Chapter 256: Captain Marvel (3)
Carol walked over to the screen, tracing the line of the trench. "So they saved the world. They stopped an invasion I missed. They formed a government. Why are you hiding, Fury? It sounds like the good guys won."
Fury looked at the floor. He took a breath, steeling himself.
"They caught everyone," Fury whispered. "Everyone who was replaced."
He tapped the console one last time. The file appeared.
NAME: Priscilla Fury (Varra).
STATUS: CAPTURED.
Carol stared at the name. She looked back at Fury, her eyes widening in recognition.
"Varra," Carol breathed. "Your wife."
"She was one of them," Fury said, his voice devoid of emotion, hollowed out by betrayal. "She was in the invasion force. She's in the Trench, Carol."
Carol stepped back, as if physically struck. "Varra... she loved you. I saw it."
"Did you?" Fury asked bitterly. "Because she lied to me. Every day. For years. And now she's in a hole at the bottom of the ocean and I can't get her out. I can't even ask her why."
He looked up at Carol, his single eye burning with a furious need.
"I need to know," Fury said. "I need to know if it was real. I need to know why they turned. I need to talk to her. But I can't get into that prison. Not with a submarine."
He pointed a finger at Carol's chest.
"But you can."
Carol looked down at the schematic of the Phantom Project. "You want me to break into a Federation super max prison."
"I want you to be the hammer," Fury said. "You can survive the pressure. You can burn through that alloy. You can go down there, rip the roof off and get me an answer."
"Nick," Carol said, her voice warning. "If I do that... I'm declaring war on this Earth Federation. I'm attacking the people who just saved the planet. The people the world loves."
"The world doesn't know what I know!" Fury shouted. "The world doesn't know that freedom isn't free! This 'perfect' order... it's a trap, Carol. It's too clean. It's too fast. You don't unite a planet in a year without cracking a few skulls. I want to know where the bodies are buried."
"You want your wife back," Carol said softly.
"I want the truth!" Fury slammed his hand on the table again. "And you owe me. You owe us. You left us here. You let this happen."
The accusation hung in the air.
Carol closed her eyes. She thought about the Skrull refugees she had ferried from planet to planet, only to be turned away, hunted, or killed. She thought about the weariness in Talos's eyes the last time she saw him.
I failed them, she thought. And because I failed them, they came here.
She opened her eyes. They were glowing again, a simmering gold.
"I won't break it open," Carol said. "I'm not going to start a war just because you're paranoid, Fury."
"Then what are you going to do?" Fury demanded. "Go back to space? Pretend this isn't your mess?"
"No," Carol said. She turned toward the exit, the melted slag of the door crunching under her boots. "I'm going to do what I should have done fifteen years ago."
"Where are you going?" Hill asked, stepping forward.
"Geneva," Carol said. "I'm going to meet this Illuminati Council."
"They'll arrest you," Clint warned. "You're a rogue element. They blamed you for the invasion. If you show up, the EDF will swarm you. Stark will have orbital guns locked on you."
"Let them try," Carol said, her voice cold. "I'm not going to hide in a bunker. I'm Captain Marvel."
She looked back at Fury.
"I'll get your answers, Nick. I'll ask about Varra. But I'm going to do it through the front door. And if these 'new gods' try to stop me... then we'll see who really runs this planet."
"Carol," Fury called out, a hint of desperation in his voice. "Don't trust them."
Carol didn't answer. She walked out of the bunker, into the tunnel she had carved through the earth.
A moment later, the ground shook again. A sonic boom tore through the sky above Newark as a streak of golden light shot upward, arcing east, toward Europe.
Fury watched the monitors. The Federation tracking systems lit up instantly. Red alert icons flashed across the globe.
UNIDENTIFIED COSMIC SIGNATURE DETECTED.
TRAJECTORY: GENEVA.
"She's going in loud," Natasha said, holstering her weapon. "Just like you wanted."
"I didn't want loud," Fury muttered, sinking into his chair, looking suddenly very old. "I wanted control. And I just lost the last piece of it."
He stared at the screen, at the name Varra still glowing in the list.
"God help us," Fury whispered.
[Sentinel Complex, Geneva]
In the observation deck, the alarms were silent, but the data streams were screaming.
"Incoming," The Leader said calmly, looking up from his datapad. "Mach 25. High energy cosmic signature. It's her."
Aryan Spencer stood by the window, looking up at the sky. He held a cup of coffee in his hand. He took a sip.
"Right on time," Aryan said.
"She's coming in hot," Tony Stark said. "Energy levels are off the charts. She's a flying nuclear reactor. Do we engage?"
"No," Aryan said. "Let her land. We're civilized people."
"She's coming for answers," T'Challa noted, standing beside Aryan. "She will be angry."
"She's feeling guilty," Aryan corrected. "Guilt makes people predictable. She wants absolution."
"And if she wants a fight?" Namor asked, gripping his spear, a smile touching his lips. "I have reviewed her combat profile from the acquired SHIELD archives. I would like to test her mettle."
"No fighting," Aryan ordered, turning to face them. "Not unless I say so. We are the government now. We don't brawl in the street. We invite them in for tea."
He looked at Wanda, who was sitting at the table.
"Ready?" Aryan asked her.
"I am always ready," Wanda said, her eyes glowing faintly red as she monitored the psychic atmosphere.
"Perfect," Aryan said.
He turned back to the window, watching the golden streak tear through the clouds above the Swiss Alps.
"Open the landing bay," Aryan commanded. "Let's welcome the prodigal daughter home."
Chapter 257: Captain Marvel (4)
New
Yesterday
BOOM.
