Forbidden | Carol Danvers

Chapter 2: Vers

12 years ago

I was given a small room in the soldiers' wing of Starforce HQ. I still had my backpack with my clothes when Jaa-Nus found me on Atera, so I neatly put them in the small dresser next to my desk and stood in front of the window. The view from up here was beautiful, I could see a big part of the capital. It was very different from what I was used to.

On Atera, the little houses we lived in stood far apart and only had two floors. They were painted in the most beautiful colors. Mine was blue. My father had painted it when I was little, but I still remember it. 

He stood on a big ladder and I was afraid he was going to fall of, but he assured me he wouldn't. We got a lot of help painting it. Aterans were friendly people who were always prepared to help others, so many of our neighbors came with their own ladders and brushes. My mother and I and the wives and children of the men had so much fun cooking and baking food in our kitchen.

When the house was done at the end of the day, I stood in front of it with my dad and asked him: 'Why blue?'

'You will know when you ever fall in love', he said, smiling.

'I am never going to fall in love dad'

'Why not, honey?', he laughed, but did want to hear the answer.

'I don't want to get hurt', I answered honestly. 

At that, he didn't smile anymore. Instead, he crouched down so he could look me in my eyes, and said:

'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.'

I keep coming back to those words, they keep spinning in my head. It went against everything the Kree taught me, but I couldn't shake it. My dad was the smartest man I know, so was he lying?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now

I don't know how long I was in there killing those holo's, but it was a long time because I was really sweaty and exhausted from using my powers.

I was so concentrated on killing those damn things that I didn't notice more people coming into the training room and two coming closer. I was just aiming, throwing and destroying Skrull after Skrull. So to say I was startled when somebody suddenly yelled my name would be an understatement. 

I didn't need to turn around to know who the voice belonged to. I could recognize it everywhere. He had some serious nerve bothering me during my training time. I wasn't on duty and he didn't talk to me otherwise, so it must be about a mission or assignment.

I was gravely pissed now and put my arms down, my powers dying out. Rolling my eyes, I turned around while I half-said, half-yelled 'What?!'.

He was standing there, looking just as pissed as I was, with his arms crossed over his chest. He wore his uniform, which meant he just got off duty or was about to start. But the tired look in his eyes told me it was the former. 

Only then I noticed the woman standing next to him. She looked seriously scared but also impressed, she had probably seen me practice and I must admit, for an outsider it looked kind of cool. 

She tried to hide her insecurity by faking confidence, but I could see right through her. She wasn't fooling me.

What was weird is that I had never seen her before in my life. She was in the Commander's wing, but I knew every potential candidate for Commander, which meant that she was not supposed to be here. The way she looked out her eyes told me that she also wasn't a Soldier, well at least not yet. She didn't hold herself the way I do, the way every Soldier does, with a straight back, chest out, chin up and an air of arrogance around.