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The howl of the winds caused Rocket to take pause in his mission. With Bucky’s arm strapped across his back and Groot at his side, Rocket looked to the long eerie path before him wondering if they’d find their way out of the strange place that they’d been marooned in. The endless night had carried on for the entirety of their journey keeping them pushing on through frigid winds and raging weather to find the key to all their endless struggles. It began and ended with a child—one that would turn the course of destiny around forever.
“I am Groot!” Groot’s uncertainty echoed down the long, dark path.
“Yeah, yeah,” Rocket’s voice snapped back with the same familiar sass leading him to put on a brave face in his friend’s aversion to what was still on their path to freedom, “we’ve got this. Piece of cake. I’m telling you.”
The shrieking sounds beyond the shadows set the stage for the journey ahead of them, far from the safety of their home where they’d been tucked away from misadventures. It had made them all too comfortable for far too long, but now as Rocket focused on the path ahead of him facing out into the darkened forest of nightmares that they would still have to conquer in their return home, he felt his confidence wavering.
“I am Groot,” Groot’s uneasiness was a heavy weight on Rocket’s shoulders leaving Rocket to pretend that he hadn’t been creeped out by all of what had taken place from the moment they stepped into the murder world to collect on the bounty they’d been chasing down. It was an easy task, or so they were told but as Rocket surveyed the area, he knew full well they hadn’t even begun to face the darkness.
“Sure, yeah,” Rocket paused before looking over to his friend with more certainty behind his words, “Look I’m not scared but if you are, you can hold my hand.”
Without pause Groot obliged with a sweep of branch and leaves across Rocket’s fingers as it was clear Groot was shaken too by what they were yet to face. Still Rocket held his head up high and allowed for his strength to find him again. Rocket was a survivor and a hero. He took what he wanted and made it his against impossible odds, which is why he knew that taking the bounty had been a wise decision. Of course, what he and Groot found instead was something far more valuable as a small voice beside him pulled Rocket from his own fears to the warmth carrying over his paw.
“Do you mind if I hold your hand too?” the timid voice coming beside Rocket questioned, “I’m not scared, but I don’t want to get lost either.”
“That’s not going to happen kid,” Rocket promised remembering his mission ahead of him.
Looking to the young girl at his side served as a strong reminder of how the mission had changed when Rocket and Groot had pulled Morgan Stark from a ship of space pirates and fought a good fight in a quest to bring her home. In the process of the battle that followed the trio had landed on this strange planet, marooned in the forest that Rocket was convinced was the key to where their mission would land them after rumors of Tony Stark’s arrival on the desolated place found its way to young Morgan’s ears. Armed with a mission to find her father, she’d allowed herself to be kidnapped by said pirates and abducted in order to find her way to where her dad was. After Morgan’s ‘rescue’ by Rocket and Groot she’d spilled her plan to them to rescue her father, but a series of mishaps had led them in the wrong direction until finally they crash landed in this place, ready to reach their true destination. Now they were facing down the final stretch together armed and ready to take on the world beyond their reach.
Reaching for Morgan’s hand Rocket found himself fueled with a new determination as he took the first step forward into the unknown ready for whatever fight came their way on the dark road ahead of them, “We’re going to find your pop kid. You’ve got my word on that.”
