New York - Rooftop (November 2017)

[DarkSideCookie]

New York - Rooftop

The rooftop of a building, located in the heart of New York

[DarkSideCookie]

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One month ago

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It was one day after Andro had met this interesting woman with the blue skin in the so-called Bar With No Name. There was something about her fascinating him in a way he didn't understand. Not yet that was. He would keep track of that something and maybe it would lead him to the answer he was searching for so long already. How to get his plan into rolling. He had made effort to get himself a partner already in the past, but in the end, all of it had been for nothing. Maybe it had been just the wrong aspirant though.

This was one of those late night trips he called his missions. Disguised as, what, thanks to the media, people were calling the White Shadow or which stupid alter ego names else, Andro jumped from facade to facade, from roof to roof and shadow to shadow, making sure nobody was watching him for more than a glimpse if at all. He wasn't all too zealous to get another name. Why would he need a fake name to hide behind anyway? Just like these people calling themselves The Avengers, every one of them going by their own ridiculous pseudonym with which they put themself on a pedestal. No, he didn't need that. Everything counting for him was the mission itself. Maybe not leading to the final plan he had worked out in all the years, but one step closer to a better world, until he would have found the answer. One infected person less. Infected by the voracity for power.

Andro had observed his recent target for already quite a while because, before he went on a mission, he always had to make sure he wasn't mistaken. Something he couldn't forgive himself, as that would mean he was not more than just a murderer. Eventually, he stopped his steps, barely breathing after such a run. To control his body and so his breath was the result of years of training back in the time when he had lived in isolation after gotten free from captivity.

With quiet steps, almost catlike, Andro entered through the sliding glass door on one of the rooftops, after circumvented the locking mechanism. No difficult task for him nowadays. He was used to such decadent amenities and regal views because power was paralleled by property, which didn't mean property was by power, but honestly, never did he met a person with property but no power. So for him, those were acquisitions going hand in hand.

Carefully did Andro close the door behind, before walking straight up to something in the middle of the room. He moved along like it was his own house because after all that observations and preparations of the last weeks it felt like it was. Place, time and obstacles. Everything had been planned in minute detail. And so he was aware of the fact he would find his target sleeping in that ostentatious looking bed in the middle of this bedroom, located in the highs of this building, with a view over the beating heart of New York.

But the bed was empty...

Suddenly something was hitting him in the back, almost forcing him to his knees.

"You really thought I'd make it that easy for you?", a voice was accompanying the single gasp that left his lungs. Indeed something he hadn't been prepared for. But instead of giving his attacker the chance for another strike with that baseball bat in his hands, Andro turned around with one quick move, facing the man, who seemed to have hid behind the curtains, from out of the eye slits of his costume, actually being more a common fencing bout suit than a real costume.

"Oh, I've noticed you kept watching me like I was a grilled cheese sandwich. And then I was asking myself: Why the hell does he? What is the matter with this guy? It actually didn't take me long to come behind." Andro kept watching the man, wordless, and with not the slightest reaction on his features, which were mostly hidden behind white fabric anyway. He was surprised, yes, but wasn't this happening the first time. He would complete his mission, one way or another. While the man was talking, obviously something pleasing him a lot, which Andro was used to as well, the assassin started to scan the surrounding out of the corner of his eyes.

"So, you wanna know what made me come behind?" Andro wasn't giving him any reaction to that question either. The man would tell him anyway. And so he did. Predictable. "It was my brother. You might not remember his face, but I was the one who had to find it, lifeless staring back at me." The confident tone in his target's voice mixed up with anger. That was good. Anger let people act uncareful. Something Andro could use to his advantage. He let the man talk himself into that anger just a little more before he would move again. "I don't know what kind of a crazy asshole you are, but I won't allow you to kill me as well. And also, I will..."

And then finally there was a moment to use. With one quick move, Andro whipped his sword out of the scabbard, attached to the back of his suit, and jabbed out in the man's chest direction. A stab through nothing than air that had become though. This man was a skilled person just like him, maybe not exactly just like him, but on a dignified level.

