A/N: Didn't think I'd get this posted on time tbh. I accidentally deleted all my Marvel fics, had to give my laptop up for a few days to get most of them back, and still this fic didn't get recovered. Luckily I had an unedited draft in my sent files, so I should still be able to keep this perfectly on schedule.


"I am Groot."

"Yes, I know they're supposed to be back!" Rocket said, tail whipping back and forth as he paced along the cockpit. The tree sat in the passenger seat, his game off and lying in his lap, while Drax was in the co-pilot's seat, hands clasped tightly as he watched silently out the window.

They ain't dead, are they? Rocket found himself wondering.

No, they ain't allowed to be dead. I'll kill 'em if they are.

"I am Groot," he muttered.

"Oh, screw this," Rocket muttered, jumping into the pilot's seat. He jabbed the comms button. "Rocket to Quill."

Static.

Aw crap.

"Rocket to Gamora," he tried.

More static.

"Rocket to Loki. Rocket to Mantis. Any of you, can you hear me?" he demanded.

Only crackling static answered him.

"They were not merely delayed, were they?" Drax said direly, speaking for the first time in half an hour.

Rocket brought up the scanners, inputting their communicator signals. It worked for a minute, filtering through the mess of competing signals from the massive city, before four dots finally showed up, clustered tightly together on a far edge. Groot and Drax leaned in, peering at the readings.

"I am Groot!"

Rocket glanced up at the sky, heart sinking at its darkness. "We can't go get them," he decided, shaking his head. "This city is dangerous enough by day, let alone trekking through half of it in the dead of night. No, we'll have to wait until morning."

"I am Groot!" he pressed angrily.

"Rocket is correct," Drax told him, settling back to resume his vigil. "We must wait, lest we put ourselves in unnecessary danger in the process of locating them. They would not desire that."

"I am Groot," Groot conceded wearily, shoulders slumping.

Rocket hopped back down. "Come on, Groot, we should get some rest. Drax, I'll be up in a couple hours to watch for 'em."

Drax inclined his head in acknowledgement. Rocket led Groot to his quarters, making sure the teen actually went inside instead of running off to do something impulsive and reckless. Groot paused outside the door. "I am Groot," he said with forced brightness.

Rocket smiled for Groot's benefit. "Yeah. At least those fools have got each other."

-MCU-

Gamora woke with a start, hand flying instinctively to her holster. Her fingers scraped against rough stone floor on their way, before closing around empty air. She checked the other one, which she had worn specially for this planet, and came up empty there too.

"Morning, Gammy," Peter greeted suddenly from her right. "At least, I think it's morning. Could still be night."

She started to sit up, freezing with a groan as pain flared in her chest. Then Peter was helping her, his touch gentle as he leaned her back against the wall. He left his arm around her shoulders, holding her to him. She pressed into his warmth, realizing then that the air was just cold enough to be uncomfortable as she looked around.

They were in a cell located in a cave, she assumed, based on the rough reddish-brown walls and arching roof. One wall was made of bars, a corridor stretching beyond her view with an empty cell across the way, the area lit by yellow-tinged bars on the ceiling outside the cell. She and Peter were at one end of their new half-sphere room. A couple yards away, Loki was sprawled on his back, still unconscious, watched over by Mantis. There were cuts on his neck, stark red holes dug into his skin. Thick cuffs bound his wrists, a glowing green line running around each bracelet.

Magic-suppressing cuffs. Great.

"What happened?" she asked, rubbing at the stinging ache in her chest.

"Good ole Knauxo got paid to let us get ambushed," Peter answered dryly. "I've known that idiot since I was fifteen, and he sells me out now?"

"Are you really surprised?" Gamora asked.

"…No."

"And…?" she prompted when he didn't resume the story.

"Oh, right," he said. "Um, you got hit first, stunner blast to the chest. Then Mantis. They kept me conscious long enough for Knauxo to explain the 'unfortunate circumstances.'"

Gamora glanced at Loki. Between his magic and Asgardian physiology, he was never out longer than the rest of them. "And Loki?"

"Beb," Peter growled. "She went straight for him. Hit him with some sort of spell. Mantis tried to wake him up, but whatever she did…" He shook his head. "All Mantis got from him was pain and terror. Took her fifteen minutes to calm down."

Gamora bit her lip, remembering their last conversation.

"Maybe it's not even conscious, but I just- I need to know, Loki. Are you scared of me?"

Loki just looked at her in silence, his mouth open but his silver tongue failing him. The real answer was in his eyes, in the guilt and memories swimming in their depths. There was pain there, too, but whether it was for himself or for hurting her, she couldn't tell.

"I…"

Movement distracted her, tugging her back to the present. Loki rolled his head with a moan, eyes clenching shut. Slowly, he dragged his limbs towards his torso, legs folding up while he ran his hands over himself, as if checking for injuries. Mantis blinked, as if coming out of her mind herself, and leaned over him, resting a ginger hand on his shoulder. "Loki?"

