Momma I'm coming home

Peter hummed to a random song Rocket had put on from the Zune Yondu had gifted him. According to Rocket, it was called 'Angel Eyes'. He caught Gamora's attention and winked at her. She merely smiled in response and surprisingly, winked back. Peter grinned. Things were looking good. His relationship with Yondu was better than ever, Kraglin was acting like his older brother again (like he had done during his time as a Ravager) and apparently things with Rocket were patched up. The only downside he could really see (how could he not) was Ego. Having learned that his biological father killed his mother was... God, Peter didn't even have the words to express how fucked up it was. He still wasn't fully okay, but with his team, his family, by his side, things were looking up more than down. 

As the song ended, Peter expected the same pattern than had happened the last few hours to continue. Rocket working on his gun, Gamora cleaning her sword (and checking him out!) Drax and Mantis talking in hushed whispers, Groot to keep eating, Kraglin to keep (terribly) sing along, and Yondu to keep polishing his arrow, all while a new song from Peter's past play from the Zune. Instead however, Rocket decided everyone had enough peace and quiet and spoke up loudly. "Okay. When are we gonna celebrate?" Gamora gave him her best 'are you serious look'. "Rocket." She said, clearly pissed that the silence was ruined. "Oh come on! We've been floating around here for days, we need to get a move on! We're outta booze!" Gamora looked to Peter to try to back her up, but Peter was liking the idea of more liquor... "I mean, I guess we could go. We really aren't doing anything around here anyway." Peter clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention. "Okay guys. We're gonna head out soon so be prepared for some turbulence. We may have to do quite a few jumps to make it to civilized space. Everyone nodded and headed on to the bridge. Peter made one last glance to see if anyone was left behind when he spotted Mantis, shivering on the couch. 

Peter and Mantis hadn't really interacted with each other, even when Peter thought his dad was cool. It wasn't like he thought Mantis was evil or anything since she helped them take down Ego, but it was... awkward around them at the very least. Peter thought about just heading onto the bridge of the Quadrant, but stopped before he kept going. Mantis had been taken by Ego when she was a baby. She had suffered from him too, no doubt. So Peter decided since he was the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy, he should at least be friendly. Approaching Mantis, he saw her shrink back into the sofa. "Hey. You uh, ok?" Mantis gave a weak, nervous smile. "O-oh yes, I'm fine." Peter raised an eyebrow, not at all convinced. "Mantis... do you need to talk?" Mantis hesitated. Peter could see it in her eyes that there was something she wanted to say something big. "Yes Peter... there is something I need to tell you." Mantis said, studying his face. Peter smiled and sat down next to her. "Go ahead." Mantis took a deep breath, clearly terrified by whatever she had to say. "I... I'm scared of doing space jumps." Peter blinked. Somehow, he got the feeling that wasn't what she was going to say, despite her actually being terrified of space jumps (Drax had told him to help prepare her once the did need to make a jump.) "I have never been through one before. The equivalency of a jump on Ego's ship was much different than anything any other ship could get." Peter blinked. It made sense. Everything related to Ego was fucked up. He couldn't even listen to Brandy anymore, which had been one of his favorite songs. But still... something seemed off here.

"Hey... when Yondu kidnapped me, and I saw us heading through space, I was terrified!" Mantis looked surprised. "You were? But your so brave!" Mantis said. Peter laughed sheepishly. "Yeah, well 8 year old me was different. I was kicking, screaming, sobbing and everything in between. But when I went to the view port and saw us heading through jump point after jump point, it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw. It's okay to be scared, as long as you're willing to take on those fears." Mantis smiled at him. "Thanks Peter." Peter smiled at her and prepared to get up, but was pushed back down by Mantis tackling him in a big hug, arms tight around him. Peter stared at her a few moments before awkwardly hugging her back. The moment was ruined however, by Rocket reentering the room. "Come on you idiots! Let's go!" Peter rolled his eyes at the raccoon but got up as did Mantis (who didn't want her fingers bitten again.) They made their way to the bridge and got into their seats. "Okay Quill, where to?" Rocket asked. Peter paused, not actually having an answer. "Uhh... I any suggestions?" Everyone groaned in annoyance. "Really boy, you don't know where we're headin?" Yondu asked, irritated. "It's your ship! I thought that meant you were going to plan out were we're heading to" Peter shot back. 

