Hi and yikes! Sorry for not updating for almost a year! Obviously, the events of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 made me revise what was going to happen in this fic kind of a lot, but I really did mean to update sooner! (I've been drawing GotG comics, so it's not like I was really gone—I was just writing fanfic in a different format somewhere else.) Hey, but now I'm back with two chapters that will get us ready for Infinity War (ha ha, as if we'll ever be ready). Thanks to everyone who reviewed and said they were still waiting to hear how things turn out in this story. :)

Here's another Quill POV chapter because it seemed important to get his take on all this asteroid stuff. This one gives some hints about things we learn in GotG Vol. 2, and the next chapter will segue into that movie. I'll hopefully post that next week, but dang, I said that last time, and look how that turned out. Thanks for reading!

Quill

"How is your wound?" Drax said, handing Quill a plate of food.

"Fine," Quill said. "Kinda itchy, more than anything."

"So what happened?" Zoren wondered. "Did you get hurt landing the asteroid?"

"Nah, afterward—a flerkin stabbed me with its tentacles," Quill said. "The asteroid happened to come down too close to its nest. After it tossed me, Gamora dragged me away. Thanks again for saving my life, by the way."

Gamora smiled. "We're even now—you've saved mine a few times."

Dinner was delicious—Drax seemed determined to pay off his part of their debt to the Centurions—and it turned out that Saal and Zoren were actually pretty cool to hang out with. Quill got the feeling that out of uniform, they were different people than they were on the clock for Nova Corps. Saal definitely seemed more laid back than Quill remembered, though that could have been because they weren't fighting for their lives. (Also, maybe being married helped—he and Zoren leaned into each other and flirted like people half their age.)
Zoren was the kind of woman that Quill was starting to realize he gravitated toward: beautiful and insanely dangerous. After a couple of drinks, she and Gamora took turns doing complicated things with small knives, which apparently made them friends. And Rocket clearly liked talking to Saal, which seemed weird until Quill realized that they shared an occasionally obnoxious love of sarcasm. Even Drax seemed happy to have new people to cook for, and Groot, as was usually the case, seemed serene in spite of the recent danger and imprisonment. Quill eventually realized that he was the only one who wasn't really in the mood to party.

"Well, I should go check on the autopilot," Quill said, standing up carefully and heading for the front of the ship.

"I am Groot," Groot pointed out.

"Yeah, the stairs—" Rocket said.

"It's fine—I'll just take it slow," Quill said. Gamora didn't comment, but he could feel her watching him. He liked that she didn't always say that she was worried about him, he just knew she was. And he had a feeling that if he fell down the stairs, she'd leap over the table to catch him. It was hard to describe, having someone care about him like that. Quill really wanted to show her how thankful he was (preferably horizontally), but after the whole asteroid disaster, he was feeling pretty shitty. Like he barely deserved to be her friend, let alone something more.

He set the autopilot for Nitahn—that was where Saal and Zoren had been staying for their honeymoon), then sat for a few minutes and wondered how you apologized for something like this. They'd all agreed to the asteroid plan, sure, but Quill still felt responsible for not having planned for the drone, or some other disaster, because when did they ever get through anything without an unexpected fire or explosion or monster attack? Aside from the fact that they all could have been killed if anyone but Shiran had been in charge of the Kree moon, Quill had after all gotten them all arrested. He didn't really like to think about what kind of friend that made him.

"Hmm, it looks like we did a fair job repairing your ship," Saal said, coming up the stairs.

"Yeah, it's better than it was when I first got it," Quill said. "More room, better steering..."

"Rocket says you're sulking."

"What?" Quill said, annoyed because it was true.

"He said you check the autopilot when you're in a bad mood, and he told me to come bother you. I agreed because my wife and your girlfriend are busy comparing weapons," Saal said, sipping his drink.

"She's not my girlfriend, but...okay."

Saal sat down in the other seat. "It turns out I owe you an apology."

"For what?" Quill said.

"Well, you did prove me wrong," Saal said. "You saved my entire planet. And me—the force from almost being crushed by the Dark Astor triggered my escape pod. That's the only reason I'm still alive."

"Did everyone else in the blockade..." Quill asked.

"A couple dozen others survived, for similar reasons—mechanical malfunctions in their ships," Saal said. "But out of several thousand pilots...well, obviously it could have been a lot worse if you hadn't stopped Ronan. That's what I'm trying to focus on, anyway."

"Well, thanks," Quill said grimly. "I mean, I guess I should try and remember that—the one good thing I've done in my life. But all I can think about right now is how bad I screwed up on this job—I could have gotten all my friends killed. If that asteroid had hit the ship, or if that flerken had decided to go after everyone else—or if anyone but Shiran had arrested us..."

"I'm not normally someone who believes in second chances, Quill," Saal said. "Most of us get one chance in life to not screw up, if we're lucky, and that's it. But I've recently revised my opinion on that."

