Gamora's Sister: Alaya (GotG onwards)

One

EARTH 1988

A young boy wearing headphones is sat in the waiting room of a hospital, slumped over, looking down in sadness, listening to 'I'm Not in Love' with a tape in his Walkman labeled 'AWESOME MIX VOL. 1'.

A much older man, looking to have just stepped out of a hospital room, approaches the boy in order to get his attention. "Peter. Your momma wants to speak with you." Instead, the boy, Peter, hardly even glances in his direction, and seems to not want to do anything but continue to stare into nothing. "Come on, Pete. Take these fool things off." The man reaches up to gently lift the headphones over Peter's head, and turns the Walkman off, then gives both items back. In the background an announcement goes off somewhere in the hospital. The man sighs, clears his throat, and pats Peter on the leg in a loving, sort of comforting gesture.

After helping him get his backpack on and putting his things inside, the man leads Peter through a doorway to see his mother lying sick in a hospital bed, with quite a few people surrounding her. The first thing she takes notice of is his bruised eye "Why have you been fighting with the other boys again, baby?" Peter shrugs his shoulders, silently looking down again. "Peter?"

"They killed a little frog that ain't done nothin'. Smushed it with a stick."

"You're so like your daddy. You even look like him. And he was an angel. Composed out of pure light." Meredith's eyes close for a moment.

"Mer? You got a present there for Peter, don't you?" The man, who is Peter's grandfather, says, trying to get Meredith focused again.

"Of course." She touches the small wrapped present and card "There" Her father takes them and puts them in Peter's backpack.

"I've got you covered, Pete."

"You open it up when I'm gone, okay?" She says in a weak voice. Peter's eyes start welling up with tears. "Your grandpa is gonna take such good care of you. At least until your daddy comes back to get you. Take my hand." She weakly opens her hand but Peter looks away, overwhelmed with emotions. "Peter." Peter begins sniffling and can't bring himself to look at his dying mother.

"Pete, come on." His grandfather tries to persuade him.

"Take my hand." Meredith says before the monitors go off with a long, loud beep, as she dies with her palm facing up wanting desperately to hold her little boy's hand one last time.

"Mom? No! No! No! No! Mom! No!" As the doctor's rush into the room, Peter's grandfather carries the boy out of the room, while she's still screaming for his motionless mother.

"Come with me."

"No! No!"

"You've got to stay here. Please."

"No..." Peter whimpers in pure devastation.

"Okay?" His grandfather asks before making his way back into the room.

Peter watches him do so before he runs outside in anguish and falls to his knees on the ground as he cries, heartbroken. "No." A spaceship suddenly appears above him, shining a bright light down on Peter's small form. A beam comes down surrounding him and takes him away while he screams, scared. "Mom!"