chapter xxi of the death season :
" I AM HOME . "
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" Remember this place. Home. "
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february 8th, 2018
outer space
" OKAY . WHO HERE HASN ' T BEEN TO SPACE ? "
As the remaining Avengers sit in the Benatar, everyone is confused at the raccoon's question. Svetlana, now dressed in her full Silver Fox suit, cautiously raises her hand. Wondering if she should be embarrassed about this fact, she discreetly glances at Natasha, Steve, and Rhodey who thankfully all awkwardly do the same.
Ignoring the smug look he's getting from Thor, Rhodey pulls an annoyed expression, "Why?"
"You better not throw up on my ship!" Rocket simply barks back, "Approaching the jump in three..."
"Um, Mr. Rocket?"
"Two..."
"What's wrong, Svet?" Natasha casually glances over at her daughter.
The teen just looks at her with wide wary eyes, "I think I might have developed a very small, small fear of flying into the deep dark abyss and I just-,"
"One!" Rocket yanks down on the throttle, making the ship suddenly blast straight through the wormhole.
Svet gasps as she's thrown back in her seat, the Benatar rapidly slicing through the darkness of space. Her eyes begin to sparkle with the brilliant lights of universe, planets and stars and supernovas alike all glittering against her morning blue eyes and taking her breath away. For the girl that was born and raised in a cage, to see the sights of the universe is something she never thought could belong to her. She's never seen anything so beautiful in her nearly seventeen years of life, and she never will again.
But when they come out through the other side of the space portal, Svet's stomach starts to feel a little odd and her face twists strangely. The girl stares off into literal space for a long silent moment before suddenly doubling over and losing the contents of her stomach all over the metal floor. Steve cringes and Natasha immediately unbuckles from her seat, going to her daughter's aid.
Looking over his shoulder, Rocket just groans, "Ah gross! Little Red, what did I just say?"
"Back off, raccoon." Natasha snaps back, rubbing her back, "Some of us have never left the galaxy before."
"Alright, alright, that's fair."
"I'll head down and do recon." Carol nods to the group from where she hovers outside.
The glowing woman then turns and descends upon the lush and thriving planet below.
Before anyone else can move, Rhodey purses his lips and voices what everyone else is already thinking, "If we find Lisa, what are we gonna do... to bring her out of it? How are we gonna make her... her again?"
No one responds for a long moment, everyone honestly not sure. After all, this is uncharted territory here. No one could have seen this coming, and no one knows how to save the girl they all know so well - especially if she doesn't want to be saved.
"Cognitive recalibration." Natasha speaks up, crossing her arms over her chest and nodding.
Everyone stares in awkward confusion.
Glancing around, the blonde just rolls her eyes and sighs, "We'll hit her in the head really hard."
"And you are confident that will work?" Thor raises a doubtful brow.
"It brought Clint back..." Natasha shrugs, "Unless you all have any other ideas."
Dressed back in his stealth suit, Steve eventually agrees, "We can have the Wakandans on standby too, if it comes to it."
The team nods in silent approval, going about their final checks to be ready for the inevitable coming fight. Svetlana wipes at her lips, frowning at the lingering bitter taste in her mouth. Stilling crouching in front of her, Natasha raises her eyebrows in question. Once Svet assures her she's ready, the mother kisses the daughter's forehead and then, just like in all her nightmares, Natasha puts a weapon into her little girl's hands. They share a look, knowing what this means, what is at stake.
One last fight. One last chance. They have to make it worth it.
As everyone mills around him, Steve lets out a quiet sigh and slowly pulls out his compass, his brows furrowing at the same worn photograph of Peggy from so long ago.
Still standing beside her daughter, Natasha slowly glances over at him, "This is gonna work, Steve."
"I know it will." Steve's blue eyes are so terribly heavy as he looks back them, "'Cause I don't know what I'm gonna do if it doesn't."
Svet sharply looks away from her uncle, her bottom lip beginning to tremble before she clamps her teeth into the tender raw flesh. The near seventeen year old has tried so hard to push that chance to the back of her mind. She can't afford to think that way. If this doesn't work... the years after this... there won't be a life for her. If they can't bring everyone back, she's not even sure who she would be anymore.