The sonic boom shattered windows in the city below, rattling the heavy blast glass of the Sentinel Complex. The water in the lake recoiled, pressing down into a bowl shape from the sheer displacement of air.
BOOM.
A streak of blinding energy slammed onto the plaza, fifty yards from where the Illuminati stood.
The impact cracked the reinforced concrete, sending a spiderweb of fissures racing toward their feet. Dust and steam hissed upward, swirling in a vortex of heat.
From the center of the crater, she rose.
Captain Marvel floated two feet off the ground, her binary aura flaring like a captured sun. Her hair was a mane of golden fire, her eyes glowing white hot.
She drifted forward, the heat radiating from her causing the air to shimmer. She stopped ten paces from the Chancellor. The glow faded slightly, revealing the fury etched into her face.
"You," Carol Danvers said. Her voice carried the weight of a collapsing star.
The Leader didn't flinch. "Captain Danvers. Welcome home."
"Don't you 'welcome' me," Carol spat. "I saw the broadcast. I saw what you told the world."
"I told them the truth," The Leader replied, his tone professional. "You made a promise in 1995. And you failed to keep it. The consequences of that failure arrived on our doorstep."
"You blamed me for an invasion I didn't even know was happening!" Carol shouted, the energy flaring around her fists. "You painted a target on my back to sell your new government. You used my name to scare people into trusting you."
"Transparency, Captain," The Leader said. "The Federation is built on trust. Trust requires truth. The truth is that the Skrulls invaded because they were tired of waiting for a bus that never came. The public deserved to know the provenance of the threat."
"You manipulated the narrative," Carol accused, stepping closer. "You made me the villain so you could look like the savior."
"We are the saviors," Namor interjected, his voice dripping with arrogance. "We did in six hours what you failed to do in fifteen years. You should be thanking us for cleaning up your mess, surface dweller."
Carol's head snapped toward Namor. "Watch your tone. I've burned fleets larger than your entire kingdom."
"And yet," T'Challa said, his voice calm but hard as iron, "you could not find a single rock for a refugee population to live on."
Carol clenched her jaw.
"I want to see them," Carol demanded, turning back to The Leader. "Including Talos and Varra. I want to see all the prisoners."
"That is not possible," The Leader said.
"I'm not asking," Carol said, her voice dropping. "I want to hear it from them. I want to know why they turned. Release them to my custody. Now."
"Denied," Tony Stark said, the faceplate of his Mark XII snapping shut with a metallic hiss. "The Skrull prisoners are hostile combatants detained in a maximum security facility."
"They are my responsibility," Carol insisted.
"You abdicated that responsibility the moment you left the atmosphere in '95," Tony countered. "They are Earth's problem now. And Earth has solved it."
"You put them in a hole in the ocean," Carol said, the binary aura intensifying, the concrete beneath her boots beginning to smoke. "You think you can just lock up a million living beings and throw away the key?"
"Yes," Wanda said, standing up from the bench. She set her tea down. "Because the alternative was killing them. Be grateful we chose mercy."
"Mercy?" Carol scoffed. "You call a cage mercy?"
"I call survival mercy," Wanda replied.
"I'm going to ask one more time," Carol said, the air around her beginning to vibrate, a high pitched whine building up. "Release Talos and Varra. Let me talk to them."
"No," Aryan's voice came from the shadows of the entrance.
"Then I'll take them," Carol said.
A blast of pure photon energy erupted from her hands, aimed at the ground in front of them… a shockwave meant to knock them aside so she could breach the doors.
KRACK BOOM.
The shockwave hit an invisible wall.
Tony Stark stood at the front, palm thrust forward. As the photon stream entered the ten meter radius of his magnetic influence, he hammered a polarized wedge into the air.
The energy struck the invisible distortion and split in two, screaming past the Council to carve two molten trenches into the reinforced concrete.
"Rude," Tony said.
He flicked his wrist.
The metal lampposts lining the plaza ripped from their foundations with a screech of tearing steel. They flew at Carol as a cage, bending and weaving together in mid air to wrap around her.
Carol blasted them apart with a pulse of light, turning the steel to slag. "Is that the best you got? Flying metal?"
"Just warming up," Tony quipped.
He launched himself into the air, the Mark XII moving with unnatural fluidity. He manipulated his own magnetic field against the Earth's, dancing through the air like a hummingbird.
Carol pursued, firing rapid bursts of energy.
Tony pivoted, snapping his left palm toward the incoming bolt. As the energy hit his ten meter radius, he caught the charge in a high density magnetic well, stripping its momentum until the light collapsed into a harmless cloud of ions against his gauntlet.
"Is that all the power you've got? My phone charges faster than that strike," he quipped, his systems already analyzing her energy signature.
He fired back… a concentrated rail gun slug of magnetically accelerated tungsten.
Carol swatted it aside, but the kinetic impact surprised her. She paused for a microsecond.
That was enough for T'Challa.
He covered the distance with a speed that blurred the eye. He leaped, his suit glowing purple with stored kinetic energy.
Carol threw a punch, a blow that could crack a moon.
T'Challa caught it.
BOOM.
The impact created a shockwave that blew out the remaining glass in the plaza. T'Challa's suit drank the energy, the purple glow intensifying until he looked like a neon demon.
"You hit hard," T'Challa grunted, holding her fist. "Good."
He released the stored energy in a point blank kinetic burst.
Carol was blasted backward, tumbling through the air. She righted herself instantly, her eyes widening. "Vibranium weave. Nice trick."
She accelerated, aiming to dive bomb T'Challa.
Namor stood on the edge of the fountain, his trident raised. He thrust it forward.
