『Chapter Three』
『the kyln』

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The Nova Corps had sent the five to the heavily secured prison. Though the one thing as to what went through his mind was, how the hell did I end up here? As much as he knew the reason as to why he was here and how he ended up here, it was something that he truly couldn't believe. Jace really wished that he kept his nose out of all of this, as much as he knew that he done this because Yondu asked him to, but he still wished that he hadn't gotten involved. At least he knew that Peter was safe, but that only put Peter more in danger because Jace wanted to be the one to stab him for all of it.

As they all unwillingly walked through the corridor of the building, Rocket decided to just speak. "I guess most of the Nova Corps wanna uphold the laws, but these ones here, they're corrupt and cruel. But, hey, that's not my problem." Rocket chuckled then. "I ain't going to be here long. I've escaped twenty-two prisons. This one's no different."

"Oh, shut it idiot." Jace said as he rolled his eyes. This annoying raccoon made Jace want to commit multiple acts of violence, he wondered what the guards would do if Jace decided to just use his abilities on the stupid raccoon.

Rocket seemed to ignore what Jace had said as he continued, "You're lucky the broad showed up, because otherwise, me and Groot would be collecting that bounty right now, and you'd be getting draw and quartered by Yondu and the Ravagers."

"I've had a lot of folks try to kill me over the years. I ain't about to be brought down by a tree and a talking raccoon." Peter told.

Jace scoffed then. "You'll be taken down by me in a sec." Peter just glared at him like Jace was the worst person to exist.

"Hold." The guard instructed.

Rocket sounded almost confused for a moment. "What's a raccoon?"

"'What's a raccoon?' It's what you are, stupid." Peter sarcastically stated. Gamora turned towards Peter and Rocket, giving them both a look.

"Ain't no thing like me, except me." Rocket stated as he tapped his chest.

"Yeah, well you're wrong, rodent." Jace muttered as they soon began to walk again.

Jace really wished that he were anywhere else than here. He was far too attractive to be in a prison forever. He found himself smiling to himself at the thought though he shook his head to rid himself of the thoughts. He knew that if the father of his former lover knew where he was, he'd demand for Jace to be killed, though that was a thought that he didn't want to focus on as much. It was a thought that he didn't like as much.

"So, this Orb has a real shiny blue suitcase, Ark of the covenant, Maltese Falcon sort of vide. What is it?" Peter questioned.

"I am Groot." Groot spoke. Jace just stared at the humanoid tree-thing, he was still confused about what this thing was. Jace's thoughts turned into one of violence rather quick when it came to the tree-thing, though he quickly shook his head slightly, knowing that these thoughts weren't good ones to have.

"So what? What's the Orb?" Peter asked.

"I have no words for an honourless thief." Gamora said. Jace just grinned at that.

"Pretty high and mighty coming from the lackey of a genocidal maniac." Rocket stated as Gamora shot him a look. "Yeah, I know who you are. Anyone who's anyone knows who you are."

"Yeah, we know who you are." Peter added. He turned towards both Jace and Groot as he then asked. "Who is she?"

Jace just shrugged. Groot said, "I am Groot."

"Yeah, you said that." Peter stated. There was a look on Peter's face was something that made Jace smile in some way, though he shook the thought off.

"I wasn't retrieving the Orb for Ronan. I was betraying him." Gamora explained. They stopped at a door and the guard lifted his arm and pressed a few buttons on the device connected to his wrist. "I had an agreement to sell it to a third party."

The doors opened. "I am Groot."

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

"Shut up, Quill." Jace had managed to hit the man while he spoke. Peter had let out a small yelp at the impact of the hit. Peter glared back at Jace and all Jace could do was narrow his eyes at Peter and gave him a look as if waiting for Peter to test him.

"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." Rocket explained.

"I tell you what, that's gonna wear real thin, real fast." Peter stated. As they walked past a room, Peter turned and noticed how one of the guards held Peter's Walkman in his hands as and went to put on the headphones. "Hey. Put that away."

"Peter, for god's sake, leave it." Jace said, tired of him already. He wished that he never agreed to any of this. He knew that he had the choice of saying no but he chose not to do such a thing. He hoped that he could stab something or someone.

Peter quickly managed to get into the room before the door slid closed. "Hey! Listen to me, you big blue bastard. Take those headphones off. That's mine." The blue dude took the headphones off. "Those belong to impound. That tape and player is mine!"

