A Night on Behert:

That night on Behert, the Guardians and Ego and his yet-to-be-known sidekick sat around a campfire eating soup. Ego was seating near Peter and Tina and telling them the story of how he didn't come to pick them up.

"I hired Yondu and his brother to pick you both up when your mother passed away. But instead of returning you two to me, Yondu and Warran kept you both. I have no clue as to why."
"Well, we'll tell you why. Because we were skinny little kids who could squeeze into places adults couldn't. It made it easier for thievin'." Peter explained.

"They never us about you nor ever returned us to Earth," Tina add in, hooding her eyes. "They just kept us and trained us to be thieves and to be his sidekicks,"
"Well, I've been trying to track you both down ever since." Ego explained.
"I thought Yondu or Warran was your father." Drax spoke up.

Peter and Tina looked up at him, bewildering.
"What? We've been together this whole time and you thought Yondu was our actual blood relative?" Peter questioned appallingly, intrigued by Drax's stupidly.

"Was it not obvious that we weren't related?" Tina questioned.
"You look exactly like one of them," Drax gestured to Peter. "And you have their eyes," he gestured to Tina
"Yondu's blue!" Rocket japed in. "So's his brother! And they don't even eyes like Tinnie!"

"No! Neither of them are our father!" Peter retorted. "Yondu's the guy who abducted us. Warran's the guy who baby-sited us!"

"They're the guys who trained us to be outlaws and who kept us in terror by threatening to eat us. Warran even threatened to pull out all my hair," Tina ranted out, showing repulsion of that horrible story.

"Eat you two?" Ego asked surprised.

"Yep," Peter answered.

"Oh, those sons of a bitch," Ego cursed, showing regret for sending that Ravanger captain and his buffoonish brother to collect his children.

Gamora looked at him with a suspicion gaze. "How did you locate us now?"

"Even where I reside, out past the edge of what is known, we heard talk of the two twins we called 'Star-Lord' and 'Star-Lady'" Ego stood, gazing down at his children. "Well, what do you two say we heard out there, now?" he offered. "And your associates are welcome to come along. Even that triangle-faced monkey there," he pointed at Rocket who glared him for that name. Before he could lash out Tina stopped him with a stoic glare.

The twins observed their father looking back at them.

"When we get, I can show you both your very, special, unique heritage. And – I can finally get to be, the father that I've always wanted to be," he gave his children a small smile, but they didn't exactly smile back. He cleared his throat and said: "Excuse me. I'm goanna go and take a whiz,"

He walked away and behind the wreckage to go and pee.

Peter looked at Gamora with disbelief at what his father had decided for him and his sister. "I'm not buying,"

"Let's go take a walk," Gamora suggested. "Wanna come along Tina?"

"I'm okay," Tina gently declined. "You two should be spend some time alone. At least take Meredith with you,"

"What?! Why can't she stay here with me?!" Rocket moaned.

"Because she doesn't feel like hanging around you after all the trouble you got us into," Peter gently but truthfully told him. Meredith took no glance at Rocket as she crawled up Peter's arm before he and Gamora waddled away into the nearby woods.

Rocket sighed in sadness, ashamed of himself. He decided to lick himself clean.

Ego's strange sidekick, who had been sitting on Tina's other side stared at her with a smile. "I am Mantis."

Tina frowned at him. "What are you doing?"

"Smiling. I hear it is the thing to do to make people like you." Mantis didn't stop smiling.

"Not if you do it like that." Drax corrected him from across. "And definitely not at women,"

"Oh. I have lived on Ego's for quite a lot of my life. I do not understand much about the intricacies of social interaction," Mantis explained, feeling embarrassed with himself.

"That's okay," Tina assured. "Just don't smile like that again at me please. It makes feel uncomfortable,'

"Of course. Can I pet your puppy?" Mantis asked referring to Rocket. "He looks adorable." Rocket was licking his paw and his face like a dog cleaning himself.

"Yes..." Tina nodded.

Mantis reached forward a hand and he touched Rocket's furry head. But he snapped and yapped.

"AHH!" he screamed.

Tina, Orlins and Drax burst out into peals of laughter's or squeaks. Orlins laughed so much that he fell off Tina's shoulders and onto her lap. Mantis was bewildered by their outcome.

"You should have seen the look on your face!" Tina struggled to speak properly as she laughed too much, bobbing her chin up and down.

"That is what you call a practical joke!" Drax slapped his knee as his chest pounded with the laughing.

Mantis giggled nervously, trying to feign enjoyment. "I liked it very much," he said awkwardly.

Tina saw through his ruse and stopped laughing. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to make you feel scared. I was just trying to play a joke. It's what part social interaction is all about. Laughing and telling jokes,"

Mantis blinked. "What exactly is a joke?"

Drax and Orlins blinked their eyes.

