Author's Note: Last chapter from a few hours ago was really short, so I tried to make this better.


CHAPTER 11: War Stories

How they all got through the breakdown of what exactly happened on Vormir, Wanda didn't know. Carol was the only person in the house who wasn't an inconsolable mess. Well, Natasha wasn't inconsolable per-say, but she was certainly not dry-eyed. It was as if all or most of the walls the Russian put up to protect her from her emotions were beginning to truly come down. There was a part of Wanda that wondered if that had more than simply dying to with it.

Perhaps the Soul Stone had affected her? Seriously, nobody knew what the Soul Stone even did. Obviously, the Tesseract had demonstrable powers. The Mind Stone could control people and in the forehead of her dead boyfriend shoot beams of energy reminiscent of Stark's pulsar weapons; the Reality Stone was self-explanatory, as were Time, and Power.

Wanda decided to ask Natasha about it later. Carol had been quite anticipatory and made sure they all had tissues and had hastily cobbled together a small pot of Mexican styled hot chocolate for everyone. She brushed off their surprise by saying it was something her daughter couldn't get enough of when they were stationed near San Diego in the 1980's.

It didn't escape Wanda's notice that the adults added a liberal dose of tequila to theirs, taking their cue from Carol. Wanda didn't though, not when Laura shot her a reproachful look when she tried.

She wasn't old enough; not in America at least…savages, she thought with annoyance. However, when Clint was talking about waking up in that vast shallow water, and everyone was distracted, Carol surreptitiously offered to switch identical mugs. Natasha acknowledged the exchange with an ever so subtle toast and a cheeky wink in Wanda and Carol's direction.

Wanda flashed Carol a quick grin in thanks. Seriously, nobody should have to listen to this horror story without something to take the edge off, Wanda thought as she savoured the burn of the whiskey infused chocolate going down her throat. Well, she savoured the third sip. The first one nearly made her spit it out in surprise, and the second one wasn't that much easier.

To cover Wanda's near-mishap, Carol spoke up, "Did you guys know that the Red Skull lead Hydra in the 1940's?"

"Those bad guys who crashed those ships in DC a few years ago?" Lila spoke up.

Carol raised an eyebrow at Clint who gave her a nod, "Yeah, those guys. But like, original Nazis."

"He said that he was there because the Tesseract sent him there," Natasha said.

"Yep. It turns out that Fury may have been right to worry about touching the thing with his bare hands," Carol said, though mostly to herself.

"I saw him touch it," Clint said.

"Wait, really?" Carol asked, totally not expecting theat.

"For less than a second when he picked it up off the floor and put in in a briefcase. Then I shot him in the chest," Clint balked at the look that had immediately darkened Carol's face, "Thor's brother was using the Mind Stone to enslave me at the time," Clint admitted.

Carol's dark expression was instantly replaced with an empathetic one. "You have my sympathy Barton. Having your head messed with is the worst," Carol finished before standing up to refill hers, Natasha's and Wanda's mugs from the generous portion of hot chocolate she had made. It really was lucky that the Bartons had a well-stocked and sweet tooth friendly pantry.

"I don't know, isn't dying the worst?" Laura asked. She was a lightweight, as it turned out. Or maybe she overestimated herself when she switched hers and her husband's mugs; Clint don't play around with alcohol.

Carol shrugged as she gently ladled a third scoop into Natasha's mug and walked back to the group settled in a rough circle among the couch and stools, "Imagine if you came across your children and you spouse, but didn't have any idea who they were to you." Carol's eyes dimmed a little before looking back at Laura.

Laura immediately looked stricken. It was clear Carol's hypothetical…was not a hypothetical for the Captain. But before Laura could muster an apology for casually drudging up terrible memories, Carol shrugged and muttered, "I've done both." She didn't elaborate as she handed Natasha and Wanda their mugs. Carol proceeded to plop down into her previous spot and pour a generous (horrifying) amount of tequila into her drink. She was taking a long pull from it when she realised everything was a little too quiet.

"Carol?" Natasha asked with only a little horror in her tone.

Carol looked up with a chocolate moustache adorning her top lip. "Natasha?" she replied with a little confusion.

"What do mean when you say you did both? You died?" Wanda asked quietly.

Carol internally berated herself. Dammit Carol, you just had to open you big fucking mouth again, didn't you? "Um…you guys wanna hear about how Wanda wrecked Thanos?"

"We've already heard about that from dad," Cooper spoke up. Carol shot him an 'et tu Cooper?' look with narrowed eyes, but Laura was on her in an instant.

"Nah ah, nope none of that." Laura directed at Carol, who rolled her eyes and tried to look to Natasha for backup. Natasha did not help her here, she was just as curious as the rest.

"Your attempt at deflection has failed spectacularly," Clint pointed out casually as he removed the mug from his wife's slack hands and traded her an hour-old glass of water that had been left sitting on the coffee table.

Carol sighed and downed her mug unceremoniously. Laura involuntarily winced at the appalling manners.

"You don't have to talk about it, if you don't want," Lila spoke up to everyone's surprise. "I know dad and Auntie Nat don't tell us most of well, everything they do with the Avengers. Like, today is literally the only time we've heard everything and it took all of us," she rapidly gestured to her brothers, her mom, and Wanda, "dying for them to spill anything real to us." Laura, Clint, and Natasha looked at the young teen in a new light.

Lila took a deep breath, having said everything previously in just one. "So if it's too hard for you to talk about it, you don't have to."

Carol held Lila's gaze for a moment before she said, "You reminded me of my daughter just then. You've got some potent emotional intelligence kiddo. More than this lot," Carol gestured around her with a wink, so Lila knew the Captain wasn't totally dissing Lila's whole family.

Carol wasn't particularly reluctant to talk about it from a position of trauma. She was just particularly annoyed with herself for accidentally making this conversation all about her. "I've died twice, that I'm aware of," Carol confessed plainly.

"How…how is that possible?" Laura asked?

Carol started with maybe a little too much snark, "Well, when your heart stops–,"

"Carol," Natasha said softly, surprisingly cutting off the older woman's reflexive barb.

Captain Marvel let out a long breath and started again. "When I got my powers, I died. My heart stopped, my brain died, and I was like that for at least 24 hours. When all the power of the Tesseract entered my body, and kind of made me like I am now…" Carol trailed off while trying to think how best to articulate the next bit.

"You don't have to tell us," Wanda said quietly as she gently prodded Carol in the arm.

"I started to, it wouldn't do if I quit now," Carol replied lightly.

Carol took a deep breath and started again, "After I exploded the Tesseract engine that gave me these lightshow powers, an alien race called the Kree, the assholes who shot me down, took me back with them to Hala, their home world. Kree blood does funny things to humans…a single vial of it is capable of healing any wound. And when we got there, one of their elite soldiers gave me a bone marrow and blood transfusion. It brought me back from the dead, and while my brain healed almost perfectly, they used that opportunity to tamper with my memories, erasing my daughter, and my long-term girlfriend. But I eventually got those memories back, using another scarily complex alien machine to mine my subconscious."

Carol tried to smile at the last part, but it turned out more like a grimace when she took into account everyone else in the room were wearing expressions in varying stages of horror, even Natasha. For a reason Carol wasn't particularly ready to interrogate right then, it was Natasha's wide eyes that cut her the most.

Carol just decided to rip the Band-Aid off, "During the battle at the Avengers Compound in New York…Thanos killed me when he unleashed the full might of the Power Stone."

Natasha's half-full mug slipped from her hand and shattered on the floor.