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 5   Y E A R S   L A T E R 

The streets of New York City were quiet and empty. 

At first, when Iris moved back into the city that never slept, it was unnerving, like something out of a nightmare. After three years, however, she'd gotten used to it, but it had taken a while. 

When she'd left the Avengers Compound three years prior, giving Nat the best of wishes, and promising she would return, she believed it was time to re-visit her home city, she found the streets desolate and near dead quiet. 

She'd dropped in from the sky, flying in being her best option for transportation. Straightening in the middle of the street, all she could see was trash, blowing in the slight wind down the sidewalks. 

"Hello?" She called out, half hoping for an answer, half not. No one did, so Iris turned around to face her demolished apartment. 

It was still wrecked from the fight before Titan, the brick wall crumbling halfway into the street. 

Iris walked closer, picking up one of the bricks and holding it in her hand for a moment, before setting it down again on the pile. The apartment was unsalvagable, that was for sure. She wasn't going to be able to move back in without someone who knew what they were doing. 

She'd known it, sure, but seeing it in person again sort of finalized it. 

The next stop she needed to get too was her parents' house on the outskirts of the city.  

It was only a few minutes flight, and when Iris landed in her childhood home's front lawn, tears unexpectedly began to prick behind her eyes. 

The front door was locked, but Iris knew where her parents had kept a spare key: in a fake rock in the garden. Counting three rocks from the porch, Iris picked up the fourth and turned it over, opening the compartment on the bottom and pulling out a familiar looking key. 

A quick turn in the lock and the door to the home she'd lived in for nineteen years creaked open. 

The lights were off, and even though it was only six in the afternoon, the rooms were dark. Almost every inch of the place was covered in dust and the occasional cobweb. Iris left footprints in it when she walked through the kitchen and dining room, letting her eyes swim over the pictures hanging on the wall. 

"Mom?" She called out. "Dad? Hello?" Even though they hadn't responded to any texts or calls and hadn't been seen since the snap Iris had hoped that there was still some possibility they were still alive, just in hiding, as much of the rest of the remaining world. 

But when she walked into the living room and saw the two small piles of ash and dush on the couch, she knew they weren't.  

Iris damn near collapsed right then and there, and tears had run down her cheeks.  

The pictures hanging on the walls and sitting in frames on the shelves didn't help either. There was her and June, three and five respectively, laughing in a patch of daisies in the backyard. There was the one on the first day of middle school for Iris and high school for June. There was the pool party in sixth grade (eighth for June) where she'd tackled her older sister into the pool, both of them in dry clothes. There was one for each of their graduation of high school and for college hanging up too. 

There were so many memories in this house, and now all the people she had shared them with were gone. 

Iris stayed in the house for a little while longer, soaking everything in, before she headed back to the city. She couldn't go to June's house yet, she just didn't have it in her. Stephen's old penthouse belonged to someone else, and she just couldn't go traipsing into a stranger's home. 

There was, however, one person that might be still alive. 

Karen was as close of a friend as Iris had ever had. June was her best friend her sister and nothing could top that, ever, but Karen was good at pretty much all things advice too. 

She'd met her during her journalism and writing days for the Times and the various magazines she'd written for. During the year she'd gotten into the biggest fight with June she'd ever had, and had been too proud to ask her for advice, she'd gone to Karen for help, who'd gladly obliged. 

If Iris was remembering correctly, she didn't live far from where Stephen used to live. Her wife was a lawyer, and made quite a bit of cash, enough to afford a nice size penthouse for her and Karen. Anna was her name if she remembered right.  

Iris dropped out of the grey sky in front of a building, eyeing the buzzer on the wall. The last time she'd been in Karen's home was roughly three years ago, and if her memory was still intact, she was number four. 

Iris pressed the corresponding button and waited for a reply. None came, so she buzzed again, and then a third. Heart dropping, and realizing that her only other connection to the life she once had was gone, Iris began to turn around. 

