Age Of Miracles | Pietro Maximoff

Chapter Fifty-One: My Name Is Death

Music is "Sacrifice" by Steve Jablonsky from the Transformers: The Last Knight OST.

Picture is Tuppence Middleton as Elaine Maximoff.

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"Oh, in case we have met before and I have forgotten the occasion -- my name is Death. I meet so many people, of course, that it is quite impossible to remember all their names."

- Death

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CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

The snap echoes in the air, and for a brief moment, it seems as if nothing has happened.

Then I see it. Ash. Coming from my friends and family, slowly dragging them into oblivion.

"Steve?" Wanda mutters, looking at her hands. Thanos has allowed us to move now, knowing that there's nothing we can do about it. We'll all be dust in a matter of seconds.

Steve turns to his friend, falling to his knees beside her. Her hands are blowing away with the African winds. She looks to him in horror, much like the young girl she was when she first met him.

Steve stares back, just as terrified as he starts to fade with her. He collects her in his arms, holding her as tight as he can as they blow away.

Horrified, I look to Vlad behind me. I catch his eye just in time to see him collapse into ash as he walks, turning to little more than what Logan was reduced to minutes before.

I turn to look at Killbane beside me, searching for any last words of guidance, but his gaze is upwards, towards the stars. A look of peace covers his face, a look that tells me he's finally come to terms with the end. He closes his eyes, and blows away with the next gust of wind.

I know the end is inevitable, but I'd rather spend it with Elaine than anyone else. Pietro is gone. My best friends--brothers and sisters--are gone. My family is gone. All that remains is my future daughter.

I collect Elaine in my arms as she stumbles towards me, unable to hold herself up. "I don't feel so good," she whispers. I sink to the ground, holding her like a small child. She gazes up at me as I caress her cheeks with a sad smile.

"Hey, it's okay. We're okay. I got you, Ellie. We're together, you and me, remember?"

Elaine forces a sad smile, gripping onto my arms as her feet start to turn to ash while I'm holding her. "We lost," she states the obvious. "All I did, everything I sacrificed to come back in time, we still lost. I failed you."

I hold back a sob, shaking my head sharply. "You didn't fail me, Ellie. We failed you. Sometimes we have to lose to realize how much people really mean to us. And there is no one that means more to me than you. My only regret is that you didn't get the happy ending you deserved."

Elaine coughs as the line of ash moves up her body, taking most of her legs. "Maybe it's not about the happy ending," she tells me in a sigh, a sleepy look covering her face. "Maybe it's about the story. And even fairy tales have their endings, so I guess ours ends here." She looks up at me and smiles brightly despite the pain of disappearing from existence. "My life was a fairy tale because I was loved by you and Dad, by Steven and Nia, by Katie, and by the Avengers. I wouldn't trade my story for any amount of extra time."

She tears up as the ash reaches her lower torso, and it only makes me hold her tighter. "Just promise me something, Mom?"

I lean my forehead against hers. "Anything, Ellie."