[Author's note: I know what you're thinking. Not another missing scene from Captain Marvel / Endgame. I realize there are many other versions in fan fic right now. It's almost as if Marvel was baiting writers to come up with their own background as to how Carol took to the Avengers and how she found Tony in space. Just think of this as my version of how I believe it took place. First part is here now. Second may be coming soon. See what you think. Enjoy and review as you see fit!]

Proven

Part One

"Where is Fury?"

It was a question that they didn't know how to answer. But their hesitancy was also because of who was doing the asking. Who was this blonde woman who now stood before them? And how did she get in the base without them knowing or without any alarms going off? They were speechless until Natasha Romanoff spotted a clue. Sort of. She noticed that the star symbol on the woman's uniform was the same that appeared on the pager that Fury activated. This was who was on the other end. And she had a connection to Fury. But Natasha had never seen her before and didn't know who she was. That was about to change.

"You know Fury." It wasn't a question.

"Obviously," the woman replied with raised eyebrows.

"But we don't know you," said Natasha.

"You will after I get my answer."

Steve Rogers replied, "That answer will be complicated."

"So will mine. Let me guess. Fury disappeared like the other half of the population of the universe. And that was courtesy of the Thanos Snap."

Most of them gasped at her knowledge of Thanos. Yet, if it took her this long to answer a mysterious page, she may not exactly have been next door to Earth.

"How did you know about Thanos?" asked Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes.

"I have my connections. Not to mention the fact that my team...my former team had been tracking his actions for several years now."

Natasha asked her, "And you never caught up with him."

"He was always a step ahead of us."

"Welcome to the club," Natasha quipped.

Bruce Banner asked, "So, are we going to learn your name anytime soon? We know nothing about you, which tends to be a nuisance around us."

Natasha spoke before the woman could answer. "Wait, Bruce. I know a few things already." She addressed the woman. "You know about Thanos and his obsession with the Infinity Stones. You know he collected all of them and made the snap that wiped out half the population of Earth. You knew Director Fury at some point in the past. Judging by the age of the pager here, I'm thinking early to mid 1990s. And you answered the page that he sent before he..." Natasha stopped.

The woman finished. "Before he vanished." She sniffed and looked down at the floor. She then nodded and said, "Not bad. That'll earn you some fill-in-the-blank answers. My name is Carol Danvers. I did know Fury when I was here in 1995. He was at a desk job at S.H.E.I.L.D. when I knew him. He's Director now? Nice."

Bruce answered almost embarrassingly, "Not exactly."

"It's complicated," said Natasha.

"I know about complicated." She paused and admitted, "Thanos didn't just affect C-53...er, I mean Earth. The snap was universal. My team and I were tracking his whereabouts on Knowhere when they suddenly..." Carol breathed in and out and she said, "They disappeared into dust. Right before my eyes. I knew all of the stones were collected. I was too late. I received Fury's page not long after that. I was hoping that, because he could send the page, he would still be here. I came back as soon as I could."

Rhodey asked her, "So now that you're here, how can you help?"

Carol turned to face him. "I have abilities."

"We all have abilities," said Steve.

"Not like mine."

Bruce said, "My, aren't we full of ourselves."

"Excuse me for being confident. So, are there plans to go after Thanos and the stones, or are you all too stunned to see me?"

Steve scoffed and said, "Look, Carol, they may do things differently outside of this galaxy, but on this planet we're more careful when we plan dangerous missions."

"Sorry. I'm a bit more of a 'on the fly' type of planner. For the record, I am originally from here. Was in the military, in fact."

Rhodey moved over in front of her. "Wait a minute. Captain Carol Danvers. That name sounds familiar. Air Force?"

"Correct."

"You were a flyer."

"Two for two."

Rhodey paused in thought and mentioned, "You were reported dead in a crash. I was still a cadet at Edwards when that happened."

"Don't believe everything that's been redacted. My...survival was highly classified and it never happened."