He bolted upright, narrowly missing her head with his own. Mantis jerked back, and Gamora reached for her, hooking a reassuring hand around her elbow. Loki scrambled away, pressing back against the wall, holding one hand out as if that would stop them from coming closer. "What the hell?" he rasped.

"We're as lost as you are, buddy," Peter pointed out.

"Buddy?" Loki echoed dubiously.

"Yeah… What, do you not like that? Cause I've been calling you that for, like, two years, so it's a little late to protest."

"Two years?"

Gamora exchanged a glance with the other two. "Loki-"

Loki finally looked at her. And he was on his feet in a heartbeat, pointing with a trembling finger. "You. You stay the hell away from me."

Instinct drove Gamora to stand as well, Peter and Mantis copying. Gamora held her hands out. "I understand that our last conversation didn't exactly end well, but-"

"Last conversation?"

"Ok, is there an echo in here or something?" Peter half-joked. "Loki, what's the matter?"

"Look," Loki explained. "I don't know what any of you are talking about. Last time I saw her, she was dragging me back to my cell, which- this isn't it. Where the hell are we?"

Horrified comprehension suddenly dawned on Gamora. "Loki," she said slowly, careful to keep any hint if hardness from her voice, "what's the last thing that happened to you on Asgard?"

Mantis gasped. Peter just glanced at Gamora, confused.

"You should know that, daughter of Thanos," Loki snapped.

"Tell us anyway. Please," Mantis requested.

Maybe it was the unexpectedness of the question, or the fact that Mantis was utterly unthreatening, but he did. "I dropped myself off the Rainbow Bridge. And my family thinks I'm dead."

"Oh," Peter said, comprehension finally hitting him too. "Well. F-"

-MCU-

When morning came, Rocket, Drax, and Groot marched out of the Milano and back into the city. Today, nobody bothered them. Between Groot's determined expression, Rocket's snarl, and Drax's drawn daggers on full display, no one had the guts. So the trio marched through the streets uninterrupted, following Rocket's handheld tracker to the source of the signals.

"Fort Knaux," Drax read aloud when Rocket stopped and pointed at it. "Has Peter not mentioned a Fort Knaux before?"

"He has," Rocket confirmed, "so we must be in the right place."

Maybe they just bunked here for the night, he found himself hoping irrationally.

"I am Groot!" he demanded, gesturing at the door.

In response, Drax kicked it down.

A Xandarian boy jumped back so hard, he knocked merchandise off two tables, some clattering to the floor while others started a domino affect across the tables. Drax stormed towards him, broad hips worsening the damage as he beelined for the boy. He drew a blaster with fumbling hands, moving back rapidly. Drax knocked it aside as if he were batting a fly, trapping the boy against the desk and holding one dagger in front of his throat.

The boy bent over the desk, trying to escape the blade's edge. "Y-you can't- can't be here. We're- we're closed."

Groot lashed out with a vine, grabbing the boy's hand as it reached for a panic button hidden beneath the desk. "I am Groot," he snarled.

Rocket jumped up onto a table, scattering more merchandise with a lash of his tail. He aimed his own gun at the kid. "Where are our friends?"

"I- I don't know-"

"Answer him," Drax hissed, pressing the blade closer. The kid had just enough wiggle room to gulp.

"I don't!" he cried. Literally, there were tears now falling from his eyes. "I don't know! I- I- I told Mr. Knaux they were here, j-just like he asked, and- and I never saw 'em again!"

"I am Groot," he hissed, glaring up at the boy.

"I- I swear!"

"I believe you, kid," Rocket said. "So, is Knaux here?"

"M-mr.- Mr. Knaux!" the boy called in response. He pointed over his shoulder with his free hand.

The door flew open, slamming into the wall as a very drunk yellow-and-green man stumbled out. "Wha' is i', boy?"

He noticed the Guardians too late. His eyes widened. He tried to dart back inside the back room. Rocket leapt from the table, landing on the man's back and sinking his claws in, grabbing a fistful of hair and pressing the gun to his temple.

"Where's Quill?" he hissed, low and threatening.

The man slapped at him, but his drunkenness threw him off, and he missed Rocket by a longshot. "I- I dunno."

Rocket dug his claws in harder. "I ain't askin' again."

"I'm tellin' the truth! I sold 'im out, yeah, bu' I dunno where those women took 'im an' his friends."

"What women?" Drax demanded.

"Beb, Kutral, and Erebu. Ugly, tha' one. Erebu. And Beb's jus' a meanie. Really had i' in for some dude named Loki."

Rocket whipped around to meet the others' gazes. Drax and Groot backed off the boy, and he fled with a wail, crying for his mother. Rocket turned back to Knaux. "You. You're gonna us everything that might be even slightly important. Everything. And I want their communicators back."

"Rocket," Drax complained.

"What?" he said defensively. "I built those things, I want 'em back!"