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“For the last time, Krag, I’ll be fine. Just… Go take Phyla and Adam to see the city. Cosmo might wanna see it too but you know she ain’t a fan of crowds.”
Rocket walked down the Bowie’s ramp not even looking at the nervous lanky Xandarian walking beside him.
“Ya sure cap’n? Whatever ya gotta take care of, it’ll be faster if we do it together.”
The raccoon let out a long sigh and turned to finally face Kraglin, meeting his gaze with tired eyes.
“It’s just something I have to do myself, alright? Now just…”
Rocket made a ‘shoo’ gesture with both paws, gesturing for the Xandarian to get back to the ship. Kraglin seemed to hesitate, but after his attempts to articulate any other words were met with the raccoon shooing him away, the man simply let out a groan and walked back into the Bowie. Rocket let out an amused snort and, after cracking the faintest of smiles, he turned around to continue walking towards the arrivals area of the port, away from the ship.
Xandar had changed quite a bit. After Thanos’ attack completely devastated the city, they had to rebuild most of it. And it wasn’t like things were exactly the same as before. Sure, the city still retained its characteristic ‘clean’ and futuristic aesthetics, but under further scrutiny, it was easy to see just how much of it was a mere façade. Just how much of it had only partially been rebuilt and how even more of it was still barely a project.
Even then, Rocket had to admit that he had a certain fondness for Xandar. After all, that was where his life had changed forever. Sometimes he wondered where he would be if he hadn’t been in that plaza. Looking for a bounty in that specific moment, in that specific place. He never would have met his friends. His family. Drax, Gamora, old Groot, Mantis, Nebula, Pete… The Guardians of the Galaxy. He couldn’t even put into words how much those people meant to him, or how much he missed them. At least he still saw Drax and Nebula pretty regularly, and old Groot still lived through his son in a way. He made time to give Pete a call every now and then, but he hadn’t heard of Mantis in a while now… And Gamora was gone forever.
One of his biggest regrets in life was never explicitly telling her how important she was to him, just like he had never told old Groot. He had never been good with feelings after all. But even after all the fights, after all the disagreements, after all the times they had yelled at each other… She was still his family, and he missed her. He missed their late-night conversations when neither of them could sleep, their debates on whether stealth or an absurd amount of firepower was a more effective strategy, the few times she had gotten him to open up a bit about his implants while she did the same about hers…
Wherever Gamora was, Rocket hoped that she knew just how much she meant to him even though he never said it.
Out of the corner of his eye, Rocket could see a few people gawking as he walked around the city. He was used to it at this point, and the fact that he was wearing his Guardian uniform certainly didn’t help make him any less conspicuous. Nevertheless, he paid them no mind. He continued to walk, dodging people every now and then as he made his way towards his destination.
Xandar’s cemetery was big. After Ronan’s attack, and then Thanos’ attack a few years later, the planet had sustained an insurmountable amount of deaths. To the point where the cemetery had needed several expansions in order to home so many dead. They were buried in niches for the sake of space, but it ironically was a pretty good reflection of the Xandarian’s rather ‘square’ nature. You live, you die, and they put you in a neat little rectangle in a wall, the end.
There was, however, a section where some actual graves could be found. Usually reserved for more important or influential Xandarians. Rocket walked around a bit more until, eventually, he found what he was looking for.
The raccoon took a deep breath and placed a tiny paw on the gravestone, looking away into the Xandarian horizon.
“Hey, Saal.”
=== Many years ago ===
There were 2 things Garthan Saal disliked above pretty much anything else. Rain, and having to respond to petty crimes. The fact that it was pouring outside his Star Blaster, already had him in a pretty sour mood. But when he got the call to assist in the arrest of some thief… Saal wished he had called in sick.
The way to the produce store was rather uneventful. There weren’t that many people in the street to begin with. It was a textbook stay at home weather after all. That made Saal ask himself. Who would be desperate enough to try to commit a crime on a day like that?
Minutes later, he got his answer.
Saal couldn’t help staring in confusion at the small creature cuffed to the table in the produce store’s camera room. The poor thing was absolutely terrified, soaking wet, and it looked like it hadn’t eaten in days. With a rather saddened expression on his face, the man kneeled in front of the furred creature and took a better look at it. It had some sort of metal implants coming out of it in places. Collarbones, face, chest… And what looked like metal braces in its front legs.
“What happened to you little hamster?”
The creature seemed to look up at Saal with unexpectedly intelligent eyes, but quickly returned his gaze to the floor.
“I was hungry”
Saal was promptly spooked by the answer, falling on his ass while he stared at the creature with wide eyes. It spoke?
No, not ‘it’.
He.
The man cleared his throat and picked himself up to kneel in front of the creature yet again, feeling a lump on his throat beginning to form.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you could talk. Let me…”
Saal turned around and made a gesture at one of the Nova officers standing by the door.
“Bring a blanket and an energy bar, please.”
Then the man turned around again to face the creature.
“Do you have a name?”
