I'd like to thank Nialltalic for the wonderful fan art above! It's a beautiful edit and I absolutely love it! Thank you so much for taking the time to make this. It's gorgeous! <33
If y'all have created anything for me such as fan art, playlists, memes, video clips, anything really, PLEASE don't hesitate to send it to me through PM. I'll definitely be posting it in my stories and giving you acknowledgement and throwing a dedication and shout-out your way! :D
⏳ 2016
I felt guilty. I felt it deep in the pit of my stomach. I felt it gnawing at my heart.
Tony's expression when I left with Steve and Bucky...it hurt. It truly did. The hatred and betrayal in his eyes was stronger than I'd ever seen on him. I pitied him. He found the answers to an event that had plagued him for so long; answers that destroyed him. And Steve had taken part in that. I'd taken part in that.
I was torn. What Tony had stood for in this war was a reasonable one. The same went for Steve. I thought I knew where I stood in the beginning. I thought I knew what I was fighting for. But in the end, I realised that it wasn't all black and white. The fighting. The war. It was all shades of grey, some stances darker than others.
I'd made my decision in the end. I made it, dug my grave, and buried myself in it. I had a duty to protect human kind and that's what came above everything. If I had to lose people on the way to accomplish that, then, as much as it truly pained me, so be it.
But I had to stand with the man I loved. Because that was my duty too. I had to because it was the right thing to do. I had to because I loved him. And no matter what side we stood on from here on out, I would still love him with all my heart.
My feet dragged beneath me as I followed Steve and Bucky to the quinjet. Every bone in my body quaked. Everything hurt. The healing was taking too long, but that was what I deserved in the end. Bucky leaned on his best friend, Steve helping the injured soldier along, his lost metal arm still sparking. The whiteness of the landscape remained unchanged since entering the factory. I couldn't tell if a new layer of snow had fallen or not, it crunching under my boots.
My senses pricked suddenly. My fingertips tingled and a shiver rattled down my bruised spine. Something felt wrong. I could feel the tension in the air. I turned to look behind me. There was nothing but white, but I could sense there was more out there.
And then I saw something. I saw the sun reflect off it in the distance. The gunshot was loud. I could hear it from a mile away.
My instincts kicked into gear. I raised my hand. A golden ring of power flashed, circular waves pulsing out as far as the eye could see. The snowflakes falling from the sky slowed. The wind was a thin breeze. The thundering of the quinjet tailgate dropping was low and sluggish. Steve and Bucky staggering towards it froze.
There, hanging in midair, was a flying bullet. It moved slowly like through honey, aimed straight at me. In the distance, I saw the recoil flash of whoever fired it on a snowy ridge.
The stark black hair of someone familiar caught my eye. She strolled to stand in front of me, watching me with mirror imaged bright green eyes. She looked so different. So unlike our last encounters. She wore a black dress, the sleeves beginning along her biceps and cascading down like a river. Her dark hair flowed out of her like a veil. Her makeup wasn't dark, but hardly there, allowing those green eyes to shine even more.
She looked like she was attending a funeral. And she was. Because knew what this was.
"Hello, Andi," she greeted in a hushed tone.
I swallowed roughly. "Are you the Reaper?"
My dark double began circling me, watching me with grim eyes and a steely expression. She shook her head, her black hair shimmering in the cold light. "The Reaper will come in due time. For now, we talk."
I squinted. "About what?"
"You know what." Those eyes flicked to Steve. "It's time to make your decision."
I bit down hard, so hard that it felt like both my jaw and teeth would shatter with the pressure. This was the payment. This was the trade for Strange's spell. This was the decision.
"I...I can't," I stuttered, trying desperately to hold back the flood of tears.
Dark Andi tipped her head, her hair pooling over her shoulder. She raised her chin in turn. "This is not for the spell. This is for the good of mankind. This is for all of time."
What? What did that mean? Of...of course this was about the spell. Eilian had said that I had to make a decision. She'd said that too. If this wasn't about that, then what the hell was going on here?
"The Reaper is coming to collect a life today," Dark Andi said. "Whose life is up to you." She continued her prowling. "The world needs heroes. The world needs a leader. A freedom fighter to protect everything it stands for. To defend the world we've spent many a millennium to defend." She halted, turning to face me full on. "An Avenger." Her eyes flicked to Steve again. "The Avenger."
My eyes fell on the bullet as Dark Andi moved to stand behind it, the choice and decision to be made fuelling its path forward. Dark Andi pointed at it. "This is your decision, Andromeda. Captain America. Steve Rogers. He has saved the world. And he has damaged it. The Second World War. New York. Sokovia. The Battle for the Chronos." She gestured around the cold plains. "This. He has saved people. And he has sentenced them to death."
"What are you saying?" I whispered, and yet I was afraid to hear the answer.
Dark Andi glanced at me. Her expression was like a stone angel. But her eyes spoke what her look did not. Her eyes expressed more than her face ever could. "The world needs Captain America," she said. "But he dies here today. Unless you make the choice."
I took in the gravity of the situation, glancing from my dark double to the bullet to Steve. This was two-fold. This was the decision. This was what Eilian had meant. And this was the payment of the spell that had brought him back to me. The Reaper was coming to collect today. And whose life he came for was the outcome on this decision.
I staggered back a step, my straining legs struggling to keep me standing. "You're...You're lying. You always lie. You've tried to kill me more than once. Why is this time no different?"
