an. Sorry it's been like three weeks since I've updated! I've been trying to pre-write at least two to three chapters in advance before uploading this to help with quick updates. But as always let me know what you guys think in the reviews. I really love knowing what you guys think of this :)

special thanks to NightWindAlchemist, ingisned, unknownher, Little Ai, Bluehorizon624, LilShort0594, and Lola Vegas for following and/or adding to your favorites!

Chapter 10: Bad Nights Causing Teenage Blues

Peter had been staring at the ceiling, waiting for the prison's morning cycle to come. Sleep was not coming to him tonight and his tired mind finally accepted that fact. He wished he knew which room Skadi had been sleeping in because he'd sneak in to get a few hours of sleep and deal with the punishment in the morning. He was also contemplating on just sleeping in the bathroom so he'd be alone but then he remembered the state of them when he had gone to use it earlier that day.

His train of thought ended abruptly when he heard a familiar cry. He sat up his eyes narrowing when he saw Gamora being dragged away by the group of prisoners who had been throwing things had them the day before. He ripped the arm that was still wrapped around him off and stood up, peeking up to get a better look. Knowing that the Broker refused to buy the orb, Gamora was their best bet of selling it if they could get out of this prison. He couldn't let her get murdered before they escaped this place. He crept up and away from everyone on the floor, following them at a safe distance.

Gamora was throw against a beam, knifes being instantly throw into her face the moment they reached the shower room. Hands firmly trapped her but she knew she could break out of their hold easily if she tried. It was just their knives that she needed to deal with first. She needed a distraction, she thought as one of the prisoners hissed out her name, shoving his own knife inches away from her throat.

"Consider this a death sentence for your crimes against the galaxy." His sharp and jagged teeth sneered at her. He moved his arm back, preparing to strike her. Gamora winced, bracing herself; though, the blow never came. Instead the room was interrupted by a loud, booming voice.

"You dare?" All heads turned to the open doorway as a tall, muscular man stepped into the room. Gamora watched as her captors slowly inches away from her with each step the man took. His eyes never blinked as he stared at her determinedly, yet also looking almost happy.

"You know who I am, yes?" His question wasn't aimed to anyone in particular and it sounded rather like a statement then question.

It was at this point Peter had caught up to them. On his way he found that Rocket had followed him. The raccoon had overheard him getting up due to his enhanced hearing. Rocket couldn't allow his bounty going and getting himself killed. Together they entered the showers going unnoticed by everyone else due to their attention being elsewhere. Peter observed the man everyone was watching closely. His grey body was entirely covered in red tattoos, making his blue eyes stand out. Peter rolled his eyes at the fact that the man also wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Meathead," he murmured, scrunching up his nose at him.

"Drax, the Destroyer," the now quivering prisoner who had once intended on killing Gamora himself whimpered, completely turning his back to his former prey. "You've slain hundreds of Ronan's minions."

Just his present pushed the smaller inmate away, as Drax walked up to face Gamora. "Ronan killed my wife, Hovat, and my daughter, Kamaria." He spoke directly to Ronan's former assassin. Gamora closed her eyes, willing herself to not feel sorry. She had to stay focused. "He slaughtered them where they stood and he laughed!" the Destroyer shouted, turning away from Gamora, unable to look her in the eyes any longer.

"Her life is not yours to take." He finished facing the smaller alien. "He killed my family. I shall kill one of his."

"Of course Drax, here you-," the man swiftly gave up his knife to Drax. But before he could do anything, Gamora took her chance. She effortlessly ripped the female and male prisoners' who stood on each side of her knives out of their grasps. She stabbed the female lightly in the side. It wasn't enough to cause any permanent damage but it was enough to keep her down. While doing this she kicked the male in his nether reigns demobilizing him as well.

Before Drax could respond with an attack of his own, the younger killer was quicker. Both Drax and Gamora's captor found themselves with knives to their throat. "I'm no family to Ronan. Or Thanos," she hissed, her eyes pleading with the Destroyer. She backed up letting her fingers release the blades, clanking when they hit the ground. "I'm your only hope at stopping them."

Drax let out a pained and angry wail. Without even considering Gamora's words he charged at her, grasping her neck in his hand. She was once again shoved against the beam, gasping for air.

"Woman, your words mean nothing to me!" Drax's face ached with agony, his words hitting Gamora like venom. Angrily, he raised the blade to her.

"Okay, hey! Hey, hey!" It was at this point Peter decided that he let himself go unseen long enough. He shouted for Drax to stop or at least listen to him. Rocket cursed at Peter, calling him an idiot. He held his paw to his face, pretending to not see or hear any of the nonsense that was about to come out of Peter's mouth. "You know if killing Ronan is really your only goal in life then I don't think killing her is the greatest way to go about it."

Drax glared daggers at Peter. He didn't know who he was to interrupt the moment he'd been waiting for for years. The moment he had seen Gamora walking into the common area he felt so many different emotions. Anger, for obvious reasons. Granted she wasn't personally responsible for his family's murders but she willingly worked for the very monster responsible for taking away the only thing Drax lived for.

He had also felt sadness. There wasn't a day that went by where he didn't spend most of his time thinking of his life before Ronan, before he became the Destroyer. But over the years he had come to terms with what had happened. He wasn't okay with it but he understood there was no going back. Seeing Gamora made it seem more permanent though until he began to feel hopeful. He was confined in the same place as one of Ronan's goons and one of Thanos's favorite children. It was the perfect opportunity to hurt Thanos and Ronan as much as they did him.