The creature looked up at him shyly and, after a few seconds of silence, he nodded.
“Rocket.”
Saal nodded and promptly inputted the name into his tablet.
“Rocket… My officers are linking you with several other thefts around the city. Do you have any accomplices?”
Rocket tilted his head in confusion
“What’s… An accomplice?”
Saal felt downright nauseous at that point. That was wrong, so very wrong. But with the other officers looking, he couldn’t just… Let the poor thing go.
“It’s like… A friend. Do you have any friends?”
Rocket seemed to hesitate for a bit, nervously fiddling with his paws as he tried to figure out what to say.
“L… Lylla. She was my friend.”
Saal nodded and typed in the name into the creature’s sheet. Just in that moment, an officer walked in with the items Saal had requested and handed them to him. The man took them and immediately offered them to Rocket, who wrapped the blanket around himself the best he could with one paw and began devouring the energy bar like it was the most delicious thing he had ever eaten.
While the creature ate, Saal walked away with his tablet in hand and approached one of the officers at the door.
“What do we know about him?”
“For reasons unknown, it has some sort of serial number: 89P13.”
Saal nodded and looked back at the creature, who was still gobbling up the energy bar like it was the first time he had eaten in months.
“Not ‘it’, he. And his name is Rocket.”
The officer nodded at Saal, a bit surprised by the normally rather stern man’s demeanor.
“What do we do with him, sir?”
Now Saal hesitated. Normally, he had little to no sympathy for criminals. But that poor creature… Who knew what things he had even gone through. Both his morals and his sense of justice were completely repulsed with the idea of just sending Rocket to be processed by the justice system.
“We… Take him back to the precinct so he stays the night at the cell. In the meantime, I’ll try to get him into the Nova reintegration program. Maybe by tomorrow they’ll have processed the request.”
The officer nodded at Saal and stepped out of the room to prepare the transport. The man turned around to look at Rocket yet again, who had just finished his energy bar and was shaking under the blanket. Saal approached the creature and kneeled in front of him yet again, helping him adjust the blanket properly and handing him the spare energy bar that he had in his pocket.
Rocket nodded gratefully and began eating the energy bar while Saal looked away, already thinking of how he was going to justify Rocket’s candidacy to the reintegration program.
======
“You were the first being in the entire galaxy that treated me like an actual person.” Rocket said, still reminiscing about the first time he had seen the man. “That precinct cell was my first escape... Ignoring the lab, of course. Back then, I didn’t understand what you were trying to do for me. I just saw myself inside a cage again and… I escaped.”
Rocket cleared his throat, trying to ease the lump steadily growing in it as he forced himself to look at the ornamented gravestone again.
“I really did disappoint you, didn’t I?”
======
It had been a few years the last time Saal had seen Rocket. He remembered the ride to the precinct. He remembered telling Rocket his name and trying to explain to him how taking other people’s property wasn’t legal, even though Rocket had been completely justified in that specific instance in his opinion. What other choice did he have? Starve on some Xandarian back alley. Not like he would ever admit it to anyone. But in his eyes, Rocket hadn’t been a criminal back then.
However, that had changed pretty quickly.
Saal pushed the interrogation’s room open, glaring at the cuffed raccoon seated on the other side of the white table. The bored creature lifted his head to look at the newcomer and, upon seeing who it was, he straightened up, his ears perking up with interest as he did.
“I know you.”
Rocket looked a lot different than he remembered. Older, healthier. The fur on his face had grown to the point where it completely concealed the metal pieces grafted in it. The exoskeleton over his collarbones and the braces on his paws were gone. But of course, the most visible difference was that now he wore some kind of miniature orange flight suit.
“Corpsman Garthan Saal.”
The man said as he sat down, not even looking at Rocket. The creature squinted his eyes a bit, trying to recall why that name sounded so familiar until… Suddenly he realized, his eyes going wide.
“Oh yeah, you are the asshole that threw me into a cell when I was… About the size of your boot.”
Saal froze, and slowly looked up from his tablet to meet Rocket’s gaze. He was grinning at him… Or maybe he was baring his teeth? A combination of the two? Saal couldn’t tell for sure.
“As a matter of fact, I apologize for that.” Saal replied. And for once, Rocket seemed rather stunned. “I was trying to keep you from getting processed, and I couldn’t think of anything better to stall the whole thing.”
Rocket simply stared at him quizzically. That was not how he had expected the conversation to go.
“You didn’t need to blow up the entire precinct, though. You are lucky that nobody died.” Saal continued, his voice turning more stern now.
The creature let out a smug humph as a smirk appeared on his muzzle. If he wasn’t cuffed, he would have crossed his arms.
“Guess you’ll think twice before throwing me into a cell again.”
Saal didn’t say anything for a few seconds, he simply glared at the creature before returning his attention to his tablet.
“You’ve racked up quite the rap sheet in these last few years. You must be proud.”
Rocket’s smirk widened a bit more.
“Very much so.”