"You don't know what a joke is?" he demanded. "Not after we just showed you one?"

"Sounds like this bug-eyed man doesn't know anything," Rocket said, cackling at his

"Rocket…keep your mouth shut and stop being mean," Tina told him off, pointing a finger at him. "And you do not speak like that to anyone,"

Rocket huffed and turned away.

"Looks like we'll need to give you a bit of tutoring," Tina said to Mantis. "Shall we Drax?"


Deep in the woods, Peter was having a big complain with Gamora and Meredith.

"Give me a break! After all this time, and he just wants to be a dad to me and Tina all of the sudden!"

"I hear you." Gamora consoled understanding the reasons for his disbelief.

"I mean, this could be a trap - the Ravangers, and now the Sovereign - they all want us dead." Peter listed out all their enemies. Meredith tried rubbing the back of his head with a paw to try and sooth his nerves.

"I know, but..." Gamora tried to say.

"But what?" Peter interrupted.

"What was that story you told me about Zardu Hasselfrau?" Gamora questioned.

Meredith blinked.

Peter bent his eyebrows. "Who?"

"The wonderful television-singer man. He had a magic boat."

Peter knew who she was attempting to talk about "David Hasselhoff?"

"Right."

"He had a talking car, not a magic boat," Peter corrected.

"Why did it talk again?"

"To help him fight crime, and to be supportive,"

"And as a child you and Tina carried his picture in your pocket, and you both would tell the other children he was your father, but he was out of town..."

"Shooting Knight Rider or touring with his band in Germany. Why are you bringing this up now? I was drunk when I told you that."

"I love that story."

"I don't. It's just sad! As kids, Tina and I would watch all the kids play with their dads. I always had to act like a dad to her whenever she was bullied all the time. We wanted that, more than anything in the world."

"That's what my point is, maybe this man is you and Tina's Hasselhoff. At least give him a chance. If he ends up being evil…" Gamora grabbed his hands in a tight but firm grip. "…we'll just kill him."

She let go of Peter's hands so as not to rise up an awkward situation.

Peter still wasn't sure. He looked at Meredith. "What do you think?"

Meredith shrugged her shoulders.

"At least talk it over with Tina," Gamora suggested. "Maybe she might feel that way,"

Peter sighed and nodded. "Okay. I'll talk with her,"


Back at the campsite, Tina, with the assistance of Drax and Orlins, taught Mantis some lessons about socialising.

"So, a joke is something that you make up to make people laugh," Mantis went over.

"Yes," Tina was holding a cheesy smile, impressed by his learning.

"And sarcasm is when you pretend to be happy when actually you're not,"

"You're learning already," Tina said amused.

"Thank you for these lessons. I'm really starting to feel more…more…" Mantis struggled for a good word.

"Self-confident with people?" Tina offered an end.

"What does self-confident mean?" Mantis asked.

"It means being more trustful of yourself, feeling more comfortable to talk and act around people without feeling shy or scared,"

"That – makes sense," Mantis said plainly.

"So how long have you lived on this lady's father's planet?" Drax asked over to Mantis.

"Since I was a little kid. For about twenty years," Mantis answered.

"Where do you come from?" Tina asked.

Mantis looked sound at the mention of that question.

"I didn't mean to upset you," Tina said. "I'm sorry if I did,"

"It's not really one I wish to answer," Mantis answered. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Sure. How did you meet my father?" Tina asked.

"He was just exploring the cosmos, probably searching for you and his brother. And then, he encountered me on my home planet. I had no family, no purpose, no happy life. He offered to let me come with him. And I felt needed, I went with him. But…I wasn't exactly…very happy with how that decision turned out,"

"Why?" Tina asked.

Before Mantis could answer, they heard Peter and Gamora approaching them again.

"Goanna need a pep-talk with you sis," Peter said.

"Okay," Tina stood up and took Orlins with them.

Gamora sat back down with the group and kept a closer eye on her sister whilst the twins walked away with their Guntrins to a nearby plain spot with broken branches and scattered twigs.

"Do you really we should do Teen?" Peter questioned his twin urgently. "Just – go to 'daddy's' planet and just let him be our dad?"

"I'm just as sceptical about this as much as you are Pete," Tina said. "But honestly, I'm quite curious to know more about what other half we are. And how our father looks so human like us,"

"I still don't like the idea. We don't even know if we can trust him,"

"We can't just make a quick judgement like that. Let's just find out more about him first,"

"Back in the forest with Gamora we had a talk about how we used to pretend David Hasselhoff was our father. And for years when we never meant our father or ever heard about him, we decided to just cling onto that memory. I feel like I might just cling onto the memory forever and just forget we ever met this Ego character,"

"I guess we could at least get to know him," Tina decided. "It wouldn't hurt. That's what our mother would have wanted,"

"But the point is where was he when she died? Where was he when we had spent eight years growing up bullied and without a dad? Where was he when we raised for years by savage Ravangers? And under Yondu and Warran's ferocious care?"

