Chapter 23

Ever since Sir visited, I poured myself into training. I let Astrid take charge while I was focused on training. I would get together with Erik and Red lotus to train. I found that Red lotus' name was Ariki. He was a really skilled fighter. His method of fighting didn't really suit me but the experience I was getting when I sparred with him was good. After that I would continue to absorb energy from the space stone. I asked Wendy to focus entirely on creating a fake Tesseract. It would have enough power to fool anyone and its energy would be enough that it could last for years depending on the usage. After absorbing, I would test my limits by fighting against a Guardian which was the name Astrid came up with when two Sentinels merged. I quickly learned from it and what I could do. Its beam attack was no joke, but I now could stop the beam in midair with telekinesis. I practiced seeing how long I could hold it in place until I had to dodge. I kept getting better and better at it. I practiced my telekinesis to become surpass than En Sabah Nur. His mastery over it could be borderline matter manipulation. I also practiced flying but while I could hover and fly, it wasn't as fast. There wasn't much I could do except practice maneuvering in midair. I practiced teleporting faster and my mastery over it surpassed En Sabah Nur. I could now teleport someone else but it's definitely not as fast if I did. It required a lot of concentration to achieve it. I practiced with apples at first and later moved to the Sentinels. The larger the object or person, the more energy is required but it didn't take that much to achieve it. It took about 5 to 10 seconds, depending on the size, to teleport the object. It takes me less than that to teleport especially if I activate my energy shroud. I noticed that when I teleport with my shroud on, it no longer created a bobble around me. Instead it used the energy shroud that was already around my body to teleport.

I continued to train physically as well. I got to a point where Ariki couldn't keep up with me anymore. My punches were too strong for him to block and my speed was faster than his. I looked at Erik to see if he would like to spar but he just looked somewhere else. I would continue to just work out and when Astrid was free, I would spar with her. While she lacked strength, her speed and fighting style were off the charts. I would always lose to her. She's able to calculate my every move and launch a counterattack. It was still great practice. Dodging her attacks became muscle memory. I could beat her if she attacked but if she was defending, I would lose all the time.

Wendy had a breakthrough with creating a fake space stone. She rushed to see me when I was doing my routine.

"Lydia!" I heard a voice call out. I was hovering in the air practicing maneuvering. I looked to see Wendy waving her hands. I landed next to her and smiled.

"Hi Wendy, how's it going?" I greeted her.

"I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?" she asked.

"Bad," I answered.

"Okay, the good news is that I create a fake space stone," she said completely ignoring my answer.

"And the bad?" I asked. She reached into her bag and pulled the Tesseract out.

"I think I might be a genius," she said in a serious tone. I just laughed and gave her a hug.

"This is amazing Wendy! How did you do it?" I asked as I grab it to inspect it.

"I reprogramed the nanites," she said. I looked at her in confusion.

"It pretty much impossible to create a stone like that. So, I figured why not shrink and put as many nanites as possible close together and load them with the space stone's energy. It would sense when someone is trying to harness its power and dump its charge," she said ending in a triumphed pose. I laughed at her antics.

"I never thought about doing that. Let's put this one in the space lab," I said, and she agreed.

We regularly supplied the Skrulls she was hiding in her ship with food and supplies so they don't starve. With the assistance of the suits stealth system, it was easy to swap the Tesseract with the fake one. Now, I could continue to extract more energy from the stone and put it into the canisters. I was actually running low now since I've been absorbing it faster now that it doesn't cause burns. I teleported back and went into my lab. I activated my energy and crushed the Tesseract to expose the space stone. I could feel the power radiating from it. I held it in the palm of my hand and tighten my grip around it. Blue lightning bolts launched everywhere, and the energy went wild. I activated my energy shroud with full power and tried to control it. It calmed down but I noticed that my veins on my right arm were not a bright blue. The constant supply of power was insane. A weaker person would give into the power. I placed the stone into the center of a platform that rose as I stepped forward. I started creating magic runes around it and casting numerous spells. I haven't done much magic, but it was still like second nature to me. I had created 7 boxes made from vibranium and adamantium to hold the stones. I placed the space stone in the box and applied the runes. Once it was engraved, I placed the box into my pocket dimension. It like what Dr. Strange did when he fought Thanos except I applied more runes to hide its presence. I heard the door open and I turned to look who it was.

"Everything okay? There was a huge power spike here,�� Astrid asked.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I activated the space stone, but I placed it in my pocket dimension," I said.

"Ugh, I will never understand magic. It violates science," she said with a puff. I chuckled. She later smiled and crossed her arms.

"It's time," she said. I looked at her confused at first but later realized what she was referring to.

"Carol?" I asked excitingly.

