Watching Gamora free-float in space among the wreckage of her pod was not an experience that I ever want to repeat. She had looked so cold. So beautiful. Her deranged "sister" Nebula had left her for dead after firing that shot that had destroyed her pod. I saw the Orb being beamed into one of their ships, but I couldn't bring myself to care. "Come on Quill, let's go." Rocket's voice came from my comm. "Her body mods should keep her alive a few more minutes, but there's nothing more we can do for her" his voice was heavy with regret. "This pods aren't meant to be out here, in a minute we're going to be in the same boat." I knew that Rocket was right, but I couldn't just leave her. Not without at least trying to do something. I let out a growl of frustration and sent out a general broadcast saying, "Yondu, Yondu! This is Quill! My coordinates are 2-2-7-K-3-2-4, just outside Knowhere. If you're there, come get me. I'm all yours." I activated my mask and opened the door. Rocket must've saw what I was doing because he immediately started to protest. "Quill, what are you doing? Get back in your pod! You can't fit two people in there! You're going to die!" I ignored him and continued on my way to Gamora's frozen and still form. I could hear Rocket still protesting, but he was cut off when I deactivated my mask. I instantly felt burning cold, but I put the mask on her, and she started to breathe, so it was worth it.
My lungs where burning, and my vision was starting to blur. Would Yondu come? Probably not. He probably thought that dying unprotected in space was penance enough for whatever slight I had committed against him was good enough. This wasn't on my top ten ways to go, but Gamora was alright, and the others would find us eventually if Yondu never showed. That option looked more and more likely. As my vision was about to go completely black, I saw the spotlights of spaceships. The biggest spaceship was right in front of us, and was pulling us in with a tractor beam. Once we were inside, my vision cleared as I took in huge gulps of air. I deactivated my mask and put it back on my ear just as Gamora starting coughing and opened her eyes. I couldn't help it, but I just stared at her. Had her eyes always been that brown? Her eyes focused on me, "Quill?" She asked confused, "What happened?" "I saw you out there, and I felt something come over me. Something heroic." Gamora closed her eyes and let out an annoyed sigh. "Where is the Orb?" "Well…they took it." "What?!" We were interrupted when the door opened to reveal a half-dozen heavily armed Ravagers. The leader said, "Welcome home Peter."
Oh, great.