"Come on!" yells Peter. The group follow into the cave. A few seconds later, the ship arrives and they could see and hear it directly on top of them through the cracks and holes. They haste as the rest of the place threatens to fall apart.

Petra looks up from the small device she'd brought the ship with as Peter begins to climb the automatic-dropping ladder.

Her jaw drops.

The red-head is in pure shock, as is Gamora, who hadn't said a word yet about the uncomprehend-able situation as the group attempted to escape.

Drax groans in pain. "This place is weakening me!" he exclaims, feeling as though Rocket had grown tons on his shoulder as he climbs the ladder.

But he did.

Aboard the ship, Peter had closed up the hatch when all were safe and sound inside. He was on the navigation deck, setting course into space, and away from the hell that was Reveserume.

Once out and safe, Peter lets out a sigh of relief. 'That was close,' he thinks. He then pushes himself off the pilot chair and heads to the lower deck to check on his friends.

"What the fuck?!" he exclaims upon reaching the floor. Peter is rotted in spot, jaw dropped as he witnessed a now five or more feet tall Rocket, lying on the ground, still unconscious.

Drax and Gamora were on either sides of Rocket, on their feet, equally shocked. Groot was near Rocket's face, disbelieving his eyes.

Petra re-appears into the room with a perfume bottle, snapping them out of it. She drops to the ground in haste, opening the bottle and bringing it close to his nose.

The smell hits him. He sniffs in confusion. His eyes then shoot open. Petra leans back slightly and Rocket jerks up in shock, breathing heavily. "What happened?! Wha-" he shouts in distress. Petra quickly places a hand on his shoulder, extremely wary of how small her hand seemed on him now. Rocket snaps in her direction.
"It's okay! It's just us!" she tells hastily.

He somewhat calms down, but it is quickly replaced by utter confusion. He furrows his eyebrows at her suddenly small face. He looks at her hand still on his shoulder. Rocket gently snatches it and studies it.

Petra's face flushes red. She gulps nervously. It hit her now how big he'd become.

Peter goes from confused to extremely wary in a split second. 'Oh my god! He's big now!' his mind yells, thinking that this pushes the odds to the possibility of an actual relationship arousing between his sister and Rocket, the still raccoon.

However, he sanely convinces himself that he was overreacting, Rocket was simply in shock, and his sister and her goddamn hand happened to be the first thing he saw when he woke up.

Rocket then tears his eyes from her hand, but hadn't let go of it. He eyes around at the rest of them, eyes going as wide as windows.

Releasing Petra, Rocket bolts from the floor, stumbling from getting up to quickly. "Wooow!" he lets out, about to fall, but Drax gets a hold of him, Petra too.
"Easy!" she warns, one hand on his back and another on his chest. She was forced to look up in order to make eye-contact. He was as tall as Peter now, maybe slightly shorter. "Easy," she repeats, but trails off when he looks down at her, big, warm brown eyes.

She lets out a shaky breath, unable, for the life of her, to compose her crazed heart, or her explosive blushing. Her mouth hung slightly agape, at loss for words.

Rocket's ears perk at her ever-so-familiar heart beats. He studies her flushed features, a smirk growing on his face.

He may have been confused before,

not anymore.

Rocket officially grasped at the reality of what had happened, and all he could think about, was her.

He finally had a chance.

Of course, Peter notes this too, the others too, but he is furious. From across him, Gamora glances warily at Peter, the look on his face proved to her that the next few days would most likely be…well…difficult.

"Will someone tell me what the hell happened back there?!" he yells, grasping everyone's attention. Gamora answers first, if not quickly.
"Rocket touched the vial," she tells shortly.
"So this happens how?!" he aims both his arms at the man-sized raccoon.
"Everything on that planet was big. It made Rocket big too." Drax tells.

"How do you feel?" Petra asks him worriedly. It takes his mind a moment to realize she'd said something rather than get re-mesmerized by those glowing eyes of hers.
"Weird," he answers honestly.

Petra furrows her eyebrows in concern. "Come on," she beckons with her head, "I'm gonna run some tests in my room," she tells. Rocket nods as he weighs off Drax and follows her.

She still had hold of him, and he made sure to be cautious with his steps, as if his whole bodily balance was off, but was gradually building back up.

Peter's mind clicks. "Why your room?!" he yells suddenly. Petra stops and eyes him weirdly, as does everyone else, except Gamora, who simply looks to the floor, unsure what else to expect.

"I mean," Peter tries to sound subtle, "why not here?" he gestures around as if he'd found the perfect place.

Petra rolls her eyes at his silliness, uncertain what he was getting at. Her and Rocket ignore him and move on, Groot close behind them.

"Or, your room's fine too," he lets out, following the two like a cop chasing criminals. Gamora blocks his path, glaring. Petra's room wasn't big enough to fit five grown people. She needed her space to work and make sure Rocket was well, Gamora understood that much.

"What?!" Peter asks her in annoyance, his two targets disappearing into the hall.

"We have more important things to discuss," Gamora tells. Peter barely heard a word she'd said, as if trying to get his vision to penetrate the walls. "Peter!" Gamora calls loudly. He snaps out of it and turns to her irritably. "We need to talk."


"There we go," Petra calls, carefully seating Rocket on the edge of her bed. After making sure he was stable, Petra hurries to grab a few things from her desk, shelves, and drawers.

Groot hops onto the bed and sits near Rocket, grinning. "What?" Rocket asks him suspiciously. Petra turns momentarily to see who he was talking to, then returns to rummaging her room.
"I am Groot. (You're big and awesome now!)" Groot tells excitedly. Rocket smirks at this, getting infected with Groot's excitement for himself.
"What, so I wasn't awesome before?" he teases. Groot's face falls, thinking he'd accidently insulted his friend. Rocket shakes his head and gives out a chuckle that reassures Groot. "I'm kidding…You did good today," he tells seriously, and somewhat proudly, making Groot break into a joyful smile.

