Through the cockpit window of the Milano Piper could see Earth. Seeing her home planet filled Piper with a desire to find a hotdog stand. Then eat a chilly dog with taco cheese and jalapeños.

"It feels like it's been forever since I've seen Earth," Peter stated.

"I feel the same way," Piper agreed. "I'm going to miss you Peter."

"Please save the wishy-washy junk for until we leave this place," Rocket said in a gruff tone.

Piper smiled attentively at the talking raccoon. "I'll miss you too, Rocket."

Rocket didn't look at her, but his ears reflexively lowered to the side of his head.

Drax called from the kitchen, "Piper, I've made my wife's special lasagna surprise dish for you!"

Gasping with delight Piper ran to the kitchen to eat some before they landed on Earth.

"I don't understand how she's able to eat that stuff," Peter cringed from the burnt smell in the air from the kitchen.

Rocket shrugged in response.

# # #

Nick Fury was standing in the center of the control room of the Helicarrier as the UFO alarm system was going off. This time they were ready for an attack and weren't about to get blindsided like before. As Fury was readying his men to attack. Then one of the communications people grabbed his attention.

"Sir, we're getting a signal from the UFO," she said.

"Bring it up," Fury ordered.

The control room went dark as the holo-screen came up and it was Piper with a raccoon and human man beside her. She had some strange stain on her face, like she finished eating something.

"Fury don't shoot! Don't shoot!" Piper yelled in a panic.

Fury got caught off guard, but quickly collected himself, "How do I know it's really you?"

"When I was showing off the new S.H.I.E.D. suit you gave me, by preforming a split in it. I accidentally tore the crotch down the middle. Then you promised you wouldn't tell anyone," Piper said as the first thing that came to her mind.

The raccoon, man and other unseen people in the background were laughing hysterically. Fury then gave orders to withdraw the scrambled fighter jets and hide the Helicarrier's defense systems.

"It's good to have you back Piper," Fury said before the holo-screen turned off. Then the man made a call.

# # #

The Guardian's, Piper, and Venom landed on the landing strip of the Helicarrier. Piper couldn't help but wonder how long she has been gone considering how hot and bright it was out. As Piper was carrying her bags of gifts, she's followed by her snickering friends as they walked down the Milano's ramp.

"Are you guys about done," Piper said, pouting.

Mantis was covering her mouth as she spoke, "I am truly sorry, Piper. Their mirth is contagious."

Drax laid a hand on her shoulder, "Do not be embarrassed, young one. I too have split my pants, many times."

"Remember when Drax fought that Rumbuloid on Nexus Six," Gamora said with a smile.

The team, except for Piper and Venom, started to laugh harder.

"I am Groot," Groot joked.

"Yes, that beast could take my clothes, but it couldn't take away my strength," Drax said proudly.

Finally, Piper could see Fury walking towards them as they waited next to the Milano. Piper started fishing out Fury's Christmas present as a strong wind started to blow over them. When Fury was standing at attention before the group, Piper found the stern man's present.

"I see you've managed to make some new friends after your kidnapping," Fury stated.

"I'm sure you've heard of us," Peter stated confidently, expecting some sort of praise.

"No," Fury stated, "I haven't." Then he looked to Piper.

"Um, you guys aren't known throughout the world or anything. Just in certain groups that I'm in, as like, fairytale stories," Piper said.

"I thought you said we're known here," Rocket said.

"No," Venom intervened, "I remember her specifically saying; who doesn't know about the Guardians of the Galaxy. She didn't say everyone knew of you."

"But anyway, it doesn't matter. Here Fury. I got you a Christmas present. I might be a little late though," Piper said trying to change the subject.

Fury took the plastic wrapped present. "Five months to be exact," he said.

"Oh, Piper! We were so worried," Tg'Challa said., Ms. Munroe with T'Challa in her arms, flew down before Piper and started giving her a big group hug. Piper got surprised by the very warm welcome and dropped her bags to hug back.

"Oh, Piper! We were so worried," Tg'Challa said.

"We thought we were never going to see you again," Ms. Munroe croaked.

"We came as soon as we got Fury's call," T'Challa added.

Peter Quill was sniffing and wiping his eyes.

"Are you crying," Rocket asked, teasing.

Peter stopped touching his face, "Nooooo!"

Piper was about to say something, but then she felt Ms. Munroe kissing her head and the side of her face affectionately. Shocked, Piper pushed them back.

