Author's Note: The second and longer fic in my "Una Salus Victus" series (aka my Meredith Quill/Yondu fics), this will probably be about 4 or 5 chapters long with other fics following it. For those who read my other series, "Stories from Me to You", you'll recognize a new incarnation of the same central character. Reminder that she's very much canon for both comics and animated series, I just like to play with her :) Also you'll see a lot more Ravager characters in this fic whose back stories I'll borrow somewhat from the comics but otherwise tweak to fit what we know from the second movie. More comments in author's end note. Enjoy and please review!

For Whom the Bell Tolls

By: Silver Spider

When Ego, the avatar, appeared on the view screen of Yondu's captain's quarters aboard the Eclector with the lush, saturated colors of Ego, the planet, in the background, the Centaurian had to fight the bit of bile that was threatening to make its way up his throat. The Celestial had made no contact with him for two years and change, not since Yondu had told him that he'd arrived on Terra to find Meredith Quill and her son both dead. Ego had looked more annoyed than upset then, asking several times if he was sure about Peter. He really didn't seem at all surprised about Meredith, something Yondu had tucked away for further analysis later.

So now, two plus years later, the Celestial was back with another planet and another name, this time that of a woman, not a child. The child hadn't been born yet, and Ego wanted to ensure that this one survived. which was why he was asking if Yondu would bring the mother-to-be to him. Un-fuckin'-likely, Yondu thought venomously. Aloud he projected nothing but casual boredom.

"Appreciate bein' first on yer call list," the blue man examined his nails. "But see, the thing is, me an' the boys are in the middle of another gig. Anyways, there's been some buzzin' about gettin' back in with the rest of the Ravager factions, so I'm gonna have to pass on this one."

"Suit yourself." The Celestial looked only mildly disappointed but not really distressed, and Yondu wondered if anything actually ever affected the other man. "You're turning down a hell of a pay day."

"Don't remind me," he feigned regret and cut the connection. "Jackass."

He thought that would be the end of it. No other Ravager faction was stupid enough to follow in his footsteps, no matter how big the pay day was. Yondu was sure Stakar had used his banishment as an example to all who dare break the code. At least he hoped that's what had happened.

Nevertheless Yondu kept his ear low to the ground, so to speak. It was good for business and good for staying alive, especially with two fugitive humans on board, even if no one else really understood that that was what they were. When four days after his little chat with Ego, he heard about a group of Badoon bounty hunters en route to the planet in question, he'd been sadly unsurprised. It figured Ego would've found someone else to do his dirty work, something no Ravager would've - should've - ever done.

"Maybe they're after one of the royals," Tullk ventured a guess when Yondu had shared the surface level information with him and Kraglin. "You know the those lizard bastards've always hated them."

"You believe that?" Yondu asked sourly, studying his drink.

Neither of the other two men replied.

If he'd explicitly asked for their opinion, he was pretty sure they would have told him to let it go. Not the crew's problem, and they'd certainly earned their fair share of trouble on their former client's behalf. All of that was true, which was exactly why Yondu hadn't asked anyone's opinion. Instead, here he was on day five after his little talk with that jackass, pacing his quarters, contemplating getting thoroughly drunk, and trying to decide what to do. It was not like he had a lot of time… it might already be too late.

"Hell with it," the captain muttered to himself, emptied his glass, and went to find Meredith.

She wasn't hard to find. The Terran woman had, much to everyone's surprise, taken to engineering, while Peter had shown a great deal of aptitude for piloting, even at such a young age. That was good. It gave Yondu an excuse for the rest of the crew why he'd kept both mother and son around without feeding other, less savory rumors about his relationship with Meredith. So predictably he found her in engineering. Her back was to him as she crouched on the floor with her arm disappearing into a small open panel on the wall. His chief engineer was standing over her, big beefy arms crossed. Whatever they were trying to fix, Yondu understood that there was no way the other man would have been able to even fit his hand through the panel, let alone a whole arm.

"Need to borrow Ms. Quill," the captain said without preamble. The chief nodded, but Meredith didn't as much as turn her head.

"I almost got it."

There was a look of intense concentration on her face as she felt for whatever it was inside the wall. She made a yanking motion followed by a whoop of triumph when her hand emerged with a rusted device dangling on the end of several wires. She rose to her feet, grinning from ear to ear, handed the detached piece to his chief, and wiped sweat from her brow, smearing mech fluid along the way.

She looked radiant.

"What do you need?" she asked, clearly in a good mood from whatever she'd just accomplished. He hated that he was about to spoil it.

