MARVEL: THE LAST THUNDER.

The team regrouped in the briefing room with the atmosphere seeming noticeably dense than it had been before. The encounter with Eddie and his parasite had left them with more questions than answers, particularly with Venom's adamant refusal to reveal anything about his species or the mysterious entity they had come to know as Knull.

Whatever secrets the parasite was keeping, it seemed determined to take them to the grave—or wherever a symbiote went when it died.

“Unlike the tendencies Captain Marvel reported from his encounter with the red one, and what was reported on the news, this one doesn't seem as frantic or chaos-stricken as the previous,” Natasha pointed out with her arms folded as she glanced around the table.

“From what we've gathered so far, this guy, Eddie, is in a mutual relationship with his parasite, Venom,” Captain America continued, keeping his attention on the information displayed across the screen. “And so far, we haven't seen them intentionally do anything to hurt civilians, other than that whole race through the city while they were trying to escape that thing he called a Xenophage.”

“Then again, I can't help but wonder if the red one had a host too,” Bruce said thoughtfully as the question hung in the air for a moment.

Almost instinctively, everyone's attention shifted toward Shazam.

He was the only one in the room who could answer that question with certainty. He had fought Carnage firsthand. More importantly, he had been the one who ultimately destroyed it with his lightning.

Shazam remained silent and just stared at the table, his thoughts turning inward as he weighed his options. He had known this conversation would eventually come, but that didn't make it any easier. There had been several opportunities to tell them what had happened, yet each time, he had found some excuse to keep the words to himself.

Now, Bruce's question had forced the issue into the open.

Shazam released a slow breath before finally raising his head.

“There’s something I've been meaning to share with you guys,” he admitted, his voice sounding a tad mellow than usual. “I just... never had the right opportunity to bring it up afterward.”

The uncertainty in his voice immediately drew their attention.

He wasn't sure how to explain it.

How was he supposed to tell a room full of heroes that he'd knowingly taken someone's life?

Especially when he still wasn't certain whether they considered Captain Marvel as one of them.

And worse, he had kept it from them all these time.

The team waited, sensing from his hesitation that whatever he was about to say wasn't going to be easy.

“Before dealing the finishing blow to the red one, when it was about to unleash an attack that could've increased the victim count considerably, I spotted a man inside of it after my initial attack.”

No one interrupted him.

Shazam swallowed, forcing himself to continue as the weight of the memory settled over him once more.

“Spider-Man also warned me that there was a man inside of it. But at the time, I thought the parasite and the man were one and the same. I thought he was responsible for what was happening.” His fingers tightened slightly against the edge of the table.

“And with the creature preparing to launch an attack on what appeared to be a much larger scale, something that could've endangered everyone in the area and possibly even those beyond it, I made a choice.”

As he spoke, the room had gone completely still as they just listened.

“I disregarded the thought that there might've been an innocent person trapped inside,” Shazam admitted. “I chose to stop the threat and save the lives of the people it was about to hurt, even if it meant taking the life of the one responsible for putting them in danger.” The silence that followed felt voluminous than any accusation could have been.

Steve's expression had changed. His eyes remained fixed on Shazam, searching his face as though trying to reconcile the words he'd just heard with the person standing before him.

“You knew there was a man in there?” Steve finally asked.

His question drew Natasha's attention as Clint's expression became noticeably more serious, while Bruce and Strange both remained focused on Shazam, silently wondering the same thing.

“Yes.” Shazam didn't hesitate as he held Steve's gaze, his answer was firm despite the tension that had suddenly settled over the room.

That single word seemed to add more weight to the silence which enfolded the room as none of them knew what to make of him.

The cheerful kid they had spent the past few weeks getting to know, the one who joked, teased, smiled through awkward situations, and somehow managed to bring levity into even the most uncomfortable rooms, had just admitted that he had knowingly killed someone.

And he hadn't told them.

The reveal left an uncomfortable question hanging between them.

What kind of hero was Captain Marvel, really?

Had the boy beneath the lightning somehow learned to separate himself from the consequences of his actions? Was that why the grief of losing his world never seemed to weigh on him in the way it should have? Perhaps the cheerful personality they'd come to know wasn't resilience at all.

Perhaps it was something else.