"Nice try.", the man spat out in anger, and almost in the same second used the short moment of Andro's surprise to his advantage.

The breaking of glass was resounding through the night, when Andro was sent outside with only one hard push, some splinters leaving a laceration right next to his left eye. The man was following outside, ready to start another attack, but this time Andro was prepared. He wouldn't allow himself another moment of carelessness. And so he was faster being back at his feet than the man approaching ready for a new strike. This already had become a fight, different from the usual procedure of his missions. Normally Andro was able to be discreet and careful enough to deliver his targets from their pain, the inner pain he was a firm believer about, caused by the plague coming over world's civilization, while they were sleeping. This time anyway, it seemed he had to improvise. But then, it wasn't looking like he would lose the fight anyway, everything happening within seconds.

[Ariel]

Frustrations arose within Nebula as she grew impatient. She hated waiting on others for their help when she knew what was at stake. Thanos was still out there, alive and inflicting pain and suffering to others just as he had done to Nebula. With these feelings, Nebula knew that staying cooped up in hiding would only cause more anger towards more than just Thanos, and in realization that this situation might be a lot more long term than she thought, she needed an outlet. Nebula needed to keep her focus, especially if she wanted to win against the evil that destroyed any sort of soul she might have had.

Reaching the top of one of the taller buildings in New York, Nebula peered around her surroundings to make sure that she was alone. She was careful to pick a time of night in which she knew that not many civilians would be out to spot her, and was relieved that she was right so far. She paused for a brief moment to scan the view of New York and it's parade of bright lights. Feelings of disgust for the planet's pitiful inhabitants still resided within Nebula, yet there was something enticing about this city that drew her in. Perhaps it was the breathtaking views, or maybe it was the underlying dark side of something so beautiful that drew her curiosity. Something she felt she could almost relate to on this ridden disease fest these inhabitants called home. 

Stepping out of the spotlight and back into the shadows of the night, Nebula leaned against one of the beams that protruded from the building. Drawing in a breath, Nebula closed her eyes and allowed her built up angst take over. Nebula's mind retreated to her childhood, how Thanos stole her away from her home, struck her down and created her into a lifeless deadly weapon, forced her to battle her adoptive siblings and receive punishment for her losses. Leaving her with nothing but excruciating suffering and memories of torture and abuse. These thoughts made her grind her teeth as she clenched both fists. Finally her eyes ripped open in fury, and in an instant her hands found their way to her batons. Letting her enraged anger pour out of her in a yell,  she leaped forward and brought her electrifying weapons down in a patio table, splitting it into shreds. Then she ran. Like a loaded spring, Nebula leaped from building to building as she picked up speed among the shadows of the structures. The amount of fury Thanos caused to rise within her was immense, and Nebula wasn't sure how much longer she could take it.

She began to start to slow herself down once she felt more centered. Falling to her hands and knees, Nebula made an attempt to catch her breath. Her eyes wandered to the puddle before her where her reflection was revealed by the bright light of the full moon above. She turned her head to the side, scanning her face. Her arm. Gazing at what she had become. At everything Thanos took from her and replaced with something better.

"Look at what you did to me. What you made me become," Nebula's voice quivered with pain. She could still hear Thanos scolding her for her losses in battle, telling her how flesh is weak, how her weaknesses must be cast aside for power...."You will pay for this. Limb by limb...your head being last so that you can watch me do exactly what you have done to me," Nebula's bionic fist slammed down into her reflection in the puddle. 

