[ There is a quiet moment. Nebula neither picks up another bite to eat or says anything. It's not an untrue statement and - in this way - she thinks Hayame is much like herself. Not one to lie and to speak in frankness, it is what she knew (even if her circumstances for not lying was that she was not taught and to lie meant death in her father's household). ]
[ She stews before sighing. ]
You don't know that.
[ Retorted, quickly, fiercely an addition: ] You would have broken through it.
[ The illusion. She thinks, hopes, believes — because she wants to believe she herself would. Because, she can't imagine if she hadn't and what that might mean. (She knows what it would mean, they all did, but that did not shake her faith in Hayame). ]
[ Look, Hayame, don't question things sometimes you have complicated feelings about your retirement and decide this fight is for your family, for the Guardians. And if you're going to die you're going to die a Guardian!!! ]
[ She glances up, finally, at the question and the cascade of thoughts and feelings that accompany it. What do they do...? What didn't they do. She almost laughs, she doesn't, though the huff of one remains in her throat. ]
I told you some of it; How our Father stole and weaponized us in his pursuit of balance. [ It's a brief overview, a quick reminder, because that's all she'd said before. ]
Before he had the Infinity Stones — his Oracles — we were part of his army. The Stones made his work quick, before that... If he wanted a planet wiped out or a person killed, it would be us he would send in.
[ To kill, to destroy. Just as he had done to each of his "children," that he had adopted, blessed with a life by his side. If you could call it a blessing - she doesn't. She doesn't think the entire universe does. But it's neither here nor there. ]
It was the only life we knew.
[ Taken as young as they were, with any semblance of normalcy stripped of them. With loss, grief, and anger the first things they were taught. She pauses; Thinks of herself, from so long ago. How if circumstances were changed it'd be a different Nebula on another side. Lost and full of hate, and with only one purpose.
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[ She stews before sighing. ]
You don't know that.
[ Retorted, quickly, fiercely an addition: ] You would have broken through it.
[ The illusion. She thinks, hopes, believes — because she wants to believe she herself would. Because, she can't imagine if she hadn't and what that might mean. (She knows what it would mean, they all did, but that did not shake her faith in Hayame). ]
[ Look, Hayame, don't question things sometimes you have complicated feelings about your retirement and decide this fight is for your family, for the Guardians. And if you're going to die you're going to die a Guardian!!! ]
[ She glances up, finally, at the question and the cascade of thoughts and feelings that accompany it. What do they do...? What didn't they do. She almost laughs, she doesn't, though the huff of one remains in her throat. ]
I told you some of it; How our Father stole and weaponized us in his pursuit of balance. [ It's a brief overview, a quick reminder, because that's all she'd said before. ]
Before he had the Infinity Stones — his Oracles — we were part of his army. The Stones made his work quick, before that... If he wanted a planet wiped out or a person killed, it would be us he would send in.
[ To kill, to destroy. Just as he had done to each of his "children," that he had adopted, blessed with a life by his side. If you could call it a blessing - she doesn't. She doesn't think the entire universe does. But it's neither here nor there. ]
It was the only life we knew.
[ Taken as young as they were, with any semblance of normalcy stripped of them. With loss, grief, and anger the first things they were taught. She pauses; Thinks of herself, from so long ago. How if circumstances were changed it'd be a different Nebula on another side. Lost and full of hate, and with only one purpose.
It's, perhaps, why she adds one last thing: ]
It's the only life he would let us have.