This will be a series of oneshots set between GOTG2 and Infinity War. No spoilers whatsoever. It'll go into the development of Peter and Gamora's relationship. Let me know what you think!
Chapter One: Family Shows Up
It had been a rough fight. The Kree didn't mess around apparently. Peter knew that one for a fact now, if he hadn't already put it together. The spear through his left shoulder was definitely proof of that.
The spear had gone through his shoulder and planted firmly into the concrete wall behind him, redenering him stuck, and quite frankly, useless at this point. After they disabled him, he was surprised to see that they didn't come back around to finish him off.
From his position, he'd noticed one of their fighters slice open the back of Rocket's leather jacket, exposing his engineered modifications.
He noticed about three seconds too late, the Kree fighter had zapped Rocket's main power implant with some kind of enhanced looking cattle prodder before he could get the words out to warn his teammate. He went down quickly, but it was odd to Peter that the blow wasn't lethal. Rocket was clearly still alive, twitching on the ground as he moaned in pain.
Peter tilted his head in confusion. Why were they using non lethal methods? What did they want?
When a bunch of them wrestled Drax into a pair of what looked like super handcuffs and all fifteen of them turned to the only remaining Guardian, Peter realized what was happening.
Gamora had slumped to her knees beside Rocket to help fix his modifications, and two of them ran up behind her, taking her by hand fulls of her hair and dragging her back towards their ship.
"Gamora!" He shouted, struggling painfully against the spear through his arm.
She struggled against the two warriors, crying out in aggravation before doing a somersault, flipping the warriors onto the ground along with her. She jumped up quickly, slamming her boot into one of their chests and kicking the other who had already gotten up in the jaw.
Peter couldn't help but smirk at the cracking sound it made. The warrior stumbled backwards, crying out in pain.
Two more came at her from behind on either side.
"Groot!" She shouted as she pulled two throwing knives from her holsters. She spun around on her heel, hitting the two behind her easily in between with what seemed like little effort.
Groot popped out of the Milano's holding bay, sprinting across the field towards Gamora. "I am Groot?" he asked as he got closer.
Gamora dodged one of their punches, "Yes! I need you to-" she was cut off by a punch to the face, barely stumbling before grabbing the fighter by the throat and throwing him aside. "Pull the spear out of Peter!" She shouted, a little more frantic as another two fighters grabbed ahold of her arms. A third ran up in front of her, kicking her hard in the stomach.
Peter flinched the she doubled over and was yanked back up by the fighters holding her arms behind her. She groaned as she bit back a cry out in pain.
He had to tear his eyes away to find Groot in the grassy field. "Groot! Hurry up!" He yelled.
He saw the tiny floral colossus a few feet away, his arms already growing rapidly above his head as he ran towards him. His small arms grew quickly and thick as he got big enough to reach the spear lodged in Peter's arm.
"I am Groot," he warned as he gripped the end of the spear.
He nodded, "I figured that it'll hurt, buddy. It's okay."
He bit his lip as he saw his small toddler-sized tree teammate take a deep breath as he shut his eyes. "I am Groot!" He shouted as he yanked the spear through Peter's shoulder.
"Holy shi- you said you'd count to three!" Peter bellowed as he grabbed his shoulder, blood seeping between his fingers.
Groot rolled his eyes at him, pointing behind him at Gamora, who was now facing four warriors, and moving significantly slower than she had moments before.
"Right," He said as he pulled his blaster from the holster and ran forward.
Two warriors were holding Gamora's arms behind her, the third fighter was behind her, pressing his foot firmly into the center of her back. As Peter ran forward, he couldn't but flinch as he heard a soft, but definitely painful pop, indicating they had dislocated her shoulder. Without even thinking, he fired two shots, taking down the two fighters behind her holding her arms.
She gripped her shoulder as she dropped. The third fighter that Peter had missed bent down quickly to grab her, but Gamora rolled onto her back, lifting her legs up to wrap around his neck. She used her good arm to push herself onto his shoulders, wrapping her legs tighter around her neck as he did so.
"Who sent you?" She bellowed, her voice wild and dangerous.
The fighter snickered but immediately started choking as she tightened her legs' hold on his throat. "F-fine! Your daddy, little one."
His words threw her off, and Peter could tell. She stiffened, and the fighter used that to his advantage. He pulled a dagger from his holster, driving it into her right thigh. Gamora bit back a cry in pain before tightening her legs around him once more. She twisted her body slightly, breaking his neck without much effort. His body crumpled beneath her, and she pushed herself forward, landing haphazardly on her right knee and tumbling forward onto the ground.
Peter shot the remaining two, and ran to Gamora as was struggling to stand. Before he could even get close to her, she shook her head. "Help them!"
"But are you-"
"Yeah. Go to them." She grunted, moving her head to the side and spitting some blood out onto the ground.
