I really have no excuse for how late this is except crazy holidays, crappy health problems, and extreme laziness. I'm sorry T-T.

Not nearly as much action in this chapter so it's a bit shorter than others - and I wrote the second half of this on my phone so please forgive any glaring errors I've missed _

Thanks to everyone who's followed/favorited this, and especially to all you who leave reviews - you guys are amazing!

Enjoy!

Peter's head hurt.

It really hurt. Like, massive hangover after a full-blown Ravager party levels of pain. It felt like someone was repeatedly smashing a hammer into his temple, a matter that was not helped at all by the heated arguing he could hear faintly through the throbbing of his head.

"Wouljou jus'- ugh," Peter groaned, bringing a hand up to his head. Okay, so coherency was out of the question right now. Alright.

"Peter?"

He jerked as a concerned voice sounded from directly above him, wincing as hands fluttered gently at his head.

"G'mora?" he groaned, blinking the dark spots out of his vision. Gamora's face hovered above him, yes wide and expression tight with fear.

Wait, fear?

"Wha's wrong?" he asked dizzily, trying to sit up – an action that was quickly halted by Gamora's firm hand on his chest. "Is everyone okay?"

"We're – we're all fine," Gamora replied, voice heavy with something Peter couldn't identify. "I got us out. We're… safe, for now."

"Hey, share the credit," came of dark mutter to Peter's left. He turned his head, expression creasing in confusion as he caught sight of Rocket sitting dejectedly in a hospital bed. A quick glance around the room confirmed to him that the entire team was crammed into a tiny hospital room.

"Rocket?" Peter asked, horribly confused by now. "What happened – oh shit, your arm-" the room tilted dizzyingly as he remembered. "The Aether – did we get it?"

"Well… yes," Gamora answered, her voice almost strangled. Peter frowned.

"Why – where is it?"

His team stared at him with heavy expressions. Peter felt unreasonably nervous at this.

"Guys?"

"The Aether-" Gamora swallowed, eyes looking anywhere but him. "Well – it's-"

"As far as we know," Rocket cut in, saving them from Gamora's halted stuttering. "It's kind of inside you."

Peter stared at him.

"What?"

Gamora buried her face in her hands. Rocket was watching him as if he half-expected him to spontaneously combust.

Which would be a logical assumption, if they were being serious. Which they couldn't be.

"Haha, guys," he laughed nervously. "That's – that's not really funny at all, actually." Groot moved closer to him as Gamora uncovered her face.

"It's true," she said, eyes watching him carefully. "When you grabbed it, it – you absorbed it, somehow, which shouldn't be possible –" she broke off, clearly frustrated. "There's and Infinity Stone in you."

Peter continued to stare at her. Someone really needed to stop spinning the room like that.

"Okay," he whispered, breath growing short. "Okay. Okay. Okay-"

"Stop saying that!" Rocket barked at him.

"No!" Peter cried, chest constricting in panic. "I have a fricking Infinty Stone inside of me – how am I not dead?!" he whirled to Gamora, desperate. She grabbed his hand tightly, her own expression holding thinly-veiled panic.

"I don't know," she said. "I don't know, Peter. But you're alive for now and, as far as we can tell, stable." Peter had a feeling she was saying this to calm herself as much as she was him.

"Shit," he breathed, burying his head in his hands. "Shit."

"Well look on the bright side," Rocket spoke up. "We got the stone. And it's gonna be pretty hard to lose it."

Peter looked at Rocket incredulously. Gamora just glared.

"We will find a solution for this," Drax said calmly, laying a hand on Peter's shoulder. "And we will not rest until you are safe."

"I am Groot!"

"And yeah, the Collector oughtta know a way to fix this," Rocket nodded at Groot.

"He'd better," Peter muttered darkly, gripping Gamora's hand tightly as he took a breath. "Okay. Okay. Fine. No big deal. We got what we needed, we just take it back to the Collector and we're good."

"I'd call it a success, actually," Rocket said. "We only managed to piss off the forces of two tyrannical leaders this time."

"I fail to see how that is a success," Drax frowned.

"Remember Alpha-6?"

"Ah."

"Alright, alright," Peter cut over them. "We don't have time for this. I have a feeling neither of those forces are gonna leave us alone for long."

"Exactly," Gamora said. "We need to leave as soon as possible. Rocket?"

"Yeah, I'm good," he said, already detaching the IV. "It wasn't even that bad. I still can't believe the medics bought my act."

"They bought it because there was a gaping hole in your arm," Gamora muttered. Rocket shrugged.

"That explains the hospital," Peter frowned. "But I've got one question. Why aren't we on the Milano?"

The rest of his team stared at him. For the second time that day, Peter felt incredibly nervous at their expressions.

"You're his girlfriend," Rocket said, clapping Gamora on the shoulder. "You tell him."

Victoria of Spartax was not in a good mood. At all.