The blue man ran up towards Peter has he then zapped him with an electric rod. Peter fell over in pain, Jace just stared at him knowing how much of a goddamn idiot he was. As much as Jace knew that he could just blind the guard, he realised that this was what was best in some twisted way. Peter always seemed protective of his Walkman, though he could never tell if it was because it was one of this memories from Earth or not.

Even on his knees, Peter didn't give up. "Hooked on a Felling, Blue Swede, 1973. That song belongs to me!"

The blue man zapped Peter yet again which had caused him to fall on the floor. The man continued to zap Star-Lord as he ignored Jace telling him to stop. Jace found himself leaning his head against the gate, sighing to himself. He truly wondered whether any of this was worth it, he truly didn't know how he could continue dealing with Peter, he wondered how he managed to grow up around Peter without intense stress.

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Jace stood in a small room to which he stood without a shirt. He felt too exposed, and he wished that he could have his jacket back, it was a reminder of the love that he lost, and he wanted it close. The guards shot an orange substance towards him which had caused him to tumble back slightly. Jace found himself cringing in some way about it, though he didn't know why. After a short moment, two guards had dragged him into another room which he supposed he would have to get ready in with the prison outfit they gave him.

Jace just shot the guards a glare before he continued to get into the prison uniform. As he was placed the yellow shirt over his head, he noticed how Peter was turned towards the door with four robots floating above him. Jace just rolled his eyes. He was going to say something though knew that it was best if he kept his mouth shut. He couldn't deal with arguing with Peter at the moment. In fact, he could barely deal with anything when it came to Peter, knowing that if he chose to not do anything that Yondu asked of him, he wouldn't be here.

For a moment, Jace wondered whether or not there was a chance he could blow a hole into the side of the prison and escape, though knew that it would be too high-risk to do such a thing. Plus, he knew that he'd be entitled to drag Peter with him. That and the fact that the last thing that Jace would want was for anyone to try and shove them back into the prison, which was something that Jace didn't want at all.

He really did wish that he'd argued against Yondu with retrieving Peter. Since when did he become the go-to person in saving someone's ass? Or even dragging them back? Out of both him and Peter, Jace was the most reckless one out of the two. At least, that's what he was told. Jace wasn't sure whether or not it was something that he believed fully. There had been a handful of times where one could assume that Jace was reckless, but it was something that he wouldn't admit to anyone.

Once they were all ready, it was then that they walked down a set of stairs, one by one, there were guards on either side who shoved a small sack into their arms. Jace assumed that it was at least a sleeping bag or something, he couldn't be sure. He'd noticed the way that there was at least someone watching him, as if they were worried that he might burn a hole into the exterior. Jace ignored it as they walked through the centre of the prison—or what Jace assumed to be the centre—and it didn't take an idiot to notice the way that each prisoner stopped and stared at them.

Jace turned to Peter with a small grin, as if he loved the attention, though Peter just glared at him as if he knew where Jace's mind would go. It caused Jace to pout a little. There were times where Jace liked attention and he knew that attention from other prisoners was something that he shouldn't love all that much—he knew that he'd have to be cautious—and yet he couldn't help it. The last time that he'd been shoved into a prison cell was on the planet where he fell in love with a prince who still laid claim to his heart.

What snapped Jace out of his thoughts was when an object was thrown at them. Mainly at Peter, but it was enough to snap Jace into attention. He heard the yells of the prisoners that threw the object at the group. There were the shouts of: "You first! You first!" Along with: "Murderer!"

For a brief moment, Jace wondered whether or not they were for him, though he shook his head, there was no way in hell that it was ever meant for him. He was sure that the person that he murdered would've been found out, at least not by anyone.

"Coming for you first, Gamora!" A voice yelled. "You're dead!" The yells continued like that as they all seemed to be aimed towards Gamora who was stood behind both Peter and Jace. She somewhat flinched when something hit her. There was this not-really-visible look on her face which made Jace wish that there were something that he could say, though what could he say to someone like her?

"Like I said, she's got a rep." Rocket stated through the yells. He somewhat shrugged then. "A lot of prisoners here have lost their families to Ronin and his goons. She'll last a day, tops."

