A/N: hello and welcome back

you guys, idek what to say about this chapter. it's so depressing. i wouldn't read it if you're having a good day or even a decent day lol. it's probably some of the most depressing things i've written tbh

these scenes in the movie always get me tearing up and then having to watch them again to write this was just a lot. anyway, i would say enjoy the chapter but most of you probably won't :/

also, play the song with this if you'd like, i think it's mostly just sad instrumental

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Because it's always you."
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When Adelaide woke up, everything was aching.

She winced, her hand flying up to her head where she felt a slight bump between her brow and her hairline. Slowly, she dared to crack open her eyes. It was dark. She could only see the blurry silhouettes of three figures sitting across from her. Adelaide moved on the cold floor, pushing herself up and leaning her back against the wall.

Something wasn't right.

"Pete?" she whispered, squinting her eyes. None of the figures responded.

"Love, is that you?" she said, trying to push herself off the floor of whatever it was she was sitting in. Her limbs screamed in complaint, but she pushed herself to her feet. She realized she was back inside a spaceship.

Just when she was about to call his name again, a couple overhead lights switched on and the silhouettes materialized into people. It was just Tony and Nebula and an unconscious Griffin. Adelaide frowned, looking around. She glanced out the window, realizing that they were flying through space in who knows which galaxy. She turned back to the other two.

"Why are we here? And where's Peter?" she asked. Tony looked down at the floor. He looked sick. And injured. But Adelaide couldn't get over the feeling of her heart pounding like a jackhammer inside her ribcage to pause and ask him if he was okay.

"Tony," she said shakily, "where is Peter?"

"He died," Tony answered quietly.

"No," she replied so fast that she hadn't even realized the word had left her mouth. She shook her head, taking a step back. Her back hit the wall of the spaceship. "N-No, you're lying. That was just...That was just a dream."

"It wasn't a dream," he said tiredly, "He's...gone."

Adelaide didn't say anything. She stared at the billionaire, just blinking.

Ada...I'm sorry.

She felt herself sliding down the wall until her body hit the floor painfully. She sat there in that position with her mouth slightly agape as she tried to get her mind to work. She didn't even know what to think anymore. Her mind was just shattered with incomplete thoughts and incoherent sentences. Nothing made any sense. Images flickered in her mind like ghosts.

Thanos. The gauntlet. Peter. Titan. The snap. The screaming. Peter. The pain. Peter.

Peter.

Peter.

Peter.

Her body began to tremble.

Ada...I'm sorry.

The universe had taken her parents and it hadn't been satisfied so it stole her peace of mind too and forced her to commit unspeakable violence. And when that hadn't been enough, the universe had taken her life and even put her into a coma. But when all the universe had given her was pain and suffering, she had found Peter. The opposite of everything she had ever known. Peter was hers. The universe hadn't given him to her. She had found him.

But when seeing even an ounce of happiness in her life was too much, the universe had taken that from her too.

Adelaide buried her face between her knees and screamed.

—————

When she opened her eyes again a few hours later, it was still dark. There was no more day, it was all night now. And she was reeling hard.

She stared at the floor, unmoving. Her tears had crusted around her eyes. Her bruises and cuts still hurt but she couldn't really feel them anymore. Everything was just...numb.

She couldn't believe she was never going to see Peter again. She would never hear his voice again or see his smile. She would never be able to hold his hand or feel his warm arms around her or breathe him in. He was just...gone. She lifted her tired eyes to look out the window into the literal void. She felt lonely. So, so lonely.

She leaned her head back against the wall, wanting nothing more than to lean it on his shoulder. To sink into his arms and inhale his scent. To hear him tell her it would all be okay. Tears fell from her eyes, hot and quick. It hurt so much. Like someone had stabbed her heart with a knife and was twisting it around, breaking all the arteries and flooding the chambers with blood until every heartbeat felt like a curse and she wished each one was her last because she didn't know how many heartbeats of pain she could take anymore.

She felt someone sit down beside her and she looked through her teary vision to find Tony on the floor next to her, tears in his eyes too. Her face twisted in pain. Her broken eyes begged him to fix this. Her tears spoke the words she could no longer find.

