Author's Note: Yes, I totally lifted some of Cosmo's lines from the animated series. This story turned out to be a little shorter, two chapters instead of three. I partially blame it on getting distracted with my other Guardians fic for Meredith Quill and Yondu. I have at least one more fic planned after this, one that will start out on Xandar and involve more Ravager characters. Stay tuned!

"I…" Victoria bit her lip. "I'm lost. I got separated from my family, and now I can't find them."

Then little girl is lucky, for Cosmo is Retriever. The dog's tail wagged enthusiastically, tongue lolling to the side. Victoria tilted her head, mirroring the gesture. Retriever is bred of Earth dog. Eh, nevermind. He lowered his head. Joke not funny of Cosmo must explain.

There was something in the canine's attempted humor that tickled at the back of Victoria's mind, a word or phrase that maybe Peter had used once or twice but she couldn't quite remember what it was. Sensing her concern, the dog padded close.

Little girl is called… Victoria Quill, da?"

She nodded, and he gave an experimental sniff of the hand that she was now using to pet his blocky head. Victoria hadn't even realized she had started doing it. Unfortunately, Cosmo cannot sniff others. Too many smells here. She couldn't argue with that. But Cosmo can lead little girl back to docks. Maybe family return to ship?

"Yes!" It had been her idea as well.

Most excellent. Follow Cosmo, please.

She had no idea what it was about the canine, but Victoria, usually cautious around strangers, found herself completely at ease with the dog as they wound their way through the streets of Knowhere. Her hand remained on his collar and he matched her pace so that he wouldn't get too far ahead. She'd been right that Cosmo wasn't a typical dog. Aside from communicating telepathically, he also had some telekinetic abilities that he was only too happy to demonstrated on some startled passersby. Startled, but not frightened, she noticed. Not once they realized who was doing it.

Cosmo is head of security on Knowhere, the canine explained, looking particularly pleased with himself.

Victoria hummed in acknowledgment and scratched him behind an ear.

This isn't so bad, she thought. Peter and Gamora will be worried but they'll find me. They have to come back to the ship sometime, and when they, do I'll have an awesome story!

Pleased with the prospect and with said story getting bigger and bigger in her head, she didn't notice Cosmo slow down until the dog gently nipped at the bottom of her jacket. She wondered why they had stopped until Victoria realized that they'd reached the docks. More importantly the ship in front of them looked very familiar… but it was not the Milano.

"That's not it," she told Cosmo.

The dog cocked his head to the side. Cosmo extracted ship's image from little girl's mind.

"It does look like ours, but it's not," Victoria insisted and pointed. "See? The color's all different. It's another… M-ship." She remembered the designation.

Ah, Cosmo lowered his head, ears drooping. Little girl must forgive Cosmo. Dogs… not good with colors.

In truth, Victoria was very curious about the other ship. She knew M-ships were largely used by Ravagers. She wondered what whoever was on that ship was like and if there was anyone there that Peter knew, but for once her desire to get back to the Milano overwrote her curiosity.

"It's okay," she patted his head. "Let's try again."

Stoy…

Victoria didn't understand the word, but she stood still as Cosmo seemed to be listening for or sniffing out something. A second later, the ramp on the M-ship lowered and a tall, lanky man came down it to pick up a box of something on the dock. He had a relaxed way about him and whistled as he walked. Cosmo's expression might have been the dog equivalent of a frown.

Cosmo read man's mind, the canine even sounded puzzled in her head. He knows your… family.

Victoria's eyes lit up in excitement, and before the dog could stop her, she was off running towards the other M-ship. The man in the leather red Ravager coat stopped when he spotted her and put down the box.

"Well, hello there, li'l lady. Who might you be?"

"Hi!" Victoria waved. "I'm…"

But before she could explain, Cosmo was at her side again, sniffing cautiously at the stranger. Apparently satisfied that the man was not a threat, the canine sat back on his hind legs, and proceeded to project his thoughts directly into both their minds.

Little girl is called Victoria Quill. Cosmo believes you know her… err… father? Brother? Cosmo is uncertain. The one you recall as Peter Quill.

The man's eyes went almost comically wide as he stared at her. "Yer Pete's what now?!"

"Sister," she said helpfully. He was so tall, she had to crane her neck to look up at him.

The man didn't look like he quite believed her but didn't argue. "Where he at?"

"Somewhere in one of the food markets, I think." Victoria waved her hand in the direction of the rest of Knowhere beyond the docks. "I got lost."

"Alrighty," the man still looked puzzled but relaxed and nodded in the direction of his ship. "I should be able to get in touch with him for ya. I'm Kraglin, by the way."

