A/N: I do not own this movie, Marvel does thank god or this could have been a disaster, these characters or anything you recognize.

"So who is he?" I demanded, "and why does he have Quill's coat over his dead body."

"Ta hell if I know," Rocket grumbled, already beginning to wonder away in search of some sort of trail to follow, back to there real target.

"Obviously he is someone who pissed off Yondu, and the man was chosen to leave a message for us." Gamora stated, bending over the body with a critical eye.

"A message?" I couldn't help but ask, feeling once again left out of there odd interpretations, "what message would be imbedded in a dead body?"

I thought the happiest day of my life would be the love of my life agreeing to spend her existence with me.

"The worst kind" Rocket snapped as he rejoined the group. "It means Yondu clearly doesn't want us following him, or we really are going to find Pete like this."

"And the corpse told you this?" I asked, studying the body with more care.

Gamora sighed as she rose to her feet, "No Drax, the corpse did not rise from the dead and speak to me, it is symbolic in its way, and not the point. We must track them down, and soon."

"What do you suggest?" Rocket demanded, "We could go Drax's rout and ask the dead guy."

"Did we not just discuss that this man will say nothing to us?" I snapped, feeling tired of this circular discussion.

"He was kidding," Gamora snapped back in exasperation, beginning to rub at one of her temples.

Then my child was born, and I knew that my existence was complete. I would need nothing else in my life.

"It does not matter" I finally said, "we will discuss your idioms later. Rocket, have you found any new way to find Quill?"

"I am Groot." Groot spoke from beside me. Rocket sighed, clearly not happy with what ever the sapling had said.

"We shall head back to the ship" Gamora decided, "begin our search there. Yondu's ship is hardly small, and the Nova Corps ow us more then one favor. We shall see if they have any leads and go from there."

None of them seemed to have a better idea, but then as she began to turn away Groot spoke up "I am Groot."

"He's got a point" Rocket said "what do we do with this guy? We can't just leave him here. Sides, dead body or not, I'm bettering Quill will want this jacket back."

Gamora sighed in annoyance at yet another delay, yet had to admit it would be unwise to leave such a thing behind. The Ravagers had wanted them to find this for a reason, so they may as well keep it around for now. She plucked Peter's coat from the ground, folded it carefully in the cradle of her arms then said, "yes alright, we may as well take it along for now."

Drax sighed as the others began walking back to the Malano, clearly he had been volunteered to cary the dead body. Bending down and tossing the stiff corpse over his shoulder, he followed them.

Once they had reboarded the ship, he simply tossed the carcass into Quill's usual chair, unaware what else should be done with it.

While Rocket crinkled his nose in disgust and began telling him where he should put it, Gamora cut him off and said "Wait, put this face into the wanted data base. I know him from somewhere."

"Figures the only people you recognize are wanted criminals" he muttered while doing what he was told.

Once the small ping indicated a complete search, Rocket then froze up.

Groot leaned around his shoulder, and then he went just as wide eyed as his companion and stated "I am Groot!"

Rocket let out a weak little chuckled as he nodded and said "You can say that again."

"What have you found?" I inquired

"That Yondu is deranged" he whispered.

I stomped over and plucked the device from his hand, growing weary of these non answer's. Then I to froze at what was displayed beside this mans mug shot.

Gamora released a huffy breath. While Rocket had been doing her search, she had set our ship into flight, and now flipped a simple switch indicating it was now on autopilot. When she noticed how quite all of us had become she made her way over as well, and released a choice word.

As one all of us turned to the now lifeless body, mentally calculating his worth split between five people, that would still keep us happy for several years.

Drax shook himself out of it first, as he demanded "What is the meaning of this? This is no coincidence, is Yondu offering us some sort of trade? Quill for this money we could claim."

Gamora shook of her shock to as she said "Well if so, then he is sorely mistaken, because we will claim both. I've set us a course for Xandar; we will turn in this bounty as a show of good will instead of turning over to this buyer. The Nova Corps will then be more likely then ever to help us locate Yondu's ship."

She left no room for debate, and despite Rocket's mutterings about wasted potential, no one really raised any protests.