"To talk." He nodded his head towards the hallway.

"Sure, just let me wash up." She held up her stained palm, but he ignored it.

"Later."

She frowned. "Is Peter okay?"

"He's fine, but we need to talk."

His expression must have properly conveyed the urgency because she nodded and followed him back to his quarters, though once there, Meredith kept sending longing looks at the bathroom, the only truly private one on the ship. Yondu rolled his eyes, waved her off, and sat down heavily on his bunk when he heard the sound of running water from the faucet. A moment later, Meredith came back out, wiping her hands on his towel. Her face was also clean of any grime, and Yondu found that he oddly missed that.

"What's goin' on?" she asked, curious but not anxious.

He sucked on his bottom lip, then nodded at the chair across the room. "You might wanna sit."

For the first time since he'd assured her that her son was alright, the frown returned, and Meredith folded her arms under her chest. "I think I'll stand."

"Yer call." He took a deep breath. " 'Member couple months back you asked about all the stupid shit I did when I was young?"

Meredith smiled at him. "You don't actually have to tell me anything, Yondu. I know your life hasn't been easy..."

"No, it hasn't, and, yeah, I do." He interrupted. "I need yer help… yer advice. For that, you need to know all of it. If you want off after I'm done, we'll drop you and the boy on Xandar or any other nice inhabited world."

She gave him an odd look, like it was finally sinking in that this was going to be that type of conversation, the kind that was usually accompanied by massive amounts of alcohol. Yondu sorely wished he had some on hand.

"Any world," she repeated. "But not Earth." It wasn't a question.

"No." He affirmed bitterly. "Terra's too dangerous."

"You've been saying that for two years. Am I finally gonna get an explanation why that is?"

"Yeah."

"Alright." She finally did sit. "Tell me."

So he did. He told her everything from his first contract with Ego, to the moment he began to suspect something wasn't right about the Celestial. Everything came out very matter-of-fact, precise, like he was telling a story that had happened to someone else. Yondu supposed it was the only way he could manage it without cracking. The only thing he'd considered sparing her was the image of the cave of bones. It was also the only time she'd stopped him.

"How many were there?" she asked, gaze firmly focused on the floor.

"Meri…"

"How many?" Her eyes finally met his, demanding.

"Thousands," he swallowed. "Maybe tens of thousands. I don't know."

It would have been both cowardly and pathetic to point out that he'd only contributed half a dozen to that collection. Meredith was quiet for a long moment then nodded for him to continue. They were almost at the present now, and Yondu told her about how he'd put everything together after that, so when Ego's request to pick up Peter had come in, he took both of them and told the Celestial he'd found them dead.

Finally he told her about the latest contract he'd been offered and everything that came after.

"There you have it," he said, feeling exhausted to the bone and more than a little afraid to look at her. "So, what's it gonna be? Xandar?" Are you leavin' me?

"No!"

The force behind that one word did make him look up. Sure enough, Meredith Quill looked pissed off, but Yondu had a weird suspicion - hope? - that it was not exactly the kind of anger he'd been fearing.

"Are you kidding me?" Meredith was on her feet. "Obviously we're going to Spartax."

"What now?" That was about the last thing he'd been expecting to hear.

"That's why you told me all this, isn't it?" she demanded. "You said you wanted advice. I'm pretty sure what you really wanted is for someone to tell you to do the right thing. So I'm telling you: we can save this woman and her baby. We're going to Spartax."

He stared at her, too stunned to speak, before finally managing. "Yer amazing."

"Remember that when next I piss you off." She actually laughed before her expression sobered. "If it weren't for you, my baby's bones would be right in that cave along with all the others. Whatever else you did… that's yours to live with."

"And if I decide to do nothing now?" he challenged, despite an internal voice screaming at him to stop. The hell is wrong with you? it demanded. Are you trying to make her hate yer guts?

But Meredith just shook her head. "You won't do nothing."

He scoffed. "How're you so sure?"

"Because I stand by what I said in that conversation a few months ago."

It took him a moment to remember. She'd said he was a good man. Yondu couldn't imagine how she still believed it, but he wasn't stupid enough to argue the point. Instead his mind shifted to logistics.

"We can't bring the whole ship," he thought outloud. "It's too big, attracts too much attention. 'Sides, most of the boys here wouldn't be too keen on this kind of trip without gettin' paid at the end."

Meredith nodded. "So we take one of the M-ships. You and me."

You and me? "Outta the question. Yer not comin'."

"The hell I'm not." Her hands were firmly planted on her hips. "You're gonna need backup, and no offense, but your big blue mug isn't the friendliest face a frightened, pregnant girl on the run from bounty hunters can imagine seeing."

