Fury drew his gun, pointing it at Yon-Rogg. Even though he had never met the man, he still hated him because of everything we had told him on this mission. But Minn-Erva was sharp as always and pointed her own rifle at him, gesturing Fury to put his down. The rest of his team held the rest of us at gunpoint, threatening to shoot us when we made a wrong move.

Carol was still standing next to the pinball machine, the game forgotten and her whole posture rigid with hatred, hands lit up with power. I was not much different, standing in front of Fury and Maria, trying to protect them in some way. My fists were clenched at my sides and I had to stop my teeth from grinding together.

Yon threw Goose at my feet, looking at me with more disgust than he already did on Hala. He really hated my guts now. 'What did you do to your uniform?', he asked me. I didn't answer, just gave him a look that would kill him if it could.

'They got in their heads. Just like we thought', Minn-Erva spoke. She meant the Skrull simulation they had warned Carol about. They still thought it was all Skrull talk that convinced us and not the fact that they were backstabbing liars.

Korath spoke up from the other side of the room, where he had his two swords pointed at the innocent Skrulls that were clinging together, afraid. 'The Supreme Intelligence will set them straight.'

'You can see they're not soldiers, let them go. You can have me', Talos offered.

'And the core?' Yon had already seen that it was gone and knew quickly who must have taken it. He turned a little to say his words to Carol, knowing she was the key to everything here. She was leading this mission and he knew it, so she must have the core. But Carol just shook her head at him, not planning on giving it away.

'You lied to me. To us', she had trouble hiding the anger in her voice.

Yon-Rogg nearly rolled his eyes 'I made you a better version of yourself.' At this point, Carol's hands started to flicker, the power slowly dying out. I looked at her worried and realized the tab behind her ear must have gone out, leaving her with no way to control the energy. 'What's given can be taken away', he said smugly.

I practically growled at him, but Carol beat me to it, trying to put Yon down without the use of her powers. I knew she couldn't do that, even though she was a good fighter. Yon had been fighting ever since he was a kid and he had taught her everything she knows, making her moves predictable.

He easily dodged her fist and used his own to slam her down to the ground. I made my way over to her hurryingly, but Minn-Erva blasted me with her gun before I could set my second step. Hitting me in my right shoulder to hard, it caused me to fall over.

Maria tried to help me and Carol but Fury stopped her from getting in harms way too. I tried getting up, but my shoulder hurt so bad my head was spinning. There was nothing I could do but watch when Yon now held Carol's head up with his little gravity-tech-thingy. She looked at me concerned from the corner of her eyes, more worried about me than herself.

This, unfortunately, didn't go unnoticed by the man. Looking down from Carol to me, and back, a knowing look suddenly appeared in his eyes. He had figured us out. He wasn't surprised, more like he had his suspicions and they were just confirmed.

'I knew it. There was always a weird vibe between you two. How long has this been going on?', he asked disgusted and angry.

I coughed when I spoke up, trying to sound confident and happy it kind of did. 'That's none of your business.'

'It is when my Soldier is having a forbidden relationship with one of Hala's best Commanders.'

My laugh came out jolty and faint, but it was there. 'I'm honored, really', I joked with him. It was a bad idea, because it only made him angrier. Around me, the Skrulls were mistreated by the Kree soldiers and Att-Lass had taken the lunchbox with Tesseract from Maria, who was now handcuffed.

Yon seemed very happy with how these events were unfolding and roughly threw Carol down, finally letting her go. She didn't move anymore however, which worried me even more. I could feel my shoulder slowly healing, but it would take at least thirty minutes before it would be healed so far that I could use it to punch him. So when he walked over to me, I could only helplessly look up to where he was towering over me.

'I am deeply disappointed in you. I thought you knew better than to let your emotions take over', he spat out, his face disgusted as if he looked down at trash. 'But having a secret relationship with one of my Soldiers, you disgust me.'

I laughed silently. 'I will have you know that the feeling is mutual.'

The next thing I felt was a kick to my head and after that, I just saw black.

After a while, the familiar feeling of my mind being transferred into the Surpreme Intelligence tickled my brain. Yon-Rogg probably had a little to-go package of the thing, because no way did we make it back to Hala so fast.

Opening my eyes quickly, the haunting chamber that I had gotten to know so well was forming right before my very eyes. The moving walls still the same, giving it all an infinite feeling. My mother was already there, waiting for me. I knew the Intelligence would not be happy and I could only imagine what Carol was going through right now, probably getting a big speech like I was about to get.

