… It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm going to be honest with you guys: I was struggling to adapt Volume 2 for this story and moved on to try other stories. But, after seeing people still enjoying "Half-Worlders of the Galaxy," as well as James Gunn being brought back to Marvel for Guardians 3, I have been inspired once more to finally continue Rocket and Lylla's adventures!

Now then, enough set up: let's see what the Guardians get up to after completing their job for the Sovereign…

"What are they called again?" Drax asked, still scraping alien guts off of his body. The team was heading to meet the Sovereign's leader.

"Anulax batteries," Lylla replied, adjusting her staff slung on her back.

"Harbulary batteries," Drax said.

"That… is nothing like what I just said," Lylla sighed. "They're worth thousands of Units a piece, which is why the Sovereign hired us to protect them."

The otter Uplift noticed Rocket adjusting the satchel he was carrying but chose to ignore him for the time being. The Guardians soon entered an all-gold building, with even the people being gold.

"Just be careful around these folks," Peter Quill warned. "They're easily offended, and the cost of transgression is death."

"Sounds judgmental for a bunch of golden morons," Drax replied.

"You should keep those kinds of comments to yourself, Drax," Lylla warned. She did not want to get on the wrong side of the Sovereign.

"I'll hold my tongue, as long as they deliver what was promised," Gamora said.

Entering the throne room revealed Ayesha, the Sovereign leader sitting on her throne with guards and chambermaids at the ready on either side of her. "We thank you, Guardians, for putting your life on the line. We could not risk the lives of our own Sovereign citizens. Every citizen is born exactly as designed by the community, impeccable, both physically and mentally. We control the DNA of our progeny, germinating them in birthing pods."

Quill replied in his usual fashion. "I guess I prefer making people the old-fashioned way."

Ayesha looked vaguely interested. "Well... perhaps someday you could give me a history lesson in the archaic ways of our ancestors... for academic purposes."

"Yeah, I mean, if it's for research that could be pretty…" Quill said eagerly, only for Gamora to give a look at the Terran. "Pretty repulsive. I'm not into that kind of casual."

"Oh, please," Gamora rolled her eyes. "Your people promised something in trade for our services. Bring it and we shall gladly be on our way."

Ayesha nodded, allowing two soldiers to enter the room with a prisoner. It was Nebula, Gamora's sister, now with a crude metal claw replacing her lost hand. She gave a death glare to Gamora and Lylla, the otter tensing up under the cyborg's gaze.

"Family reunion. Yay," Quill said quietly as Gamora glared in return at her sister.

"I understand she is your sister?," Ayesha said as Gamora roughly picked up Nebula.

"She's worth no more to me than the bounty due for her on Xandar," the green alien replied

"Our soldiers apprehended her attempting to steal the batteries," the Sovereign leader said. "Do with her as you please."

Upon hearing that, Lylla not-so-subtly grabbed Rocket's satchel and stepped forward, opening the bag to reveal Anulax batteries inside. "Oh Sovereign leader, while we were successful in our mission, it seems that some of batteries were damaged in our battle with the monster," Lylla said, making sure to play up her emotions. "Rocket has taken it upon himself to dispose of these defective batteries, as he has much experience with explosives." She gave a look over her shoulder at Rocket, winking at him.

"If the batteries are not in perfect condition, then the Sovereign have no use for them," Ayesha said, waving Lylla off. "You may dispose of them as you wish, though please do so off-world. They tend to be explosive when agitated."

"Wait, how explosive are these things?" Rocket asked.

"Let's just say that with the amount you have there, you could very easily destroy a planet's core," Ayesha explained.

"A planet's core!?" Quill shouted.

Lylla smiled nervously, handing the satchel back to Rocket before whispering in his ear. "You better be grateful that I just covered for your stupid decision."

The raccoon nodded, carefully slinging the bag over his shoulder.

[***]

Soon, the Guardians were back on the Milano, with Rocket in the pilot seat and Lylla acting as navigator. "So, when were you going to tell us that you had stolen those batteries?" she said.

"Hey, I was just thinking of ways for us to get a few extra Units," Rocket defended himself.

"At the cost of not only Gamora's sister, but also our own lives," Lylla continued. "We're not just on our own anymore, Rocky. We've got Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Groot. You need to think not just about me, but about the rest of the crew as well."

Rocket sighed. "Okay, I get it. I'll ask you next time I steal something. Alright? By the way, how are your fruits growing?"

"They're still not ripe yet," Lylla replied. Suddenly the sirens went off, warning of an approaching ship. "We've got Sovereign inbound."

"What do they want?" Quill asked, coming into the cockpit with Drax and Gamora following behind. "We did our job for them."

Suddenly, the ships opened fire on the Milano! "They're shooting at us!" Gamora shouted.

"Rocket, get us out of here!" Lylla shouted.

The raccoon nodded and increased acceleration, everyone else buckling in as they engaged the enemy. "Alright, what else did you do?" Quill asked, taking the second pilot seat from Lylla.

"Me?" Rocket said.

"It's always you that gets us into trouble like this," Quill said.

"That is so not true! You've gotten us into plenty of trouble, arguably worse than this," Rocket shouted.

"There's an entire fleet of ships after us!" Quill shouted in reply.

