The Fall of Captain Marvel: Chapter One

It was dawn on the Garden Planet, and Thanos was tired. It had been two weeks since his destiny came to full fruition. After a lifetime of searching and scheming, the Infinity Stones had fallen into his hands in nearly a single day and he reached his life goal; he saved the universe. He did it, and the universe should thank him until the end of time.

Something wasn’t sitting right with him though, and it had taken Thanos two weeks since to realize what it was.

It was that Asgardian, Thor.

Thor had nearly killed Thanos - had come closer than any other single person in his entire life. Had the rage-filled Asgardian warrior struck his head to end his life instantly, instead of wishing to gloat of his revenge to Thanos, he would have failed! Thanos would have been in sight of his dream, yet failed to achieve it at the literal last second. This put a stark reality into Thanos’ mind.

He wasn’t going to live forever, and what would happen to the stones - and his saving of the universe - when he died?

There was only one thing to do about it, but it took Thanos one more week to gather the Will to do it. He had literally unlimited power in his hands, and it was as difficult to lay aside as it had been to get it. With supreme regret, but supreme dedication to his destiny, Thanos put the Infinity Gauntlet on one last time. Focusing on the stones of the Gauntlet itself, he drew the power of the stones out and unleashed them on the stones themselves.

The feedback had been apocalyptic, the Uru-made gauntlet trying to contain it, but even the magic metal had limits. His arm burned away, a pain like he had never imagined searing the side of his face. The stones, bedrocks of the universe, cracked under their own power and shattered. The scream Thanos let out was a primal one as the power of the stones vanished from their shards - and from the universe in general. As Thanos’ scream faded, he viewed with mild awe his ruined arm.

It had worked, and it was worth it. The universe was saved, Thanos had won, and the power of the Infinity Stones was gone from the entire universe, forever.

---

Carol Danvers, the galactically-famous (and feared by villains) Captain Marvel, soared and twirled gracefully through a cloudless sky over New York City. Up here in the privacy of flight, she smiled with contentment. There were plenty of people down there, even amongst what was left of the Avengers, that always ribbed her about smiling more, which just made Carol want to smile less. But flying was the one thing she still really enjoyed doing, ever since Thanos had won and snapped half of the intelligent life of the universe away.

Her body, ample and curvacious in her skin-tight Kree suit, was glowing with a rainbow hue. She was streaking across the city in a leisurely path, no particular destination in mind. She could move faster, so much faster, if she had wanted to, but she was keeping her speed under control so that she might see some unsavory crime going on below.

Flying was the only thing that brought Carol any pleasure these past three weeks. Her arms were to her side as she zoomed forward, enjoying the wind whipping her beautiful blonde hair behind her. Yes, she was happier doing this than anything else - it gave her a chance to put her supreme failure behind her, if only just for a moment.

That supreme happiness changed to confusion as if a switch was flipped - the binary rainbow colors surrounding Captain Marvel disappeared abruptly, and she started to tumble out of the sky. Confusion led quickly to fear, and fear immediately became absolute terror as the streets of New York grew closer with an inevitable rushing. She tried to focus, tried to concentrate and turn her binary mode on, but she felt nothing. This wasn’t like when the Supreme Intelligence had blocked her power off with a power dampener; then she could feel it behind the technological lock, but couldn’t access it.

No, as she plummeted and tumbled out of the sky, she felt absolutely powerless for the first time in decades.

She wasn’t Captain Marvel any more, she was just Carol Danvers, and she was a scared girl. Her unmatched strength and her near infinite durability had vanished with her power, leaving her just an ordinary human woman, falling hundreds of feet out of the sky and plummeting to the ground. The fear broke her as the concrete jungle of New York City drew ever closer, and the scream that roared from her lungs was the most primal sound Carol had ever uttered.

The falling fragile human body clipped off a Manhattan skyscraper, shattering her arm and shoulder and mercifully silencing the terror filled scream of Carol’s last moments as everything went black for the heroine. Striking the side of the skyscraper caused Carol to cartwheel out of control the rest of the way to the ground. The former heroine didn’t regain consciousness before she crashed and crumpled into the top of a parked delivery truck, her back broken and body twisted and shattered.

---

If you were one to believe in them, miracles do happen. The delivery truck that Carol Danvers crumpled and crashed into was parked in front of the only building in Manhattan that might have saved her, the newly constructed Wakandan Embassy. It was with the quick-thinking of the ambassador there, aided by the marvelously advanced technology of the emerging nation, that Carol didn’t die from her fall. Nearly every bone in her gloriously perfect body was broken, but their vibranium-enhanced technology helped stabilize her and mend the wounds.

The physical wounds were able to be healed - gashes closed, bones knitted together, spine rebuilt and arms and legs saved - but her mental injuries were not so easily fixed. Had Shuri survived Thanos’ snap and been able to see to Carol, perhaps she could have helped the heroine out of the deep coma that she was in. The comatose body of Carol Danvers, once stabilized and healed by Wakandan technology, was transferred and given a permanent room in the Bellevue Hospital in New York City paid for by Tony Stark, in thanks for her saving his own life.

The next time Carol would wake, it would be five long years later, and she would wake to her own private hell.