--- October 18th, 2014 - Ego's Courtyard ---

Peter looks up at a giant sculpture of his mother outside. 

Ego is beside him, watching him, sadly.

They were alone, in front of the sculpture of Peter's mother as she holds what seems to be a basket of fruit.

"My mother told everyone my father was from the stars," Peter eventually says, before looking over at Ego and adding, "She had brain cancer - so everyone thought she was delusional."

Ego looks sad, almost ashamed, "Peter-"

"Listen, I'd love to believe all of this, I really would. But you left the most wonderful woman ever, to die alone!," Peter shouts as he walks past Ego, but stops and turns back around.

Ego turns to him, "I didn't want to leave your mother, Peter. But if I don't return regularly to my planet, and the light within, this form will wither and perish--"

Peter interupts him, "Then why didn't you come back? Why'd you send Yondu, a criminal, of all people, to fetch me?!"

"I loved your mother, Peter! I couldn't stand to set foot on an Earth where she wasn't living! You can't imagine what that's like!"

"I know exactly what that's like! I had to watch her die!!"

Ego, realizing his mistake, places a hand on Peter's arm, "Over the millions.. and millions of years of my existence I have made many mistakes, Peter... But you're not one of them. Please give me the chance to be the father she would want me to be. There are so many things I need to teach you. This planet, and the light within... They are a part of you, Peter."

"..What do you mean?," Peter asks.

"Give me your hands, son," Ego takes Peter's hands in his own, gently, putting them in the correct position, "Here. Hold them like that."

Peter holds his hands apart. Ego steps back, holding his hands in the same way.

Ego continues, "Now close your eyes and concentrate. Take your brain to the center of the planet."

Peter takes a deep breath. Ego watches and waits as Peter's eyes slowly open.

Suddenly, a blueish white light emanates from his hands.

"YES! YES!," Ego shouts.

"WHOA!," Peter exclaims.

The light disappears as quickly as it came.

"It's okay. Just relax. Concentrate. You can do it. Bring it back," Ego tells him.

Peter concentrates and the light, once again, bursts up from his hands. He looks at it in shock and full of wonder. Ego smiles at him, proudly.

He tells Peter, "Yes, yes, now, Shape it. Feel the energy."

Peter mimics Ego condensing his hands, pulling in the molecules around him, so that the light itself forms into the shape of a ball.

He tries to pull molecules into the ball.

It was rather lopsided.

Ego looks at him, filled with joy, "..You're home, Peter."

Peter chuckles. He almost looks as if he's going to break down in tears. 

Ego cups his own hands together and holds them out to him. As if signaling him to toss it over.

Peter, smiling, throws him the ball. Ego laughs and inspects the cosmic ball of light. He moves it around in his hands, pulling the atoms together more tightly.

The ball was a lot more round now.

He then tosses it back to Peter.

As Peter catches it, Ego moves back further.

And Ego and Quill continue tossing the ball back and forth, a friendly father and son game of catch in the middle of a palace courtyard.

__________

--- Ego's Palace Steps ---

Drax and Mantis sit here, soaking in the sun and gazing at the lush, flowing hills.

Eventually, Drax asks, "How did you get to this weird, dumb planet?"

"Ego found me in my larva state, orphaned on my home world. He raised me by hand, and kept me as his own," Mantis explains.

Drax looks at her, "...So you're a pet?"

Mantis looks back at him and shrugs as she looks away, "I suppose."

"People usually want cute pets," Drax says as he goes back to gazing at the scenery, "Why would Ego want such a hideous one?"

"I am hideous?.."

"You are horrifying to look at, yes."

Mantis seems sad about this. Hmm.. I wonder why..

Drax notices this, and feels bad, "...But that's a good thing."

"Oh?," Mantis says as she looks over to him, doing an emotional 180.

"When you are ugly and someone loves you, you know they love you for who you are. Beautiful people never know who to trust."

"Well, then I am certainly grateful to be ugly!," she exclaims with a newfound confidence

Drax nods at that and stares out at spattered patches of water. The warm orangish-yellow sun bounces across the skies and water. It comes to a stop when it reaches a second source of light in the sky.

Wow...

Aroura Borealis..

Aroura Borealis? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the galaxy? Localized entirely upon Ego's Planet?

Drax looks upon the sights stoically, "Those pools remind me of a time I took my daughter to visit the Forgotten Lakes on my home world.. She was like you."

"Disgusting?," Mantis innocently asks with an adorable ass smile.

"...Innocent."

Drax stares out at them without expression.

Slowly, Mantis places a hand upon his shoulder.

