Going from the familiar comfort and warmth of Carol to the awkward glances from Monica was like getting pushed into ice water. I could feel the temperatures drop as I climbed the stairs back up to the main level of the ship. She wasn't too fond of me, and I wasn't happy with her at the moment either. All we'd gotten from her was accusations and agitated looks, and it was getting tiresome, no matter how much understanding I had for her situation.

This wasn't the woman we knew as a kid, and not the person she must be. Maria was a kind woman who raised her daughter to be the same, and Fury didn't like rude people either. They would not be so close if Monica wasn't a good person at heart. It brought me faith that she'd come around.

For now, I purposely avoided looking at her as I took off the top part of my suit, but her eyes subtly followed me around the space as I pulled a long sleeve shirt on and re-tied my ponytail. I got a feeling she felt slightly guilty, that she wanted to say something about snapping at me earlier, but Monica stayed quiet while she fiddled with a device Carol kept lying around. At least she'd made herself at home.

There wasn't much for me to do with Kamala in the shower and Carol making repairs downstairs. I drank and ate something, read the message from Valkyrie saying the Skrulls were safe on Earth, and tidied up, rolling my eyes at the Crocs I found everywhere. It was quiet, and tense, and I willed Carol to hurry up so she could be the shield between me and Monica.

''I'm... sorry about earlier.'' I nearly jumped when Monica's hesitant voice came from the kitchen area, never expecting her to speak up, let alone apologize. Slowly, I turned to her, recognizing her grimace as regret. ''It came out harsher than I wanted to.''

I nodded in thanks, the ghost of a smile on my face. ''I'm sorry, too.'' We both knew I didn't mean our previous collision.

That was the end of it. We went back to what we were doing, feeling no less awkward. Water stopped running through the pipes above my head, a sign that Kamala was done with her shower. I listened to the door sliding open, her foot or arm banging against the glass, the quiet, ''ow'', that followed. If Monica wasn't so close to me, I would have chuckled.

To my relief, Carol came upstairs seconds later. I could have jumped into her arms with relief, but I settled for smiling instead. ''Done?''

''All done.'' She teasingly held up the empty energy bar wrapper and shook the drink can so that I could hear it was empty. I wasn't asking if she finished her food like a little kid, though, and she knew that. ''We're good to go.''

The bathroom door opened at that moment. Both Carol and I turned to look at it, seeing Kamala timidly step out. I smiled fondly at the sight of the pajamas on her. The shirt was oversized and the pants too long, like I predicted, but she looked adorable in it, her long black hair hanging in wet clusters from her head.

''Hey,'' Carol greeted her softly.

An unspoken tension formed in the air. All our minds simultaneously went back to how she yelled at Kamala earlier. From what I gathered, the girl hadn't wanted to leave Tarnax while there were still civilians on it, and Carol practically dragged her onto the ship to safety. Unkind tones of voices were used in the process. They hadn't been face to face since then.

It was odd to see Kamala so down, her gaze cast downwards with a kind of hurt in her eyes. I missed her bubbly self. ''I hope you don't mind,'' she said timidly, fiddling with the hem of the shirt. ''I didn't have any other clothes. Aayala gave me these.'' I offered her a soft smile when she glanced at me.

''It's totally fine. Looks good on you,'' Carol assured her.

An awkward silence fell. Kamala didn't look at her. A big part of her hurt must come from her expectations of Carol, the kind woman she'd pictured in her head. Suddenly, her hero was yelling at her, and so a fear crept into her body that maybe people were right when they said to never meet your heroes. What if the woman she'd idealized all her life turned out to be a rude person? It'd break her heart.

But Carol didn't plan on letting any more people down in her life. ''I'm really sorry... for the way I spoke to you.''

Kamala looked up, the relief shimmering in her eyes. ''Thank you.''

Carol smiled softly. ''I know that this situation isn't ideal,'' she turned slightly to talk to Monica as well, ''but it is actually nice, having people on board again. It gets pretty lonely out here.''

I could only second that. Being with just Carol was great, but it was a nice change to be able to talk to other people as well, have different conversations, hear new things. The ship felt alive.

