Title: Five Years
Author's Note: Hi everyone! It's weird for me to say this (type this?) out loud, but this is the first fanfic I've written since 2013. Captain Marvel and Endgame have really inspired me to start writing again, so I hope you enjoy whatever it is I'm able to churn out. Right now, I'm toying with the idea of building out a storyline of everything that's happened in the "Five Years" from Thanos' death to Antman being brought back from the quantum realm. Is it going to be a bunch of one shots? Mini-stories with 4-5 chapters on specific concepts/prompts? It's all still up in the air at this point. But having been out of the game for so long, I'd very much appreciate your comments and reviews! Send me a message too, I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas!
Prologue
Captain Marvel's POV:
It had been like this for days. Each planet I visited was in a state of mayhem and distress. People disappearing into thin air and survivors desperately looking for loved ones, not knowing if they had been turned into dust or not.
I kept my distance and surveyed Krion, one of the biggest cities of the planet Zaln, trying to figure out what needed to be done first. Before I could decide on a plan of action, my thoughts are interrupted by a faint beeping sound. I quickly check my transponder for new messages but there were none. Still, the incessant beeping sound continued.
Could it be?
I reach into one of my suit's compartments and pull out the pager I had saved from my last visit to Earth. After jumping through so many time warps, it's difficult to even try and figure out how long ago that was. I squint at the small screen but there's no message, just a distress call.
Fury.
Why didn't I realize it sooner! Earth must be in the same state of chaos that's affecting planets all across the galaxy. And I'm guessing Fury needs my help to keep the peace. I can assume that much.
I look back up and the scene in front of me has not changed. Thousands of people are still running around in utter panic. If I'm being honest with myself, I wasn't really able to do much to help the planets I'd been to before making my way to Zaln. An incredibly powerful force has been at work, and without any kind of insight into what I was dealing with, I felt almost useless. How much help would I really be on Earth? But I promised Fury that I'd come back if he called for me. At the very least, maybe he has an explanation for everything that's been happening.
That and the fact that I've been craving a cheeseburger for some time now.
Chapter One
Narrator's POV:
"Whatever signal it's been sending has finally crapped out", Banner says, his spirits low. They found the tiny machine on the streets of New York after the snap, right next to a car that they eventually figured out belonged to Nick Fury. It was a long shot, but everyone was banking on this outdated device to somehow pull a miracle out of thin air.
Steve surveyed the machine even closer. "I thought we bypassed the battery?"
"Well, we did," Rhodey explains. "It's still plugged in, it just..." His voice sounds strained, unsure if he should even continue. He takes a deep breath and finishes his sentence. "It just…. Stopped." He looks at Steve, his face contorted into a look of confusion and exhaustion. Bruce and Natasha, who were standing nearby, looked just as worn out as he did. If Rhodey had looked at his reflection, he would've seen a fourth tired face.
"Reboot it. Send the signal again." Steve says loudly, to no one in particular.
"Hey, w-we don't even know what this is", Banner shoots back. Always the cautious one in the group, but with everything that's happened, it made sense to him to not jump into things so quickly.
"Fury did." Nat says, finding her voice. "Just do it, please. And tell me the second you get a signal. I wanna know who's on the other end of that thing."
It happens very quickly, but they all feel it. Someone has broken into their headquarters—into the very room they were all in. Everyone assumes a position, ready to battle with the intruder. Instead, they are all taken by surprise at the commanding figure in a red, blue, and gold suit, standing only a few feet from where they are. She doesn't look very friendly, but she doesn't look like an enemy either. Before anyone can say anything, she speaks up.
"Where's Fury?"
"Wait a minute, how do you know Fury?" Nat asks, perplexed.
Steve looks the newcomer straight in the eye. "More importantly, who are you and what are you doing here?"
She takes in the small group in front of her. They look human. She wonders if they're SHEILD Agents of some sort. "My name is Marvel."
"Is that all you're telling us?" the blonde asks again, her voice unwavering.
Carol feels the corner of her mouth turn up in a grin of sorts. "You're pretty tough for someone I could take out very easily."
Nat is taken aback by her response. It didn't sound menacing at all—it was almost playful. She takes a deep breath, trying to maintain her composure. She wasn't going to get a reaction out of her.
"We'd like more information," Rhodey repeats. Nat lets out a smaller breath, happy that the woman in front of her is now focused on someone else.
