[Although Star-Lord had destroyed several enemy ships, a handful of Necrocraft still pursued Gamora relentlessly, leaving her exhausted and with nowhere to run.]
[Under their hot pursuit, Gamora was forced into a dead end. She tried to execute a sharp turn, but her mining pod scraped against the fleshy organic matter of Knowhere's celestial head.]
[Forced to change her plan, she spoke into her comms. "Quill! I'm trapped! I can't make it to the Milano! I'm going for open space!"]
[With that, she aimed her pod away from Knowhere and shot out into the void.]
["What? Wait! Those pods aren't rated for deep space!" Star-Lord's face paled. He immediately abandoned the Necrocraft he'd seized and accelerated after Gamora.]
[Nebula watched Gamora fly toward her own doom, a flicker of something almost like regret in her voice. "You are a disappointment, sister. Of all our siblings, I hated you the least."]
[A standard mining pod had no chance of maneuvering in the vacuum of space. Once there, it would be a sitting duck, unable to dodge the Necrocraft's attacks. It was a suicide run, and Nebula was disappointed that Gamora would be so foolish.]
["Open your eyes, Nebula!" Gamora's voice crackled over the comms. "If Ronan gets that Stone, he will kill us all!"]
[As soon as her pod entered the vacuum, its conventional engines died, leaving it to drift forward on inertia alone.]
[Nebula and her forces stopped just short of the edge of Knowhere's atmosphere.]
[She aimed her ship's cannons at Gamora's helpless pod and said coldly, "He won't have to kill you. You'll be the only one dying today."]
[She fired without hesitation. Gamora's pod exploded in a silent, brilliant flash.]
[As Nebula stared at the wreckage, it was impossible to read the expression in her dark, cybernetic eyes.]
[Star-Lord watched silently as Gamora's body floated in the void, his heart a tangled mess of emotions.]
[The Cosmic Orb drifted free from the explosion. A tractor beam from Ronan's flagship, the Dark Astor, enveloped it and pulled it aboard.]
[Ignoring Star-Lord and the others, Nebula turned her fleet around and departed.]
[On the ground, Ronan dragged the unconscious Drax over to a bubbling yellow pool of spinal fluid.]
[With a look of complete indifference, as if crushing an ant on the sidewalk, he dropped the Destroyer into the viscous liquid. As the bubbles rose to the surface, Ronan turned away.]
[Nebula's voice sounded over his comms: "Ronan, the mission is complete."]
Clap. Clap. Clap.
The slow, sarcastic applause came from Rocket. "Bravo! Encore! What a brilliant plan, big guy! Lure the galaxy's baddest dude right to the ultimate weapon, get your butt handed to you, and doom us all in the process! Ten out of ten, no notes!"
Gamora covered her face with her hand, groaning with secondhand embarrassment. The Drax on the screen was far more reckless than the one she knew, but she recognized the core of his personality—all muscle, no plan. This probably was how it would have originally happened.
Tony couldn't help but chime in. "Congratulations, Drax. You successfully used your biceps to override the collective IQ of your entire team." He then turned to Peter. "You have my sympathies, Quill."
Star-Lord just shrugged helplessly. Drax's tendency to charge first and think never was a massive headache.
"Jarvis," Tony said, "make a new tactical entry: 'The Drax Maneuver.' Definition: The most efficient method for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Flag for immediate avoidance in all future combat scenarios." He had no intention of letting a mission fail because of a hot-headed teammate.
Drax fell silent, his head bowed. For the first time, the taunts seemed to land with their full weight. Was his quest for vengeance truly so… foolish? He looked at his hands, remembering how utterly useless his strongest blows had been against Ronan. He had no counter-argument. He had failed completely.
[Star-Lord stared at Gamora's body drifting in space, his face a mask of indecision.]
["Quill, forget it!" Rocket's voice crackled over the comm. "Her physiology might let her last a few minutes, but there's nothing we can do! These pods aren't spaceworthy! We'll end up just like her!"]
