Chapter 17
Once I was in her room and Steve was sure that I was safe I got up and walked over to her closet to see the message she told me to look at in a situation like this, it brought a smile to my face: "A Widow Never Really Dies Yulia, and I will always be with you in your heart. I love you little M."
"A widow never really dies," I muttered to myself curling up in her old winter coats for a nap. It smelt of her that's the only reason I did it truly. I miss her so much.
Sleeping is never a good thing. Whenever I do it something bad happens. Last time, Carol got ejected from the spaceship. And the time before that Wanda was arrested. Now a missile was about to hit all of the things I have left to remind me of those I love. I just had to remember what Dr. Strange had taught me about protection spells, and quickly.
Oh just forget it, a blast of energy should do it. Or a shield. Why did my sister have to be an avenger? Why not an accountant? Actually never mind she was always terrible at math but you get the idea. Instead of saving the world, she could be saving someone $100 tax credits. But no, she had to be a superhero. She could've been a supervillain but no she had to be nice to people. Stupid Wanda.
But I did it. I always do. I always protected her and the only bit of her left was her room. So I protected it and hid it so they wouldn't hit it with another strike. I hope. I don't have either of them anymore so I have to save what I do have of them.
Though as I found myself a place to hide and search for where my allies could be I started to feel life trickle back into the world. Maybe Nat's sacrifice was worth it. But maybe Clint Barton is now my nemesis. I had to fight the feeling of life returning to the world before it overwhelmed me.
But I fought it, as I always do. I fought it till I heard the sound of three people who share one brain cell starting a fight they couldn't win.
"Idiots! I'm constantly surrounded by idiots!" I told myself aloud, preparing myself mentally for a fight as I got up from Natasha's coat and dusted myself off and ran next door to Wanda's room to grab my spare suit and got changed as quickly as I could.
"All they had to do was not get themselves killed and what did they go and do, start a fight that would kill them. What a wonderful idea that is!" I muttered to myself as I snuck around the ruins of my old home trying to locate the idiots I now call family.
As I rounded the biggest pile of rubble I overheard some of the mandatory villain speech, Did I ever do that? I thought before listening to the rest of the speech. "In all my years of conquest– violence– slaughter– It was never personal. But I'll tell you now– what I'm about to do to your stubborn, annoying little planet– I'm gonna enjoy it. Very, very much."
"Give me a break! Why do you want to do this Purple grape dude? Why not just create more resources for the people already here in the universe, you're snap took away half the greenery too so you didn't solve the problem you just gave us less brain power to work on a solution," I stated quietly, going to stand next to Steve who laughed at me complaining about how he went about killing half the population.
"You're alive, I thought we'd have to explain to Wanda two deaths not just one," Steve whispered to me as I got ready to fight.
"If you'd done that you would've had at least two more deaths," I told him.
"Hey, Cap, you read me?" Sam asked through the earpiece, taking me back to when I first met the avengers. But Steve stopped mid motion at the sound of his best friend's voice through the radio system. "Cap, it's Sam. Can you hear me?" I can already picture him trying to explain to Wong how he has to be on Steve's left. "On your left." And bingo I was right.
I turned and smiled at Shuri giving her a look that I hope conveyed every question I had about my sister and her, only receiving a small nod in return. She was back. I laughed a moment later when I saw the hundreds of portals open and through each allies poured and turned to Steve and gave him a smile and a determined nod as he patted my shoulder giving me a knowing look before the others emerged from underneath the facility and Banner pointed to Wanda, giving me a happy look before I gave him a thumbs up.
"Oh god," I mumbled as I realized what Steve was about to say.
"AVENGERS!" He said looking at me and giving me a nod to finish the statement as he summoned Mjolnir.
"Assemble!" We yelled together, gaining a few laughs before that battle, it felt like he was acknowledging that I had grown up and was ready to lead the charge.
That's when the fighting broke out. We all charged ready for a fight, I fell behind the others with enhanced speed and ran beside my sister giving her a smile before we got separated in the chaos and madness of the battle.
But when I looked up from my own fighting I saw Wanda fighting Thanos and winning, smiling to myself and shooting one of the creatures behind me. Go big sister! I thought to myself before trying to make my way over to her amongst everyone fighting.
"Uh, is anyone else seeing this?" Pepper asked through the mics.
"What the hell is this?" Sam asked just afterwards.
"CAROL!" I screamed abandoning my fighting to fly up and hug her before quickly going back down to assist Wanda and the others.
"That still doesn't answer the question but OK," Pepper said into the mics.
Carol landed near Peter as I grabbed Okoye as I saw everyone heading to help her.
