"I guess most of Nova Corps wanna uphold the laws, but these ones here? They're corrupt and cruel," Rocket was saying as they were being marched into the Kyln prison.

It wasn't much to look at, in Marisol's opinion. Just a large oval structure stranded out in the middle of space. There was a small hanger at one end of the prison where the guards landed the prison vessel that had brought them there.

The floors were nothing but cold, hard metal. Every now and again they'd pass thick, rusted chain walls, giving the place a harrowing vibe. Occasionally, they'd pass by a window too, allowing Marisol to see the stars in the distance, but she couldn't really find it in herself to care much for the sight.

After twenty-six years of staring into the cold, empty vacuum of space it had really lost it's flavor. Where she once saw beauty and extravagant life forms, she now saw dull, boring nothingness. Besides, in her experience beautiful things could be rather duplicitous.

Rocket laughed. "But hey, that's not my problem. I ain't gonna be here long. I escaped twenty-two prisons. This one's no different."

"Yeah, whatever, Cohete, just don't forget me and Groot when you go, yeah?" Mari said.

After spending years stuck inside a cage with nothing to eat but the little portions that were given to her, Mari had grown a little weary about being locked up.

Cages and small spaces just didn't mix well with her. The only way she managed to get through being sent to prison was if Rocket was there with her. He was the only one who knew how to calm her down when she started to panic.

Rocket let out another rumbling laugh. "Of course, of course. Can't forget my partners in crime, can I?" Then he went back to boasting to the others, namely Starlord. "You're lucky the broad showed up, because otherwise the three of us would be collecting that bounty right now, and you'd be getting drawn and quartered by Yondu and those Ravagers."

Mari chuckled to herself. "It's funny really. That man once ruined my life..."

"Really? How?" She could feel Starlord's gaze on the back of her head as she walked. Even though she couldn't see his face, she could imagine what it looked like. He was frowning, maybe concerned, probably just looking for something he could use against her later.

Either way, it seemed he still hadn't figured out who she was. It was kind of sad and pathetic; out of what little sympathy she managed to muster up, she threw him a small bone.

"He took me from my home, stole my cousin away from me, and sold me off to the nearest insane lunatic." Mari shrugged, shoving the rising emotions back down. She hadn't really been expecting to feel anything. Her cousin hadn't been in her life for twenty-six years, it wasn't like she had any care for him anymore.

Still, those events weren't a part of her life that she particularly enjoyed remembering. She'd been weak and helpless. Alone and afraid. Up until now only Rocket (and a select few she'd told in order to gain their trust and manipulate them) was the only one who knew anything about it.

Recalling those memories only reminded her how pathetic she once was. How much she hated the person she'd been before.

"Wow." Mari imagined Starlord blinking, looking taken aback by her story. "That's weird because he did the same with me and my cousin. Took us from our home, I mean." She guessed he shook his head here. "Never really knew what he did with her, though. We were separated as soon as we got on his ship."

Mari hummed softly, musing over his words. Even after she had practically spelt it out for him he still didn't get it. Had her cousin gotten stupid as well as egotistical? What a loser.

Marisol didn't bother to tell him, though. Instead, she decided to see how far she could take it. She turned her head, smiling with fake sweetness, as if she were just as clueless as he was. "Well I guess kidnapping innocent kids is a regular thing for him then."

"Ah, he's not that bad," Starlord insisted. He sounded a little too defensive over a guy who'd kidnapped him, put a bounty on his head, and God only knew what else Yondu had done to him. "He raised me so."

This comment threw her for a bit of a loop. She distinctly remembered Yondu telling her he'd been hired to take Peter to his dad's. That was the whole reason he'd taken them.

Of course, she might have been remembering wrong, but that wasn't very likely. Marisol had a pretty decent memory, so she rarely forgot any piece of information given to her no matter how useless. Besides, the reason your life was ruined wasn't that easy to forget. (She'd tried.)

"And a fine job he did at that," Mari scoffed, deciding not to mention any of that. "You're a total pinche pendejo."

"Hey, screw you, Queenie!" Starlord huffed. "I'm not a pina...whatever you just said!" He paused for a moment, probably scrunching his face up in confusion. "Also, I have no idea what that means."