About twenty different arguments were on the tip of his tongue, but finally Yondu settled for just glaring at her. "Remind me again who's captain on this here boat."

"You are," she replied almost cheerfully. "I'm still coming with you."

Spartax was very impressive, Meredith had to admit. She'd stood on solid ground only a few times since their departure from Earth, but with the exception of their one trip to Xandar, it was only her second visit to such a diverse, cosmopolitan place. Dressed in civilian garb that still allowed for the concealment of his arrow and her blaster, no one had given her and Yondu a second look as they'd left the M-ship in the docks under a false identification and took to the streets, still decently busy despite it being the local night. Despite the seriousness of their mission, she couldn't help but gaze at everything in wonder.

Next to her, Yondu must have noticed because he smirked. "What's got you so excited?"

"I miss being somewhere other than space." Meredith admitted, her eyes still roaming the street in front of them.

"Pete don't seem too troubled," Yondu shrugged. "What'd you tell 'im about this little trip, anyway?"

"That we were on a secret mission," she grinned. "Figured it'd earn me some brownie points with him, since someone keeps reminding me he's a ten-year-old boy."

"Devious," the Centaurian nodded approvingly.

"Thanks. What'd you tell the crew?"

"Said I'm scoping out a possible new fence. The rest is need-to-know and they don't need to know."

"Good to be captain."

"Damn straight. Now if only everyone listened to me."

She ignored that last part and they walked in silence for the next half hour. In reality, excuse or no, Meredith had a pretty good idea what the crew must have thought of this little outing. She'd heard the word 'honeymoon' tossed out in their general direction once or twice on their way to the hanger that Yondu had either missed or, more likely, ignored. She meant it when she'd said months ago that she didn't care what they thought or gossiped about. Peter was a different story, of course, but the boy didn't seem terribly bothered by the concept beyond the general weirdness of his mother being something other than just his mom.

"What's the plan after we find her?" she asked when they were only a few blocks away from the apartment building in question.

"Tell the girl she's in trouble. Relocate 'er to Xandar."

"She's just going to come with us?"

"It's us or the Badoon."

"Fair enough. And you really think Ego won't come after her on Xandar?" She'd only been to the planet once and as pleasant as it was, Meredith didn't see how it was much safer beyond the fact that the Celestial wouldn't immediately know where the woman had gone.

"He'll look for a while." Yondu didn't seem concerned. "But he'll move on. Always does. I don't know what he wants with these kids, but when you've been around as long as he has, time ain't really an issue."

That made sense, and they continued on. She noticed that Yondu kept glancing over in her direction, like he wanted to ask or say something else but was holding back. Meredith had a pretty good idea what it was. He was wondering why she was here, so insistent on helping save a woman who was bearing the child of a man she had loved once. She knew it must have seemed strange from an outside perspective, but it was really quite simple: the man she'd loved never existed, and she was certainly not the naive, love-struck girl she'd been eleven or so years prior. All she needed to know now was that there was a monster who had murdered thousands of children, posed a threat to her son, and she'd be damned if she was going to let him take anyone else if she could help it.

Lost in thought, she almost bumped into Yondu when he stopped abruptly less than a block away from the apartment building. She was about to ask what was going on, but he put a finger to his lips in the universal call for silence and motioned for her to move behind the nearest building. He chanced a glance to the street then looked back at her.

"They're here," he whispered. "Two of 'em."

"Okay." Meredith nodded. "That's good, right? Fair fight."

"Maybe." Yondu didn't look particularly happy. "Badoon are nasty buggers. Stay here."

She barely had a second to be offended before he was across the street and moving towards the building. Stay here, my ass, Meredith thought, checked the safety on her blaster, and followed. Inside the building was quiet which was understandable given that it was probably the middle of the night. Meredith was up the stairs and at the apartment door in a moment, wondering why she'd not yet heard sounds of fighting. Surely Yondu and the bounty hunters had gotten here first…

A sharp whistle pierced the silence, and she had just enough time to shift her weight before the red after-image of the Yaka arrow whizzed less than an inch away from the side of her head. She followed the projectile's path down the hall where it embedded itself in the golden armor of a tall lizard-like alien who gave a hacking shriek before collapsing to the floor. Yondu appeared from behind the ajar apartment doorway, snarling.

"What da hell you doing, woman? I told you to stay back."

"Like that was gonna happen."

