When Lin Xiao and Carol returned to New York with the Skrulls, it was almost dark.
Fury personally handled the settlement matters. These Skrulls were temporarily housed in a safe house in Brooklyn belonging to S.H.I.E.L.D.. The location was remote but well-equipped, enough for these alien visitors to rest for a while. After completing the handover procedures, Fury pulled Lin Xiao aside and whispered a few official platitudes. Lin Xiao, unusually, didn't banter with him, but nodded slightly, appearing somewhat absent-minded. He felt that something was amiss, but couldn't quite put his finger on it.
On the way back from Brazil, Carol spoke even less than usual and often stared blankly at the sea.
Lin Xiao had noticed Carol's unusual behavior long ago, but he neither asked nor said anything.
Carol found him. The two stood on the grass in the backyard of the safe house, chatting idly about the resettlement of the Skrulls. Carol had a habit of gesturing with her hands as she spoke, and the sunlight filtering through her fingers suddenly fixed Lin Xiao's gaze.
The tip of her left index finger was almost completely transparent. Lin Xiao stared at that finger for a fraction of a second before looking away and casually continuing her sentence. He didn't ask anything. He didn't even let her notice that he had seen it. Carol seemed oblivious, lowering her hand and continuing with the next part of the plan.
But the next day, she had a white glove on her hand.
It was a very ordinary white cotton glove, which Lin Xiao saw clearly, but he didn't say a word.
He had actually understood long ago.
Carol is a clone of the Binary Form, essentially an energy entity endowed with an independent personality and complete combat capabilities. An energy entity cannot exist forever. Her mission on Earth was to retrieve the scattered Skrulls; once the mission was complete, this clone would have fulfilled its purpose. An energy entity that has completed its mission will naturally dissipate. And that fading finger is the beginning of the countdown.
Lin Xiao knew very well that he couldn't keep her. But he still wanted to do something.
That day, he knocked on Carol's door at her temporary residence at S.H.I.E.L.D..
Carol leaned against the doorframe, raising an eyebrow at Lin Xiao: "You've come to see me now. What are your plans for tonight?"
Lin Xiao smiled slightly and said:
"Don't stay cooped up all the time, you'll go crazy if you keep this up. Come on, let me take you out for a walk."
Where to?
"Let's go to Stark Tower to pick something up first, then I'll give you a surprise."
Carol tilted her head, trying to read something from Lin Xiao's face, but couldn't discern anything from his grinning expression.
Half an hour later, on the top floor of Stark Tower, Pepper Potts personally greeted them. The new CEO of Stark Industries, having experienced so much, had clearly matured considerably, appearing confident, composed, and extremely elegant.
She placed a silver briefcase on the table and pushed it in front of Lin Xiao. " Tony had to go on a business trip today, and he asked me to give this to you before he left. Take it and leave quickly, and don't rummage through his office."
"Business trip?" Lin Xiao picked up the suitcase and weighed it in his hand. "Where did you go on a business trip? How come I didn't know?"
"I'm not his boss, why should he report to me when he's on a business trip?" Pepper rolled her eyes.
Lin Xiao didn't reply. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly curled the corners of his mouth upward. In the top floor of the building, besides Pepper and JARVIS, there was the presence of a third person. That presence was hidden in the bathroom, faint yet familiar—it was Tony.
Tony isn't away on a business trip. That bastard is hiding in the bathroom right now, refusing to come out and see him. He must have done something wrong.
Lin Xiao gave Pepper a meaningful look. Pepper's expression appeared calm and composed, but Lin Xiao noticed that her ears were red.
"Okay, then I won't bother you any longer." Lin Xiao tucked his suitcase under his arm, turned and walked towards the elevator door, then turned back after a couple of steps. "Oh, by the way, tell Tony to remember to call me. When you're on a business trip, don't go to those kinds of places to eat all the time, you'll get an upset stomach."
Pepper didn't say anything, she just waved her hand, but Lin Xiao noticed her shoulders twitching suspiciously.
As Carol walked out of Stark Tower, she finally couldn't help but speak.
"You knew he was hiding in the bathroom and you even told him to eat less?"
He has pica.
Carol:...
Lin Xiao didn't take Carol away directly. He drove to the Stark Industries Museum, a circular building separate from the main building, displaying the inventions of Howard Stark and Tony Stark. Stark Industries ' security system exempted Lin Xiao from facial checks, so he led Carol through the hall, past the display case of the original Arc Reactor, past the replica of the Mark I, past the Shelby Cobra modified by Tony, and finally stopped in front of an old fighter jet.
It was a P-51 Mustang, a classic aircraft from World War II. Its silver fuselage and dusty propellers, though well-preserved, made it one of the museum's prized possessions. A bronze plaque hung on its fuselage, inscribed. " Howard Stark's Private Ride, 1944."