"Aren't you the same man this wench attempted to kill?" Drax questioned the Terran. He knew the basics of how the new prisoners had ended up here. He had beat it out of a guard earlier in the day out of curiosity. He wanted to know if Peter, the tree, the rodent and girl were also working for Ronan.

"Well yeah but she's not the first to try to do that so." Peter tried to defend her, motioning towards her. His face softened when he saw that she wasn't amused from what he could tell. Drax's hold on her tightened and she was fighting to stay awake. Peter went to bring his shirt up past his navel, "You see this scar's from a smoking hot Rajak girl. She was pretty pissed I skipped out on her before morning; stabbed me with a fork."

Peter continued to how his scars from past hook-ups as the rest of the room just looked at him in confusion. Drax's attention, unbeknown to everyone else, was hard to keep. He constantly needed to be doing something. Standing here listening to this Terran going on about a Kree woman and then an A'askvariian while his chance to enact his revenge was literally in his hands was painful. Peter caught onto this real quick when Drax's eyes moved back to Gamora.

"You don't care..." He said mostly to himself. He tried to think of something Skadi would say. He wished she were here to back him up or prevent him from saying anything stupid. But he was glad that she wasn't and was out of harm's way. "Okay fine look. She betrayed Ronan. He's going to come for her and when he does you'll be here to," Peter finished slicing his throat with his finger for dramatic affect. He waited for Drax to respond unsure what he was thinking because of the confused look on his face.

"Why would I slide my finger across his throat?" Drax asked, edging towards Peter.

"What?" Peter paused, unsure of how to respond.

They both gave each other confused look. Drax for one had no idea why the clearly weaker man would think sliding his finger across Ronan's throat was an efficient way of killing Ronan. If this was how Peter fought then it's no wonder he had obtained so many scars from lovers, Drax thought. Peter on the other hand didn't understand what Drax was confused about. The motion he made was a pretty universal signal for killing someone. Even though Peter learned it on earth from kids at school, he found that whenever he's used it throughout his time in space people understood what it mean. Hell, sometimes Skadi would even do it to him whenever he was pissing her off.

"It's a symbol… for slicing his throat…" Peter explained, repeating the motion a few times to get Drax to understand.

"I would not slice his throat. I would cut his head clean off." Drax corrected.

"You can do that too, bro. It's just an expression for killing someone." Peter nodded turning for help. "You've heard of this right? You've seen this? You know what it is? " He slid his finger across his throat again, turning to the others in the room. They all nodded until Drax gave them death glares. Each took back their answers before looking down to the ground. Peter rolled his eyes.

"What I am saying here is, don't kill her. Wait. Let Ronan come for her and then you get her and him in one go."

Drax took a moment. He stared between Gamora and Peter, trying to figure out which was the better option. He could end it now and kill Gamora. All he had to do was squeeze a little harder. But the more he waited the more Peter's plan started to sound better. The guards would have to notify Nova about Gamora's death and word would get out of it. Ronan would have no reason to come if she was dead and Drax was stuck here for life due to his crimes. Reluctantly, he let Gamora go. He turned to Peter,

"You best hope he does come or else I will slide my finger across your throat." He threatened before leaving the room. Peter scrunched his face up at his threat before turning to Rocket to leave.

"Look I give two shits if you live or you die." Peter spoke loudly to Gamora, as the three of them headed back to their cells.

Gamora rolled her eyes, stopping to turn to him. "Then why stop the Destroyer?"

"Simple. You know where I can sell my orb."

Gamora almost laughed, "How sell it? We and it are stuck here?" she spoke harshly to him, not holding back the sassiness in her voice.

"My friend Rocket here has escaped, how many prisons was it again?" Peter looked down to the raccoon who looked exhausted.

Rocket's ears perked up at Peter's question though. He was liking where this conversation was going. At first he scoffed at Peter for trying to save Gamora from the big grey idiot. Now he started to think that Peter wasn't at stupid as he originally thought. He crossed his arms against his chest, smirking up at the taller beings.

"22 and you can bet your asses that we're getting out. Then we're heading straight to Yondu to cash you in for that bounty…unless, you can convince me to do otherwise?" Rocket wiggled his fury eyebrows.

"How much was your buyer going to pay for the orb?" Peter didn't answer Rocket directly, looking back at Gamora instead.

"Four billion units." Gamora whispered, not wanting to anyone else to overhear them. They began their walk back to Gamora's room.

"Holy shit." Peter gasped out as did Rocket.

"That orb is my only chance to escape Thanos and Ronan. If you can manage to get us out of here, I'll take each of you to the buyer and spilt the difference equally." Gamora promised.

Rocket and Peter smirked at each other, silently agreeing to call off a truese. They had finally reach Gamora's room. Peter had followed her wanting to make sure that no one else had tried taking her on her way. When they reached the open doorway he could sense her aura change. She looked worried and guilty as she entered the room. Walking over to what had been Skadi's bed, Gamora picked up the sheets that had been tossed around the bed. Clenching them tightly before letting them fall back onto the bed Gamora shook her head. She turned to face Peter and Rocket.

"She's gone."

"Who?" Peter questioned, raising his eyebrow.

"Skadi."