An Uncertain Future

Epilogue

WHILE ASGARD STILL GLITTERED IN THE GOLDEN sun, Delphia hid away in her room. Even after Delphia came home, the kingdom knew that things were not right. Odin and Frigga could tell that she was depressed. Something had happened while she was on Midgard. She was welcomed back home with a grandiose celebration. Her family was over the moon to have her back home. Though after a little while, they knew that something was wrong.

Their once vibrant princess was shutting them out for quite some time. Her family had a few different reactions to her self-isolation. It confused Thor the most since all he wanted was for his sister to be back to normal. She was home, so how could she be so depressed? Her mother and father wanted to understand what she had gone through. However, they knew to give her some space before they tried to talk to her about it. Loki was the same way, though he felt like Delphia shouldn't be left to herself. He tried to be with her whenever he could. Whether it was to distract her or get her to smile, he was there.

Time had passed. Far too much time. Decades had gone by in the blink of an eye and nothing felt right. Delphia was a shell of who she used to be. All of Asgard knew it. Her family knew it. She knew it. Though how else was she supposed to react? The man that she had come to love had died, and she could barely do anything to stop it.

Midgardians view her people as Gods, though how could she consider herself as such a high being if she could do little to nothing to save Steve? For decades, Delphia tormented herself over it. She could have done more, should have done more. Perhaps if she had gone with him, she could have saved him. Though she listened to him and stayed put. She had faith in him enough to come back to her... Despite her visions, what she saw, she wanted to think it wasn't true. Though if she's a Goddess of virtue and visions, then she should have been able to do something to save him.

Still what if she did? Disrupted the future that she had seen and disobeyed him. Gone with him to help him defeat Johann and go back home. What sort of consequences would she have faced? Delphia has never truly thought about what exactly would happen if she rewrote the visions she saw. There are theories about what would happen. Though her mother instilled in her that everything has its reasons, there was nothing that she could do to change what she witnessed. Sometimes Delphia believed that the whole of reality would cave in on itself if she changed time. Perhaps if she had tried to change it, something else would have happened, more catastrophic, something horrible. A cause and effect of sorts. Replace one terrible series of events with worse ones. There was no winning with this.

Not only that, but any visions that she had that might be in the far future did not have any sign of him. The horrible vision of the infinity stones being joined had no sign of Steve. So she knew that there was no way that she would be seeing him again. In some sort of miracle, there was no way that Steve would come back. The vision that she saw, there were other people, people that she had no doubt she'd come to know quite well. Though none of them were Steve.

She didn't find solace in anything. Her life was turned upside down. Delphia knew that she shouldn't be so upset about the death of a being who would never live as long as her, but she couldn't help it. It was Steve. The sweetest, virtuous, most heroic man that she had ever come to know. She came to admire him. To adore him. To love him. Though she shouldn't have.

The princess shall live thousands of years longer than any Midgardian. It is not ideal to grow to love someone who would die sooner than her by a very long time. Asgardians are not immortal, but they still do not live the short lives that other beings do. It's not a good situation.

Talking to her family about it was... a bit complicated. Eventually, she told them that she lost plenty of friends while on Midgard. Having those nearly familiar bonds with the likes of Bucky and Abraham was something that hurt her since they both were killed. She explained how the deaths of her good friends had caused her to be dragged into a depressive state. After all, they know that she's never had to experience a close friend dying. She also told them about Steve. However, Loki was the only one who knew the extent of their relationship.