Hello hello! Here it isssss! The wrap up of Age of Ultron! I really hope you guys like it! Before I let you get to it, I just wanted to give you all a heads up real quick that I'm going to be going on vacation in a couple days so there will be a brief hiatus while I'm busy relaxing! I know, I know, how awful considering we're about to get back into the Bucky drama with Civil War, right? No worries, I'll be back soon! I'm hoping to get another chapter out before I take off, give you a little somethin somethin as a treat to keep you satisfied until I get back. With all that said….here's that big old disclaimer that I do not have ownership over anything Marvel! Okay, you may proceed! Let me know what you guys thing of the conclusion! Enjoy! Xoxo-NickyLynn
You would think by how many times Tessa had to go into battle trying to save the world, it would get easier. That it wouldn't feel so daunting. But, as they flew through the ocean air in the quin jet, heading towards Sokovia, Tessa and the rest of them found themselves struggling to deal with the weight of that burden. Tessa was fidgeting nervously with her bracelet, a habit that had formed in childhood, all the while looking around at the faces surrounding her, wondering if this would be the end of the line for anyone of them.
Steve, noticing her serious look, had dropped down in the seat next to her, pulling her worried eyes over to him. "I owe you an apology." He told her with a sigh. "I've been kind of an asshole towards you and I'm sorry."
Tessa's eyebrows shot up in surprise before a sad smile took hold of her face. "It's okay." She told him. "I probably would have been an asshole to me, too, if I were in your shoes."
"Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself just how far we've come." He said then, his eyes drifting over to the strange being at the other side of the jet, who the others had begun to refer to as Vision. "How different our lives turned out…..how much we've been through."
"Well, no matter how much changes…" Tessa said, reaching over and slipping her hand inside his, pulling his eyes back over to her. "One thing that will never change is this." She said, motioning between the two of them with her other hand. "It's always been you and me against the world and that's not changing anytime soon." She told him with a genuine smile. "We're in this together….till the end of the line. And even if we end up disagreeing, that doesn't mean I don't still have your back. We're family, Steve."
"And I wouldn't have it any other way." Steve responded, wrapping his arm around her, and drawing her closer to him in a hug. "Even if you do sometimes go around making homicidal robots who want to destroy the world." He then added with a smirk.
Tessa snorted as she pushed him away. They both sat there, smiling over at each other in a moment of humor, before the weight of everything settled back around them and Tessa's eyes drifted back to the faces around her again. "We're going to stop Ultron." She said, becoming serious once again. "I'm going to fix this."
"We're going to fix this…as a team." He corrected. "Together."
"Well," she said, drawing in a deep breath. "I think this team could use a little rallying call." She told him, tilting her head around the jet to everyone who was lost in thought.
Steve looked around the jet then, and with a nod, stood up and walked towards the front of the jet where Tony and Bruce were, drawing everyone's attention. "Alright guys, listen up." He told everyone in a loud voice, coming to a stop and crossing his arms. "Ultron knows we're coming." He began after everyone brought their focus over to him. "Odds are we'll be riding into some heavy fire, and that's what we signed up for, but the people of Sokovia didn't." he said, looking over at the Maximoffs. "So, our priority is getting them out. All they want is to live their lives in peace…..and that's not going to happen today, but we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done. We find out what Ultron's been building. We find Romanoff. And we clear the field. Keep the fight between us." He told them all, pausing as his eyes dropped down in thought. "Ultron thinks we're monsters." He said after a moment, bringing his eyes over to Tessa. "That we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him." He said then, looking around to everyone else. "This is about whether or not he's right."
A moment of silence passed after that, everyone having been pulled into thought by his words. Pietro was the first one to break the silence by letting out an amused breath. "Seriously, is there a class or something you guys all take for these speeches?" he asked with a smirk, leaning in towards Tessa from his seat across from her. "Or does it all just come naturally?"
Tessa was about to drop her mouth open to give him a retort when Steve continued, stopping her. "Maximoffs. I want you on the ground. Keep your focus on evacuations. Clint, I want you with them. Keep them moving. Watch their backs."
