Once the engines had started and they had began their pursuit of Nebula, Rocket had hopped out of the cockpit and went to his and Peter's room. As he walked inside he placed Groot on the desk and shut the door. Rocket went over to his closet and pulled out a crate with a bunch of spare parts and looked at them with a heavy sigh before going to work. Groot stared at his friend with worry as he began to bury himself in his work.

Peter had noticed that Rocket had been absent for quite a while. Normally this wouldn't worry Peter because he knew Rocket wasn't the most social of guys. However given the current situation the prolonged absence troubled him.

"Gamora take the controls I'll be right back..."

Peter said as he got out of the main control seat in the cockpit with Gamora quickly replacing him. Gamora didn't ask Peter why he was taking a leave from the cockpit, she didn't need to, Gamora knew exactly what was troubling Peter and so with a firm nod she turned her attention to piloting the Milano.

As Peter entered the room he immediately saw the Raccoon in question tinkering away with spare parts. Rocket had disassembled his twin handguns and was appearing to be working on some upgrades to them. First thing Peter noticed is that Rocket had changed them to be modeled after his own encompassing grip blasters. However unlike his blasters Rocket's had small blades on the bottom half of them to equip them for hand-to-hand combat just as well as long range.

"I know you're there Quill..."

Peter jumped at the sudden voice before collecting himself and sitting on the bed so he can look over Rocket while he worked.

"Rocket... I'm sorry..."

Rocket stiffened for a second at hearing those words in the tone of sadness that Peter had used before shaking it off as best he could and continued his work, testing the grip handling of his new blasters to see how they felt and handled in his paws.

"... For what Pete?"

"For letting myself get taken from you. I was weak when you needed me to be strong for you... I... I needed to be strong enough for both of us right now and I failed at that..."

Peter's words hit Rocket like a wall rushing into him. He put his blasters down and walked over to Peter and got on the bed next to him. Looking Peter dead in the eyes Rocket opened his mouth to speak but before doing so covered Peter's mouth with his paw.

"Don't speak until I am finished okay?..."

Peter nodded and Rocket let his paw drop from Peter's mouth.

"You have nothing to apologize to me for... You are stronger than you may want to believe at the moment Quill. After you told me where Gamora had dropped us off I had expected you to break down and let the pain and emotions out but you pushed it down and put it to the back of your mind so we could have our nice day..."

Rocket stopped for a second to move Peter's hand under his jacket to touch the enhancements that protrude from his back before continuing.

"If the roles were reveresed... Had we been back at Half World... I'm not sure if I would have been able to surpress those emotions... If anything I was the one who had failed you I made rash decisions when trying to protect you... If I had used my head instead of my instincts you wouldn't have had been taken from me in the first place..."

By this point Rocket's paws were slightly trembling. No matter how he willed them to they wouldn't stop he was getting so worked up over this. Peter could see how this was effecting Rocket and took it upon himself to wrap Rocket in a hug. Peter just stayed like that in silence holding Rocket close to him until he felt Rocket's body stabilize.

"Rocket we both know that you aren't weak mistakes happen it is all part of life... We need to let the past be the past and focus one the here and now... Catching Nebula and ensuring she can never hurt anyone again."

Peter felt Rocket nod into his chest before looking up at him.

"You're right you Dork... I have you back and that's what matters. Well, that and killing the bitch who took you from me."

Some of Rocket's old temper and aggression flared with that last statement as he hopped off the bed picking up his blasters. With renewed vigor practiced a few quick hand-to-hand melee maneuvers with them before returning them to his holsters. Turning to Peter he smirked his usual 'I'm in the mood to break something' smirk.

"Let's go do this..."

He said with a low growl in his tone that was partly excitement, and part threatening malice towards anyone unlucky enough to tempt his wrath and itchy trigger finger.

Peter made yet another mental note to never piss Rocket off too badly and the couple made their way out to the cockpit.

"How much longer until we reach Nebula?"

Rocket asked as he got back in his seat at the cockpit of the Milano.

"Just about five minutes..."

Gamora reported. Four minutes later Xandar was within sight.

"Scanners indicate Nebula's pod landed at the crater from where the Dark Aster landed before. She may be going there to look for something."

Peter read off the scanners.

"Well whatever it is. She ain't getting her hands on it."

