"YOU BETRAYED ME! STEAL MY MONEY!" Yondu screams in Peter's face as he continuously punches him in the gut. The boy is pinned up against a wall by two Ravangers.
Gamora is being held back as well, struggling to break free and protect Peter. "STOP IT!" She cries out as the two men tighten their grips on her arms. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
The Centaurian grabs the boy by his jaw and stares him in the eyes. "When I picked you up as a kid, these boys wanted to EAT YOU!" He lets go, but his eyes linger on Peter's. "They ain't never tasted any Terran before. I saved YOUR LIFE!"
The ex-Ravanger breaks, unleashing the rage that was built upside of him, almost breaking free from their grasp. "WILL YOU SHUT UP ABOUT THAT?! GOD!" Pain starts to replace the rage in his eyes. "For years, you've been throwing that in my face, like it's some great thing, NOT EATING ME! NORMAL PEOPLE DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT EATING SOMEONE ELSE! MUCH LESS THAT PERSON HAVE TO BE GRATEFUL FOR IT!" Gamora desperately tries to lunge for Peter, a sympathetic look lingering in her eyes as he continues to speak. "You abducted me, man. You stole me from my home and from my family."
"YOU DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR TERRA!" Yondu exclaims, raising a hand as if to hit the poor boy again, causing him to flinch. "You're scared because your soft, in here-" The blue-skinned man beats his chest to further convey his message. "HERE! RIGHT HERE!" He grabs Peter by the lapels of his jacket and shoves him against the wall.
"YONDU!" Gamora finally shouts, unable to bear the sight of Peter getting smacked again. "Listen to me. Ronan has something called an infinity stone."
"I know what he's got, girl." Yondu spits, slowing rotating his head to glare at her.
"THEN YOU KNOW WE MUST GET IT BACK!" There's a crack in her voice, a hopeless plead that she rarely uses. "He's gonna use it to wipe out Xandar." The hopelessness of her eyes meet Peter's. She quickly rips her focus back to Yondu. "Billions of people will perish." A slight wave of panic clouds over her as she glances around the group of men, trying to scope at least one who would side with her.
The blue Centaurian slowly cranes his neck to face Peter again. "Is this what she's been filling your head with, boy? SENTIMENT?!" The boy's cheek turns a bright red as Yondu's hand makes contact with it. All the Ravangers surround them begin to laugh. "EATING AWAY YOUR BRAIN LIKE MAGGOTS!" His head shakes in disbelief as he pulls back the side of his trench coat, revealing a sharp, red arrow. "That's it." As he begins to whistle, the arrow lunges straight for Peter's throat, causing him to flinch once again as it stops right before making contact.
"NO!" Gamora yells, tugging away harder from the men confining her.
"Sorry, boy. But a captain's gotta teach his men what happens to those what cross him."
"Captain's gotta teach stuff!" Kraglin, a boy who looks somewhat Terran and a few years older than Peter, shouts as the rest of the men begin to grunt in agreement. Yondu turns around and begins to purse his lips as if to whistle.
"If you kill me now," Peter breathes. "You are saying goodbye to the biggest score you have ever seen."
A simper grows on the Captain's face as he turns to face Peter. "The stone? I hope you got something better than that. Because ain't nobody stealing from Ronan."
"We got a ringer."
"Is that right?"
Peter gives Gamora a look that tells her to play along. "She knows everything there is to know about Ronan. His ships. His army."
"He's vulnerable." Gamora adds on, looking at Yondu one last time before meeting Peter's eyes.
"Hey, what do you say, Yondu, huh? Me and you, taking down a mark, side-by-side, like the old days."
There's an eerie silence in the room, followed by the sharp pitch of Yondu's whistle. Gamora and Peter squeeze their eyes shut, expecting the worst. The ex-Ravanger quickly opens his, once he realizes that the arrow hadn't pierced through his throat. Yondu and his men begin to laugh as Gamora hesitantly blinks her eyes open. Peter joins in, laughing more in relief than humor.
"Let him go!" Yondu exclaims as his two men release Peter. "You always did have a scrote, boy!"
Gamora finally manages to rip out of the grasps of the two men holding her. She lets out an irritated grunt, watching as Peter is welcomed back into the Ravanger faction. Just then, the ship gets struck by something and begins to shake.
Lo and behold, it was the raccoon, tree, and maniac. After reasoning with trio that blowing up the ship that they were on wasn't considered rescuing them, Peter manages to convince the group to stand by him and Gamora to take down Ronan. They come up with a plan and explain it to Yondu and the other Ravangers. Once the coordinates for Xandar are set and Yondu gives Peter a warning about double-crossing him, he's finally left alone with Gamora.
He walks into her temporary quarters, unaware that she was getting dressed, and quickly turns away with a beat red face, once he notices she's only in undergarments and runs a nervous hand through his hair. A part of him is curious to see what she looks like without her clothes on, but he has too much respect to violate her like that.
"Peter?" The quietness of her voice is almost soothing, yet it makes him jump out of his skin, pulling him from his embarrassing, filthy thoughts. "What are you doing here?"
"Are you...good? Like, can I turn around?"
Peter can practically hear her eyes roll. "Yes, you can turn around." He does so and notices that she's still topless, in her black bra, pulling on a maroon leather jacket. The boy doesn't mean to stare, but he can't take his eyes off of her. There's silver scars tracing her rib cage and the outer part of her abdominal muscles. They're identical to the ones on her face. "What? Have you never seen a bra before?"
"I mean, yeah, I just-I never,uh, I've never have seen-"
"You've never seen me in a bra before."
