"My help ends here. If I get involved, it could put Knowhere in a difficult position."

"I know!"

I explained my position. As the ruler of Knowhere, I couldn’t give the Sovereign any pretext for conflict. If things went wrong, it could lead to war between Knowhere and the Sovereign.

Rocket knew that too, so he couldn’t argue further. But from the way he grumbled under his breath, he seemed quite disappointed.

So I said that and moved to a spot a little distance away from them, climbing a tall tree to watch the situation.

When Yondu’s ship spotted the Guardians’ ship, it landed at a suitable spot nearby. Soon after, armed family members descended one by one and took positions around the area. Under Yondu’s command, they completely surrounded the location of the Guardians’ ship and slowly tightened the net, as if not to let a single person escape.

But the booby traps that had been set up in advance finally began to show their effect. At the same time, screams from Yondu’s family members rang out from all directions.

Some were hit by injection devices filled with large amounts of tranquilizer and collapsed on the spot, while others were caught in traps made from gravity devices salvaged from the ship, floating high into the air and then dropping back down repeatedly. With the chain reaction of traps going off, the entire encirclement turned into chaos in an instant.

Zing—! Thud! Zing—! Thud!

"Aaaaaah!!!"

"Ughhh... Stop..."

That wasn’t all. Rocket had been hiding in a tree, waiting for an opportunity, and launched a direct attack. He came down like lightning, quickly attaching electric shock devices to the heads of Yondu’s family members and sending powerful currents through them to knock them out.

Zzzzaaaap—!!!

"Gyaaahhh!"

"Kraaaah!!"

Nebula was also sniping at the ones approaching the ship, buying time, and Groot was stretching out his arms to block Yondu’s family from getting too close to the ship.

Thanks to going through so much together, their teamwork was quite solid. In the original, Nebula had been a prisoner, and Groot was still a baby, so he could barely contribute to the fight.

Fwoosh—!

As things went that way, Yondu shook his head and whistled. Then his ’Yaka arrow’ flew in and began destroying all the remaining booby traps.

Boom! Bang! Crash!

Fwoosh—! Swish—!

Soon after, he whistled again to control the Yaka arrow, sending it straight after Rocket, who was turning the battlefield into chaos.

The Yaka arrow was so fast that Rocket didn’t even notice it coming. The moment he spotted the arrow suddenly appearing before his eyes, apparently deciding it was too late to dodge, Rocket squeezed his eyes shut.

"Ugh."

But the Yaka arrow didn’t pierce Rocket. It stopped perilously right in front of him.

"Damn..."

In the end, Rocket raised both hands in surrender. Then Yondu and his family members revealed themselves one by one, appearing before Rocket, and laughed scornfully at him.

"Hello, rat."

"How you been, blue idiot?"

"Not bad. But there are still some resisting, so we need to take them down first, right? Lead the way!"

Yondu nudged Rocket’s back with the Yaka arrow.

"Ugh, damn, fine!"

With Rocket at the front, they moved toward the ship.

Nebula and Groot raised their weapons and aimed as soon as they saw Yondu’s family reappear. But when they confirmed Rocket was captured, they hesitated for a moment, and ultimately both lowered their weapons and surrendered. Yondu’s family surrounded them and herded them to the center.

"Damn it, why did you get captured..."

In the past, Nebula would have abandoned Rocket without hesitation and attacked. But perhaps because of the time she had spent with them, this time she chose to surrender quietly. Of course, that didn’t mean her frustration was gone—she was glaring at Rocket with a resentful look.

"You’re the girl who was under Ronan. Looks like you’ve decided to side with Quill?"

"I’m not under Ronan!"

"Yeah? Well, doesn’t matter if you were or not now. Anyway, we got ourselves a nice job. A golden lady said she’d pay big money if we bring in your whole group. Said she wanted you all dead."

As Yondu said that, his family started laughing like villains.