If they fail today, in just a few moments, what will Svetlana Barnes become?
Carol flies back up to the front of the ship, looking confused as she reports, "No satellites, no ships, no armies, no ground defenses of any kind." She grits her teeth, "It's just him."
"And Lisa?" Rhodey immediately questions, worry for his niece twisting the uncle's brow.
"No sign of her."
"But that's enough." Nebula determines lowly, black eyes narrowed and vicious.
THANOS IS WEAK .
The mad titan, the one who annihilated half the universe, now spends the rest of his pitiful existence in a false illusion of serenity. The giant limps along as he gathers his harvest, clearly still wounded from the Snap. Thanos slowly approaches his small wooden hut, setting himself down and allowing himself a kind of peace that the rest of the universe will now never know.
But he will pay.
Suddenly Captain Marvel slams through the thin roof, knocking Thanos down, twisting around his body, and grabbing tight onto his neck. Bruce, clad in the HulkBuster suit, bursts from the ground and snatches tight onto Thanos' arm that still wears the withered and decaying Infinity Gauntlet. The titan chokes and gasps, shocked at the sudden attack.
But it's about to get so much worse for him.
Lightning strikes once more and Thor slices through the sky, hurling the sharp edge of his axe right into the curve of the monster's arm. Thanos screams in agony as his hand is lopped off, and Rhodey and Rocket follow in with their own guns raised.
Steve strides into the hut with Natasha and Svetlana on either side, the family's features all dark and angry.
The Avengers are working together once more. But it doesn't even matter. It won't change anything.
Because when Rocket kicks the now sliced off hand over, he finds that the gauntlet is empty.
"Oh no..."
Eyes narrowing, Steve demands, "Where are they?"
"Answer the question." Carol hisses in the titan's ear.
Breathing deeply, Thanos groans out, "The universe required correction. After that, the Stones served no purpose, I had someone else for that."
"You murdered trillions!"
Thanos vehemently spits back, "You should be grateful!"
"You murdered my father!" Svetlana bares her teeth as she hisses, "You murdered my family, my friends, everyone lost someone! And you suppose we will be grateful?"
"What's wrong, little fox?" The titan's mocking eyes land on her small form, "Are you not grateful you survived instead of your father?"
All the breath leaves her lungs. Her ears start to ring. Her hands tremble.
Svetlana simply stands there for a long moment, shaking and quivering with pain that quickly burns into bright red rage. Releasing a shaken scream, the girl sharply snaps out her blade and swiftly raises her arm, living for the moment she can slit his throat wide open. But Natasha suddenly snatches tightly onto her wrist, yanking her back and holding her tightly in place.
"Let me do this!" Svet cries out, fighting to be freed, "Let me go, Mama!"
"No! Not yet. We need answers." Natasha has tears in her eyes as she lowly demands of the titan, "Where are the Stones?"
Thanos simply smirks.
And then suddenly a strange sound echoes all around them. The bird-like creatures in the trees go silent. The waterfalls stop rushing. The light in the sky darks. The lush and green planet around them turns red and begins to nearly melt away, reality becoming so very disappointing as it leaves nothing but an ashen, burnt, and desolate world behind. The world that was once a home to thousands of people has now been destroyed. Something obliterated this planet.
No. Not something. Someone.
The ground begins to tremble.
The wind shifts.
As a light flashes in the grey purple sky, it starts silent before releasing an echoing boom when someone lands hard in the dirt, sending dust towards the remaining Avengers.
And from the light, a woman.
Unsure whether to feel sad or scared, Svetlana's jaw slackens, "Is that-,"
"It's her."
Lisa Stark-Udaku lifts herself up from the dirt and the debris around her, her swirling blue eyes slowly rolling up to look at the planet's new arrivals. Her head twitches to the side and an eerie smirk cuts onto her lips. Her bleeding hands tremble into a bright glow and her boots crunch through the withering bones and the broken homes as she approaches them.
Gold beads are threaded through her very specific shade of brown hair and she wears thick intricate armor, but her eyes are hollow and her cheeks are sunken and her bones jut out in odd places. Fresh burns cover her right arm and the side of her face, and her skin looks nearly cracked apart in places where the power was just too much to contain inside.
The woman's deadly, surely, but she's also dying.
