Chapter Two – The StarForce Commander

Yon-Rogg woke to a splitting headache, a truly awful taste in his mouth…and the stars above him.

It was dark, he was lying on his back in the sand somewhere outside of this shithole of a town, and he knew without turning his head that she was still beside him.

His blood sang at her nearness.

It was an – an unfortunate side effect of him sharing his blood with her.

No Kree would have considered sharing their blood with one of inferior race, but Yon-Rogg had seen Vers absorb the energy from Mar-Vell's engine while he watched, and he'd known that her human body would be unable to hold and contain so much power. She would die within minutes.

If she were made Kree however, all that power could be turned to serve the Empire.

That's what he told the Supreme Intelligence anyway. That was even what he'd convinced himself were his reasons for saving Carol Danvers' life.

But he'd had five years with nothing but his own thoughts for company and he couldn't outrun the truth any longer.

He'd saved because – in that moment, when she'd stood before him in her human military uniform, hair blowing around her fair and her eyes like fire, when she realized there was no way out and she decided to take Mar-Vell's engine with her – he'd admired her.

C-53 was a backwater; unsophisticated, without even the knowledge of how vast and populated and dangerous the galaxy was. The Asgardians kept the simple people their safe in their ignorance.

Yet despite this drawback, Vers had flown Mar-Vell's ship with extraordinary skill, had faced him with bravery and honor, and had at last given her life to keep Mar-Vell's engine out of Kree hands. Foolish and misguided, but she was a worthy adversary.

In fact, in that moment, she had been magnificent and the simple truth of it was that he would have saved her regardless of whether she went on to serve the Kree or not. Even knowing what she had become, if he had to do it all over again, he would still save her.

"I know you're awake," she said, her familiar voice held studiously neutral, and he felt anger and bitterness turn his blood hot.

Control, he reminded himself, but he knew he was enraged by how everything'd turned out. "You've had your revenge," he told Vers, surprised by how scratchy and hoarse his voice sounded. "Now leave me be."

Vers was silent for so long that Yon-Rogg might have thought she'd simply vanished into the darkness, save for the singing in his blood.

"Who do you see when you go before the Supreme Intelligence?" she asked at last, as if no time had passed since they were last together on Hala. She sounded genuinely curious, but it was hard to tell when she was actually curious or just needling him.

"None of your goddamn business," he snapped back. They were no longer friends. She had made that abundantly clear. He winced internally and vainly hoped she hadn't noticed his automatic human slang. He'd picked it up from her and had been unable to excoriate it from his vocabulary. The Supreme Intelligence had unfortunately noticed as well.

"Come on, who do you see?" She was definitely needling now, voice a singsong.

"It's definitely me." She sounded smug. It was dark but when he tilted his head a bit, he could see the smile on her lips. It was small but unmistakably a smile.

They were no longer friends. What did it matter anymore? His head was pounding, and he wanted a drink.

"I see myself."

That shut her up. For a moment she stared at him in disbelief and he watched something that he'd never even known was there disappear from behind her eyes. A bit of light, maybe. He turned away from her and looked back up at the stars. Hell, his head was killing him.

"Really?" she asked at last, like she couldn't help herself. She'd always been too emotional. He could hear the disgust, the disbelief, and at last the resignation clear in her voice.

"Yes."

It wasn't even a lie. It was a trick his old commander had taught him. No soldier, not even a Kree, liked someone knowing all their deepest fears and desires. Yon-Rogg saw himself – but it was a version of himself he wished he could be, unwavering and strong, not how he truly was. Let the Supreme Intelligence think him arrogant for all he cared.

Let Vers think that for all it mattered now.

It was only when Vers sent him back to Hala in disgrace, after he'd been tortured for weeks for his failure, that his defenses were weak enough for the Supreme Intelligence to discern the truth.

That was why he'd been exiled.

"A bit full of yourself, aren't you?" Vers asked, that disgust still in her voice.

"Someone has to be," returned, voice a scratchy mess. The stars were stunning in this place, bright and burning in a clear, velvet back sky. As bright as she had been when she'd thrown off the Supreme Intelligence's control and embraced her full power back at Mar-Vell's lab.

He liked to think his training of her had helped her to reach that point, the full unleashing of her potential. And maybe it had helped. But he'd always known, from the moment she destroyed the lightspeed engine, that she would have gotten there on her own. He hadn't been lying when he said he was proud of her.

Now she sighed. "Fine," she said. "I give up. I'm turning you over to the Nova Corps."

Silence save for the wind in the underbrush.

Yon-Rogg didn't turn away from the stars. "Then you should have killed me back on C-53," he told her quietly.

And there was nothing more to say.

Carol dropped Yon-Rogg off on Rakata Prime, a small border planet between the Kree and Xandarian Empires. It had the smallest, most rundown and disorganized Nova Corps outpost she'd ever seen.

They threw him in a cell without asking her any questions besides his name and rank. The cell, a straw-matted, untidy place, was being used as a bovine resting place before the Corpsmen evicted the animals and locked Yon-Rogg inside.

She didn't think Rakata Prime would hold Yon-Rogg for long, but he wasn't her problem anymore. She blasted off for deep space, going back to her original mission and put him firmly out of her mind.

Or tried to at least.

When she slept, she dreamed of him killing Mar-Vell and emerging from the smoke and dust like a most from her past.

But the dream always blended seamlessly from her terror and death to the feel of blue, Kree blood traveling in her veins, his soothing voice, a strange tenderness in it as he told her he was there with her.

Then golden eyes meeting hers for the first time after she was reborn.

She dreams of shoving him across the training mats with her photon blasts. He was always annoyed with her, never fearful, though he knew exactly what she could do with her power.

You wanna fight? She'd loved sparring with him; he was the best.

Never let anyone tell you you're not extraordinary, Vers, he'd told her once, after several of her Kree classmates in the Academy called her a freak.

"How can I be extraordinary and still so confused?" she asked herself, but there was no one there to answer.

She lasted six months before returning to Rakata Prime to check on him.