"Catch me Somber!"

"Grr! You're no match for a wolf like me Ashen!"

"Oh yeah? Well one day I'm going to be as big and dad and then you'll be at my mercy."

"No way! I'm going to be even bigger than dad and then I'll sill be able to tackle you."

"Ompff! Watch it! Now you may be larger than be but I'll always be faster. I'm more lithe than you. Dad said so."

"But we'll always be best friends though, right? Even when we're old like dad."

"Of course we will! And we'll always be together. We're going to do everything with each other, always."

"Yeah and when we're old and have pups our pups will be friends, won't they."

"Oh yeah! There is nothing that will ever break our friendship. We're going to be friends forever and ever. I promise never to lose you."

"You do?"

"I love you too much to let anything happen to you? Will you promise never to lose me."

"I promise!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ashen blinked open her eyes and realized what was playing in her head was just a far away memory of herself and her brother. Yes they had said those words but that was before life took them for a roller coaster ride. Now they were separated by the great divider, death, and nothing they did would ever be able to bring them back together.

However the one standing in front of her wasn't her brother. It was, Grenade.

"Ashen. Ashen, are you alright?"

It sounded like Grenade was speaking through water and Ashen wondered why he couldn't speak more clearly. She started to raise her head before she instantly regretted it and fell back down, her head pounding. She moaned and dragged her bloody and arching paws over her head and curled into as much of a ball as she could.

"Hey, easy," chided Grenade as he rested a paw gently on her shoulder. "Everything is alright?"

"W-What happened," she mumbled as Grenade's voice started to clear up a bit and now he was only seeing one of him, instead of about three.

"Well Ronan got you pretty good," he answered as he ran his tail down her neck in a soothing motion.

"Ronan," Ashen echoed as she dragged a paw over one of her eyes that had swelled just a bit but she could still see. "That was the one who I attacked and beat me up."

"Yeah," replied Grenade as he licked some blood from her ear. "He's pretty good. I've never seen a Kree fight like that."

"Yeah me either," agreed Ashen before she realized exactly where she was. "Where's Groot? Drax? Rocket? Gamora? Peter?!"

"Woah, slow down," scolded Grenade as his ears twitched. "Alright Groot is helping Drax and I don't know about the rest."

"We have to help them," she wheezed as she tried to haul herself to her paws. Her muscles felt like water and she fatigued. Grenade was there to catch her a bit and he arched his back, trying to help her to her paws. She tried again and this time she had a bit more stability.

"Alright but nothing too vigorous or too exhilarating yet, understand," he asked slowly so that she would be able to comprehend it.

"Alright just help me over to Groot and Drax," she barked as she limped forward and tried to ignore the throbbing sensation in her head. Ronan had a pretty good kick on him.

They both made their way over to where Groot had found Drax in a large container of yellow fluid. Ashen turned her nose up at the smell but luckily Groot didn't have a sense of smell so it didn't bother him. The great tree picked up Drax from the yellow liquid and threw him onto the ground. He didn't looked like he was breathing and Ashen wondered for a heartbeat if he was dead.

She drew near but Grenade urged her back a bit to give him space. Groot made a large needle like twig grow from one of his fingers and he plunged it into Drax's chest. Yellow liquid squirted from it and nearly landed on Ashen. She sidestepped and most of it landed on Grenade. He grumbled in annoyance and began trying to groom it groom it from his thick, black fur.

Drax then began to cough up the strange yellow liquid and Ashen felt her own stomach churn. Not something she really wanted to be watching but didn't really have a choice. He kept coughing up the yellow liquid before Groot took out the needle like twig from Drax's chest.

"He lives," grumbled Grenade as he pawed at his ear and more of the horrid yellow stringy liquid fell from the ground.

Suddenly a large circular mechanical ship landed and Ashen was immediately ready to fight. However when she saw it was Rocket she relaxed a bit.

"They're all idiots," he shouted and Ashen thought that idiot was Rocket's favorite word. He spun around and narrowed his eyes at everyone. "Quill just went and got himself captured!"

Ashen and Grenade exchanged a look. That didn't sound like Peter. Unless he did it for Gamora.

"And you," continued Rocket as he pointed at Drax with a finger shaking in rage. "None of this would have happened if you wouldn't have taken on a freakin' army!"

Eyes then turned to Drax to see what he would say. Usually he had some rage filled comment to match the wirily raccoon but today he didn't. "I was a fool. All the anger, all the rage. Just to cover up for my loss."

Groot placed a hand on Drax's shoulder and Grenade's eyes lit in empathy. He knew exactly how Drax was feeling since he'd been there.

However Rocket looked the complete opposite. One of his ears twitched as his mouth hung open a bit. "Oh boo hoo! My wife and child are dead."

"Rocket," snapped Ashen with narrowed eyes as Groot raised a hand to his mouth and gasped at what Rocket had had just.

Rocket shot them both a look. "I don't care if it's mean!" He crossed his arms. "Now come on. If we head to the farthest part of the galaxy maybe, just maybe we can live full lives before Ronan used that thing."

"I am Groot," argued Groot as he stood up and Ashen could tell that Rocket knew what Groot was saying and didn't like it one bit.

"I know they're the only friends we ever had." He tapped a paw a bit. "But what can we do if Ronan has the stone and Peter and Gamora are captured?"

"I am Groot." Groot shrugged a bit.

Rocket sill frowned. "There is just the two of us."

Drax grunted a bit as he heaved himself to his feet painfully and rested a hand on Groot's shoulder for a bit of support. "Two of us."

Grenade padded forward and stood next to Drax, still struggling to get the yellow liquid from his fur and clothes. "Three of us and did you have to squirt this on me?"

Drax smiled a bit and Ashen bounded forward. She pressed against Drax and Groot and rumbled happily. "Four of us. I can't leave Grenade alone."

Grenade purred and touched his nose to her ear. Ashen blushed a bit and wagged her tail.

Rocket looked around in shock and turned to find a clump of grass, probably one of the only grass clumps there, and began kicking it forcefully. "You're. Making. Me. Beat. Up. Grass." He finally managed to break it free of it's roots and sending it flying.

Ashen knew it was her time to butt in. "So are we going, or not?"

Eyes turned to her in surprise. They hadn't seen her as an authoritative figure until now.

"You want to lead the way," asked Grenade as he waved a paw.

Ashen dipped her head. "To the Malano!"