The sound of voices made Nebula's gaze snap upwards. Bringing herself to her feet, she quickly found solitude behind a brick structure on the rooftop she was on. Carefully, she peeked her head around to see the commotion unfold before her. Nebula watched a fight between two men unfold in the near distance, one seemed to be wearing a peculiar white suit that covered his body from head to toe. Her black eyes scanned the opponents intensely, as this was no ordinary midnight bar fight, no. Both men seemed somewhat skilled in their craft. Nebula didn't care to join in as she didn't value the life of either one of these earthlings. However, it had been so long since she had been in a good brawl that she was almost jealous. Mildly entertained, Nebula kept her distance as she mindfully placed her bet on the winner as she was keen to know how this would end for the two fighters.

[DarkSideCookie]

If this hadn't become a battle instead of just a mission on the quiet, it might not have slipped his attention that somebody was watching. It didn't happen often, but whenever it did, Andro was, in point of fact, no one eliminating watchers. Despite the risk a nonaction could mean, he never would kill somebody affect-based because to do so would mean to literally murder somebody. That was not what he was doing; not from his point of view at least.
Well, there must have been some survived watchers anyway, regarding the fact that he had made it into New York's gossip rag with people come up with names such as White Shadow.

And so Andro went on fighting a man, who wasn't aware of the fact he had already lost something much more valuable than his life. His soul. But as much as the man was struggling, he would commit a mistake sooner or later anyway. And then there came the moment when exactly that was happening.

"You might think you win this, but..."

Andro took the chance without any hesitation and stabbed the point of his sword right through the man's heart, a spot he was never missing. Just as the mistake always was the same. Something he spent no energy with. Talking.

With his eyes closed, he waited for the life completely dissipating like the haze of someone's breath in an ice-cold night, before he carefully drew out the sword from the dead. This had never been about winning or losing. It had just been about delivering a soul from the disease that had taken control over it. And now it could be free, returning to everyone's source of origin.

[Ariel]

Nebula's sight was locked on the ever talented fight between the two men, moving her head in every direction they carried themselves as she didn't want to miss out on a single bit of this entertaining fight to the death. The moment that the stranger in White's weapon speared straight through his opponent, Nebula was drawn in even more. She watched the stranger as he withdrew his sword from his opponent who slid limply to the rooftop floor. The fight was over, there was nothing more to watch here. However, Nebula could not remove herself from the moment as she couldn't help but marvel in the way this stranger took in his victory. Nebula watched him savor every drop, not letting any morsel of this moment go to waste. This was the sight of a passionate fighter, and Nebula had seen others just as talented at the craft as she was but never in her life did she witness anything close to what her eyes laid upon in this moment.

[DarkSideCookie]

Andro spent some more moments in the midst of what he was calling the essence of every being until eventually he completely let up on the mortal and by now lifeless remains of that man. It was over. He felt the astral energy to have returned to all of their source of origin.

With a blank expression he sheathed his sword back in its place. Then he did some steps towards the roof's margin, the splinters of glass quietly scrunching under his feet, as he watched the skyline from the distance. He closed his eyes for a moment, and for no particular reason, the image of a face appeared behind the black of his eyelids all of a sudden. Andro's eyes flipped back open immediately, a somehow confused expression laying on his face, while he started to slowly turn around.

The face he had seen right in front of his mind's eye was the one belonging to that blue-colored woman.

Why?

[Ariel]

Nebula watched the stranger in white turned slowly, finally discovering her presance on the rooftop. She slowly rose upward from her crouched position but did not budge. There was no point in hiding, as she did not wrong this man just as his opponent seemed to have done. And if it was another fight this stranger was looking for, then Nebula would just have to end him.

Their eyes locked from across the rooftop, silence filling the air. However,  this stranger's expression did not seem threatening. At this revelation,  she finally began to speak. "Your skills are immense, warrior. The loser must have had what was coming to him." Nebula spoke in admiration as her gaze motioned to the dead man on the rooftop floor.

[DarkSideCookie]

Andro actually hadn't spotted his watcher until she tapped out of the shadow herself, but he kind of had felt a presence to be around in fact. Usually was he clearing out whenever this happened, this time though something was different. Andro wasn't someone to accept any of his own attitudes, be it hesitating or a sort of foreboding even, without facing it by simply allowing it to evolve into something that could become a whole new turn. And so it seemed to should be tonight.

