STARGIRL

five.

Eleanor couldn't sleep.

She was surrounded by random adult alien men with her dad being surrounded somewhere else in the cell. She had a stranger's arm slung around her waist and an alien's head resting on her shoulder. She tried to control her breathing so she didn't burst into tears.

Unknown to her, her dad was also lying awake.

"Take her down to the showers," a guard told a group of prisoners, "It'll be easier to clean up the blood down there."

Gamora yelled out, and Eleanor slowly lifted her up, seeing the backs of the prisoners dragging her along. Sure Gamora had worked with a terrible person, but she was planning on betraying him and this was a horrible way for someone to go. So, she lifted the arm from her waist, whispered a quick apology to her dad and headed out of the cell.

She heard footsteps behind her, and her head whipped around quickly as her heart beat loudly against her chest. She let out a small sigh of relief when she saw that it was her dad. He, on the other hand, looked annoyed, "What are you doing here? Go back to sleep." he hissed at her.

"What are you doing here?" she echoed him, crossing her arms, "Plus, I don't wanna sleep in there. Some weird guy had his arm on my waist."

"You dare!" a voice yelled from the shadowy part, "You know who I am, yes?"

A muscly green man came walking out of the shadows. The tone of the smaller alien's voice changed immediately, "You're Drax. The Destroyer." It seemed almost afraid of Drax.

"Quill!" the raccoon, whose name Eleanor learned was Rocket, whispered, catching up to the father and daughter.

"And you know why they call me this." Drax continued.

"You slayed dozens of Ronan's minions." the alien explained.

Drax took a few steps forward, "Ronan murdered my wife, Ovette, and my daughter, Camaria. He slaughtered them where they stood. And he laughed! Her life is not yours to take. He killed my family. I shall kill one of his in return."

"Of course, Drax," replied the alien, shaking slightly as it handed him the weapon, "Here, I..."

Gamora attacked the two prisoners who were holding her captive, and Eleanor flinched at the sound of breaking bones, "Dad?" she whispered, turning to look at him but he wasn't looking back at her. He was staring determinedly at Gamora, Drax and the other alien who Gamora was holding a knife up to.

"Quill!" echoed Rocket, trying to grab him but Peter slapped away his paw, "What are you doing?" he said as Peter stepped closer.

"I'm no family to Ronan or Thanos," she gritted her teeth at them, breathing heavily. She waited a couple of seconds before dropping the knives, "I'm your only hope at stopping him."

Drax yelled out, grabbing Gamora by the throat. He pushed her up against the wall and held another knife to her throat, "Woman, your words mean nothing to me!"

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Hey!" Peter yelled, moving out from his hiding spot.

Rocket hung his head in shame, "Oh, crap."

"You know, if killing Ronan is truly your sole purpose, I don't think this is the best way to go about it."

Drax glared at him, "Are you not the man this wench attempted to kill?" he muttered, tightening his grip on Gamora's throat.

"Well, I mean, she's hardly the first woman to try and do that to me," he chuckled, lifting up his yellow top to reveal a scar, "Look, this is from a smoking hot Rajak girl. Stabbed me with a fork. Didn't like me skipping out on her at sunrise..."

Eleanor remembered that moment. She was only six years old at the time and her dad had given her the first pair of headphones she owned that night and in the morning, Peter had carried her sleeping body out the door whilst stumbling because of his injury.

Peter continued, "I got, right here, a Kree girl tried to rip out my thorax. She caught me with this skinny little A'askavariian who worked in Nova Records. I was trying to get information. You ever see an A'askavariian? They have tentacles, and needles for teeth. If you think I'm seriously interested in that, then..." he sighed, "You don't care. But here's the point."

He pointed at Gamora, "She betrayed Ronan. He's coming back for her. And when he does, that's when you..." he pulled a finger across his throat.

Drax looked at him confused, "Why would I put my finger on his throat?"

"What?" replied Peter, also confused, "Oh, no, it's a symbol. That is a symbol for you slicing his throat."

"I would not slice his throat," Drax said, sounding offended, "I would cut his head clean off."

"It's a general expression of you killing somebody," Peter turned to the other alien, "You've heard of this. You've seen this, right? You know what that is."

"Yeah. Yeah."

"Everyone knows."

"No, no."

Peter's expression changed to an annoyed one, "What I'm saying is, you want to keep her alive. Don't do his work for him."

Drax turned his head slowly from Peter to Gamora. He finally let go of her neck, and she fell to the floor, coughing and gasping for air.

"I like your knife," Drax told the other alien, "I'm keeping it."

"That was my favourite knife." the alien said sadly.

"Listen!" Peter yelled after Gamora, as the four walked back to the cells, "I could care less whether you live or whether you die."

She turned to face him, "Then why stop the big guy?"

"Simple," he replied, "You know where to sell my Orb."

"How are we gonna sell it when we and it are still here?" asked Gamora, raising an eyebrow.

"My friend Rocket, here," Peter said, and the three turned to look at the raccoon. He looked proud of himself as he looked up at the three with his arms crossed, "has escaped 22 prisons."

"Oh, we're getting out," he said confidently, "And then we're headed straight to Yondu to retrieve your bounty."

Peter turned back to Gamora, "How much was your buyer willing to pay you for my Orb?"

"Four billion units."

"What?" Rocket exclaimed. "Holy shit." Peter said at the same time. "Wow!" added Eleanor.

"That Orb is my opportunity to get away from Thanos and Ronan," Gamora explained, "If you free us, I'll lead you to the buyer directly and I'll split the profit between the four of us."

"I am Groot." the four turned to see Groot staring at them through the bars of the cell.

"Five of us," Rocket said, rolling his eyes, "Asleep for the danger, awake for the money, as per frickin' usual."