The recording clicked off, plunging the room into heavy silence. Carol sat frozen, tears silently tracing paths down her cheeks as the dam of suppressed memories finally broke, and she made a run for it out of the house.

"He lied to me," Carol yelled, with her friend Maria, followed by Fury and Talos, trailing behind.

"Everything that I knew was a lie."

Maverick and Isabella stood quietly near the house, watching the drama unfold, and although Maverick had known this moment was coming, witnessing the raw emotion on Carol's face as her entire worldview collapsed was something else entirely.

"I feel really bad for her, Ricky. Can't you do something to cheer her up?" Isabella whispered softly, resting her head on his shoulder.

"No. She needs to face this herself. But later, once all this is over, I don't mind giving her a few calming drafts… well, depending if she really needs them by then..."

Back to Danvers, "Now," Talos said, approaching slowly, his usual sarcastic edge gone, replaced by something resembling genuine sympathy. "Now you understand, right?"

"Understand what?" Carol's voice cracked. "What do I understand now?"

"Yon-Rogg killed Mar-Vell," Talos explained patiently. "He killed her because she realized she was fighting on the wrong side of an unjust war. He killed her to protect the Kree Empire's secrets and to acquire her light-speed engine."

"No," Carol shook her head defiantly. "Your people are terrorists. They kill innocents. I saw the ruins on Torfa."

"Ruins that the Accusers are responsible for," Talos countered. "My people lived as refugees on Torfa. Homeless ever since we resisted Kree rule and they destroyed our planet. And the handful of us that are left will be slaughtered next... unless you help me finish what Mar-Vell started."

Maverick, listening not far away, raised a brow to that. The MCU did indeed portray the Skrulls as survivors, always on the run, but that "innocent refugee" narrative didn't quite match what he remembered of the Skrulls' often morally ambiguous history across the entire Marvel multiverse.

Skrulls in the Marvel comics weren't as innocent as Talos was portraying them... even in this timeline. While Talos's current situation deserved sympathy, Maverick understood that they were conquerors themselves, much like the Kree, expanding their rule across planets by any means necessary.

Not to mention, he remembered seeing many YouTube videos and fan theories suggesting that Skrulls had long infiltrated Earth. Perhaps they were only fan theories, perhaps not, but he wasn't foolish enough to believe Talos's words just because his arguments were convincing.

But for now, he chose to keep all that inside his head, and maybe after all this was over, he wouldn't mind having a one-on-one with the shapeshifter leader.

"And Dr. Lawson's light-speed engine helps you do that how exactly?" Carol asked, glaring at Talos with burning eyes.

"Simple. It allows us to travel far beyond the Kree's reach," Talos explained patiently. "To find a new, uninhabited world where we can finally be safe."

"Ask him what happens if he doesn't find an empty planet?" Maverick's voice rang inside Fury and Danvers' heads, making them turn momentarily in his direction, but they quickly turned back.

"Right," Fury said, scrutinizing the alien from head to toe. "What if you eventually find one… and it happens to be already occupied? Like, say… this planet? Convenient location, nice atmosphere, plenty of resources. Tempting to just… settle in?"

Perhaps more than Maverick, Fury wanted an answer to that more than anything. After all, he was Nick Fury. In the future, in the original MCU timeline and even in many other timelines, he had done some—no, a lot of—questionable things at the helm of S.H.I.E.L.D. for the sake of the world, things that any normal person would easily label him an outright monster.

But if one disregards the gray area and only focuses on black and white, there would be no doubt the man really wanted what was best for the world.

Talos met Fury's fiery, skeptical gaze and couldn't help but feel a thrum in his chest. He had a feeling that his next words had to be sincere, and sincere 100 percent.

"I give you my word, Agent. Commander Talos's word," he said more solemnly than ever. "My people will not seek to conquer C-53. Besides, even if we wanted to, even if we had the manpower, we can't—lest we anger the wrath of the All-Father. Not even the Kree Empire would dare invade here for conquest."

Fury, who thought he would receive a simple answer, was bewildered by the sudden name drop. He had no clue about it and could only turn to the one person who might know.

"Another day, Agent Fury." He saw the kid let out a sigh and nod at him before the voice ran through his mind again: "No promises, but I don't mind showing you some... of the extraordinary sides of the world later. For now, focus on Talos."