"Your skills are immense, warrior. The loser must have had what was coming to him.", the blue-skinned lady suddenly spoke up.

Was this the potential new turn to get evolved while they still were scanning each other? Andro had no doubts it was. He had missed a chance for a turn just the other night and here they were again; a situation that was serving with yet another turn. Only a fool would miss it another time. And so he didn't.

"He was blind.", Andro replied with his usual sparing of words, not sounding judging in any way. Of course wasn't he talking about a blindness in the physical sense but in the sense of how someone could be able to see without the energetic possibility to do so. A soul blinded by power was nothing but dark matter.

When silence started to cover them up, just as it had when they have met first time in that bar, Andro felt another turn to be on the rocks. There wouldn't come a third for sure. And so he tried to stall this so-called conversation by conversing indeed, knowing this to be quite not his strength.

"I assume you do know something about this craft." His words actually hadn't sounded like a question or something he was expecting an answer to at all. Should he have decided on another subject of conversation or simply have made it sound more like a question? At least this time most of his facial features were covered so that the sudden destabilization wasn't to read upon them. To converse really wasn't his strength...

[Ariel]

"He was blind.",

Nebula wasn't certain if the stranger in white was talking physically or metaphorically. Regardless, the lifeless body crumpled on the ground was the consequence of a man who met his demise by his weakness. Whatever that might have been. Silence encased the two strangers on the rooftop before the champion uttered some more words.

"I assume you do know something about this craft." 

Warrior, you have no idea.... Nebula took a step forward and began to slowly circle the dead opponent. Her gaze still held on the body as she felt remiscent of her lengthy, impressive resume. "Many have met death by my hand...some, a much slower and painful death more deserved than others. Pirates, scavengers, galactic scum...enemies..." Nebula clenched her hand into a fist, fueled with hatred towards those who lost against her. Those who were serving their final, permanent punishment. "... I don't just know something about it. I was raised, groomed, modified..." Nebula's gaze drifted to her cybernetic arm before finally looking up at the stranger, "...into who I am today. A galaxy-class killer."

[DarkSideCookie]

Andro made no move when Blue took a step forward to slowly circle the corpse aground. Only his eyes were following each of her steps, each of her slightest movements more precisely. He was no reader of emotions but surely a reader of the difference between affinity and animosity, and even though this woman seemed to be not easy to read, Andro had no doubt that it wasn't the latter hanging in the air between them.

"Many have met death by my hand...some, a much slower and painful death more deserved than others. Pirates, scavengers, galactic scum...enemies..."

Andro listened to her words, silently and without any judging. The content of them along with the movement of her hand, clenching into a fist, though made him wonder about something and at the same time penetrate into her weakness. A weakness she certainly wasn't aware of herself; one that he thought to have under control himself until he would get disabused at some point in the future. Wrath.

"... I don't just know something about it. I was raised, groomed, modified..." His eyes followed her viewing direction down to her cybernetic arm, something he might have noticed before but hadn't given any weight to. It was just an arm after all. A joint to wield a weapon. And then finally their eyes met. "...into who I am today. A galaxy-class killer."

There was no sign of change in Andro's eyes, but once again did he feel this something about her that was making this different from all conversations he ever had to conduct. And once this had gone into a direction more of his type of talking, the words just came naturally all of a sudden. "I do not see a killer but someone who is willing to take any step to get what everyone deserves." He paused for a moment, in which he didn't break eye contact with her. "Life."

[Ariel]

"I do not see a killer but someone who is willing to take any step to get what everyone deserves.""Life."

