The Blue Woman
He woke with a gasp.
His heart thumped against his ribs like a caged bird. His head whipped from side to side, his brown eyes roaming over the empty surroundings. For a moment he thought he was dead.
Memories trickled into his brain like a leaky pipe. His vision swam and shrunk- had he fainted? The echoes of his shouts reminded him of one certainty- he was alone.
Or so he thought.
Thanos.
A blue woman was scowling at him- or above him, he couldn’t be sure. The red rock pressed into his temple, a reminder of his slanted view. He moaned from his twisted position on the ground.
Her black eyes were wet and shiny. He thought of Pepper’s cheeks on the morning of her mother’s death. She too had worn sad eyes and spoken with a tremble. He had held her shaking body, laid a hand over her bright hair.
But this woman had no hair.
She screamed and pulled at her hairless scalp, kicking and thrashing like a wild animal.
He felt a strange urge to hold this flickering woman in the way he had Pepper. Not for love, but for loss. Clearly something horrific had happened to this woman for her to be a victim of such hysteria.
Bruce.
A voice in the back of his head insisted he stand, talk, do something other than waste time and lay over this rock.
He mumbled something in her direction, but her sobs stole any volume he would have possessed. Her mouth opened with another dark, lonely screech. He said nothing, his dull eyes captivated by her blue skin.
Blue.
The press of rock against his skin was becoming uncomfortable. He moved his neck down and fixated on what he saw. Tony stared at his hands.
Red.