Fall of the Mighty ★ [4] ✔

Swan Song

⏳ 2016 

I felt time stop. It was like the striking of a match. I could hear it. I could feel the heat. I could hear it be snuffed out so easily.

And then I turned. And that was when I saw her fall. "No!"

I staggered over to her, Bucky falling from my grip. I fell to my knees beside her. My eyes hit the wound to her chest, to her heart, soaking her suit crimson. A gunshot wound. She gasped for air, wheezing weakly, looking skyward. I looked up to the snowy plains outstretched before us, desperately in search of the shooter. Nothing.

I pressed her hand to her chest. "Heal, Andi." Her hand didn't glow. Nothing happened. "Heal!"

"I-I can't," she rasped, her eyes rolling from the sky to meet mine. "I can't."

"W...What do you mean you can't?"

A weak smile graced her paling, battle-hardened face. "I-It was my c-choice."

"Andi...What are you saying?"

Panic clawed into my throat when I saw blood trickle from the side of her mouth, running down her cheek and into her hair.

"No, no, no, no." I pressed her hand harder to the wound, and she winced. "C'mon, Andi, heal!" Tears flowed freely dampening the dried blood caking my face. "Please, heal." I pressed harder. "Heal."

I pulled her closer to me, cradling her in my lap. A hand reached up to cup my face, and I pushed it deeper into her palm. I didn't see fear in her eyes. I didn't see pain or agony. I saw a calmness I'd never seen in those pools of green.

"N-No war," she whispered. "No peace. No h-hope. No dreams. J-Just us. Just us." She brushed away one of the many currents of my river of tears. "I-I had to s-save you." A painful chuckle dragged out of her lips. "I-I always have t-to save you."

A weak laugh came out of my own lips as I held her tighter and held her closer. "Since the day you jumped out of that plane in 1943."

But save me from what? I-I didn't understand. I looked up at the outcrop we'd left in the distance. Unless that bullet...unless it...