Guardians of the Galaxy

A Bit of Both

The ship crashes.
Everyone in the group has survived the crash except Groot, who is now a pile of twigs strewn all about, Rocket holds a bunch of the twigs in his hand in sadness. Peter still held onto Mara. He tucked her head into his chest.
Just then, Ronan emerges from the ship's wreckage. Rocket turns to face him, and furiously rushes towards him.
"YOU KILLED GROOT!!!!!!!" Rocket yelled. Ronan blasts Rocket aside with a Concussive Blast. He then presents himself to the populace of Xandar. "Behold! Your Guardians of the Galaxy! What fruit have they wrought? Only that my father and his father shall finally know vengeance. People of Xandar, the time has come to rejoice and renounce your paltry gods! Your salvation is at hand." Ronan chants in Kree and prepares to use his warhammer to destroy Xandar. But then, Peter stands up to and starts singing "Ooh-ooh Child".
""Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh-oo child, things'll get brighter." Peter sang. "Listen to these words." He started to sing again "Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh-oo child, things'll get brighter." Now bring it down hard!" he starts dancing as he continues to sing. "Some day, we'll get it together and we'll get it..."
"What are you doing?" Ronan asked.
"Dance-off, bro. Me and you." Peter said as he dances he holds his hand out to Mara. "Mara." He looked at her but she shakes her head. "Subtle. Take it back." Peter continues to dance.
"What are you doing?" Ronan yelled.
"I'm distracting you, you big turd blossom." Peter smirked.
Rocket and Drax appear beside Ronan who use the super cannon to destroy the warhammer which frees the Infinity Stone, both Ronan and Peter go to grab it.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Mara screamed. Peter grabs the stone which then begins to destroy him.Ronan watches in delight.
"PETER!!!!!!! "TAKE MY HAND!!!!!!!" As he turns to Mara, he has a flash back to when his mother asked him to take her hand on her death bed.
"Take my hand, Peter." He heard his mother's voice.
"Mom." Peter said.
"TAKE MY HAND!!!!!!!!!!!" Mara yelled. With tears in his eyes, he finally does it. Mara is also affected by the energy surge. Ronan continues watching as they will both seemingly share the same fate. Gamora grabbed Peter's other arm. Drax then grabs Gamora's shoulder. The stone starts to crack down on his body. Rocket soon follows, and grabs Mara's hand. He recieves the least amount of damage out of the five.

With the power from the stone spread between them, their damage is temporarily mitigated.
"YOU'RE MORTAL! HOW!?" Ronan said.
"You said it yourself, bitch. We're the Guardians of the Galaxy." Peter said.
Ronan tries to impale him with the pole of his Warhammer, but Peter then re-directs the Power Stone's surge at him. The Kree's body can't contain the stone's energy for more than a quarter of a minute before exploding. Peter and Gamora then quickly seal the orb shut to contain the stone before its energy can continue destroying them.

He turns to look at Mara, at the same time Yondu and his men show up.
"Well, well, well. Quite the light show." They all chuckle. "Ain't this sweet. But you got some business to attend to before all the nookie-nookie starts."
"Peter, you can't. Peter." Mara grabbed his arm. Peter looked at her then to Yondu.
"You gotta reconsider this, Yondu. I don't know who you're selling this to, but the only way the universe can survive is if you give it to the Nova Corps."
"I may be as pretty as an angel, but I sure as hell ain't one. Hand it over, son." Yondu said as Peter gives the orb to Yondu, who laughs and turns to leave with his men.
"Yondu." Yondu faces Peter again. "Do not open that orb. You know that, right? You've seen what it does to people." Peter said. Yondu chuckles to himself and walks off.

"He's gonna be so pissed when he realizes I switched out the orb on him." Peter holds the orb containing the stone in his hand and Mara chuckles.
"He was gonna kill you, Quill." Mara smiled.
"Oh, I know. But he was about the only family I had." Peter smiled. Mara's smiled turned to a frown, thinking of Groot.
"No. He wasn't." They two looked at Gamora who smiled.

