skrulls, flerkens and lies

Morrigan could hear the pain in her voice. "You know what's hard? Losing my best friend on a mission, so secret they act like it never happened. Hard — is knowing you were out there, too damn stubborn to die, and now you pop up in here after six years, with your super charged fire hands, and you expect me to call you what? Is it Vers?" Morrigan could feel the emotion running through herself and Maria. Is this the pain and trauma she put those in? Is this the memory she left behind all those years ago? "So if you don't know that, how about the blonde with the belt sword?"

That was me, she thought to herself. The tension in the air had changed. All that had to be said then was done. "What about her?" Morrigan could picture Maria give Vers a funny look. "She's just an ally."

"That's all?" There was a sense of taunting in her voice. "C'mon, I know you, well the old you, and I'm seeing all the signs. Even Monica is." After all these years, Maria could still look at her best friend and know all her little social cues, looks, attitudes and weaknesses. "But don't worry, it's not just you. She might be, what? A god? But she still looks human, and I can read humans really well." Maria states. "You two would be so iconically gay amongst the universe, trust me."

"Come look!" Monica yells out. At that moment, Morrigan rushes back to where Fury and the other Rambeau was so the other two didn't see her standing there, eavesdropping. Fury puts down a photograph in the opened box. It was full of memorabilia of Vers's past life. Morrigan circles Fury to take a seat at the far end. She wanted to watch the soldier see her past for the first time.

Monica began to bring up a picture of Vers one at a time, giving back a little bit of each memory. Morrigan began to feel pity for her. Each picture that caught her eyes made her feel more lost. She was being given all of these pastimes, but she couldn't make sense of them because she couldn't remember. She was smiling slightly but it wasn't enough.

"Oh wait I forgot!" Monica places down a few photos. "Your jacket." She squeezed between Maria and Vers before turning around. "Mom wouldn't let me wear it after I spilled ketchup on it."

The girl disappeared into the house. Everyone watched intently as Vers shifted through her life in the box. When she picked up a roughed up piece of metal, Maria noticed it too. "That was all that survived the crash — or so we thought."

Right behind Morrigan, the front door had someone at it. When the person knocked, Vers clenched her fists and Morrigan held her belt. "Don't answer that." Vers says curtly.

"It's just my neighbour." Maria advised.

"They can change into anyone." Glancing over at Morrigan, there was a silent exchange between them to go to the door, ready to attack. Maria caught on and quickly situated herself to be a buffer to stop them. Vers swings open the door, revealing an older man with a dark cap and glasses on.

"Hi there."

"What do you want?" Vers asked coldly.

"Why are you here?" Morrigan adds just as Maria idles up between them with a warm smile.

Just as the man was going to reply, Maria puts a hand on Vers and Morrigan. "Hey Tom, these are just my friends Carol and Morgan." Maria automatically used Morgan to name the Queen.

Tom readjusts himself and sticks out his hand. "Pleased to meet you." Morrigan quickly shakes his hand with a stern grip as Vers judges him before taking his hand with a bit of heat.

Tom recoils his hand with a surprised smile. "It's like the electricity out here is no joke." Tom looks to Maria, trying to avoid the other two pairs of judgemental eyes. "Now I noticed that bird you got parked by the road, and I was just wondering if you mind if I bring the boys over to get a closer looksie?" In a world without Skrulls, Tom's request would be pretty innocent and wholesome.

"A closer looksie?" Vers repeats. "To see that bird parked out by the road?" She was seriously trying too hard to uncover if this man named Tom was a Skrull. "You're really working overtime to sell this one — Talos!" Even Morrigan gave her a look to soften up a bit.

Maria excuses them and tells Tom she'd be by tomorrow. The last Tom saw of the inside of that house was Vers staring him down. Maria backs up as Morrigan sticks a hand out to nudge Vers. "You really called him Talos." Vers just shrugged at her.

"You know you really should be kinder to your neighbours." The low growl of a voice crawled out from the entry to the dining room. Fury had his weapon poised at the Skrull as Vers and Morrigan unleashed their weapons. "You never know when you're going to need to borrow some sugar." No one had noticed the Skrull had a human drink in hand. The trio with the weapons edged forward but Talos put a hand up. "Hand on a second! Before you going swinging those jazz hands and sword around, making a mess in your friend's house." He began to mock the two men by swinging his green alien arms around. "It's a lovely home." He said to Maria, who was hooked on what was going outside.

"Oh my god." Peering through a window, Maria saw herself next to her daughter, talking about the jacket. "What the hell?"

"No one's going to hurt the girl." Talos said. "Just, don't kill me. It would really complicate the situation." Morrigan's grip loosend on the sword. There was something in his words that made her feel different about him.

Out of nowhere, Fury quickly goes forward with his hand on the trigger. "I'm about five seconds from complicating that wall with some ugly ass Skrull brains."

Talos begged him not to and apologised for taking advantage of Fury's boss, although Vers was quick to catch him out. "And then who's out there?"

Talos back tracks and apologises yet again for using the Skrull ability against them once again. "I saw you crush twenty of my best men with your hands bound..." his eyes dart over to the Queen's blade, asking for her not to demonstrate what she could do. "I just want to talk." Vers rejected his proposal yet again. Morrigan placed a soft hand on her fiery one. Even though it stung at first, they began to cool. "I have an audio recording from Pegasus, of your voice, from a plane crash six years ago, on a device I believe you call a black box."