Mari smirked at that, but she didn't bother to translate for him. It'd be fun to keep the little turd guessing. "Anyway, I use to be bitter at Yondu, but I got over it. Turns out he was actually doing me a favor."

She nodded at Rocket. "Met my best friend." She looked over her shoulder, tilting her head at Groot, who stood behind Starlord. "And this guy." She grinned to herself. "Cool powers. A big ass criminal record. That's pretty fun. What else could a gal need? Well, you know, besides a flying douchebag car..."

Mari turned again, flashing Starlord the sweetest smile she could muster up. "Returning his trash to him would have been the least I could do to repay him."

He scoffed in return. "I've had a lot of people try to kill me over the years. I ain't about to be brought down by a tree, some wanna be badass assassin Queen Bee, and a talking raccoon!"

Rocket stopped walking for a second, scrunching up his nose. "What's a raccoon?"

"What's a raccoon?" Starlord repeated moodily. "It's what you are, stupid."

Rocket shook his head. He patted himself on the chest proudly, which looked a bit weird since he was standing in front of them. "Ain't no thing like me, 'cept me."

"Ditto," Marisol nodded. "That's what happens when you get experimented on by a psycho scientist. You get unique DNA."

Starlord huffed, probably rolling his eyes. She figured he'd retort with another sarcastic remark, but instead he turned his chin upwards, calling out to Gamora up at the front of their little line. "So, this Orb has a real shiny blue, suitcase, Ark of the Covenant, Matease Falcon sort of vibe."

"Orb? That thing you dropped?" Mari wondered. "What's in that thing anyways?"

"I don't know," Starlord said before turning his attention back to Gamora. "What is it?"

The green skinned woman didn't get the chance to answer though. Groot spoke up before she could even open her mouth. "I am Groot."

Mari snorted. What he'd said translated to: You sound like a moron. Didn't you steal it? How do you not know what's in it?

Which made it all the more hilarious when Starlord, who clearly had no idea what the tree man was saying, snapped, "So what?" Back to Gamora. "What's the Orb?"

"I have no words for the honorless thief," Gamora said, her voice emotionless.

Mari scoffed, leaning down a bit, muttering to Rocket, "And he calls me the queen bee?" Rocket snickered at that. Neither Gamora or Starlord seemed very amused though; Mari imagined they were both rolling their eyes simultaneously.

"Yeah, that's pretty high and mighty coming from the lackey of a genocidal maniac," Rocket quipped.

Gamora whirled around, a look of surprise on her face. Rocket looked up at her smugly. "Yeah, I know who you are. Anyone who's anyone knows who you are."

Marisol nodded curtly, as Gamora faced forward again, acting as though she hadn't been the slightest bit unnerved.

The scene was made even more amusing when Starlord added his piece in. "Yeah, we know who you are!" Mari glanced over her shoulder and got him turning to Groot, quietly asking, "Who is she?"

"I am Groot," Groot said, trying to explain. Except, Starlord was a moron, so he didn't know what he was saying.

"Yeah," Starlord said, confused, "you said that."

The guard stopped them in front of a large metal door. He fiddled with the machinery on his arm silently, and when the door opened they started marching again.

Gamora sighed as they walked on. Apparently, she deemed it necessary to defend her actions. "I wasn't retrieving the orb for Ronan. I was betraying him. I had an agreement to sell it to a third party."

Marisol didn't really care about any of that, though. Politics and war had never really been her thing.

Neither had heroics or semantics. All she cared about was the next big score and getting her hands on one of those damned flying douchebags cars!

"I am Groot," Groot said. He, unlike Mari, was very opinionated on that sort of thing.

Groot never shied away from sharing his political views, which essentially boiled down to: Everyone is stupid, and all other life forms should be replaced by plant people.

Mari rolled her eyes at Groot, Rocket giving out a short laugh in front of her. It was sort of offensive, but then again it was hard to disagree with. People sucked ass.

Starlord sighed. "Well that's just as fascinating as the first eighty-nine times you told me that. What is wrong with Giving Tree, here?"