"Ah man, how come I get stuck with babysitter duty?" Clint complained from the pilot's seat.
"Well, it should come naturally to you, Daddy-o." Tony threw back at him with a smirk.
"Bruce." Steve continued, ignoring their banter. "We can't risk the Hulk going lose so close to civilians. I want you to get to Natasha, get her out, then get somewhere safe until we clear things out. Tony and Thor…you guys have eyes in the sky….find Ultron…find whatever he's building. And Tessa." He said lastly, bringing his eyes down to her. "I want you with me on the ground. We focus on getting everyone out, then when the time comes, we focus the fight down on us."
"Yes, sir." Tessa told him with a smile and salute.
When they touched down in Sokovia, everyone unloaded from the jet and split up, ready to get to work. Tessa, Steve, Clint, Wanda and Pietro all took off towards the middle of the city and began trying to drive the town's occupants out of the area as quick as they could. The Maximoffs turned out to be quite helpful on that front, too. Wanda used her powers to affect the minds of the local population, reaching into as many of them as she could, swaying them to evacuate without ever having to even lift a finger or waste a breath. Tessa and Steve mostly directed everyone out of the town, doing their best to hurry along everyone towards the edge of the city. Between everyone's efforts, the streets were quickly filled with the city's residents, everyone moving with urgency out of the area.
Tessa and Steve had made it to a bridge along the outskirts of town while guiding everyone out, when the sounds of screaming let them know their time was up. Tessa spun around to find the people still trying to make it out the city, now running in a panic as several of Ultron's sentries began filling the area, seemingly dropping in from every direction. As she watched one land in front of a woman running away with her child swept up in her embrace, Tessa moved into action. She transported herself across the bridge, and when she came out next to them, she gripped onto the robot chasing the mother and sent it flying into the building behind them, it exploding in a bust of flame as she slammed it into the brick wall.
She didn't have time to even stop to process her thoughts after that. There were so many of Ultron's forces surrounding them that she just acted. She reached out and took hold of and attacked so many metal bodies that she lost count. She took down android after android, all the while ushering the people still in the area away with more urgency. She made it back towards the middle of the bridge where Steve was struggling against two bots and teleported herself over to him, dropping down behind his back as she sent a blast out that caught the second bot, who was about to send out his own blast at him, sending him flying back through the air in a sparking mess.
"Tony, what's going on with Ultron?" Tessa called through her earpiece as she gripped onto the next machine that was crawling over the edge of the bridge, latching onto its head and ripping it off of his body before thrusting her foot out and kicking it from the side. "Because we've got a whole lot of angry little worker bees out here!"
"I'm heading out to engage!" Tony's voice called back to her. "Vision's making sure the Queen Bee can't escape through any back hatches."
"Where's he at?" Tessa asked, swinging her eyes around the city behind her, watching as even more bots crawled out like a never-ending infestation.
"The church in town center. He's got something built into the ground there." Tony told her.
Tessa went to take a step closer to city, wondering what it was Ultron was planning, when a tremor rolled through the ground under them, causing Tessa to stumble and look around in confusion as the entire area began to rumble like a large earthquake was sweeping through the area. Tessa swung around as she heard the bridge let out a loud groan as the metal strained under the violent motions. Suddenly the beams holding up the structure snapped at the end Steve was on, and the entire width of the bridge broke away from the rest. Tessa watched with wide eyes as the ground under Steve crumbled away, sending him falling back with swinging arms.
"STEVE!" Tessa shouted as she teleported herself over to the ledge she had seen him fall from just a moment prior. She caught sight of him dropping down through the dust below and quickly latched onto him with her powers, bringing him back up onto the road next to her as the bridge seemingly continued to rise into the air.
"Thanks." Steve breathed out when his feet were back on the solid surface. Tessa let out her own breath of relief before she dropped her eyes back over the ledge, looking down to the ground that was getting further away by the second. She brought her eyes back up to Steve's own fear-laced ones, both of them realizing the whole area was lifting right up out of the ground.
"Uh…Tony?!" Tessa called out, terror taking hold of her as she swung around to find all of Sokovia rising into the air with them.