A massive column of lake water surged into the air. Within his hundred meter domain, he twisted the liquid into a high pressure sphere that violently swallowed Captain Marvel.
The sheer volume of the lake acted as a thermal sink, hissing and boiling as it fought to quench her binary aura.
Carol unleashed a massive flare of energy, vaporizing the liquid tomb into a localized cloud of scalding steam. She burst through the mist, her suit dripping and her eyes burning white hot.
"Water?" she yelled. "You think water stops me?"
She flew at Namor, faster than sound.
But she never reached him.
Red mist materialized around her ankles, her wrists and her neck.
Wanda Maximoff stood calmly in the center of the plaza, her fingers dancing.
Carol struggled, thrashing against nothing. "What is this?"
"Magic," Wanda whispered.
"Get out of my head!" Carol screamed, flaring her binary power to burn away the magic.
Chapter 258: Captain Marvel (5)
New
Yesterday
She managed to shatter the construct, the sheer output of cosmic energy overwhelming Wanda's hold for a moment.
Carol panted, hovering in the center of the plaza.
"Okay," Carol said, her eyes turning completely white. "Gloves off."
She began to draw from the ambient cosmic radiation, her body becoming a singularity of light. She was going to unleash a radial blast that would level the plaza and probably the building behind it.
Tony's sensors screamed. "She's going supernova!"
"Shields!" T'Challa shouted, crossing his arms.
Namor summoned a wall of water. Wanda raised a barrier of red glass.
Carol pulled her arms back, ready to release…
"That's enough."
The voice cut through the roar of energy like a knife through silk.
The rage boiling in Carol's chest felt suddenly... unnecessary. Like carrying a backpack of rocks she could just put down.
Carol blinked. The blinding light around her faded, retracting back into her skin. She lowered her arms, confused. Her heart was still racing, but the adrenaline had turned into something calm.
She looked down.
A man was walking across the cracked concrete of the plaza. He was wearing a dark suit, his hands in his pockets. He walked right into the center of the kill zone, between the glowing demigods and the cosmic weapon.
He looked... normal.
"Aryan Spencer," Carol said, recognizing the face from the file.
Aryan stopped ten feet from her. He smiled. It was a smile that made you feel like you were sitting by a fire on a cold night.
It was the Gamma Level Friendly Aura.
"Captain Danvers," Aryan said. "You're wrecking my driveway."
Carol looked around at the destroyed lampposts, the melted slag on the ground and the shattered glass. She felt a strange pang of embarrassment.
"They started it," she said, sounding less like a cosmic warrior and more like a defensive pilot.
"We denied a request," Aryan corrected gently. "You started the fireworks."
He looked up at Tony. "Tony, stand down. You're scaring the tourists."
Tony landed, the helmet retracting. "She tried to turn me into a flashlight, Aryan."
"And you tried to shoot her with a railgun," Aryan said. "We're even."
He turned back to Carol.
"We don't need to do this, Carol," Aryan said. "We're on the same side. We both want the Earth to be safe."
"You have a funny way of showing it," Carol said, though she floated down until her boots touched the ground. "Locking people up."
"Managing threats," Aryan corrected. "Civilization is just efficient threat management. You know that. You've seen a thousand worlds."
He took a step closer.
"Come inside," Aryan said. "Have a drink. Sit down. Let's talk like adults instead of throwing lightning at each other."
Carol hesitated. Every instinct she had told her this was a trap. But looking at him, feeling that pervasive calm radiating from him... it was hard to want to fight.
"Just talk?" Carol asked suspiciously.
"Just talk," Aryan promised. "I'll show you the data. I'll show you why we did what we did. And if you still think we're the villains when we're done... well, the plaza is already ruined. We can finish the fight then."
He extended a hand.
Carol looked at it. She looked at the Illuminati behind him. They had lowered their weapons, watching Aryan with absolute trust.
She powered down completely.
"Fine," Carol said. "But if you try to trap me..."
"The door is open," Aryan said, gesturing to the shattered entrance of the Sentinel Complex. "After you."
…
Carol sat at the far end of the obsidian table. She refused the tea Wanda offered. She sat with her arms crossed, glaring at the data pad Aryan had slid across the table to her.
"What is this?" she asked.
"The bill," Aryan said. He sat at the head of the table, leaning back comfortably.
"The bill?"
"The cost of the last fifteen years," Aryan said. "Open it."
Carol tapped the pad. A hologram projected into the air.
It started in 1995 and ended yesterday.
1997: Skrull infiltration of KGB remnants begins. 40 deaths.
2001: Replacement of Senator William Thaddeus. Legislation blocked regarding deep space monitoring.
2004: Replacement of Stark Industries Board Member. Attempted sabotage of Arc Reactor tech.
2008: Replacement of UK Prime Minister. Economic destabilization protocols initiated.
The list went on. Hundreds of names. Thousands of incidents. Murders. Kidnappings. The people found in the stasis pods… some had been there for a decade, their lives stolen and their children growing up with strangers wearing their faces.
"This is what happened while you were away," Aryan said softly. "While you were saving other worlds, our world was being eaten from the inside out."
Carol stared at the floating names. "I... I didn't know."
"Ignorance isn't a defense, Carol," Aryan said. "Not for someone with your power level. And not for someone who made a promise."
"I tried," Carol said, her voice rising. "Do you think it's easy? Finding a planet? Every habitable rock in this sector is either owned by the Kree, the Nova Empire, or is a war zone. I checked six systems. Six! I fought the Accusers at the border of the Torfa system to buy the refugees time."
"And that is noble," T'Challa said. "But you told them to wait here. You made Earth the waiting room. And you never came back to call their number."
