Ego's Origins and his Past:
Ego's pod with its passengers finally arrived at a large red planet. Inside the pod, Tina was peacefully listening to My Sweet Lord as she observed her brother snoring like a pig. It took a long while for Mantis to finally put him to sleep. He was against it at first but Tina felt he deserved it for his rude manners towards him. After telling Mantis what 'rude' meant, he instantly approved of the idea of making her brother snore again. He felt very disrespected by Peter's tone towards him.
Mantis came down to sit next her and observed her tapping her Walkman as she listened to her music again.
"What're you listening to?" he asked.
"My Sweet Lord by George Harrison,"
"Who is George Harrison?"
"Oh, he's a cool singer from my planet. Have you never heard of singers?"
"What are singers?"
"People who singer songs. Here. Try listening to this song," she lifted off her headphones and placed them over Mantis's ears.
He remained calm. "This music – it's so sweet and gentle. It makes me calm,"
"That's the point of music. Some music calms you down. Some music makes you want to dance,"
Orlins on her shoulders nodded and she jumped in the space between them and danced around on his two back legs, amusing the two together.
"I used to dance all the time when I was little,"
"What was your dancing like?"
Mantis looked reluctant.
"What is it? Do you not want to dance?"
"You'll doing that laughing face at it," Mantis turned away as he took off the headphones
"No I won't," Tina promised. "And neither will Orlins,"
"That's what everyone says. And then after I show it, they laugh,"
"We won't laugh. I promise,"
"Okay," Mantis decided. "I've always waited for a chance to do this dance again," he stood up from his seat.
"Haven't you ever done it on my father's planet?"
"First time I did it, he laughed," Mantis didn't look back at her when he took his spot in a small space in front of her.
Tina had a moment of surprise. Once she watched this dance, she was going to have a word with Ego.
"Could you play a song out loud?" Mantis requested. "It's better to dance when you've got something playing,"
"Of course. Here's a good one," Tina unhooked her headphones from her Walkman and pressed 'Next'. The next song was 'Surrender'. It had such a great upbeat.
Mantis started performing. He split his legs into a squat position and started moving from side performing dancing techniques with his arms and twisting his head.
Tina watched the little perform with interest; she had never see someone perform like that before. "That is really cool," she remarked as she stopped the song once Mantis had had enough. "When my brother and I listen to music, we are dancing by jogging and skipping about and linking arms, usually to pop song like Surrender,"
"You should show me how to do that sometime," Mantis said, expressing an excited face. "I'd really love to learn it,"
Before the conversation could continue, they heard loud uncontrolled laughing from nearby and saw Peter, slapping his knee and his chest pumping out as he struggling to contain his laughter.
"That performance was the funniest one I have seen," Peter couldn't stop laughing. "I was just waking up and then I saw you doing that ridiculous dance," he pointed at Mantis.
Mantis felt embarrassed.
Tina was fumed at her brother. "That's enough laughing Peter. You're making Mantis feel embarrassed. He really didn't want to display it because he thought Orlins and I would laugh,"
Peter stopped laughing and instantly turned serious. "Well that's exactly how I felt when he embarrassed me,"
"How was I supposed to know how you would feel? I don't exactly know everything about social interaction yet," Mantis told him.
"Guys!" Gamora's voice called out. "We've arrived!"
Tina led Mantis away whilst a bitter Peter followed behind them. Already in less than one full day, he disliked this alien for consorting with his sister, and for embarrassing him with his feelings for Gamora.
Ego woke up and he led the group over to an area of the ship. They heard the engines of the pod quiet down and realised that the pod had landed somewhere.
The white marble slowly melted away revealing beautiful lavish land filled with waterfalls, valleys, blue skies, and such bright colours. The floor they were all standing on floating out of the pod and over a marine river where multi-coloured bubbles rose out and floated in the air.
"Welcome everyone to my world," Ego gestured the group to the land they were floating over with excitement.
"You have your own planet?" Peter asked with wonder.
"Yep. And it's no larger than your Earth's moon," Ego proudly answered.
