The Path of Time ★ [3] ✔ (EDITING)

Perseverance

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We trudged through the barren landscape in an uncomfortable silence that had spanned the last hour and a half.

My insides were still on fire after the verbal war with Primavera. I was bitter. I was angry. How could she betray me like that? I'd trusted her. I pledged my allegiance – my life – to her, only for her to betray me in the end in a way that hurt me more than physical pain ever could. And now she wanted me to wield the Time Stone, a powerful Infinity Stone, a weapon so deadly and dangerous it could destroy any who held it. It was a mistake choosing me. I was dangerous as it is in a Time Trance. I couldn't even begin to imagine how dangerous I would be with the Stone in hand. I didn't want to, in fact.

Steve's footsteps began to die away as I walked towards the edge of the rise. I turned my head slightly to glance back at him. His arms were folded over his chest, a blank look on his face, blue eyes glaring at me, feet firmly planted in place. "Aren't we gonna talk about this?"

"There's nothing to talk about," I growled back. "I just want to get this over with."

I went to climb the rise when I felt Steve's hand latch onto my arm, firm with determination. He stood so close to me that I felt his breath on my neck as he loomed over me. I forced myself not to shiver at his touch, at the tingling feeling of his warm breath on my skin.

"I'm sorry," he said. "There are things I should not have said, things I regret saying." He sighed, one that I felt resonating through my body. "I...I overreacted. I overreacted about Eilian. About everything. It wasn't something I should've let myself get wrapped up about. It was never my business to begin with." He let me go. "I'm...not used to this. I've lost so much in my life – my parents, my home, Peggy...Bucky. The last thing I ever wanted to lose was you. And by thinking that, by saying what I had, I lost you anyway."

I didn't turn to look at him. I couldn't look at him in fear that I'd crumble like a broken, aged tower on the verge of collapsing. Everything I'd experienced in the last few days had made me so incredibly fragile, a term I'd never thought I could relate to as heavily as I did now. I'd learned so much in such a short amount of time about myself than I had in centuries of being a Walker. I felt like I didn't know myself anymore. I could look in the mirror and not recognise the girl with blazing hair and startling green eyes – a girl who looked so much like me – staring back at me.