This was supposed to be a simple mission. An easy, in-and-out operation, one that should have taken them no more than a day. And now it had turned into some demented game of hide and seek – except the prize would quite possibly spell the fate of the empire.

Ducking in and out of seedy shops and bars, Victoria debated how, exactly, she was going to find the Guardians while avoiding R'narin and his forces. It was already difficult enough, avoiding the swarms of Chitauri warriors that clogged the streets, sending bystanders screaming as they searched. Her only comfort was that they were still searching – the Guardians had yet to be found.

And that, of course, brought up a whole other host of problems – what, exactly, was she supposed to do when she found them? Capture the Terran, if he was still alive? Attempt to explain to her fa- the king, that the Aether was somehow inside of him?

Hauling one of her soldiers back into an alleyway as several Chitauri passed, Victoria suppressed a groan. This was anything but a good day for her.

"Captain, you have an incoming call from King J'son."

And there it went getting worse.

"Tell him I'm busy, Rahl," she muttered, eyes following the Chitauri.

Her first-in command sighed.

"Captain, he's very… insistent."

Victoria bit back a curse. Ignoring the sinking feeling she had in her stomach, she took the communicator.

Watching the hologram flicker to life, Victoria steeled herself.

"Captain," J'son said, voice clipped and emotionless.

"My lord," she murmured, inclining her head.

"The Aether?"

Straight to the point then, Victoria thought bitterly. Well, there was no use hiding it.

"Forgive me, my lord," Victoria said ashamedly, head bowed. "We… lost the Infinity Stone."

J'son's expression appeared unchanged, but Victoria still felt a thrill of fear.

"But we are working every hour to retrieve it now," she added hastily.

"As I would expect," J'son said icily. "This is no small matter, captain. With R'narin working against us, it is of utmost importance that we retrieve the Aether as soon as possible. I trust you will have retrieved it and taken care of the thieves within the next cycle."

"Of course, my lord." She hesitated. J'son raised an eyebrow at her. Victoria took a breath.

"There is… a small complication. The Aether appeared to have been absorbed into one of the Guardians we spoke of earlier." She shook her head. "Which is impossible, I know, but he is somehow still alive, even with it-"

"One of the Guardians," J'son cut in, expression tight. "Which one?"

"I don't-" Victoria stuttered. "He- the leader, I think." She took a breath.

"There is something you should know about him. He is Terran, and he claims to be-"

"Quill."

Victoria started, looking at the king as he ran a hand over his brow wearily.

"Yes," she said. "How did you – is he-"

"I do not know," he said. "Until now, I had every reason to believe any child I might have had was dead, along with Mer-" he cut off abruptly, expression tightening. Victoria averted her eyes, staring at the ground.

"Apparently, my contact lied." Victoria jerked her head back up, suppressing an urge to step back at the icy anger in his voice. "At any rate, this is only a minor change in matters.

"My lord?"

"Your priority is the Aether," he said. "Which you tell me resides in Quill. Bring him to me." Victoria nodded, motioning at her guards.

"And Victoria?"

She turned back to the hologram.

"Bring him to me alive."

"I can't believe this."

"Peter, let it go."

"You should have left me with her."

"Peter, we were being pursued. They would have caught us."

"I don't care. My poor, beautiful, baby-"

"For star's sake, Quill, it's just a ship."

"It's the Milano!" Peter cried in outrage. "She's my baby!"

"I fail to see how it is possible that you would have a ship for an offspring-"

"Drax, this is not the time," Gamora snapped. "Peter, we had to leave. We would have been caught in minutes had we not."

Peter moaned, dragging a hand through his hair agitatedly.

"Stop whinin', ya big baby," Rocket said. " 'sides, it's not like we aren't gonna get her back. I got important stuff still on that ship."

"I am Groot."

"Yeah, see? We can come back later and beat the crap outta whoever's got their paws on our ship."

"In the meantime, we find another," Gamora said.

"Fine, fine!" Peter conceded. "But I'm serious about the kicking the ass part," he added, glaring.

"That's fine," Gamora said. "But ship. Now."

"Right," Peter muttered as they cut through another darkened alleyway. "We gotta find something that's gonna blend, preferably small…"

"There are more landing bays two miles from here," Drax informed them. "We can acquire a ship there."

" 'Acquire', " Rocket snorted. "That's a nice way of puttin' it."

"I'm sure the owner will understand," Gamora said stiffly. Of the five, she was the least enthusiastic about continuing to steal.

"We'll return it," Peter said. "If it doesn't, y'know, end up vaporized."

"How comforting," Gamora muttered.

Avoiding the crowded streets, they moved through the intersecting alleyways, the darkened stone walls echoing eerily form the noise of the streets. As Drax led, Gamora slowed a bit, falling to the back of the group with Peter.

"Are you alright?" she asked, voice low.

"Hm? Oh, yeah," Peter replied. "Trying not to think about my insides ripping apart, but other than that I'm fine."

Gamora bit her lip, surreptitiously drawing closer to him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. Peter gave her a confused look.

