A/N: So since this book is soon coming to a close, I wanted to announce a little something. It's gonna be called "Phantom Facts." I'll be opening up comments to questions about this story—plot details, character quirks, etc. There, you can find out more about the story and how it came to be!

Hope to read and answer your questions soon!

...

My head is spinning, or maybe it's just the world. Probably my head. It's hard to tell with how fuzzy everything is. I take a deep breath and force my eyes open.

That's about when it hits me.

I have a body. It's here. I can feel it all the way down to my fingers and toes that I remember turning to dust. I died, but now I'm back.

Hundreds of questions flood my mind. What happened? Is Dad okay? How long have I been gone? What happened to—Peter? Peter.

I barely think as I push myself to my feet and hope to find any clues as to what happened. My knees nearly buckle when I see the familiar metal red and blue suit. "Peter," I shout and run straight into him, "You're here. You're okay. We're okay."

"Oh my god. Lia, you're—you—I—did we die?" He questions as he holds onto me like our lives will be over again if we let go. "You—you had turned to dust, and then I didn't feel so good."

"I'm sorry." I whisper and cry against his neck. "It's gonna be okay. We're back now, which means something changed, right?"

"It did, but the war isn't over." Strange calls as he approaches us. "We've been gone for five years. Now, comes the final battle."

Five years. We've been gone for five years?

The words hit me like a bullet. No, I've been shot, and this hits harder than that. I can't process it. I was dead, left Dad to mourn, missed out on life for five whole years.

"No time to waste, we have to go." Strange says as he uses his magic to open up one of his sparking portals.

"Then let's go. I need to kick some ass." I reply with gritted teeth and teary eyes. "What do you say, Pete?"

"I say it's been about five years overdue." He tries to force a grin on his face, but both of us know that it's only made up of pain. As hard as we're trying to put on brave faces, it's hard to ignore the reality that keeps crashing over us.

But we can't focus on that now.

Peter grabs my waist and starts to swing us off. We land on a large piece of concrete and lower our masks. It takes me a moment to realize what we're looking at. For a long moment, I wonder if we're still on an alien planet, but then I see the familiar emblem in another piece of rubble. "We're home." I whisper, looking across the battlefield where Chitari, freaky animals, and the ugly purple Titan are. There's also my family—Dad, Cap, Sam, everyone—some of whom I have only heard about.

I grab Peter's hand with a shuddering breath. My comm crackles to life, and I hear the voice that I've grown up with. "Lia, pleasure to have you back." ARTI calls with what sounds like would be a smile if he had a face. "Connecting you to the updated system."

Someone lands in front of us in an Iron suit, but I don't recognize it or the colors used. I don't get much time to think about it as I spot my Dad, and Strange turns to another wizard to ask, "Is that everyone?"

The wizard looks at him with disbelief. "What? You wanted more?"

There's a crashing sound to the left, and a giant Ant Man emerges from some rubble, opening his hand to reveal Hulk, War Machine, and a racoon holding a gun—which I assume is Rocket, one of the Guardians I didn't get to meet.

My hands start to shake as the adrenaline starts to rush into my veins. I meet Cap's eye and nod as he turns around, broken shield in hand. "Avengers," He calls as we all settle into fighting positions, Peter crouching down helmet on, and myself with mask, hood, and blades of shadow raised. Mjölnir flies into his hand as he finishes the call with a simple word that makes a smile break across my face, "assemble."

"See you on the flip side." I say to Peter with a nudge. He nods, and we both yell as we respectively swing and fly our way with the charge and into the fight.

It's a haze of adrenaline, blood, and endless fighting. I lose track of it as I fall into a rhythm. My instincts seem to naturally take over, which makes me thankful for the endless hours of combat training with Nat and honing my powers with Wanda.

"What even are these things?" I ask as I slice through another one of the weird, six legged aliens. ARTI begins to run an analysis across my lenses before displaying all known information about these things, which are apparently called Outriders.

"I feel it necessary to notify you, Peter and you father are a few yards away." ARTI chimes, and I feel my heart lurch in my chest. It's been five years since I've seen my Dad, even if it's only been five minutes for me.

I use my shadows to kill all the Outriders in the area and run as fast as I can to where they are. The air feels forced out of my body as I see him—my Dad. He's right there hugging Peter. "Oh, this is nice." Peter says and notices me. "I think it's her turn though."

"Who are you—" Dad asks as he lets go and follows Peter's gaze. My knees nearly buckle from under me as we rush toward each other.

"Dad," I manage to say through a sob as my mask lowers, "you're okay. I was—I was scared something had happened while I was gone."

