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*AN: Lyrics are from the song “Hero” by Enrique Iglesias, written by Mark Taylor, Paul Barry and Enrique Iglesias.
“You! You’re the reason my mother died, you monster! All those people on that planet, you destroyed them!” Adam Warlock lunged for the High Evolutionary, his fists gleaming a flaming yellow with the intent to obliterate this villain who had caused so much destruction to satisfy his messiah complex.
“That’s where you’re wrong, my dear Warlock… you’re the one who killed her. Your failure to save her can never be redeemed. Perhaps you deserve to lose those you love after the mess you created on Knowhere, your comeuppance rightly earned… nearly killing your Captain Rocket. I might not have Ayesha as leverage, but I have someone else to use instead. Somebody who has become your entire world.” The High Evolutionary raised his hand, a purple glowing ring surrounding his fingers.
Adam froze in his path toward his foe, bracing himself for what was about to happen, knowing whatever trick the High Evolutionary had up his sleeve would not be simple to overcome.
The Sovereign alien felt a nauseous twist in his stomach as the High Evolutionary snapped his fingers and a puff of violet smoke swirled behind him, revealing as the fog cleared a visual that made Adam’s heart nearly stop within his chest, his strong body paralyzed with horror.
His human beloved, ever so beautiful even in her dizzied state as she materialized before the two men, stood looking about at her surroundings. Her eyes set on Adam, reaching out her arms toward him as he also leapt in her direction, desperate to take her into the safety of his muscled arms, the one place in the universe where she was always protected from danger.
But more purple swirled around her, chains of odorous smoke twisting around her legs and wrapping her arms down to her sides, causing her to fall clumsily and landing on the hard cold ground. Adding insult to injury and increasing Adam’s rage at his enemy and anxiety for his love, a gag of smoke pressed over her lips, smothering her cries for her hero to not give into his anger, to not give up everything just for her wellbeing.
She lay helpless on the floor as the hostage used by this wicked monster and Adam would not let her be humiliated and terrorized like this. Someone who gave so much of herself for others… who chose to love him out of all the men she could have in the entire galaxy.
Adam rushed past the High Evolutionary, who only watched in silent bemusement at this melodrama playing out before him. The golden alien man barely reached her as she laid on her side, his hands sliding underneath her small body to scoop her up off the icy ground and keep her safe in his warm grasp.
But she vanished in the blink of an eye before he could even properly hold her close, disappearing in a cloud of indigo smoke as though she had never even been there.
Adam’s eyes shone a deadly white hot glow as he turned to the High Evolutionary, his gleaming teeth bared in a feral snarl as he lunged at his tormentor. “Let her go! Bring her back now!”
The High Evolutionary sidestepped Adam’s attack, holding out his fist and forming his fingers up to snap again. As he watched Adam fall to the ground and look around for any sign of his mortal paramour, he couldn’t help but smirk at this ever so powerful creature being so worried about a mere irrelevant human.
“You foolish, lovesick boy… I propose a bargain if you want your sweetheart back. For the next 24 hours, you give up your abilities, including flight and strength. And for that duration of time, your beloved will be free and safe from harm.” The tyrant snapped his fingers again and she reappeared, this time sitting on the ground by his feet similar to how a dog would perch beside its master, still bound and gagged in smoking chains and powerless to escape.
Her tearstained eyes met those of Adam as he lay on the ground, outstretching a hand to her as their enemy reached out his own hand in her direction, a crackling lightning emitting from his fingertips as he aimed to electrocute her and emphasize her vulnerability between the two powerful alien beings.
She was Adam Warlock’s weakness and the High Evolutionary would exploit that fact to his full advantage.
“If you agree to this deal, Warlock, your lovely mortal won’t be hurt while I seek vengeance against your comrades, and destroy Knowhere. She won’t be amongst the casualties. She’ll have secure transport to Earth, where she’ll live with her own kind once more. She’ll be able to find love again, have a family… and another man whom she will call ‘husband’.” He dared to reach down and pat the top of her head in mocking comfort as she sobbed against the gag over her mouth. “But you won’t live to see her happiness.”
“And yet you’ll kill the others on my home too.” Adam’s eyes had dimmed to their normal state, not wanting to frighten her at seeing him so angry, trying to keep his voice steady so her captor wouldn’t threaten her further to keep him in line. “There are children on that planet… children you held prisoner before.”
