Sorry for the delay, my laptop died. All we know about Peter's dad in the MCU (aside from the hints in the movie) is that he isn't J'son. This story will be going with one of the more likely candidates, but it totally could end up being someone else.
The group gathered in the Milano's common area. Peter, Gamora, and Rocket were wrapped in blankets and sat against each other for warmth. The green woman and the small mammal looked very tired, and awkward around each other. They avoided eye contact but would steal glances when they thought no one was watching. Peter hoped he was just imagining things and that she hadn't hooked up with the raccoon to get back at him.
"Rocket is being impersonated and being framed for various crimes." Gamora couldn't help but yawn.
"Wouldn't that be im-raccoon-ated?" Peter asked with a smirk.
"Shut up, Quill." Rocket was not amused.
"The imposter was last seen yesterday on Deneb-7." She seemed hesitant about the location.
"Sweet, I've always wanted to go there!" Peter was rather excited. Yondu hadn't let him visit any pleasure planets when he was with the Ravagers.
"Deneb-7 and its infamous pleasure pods, I wonder why." The green woman continued before Drax could ask why she was inquiring something so obvious. "This isn't a vacation Peter, we're gathering intel on Rocket's double."
Rocket snarled. "What's all this 'we'? This is my problem and I'll take care of it."
They were a team, a family. Peter wasn't about to let the still-injured raccoon go off on his own about this. "We're the Guardians of the Galaxy, we aren't letting you do this alone."
"Friend Quill, something has been troubling me." Drax seemed serious, but then again he usually was. "Which galaxy are we the guardians of?" The others sighed at the impending argument with him over semantics.
Peter shrugged. "We spend a lot of time in Andromeda, and that's where we were when the name happened, but we're all over the place. Whatever galaxy we're in at the time?"
Of course, Drax wasn't satisfied by such a vague answer. "Would it not be more accurate to call us the Guardians of the Universe?"
Rocket laughed wildly. "Guard the universe? We can barely manage shopping for groceries without there being some minor disaster!"
"I am Groot." The tree nodded in agreement.
"Hey, I didn't come up with the name, but I like it and it stuck. Though personally I think Star-Lord and the Outlaws would have been cool." Peter grinned while the others scoffed.
Gamora sternly brought them back to focus. "It's not important. Rocket, when we get to the planet, you're staying on the ship."
"Like hell I am!" The raccoon glared at her, baring his teeth.
She glared right back at him, unflinching. "You are wanted and have a ridiculous bounty. People will be after you. This isn't up for debate."
The ship was finally not freezing anymore since the sulking raccoon fixed the heating unit on the way to their destination. Peter went to grab his bag. As he started to lift it, he noticed it was much heavier than normal. He poked the bag with his foot and something moved. A living creature had taken up residence within. Peter looked closer and the zipper wasn't fully closed. A certain black, wet nose filled the opening. The human pulled the zipper open.
"Nice try Rocket."
"Come on, Quill! If I hide in your purse, I'll be there but people won't see me. I gotta do this. Just keep it open a little so I can breathe."
"I've got a bad feeling about this."
Deneb-7, also located in the Milky Way, was like a mix between Xandar and Las Vegas. Pristine walkways, palm trees, and garish lights everywhere. Peter needed to find a place to gather information. Seedy bars were usually a good place to start, but this planet presented the illusion that nothing there was seedy, everything was bright and shiny. He picked a bar that looked slightly less shiny, making sure to sit at a stool as to not squish the raccoon in his bag. Peter ordered a weak drink. Entering a bar alone and not getting alcohol would be suspicious, but he needed to be alert. One couldn't just walk into a bar and show a picture of an outlaw, you had to mingle and blend in. Rocket preferred to skip this step by using his scanner, but that didn't work if the bounty was obscuring their identity or they weren't documented.
A diminutive being sat on the stool next to Peter. She had a conical, featureless snout and wild hair, looked like a Fraggle. "Never seen you here before, handsome. Got a name to go with that pretty face?"
Peter knew parading his name while trying to dig up info wasn't bright, but he couldn't help himself. "Star-Lord." He smirked proudly.
This got the attention of an attractive man in the corner. He had a woman on each arm, and was wearing a silly white uniform with red and yellow accents. His hair was the same color as Peter's, parted in the center and pulled back into a point on each side to almost resemble horns. The lothario kissed his ladies goodbye and approached Peter.
"So you're the one who stopped Ronan," he whispered. "I'd like to thank you for that. Call me Starfox."