Nebula cocked her head slightly in question to this man's response. Other than her sister Gamora, no one had ever freely given her assurance on her own self worth. If one grew up the way Nebula had, in pain and in fear of being just another disposable pawn, self worth was not something that was talked or even thought about. And the obstacles and trials in Nebula's life proved to her that she was not worthy of belonging anywhere or with anyone. "And what would you know about what I think everyone deserves? You wouldn't even be able to comprehend what I've been through to get here," She took a few furious steps towards the stranger and stopped just inches away, not breaking the contact their gazes shared, "And if you did, you'd think that I'd enjoy nothing better than to watch everyone who had ever wronged me suffer." Lots of anger and vengeance flowed through Nebula's words, but one feeling that constantly lingered was pain.

[DarkSideCookie]

Andro might not be able to construe the emotions flickering behind this woman's eyes, but he could tell that she was somewhat surprised about his answer to her own statement of not being worthy. That was in fact not what she had spoken out loud, but something Andro had heard between.

"And what would you know about what I think everyone deserves? You wouldn't even be able to comprehend what I've been through to get here," Andro didn't show any reaction, not even a blink of his eye, when Blue took a few furious steps towards him, stopping just inches away from his face. And yet again was there some kind of fascination rising in him, one that he still didn't understand though. "And if you did, you'd think that I'd enjoy nothing better than to watch everyone who had ever wronged me suffer."

And yet again was she unveiling her weakness. This time not only wrath but something else. Something actually beyond his perception to read on other's features, but something that was reminding him of someone else. Himself. Anyways, if he wanted to take her life, he'd have no doubt about succeeding, sooner or later. This was no thought of superiority but of condolence. Without all this wrath seething at the surface, she could be so much more than what she accorded herself to.

"I have no intention to learn about what you have been through.", Andro finally spoke up as well, still making no move to back away from her. "And if I had, you would not hear me asking." Because he wasn't asking anyone about what they have been through. Everyone had their story, but the one who lingered after telling it, was, in his eyes the one who opened up for no other reason but recognition; something that didn't mean anything to him.

"But here is an advice for you.", he suddenly added with an insinuated raise of his lips hidden behind his white mask. He usually wasn't that talkative with strangers, but once again was there coming up this thought of having to prevent her from leaving. "Enjoy with less emotion."

[Ariel]

“But here is an advice for you,””Enjoy with less emotion,”

The scene stood still as Nebula stared down the man. Silence filled the air between them, with nothing but the sounds of the city’s nightlife coming from below them. The words he spoke left Nebula speechless. The flaws in her physical abilities,she had grown used to receiving that criticism. But it was not everyday that someone would directly point out her emotional downfall. She took a couple of steps backwards, uncertain of what to make of all of this. 

“Who are you?” Nebula trembled slightly, as she felt him staring directly at her blackened, pain filled heart. For the first time since she last saw Gamora, she felt emotionally vulnerable.

[DarkSideCookie]

Andro's eyes remained still at Blue when silence was filling the air between. There was no intention, actually no emotion at all, readable on them. Andro wasn't sure what would happen next, but something told him that his words would prevent her from leaving. Wasn't that curiosity on her face? And then she suddenly backed off, little enough though to not make him fear he could have been wrong about her.

“Who are you?”

And then finally, she was interested in a conversation with him.

Andro made no move to step forward, instead did he respect the distance she had built between them. It didn't take him long to give a true answer to her question without giving away too much information about himself though.

"Just someone who long enough had tried to find a seat in a place that was booked out already well before. Sometimes it takes time to find your own place, but once you did, you will never try again to enter the crowded hall through the audience entrance." At his last words, Andro's left arm made a splaying gesture towards the city's nightlife below them, while his eyes didn't let up on Blue in front of him. "So, what I am going to say is just: do not waste your time with self-pity or even hatred. Those will affect no one else but yourself. Accept being different. Make it your strength instead of your weakness."

His intentions for this conversation actually had started with nothing but self-interest, but for some reason, this last advice was given disinterested. Maybe for the first time in his life.

[Ariel]

Just someone who long enough had tried to find a seat in a place that was booked out already well before. Sometimes it takes time to find your own place, but once you did, you will never try again to enter the crowded hall through the audience entrance." "So, what I am going to say is just: do not waste your time with self-pity or even hatred. Those will affect no one else but yourself. Accept being different. Make it your strength instead of your weakness."

