Q Quill
Hey, can I ask you a personal question?
Mantis
[Shocked]
No! No one has ever asked me a personal question!
Q Quill
Your antennae, what are they for?
Mantis
Their purpose?
Drax
Yes. Quill and I have a bet.
Q Quill
Dude, you're not supposed to say that…
Drax
I say: if you are about to go through a doorway that is too low, your antenna will feel this and keep you from being decapitated.
Q Quill
Right. And, if it's anything other than specifically being decapitated by a doorway, I win.
Mantis
They are not for feeling doorways! [Drax groans, and Quill pulls a victory fist] I think they have something to do with my emphatic abilities.
Gamora
What are those?
Mantis
If I touch someone, I can feel their feelings.
Mantis
No. Telepaths know thoughts. Empaths feel feelings, emotions. May I?
Mantis
[Touches Quill's hand]
You feel…love!
Q Quill
Yeah, I guess I feel a general, unselfish love for just about everybody around me…
Mantis
No. Romantic, sexual love.
Mantis
For her! [Points at Gamora]
Q Quill
Nooo, that is not....
Q Quill
[Beat as Gamora and Drax both stare at Quill] [Drax bursts into uproariously loud laughter]
Okay. That's--
Drax
She just told everyone your deepest, darkest secret!
Q Quill
Dude, come on, I think you're overreacting a little bit.
Drax
You must be so embarrassed! [To Mantis] Do me! Do me, do me!
Mantis
[Touches Drax's chest and immediately starts laughing with him]
I have never felt such humor!
Q Quill
So unbelievably uncool.
Mantis
[Shaking Drax awake]
Drax, Drax. Drax! Drax! We need to talk!
Drax
I'm sorry. But I like a woman with some meat on her bones.
Mantis
[Confused]
What?
Drax
[With complete sincerity]
I tried to let you down easily by telling you that you were disgusting.
Mantis
No, that's not what I… [Drax starts retching] What are you doing?
Drax
Ugh, I'm imagining…being with you physically.
Mantis
Drax, I don't like you like that. I don't even mate with the type of thing you are.
Drax
Hey! There's no need to get personal.
Mantis
Listen! Ego has gotten exactly what he wanted. I should have told you earlier. I am stupid! You are in danger!
Drax
[Gamora grabs Mantis by the neck and slams her against a wall]
Hey!
Gamora
Who are you people?! What is this place?!
Drax
Gamora, let her go!
Gamora
The bodies in the caverns, who are they?!
Mantis
You are scared. [Gamora lets go of Mantis's neck]
Ego
I call it the Expansion. It is my purpose. And now it’s yours as well.
Ego
Over thousands of years I implanted thousands of extensions of myself on thousands of worlds. I need to fulfill life’s one true purpose… to grow and spread…covering all that exists… until everything is… me.
Gamora
[reacting with Mantis' powers]
What did she do to me?
Drax
She already told me everything.
Ego
I only had one problem. A single Celestial doesn’t have enough power for such an enterprise. But two Celestials… well, now, that just might do.
Mantis
The bodies… are his children.
Ego
Out of all my labors… the most beguiling was…attempting to graft my DNA with that of another species. I hoped the result of such a coupling would be enough…to power the Expansion. I had Yondu deliver some of them to me. It broke the Ravager code, but I compensated him generously… and to ease his conscience, I said I’d never hurt them. I mean, that was true. They never felt a thing. But one after the other, they failed me. Not one of them carried the Celestial genes. Until you, Peter. Out of all my spawn… only you carried the connection to the light.
Gamora
We need to find Peter now and get off this damn planet.
Mantis
Ego will have won him to his side by now. He has a way of -
Nebula
Then we just go.
Gamora
No. He’s our friend.
Nebula
All any of you do is yell at each other. You’re not friends.
Drax
You’re right. We’re family. We leave no one behind. [To Nebula] Except maybe you.
Nebula
Oh my god...
Ego
For the first time in my existence... I am truly NOT ALONE! [Turns to see Peter looking doubtful] What is it, son?
Ego
Now, well, you see, that's the mortal in you, Peter.
Ego
We are beyond such things.
Ego
Now--
Q Quill
But my mother... you said you loved my mother.
Ego
And that I did. My River Lily, who knew all the words to every song that came over the radio. I returned to Earth to see her three times, and I knew if I returned a fourth, well... I'd never leave. The Expansion... the reason for my very existence would be over, so I did what I had to do. But... it broke my heart to put that tumor in her head.
Q Quill
[Outraged, shaking off Ego's influence]
What?!
Ego
Now, now, all right, I know that sounds bad--
Ego
[Quill repeatedly shoots Ego's avatar with his Quad Blasters, leaving several holes] [Reforming]
Who... in the HELL do you think you are?!
Q Quill
YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!
Ego
I tried so hard to find the form... [Changes into David Hasselhoff] ...that best suited you, and this is the thanks I get?! [Changes back] You really need to grow up! [Pierces Quill with a tendril of energy] I wanted to do this together, but I suppose you'll have to learn by spending the next thousand years as a BATTERY!
Rocket
[About Yondu]
He didn't chase them away.
Rocket
[On Yondu's former Ravager teammates]
Even though he yelled at them, he was always mean, and stole batteries he didn't need. [Bows head in shame]
Q Quill
[Looks down at Rocket]
Well, of course not.
Q Quill
[Gamora looks up at him, who looks back down at her curiously]
What?
Gamora
It's just…some unspoken thing.
Mantis
[Quill gives her a small and smug "I told you so" smirk. She wraps her arm around his waist as he wraps his arm around her shoulders]
It's beautiful.
Drax
It is. And so are you: on the inside.
