26 Years Later

THE MILANO - MORAG

"Oh. What a lovely... boulder? I thought you said we were doing something exciting today, Peter."

He kept his eyes on the planet's surface as he spoke to her, "Since when is money not exciting?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "Money? What are we stealing?"

"Well, let's just say Yondu probably won't be too happy."

"Seriously, Peter?!" she yelled.

"Oh, come on! You said you wanted excitement. Evading Ravagers? That's always exciting! " he said jokingly.

"I'm serious, Peter. I told you I didn't want to do this."

And she had - eight times, in fact. Emma didn't find as much fun in messing with Yondu as Peter did, especially when it put their lives at risk. But, even though Yondu basically raised the both of them, Peter was her family and he knew as well as she did that she would eventually give in if he bothered her enough. Besides, Yondu always ended up calling the bounty off.

"I know you did," he said, gently landing the ship on the planet's surface. "But, as your best friend and self appointed therapist, it is my duty to get you out of your comfort zone." He grinned at her - that big, stupid grin that always won.

"Yeah, well I'd say dead is definitely way out of my comfort zone" she answered, sarcastically.

Peter unbuckled himself, playfully shoving Emma on the shoulder as he went to gather his equipment.

"Don't worry. I'll be quick, and then we can get out of here before Yondu knows anything."

She was in the middle of holstering her weapon when he said this.

"Wait, what do you mean you'll be quick? Also, pretty sure if Yondu shows up and notices we aren't here with the orb, he'll suspect that something is up."

Peter grabbed her by the shoulders and led her back to the co-pilot's chair. She could have protested, but she knew resistance would be pointless.

"Yes, I will be quick. You will wait here in case a bunch of illiterate space pirates show up to crash the party, and we need to make a quick escape." He was anything but convincing, especially since she was so stubborn. But she wasn't in the mood to fight him - maybe if she let him have his way, they would actually get in and off of this planet before a certain blue space pirate made any appearances.

He kissed her lightly on the top of the head, put in his earpiece, attached his walkman to his belt and headed for the exit.

"Damn it, Peter, you better keep that line open!"

He winked, which only angered her, then ducked out the door.

"I mean it, Peter Quill! No music!" she yelled after him.

His helmet, activated by an ear piece, was their only line of communication when he left her on board. He had this annoying habit of deactivating his helmet so he could instead listen to his mixed tape. He had an even more annoying habit of believing he was invincible. She understood full well his attachment to that damned thing, but also found comfort in knowing her best friend wasn't being eaten alive by Orloni.

"Star-Lord to Dread Queen. Come in Dread Queen. Do you copy?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "Dread Queen" was a code name given to her by Peter because she was notorious for ruining his "fun" due to, what he referred to as, her "crippling anxiety". She just considered herself overly cautious, and Peter's definition of fun was very different from hers.

"I thought I told you not to call me that," she growled. Peering out the window to her side, she could still make Peter out in the distance.

"I repeat, Dread Queen, do you copy?"

Frustrated, she held her face in her hands. "Dread Queen to Star-Lord."

On the other end of the line, she could hear Peter snorting.

Emma rolled her eyes, "I copy."

He cleared his throat, "Uh, good. Approaching the ruins."

She sat back up, again looking out the window. This time she was unable to see Peter.

"Please be careful, Peter. And keep your damn helmet on! I really hate it when you do this to me."

"Emma, you worry too much. And, I'm not trying to do anything to you. Someone needs to stay with the Milano, and I'm not about to send you out here by yourself."

"He's got a point," she thought. Still, she'd never be able to live with herself if something happened to him and she was stuck on the ship, helpless.

"Peter, if anything happened to you..."

"I know, Em" he interrupted.

She sighed, leaning back in her chair. There was no convincing him. All she could do was sit and wait for him, and try not to have a coronary in the mean time.

"Listen, I'm going in now," and she could hear the betrayal in his voice.

"Peter..." she warned.

"I'll be out quick, I promise", he said quickly.

"Peter Jason Quill, don't you DARE!" she yelled into her microphone.

"Don't worry!" The line went blank.

She tore her headset off, throwing it at the dashboard in frustration.

"UGHHH!"

After close to ten minutes sitting in her seat, constantly checking outside to see if maybe he was on his way back, Emma decided maybe her time would be better spent doing something else. However, her nerves got the best of her and she ended up just pacing the deck.

There was a rumble at her feet. She stopped and listened.

"No", she breathed.

She raced back to the front window, immediately ducking down when she saw the ships. Two of them, that she didn't recognize. Frantically, she scanned the floor for her headset, snatching it up when she found it.

"Peter? Are you there?!"

No answer.

"Shit, shit, SHIT!"

