A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.
raphlav18: XD Hope you like what happens in this chapter :D
Amara124: Your review made me laugh so hard XD
Ender the multiverse Detective: Thanks.
MonkeyGirl13: Thanks :)
Wanli8970: Everyone take cover! XD
"Quill, I'm trapped!" Gamora yelled in the intercom. "I can't make it to the Milano… I have to head out."
"What? Wait!" Quill exclaimed. "These things aren't meant to go out there!" He jumped when he heard a roar. It sounded familiar, yet was very animalistic, and very loud. Using the mining pod's arms, he pressed a button in the ship he hijacked, and a screen displaying what was behind him popped up.
To his shock, Crys was flying through the air, trailing behind them. But she looked different. She was much, much bigger than she was before, her usekh was gone, and her eyes were completely icy-blue, with a savage look in them.
She looked much more like a real dragon.
"Uh, Rocket?" he asked apprehensively. "Why is Crys much bigger, and look so pissed?"
Rocket cursed loudly over the intercom, "Goddammit, Crys! You stupid dragon! How'd you lose your usekh, you frickin' idiot?!"
"Her what?"
"The necklace she had! You think she had it because it looked pretty?!" Rocket snarled. "She's basically a wild animal now! There ain't no reasoning with her now; she's probably after us!"
Indeed, Crys was on the chase. She opened her jaws and fired a large beam of ice at Quill. He managed to dodge the blast before he was encased in ice. Crys managed to catch up to Rocket, and snapped at his pod. With a surprised cry, he flew out of the way before he was grabbed, and before he crashed into a building. Crys wasn't so lucky, and crashed into the building. Shaking her head, she jumped backwards out of it, pumped her wings, and continued to chase the pods, still looking like a predator chasing its prey.
Getting an idea, Quill said, "Rocket! We need to lose her!"
"No shit!"
"Fly between the buildings! That might slow her down!"
Rocket didn't answer, but he followed Quill between the buildings. Crys followed behind, hitting her wings and sides against the buildings. But while it did slow her down to a degree, she also seemed to get angrier.
But soon though, she was caught between two buildings that were close enough together to where her whole body was blocked. She crashed into the buildings with a surprised expression. Clinging to them with her claws so she didn't fall to the ground, she roared angrily after the escaping and climbing pods.
"What the hell was that?!" Quill exclaimed as he let the ship go, hoping to further distract the rogue Crys. He shook his head as he and Rocket flew out of the atmosphere, "You know what? I'll ask later. We gotta help Gamora!" He jumped at a loud explosion, and his eyes widened in horror at what he saw.
Gamora was floating out in space, unconscious and surrounded by the remains of her destroyed mining pod. The orb was among the wreckage, and was taken by one of Ronan's ships via a small tractor beam. The ship smoothly turned around, and the others behind it followed.
Rocket had joined Quill as the orb was stolen, and stared at the scene in astonishment as well. Sighing regretfully, he said, "Quill, come on. Her body mods should keep her alive a couple more minutes, but there's nothing we can do for her. These pods aren't meant to be out here. In a second, we're gonna be in the same boat." He turned the pod around to go back to Knowhere, but stopped when he realized he was the only one. "Quill?"
As he turned around, over the intercom, he heard Quill contacting Yondu. "My coordinates are 227K324!"
"Quill, what are you doing?!" Rocket asked, rejoining him.
"Just outside Knowhere. If you're there, come get me! I'm all yours."
To Rocket's astonishment, Quill's mining pod opened, and the Terran floated out, equipped with his mask. His rocket boots were switched on, and he was propelled to Gamora's still unconscious body.
Realizing what he was doing, Rocket protested, "Quill, don't be ridiculous! Get back into your pod! You can't fit two people in there, you're gonna die!" He saw Quill deactivating his mask. "You'll die in seconds! Quill!"
Their communication was shut off. Rocket watched as Quill put his mask on Gamora and held her close to him. He couldn't see Quill's face, but knew the effects of the lack of atmosphere were starting.
Then, behind the floating figures were the Ravagers' M-ships. When Quill turned his head towards them, Rocket could see his skin was covered in white spider web-like designs, and his eyes were red. In front of them was Ravager Mothership, which was big enough to hold all of the smaller M-ships, plus more.
Suddenly, there was a loud, angry roar. Rocket turned to the side, only to see Crys come flying towards them again, looking very angry. "Crys, no!" he yelled, despite knowing she couldn't hear him, and wouldn't listen to him.