Lin Xiao tilted his head and examined it for a while, then took out a palm-sized magnetic card from his pocket and swiped it on the display stand. With a ding, the security system was instantly deactivated.
Carol watched his movements, her eyebrows slowly rising.
"... What are you trying to do?"
"Let's borrow the old man's plane for a spin. Tony treasures this plane; he always fills it up with gas and does regular maintenance, so there's no need to worry about flying it. Let's take it for a spin today." Lin Xiao pried open the cockpit lock and lifted the canopy, his movements as practiced as if he'd rehearsed it many times. He gestured to Carol, "Beautiful lady, get on the plane." Carol's eyes lit up, and she eagerly climbed into the cockpit.
The P-51 Mustang glided out from the museum's hidden runway, the wind whipped by the propellers making Carol's blond hair flutter. Lin Xiao sat in the back seat, watching Carol skillfully grip the control stick, a smile playing on his lips. She drove extremely steadily; after all, she was a former pilot, and flying a World War II relic was as easy for her as an adult riding a children's tricycle.
After the plane took off, Carol suddenly cheered, a childlike joy in her voice. She pushed the control stick forward, and the plane circled in the air, flying towards the Statue of Liberty.
Sitting in the back seat, Lin Xiao looked at her wind-blown hair and the slight upturn of her lips, and suddenly felt that this trip to the museum was worthwhile.
He retrieved the suitcase from under the seat, opened it, and pressed the activation button for the suit. Nanomaterials surged from the suitcase, spreading upwards along his arms, covering his entire arm, torso, legs, and finally his back. As the cape unfurled behind him, Lin Xiao nodded in satisfaction. This style was truly cool; the red Homelander suit fit perfectly, was breathable, flexible, and comfortable. But when Lin Xiao inadvertently glanced at the cape behind him, his expression froze.
The cloak was embroidered with a dragon. Not the five-clawed golden dragon he had requested, but a large red lizard with wings, a round belly, and a wide-open mouth, spewing a ball of cartoonish flame forward.
Lin Xiao stared at the large lizard for several seconds, his lips trembling several times, before finally managing to squeeze out a sentence through gritted teeth.
"Holy crap... this giant lizard!"
Tony really did something wrong. That bastard not only didn't embroider a dragon, but he also replaced his beloved five-clawed golden dragon with a cartoon version of a Western fire dragon, and it even breathes cartoon flames. If New York see this when he wears it out, the scene is too beautiful to imagine.
Lin Xiao's face turned green; he was completely horrified.
Carol turned around and saw this scene. She laughed so hard she almost dropped the control stick. The plane lurched in the air, and she quickly steadied herself, but the laughter just wouldn't stop.
" Lin Xiao, this cloak suits you very well, please don't take it off, I beg you, please don't take it off."
"You're still laughing! I've been tricked and you're still laughing! Don't you have any compassion!" Lin Xiao reached for the cloak's buckle, trying to take it off.
Carol wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, suppressed a laugh, reached out her hand, and a warm golden light shone from her fingertips, landing on Lin Xiao's cloak.
Tell me what pattern you want, and I'll change it for you.
"Isn't that obvious? What I want is a dragon, China dragon, Haki five-clawed golden dragon!"
Carol wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and continued to add golden light, covering the giant lizard. After the light faded, the giant lizard disappeared, replaced by a dragon—the very five-clawed golden dragon that Lin Xiao had initially desired! The dragon's body was serpentine, its scales clearly defined, its whiskers fluttering in the wind, and golden flames burning in its eyes. The entire dragon moved on the cloak, as if it were alive, with a faint light flowing through every line.
Lin Xiao looked down at the five-clawed golden dragon on the cloak. At first, he was indeed happy, but then he was deeply worried. He could have asked Tony to change it back, but she used her powers to modify it for him. Wouldn't that consume a lot of her energy?
Carol withdrew his hand, gripped the joystick again, and spoke in his usual nonchalant tone.
"This looks much better. That lizard was really ugly."
Lin Xiao looked at her profile, his lips moved as if he wanted to say something irritating to break the atmosphere, but he swallowed the words back. He simply reached out and gently touched the dragon's tail on her cloak.
Thanks.
Carol didn't turn around, but the corners of her mouth curved up even more.
The P-51 Mustang circled the Statue of Liberty three times. Carol kept the plane very low, close enough to see the words on the cover of the Declaration of Independence in the statue's hand. Tourists below looked up to take pictures, thinking it was a specially arranged air show. Carol pulled up the nose, and the plane shot straight into the clouds, climbing to the highest possible altitude, with the entire New York spread out below like a carpet of lights.
