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Rocket and the Imp

[A Guardians of the Galaxy FanFiction]

Chapter Five - Blue Sky

---

Halfworld - Years Ago

The green hills cut the blue sky in half.

Bright green, luscious grass covered the land for as far as the eye can see, stopping only at the foot of dense forest. A gentle wind rustled her nose, tickling her whiskers and enticing a small chuckle from her. The otter hadn't remembered the last time she'd been this calm before. Whether it be a self-created facade or a slight break before the storm, she cast away all her thoughts and stared vacantly, relaxingly at the blue sky. She was content - but she craved happiness, so she turned to him.

He was already staring at her. The two stupidly smiled in unison, giggling as they lied beside one another. The day wasn't over- it had barely begun for them.

"Jack, could you take off your goggles for a sec?" Lylla asked.

"T-they're sensitive to the light, you know that babe-"

He was interrupted as the yellow otter lumbered atop him, gently straddling him and placing her head over his. The rabbit's head was now shadowed by hers. Her paw slowly slid up the crook of his neck and over his chin, grazing his cheek and sliding his goggles off.

BlackJack's eyes weren't just blue. They were the kind of bright blue that would glow in the darkest of rooms, the kind of blue that could remind one of the memories of a clear summer day. They were the bright blue eyes that stopped Lylla's heart, engulfed her soul and froze her blood. BlackJack was staring at her just like this when he first told her he loved her.

Rugged, gloved paws found their way to the curve of her back.

"You're my sun, babe." He repeated.

"And you're my blue sky." She uttered, her voice trembling.

Lylla tenderly pressed her lips to BlackJack's muzzle.

The rabbit heard the rustling of footsteps.

"Someone's coming." He informed.

"Fuck them." Lylla giggled.

"Fuck me?" What'd I do?" A voice cracked.

BlackJack slid his goggles back down over his eyes and turned to see the source of the voice. There, standing just a few feet away, backlit by the intense Halfworld sun, was his best friend. A nameless rabbit of many to any other citizen on the planet - but a lifelong friend of BlackJack's.

"Oh, hey Mark." BlackJack nonchalantly said, gently sliding out from beneath Lylla and standing up.

"Yes. Hey." He began, his voice just as nervous and squeaky as it always was. "We're a bit behind schedule. We need to leave within the next thirty-two-and-a-half minutes or else-"

"Yeah, yeah, let's go." BlackJack exhaled.

Just as he turned to leave, the rabbit found his right arm enclosed by two familiar, soft paws.

"Do you have to-" She started, voice trembling again, although for an entirely different reason this time.

"Let's not get into this again." He nearly whispered.

Lylla slowly lowered her head.

"It's just...things are changing...changing so fast...and-"

BlackJack cut her off with a swift, powerful hug. His muscular arms wrapped around her slender form, nestling his muzzle into her neck.

"It's okay, love."

She fought back tears.

"You'll be back, right?"

"Why would you even-of course I will!"

"Promise."

BlackJack moved his muzzle to hers, meeting her lips with a fierce, raw passion. After about a minute of sloppy, wet kissing, he pulled back for air.

"I promise."

"It's time to go," Mark said, uncomfortably.

Lylla watched the two walk down the grass fields, disappearing from view. She knew where he was going, what he wanted to do, and fully supported it. Or so she thought she did. Only now did she realize how much she regretted it, for it was only now when she realized the only thing she wanted was more time to lie beside him under the blue sky.

---

Prison Planet 412-J3, Sometime Later

The steps of a man illustrate a lot about their character - the volume and impact of their steps giving light to their overall intentions. The round hooded figure was nearly stomping across the desert plains of 412-J3, powerfully making large indents in the thick sand as he traversed to the prison. He gritted his teeth and swished his tail. Soon enough he had made it to the large structure - a towering building sticking out of a sand dune and painfully reflecting the glare of the planet's many suns.

He pushed open the door and was met with a dreadful excuse for a main lobby - a single room with a single chair, a single other door, and an incredibly small gated window. This place wasn't built with the intention to welcome visitors, for it contained the most despised criminals in the entire galaxy.