Nebula blankly stared at the man, though the emotions that ran through her were intense. One thing she knew for sure that this man had gotten right, was that she hated herself. “My father pushed me to become the perfect war machine. My differences were my weaknesses, and for my whole life he made me feel disposable. Worthless,” She grinded her teeth angrily as her emotions brought these words out into the open, “He made me feel like I was nobody. That I didn’t belong,” Nebula walked from the stranger towards the edge of the rooftop. Her gaze overlooked the tops of the buildings and into the starry night sky, into the galaxy. She was a misfit in her father’s house, and she was a misfit here on planet Earth. She had spent all of these years fixating on the fact that she didn’t fit in as a weakness when she could have used it to her advantage as a strength. Nebula had only ever wished to be so much more than what she perceived herself to be, “Thanos must pay for his torturous crimes, and I need fo be the one to avenge all the others out there like me that have fallen victim to his ways...but I cannot do it alone.” Nebula’s gaze fell down to the side, her eyes fluttered under her eyelids as she looked over her shoulder at the man. Here before her was, like her, an assassin. A fighter for a cause. Nebula couldn’t help but wonder....

[DarkSideCookie]

Another moment of silence was following his words. Another moment in which Andro felt an odd desire growing inside of him; one that he wasn't able to entitle yet. And so he let this strange emotion pass by without attaching any value to it.

“My father pushed me to become the perfect war machine. My differences were my weaknesses, and for my whole life he made me feel disposable. Worthless,”“He made me feel like I was nobody. That I didn’t belong,”

Andro listened without judging. Her words didn't surprise him though. He actually dared to say that the majority of the outlaws of this population had experienced an unhappy childhood. Blue's story, however, might have awakened something like real sympathy, if he had enough understanding of how to classify feelings of empathy in the first place. And so it came that yet again an unknown emotion passed by, while it's obviously sentient owner watched the interest awakening woman walking towards the edge of the rooftop. Her voice was blending in the faint sound of the city's nightlife below them before Andro could have tried to analyze the sudden wish to read her thoughts.

“Thanos must pay for his torturous crimes, and I need to be the one to avenge all the others out there like me that have fallen victim to his ways...but I cannot do it alone.”

Her mentioning this name made him focus back on his primal plan regarding this potential alliance of theirs. Of course, Andro knew who she was already well before they had met a second time up here above the evanescent nightlife of a society avid for power. It had been only one day ago since they first met, but one day was enough to find out everything the media was willing to spit out about this person.

And then suddenly her eyes met with his. While most people probably would have reacted with surprise or even abashment, Andro didn't show anything like that. He just stared back into hers.

"Then do not be alone.", Andro finally answered with determination, as he slowly approached her at the roof's edge without crossing her line of private space that was. And then for the first time of their conversation, his gaze completely turned away from her. Observing the nightlife below, looking like far far away from this point of view, he suddenly launched into a question on a very personal level.

"How come you held out for so long?" A question, actually to winkle out her greatest weakness for clarification reasons, which could be reduced to yet again a superfluity of emotion-oriented acting, but also to satisfy a yet subconscious interest in getting to know her.

[Ariel]

"Then do not be alone."

Nebula's gaze held onto the eyes of the mystery man in her presence for a few moments more before fluttered back to the glowing skyline of the city. Her eyes studied the glimmering lights of the busy streets below, yet her mind was occupied with the echo of the man's words. ...Do not be alone... Nebula craved to belong with all of her being, yet she belonged nowhere. And the only person in the Galaxy that had extended any sort of hand out to her has been pushed away.


"How come you held out for so long?"