The Terran clears his throat as his eyes shift back to her scars. "God, what'd he do to you, G?" The girl bites her bottom lip as her body tenses. "Shit, I shouldn't have-"
"No. We've known each other for a while now. You deserve to know." The Zen-Whoberian grabs his hands and places them upon the scars on her face. His eyes finally meet hers. "Intellect and sight mods." Peter tenses the slightest bit as she slides his hands down to the scars on her mid-section. "Immunization and recovery mods." The girl takes a deep breath before letting go of Peter's hands to take her pants off, revealing more silver scars that outlines parts of her quadriceps and gastrocnemius muscles. She lowers herself onto her knees, bringing Peter with her. Finally, she grabs his hands once again and places them over the scars on her thighs. "Endurance and agility mods."
Brown eyes return to hazel as Peter begins to thumb the scars beneath his hands. The boy shakes his head and pulls the girl into his embrace. He holds onto her as if she'll disappear at any given moment.
After a few minutes in each other's embrace, Peter pulls away noticing the tears falling from her eyes. He lifts his hands to her face and wipes away her tears. The ex-assassin leans into him and presses her lips to his.
A loud pounding on the door makes the two jump. "PETE, YA' BETTER NOT BE SCREWIN' AROUND WIT'CHA LADY FRIEND IN THERE! WE'RE T-MINUS FIVE AWAY FROM XANDAR. HURRY UP AND GET'CHA ASSES OUT 'ERE!"
Peter rolls his eyes at Yondu's loud voice. "Get dressed." He whispers to Gamora, his fingers lingering over the scars on her cheeks as he plants one more kiss to her lips. "I'll meet you in the cockpit of the Milano."
The group of teens and the Ravangers put their plan into effect. Like every battle, they lose various colleagues, including Groot, who sacrifices himself for his friends. Gamora loses Nebula, not to death, but to the Luphomoid's own mind. In other words, she escapes. Now, they're about to be defeated by the person they were supposed to stop.
The Dark Aster has crashed and the rest of the teens are scattered throughout the debris, Peter's tape deck, surprisingly still working and playing music. They look up at Ronan as he wields the infinity stone in his Cosmi-Rod. The Xandarians who have encircled the ship, cower in fear as Ronan appears from a cloud of dust.
"BEHOLD!" He shouts, gesturing towards the group of teenagers. "You're guardians of the galaxy. What fruit have they wrought? Only that my father and his father shall finally know vengeance. People of Xandar, the time has come to rejoice and renounce your paltry gods! Your salvation is at hand."
As the Kree continues to blabber, Peter and Gamora share a look as if it'll be their last. They couldn't think that way, so they rip their eyes off each other and ignore the throbbing pain running through their bodies as they slowly get to their feet. Suddenly, Peter hears the faint melody of "Ooh Child" coming from his tape deck. He hatches an idea.
Ronan lifts his Cosmi-Rod above his head, ready to destroy Xandar once and for all...but Peter distracts him, singing along to the music playing softly in the background. He looks at the boy in confusion.
"Now, listen to these words: Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh-oo child, things'll get brighter. Then, you gotta bring it down hard!" Peter begins to do the running man as Ronan lowers his war hammer.
"What are you doing?" Peter smirks a little. It's working.
"Dance off, Bro. Me and you!" He continues to dance before reaching out to his girlfriend. "Gamora-" She thinks about it, but she doesn't know how to dance besides the slow dances Peter has taught her. The ex-assassin shakes her head quickly. "Subtle, take it back."
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Ronan's nerves get the best of him as the Terran doesn't stop.
Peter chuckles a little. "I'm distracting ya', you big turd blossom."
Their plan works. Rocket fixes the Hadron Enforcer and blasts the infinity stone out of Ronan's weapon. After that, time seems to slow down. "Peter, no!" Gamora cries out, reaching for her boyfriend as he recklessly catches the stone in his hand.
The boy falls to the ground and shakes violently as the power of the stone rips him apart from the inside out. Tears stream down Gamora's face as the power from the stone creates a powerful wind storm. She grasps onto a piece of the destroyed ship, feeling useless as Peter's painful cries break her heart. The girl squints in his direction, noticing that he levitated into the air. She pushes through the storm, trying to reach him again. "PETER!" She cries. "TAKE MY HAND!"
Peter looks at her with tears in his eyes and grabs her hand. Eventually, the others join them and as the pain gradually decreases. Ronan, confused as to how they aren't dead, asks how a mortal could contain the power. It's easy, Peter thinks. "You said it yourself, bitch. We're the Guardians of the Galaxy." With that, he opens his palm and releases a burst of energy in Ronan's direction, killing him in an instant. Gamora grabs one of the orbs and captures the stone inside of it. The storm diminishes and they no longer feel the power of it. The couple breathes heavily, about to collapse into each other's arms.
"Well, well, well. Quite the light show." Yondu. "Ain't this sweet? But you got some business to attend to before all the nookie-nookie starts." The teen hides the orb behind his back.
Gamora, holding her healing ribs, gives Peter a look of desperation. "Peter, you can't." She watches as he shifts his eyes towards Yondu. "Peter-"
"You gotta reconsider this, Yondu. I don't know who you're selling this to, but the only way the universe can survive is if you give it to the Nova Corps." Peter's eyes are just as pleading as Gamora's.
Yondu shows off his arrow like a trophy. "I may be as pretty as an angel, but I sure as hell ain't one. Hand it over, son." Peter shifts his eyes back and forth between Gamora and Yondu, before hesitantly giving the Centaurian the orb. Too bad it was fake...