The Avengers couldn't help but wonder whether the boy they thought they understood was only the version of himself he allowed them to see.

“What do you mean?” Bruce asked, wanting clarification before his thoughts could wander too far and paint a picture of Captain Marvel that he didn't want to believe. The idea of the cheerful, easygoing teenager they had come to know being nothing more than a cold-hearted killer was one Bruce refused to accept.

From everything he'd seen of both sides of the teenager's personality, Billy might have been reckless at times, but he had never struck Bruce as someone who took pleasure in hurting people.

“You knew there was a man inside, and you went through with it anyway?” Natasha asked, her voice came off with more concern than accusation.

Steve and Shazam continued to hold each other's gaze across the room. It was almost as though Steve was trying to look past the adult form and read the teenager underneath it, searching for some indication of doubt or indifference.

Shazam, however, didn't look away. He stood his ground with his expression firm and his gaze certainly unwavering, making it clear that whatever judgment came from his answer, he was prepared to accept it.

Still looking directly at Steve, the leader of the team, Shazam parted his lips to elaborate. He could already feel Doctor Strange's attention on him, the sorcerer's stare carried a different kind of scrutiny than the others. “I don't take pride in what I did, and I certainly don't find any pleasure in ending the life of an enemy.” His eyes finally broke away from Captain America as he turned his attention toward the rest of the room. “But I made a decision in that moment, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.”

Steve drew a slow breath before continuing, his expression remaining serious. “So you decided the man didn't matter because he was dangerous?”

“I decided that I had to act before more people died,” Shazam replied. “If I hadn't, Spider-Man and I would've been left dealing with a much greater mess than what we were already facing that day. Whatever that thing was preparing to do would've resulted in casualties on a scale that would've been... incomprehensible.” His voice remained steady, but there was no pride behind his words. “I chose to save the people I could save.”

His answer left the room staring at the kid standing before them in the form of an adult champion.

There was something unsettling about hearing such a blunt justification from someone they knew was a teenager. The goofy, innocent, lighthearted kid they had assumed Billy to be wasn't quite as naive as some of them might have believed. Beneath all the jokes, the childish enthusiasm, and the larger-than-life personality was someone who had already been forced to make decisions most adults would struggle with.

And regardless of the reason behind it, the fact remained that he had killed someone and that mattered to them.

The Avengers were a team built around protecting life, even when the person standing on the opposite side was someone who had committed atrocities beyond forgiveness. They had all faced monsters before.

They had all encountered enemies who, by any ordinary standard, deserved no mercy. But choosing to take a life was a line they didn't cross lightly, and hearing Captain Marvel speak about it so firmly made the situation considerably more complicated.

Steve's biggest concern wasn't that Billy had killed someone. It was what Billy might take from the experience.

He didn't want the teenager walking away from this thinking that because he'd killed one dangerous person to save countless others, doing it again would become easier. One necessary decision could become an excuse for another, and another, until the line between necessity and convenience disappeared entirely.

“One of the many lessons I've learned in this line of work,” Shazam said, his voice disrupting the silence once again, “especially from the brave and incredible heroes I've been lucky enough to work alongside, is that sometimes, when it comes down to taking out one bad guy to save the lives of the innocent majority, you have to make the call.”

His expression remained solemn as he continued. “Because if you don't, and more innocent people end up dying because you hesitated, those deaths are going to stay with you. Trust me when I say that. When you're standing there afterward, looking at the aftermath and knowing that you could've stopped it, that tiny moment of indecisiveness can keep you up at night.”

He paused briefly, allowing the words to settle.

“So no, I'm not proud of what I did,” Shazam admitted. “But I'm not going to lie and say I'm sorry I stopped it either. At the time, I believed I was doing what I had to do to save those people.”

The room remained quiet, then his expression shifted as his lips parted for he had a bit more to say.

“But after the presentation of Officer Suarez's photo the other day, I realized he was the man in inside the red creature and I started thinking about what actually happened to him.” His gaze dropped slightly as the memory surfaced. “And I came to the realization that he was most likely a victim himself. Whatever those guys did to him, they turned him into the host of that red alien parasite and unleashed him on everyone around him.”

