When Gamora entered the Milano, arms heavy with supplies, she was immediately greeted by Groot. At first it didn't strike her as strange. The whole crew had been out for a while; she wasn't really sure how long. Things had been fairly easy going lately. Upon arriving at this planet, they had gone their separate ways to do what they'd like. Despite having been strangers to each other not long ago, they'd been able to put up with each other amazingly well. Which, really, is bound to happen when four of you shared the experience of being shredded into dust and the other one practically died to save the others from certain death.

Still, one could only listen to Awesome Mix Vol. 1 and 2 so much, or nearly die from a newly created bomb that did who-knew-what, or grow tired of Drax's obsessive behaviors, and while Gamora wasn't entirely sure what is what she did that others would find annoying she's sure that there is something. Perhaps her casualness with slaughter or taking hours in the shower, a luxury that she now had and relished. At any rate, whenever they could spare the time, the Guardians of the Galaxy would take a few days on a nice planet (though not too nice) to not be practically stepping on each other in the fairly small Milano.

Groot, who was essentially a growing child (physically), was often left to watch the ship. At least one of them tried to visit each day during their stay on whatever planet, but there were times when they were in… situations where it wasn't possible.

"Hello there, am I the first for today?" Groot wrapped one of his hands around Gamora's, wood shifted to fully encase it, before dragging her farther into the ship.

"Groot!" Only Rocket ever truly understood Groot, but the others had started pick some things up.

"What is it?" Gamora asked. Groot sounded distressed and almost pleading, which was never a good thing. The least she could do was keep a level head about whatever it was, unlike a certain furry crew member she knew. His grip didn't loosen until they were right next to a screen showing Peter's face. Groot quickly tapped on it and set the short video going.

"Hey, sort of in a situation here. Get Rocket or Gamora to track this signal, okay?"

Peter was grinning, and Gamora knew that grin all too well. It was the 'welp, everything's going to shit but I guess I have no say in it' grin.

"Why didn't you call us?" Gamora rounded on Groot, who flinched back a bit at the sudden sharp movement.

"GrooT" Groot drew himself to his full (short) height defensively.

"I don't mean to be accusing." Groot pointed to the time that the message was recieved, showing that it wasn't that long ago. "Okay. Groot, contact Rocket and Drax. Hopefully they're not too drunk. I'll track this signal." Groot nodded and Gamora set to work, fingers flying over screens. Luckily whatever craft Quill was/had been on was easy to trace. While the odds that, of all the planets he'd be at, it would be Terra, was a bit strange, Gamora didn't think about it too much. She was busy putting the coordinates in.

oOo

Tony looked up as the door to the lab opened and Steve entered, the alien handcuffed in front of him, its head swiveling as he looked around.

"Well, did you get anything from him?"

"Sort of, apparently he doesn't speak English much. He says his name's Peter or Star Lord and he claims he came here by accident and is in peace. I was hoping that you had a translator we might be able to use." Tony looked at the so-called Star Lord, who gave him a small one-handed wave but otherwise didn't make any trouble.

"We can try, but odds are it won't be able to translate whatever he speaks." Tony rummaged through a desk, passing a thing of strawberries towards Steve before pulling out a small translator and placing it in front of Peter. Peter stared at it for a bit, or Tony assumes he stared. Its mask/face made it hard to see facial expressions. Steve points to his mouth and said 'translator' very slowly and clearly and at that Star Lord seems to get it.

What followed was a strange series of clicks, hums, whistles, and sounds that were sort of off-putting. The translator came up with a blank and Peter shrugged, none of them had really thought that anything else was going to happen. Tony then led the alien to something that looked sort of like an airport security scanner, closing it and going to a control panel a bit in front of it.

"Is it just me, or does he seem strangely cooperative?" Steve asked as Tony tapped some things and the machine lit up, some parts spinning around. Star Lord barely moved.

"Oh, I don't doubt he's already contacted his leader or whatever. Vision's watching the skies."

"Have you heard anything about the other two?" Aboard the ship there were three other aliens. Two of them were knocked out, and the third one was dead. From what they could tell, he hadn't been buckled in and had been thrown around during the crash. A nice message to early drivers out there to always wear your seatbelt.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure they're still out. Hey, have you gotten the chance to check out this guy's guns?" Tony walked over to another table with the items gathered from the aliens. He picked up one of the strangely shaped guns and pointed it at the wall. "There's two barrels and two triggers. The top one is lethal," A shot hit the wall, denting it, "while the bottom shoots electricity. I figure it's probably to stun."

"He shot me with the bottom one." Steve commented.

"Oh and check this out." Tony picked up what was by far the strangest thing he had found from any of their new intruders. "Star Lord over there had a walkman on him. These things haven't been in production for years. I will say, though, for an alien this guy has great taste in music. Here." Tony handed the orange headphones to Steve, who cautiously put them, nodding slightly to the music. And of everything that had happened to Star Lord, this seems to be the only thing that's made him angry.

"HEY! HEY!" The alien kicked the side of the machine.

"Don't kick that, you… whatever you are. Maybe human. It's a very expensive scanner and I'd rather not have you break your foot on it." Tony waved a dismissive hand. Of course, Peter didn't get the message and continued to make a ruckus.

"If he doesn't chill out he's going to ruin the scan and we'll have to restart the thing."

"Hey, look," Steve very carefully took off the headphones and placed them back down. "It's all good."

"Dang, man likes his music." Sam commented, walking into the room. "I can appreciate that." He made a bit of a face. "Can you call an alien man, or is there protocol when you don't know anything about their species? Call them 'grown adult' or something? Oh, and just so you guys know, I got contact with Thor, he says he'll swing by as soon as he can."