And, as she does, tears instantly flow down her cheeks. She stares with Drax at the hills. They feel the sadness together: she cries while he is completely.... stoic.

She looks at Drax. 

There is something she wants to say, but she is torn. 

Mantis eventually starts, "Drax, there is something I must tell--"

"What's going on?"

Drax and Mantis turn to see Gamora standing behind them. She was looking at Mantis suspiciously.

Drax motions to Mantis, "This gross bug lady is my new friend."

"I am learning many things. Like I am a pet and ugly," A smile forms on Mantis' face.

"... You're not ugly," Gamora tells her, before turning her attention to Drax and saying admonishingly, "Drax."

Drax, confused, points at Mantis, as if proving a point, "What are you talking about?"

Gamora ignores the stupid question and asks, "Where the hell's Y/N? Wasn't he with you two?"

Mantis and Drax say nothing, staring at Gamora like children who lost something very important and expensive. Mantis glances over at Drax, expecting him to answer rather than her.

Gamora looks at them waiting for an answer.

Eventually Drax slowly starts to look and point over directly at the sun.

Gamora looks over at it to see a smallish person-shaped silhouette in the center of the sun from this angle. 

Y/N was floating up in the sky with his arms out in a T-pose.

You could mistake him for Jesus..

With how it looks, you could also mistake the sun as an eye, with Y/N as the pupil.

"Again?..," Gamora rhetorically asks, confused, "What's he doing this time?"

Drax shrugs and suggest, "Perhaps it is how he sleeps? We never actually see him sleep on The Milano."

Gamora sighs and asks, "Speaking of sleep, Mantis, Can you show us where we'll be staying?"

_____

Gamora, Drax, and Mantis walk across the sunset. Y/N can be seen a bit closer, looking around the surface of the planet.

"Why are there no other beings on this planet?," Gamora asks.

Mantis explains, "The planet IS Ego. A dog would not invite a flea to live on his back."

"And you're not a flea?"

Mantis glances over at her, "I'm a flea with a purpose. I help him sleep."

Gamora curls around Mantis, cutting her off, "What were you about to say to Drax before I walked out?"

Mantis looks around.. worried, "...Nothing.."

Gamora and Drax share a look, essentially wondering the same thing 'why is she so scared?'

Gamora glances over towards the sun, noticing that Y/N had vanished. Somehow without making a sound.

Mantis moves on. 

"Your quarters are this way."

__________

--- October 18th, 2014 - Eclector Cell ---

Rocket hits the ground hard. Yondu lands equally hard on the ground beside him. They look up to see Taserface along with two others locking the cell door.

"We deliver you to the Kree in the morning. Neither one of you gonna last much longer after that," Taserface tells them.

"Okay, Taserface. See you later, Taserface. Hey, Taserface, tell the other guys we said hi, Taserface!," Rocket shouts at him as he walks away.

Taserface glances back, perturbed, as he walks down the hall further.

Another ravager shows up holding a cage with Baby Groot inside, "What about the little plant? Can I smash it with a rock?"

"No, Gef!," Taserface tells him, "It's too adorable to kill. Bring it to the tailor."

Back in the cell, Yondu and Rocket settle. 

Yondu looks like a beaten man.

"No offense, but your employees area bunch of jerks," Rocket says.

Yondu stares at the ground as he stares saying, "..I was a Kree battle-slave for twenty years when Stakar freed me... He offered me a place in the Ravagers. Said all I needed to do was adhere to the code.. But I was young and greedy and stupid... like you stealing those batteries."

"That was mostly Drax," Rocket lies without hesitation.

"Me and Stakar, and the other captains. We weren't so different from you and your friends. The only family I ever had.. But I broke the code. They exiled me. This is what I deserve.."

Rocket chuckles, "Slow down, drama queen. You might deserve this, but I don't. We gotta get out of here."

"Where's Quill," Yondu asks.

"Went off with his old man," Rocket tells him as he looks around the cell.

"Ego?," Yondu questions, concerned.

"Yeah. It's a day for dumb ass names."

Yondu snickers at that.

"You smiled," Rocket points out, "And for a second I got a warm feeling, but then it was ruined by those disgusting-ass teeth."

Yondu's smile disappears, "You like a professional asshole or what?"

"Pretty much a pro," he admits before he questions, "Why didn't you deliver Quill to Ego like you promised?"

"...He was skinny, could fit into places we couldn't. Good for thieving."

Rocket stares at him, as if not buying it.

Yondu thinks for a moment before saying, "I got an idea on how to get outta here. But we're gonna need your little friend."

_____

...

....