The trip to Xandar was silent and depressing, we were all feeling the loss of our friend by the end of the two day trip. Our arrival on the planet was at first ill received, for some reason the Nova Corps seemed to think that our rearrival would just cause them more trouble, but once we made our meaning clear, they surprised us more then we them.

Rhomann Dey thanked us kindly for turning in the criminal, alive or dead our group would still receive a handsome fee for him in this legal way even if it was smaller, and he then informed us they might already have a lead on our friends wear a bouts.

The leader of the guard then escorted us to a medical bay, where we did find Quill, strapped down to a bed. Gamora rushed to his side at once and began removing the shackles, while I turned on our guide and demanded "Why have you done this?"

"Because he was dumped on our doorstep bleeding" Dey shrugged. Drax could tell he looked regrettable for his actions as he continued "and when he woke up he freaked out and just kept on bleeding because he wouldn't stay still. Nurses had to sedate him and do that to stop him from hurting himself. We've been trying to get a hole of you guys, but the connection wasn't going through."

Gamora had him untied by now, and was gently easing our friend into an upright position, speaking his name softly. Failing no response from that, she then backhanded him across the face.

Still receiving no reaction, she sighed and asked "How long will he be asleep like this?"

"Not to much longer" Dey said uneasily "but he's lost a lot of blood so that might have something to do with him being so disorientated."

I ground my teeth together in frustration and asked "Is there no way to replace this blood?"

"We are" he nodded, gesturing to a few of the machines by Quill's bedside. "He's in the best care guys."

The four of us collectively exchanged looks, and came to an agreement that there was nothing more we could do until Peter woke up. We needed Star-Lord back up and running before we continued after the man who had done this.

GOTG

Since all of us would end up killing someone if we were locked in this place for any long length of time, even for this noble reason of keeping our friend company so that the next time he awoke he would not panic, we started taking shifts.

I just so happened to be there when he awoke.

He recognized the weapon headed in there direction, knew of its deadly capabilities, and could have easily side stepped the device. It was not meant to harm him. But that would have left his friend exposed, and in that moment all he could see was his daughter and wife, the ones he had been to slow to save. So instead he stepped forward, taking the brunt of the damage, determined no to loose any more family.

"Drax, hey did you turn into a statue over there? Yeesh, first Rocket, now you, what's with you guys lately and standing, or in your case sitting, around vacantly!"

"Peter" I exclaimed with glee, leaning forward at once "I am glad to see you awake my friend. You have not been so for many moons."

He had struggled into a sitting position and ran a hand down his face wearily as he muttered "I believe you. Sure feels like it."

"My friend" I demanded, scooting my chair a bit closer "I am glad to see you awake, but you must inform me so I can inform the others; what did Yondu do to you? Where did he take you, and where is he now?"

"He took me onto his ship, but I've no idea where he is now" he said, clearly avoiding my first question as his eyes ghosted to the ceiling.

"Peter" I repeated softly "I am your friend, we have shared many battles. Surely you know I will not do anything negative when you do tell me what happened to you while with the Ravagers."

He glanced back over at me then, his eyes focusing on my arm. The wound had long since scabbed over but I knew what his eyes sought out, and the raised red blemish blended well with my skin, so I showed him what he was seeking.

He swallowed, then smiled at me and whispered "He just reminded me how much I ow him is all. Gave me a clue as to where I could find my father. Yondu told me he had been paid all those years ago to take me to my father, but recently the man had gotten into contact with Yondu when he heard my name through the solar systems."

He stopped to swallow hard for a moment before continuing "Oh, and he apparently left you guys a present for sticking around with me. Did you find it?"

"Indeed we did," he nodded in the affirmative as I smiled at him "and it seems we have yet another quest to go on."

He hesitated for a moment before beaming at me, and pushing his legs over the side of his bed as he crowed "I'll go anywhere you guys want to, so long as it's out of this stupid place!"

He bound to his feet with surprising vigor, and I quickly did the same. Glad to have my friend back where he belonged, with us.

Yep, that's the conclusion to this little fic. I really hope they do something similar to this in the movie