Age of Darkness | Pietro Maximoff

Chapter Forty: New Beginnings, Painful Endings

Music is "New Life" by Thomas Bergersen.

Picture is my edit of Vlad and Glory.

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"New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings."

- Lao Tzu

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Recommendation from the author: "Photographs - Bucky Barnes" by arymyth.

Recommendation from the audience: None.

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Author's Note:

Hey guys!

This is the final chapter! I can't friggin believe that this is happening. It's ending so soon! As I said, there will be an Epilogue, and after that, another book, but I'll give the info for the next book in the following post on Friday.

Thank you so much for your support! I never could've gotten this far if it weren't for you. Please, feel free to leave comments about this final chapter. I would really appreciate the feedback!

And I'm sorry for the picture overload below. I wanted to show exactly what I envisioned (hehe, get it? EnVISIONed? Ehe... ehe... I need help) for the Glietro house.

Also, I saw Civil War on Monday and it was fantastic! No spoilers, but go see it if you haven't already!

Your friendly neighborhood author,
- SaveTheBrooklynBoys

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CHAPTER FORTY

I never thought I'd be so used to silence. After everything that's happened, silence is the last thing I thought I'd be accustomed to. Between the bombs, the nightmares, the sirens behind us, silence is a luxury that few of us have these days.

I'd never felt silence this heavy than when I visited Aspen's grave for the last time. It's just a half an hour before the twins, Vision, and I were preparing to ship out to Wakanda to pick up my children. Then we were off to Sokovia, or what was left of it. We were never coming back, that much I knew. This would be the last time I would see my friend's resting place.

It hurts like hell.

I step through the marsh of a graveyard that leads to Aspen's gravestone, finding the dark clouds overhead to be a foreboding sign. It's been like this ever since the day I woke up in Stark Tower, especially yesterday when we buried our dead. Why does it seem that whenever we finish a fight we always are right back here, in a cemetery, burying someone?

It hurts, but sadly, doesn't surprise me anymore. What does surprise me is that the first thing I see in front of Aspen's grave is not an animal of some sort feeding on the treats left at her grave, but my old friend Vlad Spencer. He stares at his wife's name like if he does it long enough, she'll come back.

I purposefully make myself known, shuffling a few bushes on my way towards him. This is a private moment, and I'd hate to intrude. "Hey, stranger."

Vlad turns around, wiping his eyes as he looks to me. "Hey. Didn't hear you, sorry." He looks over his shoulder back to Aspen. "I was just... visiting. Felt the need to confess a few things. You know, get a little weight off my chest."

I nod, placing the small, brown paper bag I'm holding on the tombstone beside me. "I know what you mean."

After that, there's an awkward silence between us. Last time we really talked, it was in the Negative Zone, in Prison 42, and we were shouting and throwing darkness and cosmic energy at each other. Not one of our best moments in our friendship, but I'm surprised to say not one of our worst.