She stepped up to the dead alien, unceremoniously yanked the bloody arrow out of its carcass, and handed it to him before brushing past him and inside the residence. On the couch inside the living room sat a distressed, dusky skinned young woman with her arms wrapped around her distended abdomen. Meredith didn't know much about Spartoi biology, but if it was anything like that of humans, she was nearly at term.

"Hi." Meredith force calmness into her voice and sat down next to the other woman so that they were at eye level. "We're not going to hurt you."

"Someone else is here," the woman said in a shaky voice. "Badoon assassins…"

"Bounty hunters," Yondu corrected, drawing her wide brown eyes on him. She didn't look comforted.

"Can you check the back, please?" Meredith glared and shooed him off. "There were two of them."

Yondu made an unhappy face but holstered his arrow and retreated, leaving the two women alone. Meredith squeezed the other woman's hand.

"It's going to be alright," she promised and raised her free hand. "May I?"

The other woman nodded, and she placed her palm on her belly, feeling for movement. When she'd been pregnant with Peter, he tended to kick any time someone touched her stomach. His birth via Cesarean was unplanned, but other than that her pregnancy had been smooth, with the exception of the usual bruised organs he'd decided to play soccer with.

This baby wasn't moving.

"Sometimes they slow down when it gets close to delivery day." It hadn't been her experience but she'd read that once and there was no need to scare the girl any worse than she already was. "When are you due?"

"Two weeks," the Spartoi replied, brushing a tight dark curl away from her forehead. "But I haven't felt her move since yesterday."

Not good, Meredith thought but put on a warm smile she didn't feel. "You're having a little girl? That's wonderful! I have a son, Peter. He's ten."

The knowledge that she was sitting with another mother seemed to put the young woman more at ease. She looked at her curiously and nodded at the exit. "Was that your husband?"

"No, that's my..." she paused, unsure of how to explain. "That's Yondu. Don't worry. I know he tries to look mean, but he's a friend, and his bark is worse than his bite. Hey, I never did catch your name."

"I'm…" The woman stopped, her eyes suddenly going wide as she looked over her shoulder.

Meredith turned just in time to see an armor-clad Badoon in the doorway, hissing. She was on her feet in an instant, weapon in hand, and moving, drawing his attention away from the other woman. She squeezed off three blaster bolts in rapid succession. The creature raised his own weapon, fired, and missed before spitting out a profanity and going for a second attempt. The extra few seconds bought her just enough time to aim better and return fire.

The alien crumpled to the floor, dead, and Meredith exhaled a sigh of relief. Everything must have happened within seconds, but her spike of adrenaline was making her head spin slightly. Looking to sit back down, she turned to the other woman, more words of comfort on the tip of her tongue. It was over…

She felt the blood drain from her face sure as it was pooling around the woman on the floor.

"Yondu!"

Meredith was on her knees beside the other woman, heedless of the blood that now covered her palms. She felt for the wound, but it was difficult among the sticky fluid that soaked into everything. The woman was trying to say something, but only ended up coughing up blood.

"Save…"

"Hush." Meredith grasped her blood-slicked hand, but her gaze searched the doorway. "Where the hell is he? Yondu!"

"Save… her..."

Meredith tore her eyes away from the door to look at the girl. The dying girl, she realized with a pang. Even if Yondu had been there when it happened, no one could live having lost so much blood. There was only one person left that could be saved.

"Ah, hell…"

She more heard than saw the Centaurian in the doorway. His sharp crimson eyes quickly scanned the room, noting first the dead alien then the girl. Meredith noted grimly that he neither looked nor sounded shocked, just resigned. The only time his face showed concern was when he looked at her.

"Are you hurt?"

"What?" The question took far too long to register. "No, I'm fine. I need…" she swallowed hard. "Get me a knife."

Cursing, the captain disappeared into the adjacent kitchen, and she looked back at the woman on the floor, whose eyes were fluttering, barely staying open for seconds at a time. Doing her best to keep the contents of her stomach down and her hands from shaking, Meredith lifted the woman's tunic to expose the tight skin of her rounded abdomen.

"I'm so very sorry," she whispered. "I'll take care of her. I promise."

It wasn't lost on her that the last thing she'd promised the other woman was that everything was going to be alright.

Author's End Note: Major staples of the the 'Meredith survives and goes to space with Peter' fics is a) dealing with her brain tumor and b) the big revelation and fallout of her finding out about Ego, his other kids, and Yondu's roll in all of that. I essentially decided to bypass those two elements because they've been wonderfully written before and I want to focus more on the living children, Meredith and Yondu's relationship, and also Yondu's relationships with other Ravager captains. Stay tuned!