Rocket growled as the Milano descended to the coordinates where Nebula's ship landed.

Rocket, Peter, Drax, and Gamora unboarded the Milano carefuly as it landed.

"Be on your guards... Nebula could be or come from anywhere..."

Gamora stated cooly as the group readied their weapons and advanced towards the crater. Once they arrived they were greeted with a familiar cool and robotic voice.

"Ah I knew you would come eventually... I knew the 'Rodent' would wish to settle the score."

Rocket and the others looked up to see Nebula standing atop the wreckage of the Dark Aster. Nebula quickly jumped and landed in the crater in front of the Guardians.

Rocket snarled at Gamora which only caused her to let out an amused chuckle.

"You won't be laughing after we are done with you, you Cy-bitch..."

Rocket heard Gamora and Drax groan a bit at the little nickname he made up for Nebula. Peter of course had a huge grin on his face and was giving Rocket a big thumbs up. This caused Rocket to smirk again.

"Don't get used to it Dork, you may be rubbing off on me but the villain name calling is still lame."

He said with as much of a serious tone as he could muster.

With that all four guardians once again put their attention back on Nebula. Nebula drew her twin swords she used in her fight with Gamora and stood their awaiting the guardians to make the first move. Gamora was the first to strike, metal struck metal as her sword clashed with one of Nebula's. Drax then came from behind to occupy Nebula's other sword. Nebula quickly used an evasive maneuver to knock Gamora and Drax off balance and escape the deadlock.

Once he was certain Gamora and Drax were a safe distance away from Nebula Peter took this opportunity to open fire on her. Nebula began skillfully dodging Peter's gunfire but then it clicked in her head.

'The Guardians have been attacking in pairs..'

Nebula thought.

'So then... Where is the Rodent?'

Just as the thought went through her head she had recieved her answer. Rocket came from behind flying above Nebula using his jetpack he opened fire with his twin blasters raining a hailstorm of stun blasts down on Nebula.

Nebula tried her best to keep up evading both Peter's and Rocket's blasts but one of Rocket's blasts eventually hit Nebula in the left shoulder. This effectively stunning that arm causing her to drop the sword in that hand as well. As Nebula was temporarily distracted by this unsettling new development Gamora took this chance to try to use her sword and come from behind to cut off Gamora's right arm. Unfortunately for Gamora Nebula had spotted he and blocked the blow knocking Gamora back and leaving a gash on her arm. This however left Nebula vulnerable to another stun blast from Rocket.

This time into the right leg forcing her into a kneeling position. Before Nebula could react Gamora had close the gap between her and her sister and finished what she started. As Nebula's arm hit the ground Gamora moved her sword to be used to restrain Nebula. Seeing Nebula as defeated Rocket landed and shut down his jetpack. Rocket approached Nebula, The darkest most malicious look on his face that anyone had ever seen to this day.

"Okay you bitch... This is how this is going to go. I am going to kill you once and for all. So that you may no longer threaten us or the galaxy ever again."

Nebula looked on at Rocket completely emotionally detached as if not worried in the slightest, like she was not scared of Rocket.

"Any last words Nebula?"

Rocket growled out.

"Go ahead then do it!... Unless... Unless you are too weak to kill me defenslessly in front of your love."

Nebula smirked. Though her taunt was effecting Rocket it probably didn't have the effect she was hoping for. She had hoped the taunt would make Rocket let her go she was banking on her words making him rethink his actions. However she made the biggest mistake of her life right at that moment.

The mere mention of Peter from Nebula's lips told Rocket all he needed to know and it sealed her fate even faster. Before Nebula could even realize what happened Rocket had extended the blade on his blaster and spun around. As his rotation came full circle he saw Nebula's body. Nebula's head was now resting on the ground next to her body. Peter looked on in a mixture of shock and relief.

Rocket simply stood up and retracted the blade.

"Never underestimate what a sociopathic Raccoon will do to the person who harmed the one he loves..."

He stated coldly as he looked down at the lifeless pieces of Nebula's body. He turned around and began making his way toward the ship.

"We're done here let's go report to the Nova Corps..."

With one last look at the scene that just unfolded the other three followed Rocket and took off towards the Nova Corps. HQ. However if they had bothered to look back they would have noticed a small mysterious looking ship come down and some more masked men loding Nebula's remains onto the ship before taking off in the opposite direction.