It was a simple mission and they had completed it with a quick 'meet the client and receive the profit'. Unfortunately, they didn't return to the Milano unscathed. As they were waiting for their units to be transferred over, Groot had gotten bored and decided to wander around the grungy building they were in. Even though he was still a 'toddler', it was a bad move.
Their clients weren't particularly friendly and hid secrets of their own. Through one of the doors, the small sapling had found a room filled with illegal explosives and weapons. Running back to the team with wide eyes, he tried to warn Rocket of his findings, but was shrugged off with a small, "Not now, Groot".
The little tree started to panic and climbed up onto Gamora's shoulder, gripping onto her hair. "I am Groot! I am Groot!" He pointed to the door he returned from as her soft, brown eyes followed his small finger.
"What's wrong?" She whispered. "Did you find something?" Luckily, she wasn't standing next to Peter as usual. Instead, she was next to Mantis-the furthest back from the group of A'askavarii. She cautiously snuck away from them and followed Groot as he leaped to the floor and started to run towards the door. "Oh, my God." Sure enough, she was just as shocked as Groot.
"YOU! YOU NOT BE HERE!" One of the A'askavariian men shouted in a foreign accent, catching her in her tracks. Gamora spotted him in her peripheral vision. In the span of a second, she unsheathed her Godslayer and thrust it into his chest.
Suddenly, a dozen more A'askavarii started charging towards them. "GROOT! GO BY THE OTHERS!" The young sapling nodded sadly and sprinted towards the direction of the others. Gamora activated her com. "PETER!"
'THEY HAVE A ROOM FULL OF ILLEGAL WEAPONS AND EXPLOSIVES! GET EVERYONE OUT, NOW!' The main A'askavariian man looked at Peter suspiciously, overhearing Gamora's distressed voice through his com. Before he could do anything, Peter quickly whipped out his blaster and shot him in the chest.
He turned to the rest of the Guardians. "Mantis, get Groot back to the ship-start it up and wait for further instructions." The bug-lady nodded, picking up Groot and running out the door. "Rocket, I need you to find that room and make sure none of these douchebags get inside." The raccoon started heading towards it with a large smirk until Peter added, "Do not take anything! They're illegal for a reason".
"Yeah, yeah...you just suck the joy outta everything, don't ya'?" He scowled with his ears drooping.
Peter rolled his eyes and turned to Drax. "Drax, buddy? You ready to kick some ass?" The tattooed man gave him a devious smile before letting out a boisterous laugh and charging at the men with both daggers in hand. All Peter could do was shake his head with raised eyebrows. "Just another typical day."
Gamora turned her head slightly to see Peter and Drax catching up to her. "Well, it took you two long enough." She pulled her sword out of one of the men, before thrusting it at another.
"I'm sorry!" Her leader whined half-jokingly, shooting one in the abdomen. "I wanted to make sure Rocket knew he wasn't going to steal anything."
"Knowing our foolish furry companion, he will not listen to your wise words." Drax smashed two of the men's heads together before nodding in satisfaction.
'HEY! I HEARD THAT!' Rocket's voice echoed through their coms.
The trio chuckled a little before attacking more men. "Zip it, Trash Panda! You're supposed to be guarding that room!"
'AND STOP WITH THE NAME GAME!'
'Um, Peter...'
"Sup', Mantis?" He answered, shooting another A'askavariian in the chest.
'We have a problem...I have reached the ship and activated it. I had to sit Groot on a chair, but once I turned around, he was gone. I have looked everywhere on the ship! He is not here!' Her voice started breaking. The trio looked at each other with wide eyes.
"Listen, Mantis, it's okay. Keep searching the ship. If anything, he probably came back inside to find Gamora. We'll search for him in here." He tried to console her, but she still sounded upset as she turned off her com.
"Peter, you stay here and help Drax take them out." She stabbed another before running in the direction of the entrance. Peter followed her from behind.
"No, I'm coming with you."
Gamora glared at him, making sure to keep her guard up. "I can take care of myself. There are too many of them for you to try and be heroic." She turned around and stopped in her tracks. "Behind you." Peter whipped out his blaster and shot one of the men following them. "Help Drax!"
