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It wasn’t hard to track down Ronan. In fact, he came to her.
Big mistake.
They met up a few points from Hala where his back up was waiting for him. Thirty ships, armed to the teeth, aim locked in on her. At least they hadn’t noticed the camouflaged vessel of Skrull refugees behind her - yet. She knew that she had to keep it that way if she wanted her new-found friends to get out of this alive.
‘Vers. Stand down and comply, regain your place with the Empire and you’ll be rewarded. We’ll give you ten seconds.’
Ronan was one of the biggest Kree threats. The Accusers were all bloodthirsty tyrants who would stop at nothing to conquer and wage war - she knew how deep this lie went, she’d lived it herself, fighting for the Empire and killing every Skrull she could lay her hands on. A conqueror’s conquest. There would be no negotiations, no surrenders. Just her and thirty ships.
The Power tingled as it played like fire across her skin. Warm, like an evening spent singing with Maria at the bar, so long ago. A flicker of light shed on a memory she was beginning to see, clearer and clearer now for each day that went by.
When all this was over, this Skrull ship safe on some faraway world, she’d go home again. And remember.
He played with the pager in his hands, tempted. She’d said only for emergencies, but… This might count as one.
Goose meowed in her bed. She seemed to look right through his skull, daring him to push the button with those big, intent eyes. Hell, knowing what she was, she might actually be able to read his thoughts.
‘You think we should call her cutie-pie?’ Fury asked. She laid her head back down, blinking slowly, and began to purr. ‘I think that’s a yes, isn’t it?’
He fingered the small device some more, sighing. It wasn’t an emergency exactly. Well, he wouldn’t know, since he hadn’t dealt with aliens more than the one time - which was why he needed an expert’s opinion. He’d done his research on the Tesseract. That thing could melt through metal if you weren’t careful enough, it was unreliable and had taken down a SHIELD facility when they’d done experiments on it before Mar-Vell got her hands on it.
Goose meowed softly, already half-asleep. She’d had the thing inside of her for going on a month now. Alien-flerken-cat or not, that couldn’t be good for your organs. He wasn’t going to lose his fur-baby, as the Rookie liked to call her, because he didn’t have the guts to call for help.
‘I’m gonna do it.’
She was standing in the ruins of the mothership when it went off. Sparks flew from severed panels and the glass in the hull was about to crack, sucking Ronan out of her grip and leaving him to suffocate. She’d broken his suit, burned off the upper half where his helmet had been.
‘I don’t think… you understand what’s at… at stake,’ he growled, spitting blood at her face. It didn’t faze her.
‘I know exactly what’s at stake. You’ll stop at nothing - and for what? To rule the galaxy? The universe?’ The sound came again, a high pitched beeping from her armguard. Dammit. She hoped this was legit, not just Fury making some joke.
‘They’ve messed up… your head. We’re on the same side, you and… and I. You knew that once. You can know it… again. Your power… We could- win.’
‘The Skrulls just want peace, Ronan. And I’m their protector. I sent Yon-Rogg back to Hala with a similar message, but I don’t think you quite got it, did you? So now I’m sending you and what’s left of your Accusers too. This is gonna be your last chance to step down.’
His eyes shone with rage, fighting against her death-grip on his shoulder. She let him go then, calling the Power to her and letting it flow and reign over the shipwrecks. She gathered them all, the bits and pieces left behind and made them into one, trapping Ronan along with whoever else that had survived in the middle of the mess before blasting it straight to Hala. The Accuser would live to see another day. She didn’t want to kill him, but this truly was her final warning. If he came back, which she presumed he would, she wouldn’t be pulling her punches.
She flew past the Skrull ship. They decloaked for a moment, some of the children waving from within with smiles of thanks before continuing their journey. There was a jump point not far from here that would take them all much farther away from Kree territory. She knew she had to come back soon, make sure that they weren’t being followed, but she hoped Ronan would still have her pinned down as his number one priority while she went to C-53’s rescue.