Marisol snorted at his ignorance, leaving Rocket to explain things to the moron as they rounded the corner. "Well, he don't know talking good like me and you. So, his vocabulistics is limited to 'I' and 'am' and 'Groot.' Exclusively, in that order."

Starlord scoffed. "I tell you what, that's gonna wear real thin, real fast."

He quickly got distracted, though, glancing into one room as they passed by. The guards were going through their things, everything they'd had on them when the broad had picked them up.

Marisol didn't care much for any of it. It was just replaceable junk, but apparently Starlord was much more sentimental than she was.

One of the guards, a massive blue skinned man, had an orange headset over his ears, bobbing his head to the music from an old 1988 walkman with a huge smirk on his face.

It took her a minute, but Marisol vaguely recognized the thing as her cousin's old cassette​ tape player. He still had that damned thing after all these years?

How the hell had he not lost it? For that matter, how in the flying fuck had he managed to keep it working after all this time?

Those things were flimsy at best. The longest Marisol had ever gotten one to work was a few months!

Not to mention, it was rare to find Terran things way out in space. Where would he have gotten the batteries for it?

For that matter, how was it that those tapes hadn't been completely trashed by now?

  Starlord spotted the guard and instantly grew flustered, marching towards him hastily and derailing Mari's thought train.

"Hey! Hey, put that away! Hey! Listen to me, you big blue bastard! Take those headphones off." The door slid closed behind him, but he didn't seem to notice.

"That's mine!" Starlord huffed. He nodded at the walkman when the blue man continued to ignore him.

"Those belong to impound! That tape and that player is mine!" It was astounding how childish he sounded.

Marisol sighed, as everyone stopped walking to watch as Starlord successfully got a new job as the guard's pinatas​.

The blue man leapt up, punching him square in the jaw, knocking him into the barred door.

He continued zapping him with a taser, but the message didn't sink in, because Starlord kept going, rattling off the musical numbers on the tape as proof of his ownership. "Hooked on a Feeling, Blue Swede, 1973! That song belongs to me!"

"Pinche pendejo," Mari sneered, as the guards hauled Starlord up, forcing him out of the room.

Mari strangely adored what came next. It was the part most people hated, but she reveled in it.

It was the part where the splattered the orange goo all over her while she stood buck naked in the center of a large, empty room.

Mari had never been sure what it was for, to cleanse them, maybe. Or maybe it was some sort of spray on tracking device for the guards. They'd never told her before.

All she knew for sure was that it gave her such a rush. The feeling of the liquid spraying onto her face without so much as a warning. The way it blinded her for a few minutes. The drowning sensation...

She lived for danger. The fear. The adrenaline. After living in it for so long she had learned to embrace it, to love it even.

The only downside to the experience was the way it stained her skin orange, like a bad spray on tan.

When the orange shower was over, they took her to her cell, tossing her in with nothing but an obnoxiously bright yellow jumpsuit to put on.

Gamora was already sitting on one of the beds, her own skin stained brown, dressed in the hideous jumpsuit.

Marisol groaned, slipping into her clothes. Rocket wasn't anywhere in sight, which really didn't bode well.

Once she was dressed, she took a seat at the table on the other end of the cell. Mari glanced around, trying to keep her mind racing, to stop the unwanted memories and emotions from surfacing. She wasn't a little kid anymore. She wasn't weak. Wasn't scared.

The cell was more spacious than most of the other ones she'd been in. The walls and barred doors were rusty, but it could fit in two bunk beds, a sofa, and the table so it was pretty nice...for a prison cell anyway.

"Your hands are shaking."

Marisol snapped her head up to glare at Gamora. The other woman was staring at her, her head tilted to one side. "They are not!"

But even as she said it, Mari was becoming acutely aware of the fact that her hands were, indeed, trembling quite a bit.

She shook her head, shoving her hands on her lap and underneath the table so Gamora couldn't see them. That didn't stop her pestering though. "You're claustrophobic? Or is it cleithrophobia? I always get the two confused."

"I don't have any phobias," Mari said quickly. "I'm not afraid of anything."

