Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi! You're my only hope!"

"How many times are we gonna watch this movie? Jess says as she lays her head in Carol's lap while Carol runs her fingers through her hair. 

"As many times as it takes for you to enjoy it!"

"We'll be watching till the end of time then."

"One day, you'll grow to finally admit that you appreciate the greatest space battle in-AHHH" Carol yelps as a sharp pain goes right through her forehead. It feels so unique yet so familiar to her. With her eyes shut and her hand from Jessica's hair now holding onto her forehead, she sees an image flash into her mind, stars and planets she can't identify. Then another flash follows, this one troubles her as she sees Binary suspended in some sort of contraption, screaming for her life, violently shaking but not enough to be free her restraints. Lastly a flash of an explosion cracking apart a planet, followed by a bright light left in its wake. A figure it seems, but the identity of this figure is unknown. 

"CAROL CAROL CAROL" Jess is frantically shaking Carol out of her trance and Carol finally comes to and acknowledges her. 

"Yea, yea, I'm awake I'm here. I'm here Jess."

"Are you okay? What the hell was that?"

Carol hesitates. She wants to tell Jessica what she saw, what she experienced, but she doesn't even know where to begin. "Nothing, I'm okay. Just a crazy headache. I'm fine!" Carol gently pushes Jess to the side and gets up from the couch. She walks into the bathroom, shuts and locks the door. Jessica, weirded out by her closed off demeanor, sits in awe.

Leaning over the counter, heaving, Carol looks up into the mirror. This is the first time she's had an experience like this since...before...before Rogue. She called it her "seventh sense." A glimpse at the future before it came into fruition. Always broken, unexpected, and leaving her with more questions than answers. She'd forgotten what this felt like. Most things before Rogue were foreign to her now and this was no exception. The range of emotions right now is puzzling her and for the first time in a while, she's really, truly afraid. Afraid of what this future entails, afraid that she was able to even see it and afraid that someone won't make it out alive. Her thoughts are interrupted by soft knocks on the door. 

"Carol...are you okay in there? You got up so fast that I didn't even know what to say." Jessica's muffled voice says from outside the door. "Is there someone I need to punch? I'll gladly punch someone for you. I'll throw in a little venom blast even. Or I could give them a strong cursing, whatever you-"

Carol, now with a slight smile, walks over and opens the door. "Have I ever told you I love you Spider-Woman?" She says as she puts her arms around Jess' waist.

"Not in the last 10 minutes no."

"Oh no? Well let me make up for it then." With a sultry smirk, Carol lifts up Jess in her arms and carries her over to the couch. She lays her down and places a soft kiss on her lips. As things start to move quicker, movements a little rougher, kisses more passionate, she still can't help but shake that vision. She wonders how soon she has in this bliss before everything comes crashing down. 

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In the darkness of the night, sound asleep with Jess' arm sprawled across Carol's bare chest, a slight pinging interrupts the silence in the room. With sleep in her eyes, Carol turns her head to the cause of the noise. On her nightstand, her emergency beacon glows. It takes her a second to get oriented then her eyes jump open. The emergency beacon is a two-way communicator, to notify her in case of an emergency. She had given one to Lauri-Ell, but she remembers after being freed from Amora's magical prison, Lauri had given her beacon to Binary. Carol's greatest fear just came true.

She carefully removes Jessica's arm from off of her and gets out of bed. Stars and swirls appear around her body as her uniform manifests itself on her. She leans over the bed and gives Jessica a kiss on the forehead.

"I love you Jessica Drew. Hopefully I'll be back soon."

She knows she should have woken her up. She knows she should have told her where she was going. She knows she should have even asked for help, but if there's even a slight possibility of that vision coming true, a minute chance that everything would be destroyed with nothing but a lone survivor left in the wake of stardust, there was no way she could put Jess in a situation like that. She also knew that if she woke her up, if she broke this down and was honest about what she knew, Jessica would never let her leave alone.

She goes over to the balcony, looks back at her sleeping beauty, and hopes and prays this isn't the last time she'll ever see her. 

After she's gone, the room feels a little colder. 