A voice on the intercom spoke before she could turn away. "Hello?" 

Iris jumped to press the button. "Hi, is this Karen? Karen Hendricks? It's Iris Cunningham. I don't know if you remember me, but we were friends a few years ago?" 

The front door clicked open in response, and Iris nearly jumped for joy then and there. 

The elevator had stopped working, so Iris took the stairs, taking one step at a time. It may have been easier to use her powers, it probably was, but she needed something to ground her at that moment, and the feeling of climbing stairs would just have to do.  

Iris reached the would-be-Karen's door and knocked again. "Hello? Karen, it's Iris I know it's been forever but-" 

The door opened a crack, and Iris saw a pair of eyes sweep over her. "Tell me something Iris told me, in private." 

Iris sighed and paused. "I slept with stuffed animals until I was fifteen." 

The door opened fully, and there stood Karen with a smirk on her face. "It is you, I thought you were dead." 

Iris returned the smile. "Touche." 

Karen leaned against the door frame, crossing her hand underneath her arm, and Iris swore she caught a glimpse of something that looked awfully like a gun. "You know you're basically famous now." 

"Pardon?" 

"The footage from New York, everyone saw it and wondered who the hell you were, and for a while, you were all they talked about. And by they I mean the news outlets." 

"You're being serious right now?" 

"Very much so." She paused. "Is it true that you can, you know-" 

"Fly? Hurl things at people at an alarming speed? Yes, it is." 

Karen nodded, grinning wider. "Where have you been? It's been years since I've seen you."  

"I've met some new people, been with them for a while, trying to work out how to try and fix all this." 

Karen suddenly stood up straight. "Come in! God, what am I doing." 

Iris chuckled as Karen held the door open for her and closed it, closing the three locks. It also didn't escape her notice when she slid the gun onto a high shelf, behind a picture frame of her and Anna. 

They'd walked into the living room, and Iris could see the dining room and kitchen from where she stood. The ceilings were high, and studio lights illuminated the rooms. A door on the far side of the dining room remained closed, and Iris had a feeling that door too, had a couple of locks. 

"Clear," Karen called out, and Iris looked over quizzically. 

"Clear? Clear for what?"  

"Not you, them." As if on cue, the closed door on the other side of the dining room clicked open, and about a-half-a-dozen faces peaked out. They ranged from nine to toddler age, and Iris stared dumbstruck. 

"Wha- Are they yours?" 

Karen walked forward, smiling, taking what looked like a three-year-old from the arms of the oldest. "They're not mine, well they're mine, but not mine-mine." 

"Did you and Anna adopt? Where is she anyway?" 

There was silence for a moment where Karen swayed back and forth with the child in her arms. "Anna's gone, the snap. That's what everyone's calling it." 

"Oh God, Karen I'm so sorry." 

"Don't apologize, it's not your fault." She paused. "Anna always wanted kids, and these ones have lost their parents in the snap. I've taken in as many as I can afford. I have savings built up and I work when I can, our landlord has been pretty lax with rent too."  

Every single one of the kids was staring at her warily, some with recognition in their eyes. "You know," Karen started. "I could always use an extra pair of hands around, you can stay here until you get back on your feet, and I'm sure the kids would love you." 

Iris smiled, scanning the faces of the children in the room. "I'd love too." June would too, she told her self silently. 

A/N: okay so I'm going on a two-week trip I should be able to update but it might be at a weird time sorry fam 

I'm skskksksksksks Iris baby what am I going to do with you??? 

Also, I'm sorry if this chapter seemed kinda crappy I tried I swear I did we're gonna get to the good stuff real soon promise this will probably be my longest book so far woot woot lmao 

Guys, I'm planning the rest of the book and I'm shaking I'm so ready to make you laugh and cry it's gonna be great lmao 

Thought up an original work and I'm *this* close to planning and publishing it skskskksks 

I'm losing my mind sorry lmao thanks for the 9,000+ reads you guys are the best 

Stay not dead, 

~Kelly~