The Captain's Husband

57. I'm Sorry For Your Loss (Ana)

"Ana, no, you're not going to do this!" Dad snaps at me, blue eyes dark.

"I'm doing it whether you want me to or not!" I argue back. "This is our family at stake. Your husband, my father, your children, my siblings! They disintegrated and fell to ashes right in front of us! We have to do something. I have to do something!"

"Enough!" Mom shouts as she gets up from her chair, slamming her hands down on the table.

Uncle Tony flinches. Dad narrows his eyes.

"What in the hell are you two idiots arguing over?!" Mom hisses, fighting back tears as her voice breaks. "Thanos did something we thought he'd never do, and he wiped out half of the life in the goddamn universe. At this point, I don't give a flying fuck what the hell we do now. I just want my family. I want them here. With me. So I can hold them as tight as I can and tell them how much I love them and what they mean to me."

"Ana's being completely irrational," Dad tells her.

I roll my eyes.

"Don't you dare pull that bullshit with me, young lady," he warns. "Your father and mother would be furious with you for being so disrespectful."

I got my smartass tendencies from you, Daddy. Not Papa or Dot. Get it right.

"Both of you, stop being little bitches and just fucking cooperate!" Mom snaps.

I swallow hard.

Shit.

Knock it off, Ana.

Things are already bad enough for us.

"Continue," Mom says, trying to calm down.

"She thinks that she can become even stronger even faster if Tony and Bruce outfit her with some cybernetic cyborg nonsense," Dad tells her. "I get that she's the product of some incredible science, but I don't want my little girl to turn into a machine."

"Ana, start talking," Mom says, sitting back down.

Uncle Tony's brows furrow together as he listens to me.

"Papa was injected with HYDRA's Version of the supersoldier serum, and he was basically turned into a superhuman then," I explain, "But then he fell, lost an arm, and it was replaced with one that, while it seems much stronger that his human one, is merely an extension of his abilities and strength. He's as much of a man as he is a soldier, and he's definitely more human than machine. I don't want to sacrifice an entire limb or anything, but I do want to see if there's a way I can incorporate Uncle Tony's tech into my body. Basically add another computer to my brain, give me an extra edge in combat and strategizing, you know?"

"Your processing is off of the charts, Ana," Uncle Tony says softly. "Fusing my tech with your nervous system could kill you, the information overload could be that violent."

"You created Vision, and you helped save Papa," I point out. "Without you, Pops wouldn't have recovered from the hell that HYDRA put him through. The B.A.R.F. software was all your doing, and it's what made him and ultimately me possible."

"What do you want then? Be specific," he says.

"I don't know how to be specific," I tell him.

"I can't just go about replacing your limbs with robotic pieces," he says. "It would be cool, sure, but it wouldn't serve a purpose. What are you looking for? What do you envision?"

I stop to think for a moment, and I also make a note of the agony written all over Dad's face.

I want to help.

I need to help.

I take a beat-up pager out of my jacket pocket and toss it to him, saying, "Earlier today, when we we're trying to find Maria and Fury, I found this. His fingerprints are all over it, and I've never seen that symbol on the screen before. It's putting out some sort of signal. I just don't know who is on the other end of it."

"It's a pager," he says, carefully studying its design. "But, I've never seen this kind of technology before, and it doesn't feel like anything we have here." He hands it off to Uncle Bruce. "Locate the signal. See what we can pull from it."

"Where's Fury?"

We all turn and look for the source of the voice, and we're all a bit stunned when we find a woman dressed in red, blue, and gold standing in the middle of the room.

On her supersuit, or at least that's what I assume she's wearing, is the same symbol that was on Fury's pager.

It's her.

"Who the hell are you?" Mom asks.

"Carol Danvers," the woman says. "Air Force pilot, Captain Marvel, Agent of Shield, Kree Hybrid, Skrull liberator, destroyer of Hala."

Adam raises an eyebrow.

"Kree hybrid and destroyer of Hala?" He asks. "You can't be Viers. It's impossible. She was killed when Hala exploded."

"I wasn't killed, I teleported," she quips, hands on her hips. "Big difference, Warlock."

He goes pale.

She extends her hand to me, saying, "Ana Natalia, lovely name, even lovelier fathers and mothers. I'm sorry I didn't have the opportunity to meet you under brighter circumstances."

I shake her hand, "Likewise, Miss Danvers."

"Carol, I insist," she says.

She approaches Dad, saying, "Captain Rogers, I'm sorry for your loss. I've looked up to you and your husband ever since I was a little girl. I joined the Air Force because of you."

Dad shakes her hand with a nod, saying softly, "I appreciate it. Thank you for your service, Captain."

Carol makes her way around the room, introducing herself to the survivors - me, Dad, Mom, Uncle Tony, Uncle Thor, Uncle Rhodey, Uncle Bruce, and Uncle Clint.

Then she turns to me.

"If I've learned anything in my time away from earth, it's that you need to do what your heart is calling you to do," she says softly.

"How can we trust you?" Uncle Tony asks.

"Fury called me here," she explains. "I've been undoing Thanos' destruction all across the universe for years, but this, and Fury actually paging me, I never expected it."

"If you're here to help," Dad says, "Then let's get to work. I have a husband and three kids to avenge. I'm lucky Ana is here, as well as the others, but this is hell."

"Understood, Captain," Carol nods.

"To the lab!" Uncle Tony says, rising from his chair.