The group continued to make their way through the screaming crowd as they recognised Gamora. Jace wondered whether or not he'd be here longer if he decided to blind all of the prisoners, though knew that there was a chance that it wasn't worth it. But Rocket's words clung to his mind, he might not know Gamora enough or well, but there was a part of him that wanted to protect her—or at least watch over her to make sure that nothing happened.

"The guards will protect her, right?" Peter asked.

Jace agreed with him, nodding. "They've gotta, at least. Right?"

"They're here to stop us from getting out." Rocket stated. "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 spoke.

There was something about that which made Jace wonder whether or not there was something else that Gamora was hiding. Though he supposed that they all had bad upbringings or history that made them all into what they were. Jace didn't want to question it, it wasn't his place. None of it was ever going to be his place, though it did made him wonder just how fucked up Gamora's life was previously to make everyone despise her as much as they do.

He shook his head a little, he went to take a step forward,  though he was stopped by another prisoner who was taller than him by a lot. His skin was a light blue. Jace's eyes slightly widened as he stared up towards the being, not expecting him to be there.

"Check out the new meat." The man said. The blude guy proceeded to stroke Jace's face though he moved away. "I'm gonna slather you up in Gunavian jelly, and go to town. . ." Before he could continue, Groot had put his fingers up the other prisoners' nose while the tree fingers had grew.

Jace was waiting for the blue dude to continue, he liked hearing threats. Or whatever that was. Peter would've hit him for wanting to hear more, knowing that Jace occasionally got murderous when threatened. The blue man groaned at what Groot was doing. It made Jace feel happy inside knowing that this dude was hurting after the weird threat being made towards Jace. He could feel Peter's hand on his shoulder as if to stop whatever Jace wanted to do.

"Let's make something clear. This one here is our booty!" Rocket announced. He pointed towards the blue dude. "You wanna get to him, you go through us! Or, more accurately, we go through you."

Groot then dropped his arm which also caused the prisoner to drop to the floor with a groan as he flung his hands towards his nose. Both Peter and Jace shared a look before looking down at the man. There was this proud sensation which filled Jace for a moment, like the entire show was something that amused Jace more than he would care to admit. More so when Jace realised that the man was sobbing.

"I'm with them." Peter proudly said. Jace just shrugged as he then walked beside Peter as they both stepped over the sobbing inmate. The two walked behind both Groot and Rocket.

Peter just stared at Jace for a moment as if Peter could read his thoughts. There was a moment where Jace wondered whether or not Peter was judging him for seeing amusement in such a thing, though realise that Peter judged him for worse. Like sleeping with a prince whose father would've—and probably still trying to—kill him for making his son 'impure.'  Peter just nudged Jace's side as if to clear Jace's thoughts which in a way did.

"Stop thinking about him." Peter muttered. Peter always seemed to know when he was thinking about his prince. No matter how much time passed between the incident, his heart and mind couldn't move on.

Jace just nodded. The one thing that Jace would never admit to Peter would be that there was times where he thought he could see a flash of midnight blue hair and purple skin, he knew that Peter would just give him a look as if he was the worst person to ever exist. And that was something that he couldn't deal with as a whole.

Night soon fell upon the Kyln as each prisoner slowly fell asleep. Jace found a place by the wall and was lying near it. There has been a small incident where someone wanted Jace to move though Jace ended up threatening them with a small ball of light which caused most people to leave him alone. Peter wasn't amused by such a thing. Jace was fast asleep, not realising how exhausted he truly was, he supposed dealing with two fights and then turning up into prison was something that tired him more than he realised.

He was having a peaceful nap, dreaming about a life that he never would get with the man he was still in love with, only to have his sleep and dreams interrupted by Rocket who was shaking him awake. He thought about going back to sleep only for Rocket to slap his face which woke him up more with a small groan.

"What do you want, rodent?" Jace grumbled, rubbing his eyes.

Rocket glared towards Jace with a small sense of hatred for such a word. "Quill, he's gone. Come on."

Jace rolled his eyes, standing up slowly and quietly enough not to wake anyone else up. He wondered just as to what Peter was getting himself into, there was a part of him that didn't want to think too much into it, knowing that he'd end up arguing with Peter with it, though it still made him wonder. Jace followed Rocket, following Rocket as close as he could until they managed to catch up with Peter outside the showers.

"Pete," Jace whispered.

All of which Jace heard was: "You slayed dozens of Ronan's minions."

