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PRESENT DAY.
SOMETHING WASN'T RIGHT.
It wasn't the fact that they knew they'd lost, and could only hope for the best. It wasn't the fact that they were on a foreign planet. No, Arlyn couldn't help but feel queasy on the inside as Peter helped her up to her feet, as she limped down the red steps.
All they needed now was to head home.
"Something's happening..." Mantis says from behind them, and Arlyn's breath caught in her throat. Everyone turned to her, Arlyn not needing Peter's support anymore as they all looked at her in question.
From the bottom of her feet to the top of her head, Mantis dissolved into dust.
Arlyn's whole body paralyzed in fear.
No. No. This can't be real. It isn't happening.
"No..." Arlyn mumbled. She felt her breathing become sporadic as they all turned to Drax, who stared at himself disappearing into thin air.
"Quill?" Were his final words, before he was nothing.
This is all a dream. We're the heroes. The heroes always win. No. I'm going to be left alone on this planet. They're going to all dissolve into dust and I can't do anything about it.
"Steady Quill," Stark assured, standing up on shaking legs. Arlyn was about to collapse herself.
"Oh, man..." Quill's body was gone.
Arlyn's hands buzzed. She clenched them closed. Control. Control. Everything is alright. She wanted to scream, but she was afraid of letting go.
"Tony...there was no other way." Strange spoke confidently, as if he didn't care at all when he dissolved into nothing.
I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I feel like I'm about to explode. I can't feel my hands. I can't feel my legs.
"Arlyn?"
Her heart crushed at his quiet call, painfully and regrettably turning around, body too paralyzed to even think of how to act.
Peter stumbled towards her, a pain in his eyes she'd never seen, and wanted to forget. "I don't feel so good."
It's just a dream. It's not real.
"You're alright," Arlyn choked out through a tightened throat, her whole body shaking as he fell into it, her arms holding him steady as he began to disappear below her.
"I don't...I don't know what's happening..."
"You're okay...you're okay..." Arlyn repeated, holding onto him so tightly she thought he'd suffocate.
He's okay. He's okay.
"I don't wanna go," Peter said over and over again, his tears staining her shoulder, arms clutched around her neck as if his life depended on it.
Because for once, it did.
She couldn't keep him up any longer. She fell to the ground, Peter's body laying in front of her, in her arms, her whole body unable to move, unable to feel.
His eyes kept her gaze, so warmly, yet so hard because he wanted her ingrained in his memory. And so did she. She memorized the freckles. The curls. The soft eyes that began to well up with tears.
"I'm sorry."
She shook her head, cursing her vision for going blurry. She couldn't let him go. She couldn't let him leave. Not when they still had so much ahead of them, not when they were invincible when together, not when he was one of the most important people in her life.
It wasn't fair.
But as her shaking hand went to rest on his cheek, the surface turned to dust, blowing away with the wind and staining her hand like blood. Arlyn was frozen in place, eyes wavering around, unable to process what had just happened.
He's alive.
He's dead.
This isn't real.
This is real.
In and out she breathed, bottom lip trembling, eyes to the sky, bones shivering, veins surging with power—uncontrollable power that boiled under the surface. She was a volcano about to burst, and she was okay with that. Because in that moment, she begged to turn to dust like everyone else. She wanted—needed to let go.
Stark's voice was a mere echo miles away. "Arlyn...con-"
All that you could see was light.
Energy bursted outwards, an enormous cloud of purple engulfing around her, bursting out of her body in waves that crashed and swept anything in its wake. Arlyn could be seen in the middle of the storm, floating midair, arms out as if she was letting the powers free, screaming at the top of her lungs. Her cries were drowned out from the powerful waves, as the energy pulsed out of her like a tsunami.
Arlyn's screams began to fade, but her powers didn't, as her eyes flashed a bright purple, darkness consuming them. And within a second, Arlyn faded into the back of her mind, a different entity taking the wheel.