.....

Nope.

Don't feel comfortable writing out the bullshit the mutinied Ravager's did to Groot.

.....

....

...

_____

Groot, in shadows, mopes down the hallway, looking traumatized. His clothes are torn and he's soaked in alcohol.

As he passes the cell, he hears, "Psst.. Hey, twig. C'mere."

Baby Groot stops and looks over to see Yondu and Rocket looking at him in the cell. He slowly steps toward them, still upset from earlier.

"Oh, man. What'd they do to you?," Rocket rhetorically asks as he grabs one of the cell bars.

Groot looks up at them with big teary eyes.

"Hey, you wanna help us get outta here?," Yondu asks.

Groot just nods. 

Yondu speaks slowly, "There's something I need you to get, and bring back to me. In the Capn's quarters, there's a prototype fin, like the thing I wore on my head. There's a drawer next to the bunk. It's inside that. It's red. You got it?"

Groot nods emphatically and darts off. The tiny pitter patter of his footsteps quietly echoes down the halls. 

Yondu look sat Rocket, pleased.

Rocket on the other hand looks more than a bit uncertain.

_____

--- Captain's Quarters ---

Baby Groot creeps into the dark room. 

Like a Little Ninya.

Drunken Ravagers are sprawled everywhere. Passed out and snoring loudly.  

Groot climbs past a Ravager who was sucking on his thumb.

He looks over to see an open drawer.

His face lights up.

_____

--- Eclector Cell ---

Baby Groot stands outside of the cell, beaming, holding a pair of Boxer Briefs. Rocket grimaces at the sight of it.

It was a dirty dirty pair of boxers.

"That's my underwears," Yondu says.

Rocket nods, "Yeah, I was pretty sure he didn't know what you were talking about. You have to explain it more careful."

"All right. It's a prototype fin--"

_____

Groot stands in front of the cell, holding a wriggling Orloni in his hands.

He looks proud of himself.. rightfully so.

"That's an Orloni," Rocket says before explaining, "It's a fin, Groot."

"You explain it this time," Yondu says to Rocket.

_____

Groot looks hopeful, holding out a Cybernetic Eye.

"That's Vorker's eye. He takes it out when he sleeps. Go look again," Yondu says.

Groot starts to slink off.

Rocket stops him first, "But leave the eye here."

"Why?!," Yondu asks him.

Rocket starts chuckling and can hardly speak, "He's gonna wake up tomorrow and he's not gonna know where his eye is!"

Rocket laughs his real laugh for a solid minute before stopping, realizing that Yondu wasn't laughing too. Groot looks at them, confused.

"If Y/N was here, he'd've  thought that was hilarious."

_____

Groot drags a large piece of furniture to the cell.

Yondu paces back and forth behind Rocket. Groot looks up at them, wondering if this is it.

"That's a desk," Rocket tells him, "We told you it was this big."

Rocket shows him how small it is with his hands.

Groot makes a face like 'Oh!' as if NOW he gets it. 

Oh yeah, It's all coming together.

_____

....

Groot is holding a severed toe..

..clean cut..

Yondu and Rocket stare at him with blank faces. They sit there in silence for a moment, just staring at the toe.

Eventually Rocket, hopefully, says to Yondu, "Tell me you guys have a refrigerator somewhere with a bunch of severed human toes."

Unfortunately, Yondu just softly and slowly shakes his head.

"Okay... Then let's just agree to never discuss this.."

Yondu rips the Ravager patch off his jacket, and hands it to Groot, "The drawer you want to open. Has this symbol on it, okay?"

Groot takes it. 

He looks at Yondu.

And then slowly..

But surely...

He places it on top of his head.

"What?! No!," Yondu shouts, incredulously.

Rocket tells him, "He thinks you want him to wear it as a hat."

"That's not what I said!"

Baby Groot slowly removes it from his head and states firmly, "I am Groot."

"He's relieved you don't want him to," Rocket translates.

"I am Groot."

"He hates hats."

"I am Groot."

"On anyone, not just himself."

"I am Groot."

"One minute you think someone has a weird-shaped head. The next minute, it's just because you realize part of that head is a hat," Rocket finishes translating before asking Groot, "That's why you don't like hats?"

Groot just nods.

"Who the hell taught you that?," Rocket asks.

"I am Groot."

Rocket rolls his eyes, "Y/N's been teaching you a lot of things that make no sense."

"I am Groot!," he exclaims.

"He taught you and Drax what?!," Rocket shouts.

_____

--- Captain's Quarters ---

Taserface is snoring and slobbering in his bed. 

