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They're back on Xandar, chasing up a lead on a possible Kree terrorist plot when the group they were tracking catches up with them.
Gamora would be annoyed if it wasn’t for the fact that these Kree fanatics know how to fight. Instead she’s too busy trying to stay alive while keeping the rest of her companions alive too to have an emotion.
Drax is fine, throwing bodies around like they’re made of paper. Groot’s doing as much as he can as he’s still only three or so foot high. But most of what he can do is provide a platform to get Rocket and his gun up higher which currently is a great advantage. And Peter-
Peter’s wrist is currently being gripped by a fanatic as the Kree disarms him- his second blaster being nowhere to be found. Gamora sighs as she knocks out her current opponent and moves towards the somehow still grinning Peter.
She’s not the only one confused. ‘Why do you smile?’
‘Because you’re about to get your arse kicked.’ He smirks but there’s something off about his smile. And, Gamora realises, his face. It’s too...bright. Something pings in her memory; has she heard about something like this before?
Then Peter grabs the hand that’s holding his wrist and the world explodes into light.
It’s not like the light that the Infinity Stone had cast; this light burns and Gamora finds herself closing her eyes, lowering her head and backpedaling in the hope of surviving the next moment. But then there is no heat and she slowly opens her eyes again and risks looking up.
Peter stands before her, surrounded by a halo of light that seems to be also coming from him and completely free of the grip of the Kree. In fact the Kree is nowhere to be seen and the pile of ash in front of Peter looks suspicious. She meets his eyes and they are glowing, much like they did when he held the Stone.
But this time his eyes glow a more intense version of his green, instead of the foreign purple.
‘Peter?’ She asks and she hears Drax and Rocket call out as well, Groot’s signature phrase a beat behind.
‘What the hell?’ He replies, and there’s something off about his voice. He takes a step forward, then a deep breath and suddenly the light fades and it is just Peter standing before them.
His eyes are still faintly glowing though.
‘Are you well?’ Drax takes a step forward and Peter takes the same step back, his eyes wide and confused. ‘Quill?’
‘No, don’t. I have no idea what that was, best not to risk me...me...’ killing you too. Gamora instinctively knows he is unable to say. Though she’s sure whatever he would end up saying would have more references to ‘magic light thing-ys’ than her thoughts do.
Rocket ignores him and moved closer. ‘We’re not dead now. Doubt whatever that was wants us dead.’
‘The Infinity Stone?’
But Peter shakes his head. ‘Not the Infinity Stone. Definitely not the Infinity Stone.’ He looks down at his hands and wiggles his fingers a few times. ‘It didn’t hurt...’
‘Star-Lord?’ Rhomann Dey’s voice from over a speaker system asks and cuts Peter off. Gamora glances up, not surprised to see Nova Corps ships surrounding them. ‘You guys alright?’
‘Think so.’ Peter replies, not looking up. ‘I thought we said we had this section?’
There’s a moment of noncommittal silence before Dey speaks. ‘Yeah, but we got reports of well… what looked like an actual, possibility real, might not be legend star's attack in this area, so we came over to investigate.’
‘You what now?’ Rocket scrambles back up Groot’s shoulder, to be closer to the hovering ships.
Dey groans. ‘We got reports-’
‘Hey, no need to repeat yourself. We got it.’ The disbelief in Peter’s voice is strong as he connects Dey’s statement to what happened.
Gamora is feeling something similar.
‘Look, could you guys come in for questioning? We need to track this thing down.’ Everyone looks to Peter, leaving the decision in his hands.
He sighs. ‘If you give us a lift, sure. Why not?’
********
Nova Prime meets them, her face tight and eyes worried. She looks them all over as they take positions around her screens; clearly studying them for injuries.
Peter tries not to squim. He’s feeling weird enough as it is without adding to it the feeling of being closely examined. Thinking about the weird feeling- which feels almost as if he’s swallowed the hottest spice in the galaxy but somehow also the coldest ice and both are simultaneously painless- only makes it worse so he looks down and tries not to think.
‘Can you tell us what happened?’
‘We were hoping you would.’ Nova Prime sounds put out by Gamora’s question but Peter doesn’t dare glance up to confirm this.
‘Our information might be more relevant if the context was provided first.’ Peter does briefly look up in surprise when it’s Drax arguing not Gamora. On the way back down, he catches Rocket’s eyes and tries not to wince when they widen at the sight of his face.
Or his eyes; he can feel the heat in them. It’s almost like when he held the Stone… but once again, painless. In fact, this almost feels good. Natural.
That’s even more terrifying than holding the Stone’s power was.
