Sorry, it took me so long to upload! 90% of the problem was I was abstaining from going on the internet until I watched the first two episodes of WandaVision and it took me over an hour to break into my Disney+ account. Anyways, on with the show!


Saturday, February 11th, 2012

Slowly coming to, Carol couldn't help the flash of panic that came over her as her unfamiliar surroundings came into focus. Thinking for a moment that this could be another instance of memory loss, she forced herself to calm down by taking deep breaths. Once she was breathing easier, she took herself back to the last things she could remember.

I was at Avengers Tower.

I had dinner with everyone.

I had a good time.

I left.

I realized I needed to call Maria.

I found a payphone at a crummy convenience store.

I made the call.

Maria put me on hold.

Two men walked in and mentioned the Kree.

The store clerk threw them out for soliciting.

I took one of their pamphlets.

I decided I needed to investigate.

I went to the address listed on the pamphlet.

They were closed.

I decided to wait to check in the morning.

I sat down in this alleyway…

Relieved that she had clear memories up until the point that she fell asleep, Carol relaxed back into the brick wall she was sitting up against. This wasn't the oddest place she had fallen asleep in. Going from planet to planet, trying to help wherever she could usually mean having to tough it out on the cold, hard ground more often than not. However, she couldn't say either that this was the most comfortable spot she had ever chosen. She had cricks in pretty much every part of her neck and back. She tried to stretch out as much as she could to get rid of them, but she only ended up making the pain worse.

Carol realized that she probably should have flown back to Maria's after she found that the place was closed, but the bad feeling in her gut had kept her from doing so. She needed to make sure that nothing nefarious was going on. She couldn't imagine why the Kree would come to Earth – especially after she made it clear that the planet was not to be touched – but there wasn't a better explanation for what the two men at the convenience store had said, nor for what was written in the pamphlet they had left behind.

The universe was a big place and for what it was worth, Carol had come across some strange ideologies in her time. None were quite as strange as this, however. She knew it was common for people to come to worship more advanced and powerful species after coming into contact with them – the Asgardians and the Olympians were prime examples – but she never had seen a religion that got things so close to the truth, but yet twisted it so far out of reality that it was hardly recognizable anymore.

The pamphlet was far from a detailed gospel, but it did paint a picture of what the People's Unity Church generally believed. Apparently, human beings were not of Earth. Originally, they had been the inhabitants of a world called Aurelia, known as the Raël. The Raël were essentially the purest beings in the galaxy. However, that couldn't save them from mass extinction. First there was a plague, then they became entangled in a war in which they had no stakes. They were being hunted by an alien race known as the Kree, and the only way to save themselves was to send their souls to a planet with an unlimited number of empty vessels (bodies) ripe for the taking. This was supposedly how the Earth came to be inhabited.

The consequence of sending their souls to Earth was complete and total memory loss. No one could remember their previous life as a Raël. That's where the People's Unity Church came in. As their leader – Daniel Adoniram – had been awakened by a being known as the Supreme Understanding, he was given the abilities to restore the memories lost. He devised a series of "tests" to draw the memories and one's "true personality" to the forefront. Once fully awakened, the person would be completely integrated into the Church's community. There was nothing written about what happened after that.

Obviously, it was more than a little shocking to get hit with a story like that right off the bat. To a normal Earthling, that sounded like something that could only happen in a Star Wars movie. It was so fantastical and far out of the realm of understanding that one could only dismiss it as non-sense. Even Carol was having trouble seeing how someone could believe it, and she knew that some of this stuff was real.

The Kree were the biggest example, but Carol had been to a planet called Aurelia before. It was abandoned but incredibly beautiful with its lush green fields and vibrant purple skies. It also had one of the most gorgeous sunsets she had ever seen. Knowing that they were referencing real species and planets within the universe that shouldn't be known to Earth did raise Carol's suspicions, but it made it even harder to see how the average person was falling for it.