From across them, Petra smiles at this, cheeks heating up yet again and heart rate increasing. 'Goddamn it! Control yourself, Tri!' her mind shouts scolding-ly.

She turns back around, her breath caught in her throat at the sight of the new him. She inhales deeply and attempts to pull her wild emotions together, at least until she made sure he was okay.

She takes determined steps to the bed and places the things on her bedside table. Rocket observes her every move admirably. She grabs a flashlight and turns to him, a small smile decorating her graceful features that put him in a trance as she neared his face.

She, hesitantly, brought her fingers up and held open one of his eyes. He barely feels it, too concentrated on her sweet scent, her face, her lips.

Passing the light by quickly, Petra made sure the pupils were fine, trying, quite oppositely, not to concentrate on how close they were.

"Okay," she calls calmly, taking a seat by him on the bed. "Tell me, how weird do you feel right now?" she starts humorously. He lets out a slight chuckle. He then does a quick, inner check up on himself. He felt fine.
"I'm okay, Red. You don't have to worry your pretty little head about me," he flirts, making her blush, hard, as he listened intently to her heart, satisfied with her reaction, one that didn't differ much from when before he got bigger.
"Rocket! I'm serious!" she whines.
"So am I!" he tells amusingly. She rolls her eyes at him.
"Okay. Well. I'd like to be sure, so…"

She trails off, reaching for an object on the table. Rocket's face falls in slight fear upon seeing it. Petra turns to him once more, furrowing her eyebrows in concern at his sudden flip. "Hey?" she calls in concern, following his vision to the needle in her hand, a look of realization washes down her face.

She puts it back down again, and adjusts herself in front of him, blocking his view of it, that source of dreadful memories.

But it was also a necessary medical tool. Petra needed to make sure he was okay, so that if he wasn't, she'd have time to do something about it, fast, and the best way to do that was to examine his current DNA modifications. She needed a sample of his blood, and he had to give it to her, willingly.

Rocket was staring at a spot on the floor, refusing to look her in the eye. Groot places a small hand on his thigh. Rocket eyes him gratefully momentarily, then looks away again in embarrassment.

What kind of guy was afraid of needles, but wasn't afraid to get shot? He didn't want Groot, nor her of all people, to think of him as some sort of silly, scared child.

But she didn't, and she never would.

"Rocket," she calls, cupping his face lightly, moving it to face hers. Though her touch was warm, and welcoming, still, he refused to make eye-contact. Petra smiles at him in sympathy. "Of all people, Rocket, I'm the last person you should try to hide from," she tells.

Groot watches them curiously.

As if enchanted by her words, though still hesitant, he locked teary eyes with hers. "It's okay," she assures. He exhales as if in relief. He feels as though the whole world had disappeared and it was just the two of them, peacefully.

Petra furrows her eyebrows again. She didn't want to, but she had to convince him. "You trust me, right?" she asks, already knowing the answer.
"Of course I do," Rocket answers heavily, as if, behind that one sentence, were so, so many more, so many things, so many feeling he had to confess. She gulps.
"Then you know, I would never do anything…to hurt you."

Rocket deduces where this was going, the wariness returning to his eyes. "Rocket, I need to make sure you're okay," she tells firmly. He exhales tiredly, very reluctant on giving in to what she wanted to do, "So, close your eyes, and don't open them till I tell you to," she demands softly.

Knowing the next step, Groot felt bad for Rocket, not daring to remove the hand he though would pull the fear and pain from his Rocket, who honestly appreciated it, but still didn't want him to see him like this. Damn his scarring past!

A heavy moment passes. Every part of his body was working hard at reminding him that this was Petra, the one person that showed him care and kindness. His one true friend. His Petra. He was safe with her. He knew that for sure.

So, eventually, Rocket does as he was told, and closes his eyes.

Petra takes this as a sign to start, fast. She exhales a shaky breath. She really didn't want to do this to him, but she had to, and since that was so, she would be ten times more careful with the needle, and ten times more aware of her movements. It was pressuring, but for Rocket.

She sprays a numbing substance on a spot on his arm, then takes it into her hand. He relaxes at her touch, trying, for the life of him, not to think about what was to come after.

He felt the needle prick his skin, and flinches slightly. Groot pushes his hand on Rocket's leg, diverting his attention somewhat. However, as soon as he felt the needle, it was gone. He hears the clatter of something metallic, then feels her rubbing cotton on the spot, then stops. Groot smiles in relief.

"You can open your eyes now," she tells. He does so, and smiles upon seeing her, as if thanking her silently, cause all he was able to do, was look at her, as if doubting such a unique beauty actually existed.

She couldn't entirely understand the way he looked at her, but though her mind couldn't comprehend it, her heart could. It felt heavy in her chest,

but it felt, and she felt too.

The exchange caught Groot's undivided attention. He'd been rooting for them for months now. Was it finally happening? His two favorite people coming together, and completing that fantasy-family of his, where she was mommy and Rocket was daddy?

Realizing she'd been staring, her cheeks burn up and she looks away nervously, making him smirk, purely ecstatic that, with every passing day, she made it clear, she felt the same way.

With him, she always felt exposed. And though it was irritating at most times, it was one of the many things that drew her to him.

"I'm…um," she starts, it taking her a moment to recall what she was about to do, "gonna analyze the sample," she tells rising to her feet. Rocket couldn't help but find it adorable, how shy she was.

He then turns to Groot beside him, and smiles gratefully at him, for being there for him, his little Groot.