『Chapter Five』
『the dismantling of quill's ship』

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Jace kicked the window of the pod which had fallen out of its place. Jace was the first one out, wanting nothing more than to get out of the suffocating pod, his mind had been wrapped up in his own past which was something that he hated more than anything else. The others came rushing out behind him, Peter rushed passed Jace briefly patting his back while heading towards the window. Jace assumed that Peter was looking for either his ship or Jace's in order to make an escape completely from the prison. A part of Jace hoped that his ship wasn't here, though at the same time he hoped it still wasn't on Xandar.

Jace and the rest of the group found themselves where the containers were—which Jace assumed was where their belongs were being stored. The containers rolled through the many that were there, until they found the container which held all of their stuff. He opened it up only to be greeted with his stuff being all scrunched up, it made him frown, wishing that they didn't ruin his clothes, though he shook his head, knowing that now wasn't the time for him to worry too much about it. He grabbed his stuff and held it close to his chest.

"Yeah! There it is. Get my ship. It's the Milano, the orange and blue one over in the corner." Peter told as he pointed out the window.

"Peter, is my ship out there?" Jace questioned. He knew that it was something that he shouldn't be worried about or even think about, but it was something that he wanted to ask anyway. A part of him wanted something familiar to calm the wreckage that is his mind.

Peter paused for a moment as he quickly scanned the area in search for his friend's ship. A few seconds past and it was then that Peter spoke. "It's not there. Maybe Yondu has it or something."

Jace let out a small groan. "I just got that fixed." The last thing that he wanted was for Yondu to fuck with his ship, he knew that it was stupid, though Jace knew that his ship held valuable and expensive things inside from a planet where everything that came out of it was valuable. He hoped that his things would remain untouched. The last thing that Jace wanted was to start a small war between him and Yondu—he didn't care if he saw Yondu as a father figure.

Peter rushed over to where the containers were stored as he then went to find where his stuff would be. Jace heard Rocket speak, upset over something. "They crumpled my pants into a ball. That's rude! They folded yours!"

They—Groot, Drax, and Rocket—rushed out of the room leaving Jace, Gamora, and Peter behind as they wanted to get to the ship in order to prep it for their departure. Jace knew that he already had his stuff, but the last thing that Jace wanted to do was leave Peter alone. He knew that it was stupid, that he should make sure that Drax and Rocket don't leave without them, but he felt like that he needed to wait for Peter.

Peter found the container of which had his stuff which was neatly folded, though that wasn't what his main focus was on. He searched through the bag of which contained the orb within it, though Jace instantly knew what Peter was looking for, knowing that Peter always carried around everywhere that he went. He remembered Peter telling him about it though he couldn't remember the story.

Gamora came up behind Peter, peering over his shoulder. "The Orb's there. Let's go."

Peter frantically search everywhere in the container. "Wait, wait, wait."

"What?" Gamora questioned, already wanting to get on the ship to leave.

"That bastard didn't put it back."  Peter told. He lifted all of his things out of the container in a quick sweep.

"Put what back?" Gamora asked, not really too sure by what he had meant.

"Here." Peter passed her the bag. "Get them to the ship. I will be right back."

"How are you gonna possibly—" Gamora began.

Peter cut her off. "—Just keep the Milano close by. Go. Go! Jace, go!"

Peter ran off leaving both Jace and Gamora standing there giving each other a look before they went to catch up with the others. By the time that the pair of them got to the Milano, the others were already inside the ship, as soon as Jace dropped in, he started to change out of the prison uniform, wanting nothing more than out of it. He didn't care for the groans of those around him who didn't want to see him strip, but he lacked the ability to fully care. He pulled his blue leather jacket over his Ravanger clothing, behind his ear was the earpiece of which held his helmet, which allowed him to breath in space without a ship.

"Your abilities," Gamora began. "Did they come naturally, or experimentation?"

Jace looked at her oddly as he took control over the ship. "They came naturally. I always had them."

"Where's blondie?" Rocket asked, annoyed.

