I must have been through about a million girls
I'd love 'em and I'd leave 'em alone
I didn't care how much they cried, no sir
Their tears left me cold as a stone

"Gamora. Surgically modified and trained as a living weapon, the adopted daughter of the mad titan Thanos. Recently Thanos leant her and her sister out to Ronan, which leads us to believe Thanos and Ronan are working together."

"Subject 89P13, calls itself Rocket. The result of illegal genetic and cybernetic experiments on a lower life form."

"They call it Groot. A humanoid plant that's been traveling recently as 89P13's personal houseplant slash muscle."

"Peter Jason Quill, from Terra. Raised from youth by a band of mercenaries called the Ravagers, led by Yondu Udonta."

"Theresa Nevaeh Stark, known as Tessa to her friends. The runaway daughter of a Terran CEO. She's been running with Quill for the past seven years."

"What a bunch of a-holes."

"Transport all five to the Kyln."

But then I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love, yes I did
I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love

"I guess most of Nova Corps wanna uphold the laws, but these ones here, they're corrupt and cruel. But, hey, that's not my problem. I ain't gonna be here long. I've escaped twenty-two prisons, this one's no different. You two're lucky the broad showed up, because otherwise, me and Groot would be collecting that bounty right now, and you'd both be getting drawn and quartered by Yondu and those Ravagers," Rocket said, sneering.

"I've had a lot of folks try to kill me over the years. I ain't about to be brought down by a tree and a talking raccoon," Peter replied, Tessa rolling her eyes at Peter's attempt to seem cool.

"What's a raccoon?"

"It's what you are," Tessa said.

"Listen, Blondie, ain't no thing like me, except me."

"Keep calling my Blondie, watch what happens," Tessa threatened, Rocket snarling at her.

"So, this orb has a real shiny blue suitcase, Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon sort of vibe. What is it?" Peter asked.

"I am Groot."

Tessa gave the tree, Groot apparently, a look.

"So what? What's the orb?" Peter asked.

"I have no words for an honorless thief."

"Christ, what are we? In the middle ages or somethin'?" Tessa asked.

"That's pretty high and mighty coming from the lackey of a genocidal maniac," Rocket said, Gamora looking over at Rocket "Yeah, I know who you are. Anyone who's anyone knows who you are."

"Yeah, we know who you are," Peter said, looking over at Tessa, who shrugged, before looking over at Groot "Who is she?"

"I am Groot."

"Yeah, you said that," Peter replied.

"I wasn't retrieving the orb for Ronan, I was betraying him. I had an agreement to sell it to a third party."

"Interesting," Tessa said sarcastically.

"I am Groot."

"Well, that's just as fascinating as the first eighty-nine times you told me that. What is wrong with Giving Tree, here?" Peter asked.

"Well, he don't know talking good like me and you. So his vocabulistics is limited to "l" and "am" and "Groot." Exclusively in that order."

"And you are just at the height of linguistics," Tessa said sarcastically, gaining another snarl.

"Well I tell you what, that's gonna wear real thin, real fast. If I..." Peter trailed off, seeing that a guard held is Walkman "Hey. Put that away."

"Here we go," Tessa muttered, rolling her eyes.

"You son of a..." Peter jumped through the closing gates "Hey! Listen to me, you big blue bastard. Take those headphones off. That's mine, those belong to impound. That tape and that player is mine!"

The guard hit him with a stun-rod and he dropped to his knees.

"Hooked on a Feeling, Blue Swede, 1973. That song belongs to me!"

The guard zapped him again.

"What an idiot," Tessa said, the others grunting in agreement.

It used to be when I'd see a girl that I liked
I'd get out my book and write down her name
Ah, but when the, the grass got a little greener on the other side
I'd just tear out that page

Tessa pulled her hair into a braid after having pulled on the prison clothes after being doused with orange something, making sure to avert her eyes as Gamora did the same across the room.

Tessa noticed as Gamora struggled with her hair.

"You want me to braid it?"

Gamora looked over and frowned.

"What?"

"Braid your hair," Tessa said, pulling on her own to explain.

Gamora frowned again and nodded, allowing Tessa to braid it back.

"This doesn't mean I've stopped wanting to murder you for landing me here."

"I didn't think so," Gamora replied.

I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love, since I met you baby
I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love

Once they'd rejoined the others and entered the prison, it became apparent that Gamora wasn't well liked.

"Lovely crowd," Tess said cynically.

"It's like I said, she's got a rep. A lot of prisoners here have lost their families to Ronan and his goons. She'll last a day, tops," Rocket said.

"The guards will protect her, right?" Peter asked.

"Peter, they don't do that on earth," Tessa pointed out.

"They're here to stop us from getting out. They don't care what we do to each other inside," Rocket said, shrugging.

"Whatever nightmares the future holds, are dreams compared to what's behind me," Gamora replied.

The group turned to see a giant blue inmate come up, giving Peter a very specific look.

"Check out the new meat. I'm gonna slather you up in Gunavian jelly, and go to town..."

Suddenly, Groot used his abilities to insert branches up the inmate's nostrils.

"Let's make something clear. These two here is our booty! You wanna get to them, you go through us! Or, more accurately, we go through you!" Rocket snarled, before walking off as Groot dropped the inmate to the ground, where he whimpered.

The two humans exchanged a look before Tessa smiled slightly, shrugged, and went to follow them.