“What do you owe any of them, Warlock? Your beautiful starlight, as you call her.” High Evolutionary grasped harshly onto her chin, forcing her to look at him, his revolting sneer mere inches from her face as she groaned in discomfort with the gag tightening over her lips. “Is she not more important than they are?”
”Stop it!” Adam yelled in protective fury, seeing how the High Evolutionary’s grip on her chin was definitely causing her pain, her bones and skin breakable compared to his hardened exterior of gold indestructibility.
“IS SHE NOT?!” High Evolutionary bellowed with impatience at Adam, turning her face to look at her champion, silently reveling in her whimper of the Warlock’s name and her muffled pleas for mercy.
“You have to swear she’ll be safe from ANY harm.” Adam emphasized each word carefully in all serious cadence, displaying no sign of the childlike boy he had once been, prematurely born from his cocoon and naïve about everything around him. Now, he was a man grown in intelligence and compassion, protecting the woman he loved with all he possessed in his power.
There was a silent pause between the three of them: the determined hero, the delicate damsel in distress and the narcissistic villain.
Adam met her wide eyes, seeing the High Evolutionary had released his grip on her face. More than anything, he wanted to free her of those restraints and sweep her up in his arms and fly away with her to safety, take her anywhere she desired to go, any planet, any solar system… as long as it was with her, it mattered not to him where he was.
He shaped his lips in silent words to her as he waited for his maniacal opponent to respond. “I love you…”
Unable to say it back with the gag over her mouth, she could only nod to him, conveying all the love she held for him in her eyes.
“Well, that should settle it. Your powers for your human’s wellbeing for twenty-four hours. Shall we do a gentleman’s handshake to seal the bargain?” High Evolutionary held out his hand to the golden superman as an offer of mutual agreement. “If you hesitate, you risk the love of your life being injured most gravely. You lost her once… and I doubt you can return to the Underworld twice to salvage her soul.”
Adam felt his heart drop to the pit of his stomach as he remembered the day she had given her life to save him. How she had suffered slowly and painfully… the chilling cold of her grey lifeless corpse in his arms as he had cradled her like she was the most precious thing in the cosmos to him. More than all the treasures and the stars and comets combined…
The torturous agony of losing her and grieving her had been more hurtful than the habitual untrustworthy glances of Knowhere’s residents, some still afraid of him from the destruction he had caused when he had first arrived there to capture Rocket Raccoon under the High Evolutionary’s threat to destroy his species.
The occasional instance of bullying and teasing whenever he had asked a silly question or the uncertainty of not fitting in with his new home after his mother’s death and the loneliness whenever he had returned from missions with only aching muscles and exhaustion and Blurp for companionship.
And she had come along and smiled and laughed and confessed her way into his heart, asking for nothing in return and he wanted to give her everything she ever desired in the universe.
“Warlock! You’re trying my patience! These chains of mine are sure to leave burns on her fair complexion the longer you hesitate!” The High Evolutionary twisted his other hand and the chains holding her captive tightened even more, squeezing against her body and making her scream underneath the gag still muzzling her mouth closed.
Adam was snapped back to reality at the sound of his angel’s shrill cry of pain, looking to see her slump to the ground in a limp heap of hair and flesh.
His decision was made as he held out his hand to guarantee his beloved’s freedom and security. “I agree with your terms, sir. Release her and allow no further risk to her welfare.”
“We have a bargain.” The High Evolutionary’s hand grasped tightly onto that of Adam’s and from the instance their hands touched, the golden alien immediately felt his knees buckle with fatigue, purple and yellow light shining from the two extra-terrestrial men.
The High Evolutionary watched in wordless triumph as he witnessed the ever mighty Warlock, the savior Sovereign member of the Guardians, fall to his knees and groaning with the power being drained out of him, struggling to even remain conscious.
Adam battled to stay awake through the pain, looking to see his beloved’s gag had been removed to reveal her lovely pink lips set into an oval shape and her silent shout of his name.
He could feel his great strength leave the muscles and veins of his body and his vision dotting with black spots and blobs as he wanted to pass out, the bright gold of his skin darkening into bronze.
