Peter's sister, Nova II NovaVerse 1

Epilogue

Sunny is holding my hand. My vision is blurry. I'm alive. The one thing I didn't want to be.

Wait- that isn't Sunny. He's taller. He looks more mature in a way, and his eyes are dim; they no longer hold the light they once did.

I squeeze his hand as hard as I can muster. He shoots up and his gaze falls on my open eyes. He cry's. I'm confused.

"How long did I sleep this time?" I sign. I'm surprised that I'm even alive.

He sobs and holds onto my hand tighter.

Another thought enters my head.

"Where's Peter?"

Bruce and Tony enter the room, as well as a girl that looks about seven or eight. The girl cries and the two men are in shock. I must've slept for quite a while or something terrible must've happened while I was unconscious that would've caused such an emotional reaction.

I spent the day getting accustomed to being awake again and the fact that BRUCE IS IN THE HULKS BODY WITHOUT BEING OUTTA CONTROL?!?!

I don't even know where to begin. So I repeat the first question to Tony.

He's gotten thin and his face is pale and a bit sunken in than what I remember. His eye bags are huge now.

"You've been asleep three years," he says. My jaw drops.

"And, Pete, he...he..."

Tony puts his hand to his brow and smooths him eyebrows. He lets out a sob. The girl (who I learned is actually Morgan) cries a little. She curls into my side and I wipe one of her tears with my thumb.

Bruce-Hulk comes up to me before putting a massive hand on my knee.

"Something happened three years back. His name was Thanos."

He came. He came and destroyed half the universe and I wasn't there to stop it. I feel myself crumble under the weight of it. He's gone. I remember watching Infinity War in my universe. But there was only one way to win the final battle. And that one way was when I wasn't in this universe. I doomed Peter. There's no endgame.

I throw my head back and take a big gulp of beer. I might've had a little too much. But I don't care. I'm with Sunny on the rooftop and the lights of the city make everything so beautiful. Max comes up from behind us and takes out a small box.

"No thanks, man," Sunny says, pushing the box full of cigarettes back to Max. He shrugs and lights it anyways.

It's always so weird to see my friends grown up. I missed three years of them. But I swallow another gulp of beer instead of dwell on it (and the fact there's another boy I will never see grow up either).

Maybe it's the multiple bottles of beer I've had talking, or just self-denial, or maybe I'm lying to myself when I say this:

Im fine. I'm totally fine.