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Hey, Susan... Sue. If you find this recording, don't post it on social media. It's gonna be a real tear-jerker. I don't know if you're ever going to see these. I don't even know if you're... if you're still... Oh god, I hope so. Today is day twenty-one, uh twenty-two.
You know, if it wasn't for the existential terror of staring into a void of space, I'd say I'm feeling better today. The infection's run its course, thanks to the blue meanie back there. You'd love her. Very practical. Only a tiny bit sadistic.
Some fuel cells were cracked during battle, but we figured out a way to reverse the ion charge to buy ourselves about forty-eight hours of time. But it's now dead in the water. We're one-thousand light years from the nearest 7-11. Oxygen will run out tomorrow. And that'll be it. And Sue, I... I know I said no more surprises, but I was really hoping to pull off one last one. But it looks like... well, you know what it looks like.
Don't feel bad about this. I mean, if you grovel for a couple of weeks, and then move on with enormous guilt. You'll have Morgan. Even though she's a reminder of the amazing, cunning, handsome man you once knew, she'll be someone for you to think about.
I should probably lie down. Please, know that... when I drift off, I will think about you. Because it's always you. It's always been you.'
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The Avengers Headquarters was a safe house. If a safe house was considered somewhere that isolated its inhabitants from a world that was in disarray, then it was the pinnacle of a safe house. But no one felt safe in the compound. Far from it. Every warm aspect that used to serve as a comfort, was cold and left a bad taste in the mouth. In fact, the bad taste was constantly present. Like an ulcer that didn't go away.
Susan Storm's appearance was a rarity to the team. They were too afraid to let her go back to the house in Maine. If there was still a functioning mental-health sector within the American government, she would be placed under suicide watch. But with the world in its current state, the team had to monitor her themselves.
It wasn't like the woman even wanted to go back to the house. There would be no one there, anyway. No one to talk to, care for or be annoyed by. At least at the headquarters, Susan could be monitored even if it was casually. No one had the strength nor the desire to physically check on the Storm who stayed in her allocated room for days on end. FRIDAY kept some tabs, notifying the team that Sue moved to the kitchen and back again. But that was the extent of it.
None of the team could even begin to imagine how she must be feeling. After losing Tony, she then lost the last two people on the Earth that were her family. It's unknown whether her father, who was still in a maximum-security prison in England, had been blipped, but they knew she ceased to consider him family. Everyone knew that Johnny was her family, and with him gone, Sue was on the brink of collapse. And then there was Morgan, who initiated the fall.
Losing a child was one of the world's worst horrors. Natasha was the one who felt that the most. The woman had never been lucky enough to have the choice of bearing a child. And seeing someone lose there's was unthinkable. The Romanoff had tried to sit with Sue a few times, but when she realised her words were bouncing off the lump under the blankets, she stopped. She also wasn't in the spirits to console someone else, but she tried. Sue wasn't in the right mind to appreciate Natasha's efforts, but her words were heard.
Steve had tried as well, but in different ways. He lost not only Johnny, but Bucky as well. However, two good friends were nothing compared to what Sue lost. He left meals on her nightstand and would tell her what he made to entice her to eat. It didn't work for the first week, but the Storm's starvation soon made her cave. He was relieved to collect the plate one day and find three-quarters of a meal left, and it only got better from there. Soon it was a half, and then a quarter.
He had seen her face a total of five times since the blip, and what he saw wasn't the woman he once knew. The shine in her brown eyes had faded and her skin was grey. Her fringe grew into her eyes, and he thought of trying to cut it for her. But Steve didn't trust himself, so he left it. Natasha had been able to get her into the shower a few times, but that was the most hygienic thing she had gotten her to do. Brushing her teeth was a difficult task and washing her face was a concoction of cleanser mixed with water. They found she soon started to do those things herself. But the progress was slow, and they didn't have the strength to ensure it got better.
Rhodey was sat in the living space of the compound on the day of Tony's return. It was also the same day that he saw Sue for the third time in nearly a month. It was a day of miracles that was bleak compared to others.
He looked up from a book he had tried to invest himself in at the sound of shuffled footsteps. The scuffs on the tiled floor came from a pair of brown slippers that walked down the hall and into the kitchen. Rhodey stayed quiet as the bird's nest of hair and blanketed figure grabbed the fridge door and pulled it open. A rummage of glass bottles and plastic packaging sounded before the door closed and Sue turned to face the living space.