Sure enough, Groot was near the entrance, looking around in curiosity. Gamora sighed in relief. However, her expression faded once she saw a man aiming a blaster at the small tree. "GROOT! GET OUT OF THE WAY!" She yelled as she charged towards the man with her sword.
Oblivious to the danger he was in, Groot ignored her warning and waved at her with an innocent smile. He pouted and plopped on the floor with his arms crossed when she didn't wave back. After she made sure the A'askavariian was dead, she ran over to Groot. He looked up at her with furrowed brows.
"I'm sorry I didn't wave back, but you were in danger. Are you hurt?" Groot shook his head, tears welling in his eyes.
The two were so focused on making sure the other was okay that they didn't realize another blaster being aimed at them. It was too late when Gamora felt a sharp pain coming from her shoulder. She fell to the ground, dropping her Godslayer and groaning in severe pain. Groot yelled in rage and charged towards the man. The A'askavariian picked him up with a tentacle and threw him forcefully against a crate, knocking him unconscious. He kicked the sword to the side and wrapped another tentacle around Gamora's neck, pulling her up to his level. She couldn't breathe and it didn't help that she was losing a lot of blood. Even though it was painful, her arms desperately-and weakly-tried to pull away the tentacle choking her.
The man's lips curved up, showing his razor-sharp teeth. "Aren't you pretty one? Daughter of Thanos. Guardian of Galaxy. Mother of...twig?" He looked at the unconscious Groot in confusion before turning back to face Gamora. "You and friends may have killed mine, but I kill you." He dragged the blaster up the her abdomen and shot her again. Her eyes grew wide, feeling the unbearable pain escaping both wounds. He dropped her to the ground, chuckling as he watched her cough up blood. With shaking hands, she felt the wound on her stomach and flinched.
The chuckling in the room quickly subsided when a single man with two blasters, starting shooting him in pure rage. Gamora's sight became distorted and her ears started ringing, but she weakly smiled when she heard a scream escape the man's voice. She heard loud footsteps approaching her. A blurry figure came into her view. She couldn't make out his face, but she knew he was familiar. For a few seconds, she was able to see his face, from his glassy hazel eyes to the few cuts and bruises covering his face. "Pet'r?" She rasped. He moved out of her view. Wait, did he leave? Her mind flooded with relief, but also throbbed with unbearable pain as she felt him wrap some thing tightly around her wounds. When he gently lifted her head onto his lap, she couldn't help, but to try and cup his cheek. She flinched at the movement and let out a small whine as Peter gently pushed it back down.
"Hey, hey, hey-don't do that. It's gonna make it worse. But, you're gonna be okay, okay?" His voice was breaking and it was also breaking Gamora's heart. "DRAX! ROCKET! HURRY!" A tear slid down his cheek and fell onto the beautiful face below him. Smiling, the woman started to close her eyes. "No, no, no-babe, you have to stay awake, okay? Please, stay awake."
After killing the last few and contacting the Nova Corps, Rocket and Drax ran to the entrance. They both looked at the scene in shock. While Peter gently and swiftly swept Gamora into his arms, Rocket ran over to an unconscious Groot and did the same.
'MANTIS! CLEAR OFF THE TABLE AND GET THE MEDICAL KIT!' Mantis jumped at the sound of Peter's desperate voice.
"Oh, no." She whispered to herself. "Someone is hurt." Running and almost falling several times to the common area, she finally reached the table and swept everything off. She ran to the bathroom, grabbed the first-aid kit and started unpacking everything inside of it.
The rest of the group returned with worried expressions. Without a single greeting to Mantis, Rocket handed Groot to Drax before scrambling up to the cockpit. Peter laid Gamora gently on the table, stripping her of her clothes and the make-shift bandages he made with the fabric of his shirt.
"What happened?" The bug-lady asked with wide eyes, watching Peter quickly get to work.
"Gamora got shot by one of those imbeciles and Groot was knocked unconscious. I believe the same man was the one who hurt Groot." He handed Groot off to the woman next to him. "Bring him to the cockpit. He does not need to awaken to this." Mantis nodded and ran up the stairs.