Eyes narrowing, Carol tightens her hold on Thanos and everyone shifts into subtle defense positions. Letting out a quiet hesitant breath, Steve cautiously moves towards the woman he's known since she was sixteen and wide eyed and so innocent. He can hardly believe the sight before them.
"Lisa, it's us." Steve slowly walks down the wooden steps towards her, "You're safe now, Kid. You don't have to listen to him anymore."
But that doesn't stop her.
It's like nothing can.
It's like she doesn't even know him as her lips pull apart in a smile that reveals blood in her teeth and fire in her veins.
"Lees, listen to me, your dad sent us." Rhodey quickly steps down by Steve's side, "He came back. He's safe." His brown eyes crinkle and he shakes his head, "Sweetheart... he needs you."
The Death Angel pauses.
Her infected eyes suddenly flicker with that old familiar blue, like something within her is resisting, like something within her is fighting to come out. Her head flicks to the side and her hands twitch and her chest jerks. Her tongue rolls over her top teeth and she releases a low shaky hiss, the light behind the cracks in her skin beginning to dim.
And then her eyes suddenly turn innocent and her voice so gentle, "Rhodey?"
The group lets out quiet sighs of relief, letting their guards down.
"Yeah Lees, it's me." The uncle smiles sadly.
"You're here to take me home?" Tears fill her soft eyes.
"That's right." Steve gives her a reassuring nod, "We're here to take you home."
A small peaceful pause stretches between them, giving them hope, giving them reassurance.
But then her eyes flush back with that sick white blue.
Her tears disappear.
Disgust colors her expression.
Her lips twitch with a twisted smirk.
And then Lisa whispers, "I am home."
The two men don't even have time to prepare themselves before suddenly a fiery surge of purple energy is blasting towards them, hurling them off their feet and smashing them hard into the ground. As Natasha, Svetlana, and Nebula go to put up a fight, Lisa twists her hands towards the dirt and jagged rocks slit up towards their throats. And when Thor tries conjure lightning, she flips her body around and curves every strike right back at him.
With a determined scowl, Carol launches towards her, but even with all the power of an Infinity Stone, all Lisa has to do is simply raise a hand and then suddenly Captain Marvel's glowing fist is caught.
Carol looks sharply at her.
And the captain's intense eyes grow slightly wide when Lisa just laughs.
With that same mocking smirk, Lisa yells as she slams her own glowing fist under Carol's chin, throwing the woman into the air and then crashing her down into the ground.
Jerking around, her gaze lands on where the Hulkbuster still restrains Thanos and her eyes rage. She thrusts her hand out towards them, seeming to almost grab at the air before she gives it a sharp yank and forces Bruce towards her grasp. Thanos falls to the ground, too tired to flee, too weak. Lisa holds the Hulkbuster suit within the air, eyes narrowing as her hand clenches into a fist and the metal suit begins to cave in with the man still inside.
Svetlana's small frame finally comes in handy as she slips free from her rocky prison, letting out a fierce shout as she tackles her. Lisa irritatedly flips the smaller girl off her, raising a hand to attack when suddenly a sharp silver blade is slashing across her wrist. The woman hisses as the glow within her veins begins to pour out. Svet is just backing into a defensive position when Lisa turns on her, forcing her onto the ground and wrapping her hands around her throat with hungry eyes.
Svet gasps for air and Natasha screams from behind them, but Lisa's hands twitch with the desire to snap the bones in the nearly seventeen year old's neck. And she's just about to end it, just about to kill Svetlana Barnes when something inside her makes her freeze. Her chest heaves. Her eyes widen.
"It isn't you." Svet coughs up at the girl she knows could've been her friend if life hadn't torn them apart, "This isn't you."
Tears fill her eyes and her expression breaks in recognition, "Svet-Svetlana?"
Rhodey takes the opportunity to jerk forward, a wrist cuff forming out of his suit and clamping tightly around the girl's hand. Lisa's eyes snap over at him when suddenly Rocket does the same on her other wrist. Light shocks course through the cuffs, freezing her muscles and locking her in place. She falls to her knees as everyone else gets back to their feet.
Natasha quickly slides over to her daughter, pulling her up and holding her close. Steve wipes the sweat from his brow and heaves a heavy breath, glaring back at the titan that did this to her.