"Humility. I like it," Drax held a smile. "I too, am extraordinarily humble,"
"These bubbles are beautiful," Tina reached out to touch one. So did Gamora.
"Try touching them," Mantis urged them. "Watch what happens,"
Gamora and Tina poked and popped the nearest bubbles. They exploded into smaller bubblers of different colours. It was spectacular.
"Amazing," Tina murmured.
Orlins cooed with enjoyment and rubbed his furry cheek against his owners.
The platform with its passengers finally floated over to a large courtyard where there was a fountain of flying fish. Behind the courtyard was a grand palace that looked like it was made out of wood and marble and crystals.
They walked off the platform and began following Ego and Mantis to the palace.
Gamora, although had wanted Peter and Tina to come here, still couldn't let her guard down about their father and his servant. She decided to ask Ego some questions. "You own a planet and can destroy two dozen spaceships without a suit. What are you exactly?"
"I'm what's called a Celestial," Ego answered.
Peter and Tina's mouths dropped.
"A Celestial, like a god?" Peter asked.
Ego turned around and smiled at his children. "Small 'g' dears," At least on the days I'm feeling humble as Drax," he laughed. He led the group inside his palace into a giant model room where they were round white displays.
"I don't know where I came from, exactly. The first thing I remember is flickering, adrift in the cosmos - utterly and entirely alone," the first model showed a giant brain, all by itself. Over millions of years I learnt how to control the molecules around him," the model showed a layer of red and black formed a protective round layer around the brain. "I continued building from there, layer by layer," anther model showed more layers forming over the centre until it formed a red final layer." … the very planet you walk on now.
"Wow." both twins murmured out. They couldn't believe that their own father was in fact the very planet they were standing on.
"But I wanted more. I desired... meaning. There must be some life out there in the universe besides just me, I thought, and I set myself to task with finding it. I created what I imagined biological life to be like. Down to the most minute detail." another model showed the brain sending out a burst of blue cosmic energy and forming a young human-like avatar. It looked completely human like Peter and Tina.
"Did you make a penis?" Drax suddenly asked.
"Dude!" Peter retorted, twisting his head to meet his with his angry eyes.
"Jeez, Drax now you choose say an inappropriate word at this time?" Tina retorted.
"What is wrong with you?" Gamora asked angrily.
"If he's a planet how could he make a baby or two babies with your mother?" Drax asked the Quill Twins. "He would smush her,"
"We don't need to hear how our parents…" Peter began to say awkwardly, twiddling his fingers around.
"Why, my father would tell me a story of him impregnating my mother every winter solstice,"
"That's disgusting," Peter answered very disgusted.
"Don't even think about telling us about that story," Tina warned.
"Yes, Drax I got a penis," Ego answered with glee.
Before Drax could laugh out that he was right, Tina silenced him with a pointed finger.
"Don't do the laughing," she warned.
Drax held his breath in.
"You can breathe now,"
Drax gasped out for breath but didn't say another thing.
"And it's not half bad. I've also got pain receptors, a digestive system, and all the accompanying junk. I wanted to experience what it truly meant to be human as I set out amongst the stars," the next model showed Ego setting out in his pod away from his planet form. "I finally found what I sought...Life. I was not alone in this universe after all." Ego observed a model of himself as a younger avatar discovering a pink alien child.
"When did you meet our mother?" Tina asked.
"Not long after," Ego looked sad as he remembered Meredith Quill, his long-deceased love. He led them over to a model and showed one of his younger avatar-self embracing and then kissing a model of Meredith. "It was with Meredith that I first experienced love. I called her 'My River Lily'"
Peter and Tina observed the two models that showed their parents so in love with each other; it was…emotional to watch.
The model's display sides shifted and a new display appeared showing Ego and a pregnant Meredith.
"And from that love Peter and Tina…you two,"
Peter and Tina saw images of them as embryos in their mother's stomach.
"I have searched for you two for so long," Ego said to them. "And when I heard of a man and a woman from Earth who could hold an Infinity Stone in their hands without dying…I knew you two must be the children of the woman I loved,"
"If you loved her – why did you leave her?" Peter questioned.
Ego didn't reply. He just into their hurt faces and sighed.