"Woah, what the fuck," Piper said as she backed away from them.

"Why do you think she pushed them away," Drax loudly whispered to Gamora.

Gamora shrugged.

The look on T'Challa and Ms. Munroe's face was a mixture of sadness and disappointment. Looking away, Piper picked up her bags of presents.

T'Challa placed a hand on his wife's shoulder, "Ororo, we talked about this."

Ms. Munroe wiped her misty eyes, "Right. Sorry, Piper. I got a little carried away."

"I think the three of you need a place to be alone," Fury stated as he directed a close by soldier to take them to an empty conference room.

"Four. You forgot Venom," Piper reminded Fury.

"My apologies, Venom," Fury replied.

"I'm use to it," Venom replied through Piper.

As Piper, Venom, T'Challa, and Ms. Munroe followed the soldier Fury turned to the Guardians, "We should have a little talk as well."

# # #

Piper sat uncomfortably in her swivel chair in the fifth-floor conference room as the two adults sat before her. She kicked lightly at the plastic bags to create some sort of noise.

T'Challa laughed lightly to try and lighten the mood, "Where to… begin?"

"T'Challa and I have known each other for about fifteen years," Ms. Munroe started, "Out of six of those fifteen years, we have tried to conceive a child."

He wrapped an arm around Ms. Munroe's shoulders, "But then we found out that we are both, infertile," T'Challa gently added.

"Okay, so why haven't you adopted," Piper asked.

"We are," Ms. Munroe said, "It's just taking a while."

"But then you came into our lives," T'Challa added.

Piper didn't know what to say.

"We have come to think of you as a daughter," T'Challa continued, "We realized this the night you got kidnapped by those aliens."

"We know we can't officially adopt you," Ms. Munroe inputted. "And we know you have your own parents from your home dimension, but if you want, we can be your second family."

Venom suddenly spasmed inside her, making her cough, "YOUR FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION!" Venom thought to Piper.

"Not now," Piper thought back, then she was silent for a long minute as she tried to figure out what to say first.

"… I don't have parents in my home dimension. I'm an orphan. I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want people to be all; awe, you poor thing. Not having any parents. And other condescending comments like that," Piper said.

Ms. Munroe and T'Challa were silent.

"Besides, don't you want an actual child who's like eleven or even a baby instead of me?"

"We can adopt other children at that age, but we also want you to be apart of our family," T'Challa stated.

"Oh, yah, well then don't you want a child who looks more like you guys," Piper finally pointed out. "I won't look like I belong at all; like you guys are just taking pity on an outsider." Piper was looking at her feet.

Ms. Munroe got out of her seat and squatted in front of Piper and placed her hands on both of her shoulders. Her long white hair tickled Piper's knees.

"Piper, I don't know what we can say to you to convince you that we want you as a daughter. We don't care what other people might think. We don't care how old you are. All we care about is what you think. Cause if you don't feel comfortable with this you don't have to do this," Ms. Munroe explained.

Then there was an explosion in the distance that rocked the Helicarrier.

"Oh, Bast!" T'Challa cursed.

Alarms were blearing as the four of them ran out of the conference room. The Helicarrier was buzzing like a bear torn beehive. The four of them started running the same way as T'Challa's suit manifested itself around him as he ran. Ms. Munroe and T'Challa separated, to go see where they're needed in the crowd of people. Piper and Venom swished around the throng of people as they went to the part of the Helicarrier that got wrecked. When Piper found the wreckage sight, she saw that it was the high security storage unit. Black Widow, Hawkeye, and a group of armed guards were fighting demon-like creatures. Flying high above the scene was Baron Mordo who looked like he was concentrating on a spell he's casting or had casted.

"Why is an Evil Sorcerer attacking us? This should be Dr. Strange's M.O.," Piper said to herself as she ran into the fray to beat up some demon minions.

"Hey! Piper, I'm so glad your back," Hawkeye greeted, then shot a demon in the head with an arrow behind Black Widow, "Bruce and Tony owe me twenty bucks each."

Piper had turned her arms into giant needles and Venom manifested into a second head. Then it started biting demon heads off while Piper pierced their bodies. "Did they think I was dead?"

"Naw, they just thought it would take you longer to get home," Hawkeye stated while stabbing a demon in the eye with an arrow.