I judged that this was the perfect timing and came down from the tree, revealing myself before them. If things continued like this, Yondu would suggest just selling the batteries to protect the Guardians’ members. That would split Yondu’s family into a faction opposing him, centered around ’Taserface,’ and those still loyal to Yondu.

The problem was that if I just left things as they were, even the decent members of Yondu’s family would end up dead. If they survived, they could help solve the Ravager Guild’s manpower shortage, so I wanted to save as many as possible.

"Long time no see, Yondu."

They aimed their guns at me warily as I appeared. But Yondu recognized me and raised his hand, signaling his family not to attack. He probably wanted to avoid any more trouble with the Ravagers too.

"You’re Jin, the ruler of Knowhere. I saw you on Xandar. But what are you doing here? All alone at that."

"I came to tell you that it’s already too late. Ego took Quill and his crew. Capturing the ones left behind won’t do you any good. I heard it directly from them, so it’s certain."

"Wh—what?!"

Yondu seemed shocked by my words.

"Oh, damn it..."

Yondu grimaced and swore as if something terrible had happened, but I couldn’t tell if it was because he was worried about Quill or because the difficulty of the job had suddenly increased. Having seen the original, it was probably the former.

Then Kraglin, who was standing next to Yondu, asked him.

"So, what do we do with these ones?"

Then Taserface aimed his gun at Rocket and said.

"What do you mean, kill them! Look how much we lost catching these bastards!"

I quickly cut in and said.

"Whoa whoa~ calm down. If you kill them now, you won’t even be able to catch Quill and his crew later, will you? You should use them as bait! Or are you saying you’re confident enough to fight Ego and bring Quill’s crew back yourselves?"

At my words, Taserface lowered his gun and asked me loudly.

"Just who the hell is this Ego guy!? What kind of being is he that even the captain, and the famous ruler of Knowhere, are all scared stiff!?"

From the way he was talking, it seemed many of Yondu’s family didn’t know about Ego either.

Then Yondu began explaining about Ego.

"He is the planet itself. No one knows the details about his existence. But we do know he’s lived for a very long time and has tremendous power. Once, a highly advanced race had a conflict with Ego and their entire species was wiped out in an instant. He’s not something we can handle."

Yondu’s family swallowed hard as they listened to his serious explanation.

"So what are we supposed to do? Just wait for them to come out of Ego’s planet?"

"That’s right. As Jin said, if we keep these ones with us, we’ll naturally run into them."

"What if they don’t come out?"

"They will. I know Quill better than anyone."

At that, Taserface scowled and spoke in a dissatisfied voice.

"Captain, do we really have to do this!? We’ve taken a huge loss on this job."

But Yondu smirked contemptuously and gestured. Then his family loaded Rocket and the others onto their ship and locked them up. I tried to sneak aboard Yondu’s ship as well, but unluckily, Yondu caught me.

"Hey! Why are you trying to get on?"

"Just to catch a ride to a nearby planet. And I have something I want to ask you while I’m at it."

"Yeah? Hmm... Well, I guess it’s fine."

Fortunately, Yondu let me on without much suspicion.

Once the ship went into space, Yondu’s family started drinking heavily, and Taserface stuck by my side, constantly trying to talk to me.

"I’m Taserface. I’m gonna be famous, so remember that!"

"Enough. That’s the tenth time you’ve said that."

This guy was trying to make a name for himself since I was fairly well-known. But honestly, it was incredibly annoying. I felt like smashing his face in right then and there. Unfortunately, since I was hitching a ride, I couldn’t do that.

Taserface’s face truly matched his name. Veins bulged all over as if he’d been branded by electricity, and his cheeks had holes in them like rats had been gnawing on them. At this point, I instantly understood why everyone burst out laughing when they heard the name ’Taserface.’ With a face like that... it seemed less like a name and more like it was actually caused by powerful electric currents.

Anyway, I couldn’t stand being next to this guy any longer, so I decided to go talk to Yondu instead and stood up.