Kamala shook off her sadness and jumped to life, rushing forward until she nearly bumped into Carol. ''Anytime you need company, I will be there. I will drop everything. I will—I will drop high school,'' she rambled eagerly, looking up at Carol wide-eyed.

The blonde smiled amusedly. ''Don't do that. But can we start again?'' Her back straightened as she extended her hand. ''Hi, I'm Carol Danvers.''

Enthusiastically, Kamala clamped onto her hand, shaking it with vigor. ''I am Kamala Khan. But when I'm fighting crime on the streets of Jersey City, I go by Ms. Marvel, and I hope that's okay, like, copyright-wise. Because, honestly, I never thought I'd ever get to meet you. But now that it's happening and we're, like, touching each other... I've realized I should have asked permission.'' Finally, she let go of Carol's hand, making some sort of weird finger point gesture at her that looked beyond awkward. ''So... twinsies.''

I smiled fondly. I wasn't sure what it was about Kamala, since chatty people weren't my favorite, but her childish enthusiasm was endearing. ''Technically, Carol stole the name too.''

''It's a long story,'' she said when Kamala's eyes widened in fear.

''Will I get sued?''

''Not likely.''

''Okay.'' Monica interrupted smartly before the conversation spiraled further, standing up from the chair she was seated in. ''All right. Here's what we're gonna do.'' She clapped her hands, awkwardly gesturing at Carol as she joined our little group. ''Captain Marvel...''

''You need to stop calling me that.'' Carol joked confidently, her hands planted in her sides. ''I used to change your diapers.''

''Oh, that was once,'' Monica sassed. ''And then I was told you proceeded to vomit everywhere.''

A strangled laugh escaped me, and it drew some unamused glances from my precious girlfriend. I could totally see that happening, Carol's face as she unwrapped that diaper and had to push down the bile rising in her throat.

This was why I was happy to have Monica here, because who else was I going to get embarrassing stories from about Carol before I met her?

"Is that true?" I asked.

Carol stared at me, contemplating telling the truth or defending herself when her credibility was already low. "No comment," she said quickly, turning back to Monica before I could respond to that. ''Anyway, it's my ship, so I make the game plan.''

Monica raised her eyebrows. ''Oh, I'm sorry. When's the last time you led a team?''

''That'd be never.''

''As early as last week," Carol proudly said at the same time as me. I saw the moment her brain registered my words. Her silly smile fell and an offended expression took over instead. "Never?"

I chucked. "Don't act like you run this ship. Our ship." Something tapped my leg, and I looked down to see Goose pawing at my shin for cuddles.

''Oh, my God, we're a team?'' Kamala gasped loudly as I picked up the Flerken, nearly scaring it into running away.

''We're not... We're not a team.''

''No, no, no, we're not a team.''

The huge, excited smile that took over Kamala's face said that she'd heard none of Carol and Monica's negative answers. She practically started twirling around the room, her eyes wide with her head in the clouds.

''I, Kamala Khan of Jersey City, am on a team with Captain Marvel, Commander Aayala, and Captain Monica Rambeau. Who from this point onwards will now be known as..." She stopped to squint at Monica, trying out different names in her head. "Professor Marvel."

''Oh," Carol said teasingly, grinning at Monica. "Professor Marvel.'' I chuckled.

Monica rapidly shook her head, disliking the name as much as the rest of us did. ''No. No, no, she will not. But thank you.''

''The Marvels." Kamala sighed happily, again blind and deaf to the responses. She was a dreamer, a teen with her head in stories and an imaginary world. "Now that we've got that out of the way, team, I've been trying to tell you... I think I know how she's making the weird jump points." She raised her arm, drawing our attention to the golden band around her underarm. "She has one of these."

Shifting Goose onto one arm, I used my other hand to take Kamala's wrist, gently turning it around to see the band from every side. I hadn't seen Dar-Benn's up close, but the similarities were big. "It does look similar. Where did you get it?" This artifact ending up on Earth of all places was surprising, considering they still weren't capable of interstellar travel.

"It's my nani's bangle," Kamala answered. "It started glowing really weirdly when Dar-Benn opened that first jump point. Also, it once traveled me through space and time. So that's probably related.''

