"I'm sorry, but I need to step away for a bit," Carol said, then left the archive room on her own.
Reid, still flipping through other documents, glanced at her as she walked out. He knew exactly where she was going—contacting the Kree Starforce. But he didn't stop her.
Carol would only truly appreciate the trust she builds in the future after enduring the deepest betrayal.
As for whether she will stop trusting others entirely because of the Kree Empire's deception?
Come on—this is Marvel, a world of superheroes. These heavily stereotyped heroes all share one common trait: they're always ready to admit their mistakes but never truly change.
If one betrayal was enough to scare her into never trusting again, she wouldn't be Carol Danvers anymore.
And even if she was afraid, Martian Manhunter had telepathy. A few carefully chosen words from him would be more than enough to put her mind at ease.
At the same time, shortly after Carol left, Reid felt a sudden jolt in his chest. 'Martian Manhunter' stirred within him, sending a clear, urgent message.
"Skrulls are here."
"What?"
Fury, who had been deeply focused on reading the files in the archives room, jumped in surprise. He hadn't just been skimming; he was carefully studying Carol's past. Only by understanding someone's history could he truly connect with them.
Every detail mattered. Every piece of information had to be memorized, analyzed, and reanalyzed. These weren't just records; they were the key to understanding who Carol really was. So when the news of Skrulls infiltrating the base hit, it caught him off guard.
"Who did they disguise themselves as?" Fury asked, regaining his composure. "Can J'onn take them out directly?"
If the intruders were all Skrulls, the solution would be simple: 'Martian Manhunter' could just identify them and handle the rest. Fury had no sympathy for a species that specialized in deception, invasion, and taking over other planets.
"Apologies, but that won't work. Unless you want to make yourself infamous among humans," 'Martian Manhunter' responded. "Only one of them is a Skrull. The rest are alll S.H.I.E.L.D. agents."
Fury frowned. "That so? Yeah… that complicates things."
Taking down a room full of S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel wasn't the hard part; it was dealing with the consequences afterward.
Still, Fury made his decision quickly.
"I'll go with Coulson and lure the Skrull here," he said. "You call Carol and have her subdue the target. Once the scattered agents regroup, we make a clean escape."
Reid nodded slightly. Without another word, Fury left the archive room with Coulson to meet the Skrull posing as Agent Keller.
...
Meanwhile, having learned from her last attempt, Carol quickly modified an old phone into a communicator, re-establishing contact with the Kree strike team.
She relayed everything she'd uncovered on Earth—Wendy Lawson's true identity and the research she left behind.
But as the conversation continued, Carol noticed something unsettling. The technology Lawson once described as a way to end the war was now twisted by Yon-Rogg, who claimed it was a weapon to win the war instead.
Yet Carol couldn't help but question: was it even a war anymore?
The Kree Empire could declare victory at any time. The only reason it hadn't was to keep the Skrulls as an ever-present enemy, a scapegoat to divert attention from the Empire's internal struggles.
Carol understood that the Skrulls had indeed caused trouble for the Kree Empire, but that trouble didn't deserve to be called a war. It was just one-sided persecution, wrapped in the illusion of a never-ending conflict.
Free from the Kree's conditioning and piecing together her Earth-born identity, Carol's disillusionment with the Empire only deepened.
She tightened her grip on the communicator, her voice calm.
"When I faced the Supreme Intelligence," she said to Yon-Rogg, "I saw Mar-Vell. That's who appeared to me. It must be because she's the one I admire most."
Yon-Rogg's response was swift and cold. "If you saw Mar-Vell, it wasn't real. The Skrulls must've planted that image to manipulate you."
Carol's heart sank. His words didn't make sense. If the Skrulls had deceived her by pretending to be Mar-Vell, why were they now desperately searching for Project Pegasus and Mar-Vell's research?
"Remember your training," Yon-Rogg's voice sounded from the communicator. "Don't let useless emotions control your mind!"
Carol nodded, her face filled with disappointment.
Yon-Rogg—or rather, the Kree Empire he represented—was still lying to her. They only wanted to use her.
The transmission was cut off. Yon-Rogg's final words echoed in her ears: they were on their way to the galaxy's jump point and would reach Earth soon.
Before Carol could process it, a familiar voice rang in her mind, the voice of 'Martian Manhunter.'
"Carol, the Skrulls have infiltrated the base. Meet up with us. We're getting out of here."
...
On the other side, Fury and Coulson had successfully separated the Skrull-impersonated Keller from the real S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
Coulson followed the larger group, preparing to surround Carol from all sides.
Fury, however, stayed with Keller, planning to intercept Carol before the net closed, under the guise of an official order.
But when the Skrull-disguised Keller arrived at the records room, Carol was nowhere to be found. Instead, standing before him was Reid, a human not listed in the Skrulls' database.
"Agent Nicholas, who's this...?"
If Fury still had doubts about 'Martian Manhunter' before, they vanished the moment Keller called him "Nicholas."
That was his real name, but no one—not even his closest allies—called him that. The whole world knew him only as Nick Fury.
In an instant, Fury struck. His fist ignited with deadly crimson energy, launching a punch straight at Keller's head.
Even with a Skrull's superior physiology, an unshielded body taking a direct hit from high-energy radiation wouldn't walk away unscathed.
But the next second, Keller's body lit up with the same red glow. And with effortless precision, he caught Fury's fist mid-strike.
"What—?!" Fury's eyes widened in shock.
Keller smirked. "Testing whether this serum would work on Skrulls cost me quite some effort."
The serum actually had no direct effect on Skrulls. But once they mimicked a human at the cellular level, their physiology became indistinguishable, and the serum took effect just the same.
There was a price, of course. As long as the serum remained active, a Skrull could not revert to their original form. And if they dropped their disguise, the raw energy would burn them alive.
It was a limitation. But for now, it was enough.
Before Fury could react, the Skrull-empowered imposter overwhelmed him in seconds, knocking him to the ground in a single, devastating blow.
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