Carol Danvers truly was brimming with questions, and the weight of them pressed against her chest until she could no longer hold back.
"Alex… who exactly were those people? I've never seen weapons like that before. And their blood…" Her brows knitted tightly, as if replaying the fragments of memory in her mind. "It looked blue. Did I imagine that?"
Her voice carried hesitation, the lingering fuzziness of a mind that had been teetering between life and death. Yet her sharp instincts as a soldier told her she hadn't been mistaken.
Alex leaned back slightly, regarding her with that unreadable calm of his. Then, with a faint lift of his brow, he said quietly, "You've already guessed it, haven't you?"
Carol's heart dropped like a stone into icy water.
For a long moment she said nothing, staring at him, willing him to deny it. Finally, her lips parted in a whisper that grew steadier as she forced herself to confront the truth:
"So… they really are aliens? Like UB6, twenty years ago?"
Her mind flashed with images she had tried to bury—those colossal mechanical invaders that had torn through cities, leaving only fire and ruin in their wake. The fear, the helplessness, the despair of humanity had been seared into her as a child.
Seeing the Kree warship in the sky, the precision of their weapons, the way their armor gleamed with alien craftsmanship—Carol had already known deep down. But saying it aloud made the ground beneath her feel less stable, as though the world itself tilted.
"That's right," Alex said at last, his tone firm but even. "They are Kree."
The word rang in her ears, foreign yet heavy with menace.
"Kree…" Carol repeated softly, tasting the strangeness of it. Her head jerked up, urgency flaring in her eyes. "Alex, why did they come to Earth? What do they want from us?"
Alex spread his hands in a gesture of uncertainty, though his eyes carried a glint that suggested he knew more than he chose to share. "That's exactly what I need to find out."
Her fingers curled tightly in her lap. "Will they come again?"
Alex gave a noncommittal shrug, the faintest sigh leaving him. "Who knows?" His voice was casual, but the weight beneath it was unmistakable. Then, with a sharper edge, he added, "But they weren't the first Kree to set foot on this planet. Before that squad, we uncovered others already operating here."
The color drained from Carol's face.
Agents. Infiltrators. If they were already on Earth, what else had been compromised?
Yet Alex's next words struck her even harder.
"And worse still… the Kree aren't the only ones."
Carol blinked, as if she hadn't heard him right. "What?" Her voice rose, brittle with disbelief. "You mean… besides the Kree, there are other aliens here on Earth?"
"Correct." Alex's answer was calm, almost clinical, as though he were stating a matter of fact. "The Skrulls." His gaze held hers steadily. "Both the Kree and the Skrulls have planted countless agents here, buried deep among humanity, each side scheming for their own designs."
Carol's breath hitched. She gripped the armrest of her chair so tightly her knuckles turned white.
Alex's next revelation came like a thunderclap. "Just half a month ago, a Skrull warship attempted to invade. We destroyed it before it could touch down."
The words struck Carol's heart like a hammer. She felt as though the air had been sucked out of the room.
Half a month ago. She had been blissfully unaware, flying missions, eating with her comrades, laughing over small, earthly things. And all the while, a warship from beyond the stars had been bearing down on her home. If Alex hadn't intervened…
The weight of it pressed on her chest until she could hardly breathe.
"Is… is what happened twenty years ago going to happen again?" she murmured, her voice breaking against the fear curling inside her.
Alex's expression sobered. "The situation may be even worse. UB6 was dangerous, yes. But the Kree and the Skrulls?" He shook his head. "They are interstellar civilizations—older, stronger, far more resourceful than UB6."
His words were grim, and the gravity in his voice made it clear he wasn't exaggerating.
Carol's eyes locked onto his, almost desperate. "Alex… if they really come again, you'll stop them, won't you? You'll defeat them, just like before?" Her voice quivered with both hope and fear, like a child clinging to a parent's hand in the dark.
"Carol," Alex said softly, his lips curving into a bitter smile. "I can't promise that. I'm not a god."
Those words—those three simple words—cut her deeper than any alien weapon could. If even Alex, the one man she thought invincible, admitted doubt… what hope did Earth have?
The silence that followed was heavy enough to suffocate.
And then, just when the despair threatened to consume her, Alex's voice broke through, steadier this time.
"But with your help, Carol… I believe we'll stand a much better chance."
Her head snapped up, eyes wide with bewilderment. "Me? Alex, I'm just a pilot. What help could I possibly give in a war like this?"
"No, Carol," Alex said firmly, leaning forward, his gaze pinning her in place. "You underestimate yourself. In my eyes, you could very well be another Captain America… no, someone who surpasses him."
His conviction was so absolute that it left her stunned. Her heart hammered, unable to reconcile his words with her own self-image. "Alex, what are you talking about?"
"Carol." Alex's tone shifted, becoming sharper, more serious. "What I'm about to tell you is classified. No matter what you decide afterward, you must promise me one thing: never reveal it. Not to your superiors, not to anyone."
The intensity in his gaze left no room for argument.
Carol hesitated, her mind whirling. Then she asked, almost in a whisper, "It's related to the aliens, isn't it?"
"Yes," Alex confirmed with a grave nod.
Carol closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. When she opened them again, there was a soldier's resolve in them. "I promise."
"Good."
With a quiet snap, Alex pulled open a drawer and withdrew a slim, leather-bound file. He slid it across the desk to her.
Carol's hands trembled slightly as she picked it up, her pulse racing. Page by page, her expression shifted, her breath growing shallower.
The file laid bare truths she could hardly process. After the Cybertronians—UB6—there had been others. The Lolians. The Maggans. Both encounters had been neutralized by Alex before the world even learned their names.
But it didn't end there. The threats were multiplying.
The Kree. The Skrulls. The Ravagers. The Chitauri. The Titans. Names that meant nothing to most humans but whispered of vast empires, endless armies, and dangers beyond imagination.
Carol's hands tightened on the pages until the edges cut her skin.
The universe wasn't empty. It was teeming—with civilizations, with predators, with forces so vast Earth was little more than a speck in the dark.
And yet, against them all… one man had stood in silence, carrying the weight of a planet on his shoulders.
Her throat constricted. For the first time, she began to understand just how much Alex had borne, unseen and unthanked.
Shock gave way to awe, and awe to something deeper.
All this time… it's Alex who has been guarding the Earth.
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