Carol gazed down at the lights and remained silent for a long time.
Lin Xiao sat in the back seat, saying nothing. He knew what she was looking at; she wasn't looking at the night view, but at Earth, her own home...
After disembarking from the plane, they went to the Skrulls temporary settlement. S.H.I.E.L.D.. personnel were working day and night to prepare an evacuation spaceship—a small spaceship hidden in an underground bunker in an abandoned warehouse. S.H.I.E.L.D.. technicians were doing final system adjustments.
All the Skrulls had arrived. They had shed their human disguises, revealing their original green skin, and were bustling around the spaceship, helping to check equipment and move supplies, their faces filled with barely concealed excitement. They were finally going home, or rather, finally going to find a Nova they could call home.
Carol stood at a distance watching them, her expression calm and revealing no emotion. Lin Xiao stood beside her, took a deep breath, and said:
"I'll make the trip to Afghanistan for you. You stay in New York and keep them calm. It's not like I've never done this kind of thing before."
Carol turned to look at him, her blond hair gleaming slightly in the warehouse overhead light. She stared at him for a while, then shook her head.
"No. Let's go together."
Lin Xiao wanted to say something, such as how long his energy could last, that he knew the routes in Afghanistan better than Lin Xiao, and that he should rest more here. But looking at the calm and determined light in Carol's blue eyes, he didn't say a word.
Lin Xiao remained silent for a few seconds before nodding.
"Okay, let's go together."
Before leaving, Lin Xiao suddenly stopped, turned around, and asked a question.
After you leave, will the next time I see you, it still be you?
Carol was taken aback by the question. She tilted her head and looked at him, as if trying to determine if he was joking again. His expression became incredibly serious, an expression Carol had never seen before.
She remained silent for a long while before speaking.
"I am still me. My clone and my original share all memories, synchronized every second from birth to dissipation." She paused, her tone softening as if choosing her words carefully. "Perhaps there will be slight differences in our emotions. My original is more rational than my clone, after all, this body—" She raised her gloved left hand and gently clenched her fist, "Is itself a consumable energy source."
After listening, Lin Xiao nodded without saying anything, simply standing there quietly, lost in thought.
They spent about two hours settling the Skrulls, confirming the launch schedule for the spacecraft, and making a final handover with the technicians sent by Fury.
Finally, they flew back to the top floor of Stark Tower.
The P-51 Mustang sat quietly on the edge of the rooftop, its wings reflecting the starlight of the night sky. Carol leaned against the fuselage, gazing up at the night sky. She looked for a long time, her expression serene, as if she were etching every detail of this starry sky into her memory.
Lin Xiao stood behind her, remaining silent for a long time.
Suddenly he stepped forward and pulled her into his arms from behind, causing Carol to stiffen for a moment. Her shoulders tensed instinctively, and she raised her arms slightly as if trying to break free, but the position left her with nowhere to lean on, or perhaps something else stopped her in her tracks. She could feel the weight of his arms, hear the steady heartbeat in his chest, and feel his chin gently resting on the top of her head.
She wanted to say something. Like, "Are you asking for trouble again?" or "I'm not one of those girls you can easily fool," or "If you don't let go, I'll throw you off the roof." But she didn't say a word. Her hand hovered in mid-air for a long time, and then slowly and gently covered his arms that were wrapped around her waist.
Lin Xiao turned her around and looked down at her. Her blue eyes shone unusually bright under the starlight; it was hard to tell if it was the stars reflected in them or something else luminous. His gaze moved from her eyes to her lips, and then Lin Xiao kissed her.
Carol's pupils dilated slightly, her mind blank for a moment. She placed her hands on his chest, her fingertips gripping his clothes tightly, and pushed him twice, then twice more, before the force gradually lessened...
Meanwhile, in the depths of the universe, countless light-years away from Earth.
Carol, Captain Marvel's true form, was hovering in orbit around an unnamed planet, arms crossed, expressionless as she watched the collapsing red giant in the distance. She had just dealt with a group of space pirates and was quite exhausted, preparing to find a place to rest. Just then, an extremely powerful shockwave swept over her.
That was a stream of memories shared by her clone. Images, sounds, sensations, and emotions were all packaged into an energy wave that traveled across countless light-years and directly poured into the core of her consciousness.
In the video, the 2.1-meter-tall, muscular man is bending down to kiss her genitals. He's kissing her quite earnestly.
Carol's cheeks flushed a light pink at a visible speed. She maintained her expressionless posture, but the force with which she crossed her arms tightened unconsciously, her fingers digging a shallow mark into her arm.
After a long silence, she finally managed to squeeze out two words through gritted teeth.
"Asshole."