''What you're describing is a Quantum Band," Carol said, wide-eyed.

Kamala stuttered, thrown off by the idea that her bangle may be more important than she thought. ''I mean, I knew there were two of these. I just did not expect the other one to be in space.''

''They're a pair?" I frowned. If they weren't simply separate bands, but connected, I guessed they were even more powerful together. Fearfully, I looked at Carol. "If she knows, she'll be coming for this one."

That realization dawned on her too. "She can never get her hands on both of them. She'll be unstoppable." The worry on her face was for every Kree enemy in the universe, and for our own lives, because we couldn't stop Dar-Benn when she had one band. Imagine her power with two.

''Okay. What is a Quantum Band?'' Monica interrupted our private moment of panic.

Carol shook her head, still in disbelief. ''A myth. Or we thought it was a myth."

"It's an ancient artifact," I explained, scratching a purring Goose behind her ear. The beauty of being an ex-Kree commander is remembering almost everything Kree-related. "If the Kree legends are true, the Quantum Bands were used to create every jump point in the universe."

"Teleportation network," Monica concluded. "Two Quantum Bands working in unison to connect the galaxy."

"So that would explain our switch-y entanglement situation," Kamala chimed in.

Things were starting to fall into place. Carol and Monica switched with Kamala because the malfunctioning jump point they touched was opened with a bangle similar to hers. There must be a scientific reason behind it all, but mostly, the strange ways of the universe were unexplainable. Their powers became intertwined. Period.

"Yeah, yeah, but Dar-Benn only has one. She must be overloading it with the energy from her space hammer thingy," Monica speculated.

"It's called the Universal Weapon," Carol corrected.

Kamala pulled a face. "Oh, really? I was gonna call it Cosmi-Rod." I smiled at her joke, but the whole thing wasn't funny, was it? The Universal Weapon, a Quantum Band, the force of the entire Kree army... Dar-Benn was getting incredibly strong.

"Either way, she's using it to force unstable jump points into the grid." Monica continued. "We have got to get to her before she makes another one."

I nodded, putting Goose down to plant my hands into my sides. "The only way we're going to beat her is if we catch her off guard, take the offense." But where in this huge universe did she go, or plan to go next? Going to Hala was certainly not an option.

Kamala perked up like she read my mind. "She had star charts and maps on the screens on her ship."

Carol's face lit up. "Okay. To where?"

The girl's shoulders sagged when she realized that's all she knew. "To the stars...?" She softly trailed off. We could hardly blame her lack of knowledge.

Hopeful, Carol turned to me, praying I'd seen something useful in my short time on the Kree ship, but I hadn't been looking at star maps. "I was too focused on not dying." After you abandoned me, is what I wanted to add as a joke, but it didn't feel like the right time.

"Okay. It's fine. Got a plan," Carol said optimistically, stalking off to grab something. "We will use this."

My face fell. In her hand was the memory device she regularly used. A dangerous, impactful tool that she was crazy to consider a chill thing. "Carol," I warned her. A vulnerable teenage girl and a woman full of trauma and anger weren't the right people to hand these things to.

Kamala watched the device warily. "Is that...?"

"A Skrull torture device," Carol said confidently, pushing it into her hand.

Kamala promptly held the thing far away from her body, like a smelly sock or a dead mouse, as if it would torture her by simply holding it. "And, wait, we put it on our heads?"

"Yes, it's fine," Carol said cheerfully, retrieving another one of these devices. "You use it to access memories."

"I don't know..." She glanced at my displeased expression. "Aayala doesn't look that happy about it."

I chewed on my lip. "It's safe, but it's very..." I stopped, folding my arms over my chest as I thought of a good way to describe what the device did without scaring her off. "It can bring memories to the surface that are traumatic, or you're not ready to face. It's an unpredictable thing."

Kamala's eyes widened with fascination. "Can it drive you so mad that you need to be on medication?"

"Uh... possibly?"

Carol shook her head at me. "She's overreacting. I've been using it for years... to regain the memories that the Kree took from me." Cautiously, she glanced up at Monica.