[With that, Rocket began to fly his pod back toward the Milano.]
[Star-Lord watched as Gamora's skin began to frost over, and then, gritting his teeth, he cursed. "Aw, damn it!"]
[He pressed the communication button.]
[Rocket, already heading back, noticed Peter was still hovering in place. "Quill?"]
["Yondu! Yondu, this is Quill! My coordinates are 2-2-7-K-3-2-4!"]
["Quill? What are you doing?!" Rocket demanded, immediately spinning his pod back around.]
["I'm outside Knowhere! If you can hear this, come get me! I'm surrendering!"]
[He cut the transmission, slapped the side of his helmet to engage his breathing mask, blew the hatch on his pod, and launched himself toward Gamora.]
[Rocket's voice was a mixture of panic and fury. "Quill, stop messing around! Get back in your pod! Your mask won't support two people! You'll die!"]
[Star-Lord ignored him. He floated slowly toward Gamora, gently taking her into his arms. He then removed his own mask and fitted it over her face, giving her a precious supply of oxygen.]
[Seeing Peter sacrifice his only life support, Rocket stood up in his cockpit, screaming into the comms. "You're dead, Quill! You're dead!"]
[Within seconds of being exposed to the vacuum, Peter's face was covered in a thin layer of frost. But Gamora was alive, taking deep, shuddering breaths.]
[In the weightless void, the capillaries in Peter's eyes burst, turning them blood-red. His face began to swell. He stared at Gamora, his consciousness fading, until a bright light enveloped them both.]
[He slowly turned his head to see the familiar shape of Yondu's Ravager ship, its spotlights illuminating them.]
[A tractor beam locked onto them, pulling them safely inside.]
"Whoa…" Scott Lang breathed, his eyes wide. "Okay, that was… seriously heroic."
"Well, I'll be damned," Tony said, a rare note of genuine admiration in his voice. "The playboy finally found something worth dying for." Then, his expression shifted. The engineer's curiosity eclipsed the awe. "But wait a minute."
He leaned forward, studying the screen intently. "That's not right. A human body in a hard vacuum? Your lungs should have ruptured from the explosive decompression. Your blood should have boiled. You got a little frosty, sure, but you didn't… pop. What's the deal, Quill? What kind of modifications did the Ravagers give you?"
Peter looked taken aback, as if he'd never considered the science of his own survival. "What? None. I haven't had any mods like that." He paused, a memory surfacing. "The doctors on Xandar… after the Battle of Xandar, they scanned me. They said my biology was… weird. Something ancient. A genetic marker they'd never seen before."
The pieces clicked into place in his mind, and he spoke them aloud. "I held the Power Stone… and I survived that… It has to be because of my father." He trailed off, a deep, unanswered question finally taking shape. Who was he?
Yondu had always been cagey, always dodged the question. He had never said a word about… Ego.
[*Fanfic GOG Timeline : In this timeline, the Guardians' story diverges after they escape the Kyln prison. Their journey and motivation for coming to Earth are as follows:
Their plan to sell the Orb (containing the Power Stone) to the Collector fails when they arrive at Knowhere to find it already decimated by Thanos, who used the Reality Stone. The terrified Collector refuses to take the Power Stone off their hands.
While attempting to leave Knowhere, they are ambushed by Ronan the Accuser, who seizes the Power Stone. After allying with Yondu and the Ravagers, they confront Ronan over Xandar. In the final battle, Quill grabs the Power Stone, and with Gamora, Drax, and Rocket sharing its burden, they use its power to obliterate Ronan.
Although they saved Xandar, the battle causes catastrophic losses. Fearing that holding the Stone will make them a target for Thanos, Nova Prime refuses to take it for safekeeping.
Left with the universe's most dangerous artifact and hunted by Nebula (who was dispatched by Thanos), Quill decides their only remaining option is to take the Power Stone to Earth and ask the Avengers for help, knowing a confrontation between Earth and Thanos is inevitable. They successfully land on the roof of Stark Tower and present the Stone to the Avengers. ]