thirty three : a blast from the past, anyone?

THERE WAS ALMOST NO LIFE LEFT IN THE BODY OF ELAINE SERALYNN MAXIMOFF. It had been approximately ten minutes ago that 2014 Thanos had rained rockets and missiles and alien firepower down on the compound. When Elaine opened her eyes, she immediately felt pain. A white hot pain that continued to hack at her like a knife.

One arm was lying limp on the ground next to her, and the other was resting on her chest. There was an emptiness in her, a hopeless feeling as she coughed up her own blood. Nobody was around, not that she could see, anyway. But, there was a glowing light coming from her left, making Elaine turn her head to the circle of sparks, and people walking out of it.

One person caught her eye. It was like her life was complete.

"Bucky," She gasped for air, coughing out more blood. The sounds made Bucky turn his head to see Elaine crushed under a rock, and blood covering her lips and cheek. He sprinted over to the redhead and fell to his knees, dropping his gun and cupping her cheek.

"Hey, hey just stay with me. Hold on, okay?" He whispered to her, wondering why she hadn't used her power to blast the rock off of her.

It was like she read his mind. "The b-bracelet.." She coughed again, slowly lifting her forearm up from the ground. Bucky gently grabbed her wrist, looking at the object. "It's vibranium. You can't break it, Bucky. I need the key."

Bucky immediately lost hope, his eyes watering. "You can't.. Elaine, no."

Elaine sadly smiled, tears rolling down her face. "I still need to tell— tell you what I was going to s-say in Wakanda."

Bucky shook his head. "I already know what you were going to tell me. So you need to stop."

"It was in Wakanda." She continued anyway. "When I was training. That— That's when I knew I loved you. And I do, I love you."

Bucky let his tears fall down and onto the dirt below him. "Please, don't."

"Y-you - don't have to— to say it back. Not until you - you figure out how - to love your— yourself first." She smiled, coughing.

Bucky shook his head and brushed her hair out of her face to clearly look at her. The red hair that was covered in dust, her dark brown eyes that were slowly being drained of life, but none of that took away from her beauty. It didn't take away from the face that this was Elaine. Everything that Bucky cared for was in front of him.

Dipping his head down, Bucky's lips slowly met Elaine's. The touch of their skin made Elaine feel like she could breath again. He was her oxygen. She let him in on her darkness, on that story that would never be told, like she could warn him of all that lurked beneath the surface of her skin. Elaine kissed him like he was her lifeline, and in many ways that she didn't quite understand yet, he was.

Elaine just gave him everything—all without words. There was no need. But that one kiss made Elaine realize she still had a light in her darkness. She always did. When their lips parted, Elaine could feel her energy slowly coming back.

As her body began healing due to her power, she writhed under the rock, her back arching and a scream escaping her. Her body suddenly lurched into the air like an actual angel, her powers becoming too powerful and breaking the vibranium bracelet, as well as disintegrating the mountain rock on top of her. She slowly lowered onto the ground, and wiped the blood from her face, spitting out the leftover blood in her mouth.

"Avengers!" Steve called from the distance. Elaine looked around in awe at the army of avengers. "Assemble."

      The war cries coming from everyone was deafening, but it made Elaine hope for the best. She ran right into the alien enemies and fought with everything she had left in her.

      When you're fighting, time passes quickly, and you never realize how much can happen. There were several problems that had been taken care of, but when the redhead looked over to her sister, she saw Wanda landing in front of Thanos, a deadly look on her face.

Elaine took her spot beside her sister as her eyes glowed a deep blue and her hands were surrounded by the blue mist of her power.

"You took everything from me." Wanda growled, her voice a sickening, deadly tone.

Thanos furrowed his abnormally large eyebrows and skidded to a halt in his tracks. "I don't even know who you are."

"You will." Wanda snarled before she and Elaine began their attack. They lifted themselves into the air along with some rubble behind them before they chucked the element of rocks at him.

      Thanos managed to avoid them. His large weapon came down on them with an enormous force after they did several small blasts, but it was only a minor inconvenience for them.

With a smirk, the sisters blasted the weapon from his grasp and he stumbled back as Elaine lifted him into the air with one hand. Once he was in an even more vulnerable position, Wanda began chipping away his armor as the mad Titan screamed in fury.

      With no other option, he rendered himself useless and made a loud shout. "Rain fire!" With an unacceptable response from the Dark Side that was inaudible to the women, Thanos yelled again. "Just do it!"

      They had no time to create a protective shield above them, which caused Elaine and Wanda to get blasted into the air before they landed with a harsh thud.

      Elaine could feel a sharp sting in her stomach while the sorcerers put shields above the avengers. Dr. Strange had managed to stop a flood of water from the lake next to the compound. Getting up, they quickly made sure the other was okay before running off.

      Elaine helped Peter into the air after he called for help and Pepper caught him with ease. But she began choking on the dust from the laser-like beams shooting down on everyone. She saw Peter get knocked down again, quickly sprinting to the teenager before putting a shield dome above them for protection.

      In a split second, the beams stopped and redirected to the sky. A ball of light surged through the battle craft and made the entire thing stop working. Seeing Carol Danvers was the biggest relief everyone had felt in a while.

      All the other women followed Carol to the spot where Elaine and Peter were. After his friendly introduction and reply from Carol, Peter stood up.

      "I don't know how you two are gonna get it through all of that." Peter stated with a semi-dazed look.

      Wanda landed beside her sister as the other female warriors were beside them. "Don't worry."

      Okoye stared at the oncoming army of aliens. "They've got help."

      Hope landed shortly after Pepper landed, and they all charged at the army. Wanda and Elaine took on the biggest Chitauri animals and basically broke them in half.

      Before much else could happen, a large surge of power blasted outwards and made everything worse. Elaine couldn't see anything, and her hearing buzzed.

"You must bring everyone back before Thanos comes—"

"Thanos still exists in the past—"

"Goodbye, Elaine—"

      That voice. That irritating voice. Loki. Loki's voice was coming back but it was too late. By the time Elaine could even see properly, she looked up only to find Tony with the stones on the back of his hand.

      "And I.. Am.. Iron Man." Tony panted out before he snapped his fingers, turning every enemy to dust. It was almost beautiful if Elaine hadn't remembered everything they lost. What she lost.

      She gathered the strength to stand, clutching her side and wanting to make sure Bucky was okay. But then there was Tony. He was dying.

      And Peter Parker blamed himself. His pleads for Tony to understand that they won were hardly doing anything. Peter just wanted Tony alive. And then he started apologizing. Peter thought that Tony dying was his fault, and Elaine could see that Pepper wanted a moment with her husband.

      Elaine quickly put a hand on his shoulder and back, allowing him to stand while Pepper got her final moments with the love of her life.

      Tony might've been a complete asshole sometimes. He might've even accidentally killed her parents. Tony proved Steve wrong. Tony fell in love. Tony created a murder-bot that killed her brother. Tony had a kid. Tony Stark had died.

      But no matter all of those mistakes he made along the way, Tony saved the universe. And he didn't even hesitate.

      Thor suddenly turned to Elaine as if he sensed something was wrong. Elaine didn't even realize she had a three foot piece of stray wood lodged in her stomach.

      She was so focused on everything else, that Elaine didn't even have time to realize she was dying.

      At least not until she dropped dead to the floor.