This is a fic that I've had in mind for a while, and it felt appropriate to post it at last.

So it's not following any particular storyline, from the movies or the cartoon, OR the video game. It's sort of a mix of it all.

Anyway, in the telltale game, it says that his planet is Kylos, so that's where I got that from, and it's supposedly pretty hot 'n stuff.

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. *sobs*

Please enjoy.


The entire mission had been a disaster. Drax knew it, and he felt it in every muscle of his aching body.

As a Kylosian, he was well equipped to deal with a lot of physical strain. His bones were very difficult to break, and bruises were something almost unheard of. This time, however, he felt as though–in the words of Star-Lord–his whole body was "one big bruise".

The Milano was still parked where they'd hidden her (he'd recently begun referring to the ship as female, to their resident Terran's delight), and Drax pulled himself in with not a few grunts of pain.

Everything was as they had left it.

Several bundles of electronics were strewn about on the table, presumably belonging to Rocket, along with a few pieces of food (Drax would not fight hungry). There were some flower petals on the floor where Groot had been working alongside his rodent friend, and the Kylosian almost sat down on one of Quill's Terran oddities as he all but collapsed into the chair at the table.

He picked it up first, and then turned it in his fingers when he sat down. Their distractible human had found it on the last mission, interrupting everyone to excitedly explain that it was a yo-yo before eagerly demonstrating a few tricks with it.

It had ended when he'd accidentally hit Rocket, who had promptly dropped what he was working on. Gamora had confiscated it after they'd put out the fire. She must have forgotten it on the chair when they'd left for the mission.

They had left in quite a hurry.

The mission hadn't really been expected, in their defense.

A call had come in from the Nova Corps, who told them over the crackly channel that the planet they were flying by, Sulayii, was a big part of the slave industry. More specifically, it was home to the headquarters of the Rolynm Slavery Ring. The Corpsmen had explained that it was a recent discovery given to them by an escaped slave.

The Rolynm Slavery Ring (RSR), known and feared throughout the whole of the Galaxy, had never been caught red handed in any of their dealings with anyone, and so this knowledge of their headquarters was to be put to good use immediately.

The Guardians had griped and complained about how it was vacation time, and how they were low on supplies, and after the Nova Corps confirmed their reward, they inevitably landed on the planet.

Their job was not to free all of the slaves, but to infiltrate the headquarters and copy the information needed to take the entire ring down. They would be in and out, according to the Nova Corps.

Drax didn't like the subtlety and sneaky nature of the plan, and he could see that the rodent agreed with him.

Quill and Gamora liked it though, and with Quill assuring them that it would be a "piece of cake," they swiftly hid their ship and moved in on the bustling capital city.

Sulayii was a planet known for markets along with a rich, old-fashioned culture. The streets were always brimming with vendors, colors, and creatures of all shapes and sizes. Everything that could be sold was for sale (Drax highly doubted that they had the lowest prices in the galaxy. There was no way they could have known that.) on this planet, and all of his companions had struggled to keep their attention fixed on the task at hand.

Gamora was the only one apart from the Kylosian whose stride had never faltered. The other three Guardians had merely moved from stall to stall, eyes widening at the different commodities that each one offered.

Drax could see that Star-Lord expected thieves, as his hand had been on his feminine purse almost the entire walk to where the headquarters resided. They never came, though. The few shadier creatures that had dared come close to Groot's hulking figure soon caught Drax's eyes and wandered quickly in the other direction.

In less than an hour, they had stood before a tall building, with hordes of people passing and pressing in on them. It appeared unremarkable but for the amount of creatures constantly passing through its doors.

Drax could clearly recall how Star-Lord gave them a plan, smiling as he assured them it was failsafe.

He set the yo-yo down on the counter with a sigh that seemed to come from his heart instead of his lungs (anatomically impossible). The plan had failed. He had not understood what was meant by "piece of cake," but he doubted that it was this sense of loss that seemed to currently define him.

The RSR incorporated far more people than Drax would have thought possible. In a small matter of moments, he'd lost sight of his friends, and hands were coming from everywhere. All were enemies. All were trying to subdue him.

The Destroyer would not be subdued.

Drax had quickly drawn his knives. He had not been able to see the other Guardians, but the street began to turn many different colors as he slashed through his opponents, determined to leave victorious.

