Give Them Back To Me

It's Time Rocket

The Guardians took off in a dead sprint towards the Milano. They needed to track Meredith's location. Rocket got to work, trying to pinpoint her location. His hands were shaking violently. 

"We shouldn't have let her off the god damn ship until we were done with the fucking Nova Corps!" Rocket yelled, slamming his fist down on the table as the machine did its job. "I told her, so many times, why did you let her come, Nebula!"

The machine was taking its time on tracking Meredith, the only explanation would be if they had her moving. And if she was moving, well that filled Rocket with all the worse case scenarios.

"She was supposed to stay with me the whole time, but when the Nova assholes grabbed me, she took off. I couldn't see where she went after that," Nebula spoke, arms crossed over her chest. 

"When I find those assholes I'm gonna rip them to shreds," Peter mumbled under his breath. Gamora placed a hand on his shoulder, worry filling her mind. 

'We've haven't even had our daughter in our care for 48 hours and she's already been kidnapped. What kind of mother am I?' Gamora thought to herself, biting her lip. 

Meredith was tied up in the back of a moving vehicle. She couldn't tell what it was because they had blindfolded her when they threw her in. Her hands and feet were bound together with duct tape, and her mouth was covered with it too. She pulled her knees up to her chest, placing her head against it to wiggle the blindfold off of her face. It did not take long of the blindfold to slid off.

Once the blindfold was removed, she could tell take whoever had taken her could not see her from where they sat. 

"This is gonna be easy," Meredith whispered to herself. She carefully brought her arms back in front of her from behind her back, using her fingers to pull off the duct tape around her mouth. Once that was off, she used her teeth to tear at the tape binding her wrists together. One of the guys turned around the check on her, and Meredith curled up in a ball tightly to avoid the man seeing how close she was to escaping. 

The man turned back around and Meredith went back to getting the tape off of her wrists. Once she tore through the last bit of it, Meredith slowly removed it. It hurt badly, but it was better than the men up front hearing her breaking free. Once the tape was fully removed, Meredith searched the ground around her for something sharp. That's when her eyes pick up a scrap of metal not too far from her reach.

She carefully stretched for the shard, just barely grasping it with her fingers. She gripped in her hand as she began to saw through the tape around the ankles. Lucky for Meredith, they had left her shoes on. But, they had taken her jacket and helmet. She was determined to get those back. 

Meredith pulled the remaining tape off of her legs and glared at the men in the front of the vehicle. She knew they weren't paying attention, so it was the perfect time to strike. Meredith leaped forward to the front, stabbing the driver in the throat with the metal shard. The second man tried to grab the girl, but Meredith smashed his head into the side window, breaking it. The vehicle spun out of control before Meredith grabbed back to the back and braced for impact. 

The vehicle crashed, airbags deploying in the front. Meredith was surrounded by glass, a small cuts covering her exposed skin. She moved some of the glass from around her and searched for her helmet and jacket. Both items were on the floorboard of the front seat. Meredith reached over and grabbed them. After retrieving what she sought, Meredith kicked the jammed side door open and started to make her way down the street, looking for landmarks to lead her back to the Milano. 

Meredith's location was finally set, the Guardians rushing out to rescue the little girl. Weapons were loaded, ready to blast the kidnappers to the other side of the galaxy before the Nova Corps could ever get their hands on them. Peter was in the front of the team, determination to save his little girl pumping adrenaline into his veins. They started to close in on Meredith's location when they saw the young girl walking casually down the street, holding Quill's old jacket in one hand. 

Peter said nothing as he dropped his weapons and ran to his daughter, scooping her up in a tight hug as soon as he reached her. The rest of the team followed, exaggerating her injuries.

"Mere! Why the hell are you covered in blood!" Rocket yelled, pulling her from Quill's grasp and hugging her. Meredith shrugged her shoulders, a habit she did quite often.

"The guys who grabbed me crashed whatever they were driving after I stabbed the driver in the throat," the little girl said calmly.

"You did what!" Gamora and Nebula both exclaimed at the same time. One voice was filled with fear, the other with reprove. 

"Just like my daughter when she was your age..." Drax started to speak but was hastily cut off by Rocket. 

"Look, let's just get you back on the ship and cleaned up," Rocket said, taking the young girl's hand and leading her back to the ship. The other Guardians were dumbfounded but followed without question. 

The sun was setting on Xandar, so not many people roamed the streets. This allowed Meredith to not fear her skin being exposed, showing her heritage. Meredith smiled, admiring the sky without the mask, the feeling of the soft breeze against her cheeks. The little girl was happy.

Not much was said on the ship. The earlier tension between Rocket and Quill resumed once they were aboard. Rocket took Meredith to the bathroom to wash the cuts and mend the wounds the best he could. Peter tried to intervene, to offer his help, but Rocket shut him out every time. 

Rocket left Meredith alone in the bathroom to finish up what she wanted to do: shower, etc. That's when Rocket was confronted again by the Guardians. 

"I think it's time Rocket," Nebula said. Rocket scoffed, crossing his arms.

"Time for what?"

Peter stepped up, matching Rocket's body language, "Time to tell us what the fuck has happened. No bullshitting us either."