Bring him back, her eyes begged, please.

He wrapped his arms around her and she sobbed into his shoulder. The noise was raw, guttural, and painful to hear. He'd never heard her cry this way before. The sounds of her sobs erupted goosebumps all over his skin. Her entire body was convulsing, she was gasping for air that never came. He was the only one holding her in one piece.

Nebula winced, looking away. She had seen a lot of pain in her life, but she couldn't watch this. The noise of her screams was worse than those of the victims of her father's crimes. Wasn't she one of those victims now, too? Weren't they all?

Tony held her tighter, but he knew it was in vain. No amount of anything could help her anymore.

She was completely broken.

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Her sobbing had stopped after a while, hurtling them all back into deafening silence.

Nebula and Griffin had fallen asleep after a little while. Tony still sat with his daughter in his arms. Neither one of them could sleep. They stared at the floor in silence.

Her breaths had been unsteady for a while now. She took in shaky breaths and let out nasal ones. He had been gently caressing her head to comfort her. It was small, but it was really all he could do. Her pain had crawled out of her and wrapped itself around her neck, keeping her from breathing ever again.

"Adie..." he whispered, looking down at her. She said nothing, staring out the window as she had been for a while now. Tony didn't know the end of that sentence. There was no combination of words that could ever help. No end to that sentence that would help her feel better. Or even himself, for that matter.

So he just joined her in staring out the window, figuring the view wasn't too bad if it would be the last thing they got to see.

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TWENTY-TWO DAYS LATER

"This thing on? Hey, Ms. Potts. Pep. If you find this recording, don't post it on social media. It's going to be a real tearjerker..." Tony mumbled to his banged-up helmet, "I don't know if you're ever going to see these. I don't even know if you're still...God, I hope so. Today's day twenty-one, no...twenty-two."

"You know, if it wasn't for the existential terror of staring into the literal void of space, I'd say I'm feeling a little better today. Infection's run its course, thanks to the Blue Meanie back there. You'd like her. She's very practical. And only a tiny bit sadistic," he continued, "The fuel cells were cracked during battle, but we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge. Bought ourselves about 48 hours of flight time. Problem is that was about...49 hours ago. Which means, we're dead in the water. A thousand light years from the nearest 7-11."

"Eat," Tony said, tired as he pushed the food towards Adie, "Please."

She glanced at the food and then looked away again, leaning her head back against the wall. She closed her eyes. It had been days since she'd eaten anything. She could feel exhaustion taking over her body. She wished it would come faster. She didn't know how much longer she could stand to feel like this.

Tony sighed, dropping his head. He didn't have to energy to fight her into eating again. He himself barely had the energy to eat.

"Most of the quote-unquote 'food' and potable water ran out two weeks ago." Tony sighed, looking over at the other three slumped against the floor, sprawled around their ship.

Adie was the only one awake. She hardly slept anymore and Tony couldn't blame her. They were out of food and water so Tony could only hope that she would be lucky enough to pass in her sleep. He often felt guilty for thinking that way, but there was no more that he could do. No amount of kicking and screaming would help him save his daughter so the most he could hope for was that she died in his arms, peacefully, in her sleep. The thought kept him up every night, wondering which one would be their last. If he would go before her.

"Pep, I know I said no more surprises. But, I gotta say, I was really hoping to pull off one last one. But it looks like...well, you know what it looks like."

"Don't feel bad about this. I mean, actually, if you grovel for a couple weeks, and then move on with enormous guilt...I should probably lie down for a minute, rest my eyes. Please know, when I drift off, it will be like every day lately. I'm fine, totally fine. I'm going to dream about you," he mumbled, fiddling with his helmet. He stared at it for a second.

"Because it's always you," he whispered.

—————

When Nebula woke up a few hours later, she found the man lying on the floor. He was breathing, but just barely.

She felt sympathy for him and the girl. They had what she could never have with Thanos. A part of her had been hoping for them to survive this, but as the days went on, it was starting to become apparent that none of them would survive this.

She helped him onto the chair by the dashboard and watched him sleep for a few minutes. His time was numbered now. She looked over at the girl sitting on the floor. She hadn't moved from there since she woke up for the first time. She was awake, staring into the void, unblinking. She looked like a corpse.

