The Girl In Battle (Carol x Valkyrie)

they say love always wins.

Warm arms grabbed her wrist and Valkyrie let out a shriek as pain shot through her body.

  She tried to focus on the blurry silhouette in front of her. As her vision cleared, she saw Carol, and her heart threatened to explode.

  "Carol..." she whispered, not sure if the other girl could hear her. "Remember..."

  She felt herself being set down gently among the remnants of a house, and Carol's warmth seeped through her body. She felt her strength return, and when she was sure of it, she pushed herself up to her feet, staggering a little.

  Carol's broken blue eyes never left hers, and they were cold, cold, cold. "Remember what?"

  "This isn't you." Valkyrie ground her teeth together, trying to fight back the tears from entering her eyes and voice.

  "I always hear that line." Carol shook her head, starting to back away. "I have a mission to finish. I...I won't let you distract me any longer."

  Valkyrie gripped Carol's wrist, pulling her close. "Please. Just listen to me."

  Carol's face hardened, and the tortured look was gone. She snatched her hand away and blasted Valkyrie with a beam of light, shooting the warrior right into a charred wall. "I won't listen to you. I don't know you, and I'm here to kill, not to make conversation."

  The wall cracked at the impact, and Valkyrie's breath was expelled from her lungs. As she lay there, coughing and gasping, she saw Carol burst through the roof. Splinters and dust rained down.

  No, Valkyrie found herself leaping onto a table a little ways off the hole. I won't let you hurt anyone anymore.

  With a scream, Valkyrie launched herself into the air and barely made it out the roof. But she did, and barely a moment later, she leaped from the roof and latched onto Carol's legs.

  Before Carol could react, Valkyrie slid Dragonfang from its sheath, squeezed her eyes shut, and plunged it deep into Carol's thigh.

  Carol let out an ear-splitting scream and Valkyrie seized the chance. She dragged herself up onto Carol's back and bore down hard with her entire weight, making Carol lurch sideways in the air.

  Just as Valkyrie was about to force Carol down onto the ground, a flaming ball appeared out of nowhere and slammed Valkyrie in the chest, burning through her chest plate and coming in contact with her skin.

  Valkyrie screeched as the heat seized her entire body, its unbearable heat sending every vein into paralysis, and she used every last ounce of her strength to push it off her as she fell...

  ...right onto her pegasus' back. The portal above her disappeared.

  I...really...have to stop...falling, she through weakly, agony sinking its teeth into every inch of skin on her body. She gasped through the pain, fumbled around for her sword, realized she must have dropped it, and groaned.

  "Valkyrie!"

  Valkyrie couldn't move. Her body screamed when she tried, and she lay back down, breathing hard.

  "Valkyrie, incoming!"

  Valkyrie saw Carol shooting toward her and prepared for the inevitable, just when Carol tensed up. Red swirls of magic curling around her body immobilized her, and her face twisted in pain.

  Out of the corner of Valkyrie's eye, she saw Wanda straining to hold Carol in place. "Valkyrie, get away!" she yelled.

  Valkyrie tried to, grabbing onto Aragorn's white mane and hissing into his ear. "Away," was all she could manage before the pain overwhelmed her and she collapsed.

  She crawled onto her stomach with great effort, and saw Wanda facing off Carol. Since both were powered by the Infinity Stones, it was hard to see who would overpower who. But Valkyrie couldn't just lay there and let Wanda hurt Carol, or Carol hurt Wanda.

  "Wanda!" she choked out. "Leave her!"

  Wanda whirled toward her, beads of sweat dripping down her face. "She's going to hurt you, and all of us!"

  "Just leave her!"

  Wanda hesitantly obeyed, and Valkyrie screamed to get Carol's attention.

  "It's me you want! Not her!" Valkyrie yelled. "I wounded you, now come fight me!"

  "Valkyrie!" Wanda gasped, but Carol was already barrelling toward Valkyrie, rage radiating off her.

  Valkyrie veered Aragorn out of the way. "Carol! You're Carol Danvers. You like to sing, and you certainly do not like to destroy life. You fight evil, not work for it! You're a smart, strong, capable woman, and you will never let evil corrupt your heart like this!" Tears streamed down her cheeks. "That Mad Titan is hurting you! Can't you see? He's controlling you, and I won't ever let that happen and I'm sorry because it did!" Her voice broke, and all the words she wanted to shout out died on her tongue. "Please, just come back."

  Carol seemed to freeze, and Valkyrie thought, maybe, just maybe, that she had finally remembered everything.

  But that thin thread of hope snapped apart when Thor dropped down seemingly out of thin air, conjured up a ball of electricity in his hand, and stabbed it hard into Carol's head.

  "No!" Valkyrie shouted.

  Thor met her eyes. "I'm sorry, but nothing could save her."

  "It was working!" Valkyrie screamed.

  Carol shrieked and punched Thor away almost effortlessly, and her eyes seemed to be on fire as they locked onto Valkyrie's.

  "Your silly little distraction game is over," she hissed, before she slammed herself into Valkyrie, sending Valkyrie flying off her horse.

  Valkyrie hit the earth so hard she thought her spine was broken from the impact. Black spots multiplied in her vision, and she blinked hard. A wave nausea rushed over her. Carol landed a second later. As her feet touched the ground, a wave of light shot off her and sent all the remaining heroes tumbling down, even Wanda.

  "You will not distract me again!" Valkyrie watched helplessly as Carol tossed all her friends away. They hit the ground hard enough that Valkyrie could hear a crack, and they never got back up again.

  Valkyrie swallowed down a sob as Carol inched closer, raising her arm."You love songs," she whispered. "You taught me how to play the guitar. You gave me a locket with a lock of your hair inside." Slowly, she felt a smile curl the edges of her lips upward as she let herself loose into the memories that poured into her mind. "I look at it every day while you're gone, and it makes me feel safe. You always make me feel safe."

  Carol froze.

  "I love the way you smile when you thought people aren't looking. The way you smile at that little baby in the restaurant. But hell, I was always looking at you, even when I didn't understand what it meant to look at someone so much with such a warm feeling in the chest that it lights you up on the inside and you felt as thought nothing could go wrong. You make me feel that way, Carol. You...You look at the stars as though they hold secrets to a place full of wonders, and I thought that your eyes sparkle so much that they must've had entire galaxies in them. The way you go all embarrassed when you sang the wrong word or played the wrong chord. You have two different kind of laughs, and you're so insecure about it that I always wonder why. You're so beautiful in the way that you don't recognize it yourself."

  Carol started to tremble. "What are you..." She shook her head violently, and when she looked up, her eyes were no longer the ones Valkyrie recognized. "Stop messing with me."

  "I hope you'll remember one day, when all this is over." Valkyrie started to cry even more. But she held on to the smile on her face, for Carol. "I love you."

  Light blinded her vision, and she let it take her.