"A lot has. Most of it good." He replies and holds onto me even tighter. "I have so much to tell you."

There's a crash nearby, and we all look at each other. "Later?" I question.

Dad nods, "Definitely." He pauses and looks between Peter and I. "Take care of each other."

The comment strikes me as odd. I mean, it's not given our current situation, but something in his voice sends that cold chill running across my skin. He flies off back into the fight before I get a chance to question it. I take a step forward to do the same, but Peter stops me.

His hand finds my waist as the other rests on my cheek. "Just in case," he whispers and presses a kiss to my lips. We both pull away with painful looks since we both know how this could end. "And don't forget, I still owe you that date."

"I'm holding you to that." I whisper and give him another quick peck. "C'mon, we've got a war to win."

"I know. Be careful."

"Same to you." I reply, and we both nod as we head our separate ways. "ARTI, this suit has instant kill, right?"

"At your behest, yes."

"Good, activate it." I say and jump into the middle of a group of Outriders. The suit automatically forms a wide range of blasters that take them down.

"Cap," my comm crackles with Clint's voice, "What do you want me to do with this thing?"

I continue to fight my way through the fringe, searching for any sign of my allies. "Get those stones as far away as possible." Cap shouts back, and I try to look for anyone familiar.

"No!" Banner's voice cuts in, and I almost pause mid-stab in confusion. I saw Hulk earlier, so why would Banner come out in the middle of a fight? "We need to get them back where they came from."

"No way to get them back." Dad's voice echoes in my ear, "Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel."

The words make my Stark-genius brain glitch with giddy. Dad and the others made a quantum tunnel? It must be how they got us back. I mean, it only makes sense that something would have happened to the stones after Thanos used them to dust us. So they must have time traveled to retrieve them from past places.

It's honestly genius.

"Hold on," an unfamiliar voice seems to cheer, "That wasn't our only time machine."

I swear, I think I'm hallucinating as I hear what I think is La Cucaracha playing across the battlefield. "Am I going crazy, or do you guys hear that too?" I ask as I take down another two Outriders.

"You're not crazy kid." Cap replies, "Does anyone see an ugly brown van out there?"

"Yes, but you're not gonna like where it's parked." Another unfamiliar voice calls.

"I think I see it too, but I can't get to it at the moment." I add in.

"Scott, how long do you need to get that thing working?" Dad questions.

"Uh, maybe ten minutes." I assuming Scott replies.

"Get it started, we'll get the stones to you." Steve replies.

I continue fighting, looking for any signs of a friendly in the chaos. My attention is caught by a bright sphere of purple emanating out, and I follow it to see T'Challa with the gauntlet.

Unfortunately, I'm the only one who notices. Thanos's blade knocks him down before returning back to the titan. I feel the anger rushing through my veins in a fresh wave, and it carries me to the small opening of rubble to block him from the gauntlet.

Wanda lands next to me. The same pure anger and pain I feel reflected in her eyes. "Go, I can take care of him." I hesitate on my feet. I've faced him before, but I don't doubt the power that she possesses, especially when it's further fueled by her grief. She nods at me before turning to Thanos, fury overflowing and seeping into her words. "You took everything from me."

"I don't even know who either of you are." He replies and starts marching towards us.

"You will." Wanda states, and I take one last look at her before running off to rejoin the fight.

I run after the gauntlet, searching for any way to provide some help. T'Challa is doing the same, trying to catch up with it. Pieces of rubble lift and secure around the gauntlet and the stones, and I instantly search for the source, already having a hunch as to what's causing it.

Sure enough, there he is—Maw, aka Squidward. He uses his powers to draw the gauntlet closer to him with T'Challa still attached. I lift myself in the air, the same way Wanda does and put myself on an even level with Maw.

"You really believe you can stop this, you child?" He shouts at me, and I just shrug.

"I came pretty close once. Let's see if killing you the second time will stick." I growl at him and throw up shadow shields to block his attempted blows. It works in my favor, because while he's distracted launching things at me, I raise shadows behind him, solidify them into blades, and go right for the heart.

His eyes widen as they drop down to the dark shadow blade jutting from his chest. That's about the moment everything around him and his own body drops. I barely drop down to the ground before the next challenge comes.

Bright blue energy beams rain down across the battlefield, and I'm dodging them while trying to hold up a shield. They won't hold up under one, but at least it would help reduce damage. "Help! Somebody help!" My heart lurches at the sound of sheer panic in Peter's voice.

I want to run to him, but I think he's too far away. It's hard to tell in the haze. I don't even know which direction go. So I find the closest ally and sprint, throwing shields up as I go.