Before Rocket could fly towards Crys to try and distract her, and just as she was nearing Quill and Gamora, who were now caught in the Ravager Mothership's tractor beam, one of the Ravagers' M-ships shot once at her, hitting her in the side. She shook her head and tried to roar at the M-ship, but nothing came out. Another M-ship shot at her from the other side. She bared her teeth at the other ship. "Don't hurt her!" Rocket shouted.
He could see Crys was starting to cough from the lack of oxygen. Her body was slowly becoming iced over, and her eyes began changing from blue to red. She pumped her wings and chased the M-ships flying into a hatch under the mothership. The other M-ships flew in as well, and the hatch doors shut after them.
Rocket could only sit and watch as the Ravagers took his friends and sister, and flew away.
Back on Knowhere, Groot found Drax floating in a large vat of yellow spinal fluid. Hoping he wasn't dead, he reached in with his roots, pulled him out, and dropped him on the ground on his back. When he realized he wasn't breathing, Groot extended a long, sharp branch from his finger, like a claw, and shoved it into Drax's chest, making some of the liquid splash out of his mouth.
Drax's eyes flew open, and he coughed up more of the liquid, inhaling deeply and wheezily. Groot pulled his "claw" out of his chest and helped him sit up as he continued to cough.
A mining pod came crashing down several feet away, and Rocket climbed out. "Blasted idiot," he grumbled. "They're all idiots!" He jumped to the ground and turned to see Drax sitting up in the dirt, with Groot kneeling on one knee behind him.
When the Flora Colossus gave Rocket a questioning look, the furry alien yelled, "Quill just got himself captured! And Crys somehow lost her usekh, and was taken too!"
Groot's eyes widened in horror; no wonder Crys wasn't with Rocket, or anywhere nearby.
"None of this ever would have happened if you didn't try to single-handedly take on a frickin' army!" Rocket yelled angrily at Drax.
The tattooed alien glared at him, but sighed, "You're right. I was a fool." He turned his gaze down to the ground in shame. "All the anger…all the rage…was just to cover my loss."
Groot laid a comforting hand on Drax's shoulder. Rocket stood in stunned silence, only to scoff mockingly, "Oh, boo-hoo-hoo. 'My wife and child are dead!'"
Groot gasped in shock, holding his free hand to his mouth. "Oh, I don't care if it's mean!" Rocket snapped. "Everybody's got dead people. That's no excuse to get everyone else dead along the way!"
Drax looked up at Rocket as if to yell at him, but let his head fall again. Groot glared sternly at his friend, very near to asking what Crys would say to him.
Sighing, Rocket said, "Come on, Groot. Ronan has the Stone. The only chance we got is to get to the other side of the universe as fast as we can, and maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to live full lives before that whack-job ever gets there."
"What about your dragon?" Drax asked.
"You didn't see her, but she was a monster," Rocket answered, glaring darts at the tattooed alien. "She wasn't herself; she was a full-blown dragon. If she doesn't have her usekh, then...she's basically a lost cause," he sighed bitterly. He didn't add that there was also the possibility that Crys was dead. She was basically a wild animal, and the Ravagers could very well have killed her by now. He clenched his fists at his side. Even if he didn't show it, he cared for Crys, almost as much as he cared for Groot, and didn't want to think of the possibility that she was dead.
Groot's eyes widened in shock at Rocket's statement. The furry alien simply turned away without another word. The Flora Colossus stood to his feet and said gruffly, "I am Groot!" [We have to save them!]
"Save them? How?!"
"I am Groot." [They're our only friends, and she's our sister]
"I know they're the only friends that we ever had, and she's our sister," Rocket agreed. "But there's an army of Ravagers around them. And there's only two of us!"
Drax pushed himself wearily to his feet. "Three," he corrected, patting Groot once on the back with an expression of gratitude.
Rocket clenched his teeth in anger and turned around, growling loudly. "Gah!" he grunted, turned around, and began to kick a large clump of grass. "You're making me. Beat. Up. Grass!"
After Rocket was finished kicking plants, he said, "Before we leave to find them, we need Crys's usekh. If we don't have it, we can't get her back to normal. Where did you see it go?" he asked Drax.
"That way," he pointed.
"Hopefully it didn't go far," Rocket sighed, starting to head for the direction the tattooed alien pointed.
The small group of beggar kids from before came running up. The little girl whom Groot gave the flower to was in the lead; she had the flower in her hair, and was holding something over her shoulder: Crys's usekh.
