----- August 4th, 2014 - Nova HQ, Xandar -----

Corpsman Dey quickly makes his way into the room and approaches Nova Prime Irani Rael.

"Nova Prime, I received a transmission from one of the Ravagers. He says Ronan's in possession of something called an Infinity Stone and he's headed toward Xandar."

Nova Prime looks rightfully shocked, and she just mutters, "Good God."

Denarian Saal adds in, not believing, "It's a trick. He's a criminal."

"Did he say why we should believe him?," Rael asks Dey.

"He said his crew just escaped from prison so he'd have no other reason to risk coming to Xandar to help. He says that he's an 'a-hole.' But he's not, and I'm quoting him here,.. 'one hundred percent... a dick.'," Corpsman Dey tells her.

"Do you believe him?," Nova Prime questions.

Corpsman Dey shrugs, "Well, I don't know that I believe anyone's one hundred percent a dick, ma'am."

"I mean, do you believe that he's here to help?," she asks again with a sigh. 

Dey hesitates a moment before nodding, "...Yeah." 

__________

Outside up in the skies, The Ravagers fleet of ships stalk near the Dark Aster.

"Fire!," Yondu commands. 

The ships fire at the Dark Aster. The explosion bounces off the ship forming what could be described as a cloud of fire. Nebula can be seen on the other side of a window watching as the fire net expands.

Yondu continues, "Cover it down! Submerge!"

The ships, including the Milano, duck beneath the wall of fire and move beneath the Dark Aster. They all start soaring upward, towards the underbelly of Ronan's vessel.

Peter yells over to Rocket in his own ship, "Rocket, hurry!"

A few Ravager ships led by Rocket are shooting continuous fire at one side of The Dark Aster. The others are on the other side, blasting the ships of Ronan's men as they charge at them.

Eventually, a giant hole is torn through by Rockets heavy fire.

"Quill! Yondu! Now!," Rocket shouts.

The Milano and The ship Yondu's in speed off and through a few ships. They try to dodge past gunfire and ships crashing into them.

They were trying to make it up higher towards Rocket.

Unfortunately, Yondu gets hit by a rogue ship part, wrecking his wing.

As he nosedives down, Yondu yells to Peter, "Aw, hell! I'm going down, Quill! No more games with me, boy! I'll see you at the end of this!"

Peter keeps piloting The Milano past and through Ronan's men. One shot manages to just graze the ship but he's able to keep it steady.

"There are too many of them, Rocket!," Gamora shouts, "We'll never make it up there!"

Just then, they notice Nova Corps ships joining them. To their sides and front, escorting them higher.

"Peter Quill, this is Denarian Saal of the Nova Corps," They hear, "For the record, I advised against trusting you here."

From behind Peter, Y/N exclaims with a laugh, "Dude, they got your 'dick' message!"

With the help of the Nova ships, Peter is able to thrust The Milano forwards and faster. They rush past The Nova and The Ravagers. Peter lands their ship inside the Dark Aster through the hole that was shot through it.

Well, they crashed in.

"Yes!," Drax laughs and shouts as they slide along a hallway in the Dark Aster, "Yes!"

Peter and Gamora look back at him as he laughs giddily. Y/N ends up joining in on the laughing too, but at Drax not with him.

A line of Ronan's men were in the hall and start firing.

Drax and Y/N continue laughing. Groot sits silently looking a bit scared, possibly at the gunfire or at the way Drax laughs.

Peter turns The Milano so it skids along the hall horizontally, allowing him to aim and fire at Ronan's men.

The Milano starts to slow down until it gently nudges against a wall. 

Drax shouts again as he finishes up laughing, "Yes!!"

Gamora turns to Peter and smiles, "We're just like Kevin Bacon."

__________

"The starboard kern has been breached! We have been boarded!," Nebula exclaims as she steps toward Ronan.

Ronan calmly stands from his seat, "Continue our approach."

"But the Nova Corps have engaged!"

"None of that will matter once we reach the surface," he tells her.

Nebula turns to the guards, "Seal security doors! Now!," She then walks out a door and past a few other guards, "Get out of my way!"