Meanwhile, Peter hooked Gamora up to a portable heart monitor. Her pulse was weak, but was still there. She started bleeding severely again from her abdomen. Her shoulder looked grazed, but wasn't nearly as bad as the wound on her stomach. He called Drax over and instructed him to keep pressure on the bleeding wound as he patched it up. "ROCKET? HOW LONG UNTIL THE NEAREST HOSPITAL?!"
'T-minus eighty-three minutes!'
"Shit." Peter whispered.
After Gamora was all cleaned up and bandaged, Peter didn't leave her side. The rest of the team understood why and were extra sympathetic towards him. Rocket had even connected the Zune to the ship's coms, trying to ease the anxiety everyone was feeling. However, Peter wasn't focusing on the music at all; he was focusing on the quiet beeps coming from the heart monitor and hated it. The last time he heard the sounds of a heart monitor, his mother di-
That was when her heart rate started spiking before it flat-lined. Peter's eyes grew wide. He immediately flew out of his chair, beginning chest compressions. "Gamora, don't leave me, babe-don't leave me." Drax jumped down from the cockpit, not even bothering the use the stairs. He rushed over to Peter's side exchanging a look with him. "Warriors don't die, Gamora." Peter shifted a little, so Drax could set up the defibrillator. He stuck an adhesive pad on her right precordium and another under her left.
"Clear!" Drax shouted as Peter removed his hands. He watched Gamora's body jolt before turning to look at the monitor...it was still flat-lined. Peter started compressions again. A minute had gone by and Gamora finally regained a pulse. The two sighed in relief. "She is a fighter. I can assure you, if anyone would survive a wound that severe, it would be Gamora." Peter nodded, sitting back down on the chair and trying to catch his breath.
A week had gone by since they had arrived at the hospital and somehow, they were able to save the green woman. She remained unconscious with tubes in her nose and an I.V. stuck in her arm. However, the team started to worry more about Peter than Gamora. He hadn't left her side since she got out of surgery. They tried to get him to leave for longer than five minutes, but he wouldn't budge.
Her eyes finally started to flutter open late one night. When she noticed Peter's head lying on her lap, a smile tugged at her lips. She slowly reached her good arm towards him and started raking her fingers through his curls. He shifted a little, picking his head up enough to look at her as she took her hand away. His eyes widened at her soft smile.
Gamora's eyes started welling up when she caught a single tear sliding down his cheek. Without a word, Peter gingerly climbed in next to her, grabbing her other hand and intertwining their fingers. He gingerly dug his head into the crook of her neck and started softly sobbing into her hair. Finally allowing her walls to fall, tears started streaming down Gamora's face as she began to lightly grip Peter's curls with her free hand.
"I'm so sorry, Gamora. I shouldn't have listened to you. I should've come-"
The green woman shook her head as he spoke. "No, it's not your fault." She interrupted, unaware of her voice breaking. "I shouldn't have let my guard down." Peter planted his shaking lips onto her temple. "I've been trained most of my life to always watch my back. It became a habit. I don't understand how I could've been so foolish, especially in the middle of a battle."
They both ran out of tears at that moment. Peter wrapped his free arm around Gamora and carefully pulled her closer, trying to avoid her from moving too much. He started thumbing her shoulder as she leaned her head against his chest. "Why did you let your guard down?"
"When I found Groot, one of the A'askavarii held him at gunpoint. I told him to move out of the way, but he was so focused on trying to wave at me that he was oblivious to the blaster being pointed at him." She took a shaky deep breath and nuzzled further into Peter. "So, I killed the A'askavariian before he could pull the trigger. Groot was upset because he thought I was ignoring him. I let my guard down, trying to explain to him why I didn't wave back and making sure he wasn't hurt. I heard the blaster go off nearby and the next thing I knew, I was on the floor with an excruciating pain coming from my shoulder."
Peter smiled a little. "You weren't foolish. I would've probably done the same." He gently nudged her. "I told you a warrior doesn't die." The corners of Gamora's lips started to twitch up as she let herself fall asleep in Peter's arms.