Gamora was the one to explain to them about Peter, there was a part of Jace that was pissed by the fact that Peter wasn't with them, yet he was worried about if he didn't exactly make it out before the guards caught him. The last thing that he wanted was for the guards to get them once more. Rocket was sat in the other pilot seat beside him while Gamora sat in the seat just a little bit further back but in between the two pilot seats.

"Well, how's he gonna get to us?" Rocket questioned after Gamora had explained the situation.

"He declined to share that information with me." Gamora responded.

There was a part of Jace which wondered whether or not Peter would use his jets to get to them. He wondered whether or not he should've joined Peter but knew that Peter would rather him come here. Peter always tried to protect Jace as if he couldn't protect himself, it made him wonder whether Peter was just being a protective brother or not, though it was something that he didn't want to think too much into as a whole.

"Well screw this then, I ain't waiting around for some humie with a death wish." Rocket stated before he turned to Gamora asking, "You got the Orb, right?"

"Yes." Gamora responded. She checked through the bag that belonged to Peter in hopes to find the Orb. Instead, she pulled out some wrappers, then threw them aside opening the bag open, finding nothing in the bag.

"That idiots got it. I'm going to kill him." Jace let out a groan as he rubbed his eye. The one thing that Jace always hated was when Peter would do something stupid like this—Peter was always quick to doing something stupid.

Rocket turned towards Gamora. "If we don't leave now, we will be blown to bits."

Both Gamora and Jace yelled; "NO!" Though it was Gamora who continued to speak. "We're not leaving without the Orb."

Drax looked out of the window, Jace watched Drax, followed his gaze, noticing a figure coming towards them. "Behold."

It was both Gamora and Drax who'd gone over towards the hatch which Peter came through. The hatch opened as Peter came up, both Gamora and Drax helped him to get into the ship. Jace checked to see if it would be okay if Rocket took over with flying the ship before he went to see what exactly Peter had gone to get which risked their lives as well as his. He had a feeling he knew as to what Peter went back for, though he couldn't be sure.

"This one shows spirit." Drax spoke as Peter's helmet faded into his earpiece while Drax continued. "He will make a keen ally in the battle against Ronan. Companion, what were you retrieving?"

Peter proceeded to get something out from his jacket, ejecting the cassette from it before passing the Walkman to Drax, who looked down at it and then back up at Peter. "You're an imbecile."

"All that, for your Walkman? Seriously?" Jace questioned as Peter walked past him. "You could've died, Peter."

Peter just shrugged Jace off. "I'm alive aren't I?"

Jace followed after Peter, pulling the blonds arm, making him pause. "Peter. You could've died."

"I'm fine." Peter sighed. He patted Jace's hand. "Are you okay? That shield looked as if it took a lot out of you. You look pale."

Jace shook his head. Trust that Peter would change the subject. "I'm fine. I'll be fine."

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The drive through space on the way to wherever Gamora's dealer was, was slow. Jace didn't have the energy to talk to anyone within the group, which meant that he'd gotten bored with waiting to get where they were meant to be, so he started to muck around with part of the ship, tearing parts of it apart and creating something else with it. He knew that he probably shouldn't be doing it, but he couldn't help himself, it freed him from his boredom.

Not only that, but it allowed him to do something else. Plus, it wasn't like he had any bombs in the pockets of his jacket, he wanted to make sure that he had some stuff in case they got into some form of fight. He knew that it was unlikely, but he wanted to prepare, the last thing that he wanted was to use his abilities, it drained him at times, plus he liked using his fists or weaponry.

He liked making things, it allowed him to wander his thoughts in the process, wishing nothing more than to think over anything and everything that he liked. Jace wondered whether or not Peter would convince him to put their money together and go from there, it was something that Jace wouldn't want to do, he knew what he wanted to do with it. Although he knew that his prince probably forgot about him, was probably engaged to someone he wasn't interested in and having a family of his own, there was still a part of him that wanted to see whether or not his prince would join him.