__________

From down at Nova HQ, Nova Prime states, "All Nova pilots, interlock and form a blockade. The Dark Aster must not reach the ground. 

The Nova ships start to line up in formation just in front of The Dark Aster. The tips of their wings barely graze and emit an energy field, connecting on ship to another.

It starts to form a giant energy net in the sky.

"Locked in!," one pilot announces.

"Locked in. We're locked in," The last pilot says, indicating they've made formation.

The Dark Aster slowly collides with their net. It continues pushing at a downward angle. The Nova pilots merely increase the thrust of their engines.

__________

A door opens, allowing the group inside The Dark Aster to make their way down a dark hallway. Drax was holding a big ol' bazooka. Peter had the Hadron Enforcer strapped to his chest.

"I can barely see," Drax states. 

Groot steps forwards and releases glowing particle things from his arm to light their way. The other four gaze in amazement and wonder.

Drax asks him, "When did you learn to do that?"

Y/N answers for him, "He is Groot."

Now able to see, Gamora tells the group, "The flight deck is three hundred meters this way."

The five of them start their pretty slow journey to the flight deck. Groot continues lighting up the way as they move.

"...I want you all to know that I am grateful for your acceptance after my blunders. It is pleasing to once again have.. friends," Drax starts admitting, "You, Quill, are my friend."

"Thanks," Peter responds nonchalantly.

"..This dumb tree, he is my friend."

"Mmm," Groot hums back.

"This- This god amongst men is also my friend. And this green whore, she, too-"

Gamora stops and turns to face him, shouting, "Oh, you must stop!"

And then from nowhere, like a fucking ninja, Nebula drops  a few feet in front of them from above. She was already brandishing her blades.

"Gamora, look at what you have done," She speaks, "You have always been weak. You stupid, traitorous-"

Suddenly Drax a fires a shot at Nebula sending her flying off.

"Nobody talks to my friends like that," Drax merely states.

"Head to the flight deck. I'll shut down the power to the security doors," Gamora tells them, before she splits from the group in another direction. 

__________

Back down on Xandar, after crash landing his ship, Yondu is standing in the middle of his wrecked ship. He bends down, picking something up and putting in his pocket.

"Yondu Udonta!," he hears from behind him, causing him to turn.

He sees a bunch of Ronan's men surrounding him on the ground. They all make their way towards him, aiming down the sights of their rifles. 

Yondu slowly holds his hands up in mock surrender.

They continue, "Order your men to turn on the Nova Corps!" 

Yondu then slowly holds back the side of his jacket. He starts whistling what could be described as a hypnotic melody, causing the arrow at his hip to start raising beside him.

Ronan's men stare on in confusion.

One of them eventually has the cojones to shout, "Enough nonsense, Ravager! Time to die-"

Unfortunately, Yondu lets out another high-pitched whistle. The arrow shoots straight through the guys chest.

And then a longer series of whistles. Causing the arrow to thrust through the hearts and guts of the guys on the outer layer of men surrounding.

And another, shooting the arrow straight through a ship hovering feet above them and through the pilot.

A few more and the arrow finishes off the others, ending with a guy behind Yondu. Yondu whistles one last time, sending his arrow barreling towards him.

But Yondu catches it from the air, just next to his head.

Yondu slowly places his arrow back into its holster on his hip as all of Ronan's men, who were still standing upright, drop to the ground.

The ship just behind them also crashes and explodes.

__________

Gamora comes running across Nebula as she rises pulling her cracked bones into place. Both apparently completely used to something that fucking strange.

"Nebula, please.."

Nebula just smirks at her, then attempts to swing at her. Which Gamora blocks, and pushes her towards the ground.

Gamora quickly runs over to a beam hanging from the ceiling and pulls down, revealing the thing that powers the security doors.

Nebula swings from behind, hitting Gamora and shocking her a bit. They both back up. Nebula swings again but Gamora ducks under it.

Nebula kicks Gamora farther back.

__________

"They're dive-bombing the city! Denarian Saal, should we break formation?," A pilot in the energy net asks.