Chapter Text

After a flight that feels like a lifetime, Carol finally arrives at the Harpswell Sound Pier. Not only is this the home of the Danvers Summer Residence, but below the docks lie the Captain Marvel secret lair. Jessica calls it her man cave. A hub of everything Carol could ever need for a mission, coupled with remnants of the past. Old suits, pictures with her closest friends and family and other memorabilia, but this isn't a time for reminiscing. She walks over to the wall to wall computer screen and begins to tap away. She traces the source of the beacon to a centralized location in deep space. It seems to be a planet.

Sleazeworld.

"No. Not them, not again."

Sleazeworld is the home of the insectoid species known as the Brood. They had altered Carol's life significantly once. Restoring her powers and then some by inducing her first and most violent transformation into Binary all those years ago. If they've stolen sentient Binary, who knows what they can unleash onto the galaxy. A sharp pain enters her head as another vision starts to form. This one of Carol facing off with a huge horde of Broodlings. Giving them everything she's got but they aren't backing down. There are two people with Carol but she doesn't have time to make them out as the vision fades as fast as it appears. Enraged, she turns and sends a massive photon blast at the solid rock wall. Whenever it feels like her life is finally on track, something or someone has to come and knock it off the rails. She was finally what she would consider happy. Things had died down, her bouts with the evils of magic were over. Binary was living her own life, Lauri-Ell had stepped up to her responsibilities in the Kree-Skrull empire and her and Jess finally had some time to just be together and content. She should have known it was too good to be true. At the height of bliss, her biggest and most ruthless enemies had returned. She turns her eyes back to the coordinates on the screen.

She could always fly there, but with the nature of this ping, she decides on preserving her energy and taking a ship. She figures she'll need all of her strength for what she'll find out there. If Binary's endangered, it can't be some walk in the park. She's naive but she's not easy to take down. Carol loads the coordinates into the ship and prepares to take off.

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Jessica wakes up with the sun shining through the window. She turns over seeking Carol, but she's disappointed when she finds the other side of the bed empty. She rolls out of the bed in search of the clothes she tossed off the night before and settles on her sweatpants and Carol's ragged Captain Marvel tee. She walks out into the living room and is greeted by Chewie, but still no sign of Carol. She thinks maybe she's just gone out on an early mission. After last night's episode, she wanted to keep an eye on her love. 

She hears soft gargles coming from the other room. After going to check it out she finds Gerry still peacefully sleeping. She's grateful for this little family she's built. Her, Gerry, Carol, Chewie, whether they're cuddling on the couch for movie nights or sitting on the balcony enjoying some sun, moments with them just feel perfect. Her mind wanders off to the way Carol cares for Gerry like he's her own, although that's what the internet believes anyway. All the warm memories turn cold when she realizes she still doesn't know where Carol has gone.

She picks up her phone, visits her recent call log and redials Carebear. Carol can of course take care of herself, but Jess' worrisome nature gets the best of her more often than not.

*ring ring ring*  

"You've reached Carol Danvers! I'm probably busy fighting some random alien right now, but leave a message and I might get back to you. That's a strong might." Carol's chipper voice giggles from her voicemail greeting.

Normally that giggle would make Jess melt, but the random outburst yesterday coupled with the middle of the night disappearance and the missed phone call causes a pit to form in her stomach. She knows she'll have to get some help in solving this mystery. She scrolls through her contacts in search for another name in hopes that they can provide some answers. 

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"Woah woah slow down Spider. Take me through it again." Tony says as he stands across from Jess in his lab. 

Jess frustratingly palms her forehead. 

"Last night, Carol had some weird episode. We were watching a movie, her favorite movie, and she randomly screamed. I asked her what happened and she brushed it off like it was nothing."

"That much sounds like Cap. Avoidance is her style." 

Jess had to agree with that. When Carol was in trouble, she didn't necessarily like to discuss it. "Then I woke up this morning and she was gone. No note, no signs, just gone." 

"Maybe she didn't like the way you took her bed Spider, or she was embarrassed by her own performance." Tony says jokingly.