Gamora held her hands up in surrender, apparently detecting the malice in her voice. "I didn't mean to offend you."

Mari huffed, turning away and ignoring her. As soon as the cell went quiet, though, an icy needle pricked at the back of her neck. Marisol gripped the armrest of her chair, her breathing quickly becoming labored.

She shut her eyes tightly, but that didn't stop the memories from washing over her. Of course Marisol knew she wasn't really there, but somehow her brain was still convinced she was.

She was back in that wretched lab, tied down to that metal chair as that dickwad poked and prodded her, injecting her with liquids and chemicals she had never even heard of before.

Marisol gripped the armrest of her chair so tightly she was sure it was cutting into her skin. At the very least, it was digging into the cut she'd gotten when she'd grabbed Gamora's hatchet, reopening the wound.

She tried focusing on that pain instead, but all it did was remind her of those tests he'd run on both her and Rocket.

Sometimes he'd force them to fight each other, to see who was better. And when they refused to fight he'd poke and prod them some more with a large cattle rod that dug deep into their skin.

"Maybe if you told me what was wrong, I could help you." Gamora's voice cut through the nightmare, abruptly pulling Mari back to reality.

She jumped at the sudden noise. Whirling around again, Marisol sent another glare towards Gamora.

"I don't need your help! I don't need anyone's help, especially not some dumb, green bimbo trying to be a white night to make up for her own sins!"

Gamora huffed. "I am not a bimbo!" She scowled back at her. "You don't have to name call! You were having a panic attack, I was just trying to help!"

"I'm fine!" Mari snapped.

Gamora folded her arms over herself. She huffed indignantly. "Clearly, you are not."

"Vete a la mierda, puta verde!" Marisol yelled, jumping to her feet. She clenched her fists, glowering at Gamora and making her palm bleed again. "You don't know me!"

"I know!" Gamora stood up, her own fists clenching as she stood over the slightly smaller woman. "That doesn't mean I want to see an innocent person suffer!"

Mari rolled her eyes. "Well, aren't you just a fuckin' saint, judías verdes."

She stepped forward so that the two of them were standing nose to nose. "But let's get a few things straight. One, I'm not innocent. I'm wanted on over thirty planets in the galaxy, and for good reason, too. Two, you don't owe me anything, so you don't have to do anything for me because you feel bad about ruining my score!"

Gamora scoffed, rolling her head around in annoyance. "You think I'm being nice because we were arrested? I --"

"Three," Marisol interrupted, "whatever crap you've got going on with your family, I don't care. So, you can drop the act. Not my family, not problem. Leave me out of it, you don't have anything to prove to me.

"Four, I don't know you, and you don't know me. So, stay the hell out of my business, just as you keep me out of yours. I don't have anything to prove to you either." 

For a moment, the two women just glared at each other, each waiting for a fight to break out.

Then, Gamora rolled her eyes. "Yeah, fine. Next time I see you in the midst of a panic attack I'll just leave you to it." She whirled around, flopping back on to her bed.

"Fine," Mari hissed in return. She spun on her heel, marching back to the table, roughly sitting back down.

It was a only a moment later, though, that Gamora shifted slightly, nodding at her hand. "But you really should get something to wrap that up. It'll get infected."

Marisol let out a loud, annoyed growl, burrowing her face in her arms on the table.

The prison yard room was massive. A catwalk rose above the main area, where the floor was filled wall to wall with prisoners, mostly men, all wearing the same ugly ass jumpsuit. In the center of the room stood a tall, thirty foot, metal structure.

Marisol sauntered into the room next to Rocket and Groot, Gamora and Starlord trailing behind her.

Marisol had found something to wrap her hand up with in her cell, if not just to shut Gamora up. With a quick glance at her friend, Marisol saw Groot's arm had grown back as well.

A few of the men eyed her seductively, but once she sent her own sneer their way they bolted like the cockroaches they were.

Normally, when she, Rocket, and Groot were arrested she was placed in the male prison alongside her two friends because space prisons were a lot more lenient than earth prisons. So, she was used to this behavior and she knew how to scare the punks off.

It was made especially easy this go around, because most of them were shooting glares at Gamora, signaling with their hands that they planned to kill her when she had let her guard down.