A blast hits the ground a few feet away from me that sends me flying. I do my best to roll myself into a ball and wait until I finish rolling. It takes me a moment to stop, but when I do, I see another hero, a girl about my age, next to me and Peter not far away.

Another blast comes my way, and I instinctively grab the other girl and move us farther from the blast. "Sorry about that, but I didn't think either of us planned on getting blown up today." I tell her when we're settled.

"I appreciate it." She manages to smile before shooting at something over my shoulder and standing with her back against mine as we fight more Outriders. "You must be a Stark. You look like your father."

"Yeah, I'm Lia." I tell her and slice through an Outrider's arm. "You?"

"Shuri." She replies, and my eyes widen in recognition. "I believe you've met my brother."

"You could say that." I don't know why, but I find myself laughing. "Gotta say, you're the coolest princess I've ever met."

"And you're the coolest Brit I've met." She replies, and all the sudden, the explosions and blasts stop. It's quiet for a second around us. We killed any close Outriders, and without the blasts from the ship above, it's painfully quiet.

Shuri and I share a confused look before daring to turn our eyes up the ship. Their blasters turn and fire off pointlessly into the sky. "What the heck is this?" Sam asks over comms.

"ARTI, any ideas on what they're aiming for?"

He sounds panicked, voice rushed as he pushes the words out. "Something just entered the upper atmosphere. The energy signals are off the charts."

My hands shake as the stream of golden light breaks through the ship as easily as I slip through shadows. The blasters lower as the ship seems to loose power, and I barely make out what did the damage. "Well, that's a new one." I mumble as the woman turns around and repeats the process until the ship is bursting with flame and plummeting into the water.

It's only in the quiet that I remember Peter's lying a few meters away, likely still holding onto the gauntlet. I begin to run over to him, knowing that the entirely of Thanos and his forces will go for it. Except, the woman lands there when I'm only a few feet away.

Peter's lying on the ground, face dirty and slightly bloodied as he clutches onto the gauntlet like it alone could win the war. "Hi, I'm Peter Parker."

The woman, Danvers as Steve called her over the comms smiles, "Hey, Peter Parker. You got something for me?"

I have to shake off my awe as I close the distance, because right behind me I can hear every single bit of Thanos's army closing in. "We gotta move, and fast."

Peter's face drops, and it seems like he's lost nearly every ounce of hope as he looks back to Danvers. "I don't know how you're gonna get it through all of that."

Wanda lands next to Danvers, offering me an encouraging half smile. "Don't worry."

"She's got help." Another woman clad in red and gold armor finishes as she stands next to me.

I look to Peter for a second, giving him a thumbs up. "Chin up, hot stuff. We've got this."

"That's my girl." I immediately spin around to see if I'm going crazy, but I'm not. The mysterious Iron suit's helmet lifts, and there's Pepper— there's my mum. "Ready for this, kiddo?"

"Always." I chime in reply and look around to see Shuri, Gamora, Mantis, and the other women I can't identify gathering together. All of us preparing to fight whatever stands in our way.

Poor things. They don't stand a chance.

I work with Wanda, both of us combining our powers to take down the chitauri leviathans. It makes me feel strong again, like I did when I first donned the Phantom suit, which back then was a leather jacket and a homemade mask. I can feel the hope bubbling back up to the surface and victory just brush my fingertips.

Something explodes.

My shoulder pops on impact with the ground. The pain makes tears well up in my eyes, as I push myself back up. I can barely see anything through the thick haze of dust, but I manage to see a flash of red and gold.

A chorus of voices sing in my ears with a sweet melody, but there's still worry and fear in every note. I grit my teeth and force myself to stand and try to run forward.

I can see them.

Thor and Steve fight Thanos, the former wielding the hammer and Mjölnir trying to push them into Thanos's chest, while the latter is on his back trying to immobilize him.

My fingers brush one of the stones, and the stones sing even louder as a sliver of their energy rushes through my veins. An immense, overwhelming ache floods my senses. It's a pain that I can't quiet place, but I know it's real.

Knuckles hit my chest, and I'm thrown backwards near Dad. Thanos wastes no time in grabbing the gauntlet, but Danvers delivers a powerful kick before he has a chance to slip it on.

He throws her to the side, and I look to Dad. "I have an idea, but you have to trust me." I tell him and cradle my injured arm. His eyes are full of fear and apprehension when the words leave my mouth, "Please, Dad. We can win this. Just trust me."

Screaming fills my ears, and I look over to see Thanos prepared to snap.

Danvers jumps back in and holds his hand open. I can't bring myself to move. My body is paralyzed in fear. All I can hear is screaming as I feel like I'm turning to dust all over again.

