The Legacy of Meisal Mendadaughter~ Avengers fanfiction

Silence

Menda used to always say that silence was the key to wisdom. Meisal had always scoffed at the saying, telling her adoptive mother that such a useless proverb was false-- silence meant nothing, it was merely the absence of sound.

Oh, how wrong she had been.

Out in space, the universe was silent. The space around her felt thick, like she was floating in mud, but she also felt free. Meisal stared out at the stars, studying them with her unblinking eyes, admiring their beauty, even as she died. 

Meisal had never felt cold before. But she felt cold now. She felt the silence, too, and she embraced it, allowed it to seep into her skin, her heart, her soul.

Meisal looked to the side and saw Htic. He struggled weakly, even now, when his life was clearly ending, he fought to keep it. Just as he had fought to kill Menda, fought to have Meisal for his own, fought to overtake the Order of Nox, fought to destroy Loki and Meisal and everyone else who had gotten in his way. Htic truly was a fighter.

But that didn't make him a hero.

Meisal gazed upwards once again-- it was so strange, floating out in open space. She wondered vaguely if Loki would be at all bothered by her death. Probably. The others wouldn't be, though-- they barely knew her, after all.

Although, after only knowing Loki for a few hours, Meisal had sacrificed her own life for him. But maybe that was love, love between siblings, a brother and sister. That was the kind of bond that couldn't be broken, couldn't be replaced.

Suddenly, a white light filled Meisal's vision. This is it, she thought, I'm dying. 

Dying really wasn't so bad, she decided, since it didn't hurt. Meisal smiled softly, preparing herself for whatever the afterlife had to offer. But she didn't die. Instead, she heard a voice.

"Meisal, child. Meisal, look to me."

Meisal gaped at the woman who spoke to her.

"Menda?" She breathed, speaking freely even though she was in space.

"It is I," her mother whispered, extending a single gnarled, battle-scarred hand to her daughter. "I am not here to take you, Meisal. Rather, I am here to save you."

"But I'm..." Meisal gestured vaguely to the stars and the space that surrounded her. "I'm already lost."

Menda shook her head. "You are not," she replied, "and you never were. Merely missing-- and now you have been found, found by your true family. The Avengers, earth's mightiest heroes-- do you think that they became strong by fighting their way through life, or do you think that they broke down and were prepared to die before they found their heroic strength and found the will to live again? We must break before we mend, my child. We must be lost before we are found." Menda smiled, a strange, unintelligible smile. "We must die before we are reborn. And when we are reborn-- when you are reborn-- we will lash back and become twice as strong."

Meisal stared sadly into her mother's eyes. "How can I live?" She asked.

"Stay right where you are," Menda instructed, "and when something crashes into you, don't try to resist."

Meisal was about to ask what she meant when suddenly pain exploded in her side and everything around her went as dark as a starless sky.

**  **  **

Thor heard only the sound of someone screaming as he rushed into the room. He and Gamora, having no idea how to decipher the strange riddle that Htic had set before them, had elected to run around the fortress blindly until they found Loki or Meisal. Apparently this was the room that they were both in.