ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ sᴇᴠᴇɴ | ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀᴜᴛʜ ᴄᴏᴍᴇs ᴏᴜᴛ

————

"I AM TRULY NOT ALONE!" Ego shouted towards the sky, raising his arms. He looked down to see Peter, with a sullen look upon his face. "What is it, son?"

He slowly looked up with his galaxy eyes. "My friends..."

"Well, you see, that's the mortal in you, Peter."

Peter nodded. "Yes."

"We are beyond such things..." Ego explained. "Now–"

"But, my mother." Peter interrupted. "You said you loved my mother."

"And that, I did." Ego confirmed in a soft tone. "My River Lily who knew all the words every song that came over the radio. I returned to Earth to see her three times. And I knew if I returned a forth..." he let out a soft, humourless chuckle. "I'd never leave. The Expansion – the reason for my very existence would be over – so, I did what I had to do. But...it broke my heart to put that tumour in her head."

The galaxies within Peter's eyes quickly wiped away as looked to his father. "What?"

"Now, now. I know that sounds bad, but–"

Peter didn't allow Ego to finish, but rather drew his guns and fired relentlessly on Ego.

After shooting Ego until he was only a half form, and half energy, Peter stopped, his face reading no mercy.

"Who..." Ego breathed, trying to stand properly. "in the hell do you think you are?!"

"YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!" Peter bellowed with rage.

"I tried so hard, to find the form that best suited you!" Ego's appearance morphed into David Hasselhoff. "And this is the thanks I get?! You really need to grow up!"

Peter looked at his father with betrayal as Ego shifted back into his original form.

Ego extended his hand, bringing up a tendril of energy. The energy swirled around before piercing Peter in the back, right through his chest. Peter gasped as his eyes looked to the ceiling, pain surging through his body.

"I wanted to do this together!" Ego scolded. "But I guess you'll have to learn by spending the next thousand years as a battery!"

————

The sun slowly peaked up over the horizon, and Gamora's communication device beeped. She grabbed it quickly. "Finally. Rocket?"

"Keep that transmitter nearby so I can find ya. We're in an old piece of construction equipment Yondu once used to slice open the bank of A'askavaria."

"Ego's unhinged," Gamora informed Rocket, waking away.

"I know. Get ready."

————

Ego studied Peter, who was now was limp and seemingly lifeless. He walked up to him, talking his Walkman off of his belt.

"No," Peter whispered with no strength.

Ego held the device in his palm, his thumb jabbing the play button. The song Brandy by Looking Glass played but was very off-tune since Peter overplayed the tape too many times.

"My life...my love...my lady is the sea." Ego quoted the song, gazing up at Peter, who was now crying. "Peter, this is the sea."

Ego's fingers curled into his palm, crushing his Walkman and his mixtape. Stepping back, he allowed the energy to intensify and completely take over Peter's body. Ego contributed his own energy, building up enough to power the core of his planet.

The seedlings that Ego planted, over the galaxies, finally sprouted, emitting a glowing blue glob that expanded and swallowed anything in its way.

Drax suddenly kicked in the door to the building, as Yondu crashed his ship through the window, yelling "Hey there, jackass!"

Yondu crashed the ship right into Ego, crushing him. The energy flickered, cutting off and dropping Peter to the ground.

The door to the smaller ship opened, and Groot stood there, waving kindly. Drax flailed his hand, "Outta the way, dumber, smaller Groot!"

Him, Nebula, and Gamora all climbed on. Drax furrowed his eyebrows, watching as Groot attempted to hit and punch his boot angrily. Lexi rushed over to Peter, wasting no time to lift him by his arm, putting half of his weight on herself, and aiding him over towards the rescue ship.

"You are one of the dumbest people I know," Lexi grunted, almost dragging Peter.

"I told you so is exactly what I needed to hear right now." Peter groaned back sarcastically.

"I came back, didn't I? I would at least like a thank you."

"Because of our unspoken thing,"

"I swear, one more goddamn word and I'll punch you in the face." Lexi rolled her eyes, reaching the ship and beginning to haul Peter on.

"What we're you doing? You could've killed us!" Drax asked Rocket, who swirled around in his seat.

"Uh, Thank you, Rocket?"

"We had it under control!" Drax argued, glaring at him.

"We did not," Mantis spoke up. "That is only an extension of his true self. He will be back soon."

Peter groaned as Lexi finally pulled Peter onto the ship. He looked over, spotting Nebula. "What's Smurfette doing here?"

Nebula growled. "Whatever I need to do to get a damn ride home."

"She tried to murder me!" Rocket yelled.

Nebula glared at Rocket. "I saved you, you stupid fox!"

