Song: "Still Alive" by Red
"Hey, Cap!" Tony grins as I walk down the stairs into the lab. "You got cleared!"
"I did!" I smile as my feet hit the floor and I walk over.
"No strings attached?" Nat asks as she pops up from under a command center.
"Nope," I tell her.
"For real?" Tony asks, grinning even wider.
I stop beside him as I say, "I've been doing pretty well over the last few months. I'm not quite over the fact that Bucky's gone, I don't think I ever will be, but I've learned to channel my pain and handle it in healthier ways."
"I'm not sure that tattoos are healthier, but they look good," Bruce says as he comes down the stairs to join us.
"Oh, shush, you're just jealous," Nat teases.
Bruce smirks, "Maybe I am."
"You going to spend time in the studio later?" Nat asks as she stands up from the floor and bounces over to me. "There are a few songs that I found that you'd love."
Before I can answer, Clint drops into the lab from a vent in the ceiling and Thor thunderbolts in, the resulting static electricity causing everyone's hair to stand on end. The lights on the machines in the lab flash brighter and they work faster, just for a second.
The monolithic structure behind him comes to life, and a portal opens just inside its doors. Nat and Tony quickly turn from the portal to stare at me, though. I look down at my hands and I'm met with bright blue light shining from underneath my inked sleeves.
What the hell?
Tony gets a wild look in his eyes.
"Captain," he grins, "Looks like you're more than human after all."
"Kree," Thor says softly.
I open my mouth to ask him what the hell that means, but Tony jumps in before I get the chance.
"Thor, buddy, quick question," Tony chirps carefully as he slinks over to Thor.
"We both know that this won't be quick," Thor says with a smirk, hands on his hips. "What is it, Stark?"
"You're able to travel to different dimensions, worlds, planets, wherever you want, with that lightning of yours," Tony says, grabbing stacks of documents off of a desk and hastily flipping through them.
"With your powers, God of Thunder, we may be able to communicate with the Soul World, power our time machine, retrieve infinity stones from other timelines, and defeat Thanos," Tony says, ecstatic. "And if Steve has some sort of crazy superpowers, this is the perfect time to test them!"
We can bring our family home.
"Do it," I tell him, "I don't care what it takes, we need to do it. We have to try. We won't know if we're right until we try." I look at Tony. "We need Rhodey, Rocket, and Nebula." I look at Nat. "And if you know who the hell that communicator is linked to, we need them. Fury would want us to find them."
"You think I know who the hell that comm is linked to?" Nat asks me, eyebrows raised, arms crossed over her chest.
"Where's Fury?"
An orange cat and a glowing woman come through the portal, and I honestly have no idea what to think when I notice that her uniform is red, blue, and gold and that the symbol on Fury's comm is the same as the one that she wears on her chest.
Nat's eyes go wide, and she arms herself with her stun batons, sharply ordering, "Назовите себя."
Identify yourself.
The blonde stops just a few feet away from Natasha, the orange cat obediently following.
Cute little cat, but who the hell is the woman? And why is she glowing?!
She smiles sweetly at Nat, saying, "Капитан Марвел. Я пришел домой, Маленький Паук."
Captain Marvel. I came home, Little Spider.
"Unbelievable," Nat smiles, dropping the stun batons to the lab floor. "Its really you."
No one moves, but our thoughts go off the rails when Nat runs toward the mystery woman and practically jumps into her arms. She hugs Nat tight and smiles when Nat finally lets her go to give her a quick, but passionate, kiss.
Nat smiles in disbelief as she says, "I can't believe you're really here. I thought Maria and Monica were making it up, that you finally coming back to Earth was just a dream."
Who is she?
Clint walks over, smiling as he says, "Good to see you, Captain."
"You haven't changed since the last time I saw you," the woman says as Nat lets her go so she can hug Clint.
"Nat, could you be a dear and tell me who the hell just waltzed right into our compound?" Tony chimes.
The woman fires a glare at Tony, and he nearly pisses himself when the woman's hands start to blaze even brighter, light swirling around her hands.
Nat puts a hand on her arm, saying, "It's okay. He's Howard Stark's son."
"I've heard of you, and I've met many of the Kree," Thor says. "Are you one of them?"
There's that word again.
The woman relaxes, the glow around her fading.
"Did you say Kree?" Bruce asks. "Weren't they all killed in some freak explosion when their overlord was slaughtered?"
Huh?
What?
When?
Who?
"I assume that technology hasn't changed much since the last time I was here?" The woman says to Nat and Clint.