"What did happen? And how did you end up in space?" Rhodey asked.

"Long story. Speaking of which, I gave you my name but none of you gave me yours. As Hannibal Lector used to say, quid pro quo?"

Natasha said her name and added, "Code name: Black Widow. Former Russian spy and assassin."

"Captain Steve Rogers. Or Captain America."

"Bruce Banner."

"Hulk," Natasha added for him.

"Not lately," he shot back.

"I won't ask," Carol smirked.

"Colonel James Rhodes. Rhodey. But I like War Machine better."

"Cute," Carol said. "You gave all of your call signs as well."

Steve said, "They're not call signs. They're who we are. We are all part of the Avengers Initiative."

Carol grinned and said, "Avengers? Fury named that, didn't he?"

"Yes. How did you know?" Steve asked.

Carol shook her head. "When Fury comes back, I'm going to hit him. My call sign as a pilot here was 'Avenger'. Fury must have seen that back then and borrowed it. So, you're all welcome to use it." She paused before asking, "Is this all of your team?"

Natasha stated, "No. Many are unaccounted for."

"I figured as much. Are they all...gone?"

"Unknown," replied Steve. "We have a video record of Tony Stark, Dr Stephen Strange, and Peter Parker on a strange ship that came from another world. It attacked New York."

"What kind of ship?" asked Carol.

"We don't really know," said Steve.

Bruce said, "It was the shape of a big donut."

Carol shut her eyes and muttered, "Ebony Maw."

"Who?" cried Natasha.

"One of the many allies of Thanos. Extremely powerful."

Bruce said, "Yeah, I was there. I remember him. Creepy dude. Dr. Strange tried to fight him but he was captured. Tony and Peter went after them. The ship disappeared into space."

"Have any idea of its destination?"

"We don't," said Steve. "How could we know? We have no point of origin. We can detect signals from deep space but we can't track them with the equipment we have."

"Understood," Carol said. She raised her left arm and fiddled with a panel on her wrist. "Locate Ebony Maw." A 3D image was projected from the panel and it showed a grotesque alien.

"That's him," cried Bruce.

A computerized voice from the panel stated, "Cannot locate Ebony Maw. Deceased."

Carol said, "That could be a good sign."

Steve stated, "Unless the ship was destroyed. Along with a few stowaways."

Carol asked, "What were the other names? Tony Stark?" She paused and asked, "Any relation to Howard Stark, the weapons developer?"

"Father. Tony is his son," Natasha supplied.

"Locate Tony Stark," Carol commanded the panel.

"Insufficient data."

Carol scowled. Steve then said, "Try Iron Man."

"Seriously?" Carol repeated the term to the panel.

The panel gave a short bio on Iron Man and then stated, "Location: unknown." Carol cursed.

Rhodey smirked. "Not exactly a reliable resource."

"It usually is. The problem is that if Maw is dead but the others can't be located, it would be near impossible to track it from here. It could have gone into one of the dark quadrants."

They could hear a voice coming from the other room that was approaching. Within seconds, a short and fully standing raccoon entered the room. It was fiddling with something. And then it spoke. "Hey, I found these pair of cool sunglasses out on the Wakanda battlefield. You think whoever they belonged to will miss 'em?" He looked up and he spotted Carol. Both of them widened their eyes at each other. The raccoon yelled, "Kree Starforce! Get down!" He went for his pistol in his holster and fired a few shots at Carol.

None of them were expecting the next action. A strange yellow glow began to envelope around Carol. Her eyes were replaced by two bright lights. The bullets from the pistol found their target, yet they ricocheted off Carol as if they hit a brick wall. She then raised her right arm and formed a fist. Another yellow light formed around her hand that was even brighter. A burst of energy was thrust out of her arm and it hit the raccoon dead on. He was thrown backwards into the air to land at the opposite wall.

She walked over to him as the yellow glow faded away. He was just getting himself back up when she gasped, "Fur-face?"

