CHAPTER NINE:

MARIA AND MONICA

THE BIRDS CHIRPING echoed throughout the country side with the occasional wind blowing by, causing the leaves and the grass to move in the direction it was moving. The trees stood tall around the house, a large green field seen everywhere as a vehicle could be seen parked on the dirt road that had been leading up to the house.

Faint music could be heard playing from the radio of the workshop area outside, a few feet away from the house. A plane could be seen parked inside with a woman having her back turned to it, looking through her tools in search of something while her young daughter could be seen inside. Neither of them seemed to notice the young woman hesitantly walking up.

F/n felt the hesitancy in her body as she moved in a slow pace towards the workshop, seeing the figure of the familiar woman inside. Fury and Vers were a couple feet behind, the blonde deciding F/n would confront the woman. As she stared at the back of her head, memories came through F/n's brain. She knew this woman was important to her, and she wanted to learn why.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Maria Rambeau." F/n calls out, breaking the silence.

At the sound of the voice, the dark haired woman drops her tools as she glances over her shoulder. She didn't even register the voice was familiar until she had made eye contact with the Kree woman, her entire body freezing. Maria Rambeau felt her eyes widen as she stares at the woman she hadn't seen in six years, seeing she was staring back at her with a curious gaze.

From her seat inside the plane, a little Monica Rambeau peaked through the window, only excitement to fill her at the sight of her aunt standing there. Her squeaky voice called out to her as she quickly hopped out of the plane, skinny arms wrapping around F/n's torso. The young girl looked past her to see the man she had always considered her uncle.

Maria had only taken a couple steps forward to finally notice the blonde standing beside Fury, watching her daughter unwrap her arms around her aunt and rush to Vers. Neither of the two had hugged back, only staring down at the child with curious eyes. As Monica hugged Vers, F/n made eye contact with the blonde as they had noticed she called them 'auntie Y/n' and 'uncle Connor'.

"I knew it! Everyone said you guys were dead!" Monica tells them, staring up at Vers with a bright smile. "But we knew they were lying."

She made eye contact with the blonde, her chin resting on his stomach. When she noticed his expression, her smile slowly faded as she turned to face her aunt, only to notice her looking at her with furrowed brows. Monica slowly unwrapped her arms from Vers' torso, glancing between the two of them.

"We're not really who you think we are." F/n states.

Her eyes looked towards Maria, who had moved closer and was still staring at her. The Rambeau woman felt her heart skip a beat at the sound of her sister's voice, not realizing how much she missed it until now. With a little time that passed, all of them could be seen in the house now, in the kitchen area as Maria and Monica sat at the table.

Meanwhile, right across from them, F/n, Vers and Fury could be seen standing and leaning against the counter while the two Kree explained everything they've learned. F/n had her arms crossed over her chest, leaning her hip against the counter as she let Vers do the rest of the explaining, her eyes looking between the two at the table.

"That is the craziest shit I ever heard." Maria speaks up when they finished.

Monica shakes her head. "Green transforming aliens? There's no such thing."

"You are absolutely right, young lady. There is no such thing. Cause if there were, we would wanna keep that to ourselves." Fury comments as he gives a look to Vers, who had been the one to explain the Skrulls.

Vers raises a brow. "You don't believe me?"

They all watched as he moved towards the kettle on the stove that hadn't heated up yet. At the sight of his hand glowing, Monica stood from her spot at the table and moved closer until she was beside her aunt. Maria's eyes widened at the sound of the kettle whistling and the sight of his hand glowing. When she looks at F/n, the Kree female shrugs.

"No way! That's so cool!" Monica gushes.

Fury chuckles. "Oh, they can both do a lot more than make tea with those hands."

"Like what?" Monica questions, excitement flowing through her. "Show us."

Vers sighs with a little smile. "Maybe later."

Monica's eyes widen in realization. "I kept all your guys stuff. I'll go get it."

Without another word, she rushed out of the room and F/n slowly looked towards Maria, who was already looking at her. Vers seemed to notice and was quick to suggest for Fury to help Monica out. Fury seemed to get the hint as he got up from his seat, moving past them and in the direction he had watched Monica move to.