"Oh!" Her eyes widened. "I know you! Peter says you flew together when he was growing up. He said you're his friend."

"That I am," Kraglin grinned and held out his hand. "Come on now. Let's see if we can get a hold of yer… brother."

"Okay," she smiled happily and looked at the dog. "Can Cosmo come, too?"

Cosmo come. The dog's tone made it clear that it was not a request. Someone else on Ravager ship. Someone… not friendly.

"Oh, she ain't gonna bite." Kraglin waved a hand dismissively.

Victoria and Cosmo gave him puzzled looks but followed nonetheless. Inside the layout of the ship was naturally very familiar to the girl, with the exception of the colors and personal effects. She wandered around for a moment, mentally comparing everything to the Milano, until she came across a cluttered table. Cluttered, that is, except for a nook of cleared space where a metallic gold and red arrow lay. She tilted her head slightly, studying it without touching as Gamora had instructed in the shop. Kraglin came up behind her.

"That belonged to Peter's daddy," he said, and Victoria could hear the sadness in his voice.

"I know." She'd guessed as much. "He really misses him."

"I miss him, too." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Come on."

Kraglin was nice, she decided. He gave her a glass of water and a cookie that she broke in half and shared with Cosmo and went up to the bridge to try to contact Peter. She heard him talking quietly to someone, then hopped on a bench, dangling her legs an inch away from the floor, until the sound of movement from the upper level caught her attention again. Cosmo was on his feet then, not quite growling, but alert.

A woman emerged from the ladder. At least Victoria thought it was a woman. So many pieces of her felt like they didn't belong. She stared at her, and bottomless black eyes stared back.

"So," the woman folded her arms, "you're Quill's whelp."

"His what?" Victoria didn't know the word.

The woman narrowed her eyes, as if studying her. "Do you know my sister?"

The girl was confused at first, but then memories of conversations between training floated to the surface. Her eyes widened in recognition and excitement. "You're Nebula! Oh, Gamora's told me so much about you!"

"Really." There was an odd quality to her voice, slightly metallic and lacking in the usual range of emotions Victoria was used to seeing from the crew of the Milano. "And what are you to her?"

"Umm… she's my teacher." The girl mimicked a lunge with a bo staff.

Careful, Cosmo's voice sounded in her head. This one… damaged.

"Shush," Victoria admonished.

The canine shrank back a little but remained alert. Nebula's mouth twitched slightly, like she was trying to smile but couldn't quite remember how to. "How old are you, girl?"

"Seven."

"Humm."

She was still looking at her funny, studying her for reasons Victoria didn't understand, when Kraglin came halfway down the stairs.

"Got yer big brother on the horn for ya," he told her. "Better come up here. He ain't too thrilled with you."

Sure enough, Peter's frowning face looked back at her from the view screen when she climbed the stairs to the cockpit. He exhaled a sigh of relief, but the frown didn't go away.

"Are you hurt?" he demanded.

Victoria shook her head.

"Are you okay?"

A nod.

"Then what the hell were you thinking?!"

Despite her brother's visible anger - something she wasn't used to seeing - Victoria giggled and looked at Kraglin. "Peter said a bad language word."

The tall man just blinked at her, uncertain what she meant. Her brother covered his face with both hands and groaned before shifting his attention to Kraglin. "Can you watch her while I get there? Like, don't let her off the ship. Don't let her out of your sight."

"Course," Kraglin assured him.

"Thank you," Peter glared at her again. "Stay put and do whatever Uncle Kraglin says. I'll deal with you later, young lady."

The connection cut out, leaving her startled. She felt her nose tingle, a sure prelude to tears she couldn't even explain.

"He never yells at me." She looked up at the tall man, eyes watering. "Never."

"Oh, honey, he's was jus' worried 'bout you is all," Kraglin patted her curls sympathetically. "Want another snack?"

The only reason he wasn't running was because in places like Knowhere that tended to attract unwanted attention that he really had neither the desire nor the time to deal with right now. Gamora was only a few steps behind him which, if Peter stopped to think about it, meant that she wasn't nearly as freaked out by the situation as he was. He'd been going out of his mind for the last few hours, dragging them all around Knowhere in search of his sister, and even now that he logically knew she was safe, the adrenaline spike refused to dissipate.

"Peter, breath," his companion advised. "If you show up like this, all you're going to do is scare her."

"Good! I sure as hell was!"

"You don't mean that."

Of course he didn't. Peter stopped, blew out a breath, and ran a hand through his hair.

"You're right," he told her once she'd caught up with him. "I just… I honestly have no idea how to deal with something like this."