"We detected a ship exiting jump. It matches Skrull design. We are currently monitoring it," Astrid reported.

"Let's go!" I grabbed her and teleported to the space station to view it.

"Ms. Howlett," Tessa said when she saw me teleport. I was a bit startled by the greeting.

"H-Hey Tessa, how are you?" I said. Her extremely polite tone caught me off guard.

"I am well, thank you for asking ma'am," Tessa said politely.

'What the fuck?' I asked Astrid.

'She developed it on her own. I didn't see a reason to stop her,' Astrid responded.

"Can you show me the ship?" I asked her.

"Certainly," Tessa said and brought up a large display of the ship.

"Run passive scans," I ordered.

"There are multiple lifeforms onboard. Ship seems to be in idle," Tessa reported. I said nothing and continued to watch.

"This ship seems to be retro fitted to be an assault ship. The model scans suggest it was previously a transport vessel," Tessa commented.

"The Skrulls have had it tough. The Kree have been hunting them down like animals," I said out loud. Tessa looked at me confused.

"You'll be briefed on all this later," I said. We continued to watch until activity was picked up inside the vessel.

"Ms. Howlett, we are picking up various movements inside the vessel. Wait, I'm detecting an ene-" Tessa said but was cut off by a photon blast piercing through the hull of the ship and heading directly at us. I stopped the blast and held it in place until it dissipated.

"There are several pods being released! Should we pursue?" Tessa asked.

"No, mark the pod where you detect the energy from before," I responded.

"Scanning. Pod found and marked. It appears to be heading to California. Los Angeles to be exact," Tessa reported.

"Launch one nanite canister to the ship. Scan and let the nanites eat it," I said.

"Right away," Tessa replied and started typing away. I turned to face Astrid.

"You got things up here?" I asked.

"Of course," Astrid responded.

"Have Emma meet me there," I said and teleported to Los Angeles.

I made my way to the location where Carol dropped. It was exactly how it was in my memories. The poor Blockbuster had a large hole on its roof. I smelled someone approaching me from behind.

"You're getting better. Just get rid of your scent," I said knowing it was Emma who was trying to catch me off guard. It was the next phase in her training to more of a silent attacker.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Emma said with a puff.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," I said and crossed my arms observing the area.

"Activate your stealth suit," I said. We both turn on our suits and activated stealth mode. Emma had recently been given a suit after Astrid and I felt comfortable with her loyalty. It still wasn't as advanced as mine, but it was useful for her.

"What's going on?" Emma asked.

"We have some alien visitors," I answered. I continued to look at the area and saw Carol start to walk out of the building.

"What?!" Emma said over the communication link.

"Don't make a fuss. What you need to know is that the aliens can shapeshift into anyone they see. Very much like Raven," I said.

"Are we going to fight them?" Emma asked.

"No, they are actually running from a more dangerous alien race, the Kree," I answered. Carol was now talking on the pay phone.

"She is an ally," I said point to Carol.

"I need you to go find Maria Rambeau. Keep your distance and observe. Should anything happen to her or her child, interfere and eliminate," I ordered.

"Right away ma'am," Emma responded and left.

I continued to observe Carol. I was too caught up with looking how she looked that I missed the Skrull taking a shot at her. Everything played out like in my memories. The chase on the train and the eventual theft of clothes and the bike. I laughed at that part. It was different seeing it in person. She made her way to the bar and Nick Fury was there to confront her. They left together to the old mountain base where Wendy and I used to work. I waited outside knowing what would happen. When they finally exited, they hijacked a Quadjet and sped away. I followed but kept my distance.

"Heading your way," I said inside my suit.

"Roger," Emma replied.

"Keep your eye on the kid when we get there," I said and ended the link.

I observed from a distance and saw their conversation start. Talos and another Skrull arrived. They had the Blackbox that contained the last moments of the crash. I saw Carol's eyes blink and I could tell her memory was coming back. The memory of me and what we did are still locked away. It took everything in me to prevent myself from going to her now. I wanted her to break free from the Supreme Intelligence and achieve her binary mode.

"Emma lets go," I said. We met up miles away just in case and teleported back to the station.

"Prepare the battleship, we're going to have some visitors soon," I said.

"But the installation of the new engine isn't complete," Tessa said.

"We won't need it," Astrid responded. She brought up a display.

"We just need thrusters to get us in this general area," Astrid said and pointed to an area space. She looked at me to confirm it was the correct location and I nodded.

"It's time to test out the weapons," I said smiling. The weapons were a mixture of energy beams and physical shells. The destructive power of them were insane since they fed off the Space stone's energy.