Earth. Sometimes she had to remind herself that it was Earth, now - her home. Not just some number in the vast array of planets and galaxies, nothing more than a dot on a map. Home. Sometimes it even came naturally.
‘Sir?’
Fury’s head whipped up. He’d been deep in Danver’s file, searching for inspiration for the last few pages on his Avengers Initiative report that would be pitched to his superiors in just two days. It was hard, summarising everything that had happened down to mere words on a paper. He was still trying to comprehend it all.
‘Yes, Rook?’
‘Uh, I need your, uh, help with something.’ Coulson glanced around the room, that eerie smile on his face a tad nervous. He didn’t look the way the others did - slack-jawed awe at the scars and taped metal eyepatch. No, the Rookie was… shy. Shuffling his feet, almost embarrassed. He hid some files behind his back.
‘It’s alright, ask away.’
‘Well… it’s kind of a tech problem.’
‘Tech problem?’
‘I… I’m not sure how but I broke the printer.’
Fury stared for awhile. As his mentor, Coulson could ask him any question he had regarding work. He’d pledged to help with anything, but this… this he had to fight his urge to laugh at. After flying a Skrull-modified airplane into space to save alien refugees from other aliens and chucking a powerful weapon down a cat’s throat, printer problems just felt funnily ordinary. The Rookie seemed to sense that, cheeks reddening as he spread out his papers over the desk.
‘I told it to print my report but it just spits out- numbers, right over the text and I- I was meant to turn it in to you an hour ago, I know, but I can’t get it to work.’
Nick threw his hands up to stop the rambling, ‘Alright, it’s okay, don’t worry. Thing with these printers is, you gotta-’
He didn’t get further before a harsh knock sounded on his window. There, floating mid-air, was Carol Danvers, eyes literally glowing as she looked back and forth between the men. Then she turned a fist to the window’s frame and melted the lock straight off so that she could open it up and climb inside. Fury had the presence of mind to silently thank her for not just shattering the glass.
‘Hi there,’ he said a bit shocked as she came through, still glowing, fists clenched. It was intimidating, to say the least.
‘Is he bothering you?’ she asked coolly, head turning to the side as she studied Coulson warily. The guy had backed a few steps, pale and gaping at the sight.
‘What? No, no! That’s just - you know, Rook, you guys met before! He saved us, remember? I told you about him, I’m teaching him.’
She stood down then, the fire dying down until the brown of her eyes was visible again. A sparkle stayed behind though, glowing along the edges of her figure like a silent threat.
‘You called for me, so where’s the danger?’ She gave her friend a pointed look, half like she was expecting him to have tricked her, half like she was still waiting for a ten foot monster to appear that she was supposed to fight.
‘Oh, oh- right. Yeah, I forgot about that, here…’ Fury rose from his chair, doubling back to save his document just to be sure, before walking over to Goose and picking her up. He was wary to wake her in the middle of a nap. The whole eye-scratching thing wasn’t wholly forgotten, even if she was cute enough to make up for it. He treaded softly. ‘Wakey wakey baby, you got a special visitor. Yes you have - and you’ve missed her, haven’t you? You’ve missed your auntie.’
Carol looked skeptically at Goose. ‘You paged because the Flerken… missed me? Did she threaten to take out your other eye, or…?’
‘No- look. Uh… Rook, could you give us a mo?’
Coulson, rooted to the spot, blinked out of his stupor. He’d missed out on Danver’s special power fighting when the Skrull had taken his place in Fury’s car. Seeing her just fly in here, melting through the window… That had to be like a cold shower kind of wake up call.
‘Yeah, sure. Sure. I’ll just, uh… wait. Out there.’ He backed out like he didn’t trust her enough to tear his eyes away, closing the door hesitantly after himself.
‘So… right! Goose here has been coughing an awful lot, haven’t you sweetums? Yes you have.’ Carol gave him a look and Fury cleared his throat, switching back to his normal voice. ‘She hasn’t gotten anything up, so the Tesseract’s still there.’
‘And?’