"I should have been there," she clarified. "I shouldn't have let this happen-"

"Hey," Peter interrupted, voice firm. "This was not your fault. At all."

"But-"

"No, Gam – I was the idiot who grabbed for it, okay?" he sighed. "My fault."

"Well, technically," she said, after a beat. "It was whoever shot the d'ast thing's fault."

Peter snorted.

"That'd be crazy Spartax lady. What a – hghn-"

Gamora started in alarm as Peter stumbled, eyes glazing over as he went silent.

"Peter?"

Peter remained silent, his eyes staring miles beyond her. Gamora felt her heart quicken.

"Peter," she repeated, laying a hand on his arm. "Peter!"

He blinked, shaking his head as if coming out of water. Gamora felt a surge of relief as his normal, hazel eyes met hers.

"Sorry," he said. "I just –" he broke off, looking confused. Gamora merely squeezed his shoulder.

"We'll fix this," she said, under her breath to him. "I promise."

Peter gave her a crooked smile.

"I know. I trust you-"

"Guardians!"

Gamora had her sword out in seconds, spinning to face the voice as she heard her friends drawing their own weapons with the same speed. She felt a snarl twist her face as she caught sight of the figure, realizing who had addressed them.

"You," she hissed at the Spartax captain, grip tightening on her sword. "You should have fled the planet when you had the chance."

The captain glared, the other Spartax warriors coming up to flank her.

"We do not wish to harm you," she said, clearly agitated. "R'narin and the Chitauri are close behind. We can help you escape."

The Guardians stared at her in disbelief.

"Yeah, okay, lady," Rocket growled. "Where's the catch?"

"The Aether, of course," the captain said. "I'm sure we can agree that keeping it out of R'narin's hands is top priority right now."

"About that," Peter said with a nervous laugh. "You see, it's kind of impossible, to uh, actually give it to you-"

"Not thanks to you," Gamora growled at the captain.

"I know. I saw," the captain said. There was a tinge of regret in her features. "I believe we can help with that, though."

"Oh, really?" Peter said, raising an eyebrow.

"My planet may have a solution. You will come with me to Spartax," the captain said, clearly displeased. "The king commands it."

The reaction was instantaneous.

"Hell no," Rocket snapped, even as Gamora glared daggers at the captain, stepping defensively in front of Peter. She ignored his small huff of "not a damsel, Gamora".

"He won't – I don't – we mean you no harm," the captain said, taking a step back. "I swear it. Look-"

She glanced behind her, listening to the growing commotion from the street nearby.

"We can discuss this on my ship," she said, "It will be safe from R'narin, for now at least, and the Aether will be better protected-"

"So you can just kill us there?" Peter said, incredulous. "How stupid do you think we are?!"

"I would not kill you!" the captain said angrily. "I am not so dishonorable – do you not understand that we are on the same side here?"

"Last I checked, people on the same side don't stun each other in the back," Peter snapped.

"What do you want, an apology?" the captain snapped back. "If you had just handed over the Aether then, we wouldn't be in this mess-"

"Right, because I'd just hand over one of the deadliest objects in the galaxy to someone maniac I don't know," Peter laughed derisively. "And I'm pretty sure this mess is your fault, that Roran guy's after you-"

"It's R'narin, and he's after the Aether, you fool!" the captain hissed. "We're trying to keep it from him! That puts us on the same side!"

"Lemme shoot you in the back, then we'll talk-"

"I AM GROOT!"

Groot's roar cut the shouting match off abruptly, both Peter and the captain flushing as they met the wide eyes of their respective companions. Drax stepped forward, motioning towards the end of the alleyway.

"We must decide a course now."

Shouts echoed from the street behind them, the angry snarls clearly identifying them as the Chitauri. The captain turned back to Peter, expression panicked.

"Please," she said. "Please, I swear no harm will come to you."

Peter stared at her. Gamora moved closer to him, hand resting on his arm.

"Peter…"

"I swear," the captain said, desperate. "But if R'narin catches you, catches any of us now, we may as well all be dead."

Peter bit his lip. He glanced at Gamora, who met his gaze with resignation.

"Alright," he said, ignoring Rocket's indignant outburst from behind him. "We'll come with you."

The captain slumped in relief.

"But if you so much as try to betray us, we're murdering every single one of you," he said.

"Fair enough" the captain said, though her lips tightened. She motioned to her guards.

"This way," she said, turning into the next alleyway and breaking into a sprint. After a beat, Peter followed. Glancing back, he was relieved to find that he still had some semblance of leadership – the Guardians, though clearly unhappy, were following.

"I don't like this," Gamora muttered to him as they ran through the darkened maze of alleyways.

"Neither do I," he said, voice low. "But we're kinda out of options at the moment."

"And here I thought you always had a plan B," Gamora huffed. Peter let out a wry laugh.

"I thought you'd have figured it out by now," he said. "I'm an incurable liar."