"There are threats out there bigger than Skrulls!" Carol slammed her hand on the table. "I'm holding back fleets that could crack this planet like an egg! I'm the only line of defense for a dozen civilizations that don't have Earth Federation"
"Then you shouldn't have promised them," Aryan said.
"Excuse me?" Carol asked.
"You shouldn't have promised," Aryan repeated, his voice heavy with logic. "If you were too busy. If the universe was too big. You should have told them the truth. You should have told them, 'I can't help you. Find another way.' At least then they would have moved on. Maybe they would have found another rock. But they wouldn't have sat here, festering, waiting for a savior who was too busy being a hero somewhere else."
Carol flinched.
"Hope is dangerous, Carol," Aryan continued. "You gave them hope. And when it soured, it turned into an invasion."
"They had no right," Carol whispered. "Just because I was late... they had no right to attack us."
"They were desperate," Namor said. "Desperate creatures bite."
"We cleaned up the mess," Tony said, tapping the table. "We saved the hostages. We did your job."
"And now you want to release the leaders," The Leader added. "You want us to open the cage."
"They have human rights," Carol argued, clinging to the moral high ground. "They are sentient beings. You can't just keep them in a hole forever without trial."
"They aren't human," Tony said coldly.
Carol glared at him. "That doesn't matter."
"It does to the Federation," Tony shot back. "Human rights apply to humans. Or at least to citizens of Earth. These are foreign invaders. They don't have rights, Carol. They have the mercy we decided to give them."
"That is a slippery slope," Carol warned.
"It's a cliff," Tony agreed. "And we are the ones standing on the edge, making sure nobody falls off. You're just flying by."
"So that's it?" Carol asked. "They rot in the dark? Forever?"
"Until they agree to leave," Aryan said.
Carol looked at him. "What?"
"The Phantom Project isn't a death sentence," Aryan said. "If the Skrulls agree to leave Earth… we will open the door. They can go."
"Go where?" Carol asked.
"That's your job," Aryan said. "Find them a home. A real one this time. Come back with a planet. And we will hand them over."
Carol stared at him.
"You're holding them hostage," Carol realized. "To force me to finish the mission."
"We are motivating you," Aryan smiled faintly. "We are helping you keep your promise."
He leaned forward.
"But until you find that planet, Carol. They stay in the box. We cannot release them here. If we let Talos or Varra walk free... the Federation loses credibility. The people will think we are weak. We cannot make an exception for you just because you're powerful."
He paused.
"However."
Carol looked up. "However?"
"We are not unreasonable," Aryan said. "You want to ask Talos why he gave the order?"
Aryan reached into his pocket. He pulled out a secure communicator.
"I can grant you a digital visitation," Aryan said. "You can talk to them."
He slid the communicator across the obsidian table. It stopped in front of Carol.
"Take the call, Carol. And then... go do your job. Find them a home. And get them off our planet."
Carol looked at the device. Then she looked at Aryan.
She picked up the communicator.
"Fine," Carol said quietly. "I'll make the call."
"Good," Aryan said, standing up. "Meeting adjourned. Welcome back to Earth, Captain."
Chapter 259: Captain Marvel (6)
New
16 hours ago
Carol Danvers sat alone at a metal desk.
In front of her sat the metallic disc Aryan Spencer had slid across the obsidian table.
She stared at it, her hands resting on the table.
She felt a heavy suffocating weight of time.
Fifteen years.
To her, it had been a blink. A series of jump points, skirmishes and burning starships. She had been moving so fast, fighting so hard, that she hadn't stopped to look at the clock.
She reached out. Her finger hovered over the device.
She hesitated.
She had faced Ronan the Accuser. She had stared down the Supreme Intelligence. She had flown through the heart of a warship. But she was terrified to press this button.
"Do it," she whispered to herself.
She pressed the center of the disc.
The device hummed. A column of hard light shot upward, fanning out into a high definition holographic projection. The resolution was flawless, a testament to the terrifying technology Aryan Spencer and Tony Stark had unleashed upon the world.
The blue light coalesced. It formed a room.
It was a clean compact cell. There was a bunk, a table and a small food replicator.
Two figures sat at the table. They were in their natural forms. They wore simple grey jumpsuits with no insignias.
Talos. And Varra.
They looked up as the connection stabilized. They saw her projection standing in their cell, just as she saw them in the room.
There was no joy in their eyes. No relief.
"Carol," Talos said. His voice was rougher than she remembered, scraped raw by years of deception. He looked at her, his yellow eyes dull.
"Talos," Carol breathed, the name catching in her throat. She looked at the woman beside him. "Varra."
Varra just stared, her gaze sharp enough to cut glass.
"I..." Carol started, then stopped. What do you say to the people you abandoned? "I asked for this call. The Council... Aryan Spencer... he granted it."
"How generous of him," Talos said, a humorless chuckle escaping his lips. "The Warden allows us a visitation. Should we applaud?"
"I'm sorry," Carol blurted out. The words felt inadequate against the scale of the disaster. "Talos, Varra... I am so, so sorry. I didn't know. I swear to you, I didn't know it had come to this."
She took a step toward the hologram, her hand reaching out instinctively, but stopping short of the light.
Varra leaned forward, her elbows on the metal table.
"You didn't know," Varra repeated. Her voice was the natural tone of her species, stripped of all pretense. "That is your defense, Carol? Ignorance?"
"It's the truth," Carol pleaded. "I was out there. I was searching."
"You were gone," Varra snapped. "You left in 1995. You said, 'I will find you a home.' You said, 'I will finish what Mar Vell started.' We believed you. We watched your light streak into the sky and we thought, 'She is our champion. She is the star that will lead us home.'"
Varra's laugh was a hollow sound.