‘And, it’s a highly powerful, possibly explosive object! I know that lunch box held it but there’s multiple accounts saying it’s been known to melt through stuff. And it’s still inside of her. I think she’s been trying to get it up, but it ain’t working so far.’
She looked mutely at him for awhile, like she wanted to punch him. For a while he thought she might.
‘I don’t know much about Flerkens but I don’t doubt she could do just fine with it in there for years. Don’t tell me that’s the only reason you paged.’
Now it was Fury’s turn to feel his ears heat up. His face twisted into half a grimace, petting the purring Goose absentmindedly.
‘Well… I just thought, you know, the Kree were hella intent on getting it. It’s a power-source to end a war and all. So…’
She sighed frustratedly, looking away for a moment. There was a splatter of blue blood smeared across the side of her face.
‘You, uh… You weren’t in the middle of anything, were you?’
Carol threw him another pointed look, raising an eyebrow. Ah. Well, it wasn’t as if he knew she was gonna abandon a fight because she thought he might be in mortal danger. Well. He guessed she was right - he really couldn’t be trusted with the pager.
‘Look, I’m sorry. I guess I’m a little skittish after everything that happened.’
She just shook her head.
‘Next time you call it’s gotta be for a good reason, but I’m gonna let you get away with this one. If only because I miss Maria. And, to make up for it, you’re gonna cook dinner tonight at her place.’
Goose meowed in approval, starting to clean one of her paws. She seemed to think it was a fitting punishment. He braved a small smile.
‘Alright. It’s a deal.’
The second time he pushed the pager was years later - and, he dared say, for a good reason. The ugly ass motherf- guy in front of him was definitely not from ‘round here, with skin a thick blotchy red and two sets of eyes. It gave the thing a B-movie special effects vibe. The weapon, though, was every bit the real deal.
The creature was cornering him in the barely lit Ugandan hotel basement. On the bright side, it had stopped targeting civilians. On the not so bright side… He was alone with it hissing into a communicator, threatening to bring an army to - subjugate Earth? He didn’t know - while pointing a rather impressive rifle at his head. Seeing as it was calling for reinforcements, he thought he’d do the same.
Fury had just about pressed the button before the alien stopped talking, roared out a breath that stank enough to knock someone out, and punched Fury hard enough to send him flying into the nearest wall.
He woke up with a throbbing headache sometime later. It must have been early morning, the golden sun casting a halo around the woman kneeling over him. No, that wasn’t the sun… That was her. Carol. She seemed worried at first, but once he groaned she just rolled her eyes.
‘Thank god.’
‘Huh?’ He coughed a bit, turning to the side in respect. To be perfectly honest he thought he might have a concussion, the world spinning a bit. It didn’t feel as fine as she seemed to think it was.
‘She evidently didn’t inject you with her poison. You wouldn’t have been able to talk and especially not move if she had. Scrambles your brain up. I’ve seen it happen.’
‘You… came.’
‘You told me to. Remember?’ She gripped his head, tuning it with a scrutinising gaze, looking for wounds.
‘Ow.’
‘Yeah, you’re fine.’
He tried to smile but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. It was too bright out here. He had to squeeze them shut for a bit, until someone shook him violently awake.
‘Fury. Come on, Fury, do you hear me?’
Her again. He wished she’d just let him sleep.
‘Come on, we gotta get out of here. Your guys are cleaning up the scene and I need to go make sure they don’t blow the planet up.’
‘Huh?’ he asked rather eloquently once more. She stared down at him with that patented Carol Danvers try to keep up look.
‘The Rouge? The alien that knocked you out? Do you remember the Axillian gun at least? You should, because it could’ve shattered Earth into a cloud of cosmic dust.’
‘Oh,’ he said dizily. At least he hadn’t called her in for nothing this time.
‘Don’t worry,’ she patted his shoulder, ‘you did good. Better than I’d expected, anyway.’ Her head turned at a sharp, shrill sound, face twisting into annoyance as she yelled, ‘Hey! Careful, you could’ve killed us all!’