"My real name is Carol Danvers", she says with a strong, authoritative voice. "I was born here… on Earth. I grew up to become an air force pilot, and during one of my missions, my jet was attacked. My attackers kidnapped me and my memory was wiped out. When I woke up, I was in the planet of Hala, thousands of lightyears away from here. I had no memory of my life on earth, and ended up training for the Starforce, Hala's elite team of super soldiers". She makes air quotes when she says super soldiers. Everyone is wondering what she meant by that. Wanting to learn more, they keep quiet and wait for her to continue.
She pauses quickly, and finishes her story. "A mission gone wrong with Starforce landed me back on earth and I started piecing my memories together to figure out my past. That's when I met Fury. There's a longer story to all this, but basically, I owe him for his help and the distress call I got must have been him coming to collect. But—" she stops, and looks around the room one more time, "he's not here, is he?"
"No, he's not", Steve takes a step closer to her, hand outreached. "I'm Steve Rogers by the way."
She gingerly takes his hand and gives it a strong shake. Steve is taken back by the force of her handshake. He motions to everyone else in the room. "This is Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff and James Rhodes. We uhh, we're the good guys who try protect planet earth.
"We're called the Avengers!" Bruce volunteers from the background. Everyone turns to look at him, and he starts to feel self-conscious. "I uhh, thought it might be a familiar name."
"The Avengers, huh?" Carol says knowingly. "Fury actually pushed through with it."
"Wow, you and Fury must really go way back," comments Nat.
"We do." With her defenses down, Carol takes a closer look at everyone, but her stare lingers on Natasha. She's cute, Carol thinks to herself. But also, not the time. I'm here on official business.
"I need answers." She continues.
"About Thanos, you mean?" Steve clarifies.
She cocks her head slightly to the left. "Thanos?"
"Oh boy, it's going to be a long story."
"Thanks for getting me these cheeseburgers," Carol says, just as she's about to take a bite of her second helping.
"No problem," Nat replies. It was nothing short of a miracle that she found a lone food cart near Central Park as she was making her rounds that day. The cart owner was nowhere to be seen. She pushed away the thought that he or she had been one of the unlucky ones.
She stared at Carol as she hungrily attacked the cheeseburger. Since her arrival two days ago, the team had done their best to catch her up on everything that's happened in the last few years. Steve, Bruce, and Rhodey were still asleep when she left this morning, and the lack of other bodies in the kitchen suggested that they hadn't left their bedrooms yet. She had tried to sleep too, but her mind kept replaying everything that had happened since their battle against Thanos in Wakanda, wondering if there was anything they could have done differently.
"Your face is all scrunched up." She snaps from her thoughts as she notices Carol looking right at her.
"Yeah well, I've got a lot on my mind."
"At this point, people would say something like, I'm a good listener, I'm here if you want to talk about it. But it's been a while since my last good conversation with a human, so my communication skills are a bit rusty."
Natasha bursts out laughing, amused by her honesty. "I know you're human, I mean, you look, eat, and act like one, but then you say something like that and I forget that it's been decades since the last time you were on earth.
Carol smiles back at her. She likes seeing Natasha smile. She's not wrong though, it had been decades since she first met Fury and had the craziest adventure of her life.
"Now your face is all scrunched up, was it something I said?"
"Oh, uhh, no, I was just thinking too. About the last time I was here."
"You wanna tell me about it?"
"Not really."
"Did you get to visit your family the last time you were here?" Nat presses.
"The ones that matter, yes." Carol didn't mean to say it out loud, but there was something about Nat that made her want to open up.
Nat squints her eyes, trying to break through Carol's mostly stoic face. She's usually so good at reading people. But Carol Danvers was not like most people. She remained silent, but her expression told Carol that she wanted to hear more.
"The last my family knew, I was dead. I didn't have the best relationship with them growing up, and leaving for the Air Force was the best thing I had done for everyone. I have no idea how they reacted to my death, and frankly, I don't care anymore. But…" Carol hesitates. Natasha's face softens, she almost reaches out to take her hand into hers, as if to take the sadness away.
"But then I met Maria, and suddenly, it felt like I had a home again."
"M-Maria?" Nat is taken by surprise. "Was she your girlfriend?" She spoke before she could think it through, and now, she could feel her cheeks getting warm.
Carol's eyes grow large, she had not expected Natasha to respond that way. She was avoiding eye contact now, and Carol was doing her best to suppress a smile. Natasha looked so embarrassed. She also looked pretty adorable, which is not a word she would have associated with a Russian spy who could kill you with both hands tied behind her back.
"No, she's uh, she's not my girlfriend".
"Well that's good," Nat says immediately, but then quickly realizes what her words could mean. She tries to save face. "I mean, uhh, it's good that you… You got to see her again the last time you were here," she finishes lamely. If her cheeks had been feeling warm earlier, she knew they were probably a bright red now. I'm just tired, she rationalizes. That's why I'm not making a lot of sense. That's why my heart is beating as fast as it is now. Wait, my heart?
