This is a teaser/short experiment tied to a (slightly) bigger Avengers project I'm working on. Apparently End Game was the movie I needed to see because before I went I was horribly blocked and now this project has worked its way into my head and refuses to leave. So, yes it's ambiguous for a reason. There is a kind of End Game spoiler, but if you haven't seen the movie or don't know what happens it's possible you'll miss it.

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Some days the left side of her face stung. Though the bruise was long gone the damage had been done and the dull phantom pains were a reminder of the day her grandfather showed his true colours. He called her a disappointment, a mistake that should have been culled off before her father could even grow attached.

It reminded her of why, even if it were still possible, she would never wanted to go home.

She wouldn't be welcomed if she did. Once simply marked as a disgrace, she now was an outcast in every sense of the word. She had spent too much time here; a child in between worlds in a rather literal sense.

There was nothing left anyway. Her father was dead, the only people left who cared for her were here in this city that never seemed to slow even when in danger.

———

"I must be cursed mustn't I?"

"What makes you believe that child"

"Everything I've loved has been lost. I only create misery wherever I am"

"Oh child, never in your presence did they find misery."

———

It takes several months for her to adapt. Nearly a year has passed before she makes her first friend, a teenaged boy with strange powers and a love of "science fiction" movies which she watches with him, even if she struggles with understanding the plot.

The world is spread before her. With its strange technology that seems both primitive and advanced all at once. How humans ever harnessed magic without realising it is beyond her.

———

The dreams begin late into the third spring. Something is nearing, something worse than even the end of all days. Her found family offers comfort upon seeing her distress, but it's not the dreams that terrify her. Rather, it's having to watch helplessly as this Thing approaches with no way to stop it.

———

Something is wrong, no one is willing to explain and it worries her. Her questions until now were always answered and the silence is nerve-wrecking. And then it isn't. There's nothing to worry over, or even think about. Something is Wrong, but she can't bring herself to care. Not when she thinks she sees her father for nothing will ever happen when he's there to protect her.

———

"Miss please, you must try to get up. They will be worried if you simply disappear."

———

She dreams. She knows she's dreaming, that she may not even be alive. But if this is death is it worth attempting to leave? Her father is there, alongside her grandmother and her new family. Everyone is getting along and happy. There's no stress, no one to save, no one to disappoint. They love each other in their own strange ways. But she's missing something. It sits just on the edge of her thoughts, as though she's supposed to remember to do something.

———

Some one shakes her awake and though she doesn't want to leave this perfect place, thoughts become clearer as the vision dissipates. A second chance; some one decided to play with fate. And now she finds new urgency because if someone is changing the time line then a sacrifice will be made. It's something she doesn't want to think over, so she doesn't. Not yet.

———

"I should've been there, I should've done it instead."

"You know he wouldn't have let you. He made a promise he intended to keep. Regardless of what happened to him"

"So did I. Guess mine failed."

———

Everything slows around her as she searches the field. Power courses through the air, whispering dangerous desires to her, hoping to tempt her to irrationality. She doesn't realise she's sprinting through the battle, doesn't realise how both sides part to let her passed as magic crackles around her in purple wisps.

"please no. Please no. Please No. please no, please no. PLEASE."

Her world is shaking as she looses the one person she needs again. Because of course he caused this, of course he twisted the very strings of the universe. Of course he would try to fix everything. But if you give everything you have to those around you, there's nothing left when you need it yourself.

———

"Do you think he wanted this."

"He wanted to help. He always did."

"I wanted to help him in return, for treating me like a daughter instead of just brushing me aside."

"You did help him. You helped him be better. Because you weren't like a daughter. To him, you were his daughter."

———

She's crying when the others find her, sitting - no hiding - in a room undoubtedly intended for her. A child settles beside her, full of nothing but innocence and a desire to help even if she lacks the understanding of what's going on.

So she makes a promise, like the one to her years ago. That no matter what happens, she's going to protect this small child, even if it kills her. She's going to help everyone she can, so her father can be proud, so her other family can be. And so this child doesn't have to know the anguish of losing the only person you have.

———

"I meant to tell you. Thank you. For everything."

"Alright, lets not get emotional now."