Someone threw something at her but smacked Starlord instead. He slowly glanced up at the catwalk, where a group of men were shouting down at her. "You first! We're comin' for you first, Gamora! You're dead!"

To her credit, Gamora didn't even flinch as she passed through another large group of men. They pointed at her, shouting and throwing things as she walked. "You're scum! You're scum!"

Rocket shrugged, looking up at Starlord. "Like I said, she's got a rep." From the way he'd said it, Marisol guessed he must have been continuing a conversation they'd had earlier while they were still in the cells. "A lot of people lost their families to Ronan and his goons. She'll last a day, tops."

Mari shook her head, letting out a coy laugh. "Nah, there are way too many gente cabreada in here. She won't last but a few hours. What's more, I'll bet you thirty units she doesn't make it through the night."

"You're on!" Rocket nodded curtly. They shook on it.

"I'm standing right here," Gamora huffed. Mari ignored her; so did Rocket.

"Ignore them. They're just being idiots," Starlord told her.

He turned back to Rocket after a moment, though, looking concerned. "The guards will protect her right?"

Strange, the way he seemed so worried for a woman who had just been trying to kill him a few hours ago. Then again, he was pretty stupid.

"They're here to stop us from getting out," Rocket said. "They don't care what we do to each other inside."

"Whatever nightmares the future holds are dreams compared to what's behind me," Gamora said.

Starlord nodded slowly. He looked around the prison yard room, seemingly a bit put off. "So, uh, I've never been to prison before. What do we do now?"

"Never been to prison?" Marisol jeered, leaning over to Groot. "Dios bueno, that's some outlaw, eh?"

"I am Groot," Groot snickered, calling Starlord a loser. Marisol laughed at his remark.

Starlord stared at them, squinting. "Between the Spanish and the tree talk I'm completely lost, but I'm pretty sure your friends are making fun of me," he told Rocket.

"No!" Rocket said, putting his paws on his cheeks and dragging the word out sarcastically.

Starlord rolled his eyes. "Ha, ha, ha. Very funny. But seriously. What do we do?"

Marisol walked up to him, placing her hands on his shoulders, smirking slightly. "Okay, listen closely, chico estrella. First we're going to find the biggest guy here."

"Okay," Starlord said, inching away from her uncomfortably. "And?"

"And we're going to kick his ass," Marisol said simply.

Starlord's face contorted uneasily. "Uh, not that I have a problem with picking fights, but, um...why?"

"Because, wise guy, we need to assert our dominance," Rocket said. He stopped walking, a big, devious grin spreading across his face. "And lookie here. Seems the biggest loser just found us."

Rocket nodded to the ten foot man stomping over their way. He was built like a rock, his muscles thick and round.

His eyes and nose were small, and his ears were covered by flaps of blue skin. Wrinkles lined every inch of his big stupid face.

"I am Groot," Groot mumbled.

Mari nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty easy," she agreed. "We must be getting a rep too." She shrugged when the guy walked up to Starlord instead. "Or not."

The big blue man bared his death down at Starlord, the Terran man nothing more than a tiny spec in his wake. "Check out the new meat." He ran a massive, blue, meaty hand over Starlord's cheek, speaking sweetly, making the Terran cringe. "I'm gonna slather you up in Gunavian jelly and go to town." He chuckled darkly.

Mari sighed, glancing to Rocket, who was lazily looking at his claws, and Groot, who was plucking at some excess leaves on his forearm. "Who's turn is it?"

Whenever they went to a new prison they always took turns beating the crap out of the dominant one, the one who thought they owned the place.

"I am Groot," Groot said.

Mari nodded. "Alright. Go for it."

Groot pushed Starlord behind him, promptly shoving his fingers up the blue man's nose. He must have elongated them so that they were poking the guy's brains out, because he was screaming bloody murder.

Mari's lips quirked upward the slightest bit as the other inmates stopped whatever they'd been doing to look over, fearful looks in their eyes.

Rocket pranced around, waving his arms around dramatically as he shouted into the crowd, his voice booming off the walls. "Let's make something clear. This one here is our booty!"