“All that power within you, Warlock. And you gave it all up for this one insignificant girl. And your child that she is to bear.” The High Evolutionary mocked him mercilessly as the world around him spun like a vortex.
He whispered her name like a prayer, reaching out for her, yearning to hold her one more time. Then all around him went black.
She opened her eyes, gasping for breath as she sat up in bed. Sweat beaded her forehead as she looked at the dark surroundings of the bedroom she and Adam shared.
The stark silence around her began to calm her nerves as she felt the much larger body of her golden wonder-boy, her personal hero, her lover… and the father of their soon-to-be born baby. He was disturbed from his much needed sleep as she had woken up from her nightmare, grunting to himself as he turned in the darkness to activate the lamp on the bedside table to see what was happening.
“My love… what’s wrong? Are you in pain? Is it the baby?” His deep, dignified voice was saturated with worry as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders as she shivered and barely managed to stutter out a response.
“No…no, the baby’s fine. I just, um…” She paused, feeling the warmth in her abdomen and the gentle kick of the life growing in her womb. She lifted her pajama top to reveal her bare stomach and the yellow glow shone underneath her skin, warm like sunlight instead of burning her from the inside out like they had feared when such a phenomenon had occurred. “I might’ve woken him up. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, starlight.” Adam bent down and placed a doting kiss onto the glowing spot of her rounded belly, six months along in growth. “You don’t look well; are you sure we shouldn’t go to the med bay?”
“No… I… just had a bad dream.” She wrapped her arms around herself as Adam grabbed a pitcher of water and glasses they always kept nearby to keep her hydrated during the pregnancy. He poured the glass around halfway full with ice cubes just how she preferred it and let her take it from his large hands.
Over the last several months of her pregnancy with the first ever known Sovereign and human mortal hybrid offspring, Adam had waited on her hand-and-foot, attentive to her needs to the most minute and intimate symptoms.
The morning sickness, the moodiness and tempers, the changes in her appetite, the doctor’s exams where he had taken a mission with the Guardians to smuggle an ultrasound machine and all the pregnancy and parenting books he could find.
Adam even remembered the very first day her pregnancy had been discovered. How one day while running back and forth to tend to the Knowhere animals when one of the other workers had been absent, she had ended up feeling a sudden pain sharp enough in her stomach to make her collapse into a faint and found by Nebula and taken to the med bay for examination.
He had been away on a mission and had just arrived back when he had been informed of what had happened. Adam had swept her up and carried her straight home to rest after the pregnancy test had been taken, afraid and elated at the prospect of fathering a child… a child created from his union with the woman he loved enough to venture to the underworld itself to resurrect her from death.
“Tell me about what you dreamt, my angel. Like you’ve told me before, we need to be honest with each other and not hide.” He gently pulled her down to lie on the pillows, holding her close to his side with one of his hands protectively on her belly.
She told him about her nightmare about the High Evolutionary hurting him by using her as bait, deciphering his facial expressions as he listened to every word from her lips, occasionally placing a consoling kiss to her hair or her forehead.
“You’ve nothing to worry about with the High Evolutionary, love. He won’t be able to harm anyone anymore. Whatever pain he may have caused for me in the past… with my mother… and my home-world… you dying to save me from that laser blast was the worst thing to ever happen to me… holding your lifeless, broken body in my arms was my greatest agony and sorrow.” Adam blinked back tears of sadness as she snuggled closer to his bare chest, laying her head on his pectoral. “Anything you’re afraid of… I’ll protect you and our child no matter what, I promise.”
She wove her fingers through his yellow blond hair before lowering her fingertips to trace along his furrowed brow, struggling to keep her eyelids open as she felt their baby relax within her. “Always my hero… my wonder-boy... I love you. Will you sing us to sleep?”
Adam smiled tenderly, leaning to kiss her lips with all the faithful romance of a noble fantasy prince, ready to slay dragons and demons for her sake. “On one condition…”
She raised her head up from his chest to see a spark of slight cheekiness in those golden eyes of his that she adored so much. “And what’s that, my brave warlock?”
His nose brushed hers, their foreheads touching as he kissed her again, his words sighing a soft breeze against her skin. “Marry me? Let me devote myself to you in your human tradition of marriage. To pledge myself to you in all the ways you have wanted to be loved all your life.”
She held her breath, processing his words as they swirled in her mind, feeling the warmth of his large hand upon her cheek.