"We joined the Air Force at the same time, and became really good friends," Carol continues, deciding not to give Nat the third degree for her little slip-up. I got to see her and her daughter Monica when I first came back to earth. They were my real family."
Nat smiles. "Have you been able to contact them? Do you know if they're alright, or…" she pauses, unsure how to finish the sentence. Luckily, Carol responds right away.
"I was able to track Maria down. She looked different, older, and she just about fainted when I showed up. She was with Monica, and she was all grown up, I could barely recognize her. She-" Natasha cuts Carol off mid-sentence. "Wait a second, when did this happen? You literally arrived two days ago."
"I did it after you all fell asleep on my first day. I try to be efficient with my time."
"Right, of course. Yeah, sorry about that, I kind of cut you off. What were you going to say?"
"I was going to say that Monica was all grown up, and married too. But the snap took away her husband and two little girls. They were extremely distraught over it. I made it clear that we'd get to the bottom of things and bring her family back together."
"You shouldn't have made promises like that. We don't even know how to find Thanos," Nat says, her face looking somber again.
"We'll figure a way out. I'm here now." She's not sure if she had been moving closer to Nat, or if Nat been moving closer to her. She was focused on her eyes, which were now barely a feet away from her. Half of her face was hidden behind her hair. She could so easily reach out and tuck it behind her ear if she wanted to. Should she, though? These were difficult times, she had no business entertaining feelings just because she and Natasha were both vulnerable. But right now, inches away from holding Natasha's hand, she'd never felt more human.
"Is there anything to eat?" A sleepy Rhodey walks into the room, surveying the table strewn with food wrappers. Carol and Natasha quickly break apart, trying to act normal. Luckily, Rhodey was too busy looking through the refrigerator to notice anything.
Natasha clears her throat, trying to navigate the whirlwind of emotions inside her. "We have cheeseburgers here," she says distractedly. She forces herself to focus on Rhodey, but her mind keeps going back to what could have happened just minutes ago if he hadn't showed up. She looks at Carol, but her face is once again its usual expressionless self. Damn, how does she do that? Nat thinks to herself.
"Are Cap and Banner around?"
"I think they're still in their rooms, resting." Nat offers.
"No we're here," Steve says, with Bruce right behind him, standing by the kitchen doorway.
"We got hungry too," Banner explains, while making a beeline for the table.
"I want to say there's plenty for everyone but you guys eat like four times more than the normal human being, so let's see what else we've got stocked in the kitchen." Nat stands up, making space on the table for the other three to sit down.
"I've thought more about what you said," Carol says, looking at Steve.
"What did I say again?" Still feeling a little groggy, he's unsure what Carol is referring to.
"I'm talking about our conversation yesterday. You said that there's no way to be certain if Tony is alive or dead. His tracker puts him in space before we lost the signal, but there are many factors that can explain that. I've done what I needed to do for the time being, I can fly back up and try to look for him."
"Won't that be difficult?" asks Bruce. "I mean, space is… space. He could literally be anywhere."
"Yes, so the sooner I leave, the more ground I can cover."
"Thanks Carol, we appreciate it. We'll keep helping out as much as we can down here," says Steve. "And maybe figure out a plan."
"I made modifications to your suit, by the way." Natasha is pleased by the look of surprise on Carol's face.
"What modifications?"
"Just adjusted your transponder so we can easily reach you."
"Right, thanks Nat." She shoots her a quick smile before getting up. "Time to suit up."
Everyone is standing on the headquarters' massive lawn, going over some last-minute instructions. "You got all that, Cap?" Steve asks.
"Yes Cap," Carol replies instinctively.
"Man, that's going to get confusing. Who decides on our superhero names anyway?" Everyone laughs at Rhodey's comment.
"We'll figure it out eventually," Steve smiles at his friend. He takes a few steps back, giving Carol enough room for take off.
"Well this is it, bye for now."
"Be careful, we'll still need you on Earth", Natasha says quietly.
She looks at Nat, and flashes her a wink. "Don't worry, I'll be back."
Chapter One is complete! In case you're wondering, yes I am trying to keep this as Canon as possible, but there will be a few changes. For example, the whole Nat/Carol storyline (bc I have so many feelings for those two and they need to be let out lol). Chapter Two is in the works and should be up soon! Looking forward to hear what you guys have to say. I'm on twitter/ig at bean_larson. I'll post updates on new fics, new chapters etc on there. A follow would be great! :)