It had been another few months and Ziggy was slowly working over the break up. The first few weeks she avoided Peter completely, and Rocket had pulled through with pairing her with someone else on missions. Now, Ziggy usually works with Mantis or Nebula. She's only spoke a handful of sentences to Peter, still not wanting to talk to him.
Peter's conditions only worsened, and it made Ziggy angrier with everything now. She refused to do stuff to help him, making Nebula do it. Mantis has tried talking to him but he shot her down too; Ziggy listed it as a lost cause now.
She felt like it changed her; that she wasn't her usual bubbly self anymore. She felt hardened, the usual smile donning her face now twisted into a frown. She was more reserved, and now, Ziggy often wondered if she was too dependent on him like he had said.
Most of Knowhere knew Ziggy and Peter to have been dating; they were when they founded it as the base of the Guardians. Whenever she went anywhere now, she only heard whispers of what people rumored to have happened. Now, it made Ziggy usually go about with her headphones in. She only ever had her headphones out if a good song was playing over the city's speakers or if it was a mission.
Ziggy watched as Nebula and Groot worked together to hang up their logo on the town square of Knowhere, sitting on the steps nearby. Mantis danced to the song playing — Creep by Radiohead — while trying to get Drax to join her. Rocket sat next to Ziggy, murmuring the lyrics to the song. He stood now, stalking off toward the lobby, where Ziggy could only imagine Peter sulked inside.
"I wanna perfect body, I want a perfect soul." Ziggy murmured along the lyrics, watching Kraglin play tug of war with Cosmo. "I want you to notice, when I'm not around."
As the lyric plays, she can't help as her gaze lingers off toward the bar, a frown playing her face. "So fuckin' special, I wish I was special."
Nebula stood and walked over to check on Rocket, a frown on her face as Peter passed out again. She glanced at Ziggy, who shook her head. She stood, making her way over to them. "Again?"
"I got him." Nebula mutters, walking in and scooping Peter up. Leaning against the window, Ziggy watched with folded arms as Nebula exited the building. Groot gasped upon seeing Peter, running over and checking on him, touching his face.
Drax glanced at Peter and then Ziggy, frowning. "It happened again?"
He and Mantis followed, then so did Kraglin and Cosmo. They followed each other off to Peter's room to make sure he was okay, and everyone waited around outside. Ziggy followed Nebula, standing outside his room as she waited for Nebula.
Nebula eventually left Peter's room, sighing. She looked at Ziggy before they both walked off.
"What are you gonna do about Quill?" Rocket asked, dangling from the ceiling as he glanced at the girls.
"Me? Why not you? Or Ziggy?" Nebula scoffs.
"Ziggy's already tried and look how that turned out. And she knows I got emotionalistical issues, so what am I gonna do?" Rocket questions.
"Why are you on the ceiling?" Nebula asks.
"I wanted to see if these new gravity boots worked on a slope." Rocket explained.
They rounded the corner to Kraglin practicing the arrow, stabbing Nebula in the chest.
"Sorry." Kraglin paled, and Nebula ripped it out of her chest before handing it back to him.
"Bozhe moi Kraglin. You must know you'll never learn." Cosmo shook her head.
"You think you can do better?" Kraglin scowled at her.
Cosmo stared at the pebble and within a second, it flew around the makeshift course, hitting every object. The people standing around laughed as they watched Cosmo best Kraglin.
"Telekinesis is cheating! That's a stupid little pebble! I could do that with my dang finger!" Kraglin cried. "You're a bad dog."
Cosmo whimpered looking at him. "Do not say that to me!"
"You are, you're a bad dog."
"Take that back! Come on, that's not cool." Cosmo whined. "Ziggy, he called me a bad dog!"
The group turned, walking through the square toward a booth where they got a handful of snacks for those there.
"Kraglin." Ziggy sighed, looking at him.
"What? She is." He protested.
"Is Peter okay?" Mantis asked worriedly, glancing at Nebula. Ziggy's eyes cast to the ground as they mentioned him again, and she didn't want to talk about him, letting Mantis and Nebula control the conversation.
"I don't know."
"What are you going to do?" Mantis asked.
"Me? He's your brother."
"He doesn't listen to me." Mantis complained.
"He has been pretty mopey since the blip with Ziggy, and then Gamora dying." Kraglin agreed.
"She's not dead, she just doesn't remember anything from the past few years." Nebula said as she tossed the treat to Cosmo, who jumped up and caught it, munching happily.
"Nobody tells me nothing." Kraglin sighed.
"Mantis, why don't you just touch him and make him happy?" Rocket asked.
"I am Groot?"
"Gross!" Everyone exclaimed, and Ziggy couldn't help the small smile on her expression.
"Not like that," Rocket scoffed, shaking his head in disgust. "With her powers."
"It is wrong to manipulate the feelings of friends." Mantis told him.
"What about the one time you made me fall in love with my sock?" Drax demanded, frowning.
"That's just funny." Ziggy laughs quietly.
"I guess it's back to one of us touching him the other way. Maybe we should draw straws." Drax suggests. "Or make Ziggy do it, she used to date him."
"The key word there is "used" to." Ziggy pointed out, scowling at him. "And I refuse to do that, absolutely not."
