Disclaimer: All rights belong to Disney, Marvel, and all the men and women that created Avengers: Infinity War. I take no credit, and I do not mean to break any copyright rules. This is simply a work of fiction made for enjoyment. No money is being made.

Rating: K+

Author's Note: My goal is to do a chapter with every person who survived but I'm moving to a different country and will be trying to learn a new language so I apologize in advance if I don't update super often.

Chapter 2: Batteries

Rocket swallows the shot in one go and then slams the glass back on the counter of the bar. "Another," he orders.

The red-skinned mixer sets down the bottle he was cleaning. "Sorry, man," he says. "You have more than a hundred credits on your tab. I can't add more until you start paying it off."

Rocket shifts so that his feet are on the bar stool and his palms are pressing against the counter, leaning forward with bared teeth towards the man. "If you don't get me another shot you filthy stinking moro-"

"Put it on my tab. And get me one, too."

The familiar robotic voice cuts through the angry haze in Rocket's mind. He turns towards the newcomer next to him. "Nebula."

"You couldn't have picked a better place to hole up in," the purple and blue cyborg says, sitting in the stool next to him. At the pool table in the back corner, a group of nasty creatures from Kigor cheer loudly and thump each other's backs. In the table area, a group of Pangorians start a scuffle that turns into an all-out fight. Rocket hears a glass shatter right behind him and both he and Nebula get splattered with alcohol. All around them, bright lights strobe and music in the native language of the planet plays.

When the bartender slides the drinks over, Nebula immediately swallows hers. Rocket doesn't take his eyes off her, holding the small glass in his paw.

"What are you doing here?" he asks suspiciously. He hasn't seen her in five years, not since she and the man with the sunglasses touched down in Wakanda after the Snap. Not since she told him Thanos had killed Gamora, Quill, Drax, and Mantis. Not since he had lost his family.

"I've been looking for you," Nebula answers.

"There's a reason I picked this scumhole," Rocket growls, clenching his paw around the shot glass. "I didn't want to be found. Guess you missed the message."

He jumps when her hand slams down on the bar. Her black eyes bore into his brown ones. "You're not the only one who lost everything," she hisses. "Gamora was my only family left."

Rocket recovers quickly, just in time to do what he does best: say the thing that will hurt someone the most. "Your daddy Thanos is still kicking around somewhere. Why don't you go find him if you're lonely?"

Nebula narrows her eyes but she doesn't attack him like he was prepared for. In fact, he's a little disappointed. It would be nice to get in a fight. In a fight, you don't have to think about the ones you've lost. You only have to think about how to survive. Rocket is a good survivor. Sometimes he wish he wasn't.

Most days he wish he wasn't.

"Thanos is not my father. Thanos ripped me from my home world and dragged me around with him. He tore me to pieces and rebuilt me as a machine. He tortured me and mutilated me and used me against my sister and my sister against me. Thanos knows nothing of love. He taints everything he touches, everything he thinks of." Nebula waves the bartender over and downs another shot. "If I find Thanos, I will kill him without hesitation."

"Good luck finding Thanos," Rocket replies dryly. "I tried for a year. He disappeared without a trace."

"Thanos is not somewhere that he can be found. But I know when he can be found."

Rocket rolls his eyes. "What, did you arrange a meeting with him? Have a little father-daughter spat? Let him know that despite his best efforts, his least favorite kid is still kicking?"

"He's not my father," Nebula repeats. "And to find him, we must travel back in time. Thirteen years ago we know he tried to invade Earth with a Chitauri army. If we go back to that moment, perhaps we can draw him out and defeat him before he gets his hands on a single infinity stone."

"You're crazy," Rocket says, finally downing his shot. "Even if we knew how time travel worked, Thanos has the time stone."

"The time stone isn't the only way to manipulate time," Nebula insists. "I've heard rumors of the qua-"

Rocket slams his glass down, cutting her off. "They're dead, okay?" he yells. "They're not coming back! They're just ashes."

"If you love them so much why aren't you trying to bring them back?"

"Because I live in the real world," Rocket hisses. "I know when someone is beyond saving. And I know false hope is worse than no hope."

"I was there on Ego," Nebula says, uncharacteristically soft. "I remember when you stopped Gamora from trying to save Quill. 'I can't lose any more friends today'. That's what you said. But Quill still made it out alive. He wasn't beyond saving."

Rocket shakes his head. He simultaneously wants to laugh and cry. Instead he just stares at his empty glass. "I was never talking about Quill. I knew that between him and Yondu, there was one suit. And I knew that Yondu would give it to Quill."

"How could you know that?"

"Because Yondu and I are the same." Rocket sets down the glass. "I'm not a hero. I hang around the Guardians, have fun shooting things and stealing things and sometimes I happen to save the galaxy along the way. But I'm not a hero." He swallows hard. "If I was a hero, I would have gone with the other Guardians to Knowhere. Maybe I could have saved Gamora. I would have gone with Quill and the others to Titan and maybe been able to stop Thanos there. But I was too scared. That's the nasty truth. I was too scared of Thanos so I followed Thor to go make a stupid axe and my last words to the others were calling them morons."

"You say that you and Yondu are the same. Yondu lost everyone close to him. His entire crew abandoned him. Quill ditched him for Ego. Yondu knew that trying to stop Ego would likely result in death, but he still went. So why won't you even try?"

Rocket mumbles his response under his breath. Nebula stares at him.

"Repeat that."

"Because if they come back they'll know I'm not a hero! They know I took the easy way out and I can't face them after abandoning them." He turns away, unable to look her in the eyes.

"You're wrong." Nebula's voice is harsh. "You should know them better than to think that. I tried to kill every single one of you and you still took me back. And you know Quill says things he doesn't mean just to sound tough even though he was just as terrified as you were."

"But he still went even though he was scared. That's what makes him a hero."

"We almost stole the Gauntlet from Thanos on Titan. Did you know that? Mantis had Thanos calmed down enough so that the others could try to rip the Gauntlet off his hand. And it was almost off. But then Quill heard what happened to Gamora and he woke up Thanos. We could have saved everyone."

Rocket looks back over. "Really?"

"If we can bring them back, they won't say anything about you splitting off." Nebula leans back and waves the bartender over to order another round of drinks.

Rocket considers it quietly. Does he like his life here, bumming it from one crummy bar to another? Stealing enough credits to pay for his drinks and then taking off to another planet? Having no one to talk to, and no desire to talk to anyone? Missing his best friend and his family?

No. He hates it. He wishes he had disappeared with the Snap like the other Guardians. He doesn't want to live like this anymore.

He thinks of Yondu. Yondu had lost everyone, including Quill. Yet he still came to the rescue. Quill was upset because Yondu threatened to eat him, sell him, throw him into space, you name it. Quill was upset because Yondu had stolen him from his home planet, from his birth family, and had never taken him to his biological father. Quill was upset because Yondu stole and ravaged. But in the end, Quill realized that Yondu was his real father, not because of blood but because of the bond they shared. Quill realized that despite all of Yondu's faults, he was the one who was always there when Peter needed it the most.

Rocket has done a lot of scummy things in his life, and ditching the Guardians when the universe needed them together most is one of them. If he manages to defeat Thanos and bring everyone back, will they realize that despite all his shortcomings, he still has their back no matter what?

"He didn't chase them away."

"No."

"Even though he yelled at 'em. And was always mean. And he stole batteries he didn't need."

"Well of course not."

Rocket downs another shot. "So you were gonna tell me about another way to travel back in time?"