Fury leaned back into the dusty ground again. The pebbles cut into the back of his skull. He finally realized that he was outside - someone, and he had strong suspicions about who, must have carried him out of that hotel. He tried to locate where he was now. Some of the buildings surrounding him were smoking or somewhat scorched, the street empty save for a few SHIELD agents. Police tape sealed it off at the two ends, a crowd gathering behind that. Carol walked up to his colleagues, waving furiously at the gun they’d been trying to extract from a shallow crater. She had it all under control. He felt safe as he closed his eyes again, knowing full well that nothing catastrophic would happened while he was gone. Not on her watch.
He didn’t call again for more than a decade. She found other reasons to excuse herself from her duty and come home again. After all, she couldn’t just leave Monica wondering how her aunt had fared after her latest fight.
‘You sure she’ll be here?’ Fury asked Maria as they stood in the green of her backyard, watching the night sky and waiting for that one falling star to reveal itself as a person.
‘She wouldn’t miss it.’
He glanced to the woman, noticing her unwavering faith as she waited patiently. He didn’t know how often Danvers came to visit them, her family, but he was sure it was more often than he got to see her. Otherwise little Monica would be even more excited for the reunion than she already was. If she could be, that was.
A warm dot on the darkening horizon. Orange instead of pure white, growing larger and larger as it descended until it became clear that it wasn’t just another star, aircraft or meteor. She slowed down a bit, landing on her feet in front of them. It wasn’t long before bounding steps raced down the terrace.
‘Auntie Carol! You came!’
‘Of course I did, it’s your birthday after all!’ The superhuman picked up the kid, spinning her around as they both giggled. ‘How old are you turning again? Twenty? Thirty five?’
‘Fourteen, silly!’
‘Ah, fourteen! You’ve gotten so tall since I last saw you.’
‘Have you got a present for me? Have you? Have you have you have you?! ’
Carol set her down, chuckling. She pressed something on her arm guard and it opened, revealing a neatly wrapped gift with bow and all.
‘How could I forget?’
Monica started to jump up and down in excitement, laughing as she dragged her aunt back inside. The latter threw both Fury and Maria a sheepish look of an apology at not being able to properly greet them and they both smiled. The kid was adorable - none of them was about to stop her.
‘We’ve got a cake, a proper one - not like last year - and Fury actually made some pasta and it’s good and grandma and grandpa will be coming and-’ The rambling was cut off short as the backdoor closed behind the two. Maria jogged to catch up with them. Nick stayed where he was for a few moments. It was just him and the cool calm of the night. Rarely did he ever get a moment of peace. Ever since he got promoted, since his archerer dragged a KGB spy back to work for them, he hadn’t seen a dull day. Silence was almost foreign to his senses.
The stars shone on above him like they always did. There were vast worlds up there, galaxies and civilizations he’d never seen. His forehead creased and he turned back to the house to join the others, the question burning on his tongue.
‘Hey, Carol! Which planet’s Goose from?’
When he did press the pager again, it was well into the new millenia and aliens were raining down over New York like missiles. There was a wormhole and two angry gods, one of which had stolen the Tesseract and invited this whole mess to wreak havoc on Earth. Fury’s project of a lifetime, the Avengers, had become reality, but the most important member hadn’t turned up yet.
He checked the pager periodically, making sure it was still sending the signal. Coulson caught him doing it once, not long before he died.
‘She coming?’
Fury nodded but didn’t trust his luck. It had been so long already - she should already have been there. Panic-like worry grew in the pit of his stomach.
‘Let’s just hope she’s not too late.’
And then, it was over, Coulson was rushed to project TAHITI in the hopes he’d somehow be revived and Nick had half a dozen exhausted heroes on his hands. Not to mention the thousands of alien carcasses. Someone was going to have to pick up the pieces, stay strong. As Director, that burden fell on him.
He’d just finished organizing the rough layout of Project Damage Control, Tony surprisingly stepping up and taking the reins from him, when a figure emerged from the shadows in his office.
‘I’ll talk to you later, Stark. It sounds good so far.’ He left the other man abruptly, ending the call. ‘You came.’
