Chapter 342: Pitch Black

16th May 2013, Middle of Space

(Peter Quill POV)

"I may be as pretty as an angel, but I sure as hell ain't one. Hand it over, son."

Peter sighed and handed him the fake orb, making sure to hide the real one from him. After the Ravager Captain left, Peter muttered to. Himself, "He's gonna be pissed when he realizes I switched out the orb on him."

Gamora's smile made things worth it. Yondu was the closest thing that he had to a family, but it was time for him to grow up.

Before he was going to be interrogated by the Nova Corps, Morrigan said, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't say anything about my involvement in all of this. I'd rather keep a low profile."

Peter was confused, "Don't you want to get pardoned from going to jail?"

The Morrigan snorted, "I didn't get arrested, Peter, I broke into the prison. It would take someone very powerful to even think about taking me down."

"Why the hell would you break into a prison?"

"To meet you, of course."

Still, Peter was confused, "Why would you want to meet me?"

"It's because of your father."

These last words rang in Peter's head during all the ceremonial crap he had to go through. Sure, he was rewarded with a medal for saving Xandar, by the Nova Prime herself. The Nova Corps gave them, and the entire Ravager team that helped in the fight against Ronan. Yondu of all people, the infamous Ravager Captain, was now free to walk in the Nova Empire as he wished.

As for Peter and his team, they were starting to get called the Guardians of the Galaxy. The Nova Corps even salvaged what remained of the Milano and rebuilt it from the ground up. It looked almost identical to how it used to be.

It was straight up out of a movie from Terra. He was now a famous hero in the galaxy, leading his team to confront the evil Ronan from committing genocide. He even got a medal like those old war heroes from home. And yet, it all tasted bitter because of Morrigan's last words.

Peter Quill always imagined his father coming and taking him away from the Ravagers, saving him from a life of a monster. And yet he never came, the so-called spaceman, his mother so lovingly described every night.

And for the first time, he had a lead, and the sad thing was that he didn't know if he wanted to know about him, if that made any sense. He did follow through with Morrigan's request to not say anything about her involvement. As far as everyone was concerned, she had perished far away from the excitement, her pod having malfunctioned because of the city's defenses and crashed. He did what the woman wanted and lied, but he didn't even know what he wanted in return. Well, she saved them from Ronan and helped Xandar recover the infinity stone.

Peter had no illusions about the fact that he threw his orb of his own volition. Something moved his hand, made it so that he would throw the orb at exactly the right time, at the exact location it needed to be at. And that wasn't him. Her fellow human had saved his life, and this was nothing more than repaying the favor.

So, why was he hopeful, and nervous at the same time? Why did he feel like a young boy again?

Morrigan knew who his father was, and it scared the crap out of him.

He gulped before finally making his way to the Milano where the two women were hiding. Gamora seemed to have noticed his nervousness and murmured to him, "What's wrong, Peter?"

"Morrigan and Hela," Gamora stiffened when he mentioned the two women, "they know something about my father, the one that disappeared."

"Oh," Gamora breathed out.

"Yeah. All my life, I made up stories of him in my mind. You know, I even pretended an imaginary character was my dad for a while, that he would just take me away and we would have adventures together. I was such an idiot back then. But I always dreamed about my mother's spaceman, the one she spoke of with so much life in her eyes," Peter confessed.

"And having a real chance to meet him, to see the man your mother loved, is scaring you." Gamora continued for him.

Quill nodded, "I know it seems silly, especially after what we just went through together. But there's this image of him in my head…"

The green skinned woman just grabbed his arm in comfort. Peter really appreciated how close the two of them had gotten during the last few days. It was odd; for all his escapades, he had never felt towards a woman as he does for Gamora.

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He then remembered a little detail from before, "About Morrigan… You recognized her name. Why?"

Gamora sighed in defeat, "I heard that name a few times. I didn't know who she was – I still don't to be honest – but my father was wary of her for some reason. She singlehandedly stopped his invasion of Terra. After his defeat, he was visited by a strange man in black, that said he knew her. They call my father the Mad Titan, but his madness pales in comparison to what I saw in the eyes of that man. He called himself the enemy of Morrigan, and that he would help Thanos achieve his goal, and oppose the Morrigan. Outside of these overheard conversations between my father and his new advisor, I never heard the name."

"So, she's dangerous…"

The former assassin released a snort, "Of course she is. Anyone that my father even knows the name of, is dangerous. For him to be so wary of her… I shudder to think of what she's truly capable of."

Well, that made things a lot more terrifying. What the hell did that woman have to do with his father any way?