"Going to your seat? The ruler of Knowhere can’t hold his liquor, huh. Remember this well. My name is..."

"Yeah yeah, Taserface."

As I walked toward Yondu, I made a mental note that I would definitely have to deal with that guy’s face myself someday.

I reached Yondu on the bridge, and he was just staring blankly into space, drinking.

"Hey, Yondu. I’d like you and Stakar to get along better. So I actually went and asked him directly why he hates you so much. But he never gave me an answer. So I came to ask you directly. If we can resolve that issue, I think I could let you guys take jobs through the guild on Knowhere. Honestly, we’re so short on manpower that the Ravagers are swamped with work."

When I brought up Stakar, Yondu looked at me, let out a deep sigh, and began to speak.

"Huff... The truth is, I was a slave from Centauri-IV. But luckily, Stakar rescued me, and I started working with the Ravagers. I learned a lot from him. Stakar was a mentor and a father figure to me..."

Yondu paused to drink a glass of whatever, feeling frustrated as he talked about his relationship with Stakar, then continued.

"After a while, I was given my own warship from Stakar, and he helped me take on personal contracts too. I was so happy. I thought I was finally recognized by Stakar. So I worked even harder. I believed that was the best repayment I could give him. Looking back now... I think I did a lot of reckless things."

It seemed Yondu had built his position that way.

"Then I met Ego. He gave me a job to find his lost children. The pay was decent, and the job seemed simple—just traveling to various planets and bringing the kids back. But... later I found out. What that damned bastard was looking for the kids for. And what happened to all the ones I brought him. So the last one I brought, I didn’t hand over. I just kept him under me and raised him."

"That would be Quill."

"Right. But well, it was already too late. You might not know this, but the Ravagers have strict rules that must be followed. One of them is ’never trade children.’ I tried to explain myself to Stakar somehow, but he wouldn’t even listen. I don’t know if it was because he trusted me that much, but he looked at me like I had betrayed family. I still can’t forget that look. That’s why I ended up getting kicked out of the Ravagers."

"So that’s how it happened."

Yondu, perhaps because Quill had ended up meeting Ego, because Stakar had come up, and because he’d been drinking, opened up without holding back.

"Still, isn’t that a bit much? If he thought of you as family, he could have at least heard you out."

"I don’t expect anything from telling you this. Honestly, I think part of it is my fault for not noticing it sooner."

"So, what are you going to do now?"

"..."

When I asked that, Yondu was silent. He seemed to have a lot on his mind. So I decided to just ask about Ego’s location.

"I’d like you to tell me where Ego is."

"What are you going to do with that? Start a war or something?"

"I can’t drag Knowhere into a war. But Quill is my friend. I need to at least check if he’s safe."

"That kid sure picked a good friend. Fine, I’ll tell you."

Yondu smirked and gave me Ego’s coordinates.

After getting the coordinates, I headed to the prison. The family members were already drunk out of their minds and didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the prisoners.

"Jin, you’re here! Do you have any food by any chance?"

"Looks like they haven’t fed you guys either."

"Yeah, they’ve been drinking and haven’t bothered with us."

"Wait a moment."

I went elsewhere for a bit, took out space rations from my inventory, and brought them over. Then Rocket and the others gathered and began to eat. After a while, Nebula looked at me and said.

"Can’t you just help us escape?"

But Rocket answered for me.

"No. If things go wrong, it could cause a war between Knowhere and the Sovereign. We should be grateful Jin even stepped in to save us. We can’t let the mess we made spill over to Knowhere."

"It was the mess you made. If you’d just caught the Abilisk as contracted on Sovereign, none of this would have happened."

"Jeez, still on about that."

"I am Groot."

"Yeah yeah, fine. I was wrong."

With Groot chiming in too, Rocket eventually apologized.

But just then, Yondu and Kraglin came to the prison, opened the cell door where Rocket was locked up, and said.

"You guys still haven’t escaped. Follow me."