"Will both of you just shut up!" Gamora said. "Can we please just put the bickering on hold until after we survive the massive space battle!?"

The two men shut up. "Wow. Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Rocket muttered.

"Do not try to bro down with me right now, dude. I will fricking punch you in your fricking face," Quill threatened.

"Real nice! Resorting to violence," Lylla said. "Why don't you both just be adults for once!" She then pointed outside. "More ships inbound!"

"GOOD! I WANT TO KILL SOME GUYS!" Rocket shouted, screaming as he unleashed the Milano's cannons on the Sovereign ships. The Guardians twisted and turned through space as the Sovereign flew around them. Rocket managed to blow up a few of the ships, but many more took their place.

"You're not killing anyone," Gamora said. "Those ships are remotely piloted."

"What's the closest habitable planet?" Quill asked, typing on the console in front of him.

"It's called Berhert," Gamora replied, pulling up a map.

"How many jumps?" Quill asked.

"Only one. But the access point is47 clicks away. And it's through that Quantum Asteroid Field over there," Lylla replied, looking over Gamora's shoulder.

"Quill, to make it through that, you'd have to be the greatest pilot in the universe," Drax said.

"Lucky for us- " Quill said.

"I am," Rocket finished, switching the Milano to his control and blasting right into the asteroid field.

[***]

On the planet Berhert, the Milano made a crash landing through the trees, with everyone a bit disoriented from the space battle. Due to Rocket and Quill fighting over who would control the ship, they had taken a direct hit from the meteor and almost lost Drax when he decided to fire on the Sovereign from the back of the ship.

"Either one of you could have gotten us through that field, if you had flown with what's between your ears instead of what's between your legs!" Gamora shouted at the two.

"If what's between my legs had a hand on it, I guarantee I could have landed

this ship," Quill said.

It's not funny, Peter," Lylla said, holding Baby Groot protectively. "We almost died, because of your arrogance."

"My arrogance?" Quill said. He jabbed a finger at Rocket. "Rocket kept taking the controls from me. It's my ship!"

"And I'm the better pilot, Star-Munch," Rocket said.

"I am not answering to Star-Munch, Dick," Quill said.

"Are we not going to address the little man that saved us back there?" Lylla asked.

"How little?" Drax asked.

Lylla held up her finger and thumb. "Maybe about this big."

"A little one-inch man saved us?" Gamora questioned.

"I'm pretty sure he's bigger than that," Lylla said, rolling her eyes. "If he was closer, he'd be bigger."

"That's how eyes work, you stupid otter," Quill said.

Rocket growled and pulled his gun on Quill. "Oh no, you are not bringing Lylla into this! I won't hesitate to shoot you right now, Star-Munch."

"Then try me, you trash panda," Quill said.

Rocket paused and looked at Drax. "Is that better?"

"I don't know," Drax replied.

"It's worse," Quill explained.

Rocket's hand shook in frustration as he aimed at Quill, but he dropped the weapon as Lylla put a comforting hand on his. The raccoon gave out a sigh. "Just… Shut up, Quill."

Suddenly, a spaceship came into view above the team. Everyone got their weapons ready as the ship came down for a landing. "Looks like someone followed us through the jump point," Lylla noted.

"Set me free. You'll need my help," Nebula said.

"No way," Lylla said, pointing the sparking end of her staff at the cyborg.

"I'm not a fool, Nebula," Gamora replied.

"You're a fool of you deprive yourself a hand in combat," Nebula argued.

"You'll attack me the moment I let you go," Gamora retorted.

"No I won't," Nebula mumbled.

"You'd think an evil supervillain would learn how to properly lie," Quill said.

The group was interrupted as the ship came down and landed, opening up to reveal the passengers inside: an older man, a woman with antennae, and a walrus with metal tusks.

"After all these years, I've found you," the man said.

"Who the hell are you?" Quill asked.

"I figured my rugged good looks would make that obvious," the man said with a smile. "My name's Ego, and I'm your Dad, Peter."

Everyone looked in shock, but Lylla and Rocket stared at the walrus in realization. "… Uncle Rus?" Lylla whispered, approaching the aquatic mammal slowly.

"Hello Rocket, Lylla," Wal-Rus said in his deep, vaguely British voice. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Author's Note

As you can see, we've had a few smaller changes from the movie, but they will lead to bigger things down the road. There is a reason that the Sovereign ships attacked the Guardians despite Lylla covering Rocket's thievery, but you'll find out about that later.

And yes, Wal-Rus is with Ego and Mantis! This raises a few questions about why he's not still on Half-World, but let's just say that there's a very good reason for that.

Next time will be about Rocket and Lylla reconnecting with who is essentially their father figure.

To end off, I want to say that I have decided on who I would pick for Lylla's voice actor. My choice would be Emily Blunt, whom was most notably Mary Poppins in "Mary Poppins Returns" and was considered to play Captain Marvel at one point. I always imagined Lylla having a voice that can be both caring while also being able to kick some butt, and Emily Blunt can definitely kick but if you've seen "Edge of Tomorrow." Lylla also tends to have a slight British accent in my mind for some reason, so that was also a factor in my choice. Comment below who you would want to voice Lylla if she showed up in the movies some day!