"Yeah, looks like Sokovia is going for a ride." Tony responded.
"Do you see…." Ultron's voice echoed above the sound of chaos around them, coming out through all the robots still filling the city. "The beauty of it? The inevitability. You rise…only to fall. You, Avengers, are my meteor. My swift and terrible sword. The Earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers….turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only living thing in this world….will me metal."
Tessa spun around as his voice drew closer, turning to find another one of his machines flying at them. In a burst of anger, she brought up her hands, latched onto it, and pulled apart her arms, ripping the metal apart from every direction, sending it's parts and limbs flying out around the area. She turned to lock eyes with Steve, both of them suddenly very aware that Ultron would be successful in his plans to annihilate the world if they didn't figure out a way to stop this soon.
Suddenly something came slamming into Steve's chest, sending him flying back onto one of the cars still on the bridge. Tessa turned to find several bots flying up through the air at them. "Cap, you got incoming." Came Tony's belated warning.
"Yeah, no shit!" Tessa shot back to him, sending out a blast of energy that caught three of them moving towards her, sending them dropping back through the air under them.
"Stark." Steve called out as he rolled off the now dented hood, shattering glass and screaming filling the air behind them. "You worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us have one job…tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed….walk it off." He ordered.
Tessa gave him a raised eyebrow as she fell into step beside him. "Wow. Phenomenal rallying call, Captain." She told him with a roll of her eyes, grabbing onto his arm and bringing them back towards the city where all the robots were trying to attack the people who had no been lucky enough to make it out.
"Let's split up." Steve told her as they dropped back down, the both of them taking off in a run towards the mass amount of robots forcing their way through the area. Tessa gave him a nod as he sent his shield flying out at the closest machines before teleporting herself further towards the town center. There were so many robots rushing about, that she just reached out with her powers at practically anything that she caught moving out of the corner of her eye. One after another, she took out every machine that crossed her path. She moved as fast as she could the city, fighting the machinery terrorizing the innocent civilians.
As she teleported herself down an alleyway she had watched several of them fly into, she came out to find Wanda cowering down behind an abandoned car, doing her best to fight off the forces focusing their attacks on her. The young girl looked terrified, and as more bots came flying towards her, Tessa moved herself into the space in front of her, unleashing a powerful surge of energy that pushed through the area, taking out all of the robots in the area in one sweep. Tessa's breathing was starting to come in and out rather quickly, all the stain on her powers beginning to catch up with her.
She spun around to find Wanda staring up at her with wide, terrified eyes and Tessa was suddenly reminded of how very young she still was. "H-how could I let this happen?" Wanda muttered, her frantic eyes searching the sky as more machines tore through the air above them. "This is all my fault." she said, her voice sounding hollow and hopeless.
"Hey." Tessa said, dropping down to her knees in front of her, placing her hand down on the panicking girl's shoulder. Wanda brought her eyes down to Tessa then, and the fear shining through them was so very evident. "Listen to me." Tessa told her in a firm voice. "This is your fault. This is my fault. This is on all of us. We've all made mistakes that have brought us here, and I know this is overwhelming Wanda, but you've got to keep fighting. Do you remember what I said back at the tower? The thing that makes us different from the rest….the thing that makes us Avengers…is that no matter how bad things get….no matter where our mistakes lead us…we never stop fighting to right them." She said before a robot flew down at them and Tessa had to bring up a shield to block the blast it sent out at them before latching onto it and sending it crashing into the wall above them in a burst of flame.
"I'm scared." Wanda admitted to her in a small, shaky voice, her eyes watching the burning wreckage fall down to the ground next to them.
"We all are." Tessa told her honestly. "Wanda, being brave is not the absence of fear. Being brave is about having the courage to overcome that fear and get the job done regardless." She tried to say in reassurance. "I need you to be brave Wanda. Because right now we have a job to do, and nobody else is going to do it for us. It doesn't matter who did what, and who's feet the fault lies. We have to fight to fix this. You're stronger than you know Wanda. You are capable of doing this….of being an Avenger. So, you think you can be brave for me?" she asked then, coming to a stand as another group of robots flew dangerously close.