"Release me!" Lisa screams, twisting and writhing underneath their grasps, "Father, tell them to let me go!"
But Thanos slowly looks away from the girl, his beady eyes rolling up to meet Steve's angry ones, "The Stones are gone. Reduced to atoms."
"You used them two days ago!"
"My daughter used the Stones to destroy the Stones! It weakened us, but now the work is done. It always will be." Thanos gives a sick smirk, "I am... inevitable."
"We have to tear this place apart!" Still holding tight to his niece, Rhodey quickly looks around, "He-he has to be lying!"
Her eyes not leaving Thanos' face, Nebula quietly objects, "My father is many things. A liar, is not one of them."
"Ah, thank you, Daughter." Thanos breathes with a hint of that same sick smile, "Perhaps I treated you too harshly-,"
And Thor suddenly silences him with the axe slicing right across his throat, severing his head from his body. His head and his body fall, creating two loud thuds, one after the other.
Everyone falls silent on the destroyed planet.
"What have you done?!" Lisa suddenly roars a gut-wrenching sound, sounding so torn between grief and relief, "You killed him! You monsters, you killed him!"
Squeezing her eyes closed, Natasha swiftly turns around and knocks the girl into unconsciousness, putting her out of her misery, taking away her pain.
Nebula's hand slowly raises to where a lone tear slips down her metal cheek.
"What?" Looking up at the god, Rocket breathes in horror, "What'd you do?"
Thor doesn't meet their eyes, "I went for the head."
The god of thunder stumbles away, finding no reason to look back, to wait for the others, no reason for anything anymore.
"So... so there is no way?" Svet's soft voice breaks through the painful silence, her sky blue eyes wide and full of so much terror, "You mean that is it? There is no other way? My papa... he's just... Papa's just gone forever?"
Everyone slowly turns away from the girl, unable to take the look of desperation branding her too young features.
"Mr. Bruce?" Svet shakily turns to all those around her, begging for their attention, for answers, "Please, Uncle Steve?"
Steve closes his eyes and drops his head, looking away.
"Mama?"
Natasha sits down on the ground, a hand pressing over her trembling lips.
"That is it? We are finished? We have no hope?!"
No one answers.
They can't. How can they?
Svetlana stops looking at everyone around her, slowly raising her small hands to her face to hide her tears. Her shoulders begin to shake and tremble as she silently sobs, the pain too great for it to even make a sound.
It's over. It's all over.
Θ
AS THEY LAND BACK ON EARTH , still no one speaks.
They failed. Again. And now there's no hope. No future.
Lisa had cowered on the way back to their home planet, guilt and shame so clear on her face, still fighting the Stones' infection on her mind. She wanted so badly to apologize, to say she wasn't in control, but she couldn't find her voice within her aching throat. But she didn't need to, anyway. Everyone knew.
When the bomb bay doors open, most go their own separate ways. The Avengers are disbanded. There is no point in them now. After all, there is no one left to avenge.
But not everyone leaves. As the sun begins to break over the horizon, four frightened people wait out on the front lawn. James Rhodes helps his niece down the bomb bay door, supporting nearly all of her weight as she can't herself. Dark stringy hair falls into her red burning eyes, sticking to her sweaty and tear-soaked skin. Her skinny legs shake underneath her and she rasps lowly for breath, her constantly trembling hands pressed over the small bump of her abdomen.
Tony Stark can't stop the choked cry that exits his lips at the sight of his daughter.
And even though his own legs can't hold his weight, he forces himself out of his wheelchair. Swallowing hard, Tony wraps his robe tighter around his thin frame and he stumbles across the lawn towards her. When she finally lifts her head, Lisa fumbles back into Rhodey at the sight. Her expression breaks and a silent sob ripples through her chest, slowly shaking her head in disbelief that he could still be alive, that they both could have made it this far together.
Tears stream down Tony's face as he gets close enough to touch her, to hold her. Lisa stares up at him with those red veined eyes, the vicious blue slowly fading away into her familiar warm blue irises. She doesn't looks the same as she did the day he lost her; it's like the world won't let him forget how much has happened between then.
He hurt her.
