faded 🕷️ peter parker [2]

9

Jessica stared at the starry landscape. What once looked so stunning to her, looked empty and meaningless now. That was one of the few things she did to kill the time inside the ship, besides lying down and crying.

Tony and Nebula, on the other hand, spent all their time trying to get the ship going on further. They achieved that, in the beginning, but eventually ran out of resources and they were now adrift in space. They tried to make this lighter by playing silly games and they would always try to get Jessica involved. But she would always refuse.

Even though the Benatar was quite big, they could hear everything that happened in there even if it was all the way across the ship. Jessica could hear how Tony recorded a message for Pepper, a final message. She, however, always waited for everyone to be asleep. She would cry until she'd fall asleep as well.

Tony shut down his Iron Man helmet after he had recorded his message. He had no way of knowing if it would make it to his fiancée, but he still recorded it. He sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. He remembered the last meal he had, four days before. He couldn't help but feel guilty that he'd eaten the last provisions they had on the ship. He did offer it to Jessica, but she refused to eat it. Just as she refused anything that came from him.

"Have it." He told her, handing her the last bag of food. "It's the last one." Jessica didn't even bother to look at him. "Kid, you gotta eat something."

"If that's the last provision we have, we're gonna starve anyway."

Peter's death had destroyed her. Tony had seen her lie down for hours, not moving at all and staring at the void. That only lasted for the first days they were adrift. Then, she started crying his death. She would wait until everyone was asleep, but most of those times Tony was still awake and he witnessed her moments of weakness.

It had come to the point where Jessica started to talk alone. She talked to Peter as if he could hear her from somewhere in the afterlife. He also knew how she felt about him, she blamed him for what happened to Peter. He already blamed himself for everything, so that only added to the guilt.

"Jessica, please, don't do this." Tony begged her. "Do you really wanna die like this?" She wouldn't respond to him. "You're completely right blaming me but there's nothing we can do now."

That was four days ago, and now the only thing he could do was to wait for the oxygen to run out. He walked over to Jessica's corner, the place where she had mostly laid for the past 22 days. Or perhaps 23. He had lost count. He placed his hand close to her nose, making sure she was still breathing. The poor girl looked very sick, it was a miracle that she was still alive. He covered her with Peter Quill's jacket and then went back to where he originally was. He laid down and just waited for their inexorable fate to come.

...

Jessica opened her eyes because something was happening. When she last went to sleep, she'd expected to never wake up again. She knew they were running out of oxygen, so nothing made sense. She struggled to adjust her vision. A bright light was coming closer and closer to her. For one second, she thought that could be the light everyone talks about. The light at the end of the tunnel, the light of heaven. Then she realised she wasn't even in the same position she went to sleep in. Her first assumption was that either Nebula or Tony had put her there. She was sitting in the ship's pilot seat and in the seat next to her was Tony, who was still with his eyes closed.

"What the-" She said while covering her eyes with her hand. She looked to the man on her side and called him to wake him up. "Tony?"

He woke up, striving to adapt to the brightness the same way Jessica had to a few moments ago.  Jessica was the first to see her. The light being released from a woman. A woman who could fly through space. 

"What's that? An angel?" She said, almost deliriously.

They let her in the ship and Jessica didn't know what to think of her. They had been lucky that she had come in peace, for all they knew she could have come to kill them or rob them, even if there wasn't anything to rob in the ship. She looked radiant and powerful and said that she knew the Avengers. She explained to them that they had sent her to come to their rescue, but she hadn't presented herself yet. 

"Who are you?" Jessica finally asked, but the response she got gave her no further information.

"I'm the one who's taking you all home."

"Why?" Jessica said in a cold and emotionless tone. "I have nothing. There's no one waiting for me on earth. Why bother going back?"

Tony walked towards her, almost tripping on the way. "Listen, Jessica, I know you hate me for what happened to Peter but as far as we know we are all we have."

"As far as we know..." She repeated his words, chuckling, even though the anger was starting to build inside. "That's the difference, Tony. You don't know what happened to your loved ones. They could have died or maybe they're still alive." She took a pause to control her tone, she was starting to raise her voice way too much. "But you don't know." Tony looked at her speechless.

She continued, with tears in her eyes, gathering the little energy she had left. "I know. I most certainly know that Peter is dead. He died in front of me. Heck! He died in my arms and I did nothing!"

Tony stroke back. "Because you couldn't have!"

"We could have saved him! We could have saved everyone! Do you know why he stayed on the ship?!" Now the rage had taken over her. "He trusted you! He only stayed because he trusted you!" Tears were streaming down her face as she tried to push Tony, but she was way too weak. "How could you do this to him?! I hate you! I hate this! I just want him back!"

"Shh..." Tony pulled her into a hug, holding her as she kept crying and shaking. "Hey, you're grieving. Trust me, I know the feeling, I know it's horrible. You've lost too much already but..." He thought of the most suitable words for what he wanted to say. "I know you and I know you're strong and, as cliché as it sounds, you're not alone."

Jessica looked up at him, her vision blurry from her crying. A part of her was reluctant to believe him because she was afraid that what he'd just said would turn out to be a lie. However, a bigger part of her had had enough. That other part wanted to move on, to heal and grow out of the pain.

"You have me, here and on earth."

With that, that other part had won. Jessica hugged Tony as tight as she could, which wasn't much. She felt how the tears stopped. "I don't hate you."

"I know." The man placed his hand over her head to comfort her.

"It hurts..."

"I know." He pulled away to look at her in the eyes. "But we gotta go back."

Jessica nodded, agreeing. Then they both looked over at the new heroine. She returned the look, ready to take them back home.