Shazam's voice grew quieter as the members of the team who heard about officer Suarez disappearance and mysterious clean up of his identity and person, all expressed a certain kind of expressions their faces.

Shazam looked away from the others, drawing in a slow breath before another, deliberately forcing himself to calm down. His hands had tightened at his sides without him realizing it, and he loosened them as he fought to return to the composed state he'd maintained throughout the conversation.

“And that's a burden I've been carrying ever since that day,” he continued. “Because knowing that changes things.” He finally looked back at them, his eyes reflecting none of the earlier uncertainty.

“I killed a man who might've been a victim just as much as everyone else who got caught up in that mess. Maybe I couldn't have known that at the time, but now I do.” He clenched his jaw as the anger he'd been suppressing began to surface beneath his otherwise controlled expression. “And I'll carry that burden until I bring those fuckers to justice for what they did to him.”

His eyes moved from one member of the team to another.

“And probably whatever the hell they've done to more innocent people like him.” Nobody immediately responded.

The team just watched him, each member processing the confession in their own way. There was no attempt from Shazam to excuse what he'd done, nor was there any attempt to shrug it off as an unfortunate necessity.

He had made his choice, and accepted responsibility for it.

But now, knowing that the man he'd killed may have been another victim, the weight of that choice had become something he would have to carry himself.

Steve narrowed his eyes slightly as he studied Shazam for a moment, almost as though waiting to see if there was more to the explanation. He wanted to be certain the kid wasn't about to start rationalizing what he'd done or convince himself that taking a life was simply an acceptable part of being a hero.

But Shazam offered no further justification.

He had said what he had to say and left the decision exactly where it belonged—with the choice he'd made and the responsibility that came with it. Steve eventually exchanged a brief glance with the others before releasing a subtle breath and leaning back slightly.

“You made the right call,” Steve finally said. His tone wasn't one of approval for taking a life, but recognition of the circumstances surrounding the decision. “What matters now is what you do with the knowledge you have.”

There was something almost encouraging in the way he said it, as though Steve wasn't only accepting Shazam's explanation but acknowledging the sense of responsibility behind it. The kid had made a difficult choice in the middle of a crisis, and rather than hide behind excuses afterward, he had stood there and owned it.

“You don't have to shoulder that burden alone,” Clint added, backing Steve up. “We're a team, and we'll take it on with you. We'll make sure we bring those fuckers to justice.”

He paused, then flashed a crooked grin.

“Assuming we aren't dealing with the end of the world before then, that is.”

Shazam blinked in puzzlement as Clint's words barely registered.

‘Wait... did I just get acknowledged as part of the team? As a member of the Avengers?’

The speculation struck him with a strange mixture of warmth and disbelief. He had been a member of the Justice League before, had stood alongside some of the greatest heroes his world had to offer, and had always considered himself part of something bigger than himself. But that team was gone now. Everyone he'd once fought beside had been swallowed by the destruction of his world, leaving behind memories he rarely allowed himself to dwell on for too long.

And now, somehow, these people were beginning to fill that empty space.

The thought should have made him excited.

Instead, it carried a weight he couldn't ignore.

If he wanted to keep history from repeating itself, then he couldn't allow the Avengers to suffer the same fate as the Justice League. And that meant dealing with the threat of Knull before it ever reached that point.

The problem was that he had absolutely no idea how.

Knull wasn't some ordinary supervillain they could track down, punch into submission, and throw into a cell. He was a cosmic entity with an army of symbiotes at his disposal, and from everything they'd learned so far, even understanding what they were dealing with was proving difficult enough. The Avengers weren't prepared for something like that.

Hell, he wasn't even sure he was.

“Yeah,” Bruce said, pulling Shazam's attention back toward the conversation. “Since we have one of those things in custody, I should be able to come up with a way to separate the parasite from its host. Then you won't have to make that kind of decision again.”

Natasha and Clint both nodded in agreement.

Before Shazam could respond, however, Strange suddenly turned his head toward the entrance, his attention shifting as though he'd just received some sort of transmission only he could hear. His expression changed almost imperceptibly.

“There appears to be an emergency that requires my attention,” Strange announced.

He raised both hands, the sleeves of his robes moving as intricate runes began to glow across his arms. With a seamless motion, he rotated his hands through the air, sparks of golden energy gathering between them before twisting into a circular portal.