That titan... he hurt her.
Tony let happen the one thing he swore he'd never let anyone do to her again, and he let the titan hurt her.
His baby, his everything... and with what feels like years without seeing her, without holding her, knowing full well that a monster had her under his thumb.
Tony's hands tremble up around her face, not quite able to touch her just yet, as if afraid that she'll crumble underneath his hands the moment he does. Tears still drip down her face and she still shakes her head at him, like she can't believe this is real. Finally mustering up the courage, Tony gently cups her face in his hands and he peers at her for a moment, taking in her features, having missed her so much that it hurt.
He carefully pulls her head against his chest, kissing her hair and whispering, "Smalls..."
"My dad." Lisa's fingers cling onto him like he's her lifeline, like he's the only reason she hasn't left this life, "Dad..."
"They got you back." Tony breathes in shock, mouth gaping open and tears burning down his ashen face, "They-they gave you back to me."
"He took me, Dad." She doesn't take her blurring gaze off him, "He hurt me."
Tony's agonized eyes roll up to the sky and he holds her tighter, voice shaking as he whispers, "But we're gonna be okay, baby girl. I got you now, I got you,"
"You don't know the things he made me do." Her emaciated body trembles against him, "What I did..."
"It's not your fault-,"
"I told you, we had to kill me! I told you!" Lisa's own chest is wracked with sobs and she ducks her head into his chest, tears streaming down her face, "Why couldn't you just... Why didn't..."
"God, baby, I'm so sorry I let it happen again." Tony buries his face in her hair, "I'm sorry I let someone hurt you again, Smalls,"
"Mama?"
Lisa gasps and shakily pulls away from Tony with wide searching eyes, her arms immediately reaching for her daughter before she is even close. Maria cries as she reaches her little mocha hands out for the only parent she has left. Pepper quickly hands the child over to her mother, Lisa crying as her body nearly folds in on itself, curling around her little girl and the baby still inside her. Happy Hogan slowly walks up behind the rest of his family, resting a hand on Rhodey's shoulder and sharing a grim look with Tony.
"Mom?" Lisa looks up with burning red eyes.
"I'm here, baby." Pepper smiles through her tears, gently cupping her scarred cheek, "We're all here, Lisa."
"Mama?" Maria mumbles into her shoulder, "Mama, you're squishing me."
"Sorry, Noodle, sorry." Lisa sharply pulls back, apologizing for more than just holding on too tight, "I'm so sorry, Maria,"
The toddler furrows her little brows and rests her hands on either side of her mother's face, "Is Baba wi' you, Mama?"
"He isn't here?" Lisa hoarsely asks, her big tortured eyes desperately looking all around, searching each face around her with such hope on her face, "Where-where's T'Challa?"
No one says anything for a long moment, glancing each other like they don't know what to say, like they don't know who is strong enough to tell her.
"Where?" She sucks in a pained breath, her body beginning to shake more violently, "Where is he?"
"Lisa..." Tony gently takes her hand.
Realization floods her features, breath is sucked out of her lungs, and she looks like she's about to vomit in sickened horror.
"No..." She whispers, shuddering back away from him and pulling her hand from his grip, "No! Oh no, no, don't-, don't tell me, please,"
"He's gone, baby... I'm so sorry, Lees."
"You're lying!" Lisa accuses, sucking in a shaky breath, "You have to be lying, please tell me you're lying, Daddy! He can't be dead, please not him too! I told him I'd come back, I-I told him-, oh my, God, no-,"
Her legs go out from underneath her and she crumples to the ground, drawing her hands to her abdomen where their child still rests, a child that will never know their father. Her family comes down around them, trying to shelter them, trying to comfort them, but they can't change anything.
He's dead. They're all dead. And they're not coming back.
The end of the world has finally come, and they weren't ready for it.
[ I don't want to leave here without you
I don't want to lose part of me
We are buried deep in broken dreams
We are knee deep without a plea
I don't want to know what it's like to live without you ]
xxi. the other side ruelle
wowowowow. so much has happened. honestly don't love and not sure about this chapter, but i am sure that the next couple chapters are gonna hurt like a buttcheek on a stick.
thoughts?
also, are ya ready for the big fat gap? here we goooo. things are about to get wild.