Wanda looked up at Tessa for a moment, her eyes drifting from her face, down to her extended hand. With a breath, Wanda slid her hand into Tessa's and let her pull her up to her feet again. Tessa smiled down at the young woman before she let her eyes burn with power once again and swung around to face the wall of robots moving in towards them. Tessa and Wanda both reached out and latched onto them, ripping them apart and sending them slamming into each other, taking the large group out in a matter of seconds. Tessa turned back towards Wanda as the last ones dropped. "Welcome to the Avengers." Tessa told her with a smirk.
Pietro suddenly came rushing up to them in a blur then, stopping just beside his sister. "Inner city is clear." He said, looking over at Tessa.
"Good. Take Wanda and get back to the outskirts with the others." Tessa told him with a nod. The two of them were gone not a moment later, moving to go help the others. "Tony where are you at on bringing this rock back down?" she called through the coms as she transported herself through the city, coming back out where Steve and the others were guiding the civilians into a few of the buildings still standing, the wave of robots seeming to have dissipated for now.
"Yeah, about that. Ultron's got these thrusters rigged to flip. If we try to touch them then this baby goes down a whole lot faster than we'd like. The spire he's got built under the church is vibranium though….if we can get Thor to hit it and cap the other end…could be enough to take it out." Tony's voice responded.
"Well that still leaves us with a whole lot of people stuck on this rock with no where to run when this city gets vaporized." Tessa told him as he looked around at the mass of people that Steve was guiding into safety.
"Well, I was kind of hoping you'd help figure that part out. Think you can get this thing cleared?" he asked her.
"This city's getting higher by the second and there's just too many people. I can't make miracles happen Tony, and that's what it's going to take to get these people off here." She responded with a sigh, running her hand through her hair in frustration.
"Well, the impact zone is getting bigger by the second, too, so we need to make a decision here." Tony responded.
"We're not letting this rock blow with everyone still on here." Came Steve's voice, as he walked up next to Tessa, causing her to turn and look over at him.
"Steve…" Tessa began. "We might not have a choice here. It's either everyone up here or everyone down there." She tried to reason, not liking the idea any more than him, but knowing there was no other options at that moment.
"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it." He responded firmly, his eyes boring into her, letting her know that he would not budge on that decision.
"I didn't say anything about leaving." She told him with a sigh, coming to terms with the fact that the odds of them making it out of this were running incredibly slim. She swung her eyes back out over the edge of the city, looking out at the sea of clouds they were now drifting above. "Till the end of the line, right?" she asked then, bringing sad eyes over to Steve.
"Did I hear someone say they were looking for a miracle?" Fury's voice suddenly cut through their coms. Tessa's eyebrows furrowed down as the sounds of loud engines began filling the air. She turned back towards the open sky to find a helicarrier suddenly lift over the horizon, and with it bring the miracle they had needed so desperately.
Tessa let out a breath of amazement, the corner of her mouth lifting up with the sudden surge of hope. "Something dramatic, right?" Tessa said back to Fury, shaking her head in disbelief.
"I pulled her out of some mothballs with a couple of friends." Fury responded. "She's dusty, but she'll do."
"Fury, you son of a bitch." Steve said, his lips pulling up in a smile as well as the ship drifted fully into view.
"Oh. You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Fury snarked back to him.
They watched as the sides of the ship opened up and out came several smaller crafts, coming towards them to help bring the civilians over to the carrier safely. Pietro appeared next to them then, looking over at the ship in amazement, same as Tessa and Steve.
"This is S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Pietro asked, voice filled with awe.
"This is what S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to be." Steve told him.
Pietro looked from Steve and Tessa, back up to the incoming ships. "This is not so bad." He said with a small chuckle.
"Let's load them up." Steve said then as one of the ships came up to the side of the mass of land, connecting to the bridge Tessa and Steve as been standing on not too long prior. And so, they began ushering the civilians out and onto the rescue crafts. They all split up and began guiding different groups out of all the buildings as more ships began dropping down around the city.
