FROM THE ASHES

Messalina had never felt worse. Her head was pounding, and every time she tried to stand up it felt as though she was spinning. The walk from the ship to the others nearly killed her. Her physical pain was nothing compared to the torment of her soul - they had lost the fight. Thanos had disappeared and she knew deep in her heart that soon he would have complete control. She shuddered at the very thought. The destruction he could cause with the power of all six was unimaginable. 

They'd failed. 

Mantis supported Peter, keeping him upright on his feet. Messalina's fists tightened at the sight of the man - his impulsiveness cost them everything. She wanted to scream and shake him senseless, anything to make him realise the full extent of what he'd done. The pull of his eyebrows and slack face told her that he didn't need her to remind him. He was fully aware of the consequences of his actions. 

Her fists loosened. 

Tony stumbled to his feet with the help of Parker, hand ghosting his torso. He had left her a short while after she confessed his fate to him, but now she regretted it. Images of Thanos driving that blade into Tony's gut played on a loop in her head, and the memories of his death consumed her. She turned her gaze away from him - she couldn't look at him without feeling her heart ache.

She just wanted to someone to talk to. Someone she knew, who wouldn't question everything she said and ask her to explain all what happened. She needed someone who knew everything, and would distract her from the defeat. 

Messalina's hand lifted to her earpiece, quickly correcting the positioning. She turned it on, carefully listening to the crackle of it starting back up. As soon as the crackles died out, it was replaced with a noise that drove a dagger into her heart - screams. 

Before she could even speak, her attention got diverted. 

"Something... is happening." Mantis' dreamy voice dragged Messalina's gaze up. She stared at the alien as she disintegrated before her very eyes, the flakes of who she used to be drifting to the ground. 

Messalina felt as if she was choking on air. Her gaze remained fixed on where Mantis had stood, where she died with so little warning. As she crumbled she seemed peaceful; that wasn't reassuring. Death came so swiftly that Mantis barely had time to finish her warning. 

She completely forgot about the earpiece, her pulse thudding harshly in her ears. This must be what the true power of the Gauntlet was. There was no other explanation. Why Mantis? 

"Quill?" Messalina stumbled to her feet, watching helplessly as Drax looked at Peter, before crumbling away just like Mantis did. 

She started gasping for air. Her sight was getting blurry, and she had to frantically blink to even make out outlines. 

"Drax!" Peter shouted out, hands reaching out for the floating ashes. Next thing she knew, he had joined his friends. 

Messalina couldn't contain her hysteria now, voice cracking. "No, no I'm not dying this way!" 

She knew one thing for sure - the two realities shared a common denominator. In both of them, Thanos was destroying half of the population. 

Instantly her thoughts started running a million miles an hour. Was she at risk of being massacred? She didn't belong to this reality, surely that didn't include her in those sacrificed. She desperately tried to reason with herself that she wouldn't die, that she would see her friends again soon. They would team up, and come up with a different way to take down Thanos. They had to. 

Messalina spun on her feet. Her eyes frantically found Stephen Strange's, and for just one moment she saw the man that she knew, not a stranger who looked just like him. "Strange - there, there has to be something that we can do." 

"Strange?" Tony walked behind Messalina, staring at the doctor as he looked up at the pair with heavy eyes. 

She knew what was going to happen before it did. 

"There was no other way." And just like that, the only connection to the man she saw as a father was severed. Both of the Stephen Strange's that she knew were dead. 

Messalina felt the scream rip out of her throat, hands grasping desperately at the particles floating in the air. Maybe if she managed to grab enough of them, maybe they could bring him back. Her throat burned under the strain, her cheeks getting damper and heart breaking. Her body felt like concrete as she tried to rush towards the man before he disappeared. 

He dissolved in her hands. 

She stared at her hands, mouth shuddering and an inhumane wail creeping its way out of her throat. Her hands weren't covered in skin, but blood and the ashes of the closest thing to her dead friend. She collapsed to her knees. Shock waves of agony tore through her body on impact - it was nothing compared to the agony shredding it's way through her body. 

"We can't lose..." Messalina muttered, unable to tear her gaze from her hands. She was holding a body in her hands. "We gave up everything."

Everything that was keeping her body up broke down. She succumbed to the defeat, allowing it to drag her to the ground and merely watch as the Parker boy fell into Tony's arms. She felt nothing as Parker desperately clutched and begged with Tony, praying for death to spare him. 

Messalina warned the boy, and she hated being proven right.

The child disintegrated in Tony's arms. 

Messalina wanted to offer up some words of condolence, something to help ease the pain. With the way he was cradling the ashes in his hand, the exact same way she was, she knew that nothing could be done to even dampen it. Grief was a powerful force that only let time dull it, and even then it still preyed on the victim. 

Nebula looked at the survivors, face grim. "He did it." 

Messalina's suspicions were proved correct. 

"Fuck!" Messalina cursed, slamming her hand into the ground. A flare of agony jolted up her arm, and she didn't even cry out. By now, she was accustomed to pain. 

What she wasn't accustomed to was the sight of her hand fading before her very eyes. 

Messalina exchanged a panicked look with Nebula and Tony, shaking. Tears freely escaped her eyes, and her lip wobbled. 

She didn't want to die. 

She just wanted to save her brother.

"I need to say goodby-"

And just like that, Messalina's body crumbled.

-

hey guys! i decided screw it and post the last two chapters so enjoy!

-thirdwheelchurchill