Once all the members of the Guardians of the Galaxy had boarded the ship, Rocket Raccoon piloted it away from the surface at maximum speed. He was so desperate to escape that he wished he could somehow appear at the rear of the ship and give it a good hard kick—like that would somehow make it fly even faster.
The clouds in the sky that had once displayed Ego's face now flickered erratically, like a scrambled video feed with terrible reception. Dozens—no, hundreds—of Ego's distorted expressions flashed across them in rapid succession, creating an eerie and unsettling sight.
"Faster, faster!" Drax shouted. "I don't want to spend another minute on this creepy planet. Quill, your father is terrifying."
"He's not my father," Star-Lord replied weakly. He had thought finding his biological dad would make his life better, but this twist had nearly broken him in half—emotionally and, judging by his tone, almost physically.
Finally, the ship pierced through the thick atmosphere and broke into space. Through the porthole, the once-serene and beautiful planet below was now nothing more than a hellscape. Blood-red hues had spread across its surface, and a massive, glitching version of Ego's face loomed over the terrain, flashing rapidly through different expressions like a broken monitor.
That alone meant one thing—Ego could no longer control his consciousness. He was about to die. Literally.
"Back then, it was Ego who asked me to bring you from Earth into space," Yondu said quietly, his gaze fixed on the dying planet. "He wanted me to hand you over to him. But I didn't obey his order. I already knew what happened to all those so-called 'children' I'd delivered to him before."
He looked straight at Quill. "You're different. The moment I snatched you from Earth and brought you aboard my ship, I liked that stubborn little kid who always tugged at my head fin. So instead of handing you to Ego, I raised you as my own son."
Star-Lord sat in stunned silence. He had always believed Yondu had simply abducted him like any other pirate plunder, but this revelation rewrote his entire childhood. Memories of their time together now hit him with an emotional weight he hadn't expected.
"Yondu…"
"Alright, alright, enough with the sentimental crap," Yondu snapped, though his eyes still glimmered with emotion. "You wrecked my ship, boy, and I haven't even settled that bill with you yet."
"…Seriously?" Quill's heartfelt words evaporated under Yondu's gruff retort. "Old man, you tried to kill me first!"
"That's only 'cause you idiots stole those power cells. Of all things, you had to steal from the Sovereign. If it weren't for me, you'd have been—"
Before he could finish, Rocket cut him off. "Uh, guys? You really might want to see this. It's… magnificent."
In Rocket's eyes reflected the scene unfolding on Ego's planet—like a giant cosmic vacuum cleaner had been installed right at its core. Everything was being sucked inward at an alarming rate. The planet's size shrank rapidly, its atmosphere stripped away, exposing barren ground and rivers of molten lava flowing like blood.
"Holy crap… what the hell is happening?" Quill blurted. He'd traveled the galaxy for years and had never seen a planet collapse like this. Ego's world looked like a blob of slime being slurped into an industrial vacuum.
"This isn't good. Everyone buckle up—we've gotta move!" Rocket barked, his voice laced with urgency. "Sensors show there's gonna be one hell of an explosion at the end!"
Slamming the controls forward, Rocket accelerated to the ship's limit. The sudden burst threw Quill and Yondu off balance, dumping them unceremoniously onto the floor.
Scrambling back to the window, they saw Ego's planet shrink to a pinprick size, wrapped in a cocoon of silver-white light… and then expand in an instant, like a balloon bursting at its limit.
A colossal, ring-shaped shockwave blasted outward, glittering like an enormous necklace against the dark void. The raw energy buffeted their ship violently, tossing it side to side like a leaf in a storm.
"Hold on, everyone!" Rocket yelled, pouring every ounce of his piloting skill into controlling the wildly shuddering vessel. After a tense few moments, they finally cleared the danger zone.
"Thank God, thank the galaxy's gods, thank my mom—heck, thank everyone," Drax mumbled with his eyes shut tight, until Quill kicked him lightly. "Relax. We're safe now."
The Guardians had escaped Ego's destruction without a scratch… but that dark, ash-grey silhouette they glimpsed in the aftermath would remain burned into their memories.
In the endless black of space, a flash of blue light rippled—and that shadowy figure vanished into it.
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