Another surge of bots began filling the sky then, attacking the rescue ships that were moving back and forth, but they quickly began to be taken down as Rhodey went tearing through the sky, taking out robots left and right in his War Machine suit, alongside Tony. Tessa focused on moving as many people as she could onto the ships while Tony and Rhodey gave them cover. After a few minutes, while Tessa was finishing clearing out the last of the people from the building she had been in charge of getting cleared, Tony's voice drifted though the coms again. "Thor, I think I've got a plan." He said, voice sounding strained.
"We're out of time." Thor responded. "They're coming for the core." He warned them all.
"Rhodey, get the rest of those people on that ship." Tony instructed him. "Avengers, it's time to work for a living." He said then before taking off through the air, heading for the church.
Tessa teleported herself over to Steve who was running towards the city. She grabbed onto his arm as she dropped down beside him before moving herself and him through the city with her powers, bringing them to the church as well. They dropped down next to Tony and Thor, who were doing their best to surround the core, along with the Maximoffs, Clint, and Vision, everyone keeping Ultron's forces from touching it. Tessa sent out a pulse of energy as soon as her feet were back on the ground, hitting a group of approaching bots, sending them soring back as she stepped back closer to the core, letting her powers flow out as she took a stand along with the others.
"Romanoff." Tony said. "You and Banner better not be playing hide the zucchini."
"Relax, shellhead." Natasha's voice drifting back to him through the coms. "Not all of us can fly or jump through space." A moment later she came crashing through the fence surrounding the building, having commandeered a large snow plow, using it to push through the sea of metal soldiers.
Soon everyone had converged on the area, coming to stand with their backs to the core, moving together to protect it against the army threatening to end their world. "We need to protect the core." Tony told everyone as they gathered. "If Ultron gets his hands on this, he wins, and we lose."
"Well then, let's not let him win." Tessa said as she took hold of the last robot trying to make its way into the room, tearing it in half and sending it flying as Hulk slammed down into the ground outside the church, letting out a loud roar as he dropped a robot he had crushed in his hands.
Ultron dropped to the ground not long after, causing the team to pull in tighter together, forming a shield with themselves around the core.
"IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO?!" Thor yelled out at him in challenge.
Ultron raised his arms as he lifted back into the air, calling to him every one of his robots that had yet to be destroyed….which, unfortunately, was a lot. They all watched with wide eyes as the sea of metal men ran towards them and Tessa nearly slapped Thor in the back of the head for instigating him. "Did you really have to ask?" Tessa sighed, looking over at Thor with a pointed look before her eyes fell back on the wall of enemies building in number by the second.
"This is the best I can do." Ultron said then as all his forces gathered. "This is exactly what I wanted. All of you….against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?"
"You may have a lot of power on your side." Tessa called out to him. "But we have something that you'll never have."
"Dwindling hope?" Ultron supplied arrogantly.
"No." Tessa said, shaking her head with a smirk. "Friends." She corrected. "You're not the first impossible task we've faced, and we'll defeat you just like all the others." She told him, muscles tensing and eyes burning bright. "Together."
Hulk let out a vicious roar then, just as the Ultron's army came running at them, and everyone had a moment to brace themselves before the battle broke out around them. The army fell upon them like a tidal wave, running in through the broken walls, climbing up and descending upon them through the crumbling cieling, and everyone was left striking out at more bodies than their eyes could take in.
Tessa sent out blast after blast. She let out surge after surge. She tore apart piece after piece. She refused to let a single one pass her, and neither did the others. They all fought with everything they had, coming together and standing as a team against the powerful force. The numbers slowly began to sway more in their favor as the seconds ticked by, and when Ultron came tearing into the room, Vision slammed into him, easily overpowering him and sending him flying back outside, quickly following behind. Tony and Thor followed after as well, as the others finished taking out the dwindling army. The three men sent out a powerful blast, combining their powers and sending it right at Ultron, burning into his body, weakening him greatly. When they drew back, Hulk slammed into him and sent him flying far from the area with a grunt of victory.