Jace shook his head at the thought, he knew that it was too much as a whole, knowing that it was stupid. He was sure that the prince of his heart forgot who he was, he knew that it had been like five years, so he was sure that by now his prince's father would have arranged something to save face. He couldn't expect his prince to leave his wealth and status to run away with him, knowing that Jace had a small thing for danger. He was just pathetic when it came to his prince.

He was cut out of his thoughts when he heard Peter basically yell. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Yo, Ranger Rick! What are you doing? You can't take apart my ship without asking me! See, what is this?"

Jace found himself smiling ever so slightly, only to realise that it was Rocket that Peter was talking to, meaning that Peter hadn't noticed what Jace was doing to his ship. He knew that he'd ruined his ship a handful of times that he ripped it apart and made a bomb, he also knew that if Peter knew what he was doing, Peter would willingly throw him out of the ship without any form of protection.

"Don't touch that! It's a bomb." Rocket told, stopping Peter from getting hold of what he had built.

"A bomb?" Peter questioned, wanting to know if he had heard correct. He sounded surprised. "And you leave it lying around?"

"I was going to put it in a box." Rocket stated. He pulled a draw open.

"What's a box gonna do?" Peter questioned. Peter sounded irritant towards the situation. It was something that made Jace smile ever so slightly. It was always amusing to hear how irritated Peter got over everything.

"How about this one?" Rocket asked. He lifted up a floral-like, blue ribbon tied box.

Peter quickly said, "No! Whoa. Hey! Leave it alone." He then kicked the draw closed.

"Why? What is it?" Rocket questioned.

"Shut up."

Jace wasn't an idiot, he knew that it was a gift from Peter's Terra life, something that he couldn't bring himself to open. Jace and Peter never really talked about their life back on Earth, knowing that it brought them both some form of trauma and bad memories, meaning that they'd rather forget that they ever came from Earth.

"Hey!" Rocket muttered as he let out a scoff.

Peter stared down at what Rocket was working on as he asked, "What is that?"

"That's for if things get really hard-core. Or if you wanna blow up the moons." Rocket explained.

"No one's blowing up moons." Gamora cut in.

"Now that would be fun. Next abandoned planet that we land on, we are blowing it up." Jace piped into the conversation as he sorted out one of the wires on the weapon of which he was working on. The thought of blowing up a planet or a moon brought Jace some form of joy to think about as a whole.

Peter looked over to him as he then let out a sigh. "You too? I thought one random weapon-like maker was enough, now there's two of them. Great."

"Hey!" Jace called out. His voice went high pitched, acting as if he was offended by what Peter said, to add to his dramatic moment, he placed a hand over his heart. Peter just stared at him blankly as if he weren't impressed with any of it. Jace just grinned at Peter.

Peter just shook his head, he walked over to the table which both Gamora and Drax was standing by, he was standing in front of a screen, looking at it briefly. "So, listen, I'm gonna need your buyer's coordinates."

Gamora held the Orb in her hand, looking at it. "We're heading in the right direction. For now."

"If we're gonna work together, you might try trusting me a little bit." Peter told, shifting, and walking towards her.

Gamora looked at Peter. "And how much do you trust me?"

He lifted the Orb out from Gamora's hand when he next spoke. "I'd trust you a lot more if you told me what this was. Because I'm guessing it's some kind of weapon." He placed the Orb onto the table, and Drax instantly picked it up.

"I don't know what it is." Gamora told.

"If it's a weapon, we should use it against Ronan." Drax suggested. Jace came over as he snatched the Orb from Drax's hand and examined it.

"What if we break the shell to see if something's inside, like an Easter egg or something." Jace tried to suggest as he lightly tapped it against the table.

"Put it down, you fool. You'll destroy us all." Gamora snapped at Jace. Jace just rose his free hand slightly before placing the Orb back onto the table.

Drax snapped, as if he didn't like the sound of Gamora's voice, it made Jace wonder what the hell was going on. "Maybe I'll destroy you, murderess."

Gamora strutted over to Drax, snapping back at the big idiot. "I let you live once, princess!"

"I am not a princess!" Drax hissed.