Nove Prime breaks the silence. ‘Yes. Perhaps. We received reports about 18:03 that there was a ‘great burst of light’ in the Lower East section, by the river. Knowing you were there we dispatched a team to your last known location while immediately accessing the security footage.’ She shakes her head; Peter can see the movement in her shadow. ‘We...I thought it was a false report. Or mistaken report. Until I saw the footage.’
She’s going to play it, Peter knows she is so he takes a deep breath and tries to push the heat and ice and everything down so he can look normal or something while viewing it. Carefully he looks up, meeting Rocket’s eyes again. His teammate gives him a small nod and he sighs with relief while trying not to relax.
The sound of fighting distracts him and Peter looks over at the screen. It’s them, fighting their way through the Kree- where had the rest of them gone, Peter wonders- and he can see himself, down on one knee with a Kree gripping his hand. Onscreen Peter reaches up and-
White. Bright, bright white; the kind that ruins your vision for ages afterwards if you catch but a momentary glimpse of it. For a long second there is no darkness in the room, only light and Peter can feel that strangeness in himself rising. He pushes it down as Nova Prime minimises the footage.
‘What is that?’ Peter realises after a moment that it was he who spoke.
‘We weren’t sure. Until we looked at footage from another, much more distant angle.’ Nova Prime pulls up another screen and plays more footage, this one clearly from the roof of a skyscraper. There’s little of interest for a long minute but then a beam of solid white- light, Peter realises- stretching from the ground into the sky. Nova Prime freezes the footage.
Gamora gasps, while Peter frowns at the screen. That almost looked like a solar flare, seen from a far too close distance. Why the hell was anyone caught in that still alive? How are they still alive?
‘Gamora?’ Rocket asks and Peter looks over at her. She’s gone pale, her eyes fixed on the screen.
‘What is it?’ Nova Prime’s voice is desperate and Peter resists the urge to look at her. ‘You recognise this?’
‘I am surprised you do not.’ Something in her tone is vicious and Peter does look at Nova Prime now, in time to see her look away in...shame? Or acknowledgement. ‘I have only seen something like it the once, when I was a child, shortly after I...after Thanos took me. He attacked a planet on the outer rim and the child he chose to lead the mission...’ She takes a deep breath. ‘The child he chose to lead was one of my more monstrous siblings. And a native of that system. I do not know how or why, but something that Trivek did angered the star whose system it was. We were on a ship in orbit, to watch the planet burn when the star manifested...’
‘The star manifested?’ Peter cannot keep the disbelief from his voice and Gamora glared at him. He threw his hands up. ‘Hey, you gotta admit that sounds really weird.’
‘It’s a legend.’ Nova Prime says, meeting his eyes and Peter quickly looks away. ‘Well, until now we believed it was a legend.’
‘Stars were legends?’ Drax takes a step forward to examine the footage. ‘This does not look like a legend to me. It looks real.’
‘Yes, we know. The legend went that stars, if they chose, could manifest themselves as beings- mortal in appearance if not in ability.’ Nova Prime shakes her head. ‘They were said to only do this if angered, to defend themselves or upon occasion one they favoured-’
‘Not the system?’
‘Stars care little for the planets and people within the system.’ It is Gamora who answers and Peter looks at her in surprise. ‘Trivek had an earpiece, we listened to his final moments?’ She shook her head in frustration. ‘I was a small child, much of this has faded from my memory. But I do think I recall the thing’s voice… It was so cold, colder even than Thanos’ as it asked ‘What does a star care if the worlds burn?’’ She shivers.
‘And this is normal? For these starry things? To be all in your face and destroying things?’ Peter bites his lip to stop himself snapping at the delight in Rocket’s voice.
‘The star that faced Trivek wiped him, much of Thanos’ army and the surrounding area from existence.’ Gamora sounds defeated. ‘We were forbidden to mention the loss, nor think of it and him.’
‘Then how the hell are we all still here?’
Nova Prime shakes her head. ‘We were hoping you could tell us that. What happened there?’
Everyone looks at Peter. He can feel their gazes on him once more and normally it would creep him out but now it’s reassuring. His team will follow his lead.
‘We’re not exactly sure. One minute it was like normal all fighting and such and then the next… Light. All the light. So much light-’
Nova Prime holds up a hand. ‘We get the picture. Did you see anything or anyone unusual?’
Oh this is an interrogation. Peter knows the feel of them and suddenly any desire to cooperate has fled. ‘No ma’am, I know for one that I saw absolutely nothing. For like, five mintues after. It was all white for me.’ He meets her eyes briefly, enough time to convince her that he’s not lying before he looks away to hide the still present heat in his eyes.
Gamora makes a sound, almost like a laugh but she turns it into a cough. ‘Neither did I.’