Quill smiled. "'Cause you got married?"

"I was married before," Saal said. "So was Zoren, when we were in our twenties. But they both died, which isn't exactly uncommon in Nova Corps. We spent the next decade sniping at each other and trying to find some kind of meaning in our lives. We got promoted, we were put in charge of basic training, and then I met you lunatics and almost died. And I'm glad, because I never would have said anything to Zoren if I hadn't nearly died. Officers of any rank aren't supposed to fraternize."

Quill snorted. "Um. It seems like getting married would involve...fraternizing."

"It does," Saal said with a smile. "But Nova Prime gave us a dispensation—probably because of my recent almost-death and the fact that we've both lost a spouse to the Corps. So, it happened indirectly, but if you'd like, you can say you've done two good things in your life. I got married thanks to you. And you gave a lot of other people on Xandar similar chances. So I'd say you deserve the second chance you're getting."

"Even if I'm a total screw-up?" Quill said, but he smiled. Thinking about saving Xandar did make him feel less shitty.

"We've been keeping tabs on you lot, you know," Saal said. "Returning that sculpture to the museum? Killing the Kriox on that moon? Total screw-ups don't do things like that, Quill."

"Yeah, but…I've never been responsible for other people before," Quill said, staring out at the stars. "It was always just me. So if I messed up, it was no big deal—I was the only one who had to deal with the consequences."

"When you're leading people, you're always going to think you should have done something differently," Saal said. "You'll wish you could go back and change things, but you can't. You have to learn to live with the decisions you make, good and bad."

"I guess asteroid mining falls into the 'bad' category," Quill said.

"That does seem to be the case," Saal agreed.

"Well, thanks for bothering me. It's weird, having like, three law-abiding friends now. You guys and Dey."

"Three is...a start," Saal said, apparently determined to be diplomatic.

"Hey, speaking of laws, can you check something for me?" Quill asked. "There's a bounty on us, and I wanna look up who posted it. It's like…anonymous, which is weird."

Saal grabbed a dat-pad and started looking through what Quill guessed was a Nova Corps database. "Bounties don't have to include the name of the person who posts them. As long as there's information on where the bounty can be collected, that's all you need. Let's see…it's encrypted, but not well. Hmm, someone's offering a lot of units for you five…there. Do you know someone named Korath?"

Quill's jaw dropped. "Korath?! He was on the Dark Astor when it crashed! How the hell is he still alive? Drax ripped off his cybernetic head…thing!"

"That wouldn't have killed him," Saal said, opening a file on Korath and showing it to Quill. "He's cybernetically enhanced. Removing that implant probably knocked him out, but there were a lot of dead Sakarrans inside that ship to cushion his fall. If you and your friends survived the Dark Astor crashing, I'm not terribly surprised he did."

"Holy shit," Quill muttered. "And here I thought it was Yondu who put a bounty on us. That's why it seemed weird—last time, he made it clear that he was the one looking for me."

"Well, Korath appears to be connecting with some of Ronan's other surviving operatives," Saal said, looking through the file. "He's been spotted several times the past few weeks, but not on Xandar. We'll arrest him if we can find him, but his primary motivation at the moment seems to be collecting what he can of Ronan's former assets and killing you."

"Well, we did try to kill him—and we did kill his boss," Quill said, stretching. "Revenge I can kinda understand. Okay, thanks—that makes me feel better."

Saal stared at him. "…do you mind if I ask why?"

"When Yondu wants to kill me, at least he's always had the decency to say it to my face," Quill said. "I know he's pissed I switched the orbs on him. But since he hasn't gotten back to me about not killing us, I'm guessing he's not that pissed. Hell, he's probably impressed I tricked him."

Saal shook his head. "…right. Well, in case you were worried, he did help save our entire planet, so we've cleared Yondu Udonta's criminal record as well. Not that it matters—we try to ignore him and his Ravager faction for the most part."

"Yeah, that's why Yondu does a lot of business on Xandar—you guys never pick him up," Quill said. "Nova's arrested me a couple times though!"

"That's because you were stupid enough to get caught," Saal said. "But Yondu Undonta's been periodically blowing up Kree war ships for over thirty years now. We aren't going to arrest him for petty theft—he's more useful to us making trouble for the Kree. Until you helped saved Xandar, you were a different story though."

"Dude, it's been, like, three weeks since I pickpocketed anybody," Quill said. "And that wasn't even on Xandar. And…can you arrest me for saying that?"

"Not without proof," Saal said, finishing his drink. "Are you done sulking?"

"Yeah," Quill said, getting up and following him down the stairs. "Let's get drunk and maybe I'll confess to more crimes you can't arrest me for."

Saal rolled his eyes. "Fantastic."

After a lot of drinking, storytelling, and listening to music, Saal and Zoren went back to their ship to sleep, and everyone else retired to their bunks. When the proximity alarm went off for Nitahn a few hours, Quill was surprised to find that Gamora was in his usual spot, getting ready to land the Milano. (It was probably better that way, since he was still feeling stabbed, but now he was hungover too.)