"No! Hold your positions!"

Ronan's ships barrel down towards the city. 

But they don't stop.

They all crash one after another into the ground and streets. The people run around screaming in terror.

One of them is heading square at a bridge filled with people. But from nowhere, Rocket comes barreling in blasting at it. He speeds off in his ship blasting at Ronan's other ships.

Rocket says, "Keep Ronan up there, Saal. We'll take care of the people down here."

"I can't believe I'm taking orders from a hamster," Saal mutters, rolling his eyes.

__________

Back on the Dark Aster, Peter, Y/N, Drax, and Groot are intercepted as they run around a corner by Korath and Ronan's crew. They all come to a stop in front of each other and stare momentarily.

"Star-Lord," Korath 'greets' his enemy.

Peter grins widely, putting his mask on, "..Finally!"

Korath charges at him and tosses Peter behind him.

Y/N, Drax, and Groot handle Ronan's men. The three of them were completely manhandling them. Wrecking them through and through and never getting hit.

..Meanwhile, Peter gets thrown into a wall by Korath.

Drax turns, seeing this, and yells before chucking his blades at Korath. Korath dodges both, causing them to hit and take out two random Ronan Henchman #1 and #2.

Korath throws Drax aside. And send a kick hurling to his head.

"You will never make it to Ronan," Korath yells.

Drax manages to hop up quickly and throw Korath into the wall next to Peter. Drax runs at him but Korath dodges and slams Drax's head against the wall.

Peter uses his rockets to get himself up into the air, kicking into two guys before dropping on his back. He then shoots back, sliding along the ground, firing at guys with his guns.

Groot grabs two guys by the legs and tosses them up into the air. Y/N jumps up high and slams down, grabbing them by the necks, sending them face first to the ground.

Drax grabs Korath by his armor, spins, and slams him hard against the wall, holding him there. He then shoves his hand into the side of Korath's head, holding onto to one of his implants.

"Finger to the throat means death," Drax whispers to him then rips the implant from Korath, killing him.

Drax backs up from him and says to Peter as he walks over to him, "..Metaphor."

Peter shrugs, "Yeah, sorta." 

Suddenly, more of Ronan's crew come after them, running down a hallway. There were a shit ton of them.

Y/N turns to Groot, "Hey, bud, do your thing."

Groot steps forward and extends his harm, skewering a bunch of the goons. He then starts whipping them around to take out the rest. Up and down, left and right, from wall to wall he smacks them around.

Drax and Peter turn to look at each other, shocked. 

Y/N stands there watching with a wide ass grin on his face, as Groot swings them around while yelling. Groot then stops, retracts his arm and turns back to the others with a calming smile.

Y/N smiles back, cheering, "Groot Kebab, Nice."

__________

Just in front of a glass window, Ronan steps forward and begins speaking, with his words being broadcasted to the Nova Corp HQ. The window slid open with each step he took.

"Xandar, you stand accused! Your wretched peace treaty will not save you now! It is the tinder on which you burn!!"

Ronan aims his hammer out, activating the Infinity Stone, which sets off burning a fire through the Dark Aster and towards the Nova Ships in front of him.

The blast begins destroying the Nova Corps ships, ripping the energy net to shreds. The blast also rips holes throughout The Dark Aster. 

The Dark Aster begins pushing harder against any remaining Nova Corp ships. Which starts bending their ships inwards, starting to crush them.

Denarian Saal was in the process of being crushed, when he calls out, "Rocket!"

"Hold on, Saal, just-"

Down below, Rocket watches as Saal's ship gets crushed and explodes taking the other Nova Corps ships with it. The Dark Aster now barreling down towards Xandar unimpeded.

Rocket says over comms to the others on The Dark Aster, "Quill, you gotta hurry. The city's been evacuated, but we're getting our asses kicked down here."

__________

Back on the Dark Aster, Peter and the others continue to fight off a few of Ronan's men as they makes their way to the bridge. The door was closed and sealed.

"Gamora hasn't opened the door!," Peter shouts back to Rocket.

