InsaneJournal

Who: Sam Wilson & Carol Danvers
What: Rescue from the game
When: during the plot
Rating/Warnings: green


Carol absolutely should have known that this was a bad idea. A super bad idea. All she was thinking about was how much she missed video games, and that it sounded like fun. She hadn’t been thinking about the fact that not too long ago in her life, she’d been nearly trapped in one. It was easy at first, there was a lot to see and do, and she didn’t feel like she was trapped of course. Tech had come a long way since the 90s. Though she was still used to the Kree’s own tech being much more advanced. It was still fun. Of course like most things, eventually everything went wrong.

She couldn’t even be sure of when it went wrong. Eventually Carol realized that everything started looking familiar. She was on Hala, though too late she thought that the game shouldn’t know what Hala looked like. It seemed like as soon as she realized what was going on, everything went back to normal and Carol ignored it. She carried on playing and having fun. She probably shouldn’t have.

The second part felt like she was being chased by someone. They were closing in, and it took a moment for Carol to know that she hadn’t been playing this kind of game. As she looked behind her, the face changed. Yon Rogg. The Supreme Intelligence. Fury. It got closer, and she got faster.

By the time she decided to go on the offense, the plane had changed again. She was no longer being chased, but she was back in the Supreme Intelligence’s room. Except it wasn’t her, it was Maria and Maria wasn’t happy.

“Why didn’t you just come back? You could have come back. You just left us there to go save the Skrulls.”

“But I didn’t mean to - “

“You never mean to, Carol.”

And that’s where she’d been stuck, for who knows how long. The same thing over and over again. Carol abandoned everyone that she loved.




Sam was getting awfully tired of having to clean up Tony Stark’s messes. He liked the dude well enough, appreciated all of his sacrifices and everything, but seriously questioned how intelligent the self-declared genius really was when things he built kept going so wrong.

When they figured out what was going on, he didn’t hesitate to volunteer to help however he could. Willingly going into the VR was a risk, but it was one he was willing to take. Especially for Carol. He really liked her, was enjoying their time together, and wanted to see where their relationship went. Part of him regretted not talking to Steve about it before the other man had been whisked back to their regular universe, even though he knew his friend would have mocked him mercilessly.

He had no idea what to expect when he entered the digital world. “Carol?” he called, hoping this would be a relatively easy retrieval mission. Something told him not to hold his breath.




The sound of her own name caused her to snap out of the loop that she was in, enough to look around. There was someone there, and he seemed familiar. She just had to stop and think about who he was. There was a flash of recognition over her face, before she looked confused again.

“I.. yes?” She tried to figure out what his name was. Who was this and what were they doing there? And then it hit her. “Sam?”

“What are you doing here?” How had he followed her to Hala? “What’s going on?”

Maria piped up next to her. “Oh look, my replacement.. How nice is this?”

She turned back to face Maria, though was Maria even there? “My head hurts. No one is replacing you, Maria. What are you talking about?” Why was Carol so confused?




At least she knew who he was. Hopefully that would help Sam accomplish his goal of convincing her that this wasn’t real. If she hadn’t recognized him, his task would have been far more difficult.

“Hey,” he said, moving over to stand next to her, reaching out for her hand even though he wasn’t sure how that would work in a VR setting. “Do you remember New York? Stark Tower? Saving me from drowning?”

He had no clue where she thought they were or who Maria was. The only Maria he knew was Hill and that was definitely not her.




Turning her head to look back at Sam, she frowned slightly. “I’ve never been to New York. What’s Stark Tower?” She hadn’t ever heard of that before. And she definitely hadn’t saved that guy from drowning. At least she didn’t think so. “Are you from the Airforce? Did I rescue you in some capacity from that? Or are you from Hala?”

She didn’t know what this guy wanted, but she was torn between going on the offensive and wanting to hear him out. Especially if the guy needed help or something. Of course if he was from Hala, then there was only one thing that he wanted.

“Are you here to take me back?”




Okay, so her faint recognition was something, but this was going to be more difficult than Sam anticipated. “I was Air Force,” he said. “But that’s not how we met. Does the name Thanos mean anything to you?”

He knew enough about her history to know that Hala was not a place she would want to return to. “And no, I have nothing to do with Hala. You’ve been on Earth for a while. You came to help us fight Thanos, but a bunch of us got stuck in a weird parallel dimension. It’s… confusing.” Especially when she was already unsure what was going on. “I work with Fury.”

That was a stretch, but Sam was hoping that invoking the name of the SHIELD director would spark some recognition.




The words were slowly coming to her, but she couldn’t quite put them together. Everything was a little scrambled until he brought up Fury. Her eyes definitely lit up as she recognized the name. “Fury.. Fury, I know that name. Why can’t I remember? If this is the Supreme Intelligence, then tell them that they can come for me, but I will never go back there unless it’s to destroy them.”

The look on her face seemed like she meant her words, but everything was such a blur. “All of these words … I know them, but I don’t know how I know them. I’m sorry. I just want to be out of this place.”




“I’m here to get you out,” Sam said, reaching for her hand, though not actually touching her. He wanted to let it be her decision if she took it or not. “We’ll get you out of here and everything will make sense again. I promise.”

Not that she had much reason to trust his promise. Hopefully there was some instinct deep down inside her that would recognize he was one of the good guys. “The Supreme Intelligence can’t hurt you anymore,” he added.




Was she going to trust this guy? Carol didn’t take his hand, at least not at first. She needed a moment to think. He clearly knew her, that was obvious by the look on his face. And he knew that the Supreme Intelligence had done some damage to her. Though maybe that was because she’d just stated nearly that exact thing.

Finally she put her hand in his. In the end, she just wanted to leave and nothing she had tried got her out of here. Carol took a deep breath. “I’m going to trust you to get me out of here. And if you know me, you know that if this a trick - you’ll pay for it.”

For now though, she would go with him wherever. “How do we get out of here?”




Sam breathed a sigh of relief when Carol took his hand. The fact that she threatened him along with it didn’t phase him one bit. “Just hang on,” he said, walking back in the same direction he’d come from so he could return to the ‘door’ that Darcy coded to allow him into the VR in the first place.

When they reached it, he squeezed Carol’s hand and smiled. “We just need to walk through this door,” he said, turning the knob and letting her step through first.




With a small nod of her head, she smiled at Sam and then went with him through the door.

“You know.. You’re kinda cute.”




As soon as he woke up, Sam rushed to her bedside, chuckling at her comment.

“Yeah, so are you,” he said.