mapofstars | We were hoping for some romance (All we found was more despair)

Crawling her way back to Earth takes time. So many days, the true count of them lost to Xavin's records, a blur of them that had turned into months, into years. There had been a trial, a punishment. Months, a year lost to biding her time till she could make an escape, and it's easy for a Skrull to fake their death. It makes her all the more glad that she had taken Karolina's place all that time ago, because at least now she can return. They can be together.

Travelling back though is harder. It slow and tedious and all she can focus on is the time that keeps slipping from her. The memories that fade, and the only reason Karolina's face stays with her is her powers. She steals what moments she can to wear her face, to stare at in reflective surfaces and she strains her mind to recall the sound of her voice. Of her laughter, of her breathing. These are details she loses, and slowly even Karolina's face begins to blur. Her nose was always this sharp wasn't it? Her eyes always this shade of blue and Xavin realises with horror she has forgotten her face. She is forgetting her, and in her despair she realises she can't even recall her own face. The form she made for Karolina. She shifts but things don't seem right, the face she so carefully shaped and molded for her beloved never exactly as it should be.

Finally though, she makes it to Earth. Then it's more time, to track her down, and she supposes she could just make a scene. The media of Earth always did love scenes, but no, she can't. Revealing herself is a risk she cannot take, cowardly as it is. She can't bear to be a prisoner again, to be taken away again and kept from Karolina any longer. Was her hair more platinum blonde or was it darker. The freckles on her waist, what shape did they make she can't remember, she can't and it tears at her, even as she finds a name, finds an address and a home and her.

It's starting to rain, the water cold and the skies grey as she stands in front of Karolina's and Xavin pulls her coat tighter around her, fingers firm. She will not shake, will not tremble and she will not wait any longer. She is a Prince, she was a Super Skrull, and she will not cower at a door and the fear of what may be behind it and she seizes onto that courage. Uses it to ball her fingers into a fist and she knocks, the sound brutally loud to her ears, but the silence cuts even sharper. Every second of it is a sharp pain, her chest feeling tight, her knuckles turning white and finally, finally, the door swings open and she can breathe again.

"Karolina."