He pointed at Starlord roughly before smacking himself on the chest with his fist. "You wanna get to him, you go through us... Or more accurately..."

Rocket paused, sending a death glare all around the room as he spun in a slow circle. He might have been pretty frightening if Marisol hadn't known him for most of her life.

His teeth were bared, his eyes a wild fire ready to burn whoever dared stand in his way. "We go through you," he finished with a deep growl.

"And in case that wasn't enough proof that we can tear any of you perdedores down in a matter of seconds," Mari hissed, stepping forward, her own voice echoing menacingly.

She raised her fist, and a wave of purple energy shot out from her hand, washing over everyone in the room.

Marisol never got to see what happened to her body when she used her powers, but she'd been told her eyes changed, turning a deep, menacing violet shade.

Her figure glowed with the same color, her hair rippling behind her even when there was no wind.

In any case, Marisol's powers weren't as pretty as it sounded. She sometimes got dreams of the future; and when she touched any one item, if she focused long enough, she could see its entire history.

(That ability came in handy when pulling off a heist.) Occasionally, she could do this with sentient beings as well, but she didn't do it often because it took a lot of energy.

She could also take control of others' minds and project her nightmares onto others, which is precisely what she did in the prison yard room.

The energy wave she sent spiraling across the way rippled violently, casting all of Marisol's worst experiences into their heads.

Her time with the mad scientist, needles and liquids being forced into her body. That time she'd been kidnapped for ransom, when Rocket had to save her via causing a massive explosion.

She showed them the night Yondu kidnapped her and her cousin, the very same night her life had been changed forever.

She showed them the first time she'd discovered her powers, how she had almost killed her best friend because she couldn't get control of them. Marisol even showed them the night her mother died, her first ever tragedy.

When the images faded from their minds and Marisol's eyes returned to their normal brown, the inmates were quaking in their boots.

There were no more shouts or death threats being thrown at Gamora. No more perverted looks from lustful men. Only fear.

Marisol flashed a stone cold glare throughout the room. She shouted, "Now we run this place! You got that?"

A few of the inmates nodded hurriedly, flinching when Rocket pretended to jump at them. They ran away, Rocket laughing as they retreated.

Starlord stared at her, his eyes going wide, mouth agape. "Marisol?" He fumbled over his words, not even able to form a proper sentence. "I -- I... You... You're... You're..."

"Yeah I know, sad life," Mari said, like she didn't know what he was talking about.

She'd just accidentally given away her identity with that trick. Pity. His ignorance was amusing. 

"What? No. I mean, yeah. But that's not what I --" Marisol didn't listen to what he had to say, walking off before he was even halfway done talking.

Groot dropped the blue man to the floor, leaving him sobbing like a baby.

Stepping over him, being sure to send a hard kick to his gut as she went, Marisol followed Rocket and Groot across the walkway. The other inmates made way for them as they passed, cowering in fear.

Starlord glanced around at the other inmates, as they slowly came back around. "Uh, yeah. I'm with them." He hurried after the three crooks.

Rocket looked up at Marisol as they walked, shaking his head the slightest bit. "You shouldn't have done that, you idiot."

Marisol shot a death defying look back down at him. "No me digas que hacer!" she snapped. "Tu no eres mi papa!"

Whenever she got to a point in which she was thoroughly ticked off, Marisol slipped into rapid fire Spanish.

Usually this happened whenever she and Rocket were in an argument, generally being an argument about her powers.

He liked to lecture her about them, as if he somehow knew more about them than she did, as if he were the one who had them.

Naturally, Marisol hated the lectures, so she grew vexed every time he started in on her.

"Hey! Don't get snippy with me, little lady!" Rocket hissed back, somehow sounding even more like a father scolding his child than before. "You know how easily over exerted you get when you use your powers like that!"

"Deja de mimar, roedor demasiado crecido," Mari growled, her words translating to: quit your coddling, you overgrown rodent.

It was a low blow, considering how sensitive Rocket was about being compared to a life form on such a lower level, but Marisol was beyond frustrated with his lectures.

It was especially irksome, because she knew he was right. She was already feeling her body being drained of all its energy.

