Forbidden | Carol Danvers

Chapter 20: All These Years

This finally got everyone's attention and they all whipped around to see the green alien too. Fury pointed his gun at him, not that it would do much damage, and Carol lit up her hands, stepping in front of a very confused Maria, threatening to blow him to pieces. 

'You know, you really should be kinder to your neighbors. You never know when you're gonna need to borrow some sugar.' He casually sipped on a drink, completely ignoring the threats, but he couldn't anymore when Carol stepped closer and closer. 'Now, hang on a second, before you go swinging those jazz hands around', he gestured to mine and Carol's hands, both lit up, 'making a mess in your friend's house - and... it's a lovely home.' 

But Maria didn't hear it. Her big eyes looked out the window and saw her daughter talking to her, only she was standing right here. 'Oh my God. What the hell?' I couldn't even begin to understand what she must be feeling right now. We had told her what the Skrulls could do, but seeing it with her own eyes was completely different. As if she hadn't fully believed us before but couldn't ignore what was happening right there. 

Talos slowly walked around the table, getting closer to us with little steps. This made me be even more on egde, wanting to protect everyone in this home. 'No one's gonna hurt the girl. Just, don't kill me. That would really complicate the situation.'

'I'm about five seconds from complicating that wall with some ugly-ass Skrull brains', Fury warned him.

'I'm sorry I simmed your boss.' Talos tried to calm Fury down. 'But now I stand before you as my true self. Without deception.' Uhu, right, and who was that standing with Monica then. Picking on the weak ones, there was nothing less cowardly.

Carol thought the same thing and shook her head in outrage. 'And who is that out there?' 

Talos immediately realized his mistake and wasn't afraid to admit to it. 'Okay, that's a fair point. But I'm sure that you understand, I had to take some precautions.' Maria was shuffling impatiently and uncomfortably behind me, afraid for her daughter. 

'I saw you' he waved his hands between me and Carol, 'crush twenty of my best men with your hands bound.' That's right, we did that. 'I just wanna talk.' He knew he couldn't win a fight with us.

I was fed up with this, with him. I had no desire to talk to him and this conversation was getting tiring. 'Last time we talked, we ended up hanging from our ankles', I said angrily, reminding him of our time on the ship.

'That was before I knew who she was.' He turned to Carol, speaking the next words to her. 'Before I found what made you different from the others.' She had no idea what he was talking about, but it probably had something to do with her memories and her life here. 'I have an audio recording from Pegasus, of your  voice, from a plane crash six years ago. On a device I believe you call a 'black box'.' 

Now I was interested. This recording could tell us more about what happened that day, maybe we could finally complete the whole timeline. I had no idea why he was helping us. He was probably just using Carol to get to the light-speed engine, but my gut told me he was being totally honest right now and he had another more important reason for needing our help.

Maria's expression turned shocked at his words. 'They told me it was destroyed in the crash. How'd you get it?' Eyebrows raised at the question.

'Does she not understand?' He asked us before turning to her. 'Young lady I have a special skill that kinda allows me to get into places I'm not supposed to be.'

She was really offended by his usage of the words 'young lady' and wasn't afraid of telling him that. 'Call me young lady again, and I'm gonna put my foot in a place it's not supposed to be.'

I had to hold back a laugh when I saw Talos' questionable face. He had no idea what place she meant. 'Am I supposed to guess where that is?', he asked unsure.

All four of us answered at the same time. 'Your ass.'

He seemed to get it now. We all didn't trust him and we had no desire to work with him. 'Okay, I get it. We're all a little on edge here. But look, I just need your help decoding some coordinates.' He looked desperate, we were his only hope, which only confirmed my suspicions for another motive. 'If you sit down, you listen to this, I assure you, it'll be worth your while.'

Carol was running all possibilities through her head and finally decided it was worth a shot. Looking at me for confirmation, I nodded my head, telling her I agreed. 'Call your buddy back inside and we'll listen.' Referring to the Skrull that was still talking to Monica outside.

Letting out a deep relieved sigh, Talos was really happy he had gotten what he wanted. 'Deal.'

But his relaxed state ended quickly when the cat I had completely forgotten about, stroke against his legs, letting out a little meow. 'Oh my God! Get that thing away! How'd that get in here?', Talos jumped back in shock, away from the ginger creature. He seemed really afraid of the little thing.

Carol immediately saw a chance to tease him with it and use his fear to her advantage. Picking Goose up, she held it towards him with two hands, the cat swinging inbetween her hands. With every step towards Talos, he took one back. 'The cat? This isn't what you're afraid of, is it?', a teasing smirk on her face.

 'That's not a cat. That's a Flerken', Talos said. A Flerken? It sounded like something to be afraid of, but it couldn't be this cute little cat could it?

Fury thought this was all very funny and laughed at him. 'A Flerken?', he asked in disbelief.

Then Monica walked in, interrupting the fun we were having. Seeing her mother stand in front of her, on the other side of the room, made her stop in her tracks. 'Mom?' She believed she had been talking to her mother outside the whole time. Her little head tried to wrap itself around the situation and she swiftly turned around. The Skrull behind her transformed back to his true self and Monica's eyes widened. He shrugged in a little gesture of sorry. 

Her entrance had brought us all back to the situation at hand. We were going to listen to a tape that was hopefully going to tell us more about everything that happened six years ago. To say I was nervous was an understatement, and I couldn't imagine what Carol was feeling right now. This was her life that was slowly unraveling itself. 

I was scared the tape would be a disappointment and we were stuck in our investigation yet again. Besides, we couldn't forget about the fact that Yon-Rogg and his team were closing in on us fast. Precious time was ticking away and I got more aware of that every second.

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A little filler chapter? I don't know, but I actually really liked writing this. Everything is slowly coming together. 

Thanks for reading!

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