Feeling exhausted herself, she walked back over to the chair by the back of the ship to sit down and rest her eyes.

For all that fighting and pain they had endured, the end felt underwhelming.

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Tony wasn't sure how much time had passed when he felt the strange light against his eyes.

His first thought was that he was finally dying. But then, he slowly peeled open his eyes, squinting in the bright light. Considering all the weird things he'd seen in the past few days, this made the top three.

It was a woman floating in the middle of space.

She was glowing brightly and she was smiling at him.

—————

"Adie?" Tony whispered, taking her head into his shaking hands.

"Pete?" she whispered immediately, her eyes drooping with exhaustion.

"No, hon, it's me," he whispered, his voice breaking at the sight of her, "Come on. We're almost home, sweetheart."

Slowly, she slid her eyes over to look at him. He nodded as he pushed her hair away from her face. She could barely keep her eyes open and she hardly even understood what he was saying. A part of her thought this was a dream or a hallucination.

"Come on," he said, helping her up. They were both too weak to stand up anymore. Nebula stepped in, holding up the man as he helped his daughter to her feet. Adelaide hadn't stood up in weeks. Her legs nearly gave out from beneath her.

The ship rumbled when it hit the ground. When it hit the Earth. Home.

As the floor opened down into the ramp, the first thing she noticed was the smell of home. Of the dirt and the air that hadn't already been breathed out of someone else's nose. Then she saw the stars that she had been staring at for weeks, except now they melted into the green grass.

The three of them took small steps down the ramp. Halfway down, someone else took Tony into their arms. Adelaide couldn't keep her eyes open long enough to see who it was. She felt someone pull her away from Tony and take her into their arms. Warm, strong arms surrounded her frail, shivering body and she completely fell into them, letting them help her limp down the rest of the ramp.

"Adelaide," someone else breathed when her feet hit the grass and she immediately recognized the voice to be Pepper's. She fell into her arms, losing her balance. Pepper held her as her knees buckled and hit the soft grass. The woman sunk into the grass with, holding her tightly. Another pair of arms engulfed both of them and she knew it was Tony from the way he was shivering against her.

"Oh, my god," Pepper breathed, holding the two of them tighter. Relief coursed through her. "Oh my god."

"I lost the kid," Tony mumbled into her shoulder. Adelaide broke down for the millionth time, her sobs overtaking her.

She held on tightly to Pepper and both of them held onto their daughter as she fell apart right there on the dirt.

—————

When Adelaide limped into the Avengers Compound with Pepper's help, she saw Natasha standing there with tears in her eyes and a sad smile on her face.

"Hey, you," the assassin said quietly.

Adelaide's lower lip quivered. She was on the brink of crying again. Natasha scooped her up into her arms, crushing them together into a tight hug. Adelaide held onto her like a lifeline, quivering like a leaf. Hot tears flowed down her face and into her mouth and down her chin.

She squeezed her eyes shut. Her head was feeling light and her entire body was completely overcome with exhaustion. The whole room was spinning. When the assassin pulled back a bit to look at her, Adelaide nearly fell to the ground again. Natasha caught her.

"I-I've got you," the assassin said softly, holding onto her tightly, "It's okay. You're gonna be okay."

If only that were true.

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A/N: tell me why i cried a little while writing this

ok so i know that you guys are worried about the five year age gap, but that is honestly the least of their problems. i don't want to spoil anything for you, but don't worry about the age gap rn, just have faith in me lol. also, a five year age gap is not that much at all but if your problem is that adie would be older than him and it's weird for you, it's the 21st century in case you forgot. ik peter would be technically a minor in endgame and adie would be 21, but if you've been reading for this long and can't trust me to take care of the characters, like what even is this then lol

i'm gonna miss writing peter so so so much. i'm currently writing like ten chapters ahead of this and ughhh it's just all very very sad. i hate seeing adie in pain, but istg her life is cursed

so yeah. now we're gonna go through those five years in endgame and see how she copes (or doesn't) with losing peter and all her friends and then we'll start the plot of endgame, but that still a little ways away

question: what's peter and adie's song?

see you next week 💛