I remember every second of what it felt like to die.

The familiar resolve starts to settle in. After all, I died once, and if it means saving the universe, I'd readily do it again.

It's enough to loosen the grips of my flashback and bring me back to where I am now. Dad is on the ground next to me, and I follow his gaze to see Strange, who is holding the water back with one hand, the other shaking as he holds up two fingers and then looks between Dad and I.

My stomach churns.

Somehow, I knew it came down to this. It feels like it was always where we were meant to end up. Right here. Right now. One of us dying to save everyone and everything we have ever loved.

My feet are pulled out from under me the second I try to run. I look down to see an Iron band constraining my ankles, and Dad runs past me—towards Thanos, who is attempting to return the Power Stone to the gauntlet.

I work on tearing the band off as Dad is repeatedly pummeled by Thanos, who has no idea what his real intentions are. The barest glint of a smile breaks across his face when Dad is thrown back a few feet away from me. Thanos raises his hand, fingers moving to snap as he says, "I am inevitable."

But I know the truth.

This was inevitable.

There's the sound of an empty, metallic snap, and I work harder at freeing myself from the band as Dad sits on his knees, Infinity Stones shifting into place on his suit.

The band breaks.

Dad's arm begins to glow.

His pain echoes so loudly, so violently, I feel it in my own bones.

I make it to my feet.

He looks at me for a moment, tears and determination in his eyes as he mouths the few simple words. "I'm sorry."

I try to run, but bands of sparkling orange ropes hold me back.

"And I," Dad looks to Thanos, struggling to get the words out through his pain, "am... Iron Man."

He snaps.

My world plummets in a haze of white.

Thanos sways on his feet. He's helplessly watching as his army, everything he thought he had, fades into dust.

I run over to Dad, and we both take a moment to watch as the thing that caused us so much pain and suffering over the years too turns into dust.

Dad lets out a grunt and begins to drop. I prop him up against a structure of rubble as my hood lowers. Tears stream down my face as I take in the damage the Snap did to him. "Why did you do that?" I cry and hold his hand. "Why did you stop me?"

"Because, you've got everything ahead of you, bug." He wheezes, "I couldn't let it be you."

"But I need you." My heart feels like it's being ripped out of my chest. "Don't leave me like this, please, Dad. Please, don't leave me like this."

Rhodey stands next to me, placing a hand on the unburned side of my Dad's head. The sound of my own heart pounds so loudly in my ears, I can barely hear myself sobbing.

"Hey!" Peter shakily calls as he takes Rhodey's place next to me, and I continue to hold onto my Dad, desperately hoping it will keep him from going. "Mr. Stark, can you hear me?" Dad's hand clutches onto Peter's arm. "It's Peter. We won, Mr. Stark. We won. We won! You did it, sir, you did it." Peter keeps saying as he too is crying. He holds onto my Dad with one arm as he leans against me. Mum pulls him to his feet, and Rhodey does his best to comfort him.

No one bothers to try to pull me away.

Mum holds onto my hand, and I can see she's fighting her own pain and emotions as she kneels next to Dad. "Hey," She whispers to him as she presses her hand against his arc reactor.

"Hey, Pep." He whispers, and I turn my face so he doesn't see anymore of my tears. There's no denying it. My Dad is dying—quickly, and I can't bear to make this any harder for him.

His hand moves to rest over Mum's. "Friday?" She asks, and I know she's trying to find any thread of hope that he'll make it. He always has before. Why does this have to be different?

"Life functions critical." The AI replies, and everything left in me shatters. Not like you'd think—in big chunks that can still be pieced together, but a million little slivers that have no hope of being recovered.

"Tony? Look at me." Dad's gaze is drifting—he's drifting away from us. "We're gonna be okay."

I force myself to swallow the sobs as I look back at my Dad for what may be the last time. If the only thing I can do in this moment—his last moment—is reassure him, I have no choice. "We're gonna be okay." I echo Mum's words and try to smile at him. "I promise, we're—we'll be okay."

Tears are starting to fall down Mum's face as she smiles softly at him. "You can rest now."

As she says that, the faint sound of his wheezing stops, and I watch with barely constrained sobs as the light of the arc reactor dies out and my Dad with it.

I lay my head against his shoulder, letting the pain flow over me like a rising tide. Mum's arm wraps around me as we both settle into our grief.

There's a rustle behind us, and I look up to see everyone who fought with us slowly sinking down to one knee. It makes it hurt more—all these people, strangers, friends, family take a knee for a man who impacted each of their lives.

I can't deny it anymore.

He's really gone.