A grotesque white flickering light illuminated the stained greenish gray walls of the lobby. The figure went up to the main window, pressing a nearby corroded button. Within a few minutes, someone showed up - a fully armored soldier, one of the thousands that inhabited this establishment.

He said nothing, so the figure spoke up first.

"I'm here to see someone."

"Who?" It replied, almost immediately.

"BlackJack O'Hare."

"Your name, sir?"

"Judson Jakes."

A small metal table with two chairs on either side was all that was in the room. Adoring the walls were no pieces of contemporary art, but massive panes of indestructible glass, with an army of guards on the other end. The 'visiting room', as it was so called, was hardly ever used. So it was with great distaste that the prison guards complied to Judson's demands and arranged for him to have a talk with the rabbit. But they couldn't refuse the mole's generous 'donations'.

Eventually, the two sat across from another.

For the longest time, they did no more than stare each other down, mentally sizing one another up. Then the mole spoke.

"I have to commend you for your excellent tracking and hunting abilities, BlackJack. The title of the best bounty hunter in the galaxy isn't one that's just tossed around."

"Who are you?" the rabbit spat.

A long period of silence enveloped the room.

"...what?" Judson growled, the low throaty timbre of his voice nearly causing the metal table to vibrate.

"What do you want?" BlackJack continued.

The mole pulled his hood off, revealing his full face.

"Do you not remember me?" He asked, gritting his teeth.

BlackJack shook his head.

The mole brought his large claws to his cranium, his anger now skyrocketing.

"It's only been a few decades, a few decades, a few decades, a few FUCKING DECADES!!!"

Judson Jakes threw the metal chair at the indestructible glass, inexplicably breaking it. Soon, guards began rushing in, but not before the mole was able to grab BlackJack by his handcuffs. A team of about five hulking, armored guards poured in, weapons at the ready.

"Sir, put the prisoner down and step away!" A voice said.

BlackJack watched as Judson Jakes turned to him, and expelled an intense beam of white energy at them from the palm of his hand, causing them to fly back at a force so great that they'd actually busted through the back wall.

Then Jakes turned to Jack. Emotionless, dead black eyes stared into the red tint of BlackJack's goggles.

"I'm going to make you remember." He said, voice sounding incredibly demonic.

The mole slammed his head into the rabbit's head, expelling a large flash of bright white light, ending BlackJack's consciousness temporarily. It took him no more than a few minutes to nonchalantly walk out of the building, as well as bring the whole thing down to a rubble, dust, and dead bodies. As he walked down the sand dunes and traversed the large desert planet, dragging the unconscious rabbit by the handcuffs, he angrily vibrated his head and clenched his fists, all the while repeating to himself the same five words he'd been growling since he brought down the prison.

"I'll make you all remember."

---

BlackJack's Ship, Now

He wasn't surprised that BlackJack didn't remember him. He'd suspected he wouldn't. His old contacts told him so. But it was still a little heartbreaking to see one's best friend treat them as if they were a stranger.

And in this strange situation, Mark was also surrounded by friends he'd known from a past life - rabbits of many now working under the legion of their overlord, Judson Jakes. But they were strangers to him too.

Almost just as confusing as the timeline of his memories were the hallways of BlackJack's ship. Mark had been walking down dimly lit passages for about thirty minutes now. Each soft padded footstep of his seemed to echo and reverb just as loud as cymbals hitting the floor. A heart races to a deathly beat when one isn't where they should be. Mark was on the restricted floor of the ship, looking for BlackJack's office. The already timid rabbit's heart was thumping in his chest.

The gentle vibration from his PDA jump-scared him, making him slam into the wall on his left. Angrily, he pulled it from his pocket and checked it. It was from an old friend, inquiring about a status update. Mark shrugged it off, thinking it could wait. He slowly pushed open the door to the last room in the hallway, and sure enough, it was BlackJack's. Or the room of an insane person. Same thing at this point.

Notebook papers containing inconceivable scribbles written in ink and blood were scattered across the floor in a nearly impossible quantity. The rabbit curiosity squatted to pick one up. One it was no more than the words of Judson's teachings written over and over again.

