"Quill, Yondu's right," The raccoon shouted. "You think we flew halfway across the galaxy for fun? Use your head for once!"
"…" Peter froze.
If Yondu had said it alone, he would've brushed it off as another bitter Ravager rant. But Rocket… a teammate. Someone who argued with him every day yet trusted him with his life.
Slowly, Peter turned toward his father.
"Dad…" Peter's voice cracked. "Tell me they're lying. Please."
But Ego wasn't even looking at him.
The warmth in his expression had vanished entirely. In its place was pure hunger wearing a human face.
To Ego, Peter was no longer a son… he was a battery.
"Soren," Ego said, ignoring Peter completely, "Name your price. Anything within my power, I can grant. Whatever you want."
His tone was smooth, trembling under the surface. He feared Soren. He feared the being who bent space and time.
A direct fight would mean suicide, but Peter… Peter was irreplaceable.
Soren's looked at Peter… the shock and betrayal. A boy who had lost his mother had finally found a father… only to be faced with this nightmare.
Soren sighed heavy.
"So that's it. After all these years, the moment your 'son' shows potential, you decide to eat him."
"Noo.." Peter toke a shaky step back. The world he had built in his heart crumbled instantly.
"I said he's my friend," Soren continued. "Let him go. We can end this without a fight. Otherwise…"
"…you will fall today."
Ego's face twisted with rage.
He had waited millions of years… built worlds and consumed children. All for this moment.
And he would not let destiny slip away.
"Then you leave me no choice."
BOOM!
The planet convulsed.
The ground split open beneath them, cracking like eggshells. Blinding blue energy surged upward.
Dozens of enormous Celestial tendrils burst from the earth, spiraling into the sky. The air shook with their power.
Two wrapped violently around Peter before he could even scream.
"PETER!" Rocket yelled.
One tendril sharpened into a glowing spike and~
SPEARED through Peter's chest.
"AHHHHHH!"
Peter's scream tore through the air as the Celestial energy in his body was ripped away, siphoned like liquid light into Ego himself.
"PETER!" Yondu roared.
Rocket shrieked and even Groot's cry echoed with panic.
And from the sky a thunderous roar answered.
Gamora. Drax.
Gamora had discovered Ego's cave, walls lined with bones of his previous children.
She had forced the truth from Mantis and now she was here.
Drax was the first to snap.
Seeing Peter impaled by Ego's energy spike. He bellowed, summoning twin blades into his hands, and charged straight toward Ego.
If he could just reach him, if he could just hit Ego~
Peter could still be saved.
Ego merely flicked a finger.
A column of crackling Celestial lightning tore out of the ground, faster than sight.
It slammed into Drax hurling the massive warrior through the air and smashing him into the dirt.
"Drax!" Gamora cried, taking a step forward. She knew Ego's power.
But seeing Peter, her friend skewered and being drained alive, her heart twisted painfully.
She spun toward Soren. "Soren please! Save him!"
Ego hardly heard her, his attention was fixed entirely on his battery.
The tentacle skewering Peter glowed brighter as it siphoned his Celestial essence. Ego's eyes fluttered half-closed, intoxicated.
He had known Peter carried a spark, but he had never expected this much.
Power nearly equal to his own.
If Ego absorbed it… If he added Peter's strength to his own, his dream of consuming the universe would be… inevitable.
This was the moment he'd waited millions of years for.
He would not be stopped.
"…" Soren hadn't moved.
He had sensed Ego mobilizing the star-core energy long before the tentacles erupted.
He had watched it happen without interference.
Because he knew something Ego didn't.
Peter's divine power wasn't awakened, it was still dormant, locked away since childhood.
And only a violent shock, one that threatened his very life could stir it awake.
Yes, Ego was draining him.
But the amount stolen was tiny compared to the vast reserves buried deep within Peter's soul.
And this… this was the moment Peter needed.
'Peter Quill. Listen.' So Soren spoke straight into Peter's collapsing consciousness.
The words echoed through the darkness closing in on Peter's mind.
"You carry the same Celestial power as Ego… He can weaponize it… and so can you."
Peter had been drowning in agony.
In grief. In betrayal so deep it hollowed him out.
His father… his blood had never loved him.
Never wanted him, only needed to consume him.
His life.
His memories.
His mother.
All of it had been a lie.
A setup.
A trap for this exact moment.
And Peter Quill had finally… truly lost hope.
"Your family needs you." Soren's voice cut through the despair like a war drum.
Peter's eyes snapped open, blurry.
Through the haze, he saw Drax lying motionless on the ground.
He saw Rocket and Groot, shaking in panic.
He saw Gamora, terrified for him.
He saw the family he'd built… about to lose him.
"NOOOO!" Something inside him rejected that fate.
Blue energy detonated across his skin as his Celestial core ignited for the first time.
The tentacle impaling him shattered instantly, bursting into fragments of light.
Peter hung in midair rising, lifted by a storm of energy swirling around him.
In that moment, Peter Quill no longer looked like a half-human drifter.