A/N: Because I somehow got 2 Reviews, 9 Favs and 20 Follows and got inspired to write this faster than I'd planned. Thank you to Beloved Daughter and Guest for reviewing! It made me so happy TTuTT

To Guest: Your review made me so happy, really TTwTT. I'm glad you liked it. Perhaps I will make it longer, I'll see how this plays out, ehehe. Thank you again.


Quill had never made so many jumps before in his life. Yondu had been good at that, keeping his crew safe, despite constantly yelling at them. Quill tried to stop thinking of him, and focused on his surroundings instead... Okay wait, maybe that was a bad idea.

There was a giddy feeling inside him as the jumps continued incessantly, as if his stomach wanted to flutter free of its confinements. He couldn't quite name it, though it felt similar to how most jumps felt, only more intense, like the first time he'd jumped when he'd been just a kid... Quill squinted. In fact... Maybe it was somewhat reminiscent of that old rollercoaster ride his grandfather had taken him on once when it was his birthday, almost three decades ago..? He couldn't remember much except for the glee he felt and his grandfather trying not to throw up beside him. He would have laughed at the role reversal now, if he wasn't genuinely afraid of throwing up. He became aware of continuous yelling after a while, and realised it was Rocket. He glanced around at the others, as if he wasn't already dizzy enough. Gamora, her lips pursed tightly shut, was clinging onto the counter, like he was (he absent-mindedly noted that the transmission had cut short as they'd begun the jumps), but Drax stood his ground as if nothing was happening at all. Mantis... Shit, Mantis, where was she?

"D-Drax... Mantis," Quill choked out, before clamping his mouth to prevent his nausea from escaping.

The warrior blinked. "What about her?" he asked over Rocket's screaming.

Quill glared. Did he really need to spell everything out while he was trying not to throw up? "Go. See. If. She's. Okay." he somehow managed to force out.

Drax nodded and turned to leave, promptly falling onto his face as he took a step. Quill couldn't help but let a grunt of exasperation leave his mouth. That was when he noticed things starting to look...weird. Rocket's eyes looked like they were bulging out of his skull in a way Quill had never seen before, and Gamora's face was starting to look odd, too. "Shit!" he yelled as he realised what was happening as the ship did another jump and enhanced the effects, and clamped his mouth shut and wished for the ride to end soon, before they were damaged too badly.


The ship finally landed in Xandar, Quill trying to land without damaging anything, still terribly dizzy and muddled from all the jumps they'd made. He cussed loudly as he heard a small sound of splashing liquid over by Groot, and saw that the sapling had vomited. "This is all your fault, you know!" he told the sapling irritatedly, though Groot didn't seem to be registering much at all.

"What the..." the ship door had already opened, and Rhomann Dey stood at the door in confusion. "I thought you said you'd only be here in a couple of days." he quickly helped Mantis up, who had fallen to the floor in the passageway.

"Groot decided otherwise, apparently," Gamora said, finally unleashing her hold on the counter and helping Drax up, who had lain on the floor quietly for the rest of the ride.

Quill stumbled over, shaking slightly, anxious to leave the ship. "Yeah," he muttered, as Rocket came over, holding the being responsible for their condition in his hands.

And that was around the time when Quill fell over and knew no more.


"I am Groot," he heard a small voice say in the darkness.

Peter blinked his eyes open slowly, wondering where he was, gradually taking in his white surroundings, and the fact that he was lying in a bed with -

He suddenly shot up to full alert as he realised there were little things attached to his forehead and chest - like when Ego had used him as a battery. "No! Get off me! I'm not a battery!" he panicked, trying the swipe off the things that were attached to him, suddenly thinking he was back on Ego's planet, unwillingly helping destroy the universe, while Gamora and Drax -

"Shh, hey, it's fine. Everything's okay already, Peter," somebody grabbed his flailing hands and stroked them slowly. Peter blinked and looked up into Gamora's eyes. Odd... She looks concerned... He didn't think that was a normal expression to see on her face.

Mantis looked at Peter curiously from behind Gamora. He shuddered slightly, knowing it could have been her who calmed him while manipulating his emotions, instead of Gamora...

"Huh?" he blinked and finally took in his surroundings properly. He was in a room with holograms flickering on the walls, and sitting in a white bed. There were little wireless things attached to him, presumably connected to the holograms, which were projecting a model of his body and showing his heart rate and - wait, why was it-?

Drax suddenly stood up from where he'd been sitting on the floor, obscuring the hologram from Quill's view. "It appears your fragile Terran body could not take the trip as well as the Mighty Drax could."

This earned Drax a glare from Gamora. "You know they took us all in just to check that there had been no adverse effects. Peter only fainted, anyway. They only kept him in here because of that, and..." she trailed off.

"What? Because of what, Gamora?" Quill demanded, sitting up straight.

Rocket finally decided to interrupt, "It's because of-"

At that moment, Irani Rael walked into the room. "Oh, good, you're up. We have several questions to ask you, Peter Quill. Please come with us." She indicated that the others could come too, as the Nova Prime's assistant quickly took the things off Peter's body and switched off the holograms.

Quill gave the others a confused look as he reluctantly got off the bed and they followed along after Irani Rael into the corridor. He did not like the sound of this one bit.