Yet there had been many. Too many enemies with too many weapons, all closing in on him. An explosion had thrown him from the fight, slamming him hard into a wall.

"GROOT!" Rocket's cry had sounded as he had pulled himself to his feet.

Drax felt as though it were still ringing in his ears. It had been full of pain. Of desperation. Drax had not liked to hear his confident teammate sound so tortured.

Drax had tried to get to the middle of the fight. That was where his teammates seemed to be. He was unable to do so. Waves of his enemies had poured into his path, blocking it efficiently. More grenades were thrown, and it was all he could do then to dodge.

A huge alien with metal fists had met him blow for blow, and gotten more than a few good hits before Drax had killed him.

"Rocket, No!" Gamora's voice had come from his left, and Drax remembered wondering how the recent punch to his shoulder had hurt his heart. The assassin shrieked in pain right after, and Drax could see electricity arcing through the fight.

"Drax! Get the Milano!" Quill's shout had reached him then, and Drax had gutted two enemies as he searched for his leader. "Get out of here! Go!"

More electricity arced, and Quill's urgent commands had been cut short. The electricity hadn't stopped, still streaming through the mob around him, but Drax refused to succumb. He had cut his way out, and then he'd done his least favorite thing of all.

He'd run away.

Now he was here on the ship, just as Star-Lord had ordered.

He had left his family.

Drax had failed again.

The Destroyer felt his grip tighten on the yo-yo as he remembered the battle. His hate for Thanos still burned brightly in his soul, the deaths of his beloved Hovat and Kamaria etched forevermore into his very being.

Yet now, a new hate had formed.

A powerful anger seemed to energize Drax's limbs in a way that he had not felt since the day he had become known as the Destroyer.

He would not lose another family. Not if he could help it.

And this time, he could.

Drax's first thought was to pick his knives back up and go kill them all. In his mind he could see Gamora shaking her head as Quill said, 'We need a plan.'

"A plan." Drax said it out loud, his voice as firm as always, ringing through the empty Milano and surrounding him. "I need a plan."

He paused to think.

"I will go in and find my team, and I will destroy anyone who attempts to stop me." That plan felt good to him, but something about it was too … simple?

"Why must everything be so complicated?" Drax glared at Quill's yo-yo, as though it held the answers.

It did not.

"What is it that constitutes a good plan?" He searched the room with his eyes, seeing evidence of his missing family all over the room. A thought struck him suddenly, "Ah. Gamora speaks often of the element of surprise." He looked at the yo-yo again. "Perhaps my plan does not always work because it is so simple, they thought of it already."

It explained quite a bit now that he was thinking about it.

"What would friend Gamora do then, to surprise them?" His gaze fell on the flower petals as he thought it over. "She would sneak in and kill them while they sleep." He looked at the rodent's tools on the table before him, a smile quirking his lips. "The Rodent would blow them up."

Finally, he returned to the yo-yo, finishing distastefully. "Quill would talk to them. I do not like that plan."

Drax closed his eyes, feeling a growl beginning in the back of his throat, and he let it loose in one big roar, his frustration flowing through his vocal cords to echo in the ship all around him. "My family has been taken! By now they are either dead or being sold as slaves!" He pulled his arm back, the muscles protesting as he prepared to throw the yo-yo, but then he paused, unable to complete the action.

"I am a Guardian of the Galaxy, but I am alone. I am Drax the Destroyer." He let his arm drop. "I would give anything in the galaxy to have my family back."

Drax pulled himself to his feet, tucking the yo-yo into his pocket. "I must rescue them. I will not return without them."

He stared around at the room for a moment longer, and then tucked one of Rocket's gadgets into his belt as well, ignoring the two flower petals that seemed to cling to it. Rocket would be pleased to have it, as Quill would be to have his Terran weapon.

It made Drax feel stronger (He was not stronger, he knew, but he felt it.).

The Destroyer stalked to the door, ready to leave, and stopped short when his eyes lit upon Gamora's traveling cloak. She often used it when she was on a solo or covert mission. A thought struck him then, and he smiled.

"I will use this to disguise myself. Perhaps if they do not recognize me, they will not know me."

It sounded more like one of Quill's plans than his, and this pleased the Kylosian.

Drax left the Milano, moving swiftly towards the city. He was on a mission, and to him, it was a mission far more important than the one they had been given by the Nova Corps.

Drax was going to rescue his family.