The bigger man, Drax, walked towards where they pinned Gamora against the wall with knives pointing towards her. "Ronan murdered my wife, Ovette, and my daughter, Camaria. He slaughtered them where they stood. And he laughed!"

Jace noticed the way that one of the prisoners flinched at Drax's words. Was this truly something that Gamora had part in? Jace tried his best not to judge, he truly had no idea who Ronan was, he never really kept up in much that was going on outside of his own little bubble, which he supposed was why he was seen as some form of fool to many. Not that he cared.

"Quill!" Rocket whispered. Rocket looked as if he were trying to get Peter away from seeing what would happen.

Jace just placed a hand on Peter's arm which Peter just shrugged off as if he didn't want to be touched. Jace respected that as much as he could, knowing that now wasn't the time or place.

"Her life is not yours to take. He killed my family. I shall kill one of his in return." Drax told.

The inmate nodded as he said, "Of course, Drax. Here, I. . ." Drax took hold of the knife the inmate held out, though the one thing that Jace didn't expect was when Gamora quickly disarmed both of the other prisoners who held knives towards her.

She managed to grab hold of both of the weapons, holding both daggers towards Drax's and the other inmate's throat. It was an impressive sight, something that Jace would definitely admit, he wondered whether or not Gamora would kill any of the inmates that threatened her. Peter took a few steps towards the small group and both Rocket and Jace had tried to get him back.

"Quill!" Jace growled.

"What are you doing?" Rocket whispered.

Peter just waved his hand a little as if to dismiss anything that the pair might say to him. Jace wanted to strangle him, knowing that this wasn't the time or place to see if he could be the hero. The last thing that Jace wanted was to try and save Peter from his own idiot tendencies.

"I'm no family to Ronan or Thanos." Gamora spoke. A moment passed and Gamora moved the weapons away from both Drax and the other inmates' throats, she then dropped them, and they clattered to the ground. "I'm your only hope at stopping him."

At an instant, Drax held Gamora by the throat and had pushed her back against the wall. Jace somewhat flinched by the action, surprised by the sudden movement as he had been when Gamora originally disarmed the other inmates. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised, but he was, he shook his head, realising that he was seeing this as some form of fucked up entertainment.

Drax held a knife towards Gamora, still pining her to the wall. "Woman, your words mean nothing to me!"

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Hey!" Peter called as he made his appearance known.

"Fuck's sake." Jace muttered to himself. God, he wanted to deck Peter at times. This was one of them, though he supposed he get it if it meant saving someone's life. Jace heard Rocket swear beside him.

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

Drax stared towards Peter, still holding Gamora against the wall. "Are you not the man this wench attempted to kill?"

"Well, I mean, she's hardly the first woman to try and do that to me." Peter told. He pathetically chuckled then as he lifted up his shirt which reviled 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."

He then showed a scar on his neck. "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 noticed Drax's look which caused Peter to cut himself off. "You don't care. But here's the point. She betrayed Ronan. He's coming back for her. And when he does, that's when you . ." Peter than ran his finger across his neck as some sort of way to say kill him.

Jace was tempted to get involved, seeing how Gamora looked as if she was struggling to breath under Drax's strength. It was something that made Jace shift uncomfortably. Should he step in? He wouldn't even know what to say or do to make sure that no one dies. He supposed Peter was better at that out of the pair of them, Jace was always quick to fighting like it was in his blood to fight.

The gesture that Peter made seemed to go over Drax's head. "Why would I put my finger on his throat?"

"What?" Peter asked, though he quickly realised what Drax meant. "Oh, no, it's a symbol. This is a symbol for you slicing his throat."

"I would not slice his throat. I would cut his head clean off." Drax stated.

"It's a general expression for you killing somebody." Peter said. He then turned to the other inmate and Jace. "You've seen this, you know what this is." Jace rolled his eyes ever so slightly as he nodded towards the idiot he viewed as his brother while the other inmate seemed to continually nod.

"Everybody knows." Peter stated as he stared back towards Drax and Gamora. The other inmate muttered under his voice a series of "no's" which made Jace roll his eyes more.

"What I'm saying is, you want to keep her alive. Don't do his work for him." Peter told. Jace stood there as his eyebrows shot up, he didn't really expect Peter to come out with what he did. Though he supposed, whatever worked.