"We're with them," Peter said awkwardly.

Free, on my own is the way I used to be
Ah, but since I met you baby, love's got a hold on me
It's got a hold on me now
I can't let go of you baby

It was mostly quiet in the prison; the inmates slept in a large pile that Tessa opted out of, instead, she was lying against Groot, who was leaning against the wall. Tessa found herself starting to like the humanoid tree, who'd given her a dopey smile and had grown a thick brush over one part of his body, making it more comfortable for her to lay on him.

Tessa was dozing against Groot when she was startled out of it by a loud noise; inmates pulling Gamora somewhere.

For a moment, she considered going back to sleep; Gamora was the one that landed her in this god forsaken place, why should she care?

I fooled around and fell in love

Goddamn it.

I fooled around and fell in love, oh yes I did

Both of the humans, followed by an annoyed raccoon, quietly trailed after the group that had taken Gamora to the showers, preparing to kill her.

But, before either of them could interrupt, someone else stepped forward.

"You dare? You know who I am, yes?"

Tessa and Peter studied the rather large man covered in red markings that had spoken.

"You're Drax, The Destroyer," One of the inmates said as the Tessa waved Rocket away as he was trying to get them to leave.

"And you know why they call me this."

"You slayed dozens of Ronan's minions."

"Ronan murdered my wife, Ovette, and my daughter, Camaria. He slaughtered them where they stood. And he laughed!" Drax said to the inmates.

"You two had better not do anything," Rocket hissed, Tessa flipping him off.

"Her life is not yours to take. He killed my family; I shall kill one of his in return."

"Of course, Drax. Here, I..." The inmate passed Drax a knife, but as Drax moved towards Gamora, the assassin disarmed the other inmates and held their knives up.

"I'm no family to Ronan or Thanos," Gamora said before dropping her knives "I'm your only hope at stopping him."

Drax moved forward and grabbed Gamora by the throat.

"Woman, your words mean nothing to me!"

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Hey!" Peter said, both humans moving forward.

"Oh, crap," Rocket muttered.

"You know, if killing Ronan is truly your sole purpose, I don't think this is the best way to go about it," Peter said.

"Are you not the man this wench attempted to kill?" Drax demanded, Tessa allowing the medieval slang to slide for the moment.

"She's not exactly the first woman that has tried to kill him. Might be the first to have a good reason, actually," Tessa said, slipping into her and Peter's con routine with ease.

"Look, this is from a smoking-hot Rajak girl. Stabbed me with a fork. Didn't like me skipping out on her at sunrise," Peter said before indicting to the scar on his neck "I got, right here, a Kree girl tried to rip out my thorax. She caught me with this skinny little A'askavariian who worked in Nova Records. I was trying to get information. You ever see an A'askavariian? They have tentacles and needles for teeth. If you think I'm seriously interested in that, then..."

"Peter, shut up," Tessa muttered as Drax gave Peter a look "Use your brain for a second; she betrayed Ronan. He's gonna come for her. And when he does, you…"

Peter drew his finger across his neck.

"Why would I put my finger on his throat?" Drax demanded.

"What? Oh, this is a symbol. This is a symbol for you slicing his throat," Peter explained.

"I would not slice his throat, I would cut his head clean off."

"It's a general expression for you killing somebody," Peter continued before turning to the inmate that had threatened Gamora "You've heard of this. You've seen this, right? You know what that is."

"Yeah. Yeah."

"Everybody knows," Tessa said, Drax looking over at the inmate.

"No. No."

Peter and Tessa both sighed and rolled their eyes.

"What my friend here was saying is, you want to keep her alive. Don't do his work for him."

It was quiet for a moment before Drax let go of Gamora.

"I like your knife. I'm keeping it," Drax said to the inmate before walking off.

"That was my favorite knife."

I fooled around, fooled around, fooled around, fooled around,

The group walked back to the cell.

"Listen! I could care less whether you live or whether you die," Peter said.

"Then why stop the big guy?"

"You said you had a buyer," Tessa said simply.

"How are we gonna sell it when we and it are still here?" Gamora asked.

"Our friend Rocket, here, has escaped twenty-two prisons," Peter said.

"Oh, we're getting out. And then we're headed straight to Yondu to retrieve your bounties," Rocket said.

"Gamora, how much was your buyer going to pay for that orb?" Tessa asked, looking over at Rocket.

"Four billion units."

"What?!"

"Holy shit!"

"Fuck me!"

"That orb is my opportunity to get away from Thanos and Ronan. If you free us, I'll lead you to the buyer directly and I'll split the profit between the four of us," Gamora promised.

"I am Groot."

The group looked over to see Groot standing there.

"Five of us. Asleep for the danger, awake for the money, as per frickin' usual."

Fooled around, fooled around, fell in love
Fooled around, fooled around, fooled around, fooled around,
Fooled around, fooled around, fell in love
I fooled around, fell in love
I fell in love, I fell in love, yes I did

.

.

.

A/N

Dearmoviegoers, first of all, thank you so much!Second, I plan on writing a spin-off about what happened on Earth after Tessa left. Thanks again!

Also, for anyone who reads this, I have a Tumblr where I only talk about these stories that you could follow, I plan on posting random trivia and I'll be able to answer questions a lot speedier if you ask on there. The URL is naomimariatheresa because I'm original, There's also a link on my bio.

Thanks for reading!