Yondu rolled his eyes and sat up to go to the nav computer. "Okay... looking at places that won't take too many jumps, we have three options. Option number one is... Ok! Nevermind, I got a huge bounty on my head there, uhh... Option 2 is Knowhere." Everyone cringed as they remembered their last trip to the severed head serving as a space station. "Option 3... uh nevermind, no Option 3..." Peter was about to ask why there was no option 3, but the look on Yondu's face told him it wasn't worth asking. "Okay then... Knowhere it is! Kraglin, you mind getting us to the jump point?" "Copy that Quill." Kraglin said from the captain's chair (Yondu wasn't too concerned with hierarchy anymore since there was only two Ravagers anyway) and steered the ship to the jump point. Peter glanced over at Mantis to see how she was holding up, and was surprised to see her totally immersed at the sight of space. She stared out the view port, looking at awe at stars, nebulas, and all other sorts of things that could be found in space. Peter realized this was her first time actually seeing space. On Ego's ship, there wasn't a viewport, and on the Quadrant, she steered clear away from any windows and anything else that could give her a view of the abyss that was space. But now however, she couldn't tear away her view from the view, totally enraptured by the view of the cosmos. 

Everything seemed to be going according to plan, but as they approached the jump point, alarms stated blaring through the speakers of the Quadrant. "Kraglin! What's happening!?" Yondu asked, looking around in a panic. "I don't know Cap'n! I think the ship may have accidentally got damaged during that fight with Ego! He did slam it into the ground back there!" Everyone looked at each other in shock, not knowing that the ship had endured that kind of punishment. "You're telling me... that the ship has been slammed into the ground... and you didn't think to tell any of us!?!?" Yondu said, exploding in fury and panic. Kraglin froze, realizing that he should have probably told somebody that had happened since he was the only one who had been with the ship at the time. "Oh..." Was all he could say. Peter, realizing that someone had to take charge, jumped out of his seat and spoke up. "Everyone! We need to get to one of the M-Ships now! This ship is gonna tear itself apart!" Everyone scrambled out of their seats, grabbing weapons, food and other supplies that they would need. Rocket stopped just briefly enough to scoop up Groot and plop him down on his shoulder. Gamora  double checked that her sword was on her hip, and grabbed as much supplies as she could carry. Drax immediately picked up Mantis who had frozen in fear and followed Yondu who was leading everyone to the small hangar bay that was on the Quadrant. The small hangar bay that couldn't even be properly used when the ship was attached to the rest of the ship was only there for when the Quadrant went off to do its own separate missions. Now however, it was their only chance of survival. 

Peter did a double check on what he had. His Quad blasters, his jacket, his Zune, his backpack filled with photos and Awesome Mix Vol.1, check. Seeing that he had everything on him, he grabbed armfuls of canteens of water and hightailed it to the nearest M-Ship. The nearest one, as it so happened, was on of the newer models, faster than what the Milano was, and more durable than the Milano was, so Peter would wager that it could survive a few seconds of falling out of a jump point. As he approached the orange ship, he did a quick double count of everyone that was there. After making sure everyone was on, he lifted the ramp and gave the go ahead to fly out. He gave the call not a moment to soon, as when the ship started taking off, a large explosion rocked the Quadrant. The warp jumper (or something akin to that name) had exploded and the ship was simultaneously tearing itself apart and collapsing in on itself. Chunks of the ship was falling apart and explosions rocked the ship. As Peter made his way to the cockpit, he saw that there were far more seats than the Milano had. Taking a seat himself, he saw Yondu expertly piloting the M-Ship out (and swearing), dodging falling debris and explosions. Ramming through an explosion, they exited through the ship and got into deep turbulence. Thankfully, everyone was buckled to their seats (minus Groot but Rocket was clutching him for dear life so he was probably okay) before falling out of the jump lane and careening off. 

After several moments of spinning, Yondu finally managed to stabilize the ship, but there was little he could do about the planet the ship just appeared next to. "Hang on everyone! This is gonna be a wild landin!" Everyone instinctively braced themselves, expecting the crash landing to be just as bad as the one on Berhert, perhaps even worse. Peter glanced around at what could have been his last moment to see his family. His eyes eventually landed on Gamora who was sitting right beside him. They locked eyes and seemed to stare at each other for eternity. After a moment, Peter forced his hand to let go of the arm rest and tentatively reached out to Gamora, offering to hold her hand. After a seconds worth of hesitation, she reached up and latched her hand to his. Peter smiled, the kind that Gamora found cute (though she would never admit it) and she smiled back, both trying to give each other comfort in what was probably going to be their last moments together.