Jace found himself staring towards Drax and Gamora, as did Peter and Rocket. They all expecting something to happen. Jace just hoped that Drax let her go, it would be a shame for Jace to fight him, though he knew that Peter would be against it. The struggle that Gamora was going through was faintly visible from Gamora while she was held against the wall, she was looking towards Peter. Jace found himself let out a small sigh of relief as Drax dropped his hold on Gamora, who then fell to her knees while she coughed.

Drax looked towards the knife of which was held in his hand. "I like your knife. I'm keeping it." With that Drax walked out of the room.

"That was my favourite knife." The inmate muttered.

Jace rolled his eyes slightly. There was a moment where nothing happened, the room was quiet aside from the light fading thuds as Drax left them. Jace was tempted to go and check on Gamora, though thought that it was best if he kept his space, not wanting to be hit or anything of the sorts. He wondered whether or not the Orb was worth it, worth all of this pain which brought them here. And yet, there was a small part of Jace which couldn't help but feel bad for Gamora, though he knew that if he were to voice any of these thoughts, someone might just glare at him.

Jace wasn't sure how much time had passed, but Peter, Gamora, Rocket and Jace made their way back to where they were meant to be sleeping. Gamora was walking in front while the others seemed to trail behind. Jace was walking behind all of them, he found himself glancing around wondering if there was a chance that anyone else might try anything with Gamora—like kill her—so, Jace just wanted to be on look out. He wasn't sure whether or not he fully liked Gamora, but the thought of her dying because of the actions of someone else was something that didn't sit right with him.

"Listen! I could care less whether you live or whether you die." Peter stated. Jace thought that there was a chance that he was trying to justify his actions so that no one would get suspicious of anything. Not like anyone was, but it was Peter. And Jace always found Peter weird in some way.

Gamora stopped as she turned to face Peter. "Then why stop the big guy?"

"Simple. You know where to sell my Orb." Peter stated. Greed, an excellent motivation if it wasn't for their obvious situation.

"How are we gonna sell it when we and it are still here?" Gamora asked.

"She's got a point, you know." Jace piped into the conversation. He knew that maybe he shouldn't talk, but he partly wanted to piss Peter off.

Peter rolled his eyes at Jace's input. One of Jace's favourite things, as always. "My friend Rocket, here, has escaped twenty-two prisons."

Both Gamora and Jace stared down towards the creature. Jace had a feeling that they weren't going to get out of the prison. Not that he didn't believe anything that Rocket or Peter said but the fact that he knew that however they manage to get out of here, it's going to make Jace regret ever waking up when he did. Of course, the last thing that Jace wanted is to rot in a prison, but even still, he didn't want to die.

"Oh, we're getting out." Rocket confidently said. "And then we're heading straight to Yondu to retrieve your bounty." Jace rolled his eyes at that, knowing that he was going to stab Yondu for believing that Jace was going to fail at retrieving Peter.

Ignoring the last part of what Rocket said, Peter turned to Gamora. "How much was your buyer willing to pay you for my Orb?"

For a moment, Jace wondered whether or not Gamora was going to respond, though when she spoke, he was surprised. "Four billion units."

Jace eyes widened, the countless possibilities that he could do with that money ran through his mind. "Are you serious? Four billion units?" Could he find the one person he cared about the most and have a life with him with that amount of units?

The other two seemed shocked by the price as they said: "What?" followed by: "Holy shit."

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

Jace could live comfortably with that amount of units divided like that.

"I am Groot." Groot said, which made Jace jump slightly.

"Five of us." Rocket then corrected. "Asleep for the danger, awake for the money, as per frickin' usual."

Groot only let out a small groan towards the racoon, as a way to say that he couldn't help it.

The more that Jace thought about the amount of money that he'd get after it being split five ways, he still wondered whether or not he could live comfortably with that amount of units. He knew that with the amount that he does have, it'll have more. Just the thought of being able to live comfortably without having to steal or anything would be the best peace that he could get. He was tired of stealing, he was tired of being a Ravanger, he just wanted to find the prince of his heart once more and hope for another shot.

He shook his head slightly, knowing that the more that he allowed his thoughts to wonder, the more likely that he'd be tempted to take the Orb for himself and drag Gamora to the buyer just the two of them. Jace knew that it was stupid, but the need to get those units for himself just so that he could live comfortable was eating him up. Maybe greed was an excellent motivator, or maybe it would be something that would eat him up the more that he thought about it.