F/n tears her eyes away from Maria, making eye contact with Vers. She gave him a small smile, feeling his hand rest on her lower back in a reassuring manner. The e/c eyed Kree ventured to the seat Monica had been sitting in right across from Maria, slowly plopping herself down as Vers leans against the counter. In the moment of silence, Maria glances between them.

"You guys don't remember anything?" Maria asks, voice saddened by the thought.

F/n gulps. "I see flashes. We both do. Little moments. But we can't tell what's real."

"If we could just piece together what happened that morning, maybe it'll all make sense." Vers tells her.

"You woke me and Y/n up banging on our door at dawn. Your usual move." Maria begins while she points at the blonde, thinking more. "Back then, we had to get up so early. The Air Force still wasn't letting women fly combat, so testing Lawson's planes was our only shot at doing something that mattered. Connor was so excited for us. And he wanted to race to base in your old Mustang and I wasn't about to argue, cause I knew my Camaro would dominate. But you cheated, took a shortcut."

"Since when is a shortcut cheating?" Vers questions.

"Since it violates the predetermined rules of engagement." Maria replies.

"I definitely don't remember those." Vers states.

Maria hums, narrowing her eyes on him playfully. "Of course you don't."

F/n had been watching the interaction with a little smile before all three of them shared a small laugh. Neither of them said anything for a moment as they all looked at one another before Maria's face turned serious again, gulping as she thought back to that day.

"When Y/n and I got to the hangar, Lawson was agitated. She said she had lives to save. She was trying to take the Asis up herself, but you said that--" Maria continues, gesturing to the other woman.

"If there were lives at stake, I would fly the plane." F/n interrupts, clearly recalling those words.

Maria nods. "Yeah. Big hero moment. The kind of moment we'd both been waiting for. And then this blondie here, he was right with you and said--"

"I'd be there with her to make sure those lives were saved." Vers speaks up with a knowing nod, getting one from the Rambeau woman.

Maria smiles a bit. "The doc was always unique. That's why we liked her. But now you guys are saying she's from another planet."

"We know this must be hard for you." F/n mumbles in a soft tone.

"Oh, what? This part right here?" Maria asks, shaking her head as the tears prick her eyes. "No. What's hard is losing my best friend and my sister in a mission so secret they act like it never even happened. Hard is knowing you guys were out there somewhere too damn stubborn to die. And now you both come up in here after six years with your supercharged fire hands and you expect me to call you... I don't even know what. F/n? Vers? Is that really who you guys are now?"

F/n felt tears sting her eyes as she whispers a small 'I don't know' while they stared at one another. It was clear that Maria cared for both of them, but more so F/n than Vers. And after she said the words 'my sister', it was clear that Maria was so important to F/n because they were sisters. They had a close bond.

The sound of Monica ushering them into the other room broke the silence and the eye contact with the sisters. Vers was the first to move and exit the room they were in, seeing Monica and Fury standing at the much bigger table with both his and F/n's stuff laying on it. F/n was a couple seconds after, pace slowing at the sight of all the stuff.

Monica immediately began showing them pictures of them when they were younger, pictures of them when Monica herself was younger and pictures of them with either just Maria or both Maria and Monica. F/n noticed how happy her and Vers looked. When Monica began showing pictures of just the two of them, both of them noticed how close they really were.

Vers' arms were always wrapped around her in the pictures, both of them smiling brightly. There were a couple pictures where their lips were pressed together, which made Vers' heart skip a beat at the sight as he took a glance at the female in the picture. Once she finished showing photos, Monica rushed back out of the room when she remembered their jackets.

Vers let his hand brush against the photos before he noticed a small metal piece that looked broken in half. He picked it up hesitantly, reading the only word that was visible. Connor. A name he noticed a lot of people seemed to have called him. Stepping closer to him, F/n's hand brushed against his as she read the word before looking up at him.

"That was all that survived the crash. Or so we thought." Maria points out when she notices her sister glancing around the table. "Yours was completely destroyed."

A frown etched on F/n's face as she looked up at the dark haired woman, seeing she held the same frown. The silence was broken by the sound of a knock coming from the door, their heads snapping towards it. Vers was quick to tell Maria not to answer it when she moved, convinced it was a Skrull. He ignored Maria's argue of it just being her neighbor as he moved to the door, answering it.

"Hi there." Maria's neighbor greets when he opened the door.