"As soon as he can?"

"Yeah, something about a war… probably take care of that in half an hour or so, we might want to set a place for him at dinner."

There was a small beeping sound and a few different screens lit up, along with the scanner's door opening, like a crappy 1980's movie effect. Peter stepped out, grumbling something in alien under his breath, and Steve left with him in tow.

"Anything good?" Sam peered over Tony's shoulder as the man skimmed through the results.

"So far he looks fairly normal, I would almost even say he's human, but there's a few different signatures that I don't recognize on sight here, so there's a chance he could be Asgardian or at least of some relation…" Steve reentered the room, alone this time.

"Okay, now this is different." Tony typed a few things in, his brow furrowing slightly. "There's an underlying signatures that runs through his entire body – it's pretty faint, but it's something I recognize." Tony paused, and turned in his chair to face the others. "This alien, Peter, carries almost the same signature as the Mind Stone that makes up Vision."

"Are you saying that Peter's a rock?" Sam asked, and you could practically see him trying to compare the relatively rowdy man to the quiet and almost uptight Vision.

"Not necessarily… but either he came from an Infinity Stone, or he's had such close contact with one that it's changed part of his biological make-up. But wait, there's more. For one thing, this guys does have facial expressions. It is, indeed, a mask and isn't a part of his face. So that's one of those questions answered. And then, do you see this here?" Tony zoomed in on a highlighted mark on the back of the alien's neck. "We've got a clump of alien tech here. I honestly can't say what is it or what it's supposed to do, but just in case I'm thinking about moving him to a bit of a thick call in case this things ends up being a big explosive."

Steve grew still as he processed the new information, and Tony didn't blame. It was, to say the least, a bit unsettling to think that what they had first taken for a grunt alien had contact with an Infinity Stone and wasn't dead or traumatized. While it was obviously possible, it did say a lot about the being's power. And then the fact that it could be carrying a mini bomb on it…

"I don't think we should wait for Thor." Steve said carefully, obviously putting a lot of thought into his words. "If Star Lord is really as strong as we think he is, it's possible we don't have the time to wait. Maybe he's not calm because he thinks people are coming for him, but because he knows he can get out. So I think the best way to go about this is to try and get a read on why he's here and what he plans to do."

Tony looked back at the data. He thought about the destruction that had followed the Tesseract, the effects the Mind Stone had had on those around him in the past when it wasn't a part of their teammate. It seemed like they were forever caught in the line of fire of those stupid rocks.

"Okay, but I'm not going to be the one to tell Vision you want to use Wanda to look into the mind of somebody who could very possibly be insane."

oOo

After being led back to his cell, Peter was left to his own devices for a while. His hand absentmindedly brushed the switch for his helmet. He considered taking it off, maybe playing around with some of its parts and seeing if he couldn't get out of here on his own. But even if he did make it out, he was stuck on Earth of an unknown amount of time. And, as weird as it felt to admit, he knew next to nothing about his home planet.

After a while, during which he almost nodded off, the door to his cell opened once more. It was Steve again, followed by the scientist guy that had given his walkman to Steve, and a girl with long brown hair. Peter was willing to forgive Steve, but Scientist still had to redeem himself. All three entered the room, Scientist and Steve standing on either side of the room while the girl approached him. Steve said something, and it took Peter a moment to recognize the word.

"Sorry."

Red mist was coming from the girl's hands and Quill backed as far away as he could, back hitting the wall. The mist descended on him and the world around him faded away.

Suddenly, he was kid, staring up as a light descended upon him and-

- Yondu was shoving a jacket at him, and he wasn't being eaten -

- the orb came loose of the weak barrier –

- why in the world would Rocket even need a leg –

- Gamora's face was collecting frost –

Everything shifted and came to a rest as the world was falling apart around him-he was falling apart. Purple was everywhere and he couldn't hold the Power. He would die and he was screaming and there was nothing eft but the pain. But at the same time, he was in infinity.

"Take my hand!"

"take my hand."

It was Gamora.

It was his mom.

He reached for the hand.

And then things righted themselves out. Peter staggered backwards as things went from destructive-apocalypse to white prison cell. He swore he could still feel the pain radiating from his hand and piercing through to the rest of his body, making him fall apart at seams that didn't exist. He fumbled for the switch to his helmet, feeling the metal ghost over his face as it receded to the sides of his head. Deep breaths. He'd had nightmares/dreams of that day before, all the Guardians had, but before it had been, well, when he was asleep. And afterwards he'd always had somebody to talk about it with or to just be with, to hold the hand of and remember that they'd survived, they done it together. This time it was just him and three strangers he can barely even talk to.

The girl is looking at him weirdly, something akin to fear in her eyes, and Peter knows without a shadow of a doubt that she'd seen what he'd just been through and had been the cause for him seeing it. He'd been so focused on Mist Girl that he didn't even notice Scientist had moved until the man had plucked the collapsed helmet from behind Peter's ear. Peter tried to grab it back but the man had already retreated. Steve guided Mist Girl out the door and Scientist rushed after, quickly locking the door again.

And Peter was alone.

Again.

Peter ran his hand over his face in frustration before running it over the back of his neck. Things had at least been survivable until his wardens or whatever had revealed they had no respect for privacy. He wished he could ask them why, or answer their questions, or at least yell at them in their language. But he didn't remember enough goddamned words for that to be a thing! Peter gently pressed against where the chip had been inserted so many years ago. If Rocket were here, he'd be able to fix it or at least tell Peter what was wrong.

By the time Peter realized there was a strange smell in the air, the effects were already taking hold and the world faded out.