Yondu has been seconds late. He and Kraglin had been held up when they'd gotten a bit lost. So they were late.

And now Peter was dead.

oO-Oo

Gamora and Peter were beamed into the Ravager ship. Rocket touched down on Knowhere and got the Milano and constructed a half-assed plan to rescue the two knuckleheads that involved threats and blowing something up. When he began to countdown, Gamora had scrambled forward and told Rocket to stop, that she was okay, and to get his ass over here. The raccoon didn't bother to ask about Peter, the jackass must be okay because he's too jackass-y to not be okay. When he arrived at the ship, though, he only saw Gamora. Her green skin was paler than usual and her expression gave it away. Something was wrong with Quill.

Drax and Groot followed him as he walked over to her and the former asked, "Where is Quill?"

"Yeah, where's Quill?" He asked, his fur was on end from worry. (He usually didn't feel like this for anyone other than Groot but the stupid Terran had grown on him. Rocket guessed that was just what happened when you go through potentially traumatizing situation where you're under extreme stress.) Gamora said nothing but turned around and walked off. Rocket took it as a sign to follow her so he scurried up Groot and nodded at him to go. Her attitude threw him off and he knew to be quiet. Drax followed suit. They didn't have to walk very far to reach a door. No Ravagers stopped them; in fact it was oddly quiet in this portion of the ship. Rocket could hear shouting and other such things far from them. Gamora must have scared them away.

She pushed open the door to reveal a room that was barren except for a shelf, a bed, and a desk. They were all drab and combined with the plain walls it made the room unbearably boring. However what made Drax, Groot, and Rocket freeze was what lay on the bed.

He looked like an angel. His eyes were closed, little bits of ice clinging to his eyelashes, which hung over the bags under his eyes delicately. The warmth of the ship had melted away the rest of it once they'd been beamed in. Droplets were scattered on his face, hands, and any exposed flesh. They looked like stars.

And he wasn't breathing.

Rocket scrambled forward. Drax turned sharply toward Gamora with a question in his eyes. Groot walked slowly toward the bed, a low mournful sound escaping him. Rocket had climbed onto the mattress, little paws reaching out but never touching Peter.

"What- how- I thought that stupid blue son of a bitch got you in time!" He snarled, letting out inexplicable anger.

"According to the medic they were seconds late. His heart stopped beating just before they could pull us in." Her voice was soft. She looked like she wasn't completely with them.

"Did they at least try to resuscitate him?" More rage bubbled up and he felt like kicking something. Or blowing a moon up. He hopped off the bed and paced around the room.

"Yes." She left it at that and moved toward the bed. She reached down and brushed the water off of Peter's face. It was oddly intimate, seeing as her eyes were so distant and cold. "We will arrange his funeral. They would have let his body float off into space." At that, Rocket let out a yell and kicked the desk.

Drax inched forward and knelt by Peter's head. He was so still. Reaching over, he grabbed the Walkman from Peter's belt and turned it over in his hand. "We must give him a proper warrior's funeral. Bury him with the item he holds closest to his heart. But…there is nothing to slaughter, and no way to avenge him." He looked disgruntled. He laid the device on Peter's chest.

"I am Groot."

"I don't know what the hell we're going to do now!" Rocket dragged his paws down his face.

Drax's face lifted, and then his eyebrows turned together sharply. "We must destroy Ronan. If it were not for his schemes, Peter Quill would still be alive." Gamora almost snapped at him when he said 'destroy Ronan' but nodded at his words.

"Yes. If we cannot avenge him, we will carry out his wish. Peter wanted to get the infinity stone out of Ronan's grasp. We will annihilate him." Rocket smiled tightly, sharp teeth glinting in the light.

"Yeah…" he dragged out the syllables, tail twitching, "I'll blow him up real good." He started muttering to himself, some words and phrases standing out like 'piece of crap' and 'see bits of him fly'. It was disturbing, but also reassuring that Ronan would get what he deserved.

Peter Quill will be avenged.

oO-Oo

A/N: Okay so that was terrible but I had a description of poor dead Peter in my mind that I just needed to make a story out of, so here's some word vomit. I'm sleepy and my back hurts and I'm kind of happy with this but also not because it's so short. I have some other one-shots in mind so if you're waiting for an update on a certain Tokyo Ghoul story please don't yell at me I can't think of anything. But, if you follow me get ready for some angsty whumpy stuff because I love torturing my favorite characters. Bye bye!