"You've heard of me!" Peter grinned. "Most people just know me by Peter Quill."
Starfox froze. "P-Peter? Is it really you? I thought you were…"
"Uh, do I know you?"
"No, but…I'm your father." Starfox sounded like he was genuinely sad about the circumstances.
It didn't seem possible. Peter raised an eyebrow in suspicion. His supposed father looked at most only a few years older than Peter. He ignored the movement from within his bag.
"How's Meredith?"
That more-or-less sealed it. Peter never told anyone his mother's name. He wasn't sure what to think, wasn't sure what he had expected. Even though Starfox looked way too young, there was a strong resemblance. The human looked down at the floor. "She died a long time ago, cancer." He wanted to scream at his dad, blame him for Mom's death. If Starfox had spirited the Quills into space, maybe another planet could have cured her cancer. But he couldn't bring himself to. Peter felt good just being around his dad, he couldn't explain it. Starfox was completely focused on him, as if they were the only ones in the room.
"I'm so sorry." Starfox pulled Peter into a hug. It should have been awkward, but it wasn't.
"I have so many questions." Peter didn't know where to start. Why did he leave? Why didn't he take them into space? Did he really love Mom? If he's so powerful and knew about Ronan, why didn't he do anything? Why hadn't they met before now?
They were interrupted by a news bulletin on the video screens. "Authorities are in hot pursuit of the notorious criminal 89P13, also known as Rocket. The former Guardian has returned to a life of crime, and is currently evading arrest in the Sirius Plaza area. He is to be considered armed and dangerous. If you are in the area, please return to your hotels or homes."
Sirius Plaza was only a few blocks away. Rocket began flailing inside the bag, probably to get Peter's attention, but he thrashed so violently that the zipper came undone and he sat upright. Six men pointed their guns at Peter and Rocket. The human held his hands up in submission. "I guess the raccoon's out of the bag."
"Sorry for interrupting your sappy reunion." Rocket sounded not sorry at all. He looked rather silly since his fur was crumpled all over due to the bag.
"I'll hold them off, you get out of here lad." Starfox winked and nodded at his son.
Peter leaped onto one of the tables and jumped off, using the face of a bounty hunter as a platform. He shoved Rocket back into the bag as he ran.
"Quill, that thing with your dad was weird. You weren't actin' like you."
"Yeah that was weird. Let's just get back to the ship."
"No, we should go after my evil twin! We know where he is!"
"And people are going to be after me too. If you had just listened to us and stayed on the ship, we wouldn't be in this mess!"
The others met them when they got back to the Milano and the ship took off. "You should have stayed on the ship. Did you find anything?" Gamora made it very clear that she was disappointed in both of them.
"He was in Sirius Plaza but Quill was too busy meeting his daddy to do anything about it."
"WHAT?" Gamora and Drax shouted simultaneously.
This was followed by an "I am Groot?" that needed no translation.
Drax was obviously pleased. "This is great news friend Quill. How did it go? Who is he?"
"He calls himself Starfox," the Terran answered.
Peter had never seen Gamora express so much shock. She quickly composed herself. "I feel like an idiot for not seeing the resemblance sooner. The apple did not fall very far from the tree. I have met him a few times. I'm not fond of him."
They waited for Drax to make a comment about the apple thing, but he remained silent.
"Is he a bad guy?" Peter asked, hoping his life wouldn't become too much like Star Wars. To be fair, he loved Star Wars, but enjoying a movie and living it were two different things.
"No, he is not our enemy. His intentions are good, but he is a dishonorable man, wasting his time on pleasure planets. A master of pelvic sorcery, he uses his powers of pleasure stimulation to seduce women. It is a mild form of mind control." Gamora frowned.
"You weren't-"
"Don't tell me he-" Peter and Rocket both began voicing their concerns.
She gave a slight smile at their worry. "He did not have such intentions with me, though I was barely more than a child when I met him."
"I wanted to be mad at him but I couldn't. It felt good being around him. So you're saying my dad was seducing me?"
"Pretty much." Would it kill Rocket to attempt to be tactful sometimes?
"I think I'm gonna be sick." Peter didn't want to think about the possibility that Starfox could've used those powers to get with Mom.
"This explains a lot, though. Maybe Quill has those powers too but was using 'em subconscious-like. How else could this idiot get that many women?" Rocket snickered.
Peter thought his luck with the ladies was all his natural charm. "Thanks a lot." He smacked the back of the raccoon's head and got a half-hearted growl in return. "Wait, so what exactly is he?"