Meanwhile a few rooms away, Gamora and Nebula continue to battle it out. They fight, weave, dodge, and hit just in front of a hole that's been ripped open in The Dark Asters outer hull.

Nebula jabs her weapon towards Gamora, who catches it just in front of he stomach. The weapon starts shocking Gamora as she tries to push both it and Nebula back.

Eventually, Gamora manages to kick Nebula which flips and sends her off the side of the ship. Nebulas slides down and incline in the hole and her arm catches something by getting jabbed through her wrist. 

She hangs off the edge. 

Gamora runs to help her, yelling, "Nebula! Sister, help us fight Ronan. You know he's crazy!"

Nebula looks down below then back up to Gamora.

"..I know you're both crazy," Nebula then cuts off her own hand, allowing her to fall.

"No!" 

But Nebula only drops a few feet before she lands on a Ravager ship. She looks down and smashes the window.

"What the?," The Ravager exclaims.

"Get out!," she yells, throwing the Ravager pilot off his own ship.

Gamora rushes over to the power and smashes it. She then shoots up in the ceiling and jumps through the hole, just as the others come running the the door she finally opened.

Peter had the Hadron Enforcer ready and held from his chest as the groups stood in the middle of the room. They all turn to face Ronan, who stood steadily and calmly facing out his slightly opened giant window.

Peter then fires, aimed straight at Ronan's chest.

It collides and creates a mini-explosion, filling the room with dust and smoke. They all stand staring at the last point they saw the explosion. 

Peter slowly dematerializes his mask.

"You did it!," Drax shouts.

Before the smoke even clears, Y/N stares heavily before saying, "Uhh guys, he's not dead."

Suddenly, as the smoke finally dissipates, Ronan rises slowly.

He then uses the power of his Warhammer concussive blast to throw the entire group back. But Drax springs up and rushes towards him.

The moment Drax reaches him, Ronan grabs him by the throat and holds him up, "I was mistaken, I do remember your family. Their screams were pitiful. I--"

And the from outta nowhere, like a bat outta hell, Rocket comes crashing his ship into the bridge and seemingly destroys Ronan. Y/N quickly tackles Groot as he stood there calmly as the ship came his way.

The entire room starts collapsing from the crash. But that is a small problem compared to the fact that The Dark Aster was now plummeting down to Xandar about to crash.

Peter made his way to the ship and is now carrying an unconscious Rocket in his arms. Gamora was dragging and equally unconscious Drax towards Y/N and Groot who stood in the center of the room. 

Y/N kinda looked a little frightened. Not because he's actually scared, but because he's (what you could describe as) having PTSD flashbacks from his crash during both the war with Steve and the Helicarriers with Steve and Bucky.

They all huddled together.

Suddenly, Groot starts extending roots from his entire body. It spreads and surrounds everyone. 

He engulfs everyone within a giant dome of himself as The Dark Aster speed up its descent. Extra roots spread and attach to the walls to keep the perfectly still.

Groot releases more of those beautiful glowing particle things as Rocket finally wakes up. Rocket quickly realizes what's happening.

Rocket scurries over to Groot with tears, "No, Groot! You can't, you'll die. Why are you doing this? Why?"

Groot extends a small root to wipe away Rockets tears, tears forming in his own eyes as he smiles.

"We.. are Groot."

__________

"Ooh child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh child
Things'll get brighter"

The Dark Aster crashes down in the center of Xandar.

Smoke emitting in large volumes, as leftover debris spiraling into the water a couple yards away.

"Ooh child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh child
Things'll get brighter"

At the site of the crash, The whole group.. minus one very important member.. was lying on the ground unconscious. They all start waking up and groaning as they start rising.

"Some day, yeah
We'll put it together and we'll get it undone
Some day
When your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter"

"..I called him an idiot...," Rocket mumbles as he kneels, holding a few twigs.

A bunch of people still in the city start to appear, and make their way towards them. As if they wanted to help the group.

Even The Broker was there. 

But they all stand still, noticing a figure emerge from the smoking ash of The Dark Aster.