"There have been some improvements, but nothing close to what you had on Hala," Clint says.
The woman looks at Thor and Bruce and says, "Technically, I'm Kree, so yes, I said it." She looks at Clint. "I'm assuming I'll have to upgrade more equipment while I'm here then? Is that right?"
"I'm not going to get an answer, am I?" Tony sighs.
Nat smirks and bumps the woman with her hip, saying, "You might as well answer Stark while he's busy contemplating what to do with all of the information we've thrown at him."
The woman smiles softly, and then she says, "Part of who I am came from a different planet, but I lived here on Earth for a time before then. Have you ever heard of Project Pegasus? It was a SHIELD project, one of the most secret and controversial projects in the organization's history. I doubt that any of the records were declassified when SHIELD fell, since Pegasus happened during the dial-up era, so it shouldn't be public knowledge, but it could have been leaked somewhere."
Pegasus.
I thought it was a myth.
"No, I've never heard of it," Tony says.
The woman keys in some information on the communicator on her left arm, and then she projects it in front of her.
Was this woman involved in Pegasus?
"This is Hala, home of the Kree," she says.
The image changes as she pans through it.
"This is Earth, also known as C-53. I was a Starforce Commander, and I crash-landed here on Earth after being captured by a race we call the Skrulls. I believed what my team told me, what I had been conditioned to believe about Skrulls, that they were hostile, needed to be eliminated. We had been at war with them for years, after all. Turns out, the Kree wanted to commit mass genocide of the Skrull people, using me as their weapon of choice. Consequentially, I defected, and I chose not to kill them. From what I know about the most recent history made on Earth, a similar event has occurred, this time to the men you call Captain America and the Winter Soldier."
Tony's face pales, and my heart stops in my chest. I sit down, legs numb, breath fleeing my lungs, thoughts spiraling.
Me?
Bucky?
What the shit?
"These men, some believe they're criminals, but to the worlds outside of yours, they are two of the strongest heroes that you have, and their cosmic energies alone are enough to protect the Earth from Thanos, but the corrupt government crucified them, led the public to believe that their heroes are only human and hardly heroic when they are so much more. They are Kree."
Wait.
W H A T.
I lose all feeling in my body — hands, legs, face, everything — as she goes on.
"Captain," she says as she looks at me. "I grew up listening to stories of perseverance, strength, and brilliance in battle, each one of them about you. I joined the Air Force. I was knocked down. I didn't give up. I got up. I kept going. I chased your ghost, so that I could live up to my dream of being just like you...a hero of my own."
She projects an image of what I can only assume is her plane, and my heart lurches in my chest.
On the side of her plane, it says Carol "Avenger" Danvers.
She's the catalyst for the Avengers Initiative.
She's the literal torch that lit the way.
Holy shit.
"Lawson's project, right? You're the pilot that was with her in the crash, aren't you?" Bruce whispers.
She smiles, "I am."
Tony blinks in shock, and he sits down on the floor, head in his hands. Everything he's ever learned has been challenged again, thrown up into the air and blown apart for him to painstakingly puzzle back together.
And, from the look on Carol's face, this is only the beginning.
She projects another image, this time one of Bucky and me, the two of us standing atop that damned HYDRA train.
She's the real deal.
"And these men, they are the soldiers that I personally need to reunite," Carol says, looking at me. "It's only polite to ask if you are ready for the endgame, Captain, but I can only assume, again based on what I know about recent events, that bringing Barnes home will be an even greater reward than defeating the Mad Titan."
To hell with Thanos.
I need Bucky.
"Are you ready to help me?" Carol asks.
I rise.
This is what we are meant to do, what I am meant to do. We're the Avengers. Let's avenge some shit.
Nat grins as I step forward onto the edge of my shield and it flies up into my hand. I'm almost as thrilled as she is, but the strange-blue-green blood that is soaking through the bandages on my arms is terribly confusing.
"Kree blood is blue-green," Carol says, explaining it away like it isn't the first time she's seen this happen to someone. "And the blue light? That was your DNA's response to your superhuman abilities being unleashed. The proper genes have been activated."
The bandages fall from my arms as light covers me from head to toe, and unrelenting power floods my veins. It's incredibly invigorating.
I look down at my hands and arms, and I watch in awe as the scars soften. Blue light radiates from my shield and my hands.
Carol, with Natasha under her arm, smiles and says, "Are you ready to bring him home?"
"I am," I tell her, fists clenched, confidence surging through me.