Dark Andi's stony expression cracked, and distress seeped through, contorting her face into a look of desperation. "I'm not—"
"You've been nothing but trouble for me from day one," I interrupted harshly. I raised bloodied hand, two fingers broken. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't blow you away?"
"He died in my timeline." My lips split in surprise when I saw her eyes well—tears like mine—building in those startling green pools. Her chin quivered. "I let him die. I had a choice. I had this choice. I made the wrong one." Her agonised eyes rolled to Steve. "And I let him die. I watched him bleed on the steps. I watched his blood run over the pavement. I watched the light die in his eyes."
Realisation and understanding hit me like a rock. The world needs Captain America. Her timeline had collapsed, been wiped out; I remembered her saying that during the Battle for the Chronos. It was because of her Captain America's death. Her Steve's death.
"His death destroyed everything," my double explained, her voice heavy with grave sadness. "The earth was invaded and obliterated. Time was stripped and flayed and annihilated. I lost everything."
"That's why you joined Eon," I realised.
"He had told me he could rectify it. Make a new timeline as it was. Make a timeline where Steve Rogers wouldn't have to die. He lied to me." Her tense shoulders drooped, and she looked down. "No Time Walker can do that. No Lord or Lady of Time. No one. No one with good intentions, that is."
The animalistic look in her eyes forced me back another step. The desperation was there. But flecked with the green and that was warning. This was a warning. Like Eilian, she had come to warn me before the decision was to be made. To influence the decision.
"You can't let him die, Andi," she warned. "If you do, the world will end. Everything and everyone will end. Do not court the chaos. Do not let the silence pass. Steve Rogers cannot die. Not today. This is your duty as the Lady of Time. You must protect time. You must protect him. If you let him die, you jeopardise your timeline and time itself."
What she was asking of me was too much. The decision was too much. But it wasn't. The choice was as clear as night and day. I knew my duty. I knew that I had to put time before all else.
The tears were too much to hold back the flood. The gates opened, and I felt tears trace down my bloody cheeks. I looked up at my dark double. "I don't want to go."
Dark Andi's jawline tensed sympathetically. "But you must. You must be the hero the world needs, Andromeda of Troy. The Time Walker. The Lady of Time. Avenger."
"I can't," I whispered.
"You must."
I rolled my gaze up to her, and the look I saw there was one just as pained as my own. I realised then that she wasn't cheating me. She wasn't lying to me. I knew because my fate was hers too. Time was funny like that. It was never easy. It was never a straight line.
She blinked slowly in acknowledgement. "Your death is the death to both of us. The last of the Andromedas of Troy. When you die..." She looked to her hands. "So will I."
My throat closed in, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. "I don't want to die."
She stepped up to me. Her aura was intoxicating, powerful and dangerous. But somehow gentle too. She looked at me with eyes that were kind. Understanding irises of green. Her brow creased in pity and sympathy. "If you love him," she whispered, "then you will save him."
My heart shuddered in my chest, teetering on the brink of shattering. It was an impossible decision. I looked to him. But it wasn't. It was one life—my life—to save another who would save billions.
Perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing. I was tired. So very tired. I'd lived a long life. A happy life. I'd done things I never thought I would've when confined in the city walls of Troy—things that opened my eyes and mind; things that I regretted; things that made life worth living. I'd met people who changed me for the better. I'd stood by glorified leaders and pioneers of greatness. I'd fought alongside warriors and soldiers.
I limped over to him. I brushed a gentle hand down the side of his face, still perfect even in its bloody and battered state. I'd fallen in love. I'd found the man I was willing to sacrifice everything for. I'd fallen in love with someone I was willing to give my life for.
I looked back at my dark double, who returned to her steely expression. She understood. She'd stood here and suffered through the same thing I was; to hand over her life for the man she loved. And she'd chosen poorly. She'd chosen herself. Why she did that I would never know. Why I was doing it? I knew. The world needed Captain America. It needed it more than it needed me. The age of Time Walkers was ending. It was time to go. It was time for the world—for time—to move on. It would be okay. It would be okay without me. Time would continue without me. The world would too. It would be okay. It would all be okay.
But it couldn't without Captain America. It couldn't without Steven Grant Rogers.
"You're out of time, Andromeda," my double drawled. "We are out of time."
I gazed at my love with everything I had left, and everything I was about to lose. "I'm sorry," I whispered to him, though he couldn't hear me. "I'm so, so sorry."
My feet felt like lead, heavy as I trudged through the cold snow to the bullet. My heartbeat thundered in my chest so fast, so heavily that it hurt more than any punch would. I tried to steady my breathing, but couldn't. I tried not to cry. Don't cry. Don't cry. I stood between the bullet and the man I loved. I stood there, broken but proud. I looked to my dark double, who watched on silently with tear-shined eyes.
"He's waiting for you," she said, and I knew she was talking about Eilian.
I pulled on a weak smile. "I know." I looked back to the bullet. "I know."
She raised her hand to the sky, her palm glowing black laced with gold. "Close your eyes. May the Reaper guide you safely, Andromeda of Troy. Avenger."
I gazed at her, smiling at her kindly and gratefully. "You too. Andromeda." And I closed my eyes.
I heard the painful sound of time resuming—of snow falling, of it crunching under boots, of the chilling wind. I felt the bullet enter my chest, enter my heart.
And then I felt nothing. I felt no pain, even as I fell. I didn't feel the cold anymore. I was numb. Just numb. That was all there was. That was all there was ever going to be.
I was out of time.
❈Author's Note: I'm sorry.