Voices chattered outside, a language she couldn't make out. She peeked back through the window. Sakaarans, at least five of them, armed with large weapons and sporting heavy armor. If there was a time to panic, it was now.

She figured she had two options.

Option one - try to escape the ship and find Peter.

Option two - wait in the ship like an idiot, hope Peter is still alive and that he returns before they find her inside.

"EMMA!"

The headset.

She grabbed it again, answering immediately. "Peter! Peter we have company! You need to get -"

He cut her off, "OPEN THE WINDSHIELD!"

From her window she saw someone moving rapidly towards the ship. She could have drowned in her relief when she realized it was Peter. Her hand hovered over the button on the control board. Her heart was beating so fast she was afraid it might explode. When he was close enough, Peter threw one of his toys to the ground, taking care of the Sakaaran's. Emma slammed her hand down onto the button as soon as they hit the ground. Peter launched himself through the window, landing in the pilot's chair. She had already gotten to work starting up the ship. Peter's quick thinking moved them up and out of the way just as the Sakaaran's shot at the Milano.

"Go, go, go!" Emma rushed, at this point very much concerned for their lives.

He accelerated the ship, laughing nervously when they appeared to be in the clear. In all of the chaos, neither of them bothered to pay attention to where they were actually headed, which just so happened to be directly into one of the planet's erupting geysers.

Emma's eyes widened as they flew nose first into the water. The impact propelled the ship into the air, throwing both Peter and Emma out of their seats. Her head made contact with what she assumed was a wall, something jabbed her in the ribs, she slammed her knee into something else before the ship turned upside down and she landed directly on top of Peter who had smashed face first into the front window.

She felt Peter grab for her wrist as they were flung backwards, maybe trying, and failing, to hold on to her. He must have managed to instead grab a hold of the accelerator because next thing she knew, she was sitting upright on the floor, a few feet away from him. Peter was staring at her, panting heavily and clearly still in shock. Emma ran a hand through her hair and over her face, wincing when she felt a burning sensation on her upper arm. How she had only managed a cut on her arm from all of that, she had no idea. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Peter scooting closer to her. He reached a hand out to touch the cut on her arm, but she quickly smacked it away.

"Don't" she told him harshly.

Peter bit the inside of his cheek and leaned his head against the wall.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

Emma just shook her head and chuckled. "I know," she said. "I know you are."

When she turned to look at him he was already grinning, and she couldn't help but smile back.

"Peter? What happened?" said a voice from beside them.

His eyes widened in disbelief. Emma turned in the direction of the foreign voice and her jaw immediately dropped. A Krylorian woman had emerged from the bottom deck. She wore one of Peter's t-shirts and her hair was disheveled.

"Hey, uh...uh. I..." Peter stumbled, clearly trying to remember the girl's name.

"Bereet", she told him.

He snapped his fingers, "Bereet! Look, I'm gonna be totally honest with you. I forgot you were here."

Bereet looked insulted. Emma, on the other hand, was fuming. She stood up as dramatically as she could manage without causing any more harm to her already very sore body. Shoving past Bereet, she stomped her way to the bottom deck of the ship, Peter following close behind.

"Emma, wait!" he pleaded.

"ONE rule, Peter!" she shouted. "I have only ONE rule. NO GIRLS ON THE SHIP!"

She turned on him quickly and he ducked, apparently afraid she was going to hit him.

"Somehow, Peter, in the last 24 hours you have managed to break my only rule, AND almost get us killed!" She began grabbing objects off of the nearby tabletop and throwing them directly at Peter's face.

"Whoa! Look just - just calm down, Em!" he begged, in between dodging flying objects.

She threw a cup, "You are a SELFISH,"

A fork, "EGOTISTICAL,"

Something large and metal, "ASSHOLE!"

Peter ran at her and grabbed both of her wrists, pushing her back and pinning her up against the wall. She kicked and protested, trying to push him away, but he was so much stronger. Finally, she surrendered, relaxing a bit in his grasp. They stood there like that, bruised, battered and breathing heavily. She looked into his eyes, and for a moment he was the little freckled boy she had left Earth with. Her best friend. The boy she fell in love with.

The single tear streaming down her cheek snapped her back to reality. Peter's grip on her loosened at the sight of it, and she took the opportunity to pull herself away from him.

"Emma..." he started.

She didn't look him in the eye when she spoke, "Get us off of this planet, and get her off of this ship."

And with that, she made her way to her bedroom for some much needed sleep.

A/N: Thank you all for the reviews, follows and favorites! I'm glad the prologue was received well and hope you all enjoy this new chapter. This is something I've had in my head for a long time and just really need to get it out lol New chapter should hopefully be posted in a few days. Enjoy, and please leave your comments! :)