Avengers: Incursion

The Mother

As the team followed the demonic being- who called itself Goranthes- they took in their surroundings with apprehensive curiosity. The jagged cliffs they'd left behind yielded to the barren forests that surrounded them. The woods were deep, dark, and filled with the snarls of unseen enemies.

"Are we being hunted?" Whizzer asked as he stared into the shadows where unseen beasts darted to and fro.

"Just...studied," Goranthes clarified. "Humans are not seen on this plane."

"As long as they keep their distance," Whizzer huffed.

Power Princess regarded the unseen beasts with a determined scowl. "And if they don't, I will make sure they regret their choice." She stared at her friends, especially at Nightstar, who continued to take quiet refuge in Hyperion's arms. Her determined scowl deepened at the sight of him, and her eyes made a silent promise to protect him.

"Aside from being his mother," Nighthawk began. "Who is Morla?"

"Morla is the queen of the Netherworld," Goranthes calmly informed him.

"Woah," Whizzer said, with his some of his usual whimsy seeming to return to his voice. "My little buddy's a prince!"

"I'm not claiming that title," Nightstar growled. "This isn't a world I'm connected to."

"Regardless of your feelings, half of your blood is of the Netherworld," Goranthes said.

Refusing to speak anymore on the matter, Nightstar went silent again.

"Are you okay?" Hyperion whispered into his ear.

"Our universe and everyone we know and love is dead. And now I'm trapped in a world I always avoided going to. About to meet the thing that gave birth to me, then abandoned me. Oh, and we may be stuck here. So no, babe; I'm not okay."

Hyperion's expression softened and a barely perceptible flinch conveyed the hurt Nightstar's words had caused. "Everyone who loved you isn't dead," he muttered. "And I'm just trying to be supportive."

"Oh, and let's just talk about our careers as earth's mightiest heroes," Nightstar said in a sarcastic voice, barely hearing his fiancé. "All of those things we did. The people we saved. It was all meaningless. None of it fucking mattered."

Hyperion opened his mouth to speak but was cut off when Power Princess stepped in. "How dare you say such a thing, Taylor!" She chastised him. "Everything we did mattered. I will not hear such a thing from you." She shook her head vehemently. "I matter. We matter. The lives we saved matter. And you speak about us as if we no longer exist as well! But we do! And I will not give up and lay down in defeat."

Nightstar relapsed into silence and watched as Power Princess stalked away from the group.

"Hey, Zarda," Nighthawk said as he moved to her side. "That was...kind of harsh of you."

Power Princess shook her head. "My delivery may have been sharp, but my words are true. The good we did in our world mattered. And it will always matter to me." She turned her face away from Nighthawk and he knew it was because she was crying and didn't wish for him to see it. "We still exist and I refuse to believe that nothing we did mattered," she silently added.

"Of course we matter," Nighthawk said in a comforting voice. "Taylor is just...he'll we're all shaken. We're processing it in different ways. That's all."

"I guess I messed that up, didn't I?" Nightstar muttered.

"She'll come around," Hyperion assured him. "We've all just...we all need a chance to recover from what happened."