"He's not a fox." Gamora corrected behind gritted teeth.

"I am Groot." Groot squeaked.

Rocket shook his head. "I'm not a rabboon either!"

"I am Groot."

"Raccoon. Whatever." Rocket said, swerving around to the controls.

Just as Rocket was about to start up the ship again, more strings of energy broke from the ground, wrapping themselves around the ship.

"How do we kill a Celestial?" Drax asked, watching out the window.

"There's a centre to him. His brain, his soul, whatever it is...some sort of protective shell." Peter informed, walking over to where Rocket and Yondu were.

"It's in the caverns, below the surface." Mantis reminded.

Peter slipped into Rocket's chair, taken back to see Yondu. "Yondu?"

Yondu thrusts the ship into full gear, momentarily lifting the ship off the ground. The energy overpowered it easily, slamming the ship right back into the ground, almost throwing everyone off their feet.

"Guess I should be glad I was a skinny kid, otherwise you would've delivered me to this maniac!" Peter half-thanked Yondu, starting to press buttons.

"You still reckon that's the reason I kept you around, you idiot?" Yondu looked at Peter, stopping what he was doing.

"That's the reason you told me, you old doofus!"

"Well, once I figured out what happened to them other kids, I wasn't gonna hand y'all over."

Peter bent down, trying to re-wire something. "You said you were gonna eat us!"

"That was being funny."

Peter looked up at Yondu with a bewildered expression. "Not to me!"

"You people have issues." Rocket interjected, shaking his head.

"I wonder what Ego would've done with me!" Lexi exclaimed, placing a hand on her chest.

"Well, of course I have issues," Peter yelled, looking ahead at a growing endoskeleton of Ego ahead of them. He pointed at it, terrified. "That's my freaking father!"

Peter was able to hotwire the thrusters, fixing them. They throttled the thrusters into full gear, sliding across the floor and out the window, going over the cliff.

"We should be going up!" Yondu yelled.

"We can't," Peter said. "Ego wants to eradicate the universe as we know it. We have to kill him. Rocket!"

"Got it!" Rocket shouted back, flicking a switch. Small, magnetic spherical lasers travelled down the ship, lining the edges. The lasers carved out the ground, allowing the ship to plunge underground.

"So we're saving the galaxy again?" Rocket asked, moving around on the controls.

Peter shrugged. "I guess."

"Awesome!" Rocket laughed, controlling the lasers. "We're gonna be able to really jack up our prices for two-time galaxy savers!"

"I seriously can't believe that's where your mind goes." Peter shook his head, hands tightly clasping the steering wheel.

"It's just a random thought, man! I thought we were friends! Of course, I care about the planets and the buildings, and all the animals on the planets!"

"And the people," Peter added to Rocket's claim.

Rocket shrugged. "Meh."

Mantis beamed brightly. "Your crabby puppy's so cute! He makes me wanna die!"

Drax looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Tell me, why Ego wants you here?" Yondu asked Peter, looking over at him.

"He needs my genetic connection to the light to help destroy the universe. He tried to teach me how to control the power."

"So, could ya?"

"A little." he nodded. "I made a ball."

"A ball?" Yondu scoffed, looking at him.

Peter frowned. "I thought as hard as I could. It was all that I could come up with."

"You thought. You think when I could make this arrow fly, that I use my head?" Yondu asked before the ship broke the surface to the centre of Ego's planet. The ship scraped against the wall, ripping off the door.

Mantis walked over to the edge, peering out to see the centre. "There. That's Ego's core."

"The ore is thick, Rocket." Lexi said, looking out through Rocket's window.

"I got it covered." Rocket said, flicking more switches and pressing buttons.

"We must hurry," Mantis said, looking doubtful. "it will not take long for Ego to find us."

Rocket lined up all the lasers into one circle, forming a mega-laser. "Keep it steady." he activated the lasers, blasting into the shell of the core.

"We drill into the centre, we kill him!" Peter reminded everyone, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

The radio next to Yondu sputtered static noises, luckily catching Yondu's attention. It was Kraglin. "Captain?"

"What is it, Kraglin?"

"Hey, remember that Ayesha chick?"

"Yeah, why?"

Before Kraglin could reply, a fleet of Sovereigns flooded from the tunnel that they had made.

"Aw, hell!" Yondu exclaimed as Peter pulled back the ship, driving it around the core to avoid hits from the smaller drone ships. By the sudden sharp pull, the lasers blew out.

The ship was hit in the back, jerking it. Drax, Mantis, Gamora and Lexi yelled as they all fell from the ship, plummeted down towards the ground below. Lexi looked up, worry set in her eyes.