[Inside the crashed ship, Nebula pleaded with Little Groot. "Your friend… he has too many enemies. He needs my help. If you care about him at all, you have to help me unlock these cuffs! They're going to kill him!"]
[Although Rocket had warned him repeatedly not to let Nebula out, Little Groot hesitated. He wrung his tiny hands, torn between his worry for Rocket and his fear that Nebula was deceiving him.]
[Yondu's Yaka Arrow hovered inches from Rocket's forehead. A large group of Ravagers surrounded him. With his hands raised, there was nothing Rocket could do.]
["I told ya, you were easy to find," Yondu drawled. "Planted a tracker on your ship back during that mess on Xandar."]
[Rocket finally understood how they'd been found so easily. A tracker!]
[Right now, his only concern was for his small friend. "If you promise not to hurt Groot, I'll tell you where the batteries are."]
[A smirk played on Yondu's lips. "You're lucky I'm a man of my word. Otherwise, I would have already handed you over."]
[The brutish Ravager, Taserface, suddenly stepped forward, his expression souring. "What else are you gonna do?"]
["If we just take the batteries, what are they worth? A quarter of a unit on the open market?" Yondu said, nonchalantly picking his teeth with a twig.]
[Taserface's face flushed with anger. "That priestess promised us a million units! A quarter unit isn't even a third of that!"]
[Yondu looked at his intellectually challenged subordinate with disdain. "A quarter ain't a third…"]
[Another Ravager chimed in, "Twenty-five thousand is twenty-five thousand!"]
[Yondu shook his head, exasperated. "No!"]
["You can't even buy a decent pair of boots for that!"]
[Rocket kept his hands raised, watching the argument unfold with mild confusion. It was becoming clear that whatever Yondu's plan was, it didn't involve hurting him.]
[Yondu glared at his dissenting crew. "Enough! The point is, we ain't stupid enough to go around killin' the Guardians of the Galaxy! The whole Nova Corps would come down on us if we did!"]
["That ain't right!"]
[Yondu turned his head to see Kraglin, his first mate, speaking out.]
["I'm only gonna say this once, Captain," Kraglin said, his voice tight with resentment. "No matter how many times Quill betrays you, you protect him. It's like the rest of us don't even matter!"]
["Yeah!" Seeing Kraglin, who had always been loyal, finally speak up, other crew members who had long felt the same way voiced their agreement.]
[Kraglin looked genuinely aggrieved. All his years of loyalty, and Yondu never seemed to see it.]
["I'm the one who's always got your back!"]
[Tulk stepped forward, trying to de-escalate. "Take it easy, Kraglin!"]
[But Taserface pointed a finger at Yondu, his face a mask of rage. "He's right! You've gone soft! Maybe it's time for a change in leadership!"]
[As he spoke, he aimed his rifle at Yondu. The Ravagers loyal to him did the same.]
[Tulk and the others loyal to Yondu immediately raised their own weapons, the two sides on the verge of a firefight.]
[Yondu let out a soft whistle. The Yaka Arrow flew back to his shoulder, poised to strike.]
[Tulk stood between the factions, shouting, "Put down your guns!"]
[Rocket, caught in the middle, also yelled, "Whoa! I'm sure there's a peaceful way to resolve this! Or, you know, we could just solve it with violence, as long as I'm standing over there!" He pointed frantically to the side.]
[Seeing the furious look on Taserface's face, Yondu prepared to whistle, but a sudden energy blast smashed into the control fin on his head.]
[Sparks flew from the device. Yondu's eyes went wide with shock before he collapsed, the inert Yaka Arrow clattering to the ground beside him.]
[Behind him, Nebula slowly lowered her rifle. She had shot Yondu. Now she aimed the weapon at Rocket.]
[Rocket looked at Nebula and sighed in resignation. He should have known. Despite all his warnings, Groot had let her out.]
[Nebula fired her stun gun, and Rocket fell to the ground, twitching.]
[The Ravagers stared at the fallen Yondu and Rocket, then slowly turned their attention to Nebula.]
[Nebula held a gun in one hand and a freshly picked Yaro Root in the other. She lowered the gun and said calmly, "Well, hello, boys."]
[She took a large, triumphant bite of the Yaro Root she'd been craving, chewed twice, and immediately spat it out in disgust.]
["It's not ripe."]
On the Blood Eagle, the real Yondu's face hardened. "Taserface!" He never expected the brute would lead a mutiny against him. He stood abruptly to leave his quarters, but a plasma bolt slammed into his door from the outside.
The crewmen who followed Taserface on screen, realizing the real Yondu would never forgive such betrayal, had decided to launch their own mutiny.
Yondu's expression turned ugly. He let out a sharp whistle. The Yaka Arrow instantly shot from its holster, pierced the door, and killed the crewman who had fired at him.
He stepped out into the corridor to find the crew had split into two factions, locked in a fierce firefight.
Yondu whistled again. The arrow danced through the air, seeking out its targets with lethal precision. After the man who shot his door, the first to die was Taserface. As the images flashed on the sky screen, Yondu identified every man who had pointed a gun at his on-screen self, and his arrow dispatched them one by one.
In the control room, Kraglin sat frozen, watching the massacre on the internal monitors with a look of pure terror. While he had been dissatisfied with Yondu's obsession with Star-Lord, he was fundamentally loyal and had never dreamed of actual betrayal.
Yondu dealt with the mutineers with brutal efficiency before making a beeline for the control room.
The moment Yondu entered, Kraglin threw his hands up. "Captain, I never meant to betray you!"
Yondu narrowed his eyes, studying his long-time first mate. His trust was broken. He waved a hand. "Lock him in a cell. We'll see what to do with him later."
Tulk immediately ordered two Ravagers to escort Kraglin away. Kraglin didn't resist. He knew he was lucky to be alive. As he was led to the brig, he sighed, not knowing his fate, but grateful he wasn't being killed on the spot.
After Kraglin was gone, Yondu walked to the main console. This betrayal had put him on high alert. He needed to replace his command staff with men he could trust completely. Tulk was a good candidate.
Beyond the men he had just killed, Yondu knew there were likely others who secretly resented him. There was no rush. He had plenty of time to find every last one of those bastards and send them to meet Jesus.
Or was it God? Yondu mused, thinking back to the stories Peter used to tell him. Seemed like it was God, but maybe not. Who cares? Sending them to Hell to meet Jesus sounded about right.