Love of my life, you've hurt me
You've broken my heart
And now you leave me
Love of my life, can't you see?
Bring it back, bring it back
Don't take it away from me
Because you don't know
What it means to me
"Kid, Happy retrieved the message Raine left us," I felt Steve's hand on my shoulder as I continued to watch Mr. Stark's arc reactor float away further.
I looked at him with bloodshot eyes as he motioned me into the house again.
Pausing the mp3 player, the team had already sat down, prepared for the message. They left a seat open in the front.
I sat down, letting the chair creak among the silence. Happy clicked the hologram up, projecting an image of Raine, much older than I expected. This was filmed recently.
"Hey everyone, I'm not sure who I'm speaking to, depends if all of this actually worked. What?" She responded to someone in the distance as she recorded.
Mr. Stark's voice, "Pretend you're talking to everyone we brought back and the rest of the team."
She nodded, slipping her fingers through her hair before she continued.
"That day I went up into space, I thought it was going to be a routine mission. Do our thing, get the bad guy, get out, go get some shwarma. This time, we fought the bad guy, got so close, gave him the one thing he needed to succeed, and watched him slam the door in our faces. Then I watched... everything I love... disintegrate in my grasp..."
Her voice trembled as she picked at her bracelet, something she only did when she was anxious.
"The love of my life disintegrated in my arms and all I could do was watch. I fell apart. I sat there with Mr. Stark and listened to the same song over and over on my old MP3 player from the 2000s."
I spun the MP3 player in my hands, rubbing my thumb over the engraving of her name.
"Mr. Stark let me live in his cabin since my parents were part of the 50%. We were never the same without Peter. Now that there's a chance to get him back... I'm worried that the price for this to work is our lives we're gambling. The most I know about time travel is from Back to the Future, and I know the entire middle of the movie, things don't turn out too great."
"This is all to get Peter back. Peter, if you're watching this, that means it worked, but it also means that I paid the price. I was willing to. Earth needs you a lot more than it needs me."
Looking down at the floor, I refused to make eye contact with her hologram as she said this. If anything, Earth needed her more than me by a long shot.
"I hope I went out in a cool way, at least. I mean, if this was the mission that killed me, I better get a freaking awesome funeral."
The room chuckled at her jokes, releasing some tension.
"Hey, Peter," She caught my attention as my eyes fell directly on hers. "You're the love of my life, and I did all this for you."
Mr. Stark then entered, handing Raine a guitar. She propped herself on the chair and quickly strummed a few chords, checking it's tuning.
"If you lose that MP3 player, I swear to god I will come back to life just so I can whack you in the head."
A smile formed across my face as she began to play the very song I was just listening to. Our song. She sang just as she would in my room.
"You will remember
When this is blown over
And everything's all by the way
When I grow older
I will be there at your side
To remind you how I still love you
I still love you
Back, hurry back
Please, bring it back home to me
Because you don't know
What it means to me
Love of my life
Love of my life"
Her hologram faded, and suddenly, I had new purpose.
YOU ARE READING
Avengers Preferences
FanficThere was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if we could become something more... I still believe in my heroes. I understood that reference!
