Thanos won.
The Avengers have lost.
Their defeat took everything from Andi Brave. . .or at least she thought it did.
Her purpose now is to fulfill a promise she made by trying to live on in the now decimated world that was created by the snap. But...
AN: The song Unsteady by X Ambassadors (Erich Lee Gravity remix) is provided. Also, the picture is Sarah Desjardins who I imagined as this chapter's "trespasser". Hope you enJoy!
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"How did you get in my house?" Tony asks the girl as he sneakily reaches for something behind his back. I step closer to him, grabbing his hand to stop him.
He shoots me a glare. What are you doing?
I nod my head once. Trust me.
I take a small step towards our home invader, raising my hands up at my sides. I'm perfectly aware I shouldn't approach the girl despite this feeling—this connection I have towards her. . .but when has my intuition ever me lead wrong?
If I still had my telepathy, I'd be using it right now to confirm my suspicions, but I just have to trust my gut on this.
She's young. She can't be older than eighteen, but at least around fifteen. I cautiously take another, bigger step, afraid she'll recoil if I get too close. Or that she'll deny me by stepping out of my way, maybe fight back. But somehow I know she won't.
And I'm right. She allows me to walk up to her, but I stop until we're just about an arms length away. That's when I notice we're practically the same height.
I stare straight into her eyes. She stares right back. I carefully lay my hands over her cheeks, but she flinches. I decide to hover my hands there instead so I don't have to touch her, that is until she reaches for my hand and places them on her face herself. Then she slowly leans into my touch.
"Helena?" I ask in a faint, croak of a whisper.
Despite the tears in her eyes, those vast, overwhelming oceans of bright, bold sapphire. . .she smiles. "Hi, mom."
I gasp.
She spoke in Sokovian.
I completely shudder out of my own skin. It's as if someone poured ice down my back—over my whole body. As if my world got flipped-turned upside down. As if someone trapped me inside a dream. But evaluating this bizarre life of mine, seeing how I've been to space, blown up a moon, met a wizard, a talking raccoon and a human spider amongst all the other wacky things I've seen and done—this could actually be my daughter. This could actually be real.
It's just so unbelievable.
"How is it—How are—H—How?" I mentally slap myself, begging my mouth to string a cohesive sentence together. To at least sound like I'm not having a stroke.
I don't know, maybe I am.
Since I can't exactly force the right words out of my mouth, I step forward and wrap an arm firmly around her back while my other hand presses the back of her neck beneath her hair that's styled in a knot. She hesitantly wraps her arms around my back, taking her time to respond, almost as if she's not used to being shown affection. Well, hey, she's a teenager, she's most likely embarrassed. But I still embrace her openly, my heart fuller than I believed it could be. And it's when she rests her chin on my shoulder that I feel her start to loosen up to me.