"Hey!" Peter yelled, drawing their attention away from each other. "Nobody is killing anybody on my ship! We're stuck together until we get the money."

Drax threw the Orb towards Peter. "I have no interest in money."

"Great. That means more money for the four of us." Peter spoke. Drax had walked away from them.

Groot came up beside Peter as he let out a small huff which had caught his attention. Groot's arms went out slightly, questioning what Peter said.

Peter let out a sigh as he corrected himself., "For the five of us. Partners."

"We have an agreement, but I would never be partners with the likes of you. I'll tell the buyer we're on our way." Gamora told. She went to walk away but stopped herself and turned to face Peter. "And Quill, your ship is filthy." Gamora then walked up the stairs, leaving him, Jace, Rocket, and Groot behind.

"Oh, she has no idea." Peter spoke as soon as he knew that Gamora was gone. "If I had a black light, the place would look like a Jackson Pollock painting."

"You got issues, Quill." Rocket stated.

Jace just gave him the most disapproving look as he shook his head. "Did not need to know that."

He said that as if his own ship wasn't worse when it came to that. He wouldn't even want to admit that to anyone, knowing that it was something that he'd rather take to the grave. He remembered the times that he would take his prince around his ship, flying around his prince's planet, the amount of alone time that they got. Just thinking about it made Jace shift ever so slightly before he then shook his head, knowing that it was something that he didn't need to think about.

Instead, Jace found himself going back to dismantling a small part of Quill's ship, creating more weapons than what he should probably should. There was something about the creation of the small weaponry which calmed his mind, making him lose himself into the work, and yet, at the same time, Jace always found himself deep in thought when it came to his life.

This time, Jace found himself thinking about his life on Terra, and although he didn't remember much about his life on Terra, the one thing of which he did remember was his mother, and the way of which she used to play out music as loud as it would go. He also remembered how him, his mother and his father would sing along to some bands like, Bon Jovi and Queen. Bands which he'd got Peter into.

The thought of his mother made him almost pause what he was doing, there was a part of him that missed his mother a lot, wondering how differently his life would be if his mother had lived. Of course, he missed his father—he missed his father almost as much as he missed his mother—but there was always something about the memory of his mother which stood out to him the most.

He remembered when he used to live on Terra, back at wherever he used to live, of this old armour that she had, like armour in an old show or movie that he watched that he can't remember the name of, or maybe armour that he would imagine warriors fighting in. He remembered seeing that armour in her wardrobe, next to old outfits that looked like it never belonged on Terra, he'd never seen anything of the sorts even now that he was in space.

Not only that, but when he thought about the car crash where his parents both died, he remembered the way that his mother begged a man for Jace's safety. He could remember the man just as well as he remembered the crash, he remembered the way that the man had a spear taller than him, a golden-ish eyepatch, he remembered the way that his mother referred to this man as her king. He even remembered the small flash of light which struggled to come out of her hand, similar to the very light which Jace can form.

There was always a small part of Jace which hated what that man done. He assumed that the reason why his father lost control over the car that night, causing the car to slip on some ice and crash, was because of that king his mother knew. Jace blamed that king, blamed whoever that king was for making him an orphan and leaving him there, though he was somewhat grateful to still have his life, given that it allowed Jace to have a new family with people that know how to protect themselves, knowing that he won't lose another family. He wasn't sure if he could cope losing another family.

When Jace did think about his life with Yondu, he knew that it was rough, Yondu used to be quite rough with him, trying to make sure that he knew how to fight well enough, knew how to use his abilities and not let them use him. Yondu was always rough with him, though Jace knew that it was because Yondu wanted to make sure that he stayed alive, whether that was because he wanted Jace to start working with the Ravangers as soon as possible, he didn't care. It was enough for Jace to know that he was worth something, that the Ravangers had his back when it came down to it, plus being with the Ravangers gave Jace his friendship with Peter and that's what he cared about.

What had brought Jace out from his thoughts was Peter speaking to him. "Can you stop ruining my ship, Jace?" Peter sounded annoyed though tired at having to talk to Jace about it.