"Thanks for an entertaining evening!" Zoren called after she and Saal had returned their ship to the parking tunnel under their hotel. "It was nice to meet you guys."

"Thanks for bailing us out of jail," Quill said, waving cheerfully as Saal shook his head and walked away, hand in hand with Zoren.

"I was going to say 'stay out of trouble,' but I know that's too much to ask!" Saal called over his shoulder. They disappeared into a crowd of tourists, and Quill, who had put on his jacket automatically when he woke up, pulled it off and used it to wipe the sweat from his face. Nitahn was a tropical planet: it seemed to be mostly ocean (which Quill knew from experience was filled with huge monsters that kept to themselves unless you pissed them off), and while Drax went to buy some local food, Gamora took care of refueling. And Quill sat in the pilot's seat, feeling a little sorry for himself.

He'd decided earlier to wait to call Varad until after they'd dropped off Saal and Zoren, but now he was still finding reasons to delay the call. Quill was glad to be alive, but it still kind of annoyed him, finishing a job empty-handed. Going from "galaxy saver" to "failed asteroid miner" was a little rough. But while he was plotting their course for Varad's place and putting off calling her, Gamora found him slouched in his chair.

"Hey," she said. "How's your hangover?"

"Fine—better than Rocket's considering the sounds of vomiting coming from his room," Quill said. "And you don't really get drunk, do you?"

"Not really," Gamora said. "Then again, I've never really tried. Come with me, I need to show you something."

"Okay," Quill said, curious as he followed her down the stairs. "By the way, thanks again for saving my life. Also, sorry if I got blood on you. And thanks for making sure that Rocket and Drax didn't kill any of the Kree that picked us up."

Gamora shrugged. "I'm assuming you deserved that punch," she said, nodding at the bruise on his jaw.

Quill smiled ruefully. "Yeah, well, she wanted to make it look like she interrogated me."

"Well, you deserve this too," Gamora said, then leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, just beneath the bruise.

Quill, though slightly worried that his brain might be about to explode, decided to push his luck. "Can I get a hug too?"

Gamora smiled. "Well, you've had a rough week. I don't see why not."

Hugging Gamora felt absurdly good. She was shorter than him, but also physically stronger than he was, thanks to her body mods—she was faster and more durable, and it was weirdly nice, hugging someone who could kill you but wouldn't. Quill liked the feel of his chest against hers and the movement of the muscles there as she breathed. It would be easy to just keep holding her like this, but he wasn't sure if their friendship was ready for that.

"Really, thank you," Quill whispered.

Gamora finally pulled away. "You would have done the same for me."

"Yeah, but...thanks. For making sure I didn't bleed out, and for putting up with my stupid decisions too."

Gamora shrugged. "Everyone makes stupid decisions sometimes."

"You don't," Quill pointed out.

"I once tried to sell an Infinity Stone to Tanilear Tivan," Gamora said. "As stupid decisions go, that was a pretty big one."

"Yeah, but at least we got something out of that," Quill said ruefully. "This job, not so much."

"Well, not exactly."

Quill stared at her blankly. "I'm pretty sure we just spent a ton of money and have nothing to show for it."

"That's what I need to show you," Gamora said, leading him into the kitchen. Groot was asleep on the table, a pile of discarded vines and chunks of wood beside him. He was back to being tiny, which struck Quill as weird—why had he shed all those vines and branches, anyway? Then Quill looked more closely at the pile of vines, and his eyes widened when he saw the faint sheen of a fragment of asteroid, concealed beneath several layers of wood.

"So," Gamora murmured, gently picking up Groot. "We aren't set for life, but we don't have to worry about units for a while either."

"That is amazing," Quill said, grinning at her.

"Well, Rocket and Groot were the ones who thought of it," Gamora said. "The metal reacted with Groot's branches and he started to itch though—that's why he's little again. Somehow, I get the feeling he doesn't really mind."

"Yeah, I think he kind of likes being carried," Quill said, patting Groot's tiny sleeping shoulder. "Good job, buddy."

Groot snorted in his sleep, and after Gamora set him down, she and Quill went back upstairs.

"Now that I know this job wasn't a total bust, I'll call Varad," Quill said. Gamora nodded absently and stared out the window at the ocean ahead of them. Quill wondered what she was thinking about, but he guessed that their run-in with the Kree had reminded her of Ronan—and thinking of him meant her thoughts were now probably turned to Thanos.

What Saal had said about Yondu had given Quill something to think about. Obviously, his adopted dad was less evil than Gamora's, but since Korath was the one who'd put the bounty on them, what could they do about it? Short of finding the guy and killing him, Quill wondered how to handle his (actually pretty reasonable) grudge.

First, get paid, Quill told himself as he contacted Varad, wincing as he shifted in his seat. Then worry about which asshole is trying to kill you this week.