Tessa stay on the station to observe and provide us with an activity. Astrid, Emma, and I boarded the battleship. Normally, it would take a large crew to maintain the ship, but we create drones that would take care of the different compartments. Once we were in position, I asked Emma to activate her stealth suit and I teleported her to Wendy's space lab. We waited patiently and charged our weapons ready to fire.

"Detecting a small Kree vessel entering our system," Astrid said.

"Ignore them. Do we have Sentinels in Wendy's lab?' I asked.

"Yes, we have two currently hiding," Astrid responded

"Have them follow and assist Emma," I said.

"Understood," Astrid replied.

It was eerie how quiet it became. Astrid started typing to continue scanning. I closed my eyes and started to mentally prepare myself for every possible scenario.

"Wendy," I spoke to my mic.

"Yeah," I heard a response back.

"Are you near the shed?" I asked.

"In position. I hate the waiting part," she replied.

"Once Yon-Rogg leaves, begin the medical inject. The nanites should stabilize him for you to begin your procedure," I went over the plan again with Wendy. I remember that one of the Skrulls died as a distraction while Carol goes to the lab. I wanted to save as maybe as I could. After my previous mistakes, I wanted to actually try to save the lives I knew would die even if it meant changing the future.

"Yeah yeah, I got it. Just keep them safe up there," she asked.

"I will," I replied and closed the connection.

Astrid detected the Quadjet exiting orbit and positioning next to the space lab. The stealth system disengaged, revealing the vessel. The Kree ship we detected traveled to the station as well.

"Orders?" Emma asked.

"Stay hidden. When I tell you, start the attack and defend the Skrulls. Take no prisoners, let the Sentinels bring the corpses," I said in a serious tone.

"Understood," Emma replied. I closed my eyes and extended my senses outward. I was feeling for Carol's energy. I felt a strange energy that was very faint. It felt like it would extinguish itself at any moment. Suddenly, it was like I was staring at the sun as Carol took control of her powers and broke free.

"Now!" I said to Emma.

"When the ships come, destroy them and release canisters one and two," I said turning to Astrid.

"Right away," she responded.

I teleported myself to the lab near Emma. There were multiple bodies on the floor and the Sentinels were stacking them together. A few Skrulls were gathered on the wall looking very afraid.

"Good work," I said to Emma. She nodded in response.

"It's okay. Go to the hangar. The rest of your group are gathering there," I said calmly to the Skrulls. They seemed hesitant but moved once we turned our backs to them.

"What now?" Emma asked.

"Continue to protect them. Our goal is to prevent as many deaths as we can. The Kree are the exception. Once you're done meet up at the hangar," I said, and Emma took off. I walked slowly through the hallways and just snapped the necks of any Kree I saw with telekinesis. I was very sensitive to the energy from the space stone and I could tell it was on the move. It suddenly became fainter and I knew the Flerken had eaten it. I arrived at the hangar as saw Nick and Maria leading a group to the jet. I saw Talos injured and took care of the Kree that coming from behind. I approached them and Maria recognized me instantly.

"How are you…" Maria said quietly.

"No time to explain that. Take this, it'll heal the wound," I said and tossed an injection to Talos.

"And who are you?" Talos asked. I ignored him and turned around going back to the hallways.

I met up with Emma on her way to the hangar. We collected all the bodies and I teleported back the ship.

"Anything yet?" I asked Astrid.

"Nothing," she replied. A few seconds after she said that alarms went off indicating an exit out of the jump network.

"Fire," I said calmly. I didn't want to give them a chance to fire their weapons. I also wanted to take advantage of the weakness from exiting the jump network. Astrid commenced the firing and every weapon system onboard fired at them. Three blue orbs were fired, one heading towards each one of the three. Once they hit, all electrical systems onboard were temporally disabled. It was essentially an EMP but contained in an orb. The three vessels were now defenseless, and our weapon systems shredded them. Our weapons were designed by Wendy and reinforced by Astrid creating a deadly combo. Astrid fired the nanite canisters to consume everything. I wonder what happens now that Ronan the Accuser is dead. It might cause a lot of problems, but I rather deal with him now. I'm sure another Accuser is bound to climb the ranks.

"Astrid, do you think you can create something that will mess with the Kree AI?" I asked.

"Possibly, it would be annoying at best," Astrid answered.

"Do the best you can. There will be a small pod leaving the planet soon. Upload anything you completed to it," I said, and Astrid nodded. I teleported myself to the general location of where I thought Carol might be. I was able to pinpoint her location when I saw the pod leave a trail of smoke behind. I saw Carol taking off when I got to the location. I sighed loudly. I wanted to talk to her here rather than at Maria's place. I levitated myself and followed her. It was getting dark when I arrived. I landed and several Skrulls came out point weapons at me.

