Archive of Our Own ^beta

It takes a few hours to sink in. That Talos is dead. That Talos had died saving the President of the United States from his own people. That Gravik had stabbed him in the heart.

It takes another couple for him to realize that he needs to tell Carol.

About all of it.

Fury doesn't even try to phrase it kindly when he sends the message. He doesn't have the energy for it.

N.Fury: Talos is dead. _{[11/8/26 1:39 PM]}

Carol doesn't respond until the next day.

Carol DANvers: Dead dead? _{[11/9/26 11:21 AM]}

N.Fury: Yeah. Dead dead. _{[11/9/26 11:24 AM]}

N.Fury: 

_{[11/9/26 11:25 AM]}

Carol DANvers: ?? _{[11/9/26 11:25 AM]}

Carol DANvers: That’s a horrible picture. It could literally be anyone from that angle. _{[11/9/26 11:25 AM]}

N.Fury: You’re right. Next time I’ll make sure to walk back into the danger-zone to make sure I have a great angle on some dead guy. _{[11/9/26 11:26 AM]}

Carol DANvers: …I could have phrased that better. _{[11/9/26 11:26 AM]}

Carol DANvers: What happened? _{[11/9/26 11:43 AM]}

N.Fury: I can't say over the phone. _{[11/9/26 11:46 AM]}

He grabs his pager and sends the coordinates over through it. Fury knows with absolute certainty that it can't be tracked by anyone on Earth. And that's about the only thing he knows, other than the fact that Gravik won't stop at anything to remake the world.

He doesn’t expect her to beat him to the location. It's probably because he went back for the body.

It takes a while to tell the full story, but Carol insists on hearing it down to the smallest detail. Even she calls him out on some of his bad calls. Ignoring Hill and Talos for so long. Lying to the Skrulls instead of negotiating with a world leader or using SABER’s resources to explore the nearest planets.

“You could have even sent them to the moon,” she points out, and Fury remembers the breathable facilities that’d been built with a sigh.

There were so many things he could have done that could have prevented Gravik’s uprising, and he’d done exactly none of them. He hadn’t even been around to catch the kid’s first sparks of rebellion.

This is his fault. His fault, and he’d gotten Talos killed because of it.

Or, that’s what he thinks anyway, as he recounts the previous couple of days. When he tells Carol of Talos’s injury, of the killing blow that followed. But all he gets is a blank stare in response.

“You think he's dead because he got stabbed in the heart?”

Fury's head snaps up at the unexpected response, frowning in confusion. He’d expected grief, maybe even agreement that he’s to blame, but… “That'd kill anyone.”

And then, she hits him with the most shocking information he’s ever heard:

“...Skrulls have two hearts.”

He stares at her for a time, long and hard, the words flipping around themselves in attempt to make more sense. But in the end, he finds no other meaning, and blurts a stilted, “They have two hearts?”

“You didn't know that?” And Carol looks just as confused as he is, and Fury knows that he was left out of the loop.

“Talos never said…” He begins. Pauses. Sighs. “He's alive, isn't he.”

Carol, ignoring all potential sensible responses, merely shrugs at him. As if this were any normal conversation they’d have. “Probably.”

He’d left his best friend to bleed out in the back of a van.

“Goddammit.”

He storms out of the room without another word, Carol following loosely behind him.

It’s cold outside, late fall in full swing, the air frosty even in the early afternoon. But the alleyway is still empty, the van appearing untouched since he’d parked it. Fury is torn between caution and reckless abandon as he approaches, frustration eating at him.

He opts for the latter. The doors fly open. But where he’d half-expected to see the dead Skrull, there’s nothing but a purple stain where he had laid just hours before.

Carol was right.

Knowing that, Fury lets righteous anger take over him as he marches around to the front of the vehicle. And sure enough, there's a man in the passenger seat. Bloody and tired, clearly in tremendous pain, but alive. And grinning a little.

Talos offers a small, bloody wave. “Hey.”

Fury punches him straight in the nose.