"Former glory..." he read.

The ceiling light only illuminated the center of the room, causing the walls to be clouded in darkness and making the room scene endless. Mark had an uneasy feeling. Not that he was now witnessing the state of his friend's descent into madness, nor was it the reminder that his best friend had been tortured and brainwashed by a disillusioned fiend. It was as if he was being watched.

He quickly turned to see BlackJack in the doorway.

His glowing red eyes had never looked so terrifying.

Jack knew he was going to die.

"H-hey-"

The red-eyed rabbit charged at his former friend. Before he could even perceive the attack, Mark was on his back, being punched in the face multiple times. Again and again, a painful force spiked through his head, equivalent of that of a ton of bricks being slamming into once's jaw. His teeth cut into his mouth with separate places, and in the same places more than once, spewing blood from his lips.

Mark kicked BlackJack in the abdomen with all the force he could muster, slowly staggering to get up. In between terrified, frantic breaths, he managed to project his voice louder than he'd ever had before.

"JACK! REMEMBER! PLEASE!"

BlackJack slowly stood up.

He began to walk towards Mark.

"PLEASE! GOD! JACK!"

Jack stopped in his tracks.

He remained motionless for a while.

Mark could think of nothing else to do. He'd walked over to him and fallen into a hug against him.

"Jack...you're still in there...you gotta be..." he mumbled.

He pulled his head back and stared into his...goggles. The red lighted lenses were nearly blinding at that close of a range. Paws trembling, Mark moved his hand up to the goggles, pushing them up.

He was disturbed and repulsed at what he saw.

His best friend's eyes were blackened, cracked with dried blood, receded and sunken into his skull.

He saw no blue sky.

Mark stepped back, feeling sick to his stomach.

BlackJack still did not move.

The shaking rabbit stepped away and pulled out his communication device. He selected his number one contact. The phone line began to ring, as Mark stepped away into the direction of the doorway.

A click.

"Hello?" A familiar voice said.

"Lylla. M-Mark here...uh..."

Mark's voice was stuck in his throat.

"It's...it's worse than we thought. Get the Maverick. We need to-"

He didn't get to finish. BlackJack stabbed him through the throat with a serrated dagger.

Mark fell forward, clutching his neck as it gushed the crimson substance through his fingers. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he leaned up against a wall, watching BlackJack walk over to him and crouch down to meet his eye level. He brought his knife up again and viciously stabbed Mark's throat once more, spearing the knife through his hand and pinning it to his neck. In utter and complete terror, his life began to fade and his vision was gradually reduced to darkness.

His former best friend didn't allow this. BlackJack unsheathed his razor-sharp claws and proceeded to gouge out Mark's eyes. The rabbit tried to scream, but it was reduced to a grim moan submerged in blood. The last thing he heard before he died were the brainwashed rantings of an utterly insane rabbit.

"I REMEMBER! I KNOW THE SECRET! YOU CAN'T TAKE IT FROM ME! YOU CAN'T TAKE IT FROM ME."

The rabbit violently shook as he screamed.

"YOU!"

One eyeball scooped out and thrown aside.

"WON'T!"

Another.

"TAKE IT!"

And then BlackJack pulled his knife out of his friend's hand and throat. An inexplicable grin spread across his face. Covered in blood, he picked up his goggles and placed them back over his eyes. Then he ran out of his room. Down the massive halls and to the ship's bridge, he powered everything on, reverting the controls from idle mode. With no hesitation, he slammed the ship's thrusters to full speed.

Within a few minutes, the rest of the crew was rustled from their sleep by the sudden movement of the ship and reported to the main controls to see the commotion.

BlackJack turned to them, his goggled, glowing gaze nearly illuminating all of their tired faces.

"MoooOOORINING, RABBITS! THE TIME is in fact...NOW!!! THE TIME isss rriiGHT! WE'RE LEAVING NOW!"

He turned back to the ship's main viewport, watching as stars zoomed past. There, in the far off distance was a mere speck - a location that would change everything.

Sale's ship was in his sights.