The Ravager Patch gets tossed up onto the bed beside him. Then Groot's vines grow up the bed, and he pulls himself up beside the sleeping giant.

Groot clasps the Ravager patch in his hand and looks fearfully around.

He spots the Ravager symbol on a night stand drawer.

He stares at the symbol in his hand, then at the drawer, then at the symbol, and then at the drawer again, and then one more time for good measure.. he wants to be very, very sure they're the same.

He creeps carefully towards the drawer, growing his vines out to grab the handle and pull it slowly open.

He peers inside.

Beside some writing instruments and a tin of candies, there lies a Red Fin, taller and more shark-like than Yondu's current model. 

Groot smiles hugely, picking up...

The Tin Of Candies! Mana from the Heavens!

"That ain't it."

Groot swirls to see Kraglin, looming over him, intimidating as hell..

_____

--- Eclector Cell ---

The Red Fin plops down at Yondu's feet. 

Yondu and Rocket look up to see Kraglin, holding Groot on his palm.

"I-I didn't mean to do a mutiny..," Kraglin pauses then continues, sadly, "They killed all my friends...."

Yondu gets straight to the action, "Go get the third quadrant ready for release."

Kraglin salutes and places Groot on the cell bars.

"One more thing," Rocket says, "You got any clones of Quill's old music on the ship?"

_____

--- October 19th, 2014 - Eclector ---

Two Ravager outside the cell hear music start to play. 

'Come A Little Bit Closer' - Jay And The American's

They turn, unlocking the cell door.

Inside the cell, Yondu, sits calmly. Rocket is finishing attaching the big ass Fin to his head. Its electrical systems pop on. 

The two Ravagers walk in and try to upholster their Pistols in time. 

Too late. 

Yondu whistles.

"In a little café just the other side of the border"

In another room, Yondu's Arrow flies off a shelf of supplies and shoots towards a wall.

It manages to pierce through the metal wall.

The Arrow appears in the cell, just behind the Ravagers. They swirl to see it.

But it shoots through the chest of one of them then loops back and piercing the other.

And then to Yondu. 

He catches it above his shoulder, and stands.

"She was just sitting there givin' me looks that made my mouth water"

He saunter past the two Ravagers as they wobble and fall to the ground. 

Rocket and Groot follow.

Rocket casually steps over ones body as Groot climbs over the other as if it was Everest. 

On the way out the door, Rocket looks down and sees two pistols beside the dead Ravagers. 

He smiles.

"So I started walking her way
She belonged to bad man, José"

Taserface is awoken by the song on the PA. 

He glances over to see the open drawer beside him, missing the gargantuan fin. 

He scrambles for the comms, yelling into it, "He's got it! Yondu's got the Fin!"

"And I knew, yes I knew I should leave
Then I heard her say, yeah"

Yondu, Rocket, and Groot come around the corner. 

A hoard of Ravagers, led by Brahl, file in at the end of the hallway.

"Come a little bit closer
You're my kind of man
So big and so strong
Come a little bit closer
I'm all alone
And the night is so long"

But Yondu whistles and the arrow twists quickly back and forth, spinning in mid-air. The pyramid-tip heading straight for them.

It shoots through the heart of Brahl.

"So we started to dance
In my arms, she felt so inviting"

Then loops around the hall and through the chests of others as the Three walk calmly through the Ravagers dropping like flies.

"And I just couldn't resist
Just one little kiss so exciting"

Yondu catches his Arrow once more as Groot climbs up upon his shoulder.

They slam through a door.

"Then I heard the guitar player say
'Vamoose, José's on his way'
And I knew, yes I knew I should run
Then I heard her say, yeah"

The trio step onto a catwalk in this, the biggest space in the Eclector. 

There are catwalks throughout and dozens of docked M-ships. A Ravager sees them from above.

"Down There!," he shouts.

"Come a little bit closer
You're my kind of man
So big and so strong"

Suddenly, Yondu's Arrow is seen flying up and down, backwards and forwards, cutting through every last Ravager.

Yondu and Rocket continue walking as bodies fall around them. And a glorious cacophony of yells from the ravagers as they either die by arrow or fall down the large room.

"Come a little bit closer
I'm all alone
And the night is so long"

Groot looks up and sees Retch looking down at him. Retch flees in terror as Groot grows branches to pull himself up behind him. 

Groot howls furiously, taking chase.

"Then the music stopped
When I looked the café was empty"

Retch screams like a child as he frantically runs. 

But Groot wraps his branches around Retch's legs, tripping him.

BAM! 

He falls face first to the floor.

