The Milano landed on Procyon, on the outskirts of the Milky Way. There wasn't even a proper spaceport, just a few small landing strips. Gamora did some research and discovered it was a largely undeveloped forest planet. They decided that the air quality might help Rocket recover. The assassin was staying on the ship to look into possible jobs for them. The air was cool, crisp, and a little foggy. Rocket would have been quite cold if he wasn't covered in fur. He looked puffy, his fur expanding to keep him warm. Quill was in his favorite leather jacket which was probably insulated. Drax never seemed to be bothered by the temperature, or societal expectations to wear a shirt. Groot had told Rocket it was harder for him to grow when it was cold, but otherwise it didn't really affect him.
Rocket had ditched the crutches and was now using his custom metal cane. It doubled as a gun, of course, but the rest of the team didn't need to know that.
In front of them was a wide field of magenta grass with a forest in the distance, the trees' leaves were the same hue. A few low-tech cabins dotted the landscape. Groot was all smiles, clearly happy to be in such a natural area. Rocket wasn't so thrilled, being a city guy. He could handle nature fine but it was so messy and primitive. More than that, the wilderness tended to bring out those tugs in his mind he didn't want anyone to know about. The primal urges that marked him as a lowly animal. Groot was all the nature he needed.
"Don't let these trees give you any ideas, Groot. Your leaves should be green." Rocket shuddered at the thought of his tree friend with pink leaves.
"On Earth, trees have green leaves most of the time, but they can turn colors like red, orange, yellow, or brown before falling off." Leave it to Quill to be an encyclopedia on Terra.
Rocket was beginning to think that maybe Terra didn't sound so awful after all. "Well any of those colors would be okay, and I guess blue too, but no pink or purple." He wasn't even sure if Groot could alter the color of his leaves, but he probably could.
"I am Groot?" The tree asked curiously, seeming to be unfazed by a few colors becoming forbidden.
"Flowers are fine, it's just your leaves I'm worried about. But not until you're bigger, okay?" Groot nodded in agreement.
"I know Drax thinks this is where your species comes from, but I still think you're from Earth." Peter was quite smug about it.
"What difference does it make? Either way I'm from some useless primitive backwater." Rocket scowled.
"Home is where the heart is." Quill said with his usual goofy smile.
The cyborg rolled his eyes. "That has got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard."
"How can anyone possibly live within their own chest cavity?" Drax was perplexed as usual.
Quill motioned them to pause as they heard a rustling in the grass, but they relaxed when they saw what it was. A furry creature cautiously approached them, and it looked remarkably like Rocket, only on all fours and without clothing. A raccoon. The animal came up to Rocket and began sniffing him curiously.
He was in awe. "They, they do exist." The raccoon made chattering sounds that were completely foreign to the cyborg. He had a species. He was no longer unique, except he was. That being was just a dumb animal. What Rocket used to be, would have continued to be without those krutacking scientists. But he was different now, he was More. Seeing this creature in front of him both disproved and affirmed his uniqueness simultaneously. Rocket sat back, staring at his paws.
"You okay, buddy?" Quill bent down towards the cyborg, worried.
"Yeah, I'm just thinkin'. I guess I thought having a species would mean I wasn't unique anymore, but there's still no thing like me 'cept me." It was bittersweet. Rocket took both pride and loneliness from his nature. He hated what the scientists had done to him, but without them he really would be an animal incapable of higher thought or speech.
"I am Groot!" The tree was ecstatic.
"They are not. Because if they're cute, I'm cute. And I ain't cute." Rocket huffed.
"On Earth, raccoons are supposed to be nocturnal, so people think any of them out during the day have rabies."
"What's rabies?" People had accused Rocket of being rabid before, but he wasn't sure what that meant.
"It's a disease that makes animals and people crazy and foam at the mouth, then they die," Quill informed them.
The animal playfully swatted at Rocket's ear, and then began to walk away. It stopped, turning its head as if expecting him to follow. "I think she likes you." Peter laughed. "Go on, follow her."
Rocket and Groot slowly followed the creature. It wasn't far but it felt a lot longer since he needed the cane. They came to the edge of the tree line and entered the forest. It was a glade that was home to many raccoons. Most were in the trees, along with a variety of avian creatures.
The trees held small orange berries. Rocket picked and tasted one. It was sour at first, but gave way to sweetness. Groot laughed as his friend's face contorted. They watched as the rambunctious raccoons played around.
"I am Groot." He was content.
"Yeah, this is nice, isn't it." Something about this place was soothing, almost nostalgic, even though he couldn't recall ever having been there. The cyborg and Groot leaned against a tree to take a nice nap.
Rocket was jolted awake by his communicator. "Rocket, can you hear me?" It was Gamora. Night had already fallen and most of the raccoons were asleep. Maybe they weren't nocturnal on this planet because they didn't have as many predators to worry about.
He groggily pressed his communicator. "Yeah."
"I need to speak with you, it's urgent." She sounded somewhat worried, or possibly annoyed. Maybe a bit of both.
"You're talking to me now, ain't you?"
"On the ship." She made it clear that this wasn't something that people other than their fellow Guardians should hear. "I've sent Drax to meet you and Groot. Expect trouble."
Groot had woken up and heard most of the conversation, so the pair ventured out of the woods. Drax was waiting for them.
"Where's Quill? Why isn't he helping us if whatever's going on is so urgent?" If they were really in trouble, they'd need Peter too. Rocket was still recovering and needed his cane, and Groot was only at about the raccoon's height. Drax was formidable, but he could only take on so many opponents at a time.