"Gamor-" He tried.
"Go." Her voice was even, but she was breathing heavily.
He gave in, nodding and running back to Rocket and Drax.
"Groot! Get the handcuffs!" He yelled as he sprinted to Rocket, who was now unconscious. He couldn't fix his modifications out here on the field; he didn't even know where to start. They needed to get back to the ship. "I can't do this here we need to get back to the Milano." Peter tilted his head back at their ship about 300 yards away.
Groot nodded as he managed to rip Drax's handcuffs off, and Drax sprinted over to Gamora.
He held his hand out to Gamora, who was still on the ground. "Friend, can you stand?"
Gamora spit out some more blood, rolling her eyes. "What do you think?" She said as she moved her right leg into Drax's view. His eyes widened as he saw that the dagger was still lodged into her thigh, and it was deeper since she jumped down from the fighter's shoulders and landed hard on the ground.
He sighed deeply, "Let me help you u-"
"No. I do not need any help." She said, her voice low and dangerous. It reminded Drax of a wounded animal showing its teeth as a last ditch method to scare off a predator. "Gamora-"
"Drax, I can get up." She snapped, struggling to push herself off the ground.
Peter noticed this from across the field and hoped that if Drax couldn't get her up, then maybe she'd let him help.
"Drax!" He called out as he scoped Rocket into his arms, running towards his friends across the field.
Drax approached him, "Quill, she is pretty badly injured."
Quill nodded, his face grim. "Can you take Rocket and Groot back to the Milano? I'll stay back with her." He tried to keep his voice low. He knew if Gamora heard he didn't think she could make it back on her own, she'd be impossible to move.
Drax nodded as he took Rocket into his arms and jogged towards the Milano.
"Come on tiny tree!" Drax yelled at Groot who was playing in the grass.
When he saw them head into the ship, he turned back to Gamora.
"Hey, Mora." He started as he squatted down next to her.
She wouldn't look at him. "Your shoulder looks bad. You need to get to the ship and get cleaned up."
He rolled his eyes, "Without you?" he scoffed, "Come on."
"I don't need help." She muttered, but her voice faltered as she tried, and failed once more, to get up on her own.
"Oh I know," Peter nodded, deciding to humor her. "I just need to know what to do for Rocket. Since those Kree bastards seemed to know you pretty well, I assume that tech was meant to mess with your mods too."
She nodded slowly, this time actually looking him in the face. "It's just a stun system. It shuts down the modifications for about an hour or so. Rocket will be okay. It'll just hurt a bit."
Peter nodded, "I take it you know that one from experience, huh?"
She nodded again. "Thanos would use it if any of us disobeyed."
Peter nodded, "Can you stand?"
She rolled her eyes. "Yes. I just need a minute."
He shook his head, "Mora, there's a knife in your leg."
"Thanks for letting me know." She barked, as she winced at her modifications, popping her shoulder back into place. "See?" She asked, moving her shoulder without pain once more, "I'll start to heal in a moment or so."
"Yeah but cuts don't work like that. You said it yourself a few months back, I remember." He countered, and he couldn't help but smirk.
She nodded, but looked back down to the ground again. "Then leave me here then."
"Why the Hell would any of us want to do that?" Peter asked, unsure of her sudden request.
"They were here for me." She wiped some blood off her face. It was then Peter noticed a pretty deep gash across her cheek.
Before he could say anything else, she continued, "No one is coming to get anyone else. As long as I am alive, Thanos will come for me."
Peter sighed, "And we will kill him when that happens. We're not gonna leave you here for dead."
She shook her head, "What if next time he sends his actual children? And they're told they can kill everyone else? We survived today because the Kree were told not to kill us." She took a deep breath, eyes welling with tears. "And all of this is my fault. If they were allowed to be more forceful,and something happened to you, I couldn't forgive myself."
Peter wiped his thumb across her cheek, removing the tears and some blood that were running down her face. "Gamora, none of us care about any of that stuff. I mean I l-" he forced a cough, "W-we love you. We'd do anything for you. Always."
Gamora nodded slowly, taking his hand in hers. "Thank you," she dropped her gaze once more. "I just sometimes feel like I'm not worth all of this trouble."
Peter shook his head, "Mora, you just took on fifteen warriors on your own to help us. Everytime shit hits the fan for us, you're there. And when times get tough for you, that's when we show up to help. You're in this family. That's how it works. Family shows up."
He wasn't sure, but he could've sworn he saw a small smile playing on her lips. But before she could say anything else, he leaned in closer, putting one hand behind her back and the other under her knees. "Can you please let me take you back to your Milano so we can get that knife out of your leg and get off this boring ass planet."
She rolled her eyes, a smirk forming on her lips. "Fine. But we're cleaning your shoulder up first."
"Whatever you say, baby." As he lifted her off the ground, carrying her back towards the Milano.
