It took her a moment to register the cold grip gently covering her wringing hands, but it stalled Élisabeth's darting gaze. "What happened this time?" "I couldn't save them." The murmured admittance was met with a firm squeeze of her hands, a safe gesture of comfort that anchored her to the present. Nightmares weren't an uncommon appearance each night - and a hummed sign of recognition caught Lillian's understanding of what exactly had happened. How it had played out. "I tried, but I... There were so many of them, I- I didn't know what to do." "I know you did everything you could, sugar," Lillian assured - but it didn't feel like enough. Reaching words that were unreflective of reality, sympathetic phrases ignorant of the truth. "It wasn't your fault." "It is, though." Élisabeth couldn't even look at Lillian, her heart thumping loudly in her ears. "I promised them." ────✧──── A sharp eye can catch life's repetition, but a cautious one knows how to break the pattern. Amongst a world still fractured by the scars of one of its deadliest wars, glimmers of rehabilitation were beginning to surface. Twenty-five years later, society plunged back into that same cycle they've always known. It took bravery to recover. It took courage to face it again. Élisabeth found herself swept among the wreckage of the second wave, still drowning as the memory of the first swell pulled her under. Navigating through heavy waters, shining beneath a light of cruel familiarity. Protecting what she loved never came at such a high cost. Facing her fears kept her alive, accepting her truth kept her safe. Erasing the board of guilt has never been easy. ────✧──── {Trigger and mature themes warning: Violence, death, mentions of child and domestic abuse, child loss, torture, mature language, war, sexism, homophobia, and mental health issues and illnesses.} {Book one of the Infinity Series.} {Features events from: 'Captain America: The First Av