Give Them Back To Me

Bad People

 Rocket sighed, walking to the kitchen, everyone following behind him. The first thing Rocket grabbed was the old bottle of whiskey, spinning the top off and drinking from it straight.

"Alright, sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up cause I ain't gonna explain this shit twice, got it?" Rocket said, looking around at all the faces in the room.
"Alright, so here's the story. I found Meredith on Vormir in search of Gamora. Plan and simple, everyone knows that. Her first year of life sucked cause I didn't know how to raise a kid, but I had to learn pretty damn quick. That was also the first time she had gotten kidnapped.

"It was supposed to be a quick stop, to stock up and nothing more. But I was scared to leave her on the ship so I brought her with me. That was my first mistake. That's how I ended up with a tranquilizer in my back and these goons took off with Meredith. It was just my luck those assholes crossed paths with the Ravagers and got her back before they got too far. Starhawk was the one who found her and told me not to let anyone know about her existence. He told me about how special half-breeds go for a lot of money on the open market and that once wind of Meredith caught wind, the number of bounties out for her would never end.

"So I did what he told me too, I kept her existence a secret. I kept it secret from every single being in the god damn universe. It was the only way to keep her safe. She's still too young to be out protecting herself. I know what she's capable of, what she did today was on the lower end of damage. But I don't want her to have to protect herself. She's still a kid, she should get the childhood that basically all of us never got to have."

Rocket explained the beginnings of Meredith's life, silence filling the air as everyone absorbed the brutal information. No one could say anything before Rocket started to speak again.

"And to avoid any more questions and fights here's the rest of it. Since that girl could form sentences, she's asked about you fuckers," pointing towards Quill and Gamora, "and I didn't know how to tell a three-year-old that some ugly, purple, ballsack for a chin, fucker trapped her parents in an infinity stone. Plus I didn't know if we were ever gonna see you again. So I told her you guys passed away on a mission after she was born. Nightmares and more questions about how you guys 'passed' continued and I had to keep up the lie. Nightmares would keep her up all the time, so I started to teach us different things around the ship to tire her out. It usually worked for the most part. That was until it was the anniversary of you guys getting trapped in the Soul Stone and Meredith asked one too many questions about you guys.

"I snapped at her, and she snapped back. Next thing I know, Meredith is screaming she hates me as she slams a door in my face. Then I'm calling Nebula and trying to kill myself via alcohol on Contraxia. Before I could follow through, Meredith calls me after a nightmare begging for me to come back. So I went back, and I didn't leave again. 

"There was a couple times Thor broke into the Milano and tried the take the girl. He could never find her, she was always good at hiding. It wasn't until her ninth birthday that he finally got a hold of her. 

"That's when Thor told her the truth about everything. He told her the truth about what really happened to you guys, and what Thanos did. That caused the girl to snapped on us at her birthday party and try to take off to find Thanos on her own. Nebula and I, of course, wouldn't allow that, but we knew now that Thor got a hold of her, we wouldn't be able to keep the battle away from her forever. So we started to train her, let her take a couple lower end bounties of her own. We always went with her, never let the girl out of our sight. It was the only way to keep her safe and satisfied so she didn't take a ship and go out on her own. Cause who the hell knows what would happen to that kid.

"We thought everything with her was fine. That was until a couple days ago when Nebula and I woke up to Meredith piloting us through Earth's atmosphere. Then came us landing in Wakanda, then the battle against Thanos, then Meredith slicing that purple fuck's arm off while he strangled me-" Rocket was cut off while everyone exclaimed, some jumping up from their seats in shock.

"You're telling me, that a fucking twelve year restored half the universe by chopping off Thanos' arm!" Peter yelled, running his fingers through his hair. Rocket just nodded, taking another sip from the whiskey. 

"The rest is basically history. Y'all got out and now we're here. Meredith's life story, you're welcome," Rocket said. 

Meredith walked into the room shortly after Rocket finished the story. The young girl was dressed for bed, eyes barely open as she walked straight towards Rocket. She leaned her head against him, whimpering quietly. Rocket placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, moving her head up to face his.

"What's wrong Mere?" He asked. Meredith sniffled, rubbing her eyes.

"I don't like this planet uncle Rocket," the little girl said. Rocket gave her a questioning look.

"Why's that?" Rocket asked in concern.

"There are bad people on this planet. Like, bad bad people." 

Everyone was scared by Meredith's words, minds running the worse case scenarios.

"Are you talking about the people who kidnapped you? Cause we won't let them get you again," Peter said, trying to console his daughter. Meredith just shook her head, turning her attention towards Nebula.

"No, those were bad people. But the bad bad people are the ones who took Auntie Nebula," Meredith said. Gamora walked over to her child, placing an arm around her shoulder as he lowered herself to her level. Meredith's focus still did not shift away from Meredith. 

"You don't have to worry about them, they already cleared her name. They won't hurt her again," Gamora said. Meredith just continued to shake her head. 

"Lies. It was all a lie. Those people are liars. Auntie Nebula's name was cleared before my ninth birthday," Meredith said. 

"Mere who the hell told you that?" Nebula asked.

"Thor did when he found me."

"Then why did the Nova Corps capture Nebula when we arrived?" Drax added to the questioning. 

"They weren't looking for Auntie, they were looking for me," Meredith said before collapsing face first on the floor.