"Captain Marvel," he greeted with a grunt.

"You're the last one I expected to see here."

"Back at you. You come all this way to arrest me? Again?"

"I don't know, have you done anything illegal lately?" She chuckled. "What am I saying? Of course you have."

"Hey, I'm here for my friends."

"You have friends? Wait, didn't you used to hang out with a Groot?"

"Did. As in past tense. He's sorta not here anymore. Or anywhere else for that matter."

Carol's expression changed from jest to sour in an instant. "I'm sorry."

Steve said, "I take it you know each other?"

Carol replied, "Yeah, Rocket and I have crossed paths a few times."

Bruce asked her, "Was that your special ability?"

"Part of it."

"What's the other part?" asked Rhodey.

"Longer story," she answered.

Rocket asked her, "So you're all up to speed with all things Thanos?"

"So far. We have no clue where he is right now. But now, the Avengers' priority is finding the rest of their team. Hey, you could help. Do you have an intergalactic map on your ship?"

"I do, but my ship isn't here."

Carol crinkled her brow. "How did you get here?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. I've been trying to tinker with some of the things around here to come up with a map or a tracking system. Forget it. The equipment here is primitive crap."

"Hey," cried Bruce.

Natasha added, "Tony's things are pretty advanced."

"For this planet, maybe," Rocket said.

Carol said to Rocket, "Don't know, Fur-face. I was able to retro fit an intergalactic holographic communicator with parts from Radio Shack. Twenty years ago."

Rocket pleaded, "A comm unit is one thing. You and your StarForce had your nifty little codes that only worked with that specific equipment. But a navigational map and tracer? That needs a-"

"A source code," Carol finished in a defeated tone. "Which I was hoping you had on your ship."

"A source code?" questioned Steve.

Carol answered, "Yeah. Think of it as an intergalactic Yellow Pages. And we don't exactly have a listed phone number." She used her panel on her arm to type in more data. She brought up what looked like a galaxy of various planets.

Steve noted, "Looks like you have a map there."

"Don't get excited, Mr. America. This just shows one point in the Andromeda galaxy. I was hoping it could show me a trajectory of a course when Ebony Maw's ship left Earth."

Steve grinned. "It's Captain America."

"Oh, I'll never remember that." She grinned at him.

Rocket gasped. "Wait. Maw was here?"

"Yeah, he attacked New York," answered Carol.

"I don't know what that is," the raccoon said.

"Big, big city," replied Carol.

Natasha was more direct. "We think he was here to collect one of the Infinity stones."

Bruce asked, "The Time Stone. Strange protected it in a necklace around his neck."

"And now Maw has it when he captured Strange." Steve's voice sounded defeated.

Rocket added, "Thanos got the Power stone when he leveled Xandar."

"I know." Carol's voice was tight with anger. "My team arrived too late there. He and his army took out Nova Corps."

Steve wondered. "Could Thanos be near this Xandar?"

Carol sighed. "Negative. Thanos rarely goes back to places he's already defeated."

Natasha was thinking logically. "If Maw was commanded by Thanos to collect the Time Stone, then they would have set up a rendezvous point."

"Where would that be?" asked Bruce.

Carol glanced at the nearby computer. She nodded at it. "How far out can that reach?"

"We've already tried reaching as far into deep space as we can with it." Steve's confidence was wearing thin.

"Forget it, Marvel," began Rocket. "You're lucky if you can even reach Alpha quadrant with that thing."

Bruce made a suggestion. "What about the pager? It reached all the way out to you, didn't it?"

"And that's the problem," Carol replied. "I programmed it years ago so it would only contact me. It only has a linear chip, not a universal one."

"There is a simple answer, Captain," said Rocket confidently.

"I'm sure you're going to tell me, Fur-face."

"Where's the one remote place that Thanos and Maw can plan their galactic dominance with all of the Power gems?"

Carol stopped in thought a moment and then uttered, "Titan."

