Peter Quill stood before a towering statue… a figure sculpted from Ego's own planetary essence. It took him only a breath to recognize the face.
His mother. Young and smiling… frozen in time.
Growing up alone among Ravagers, the only things he'd kept of his family were fading memories and an old mixtape.
The face before him was so familiar, so painfully gentle and pulled old wounds open. And now Ego stood beside him, calmly calling himself Peter's father.
Part of Peter wanted to run.
Another part wanted to believe.
"I never stopped thinking about her. About you." Ego's voice was soft, wrapped in practiced warmth.
Sweet words, words Peter had waited his whole life to hear. Slowly, inevitably, he let himself be drawn in.
Then Ego gestured toward the heart of the planet. "Close your eyes, Peter. Focus. Let your mind sink into the center of this world."
Ego's voice was hypnotic, dreamlike.
Peter hesitated,but obeyed. He felt something, a pulse beneath the surface, a vast current of energy thrumming through the planet itself. When he reached for it, the power surged upward as if greeting him.
A brilliant shock of light burst around his hands, blue and crackling like living lightning.
"Whoa!" Peter shouted, stumbling back as the energy flickered out.
"Yes! Exactly!" Ego roared with exhilaration. His voice echoed through the cavern, and even the ground seemed to tremble in response.
Peter blinked at his father's ecstatic expression. He didn't see anything wrong, in his mind, this was simply how a proud father reacted to his son's success.
But Ego's excitement ran far wilder. A volcanic hunger burned behind his eyes, a fire dormant for centuries.
In Peter, Ego had finally found what he had sought across eons… a son who carried the celestial spark.
A son he could use.
Peter, sadly, saw only affection.
Ego continued to treat the Guardians generously. He offered them food, freedom, and hospitality.
He let Mantis guide them through the planet's most beautiful valleys and crystal forests. Everything looked perfect.
But perfection rarely is.
Wandering on her own, Gamora found a cavern hidden behind a ridge,a cavern shaped disturbingly like the gaping jaws of a beast. Something about it pulled her closer.
Inside… a massive pit lay before her, filled with countless skeletons… some nearly whole, others worn into dust by centuries.
A graveyard of Ego's children.
Horror twisted in Gamora's gut. She backed away and sprinted off to find Mantis, desperate for answers and desperate to know what monster they had walked beside.
✦••┈┈••✦••┈┈••✦
High above the planet, space tore open with a ripple.
A massive wormhole snapped into existence, and Yondu's Ravager warship burst through. The hull glowed red from heat… plates were cracked and scorched, engines whining in protest.
They had pushed the vessel beyond its limits on Soren's command.
Inside, Soren stared out the viewport at the brilliant world below.
"So.. this is Ego."
After hearing confirmation, a realization struck him. Now he understood why Yondu's description of the star field around Ego's planet had felt strangely familiar.
This region… it was the very place where he once fought a duplication of Galactus that had once prepared to descend upon Earth and consume everything.
Soren couldn't help but sigh.
The universe was vast beyond comprehension, yet under the pull of some indescribable fate, it had brought him back to this starry domain once again.
"Soren? What's wrong? You don't look good." Freyja immediately noticed the change in his demeanor.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Soren offered her a small smile and shook his head, letting his emotions settle.
"It's nothing," He signaled.
He then allowed his mental power to unfurl completely, probing into the strange planet forged by a god's will.
The moment they arrived, Soren had felt a faint pulse of life emanating from within the world. It was muted and almost imperceptible. but with the aid of his psychic halo, even the most subtle vibrations could not escape his senses.
Despite its obscurity, the presence was massive.
Beneath the surface lay an astonishing reservoir of energy… so rich and dense that even Soren felt a stirring of shock.
Countless ages of consumption and growth… Ego had never reached true immortality, but his accumulated power was undeniably formidable.
Soren pushed his mental force deeper, penetrating into the planet's interior. It took effort, but with the Mind Gem feeding immense energy through the spiritual circle, he managed to breach the outer barrier…
and saw the planetary core.
It was nothing like the core of an ordinary world. Nearly all the planet's essence had been drawn into that central mass of colossal divine intensity.
Even Soren couldn't help feeling a spark of temptation at its sight.