"I allowed my emotions to get in the way...I wanted to believe that someday that I would amount to greatness in my father's eyes. But I was just a pawn in his master plans," Nebula trembled with anger as she turned her whole body around this time to face the stranger who had inched his way closer to where she stood, "And when I realized this...the pain ripped me apart worse than anything I had experienced before," Nebula's eyes gleamed of pain, the moon dawning it's spotlight on the only two souls that captured the stage of the night, "He will not make me feel that way again. Nor will anyone else."

[DarkSideCookie]

Andro silently listened to her answer while his eyes had turned back in her direction sometime during her explanation of giving a fine-grained picture to the outline he already had had in mind. In his eyes emotions were a weakness, one that could be straightened out. Andro himself was in the belief that he once had straightened out his own emotions, but what was credited as eliminated, was, in truth, lurking beneath the surface until eventually something or even someone would cause to rip it open.

"He will not make me feel that way again. Nor will anyone else."

His eyes didn't avert from Blue, unwittingly rapt with that gleam of pain in hers. It took him some more seconds to let the sudden sympathy, or whatever else it was, pass by and to raise a word once again.

"Let them pass by.", he suddenly advised slowly spoken. "They - people, memories, emotions - are the wind. You... are a centennial tree. Steady. Neutral. Deep-rooted with every fiber of your being." When it came to these complex of themes, Andro could easily get lost in figurative language.

"Precious.", he finally closed with a sudden approach of his right hand reaching out to her face, yet stopped several inches before it, to accomplish the contactless touch in the air between them, like he wouldn't dare to literally touch her.

The emotions beneath his surface were peeking out from their hiding place for the first time in years. Observant. Slyly.

[Ariel]

"Let them pass by.",  "They - people, memories, emotions - are the wind. You... are a centennial tree. Steady. Neutral. Deep-rooted with every fiber of your being." "Precious."



In Nebula's entire life, no one had spoken such language to her before. And when his hand drifted in the air towards her, she would have usually ended the use of that limb. However, she didn't feel threatened or berated. This stranger appeared to have something that no one she had encountered before had displayed - a sense of understanding. Nebula recognized that this man felt her every flinch of pain and strife. His words and mannerism captivated her heart like no one had done before and it should have terrified her. But for now, she was nothing but vulnerable to this stranger. "Why are you doing this, " Nebula questioned the motive of the man, a sound of despair broke into her voice, "What do you see in me that would make me worthy of such words?"

[DarkSideCookie]

As the bad reader of emotions as he was, Andro had no accurate idea of what was going on in Blue's head, but he could tell that something was mesmerizing her just as it was mesmerizing him. Something he wasn't able to classify though. Or was this just the sign that a new alliance might have been born right this moment? That must be it.

"Why are you doing this,""What do you see in me that would make me worthy of such words?"

"I see you.", Andro answered with straightforwardness, on his features no sign of servile flattery shown, even if it wouldn't have been hidden behind a mask. This line coming from him meant so much more than just the three words it was actually containing. Seeing someone didn't have to mean to just see what someone was showing on the outside, but also what someone was hiding on the inside. He didn't have to be a reader of emotions to see her, as her pain and despair was written upon her face like he never had seen on somebody else's. Or was it just that these emotions had been part of his own life all along so that it felt like watching his own reflection? That must be it.

"I can teach you to control your emotions so that they will no longer stand in your way.", Andro eventually stated after both of them have said nothing, his eyes still watching her without even blinking.

[Ariel]

"I see you."

Nebula's complexion narrowed upon her bewilderment of his expression. Raised in an environment that no ordinary child should have been kept in, her heart had been hardened and this pain she felt had become a normal reality. No one had validated the turmoil she still suffered from her past that ached in every inch of her compromised, bionic body. This stranger had captured her entire attention with those three words as she stood before him, waiting for more.


"I can teach you to control your emotions so that they will no longer stand in your way."



His proposition was enough for Nebula to sell her soul. A struggle that had plagued Nebula for her entire life could finally be put to an end. This stranger was willing to pick up her broken pieces, to be her cure. Though, Nebula`s guard was not entirely kicked down as she knew there was always a price to pay. "And what is it that I would have to offer in return, white stranger?"