"Nope, don't really want to." Jace said, shaking his head.

"It's my ship and I'm telling you to stop." Peter snapped. Peter crossed his arms, as if he were hoping to have some form of authority over Jace.

This was the one thing that Peter always tried with him at times. There were moments when Peter and Jace were pared together where it would lead to the pair of them bickering because Peter thought that he should be the authority person out of the pair of them. Jace knew that this was mainly because Peter was a handful of years older than Jace, but that was something that never really worked for Jace. Their bickering when it came to Peter telling Jace what to do ended with one of them—Peter—in a headlock.

Jace gave him a look. "No, just because it's your ship doesn't mean I'm not going to stop building things that could help us if we get caught up in a fight."

"There won't be a fight, we are going to sell the Orb, get the money, and that'll be it." Peter explained. "Plus, you have your abilities, I don't understand why you waste your time building these weapons if you can just blind everyone we're up against."

Jace somewhat rolled his eyes at that, he'd explained it a handful of times to Peter, and the thought that Peter never remembered as to why Jace rarely used his abilities was aggravating. "You know why I don't use them. I always like to use it as a last resort, you know that if someone powerful enough realises that I have these, there's a chance that they'll come after me."

Peter knew who Jace meant, there was a time when Jace spoke to Peter about the car crash that he was in. Jace told Peter about the man his mother called king, about all of it, including the small fear that Jace had that there was a chance that whoever this man is might come after him if the man-king realises who he is because of his abilities. That was another little theory that Jace had, that both him and his mother somehow shared the same abilities despite the fact that Jace has no idea why they both even would have abilities in the first place.

He didn't want to think too much about his mother, knowing that it was something that would hurt him more. Thinking about his mother and father, and the way that they died was something that hurt him more than anything else. He knew that he needed to stay focused on the now more than anything else, he couldn't be worried about his past no matter how much he worried over it all.

Peter let out a sigh. "I understand that Jace." He shook his head slightly. "Just put this all away, please. I don't need any more self-destructing objects laying around my ship."

Jace held his hands up innocently, though in one hand was the small bomb of which he was working on and in his other hand was a small screwdriver. "Sorry. I'll put them away. Don't need to act like a dad, worried about every little thing."

It was the one thing that Jace noticed every so often, as much as Jace saw Peter as some form of brother figure, there were times when Peter acted more like some weird father to him. Or attempted to. Not that Jace cared much, it was something that Jace found amusing at times, the fact that Peter always tried to parents him.

"I'm not your dad, or even trying to act like one. I just don't want to die of an explosion." Peter huffed as he gave Jace a look. Peter crossed his arms, not very pleased as a whole with the comment.

Jace grinned to himself, looking up at Peter. "Sure, dad. Whatever you say, dad. Hope you do great, dad." He was half-mocking, finding joy in something for once.

Peter glared at him, like he hated everything that was to do with Jace. "I hate you so much."

Jace gave him a sarcastic grin. "Course you do."

Peter groaned slightly, annoyed with Jace as a whole. He narrowed his eyes at Jace, clenching his jaw ever so slightly. "Just get rid of all of this, please."

"Fine, I'll put it away," Jace said, rolling his eyes.

Peter walked away, and Jace found himself pouting to himself. He liked building stuff, he didn't like being told to stop, knowing that it was one of the few things that comforted him the most when his thoughts would get the better of him. Though, he knew that it was best to not annoy Peter any further, despite the fact that all Jace wanted to do was tease the living fuck out of him, it was one of the things that brought him joy at times.

Jace shoved the small bombs that he made into his small satchel pocket where the other tiny bombs were. In his bag, he found a small photo of both him and Peter when they were both younger, it was from when Jace stole a camera and decided to use it for himself, Peter was the one who managed to get the photos printed off. The photo in itself was Jace in a headlock while they both smiled for the photo, Yondu took the photo, it was one of the few things that they managed to convince Yondu to do. He smiled to himself, putting it away, knowing that the last thing that he wanted was to lose it by mistake.