Aftershock

Oh Captain My Captain

Steve

It was around noon when it happened. We were all eating lunch, or at least finishing up, when the sound of a plate breaking against the floor echoed around the room. Of all the people in the room, there was absolutely no reason for one of us to at least not catch the plate. It should've never been dropped in the first place, but when I looked up from the feet of where it was dropped I saw the reason why.

Perseus was frozen in place. His hands were still in the air where he was holding his plate before it fell. They were shaking, visibly. I looked at his face, rapidly paling with a far away look in his eyes. His foot was prepped to take the next step, but he didn't move.

The only movement was the tremble to his body. Then it slowly got more and more violent. Sweat started appearing on his skin, covering him in a small shine. I could hear his breath, he was most definitely not okay. Loki was hovering around his husband, trying to still his limbs and cool his body but it wasn't working. The rest of us were stuck watching helplessly from the side.

The shaking got more violent and it was as if the Agent's body was trapped in a cycle of seizures. Gasps were escaping Perseus who was clearly struggling but panicked glances from the two sisters of space didn't reassure me. They had no clue to what was happening.

"Perseus?" Loki exclaimed, "Perseus? Can you hear me? Blink three times if you can."

There was no response. I moved from my place to stand in front of the Immortal. I grabbed his shoulders in an attempt to steady him, but the opposite happened. I was sucked into the mind of the Agent. I barely took a breath before I was whisked away.

"Perseus." The terrifying voice of Thanos cooed, "you know what you must do."

The scene appeared before me and I was now standing in the middle of Thanos' army. They stood amidst a room on his ship. Thanos was at the front in his armor with his children at his side. In front of the purple giant stood Perseus.

There were chains around his ankles, a collar around his neck, and wristlets wrapped around his carpals that had a cap covering his hands. Perseus was straining against the bonds, trying to reach Thanos, but his children held the Agent back with the chains.

His lips were sewed shut so it must be a memory I reasoned. How wrong I was. As every minute passed by, Perseus grew more and more frantic, screaming against the rope on his mouth, spasming in the cuffs, hitting himself in the head with the fist like bonds.

I felt his pain, his agony, his desperation as each second without Thanos made it worse. But he couldn't do as Thanos asked, he couldn't. Then the voices outside of Perseus' head spoke up. They were screaming at him, he couldn't feel his physical pain, it was too loud. He crumpled to the ground, sobbing and screaming at the same time.

"Do as I say!" Thanos roared, "I am your master! Follow my will! It is inevitable."

With one last effort, Perseus wrenched his eyes open and blearily connected with mine, but it wasn't him. I didn't see my friend, I only saw madness stuck in a whirlpool of pain.

"I'm sorry." His whispered before he broke.

His scream pushed me from his mind. In the time I was in his mind, I had fallen on my bottom at his feet. The Agent had risen in the air with his arms spread, his head thrown back, and his back arched like he was having an exorcism. Then I heard his scream. It was so raw and filed with his agony that I couldn't help myself as I flinched away from him to get away from the horrible sound.

Everyone was thrown back, even Loki, as the sound wave hit because it was more than his scream. It was as if a lightning rod had struck him and in turn spread from Perseus as its power source. Then I heard a different sound... the sound of Thanos' snapping his fingers.

After that, Perseus crashed into the ground, denting the floor with his body. His entire body was black from something and he smelt of burnt flesh. I crawled over to him, pushing his soaked hair out of his face. What shocked me was the tears falling from his eyes, but he wasn't looking at me. He was looking past me.

"I tried." He cried, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." I soothed, "it's okay. He can't reach you."

Perseus ignored me, instead raising a trembling hand to point at something behind me. When I followed the path of his finger I saw particles of dust flying in the air. The particles of dust were connected to the arm of Dr. Strangle who was merely watching us.

"It's the only way, my Lord." He said before the dust took him.

The next thing I knew, everyone was disappearing into the air. I frantically looked around me, everyone was disappearing. I ran to Bucky, but he too was gone. Just as Peter Quill, Drax, Wanda, the Wasp and almost all of the others were. The King of Wakanda faded as his guard cried out for him and Peter Parker stumbled towards Stark.

"I don't feel so good, Mr. Stark." He whimpered, "what's happening to me?"

Even Pietro didn't have enough time to catch his best friend as he fell. The particles all collected in the air and left until all the was left was Fury who just cursed as he stared into the sky from the open window. As his body disappeared, a device fell from his hand and a symbol shone on the old time pager.

"It is done." Loki whispered before he too faded.

That was a week ago. Now the remainder of the Avengers, wizards, and panthers were left staring at a pager that was continuously beeping. Perseus sat in his wheelchair directly in the front, staring at it as if it were his lifeline. It probably was, Fury was basically his family and whatever he spent his last few moments of life doing was what Perseus would finish.

His body was still black from the power Thanos channeled through him, but the tweaks Nebula, Gamora, and Tony did to his wheelchair slowly poured water over his body like a waterfall. No one blamed the Agent after I told them what happened, but even if I didn't they would have known he didn't mean to because his own husband was killed as well. We all knew the connection they held.

"It stopped beeping." Perseus' hoarse voice declared.

"What?" I demanded, "did it die?"

"No, we overrode the battery." Tony reassured me.

"Then why did it stop?" Natasha asked.

"Uh, guys." Thor boomed, turning all of our heads in his direction, "there's a lady here that wasn't here before."

We all turned our heads, save Perseus. A woman in the colors of America stood in the room, glowing as brightly as her hair. Her eyes shone determination and confidence as she stalked right up to me and past Thor. However, as she passed Perseus she wasn't ready for his hand to shoot up and grab her wrist in a tight grip.

Immediately she started glowing and the force of her power as she used it against Perseus struck and consequently we all flew back into the wall. When the dust cleared, both the woman and Perseus were in the same spots as before the mini explosion happened with the exception of the subtle step back taken by the woman.

"Who are you?" The woman demanded, "Where's Fury?"

Perseus turned his piercing eyes on her, "I'm Perseus, now are you going to help us get our family back or not?"

She jerked her wrist out of Perseus' grip, "That's what I'm here for."

Thor stalked back into her vision waving his hands wildly, "I'm sorry, but how can we do that if we weren't able to stop Thanos' the first time?"

She got in his face, analyzing the lightning god, "It'll be different then last time because now you've got me."

"And who are you?" Tony questioned.

"Captain Marvel..." She and Perseus announced.

To be continued...
04/29/19