Rocket's eyes widened in shock, and he froze as the little girl approached him, still clutching the large golden necklace. "We found this on the ground," she explained. "I remembered that the nice tree's dragon friend had it, and I thought she would want it back." She held the heavy usekh out to Rocket. "Can you give it back to her, please?"
He blinked a few times before taking the usekh and slinging it over his own shoulder. "Um…thanks, kid," he nodded.
Groot stepped forward and patted the girl on the head, like Crys had done before. "All right, let's go." Rocket yelled.
Sending a grateful look back at the children, Groot lumbered after Drax and Rocket.
The three of them found the Milano where they had originally left it. "Let's just hope we find them," he growled, taking control of the ship.
As they flew out of Knowhere, keeping an eye out for the Ravagers, Drax asked slowly, "Why is she afraid of me? And why does she need her usekh?"
Though he didn't use her name, Rocket knew he was talking about Crys. "She didn't have a happy life," he answered shortly, still angry about the whole situation. "You wanna know the full story? Ask her yourself." He muttered grimly under his breath, "If you ever get the chance, that is."
Drax turned to Groot, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to understand him. The Flora Colossus shook his head.
The tattooed alien remembered back on Knowhere, in the casino, Crys was speaking negatively about family, as well as her own father. Did her family treat her poorly? Was her father cruel to her? That still didn't explain why she needed her usekh. And what did Rocket mean by "she was a monster"? That she wasn't herself? She was already a dragon, wasn't she? It didn't make any sense. So many questions.
Crys was very mysterious indeed.
A/N I couldn't believe how excited everyone was! It was my most reviewed chapter so far; I was really impressed. That's why I tried my very best to touch up on this chapter to make it the best it can be.
I have a rough height chart comparing Crys to the other Galaxy Guardians that I haven't uploaded to DeviantART (the "Comparing Heights" page from the MrInitialMan website helped; if you search "MrInitialMan", there should be a link that includes "Comparing Heights" in the search results. It's actually pretty fun to fiddle around with) Crys herself is 6'8" in her anthro form (mostly due to her neck) and her Beast form, which is what happens when she removes her usekh, stands at about 12 feet when she's standing normally, or about four feet shorter than an average giraffe. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how big I wanted Crys to be when she's in her regular Drakonehm dragon form; I wanted her to be large enough to be ridden, while not too terribly big, but I also didn't want her too small. I think 12 feet is a good height. If people would like it, I'll upload the size chart on my DA account.
Since everyone was so hyped (or maybe frightened XD) when Crys lost her usekh and set her sights on Rocket and Quill's pods, I really wanted to make her chasing them as good as possible (is that grammatically correct?) Obviously she wouldn't catch them, but there were a couple of close calls. I'd imagine it sort of like when the T-Rex was chasing the jeep in Jurassic Park; I'm honestly kinda surprised I didn't have Rocket or Quill mutter "Must go faster." XD
I'm not 100% sure how outer space works; meaning Crys probably wouldn't be able to fly through space using just her wings alone. But Quill was able to "fly" to Gamora and not simply keep floating away, so I think I can work around things. Physics isn't always accurate in movies. Plus, I thought Crys flying up again to grab Quill and Gamora again would have made for a good "scene".
Originally, I was going to have the M-ships grab Crys with their tractor beams and pull her into the hatch in the mothership. However, I thought that it probably wouldn't make sense for the M-ships to have tractor beams (I'm not that much into sci-fi, so I don't know how space ships would theoretically work) So I decided it would make more sense for the M-ships to shoot at Crys, and her to chase them into the hatch; they probably weren't really planning on taking her along. They just wanted to distract her so she didn't eat Quill. Hopefully this was fine.
I thought that rather than simply search for the usekh, it'd be cute for the little girl from before would find the usekh, remember that Crys had it, and try and find the people she [Crys] was with to give it back. She doesn't know what happened to Crys, she just knows she had the usekh and would probably want it back. EDIT: Rocket's muttering line after telling Drax to ask Crys about her life was suggested by raphlav18; I thought it was a good suggestion, and decided to add it. He also gave me a tip on Rocket's reasoning for leaving Crys. Thanks, Raphlav :D
I hope you guys liked this chapter. It'll be a few more days before I post the next one (the last pre-written chapter) I'm not sure if I'll be writing several chapters in advance, as it was sort of spur-of-the-moment, but it was a nice experiment nonetheless.