[DarkSideCookie]

"And what is it that I would have to offer in return, white stranger?"

Andro held his gaze against hers. No, not against. With hers. Seeing it as one looking for the same thing.

"Nothing.", Andro eventually replied, letting a short pause follow before he added: "Just your company." He was tired of being alone. Maybe Blue here was that someone to fill that gap. Not a gap of emotional, but of... spiritual nature. They were alike. He could feel it. She had to be the long-desired ally he thought to have seen in Hope for a long time but had gotten taught better again and yet again.

"I do not want to be alone any longer.", Andro suddenly added while taking a step into her direction for the first time of their conversation. Only one step. He wasn't actually aware of it himself, but for the first time, there had been some kind of emotion indeed resonating in his voice.

[Ariel]

“Just your company." "I do not want to be alone any longer,”

Nebula stared at the man as he took a step forward in her direction. She felt his loneliness, and knew of it’s pain all too well. This man could give her what she desired, but at no cost? Usually Nebula would insist on some sort of catch, an underlying condition. But for reasons she did not know, Nebula felt the sincerity of this being that captured her attention on the rooftop this evening. She knew she had to give him a shot and allow him to prove himself.

”Teach me your ways, and you won’t have to be alone,” Nebula finally decided to let this man in and allowed him break down her walls of solitude, “I have a thirst for vengeance for my father, Thanos, who put me through years of endless torture, endless pain. Teach me what you know...and with me, you can share the victory of the defeat of the almighty Thanos while his head rots on a spike. Together...we could be unstoppable.” Nebula proposed this to this man and although they had just met and it all seemed crazy, Nebula was also tired of going at life alone herself.

[DarkSideCookie]

”Teach me your ways, and you won’t have to be alone,”

While Andro watched her wall breaking down, little did he know that there were actually two walls breaking down right this moment. With the one step in her direction, he unintentionally had allowed her to have a look at his inside as well. At the loneliness deep down indeed. And even if the mask he was wearing didn't show more than eyes, it was just them that gave away much more than anything else could have.

“I have a thirst for vengeance for my father, Thanos, who put me through years of endless torture, endless pain." And back rose the wall around him. Thanos. A name that let him remember what this really was about. "Teach me what you know...and with me, you can share the victory of the defeat of the almighty Thanos while his head rots on a spike. Together...we could be unstoppable.”

Andro felt a whiff of greed coming from her like swirling dark energy. Dark yet not as thick and spoiled as he had felt with so many others. This was a greed of vengeance that had nothing to do with enrichment but with justice. Vengeance wasn't the right thing though. He wondered if he would be able to heal her from this deadlock of emotions.

"Meet me again in seven days. Same time. Different place." Andro paused. Then he threw a look around the roofs above New York's city lights until he eventually stopped back at Blue's sight, almost oracularly adding: "Where will be when."

Without giving her time to react to his enigmatic invitation for their next meeting, Andro turned around and left this place with no more word before they would be here. They, who always came to judge him for purifying these lost souls. But they would never get him. Especially not now where he finally had found that someone he had searched for so long.

Blue would figure out what his words were supposed to mean. Their place of reencounter will be the time literally. The Clock Tower Building. Surrounded by scaffolding, closed to visitors, open to those with no rules.


***Andro exits***

[Ariel]

"Meet me again in seven days. Same time. Different place."  "Where will be when."

Nebula watched the white stranger gaze around in magnificence of the lively night of the city as he spoke, just before making his exit. She stood there for a few more moments, in silence, with nothing but the night and the sounds of the streets echoing below her. In those moments, her mind pondered the stranger's final words on their next meeting place and would gain an idea of the whereabouts of their next encounter before disappearing into the shadows of New York's tallest skyscrapers once more. Out of Nebula's time spent on planet Earth, this would become a night to remember, the dance with a masked demon that would change her life. Forever.


***Nebula exits***