Retaliation

Chapter 35 Life Without You

*Warning* Gore and self-blame

It's been about 6 months since everything happened. We traveled back in time, collected the infinity stones, and defeated Thanos. All of these were heroic and amazing feats, however, it was all followed by the tragic return of DRAKO and the death of Jasmine.

A lot has changed since then. Ryan and Fury both went to space, Fury hanging out and working on a Skrull space station and Ryan going around looking for DRAKO stragglers. Last I heard she was going by the alias DRAKO Hunter. Damn kid even built a superhero/vigilante suit to go along with the whole getup. I was a little worried at first, but she has Fury and a whole task force with her along with her powers. She's been training a lot, she can take care of herself.

There have been no signs of Dramik, then again, I don't think Fury and Ryan were as worried about him compared to the others. Being that he saved my life and killed Z'cardan, I think he has proven himself to be breaking ties with all things DRAKO. As far as I knew he was still living it out here on Earth somewhere. Starting a new life, similar to what Jasmine and I did way back when.

Tony was living with his family. No longer interested in Superhero gigs unless it was a serious emergency. 

Bucky was given a pardon with special conditions from the U.S. president. Some of those special conditions included mandatory therapy sessions and regular check-ins with his parole officer. He has moved back to Brooklyn, apparently, he was working on amending his harmful deeds as the Winter Soldier by either apologizing to the victim's families or getting a bad person arrested. I try to text him regularly but he just responds to my texts with vague answers like 'good', 'ok', 'yes', and 'no'. I've tried calling him a few times but it always goes straight to voice mail. At least I was getting somewhere with him, me and Sam stay in contact regularly and he has told me Bucky doesn't even bother responding to his messages.

Sam was currently working with the military, acting as their own personal bitch in my opinion. They always threw him in the most dangerous missions, which in itself is not what pissed me off. Sam is an Avenger. He is smart, he can fight, and he has serious talent. You would be underestimating him to call him a sidekick. It was the fact that they often sent him into these dangerous situations with little if any, backup whatsoever. I understood that this was often the case with many of the Avenger fights but the point is that he had no one to watch his back, which was why Sam and Steve made such a good team. They were true partners.

Sam often complained that his gear experience frequent glitches whenever ops touch them, which to me screams red flags. He talked it down to them not being able to keep up with the technological advances which to me again screamed bullshit. I've expressed my disdain for the government several times to him before but Sam always just laughed it off. He always was the trusting type, the type to follow you everywhere. If you had his back, he would have yours. Except he didn't appear to be mutually exclusive in this relationship. Maybe he just felt like he had to do this line of work in order to keep a sense of purpose, to keep protecting people.

Sam still went by the name Falcon despite Steve giving him the shield. Most would be rushing up to the mantle and shouting to the world that they are the new heir, but not Sam as he was way too humble. I was there for the ceremony of him putting Steve's shield to rest. 

Steve represented the best in all of us; courageous, righteous, hopeful, and he mastered posing stoically. The world has been forever changed, but this belongs to you.

I set down the magazine out of both sadness and frustration. I walked outside, the cool April breeze kissing my face. Living alone here for so long has been tough, really tough. I brought my hand up and touched the small round rock on my necklace, letting my fingers rub against the smooth mineral. Most of the paint had worn off but I didn't bother to repaint it. It wouldn't be the same as Jasmine's meticulous touch anyways.