Vers narrows his eyes on him. "What do you want?"

"Hey, Tom." Maria quickly intervenes as she comes up behind the blonde. "This is my friend, Connor."

Tom hums, holding out his hand. "Pleased to meet you."

Vers expression remains hard as he glances down at his hand before placing his own in it, shaking it. He uses his powers a bit to shock the older man, which makes Tom flinch before he chuckles. Meanwhile, from behind the door beside Fury, F/n had her hands clenched into fists, ready to fight if it were a Skrull.

"Static electricity out here's no joke." Tom comments with a chuckle. "I noticed that peculiar bird you got parked by the road and I was just wondering if you mind if I bring the boys over to get a closer look-see?"

"A closer look-see?" Vers repeats in suspicion, receiving a nod. "To see the 'bird' parked out by the road? You're really working overtime to sell this one, aren't you, Talos?"

"I'm sorry, Tom. This really isn't a good time." Maria tells the man, already closing the door. "I'll come by tomorrow, okay?"

Tom only stuttered, though he had no other choice but to agree as Maria gave him a polite smile while she closed the door shut. Once the door was shut, Maria gave the blonde a look just as a voice spoke up, making all the adults look over. There in the doorway, Talos stood with a blank expression. Fury aimed his gun at him while Vers and F/n got their powers ready.

"Now, hang on a second." Talos begins, pushing himself off the doorway. "Before you go swinging those jazz hands around, making a mess of your friend's house... It's a lovely home, miss."

F/n snapped her head to her sister when she heard her exclaim 'what the hell' to herself, following her gaze to look out the window and see a Skrull who looks exactly like Maria talking with Monica outside, who was holding two leather jackets. The Skrull looked towards the window, Maria's own face staring straight back at her.

"No one's gonna hurt the girl." Talos assures. "Just don't kill me. That would really complicate the situation."

"I'm about five seconds from complicating that wall with some ugly ass Skrull brains." Fury threatens, taking a step closer.

Talos holds his hands up in a surrendering manner. "I'm sorry I simmed your boss. But now I stand before you as my true self. Without deception."

"And who is that out there?" F/n questions, referring to the Skrull with her niece.

"Okay, that's a fair point but I'm sure that you understand I had to take some precautions." Talos admits. "I saw you both crush twenty of my best men with your hands bound. I just wanna talk."

Vers' glare hardens. "Last time we talked, we ended up hanging from our ankles."

"That was before I knew who you two were. Before I knew what made you both different from the others." Talos states, only making them more suspicious. "I have an audio recording from Pegasus of your voices from a plane crash six years ago on a device I believe you call a 'black box'."

"They told me it was destroyed in the crash." Maria recalls, voice full of shock. "How'd you get it?"

"She don't understand. Young lady, I have a special skill that kind of allows me to get into places I'm not supposed to be." Talos explains.

"Call me 'young lady' again, I'm gonna put my foot in a place it's not supposed to be." Maria warns him.

Talos tilts his head in confusion. "Am I supposed to guess where that is?"

"Your ass." The other three speak at the same time.

"Okay, I get it. We're all a little on edge here. But, look, I just need your help decoding some coordinates." Talos pleas as he looks at the two Kree in front of him. "If you'll sit down and you'll listen to this, I assure you, it'll be worth your while."

F/n glances back at where her niece is. "Call your buddy back inside and we'll listen."

The Skrull only nods, mumbling 'deal' to her while he glances down at his feet. While he did so, Goose had moved to stand right at his feet, pressing himself against the alien's legs. At the sight of the cat, Talos let out a yelp of fear as he stumbled away from it, surprising the others.

"Get that thing away." Talos demands in fear. "How'd that get in here?"

Vers hums as he picks Goose up, making the animal face the Skrull, who flinches back. "The cat? This isn't what you're afraid of, is it?"

Talos shakes his head, taking a couple steps back. "That's not a cat. That's a Flerken."

Fury lets out a loud laugh. "A Flerken?"

His laughter immediately dies down at the sound of Monica calling out to her mom in confusion, quickly hiding his gun behind his back. They all look over towards the girl, who looks very confused while the Skrull that pretended to be Maria changed back to it's normal self. When Monica looked at the creature, the Skrull only shrugged.