If things couldn't get worse, It was Ronan emerging unscathed from the wreck. Well he had a dent in the front of his armor, but he was still holding his Infinity Warhammer.

Rocket turns to face him, and without thinking, furiously rushes towards him, yelling, "YOU KILLED GROOT!!!"

Ronan merely blasts Rocket aside with a Concussive Blast. 

Y/N quickly rushes up and charges at him. But he was also blasted away by a Concussive Blast, only he was sent much farther than Rocket. 

Miles away.

Ronan then presents himself to the populace of Xandar.

"Behold! Your 'Guardians of the Galaxy'! What fruit have they wrought?," Ronan speaks.

Off to the side, Rocket quickly start fiddling with his wrecked Hadron Enforcer when Ronan wasn't looking. Drax, just beside him, notices him, and Rocket just nods to him. As if telling him to wait.

Ronan continues, "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 begins chanting in Kree and prepares to use his Warhammer to destroy Xandar, by raising it above his head.

But then, for some fucking reason, Peter stands up and starts singing "Ooh-ooh Child".

"Ooh child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh child, things'll get brighter," Peter then points to Ronan and starts dancing, "Listen to these words. Ooh child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh child, things'll get brighter. Now bring it down hard!," he starts walking in place, thrusting his arms from front to back, "Some day, we'll get it together and we'll get it--"

The crown behind them looks on confused. Even Gamora watches him, confused, and tilts her head a little.

Ronan lowers his hammer, and asks like a confused child, "....What are you doing?"

Peter now has one hand on his hip as he thrusts his junk forwards, "Dance-off, bro. Me and you," Peter does a few Michael Jackson moves then he holds his hand out to Gamora, "Gamora," Gamora stands there with a shocked face, holding her side, and violently shakes her head, "Subtle. Take it back."

Peter continues to dance, doing some weird ass shit with his hands.

Ronan, a little pissed starts to yell, "What are you doing!?"

"I'm distracting you, you big turd blossom," Peter says still dancing.

Rocket and Drax appear beside Ronan holding the Hadron Enforcer.

Rocket fires as Drax aims. The shot barrels straight towards the Warhammer, ripping it to pieces. This frees the Infinity Stone.

Ronan goes to grab it, but Peter swoops in from his side, grabbing it from under him. It was as if everything was moving in slow motion.

Gamora can be heard yelling to Peter, "NOOOO!!"

Peter grabs the stone from in front of the Kree, causing a mini, unharmful concussive blast to push out from the stone.

A purple dust cloud engulfs them all, spinning and spinning around them. Peter was holding onto the Stone, slowly standing and screaming as the Stone, even more slowly, starts to rip through him.

The sound of dust and debris spinning around them makes things hard to hear.

Ronan watches in delight, with a stupid ass grin.

"PETER!!," Gamora yells from a few feet away from him, he slowly looks over to see her trying to push towards him with her hand out, "TAKE MY HAND!!!"

As he sees and hears Gamora, he has what could be described as a flash back to when his mother asked him to take her hand on her death bed, "Take my hand, Peter."

"Mom...," Peter mutters.

"TAKE MY HAND!!!"

The memory disappears to the sight of Gamora inching towards him.

With tears in his eyes, he finally grabs her hand. The energy surge from the Stone passes along to her as well. Now both potentially being torn to shreds from the power.

Ronan continues watching as, to him, they will both seemingly share the same fate.

But then Drax reaches the two of them and grabs Peter's shoulder. The stone starts to crack down on his body as well. The three of them screaming and yelling in pain.

Rocket soon follows, grabbing Drax's finger. He receives the least amount of damage out of the four. They all stand there partially ripped but no longer being torn.

With the power from the stone spread between them, their damage is temporarily mitigated.

"YOU'RE MORTAL! HOW!?," Shouts Ronan, shocked by them being fine.

"You said it yourself, bitch. We're the Guardians of the Galaxy," Peter tells him, his eyes glowing a dark purple, and then.., "But we're not the ones you should be worrying about.. You just made a god.. very.... very......Angry."

Peter then tosses the Infinity Stone up into the air.