The robots who had been left behind began turning foot and taking off away from the area, giving everyone a chance to actually draw in a breath. Tessa tore apart the last of robots who had been trying to force their way into the church as Thor yelled out that the rest were trying to leave the city. Vision and Tony took off into the air, Tony calling in aide from Rhodey to help take out the fleeing bots, knowing they couldn't even let one escape.
"We've got to move out." Steve said then, looking around to the group who was left. "Even I can tell the air is starting to get a little thin. You guys get to the boats." He said to them all. "I'll sweep for stragglers. Be right behind you."
"What about the core?" Clint asked.
"I'll protect it." Tessa told him with a nod, looking from him over to Steve. "I'll hold them off and get out of here as soon as we're clear."
Steve's eyes trailed over her for a moment before nodding back to her. "Alright. Just make sure you get out of here as soon as is safe." He told her before taking off in a jog out of the room.
"Nat. This way." Clint called over to her and the two also took off out of the area.
Tessa looked over to Wanda and Pietro who were left staring over at her. "Get to the boats." She told them.
"We're not going to leave you here alone." Wanda said in refusal.
"Yes, you are." Tessa shot back to her as a robot came running at her from her right, causing her to turn and latch onto it, tearing it apart easily. "You two have done good today. You make pretty heroes." She told them with a smirk. "But I've got this now." She assured. "Go."
They watched her for a moment before Pietro stepped up to his sister, pulling on her arm. "Come on." He told her. "Let's get off this damn rock."
Wanda looked from him back up to Tessa, who gave her another reassuring nod. Wanda nodded back then and the two of them were gone in a blur, leaving Tessa alone to keep the remaining bots from trying to touch the core. She had to stop a few of them, which was easy enough, but the minutes ticked by quickly and soon Tony was in place under the flying city, ready to do his part.
"Thor, I'm gonna need you back in the church." Tessa heard Tony call through the coms. "You know…this works and we maybe don't walk away."
Thor, having made sure everyone was loaded up on the rescue boats called back to him. "Maybe not." He said in agreement.
"Rose, you still at the core?" she heard Steve's voice ask then.
"Yeah." She responded, throwing a group of robots into the brick wall, adding to the growing pile of destroyed metal husks. "As soon as Thor fries this thing, I'll get to the ship. I'll get both of us to the ship." Tessa said then, not willing to leave her brother behind.
"Don't worry about me." Thor told her then. "As soon as I get there, you get yourself to safety."
"Thor-" Tessa began to protest before she heard the familiar sound of the quin jet fly over the church, followed by a round of bullets that tore in through the crumbling walls and ceiling, piercing into Tessa's chest, causing her to fall to the ground with a scream of agony.
Tessa could hear voices shouting in her ear, but she couldn't make out the words being spoken. Her senses were too busy processing the vast amount of pain taking over her, numbing out every other source of information sweeping through her brain, leaving her focusing on nothing but the blinding pain that left her gasping for breath, finding it impossible to fill her lungs no matter how hard she tried to draw in a breath. She was left staring up at what was once a beautiful ceiling, now left in nothing but ruins, the feeling of her warm blood seeping out under her in an alarmingly quick growing pool. She dropped her eyes down to her chest then, fear taking hold of her when she realized she was riddled with bullet wounds, all of them having penetrated vital organs. Every strangled breath was agony as she came to terms with the realization that she would not make it out of this.
She managed to roll her head to the side as movement caught her eye, only to find one of the torsos of a robot she thought she had dismantled pulling itself up onto the core. She tried to force her hand to move, but it had grown far too cold and heavy, and she found that the only she response she got from it was a useless twitch of her fingers. She watched through tunneling vision as the robot wrapped its metal fingers around the top of the core and twisted, helpless to do anything. A trail of tears fell down her face as she was overtaken by the feeling of the ground being pulled out from under her, the mass of land dropping through the air like the meteor it was meant to be. And as the darkness consumed her, she had to come to the painful realization, that despite how close they had come….they had failed. She had failed.