That heaviness settled into the air again. They must both be thinking back to thirty-ish years ago, when Carol came to Monica and Maria in a stolen aircraft, following breadcrumbs about her past to stop a potential unjust war.

My heart broke every time the topic of her memory gaps came up. For thirty years—thirty—I've had to stand and watch powerlessly as she tried and mostly failed to get her memory back. I could literally, physically, not do anything. It was the only bad part about being her partner.

"Still?" Monica questioned softly, taking the memory device from Carol. It was the softest I'd heard her speak yet.

"Yeah," Carol answered sadly, quickly shaking it off. "But, you know, it has a lot of other uses. It's safe."

When both Monica and Kamala turned to look at me for confirmation, I offered a faint smile that hopefully put them at ease. "Don't worry, I'll be awake, monitoring you as you sleep."

Something convinced them. Whether that was me, or the fact that we had no other options to quickly find out what Dar-Benn's plans were, they fell silent and didn't voice any more doubts.

"You might wanna get comfortable," Carol advised.

~~~~

I felt like a cult leader, standing in the middle of the room while three people lay around me, ready to be put under, Kamala and Monica on separate couches, Carol on our bed. None of them were relaxed. Not even Carol, who did this almost daily. They shuffled uneasily on their backs, nervous about what this mind experiment would entail.

"Your minds will be connected. Like a hive mind. Anything you think of, the others see too. Just a warning," I explained to the two newbies as Kamala nervously fiddled with the device in her hands. It was easy to forget that she was just a kid, even if she had superpowers.

"You'll pull us out if it goes wrong?" She asked softly, her long wet hair draped over the soft blanket I put on the couch for her.

"I promise."

The silence was terrible. I'd underestimated how awful it was, not knowing what they were collectively thinking about. Their eyes were closed, the devices glowed on their heads, and they were entirely still. Like they were in a coma. I had not one indication of what they were experiencing.

I stood there, on edge, my eyes constantly flickering from one person to the other, looking for the smallest signs of discomfort. A pull of the eyebrows, a deep frown, tense mouth, excessive twitching, mumbling. I relaxed as a full minute passed and everything stayed calm. Until the signs started.

It was mostly Monica, twitches in her face, a shake of her head. Whatever she saw was upsetting her. But it was also Carol, showing the same things but to a lesser extent. The only reason I didn't pull them out was Kamala. Compared to them, she seemed calm.

I so desperately wanted to see what they were seeing. Maybe I could have helped. But I refused to put that thing on my head. I refused.

My stress levels were nearly as high as in battle. Goose didn't make it better either, restlessly tippling around me.

''No."

I nearly jumped when Monica's voice broke the silence. In the time it took me to turn to her, she'd ripped the device from her head and sprung up from the couch, walking away from it with big strides that showed she was upset.

"No, no, no! Never do that again!"

Carol rushed after her while Kamala slowly rose, disoriented from the rude awakening. ''I'm sorry. It wasn't on purpose," the blonde said.

I was completely thrown off by the sudden turmoil after the long moment of peace, watching the confusing scene in front of me unfold. Monica looked pained more than she looked angry, and Carol carried a strong sense of guilt on top of her own pain, but I had no idea why they felt that way.

''Wait, so your mom..." Kamala cautiously started, a pitiful frown between her eyebrows.

''Passed away while I was blipped," Monica confirmed, her body rigid as she looked down at the floor. "And when I came back... no one was there.''

I now understood the guilt Carol showed. We weren't there for Monica when Maria died. For lots of reasons. Excuses, maybe. But we could never go back in time and change that. We messed up, and as long as Carol didn't formally apologize to her, this weird thing would continue.

In the silence that followed, a sadness settled in the air. It was tense, heavy, and awkward as feelings of guilt and sadness consumed us. Carol and I both wanted to comfort her, but we weren't sure if we should, if she'd want it. Usually, people didn't want comfort from the people who did them wrong.

Ironically enough, it was the person who never knew Maria, and who hadn't seen Monica before this day, who acted first.

Kamala closed the gap between herself and Monica with three big steps, pulling her into a tight hug with urge, like she personally wanted to make up for all those years of hugs Monica missed from her mother.

