❝ 𝘞𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘔𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯❞ ⎊☾𝙈𝙃𝘼 𝙭 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙭 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙡 ☽

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 9 - ℍ𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕓𝕠𝕕𝕚𝕖𝕤

I could see the images flashing across my mind like lightning. It first began with streaks of red, orange, blue and brown. Then through the brief flashes of color I could see shapes, mending, forming and cohere gradually. I started to feel my own senses come back into my fingers and limbs, until my body felt whole and alive again. I could interact with the forming shapes.

.

.

.

And I could see a hand place itself on my cheek.

I could feel its warmth... I could see a face...

I could feel the pang in my chest and deep in my throat like a sting as I see... his face...

And he's crying.

"I'm... cold..." I whisper, my frail hands covering myself across my shoulders.

"Y-Your cold? Hey uh- here, how's this?"

His voice trembles and breaks like glass as he scrambles to take off the top part of his suit. With a mechanical whirr and breath he's freed from his metal armor and hastily takes off his sweater. The clothing was thin, but to me it felt like the warmth of a loving embrace. He clears his throat hurriedly and his brows furrow upward.

"I-is that good?" His eyes well up with tears only for him to swiftly swipe a palm across them. I nod as my breath becomes steady. My heart pounding in my ears like a sick drum. And as I try to move around my legs-

I can't...

I gasp before my eyes dart down and see the pile of ash pooling under my torso.

I was starting to fade.

My dizziness and hyperventilation warrant the sudden hands cupping themselves around my face. My eyes wandered to look off into the distance with the gnawing feeling in my head from my thoughts. The gut wrenching reality of it all was like a twisting stab of a knife burrowing itself inside me. The realization that I had...

that I was going to die...

And that we lost.

The disconnection from my body and this very moment only momentarily numbed me. It no longer felt like my own flesh and bones, I was in a different body, a wrong body. There must have been a mistake, I'm not supposed to be here. This was supposed to play out differently. We were supposed to live.

But then why.

Was I still here?

My consciousness was racing for shelter and comfort, in my memories, and my self-assurance that we would be okay. The prayer inside my head pleading, begging for a miracle and a knight in gold to deliver us to the side of victoriousness somehow. We can't lose, we never lose. We're the heroes aren't we? So why didn't we have our victory yet? Why aren't we all united in the end overcoming everything against all odds like the impossible triumph we've won again and again? It...

It isn't fair...

"T-Tony-" I gasp for breath as my heavy tears meet at the bottom of my chin.

"Hey, hey, hey-" He looks at me with the most gut wrenching despair clouding his eyes I've ever seen. He chokes as he doesn't even bother to wipe his tears anymore and they flow like a winding river. I can't even begin to imagine his distress. The loss of a child figure- of Peter, only to lose another moments later. His internal battle making his heart twinge in guilt, all while burrowing it deep inside himself to focus on me, at this moment. To cherish the little girl he raised as his own, to make sure her rest is peaceful. The hands cupping my face gently move to the back of my head while he's kneeled down at my side, and holds me in a hug as if it was the last one he would ever get. "Just... be here... with me."