they had survived, fighting that deep inside Ego, witnessing how it collapsed into itself right now, I had to say, wasn't the best.
"Operator, I managed to download myself onto the Liset, only leaving the most important parts for your survival on the Orbiter. For the last step, I have to do a reboot and will be offline for the next hour."
"Sure, Ordis, just make sure you tell me once you're online again," I replied.
"Of course, Operator, until then, don't di,e please, Ordis would never be able to forgive himself not being there for the Operator in any kind of need," he said and disconnected.
I just started researching for anything interesting on the data pad, as I heard one of the ship's scanners was showing a life form, and the suits' locating beacon was being activated.
"We got a life signal."
I said, pointing to the screen, after which everyone who looked out of the Window, as if that would help with these distances, suddenly turned their heads and ran to their seats, checking for themselves, and then got pinned to their seats as Rocked activated the thrusters at full power.
After some minutes, we could already see something coming our way, looking like a black dot with a blue light blinking on it.
Quill and Yondu touched down in the loading bay, sliding across the deck before slamming into the far wall. The aero-rig retracted from Yondus back and fell away, the Space suit of Quill doing the same.
Gamora, Groot, and Drax ran happily to Peter, Rocket staying behind, being with me, the only one who did not tune out the blue corps lying in the cargo bay.
I laid a hand on Rocket's shoulder, to which he didn't even react, after which I pushed him, making him stumble a bit.
He looked at me, confused and angry, but I only looked at him deadpan, gestured for him to go, and pointed at Peter, crying on the floor in Gamora's arms like a baby.
He first looked confused, then smiled gracefully and walked towards his believed dead friend.
I swear I could even see a tiny tear in his eye, if from happiness over a friend's wellbeing or sadness about his other friend's death, I couldn't say.
After some time, I felt a presence standing next to me. As I looked to my left, I saw Mantis, holding her neck, seemingly still not wholly recovered from the hit she took from me.
"Thank you for the healing thing," she said while smiling at me.
I just nodded and turned to the door, where Kaylin stood, tears rolling down his cheeks, trying to keep it together.
I nudged Mantis and nodded to him, which only gave me a confused look from her.
"Your powers help with emotions, don't they, they all are in emotional need right now, bring them together in a group hug or something and let them greave in unison, can you do that?" I asked her again, and all I got was a nod before she walked up to Kremlin, pulled his arm, and led him to the others.
Somehow, after some time, they all ended up in a circle in the middle of the room, hugging each other, crying tears of sorrow, sadness, and happiness at the same time.
I sighed and went to the flight deck, so that they had their moment together without any unwanted interruptions, where Nebula was sitting like a drop in the wind, obviously completely clueless about what to do.
I sat next to her, seeing how she slowly closed her eyes and put her head on the console.
"So bad, huh?" I asked, looking at her annoyed face, pressed against the tablet.
She just groaned and lay her head into her hands.
I shook my head and looked out of the window.
After an hour or so, Kraglin came up to the flight deck, where we were talking about ships. Nebula's interest suddenly peaked when I told her about mine; she seemed actually interested in seeing it, as I had promised her to show her once I got it back.
He said something, but got overshadowed by Ordis' voice echoing through my head.
"Operator, I'm proud to announce myself to be online and operational at full capacity again," He said, a good amount of content in his voice.
"Good to know, do some self diagnostics and come back to me later, you've caught me doing some socializing, so please repeat everything that happened till now as fast as conceivable for me, so I don't seem rude," I replied.
"I'm so sorry, operator, I should have looked at your surroundings and situation first. There really seems to be some diagnostics in order. Here are the recordings of the last seconds."
Kaylin spoke to me, so much I remembered, and then all sounds drowned away as Ordis replayed what happened, as I asked him to.
Suddenly, Kraglin was leaning over me after I didn't answer his question, slapping my cheek, which didn't register with me.
I was still looking straight ahead, not moving.
Kraglin waved his hand before my face, then looked back to the others, saying something, but there was no sound.
Drax was suddenly shaking me, but I stayed unresponsive.
Nebula just gave up and sat down again.
Finally, they decided that Kraglin would slap me and Drax would hold my arms and legs together, while Gamora poured a bucket of ice-cold water onto me, hoping it would help somehow.
But it didn't, I was still sitting there, unresponsive, until Drax got frustrated enough to hit me again, which made me jerk up, and holding his arm in a reflex, Drax was not able to free himself, scanning my surroundings, again on track with what happened, and let go of his arm, some bruises seemingly forming.
Everyone stood around me, well, everyone except for Nebula, who was sitting at the flight console, seemingly looking for something on the radar.
Gamora sighed in relief and looked at me with a questioning look.
"What was that all about?" she asked, clearly representing the thoughts everyone had right now in their heads.
"Sorry about that, I lost the connection for a second," I said reflexively, only to lead to more questions than answers.
I went over to Drax and sprayed my healing mist on his arms, which he analyzed with interest, seemingly being fine with the adrenaline shot.
"You lost connection. What does that even mean?" Quill asked, slightly agitated, rightfully.
"Well, that was pretty much the worst answer I could give," I said to myself.