What did explain it was the final page of the pamphlet; a full page on the Battle of New York. It was filled to the brim with explanations and justifications for what had happened that day and why, as well as putting the blame squarely on the Avengers' shoulders for "disrupting the fated day of reckoning." In other words, everyone was supposed to die that day and it was the Avengers' fault that didn't happen. The people who did die during the attacks had already "ascended to their next state" – but those who survived had been condemned to a fate worse than death. What that fate was to be was left unspecified, but from what Carol had heard in the convenience store, she had to think that they thought the Kree-Skrull War was coming to them.

By the time she reached that point of the pamphlet, Carol had enough. She ripped it into pieces and for good measure she hit those pieces with a few energy blasts. Only ash was left when she was done with it. Still, she couldn't help the sick feeling she was getting in her stomach.

These people were despicable. They were preying on people's grief, fear, and anger in the wake of a horrific tragedy. Having spent almost twenty years of her life as a sort of galactic first-responder, Carol could think of very few things lower than that. However, she couldn't see as to what end the people running the Church hoped to achieve with this. Money? Power? Something far eviler? The possibilities ran through Carol's head at the speed of a turbo jet. It was a wonder she had been able to drift off at all.

However, she had somehow managed it and the sun was shining brightly in the sky, indicating that a new day had dawned quite some time ago. Carol forced herself to her feet, stumbling slightly as she hadn't realized how cramped her legs were from resting against the cold, hard ground. She dusted her clothes off and did her best to straighten her hair out. It probably didn't do much to help her appearance, but she still had to try. She needed to look presentable if her cover was going to be believable. Although, it did quickly occur to her that she was going to need more than a simple brush-down to achieve that.

She hid in an alleyway only a few blocks down from the Church's Outreach Center. She was afraid someone would take notice of her if she got any closer. Also, she had a few stops to make before she tried to approach. One of them was to the dollar store directly across the street from where she had chosen to camp out.

At the dollar store, Carol bought a note pad, a pack of pens, a hairbrush, and a set of a hat and gloves. The last one was only chosen because she realized it was probably strange to see a woman walking around in short sleeves in February. She didn't notice the cold anymore until temperatures started hovering around 30 degrees Kelvin. Regardless, she didn't want to stick out and not dressing appropriately wouldn't help with that.

The dollar store didn't sell jackets, though. (Well, at least not in adult sizes.) However, the cashier was helpful and directed her to the nearest Salvation Army Store. (Before you jump down Carol's throat for shopping there, she had no idea what they did.) There, she managed to find a coat that looked halfway decent and didn't smell like moth balls. After doing a better job at brushing out her hair with the hairbrush, she figured she looked okay enough to be believed.

Walking over to the People's Unity Church, Carol wasn't sure what to expect. She had tried to scope out the place the night before but couldn't get a good look at things in the dark. Seeing it in the light of day, though, probably should have been more shocking than it was. The building very clearly used to be an elementary school. P.S. 119 was carved into the stone above the main entrance, but a sign hung up in one of the windows proudly declared its new designation:

The People's Unity Church of the Supreme Understanding – Hell's Kitchen Outreach Center

The building seemed to be in decent shape, but Carol could have sworn she saw she saw the faded outline of the word "condemned" scrawled across one of the side-doors. Someone had tried to cover it up by painting over it, but there was no erasing what was already there. It was fitting.

Carol hesitated a moment as she approached the entrance. For a moment, she questioned whether the door was alarmed or if it really was open for the public. Pulling the door handle back, she found it to be unlocked and took that as all the permission she needed to proceed.

Stepping inside, Carol found herself in an enclosed foyer. Ahead of her was another set of double doors that presumably lead to the rest of the building. She couldn't tell for sure, though, because even though the doors were glass, she couldn't see through them. Someone had gone to the trouble of blacking them out. That raised her suspicions a bit more, but not enough to forego pretenses.

To her right was a wall-mounted mirror. …Or at least what she thought was a mirror. Within moments of walking through the door, half of the glass slid back, revealing a hidden panel and a woman on the other side.

"Hello, can I help you?" Carol stepped forward to be fully in the woman's view. She tried to peek into the space behind her, but only saw a desk, a few bookshelves, and locked cabinets; standard office clutter.