She was suddenly pulled from the darkness that had consumed her and thrown into a blinding light so quickly, Tessa let out a groan from the sudden change in her senses. Where just a moment prior she had been swimming in nothing but a sea of bitter cold darkness, she now found herself surrounded by warm light, the pain that had consumed her nothing but a distant memory. She slowly pulled her eyes open, fuzzy images of a beautiful woman in a white gown flowing in, and Tessa was left wondering if she had somehow managed to make it to heaven, even after all her transgressions in life. "A-am I dead?" Tessa whispered, her voice echoing around her.
"No." The woman told her, bringing a warm hand down to caress her cheek. "But you are dying." She continued, her soft voice sounding all too familiar.
Tessa blinked her eyes rapidly, her senses suddenly rushing back to her. "Frigga?" she breathed out in a broken voice, her eyes taking in the loving face of her mother….the face she thought she would never see again. Tears filled her eyes as she shot up, realizing she really was in heaven. "Oh Frigga, I'm so sorry!" she sobbed, finally getting to give the apology she had wanted to make so terribly.
"Listen to me, my Love." Frigga told her, wrapping her fingers around Tessa's hand. "I don't have much time." She warned. "Your story is not over yet."
"But it is." Tessa told her, her heart feeling so very heavy. "I failed. I couldn't stop it."
"No darling, you haven't failed. Not yet. You must get back up. The world needs you." Frigga said, her eyebrows dropping down seriously.
"How?" Tessa asked. "I-I'm not strong enough! I can't do what you ask. I wasn't strong enough to save you and I can't save them!" she sobbed.
"Tessa." Frigga said softly, reaching up to cup her face again. "You are so much stronger than you know. Do you remember what I told you as a girl? Your strength does not lie in your legs or your muscles, it comes from here." She told her, dropping her hand to place it against her chest. "And you've built a wall around it….constructed of all that fear and anger inside you. It's time to let it go." She told her, her voice wrapping around her and piercing into her soul.
"But Mother, everything hurts so much." Tessa told her, feeling hopeless. "I've lost so much, and I'm so scared of losing anything else. It hurts more than any wound I've even been dealt." She told her, voice breaking as tears washed down her cheeks.
"The pain of losing those we love is great." Frigga told her in agreement with a sad smile. "But the joy and warmth their love brings us is so much greater. It's the greatest force in the universe and if you open yourself back up to it and truly let yourself feel it….I promise there is nothing in this world you can't overcome. Stop letting your fear guide you, Darling." She said, her voice beginning to echo around them.
Tessa's vision began to blur then, and it had nothing to do with the falling tears. Frigga's face wavered in and out of focus and Tessa drew in a panicked breath, not wanting to slip away from this moment. "Frigga!" she called out, reaching for her hand, only to find that the warmth it once held was fading away.
"We're out of time, my dear. I'm going to give you as much as my energy as I can to get you back up on your feet, but from there I'm afraid you'll have to do the next part on your own." Frigga said, her voice growing quieter as it, too, began fading away.
"No, Mother!" Tessa shouted as her fingers slipped through Frigga's hand.
"I'll see you again my dear." Frigga said then as her image drifted away and Tessa was swept under a wave of darkness again.
Tessa's eyes snapped open, and she found herself, once again, staring over at the core. Her senses washed back over her, and while the pain in her chest was still there, she found herself suddenly able to push through it. She could hear Tony yelling through the speaker still pressed into her ear, screaming for help as he tried helplessly to stop the city from falling from underneath. She pushed herself up, suddenly overcome with a new wave of determination, Frigga's words drifting through her mind. She pushed herself up onto her feet and closed her eyes, focusing on the powers deep inside. "Don't be afraid." Tessa whispered to herself, clinging to the memory of mother's voice. All at once she let out a breath and with it, released all the pain, fear, and anger that had been building in her through her long years. She let it out, letting the energy in her flow free as she did, pushing it down into the dirt under her, sending it out as far as it would reach, wrapping it around the entire mass of land that was dropping down to the Earth below.
Instead of focusing on the pain and anger of losing everyone she had ever cared for, she instead focused on the moments she had spent with them. She remembered Frigga…Odin…Thor…Loki…Sarah…Steve…Bucky…Abramham…Peggy…Howard…Maria…Tony…Fury…Natasha…Clint…Bruce…Sam…Rhodey…she thought of them all. She remembered every moment spent with them. Every laugh shared with them. Every smile given by them. All the love shared between them. And she used it. She used all that good in her life, and with a roar and tear-filled eyes, that had nothing to do with pain, she took hold of the dropping piece of Earth.
