Chapter Text
You cry out in anguish, body convulsing as you desperately try to clutch your foot. The pain is similar to falling off your scooter as a kid and the metal swinging around to hit your ankle. Only a thousand times worse. High above, you can still hear the screeches of the animals growing louder. Oh great, now they’re pursuing you.
You manage to wriggle free from the somewhat protective wrap of ivy, taking a large gulp of air before you leap from out of the tree.
You accidentally land on your injured left ankle.
Crunch.
All you see is a blinding white for a few seconds as the pain radiates through your leg, not a single scream even leaves your lips as you crumple in a heap on the ground. As you squint down at your foot, the sight of it mangled, twisted and turning purple is enough to churn the acid in your stomach. Hot tears trickle down your cheeks as you force yourself to limp through the dream-like forrest, towards the shimmering orange lake. Every bone in your shoulders feels dislocated, each ligament in your thigh feels contorted.
Every nerve in your skeleton is hyperaware, desperate to keep you alive. You can feel tidal waves of adrenaline gushing through your body, which is probably the only reason you’re still able to walk.
You make it a few excruciating minutes in the woods alone, so close to the lake you can see the sun dancing over the ripples in the water. Another high pitched wail comes from above, reverberating off of the trees surrounding you. A choked gasp escapes your mouth as you pick up your pace, dragging your ankle along behind you like its some kind of ball and chain attached to a prisoner.
You are a prisoner. Caught up in this horrific daydream.
The lake is so close you can almost taste the sourness of the water. You can hear violent shrieks in the trees and the ominous sounds of branches snapping. Something soars out of the canopy, beak slicing your arm as it goes. Your teeth grit at the stinging pain it causes. You were able to catch a glimpse of its fur before it disappeared.
Electric blue.
Bliders. The word pops up in your mind. That’s what you’d call them.
You’re practically galloping now, out of the woods and onto the stretch of shore, sun beating down and scorching the back of your neck. More and more of the aliens soar like Clint’s arrows at you, slicing and scratching. Trickling, hot blood erupts from your soars and coats your arms.
The water!
You tumble headfirst into the cool lake, sighing in relief as you feel its healing powers sooth your gashes and twisted ankle. Your sweet remedy is short lived.
A weight suddenly crushes you, digging in its claws and trying to submerge you. At the same time, the tranquillising bath’s powers are switched off like a circuit board. It brings back your pain. Only worse.
Bubbles eject from your mouth as you try to scream, squirming around in attempt to free yourself from the Blider. It screeches and lets go, allowing you to frantically swim across the lake to the portal. Your ankle aches from the strain of kicking your legs, and your arms burn from the sting of the salt water. A tight, compressing feeling simmers in your chest, urging you to lift your head for oxygen.
As soon as you gulp down some air, a flock of the creatures swoop down to attack you, claws sinking into your shoulders and wings whipping your face. Your head is shoved down underwater again, water burning your eyes and panic slowly creeping in.
Refusing to give up, you swim with all the motivation you can muster, gritting your teeth and suppressing your yells of agony as the swarm of aliens abuse your body. After a few minutes you’re certain your brain was deceiving you. There’s no sign of a wormhole anywhere. You’d guesstimated the distance but surely you weren’t that off..?
And you weren’t.
About 40 feet to your right is the pulsating opening of purple you’d seen before. A flame of hope flickers inside of you. Those Bliders had seemed to have almost given up on you now, perhaps you were too deep for them to track you.
You kick and paddle harder now, ignoring the lightheadedness growing in your skull from the lack of oxygen. Your ankle was excruciating to move, your arms were thick iron rods underwater. Pressure compressed at all sides of your skull. Breathe.
Reluctantly, you float to the surface, reclaiming your breath and taking a huge swallow of air. Without warning, the beasts ambush you, all twenty of them, grabbing a hold of your limbs and gripping hard. They work like killer ants, shoving you farther down into the lake. Drowning you.
You thrash at them, your shrieks concealed and converted into nothing but bubbles. A wave of impending doom rushes through your body as your heart pumps into oblivion.
But everybody knows you’re not a quitter.
A final slither of vigour rises within you. It takes everything in you to fight against your retrains. To ignore the nauseating convulsions all throughout your body. To swim just a little farther.
The adrenaline seems to be wearing off, and your body is too weak to fight back. Too beaten. Black spots begin to cloud your vision, your body closing down and muscles burning out. You squeeze your eyes shut, only to find Peter’s face engraved onto your eyelids.
You’re 2 meters from the portal.
These last 2 weeks of hell slowly blur into nothingness, your attempts to escape the universe and find your way back home seem pointless and childish. You tried, but it wasn’t enough.
The pain seems to subside somehow, your limbs morphing into ragdoll material. Your suffocating brain registers movement just before you loose consciousness, something peering at you in disarray on the other side of the gateway.
It’s Tony Stark.