Scorpio

FORTY TWO - Never Forget Us

Miss Danver's voice crackled through. "I think I saw the Captain playing with explosives." Her voice lost its nonchalant lilt. "I wasn't quick enough to save him."

Alycs swallowed, hard, and lifted a shaking hand to his comm. "Mr. Stark - Tony - he's dead, too. Thanos snapped his spine right in front of me."

A muffled gasp. "Oh, no."

Alycs tried to shove the newly-refreshed memory to the back of his mind. It didn't really want to budge, so he tried to skirt past it. "Has anyone else seen Estella?"

There was a pause. Then Shuri's voice: "I'm sorry, Alycs."

"No." Alycs stared at his comm, disbelieving. "No. I refuse to believe that she's gone, too."

"She could be in one of the cars. There's still at least a dozen I haven't checked yet," Wanda offered, but even her optimistic comment sounded hollow and empty in Alycs' ears.

"Estella was right there with Thanos when the explosives went off," Miss Danvers said quietly, as if whispering it could make her words any less real. "She was right in the eye of the storm. If he had tried anything, it would have gone through her first."

Stop talking! Alycs wanted to shout. Stop talking like she's dead, or maimed, or worse! Instead, he ripped his intercom from his ear and hurled it as far away as he could.

Distantly, he watched as the portal gleamed a blinding white, and the sorcerers hauled a final body through the light - a charred but unmistakeably moving one - and as Alycs leaned closer, his heart dropped. Groot. And yeah, even though he should be happy that at least one more of his friends had been saved - he couldn't help the sinking despair that threatened to overcome him.

Estella, where are you?

Estella, you purple imp. I'm gonna grow grey hairs before I turn fifteen.

You could have at least said goodbye.

Then his mind started making those horrible wailing cat sounds, and he accidentally dropped himself down next to a screaming baby to drown the noises out. He winced as he slipped on the loose sand, half-wishing he could pull himself together long enough to float back into the sky again.

Oh yes, this was definitely his intention.

"Hey, sir, I think you dropped this."

Alycs looked up to find Beanie Man holding out his intercom in one hand. His other was wrapped tightly around his wife's shoulder.

"Thanks," Alycs mumbled, accepting the offering. Maybe he'll throw it further next time.

"Thank you for getting my wife and kid out of there," Beanie Man answered, shuffling on his feet. "I turn into a sort of jerk when I freak out, and, well, that was a pretty freaky moment, so I'm sorry about...uh...how I acted."

"Cool," Alycs answered blankly, not really catching the high-speed vocal interaction. Estella might be dead. No, she's not. I'm a terrible person. You just saved a family. Well, we couldn't save Estella, could we? By the time he came to, Beanie Man had already turned around and was locked in a tight embrace with his family. Alycs turned away.

"-Alycs, please come in," Wanda was pleading with him. Alycs pressed his thumb against the side of the intercom, trying to reduce the sudden static. On second thoughts, maybe...not throw a prototype intercom next time?

"I'm here," he responded, covering his other ear to hear her better. "Where's the fire?"

"Oh, thank goodness, Alycs. Thor says he's spotted a...giant scorpion?...on the horizon and that you'll know what it means... Do you?"