Her eyelids grew heavy, and her limbs were turning to lead. There was a sharp sting on her temple.

"Hey! Watch it!" Rocket snarled, baring his teeth at her.

Marisol rolled her eyes, completely unmoved by his threat. She had lost count how many of their arguments had ended just like this; and after a while the threats lost their edge.

They meant little to nothing anyways. "Estoy bien."

But her head felt like she was being repeatedly jabbed with a fork, and it was getting rather difficult to move her feet.

"Yeah, yeah," Rocket waved it away. "I know. I know." He stalked off, completely forgetting about the rodent comment. "Just watch it, alright?"

Mari sighed and nodded. "Alright," she said, switching back to English.

Groot looked between them, a worried frown on his face, like he always got when the two of them argued about Marisol's powers.

After a moment of confliction, he chose to follow Rocket, leaving Starlord and Mari alone.

Starlord let out a deep breath. "Wow. That was..."

"Don't talk to me, chico estrella," Mari cut him off, too tired to listen to his moronic musings.

She pushed her way past an arm wrestling duo, only to find that Starlord was following her.

She groaned, rolling her eyes for what felt like the millionth time in the last seven hours. (Maybe Rocket had been right about that too. She really did roll her eyes a lot.)

Spinning around with a heavy sigh, Marisol fixed her gaze on her cousin. "What do you want?"

"I, uh --" He hesitated, moving around the arm wrestlers with a bit of a struggle. "I think we should talk."

"We are talking. What do you want?" Marisol repeated impatiently.

She just wanted to sit down and rest for a damn minute, was that too much to ask?!

"I... meant we should talk alone," Starlord said, gesturing at all the other inmates around them. "Without all the witnesses to over hear."

Marisol let out a short, sharp laugh. "You think I'm dumb enough to let you get me alone? Vete a la mierda."

As far as he knew, he had no idea she already knew who he was. She could still have a bit of fun with that.

Starlord gagged a little. "What? No, gross!" At her narrowed eyes he hastily added, "I mean, you're pretty and all that, sure, but..." He trailed off, sighing in frustration.

Marisol's mouth curled upwards the slightest bit at that. His stuttering made this even more hilarious to her.

"You got something you wanna say, you say it to me right here, chico estrella. And make it snappy. I'm not a patient woman."

"Fine." He hesitated for another moment. "Look, don't you remember me at all?"

Marisol shrugged. She shoved a lady off her seat before stealing the spot for herself; when they lady tried stealing it back, Marisol sneered at her, her eyes flashing purple as she prepared to use her powers again.

The woman ran off, tail between her legs. Marisol grinned, turning back to Starlord with a shrug. "Sure, I tried to kidnap you for money."

Starlord sighed again, shaking his head. "I meant before that!" He searched her face for any sign of recognition, when he found none he went on senselessly. "Okay, I guess that's fair. I didn't recognize you at first either. It has been twenty-six years after all. But come on! I don't even look kind of familiar to you?"

Marisol gave the man a once over.  She pretended to think for a moment, taking a closer look at him.

It was actually the first good look she'd gotten of him since Rocket had first spotted him. The first time she  cared enough to really notice him.

He had actually changed a lot over the years, but that was to be expected wasn't it?

His sandy hair was tussled around, sticking up every which way with not a single hint of style.

His hazel eyes flashed with a spark of self importance, and that cocky smirk of his would have one believe any woman would instantly fall in love with him upon seeing him, despite his body being just a little more than average.

Marisol didn't believe he really had any reason at all to carry himself the way he did.

He really didn't have the looks to justify the condescending jack ass attitude.

The only thing he really had going for him was the slight scruff on his chin, but that was being generous.

Marisol snapped her fingers, flashing him the most moronic smile she could manage. "Ah, I got it. You're the guy that sold me that bad pizza that one time, yeah?"

She frowned. "Wait. No. I killed him, never mind."

"Yeah, no," Starlord shook his head. "Look." He glanced around nervously, even though no one was watching them.

They'd all gone back to harassing Gamora. "That vision you showed everyone, it was about me."

