Arthur stepped through the portal onto Hala's surface and immediately understood why Carol carried such guilt.
The air carried the sharp bite of weapons discharge and industrial smoke—not overwhelming, but enough to make the Kree suit's filters work harder than usual. The sky held a faint haze, tinged with the orange glow of distant fires that dotted the horizon like scattered embers.
Carol stood rigid beside him, her gaze fixed on the capital city sprawling across the valley below. The metropolis still stood proud against the alien skyline, its crystalline spires gleaming in the filtered light. But even from here, Arthur could see the scars - blackened sections where weapons had struck, gaps in the skyline where towers had fallen, entire districts that flickered between light and darkness as power grids failed and restored themselves.
The damage was significant but patchy, like wounds on an otherwise healthy body.
"Hala," Carol whispered. "I'm back. How is this even possible? We didn't take any jump points, didn't travel through hyperspace. Just... walking through a door."
"Call it dimensional magic," Arthur said, eyes still scanning the skyline. "Distance is irrelevant for it."
"Must be nice." Carol kicked at a piece of debris. "You can cross galaxies in seconds. Do you have any idea how long it takes me to reach even nearby systems? Weeks sometimes, depending on the distance."
"Says the woman who can fly through vacuum and punch through planets," Arthur said dryly. "I've spent years of my life buried in books and meditation just to manage what I can do. You gained cosmic powers from standing too close to an explosion."
"It still takes forever to do anything useful." she muttered. "Your powers make mine feel… exhausting."
"Someone who accidentally became one of the most powerful beings in the known universe has no right to complain about effort. Do you know how many -"
"Okay, okay." Carol held up a hand, almost managing a smile. "Let's not turn this into a competition."
Arthur let his gaze drift back over the landscape, taking it in with quiet precision. "This… doesn't look as apocalyptic as you described."
Carol's head snapped toward him so fast he heard her neck crack. "Are you serious? Take off your helmet and try breathing the air for thirty seconds. See how that works out."
"I meant relatively speaking." Arthur gestured toward the city. "The way you talked about it, I expected nothing but ash and bone, maybe some radiation-mutated survivors fighting over scraps. But this? The city's still standing. Aircraft are moving. The sun's still up there, doing its job. This is bad. But not extinction-level."
"Not yet," Carol repeated bitterly. "Give it time."
"Show me around," Arthur said. "Let me see what an advanced alien civilization looks like. Even when it is trying to tear itself apart."
Carol shook her head immediately, taking an instinctive step back. "The moment they detect me, every faction mobilizes. They'd rather risk devastating entire continents than let the Annihilator walk free on Hala again."
"It's not an issue," Arthur said, pointing at her as he whispered a brief incantation. Reality shimmered around Carol, and in an instant, she vanished without a trace.
"What did you just do?" Her voice came from the empty air where she'd been standing.
"Disillusionment Charm. You're invisible to almost all forms of detection." For himself, Arthur simply willed invisibility into being, the Hallows' power flowing through him effortlessly. "Can you still hear me?"
"Yes, but this is unsettling. I know you're there, but..."
"You'll adapt. Now show me your world."
They flew through the damaged city, Carol moving with unconscious grace while Arthur kept pace through his own flight abilities.
She led him first to the residential towers where she'd once lived with Starforce—elegant structures with organic curves that seemed grown rather than built. Now many stood empty, their upper floors sheared away by weapons fire.
"No one lives in the towers anymore," Carol explained. "Too exposed, too easy to target. One strike and an entire family is just... gone."
She guided him lower, into the city's bowels where the population had retreated like animals seeking shelter from a storm. They descended through maintenance shafts and emergency stairwells until they reached the undercity—a vast network of service tunnels, subway stations, and parking structures that had never been intended for habitation.
Arthur saw thousands of Kree huddled in makeshift shelters and anywhere with some protection. Children sat hollow-eyed while parents queued for rations. The infrastructure was failing sporadically—some blocks had power, others lay in darkness.
"This is what I caused," Carol said, watching a young mother share her meal with her crying child.
Arthur remained silent. Words felt insufficient against such widespread suffering.
They ascended and flew north from the capital, covering hundreds of kilometers in minutes. Carol showed him another major city where one of the warring factions had established control. The uniformed troops wore traditional Kree military colors and maintained strict order—the old guard, trying to restore the empire exactly as it had been under the Supreme Intelligence.
"They want everything back the way it was," Carol said. "Same hierarchy, same oppression, just with new leadership at the top."
Several hundred kilometers west, on the other side of the planet, they observed another faction's territory. These forces wore different colors and seemed more diverse—Arthur could see Kree from various ethnicities working together, their settlements less rigid in structure.
"The other side," Carol explained. "The ones who were oppressed under the old system. They're fighting for equality, for change."
Arthur nodded, understanding the fundamental divide. It was a story as old as civilization. Those who benefited from the old order versus those who suffered under it.
Finally, they returned to their starting point on the northern continent, settling into chairs Arthur conjured from memory, comfortable Earth furniture that looked absurdly out of place on the alien world.
"So," Arthur began, settling in. "I couldn't help but notice your old mentor was conspicuously absent from our tour. Yon-Rogg, wasn't it?"
Carol's face tightened, jaw clenching as if biting back a memory too sour to swallow.
"I understand," Arthur said gently. "Another thing that puzzles me. Why 'the Annihilator'? Seems excessively harsh for someone who simply destroyed a tyrannical artificial intelligence."
Carol's laugh was entirely without humor. "Because I didn't just destroy the Supreme Intelligence, Arthur. I kicked off the annihilation of Kree civilization itself. Every death, every destroyed city, every orphaned child—it all traces back to my decision."
"No, it doesn't." Arthur's tone turned sharp, professorial. "And I'm not just saying that to make you feel better. This was always going to happen, with or without your intervention."
Carol turned sharply to face him, disbelief evident. "What?"
"The overpopulation of the planet and resource depletion were already problems. Also the sun dying. I don't see the civil war causing it. I noticed energy siphoning tech—probably accelerating the decay. So in a few decades, the planet was going to collapse anyway."
Arthur was telling the truth — and not just comforting Carol. The planet was really overpopulated. And all other problems. Maybe Earth would become like this one day. Makes sense Thanos is going around killing half the population if most of the planets in the universe are like this.
Carol floated in stunned silence.
"Think about it," Arthur continued. "Even with the Supreme Intelligence managing everything perfectly efficiently, how long could this have lasted? The resource drain from maintaining the large population, the environmental damage from centuries of development, the social pressure from the various ethnic groups — it was a powder keg. You just happened to be the spark."
Carol said, "Then they could have gotten resources from elsewhere — or maybe changed planets."
"As if there are empty livable and resource-rich planets everywhere in the galaxy. You should know. You've been searching for a planet for the Skrulls."
"That doesn't make me feel better about the children dying down there."
"It shouldn't. Their suffering is real and tragic. But it should make you stop taking sole responsibility for the collapse of an empire that was already rotting from within." Arthur's voice softened slightly. "You didn't cause this, Carol. You just accidentally controlled the timing. The civil war just accelerated the destruction."
Carol landed back in her chair with enough force to crack its legs. Arthur reinforced it with a casual gesture.