She stood in the middle of the church, her arms cast out on either side of her, her body glowing with a light brighter than she had ever experienced before and slowly, amazingly, brought the city to a stop. Her muscles shook with the effort pushing through them, fighting against the thrusters that were trying to force it down, and while she doubted she would be able to hold it for long... she did it. She brought it to a hault.
"TONY! GET OUT!" She yelled out, knowing he was still under the city, having been trying to stop it this whole time.
"Is this you?!" Tony yelled back to her in shock.
"YES, AND I CAN'T HOLD IT FOR LONG! I'VE GOT THIS NOW GET OUT OF HERE!" she told him, her voice straining with the effort she was putting into keeping her hold on the massive piece of land.
"What about you?!" he demanded as he flew back out of the hole he had made into the bottom, coming out into the open air, having no idea what she was going to do, but trusting her.
Tessa let a sad smile pull up her lips as she remembered the warm light that she had just come from. "I'll be around." She whispered as tears fell from her eyes. "Take care of the others for me." She told him as she focused back onto her powers, focusing on the feeling of it coursing through the ground under her. She drew in a breath and then switched the flip on her powers, and instead of keeping the mass of land from falling, she instead poured every ounce of her power into the ground under her and used it to tear it apart. She sent every particle she could wrap her powers around into air around them, everything pulling apart. Her power coursed through the land, and in an explosion of pure, blue, beautiful energy, she destroyed the would-be meteor….sending all the matter of it shooting out as far as she could send it all around her. The ground under her crumbled away along with her power and with a smile still on her face, she fell back into the darkness, eager to be in the warm embrace of her mother once again.
Unfortunately for her, it wasn't the warm, bright light that greeted her when she opened her eyes again. And instead of seeing her mother's face staring down at her, she instead found Thor's. The impulses running through her body registered in her mind then, leaving her feeling incredibly heavy and tired. She blinked over at Thor, who was staring down at the floor, his fist brushing against his lips as he was lost in his thoughts, his eyebrows drawn together in worry.
"I'm not sure if I'm glad or disappointed I'm alive." Tessa's gravelly voice called out to him, pulling his eyes back up to her. Thor sat forward so quickly Tessa almost jumped back in surprise.
"You're awake!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah, well, apparently my story isn't over yet." Tessa responded with a sigh, trying to sit herself up in the bed she was laid on, cringing in pain as she did, a flash of agony tearing across her chest.
"Don't push yourself." Thor told her, bringing a hand out to try to keep her from sitting up. "Your story may not be over, but it very nearly was." He told her, motioning over her healing body that had all sorts of tubing and wiring protruding from her.
"Sokovia?" Tessa asked him then, licking her dry lips as she did her best to ignore the painful throbbing in her chest. "Did it work?"
"Yes, you single-handedly saved the day." He told her with a smile. "Seems your rather good at that."
"It wasn't single-handedly." Tessa told him with her own smile, her mind drifting back to her the brief moment spent with her mother.
"Well, either way, you've given us all quite the scare. You're the thing that binds us all together and I'm not sure any of us could handle losing you for good." He told her, his eyes filled with a sadness she understood all too well.
"Would you say were more or less worried than that time you convinced me and Loki to hunt down that Grindersnap with you and I spent three weeks in the healing ward with a broken leg after it nearly crushed me?" she asked him with a wide smile.
"I'm not sure that could even compare to…" Thor began before he trailed off, his eyebrows furrowed down in confusion. "Did Loki tell you that story?" he asked her.
Tessa just shook her head, her smile stretching even wider. "Seems like dying and coming back to life was what I needed to restart my brain." She said, unable to stop the happiness that was taking hold of her in that moment, suddenly finding herself grateful for so many things. "I remember." She said again, tears building up in her eyes as she smiled over at her brother….memories of their entire childhood rushing through her mind. "I remember everything."