"What is Titan?" asked Rhodey.

"It's his homeworld," answered Carol. "It was devastated by a natural catastrophe decades ago. Thanos was the only one who survived. And it is the perfect place for a rendezvous. What if your team were stuck on Maw's ship and the course was preset to Titan?"

Natasha followed Carol's thought. "Then Tony, Strange, and Peter fought Thanos alone."

Rocket said, "Maybe they weren't alone. Before me and Thor went off to forge a weapon to defeat Thanos, Quill and the others went to Knowhere to get the Reality gem before Thanos did."

"It was too late. My team and I were on Knowhere and it was also devastated."

"What is this nowhere you guys keep talking about?" asked Rhodey.

"Long story," said Rocket.

"You guys have a lot of long stories," Rhodey said.

Steve kept back to the discussion. "So, Thanos succeeded in getting five of the Infinity stones. There would be only one more Infinity stone left to collect."

"The Mind stone," said Natasha. "Vision."

Steve reflected sadly. "I saw Thanos rip out the stone from Vision's head."

"And Wanda disappeared with the rest of them," said Natasha.

Carol didn't want to dismiss their remembrances, but there was a mission to plan. She told them, "I don't mean to degrade your friends, but if they were defeated on Titan, and assuming they weren't affected by the snap, how would they have escaped?"

They all were silent without an answer. But Rocket came up with a possibility.

"If the Guardians were there, they would have access to a ship."

"What kind of ship?" asked Carol.

"M-class."

Carol raised one eyebrow at the raccoon warrior. "A Ravenger ship?"

"It's Quill's ship. Although, I keep it running. He even named it something weird. The Benatar."

Carol grinned. "The Benatar?"

Natasha also smiled. "I take it this Quill is originally from here."

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Rocket asked.

Natasha shrugged. "Wild guess."

Carol joked, "Hit me with your best shot."

"Such a heartbreaker," followed Natasha. She and Carol gave an inside joke nod.

Carol went back to serious. "This ship, is it a standard jump drive?"

"More than standard, thanks to me. It could make Antares from here in three jumps."

"So, average, then," quipped Carol, ignoring the grunt from Rocket. "If they tried to jump from Titan, they may not be as far out as I thought. Assuming they're alive."

"Assuming they haven't disappeared," said Steve.

"And assuming the ship isn't damaged or destroyed," said Rocket.

"There's a bit too much assuming here," said Rhodey.

"We have to take that chance," said Natasha. "I'd rather know than to be kept in the unknown."

"I agree," said Carol. "Look, I know all of you just met me. We have a common connection with Fury. But this Devastation has affected the whole universe. It's affected me with my team vanishing. I can't imagine not knowing if my team made it or not. You guys deserve to know. I told Fury to page me only in extreme emergencies."

"I think this qualifies," said Rhodey.

"Yes, it does," agreed Carol.

"Thank you, Carol," said Natasha.

"Don't thank me yet."

Steve asked, "Do you think you can find them?"

Carol sighed. "With Titan, at least I have some pinpoints to look for. A Ravenger ship would stand out in that area. Ravengers never go near Titan." She blew out a breath and then said, "I better get going. I'll get you your answers. Hopefully, I'll come back with your team members."

Steve edged closer to her. "Carol, when's the last time you slept?"

She sighed again. "Not sure. Time here is different from other galaxies."

Steve said, "I think you need a rest before you take off again."

"I work better on the run."

The Captain said back, "As one soldier to another, I happen to know that is a lie. Now, being that we're apparently the same rank of Captain, I can't order you to stay the night before your mission is a go."

"Seriously? You're going to pull rank on me? That's a first in quite a while."

"I can't talk," said Rhodey. "You both outrank me."

Carol thought a moment and finally admitted, "If I sleep now, I'm not sure I would ever wake up. Doesn't exactly make me a good soldier."

Steve smiled. "No. It makes you an Avenger.

tbc