"Need a lift?" I asked her flying about 6 ft off the ground.
"Why?"
"Because I want this cool moment to actually happen and it's not going to if we're not there," I told her trying to pick her up without getting stabbed by her spear.
"You make no sense but OK," She told me finally letting me pick her up.
"Don't Worry," Wanda said as I dropped Okoye and got ready to fight myself.
"She's got help," Okoye told Peter.
Pepper landed next to Okoye in her Rescue armour, followed by Mantis, Shuri, Hope, Gamora and Nebula. Before we could come up with a game plan that made any sort of coherent sense Thanos' army charged at us. While we were helping Carol go through the Outriders (? I think that's what someone called them. I'm not an expert in aliens or their armies), Sakaarans and Chitauri (Again just a guess but basically we were fighting motherfucking aliens y'all). Gamora took out a gorilla, while Okoye took out Corvus Glaive. Wanda and Valkyrie destroyed two leviathans. While I made sure Peter got up and that Carol could get to the car without being killed. Carol started flying towards the van with the Gauntlet, flying past enemies and going through enemy blockades that are in her way with ease, like usual.
Thanos, seeing this, started running to Carol, but was stopped by Pepper, Shuri and Hope, who blasted him backwards. Thanos, after seeing Carol Danvers fly past him, through his double sword at the van, destroying it and the quantum realm tunnel.
"Really? Why?" I asked aloud stabbing an enemy out of annoyance.
The blast threw Carol Danvers backwards and she lost her grip on the Gauntlet, which falls to the ground. Doctor Strange steadied the water after the explosion. As the final battle for the gauntlet started I could feel everyone taking a collective breath as some of the fighting subsided so we could watch. In the final brawl for the Stark Gauntlet, Stark moved one of Thanos' enemies aside and saw the Gauntlet. He ran to get it, but saw Thanos, who Stark tackles. Thanos smacks Stark away, knocking him out.
Then Thor arrived with Stormbreaker and Mjolnir in an attempt to pin Thanos' arm down, with assistance from Steve. However, Thanos overpowered them and knocked them both out. After picking up the Gauntlet, Carol arrived, punching away at Thanos while he was holding the Gauntlet. She keeps punching him, but Thanos grabs her by the arm and flung her away. Thanos put on the gauntlet, radiation from the stones ate at him as he tried to snap, but Carol Danvers arised again, and stopped his fingers from snapping, opening up his hand similar to what Sreve did 5 years ago.
Thanos headbutted her, but it did nothing but annoy her.
Just as Carol was gaining the upper hand by rising up and forcing Thanos onto his knees, Thanos pulled the Power Stone out of the Gauntlet and used it in his free hand to hit Carol Danvers away. Stark looked in question at Strange, who simply raised one finger, reminding him of something no one else knew but could all feel in their bones. Stark nodded at him, confusing me above the scene with Valkyrie.
Thanos put the Power Stone back into the Gauntlet, and yelled from the radiation coursing through him, until Stark maked one last attack on Thanos, pulling on the Gauntlet before Thanos punched him away.
"OH god," I thought out loud before screaming, "TONY DON'T DO IT!" Though of course he still didn't listen to me, why would he? I'm still just a kid to him. A kid without parents and one living family member still on this realm of existence. Before I could do anything it was too late. Fate had sealed itself. My vision had become a reality.
Reality worked out the same way as my vision had and all I could do was watch from above and curl my body up in horror, barely able to flap my wings as I watched mesmerized by the scene unfolding below me.
"I am– inevitable," Thanos stated to Tony as he snapped his fingers, nly to notice afterward the stones were gone.
"And I– am– Iron Man," Tony said, snapping his own gauntlet. That was the moment that could have so easily been avoided if only they'd listened to me in Wakanda five years ago.
A flash of white. 10...
The enemy began to dissolve like Wanda did all those years ago.
9...
Steve and the others look around, exhausted but happy they'd won, without yet knowing the cost of their victory.
8...
Thanos sat down feeling the disintegration beginning to happen to him too.
7...
Tony stumbled to the floor next to a pile of debris.
6...
Rhodey and Steve both bow their heads knowing that he won't make it.
5...
"Mr. Stark?" Peter asked running up to his fallen mentor. Tears forming in the corner of his eyes, "Hey– Mr. Stark? Can you hear me? It's Peter. Hey. We won, Mr. Stark– We won, Mr. Stark. We won. You did it, sir. You did it." He knelt in front of Tony.
4...
Me and Valkyrie descended from the sky along with anyone else who was up there still.
With Tony being unresponsive Peter broke down before saying, "I'm sorry– Tony–"
3...