Gamora's lips curved slightly. "How did Yondu deal with it?"

"Poorly." He could still remember his ears ringing from being smacked upside the head.

"Then congratulations: you're your father's son."

The quip was not at all comforting. Maybe I should… I don't know… pick up a book on parenting or something. It was the first time he'd even though the word 'parent' in respect to himself and Victoria. It didn't feel quite as abrasive as 'father'. After all, 'parent' could also be a verb and something that he apparently needed to learn how to do. Why had he thought this was going to be easy? Oh, right, because Victoria was usually much better behaved than he'd ever been as a kid.

Kraglin was the first thing he saw emerging from the other M-ship when they approached it, opposite dock from the one where they ha parked the Milano. The man had a funny look on his face, like he was trying hard not to laugh.

"How'd all this happen, again?" the tall Ravager asked after they shared a one-armed hug.

Peter sighed. "Remember a while back I asked you about Spartax?"

"Oh, yeah," Kraglin, recalled. "An' I told you Yondu'd gone there after Xandar. So he knew, too, huh? Sneaky bastard."

"He was the only one who knew for a while," Peter nodded. "Thanks again, man. I really owe you. I'll tell you the whole story later. Preferably over stiff drinks."

"Cool." The other man grinned. " 'Cause I had a whole 'sponsibility lecture all ready for ya. You know, on Yondu's behalf, in case she turned out your kid after all."

"I really wish people would stop saying that." Peter made a face.

For the first time, Kraglin actually frowned, looked over his shoulder at Gamora for an explanation, but she simply shrugged and waved at him in the universal indicator not to bother asking. Kraglin made a helpless gesture. "Well, the mut was confused."

"The who?"

At first, Peter wasn't quite sure just what had come down the ramp next. Cosmo was, quite possibly, one of the stranger creatures he had ever met which was saying something. Actually, he recalled seeing the dog once in the Collector's menagerie. How he got to be head of security on Knowhere, the Terran had no idea, but his brain was having trouble reconciling what he knew and expected of dog behavior with the barrage of words being pushed into his head by the specific canine in question. Once he realized Peter was also from Earth, Cosmo's tail nearly doubled its wagging.

Peter Quill, also known as Star-Lord, must not be angry, the dog told him. Victoria not mean to getting lost.

"I'm not angry," Peter snapped before realizing the futility of lying to a telepath. "I'm not angry with her," he amended, "just worried."

The dog seemed to accept that because he let Peter pass him on his way up into the ship. Victoria stood at the top of the ramp, her slightly tightened mouth and wrinkled nose giving her a decidedly guilty look. For a long moment they just looked at each other, and then his sister was in his arms and he was scooping her up in a fierce hug.

"Don't ever, ever do that again," he whispered into her hair. "Do you have any idea how scared I was?"

"Sorry," she muttered, burying her face in the crook of his neck. "I'm really, really sorry."

His instinct at seeing his baby sister in distress was to comfort her, tell her that everything was alright, but Peter stopped himself. Instead he pulled back so that they were face to face and tucked stray curl behind her ear.

"I know you are," he said seriously, "but you could've been really badly hurt or worse. If we're off the ship, you have to stick with one of us. And you have to understand that your actions have consequences." She nodded. "No video games for a week."

The girl wilted slightly but nodded. "But music?"

"Yeah," he smiled and kissed her forehead. "You can still have music."

Whatever her adventure had been, it must have tired her out. Victoria fell asleep in his arms almost as soon as Peter sat down to talk to Kraglin. Out of the corner of his eyes, he kept an eye out for Gamora and Nebula. He still couldn't bring himself to completely trust the Luphomoid, but for now things seemed to be more or less quiet as the two women talked in a different corner of the ship.

"Where'd you two run into each other anyway?" He accepted a drink from Kraglin a bit awkwardly while still holding his sleeping sister.

"Here," the other man pointed out the window, indicating the rest of Knowhere. "I had stuff for a fence, an' she was lookin' for some info. Didn't tell me what."

"Probably something about Thanos." Peter glanced back at the two sisters again. Nebula looked turned her head just then, and he could've sworn she was looking at Victoria, not him. He turned back to his friend. Kraglin was also looking in the direction of the blue skinned woman in a way that made Peter want to roll his eyes. Instead he asked, "What are your next plans?"

"Well," unconsciously, Kraglin brushed the tip of his nose, "got a call from the Nova Corps, if you can believe it. Think they meant to call Yondu, but… you know..."

"Yeah." Peter's eyes shifted to the Yaka arrow on the table, then back to his friend. "Actually we got that call, too…"