"Hi," Carol greeted, forcing a pleasant smile to appear on her face. "My name is Catherine Donovan. I'm a reporter for Woman Magazine. I'm doing an article about your organization and I was hoping to get an interview with someone in charge."

It was a very flimsy story. She had no way to verify it if questioned. However, outside of posing as a recruit herself – the idea of which gave her one of the worst bad feelings she'd ever had – it was her best way of getting answers without hurting anyone.

See, I can do finesse.

Fortunately for Carol, the woman on the other side of the panel didn't appear suspicious in the least. In fact, she seemed rather enthused.

"Oh my," she said. "How exciting! Hold on while I put in a call to Brother Ryan."

Carol nodded and let the woman do what she needed to. She looked around, trying to decipher more through observation of her surroundings, but the problem was that there wasn't much to observe. Outside of a lone, likely dysfunctional fire alarm positioned on the opposite wall, the room was bare. There wasn't even anywhere to sit. Thus, Carol was forced to stand and wait.

She tried to listen in on the conversation the woman was having with who she assumed was her superior, but likewise to her surroundings, there wasn't much interesting to be found. Once she explained the situation, the woman gave mostly yes or no answers. Not being able to gain anything from that, it took all the strength Carol had not to start pacing out of sheer impatience.

"Oh really?" Carol's head jerked back to attention, turning to the woman on the other side of the panel. "Well, that's wonderful! I'll let her know right away! Alright. It was an honor speaking to you, Brother Ryan. Goodbye."

The woman then hung up the phone and looked up at Carol with a wide smile. In response, Carol raised an eyebrow.

"You're in luck," she said. "Brother Daniel just happens to be in the building and he's willing to meet with you! Isn't that exciting?!" Honestly, Carol was too put off by the woman's demeanor to feel anything resembling excitement.

"Brother Daniel?" she questioned. "As in Daniel Adoniram?" Carol didn't think it possible, but the woman's smile got wider as she nodded in confirmation.

"The one and only."

Carol was taken aback by fear. It was truly was a stroke of luck that she happened to be in the same place as the "religion's" founder, especially since the church had multiple locations in this city alone. However, she wasn't sure if that was good luck or bad luck. She had to hope for good, though. After all, he was probably the best hope she had at finding out the Church's connection to the Kree.

After a few more minutes of waiting, the blacked-out doors finally opened. Through it stepped an older man wearing a long white robe. He was accompanied by a pair of women. Both were wearing white coveralls with a red stripe running down the center. The man looked Carol up and down, as if he was assessing her. She did him the same courtesy.

"Ah, you must be miss Donovan, am I correct?"

"Yes sir," Carol said, holding out a hand. "And you're Daniel Adoniram."

"Please," Adoniram said, taking a much tighter hold of Carol's hand than necessary. "Call me Brother Daniel."

"I don't think that's necessary, Mr. Adoniram." Carol tried to pull her hand back, but Adoniram didn't relent.

"Oh, I insist." He squeezed even harder on her hand, making it clear he wasn't going to let it go.

"Okay, Brother Daniel." Carol had a hard time keeping the venom out of her voice, but she managed to hide her disdain enough to get him to let go of her hand. Carol discreetly wiped her hand on her pants as soon as it was free. "It's wonderful to meet you."

"As it is you," Adoniram said. "Come. We can talk somewhere more private." The last thing Carol thought they needed was more privacy, but she obliged anyway, stepping through the door he held open for her. The two women in coveralls followed closely behind her while Adoniram exchanged words with the woman behind the panel.

Looking around, Carol found the place to be just as drab as the foyer. The walls were painted a painfully bright shade of white, while the floor tiles were an off-putting yellowed brown color and were eroding away from years of wear and tear. The place was almost completely utilitarian, with no decorations, photos, or posters hanging on the walls. The only thing that served to detract from the main lobby's dreariness was a mural painted onto one of the walls.

