Forbidden | Carol Danvers

Chapter 20: All These Years

When we arrived in the dining room, the child (whose name was apparently Monica) had put a big box on the table. A glance inside told me it held years' worth of memories. 

Pictures were laid out around it and Monica couldn't wait to show them to Vers, reminding her off all they had done together before she went missing. 

I stood back and leaned against the wall, giving them some space. I wanted to see them too, but would hopefully have some time later.

'This is me and you on Halloween.' Monica showed Vers a picture of them together, dressed in weird outfits. I had no idea what Halloween was, but judging by the smiles in the picture, it looked like a lot of fun. 'I'm Amelia Earhart and you're Janis Joplin.' No idea who these people were, but again: fun.

Vers didn't react to her, her back rigid and sad she had so many lost memories that she may never fully get back. 

Monica picked up another picture to show her, one that held a little girl I recognized from the video in the Skrull ship standing next to a big man. 'Oh, this is you when you were little, you didn't get along with your parents so Mom said we became your real family.' Maria walked forward and came to stand next to Vers, wanting to see her reaction to it.

The girl kept picking up picture after picture. Every time explaining what was happening on them and where it was taken. Pictures from them together at Christmas, another picture from when she was little, one from right after she had graduated. It just continued and continued and if Vers wasn't overwhelmed, I certainly was. But the way Vers' shoulders were hunched over and she hadn't said anything the whole time, I knew she felt the same way.

Suddenly, Monica remembered something. Jumping up and putting the picture she was holding down. 'Oh wait, I forgot. Your jacket. Mom doesn't let me wear it anymore after I spilled ketchup on it.' I chuckled at that. I liked the kid, she was funny and clearly meant a lot to Vers. When she ran off, Vers turned around and looked down at the pictures again, shuffling through them a bit, trying to jog her memory.

This was when I decided to step in, wanting to take a look at them too and maybe be some sort of support to her. She smiled sadly at a funny picture of her and Maria and said woman stared at her with the same smile. 

Then Vers' hand hit something metal, something I recognized because I had seen the other half of it before. It was part of a dog tag the people in the human army wore around their necks. That way, when they died in combat, they could easily be identified. 

On Hala, we had other methods for that. Easier, infallible methods that maybe had prevented what had happened here. Part of the tag had broken off, probably by the blast that almost killed her too. With the result that she believed her name was 'Vers' for six years, when in reality, if you put the two pieces together, it read 'Carol Danvers.'

So she had been right. Her name sounded weird because it was wrong. 

Looking at her now, I could see it. 'Carol' fitted her way better than 'Vers' ever did. Maybe it was just because it was her real name or I saw what I wanted to see, but it sounded right.

'That was all that survived the crash.' Maria said when she saw her picking it up. 'Or so we thought.' 

Vers- no, Carol, just stared at it, piecing everything together in her own head. I could see the gears spinning.

A loud knock on the front door broke all four of us -I had forgotten Fury was here again- out of our heads and back to reality. Our eyes flashed to the front of the house and a shadow could be seen through the windows next to the entrance. Someone was at the door.

Carol and I were at high alert immediately, knowing the danger we had put this family in when we came here. Skrulls were still after us, looking for the light-speed engine and it looked like they had finally caught up.