"Are we seriously going to have a go at each all night?" Tina cocked her head to the side. "You don't have to. But I'm going to. I want to learn more about our heritage. There was a time when I confessed to Gamora that I didn't want to have any concern about it. But now that he's here…" she leaned her head closer to her brother. "I actually do. At least come along with me please. I don't want to go alone,"

She walked away to let her brother have a further talk with Meredith. Orlins nuzzled her neck and fell asleep in her arms.

Peter turned his head to Meredith. He looked deep into her eyes and saw a serious look. "You really I should go don't you," he complied out.

Meredith cawed in agreement. She looked towards Tina and Peter copied her movement. Peter finally made his agreement.


The next morning, the group prepared to leave Behert with Ego and Mantis on their pod. Not everyone was coming alone.

"No, Rocket, you're staying here to fix the ship and guard Nebula! And that's final!" Tina ended the argument, stomping away from the infuriated Rocket.

"What?! I can't fix this all by myself!" Rocket moaned.

"Well I have an invention to speed it up very quickly," Tina went into the Milano and after the Guardians heard a few tinkles of broken metal, she pulled out a huge metal box to Rocket and opened it. "It's called the Speedy Fixer. It mends things and parts of ships and machines to their original state very quickly. You just scan it over a broken part, and it goes back to normal,"

"Well, that is one cool invention," Rocket said amused.

"You're just so lucky, this didn't get broken or damaged because if it did, I would have made you fix it as well," Tina said with a tone of delightful threatening.

Rocket rolled his eyes in annoyance. As much as Tina was a good but tough surrogate mother, she always had a way of getting revenge on him.


"You're leaving me with that fox?!" Nebula shouted.

"He's not a fox," Gamora corrected, slinging her knapsack over her shoulder. "Shoot her if she does anything suspicious. Or if you feel like it," she told Rocket. She noticed Groot sitting down on one of the bars looking tearful. "It will just be a couple days," she kneeled down and wiped away his tears. "We'll be back before Rocket's finished fixing the ship." she promised.

As Peter and Tina were carrying out their large rucksacks, Peter had noticed Meredith was looking worriedly at Groot. "You wanna stay here and look after Groot?" he asked.

Meredith looked at him with sad eyes. She did want to stay here with Groot, but she didn't want to leave Peter.

"It's okay girl," Peter gently lifed her off his shoulder and placed her next to Groot. "If you want to stay here and look after Groot, it's fine. He stroked her head. "We'll back soon okay?"

Meredith licked his face and nuzzled his cheek.

"Take care of yourself okay?"

Meredith cooed and nodded, and Groot hugged her head. He suddenly realised Tina was just about to leave. He jumped and dashed towards her and grabbed her boot. "I am Groot," he begged.

"I'm sorry little guy," Tina kneeled down and picked him up. "I wish you could come. But you need to stay here with Rocket and help him guard Nebula,"

"I am Groot,"

"I don't want to leave you or Rocket either, but it won't be long. I promise,"

Groot turned his head away a little.

"Have I ever broken a promise?" Tina gently asked, releasing a small glim of warmth from her face.

Groot look back into her eyes and saw her smile.

"I am Groot," he answered a little bit more happily. He instantly jumped onto her Chester and hugged his small baby arms around her neck. "Okay. One more hug little guy," she hugged him tight as Orlins licked his face. She then placed him back with Meredith and she and her brother exited the ship with their bags and Drax and Gamora.

"What if the Sovereign come?" Drax asked worriedly.
"There's no way for them to know they're here." Tina assured. "I'm sure they'll fine,"
"I am uncertain about parting ways."
"You're like an old woman." she commented.
"Because I am wise?"

"Drax…why do you have so much luggage?" Gamora questioned, intrigued by Drax's number of bags.
"I don't want Groot playing with my things,"

"Hope daddy isn't as big of a dick as you two, orphan twins." Rocket spoke over to Peter and Tina.

The twins turned back towards him with faces of dander. "What is wrong with you?" Tina asked. "And what is your goal here? To get everyone to hate you?"

Rocket didn't answer. He was too ashamed to speak from the look in her eyes.

"Cause it's working." Peter answered for him. "And just so you know Meredith isn't staying here for you, she's staying here for Groot. And you're forbidden to nuzzle or associate with her until you apologise for everything,"

They turned back around and walked away.

Rocket turned his head towards Meredith. Inside her face he only saw hurt anger. She turned her face away and curled herself into a ball to fall asleep. Groot dozed off next to her, lying against her chest as it were a fluffy cushion.


Here we are. Another chapter done. Hope you're all doing well. Please send reviews and tell me what you think of it.