Peter was slowly picked up and led to the side by Rhodey so they could grieve together.
"Hey," Pepper said as she knelt in front of Tony.
"Hey, Pep.." Was all he could get out.
2...
Pepper put her hand on Tony's heart feeling it one last time.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y.?" She asked the computer.
"Life functions critical," The computer program responded to her.
He smiled one last time with tears in his own eyes to the love of his life.
1...
"Tony. Look at me. We're gonna be okay. You can rest now," She assures her.
Dead. But not to me. I smiled at the two ghosts who appeared at my side before we all got too our knees to honour the man that had started it all.
"Welcome to my mind," I mumbled to Tony and Natasha beside me.
"This is for everyone we lost along the way," Tony started as he knelt.
"Even if they returned," Natasha finished before starting to list names in turn with Tony, "Gamora."
"Vision & Jarvis."
"Peggy."
"Alexander Pierce."
"The warriors three."
"My parents."
"Nick."
"Loki."
"And my brother, Pietro, Kat and Ruby," I concluded.
"Even death can't stop us all," Pietro said appearing behind me with Kat and Ruby, "We'll look after them when you can't."
"And I'll look after Morgan for you, keep an eye on her and make sure she turns out OK," I told Tony.
"You know when Natasha died and without the others resurrected yet me and Pepper chose two new godmothers for her. You and Wanda. I trust you. You'll do good kid," Tony told me as we got up and started to count our dead.
Over the course of the next week, I met up with my friends from boarding school who died in the snap and reunited with Kate, who'd been keeping in contact with me throughout all the five years of the so-called blip. I was one of the many who got to reunite with loved ones but the biggest one was Wanda. After the battle was over and we'd finished everything we could I gave her the biggest hug I could and we talked, we talked all the way from the ruined compound and the only two remaining rooms to Natasha's apartment in Little Odessa where we talked more and finally fell asleep at midnight.
During that week, me and Wanda packed up all of ours and Natasha's remaining stuff from the compound before the rebuild could begin and took it back to the apartment we now lived in together, finally.
We made plans with Kate for the Bishop foundation to do some good work in Sokovia and Wanda agreed we could all go during the summer as she wanted us to make sure we took up all the opportunities available to us. We also started to develop a program in Nat's name to do good in the states.
But of course at the end of that week was a sad day, the funeral for Tony. Those of us who wanted to had held a small ceremony in Central Park for Natasha and a few of us planned to go to the graveyard where her parents were buried in Russia and put a headstone there for her, finally with her parents and family.
The funeral was beautiful but tragic.
Afterward Tony had instructed that we all go inside the house and watch a video he'd recorded just after he figured out time travel.
As he's holographic self sat on a chair his record voice started, "Everybody wants a happy ending, right? But it doesn't always roll that way. Maybe this time. I'm hoping if you play this back, it's in celebration. I hope families are reunited, I hope we get it back, and something like a normal version of the planet has been restored. If there ever was such a thing. God, what a world. Universe, now. If you told me ten years ago that we weren't alone, let alone, you know, to this extent, I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised. But come on, you know? The epic forces of darkness and light that have come into play. And, for better or worse, that's the reality Morgan's gonna have to find a way to grow up in. So I thought I'd probably better record a little greeting... In the case of an untimely death on my part. I mean, not that, death at any time isn't untimely. This time travel thing that we're gonna try and pull off tomorrow, it's– it's got me scratching my head about the survivability of it all. That's the thing. Then again, that's the hero gig. Part of the journey is the end." Tony suddenly got up walking towards the camera, "What am I even trippin' for? Everything's gonna work out exactly the way it's supposed to," He leant down and smiled looking straight at Morgan, "I love you 3,000."
By the end of that week I'd cried more tears than I had in the rest of my life, over Tony. Over the world. Over getting Wanda back. But mostly over Nat and her death. But of course my work wasn't done not in the slightest, but I couldn't even enjoy the funeral without having to do some work, setting up the time travel contraption with Bruce, but he let me leave to mourn with Wanda and the others.
"My work won't be over for years to come, and after seeing how the adults handle the Avengers and the world I've decided I need to put together a team of teens and young people to save the world when the adults can't. For when they fail. For when they're gone. And without Tony here to help and with Carol off in space with Nick and Maria, I need someone, some women to help me do this. What do you say?" I ask the girls sitting in front of me, a princess, a newly minted billionaire, my sister, we were really a motley crew. "Can I get your help? Can I trust you to help me track down everyone in Nat's ledger? To avenge those whose voices were never heard? To save us from whatever is happening to this planet? To save the world and be an example for future generations?"