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Another damn human traitor.
Hermione's brow furrowed. The tiny scrap of goodwill she'd just managed to develop evaporated on the spot.
She shifted tack. "In that case — you and the Kree Empire already have a grudge. With your strength, why not just go over there, wipe them out, and take back the Skrulls' homeworld? Or grab a few habitable planets and hand them over. You really think the Kree would gamble their entire civilization to fight you over a few colony worlds?"
Hermione was genuinely baffled. From where she stood, Carol Danvers was operating at a level the Kree could simply not match. They were strong, sure, but nobody beats a walking cheat code.
And even if they could scrape together a fight, no civilization stakes its entire future on stopping one person.
Ceding a few planets to the Skrulls as a new home? For Carol, that should have been nothing. A Tuesday.
Carol's expression shifted into something uncomfortable. "The Kree are living beings too. Many of them have already settled on those planets — families, generations born there. We can't just..."
Hermione stared at her.
She almost checked whether she'd misheard.
Are you serious right now?
She can't bring herself to touch colonial planets stolen by her own enemies, invaders she personally has a grudge with, so instead she's going to be generous with Earth? Shipping homeless Skrull refugees to someone else's planet without asking a single soul who lives there?
The urge to send an Avada Kedavra straight into her face was almost overpowering. Hermione swallowed it down. Her eyes moved to the massive planet hanging just outside the viewport, and a plan clicked into place.
A friendly smile returned to her face.
"I actually have a recommendation."
Carol's eyes lit up. "Really? Where?"
"Right there." Hermione pointed at the living planet outside, the one whose father had just died, whose ownership had just changed hands. "Ego. Well, Quill's planet now, I suppose. Beautiful environment, abundant energy, enormous surface area. And the new owner is very open to residents."
Quill said nothing.
Carol followed Hermione's gaze and immediately understood. Her face split into something close to pure delight. "Of course! Ego! That horrible living planet is gone, it's just sitting there open! This is perfect!"
She turned to Hermione, gratitude flooding her eyes. "Thank you so much, Witch. You have no idea how much you've helped the Skrulls."
"Don't thank me." Hermione smiled warmly. "If anything, I should be thanking you."
Carol blinked, slightly confused, but let it pass. She assumed it was just pleasantries. Right now her whole heart was full of the relief of finding her people a home.
"The Skrulls are scattered across too many places. I'll need time to gather them all. Once I bring everyone here, I'll thank you properly!" She was already moving to leave.
"Take your time." Hermione waved a hand. "Quill will be here waiting. This planet is his to manage now, he'll handle the welcome."
Carol nodded, satisfied. She reached over and gave Goose a gentle stroke on Hermione's shoulder, then blazed into a streak of golden light and vanished into the stars.
The moment she was gone, Hermione's smile dropped like a mask hitting the floor.
What replaced it was ice.
"Um... boss." Quill was watching the direction Carol had gone, then glancing at the planet beside them. His voice came out very small. "That planet is technically mine now. Taking in refugees, that's kind of a big deal. Shouldn't you, uh... have asked me first?"
Hermione turned and looked at him. She nodded. "You're right. I should have asked. So, do you have an opinion?"
Quill met her gaze. Perfectly calm. Perfectly still.
He shook his head so fast it was almost a blur. "No. None. Zero. Whatever you say goes. Your friends are my friends. The Skrulls can stay as long as they want, forever, indefinitely, no problem."
Hermione nodded, satisfied. "Good. Don't worry — they won't be staying long."
She let that sit for a moment. Her voice went flat. "Stay here and use the time to get familiar with the planet and your new power. When Carol brings every last Skrull to this location, I'll come back."
"And then." She looked at Quill. The corner of her mouth curved into something that made the blood drain from his face. "You're going to channel this planet's power and dispose of them. All of them."
A sharp collective hiss ran through the bridge.
Yondu and the Ravagers stared at her. They couldn't wrap their heads around it, the boss had just been chatting warmly with that terrifyingly powerful woman, and now she was ordering the extermination of the exact species that woman was devoted to protecting.
Nobody said a word against it.
After everything they'd been through together, they'd learned the lesson well: don't try to understand the Witch's thinking. Her orders exist to be followed, not questioned.
Quill's face had gone the color of chalk. He didn't doubt for a single second that if he'd hesitated earlier, or said "no" right now, Hermione would dispose of him, the newly minted Celestial, right alongside the Skrulls without losing a wink of sleep over it.
Then Hermione's brow suddenly creased.
Something had shifted. She'd felt it.
Inside the magic book, the diary Horcrux had begun to shake, violently, its aura wild and destabilized, the entire diary being pressed down and eaten into by a surge of purple energy.
Tom Riddle was in trouble.
She had left him on Earth these past weeks to build out the magical infrastructure there. With the Horcrux anchoring him, he couldn't die. But what she was sensing now wasn't death, it was suppression. Something powerful had seized him. Pinned him somewhere. He was locked down and fighting the restraints, but he couldn't break free.
Hermione's eyes narrowed.
She knew exactly what Tom Riddle was capable of. After the time she'd given him to develop, he was sitting at the peak of Level 4 magic, one step from crossing into Level 5. On Earth right now, almost nothing should be able to hold him.
So who had?
Light shifted in her eyes.
Through the diary, she could pull him back to her side this instant. She chose not to.
The logic was simple. As long as Tom Riddle was still there, still fighting the seal, whoever had captured him almost certainly hadn't moved. They were holding him, but in doing so, he was holding them in place right back.
If she summoned him now, she'd keep him safe. She'd also let whoever did this walk away clean.
She wasn't letting that happen. Someone had dared to touch her people. And you don't lay hands on someone's dog without looking over your shoulder for the owner.
"Boss?" Quill had been watching her stand there frowning in silence. He ventured it carefully.
Hermione blinked back into the present. Her gaze swept across Quill, Yondu, and the rest.
"I'm going back to Earth."
"What? Now?" Quill stared.
"Yes." She looked at Quill. "You stay here. When that woman brings the Skrulls, I'll come back and handle everything after."
Quill nodded quickly. "Understood! Boss, I've got it handled! You can count on me!"
She turned to Yondu. "Watch him. And watch the ship."
That was all she said. Her figure flickered once and disappeared from the bridge entirely, reappearing inside the Asgardian vessel.
Then she became a streak of light, and was gone.
➤ Next: Agatha Harkness — Words Unspoken
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