"I'm sure you don't still think about it." Rocket jokes.
"Thank you, Rocket."
"No one ever meant that." Nebula said, giving him a look. After hanging around them for a bit, Ziggy glanced about before leaving the group and wandered about Knowhere. She found herself walking toward Peter's room, leaning against the railing as she glanced inside, watching Peter sleeping.
She looked at the room sadly, wondering why he pushed her away. Ziggy didn't even know if she'd want to get back with him if the opportunity presented itself — although she probably knew the answer would be a quick yes.
Lost in her thought, Ziggy didn't even hear the rumbling in the distance until something crashed through Peter's window, startling Peter awake and making Ziggy jump out of the way. A gold streak had rushed past, and she quickly looked over her shoulder as the streak flew across Knowhere.
As Ziggy looked over the railing, she saw a golden man with a red cape holding Rocket, and she assumed he was the one who had flown through the wall. He turned and glanced at Ziggy, and glanced behind her. Ziggy glanced behind her to see Peter was awake now and staring at the man, before racing outside.
Nebula had put on her pack and levitated into the air, pointing her fist of a gun at the man. "On the ground!" She demanded, staring him down. He screamed, charging upward at Nebula, but she shot him down. Ominously, he stood and flew at her, tackling her to the ground below and punching her repeatedly.
"Nebula!" Ziggy cried, racing down the steps. She watched as he threw Nebula across the land before Groot attacked, wrapping his limbs around the man. He took off, flying into the air as he fought Groot, and Ziggy watched as he and Groot crashed into buildings until Groot was only his head.
Ziggy glanced around wildly for the other Guardians, finding them all in the med bay. The man shot Rocket, launching him across the floor before Mantis attacked. He grabbed her by the wrist and broke it, flinging her too. Then Peter came in, shooting at him. Drax defended them, distracting him as Peter and Mantis rushed to Rocket's aid.
Ziggy and Drax held off the golden guy and he mercisally beat Drax. Ziggy planted her feet, raising her palms in the air as she powered her heavy purple beams, raising the glowing energy above her head. When she felt it had charged enough, she launched it — sending the man backwards to below Nebula's feet.
Nebula gazed at Ziggy who nodded, and she shifted her arm into a sword before stabbing the man through the chest. The crowd of Knowhere gasped as they watched, and the man choked out.
"That hurts." He muttered, before passing out.
"What a pity." Nebula spit, pulling the sword from his chest. Ziggy helped Drax up and they all turned to the med bay as they heard Mantis cry out in anguish. Nebula and Ziggy glanced at each other and as she had helped Drax up enough, she and Nebula ran toward the bay.
In the bay, Rocket lay on the floor; the shot from the man had impacted him enough that he was in a serious condition, foaming from the mouth as he choked on it and gasped out. Mantis sobbed over him as Peter desperately tried to activate the med packs only to shock Rocket and not help him at all.
"Get them off! Now!" Nebula shouted, running over. Peter pulled it off, and Rocket lay there gasping for air.
"What happened?" Ziggy spoke, her voice barely a whisper as she stared in horror.
"Take him to the ship!" Nebula exclaimed, and Peter scooped Rocket up, and the team raced to the Milano. Nebula hooked Rocket up to the med bay on the Milano as they all stood around watching, and she hooked herself to the machine to search through Rocket's database on how to help.
"A kill switch?" Peter said, as Nebula had noted its existence.
"A device set to destruct if anyone goes poking around inside him, or even if we use the med packs." Nebula explained.
"Why would Rocket have a kill switch?" Peter repeated.
"Apparently someone considers him proprietary technology and sent that golden lunatic to get him." Nebula spoke.
"So he'll die if we operate on him?" Mantis asked.
"And he'll die if we don't." Drax nodded.
"This is fucked." Ziggy muttered, looking at Rocket's limp body on the table.
"There has to be a way to bypass it."
"It looks like there's a passkey that could override the kill switch."
"What do we know about where Rocket came from?" Mantis asked the group.
"Nothing, he never talks about it." Ziggy shook her head.
"The tech was developed by a company called OrgoCorp." Nebula continued. "And there's a code on all of it. 89P13. He has maybe 48 hours."
Peter stared at Rocket before turning and walking off.
"Where are you going?" Ziggy demanded, turning to him with crossed arms.
"OrgoCorp has to have records, maybe they'll have a way for us to override the kill switch and save Rocket." Peter said.
"They won't just give us that information." Mantis told him.
"That's why we're gonna break in."
"We kill anyone who gets in our way!" Drax agrees.
"Not kill anyone." Peter shook his head, and Ziggy followed them into the cockpit frowning.
"Kill a few people." Drax said.
"Kill no people." Peter corrected him.
"Kill the one stupid guy no one loves or cares about."
"Now you're making it sad."
Peter started up the Milano, calling in Kraglin and Cosmo and informing them that the main team would be leaving for a few days and that they were in charge of keeping an eye on Knowhere.
"I located the coordinates for OrgoCorp, I have a contact that can get us there. Maybe they can help us get in." Nebula told them.
"Contact them!" Peter shouted back to her. He geared up the Milano, kicking it into power as "Since You Been Gone" blasted over the speakers. "Let's go save our friend."