And, with a Drax-like War Cry, Baby Groot fling the sadistic Ravager off the edge towards the abyss below.

"Then I heard José say
'Man you know you're in trouble plenty'"

As Retch falls past Yondu and Rocket, Baby Groot drops backdown onto Rocket's shoulder, and they push their way through the doorway.

"So I dropped my drink from my hand
And through the window I ran
And as I rode away
I could hear her say to José, yeah"

Yondu, Rocket, and Groot move into an area with dozens of security monitors encircling them, showing Ravagers filing toward them from every part of the ship.

Yondu whistles as he watches the monitors.

"Come a little bit closer
You're my kind of man
So big and so strong"

On a monitor, the arrow flies out the wall. He whistles so that it strikes Two Ravagers running towards them. 

It zips out of that room and--

"Come a little bit closer
I'm all alone
And the night is so long"

--A hoard of Ravagers come running down a hall. 

The Arrow zips overhead, smashing out all the lights so that the hall is completely dark, except for the dim red light of the Arrow. 

You can just make out the red light smashing through the body of every Ravager there and then on into--

"La, la-la-la la-la
La, la-la-la la-la"

--A yelling crowd of Ravagers come, hungry for war, when the arrow shoots through the chains holding a giant spaceship in place over their heads. It falls, instantly crushing them all, and then zips on--

"La, la-la-la la-la
La, la-la-la la-la"

--Gef the Ravager is drunkenly drinking a mug of beer, when the arrow zips past him and through the mug, shattering it. 

As Gef looks at the shattered mug, confused, the arrow comes flying back, ripping through Gef himself, flinging him off the bar stool--

"La, la-la-la la-la
La, la-la-la la-la
Ho-oh-oh
Ho-oh-oh
Ho-oh-oh"

Rocket also uses the monitors to pinpoint where their attackers are. 

He methodically shoots the walls, striking the Ravagers as they get closer. As hoards of Ravagers get close to Yondu and Rocket, the arrow and gunshots burst through the walls taking them all down, one by one.

Then Yondu stops, seeing something on one of the monitors. 

Taserface, clutching a big ass gun, is marching down the hall towards them. 

Yondu whistles, loudly and angrily.

Taserface sees the Arrow coming around a corner towards him. 

Yondu whistles again, harder. 

The Arrow tip bursts to flames. 

Taserface dodges it.

He turns to watch it go, cackling pridefully over his agility. 

But his smile quickly dissipates. 

The arrow plunges into a giant tank, which explodes, engulfing him.

Rocket is dumbfounded as he sees on the monitors the numerous explosions throughout the ship.

"You maniac.. The whole ship is gonna blow," He says.

"Not the whole ship," Yondu catches the arrow and walks out.

_____

Kraglin enters a room, pulling latches and flipping switches and twisting dials on flight controls. 

Yondu enters with Rocket and Groot.  

"Release the quadrant," Yondu tells him.

"Aye Cap'n"

_____

A door swings open and Taserface falls onto the floor, engulfed in flames, but furious. He angrily slaps off the flames as he reaches for a Communications Module.

With pained effort, Taserface pulls up a video screen with a Sovereign Chambermaid.

"Who is this?!," she exclaims.

"I'm sending you the coordinates for Yondu's ship," he does so, then proceeds to say, "I only ask one thing. That your High Priestess tells him the name of the man what sealed his fate: ...Taserface."

The Chambermaid snorts then laughs uncontrollably at his name.

Taserface looks really sad for his last moments as he explodes along with the ship.

_____

As Rocket and Groot, frightened, feel the ship exploding around them, Kraglin pulls up one final latch.

The entire rear upper quadrant of the Eclector Detaches from the rest of the ship, while the remains continue exploding.

Kraglin keys into a jump point ahead. 

Nearby, Rocket pulls up the Navigation panel.

Kraglin asks, "Where to, Cap'n?"

"Ego," Rocket replies instead, setting the destination to Ego's Planet.

"NO, BOY!," Yondu shouts.

The Quadrant trembles as they hit the jump point. 

Rocket, Yondu, Kraglin, and Baby Groot hold on for dear life as the ship Violently Shakes and The Locations outside of the window rapidly shift.

Their bodies seemingly visibly distort and distend.

Yondu is furious.

"It ain't healthy for a mammalian body to hop over fifty jumps at a time," Yondu tells him.

Rocket responds, "I know that."

"We're about to do seven-hundred!!"

Rocket looks a bit bummed out by that.

Kraglin, Yondu, Rocket, and Baby Groot all scream, their entire faces and bodies distorting as if in some evil funhouse mirror.

____________________