'Do you need any help?' he asked but was met with no reply. Sue's eyes were trained on the bag of bread and carton of butter she had put on the counter. Rhodey could see that she had at least washed her face, as her fringe was pushed off her forehead. This may have been because it had gotten too long and was annoying her eyes, but either way, she looked slightly fresher.
Before she could start buttering her plain, white bread, everything began shaking throughout the compound. It was slow at first, but then grew severe, shaking lamps and quivering the windowpanes.
Sue gripped the countertop to steady herself, looking up at the ceiling to find the source of the shaking. Nothing would surprise her at this point, and she didn't care if anything fell on her. Maybe it would bring the end that she needed.
Steve, Bruce and Natasha arrived on the same floor and spotted Rhodey and Sue. They had been doing their own tasks when the shaking started, and they collectively headed to regroup. They were surprised to see Sue out of her room, as they had missed FRIDAY's update of her whereabouts. They tended to let the AI's voice fade into the background when it was things that weren't in urgent need of attention.
'What's going on?!' Bruce asked but no one knew enough to answer.
The team headed out of the compound and onto the grass. They stuck together and looked up to the sky to the source of the shaking. Sue was the last to make it outside, her steps shaky as she took in the first breath of fresh air in weeks. She hated to admit that it made her feel better, but nothing could make her feel human again. Or so she thought.
A large ship blocked the sun's shine and occupied the team's eyes with its massive form It was large, yet emitted no noise. The engines had died days ago and its fuel ran dry. However, it made it from light years away and was back on Earth.
A woman in a red and blue suit lowered the spacecraft with ease onto the yard of the Avengers Headquarters. The landing gears deployed, and the woman let it stand on its own. The team were too focused on the ship to question how a human-looking woman was able to carry the weight of a spaceship. They stood together, watching as a ramp extended out from a large door. It hadn't clicked in Bruce and Sue's minds that they had seen the same spaceship in New York, but with the recent events, their past lives were the last thing they wanted to think about.
Sue's knees weakened. The blanket slipped off her shoulders and fell into a pile on the grass. Her sweatpants and jumper that once felt heavy on her thin body suddenly felt light. Her bones that once ached were filled with energy and the explosion of hot relief in her chest was divine. Sue didn't think she had any tears left in her, but she was proved wrong by the sight of Tony being helped down the ramp of the ship.
Steve rushed forward to help his friend who was presumed to be dead. The woman who helped him had blue skin and black eyes. She had parts of her that were silver, as if she was part machine. She didn't appear as weak as Tony, and she helped him down the ramp and onto the grass. Steve caught him before he crumbled and was in shock at the sight of the great Tony Stark.
He was frail, a word that had never been used to describe the man even at his worst times. His hair was flat on his head and the bags under his eyes were dark and heavy. The olive skin that he always claimed was a natural tan had turned sickly grey and hung off his bones like thin dough. The glowing technology in his chest was the brightest thing about him and the grim expression he wore was enough for the team to question whether it was their old friend.
'Couldn't stop him...' he mumbled to Steve. The Rogers held the Stark's arm, feeling how small it was in his large hands. He noticed how much shorter Tony was, his time in space taking a toll on his joints and muscles. The gleam of cockiness and confidence that once danced in Tony's dark eyes was gone. Steve's words from their first encounter was too relative, and it pained him to know that he had been right.
Take the suit off and what are you?
Steve saw that Tony was in fact, human.
'Neither could I,' Steve hung his head low.
'I lost the kid.'
'Tony, we lost.'
'Is uh...?'
Steve heard the impounding footsteps before Sue arrived. He stepped aside and Tony leaned to the right at the loss of his support. But he was caught in a strong embrace. Dark hair fell into his mouth and eyes. He stumbled at first and Steve put a hand on his shoulder, steadying his weak form. Tony felt his shirt dampen with tears and quivering shoulders filled his view, making him look down and see Susan Storm weeping.
Sue clung to Tony like he was her lifeline. Although he had lost an alarming amount of weight and felt thin against her, he gave her the only warmth she'd had in a month. Her arms locked at the back of his neck and she didn't care that his own didn't wrap around her middle immediately. But when they did, the sigh from Tony's lips warmed her cheek and her tears continued to soak his shoulder.
'It's okay...' he sounded different.
'She's gone, Tony,' Sue's voice trembled. 'Morgan's gone. Johnny too. I-I watched him go. I wasn't even there for Morgan. Oh, Tony. I-It was horrid. I-I...'
Tony only held Sue tighter in case it was his last moments. Weeks in the abyss of space was hard, but this was even harder.