“You most likely won't get anything useful from those two through torture,” Strange continued, giving the team a certain look. “Fortunately, I know a way to get through their defenses and extract the information we need. But—”

“But that'll have to wait until you get back,” Steve finished for him.

Strange gave him a small nod.

“Precisely.”

He turned toward the portal, preparing to step through when Clint suddenly grinned.

“Well, that's a shame. It would've been a lot more fun trying to get answers out of them with torture.” He took a couple of steps forward before casually throwing an arm over Shazam's shoulder. “I bet Captain Marvel over here is just itching to take on that responsibility.”

Shazam stared at him.

“I—”

Before he could finish, Clint gave Strange an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

Natasha immediately slapped a hand over her face. “Clint.”

“What?” he asked innocently.

“You really need to learn when not to say things.”

“I'm just trying to help.”

“By volunteering us for torture?”

“Technically, I'm volunteering him.”

Shazam glanced sideways at Clint, unsure whether he should be amused or concerned.

Strange, meanwhile, merely shook his head.

“Just don't do anything that makes it even more difficult for our captive to cooperate,” he warned, his gaze briefly averting between Steve and Bruce. There was a subtle meaning behind the look, as though he were entrusting them with keeping the others from letting their more... creative interrogation methods get out of hand.

With that final warning, Strange stepped through the portal.

The golden gateway collapsed behind him, leaving the briefing room noticeably quiet.

Steve turned toward Bruce almost immediately. “Start working on a way to separate the parasite from the host.”

Bruce didn't need to be told twice.

“Already on it.”

He turned and headed toward his lab, his pace noticeably quicker than usual. There was a certain spark of scientific curiosity in his eyes, one that appeared whenever he was presented with something completely outside the boundaries of conventional biology.

The moment the doors closed behind him, Clint glanced toward Natasha.

“So... anybody else think Banner is about to become way too excited about this?”

Natasha lowered her hand from her face and sighed.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Across the room, Shazam watched the doors Bruce had disappeared through before his attention slowly shifted back toward the others.

“You three, you're with me,” Steve said, turning toward Shazam, Clint, and Natasha. “Let's go see how long that parasite can keep refusing to give us answers when its host is being pushed toward death's door.”

Natasha nodded as she fell into step beside him, her expression already returning to the focused determination she'd carried throughout the investigation. “We might be able to get something out of him about what happened to Suarez.”

“Exactly,” Clint replied, following behind them.

The four of them made their way down the corridor toward the room where Eddie and Venom were being held, their footsteps echoing faintly against the metallic walls of the tower. Whatever they were about to do, they needed answers, and with Strange gone and Bruce already working on separating the parasite from its host, this was their best opportunity to learn something before the situation escalated any further.

The Avengers might have been shaken by the revelation that Captain Marvel had knowingly taken a life and kept it from them, but the more they considered his reasoning, the harder it became to condemn him for the decision he'd made. He hadn't killed for pleasure, revenge, or convenience. He had made a split-second choice in the middle of a crisis, believing that allowing Carnage to continue would result in far more innocent people dying.

More importantly, he hadn't tried to hide behind that decision once confronted about it.

He'd admitted what he'd done, accepted the weight of it, and made it clear that he would carry the consequences himself.

If anything, the revelation had shown them another side of Captain Marvel. Beneath the jokes, the youthful enthusiasm, and the sometimes ridiculous personality was a hero who possessed something they would need now more than ever: resolve.

They had no idea what awaited them when this impending apocalypse finally arrived. They didn't know how powerful Knull truly was, how large his army might be, or how many of them would still be standing when the dust finally settled. They didn't even know if the Avengers had enough power to survive what was coming.

But there was at least some reassurance in knowing that their champion—their strongest weapon and perhaps their best hope of coming out of this alive—was someone willing to make the difficult decisions when the moment demanded it.

Someone with the resolve to do whatever it took to secure victory, because when the choice came down to his own hands or the lives of countless innocents, Captain Marvel would make the call.

And if the coming battle truly became the fight for the survival of Earth and humanity itself, that kind of resolve might be exactly what they needed.

Even if, in the end, some of them didn't make it out alive.