A moment she had wanted but never thought would ever happen in her lifetime. But then she had fallen in love with a divine spaceman who loved her for herself and never asked her to be anyone else or fit any unrealistic standards.
In the midst of her pensive silence, she inhaled a deep breath and saw the small ring in his hand that he had obtained from a mission to Earth to celebrate their moving in together prior to the pregnancy.
A slender and simple ring of glittering gold to fit on her finger, lacking the gaudy gem that would weigh her hand down. Just a tiny topaz diamond in the jeweled center…
Adam waited for her answer as she stared at the ring, gulping to himself as he tried to repress his fear of rejection. Should he have asked her sooner? She already had enough of a burden on her shoulders, carrying his child day-to-day and coping with his constant hovering over her health and that of the growing baby…
But with one word from her sweet lips, his worry evaporated.
She held out her hand, signaling for him to place the ring on her finger as overjoyed tears flowed down her face and the baby moved again inside her, sensing her happiness.
“Yes…I’ll marry you, Wonder-Boy.” She beamed brighter than the stars in the atmosphere above them.
That was all he needed, her acceptance of marrying him to be one of the three greatest moments of his life, the first being when she had opened her eyes after his succeeding to retrieve her spirit from the Underworld and the second being when they had first consummated their love and all the intoxicating pleasures the act presented to both of them.
He held her in his arms as he sang to her after many moments of their kissing one another senseless, and making sure she was comfortable as she laid against his sculpted torso, listening to the rumble of his voice as he crooned a lullaby for her to drift off into more blissful dreams of their future.
Dreams she had of him while she had admitted to herself that she was opening her heart to the sweet Sovereign man…
She recognized the lyrics he sang as one in the 2000s playlist of Rocket’s Zune. A sweeping romantic ballad of devoted love and chivalry that described her Adam to perfection as though it was intentionally written about him…
*“I can be your hero…
I can kiss away the pain,
I will stand by you forever…
You can take my breath away…”
.
.
Three months later, baby Lylla Aurora Warlock was born.
She was the bundled golden sun of her father’s eye and the owner of his heart along with his human mate, deciding to wait until after the birth for the wedding ceremony.
Her name had been decided on after Rocket Raccoon had given his blessing, knowing the name Lylla would be sensitive with his past and her namesake being the deceased
mammal love of the Guardian captain’s life.
And when Adam had begged the captain to be the godfather of his daughter… the bandit furred creature couldn’t resist after seeing the happy family of three.
The night after the human-sovereign child was born, many hours of excruciating labor leaving her human mother beyond exhausted and Adam going near insane with worry for both of them.
But his future bride remained strong as ever, and never more glorious in his eyes, covered in sweat and spotted with various other fluids in the expulsion from her nether regions of what the surgeons referred to as afterbirth.
He had read numerous textbooks on the worst case scenarios of childbirth and the possibilities of the mother dying in the process, varying from eclampsia to botched Caesarian sections to the dark thoughts about post-partum depression.
But she and the child bonded from the infant’s first cries, wanting to hold her and fighting her body’s urge to sink into sleep. After everything had settled for the night, she slept in her bed as Adam kept vigil over her and held their baby himself for the first time.
Lylla cooed in her father’s arms, looking up into his eyes as she recognized her own reflection in them. He looked to his future bride lying asleep in her bed, knowing she deserved many days’ rest after such a stressful and chaotic event in bringing a child into the universe.
If Adam not had the courage in journeying to the whirlpool of death entrapping her soul that fateful day, he would not have been sitting there now, holding their cherished progeny in his arms.
He had gone the distance to save her, an ordinary mortal woman with no superpowers or special abilities. And he would do it again should anyone take away his world, his everything.
He leant forward to her and kissed his slumbering beloved on her chapped lips, murmuring softly down at her peaceful visage. “My wondrous starlight.”
Tiny newborn Lylla wiggled in her cocooning blanket, stretching out her small hands as he allowed her to take his pinky finger in her delicate grip, his swelling heart expanding with everlasting and unconditional love for his daughter.
With all the adoration he possessed, he kissed her fragile forehead and the baby smiled in immediate comfort and recognition of her father’s touch. “Lylla Aurora… how you’ve brightened our days for the future. My little sunlight.”