"I want to talk to Carol," I said and raised my hands. One of the Skrulls recognized me and whispered something. One of them went inside the house while I wait outside. Everyone inside came out to see who came. When Carol and I made eye contact, it seemed like everything around me faded. All my senses were directed at her.

"Dr. Howlett?" Maria said snapping me out of my trance.

"Howlett?" Nick said in surprise.

"Yes," I responded.

"So, I wasn't hallucinating. What the hell is going on here?" Maria asked.

"Maria! Carol! So nice to finally see my two-favorite people!" Wendy said as she made herself known.

"Dr. Lawson?" Nick said. Maria was speechless. Wendy's carefree attitude didn't make the situation any better.

"Carol," I said somewhat loudly. Carol took her eyes off Wendy and looked at me.

"Can I speak with you alone?" I asked and raised her brow at me.

"Sure," she replied with a shrug after thinking for a second. I walked away from the group and into the tree line.

"I blocked your memories of me," I said looking at the sky and then at her.

"Is that why I feel like I know you, but I can't remember?" she asked.

"Yes," I answered.

"How did you do that?" she asked.

"I can give them back to you. More like unlock them, they are your memories," I corrected myself.

"How?" she asked.

"I need to perform something. May I?" I asked and gestured to come closer to her. She nodded and I slowly walked closer to her. I slowly brought my hands to the sides of her head and leaned in. She attempted to back away, but I rushed in. The kiss was sudden and rushed but it turned more passionate. I missed her so much that I poured my feelings into the kiss. She resisted at first until she started to return the kiss. She brought her hands up to hold me firmly. I don't know how much time passed before we finally broke the kiss. I rested my forehead on hers.

"I missed you," I whispered.

"I missed you too," Carol replied.

"What the fuck!" Maria shouted. Our eyes slightly widen in realization that we were still in front of everyone.

"Your species can mate with the same gender?" Talos asked.

"…no," answered Nick.

"Since when has this been going on?" Maria said.

"For a while, but they sure did wait a long time before they finally admitted their feelings," Wendy said laughing. We made our way back inside the house and I couldn't help but grab Carol's hand. It felt nice to have her next to me.

"So, who are you really?" Nick asked as we sat down.

"My name is Lydia Howlett," I responded.

"Like the founder of Howlett Enterprise?" Nick asked.

"Yes," I said smiling.

"How is that possible?" Nick asked.

"I'm a mutant. One of my many abilities is being able to heal quickly which also stops my aging," I answered.

"A mutant?" Maria asked.

"Yes. Like someone with different eye color is a mutant or maybe a different hair color. Charles Xavier details it very well. He made a book about it actually. You should read it," I said smiling at Maria. She nodded slowly.

"This is all too much now. Aliens, mutants, cat monster thing…" Maria groaned as she tilted her head to look at the ceiling.

"So, you're like a superhero?" Maria's daughter asked.

"Hero is a bit of a stretch, but I have saved some people," I answered smiling at her. As I stared at her, I remembered that her taking the name Captain Marvel for a time. I wonder if this would be the case in this universe as well.

"Where will you go now?" Maria asked Talos.

"Find a home for us," Talos replied.

"I'll help you find a home," Carol quickly said. I glanced at her. She is still the same person I remember. I was afraid the sudden memory rush would alter her personality. She basically had two memory rushes today.

"Count me in. I'm going to see the day when you are away from the Kree's hands," Wendy chimed in. Carol realized what she committed herself to and quickly looked at me.

"I'll help as well," I said smiling. Carol handed Nick something as we started to help clean. I knew it was the pager she modified to let Nick contact her. I guess I should do something similar.

"This is from me," I said and handed him a black metallic ring. He took it in surprise and was inspecting it.

"It's a ring?" he said confused.

"It's the most technological ring you'll ever wear. It can connect to my communication link instantly. It won't matter if I am on the other side of the universe. I won't bother explaining the science behind it. All you have to do is tap it twice and put your finger over the top," I explained. The ring was upgraded to use quantum entanglement. I made sure almost all of the communication between the battleship and the station were configured that way. Nick put it on and tap it twice. A similar ring was on my right hand and it vibrated letting me know someone was trying to communicate with me. I dismissed it because I knew it was form him.

"Same rules apply though. Only for emergencies," I said sternly. Nick was still marveling the ring. I walked out leaving them to continue their talk. Talos was getting ready to leave and go to the space lab. Wendy was still talking and catching up with Maria. I crossed my arms and started to plan. Erik would be most suitable to take charge of operations.

'Astrid, get a hold of Erik. Can you tell him to get ready for a call please?" I asked.

'Understood,' she replied.

"Hey, everyone's ready. Dr. Lawson wants to go get somethings before we head out," Carol said as she stood next to me.

"Okay, let's head out," I said smiling.