The Valiant (The Seventh Avenger)

Chapter 73

With a bright flash, I was transported to another place. Orange glow surrounds me and I find myself standing in a thin layer of water. I turn around to a silhouette of someone in front of a structure. My steps send ripples into the pool as I make my way over to it, a little girl stands in front of me with her back away, I reach out to her and feel a tap on my shoulder when I touch hers.

I twist around and find a woman staring at me, her large green eyes study me and long curly brown hair flows away from her face. Her skin glows from the orange but her eyes tell a million stories that I can't understand. Nor can I figure them out. I knew my abilities wouldn't work in this place for it must be something to do with my head. The woman takes my hand into hers, they're soft and my nerves calm down from the touch.

"You are going to be okay," she says, her voice is sweet like honey but strong like a lion. It shows her story but it doesn't tell it. It shows how she grew into a lioness after being a cub, how she found kindness at the darkest of times. "You are going to be the strongest you can be and you are going to be okay. You will get through this and you will be the best you can be."

Her voice cracked, and a tear escaped the barrier of her left eye. It trails its way down her cheek before adding another drop into the endless abyss of this orange world. She crouches down next to me and takes my other hand before turning it over to show the designs on my wrist. Her hand grazes over it before a smaller hand guides its way and rubs my fading scars. The little girl looks up at me with a smile on her face, she studies me and her eyes shine with hope. The woman caresses my cheek and wipes away a tear that escaped.

I know this is going to be the last time I feel comfort for a long time, the last time I feel safe and calm and collected. Which only brings more tears down my cheeks, and the woman knows it along with the child who rubs my scars.

"I'm so sorry," She says and I get pulled out of this reality.

The stones scream and I'm the only one who hears it. My hands cover my ears trying to stop them, but nothing can stop the sound. Sobs escape my lips as the agony and sadness and pain and betrayal fills my head. I betrayed the stones, I was supposed to protect them and yet I failed, I didn't do anything to prevent this. I didn't do anything for them.

But then the voices started.

The voices tell a story of what each and every creature in the universe was thinking, doing, going through. How they were living out their normal lives when this happened and had someone listening to what they were saying.

But the screams told a whole other story. The screams showed how they were filled with fear before they turned to dust, it shows how they didn't go peacefully, how they didn't have hope. It shows how they were afraid of death, they were afraid of where they were going and what they were going to do after it. Or that there was nothing after death for them.

Tears stream down my face, but I feel numb.

Screams escape my lips, however, there is silence.

Pain sears its way throughout my body, yet I freeze.

I fall to my knees and look around at the Wakandan army, their fear fills my body and the pain of the loss and the confusion and heartbrokenness and loneliness and fear and numbness creates a tsunami of emotions within, threatening to break out. The thoughts and words of the dusted continue to echo its way throughout my brain until it becomes a whisper for just one moment.

My eyes wonder throughout the universe and into each of the habitable planets as each and every creature chosen by the Infinity Stones turns to dust. My brain getting transferred to thousands of places shouting, whispering, speaking every single one of their thoughts as the dust replaced their skin. Prayers to their gods and goddesses, to their one true leader and to their unknown gods. But the fear in their eyes as they turned were real.