'Commander, you have disappointed me', the Intelligence spoke immediately, even before I could get up from the kneeled position I was in.

My whole body was tense, anticipating the yelling I was expecting. 'Getting straight to the point, I see', I provoked her.

She didn't answer me, didn't even look at me while I spoke, like I wasn't worth her time. 'I am currently also having a nice chat with your friend. Is it friend? Or do you prefer another word to describe the relationship you have with her?'

She shouldn't have said that. It was my plan to look calm and collected, but she had used the only thing against me that could really hurt me. 'I swear to god, if you touch her-'

'That's funny', she cut me off, 'she just told me the exact same thing. Makes me wonder how deep the connection goes...' She trailed off at the end and knew it was really bad now.

The wall to my right suddenly started playing my memories. Not the ones from years ago, no, these were recent ones, all spent with Carol. Us laughing together, sneaking around Hala and HQ trying to find a quiet spot, all the nights I spent in her room and snuck back out, the little dates we went on, all the times I kissed her and more than that, even last night in the shower was displayed on that wall. It was way more than I wanted the Intelligence to know, than I wanted anyone to know.

'Stop it', my voice came out weak and helpless and it did nothing to stop the endless loop playing on the walls. So I cleared my throat and said louder this time, almost yelled 'Stop. it.'

This got her attention and slowly, the images faded away. Her empty eyes stared at me, waiting for me to say something. 'Now you don't have anything to say? No snarky remarks? No explanation?'

'I don't have to explain anything. The ways on Hala are flawed. You can't control your emotions, you are not supposed to. And I don't want to control whatever I feel for her, even if it threatens to take me over sometimes.'

'Ahh this is your father speaking', the SI said knowingly.

I was confused by the sudden change in topic. 'Excuse me?'

She walked closer to me, getting in my comfort zone, showing she wasn't afraid of me because she stood above me. When she spoke, I froze. 'You will never know who is going to hurt you when you give them your heart, but remember: the good ones will never hurt you on purpose. They will protect you and fight for you, no matter what. But nobody can live without love. Whether that is the love of family, friends, or a lover. Without love, life has no purpose'

Those were the words of my father, spoken to me years ago. She had quoted everything correctly, word for word and for a moment, I was that little girl again who told her father she would never love anybody, too afraid to get hurt. How I have grown up since then. How much I have learned since then.

'Emotional Aterans. You were a risk when we took you in, but you were too powerful to let go, unlike the others we rescued that day. We have given you a place to fight, to get revenge for your parents, to help others from undergoing the same fate you almost did. We saved you.'

Anger boiled under my skin. 'You lied to me. About everything. The Skrulls didn't attack my home, you did. They didn't kill my parents, you did. I spent years believing your lies, but now I know the truth and will do whatever it takes to make things right. We will come for you, to end the lies and the war. Just wait and see. You have made some very powerful enemies.'

It felt so good to threaten her, knowing she held no more power over me. I was no longer Kree, I was no longer under her rule, didn't answer to her. I had no home anymore, but I have never felt so free.

She scoffed, acting unimpressed, but her eyes showed that my words had made impact on her. She may not be afraid of me alone, but together with Carol, we were one powerful team.

'Don't bother coming back to Hala. There is no pl-', she suddenly started flickering. She had never done that before. At first I thought maybe it was because we weren't actually on Hala and the connection was just bad. But then she looked past me with big eyes, like she was actually looking at something else that I couldn't see.

Turning my head around, I did indeed see nothing but that was also the case when I turned back around, where the Intelligence was standing two seconds ago. The ceiling and floor suddenly started to tremble and little pieces started to fall down. I had no idea what was going on, but something told me it had something to do with Carol. A gut feeling maybe?

But I was still stuck in this collapsing mind trap and I did not want to find out what would happen if it crashed while I was still inside. Luckily, the one person I had been dying to see and help came to my rescue. 'Yala' ,I heard faintly. Turning around frantically, trying to find the source of the voice, I came up empty. She was probably not in here anymore if she could talk to me.

'Carol?' I called loudly, hoping she could hear me somehow.

'Yala, you need to fight it. Get out, please.' She sounded desperate, like she had been trying for minutes without any success. But that was before I could hear her voice. Suddenly, a faint feeling of a touch reached my cheeks, like she was cupping them in the real world. This gave me even more strength to try and fight my way out.