Mari clenched her fists at her sides, sitting up straight, pretending to get angry. "Excuse me?" He took a hesitant back.

"Those were all my memories, pinche pendejo! My experiences. Not yours. Don't sully them by pretending you have any part in my life!"

"That's just it, I think I do!" Starlord said.

Marisol stood from her chair so fast that the table nearly flipped over; she raised her fist to deck him.

He held his hands up to shield his face. "I'm your cousin!" he shouted desperately.

Marisol stopped, lowering her hands to her sides again. She stared at him, eyes widening; when she spoke her voice was ice cold. "What did you just say?"

She probably should have let up a little, but she was having so much fun watching him squirm.

Starlord slowly lowered his own hands, looking back at her timidly.

"I'm your cousin," he repeated. "That memory you showed the inmates? The one where your getting abducted at the hospital after your aunt passed away? That's my memory too. That was my mom. I'm Peter, Mari."

He took a step towards her, promoting her to move backwards.

Trying her best not to bust out laughing, she said, "How do I know you're not just saying that?"

"Why would I lie about this?" Starlord asked incredulously.

Marisol shrugged. "People have lied about much less before," she pointed out.

"Uh, touché," he nodded. "But I'm not lying. I swear on my mother's grave."

Marisol looked him over for another moment, silently considering dropping the act.

She could tell he was dead serious and getting very flustered... So, naturally, she took it a bit further. "Alright, then. Prove it. Prove to me you're my primito. Tell me something only he would know."

He looked thoughtful for a count of three seconds, before saying, "Your mother died just before your ninth birthday."

"I just showed everyone that memory," she reminded him. "Nice try."

She turned, ready to leave and find out where Rocket and Groot had gone off to, only Starlord grabbed her arm before she could get very far.

Marisol twirled around, fist raised to punch him, but he grabbed that arm too. Starlord looked her in the eyes seriously. "I wasn't finished."

He let her go, and she elevated her hand, signaling for him to proceed.

"Your mom died just before your ninth birthday," he said again. "The last thing she gave you before she passed was a purple necklace. You never took it off. Ever. Said it was like having a part of her with you wherever you went, like she wasn't really gone. But you didn't like telling people that because they always looked at you differently when you did. You always told me I was the only one who didn't."

Marisol stared back at him blankly. Absently, her hand drifted to her neck, only to find it was bare.

She'd almost forgotten she'd lost the necklace the same year Yondu sold her to the scientist. (More like he had taken it from her because it would have somehow interfered with the experiments.)

Marisol shook her head. She hadn't thought about that stupid thing in ages. "I could have told anyone that story. That's not that special."

"Hold up," Starlord sighed. "I'm still not done." Mari rolled her eyes, but she let him go on. "One day this really mean bitch named Jolene Stewerts stole it from your cubby during gym class. And when you tried to get it back, it fell on the floor and cracked. You were really upset about it, so you and me decided to get her back.

"We broke into her house the next night and cut off all her hair and defaced all her stupid little dollies. At the time that was the worst thing either of us had ever done before, so we made a pact to never tell anyone. Ever. It was our little secret."

Marisol remained quiet for a moment, promoting Starlord to roll his hand. "Okay, now I'm done."

Mari broke out into a small grin. "You left out the part where we tied all her shoelaces together so it'd be impossible for her to wear any of them."

He grinned back, chuckling under his breath at the memory. "Yeah, for the next two weeks she had to come to school shoeless and all the other kids started making fun of her for a change."

They shared a little laugh, then he grew serious again. "So, you believe me, now?"

"Yeah," she said. "I knew who you were the whole time. I've just been busting your balls." Marisol snickered behind her hand, as Peter's eyes widened.

He stared at her for a total of two minutes, mouth hanging open, making him look like a fish out of water. "I -- Seriously?? Why would you do that?! That's so rude!"

Marisol laughed. "It was funny!"

Peter groaned, shaking his head and letting out a heavy sigh. Then he flashed her another small grin. "I thought they'd killed you."

"They did," she said seriously, making him frown again. "Marisol González is dead. It's just Chimera now." With that, she walked away, leaving a befuddled Starlord behind her.