Now or Never

Chapter 26 ~ Now or never

"Come on. Come on, wake up..."

I feel something nudge my face. I groan and slowly open my eyes and am met with Max's.

"You're alive!" He exclaims and starts licking my face.

I smile and give him a small chuckle. I push him off so I can sit up and look around at all the debris around us.

"What happened?" Max asks me.

I groan as I stand up. "Well, when you mess with time, it tends to mess back," I tell him. "We gotta find the others."

"First we have to get out of this," Max says as he looks around.

I nod and look around for an opening. "Come on," I tell him after finding a path that might lead us out of the mess.

Max and I head out of the mess and inhale a sharp breath of fresh air. We look around and in the distance in front of us is Dad standing alone with a broken shield, facing the titan and his army alone.

"I know this dumbass..." I start as I look at Dad, who's slowly approaching the army.

"I thought Thanos was dead," Max says as he stares at the titan in anger.

"That has to be Thanos from the past," I tell him. I bend down to his height and place my head against his, engulfing him in a quick loving moment. "You need to get out of here."

"No, not without you!" Max says to me.

I shake my head against his, pushing him away from me and point in the opposite direction of the battle to come. "Run, Max," I say, trying not to tear up and stay strong.

Max whimpers, but bows his head and does as he's told. He runs in the opposite direction.

I speed over to Dad and stand next to him. He looks over when he feels a gust of wind hit his face out of nowhere. There's ash all over his face. I look into his tired eyes to see the fatigue and the hard truth he thought he was going to have to face of dying alone, disappears. Tears threatened to spill his eyes at seeing me because he didn't want to think of life without me in it if I didn't make it, but I'm right by his side. I hug him and he hugs me back, fearing if he lets go he'll lose me. When we pull away I slap his arm.

"What were you thinking?! Taking on an alien army and you didn't even invite me!" I scold him.

He gives me a sad smile. "I thought I lost you."

"I keep telling you, I'm not going anywhere Spangles," I say as I look him in the eyes. "I'm with you until the end of the line. I'm not gonna let you die alone."

He nods at me and we turn to face Thanos and his army. Through our coms we hear crackled static, "Hey, Cap, you read me."

Dad and I freeze and look at each other.

"Cap, it's Sam. Can you hear me?"

Dad and I never break eye contact. We completely forgot that moments ago Bruce had the gauntlet and snapped his fingers, trying to bring everyone back. We didn't even get a chance to see if it worked, but by hearing Sam's voice through our coms we both knew it worked. Dad raises his hand to his ear.

"On your left."

The orange rim of a portal appears on our left. Sunlight comes through the portal as three shadows walk through the portal towards us. Okoye, T'Challa, and Shuri emerge.

T'Challa sees us and gives us a slight nod filled with honor and telling us that we're not alone in this fight. Sam then soars over our heads in his Falcon suit as dozens of more portals open before our eyes. One portal contained Strange and three others I don't recognize as they stepped out of the portal. Peter then swings into view through the same portal. My hands immediately cover my mouth as I stare in amazed shock. Tears start to form in the brim of my eyes as I see all our fallen comrades emerge from these portals.