I closed my eyes and searched my brain for that nagging feeling that belonged to the Intelligence. It was a pressure, like something was weighing on my skull. Slowly, I pushed it up, trying to lift it completely. It hurt, tiny little shocks hitting me when I did so. But the feeling of hands on my skin was getting more and more evident so I held onto that as a guide.

'Come on, you got this.' Carol clearly saw I was making progress and that gave me the courage to open my eyes again. Slowly, the shocks disappeared and the black that was covering my eyes did too, revealing a very relieved Carol very close to my face.

Her face just called for some teasing and I think this whole situation in general did. 'Am I dead?', I joked. Her face turned from relieved into shocked that I was joking right now, into amusement.

Shaking her head, she chuckled. 'Not yet, I'm afraid. But keep it up and you will get there', she pointed to my shoulder, where my gunshot wound was healed enough that it was closed up but would still hurt if I put too much pressure on it. But there was no time to rest it. We had left Maria, Fury and all the Skrulls in the hands of the Kree, we needed to get them out.

She stood up, clearly sad she had to break off this little moment and held out her hand for me. I took it with my wrong hand, the left one, to not strain my right shoulder more and looked around at the four unconscious Kree around me, including Yon-Rogg. 'Damn, you did this?', I asked impressed.

Only then I noticed she was actually glowing, like glowing glowing, like full-on sun-glowing. 'Uhm, you know you're glowing right?', I asked her carefully. She laughed at my face, which was a mixture of confusion and impression.

'I'll explain later', she answered, picking up the lunchbox with the Tesseract and dragged me with her by the hand she was still holding.

'You better.'

We found Fury and Maria very quickly. We just followed the sounds of grunting and fighting, knowing they wouldn't go down easy. Carol dropped my hand and pushed the box in my arms. 'Watch this', her eyes shone with excitement.

She raced through the four people fighting so fast that she just became a streak of light, too fast for even my alien eyes to follow. The two Kree hit the ceiling and passed out due to the blows they received from her. An intense light filled the spot she had come to a halt at. Fury and Maria had to look away because of the brightness, but my eyes could handle it and saw how it gradually died down, leaving her standing there very badass.

I stood on the other side of Fury and Maria, my jaw almost on the floor and a dumb smile on my face. 'Damn', I muttered under my breath, but I knew she could hear it.

Maria and Fury's faces were turned away from me, but I imagined they had about the same look on their faces. A laugh escaped me when Fury asked her the same thing I just had. 'You know you're glowing, right?'

Carol shared a look with me, which made the other two people realize I was standing there. 'I'll explain later', she repeated. She beckoned me over, gesturing to the lunchbox I was holding.

'Take the Tesseract, leave the lunchbox.' Opening the box, it revealed the glowing cube we managed to get our hands on again.

Fury pulled a weird face, taking Goose's muzzle off while holding him. 'Me?' If I didn't know any better, I would say Fury was afraid of the thing. I couldn't really blame him, I didn't want to touch it myself.

'Yes', Carol answered short and simple, telling him there was no time for arguing.

His voice went up a couple octaves. 'I'm not touching that thing!'

Carol rolled her eyes, getting impatient. 'Want me to get you an oven mitt?', she asked sarcastically. But that deemed unnecessary when Goose suddenly opened his mouth very wide and giant tentacles came out, making me wonder how that fit into his little body. They snaked towards the lunchbox I was holding and grabbed the Tesseract, swallowing it.

Honestly, I wasn't shocked. I had seen much weirder things in my lifetime and Carol clearly thought the same, unimpressed herself. Fury was shocked however, dropping the creature from his hands immediately. 'Wooo.'

We all just stared at the animal as it casually licked its paw. Maria's wide eyes went to Carol, who also stared for a second before letting the subject go. 'Get the Skrulls in the QuadJet and go', she said to her friend. Then she turned to Fury, who still had his hands up in shock. 'Take the... Flerken with you.'

She took the now empty lunchbox from me and grabbed my hand again, running back in the direction we came from. 'What about you?', Maria yelled after us.

'We'll buy you some time!', Carol yelled back, turning the corner with me on her heels. We had to keep Yon and the other soldiers occupied for as long as we could. Giving Maria and Fury time to get all the Skrulls on the ship and away from the Kree. I had no idea how we would get back to Earth without a ship, but she looked like she had a plan and I trusted her on that.

I was ready to fight some Kree, especially Yon, and hoped my shoulder would hold for now.

~~~~~~~~

I loved writing the Intelligence part. I love coming up with my own dialogue and everything.

Hope you enjoyed!

(2989 words)