"Will you two focus," Black Widow said as she round house kicked a demon into another demon, "Piper, leave these things to us. You're the only one in here who can reach Mordo."

Piper stabbed two demons into the floor, "What about your bullet bracelets and Clint's arrows?"

In response Hawkeye shot an arrow at Baron Mordo. In the middle of it's flight the arrow turned and shot into the metal of the Helicarrier.

"Okay I see your point," Then Piper ran toward the gap in the Helicarrier. Then as she made it to the edge Piper jumped up thirty feet into the air. Just as Piper was about to grab onto Baron Mordo, he moved to the side while still focusing on his magic. While she started to plummet to the ground Venom shot out it's tendrils to grab onto Mordo. From a distance Piper could hear what sounded like a jetpack over the sounds of the Helicarrier. Then Piper got caught by Peter Quill on his jetboots, just as Venom grabbed a hold of Mordo.

"Is that the guy who's been making all these creatures appear?" Peter asked.

"Yep! Now let's get him to stop," Piper said as she infused her own tendrils into Venom's to make its grip stronger.

Peter, still holding onto Piper, flew down towards the ground hard. Venom and Piper's tendrils pulled taunt as they dragged Baron Mordo behind them. Rag dolling in the air made Mordo stop his spell, but the demon-like creatures didn't disappear like Piper was hoping for. However, more demons didn't show up either, so that's a plus. As Baron Mordo was about to hit the ground he cast a spell by saying some complicated fancy words and Peter's jetboots stopped working.

"Oh, no," Peter said as they started to fall.

Then they violently swung backwards as Mordo was flying upwards, trying to loosen Piper and Venom's grip on himself. Peter held on tight to Piper.

"How did he do that? Rocket just fixed them," Peter said as he was knocking his feet together like there's no place like home.

Venom manifested its head in front of Peter's face, "Magic, man."

"Of course! Nothing can be easy," Peter complained.

Piper and Venom were slowly pulling themselves up to Mordo so they could crash land him into the Helicarrier. As they climbed though, Baron Mordo said some fancy sounding gibberish and blasted them with a blinding light. After blinking away the black dots in her eyesight from the blast, Piper looked up to see that Mordo was looking down at them smugly, then in confusion.

"Is everyone okay," Piper asked.

"I don't fell so gerow!" Peter meowed.

Piper looked down and saw that Peter Quill was shapeshifting into a cat. She felt Peter's arm bones cracking and folding into themselves and watched as his face shrank and scrunched up as he meowed in a panicking way. She watched as Peter's clothes fell away and his body was covered in brown fur. Then he fell, this shocked Piper out of staring, and she grabbed onto cat Peter with a back tentacle. Piper heard Mordo started saying another spell and Piper decided to swing to try and get out of the magical blast, for Peter's sake.

Venom and Piper climbed up to Baron Mordo as he used every kind of magic he could think of on Piper and Venom, but the magic didn't affect them. Finally, Mordo decided to just manifest fire onto their arms as he flew around trying to get rid of them. That worked as both Piper and Venom let go instinctually. Cat Peter was meowing loudly like he was cursing them out as they plummeted to the earth below.

Piper felt her stomach flop as she watched Baron Mordo get away. Holding tightly to cat Peter, Piper frantically looked around at where they were falling. She knew that if they landed on a building or a road, Venom and herself could survive the impact, but Peter wouldn't make it. So, she had to land in a body of water. Luckily, there was the Hudson River, a mile away from where they were falling. Venom and Piper fanned themselves out to try and make a makeshift glider suit to direct their plummet. When they were in position, Venom tried making itself into a parachute. That only slowed them down a bit as Venom kept getting torn apart from the forces. Before they hit the water, Piper inserted cat Peter into her chest cavity, and she fused her feet together into a point to break the surface tension of the water.

Then they hit the water. Piper felt her ears pop and felt her body getting pushed in from how deep into the river they fell. Quickly, Piper swam to the surface and made it to the muddy shore and coughed up cat Peter. He looked safe and dry, but very traumatized.

"Are you hurt?" Piper asked him.

Peter stood up on his furry hind legs and looked at his paws in a cat's impression of horror. Then he started meowing at Piper.

"I can't understand you Peter, but don't worry. I know a guy who can probably turn you back," Piper said.

Piper picked up Peter as he growled in annoyance. Piper then leaping and bounding towards the Sanctum Sanctorum. Out of breath Piper banged on the front door of the old, stain glass covered building. Dr. Strange opened the door. Before Piper could say a word, cat Peter started meowing at the magician.