The mural depicted an upside-down triangle being trisected by a ring. There was a word painted next to each point of the triangle; the top left point had the word "peace" painted next to it; the top-right had the word "freedom"; and the bottom one had the word "strength." In the center of the triangle was the word "understanding." Carol felt a twinge of familiarity as she examined the mural, but before she could figure out why, she was jarred by a hand coming to rest on her shoulder.

"I see you've taken notice of our symbol and tenants." Carol gently pushed Adoniram's hand off her shoulder. Though she badly wanted to punch him, she managed to hold back.

"Yes, it's quite interesting," she managed to say without gagging. "I was wondering what about these qualities you find admirable and how they apply to your beliefs." Adoniram laughed.

"Already starting with the hard-hitting questions, Miss Donovan?" Carol put on her best fake smile.

"What can I say. I don't hold back." Her mouth tasted sour from the venom she had to keep out of those words.

"I can already see that much is true." Adoniram remarked before gesturing for her to follow him. "Come, we can discuss this more on the way to the conference room.

Adoniram started walking down the hallway that branched off to the left and begrudgingly, Carol followed. The two women stuck close to her, never letting her leave their sight: not even to blink. It made Carol's fists twitchy. She was still dedicated to looking the part and pulled out her notepad and pen, ready to take notes.

"You see, Miss Donovan, the tenants of understanding are simple," Adoniram explained. "In order to have peace, you must have freedom. In order to have freedom, you must have strength. In order to have strength, you must have peace. These three tenants come together to form the basics of human understanding and once humans understand, then stable communities can be built."

"Stable communities like the ones we had on Aurelia?" Adoniram raised an eyebrow, surprised.

"You've done your research," he observed.

"I always come prepared," Carol remarked. "It wasn't that hard, considering all the pamphlets your recruiters hand out."

"Yes," Adoniram said. "We do market ourselves quite a bit, but it's necessary to get the word out. We need to save as many people as possible."

"And you do that by bringing people into your community?" Carol asked.

"Partially," Adoniram confirmed. "Unification is important, but there's only one true way we can all be saved."

"And what would that be?" Adoniram frowned.

"That has yet to come to my understanding." Carol felt chills go down her spine as they stopped in front of a door.

"Well, what has come to your understanding?" Adoniram gave her a puzzled look.

"What do you mean?" Carol swallowed hard, but her gaze remained challenging.

"I mean how do you know we're in danger?" she asked. "How do you know we need to be saved?"

"Because the Supreme Understanding enlightened me to the danger we are in," Adoniram said simply.

"And what did they tell you about the danger?" Carol asked. "About the Kree?"

The most unsettling smile appeared on Adoniram's face.

"Well, you should know, Captain Danvers," he said. "Since our intelligence tells us that you are one of them."

Before Carol could react, the door in front of her was ripped open and a shooting pain traveled across her back. Stumbling forward, she quickly lost her footing and began a rapid decent down a flight of stairs. She tried to use her powers to stabilize herself, but all she ended up doing was blasting the wooden steps into splinters that flew right up into her face. She slammed into a concrete wall hard, leaving her dazed for a few seconds as she fell to the floor.

She tried to force herself to her feet as fast as possible, but that ended up being a mistake. She was tangled up in the jacket and the only way out was by taking it off. Her hat fell off her head in the process.

While this was going on, Carol could hear the door above her shut and lock, along with the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs. Finally, able to stand properly, Carol clutched her fists at her sides, allowing the power to flow through her freely. The resulting glow lit up the silhouettes of Adoniram and the two women approaching her. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, Adoniram let out a mirthless laugh.

"Did you really think you could fool us?" he asked. "For goodness sake, a traffic cam caught you on video rescuing Stark. It was only a matter of time before we caught up to each other, one way or another."

"What do you want?" Adoniram's eyebrows raised in disbelief.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Shouldn't I be asking you that? After all, you are the one who was lurking around my building in the middle of the night and tried to break in under the guise of being a reporter." Carol begrudgingly sighed, realizing that he had a point.

"I just want to know what you know about the Kree and how you know it," she said. "Nothing more, nothing less."

