Avenge Us

CHAPTER 1: Death Is Not Your Destiny Today

They were stargazing at the time. They weren't on Earth; they were lying on a bed of exotic flowers, on a moon far, far away from any conflict. They pair of them planned on taking a couple back to feed a now adult Monica's adorable obsession with all things alien.

Maria had been laughing at something stupid Carol had said. She always laughed at Carol's jokes, sometimes it seemed the dumber they were, the more uproarious Maria's responses became.

There was a pulse. A kind of shadow that Carol felt in her bones. It washed over her, tried to destroy her, but before she could consciously react, her powers almost roared to life in defiance; but not in the normal glow of gold. She didn't know it, but in the moment the Infinity Six decided to erase her, her eyes flashed Tesseract blue. Her eyes flickered back to normal as the terrible presence almost decided she was worth too much trouble, and passed her by.

It happened so fast that Maria didn't even notice the sudden change in Carol's posture; once languid, but now rigid. "Maria, get up, something's wrong," Carol said with a calmness she didn't quite feel.

All of a sudden Maria's laugh, which lit up Carol's world, became a terrified croak. "Carol?" was all she managed to say before she faded into dust.

Carol's outburst of horror knew no words. All she knew was that her mouth was making these sounds that weren't even human anymore. She desperately clutched the ash that was her Maria just seconds ago.

Some time later, her pager went off. It made a noise she programmed it with over a decade ago, a song she thought was hilarious. But she barely heard it. Her throat was raw from the screaming.

She looked at her modified pager, in small black letters it read, AVENGE US.

There were less than ten of people that she truly cared enough to go to war for. And all but one of them was dead. Using a modified device she had made years ago during her last visit to Earth, she was able to get in contact in Monica.

Monica, who was still alive, but who's own wife and daughter were gone, disappeared in front of her, right at the breakfast table. "I'm so sorry, baby. I'm s-s-sorry," Carol sobbed into the receiver as she told her daughter Maria had died too.

"She was with you right?" Monica managed to say after she brought her own sobbing under control.

Despite being light-years apart, the older woman nodded. "I'm gonna find who did this, I s-swear," Carol promised her daughter. Carol and Monica became legally mother and daughter when Carol returned to Earth, having assured a relatively peaceful life for her new Skrull friends. Fury was there, so was Coulson and Everett Ross. Carol had gotten to know Coulson through Fury, and Everett was one of Maria's closest friends; the only one she was able to lean on when Carol had disappeared in 1989. Fury was able to pull some strings so no questions were asked about her gender, and the paperwork went through flawlessly.

"C-come home, mommy, please?" Monica pleaded.

Carol bit her lip in self-loathing with what she was about to say, "I will baby,

I promise. I love you so much, and I'll be home soon, I promise."

It wasn't a lie per-say, but Carol knew she had to find who did this. She had to avenge Maria, if for no other reason, hearing her daughter's broken voice reassured her that the path she planned to take was right.

She found not too long later. The Kree were normally stingy with their intel, but even they weren't immune to the Great Death. Their spies found Thanos within weeks, and relayed his location to their former soldier.

Carol and Thanos' fight was a blur of rage and light. The geography around them was changing as mountains were levelled, depressions created, and forests burned. She didn't know it, but her relentless pursuit denied him the respite he needed to activate the time gem. And he was never able to overwhelm her with the power of the gauntlet, for she gave as good as she got. The whole fight left him questioning 'what the hell is this thing?' Their fight ended when she laid a hand on the gauntlet channelling all her grief into her hand in a wordless scream. She was touching both the blue stone and the deep orange one when it happened. The gauntlet, already fractured, came apart, the two stones coming lose.

Two young women appeared from nothing. Thanos let out a yell, causing a portal to form. He knew he was losing. He had to get this angry goddess away from him at all costs. The two women were unconscious. As he threw Carol into the portal with a flash of purple light, the two women were sent through the portal as well.

As Carol flew backwards towards the portal, her hand found purchase on one particularly frayed section of the gauntlet causing the blue stone to fly off. Oddly, the blue stone flew into Carol's mouth, which was open in a roar of determination. However, she didn't notice that, as she was slightly pre-occupied.

Carol fell through the portal just as she saw Thanos' face contort in horror at what had just happened, he had lost possession of the space gem, and then the portal closed.

Carol was somewhere else. She was flying, no, falling. She almost choked on something in her mouth, and without thinking, brought her teeth down on it, crushing it into dust. Perhaps if she knew what she held there was the space gem, she might've chosen a different solution, but it was not to be. It basically detonated in her mouth, imbuing her with the power it held. She blacked out.

She faintly heard screaming before a blur of scarlet swooped in front of her and pulled her up short. The landing was not one to phone home about, but it wasn't catastrophic either. Carol shakily got to her feet, regarding her surroundings, as per her training. They were on a desert devoid of any direct sunlight. She looked up and could see a planet with rings not too far away. It took up the horizon. The desert, moon, probably, they were on had a sickly blue tint to it.

Not seeing any immediate threats, she looked at the two women in front of her. They were very pretty, but dressed in such a way that raised Carol's eyebrow.

"Who the hell are you?" Carol rasped.

The girl dressed in red, who had crimson power crackling around her hands looked surprised at the tall blonde. "I'm Wanda," she decided on.

Carol looked to the younger of the two women, who had some impressive gauntlets on, despite the fierce expression on the girl's face, she couldn't be older than your typical undergrad, "And you, sweetheart?" Carol asked with a little more tact.

The younger girl regally regained her posture and spoke in an accent that Carol couldn't exactly pinpoint, but the girl's tone was one of command, at first. "I'm Princess Shuri…what is with your eyes, Mohawk lady?"

Carol dissolved the helmet around her head. Her Mohawk reverting to her normal shoulder length cut, "What do you mean?"

The red crackling vanished from Wanda's hands as she too peered into the Captain's eyes with confusion. Carol spotted a small pond not twenty meteres away and was there in a flash, peering into the depths.

They were right to be perturbed by her eyes, her right eye was almost normal except for her iris becoming the iridescent gold that denoted her powers, markedly different from how she knew she looked when she powered up. That wasn't what surprised her though. It was her left eye. Her iris here was also gleaming gold. But the whites weren't white anymore, they were blue, and they were glowing with all the power of the Tesseract.