"We seek only refuge," Talos continued, "and even if other Skrull factions cause trouble here, I will aid you against them. Is that a sufficient guarantee, Agent?"

Fury turned back to him, and though he had a thousand questions wracking his brain, he knew it was not the time.

"We'll see," he said, neither acknowledging nor denying his promise.

Talos sighed, then turned back to Danvers. "Right now, the Kree are the enemy we both share. They're coming for me, for my people," he said. "Help us find the lab, get Mar-Vell's engine core, and we leave. By doing so, we also take the Kree threat with us. It's mutually beneficial."

Carol still looked lost, with her newfound memories settling in, and was unable to think straight, so she turned to Fury and Maria for help.

Maria came closer, held her hands and squeezed them tightly with care. "Carol, remember, Lawson always told us that his light-speed engine was not to fight wars but to end them. Finding a way out."

"Exactly!" Talos chimed in on her words. "Finding the core lets us escape the war for good!"

"Have you forgotten... I destroyed the core," Carol reminded them.

"No," Talos corrected, "you destroyed the engine. The core that powered it is in a remote location. If you help us decode those coordinates, we can find it."

"What if you find it and use it as a weapon against us?" Carol challenged him again.

Sighing, Talos replied tiredly, "We just want a home."

After a moment of tense silence, he added softly, "I know I don't deserve your trust, but you were our only lead. We discovered that your energy signature matched Mar-Vell's core. Now we know why."

"If only you knew the importance of it to me," the Skrull said, the face of another, someone dear, surfacing in his mind. "I just need your help decoding the coordinates to Mar-Vell's lab."

Back and forth, the alien and Danvers argued some more, neither backing down, and finally, with Fury and Maria supporting the decision, Danvers chose to agree to help the Skrulls.

With the new determination on her face, she said, "Actually, those weren't coordinates. They're state vectors for orbital position and velocity. You didn't find her lab on Earth because it's not on Earth." She smirked, then added, "That was the location on the date of the crash six years ago. If we track its course, we can find it in orbit even right now."

"Basic physics," Maria chimed in as well, with a small, proud smile.

"In... orbit?" Talos asked, looking stunned, then turned to Morex, who looked like he had just heard a bad joke. "Was that so difficult to figure out? I mean, you're my science guy, right?"

"I..."

"Yon-Rogg is also coming. He should reach here soon," Carol interjected, suddenly remembering the detail, and urgency filled her voice. "We've got to get to the core before he does."

"Then we shouldn't waste any time," Talos said, equally taken aback.

"Now hold on a second. Are we really talking about going to space?" Fury suddenly asked, looking utterly incredulous. "In what? The government-issue sedan we borrowed?"

"I can help with that..."

Everyone turned their heads to Morex, who, with all the attention, couldn't help but look down and then continue.

"I can... do a few tweaks to your vessel... handle the modifications."

"Are you sure... Mr. Science Guy?" Fury muttered skeptically under his breath, narrowing his eyes.

---

Time passed, and another day went by while the science guy worked on the aircraft, transforming it for space travel. Meanwhile, Carol somehow convinced Maria to join the mission as well, but as a result, Monica had to be taken to another place while they were gone.

The kid was upset, but alas, she was a kid. Before she was driven away, though, she helped Danvers with a new look, and Danvers for the first time picked the color she would wear in the future as Captain Marvel.

Maverick and Isabella also did not linger at their home all the time and left, popping around the world doing who knows what, with the heads-up to Fury and Danvers that they would return when the aircraft was ready.

Then, finally, on the morning of the next day, two nights after they first arrived at the property, everything was ready. The group—Fury, Danvers, and Monica—gathered beside the newly modified spacecraft.

Fury and Danvers approached Maverick and Isabella, who were hanging back a little, but didn't appear ready to board, and gave them a questioning look.

"Are you coming with us?" Danvers asked.

"Ah, don't worry about us, Ms. Danvers. We wouldn't miss it for the world," Maverick replied instantly, a wide smile spreading across his face. "Just know that we'll be right behind you."

"You… aren't going to call back Twinklefeather, are you?"

At that, Isabella, standing beside Maverick, couldn't help but chuckle out loud.

—————————

Author's Note:

🔥 Drop those Power Stones! 🔥

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