"We waited, Carol. One year. Two years. Five. Ten. Do you know what happens to a refugee population when they realize the rescue isn't coming? Do you know what happens to hope when it sits in the dark for a decade?"
"I was stopped," Carol said, the defensive instinct rising despite her guilt. "The Kree Empire didn't just go away, Varra. The Accusers were burning entire systems. I was stopping genocides!"
"And we were the casualties of your war!" Varra shouted, slamming her hand on the table. "You were out there playing god, saving strangers, burning fleets... and we were here! Living in the skin of dead men! Hiding in the shadows of a primitive planet!"
Carol flinched. "I was trying to keep you safe from the Kree!"
"We didn't need safety from the Kree anymore, Carol," Talos said quietly. "We needed a life. We needed to stop pretending."
He stood up slowly, walking to the edge of the holographic field. He looked old.
"You look exactly the same," Talos noted, tilting his head. "The stars have been kind to you. But they weren't so kind to my people."
"Talos," Carol whispered. "Why did you do it? Why did you betray the humans? Why did you betray Nick?"
"Betray?" Talos shook his head. "That is a word for people who have a choice. We ran out of choices in 2005."
"2005?" Carol asked.
"That was the year the last of our Elders died," Talos said. "He died of old age in a basement in Ohio, wearing the face of a plumber. He never saw the sky of a Skrull world. He never saw a home. We buried him in the backyard like a pet."
Talos looked at his hands… green hands.
"My daughter grew up in a nuclear power plant, Carol. She learned to shapeshift before she learned to read because we told her that if she ever showed her true face, the humans would kill her. We were rats in the walls."
He looked up, his eyes hardening.
"We didn't 'invade' Earth to destroy it. We looked at this world… and we realized we could do it better. We became the Prime Minister because she was incompetent. We became the generals because they were warmongers. We wove ourselves into the DNA of this civilization to survive."
"It was a lie," Carol said. "Everything you built here... it was a lie."
"It was a survival strategy," Talos corrected. "And it worked. We were safe. And we didn't have to look over our shoulders for the Kree or for a promise that was never coming."
"Until the Illuminati," Carol said.
"Until Aryan Spencer," Talos spat the name. "Until he and Stark built a better mousetrap. They just turned on the lights and picked us up like insects, Carol."
Carol looked at Varra. "And you? Nick loved you. He's devastated, Varra. He's sitting in a bunker right now, wondering if any of it was real."
Varra's expression softened for a fraction of a second, then hardened into steel.
"I loved him," Varra said quietly. "In my way. I cooked him eggs. I listened to his stories. I loved a man whose job was to hunt aliens, because it was better than waiting for you in the cold. But I chose my people, Carol. When Talos gave the order... I chose my species. Because Nick Fury belongs to Earth. And I belong to the homeless."
"You could have come to him," Carol insisted. "Nick would have helped."
"Nick is a spy," Varra said. "He would have put us in a camp. Maybe a nicer camp than this one, but a camp nonetheless. The Illuminati... put us in the ocean."
"I can get you out," Carol said, the resolve building in her chest. "I can fix this. I'm here now."
"Don't," Talos said sharply.
Carol blinked. "What?"
"Don't you dare," Talos said. "Don't you come here with your glowing fists and your righteous anger and try to break us out. Do you know what happens if you fight the Federation, Carol? Do you know what happens if you start a war with Aryan Spencer?"
"I can take him," Carol said.
Chapter 260: Captain Marvel (7)
New
16 hours ago
"You can break things," Talos corrected. "But you can't build. Spencer built a world where humanity is united. He gave them healthcare. He gave them purpose. If you attack him, the humans will hate you. And they will hate us even more."
"So you just want to stay in a cage?" Carol asked, incredulous.
"It's quiet," Varra said, looking around the metal cell. "The Phantom Project is... efficient. We have food. The Kree can't find us here. The humans can't hunt us here. We are prisoners, yes. But we are alive."
"That's not enough," Carol said, shaking her head. "That's not living."
"It's the best we could get," Talos said. "Because we tried to take the planet and we lost. We didn't use the Super Skrull protocols, Carol. Did you know that?"
Carol paused. "What?"
"Gravik," Talos revealed. "He wanted to harvest DNA. He wanted to give us powers. He wanted to burn humanity down and take the ashes."
Talos leaned closer to the scanner.
"I said no. And I stopped him. I said we weren't monsters. I said we could win with intellect."
He let out a bitter sigh.
"I was arrogant. I thought we were smarter than the humans. But I underestimated them. If we had made the Super Skrulls... maybe the EDF wouldn't have taken us so easily. Maybe we would have had a fighting chance."
"You did the right thing," Carol said. "By not turning into monsters."
"And look where it got us," Varra gestured to the cell. "Six miles under the sea. A moral victory doesn't open the door, Carol."
Carol looked at them. If she freed them now, without a place to go, they would just be hunted again. Or they would turn violent.
She had to finish the mission. The mission she started in 1995.
"I'm going to find it," Carol said. Her voice was steady now. "I'm going to find the planet."
Talos looked away. "We've heard this song before, Carol."
"I know," Carol said. "And I know my word means nothing to you right now. But I am not leaving this sector until I have coordinates. I will scour every system in the local group. I will call in every favor I have with the Nova Corps. I will find a rock that the Kree don't touch."
She leaned into the light of the hologram.
"Give me time. Just... stay alive. And when I come back... I'll come back with a ship."
Varra looked at her. Her expression was unreadable.
"This is the last time, Carol," Varra said softly. "This is the last time we will look at the sky and wait for you. If you don't come back... let us rot. Don't come back to apologize. Just let us be forgotten."