‘Of course I did. A bit late perhaps, but…’ She took a step forward with a limp, the grey skies illuminating her face in silver instead of gold. She smiled sadly at him.
‘You’re older.’
‘You’re not,’ he remarked, taking a place beside her. They were in one of the few skyscrapers that escaped without any damage whatsoever. Beneath them was a city in shambles, people who barely went out anymore, hesitant to tread the once battle zones even now that they weren’t that anymore.
‘Kree blood, remember?’ Her voice was solemn. Apologizing. Her eyes met his. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner.’
‘I’ve known you for long enough to understand you must’ve had a good reason.’ He glanced down at her bad leg, the blue-stained bandage peeking through charred remnants of fabric.
‘Still, I… this is my home. I should’ve been here.’
‘You are, now. That’s all that matters.’
He didn’t tell her about Coulson. He didn’t tell her about the Avengers, didn’t mention anything about recruiting her - in a way, she already was an Avenger; in a way she was the original one. She protected them, time and time again. He even called the Initiative after her, the nickname painted on the side of her plane. He didn’t ask because in her own way she’d already agreed - she was in, even if she couldn’t be there all of the time.
They watched the crumbled city together. Rebuilding already. They watched like two vultures looming above, a shield humanity didn’t know they had. A hero they didn’t yet realise they owed their lives to.
‘The Tesseract’s being transported to Asgard, they claim they can keep it safe.’
‘I don’t doubt that.’
He nodded, pleased with her approval. If anyone knew a shit about these real-life Norse gods it would be her.
‘I’m going to hunt down whoever did this,’ she said after a while, cutting through the silence. ‘I’ll get your answers, and I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again.’ She stayed, long enough to catch his nod and returned it with another of her own. An unspoken agreement. Then, like a deadly shadow - and oh how ironic that was, when she glowed brighter than the brightest of suns - she was gone.
‘His name is Thanos.’
She almost scared him into another near cardiac arrest.
After HYDRA splintered SHIELD to pieces Fury was careful with his surroundings. Even more so than ordinary. He traveled a lot, he went with people he trusted and he went alone. He stayed in places where no one would look and blended into the crowd. Here, on the open rooftop of an apartment building, he was exposed. He spun around, gun raised and finger ready on the trigger.
She wasn’t lit up this time. She didn’t look like she’d just landed, hair still somewhat flowing in zero gravity. And she did look older. Not physically, but something in her eyes had changed. The determination - it was mixed with the hauntedness of someone who’d seen their fate and wasn’t so sure they could face it.
‘His name is Thanos,’ she repeated, ‘and he’s looking for the Tesseract and other things like it. He has plans for the universe.’
‘Okay. So you’ll stop him, then.’
‘I’ll try.’
He slowly lowered his gun. That didn’t sound like his Carol.
‘Who did you see when you spoke to the Supreme Intelligence?’
‘It’s me, Fury.’ She took a step towards him and he raised his weapon again, heart recovering to beat faster and faster sending adrenaline through his veins. She stopped, sighing.
‘Mar-Vell, but that was decades ago. If you really want to do this you gotta take something more recent.’
‘Alright. How did Monica Rambeau die?’
‘She isn’t dead. She was diagnosed with leukemia a year ago and I took her to Xandar for treatment. She was good to go in just a few weeks.’
He lowered his gun again, confident this time.
‘So… who’s this Thanos and why aren’t you sure you’ll kick his ass?’
‘I am,’ she said, standing a little taller, ‘but everything’s different this time. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been. New York was nothing compared to what’s coming.’
She explained her findings to him. They sought shelter inside, Fury packing up his binoculars and notebook. He’d been trying to infiltrate a possible HYDRA stronghold, but with the picture she was painting for him that wasn’t nearly as important as this. Half the universe, dead. Some mad titan with a glove fetish who wanted to be a mass murderer - not because of a deep-rooted sadism, no, because he thought it was morally the right thing to do. It took a special maniac to think like that. The dangerous kind of special.
