The Greatest of Them All (Book 3)

Part 28: The Victory

Wanda

Everyone I know and have met over these past few days showed up this fine Saturday morning wearing black, standing side-by-side in silence. In respect. The weather is cool, a bit breezy, but the bright blue sky was clear as ever, as if almost cheerful. It was a day of celebrating. It was more then I could have asked for and I am grateful for it. The trees fluttered in the wisps of wind. Yellow flowers fell through the air all around us.

The reason why the Avengers—mostly strangers, but more important my friends and family, and I are all here in the city cemetery is to commemorate a life. To cherish and mourn the love of my life. The half of my soul who has passed on.

Vision.

A man. A hero.

Never to be forgotten.

He went down fighting. He went down loved and loving me in return. He was my world. He was my family. My everything. And I stand here above his grave knowing that, mixing him, wishing he was with me here instead.

Still, as brave and strong that I can be, standing above him as he lies beneath my feet in a coffin, breaks my heart all over again. And as if feeling the fracture in my chest himself, Pietro wraps me in his arms, leaning me against him right as a few tears start to stream down my cheeks. He kisses my temple just as Andi who holds her daughter, my niece, Helena in her arms and passes her along to Nat who stands on her right. My sister goes up in front of the crowd to share a few words after Steve, who honored him as a fellow warrior, before Tony, who even honored him back when he was only a guiding voice named Jarvis and how to developed into something more than wires and mechanics.

They both came over to me and gave me long, warm hugs, just as mainly everyone did when they arrived.

Andi straightens out her spine, clearing her throat before she begins her speech. "Vision died for what he believed in, just like many of us would have done or have already." She locks eyes with my brother, smiling for a good second. "Despite our different beliefs, our different backgrounds, when you stepped out of the rubble, stepped out of those portals, you chose to fight together on the battlefield. It was because we of our shared purpose to protect this world, and the galaxy, even. Vision sacrificed himself in order for us to defeat our enemy. Five year later, we did it one way or another, together. He chose his love for Wanda and his loyalty to humanity over everything else." Andi looks to me, glances down at his grave, then up at everyone else. "And Vision may have died. . .but he is never gone. He is still a part of us all. It is now on us to remember him. To honor everyone that has died as life goes on. Now that in some way the world is restored, families are reunited, and tomorrow and every day that follows will be brighter, today is the time to spend remembering and honoring those who can't be here. This is the world they died for. It is up to us to keep it safe."

Now that she finished her speech, Andi comes up to me, holding my face that's blotched and puffy from tears before kissing my cheeks. She cradles my head and embraces me in her arms. "Thank you," I whisper in her ear.

"It is what he deserves," she whispers back.

Vision will always live on inside my heart. Inside my soul. He is a part of me now. I close my eyes right now and I can still feel him, hear him right beside me.

It is the fact that I know I still have everyone and everything I could ever need right here, my friends and family surrounding me that allows me to continue on.