The woman was as taken aback as Carol and I were, all three of us wide-eyed and frozen in place, shocked by the affection. Eventually, Monica relaxed, awkwardly hugging Kamala back, but not entirely enjoying it. ''Okay," she said, trying to get her to let go, but instead Kamala silently beckoned us over.

Carol hesitated, not sure if Monica wanted a hug from her, but she caved when Kamala repeated the gesture more urgently. Awkwardly, she spread her arms out over both their backs, until it was officially the most awkward group hug ever. Looking at Monica's grimace, I decided that me not joining would probably be her preference, so I stayed where I was.

''Thank you," she muttered awkwardly, only fully relaxing once she'd been let go of.

Kamala looked up at her with those big, sad, brown eyes of hers. ''She seemed really cool. I'm sorry.''

Monica somewhat smiled back, her mind replaying her favorite memories of her mom. ''She was.''

''She was the best," Carol added softly. I feared Monica's reaction, but it never came. It turned quiet, like before, but with ten times as little tension and awkwardness.

I concluded that somehow, Maria came up in their dream. How, I didn't know, but it didn't seem to matter anymore. If I wanted the deets later, I could get it from Carol. What I was mostly interested in now, was the main reason they'd memory dived in the first place.

''Anyone want to fill me in on what you found out?'' I asked, not unkindly. It's like a switch flipped in all three of them. Maria was shoved to the side, and the mission came back into focus.

''The star maps on Dar-Benn's ship were of the Magellanic system," Carol explained.

"Okay." I frowned at that information, pulling up a hologram of the Magellanic system in the center of the room. This was what I was good at. War. "What would she want in that particular section of space? There's nothing much of interest for her there."

They all gathered around the hologram, staring at the slowly spinning image like the answers were engraved in it somewhere. ''Tarnax used to be occupied by the Kree, so maybe the attack was a warning?'' Carol speculated.

I shook my head, setting my hands on my hips. "No. I overheard her talking to the council, back on Tarnax. Her goal of the destruction was to siphon the atmosphere."

Monica squinted her eyes in thought. "Every jump point has two sides, so if it was siphoned away, it had to go somewhere."

"Hala," I said, making a point of looking at Carol. "The war."

Her eyes widened as things started to click for her too. For Monica and Kamala, she explained what we meant. ''The Kree Civil War basically bankrupted Hala of its natural resources. The air is barely breathable, they're suffering from a drought...''

''A drought?" Kamala had sat down again, frowning up at us from her seat on the couch. "So, she could be after water next.''

Monica nodded enthusiastically, feeling that we were going in the right direction, but I felt my face slowly drain of blood. ''Okay. Where in the Magellanic can we find—''

''Aladna." Carol desperately avoided eye contact with me, her body and tone of voice tense as she spoke of the place. I fought the urge to scowl. "Oceans cover 99.63% of the planet.''

Monica picked up on her weirdness instantly, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. ''That is a very specific stat. You've been there.''

''Yeah. Uh, yeah," Carol stuttered awkwardly, her wide eyes still flickering everywhere but towards us.

''She said that really weird," Kamala chimed in, watching her as suspiciously as Monica did.

''Yeah. Why are you being weird?''

Instead of answering, Carol took the route of avoidance, which was what she often chose. I wasn't mad at it, in this case. I wanted to make Aladna—or rather one person on it—disappear from the universe, so she would never have to talk about it again. ''Okay! Consensus on Aladna.''

Kamala hesitantly raised her hand, looking between me and Monica for help. She was very confused as to what was going on, but didn't want to push. ''Aye.''

''Yeah, I say we do it..." Monica said slowly, watching Carol weirdly. "Get to Aladna and separate Dar-Benn from that bangle.''

Carol perked up a little too enthusiastically to cover up the fact that she had something to hide. ''Three to one. We have our heading.''

I frowned at her back as she walked off. "You don't know what I voted."

"Your bitter face says otherwise."

If my jaw wasn't so tense, it would have dropped. My face did not look bitter. "I am perfectly capable of separating my feelings from the mission."

"Right..."

~~~~~~~~

A/N: thank you for your patience with this book :) 

[follow me on Tumblr: 'katyaromanoffpetrova', or find the link on my community tab]