"Piper? I heard you got kidnapped. What are you doing here?" Then Dr. Strange gave a hard look at the meowing cat in Piper's arms, "How did this man get turned into a cat?"

Breathing hard, Piper quickly said, "Baron Mordo. Helicarrier!" She pointed in the direction she came from.

"Then we have no time to lose," Dr. Strange said as he stepped out of his home and pulled out his ring sling and made a portal to the Helicarrier.

On the Helicarrier, Piper saw the rest of the Guardians, Fury, and some random S.H.I.E.L.D agents kicking these demon-like creature's asses. Piper was about to go join them, but then Dr. Strange held her back.

"These things are nothing more than a distraction. Show me where he is," Dr. Strange said.

Piper lead him back to the broken in high security storage unit, however, Ms. Munroe was now throwing lightning bolts and tornados at Baron Mordo as he continued to conjure up more creatures. Dr. Strange flew up to them and started throwing his own magic at Mordo. At the sight of Dr. Strange, Baron Mordo looked visibly scared, but he didn't run. As the three of them battled it out Piper continued to help Black Widow and Hawkeye.

"You're all wet! What happened," Hawkeye said after punching a demon creature in the face.

"And where did you get the cat," Black Widow added after she threw a demon creature into the one Hawkeye punched.

Piper formed her four back tentacles and started throwing the demon creatures through the gaping hole of the Helicarrier. "Do you guys know what might be in here? Do we have any weird magical items that Baron Mordo might want?"

Hawkeye began saying, "We don't have—"

"—We have three pieces of magical artifacts," Black Widow stated.

"Why do nobody tell me these things," Hawkeye complain while throwing a creature at Piper and she then threw it out.

"Let's go check on it," Piper said, "Dr. Strange says Mordo is trying to distract us."

"I'll go look. You stay here," Black Widow said as she ran off deeper into the high security storage unit.

As Hawkeye, Piper and Venom continued to fight the demon-like creatures, an epic sky battle was unfolding above their heads. The two wizards duked it out with Ms. Munroe backing up Dr. Strange. Piper saw that Ms. Munroe managed to hit Baron Mordo with a lightning strike directed by Dr. Strange's helpful portals. Hurt and tired Baron Mordo decided to retreat by disappearing into a ring sling portal of his own. Dr. Strange tried to catch him before he disappeared, but it was too late. With Mordo finally gone, the demon like creatures also disappeared, but cat Peter still in Piper's arms didn't change back.

"Did he get what he wanted?" Hawkeye asked out loud.

Black Widow ran in from where she left. "Those creatures tried to steal a piece of the Ancient Scrolls, but I took them down before they could disappear with it."

Dr. Strange flew down in front of Black Widow, "You have a piece of the Ancient Scrolls? That should be protected underneath the Ancient Ones!"

"Hey!" Hawkeye moved to be beside Black Widow, "I may not know much, but we work hard to protect these items. We wouldn't have it if someone didn't think we couldn't take care of it."

"Look, Strange, I understand your concern, and if it wasn't confidential, I would tell you more about why we have it. You're going to have to trust us with it," Black Widow said with a politically straight face.

"So, I'm just supposed to assume that you're not trying to create some sort of super weapon with it, like with that Cosmic Cube debacle?" Dr. Strange accused.

"I mean, yah, basically," Hawkeye answered.

Ms. Munroe flew down as the three of them argued and landed beside Piper and she rested her hands on her shoulders. "You're all wet, what happened?"

"Magic, man," Piper answered. Then cat Peter started meowing loudly again.

"Yah, I know. Hold on," Piper answered Peter as she walked up to Dr. Strange. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but do you mind changing him back?"

"Not now," Dr. Strange said without giving Piper a sideways glance.

Piper grabbed a hold of Dr. Strange's face with one of her tentacles, forcing him to make a fishy face. When he was face to face with Piper's iris-less eyes and sharp tooth frown, Piper growled, "Yes, right now! You're here to help, not argue."

Dr. Strange easily pushed away Piper's tentacle from his face. "Alright, fine." Then Dr. Strange said some fancy gibberish and made some quick hand motions and Peter grew back into a naked man. Peter instantly covered his dangly bits, Piper looked away and Ms. Munroe averted her eyes; everyone else was unbothered.

