Emergencies only, Carol told Fury lifetimes ago, expecting to be called back every time something (Goose) spooked him or made SHIELD suspect hostile intergalactic contact. But he kept good on his promise; she was amazed to hear about the Chitauri invasion of New York long after the fact, and maybe even a little disappointed he hadn’t invited her. Still, that means that C-53 (it still feels weird in her mouth to call it Earth) is developing a halfway decent defense system. She can’t be everywhere at once.
Which is why when, galactic systems away, she received Fury’s distress signal, she was actually looking forward to seeing her old friend again. Maybe she would have time to check in on Maria and Lieutenant Trouble, it’s been, wow, almost…
Then Talos’s daughter dissolved to dust in front of her.
Okay. A real emergency, then.
It takes time to get to C-53. Days or weeks, maybe a month, it’s hard to gauge time when flying at high-speed to the nearest access point only to find it closed due to the emergency. War is a universal language, after all. But she gets there, follows the signal of Fury’s communicator to the very doors of the facility before switching hers off, closing the link.
No welcome wagon. Odd. She thought Fury would be excited to see her. But there are signs of life that she follows up a series of stairs and corridors to some kind of operations base. Must be the defense team, all standing around…the communicator.
“My question first,” she responds with clenched fists to the guy asking questions, but has a feeling she knows the answer. The words catch in her throat, echoing with all the destruction and terror she’s seen on her way here. The grief. “He’s…gone, isn’t he? Didn’t exactly strike me as the type to leave his communicator laying around.”
Steve quickly glances as his team before confirming her suspicions. “We found it next to-”
the phrase pile of ashes stuck in his throat. “-uh next to him. We knew him and we thought that he was trying to contact someone who could help.” Because this person may not know it, but she was their last hope. They had gone up against Thanos and lost. Now their team was scattered, missing, or...gone. There was no word from Tony or the kid, Peter. No confirmation if they made it or disintegrated with half of the galaxy. It was the not knowing that ate him most days.
“Can you?” he asked, a little too earnestly. “Help us? We went up against Thanos and we didn’t make a dent.” Well, he hadn’t. Thor made one pretty good sized one in the Titan’s chest. But even that hadn’t stopped him. “Whatever we threw at this guy, it didn’t matter. Those stones made him indestructible. When we thought we foiled him, he rewound time and thwarted the attempt.” With his own eyes, he watched Vision die twice. The memory settled like a stone in his stomach. “Right now, we are looking like we are out of options.”
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