Ronan's eyes widen and he attempts to lunge towards it, but he's blown back by a huge gust of wind. He then slowly starts to pull himself back up...when he notices it.

The man in Black and Silver, with a cape on his back and an 'S' on his chest, on one knee with his head down just in front of the others. The others seem to still be affected by the stone, as if they were still holding onto it.

But the entire group was completely fine and unharmed.

Ronan watches as the one person he was told wouldn't be a problem, slowly looks up at him with bright glowing purple eyes, and rises up to his feet.

Still on his hands and knees, Ronan shouts at him, "WHO... ARE YOU?!"

".....Didn't he just tell you?... I'm Y/N, A Guardian Of The Galaxy," Y/N calmly tells him.

Ronan quickly charges upward and tries to impale him with the pole of his Warhammer.

Unfortunately for him, Y/N just holds up his hand and makes a finger gun, "..Bang."

Then suddenly, energy from the Infinity Stone surges through and out the tip of his finger, towards Ronan. The Kree's body can't contain the stone's energy for more than a quarter of a minute before exploding. 

Peter quickly rushes up behind Y/N, putting the Stone into one of the container devices they brought.

Y/N hands the encased Stone to Peter, as the entire group breathes heavily after the events that has transpired. Some breathing less heavily then others.

Peter turns to look at Gamora,.. at the same time Yondu and his men show up.

"Well, well, well. Quite the light show," Yondu chuckles, "Ain't this sweet. But you got some business to attend to before all the nookie-nookie starts."

Peter looks towards Yondu and moves the stone behind his back as he approuches him. Yondu's men can be heard loading their guns.

Gamora tries to convince Peter, who won't look at her, "Peter, you can't...Peter.."

"You gotta reconsider this, Yondu," Peter says, "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," Yondu slides his jacket back to show his arrow, "but I sure as hell ain't one. Hand it over, son."

Reluctantly, Peter gives the orb to Yondu, who laughs and turns to leave with his men. Kraglin signals for the other to roll out with Yondu.

"Yondu," Peter says quickly, causing Yondu to face Peter again, "Do not open that orb.. You know that, right? You've seen what it does to people."

Yondu chuckles to himself and walks off.

They watch as Yondu and his men board their ship and fly off. 

"..He's gonna be so pissed when he realizes I switched out the orb on him," Peter says as he pulls out the real orb that contains the Infinity Stone.

"And I though I was magic," Y/N jokes as he looks around the place.

Gamora, still clenching her side, says, "He was gonna kill you, Peter."

"Oh, I know," Peter acknowledges, "..But he was about the only family I had."

Gamora grabs his hand holding the orb, "No... He wasn't."

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

Peter and Gamora limp on over to Drax and Rocket.

Y/N stays where he is, watching them. Eventually softly smiling at them.

He hears a voice from behind him, "Thank you.."

He turns to see a few Xandarian citizen's, looking at him. They were young, mid to late teens maybe.

"No problem, we tried our best," Y/N tells them.

"And your best saved our lives. I'm sure celebrations and songs will be made in the honor of all of you," One of the boys says, "Will you guys stay? I'm sure there's room in the song for you."

Y/N glances back at the others and takes a deep breath before joking, "We uh.. sort of got a song of our own. Thanks."

"I think your song must end soon.."

Y/N looks over to see who said that. A little girl was standing there, her eyes looked glassy, as if she was completely out of it.

"....Meaning?," Y/N questions her.

The girl stares at him, or more accurately stares through him, as if he wasn't there. As if none of them were actually there.

"Every song must end," She states calmly.

Y/N just looks at her, "..Yeah..."

"I wouldn't pay any mind to her," Another, older, girl says, "She sees things. Not right in the head, this one."

And at that the group of Xandarians walk away, leaving only the strange girl staring at him. The stand there silently for a long moment.

The girl turns to walk away before saying, "It's time to rest... Baldur."

Y/N watches as the girl walks away, seemingly out of it with no idea where she's going.

He then looks back at the others for a second. Then walks over to them and just stands there, not saying a word.

As if nothing happened.

____________________