"I won't forget you," Carol swore. "Not again."
Talos looked at her for a long moment. Then, he nodded.
"Goodbye, Talos. Goodbye, Varra."
Carol reached out and pressed the button.
The hologram vanished. The room returned to the cold silence of the Sentinel Complex.
Carol sat there in the dark.
She felt the weight of the communicator in her hand.
She stood up.
She walked out of the communications room.
Aryan Spencer was waiting in the hallway. He was leaning against the wall, reading a tablet. He looked at her with that calm understanding.
"Did you get what you needed?" Aryan asked.
"I got what I deserved," Carol said.
She walked past him, heading toward the launch bay.
"Where will you go?" Aryan asked, falling into step beside her.
"Out," Carol said, gesturing upward. "You were right, Spencer. I left a mess. I'm going to clean it up."
"Good," Aryan said. "The Federation will maintain the Phantom Project. The prisoners will be cared for. We aren't cruel, Captain."
"I know," Carol said. She stopped at the edge of the balcony. The binary aura ignited, bathing the balcony in gold light.
"Tell Fury..." she hesitated. "Tell Fury I'm sorry. And tell him I'll fix it."
"I'll tell him," Aryan promised. "If he ever comes out of his hole."
Carol Danvers crouched, the concrete cracking under her boots.
"I'll be back," she said. "With a planet."
BOOM.
A streak of light tore through the night sky, punching a hole in the clouds, racing upward, away from the Earth.
She flew into the black.
Aryan watched her go. He took a sip of his coffee.
"She's gone?"
Red Queen walked out from the shadows of the hallway.
"She's gone," Aryan confirmed. "Back to the stars where she belongs."
"She just broke the exosphere," Red murmured, her eyes momentarily losing focus as she processed the orbital data feeds still humming in the back of her mind. "The gamma trail she's leaving behind is massive. She's pushed her velocity to a point where the friction would have melted a standard hull. I'd say she's a little motivated."
"Good," Aryan replied, shifting his arm to pull her closer. "A motivated Carol Danvers is a Carol Danvers who stays away from Earth. Let her scour the Andromeda galaxy. It keeps her eyes off what we're building here."
Red tilted her head, looking up at him with a mischievous glint in her blue eyes. "You really leaned into the 'broken promise' angle. It was a bit mean, don't you think? Telling her it was all her fault?"
"It was her fault," Aryan said, setting his coffee on the railing. "She left a loaded gun on the table and walked away. I just pointed out the safety was off. Now, she won't stop until she finds a rock to put those Skrulls on. When she comes back with coordinates, we hand over the keys to the Phantom Project, wave goodbye and the world thanks us for being so merciful."
"And you get a million potential spies off your planet," Red added, her fingers tracing the hem of his jacket. "I like it when you play the long game. It makes my heart rate spike… literally. I just checked the internal log."
Aryan let out a short laugh. "Try to keep your heart in your chest, Red. We have a long night ahead of us."
"We do," she said, her voice dropping into a possessive purr as she tugged on his lapel. "Wanda already sent a ping. She's moved the cushions to the floor back at the estate and says the couch wasn't big enough for the four of us anyway. The first disc is already in the player, so let's get out of here."
"Lord of the Rings?" Aryan asked, moving toward the doors.
"Extended Edition," Red insisted, stepping in front of him and walking backward into the warm light of the hallway. "You promised us the full twelve hour experience. I think I can handle a bit of epic fantasy. Besides, I want to see if I can calculate the trajectory of Legolas's arrows in real time."
"Just watch the movie, Red," Aryan smiled, sliding the glass door shut behind them, cutting off the cold mountain wind. "No math tonight."
"Fine," she teased, catching his hand and pulling him toward the living quarters. "But I'm still getting the big bowl of popcorn."
Chapter 261: Long Way Home (1)
New
16 hours ago
The ice in Tony Stark's tumbler clinked against the crystal as he swirled the amber liquid, the sound sharp in the quiet of the Sentinel Complex's private lounge. He sat slumped on a leather sofa, his tie undone, the Mark XII armor standing in the corner like a silent sentry on standby.
T'Challa stood by the floor to ceiling window, looking out at the darkness over Lake Geneva, while Namor sat rigidly in an armchair, scrolling through a datapad with a look of mild distaste for the interface.
The heavy double doors hissed open.
Aryan walked in, rubbing the back of his neck.
"She's gone," Aryan said, his voice echoing slightly in the large room. "Left the solar system."
Tony exhaled, a long breath and downed the rest of his drink. "Finally. I was about five minutes away from building a suit out of lead just to stop getting a tan from her glow."
"She won't be back until she finds a planet," Aryan said, walking over to the bar cart.
"Which could take years," T'Challa noted, turning from the window. "Decades, given the state of the Kree borders."
"Exactly," Aryan nodded. He looked around the room at his Council. They looked tired. The tension of the last few hours… had drained the adrenaline from the room. "Go home, gentlemen. We're done for the day."
Namor stood up, tossing the datapad onto the table. "I intend to return to the pressure of the deep. Surface air is too thin. It gives me a headache."
"Say hi to the fish for us," Tony quipped, standing up and stretching his back until it cracked. "I've got a date with Pepper and a very large, very greasy cheeseburger. If anyone calls me before noon tomorrow, I'm firing them. Even if I don't employ them."
"I will return to Wakanda," T'Challa said, nodding to Aryan. "Shuri has questions about the synthetic tissue data you shared regarding... your new partner. She is demanding samples."
"Tell her I'll send the files," Aryan smiled. "But the prototype is strictly one of a kind."