Was his father a monster as well? But then, why would his mother speak of him so fondly until her inevitable death? There were too many possibilities, and Peter was too exhausted to think of them. Morrigan had all the answers, and she looked ready to reveal them to him.

Peter steeled himself and entered the hangar in his ship, where he usually hangs out if he has any company. When he did, he saw the Morrigan sitting down on one of the couches, eating snacks. It was hard to believe that this woman was the one Thanos himself was wary of. She just seemed so normal, so ordinary. Hela on the other hand was playing with some kind of black dagger with some very complex maneuvers.

When Morrigan saw him arrive, she brightened, "Peter, how's my favorite Captain doing?"

"We need to talk," he simply answered.

"About…"

"About my father." Peter continued, slowly getting irritating.

The woman snorted, "Well you certainly took your time to man up and talk to me. What do you want to know?"

"Everything," Peter breathed out.

The woman just shrugged, "Well it's a very long story, but I'll try to make it short. What do you know about the reason why Yondu took you from Terra?"

That question froze Peter immediately, "Didn't they just kidnap me?"

The woman burst into laughter, "Oh, you're so cute. Look, if they wanted a boy from a backwards planet, they wouldn't have picked you, just after your mother died, to take you. No, the Ravagers don't do anything for free, and they were paid to grab you, to bring you to your father. Yondu just refused to bring you to him after he left Terra."

The self-proclaimed Star Lord froze as she finished. This was a fundamental part of him being a lie. He felt burning hatred towards Yondu. That man had raised him as a criminal, constantly scared for his life, and he had done it after refusing to take him to his father?

Peter tried to control himself and just asked, "Why would he do that? Why did he take me away?"

"Because he realized what your father was doing to his children…"

"And what was that?"

The woman gave him a grim expression and answered, "He was killing them all."

Again, Peter froze, "what?"

"Yeah, your father, Ego, is a very old entity, part of a race that are not born, but simply come out of existence. They call themselves Celestials, but in many ways, your father was broken, incomplete. Do you remember the giant beings using the infinity stone in the Collector's illusions? Even the head that became Knowhere was one of theirs. Celestials are born with a certain encoded purpose, but your father had none, and it turned him insane. He turned himself into a living planet, with his consciousness being the core, and created an entire ecosystem on the surface."

Morrigan waved her arms and an illusion appeared out of nowhere, of a planet with a face. It looked strangely beautiful.

The woman then continued, "He was alone in the depths of space for billions of years, slowly learning, evolving, until he decided one day that life was just disappointing, that he hated it, and so, he planned a massive undertaking, gave himself a purpose, to unite all life in the galaxy as a single being, him. He called it the expansion, but he wasn't strong enough to power it. He needed another Celestial to help him control the expansion properly, but he didn't know if others even existed, and so, he chose to create his own.

"He traveled throughout the universe, going to one planet after another, getting women pregnant with his seed, while hoping that one of his children would inherit his power. He would overload them with his cosmic energy and hope that they would adapt, that he would unlock their own connection to what he called 'his light'. Thousands of children each born from a mother of a simple species died. He killed all of their mothers, planting seeds of disease in them, waiting for them to die, and then send someone to pick the children up. He hired Yondu many times in the past, to get his children, until one day, he realized what was happening to the younglings he was transporting. When he did, he chose not to give you away, not when your death was practically guaranteed. And so, Yondu chose to raise you, prepare you for the horrors that might await you out there, as repentance for your brothers and sisters that he transported to their deaths. He lived in constant fear that Ego would find him and take you away."

The woman kept showing him illusions of every event she talked about, but something truly enraged him, a deep realization that hurt more than anything, "He killed my mom?"

Morrigan nodded, "He did. He killed countless mothers to take away their children. I imagine he could be quite charming when he wanted to be."

"HE KILLED MY MOM!" Peter yelled.

Suddenly, Peter felt as if something was unlocked. The entire spacecraft was starting to shake, like it was resonating with his anger. Gamora fell down in shock, and even Hela looked nervously at him. Morrigan though, looked unconcerned, like she expected this to happen. He didn't care, too consumed by his burning rage. It was bottled deep down, trying to escape. He almost let it all go, destroying everything around him in his rage, until the Morrigan just snapped her fingers.

There was noise everywhere, but the snap was somehow deafening. The room then righted itself, the spacecraft stopped shaking, and Peter himself felt breathless for a second, and fell down to the floor.

The woman raised an eyebrow, "Are you done?"

"Who the fuck are you?" Peter gasped out.

"I'm the Morrigan, the last daughter of Atlantis. I am the last defense to the oncoming storm, the end of everything. The multiverse will soon be swallowed in darkness, Peter Quill, and I need your help to stop it."

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