"Wait, what?"

Peter stared, unblinking, at Gamora. He couldn't quite process what she had just told him. "What does Thanos want with Terra?"

"You truly did not know?" Gamora asked, her eyebrows contracted in confusion. "It has been more than two standard Terran years. You have not heard about the failed invasion?"

"What? No! If I had heard about that, don't you think I would have, I don't know, done something about it?" Peter said incredulously, his hands waving in the air nonsensically.

"Well, I dunno, Peter," Rocket chimed in from where he was sitting off to the side, tinkering with one of his many projects. "It's not like you seem to care about your home much. I mean, the rest of us? Don't really have a home to go back to, you know? You could have gone any time you wanted."

"Wha- that's not true!" Peter huffed, indignant. "I only got my ship about a year ago. And just in case you forgot, I was abducted by the ravagers when I was eight. They weren't about to let me go back."

"But you have had the Milano for a year," Drax tried to point out reasonably. "Why did you not try to return home as soon as you acquired your ship?"

Peter let out a frustrated squawk, and ran his hands through his hair with harsh, jerky movements.

"You know what- that's not the- nevermind that! I have my reasons! Just because I didn't immediately go back the first time I had the chance doesn't mean I don't care!"

"But you did not even try and seek out information?" Gamora questioned. "I thought it was well known event. Half of the Chitauri's forces were wiped out by Terra's counterstrike."

"What, really?" Peter stopped moving for a second to stare again. "Wow, I was not expecting that."

"What d'ya really expect Gamora?" Rocket drawled smirking at the confused half-Terran. "Quill here didn't even know who you were. Do you really think he keeps up with politics?"

"Ahhh," Gamora said with sudden understanding, much to Peter's embarrassment. "You are right. He is surprisingly ignorant of many things."

"You know what? Forget you guys," Peter said, turning around and climbing the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Gamora asked, an eyebrow raised. "I just told you that Thanos has targeted your home planet."

""We're changing course for Terra," Peter said, pausing halfway up the stairs, not bothering to turn back.

"Wha? What for?" Rocket said, dropping his project with a worrying amount of force considering it's probably destructive consequences. "Why are we going to that backwater? They took care of themselves just fine! And the Chitauri are no pushovers."

"They don't know about Thanos," Peter said, finally turning to look back at them, his face suddenly more serious than they'd ever seen it. "They don't know about anything that's been happening out here with the infinity stones or the Kree. We have to warn them. If Ronan could have wiped out Xandar by himself, what could Thanos do?"

Gamora, Drax, and Rocket were quiet. They knew exactly what could happen. Ronan was child's play compared to the Mad Titan, and they all knew.

"This isn't just about me going back to Terra. I'm not even sure if I want to," Peter admitted, staring off into space. "I left when I was a kid. It's been twenty-six years. That's way more than half my life so far.

"My mother died. My family won't know me. I'm not even fully Terran. But... we're the Guardians of the Galaxy now. Last time I checked, Terra was a part of it. And if they're next on Thanos's list, and if they've got the power to strike back against an invading force like the Chitauri, which even I've heard of thanks-very-much Rocket, then they deserve to be kept in the loop."

Peter stared each one of them in the eye.

"So we're going to Terra. Buckle up."

...

"Why would we buckle up?" Drax turned and asked Gamora. "We do not need to do so unless descending into a planet's atmosphere."

Rocket groaned and dropped his head into his hands.