‘Well… if anyone can take him, it’s you,’ he spoke in hushed tones as they hid in an abandoned apartment. Voices sounded far away, moving up the stairs. They’d found him. ‘The fate of the universe rests in the right hands.’
Carol looked more confident now that she’d gotten it all off her chest. Perhaps it was because she wasn’t alone with the knowledge any more. And even if Fury couldn’t help all that much, except for keeping an eye on the Infinity Stones that resided on Earth, it felt like they were in this together.
‘Don’t worry,’ she told him as shots started to smatter through the door, ‘I won’t let him win.’
Long ago, in what sometimes felt like another lifetime, her father had taken her aside and scolded her. His brow had been furrowed, his grip on her shoulder bruising.
‘Don’t promise things you can’t keep. And for god’s sake, don’t get into shit you can’t take on all by yourself.’
She’d ignored him for all these years and been fine, but now, she might’ve finally met her match.
Where’s Fury was the first thing she asked and the last thing she wanted to know. Because in her heart, the truth was already so apparent. She’d seen it happen, her opponent in the latest fight crumbling to dust and ash scattered into the wind. He’d been one of Thanos’ children. She’d been so close to winning when it happened. And then, later on when she’d found these people on Earth huddled around the pager, not sure whether it still worked but desperate for whoever was on the other end - she’d known then. Because if he’d still been alive, he would’ve been there. He would’ve been waiting for her.
But he wasn’t. And she wasn’t ready to accept why.
‘Wait!’ one of them yelled as she barged out the room. The woman jogged after her, the others following. Her head wasn’t bald and she still had both eyes, but something about her reminded Carol of Fury. ‘Who are you?’
She stopped, hands clenched into fists. Power flared up inside of her, her muscles tensing, ready to fight. She wouldn’t give up. Even though she’d already lost - she couldn’t. She couldn’t accept this.
‘My name is Carol Danvers.’ She turned to the others, all of them wide-eyed at the glow flickering like fire around her frame. The woman who’d gone after her was the one to speak up first.
‘I’m… Natasha. Natasha Romanoff. You knew Fury?’
‘Yes.’ She glanced away for a moment before daring to ask, ‘He’s gone, isn’t he?’
Natasha nodded. ‘We didn’t see it happen, but we found the pager where he… fell.’
‘Are you human?’ a blonde man asked her, eyes glassy like the rest of them.
‘I was. I still consider myself to be, even with… this.’ Carol raised a fist, uncurling it and letting the Power play like flames between the fingertips. ‘I’ve resided elsewhere for a long time now, though. I would’ve come sooner, but… I was far away.’ She swallowed thickly. Last time Fury had paged her she’d come too late as well. And this time - she’d promised. She’d promised she wouldn’t let Thanos do it, and yet she never even found the titan before he could.
For a moment she faltered. She didn’t know what to do, the light died down around her. Last time she’d spoken to her friend he’d grounded her, made her believe in herself again, and now… he wasn’t here now.
A soft meow sounded behind her. A small creature pressed against her calves. Goose looked up at her with large intent eyes.
‘Hey there.’ Her lips pulled up into a smile as Natasha and the others balked at the sudden appearance of the Flerken. She guessed the cat hadn’t turned up until just recently, sensing her presence. Danvers picked her up, stroking her fur slowly. Just a few years ago it had hit her how she’d never asked someone how long a Flerken lifespan was. She hadn’t been sure whether Goose yet lived.
She did. She licked her mouth, pink tongue darting out in a slow pace, purring contently.
Carol didn’t have Fury here to ground herself - she’d have to do that on her own.
‘I promised him I’d take Thanos down before this could happen. I guess I didn’t reach him in time.’ She looked up at the others. Judging by their acquaintanceship with her friend and this compound they’d set up base in, she guessed they must be some kinds of soldiers. Judging by the way they flinched at the titan’s name, they’d fought him.
‘Don’t worry,’ she told them. The Power returned, stronger than before, itching to reign freely. Her hair floated like a fiery crown behind her head. She wasn’t going to give up. She couldn't.
‘I won’t let him win.’