Jess stares at him with rage in her eyes. "Forget it. I don't know why I thought you could help me. Next time, I'll ask someone with a conscious." A random venom blast strikes the table where Tony stands from above. He looks up to see Gerry attached to the ceiling, giggling away, like it was the funniest thing in the world. Jessica grins. "I'm so proud of you Ger. Come down to mommy, just like we practiced." Jess outstretches her arms and Gerry jumps down into them. 

"That kid is gonna be a troublemaker." Tony remarks. Jess, still a bit angry turns towards the door. "But don't leave, I have something that may help." Tony walks over to his computer console and begins inputting a bunch of things that wouldn't make sense without at least 3 PHDs. After tapping for what feels like forever, a yellow blinking dot appears on the screen. "Ah, just like I thought!"

Jessica, with Gerry still in her arms, turns to the screen. "Spill Iron boy." 

"Carol is in her ship, in deep space. The last time I was in the DanverZone, I added a tracker on it for uh...safe keeping."

Jessica side eyes him, but realizes now isn't the time to dive into that. If Carol went out there alone with no word on her whereabouts that means she was preparing for the worst. In her bad attempt to keep Jess safe, she's only worried her beyond belief. She has to follow her...

"I have to follow her." Jess thoughts meet her lips. 

"Listen Spider, I know you want to save your damsel in distress, but you're not exactly space material. You also don't know why she's going out there or what or who she may find along the way. Not to mention there's no way you catch up to her before she meets whatever big bad she's chasing." Jessica muses over Tony's words. There's definitely some truth to them. He's right about her not knowing what she's facing and about her not being space material. Hell, Jess doesn't even like space, but if she had to go there to save Carol, she'd go 7 days a week and twice on Sunday. As many truths as his statement has. There's one glaring lie, because she indeed had a way to catch up to Carol. 

Jess pulls out her phone and starts typing a message. After finishing she turns to Tony.

"You think you could keep Gerry for a day or two? I know you have a venom proof lab around here somewhere." She asks and hands Gerry to Tony.

"And where are you going twinkle toes?"

"If my galactic phone service is working as promised, you'll know in about 3..2.." Jess is cut off by a portal appearing in the lab. From the portal, Lauri-Ell emerges. 

"Hello sister-in-law! Metal Head." Lauri-Ell exclaims then turns to Jess. "Ready to go find Carol?"

"Always." Jess says earnestly. She turns to face Tony and Gerry. Gerry is giddy, while Tony is in disbelief. "Gerry be good for Uncle Tony okay! Only 2 or 3 venom blasts max!" She turns back for the portal and heads through. 

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Carol just doesn't understand. No matter what she does the Brood always come back. She's blown them to pieces more times than she count, but somehow they still appear and reappear in her life. Now they're probably tormenting Binary and it's all her fault. Why didn't she act the second her seventh sense had returned? She had to know it couldn't be a coincidence. She thinks back to those visions as they replay in her head for the umpteenth time on this flight. The planet she didn't immediately recognize had to have been Sleazeworld in it's new iteration. The screams of Binary trying to free herself from the suspended matrix. Then the explosion. With one lone figure left. That one she still can't wrap her head around. Does she survive the explosion? Does Binary? Maybe they both die and the figure is the Brood Queen getting one last laugh at Carol's expense. The thought of that almost causes her to hurl. She wishes she could see a vision of a positive experience for a change. Like the park with her family or Jess laughing or her and Jess cuddling or Jess coming undone beneath her or Jess shoving her-she's getting off track. 

The thought of Jess makes her wish she had been honest with her, she wishes she had just told her what was happening. What if she dies and Jess never knows why. She wishes she was here with her right now, reveling in what could be their last moments together. She reaches for a picture of her, Jess, Gerry and Chewie that sits on the cockpit of her ship and she hugs it tightly.

In what almost seems magical, at that second a portal appears inside the ship. She looks up from her musings to see Lauri-Ell stepping out of the portal, followed by the most beautiful person she's ever seen. Carol stands up and Jessica runs to her and jumps on top of her. Even with Carol's immense strength she stumbles as the sheer force of Jessica's landing.

"Oh my god Carol, I'm so going to kill you as soon as I'm done hugging you." Jessica basically yells.

"Jessica I'm so sorry. Let me tell you everything."