The Leader, who had been silently organizing files on the central table, stood up. "I will manage the press release regarding the 'training exercise' in the plaza. The broken pavement needs a cover story."
"Gas main leak," Tony suggested, waving a hand as he walked toward the door. "It's always a gas main leak. Or a weather balloon. Keep it classic."
Aryan watched them file out…
When the door clicked shut, the silence returned.
"Are they gone?" a voice whispered from the hallway shadows.
Aryan turned. Red peeked around the doorframe, still wearing the stunning red dress, but she was holding her black heels in her hand, standing barefoot on the cold tile. Behind her, Wanda and Sharon were leaning against the wall, looking exhausted but happy.
"They're gone," Aryan said, pushing off the bar. "It's just us."
"Good," Sharon yawned, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. "Because if I have to listen to Tony explain magnetic flux one more time, I'm going to shoot him. In the foot. Just a little bit."
"Violence is not the answer," Wanda murmured, walking into the room and wrapping her arms around Aryan's waist, resting her head on his chest. "Unless it's against pillows. I want to murder some pillows with my face. I'm so tired."
"Transportation is waiting," Aryan said, kissing the top of Wanda's head. "Car. Plane. Home. In that order."
Red walked into the room, stepping carefully on the rug. "I have queried the flight plan. Estimated flight time to New York is seven hours and twelve minutes. That is a significant duration for sitting."
"We can sleep on the plane," Aryan said, reaching out and taking Red's hand. Her skin was warm, the synthetic pulse in her wrist beating a steady rhythm against his palm.
"I do not think I can sleep," Red said. "My processors are still cycling the data from the confrontation. The heat form Captain Marvel... it was exhilarating. Is adrenaline always this persistent?"
"It fades," Sharon said, walking over and linking her arm through Red's. "Usually right after a glass of wine and a bad movie. Come on, Red. Let's get you in the air."
…
The interior of the Umbrella Gulfstream was a quiet cocoon of beige leather and walnut trim. The engines hummed a white noise that vibrated through the floorboards.
Red sat in the window seat, her nose pressed against the glass. It was pitch black outside, the Atlantic Ocean a void beneath them, but she was staring at the reflection of the cabin lights and the occasional flicker of a star.
"We are at 45,000 feet," Red whispered. She pressed her hand against the plexiglass. "The temperature outside is minus sixty degrees Celsius. If I opened this window, we would all undergo explosive decompression."
"Please don't open the window," Wanda mumbled from the seat across the aisle. She was already curled up under a cashmere blanket, her eyes closed, a sleep mask pulled down over her forehead.
"I won't," Red said, turning to look at Aryan, who was sitting next to her. She shifted in her seat, the leather creaking. "Aryan. My ears."
"What about them?" Aryan asked, looking up from his tablet.
"There was a pressure differential. It felt like a bubble bursting inside my head."
"That's just the altitude," Aryan explained, reaching over to rub her earlobe gently. "Swallow hard. It equalizes the pressure."
Red swallowed, exaggerating the motion. She blinked. "Oh. It stopped. Human biology is incredibly poorly designed. Why do you have pressure sensors inside your auditory canals?"
"To keep us balanced," Aryan said. "So we don't fall over."
"I have gyroscopes for that," she muttered, leaning back. She kicked her feet up onto the empty seat opposite her. "Aryan?"
"Yeah?"
"Today was... a lot of data."
Aryan put the tablet down. He turned in his seat to face her fully. "You did good, Red."
"I was nervous," she admitted, her voice dropping so Sharon (who was pouring herself a drink at the small bar) wouldn't hear. "When I walked in... I calculated a 40% probability that they would reject me."
"They saw you with me," Aryan said simply. "That's enough for them."
"Is it enough for you?" she asked, her blue eyes searching his. "I take up space. I have mass. I require food. I complain about my feet."
Aryan reached out, lacing his fingers through hers. "Red, I didn't build the body because I wanted a robot. I built it because I wanted you. Complaints and all."
She squeezed his hand, her grip surprisingly strong. "I like taking up space. I like that you can't walk through me."
"Me too," Sharon said, dropping into the seat next to Wanda. She handed Aryan a glass of scotch and kept a glass of white wine for herself. "Cheers to the new normal."
"Cheers," Aryan said, taking the glass.
Red watched the amber liquid swirl. "I want to try that."
"It's scotch," Aryan warned. "It tastes like burning wood and iodine."
"Give it to me," she insisted.
Aryan held the glass to her lips. She took a small sip.
Her face scrunched up immediately, her nose wrinkling. She coughed, sticking her tongue out. "Toxic! Why do humans consume this? It tastes like a forest fire!"
"Acquired taste," Sharon laughed from across the aisle.
"I will not acquire it," Red declared, pushing the glass away. "I will stick to pizza. And chocolate. The sweet spectrum is superior."
She leaned her head on Aryan's shoulder, the excitement of the day finally giving way to the rhythmic hum of the plane.
"Wake me up when we land," she murmured, closing her eyes. "I need to defragment."
Chapter 262: Long Way Home (2)
New
16 hours ago
The car ride from the private airfield to the estate was a blur of passing streetlights and silent fatigue. When the car finally crunched up the gravel driveway of the mansion, it was 3:00 AM local time.
The house was dark, a silent fortress waiting for them.
They stumbled through the front door, leaving bags in the hallway.
"Shoes," Wanda announced, kicking her boots off and sending them skittering across the hardwood floor. "Off. Immediately. If I have to wear shoes for one more minute, I'm hexing someone."
"Agreed," Sharon groaned, unzipping her boots. "I think I left a piece of my soul in those heels."
Red was already barefoot, having abandoned her shoes on the plane. She stood in the center of the foyer, spinning slowly in a circle, her arms outstretched.
