✔ᵉⁿᵍˡⁱˢʰ a.k.a. Part II - Endgame✔

33

With a queasy feeling in the stomach area around, Peter shouldered his rucksack and after his last lesson he set off for the atlas. A few days ago a message had reached him that he should have stopped by the hotel until today. On which day and at what time exactly was left to him. The main thing was, not a day later, so he had postponed this until the last. Delayed, the matter hit much more. It would have been the easiest thing not to go but the thing was, it was Jyn. Ignoring it might be the most unfortunate decision he could make with her.

"Excuse me sir...", Peter started, but the man in bellboy clothes passed the boy without paying the slightest attention or paying attention to him, "...okay, well, thanks anyway."

Looking behind the employee, Peter suddenly noticed how several glances were resting on him. Women and men, with or without suitcase, sitting and standing, everyone was looking at him, not everyone in the lobby but many, and the feeling of wanting to leave this place as soon as possible overwhelmed him.

"Parker, perfect timing. So Aaron, that's Peter Parker, Parker that's Aaron", out of nowhere, literally out of nowhere, Jyn and a dark-haired man had appeared near the reception and by the sudden appearance, Peter turned abruptly, "If there's anything you can't handle on your own or have messed up, get in touch with him. In the end it will be a dead problem but a New York two point zero, none of us want."

"Jyn?", disgusted because it hadn't been discussed before, Aaron stopped and looked up at his former protégé, "Jyn. I'm not a babysitter."

"I don't need a babysitter," Parker defended himself at the same time Aaron refused to do so.

"Who's been in space when he shouldn't be, huh?" Jyn replied soberly, glancing at the boy, for whom the trip in the spaceship was more of an accident, "Right. Have we cleared that up. In case of emergency Parker, if there is a serious threat, a lá...."

".... Thanos, do we know who your support is for", Aaron finished amusing Jyn's sentence, shrugging his shoulders several times, "What could happen? There will probably not be a second Ultron."

"How...", Parker stuttered and at first didn't know whether to look at Jyn or Aaron, "How does he know about Thanos?"

"How do you think? Didn't you say this boy was intelligent", but this boy didn't make an intelligent impression on Aaron, no matter what Jyn had said before, "From her, just as you are this Spiderboy."

"Now that you know each other, I've done everything", so, Jyn had made the final arrangements but Parker still didn't know what had just happened and looked at her with an overstrained look, "Hey, you can't ask for anything better than Aaron. You can't always rely on your suit, sometimes it takes more than that. Everything that has nothing to do with magic I got from him. Mercenaries are just people, and sometimes they're better than us. When you're not bugging him, he's nice. So, don't screw up, Parker, and I'll see you later, Aaron."

After all that's happened, there's only one thing left to say. Without you, my work, which should have been your work, would have been impossible for the past five years. The one person who knows everything. Every decision, every mistake, every death, every corpse in my life. That life has taken us to many places, but there is one that I think is probably the most important.

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I know it doesn't mean much anymore, but it does. It is what it is. I've tried. I'm sure you'd agree that I've tried to do the right thing, to be strong, to be forgiving, to love. But I wanted to be right, which I didn't always succeed at. And I know that you all knew, in your own way. I'm sorry? In a way, I'm not. I lost everything but my soul and my body or what's left of it. But I won a lot more. I fought to the end. I don't know if it was worth it, but there's one thing I need to know. I always hoped for more.

"Fear?", Jyn joked in a sneering tone, could not help laughing afterwards and put her bag on the floor, "You may not believe it or think it's possible, but there are 'normal' people in the Atlas. Ergo, you won't be killed the moment you step on it."

"Otherwise, you'd soon run out of guests", touché, with which Stephen once again proved he has a ready wit for anything and everything, "You're leaving town?"

"For now. Do I need to know how you know?", it's hard to believe that certain people talk to each other, because there was only one person who knew about Jyn's plans, "I'm going to Africa. It came up during the week."

"What's surprising. Let me guess", there was only one thing Stephen knew about what Jyn loved and that lived on this continent, "Hyenas?

"Yes", full of enthusiasm like she hadn't in a long time, Jyn started to shine, "Indefinitely I'm in a wildlife preserve surrounded by hyenas.... well, there will be lions, elephants and all sorts of things but nothing beats hyenas. Wonderful creatures."

"Some things never change. Even back then, you used the same words", and it showed once again that Jyn saw in so much more than most others did, as Stephen could see from it now, "Then I guess this will be goodbye."

"If you were never welcome, then it's not a goodbye either", so Jyn put his arms around his neck, chin on his shoulder and stroked the back of his head, "If fate had wanted us to be together, the past would have been different. It was about us becoming the persons we are now. The way it is now is good."

"But whether it's right, don't you question it?", one last time before Jyn left, Stephen took her face in his hands, kissed her on the cheek and finally pressed her lips to her hairline before hugging her firmly one last time as a farewell, "I wish you well with your beloved scavengers."

What's the cure for cancer?

A doctor should know, after all.

Immortality. I'm like cancer. Against me, there is no cure. Just as there is no cure for cancer itself. Immortality is merely the only cure that is equal to it and can hold it in the long run.

The best comes last, as always. Immortality. The curse has become the big league.