Gamora pursed her lips for a moment. "Starfox is an Eternal."
Rocket's jaw was practically on the floor. "WHAT? You're tellin' me that Quill is half Eternal? I thought they were just a myth!"
"What's an Eternal?" This was one of those times where Peter felt completely out of the loop.
"They are long-lived beings with a variety of abilities: flight, psionics, and so-on. Rumor has it they were made by the Celestials," the assassin explained.
Rocket snorted when she said 'long-lived.'
Peter wore a smug grin. "Awesome! I'm even cooler now!"
"Enough about you Star-Ego, what about my evil twin?" Rocket crossed his arms and frowned.
"Can't we just tell Nova Corps about it and let them deal with him?" Peter felt proud that the others, aside from the raccoon, nodded in agreement.
"And have them arrest me instead of fake-me? No thank you."
"We just need to lay low for a while." Peter was starting to get annoyed with Rocket's one-track mind and his insistence on doing things himself. Now every other word out of the raccoon's mouth was about his clone or whatever he was.
"I can't shake the feelin' that leaving him be is a shitty idea. Don't blame me when everything goes to hell." Rocket was hesitant, but he finally relented.
"We'll get him, just not now. After your foot's fully healed." The human assured him.
At this point they decided that any further discussion would turn violent and ended the conversation, leaving the room and going about their daily routines.
Gamora turned one of the Awesome Mixes on at a fairly high volume. "Peter, a word." She grabbed Peter's hand and led him to her room, closing and locking the door.
"You may want to sit down." The green woman was visibly worried, which was never a good thing.
Peter sat on her bed, perplexed. He secretly hoped for some action but it was obvious that was not where this was heading. "What's going on?"
She took a deep breath. "Starfox is Thanos' brother."
"You've gotta be kidding me. He isn't ugly or purple."
"I would never joke about such things. Thanos has a genetic illness called Deviant Syndrome, which is why he looks that way…We should keep this from the others, mainly Drax. I worry that he could betray you. While he has accepted me as a friend when I never expected him to, you are Thanos' nephew, not merely an orphan he created and adopted. Even if you do tell the others, we need to keep it quiet. You will become a target like I am…I don't dare to think what would happen if Thanos found out." She held her elbows and leaned against the wall.
He stared at her. "You're right, but I don't like it. Everyone has secrets, but this seems too big. Like the kind on soap operas that make everything terrible because people didn't know and find out at the worst possible time." Peter leaned back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking about everything. One minute he was fatherless and unaware of what he even was, and the next minute he had plenty of answers. But not all of the answers were what he wanted to hear, with being related by blood to Thanos being the worst of it. It was ominous.
"It is not my decision to make. I do suggest telling Nova Corps about the imposter Rocket. I've gathered footage of both Rockets at the same time."
Peter called up his friend in the Nova Corps. "Hi Dey."
Rhomann appeared on the screen and smiled. "How are you Quill? Staying out of trouble, I hope?"
"More or less."
The smile faded. "What did you do now?"
"I-we didn't do anything. Rocket's being impersonated and framed for a bunch of crimes outside your jurisdiction."
Dey raised an eyebrow. "And I'm supposed to believe that this isn't just Rocket trying to avoid getting arrested? I mean, how do you impersonate that? I thought he was the only one of his kind." Peter knew it didn't look good, but they had proof.
"Look, I'm sending you multiple vids of security footage showing two Rockets on opposite ends of the universe at the same time. It shouldn't be hard for you to tell which is which. Remember when we ran into you last month on Xandar? One of these is the same time as that."
Dey stared intently at the footage for a minute. "I'll look into it. Is there anything else?"
"Nope, that's it." The last thing Peter needed was 'nephew of Thanos' showing up in his file. "Just try not to arrest our Rocket, okay?"
"Keep in touch." Dey hung up.
Peter entered the cockpit where the raccoon was fiddling with the datastream. "Rocket, pull up an Earth calendar and a galactic standard calendar." Various planets told time differently, with galactic standard being the only universal system. Galactic standard used cycles, which were about 3 months longer than an Earth year. Matching up the dates showed it was early October on Peter's home planet, which was perfect for his master plan. He found the card Kraglin gave him. "Set a course for Pettoco." Luckily Pettoco was back in the Andromeda Galaxy where the raccoon wasn't wanted, but it was on the edge and not far away.
"Sure, but when we get there I need a flarkin' drink."