"Why?" Adoniram asked. "So, you can tear down our defenses? Inform your superiors of our weak points?" Carol narrowed her eyes.

"The Kree are no allies of mine," she said. "I may be of their race, but that's the end of it. If you really had intelligence on me, you'd know that. You have nothing to fear from me."

"We have everything to fear from you." Adoniram said. "You may not be allied with the Kree, but you can't say the same of the Avengers."

"The Avengers are not your enemies," Carol argued. "They saved your lives!"

"Saved them for what?" Adoniram questioned. "To rot away in prison? To have all our power stripped from us? Is that it?"

"Wow," Carol remarked. "I've never heard a person sound so ungrateful to be alive."

"I am ungrateful to be alive," he sneered. "There is nothing I have to be grateful for." He inclined his head to the two women behind him. "Sister Alpha, Sister Beta, show her what you can do and don't hold back." The two women stepped forward. Carol didn't even flinch.

"Forcing your followers to fight your battles for you?" she questioned. "That's low."

"No, it's smart," Adoniram insisted. "As these are my best two RCMP agents; the sisters gifted by the mist?"

"Mist?" Adoniram scoffed.

"Don't act so surprised, Kree," he said. "You know what you've done."

Carol opened her mouth to fire a retort back at him, but instead, she found herself getting hit by a golden beam. The pain was identical to that she felt before she was pushed down the stairs. Now that she could see what was happening, she learned where it came from; the woman on the left – Alpha, Carol was guessing – was pointing two fingers directly at her. From her fingers emanated a bright gold beam that hit Carol squarely in the chest. Carol raised a fist and fired at her sending her stumbling back.

In retaliation, Beta put her hand against the wall. Carol was unsure what she was doing in the low light, but then the woman charged at her. Carol managed to jump out of the way, causing Beta's fist to collide with the wall. The loud slam of concrete hitting concrete gave a pretty clear indication of what she could do; she could turn her fists into any material she touched.

Carol glared hard at the two women, assessing them both. Both looked like they'd be fairly strong, even without their powers. They were both muscular in build and their stances made it clear that they knew how to fight. Neither was going to go down easy and they had numbers on their side. That didn't mean Carol was going to give up without a fight.

Unnoticed by her, though, was that she had given Adoniram the perfect opportunity to escape. She heard the door unlock and creak open. Not wanting to let him get away, Carol charged forward in pursuit. She didn't make it far, though,. Her feet had barely lifted off the ground when Beta rushed forward and tackled her, forcing her back to the floor. While this was going on, Adoniram successfully closed and relocked the door, effectively trapping Carol in the basement with the two attackers.

Carol let the energy flow through her body, hoping that she could burn her attacker off of her. Beta realized this, though, and punched Carol in the mouth with her concrete fist. The move succeeded in throwing Carol off for a moment, allowing Beta a chance to reposition herself so she could better pin down Carol's arms with her legs. Carol wasn't going to let that stop her from trying again. The power flowed through her once more, but as soon as her body started glowing, Alpha fired a beam directly at Carol's head.

The sharp, shocking pain radiated through Carol's skull and down the rest of her body. As this was happening, Beta dealt multiple blows to her face. Carol could taste blood at the back of her throat and knew that wasn't a good sign. Despite all the pain, though, she wasn't thrown off from generating energy like she had been the first time. In fact, the energy seemed to spread through her body faster, and within moments the heat was too much for Beta to take. She pulled her legs off Carol's arms, something she immediately took advantage of by grabbing her by the waist and reversing their positions, so Beta was forced to the ground.

Alpha cut off the beam she had sent and tried to fire upon Carol again, but Carol was faster. She moved into a kneeling position and raised her fist, letting off an energy blast that was easily stronger than Alpha's beam. Overpowered, the blast slammed into Alpha's chest, sending her backwards into the concrete wall. Before Carol could celebrate, though, Beta had gotten up and tried tackling her again. Expecting it this time, Carol summersaulted forward, successfully evading Beta's grip. Sticking the landing by jumping back on to her feet, she fired an energy blast Beta's way as well, sending her flying into the opposite wall.