"On the ship, fornicating with one of the locals."
"Too much info, Drax."
Several rough-looking men swiftly surrounded them, guns raised.
"We were just leaving." Rocket said as he tried to walk faster with the cane.
"It's the Bandit that Speaks!" One of the hunters shouted.
"Get 'im!" Yelled another.
Rocket figured the men were describing him, but still had no idea what they were talking about. The hunters began shooting. The raccoon leaned against Drax's leg and was shooting with the cane-gun. Seconds later, the tattooed man picked up Rocket in one arm and Groot in the other, running towards the ship.
"Do not tell me that you can walk. I know you are capable, but you will only slow us down." Drax glared at the raccoon in his grasp.
Rocket struggled for a moment, but then gave up, trying to shoot at their pursuers. He found it quite difficult since being held in a running man's arms made him anything but still. Barely dodging the enemy fire, they eventually reached the ship.
Once back on the Milano, Gamora gave Rocket a stern look, but then focused her attention elsewhere. "Drax, pilot us off this planet. Groot, follow him and make sure he doesn't crash the ship." Rocket knew they were desperate if Drax was piloting. "Peter, get your waif out of here, we need to leave right now!" She seemed more annoyed than usual at Quill, maybe she was jealous. She clearly wasn't in the mood for the raccoon to taunt her about it, so he left it alone. They stood silently until a disheveled blue woman ran by and exited the ship, annoyed.
"Can you tell me what's going on?" He demanded.
The green woman's gaze returned to the raccoon. "Rocket, why did you not tell us that you're wanted in this sector?"
"Huh? Why am I wanted? Nova Corps wiped our records, and I've never been here before." He honestly had no idea.
"For the assassination of several government officials, among other things. You really haven't been in this area before?"
"What? Sure, I like blowing things up and I cause significant collateral damage, but I don't go around stealthily murdering politicians. Ain't my style. I thought that was your shtick."
Gamora frowned. "You need to see this." She held a tablet that displayed a picture of a being completely identical to Rocket, wearing a black cloak.
"WHAT." He froze, eyes wide and jaw on the floor. "No. That's not possible!" There was nothing like him except him, or so he had thought. But this being wasn't merely like him, it was like looking at a mirror. Now he wasn't alone, and the other one was impersonating him, committing crimes in his name. Not that Rocket was any stranger to breaking the law, but he wasn't about to let himself get arrested for things he didn't even do. The raccoon stared at the picture of his double. The twin wore his hood up and the cloak covered any cybernetics, but the facial structure and fur pattern was an exact match to Rocket. "How the flark does he look exactly like me?!" He needed answers.
"Could the scientists have given you fake memories?" She offered the idea rather quickly. That was a scary thought.
He took a closer look at the tablet. "No, this image is only dated a month ago."
"You were genetically modified, correct? Is it that much of a stretch to think that they made a clone of you?" Gamora finally seemed to settle on this as the most logical explanation.
Rocket was more worried about the alternative, that maybe he was the clone. Not just a monster, but a stupid copy of one. His ears went back and he looked down. "Yeah, they tampered with my DNA and they'd probably be able to clone someone. At least I have better taste in weapons than he does, Rigellian rifles are outdated. And what's with that lame robe?"
"We will need to be careful in this area, your bounty is abnormally high."
The raccoon perked up at that. "Really, how much?"
"Almost as high as Peter's was. 30,000 units."
Rocket grinned. "Hey, why don't we turn me in and collect, then I'll break out." He almost couldn't be mad that Quill's bounty had been more, since that was still a ton of money.
Gamora folded her arms. "Not in your current condition. Anyway, if you hadn't already noticed, the heating unit is broken."
"I'll fix it tomorrow." He assured her.
It was the middle of the night, and Rocket refused to sleep before finding out what that thing was. He needed to know. He sat in the cockpit, paws dancing over the controls. A noise broke the quiet, startling him. Gamora, wrapped in a blanket, walked up and sat in the co-pilot's chair.
"What are you doing up at this hour?" She asked groggily.
"I could ask you the same thing." Rocket was tired, but it didn't matter. Even though he and Groot had that long nap earlier, he had been needing much more sleep than normal while recovering from his injuries.
"I could not sleep." She yawned.
"I'm hacking into the Nova Corps database to find out what that other me is. I checked their file on me first and they don't know anything we don't. They don't even know I'm wanted and being impersonated in this galaxy, and they don't seem to have all of the records of the lab on Halfworld." Rocket shivered.
"Are you cold?"
"A little." It was just their luck that the heater would break the first time they'd been near a cold-enough planet to really need it.
Gamora patted her lap, beckoning him to sit on it. Rocket wouldn't do so in normal circumstances, but they were both cold. Besides, he was too tired at this point to do any more successful hacking. He climbed into her lap. "May I stroke your fur?" She obviously knew better than to use the word pet.
"Yeah, if you promise not to tell anyone. If you do I'll bite your fingers off."
She began petting the raccoon gently on the head. His ear twitched and body stiffened before relaxing. He'd never admit it, but it felt good, soothing. She even scratched at that special spot behind the ears.
"Rocket, no matter what that doppelganger is, you are you. Nothing can ever change that," Gamora whispered in his ear. He smiled a little and drifted to sleep.
NOTE: Rocket's evil twin is from the comics. He'll probably never be in the MCU since an ad specifically describes Rocket as the only one of his kind, but I couldn't resist involving him anyway.