Rocket is sat by Groot's pile of twigs crying when Drax sits next to him and starts stroking his head to comfort him.

Peter and the group are at the Nova Corps headquarters.
"Why would you even know this?" Peter asked.
"When we arrested you, we noticed an anomaly in your nervous system, so we had it checked out." Dey said.
"I'm not Terran?" Peter said.
"You are half Terran. Your mother was of earth. Your father, well, he's something very ancient we've never seen here before." Nova Prime explained.
"That could be why you were able to hold the stone for as long as you did." Gamora inferred.
A door opens, Mara, Drax and Rocket have joined them with Rocket holding a pot with a tiny Groot planted in it.
"Your friends have arrived." Nova Prime said. Peter looked over and saw Mara. He smiled. Her outfit was a more feminine version of Rockets. She smiled at Peter. Gamora nudged Peter with a knowing look. Peter rolled his eyes. "On behalf of the Nova Corps, we'd like to express our profound gratitude for your help in saving Xandar. If you will follow Denarian Dey, he has something to show you." Nova Prime said.
"Thank you, Nova Prime." Peter thanked.
As the group follow Dey, Gamora walks next to Drax.
"Your wife and child shall rest well knowing that you have avenged them." Gamora smiled.
"Yes. Of course, Ronan was only a puppet. It's really Thanos I need to kill." Drax walked off.

The group follow Dey outside who takes them to the restored Milano.
"We tried to keep it as close to the original as possible. We salvaged as much as we could." Dey said.
"Wow. I..." Peter looks speechless. "Thank you." Peter smiled.
"I have a family who are alive because of you. Your criminal records have also been expunged. However, I have to warn you against breaking any laws in the future." Dey informed.
"Question. What if I see something that I want to take, and it belongs to someone else?" Rocket asked.
"Well you will be arrested." Dey said.
"But what if I want it more than the person who has it?" Rocket continued.
"Still illegal." Dey answered.
"That doesn't follow. No, I want it more, sir. Do you understand?" Rocket said. Mara laughed. "What are you laughing at? Why? I can't have a discussion with this gentleman?" Rocket asked Mara. He starts following Mara towards the Milano.
"What if someone does something irksome and I decide to remove his spine?" Drax asked.
"That's...that's actually murder. It's one of the worst crimes of all, so also illegal." Dey answered. Drax hummed as he starts making his way to the Milano.
"They'll be fine, Dey. I'm gonna keep an eye on 'em." Peter smiled watching Mara and Rocket look at the potted Groot.
"You?" Dey joked.
"Yeah, me." Peppered looked at Dey.

Inside the Milano Peter holds the present his mother gave him before she died, he finally opens the letter and reads it.
"Peter, I know these last few months have been hard for you. But I'm going to a better place and I will be okay. And I will always be with you. You are the light of my life. My precious son. My little Star-Lord. Love, mom." Peter opens the present and sees it's another "Awesome Mix" tape, he puts the tape into his ship's cassette recorder, presses play and it starts playing "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Mara walks over to Peter and they smile at each other. Mara begins to sway to the music. Peter smiled even more. He got up and walked over to her taking her hands as they began to sway together.
"What was that folder Nova Prime gave you?" He asked. She sighed.
"Information about me." She said. "Like uh I'm half Asgardian. They still don't know why the Kree were going to take me." She explained. Peter smiled.
"Well I'm kind of happy though. If they didn't.... I would have never met you." Peter said.

Peter and the others prepare to take off, Drax smiles at Rocket who looks at the little Groot plant which starts to wake.
"So, what should we do next? Something good? Something bad? A bit of both?" Peter asked the group.
"We'll follow your lead, Star-Lord." Gamora smiled. Peter smiles before replying.
"Bit of both!"