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The unlikely crew of friends all closed their eyes and screamed, sure that this would be their final moments together. Instead, they opened their eyes to see Yondu actually having the situation mostly under control. Sure, they hit the ground hard, even jumped a bit before coming back down, but the landing was surprisingly way more soft than anyone was expecting. After the ship lurched to a halt, they stayed sitting in their seats, just staring at the greenery outside, to shocked to say or do anything. After a moment to catch up with everything, Rocket spoke up. "Well... That was... intense." Drax nodded. "Yes, it was quite concerning that I felt more fear now than when I was hanging out the Milano back in Berhert." Everyone lapsed into silence again. Kraglin... the next time the ship gets any damage that could be...detrimental to it... LET US FUCKING KNOW BEFORE WE DO A DAMN JUMP!" Kraglin nodded, still in a daze. "Ahh... alright Cap'n..." 

Everyone shakily climbed out of the M-Ship and surveyed their surroundings. After a moment of looking at the ship, Rocket spoke up. "Okay... I got good news, and bad news." Gamora spoke up, glancing at Peter. "What's the good news?" "The good news, is that thanks to Yondu's incredible flying-" he glanced over at Peter, "the damage isn't nearly as bad as the Milano I should have this baby up and running in 5 to 7 days." Everyone sighed in relief. At least they weren't going to be stuck here long, right? "The bad news, is that the ship virtually has no fuel." Everyone froze at that. "What! You're telling me, even once we get this thing space worthy again, we're still gonna be stuck here?" Rocket scoffed. Hey! Don't yell at me! It's not my fault we jumped into a ship that was low on fuel. It was like that when we escaped the Quadrant!" Peter groaned in frustration. "Just great." He went back to surveying the surroundings. "It wouldn't be easier to just send out a signal to the rest of the Ravagers?" Yondu froze and Kraglin looked down in shame. "Uhh... its just us boy..." Peter blinked. "What?!?!" That couldn't happen... no way. Sure, most of the Ravagers he grew up with weren't the greatest people, but damn it they were... part of him! He remembered Tulk bandaging him up after a particularly gruesome job. Others, helping him learn the ropes, taking interest in his Earth music, and even becoming somewhat friends with him. To think they were dead was... heartbreaking. Yondu sighed. "After that battle over at Xandar, we suffered a lot of losses defending the planet and all that crap. We needed new people and fast. So against better judgement, we hired anyone and anywhere we could. We ended up with a bunch of random idiots you weren't loyal to the code or the group. They decided to mutiny and managed to get my old fin off my head. Without my fin, they easily captured all the others and... threw them out of the air lock."

Peter nodded, clearly shaken as he took it all in, feeling like he got punched in the gut. Gamora put a hand on his shoulder to help steady him and give him some form of comfort. "Thankfully, the rat and twig here helped me get a prototype fin I had been working on, and we managed to kill all those, avenging everyone. We blew up the rest of the Eclector and ran off to help rescue you from Ego." There was more to the story, but Yondu figured Peter didn't need to know everyone died because he refused to take him and his friends back to the Sovereign. Peter nodded, still taking this information in, when he head snapped up. He walked away from the group and looked at some small fragile looking winged creature resting on a flower. "That's... a butterfly..."  He said not believing his eyes. "I am Groot?" Groot asked. "Yeah, so what?" Rocket asked. Peter turned to the rest of the group, eyes wide in shock. "Butterflies only exist on... Earth." Everyone looked at each other and their surroundings. This was the planet Peter had grown up on as a kid? Peter forgot about his sorrows of his old Ravager buddies, his team, everything, taking everything in more fully. The trees, the flowers, the insects...  "Guys... I think we're on Earth." 

Peter froze and put his hands up as a blonde girl in jeans, boots and a t shirt appeared from behind the trees holding a shotgun at his head, a dog (a Golden fetcher?) appeared right beside her, growling. "Yeah... welcome to Earth, motherfucker."