‘Hey, don’t look at me. My eyesight ain’t nothing much to brag about even when it’s not been ruined by a whole bunch of light.’ Peter bites his lip again to hide the smirk at Rocket’s lie- he can give Peter a run for his money in a shooting competition, there’s no way his eyesight is poor.
‘I am Groot.’
‘Groot here can barely tell them lot from the bad guys, let alone one lot of bad guys from the other.’
‘I saw nothing but light. Then we were alone, surrounded by piles of ash.’ Drax’s response is both the truth and a lie and Peter can’t help but adore the guy for that.
Nova Prime hums and there is a long, considering silence. Then ‘Well, we thank you for your assistance. If there is anything else you recall, please by all means, call us. Dey will show you out.’
‘We thank you for your hospitality.’ Peter manages to meet her eyes once more, to respectfully bow before leaving.
Dey shows them to the door and they’re maybe twenty lengths from the building when Drax says to Peter. ‘You are-’
‘Not here you idiot!’ Rocket grumbles and slaps at Drax’s knee. He shuts up and the rest of the trip to the Milano is in silence.
*******
The moment they’re aboard the Milano, Peter turns to her and stares Gamora down. ‘Are you sure this is an actual thing?’
‘As sure as I can be. It makes sense.’ It would also be terrifying to be standing near something as powerful as even a half-Star seems to be, if the being in question was not Peter Quill.
He looks at her, eyes still intermittently glowing then sighs. ‘It does, more than you know.’ He collapses into a chair near their table. ‘Mum used to talk about Dad sometimes and I thought she was… well, I didn’t believe her.’
‘How did she describe your father?’ Drax sits down across from Peter and Rocket hops up into the seat beside him. Gamora takes the seat on one side of Peter while Groot takes the final seat after a moment or two of struggling.
‘As light.’ Peter shrugs, looking down at the table. ‘Or as an angel.’
‘That does not translate.’ Of course Drax’s language would be the one lacking a metaphorical good being.
‘Basically a being of light. In a good way.’ Peter’s hand darted down to where his walkman usually sat. ‘She really used to go on about the light. I guess I know why now...’ He paused, considering then sighed. ‘She’s the one who first called me Star-Lord too.’
Gamora had to look away for a moment as the depth of feeling behind Peter’s insistence on being called Star-Lord hit her. Then, when she trusted her voice, she spoke. ‘You think she knew?’
‘Had an inkling at least.’ He looks pensive and for a moment Gamora wishes she could hear his thoughts.
‘Why now?’ Rocket has venom in his voice and she has to stop herself hissing at him when Peter flinches. ‘What? I’m just saying. That light show mighta come in handy against, oh I dunno, Ronan?’
‘The small one is right-’ Rocket’s ‘I’ll show you small one’ is ignored, ‘-we could have used that power before.’
Peter shrugs. ‘I didn’t have it before, I don’t even know how I have it now.’
‘Perhaps the Infinity Stone awakened it?’ Gamora theorises and rolls her eyes at the looks everyone else gives her. ‘It makes as much sense as anything else does.’
They all exchange looks before reluctantly nodding.
‘So, what do you think we should do then?’ Peter says after a long moment of silence.
‘’Bout what?’
‘Me? Geez Rocket, you can’t have forgotten that light show already.’ Rocket growls at him.
‘There is nothing to do.’ Gamora says and the others, including the still growling Rocket, nod. ‘Though perhaps some warning next time.’
Peter looks at them all gratefully. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’
For now, it is enough.
EPILOGUE
‘So what do you think?’
Rhomann Dey meets the eyes of his boss. ‘Me, ma’am?’
Nova Prime nods. ‘You do know them best. Were they lying?’
Rhomann considers his options before replying. ‘I think they knew more than they were letting on.’
The knowing smile on Nova Prime’s face makes him sigh with relief internally. That is the answer she wanted- no expected.
‘As do I. Centurion Dey, did ‘Star-Lord’ meet your eyes at any point during the meeting?’
Puzzled at the non-sequitur, Rhomann thinks over the meeting and even before, to the time when the Guardians were being escorted in. Peter had been looking down for most of it, in fact now he thinks on it, he can’t remember seeing the younger man’s eyes at all. He frowns, sure he must be mistaken.
‘I can see from the look on your face, he did not.’
‘No ma’am. I do not recall meeting his eyes.’
She nods again. ‘He met mine only once.’ Then she turns, bring up the security camera feeds for the room. ‘I wonder-’
The image of Peter looking at her appears and she zooms in on his eyes. Rhomann tries to see what she’s looking for but there’s nothing to be seen.
Until Peter starts looking down and Nova Prime freezes the image. For a brief moment, Rhomann could swear that Peter’s eyes are glowing.
‘I think,’ Nova Prime says as she examines the image closely, ‘that we have a clue as the identity of Star-Lord’s mysterious parent.’