Hawkeye took off his shirt and gave it to Peter, "Here man, you need it more than me."

"Thanks. Magic is the worst," Peter said as he used the shirt as a kind of skirt.

From the entrance of the high security storage unit was laughter. Everyone turned to see that the rest of the Guardians had found them and were laughing at Peter's nakedness. Peter went to them to yell at them for laughing at him and to get them to stop.

"Dr. Strange, would you like to see the piece that we have and preform a protection spell on it," Black Widow said.

"That would quell my nerves a bit, but I'm still going to contact the Ancient Ones," Dr. Strange said as Black Widow led him away.

A small tornado whipped around Piper and within minutes she was dried. Piper turned to Ms. Munroe as she made the tornado disappear.

"I think we still have a conversation to finish," Ms. Munroe said.

"Let's go find, T'Challa," Piper answered as they walked away together.

# # #

Piper wrung her hands together in a nondescript hallway while people casually passed by her, T'Challa, and Ms. Munroe. They were too busy to pay them much attention. Ms. Munroe and T'Challa where holding hands as they were patiently waiting for Piper's reply.

Piper sighed, "I wouldn't hate it if you guys considered me family."

Teary eyed Ms. Munroe went in for a hug, but Piper quickly backed away.

"But I don't think I'm comfortable enough with calling you guys Mom and Dad!" Piper blurted out, "I'm just too use to calling you guys by your last and first name."

Ms. Munroe was pulled back lightly by T'Challa.

"Oh, that's fine, dear," Ms. Munroe said, "Baby steps are still steps forward."

"And you are okay with, Venom, right? Cause we're a package deal," Piper added.

"I don't really trust it," T'Challa said with Ms. Munroe nodding her head in agreement, "But as long as its not hurting you, I think we can live with it."

T'Challa then said, "Thank you for accepting us," he said, reaching out a hand.

Piper gave out her hand to hold and Ms. Munroe wrapped her hands around theirs. "Same," Piper said.

# # #

Vamp stood in the middle of a dark alleyway at two in the morning while wearing a small backpack. He comfortably read a book about sword techniques with his natural night vision. On the wind he smelled Baron Mordo walking towards him, Vamp closed the book as Mordo appeared before him, looking a little warn for wear.

"You did go'd," Vamp said.

"Do you have it," Baron Mordo stated, straight to the point.

Vamp shrugged off the backpack, unzipped the one pocket, and took out a broken head piece of a staff. The staff head looked like the many faces of suffering people.

"The Berserker Staff," Mordo said, almost drooling and reaching for the staff head.

Vamp moved the head of the Berserker Staff away from Mordo's reach. "You make a great distraction, but do you have what we agreed upon?"

Baron Mordo made a hand sized portal appear, reached into it, and pulled out a bowling ball sized and shaped, black rock. The two traded their items.

"Pleasure, doing business with you," Vamp said as he put the light Ebony Crystal into his backpack and walked away.

# # #

During that time at the Helicarrier's barracks, Piper was half asleep in her bunk as Venom probed her for answers.

"Why didn't you tell me you were from another dimension. We've known each other for almost half a year now, did saving all those aliens on are way here and living together mean nothing to you?" Venom thought to her, feeling a bit betrayed.

Piper thought back, "You know that's not true, of course it means something to me. I didn't tell you because I know too much. The less that people know that I know a lot, the less chances are of someone getting hurt."

"So what, you know everything about us in this dimension because you use to live in that other dimension?" Venom thought disbelievingly.

"Kind of. It's impossible to know everything. Cause nobody wants to read about the bathroom habits of Steve Rogers or Natalia Romanoff," Piper thought, then yawned out loud.

"You are not omnipresent? You just, know the people to an extent," Venom thought for clarification.

"Yah. General backstories, typical habits, what they can become or who they're always with. That sort of thing," Piper thought back as she started to fade into unconsciousness.

Venom thought back, "And secret identities too."

Piper yawned and thought, "Yep."

"That's a lot of knowledge," Venom thought.

Piper didn't answer as she had fallen back to sleep. Venom manifested outside of Piper's body as an upside-down tear drop head, it looked around in the dark to make sure no one was awake. Venom straightened out the necklace, it was given, on Piper's neck. Then Venom got close to Piper's ear and whispered it's love confession into her ear again. Practicing for when it finally feels like it has the courage to say it to her face.