Saal met Rocket’s gaze yet again, a glint of sadness in his eyes.
“You have potential to be so much more than this... So much more than some second rate thug.”
Rocket stared in confusion, once again stunned by Saal’s words. He had been arrested several times at that point. And none of the corpsmen he had met had said anything remotely similar to that.
“You can still turn your life around, Rocket.”
Both men looked at each other in silence for a few seconds. And then, Rocket laughed.
======
“I laughed at you, in your face.” Rocket said, a hint of embarrassment in his voice. “I thought you were messing with me. I just… I never even considered that you were being genuine.”
The raccoon took a deep breath and nodded to himself. Clacking his claws on the ornamented gravestone a few times before continuing.
“You kept telling me the same thing every time we met after that. But I could see in your eyes how you lost hope more and more every time. A part of me considered it some kind of messed up challenge. If you were messing with me, I was going to mess with you.”
Rocket fell quiet, looking down at the grass for a few seconds before continuing.
“That was until the Quill incident.”
======
Saal pushed the interrogation room’s door to find a very familiar creature sitting on the other side of the table.
“Corpsman Saal!”
“It’s Denarian now.”
“Woah, congrats on the promotion.”
Rocket looked at Saal with a massive grin on his muzzle. The Xandarian took a seat on the opposite side of the table and glared at Rocket. Not uttering a single word. After a couple of minutes of silence, Rocket finally broke the silence.
“So are you just…”
“Maybe I was wrong about you.”
Saal could see something falter in Rocket’s grin. Nevertheless, the man continued.
“You are one of the most capable people I’ve met. You can escape from any prison. Repair any ship. Create things most engineers wouldn’t even dream of with a box of scraps. Yet, here you are. Wasting your talent. And for what? Cheap thrills? Scraping by with that tree friend of yours until you get your next mercenary job?”
Saal shook his head and stood up from the chair, looking away from the creature.
“I genuinely believed in you, Rocket. Even after all those times you got arrested here. Even while reading your steadily growing rap sheet. I believed in you.”
Rocket was at a genuine loss for words. He was trying to find something to say. A way to get the last gotcha on Saal. But unfortunately, he had nothing.
“Best of luck, Rocket.”
And with that, the man left the room.
=====
“I can’t believe I’m taking orders from a hamster.”
A faint smile appeared on Rocket’s muzzle as he navigated the Milano around the hostile Necrocraft, reminiscing the first time he had met Saal. Somehow, Rocket knew that Saal didn’t mean it maliciously. He could almost picture him in his Star Blaster with a shadow of a smile in his mouth.
There were points during the battle where Rocket asked himself why he was doing this. Why was he risking his life for all those people on Xandar? For all he knew, those people didn’t give a damn about him. Why should he? If he wanted, he could just take the Milano and leave. Just get away as far away from Ronan as possible. If only Groot had been there with him, the choice would have been a much easier one. Or at least, that was what he told himself. But the truth was, his friends were counting on him. Drax, Gamora, Groot, Quill… And Saal. He couldn’t leave them to die. He couldn’t disappoint them.
Suddenly, Rocket saw a purple blast in front of the Dark Aster, right in the center of the Nova blockade. Seconds later, he heard Saal’s voice on the radio.
“ROCKET!”
“Hold on Saal! Just…”
Then, Saal screamed.
=====
There were times where Rocket could swear he could still hear the man’s scream. When it was very quiet, at night. It was almost like it was still ringing in his eardrums. Seared into his memory forever.
“We ended up saving Xandar that day. Well, and the entire galaxy.” Rocket said smugly, a smirk appearing in his muzzle as he looked at the gravestone. “Wish I could have seen the look on your face.”
After a couple of seconds of silence, the smirk disappeared, and Rocket’s gaze fell to the ground once again.
“That day, my life changed forever. I stayed with Drax, Gamora and Pete. We raised Groot together. I met Yondu and Mantis. We killed Ego together, saved the galaxy again. We had so many adventures together and then… I lost everyone.”
Rocket fell quiet again, remembering just how awful those 5 years without the rest of his family had been.
“I met Nebs, properly this time. We kept each other sane. Somehow, we managed to bring everyone back. Everyone… Except for Gamora. We went on more adventures together but it just… Wasn’t the same without her. Then one day I almost died... And before I even realized…”
Rocket smiled wide and pointed at himself with both paws.
“Here I am, the captain of the Guardians of the Galaxy.”
The raccoon’s smile faltered. He let out a long sigh as he gazed at the Xandarian horizon.
“Wish you could have been alive to see it. I just… Wherever you are, I sincerely hope I made you proud.”
Rocket sniffled and dried off the tear falling down his cheek with the back of his paw.
“Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for treating me like a person when nobody else did. Say hello to Lylla, Floor, Teefs, Gams, Yondu and old Groot for me, please.”
The raccoon turned around and began walking away. But after advancing a few meters, he stopped and looked back at Saal’s gravestone with a smile.
“Guess I didn’t turn out that bad after all.”