Maria shakes her head. "They told me it was destroyed in the crash. How'd you get it?"

Talos turns his head. "Does she not understand? Young lady I have a special skill that kind of allows me to get in places I'm not supposed to be."

"Call me young lady again, I'm gonna put my foot in a place it's not supposed to be." Maria snaps, ready to actually put her foot there.

Talos's face contorts in confusion. "Am I supposed to guess where that is?"

In unison, the trio boringly answer his dumb question. "Your ass."

Talos realises yet again he's pressed the wrong buttons on all of them. "I just need your help to find the coordinates. If you'll sit down, you'll listen to this and I'll assure you it'll be worth your while." That was his last pitch to them.

"Get Monica back inside." Morrigan whispers into her ear. Vers uses that and tells Talos to bring Monica back inside to her mom. He obliges and calls in the other Skrull.

Out of nowhere, the orange cat from the ship appears just below Talo. The Skrull gets the fright of his laugh and makes a very exaggerated reaction to the feline. The others look on with an amused face because the Skrull was so frightened by such a small thing.

Vers goes and picks up the cat. "The cat? This isn't what you're afraid of?" Holding the feline out, Vers taunts Talos, who kept on making frightened noises. "Is it?"

"That's not a cat. That's a Flerken!" His fear was covered over their amusement. Fury found the name even funnier.

"Mom?" Monica walks through to the dining room and becomes severely confused and worried. She looked back in time to see the Skrull change back into its original form.

Now that both sides were satisfied, Talos asked for a computer to load the audio file. Maria advised everyone that she had a computer out the back in her storage shed where she sometimes worked. Talos complimented on her being something organised. Morrigan made the two Skrulls exit the house first with her just behind them. She knew Vers would be ready if anything happened. She could count on her.

When they got outside, Maria pointed to the shed. Slightly bumping Talos in that direction, Morrigan was tempted to snatch his drink. Instead, he saw her blue eyes glaze over his drink and held it closer to his person. The two Skrulls entered the old metal box, and coral led them to a corner as the others came in.

Monica was told to cover her ears by her mother and to wait outside. The Skrulls stood by the door as the trio huddled by the desk. Fury and Vers took a seat just as Maria bent over and inserted the audio file. Morrigan and Maria stood behind Vers as a loading icon popped up on the screen.

Slowly but surely the file began to load. Vers didn't know that. "What's happening?" Fury replied that it was loading. All aliens in the shed were not impressed by the quality of Midgardian technology.

When the loading bar was filled up to a hundred per cent, the loading icon changed in some other program with a play button. The audio file began to play, an authoritative female voice coming through briefly. The entire shed froze slightly when Vers's voice came through on the file. Morrigan could feel Vers tense up next to where she stood.

The audio file was a transcript of the conversation exchanged between Doctor Wendy Lawson and Carol Danvers before they crashed. Turns out, something shot them down. Carol, instructed by Lawson, was told to fly and dodge any incoming attacks. The audio file had brief moments of the plane flying come through — they were going pretty fast. The sound of blasters fluttered through the speakers. Wherever they were, it was getting pretty hot and dangerous.

When it seemed the duo on the file had the upper hand, the enemy shot the plane unexpectedly. Morrigan's heart dropped to hear the crunching and burning of plane. The noise the plane made as it began to descend vertically made her skin crawl. Why was she scared for something that'd already happened?

When Carol attempted to eject and malfunctioned, Morrigan's hand latched gently onto Vers's shoulder. She could feel all the struggle, determination and strength being emitted through the file. When the plane hit the surface, the sound of their bodies being thrown around made everyone feel slightly sick.

The audio became a more discorded and sometimes hearable. There was a lot of shuffling. A lot of yelling. A lot of pops of metal. The sound of desperate voices wanting help. The sound of a bullet swerving through the air, followed by the soft thud of a body hitting the ground.

When Yon—Rogg's voice uttered through on the file, Morrigan's hand loosened a bit. As the file kept on playing, Morrigan had her eyes trained on Talos. She knew the story of Vers arriving on Hala because she was attacked by Skrulls. She believed the story of Vers arriving on Hala because she was attacked by Skrulls. She never thought there it was a lie.

The more the Starforce soldier spoke, the more surreal feeling of betrayal and madness brewed in her stomach. How could she have allowed all of her resources be sucked up by the Kree? The Kree made her fall for their ideology that they were the good guys, and the Skrulls were the bad guys. It was either be good or be bad.

They manipulated her trust. They abused her help. They lied about their cause. And she let them. She put the lives of her people because she thought she could help the good side of a war. Turns out you never know which one it really is until your hands are a little dirty.

The boom of a blast so ballistic, the desk began to shake, caused a massive ripple of silence. Carol had taunted Yon—Rogg, shooting the energy core of Lawson's plane. The angle and entry of where the bullet of Carol's weapon cracked the surface of the core allowed it to shoot back at her. All that could be heard from then on was the soft rustling of fire blasting away everything, but not her.

When the clip finally finished, Vers's clasped her hand around Morrigan's. The Queen tightened her hold. Both women become vulnerable. Rethinking everything and anything they've allowed themselves to believe. Together, they knew the truth. And the truth hurt.

⎉

𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘵 !!

𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 .

𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘥

𝘯𝘰𝘸 .... 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