"It smells different," she noted.
"It smells like dust," Aryan said, locking the door. "We've been gone for two days."
"No," Red shook her head. "It smells like... waiting." She looked at Aryan. "It missed us. The house missed us."
"I'm going to change," Sharon smiled, walking past her toward the stairs. "Into something that isn't tactical gear or business casual."
"I second the motion," Wanda said, following her.
Aryan watched them go up the stairs. He looked at Red. "Coming?"
"I have a mission," Red said seriously.
"A mission?"
"Popcorn," she stated. "You promised Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition. Disc One is three hours and twenty eight minutes."
"Red, it's 3 AM," Aryan laughed softly. "We're all tired."
"You promised," she repeated, crossing her arms. "And I have never seen a movie with... eyes. I want to see the pixels. I want to eat the corn."
Aryan sighed, rubbing his face. He couldn't say no. Not to her.
"Okay," he conceded. "You start the popcorn. I'll get the blankets. Meet you in the living room."
"Yes!" She pumped a fist in the air, then rushed toward the kitchen, her red dress swishing around her legs.
…
By the time Aryan came down with an armful of duvets and pillows, the living room had been transformed.
Wanda had used her magic to drag the massive sectional sofa pieces apart, pushing them to the edges of the room. In the center, on the plush rug, she had created a nest. A chaotic pile of cushions, blankets and throws.
The massive 85 inch television was already on, displaying the menu for The Fellowship of the Ring. The ominous chanting of the soundtrack filled the room.
Red ran in from the kitchen, holding a bowl of popcorn that was comically large. She was wearing one of Aryan's oversized t-shirts that hung to her knees, having ditched the red dress.
"Salt ratio is optimal!" she announced, diving into the pillow nest. "I tasted it. Butter distribution is at 85% coverage."
Sharon walked in, wearing grey sweatpants and a tank top, her hair tied up in a messy bun. She flopped down next to Red. "You made enough popcorn for an army."
"It is a long movie," Red defended, shoving a handful into her mouth. "We need calories."
Wanda crawled into the pile, wearing silk pajamas. She curled up on Red's left side. "Okay, hit play. But if I fall asleep before they get to Bree, don't wake me up."
Aryan turned off the lights, plunging the room into darkness save for the glow of the screen. He stepped into the nest, finding his spot in the middle.
"Comfortable?" he asked, pulling a duvet over the four of them.
"Acceptable," Red mumbled, her mouth full. She shifted, pressing her back against Aryan's chest, her head resting on his shoulder. Sharon was on his right, Wanda on his left, with Red acting as the anchor in the center.
The movie began. The voice of Galadriel filled the room. "The world is changed. I feel it in the water..."
"I feel it in the water," Red whispered, mimicking the elven cadence. "Namor would like her. She talks about moisture."
"Hush," Wanda nudged her. "Listen to the lore."
For the first twenty minutes, they watched in relative silence. The Shire appeared.
"It looks inefficient," Red critiqued as the Hobbits gardened. "Why are they manually tilling the soil? They have no automation?"
"They're Hobbits, Red," Sharon whispered. "They like the simple life."
"A life without automation is a life of unnecessary labor," Red huffed. "I could optimize the Shire in a week. Their GDP would triple."
"They don't want a GDP," Aryan laughed quietly into her hair. "They want second breakfast."
"I can respect the multiple meal schedule," Red conceded. "That part is logical."
As the movie progressed, the fatigue began to settle in. The adrenaline of the day… was fading into a warm exhaustion.
Sharon's head grew heavy on Aryan's shoulder. Her breathing evened out.
Wanda shifted, draping her leg over Red's, her hand resting on Aryan's stomach.
But Red was wide awake. Her blue eyes reflected the light of the screen, tracking every frame.
"Gandalf," she whispered. "He is a Tier 1 entity, correct? Like Thor? Or Captain Marvel?"
"Something like that," Aryan whispered back. "He's a Maia. An angel, basically."
"He is holding back," Red analyzed. "He has significant power output potential, yet he uses a stick and fireworks. It is... restraint. Like you."
Aryan tightened his arm around her waist. "Sometimes you have to hide the power so people don't get scared."
"I was scared today," Red admitted, her voice barely audible over the soundtrack of the Ringwraiths screeching.
"I was running seven hundred combat simulations a second," she confessed. "In 690 of them, they rejected me. They saw me as a machine."
She turned her head slightly, looking up at him in the dark.
"But then you held my hand. And the simulations stopped. Because the only variable that mattered was that you were holding me."
Aryan kissed her forehead. "I'm not letting go, Red."
She sighed, a long sound of tension leaving her synthetic frame. She snuggled deeper into the pile, pulling Wanda's arm tighter around her waist and resting her cheek on Sharon's shoulder.
"Good," she whispered. "Because I am very comfortable. And I have eaten sixty percent of the popcorn. I am effectively weighted down."
On the screen, Frodo and Sam were leaving the Shire, walking into the cornfield.
"I'm getting sleepy," Red murmured, her eyes finally starting to droop. "My optical sensors are losing focus. Is that normal?"
"Yeah," Aryan said. "That's sleep."
"It feels... heavy," she slurred. "Like powering down... but nice."
"Close your eyes, Red."
"But the movie..."
"We'll finish it tomorrow."
"Okay," she whispered. "Tomorrow."
Her breathing slowed, syncing with Sharon's and Wanda's. Her hand, sticky with butter and salt, rested on Aryan's chest, right over his heart.
Aryan reached out for the remote and paused the movie. The room went silent, save for the soft breathing of his family.
Waiting for more chapters on patreon