"Technically not Operator, but I know what you mean. Might I suggest an escape route?"
He asked, and I just shook my head, leading to even more confusion with the crew.
"It's complicated, I'm fine, so don't worry about it," I tried with a new approach.
Rocket laughed sarcastically and then spoke with a mean undertone.
"Don't worry about it, I mean, I'm not a doctor for whatever species you're from, but being completely unresponsive for straight up two minutes is not fine." The rest of them nod in support.
"As I said, it's complicated," I tried again, now slightly confused by their seeming worry for a total stranger.
"Then decomplicate it, my friend, we share such secrets around here if we want this whole being a big fucking happy family business to work," Gamora said, clearly more agitated than I thought.
"So I'm part of a Family now," I thought sarcastically in my head,
"Well, that was quick. Yondu was about the same amount of time with them as I was, though. Rocket said earlier that he was also part of the Team as he died. Well, he said, family, but what do I know, mine is dead or scattered throughout Time and space, when you look at it from a certain angle. I guess a new one wouldn't really do any harm, would it?" I tried to reason with myself, still trying to figure out if it was a figure of speech or if Gamora really meant what she said.
Gamora spoke again, putting a hand on her hip like an angry mom.
"You put your life on the line for everyone here, without you, Quill, me, and Nebula would definitely be dead from what he has told me, and this whole thing would have been a whole lot less smooth without you on board, so forgive us for worrying about you," she said, speaking herself into a rage.
"Wait," said Drax,
"Do we even know his Name?" he asked, the group looking at each other, everyone seemingly thinking they were the only ones not knowing.
"You can call me Tenno, I don't really have a Name," He said as he sat down, the conversation not going in a direction he was really confident in.
"A Warrior like you has to have a Name."
Drax said, seemingly confused.
"Well, Lotus never really called my siblings and me anything other than Tenno, inspired by the ship we gained our powers from, the Zariman Ten-Zero, so Ten-O, but it's more a race description than a Name," I thought as I just shook my head in denial.
"Then I will give you a Name, Drax the Destroyer. Shall you give my name honor and glory so that everyone thinks I am the one doing the deed?" He said, sticking out his chest proudly, seemingly very confident in that Idea.
"That's the most stupid shit I ever heard", Rocket said while shaking his head.
"I am Groot," Groot said, looking at me, smiling.
"Operator, he said, and I quote, Yes, Drax is the most stupid Name I ever heard of."
I just nodded at him, Rocket smiling as he realized he didn't have to translate, then he frowned as he realized what he didn't have to translate.
"I think he should choose his name for himself," Gamora said, getting a round of nods from all the other adults around.
"Then I will think about it, but yeah, I'm fine, I will explain another time, just know, this is a Warframe, and I connect to it through a mental link. That connection was lost for a second, more I won't share at the Moment."
I said, trying to calm them down.
They all looked at each other again, even more questions popping up in their heads, then Kraglin spoke up.
"Ok, let's leave him alone now, come on, we have things to do," he said, dragging Drax away, who still wanted to argue.
The rest followed behind him, leaving Nebula and me sitting next to each other; she was the only one staying with me, which I found annoying.
"She probably wants to talk about my ship and its stealth capabilities again," I thought, trying not to catch her attention while typing on the Data-pad again.
Observer POV:
Yondu's body rested on a wooden plank in the center of the Eclector's crematory. Strips of cloth in deep, vivid colors lay across him, covering his face and chest. Yaro lilies were arranged beneath him, their petals pale in the red light cast by small pyres. Around the plank, a scatter of his trinkets and toys had been laid.
Rocket, Groot, Drax, Gamora, Mantis, and Kraglin formed a loose circle around the bier. At the head stood Quill. His hands gripped the edge of the plank, his shoulders tight. When he began to speak, his voice was rough.
"The other day I told Gamora how I used to pretend my dad was David Hasselhoff."
Rocket glanced at Drax, who returned the look without comment.
"He's a singer and actor from Earth," Quill went on, "a really famous guy."
Drax gave a slow nod.
"And, you know… today it struck me. Yondu didn't have a talking car, but he did have a flying arrow. And he didn't have the voice of an angel, but he did have the whistle of one. And both David Hasselhoff and Yondu went on kickass adventures, hooked up with hot women, and fought robots."
A faint breath of laughter stirred in the stillness.
"So… the thing is, David Hasselhoff kinda did end up being my dad after all—only he was Yondu. I had a pretty cool dad."
His voice wavered, the words dragging as emotion caught in his throat.
"And what I'm trying to say is… that thing you're searching for your whole life? Sometimes it's right there by your side all along, and you don't even know it."
At the edge of the light, Nebula stood half-shadowed in the doorway, Rhinos' frame shimmering next to her. She watched for a moment, expression unreadable, before turning away. Gamora's eyes followed her, then she padded after her, Rhino watching after them as they turned around the corner.
Groot's gaze rose toward Rocket, who stood with his head lowered.
"I am Groot?" the small voice asked.
Rocket's mouth twitched. "Yeah. That's the friend I was talking about."
"I am Groot."
"He did call you 'twig.'"