Having successfully subdued her attackers, Carol made a break for the stairs. However, by this point Alpha had recovered and began to chase after her. Carol leaped up to fly again, but Alpha grabbed her around the waist, attempting to pull her back to the ground. Carol tried to increase the heat and amount of energy flowing through her body, but it did not seem to have the same affect on Alpha that it did on Beta. Alpha tightened her grip around Carol's waist even though she was screaming in pain. Carol tried to wiggle out of her grasp, but it was almost as if Alpha was clinging to her for dear life. Carol reached down and tried to pry Alpha's arms off her, but while she did so, she did not notice that Beta had recovered as well and sent a concrete fist flying directly into Carol's temple.

Again, Carol was thrown off enough that her powers flickered out for a few seconds, providing Alpha with the opportunity she needed to force her down to the ground. Before she could position herself to properly pin Carol down, though, Carol kicked Alpha square in the chest. At the same time, she fired an energy blast at Beta, who did her best to block it with her concrete fist. It clearly still caused her pain, but it did not knock her back as much as Carol would have liked. Still, the distraction was enough for Carol to at least get back on her feet in time to block a punch Beta had tried to direct at her face.

Carol retaliated with a punch of her own, but Beta twisted out of the way. She grabbed at Carol's left arm, trying to use it as leverage to pull her down. Carol punched her hard on the temple, with her right hand and this time she did not miss. Beta crumpled to the ground but tried to grab Carol's ankle in a last-ditch attempt to prevent her from escaping. Carol used her other foot to kick Beta hard in the stomach, forcing her to let go.

At the same time, Alpha tried firing beam at Carol. Spinning around and stepping out of the way, she avoided the beam and sent an energy blast towards Alpha. Unlike the other times Carol fired at her, though, Alpha managed to dodge it. As a result, the blast ended up going into a wall with a gas line running through it.


Carol's ears were ringing when she came to again. She felt a heavy weight pressing down on her shoulders, but she did not even attempt to shake it off or move. She was too tired. She wanted to sleep a little more.

Despite her wants, that was not how things decided to go. Slowly but surely, sunlight began to spill over her eyes. She squeezed them tightly shut against it, but that did little to deter her body from being awakened. As the sunlight spread, the weight pressed against her back also lessened. Also, sounds started coming through clearer, but they still seemed like they were coming from further away than they were.

"I've got a body over here!" The man who shouted that sounded like he was miles away, but Carol had a feeling that was not the truth. She heard a bigger commotion converge above her and subsequently the weight started lifting off her. Realizing she probably did not have an excuse not to get up anymore, Carol opened her eyes and started to sit up. Looking around, what happened started coming back to her.

She found that she was at the bottom of a pit of ruble and burnt debris. All along the outside of the pit she could see firefighters, police officers, and construction crews along with their respective vehicles and equipment. Carol's jacket and gloves had completely burnt away, and her tank top and jeans were left in tatters. Feeling overwhelmed, Carol laid down on her back, pressing a hand to her forehead.

"Oh, shit…"


Thank you to Saidra and Senisra for the comments on AO3 and Alltheblackcatsarecool for leaving kudos! You guys rock!

I thought the first two episodes of WandaVision were okay. I was hoping they'd give a little more context as to what's going on with Wanda's television fantasies, but it seems like they want to keep us guessing. I know a lot of people were speculating that this was going to be the MCU's version of House of M, but so far I'm not really seeing it, which to me is a good thing. House of M was a mess. I still don't understand what happened other than the fact that Wanda's powers got taken advantage of during a mental breakdown and that's just plain not right. I hope they have the dignity to handle this better, otherwise I am going to scream.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I still haven't made any progress on writing anything new and for that, I must apologize. Inspiration is a little hard to come by right now. Hopefully, future episodes of WandaVision will help to spur some on!

Remember kids, don't fuck with Carol Danvers.


Originally posted to FFN on 1/15/21.